Take Me Or Leave Me
"Brennan! On your left!", Emma shouted as she dodged a punch thrown by one of the security guards, she spun and landed a backhand fist into his face, knocking him out. Behind her she heard Jesse shout a warning to Shal. Emma turned and watched in awe as Shal back flipped and kicked the guard behind her in the head, spinning, kicking another one before jumping up and snap kicking the final one in the guard.
"Nice work Shal", Jesse commented, he became rock solid and the guard who had been charging at him collapsed into an unconscious heap on the floor, "is that all of them?". Brennan nodded and set off running up the stairs, they had 8 minutes to get in and out with the coding system they needed to hack into Genomex's computer database.
"We'll check upstairs, you guys take this floor, if you find something contact us", Jesse ordered before running off after Brennan. Shal dropped out of feral mode and started to walk down the corridor, Emma hesitated before running after her.
"What if the recent killings have nothing to do with Genomex? What if there's someone new in the area?", she asked.
"Then no doubt Genomex will already be trying to become buddy buddy with them, therefore it's a win/win situation for us isn't it?", Shal smirked, kicking in the first door they came across and stepping inside. They soon turned the room upside down and there was no sign of the documents. They went back to the door when they heard a gun shot from upstairs, panic flooded their veins as they thought of Brennan and Jesse. Emma made a move to run from the room but was restrained by Shal.
"No use Emma", she whispered, "we gotta go.....now!". Emma could barely believe her ears and only moved when Shal grabbed her by the hand and dragged her to the window. Shal levered it open and they dropped out onto the grass below.
"There they are!", a shout echoed over their heads and they took off running at a speed Emma had never known she could reach, they dodged through the carpark until they reached Shal's motorbike. They both hopped on before the guards reached them and sped off. All kinds of emotions were running through Emma's head as they raced of towards the Sanctuary, why had Shal just left the guys behind, did she know something the rest of them didn't? Her mind was distracted as the Sanctuary came into view. The entire area was engulfed in flames, spreading across everything, even the rocks of the mountains, like an unstoppable plague. It's red and orange flickering blanket flew high up in the sky, sending out a warning like a signal. A warning that said: 'We're gonna get you next'.
"Oh my God", Shal whispered, it was only then that Emma realized that she had stopped the engine and they were in the middle of the road, gazing at the destruction ahead of them.
"Adam....", Emma whispered, finally finding her voice, "did you know about this?". Shal hung her head before turning to look at Emma.
"I'll explain later, I promise", Shal mumbled, "for now, we have to get out of here". With that she started up the engine again and set the bike back into motion across the road, soon she turned quickly and carried on off road. She definitely knew something they didn't.
After about 15 minutes of driving Shal stopped the engine and got off. Emma followed her.
"Explain it to me, what the hell happened? What do you know?", Emma demanded, more worried for her friend's safety than angry at Shal. Shal slowly paced before raising her eyes to meet Emma's and speaking.
"I had a friend in school, my best friend, a normal girl who knew I was a mutant and accepted it", she started, "We were practically inseparable and everyone knew that", she stopped and took a deep breath before continuing, "Her parents found out I was a mutant and banned us from seeing each other, they forced her to hand around with this scumbag called Harvey, he's deeply mentally disturbed. They eventually started dating, I think she was forced into that as well, and Harvey initiated her into his 'team'. That's when I first found out about it". There was a long silence.
"Found out about what?", Emma prompted gently, Shal shook herself and spoke up again,
"The 'team' it was like a group for people who want to eliminate mutants from the Earth via force. They were fanatics who got thrills off of beating up mutants, I saw them beat one kid up in our school who just happened to look vaguely similar to a 'mutant' they'd seen on television", Shal stopped again, as if trying to recall the events, "Anyway, my friend basically refused to go along with the group, she knew they were going to go straight for me. So she got me to hide her, I got her a new identity and everything"
"And Harvey found out?", Emma asked. Shal nodded.
"And he's not happy, he swore he'd get back at me for taking away 'the love of his life', I guess this would count as the beginning of my payback", she explained, "He'll have taken Brennan, Jesse and Adam and locked them up. He won't have killed them, he can't use them as bait if they're dead". Emma felt her blood run cold.
"So we're going to walk straight into his trap?", she asked softly. Shal shook her head.
"Not us,......me", she replied.