"What do you mean, I killed you?"
Carter frowned. "A mob of Founding Fathers, a mint, and me blowing up like a firecracker…that ring any bells?"
Lee nodded. "Except the you-as-firecracker bit."
(Carter, Madrid, Valencia, Tina, Sergei, Lee and Galatea/Jessica- Location Unknown)
"If you died…" Madrid began, trying to peak over Carter's shoulder.
"I got better." Carter replied.
Sergei kept his hand up, barbs just beginning to stick out. "What did you do to that guard?"
The young man clenched and unclenched his fist. "Just took him out…how about you guys…how'd ya get out of your cells?"
Jessica cracked her knuckles. "Picked the lock."
"Oh, for the love of God…" Tina muttered, stepping between the two groups. "Now is not the time to be bashful." She pointed at Jessica. "Super strength." She turned on Madrid. "Matter Duplication." She glared at Lee and Sergei. "You two?"
"…inanimate animation." Lee finally admitted.
"Quick hardening blood and projectile firing."
Tina let a few drops of acid hit the floor. "Acid production. You Mr. Daniels here…" She waved a hand at Carter, "…can manipulate emotions."
"Not exactly." Carter said, never letting down his guard. When Tina stared at him, Carter stared right back. "I've learned to master my powers…while I was getting over my bad case of sudden-deadness." His fingers crackled with energy. "I can control the balance of chemicals in the brain. I can make people feel emotions, see things that aren't there, make them braindead, or correct imbalances."
"Why weren't you in a cell?" Madrid asked.
"I told you, I was dead. Woke up in the morgue."
Jessica pointed at Vally, who was peaking over Carter's shoulder, watching everything with interest. "What about the baby? What's her power?"
"I'm not a baby!" Vally shouted. "I'm 3 and 10 months!"
Madrid stroked her hair. "That you are, sweetie." She turned back to Jessica. "She, apparently, can feel when people with powers are nearby. That's how we escaped capture the first time." To demonstrate the point, Vally's eyes went pink, her little tongue sticking out as she looked at each of them.
"Wait a minute…" Lee said, it finally dawning on him who Carter was, "you're the reason I'm here!" He moved to tackle the younger man, Jessica holding him back.
"How? Because you killed me, someone brought you here?" Carter challenged.
"No, because your grief-ridden mama beat the crap out of me and put me in here! Her and her kitty-cat, the one that took my Galatea from me and replaced her with…" Lee's words were cut off by Jessica's hand on his throat.
"What? Bitch?" She challenged.
"Maddy…" Vally hissed, little hands tugging on her sisters. "Maddy…"
"Not now Vally…" Madrid said sternly, still trying to wrap her mind around what was going on.
"But Maddy…"
Carter turned to his daughter. "What is it, princess…" He noticed her eyes flare pink. "…you sense something."
"8…" Vally whispered. She began to point at each of them. "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,7…." She pointed behind her. "8."
Everyone looked to where she was pointing…just as the alarms went off.
"9…10…uh…what comes af-ter 10?" Vally asked.
Carter whipped back towards Jessica, eyes wide. "You want to avoid ending up on a dissection table?"
"As much as I imagine you want to stay out of the morgue." She held out her hand. "Truce?"
"Truce." Carter agreed, grabbing her hand in a quick shake before turning back to where Vally was pointing. "Lead the way. Acid girl, help her out. Russian, prove cover fire for them. Lee…" He glared at the artist. "Protect the girls."
Lee was ready to argue, but one look from Jessica shut his mouth. "What about you?"
Carter held up a fist, igniting it with whammy energy. "I'm gonna spread the word…and that word is panic!" He fired off a blast down the hall, some guards crying out as they were hit. Jessica gave the call, and the group was running.
The chase was on.
&
"CLAIRE!"
Noah Bennet would look back at this moment and wonder just how some many things could happen within such a short time.
A gunshot thundered through the streets.
People cried out in terror.
Claire went down, forehead exploding forth brainmatter and blood.
Hank and Kelly lifted their guns, trying to find the shooter.
Linda's glanced at a fire hydrant, causing it to explode, a wave of water blasting in front of them, making a white wall.
"Back inside!" Linda shouted, hands waving about as she sent the water circling around them. "Out the back!" Bennet stared at Claire's destroyed face, his knees wobbling slightly. "Hank!"
The young man nodded, stooping down and heaving Claire's body up. Kelly snarled at the water wall before grabbing Bennet by the arm and forcing him inside the toy store, Linda on their heels.
"We need to get out of here, now." Linda said. "Straight back…"
"No…" Kelly said. "To the right, near the bathrooms. The other door needs a key…that one will be open." The others stared at her. "Trust me."
"Don't have a power my ass." Linda muttered. "Come on!" Hank nodded, storming through the panicked crowd, shoving his way past them, mind screaming at him to go faster.
He'd failed.
Again.
Noah Bennet seemed to snap out of his shock as Kelly dragged him towards the back, head darting around in desperation. "Wait!" He pulled himself free of the 22 year-old's grasp and forced Hank to follow him into a breakroom. "Kelly, Hank; stand guard. Linda, I'll need your help." He took Claire's body and laid it down on the breakroom table. "I need a knife."
"What the hell are you doing?" Kelly demanded, keeping her sawed off shotgun ready.
"Claire can heal herself even if she has been dead for hours. The reason she isn't healing now is the bullet is still in her brain. I remove it, she heals herself." He frowned, looking for a knife of some kind. "Damn it…" He glanced at Linda. "You have to do it."
"What?!" Linda shouted.
"You control water. The human body is made of 75 water, and that includes the brain." He pointed to a section of what had been Claire's face. "Bullet went in here…focus on pushing the water out of there. Slowly…so you don't do more harm then good."
The professor nodded slightly, moving towards the teenager's body, hand shaking as she raised it. A horrific squishy sound was heard, then…slowly…the bullet began to worm its way out of her skull.
It took only a minute for Claire to sit up, cough up blood.
"Holy shit." Hank whispered.
Kelly nodded. "Took the words out of my mouth, Jesus boy. Listen, as much fun as this is, I suggest we get the hell out of here…"
Claire nodded. "Yea…'cause I don't want to do that, like, ever again."
"That's too bad…"
The group turned as one, staring in dawning horror as Biddy Bargo, aka BeeBee, and Lionel Riker entered the room, guns drawn.
"Because we're just going to keep doing it till we get it right."
&
"What the hell is going on?" Helena shouted, the monitoring room's main door slamming into the wall as she forced her way in, Marshal at her heels. "Are we having another drill?" The techs continued to ignore her, trying to link up with guards and give them stats. "Hello!" Helena shouted, grabbing one computer lackie and shaking him. "Why does it sound like a Level 5 alert?"
"Because it is one." The tech said, pointing at the screen, a sneer on his face. "Escaped prisoners."
Marshal snarled. "Watch your tongue, boy."
Another techie stepped in. "We have 5 escaped prisoners. Someone managed to break into the facilities and open their cells."
"You have a picture of the person who broke in?" Helena questioned, wondering perhaps if Linda, Kelly and Hank had moved up the timetable on helping her safe Tina Linderman. But instead of one of her son's friends, she saw…"It's Lee girlfriend!"
Marshal frowned. "The one I fought…the superstrong one? She drowned!"
"Apparently not." The tech said. He punched in a few keys. "These are the escaped prisoners, Mrs. Daniels."
Helena quickly looked at the security cam shots. "Lee Malion, big surprise. Sergei Arkadiy, that's interesting. Madrid Alverez…wait, why do we have a movie star and her little sister in holding?"
"She used her power to make counterfeit money." The tech said simply.
"Tina Linderman?" Marshal questions. "Why her?"
"Must have found out she was here, decided to use her as ransom…or maybe she arranged this with the woman and her accomplice."
"Accomplice?" Helena questioned.
The tech pointed to another pic. "This man…he broke the little girl out of maximum security. Killed several guards doing so." He pressed on the earpiece he was wearing. "Valencia Alverez is marked as an A-Class, and has been marked for only capture. Kill the rest, but protect the girl!" He looked at his monitor. "Do you have any suggestions Mrs. Daniels?"
Silence.
"Mrs. Daniels?" The techie asked, turning around and finally noticing that Helena was shaking violently, face white and eyes near tears. Marshal was holding her up, the woman's knees already having buckled.
"Carter." She whispered. "Carter…"
Marshal reacted instantly, grabbing an earpiece sitting on a desk. "Attention all personal! Carter Daniels is alive and inside the building, in the company of the escaped prisoners. He is to be brought in unharmed, is that understood?"
"Negative." A voice responded.
"Terrence." Marshal snarled, eyes going cat-like. "This is a direct order from Helena Daniels. Her son is not to be harmed."
"Carter Daniels is an A-Class; that overrides any of Mrs. Daniels' commands. Besides, she is too close to the situation."
"And your not?"
Terrence paused for a moment. "Stay out of this."
"Terrence….Terrence!" Marshal shouted. He roared as he got nothing but static, smashing a table with his bare fist. "Helena…we have to go…" He shook his partner, trying to snap her out of her shock. "he's going to kill Carter! Helena!"
&
Carter let out a primal scream, send an arc of energy at several guards, knocking them off their feet. He slid to the ground, kicking their legs out from under them, before grabbing one and slamming him to the ground.
"Stay down, Metatron!" Sergei shouted, firing off several rounds of barbs, cutting through the ranks with ease. Carter followed that up by sending another wave of energy at the armed men, before Sergei hauled him to his feet. "The others are just ahead."
Just down the hall, Tina and Jessica were working on a wall, pounding and melting their way through the thick steel. It might have gone quicker, had they worked together…but this was Tina and Jessica.
"Nice hole…if we could shrink to the size of rats." Jessica sneered. She grimaced as she slammed her fist into the steel, the metal only buckling slightly.
"Atleast I'm making holes…are you done massaging that thing yet?"
"I'll be through before you can double the size of that hole!"
"Through as in killed by the guards…" Tina snapped. "And…atleast my boobs are real."
Jessica was on Tina in a second. "These are what I was born with…besides, maybe you should a boob job… perk yourself up!"
Lee frowned. "Shouldn't we be trying to escape?"
Madrid rubbing her forehead. "Of all the escape parties I could have joined…"
"Maddy…" Vally tapped her sister's nose. "What a boob job?"
"Something that should be discussed when we aren't running for our lives." Carter snarled, hands glowing. "I swear to God, you two don't stop, I'll leave both of you behind!" His eyes flashed silver as he got in their face. "Jessica, punch Tina's side of the wall!"
Jessica glared at him. "I don't follow your orders."
"Galatea…sweetie…" Lee said softly. "Maybe we should listen…"
"Did I ask your opinion?" Jessica shouted.
"…no." Lee whimpered.
Sergei fired off several barbs, taking down a few guards that had managed to follow them. "Friends...we must hurry…"
Madrid shook her head, shoving Vally into Carter's arms. "Men…don't know how to talk to women." She walked over to Jessica and Tina, smiling sweetly. "Girls…" She grabbed their ears and twisted them hard. "My baby sister has been tortured by these people and I'm not letting that happen again. Work together now!"
"Ow ow ow!" Tina shouted.
"Ok!" Jessica stammered. Madrid let them go, allowing the strong woman to begin punching her way through Tina's half of the steel door.
"Is she always like that?" Carter asked.
Vally giggled. "Maddy silly."
"That she is." A new voice called out from behind the door. Jessica's fist halted mid-punch as the steel slid open…
…revealing Terrence and a battalion of guards.
"Thinking she could escape…so silly." Terrence taunted. Carter quickly handed Vally back to Madrid, moving to protect his daughter and her birth mother from Daniel Linderman's right hand man. Tina and Sergei flanked him, Jessica and Lee beside the Alverez girls. "Carter Daniels…I heard you were dead."
"He got better, apparently." Lee quipped.
"Don't steal my lines." Carter said sternly, before turning towards the guards. "Hello Terrence…I've heard so much about you."
"Is that so?" Terrence asked, fingers wiggling. "Then I suppose you know what I can do?"
" I know more then you realize. I know all about your past with Linderman. I know how you hate my mother, how you are trying to take her place within the Company. I know of your power…how you discovered it, and how you used it to bring Vally in." He narrowed his eyes. "But most of all, I know your secret, Terrence."
"My secret?" He questioned.
Carter nodded. "Of course…the real reason Linderman brought you in…the real reason you want to kill me."
Terrence licked his lips. "Who told you?"
"Eden. She told me all about you…about how your mother told you stories about your father, the man that abandoned you."
Terrence took a step forward. "Shut up." His father was a sore spot for him. He idolized the man from the stories his mother had told him as a child. He had heard how powerful and wonderful his father was, and longed to meet him one day. He loved him just as much as he hated the reason his father had left before he was born…
"She told me how your father would move from woman to woman, sleeping around and taking their money."
"Shut up!" Terrence snarled, separating himself from the guards and heading towards Carter. The Metatron followed suit, the two pacing like caged lions waiting for a piece of raw steak to come their way.
"How he would stay only until his girl would get clingy…or produce another mouth to feed…"
"I TOLD YOU TO SHUT UP!"
Carter kept talking, his own rage building. "But most of all, she told me how one night in Texas, your son-of-a-bitch father raped a teenager, leaving her for dead." Terrence's body quivered with blood-boiling anger as Carter continued with his rant, the guards and the escapees all staring on in shock as the two began to circle each other. By now, Terrence was barely holding back from blasting Carter, while the younger man's whammy energy was pouring off of his body, causing those near by to grow tense. "How he left her alone and scared… pregnant with yet another of his bastard children. A child you blamed for all your suffered; a child you blamed for your father not being there, when the truth was your father never loved you…just like he never loved any of his children…not you…not Eden…not me." Carter's eyes flashed. "Yea…I know all about you…brother."
&
Author's Note: Instead of questions, I thought I would go over the meaning of the last two titles for the chapters:
Chapter 25: A Sound of Thunder- This title actually comes from the short story, A Sound of Thunder, which used it for the same reason I did. A sound of thunder refers to a gunshot, echoing after fired. There are two ways people describe being shot: Silence and thunderous. A Sound of Thunder referred to the shot that killed Claire.
It also has a second reference to Galatea's breaking into Lee's cell.
Chapter 26: The Ties that Bond-This refers to all the different (many secret)connections that can be found in the story and especially in this chapter:
-Carter is Vally's Father
-Madrid is Vally's Mother
-Tina knows about Vally, Carter and Madrid (as seen in Sins of the Father Part 2)
-Jessica/Galatea
-Lee killed Carter
-Carter's mother captured Lee
-Helena and Terrence are rivals
And especially the final one, that Carter, Terrence and Eden are all half siblings (all three share the same father).
In case there is some confusion, only Carter, Terrence and Eden are related to each other. Claire is Carter's half sister through his mother, Terrence and Eden through his father. As it has been hinted, there are many sons and daughters of Mr. Ellis running around, and as such, many possible Heirs of Isaiah. Why Carter is believed by so many to be the true heir is a key plot point.