A/N: Characters such as Pamela Walker and Keith are Ross' creations (FFN member RJF), and Emma DeLauro is also from his fanfiction. She is originally a character out of a show called Mutant X, and she's (as the title says) a highly powerful psionic mutant who (in Ross' story) becomes an immortal empath with the ability to pink orb (his creation). Michelle Bigelow is also a character from season one of Mutant X. She was an old High School buddy of Emma's with psionic-elemental powers. She was what they call a "telecyber," who can mentally communicate with machines. The episode she appeared in was called Interface, which is where the title for this chapter comes from. (P.S. I fixed the typo in the last chapter. And for anyone who also reads Ross' trilogy, the part where Pamela has moved into Keith's apartment hasn't happened in his story yet, just in case you're confused. Ross, I hope you don't mind me blurting that out!)
Change Happens
Chapter 36: A Familiar Interface
----Alternate Reality----
"Mmm." Emma DeLauro closed her eyes and savored the bittersweet flavor of her hot bumblebee latte; a banana and Irish crème coffee mixture. As she pulled the lid away from her lips, a cool New York breeze rustled her cherry red locks. She moved away from the coffee stand and into the bustling crowd.
Emma had been helping out one of her new empath charges earlier that morning. This had been the first in three hours that she'd gotten a moment to herself. Apparently her new charge had far more than normal going on in his life, as if being a gay teenage boy with deathly religious parents wasn't bad enough.
Glancing at her wrist watch, she noticed it was already 9:30 A.M. The empath groaned inwardly. She'd been up since before six in the morning. "People shouldn't have to endure such trauma." Emma took another sip of her latte. "I wonder if Pam's home?" She placed her hand to her hip, contemplating dropping by for an unexpected visit.
The telempath ducked into a New York alleyway, missing a crowd of business workers on their way back to the office. She made a quick three-sixty survey of the surrounding area, just to ensure that nobody would see her, and then her body dissolved into a swathe of rosy pink orbs which ascended into the pale blue sky.
----
"I know I moved those shoes into this closet last week." Pamela Walker placed her hands on her hips, surveying the messy closet that now contained a good portion of her belongings. She still hadn't organized since her impromptu move in with her ex-boyfriend, Keith, about two weeks prior.
"You don't have to get all dolled up to walk through a portal, you know." Persia Halliwell's image was being projected from an opened, golden locket that lay sprawled out on Pamela's bed.
"I'm not getting dolled up," Pamela grumbled. "I'm just getting presentable." She disappeared into the closet. Moments later a shoe box came flying out and landed with a thud across the room. Next, came an obnoxious yellow and orange scarf.
The projection wrinkled her nose. "Now I know that's not yours, right?"
"What?" Pam's voice was muffled as it came from somewhere deep within the closet.
"Nevermind." Persia's projection began to pace the room. She was growing more impatient as the minutes ticked by. It'd been forever, it seemed, since she and Pamela had spent some quality time together. What, with being worlds apart and all…literally.
"Pam! Did you take my favorite aftershave?"
"Why the hell would I take your aftershave?"
Persia's projection spun around at the sound of the unfamiliar voice. To her surprise, and embarrassment, she saw a particularly handsome and toned man coming out of the bathroom…and he was in the midst of wrapping a grayish-blue bath towel around his lower half. She screeched on instinct.
The young man's head bobbed up at the sound of the high pitched noise, and the towel slipped from his fingers, landing in a ring around his bare feet. At the sight of the projection, he froze. At the same time, his face bloomed into a fire engine red.
"Holy shit!" Pamela had emerged from the closet just as the towel had hit the ground. Her eyes bugged and her face blanched.
"Oh Goddess!" The projection spun around, turning her head away and bringing her hands over her eyes.
Pamela flicked her wrist, telekinetically lifting the towel from around the man's ankles and balling it up with her mind, before she formed a fist and shoved it in his direction, sending the balled towel sailing into his chest which inadvertently caused both him and the towel to go flying backwards through the bathroom doorway. Pam brought her hand back down, just as the bathroom door slammed shut via her power.
Hearing the slam of the door, Persia's projection spread out her fingers, peaking at her friend through the holes. "Is it safe?"
"Yes," Pam glowered, still looking at the closed door. She heard a groan from inside the bathroom.
The expression on Persia's projection was no longer red, but highly amused. She placed her hands to her hips and smirked. "Who is that hot hunk of meat?"
"Nobody!" Pamela turned on her heel, diving back into the closet.
"An off limits nobody, judging by the tone of your voice."
Pam poked her head around the closet door. Her cheeks looked unusually rosy. "Okay, fine, he's somebody."
"An important somebody?"
Pamela snorted. "He's just a friend."
"Just a friend? Are you sure that's all?"
"Ugh." Pamela's head disappeared back into the closet. "He's an ex."
"An ex?" The electrokinetic's projection seemed to cough. "I'm sorry, I don't believe I heard you right. You didn't just tell me you're living with your ex, did you?"
"That's exactly what I told just told you." Pamela emerged from the closet with a shoe box. "It's a long story, but the cliff notes version is that we didn't talk for three months and so he moved on."
"Why didn't you talk for three months?"
"I got shot, captured by the government, and used as a pawn to kill my family."
"Oh, is that all?" The projection crossed her arms. "What a jerk," she snorted, her tone half playful and half sarcastic. "So how did you come to live him with?"
"During those three months, my roommates found someone else to take my room."
"Right."
"Agh!" Pamela hurled the box across the room.
Persia's projection flickered as the box and a pair of Jimmy Choo boots came flying through it. "Thank you," she replied with heavy sarcasm. "Something wrong?"
"Those shoes should have been in that box!"
The projection's eyes rolled. "I think the Jimmy Choo's look nice. Hell, I'd kill for a pair that nice. Are they new?"
"Ehh, I got them last Christmas."
"You don't like them?"
"No, it's just that I don't have anything to wear them with."
"You could wear them with what you're wearing now."
"Meh."
The bathroom door opened again, and this time the young man strode out in a pair of blue jeans and no shirt. He was rubbing his shaggy brown hair with the towel that had fallen off earlier.
"Have you been in my closet?"
"Why would I want to go near that god forsaken thing?" He snapped, tossing the towel onto the dresser and grabbing a bronze bottle of cologne. He moved to the mirror and realized, through the reflection, that the ghost-like Persia was still there. His face reddened a little. "Why is she still here?"
"Why were you walking around naked?"
"This is my apartment!"
Persia's projection smiled slightly as she checked the man out from behind, which he didn't miss. "Well aren't you going to introduce us?"
"Persia, Keith. Keith, Persia." Pamela didn't even bother to come out of the closet.
"It's nice to meet you."
"Uh huh," Keith mumbled. "I'm heading out. Remember to lock the door this time."
"Mhmm." When Pam heard the door shut, she emerged from the closet. As she opened her mouth to speak, she heard a loud crash from the opposite room. "What the hell?" She moved to the door, swung it open, and couldn't help but smile as she saw Keith in a heap on the other side of the room. Her eyes moved away from him, landing on a familiar redhead.
"I assume she's another one of your uninvited guests?" Keith groaned.
"Actually, she is." Pamela Walker placed her hands on her hips. "It's nice of you to drop by Emma. Now can you tell me why you just threw Keith into a wall?"
"Oh. Well…we kinda startled each other." Emma flashed a pearly smile. "This is a nice place, by the way," she added in an effort to change the subject.
"Apartment," the telekinetic corrected. "And it's Keith's." She motioned to the bedroom. "C'mon back." Suddenly her eyes twinkled. "And you know what?"
Emma crossed her arms as she crossed into the room. "You want me to help you find your shoes?"
"You're psychic!"
The mutant shrugged. "That's what they say." As Pam shut the door, she placed her fingers to her temples and began to activate her psychokinesis. Within seconds, a pair of shoes flew out from under Pamela's bed.
"What the hell?" Pam stomped over to her shoes and slipped her feet into them. "I looked under there twice!"
"You're welcome," Emma replied sarcastically.
"A huh."
As Emma twirled around, her blue eyes lit up. "Persia!"
Persia's projection stood slightly with her mouth agape. "B-b-but I thought you were…dead."
Emma waved her hand, dismissing the idea. "Old news." She smiled brightly. "How've you been?"
The projection smiled in a mixture of awkwardness and confusion. "F-fine. You?"
"Splendid!" The psionic plopped down on Pam's bed and propped up her feet.
"Why did you stop by?" Pam asked. She now stood in front of the mirror, applying mascara.
"I was in the neighborhood."
"A huh."
"No really. I got a new charge just about ten miles away, and I've been busy with him for about three hours."
"Busy?" Pam chuckled, raising her brows.
"Not like that, gutter mind." Emma rolled her eyes. "First of all, he's gay. Second, he's about a million years too young for me."
"She's just jealous because she's got a hot hunk living with her, and she can't take advantage of it."
The redhead giggled, until she saw the look on Pam's face and stopped abruptly. "So…it looks like you're planning on going somewhere?"
"Over to Persia's."
"Something special going on?"
The projection dropped her head and turned away. "No. Just stuff."
Pam shrugged. "I don't even know what yet. Apparently it's topic secret."
"As long as it doesn't involve genetic mutations." Emma studied Persia's projection. Even though it was only a projection from the locket, and Persia's physical body was literally in another reality, she could still feel Persia's emotional turmoil. The fact that her powers were that strong surprised even herself. "Are you sure you don't want to talk about it?" The immortal empath inside her wouldn't allow her to not ask.
"I'm fine."
"Okay," Emma said quietly, although she could tell the girl was lying.
"I think I'm ready."
"Finally!"
Pam grabbed her clutch purse from the foot of the bed and tucked it under her arm. She chanted the quick spell that she and Persia often used to open the portal to each other's worlds, and then a glowing blue portal appeared in the middle of the room.
"See you in about a minute?"
"Mhmm." Pamela grabbed the locket from the bed and was about to close it, when something caught the corner of her eye.
"Pam?"
Pamela dropped the locket and craned her neck to the doorway of the bedroom. Her mouth hung open a little, as she wasn't sure what the hell she was seeing. They looked like orbs, but no orbs she'd ever seen before. They weren't blue, like the whitelighters she'd seen. They weren't pink, like Emma's. And they were not dark purple and black, like darklighters.
In front of the closed door, a trail of deep burgundy orbs were ascending from the carpet and swarming like bees into the shape of some type of human-looking being. As more and more came, the shape visibly formed into that of a woman. And when they finally disappeared, a young woman about Emma's age stood in their place.
The woman had thick, tightly curled brown hair. Her eyes were a piercing hazel, and her face was painted with a look of vengeful determination. The woman flicked her gaze around the room, before landing right on Emma. Her lips curved into a tight smile as she folded her bare arms across her plunging maraschino cherry halter top.
Suddenly Emma gasped. Her hands flew to her heart and she clutched it, gasping for her very breath.
"Emma!" Pam gasped, throwing out her arm. The room shook with her advanced telekinetic energy, and the curly brunette flew off her feet and slammed into the opposing wall. At the same time, the golden locket inadvertently became caught in the telekinetic storm and slammed shut.
Emma's blue eyes bulged. She scampered off the bed, staring at the woman with wide eyes. She seemed to be paralyzed with shock.
"This is between me and her," the curly haired woman snarled. She threw out her hand Pamela began to gasp. She smirked as the girl came crashing to her knees. "Humans and their need for emotion," she snarled. Her head flicked back to Emma, who still gaped in shock. "Surprised to see me, I guess? Long time no see, huh Em?" She curled her fist, causing Emma to clutch her chest again.
Emma closed her eyes and the room shook. The bed move a full two feet away from the wall. A split second later, the mystery woman found herself pinned to the wall again. "H-how?"
The brunette squinted her eyes and they began to glow a striking blue-white, followed by a powerful beam of energy that hit Emma head on, causing the empath to shriek from pain. In that moment, she dropped from the wall.
"Because," the brunette growled, "I was the perfect candidate for the position. Just as you were destined to become an immortal empath, I was destined to become an immortal apath." She stalked over to the fallen empath and slapped her hand to the back of Emma's neck, causing the redhead to howl in agony.
Emma squinted her eyes. An apath. An apath! She ducked to the ground, spreading out her leg and sweeping the apath's legs out from under her. She scrambled away as the woman grabbed for her ankle, and then she squinted her eyes, sending a wave of empathic emotion into the woman.
The apath's mouth dropped open and she elicited a hideous cry. Her hands flew to her head and she held herself as she screamed.
"Michelle, what happened?" Emma whispered. She held her head, staring at the brunette from a few feet away. "I thought Adam fixed your powers?"
Michelle doubled over. "H-he didn't fix me," she growled, "he tried to c-con-trol me!" She threw out her arms and hit Emma with an intense wave of apathic power, nearly voiding Emma's soul of emotion.
For the non-magical community, it drove them insane. For magical beings, depending on its intensity, it could do anything from make them go insane to send them into a magical coma. But for immortal empaths, the good counterparts of apaths, it was deadly. Visa versa for empathic emotion on apaths.
Emma dropped to her knees, just inches from where Pamela was still struggling to keep her sanity. She fought Michelle's dark powers, and soon produced a glowing globe of psionic energy above her forehead. As Michelle ran towards her, she released the beam into Pamela's forehead.
Pamela scrambled back, recovering with the help of Emma's psionic blast. Unfortunately, as she got her bounds, Emma and Michelle were already rolling about the floor in a full blown struggle of wills. Pam placed her hand to her mouth and blew over her palm, producing a cloud of sub zero frost that flew towards Michelle, who had straddled Emma.
Feeling the air around her cool, Michelle grabbed Emma's cherry red hair and yanked it, rolling them both across the floor. However, she over calculated and before she could stop herself, she found another force pulling her and Emma towards it. To her horror, she looked up to see both of them sucked into the glowing blue of a magical portal.
"No!" Pamela shrieked. She dashed towards the portal, but it was too late. Emma and Michelle were already lost within it, and she knew Persia would definitely not be expecting them on the other side. She didn't bother to try and grab the locket, she just jumped into the portal after them, praying that she'd get through in time.
----Real World----
Persia tapped her foot anxiously. She had no idea what had happened a few minutes ago, but the swirling feeling in her gut was telling her that it was bad. She had half a mind to open up the portal and go over to help up.
The electrokinetic glanced down at her watch: three minutes had passed. She frowned. Then, in a fluid motion, she jumped off her bed. "I'm going over there." As she opened her mouth to recite the spell she knew by heart, a glowing blue portal emerged out of nowhere.
Persia smiled, moving towards it in a cocky manner. "Well it's about damn ti-" She jumped back as two woman, one of whom she only recognized as the one to attack Emma earlier, rolled out. "What the hell?"
"Get back!" Emma shouted. She jerked her arm back, curled her fist, and sent a powerful punch into the center of Michelle's face.
Michelle reeled back as blood gushed from her nostrils. She scrambled away from Emma, cupping her running nose. As she took to her feet, another female ran out of the portal, which immediately closed behind her. Michelle didn't know where she was, but she knew one thing. I'm trapped!
"You are not getting away that easily," Alternate Pamela hissed. She blew another icy, cryokinetic puff from her mouth and it flew directly for its target. She felt strongly that she would make her mark this time.
Unfortunately, Michelle had other plans. Her body dissolved into a cloud of burgundy dark orbs and descended into the floor, moving towards the Underworld. Although Michelle had no idea where she was, she knew that the Underworld was always in the same place and that's where she intended to make her first stop. Besides, good magic couldn't track her there.
"Shit!" Pamela cursed, as the icy breath flew through the apath dark orbs and encased a portion of Persia's bedroom wall in ice. She turned swiftly to Emma, with a million and one questions glowing on her face. "Who the hell was that?"
Emma was still holding her heart as she staggered over to Persia's bed. Her breathing was slow and panicked.
"Emma?" Persia moved to her friend, concerned. "Are you alright? Can I get you anything?"
Emma shook her head. "No," she whispered hoarsely, "I think I'm going to be okay."
Alternate Pamela folded her arms. "Emma," she said pointedly. "Who was that?"
"Michelle," the telempath choked. "Michelle Bigelow."
"And what does she want with you?"
"She was an old friend," Emma explained wistfully. "We went to High School together."
"And so how did she come to turn on you?"
"I ran into her again during my first year after joining Mutant X. But at the time, I didn't realize she'd joined the GSA." She glanced at Persia. "A bad government agency, bent on containing new mutants. Anyway, her powers ended up making her go crazy."
"What were they?"
"She's what we call a telecyber. She has the ability to mentally communicate and control machines and technology. But her powers became so great that she became a type of machine, a robot of sorts, herself. Completely void of emotion. She came after me. But I used my telempathy to overload her mind with emotion, which brought her back to a semi-stable state. And Adam genetically fixed her powers so that they wouldn't, for the lack of a better word, malfunction again."
Persia folded her arms. "So if this Adam guy fixed her, why is she chasing you?"
Emma touched the side of her head. "I'm not exactly sure," she whispered, "but I think I may have a pretty good idea."
"And would you care to clue us in?" Alternate Pamela asked.
"I think dark magic may have gotten ahold of her and offered her the chance to become an immortal apath."
"An immortal apath?" Persia questioned. "And that is what?"
"The dark counterparts of immortal empaths. They're the equivalent of a darklighter to a whitelighter." She shivered. "Apaths have two purposes: one, to drive the mortal world into madness by taking away human emotion with their apathic powers, and two, to kill immortal empaths. They're the only things that have the power to kill and immortal empath."
"So I'm guessing she was the perfect candidate to become an apath, not only because of her powers but because of her history with you?"
Emma nodded. "That's my theory."
Persia sighed. "And now we've let her loose in my world."
Emma jumped to her feet. "Which means we need to start working on a way to find her and get her back home, so I can deal with her…again."
TO BE CONTINUED….
