This is a very ambitious first attempt at a bit of fan-fiction. Any sort of input would be welcome. I have played a little fast and loose with the x-men time-line, so please bear with me. This story is directly inspired by the Archetype Association, written by James R. Mcbriarty. I have borrowed William Riley from his story; I hope that I do him justice. I have borrowed a batch of mutants from the Marvel Universe (any X-men fan will recognize them). I am not making any money off this so good luck suing. Melanie, Erick, Larry, Gayle, Anna, and Gabriel are all my own creations. Emeralda's personality is my own creation, but the character concept comes from a Squaresoft game. If you like the way they are written, feel free to borrow them for your own inspiration.
 

A Note to the Reader:

Unchained Hearts has been approved as an alternate reality 'sequel' to The Archetype Association, breaking off from the 'main' timeline of my work just after the end of Movement Two, and taking place approximately five years later. The stories should be considered independent of one another; although I am sure that Mr. Rosnawski and I may play off one another as our respective works progress.

I was very pleased and entertained by Unchained Hearts. I hope you will be, too.

Jim R. McBriarty

Chapter Two

Gabriel woke up slowly. For some reason he couldn't focus on anything in particular. When he tried to move his arms, he found that they were restrained for some reason. He couldn't see anything of his environment, but the sounds that he was noticing; well he didn't want to think about those.

Once he found his voice, Gabriel tried calling for help, but that seemed to have no effect. He tried to get up, but he found that his entire body was bolted down by some form of metallic restraint, keeping him immobile. He tested their strength, and found them to be well beyond his strength. He wished he were stronger.

He couldn't give up though. Giving up would mean that all he would have left were the voices to keep him company. He didn't know how he stayed sane. He could hear at least a dozen voices. Screaming, crying, laughing; the sound of the voices was a mad chorus. The pain didn't matter. style='mso-spacerun:yes'>  He had to figure a way out of this place.

Gabriel heard an electronic beep and light flooded his cell. With the door open, the voices grew louder, much louder. When he turned his head to focus on the light, he wished that he hadn't.

A squat little man, much smaller then he was, walked into his cell. His body was badly misshapen, as if someone had taken a hammer and broken a lot of his bones when he was a baby. One of his eyes was almost invisible beneath a mass of bone and scar tissue. His arms were massive. Gabriel thought that they would look ridiculous on him, let alone such a small body. One of his legs was much too large for his small frame, forcing him to drag it along behind him. All in all, it was the ugliest person that Gabriel had ever seen.

His breathing had a wheezing tone to it, as if he had to fight for every breath. "The master will see you now," he said, choking up the words. Gabriel remained silent as he was wheeled out of his cell. He tried to call on his own voice, but he could think of nothing to say, and one look into his captor's eyes told him that he would not be let go so easily.

He looked around as much as he could to try and get his bearings, but it didn't help. There were no windows that he could look through. It seemed to be a prison of some sort that he was in, but he had never heard of a prison where the prisoners were the subjects of involuntary surgery. Several of the rooms that he passed contained the echoing screams of the dying. Gabriel kept his eyes shut and tried to force his tears away. He could do nothing to help these people.

He had no time to think on it though, as the Igor look-alike stopped. They were at the end of a long hallway. "Answer the Master's questions quickly and you won't be made to suffer." The little troll wheeled him in without another word and then he quickly backed himself out.

Gabriel was inside what appeared to be the surgery room from hell. Blood was splattered everywhere, even on the ceiling. The instruments that lay around him were clean, but when he looked from side to side, he could see what looked like several types of torture devices hanging on the walls.

Gabriel heard someone walk toward him. The steps stopped and the person jumped up on the table beside him. This person was obviously a mutant. The man looked like an ape covered in blue fur, but the sunken eyes betrayed a fierce intelligence and a pitiless heart.

He began puttering around with some of his instruments, not saying a word to Gabriel. Gabriel tried to outwait him, but this person obviously had all of the time in the world. "What do you want?" Gabriel asked, trying not to sound scared. The mutant did not even pay him the slightest bit of notice. He just continued on with his work, preparing his tools for their upcoming work.

Gabriel closed his eyes and started breathing deeply, trying to find a way to relax. The weird little Igor look-alike came into the room again. Gabriel saw him approach the blue-haired mutant carefully and hand him some documents. The mutant quickly scanned the papers, and then he passed them back in the direction of the little man, barely acknowledging his presence.

"Well, Gabriel, is it? You are a very lucky young man. You see, the fates have gifted you with a set of mutant genes. Unfortunately for you, I crave these genes for my experiments, if you will. If you will kindly tell me the nature of these abilities that you possess, my experiments shouldn't be too painful."

Gabriel thought that the mutant was insane. Nothing had ever happened in his presence to give him a hint that he was a mutant. But somehow, he felt a deeper fear. It made no sense, but he felt as though a secret of his had been revealed.

The blue haired mutant lowered his face so close to Gabriel's that he could smell the evil thing's breath. His voice may have been calm, almost nice, but Gabriel didn't like his eyes. To him, they were the eyes of someone who was dead to everything except for his own needs, his own petty concerns.

He lost his patience very quickly. Moving almost quicker then Gabriel could follow; the blue haired mutant went to the wall that held various evil looking implements. He grabbed two of them and then he turned toward Gabriel. Gabriel became really afraid. That dead look was gone from his eyes, and it was replaced by something that was, evil.

"Listen here, you runt," he said, his voice filled with hate. "If you do not tell me how it is that you can hide your powers, I am going to make the next few days for you and your friend an exquisite lesson in agony."

Gabriel tried to keep calm, but his look of dismay registered with his captor. "Oh yes, my young mutant. I have your friend here with me. I have found out, the hard way that he knew nothing of your mutant abilities."

"You bastard, what have you done to Peter!"

"Oh my young friend, what has happened to him! Maybe I will show you."

He quickly turned toward the door and the air was filled with the wail of a siren. Two more little people, very similar to the one who wheeled him in pushed in a cart that was covered with a tarp. The little ones looked up to their master, who nodded in a seemingly benevolent way. They seemed strangely relieved as they backed away and quickly withdrew from the room.

The blue-haired ape-man pulled back the tarp, and Gabriel could only watch in horror. What was under the tarp was not human, but it wasn't an animal either. It had two huge legs ending in three-clawed feet. It had a massive barrel chest covered in scales. The arms were covered in fur and ended in clawed fingers. But the worst was the head. Although badly disfigured, Gabriel could not help but recognize Peter's face.

"You should listen to Master McCoy, Gabe. He has shown me such wondrous things. He can help you with your power Gabe, power is everything."

Peter turned silent again when McCoy covered his face with the tarp. Gabriel felt his heart break for his friend. He hoped that Gabriel wasn't suffering in that broken body anymore.

"As you can see my young friend, Peter has learned the truth, so I have rewarded him. Surely if Peter can see the light, then you will be more reasonable" "You bastard!" Gabriel nearly screamed. "I have no idea what you are talking about!"

McCoy seemed angry for a second but a young woman got his attention. She whispered something to him and Gabriel saw that strange little smile again.

"So young man, you really don't know about your abilities. How unfortunate, for you. Now then, I will have to bring my pet, Alexis into play."

Out of the shadows walked a woman who seemed to be physically normal. She had an odd look in her eye though; her eyes seemed to be dead, until they met McCoy's eyes. Her eyes seemed to blaze with power as he motioned for her to move closer. She kneeled in front of the mutant McCoy, not saying a word.

McCoy's self-control seemed to be restored by the woman's words. He approached Gabriel with a smile, and whispered, as if confiding in a friend. "You know Gabriel, Alexis is one of the finer mutant telepaths in the world. When I give her the word, she is going to scan you to the depths of your soul. You will feel pain that is, indescribable as she reaches toward your hidden nexus of power. I give you one chance to submit willingly to my experimentation."

Gabriel was beyond fear. He spat into the doctor's face and started struggling for all he was worth. This made the doctor smile a cold, chilling smile. "Somehow, I knew that it would end like this with you."