Barry Hayes was run over by a cargo truck. He paid it no attention as
he brought himself back together from the splattered pieces that broke
off. The eighteen-wheeler slammed on its breaks, causing a traffic jam,
and as the driver hopped out of the cab to check on the health of the person
she ran over, Barry had already moved on to his destination. His mother
was rustled a little, but when she realized that she was still in the protective
custody of Barry's "womb," she settled herself and went back to sleep.
She thought back to the explosion. She and Pete had been working on
creating a compound that could rid the air of pollution once released into
the atmosphere by plane. However, she had neglected to realize that, in
her obsessive state, she had mixed two chemicals that, if combined without
properly being diluted, would create a chain reaction and blow up in her
face. She realized what she had done the moment she heard the explosion
and felt its compressing force. By then, of course, it was too late.
There wasn't much after that she remembered all that well. She recalled
the explosion setting off the rest of the chemicals in the room and being
doused in them. She remembered the ceiling plunging down on her, and in
her disoriented state, she thought she was falling to the ground. She blacked
out after that, and woke up outside the building. She thought she had escaped
danger, until she realized her right arm was completely green and gel-like.
Barbara remembered being frightened, and wanted to get away from it all
and just find a nice, safe corner she could crawl up in and wait for death's
embrace. Death never came, and in the ensuing days to come, she realized
what exactly she had become, and after having complete mastery over it,
she remade herself into the image she always wanted and tried to lead a
normal life. Barbara's thoughts drifted to Pete, every now and then. She
wanted to desperately contact him, but she feared that the Foundation would
try to cover up the mess it made and forget about the incident.
L ater in the second year of her "freedom," as she liked to call it,
she met a nice man and had a little fling with him, and nine months later
gave birth to Barry, named after his father. She had been drifting from
one state to the other, and so when Barry was born, he never knew his father.
In the years that followed, she told him that Barry, Sr. was a Congressman,
when in fact he was a restaurant owner. Barry completely understood why
he was never around.
And then puberty hit, and much to Barbara's surprise, Barry had acquired
her mutant abilities, except his gel was orange instead of green. She wanted
to see a doctor at that point, fearing that the mutant aspect of her and
her son may not be as permanent as she once thought. As a mother, that
fear came naturally. However, the only people equipped to answer that question
were those that worked at the Phoenix Foundation, and she didn't think
that the people there would be too friendly to her, believing that they
had swept the entire incident under the rug. But, sixteen years after the
accident, she had to find out for sure if that was what happened, so she
taught Barry all she knew about the security details back when she worked
there, and together they went back to the Foundation and did some private
research. She didn't like what they found.
There were thirty survivors of the explosion, each in the same state
she was, and it turned out that the Foundation hadn't given up on them.
It also turned out that, in time, her mutant aspect would degrade, along
with the rest of her body, and she would be forced to live her life as
a green puddle. She was near that stage right now, but she never gave up,
since the reports she and her son had read said that the Foundation was
working on a cure, and when she got too unstable to do any more of the
work, Barry built her the cabin in the woods and he did the work by himself.
He told her that the Foundation was close to a cure, and so he planned
to rob many banks to get the money, since she wanted them to be isolated
from the rest of the world, which meant for Barry not to have a job. By
that time she was desperate, so she let her son rob the banks and bring
back the loot. And now that they were so close, they were now so far. She
hated the Foundation for what had happened to her, even though she knew
full well it was her mistake, and she brought her son up to believe that
the Foundation was evil. She didn't think that her son fully believed her,
since he had read all the reports she had and more, but she knew that hate
was still in him, and she knew that he wouldn't trust the Foundation with
her life. He was going to get the cure and heal them both, and if anyone
got in his way, he would attend to them properly. She loved her son for
his bravery, and as she was basking in its glow, Barbara Hayes went back
to her comfortable sleep, knowing that her son would protect her and cure
her.
* * *
