Disclaimer: I don't own anything X-men
Author's note: Okay, so I finally got another chapter out and I feel terrible that it took me so long to do so, but its here now, so hurray! Anyway…reviews are always welcome, now on with the show…
Chapter 5: Escape
As Sadie's mind slowly began to slide into consciousness she dimly registered how cold she was and how she was lying uncomfortably on a very hard surface. Wondering for a moment why she wasn't still in her warm, cozy bed, the events of earlier that night came rushing back to her as the drug induced haze finally lifted. She gave a slight moan as she finally cracked open her eyes to try and get some idea of were she was at. Where ever it was the interior decorator was certainly lacking. She was in a circular room with only one door, barred, and the only surfaces were of cold steel and rock.
'Great! They've got me in a cell,' she thought. 'This is just perfect. There's got to be some way to get out. Think Sadie, think,' and so she sat there in that cold hard cell plotting and planning a possible escape.
After about an hour she started to pace, like a caged lioness, trying to work out any kinks in her plan, and so far there was only one, one really big one. On the other side of the barred door was a huge drop into a cavernous pit and the other side was about 20 yards away.
She finally stopped pacing to look out over the dark hole that separated her from her freedom. 'There has to be some way to get across,' she thought as she leaned her forehead between the bars and sighed. Then, like a light bulb going on, she remembered what happened when she awoke at home, right before they took her. She had been hovering over her bed. She knew that the appearance of this new power was connected to both the incident in the alley and the memories of her early childhood, but how, was the question. 'I'll solve that problem later, but right now I need to make my exit,' she resolved.
Taking a step back she cleared her mind, something she had been skilled at doing every since she could remember, and began to focus on the way her body had felt when she was levitating above her bed. She could remember the tingling of energy as is coursed through her, the weightlessness that is created, and with a deep breath she willed that same feeling to emerge again. Slowly she began to lift from the ground, and when she felt she was about a foot off the floor she eased open her eyes to see if she could maintain her control. Once she opened her eyes she was shocked to see that instead of being only a foot off of the ground in fact five feet up. Her surprise at being so high caused her to loose her focus and she crashed back to the floor. With a groan she pulled herself back up to try again
'Okay,' she thought. 'This time, no surprises.' Once again she concentrated on the feeling of tingling weightlessness, but with her eyes open, and as she lifted off the ground she found controlling how high she went much easier. Now hovering a foot from the floor she turned her attention to moving in other directions. She first began by slowly moving in a circle around the room, then figure eights, and steadily increasing her speed. The more she worked on it the easier controlling and concentrating became.
Finally satisfied with her control she turned to the barred door and with a flex of her hand five metal feline shaped claws extended out of her finger tips where her fingernails should have been. With one swipe to the top and one to the bottom she cut clean through the steel bars giving her a now open exit. 'Here goes nothing,' she thought and a moment later she was out the door and flying above the darkness below her.
When she reached the other side she looked back over her shoulder and with a small smirk whispered, "Phase one of escape mutant supremists complete, now to phase two."
In another cold cave and steel room of Magneto's underground compound a few members of the brotherhood were gathered and conversing in low tones as they waited to hear what the next step was in Magneto's master plan.
"Did you know that the Doc was a mutie?" Juggernaut whispered to Mystique. A small shake of the head was her only response, but inside her head she was thinking about just how mysterious this new mutant was, and wondered how many more secrets she had.
They knew that this mutant they captured held the key their leader had been looking for to succeed in the battle against homo-sapiens, and in fact they thought that the strange metal lockbox that Juggernaut snagged from the wall safe in the doctor's apartment was the key. The information locked within it would help them redefine the term mutant. Unfortunately, though the box was indeed made of metal, it was a type that Magneto could not manipulate, and even Juggernaut couldn't break open. After attempting to open the mysterious box for over an hour the others were getting a little restless. All of them were wondering how does the box open?
"What are we going to do now Eric?" asked Mystique.
"Juggernaut, I want you and Pyro come with me to escort our guest here so that she may be of some assistance in opening her unique lockbox," Magneto replied as he turned towards his mutants and away form the box on his metal desk. He paused on his way to the door to say, "We must be careful with her. The information she has is very valuable, and I believe we have yet to see the full extent of her powers." With that they were off to retrieve her only to discover an empty cell.
'Okay now where the hell am I suppose to go,' Sadie angrily thought to herself as she came across another dead end, in fact she could swear that she had already been down this way a few minutes ago.
"This place is a maze, I just wish there was some sort of exit sign, or something," she growled out in frustration. She was just about to head back the way she came when she heard voices coming from the corridor around the corner. She knew that if they came down into the darkened corridor she was currently in that she would be in trouble, but hopefully they would just walk past, which seemed reasonable to her, seeing as she was currently hiding in a hallway that went nowhere.
She held her breath as she heard the voices and footsteps come nearer. It was then when she was focused on keeping still and quiet that she realized she could hear the conversation quite clearly, even though those speaking were talking in hushed tones. She could also hear the discrepancies in the foot steps. One of them, female, was walking with light quick strides while her companion, male, had more force in his step with a slight drag on the right, probably from an old injury, and a shorter stride. She gave a quick shake of her head because she was sure she was just imagining hearing all those things being under stress of being caught, but still she could hear things that she wouldn't normally have been able to hear. Hell she could even hear the pace of their heartbeats. She was so wrapped up in the fact that she was hearing things with a clarity and detail she never had before that it took her a moment to realize that the voices and footsteps had died away and she had remained unnoticed.
Letting out a low sigh she slowly poked her head around the corner checking to make sure everything was clear. Satisfied that it was safe to go on she slipped out of the dark corridor and went in the direction the two mutants that passed by had come from. 'Hopefully this will lead me somewhere useful,' she grumbled in her mind.
Ten minutes and several corridors later she knew she had gone the wrong way. Instead of going out she had the feeling that she had worked her way further in. She was planning on turning around and backtracking when she came across a room that looked like an office and sitting there on top of the desk was Mystique. Sadie was ready to disappear and get away as quickly as she could when the object Mystique was examining caught her eye. The lockbox, her lockbox, the one she received from her father in his will. She never understood why he gave it to her or what she was supposed to do to open it, until now.
A memory from before the Phillips adopted her, back when she was on that compound, came rushing back to her. She and some of the other children were learning how to open the special boxes; they were a type of puzzle box created to protect classified information. Sadie knew that in that box were answers for her, answers that her father had never been able to give to her when he was alive. She needed to get that box.
Mystique was turning the strange box over in her hands trying to figure out the secret to opening it, because she knew that Eric would be immensely pleased with her if she could do it without the help of their "guest". She was so focused on figuring it out that she didn't catch the movement of Sadie shooting through the door and was caught by complete surprise when a body slammed into her. Sadie had gone at her with so much force and momentum that they both went flying over the desk, the lockbox clanging on the metal floor between them. Immediately they both looked up from where they had landed and locked eyes, and only a second later were up and going at each other hoping to strike the other one down.
Mystique wasn't planning on letting Sadie get the better of her like she had done back in her home, so she began to use some of her best moves which used her agility and flexibility to the max. What she didn't count on was Sadie's own agility, strength, and speed. Mystique jumped high into the air and twisted and spun through the air aiming her foot straight at Sadie's chest, but Sadie managed to not only block the kick but also got a hold of the airborne mutant's foot. She gave it a strong twist but Mystique rolled the same direction and was able to get her feet under her as she landed allowing her to flip away from the right jab and snap kick from Sadie. Now the blue shape-shifter was aiming a sweep kick from Sadie's left, but she was able to flip up and back, aiming her right foot for Mystiques face. Twisting to her right Mystique avoided getting caught in the face by Sadie's toes and was around again in time to see her opponent land gracefully in a crouched position on top of Magneto's desk. Another moment passed where they locked eyes right before launching at each other again, both aiming a swift mid-air kick and twisting to avoid being caught by the other's foot. Once back on the ground Mystique shifted her weight to her hands and tried to lock Sadie with her feet, but once again he move was blocked.
Sadie knew she had to end this, and end it now, or she was never going to get out of there. Mystique's leg went flying over Sadie's head in a roundhouse that she expertly dodged and using her low crouch to its fullest she shot up with a right uppercut hit to her opponents jaw causing Mystique to go flying through the air and land ten feet away in an ungraceful, unconscious heap. With that taken care Sadie swiftly snatched the lockbox off the floor and dashed out the door.
She was moving through the corridors more quickly than she had been earlier because she was beginning to get desperate. She wanted out of this maze, and to keep from getting caught she had also decided to put her newly developing powers to use, so keeping her ears perked up for any sign of company as she flew, literally, through the corridors. After another five minutes she could tell she was close because of the smell of fresh air. Just as she was drawing close to what she determined was the hatch door out she could hear shouts and several pairs of feet running in the corridors behind her. Putting on a burst of speed she shot through the hatch, blasting it open and finally being free of the dark, cold prison she had been trapped in for the last few hours.
Now that she was out she continued to shoot up into the early morning sky, the dawn light peeking through the trees of the forest that surrounded her. Determined to get far away from Magneto and his Brotherhood she soared above the trees and in the direction of the rising sun, she needed to go home where the questions that had been plaguing her her whole life could finally be answered.