After – Effects Chapter 4
In response to Feral Revenge's question, yes I suppose you could see this as a sequel to Mutation, but I decided to set this story six months after that story. Keep the reviews coming in please; they are very encouraging.
Disclaimer: I do not own Mutant X and make no profit from this story or any others that I write.
Jesse was getting tired; he had been trying to avoid the guards in the complex by phasing through all the walls while dragging a traumatized Brennan along with him, the elemental look dazed and unfocused, "Fair enough, after what he has been through," Jesse thought to himself. After twenty minutes of fighting, freezing and phasing, he passed through the last wall and was making a break for the perimeter fence, which was covered by GS agents, all of them armed, with Eckhart leading them.
"Come now Mr Kilmartin, you cannot get passed us all, surrender now and your fate might not be too terrible," he said with a grim smile.
"Go to hell you bastard!" said Jesse defiantly and with a flick of the wrist, that's exactly where Eckhart went. Jesse wasted no time, no sooner had he blown away Eckhart; he sent two of his goons with him and froze the others, he moved as quickly as he could with Brennan towards the fence and phased through it, but they weren't free yet, they still had to make it back to the Helix and check Brennan over more thoroughly. Jesse moved as quickly as he could, there might have been GS agents on his tail but he didn't look back, he made it back to the clearing and dragged Brennan into the Helix and sat him on the nearest chair.
"Don't worry Brennan, you're safe now, no one is going to hurt you," he reached out to touch Brennan gently but Brennan drew away, shrinking into the chair as much as possible, you're not real, I must be hallucinating, I watched you die, Eckhart cut your throat, and it's all my fault, I didn't tell him where Sanctuary was, and he killed you because of it," Brennan's eyes filled with tears and he began crying again, mumbling how he had let Jesse down, and how sorry he was, Jesse decided to take Brennan straight back to Sanctuary where Adam could give a more detailed examination, Jesse retrieved a blanket from a cupboard, wrapped it around Brennan, and sat down in the pilot seat, sighing, why did Brennan think that he had watched Jesse die at the hands of Eckhart, he hoped Adam had an answer.
The trip to Sanctuary was as quick as it was quiet; the only sounds were the hum of the Helix's engines and Brennan's sobs, which grew quieter over time until it was only the occasional sniffle that could be heard. Once they arrived back at Sanctuary, Jesse wasn't at all surprised to see the rest of the team already waiting for him as soon as he had landed, He got Brennan and brought him out of the Helix, still wrapped in the blanket.
"We knew you would get him back," said Adam with a smile on his face, his smile faltered when he saw the state of Brennan, Emma gasped and Shalimar looked shocked and on the verge of tears.
"Oh my god, what the hell did they do to him?" she said with rage, her eyes flashed yellow in fury.
"I have no idea but Adam, Brennan seems to think that he watched Eckhart kill me so he might have severe psychological damage," Jesse said to Adam, who with the help of Shalimar's superior strength, took Brennan between them and took him towards the medical bay, but Emma hung back with Jesse,
"Jesse, are you alright, I'm sensing some disturbing feelings from you," she said to Jesse, Jesse decided to be honest.
"Emma, Eckhart is dead, he was blocking my way with his goons so I blew him away, and I will admit that it felt pretty good," he said, hanging his head in resignation, Mutant X tried not to kill people, even when it seemed necessary, they did not want to make themselves like Eckhart and the GSA. Emma said nothing, which was perhaps worse than not shouting at Jesse, that was the problem with Emma; she never seemed to get angry.
"Well Jesse, I wont say that it was a good thing to do but you have possibly helped new mutants everywhere, without Eckhart, the GSA will fall apart," Emma said grimly, "now go and get some sleep before I send you into one you wont wake up from, I'll come and get you when they are finished assessing Brennan".
"Yes sir," Jesse said with a mock salute, he had had just realised how exhausted he was from his mission, he headed of to his room and hoped that the damage to Brennan wasn't permanent, he walked into his room, and lay on his bed, he was asleep before his head hit the pillow.
Emma woke Jesse up an hour later, "Jesse, wake up, Adam's finished with Brennan, he's pretty messed up, come on Jesse," she said, pinching him hard, he woke with a start, "Ow, that was mean," he said with a small smile playing across his face. Together they walked into the lab where Brennan was lying, now wearing a pair of his shorts. Adam was standing beside him, looking at a computer screen, and looking at some test results.
"Ah Jesse, you're awake, I thought you might like to know Brennan's condition, seventy-three percent of his body is bruised or scarred, he had severe internal bleeding and a punctured lung, we have repaired the internal damage but it was touch and go. I ran a brain scan and I found elevated pressure to most of his brain, this can happen due to extreme stress, my guess is that Eckhart used a psionic to make Brennan see you and watch Eckhart kill you, after that, he just fell into despair," Adam said finishing his report.
"I've had Emma put him to sleep telepathically, it seems there were drugs in his system to stop him from drifting into unconsciousness so he I think he suffered a great deal. I want him to stay here tonight and then be moved to his own room in the morning, now I would suggest that we all go to sleep". Jesse had no intention of sleeping, pulling up a chair; he sat next to Brennan all throughout the night.
Well there you go people, chapter 4 is complete, review and I will post the next chapter soon.