Rain poured down on top the complex, barring the complete vision of the building from prying eyes. Bars covered windows along with the metal, barb wire at the top fence surrounding the entire complex. Several dark hulking shapes stood like guards outside the largest of the complexs.
"Do you have any idea how crazy you are?"Tara asked, running her hand back through her hair in an attempt to keep it from plastering itsself to her forehead. It worked for a few moments then fell back into place.
Angel shrugged. "Not yet but I'm sure you'll tell me, Tara. How crazy am I?"
"Close to insane except for the fact that we can't put you in a mental institution..."
She laughed, quietly then spat out a mouthful of rain, working at the edge of the fence with a pair of wire cutters she'd stolen from Velicion incase she needed a way to escape military school. She muttered when the blade missed the wire and cut into her finger.
"Don't say it. Help me here..." Angel closed her hand tighter around the slick handles but couldn't get it to cut through again. "Tara!"
"Stop a minute. Someone's here..."
"How would you know that?"
A larger hand closed over the one of hers that was resting against the knitted, tangled area of fence. It held and squeezed, causing a tingling sensation but nothing more. Her hand jerked to pull away.
"With those things it would take you several hours to cut through,"a voice said, drawing her attention to the body attached to the hand that held hers. He brushed her hand aside then his own replaced it, emitting a dark purple glow until the wire began to spread apart into the distance to allow a body through.
"Nice save, Sabbath,"Tara said, giving him an honest smile.
Angel's reaction wasn't so pleasant once she'd slipped through the fence. "What the hell are you doing here, Russ? How'd you even know where I was?"she demanded, crossing her arms to glare at him. She blinked as black smeared her vision.
"Jeez, if this is the reaction we get for helping, count me out." The second voice was dripping with sarcasm.
"And you brought Kellie? I hate you right now...why are you here?"
Russ shrugged, already moving past her and toward the dark complex. His footing slid several times but caught once more after only a few moments. "Friend of a friend?"
Tara sighed,"Are we going to get Jax out or sit here while you complain about the help that we NEED, Angel?"
"Jax?" Kellie's voice.
"Look he's a friend. I couldn't leave him here...trust me and I'll explain things later. Please?"she begged. "I promise to tell the full truth later but now he needs out. There's not much that gets to Jax but he can't stand silence or being alone...silence makes him crazy. Please, help me."
"We're here, aren't we?" Tara.
Kellie closed her hand around the lower edge of one of the windows, running her fingers along the frame, searching for a weak point. She found none except a jagged outreach spot.
Angel nodded, closing her eyes. "Count to six then push in...Dust."
Inside the bolt that had been holding the window slid to the left. Kellie shoved inward then had to catch herself when she almost fell through the large picture window; she smiled in response then slipped through, balancing on top a table.
"Nice. There's a table here...funny place for a table." Her gaze swept the room then her stomache pitched forward. "Oh, God, not here. Not again."
FURTHER INSIDE ICON
"Well if it isn't Experiment 781. I told you she'd come home, Nicolae."
Nicolae Tailsman's head rose from it's position in a record book filled with numbers that would have made anyone else's head spin. His gaze leveled on the computer, scanning the information. Within in moments he'd slammed the book shut and walked over. He peered at the screen and it's images.
"Yes, 781 returned but she's brought others, Chris. Kill of them but don't, I repeat, don't hurt her."
Chris nodded. "Why's 781 so important, Senator?"
"By all rights...I own her,"he replied, staring at the screen.
Four figures shifted and 'danced' across the screen.
"Own her? It's illegal to own people, Senator..."
"Mutants aren't people, Chris, and her parents gave away all rights to her when she was fifteen. Experiment 781 is just that, an experiment; she has no rights. She is simply a possession..."
Nicolae's eyes flashed darker than their usual blue.
THE LAB OF ICON
"What's wrong, Dust? You sound like you've been here before..." Tara stared at her, raising one eybrow and cocking her head to the side in confusion. Her expression was much too open.
"I-I-I have. My parents sent me here once I became a mutant...I haven't seen my family since I was thirteen except for Derek who's been there every time I've escaped."
Angel placed a hand on her arm, obviously feeling her fear. "What happens to mutants here, Dust? You said you escaped..."
Kellie took several breathes and walked around the room. She stopped at a table containing tons of tubes and needles along with blood samples. A large metal and glass machine full of silvery colored liquid stood behind it with a large door; a huge silver padlock gleamed.
"Senator Tailsman believes mutants don't feel anything. He's spent millions since his election hiring scientists to perform experiments...His goal is to prove that mutants don't feel anything that they're simply a defect that has no feelings,"she explained, indicating the machine. "This is what he calls his baby. Dr. Rozen's explained it a few times when he thought we were all drugged. It prays on the fears of mutants and he uses that to destroy them...your friend Jax probaly hasn't been put through yet since it requires a stronger mutant life force then he usually has to survive."
"But how does he use their fears to destroy them if they don't usually survive,"Russ questioned already running his hands along the glass in amazement. His gaze wasn't complete suprise but simply a knowing gleam.
"No, they survive but it takes a strong mutant-usually telepathic or something along those lines-to get the information about their fears. Most telepaths are strong enough to avoid Icon or at least not get caught..." Her voice trailed off when they approached a table that was covered with multi-colored tubes of liquid. Labels stuck to several but most were blank.
"And what's this?"Angel asked, picking up one of the tubes and studying it before putting it back down. Her gaze had darkened to the point of showing almost no emotion.
Kellie closed her eyes and took another breathe. "Another of Tailsman's inventions. He has a way of removing a strand from a telepath's mind...these hold the memories or whatever he wants from a mutant. The labels are codes, mostly unbreakable."
Russ' voice interrupted the explanation. "Guys, we've got a problem."
Three heads turned to him.
"Camera, upper left side, above the window."
Angel hesitated a moment then made her decision. "Go ahead, Tara..."
Tara nodded then flicked out her tongue, jerking once on the camera. It held steadily for only a moment then crashed to the floor. Her tongue came back just seconds before the camera would hit the ground.
"That's different,"Kellie mumbled, making her way toward the dark corridor where a single light glowed from up ahead. "Come on. Let's get your friend and leave. Personally this place creeps me out."
"Amen."
"Thought you weren't religious, Tadpole?" Angel smirked but followed Kellie before her friend could formulate an answer.
Tara rolled her eyes but followed after Angel's footsteps, walking in step with Russ who kept tracing one hand along the wall. He seemed to be searching for something.
What could he be searching for here? The only thing here's mutant haters and their devices... Her gaze roamed the wall, taking in several barely flickering light fixtures that reminded of the plant lights that Allie kept in her greenhouse.
She's always hated the damn greenhouse. It was the type of place that you weren't allowed to go but weren't given a reason for why you couldn't go there.
"Hey, you all right, Tadpole?"Russ asked, glancing sideways after her when she suddenly stopped. "You look almost like a ghost."
Tara smiled, weakly. "I'm not exactly the type of person who goes around breaking into places like this. If you knew me before all this...I was actually a good little kid with a fear of disappointing people. Maybe I should have listened to my foster mother and left Angel Blade alone..."
"Nonsense. If you enjoy the company, keep it." His sentence cut itsself off at the sound of a scream/shriek combination from up ahead. "Dammnit, let's go."
Dammnit, let's go. Nice order.
They rounded the corner of the tunnel and walked straight into an array of fighting people, including Angel and Kellie.
"You couldn't even wait for us to have some fun?"Tara asked, joining in the fray while ignoring Kellie's rolled eyes and Angel's amused expression.
"You didn't exactly expect us to say 'please wait to attack us so our friends can arrive', did you?" Angel laughed and threw one of the guys back against a wall, holding him there with a plant light strapped to his chest. "Oh, you did."
"Sarcasm's not a paying job, Shatter." Russ touched the sword one of the men had been carrying. It glowed purple then plunged itsself into the depth of a barely standing guard nearby.
Several gasps met this along with the sound of someone being sick.
Tara stared at the blood pouring from the gaping sword wound. Her expression was dismay but a strange form of interest. She watched him fall to his knees then pull the sword out. Just when her hand reached forward to touch the cold steel it was jerked back.
"Don't." The words were a command.
Running footsteps drew their attention.
Russ' hand tightened on the sword handle but he jerked his head to the side. "Shatter, go find your friend. Tadpole,Dust, go with her...I need to fix this,"he mumbled, kneeling and checking the pulse on one of the guys.
Kellie nodded and took off with Tara following.
Angel hesitated, feeling something off. Her empathy gave her a feeling of hatred and distrust. She tried to read more but found it blocked by a brick wall that was so strong it was almost physical; it held fast, pushing her away.
"Leave it alone and get out of here, Angel,"he stated with a cold edge to his voice. "There's nothing you can do."
"Sabbath."
"Leave."
"Why?"
Footsteps drew their attention. Russ cursed but knelt, retrieving a knife from the body of a downed guard; his hand fumbled through one of his pockets then produced a black and gold circle with several buttons.
"What are you doing?"she demanded again, staring at the item.
Russ caught her wrist in a vise-like grip, pressing the knife into the inner part of her wrist and pulling upward, slowly. It cut into her skin, leaving a long bloody mark.
"Don't say anything and don't move...we're about to play a game of pretend,"he said, typing in something on the circle item then looking up just as several figures appeared. He raised the object. "Russ Collins, Section 7 Extension 308, Middle Level Worker."
Angel opened her mouth but her words were cut off by the knife digging even further into her arm. She bit down on her lip, feeling the warm blood gathering.
"This mutant snuck in, trying to release some prisoners."
"One mutant did all this?"an older man asked, skeptically. "Sure. Extension 308 was exiled months ago."
"It was reinstated. Yes, one mutant...she's very powerful."
Angel glared at him. "You son of a bitch."
FURTHER AHEAD IN THE TUNNEL
"Since when did this place get so big?" Kellie slid through a doorway then waited for Tara and Angel.
Tara rubbed her aching neck then looked around the room. "Holy shit, this is where they keep mutants? It looks like a zoo..."
Large steel cages lined the room along with machines that whirred and buzzed. Tubes came from several tables within cages where immobilized bodies laid. White floors, walls, and ceilings gleamed brightly against the metal machines.
"Where's Angel, Tara?"
She looked around. "Probaly stopped to help Sabath. She doesn't listen well...so this is the holding docks?"
Kellie shook her head. "This would be where the average mutants are, anyone who's simply a prisoner or sold to them is here. Whoever we're looking for would be further up thanks to the fact that they can supply information..."
"Jax isn't going to give them much. None of the others would either...it's part of the policy to become a mercenary. Intensive training with a lot of bloodshed." She cut off, following Kellie and trying to ignore the pleading and 'dead' eyes of the prisoners. Her vision blurred slightly with unshed tears but she blinked them away.
"Maybe it's a good thing she skipped out. Things might not work with her empathy..."
Kellie closed her hand around the knob then pressed inward, stepping into a giant room. It was dark colored with no windows or lights except for a single glowing pale green light on each sight. Blood stained the wall and spread across the floor in an arch like a giant bird trying to escape.
"Bring back memories?"
Kellie's stomache pitched forward against, almost forcing her to her knees. She clutched her stomache, leaning against a wall for suppourt.
"Millions. I'd rather forget most of them,"she whisphered, peering into the dark interior. "Especially this room. I'd bet anything at least some part of this blood..belonged to me."
"Do you have any idea how crazy you are?"Tara asked, running her hand back through her hair in an attempt to keep it from plastering itsself to her forehead. It worked for a few moments then fell back into place.
Angel shrugged. "Not yet but I'm sure you'll tell me, Tara. How crazy am I?"
"Close to insane except for the fact that we can't put you in a mental institution..."
She laughed, quietly then spat out a mouthful of rain, working at the edge of the fence with a pair of wire cutters she'd stolen from Velicion incase she needed a way to escape military school. She muttered when the blade missed the wire and cut into her finger.
"Don't say it. Help me here..." Angel closed her hand tighter around the slick handles but couldn't get it to cut through again. "Tara!"
"Stop a minute. Someone's here..."
"How would you know that?"
A larger hand closed over the one of hers that was resting against the knitted, tangled area of fence. It held and squeezed, causing a tingling sensation but nothing more. Her hand jerked to pull away.
"With those things it would take you several hours to cut through,"a voice said, drawing her attention to the body attached to the hand that held hers. He brushed her hand aside then his own replaced it, emitting a dark purple glow until the wire began to spread apart into the distance to allow a body through.
"Nice save, Sabbath,"Tara said, giving him an honest smile.
Angel's reaction wasn't so pleasant once she'd slipped through the fence. "What the hell are you doing here, Russ? How'd you even know where I was?"she demanded, crossing her arms to glare at him. She blinked as black smeared her vision.
"Jeez, if this is the reaction we get for helping, count me out." The second voice was dripping with sarcasm.
"And you brought Kellie? I hate you right now...why are you here?"
Russ shrugged, already moving past her and toward the dark complex. His footing slid several times but caught once more after only a few moments. "Friend of a friend?"
Tara sighed,"Are we going to get Jax out or sit here while you complain about the help that we NEED, Angel?"
"Jax?" Kellie's voice.
"Look he's a friend. I couldn't leave him here...trust me and I'll explain things later. Please?"she begged. "I promise to tell the full truth later but now he needs out. There's not much that gets to Jax but he can't stand silence or being alone...silence makes him crazy. Please, help me."
"We're here, aren't we?" Tara.
Kellie closed her hand around the lower edge of one of the windows, running her fingers along the frame, searching for a weak point. She found none except a jagged outreach spot.
Angel nodded, closing her eyes. "Count to six then push in...Dust."
Inside the bolt that had been holding the window slid to the left. Kellie shoved inward then had to catch herself when she almost fell through the large picture window; she smiled in response then slipped through, balancing on top a table.
"Nice. There's a table here...funny place for a table." Her gaze swept the room then her stomache pitched forward. "Oh, God, not here. Not again."
FURTHER INSIDE ICON
"Well if it isn't Experiment 781. I told you she'd come home, Nicolae."
Nicolae Tailsman's head rose from it's position in a record book filled with numbers that would have made anyone else's head spin. His gaze leveled on the computer, scanning the information. Within in moments he'd slammed the book shut and walked over. He peered at the screen and it's images.
"Yes, 781 returned but she's brought others, Chris. Kill of them but don't, I repeat, don't hurt her."
Chris nodded. "Why's 781 so important, Senator?"
"By all rights...I own her,"he replied, staring at the screen.
Four figures shifted and 'danced' across the screen.
"Own her? It's illegal to own people, Senator..."
"Mutants aren't people, Chris, and her parents gave away all rights to her when she was fifteen. Experiment 781 is just that, an experiment; she has no rights. She is simply a possession..."
Nicolae's eyes flashed darker than their usual blue.
THE LAB OF ICON
"What's wrong, Dust? You sound like you've been here before..." Tara stared at her, raising one eybrow and cocking her head to the side in confusion. Her expression was much too open.
"I-I-I have. My parents sent me here once I became a mutant...I haven't seen my family since I was thirteen except for Derek who's been there every time I've escaped."
Angel placed a hand on her arm, obviously feeling her fear. "What happens to mutants here, Dust? You said you escaped..."
Kellie took several breathes and walked around the room. She stopped at a table containing tons of tubes and needles along with blood samples. A large metal and glass machine full of silvery colored liquid stood behind it with a large door; a huge silver padlock gleamed.
"Senator Tailsman believes mutants don't feel anything. He's spent millions since his election hiring scientists to perform experiments...His goal is to prove that mutants don't feel anything that they're simply a defect that has no feelings,"she explained, indicating the machine. "This is what he calls his baby. Dr. Rozen's explained it a few times when he thought we were all drugged. It prays on the fears of mutants and he uses that to destroy them...your friend Jax probaly hasn't been put through yet since it requires a stronger mutant life force then he usually has to survive."
"But how does he use their fears to destroy them if they don't usually survive,"Russ questioned already running his hands along the glass in amazement. His gaze wasn't complete suprise but simply a knowing gleam.
"No, they survive but it takes a strong mutant-usually telepathic or something along those lines-to get the information about their fears. Most telepaths are strong enough to avoid Icon or at least not get caught..." Her voice trailed off when they approached a table that was covered with multi-colored tubes of liquid. Labels stuck to several but most were blank.
"And what's this?"Angel asked, picking up one of the tubes and studying it before putting it back down. Her gaze had darkened to the point of showing almost no emotion.
Kellie closed her eyes and took another breathe. "Another of Tailsman's inventions. He has a way of removing a strand from a telepath's mind...these hold the memories or whatever he wants from a mutant. The labels are codes, mostly unbreakable."
Russ' voice interrupted the explanation. "Guys, we've got a problem."
Three heads turned to him.
"Camera, upper left side, above the window."
Angel hesitated a moment then made her decision. "Go ahead, Tara..."
Tara nodded then flicked out her tongue, jerking once on the camera. It held steadily for only a moment then crashed to the floor. Her tongue came back just seconds before the camera would hit the ground.
"That's different,"Kellie mumbled, making her way toward the dark corridor where a single light glowed from up ahead. "Come on. Let's get your friend and leave. Personally this place creeps me out."
"Amen."
"Thought you weren't religious, Tadpole?" Angel smirked but followed Kellie before her friend could formulate an answer.
Tara rolled her eyes but followed after Angel's footsteps, walking in step with Russ who kept tracing one hand along the wall. He seemed to be searching for something.
What could he be searching for here? The only thing here's mutant haters and their devices... Her gaze roamed the wall, taking in several barely flickering light fixtures that reminded of the plant lights that Allie kept in her greenhouse.
She's always hated the damn greenhouse. It was the type of place that you weren't allowed to go but weren't given a reason for why you couldn't go there.
"Hey, you all right, Tadpole?"Russ asked, glancing sideways after her when she suddenly stopped. "You look almost like a ghost."
Tara smiled, weakly. "I'm not exactly the type of person who goes around breaking into places like this. If you knew me before all this...I was actually a good little kid with a fear of disappointing people. Maybe I should have listened to my foster mother and left Angel Blade alone..."
"Nonsense. If you enjoy the company, keep it." His sentence cut itsself off at the sound of a scream/shriek combination from up ahead. "Dammnit, let's go."
Dammnit, let's go. Nice order.
They rounded the corner of the tunnel and walked straight into an array of fighting people, including Angel and Kellie.
"You couldn't even wait for us to have some fun?"Tara asked, joining in the fray while ignoring Kellie's rolled eyes and Angel's amused expression.
"You didn't exactly expect us to say 'please wait to attack us so our friends can arrive', did you?" Angel laughed and threw one of the guys back against a wall, holding him there with a plant light strapped to his chest. "Oh, you did."
"Sarcasm's not a paying job, Shatter." Russ touched the sword one of the men had been carrying. It glowed purple then plunged itsself into the depth of a barely standing guard nearby.
Several gasps met this along with the sound of someone being sick.
Tara stared at the blood pouring from the gaping sword wound. Her expression was dismay but a strange form of interest. She watched him fall to his knees then pull the sword out. Just when her hand reached forward to touch the cold steel it was jerked back.
"Don't." The words were a command.
Running footsteps drew their attention.
Russ' hand tightened on the sword handle but he jerked his head to the side. "Shatter, go find your friend. Tadpole,Dust, go with her...I need to fix this,"he mumbled, kneeling and checking the pulse on one of the guys.
Kellie nodded and took off with Tara following.
Angel hesitated, feeling something off. Her empathy gave her a feeling of hatred and distrust. She tried to read more but found it blocked by a brick wall that was so strong it was almost physical; it held fast, pushing her away.
"Leave it alone and get out of here, Angel,"he stated with a cold edge to his voice. "There's nothing you can do."
"Sabbath."
"Leave."
"Why?"
Footsteps drew their attention. Russ cursed but knelt, retrieving a knife from the body of a downed guard; his hand fumbled through one of his pockets then produced a black and gold circle with several buttons.
"What are you doing?"she demanded again, staring at the item.
Russ caught her wrist in a vise-like grip, pressing the knife into the inner part of her wrist and pulling upward, slowly. It cut into her skin, leaving a long bloody mark.
"Don't say anything and don't move...we're about to play a game of pretend,"he said, typing in something on the circle item then looking up just as several figures appeared. He raised the object. "Russ Collins, Section 7 Extension 308, Middle Level Worker."
Angel opened her mouth but her words were cut off by the knife digging even further into her arm. She bit down on her lip, feeling the warm blood gathering.
"This mutant snuck in, trying to release some prisoners."
"One mutant did all this?"an older man asked, skeptically. "Sure. Extension 308 was exiled months ago."
"It was reinstated. Yes, one mutant...she's very powerful."
Angel glared at him. "You son of a bitch."
FURTHER AHEAD IN THE TUNNEL
"Since when did this place get so big?" Kellie slid through a doorway then waited for Tara and Angel.
Tara rubbed her aching neck then looked around the room. "Holy shit, this is where they keep mutants? It looks like a zoo..."
Large steel cages lined the room along with machines that whirred and buzzed. Tubes came from several tables within cages where immobilized bodies laid. White floors, walls, and ceilings gleamed brightly against the metal machines.
"Where's Angel, Tara?"
She looked around. "Probaly stopped to help Sabath. She doesn't listen well...so this is the holding docks?"
Kellie shook her head. "This would be where the average mutants are, anyone who's simply a prisoner or sold to them is here. Whoever we're looking for would be further up thanks to the fact that they can supply information..."
"Jax isn't going to give them much. None of the others would either...it's part of the policy to become a mercenary. Intensive training with a lot of bloodshed." She cut off, following Kellie and trying to ignore the pleading and 'dead' eyes of the prisoners. Her vision blurred slightly with unshed tears but she blinked them away.
"Maybe it's a good thing she skipped out. Things might not work with her empathy..."
Kellie closed her hand around the knob then pressed inward, stepping into a giant room. It was dark colored with no windows or lights except for a single glowing pale green light on each sight. Blood stained the wall and spread across the floor in an arch like a giant bird trying to escape.
"Bring back memories?"
Kellie's stomache pitched forward against, almost forcing her to her knees. She clutched her stomache, leaning against a wall for suppourt.
"Millions. I'd rather forget most of them,"she whisphered, peering into the dark interior. "Especially this room. I'd bet anything at least some part of this blood..belonged to me."