Disclaimer: I wave any rights to the X-Men universe, Marvel or the characters found therein.

Author's Note: Written for the LiveJournal community 100(underscore)situations; prompt 45-Animal. 1450 words.

A Plan Revised

Liquid seeped out from the cage, tumbled out like a mountain river meeting the edge of a cliff. It fell, gained in speed until there was no more. In the harsh spotlight it glinted and gleamed with the broken pieces of glass. The cage broken, shattered under the pressure of what it was built to keep safe within; without.

Greedy lungs savored cold unrefined air, a different scent she thought might have been forever denied. Tendrils of smoke made their way across the room from fried circuitry and faulty planning, lights flashed and sound echoed. On shaking legs she stood, ignoring the weak and too-heavy sensation which begged for rest in the reintroduction of gravity. Chaotic shouts by frightened scientists and the ever increasing slap of rubber on concrete as soldiers ran towards the prison break pressed into her flesh. The sound had texture - a color, and she understood the duality of her vision a little better.

Blurred and hazy bands of red bounced off the walls, small specks of yellow and blue rippled; the soldiers were there. A pathetic little army hiding behind Five-seveNs. She could remember the sound of the semi-automatic gun upon firing, could almost recall the exact weight in her hand, the kick to a shot. All were aimed on her with steady hands, their leader standing steadily behind the protective line their bodies provided. He took a breath to speak, his insulting command never voiced for she took one as well.

She could see it this time, the sound, the scream. Focused to a hard edge it was the same color of the hottest flame, it threw the soldiers to the wall. Most died insistently while an unlucky few slumped to the ground, blood trickling from ears and nose as they withered in agony. She took a step, steadier now than she could ever remember being, another and another until she stood before one still alive. He was young, moments from dieing as blood vessels continued to swell and split, shorter and less bulky in form than his companions had been.

There was no pity, no remorse in her actions as she bent to pick up the fallen weapon. She searched his body for extra ammo, preparing and planning for the future when this new power left her. Specially prepared tranquilizers, presented in the neat package of a magazine, fashioned to clip on his belt. They weren't ideal, but they would do. Methodically she stripped him, easily evading his weak attempts to fend her off as she took his clothes for her own. The gloves he wore in an effort to escape the threat she possessed granted her protection from his last pain filled moments.

Straitening she finally allowed herself to acknowledge what she had suspected, neither the Doctor's nor the Colonel's body were not among those fallen before her. She could check each face, decided against it as an unnamed clock started a countdown she could feel but not hear. How like the bastards to slink away leaving those under their command to her mercy. She didn't regret her lack of it. Mercy had faded quicker than pity or fear, knew she would not ask forgiveness for her actions, would not give it for theirs.

Tugging the rough fabric of the military issued uniform absently she turned and frowned. That girl was staring at her with a mixture of horror and interest and helplessness that made her want to lash out. At the young girl, at the dead or dieing soldiers fallen at her feet, at Stryker.

Stryker.

She would find him. In this fortress of concrete there were many places he could hide, but not for long. She would find him, run his maze of hallways and fight his army. She had been separated from life, forced to live like an animal, reduced to an existence even lower than the average lab rat. Oh yes. Then, she would go after the Doctor, after Palance.

Placing the Five-seveN in her pilfered holster she turned her head once more, towards the child and her unsuspecting savior. Deliberated for a moment before walking towards the watery cage, feet slapping on the wet concrete underneath. Justice and vengeance were lines drawn apart, but here in this moment, she considered them one. The girl had been captured and dragged into this white room, destined by a man who considered himself god to become a pawn. Easily discarded, misused once her purpose was fulfilled. His pawn had become her knight, with the child's placement she herself had been able to move forward and jump aside. An unusual maneuver on a normally straightforward board.

She passed the Child, a girl she both was and was not, to the cowering scientist -not the Doctor, no, sadly not- cowering behind, the only one who had avoided outright death. Without words she threatened him, demanded and dictated his next actions. He scrambled towards the computers, exposed wires flickering with the overhead lights. Cables and tubes that had been severed with her borrowed voice lay useless on damp cement. With a look he gave up his white coat to the red headed child, removed the electronic tentacles still attached to her slight body.

She would not name the Girl, the separation between memory and body became more pronounced that way and she wanted this power to last. Until she herself was free the child would remain that, a wounded girl Unnamed. Her debt was paid, her knight freed, her new powers secured for a few minutes more. She turned to leave when echoes of periwinkle touched her body, the girl was moving across the room, following her on bare feet through the liquid and carnage.

"There… there are others." It was hesitant, a voice from behind with a lilt and tone she might have mistaken as her own. "You could rescue them. L-like me."

Rescue…

Stopping to glare at the empty door she tried to control the sudden rage within. Her only goal at the moment was to take Stryker's head, she was rescuing nobody. A dept paid and now the girl believed her to be, what, some type of gallivanting hero? She had little interest in saving lives. Oh no. She wanted to take them.

When the air shifted behind her and the girl drew closer she could almost sense the heat of a small hand moving towards her own. Foolish little lamb. In a fraction of a second she debated, to allow the deadly touch would ensure the borrowed power hers far longer than the transfer earlier would… She had freed the pawn, the knight, and her responsibilities to the child were no more.

But the child was right, there had been more taken. From a large place, a collection of mutants. She could remember the fear of being thrown in a cell with several others, could remember being dragged towards the white room and its large green tubes. She could find her way back, and if the alarm had sounded they would be heading here, to this room. If she could sneak past and free them… chaos.

It wasn't something she had thought to include when envisioning her escape, but it was unlikely to impede her plans greatly. No, if anything her movements within this base would be easier to slip by the soldiers if they were in a state of panic, if they were worried about more than a lone mutant.

She would leave the girl with the others and continue on her own to hunt like the monster they had made her.

Decision made she moved, turning on the balls of her feet like the practiced soldier she had tangled with before being placed in the liquid cage, and stalked back towards the quiet scientist quaking with orange. He backed away, but it did no good. Skin touched skin for but a moment, just long enough to accesses surface images and thoughts before allowing the body to collapse without a care for his health. The impressions were fleeting, jumbled. He was praying to his god to save him from the mutant, the she-demon before him; there was an echo, the pressure of keys under his fingers as he tripped a silent alarm forgotten in the chaos of the Absorber's escape. Numbers and sequences. The codes she had sought. Everything else was pushed aside, quieted by an anger she focused on to keep what control she currently held.

Turning back to the girl with narrowed eyes she waited until the meaning was clear and when the girl stepped away with more horror on her face than trust she knew it to be a message taken to heart. When she slipped out of the room Girl followed, head bowed and close. But not touching. No. Never touching.

They had treated her like a dangerous animal; it was time to live up to their expectations.

ETA: updated 14/12/08.