HEROES Chapter 5

Once the flash grenaide had gone off the Ex-Army Ranger, looked forward stunned, the Meta had vanished, then suddenly his helmut was stripped off his head and he spun around to seem Tim standing behind him. "What the f====!" the former Ranger exclaimed and lunged at Tim. Tim, parried his the Ex Ranger's knife thrust with his knife in his right hand, grabbed the officer's wrist holding the knife, twisting it and levering the officer's over Tim's forearm, pullinh down as he karate kicked the officer's knees. The Officer buckled to right side, swept out with his left leg at Tim's legs and they both went down. Tim released the officer's arm, rolled and sprang back to his feet. He stood in front of the officer, Tim's arms bent slightly, hands alternately making small circles in front of his chest and throat. They both came towards each other and their knives flashed and clanged against each other in flurry of a mini sword duel. For several minutes, he sound of steel clashing against steel rang thru the tunnel. The officer countered a thrust by Tim and slashed across Tim's cheek, leaving a small ribbon of blood. Again a flurry of flashing steel, fists and kicks ensued, Tim feinted a thrust to the officer's left rib cage, piroueteed to the right, bringing his left bent leg up and rapidly jackhammered three leg kiicks to the officer's armour vested chest, driving the former Ranger back several steps. Tim then drove two rapid karate punches to the officer's face. The officer growled with rage and lunged at Tim, his right hand thrusting the knife towards Tim's throat. Tim grabbed the officer's right wrist, with Tim's left hand, twisting the officer's arm so that the back of officer's elbow rested on Tim's forearm, as he held the officer's wrist firmly, pushed his forearm up rapidly and pulling the wrist down violently. There was the sickening sound of bones breaking as the officer's forearm snapped and the officer dropped his knife. As Tim brought his right hand. holding his Navy Seal killing knife, up under the chin of the R.A.I.D. officer, driving the six inch blade up through his throat and through the roof of his mouth. Tim quickly drew the knife out and drove into the man's left eye and into his brain. Letting the man fall to the ground, Tim reached down, picked up the fallen officer's knife and drove it through the top of his skull. Tim then reached down and pulled his knife out of the man's eye, wiping the gore on the officer's vest.

Tim slid his knife back in his boot, walked over and knelt beside Totem, who was slowly becoming conscious. He said softly. "What say we git tha hell outta this har sewer an find ar way back ta tha base. Ya know I'm gittin' a might hungry."

Wraith immediately rushed to Morgan's side when she awoke and steadied her with his large gentle hand on her shoulder. He wanted to keep her calm, unfortunately he couldn't answer her when she asked about Cowboy. As much as he wanted to satisfy her pleading eyes and put her mind at ease, deep down he feared the worst for her friend and Totem, but couldn't bring himself to share this with the fragile girl. He already felt that his hesitation had already raised her concerns so he quickly decided to lie.

"Tim's on his way." He told her in a believable manner since it could have been the truth, "He called a few minutes ago." he then elaborated looking to Seizure to verify his false story. He then made sure she stayed horizontal once more.

"Just rest Morgan. I don't want you to lose consciousness again." Wraith told her with a warm smile, then checked her monitors. "You're doing just fine." he advised, then gestured to the rest of the people in the room, "Snap Dragon's hardly left your side and even Sigma had dropped by to check on you."

Wraith just hoped that Tim and Totem showed up soon. 'What the hell could have happened to those two?', he wondered.



Totem reached up blindly for Cowboy's shoulder and let the man help him to his feet. "Yes, I can eat the tongue out of live buffalo, right now." he agreed. He then staggered a few steps, his muscles still not quite relaxed after the plasma burst.

It was certainly apparent to Tim now that Totem was suffering from flash blindness, but with the RAID menace dealt with for the time being they should not have any more mishaps on their way to the base. Even blind, Totem knew the right direction to take and together the two beat-up men made their way back to what was their home for the time being.



Stefan fell backwards off his chair when Grey struck him and sprang up like a jack-in-the-box. "Shit, man." he whined, "That f&#$ing guy doesn't know what the hell's he talking about, Grey."

Scavenger hoped over the chair and followed behind his partner like a lost puppy, trying to appeal to his sense of reason, "It won't be like that Grey. At least give them chance. What d'ya say?"

Grey paused, downing a few pills and turned away from Stefan, contemplating. Finally, he turned back, letting his hard gray eyes bore into Scavenger's.

"I ain't sayin' shit," he said finally, "it's not like they can get that guy to un-heal me. They can either do me a favor, or I'm out. I ain't gettin' in no one's pocket. My name's already in RAID's system." Digging into his pockets, he discovered a package of cigarettes, from which he extracted one with his mouth before pulling out his gun. He then pointed it straight at Stefan. "If anyone tries any shit, though," Grey growled, "I'll have everyone's ass . . . " he cocked back the safety, "including yours." He paused, letting his message drift off the end of the weapon and sink deeply into his friend before he replaced the safety and walked out of the room, lighting the cigarette as he walked. "FAGGOT! Asshole!" he shouted through a puff of smoke as he walked down the grungy hallway.

Morgan nodded her head, weakly, fighting to keep her eyes open...to stay awake. It was hard.....she was so tired, as if something was draining her. She reaches out with her arm, her hand grabbing Wraith's arm, causing him to turn to her.

"Why do I feel....as if something inside of me....is missing? A part of me....is gone. I can feel it. Something is.....draining me my...energy. I can't focus on.....the animals....help Tim."

Her face was still too pale, making the bruises stand out even more. She was now exhausted from talking and she knew that she should be tired, but not like this.

"What's wrong with me, Wraith? I know that something is wrong."

Her voice was becoming a whisper now when Snap's face appeared above her.



"Hey, Morgan, you shush. Just stay awake and Wraith will answer your questions. Let me tell you about my plants. Just listen to me and stay awake."

Snap Dragon began to talk to Morgan, telling her about her various plants and herbs, their different uses and colors, keeping Morgan awake for Wraith. She'd heard what Morgan had said about something inside of her missing and wondered what she was talking about. She looked back at Wraith, her face worried as she kept talking softly to Morgan, keeping her awake. Whenever the girl would begin to doze off, she would raise her voice, even giving her shoulder a light shake or pinch her arm, getting her to open her eyes. She would keep Morgan awake until Wraith told her to stop, then she would let him know that she would be okay with sitting with Morgan if needed.

"Hey, man. Just be cool." Scavenger said in a calm, quiet voice when Grey thrust his gun in his face and stared him down. He was used to the way his buddy got his point across and just waited until he stormed off down the hallway before responding.

"They're not like that, Grey." Stefan shouted to Grey's back as chased after him and out of the the basement apartment and as they got in the car, he went on trying to convince him that he had nothing to worry about. "Look they need a guy who knows how to knock guys off and you were like the first one that came to mind. I wish I knew more, but they really haven't told me shit, other than to wait for their call."

Scavenger leaned back in the seat and drummed a beat on his legs. "So, now that you're all put together what's the plan 'com-par-dray'?"




"That's good Snap, good." Said Wraith excitedly as he rushed across the room and returned with a pen and paper and handed them to her. He then leaned over and spoke to Morgan in a soothing tone, "Morgan, I need to answer some questions for me. It will help me get you better, but they're going to be difficult.", he turned to Snap and gave her a requesting stare, "Snap's gonna stay right here and help write down what you have to say, so take your time."

Wraith suddenly vanished and appeared on the other side of the bed and wheeled over a tall, pedestal table with a computer on it and started checking something while he began his questions. "First, I need to know about your relationship with your Father. Did you the two of you share a connection? Then I need you to do something that's going to be hard, but it help me immensely." he asked apologetically, "I need you to describe how he died. More specifically, how did you feel when that happened?"

Wraith had a theory, one that a Human would call far fetched, but in the Meta-world he had seen things that redefined science and all he needed was a little more information from the girl to verify it. If he was right, Morgan would have to closely watched, but he believed that he could help her.

Morgan closed her eyes, no wanting to think about those things, but if it could get her back to normal, then she would.

"My father hated me. I was a demon to him. Whenever I would......run away, he would always find me. It was like he could......track me. I found out....recently that he was a.....meta, too. He could track me because I was....his daughter.....I think through our....blood connection."

Morgan's eyes drifted closed and Snap gave her arm a sharp pinch, making Morgan's eyes pop open.

"I felt sickened.....by what I'd done to my own father....using the rats. But.....I knew then....that I would do whatever I had to.....to survive......to protect those I care about."

She looked over at Snap, watching her write everything down. She then looks over at Wraith, her head moving slowly, her eyes pale...like her face.

"So tired, Wraith......I'm so tired. Where's Tim?"

Morgan's eyes closed again and Snap tried to get her to open them, but it took her a few minutes this time to get Morgan to open them. Snap looked over at Wraith, worried.

Wraith had hoped he could have gotten more information from the girl before she lapsed back into unconsciousness. He knew that they couldn't keep her awake much longer, but when she mentioned that the man was able to 'always track her down'' and that they in fact did share a connection he took his eyes from the monitor and returned to the bedside.

"Morgan." he called, placing his hands on her shoulders and giving her a gentle shake, "Morgan. I have just one more question. Just one more. Your father, did he have an ability? A telepathic ability similar to your own?"

The girl then verified his theory as she briefly described that her father was able to 'push' people. A power that Wraith recognized a mental-domination, a powerful telepathic skill enabling one to direct other minds.

"Thank you, Morgan. Rest now and I promise that when you next open your eyes, Tim will be here." he told her with a warm smile and gave her shoulder a reassuring, paternal pat.

Wraith then wiggled his finger at Snap and the observing Seizure, motioning them to look at the monitor he had been viewing. "Excuse us, Morgan. Just get some rest. Everything is going to okay now." he said again while he called up the site he had found.

Looking at the website, the two women saw that Wraith had found an old article, documented on a password protected server, accessible to only to certain people in the particular field that Wraith was obviously a part of. It was the case of a telepathic man who was able to, upon his death, project his will into another person with a similar ability. The recipient, actually started to manifest habits and personality traits of the deceased psychic and even began to physically look like the person. It was the first documented case of telepsyche-transference, as it was called and the journal then continued on into technical jargon, which at that point, Wraith minimized the window and opened a rendering of the data he recorded from Morgan's brain.

The brain wave patterns didn't mean much to the two who had very different talents from the doctor, but he wanted only to bring their attention to his notes which he pointed to. A conclusion, revealing that in layman's terms, Morgan was telepathically connected to another being that was basically a copy or a shadow of her own output. He could not yet say specifically how this came about, but he seemed to believe that telepsyche-transference was the cause. A note stated that Morgan was not exhibiting any signs of adopting her father's traits but rather displaying a connection with a mind nearly identical to her own.

Wraith pensively held his hand to his chin and glance over to Seizure. She wasn't a scientist, but she was a telepath, and he figured that his conclusion would make sense to her. He then tapped his temple signaling her to read his thoughts and asked her to link to Morgan's mind when she fell asleep or next went unconscious and attempt to trace the source of the connection. If all went well he hoped to learn at least a general location of this doppleganger.

Morgan began to slip into the darkness again, doing so almost gladly. She knew that Wraith wasn't telling her everything where Tim was concerned, but she didn't have the energy to argue with him. She just wanted to sleep....not feel so afraid at what was happening to her. She could still feel the wounds on her legs, back, and the two bullett holes in her side. She knew that they should be healing, but she could tell that whatever was draining her energy was slowing down her healing. Her eyes drifted closed as she slipped into unconcionceness again.

Snap stood next to Morgan's bed, feeling a connection to the girl. Snap's abilities lay with the plants, any plant. Morgan's lay with the animals. Both of them dealt closely with nature. And, Snap liked the girl, even though she didn't know her except for what she knew from others. Whatever was happening to Morgan, she knew wasn't good, but if anyone could help her, her instincts told it was Wraith.

"She's back under, Wraith. And, shouldn't her wounds look better than what they do?"

Snap had peeked under a bandage on Morgan's leg, seeing that some seepage had come through. She pointed it out to Wraith, then stopped as she saw him motioning to Seizure. Knowing that she needed to be quiet now, she stepped back, giving the two of them room to work....to do whatever it was they were going to do.