Memories (On Behalf of Cat)

Relief washed over Cat as she saw Donna Gryphon fall back from the computer she had been holding and the system come miraculously back on line. The fear for Brennan's and Jesse's fate had almost been more than she could bear without howling her impotency to the four winds. She helped the injured to the lab and, quietly, escaped to her room. She needed some time alone to think things over.

Cat opened the locked drawer in her closet and took her journal out. The journal had been Adam's idea, so she could collect her feelings, her thoughts and work out her many problems on her own. She took the business card she had tucked in the journal and sat on the bed, her back agains the pillows. She stared a long time at the card, remembering the moment she had been handed it and the strange Asian woman who had approached her at her mother's wake. The same Asian woman whose face had filled the computer screen moments before Jesse lost control of the Helix. The smirking face of the man Jax had identified as the New Order leader had named her Yukio.

Cat sighed at the memory, at the woman's nerve. How could memories be always so painful. She would kill for a bout of amnesia that made her forget Silver, the GSA, sub-govs and pods, fights and wounds... She was so tired of memories, of
guilt, of suspicion...

The knocking on the door startled her awake. She must have dozed off! Cat jumped and yanked the door open only to fall into Brennan's arms. "Thank God you're back!" she exclaimed. "I was so scared!" And they kissed as never before, as the elemental closed the door behind him.

Here They Are

After breakfast, the small army gathered at Sanctuary met in the main computer room, where their comand post was to be. Adam motioned to Lux and Jax to take over the meeting and the young psionic and healer surveilled the assembly. She had been introduced to the Cascade-Mac group, as they were, for lack of a better name, now called. Quickly, Lux Windsor did an inventory of the forces now allied against a common foe:

1- Four ferals, counting two feline cats, one feline lion, one falcon.

2- Three multipsionics with offensive and deffensive powers counting Emma among them.

3- One psionic telekinetic.

4- One elemental.

5- One molecular, not counting herself.

6- Two Sentinels, whatever that was, evolutionary mutants with sensory enhancement, perhaps.

7- Two regular humans, the Sentinels' guides, their ground wire, so to speak.

8- Two bona-fide, genuine geniuses, for the new arrival had brought another one into their midst, in the form of an aging but fit man by the name MacGyver.

Yes, with that Brancaleone's army, maybe they stood a chance against the ruthlessness of Nickolas Lareou and his New Order.

"Max?" she called to the boy in the computer screen, "what's the news on St. Michael's?"

Maximilian's face darkened. "Thanks to your vision, we could evacuate the premises," he informed his leader. "The church, the shelter and the ambulatory, however, burned to the ground. It was the Salamander, all right. Same old method: no accelerante, no smells, a blue fire almost impossible to put out."

"#%$..." swore Jax McManus under her breath. St. Michael's had been their first and best shelter for new mutants in the West Coast. Now, it was a lump of coal. "Da sack-o-#%$ is gonna pay..." Whenever pissed off, her brogue thickened almost beyond understanding.

"Max, I'll send instructions for rebuilding," said Lux with a sigh. "Now, I need the rest of the files of the New Order."

One by one, the files of the renegade mutants shone on screen, projected by Maximilian's whiteless eyes. Nickolas Lareou, leader and sonic elemental; Mumbata Ntobo, botanical elemental; Yukio Matsumoto, digicyber; Aidaan Malone, shapeshifter molecular; Yanos Panarides, chemical elemental; Bree Williams, geological elemental. The newcomers to the foe fold, Alex Tremayne, organic molecular, and Windell Mann, climate elemental.

The multipsionic, then, as if savoring the moment, announced, "Now, ladies and gentlemen, la piéce de résistance..."


"C'est si bon..." Adam muttered, in perfect French.

"Nobody knows the Salamander's name and looks, right?" she asked the group.

"Not even Menachem knows that, Lux." retorted Adam. "He would have told me."

"Well, we do have a file on him. Max!"

The screen lit up with the face of a man in turban and the information on their most dangerous foe to that date. Adam stood up slowly and approached the picture. Of course... One of the unaccounted ones. Angela herself had been one of those, the ones not mentioned in his oh so complete database.

"Salumandr Pandiat Singh..." he read the chart, closed his eyes and breathed deep. "I remember his parents, Rajeev and Salima. They were with the Pakistani embassy and Rajeev, as a Sikh, needed a heir to carry on the ritual Singh, lion, surname after his own." Adam turned from the screen and faced his friends. "Salima had already miscarried a few times. Rajeev begged Breedlove to save that pregnancy and Paul accepted. After the pregnancy was secured, Rajeev returned with his wife to Pakistan and I never knew of their fate." He pointed to the screen. "Here it is."

"This is the New Order, folks." completed Lux. "These are our enemies."

"You forgot one," Cat shot from the corner where she was sitting on Brennan's lap.

"And who should that be, Miss Kitty Kat?" asked the lioness bodyguard.

And Cat answered, "Me."