"Come on." "Eric, maybe i can do without it." "Well, you tried to stay off it before, and you almost died." "Yeah, but, see, i heard about these people." "Mutant x." "They're supposed to help people like me." "I'm looking after you now." "I love you, ash, and no one's going to keep us apart." "Now, you stay back this time." "Hold it right there, ashley." "Time to stop running and come on home." "Hey!" "The power grid just died." "The whole northwest quadrant's blacked out." "Oh, my god." "You killed him." "I didn't mean to." "One twist and he's history." "Please, just let him go." "I knew he'd be your soft spot." "Go." "Come on now, before you need another feeding." "Let's go." "Listen to him, ashley." "For me." "Now!" "Ashley!" "Damn it!" "Come on, go!" "Go!" "Go on!" "Ufos?" "Black helicopters?" "Who knows?" "And who cares?" "Trust proxy blue to have her own generator." "Whatever it was, it ate one of the city's power grids." "So lock your doors and bar your windows." "I'm beginning to loathe that computer-generated troublemaker." "She's the only thing on-air." "Come on, i ought to hear something about what's going on out there." "Well, sometimes nothing is better than endless stream of paranoia." "Shalimar?" "Yeah, we're still here, adam." "Good." "Hey, adam, figured out what's caused the blackout yet?" "Well, trans-el hasn't made any public statement yet, but i'm concerned about rumours i've heard from the underground - about new mutants with a tremendous appetite for energy." "I want you two back here." "Emma's tapping into trans-el's mainframe." "And i think i might've found something." "Trans-el's technical investigation unit seems to think an outside source knocked out the grid and drained the power." "Hm." "Well, a new mutant database search should turn up any elementals who could be suspects." "But all the elementals i know throw off energy like brennan." "Yeah, but i've heard about a couple energy absorbers in the underground." "Yeah, and one of them could be mutating." "These three are the most likely possibilities." "Now, when one of these energy-absorbing elementals mutates, they seem to become ravenously hungry for power and completely unable to control that appetite." "Put that out, mr." "Cross." "Now." "Where's ashley elliott?" "I haven't got her in custody - yet." "Yes, i gather that." "She managed to reach a transformer before i got to her." "I expected better from you, mr." "Cross." "That's just because my track record makes your gs agents look like losers." "Well, i won't argue with that." "You are the best bounty hunter that i've ever worked with." "That said, it is imperative that you understand:" "Miss elliott is unlike any new mutant you've tracked for me." "We went over this when you took out the contract for her." "You want to use her as a weapon to wipe out an enemy's power grid, blah, blah, blah." "I suppose you can afford to be so cavalier since we did agree to pay you a million-dollar bounty." "That's just because you realized you had no other choice." "Your people would've never found her." "I expect you to execute our agreement." "No more empty promises, no more excuses, no more delays." "No problem." "Hello?" "Ashley." "Oh, eric." "Oh, god, i'm so sorry to leave you in a lurch like that." "I... i... i just didn't know what else to do." "No, no, baby, it's all right, really." "We both know you did what you had to do." "Where are you?" "Cross stuck me in a quonset hut on an abandoned air force base." "I think it's somewhere near route 17." "Are you all right?" "Yeah, he left me alone." "He stuck me in some kind of storage cage." "Should i call the police?" "No, no, no." "They'll ask too many questions." "Then i'm coming to get you." "Eric?" "Eric?" "Station twelve has a four-hundred-megawatt capacitor." "You're saying one of these three elementals absorbed that much energy?" "He or she is mutating which means that the hunger is so intense that only enormous quantities of pure energy is going to satisfy - and then not for long." "You can stop the mutation, though." "Well, that depends on what biological stage she's at." "But brennan, it doesn't mean that this is going to happen to you." "Genetically related, though, right?" "Well, yeah, you're all elementals but, you know, the similarity ends there." "Besides, i'll be monitoring you." "Well, jesse and i will go check out the station." "No, no, no." "Shalimar and emma will do that first thing in the morning." "I want you and jesse to work the data from here." "What?" "Well, the problem is that this new mutant consumes energy, right?" "So, i mean, think of it like this, that this rogue elemental's dc power." "You're ac." "So you two get together, it could be explosive." "Brennan, potentially lethal." "Ashley!" "Eric." "I shouldn't have called you." "Are you okay?" "I couldn't leave you here." "You don't know this guy." "He's... just a businessman." "It's really nothing personal." "But certain parties have a strong interest in you and your unique abilities." "Who?" "Why don't we let your boyfriend explain that to you?" "What's he talking about?" "Just do what he says, ash." "See?" "It's that simple." "When in doubt, always best to cooperate." "Unless you want things to get even messier." "Think i've got something." "Yeah, me, too." "You first." "A woman's footprints burned into the grass." "I guess we're looking for the female elemental then, huh?" "Yeah, ashley elliott." "What have you got?" "Well, i'm thinking she had company." "Cigar butt." "A cheroot, to be precise." "And i'm having a hard time believing she smokes these." "Adam will want to analyze that." "I think so." "Hey." ""Leaves of grass"?" "Poetry happens to help me relax and whitman's a great poet." "Aren't you supposed to be working?" "No, i'm waiting for adam's dna report on that cigar butt." "Thank you." "Now, a good cheroot, that's relaxing." "Well, at least we agree on something." "Good poetry, good cigar go hand in hand." "Yeah." "Well, we'd both rather be out looking for her." "Yeah, of course." "Come on, who's more qualified to find her than me?" "With my electrical charge, i'm the best bait there is." "Yeah, and of course that's the only reason, right?" "I mean, the fact that she is so hot she could make your eyes bleed has nothing to do with it, right?" "She's just your type, brennan." "Beautiful, vulnerable, dangerous." "Hey, you two." "You know, the both of you make it sound like all i ever think about is sex." "Truth is i only think about sex half the time." "The other half of the time, he's thinking about poetry." "Which just makes him think more about sex." "But you're not supposed to know that." "You got all that from a cigar butt?" "Well, it was well-chewed." "Left plenty of genetic residue behind." "That's nice." "We've got a match:" "Neil cross." "You know him?" "I know of him." "Started as a repo man, moved into skip tracing." "Yeah, tracking bail jumpers." "Uh-huh." "Convicted second-degree murder, got early release for good behaviour." "Yeah, well, something tells me there wasn't a whole lot of good behaviour involved." "I heard rumours that eckhart pulled some strings to get him out." "To work for the gsa." "Uh huh." "Freelance as a bounty hunter." "Oh, that's nice." "Bringing in new mutants for money." "Well, i'll send all this information over to jesse, all previous addresses, because we find him, they find ashley elliott." "Just so long as i get a piece of him." "Hey, we got lucky." "Cross has been on a spending spree." "What do you mean?" "Well, he's got a half dozen different aliases, but the electronic money trail all leads back to the same account." "What's he buying?" "Security equipment, electronics." "Nothing really, really out of the ordinary for a bounty hunter." "You got a shipping address?" "Not unless he's a pilot." "He's been sending stuff to a hangar over at nichols air force base." "Maybe he is a pilot." "Yeah, except nichols has been out of commission for the last twenty years." "Who wants to come with me and check it out?" "Ooh, i'm right behind you." "Deliver this to mr." "Cross and bring miss elliott to me, mr." "Henshaw." "I'll need clearance for a subdermal governor implant device, sir." "But she is not to be damaged in any way." "It is imperative that you carry no electrical devices on your person when you make the arrest." "Make certain you are not within a fifty-yard radius of any power lines, power stations, transformers or any electrical unit emitting over five hundred volts and you'll be fine." "But once she has a subdermal governor on her, she'll be neutralized." "Miss elliott is mutating, mr." "Henshaw." "It is impossible to say how effective a governor will be." "Always a pleasure dealing with the gsa." "You'll need this to get her out." "She's all yours." "You're wearing rubber soles, right?" "Oh my god." "Get her out of there." "No." "Please." "Relax, miss elliott." "We're not going to hurt you." "Let me go." "Eric!" "Subdermal governor now!" "This is only half my money." "I don't know anything about that." "Well, you tell eckhart until i get the rest, the girl stays here." "Get his gun and cover him." "You're dead, all of you!" "You stay away from me." "I'll take it from here." "Should've listened to my friend here when you had the chance." "You're okay with us, ashley." "But we've got to get you to safety." "Where am i?" "It's called sanctuary." "My name's adam." "So mutant x... i don't know what you might have heard about us, but this part is true." "Then you have to help me." "Eric is in serious trouble." "Who's eric?" "Eric, my fiance." "Cross still has him." "We're here to help." "You shouldn't be in here." "Why?" "She's got a governor on, right?" "It should be perfectly safe." "There's no need to take unnecessary chances." "Shalimar, would you come in please?" "Listen, i don't need your help." "I just need eric." "Ashley, you should listen to adam." "Right." "I recommend that you do the same." "Now, ashley, your abilities are mutating, which is where this appetite for energy comes from." "We'll do what we can to find eric, but you need to stay here so i can compile a genetic profile." "Once i figure out the extent of your mutation i... adam, maybe i should go get eric." "Right." "Shalimar's going to keep you company here, make sure that you're comfortable." "Let's you and i go have a little talk." "Brennan." "Brennan." "You okay?" "Yeah." "Yeah, i'm fine." "Yeah?" "Maybe, maybe not." "What she's feeling for you is pure electromagnetism." "And what are you feeling?" "I don't know." "I just really want to help her." "Well, we're all going to do that." "Okay, well, then i don't see what the problem is." "I can still, you know... yeah, okay, yeah." "Maybe you can handle the magnetism." "Maybe she can't." "Look, adam, it's not magnetism." "We're both elementals." "We just have a connection." "You okay?" "I shouldn't even be here." "I should be with eric." "Well, i think i know how you feel." "No, you haven't the faintest idea how i feel." "Being pulled in two different directions." "I mean, you want to help your boyfriend, but there's brennan right in front of you." "All right, but you're not hearing what i'm saying." "No, i am hearing what you're saying." "I'm just asking." "I mean, why can't i go in and have a conversation with her?" "Brennan, i don't want you to think that this is something other than what it is." "She's dangerous for you." "You stay away from her." "Is he your boyfriend?" "No." "He's more like a brother." "So this isn't about you protecting your turf." "No, it's not." "I'm trying to tell you that what you're feeling about brennan has absolutely nothing to do with eric." "It's pure electromagnetic attraction." "I just need to talk to him, just for a minute." "Can't let you do it." "But he wants to help me." "We all want to help you." "But for everyone's sake, including yours, you've got to stay away from him." "Ashley, i don't know how to find you so i'm... i'm calling our voice mail." "Cross said he's going to kill me unless you come back here." "I don't want to tell you to do that." "I just don't see any other way." "I love you, ash, i really do." "How was that?" "If you ask me, you laid it on a little thick." "Come on, she loves that stuff." "Trust me." "Ashley thinks that i am the best thing that ever happened to her." "Speaking of the best thing, we need to talk about my cut." "What about it?" "Come on, fifty grand?" "I heard you arguing with those guys about the half mil' they owe you." "You and me, we had our deal." "Well, that was before i knew how much you were making off my hard labour." "That's my business." "Ashley wouldn't come running if not for me." "True, and don't think i don't appreciate you making that call." "Well, i finally got tired of waiting." "Hey." "How come you didn't come back?" "Well, i wanted to, but... wait a minute." "Adam said you're not supposed to leave the lab." "I know, but i had to come and find you." "You know what?" "Adam also said that we're not supposed to get too close." "Yeah, he told me that, too, but i... i thought this thing made it okay." "Well, apparently, the governor doesn't work so well when you're mutating." "Well, at least i don't feel like i'm going to pass out if i don't get my energy feed." "That's a good thing." "So do you ever worry that something like this is going to happen to you?" "No, it won't, at least not in the same way." "But you're feeling something right now, too, aren't you?" "I mean, it's... it's not just me, is it?" "No, it's not just you." "Adam said there's some kind of electromagnetic pull happening between us that's got nothing to do with... well, with what i want to do right now." "Yeah, he made that pretty clear." "I'm really confused." "I mean, i love eric." "I'm worried sick about him." "But i look at you and... i'm sorry." "I... i... i just had to find out how that felt." "Ashley, wait." "Wait." "Please... don't tell eric." "Cross said he's going to kill me unless you come back here." "I don't want to tell you to do that." "I just don't see any other way." "I love you, ash." "I really do." "Then if you guys aren't going to help, i'm going back there." "Ashley, i have to ask you something, something very important." "How well do you know eric?" "What's that supposed to mean?" "I'm closer to him than anybody in the world." "Why?" "This is a voice stress analyzer." "Yeah, well, i guess he's under a lot of stress." "It's also a pretty accurate lie detector." "What?" "He's not lying." "Adam incorporated this technology into the systems... you know what?" "Eric's call came in over an hour ago." "We're wasting our time." "What's going on?" "I analyzed eric's call to ashley's voice mail." "There's the results." "He's lying." "You're wrong, both of you." "Cross nabbed her the last time he called." "He's setting her up." "And she is convinced that she needs to save him." "Why don't you and shalimar head over there?" "And jesse, keep your eye on cross." "Yeah." "Please, brennan." "Woah, hey... you have to help me." "Are you okay?" "What's wrong?" "Nobody is listening to me." "Everybody's saying eric's lying." "Cross is going to kill him unless we do something." "Okay." "Okay, let's talk." "Come on, go." "Eric needs me and no one's letting me go to him." "That's all i want to do." "Ashley, you can't leave." "What am i supposed to do, brennan?" "Let him die?" "No, i am not saying that." "But i don't think cross is interested in eric, except as bait to get you to come running." "Yeah, but i'm scared of what he's going to do if i don't." "Ashley, you are in no condition to go anywhere or help anyone right now." "How about you?" "I can't do anything." "Is that what you guys stand for?" "Ashley, it's more complex than that." "Explain it to me then." "Just because eric isn't a new mutant, it's okay to let him die?" "No." "You are our priority right now, ashley." "You don't understand." "None of you... ashley, wait." "Ashley, your governor blew up." "Okay, you need to listen to me right now." "Ashley, don't do it." "Ashley, don't do it." "Don't." "Ashley, you seen brennan?" "He's around." "Hey, you're supposed to stay in the lab." "Well, jesse, i'm... i'm just going to take your plane out for a little spin." "Can't you make any adjustments to her to slow the mutation?" "Well, yeah, i can slow it but at this point, i can't stop it and until i get the exact adjustment, the best thing we can do is help her ride it out." "Ashley is so scared and confused." "Well, believe me, i know... adam!" "What happened?" "He tried to stop ashley." "She hit me with an electric charge, then took off in the double helix." "Blasted you?" "She doesn't throw energy, she absorbs it." "And how did she know how to operate the helix?" "Where's brennan?" "Ashley." "Ashley, can you hear me?" "I hear you." "I need you to come back in." "Forget about it." "Is brennan with you?" "He's closer than you'd ever imagine." "What's that supposed to mean?" "Ashley, i'm going to talk you back in." "It's too late for that." "See if you can do an override." "Okay." "ashley's got brennan trapped somewhere." "Ashley." "Ashley, did you somehow manage to absorb brennan, his energy?" "You we're right, adam." "He really should've kept his distance." "Okay, ashley, you've got to listen to me." "I'm finished listening." "I've got to save eric." "Eric sold you out." "He's working for cross now." "Eric would never do that." "He loves me." "Ashley?" "She turned off the com link." "Nice to see you again, ashley." "You made the right decision." "Let eric go and i'll do whatever you want." "Ashley, ashley, ashley, you've got to learn how to trust or you're never going to find a place in this world." "Who are you selling me to?" "Now, that's not fair." "After all we've been through, you make me sound so unfeeling." "Okay." "If you're not going to answer my question, then tell me where eric is." "It was eric who offered to bring you to me in the first place." "I don't believe you." "Believe what you want, honey." "She wants you back, eric." "Eric?" "What have you done to him?" "Where is he?" "He's behind the trailer." "Any luck?" "Well, i think i've got cross' cell phone number." "He's had a lot of aliases, lots of phone numbers." "I'm accessing the frequency now." "I've got the girl." "You still want her?" "Got him." "I appreciate your persistence." "And i appreciate your deep pockets." "Two million or no elemental." "No new mutant is worth that much." "Then the deal is off." "How's the girl?" "She's hungry." "But i'm going to wait until the deal's made before i fill her up with her daily volts." "She'll die if you wait too long." "Then that would just be awful, now wouldn't it?" "Considering how much you want to meet her." "Tell me where to send my men." "We got the double helix back?" "We overrode and brought it back as soon as she was out of there." "Eckhart said ashley will die if she doesn't feed soon." "And if ashley dies?" "Then brennan dies with her." "What happens when she draws power?" "Well, with brennan inside her, drawing power would be devastating." "When she absorbed him both their systems started creating antigens, and that reaction's building toward a catastrophic release." "So the more energy she absorbs, the greater the electrochemical reaction." "Exactly." "How big are we talking about?" "An explosion big enough to level a city." "Now you two get over to station twelve, all right?" "The moment she starts drawing power, i need to know." "Mr. Cross has become a liability." "I couldn't agree more, sir." "How delightful to have your support." "I would like you to go out to station twelve." "One problem with that, sir." "Cross blames me personally for the previous incident and i feel that... i have no interest whatsoever in how you feel." "Shoot mr." "Cross and this time, for god's sake, make sure he's dead." "Jesse?" "I'm here, adam." "Any sign of ashley?" "Not yet." "Emma, how much time do we have?" "I'm working on it." "Alright, emma, i've rerouted the ionizing filter to you." "Now, as soon as you're online... i'll be ready here." "Good." "Now, once ashley starts drawing energy from the power station, we have a brief window to break down the spark gap which i'll do from here." "The spark will ionize the air, magnetizing the double helix, creating a lightning rod." "And that'll pull brennan from ashley?" "That's the idea." "Remind me, never date an elemental." "I don't think brennan's going to need any reminding." "Yeah, well, i'm going to remind him anyway." "There's ashley." "She's here." "Come on, feeding time." "Wake up." "Emma, it's time to drop stealth shields and open all channels." "Trust me, adam, you don't have to ask me twice." "Now." "Hold on, emma." "She's way too close." "Pull up, adam." "Come on." "Emma, reverse the polarity now." "come on, brennan." "Come on." "You sure took your sweet time." "We got him." "How'm i doing?" "I think you're going to be all right." "I can't explain how exactly, but i feel different." "Well, i readjusted your electrochemical balance." "You'll never have the need to feed on energy like that again." "I hope not." "I just wish... how do you feel?" "Good." "Good." "So you two probably have things to talk about." "I'll see you outside." "We've got five minutes, then we'll take her to the safehouse, pass her off to her escort." "I... i haven't had a chance to apologize." "Don't worry about it." "Adam was right." "We were both just caught up in something we couldn't control." "Well, i appreciate that, brennan." "Ashley, trust me, you and i are okay." "Here, for you." "It's okay." "Adam says it's safe for us to touch now." ""Leaves of grass. "" "How did you know i fell in love with this?" "Well, let's just say i got a chance to get to know you a little." "Maybe a little too well." "But i'll never tell." "Neither will i." "Come on." "Anybody home?" "Okay." "You guys mind telling me what the hell is going on here?" "We just wanted to make sure your reflexes didn't get all screwed up." "And it looks like they did." "Hey, i thought he did pretty good." "I never should have been able to get through like that." "So you're going to need extensive retraining and you're going to need walt whitman to help you get through it." "Welcome back." "It's good to be back." "I thought you didn't want to come back."