This story contains some erotic and violent situations. The violence, and sexual material, for that matter, are not gratuitous. They are part of the story. If this is illegal where you reside, or you are not of legal age, read no further! Otherwise, enjoy. All work remains the property of the owner, and is printed on this web site, and its authorized mirrors/affiliates by permission of the author. Any other printing, distribution, etc. is prohibited.
I'd like to thank Ed once more for his work in proofing this. As you may have noticed, these stories are getting longer with the last three installments. It ain't easy to pick them over, finding all the little mistakes I've made, but Ed does a great job at it!
The Wreckers Chapter 6 -- Paved with Good Intentions
Justin felt a great amount of comfort from his sister's fingers running through his hair. `She's ALIVE!' his mind crowed, and for a few seconds he forgot everything else. With a sudden force, a sense of urgency slammed home in him. Jerking himself up from the couch, he stood and faced his brother-in-law, who still had three drinks in his hands.
With a whip of thought, he knocked all three glasses to the floor, where they shattered. Another thought pushed Charlie back into his recliner, and held him there. While his sister screamed, and demanded to know what was happening, Justin turned, facing the direction of the camp and gathered his thoughts together.
Curtis! Jason!' he shouted with his mind, Corcoran is alive! He's a traitor! He's planning an attack on the camp. Be on guard until I get there, and get a hold of Alan, NOW!'
Not even waiting for their response, he turned back to his sister and her husband. Carefully, he reached out with his mind, and probed both of them, deeply. Deep inside both of their minds, he found what he was looking for. A blank spot hiding some controls put into place by Corcoran. In a rage, he snapped those controls, and released both of them.
They both collapsed where they were sitting, and breathed deeply. "Wh, what happened?" Charlie asked.
"A man named Corcoran is what happened," Justin answered. "Don't worry, his hold is broken now, you're free of it."
"Who, who are you?" his sister asked, cutting Justin's heart in two.
"The same boy you grew up with, sis. I love you. Let's just say the Event changed some people as well as oil. I'm one of them. Unlike Corcoran though, I try to help people. Now, you two get ready to leave. There's no way you'll be safe here after this. I have to go back to base. Charlie, load up the humvee and be ready to leave when I return." With that, not waiting to see if they obeyed, Justin cleared his mind, closed his eyes, imagined the camp, and put himself there.
He opened his eyes to a scene of ordered chaos. The camp alarm blared, security forces rushed to their positions, and the military construction crews went to the backup stations. After what he had seen earlier (or in some other future -- his mind still didn't quite grasp it), he was not surprised to find Lt. Sneffer standing in the middle of the command tent, issuing orders with Sergeant Reeves at his side.
Seeing him standing off to the side, Sneffer trotted over to him and saluted. "Sir, one of the Parkers sounded the alarm, on your order, they said. I wasn't sure if they were off their rocker or not, but the sergeant recommended a drill wouldn't be a bad idea. Did you order an alert, sir?"
"Yes, Lieutenant, I did. This camp will be attacked soon, according to some intelligence sources I have. Sergeant, assemble a team and search every key area where a bomb would do a lot of damage. If any civilians are found in the perimeter, they are to surrender immediately or be terminated. Is that understood?"
The veteran soldier gave his affirmative, and sped off to follow his orders. The twins came running up to him also. `How, how did you get here?' Jason asked, now on their own private channel since he was so close.
Justin couldn't help it. Tears came to his eyes, at seeing the pair standing there in front of him. He reached out, one hand on each shoulder, and drew both of them into a deep melding. For the first time in twenty years, he let go. He let all his barriers down, let himself feel things long denied.
.All three of them felt their knees buckling at the same time, and were oblivious as someone screamed "Incoming!" and a mortar round fell into the camp. Or nearly oblivious. A dome appeared around the three, protecting them while they fully explored the events Justin shared.
Inside the dome, an outside observer would have seen three men, on their knees, arms wrapped around each other, shoulders touching. To the three men, time had ceased to exist. Justin and Curtis were twins. They had shared a close bond all their lives, which had grown even more over the past few months since they had learned of their abilities. Justin was a loner.
Ever since he was little, he had kept to himself. He had always kept barriers up when around other people, barriers that kept him from being emotionally hurt. Sometimes they had also caused him hurt since those close to him had felt those walls that kept them out. Even his sister and her family only went so deep. He grieved when he lost touch with them, but deep down, it didn't hit him, because he blocked those feelings off.
Not now though. For the first time, Justin let down all those walls, and the twins came crashing through them, sweeping him off balance for a moment.
From them he learned what it was like to not really ever be alone. He understood what it was like to have another person be so much a part of yourself that you could barely tell the difference. Oh sure, there were small differences (Jason liked strawberries, Curtis loved them so much he'd eat them all day), but they were small. He also learned how much they loved him. Yeah, it had started out as a crush. They had crushes on most of the new guys at the center. But as they trained together, it had become more than that. He felt their frustration at being unable to get his attention, the rejection when he repeatedly turned them down.
For Curtis, he felt for the first time what it meant to be alone. In his 18 years, he had never imagined what it could be like to be so alone, and it scared him. What scared him more was the strength of feelings he could feel deep inside Justin, feelings that were awakening.
Jason was fascinated. When he got mad, the emotion would bounce off Curtis and either be absorbed if Jason was calm, or redoubled if he was mad too. But even at their strongest, they didn't match what lay at the bottom of Justin. What he had held down so hard for so long. It scared him.
Slowly, as the three explored each other's minds, feelings, they began to resurface and explore Justin's memories of recent events. The original drink, the drugs sweeping through his system, waking in the strange room. Charlie's death, the revelation of Corcoran as an enemy, the claims he made, the attack on the camp. The sight of their own bodies, bullet holes through the heads, shook the twins. They were even more shaken by Corcoran's appearance, with the body of Justin's sister, and Justin's realization about the nature of their abilities.
`So, they have it all wrong,' one said (at this point, they couldn't tell each other apart).
`Obviously.'
`Well, what are we then?'
`Something more than we were.'
`We can shape reality around us, bend it to our will.'
`That means we can make anything we want.'
`What do we want?'
`Besides each other? I don't know.'
With the last, they began to drift back apart, into their somewhat separate identities. Except for one thing. Justin could now feel both of them still in the back of his head, just as they had always felt each other. For a second, his old barriers tried to come back up, protect him from the danger of loss, but, together, Jason and Curtis blocked it with a wave of love.
Feeling worn and tired, the three stood up, and looked outside the protective barrier Justin had formed. What they saw was not good. Fighting was continuing on all sides of them. It was mostly small arms now, but the attackers had broken into the camp, and it was only a matter of time until they were totally overrun.
As one, they moved into action. Curtis moved off to the left, using the knowledge gained from Justin to create a wall of fire, cutting off the attackers there. Jason moved to the right, creating an eruption of earth to swallow the attackers there. Justin simply stood where he was, as a wall of water appeared barely inside the camp, and moved to sweep the attackers away.
Silence fell quickly as the shocked defenders stopped firing. Those attackers who were not killed or injured in the confusion turned and ran for their lives into some fog, or mist, that had started to rise from the ground. Within moments, the three young men stood, surrounded by the surviving troops, all of whom were staring at them, unsure of what they just saw.
A mocking voice drifted over the area, "Well, well, well. It looks like the cubs have teeth after all." With that, Dustin Corcoran, soldier and traitor, stepped into view. One of Justin's troopers stood, took aim, but before he could fire, a sheet of flame appeared around him, incinerating him instantly.
"HOLD!" Justin shouted to his men. "Guard the perimeter!" Hoping that whatever was about to happen, no more of his men died needlessly, Justin decided it was best to get them out of the way. Sneffer took charge, knowing this was no longer a place for 'ordinary' people. Within a few seconds, no one was in sight, all the troops having disappeared into the misty fog.
"Better, boy, much better," Corcoran said, approaching the three young men, who still stood in the middle of the camp. "Those pukes don't need to see, or hear, what we are about to discuss."
Justin reached out mentally for the support of Curtis and Jason, just as they reached out to him. Once more, the three young men were joined as one. Surprise registered on Corcoran's face when all three of them spoke at the same time, as one.
"There's nothing to discuss, Corcoran. You are a traitor. Surrender or die."
Corcoran's laughter had a touch of hysteria in it. "How pedestrian of you boys. I would expect that you at least, Ackeman, could do better than that."
"It's obvious you faked your death, and you've been manipulating the people in this area. Did you even think that what you were doing could backfire on the rest of us? Did you consider the repercussions?"
Spreading his arms wide, Corcoran smiled, "What difference does it make? They're just going to use us anyway. Did you think those bastards in control would give things up willingly? Have you ever wondered at how the world got in this situation anyway?
"Those men whose orders you are following. THEY are the ones who did this to us! They set off the device that caused these damn changes." With each sentence, Corcoran hammered his fist into an open palm, emphasizing his point.
"We know," they replied. "It doesn't matter. They are the government, until the people choose otherwise."
For a moment, Corcoran just stared incredulously, then he spoke with a sneer audible in his voice, "Oh really? Do you really think those bastards will let the people ever choose again? They've had a whole year to consolidate their power, to enforce martial law. Now they have little twerps like you three, following them blindly! Do you really think that they'll ever let go of that power?"
"That's not our problem. We took an oath to protect and defend, we will keep ours, unlike you."
"How shortsighted of you. Two years ago, these creeps were calling for deviants to be locked up, sent to hospitals where they'd re-educate the poor souls. What do you think's different now? Do you think that just because they can use you, they'll leave you alone? Are you really that naïve?"
"No," this time Justin spoke alone, as the twins pulled back, thinking things over. He reached out to them, and showed them what decisions he had made for himself. With their agreement to his choices, he spoke again.
"The oath we took was to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States and to follow the orders of our superiors. Until they openly defy the Constitution, we must follow their orders. Even after they do that, we still have to live by the principles of that document.
"What you've done here is even more wrong since you're claiming to be fighting for these people. Did you think invading people's minds, warping them to your will, not letting them choose for themselves was right? You are just as guilty as those you supposedly fight against. You're no different than them!"
At the last sentence, Corcoran let out a growl of rage, he flung his arms towards the three men, and fire leaped towards them. Water formed from Jason and Curtis, smothering the flames before they even got close. Justin stared at Corcoran for a moment, and the man screamed as lightning leaped from an open sky and struck.
Corcoran's last scream filled the night as the lightning seared him, knocking the life out of him. Justin stood there for a few moments as the stench of burnt flesh wafted around them. He was right, killing with his abilities was worse than shooting someone.
But he was no longer alone, no longer had to deal with it by himself. As his legs crumpled beneath him, and he emptied his stomach onto the ground, the twins wrapped their arms, and their minds, around him. Love flowed into him, and wiped away the pain. Silently, they showed him he'd never be alone, not with them at his side.
The sound of a helicopter startled all three of them. A helicopter! Burning precious fuel, it came in low and hovered for a moment, before settling in a clear area. Eight men jumped out, led by Alan Mills. Looking around for a moment, Alan sprinted to the three of them, taking in the sight of everything.
"Looks like the cavalry showed up a little late this time," he said in his gruff voice.
Looking up at the man, Justin tried to put a decent smile on his face, and climbed to his feet. "You're still a welcome sight, Alan."
"Thanks, Jaz, but I don't think the brass is going to be happy about the fuel we wasted getting here only to show up late. So, how about filling me in?"
As the twins filled him in on most of the events, Justin mentally warned them not to share anything about Corcoran's accusation against government leaders, or about the time travel. He liked Alan, but he didn't want anyone to know about those things until he'd worked some of it out. Fortunately, the twins agreed with him, and edited their version of events.
"Well, at least we found him out before he did any permanent harm," Alan said when they were done. "I take it most of the troops here saw stuff?"
"You might say that," Justin answered. "We kind of gave them a show that's gonna be hard to explain. Where are they, by the way?"
"Not sure, some weird fog's blown in and obscured everything around here."
Looking around, Justin was surprised to see that the middle of the camp was surrounded by a wall of mist. It blocked everything from sight, and the men from Alan's helicopter had disappeared into it, along with Justin's troops. One of the flight crew from the helicopter had gotten out, and walked to the edge of the mist, and stuck his hand in.
His scream brought all four men running. The crewman was standing there, arm reaching into the thick mist; where it touched the mist, it seemed to disappear. Alan reached out and pulled the man back from the edge of the mist, which seemd to be billowing towards them. Without thinking, the twins reached out with their will, and pushed it back. It seemed to struggle against an invisible wall, reaching towards them more and more.
Justin knelt by the injured crewman, shocked for a moment at what he saw. About 6 inches below the man's elbow, the flesh had been eaten away. White bone gleamed dully, with bloody strips of meat hanging off it. The poor man had fainted after taking one look at what was left. Concentrating, Justin focused on the man's arm, and willed it to return to the condition it had been in before he had stuck it in the mist.
Alan grunted in surprise as the man's arm shimmered, and returned to a normal condition. The remaining flight crew from the helicopter had jumped out and were staring in shock. "Not a word!" Alan ordered. "Get him back in the chopper, now! And get ready to lift off."
The crew got back in, and soon the rotors were turning. "What is it?" Alan asked the three men.
"I'm not sure," Justin replied, checking with the twins, and satisfied at their job at holding it at bay.
"Did those boys get some new powers? I don't remember them being good at anything but mentalist stuff."
"You might say that, Alan. We, um, we kind of melded, and um, I think some of me rubbed off on them, and vice versa."
Laughing at the blush he could barely make out on Justin's face, Alan smiled and slapped the man on the back. "Well, you sure held out longer than most people expected. Everyone but Baxter had them as getting in your pants within the first week of you being in the Center."
Smiling at the man's easy teasing, "Well, you might want to change your bet a little, bud. We still haven't done anything physical, just, um..."
"From the look on your face, that alone must be something. I oughta try it sometime. Wipe that look off your face! Not with them!" Alan said, nearly falling over with laughter at the look of jealousy on Justin's face.
When he had regained his composure, he looked around again, at the mist. It was now roughly circular, and seemed to be hemming them in. The twins kept it back from the helicopter, whose blades were now spinning at full speed, ready for takeoff. Strangely, the mist didn't seem to be affected by the air being blown around by the helicopter's blades.
"Boys, we better be getting outta here!" Alan shouted over the whine of the helicopter's rotors. At Justin's mental signal, the twins joined him and Alan in jumping aboard the helicopter. Once they were aboard, the pilot revved the engine and lifted the machine into the air.
At two hundred feet, Justin got a good look at the mist that covered the ground. It seemed to rise about 50 feet into the air, and covered a circular area roughly twice the size of the original camp. Pushing thoughts of the men he'd sent out into that out of his mind, Justin analyzed the problem, seeking a solution. The small circle cleared by the twins was gone now, and it seemed the mist was growing as the helicopter hovered above the area. Alan was on the intercom, ordering the pilot to hover, while the pilot was griping about fuel consumption.
As Justin stared, thinking about the mist, he realized that he wasn't alone in his thoughts. Both the twins were there, in his mind, joining their thoughts with his in searching for a solution. When it came, it was so simple, they all three smacked their palms against their own foreheads and said "D'OH!"
Alan jumped a little at that and started muttering about having triplets around instead of twins. Justin stuck his tongue out at the man, who just groaned and commented about "men in their 30's knowing better than that", while the twins concentrated on the mist, holding it back from spreading any further.
Once they had it firmly held, Justin let his mind start to work, and forced the mist out of existence. Bit by bit, he converted it into ordinary air. It seemed to take forever, but finally, it was all gone. Once it was gone, he motioned to Alan to get the chopper on the ground.
Grumbling about people making up their minds, the pilot settled the machine back on the ground, near the original landing point. The four men got out and stared around them. The night sky didn't let much light out, but floodlight from the chopper showed the damage. Or lack of it, depending on the observer's point of view.
In a perfect circle, almost ½ a mile in diameter, there was nothing but scoured rock and dead soil. No tents, no trees, no bodies, no vehicles. Just dead ground. Shocked, they shambled around the area, spiraling around the helicopter's still turning rotors. After a few hundred feet, Justin felt something wrong. At his silent signal, they all stopped and reached out towards the wrongness.
'It's like something's torn,' Jason commented.
"Yup, like somebody took a shirt and ripped it up," Alan replied, out loud.
'What could have caused this?' Curtis asked.
After a few moments, Justin answered so that only the twins could hear him, 'I think I did. This feels like the spot I was at when I, when I came back to save everyone.'
As the four men stared at the area where they felt the invisible tear, they saw something drifting lazily in the air. When they realized what it was, they all jumped back, and the twins again reached out to hold the mist in place. 'That's where the damn thing came from!' Alan's mind voice shouted.
Justin could feel his legs going weak again, but locked them fast. It was his fault! At least 80 men dead from this mist, and he'd caused it! Just so he could save four people. He felt the twins trying to reach him, stop the train of thought, but he pushed them away. For a moment, they struggled, then wiped away his resistance.
'You didn't know!' Jason sent privately.
'It's not your fault!' Curtis echoed. Both of them funneling their certainty and love into him like a soft rainfall dropping moisture into drought parched land.
Taking a deep breath, Justin realized that something was needed to seal this tear. Alan's analogy of a shirt came leaping into his mind, and he began to work with an idea. Once again, as the twins held the mist back, he worked on the problem itself. Imagining an invisible needle and thread, he sewed the torn 'shirt' back together. As he worked, he began to feel the sense of wrongness lessen, and he could feel the force of the mist lessen against the twins' barrier. After ten minutes, he was done. The last of the wrongness had faded until it was almost impossible to feel, and no more mist appeared to be flowing.
"Whew," Alan said out loud. "I think we dodged a big bullet. You boys ready to come back? I think the brass might have a fit over this one, and I want to make sure we're all together when they do. I have no idea how to explain what happened here."
"I think it was something Corcoran must have done," Curtis said, purposely misleading the man..
On their private channel, so Alan couldn't hear, Jason said, 'It's better this way, Jaz. We have no idea where Alan stands on things, or how he'd react to the truth.'
Justin let them feel his assent, and simply sent back, 'Ok, for now.'
"You boys talking private like again?" Alan said. When they all three looked at him startled, he laughed and said, "Yup, y'all are triplets now, not twins. Ya sucked Jaz into that mind-sharing thing y'all got going. Poor Henry, he was sooo looking forward to reuniting with his Jaz."
As the three just stared at the man, he started laughing and motioned for them to follow him onto the chopper. Once they were all aboard, and belted in this time, they pilot took off and headed back east. Justin sat, looking out the open door at the ground rushing below when a thought struck him.
"SHIT!" he bellowed over the noise of a helicopter in flight. "April, Charlie, the kids. They're waiting for me!"
He had to explain it to Alan, who ordered the pilot to turn around. They purposely ignored the pilot's comment of "damn freaks can't make up their minds!" and anxiously looked out the doors at the passing countryside.
After a few minutes, they approached the road April's house was on, flying at barely a hundred feet. Or the road it had been on. It was now a burnt shell. The humvee Justin had left there was crashed headfirst into a ditch, not more than a hundred feet from the burnt shell of a home.
Without thinking, Justin unfastened his seat belt and jumped out the door. He landed like he had only jumped a few feet, and took off running towards the vehicle. Behind him, the chopper landed, disgorging Alan and the twins just as Justin reached the vehicle.
Looking inside, he saw his worst dreams realized. Charlie, behind the wheel, was dead from what looked like a dozen bullet holes. April was contorted, like she had been reaching towards the back seat when the vehicle hit the ditch. Her head was caved in, and her chest wasn't moving. Tyler must not have been belted in, because he was lying in the middle of the front area, his neck bent at an impossible angle. In the back, Kali and little Justin were belted in, bullet holes riddling their bodies.
For a moment, Justin couldn't think. His mind shut down at the horror of the sight. He didn't even hear his own voice shouting "NO! NO! NO!" over and over again. The twins reached him first, wrapping him in their arms and their minds, trying to pull him back from the vehicle. Alan stopped short, just behind them, shaking his head, tears streaming from his eyes.
"I'm sorry, boy, you don't deserve this," was all he could think to say.
As Justin collapsed to his knees, deep sobs wracking him, the twins wrapped him in their arms and in their thoughts. Love flowed through him, but washed against a buttress of pain and disbelief. When they heard the thought coming, 'I can go back again, save them this time again,' they thrust the image of the mists into his mind. He answered, thinking, 'I know that danger now, I can fix it again as soon as I go back.'
This time the twins didn't know what to say, or what to think. Could he fix it? Or would more people die? Alan solved the dilemma for them. Coming up quietly behind the three, he swung, hitting Justin at the base of the neck, sending him into unconsciousness.
"Come on, guys. Let's get him home," he said to the shocked twins. They nodded silently and loaded Justin's unconscious form into the helicopter. As the chopper moved out of sight, the vehicle shimmered and disappeared. In its place were five gravestones, marking the final resting spot of the last of Justin Ackeman's family. It was only thing the twins could think to do for the man they both loved..
The helicopter landed at a small military base. By this time, it was late at night, and only guards were on duty. Men swarmed the helicopter shortly after it set down. Under Alan's direction, they removed the injured crewmen, but left the unconscious Justin where he was, belted into a seat, supported by Jason and Curtis on either side. Both of the twins faces' were streaked from the tears they had silently shed for the entire flight. Fuel drums were rolled out and their contents hand-pumped into the helicopter's fuel tanks. Up front, the pilot and co-pilot were checking their instruments, making comments about the fact that they at least were getting a lot of flight time in.
In less than 15 minutes, the machine lifted off the ground again, this time heading slightly southwest. Once more the voyage passed without any conversation, except for the two pilots. Or any conversation that they could hear.
Alan was busy. He spent the entire time of the flight in mental contact with Henry Sells, their commanding officer. There was much to discuss and some decisions to be made. By the time they landed at the farmhouse which disguised the entrance to their base, things were ready.
Once the helicopter set down, they were met by several enlisted men bearing a stretcher. They quickly loaded Justin on the stretcher, and disappeared with him into the farmhouse. Curtis and Jason waited next to Alan as he gave instructions to the pilots. They were arguing about the orders he was giving, concerned about their fuel. The pilot was arguing that they didn't have enough fuel to make it back. Their faces suddenly went a little blank, then the lead pilot looked back at the gauges and said, "Never mind, we've got enough."
Alan took Curtis and Jason by the arms and led them away from the helicopter. Once they were clear, the machine lifted off, and headed back west. Alan could see the questions in the twins' faces and answered them.
"It had to be done, boys. There wasn't any way I could see to wipe their memories without leaving holes people could poke into. They'll crash on the trip back, out of fuel."
His comments left both Jason and Curtis stunned. Neither of them could quite grasp the need for the deaths, but they did their best to not let Alan know how it affected them. They followed the man into the house, and entered the closet/elevator. As they descended, their thoughts turned back to Justin. When he went unconscious, they felt like part of them were missing. It was like when one of them was unconscious. They were unnerved by it, and anxious to get back to Justin's side, where they belonged.
As the elevator door opened, they rushed out, starting to head towards the entrance to the psionic section of the underground base. They were stopped by a wall of men in front of them. They counted ten men, and behind them was Colonel Burns. They could feel the tension in Alan as he stepped between them and faced the Colonel.
"What's the meaning of this, Colonel?" Alan asked.
"These boys are to be taken into protective custody, Major," Burns replied, stressing Alan's rank. "Events on their mission require that they be interrogated to ensure their loyalty. Don't bother objecting, these orders come right from the top, the President himself. You will report to Colonel Sells for further debriefing yourself."
'Boys, you better go with them, and be sure to answer their questions as honestly as you can. If they think you're holding back, they aren't gonna go easy on ya. Get my drift?' Alan sent mentally.
As they nodded, the men in front of the Colonel moved forward, and four of them grabbed each twin's arms, and herded them into a section of the base they'd never seen before. After a few turns through some corridors, they were led into separate interrogation rooms. Both rooms were small, with one-way mirrors, and a table in the middle. They were put into chairs, with their backs to the door, and left alone.
Thanks to their bond, they weren't really separated. They could feel each other, talk to each other, even see what the other saw. But they still felt incomplete since Justin was unconscious. Then, they felt something snap back into place, and realized that Justin was awake.
Justin felt himself swimming back into conciousness. For a moment he was totally disoriented. Then, he felt something snap back into place. Worry, concern, and love welcomed him back as his connection to Curtis and Jason came back. For a few moments, he just drifted, enjoying the feeling of not being alone in his own head.
Then worry hit him. He hadn't opened his eyes yet, but knew he was in a different room than they were. Quickly, they flooded him with their memories of the flight back, the departure of the helicopter, and Colonel Burns' meeting them. In a flash he was as worried as they were. He made sure that his eyes stayed shut, and his body gave no sign that he was awake. In his mind though, he joined the twins in thinking about what to do, and what to say. He was quite sure that even a small portion of some of the things that had passed would land all of them in big trouble with people like Colonel Burns.
Their thoughts were interrupted when a man wearing a doctor's lab coat walked into Jason's interrogation room. Without introducing himself, they man ordered Jason to hold out his arm (he was still dressed in the dirty fatigue pants and t-shirt he had on when Justin's warning reached them at the camp). When he held out his arm, the doctor tapped the inside of the arm, near the elbow for a few seconds, then produced a syringe and injected something into Jason. Without saying another word he left, and appeared in Curtis' room a few seconds later. The same procedure was instantly repeated.
Within moments, both Jason and Curtis were feeling odd. Their heads were swimming and they were finding it more and more difficult to maintain control, and communicate with each other, or Justin. 'Uh oh,' they thought at the same time. 'This could be bad.'
Thinking fast, Justin reached out with his mind, trying to maintain contact with them. He felt odd as well, like he had been injected with the drug. His eyes opened to see Barry Kiles standing over him.
"I think he's coming around," the doctor said.
"Justin, listen to me, Justin," Henry's voice boomed all over just as the man's face appeared in his field of view. "We have to ask you some questions about what happened. Commander Kiles has injected you with a stimulant to bring you around, and a drug to make sure that you can't lie. This interview is being broadcast live to several different flag officers. You need to answer as truthfully and fully as possible. Don't hold anything back, and everything will be ok."
Scared, Justin's mind felt like it was trying to race through quicksand. It was so hard to concentrate. Not only could he feel the disorientation from the drugs in his system, but he felt even more that same disorientation bouncing off of Curtis and Jason in a three-way loop. All of a sudden, some barrier seemed to break through, and one of them achieved a moment of clarity. In that moment, none of them were sure which one it was, but it didn't matter. That moment of clarity was all that was necessary to create a fake persona for all three of them, one that wouldn't reveal too much.
The questioning seemed to take forever, and no time at all. All three felt like they were floating on a warm river. Weightless, giddy, just floating along together. Finally, they all three fell back to sleep, not even sure of what they had been asked, or what they had said.
Justin floated on the edge of conciousness, taking delight in the feeling of Curtis and Jason sleeping next to him. Obviously, they'd been moved into the infirmary with him. He could feel them physically close by, and also in his head. This was weird, but so wonderful at the same time.
He was still himself. Yet he was more now also. It was like the twins and he were all part of the same person, just different faces, different aspects. He could remember their lives like he had lived them. Two different perspectives on 18 years of life. He could also remember his own life, and knew that they could as well. For a second, he was extremely uncomfortable knowing that they would know all of him. All of the bad things he'd done, and why. Not just the good things.
But as he thought of that, he realized he could remember things from their past too. Like when Curtis had gotten jealous of a guy Jason was dating, and pretended to be his brother. They'd fought after that, didn't even speak for a week. Then he remembered the hurt Jason had gone through, and the reconciliation. That was when they swore to never date alone again. 'Man,' Justin thought to himself, 'this is gonna take some getting used to.'
He could hear murmurs coming from the far side of the room, and concentrated until he could hear them.
"Command is not happy about this," Henry's voice was saying.
"So what?" Alan's gruff voice responded. "You can't say their stories don't check out. They each told the same damn story, and from each other's point of view. Justin told us what happened with the twins in camp while he had dinner with his family, and they told us every little detail of the dinner!"
"Those old farts in Washington don't really understand us or our abilities," Barry Kiles' voice interjected. "If it wasn't for the fact that the drugs we used haven't failed to yield total honesty, they'd probably have ordered the three shot instead of released."
"Still," Henry said, "they aren't going to want to let any of them out of here for a while. I know Curtis and Jason did a good job teaching mentalist skills earlier. Do you think Jaz will do good at teaching?"
"I think so," Barry said. "It makes better sense to have them teach than sit around all day."
"Don't know about that," Alan chuckled. "We might just find out how much time they could spend in bed together if we didn't give them any duties."
All three men had a laugh at that. Curtis and Jason chose that moment to wake up. Unlike Justin, they came instantly awake, eyes flying open, and sitting up in bed, looking around with confusion.
Justin felt them stirring, and welcomed them back to consiousness with mental 'Good Morning' that only they could hear. While they stretched their arms wide, and the three older men walked across the room, Justin filled them in on the conversation he'd overheard.
Henry stopped in front of Justin's bed, which was the middle of the three. His powerful figure seemed to gleam in the sterile medical ward. Hands on his hips, flanked by Barry on the right, Alan on the left, he looked at the three.
"Boys, I thought twins were bad enough, but triplets is gonna drive me crazy. Welcome Home!"
As the three relaxed back onto the hospital beds, they let out a little sigh of relief. At least he wasn't going to be mad about the fact that Justin was no longer interested in him. He looked at them quizzically, then realized what they must have been thinking.
"It's not something we like to advertise, but David Baxter and I have been a couple since we were both first stationed here. I'll trust you three to keep that to yourselves. I don't want it spread around the damn base!"
As they promised they wouldn't say a word, all at the same time, using the same exact words, Henry and Alan both started laughing while Barry shook his head.
"Told ya," Alan said. "It's like Jaz was born linked to them. At least he looks..."
Alan's voice drifted off as all three grinned mischievously and Justin's form blurred until he looked just like Curtis and Jason, platinum blond hair billowing over his eyes. Then, all three blurred until they all looked like Justin. Finally, the twins blurred some more and resumed their normal appearance.
They all laughed at the stunned looks of the three officers in front of them. Justin decided to take pity on them, and to provide some cover.
"Don't worry. They can't do that unless I'm awake, and..I guess we could call it 'loaning' them my abilities. I'm not too sure about how this linking, or melding, thing works, and neither are they, but I assume it's something you're gonna want us to work on?"
"You might say that," Henry said as he got his mouth working again. "What you've done here, and from your, um, your debriefing it's obvious that this 'melding' of yours is complete between the three of you. Command wants to discover more about it, and the nature of the 'mist' and the 'tear' that Corcoran created. For now, all three of you are going to be assigned here at the Center as Instructors. In your spare time you will research more about this bonding between you three, and share what you find with us. We may be able to use that to our advantage."
"Also," Barry interjected, "you should know that after Command learned about Corcoran, they ordered every single one of us to undergo the same, um, debriefing techniques that were used with you. If anyone else is having tendencies to commit treason, they will be dealt with."
"Yeah," Alan said, "they weren't too happy that Corcoran turned out to be a bad apple. They were just happy that he'd never been able to scan any of them while he was on the Presidential Security detail."
As looks of relief passed across all three faces, Henry assumed they were just relieved that Corcoran hadn't done anything then either. Hell, Henry was relieved. This was his command, and he didn't like the idea of having to execute anyone in it.
"Well, unless you three would rather take up my bed space all day," Barry said, " I recommend that y'all go back to your quarters and sleep off the rest of the drugs. You don't need to stay here anymore."
With that, Henry and Barry walked back towards the far end of the room, where Barry's office was. Alan came over to the three, who were getting out of bed, looking around for clothes other than the hospital gowns they were wearing.
"Boys, y'all are gonna have to go through the halls dressed like that. Your clothes have all been taken away cause they were so dirty." He was grinning at the sight of them, butts hanging out the open back of the hospital gowns, and chuckling to himself over what the talk would be after they made the trek back to their rooms.
"Um, Jaz, you gonna keep your old room or move in with them?" he asked.
"Their room, Alan, they've got a bigger bed that should fit all three of us!" Justin laughed back at the man. He wrapped his arms around the twins and said, "Come on, lover boys, our minds may know each other, but let's introduce our bodies now." With that, all three of them took off, racing back to their room...
to be continued.