The New Ring Of Friends

Cascade Safe House, Cascade, Washington:

While Donna, Blair, Carla, and Mr. Tanaka were at the safe house waiting for someone from Mutant X to arrive Donna received a call via Com-Link from Adam. "Donna, I am sending Cat and Shalimar to the Cascade Safe House to pick you and Blair up. I want you to tell Carla that she is to stay with Mr. Tanaka at the safe house and keep and eye on him."

"Sure thing, Adam." Donna goes to walk over to were the others are.

Blair is talking with the two others as Donna walks up and tells them what Adam said, "Sounds good to me. Jim called me back," Blair had called his Sentinel as they were in route to the safe house to let him know what happened and Jim said that he would call Josh Evans, Donna's partner and they would check it out. Josh also knew of Jim's abilities and would act as de-facto guide whenever Blair couldn't be there at a crime scene. "he told me that they were at the factory and are now starting to go over it. He will let us know what they find. In the mean time he also said that Mr. Tanaka and Carla should stay were they are. I told Jim it wasn't a problem."

"Great. We should be going. The Helix will pick us up on the rooftop of my warehouse. we should go by your place so you can pick up a couple of changes of clothes and essentials and then go by my place and I can get my emergency bag from my car. After all that has been happening lately I thought that it would be the best to keep one handy for occasions such as this."

"Man, maybe I should make my own emergency bag too." Blair said to Donna as he got up from the sofa where he and the others were sitting and they say there good-byes and head up the stairs and out the series of doors and secret passageways to the street and they are on there way.

They went to Blair's loft and then to Donna's place and as they were in the freight elevator they heard the Double Helix land on the roof. Reaching the top they were greeted by Cat and Shalimar. Donna then Blair hugged there greetings and hopped into the craft.

"It's great to see you guys again," Donna said.

"Yeah," Shalimar said. "Though I only wish that we could visit with each other without a crisis."

"I hear you there my sister. How's the gang?" Cat explained what had happened and Blair and Donna were in shock. With tears in her eyes Donna said, "Mercy, Allison was one of the best. Man, this must be tearing Angela apart. No wonder I could feel a little twinge of grief. I was picking up on her feelings. Step on it! I wanna get there as fast as we can."

"Your wish is my command." and Shalimar gave her the gas.

Sanctuary, as Shalimar, Cat, Blair and Donna arrive:

They walk into the common room were all the computer terminals and the living area are located and Donna stops as she sees three people she has never met before. She automatically knows that two of them are Psionics but the other one she couldn't tell.

Adam walks up to Donna and gives here a huge hug and a proud smile. "Great work getting Mr. Tanaka and Carla out of the building." Adam says and then he shakes Blair's hand, "Good to see you again, Blair."

"Likewise. MAN! The more I see this place the more amazed I am. I still can't believe it is inside of a mountain." Adam smiles at the anthropologist.

"Adam, I almost couldn't put the fire out. It took everything I had and then some. I think I pushed the limits of my powers. I have never done that before. I still have a killer headache." Donna says looking at Adam with worry on her face and then she looks at the three strangers behind the leader of Mutant X.

"Where are my manners?" Adam says as he escorts Donna and Blair to the women. "Donna Gryphon, Blair Sandburg. I would like you to meet Revolution, she is a telekinetic like yourself, Donna. And this is Lux Windsor, a precognitive mind reader and her bodyguard, Jax McManus and she is a feral. They are members of a New Mutant group called The Ring. They are a group similar to Mutant X."

Donna shakes there hands, "Pleased to meet you." Then turns to Adam with worry on her face, "I am so sorry about Allison, I didn't know her too well but I did call her a friend. I only wished that I could have called her an old friend. She was a good person. Where's Angela? How's she doing?"

"Thank you for the condolences. Angela is in her room. As soon as we get you and Blair settled you can go check on her. I know that she would like to see you. Then we can put our heads together and get to work."

"Yeah, I love her like a sister." She turns to Revolution, Lux, and Jax and says with a little sad smile still worried about her falcon friend, "I wish we could have met under different circumstances. Any friends of Adam and Mutant X are friends of mine."

Revolution nods and Lux Windsor holds out her hand and Donna takes it again, "Likewise. Adam says that you are a formidable Psionic."

"Yeah, well I hope he is right. Because it is gonna take all that I've got and then some to help put out this Salamander's flames." Donna says worry still on her eyes.

"Well, Adam is seldom wrong." Lux adds.

Emma and the other members of Mutant X walk up and say their hellos and Emma says, "Let me show you to your room, Donna."

Jesse says to Blair, "Come with me, I'll show you were you will be sleeping."

"Well, I thought that Donna and I were gonna share a room." Blair said looking at Donna and then at the molecular.

"No," Adam piped in, "you two need your sleep and besides while you are here there will be no playing around before you are married."

Donna whose spirits were a little lifted after that comment from Adam said with a little smile, "Why Addy," Adam gives her a warning look, "I mean Adam, I didn't know you were THAT old fashioned."

"No, I just want you two rested. You need to be at your wits." Adam said with a smile and a pat at both of their shoulders. "Go get settled."

 
Coming down the hallway, Brennan ran into Donna knocking at Angela's bedroom door. They looked at each other and hugged, with Donna disappearing into the elemental's arms. "Athena, goddess of wisdom, good to see you!" he exclaimed. "Is Blair around?"

"He's checking his room with Jesse, O Zeus, god of lighting!" laughed Donna Gryphon.

"How's Jim Ellison?" Asked Brennan. He and the tall Cascade detective had become friends during the Foundation incident.

"He's fine. Said he misses you, the dojo, and he misses you and the dojo together," quipped the multi-psionic. "He'll be ready whenever you are."

"And I'll kick his butt from here to Los Angeles," laughed Brennan. "Looking for Tweetty? You can't find her here. Try the pond. The skylight there is her favorite perch."

"Thanks, Zeus."

&&&

The skylight was wide open, revealing the blue, cloudless sky above Stormking mountain. Donna stopped by the waterfall, taking in the peace and tranquility the spacious room instilled, the Japanese feel inspiring meditation. Donna looked up as the flapping of wings above denounced the approach of a large bird that descended through the opening in the ceiling and lightly landed in front of her.

On the ground, without the twisted disguise she presented to the world, Angela Fontenelle was of medium height, and lightly built. Her skin was the color of a clear coffee-latte and her eyes were honey colored. Her hair was short and curly, her hands had long fingers and large knuckles, ending in talons, but her feet were her strangest feature, resembling those of birds, with three toes pointing ahead and a toe thumb pointing backwards, ending in black talons. She wasn't beautiful by any means, but she could be striking in her winged self.

The bird woman smiled warmly. "GryphonLady, greetings," she saluted her friend and ally in the traditional way she had used when they first met over the Internet, before fate and adventure brought them together, and took Donna's hands in her own.

Donna Gryphon smiled back, pulled the Avian feral close and held her tight in her arms. She had learned to admire and trust, even love the half-breed over the course of two missions already, when, on both occasions, Donna had entered Angela's mind first to save her sanity from the savagery of a power-mad organization, and, on the second instance, reaching even deeper into her subconscious, she helped the Avian boost her immune system to resist the attack of a renegade mutant who'd inoculated her with a murderous tropical disease. On both occasions, Donna visited Angela's memories and emotions, and discovered not only the feral's brilliant intelligence, but her sense of ethics and undivided loyalties to her friends in general and the man she called her falconer in particular. Donna was the only person on earth knowing the secret of Angela's true origins and she kept it to herself in such a fashion that not even Angela knew that she knew. The bond now shared by the two friends and, to a lesser extent, by Emma DeLauro, was now unbreakable in their hearts and minds.

Angela and Donna half broke the embrace and locked eyes. There was no need for words. The multi-psionic experienced the full measure of loss and sorrow carried by the feral. They looked at each other for a long time, as Donna showered her friend's mind and heart with peace, and helped her find the closure she craved. They kissed on the cheek and Donna's mind felt the gratitude emanating from her friend, now ready to put the past behind and face whatever the future had in store.

"If you're all done settling in," Adam's voice sounded over the intercom, "we will assemble in the kitchen where everybody can help put lunch together, get better acquainted and be debriefed."

"Lets go meet the others," said the falcon woman. "I want to see Blair."

As Angela turned to leave taking her friend by the hand, Donna felt her hair stand on end as a shudder shot up from the entwined hands directly to clench her heart, as if the angel of death had just flown over the open skylight overlooking the pond. Silently, she raised a prayer to the Goddess, the feminine principle reigning over the universe. 'Spare me, O Goddess of my heritage,' she pleaded. 'Thrust upon me all the responsibility and the power of your desire. Make me capable of moving and controlling all living and non-living things upon this earth. Make me capable of penetrating and traveling the roads of the fantastic circuitry enveloping the planet. Make me capable of knowing and feeling the beautiful and the hideous hidden in the souls of all mankind. But spare me this, O Goddess. Spare me the curse of the future. I beg you, O Goddess, on my knees, my head bowed to your wisdom and your wishes, spare me the curse of precog."