Child Within My Heart

Chapter 1

The battle has been won but now Babe, Charlie and the other X-Hunters have a big problem on their hands. Maybe big problem is the wrong term, it might be better to say several little problems.

The children, what were they going to do with Tony’s stolen children? Luckily for them Tony kept pretty extensive records. They were able to place most of the children either back with their parents or with other relatives willing to take them in. A few others went to friends of family. All the children seem to be wanted by someone although Charlie only hopes they want the children for family and not to use their powers. After all Tony wasn’t the only evil person in the world.

Regardless, the problem seems to solve itself. That is until Charlie comes across a hidden file on Tony’s computer. Apparently, there is a second house. Although there is nothing in the file to indicate what Tony kept at this house the security is high tech and several guards have been assigned there.

“P’Babe, look at this,” Charlie calls.

Babe nods frowning at the computer screen. “Tony’s business was struggling, he needed to make a big sale. Why would he spend so much money to maintain this property? There might be something really important there.”

Charlie thinks so too, “We should check this place out.”

The property from the file is outside of Bangkok on a sprawling, well maintained estate. The entire X-Hunter team makes the trip in case there is a fight from the guards, but the property seems to be mostly abandoned. The guards must have taken off when they realized Tony would no longer be signing their paycheck.

There are two servants left, an old couple that seems scared to death of the team. Charlie tries to assure them that they won’t be hurt but the couple just stares at them with wide eyes.

Most of the rooms are empty, the furniture covered to protect it from dust. It seems that very little of the estate was being used even before now.

“So why were there so many guards?” Jeff asks.

They pass cameras in every hall and see several in the rooms they check out. “Let’s find the guard room, looking at security footage will be much quicker than searching room to room.” Alan suggests.

The guard room is on the first floor at the back of the house. The wall is covered with screens each showing a different location.

“There,” Charlie says, he points to one screen that shows a thick security door requiring a keycard to enter. The lights on the door are green indicating that the security system is active. It’s the only place in the house that seems to be locked.

Charlie and Babe grab a guard's key card off the rack and instruct Jeff and Alan to look through the file cabinets on the other side of the room to see if they can find anything. They leave Sonic and North monitoring the security cameras and the others are sent to poke around the house.

They find the locked door on the second floor near the end of the hall. Babe uses the keypad and motions for Charlie to stay back since they don’t know what they might be dealing with here.

What they find shocks them, a child no older than three or four is locked in the room as if he were a hardened criminal. This child is younger than Tony’s usual children, not old enough to know if he has special powers yet or not.

“What is this?” Babe asks.

Charlie kneels down in front of the boy. “Hello, who are you?” He asks.

The boy looks up at him with a pale face, “Are you going to hurt me?” He asks. The words almost break Charlie’s heart.

“No,” he promises. “We are nice.”