The light of the morning sun filtered through the blinds, falling on Dex's sleeping form. He awoke a short while later, still groggy from a long trip the night before. Rubbing his glowing red eyes, Dex fumbled with the items on his nightstand. It took a while, but eventually he found what he was looking for ...

With a sigh of relief, Dex slid on his trademark red sunglasses, and slowly got out of bed. He threw on some random clothes and shuffled out of the room towards the kitchen. Pausing in the living room, Dex's gaze fell on the person still asleep on his couch.

"Kyle ... man, it's been one hell of a ride the last few months hasn't it?"

He lingered for only a moment, then continued on to the kitchen, and started rummaging through the cupboards for something that might resemble coffee. While searching, Dex's mind wandered, and he started going over the last few months in his head.

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It all started with some strange clues in the lab.

Evidence of Kyle's blood. Scuff marks from special military boots. A blank security tape. An eyewitnesses account of military men entering the back of the building. Account transfers, and of course, the assassination attempt on Dex's life.

The last one was kind of a big giveaway. Luckily, he'd been able to glean some info off the assassin before the mutant had escaped. Teleporters. There wasn't much one could do to stop them from leaving.

Jimmy had been a great asset too. The young hacker managed to track some of OMEGA's forces down, giving Dex another opportunity to find out what they'd done with Kyle. He already had an idea what they'd done, but he was hoping it wasn't too late.

More assassins. More inept assassins. OMEGA must've been speeding up their training program. The last two they send barely even scratched Dex. But they were the easiest to get some good info out of.

With their info, and a little more help from Jimmy, Dex finally found the OMEGA facility, hidden in the Rocky mountains. He took down half their forces, but wasn't able to get to Kyle before the remainder of their men escaped with the prisoners. Repeating this cycle of assassins, help from Jimmy, and more trekking in the wilderness, Dex spent months at the heels of OMEGA.

Finally, he succeeded in reaching Kyle before they had time to flee. Luckily, the constant moving around had kept them from fully starting Kyle's conversion. He was still drugged, and needed some serious psychotherapy, but he'd survive. Dex took him to a safe house he had on the west coast, and started Kyle on the road to recovery.

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Dex popped open the lid of the can, and took a whiff.
"Meh ... smells okay."
Throwing some in the like-new coffee pot, Dex turned around to find Kyle standing in the doorway, scratching his head.

"Hey cuz .. how are ya?"
"I'm okay." Kyle responded sleepily, rubbing his eyes. "It still sounds weird when you call me that, Dex."
"I know. Sounds weird to me too. Want me to stop?"
Kyle shrugged. "I dunno. I guess it has kind of a ring to it now. Cuz ..."

Dex smiled, and turned back to the cupboards, looking for a couple of mugs.
"Coffee should be ready in a minute or so. After we go grab some breakfast, what'cha say we go see how the folks at NPI are doing?"
Kyle grinned. "Sure. I guess after all I've been through, I could use a little bit of normalcy right now."

((To be continued ...))

Kyle just stood there, staring in disbelief.
"How ....?"

It should be right in front of him, but it wasn't. All he saw was a bunch of rubble, and some workers cleaning it up. Was his mind playing tricks on him?

Almost in an instant, Dex was beside him, appearing out of nowhere.
"Kyle .. snap out of it man."

"Huh ..?"
Kyle shook his head for a moment.
"Wha? Oh, Dex ... what did you find out?"
"Well, one of the workers told me that the building was destroyed by the Nemesis Council last week. Some giant beam of light from the sky nuked it. Luckily, there wasn't anyone in the building at the time."

"No one in the building? That doesn't make sense. There was /always/ someone around. Where was everyone?"
"'Fraid the Institute went under a while back, Kyle. It got taken over by YMF, and a few weeks ago it was shut down. Galen wasn't even running the place anymore."
Kyle rubbed his forehead, a wicked headache was building behind his eyes.
"Okay .. I'm completely lost now. What the hell happened to everybody then?"
Dex shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine, cuz."

Kyle just stood there, thinking. Trying to figure out what to do next.
"Dex gimme your cell."
Dex pulled his cell phone out and handed it to Kyle. "Who are you calling?"

"The only person I can think of right now. I just hope his number hasn't changed."