Chapter 8.2: Conspiracy

"Area what?" Ray didn't seem to really hear it clearly, even if everyone else did.

"Area 51." Nikolai frowned. "You know, the place that is filled with all the conspiracy theories about aliens and UFOs- dude, everyone knows about it, at least if you've had more than five hours worth of exposure in the internet. The only people who don't know about it are those neckbeards that live under a rock."

"So..." Nathan asked. "What exactly did you see?"

"Well... I saw Tyrone. He was... um, locked in a metal chair. The room was... Errr... completely white, as if it was going to be used for white room torture. You know, that kind of torture that uses sensory deprivation in order to drive people insane. He was bleeding out of his nose, and he is paler than usual. And... there was this guy."

"Guy...?" Ray snorted. "What kind?"

"He looked Middle Eastern... but there was this... really weird feeling when I saw him. He looked right back at me, as if he knew that I was look-"

Nikolai paused. A realization had just hit him like a truck.

He hastily took the file that Nathan had given him, and looked hard at the picture of the boy that was being described in there. It took him a few moments, but his realization was soon as clear as crystal. Tapping thrice at the file's picture, Nikolai looked at his friends, a little panicked. "Chyort... It's Halil. Halil Kenzari, the guy in this case file. He looked right back at me precisely because he knew I was peering through. He's like me, remember?"

"And he knows where you are and it's a matter of time before he portals in here along with anyone he's friends with..." Ray stood up, getting a coughing fit before continuing. "We need to get out of here, now!"

Nathan wasn't all too pleased that they have to get out so soon. "We just got here and now we have to move again." Nathan grumbled, though he nodded in response to Ray. "Where do we go?"

"We need to go back." Ray tapped the table vigorously to put his point across. "It's the one place where we're truly safe."

Nikolai now stood up as well, disagreeing with the notion to return. "We just left, now we're going back?"

Ray was having none of this. He had not agreed with the whole 'run and save them' plan to begin with. The only reason he was here at all was because he wouldn't let his dumbass friend do it all by himself. "Hey, I only came along because you are a precious friend and I won't leave you to do something dumb all alone. But whether you like it or not, you're not the best with decisions. You're headstrong, but an idiot."

"Yep." Caitlin nodded in agreement. "We always have to bail you out, friend."

"Arrrrghhh, fine, you're the smart one." Nikolai looked down. "I was reckless, sorry, I-"

"Can we do this when you've brought us back? Kenzari and Stravinsky could teleport in here anytime now and grab us."

"Right right..." Nikolai threw open a portal, leading right to the entrance of the building whose door they had broken through a few hours ago. "You first."

"Here we go." Ray sighed, jumping into the portal to land on his feet right in front of the door; in the hours that they had been gone, the whole damn thing had been replaced, this time looking far more mundane than the one they last saw. However, a technopath would sense that there was a set of holographic projectors set on the area, giving the impression that it was just an ordinary wooden door, when in reality, it was a metal entrance that would be able to withstand multiple blows from a main battle tank's turret gun.

"Back so soon?" Gustav's heavily accented voice echoed through the cold wind of winter. He leaned on the door frame, his arms crossed and his eyes looking straight at the group. "I had just figured out how to track you down, and now... well, shit."

Immediately, fingers flew and pointed at Nikolai, who had just come out of the portal. "It was his idea!" Caitlin said, speaking as truthfully as an oracle. "We just couldn't let him do it alone. You heard, right?"

"Jah, Jah, I heard." Gustav shook his head, sighing dejectedly. "This is why kids were never my thing. A pain in the ass to deal with, especially if they have superpowers. Anyway. You getting back in?"

"We found something." Nikolai started to approach, hands held up. "I, uh, saw Tyrone. With my visions. But I think I've been seen."

"Alright then." Gustav frowned at all of them, still displeased that they just busted out an hour ago. "Get in-..."

Not another word escaped from his lips, as a pair of blades protruded out of his chest. The technopath's azure blood spilled unto the snowy ground, and his body fell facedown, crumpling down like a piece of plywood. Behind his lifeless corpse stood a young Middle Eastern looking man, wearing a black coat and pants. He kicked the dead man with his steel toed boots, wheeling around to look at the four other mutants. They had never seen death, nevermind one that was so gruesome and callous in its operation.

"Thank you for making our job so much easier, dumb kids." Halil Kenzari scraped his blades together, producing a sickening noise that would make one's hairs stand. "Those Task Force people have been a very annoying thorn in our side. Ah well."

"Yup." Stravinsky materialized right besides Halil, though he came with a short, blonde girl with an equally dark and foreboding outfit. "You found us alright, but no one else can know what you know."

Susan Walker's high pitched voice chimed in next, a tone mixed with disdain and pity. "You should just join us, the pay is good and we have a nice insurance policy."

"We are the superior species after all." Halil walked down the steps of the suite's entrance, settling his boots on the snow with a heavy thud. "Shouldn't we stick together?"

Ray looked up at his friend, telling him with his eyes that they have to fight. Fight these other Neu-Volke... their fellow mutants that were so willing to sell them out to the Organization that still stalked the shadows.

They have been fools all this time. Everything that they did, busting out, finding their lost caretakers, have simply given themselves to the enemy in a silver platter. Halil was right. They were just some dumb kids that didn't think this whole thing over, and now... Gustav Mahler was dead. And so was Meah Lee...

Where is she anyway? Is she really dead, or was she running to their aid right now? Ah, nevermind. She can't help. She's just a person. A human. A weak specimen of humanity.

"You're just a bunch of brainwashed dumbasses." Caitlin looked upon the three with eyes of cold indifference. Icy mist streamed out of her hands like winter snakes in the blizzard, her eyes beginning to take on a stark blue color. "You're the weak ones."

"Oh really?" Susan laughed, shrugging her shoulders and raising both of her hands to the sky. "Ah, well..."

The petite blonde faced her palms unto the winter smitten ground. With a smirk on her face, waves of concussive force from her hands assaulted the earth. The ground shook violently under the power of the Earthshaker; cars swayed like crazy, people that had been walking leisurely through these diaplidated streets fell down at her fury.

It was an earthquake, and the entire Bronx was feeling its rage. A grubby old apartment building collapsed in the background, crushing its occupants beneath piles of rubble. Screams filled the air as people fled the incoming devastation.

The group, not expecting such a powerful earthquake, were also thrown to the ground, while Halil, Igor, and Susan simply watched them fall. Halil cocked his head to the side, as if unsure how to react to the spectacle. Igor simply leaned on the doorframe, unconcerned by the destruction Earthshaker was causing.

In a span of a few seconds, Susan Walker had killed hundreds; an accomplishment that she appeared to be proud of, as she smiled.

And now, there will be terror.

"Heyyyy, what say you?" Susan walked towards the group, who had just regained their bearings. "How about you just come with us, and I won't shake anymore, huh? You can't win. You know that."

Ray, being the first to recover from the insane shaking of the earth, looked upon the devastation, and was crushed inside by what he saw. Literally the entire block had been destroyed. Powerlines were collapsed, some which had people stuck under them. Buildings, such as establishments and apartments, had simply collapsed into rubble, killing and injuring numerous people, some of whom were still screaming in pain and grief.

"No..."

Ray looked unto his hands, now soiled by dust and dirty snow. "If we come with you, we're just going to be like you, huh?"

"Of course." Halil replied, tossing and catching one of his knives repeatedly. "We're the best of the best. And you could be, too."

"No, no, that's not what I mean... We will be like you; callous murderers that will kill people without a second thought. And now... you..."

Ray pointed an accusatory finger at Susan, "Do you have any idea about what you did?"

"Oh please, it was all part of the plan. A demonstration-"

"Because of what you did, gifted people like us are going to be persecuted! You caused this destruction just to get us to come with you, and now..."

"Shush, kid." The girl rolled her eyes. "You don't understand a thing about what we do."

"I do know one thing. You're dead." A rush of adrenaline flooded all over his body, pushing him to attack. An unstoppable urge, an overriding directive. To destroy them.

Without warning, Ray unleashed a beam of searing hot light from his hand, striking Susan right at the chest and sending her flying towards the end of the alleyway they were all in, cracking the wall she got slammed into. He would then, with several gestures of his hands, send a wave of concussive force towards Igor, who narrowly dodged the attack with his teleportation, though the doorframe he was leaning on was completely obliterated.

This new and fearsome power he has... it shocked his friends. All they knew was that he was capable of telekinesis, but now, it appeared that he had a trick up his sleeve, and more. Or did he ever know that he could all of these things? Only he can tell, but as one could see now, Raymundo was no longer himself. Not now. His eyes were an evershifting kaleidoscope of colors, changing each time he sent out a new attack against their would be attackers.

A cackling laugh came out from the destroyed wall from which the Earthshaker had been thrown into, her silhouette menacingly walking out of the shadows. "Ah, that's more like it!"

"Walker!" Halil called out to her from a portal. "Don't overextend!"

"Shush Abdul! I'm the one in charge!"

"You-"

Halil began to scream in pain, as the portal that he had opened while reaching out to Susan was forcibly closed, severing his left hand. "Damn it! Why is this bastard so strong?!"

Ray was still not quitting, bullrushing towards Susan with hands of icy mist. She would push him away with a blast of vibrating air, but he was... flying, and stopped in midair before firing a pair of purple beams, which were not too dissimilar to the ones Nikolai uses.

Igor teleported, grabbing Susan by the shoulders before she would get hit by the roaring beams of destruction. Halil, in the other hand, had opened a portal and jumped away through it, refusing to get himself killed in the face of such a powerful foe.

"We need to go." Igor teleported away with a wounded Susan, who was struck by several shards of ice. Those were not made by Caitlin.

As their enemies fled, Ray floated back to the ground, his eyes returning to normal. He fell upon the cold snow, staring lifelessly at Halil's severed hand.

"Ray!" Caitlin rushed towards him, touching his shoulder and looking at his now mute expression. "You okay?"

Ray stared blankly at the hand. "What did I just do..."

"You saved us from getting kidnapped, that's what." Nikolai walked over, wrapping his friend around his arms. "I'm sorry. This is all my fault."

"They'd come whether or not we left." Nathan slowly walked over towards them, a bit surprised at what happened earlier. "And it looks like Ray here has another power. Power mimicry, isn't it?"

"I..." Ray wasn't sure what it was. "I don't know. It was... I remembered how we managed to get Caitlin out of that cell before, and how terrible it would have been if the same thing happened to the rest of us... and I heard all the screaming and death that the little girl caused. I just... did it."

"Well, you have to rest. But it is as you said." Nikolai then looked towards the devastated buildings outside the alley, sighing at the grisly sights of it all. "We're all going to be screwed by what she did here."