Chapter One: Forks

Tears ran down her pale face as she fumbled at the payphone. She had to dial the number five times before she got it right, even then she wasn’t sure did. She knew wouldn’t feel safe until she heard her brother’s voice. She wasn’t going to be sure of anything until then.

“Hello?” a familiar voice answered on the other end of the line, but not her brother.

“Br-brennan, I need Brennan,” she cried, nearing hysterics. “I want my brother. I want my brother now.”

“Nolie?” the voice asked, this time sounding concerned. “Is everything okay? Are you all right?”

“No, I want my brother, Shal,” she nearly screamed. “Where is he? Where’s Brennan?”

“He’s right here,” the older woman said soothingly, trying to calm Nolie down.

“Nolie, what’s wrong?” her brother’s voice rang through her ear, worried and concerned.

“Alex and I were fighting and he left,” she said, voice shaky. “I don’t know where I am, Brennan. I’m scared. I- I think I saw some GS agents stalking around. I don’t what to do. I don’t want them to catch me again. I don’t wanna go back there.”

“Okay, Nolie, you’ve got to listen to me,” he said, trying to calm her down. “They aren’t going to get you this time. You know how to use your powers and you know to kick serious butt. You’ll be fine, but Nolie I can’t find you if I don’t know where to look. I want you to look around and see if you can’t find someone that can tell you exactly where you and then I want you to call me back and tell me the town. Can you do that for me, Nicole?”

“Ugh, do you have to Nicole?” she asked, calming down enough to care that he called her by her full first name.

“Sorry, just checking your state of mind,” he said, chuckling. “You didn’t answer my question, though.”

“Yeah, okay, I’ll call you in a little bit,” she promised.

“Good girl,” he said, relaxing a little. “I’ll talk to you in a bit then.”

“Love ya, Brennan,” she said.

“Love you too, kiddo,” he said before hanging up.

At Sanctuary

Brennan sighed and put his cell phone back on the coffee table. He ran his hands through his hair anxiously as he waited for his sister to call back. It was no secret he was over-protective of his sister and would kill to keep her safe. A lot of his robbery jobs were in order to get her away from their mother Maryann, who was pretty much a useless drunk who was to busy finding a new could-be hubby. That’s how Nolie came into the picture. She was the product of a one-night stand when Brennan was about ten so they were only half-siblings, but Brennan loved her to death and whatever he did was usually always for her.

He was twenty-three when his mom married this guy name Gary. He didn’t know about Genomex at the time, but he did know that he and Nolie were different than your average human. As it turned out, Gary was a GS agent. He convinced Maryann to send Nolie off to a “special” school for people like her and Brennan. Brennan hadn’t been there to stop it. He had been busy pulling a bank job. By the time he came back to finally get Nolie out of that hell-hole, she was gone. Before Genomex experimented on her she was only a Feline Feral (tiger) and a complete little smart ass, now she was also a Psion. She was able to somewhat walk into other people’s dreams and communicate with the dreamer.

It had been a year since he found her huddled in the corner of her cell. He almost hadn’t recognized her. It was only when she looked up, saw him, and said his name. That was just before he had joined Mutant X. When he had been forced to work for the GSA, he could admit that one good thing came out of it. He had found his sister and got her out of there as soon as he could, which was a few months later. He hadn’t been able to get her out then only because her cell was heavily guarded and Eckhart had made it impossible for him to get to her. She had been able to learn how to get into his dreams once Mutant X had gotten him out of there. From that point, they were able to come up with a plan that would get her out safely and quickly. She was a little less apprehensive and not as jumpy as she was when they had gotten her out, but she had a long way to go before she was back to the Nolie he was used to and that knowledge made him a lot more overprotective than he used to be.

“Brennan, is Nolie alright?” Shal asked, after letting him have a long silence to think about the call and calm down.

“That stupid jerk she’s been seeing ditched her,” he said. “She has no idea where she is and she thinks GS agents are prowling around.”

“What do you think?” she asked, walking over to him with an expression that perfectly matched the concern he felt.

“I think she’s still messed up from her time at Genomex,” he admitted. “I think anyone wearing a tacky suit and tie will freak her out, and I want her back home where I know the GSA can never get to her.”

“You should of asked Adam to make her a comlink,” Shal said, hugging and trying to make him feel a little better.

“I was going to, but I didn’t expect her to meet a guy and go on a road trip with him anytime soon,” he said, smiling.”Come on! Maybe I can talk to Adam about that now. That way he can possibly have it finished soon after we find.”

“Great idea,” she said, grinning. “She’ll be Mutant X’s honorary member. And when she gets little more comfortable, maybe she can join completely. Do you want your cell?”

“She’s not going to join,” he said with finality. “I don’t want her near Genomex ever again. Yeah, I don’t want to miss her call.”

She nodded, grabbed his cell, and led the way to the lab where Adam, Emma, and Jesse were talking. Brennan followed in anxious silence. The sooner they found Nolie, the better relaxed he’d be. The second the other three looked up at him and Shalimar, Shal started telling them about Nolie’s phone call. Brennan watched as all their expressions became concerned. They had all grown to love Nolie as much as Brennan did. She had quickly become a sister to all of them. He was really happy about that, because Nolie needed a real family, a real home. It was obvious Adam thought of her as his daughter.

“Hey, Adam,” Brennan asked after Shal finished talking. “Do you think you can make Nolie a comlink just incase something like this happens again?”

Back in Forks

Nolie sighed and hung up the phone. She hugged herself and slowly looked around. It was cold and rainy, and she was soaked. All she wanted to do was get dried off. Biting her lip, she started walking down the street in search of someone who could help her. She didn’t know how long she had walked when she found what she was looking for.

She had been looking at her feet, feeling highly discouraged as she sat on the curb, when she heard laughter coming her way. She looked up to find her prayers had been answered. Coming toward her was a group of teens around her age maybe a little older. There were two girls laughing and a boy looking pretty annoyed with them.

The girl in the middle was very pretty. She had brown hair and brown eyes. She wasn’t too tall, but she definitely didn’t come close to the other two’s beauty. The other girl had short, spiky hair and looked more like a pixie than humanly possible. The guy was just absolutely god-like gorgeous. She was mesmerized by him, but only for a moment. Her experience said gorgeous guys couldn’t be trusted in certain areas.

Taking a deep breath, she got to her feet and walked over to them. Her apprehension grew and she hugged herself again, looking at the ground as she spoke.

“I’m sorry,” she said as the two girls stopped laughing. “I’m kind of lost and I was wondering if you can tell me what town this is.”

“Forks, Washington,” the more average-looking beauty said, smiling kindly. “I’m Bella Swan. This is my boyfriend Edward and his sister Alice. How did you get here?”

“I was on a road trip with my boyfriend,” Nolie said, on the verge tears again as she looked up. “He ditched me here when I went to pay for gas. My name’s Nolie, by the way.”

“Nice to meet you, Nolie,” Edward said.

She tilted her head as she finally notice his and his sister’s eyes. She had thought they were a light brown, but she didn’t think they were more like a topaz color. It was very strange, different like her and Brennan. That thought left her mind as soon as she remembered her brother.

“Oh, do you guys have a cell phone I can borrow?” she asked. “I promised my brother I would call back once I found out where I was but I don’t know which way the payphone I used is.”

“Here, you can use mine,” Alice said, perky as she pulled out a baby blue Razr. “Bella doesn’t have one and Edward’s sucks.”

“Gee thank you, Alice,” Edward said sarcastically.

Finding their banter amusing, she chuckled and started dialing her brother’s cell number. He answered on the first ring. She was able to tell him where she was but wasn’t able to here much of what he said. Before she could hear a word he told her, her attention went to a group of guys in tacky suits and her blood ran cold as she recognized one of them.

“Miss Mulwray we weren’t expecting to see you here,” her mother’s husband said.

“Nolie, are you there?” Brennan asked in her ear, sounding a little panicked.

“I was right, Bren,” she said numbly. “Genomex are here.”

With that she hung up on her brother and handed the phone back to Alice. Her eyes were glowing gold as she watched the GS agents surround her and the others. It was obvious she wasn’t who they wanted, but that didn’t mean she was going to let them have who they wanted. She wasn’t going to let anyone suffer what she had. With that, she slowly took her coat off and tossed it aside.

“If you weren’t following me, then who’s going to be Eckhart’s new lab rat?” she asked.

“Miss Swan is just needed for internship offer,” a GSA goon said from behind them.

Nolie’s eyes went gold again as she saw they were looking at Bella.

“Like hell she is,” Nolie growled. “You want her? You’re going to have to kill me first.”

“That can be arranged, Miss Mulwray,” her step-father said, nodding to one of his goons her charged at her.

Nolie jumped in the air, higher than the average human should be able to and landed on the guy’s shoulders. She vaulted off him and managed to kick him in the spine before landing in a perfect crouch. She grabbed the taser from the man now sprawled out on the pavement just as three more men came at her. She slowly got to her feet and got one of the goons in the neck with the taser before throwing a roundhouse kick to the second one and elbowed the third one in the nose.

“Do you guys even know how to fight?” she asked, realizing that there really wasn’t much to fear from them if they couldn’t catch her. “Man, I have a better wrestling match with my puppy.”

She glanced over her shoulder just to be sure that the Bella girl was still out of the Genomex hands. She was glad to see that she was sandwiched between the siblings, but not yet convinced that they could take on all the GS agents if the need arose. That lonely concern was all that worried her at the moment.

“Nolie, look out!” Bella screamed just as Gary ran up behind Nolie with a taser of his own.

Nolie just barely managed to dodge it and threw a kick directly into his gut before getting shoved onto the pavement. She rolled in a tumble so she could get back on her feet before she was down for good. She didn’t bother getting back on her feet though. Instead, she went into a handstand and then did a back handspring right into Gary, landing on her feet easily.

“Freeze, or we’ll shoot all of you!” one of the goons said.

Nolie froze instantly as she saw the five still standing pull out their guns. Several things happened in very quick succession. First, Alice and Edward scoffed and inched toward the five. Second, they were shot several times but weren’t slowed down. Third, they were suddenly frozen, Last but certainly not least, a man, who Nolie knew very well, fell from the sky. He landed on his feet, causing the ground to shake a little. He was covered in red vein-like lines and the GS agents were now shooting at him. Though, that didn’t matter and they used up their bullets.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Jesse shot angrily as his body returned to its normal mass. “Messing with my little sister? That’s a big no-no.”

“Mr. Mulwray, too damn bad,” one of the dumber GS agents sneered.

“That’s not Mulwray, you idiot,” Shal said as she landed behind the agent. “If it were, you’d be dead.”

“Then why did he say...” the guy trailed off, confused.

“Before you hurt yourself, let me do it,” Nolie said, kneeing him in the groin then knocking him out cold. “Where the hell’s Brennan?”

“Looking for a place to land,” Jesse said as he took out to two of the goons.

Nolie nodded and helped Shal with the last agent, giving him a double-whammy. Then she went to make sure Alice and Edward were okay. She tried to move them only to realize that they wouldn’t move. They were staring blankly ahead of them. Sighing, she looked around to find Bella and Gary were gone.

“Hey, you okay?” Jesse asked Nolie when he noticed her expression was anxious.

“No, they got her,” Nolie said. “They got the girl they were here for.”

“They weren’t here for you?” Brennan asked as he and Emma came out of the trees.

“This girl named Bella,” she said, shaking her head. “They wanted her, not me. I tried to stop them. Emma, they must of had a New Mutant with them. They did something to her boyfriend and his sister.”

Emma nodded and focused on the two frozen statue-like teens. Slowly, they started taking in their surroundings again. Edward’s eyes went from blank to absolutely panicked as he realized Bella was missing. Alice stayed a little more calm and walked off into the woods.

“Edward,” Nolie said softly, placing a hand on his shoulder cautiously. “I tried. I’m sorry I let them take her, but my brother, his friends, and I will get her back. I promise.”

“No, you are staying out of this, Nolie,” Brennan said firmly, before Edward had a chance to reply.