Disclaimer: What a bother. But hey yadda yadda, the following recognisable characters do not belong to me, they belong to Marvel, but bloody hell, the story idea is mine, so there.
Note: In all the time that I have been away, I have been accepted into Australia's National School of Design at Swinburne University, so yup, term starts in Feb 2001 ... Awful excited, to get to leave Singapore and experience life home and away!
Write to southernefx@hotmail.com, or visit my site Southern Efx

A Place in this World
by Vicki Lew
September 2000

Chapter 10

She could only blame herself for being barely strong enough to struggle as they entrapped her with thick steel clamps. They bound her arms, her legs and suspended her from a steel cable as if she were no more than a sack of old sawdust. From the bird's eye view, Sabine could see that she was in a large laboratory, crawling with scientists who were busy like ants, scribbling on their clipboards and tapping away at strange-looking machines. The cable swayed from side to side, giving her a dreadful sense of vertigo.

Looking down through blurry eyes, she could see what looked like a giant test-tube filled with fluid. Her eyes widened in fear as the cable jerked suddenly, and started lowering her down into the huge vat. As her body was slowly lowered into the Sabine tried calling for help, but her parched throat would allow nothing more than a croak to escape. Her bare feet could feel the liquid, sucking her in, hugging to her skin like thick syrup. It was freezing, and she gasped from the shock of it.

Squirming helplessly and her eyes wild with panic, Sabine could feel a dull pain forming in her chest as the liquid clamped around her shoulders, squeezing the air from her lungs. She foolishly held on to one last gulp of air as it finally pushed over her head, in the hope of keeping from drowning.

Her screams underwater went unheard.

The corridor was deadly silent, he observed, as he slid out gracefully from the ventilation box in the ceiling, finishing his landing with a curt somersault.

Where t'start? he wondered. Gambit grinned as he spotted a guard coming round the corner, and hefted himself back up into the shaft with frightening speed and silence. As soon as the unwary guard walked under him, he dropped, and stunned his victim with a chokehold. Unable to make a sound, the guard flailed is arms helplessly.

"Where's de girl, mon ami? De one with de stripe in her hair?" Gambit hissed into his ear. The guard pointed shakily at the cell a couple of doors down. Shuffling towards the latter, Gambit groaned as he found it to be empty. "Chien, if'n ya wanna live, y'better bring me to her ... "

Ah thought ah was dead for sure, but ah think this is worse, waiting to see what sort of experiment they're gonna conduct on you next. Ah haven't been in this tube for long, but so far it's been an unpleasant feelin' ... Ah've got tubes of all sizes stickin' out of my arms, and wires and patches stuck all over me.

Ah feel as if ah'm made of nothing but flesh and jelly, no bones, no spine. Ah can't see well, ah can't do anything the way ah normally do and it's as if ah'm paralyzed - ah can hardly move. It's like half-breathing, half-drowning, and there's a sharp pain in me each time ah take a breath. Each time ah do that ah feel that ghastly liquid running through my lungs, freezing me from the inside. Ah still feel the pain from all my other unattended wounds, especially my knee.

There's someone pressing their face up close to the wall of the tube ... Goddamn it, it's HIM. The man who gave me life, and the man who's destroyed everything ah've ever wanted. Ah never thought it could be possible to hate someone so much that ya want him dead.

If ah manage to survive all this, ah'm gonna put a bullet through his head.

God help me ...

He tapped at the communicator at his chest as he dragged the last unconscious guard into an open cell and slammed the door shut.

"This is Cyclops. West wing secured. Team report," The radio crackled to life as his team-mates responded. One by one, they each gave positive confirmations that the compound was secured. "Head for the core - we're moving in now!"

"We could be a happy family once again, Sabine. Really, we could." O'Connor tapped at the glass as he spoke to his confined daughter. A rush of bubbles escaped from her mouth.

She was angry.

"You should be grateful, the good doctors here will make you human again. I will forgive you for everything once things are back to normal, my dear." He smiled, but it was hardly a sane nor a warm one. He watched as the doctor by his side tinkered away on a remote panel and activated something within the vat. The clear tubes became a dark red, and Sabine obviously felt it, for she writhed in silent pain.

"Relax, dear. He's just taking some samples of your blood and tissue. You're a big girl, surely you can take a little pain?"

"Den I t'ink you should be able t'handle dis?" An unfamiliar voice interrupted the Senator's thoughts.

"What the -- ??" He spun around in time to see a figure dropping out of the ventilation shaft, and to be hit squarely in the chest by glowing projectiles. The impact sent him sprawling against the glass vat, weakening it and creating cracks in its surface. The visitor let fly another projectile at the container as he delivered a kick to the doctor's jaw, rendering the skinny man unconscious.

Despite being surrounded by a mob of outraged scientists, Gambit grinned as he heard the glass crack, and somersaulted backwards as the vat gave way, freeing its prisoner. The Cajun swung his bo staff, knocking away his assailants, trying to make his way towards Sabine, but he was overwhelmed. He needn't have worried, however, when a strong gust of wind engulfed the enemy and viciously slammed them into the nearby walls.

He grinned again as he saw Storm come aground beside him and beams of red streaking the room. "Bien, calvary's arrived ... 'Bout time too,"

Numbly, she felt her body lurch forward as the glass shattered, throwing its contents out onto the cold steel floor. Her body started convulsing as soon as it hit the ground, and she wheezed as she gasped for air amidst hacking out green slime from her nose and mouth. Once or twice her eyes rolled upwards and she almost blacked out from the sheer discomfort and pain from her sudden freedom. The emaciated woman lay there naked and heaving, struggling to get her body system back in balance.

She had to -- there was some unfinished business with the man lying semi-conscious not too far away from her.

Whimpering in pain, she yanked the tubes from her arms and dragged herself next to a fallen employee and struggled to acquire his lab coat. Fully aware of the battle around her, Sabine wrapped herself in the coat for warmth and gingerly got to her feet. Anger released a flood of adrenaline through her and she began to drag her father out of the laboratory towards the cells. It was payback time.

Continued in Chapter Eleven.

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