The Terran Rangers/X-Men by Heather Ray (ebook e reader .txt) 📕

the heat that warm-blooded animals exude with my infrared vision. There are three of them, and they are almost at the gate. Let's go."

Shadow quickly ran towards the grate, with Nate right behind him. The two young men waited at the entrance, and quickly dodged inside, after taking a quick look around. Once they were inside, they saw three forms in the darkness.

"Scott," said Shadow, "are these them?"

"Yes," said Cyclops. "They are both still under the influence of a sedative, but they should be recovering soon. You'd better get going, kids, we'd both be in trouble if anyone were to find out about our partnership."

"Yeah," said Nate, "we'd better be back before Forge finds out we left. You know how he gets when we go off alone."

"No," said Shadow. "He gets mad when I take you with me. You're the one Sinister's been searching for, ever since you escaped his laboratory. You were his prized living weapon, I was just a science project to occupy his time."

"You'd better carry them," said Cyclops. "They're barely conscious."

"I'll take the man," said Nate, his eye glowing with yellow energy, "I'll carry him telekinetically. You take the woman."

Shadow nodded, and glanced over at the young woman, whom Cyclops was still holding steady. Shadow's blue eyes shot open in shock, for even though the lighting was minimal, his acute night vision allowed him to see the features of this young woman as clearly as he could with daylight.

"K-Kimberly?" he stammered, staring at her. "It.. it's not... possible..."

"Do you know her?" asked Nate, turning around.

"Let's go," said Shadow, scooping Kimberly into his arms. "We don't have much time."

Shadow and Nate hurried out of the tunnel, and quickly made their way to the invisible hovercraft. Shadow deactivated the cloak long enough for the four passengers to board, and then activated it again, masking both the ship and the passengers from view. In seconds, they were on their way back to Angel Grove.

"Who is she?" asked Nate, staring curiously at the young woman. "Is she a friend of yours?"

"I...I don't know," said Shadow quietly. "She looks like this girl I knew before the destruction of Angel Grove. It was six years ago, when Apocalypse came to California, and destroyed everything. Then, I was taken to Mister Sinister, because the hounds detected that I was a 'human prime'

, which means I was on the verge of genetic mutation. I was Sinister's lab rat for three years, until Scott rescued me. I eventually joined the X-Men, and then later that year, we learned that there were survivors in what was left of Angel Grove. Kimberly was one of them, but she was ill, with a horrible disease. We couldn't save her. She was one of my dearest friends, back when we lived free."

"What about him?" asked Nate, pointing to Zack. "Who's he?"

"I don't recognize him," said Shadow with a shrug.

In a short while, the hovercraft returned to its station inside a cave in Angel Grove. The two young men quietly left, carrying the two still unconscious teenagers. Once they reached Shadow's tent, which doubled as a computer and technology hub of the Outcasts, they saw a middle aged Native American man, wearing a brown cloak. He turned around, his bionic eye staring at the two young men in disappointment.

"Where have you two been?" he asked calmly, standing up, "Toad, Sauron, Mastermind, and I have been searching for you for over an hour."

"We were on a mission," said Shadow matter-of-factly, "and as you can see, I have two humans to attend to."

Forge sighed, and glanced at the two unconscious teens curiously.

"Who are they?" he asked finally, watching as Nate and Shadow lay them down on two cots, "They aren't dressed like normal slaves."

"They're not normal," said Shadow. "My ally told me that they aren't quite human, nor are they mutants. I'm going to run a scan on them, to determine what they are exactly."

"Yes," said Forge, "I'll do the DNA scan, while you do the energy reading. Together, we'll see what they are."

"There's more," said Nate, "Ace here recognizes the girl."

"I'm probably wrong," Shadow said, taking off his helmet and running his hand through his light brown hair, "I saw Kimberly die! She's probably just some girl who happens to look like her."

"Let's get to work," said Forge, holding a needle with his bionic hand, "I'll get the blood samples."

Aisha Campbell stepped out of a group of bushes just outside the Dorothy Robinson Laboratories, inside the Angel Grove University complex. She climbed out, making sure no one witnessed her rather unusual arrival.

Good,

she thought silently, there's no one here. Now, to find him.

Aisha walked over to the entrance to the lab, where a security guard was sitting inside a booth, reading a magazine. Aisha waited for a moment, and then cleared her throat to gain his attention.

"Yes?" he asked, glancing at her.

"I'd like to get in."

"Student ID?" he asked, not looking up from his magazine. "Only AGU students with ID can get into the school facilities."

"I'm not a student," Aisha explained, "but I really need to get in --"

"Who are you?" he asked with a sigh.

"Aisha Campbell, Doctor Benjamin Campbell's daughter. Its an emergency, and I need to see my father."

"Got any kind of photo ID? Driver's license, passport? Sorry, but I can't be too careful, what with all the expensive equipment in the DRL."

Aisha rolled her eyes, and searched her wallet for her new Angel Grove High student identification. She handed it to the security officer, who studied it carefully, and then gave it back to her.

"Go ahead," he said, "Dr. Campbell is in room B-7, which is on the second floor. Take the stairs, then hang a right. Its the big laboratory at the end of the hall. You can't miss it."

"Thanks," said Aisha, taking back her ID and running through the halls of the DRL. In a few minutes, she was at the door of laboratory B-7. She knocked on the door, and waited for someone to answer her.

"Come in," called a voice. Aisha opened the door, and walked over to the computer, where a solitary scientist studied some computer images of a cross section of a human heart.

"Daddy?" she said, glancing over his shoulder. Doctor Campbell turned around in surprise at the voice of his only child.

"Aisha?! What are you doing here?"

"Daddy," she said, wringing her fingers nervously, "uh, a friend of mine's in trouble. He has, well....something stuck in his heart."

Doctor Campbell rose to his feet, and stared at Aisha.

"What do you mean?"

"Daddy, you're gonna have to trust me on this. I'm gonna show you something no one is supposed to know about, so you have to promise me you won't tell a soul. Not even Mom. Okay?"

Doctor Campbell saw the seriousness is Aisha's dark eyes, and nodded his consent. Aisha took her father's hand, and rose her wrist communicator to her lips.

"Billy," she said. "Teleport us in."

Before Doctor Campbell could verbalize his surprise, both he and his daughter vanished.

"Okay, Shadow," said Forge, reading off a computer screen, "I have the results of the blood scan. These two aren't mutants. They have no trace of the X-Factor. But, they do emit a strange energy. I think I've found the location of the energy emissions. They are coming from...their hearts."

"But from what?" asked Nate, glancing over Forge's shoulder.

"The X-Rays show a foreign object inside their hearts, but it has no volume. It doesn't take up any space. It's physically impossible."

"In this world, old friend, nothing is impossible."

Nate turned around, and saw his other friend, the Shadow, standing above the unconscious young woman, gazing at her delicate features intently. Nate walked over and put his hand on Shadow's shoulder.

"I don't understand, Nate," Shadow said quietly. "What have I done to deserve this? Now, that I've finally come to accept all my friends are gone forever, I'm suddenly haunted by this ghost, of one of my dearest friends from my youth. All I can think of is how she died, withering away with some horrible disease, created by Apocalypse to eliminate 'the weak'

. Watching Kim die was one of the hardest things I've ever experienced. The worst was when Trini --"

"Don't think about that, Ace," said Nate. "You're the Rock. You don't let anything get to you."

"Yes, I guess I am a Rock," said Shadow, "I refuse to let anything penetrate my psychological shields. I'm too afraid of loss that I don't let anyone come close. What kind of life is that?"

Nate shrugged, not knowing how to console his long time friend.

Both young men looked down when they heard a moan coming from the young woman. She slowly opened her eyes, and rose to a sitting position, stretching her arms.

"What...what happened?" she asked weakly. "Where am I?"

"You're with friends," said Nate, bending down to meet her at eye level, "I'm Nate, and this is Forge and Shadow."

The girl studied Nate's face, as well as the cloaked cyborg he called Forge. She then glanced at the Shadow, and her doe-eyes widened with surprise.

"Billy?!"