Thunder & Lightning: We're all leaves in a hurricane. (Gifted) (4 page)

Chapter 11: Bankruptcy

As I made my way doing the stairs, presumably to a place under the asylum, I was filled with an abhorrence that I couldn’t shake. The fact that people like me, mutants for a lack of better word, were being kept against their wills by this man was almost too much to stomach. Everything about this made my skin crawl.

The fact that Erin could betray her friends, friends that I had gotten attached to in just the time I’d been here, made me look at her for what she was, a…

“…Son of a bitch!” A familiar voice said as I realized that I had wondered into a labyrinth.

The asylum’s catacombs were larger than the institution, leading me to believe that maybe this hidden section went further than just the institution, maybe by a few miles. I whipped around to see a purple woman wearing a blue sarong and matching tank top. She had blonde dark Raven hair and luminescent pink eyes. In any other instance, I would have feared her.

But I knew exactly who she was.

“Shifter.” I said with as much venom as I could produce.

She smirked at me, “You idiot! You’ll ruin everything.” She said aiming one of her two pistols at me.

“I’m glad. Do you even know what you’re doing?” I asked.

“Do you?” She asked, “Of course you don’t.”

“You betrayed them.” I said angrily.

“You’re so dramatic. I chose a side, but not Evo’s side.” She said indignantly, “He’s a monster.”

I stared at her, wanting to comment on her appearance and her actions, but thought better of it. She was holding a gun at eye level with me, so that idea was less on my mind now that I think about it.

“They came to rescue you. Only they have no clue that you’ve been corresponding with Evo.”

“Someone’s been busy.” She said lowering the gun, “They’ve been captured and separated. I’m on my way to save them.”

“Erin—“

“Shifter.” She corrected.

“Whatever.” I frowned, “Do you know your way? I want to help.”

“Good because I could use help.” She said holstering her pistols, “Stay behind me, out of the way. Polar would never forgive me if I let you die.”

I nodded, knowing that somehow she was a better fighter than me. Her purple form might even frighten some of the guards. It was then that she changed, right in front of my eyes, into her ‘normal’ façade, wearing an orderly’s uniform.

“Follow.” She said walking forward.

“Yes, because I’m a dog.” I frowned.

I quickly followed her, trying to decide if I really trusted her. Truth be told, I didn’t. I was ready to fry her at a moment’s notice. She led me away, presumably to find the guys.

I watched quietly as Shifter took on two guards. One guard was a Latino man with curly black hair and the other was a Caucasian man with dark orange hair. She hopped over the Latino guard and kicked the other coming down. She backhanded the Latino guard, causing him to stumble back into the wall.

The guard with orange hair stood, grabbing one of her pistols.

“Shifter.” I warned.

“Not now, kid.” She said as she pulverized the Latino guard about the face.

“But—”

“Not…now.”

The Caucasian guard aimed the gun at her and fired three shots. I waved my hand around in front of me causing the bullets to ram into a whirlwind and drop to the ground. Shifter looked back at him with malice and ran to him, jumping and twisting her legs around his neck, causing him to flip over.

Shifter walked back to me, “Thanks.” She said staring at me.

“What?” I asked.

“The golden eyes…that’s a nice, scary touch.” She said turning away from me.

Shifter walked over and picked up her pistol, dusting it off. I bypassed the guards and found myself standing next to her, surveying the damage.

“You’re quite a fighter.” I said quickly, “Mind teaching me some stuff?”

Shifter laughed as she slid another clip into her pistol, “Like you need it.” She said staring at me, “You command the forces of nature. You should work on that.”

“Where do we go?” I asked.

“The control room,” She pointed ahead to a large steel door, “We need to see what we’re up against.”

I nodded and noticed that she was staring at me. I looked to the door and back to her. I knew what she wanted even though she hadn’t spoken a word. I nodded and stepped ahead of her.

“No electricity please.”

I looked at her, “Yeah, I’m not that stupid.” I frowned.

She chortled. I shook my head and looked back at the door. I twisted my hand at the door and a gale force wind hit it.

“I thought you said you weren’t stupid.”

“Bite me.” I said angrily.

My thoughts wondered to the school and Abby’s Titans. I’d made the Titans freeze. If I could freeze the door, it might be susceptible to my gale force wind. The only problem is that I would probably be wiped after using such a display of power.

“Screw it.” I said to myself.

I closed my eyes, feeling the wind blowing across my face as it whipped through the hall. I felt a coolness as the ice came to mind and I concentrated harder on the door. I heard a crackling and soon I heard shivering behind me. I opened my eyes and a gale force wind whipped from behind me, causing the door to fly off its hinges.

The only problem is that I couldn’t stop myself or the wind. I floated off the ground and began towards the room. Once inside, I saw that three guards were inside, apparently watching my attempts to break the door down.

I sent three bolts of electricity from one hand as I continued to levitate off the ground. I watched as the lightning scorched the guards and they flew backwards into the wall, crashing to the floor.
Shifter congratulated me as she walked over to the control center. It was set up a computer, an actual control panel and screens of all the cells with captive mutants.

“There!” Shifter said pointing at one of the screens. She began typing at
one of the control panels and looked to the screen, “We need to split up.”

“You really think…”

I stopped when I saw her tap a huge button. The button released the cell doors and I watched as the unruly mob of mutants burst from their cells. They began running in all different directions.

“You find Chace.” She said cocking her pistol and leaving the room.

As a screen of one of the mutants take three bullets and keep going. The bullets seemed to have no effect whatsoever on him. On another screen, I watched as Clap approached Chace with what looked like a large ceremonial knife. Chace seemed to be struggling under some kind of gauntlets. Being a fan of comic books, I knew enough to know that they were somehow subduing his powers or else he would have broken free by now.

I quickly studied the screen and saw that it was labeled two thirty two. I looked around, trying to find a map and when I did, I ran my finger across the map until I found the control room and room two thirty two.
When I found the room, I turned to the door only to see the man from the TV screen standing at the door. As he stood there, watching me, bullets fell from his skin.

“You free me?” He asked.

I gulped, “I did.” I frowned.

“Good.” He said as he turned and walked away.

“Really?” I asked myself.

I ran from the room in a haze, trying to remember which way the room was. Suddenly, I felt as if I wasn’t running anymore. I looked down to see that my feet weren’t moving anymore, but…I was flying!

As I got to the room, I landed gingerly on the ground. I couldn’t help but think how incredibly cool it was that I just gained the ability to fly. I quickly put my hands on the door and sent a pulse of electricity forward, knocking the door off its hinges!

As I walked in, Clap had a dagger to Chace’s throat. She smirked as I entered the room. I sized her up, noticing that she seemed surer of herself this time.

“Get out of here!” Chace shouted.

“Not going anywhere, love.” I said carefully.

“I do believe that’s my line.” Clap said seductively. Her grip tightened around the dagger, “Not that I’m not surprised by the queer nature of your relationship, but I really don’t care.”

“Where is Dr. Evo?” I asked.

“That’s the question you’re going to ask?” Clap asked, “You are a strange bird.”

I shrugged. With a swift and terrible action, Clap launched the dagger at me. I pushed both hands in front of me, causing a wall of static to rise in front of me. I sent the wall ahead, spiraling like a wave. It washed over metal gauntlets holding Chace.

Clap now charged me with another dagger, this one looked more like some kind of gothic mini-sword. As I prepared for the blow, I saw something that gave me so much relief. The dagger flew out of her hand, causing her to stop in her tracks. A look of fear washed over her face as she turned to see that Chace was standing.

The dagger hovered above her head before dropping to eye level. As it reared back, ready to strike I shouted Chace’s name, causing both, Clap and Chace, to look to me.

“Don’t.” I said with
as frail a voice that I could conjure, “Don’t.”

The dagger danced dangerously close to her neck.

“For me.” I shouted.

He looked to me with a weird curiosity. The dagger flew back into his hand before he hopped off the slab he’d been laying on.

“She was ready to kill me.” Chace said.

“Then that’s on her. Don’t be her.” I frowned, looking over to her, “Go!” I shouted.

Clap’s fear didn’t disappear, at least not until she did. She swiftly ran from the room, leaving only Chace and I. Without hesitation, I latched myself onto him. I’d rarely been so afraid of anything but to see him trussed up and ready to be gutted really hit me.

I know it’s extremely weird for me to be so attached to him but I felt a great deal for him. What really clinched it for me is that I know he feels the same way.

“I was afraid.” I said quickly.

“You shouldn’t have come.” He said softly.

“I know, but Erin…”

“Shifter.”

I was quiet for a minute before I continued, “Shifter. She’s been in contact with
Dr. Evo
. They—”

“She’s working for us.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked.

“Because you would have told Psion.”

“Nick.”

Polar pulled away from me, “His true name is Psion.” He said, “He’ll never admit it, but his real name is Psion.”

“And what’s my name?” I asked.

“You’ve yet to pick it.” He said.

“Nic—Psion didn’t know?” I asked. I took a step back from him, “Please tell me you did it for his protection.”

“I—I—”

“Say something. Say anything. Lie to me, please, I’ll believe you.” I frowned.

“We needed to get in, to save the mutants. Dr.
Evo came to Shifter and, under my orders, she accepted his offer.” Polar explicated. His face grew grim, “Dr. Evo killed my parents and enslaved his own people.”

“His…own people?” I asked, “He’s a mutant? Why didn’t you tell me? What is all this?”

“You are the thing I never saw coming, the flaw in my plan.” Polar frowned, “You must understand everything I’ve done…everything I will do.”

“What have you
done
?”

My mind was aflutter with everything he was saying. Something extremely bad was about to happen and he was behind it all.
I thought back to all the information and one thing stuck out with Shifter. If they were in this together, shouldn’t she have wanted to go to Polar?

It occurred to me just then that she wasn’t looking for Polar, not even when we were in the control center. She was looking for Nick.

I looked to Polar with contempt, “What’d you tell her to do?” I asked.

“The humans knew about this. They didn’t care. Our kind needs to be together on this. And for us to rally, we need to be united.” Polar said with so much conviction.

I blinked a few times, “You’re…a monster.” I said as I turned and flew out of the room.

As I flew through the facility, I could feel bodies everywhere. The escaped mutants were fighting off the guards. I was trying to use my powers to locate Nick and Shifter, but there were just too many bodies. It was only when I stopped that I noticed that Dr. Evo was standing down a long hallway watching the fight.

I felt anger rise inside me as I threw my hands forward, causing a mightier wind than I’ve ever conjured to knock everyone to the floor but
Evo and I.  Evo took notice and smirked as he charged towards me. I lifted off the ground and jettisoned myself forward, causing him to stop and stare with what looked like adoration.

When we collided, I pushed myself, not forward but upward and we crashed through the ceiling and into the courtyard. I lifted my hands before even getting up, causing lightning to strike the ground all around me and eventually I was used a conductor and sent the lightning forward. The lightning hit
Evo head on, throwing him backwards.

As I walked towards him, I stopped as I saw that his face was peeling off. He quickly turned to stare at me with a very creepy smirk. I back away slowly, trying to assess the situation. Honestly, my thoughts were connected to my mouth at the moment.

“What’s up with the color-coded people? Can I meet one person who’s not an extreme part of the rainbow?” I asked.

“Now you see. My experiments have caused a mutation in me. It’s beautiful.” Dr.
Evo said proudly.

“Yeah, you’re insane. And to think that you were evaluating me.” I grimaced.

“You have two options. You can fight me or you can save your—”

“Where is he?” I said angrily, “Where is he?!”

I may have been blinded by what I wanted to do to this guy but I couldn’t let Shifter and Polar win. I watched him as he laughed and his eyes landed on me again, appraising me.

“You are truly a wonder.” He said looking up, “Let’s see if you can do what no one else can do.”

I looked up in the direction he was looking and saw something that made my stomach turn over. A purple figure tossed Nick over the edge of the bell tower on the asylum. I looked back to Evo, who was still smiling up at the scene.

“We’re just leaves…”

I stared at him.

“Blowing in the wind.” He said, disappearing in a puff of smoke.

His words struck me immediately. They were the words that were left when my mother passed. A note had been left, with only that quote on it. He had killed my mother and I let him walk away. I felt sick to my stomach.

I felt even sicker when I saw Nick go over the edge. With all the power I could muster, I launched myself off the ground and sped through the air. I could feel the wind against my skin and I felt free as I flew through the air. I caught him in mid-air and kept going, opting to end this once and for all.

As we landed, I saw that Shifter was making a run for it. We both took off after her. As we rounded the corner, Nick pulled me back. The next second, the place where I’d been standing was riddled with bullets. I thanked him and stepped out again, this time sending a lightning bolt directly into her back as she tried to escape again.

She tumbled to the ground and stared up at Nick and me as we got to her.

“What’re you going to do? Kill me?” Shifter gave a hardy laugh, “You don’t have the balls.”

I knelt down, reaching out and touching her skin. As I did, electricity flowed through my hands and into her. She screamed in agony as the power coursed through her. It felt like an eternity before I was thrown off her by an unseen force. Nick helped me to my feet and I looked over to see Polar helping Shifter to her feet.

“So, it’s come to this, old friend?” Nick asked.

“It has. I am truly sorry, but I cannot let the humans…”

“Shut up.” I said softly.

“I never meant to hurt you.” Polar said quickly.

Nick chuckled angrily.

“No, I did mean to hurt you.” Polar said, “We need to be together. They will turn on us.”

“You did a good job of that yourself.” Nick frowned.

“What happens now?” Polar asked, “Do we fight? Do we cause more damage?”

“The place has been evacuated.” Shifter said quickly.

I used the last remaining electrical connection between Shifter and
I to shock her out of consciousness.

“I swear to God, I will pay you back.” I said angrily.

“Pas.”

I turned my head away from him and Nick’s hold on me tightened. I could feel something in the air, Polar was losing control of his magnetism.

“We should go.” Nick said turning us away.

As we began to walk, I heard Polar shouted, “Don’t walk away from me!” and I felt his powers in the air. I quickly turned and threw my hands to the ceiling, causing whirlwinds to burst forth and begin the destruction of asylum.

No more suffering was going to happen there.