Down to Earth
The team was relaxing in the common room. Brennan was catching up on the Walt Whitman book that Adam had given him; Adam was trying to be discrete as he watched Shalimar and Emma playing a game of chess; and Jesse was sitting with his feet up, watching the latest report from Proxy Blue.
“And finally,” the computer generated woman continued, “just to prove that nothing is a sure thing, there were two earthquakes in Nevada today. Sure, they were only a magnitude 4.8 and 4.2, but it happened in the great salt beds – a supposedly stable geological structure. Well that ought to ‘shake up’ the geologists for a while! This is Proxy Blue, reporting all of the news that’s too weird for the regular stations.” With that, the screen went blank and everyone was about to return to their activities when they noticed Adam, staring at the blank screen with a pale face and a look of concern.
Standing up and walking over to him, Shalimar asked, “What is it, Adam? What’s wrong?”
“Salt flats ARE geologically stable, that’s why they’re used to store spent nuclear fuel rods.” Adam replied solemnly.
As the potential gravity of the situation sunk in with the rest of the team, Jesse rolled out of the seat and sat at the computer. “It doesn’t look like there are any warnings or alerts from the Energy Department,” he reported.
“Good,” replied Adam. “From the map, the epicenter was quite a distance from the current storage vaults. Jesse, can you run a scan of the old Genomex files and look for any mention of earthquakes associated with New Mutants?”
Emma stood up, allowing the sleeve of her top to brush across the chessboard, scattering the pieces and drawing a snicker from Shalimar. “Do you think that a New Mutant could have created the quakes?”
Adam was about to answer when Jesse spoke up, “It looks like there are reports of 4 different New Mutants who have been known to create earthquakes. One is dead, and two others are in the underground, no where near Nevada.”
Brennan spoke up from his chair, “And the winner is…”
“Trista Rae,” supplied Jesse, “she’s an Earth Elemental who created a magnitude 4.9 quake a couple years ago. It looks like she was on the GSA’s payroll, but she wasn’t one of Ashlocke’s links, she just disappeared. Hmm, and what do you know, she grew up just outside of Las Vegas.”
Adam moved over to where he could read over Jesse’s shoulder. “It doesn’t look like she was much of a fighter. Jesse? Emma? Would you two care to join me on a little road trip?”
Shalimar smiled; deserts didn’t turn her on, she was much more of a ‘woods’ person. Brennan frowned, “If she’s another elemental, are you sure that you aren’t going to need me?”
Adam had a sly smirk as he noted, “It would be interesting to see, but I doubt that you could have much of an effect. She’s about the most well-“grounded” person on this planet!” His pun was met with rolled eyes and a couple polite laughs.
As the three of them headed down to the area of the quake, Jesse leaned back from the computer, “Well, I haven’t found any sign of Trista, but I have found her older sister Trina. Which is interesting because, according to her Genomex file, Trina died of cystic fibrosis several years ago.”
“That’s why her parents brought her to Genomex in the first place. Trista was only four when the two girls were diagnosed, but Trina was already six and was considered too old to undergo the genetic alterations.” Replied Adam with a pained expression. “So her parents did what they could to save at least one of their children. Anyway, do you have an address?”
“Yep, I’m plugging it into the autopilot now,” answered Jesse. Minutes later, they had cloaked the Double Helix and landed in a field near the house.
As the three team members started walking up to the front door, they heard a voice behind them. “She’s not home,” stated a woman who was in the garden across the street, pulling dandelions with a little too much enthusiasm. Sitting back and wiping the sweat from her forehead, she continued, “She said that she needed to get away from town for a while, so I’m watering her plants while she’s gone.”
Adam approached the woman and thought about asking how someone could get dirt that far up there arms from just pulling weeds. But instead, he simply asked, “Do you know where we could find her?”
“I don’t know the exact address, but its…well don’t that beat all?” she said, interrupting herself. “Talk about having mixed emotions, I just found a big old slug eating a dandelion. Now, if I could be certain that it only likes to eat dandelions, I’d be tempted to let the slimy little bugger live.” With that she deposited the weed into the bucket, slug and all. “Now where was I? Oh, yeah, she’s got a little cabin in Overton, down near Lake Mead. Dinky little town, if you go to the grocery store, they can probably tell you where her place is.”
Adam thanked the woman who had started talking to her primroses as she plucked off the dead blossoms and then headed back to the Helix.
As Emma stepped out of the store, the smile on her face told the two men that she had secured the information. And soon the Helix was landing in a field near a small cabin. On the front porch, a woman sat in a rope swing with her eyes closed.
Adam spoke as they approached, “Trista?” At the sound of her real name, the woman’s eyes flew open and Adam felt a tremble under his feet; almost as if the earth itself had growled at him. “We just want to talk, my name is..”
“Adam.” She interrupted flatly. “I know who you are. And I know why you’re here.”
“Okay,” responded Adam with charm that would make a politician jealous, “so just tell me, were the earthquakes intentional or accidental?”
“Uh, yes,” Trista replied as she waved the trio under the patio and out of the blazing sun. “Well, kinda…technically, I guess…I don’t know, it depends on how you define ‘intentional’.”
The puzzled look on Emma’s face told him that the confusion was genuine. “How about if you just tell me what happened.”
Trista re-closed her eyes and leaned back into the swinging chair, “I don’t know if I got hit with one of the power mutations that I’ve been hearing about, or if I’m just starting to loose it. But the tension just started building and I couldn’t control it. So I came out here where is was quieter, to try to focus, but it just kept growing until I felt like I was going to explode. When I couldn’t deal with it anymore, I went out into a safe area and vented the energy in a couple of small blasts. So I guess that the quakes themselves were accidental, but the time and the place were intentional. Does that make sense?”
“Yes, it makes sense.” Adam assured her. “How are you feeling right now?”
“Oh, I’m fine now,” the woman replied. Standing behind her, Emma shook her head.
Adam smiled and persisted, “Are you sure? Something like that could be pretty scary.” He immediately wished that he had used a different term as he saw the dark anger cross the young woman’s face.
“I’m not some little wus who’s afraid of everything!” She shot back.
Jesse stepped in to break the tension. “Hey, who said anything about your being a chicken? Is that why your files mention sedating you before exams?”
“Kind of, there was a little accident at the Cedco facility when I was first being analyzed by Genomex.” Trista answered with a guilty smile.
Adam looked up in surprise, “the Cedco facility was leveled in an earthquake; a very localized earthquake, if I remember correctly.”
“Yeah,” replied Trista, “the epicenter was in exam room 3. But it wasn’t my fault! I warned Harrison that I was afraid of needles! He just told me to stop being a baby and kept coming at me with it.”
Emma nodded, “Yep, that sounds like good old Doctor Harrison.”
Adam finally asked, “So, would you be willing to take a quick trip so that I can check you out? I may be able to stabilize you to prevent any future ‘accidents’.”
Trista looked down at her feet and was silent for a while before she nodded and whispered, “Yes, it’s pretty scary.”
Making small talk on the way to Sanctuary, Jesse asked her, “So what were you doing at Genomex?”
“Well, the plan was to get me into Sanctuary and then have me level it, Mutant X team and all.” She answered, amused by the looks of concern around her.
Adam asked, “And, uh, what ever happened to that plan?”
“Well, from the drawings that I’d seen, it looked pretty stable and I told Mr. Eckhart that I wouldn’t even know if I COULD level it until I got inside and ‘felt’ the earth around it, stress points, stuff like that. Then, before he had a chance to try to sneak me in, you brought Miss Emma, here, onto the team. That pretty much messed up the plan, so the whole thing was put on hold until she could be, uh, neutralized.” Trista answered, smiling at Emma.
As they entered Sanctuary and removed the visual cloak, Trista blinked her eyes and looked around. “Its bigger than I thought.”
Adam watched her carefully, “I’d be interested in knowing if I have any weak areas or stress points.”
Trista walked over and put her hand on the wall, closing her eyes. “Wow,” she said, obviously impressed, “the only structural weakness that I can find is in the mountain itself, over against the far wall, but the structure underneath has been doubled to compensate.”
Adam nodded, “I found that little problem in my initial geological surveys. So, since we now know that this is a safe and secure location, let’s go have a look at YOU.” As he guided her into the lab, she was still distracted, looking around at – no, into – the walls.
Suddenly, Trista noticed the seat in front of her and realized where she was. Adam felt the shoulder under his hand tighten and heard the increase in her breathing. Stepping in front of her to block her view of the lab chair, he tried to calm and reassure her. As he grabbed her wrist, planning to ease her back, out of the lab, he felt the rapid pounding of her pulse. Together with the dilated pupils, he realized that it was too late; Trista was experiencing a full panic attack.
As he called Emma on the Comlink, he felt the ground under his feet start to vibrate. He had to use every ounce of logic to quell the fear building in his own mind as he pictured the weight of the whole mountain collapsing around him. “Trista, listen to me, you’re going to be okay.” He hoped that his voice didn’t betray his own insecurity as a vial fell off the desk and smashed onto the floor.
Suddenly, there was a flash and he was barely able to catch the woman as she crumpled to the floor, unconscious. Turning to the door, he smiled at Emma and said, “thank you.” Such simple words, but he couldn’t have meant them more. Jesse ran in and helped Adam position the limp body onto the lab chair.
“I take it that her fear of needles extends to all labs and medical equipment?” asked Jesse, trying to hide the fact that he was still shaking slightly.
An hour later, Trista started to drift back into consciousness. The tension was gone and she noticed that she felt calm and safe. A little TOO calm and safe, she thought to herself. Emma. Her mind was clearer and more focused than it had been in months as she recalled that she was in Sanctuary and was most likely under the influence of Adam’s empath. Finally she forced her eyes open and noticed that she was sitting in the lab chair, surrounded by the entire Mutant X team – who all seemed a little anxious.
“What’s the matter?” Trista asked with a mischievous smile, “worried about aftershocks?”
Brennan laughed, “Well, it took me fifteen minutes to talk Shalimar out of the rafters after the initial ‘quake’.” The blond feral flashed her eyes and gave a low growl that made Trista’s spine tingle.
“Can I get up now?” She asked Adam as he looked up from a computer screen.
“That depends,” he answered, “How do you feel?”
“Well, emotionally, I feel calm and safe, but I suspect that Pippi Longstocking might have something to do with that,” she answered with a nod toward Emma. The rest of the team immediately looked away, hiding any trace of a smirk. Jesse had called Emma that – once – and the rest of them remembered the result. Emma looked around at the team with a slightly amused expression.
Trista continued, “Physically, I feel great, the tension and anxiety are gone and my brain feels like it’s working much better. So let me guess, you’ve invented the medical version of WD-40?”
Adam laughed, “Actually, I just recalibrated your new mutant DNA, reversed a couple Genomex modifications and corrected a non-compatible RNA interface. Provided that you don’t go through any additional mutations, you should be good to go.”
Trista looked over at Shalimar, who was snickering. “Don’t look at me!” she protested, “I didn’t understand him either!”
Looking back at Adam, Trista asked, “So, does that mean that I’ll be able to go back to work?”
“I don’t see any reason why not. What kind of work do you do?” he answered as he walked over to the bed and removed several monitoring pads from the woman.
Trista blushed and then replied, “I work with a road crew doing avalanche control. It’s a lot safer than sending someone out onto an unstable snowfield to plant TNT! I just feel the pressure points and send the appropriate vibrations to trigger the avalanche and then the rest of the crew cleans it up and everyone’s happy!”
Adam nodded his approval, “That’s a creative use of your new mutant abilities! I take it that your boss knows what you are?”
Trista grinned back, “My boss knows what I can do, and how much time and money it saves him. Beyond that, he’s never even asked. I think he operates on that “ignorance is bliss” theory!”
With that, Adam helped the woman out of the lab chair and the team all sighed with relief.
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