I shamelessly pilfered a few ideas from the anime and manga in this chapter, though the twists are mine. See if you can spot them. ^_^

†~†~†

That afternoon they all gathered in the living room to watch the news after Lisa heard something interesting on one of the morning radio shows.

"We interrupt our scheduled programming to bring you breaking news on the mayhem and destruction wrought not two days ago by an unknown cause at the Institute of Science."

"Welcome to the special broadcast on the events that happened at the Institute of Science two days ago." Said the smiling announcer. "We bring you breaking news on the chaos that used to be the Institute of Science. For the past two days, no one has been allowed in or out, and the blocks surrounding the Institute have been blockaded and a no-fly zone established. No one knows why except the people who were there at the time, but until now, none came forward to testify as to the events inside. Now we will go over to Andre."

"Hello everyone. As you can see, I am standing outside of the blockade that is the closest anyone without proper ID can get to the Institute and with me is Doctor Adrian Machovitch who works at the Institute as a biochemist. Thank you for joining me, Dr. Machovitch. Can you say what happened inside? What caused the apparent destruction?"

Adrian laughed, "Destruction is a rather extreme word for a bit of superficial damage. The rumors are overblown as ever, I can assure you. I even obtained permission to have a small robot with a camera show you around the building in real time, no alteration. You can see for yourself the 'massive destruction.'" He said, making air quotes.

The picture shifted to what was presumably the camera bot, showing dented and gouged walls and papers strewn everywhere. The occasional brown splotch of blood spotted the white floor like mud in a pristine kitchen.

"As you can see, most damage was done to the surface of the walls and some minor damage dealt to the floor tiles. The reason we have blocked off the surrounding area is to keep curious people out of the building while it is undergoing repairs, which should be finished tomorrow. It would be awkward if someone slipped on a drying patch of plaster and broke a leg, and as for the no-fly zone, that is just a safety precaution to make sure that some of the highly sensitive information stays where it belongs. After all, the last thing we want is for someone less than responsible to start some kind of misguided effort based on whatever misinformation is floating around these days."

Reasonable as ever, Adrian. You always did have a silver tongue.

"What caused the damage?"

"Ahh, well, you see…" Adrian blushed. "One of our employees typed in the wrong command and let some of the research chimeras out of their cages. No one was seriously injured, but as you can see…"

His acting ability has improved exponentially since college.

The camera panned back and forth again to drive the point home. Of course, they're being pretty selective with what they show. There may not be any editing but you can be assured that they're hiding something behind the camera or off to the side.

The news clip wrapped up with a reassurance that there would be no "lasting harm" to either the Institute or the personnel, and someone turned it off when the topic switched to the sports scores.

Mat was the first to break the silence. "Well that was informative."

"Do you think that they are ever going to make you a public enemy Lis?" Jac sounded worried from his perch in the armchair.

Lisa smiled at her nickname. "Probably not. It would damage their image too much. If they're going to come after me, they're going to do it with more subtlety than a screaming mob, which is the widespread opinion of the public at the Institute." She looked at the floor and grinned to herself, her expression hidden from the others because she was sitting with her elbows on her knees.

Mat raised an eyebrow. "Is that so?"

She made a show of leaning back and put her hands behind her head in an expression of careless disregard. "The elite working on questionable material that would bring the wrath of humankind on them when that material is entirely justified in their minds because of its very existence? Of course we had enormous egos. We all have a bit of a god complex too, I think. But the biggest difference is the fact that most of us are the most ambitious and ruthless of our generation, morals are really a secondary concern, when they are a concern at all—" She broke off when she felt Alexandra's shiver through the couch. "No, I don't think that they're ever going to announce the truth of what happened. There is the chance of people asking the reason I went crazy in the first place, and with my record that would be a hard one to explain."

"So we have to watch for pizza boys with odd smells rather than security cameras at the grocery store?"

"Something like that."

They sat in silence for a while.

Alex suddenly levered herself out of the chair and went into the kitchen. Lisa heard her take the kettle off the stove and fill it, then put it on the stove. "So…" She said, startling everyone in the living room. "What are we going to do? If we don't move soon, the Institute will track us down or we'll run out of food, and I have no intention of fighting on an empty stomach." She stood in the doorway and the kitchen light shone out from behind her, giving a melodramatic air to the whole scene.

It was almost enough to make Lisa burst out laughing.

†~†~†

"Cause evacuation, draw them away, do damage and get out, simple really."

"'No plan survives contact with the enemy.'"

"No enemy was ever beaten without a plan."

"Really now, you two, can't you just—"

Both simultaneously: "Quiet!"

She was quiet.

†~†~†

Two days after the newscast, only four days after Alexandra had left the Institute, they were going back.

If she thought that she would never surpass the level of nervousness she had felt when she broke Alex out, she was wrong.

"Pass me a bag, would you?" She groaned. No sooner than a bucket was set on her lap then she felt her stomach contract and promptly made use of it.

The window next to her rolled down and she gratefully stuck her head out of it, nausea passing a little. I am so glad I didn't have any orange juice this morning.

Jac handed her a bottle of water and she cleaned the taste from her mouth, spitting into the bucket, which she set on the floor.

"Pull over and let's get rid of that. We don't need to be stepping in it on our way out."

Mat, who was driving, gave them both an odd look before obligingly pulling into a refuel station.

Lisa tossed the befouled bucket into a garbage can and they were off again.

†~†~†

"I can't decide if I'm glad you people work so fast or not." Mat grated as they pulled up at one of the lesser public entrances. Alexandra and Lisa got out.

"I'll be watching so if anything goes wrong I'll be less than a mile away." Mat said. Lisa could see the pain allowing Alex back into the Institute was eating at his resolution to let her go. It was almost one o'clock, an hour before Jacob's scheduled appearance and Lisa wasn't any more eager than he was to see this through, but times were desperate and she needed to erase Alexandra's data before anyone else saw it.

Alex and Mat both cocked their heads as though listening to something and a minute later Lisa heard it as well. The thubba thubba of a flying engine approaching. She squinted at the black speck coming from the same direction they had and looked over at Alex.

The other woman swallowed and said, "Let's get this show on the road."

They both pulled on the white lab coats and checked that their forged ID cards—courtesy of Jacob—were in place.

Lisa glanced up once more at the helicopter approaching before striding through the door. Back to Hell.

The halls they walked through were nearly deserted and they quickly made their way through the maze, Lisa unconsciously taking the most direct route. They made it to the computer console without incident and as Alex stood guard Lisa quickly input the password Jacob had given her, hoping that he wasn't double-crossing them by giving them a fake. Seconds later she was admitted and quickly navigated to the hard drive on the network that contained Alexandra's data. She looked up the location in the building and was relieved to see that is was only a few rooms away.

She logged out of the computer and turned around, but she stopped. Some thing was sniffing at Alexandra, who stood perfectly still. Vaguely canine in shape, but with more powerful looking limbs and rounded ears, it was chocolate brown and had a ridge of spines running down its back and spikes on its elbows and heels as well.

Keeping her voice perfectly calm and soothing, she said, "Alex, when did that get here?"

Just as calmly and soothingly she replied, "Just now."

Lisa did her best to keep her movements slow predictable and obvious. Moving closer to the door, and the animal, she pulled a syringe filled with fast acting sedative out of her pocket.

Suddenly its head snapped around and it let out a bone-chilling growl.

Lisa averted her eyes and dropped the syringe.

It continued to stare at her.

"Alex…"

"Lisa, look it in the eyes, right now it thinks you are hiding something."

Hesitantly, Lisa obeyed and slowly raised her eyes to meet the creature's emerald ones. It stared at her for long moments, then it dropped its eyes and its tail gave the smallest wag.

On an impulse, Lisa held out her hand, palm down, for it to sniff and it cautiously obliged.

"There you go…you see, it's okay…" Alex cooed. She also reached into her pocket and brought out a granola bar.

The…dog's…hackles went up momentarily but when Alex unwrapped the snack it turned into an oversized (and spiky) puppy, complete with a heartbreaking whine.

Alex fed the creature half of the granola bar and handed Lisa the other half. "Feed her, she'll trust you more if you do."

Lisa obeyed, not feeling as though she had much choice in the matter. It looked up at her again, and then looked down, hanging its head.

"See, she's sorry." Alex softly snapped her fingers and the dog creature turned around to face her again. She crouched so her face was level with the creature's and slowly reached her hand up to the dog's head, giving it a rub behind the ears which it seemed to enjoy enormously.

"Where did you say that we needed to go next?"

Lisa didn't look away from the creature, which was now begging pats from Alex, as she spoke. "Two doors down on the other side of the hall."

Carefully, she edged past the animal and sidled down the hall to the door. Inside she found the server stored all the research data. Opening the case took only a moment and she quickly located the disk that had Alexandra's files on it. Disconnecting it, she went to the other end of the room and pulled a powerful magnet out of Alex's pocket. She spent a few seconds rubbing the disk with it and left the magnet with Alex when she plugged the hard drive back in.

"There. That was the last of the backup data. You are a free woman."

Alexandra's smile could have lit the entire building. "Let's get out of here before they realize that there's a loophole in the security system."

She and Alex trotted down the hallway, and a click-click-clicking sound made her look around. The dog creature was bringing up the rear. Lisa shrugged. They would deal with it later.

†~†~†

"Shit!"

Lisa backpedaled frantically when she saw the slavering menace. Peeking around the corner, she whispered to Alex, "I don't suppose you can pull out another granola bar and make it beg for a belly scratch?"

Alex shook her head. "No can do. Are we even looking at the same thing? The only thing that's going to make that one roll over is a high-powered rifle bullet through the head."

"Great. I never would have guessed that something that big would still be wandering around."

"I'm surprised as well. I never would've guessed that so many things would still be wandering around."

"It's a stupid oversight on our part, the idea to put radio tracking on the experiments was shot down because we thought that none of them would ever need to be tracked down, and in the likelihood that one did escape, it would be easy to find because—"

"Shh!"

Lisa fell silent for a few moments and listened for any sign that it had noticed them.

"Is there anything that you can pull out of the hat?"

"Sadly not, anything that I could do would draw security personnel like flies."

"Damn." A syringe made a terrible long-range weapon.

"Is there any other route?"

"Yes and no," Lisa sighed, "the only other option is extremely public and leads through the front door. If I get my face caught by a camera we're toast."

"Facial recognition software?"

"Yup."

It was Alexandra's turn to sigh. "We could try waiting until it moves." The dog nosed at her hand and she absently scratched its cheek.

"No good, we can't afford the time to play Who Can Sit Still Longer. Both our husbands would go crazy if we ended up being hours late."

Alex suddenly clapped her hand over Lisa's mouth. Shit. Oh shitshitshit. She barely dared to breathe as she strained her ears for any sign of what prompted Alex's action.

Lips tickled her ear and she heard/felt Alex say, "No choice. Have to go front."

She stiffened, but nodded. Alex turned away from her and crouched. Get on, her motions said. Lisa hesitated for a moment, but then complied. Alex stood without any difficulty, as though Lisa weighed no more than a five year old. She felt her take a deep breath before her own slammed back into her lungs. Walls and hallways blurred past and it felt like her stomach and brain were still a mile behind.

Just as suddenly as she had launched, Alex slowed to jogging speed and turned a corner, then stopped. Lisa suddenly got the feeling that Alex would have gone faster if her passenger could have withstood the G-force. Gulp.

Lisa started violently when she felt something touch her butt, almost knocking both of them to the floor. She looked down over her arm and saw something brown and furry. What the…?

Alex dropped something that went clickclick. Clickclick-clickclick. She heard it move behind her and got goosed. Oh, the dog. She sighed. Its tail was probably what scared her witless the first time.

"Um, Alex, I can walk, you know."

"Oh, uh, sorry."

She gratefully touched down and straightened her shirt. "We needed to turn left at that corner, not right, so let's go."

†~†~†

Lisa stopped at a bathroom and pulled Alex with her. "Guaranteed to have no cameras." She explained. The three of them—guess the dog is part of the group now—sat on the floor.

"This is going to get rough. Since we're going out the front there is almost a guarantee that there will be a fight and I'd rather you believe that it is inevitable rather than hoping to slip by unnoticed. Being mentally unprepared would probably be the clincher for our loss, and I'd really rather not get caught." She paused to organize her thoughts. "So, once we hit the reception desk, run for all you're worth. It will only take a few seconds for the alarm to go up and less than a minute for lockdown. I'm pretty sure that you could bust through the shutters but I think they would slow even a Methuselah down and I don't know if we can afford even those few seconds."

"Is there any way you could jam them?"

"Not if we want to escape. The only way I can think of involves going down three floors and setting off a million alarms in the process. The way this place works they've probably installed cameras farther from the main hall…which gives us even less time than normal."

They all jumped when Lisa's pocket buzzed. "Hello? Oh, hello Jacob. You called just in time to answer a question. Do you know if there are any new cameras and where they are?"

He did know and said as much and that the offices were now under surveillance but that was all.

"We're going to be getting out as soon as we can, we completed our objective but escaping as planned isn't going to happen. One of the escaped experiments was in the way and there was no way to take care of it without drawing attention. I'm heading toward the main entrance now. Can you manage a distraction? I'm camped out in a bathroom about one and a half sectors from the reception desk. I can wait as long as needed."

That was fine but would she mind doing another errand as compensation?

"That's fine."

Sticking the USB drive in her pocket into the nearest port would be sufficient.

"Alright, that shouldn't take long." There was another console not too far away, only a few doors back the way they had come.

Less than two minutes later they were all gathered in the bathroom again.

"How do we know when to move?"

"Jacob said he'll call us five minutes before they arrive and again at one minute."

Alex nodded approvingly. "Very thorough."

†~†~†

It had been close to fifteen minutes before Jacob's first call came. He asked them to move closer to the main hall and to wait there.

"Fine. See you in a bit."

"So, what do you think he'll do? Sleeping gas? Storm the building?"

Lisa groaned as her knees loudly voted to stay seated. "I wish I knew, but probably nothing that would incapacitate us, using a gas is too general and there is a notable lack of gasmasks in our pockets. My guess is he'll disable the cameras or something. Heck, that USB we plugged in could be a virus to shut down the facial recognition software. He seems like the type to favor elegance over force. I don't think he'll do something like storm the building, but you never know."

"True."

They walked in silence until they reached another bathroom. Alex was about to enter when Lisa caught her elbow, "These bathrooms aren't nearly as deserted, we'd have to be very lucky if someone didn't walk in there…" Her voice trailed off as she thought of something. "Alex, if someone comes down the hall pretend you're helping me walk."

"Eeh?"

"If someone who knows me sees my face we're screwed. Pretend I sprained my ankle or something."

"Ah. Okay."

A few doors down Lisa found what she wanted and shoved Alexandra inside, followed and closed the door behind them both. She blinked in the darkness and felt behind her for the light switch. Wincing at the glare, she shielded her eyes, letting them adjust.

"May I ask why you shoved me into a broom closet?"

Lisa took in Alex's slightly annoyed look from less than two feet away. "Because, again, they don't put cameras in 'broom closets' and no one is going to come in here." A slightly wicked grin tugged at her mouth. "And even if they did they would probably jump to other conclusions involving a very bad pun…"

"Ack! Lisa! Seriously, get your head out of the gutter or I'll think you're serious."

Lisa snickered. "Anything to lighten the mood."

Alex rolled her eyes.

The dog wiggled between them and started nudging at their hands with its nose. She absently scratched it under the chin with a finger.

"Hey Alex, how did you know how to tame it back there anyway?"

"Hm? Oh, the dog? I guess it's because I've had a lot of dogs over the years, after training so many you can't help but pick up the art of it somewhat. And maybe I sympathize with her a bit, so I had a good idea of her mood at the time."

Suddenly it—no, she—arched her back and Lisa jerked back to avoid getting skewered.

Vrrrr vrrrr vr— "Hello?"

"Where are you in the building?" Jacob's voice played over the sounds of the street.

"Sector A, Block 2. Is that close enough?"

"Wonderful. If you could start out in…oh, thirty seconds or so we should be ready. When you hit A1 start running, that's where the cameras start."

"Roger that." Lisa replied and hung up. "We move in thirty seconds, run when we get to A1."

"Right." Alex started counting silently.

Lisa resisted the desire to start panting and kept her breathing and heart rate somewhat steady. I'm going to have to ask Jacob how he knows what we need to know before we even do.

She opened the door when Alex nodded and, stomach roiling, began walking quickly down the corridor, the other two trailing behind

Strangely, her thoughts were calm and almost mathematical in their logic, despite her shivering body.

They hadn't walked far when she realized they were close. "Alex, Pooch, stay close to me and try not to get lost; the layout gets a bit crazy."

She started to run.

This block's design was meant to slow down anyone who didn't belong here for their own safety, with many dead ends and circular traps, there was no direct route; if Alexandra carried her and ran she knew that they would be thoroughly lost within seconds, she had to lead. Of course, Alex and the dog were keeping up easily and Lisa had never been so glad that she participated in the 12k race every year. She wasn't terribly fast but she could run 5k without getting tired.

Left, straight here, two rights, another left, straight for a while…only a little more.

"Do you want me to carry you once we clear this corn maze?"

What's a corn maze? "Don't think…have time…besides…just end up…a shield…no…thanks."

Alex's grunt sounded more like a 'I was telling you, not asking' grunt than a 'fine, whatever' one.

Lisa saw the lights starting to flicker and shouted, "Alex! Lights out!"

"Fine!" Was the reply.

She felt more than saw Alex's form slip in front of her and just before darkness washed over them hands grabbed behind her knees and hiked her up piggyback again.

"I can still see, so if you can tell me where to go I can get us out of here."

"Keep going straight for about a hundred feet, then take your first left and second right, that should put us where we need to be."

"Roger. I'm going to run."

Lisa only had time to inhale before she felt her stomach getting extremely friendly with her spine. They slowed around the corners, but not much, Lisa could feel the muscles in her neck straining to keep her head from flying off. She did her best to keep her arms locked at Alex's chest instead of slipping up around her neck.

You're such a softie, Alex. She could feel the dog's fur against her ankle.

It took less than half a minute to reach the waiting room, and Lisa's eyes stung and watered as they adjusted to the sunlight coming through the skylight.

"Let me down, they won't waste any ti—"

Her teeth clicked together as Alex dodged backwards and a piece of the floor pinged off a table. "They sure didn't."

Lisa grunted as Alex moved again, faster than before.

†~†~†

I can't use my wings at all with Lisa on my back, and I can't ask her to get off with me dodging every which wa—bastards, would you stop aiming at the one person here who can't take a bullet? Shit! If only I could use my wings as a shield I could move freely, but since I'm carrying buster here I can't rearrange her…urgh!

'Buster' started squirming so much that Alex had to drop her.

Lisa's mouth was right next to her ear. "It's an auto-targeting defense system. Find where the bullets are coming from and throw a chair at it."

"Right." She grabbed one of the metal tables and heaved it as hard as she dared at the top of the door frame. There was a very satisfying crunch and the deadly game of dodge ball stopped.

"Well, this is some nice pre-lunch exercise." She quipped. "Which way to the next activity?"

Predictably, the joke flopped, but the finger pointing through the doorway answered her question.

"Any idea what's next?"

"Either robots or security guys, I'm personally hoping for humans."

"Okay." Alex set off. "And after that?"

"Innocent bystanders maybe? We'll be in the public area and I can't imagine them trying anything there unless they've gone totally batty."

Alex didn't dignify that with a reply. Anyone who used auto-targeting weaponry as a security measure in a waiting room was already nuts.

†~†~†

The appointment office was suspiciously quiet; you could even hear the air exchange running. Alex suspiciously tossed a pen into the middle of the room but…

Nothing.

"Do you think that there's nothing here, somehow?"

"I don't know. I don't think that there is though. Any defense system would have activated long ago. I can't remember anything that takes a long time."

"Hold your breath to be safe."

Alex had them across the room and through the door in less than a second. They exited into a very large and airy room with plants seemingly suspended in midair and a stunning kinetic sculpture of iridescent glass occupying the enormous skylight.

This was secondary information though. All around them raged chaos. People in street clothes were fighting with figures in white and even as they watched, the lab coat-clad figures were being pushed back.

"What…?"

She didn't know which of them spoke but their confusion was mutual. Lisa couldn't wrap her head around what she was seeing.

Alex relaxed her hold enough that Lisa could slip free. "Come on, we don't have much time." She slipped her hand into Lisa's and towed her along.

Lisa broke out of her reverie when a body went flying past her shoulder. She snapped around to see the cause but the mass of bodies showed no clues. A split second later she was yanked around to Alex's front. "Come out you coward and face me!"

Was it her imagination or did Alexandra's voice have a rough edge to it?

When no one appeared Alex continued to shoulder her way through the melee. They were half way to the doors now and the shutters still hadn't come down.

Suddenly the crowd began parting around them and they sped up their pace until they were nearly jogging. They were two thirds of the way across now.

"Well well, Lisa, I didn't expect to see you here."

That voice, bone chillingly familiar, the voice she had last heard so many months ago, flirting and threatening, stopped Lisa dead.

"Adrian." Lisa hated to sound melodramatic, but she wanted Alex to know who challenged them.

Behind her Alexandra shifted her stance so she could counter an attack from any direction.

"It looks like you've adopted your lab rat at well…such a poor scientist if you can't stomach a few yelps of pain from a dog."

Slowly, a space had opened in the struggling bodies, less than ten feet across, it was enough for Lisa to make out Adrian's form, bereft of his usual lab coat, standing at the edge of the circle.

The newly exposed Adrian sauntered forward. "Aaah, it would seem that the lab rat is actually a ferret. It has teeth."

"We can't afford the time to fight him."

Lisa could feel the agitation radiating from Alexandra's body. "We can't afford to ignore him. He has the equivalent of a black belt in at least three martial arts. He could take us down in no time at all."

"Ugh."

Adrian—there was no other word for it—blurred.

Lisa felt Alexandra jolt with an impact.

†~†~†

Alex only just managed to get her guard up in time. This 'Adrian' was good. Very good. He might actually have those belts.

He rained blows on her raised arms, some of which were hard enough to make her grunt. A kick to her side sent her skidding a foot away.

If we were the same species…I'd be getting my ass handed to me.

Lisa and the dog had vanished. For a moment, Alex panicked, but then she realized she could go all out without worrying about her friend's safety. If the dog was with her Alex doubted Lisa's life was in danger.

Almost gleefully, she scythed her right leg around in a mirror of the kick that had nearly toppled her. Adrian didn't take it any better than she had, sliding three feet, but rushed her again with a jab at her solar plexus.

I'm extremely glad Mom made me join a club in high school. Without Mark's weekly beatings I'd be so screwed. Alex thought as she blocked. I still don't know how she convinced a judo club to let me in during the Fifties. Another kick, aimed at her knees.

He had her almost entirely on the defensive; every time she tried to counter one of his moves, he found a gap in her guard and struck. It was rapidly turning into a stalemate, Alexandra's defense was as good as his offense but he was not allowing any chance for her to put her strength to use. One right hook and he'd be done for, but the son of a sow aimed for her nose or a pressure point every time she tried. Believe it or not, a broken nose hurt her just as much as anyone else.

No choice I guess, I'm going to have to amp it up. Alex began to sink inside herself.

Ignore the noise, the ache in my arms, ignore everything but what needs to be done.

At last, her mind went silent.

It had been some time since she had had to react as fast as this. She was the one on the offensive now, though Adrian avoided or deflected her attacks with a speed beyond any human's. She was glad Lisa had left.

"I am a lab rat? What about yourself, Methuselah? Wouldn't your fellows delight in finding you?" She said with as much venom as would fit in her distorted voice as she dodged a charge. "Would you betray your own for such paltry gains as knowledge you already have? Idiot. The only reason we live safely is our anonymity. If you take that away there will be nothing left of us. Genocide. Is that truly worth it to you?"

"Who is this we?" He grunted, "You are no more a Methuselah than your pet human." He blocked another kick at his stomach. "I don't give a damn about that. As long as I am satisfied, the world can burn for all I care."

Alex drew on more of her strength and she felt her teeth changing shape. Can't go too much farther than this, I'm not trying to level the city. She could feel the blood in her veins moving.

Later, she learned that all the data in all the servers had been wiped, but that was later.

I'm through with dragging this out.

She kicked him as hard as she could with the same kick she had used at the beginning of the fight; he flew a good twenty yards and hit the wall with enough force that she could hear his bones breaking from where she stood. There might have even been a dent in the wall. It was a good thing that the hall was mostly empty now. If someone had gotten in the way of Adrian's flight things would have gotten messy.

The only thing left to do was get out the door.

"Wh-ere d-do hyou thi-ink hyou're going?"

The panted, broken phrase froze Alex mid-step. "Out. You're in no shape to stop me, so let go of my coat."

"I do-on't th-think so."

Something huge hit her from behind.

She blacked out for a moment, and when she came to she was on her hands and knees. She tried to get up but her muscles wouldn't coordinate properly and she barely avoided mashing her nose when her arms gave out. She felt like she had bitten a high-voltage wire. Electricity. He has an ability. Fine, if that's the way it's going to be… A little concentration, a quick adjustment and a small discharge, and she stood up.

The dumbfounded look on his face was totally worth it.

She gave him a rakish, twisted grin. "If you get to use fancy tricks, so do I." And my talent trumps yours, you heartless bastard.

Before he recovered, she struck. She did the opposite of what she had used on herself. I'll love to see how you manage to move without any electrical signals in your nerves. Using a trick she had learned by accident (one that had cost her a week of school, though she did get her legs working again, eventually), she could reach into her opponent's body and stop the electron exchange in their nerve cells. This also applied to the brain of course. It worked best with metals, but as long as there were atoms, it was hers to manipulate. Adrian had lost the second he decided to show his talent. Electricity was part of magnetism—trying to attack her with it was as useful as attacking a generator with a metal bat.

She took out a small container of metallic dust that she had thought to bring with her in case of emergency, but he didn't give her a chance to use it. All the hair on her body stood up and she barely got a barrier up when a sizable lightning bolt struck from the ceiling.

She only managed to divert it because in her haste the container of dust broke when she put up the barrier, releasing its contents, but she was still blinded and deafened by the strike.

"Alex!" Lisa's panicked call rang out, and both of them froze in surprise.

"Heh." Adrian sneered.

Alexandra could feel the potential for another bolt forming and sprinted toward the other woman. "GET DOWN!"

She collided with Lisa, knocking her to the floor. Then the world turned white.

†~†~†

She had gotten worried when Alex didn't appear, so she went back into the building, telling the dog to "Stay."

She saw a white flash accompanied by a huge CRAAACK and, idiot that she was, screamed, "Alex!"

"GET DOWN!" Alex roared.

Something hit her in the chest hard enough to wind her and she heard another deafening clap of thunder.

She lay on the ground, trying to gather her wits. Something moved at the edge of her vision and she managed to pick her head up enough to see a silvery shape standing a few feet away. She fought to focus her eyes but the shape still didn't make any sense. Alex didn't have wings.

Had an angel landed?

The angel gestured to a figure on the floor and swept a hand in a motion that included the entire room. Cracks formed in the walls as they bulged inward. The figure motioned again and Lisa could feel the walls grating as they were pulled inward. The ground shuddered and she suspected that the same thing was happening throughout the building.

She managed to roll onto her side and prop herself up.

With an almighty roar, the walls collapsed.

†~†~†

I fainted, didn't I? Lisa blinked at the cloudy sky. Then memory slammed back. Oh God, the building collapsed! She sat up…and promptly fell over. Aaah! My head! The stabbing pain took a few minutes to recede and she sat up slowly this time. Her head still throbbed but it was manageable. Gingerly she felt the back of her head and found a lump of monstrous proportions.

Alex? Where's Alex?

She looked down and saw her friend lying next to her.

A warm, wet something licked at her ear and her surprised screech could have woken the dead. Then she saw the dog, which looked rather pleased with itself. "Oh, sorry puppy. Didn't mean to hurt your ears like that…"

"What…?" Alex groaned.

Lisa's mothering instinct kicked into full gear. "Alex? Are you all right? Anything broken? Pain anywhere?"

"…think 'm fine. Helluva headache though. Like I went drinking on an empty stomach…"

When she managed to stand up, Lisa dislodged several feathers from her clothes. She looked around and saw more scattered all around them.

"Help me up."

Alex took the offered hand and hauled herself to her feet. "Help me collect these feathers, would you?"

"All of them?" There were an astounding number of them though for the most part they were concentrated around where the two of them had been.

"No, just most of them. I don't feel comfortable leaving any but we're pressed for time." Alex crouched down and began sweeping them up by the handful.

Lisa shrugged. Whatever, she'd ask Alex later when they had time to talk properly. They finished pretty quickly and stuffed them into a makeshift bag made from Lisa's coat.

Alex dialed the phone number of the phone their husbands had and told them that they were ready to leave.

***End Chapter 16***

Well, I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter, I practically sacrificed my English grade to write it. ;;_ I really wanted to get the 'escape from the Institute' thing over with so I wrote this whopper. I promise you won't be seeing them again for a while. ^_^

Yes, it always annoys me how there is no big pile of feathers when Abel transforms back, though I did think of an excuse for it.

For those of you who're like me and can't stand not knowing conversions, 5 kilometers = about 3 miles (or more accurately 10k = 6.3 mi). Trust me, I'm a skier, I know these things.