AN: I've got family in town for the next few days, but I've got enough chapters already written that I can keep up the once a day posting while they're in town…I may be posting a little later than usual due to computer access problems, though.
KatKnits00: You win the kewpie doll!..If I had one…;-)
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Shalimar waited several moments, watching Jesse embrace the young woman, who was clutching him tightly and actively sobbing. Finally, though, her curiosity got the better of her, and she placed a hand on Jesse's shoulder. "Jess?"
Jesse broke the embrace, but kept his arm around the woman's shoulders. Shalimar was a bit surprised to see his own eyes bright with unshed tears. He shrugged it of though as he gave a small, choked laugh. "Guys, this is my little sister Katherine Kilmartin. Katie this is Shalimar Fox, Brennan Mulwray and Lexa Pierce."
The other mutant's exchanged greetings with Katie.
"Jess, man – I didn't know you had a sister."
"Well, Brennan, until today, there was a lot of stuff you didn't know about me. But I had my reasons for not telling anyone about Katie."
"Fair enough. I gather from that greeting that you guys haven't seen each other in a while. How long's it been?"
Katie wiped her eyes with one delicate hand. "Oh. It's, uh, been about 8 years. I, uh, actually thought that Jesse was dead." Her voice started to break again. She started to turn back to Jesse's shoulder, as if to reassure herself once again of his presence, but he stopped her by lifting her chin.
"What do you mean you thought I was dead?" Jesse's confusion was evident.
Katie sniffed. "Well, when you left the last time, I didn't think anything of it. I mean, you'd been sent off more times than I could count. When you didn't come back after a few months, I asked Father where you were. He said that one of the experimental treatments meant to help you had an unforeseen side effect that killed you."
Jesse stepped away from his sister, his confusion quickly giving way to anger as comprehension dawned. "That son of a bitch!"
The others jumped at the uncharacteristic obscenity. Lexa watched as he stormed over to the other side of the entryway and began to pace. He ran his hands through his hair, momentarily confused by its much shorter length. "Is he here?" Jesse asked heatedly, pointing up the main staircase.
"No, I haven't even heard from him in two years."
Jesse made a rude noise and resumed his pacing.
Josie took the opportunity to make her exit – this was obviously a personal issue that should be resolved in private. Her training mandated that she leave the room. "If you'll excuse me, Katie, I'll go make up some of the guest rooms. I presume they will be staying the night?"
Katie nodded, and the woman turned on her heel and left the room. As soon as she left, Katie looked to Shalimar. "I don't understand. Was he cured? If he was, why didn't he come home?" Katie's inquisitive stare shifted from one person to the next, looking for answers.
Lexa finally gave into her scrutiny. "The last place Jesse was sent to had no intention of 'curing' Jesse," she said gently. She could see that the younger woman was genuinely confused and had no desire to harm any of them. "When you talk about his problem I assume you mean his, uh, 'abilities?'"
Katie nodded. "When ever he was home his things kept passing through his body. In fact, the day before he left, we were in the backyard, he tripped and fell against a tree. Except Jesse went through the tree. I was only 14 at the time. I had no idea what was going on."
"There was actually nothing wrong with Jesse. Nothing life threatening, at least. When he was a kid, he developed leukemia. Your parents took him to a geneticist named Adam Kane, hoping that he could use his genetic manipulation techniques to cure him. It worked, but a side effect was that Jesse developed certain abilities, one of which is to lower the density of his body to the point that other objects can pass through him."
Suddenly there was a loud crash from the other side of the room. They easily found the source of the noise when they saw Jesse removing his fist from the front wall. A slight glow from the front porch light emanated into the room.
Jesse looked up, feeling their stares. "Sorry," he mumbled, then resumed his pacing once again.
Katie looked back to Lexa, her eyes wide. There was a slight grimace on Lexa's face. "That was Jesse's second ability," she explained. "The first one we call phasing. That was an example of what's called massing. Jesse increased the density of his body so that nothing can pass through it and it can pass through almost anything." Lexa raised and directed her voice toward Jesse, so that he would be sure to hear. "Usually he's very controlled when it comes to using his powers."
Jesse stopped pacing and his cheeks flushed. "Yeah, I am. Sorry about that Katie-cat." He came closer and reached for her. "I guess that even after I ran into dad a couple years ago I still didn't think he'd sunk that low."
"Father saw you? He knew you were alive?"
"Yeah. But, uh, let's not talk about that right now. We'll have time to catch up later."
She gave him a quick squeeze. "Yeah. So, how do you guys know Jesse and what brings you all here?"
Brennan shuffled his feet, glancing at Jesse. How much could they tell her? Jessed slight nod indicating that they didn't have to use a cover story.
"Well, Jesse's a member of our team, which is called Mutant X, and, uh." He looked to Shalimar. He wasn't good at explaining things.
She took pity on him. Plus, he looked so cute with that little 'help me' look on his face. "Jesse's been with the team for about 7 years. It's our job to watch over and protect mutants from other people and to protect other people from mutants."
"Mutants?" Katie's voice was steady and eagerly curious. Shalimar smiled, warming up to the girl even more. Her question reminded her of Jesse when they had first met. She was obviously intelligent and inquisitive like her brother.
"Yes. There are thousands of other people like Jesse, whose genes have mutated as a result of the genetic manipulation. They all have abilities that the average person doesn't have. In fact, Brennan, Lexa and I are mutants too.
"Really?" Katie mulled over the new information. "What can you guys do?"
Lexa spoke up. "Shalimar here has super senses, among other things. Brennan can generate electricity, and I can manipulate light." She created a small laser on her fingertips as means of a demonstration.
"Whoa. How is it possible, how do you guys do it?"
"For most of us, it's instinct, kind of like your sense of smell or touch. The real problem is learning to control it. That's why Jesse had problems when he was a kid. He had no way of knowing how to control it, so it just got worse as he got older."
Katie opened her mouth to ask another question but was stopped by Jesse moving his hand to her other shoulder to get her attention.
"Listen, Katie, I know you'll have a million questions, but we're actually here for another reason."
"Are you guys on some sort of secret mission?" she asked teasingly.
Jesse shot an amused smile to the others before answering. "Sort of. See, the, uh, bad guys discovered and destroyed our 'secret hideout,' if you will. But we, uh, found out that the guy who built the place had a back up place, just in case."
"What does that have to do with you coming here? There's nothing around here for miles except the estate."
"Well, heh, the place is actually underground, made up of a bunch of old mine shafts and caves. The security around the place is very tight, and the only way in is through this house." Jesse stepped away and retrieved the backpack he'd left on the front porch. "We need to do some work on it, and we can't really do anything until tomorrow, but I'd like to get in there tonight and scope the place out and disengage the internal security on the front door."
"Yeah, sure."
Jesse reached in to his bag and pulled out a small but powerful flashlight and the diagram of the caves below and the security grid. Checking them briefly, he moved off to his left.
The others followed him as he wound his way through several rooms and hallways and finally down a staircase to a basement. The watched as Jesse consulted the map, moved forward about 10 feet and then took a few steps to the right. He looked at the diagram again, shifted a little to his left, then looked up at everyone else. "OK, this is the spot. I don't know how long it will take me to disable the grid, but I'm guessing it will be about an hour or two."
"Jess, are you sure about this? Have you ever done anything like this before?"
"You remember when you locked me in the grid cage in the hallway when your implant was acting up?"
Lexa nodded.
"How do you think I got out of there? I went through the floor, which was the only place without the grid. I'll be fine," he assured. "Well, here goes something."
Katie watched in astonishment as she watched her brother take a deep breath. Then his body became transparent. He took a small leap, and disappeared through the floor. She blinked, not quite believing what she had just seen. Hesitantly, she tapped her foot on the floor in the place Jesse had just been.
Shalimar gave a nervous laugh. "Yes, Katie, he really went through the floor." Turning to Brennan, she asked, "Do our comrings still work?"
Brennan understood what she was asking. "They should. They work of satellites, not Sanctuary's mainframe." He ran his thumb over the ring on his right hand, activating it. "Hey, Jess – you there?
For a few moments, there was nothing. Brennan repeated his inquiry. Finally, though, there was an answer.
"Yeah, Bren. I'm OK. It's dusty as hell down here though." The signal was weak and Jesse was breathing heavily, but they understood him easily enough. "I'm going to have a look around. I don't think the comrings will work once I'm away from this gap in the security grid, though. I'll see you guys in a couple hours."
"Ok, man. Good luck," Brennan said as the connection terminated. He glanced at the three women. "Looks like we wait. You got anything to eat?"