Xander vol.1 Transmutation (21 page)

“
Now!” Yang ordered. “Tell
Lupin! Go!”

“
Theodore!” Nora shouted,
signaling him to go after Yin before he could run off.

But in that moment, Yin
decided to listen to Yang, a sheet of ice starting a slow crawl
onto his feet and up his ankles. He shot a surrounding layer of ice
spikes along the ground around him, keeping Xander and Theodore at
bay just long enough for him to shot up into the air on a pillar of
ice. He shot up from the pillar firing himself into the air and
away from the area. Theodore shot at the traveling ice beam, hoping
to shoot through it and cause Yin to crash. But enough of the shots
missed, allowing Yin to escape.

“
Dammit,” Theodore
scowled.

“
At least we’ve got two of
them,” Xander offered, crossing his arms and walking over to the
bundled Yang who laid on the ground in his wad of nature. Yang kept
his eyes averted from them, his facial expression calm and
collected.

“
Yeah …” Nora mumbled to
herself, glancing up in the direction that Yin had taken off
in.

Xander turned around to
face the vault before glancing back over his shoulder at
Yang.

“
What’s the code to this
thing?” he asked him.

Yang remained silent,
refusing to look at or answer Xander, to no surprise. Xander paused
a moment, giving him the opportunity to change his mind about
answering. He gave a slight nod, pouting his lips in consideration
as he looked back at the sealed metal vault.

“
Fine. Don’t tell me,” he
accepted. “I’m going to need you both to back up a bit.”

It was then that Yang
looked up at Xander in curiosity and an underlining level of
suspicion. Nora and Theodore shared his expression as they looked
to one another.

“
What are you going to
do?” Theodore asked, remembering how he had manipulated Halyn into
crashing through his own vault.

Xander gave a soft shrug,
rolled his shoulders as he raised his hands to focus on the vault
and its contents. He sensed Eleanor’s figure inside, and was able
to detect the only metal she had on her person – the clasps on a
pair of pearl earrings. He left their magnetism alone and began
focusing on the four walls and ceiling of the vault. Not getting an
answer, Nora grew wary, looking from the vault to him.

“
Xander?” she
pressed.

“
She’ll be
fine.”

“
But what are you going to
do?”

“
I’m going to tear this
thing apart.”

“
But Eleanor’s
–“

“
Haven’t you learned to
trust me, yet?” Xander said over his shoulder.

Nora swallowed, staring
intently at him, before her eyes drifted to Theodore. He made no
gesture of assurance or skepticism – merely looked to see what she
wanted to do. After a moment Nora gave a stiff nod, taking several
steps back and moving Yang with her. Theodore followed, his eyes
locked on the vault before them. Yang looked on in pure curiosity,
wondering about the power that Xander was about to show. He
couldn’t help but wonder what Lupin wasn’t telling him. What he
wasn’t telling anyone.

Xander rolled his
shoulders again, getting back into the focus of aiming his power
after securing Nora and the others of his intentions. He eyed the
metal vault, spreading his fingers evenly as he got a sense for the
metallic density of each side of the vault.

Slowly, Xander’s fingers
coiled into the palms of his hands, creating two fists. As they
did, the sound of the bolts and screws that held the volt together
tightening and creating pressure could be heard. The metal bucked
and clanked in protest to the violation. Xander pressed his right
foot into the ground, taking a deep breath as he slowly began to
change each of the walls’ magnetic properties. He was turning them
against themselves, causing them to want to push away from each
other.

And then with a sudden
surge of strength and precision, Xander’s hands jerked to his
sides, and all walls of the vault flew from one another, the
ceiling flying up and landing with the back wall. The front of the
vault, which held the door came flying towards Xander, but stopped
just six inches away. It stood tall for a moment, before falling
back onto the ground with a thud, and providing a view of Eleanor,
who stood in the center of her former prison.

She stood, resembling a
child in her bewilderment. Standing at around five feet and nine
inches. A wild mess of ginger hair, curling, bending, twisting, and
folding around her face and mid-back. Her pale skin caught the
sunlight it had been deprived of, almost glowing, and further
illuminating her piercing ivory eyes.

She stood with her hands
at her pelvis, wrists bound together with the cuffs that were
chained to the floor of the vault that remained. She blinked
rapidly, the gust of wind and debris from the wreckage to blame.
Her eyes fell upon the small group – to the captured Yang, and then
to Xander, Nora, Theodore.

Nora smiled as she slowly
raised a hand to provide some sort of comfort and greeting, her
heart thumping from the sight she’d just been given. Xander
straightened his posture, staring at the woman with approval, not
seeing any sign of injury, and noting that her earrings were still
intact. He gave a nod and a sigh of content and slight
exhaustion.

“
That should do
it.”

Chapter 18

“I want one,” said Agent
Whitestone as she came to stand beside Agent Elba.

He was standing with his
feet firm and arms crossed, staring ahead at the now contained
Halyn. She had been placed in an incubator tube, and was being
constantly injected with sedations to keep her dormant. They
weren’t sure of the limitations of extensions of her abilities, and
they didn’t want her morphing into something big enough to escape
and/or wreck their facility. So keeping her under seemed like the
best option aside from killing her.

Elba looked down at her,
his lips in their usual hard line. Whitestone giggled as he shook
his head.

“
Oh, come on,” she
insisted. “A pet that could change into any animal you wanted?
That’s like owning your own personal Beast Boy.”

“
She’s not a
pet
. She’s an
abomination,” Elba pressed.

“
She’s a
person
,” came the harsh
voice of Nora, who was stepping up to join them in front of the
holding cell. “That was lied to and given false hope.” Nora looked
up into the regretful eyes of Elba, her own fierce in their
testimony. “We all are. We just made different decisions afterwards
– some better than others.”

“
Nora this woman – hell,
all of these people tried to
kill
you.”

“
He
hasn’t,” Nora argued, patently pointing to Theodore, and then
Eleanor. “And neither has she. What about
us
? Are
we
abominations?”

“
You
,” Elba clarified. “Have a moral standing.”

There was a pause between
her and them, as Loni waltzed up beside Nora. Arms crossed, she
stared at Halyn with distaste, anger prominent in her features. She
had tended to Xander’s wounds, but was anything but forgiving to
their cause. And knowing that it was a pair of claws – similar to
her own - that did the damage, bothered her even more.

“
I’m going with you this
time,” she announced.

The group adjusted their
attention. Nora nodded with a slight sigh of relief.

“
Most likely a good
idea.”

Nora glanced in Xander’s
direction, who was sitting with Theodore, lifting up his shirt to
examine the bandages that wrapped from his chest around his
shoulder. He didn’t even seem bothered by it. And it was apparent
by his body language. He was saying something to Theodore, laughing
about it, while poor Theodore looked at him like the mad man he
was.

“
He seems pretty mellow,”
Whitestone commented. Nora turned to her, and followed her fixed
gaze on Yang, who sat in a holding cell beside Halyn.

“
I don’t like it,” said
Elba.

“
Would you rather him
thrashing about the place?”

“
Almost. He’s too
calm
. Like he’s
plotting.”

“
Careful. He might hear
you,” Whitestone teased, nudging his arm before walking over to
Xander and Theodore.

“
Lupin will send for
them,” Nora said gravely.

Elba’s head whipped back
around, his eyes locking in on Nora. Whitestone had turned back
around as well, and was watching for Elba’s reaction, more so than
her own. Lupin’s eyes were sharp, the connection instantly
presenting itself. Nora’s body tensed, seeing the abrupt change in
Elba’s body language. She prepared herself to take a step back as
he moved forward, his face twisting in his apparent
anger.

“
Who
?”

Nora was hesitant in
answering, her discomfort around the man of authority coming back
in play. But Elba didn’t need to hear the name again. It made
perfect sense. All the things he’d been asking for, pestering them
for. The continuous probing for information. Elba grimaced,
exhaling and turning to the slightly frowning Whitestone. He raised
his arm, before slowly lowering it back down with the addition of
his index finger.

“
Suit up,” he nearly
hollered. Both Xander and Theodore looked towards Elba with
somewhat of a twitch. “We do this
today
.”

“You getting this, Elba?”
Whitestone asked as she, Loni, and Theodore slowly approached the
entrance of Lupin’s base.

The facility was made for
camouflage – built behind a large waterfall. The cliff the
waterfall was protruding from stretched back beyond their view
point. There was no telling how deep or intricate the layer was.
They had no idea what Lupin was capable of, since they had since
decided that to be a whopping nothing.

Back at the Hive, Elba was
staring at the projected screen – showing the journey through the
lens of the small camera that was strapped to the choker that
Whitestone wore. His signature frown was a little less firm as he
glanced around the empty halls of the facility. The onslaught of
attacks that he was expecting was nowhere to be found. And while
Elba found that to be a relief, Nora, who was standing beside him,
was growing increasingly paranoid from its absence. Her head shook
slightly, her eyes narrowing and squinting as she searched every
area of the camera’s view.

“
Looks like we got lucky,”
Elba said gruffly. “No interruptions. Search the place. Every room.
No stone left unturned.”

“
Right,” Whitestone
responded. “You’re up, Theodore. Guide us.”

“
Where is he?” Nora asked
more to herself than allowed.

Nonetheless, the question
was heard. Elba dipped his head, glancing over hers. His brow rose
in question.

“
Problem?”

“
Lupin,” Nora clarified
with some distress.

“
Gone. Most likely fled
when you and Xander were making your rescues. Count your blessings
that we don’t have to deal with the rest of the
Chimera.”

“
But why? Why would he
–“

“
The man’s scared. He’s
been caught,” Elba somewhat bellowed, a little put off by the
questioning of the situation.

“
Then why is it still
standing?”

Elba paused, taking a
moment to register the question. His brows pinched, while Eleanor,
behind them, stood from her seat, the question raising some
concern.

“
What?”

“
The base? If he’s
running, why is it still there? He wouldn’t have left his work to
be studied by someone else. Or anything.”

“
She’s right,” Eleanor
commented, stepping forward. “He would have burnt it
down.”

“
What if it’s a trap?”
Nora suggested in panic, looking up at Elba as his eyes shifted
back to the projected screen.

“
She has a point,” came
Whitestone’s voice into the microphone. “Maybe it’s a little too
quiet.”

“
Quiet?” Loni said with
some distaste. “Do you
not
hear that?”

“
Hear what?”

“
I hear it too,” Theodore
agreed. “Spilling liquid of some kind.”

“
Busted pipe? Maybe he did
some damage after all,” Whitestone suggested.

“
No … It’s not
constant.”

“
What’s going on over
there?” Elba demanded with caution, glancing around the area again
in search of the source of the noise they were describing but
falling short.

Whitestone pulled her
earpiece from her ear for a moment, letting her ears hone in on the
sound, studying it. The group stopped moving to study the sound.
Loni’s bright, feline eyes darted about, her ears twitching time
and again.

“
It’s moving,” she noted.
“Towards us.”

Immediately, Whitestone
reached for the gun hooked on the back of her belt, preparing
herself for any sudden movements or actions. She held it downwards,
taking a weary step forward as she pushed her earpiece back
in.