LOST & HOUND

By Rob Bollard

The unmarked van sped across the city streets of Washington D.C., in the predawn twilight. Rush hour had not yet gotten underway, so the van’s progress was unimpeded by other traffic. Daydreamer was not even sure it would have mattered if there had been others in their way.

She regarded Bowser carefully. Each flash of mercury-vapor cast an eerie orange glow across his face that would vanish – then reappear, only to vanish again just as quickly. Although he’d never done it before – recently Bowser made her very uneasy. Her inability to pick up even a shred of his mental imagery was unnerving. Truth be told, her specialty was to create illusions from others’ fears. Of course, in order to do that, she had to be able to get inside her opponent’s mind. It usually didn’t take much effort, since most people did a poor job of shielding such a basic emotion like fear. But with Bowser, there was nothing. It was like a blank page.

Yet, even that hadn’t bothered her before. After all, he’d been their guardian, provider, and caretaker. At least, until his mind-altering experience that they all knew so little about. Since then, his erratic and irrational behavior had been more pronounced than ever. He’d become very impatient with them, and had acquired quite a temper, though he tried to hide it unsuccessfully. As time wore on she found herself increasingly afraid for herself – something she couldn’t remember feeling before. Now she’d even come to the conclusion that if she could get the chance, she’d run away – throwing her destiny to the world that hated her for who she was.

She turned away suddenly. He’d caught her suspicious glances. She was sure of it. Still, he certainly didn’t act like it and she had no way of knowing what he might be thinking. “What’s troubling you, my dear?”

Somehow she wiped any trace of distrust from her voice before she spoke. “I was just wondering what you have planned. One moment, we interrogating X-Factor. The next, you have us rushing through town at the crack of dawn as though you were possessed.” Her word choice was no accident, though she immediately wished she could take it back. “We’re sure to be noticed. A government-marked vehicle tearing through Washington?”

Her comments caught the others’ attention. None of them would have dared question Bowser’s motives until he saw fit to relate them. Bowser regarded her carefully before continuing, almost as though he were daring her to continue, and long enough to send a chill down her spine. Stone tried to remain nonchalant through their exchange, but inside he was trying to ready himself for anything.

“So, you want to know what’s going on?” Bowser asked, though the question hardly needed repeating. “I suppose you have a right to know. I can’t shield you from the real world forever.” Stone watched for any sign of disbelief from the others – but there was nothing but intent concentration in their expressions. After all, why shouldn’t they trust the man who had been something of a father to them?

“There is a young woman, Doctor Valerie Cooper, who has been fighting a legal battle to take you away from me. She claims that you all fall under her jurisdiction, and must inevitably become her responsibility. However, as I’ve told you many times, the government is trying to destroy you, and everyone like you. I have little doubt that if Cooper were to get her way, she would have each and every one of you put to death.”

He paused a moment, letting that sink in to their feeble little minds. They made it so easy, he told himself before continuing. “I’d rather not wait until Cooper is in a position to get her way. We have an opportunity to stop her before that happens, and I think we should take it, don’t you?”

Much to Stone’s dismay, Bowser’s pep talk was met with a round of cheers. It was clear they remained loyal to him, at least for now. Couldn’t they see that every word of Bowser’s pep talk was a tangled web of lies and half-truths?

“Owww! Hey! What gives!” Guido rubbed the knot on the side of his head as he cast an angry glance at the large rock that had knocked him in the head a moment earlier. The jolt woke him from a wonderful dream with Elle…or was it Cindy? Darn it – now he couldn’t remember, and someone was going to pay!

“Pssst! Psssssst! Hey, Guido!” The voice whispered. Maybe it wasn’t a dream after all…? Guido cocked his ear to one side.

“Guido, it’s Polaris – I’m on the other side of this wall!” Guido frowned as his hopes were dashed again, but the frown was quickly replaced by a smile as he recognized his friend’s voice. “Lorna? Are you okay?”

“I’ll be a lot better as soon as I get some Tylenol!” The right side of her face was still throbbing and swollen from the impact she’d taken with the chair. “Bowser’s starting to become a royal headache, you know?”

“The only thing I know is that I’m going to get my buddy Jamie back, and it’s gonna take more than a little fat man with a cheesy-looking goatee to stop me.”

“First thing’s first – we have to break out of our prison.”

Guido chuckled. “You make it sound like that’s going to be a problem? Just rip the hinges off the doors and we’ll bust outta here.”

“Nah, I can’t. Fixx hit me pretty hard, and I still don’t have full use of my magnetic abilities. Not near enough to get us out of here in time. But since Bowser doesn’t know who you are, I’m betting he’s also underestimated your strength.”

“Time for a little brute force, eh, Lorna? I hope you’re right!”

It took a few moments, but after a lot of grunting and tugging, Guido managed to tear his arm shackles loose from the wall. Once that had been accomplished, he had little trouble freeing his legs. After a few deep breaths, Guido called back, “Okay, Lorna, duck – ’cause I’m about to bust us out!”

“Wait! You’re going to have to go through the wall. The steel rods in the window extend the entire length of the door.”

“You’re kidding me, right? Geez – my doctor ain’t going to like this one bit.”

“C’mon Guido – If anyone can do it, you can!”

“This is gonna cost you one of those tetrazzini dinner-things you know I love.”

“You’ve got a deal.” Polaris shielded her face with her arm as Guido stood against the opposite wall, preparing to get up enough momentum to break through. He planned to use his massive right arm as a battering ram. If anyone could do it – Guido could – but he didn’t have much room for a running start. He focused on the wall, began to push toward the wall – and as he closed his eyes he wondered how much this was going to hurt.

“STOP!” The voice screamed.

Guido stopped – then opened his eyes to see who it was that had interrupted the dramatic moment. “Now doggone it, Forge, you cost me a dinner!”

The shaman looked back at him with deadly seriousness. “Guido, if you had compromised the structural integrity of that wall, the monitors would have sent an electrical charge into Polaris’ restraints. A lethal one.”

Guido couldn’t believe he’d almost been tricked into killing one of his closest friends. “This Bowser guy is really starting to tick me off!”

“Then I suggest we do something about it,” Forge told them, as he set to work about opening the doors. “We saw him and the others leave about half an hour ago. I have no idea where they’re going and I didn’t think it would be wise to split us up even more than we already were.”

“Lucky for us, I do know where he’s going. We’d better get a move on if we’re going to catch him in time.”

“In time for what?” Forge said as he pulled the door open to her cell.

“I’ll brief you on the way. What took you so long, anyway?”

“Listen, Bowser’s no slouch! This place is booby trapped worse than the jungles in ‘Nam. I’d watch where you step on your way out, in case I’ve missed something…”

Geoffrey Thompson saved his backup file, shut down the program, powered down his computer, switched off his desk lamp, and gathered up his briefcase and dinner bag. “Another quiet late shift without any pressing emergencies…ahhh.” He took a quick look around the darkened room and smiled – knowing that he wouldn’t be going through this little routine much longer. After thirty-four years of distinguished service to Uncle Sam, he was rapidly ticking off the days until retirement. He thought fondly of his beachfront condo in Clearwater as he took a moment to do what had become another little routine for him – crossing off the days on his desk calendar. He grabbed a red marker and drew a slash through a penciled numeral on his desk calendar. “Now there’s only forty-one!” he thought cheerfully.

Suddenly the picture window in his room erupted into a mass of glass shards rocketing through the room. The shockwave shook the floor violently and the bookshelves came tumbling down. Geoffrey hardly had time to react as hundreds of pounds of volumes he’d collected in his personal office library over the years crashed upon him.

Next door – Valerie Cooper would never be sure whether it had been dumb luck or her trained reflexes that saved her. She dove for cover underneath her desk, and as she waited for the racket to stop and the dust to settle, she considered what had happened. It certainly didn’t take her PhD to figure that one out. The only person stupid enough to attack a government installation – first thing in the morning, no less – was…

“Where are you, Bowser?” She called out as she emerged from the cover of her desk.

Through the shattered window she heard a distant, chiding voice yell back, “Ms. Cooper, I’m delighted to know you survived to attend our little party. That will make finishing you off so much more pleasant.”

“How many times do I have to tell you, Bowser – It’s Doctor Cooper,” she corrected him, while trying to find her handgun in the rubble that was once her office. The longer she could keep him talking, the greater chance she’d have of keeping herself – or anyone else, for that matter – from getting killed.

“Doctor – yes – I remember. You’re going to need one of those soon. Soundwave, you need to recharge. Furnace, it’s your turn!”

Furnace leveled his arms at the approximate spot where Cooper’s voice had come from and fired. The fireball ripped from his palms and tore into the weakened exterior of the building. Most of what was left of the exterior section of the wall crumbled. Val heard the screams from co-workers within and wondered if there’d be anyone left to rescue. “Again!” Bowser cheered as Furnace steadied himself for another blast.

“Hold it, Bowser!” Polaris lowered the rest of her team to the ground, returning them gently to the earth’s gravimetric field. It was difficult to do with her powers still weak, and she found herself momentarily breathless.

X-Factor’s arrival threw Furnace off guard, and Stone took advantage of the distraction to nudge Furnace’s aim just a little bit skyward. But even those few degrees made all the difference in his weapon’s trajectory. Val watched the shot that was intended to finish her off go well short – then come tumbling out of control back to the ground smashing into the parking lot. Two cars were mangled in a furious explosion of smoke and flame, and half a dozen car alarms wailed in noisy cacophony.

“Pair off, just like we planned,” Polaris yelled to her team over the noise. “Forge – there’s Fixx.”

“I see her,” Forge glanced up between adjustments to the device he was calibrating, just long enough to spot their own teammate. Her glassy-eyed look told them she was still firmly under Bowser’s control.

Although Polaris’ next words were to the whole team, they were mainly for Mystique’s benefit. “I don’t want us to use lethal force unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

The others had already started pairing off against one another when Polaris was caught off-guard by someone with a firm grasp on her arm. “If you think I’m going to let Bowser live after blackmailing me, you’re crazy!” Mystique told her.

Polaris angrily snatched her arm back, determined not to be intimidated by the shape-shifter. “I mean it, Mystique! No killing! That’s not the way we work.” Mystique sneered at her as though she might push the issue. Although she didn’t show it, Polaris was thankful she hadn’t.

“Hounds! What are you waiting for? Attack!” Bowser screamed.

Furnace had been so distracted by X-Factor’s arrival, and Bowser’s barked order, that he never realized why the shot he’d intended for Doctor Cooper had gone short. So when Furnace ran full tilt into Stone’s outstretched fist as he rushed to charge their new threat, he had been taken totally off guard. The mutant hound fell to the ground, doubled over and gasping for breath. “And now you know why they tell you to ‘stay focused’!” Stone told him mockingly.

Meanwhile, Daydreamer focused her attention on the ruggedly handsome one they called Forge. Rather than attacking him full-bore like the others, she simply sauntered over to him, her hips swaying in an even, side to side rhythm. Forge held his ground, tight-lipped and expressionless. “I’m betting you can’t resist a redhead, Forge. Especially one as…persuasive…as I am!” Daydreamer shot a psionic wave at Forge, meant to create a vision of paralyzing fear. To her horror, though, it bounced off him harmlessly. It was then that he finally smiled back at her.

“I – I don’t…understand?” she stuttered.

Forge leveled a large, metallic weapon on her and targeted her through the scope, and she stopped short. “You might be interested to know that I’ve been studying Fixx’s brainwave patterns quite extensively lately. In fact, since our arrival, I’ve already scanned them to see what kind of mind-hold you have on her. By separating your psionic influence from her own psyche, I can program a device that uses destructive interference to cancel out the illusions you’ve locked into her mind.” Daydreamer looked stunned. Her jaw worked, but the words weren’t following.

“I’m sorry – I’m boring you. Enough chit-chat, then.” Forge pulled the trigger and Daydreamer fell to the ground, unconscious.

Bowser’s original plan was to let the hounds do his dirty work, saving the enhanced hound for anyone who refused to die. Now, seeing his second casualty, he gave up on plan A and frantically ordered the e-hound into action. “Identify all X-Factor targets and eliminate them!”

“Multiple targets identified. Neutralization process commencing.”

Suddenly, seven pale yellow beams shot forth from something resembling a three-fingered claw – freezing each of the X-Factor team in their steps, similar to whatever it was that had contained Jamie before. After a moment, each of them also began to find themselves in a considerable amount of pain.

All of them, that is, except one. Geiger watched her teammates pained expressions, and could not understand why she’d been spared. As she heard Bowser order the power level turned up on her own containment field, she realized why she was immune. “I’m not a mutant,” she whispered to herself. “I’m a gamma – and this freak doesn’t have a clue!”

She summoned enough strength to jump clear of the field, landing on what she seemed to be the e-hound’s back. She pulled on whatever it was that seemed closest to being a head, all the while trying to keep herself clear of the razor sharp claws it wielded.

Bowser found this whole display incredibly amusing, and between fits of laughter, told her, “My dear, I don’t know who you think you are. You can pull at that Vanadium exoskeleton all day and you aren’t going to cause him any harm. So, I suggest you and your team surrender now while you’re still able.”

She knew he was right – trying to tear the thing apart wasn’t going to get her anywhere. So she did the only other thing she could think of doing. Without giving them time to react, she leapt from the e-hounds back to it’s beam-wielding claw – hoping to disrupt the neutralizer long enough to buy the rest of the team a few moments. Her landing was less than perfect, however. The sudden redistribution of her weight on the e-hounds frame caused it to pitch forward awkwardly for a moment. The restraining beams went wild – giving the X-Factor team an instant to react.

Geiger, however, fell to the ground and clutched her left shoulder. Blood was pouring from two deep gashes which the e-hound had managed to take out of her as she fell. “Hold on, DeeDee!” Polaris told her as she magnetically plucked Geiger out of harm’s way.

The rest of the team cut loose on the enhanced-hound. About the only effect it was having was to keep it from getting a renewed lock on them. “It’s only a matter of time, now X-Factor! I’ll just pick you off, one by one, if I have to.”

Between photon bursts, Shard leaned over to Forge and asked, “What do you think my chances are of getting in there and scrambling that thing?”

“You mean phase inside of it? Like Shadowcat?”

“Something like that. My holomatrix might confuse it long enough for you all to shut it down.”

“Shard – unlike Shadowcat, you aren’t biological anymore. There’s no telling what might happen. Your own matrix could become permanently fused inside the e-hound.”

Shard shook her head. “No, I think I can do it. You all keep it busy – make sure it isn’t concentrating on me. Keep it focused on the attack. I’ll do the rest.” Forge tried to stop her, but he was too late. She’d already made her way into the ground and was getting ready to phase up through the bottom of the e-hound.

“Polaris – Shard’s going to attempt a shutdown from within. I don’t know that she’ll be successful. We have to pour it on if she’s even going to have a chance. I can shield the others from the confinement beam for a few seconds, but it won’t take long for the e-hound to adapt.”

“Did you all hear that?” At their acknowledgment, Mystique, Guido, and Stone all quickly closed in on the e-hound. Mystique had taken the shape of her least-favorite killing machine, Sabretooth, but somehow she felt it was strangely appropriate for this situation.

Stone took the direct approach, and placed himself directly in the path of the same claws which had slashed Geiger. Although the claws scraped across his thick hide, throwing sparks, they weren’t causing Stone any pain. Mystique and Guido each took hold of an arm, rendering the e-hound partially immobile.

“Help him, Saw-Arm! Don’t just stand there!” Bowser gave the youngest member of Bowser’s hounds a push. Both of his arms morphed into blades, planning to accomplish on Guido and Mystique what the hound was failing to do with Stone.

The movement out of the corner of her eye caught Polaris’ attention. “You seem to a little on edge, Saw-Arm. Allow me.” With a flick of her wrist, Saw-Arms blades came to a dead stop, and she dulled the edges. He looked up at her angrily, but she simply stared at him defiantly. “Keep it up and I’ll pull the blades right off.” Saw-Arm sheepishly stopped and shrugged at Bowser.

Meanwhile, the e-hound found itself overwhelmed by an all out attack. Soundwave, who had been holding back and trying to absorb all the noise he could for another volley, was finally ready for action once again. “I can get ’em now, boss! They’re all right together!” He prepared to fire a wave of energy that would kill them all in one shot.

Bowser turned to Soundwave angrily with fire in his eyes. “No! You imbecile…you’ll destroy the e-hound!” But it was too late. The wave of energy shot forth from Soundwave like a cannon.

“NOW!” Polaris and Forge both yelled. Guido, Stone, and Mystique took their cue and immediately scattered, all heading in separate directions. Soundwave’s concentrated energy wave barely missed them by half a meter, and they could feel the rush of compacted air go by them. It slammed into the e-hound just as Shard was phasing up into it, knocking them both to the ground. Shard could feel herself losing coherence again – and it was rather disconcerting. Nevertheless – she concentrated on disabling the e-hound once and for all.

Forge and Polaris, to their horror, watched the e-hound collapse from the impact. “Shard?! Forge – is she all right?”

“I don’t know. Shard got in – but I’m not sure she got out.” Forge’s brow furrowed as he struggled with the device he was using to try and isolate her holomatrix from the e-hounds biomechanical systems.

Bowser turned furiously and knocked Soundwave to the ground with a piercing backhand. “Look at what you’ve done!” he screamed – pointing an accusing finger at Soundwave. “I should have known not to trust you – any of you…” he gestured around to the rest of his team with the sweep of his hand, “…to do anything right. This is going to cost you dearly!” His screams were not lost on Daydreamer and Furnace, who were regaining consciousness.

“No!” Polaris yelled. “Don’t listen to him! You don’t have to be persecuted any longer! You don’t have to make a career out of hunting your own kind!”

“She’s right!” Stone agreed. “We don’t have to listen to him. Bowser doesn’t own us. We owe it to ourselves and to others like us to stand up to those who would sooner use us as slaves then to see us as people.”

This came as a shocking revelation to the mutant hounds. All their lives they’d been trained – brainwashed, actually – into hunting their own kind. What Stone – someone who had been their teammate – was telling them was that they were essentially free to think for themselves. And they found this realization to be very frightening.

“You will listen to me! I am your keeper, and I will be obeyed!” The hounds shifted their glances from Stone to Bowser in unison – yet none of them seemed ready to choose sides.

Suddenly they were all distracted by the sounds of sirens and screeching tires as several police cars careened into the parking lot. One of them narrowly missed the flaming wreckage of the cars demolished in the initial attack. Following close behind were two satellite trucks from the local television stations. All of the officers jumped out of their vehicles, and leveled their guns on the group of mutants standing in front of the partially-demolished building.

“EVERYONE FREEZE!” one of the officers screamed through her bullhorn.

“This don’t look good,” Guido whispered.

“It’s all right!” Polaris called back to them. “We’re trying to stop…”

“Don’t listen to her,” Bowser interrupted with a gleam in his eye. “Can’t you see what’s going on?! Look at what they’ve done already!”

“GET YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR WHERE WE CAN SEE THEM! Anyone makes a move and we start shooting! I mean it!”

It was clear that she wasn’t in the mood for explanations. But another officer recognized Bowser, and, wondering what the government official was doing there, called to him, “Bowser?! What in God’s name is going on here?”

Bowser smiled inwardly. “Can’t you see what’s going on? Our government’s mutant strike-team is engaging in an act of treason! Apparently they’d rather bite the hand that feeds them!”

The officers seemed very interested in this piece of news. Several of them turned to each other to deliberate while the others adjusted their aim to known members of X-Factor. “Oh, for the love of…” Polaris whispered.

“If we resist – this will become a media circus for mutants, Lorna.” Forge told her under his breath.

“Tell me something I don’t know?” she said, frustrated. Mystique looked as though she was ready to bolt as soon as the moment presented itself.

Bowser took the opportunity to whisper something into Fixx’s ear. She nodded her head and simply said, “I understand.” She ambled across the lawn toward her teammates, but wore the same blank expression she’d had since Bowser had acquired his hold on her mind.

“Fixx! What are you doing? Stay still! Don’t mo…” Forge called to her, but his words were interrupted by an ear-piercing blast from one of the cops’ guns.

If Polaris had been an instant faster, she might have prevented the round from striking Fixx. As it turned out, her magnetic shield went up just behind it – and although it stopped several others that followed – the first one was on target. Fixx fell to the ground, blood staining the X-Factor uniform she was still wearing.

Bowser fell into a fit of laughter as Polaris – keeping her shield up around the team – raced to Fixx’s rescue. Forge raced to extricate the foreign presence from Fixx’s mind – and Guido and Stone made a beeline for Bowser. “You’re going to need a new definition for the word ‘hurt,’ pal!” Guido told him. Mystique, for her part, still looked like she was trying to find a way to escape without being noticed.

“Wait! Stop!” Doctor Valerie Cooper crawled her way through the dusty wreckage of what had once been her place of employment. She called out to the officers – and luckily several of them recognized her on-the-spot as well. “He’s the one you want! He had them attack us! If it hadn’t been for X-Factor, we’d all be dead!” The officers were still a bit skeptical, but they seemed to collectively relax.

This was of little consolation to X-Factor. Polaris and Forge hovered over Fixx – while Guido and Stone were busy convincing Bowser what a mistake it had been to laugh at his opponents.

“Is she all right?”

“I’m not sure. She’s losing blood fast. I’ve removed Daydreamer’s influence on her so she should be safe and acting on her own. But she needs a doctor.”

Fixx looked up into the eyes of her teammates – trying to recall what had happened. It was all just a blur. As she struggled to remember, two of her sprites fluttered their way from Lorna and Forge’s minds back into the mysterious device implanted on her own forehead. After a moment, she smiled. A weak smile, but one nonetheless.

Forge had been working on the small holomatrix inducer for hours. As an inventor – he could create amazing things. His mutant power for creation and invention usually also allowed him extra insight into the workings of other things, too. But with this – he shrugged his shoulders in frustration – this compact device that contained the soul of a young woman who was just beginning to understand her own identity again.

Guido tiptoed into the room, no small feat for someone his size, and peered over Forge’s shoulder. “Any luck?” he asked suddenly.

Forge, startled by the break in his concentration, dropped the tool he’d been working with onto the table. He sighed, rubbed his eyes tiredly, and in one deliberate motion, pushed his chair away from the workbench with both hands. Guido winced, figuring on a harsh reprimand. Instead, he simply got a simple, “no.”

Guido looked genuinely concerned – something Forge was not used to seeing from the happy-go-lucky mutant. He placed a large but gentle hand on Forge’s shoulder. “I’m sorry. At least it sounds like the kid got to go out a hero. She stopped that monster cold.”

“Yeah,” was all Forge could muster.

Polaris’ office…

“I just can’t believe we let her get away. Again.”

“Don’t remind me, Val,” the mistress of magnetism replied dryly. “It was an intense moment and we were all focused on saving our downed teammate…”

“Can’t say I blame you.”

“…so I won’t make excuses. We did what we had to do. Fixx needed us, and…”

“Would’ve done the same thing myself.”

“What did you say?”

“That I think you did the right thing.”

“Really? But what about Mystique? I figured you’d be furious!”

“Oh, I’m sure I’ll have some explaining to do. But who cares. I mean, I’m sure it won’t be the last we see of her. Besides, they must not be too angry.”

Lorna chuckled. “Yeah? Why’s that?”

“Because the appropriations committee tripled X-Factor’s funding for the next fiscal year.”

Lorna’s jaw dropped and her eyes went wide. “WHAT?! How in the heck did you do that?”

On the other end of the line, Val smiled proudly. “Let’s just say that my superiors are quite intent on preventing any more…ahh…embarassing moments in front of the national media.”

“Certainly works for me! So, what’s going to happen to Bowser’s hounds?”

“Well, we discussed that. It was obvious that they weren’t going to be able to function on their own in the real world – after all the brainwashing they’ve been through. So for now they’re going to go through a rehabilitation program – something like my work with Kyle.”

“With any luck, we’ll have more success this time.”

“You’ve learned a lot since then – I think it’ll go fine.”

Meanwhile…at Dutchess General Hospital

The nurse set a plate of food on the tray next to the patient who had been trying, for the better part of an hour, to get the bed adjusted. “Give it up, hon. You could make a career out of getting the perfect position for a hospital bed.” This seemed to give Fixx only more resolve. With a determined look, she mashed the “feet-up” button once more. She never even noticed her two friends slip into the room.

After an instant, she gave up on the bed effort and turned to her food and sighed. She seemed to give the plate a sniff, wrinkled her nose, and took a bite of the mashed potatoes.

“Aww, you lose, Jamie!” One twin exclaimed excitedly to the other. “I told you – Shard said she’d eat ANYTHING! Now pay up!”

Fixx was so startled she nearly dumped her dinner in her lap. “Jamie! I’m so glad to see you!”

“Yep – just got my clean bill ‘o health. How about you?”

“The doctor says one more day and I’ll be ready to go. Just going to be pretty sore for a week or two,” she glanced at her shoulder which was thoroughly bandaged up.

“Yea? Well, I can’t say I’m surprised. But what I meant was…” he paused, and the other Jamie tapped the side of his head.

“My mind? It’s fine, Forge said he’s confident that he completely extricated Daydreamer’s presence from me.” Fixx seemed to shrug it off.

“Then – that’s it? No harm done?”

“Well, Jamie, it’s no fun having your mind violated. It’s downright demeaning. But Lorna keeps promising me she doesn’t hold any of it against me. Something told me, if anyone was going to understand, it was going to be her.

The next day, at the infamous morning briefing…

Jamie stuck two fingers behind Fixx’s head, giving her rabbit ears. It took her and the others a moment to realize, and DeeDee and Guido burst into suppressed chuckles.

“Jamie! Quit clowning around!” Polaris yelled, despite a wide grin. It was good to have the team back. At least – most of them, she corrected herself, regretting her mental slip.

“Now, as I was saying – it looks like X-Factor is going to be in the limelight again as our budget is increas,”

“Unnnhhhh,” a voice seemed to call, from nowhere.

Everyone looked around. Lorna leaned over to Forge. “Not again?!”

“Errrgghhh,” the voice called out again. Suddenly, all at once, X-Factor’s resident holomutant pulled herself back into existence – out of breath but otherwise unharmed. The others watched, stunned, amused, and ecstatic all at once. Shard pointed an accusatory finger at Forge and said, “First item on your agenda today is figuring out a way to stabilize this darn thing!” Then she turned to Lorna and said, “I know – if I’m late for another meeting…”

They all laughed. “It’s good to have you back, Shard. We thought we’d lost you for good that time!” Lorna told her.

“And risk the loss of my full-time government benefits? Perish the thought!” with that, they all laughed anew.

“According to Val, it appears we’ll have more benefits than ever. Forge and I are supposed to go to a meeting tomorrow to negotiate the role our government wants us to play.”

“Uh – we’re probably going to have to postpone that, Lorna.”

“What? Why?”

“We have a…more pressing…appointment.”

“What could be more pressing than…” Forge shot Lorna a look that indicated he preferred not discussing it in front of everyone. Lorna chose not to push the issue in front of everyone, and instead, continued on.

Later…

“So – let me get this straight – you’re saying that Alex…somehow has been transported to an ‘alternate reality’?”

“Everything Trevor has told me leads me to believe that he has indirectly been associated with Alex Summers. Those visions of Fixx’s – Trevor’s dreams – they may not have been a coincidence. You have a piece of our reality that is out of place in whatever dimension Alex is occupying. Trevor Chase’s mutant abilities may be receptive to such displacements. ”

Lorna looked like she wanted to jump up and down. “So – what does that mean?”

“As you know, Trevor has the ability to warp reality. I believe that he might be able warp our reality to match the dimension that Alex is in.”

If she weren’t excited enough already, this just about put her over the edge. The last she’d known, her lover had been blown to smithereens in a terrible accident. Now it seemed he might still be alive and well. Surely it was too good to be true. “Really?! That’s great! We have to go get Alex!”

“Lorna, calm down. It may not be that simple. I’m not even sure Trevor can do it. His powers may not be mature enough for that.”

“We have to try, Forge. You have to get him back. If anyone can do it, you can!”

“I don’t want you to get your hopes up. We can’t even be sure if this is the Alex of our reality. And what about X-Factor?”

“Last time I checked – Havok was part of X-Factor. And if one of our team members needs help, don’t we owe it to him to try and attempt a rescue?”

Forge sighed. “I can’t argue with your logic, Lorna, and as leader of this team I won’t dispute your decision. But as your advisor – I must inform you that this plan is not without considerable risk.”

“I understand. But we have to do this. You know I won’t be able to live with myself otherwise.”

“I know,” Forge said reservedly. “All right. I’ll get ahold of Father Bloch to arrange a visit.”

NEXT: Just what will Lorna and Forge find in the Mutant X Universe? The ultimate rescue mission is not without a few surprises.