Jesse, Shalimar and Lexa were the first to recover, as they had been expecting the explosion. Taking advantage of that fact, they felt their way out of the darkened room and sprinted away.
"Brennan! Time to go. Half the guards are out of position. You shouldn't have too much trouble. Meet us in the open room. Jesse's got a governor. We'll need you to disable it." Shalimar shouted into her ring as they hurried down the hall, slowed down by the fact that what few lights there were had been knocked out by the blast.
"Make it quick. The lights'll be back in less than a minute."
Brennan's voice was barely heard over the din of the confusion and falling debris. "We're on our way."
After he had answered Shalimar, Brennan helped Adam to his feet. Brennan had managed to keep his balance when the building rocked, but Adam had fallen to one knee. "That must have been the charge Jesse planted on the generator. Come on. Let's get out of here."
The lights were still out, and the hallway was pitch black, as there were no windows anywhere to let in moonlight or starlight. Finally, Adam managed to regain his balance. "Which way?"
"I think it's this way." Brennan placed his right hand on the wall and felt his way along. He felt Adam's hand on the back of his shirt and was grateful the other man was following.
In the dark, the pair was uncertain of how far they had traveled. After a few moments and a few turns, Brennan stopped. "I think we've gone too far. We should turn around. What do you think?"
"Don't ask me. I've never had a very good sense of direction. Besides, I've been inside that room for the past couple of weeks. But I'll trust you. Let's go back."
Before they turned around, however, the emergency generator kicked in.
"Thank goodness," was Adam's reaction.
"Jesus."
Adam looked up at Brennan, surprised by the word and his tone of voice. "What is it?"
"Look." Brennan pointed ahead of them.
They had indeed gone too far down the hall. So far, in fact, that they had passed the exit onto the main corridor and continued down the left side of the hallway, all the way into the Creator's lab. When the lights had flickered on, Brennan had gotten a look at the man who led the Dominion, who had obviously been surprised by the explosion.
The look of surprise was still present on the Creator's face. And it would be for all eternity. The man was dead.Brennan moved in and crouched down beside the body. There were burns on his hair, face and body. He was lying on his back, his right leg tucked under his body. One arm was sprawled above his head while the other lay at his side.
Adam bent down on the other side. He trailed a finger along the side of the man's face, observing how the features almost matched his own. His hand reached the man's neck, feeling for a pulse he knew wasn't there. "He's dead," he said.
"I can see why. This panel shorted out and exploded when the power went out." Brennan fingered the now exposed wires. "This is really shoddy work. You'd think the Dominion could do better than this," he said, looking back to Adam, still on his knees by the Creator's body.
"Adam. He's not you, remember?" Brennan put a hand on Adam's shoulder. "And you're not him. Don't let your work become your obsession and have it end up killing you. You have a choice."
Adam put his hands on his knees and rose to his feet, still looking at the body on the floor. "Yeah. I can't help but wonder what he was like before his work consumed him. What do you think his name was?"
"We never get all the answers, Adam."
"You're right again. When did you become philosopher?"
"Like I said, a lot of stuff has happened since you've been gone. Let's go. Jesse's got a governor I've got to short out.
The three other mutants had managed to escape the guards in the office when the lights went out. But it was only temporary. When the lights came back on, and they saw which direction their quarry had taken, those guards were hot on their heels. Complicating matters was the arrival of another half dozen security personnel.
Jesse realized their predicament a hair faster than the other two. "We're going to have to either split up or find someplace to hide until Brennan gets here," he said as the three of them rounded a corner, giving them a 10 second respite. There was no way they could lead them on a chase through the building; they didn't know the layout well enough.
"How about both," Lexa suggested quickly. "Confuse them." She and Jesse looked to Shalimar quickly.
"Deal," Shalimar said. "But stay close to the room. We leave as soon as Brennan and Adam show."
They broke apart then, as the guards caught up with them. Shalimar went left, dashing down side corridor. Jesse went right, back toward the open room. Lexa went straight down another hallway. As predicted, the guards split up.
Shalimar easily outran the guards that chose to pursue her. They followed her as she wove her way through the area. She took several turns, stopping occasionally to tease them, have fun with them. Only once did she slow for another reason, and that was to quickly dispatch a hapless guard who was still at his post along her route. She took a left turn, an idea forming. As soon as she managed to get out of sight of her pursuers, she leapt upward against the walls, scaling them until she reached the ceiling. When she got there, she found it was narrow enough that she could lie against the ceiling, her body eagle spread, her arms and legs tight against the walls, supporting her weight. She watched as the guards ran past below her. The ceiling was high enough that they didn't even notice her. What idiots. Hit the brakes, they fly right by. When the last one passed, she silently dropped down and returned the way she had come.
Jesse ran back toward the main, open room where he had hid earlier. The boxes had been restacked, but the tarp was no longer there. Well, I guess they do learn, he thought. He turned back to the corridor. He would have to find a place to hide. Without his mutant powers, he was vulnerable. Plus he was injured to boot. He quickly scanned the room, and found a place to conceal himself just as guards came up behind him. Damn. The hiding place would have to wait. Darting to his left, away from the hiding place, he led the guards back into the hallway. Hoping nothing else in the building had been changed and that he still remembered the blueprints from before, he led the men on a chase through the hallways and a series of room. He was rewarded when he found a second entrance in a room, and managed to lose his pursuers there, locking the door from the outside behind him and locking them inside. Then he ran back to the main room, hoping the hiding place was still available, or better yet, Brennan and Adam were there.
Lexa didn't have as much luck as she wanted with the guards that followed her. Thirty feet after they had parted ways, her hallway dead-ended. Turning, she could see at least seven guards headed her way. In a flash of light, she used her powers to become invisible, bending the light around her. The guards slowed when the saw her disappear, but did not stop. Pushing off against the wall behind her, Lexa charged head on, invisible, into the throng of security personnel. She avoided as many of them as possible, but they were packed densely enough that she had to fight her way through a couple of them. Her invisibility gave her an advantage, but a couple of them managed to graze her with their hands as they haphazardly swung out at their attacker. She retraced her steps and caught a glimpse of Jesse darting down a hallway, guards in pursuit. Jesse was without mutant powers and injured. He would be avoiding confrontation as much as possible. He was leading his guards somewhere. Looking back at the guards who were following her, who had guessed her direction from the little contact they had made, she made herself visible. The guards spotted her. As soon as they did, she darted down the corridor, chasing Jesse and his contingent. They followed her down halls, and into a room, where she quickly made herself invisible as she encountered the guards who had been following Jesse. She waited until all but one of those that had been following her entered the room; the last one hung back in the doorway. Then Lexa swung the door shut and blasted the control box on the side of the door, locking them inside. The lone guard who had hung back was surprised, and Lexa quickly laid the short man out with a kick to the head before returning back to the main room to meet the others.