Sloane's authoritative tone was hard to push against. "We've done this so many times now. It's a routine pick-up."
"What about Doc? We were supposed to work on the program." Five asked, trying to come up with any excuse to get out of it. He didn't have time for this.
"Actually, he's coming along. I don't trust you. At all. I don't feel safe leaving you wandering here alone while we do this." Sloane stared straight at Five. "He goes along with every single one. He's the one that built the whole plan, anyways."
"Um…" Klaus raised his hands, breaking the tension, "could I please say no to this?"
Sloane turned to look at Klaus who fiddled with his zipper. "No. If you don't want to fight, come to move the people." Sloane made it clear her lack of trust extended to all of them.
Truthfully, Sloane did trust them, enough to leave a dozen lives in their hands. She wanted to give her troops a break. Their juniors were pulling 12-hour shifts to guard the perimeter, the Barricade, and the tunnels. The seniors managed the communication, overall strategy to survive, defend, and fight. There weren't enough people to do this, not enough abled bodies, never enough food, water, or shelter. She couldn't handle asking them to do yet another 'routine' pick-up while keeping their home safe. To bring another set of mouths they knew they couldn't feed.
When she first saw Viktor's eyes light up, in Doc's lab, she tried very hard to not look surprised. Something straight out of a comic book, lights and swirls of energy poured out of him in defense. She had only seen that energy at the Hargreeves Labs Museum, spinning rapidly to power their lives long before the apocalypse. Then she saw Allison's yellow eyes fade into her normal eyes as she walked through the lab doors. While eating, she had seen Diego flick his small dagger up in the air and let it hover while it spun madly. They were different and it gave her a small sense of hope.
She led them out of her apartment and entered through the center, into a guarded door. Diego, right behind Sloane, noticed a small soldier stood next to it. He couldn't have been older than 15 and the armor seemed to be weighing him down more than it helped him. He sharply saluted and eased when she lowered her hand. He opened the door for them and gave each of them a strange look. He slowly tilted his head up and had to push his helmet back to reach Luther's face. He had to turn sideways and squat to fit through the door.
Sloane walked through the room and reached the table with people engaging in an intense dialogue.
"Absolutely! Let's do that. If you want to kill them! The random bombing has been more and more concentrated here in the last few months." Doc yelled at an old man. He placed his hands down to mark a generalized area. "That tunnel is on its last leg. If that caves in, there will be no one to save!"
"I get that! But I'm talking about taking a 20-minute detour. In a place that hasn't been thoroughly checked or documented. They could get lost! You could get lost!" The old man snapped back. He had clean shaven face, and deep lines on his forehead. He wore a flannel and looked more like a carpenter than a revolution leader.
"It's a 20-minute detour at best. It will be an hour with the conditions." A woman spoke. Five peered to see her blonde hair that reached her low back. Her back turned away; they couldn't help but curiously walked closer to take a better look.
"Doc is right. If it means a better chance of survival, we should take the detour." This time a British accent added to the debate. It was a thin man with a thick beard covering half of his face. His voice was tired and groggy which made this accent sound heavy and slurred.
"I say detour too. We can afford it with these guys." Sloane pulled a seat and eased down trying not to pull her stitches again. "They're idiots, but they could be our muscle. They should be able to clear any blockage or obstacles. I'll be there to do the thinking for them." She smirked at Diego's scowl.
"You're not going anywhere." Doc said, pointing at Sloane. "I just used my last thread on you. You rip them again and I'm stapling you back together."
"I can go. He's right, you should rest and heal. You did get hit with shrapnel." The blonde squeezed her hands and gave her a short nod. As Diego pushed closer to the table, he felt like he knew the blonde from somewhere. Even her voice sounded so familiar it tickled his ear. He slowly stepped to the middle of the room and hesitantly craned his neck to reach her face. He felt tears falling but didn't understand why. Then, he saw Grace. It wasn't the mother that raised him. The mother that never aged and never faltered. This Grace was in her late 50's, with smile lines and white hairs that framed her face. It was his mom, real and aged, lived and human, and so beautiful. Diego wiped his face in confusion. He didn't feel like he was crying but tears kept free-falling. Grace turned to look at him and stared at him with soft eyes. She had wrinkles that appeared when she smiled, and confusion etched on her eyebrows.
"Oh, honey. Why are you crying?" Grace's voice gentle and sweet, it hurt Diego.
The rest of the family finally noticed Diego and walked towards him to follow his gaze.
"Oh my God. Mom?" Allison gasped and stared at her. She instinctively grabbed Grace's hands and had to take it away, startled from the warmth. They all scrambled and pushed Diego as they joined.
Grace grabbed Allison's hand back. "Was I your… Mom?" She asked eagerly, she wore a bittersweet face and desperately hoped it was true.
"Yeah… you were our Mom." Viktor muttered in disbelief. He had never imagined Grace as human and aged that it shook his core.
"I heard where you guys came from. Wow! I was a mom of seven!" As she looked around.
"I wasn't. It's complicated, but it's still seven. Ben's just not here." Lila waved her hands.
"Why?" Grace asked. Lila began to answer but Doc interjected before she could even start.
"We don't have time for this, people!" Doc shouted, slammed his fist on the table to cut the conversation off. "We have 20 minutes until we meet them at the checkpoint." He grimaced in stress and sternly said, "Suit up. Help them. Come back. Not a hard plan."
Grace looked at them apologetically and stood up to grab the map and her belongings to zip in her vest. The family entered a small weapons wing with objects displayed around the wall. Strange and forgotten weapons to newly built ones shone brightly at them. They started browsing the various weapons, armors, and gear but only a few elected to using them. Diego stuffed his various pockets with smoke bombs, knives, and a tazer. He jumped a few times to check if everything stayed in its place. Allison decided to keep it simple with a knuckle ring. Klaus chose a pepper spray and made sure his hand sanitizer was tucked in his back pocket. Doc changed his leather jacket with a tight black vest and a belt with various homemade bombs tucked in each loop.
Lila and Five were trying to decide to what bring. Lila was always more comfortable empty handed and shrugged at Five. "What should I bring then?" He asked as he opened another drawer. "Something small, but deadly," she said wiggling her brows and smirking with an evil grin. "How about this?" She lifted a silver dagger that smoothly continued to the handle with a big circle on its end and pretended to throw it. "This is so you." Five chuckled at her and grabbed it out of her hands before she accidentally killed him with it. He nodded and added it to his belt loop with its sheath. "Thank you." He smiled and kissed Lila on the nose and she kissed his mouth back. They tried to prolong it but heard Doc trying to gather them for departure.
Doc and Grace led them to the back room, into an empty cellar, through a ladder into another tunnel system. It was darker than their original entrance and they clicked their flashlights on. Grace pulled out the map from her pocket and flashed on it. "This way," she said as she led through the entrance. Every step bounced off the walls and the cold intensified as they reached further underground.
They walked through shallow water, mud and trash, spider webs, and a hoard of rats before they spotted the check point. By the time they reached it, Klaus yelled, "Thank God," and sighed. It led them through a large room with high ceilings and smooth tiles. The footsteps took longer to echo back to them. A minute later, they heard echoes of feet and hushed voices approaching them. Viktor and Allison started to draw their powers and focused. Diego slid out the alien knife and swirled it between his fingers before grabbing it, ready for a fight. Luther stood near Grace and squinted his eyes to see who was approaching.
The first to enter was an elderly man with his hands holding above his head as he carefully looked up at them. Soon followed women, elderly, children, with more men behind them. Grace rushed to them and muttered, "You're okay now. We're here to help you," as she grabbed their hands.
At least two dozen people filed out, forming a tight circle, still on guard. Viktor felt a gnawing unease. Something was wrong, but he couldn't pinpoint it. He closed his eyes, tuning out the noise, and focused on his power. He sensed his family's distinct energies, each with a familiar smell, and Grace's presence, though different than before. Then, he detected something else—something foul. The energy left a bitter taste in his mouth, a stench that made him grimace. Raising his hands, he let it guide him, feeling a tingling in his arms as he reached further. Eyes shut tight, Viktor navigated through the crowd, concentrating, pouring his energy into finding the source of the putrid presence.
His family noticed his odd behavior, and Klaus began gathering the people Viktor had passed, trying to calm the masses. Viktor took a deep breath and suddenly felt the source right next to him. He snapped his eyes open and grabbed the shoulder of the figure. The man looked so normal that Viktor almost doubted his instincts.
"Cool trick," the hooded figure smirked, twisting Viktor's arm behind his back and shoving him into the crowd. Viktor stumbled and fell forward against the group of people. Five blipped in front of the man, but the moment he touched him, a thousand volts surged through his body. He gasped for air, collapsing as the shock released him. Lila, seeing Five crumble, teleported behind the imposter and roughly kicked him to his knees. Luther rushed towards them and pressed his massive weight down on the figure, pinning him with his foot.
Seeing how fast they took him down, another woman nearby ripped her hood off to attack Allison, but before she could reach her, Diego threw his alien dagger and pierced it through her skin and pushed it through her hand. She barely flinched and easily pulled it out and threw it back at Diego, but he easily grabbed it midair. She tried to carry on, but Allison, only four feet away from her, took the opportunity throw a punch with her brass knuckles. She felt it crack underneath her fist and she threw her head back from the force but snapped it back and continue pushing towards her. There was blood gushing out her broken nose and hand, but she seemed unfazed.
Doc noticed her lack of reaction, and understood, "She doesn't feel pain!" Allison panicked at the thought, how was she going to hurt someone that cannot feel pain? She drew her powers to push against the approaching woman and lifted her off the floor. The woman thrashed and clawed at the air, but Allison slammed her against it, and Viktor started binding her arms and legs with the tile. Soon, the woman was encased in the wall, her head poking out like a deer on a mantle. She spat on the floor and screamed, watching her partner being held down.
Allison drew her powers again to keep him knelt and forced his arms behind his back. She pushed him down to the floor but had to fight to keep him down. Diego took the chance to wrap a piece of metal around and around his arms, binding him all the way up to his biceps.
Doc slowly approached the man and squatted next to his face. He carefully pulled back the hood to inspect his face closely. He was bald and well-fed, and watched him fight against Allison and the restraints. They met eyes and the man started to laugh. He couldn't hold back as it spilled out of him, spitting all over the floor.
"Who made you?" Doc demanded, his voice cold and looked at him pathetically, and spat the question at him.
"Does it matter? Will it change anything? Don't you realize! You LOST! You fool, YOU LOST!" He cackled another manic laugh.
Doc glanced at Allison, and she nodded as she put more pressure on him. He groaned and cut his laugh short. He gasped for his next breath as his lungs crushed underneath the weight.
"I'm going to ask one more time." Doc was so quiet now and growled in his anger, Lila feared him for a second. "Who. Made. You?"
"I'll die before I tell you bottom feeders anything." He groaned through the pressure and watched the threatening man smile.
"I'd hoped you say that." Doc said with a sadistic grin on his face. "If you told me, I would have let your cockroach ass go back to spread your little intel. Save your pathetic life. But now, I get a new toy." He pulled out a small syringe from his vest pocket and satisfyingly plunged it into his arm to push it relentlessly. He slumped and started drooling through his open mouth as it pressed against the dirty floor.
The woman on the wall was desperately trying to fight against the bricks as she saw her partner go limp. Doc grew tired of her whining and pushed a similar syringe on her throat and watched her slump against her holdings. "We'll leave her here. They'll find her and she can explain to them what happened. They need to know we have more up our sleeves. That we can fight." Doc said, looking up at the woman.
Viktor and Allison sighed as their strained muscles relaxed. Lila rushed to help Five up and watched him shake out the voltage. He shook his head to clear his double-vision and felt the stinging still linger on his hand. It was slightly red and pink from the initial contact and he hissed at it. When he stood up, he saw the imposter captured and Doc bitter. Luther reached for the man on the floor and swung him against his shoulder. Doc was staring at the woman in the wall when he said, "Let's go, before they send more."
They traveled back through the tunnels with ease. Having to rid of most obstacles earlier, it wasn't long before they climbed up the ladder to the room. It took awhile for each person with varying mobility to climb a long ladder. They filed out as they profusely thanked them and looked around at the comfort of safety. Klaus led them through the door and towards the shower and clothes.
"They know about the check point." Doc said to the room as it cleared of the refugees. "They sent two, but we took care of it." He started shedding his layers and dropping his weapons on the table. "Damn it. We have to start over again." He slumped his head down as he dropped his knives.
"But I did bring a present." Doc continued after he heard Luther drop the wound body on the floor. "He had special abilities. We can use it to study the source and hopefully extract it."
"His skin… it was like sticking my hand in a vat of eels." Five stared at his hands and recalled the pain.
"There was another woman. She didn't feel any pain. Something is going on in that compound." Doc muttered. "We left her there as evidence." His ears still echoed the manic laughter. "They'll kill her by the morning."
"Our sources did mention several of them getting selected for a 'special' job. Maybe it's that." Sloane looked up at Doc as she said it.
"I want to take him to my lab. I want to study him." Doc straightened up to stare at the slumped body on the floor. "I'll keep him in a coma until I'm done. Who knows, maybe I'll take a week or a few months. After, we can send him scurrying back with nothing in his brain." Doc smiled, sarcastically, at the man's crumpled face.
Doc, Five, Lila, and Sloane decided to head back to the lab to continue their work. Luther offered to join, and Sloane spoke up to say, "I'm not carrying him. Are you?" as she glanced at Doc. He grumbled but nodded, adding another person.
Their trip was short compared to the tunnel system they traversed through. Five held Lila's hand as they shimmied in between buildings and glanced all around them for signs of a bomb. They safely reached the staircase and let Doc open the lab doors.
Once inside, Five kissed the back of her hand, holding their clutched hands up to his lips. He let go of it to help Doc set the body down and Luther restrained him against the lab table. Doc reached for a small needle port and easily stuck it in his veins. He drew at least a pint of blood just to see what he was dealing with. He then connected the port with a tubed bag that he hung on a small hook by the wall. He checked it was going in at the right speed and swiveled his chair back to his equipment.
Sloane worried about the rest of the family. She made Grace look her in the eyes and promise to not let them out of her sight. She smiled at her and assured her, promising they were good people, in which Sloane replied, "You don't know that." As she watched the man asleep, in peace, unknowing of the chaos created by him. She wanted to punch his nose but remembered Doc's threat on her stitches. She walked away before she got creative with her violence and sat on the couch. Luther joined her, finally being able to sit comfortably.
"That was… a lot." Luther finally spoke up. He looked past her head to see Doc and Five fiddling with their machines and computer as they argued rapidly. Doc's face was heavy with stress and kept scratching his eyebrows.
"Where did you leave the other one?" Sloane took his attention back.
"She's encased in the wall." Luther said, and as it left his mouth, he realized how strange that must have sounded. "Viktor did this thing and kind of embedded her into the wall." He tried explaining. She gave him a curious look but didn't push further.
After a stretched, awkward silence, she asked "How did Five get the bruise?" When Luther tilted his head, she glanced at Five and muttered "The one on his jaw?"
"Oh right. Um… Diego punched him when Five told him about Lila. I guess they were lost in the subway system for like seven years or something. They were, or are, married, I guess. But after she came back, it was like watching a ghost, like she was in another world, all the time. She was so… soulless." Luther watched Lila smile at Five as he told her a joke. "When he came back for her, it was like nothing happened."
For the first time, Sloane gave him an honest reaction, jaw dropping as her eyes searched his face. When she saw no lies, she was stunned. Luther smiled at her disbelief, feeling for a moment like he was talking to his Sloane.
"You mean to tell me, that guy, with the little throwing knives was married to her?" She was more surprised that Lila had chosen Diego in the first place. Luther laughed and she felt it vibrate through her.
"Yeah. They were together. Three kids, too! I'm a great uncle, you know." He flashed a sly grin, "But what can you do? They love each other." He shrugged, accepting it.
Sloane glanced over at Five and Lila, watching them study the microscope as Five whispered in her ear. Lila smiled as she peered through the lenses, half-sitting on his leg.
"Do you see those little specks?" Five leaned close behind her. He let her hair tickle his nose as he whispered on her neck. "I think that's the Durango." She inspected it closely and adjusted the knobs to give it a better focus.
"It's glittery." She whispered back to him. "Like it's alive and mutating."
"Exactly. I think they are figuring out the dosage of the Durango. It gives them powers like us. This guy got a little too much and the side effects are clearly present. Mania, sociopathic tendencies, and impulsivity. And I think, she got too little." He peered at Doc to see he was listening.
"I think so too. The Durango is exploding out of his cells. Like his body can't handle the amount and is trying to push it out of him." Doc replied.
Doc noticed the Petri dish clattering on the lab table. It fought and thrashed as it tried to find a way out towards the man. It was searching again for more. He grabbed it and put it in the fridge the stop the noise.
"You think we can create more of the vaccine to neutralize it?" Five asked as he let Lila lean against him.
"Sure. After I'm done with him." Doc was short and annoyed. His last five years of carefully planning and building disappeared and the thought of starting over again drained him of hope.
"Doc. If anyone can start again, it's you." Lila interjected. She turned to look at him and softened her eyes when she saw his dejected eyes.
"Why do you think that?" Doc turned to look back at her and for a moment with anger still etched on his face, but let it go when he looked at her familiar face.
"Because. It's in your nature." She shrugged, "You save people who doesn't deserve to be saved. You save people because it's the thing to do. I love him for that," she pointed at Five, "and you are the same person, after all." Five looked offended at the comparison.
Doc had nothing to say at her comment, but it felt like something his Lila would say to him and accepted the odd compliment.
Once Doc set up his equipment and computer to run the analysis, a loading page of 12 hours appeared as he groaned, "I don't have time for this."
Five glanced at the screen and stared as the loading bar inched up to 1% completed. "Let's work on my program then. We still need to work out our time problem." He tried to create a distraction to the stand-still bar.
"Right. Yeah, we can work on that in the meanwhile. Grab the journal." Doc snapped his head up and welcomed the change of pace. "It shouldn't take us more than an hour."
He opened his programming software and madly typed the necessary changes to the train. He used the time travel equation as the base and worked his way up to fix the necessary glitches, bugs, and paradoxes. He explained to Five how it would work and the way to change the coordinates so it would land on the correct timeline. He worried that he would have to do that on his own and tried to explain it like Five was a five-year old. He rolled his eyes at the condescension.
Lila leaned in, watching as Five shoved his bangs back, only for them to fall right into his eyes again. He twirled a pen around his finger, trying to keep pace with Doc's rapid typing. Five felt different in this timeline—more focused, almost dangerously determined. She feared for anyone who stood in his way. They were so close to the finish line she could taste it, yet every time they neared, it seemed to slip further out of reach.