One by one the four awoke.

Brennan was the first, rolling over clutching his head in his hands in a desperate effort to either screw it back onto his neck or detach it all together and throw it away. Squeezing his eyes shut seemed the best option, and it seemed to work. What he hoped was a mere few seconds later but feared was an hour and a half, he re-opened his eyes and saw the others also stirring.

Their surroundings were not encouraging. That it was a prison cell was obvious: the steel bars that made up the walls were a dead give-away. But someone had also been doing their homework with regard to Mutant X: the floor was covered with two inches of water. It wasn't enough to drown in but it was sufficient to ensure that a thoroughly pissed-off elemental wouldn't be able to blast his way out without parboiling the rest of his team.

The others crawled to their feet, recognizing their peril as quickly as Brennan had. Adam saw one more thing: the cell next door. And its occupant inside.

"Jesse!" he exclaimed. "Are you all right?" And immediately regretted the question. If Jesse were all right, he—and they—wouldn't be in this mess.

Jesse's hands were handcuffed behind him. Normally that wouldn't be a problem for the molecular. He'd phase out of them, letting the metal links clank to the floor. The fact that he hadn't yet done so said that something was amiss.

That something was the wire mesh encircling the molecular's forehead. The majority of the contraption was thin wire, with two diamond shapes to either side of his temples. Even as the others watched, the diamonds dug themselves further into the flesh.

Jesse winced. "Hi, guys," he said, striving for nonchalant. "I see you were in the neighborhood."

"What is that thing on your head?" Shalimar demanded, terrified. "Get it off!"

"Love to."

"It's an early version of the Genomex sub-dermal governor," Adam said grimly. "Bea Sutter was working on the project many years ago, before she walked out. As you can see, there have been significant design changes over the years, but the principle is the same. Jesse, you have to get that thing off."

"Love to," Jesse repeated. "Love to pull this thing off no matter how much it hurts, phase you guys out of here, and teach these people a thing or two about messing with Mutant X."

"No, Jesse, I mean you really have to escape," Adam started to say when they were interrupted by Dr. Sutter and four other men.

"It's a little late for that, Dr. Kane," one of the men said, casting a thoughtful gaze over Jesse Kilmartin.

None of the others did, but Adam recognized him immediately.

"Brickman!" he exclaimed. "After all these years? I should have known that you had something to do with this."

"Actually, I had everything to do with this," Brickman boasted. Jesse took the time to study the man Adam was so concerned about. Everything about the man screamed average: average height, average build, average light brown hair, average features—everything except the eyes. Those hazel eyes were the eyes of a man driven by the need to succeed, the need to achieve his goal no matter what the cost to others. "This was my project, Adam. Mine, not yours, and not Mason Eckhart's."

"Eckhart fired you," Adam remembered. "Your project wasn't working. You were treading down the wrong path. And you pulled Bea in after you."

"I wasn't!" Brickman insisted. "You and Eckhart were jealous of me, so you sabotaged my work! I would have been successful, and Genomex would have belonged to me!"

"Your work cost Benji his mind and his mother her career," Adam shot back.

"No, Adam." Bea Sutter stepped in, her voice calm and collected—and brittle with emotion. "John saved Benji's life. Mason was insisting on an abortion. You know that."

"And I opposed it," Adam said. "I opposed the whole thing, Bea, from the start. You deliberately impregnated yourself in order to create a mutant super-soldier. When it looked like it was going bad, you chose to keep the child, knowing that you would have to cope with his disabilities for the rest of his life. It was a noble decision, Bea, and I supported you. Then you walked out."

"I escaped, Adam. There's a difference. Mason would never have let me leave." Bea Sutter looked away. "John helped. I couldn't have done it alone. And I couldn't let Benji down, not even then."

"And now?"

"A place like this requires funding, Adam. You know that." Bea gestured to the walls around them, meaning the laboratory beyond. "I had to continue my work. For Benji's sake."

"Our work," Brickman interjected.

Adam didn't see any point in holding back. "Bea's work, John. You always were a second rate researcher, and that will never change. You're still riding on someone's coat tails, and now it's Bea's. You're taking credit for her work." He changed his gaze to stare at Bea. "You're going to allow that, Bea? Let John Brickman get the rewards for your work?"

"I'm getting what I need from this, Adam." Bea refused to be moved. "It doesn't matter that John takes the credit. He's getting the funding by pretending that he's coming up with the research. I'm getting help for Benji."

"By harming someone else." Adam was getting frantic. There was no way out, and talking wasn't getting them anywhere. "Bea, what about your oath? You're going to be destroying Jesse!"

"But helping millions of others," Bea replied, as calm as Adam was frantic. "This work can move forward to help millions of children with mental retardation issues. Think of it, Adam! Advancing the cause of children in a single experiment!"

"Enough." Brickman cut off the debate. "We're wasting time." He gestured to the other three men. "Get him."

"Jesse, fight!" Adam yelled. "Don't let them take you!" He pulled at the steel bars, unable to budge them. Brennan too tried to find a way to get them out of their prison, but the bars were too strong.

Jesse tried. Arms tied behind him, he lashed out with an off-balance kick. It didn't work; one man absorbed the blow while the other two grabbed Jesse from each side. A couple taps to the mid-section finished the job and would have send the mutant to his knees had the men not held him up.

"Emma!" Adam commanded.

But Brickman was ready for that move. He had already fished a small atomizer from his pocket. It looked like a perfume bottle, but the contents were anything but pleasant: one squirt, and Emma sank quietly to the floor. The men hauled Jesse away, down the corridor from the two prison cells, and out through the door.

"Jesse!" Adam called, clutching at the steel bars, trying to part them through sheer need.

It didn't work.