Chapter 7: - The Missing Link
A.N:- Thanks for all the reviews please keep them coming. By the way Im not a doctor or a genetisist so theres probably a zillion plot holes but use your imagination and it'll all be fine!
"What do you mean he joined the links?" said Brennan.
"Well you see" said Baby uncomfortably "he came to live in the safe house to recuperate after he got shot up pretty bad, this was before we found Jamie but umm after we found Jamie there was a sort of falling out and Devon decided that Ashlocke's ideals met with his better than Adams, so he left, but it was my fault! He would've stayed if…."
"It wasn't your fault" interrupted Jamie angrily. "He went back to thieving so you ditched him. What did you do wrong?" he said with contempt.
"Jamie's right" said Lexa "he wouldn't listen and I don't think you ditching him as Jamie so adequately put it had anything to do with it. He wasn't ready for this life, just as Leo and I weren't when we first met Adam. He had just as much reason to mistrust others as we did."
"Yeah but he knew that wasn't the only reason it wouldn't work" said Baby looking pointedly at Jamie before turning away.
"Let me get this straight" said Brennan "I have a brother called Devon whom no-ones seen since he joined the Links a few years ago because of some falling out between him and Baby. Am I right?"
Lexa nodded.
"So why couldn't you tell me about him. He's not presumed dead like these two were. So why did you keep his existence from me?" he yelled angrily.
"Because quite frankly he may not be presumed dead but equally we can only presume he's alive we don't know where he is now. What could I tell you, oh by the way you have a brother but he's disappeared off the face of the earth. You would totally have believed me because trust was so forthcoming at the beginning! Besides the Links as you know are gone; dissipated except for those still hunting for Riley and the child but Devon isn't one of them, I checked he wasn't there." Said Lexa
Brennan took a calming breath. "She has a point Brennan" said Shalimar trying to placate him. "If he ran off of his own accord what was Lexa supposed to tell you?"
"It's not like we've given up on him were still looking for him. The old safe house we lived in before is checked by us twice a week to see if Devon's tried to find us" said Baby quickly.
"We'll find him eventually, when he wants to be found. We need to focus on finding Adam for the moment" said Jamie.
"So he turned to a life of crime, huh. What did he do?" said Brennan clearly having ignored Jamie.
"Robbed banks! He thought I'd be impressed by it!" irony flooded Baby's voice "I wasn't!"
"He sounds a lot like me a few years ago" said Brennan with something akin to pride.
"You almost sound pleased!" said Shalimar indignantly.
"Not pleased exactly. I just understand how hard it would be for him to settle into our lifestyle because I've been there, using my powers to take advantage of situations. What mutancy does my brother have? Actually can you explain exactly what it is each of you can do?" Asked Brennan
"Devon had powers over earth… has"she emphasisied"power over earth. He can create earthquakes and stuff. He can also create earth from his hands to make blockades. He could move earth out of the way as well. The robberies he did, well the police gave the perp a nickname, Moleman. He'd get into the vault from the underground in a matter of minutes." said Jamie.
"Wow" said Jesse vaguely impressed "I read about the Moleman robberies, the police were baffled."
Jamie continued "Yeah but Baby realised it was him. She didn't grass on him but well it ruined things between them. Anyway, I can teleport as you've already seen and I can mass as well."
"You really are a lot like me!" said Jamie happily.
Jamie nodded "and Baby, well by birth she was a feral" he paused "maybe you'd be better to explain it" he squeezed her shoulder encouragingly.
Baby took a deep breath then began "He's right I'm a feral in part but even between me and ordinary ferals there are differences because of the "cure" being amped up." She turned to Shalimar "I have regular feral hearing and senses and my agilities unmatched if I do say so myself. I urgh I also have claws" she said holding up her hand to show ordinary finger nails. She released her fingernails slowly, they became three inches long and were tapered to a point. She retracted them again. "Its hell on a manicure!" she grinned at the looks of surprise on their faces.
"That's definitely not something I've seen before!" Shalimar breathed clearly surprised.
"Yeah, its urgh, rather unique!" Baby's smile began to fade "but not as unique as my other "talents""
"You mean the whole creating fire thing?" said Shalimar concernedly.
Baby nodded. "That's not natural, that's an add on. Eckhart grafted a thermal elementals mutant D.N.A strand with my own to see how a feral would deal with their own personal fire arsenal.
"Not well" said Lexa with an ironic smile "is what they discovered"
"What a surprise!" said Jesse "But you did O.K. right I mean we saw how well you could use it back at dominion H.Q"
"Yes but I only really got a handle on it in the last year. It took me eight years to get to the point where I'm not scared of myself and what I can do" said Baby bitterly as her eyes turned hazy as she got lost in painful memories.
"Those Bastards! You can only have been 10" roared Shalimar. I'm a grown adult and I still can't stand to be near fire, but for a kid!" her eyes showed deep sympathy.
"Let's just say it wasn't a walk in the park! Without Lexa I don't know where I'd be now but I wouldn't be the well adjusted person you see before you!" she said trying to lighten the mood.
"You, well adjusted!" said Lexa sarcastically but her smile negated the speech.
"Hold the phone. You've known Lexa since you were ten?" Brennan asked.
"No. Since way before then, I was six when I first met her. She was assigned as my trainer at Genomex" she responded.
"I'm still here you know!" said Lexa grinning "I can speak for myself, If your going to tell the story you may as well start at the beginning. After Leo and I "left" the military institution our parents put us in, we were on the run. We were just kids and Leo wasn't doing so well. Anyway Adam found us on the streets took us to Sanctuary tried to help Leo. We were the original Mutant X or at least we would've been if we stuck round. But after two years Adam still couldn't do anything to help Leo. He needed help and when Eckhart offered us help, I trusted him" she began to pace in anger. "I signed my brother over to Eckhart!"
"It wasn't your fault! Besides you signed yourself over as well" butted in Baby.
"Yeah but I got inducted, he got tortured, which sounds like the better existence" Lexa said bitterly.
"Speaking as someone who survived both, they both suck!" responded Baby. "You have to stop blaming yourself Lex, he wouldn't have wanted you to become like this"
"Maybe" said Lexa noncommittally "Anyway I digress; when I was in Genomex after a couple of years of training they decided that I, an eighteen year old with no experience of children was the right person to train a super powerful mutant child. Go figure!"
"She was told to train me" said Baby moving over to stand next to Lexa. "I was six years old. I'd spent my entire life in isolation; my feral abilities were totally out of control. In the beginning it was an uneasy partnership" she grinned.
"My entire time at Genomex my main assignment was to train Baby. I didn't exactly follow training protocol though!" said Lexa smilingly.
"I think I preferred your way" Baby said smiling back.
"How did you get out of there?" said Jesse interestedly.
"First attempt was a total bust! Leo well actually Troy had just escaped we didn't have any real plan, just went for it. Bad Idea that, second time worked like a dream though except by then we'd been given the implants and we went psycho" said Baby rubbing her neck subconsciously.
"The dominion fixed well partly fixed the implants and I made the arrangement to work for them if they helped me find Leo" said Lexa.
"I didn't trust them" said Baby "In hindsight I'd like brownie points for being right on the money there. I tried to get Lexa to come with me when I left but she's rather stubborn."
"Who me?" said Lexa sarcastically "Another genius decision on my part"
"Anyway I was out on my own for a while; keeping out of the way of Eckhart's goons wasn't easy. Anyway Adam found me using my powers for shall we say inappropriate job. Nothing heavy" she said in defence at the look of horror on Shalimar's face. "I just had a little bit of an unfair advantage in the ring. So Adam tried to put me in the underground after Eckhart's goons got a little too close. He did a D.N.A test to see what the hell my mutancy was exactly and realised that I was related to Shalimar. He explained this too me and I explained to him the story of my life so far. He wanted to train me to control my aggression and to get rid of a few of my G.S.A habits before letting me join you" she pointed at the others. "Obviously he knew Lexa and when he heard Lexa was at the dominion he asked them if he could use her to train me up for the team, at this point the dominion was fully funding Adam."
"They hesitantly agreed but I still had to be available for their missions and they gave us all the information they had on "super mutants"" said Lexa.
"From this Adam realised that you guys had siblings, so me and Lexa tracked them down. Adam set guys up to build this place but only me and Jamie moved in because Devon had already left and Lexa was off on a dominion mission. Adam joined us here when he well "died" and told us to make it look like we'd died in a fire at the old safe house" Baby explained.
"And that's the abridged version of events!" said Lexa slumping down onto a sofa.
"Hmm" laughed Baby dryly "Our lives in a nutshell, oh such happy memories"
"Why is it so hard to find a mutant with a happy past?" asked Jesse not really expecting an answer.
The group turned silent as each individual got lost in their own private memories. After a long few minute Shalimar suddenly spoke. "I dreamt of having a sister as a kid when I was in the institution, someone to keep me company" she shuddered. Brennan squeezed her shoulder comfortingly. "And now I have one. How much can your life change in one day?"
"I know what you mean. This morning the four of us were the nearest thing we all had to family, now there are three siblings we never knew we had" said Jesse in bewilderment looking at Jamie.
Shalimar nodded "and we don't even know where one of them is." She turned sympathetically to Brennan.
"I'll find him whether he wants to be found or not!" he said with conviction.
"Sure we will but Adam has to be our priority, he's been taken, Devon can get in touch if he wants, that's the difference" said Jamie.
Lexa stood up and rapidly fled the room. They heard a door slam and a lock click.
"Lexa what's wrong? Come back, we need to plan the next move" said Brennan not understanding what her problem was.
"Damn! How could we be so insensitive?" said Shalimar.
"What?" asked Brennan in confusion.
"Leo" said Jesse and Baby in unison.
"I need to go after her" continued Jesse rushing to his feet.
"Whoa, bad plan" said Jamie holding him back.
"He's right. She'll bite your head off right now. Let me go" Baby insisted.
"What makes you a better choice?" asked Jesse not seeing her logic.
"Simply because she couldn't control me when I was six, no way am I getting my arse whopped now" she said smiling "Besides she's family and I owe her big time"
Shalimar nodded "Let her in Jesse, somehow I don't think knocking will get us anywhere."
They walked over to the door. Jesse phased it and Baby walked through. "Good luck" whispered Jesse to the fully reformed door. He walked slowly back to where the others waited.
Baby looked round the apparently empty room. Her eyes flashed yellow "Lex, you know I can see you. What's the point?"
Lexa appeared in a blaze of light "Does no one understand the concept of a locked door?" she said slumping down on the bed dejectedly
"Not when it's my locked door! All the rooms you could have chosen and you pick the only one that's taken!" Baby turned sombre and sat down next to Lexa "I'm sorry about Leo, Lex no one meant to upset you"
"Just leave it O.K. Go back out there, you finally got your family, enjoy it!" she said bitterly "I'm outta here as soon as I get some sleep"
"Is that what this is about? You think you have no family now. That's bull Lex! I may be speaking for the others but I know that were all as a group the nearest thing to a family you can get. But besides that I'm mightily pissed that you think I'm that fickle. I may have a sister but you've been like a mum to me and there's no way I'm ready to give that up and I never will be. You looked after me most of my life, I'm not letting you run off now, I still need you. Also I don't think Jesse would let you" she said raising her eyebrows in an imitation of Lexa's oft used expression and grinning.
"Shut up!" said Lexa but her grin belittled her chastisement. "Maybe your right"
"Of course I am. When am I ever wrong? So" Baby said tugging Lexa up by the hand "you going to come back before Jesse has a coronary!"
"Will you leave Jesse out of it?" Lexa grumpily replied "and you really need to watch your language young lady"
"Yes Mum!" Baby teased. "But you know you cant change the subject, There's no way in hel…" she paused and corrected herself "on earth I'm dropping the Jesse issue its way to much fun to tease you! He likes you and you haven't exactly been doing a very good job of keeping him away Lexa. Someone finally melted the tough outer shell" said Baby laughing as she went to the door and unlocked it.
"How the hell do you know all this?" Lexa responded in confusion.
"Oh so it's fine for you to swear! Double standards" Baby laughed "Adam set our com-rings to your signal so we could hear you but you couldn't hear us. You've had an interesting year!" she grinned and ran through the door towards the others clearly expecting trouble.
"You've been listening in on our private conversations for a whole year!" yelled Lexa racing after her.
"I'm in trouble!" said Baby using her feral abilities to climb the back wall to the balcony away from Lexa's wrath. Jamie teleported to join her.
"Why'd you have to tell her that? You idiot" yelled Jamie at Baby.
"What's going on?" said Jesse looking up at the two cowering mutants on the balcony. He turned to face Lexa as she entered the room.
"They've been constantly listening in on our com-ring frequency all year" Lexa said indignantly.
"Hey, not all the time" said Baby defensively leaning over the edge of the balcony to see the others. "We have lives of our own. Besides I don't regret it I made a lot of money on bets thanks to it" she smiled at Jamie.
"You bet on us" said Brennan almost laughing.
"What did you bet?" said Shalimar
"You and your big mouth now were really in trouble" whispered Jamie to Baby. Baby remained suspiciously silent.
"Baby, what exactly did you bet on?" said Lexa not seeing the funny side of this.
"Umm" Baby responded fishing for more time.
Suddenly a piercing squeal began to penetrate Saveria coming from the computer area behind Baby and Jamie.
"What the hell is that? Are we being invaded?" Jesse asked worriedly.
"Saved by the E.P.P." said Jamie smiling.