* * *
Andy kept her the Suits at arms length, concentrating hard enough so sweat beaded on her forehead. She tried to do something that Loki did all the time when he got in trouble; spread her gravitative powers to every single one of them to hold them down. Andy had tried to do it the first time she had met Mutant X and the Suits in the alley but her concentration was off. It wasn't easy concentrating on so many people at the exact same time, because making them weigh 500 pounds could flatten one person but not effect a stronger one. Andy heard Jesse talking about how they feed on energy, so their strengths aren't the same all the time.
Brennan stepped in front of her. "Andy, stay behind me. You can let go now."
"Not until Lex and Jess get here," Andy argued. "I know how these guys fight ..." she confided.
"How? I thought you only saw them once in the alley," Shalimar said.
"We don't have time! Andy, you're going to tire yourself out, and we're not to your brother yet," Brennan knew what to calm her down, the same thing that calmed Lexa down: her brother.
Andy blinked and her hands fell to her sides. The Suits stumbled as they went back to their original weight in a split second, this would make them pause to steady their heartbeats. "Go! They're weaker now!" she shouted. She couldn't fight those men, she knew she couldn't; so she would have to help Brennan and Shalimar another way.
Shalimar swoop kicked one man and he flew back into another, both of them falling down. Flipping her wild blond locks out of her eyes, they glowed a deeper gold than anything that Brennan has ever seen before. This emotion that she was feeling wasn't just the need for the hunt-not primal, but something that every human or mutant feels: Compassion. As Brennan was hitting the Suits of the head with his fists and legs, he was thinking about the effect that Andy had on each and everyone of them. Andromeda Burton wasn't just a fifteen-year-old New Mutant, she was a loving-sister. In a way, she was aquired traits of every teammate on Mutant X. The trait that was becoming more and more revealed was the devoted and powerful sister that Lexa was; Brennan still felt guilty for Leo Pierce's death, even though Lexa had never said anything after the discussion in her bedroom. Hell, Brennan had been giving HER more crap than she was. Maybe, Brennan had decided, 'I can make it up to Andy and Lexa if I make sure we save that Loki Burton'. Even Brennan had felt compassion for the young girl, and trust wasn't something that you just gave out to anybody. His thoughts were sort of knocked out of him as a fist came in contact with his cheek.
"Ugh!" he forced out as he landed on the linoleum floor hard. 'What, are these guys made out of stone?' he thought as he took a deep breath.
Shalimar spotted Brennan falling and took no hesitation towards running with her feral speed and knocking the Suit out with a swift kick in the face. 'Oh no ... Andy' she realized that by leaving her spot and Brennan on the floor, Andy was left with the five Suits left. She span around and saw two Suits grabbed Andy by the arms.
"Shal!" Andy cried, her form twisting, trying to wrangle from their grip.
In a flash, Shalimar was on top of the two Suits, her stilletos pressing into their backs. Andy tripped over the unconscious form of a Suit and landed on the floor on her behind. It didn't hurt, she had learned in school that when the andrenaline is pumping; the body doesn't recognize small amounts of pain. 'Where was Lexa and Jesse?' she thought.
* * *
The moment after Lexa had turned them both invisible, Jesse tried to move towards his friends when Lexa tugged him toward the other door. Jesse turned around and pulled her form to him, he didn't see it but he knew she was there next to him. "We have to help them," he whispered.
"Listen, they can take care of themselves and Andy. We have to get Loki and get the files about the silent partners."
She tried to move on, still holding his hand. Jesse held his ground and clutched her hand tighter. "We don't know what those Suits are capable of ..."
"Jess, trust me. Once we get Loki, it's going to be fine. With his and Andy's gravitative powers they can take down all of them."
Jesse eased his grip and they walked out the other door towards the main computers. Once Lexa spotted her beaten friend, she let go of Jesse's hand and they both turned visible again. Not stopping to investigate the state he was in, she raced towards the wall he was chained to. Oh, he looked terrible, she echoed. His brown hair was so much shorter and the age and torture of those five years took a toll on him, his eyes were still closed but she could see the faint wrinkles and dark circles under his eyes. 'Oh, God. Please don't let him be dead', she pleaded in her head. As if the heavens had heard her plea, his chest rose high and his eyes opened slowly.
"Pierce," his dehydrated voice rasped. "I thought I got rid of your ass," he said with a all to familiar smirk.
Lexa grinned. "I wish ... I thought I got rid of you forever."
His weary eyes passed to the man behind her. "Who's that?"
The man stepped forward, closer to them. "Jesse."
Loki said. "Lex ..." he started. His eyes closing for a second to regain his strength. "Could you untie me?"
Lexa beaded her eyes and went around next to him and pointed a finger at the shackles, a red laser shot from her fingers and began to tear through the metal. Loki's arm dropped, followed by his shoulder. Lexa walked around him and started with the other one.
"Hey, Jesse," Loki began. "Could you step to the right a couple of steps, please?"
Jesse was confused, but from Lexa's glance, he did what Loki told him to. A second later, Lexa seared through the shackles and Loki dropped from the resting place and landing on his knees with a small grunt. Lexa hurried to his side and tossed his arm around her neck.
Loki was raised to his feet. "Look-at-that, Lexa Pierce finally got to the gym," he teased in a tired tone.
"You think you know pain," Lexa warned. "Jess, help me out."
Jesse tossed Loki's arm around his shoulders and they aided him towards the door.
"How'd you guys find me anyway?" he rumbled, his head was feeling light after all the blood tests but he'd get over it. Suddenly, the door to the lab flew opened and the one person that Loki didn't want to see in his time of weakness.
"Loki!" the young girl cried, in surprise and sorrow at seeing her brother in such bad shape. All Andy wanted to do was give him a hug, she ran to him.
Loki forced his arms from behind Jesse's and Lexa's necks and ignored the muscle tension that came after that. He wrapped his muscular arms around Andy and kissed her cheek when he broke the reunion. "Hey, kid. I thought we decided that I was going to save you from now on."
'Just like Burton. To mask his happiness with remarks like that' Lexa said glumly.
The door flew open and two more people came inside, Loki looked from his sister to them. One was a woman with tousled and wild blond hair some was sticking to her face in sweat, her arms were bare, revealing scratches and bruises.
"I thought I heard some Suits outside," Loki mentioned as his gaze traveled to the other, a man. He had reckless dark-brown hair like himself but brandy-brown eyes and was taller than Loki by a couple inches. "There's some more that way." He pointed to the opposite lab. "They're for REAL damage control though."
"Come on, we have to get you out of here," the blond woman said.
"Who're you?" Loki asked.
"Brennan," the man said first. He obviously didn't like the way that Loki was staring at the blond woman, Loki didn't care, a lot of G.S. agents, preferrably Lexa's boyfriends, looked at him the same way years ago.
"Shalimar."
"Okay ... now that we're all introduced ..." Andy said, impatiently.
"Oh, Shalimar, Brennan, do you know my sister Andy?" Loki teased, bumping Andy in the shoulder with his arm.
"Come on, smart ass," Lexa returned.
"Wait ... they implanted me with a subdermal governor, Lex. I can't do anything," Loki explained.
Brennan clapped his hands and rubbed them together. "Good thing I'm excellent at disabling those things," he said with a wolfish grin.
Loki felt a sort of uneasiness around him that he didn't understand, and he watched him with wary eyes as Brennan made his way beside him to disable the governor. A small shock was sent down his spine, Brennan walked back to Shalimar. Loki raised his palm, it illuminated in white light. His mouth curved in a smirk and then it disappeared. "Thanks, Sparky ... I owe ya one."
Brennan wasn't happy at that remark. "Do I need to get that name tattooed on my forehead, or something?" he asked.
"No, I heard it kinda hurts near your hair line," Loki said, thinking he was serious.
Lexa finally noticed that Loki didn't have a shirt on. "How come everytime you're taken hostage your shirt just magically disappears?"
Loki scoffed. "One time ... come on, I'd love to stand her and talk about this but I think we're missing Buffy."
Jesse didn't follow them out the door. "Lexa," he stopped her. "We still have to put the virus in the main drive."
Lexa nodded. "Loki, you and Andy go with Bren and Shal to the Helix. We'll be back."
Loki nodded and they disappeared out the door. Lexa turned to Jesse. "Where is it?"
"A few doors down, we'll need to get in there undetected," Jesse said holding out his hand.
"Sure? Or are you just wanting to hold my hand again?" she grinned.
Jesse gave her a devilish look. "What would you prefer?" Lexa rolled her eyes and grabbed his hand and they went invisible.
* * *
By the time Shalimar, Brennan, Andy, and Loki walked inside, all the Suits were all up and ready for a second round. Loki didn't waste any time going into fight-mode. "Andy, do you remember when these guys came to us the first time?"
Shalimar and Brennan passed glances at eachother in confusion, but Andy knew exactly what he was talking about. "Yeah," she answered.
"Remember what we did to make them stop?" he started. Andy grabbed her brother's hand and their two other hands raised into the air. "Do that with me now."
"Okay," she obeyed. Suddenly, the Suits raised in the air. They seemed like robots, to Andy, like from the movie "The Day the Earth Stood Still". Really tall and showed no emotion, they had to be given instructions from their leader, and until then they would just stand there. Whatever they were waiting for, they forgot about it when they started to float in the air.
Shalimar and Brennan watched in awe, the ceiling was about ten to fifteen feet high. The Suits just raised higher and higher until they were sticking to the ceiling.
"What the hell?" Brennan asked.
"Come on, let go, Andy. I can take care of this," Loki assured. Brennan and Shalimar walked through the lab still eyeing the five Suits stuck on the ceiling like a bunch of flies to a sticky-paper while Andy just briskly walked out. Loki was the last to leave, he walked through the doorframe and then let go.
* * *
Jesse and Lexa walked down the hall, when the coast was clear, Lexa let go and took one more look around. "How far?" she asked.
"Umm ... that room---" but his sentence was cut off when a bullet flew past his head. Jesse turned and grabbed Lexa's shoulders and stood in front of her, he massed out and the assailant emptied a round onto his back.
"Do they not get it or something?" Lexa asked, she knew that Jesse was running out of oxygen so she grabbed his hand and turned them both invisible. Lexa heard Jesse exhale and knew he was alright.
"Infra-goggles, men!" the gunman shouted.
"Oh crap," Jesse said.
"Come on," she whispered, tugging his hand into a nearby room. Jesse followed her, crouching down incase they were already looking around with the infra-goggles.
When they got inside, Lexa let go and they became visible again. Jesse pushed her into the corner, away from the doorway. "They're going to see us either way," Lexa excused. "Just phase into the next room, genius."
Jesse frowned. "It's not that easy, these walls are too thick to phase through-and lead-lined. Cuts down on comm-link reception."
"Oh great," she said sarcastically. "So we're stuck here."
Jesse's answer was delayed when a siren went off in the building. "Building lock-down activated," a robotic voice echoed through the conveniently lead-lined halls. The door began to close, Lexa tried to push Jesse out but it didn't work. The door was shut.
"Now we're stuck in here," Jesse decided. 'This is going to be a long day'.
Andy kept her the Suits at arms length, concentrating hard enough so sweat beaded on her forehead. She tried to do something that Loki did all the time when he got in trouble; spread her gravitative powers to every single one of them to hold them down. Andy had tried to do it the first time she had met Mutant X and the Suits in the alley but her concentration was off. It wasn't easy concentrating on so many people at the exact same time, because making them weigh 500 pounds could flatten one person but not effect a stronger one. Andy heard Jesse talking about how they feed on energy, so their strengths aren't the same all the time.
Brennan stepped in front of her. "Andy, stay behind me. You can let go now."
"Not until Lex and Jess get here," Andy argued. "I know how these guys fight ..." she confided.
"How? I thought you only saw them once in the alley," Shalimar said.
"We don't have time! Andy, you're going to tire yourself out, and we're not to your brother yet," Brennan knew what to calm her down, the same thing that calmed Lexa down: her brother.
Andy blinked and her hands fell to her sides. The Suits stumbled as they went back to their original weight in a split second, this would make them pause to steady their heartbeats. "Go! They're weaker now!" she shouted. She couldn't fight those men, she knew she couldn't; so she would have to help Brennan and Shalimar another way.
Shalimar swoop kicked one man and he flew back into another, both of them falling down. Flipping her wild blond locks out of her eyes, they glowed a deeper gold than anything that Brennan has ever seen before. This emotion that she was feeling wasn't just the need for the hunt-not primal, but something that every human or mutant feels: Compassion. As Brennan was hitting the Suits of the head with his fists and legs, he was thinking about the effect that Andy had on each and everyone of them. Andromeda Burton wasn't just a fifteen-year-old New Mutant, she was a loving-sister. In a way, she was aquired traits of every teammate on Mutant X. The trait that was becoming more and more revealed was the devoted and powerful sister that Lexa was; Brennan still felt guilty for Leo Pierce's death, even though Lexa had never said anything after the discussion in her bedroom. Hell, Brennan had been giving HER more crap than she was. Maybe, Brennan had decided, 'I can make it up to Andy and Lexa if I make sure we save that Loki Burton'. Even Brennan had felt compassion for the young girl, and trust wasn't something that you just gave out to anybody. His thoughts were sort of knocked out of him as a fist came in contact with his cheek.
"Ugh!" he forced out as he landed on the linoleum floor hard. 'What, are these guys made out of stone?' he thought as he took a deep breath.
Shalimar spotted Brennan falling and took no hesitation towards running with her feral speed and knocking the Suit out with a swift kick in the face. 'Oh no ... Andy' she realized that by leaving her spot and Brennan on the floor, Andy was left with the five Suits left. She span around and saw two Suits grabbed Andy by the arms.
"Shal!" Andy cried, her form twisting, trying to wrangle from their grip.
In a flash, Shalimar was on top of the two Suits, her stilletos pressing into their backs. Andy tripped over the unconscious form of a Suit and landed on the floor on her behind. It didn't hurt, she had learned in school that when the andrenaline is pumping; the body doesn't recognize small amounts of pain. 'Where was Lexa and Jesse?' she thought.
* * *
The moment after Lexa had turned them both invisible, Jesse tried to move towards his friends when Lexa tugged him toward the other door. Jesse turned around and pulled her form to him, he didn't see it but he knew she was there next to him. "We have to help them," he whispered.
"Listen, they can take care of themselves and Andy. We have to get Loki and get the files about the silent partners."
She tried to move on, still holding his hand. Jesse held his ground and clutched her hand tighter. "We don't know what those Suits are capable of ..."
"Jess, trust me. Once we get Loki, it's going to be fine. With his and Andy's gravitative powers they can take down all of them."
Jesse eased his grip and they walked out the other door towards the main computers. Once Lexa spotted her beaten friend, she let go of Jesse's hand and they both turned visible again. Not stopping to investigate the state he was in, she raced towards the wall he was chained to. Oh, he looked terrible, she echoed. His brown hair was so much shorter and the age and torture of those five years took a toll on him, his eyes were still closed but she could see the faint wrinkles and dark circles under his eyes. 'Oh, God. Please don't let him be dead', she pleaded in her head. As if the heavens had heard her plea, his chest rose high and his eyes opened slowly.
"Pierce," his dehydrated voice rasped. "I thought I got rid of your ass," he said with a all to familiar smirk.
Lexa grinned. "I wish ... I thought I got rid of you forever."
His weary eyes passed to the man behind her. "Who's that?"
The man stepped forward, closer to them. "Jesse."
Loki said. "Lex ..." he started. His eyes closing for a second to regain his strength. "Could you untie me?"
Lexa beaded her eyes and went around next to him and pointed a finger at the shackles, a red laser shot from her fingers and began to tear through the metal. Loki's arm dropped, followed by his shoulder. Lexa walked around him and started with the other one.
"Hey, Jesse," Loki began. "Could you step to the right a couple of steps, please?"
Jesse was confused, but from Lexa's glance, he did what Loki told him to. A second later, Lexa seared through the shackles and Loki dropped from the resting place and landing on his knees with a small grunt. Lexa hurried to his side and tossed his arm around her neck.
Loki was raised to his feet. "Look-at-that, Lexa Pierce finally got to the gym," he teased in a tired tone.
"You think you know pain," Lexa warned. "Jess, help me out."
Jesse tossed Loki's arm around his shoulders and they aided him towards the door.
"How'd you guys find me anyway?" he rumbled, his head was feeling light after all the blood tests but he'd get over it. Suddenly, the door to the lab flew opened and the one person that Loki didn't want to see in his time of weakness.
"Loki!" the young girl cried, in surprise and sorrow at seeing her brother in such bad shape. All Andy wanted to do was give him a hug, she ran to him.
Loki forced his arms from behind Jesse's and Lexa's necks and ignored the muscle tension that came after that. He wrapped his muscular arms around Andy and kissed her cheek when he broke the reunion. "Hey, kid. I thought we decided that I was going to save you from now on."
'Just like Burton. To mask his happiness with remarks like that' Lexa said glumly.
The door flew open and two more people came inside, Loki looked from his sister to them. One was a woman with tousled and wild blond hair some was sticking to her face in sweat, her arms were bare, revealing scratches and bruises.
"I thought I heard some Suits outside," Loki mentioned as his gaze traveled to the other, a man. He had reckless dark-brown hair like himself but brandy-brown eyes and was taller than Loki by a couple inches. "There's some more that way." He pointed to the opposite lab. "They're for REAL damage control though."
"Come on, we have to get you out of here," the blond woman said.
"Who're you?" Loki asked.
"Brennan," the man said first. He obviously didn't like the way that Loki was staring at the blond woman, Loki didn't care, a lot of G.S. agents, preferrably Lexa's boyfriends, looked at him the same way years ago.
"Shalimar."
"Okay ... now that we're all introduced ..." Andy said, impatiently.
"Oh, Shalimar, Brennan, do you know my sister Andy?" Loki teased, bumping Andy in the shoulder with his arm.
"Come on, smart ass," Lexa returned.
"Wait ... they implanted me with a subdermal governor, Lex. I can't do anything," Loki explained.
Brennan clapped his hands and rubbed them together. "Good thing I'm excellent at disabling those things," he said with a wolfish grin.
Loki felt a sort of uneasiness around him that he didn't understand, and he watched him with wary eyes as Brennan made his way beside him to disable the governor. A small shock was sent down his spine, Brennan walked back to Shalimar. Loki raised his palm, it illuminated in white light. His mouth curved in a smirk and then it disappeared. "Thanks, Sparky ... I owe ya one."
Brennan wasn't happy at that remark. "Do I need to get that name tattooed on my forehead, or something?" he asked.
"No, I heard it kinda hurts near your hair line," Loki said, thinking he was serious.
Lexa finally noticed that Loki didn't have a shirt on. "How come everytime you're taken hostage your shirt just magically disappears?"
Loki scoffed. "One time ... come on, I'd love to stand her and talk about this but I think we're missing Buffy."
Jesse didn't follow them out the door. "Lexa," he stopped her. "We still have to put the virus in the main drive."
Lexa nodded. "Loki, you and Andy go with Bren and Shal to the Helix. We'll be back."
Loki nodded and they disappeared out the door. Lexa turned to Jesse. "Where is it?"
"A few doors down, we'll need to get in there undetected," Jesse said holding out his hand.
"Sure? Or are you just wanting to hold my hand again?" she grinned.
Jesse gave her a devilish look. "What would you prefer?" Lexa rolled her eyes and grabbed his hand and they went invisible.
* * *
By the time Shalimar, Brennan, Andy, and Loki walked inside, all the Suits were all up and ready for a second round. Loki didn't waste any time going into fight-mode. "Andy, do you remember when these guys came to us the first time?"
Shalimar and Brennan passed glances at eachother in confusion, but Andy knew exactly what he was talking about. "Yeah," she answered.
"Remember what we did to make them stop?" he started. Andy grabbed her brother's hand and their two other hands raised into the air. "Do that with me now."
"Okay," she obeyed. Suddenly, the Suits raised in the air. They seemed like robots, to Andy, like from the movie "The Day the Earth Stood Still". Really tall and showed no emotion, they had to be given instructions from their leader, and until then they would just stand there. Whatever they were waiting for, they forgot about it when they started to float in the air.
Shalimar and Brennan watched in awe, the ceiling was about ten to fifteen feet high. The Suits just raised higher and higher until they were sticking to the ceiling.
"What the hell?" Brennan asked.
"Come on, let go, Andy. I can take care of this," Loki assured. Brennan and Shalimar walked through the lab still eyeing the five Suits stuck on the ceiling like a bunch of flies to a sticky-paper while Andy just briskly walked out. Loki was the last to leave, he walked through the doorframe and then let go.
* * *
Jesse and Lexa walked down the hall, when the coast was clear, Lexa let go and took one more look around. "How far?" she asked.
"Umm ... that room---" but his sentence was cut off when a bullet flew past his head. Jesse turned and grabbed Lexa's shoulders and stood in front of her, he massed out and the assailant emptied a round onto his back.
"Do they not get it or something?" Lexa asked, she knew that Jesse was running out of oxygen so she grabbed his hand and turned them both invisible. Lexa heard Jesse exhale and knew he was alright.
"Infra-goggles, men!" the gunman shouted.
"Oh crap," Jesse said.
"Come on," she whispered, tugging his hand into a nearby room. Jesse followed her, crouching down incase they were already looking around with the infra-goggles.
When they got inside, Lexa let go and they became visible again. Jesse pushed her into the corner, away from the doorway. "They're going to see us either way," Lexa excused. "Just phase into the next room, genius."
Jesse frowned. "It's not that easy, these walls are too thick to phase through-and lead-lined. Cuts down on comm-link reception."
"Oh great," she said sarcastically. "So we're stuck here."
Jesse's answer was delayed when a siren went off in the building. "Building lock-down activated," a robotic voice echoed through the conveniently lead-lined halls. The door began to close, Lexa tried to push Jesse out but it didn't work. The door was shut.
"Now we're stuck in here," Jesse decided. 'This is going to be a long day'.