Emma sat in front of the computer, half-heartedly searching the database. Brennan had begged her to take over his search for Adam, saying something about needing to talk with Jesse. Sensing his desperation and urgency, she agreed, thinking it would only take half an hour.
Yeah, that was two hours ago, and Emma was starting to get pissed off. "Brennan and Jesse better be having one deep conversation," Emma said to herself, closing another false lead. "God, what is she a ghost?" Emma asked the computer a few minuets later; frustration was getting the better of her. "And just my luck, Shal's out hunting!" Emma pushed herself away from the computer, spinning in the wheelie chair, when a flashing light on another computer caught her eye.
"What is that?" Emma got up and walked over to the console, and pressed a button on the keyboard. Instantly an emergency alert filed the screen, "Jesse Kilmartion needs assistance." Emma felt fear rise in her stomach as she tried to raise Shal on the comm.
"Shal, can you here me?"
"Yeah Em, go ahead."
"Shal do you know where the boys are?"
"The last time I checked, Brennan was going to apologize to Jesse for opening his mouth. Why?"
"Because I'm getting an emergency alert from Jess' comm."
Shal was silent.
"Shal, you there?"
"Yeah Em. Can you bring up their location?"
"Give me a sec." Emma typed a few commands, and in seconds Sanctuary's own version of GPS came up with three blinking red dots. Two, seemingly unmoving dots were right next to each other. "It looks like they're at the factory from earlier, and they're not moving. Ninety Eight Walker Ridge Road. Actually, it's about twenty miles from you, Shal. "
"Find Adam and let him know what's going on, and I'll head over there. I want you to meet me there."
"Right."
"Now what can be so damn important that you summon me in the middle of dinner?" Manson Eckhart was not happy. Not only had Adam Kane's pets interfered with his plans again, but his evening had now been ruined by a frantic call from an intern.
Jessica Kilmont and Eric Freeman stood nervously before their employer. Eric was a small, red headed man who looked like he stepped out of Geeks-R-Us. He was a new mutant who could download himself into a computer, so to speak. Jessica was a brunette, with long legs that never got used. She was paraplegic, but nature always gives compensation. She had the ability to move things with her mind.
Together, the two new mutants monitored obsolete Genomex facilities. It was a rather boring and tedious job of watching computer screens and checking computer files, until today. In Lab Facility Seven, the computers showed unauthorized signs of inhabitants, meaning that someone, or something, had broken in. That had been three hours ago, and they had alerted the security officer of the day, Agent Witson.
Agent Witson had ordered them to bring up visual. Simple, easy, except the security system in the lab was lousy and, even with Eric's abilities, it took them two hours to get visual. However, it paid off, because who other should be in the lab than Jesse Kilmartin and Brennan Mulray.
"We have good news Mr. Eckhart, sir," Jessica said nervously.
"During our daily sweep of the outside facilities we discovered two members of Mutant X, Jesse Kilmartin and Brennan Mulray, in facility seven. There appears to be a gas rupture; one of the anesthetic tanks had been turned over, but they appear to be breathing," added Freeman.
"Very good Ms. Kilmont, Mr. Freeman. This is good news," Eckhart looked up at Witson who had been standing in the shadows of the small monitoring room. "Agent Witson, ready a team and prepare to bring our guests home."
"Already done sir, they will be there in ten minutes."
After a few minutes of clean air, Brennan was already shaking the effects of the drug. His head was pounding, his body felt like it had gone one on one with a angry bull, but he was waking up. And he was awake enough to know Jesse wasn't with him.
"Jess!" he called weakly, and his body was racked with coughing as his lungs tried to expel the excess gas. "Jess! Where are you!" Brennan pulled himself up to his knees, still trying to get his breath. He looked around him and noticed that the door to the lab was still shut. In an instant, memories flew across his brain; the smell of something sickly sweet, the sound of hissing, him falling into the tank… "Jess!" Brennan shouted and managed to get himself to the door.
He pulled at the handle frantically, but the handle had frozen in place…'or locked itself…' With expertise, Brennan sent a small shock into the door's lock, and the handle budged. The gas immediately hit Brennan as it rushed out of the room. His head started to go blank again and he felt himself falling, but he forced himself to shake it off and scan the room outside for Jesse.
Jesse was slumped next to the door, barely moving. "Jess, can you hear me?" Brennan asked as he picked him up in a fireman's carry. "Man you're heavy. What has Adam been feeding you?" Brennan laid him down gently about eight feet from the door and began checking his pulse.
Jesse was alive. His heart was beating, but barely. His color was terrible, almost a grayish ash color. He gave no response when Brennan tried to wake him up. He didn't even move when Brennan smacked his face. "This isn't good," Brennan said.
Emma ran hurriedly into the lab where she knew Adam was. Sure enough, the scientist was hard at work, bent over a microscope. Emma took a moment to catch her breath and calm herself down. Her heart was going a mile a second and a million "what ifs" were going through her mind.
"Adam?" she called from the doorway.
Adam flinched at Emma's call. He jerked up, knocking over a glass of water next to him. "Oh. Emma, you surprised me. I was just studying a piece of fish-lizard hybrid cell structure. This is fantastic; no matter what type of water I add the cells don't seem to be affected…" Adam trailed off as he saw the expression on Emma's face.
"Brennan and Jess are in trouble. Jesse activated his alert. They're at the factory from earlier. Shal's already on her way. She wants us to meat her there with the Helix."
"What are we waiting for?" Adam said as he followed Emma to the hanger.
Shal had been 'hunting' when Emma called. It had been peaceful, just her and Mother Nature, looking for a fawn and doe. She was enjoying the rush and the feel of her body melting into the rhythm of nature. Now she was frantically racing down the road on her bike, still five miles away from Brennan and Jess.
She knew that they were hurt; she could feel it. Which only made her increase her speed. Scenery was a blur as her mind raced through a hundred possibilities, and after an eternity she finally saw the factory come into view. However, it didn't fill her with relief, instead a new dread filled her, and she cursed with words she didn't know she had.
The GSA had beaten her there.
Brennan had been trying to wake Jess for the last five minutes, without any luck. He now had to defend himself and Jess from the ten GSA agents that were now headed their way.
"Sanctuary? Can anyone hear me?" he spoke softly into his comm. while trying to keep up with the ten agents who were now fanning out in view. There was no answer, and Brennan felt his heart kick into overdrive. There was no way he felt well enough to take on these agents, not to mention that he had torn open the stitches in his arm when he carried Jesse out. He risked a glance at Jess, who still looked terrible.
"I will never let you live this down if you sleep through this," Brennan said as he slowly rose to his feet, diverting his full attion to the agents in front of him. Brennan formed a tassel coil and prepared to fight, "Dream of a miracle bro."