Generation Y (Chapter 6)
Junsu and the others decided to turn in for the night. They had made it to another town without any incidences, and then hacked Plutotec again this time to print out the blueprints. However as the sun began to set Junsu felt exhausted.
It had been a long day of trekking off the road so they wouldn’t be seen and then they stumbled into the town, bedraggled and tired. Yunho sent Changmin and Tiffany off to find a motel while they headed off to the library. Then they met back at the motel and drew the curtains so there was a little more privacy.
The room was dingy and ill-kept. There were stains on the carpet and water stains on the ceiling. The TV was ancient and the images jittery and black and white. It smelled of mould and something else that was hard to pinpoint. But Changmin and Tiffany said it was the best they could get to make them less discreet. Junsu was just worried about sleeping on the bed, but then he was used to being on the run and doing things normal humans wouldn’t even dream. Like sleeping outside with bugs crawling on him, eating scraps of food left by someone else, sleeping in dirty, suspicious hotels…. It was just how the life of Generation Y mutants was. And no one knew about it too which made Junsu feel even more helpless. Plutotec had agents everywhere in society and so it was really hard to stay undercover. Usually they only resided in bigger cities where there were more people, which was why Yunho had taken his little group off to the country where they would be safer. Obviously that safety didn’t last as long as everyone hoped.
At that moment they were all huddled around the table, which appeared to be the cleanest area in the room. Yunho spread the blueprints out across the wood and pointed to the first one. It showed the Plutotec facility they were heading towards.
“This is the one we’re going for,” he said, “right up here is the main floor of the building, it’s a museum that’s open to the public. In the basement it looks like it’s all just storage, but the building goes several feet below ground level.” He pointed to another level that was at least two floors below the storage area. “This is the pod prison, and where we need to get to. There’ll probably be guards all the way down, or identification access needed. It’ll be easy to get into the museum we’ll just have to be in disguises but getting down to the pod prison is where it gets tricky.” He turned to Junsu. “You’re going to have to distract all the guards we come across so they won’t question us being down there. Then Changmin and I will slip past them using his camouflage. Tiffany we need you as the eyes on all levels, in case anything happens. You’re doubles can go further away from your original body right?” Tiffany nodded.
“I’ve been practicing,” she smirked, “I think I can make it to the basement but after that you’re on your own.”
Yunho nodded. “That’s fine we can manage. So Tiffany’s the lookout, and Junsu when you’re done follow us below and then we’ll find out if Yoona, Taemin and Yoochun are all there.”
Suddenly there was a knock on the door, making them all jump in momentary surprise and then tense, ready for action. Yunho pressed a finger to his lips and motioned for them to get ready for an attack. There was another knock and Yunho slowly crept towards the door where thankfully there was a peephole. He peered through it and had to look twice to make sure he was seeing clearly. Then, his face furrowed in slight disappointment and he thrust the door open and glared at the young man staring at him with a smug expression.
“Jaejoong what the hell are you doing here?” Yunho demanded, “this is foolish, and irresponsible and-”
“Relax!” Jaejoong snapped, his smugness gone, “I couldn’t just sit there waiting for you to return, that was killer and you’ve only been gone a couple of hours. Besides the kids and Natalie are perfectly fine, I scouted the area before I came. If there were Plutotec idiots there a couple days ago, they’re all gone now.” He raised a hand when Yunho opened his mouth to object. “Annnd I am perfectly healthy, got a little more sleep and when I woke up I felt way better.” He crossed his arms and leaned against the doorframe. “You know, it was really easy to follow you, I thought you knew better than to cover your tracks.”
“We went off the trail,” Yunho said, dragging Jaejoong in and slamming the door. Hurriedly he locked it and ran a hand through his hair. “Whatever, if we were the ones that led Plutotec soldiers away then good, we can rest easy. I admit I’m not happy about this one bit.” He frowned but Junsu spoke up quickly.
“But we could always use more hands, Jaejoong should easily get in and scout the place out before we go in,” he said reasonably.
“No, absolutely not,” Yunho said, “I will not let anyone go in there alone especially Jaejoong.”
“It’s okay Yun,” Jaejoong said quietly, taking his lover’s chin in his hand. His smiled sweetly, bravely. “I want to help so let me. No one will know who I am anyway, I can become a bug or whatever. And you need to be prepared to go in there. If anything were to catch you by surprise it would mean game over.” He kissed Yunho’s cheek. “Let me do this at the very least, then I will listen to whatever you say.”
Yunho made a sound that resembled a snort. “Yeah, when have you ever listened to me? And you want to start now?”
Jaejoong shrugged slyly. “Maybe someday…you’d be surprised.” And then he turned away and greeted everyone else as if nothing had just happened.
Yunho sighed and threw up his hands in defeat, knowing when to back down from a battle. Secretly he was kind of glad that Jaejoong was there; now he wouldn’t have to worry about if Jaejoong was alright. Of course he was worried about the children and Natalie, but something told him Natalie had control of everything. Slowly he turned back and called everyone into order and they got back to work, planning their way into Plutotec.
~*~*~
Yoochun was in between sleeping and waking up when he felt the pod next to him opening. Shifting slightly, he cracked his eyes open a little and he saw Yoona being shoved into her pod. As soon as the guard was gone and the pod locked, Yoochun sat up and crawled closer to the window. Lightly he tapped on the glass, knowing she wouldn’t hear it, but she did look up meekly before sitting up. Taemin was curled up as close to Yoona as the glass permitted, but Yoochun knew he was awake.
‘Are you alright?’ he asked, and Yoona nodded slightly.
‘Just…tired,’ she replied back.
She looked it too. Her skin was pale and she was trembling. Where the elbow bent there were bruises and her eye was swollen and her lip cracked. Yoochun suppressed a sigh. Obviously she was still fighting when she got to the lab, an irresponsible thing to do on her behalf. But the look she gave Yoochun was one of determination, as if the torture had just encouraged her to come up with a plan to escape. Honestly Yoochun was all for it, but then he looked over to his little brother and felt an icy chill grip him. Sun wasn’t one to break her promises, which meant that if Yoochun really did escape he’d be putting Taemin at risk. Not if he got the boy and Yoona out before him….
But how? How could he get them out, when for two years he couldn’t escape by himself? The thought made him feel useless and weak; he couldn’t save himself so why should he be saved? If he couldn’t get them out then what kind of brother would he be? Taemin wouldn’t respect him and Junsu wouldn’t love him anymore. These were drastic thoughts of course, but Yoochun realized that he was panicking. He had two lives to save and he couldn’t because he wasn’t able to save himself. That device that subdued mutant powers couldn’t be pried off so he was completely useless. It was as if he had resorted to relying on Yoona, who was so young and-even though she was a tough, stubborn girl-was as fragile as Yoochun was weak. Just looking at her made him want to hold her so she wouldn’t crumble.
Slumping against the wall, Yoochun put his head in his arms and closed his eyes. For a moment claustrophobia set in, and he couldn’t stand to look around. All of a sudden he felt vulnerable and weak, and he didn’t want to be stuck in that pod anymore. The walls were closing in on him, making him cower in fear, and all he could think of was how much of a failure he was. He pictured his mother’s disappointed face, Taemin’s tear stained cheeks, Yoona’s bold face. And Junsu-he would be so upset. If it had been Junsu in his place, he would have gotten out of the pod in no time at all.
Yoona noticed Yoochun’s sudden relapse and pressed her forehead to the glass that stood between them. It was so frustrating not to have any contact with either brother, and Yoona pounded on the glass, her frustration let out. She cried and lashed out at the glass, feeling her the cushion of her hand go numb and red.
“Yoochun, please stay with me,” she cried, “please, don’t panic now! You need to be strong for Taemin, for me! Please Yoochun!” She turned over to where Taemin had been laying, and now saw he was sitting up watching his brother desperately. He wanted Yoochun to be alright to, she thought, and turned back to Yoochun.
“Don’t do this,” she whispered against the glass, making it fog up. “We’ll get through this somehow, I promise. And I won’t let you cop out on me yet.”
~*~*~
Sun stared out her office, hands behind her back. On her desk were a stack of files of the group that had banded together. Bong-cha was standing near the door, shifting uncomfortably her heels. Sun hadn’t been pleased with the results she found from the boy. There was no indication of a mutant link between Natalie, even though it was one hundred percent positive that he was her child. He carried an entirely different gene than his mother, as did Yoochun. It was like they were linked through DNA, but the Generation Y gene was a whole new thing. It was strange, and a dead end. A reason why Sun wasn’t very happy about this development, and for some reason it ended up being Bong-cha’s fault. Apparently she didn’t get adequate information and the boy was a useless sample that she had given to Sun. She had nothing to do with the attack at the house so how could she have known?! So this turn of events really annoyed her, but it was easy for her to act as if it didn’t faze her. The more she fought back, the angrier Sun would get.
“Have you found the others?” Sun asked suddenly, making Bong-cha jump.
“Um…no we think they left the town,” she said, “so I pulled the men out and have them searching the surrounding area. So far there has been no report.”
“And you’re sure they left?” Sun questioned, “it seems highly unlikely considering we had the whole area covered. Has Yoochun’s memory revealed any more information?”
Bong-cha shook her head, and pulled out his file. “Nothing since we extracted the house location, just nonsense. He thinks about another Generation Y mutant, Kim Junsu. He seems to have caught on and is just shutting down. We took him in today and he didn’t respond to anything like he usually would.”
“Maybe he’s finally broken,” Sun muttered smiling, “when was his last memory scan?”
“A couple days ago. We’ve been preoccupied with the new arrivals.”
“Right, well get all three of them and figure out where those other mutants could be.” Sun had her back turned to Bong-cha the entire and now she turned to the other girl with a venomous smile. “I want all their memory charts on my desk by the end of the day.”
“Yes ma’am.” Bong-cha bowed quickly and then scrambled out of the office.
When the door was closed, she leaned against it and closed her eyes, letting the emotions sort themselves out. It was true that her parents had been killed by a mutant when she was a little girl. Her parents had been scientists working on the second batch of Generation Y mutants. One had escaped and they thought maybe he had died or just disappeared off the face of the earth. Back then they didn’t have the technology to find mutants, so they gave up that search and continued on, thinking he was just going to waste away. They couldn’t have been more wrong.
Bong-cha still remembered that night. She had been a small girl, just turning three. But it had been burned into her mind like a scar that it was impossible for her to forget no matter her age. Her parents were sleeping, when the fire alarm went off. Smoke filled the house like a furious storm cloud, choking off the oxygen supply. However, her parents wouldn’t wake up. They stayed where they were, eyes open and full of fear but they weren’t moving. Bong-cha, knowing there was danger, had run to their room, crying and pushing them with her pudgy hands to get them to move. They didn’t.
The fire was spreading too quickly, the heat licking Bong-cha’s body with fierceness. She knew that they were in trouble but she didn’t want to leave on her own. Over and over again her mother had told her not to leave the house without permission or without her mother or father.
Suddenly someone was standing in the doorway. Now that she thought of it, he reminded her of the angel of death. His black wings were outstretched and his face shrouded by the thick cloud of smoke. He seemed to stare at the bodies on the bed and then at the sooty, choking, sobbing little girl who stood beside them. Before Bong-cha could do anything, the young man had scooped her up and was gone in a flash, pulling her outside into the cold air. Next thing she knew, she was in the hospital and then her parents had been declared dead. Soon she was shipped off to an orphanage and from there many foster families. She would never forget the angel of death, and when she stumbled upon Sun and her company, the woman welcomed her warmly, proud to have someone of the famous scientists working under her. Silently Bong-cha swore that if she ever saw that mutant again she would personally kill him like he had her parents.
Sighing Bong-cha opened her eyes and straightened her back. That memory was enough to keep her going with this research. Generation Y mutants were a force to be reckoned with, and if used for the wrong purposes they could become weapons. In the end there was only one option: to get rid of them all.
~*~*~
Junsu sat up in bed and shivered from the cold. He was sharing a bed with Changmin, Jaejoong and Yunho shared the other, and Tiffany was sleeping on the cot. Slowly he slipped out of the bed and tiptoed to the door, easing it open while praying that it wouldn’t creak. Once outside he took off at a flying leap, his wings snapping out fantastically. Then he was gaining speed, going higher and higher. He felt the cool air breeze by him and smiled, it felt nice. He loved being up in the sky, it was like being free. There was nothing that could stop him up there, nothing could hurt him. Unless, of course he and an airplane had a collision. That wouldn’t be very pleasant and Junsu made a face at the mental image and then inhaled deeply.
By then he was so high in the sky that it was dead silent, the town below was nothing but tiny glowing lights. Up there he felt most at home, the safest. It also allowed him to think.
He hadn’t thought about that incident that happened well over fourteen years ago. Usually if it was triggered he would push it down quickly, not wanting to dwell on it too long. It was too painful and it hurt Junsu’s heart more than anything. He had aged slowly since then-something to do with his wings he figured-so he was almost a young adult when it happened. There was nothing he could but stand there and watch as the house burned, wondering what had happened. Then his instincts kicked in and he flung himself into the house, ignoring the shouting behind him, and he could barely make out the tiniest wail from a room to his left.
The house was burning all around him, the lack of oxygen making him choke and gag. Eyes watering, lungs and nose filled with smoke, he found the room that he heard the crying from. Then he saw the girl, shaking her parents who wouldn’t move. Without hesitation he grabbed the girl and sped out of the house before it capsized. Then he left her where she was and took off, feeling the horrible guilt surge through him like severe pain. He had been told that it wouldn’t end that way-so why had it? He couldn’t believe what had happened, what he had just seen. The other mutant was gone, nowhere to be seen, and Junsu never saw him again. The poor girl, he hoped she would be okay. As he took off he refused to look back at the sobbing child and he could hear the 911 crew speed to the scene. She’d be okay. But now he had the guilt on his conscious forever.
Cool air filled his lungs as he came back and felt more relaxed to go back down to the hotel. As he was touching down in the parking lot, he was suddenly aware of the feeling of being watched. The hairs on his arms and back of his neck stood on end as he stood frozen, unable to move a muscle. His instinct was to fly off again, but he didn’t know what kind of danger the others would be in, who were still sleeping in the room. He would have to deal with this on his own.
“I know you’re here,” he said quietly, “so there’s no point in hiding anymore.”
There was a moment of silence and then they came out. There was at least a dozen or more of them, and Junsu momentarily flinched.
“Maybe I can still deal with this?” he thought meekly, but managing to keep his composure. Sure his power was handy and very powerful, but he could only control two person tops at a time and that was pushing it.
They all pointed their guns at him, and moved in slowly as he stood there, contemplating what to do next. Then he spoke.
“You,” he said, speaking to the one in front of him. His voice was smooth, hypnotic, hard to ignore. “Point your gun at the guy next to you. There you go.” Then he addressed everyone else. “If you want to hurt me go ahead, but as soon as you do that man is going to pull the trigger on your friend there and it’s lights out. So what’s it going to be?”
Again there was a pause, as each guy contemplated what to do. They could see Junsu was dead serious, and Junsu was just surprised that they had come so unprepared. Then he heard a chuckle and it was so low and careless, that it sent chills through Junsu’s body.
“We knew you were going to do that,” the man who chuckled said, “and we were told that no matter what that we bring you in, no matter what you freaks do to us. We’ve lost men before so they know what they’re getting themselves into. So, go ahead, blow his brains to bits.”
Uh-oh. That wasn’t part of his developing plan. They couldn’t be serious…could they? They would actually let one of their own die, right before their eyes and not do anything to stop it? The looks on their faces told him they were serious and he stared at them wide-eyed.
Apparently he had let his defences down. The one who held the gun at his neighbour’s head, had been released from the mental hold, and he shook his head. Then he pointed his gun back at Junsu. Junsu felt a stinging in his neck and jumped, spinning around to see a man holding some kind of machine in his hand. Gasping, Junsu’s hand flew up to his neck and felt the cold, little black mechanism that subdued his powers.
And then he was fighting with rage. He had been caught defenceless. That was unacceptable. He threw a punch at the man who had poked him with that thing and then lunged at the others.
For a while he was doing awesome. He managed to lead them away from the hotel, knowing it was way too close for comfort. He got a couple down easily, they had been in the wrong place at the wrong time. However, they kept coming and when they all ganged up on him, he knew it was over. His wings were heavy so they wouldn’t fly, and he had almost no energy left.
He slid to his knees in defeat, but was quickly dragged up again and half-dragged, half-shoved further and further away from the hotel. Every few seconds he was checking to make sure that no one was going back to the hotel, and much to his relief everyone seemed to be following them. Obviously they thought he might be a lone mutant, which was a good thing. As long as they kept thinking that all the way to Plutotec he could deal with that a little easier. And something told him he was going to see Yoochun, and he was going to see him alive and together they were going to break out along with Taemin and Yoona. And hopefully they’d be able free everyone there and take out at least one Plutotec facility. There was a storm brewing from the outside and now from the inside as well.