Previously...

“Or was there a warning?” Trixie wondered out loud. “Was Luke a message that we didn’t figure out in time?”

“No. Medico isn’t the type to give advance notice,” Win said. “Which is why he’s showing up here unannounced. Dan, are you ready?”

Dan’s form flickered briefly even as he smiled grimly. “Let’s go meet the good doctor.”

Chapter Nine

“It’s been too long,” Trixie said, tapping her foot. “What are they doing? Why haven’t they come back? Is Medico still here, or did he leave?”

“The Professor will be back soon,” Mart said, trying to soothe his sister.

“Yes, but when? How long are we supposed to wait? What if they’re in trouble?” She whirled to face him, practically knocking over her chair in the process. “We should all have gone with him.”

“And left the students alone and unguarded?” Brian shook his head. “We weren’t needed,” he told her gently. “If there’s any hope at all that Medico is willing to help the students, the Professor will bring him here. You know that.”

“And here I am.”

The gruff, nicotine-roughened voice sent a chill down Jim’s spine. The doorway that he had been constantly watching in hopes of seeing his father return was filled with the form of a stoop shouldered middle-aged man. For a brief moment, Jim flashed back to the terrified youth he had been the last time he’d seen Medico. The stabbing headache returned, but he schooled his features to hide the flinch.

Win stepped past him and into the room. “I believe that you’re familiar with the staff at the Academy,” he said, gesturing toward the group.

“Of course,” Medico replied. “Siren, the descriptions of your beauty don’t do you justice.”

Jim recoiled at the oily tone, but Diana nodded shortly, though she didn’t return his smile.

He met the eyes of each person in the room. “Brain, Babbler, Spit-Fire, Miss Wheeler…” He paused. “It’s a shame that you don’t have a clever moniker like the rest of your family.”

Honey smiled sweetly. “Some of us were fortunate enough to be born with the perfect name.”

Medico’s lips twitched at her statement. “Quite so.” He turned to Jim. “And, of course, here we have the Eagle.” His eyes flickered. “See anything interesting lately?”

Jim returned the gaze with a stony glare.

“And, last but not least, we have the Healer.”

Brian bristled at the mocking undertone. “Yes,” he said, straightening to his full height. “And I’d like to get back to my job.”

Medico sat on the couch, carefully arranging his awkward bulk. Placing one ankle over the other knee, he indolently replied, “I’m afraid that your services won’t be of any use here.”

“Let’s quit playing games,” Brian snapped, frustration and lack of sleep shortening his fuse. “We have a school full of sick children. Whatever your past, I would hope that the senseless death of children is beneath you.”

“Ah, but are they senseless deaths if they further the field of medical research?” Medico questioned. “Sometimes sacrifice is required in order to gain knowledge.”

Jim’s blood boiled. The implication that the students' or his mother’s deaths had served the purpose of Medico’s research offended him on every level. Win placed a cautionary hand on his shoulder, and Jim had to wonder how Win could possibly listen to Medico, or even tolerate his presence.

“You know that the Academy places a high value on research,” Win reminded Medico. “As for the sacrifice of human or mutant life, I would have to say that the death of an unwilling or unknown subject is never acceptable. And deep down, you know the same.”

“Do I?” he asked thoughtfully. “Well, no matter. What’s done is done.”

Jim clenched his fists at the monster’s cavalier attitude. “They’re human beings!” he exclaimed. “And they’re still alive!” Shaking off his father’s hand, he stood directly in front of Medico, towering over the man sitting on the couch. “Now what are you going to do to help them?”

He felt Dan move to stand beside him.

“I think he doesn’t know nearly as much about his ‘research’ as he’d like us to believe,” Dan said. “In fact, I don’t think he even knows how to heal them. He only knows how to destroy, not how to nurture.”

“Big words from a traitor,” Medico sneered, losing some of his polished veneer. “You only know how to take care of yourself.”

Instead of rising to the bait, Dan leaned back on his heels. “You tried to heal them and couldn’t, didn’t you?” he asked.

The room went silent.

“That’s why you’re here,” Dan continued. “You want to find out if it’s just a problem with distance, or if you’re just plain incapable of manipulating the cells back to health.”

Medico lunged off the couch, moving surprisingly fast in spite of his stooped shoulder, but Dan merely stepped to the side as Jim restrained him and pushed him back to the couch. Dan and Jim took seats on either side of the villain, preventing him from another outburst.

“And I thought I had a temper,” Trixie muttered.

Medico snarled in her direction, but dropped eye contact when Jim’s elbow connected with his ribs.

“Is it true?” Win asked, studying Medico intently. “Have you tried to heal them?”

“Of course I have,” he said, a disgusted look on his face. “Despite what you may think, I’m not a complete monster.”

“Enough of one to infect innocent children with a virus you can’t control,” Brian pointed out.

Medico waved an arm in frustration. “I had every reason to believe that I could cure them. In my earlier trials—”

“Earlier trials?” Win questioned. “On humans or mutants?”

“Humans,” he admitted. “I tested my abilities on humans first.”

Jim had to forcibly relax his jaw in order to stem the anger he felt. His mother had been used as a guinea pig because she was human. Because Medico valued her life less than the life of a mutant. His hands clenched and unclenched as he listened to his father continue his line of questioning.

“Why did you pick the students at the Academy?” Win pressed. “Why not choose a homeless mutant that might not be missed if the cure didn’t work?”

When Medico looked away guiltily, Brian shook his head. “You infected students here because you knew that if you couldn’t heal them, I was their next best chance at survival.” His body began to tremble with outrage at the callous disregard for the students’ well being. “You conniving, miserable, son of a—” he stated, his voice growing louder with each word. “How am I supposed to fix this? How?”

Medico shrugged. “That’s really up to you. I was telling the truth when I said that I believed there must be sacrifice for the sake of medical advancement. I’d rather the students live, of course, but…” He shrugged, palms up, as if to absolve himself of responsibility.

Brian closed his eyes and took several deep breaths. “Okay. Tell me what you did to them.”

He looked away.

Brian threw up his hands in disgust. “Do you not want to help them? Or do you not even know what you did!” He passed a hand over his brow in frustration. “Do you really not know?”

Medico lifted one shoulder and then lowered it. “It happened by accident the first few times,” he admitted.

“By accident,” Brian repeated.

“By accident. It was late one evening, and I’d put in a full day observing and recording symptoms of humans.” In answer to Win’s silent question, he said, “It was after Katie.”

Win nodded, encouraging him to continue. “I was reading the reports on the most aggressive form of cancer we were trying to treat, and trying to visualize exactly what was happening in the subject’s body. I imagined the cancer cells attacking the healthy cells and the body’s response. When I looked up, the human lab technician had collapsed. We discovered stage four cancer, even though he’d had a healthy check up only the week before. He died within hours.”

Jim shuddered, horrified at Medico’s callous tone. If the researcher had any compassion at all for the plight of the technician, Jim couldn’t detect it.

“I didn’t put the pieces together right away,” he continued. “We all assumed that he had somehow been exposed to a mutated, fast-acting cancer cell. It wasn’t until it happened two more times, with two separate diseases, that I saw the pattern.”

“And then you began experimenting with it,” Brian surmised. “You deliberately caused sickness in others.”

Medico shrugged. “It wasn’t any different than what I was already doing.”

Jim took a deep breath. It was true. Medico had been running roughshod over his subjects for years, infecting them with various diseases. Consent had never been a factor. The only change in the scenario that he could see was the method of administration.

Jim firmly believed in the good in people, but this situation tested him beyond what he could comfortably handle. Usually, he could keep his feelings under control, but with this attack affecting the students he loved, and reminding him of the mother he'd lost, he felt helpless.

When he tuned back in to the conversation, Medico was outlining how he had successfully caused and treated illness in a number of human subjects.

“What about the subjects you infected medically?” Brian asked. “Have you been able to cure them?”

He hesitated before answering. “Yes,” he finally admitted.

“But you haven’t gone public,” Win pointed out.

Medico re-crossed his legs. “The only subjects I’ve been able to cure were humans, and I cured them by the power of my mind. Would you go public with that?”

Win nodded thoughtfully. “I can see where that could be… problematic.”

“Problematic?” Medico scoffed. “Humans are terrified of mutants.”

“I can’t imagine why,” Jim muttered, glaring at the one mutant who truly justified the fear that humans felt.

“What human would come to me for treatment?” Medico asked.

“A desperate one!” Trixie exclaimed. “Someone with a terminal illness that you could cure! Do you really think no one would trust you?”

“He’s not interested in curing humans,” Dan surmised quietly. “He’s interested in harming humans, and curing mutants. But his power has them reversed.”

“You know nothing about me,” Medico hissed.

“Am I wrong?” Dan pressed. “Tell me I’m wrong.”

The heavy silence was broken only when Brian threw up his hands in disgust. “Enough. Are we going to work together to help the students or aren’t we?” he demanded.

Medico pulled away from glaring at Dan and nodded briefly. “I’ve invested too much time and effort to let this opportunity pass.”

“The students at this school are not an opportunity,” Honey said, her voice icy with censure. “They’re children with unique gifts and abilities who don’t deserve to be treated as an experiment.”

“Tell me exactly what you visualized when you caused this illness,” Brian requested, his tone calm and professional.

Medico proceeded to describe in detail how he had caused the flu-like virus. Brian listened carefully, taking notes and asking questions. When Medico stopped talking, Brian tapped the note pad. “You can cause illness in both humans and mutants, but you can only cure humans,” he said, summing up the gist of the conversation.

“I don’t understand it,” Medico admitted. “Why would mutants be harder to cure?”

“Because we’re different at the molecular level,” Dan offered. “Different even from each other.” His form shimmered until he was nothing but a black mist. When he solidified, he asked, “Do you really think patching my cells up is going to be the same as patching up the cells in Jim’s eyes?”

Could it really be that simple? Jim turned to Brian, but the doctor was lost in thought.

“But the differences can be incredibly subtle,” Brian said, thinking out loud. “Some of us,” he glanced at Honey, “aren’t so very different from humans at all.”

“I’ve been thinking about the viruses,” Medico said thoughtfully. “Perhaps I should have been focusing on the healthy cells.”

“Or at least the interaction between the healthy cells and the virus,” Brian speculated. “It’s possible that the cure just needs to be customized for each mutant.”

“So, I’d need to have an image of the healthy cells individual to the mutant in my mind, and then visualize the unhealthy cells healing themselves.” Medico leaned back and nodded slowly. “I think I can do that.”

“The question is: will you?” Win’s voice was controlled, but it was obvious that he was wound tightly.

Medico looked up at him, a faint expression of surprise on his face. “I will. I’m not a monster, you know.”

Jim bolted off the couch from his position beside Medico and strode from the room. He didn’t know where he was going, but he knew that he needed to get away from Medico. Because the man was a monster, no matter what how he tried to convince anyone otherwise. And while he knew that it was necessary to work together with him in this case, Jim couldn’t think of one reason why he, personally, needed to stay and listen to more of Medico’s lies and self-posturing.

He could hear muffled voices behind him, but he didn’t stop to listen to his friends. Blindly pushing his way through the school, he put as much distance as possible between himself and the situation. When he finally took note of his surroundings, he was surprised to find that he was standing on the edge of the school’s lone play structure. Though it wasn’t designed to accommodate his height or husky build, Jim settled himself on a swing and began pushing, pumping harder and harder as he tried to outrun his thoughts.

When he finally slowed, he saw that he wasn’t alone. “Trixie!” he said, surprised that she had left the others to follow him.

She sat down on the swing next to him and pushed off, her legs extended straight in front of her. “Do you remember the first time we met?”

Despite his sour mood, he smiled. “Of course. It was right here.”

Trixie nodded. “You were so hard, so defensive…”

“So scared is more like it,” he snorted.

“You’d just lost your mother.”

“And you’d just burned down your childhood home.”

Trixie smiled, despite the lingering guilt. “It was one heck of a way to discover my gift.”

“We made quite the pair, didn’t we?” Jim asked, pushing just hard enough to keep the swing moving.

“We still do.”

Jim stilled the swing. He and Trixie never talked about their relationship, though they both knew that they had feelings for each other.

“You’re hurting,” Trixie said, her own voice filled with pain. “And I’d do anything to stop it.” She stopped her swing and stood beside him. Jim brought his own swing to a halt, but remained seated, staring up at her with all of his pain and resentment on display.

And then she was in front of him, her hands on his as he gripped the chains. “Jim, I—” she began, her eyes full of compassion and understanding.

He cut her off by putting both of his hands on her hips and tugging her closer so that she stood between his legs.

“Do you remember our first kiss?” he demanded, his voice thick.

She blushed furiously. “Of course I do. It was the same day we met.”

“You were defensive and scared,” Jim recalled, his hands inching up to her waist.

“So were you!” Trixie protested.

“Yeah. And it was the best kiss ever.”

She smiled softly. “Yes, it was.”

“This one will be better,” Jim promised. He tugged her flush against him and reached up to thread a hand in her hair to draw her mouth to his. His need for her had only grown over the years. No matter how many times they kissed, and they hadn’t very often, it wasn’t enough. When she was in his arms, returning his affection, his world righted itself. The injustices that tormented him disappeared.

She melted against him, returning his kiss with a passion that shocked and stirred him. He broke away briefly to forever capture the image of her swollen lips and desire-clouded eyes. She leaned in again, and he was overwhelmed.

Unable to think, only wanting more of her, his hands trailed up and down her back, roaming ever closer to her breasts and backside. When he brushed the side of her breast, she gasped against his mouth, and swayed on her feet.

Jim tugged until she was seated on his lap, her legs wrapped around him. He knew it couldn’t be comfortable for her; the chains from the swing had to be digging into her legs, but she didn’t complain. If her little moans and sighs were any indication, she wasn’t feeling any pain. His hands wandered, slipping under her snug tee shirt. Squirming on his lap, she rubbed against him, trapping his hands between them.

When he found her bra and traced a path along the outline, she arched and pushed herself further into his hand.

“Trixie!” he gasped, kneading her flesh firmly, revelling in their shared passion. This was what he had dreamed of since he was fifteen years old. This was heaven. Perfect. Right. He moved his mouth to the base of her neck and sucked gently, increasing the pressure when she tightened her grip around his neck. Her hands moved to his shoulders, drawing him even closer.

And then he heard the subtle cough.

Trixie jerked away from him, blushing furiously as she righted her top. Jim ran a hand through his hair in frustration and glared at the intruder who had interrupted them. “What is it?” he asked, his voice still rough with passion.

Dan’s lips twitched. “Sorry to interrupt, but the Professor is asking for you. He wants everyone present when Medico attempts to heal the students.”

Jim nodded, knowing that his father was right. If nothing else, it would provide moral support for both the students and staff. Not to mention it would be easier to contain Medico if something went wrong.

“Then let’s go,” Trixie said firmly, and tucked her hand into Jim’s.

They walked back to the school, Jim’s heart almost as light as it had been after the first time he’d kissed his Spit-Fire.