by Anne
Disclaimer: The characters of Adam Newman, Megabyte Damon, Kevin Wilson, Ami Jackson, Jade Weston, General William Damon, Colonel Masters, Millie Damon and Caroline Damon belong to Roger Damon Price, Thames Television and Nickelodeon. So do any other names or events linked to the Tomorrow People TV series.
Max Evans, Liz Parker, Maria DeLuca, Michael Guerin, Isabel Evans, Alex Whitman, Kyle Valenti, Sheriff Jim Valenti and Milton belong to Melinda Metz, Jason Katims and WB. All other concepts and events linked to Roswell also belong to them.
The characters of Joe Dawson and James Horton (who appear in name only) belong to Panzer/David, Rysher/Gaumont Television. So do the concepts of immortality, the Watchers and the Hunters.
The characters of Geoff Anderson, Gil Hawkins, Jim Beckett and Simon Trent belong to me and should not be used without permission.
"So let me get this straight," Bill sighed to himself as he continued. Sometimes it would be really nice for that feeling that things couldn't get any worse to be true. One thing you could certainly count on with Adam and Megabyte was that those two seemed to really have the tendency of getting themselves in trouble down to an art form. Mind you, the other Tomorrow People seemed to be not much better at times.
"According this these flashes you received, Masters has Megabyte, Adam and this Max Evans. To top things off, he also seems to laid his hands on some sort of technology which nullifies their special powers. That's in a nutshell, right?"
Ami nodded, but said nothing.
"Ami, why am I getting the impression you're leaving a few facts out here? Look I know what Masters is capable of. Whatever you're going to tell me, I've probably already suspected as much. Come on, spill."
"Okay." As Ami began to speak, Bill felt his heart sink. He'd suspected the worst but to actually hear it described… "Masters was holding a gun on Megabyte. Adam was sending a flash to show us what was happening when he was fitted with some kind of headband. I could see him screaming in pain, General. Megabyte showed me. They were scared, both of them. I've never felt fear like that from either of them before."
"Do you know what the headband was, Ami?"
"No, but it must be the thing stopping them using their powers. Where I should be getting some sort of sense of them, there's nothing. I'm also wondering if they've been drugged because I felt a needle prick in my arm just before I got the first flash from Adam. Megabyte's flash was a lot weaker too. Whatever's happened, his powers weren't working properly even before the headband thing took effect."
Bill sat in silence for a while, trying to dispel the guilt he was feeling. If Masters hurt either one of them, he'd never forgive himself. He remembered all too well the report that had landed on his desk at WorldEx a couple of days ago. The report had stated that Masters had been spotted in the vicinity of Roswell, New Mexico and that he seemed to be setting up for some sort of experiment. At least that was the way the report seemed to read, according to Bill's own reasoning. Why else would a scientist such as Graeme Brooke-Smythe have been seen talking to the man? Shortly after the meeting, both Brooke-Smythe and Masters disappeared, and a lot of rather expensive cutting-edge technology seemed have gone with them.
Bill had been torn between letting Adam know then what his suspicions were, and trying to find some more information before worrying the young man unnecessarily. One thing he had been sure of, whatever this experiment was it would probably involve the Tomorrow People in some shape or form. He'd decided, obviously none too wisely if hindsight was anything to go on, to look into the matter further first. Bill laughed to himself bitterly as he all too well remembered the words he'd reassured himself with at the time. What possible harm could a couple of days make? After all what were the chances that Megabyte and Jade would head for Roswell? None at all, absolutely none.
"General Damon?" Ami sounded concerned. She must be wondering what the hell was going through his mind. Not that he blamed her of course.
Bill pulled himself together. No point in crying over spilt milk was there? What was done was done. What they needed to concentrate on now was finding Masters and rescuing the kids, before he did anything else to them.
"Right," he said. "I'll go back inside and talk to Caroline and Millie. I don't think I'll tell them all the details for now, I'm having enough problems getting that mental picture out of my head as it is. Ami, can you go reassure Penny Weston that Jade is okay, and then come back for me? I think it's time I paid a visit to Roswell, don't you?"
Ami nodded as she initiated the teleport. Hopefully she knew him well enough by now to know he was going to come to Roswell whether she agreed or not. Bill smiled in spite of himself as he watched her vanish. At least Masters wouldn't know about her and Jade. Maybe that would give them the edge they needed to save the others. Sometimes at times like these, he felt as though he had parental responsibilities towards all the Tomorrow People, not just Megabyte.
Bill pulled up the collar of his coat, suddenly feeling the cold. As he stood up from the seat he and Ami had been sharing, the American heard a noise behind him. That's all they needed at this point in time, someone seeing Ami teleport. After all, what else could possibly go wrong today?
"Who's there?" he called out sharply. "Show yourself". Bill reached into his pocket, making sure his gun was still there. Hopefully he wouldn't have to use it. He'd had enough problems trying to explain things to the police already for one day.
Geoff Anderson, Millie's boyfriend, came out slowly from behind the tree overshadowing the bench where they had been sitting. He looked a bit shell shocked, and Bill wondered how much of the conversation he'd overheard.
"Geoff! I thought you were inside with Millie. Come on, let's go back inside, it's cold out here." Bill put his hand on the boy's shoulder, ready to lead him back inside the hospital.
To his surprise the boy pulled away, an angry look on his face. "When where you going to tell me what's exactly going on? If some nutter has Megabyte and Adam I think I have a right to know. After all they are my friends too, you know. I want to help. Or were you going to just treat me like a little kid and pretend everything was okay?"
"Look, Geoff." Bill tried his best to control his anger at the boy's outburst. After all, he had enough problems at the moment without having to deal with this on top of everything else. "You don't have a clue about what's going on here. You'd be getting in way over your head."
"No I don't have a clue what's going on. All I know is that I saw Ami disappear into thin air and heard things I'm still not sure I believe. But that doesn't mean I can't help. Does it?"
Geoff looked up at Bill with such an earnest expression in his eyes, that the older man couldn't help but believe every word the boy had said. After all, it did look as though Geoff had heard enough to realise that Megabyte and his friends had abilities that couldn't exactly be described as normal. Maybe he could help by keeping an eye on Millie. After all it was definitely beginning to seem as though her accident hadn't been an accident. In fact Bill was beginning to suspect very strongly that Masters had been behind the attempted hit and run. He'd known the day he'd debunked the teleporter project and portrayed Masters for who and what he really was in his reports, that the man wouldn't be content until he had achieve some form of revenge against his former boss. That after all, was the kind of person Masters was.
Bill had known that Megabyte and the rest of the Tomorrow People would be at risk as well as himself, but had never thought of harm coming to Millie. After all what had the child ever done to warrant any action being taken against her? But then, the Tomorrow People themselves had done nothing to Masters when they had first met, and look at what his plans had been towards them. Plans that had been thought of while the man had been under Bill's own command. He remembered only too well his words to Megabyte as though it was yesterday "I bet you never thought your father would end up being the chief bad guy." At least he'd realised what he was involved in was wrong, and had turned his efforts into helping the Tomorrow People to survive. Mind you, would it have been so easy to make that decision if his son hadn't turned out to be a teleporter? It was a fact he tried not to think about.
Bill realised that Geoff was still standing there waiting for some kind of response on his part. "Okay, Geoff, okay. I'll explain everything but first let's go see how Millie's doing, eh?"
As they made their way back to his wife and daughter, Bill wondered how much information would satisfy the boy's need to know. The less he knew the better and safer for everyone concerned, Geoff himself included.
Colonel Masters looked up from his phone call with an expression of barely disguised annoyance. "Hold on a minute, Trent. Brooke-Smythe seems to have run into some sort of extremely important problem." He gestured to the scientist with his left hand. "At least I'm presuming it's an extremely important problem. I left explicit instructions not to be disturbed."
Brooke-Smythe stood in front of the desk, looking extremely nervous. In his hands, he had the vials of blood samples he had taken, and a long computer print out. "It's the blood samples," he began hesitantly, not sure how his employer was going to take the news. "I'm not sure how, but the molecular structure of the contents of the test tubes has been changed."
"Changed? What do you mean exactly by changed?"
"Well, let's just say if that's blood well I'm a …" Brooke-Smythe's voice tailed off. No it wasn't a good idea to finish that sentence. He held the test tube out to Masters and indicated that the man should taste the contents, ignoring the look his companion was giving him.
Masters snatched the tube from him and sniffed the contents. He poured a minute amount onto his finger and tasted. "Tabasco Sauce!" he exclaimed. His mind went back to the events in the laboratory as he remembered seeing Max Evans waving his hand over the test tubes, just before he had been subdued by security. Had the boy been able to somehow change the blood samples into what he had in front of him now?
"Well, it looks as though you'd better go and get some more samples, doesn't it? Oh, and Brooke-Smythe?"
"Yes, sir?"
"Try and keep a better eye on them this time, will you?"
"Yes, sir." Brooke-Smythe opened his mouth and closed it again. Sensible move. Why where all scientists such idiots? Masters had hoped he'd left that behind with Galt. Obviously not.
As he watched the scientist leave the room, Masters resumed his conversation with Trent. "Sorry about that, Simon. An interesting development has occurred. Apparently these so called Tomorrow People are even more dangerous than we first suspected. They are obviously capable of changing molecular structure as well as the new force field ability I told you about earlier. Taking into account those other abilities I discovered when I first met them, it certainly seems that we have made the right decision about eliminating the threat. Yes, this new species make an extremely dangerous adversary…"
Masters put down the receiver after his conversation and thought about the last few years. He still had a clear mental picture in his mind of the last time he had met with General Damon. His son had held a gun on him, ready to pull the trigger. It was lucky for him that the boy had been young, and obviously very scared. All that rubbish about being peace loving. The peace movement of the sixties came to mind. Masters snorted. A majority of the young people involved in that fiasco had preached peace as the only answer and look what had happened when they had realised that those ideals were not getting the results they desired. Anyone was capable of violence and killing given the right incentive. How long would it be before these Tomorrow People changed their mind and instilled their own brand of terror upon the human race? Teleporters. Imagine the potential use for them as assassins? He shook his head. No one would be safe.
It was lucky for the future of mankind that he, Masters, was still alive. Someone had to protect the gene pool of the human race, keep it pure, untainted. That mission had been his life's work, ever since the Tomorrow People had first slipped through his grasp.
Once that idiot Brook-Smythe had redone the blood tests, he would be able to see exactly how far these Tomorrow People had already violated their humanity because of their so-called powers. Yes, he would soon know if he could reverse the process and restore their lost humanity to them or whether they were so far from human that the only option left would be the total destruction of them and their kind.
He remembered his conversation with Simon Trent. He had deliberately not mentioned to the man his plan to see if he could eradicate whatever gene caused these Tomorrow People to exist in the first place. Simon's methods were rather more…violent and permanent than his own. Still if he managed to save the human race from the scourge that was the Tomorrow People, maybe the same technology could be used to save the earth from those cursed with immortality as well. Simon would appreciate that application of the results of his work, he was sure. After all weren't they working together to reap mutual benefits from each other's mission, to help solve each other's problems?
Charles Masters, saviour of the human race. Somehow Masters never envisioned that it would him whom mankind would turn to in their great hour of need. It was a shame that most of the human race would never know just how much he was doing for them. A great shame indeed.
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