Chapter 21: Jessica
"Where the hell did he go?" David asked, clearly confused. To Katie, David's voice seemed to come out of midair, but was revealed to come from the southwest side of the room as Lexa dropped the invisibility shield.
"He phased through the floor. He does it all the time – it's his "personal shortcut" from the house to Sanctuary. But he put a landing pad in the place he normally uses." Katie's voice was unsteady. Lexa had to remember that this was the first time Katie had come face to face with the forces against Mutant X. The fact that it had come in the form of her own brother probably had something to do with the fact that she could see Katie shaking just a bit.
Lexa watched as David stepped over to put an arm around Katie's waist. She bit her bottom lip. "Jesse wasn't in complete control of his powers. What if he wasn't able to drop out of the phase soon enough? David, can you find him?"
David looked ahead and was silent for a moment. "He's alive, Lexa," he said, allaying her obvious fears. "He's unconscious, though."
"Adam?" Lexa spoke to the open air. "Can you get a fix on Jesse?"
"Yeeeah. Got him. He's in the science lab, two levels down. What happened?"
"She got to him, and he tried to attack us. Somehow, he managed to get control and phase away from us. She's got to be within 100 yards of our location.
"I'll limit the search parameters to that range. Look, no, you need to stay down. There's no telling what kind of residual damage there might be."
Katie saw Lexa's brow furrow in confusion. "I'm sorry, what was that, Adam."
"Sorry, Lexa, not you. Brennan's waking up, and, as usual, his aversion for the biobed is rearing its ugly head. He's not too fond of the restraints either."
"Well at least he's awake. Look, Adam, have you had any luck with the thermal scanners? We really need to find her."
"Understatement of the year. I've almost got it; I just have to figure out how to reroute the power without shutting down power to the entire place. In the meantime, I don't want you guys splitting up again. After what happened to Jesse, you need to keep an eye on each other. Easy, Brennan. I'm taking them off. Just relax."
"Someone has to go down and check on Jesse." Lexa made a move toward the stairs to the science lab.
David grabbed her arm. "You heard what Adam said. We can't risk her getting a hold of your. Besides, Jesse's already waking up. He'll be fine. He can take care of himself."
Lexa sighed. Frustration was building up inside, but she knew Adam and David were right. Gathering the others, she headed off into the west corridor, beginning their search for the errant mutant seemingly bent on driving her up the wall.
Everything was blurry at first. Then it didn't matter that the blurriness had faded, because everything was dark. For a terrifying moment, Jesse knew that he was blind.
Then his logic kicked in. Don't jump to conclusions, you idiot, he told himself. Slowly, carefully, he lifted himself off the floor. As he did so, the tinkling of broken glass echoed in the otherwise silent room as it fell from his body. After standing up he took stock, and realized that the room wasn't completely dark. A few instrument panels around the room were illuminated, casting an eerie glow around the room that didn't reach the floor because countertops blocked the path of light.
He was in the science lab, he realized. The good news, he realized, was that, given that scent couldn't travel though the ceiling, he was no longer in the psionic's range. It was also good news that he had managed to release the phase before he fell through the science lab floor. As the science lab was the lowest of the three levels of sanctuary, he would have phased into solid rock if he had been unable to drop the phase. He couldn't help the shudder that ran down his spine at the brief thought of being trapped in solid rock. He took a few steps away from the pile of broken glass, and winced. The bad news was that, with sanctuary's high ceilings, he had just done a free fall the real world equivalent of 5 stories and landed on the shelf in the middle of the room that contained beakers, flasks, cylinders and the like. Ouch. After a moment, his eyes adjusted to the darkness and he looked around to assess the damage. The shelving was a total loss, as was the majority of the glass equipment stored there.
As for himself, one arm was clearly broken, a couple of ribs had been broken and he could feel blood oozing from numerous cuts, some deeper than others. He didn't have time or the energy to fix the injuries right now, though. He had to make sure the others were okay. He may be well out of her range, but the others were in close proximity. Painfully raising his broken arm, which was unfortunately the one with his comring, he contacted the others.
"Hey guys, are you okay?"
"Jesse!" He could hear the relief in Katie's voice. "We're fine. Are you okay?"
He grimaced slightly, flexing his sore shoulders. "Everything's fine, considering. We're going to need a new shelf for the science lab though. Have you guys managed to find her?"
Jesse could almost see David shaking his head. "Sorry, Jess. She keeps moving, and we don't dare split up after what happened to you. Adam's working on adjusting thermal scanners, but…"
"I'll get up there. I was working on that a few weeks ago. Look, this girl, she's tiny. Five feet tall, if that. And she's sneaky. She's lying in wait for someone. I couldn't tell why she's here, but she needs one of us to do whatever she's trying to do. You guys need to stay together."
"Already doing it. Adam's up in the medlab with Brennan. Get up there and see what you can do to help him help us find this bitch."
After they had closed the comlink with Jesse, Lexa turned her attention back on their task. Together, the three of them rechecked everything on the A level of Sanctuary: the bedrooms, the common room and several miscellaneous rooms. Then they made their way down to the B level and entered the largest room, the training dojo. Since it primarily a large open room, it was easily searched, and they moved on to the locker room and showers, storage locker and the stage for the holographic platform. Finding nothing in any of those locations, they moved on.
Lexa stepped out of the training area, into the hallway that led to the kitchen. What she saw made her freeze in her tracks. Immediately she put her hands up to keep the situation under control. David and Katie, close behind, barely managed to stop in time to avoid slamming into Lexa's back. Seeing what Lexa saw, they too put their hands up. A small woman, almost five feet tall with brown hair and brown eyes stood facing them in the hallway.
"Jessica?" David asked, only partially astonished, but cautious when he saw the gun in the young woman's hand.
"Peter. I should have known you'd team up with people like this."
"I go by David now, thank you very much. And I think it's you that's allied yourself with the wrong crowd."
Lexa looked over her shoulder at David. "Care to clue us in, David?"
"Remember how I told you there were thirteen, not twelve? This is Jessica Woodbury. I remember her name now."
"It figures that you'd forget about us, Peter. Forget all about the friends and doctors that helped you. And how did you pay them back? You killed them and ran off. You ruined the program!
"Jessica, they weren't trying to help us. They were using us! And I didn't kill them on purpose."
"You just never understood. You never gave it a chance. They could have changed your life! Instead, you ruined it for us all."
David noticed the petite woman's hands start to shake with anger. "Jessica," he began, but stopped as the gun waved back and forth between himself, Lexa and Katie.
"Just shut up. Shut up! You don't know anything! You never understood. And now you'll destroy everything again. I can't let you do it."
David reflexively made sure Katie was behind him. "Jessica, let me show you…"
"No! You'll never get it, will you? I'm not supposed to do this yet, but you're not leaving me any choice!" She put both hands on the gun and put her arms straight out, aiming the weapon at David's chest.
David saw her finger tighten on the trigger, and he fought the instinct to close his eyes against the inevitable.
Jessica Woodbury may have been trained in the stealth arts and a dangerous psionic, but her luck was absolutely atrocious. Once again, before she could deliver a lethal blow, she was interrupted. Before her finger could pull the trigger, her whole body jerked, and blue tendrils of electricity danced over her. A moment later, she fell to the ground, unconscious.
David, Katie and Lexa's gazes all followed her fall. Once she hit the ground, they looked up. Standing twenty feet down the hallway was Brennan, standing upright, but leaning heavily against the wall.
"I've never been fond of other people digging around in my head. Now come on, let's get her back to medlab and see if we can find out what the hell is going on in that twisted little mind of hers."
