“Lit Fuse” is episode seven of season one of Mutant X.
A man is helping a woman at night towards what appears to be an electrical station. They enter through and underground access and she says to him that maybe she can do without. The man, Eric, says she tried that before and almost died. The woman, Ashley, has heard about Mutant X, who are supposed to help people like here. Eric reassures her, but there’s a man with a gun watching. Ashley warns Eric to stay back but the gunman approaches before she can do whatever it is. However, Ashley draws power from the pylons and one of the electrical cables snaps, hitting the gunman.
On the plane, Shalimar and Brennan notice the power grid go down. Eric tells Ashley, oddly unconvincingly, that the killed the gunman. He’s not dead, and grabs Eric, threatening to kill him. Ashley runs as police turn up and the gunman bundles Eric away.
Jesse is watching Proxy Blue when Adam comes in; Adam says he’s beginning to loathe the computer-generated troublemaker. It’s apparently the only thing on the air. Emma arrives; the power company say an outside source knocked out the grid and drained the power. The belief is that it is an elemental; most throw off energy like Brennan but some absorb it. Adam is concerned one could be mutating. There are three possibles, and when they mutate, they become ravenously hungry for power and unable to control their hunger. One of the three is Ashley.
Eckhart is talking to the gunman, Cross. He expected better from Cross. Cross says he’s still better than Eckhart’s agents, and Eckhart agrees. Cross is a bounty hunter and the bounty on Ashley is $1 million.
Ashley gets a call from Eric, who seems to be locked up in a cage. He tells her he’s alright and he’s at an abandoned air force base. Ashley thinks she knows where that is. Eric doesn’t want the police calling. He says Cross is coming and hangs up. Now, why would Cross lock someone up yet not take their phone?
Adam wants Brennan and Jesse to work the data at the Sanctuary, because Brennan generates energy and the New Mutant consumes it. If they got together it could be explosive. Literally.
Ashley arrives where Eric is being held, but Cross is waiting for her. This is not a surprise. Emma and Shalimar at the place where Ashley drained the power; Emma has found women’s footprints burnt into the grass and Shalimar a cigar that Cross was chewing.
Brennan is reading poetry to relax when Jesse finds him. Both agree on the attraction of a good cigar. Emma and Jesse start ribbing Brennan about Ashley; she’s just his type. Beautiful, vulnerable, dangerous.
Adam has identified Cross from the cigar butt. He started out as a repo man, moved to skip tracing but got convicted of 2nd degree murder. Released early for good behaviour; there were rumours that Eckhart pulled some strings. Jesse has tracked some of Cross’s spending, security equipment and electronics, to a hanger at a disused air force base.
Eckhart is sending a minion with Cross’s payment to exchange the money for Ashley. Eckhart utters plenty of warnings about what to do, and says that even the subdermal governor might not be enough, given Ashley’s mutations. They arrive with payment and Cross hands over a key. Both Asley and Eric are tied together in the cage; Ashley tries escaping but Cross, having only been paid half the money, hasn’t left. Jesse and Shalimar arrive, though, and manage to take Ashley.
Ashley and Brennan get an instant attraction; electromagnetic, according to Adam, and both need to steer clear of the other. You can guess they don’t, with consequences. Ashley is worried about Eric, but something seems off about him. He doesn’t seem quite genuine. Eckhart claimed that Cross was very good, but frankly he doesn’t come across that way. He seems like a gloater and one who will make stupid mistakes out of a need to grandstand.