Generation X - Genogoths

by Unknown Author

  Espeth looked down at Black and Smokey, planning their big assault, their shooting war. Maybe they were answering the wrong questions too. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She’d made her choice. She turned and climbed up the loose stone of the slope after Paige.

  Not for the first time Jono yanked at the shackle holding his wrist. His life already had enough strictures on it, he certainly didn’t like being chained down.

  The room had no visible walls, something that Jono suspected had been done for psychological effect. The chair sat in a shaft of harsh light that kept him from resolving the walls and ceiling that he knew had to be there. The light source was perhaps six or seven meters above him, but he couldn’t tell if it was at ceiling height, or suspended from a cave roof fifty meters up.

  He wondered if Pound, Recall, and Chill were nearby, perhaps standing guard. On the other hand, his captors may have considered it unnecessary. He wasn’t going anywhere, and the chair itself seemed to have some kind of damper field that kept his mutant powers in check. Not completely, fortunately, there was enough of the psyonic energy that powered his body to allow him to move and think, but he doubted he could come up with enough of a bio-blast to knock over a house of cards.

  There were eyes out there in the darkness, watching him. He was sure of it. And that was the most frustrating aspect of his situation. The power damper had also knocked out Ins telepathic “speech.” He could see them, but he couldn’t say anything, couldn’t protest, call for help, or yell useless but satisfying insults at his captors. He could only stare into the darkness and wonder who was there.

  “These readings,” said Happersen, “are just amazing. In some ways, he’s the ultimate expression of the X-gene, power personified. He doesn’t have power, he is power. On the other hand, if I turned up the restraining field just a little more, I think he’d just go out like a light-bulb. I’m not even sure if there’d be anything left of him afterwards.”

  Sharpe paced the control room. “That could be an interesting experiment. I’ll take it under advisement.”

  Happersen blinked in surprise. “I wasn’t seriously proposing—”

  Bouille looked up from her console. “I’d assumed that you’d want us to start prepping him for the hound conversion process. To be honest, I don’t know how much more powerful we could make him, but there are control issues.”

  “We don’t want his kind as hounds,” said Sharpe firmly. Happersen looked puzzled. “His kind?”

  “The powerful ones. If Project Homegrown taught me anything, it’s not to trust any one method of control. He has power, he doesn’t need us to give it to him, and that’s just too dangerous. Power I give, I can also take away, and that’s where true control lies. Our operational Hounds, the new subject—the amphibian, take away their power, and they’re nothing”

  Happersen looked up at the restrained mutant sitting out in the examining room. “What do we do with him, then? I mean, we can study him for a while, but after that, he’s going to be very dangerous to keep around.”

  “Can I have him for dissection?” asked Bouille.

  Happersen looked up and frowned at her. “Not vivisection?”

  “I’m not sure I’d call it that,” she said with a straight face. “I don’t know if you could call his condition exactly ‘living.’ ” '

  Paige followed a game trail through the underbrush, jogging briskly. As she ran, the limbs and vines snagged at her, ripping away pieces, revealing something bright and silvery underneath. The mountain looked so different in the gray overcast of day. It reminded her of her home in the mountains of Kentucky. On another day, another time, she would have been happy, enjoying the fresh air, the simple beauty of the woods and hills.

  This was not that day. This was business, and she wasn’t sure if she was coming back.

  “Paige,” Espeth’s voice called behind her.

  Paige moaned quietly, her concentration broken. She’d have to start psyching herself up all over again. She trotted to *a stop and turned to wait for Espeth.

  Espeth appeared up the trail and slowed as she saw Paige. She trotted the rest of the way slowly. When she stopped, she bent over and propped her hands on her knees catching her breath. Espeth was in good shape, but clearly she wasn’t a serious jogger like Paige.

  Paige shook her head. “I don’t remember inviting company.”

  Espeth lifted her head and raised a hand to brush leaves and twigs out of her Mohawk. “I don’t remember saying that I’d cover for you either. Where do you think you’re going?”

  Paige gestured at the mountain.

  “Why? You think your five friends and a couple hundred Genogoths commandos were just cramping your style last time?”

  “You said yourself that people were going to get killed if we let the big confrontation happen. And the guys could walk out of there, if only they would.”

  Espeth stood and gave her an annoyed look. “You think you can just go up there and talk to them, Paige? I tried that with

  Chill.” She bit her lip. “It was like he didn’t even know me.”

  “I don’t believe he did. They aren’t controlled like robots. They still think, they just don’t remember.”

  “Paige—look, I told you my secrets. I’ve got feelings for Chill, and he has feelings for me too.” She looked away. “Things were just starting to come out into the open when the three of them were abducted, but I’m sure that if Chill would remember anyone, it would be me.”

  Paige smiled slightly and picked away bits of skin from her arm. “You’ve got it bad, girl. Which is why you’re going at it all wrong. Chill isn’t the one to go after. He’s the determined one, the confident one, the leader, yeah, but this isn’t a ‘movie of the week.’ Love doesn’t always conquer all, not out here in the real world.”

  “What then?”

  “Recall is the key. He’s talked to us about the memory tricks he can do with his powers. The human brain is an incredible storage device, but figuring out where that information is filed, that’s where most of us fall down. How many times have you had a name or number ‘on the tip of your tongue’? Recall never has that problem.”

  She frowned. “So why doesn’t he just shake off whatever they’ve done to him?”

  Paige sighed. This is where the logic gets weak. “Recall’s powers work consciously. He has to remember to try and remember. Once somebody gets him past that block, causes him to make that first effort, it should be like fluid through a siphon hose. It should all come out in a rush.”

  “Are you sure?”

  Paige shrugged and pulled off a big hunk of skin from her thigh, revealing the silvery metal underneath. “I don’t know, but I’m about to go up on that mountain, make a big, shiny target of myself, and find out.”

  Sharpe picked up the control-room phone. “Yes.”

  “It’s Namik. We have intruders approaching the outer perimeter.”

  Sharpe frowned. “Another attack? Why didn’t we have more warning?”

  “There are only two of them,” she said, “and making no particular effort to disguise their approach. They made so much noise, that when the computers alerted me, I thought it was just a deer or a bear wandering through.”

  Sharpe frowned. It didn’t make sense. “Could it just be hikers?”

  “They’ve passed some of the security cameras. One of them is an obvious mutant.”

  He turned to Happersen. “Get the Hounds ready for a run. I have two intruders on the exterior I want captured and brought in for questioning. Since our latest captive can’t seem to talk, let’s get some prisoners who can tell us what’s really going on out there.”

  He put the phone back to his ear. “Are they headed for the 'defensive turrets?”

  “No,” she said, “they’re making a bee-line for the hole in the perimeter from last-night’s battle.”

  “Well,” he said, “pop the turrets up, maybe give them a little scare. If it’s a trick, maybe they’ll show their hand
. But don’t activate the guns unless there’s an obvious threat. Otherwise, let the Hounds handle it.”

  Paige peered over the rise at the distant turret. Though it seemed to be active, they were in no danger where they were. “I think,” she said, “that this is just their little way of letting us know that they know we’re here. So far, so good.”

  Espeth crouched among the rocks and bushes next to her. “Explain to me again how this is going to work. You think you can free Recall, but what about the others? What about Jono, and the Catfish guy?”

  Paige shushed. “One step at a time.”

  Espeth parted the bushes for a better look uphill. “Well, so far your plan is working just fine. Here they come!"

  “You lead them off down slope. I’m going to see if I can do something to single out Recall.”

  “How?” she asked as Paige slipped into the bushes.

  “I’m going to do the one thing Recall won’t be able to resist. I’m going to hide.”

  Jubilee grabbed the note out of Ev’s hand. “She did what?” Ev shrugged. “Went to get captured, it sounds like, and nobody has seen Espeth since this morning either.”

  Jubilee shook the note. “Where was it?”

  “Inside my boot. I took them off when I was sleeping, and when I got up—well, I didn’t notice it was in there at first. My bad.” " ”

  Jubilee stared at the note in sudden realization. “Is that why it’s all damp?” She jerked it out to arm’s length. “Eeeeew!” Angelo and Monet returned. “We told Smokey Ashe,” said Angelo. “He’s rounding up their people to go in for a rescue. The ‘big guns’ haven’t arrived yet. I don’t know if that’s a good thing, or a bad thing.”

  Ev looked off at the distant mountain. “It’s not going to be fast enough anyway. We just have to consider them backup.” The aura flared around his body. “Recall’s not the only one who can track a mutant at a distance. I can trace the synch with Paige’s aura, and lead us right to her.”

  “What are we waiting for,” demanded Angelo, “the next bus?”

  Espeth ran as fast as she could down the slope, and that was dangerously fast. She wasn’t sure she could stop, and she was in constant danger of striking some obstacle that she couldn’t steer around. Still, when she caught occasional sight of the cyber-hounds, they were just trotting. They’re toying with me.

  She didn’t know if she should be relieved or insulted. It didn’t matter though. The object was to put some distance between herself and Paige, to give her some time with Recall, and at this rate, she might be running all day.

  A cyber-hound popped out of the brush and nipped at her. It missed, but she was startled and distracted for a moment.

  Then she hit the ice.

  It was a solid sheet, forming a slide down the slope. Her feet went out from under her and she landed painfully on a hip. She was a runaway toboggan. It seemed she would keep sliding forever, when she hit the net.

  She jerked to an abrupt halt, the net tightening around her until she was curled in a ball. She looked up at the tall figure in blue standing over her. Her chest ached. My knight in shining armor has finally come. Why aren’t I happier? She reached her hand up toward him as much as the net would allow, wanting to touch him, wishing for some tiny reaction.

  But of course there was none.

  “Hi, honey,” she said weakly, “I’m home.”

  Paige had spotted the little cave on the way up. Actually, it was little more than a hollow eroded under a rock outcropping,, not a real cave, but it was just big enough to climb into and crouch in the semi-darkness. Something moved under her, and she reached down and pulled out a timber rattler.

  She shuddered, but of course, the snake couldn’t hurt her in her present form. She tossed it out before it could break its fangs on her chrome steel skin.

  She sat there what seemed like a long time, her knees pulled to her chest. She’d never liked playing hide-and-seek as a child either. The waiting made her crazy.

  She heard a rock shift outside the cave. She looked up in time to see a flash of red through the entrance opening. She wanted to call his name, but she was supposed to be hiding.

  But he knew where she was, of course. He pointed his arm at her. A line shot out of his gauntlet, exploded into a hydra of individual lines that opened like a flower, each tipped with a sticky weight.

  It was over in a blink, the lines whipping around her, sticking to her like instant epoxy. She instantly regretted her position. Not only were her arms pinned, but her legs as well. Trussed up like a turkey.

  Then she was yanked roughly out of her hiding place. She gasped as she landed on the rocks outside, hitting hard enough to feel it through her metal hide. Recall lifted his wrist again. A net fired out, wrapping tightly around her, leaving her not the slightest possibility of escape.

  “Recall,” she said. “People call you Recall. You live in Chicago. Your father owns a cold-storage warehouse. You have a radio-show with a pain-in-the-butt named Walt Norman. You have to try to remember. You have to want to remember. You’re Recall. You have the power. You can find anything, remember anything, if you’ll just try.”

  She looked for him to relent in his attack, to show some slight hesitation, but it didn’t happen. As Recall grabbed the net and with one hand yanked her roughly off the ground, she realized that he simply didn’t see any reason to try.

  Paige was being toted up the mountainside like a ten-pound sack of potatoes, and she didn’t like it a bit. It was a cliche that she’d heard before, “you can’t change somebody, they have to want to change themselves.” She’d never been sure she believed it, much less imagined that it would have such important real-world implications.

  She tried to take a deep breath, something that was difficult to do balled up inside the net and the sticky bolo lines that Recall—the Hound—had zapped her with. Ask another question. Not how to reach Recall, how to reach the Hound. “You'll never get near any of the other mutants without the secret code word. Ha! It’s my name, and you’ve forgotten it!”

  “Identify: Paige Guthrie,” said the Hound. And there, in mid-stride, the voice changed. “Paige! It’s you!”

  The alarm horn broke the relative calm of the control room. Sharpe jumped from his chair and ran to lean over Hap-persen’s shoulder. “What’s happening?” But he could already see, the emotional indicators spiking like shark’s teeth ripping apart his plans.

  “We’re losing control of Bloodhound,” said Happersen. “I can’t stop it.”

  “The EMP gain, we didn’t max it on Bloodhound because he didn’t seem to require it. Go!”

  Happersen hesitated.

  Sharpe shoved him aside and maxed the slider himself.

  At first Recall couldn’t remember what had happened to him in the last few days, then abruptly he did, in every horrific detail, especially the capture of Catfish Quincy. He looked at Paige in shock and surprise. If she’d had one eye and a wart

  on her nose, she still would have been the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. “You came for us! How did you know?”

  She struggled against the net, and suddenly he was aware that he’d been the one who put her there. He reached down and with amazing ease ripped it open. Then he, more carefully, snapped the bolo lines. “I’m sorry, Paige. I didn’t know what I was—”

  Suddenly someone slipped an ice-pick into his skull. He screamed, fell back in agony, never even feeling himself hit the ground. He was a man drowning in his own head, falling down into the empty mental pit from which he had only moments before been plucked. Memories faded. He pulled them back. Others went. Faster, till memories were forming and bursting in his head like bubbles in boiling water.

  Paige shook off the remains of the net and crawled to Recall’s side. He was tearing at his helmet. She tried to get it off, but it was locked in place by some fastener or release she couldn’t see.

  “Stop it,” she yelled at his invisible masters, “you’re killing him!”

  N
amik watched from the back of the control room with bemused detachment. This is where Sharpe’s mistakes became apparent. This is where the information her superiors wanted would be gained.

  “He’s resisting somehow, pulling things back as fast as we can block them. This never happened in the lab!”

  Sharpe stood and stared at the screen. “That’s his power doing this, you idiot! We’re amplifying it! Shut down the amplifier, now!”

  Happersen stabbed at some buttons on his console. “It isn’t working. Some kind of power feedback loop has fused the circuit closed.” He shook his head, frustrated. “He’s going to burn himself out anyway. We’ve lost him.”

  Namik slipped from the room and walked down the hall to her office. She didn’t need to know how it ended. It would all be in the data files she was about to pilfer from the Foxhole’s computers, using the back door she’d hacked using her sound analysis program as a cover. Time to reveal her little Trojan horse’s real purpose.

  As Recall/Bloodhound felt his/their mind melting like wax, there was one crystal of pure purpose, to find things. He/they latched onto that, focused it on one simple purpose, to find the hidden latch that would release the armor’s helmet. There. He had only to guide his/their hand what seemed a thousand or so miles, and press it just so.

  Paige was pulling frantically at the helmet when there was a loud hiss and it fell free in her hands. She pulled it off as gently as she could and threw it away with more disgust than she’d reserved for the rattler earlier.

  Recall looked stunned, dazed, his eyes dilated and fixed on infinity. Had she been too late? Had she killed him?

  Something in the armor’s yoke popped, sputtered, and smoked. Recall jerked, blinked. Again. His pupils narrowed and he looked at her. “Paige? I was trying so hard to remember your name, for just a moment there, if felt like I remembered everything, knew everything.” He waved his hands expansively. “I mean everything. Weird.”

  She threw her arms around him. “You’re back, you jerk, you nearly killed me!”

  He laughed weakly. “Glad to be here, I guess.”