Tears of the Innocents Chapter Six: Second Terror Attack, a x-men: the movie fanfic

"Watcher Delta, report. Watcher Delta, come in."

Minutes passed with no response.

"Watcher Delta, do you copy?"

The radio operator pulled off his headphones and shook his head, "Sorry, sir. We've heard nothing for the past two hours. I've checked the equipment and there's no faults."

The man standing behind him forced the knot of anxiety in his stomach to go away. There could only be one reason why Watcher Delta wasn't reporting. And that was because Watcher Delta was dead. He must have used his poison tooth. This wasn't good. The man didn't care about the death – Watcher Delta was merely a tool to be used, an asset to be thrown away when it had outlived its usefulness – but he was still worried. Had Watcher Delta managed to kill the Forrester girl before he himself died? Perhaps. Perhaps not. He couldn't afford to take the chance. The girl might not even know anything, but again, he couldn't take the chance. When knowledge was lacking, assumptions had to be made. And he had learned always to make assumptions of the worst case. So he assumed the Forrester girl was alive and in possession of knowledge he had already taken great risks to destroy. Frustration and impatience crept in. Why was one fourteen year old child so difficult to kill? Two attempts on her life had now proved unsuccessful. The rest of her family had died easily enough.

"Tell Eight to send some men down that way," he decided. "If the Forrester girl is still alive, snuff her out. Oh, and tell them to burn the Forrester house to the ground. We can't take the chance there's still something there."

"Yes, sir."

The man turned away and left the room. He needed to be alone. There were decisions to be made. Perhaps it was time to set up a meeting with the rest of the Twelve. Before that, however, he had a phone call to make.

The President of the United States sat at his desk, alone in the Oval Office, reading over yet another set of proposals for a Mutant Registration Act. This particular topic had been the subject of many a raging debate between himself and his fellow politicians over the last few months. It was what – over two decades? – since mutant registration had been first proposed by Senator Kelly, and still the thorny issue had not been resolved. What the President knew, and what he believed was in most people's best interests for them not to know, was how close the Apocalypse mutants had come to destroying the world. He knew that the only reason he was still alive and breathing was due to the success of a desperate counter-strike launched by another group of mutants. He knew that mutant registration could not be allowed to happen. He knew that the world owed their lives to these people, but unfortunately it wasn't as simple as just telling the world that. There were a lot of things about the Apocalypse incident that even the President didn't know, such as who had authorised the Apocalypse Project in the first place, and why that person had never informed him of its existence. Or why a convicted and multiple life-sentenced biochemical weapons researcher had been allowed out of prison to work on said project. He was determined to find out who was responsible for these things.

How can so much be going on behind my back? he demanded silently, how can these projects be funded and maintained without my approval or knowledge? The worst part is, if the public ever do find out, I'll be the one who gets the blame. The buck stops with me, I'm the top man. If only it really were that simple. It's quite obvious that there are people out there with their own agendas, who are perfectly willing to use me a shield to deflect blame and accountability away from themselves.

He was distracted from his thoughts by the ringing of a telephone. It was the high security line that he used for direct calls to his counterparts in Western Europe.

"President Howard speaking."

"Good morning, Mr President," came the response. "I hope this is not an inappropriate time."

I know that voice…

"You!" the President shouted angrily. "How the hell did you get on this line?"

"I hardly find that relevant. I give you your instructions for the next round of voting at the UN security council."

"My instructions?! Listen asshole, I'm not dancing to your tune or anybody else's!"

A low chuckle, "Really, now that is sad. It would be a pity if your daughter didn't live to see her sixteenth birthday."

"Damn you to hell!" but the President knew he was beaten. "If I ever find out who you are, you bastard – "

"I wouldn't worry about that. You'll never know who I am. Even my own father couldn't tell you. Now, this is what you will do – "

"Are you serious?" came the angry voice over the communicator.

"I'm afraid so," Gary replied. "We don't know what's behind any of this yet."

"Are you telling me that somebody is trying to kill my daughter and you don't even know why? What the hell have you led her into, Gladiator?!" Shapeshifter yelled furiously.

The part of Annie that was inside Gary calmed him down. He said, "We're going to stay here and try to make sense of this. You guys ought to take a look at the dead man and find out what you can. We've already searched him for any clues but we didn't find anything."

"The first thing to do is get Marina to safety," came Shapeshifter's voice. "I'll be over to pick her up in one of the jets."

"She wants to stay here. There's something else going on. Somebody broke into her house and stole the computers. We think they were looking for information…"

"Marina can tell me about it when I get there. Goodbye, Gladiator."

"Wait! Look, if someone is trying to kill her, the safest place she can be is with us – with Annie and me. Bringing her back to the school will just make everybody there a target!"

"Listen, boy, don't tell me how to look after my own daughter!" came the angry response.

Gary was just as heated with his reply, "She isn't your daughter! She wants to stay down here where her real family lived! This is where she belongs!"

Annie's calm voice came over the channel; she had to be using one of the other communicator handsets, "Gary, Chris, calm down. You both agree that Marina's safety is the most important thing, and that's my priority too. We will stay by her side every moment from now on to protect her from danger. I swear it. There's something strange going on down here. The way that man attacked, it was almost as if somebody was watching and waiting for us. We don't know why he attacked, but we can only assume Marina's family had enemies. Presumably the same people who raided her house. If only we knew exactly what they were looking for."

"If you're right about them wanting her dead to keep some treasured information secret," said Gary. "It must be something big. But I can't think what, and neither can Marina. She doesn't know anything about anything big and important."

"She knows about the mansion and everything inside it," suggested Chris. "That information must be worth something to somebody."

"Yes, but who'd want to keep it a secret except ourselves?" Annie said. "We're hardly going to kill one of our own."

"True. Maybe it was an anti-mutant attack. She didn't let anyone see her using her powers or anything, did she?"

"I don't think so. The guy looked completely horrified when he saw me using mine, so I'm assuming he had no idea we were mutants."

"And you said he killed himself," Shapeshifter mused. "Look, I'm coming down there. I want to talk to Marina. If she can convince me to let her stay with you, then I'll do that. Otherwise, she's coming back here with me. I'll be down in about an hour. I'll tell the others."

"OK. Thanks," said Annie.

The channel ceased. Sitting in the shelter provided by the side wall of the house, Gary switched off his communicator and turned to Marina, "Your dad's coming down here. He wants to take you back to the school."

Marina shook her head, "I – I'm staying here. I have to know what this is all about. I have to find out what's going on here."

"I know, that's what I told them. Marina, don't you have any idea what this might be about? Anything at all that might explain it? Has anyone in your family ever worked for the government, or the police? Something that might give them access to sensitive information?"

"No! I keep telling you, Gary, my – my family were completely normal people! I wish you'd stop trying to look for mysteries that aren't there!"

"Well, what other explanation is there?"

"I don't know! I've never done anything to make anybody want to kill me! And like Annie said before, nobody even knows I'm alive! I should have died in the boating accident!"

Suddenly something occurred to Marina. Her eyes widened and she looked at her boyfriend, "Gary, I just thought of something. What if – what if it wasn't an accident?"

"You mean – "

"That guy just – just tried to kill me. What if – what if that wasn't the first time they tried? What if somebody sunk our boat deliberately?"

"You mean sabotage?"

"Yeah! If they thought somebody in my family had whatever information, they must have decided to silence all of us!"

Gary said nothing for a moment, considering the possibility. There was no reason why it couldn't be correct. It was true that they had no idea exactly what had caused the 'accident'. Marina had always maintained that it couldn't be the simplest explanation of navigating on to a rock or some other hazard; every member of her family was too experienced a boat handler for that to happen.

"How did it happen?" he asked. "I mean, how did the boat start going down?"

"I dunno. I was asleep and I just woke up to find my cabin flooding with water. I didn't have any time to think about what might have – what might have caused it. I – I just had to get out."

"If you're right about it being sabotage," Gary said. "Then your family had to be a target because of something they knew. Something they never told you."

"But there isn't anything!" she protested. "I'm sure there isn't!"

He went on, "And now whoever it is, is trying to finish the job. You survived – you've survived two attempts on your life now – but we can bet they'll keep trying. Whatever it is they're trying to cover up, it must be absolutely vital to them."

"But I don't know anything!" Marina insisted. "There isn't any information I can give away!"

"Then it must be one of your family. One of them must have known something."

She had given up arguing now, and simply shook her head resignedly, "They didn't…"

"I just had an idea," Gary said. "Your brother; you said he worked as a radio operator for the navy."

"Y – yeah."

"That must be it. He must have intercepted some secret communication. He must have found out something he wasn't supposed to."

Marina sighed heavily, and looked away, "I suppose that could be it…I can't believe he wouldn't tell me, though…"

Gary shrugged, then said, "Shapeshifter should get here soon. Hopefully the X-Men can take a look at that dead guy and try to work out who he is, and who sent him."

"Yeah," she agreed, but her mind was elsewhere. "Gary, give me a few minutes, OK? I wanna be alone. If – if somebody killed my family deliberately, then – then – well, it's hard for me to accept, all right? Just give me a few minutes."

"Right."

"I'll be down on the beach."

Gary watched as Marina stood up and walked away from him, heading towards the sparkling blue of the Atlantic Ocean. He wanted to go with her, to be there for her, to comfort her, but he had to respect her wish to be alone. He couldn't understand how she was feeling – the telepathy he had 'inherited' from Annie was not as developed as he would have liked it to be. Nor was he sure exactly how he himself felt about this. He had always thought of Marina as the victim of a tragic unforeseeable circumstance, and had devoted himself to her, both of them hoping that she would someday be able to recover from the experience. Now it seemed this was not the case. Her family hadn't been lost; they had been taken from her. She was not a victim of circumstance; she was a victim of those who had murdered her loved ones. She would not be able to get over this until she knew who was responsible and why. Had she ever considered this possibility? Had she ever wondered whether it hadn't been an accident after all? He didn't know. He had never felt comfortable talking about the incident, and had avoided it whenever possible since he knew it would hurt her. Gary stood, and went to look for Annie. Maybe she could probe Marina's mind a little deeper than he could, and try to understand how she was feeling.

"Gary?"
Just as he was thinking about his sister, her voice came from inside the house. Gary called back, "What's up?"

"I think I've found something. Can you give me a hand?"

He walked inside. When he found her, Annie was in the dining room, facing the blank wall in front of her. She glanced round as he entered the room, then she said, "There's something in here."

"Where?"

"Inside the wall. I was looking through the wall to check you weren't touching Marina, and I spotted something buried between the bricks."

"What is it?"

"Take a look for yourself."

Gary sighed and stood beside her. He wasn't good at this. Annie seemed to be able to use her X-ray eyesight without even thinking, but for him it was a battle of perseverance every time. Nevertheless he tried hard now, forcing his eyes to focus beyond the wall in front of him. At first he was getting nowhere; his eyes kept instinctively jumping back to focus on the wall. Then he had success, but only in looking through to the outside of the house. He could see the summer patio where he and Marina had just been sitting. He could see Marina walking down towards the beach, her bare arms and legs moving with a grace and smoothness that almost broke his concentration. He didn't always take notice of it, but she really was incredibly sexy when she dressed this way. Gary knew he shouldn't be thinking about Marina that way, but he couldn't help it. When he had first known her, she had been so upset and traumatised that she hadn't cared one jot about her appearance, but now that she was beginning to recover, she was rediscovering the effect that her body could have. While her shyness and uncertainty implied a certain modesty, Marina was slowly developing a mischievous and confident streak that allowed her to dress more provocatively. Annie frowned on it, but didn't try to stop it. It was a phase, she said. Gary couldn't remember Annie ever going through it, but maybe she was different.

"Stop looking at Marina," Annie chided, breaking into his thoughts. "Bring your eyes back – slowly! – concentrate. Can you see it?"

"Yeah…what is it?"

Inside the wall, between the inner and outer layers of bricks, a package of some kind was wedged. It was wrapped tightly in some kind of grey protective foam.

"What is it?" Gary repeated.

"I'm not sure," Annie said. "It's obviously been hidden in there for some reason."

"You think it's what this whole thing is about? You think it's what the house was searched for, what Marina's family were killed to keep secret?"

"I'm assuming it must be. I'll see if I can find some way to get it out. It won't be easy; whoever searched the house clearly never managed to find it. You go and keep your eye on Marina, in case she's attacked again. And don't touch her!"

"I won't do anything she isn't comfortable with."

Marina's body trembled as she walked along, though she knew not for sure which emotion was causing it. Was it fear? Was she afraid of the fact that she was without doubt the target of unknown forces? Was it anger? Was she angry at the fact – it seemed so obvious now – that her family had been murdered in front of her eyes? Was it guilt? Was she guilty at not being able to use her water powers to protect those in greatest need? Could she have done more to save her family? Had they really all been dead already when she'd found them? Could one or more of them still have been alive? Had she swum to the surface too quickly, thinking only of herself? Beneath the water Marina knew she was peerless: a better swimmer than any fish; stronger than any whale; more ingenious than any dolphin; more deadly than any shark. And yet, despite that, her family had drowned when she might have rescued them. Was it my fault? she asked herself, could I have used my power to save them? Could I have breathed for them and stopped them from drowning? She would never know now what might have happened if she had done things differently. Marina closed her eyes. Images of her drowned relatives instantly appeared in her mind. The dead, floating bodies were looking at her, accusing stares in their empty, soulless eyes. I killed them, she thought a voice spoke in her mind, I am a murderer.

No. I didn't kill anyone, another part of her argued.

I left them to drown while I saved myself.

No. They were already dead.

I could have saved them and I didn't even try.

No. It was too late.

I don't know that for sure.

I'll never know.

Marina opened her eyes, and the images were replaced by the sand and the sea in front of her. She sat down on a large rock just by the shoreline, and stared unseeingly into the ocean. Somewhere out there, somewhere in the depths of the Atlantic, rested the remains of the boat and her loved ones, as well as the torn-up shreds of her sanity. She couldn't see how she was as strong as Annie and Gary made out. She felt as if she might lose her mind at any moment. Any time the memories came back or she saw the images in her mind – which was beginning to happen less often – she felt as if it took every piece of willpower in her being to stop her from screaming her anguish out loud and throwing herself from the top floor of the mansion. So many times she had felt herself on the brink of going insane. So many times she had prayed desperately to a God she wasn't sure existed, begging Him to help her to stay in control and keep the shattered remains of her life together.

The images returned as she closed her eyes once more. No. I want to forget! Marina pressed her knuckles against her closed eyes as if she could push the images away. I don't want to see this every time I close my eyes! She opened her eyes. It was impossible for her to put her mind to rest. She forced herself to think about something else. The rock was beginning to dig into her bare legs. Marina stood and dipped her toes into the water. She was barefoot, her shoes and socks left inside the house, and she found herself smiling as the water rippled gently around her feet. Sometimes she was tempted to forget this life, to leave everything behind, to walk into the ocean and live the rest of her life underwater. Under the water there would be no suffering, no fear, no death, not in an environment where she was the supreme being. She could leave behind the tortured persona of Marina and simply carry on as Aqua. Sometimes she wondered why she hadn't done so already. But she knew she couldn't simply walk away from Gary. They loved each other and neither wanted to be apart. She couldn't ask Gary to live underwater with her. It wouldn't be much of a life for him, constantly wearing breathing equipment or relying on her to provide him with oxygen, having to worry about sharks and rays and nitrogen narcosis and other aquatic hazards that Marina didn't need to pay any heed to. No, the only possible solution was to stay together on the surface. Maybe in time she would start to live something resembling a normal life.

As she watched the Praetorius family's reunion, Cassandra was unsure of her feelings. While she was happy to see her friend meeting his parents again after a long time apart, she couldn't shake the envy that stabbed at her. Helios had been orphaned, just as she had, but he had found a new family who hadn't hated him for being a mutant. Cassandra hadn't been so lucky. If Pyro hadn't adopted her, she'd probably still be living at the orphanage, tormented daily by the human children, believing the things they told her, convinced that she was lower than dirt. Some people had all the luck. Some people, like herself, didn't seem to have any. To be born a mutant, with what she saw as a fairly useless mutation, and then to be denied the breaks that other people seemed to get so easily. Still, it could be worse, considering what had happened to Gemini…

"This is my friend Cassandra," Helios' voice broke into her thoughts. "From school."

Dominic's parents smiled at the girl. She was very pretty and it was obvious to them that their son had his eye on her. Still not entirely comfortable around humans, Cassandra simply nodded in reply.

"I'll take your bags to the car," said Helios' father.

"So is this your first time in Britain?" his mother asked Cassandra.

"Uh, no. I visited Edinburgh once."

Mentioning the nature of the visit probably wouldn't have been a very good idea. Cassandra was trying to forget the past. So many crazy things had happened before the X-Men and the Brotherhood had become allies. Fortunately Mrs Praetorius didn't try to pursue the matter any further. Helios was saying something to her, and his tone was uneasy.

"Listen, Mum, there's something you should know. I don't know if the adoption agency ever told you, but I've got a twin brother."

"You've got what?"

Cassandra drifted away, intrigued by the sights and sounds of the airport. She didn't want to listen to a conversation about Recyclo. The psychopath still haunted her dreams sometimes; she would never forget the haunting look of insanity on his face the last time she had ever seen him, just after he had set a bomb to wipe them out. What torments must have been inflicted on his young mind to warp and twist him into what he had become? She would never know. A person's mind was truly a wonderful and a terrible thing. Used to its full potential, a mind could give birth to true genius. Cassandra had never met Magneto but she wished she could have, to see if he really was the visionary and the inspiration that Gemini and Pyro spoke so highly of. On the other hand, if a mind was misused it could be a frightening and destructive force. Recyclo's betrayal had almost spelt doom for the whole world.

Minds were like children in a way, she decided. Raise a child with kindness and its life would be filled with love and happiness, and it would grow up a confident and creative individual. Raise a child with injustice and cruelty, and it would know no other way to live. Cassandra wanted children. She desperately wanted to raise her own offspring and try to care for them the way she would have wanted her parents to care for her. She'd wanted to start a family with Gladiator. He'd promised to marry her and be the father of her babies. He'd lied. He'd broken that promise. Sometimes she just wanted to –

"Cassandra? This way!"

She'd wandered away from them, and she hurried after Helios and his mother as they headed for the exit.

The afternoon was cool with a light breeze as they emerged out into the London air. Helios smiled, glad to be back in a familiar and comfortable climate. Cassandra shivered and was glad she'd taken the precaution of wearing a sweatshirt and jeans instead of her usual T-shirt and skirt. She'd have been freezing wearing those.

"The car's over here," said Helios' mother.

Helios fell into step beside Cassandra, and his hand brushed against hers, she guessed none too accidentally. She was about to give him a look to remind him that 'no romance' was her condition for accompanying him, but he pre-empted her, "Did you hear what happened to Vertigo and Gemini?"

"Yeah. They stopped a terrorist attack."

"Pretty brave, eh? I heard Pyro nearly lost it when he thought Gemini got hurt."

But Cassandra wasn't listening. At the sound of her own words 'terrorist attack' she had begun to grow uneasy. Something was wrong. What was it? Was she feeling uncomfortable in an unfamiliar climate in a new country? Was she beginning to think maybe this hadn't been such a good idea after all? No…there was definitely something else. Something she had just sensed…her power was still developing and recently it had begun to give her a vague feeling of unease before giving an explicit warning that something bad was going to happen. Was that the case now?

"Listen," she said to Helios. "I'm…I'm feeling all weird. I think I'm about to have a fore-flash."

"That means something dangerous is about to happen – yeah?"

"Yeah…but I don't know what…"

"Maybe a plane's going to crash."

Both of them glanced up into the sky. There were no aircraft overhead at that moment.

"Shouldn't we warn people?" he asked.

"About what? We can't just go around telling people something bad is about to happen. They'd think we're nuts."

The two of them had stopped walking, and Helios' mother was turning round to call, "What's wrong, you two?"

Cassandra was concentrating on trying to pin down the source of her unease, so Dominic explained quickly, "Cassandra can see the future; something's about to happen!"

Suddenly Cassandra grabbed his arm, "Quickly! This way! We've got to stop them!"

Without waiting for a response she turned and started running back the way they had come, into the airport terminal.

"Where are you going?" Dominic's father exclaimed. "Hey! Dominic! Cassandra!"

His son had already begun hurrying after the girl, and Praetorius sighed. Teenagers. She had probably left something behind.

"Cassandra!" Dominic cried as he caught up with her inside. "Where are we going?"

"I don't know!" she said helplessly. "All I know is somebody's about to set off a bomb inside the terminal! I saw the image in my head! But I don't know where it is!"

At that moment, two distinct sounds cut through the relative quiet of the airport terminal. The first was the sound of gunfire: the rapid guttural bark of an automatic weapon, and the second was the shrieking and blaring of alarms going off to the left, to the right, overhead, and just about every other conceivable direction. Two seconds later, these noises were joined by the inevitable sound of terrified screaming as people realised what was going on.

"What's going on? Is it terrorists?" Helios yelled over the cacophony.

It was the logical conclusion, but Cassandra didn't stop to answer him. She was already hurrying in the direction she could hear the gunfire coming from. Part of her still couldn't believe this was happening. It had to be a dream, or a joke. The coincidence was just too much. Gemini had just played her part in fighting off a terrorist attack back home – how could the same thing be happening to Cassandra barely a day later? She put it out of her mind. It didn't matter how unlikely it was, if it was already happening.

She had pushed her way through the worst of the crowd and the terminal was now virtually empty as everyone streamed for the exits. The sounds of gunfire grew closer, and she began to move more cautiously. She hadn't heard the sound of anyone being hit or crying out in pain, but she wasn't going to take any chances. Her foresight would give her early warning if she was in danger of being shot, but still she didn't want to go charging in. She had no idea what the response to this incident might be; a security team would doubtlessly be called in, but almost certainly too late to prevent the bomb going off. Cassandra had no idea just how much time she had left before her premonition came to pass, and that thought spurred her on.

She had to be close now. The gunfire sounded as if it was coming from just around the corner. Hugging the wall tightly, she could make out voices too:

"Shut up! Shut up and stay still!"

She couldn't place the accent – Scottish? Welsh? Irish? It wasn't English. The Edinburgh-born Crusader would have known. Cassandra risked a glance around the corner. Her heart sank. The situation was even worse than she had previously anticipated. In that quick glimpse before ducking her head back around the corner, she had seen there were three or four men, two with automatic weapons, two working on setting up the bomb she had foreseen. What was worse, however, was the pre-teenage girl who was kneeling on the floor in front of the gunmen, clearly a hostage. The gunfire had ceased temporarily, and all Cassandra could hear was the sound of the girl whimpering and sobbing in fear.

"Hurry it up, Sean!" she heard one of the terrorists snap.

The bomb had to be near completion, which meant it might be set off any minute now. Cassandra had no time to think of a grandiose master-plan; she just had to do whatever she could. A hand on her shoulder told her Helios was beside her.

"Terrorists," she whispered to him. "They've got a bomb. And a hostage."

He considered it, then said, "I'll draw their fire and blind them. You get the hostage to safety."

"What about the bomb?"

"Can you disarm it?"

"Given enough time, yeah. I doubt I'll get more than a split second though."

"How much time until they set it off?"

"I don't know!"

Caught in indecision for a moment, both mutants thought furiously. There had to be a way of doing this that didn't involve sacrificing either themselves or the hostage. Helios whispered into her ear, "OK, you try and disarm the bomb. That's the most important thing."

"What about the hostage?"

"If it goes off she's gonna die anyway, ain't she? I'll worry about her. Get ready to go."

"OK…"

Pulling off his gloves and dropping them on the floor, Helios stepped around the corner. He saw two men busily working with the explosive, while the other two stood over the hostage, their weapons held at waist height. Neither of them was looking in his direction.

"Hey," he said to the terrorists.

Immediately all four of them looked up in surprise. The two with guns aimed them towards him, but Dominic was already holding out his hand, shining blazing light into their eyes. They looked away, temporarily blinded, and Cassandra hurried past him, towards the bomb. Knowing that it would be a few seconds before the terrorists regained their sight, Dominic ran forward to grab the hostage, pushing her in the direction of safety. He grabbed the automatic weapon from the terrorist nearest him, and flung it aside. The second gunman seemed to have recovered at least some of his sight, and he lashed out at the vague shape of Dominic in front of him. The young mutant avoided the clumsy blow and grabbed at the man's rifle. The two of them struggled with it for a second, then Dominic's hand snagged on something on the man's shirt, ripping it free, pulling the weapon out of the terrorist's hands as he did so.

Cassandra worked quickly, disconnecting as many of the bomb's components as she could, slipping into her pocket one or two vital parts that she recognised. The two terrorists who'd been working on the explosive device were still rubbing their eyes painfully, moaning and waiting for their eyesight to return. Suddenly, without warning, another image popped into her head.

"Helios! Look out!" she yelled.

From around the corner came six men in dark grey attire, weapons at the ready. This had to be the airport's security team.

"Freeze!!" their leader demanded.

Helios held up his hand again, and blinding light shone into the eyes of the men. He had no desire to be caught by the security forces. He knew they would not believe him if he told them the truth, that he and Cassandra had been trying to stop the terrorists. Mutants together with terrorists would only lead the authorities to one conclusion. As the security force stumbled, clutching at their eyes, Helios grabbed Cassandra and pulled her away from the scene. The hostage was nowhere to be seen, and he assumed she too had run. Helios and Cassandra ran as fast as they could to the exit. They could leave the security team to finish disarming the bomb. Their work here was done. It wasn't until they got outside that Dominic realised he was still holding on to the object he'd inadvertently torn from the terrorist's shirt.

Almost everybody who knew her assumed, incorrectly, that Acceleratus' mutation controlled her speed of movement. In actual fact her mutation had nothing to do with her speed. Instead it governed her acceleration. While normal humans could accelerate for a brief period until reaching top speed, Acceleratus had no such limit. She could accelerate as long as she had the energy to keep going. It was Pyro who had suggested the name Acceleratus to the little seven year old who was too young to understand the difference between speed and acceleration. While most people called her Accel for short, she was used to being given her full name by the adults, even if she didn't really know what it meant.

"Come on, you promised," she was pleading, holding Vertigo's hand and pulling in the direction she wanted to go.

"It's getting late, honey…"

"But you promised!"

"What did he promise, Accel?" asked Gemini.

"He said he'd practice my self defence with me this evening! Come on, Vertie!"

Eventually he gave into the child's persistence and allowed himself to be dragged off towards the gym. Gemini followed, mainly out of curiosity to see how the little girl was progressing. Accel's ability to move at speed had always been impressive, but now that she was being properly taught and trained how to make full use of her power, she could run at speeds that were simply breathtaking. Pyro had theorised that one day she might even be capable of accelerating faster than the speed of light, assuming she didn't tire and stop short in the process.

The gym was empty, and Gemini watched as Vertigo and Accel moved on to one of the soft padded floor areas that was used for self defence training. She saw the determination clear on the little girl's face, as she assumed a defensive posture and waited for Vertigo to make the first move. Gemini knew Vertigo would always begin things slow and steady to make sure Accel was prepared, to make sure he didn't hurt her. It wasn't easy training a child this young to use martial arts, and some of the adults frowned on it, but Accel was determined to learn one way or another. The child easily dodged Vertigo's first few attacks: easy, gentle ones just to get them into the rhythm. Then he began attacking faster and sharper, with swift cutting blows that would have knocked Accel to the ground if she hadn't avoided them.

"Good, very good," said Vertigo appreciatively. "Remember, always look for the opportunity to counter attack!"

She did so slightly sooner than he was expecting. The child swerved easily away from his next attack, and drove at the back of his legs, using his momentum to throw him forward. Vertigo was caught by surprise and managed to hit the ground in a roll, back on his feet in an instant. He was wary now, remembering just how quickly she picked things up, and he was more conservative with the next few attacks. Then, when he felt Acceleratus was tiring and off balance, Vertigo struck like a snake, his hand whipping out to strike between her shoulder blades. Moving so fast she was virtually a blur, the girl twisted away, and again used his momentum to throw him to the ground. Before Vertigo could react, she was on top of him, pinning his arms to the ground as he had taught her. For a moment he was stunned. She was so fast it was incredible. The little girl giggled, "I beat you! First one to pin wins, remember!"

Gemini was laughing too, and for a moment Vertigo felt angry. The girl hadn't beaten him – he'd deliberately been going easy on her! With his superior strength he knew he could fling her to the ground now and knock her unconscious with a single blow. He didn't want his new girlfriend to think that he had been defeated by a tiny child. For a moment he was ready to lash out at Acceleratus, but then he stopped, and got himself under control. He knew his feelings for Gemini were doing crazy things to him, but he couldn't let it dictate the way he acted. He sat up, the little girl sliding down on to his knee, and he smiled at her.

"You're good, honey," he said, stroking her hair. "You're doing everything the way I taught you to."

She smiled back innocently. Vertigo forced himself to be pleased that the child was responding well to his teaching and developing her skills. Accel was learning things that might one day save her life. At the same time though, he knew he'd never live this down. He was arguably the best martial arts fighter at the school, challenged only by Shapeshifter and Nightcrawler, and he had just been floored by one of the smallest kids here. Ah well, that was life. The master always had to be prepared to be excelled by the pupil. Acceleratus stood and helped him to his feet, closing her eyes and hugging him contentedly. Vertigo smiled. He knew he loved the little girl. He'd helped raise her and look after her when she had first arrived on the island, as they all had, and in a way she was like a little sister to all of them.

Gemini knelt down and prised Accel away from him, saying, "OK, honey, I think it's time you were going to bed now…"

She lifted the sleepy child into her arms, then faced Vertigo and sighed, "I just remembered. Crusader's away with Aqua, and Cassie's gone too. There's going to be nobody else in my room tonight. I hate being alone at night."

"Well, Helios and Gladiator are gone too. You could come sleep in our room," he offered.

"Yeah, right. And have Atlas looking up my nightdress when I'm fast asleep? No thanks."

"Well, I could come sleep in your room."

"Uh, no. I don't think my dad would allow that. I'll see you in the morning."

"OK. 'Night, Accel."

But the little girl was already asleep. Gemini carried her out through the door, and Vertigo idly moved over to one of the exercise machines in the corner of the gym. Maybe he could work off some of his restlessness this way.

Annie wiped sweat from her brow as she finally managed to work the package free. The bricks had fought hard to keep hold of their prize, but Annie's persistence had paid off as she eventually found the one weak brick that moved out easily, allowing her to pull the others out of place. The weak brick was probably the one that had been pulled out to hide the package in the wall in the first place. Now the package lay in her hands, and she looked for a way to pull it open. The outer protective foam layer was tough and resistant, and she could see no immediately obvious way to get it off. Annie was intrigued. Whatever this was, somebody had gone to a lot of trouble to hide it. She could only assume it was what the house had been searched for, and the reason why Marina's family had been killed, to prevent this from falling into the wrong hands. The reason why Marina's life was still in danger.

Annie projected her sight through the wall and looked down to the beach, to check on her friend. Marina sat on a rock beside the water, with Gary beside her. His arm was around her shoulders and hers around his waist. Annie brought her attention back to the package. There had to be some way to get it open. She could try looking through the wrappings to see what was inside, but her X-ray vision tended to be unsuitable for detailed study like this. Annie gripped the package at both ends and tried to pull the foam casing apart. It held firm, and she gritted her teeth, tensing her muscles and using the Herculean body strength she'd inherited from her brother. She felt something give, then the packaging was torn in two, and the contents fell out, dropping towards the floor. Annie's telekinetic power caught them just before they hit the ground. She didn't know whether or not they were breakable, but she didn't want to take the risk. She knelt down to examine the object now held in place by her mind.

It was an envelope, brown paper, A4 sized but folded up to fit inside the package. Unfolding the envelope, she tipped the contents into her lap. Now she saw what she had been half-expecting: a DVD-ROM in a clear plastic sleeve. Annie turned it over, but there were no markings on either side to indicate what might be on it. Annie projected her mind outwards until she could sense her brother.

Gary, bring Marina up to the house. I've found something.

Annie waited until she heard them entering the house, then she stood and went to meet them.

"Marina, is there a DVD player in the house?" she asked.

Holding Gary's hand, Marina nodded, "In the – in the front room."

"Is that what was in the package?" Gary asked, pointing the to the disk in Annie's hand.

"Yes. Whatever's on it must be the reason why all this has happened."

"What are you talking about?" said Marina.

"We found this buried inside the wall. It must have been hidden there. It must be what these people were searching for."

The three of them walked through to the front room, where Marina opened one of the cupboards to pull out a DVD player.

"We always put it in the cupboard to hide it from sight when we go away," she explained. "I mean we – we used to…"

She connected the player to the TV and Annie inserted the disk. Gary glanced out of the window, half out of curiosity, half to make certain no attackers were in sight. They couldn't predict when Marina might be attacked again. They just had to stay alert and protect her if and when something did happen. It was unfortunate that Cassandra was not here to warn them of any impending danger. Then again, Gary couldn't be sure that Cassie would particularly care about protecting Marina. The girls sat down in front of the TV to watch whatever was on the disk, and Gary settled down beside Marina.

For the first few moments there was nothing, and Annie was beginning to wonder if the disk was blank or had been corrupted, but then an image came on to the screen.

"Mom? Dad?" Marina gasped.

Annie recognised the middle-aged man and woman on screen from the family photograph Marina had been holding earlier.

"Marina honey," the woman smiled. "We made this recording for you in the event that anything ever happened to us. We hid it inside the house in the hope that you would find it. We hope you never have to see this."

"Mom…" Marina sobbed, reaching out towards the screen as if she could touch her mother.

Her father took over, "We're taking the boat out tonight to try and flee the country. It isn't safe for us to stay here. If all goes well we'll be safe in Canada and you'll never have to see this recording."

Marina buried her head in Annie's shoulder as a fresh burst of tears came. Gary thought: so they weren't just on a pleasure cruise when their boat was attacked. They were running for their lives!

"It isn't safe for us to stay in the US," Marina's mother was saying. "Your brother has discovered evidence of corruption high up in the US Navy. We don't know how deep it runs, but almost certainly into the government. He's had two attempts on his life already to keep him from revealing the truth. We have no choice but to leave the country."

Her father said, "If anything happens to us, and you think you're in danger, there's a person we want you to contact. Her name's Felicity Arkwright. You've never met her, but she's a friend of the family."

"Shock…" said Annie.

"We never told you this, Marina honey, but…" her mother hesitated. "…well, there isn't an easy way to say this: you're a mutant. I know this isn't going to be easy for you, but they told us when you were born. We were going to tell you when you were a little older. Don't worry, we've always loved you, honey. Miss Arkwright works at a school for mutants. If anything happens to us, she'll try to find you. They can protect you at the school."

"All the evidence your brother collated is encrypted on this disk," her father said. "Pass it on to Miss Arkwright and she can – "

Suddenly Gary said, "Can you smell something?"

Annie sniffed the air, then her eyes widened, "Fire!"

"What?" said Marina, still intent on the image of her parents.

"The house is on fire!"

The Rosiçkys leapt to their feet, looking around for the source of the fire. Had they left something switched on in the kitchen?

"Gary, look out!" Annie screamed.

The front room windows shattered into millions of tiny shards of glass as bullets began to rip into the interior of the house. Gary tackled Annie to the floor, the bullets zipping overhead. Marina, still seated, was not in danger.

"We're under attack!" Gary cried.

"The disk! Get the disk!" Annie yelled at Marina.

Keeping low, Marina crawled over, pulled the disk from inside the DVD player and clutched it tightly.

"When I tell you, run for the exit!" Annie told them, and the fourteen year-olds nodded.

She projected her vision through the wall to see what was happening outside. A group of men, five or more, wearing black and holding automatic rifles, were crouch-running towards the house. Annie suddenly realised they hadn't heard the sound of any gunfire; the weapons had to be equipped with silencers. The smell of the fire was getting stronger, and smoke was beginning to creep under the door. They had to get out now. Annie stood and faced the window.

"Run! Now!" she told them.

Gary and Marina ran for the door as Annie leapt out of the window to deal with the attackers.

"Drop her!" one of the approaching men yelled.

Annie's hand rose and the incoming bullets stopped in mid-air before her. At the same time she jerked her other hand, pulling the weapons out of the men's hands, throwing them aside. The men reacted in shock; some of them ran to get their weapons back, some of them stood still and tried to make sense of what had just happened, while others seized grenades from their belts. A glance behind her told Annie that the building was now in flames, and she hurried away from the inferno. One of the assassins challenged her with a knife, and Annie flipped over in mid-air to kick it away from him. Two men threw grenades at her, but her mind power held the explosives in mid-air where they went off harmlessly. She sensed Gary and Marina running down towards the beach, and began to head that way herself. Annie could have killed the attackers quite easily, but killing was not her preferred course of action. Besides, she was more worried about keeping Marina safe. A telekinetic blast knocked the men off their feet and sent them sprawling, then Annie was hurrying after her brother and his girlfriend.

Gary had taken a bullet in the shoulder but his immunity to pain had stopped him from being slowed down. Marina was wrapping a scrap of something around his arm to stop the bleeding. It was quite unnecessary, as Gary could heal himself using Annie's power, but Marina was only doing what her instinct told her to do for the man she loved. Annie looked back to where she had left the assassins flat on their backs, but nobody was following close behind her. Maybe the men were more concerned with destroying the house and what they had failed to find inside it. The disk was still clutched in Marina's small hand. Annie hoped it held the answers to what was going on and why people wanted to kill her friend. The recording had said something about corruption in the Navy and possibly the government…was that who had sent these people to kill Marina?

The roar of an aircraft engine directly overhead made all three of the teenage mutants run for cover.

"Shit, they've brought in air support!" Gary yelled.

Then Annie looked up, "No, they haven't! It's our jet! Shapeshifter said he was coming to pick up Marina, remember?"

The assassins were on them again, surrounding their hiding position, back in possession of their weapons and moving a lot more carefully now. The jet was circling around to land further up the beach.

"Stay quiet and make a break for it once Chris lands," Annie hissed.

"Fuck that," Gary snapped angrily, rising to his feet.

She tried to pull him back, but he camouflaged himself and was gone. Marina was still holding the disk and Annie was afraid it might get broken.

"Put that in your pocket," she said.

"My skirt doesn't have any…"

"Give it here then!"

The foremost of the assassins smirked as he approached. The two girls were huddled together in the scant cover provided by a small cave at the back of the beach. It was a shame to kill them, he thought. They were both pretty. A bit young, perhaps, but younger ones were often better in the sack.

"Sir, why don't we take them on their backs somewhere before we kill them?" he spoke into his comm. unit.

"They're children, you fucking rapist, just kill them," came the angry response.

An invisible fist slammed into the man's throat before he could go any further, throwing him on to his back. Gagging, he clutched desperately at his neck. Gary stamped on his kneecap, breaking it, ignoring the man's screams, then went for the others. They were already backing away, bewildered by what they had just seen, fearing whatever invisible enemy might be stalking them now. Their leader was the first to react sensibly, pulling his infra-red night vision goggles out of his pack. Gary kicked him in the chest before he could put them on, and punched another man so hard he went flying into the water.

The jet had now landed, and Annie and Marina were running towards the lowering ramp. Still caught up in his anger, Gary wanted to finish off the attackers first. There were only two left now. He punched one unconscious. The last man aimed his gun at the fleeing girls, peppering them with bullets. Annie pushed Marina to the sand and covered her with her own body. Gary felt his fury rise, his invisibility drop, and he breathed a huge jet of flame towards the rapidly retreating gunman.

"No!" Marina screamed.

Her hands were out, and a jet of water shot from the ocean to intercept the flames before the man's head could be burned to a cinder.

"Don't kill people!" she yelled at Gary.

The man turned his weapon on Gary, but the boy ripped it out of his hands with impossible speed and bent the rifle in half. The man gaped, and did the only sensible thing. He fled. Gary considered going after him, but Marina was beckoning him towards the jet, and he hurried after the girls.

The landing ramp closed just as he reached the top, and the jet rose into the air. Storm was flying, and Shapeshifter hurried into the back to take Marina in his arms.

"I – I'm OK," she told him.

"Annie, what's going on down there?" Storm asked.

Annie said nothing, but Storm's eyes began to widen with comprehension. Gary assumed his sister was telepathing to her. It was the easiest and quickest way to explain something.

"Why are people trying to kill my daughter?" Shapeshifter demanded, his eyes boring accusingly into Gary.

"I think this disk will tell us," Annie said, holding up the DVD ROM.