Title: Homecoming: the Mexican Tango. Part 4f 1/2
Author: Chris Kenworthy
E-mail: chris@chriskweb.net
Home archive: http://www.roswellfanfic.com/
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I don't own the Roswell characters, though if I did I'd treat them better than Jason Katims.
Category: Sci-fi drama. Canon couples romance leading to UC pairings in later part.
Spoilers: Up to 'ask not'
Part 4f: Mortal danger
(October 20 2001.)
"Alright, kids," Amy DeLuca laughed, walking back into the living room. "You've got friends to pick up, it isn't very long before the dance is supposed to start, is it??"
"Haven't you ever heard of being fashionably late, mom??" Maria shot back. Amy just shoo-ed them out of her house.
"I can't believe we just charged into Doctor Thompson's house like that," Max muttered as they strolled casually down the DeLuca's front walk back towards the limo. "We must have been *loons*."
"Well, it worked out for the best in the end," Michael replied defensively. "Not that it wasn't touch and go for a bit there."
"For the best for us," Alex qualified. "That's not saying everything."
* * * * *
(Wee hours of the morning, Saturday, December 30th, 2000)
"Okay," Michael mumbled. All nine of them were in the biggest of their motel rooms, (the one where Max, Alex, and the sherrif were staying,) tightly circling a small table where Michael had spread out a diagram he had made of the professor's house and its surroundings. "What's the situation? We need one team to actually enter the house... one team to stand guard outside. Am I missing anything?"
"It's a small area for all nine of us to be in play," Max pointed out. "Maybe it would be better for one or two to stay back as reserves. The cavalry to save us in case anything goes wrong... though I'm not quite sure where they'd make base camp. The motel is probably too far from the scene of the action, and I'm not sure where else they could stay in the middle of the night without attracting attention." His face grew even more thoughtful.
"There are twenty-four hour cafes scattered around," the senior Valenti, (well, or the middle one if you want to be technical,) pointed out. "I was keeping an eye out for them that first day. The nearest is..." Jim spread a map of Puerto Penasco out in his hands, and then laid the edge of it down upon the table -- there was only room for an edge. "Here... right next to these woods. Thompson's house is here." His finger marked another spot on the map.
"About four blocks away," Michael noticed, nodding. "Far enough away to be almost certainly off the security guard's beat, close enough to be of assistance. That's good." He nodded his thanks at the lawman.
"So... we need, what, two volunteers? To stay at that cafe and sit out the actual breaking and entering. Anyone?" There was a few seconds' pause, and then Maria and Kyle both waved simultaneously, each seeming surprised that the other had volunteered.
"Good, thanks," Max nodded at them. "Next... I'd say three to go in. Isabel has to be one, obviously, and Michael is probably indispensible. Who else would you like going with you, Iz?" It was a leading question.
"Alex," Isabel answered without hesitation. Max smiled sadly for a moment, knowing that once it would have been the three of them, but moved on. "That leaves me, Tess, Liz, and Mister Valenti on guard duty... Good enough. Anything else?"
"Weapons," Isabel suggested.
"Right." Michael went over to Max's dresser, removed a small carry-case, and quickly opened the combination locks on it. "One ray-gun. Who gets that."
"I think that Liz proved she could handle it last time," Maria pointed out.
"No way." Liz shook her head. "I don't want it. And I wasn't a great shot either - ask Max."
"Well, the tactical effect will probably be greater if it's a human," Michael pointed out. "Since we've already got our own powers..." He scanned the room, counting off hybrids and those already in the reserves, until he landed on someone who was in neither group.
"Sure, I'll take it," Alex agreed. "If I can make it work."
"Wait a second, how did *Liz* make it work?" Tess put in. "I took a look at that thing. It's power-triggered. Liz is human."
"Well, humans have the power, too, right?" Kyle countered. "The balance. Otherwise we couldn't use those healing stones or anything."
"We should make time to test it out in an isolated area before we move," Max suggested. "Knowing who can shoot this thing and who can't might be life and death."
"I'll take the heat shield, if no-one objects," Michael muttered, helping himself to the small box. "Power-drain pentagon?" They had gone back to retrieve that item belatedly, almost twelve hours after turning Steve Banks' trap against him. It had still been there, at the bottom of the tunnel where Max, Michael, and Isabel had been trapped.
"Don't expect that that'll be too much use," Tess pointed out. "Not likely to run into any other aliens down here, just special unit."
"But you can never tell," Liz counter-pointed. "I'll take it."
"You know how to work that thing?" Isabel asked as the pentagon was passed over. Liz nodded.
"I think that's it for the weapons," Michael said in a low voice.
"Not quite." Max turned around to see Valenti undoing his shoulder holster, his piece still inside it, and presenting it to Kyle. "You should take this, I think."
"No, no," Kyle shook his head. "You'll have more use for it than I will..."
"I'll be too close to the action," Jim corrected. "If the wrong person sees that I've got a firearm, it could get us all killed."
Kyle paused, and then tried again. "But you're..."
His father cut him off. "Kyle! You are our backup - you and Maria. You're going to need something to arm yourselves with. Take it."
Defeated, Kyle took the holster and tried it on, then started making adjustments. "What about Maria? What's she going to be armed with??"
"This," Maria said, brandishing her trusty cell phone.
* * * * *
Things were quiet inside the new Parker-mobile as they headed back into town. The tests on the ray gun had been interesting. Liz, Maria, and Alex had each been completely capable of making it perform, as well as the four 'pod squadders.' Kyle could generate an erratic and weak beam if he tried hard, and Jim could get no response at all. Isabel's theory was that it had something to do with how long a human had been exposed to alien powers regularly. They were starting to learn how to tap into their human energies on command.
Suddenly, Liz broke the silence. "Be careful, Max, okay?"
He smiled a little in the dark. "Always."
"More than always," Liz snapped, and then sighed. "Sorry. I just... earlier tonight I had another dream." They had all tried to get some sleep before meeting to make the final mission plans.
Max nodded. "What did you dream??"
"Well..." Liz sighed again. "It was really vague, like that dream I had the night of our candlelight dinner. But... there was a bunch of people, and everything had gone wrong, and a scary man was threatening us with a weapon. You might have been hurt. I'm really scared, Max."
"We'll be careful," he assured her, and then thought a bit more. "That last dream, it showed you how to save us all, by kicking out that platform lever. Did this dream show you anything to do??"
"Well, yeah," Liz said reluctantly. "But once again, I don't understand it. I grabbed whoever was to my left and ran out a door. I don't see how that can help."
"Maybe we'll have to wait and see," Max whispered. Liz looked at him with a bit of surprise on her face. "I've got the wild notion that this is part of your power, Liz."
"What p--"
"Kyle said it," he quietly continued, quieting her objection. "You guys have obviously gotten in touch with the human side of the Balance, and that can't only apply to ray-guns. The power affects every life it touches, it has to. I've learned that already. But human powers are unlikely to manifest the same way that ours do."
"But foretelling the future?" Liz sniffed uncertainly. "It's against every rule of physics. The uni-direction of time, causality, all of that."
"We've already got one message from the future," Max reminded her. "But think of it this way. The events of the future will follow from the events of the present, right?? If you knew EVERYTHING that was going on right now, you'd have a good chance of predicting the future successfully, just because you could see the forces that were already in motion and figure out how they'd be likely to interact. Maybe this power draws from the present on a subconscious level and feeds you the results of an analysis of the probably future in your dreams." He sighed, and Liz smiled at him.
"Your last dream showed the way, and when the time was right you knew exactly what to do. I have a feeling that the same thing is going to happen this time."
"You have so much faith in me," Liz said, a little wonderingly. "Oooh, we're almost there."
* * * * *
The seconds ticked by with aching slowness until Michael reappeared at the door and waved them in. Isabel's hand reached out to clasp Alex's, and it was as if he could sense the nervousness she was feeling. Well, he could contribute her strength to help butress hers, in this respect at least. He stepped forward towards Max, and Isabel matched him pace for pace.
It took a few seconds for Alex's eyes to adjust from the dim light of the street to the dimmer light inside the small house, and he looked around, trying to get a sense of the premises. The front door opened on what looked like a combination living room and dining room. Three small doors led away, two of them, he presumed, to a bathroom and kitchen. A set of wide sliding doors dominated the left wall, and it was by these that Michael waited.
"Why would you want a set of doors THAT BIG into your bedroom??" Alex couldn't help but ask in a whisper.
"He's living here alone - who knows," Isabel hissed back.
Alex let that one slide and addressed Michael. "You sure there's no security alarms or booby traps to worry about?"
"Not any more," Michael assured him. "I was very thorough. Everything's deactivated, though there wasn't as much as I'd expect." Michael must have been able to see the worried expression on Alex's face, (or possibly Isabel's,) deepen. "I triple-checked EVERYTHING. Don't worry - we're fine."
"Well then," Isabel sighed. "Might as well get this started." She moved towards the sliding doors, and Michael carefully slid one of them back into the slot just far enough that any one of them could pass through the gap - though Alex suspected that broad-shouldered Michael would have to turn his body at an angle to fit. The door hadn't made a sound at all in Michael's hands.
Isabel knelt next to the bed in the darkness, gesturing Alex into a chair near the bedside. Then she reached up and touched the person lying within on the side of the head. In the dimness, Alex couldn't make out any of that person's features, but surely it could be none other than the Professor that they had come to Mexico to find.
"I'm sending him into a deep sleep," Isabel whispered. "Considering what I'm going to be trying, it might be smart to go further - to sedate him with his own brain chemistry. But I'm not sure about taking a step like that."
"Do it," Michael advised gruffly.
Alex reacted more cautiously. "What are the risks?"
Isabel weighed that question. "Well, if I set off the wrong chemical sequence, it could give him brain damage or even kill him. Ten thousand to one shot against. And... and I guess even the right chemical sequence could cause a problem acessing the memories that we've come for. I hardly know how to acess that risk - maybe five to one against?" She sighed. "We can't risk it, can we?"
"Not yet," Alex agreed, and looked up to Michael for confirmation. He wasn't able to see the details of the young hybrid's facial features or even if his head was moving, but he wasn't saying anything, which was perhaps answer enough.
And Isabel wasn't waiting for Michael's opinion, either. "I've got him sleeping about as deeply as I dare," she murmured softly. "Ready to initiate the memory transfer link." He could hear her take a deep breath. "Touch me, Alex."
"Uhh... huh??"
"That's why I wanted you hear," she explained in a low voice. "I can't spare a hand to touch yours, but I need to *know* that you're here with me to do this. Know it beyond a shadow of a doubt."
"Umm... okay." Alex hitched his chair closer to the bed, wincing in retrospect at the amount of noise the legs made scraping against the bare floor -- he should have done that more carefully. But Thompson was in the deep sleep, and neither of the pod squadders told him off. Alex put his right hand flat on Isabel's back, palm down, hoping that she would tell him if she had had something else in mind.
He heard Isabel's breath again, and this time it sounded much more relaxed and peaceful. "I'm in," she whispered. For many long, drawn-out seconds, each following the next with what seemed like tortuous slowness, there was nothing that could be heard in the room but the rhythmic breathing of Isabel and the sleeping professor, in perfect counterpoint to each other. The boys were each holding their breaths as long as they could and only releasing them with the utmost silence.
Finally, Isabel's voice broke the tableau once again. "It's not working." Three short words, stunning in their finality.
"What... what do you mean it's not working??" Michael stammered. "There's a plan B, right? What's not working about it?"
Iz looked up in Michael's direction. "It's the receptacle. Thanks for the thought, but I can't connect to a dead 'thing' well enough. You or Max probably could, you've been working so much with Nasedo's diary. But neither of you..."
"Can work with thoughts well enough..." Michael finished. "Even if we connected to you and you connected to the Professor, we wouldn't be able to relay accurately enough. If these memories get distorted in the process, we'd probably be better off not having them at all."
"Wait a second, I'm not quit up to speed here," Alex interjected quietly. "What's this receptacle??"
"Here." Isabel reached back and pushed something smooth and globular into his hand. Alex tried to hold it where it would catch the most of the moonlight coming through the window, and peered at it from about five inches away. Some sort of medallion, probably stainless steel plated to look like silver, but very pretty. Michael had given this to Isabel? And Alex hadn't even known about the need. For the first time in months he felt as if Isabel's hybrid status (or his own humanity,) was responsible for a distance between them.
"There's one other plan we can try," Isabel whispered, bring Alex back out of his momentary preoccupation. "Instead of using an inanimate receptacle, I can use someone else as the receptacle for the transfer - a living brain. I'm pretty sure that that will work better."
"Which one of us do you want?" Michael asked softly.
For the first time since entering the room, Isabel stood up, and surveyed the two of them in the dim light. "Neither of you." There was a short pause, "I'm sorry, I need both of you in other ways. Michael, you're watching out for me, making sure that nothing goes wrong. Alex, you're right beside me, giving me the strength I need to go through with this. Neither of you can do your jobs if you've got the professor's memories being copied into your head." She sighed. "And we can't take the risk that this might disrupt the connection you have with the washer, Alex. We still need you and that little thing too much."
"So... we bring in someone from the perimiter guard??" Michael suggested. "Which one?"
That way of phrasing the question obviously made the answer clear to Isabel. "Max. I've known him longest of anybody, really, and we have experience using our powers together. It's got to be him."
"Okay," Alex said softly, standing up himself. "I'll go get Max."
* * * * *
Alex maneuvered his way quickly out of the house, closing the front door behind him, and found Max at his post, half slumped down on a bench as if he were drunk and partly asleep. (They had come up with obvious excuses for the four perimeter guards to be loitering around as quickly as they could.) "Hey, come on buddy," Alex whispered, sitting down next to Max and giving him a shove.
"Hey, wh- is it?" Max moaned, still more than a little in character.
"Isabel needs your help with the transfer," Alex hissed, barely audible.
One of Max's eyes widened, fully alert. "Is she sure it's worth the risk of bringing me inside?"
"She says there's no other way."
"Okay, pretend like you need to give me a hand getting 'home.'" Alex boosted Max up off the bench. "We'll need to let the others know that plans have changed."
"Liz will be able to see us go in the front door, and she'll be able to connect the dots," Alex reminded him. "She can let Tess and Valenti know, and call Maria on her cell."
"None of them will know *why* you're bringing me in," Max complained. "Liz will worry."
Alex sighed. "It's up to you if you want us to go over and tell Liz. It might look suspicious, though, and draw attention to her. Is that what you want?"
Max groaned softly. "No, of course not. Let's go."
Side by side, Max acting clumsier than Alex thought was called for, they hurried into the house. After what he had said to Max, Alex had to squelch the impulse to wave in the direction of Liz's hiding place, though he did his best to make an arm flail seem reassuring when Max half stumbled.
Once they were inside and the door closed once again, Max scooted out from Alex's helping arm and rushed to Isabel's side. "What do you need me to do?"
"Umm..." Isabel looked up from the sleeping man. "Just, uh... sit *there* I guess, and relax. Leave your mind open to my touch. This might be an unusual sensation..." Max ended up sitting cross-legged on the floor, next to the headboard of the bed, with Isabel touching the side of his head with one hand and the professor's with the other.
Alex took his position from before, sitting behind Iz, his hand resting as reassuringly as possible on her back.
"Mm..." There was a long pause. "Yeah, that's it. It's going," Isabel mumbled.
* * * * *
For no particularly good reason, Liz watched the front door of the small house for ten seconds more, and then she got up and slowly started wandering towards Tess' position, trying to get close enough to signal the hybrid girl without leaving her post entirely uncovered. **Max's is already vacant now.**
And there was Tess. Liz waved as vaguely as she could, and Tess came over, still watching over the north side of the house and the side door. "What is it," she whispered once they were within whisper range of each other.
"Alex came out and brought Max in. We need to compensate for it." Liz paused a moment. "I guess it makes the most sense for Valenti and I to adjust a little towards the south, and you can just stay where you are. Go and tell V--"
"Back up a second," Tess instructed. "What do you mean, 'Alex brought Max in?'"
"Very much what it sounds like," Liz hissed, hoping that Tess would get the hint and keep her own voice down. "Alex came out of the house, went to Max's post. I assume they talked briefly, though I can't be sure. Max and Alex both go inside."
"That's not in the plan," Tess whispered, frowning.
"Sometimes the plan needs to be changed on the fly," Liz commented. "Believe me, I know."
"Didn't they come and tell you why?"
"Nope," Liz shook her head, and dark hair flew all about her for a second. **Maybe I could do with a trim.** She pushed that almost-entirely-irrelevant thought aside and returned to the subject at hand. "They acted as if I wasn't there, but I'm not too worried about that. Max was probably just trying not to call attention to me. I think Alex waved as he went in - it was a kind of reassuring arm motion, at any rate."
"But why do they need Max?" A horrified expression crossed Tess' face. "Isabel could be hurt! Or Michael!! Or both of them!!!"
Liz weighed that hypothesis. "I suppose. But if they are, then Max can heal them." She could tell that Tess wasn't really listening to her, and she grabbed the other girl's wrist in a dramatic gesture. "Tess... TESS? If they needed either of us, Alex would have come for us to. Right now, all we can do is go back to guard duty, and that means you need to go tell Valenti. Okay, Tess??"
Tess shook herself slightly and nodded, pulling her hand back from Liz's grip. "All right, all right! You don't need to talk at me like I'm a toddler!! I'll go tell Valenti."
"Not without us I don't think you will, darling."
Tess gasped, and Liz swung around, backing up a little as she saw a tall figure stride confidently out of the shadows into the dim light of the midnight street. It was a man, probably in his early twenties, strongly built with a short shock of very dark hair. Carried in both of his hands with the ease of long practice was a weapon... Liz couldn't make it out entirely, but it looked like an M-16 or another of those automatic rifles from on TV. Very faintly she could make out that something else had been added underneath th main barrel, and from somewhere she vaguely remembered reading about an 'Over-under,' a deadly and vicious piece of portable artillery made by combining an M-16 with a grenade launcher. Her knees shook with fear.
Liz looked at Tess out of the corner of her eye just in time to notice the blonde girl's eyes narrowing, as she focused her alien powers against the intruder.
To what precise intent Liz couldn't tell, because after a split second the gunman growled "none of *that*," and aimed his weapon at Tess. From the bottom tube streamed something that seemed to Liz a bolt of pale light, streaking through the dim night and into Tess' body. She gave a faint cry and staggered, almost falling. Liz reacted instinctively. Her right hand found a loose brick that she hadn't even known was there and her body tensed to spring at their assailant. But the gun oriented just as quickly on her and she froze.
"Put down the brick, baby," the man whispered. "I'll use the other end of this on you if I have to, I swear I will." Liz weighed her chances a second and dropped her makeshift weapon. She had no burning desire to get shot again, especially not with Max more than a few feet away. "Good. Now give your girlfriend a hand up," he gestured with the gun towards Tess, who was crouching, whimpering her discomfort softly, "and we'll go find your friend."
Try as she might, Liz could think of nothing to do but just that, so she helped Tess to her feet, wrapping an arm around the other girl's shoulders to help support her. In more than one way, it turned out to her surprise.
* * * * *
"Oh, hey, check *this* out. SCORE!"
Alex felt the tension tremble through Isabel's body, and he turned his head to address Michael. "Shush."
"No, come on, man, check this out!"
"I can't..." Alex started, but he was interrupted by a soft growl from Isabel.
"Go. Just do everything you can to *keep him quiet.* There's no other way."
Alex had to admit that there was some truth to that - Michael Guerin would be unlikely to tone down his volume without anyone paying attention to him, and Alex was the only one who was dispensable in this operation. He stood up awkwardly.
"And come back to me as soon as you can," Isabel added softly. Alex smiled, rubbed her shoulder affectionately, and went out to see what Michael was shooting off about.
He was on the floor, legs spread out in front of him, balancing something on the floor next to him. "Boy, Isa--" Alex sshed him again, and Michael modulated his voice down three notches in volume. "Isabel wasn't kidding about an 'alien device.' Look at this thing!!"
Alex crept closer, squatting down to examine Michael's discovery. It was longer than a motorcycle, though not quite so long as a compact car Alex thought, fairly narrow and flat. There was one seat fairly close to the front that a person could climb into, though he wasn't quite sure where their legs would go... (would they dangle out the bottom? Get folded up in a cavity inside there? Or could there be enough room to stretch them out inside there??) In any event, there was an impressive collection of alien-looking controls in front of that seat. A little further back, Alex thought he could make out two spaces where passengers could sit on the edge of the device and grab onto a handhold. He looked over at Michael, and saw past him to the empty cupboard that was big enough to hold this thing.
"You know, we really should put it away for now, Michael," he whispered.
"What?" Michael sighed. "Alex, this is *our* rightful property. It was made for the four of us, I can feel it. The special unit ripped off our birthright and this was Professor-guy's cut of the booty..."
"Michael..." Alex interrupted what was shaping up to be a very long and righteously indignant speech. "Once Max and Isabel are done, we'll let them know that it's here. But for right now... I've just got a bad feeling about having it sitting out here."
"Okay, okay," Michael groaned, and hoisted himself up as far as a crouch. "Gimme a hand, it's a heavy little piece of our heritage."
Alex grinned and grabbed out end of the vehicle, and between the two of them they got it safely stowed back in its storage space.
Alex smiled awkwardly at Michael. "Umm... I'd better, er, get back to--" He waved vaguely in the direction of the bedroom.
Michael nodded. "Tell Iz I'm sorry for bugging her." Alex felt his eyes widen, and the other boy shrugged. "Y'know, if it comes up."
Alex laughed softly and turned to go.
But he never got the chance.
Title: Homecoming: the Mexican Tango. Part 4f 2/2
Author: Chris Kenworthy
E-mail: chris@chriskweb.net
Home archive: http://www.roswellfanfic.com/
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I don't own the Roswell characters, though if I did I'd treat them better than Jason Katims.
Category: Sci-fi drama. Canon couples romance leading to UC pairings in later part.
Spoilers: Up to 'ask not'
Liz stepped slowly towards Jim Valenti's position. He was watching as she came, of course. "Liz? What on earth are you doing over here??"
"There... there's been a problem," she said out loud softly. "You have to..." She took a sudden gut check. Praying that she wasn't giving Tess her death sentence, (or worse, that some part of her didn't want it that way,) she dropped her voice. "Run. Special unit bodguard - he's got Tess. We need you free..."
"If I were you," that insufferable voice rang out clearly, "I wouldn't go along with whatever she's whispering. Not unless you're comfortable with the notion that these lovely young ladies will get *shot* if you pull anything I don't like the look of." As he was speaking, the mysterious bodyguard and Tess appeared from behind a low-hanging wall - that M-16 never wavering from Tess' heart.
"You wouldn't dare," Tess whispered softly.
"Who's going to stop me, girl?" he sneered. "You? Who's gonna make me pay?! Your friends inside?? I don't think so, so you might want to stop deluding youself that I won't follow through. It's not like a bullet to the heart isn't too good a death for your kind, alien *bitch*!!"
Valenti cleared his throat softly, trying to distract their captor from his rant at Tess. "So... what now?"
The bodyguard weighed that for a second. "We go back around the house and come in the front door. First you go in," and he prodded Tess with the point of the gun, "and step well clear to the left. You next, go right," that was aimed at Liz, then to Valenti, "and you left. Nobody warns your friends about what's going down. I'll be the last one in, and I'll do *whatever* I need, to establish firm control of the situation. If none of you try anything stupid, that shouldn't involve killing anyone."
----
Michael was watching Alex turn toward the bedroom when it happened. The front door opened again, smoothly and quietly, and he could just make out Tess' features as she entered. Next Liz, the two girls taking positions on the either side of the door. What was going on?? Then Valenti, taking up a position beside Tess, stomping his foot with a sharp rap as he came to a standstill. Was that a message? A warning??
Michael was still taken off guard that it took him a second to process the fourth figure to appear at the doorway - a stranger, tall and dark, carrying a weapon. A precious second was lost to shock before Michael focused his powers, trying to throw the intruder back out of the doorway.
It was too late. The stranger was on his guard, and a faint pulse of light emerged from the implement in his hands, splattering against Michael's body like a shot from a water rifle. Instantly he felt a strong drain on his balance, the shock affecting his whole body, leaving him struggling to keep his feet. Counterattacking was impossible, at least for the moment.
The encounter had drawn Alex's attention by now, of course, and his hand immediately went to the raygun tucked into the waist of his pants. But by the time he had drawn and aimed, it was too late, just as Michael had been. Another pulse streamed into Alex's figure, but he didn't seem to be adversely affected. He grinned for a moment and touched the contact on the raygun, expecting this intruder to be blown to bits.
Nothing. The artifact was dead in Alex's hands. Of course, Michael thought. If that weapon disrupted the power, its effects on humans would be less obvious, since the power wasn't a large part of their life, but the raygun was power-triggered. That was the connection.
Alex had obviously came to the same conclusion. He looked at the perimeter guard, wondering whether to try tossing the gun to either of them. But Tess had obviously been dosed with the weapon already or she'd be fighting back with her own powers, and Valenti had been able to make the laser weapon respond at all. That left Liz... and the intruder stepped between Liz and Alex, ready to intercept the artifact if Alex tossed it.
Suddenly furious, Alex charged his assailant directly. Michael saw him shake his head slightly, and swing the tip of his weapon, (which looked like a rifle of some kind,) catching Alex on the side of the chin punishingly as his charge arrived, knocking him to one side. Alex crumpled into a heap.
The dark-haired man then stepped further into the living room, orienting on something. Suddenly he whirled his weapon and fired two careful shots through the door into the bedroom, and somehow Michael knew that Max and Isabel's powers had been nullified to. And in the middle of that procedure, who knew what would happen as Isabel, especially, lost her talents so suddenly.
The dark haired man turned around so that he was facing Liz. From where he crouched on the floor he could see the cruelty in the man's face as he spat out "Lights!!"
Liz seemed to be confused for a second, then realized that she was standing next to a light switch. She flipped it, and off-white incandescent light flooded the room, overwhelming Michael's night-adapted vision for a second, but he forced himself to keep watching the situation.
The bodyguard, (for Michael had belatedly realized this must be him,) turned next to Valenti. "Door!" There was no confusion there. Valenti swung the front door shut.
"Good. Now that we're all here, suppose you aliens start by explaining what the hell you think you're doing here??"
----
Isabel lay slumped on the floor. For a second she had to think hard, (which was a painful effort,) to remember anything of where she was and what she was doing there. Then it started to come back. The professor's house. The memory-link circuit with Max.
Well, what had happened? Obviously she had been thrown out of the link. Exploring in the dimness, (dimness? It had been completely dark. What was light doing filtering into the room? Had dawn come already??) she quickly found Max sprawled on the floor right in front of her. Whatever had hit them, he hadn't woken up yet - possibly because he had been fairy close to a sleeping or trance state for the transfer.
What about the professor?? Isabel scrambled to find the bed. There he was, sleeping but vitals strong yet. So what had happened?
"Stay away from him, slut!" Isabel turned to see who was speaking to her (and if he was actually addressing HER with that kind of language,) and found herself staring straight into the light, blinking back its brightness. Finally her eyes agreed to withstand the intensity and focus at the same time. (At least focus partway.) It was a tall darkhaired man she didn't recognize, and he was pointing something straight at her. Instantly Isabel pushed away from the bed and scrambled into the chair that Alex had been sitting in, and her eyes reached their limit for abuse and closed themselves again.
"What makes you think we're aliens, anyway?" The voice was Jim Valenti's.
A low, deadly chuckle was the first response from the mystery man, who Isabel belatedly realized had to be the Special Unit bodyguard. "Very funny. Somehow I don't think you're an alien, sir. That's why I didn't worry about tagging you and that's why you haven't zapped me with alien powers yet. But you're either a collaborator or a pawn, and your friends here are aliens."
Isabel couldn't see if he made a gesture to clarify who he was including in 'your friends here' - she wasn't even sure who was in the room. Valenti had still been out on perimeter guard, last she knew. Had the bodyguard forced him in? Were Tess and Liz inside the room too, or free outside to attempt the rescue of the rest of the group? Iz tried to force her eyes to open so that she could follow the tactical situation a bit better.
"Let's see... who would have a fancy little ray-gun like that one??" The bodyguard turned and pointed his gun at Alex's weapon. Yes, Liz and Tess were here too, damnit. Not much chance of a rescue attempt from them, then. Both of those girls were staying up against the wall, trying to keep out of the way - or maybe out of the line of fire, Whichever way, Iz couldn't blame them.
Meanwhile, the guy had arranged his super-cannon so that it was balanced in one hand and stretched the other one out to Alex. "Give me that."
Alex hesitated a second, clearly not wanting to give up the advantage that the blaster offered. But why hadn't he used it on this creep?? For that matter, why weren't Michael or Tess using their powers to attack, to disarm the enemy figure? And why wasn't Isabel??
Alex deliberately threw the gun down to the floor between himself and the bodyguard, whose face snarled in rage for a second, and Iz took advantage of that moment of distraction to pull at the gun so it would go flying from said bodyguard's hand. No effect. Had this guy... (Iz needed something to call him in her mind, and quickly settled on Jethro...) had Jethro managed to nullify their powers somehow??
"That was truly moronic," Jethro spat at Alex, and did something to the cannon so it made a menacing clicking sound. "Pick it up again and hand it to me. No tricks."
Alex seemed about to resist passively for a second, but relented, possibly seeing something of the same cruel determination in Jethro as in Steve Banks. He squatted down, retrieved the red crystal pistol, and delivered it over to the bodyguard. Jethro examined the smooth lines of it for a second, pointed it and tried to fire, and then shrugged and tucked the tip of it into his back pants pocket.
"Yes," Michael grunted in a stifled exclamation of triumph. Jethro turned around to stare at him, as did Isabel and Tess. After looking into Micahel's eyes for a second, (Michael himself having assumed an inscrutable poker face,) then backed off into a corner, covering the gang as best he could with his cannon, set the blaster on a table, ans then returned. Isabel suddenly realized what Michael had just accomplished. By planting the suspicion that the blaster had been somehow booby-trapped to do away with Jethro, he'd made certain that the bodyguard wouldn't keep it on his person, which could be critical if they got a chance to actually use it against him.
Was there something that Isabel was missing?? Kyle and Maria were supposed to be their backup - but how could they contact them now?? If Isabel had her powers, she might be able to implant a subconscious suggestion into one or both of their minds, like she had with Michael when he was in the labyrinth. But that seemed to be out.
"Now, let's get down to it." All of a sudden Jethro had stepped into the bedroom. He pulled Isabel mercilessly up from her chair, checked Max momentarily, but he wasn't showing any signs of recovery yet. Then he dragged the chair out into the living room and gestured imperatively that she should sit again. "What planet are you from??" He asked once she had.
Isabel sighed. It always seemed to come back to this, didn't it? "I was born right here on Earth. We all were."
"You know what I mean. What planet do your people come from??"
Isabel thought about what to say, but suddenly a part of her screamed that it was tired of hiding and lying. "We're pretty sure it's called Azt."
"Okay, now we're getting somewhere. And why have you come here, to the Professor's house??"
"For the professor, of course," Isabel continued. "Our intel suggested that he was the most likely source of the information we needed." She waited and let Jethro ask her for it.
"And what information would that be, exactly??" he sneered.
"Abour the Roswell spaceship and the items that were confiscated from the crash site. They are our heritage. You have no claim to them, we do."
"Not so fast!!" At first Isabel thought Jethro was countering her claim, but his weapon and his gaze slowly and carefully oriented on Alex, who had been attempting to move unnoticed across the room. "What were you going after, the fireplace poker??"
"Yep," Alex agreed equably. It looked like a good weapon, Isabel had to agree. Heavy and pointed enough to do some damage. Too bad he hadn't been able to get at it.
"I think you PUNKS aren't taking this seriously enough!!" Jethro snarled, swinging the cannon around so that the point caught Isabel in the face. Pain exploded through her head. "The next person who MOVES in this room without orders from me is going to get SHOT IN THE HEAD!!" he yelled.
What happened next was a coincidence of tragic proportions, of course.
Presumably wakened by Jethro's shouting, someone in the bedroom jerked up to a sitting position. Jethro was already on edge, and had steeled himself to carry out his threat. He knew that he'd left an 'enemy,' Max, unconscious in the bedroom, but probably the only thing guiding his actions was instinct. Orienting on the motion, aiming, and firing the submachinegun aspect of his weapon.
But it was not Max who had awakened so suddenly, as we all realized after a few seconds. It was Professor Thompson.
* * * *
In a way it was weird. The bedroom was still dim, lit only by the incandescent bulbs from the living room filtering through the doorway. But Liz could still see so many little details - the way the older man slumped back painfully into his bed, the splatters of blood on his pajama shirt. The gaping ugliness of the bullet holes and the way a little bit of *something* was hanging out of one of them. The trace of red drool that was leaing out of the corner of his mouth.
For a long moment, Liz couldn't help but wonder if it would have been the same if it really had been Max who had woken and unwittingly drawn the bodyguard's attack. And if she had looked like that after the Crashdown shooting, before Max healed her.
Max...
He had woken up by now, whether the shots or the shouting or something else had roused him Liz couldn't know. But at least he was moving slowly and nonthreateningly. He got up and looked at the Professor, probably wishing that he could save the man, an agent of their enemies though he was. But certainly he couldn't. His powers had been taken away, just like those of the rest, and even if they hadn't there was no way of knowing how the bodyguard would react to alien powers being used on his charge, even to save his life.
"Get away from him," the bodyguard roared to Max, and hehurriedly backed away from the bed.
"Look what the fuck you made me do," the shooter continued, to Alex, and decked him with the gun. Alex went sprawling on the floor. And then he stalked off to the bedroom to investigate.
Instantly Liz realized that it was the moment she had been waiting for. The moment from her dream. She still didn't understand how the dreams worked, but Max had told her to trust them. And she'd have to act fast, while the bodyguard was distracted.
In the dream, she had taken someone who was ahead of her and to her left, unlocked a door, and run through it. What they would do then, she didn't have any clue.
The person who was in that position was Tess. Not Liz's first choice, but she didn't second guess. She broke into a dash, pushing the blonde hybrid girl ahead of her, twisted the lock control on the door, and then they were out into the Mexican night and running.
* * * *
Michael spun around just in time to miss Liz and Tess's break for freedom. **Good for them,** the thought ran through his mind, and then he turned to watch their captor with some considerable amount of alarm.
Tactically, the bodyguard had about three responses to this development that Michael could see. One, he could pursue the escapees, leaving the larger number of his prisoners unguarded. Two, he could fortify his position here against the rescue attempt that would surely come if he let Liz and Tess go, probably once Tess had recovered her powers and the two of them had called in the assistance of Maria and Kyle. Three, he could begin shooting hostages immediately. That last was the possibility that Michael had to protect against, if there was any conceivable way that he could.
However, in only a few seconds, the issue. None too rational before this last unwelcome development, the bodyguard was apparently in no state of mind to weigh his options rationally. He flew out the front door in hot pursuit of Liz and Tess.
This seemed to Michael the best outcome that they could hope for - two birds in the bush, even seven if you considered that the rest of them were still in some danger, were definitely worth less than five in the hand. Not that Michael intended to let this idiot go hunting Liz and Tess for long, of course, but there were a few other things to worry about first.
"Isabel!" He hurried over to her chair. "Are you okay??"
"I'm fine," she insisted quickly. "Check Alex."
"I'm alright," Alex assured his sweetie, picking himself up from the floor. "Just cleverly playing possum until my time came to str... where's the goon? And Li--"
"Liz and Tess made a break for it," Michael told him quickly. "He took off after them. She probably saved our butts again."
"I wouldn't doubt it," Max called out from the bedroom door. "She had another of her psychic dreams. It must have helped her pick the exact right moment to run for it."
"Well, now we'd better be ready to return the favor," Isabel suggested, getting up and stretching. "Save her butt before Jethro gets to her, and Tess' too." Seeing that more than one questioning look was aimed her way, Isabel elaborated. "Jethro - mental nickname I gave our bodyguard friend."
Michael nodded, trying to determine any loose ends they had to tie up before they left. "The professor?" he asked Max.
"Dead." The healer's voice sounded hollow as he pronounced it. "There was nothing I could do."
"I know, man," Michael agreed, and then turned to Alex. "Call Maria and Kyle in. Have Kyle give the gun back to Valenti, then he's to follow us in as backup. Take the sled back to the motel and wait for us there."
"Got it," Alex agreed, then had a thought. "What about the memory transfer? Did we get anything??"
Max and Isabel exchanged a look. "We'll have to figure that out later," Isabel decided. "Is there anything else?" They all knew that the bodyguard was getting further away by the moment.
Alex dashed over to the side table and picked up the blaster. Before he could even ask, Max said "Over here, man!" and brought his hands together in a catching gesture.
Alex tossed the alien weapon over. "Bring her back safe, Max."
Max Evans knew exactly who he meant. "I intend to, or die trying."
* * * *
To Liz, the dark streets of Puerto Penasco, still long yet before twilight would break, were like a deadly maze. Of course, knowing that the two of them had a killer agent on their tail didn't help much.
She had been trying to make for the cafe where Maria and Kyle were waiting, and she had a pretty good idea where that was, but there never seemed to be a good opportunity to head in that direction that wouldn't take them under the open glare of the streetlamps. Where the bodyguard could see them for sure. Where he could shoot them down, if he wished.
Better, Liz understood instinctually, to keep covering ground in the safety of the shadows, no matter in which direction those shadows took them. Better in the short term, at least, and Liz was past thinking beyond the short term. Evading the hunter that pursued them had become second nature to her when Tess pulled her back just as she was about to start another dash.
"We can't go that way. That path leads into the woods. We'll get lost for certain!!"
Liz looked around, evaluating their options. The hunter was coming up from behind them, from the east, as far as Liz could remember. If they stayed within the city, light hemmed them in to the south and the west. "It's the only way. And if he comes in, he'll be as lost as we are."
He wasn't, quite. As the agent left the city behind and stepped onto the forest floor in pursuit of them, he activated some sort of flashlight-like attachment on his weapon, but the light, faint and incriminating as it was, helped Liz and Tess find their way through the woods as well.
But Liz knew that it wasn't safe to be anywhere near that terrible light, and so she pushed herself and Tess further and faster - deeper into the forest, where only the moon lit the trees. The moon's our friend, or at least more so than any other light, Liz thought to herself.
And then it had happened. They had both narrowly missed their share of misadventures in those dark woods, but abruptly Liz felt her right foot crunch into a narrow crevice. A bad feeling sinking in her chest, Liz tried to pull that foot free. She couldn't budge it even a fraction of an inch.
Tess must have taken about four steps ahead of Liz before she noticed and doubled back. "What's the problem??"
"My foot's trapped," Liz hissed back.
"What, like a bear trap or something?"
"No - at least, I don't think so. Just a... heck, I don't know what it is I stepped in!"
Tess snickered slightly. "Okay, hang on." She bent down, her face out of sight, presumably to inspect Liz's predicament. She could feel the blonde girls' delicate fingertips brush against her calf. "Yeah, it's hard to see anything, but from the feel, you've got yourself wedged in pretty good, right in the gap betwwen a stone outcropping and a fallen tree. I guess this would be the definitive 'rock and a hard place'??"
"Ha ha." She couldn't move, with a killer on their tail, and Tess chose this moment to start cracking jokes?? "Can you do anything to help get me out?"
Tess sighed visibly, then a fragment of the flashlight played over her face, still too far away for the gunman to see anything, but it still frightened both of them. "Lemme see." She bent down again. "Can't push either the rock or the log away. Hmmm..." She busied herself about something. "How's that??"
Liz tried again. "No good. What did you do?"
"I untied your shoe, thought you might be able to slip your foot out of it."
Now it was Liz's turn to stifle a sigh. "Well, I can't. Maybe you could try using something else to pry the bar away??"
Tess considered a moment, then dashed away. When she returned only a few seconds later, Liz could see that she was holding some sort of makeshift staff - the trunk of a smaller tree maybe, or a very stout and thick branch. She angled it into the crevice, pried as hard as she could. The tip of the staff broke off inside the cleft before the log had even quivered.
The bodyguard was getting closer now, and Liz could see a notion play over Tess's face in the moonlight. "Please, Tess, I'm scared," she blurted out. "Don't leave me behind!!"
* * * *
"Okay, do we have a plan??" Max muttered as they hurried through the dimly lit Mexican street, hoping that the sounds that they were following had something to do with the chase that the three of them were trying to tag along with.
"There's nothing that we can do as long as we don't have our powers," Michael muttered in reply. "But mine are on their way back, I can feel that somehow. Once they're here, we move in hard and fast. Don't let him use that weapon against us again - probably pull it away from him with kinesis. Then we're in charge."
"Sounds good, then what?? And what the heck IS that, Isabel??" She had been staring into a little handheld screen ever since they left the Professor's place.
"Just a little something Alex whipped up," she mentioned offhandedly. "Mobile tracker - keyed in to Liz's cell phone. Thought it couldn't hurt to make sure we were going in the right direction."
"God bless Alex," Max whispered under his breath.
"As far as the 'then what' question, there's something Michael, Tess and I have been practicing that may help out," Isabel continued as they puffed along. "A way to combine our powers and affect someone's memory."
"Wow." This was the first Max had heard of this, though that didn't really surprise him given how crazy things had been lately. "As in, erase his memories of everything that's happened tonight??"
"Maybe," Michael qualified. "We've been trying it out, with Maria and Alex's help as guinea pigs, but only small stuff, for obvious reasons. For larger memories, I'm not sure if we're quite certain what would happen."
"Well, it's a good option to keep in mind," Max agreed. "Oh." The sound that he had been following (and apparently Isabel's tracker,) both led abruptly out of the city and into a deep forest. Well, at this point there was nothing that they could do but follow.
"And into the dark woods we go," Michael muttered.
* * * *
Tess disappeared from view again, and for a second Liz was convinced that despite her plea, the hybrid girl had abandoned her there to die. And then she heard a low moaning. What was going on? The flashlight played over the area, a ways away yet but getting closer, and thing fell into place. Tess had grabbed ahold of the fallen log with both hands and was pulling at it with every ounce of bare strength she could muster.
Gunfire whizzed over their heads. A stream of pale blue light rocketed into a nearby tree, nullifying whatever alien powers it might have been hiding. (Liz couldn't entirely stifle a giggle at that unfunny mental joke.) Liz tried to duck down, but it wasn't much good since her leg was forced straight up by her pinioned foot.
More weapons fire, of both types, followed as the bodyguard got closer. A power-drain ray tagged Liz, without much clear effect except for sapping away a faint hope that she'd be able to use what Max had called 'her human side of the power' to get them out of this.
Well, her dream had saved Max, and Michael and Isabel and Alex, or at least bought them the time they'd need...
And suddenly her foot popped out of the ground, sending Liz sprawling butt-first on the rocky ground. But she'd never been so glad to take a tumble in her life. She looked in Tess' direction and whispered a loud 'Thanks!'
"My pleasure, but now how do we get out of here without being shot to death?" Tess called back quietly. It was true, the shooter was almost upon them.
Liz smiled grimly in the darkness. "Leave that one to me." Picking up a large rock, she tossed it vehemently into a bank of brush off to one side. Sure enough, the bodyguard went for the diversion, and Liz and Tess took off in the other direction.
After that scare, Tess was running like the dogs of planet X were at her heels, but it seemed to Liz that something had changed. Where were the footsteps of the bodyguard behind them? She risked a look behind her and saw distant trees lit up by the blue of the flash light. Why was the light shining that way? She heard shouting from that direction.
"Hey Tess," Liz called, turning around again. "Wait up. I think..." But Tess was nowhere in sight, and Liz hurried to catch up, scrambling up a steep hill covered with moss or something.
As Liz reached the top of the hill, she saw Tess, still scootin' at a good clip though she was obviously exhausted. "Hey Tess!" Liz called, and she turned around without stopping. "I think the guys are..."
Liz broke off at that point, because Tess had tripped on something she hadn't seen, or slipped or whatever, and disappeared from view. As Liz hurried over to make sure she was okay, what she saw stunned her motionless.
What Tess had run afoul of was a cliff precipice that came upon this stretch of woods without warning. The ground that Liz could see at the bottom had to be at least thirty feet down.
And Tess Harding was nowhere in sight.
TO BE CONTINUED...
Author: Chris Kenworthy
E-mail: chris@chriskweb.net
Home archive: http://www.roswellfanfic.com/
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I don't own the Roswell characters, though if I did I'd treat them better than Jason Katims.
Category: Sci-fi drama. Canon couples romance leading to UC pairings in later part.
Spoilers: Up to 'ask not'
Part 4f: Mortal danger
(October 20 2001.)
"Alright, kids," Amy DeLuca laughed, walking back into the living room. "You've got friends to pick up, it isn't very long before the dance is supposed to start, is it??"
"Haven't you ever heard of being fashionably late, mom??" Maria shot back. Amy just shoo-ed them out of her house.
"I can't believe we just charged into Doctor Thompson's house like that," Max muttered as they strolled casually down the DeLuca's front walk back towards the limo. "We must have been *loons*."
"Well, it worked out for the best in the end," Michael replied defensively. "Not that it wasn't touch and go for a bit there."
"For the best for us," Alex qualified. "That's not saying everything."
* * * * *
(Wee hours of the morning, Saturday, December 30th, 2000)
"Okay," Michael mumbled. All nine of them were in the biggest of their motel rooms, (the one where Max, Alex, and the sherrif were staying,) tightly circling a small table where Michael had spread out a diagram he had made of the professor's house and its surroundings. "What's the situation? We need one team to actually enter the house... one team to stand guard outside. Am I missing anything?"
"It's a small area for all nine of us to be in play," Max pointed out. "Maybe it would be better for one or two to stay back as reserves. The cavalry to save us in case anything goes wrong... though I'm not quite sure where they'd make base camp. The motel is probably too far from the scene of the action, and I'm not sure where else they could stay in the middle of the night without attracting attention." His face grew even more thoughtful.
"There are twenty-four hour cafes scattered around," the senior Valenti, (well, or the middle one if you want to be technical,) pointed out. "I was keeping an eye out for them that first day. The nearest is..." Jim spread a map of Puerto Penasco out in his hands, and then laid the edge of it down upon the table -- there was only room for an edge. "Here... right next to these woods. Thompson's house is here." His finger marked another spot on the map.
"About four blocks away," Michael noticed, nodding. "Far enough away to be almost certainly off the security guard's beat, close enough to be of assistance. That's good." He nodded his thanks at the lawman.
"So... we need, what, two volunteers? To stay at that cafe and sit out the actual breaking and entering. Anyone?" There was a few seconds' pause, and then Maria and Kyle both waved simultaneously, each seeming surprised that the other had volunteered.
"Good, thanks," Max nodded at them. "Next... I'd say three to go in. Isabel has to be one, obviously, and Michael is probably indispensible. Who else would you like going with you, Iz?" It was a leading question.
"Alex," Isabel answered without hesitation. Max smiled sadly for a moment, knowing that once it would have been the three of them, but moved on. "That leaves me, Tess, Liz, and Mister Valenti on guard duty... Good enough. Anything else?"
"Weapons," Isabel suggested.
"Right." Michael went over to Max's dresser, removed a small carry-case, and quickly opened the combination locks on it. "One ray-gun. Who gets that."
"I think that Liz proved she could handle it last time," Maria pointed out.
"No way." Liz shook her head. "I don't want it. And I wasn't a great shot either - ask Max."
"Well, the tactical effect will probably be greater if it's a human," Michael pointed out. "Since we've already got our own powers..." He scanned the room, counting off hybrids and those already in the reserves, until he landed on someone who was in neither group.
"Sure, I'll take it," Alex agreed. "If I can make it work."
"Wait a second, how did *Liz* make it work?" Tess put in. "I took a look at that thing. It's power-triggered. Liz is human."
"Well, humans have the power, too, right?" Kyle countered. "The balance. Otherwise we couldn't use those healing stones or anything."
"We should make time to test it out in an isolated area before we move," Max suggested. "Knowing who can shoot this thing and who can't might be life and death."
"I'll take the heat shield, if no-one objects," Michael muttered, helping himself to the small box. "Power-drain pentagon?" They had gone back to retrieve that item belatedly, almost twelve hours after turning Steve Banks' trap against him. It had still been there, at the bottom of the tunnel where Max, Michael, and Isabel had been trapped.
"Don't expect that that'll be too much use," Tess pointed out. "Not likely to run into any other aliens down here, just special unit."
"But you can never tell," Liz counter-pointed. "I'll take it."
"You know how to work that thing?" Isabel asked as the pentagon was passed over. Liz nodded.
"I think that's it for the weapons," Michael said in a low voice.
"Not quite." Max turned around to see Valenti undoing his shoulder holster, his piece still inside it, and presenting it to Kyle. "You should take this, I think."
"No, no," Kyle shook his head. "You'll have more use for it than I will..."
"I'll be too close to the action," Jim corrected. "If the wrong person sees that I've got a firearm, it could get us all killed."
Kyle paused, and then tried again. "But you're..."
His father cut him off. "Kyle! You are our backup - you and Maria. You're going to need something to arm yourselves with. Take it."
Defeated, Kyle took the holster and tried it on, then started making adjustments. "What about Maria? What's she going to be armed with??"
"This," Maria said, brandishing her trusty cell phone.
* * * * *
Things were quiet inside the new Parker-mobile as they headed back into town. The tests on the ray gun had been interesting. Liz, Maria, and Alex had each been completely capable of making it perform, as well as the four 'pod squadders.' Kyle could generate an erratic and weak beam if he tried hard, and Jim could get no response at all. Isabel's theory was that it had something to do with how long a human had been exposed to alien powers regularly. They were starting to learn how to tap into their human energies on command.
Suddenly, Liz broke the silence. "Be careful, Max, okay?"
He smiled a little in the dark. "Always."
"More than always," Liz snapped, and then sighed. "Sorry. I just... earlier tonight I had another dream." They had all tried to get some sleep before meeting to make the final mission plans.
Max nodded. "What did you dream??"
"Well..." Liz sighed again. "It was really vague, like that dream I had the night of our candlelight dinner. But... there was a bunch of people, and everything had gone wrong, and a scary man was threatening us with a weapon. You might have been hurt. I'm really scared, Max."
"We'll be careful," he assured her, and then thought a bit more. "That last dream, it showed you how to save us all, by kicking out that platform lever. Did this dream show you anything to do??"
"Well, yeah," Liz said reluctantly. "But once again, I don't understand it. I grabbed whoever was to my left and ran out a door. I don't see how that can help."
"Maybe we'll have to wait and see," Max whispered. Liz looked at him with a bit of surprise on her face. "I've got the wild notion that this is part of your power, Liz."
"What p--"
"Kyle said it," he quietly continued, quieting her objection. "You guys have obviously gotten in touch with the human side of the Balance, and that can't only apply to ray-guns. The power affects every life it touches, it has to. I've learned that already. But human powers are unlikely to manifest the same way that ours do."
"But foretelling the future?" Liz sniffed uncertainly. "It's against every rule of physics. The uni-direction of time, causality, all of that."
"We've already got one message from the future," Max reminded her. "But think of it this way. The events of the future will follow from the events of the present, right?? If you knew EVERYTHING that was going on right now, you'd have a good chance of predicting the future successfully, just because you could see the forces that were already in motion and figure out how they'd be likely to interact. Maybe this power draws from the present on a subconscious level and feeds you the results of an analysis of the probably future in your dreams." He sighed, and Liz smiled at him.
"Your last dream showed the way, and when the time was right you knew exactly what to do. I have a feeling that the same thing is going to happen this time."
"You have so much faith in me," Liz said, a little wonderingly. "Oooh, we're almost there."
* * * * *
The seconds ticked by with aching slowness until Michael reappeared at the door and waved them in. Isabel's hand reached out to clasp Alex's, and it was as if he could sense the nervousness she was feeling. Well, he could contribute her strength to help butress hers, in this respect at least. He stepped forward towards Max, and Isabel matched him pace for pace.
It took a few seconds for Alex's eyes to adjust from the dim light of the street to the dimmer light inside the small house, and he looked around, trying to get a sense of the premises. The front door opened on what looked like a combination living room and dining room. Three small doors led away, two of them, he presumed, to a bathroom and kitchen. A set of wide sliding doors dominated the left wall, and it was by these that Michael waited.
"Why would you want a set of doors THAT BIG into your bedroom??" Alex couldn't help but ask in a whisper.
"He's living here alone - who knows," Isabel hissed back.
Alex let that one slide and addressed Michael. "You sure there's no security alarms or booby traps to worry about?"
"Not any more," Michael assured him. "I was very thorough. Everything's deactivated, though there wasn't as much as I'd expect." Michael must have been able to see the worried expression on Alex's face, (or possibly Isabel's,) deepen. "I triple-checked EVERYTHING. Don't worry - we're fine."
"Well then," Isabel sighed. "Might as well get this started." She moved towards the sliding doors, and Michael carefully slid one of them back into the slot just far enough that any one of them could pass through the gap - though Alex suspected that broad-shouldered Michael would have to turn his body at an angle to fit. The door hadn't made a sound at all in Michael's hands.
Isabel knelt next to the bed in the darkness, gesturing Alex into a chair near the bedside. Then she reached up and touched the person lying within on the side of the head. In the dimness, Alex couldn't make out any of that person's features, but surely it could be none other than the Professor that they had come to Mexico to find.
"I'm sending him into a deep sleep," Isabel whispered. "Considering what I'm going to be trying, it might be smart to go further - to sedate him with his own brain chemistry. But I'm not sure about taking a step like that."
"Do it," Michael advised gruffly.
Alex reacted more cautiously. "What are the risks?"
Isabel weighed that question. "Well, if I set off the wrong chemical sequence, it could give him brain damage or even kill him. Ten thousand to one shot against. And... and I guess even the right chemical sequence could cause a problem acessing the memories that we've come for. I hardly know how to acess that risk - maybe five to one against?" She sighed. "We can't risk it, can we?"
"Not yet," Alex agreed, and looked up to Michael for confirmation. He wasn't able to see the details of the young hybrid's facial features or even if his head was moving, but he wasn't saying anything, which was perhaps answer enough.
And Isabel wasn't waiting for Michael's opinion, either. "I've got him sleeping about as deeply as I dare," she murmured softly. "Ready to initiate the memory transfer link." He could hear her take a deep breath. "Touch me, Alex."
"Uhh... huh??"
"That's why I wanted you hear," she explained in a low voice. "I can't spare a hand to touch yours, but I need to *know* that you're here with me to do this. Know it beyond a shadow of a doubt."
"Umm... okay." Alex hitched his chair closer to the bed, wincing in retrospect at the amount of noise the legs made scraping against the bare floor -- he should have done that more carefully. But Thompson was in the deep sleep, and neither of the pod squadders told him off. Alex put his right hand flat on Isabel's back, palm down, hoping that she would tell him if she had had something else in mind.
He heard Isabel's breath again, and this time it sounded much more relaxed and peaceful. "I'm in," she whispered. For many long, drawn-out seconds, each following the next with what seemed like tortuous slowness, there was nothing that could be heard in the room but the rhythmic breathing of Isabel and the sleeping professor, in perfect counterpoint to each other. The boys were each holding their breaths as long as they could and only releasing them with the utmost silence.
Finally, Isabel's voice broke the tableau once again. "It's not working." Three short words, stunning in their finality.
"What... what do you mean it's not working??" Michael stammered. "There's a plan B, right? What's not working about it?"
Iz looked up in Michael's direction. "It's the receptacle. Thanks for the thought, but I can't connect to a dead 'thing' well enough. You or Max probably could, you've been working so much with Nasedo's diary. But neither of you..."
"Can work with thoughts well enough..." Michael finished. "Even if we connected to you and you connected to the Professor, we wouldn't be able to relay accurately enough. If these memories get distorted in the process, we'd probably be better off not having them at all."
"Wait a second, I'm not quit up to speed here," Alex interjected quietly. "What's this receptacle??"
"Here." Isabel reached back and pushed something smooth and globular into his hand. Alex tried to hold it where it would catch the most of the moonlight coming through the window, and peered at it from about five inches away. Some sort of medallion, probably stainless steel plated to look like silver, but very pretty. Michael had given this to Isabel? And Alex hadn't even known about the need. For the first time in months he felt as if Isabel's hybrid status (or his own humanity,) was responsible for a distance between them.
"There's one other plan we can try," Isabel whispered, bring Alex back out of his momentary preoccupation. "Instead of using an inanimate receptacle, I can use someone else as the receptacle for the transfer - a living brain. I'm pretty sure that that will work better."
"Which one of us do you want?" Michael asked softly.
For the first time since entering the room, Isabel stood up, and surveyed the two of them in the dim light. "Neither of you." There was a short pause, "I'm sorry, I need both of you in other ways. Michael, you're watching out for me, making sure that nothing goes wrong. Alex, you're right beside me, giving me the strength I need to go through with this. Neither of you can do your jobs if you've got the professor's memories being copied into your head." She sighed. "And we can't take the risk that this might disrupt the connection you have with the washer, Alex. We still need you and that little thing too much."
"So... we bring in someone from the perimiter guard??" Michael suggested. "Which one?"
That way of phrasing the question obviously made the answer clear to Isabel. "Max. I've known him longest of anybody, really, and we have experience using our powers together. It's got to be him."
"Okay," Alex said softly, standing up himself. "I'll go get Max."
* * * * *
Alex maneuvered his way quickly out of the house, closing the front door behind him, and found Max at his post, half slumped down on a bench as if he were drunk and partly asleep. (They had come up with obvious excuses for the four perimeter guards to be loitering around as quickly as they could.) "Hey, come on buddy," Alex whispered, sitting down next to Max and giving him a shove.
"Hey, wh- is it?" Max moaned, still more than a little in character.
"Isabel needs your help with the transfer," Alex hissed, barely audible.
One of Max's eyes widened, fully alert. "Is she sure it's worth the risk of bringing me inside?"
"She says there's no other way."
"Okay, pretend like you need to give me a hand getting 'home.'" Alex boosted Max up off the bench. "We'll need to let the others know that plans have changed."
"Liz will be able to see us go in the front door, and she'll be able to connect the dots," Alex reminded him. "She can let Tess and Valenti know, and call Maria on her cell."
"None of them will know *why* you're bringing me in," Max complained. "Liz will worry."
Alex sighed. "It's up to you if you want us to go over and tell Liz. It might look suspicious, though, and draw attention to her. Is that what you want?"
Max groaned softly. "No, of course not. Let's go."
Side by side, Max acting clumsier than Alex thought was called for, they hurried into the house. After what he had said to Max, Alex had to squelch the impulse to wave in the direction of Liz's hiding place, though he did his best to make an arm flail seem reassuring when Max half stumbled.
Once they were inside and the door closed once again, Max scooted out from Alex's helping arm and rushed to Isabel's side. "What do you need me to do?"
"Umm..." Isabel looked up from the sleeping man. "Just, uh... sit *there* I guess, and relax. Leave your mind open to my touch. This might be an unusual sensation..." Max ended up sitting cross-legged on the floor, next to the headboard of the bed, with Isabel touching the side of his head with one hand and the professor's with the other.
Alex took his position from before, sitting behind Iz, his hand resting as reassuringly as possible on her back.
"Mm..." There was a long pause. "Yeah, that's it. It's going," Isabel mumbled.
* * * * *
For no particularly good reason, Liz watched the front door of the small house for ten seconds more, and then she got up and slowly started wandering towards Tess' position, trying to get close enough to signal the hybrid girl without leaving her post entirely uncovered. **Max's is already vacant now.**
And there was Tess. Liz waved as vaguely as she could, and Tess came over, still watching over the north side of the house and the side door. "What is it," she whispered once they were within whisper range of each other.
"Alex came out and brought Max in. We need to compensate for it." Liz paused a moment. "I guess it makes the most sense for Valenti and I to adjust a little towards the south, and you can just stay where you are. Go and tell V--"
"Back up a second," Tess instructed. "What do you mean, 'Alex brought Max in?'"
"Very much what it sounds like," Liz hissed, hoping that Tess would get the hint and keep her own voice down. "Alex came out of the house, went to Max's post. I assume they talked briefly, though I can't be sure. Max and Alex both go inside."
"That's not in the plan," Tess whispered, frowning.
"Sometimes the plan needs to be changed on the fly," Liz commented. "Believe me, I know."
"Didn't they come and tell you why?"
"Nope," Liz shook her head, and dark hair flew all about her for a second. **Maybe I could do with a trim.** She pushed that almost-entirely-irrelevant thought aside and returned to the subject at hand. "They acted as if I wasn't there, but I'm not too worried about that. Max was probably just trying not to call attention to me. I think Alex waved as he went in - it was a kind of reassuring arm motion, at any rate."
"But why do they need Max?" A horrified expression crossed Tess' face. "Isabel could be hurt! Or Michael!! Or both of them!!!"
Liz weighed that hypothesis. "I suppose. But if they are, then Max can heal them." She could tell that Tess wasn't really listening to her, and she grabbed the other girl's wrist in a dramatic gesture. "Tess... TESS? If they needed either of us, Alex would have come for us to. Right now, all we can do is go back to guard duty, and that means you need to go tell Valenti. Okay, Tess??"
Tess shook herself slightly and nodded, pulling her hand back from Liz's grip. "All right, all right! You don't need to talk at me like I'm a toddler!! I'll go tell Valenti."
"Not without us I don't think you will, darling."
Tess gasped, and Liz swung around, backing up a little as she saw a tall figure stride confidently out of the shadows into the dim light of the midnight street. It was a man, probably in his early twenties, strongly built with a short shock of very dark hair. Carried in both of his hands with the ease of long practice was a weapon... Liz couldn't make it out entirely, but it looked like an M-16 or another of those automatic rifles from on TV. Very faintly she could make out that something else had been added underneath th main barrel, and from somewhere she vaguely remembered reading about an 'Over-under,' a deadly and vicious piece of portable artillery made by combining an M-16 with a grenade launcher. Her knees shook with fear.
Liz looked at Tess out of the corner of her eye just in time to notice the blonde girl's eyes narrowing, as she focused her alien powers against the intruder.
To what precise intent Liz couldn't tell, because after a split second the gunman growled "none of *that*," and aimed his weapon at Tess. From the bottom tube streamed something that seemed to Liz a bolt of pale light, streaking through the dim night and into Tess' body. She gave a faint cry and staggered, almost falling. Liz reacted instinctively. Her right hand found a loose brick that she hadn't even known was there and her body tensed to spring at their assailant. But the gun oriented just as quickly on her and she froze.
"Put down the brick, baby," the man whispered. "I'll use the other end of this on you if I have to, I swear I will." Liz weighed her chances a second and dropped her makeshift weapon. She had no burning desire to get shot again, especially not with Max more than a few feet away. "Good. Now give your girlfriend a hand up," he gestured with the gun towards Tess, who was crouching, whimpering her discomfort softly, "and we'll go find your friend."
Try as she might, Liz could think of nothing to do but just that, so she helped Tess to her feet, wrapping an arm around the other girl's shoulders to help support her. In more than one way, it turned out to her surprise.
* * * * *
"Oh, hey, check *this* out. SCORE!"
Alex felt the tension tremble through Isabel's body, and he turned his head to address Michael. "Shush."
"No, come on, man, check this out!"
"I can't..." Alex started, but he was interrupted by a soft growl from Isabel.
"Go. Just do everything you can to *keep him quiet.* There's no other way."
Alex had to admit that there was some truth to that - Michael Guerin would be unlikely to tone down his volume without anyone paying attention to him, and Alex was the only one who was dispensable in this operation. He stood up awkwardly.
"And come back to me as soon as you can," Isabel added softly. Alex smiled, rubbed her shoulder affectionately, and went out to see what Michael was shooting off about.
He was on the floor, legs spread out in front of him, balancing something on the floor next to him. "Boy, Isa--" Alex sshed him again, and Michael modulated his voice down three notches in volume. "Isabel wasn't kidding about an 'alien device.' Look at this thing!!"
Alex crept closer, squatting down to examine Michael's discovery. It was longer than a motorcycle, though not quite so long as a compact car Alex thought, fairly narrow and flat. There was one seat fairly close to the front that a person could climb into, though he wasn't quite sure where their legs would go... (would they dangle out the bottom? Get folded up in a cavity inside there? Or could there be enough room to stretch them out inside there??) In any event, there was an impressive collection of alien-looking controls in front of that seat. A little further back, Alex thought he could make out two spaces where passengers could sit on the edge of the device and grab onto a handhold. He looked over at Michael, and saw past him to the empty cupboard that was big enough to hold this thing.
"You know, we really should put it away for now, Michael," he whispered.
"What?" Michael sighed. "Alex, this is *our* rightful property. It was made for the four of us, I can feel it. The special unit ripped off our birthright and this was Professor-guy's cut of the booty..."
"Michael..." Alex interrupted what was shaping up to be a very long and righteously indignant speech. "Once Max and Isabel are done, we'll let them know that it's here. But for right now... I've just got a bad feeling about having it sitting out here."
"Okay, okay," Michael groaned, and hoisted himself up as far as a crouch. "Gimme a hand, it's a heavy little piece of our heritage."
Alex grinned and grabbed out end of the vehicle, and between the two of them they got it safely stowed back in its storage space.
Alex smiled awkwardly at Michael. "Umm... I'd better, er, get back to--" He waved vaguely in the direction of the bedroom.
Michael nodded. "Tell Iz I'm sorry for bugging her." Alex felt his eyes widen, and the other boy shrugged. "Y'know, if it comes up."
Alex laughed softly and turned to go.
But he never got the chance.
Title: Homecoming: the Mexican Tango. Part 4f 2/2
Author: Chris Kenworthy
E-mail: chris@chriskweb.net
Home archive: http://www.roswellfanfic.com/
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I don't own the Roswell characters, though if I did I'd treat them better than Jason Katims.
Category: Sci-fi drama. Canon couples romance leading to UC pairings in later part.
Spoilers: Up to 'ask not'
Liz stepped slowly towards Jim Valenti's position. He was watching as she came, of course. "Liz? What on earth are you doing over here??"
"There... there's been a problem," she said out loud softly. "You have to..." She took a sudden gut check. Praying that she wasn't giving Tess her death sentence, (or worse, that some part of her didn't want it that way,) she dropped her voice. "Run. Special unit bodguard - he's got Tess. We need you free..."
"If I were you," that insufferable voice rang out clearly, "I wouldn't go along with whatever she's whispering. Not unless you're comfortable with the notion that these lovely young ladies will get *shot* if you pull anything I don't like the look of." As he was speaking, the mysterious bodyguard and Tess appeared from behind a low-hanging wall - that M-16 never wavering from Tess' heart.
"You wouldn't dare," Tess whispered softly.
"Who's going to stop me, girl?" he sneered. "You? Who's gonna make me pay?! Your friends inside?? I don't think so, so you might want to stop deluding youself that I won't follow through. It's not like a bullet to the heart isn't too good a death for your kind, alien *bitch*!!"
Valenti cleared his throat softly, trying to distract their captor from his rant at Tess. "So... what now?"
The bodyguard weighed that for a second. "We go back around the house and come in the front door. First you go in," and he prodded Tess with the point of the gun, "and step well clear to the left. You next, go right," that was aimed at Liz, then to Valenti, "and you left. Nobody warns your friends about what's going down. I'll be the last one in, and I'll do *whatever* I need, to establish firm control of the situation. If none of you try anything stupid, that shouldn't involve killing anyone."
----
Michael was watching Alex turn toward the bedroom when it happened. The front door opened again, smoothly and quietly, and he could just make out Tess' features as she entered. Next Liz, the two girls taking positions on the either side of the door. What was going on?? Then Valenti, taking up a position beside Tess, stomping his foot with a sharp rap as he came to a standstill. Was that a message? A warning??
Michael was still taken off guard that it took him a second to process the fourth figure to appear at the doorway - a stranger, tall and dark, carrying a weapon. A precious second was lost to shock before Michael focused his powers, trying to throw the intruder back out of the doorway.
It was too late. The stranger was on his guard, and a faint pulse of light emerged from the implement in his hands, splattering against Michael's body like a shot from a water rifle. Instantly he felt a strong drain on his balance, the shock affecting his whole body, leaving him struggling to keep his feet. Counterattacking was impossible, at least for the moment.
The encounter had drawn Alex's attention by now, of course, and his hand immediately went to the raygun tucked into the waist of his pants. But by the time he had drawn and aimed, it was too late, just as Michael had been. Another pulse streamed into Alex's figure, but he didn't seem to be adversely affected. He grinned for a moment and touched the contact on the raygun, expecting this intruder to be blown to bits.
Nothing. The artifact was dead in Alex's hands. Of course, Michael thought. If that weapon disrupted the power, its effects on humans would be less obvious, since the power wasn't a large part of their life, but the raygun was power-triggered. That was the connection.
Alex had obviously came to the same conclusion. He looked at the perimeter guard, wondering whether to try tossing the gun to either of them. But Tess had obviously been dosed with the weapon already or she'd be fighting back with her own powers, and Valenti had been able to make the laser weapon respond at all. That left Liz... and the intruder stepped between Liz and Alex, ready to intercept the artifact if Alex tossed it.
Suddenly furious, Alex charged his assailant directly. Michael saw him shake his head slightly, and swing the tip of his weapon, (which looked like a rifle of some kind,) catching Alex on the side of the chin punishingly as his charge arrived, knocking him to one side. Alex crumpled into a heap.
The dark-haired man then stepped further into the living room, orienting on something. Suddenly he whirled his weapon and fired two careful shots through the door into the bedroom, and somehow Michael knew that Max and Isabel's powers had been nullified to. And in the middle of that procedure, who knew what would happen as Isabel, especially, lost her talents so suddenly.
The dark haired man turned around so that he was facing Liz. From where he crouched on the floor he could see the cruelty in the man's face as he spat out "Lights!!"
Liz seemed to be confused for a second, then realized that she was standing next to a light switch. She flipped it, and off-white incandescent light flooded the room, overwhelming Michael's night-adapted vision for a second, but he forced himself to keep watching the situation.
The bodyguard, (for Michael had belatedly realized this must be him,) turned next to Valenti. "Door!" There was no confusion there. Valenti swung the front door shut.
"Good. Now that we're all here, suppose you aliens start by explaining what the hell you think you're doing here??"
----
Isabel lay slumped on the floor. For a second she had to think hard, (which was a painful effort,) to remember anything of where she was and what she was doing there. Then it started to come back. The professor's house. The memory-link circuit with Max.
Well, what had happened? Obviously she had been thrown out of the link. Exploring in the dimness, (dimness? It had been completely dark. What was light doing filtering into the room? Had dawn come already??) she quickly found Max sprawled on the floor right in front of her. Whatever had hit them, he hadn't woken up yet - possibly because he had been fairy close to a sleeping or trance state for the transfer.
What about the professor?? Isabel scrambled to find the bed. There he was, sleeping but vitals strong yet. So what had happened?
"Stay away from him, slut!" Isabel turned to see who was speaking to her (and if he was actually addressing HER with that kind of language,) and found herself staring straight into the light, blinking back its brightness. Finally her eyes agreed to withstand the intensity and focus at the same time. (At least focus partway.) It was a tall darkhaired man she didn't recognize, and he was pointing something straight at her. Instantly Isabel pushed away from the bed and scrambled into the chair that Alex had been sitting in, and her eyes reached their limit for abuse and closed themselves again.
"What makes you think we're aliens, anyway?" The voice was Jim Valenti's.
A low, deadly chuckle was the first response from the mystery man, who Isabel belatedly realized had to be the Special Unit bodyguard. "Very funny. Somehow I don't think you're an alien, sir. That's why I didn't worry about tagging you and that's why you haven't zapped me with alien powers yet. But you're either a collaborator or a pawn, and your friends here are aliens."
Isabel couldn't see if he made a gesture to clarify who he was including in 'your friends here' - she wasn't even sure who was in the room. Valenti had still been out on perimeter guard, last she knew. Had the bodyguard forced him in? Were Tess and Liz inside the room too, or free outside to attempt the rescue of the rest of the group? Iz tried to force her eyes to open so that she could follow the tactical situation a bit better.
"Let's see... who would have a fancy little ray-gun like that one??" The bodyguard turned and pointed his gun at Alex's weapon. Yes, Liz and Tess were here too, damnit. Not much chance of a rescue attempt from them, then. Both of those girls were staying up against the wall, trying to keep out of the way - or maybe out of the line of fire, Whichever way, Iz couldn't blame them.
Meanwhile, the guy had arranged his super-cannon so that it was balanced in one hand and stretched the other one out to Alex. "Give me that."
Alex hesitated a second, clearly not wanting to give up the advantage that the blaster offered. But why hadn't he used it on this creep?? For that matter, why weren't Michael or Tess using their powers to attack, to disarm the enemy figure? And why wasn't Isabel??
Alex deliberately threw the gun down to the floor between himself and the bodyguard, whose face snarled in rage for a second, and Iz took advantage of that moment of distraction to pull at the gun so it would go flying from said bodyguard's hand. No effect. Had this guy... (Iz needed something to call him in her mind, and quickly settled on Jethro...) had Jethro managed to nullify their powers somehow??
"That was truly moronic," Jethro spat at Alex, and did something to the cannon so it made a menacing clicking sound. "Pick it up again and hand it to me. No tricks."
Alex seemed about to resist passively for a second, but relented, possibly seeing something of the same cruel determination in Jethro as in Steve Banks. He squatted down, retrieved the red crystal pistol, and delivered it over to the bodyguard. Jethro examined the smooth lines of it for a second, pointed it and tried to fire, and then shrugged and tucked the tip of it into his back pants pocket.
"Yes," Michael grunted in a stifled exclamation of triumph. Jethro turned around to stare at him, as did Isabel and Tess. After looking into Micahel's eyes for a second, (Michael himself having assumed an inscrutable poker face,) then backed off into a corner, covering the gang as best he could with his cannon, set the blaster on a table, ans then returned. Isabel suddenly realized what Michael had just accomplished. By planting the suspicion that the blaster had been somehow booby-trapped to do away with Jethro, he'd made certain that the bodyguard wouldn't keep it on his person, which could be critical if they got a chance to actually use it against him.
Was there something that Isabel was missing?? Kyle and Maria were supposed to be their backup - but how could they contact them now?? If Isabel had her powers, she might be able to implant a subconscious suggestion into one or both of their minds, like she had with Michael when he was in the labyrinth. But that seemed to be out.
"Now, let's get down to it." All of a sudden Jethro had stepped into the bedroom. He pulled Isabel mercilessly up from her chair, checked Max momentarily, but he wasn't showing any signs of recovery yet. Then he dragged the chair out into the living room and gestured imperatively that she should sit again. "What planet are you from??" He asked once she had.
Isabel sighed. It always seemed to come back to this, didn't it? "I was born right here on Earth. We all were."
"You know what I mean. What planet do your people come from??"
Isabel thought about what to say, but suddenly a part of her screamed that it was tired of hiding and lying. "We're pretty sure it's called Azt."
"Okay, now we're getting somewhere. And why have you come here, to the Professor's house??"
"For the professor, of course," Isabel continued. "Our intel suggested that he was the most likely source of the information we needed." She waited and let Jethro ask her for it.
"And what information would that be, exactly??" he sneered.
"Abour the Roswell spaceship and the items that were confiscated from the crash site. They are our heritage. You have no claim to them, we do."
"Not so fast!!" At first Isabel thought Jethro was countering her claim, but his weapon and his gaze slowly and carefully oriented on Alex, who had been attempting to move unnoticed across the room. "What were you going after, the fireplace poker??"
"Yep," Alex agreed equably. It looked like a good weapon, Isabel had to agree. Heavy and pointed enough to do some damage. Too bad he hadn't been able to get at it.
"I think you PUNKS aren't taking this seriously enough!!" Jethro snarled, swinging the cannon around so that the point caught Isabel in the face. Pain exploded through her head. "The next person who MOVES in this room without orders from me is going to get SHOT IN THE HEAD!!" he yelled.
What happened next was a coincidence of tragic proportions, of course.
Presumably wakened by Jethro's shouting, someone in the bedroom jerked up to a sitting position. Jethro was already on edge, and had steeled himself to carry out his threat. He knew that he'd left an 'enemy,' Max, unconscious in the bedroom, but probably the only thing guiding his actions was instinct. Orienting on the motion, aiming, and firing the submachinegun aspect of his weapon.
But it was not Max who had awakened so suddenly, as we all realized after a few seconds. It was Professor Thompson.
* * * *
In a way it was weird. The bedroom was still dim, lit only by the incandescent bulbs from the living room filtering through the doorway. But Liz could still see so many little details - the way the older man slumped back painfully into his bed, the splatters of blood on his pajama shirt. The gaping ugliness of the bullet holes and the way a little bit of *something* was hanging out of one of them. The trace of red drool that was leaing out of the corner of his mouth.
For a long moment, Liz couldn't help but wonder if it would have been the same if it really had been Max who had woken and unwittingly drawn the bodyguard's attack. And if she had looked like that after the Crashdown shooting, before Max healed her.
Max...
He had woken up by now, whether the shots or the shouting or something else had roused him Liz couldn't know. But at least he was moving slowly and nonthreateningly. He got up and looked at the Professor, probably wishing that he could save the man, an agent of their enemies though he was. But certainly he couldn't. His powers had been taken away, just like those of the rest, and even if they hadn't there was no way of knowing how the bodyguard would react to alien powers being used on his charge, even to save his life.
"Get away from him," the bodyguard roared to Max, and hehurriedly backed away from the bed.
"Look what the fuck you made me do," the shooter continued, to Alex, and decked him with the gun. Alex went sprawling on the floor. And then he stalked off to the bedroom to investigate.
Instantly Liz realized that it was the moment she had been waiting for. The moment from her dream. She still didn't understand how the dreams worked, but Max had told her to trust them. And she'd have to act fast, while the bodyguard was distracted.
In the dream, she had taken someone who was ahead of her and to her left, unlocked a door, and run through it. What they would do then, she didn't have any clue.
The person who was in that position was Tess. Not Liz's first choice, but she didn't second guess. She broke into a dash, pushing the blonde hybrid girl ahead of her, twisted the lock control on the door, and then they were out into the Mexican night and running.
* * * *
Michael spun around just in time to miss Liz and Tess's break for freedom. **Good for them,** the thought ran through his mind, and then he turned to watch their captor with some considerable amount of alarm.
Tactically, the bodyguard had about three responses to this development that Michael could see. One, he could pursue the escapees, leaving the larger number of his prisoners unguarded. Two, he could fortify his position here against the rescue attempt that would surely come if he let Liz and Tess go, probably once Tess had recovered her powers and the two of them had called in the assistance of Maria and Kyle. Three, he could begin shooting hostages immediately. That last was the possibility that Michael had to protect against, if there was any conceivable way that he could.
However, in only a few seconds, the issue. None too rational before this last unwelcome development, the bodyguard was apparently in no state of mind to weigh his options rationally. He flew out the front door in hot pursuit of Liz and Tess.
This seemed to Michael the best outcome that they could hope for - two birds in the bush, even seven if you considered that the rest of them were still in some danger, were definitely worth less than five in the hand. Not that Michael intended to let this idiot go hunting Liz and Tess for long, of course, but there were a few other things to worry about first.
"Isabel!" He hurried over to her chair. "Are you okay??"
"I'm fine," she insisted quickly. "Check Alex."
"I'm alright," Alex assured his sweetie, picking himself up from the floor. "Just cleverly playing possum until my time came to str... where's the goon? And Li--"
"Liz and Tess made a break for it," Michael told him quickly. "He took off after them. She probably saved our butts again."
"I wouldn't doubt it," Max called out from the bedroom door. "She had another of her psychic dreams. It must have helped her pick the exact right moment to run for it."
"Well, now we'd better be ready to return the favor," Isabel suggested, getting up and stretching. "Save her butt before Jethro gets to her, and Tess' too." Seeing that more than one questioning look was aimed her way, Isabel elaborated. "Jethro - mental nickname I gave our bodyguard friend."
Michael nodded, trying to determine any loose ends they had to tie up before they left. "The professor?" he asked Max.
"Dead." The healer's voice sounded hollow as he pronounced it. "There was nothing I could do."
"I know, man," Michael agreed, and then turned to Alex. "Call Maria and Kyle in. Have Kyle give the gun back to Valenti, then he's to follow us in as backup. Take the sled back to the motel and wait for us there."
"Got it," Alex agreed, then had a thought. "What about the memory transfer? Did we get anything??"
Max and Isabel exchanged a look. "We'll have to figure that out later," Isabel decided. "Is there anything else?" They all knew that the bodyguard was getting further away by the moment.
Alex dashed over to the side table and picked up the blaster. Before he could even ask, Max said "Over here, man!" and brought his hands together in a catching gesture.
Alex tossed the alien weapon over. "Bring her back safe, Max."
Max Evans knew exactly who he meant. "I intend to, or die trying."
* * * *
To Liz, the dark streets of Puerto Penasco, still long yet before twilight would break, were like a deadly maze. Of course, knowing that the two of them had a killer agent on their tail didn't help much.
She had been trying to make for the cafe where Maria and Kyle were waiting, and she had a pretty good idea where that was, but there never seemed to be a good opportunity to head in that direction that wouldn't take them under the open glare of the streetlamps. Where the bodyguard could see them for sure. Where he could shoot them down, if he wished.
Better, Liz understood instinctually, to keep covering ground in the safety of the shadows, no matter in which direction those shadows took them. Better in the short term, at least, and Liz was past thinking beyond the short term. Evading the hunter that pursued them had become second nature to her when Tess pulled her back just as she was about to start another dash.
"We can't go that way. That path leads into the woods. We'll get lost for certain!!"
Liz looked around, evaluating their options. The hunter was coming up from behind them, from the east, as far as Liz could remember. If they stayed within the city, light hemmed them in to the south and the west. "It's the only way. And if he comes in, he'll be as lost as we are."
He wasn't, quite. As the agent left the city behind and stepped onto the forest floor in pursuit of them, he activated some sort of flashlight-like attachment on his weapon, but the light, faint and incriminating as it was, helped Liz and Tess find their way through the woods as well.
But Liz knew that it wasn't safe to be anywhere near that terrible light, and so she pushed herself and Tess further and faster - deeper into the forest, where only the moon lit the trees. The moon's our friend, or at least more so than any other light, Liz thought to herself.
And then it had happened. They had both narrowly missed their share of misadventures in those dark woods, but abruptly Liz felt her right foot crunch into a narrow crevice. A bad feeling sinking in her chest, Liz tried to pull that foot free. She couldn't budge it even a fraction of an inch.
Tess must have taken about four steps ahead of Liz before she noticed and doubled back. "What's the problem??"
"My foot's trapped," Liz hissed back.
"What, like a bear trap or something?"
"No - at least, I don't think so. Just a... heck, I don't know what it is I stepped in!"
Tess snickered slightly. "Okay, hang on." She bent down, her face out of sight, presumably to inspect Liz's predicament. She could feel the blonde girls' delicate fingertips brush against her calf. "Yeah, it's hard to see anything, but from the feel, you've got yourself wedged in pretty good, right in the gap betwwen a stone outcropping and a fallen tree. I guess this would be the definitive 'rock and a hard place'??"
"Ha ha." She couldn't move, with a killer on their tail, and Tess chose this moment to start cracking jokes?? "Can you do anything to help get me out?"
Tess sighed visibly, then a fragment of the flashlight played over her face, still too far away for the gunman to see anything, but it still frightened both of them. "Lemme see." She bent down again. "Can't push either the rock or the log away. Hmmm..." She busied herself about something. "How's that??"
Liz tried again. "No good. What did you do?"
"I untied your shoe, thought you might be able to slip your foot out of it."
Now it was Liz's turn to stifle a sigh. "Well, I can't. Maybe you could try using something else to pry the bar away??"
Tess considered a moment, then dashed away. When she returned only a few seconds later, Liz could see that she was holding some sort of makeshift staff - the trunk of a smaller tree maybe, or a very stout and thick branch. She angled it into the crevice, pried as hard as she could. The tip of the staff broke off inside the cleft before the log had even quivered.
The bodyguard was getting closer now, and Liz could see a notion play over Tess's face in the moonlight. "Please, Tess, I'm scared," she blurted out. "Don't leave me behind!!"
* * * *
"Okay, do we have a plan??" Max muttered as they hurried through the dimly lit Mexican street, hoping that the sounds that they were following had something to do with the chase that the three of them were trying to tag along with.
"There's nothing that we can do as long as we don't have our powers," Michael muttered in reply. "But mine are on their way back, I can feel that somehow. Once they're here, we move in hard and fast. Don't let him use that weapon against us again - probably pull it away from him with kinesis. Then we're in charge."
"Sounds good, then what?? And what the heck IS that, Isabel??" She had been staring into a little handheld screen ever since they left the Professor's place.
"Just a little something Alex whipped up," she mentioned offhandedly. "Mobile tracker - keyed in to Liz's cell phone. Thought it couldn't hurt to make sure we were going in the right direction."
"God bless Alex," Max whispered under his breath.
"As far as the 'then what' question, there's something Michael, Tess and I have been practicing that may help out," Isabel continued as they puffed along. "A way to combine our powers and affect someone's memory."
"Wow." This was the first Max had heard of this, though that didn't really surprise him given how crazy things had been lately. "As in, erase his memories of everything that's happened tonight??"
"Maybe," Michael qualified. "We've been trying it out, with Maria and Alex's help as guinea pigs, but only small stuff, for obvious reasons. For larger memories, I'm not sure if we're quite certain what would happen."
"Well, it's a good option to keep in mind," Max agreed. "Oh." The sound that he had been following (and apparently Isabel's tracker,) both led abruptly out of the city and into a deep forest. Well, at this point there was nothing that they could do but follow.
"And into the dark woods we go," Michael muttered.
* * * *
Tess disappeared from view again, and for a second Liz was convinced that despite her plea, the hybrid girl had abandoned her there to die. And then she heard a low moaning. What was going on? The flashlight played over the area, a ways away yet but getting closer, and thing fell into place. Tess had grabbed ahold of the fallen log with both hands and was pulling at it with every ounce of bare strength she could muster.
Gunfire whizzed over their heads. A stream of pale blue light rocketed into a nearby tree, nullifying whatever alien powers it might have been hiding. (Liz couldn't entirely stifle a giggle at that unfunny mental joke.) Liz tried to duck down, but it wasn't much good since her leg was forced straight up by her pinioned foot.
More weapons fire, of both types, followed as the bodyguard got closer. A power-drain ray tagged Liz, without much clear effect except for sapping away a faint hope that she'd be able to use what Max had called 'her human side of the power' to get them out of this.
Well, her dream had saved Max, and Michael and Isabel and Alex, or at least bought them the time they'd need...
And suddenly her foot popped out of the ground, sending Liz sprawling butt-first on the rocky ground. But she'd never been so glad to take a tumble in her life. She looked in Tess' direction and whispered a loud 'Thanks!'
"My pleasure, but now how do we get out of here without being shot to death?" Tess called back quietly. It was true, the shooter was almost upon them.
Liz smiled grimly in the darkness. "Leave that one to me." Picking up a large rock, she tossed it vehemently into a bank of brush off to one side. Sure enough, the bodyguard went for the diversion, and Liz and Tess took off in the other direction.
After that scare, Tess was running like the dogs of planet X were at her heels, but it seemed to Liz that something had changed. Where were the footsteps of the bodyguard behind them? She risked a look behind her and saw distant trees lit up by the blue of the flash light. Why was the light shining that way? She heard shouting from that direction.
"Hey Tess," Liz called, turning around again. "Wait up. I think..." But Tess was nowhere in sight, and Liz hurried to catch up, scrambling up a steep hill covered with moss or something.
As Liz reached the top of the hill, she saw Tess, still scootin' at a good clip though she was obviously exhausted. "Hey Tess!" Liz called, and she turned around without stopping. "I think the guys are..."
Liz broke off at that point, because Tess had tripped on something she hadn't seen, or slipped or whatever, and disappeared from view. As Liz hurried over to make sure she was okay, what she saw stunned her motionless.
What Tess had run afoul of was a cliff precipice that came upon this stretch of woods without warning. The ground that Liz could see at the bottom had to be at least thirty feet down.
And Tess Harding was nowhere in sight.
TO BE CONTINUED...