Chapter Two:  Out of the frying pan and into the fire




           The eyes belonged to a completely stripped woman who protectively crouched in a corner of the room.  Thick chains clung to unwieldy metal bands shackled around her taut wrists and there was a menacing silver collar that was scrapped to her neck. The silver links of the manacles trailed around her until they reached the wall.  “Why are you just standing there? HELP HER!”  CopyCat hissed angerly, settling Eclipse onto his feet, and then dashing to one of the computers placed against the wall.
“And do what?”  Techno yelled back, his left hand outstretched to empathize his question.  The woman cringed at his sudden movement, pressing her body closer to the wall.
“Those are anti-strength chains!   Neither she nor I can break them; but you can!”  She shouted again, her arms morphing in size and darkening in color, merging into someone else’s.  She began typing furiously as Techno stared at her silently in shock.
“That won’t do anything; they’ll know it was you.”  He mumbled, his eyes avoiding the hostile woman.
“I know.”  CopyCat replied, still typing with rapid fingers, “But they don’t have my actual fingerprints, and I’m not about to give ‘em to them now!”  She growled, detest coloring her voice.  “So, instead of just standing there and acting like a moron; get to work!”  She added in a softer hiss.
Techno sighed and turned to face the woman.  He took slow, cautious steps towards her, trying not to startle her.  Despite his best efforts; when he reached towards her, the shackled woman swiped at him so quickly with dagger-like fingernails he almost missed the slashing movement.  He reflexively brought his right arm up to shield his face, and her claws rebounded off his arm with a dull, metallic clang.  She recoiled into the wall, frantically trying to escape from the noise of the object beneath the leathery cloth, her hostel eyes widening in fear.  Her shock didn’t last very long, though, and she lunged at him once more.  Techno scrambled backwards, deflecting her blows with his arm.
“Uh, Sage, a little help would be nice!”  He yelped loudly as he slid out of the woman’s range, falling back onto the floor. He watched the female struggle against her restraints, quiet animal-like grunts threading through her bared teeth.
“Uh oh.”  CopyCat murmured, looking back at him.  She hit the last key and the screen flashed “ALL DATA DELETED”.  She hurried over, her hands returning to normal, and, to Techno’s surprise, knelt next to the very strange woman.  But the woman did not attack the woman, instead, looking at CopyCat with a perplexed look on her face.   CopyCat stayed perfectly still; concentrating on something only she could see.   But they didn’t have time for this, and Techno had a talent for stating the obvious.
“CopyCat, we don’t have time--” He was cut off mid-sentence by a small hand falling on his shoulder.
“Shhh!”  Eclipse hushed him, pressing his small fingers against his lips.  “Big Sis’s busy right now!”  Techno stared at the child, surprise spreading across his facial features.

Had this…KID….just shushed him?  

He was once again interrupted, but this time by CopyCat.
“Techno! Take off your trench-coat!”  She snapped at him, making the other woman flinch at the raised volume in her voice.
“Does not compute…why?”
“She thinks you’re a scientist; that’s bloody why!”  She growled again.  “If you could see inside her mind…see what they’ve done to her…seen what I’ve seen with my very own eyes…You would understand.  You would understand the reason why I’m risking everything for her; my life…and even surrendering to HIM.”    She turned away, her voice cracking on the last syllable, but her eyes remained dry.  Techno could only nod, immediately stripping off his tan trench-coat, revealing a loose black tank-top and the long glove covering most of his right arm.

  Once he had understood, and even had, these complex human emotions, but no longer.  He could see that there was more, but CopyCat hesitated.

“You won’t like this next part…”  She murmured, still looking away from his blank face.
“What is it?”  He asked, forcing her to look at him.
“I’m sorry but…you’re gonna have to take off that glove.”  Techno stiffened, releasing her.  That was not a good idea.  “Greg, please…”  She begged him. “It’s the only way she’ll even begin to trust you…”  Copycat swallowed and continued in a small voice. “The scientists used special gloves to keep her from hurting them…just like your hand does…”  Techno made a sound like a cat being strangled, but after a few seconds, finally relented.  He grasped the glove, pulling it slowly down his arm and revealing his sun-deprived skin.  He pulled it completely off and sat there on the floor, staring numbly at his hand while the chained woman cringed away.  The hand had once been normal, but was now a mesh of metal and flesh.  All of his fingers were completely mechanical, making metallic clinks as they were flexed.  The palm and back of his hand was marred by old burn scars and metal plates, the largest one resting upon his wrist.  He looked sideways at the woman, gauging her reaction.  Her face was contorted with fear and fascination, but her violet eyes were alit with curiosity.  She looked meaningfully at CopyCat, who briefly glanced at the woman before looking away.
  “She’ll let you cut the chains now…”  She mumbled, “But leave the ones on her hands alone. Where we’re going, she might accidentally hurt herself.”  Techno nodded, a small neon green saw forming at the tips of his index and middle fingers.  With a swift swipe, he cut the chain connecting her left hand to the wall, and with another swish, she was free.  Immediately, she cringed away from Techno and scampered behind Copycat.  CopyCat, however, burst out laughing at her reaction, as did Eclipse.  Techno and the woman only stared at them, head tilted with confusion.  No one seemed to notice when the woman suddenly tensed up, listening to something outside the hallway.  They were still laughing.
“Hands up, traitor.” A cold voice said and CopyCat froze mid-laugh.  “I said put them up!”  She slowly raised her arms above her head and stood up.  “Now put them on your head!”  CopyCat complied and slowly turned to look sweetly at the man.
“Really now, is there any need for this, Crypto?”  The mutant called Crypto squared his shoulders and glowered down at her.
“I believe there is.  You betrayed Magneto, after all he did for you!”  He growled, spitting in CopyCat’s direction; her face hardened.
“It wasn’t me who betrayed him…He was the one who betrayed me, and he’s betraying you too!”  Suddenly she was running, getting behind him before he could react.  “I’m sorry…”  She whispered into his ear before knocking him out with a sharp blow to the back of the head.
“I calculate that we should be going.”  Techno said, calm as ever.  CopyCat nodded and stepped over Crypto, crouching again by the woman and feeding her images of the escape plan, and apparently the woman understood because she slowly stood up.  CopyCat gathered Eclipse in her arms and turned to Techno
  “We can’t leave the way we came in, but I do know of a secret exit that you can only find if you know of it, which is none of the people here.  Follow me closely; this place is a labyrinth if you don’t know where you’re going.”  She turned sharply and fled through the door with the woman close at her heels.  Techno expanded a round green digital shield around him, and a computer screen and keyboard projection flashed inside.  He tapped several keys, disabling all the cameras before following CopyCat out.  He quickly caught up as the bullets were beginning to ricochet harmlessly off the neon sphere.  While CopyCat had no shield, she did an outstanding job of dodging them, swaying to and fro as they whizzed past, on top of protecting Eclipse with her body.

The woman, however, did not fare so well.

Her body was weak from malnutrition and torture, which made her clumsier.  A bullet shot through her calf and she stumbled to the floor, only to spring up again as CopyCat and Techno turned to help her.  Ignoring the pain, she ran on, now bleeding heavily.  They twisted and turned deeper into the maze, and farther away from their pursuers, despite the woman’s injury.  Techno was just beginning to wonder how much further it was, when CopyCat skittered to a halt and he almost ran her over.  Almost.  She carefully placed Eclipse on his feet and ran her hand lightly over the wall.  She slowly walked along it, counting her steps until she reached five.  She stomped twice on a normal-looking tile.

What happened was anything but normal.

A sizable part of the wall slid to the side, revealing a long, pitch-black corridor.  Copycat quickly took off one of the three shirts she was wearing, and proceeded in ripping it up and binding the woman’s leg as best she could.  She used the other half of the shirt to mop up some of the blood off the floor, so the trail stopped sooner.  She tossed the bloody remain of the shirt down the secret hall and ushering everyone else in, closing the wall behind herself and throwing them into blackness.  She picked up Eclipse up again and proceeded down the hall, the others following the sound of her footsteps.  The hallway gradually descended, then sharply turned up, suddenly ending.  CopyCat opened the door, revealing the stabbing rays of the sunrise.  CopyCat quickly replaced her hood and hurried away, the other two following like ghosts.  CopyCat noticed the woman becoming uneasy as they reached more and more of civilization, so she ducked into an alleyway to come up with a plan.
“What do we do now?”  Techno asked, slightly out of breath.  He hadn’t run that far in quite a while.
  “Okay,” CopyCat said, completely calm, “We need to figure that out now.  But first,” She walked over to the woman and looked her naked body up and down, “We need to get you some clothes.”  The woman looked quizzically at her.  CopyCat only winked, then turned to look down at Eclipse.  “You,” she started, pointing at the boy “will stay here and be a good boy.  You,” she pointed to the woman “will try not to tear up anything and ANYONE.  And you,” she pointed at Techno “will look after these two.  If anything happens to either one of them, I will hold you personally responsible, and will hunt you to the ends of the earth.  Understand?”  Techno nodded, deciding not to even try and argue.  With a smile and a wave, she was gone, leaving Techno alone with a little kid, and a hostile, naked woman, who may or may not want to rip his head off.

  Thank the Gods that his wiring worked differently from a normal man’s or else he’d be having very, very dirty thoughts.  But now that he wasn’t dodging bullets or hacking, he could now look properly at the woman.  She was tall; taller than him at five foot, ten inches; with a mane of long, tangled blonde hair that cascaded down her back, pieces of various vegetations ensnared in the thick strands.

  Her violet eyes still were laced with venom when she regarded him.

  As he looked away from her piercing gaze, he noticed all of the burn marks and scars that adorn her body.  Suddenly, CopyCat appeared out of nowhere.  It looked like Techno was looking at the woman longer then he thought.
“Here.”  CopyCat said, pulling a large t-shirt over the woman’s head and dressing the rest of her.  This, of course, was completely normal for CopyCat, since she was used to dressing Eclipse every single day.  “There.” She finally said, stepping away.  “Crap, they’re a bit too big…”  She said, biting her lip.  She shrugged “They’ll do for now.”  The woman squirmed in the loose clothes, but CopyCat grabbed her wrist as she raised her hand to tear the clothes off.  She stared at the woman hard.  The confused look came back over the woman’s features as she looked from Sage, to the clothes, and back again at Sage.

CopyCat laughed; something she’d been doing a lot lately.  The woman glowered at her.
“Alright, I’m sorry.”  She looked apologetically back.  “We should plan our next move now.”
“Indeed.”  A horribly familiar voice said.  The hairs on CopyCat’s neck stood up even more then usual.  “I think I may have a suggestion, Sage.”  At the sound of her name, CopyCat slowly turned to face the speaker.
“Hello Xavier, did you miss me?”  She said coolly, gazing into his hardened navy-blue eyes.