RETURNING HOME
Chapter 7
Moves Made
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Alex stared longingly at the clock above her blackboard as it moved painfully slow. This was her last class of her last day before the winter break and she was ready to get out for a couple weeks. She sighed as she picked up the in class assignment she had given her class to pass the time and smiled because her class had no idea she wouldn't be grading them. Finally after what seemed like years of waiting the bell rang indicating the end of the school day and her class filed out the door to enjoy their holidays. Once her students were gone she started tidying up the room, even though it was technically the custodial staff's job she still liked to pick up after her day. After a couple of minutes she was getting more and more anxious to leave for the day and even though it was against her better judgment she used her telekinesis to straighten up the room in a fraction of the time it would have taken her to do by herself. After she was finish she hung up her lab coat, grabbed her bag and headed out the door intent on going home. She stopped at the spot in the hallway where she normally meets Ray only to silently curse herself because Ray was at home packing for their trip to the lake, but luckily he had given her his car to drive today so she didn't have to walk. Even though it wasn't a long walk to the apartment she had shared with Ray since October, she still even after all these months worried about being followed and watched. True that Thomson guy hadn't shown his face in a long time she still felt like she was being spied on for some reason. As she sat down in the car she checked the mirrors just to make sure she was alone before starting the engine and leaving the parking lot of the school. When she got back to the apartment she found Ray asleep on the couch watching a basketball game he had recorded the day before, but he had kept true to his word as she noticed the neatly packed bags for their vacation with her family out at the lake. She put a blanket over him and went to the kitchen to find food. After a few minutes of searching she still hadn't found anything to make for dinner which really didn't surprise her because they were about to go out of town for a week so they didn't bother to go grocery shopping. Settling on pizza she went to the bedroom and ordered so not to wake Ray, and once that was done decided to take a shower to relax from the day. She went into the bathroom and turned the water on, and while it was warming up she looked at herself in the mirror and inspected her face. Even though it had been several years since she had to worry about pimples she still held to the pre-shower tradition out of habit, once she was done with that she undressed and stepped in the soothing warm shower. After she was sufficiently clean she decided to relax at the bottom of the tub for a few minutes but a pounding on the door stopped her mid morph. She yelled, "Come in", and the door opened obediently. Already knowing what he needed she willed her wallet from her purse on the bathroom sink and without even looking up sat it down perfectly in Ray's hand. "Thanks", he said closing the door and leaving her to relax for a few minutes more. She stepped out of the shower and dried herself off and put on a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt to head out to the living room for dinner. After dinner they put on a movie and cuddled together on the couch to watch another one of their favorite classic sci-fi films.
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Dr. Thomson sat quietly at his desk inside the facility watching today's surveillance videos. Even after four months of watching her Alexandra Mack still seemed to be at least subconsciously aware of his watching her. She had kept largely out of sight for the first month or so until she moved in with Mr. Alvarado, and only then began to come out of her shell so to speak. However today was special indeed, for not only were they close to getting what they were after but in watching carefully he spotted her rearranging her classroom by telekinesis. "This is it", he thought while going over preparations for the upcoming operation, and after they had gotten what they want he would be able to have a full understanding of the GC-161 effect. Truth be told he was proud of what he had achieved and even the director was pleased it seemed, and he was about to bring success to his terribly failing program to improve the operatives. He rechecked his information to make sure it was correct and just like it said the three times prior, the Mack's were leaving tomorrow for a week long vacation at the lake and Alexandra and her boyfriend Raymond were joining them. He loved when a plan came together and right now everything was running so smoothly he could skate on it. Tomorrow night the Mack's would be his.
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The sun was going down just as George Mack loaded the last bag into the car. He closed the door as Barbara Mack came outside holding hot cup of coffee for him.
"Well we're about ready to go", George said to his wife.
"It's been too long", she replied taking a sip from her own cup.
"We went last year", he replied slightly confused.
"But not as a whole family", she countered.
George smirked slightly as his wife clarified, "You're right, and we'll even be plus one this year."
Barbara smiled slightly as Annie drove up to the house and parked in the vacant spot in the driveway. She exited the vehicle and pulled a large duffel bag. She gave her parents hugs and put her bag in the already stuffed car.
"So where are Alex and Ray?" she asked while trying to force the door shut.
"They'll be here in the morning", George answered his daughter.
"Oh good, that means I get the room to myself", she smiled while walking in the door.
Annie walked into the bedroom and pulled a set of clothes out for the next day. Once she did that she decided to tidy up the room thinking how funny it was that Alex had moved out two months ago but a lot of her stuff was still all over the place. After she was done she noticed it was already getting late so she walked into the bathroom to take a shower. Once the water was running she checked the drain very carefully out of habit not wanting a repeat of the time Alex had come out of the shower head while she was in the shower. Luckily Alex didn't really travel through pipes anymore in an attempt to avoid being seen by dad. In fact now that Annie had thought about it for the most part she had become much more conservative in using her powers trying to opt for as normal of a life as possible. She smiled thinking about all the times Alex had nearly blown it while trying to hide from Danielle and even a few times trying to protect her overbearing from one thing or another.
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Alex and Ray arrived at the Mack house at about eight in the morning as everybody was getting ready to leave for the lake. Since they only had 2 bags between them and that was in the trunk they offered to let Annie ride with them so she didn't wind up crushed in the back seat of their parent's car underneath all of their luggage. Annie of course was delighted and since she enjoyed hanging out with Alex and Ray jumped at the chance to spend the two hour drive talking with them and not listening to her parents go on and on about the random things they tended to have discussions about. Once they were off they started talking and playing around like it was old times as they left town. Annie and Alex had always loved going to the lake as children since their parents always got a three bedroom cabin so at least for a few days a year they had gotten their own rooms which helped them survive living in the same room as one another back at home. Ray of course had never gone on one of these outing and was a little nervous about spending an entire week with Alex's whole family and sharing a room with her to boot. Her knew that her parents were happy that they had gotten together as was his father but he still felt like a kid around her parents and didn't want to do anything that would make them change their minds about his relationship with their daughter. Alex sensed his apprehension and took his hand while giving him a reassuring smile to help calm his nerves. They had barely left the town but they all were already feeling better and relieved since they had all been looking forward to a stress free week. Once they arrived at the cabin they were all ready for a rest. About half way there Ray had Alex drive since she knew the way he wanted to close his eyes for a little while. Alex gently woke Ray and the three of them exited that car to help unload her parent's car and set up the cabin. Once they finished unloading Ray and Alex went out to relax at the dock while Annie curled up with a book, Barbara started lunch, and George went fishing. "It's so perfect here", she said moving closer to him while he put an arm around her, "Yeah", he replied as they stared out at the still, clear water.
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Thomson was busy getting the holding areas set up, and making sure the test chamber and chem. Lab was up and running. Once that was all he went to check on the recon team that had just arrived from the plant with the hard drives that the GC-161 data was stored on.
"How's it coming?" Thomson asked his computer engineer.
"Not well sir", the engineer responded, "These drive are protected by some kind of encryption protocol that I have never seen before, and from the looks of it if we try to break it without the authorization code it will automatically scramble the data and corrupt the drive so that even forensic recovery isn't possible."
Thomson cursed under his breath and told the team to keep working, but he knew soon he would have the authorization code and their efforts would be needless. He checked his schedule and headed over to the receiving area making sure they were ready for anything, and debriefed his operatives on what they were doing and to keep an eye out for anything strange from the youngest of the Mack family. Soon the Organization would have GC-161 and he would have her for study. He picked up his phone and called the head operative watching the Macks and told him to move in when the sun goes down.
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As the sun set Alex and Ray found themselves sitting back on the dock watching it happen. Feeling a chill Alex shivered a little and Ray draped his over shirt onto her shoulders. "Thanks", she said snuggling back up to him until she felt something in the pocket. She pulled out a little felt box, opened it and gasped seeing a diamond ring inside. She looked over at Ray who had gotten on one knee and she began to smile broadly. He took the ring out of the box and held it up to her hand. He was just opening his mouth to ask when they heard a loud crash coming from the cabin. He put the ring back in the box and ran up the hill with Alex following him after slipping the ring box back into the shirt pocket. "This had better be good or I'm going to be pissed", she said coming up to the cabin. She and Ray had almost reached the porch when she was tackled to the ground and picked back up by a pair of strong black leather clad hands. She screamed and as Ray turned around to see what was wrong he was grabbed from behind. George and Barbara were brought out of the cabin screaming as Annie was carried by two men while struggling furiously. Ray saw them Force George and Barbara into a black van and he knew he had to do something so he kicked his foot backwards as hard as he could and heard a satisfying crunch as his assailants knee buckled and he collapsed to the ground screaming in pain. He then took a flying leap and collided full on with the person holding Alex. As soon as she was free she heard both Ray and her father tell her to run so she immediately took off towards the dock. She heard foot falls behind her as she approached the dock and turned to see if it was Ray, but all she saw was another person coming at her. Reacting quickly she hit him square in the chest with a bolt of electricity and took a flying leap off the dock and into the lake. Once all the detainees were locked up in the van they started combing the lake looking for Alex, and she was never more grateful she didn't have to breathe in her liquid form. She raced as fast as she could without creating a disturbance to the other side of the lake only to see three more men waist deep in water looking for her. She was tired and hoped she was able to outlast them before having to reform again.
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Thomson sat at his desk going over material that he would use to get what he wanted when his phone rang.
"This is Thomson", he said into the receiver.
"It's Reed", the voice replied, "We have all but one of them."
Thomson sighed, "Let me guess, the younger on got away."
"She disappeared into the lake and my men haven't been able to locate her", Reed replied, "Also two of my operatives were injured in the capture process."
"How so", Thomson asked curiously.
"One has a broken knee and the other took a strong electrical shock straight to the chest", he answered.
"Head back, get the prisoners processed, and your men medical attention", Thomson instructed.
"What about the girl?" Reed asked.
"I have a feeling that she will come to us", Thomson stated, "Be back here ASAP."
Thomson hung up the phone and started going back over his notes and plans. In just a few short hours the last four months would pay off.
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After what seemed like an eternity the men left and Alex summoned all her strength to get up to the shore before reforming. "Stupid fucking GC-161", she practically yelled as tears began to well up in her eyes. After taking a couple minutes to regain her composure she noticed that the ring was still in her pocket. She pulled out the box and slipped the ring onto her finger and couldn't help but smile slightly. Truth be told the ring was incredibly beautiful and she would have said yes, but now was not the time to dwell on such things. She knew it would take them roughly two hours to get back to paradise valley and since that was the closest town around she reasoned that's where they would go. She could get there faster than them but needed to know where they were going so she figured she would track them from a distance and one she knew where they were hiding she would make her move, but first she needed a few minutes to rest.
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"What the hell do you think you're doing", George exclaimed angrily, trying to shake loose from his restraints.
"I demand to know what's going on", Annie piped in.
Ray looked around blankly as consciousness began to return to him, after letting Alex free they had knocked him out to keep him from giving them anymore trouble. Once he realized where he was he started fighting against his restraints and attack anybody who wasn't a Mack. After a few moments Reed tazed him, sending him back to unconsciousness.
"Next one to open their mouths gets the same treatment", he said coldly as George and Annie sunk down a bit, but complied with the instructions.
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After about twenty minutes Alex had regained her strength so she decided it was time to start working on getting her family back. She took off into the air heading in the direction of the main road back to Paradise Valley. After a few minutes of flying as fast as she could she caught up with the caravan of black vehicles. Since this was the only road till you got to the edge of the city she flew past the convoy so that she could rest a few minutes before following them again. According to her calculation she had gotten to the edge of town with almost an hour to spare, so she used the time to get a little rest and make sure she would be up to the task of rescuing her family. After lying on the ground for what seemed like days she heard several vehicles coming down the road, and she immediately morphed so she would not be seen. Sure enough it was the caravan so as soon as they passed she took back to the skies to follow them. She followed them to a large warehouse on the edge of town that had been renovated and looked like something out of Area 51, there was security everywhere and she knew it would not be easy. Alex silently landed in the bushes about a hundred feet from the gate and began to formulate a plan to not only get in but to get her family out.
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A/N: Another chapter done please review.