Welcome, Goodbye... Welcome.

The cold chamber was a speaker producing different array of sounds. The whirring noise never stopped, the beeping sound of active machines, the thrumming sound coming from above, and the ragged breathing coming from Commander Cassie.

She wasn't going to give up saving this boy she had pronounced calamity upon. Her guilt won't allow her. She doesn't want to admit she has caused his death. She doesn't want to admit that he's not going to wake up from this deep slumber.

Jacq was laid face up on a bed with series of wires and tubes attached to his body. His face was completely covered by a transparent mask to help with breathing just in case.

His bare chest was loaded with taped wires and multiple syringes piercing the skin into the heart. The wires all connected to another machine operating electrically as it makes the non stopping whirring noise.

The laboratory which the little battle for survival took place has been prepared and transformed into a mini hospital in an effort to revive Jacq.

Standing beside Cassie was her ever smiling right hand man, still clad in his blue metal suit... And looming behind was the shy blond who looked at Jacq's body with no readable expression.

The blond boy spoke after a long time, "he's dead commander, let's carry him out."

Cassie looked back at him without saying anything. Her blue eyes became misty with ready tears. Reality dawned heavily on her.

All hope was lost.

She rose from where she sat in utter defeat.

She had lived while the innocent boy had died, she thought bitterly to herself. There is no bigger torture than this.

How was she ever going to account for the death of a boy who had lived his life in so much comfort and satisfaction?

With unsteady steps, she walked towards the exit. She stepped over the dead mutant soldiers with their bodies leaking blue blood. Her subordinates has done a good job clearing them out from the rear when they got the signal that she was in trouble.

To the two guys she owed hee life, but to whom does Jacq owes his death? She thought the answer to herself bitterly.

"Callum, follow me!" She called out to the boy before she went through the wall.

Silent Callum winced at the mention of his name, but followed anyways.

The middle-aged man named Greg stayed behind disconnecting the machine from Jacq, preparing his body for proper steps.

The orb still thrummed high above in the cage.

********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

There was nothing...

His sight had blurred like a forgotten dream after waking up. His ears could only make a sound likening to a gentle breeze whistling through a pipe open at both ends.

Jacq had felt his consciousness slipping away, like water running down through his fingers.

The pain and the blinding light of the explosion faded into darkness leaving him adrift in an endless void.

As he drifted into the void, Jacq's senses were assaulted by a wave of sensory deprivation.

The bright, painful flash of the explosion dissipated, replaced by a gentle darkness that enveloped him like a cold, wet blanket.

His thoughts were sluggish, like wading through molasses. He tried to think about his friend, about his games, but the memories slipped away, replaced by a dull numbness.

Even his body seemed distant, as though it belonged to someone else. He felt himself floating, weightless, as if he were drifting on a vast, silent ocean.

He slipped off...

A ghostly breeze swayed his being back and forth and landed him in a bed of thorny flowers... A black apparition loomed above him, white faced with a grin that showed his whole rotten teeth.

The cold hands of death landed heavily on his chest, pressing him. Calling the remaining life out of him.

There was a thrumming sound...

Doom... Doom... Doom...

He could see a faint blue light shining down on him...

His subconscious slipped into another dimension.

And then, there was something... A warmth... A tugging...

A presence.

Jacq became aware of a figure in the distance. A first, it was just a point of light, like a star in the night sky.

The point of light approached him slowly. A thrumming sound followed with the littlest distance covered...

But as he drew closer, the figure began to take shape. It was a man, tall and gaunt, with piercing eyes and a shock of white hair. He radiated a strange power, a vibrancy that made Jacq's subconscious feel both comforted and uneasy.

There was a strange familiarity about this old man... A resonance.

"Welcome," the man said with a voice that seemed to echo from deep within the void. It was Jacq's voice. "And please, go back," the man completed.

Jacq's subconscious felt a tug from behind. He fought against it and yelled with a cracked voice at the man, "let me stay here, please!!!"

The peace and serenity of this void had grown deep into his subconscious and it's hard letting go.

The man turned and walked away without saying anything. A short distance out, the figure popped and blasted in a circle of blue.

Jacq sensed another wave of familiarity as he got knocked back again... Out of the void.

***********************************************

The world became more defined...

The beeping sounds followed a systematic rhythm, forming a music with the continuous whirring sound of the nearby machine.

The blue light filtered through his eyes, turning the shades of dark colours under his eyelids bright red.

He could even listen to his very slow and unnoticeable breathing, and he could feel his chest heave up a little with every intake of air.

The world made more meaning...

***********************************************

Jacq jerked up from the soft bed with a start. He scanned the surrounding left to right, and a wash of deja vu flooded him.

He immediately checked his hands, but they were not chained down. And this was a soft bed, not a metallic chair.

Unbidden, the whole experience came rushing in memory. Yet he remained still on the bed, unfazed.

So many things doesn't feel right, he knew.

He tried to remember how he perceived the world before his near death experience, but he got no clear picture from his mind.

He sat more upright and his bone cracked painfully. He cried out softly in pain... Shockingly, he had to cover his ears because the sound was too loud for him to bear.

He finally got out of bed and stepped barefooted on the metal floor... It was like he has dipped his legs into the depth of the coldest spot in Antarctica. His feet burned painfully in response to the feel of the bare metal.

Jacq moved lightly on his feet through a row of shelves by his right. The smells that greeted him did him no good. On the shelves were the most pungent and horrible scents be has experienced in his life. Different odors from different chemicals all combined to torture Jacq's nasal system... And the intriguing part is that Jacq could tell one smell from another. He could tell which chemical produces which gas.

Things are getting weirder by the minute.

Jacq ignored the cold searing through his bare chest and made his way towards the exit by his left.

He passed by rows of large shiny ventilation pipes made from metals. The gleamed so bright like they had just been polished.

Jacq shied away from the reflective light and focused his eyes to see himself...

He got the scare of his life.

His eyes glinted blue. A blue than that shone more brightly than Cassie's.

How did this get to happen?

His heart started beating fast...

Doom... Doom... Doom... In complete synchronization with the orb's thrumming sound uo above.

He was trying to make sense and give reasons for these strange behaviours of his, when three figures emerged through the wall.

Cassie had received an alert warning of a life form moving down the lab. She gathered Greg and Callum and quickly rushed down to confirm.

Alas, it as true. Jacq was not dead.

She ran at an insane speed towards Jacq in a rush of happy relief.

Jacq tensed up and ran away from her reach, beating her with a speed he didn't believe he possessed.

Cassie wasn't quick to grasp the situation as she continued running after him.

Jacq stopped a few meters ahead of her and turned in her direction. Cassie saw what she had missed at first... The deep blue glint in his eyes.

She stopped before she could crash into him but it was too late.

Another being in Jacq had marked Cassie as an incoming threat. So, he rushed forward in a superhuman speed more than any of the mutants ever possessed, leaving behind him, a trail of blue flame-like energy.

He slammed hard into Cassie, bare fist against metal suit.

She propelled back with an insane force, crashing into one of your steel pipes nearby. She gasped for breath.

Greg and Callum who had been watching all along, both activated their masks on.

Greg brandished his plasma gun and Callum rolled his plasma sword.

They came at Jacq in unison.

Callum got to Jacq first and swing his sword in a graceful arc towards his chest. Jacq jumped back immediately and doubled back towards the shiny ventilation pipes.

Greg's shots followed him, but he dodged them with ease. He raced towards the pipes and shortly before crashing into one, he raised his right leg and stepped on the vertical pipe, denting it in the process. Callum followed closely behind him.

He climbed another step with his second leg and kicked on the pipe. He rose high above Callum and pulled a graceful back flip before landing behind Callum.

Immediately, and with so much force, he slammed his knee into Callum's back and sent him crashing into the large pipes, creating a big dent.

Greg positioned himself behind Jacq and aimes the gun at his head...

Cassie shouted a command at Greg to stop the attack. He lingered a little before relaxing his arms and sheathing the gun back into his pocket.

Jacq's senses came back to him.

He looked towards Cassie holding her stomach on the floor. He rushed over to her to help her up.

Greg still eyed him suspiciously. His hand still hovering over his gun.

Callum got up too with a painful groan.

Jacq apologized to both of them, and explained it wasn't his doing.

Cassie seemed to understand.

Jacq heard a voice in his head...

"WELCOME, JACQUES ALBERT."

Jacq turned suddenly towards Cassie, Greg pointed his gun...

"Did you tell me, 'Welcome Jacques Albert' just now?" He asked, lost and bewildered.

"No," came the reply.

Jacq ran out of the lab screaming...

The others watched him go, surprised at his sudden take off.

Doom... Doom... Doom... The thrumming continued.