Chapter Nine - Present...

Rumours spread quickly. Brock noticed this over and over again. And once again it proved itself to be true. An old friend had told him that a mutant lived nearby. She was of average height, though Brock put that down to information being changed from person to person. The woman he was looking for was tall. Another difference in the two was their hair colour, though once again he put that down to the fact that rumours always change some details. He also took into account that she may have dyed her hair.

As he headed for her apartment one thought went through his head over and over again.

I have to save Emily.

***

Emily was still comatose. And Carl was still watching over her. She looked at peace, which frightened him. There was no telling the extent of the damage that had been done to her. There was no way of knowing how much rehabilitation it would take to get her back on track, if she even woke up. He knew that no one seemed to be able to wake her up. No one knew anything about her attack. But the world was soon to find out.

“A series of strange kidnappings have begun to occur across the globe in the past weeks,” announced a newsreader. Carl turned up the television in the private room. “Reports say that men in black suits, and often women too, have been grabbing pedestrians from the streets and dragging them into a van. Witnesses are hard found, and it appears that no one can describe the van. They say their minds go blank about that detail. As well as that, few witnesses can explain how the kidnappers performed their deed.”

What’s going on! How can they miss it!

“One witness does say that he noticed a woman being lassoed into the van, though this is yet to be confirmed at truth. Furthermore, a supposedly real video has appeared on the internet of one of the kidnappings. It happened right here in our own country, in sunny little Black Lake. We have it here, though viewers are told not to take it as fact.”

The screen changed over to Black Lake, with the camera shaking. Carl got a shiver down his spine as he saw himself and Emily standing before two men in black suits. He winced as the image of himself was forced into the wall, and was in tears as Emily was bound in ropes. And as she gasped for useless breaths he clutched her hand tightly as she lay on the bed. Then he was dragged into the van, at which stage he noticed the man in white - a mad doctor it seemed. And finally when Emily was alone, crying his name over and over again, the image cleared away.

“The creator of the video has been asked by the Gardaí to come forth with any information he can give.” The newsreader put a hand to her ear. “Breaking news! It seems the mother of the man kidnapped in the video you have just seen claims that her son was taken from her six years ago. She also says that since that time, only recently in fact, the woman in the video came looking for the man. The couple have been identified as mutants, which raises the question : are these attacks racially orientated?”

Carl turned off the television in a hurry. He was still crying over Emily, and now things were only worse. There was no telling how people would react to attacks on mutants. Modern media was never shown to be kind to people who are different in cases such as these. Carl only hoped that Emily wouldn’t be put in danger because of it.

***

Lisa had a flower clutched in her hands lightly, toying with it carelessly, a smile on her face. She knew that Will could feel her mood, feel how relaxed she was. In two weeks they had become so comfortable with each other they didn’t feel the need for words so often. Simply knowing the other was there was enough.

“Lisa? This power we have, this connection… do you think it’s…”

She felt him grow in fear. It made her wonder if he had seen or heard something she hadn’t. It was worrying. Not because they had a secret from one another, but because Will was afraid to tell her because it might hurt her. She read it in him, in his mood.

Do I think it’s what?

“Well… I saw on the news… people like us… mutants… are being kidnapped. And well, do you think it’s dangerous for us to be… like this?”

She let out a sigh. She had been afraid he might try break up with her. Afraid that for the all the time they spent in one another’s presence, that he was growing tired of her. She feared he wanted to be with someone else, that he was only with her because they had no choice. But she masked it as a fear for what he had asked; for what she saw him saying between the lines. Were they in danger too?

I don’t care, Will. All I want is to be with you. We’ve only ever seen each other once, but… it doesn’t matter whether we see each other or not.

“I guess you’re right.”

She felt his mood lighten. That was one barrier out of the way. No more fear. Now there was just one more matter to deal with - their families. Could they tell them? Or would they be secret lovers like Romeo and Juliet?

So what do we do from now on? Can we tell anyone?

“I don’t think so. There’s too big a risk in letting people know the truth. We’ll have to keep it a secret while there are still people being hurt in the world… while this war is still going on.”

What do you mean a war?

“Between mutants. And… between all of mankind. Humans and mutants are so different Lisa! You know that! No human has ever had the joy of being so close to another as we are. And it might scare people. Or worse; it might start a genocide!”

Will! That’s a horrible thing to say! Do you really think people would do that? In this day and age, Will!

“Actually… I do.”

***

Edel found her life settled at last. After four weeks she had an apartment, a job and fresh clothes every day. Most of the money to fund this new life though, she wasn’t sure it was completely safe. She had found the money in a train station, in a new locker that she had hoped would be the start of her new life. And it was, but it scared her still.

A sharp knock sounded from the door. Casually she opened it, expecting company from the man who lived below her. Who she say caused her heart to skip a beat - a man in a black suit, with dark sunglasses over his eyes and hat that shaded the rest of his face. He was tall, with an athletic build, and something about his horrible smile told Edel that he wasn’t a salesman.

“Ms Mooney?” She nodded, caught off guard by his soft voice. “You’ll have to come with me.” A cautious step backwards alerted him to her suspicions, and he leapt at her. With inhuman strength he threw her into the wall. She was winded from the blow, struggling to see straight. She kicked out her foot and felt it connect with his shin. He cursed under his breath and dived at her. Quickly she under his arms, glad for the first time in years that she wasn’t especially tall. There was only one exit from the apartment, and the man in the black suit was blocking it.

“What do you want with me?” she shouted at him. He straightened his back so that his suit sat perfectly on him once more. “Why did you come here?”

He pushed the door closed and began walking towards her. “It’s very simple,” he teased. “You’re a mutant.” Her pulse quickened. He knew her secret. Her new life was over already. “The war has already started!” he boomed dramatically. “Now you have to pick a side.”

He ran at her, faster than he should have been able to run. In a swift motion he had her wrist and was spinning her around, ready to throw her again. She didn’t have time to think of the consequences of her actions when she let loose a blast from her fingers. The man was shot backwards, steam pouring from his chest. With a shatter of glass he went out the window, though the other panes smashed from the explosion that Edel had caused.

In fear she couldn’t move. Her thoughts were running wild. She had learned a week ago from a scientist, a young doctor who wished to discover more about mutants and who promised everything would be kept confidential, what her powers were capable of. He had explained that she was splitting atoms, but that the reactions were so extraordinary that it would take a tremendous amount of energy to cause fission of this scale without the use of radioactive materials. She was unique, and dangerous. There was no telling what she might be able to do to someone should she use her ability on them. And it was this fact that made her fear she had killed the man in black.

***

Brock had been restless all day. He had purposely had to wait for this time in the day to make sure that the suspect was at home. Her apartment was supposed to be nearby. He readied himself for a fight, knowing that whoever had taken down Emily had been extremely dangerous. How else would they have been able to touch her?

I have to save Emily.

He was nearing the building when above him came a smashing sound. Glass. And an explosion. Light flared from an apartment up above, and a man was thrown out the window. Brock got ready to examine the body when it fell, only to see a figure in black fly by in time to catch the falling man. Blocking the sun from his eyes Brock saw they were the men in black.

She beat one of them!

He was momentarily excited, when he realised that while the girl in the apartment must be strong, she wasn’t the one who had attacked Emily. A power like that, causing an explosion so vicious, would have left a mark on Emily’s body. He left the scene quickly to find Carl. Now they had yet another person to look over.

***

Carl had left Emily’s side momentarily to get some information on the men in black. He found it difficult to find any online articles relating to them, but finally he found a website devoted to the attacks. Men and women across the world disappearing. For each name there was a link - obviously the stories of these people from those who knew them. He clicked on the page of a woman from Africa. Her picture came up onto the screen, as well as a miraculous tale of how she had turned her husband’s field fertile over a space of two weeks simply by walking through it every day.

He read another story of a teenager working in a fast food restaurant in America. Anyone who touched the food he made seemed to lose a bit of weight and become healthier. The incident was a common thing, until the boy disappeared three years ago, taken by two men in black suits.

It confirmed Carl’s fears. All those kidnapped were mutants. He knew that if he opened another story it would tell of another person who had probably been helping people every single day of his or her life, only to be taken away from the world by the same people that had taken him from Emily and left her a target for another attack. He read the name of the website for the first time, having overlooked it earlier. The Angels of a Better World. It made clear the fact that everyone on that website was innocent and that without them the world would suffer.

The war has begun…