"Jesse," Adam's voice made itself known to the molecular as he kept his gaze on the men across the room. One sat himself at the table and the other was stationed by the door as a guard holding a shotgun and looking through the peephole every so often.
"Yeah, Adam, I'm here," he whispered in hopes of not drawing too much attention to himself while he plotted his escape.
"Shalimar's at the church and she needs you right away."
"Alright I'm on my way over there."
"Who are you talking to?" the man at the desk asked standing up and walking over to Jesse.
Jesse refused to answer and merely grinned with arrogance awaiting the man to step closer.
"What are you grinning about?" the man asked as he stood before the molecular and glared down at him.
Jesse's grin widened as he brought his eyes up to meet with the strangers.
"This," he replied and phased himself free from his restraints. The sight instantly caused the door guard to point his weapon at the molecular who massed his leg to deliver a devastating low blow to the man before him dropping him almost instantly. The door guard fired at the blonde but the massed mutant was indestructible. As the guard ran out of bullets Jesse phased Brennan freeing him from his restraints as well and the elemental reflectively raised his hand to shock the guard to the floor. With both men easily subdued Jesse and Brennan stood up.
"Come on, Shalimar needs us," Jesse urged as he lead the way out the door and down the street followed by an eager to do damage elemental.
Shalimar fought to catch her breath and retain her sanity at the stressful situation at hand. She turned to Emma still revealing a pair of the saddest eyes she'd ever seen in her life. She couldn't bring herself to let the woman die.
The collar flashed a one minute warning. Shalimar knew she had to do something but couldn't allow herself to accept either option. In a panic she turned to search the room for anything that might be of use to her but quickly returned to the women's sides as her hunt was unsuccessful.
"Shalimar," Emma's weak voice called.
"No!" the feral screamed not near ready to hear the psionic's idea let alone give into it.
Shalimar reached up to the psionic's collar franticly pushing buttons. The action got an instant objection from the psionic who couldn't bare the thought that she might be the reason Shalimar was about to lose both woman she loved or had loved.
"Shalimar! Stop please," Emma pleaded, the words making the pain in her throat more evident than ever before but she had to get through to the feral.
"Damn it!" Shalimar yelled and continued trying to crack the collar's instructions.
"No," Emma's begging voice asked again, softer this time, barely audible.
Shalimar turned suddenly at the sound of Lara groaning under her mouth tape and she quickly ripped it from her lips allowing the chef to gasp for breath. The collar around her neck reminded the feral she had just over half a minute now until she found herself standing alone in the middle of the room.
"What's going on?" Lara asked at the sight of the hurt and bloodied psionic and panicking Shalimar.
"Shalimar, Brennan and I are on our way," Jess's voice alerted her. She wouldn't allow herself to calm down however and leaned to inspect the collar around the cute chef's neck for any flaws.
"Do it," Emma asked again but Shalimar offered no answer just continued working on Lara's collar. She could hardly see straight anymore for the tears over flowing in her eyes and hardly think straight for the panic over ridden in her heart.
As the thirty second mark passed Shalimar turned back to Emma. The psionic heard a few beeps as the feral pressed the buttons on the collar and her worry picked up. She opened her mouth to protest but before she could speak the sight of Brennan and Jesse in the doorway gave her new hope although very little.
Shalimar instantly turned her head to the men although not letting up on Emma's collar.
"Jesse, get to Lara I need you to phase the collar off her!" Shalimar ordered. "As soon as I deactivate Emma's collar Lara's is going to explode."
Brennan rushed to the other side of Emma and Jesse hurried to Lara's side but turned to Shalimar in question.
"Wait a minute if I phase it off her it could cause Emma's to explode."
"Then phase Lara when her collar explodes! Brennan, stand back!" Shalimar ordered and the worried elemental obeyed her statement showing himself over to the wall to stand in the clear.
"Shal, be careful," he reminded.
Shalimar watched as the counter of the psionic's collar entered its last ten seconds. She inputted the last few codes on the screen and prepared herself for whatever was to come.
"Jesse, are you ready?" she asked knowing it was now or never.
"I'm ready, Shal."
"Shal, I can hit Lara's collar when it's about to-"
"No," the feral objected to Brennan's suggestion. "I don't know what that could cause. I want everything to happen the way it's supposed to. Jesse, on three. One...two…" she counted as she pressed the last of the numbers. "Three."
Emma's collar beeped louder. Shalimar turned to Jesse who, with his arms tightly around Lara, phased just as the collar expelled razor blades and fell to the floor followed by a small explosion upon impact. Jesse held his phase for a few moments just to be sure before releasing it and Lara.
"Jesse, get this thing off her," Shalimar said gesturing to the almost out of it psionic.
Rushing to Emma's side Jesse grabbed hold of the collar and phased the intrusive object off her.
"Let me get a shot at that," Brennan said while Jesse threw the collar across the room to meet with its explosive end from the efforts of Brennan's electric charge.
Brennan rushed to Emma's side and threw a charge up to her restraints causing her to fall into his arms. He gave her leg restraints the same treatment and picked her up to cradle her in his arms. Before Shalimar could assist him the ceiling began to fall to the floor as rumble after rumble erupted through the church.
"They must've set a bomb outside," Shalimar concluded. "Let's get them out of here!"
Reaching an arm around Lara, Shalimar prepared to help her out of the church but Jesse was already there with an arm around her.
"Let's go," she yelled as the men followed the wounded feral out of the church as it fell down behind them.
Upon reaching the lawn to see it was now mid evening Shalimar turned to find Jesse placing Lara down on her feet. Looking up she saw the church continuing to fall apart and the large statue on top of the doorway threatening to fall right on top of him and Lara.
"Jesse, look out!" she called pointing above his head.
Jesse jerked his head upwards and saw the stature falling forward and without time to move he phased himself and Lara before ducking them out of the way as it landed in their spot.
"Close one," he sighed in relief. It was a little presumptuous though as the very next thing he saw was a gang of men approaching them.
Brennan placed Emma down on the grass and out of reach of the falling debris before stepping in front of her to confront the oncoming attackers. Already angry at being attacked and finding Emma and Shalimar hurt he queued up a large electric blast and began to shoot off at the men dropping them one by one before they took on a scattered attack stance and charged randomly.
Jesse helped Lara away from the church and she ducked behind a bush for safety as he joined in the fight engaging in melee combat with a couple of men with crowbars.
A familiar scent in the air caught Shalimar's instant attention and her feral eyes lead her to the side of the crumbling church where she met once again with Felicia. If not for her feral eyes they would have lit up at the opportunity she saw opening up before her.
"Well played, Shalimar," Felicia congratulated jumping from the stonewall to join the feral on the ground, yellow eyes flashing their readiness at Shalimar.
"You ain't seen nothing yet," Shalimar promised leaping at the woman with such ease it would be hard to tell she'd been shot and bleed out quite a bit of blood already.
As the two ferals met in the air the landed on the grass exchanging punches and kicks as eagerly and fiercely as possible. Ducking forward Shalimar grabbed hold of the woman's long, red hair and delivered a powerful kick to her face sending her flying back into the stone wall. Shalimar left no time for recuperation and instantly her hands were wrapped around the other feral's neck as her grip was tightening by the second. She loved it. Loving the way revenge felt and tasted. She wanted to drag it out for as long as possible but the reminder that Emma and Lara needed her was enough to rush her into bringing about the death of the betraying red head.
As Shalimar squeezed tighter and tighter a small, faint voice from behind interrupted the feral, distracting her only for a brief second but long enough for the red head to seize the opportunity.
"Shal," Emma's voice called, so softly that even Brennan and Jesse didn't hear.
Shalimar turned swiftly but quickly looked back to Felicia only to find herself being thrown back by the woman and crashing into the wall of the church. Looking up Shalimar noticed another statue on the top of the church roof was shaking and close to toppling over the edge.
Felicia lunged at Shalimar turning the tables on her and beginning to strangle the blonde feral in return. Shalimar's strength wouldn't give up that easy and she wrestled back all the while keeping one eye on the statue over head. When she saw it was just about to fall, Shalimar pushed Felicia back shoving her back against the church and delivering a devastating kick to the woman's stomach. Shalimar looked up just as the large statue overhead fell from the roof and she backed herself off Felicia. Felicia hunched over for a second before looking up to see the statue just as it collided with her leaving her in a motionless heap on the grass.
Shalimar turned to rush to Emma's side but found Matthew was now in her way, glaring at her in challenge. He leap to attack but before it could be done he was shocked by Brennan's bolt and fell to the grass beside Felicia. Shalimar looked to Brennan who instantly turned back around to face to the three men that were closing in on him from the side.
Shalimar rushed to Emma's side as she still lie motionless on the grass across the yard. Kneeling down she took Emma's hand in her own.
"Emma," she spoke out of concern.
Blue eyes opened and the panting psionic starred sadly at the woman the pain of her many wounds all she could concentrate on now. Shalimar's worry and own physical and emotional pain only heightened the discomfort the psionic was feeling and she squeezed the feral's hand tightly afraid more than anything to let go of her although strangely she could feel herself being pulled away.
Emma didn't say anything but the look in her eyes was enough that she didn't have to. Shalimar reached around her shoulder in preparation to help her up but a displeasured grunt from the psionic told her she was in too much pain as she protested the movement and Shalimar gently lie her back down to look at her.
Emma could feel it now. Could feel her breath, her life leaving her body and she fought to bring her eyes up to Shalimar's tear strained own.
"Emma?" Shalimar asked questioning what was wrong with the psionic.
"I love you," Emma softly spoke before a loud breath was forced from her lungs her eyes closing simultaneously.
Feelings near panic again Shalimar shook the red head.
"Emma, Emma, open your eyes. Emma!"
Shalimar lifted the psionic's hand pressing her finger to her wrist hoping against hope she could still feel life in the cold, limp body. Her other hand came up to the psionic's throat as she franticly searched for a pulse, unable to find one. Shalimar franticly grabbed at the red head pulling her into a close embrace as she shook with pain at the sight of the dead psionic before her, crying harder than she ever had.