"You stay safe, you hear me." Carter said, holding Madrid's face in his hands. She felt strange, standing like this with him; her dressed in plain clothes, him in his black costume, not an inch of skin to be seen. They were standing outside the chateau, the limo idling beside them. Within Vally and Gabriel were already situated, only with Biddy, Hank, baby Derek, Helena and Vic. Micah, Terrence, West, Tina and Sarah were waiting for him, the first 3 dressed in standard issue kevlar, while Sarah and Tina had customized pieces to aid in their powers. "No matter what, no matter how bad it gets, you 3 have to stay safe."
Madrid smirked. "I say ok, and the first sign of trouble I will be fighting to keep Vally from running off to save you."
"Keep the rugrat at home, you hear me?" Carter asked, stroking her shoulders.
Vally poked her head up through the sunroof. "Bring us back a present, daddy!" She lifted Gabe up, the infant squealing happily.
"Vally, he's going to be taking on zombies..." At Vally's pout, Madrid sighed. "And maybe he can find a giftshop on the way home."
Carter rolled his eyes. "I mean it, ok? Don't come after me it things go bad. Need to know you 3 are ok."
Madrid nodded, before reaching up. With care she rolled his mask up to expose his lips, giving him a tender kiss. "Go get'em, tiger." She quipped.
Carter nodded, pullinghis mask back on. "Don't worry...its just an immortal body snatcher, a mad psychologist and possibly the woman that kidnapped me, along with a horde of undead henchmen...what's the worst that could happen?"
Thunder cracked overhead.
"Huh...not a cloud in the sky." Sarah muttered.
^&^&^&^
Malcolm looked over the blueprints Lee had managed to snag. "Ok, so this is a prison."
"Was a prison." Lee stated calmly. "Built to house Cold War Prisoners, it was decommissioned sometime in 1993. The state owns it, and has pretty much left it to rot."
"I have to break it to you, but those guards up on the towers do not look decommissioned."
Linda nodded. "Somebody has decided to use this place for their own advantage...not surprising, really."
"Your aunt told you nothing else, Malcolm?" Lee asked.
"No...and that's the least of our concerns." His eyes went white. "The chaos lines are in tangles...someone is jamming my ability to read them..." He grunted, fighting against the knots, his nose beginning to bleed. Ellie took out a hankie and pressed it to his face. "Damn." He finally said, coming out of the trance. "I can't get much...only that whatever is in there is important...and it ties directly to all of us, but mostly myself and Carter."
Linda frowned. "So, we need to get in there and get something, something you have no clue about, in order to help Carter." She shook her head. "You know, before that boy was in my class, I use to get something called down time."
"Before he was in your class, you didn't have the choice of immortality either." Kelly said with a smirk. It was an old fight between the two; when Vally had amped Kelly and Hank's powers, she hadn't realized what could happen. Thanks to the eclipse that had given herself, Sarah, Hank, Carter, Madrid and Vally every power in the world (and left all five adults power crazed and ready to destroy the planet for their own profit) Kelly and Hank had found, after all was said and done, that they, like Carter and Madrid, were immortal. They didn't heal like Carter and Madrid did, but they no longer aged.
It had become a debate amoung the group after the final battle with Marie if they should allow Vally to amplify the rest of them. Malcolm and Ellie had made their choice known before the battle, choosing to spend eternity with each other. Biddy had been left no choice, really...her son and husband would live forever, so she allowed Vally to whammy her. Helena had also had no choice...her husband had been imortal to begin with (in fact Vic believed there had been a good chance Carter would have stopped aging anyway, pointing out that Carter's birthfather, Vic's true son, was almost 50 and looked only 40 or so, and would have looked younger if he lost some weight).
But Linda, Tina, Lee, and Ashleigh were still on the fence, Linda the most vocal against the idea. THe professor just didn't know if she could handle forever, while the others didn't know what lay waiting for them. Tina, in Kelly's hopes and dreams, would one day accept, and Lee was a chance, as he and Sarah continued to flirt with one another.
"So, any ideas?" Lee said, wanting to stop another fight.
"We go in guns blazing?" Malcolm offered. THey all stared at him. "I don't bloody well have more powers...don't expect me to have bright ideas."
Kelly sighed. "Looks like the theif in training has to do her job then."
^&^&^&^
"I changed my mind."
It was such an unlikely sight: A black suited superhero, a cross between the Punisher, a cowboy and the Grim Reaper, with a sword on his back and flames on his fingers...being pulled towards a dark opening by his annoyed older sister.
Sarah rolled her eyes under her own mask. "Carter, come on!"
"Codenames, Harbringer." Tina reminded her.
"Yes, Acidic." Sarah said sarcastically. "Metatron, come on!"
"No!" Carter pleaded, sounding like a 2 year old. "I don't want to go!"
"God, you are worse than Vally!" Sarah snapped, forcing him to take a step forward. "What happened to you being all "Let's go kick some ass!"?"
"That was before I saw the cave made of skulls!" Carter whined.
The Paris Catacombs were not a cheery place. Built to house the dead of medivel Paris, the underground tunnels had litterally been built, in places, with the skulls and bones of the dead they were designed to hold. It was a dark, haunted place, now home to homeless squatters, criminals, drug addicts and, if the legends were true, dark, monsterous things. Many had claimed to see phantoms and ghosts, while others reported friends going down and...never returning.
It was a place even the Voice of God was scared to enter.
ANd he wasn't the only one.
"Maybe Metatron is right..." Micah whispered.
"Would you calm down, Rebel?" Terrence snapped. "We will be fine."
"I'm not feeling this either, chief." West said. "Not much room to fly."
"Which is why you are purely here to get the wounded out, Flyboy." Terrence said with frustration. He walked over and smacked Carter upside the head. "You want to be more scared than the toddler?"
"Hey!" Micah shouted.
"Get in the cave!" He gave Carter a shove, the Metatron stumbled before taking a deep breath and entering the dark place. Sarah followed, brother and sister igniting their hands to give them light.
Carter shivered slightly, all the whammy courage he had forced into himself fading as he entered the one place that still gave him nightmares, other than the orphanage.
He would have shivered more...had he noticed one of the skulls inbedded in the wall turn towards them as they passed.
^&^&^&^
"Excuse me?" THe guard turned, only to find Kelly's knife at his throat. She had scaled the guard tower with ease, and snuck on the sentry as if it were nothing. "Now, be a nice man and lay down your wea-"
The guard shifted his neck, slicing open his throat...and a hot blast of oil hit the stone floor.
"-pon." Kelly finished in shock.
The guard grabbed her by the throat, lifting her into the air. She kicked and stuggled, her vision going blurry...
BZZZZZZZZ
The guard fell down, Kelly falling on top of him, as one of Lee's custom Lightning Bugs floated around he head.
"Thank you." Kellytold the formly paper drawing. "Can you hear me Lee?"
"Load and clear." Lee said, his voice coming out of the bug's speaker.
"We have robots...as if this weren't going to be fun enough."
^&^&^&^
On the other side of the prison, Joseph looked at the shattered remains of the guard he had killed...or destroyed.
"Robot, huh...well well well Adriana...you have been a busy bee."
^&^&^&^
They had been traveling for 30 minutes, the dark tunnels causing their footfalls to echo. Carter tilted his head, adjusting his goggles to nightvision. "Something is wrong."
Micah frowned. "I have nothing on the radar...nothing in front of us or behind." He tapped his watch. "We're clear."
Carter turned to Sarah. "Do you feel anything?"
"Nothing."
Terrence nodded. "These corpses don't have emotions, so it isn't a suprise you can't feel them. I can't feel any nerve activity other than from us."
"Exactly." Carter said. "Where are the rats and the bugs?" The others slowly began to look around. "These tunnels should be swarming with them...not a damn one..."He paused, looking about him. "Aw shit..." His hands ignited.
"What...what is it?" West demanded, raising his gun.
"There isn't anyone in front or behind us...because they are in the friggin' walls!"
Carter just managed to get this statement out before the walls on both sides of them exploded, revealing decomposing corpses, their claw-like hands lashing out, trying to grab members of the group and drag them inside.
Sarah and Carter fired their whammy energy, only to find it have no affect. Sarah shot off some acid, but it did little to stop them. Terrence had resorted to using his gun, but all that did was remove chunks of them.
"What do we do?" Micah screamed, struggling to free himself from one of the skeleton's holds
"We go down." Carter snapped, voice tingled with fear. He raised his hands, and with a bellow, slammed them into the floor. The tunnel buckled, and quickly Sarah joined him, two more powerful strikes from them causing the bottom to give out.
And into the darkness they all fell.
^&^&^&^
Author's Note: Alot of you may have heard that Heroes will be having its season finale next week, most likely. I would like to ensure you, while Heroes is ending its season, Elsewhere will be going on...all the way to CHapter 100!
That's right, "In Darkness Dwells" will end with Chapter 100, and I will say only this...I have saved the biggest twist of all for that chapter. The whole STRUCTURE of Elsewhere will change after 100, as we move into the final season (or seasons, as the case may be) of the show and the story.