They tumbled into the computer room of Sanctuary, Adam and Shalimar ending up in a tangle of arms and legs. Jesse arrived a bare second later, hands covering his eyes, shaking with the effects of the acid still trying to etch its way into his flesh.

Denise squealed in shock and jerked her hand away from the toggle switch.

Adam chose not to discuss several remarkable issues: a) that the million to one chance of the bracelets actually working had come through, b) that the person operating his beloved Sanctuary computers was the no longer missing sixteen year old Denise Vetchner and that c) the position that he and Shalimar had accidentally fallen into would have been astoundingly compromising were it not for the current circumstances. Adam elected not to address any of those concerns at the moment. Instead—

"Shut the computers down now!"

Denise gaped.

Kenny popped out into real life, intent on getting his captives back to where he thought they belonged. He reached toward his primary objective: Adam.

Adam had a better idea. The on/off power switch was located on the computer across the room and out of reach, but the power outlet was not. He yanked on the cord. The connection was broken.

The computer gave an exasperated hiss, and sank into blackness.

Kenny whirled around. His words, once the scatological terminology was deciphered, indicated that he was more than mildly dismayed at this turn of events. Inside the computer, he was master. Here, in the real world with the computer turned off, he was outnumbered. And those glorious muscles that he basked in were composed of wimped out steroids.

Not good.

One of the things she liked most about Adam Kane, Shalimar decided, was his ability to take charge of a situation without wasting time with the non-essentials. A lesser man would have told Denise how pleased he was that she had been found and was now safe in Sanctuary, and that she had successfully participated, albeit in a small way, in the current mission. Another non-essential would have been to discuss the uniqueness of the fact that the jerry-rigged bracelets had worked despite Shalimar's previous location inside Adam's cage and inside Adam's arms rather than hauling her mentor out into the computer version of open as originally planned. Instead:

"Denise, get to the clinic. Have Emma get the chemical shower ready. Do it now. Jesse?" he asked, taking the younger man by the arms.

"I can't see, Adam." Jesse fought to keep the panic out of his voice. Even the pain of the acid eating through his skin as he spoke was secondary. He hissed when Adam helped him stagger to his feet.

"I know. It's the acid. We'll have it off you in a moment. We need to get you to the clinic to wash it off." Adam hoisted Jesse's arm over his shoulder, ignoring the gasp of pain, steadying the molecular to keep him from falling. There was no dawdling.

Shalimar eyed the computer mutant balefully. Kenny stood there, not quite certain what to do now. The computer, dark and lifeless, was not an option. That door was shut. But Kenny still had his steroid muscles, and both Adam and Jesse were occupied with other things. He flexed his muscles. They were bigger than Shalimar's, for which Shalimar was eternally grateful.

Though bigger didn't necessarily mean better.

But Kenny knew that Shalimar was a feral. She bared her teeth, tossing off her words over her shoulder to Adam. "What do you want me to do with him?"

Adam considered, not slowing his steps one iota, helping Jesse to stumble along. "At this point, I don't much care. Just leave enough for me to run some tests on. I want data on his genetic structure."

Shalimar glared.

Kenny started to back pedal. He swallowed hard. "Uh, Shalimar, we can talk about this, right? I mean, I can create a really fine place inside the computer for you to—"

"Save it, slime. You showed us what happens when you go into a computer. I'm about to show you what happens when I shove a computer into your—"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

All right, so someone lit a bonfire under his ribs, and it was merrily torching his insides. Fortunately, someone had also given him morphine, and Brennan didn't care how he felt. Give him a marshmallow and a stick, and Brennan was perfectly willing to toast it as long as he didn't have to open his eyes. That, it was clear, would be painful in the extreme, despite the narcotics.

No such luck. Someone peeled back an eyelid and, to add insult to injury, flashed a penlight right at him. He yelled and pushed the offender away.

At least, he thought he did. What actually came out, he was afraid, was a meager whimper of distress and an arm that flopped back down to his side of its own volition. Clearly Jesse had phased Brennan's arm to diamond-solid matter of an exceptionally heavy density. There was no other explanation for whyBrennan was unable to lift his own arm.

"It's all right, Brennan. Go back to sleep. You'll feel better soon."

That was Adam's voice. What was he doing here? Hadn't Kenny kidnapped him? In fact, hadn't Kenny, one time friend and co-thief, stabbed Brennan with intent to kill? Apparently several things had happened in the recent past. Brennan decided that he'd better open his eyes and find out just what, in case he needed to move fast.

Maybe 'fast' wasn't the right term. He wasn't sure, but it seemed to take about five minutes for Brennan to finish opening both eyes, and another three to complete the task of focusing. And, okay, the gasp of pain was his but he was certain that the wheeze that he heard afterward wasn't. Brennan looked around for the source of the wheeze.

He was not alone in his misery. The second clinic bed was likewise occupied. Jesse lay there, skin looking like he'd been out in the sun too long without sun block, and a white bandage wrapped around his eyes. His hands too bore thick white dressings, and a young girl with long dark hair was holding a straw to his lips so that he could drink. Brennan thought that he ought to recognize the kid. He really thought that he'd seen her somewhere recently. Dammit, why wouldn't his brain work straight? Score one for the morphine.

Brennan blinked. The white bandages on Jesse wouldn't go away. He blinked again. "Bro?"

Shalimar correctly interpreted his question. "Got hit with acid. Electrons, really, since we were inside the computer with Kenny, but Kenny made them feel like an acid rain, and since we were in the computer with Kenny, it was Kenny's world. The more electrons, the more acid. Has something to do with pH, whatever that is." She grinned. "Always hated high school chemistry. And I think Jesse isn't too fond of it right now, either."

There was an agreeing groan from the second bed. Denise cut it off by sticking the straw into Jesse's mouth, giving him another sip.

"He's lucky to still be able to see," Adam added. "Another moment more, and the acid would've eaten through his hands into his eyes and the optic nerve. Electrons or acid, they both had the same effect. He would have been blinded permanently. Or killed."

"I don't feel lucky," Jesse grumbled. "I feel helpless." He gestured with bandaged hands. "I can't see, I can't pick anything up, I can't move around without bumping into things." He wiggled his feet, and winced. "I'm not sure I even want to try walking."

"I'll help you, Jesse," Denise offered, touching the straw again to the molecular's lips.

Emma and Shalimar exchanged significant glances. Adam, unluckily for him, didn't intercept those glances.

"For a bit, Denise. Later this afternoon, one of the girls will be taking you back to your foster parents. I promise, we'll take care of Jesse on this end." Adam beamed at this solution to the next problem on his list: resolving where Denise would spend the next several of her formative years. The beaker in his hand slipped to the floor. It smashed to crystal shreds. "Ow." Adam banged his head reaching down to pick up the pieces. "Ow." The pieces managed to slice a nasty cut in his hand. "Ow! Emma!"

"Told you I hadn't gotten a functional block yet, Adam." Emma was unperturbed. She held out her hand to Denise. "Come on, Denise. You and I have some work to do before you go to your new home."

Denise sighed, putting Jesse's drink back onto the table. "Do I have to?"

"For the sake of the world," Emma smiled, "yes." She led the girl away.

Brennan lifted his eyebrows. Things were moving much too quickly. "Adam?"

"I was finally able to identify Denise's mutant powers." Adam correctly interpreted Brennan's question. "She's lucky."

"Lucky—!" Jesse started to explode, sitting up. "Ow!" he added when he bumped a bandaged hand against the table. "Damn."

"Lie still," Shalimar advised. She helped him to lie back down, clucking sympathetically until he was settled and breathing again. "You're lucky, too. Lucky to be alive. And not in scattered electrons."

"Hah," Jesse grumbled.

Brennan was still confused. "You said Denise is lucky? Yeah, she's lucky to be alive and not in Genomex's hands. What do you mean, lucky? What does that have to do with her mutant powers?"

"Maybe a better way to put it is that Denise's power is to influence probabilities," Adam clarified. "If Denise wants a long shot to happen, it will. At this stage of her life it's completely unconscious, not under her control. But, to put it simply, what Denise wants will happen. As long as there's one chance, even if it's a million to one, that chance will come through. If Denise wants it hard enough."

"For example," Shalimar put in, "Denise wanted to come back to Sanctuary with Jesse. That didn't happen, so things started 'happening' to make it happen: her foster parents 'forgot' that she arrived and didn't keep track of her when she ran away. Things started 'happening' around here so that Jesse was forced out of Sanctuary to a place where he could meet Denise. Tell me that meeting Denise in the one bar in the whole city that she went to wasn't an amazing coincidence. As well as all the other things here in Sanctuary."

"Even the fight with Kenny was a slap at the odds of the highest order," Adam added. "I took another look at the CAMS module Kenny gave us. The odds against getting a normal mutant into a computer through that chip are astronomical. It shouldn't have worked. Sorry, Jesse; you're good, but you're not that good. And when you factor in the bracelets that Jesse devised—literally, the odds were a million to one."

"And yet, it did work," Jesse said smugly, the grin poking out from underneath the bandages.

"No thanks to you, Jesse. Sorry," Adam said. "That was all Denise. The chances of those bracelets working was minimal until Denise's powers stepped in to make happen what she wanted." He gestured off into the distance to where the two psionics had gone. "Emma right now is helping Denise to build barriers in her mind so that this power won't affect anyone else until Denise is old enough to learn to control it." He shuddered. "Can you imagine a teen-ager with the power to get anything she wants?"

"Hm," Brennan mused. "Winning a long shot at the horse races. Winning the lottery. Growing up to be a super-model."

"Meeting the man of her dreams," Shalimar added. "Why couldn't I be cursed with this gift?" She glanced down at her 'little brother'. "Maybe a little hard on 'the man of her dreams', though."

"Thanks, Shal." Jesse tried to shy away. "And don't punch me out again. Little tender there."

Brennan had another concern. "What about Kenny? Where is he? Little piece of slime," he added. The others had no trouble imagining what the elemental would like to do to his former friend.

Shalimar giggled. "Let's just say that there really is a God, and that Kenny is in purgatory."

Brennan wasn't up to deciphering riddles. "Shalimar?"

Adam took pity on the man. "Kenny got what he deserved. The world is now safe from KD Enterprises, Ltd."

"Adam—!" Okay, sitting up was a mistake. As soon as his brain stopped whirling inside his head, Brennan realized that Shalimar had his shoulders and was easing him back onto the bed. He let her; at this point, he didn't have much choice. The bonfire in his gut flared up in sympathy—maybe he'd start breathing again sometime next week. Right now, it hurt! Brennan tried to concentrate on Adam's words.

"Remember that ancient computer of Jesse's? The one built in the early eighties, before the Internet was anything more than a gleam in the military's eye? Not even a color monitor?"

"Yeah. It's a piece of junk. I thought we got rid of it."

"It's a useful piece of junk," Shalimar declared. "It thinks at the speed of molasses."

Brennan began to get the picture. "Kenny?"

Shalimar giggled again. "Inside. With no way out."

Brennan relaxed against the clinic bed, more at piece with himself than he had been for the last several hours. He closed his eyes.

Another piece of his past, laid to rest.