Chapter Eleven - Love

He looked down at her pale face; it never moved. The oxygen mask was always there, firmly strapped to her face. “Oh Emily…” Carl muttered. “We’ll get you out of this. I swear. We’re working really hard, me and Brock. He thinks he’s on to something. He’s gone to find the person who put you this way…” He started walking around the room, averting his eyes from her then looking back as if to listen to her reply.

Come on Emily!

“Please… just wake up Emily. Wake up and tell me it’s all going to be okay. Tell me you’re better.” He grasped her hand tightly. “Please! I… I love you Emily. I always have. Ever since we met I’ve loved you! I don’t want to lose you now. Not ever. Just wake up Emily…” Tears ran from his eyes softly, streaming down his face. And Emily remained as silent as death.

***

Get out of the apartment… what was he talking about?

Edel was in the park, staring at her building. Her room stuck out easily, being the only one without a window. She smiled lightly at it, constantly playing the message through her head that the man had told her. She glanced at her watch. 11.59. She got up to leave the park, realising how silly she must have looked. She took one last look at her apartment…

The glass shattered first. All of it. Falling like stars to the ground. The building simply started to fall before the fire burst out. Torrents of it, pouring out through every crack in the concrete. Edel was shocked to her bones, fear gripping her tightly, holding her in place. As she made to run away, she glanced upon a person flying through the air. No wings, no machines; a black suit and long black hair. Trouble had arrived at the doorstep and removed it completely.

***

Lisa was still troubled by Will’s lack of contact the previous day. It was the first time it had ever happened. But she wouldn’t let it ruin her life. She listened as he spoke to her, until she sensed him hiding something from her. A secret… but not like before. There was excitement in his mind, like he couldn’t tell her soon enough.

“ ‘Though I speak with the tongues of men and love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. When I was a child, I spoke as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.’ And it is you I love Lisa.”

Will…

She let out a deep breath, taken aback slightly.

I love you too.

***

Brock had heard many rumours lately of a man in black walking through the streets. People feared the image. It was said the man couldn’t be stopped, but Brock knew it was for lack of trying. He had stopped the man before. Now it was only a matter of doing it again.

“Looking for me?” called a soft voice. It wasn’t the man Brock knew. When he saw him, this man was taller, wider. He seemed stronger - an air of arrogance and pride hung about him. “We’ve all heard about you. The fire thrower; the one who managed to not get killed.” His smile seemed threatening. “That makes two so far. Bloody girl…”

Inside Brock’s head it was as if a switch had been tripped. “Edel! You’re the man who attacked her!”

“You don’t know Ms Mooney!” the man protested. “She’s dead anyway. Blown to smithereens!” He let out a laugh, a bellow that was off putting with his voice being so soft. “So tell me, why would the fire thrower be out hunting? Don’t you know that you can’t beat us?” The man lurched forward and grabbed Brock’s neck quickly. His hands were strong, choking the life out of Brock with ease. And he was capable of holding Brock off the ground with it. He tossed him to the side, let him struggle for breath. “My superiors want a word.” He grabbed Brock roughly, pulling him to his feet. With little effort he threw him into the back of a white van.

“How wonderful for you to join us!” a man cried cheerfully, playfully. “Edward, help Daniel secure him to the chair. And don’t forget what we discussed.” A man stepped from the darkness, holding a pair of gloves. He forced them onto Brock’s hands, not even looking into his eyes. And when both men were done, Brock was trapped. He tried to burn his way free, but the fire simply wouldn’t start. “No, that won’t work,” remarked the man. He was wearing all white, with silver goggles that reflected Brock’s own image back at him.
“Who are you?” Brock asked him fearfully.

“You won’t know my name. Never. Miss Scarlet has seen it. You will never, and must never, hear my name.” He bent down to look Brock directly in the eye. “But do you want to know something? Your friend, Miss Quigley, will never wake up. She won’t survive the night, you see. My men will see to that. Well, to be politically correct, men and women, if they class as that. Say your goodbyes now, though she won’t hear them.” The man’s wicked smile ensured Brock he was telling the truth. “Hannah, you know what to do.”

***

Edel was still in shock. She couldn’t believe what she’d seen. Her hands were shaking, and as her mobile rang she struggled to answer it. “He- hello?”

“Edel?” It was the man again, wheezy as before. “You must now leave the park. There is little time to explain. But know the future depends on it. You must go to the Black Lake Hospital, and soon. Emily Quigley resides there with her male friend. You must find them. You must help them. The people who destroyed your house are going to finish off the job they started on her. You must save her life! Do I make myself clear?”

“Who… who are you?”

“All in due time. Now go.” The line went silent, but Edel knew the man hadn’t hung up. “Good luck Edel. The future is in your hands.”

***

01 sat patiently in his cell. Patiently, but only barely. He was fast growing tired of this scene. And his abilities were beginning to return to him. While he had never fully lost them, he was one of the few mutants who could ever over exert their ability with these consequences. Even still, he would not give up his abilities. They made him something more than normal; to him, they made him a god.

The door opened once more, slowly rising to allow the doctor in. The brutes accompanied him once more. Men that were supposed to be able to stop a mutant if they tried to escape. Men who had already failed. 01 knew it to be true. Mutant energies ran high in this floor, in this building. And three had escaped. One suddenly, miraculously. Another two who simply walked through the wall. That was all 01 could sense of it. It was not his ability to see other mutants.

“Subject 01,” the doctor muttered. “Are you ready to show us your ability?”

01 smiled lightly. “Did you bring the required test subject?” The doctor didn’t respond. “Well then, no display for you.”

“We can keep this up for years 01, or do you prefer Number One? That’s what you call yourself, isn’t it. Number One? You think you’re the first! Even your henchmen know that isn’t true.”

“What do you know of them!” 01 cried. “You know nothing about my men!”

“The news reveals many things. It looks like they’re getting sloppy.” The doctor turned to the brutes. “He won’t show us anything today. But maybe, as his men reveal themselves more and more, we’ll get what we want.”

The door closed as slowly as it had opened, sealing 01 in his cell once more. This time his anger boiled ferociously. He knew he had to escape soon, or his entire operation would be foiled.