Leaving the Door Open

[Flux]

"Hah! Magnet Man. Takes me back."

Flux swiped the butt of his borrowed gun across the chin of a guard as he closed in, shooting the next point-blank with his last bullets, and repelled the gun itself from his hands to smash in the nose of his third. He whipped off a length of chain and snapped it into a ring around one of Geryon's arms. "Fly, you fool!" Flux sprinted through the closing doors, sliding under the last as it closed to chest-height.

[Doktor Klaus Heidegger]

"This is all a game to you, isn't it?"

"Do I look to be in a gaming mood?"

"I don't know. You only seem to have the one facial expression."

"And which one would that be?"

"That self-possessed, full-of-it smirk. I could seriously knock that thing right off your face."

"Such anger issues. Perhaps you should join group therapy with Dr. Sumpter?"

"No way. Then I'd have to try to escape."

"So harsh. I only want to help you."

"And yet, I can never quite bring myself to believe you."

****************

The doors slammed shut behind the two mutants, sealing in the surviving guards. Just behind the doors, the sound of the gas injectors filling the rooms could be heard hissing doom.Klaus got up from his director's chair, straightened his lab coat, and headed for the elevators.

"Sir, where are you going?" The security chief asked him.

"Why, to convince these two lost sheep to go back to their pens."

"Sir, I don't recommend it. They hate you."

Klaus chuckled. "Of course they do! I built their prison! But have faith."

Klaus pressed the button for the elevator. It opened after only a short wait. Then the Jozua Clinic Director stepped inside and pressed the button for the ground floor.

"See to it that the other mutants aren't harmed. The only way the two jailbreakers can leave is through the lobby. Be sure they take no detours."

"Yes sir!"

Klaus stepped out of the elevator. They would be with him soon.

[The Brotherhood]

Down the corridor. Up the stairs to the first basement level. Through a hallway lined with offices, evidence closets, interrogation rooms, visitation, central processing. All the trappings of a "normal" prison were there, which was a laugh. Normal prisons didn't dope you up with experimental drugs, recruit prisoners for hits on other prisoners, or lock their own guards in a fucking gas chamber in the case of an escape. Geryon hoped they'd be coming back soon to send this place straight to hell.

The Samoan mutant put his shoulder down into the armored door that led into the prison lobby, puckering the metal surface and torquing the hinges. That weakened it enough so that Flux could rip the whole thing away with a metallic shriek. Only one obstacle still stood between the escapees and the ground floor.

Security bars had rammed down over the doors to the prison elevator. Flux made short work of those, and then Geryon battered in the elevator doors until they fell to the floor of the shaft.

"Hitch a ride, Flux."

With the kid clinging to his broad back, Geryon grabbed onto a thick length of cable and hauled both of them up arm over arm toward freedom.

[Flux]

Flux paused outside the evidence closets. He forced the door open and with a gesture of his hand brought out his old iron bands and costume. They were well-kept, all things considered, with only the faintest trace of corrosion. The uniform stank as though a cat had shat rotten eggs all over it. Flux supposed nobody would've been inclined to wash a criminal's uniform. Just down the hall, Geryon bashed the door, drawing Flux's gaze.

His Samoan brother gestured for him to come on. Flux looked back to the evidence locker and found a simple lighter, lifted off some poor bastard's person. Flux took it and put fire to the red-and-gray unitard, then tossed the flaming garment back into the locker and fit the door back. With that done, he tore the elevator door from its place to finish Geryon's work and took a firm grip on the Samoan's back, watching the shaft's distant ceiling come to him as his Brother made swift work of the climb. At the top floor Flux jumped back and magnetized himself to the wall, exerting magnetic force on the fresh door. Geryon swung himself like a pendulum and kicked it. The door flew inward as Geryon landed with a thump. Flux repelled himself over the crouching Samoan and landed somewhat quieter, floating the door with magnetism to keep it from crashing and alerting the guards to their progress.

"Right. Back in the clinic, now, yes? I've never even seen this part; I was sedated up to here when they brought me in to lock me up." He gestured with one hand to indicate the sky; he'd been blacked out for days upon arrival, and woke up to be told he was beginning his sixth day of imprisonment. "You lead for a bit, Brother. Wouldn't want us getting lost and making this harder than it needs to be."

[Doktor Klaus Heidegger]

"Wouldn't a loading dock or emergency exit be better?"

"They would allow the escapees to be more discrete, but why would they spend the time to look for these exits when there's a great big one with great big signs pointing the way?"

"But think--"

"I have! I guarantee you, they will not. Television and movies have done much to enhance the suspension of disbelief over these last few decades. The spectacle their escape will make is going to be, as they say, 'Epic.' They get the catharsis of escaping their jailers, and their organization gets to send the message they want conveyed to their so-called mundane inferiors. I promise, no one is going to look at this too closely."

*********************


Klaus stood in the lobby as calm and patiently as he would for someone who was due to arrive for an appointment at any minute. Personnel were stationed just outside the glass doors to politely turn away visitors with the excuse of "quarantine." A mixture of fear of disease and hatred of mutants would keep people clear. But they trusted Jozua Clinic. Klaus had seen the PR reports. Non-mutants adored the facility and the petite girl with the downy blonde hair that popped up on bus ads and billboards lately.

"Mrs. Jenkins," Klaus said to the woman at the front desk, "Please feel free to take the rest of the day off.

As she started to protest Klaus held up a finger. She stopped mid-word. It was the kind of power Klaus enjoyed. "No no. I insist. You have two minutes. No, you're not fired. Take the day off and enjoy the sunshine."

The woman, sensing danger was near, hurriedly gathered her purse, phone, and jacket, then bustled out the door as fast as her five-inch heels would allow.

Now it was just Klaus, the lobby chairs, and the mellow tones of smooth jazz.

"Magnetize the doors and windows, please," Klaus radioed to security.

A slight buzzing sound informed the doctor that the powerful magnets were sealing off the building. There it was. One last pitiful stand against two mutant criminals.

"Come to me," Klaus said.

[Flux]

"So, I'm thinking out the front is a bad idea," Geryon was saying. "Prolly lots of guards and shit. A back way would be better. Loading dock, emergency exit, whatever."

Flux wasn't paying attention. He was standing up straight, alert, looking around with his eyes at the sudden burst of magnetic activity that he could sense going on around him.

"Yeah, they wanna make a killing ground," Flux conjectured. "They might get it; tons of really strong-ass magnets just activated all over. I need to go see what they were. C'mon." Flux ran down the hall, stampeding for the nearest magnetic force he could sense. Rooms flew by, each equiped with monitors on stands, beds, sinks, and miles of tubes and wires. The ones with occupants were either strangely quiet...that feeling of something keeping silent rather than it being merely an empty room. Others gasped as the prison-orange figures flew by, some shrieked, others cursed defiant threats. Flux ignored all this. One room, however, was shouting incoherent babble. He skidded to a stop a few paces beyond and staggered as Geryon's bulk hit him. "Hang on, I think I heard a reference to us. Didn't you? I mean, besides the cursing and screaming."

[The Brotherhood]

Geryon rumbled to a halt. "What, are you nuts? We don't have time for visiting hours!"

[Andrea Kaine]

"The first shots fired in the unending war. Two bullets in the chamber. The hammer is falling. There will be thunder soon. Thunder. It's so loud, and it's getting closer!"

Andrea Kaine was in torment again, but whether it was the visions or the chaos in the clinic, Nurse Angelina Gutierrez couldn't tell. All she knew was the poor girl was writhing in her bed, damp with sweat and wracked with anguish, and there was nothing the matronly nurse could do about it.

Gutierrez gently stroked Andrea's hair with a large, callused hand. "Listen to me, dear, the clinic's in a lockdown," she said. "It'll be over soon, and you'll be safe, but you have to keep it down."

The florescent lights flickered above, and Andrea's glassy eyes darted across the ceiling. "One thousand one... one thousand two... one thousand three--"

Something crashed to the floor in the corridor outside, a metal door twisting off its hinges. "It's less than a mile away," Andrea said. "Do you hear them? The man of magnets and the giant with many arms. They'll be here in one thousand five... one thousand four... one thousand three..."

Gutierrez heard lumbering footsteps, and her heart pounded in her ears as she looked toward the wardroom door. It was locked, but that seemed like a paltry defense against mutant criminals, and she'd been around Andrea long enough that she never doubted the girl's predictions.

"They won't hurt you, nina," she said in a trembling voice. "I won't let them." She scooped up Andrea's hands in her own, enveloping them entirely, and began to pray.

[Flux]

The pins on the door's hinges fired out like bullets and Flux shoved the door in and propped it on the wall. "Man of Magnets," Flux echoed. "How're you so calm about it? Everyone else sees orange out their doors and windows and goes nuts. But you're just lying here, narrating, aren't you?" Flux's head tipped to the side and a little forward as he studied Andrea. The chains rattled on his limbs as he stepped inside. His voice was thoughtful and wondering. "What else do you have to say, Sister?"

[Andrea Kaine]

The stocky nurse threw herself across the bed, covering Andrea like a mother bird defending her nest. "No! You won't hurt her! I won't let you!"

[The Brotherhood]

Geryon stepped beside Flux, nearly filling up the room, and shoved Gutierrez aside with a careless swipe of his arm. She backpedaled and crashed against the wall, grabbing the swingarm on a bank of medical monitors to keep herself upright, and stared at the intruders with wide eyes full of terror.

"Who said anything about hurting her?" the Samoan mutant growled. "Looks like your lab rat friends have done enough of that."

[Andrea Kaine]

Andrea had gone still except for the rise and fall of her chest. If she noticed Nurse Gutierrez groaning as she slid down to the floor, she gave no indication. Her eyes were locked on Flux's with uncanny clarity.

"The body is a prison," she said. "But the mind is weak and cannot live without it. I talked to Rosanna Hughes sometimes, in her sleep. She didn't know it, but she was my friend. Thank you for helping her."

[Flux]

Flux's eyes widened by the smallest space as Andrea invoked Rosanna's name. He saw that girl's anguished face and terrifying body too often when he shut his eyes, heard her voice in the few moments of true quiet he experienced, and dreamt nightly of the horror they had shared in the hour he had spent trapped Below with her. Every so often, his mind would conjure fresh nightmares of her; of her body shrunk down, crawling down the hall screaming for mercy as he pressed to the back of his cell in terror, of being devoured by her all-consuming power. His eyes watered and itched and his throat stopped his voice. His diaphragm and stomach joined one another in mutiny and he dry heaved several times before he got it under control.

He could feel the nurse's confusion and Geryon's concern filtering into the quiet that followed Andrea's announcement. Andrea just laid there, staring at Flux, awaiting his reply. Flux stood shaking his head, willing himself not to blink.

"You're not welcome," he said at last. "She didn't have to die. If Heidegger hadn't gotten to her, she could be alive now." He clenched his fists and drew himself up, coping with his fear the way he always had: by replacing it with anger. "Thank me when we've avenged her. Come on, Geryon, we're going up front to meet Heidegger." Flux stalked from the room, gathering all the loose metal that he could to his body.

[Andrea Kaine]

Andrea's eyes did not follow Flux out of the room. They lost focus and rolled up toward the ceiling as she drifted away again.

"The Fox will play his part for the Everywhere Man. It won't be long now. The mother... the mother and child..."

Her eyes shuddered and closed, and with one sighing breath, Andrea was asleep.

[The Brotherhood]

Out in the corridor, Geryon laid a massive hand on Flux's shoulder. "Hey. Hey! What do you think you're doing? You know that's the way they want us to go!"

[Flux]

"Yeah, and it's the way I wanna go, too!" Flux shot back, whirling to fix hateful eyes on his Brother. "I'm going to go up there and in front of the doctors and guards and mutants and mundanes and God I'm gonna kill him. I'm gonna show 'em that he's not safe from us. The world has to see Heidegger bleed. They think he'll save them from us by removing our mutancy. Well fuck that and fuck him. I'm gonna hang him from the ceiling." Flux turned and marched on.

[Doktor Klaus Heidegger]

"If this goes wrong, I cannot help you."

"We have discussed that already. Could it be you actually care about me and my facility?"

"I care about it less than the Brotherhood does."

"And yet, you are asking me to put my facility on the line."

"If your so-called clinic goes down and the Brotherhood gets put away, then I call it killing two birds with one stone. And I will sleep well that night."

"What is it the interns say? 'Look out, we're dealing with a bad-ass over here?' Yes, I think that's the phrase. I will tell them what they want to hear, and then they will leave."

"So what are you going to tell them?"

"And ruin the surprise? I hardly think so."

**************

Klaus checked his watch. They were late. Odd. He activated his bluetooth and contacted the head of security. "Where are they?"

"In Kaine's room. The girl is apparently telling their futures."

Klaus rolled his eyes. Before he could comment further, his security chief was once again speaking. "Fletcher is headed your way. Geryon keeps insisting to find a back door, but it looks like whatever Kaine said has got Fletcher looking to wring your neck."

Klaus smirked. The plan was back on. He would have made a note to thank Andrea Kaine, but he was very confident serendipity was the true force behind this turn of events.

"All the same, I want all the exits charged with ten thousand volts. If it doesn't kill them, they will know they have to leave through the front door."

"Done"

"Very good. Send a small team to encourage Geryon to follow his hot-headed friend."

Klaus could hear the dimished voice of the chief ordering the security staff to start blocking off the corridors. "I want enough Nectar weapons on that hallway to make an entire city of mutants sick."

Within minutes the two jailbreakers could hear the heavy, ordered footfalls of well-trained security professionals approaching their position.

[The Brotherhood]

Geryon snorted, and then he charged in front of Flux like a bull elephant. He planted his palm in the younger mutant's chest with a force than nearly bowled him over.

"No!" he roared. "Damn it, Flux, this is the kind of bullshit that put you here in the first place! You're grandstanding! That ain't what we're here for!"

A column of boots pounded in a nearby stairwell. Their time was running out, but Geryon didn't budge.

"Listen, we'll come back and we'll put Heidegger and his stooges on ice. But not now, not without a plan. Now we need to--"

P-CHOK! P-CHOK!

Further up the hall, between the mutants and the utility entrances, a guard in body armor had leaned out from behind a corner and fired two rounds from his sidearm. Geryon reeled and crashed against the wall of Andrea's room, staring at the darts embedded in his left hand.

"Rrrraagh!"

Geryon focused on the tissue connecting his arm to his body, forcing his mutation to work backwards, and the limb began to atrophy and wither before the Nectar could flow back into the rest of his bloodstream. The arm was dessicated and purple by the time he grabbed it in his other hand, and with a wet shearing noise he tore it away and threw it to the floor, spraying the wall with a gout of blood. The diseased limb writhed like a decapitated snake as the Nectar forced its regenerative factor into overdrive, but without the support of Geryon's body it simply shriveled and died.

[Flux]

Flux jumped at the withering, useless limb on the floor as purpled, its skin rippling and muscle dwindling as it died without Geryon to sustain it. It reminded him too much of the two long tentacles that had menaced him Below. More needles peppered the hallway. Flux returned fire with the shrapnel he'd gathered, knocking needles out of the air and scattering guards to cover in the doorways of the hospital rooms. Flux pressed against the wall and avoided the barrage. "Who's grandstanding?" he finally retorted. "We can do this! They're so scared of us it's disgusting!" To prove the point, Flux sent a scattering of metal shreds at the guard hiding behind the nearest door. Flux magnetized the door shut and locked. "No sweat." Then he did it again. "You want a plan!? We move it up a bit at the time, take 'em out, then string up Heidegger by his neck. Happy!?"

[The Brotherhood]

He wasn't. Down to three arms, lacking the requisite calories to make any more, with Nectar-wielding mooks crowding them toward whatever snuff show Doc Heidegger was planning for them in the lobby. Because that was the only thing that could explain the guards cutting them off from the loading bays but leaving the path to the main entrance wide open.

But right now there didn't seem to be many options. Flux was hellbent on a showdown with Heidegger. Maybe the best Geryon could do was see that the kid made it through in one piece.

"Fine," he grunted. The massive mutant kicked the nearest wardroom door off its hinges, drawing a terrified shriek from the patient inside, but it was the door he was after. He gripped the slab of steel between two hands and, armed with a gun and a makeshift shield, advanced down the hallway at a lumber.

"Your plan, you call the shots."