Beautiful Wilting Flowers

Mortal

Heyden POV:

The banquet food is delicious. I'm kind of sorry that we didn't go along with Ina and Greigh to look over the hard drive, but I couldn't step away from this kind of luxury. I think one of the biggest things Liana, Dean, and I share in common is our love for food. And it's a very good love. Who needs people when you have food? You can do everything a human can with it; you can talk to it, cuddle with it, play with it, tear it apart, kill it, really anything, if you think about the metaphorical phrase to the real meaning. A beautiful thing, food is.

"Haven't Greigh and Ina been away for a suspiciously long time?" Dean frowns all of a sudden in the middle of our cake chubby bunny contest.

"Oh.. yeah, let's go and check on them." I grab my plate, because the food is just too good to waste.

We find the third door on the left, and knock. No response.

"Guys, you do know that the information on the hard drive isn't going to change the harder you stare at it, right?" I joke, and Dean high fives me, but no response comes from behind the door.

Liana looks concerned now.

"Can we come in? You guys are decent, right?" She tries the joking thing too, but maybe her style of humor is just naturally more dirtier than mine. Which may actually beat my joke in some ways.

"Come on, were just kidding, open up." Dean raps on the door.

Still nothing. I'm starting to get a gut feeling that somethings wrong. They wouldn't leave us hanging like this.

"Were coming in, okay?" I ask, and rattle the doorknob, but it doesn't move. "Liana. Open the door." I indicate to her fingers.

"Guys, I don't do that anymore, it's like cheating at life." She groans, looking like she knows she's not going to win the battle though.

"Just do it." Dean snaps, and Liana glares at him.

"Fine, cover me." She sighs in annoyance. Dean gets behind her and shields her from view with his body.

Liana snaps her fingers quickly, and a small bobby pin appears in her hand.

"So you can still do it." Dean mocks surprise, and Liana backhands his chest. She slides the pin into the lock and rattles around.

A pair of footsteps sound in the hallway behind us.

"Come on, hurry!" I whisper yell at Liana.

"I'm trying!" She whispers back. "You know how bad this would look for us if were trying to break into their office?"

"Wow, gee, I'm not sure!" I sarcastically snap just as she clicks the door open.

Liana stands up to her full height again, and quickly opens it completely, and a woosh of weird smelling air blows in our faces.

"Great. More weird smelling air." Dean mutters, scratching the back of his head.

"Huh?" Liana and I squint at him, but he just shakes his head.

"Forget it, maybe you guys have bad noses." He waves it off, and I look at him quizzically before a sharp migraine hits my head.

"Jeez, is it just me, or did that air give you guys a weird migraine too?" I wince, and Dean and Liana nod, both scrunching their faces up weirdly.

"Yeah- Greigh!" Liana suddenly rushes into the room where Ina and Greigh are lying unconscious on the floor. She rushes over to her brother, pushing his floppy body onto his back and slapping his cheek a few times.

"Jeez; were they in there where the air came from?" Deans eyebrows raise comically high as he makes his way over to Ina to try to wake her up too, bringing the collar of his shirt up onto the bridge of his nose to attempt to avoid the smell.

Greigh starts to stir, and Liana sighs loudly in relief.

"I am so glad you're awake." She hugs her brother, a little tearfully, and Greigh seems to suddenly remember a bunch of things.

"I'm glad you're alive too." He laughs, less amused, more blank, accepting her embrace. He gets up wobblily, and hops over to the desk.

"Guys; it was the Turners." He reaches the other end of the room and flicks a dial off. Where all of the gas was coming from! (Not that kind of gas!)

"Huh?" Dean asks from where Ina's starting to wake.

"The Turners are after the serum. I lead us right into this!" Greigh slides a hand across his face. Then he notices something on the table. A piece of paper. "Oh my god. I can't read this." He hands the paper over to me. I take it with a shaky hand, not sure I want to read it either, but everyone's already looking at me, so.. here goes nothing?

"Greigh,

We knew you and your immortal friends would try to keep the serums for yourselves. And we don't blame you; they come with so much power. So to even it up a little, we sent the immortality serum information to our lab scientist we hired, and he created an anti-immortality gas. Of course, you and your friends fell right into the trap. Even a small exposure to that air will decease the immortality chemicals, making you yet again; mortal. We are now on our way of trying to locate Dr. Black's famous lab. Just to give you a fair warning, because you don't stand a chance, were going to make counter serums after we get the real ones to strip you of your powers.

Signed, Sarah and Robert Turner." I finish reading, and my friends explode.

"MORTAL?!"

"COUNTER SERUMS?!"

"STRIP US OF OUR POWERS?!"

Everyone starts screaming things, and I take a step back. My head is already pounding; that's what this feels like. Vulnerability. I've never felt that one before.

PHWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dean wolf whistles to get everyone's attention, looking severely irritated, and all of our heads swerve towards him.

"So it's settled, then?" He surveys all of our frantic faces, looking serious, which is an expression that I feel I've never seen on him. "We get to the serum before the Turners do?"

We all look around at each other, and the decision is unanimous.