Cherry Blossom Girls 8

by Harmon Cooper

  I wanted to write a message back to them letting them know I was busy saving the world, but I realized just how ridiculous that sounded.

  You really need to get it together, I thought to myself.

  I agree, Writer Gideon, Grace thought to me.

  Can’t I have a moment alone?

  Not with me around.

  I looked over to Grace, who was perched on her barstool. A bowl of ramen sat before her and she busied herself mixing it up with her chopsticks. She turned to look at me as she raised the chopsticks to her lips, slurping up the noodles.

  “Ridiculous,” I said as I returned my attention to my laptop.

  “Gideon, Earth to Gideon,” Dorian said. “Did you hear me?”

  “Were you talking to me?”

  She frowned. “That laptop has already taken over your life, hasn’t it?”

  “Possibly,” I told her, trying not to make eye contact with Grace, even though she kept whispering the words ‘look over at me’ in my head.

  “We should go back to the island after lunch, especially now that we’re all together,” Dorian said out of the blue. “What do you think?”

  I looked at her curiously for a moment. “Wait a minute, I was about to suggest the same thing…”

  “Grace?” Dorian asked under her breath.

  “Likely so,” I told her. “But it isn’t a bad idea. Who knows if the Emperor will actually reach out to us with info or not,” I said. “Maybe we’ll be able to uncover something on the island.”

  “They may still be there,” she said.

  “We can do our best to scan the island before, using Chloe.”

  “I heard my name,” Chloe said from the bar.

  A doorbell chimed at the front of the restaurant. A Japanese salaryman entering and saw that the place was pretty much full. He took a seat at the only booth left, and the waitress immediately ran over to him, bowing, taking his order.

  “We’re going to check the island after lunch,” I announced to the group. “Well, we should let our food digest for an hour or so, but after that…”

  “Always playing it safe, huh?” Veronique asked.

  “And I’m guessing we’re going to need my echolocation ability, right?” Chloe asked.

  “Yep. We can have Dorian teleport you and Grace to one of the buildings left standing, and then both of you can scan the area.”

  “We should all go at the same time,” Veronique said.

  “Or we could do that,” I added.

  “I have an idea! I could just run out to the island and circle around, you know, make sure no one is there,” Michelle offered.

  “No, Veronique is right; it’s best if we stick together. We also don’t know what happened to that boy, the power nullifier,” I added.

  “I forgot about him,” said Dorian as the waitress brought her a bowl of ramen.

  “We need to be prepared for anything,” I told them.

  “It would be easier for me to get in and out with just a few people,” Dorian said as she dug her chopsticks into her bowl of ramen. She started swirling the mixture together, coming out with a poached egg and losing it before it reached her mouth.

  “Do you want to use a fork?” I asked her.

  “I’m getting better at it,” she said, going for the lump of noodles again, and this time just stabbing it.

  “There you go,” I told her.

  “So the plan is to chill for a minute, then go check out the island, right?” Michelle asked as she tried to slowly eat her ramen.

  This wasn’t the first time I’ve seen her struggle to eat slowly, and it looked even funnier considering she was still wearing a hat and sunglasses, all her gestures stilted in a way.

  “That’s the plan. I have some other ideas though,” I told her.

  “Like what?” she asked, slurping up a noodle.

  “A good author keeps the reader wanting more.”

  “But I don’t want to read your books!” Michelle said. “They sound so strange.”

  Chloe and Stella laughed.

  “Hey, you guys might enjoy some of my books, especially you, Stella. Actually, no, you wouldn’t like them. Maybe you would, Ingrid.”

  “If you’d just give me a copy, I would read it,” the beast morpher said. “I want it to be the one that you are always talking about, what’s it called? Heavy Axe?”

  “How Heavy This Axe?, and I’m still working on the follow-up. It is about a, um, dwarf in love with a dragon. GameLit, dark fantasy, some adult content. Sorry, Michelle.”

  Ingrid and Michelle started laughing, Michelle laughing so hard that she spit some of her ramen out.

  “What’s so funny?”

  Ingrid shook her head at me. “The book you’re always talking about is about a dwarf and a dragon?”

  “Not just any dwarf,” I told Ingrid. “A…”

  “What?” Chloe asked, egging me on.

  “Don’t worry about it,” I said as my ramen came to the table. “It’s a long story, a great book, and maybe one day I’ll let you check it out. It’s a goddamn hero’s journey and those are still important, even in 2030!”

  A few of the CBGs chuckled. Veronique rolled her eyes, and Grace slurped up more noodles, winking at me.

  I ignored them, focusing on my ramen, my mouth watering as the steam billowing off the noodles reached my nostrils.

  “Don’t let them bother you,” Dorian said. “I’m sure your book is good.”

  “I just want the time to write again,” I told her, glancing at my new laptop.

  “We’ll give you time, maybe when we get back to America.”

  “We do need to go back sooner or later,” I told her. “That’s part of my plan.”

  “I thought that was the ultimate plan.”

  “No, I mean going back to handle something is part of my plan. I’ll explain later,” I told her as I stuffed a hunk of pork in my mouth. “Trust me.”

  I was connected to the world again via my fingertips, and the first thing I did was send a message to Luke, letting him know that I was okay. We were back in the hotel now, planning our trip to the island, and just letting our food digest as Stella showed Michelle how to braid her hair.

  Luke: WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?

  Me: Mongolia?

  Luke: LOL. Wait, really? Holy Genghis Khan!

  Me: Really. It is a long story, but I’m now back in Japan, and we’re going to check out an island here in a minute.

  Luke: Not what I expected to hear from you, but sure, if I were in Japan, I would be checking out islands too.

  Me: So, how goes it?

  Luke: It goes. I’m working on an intense scene right now where my main character gets stuck in a spaceship barreling toward an asteroid. And he’s handcuffed and can’t move. Shit.

  Me: And let me guess, you can’t get him off the ship?

  Luke: Sort of. I have a few ideas on how to make it happen, but now I think that it all feels too cliché. But I’ll work it out. Life of a writer, amirite?

  Me: I only wish I had time to write.

  Luke: You should take a day off to just plot and write.

  Me: I don’t disagree with you. TBH, I always thought that going to a different country would be like a vacation, and it turns out, there was a small part of it that was kind of fun and touristy, but the rest has been ridiculous. I’ve got to go, but before I do, let me just give you a taste of the craziness I’ve already gotten into today: I started off in Mongolia, teleported to Japan, where we promptly rescued the Emperor of Japan. And then I had ramen, and now I am at a hotel.

  Luke: You’re keeping track of all this stuff, right? To write about it?

  Me: Sort of. I’ll work on doing a better job of that in the future.

  Luke: Keep me posted. I’d read the shit out of that.

  Me:

  I shut my laptop and turned to the group. “Okay, everyone get suited up. Let’s check out the island and go from there.”

  I had already installed the CBG app o
n my phone, the one that Father had invented. I was still planning to use it more often, rather than actually do the fighting myself. Part of the plan was to kick up Grace’s psychometry power, which would allow her to pick up information from any object that she touched.

  That should get us something as to where we should go next.

  But there was a saying about plans, something about mice and men…

  After everyone was suited up, my thoughts went from our rescue mission to what possibly lay ahead.

  We would really need to scan the area before we did anything, and I was apprehensive about all of us being there, knowing that teleporting that many people put a bit of a strain on Dorian.

  Yet I understood Veronique’s concern.

  She didn’t want to separate the group; I was starting to realize that the metal vampire had a sort of separation anxiety, one that a therapist could have a field day with.

  I glanced down at my ring, the one made from Fiona’s crystal. Maybe she was right to worry.

  Maybe the rest of us didn’t worry enough.

  “I think our best bet would be to teleport as high in the air above the island as we can,” Dorian suggested. “I need to make sure the buildings are still standing before we choose one to land on.”

  “Good call,” I told her.

  “We will stick together in all this,” Veronique said, taking charge. “We don’t know if they are there or not, and…”

  “It’s fine,” Grace told her. “If they are there, we’ll do our best to take them down.”

  “In that case, if they’re there, our target is Damon Lord,” Veronique said firmly. “Everyone he employs is dangerous, but he’s the only one that can…”

  A few of them nodded, I gulped, Ingrid looked away.

  “Here goes nothing,” Dorian said, motioning for everyone to gather around her.

  And with a puff of purple energy, we were all gone, reappearing in the air high above the island.

  We were only there for a couple of seconds, long enough for Dorian to spot a stable building, where we reappeared, Stella immediately forming a shield around us.

  “Hurry,” Dorian said, her eyes wide as she scanned the area.

  Veronique was ready to go as well, red energy forming around her hand.

  About the only thing we could see was the exposed metal of a building near the northern part of the island, just about the only place left standing aside from our current location.

  Hashima Island seemed pretty much abandoned, and after a quick scan, Grace confirmed my assumption.

  “Are you picking up on anything, Chloe?” she asked.

  “Other than the buildings, no,” said the sound manipulator, who floated just a foot or two off the rooftop.

  “Then I guess we should explore,” Ingrid said, prepared to pinch herself if it came to it.

  “Let’s start with the rubble.” I pointed to one of the buildings that had been brought down. “If I’m not mistaken, that’s where they were holding you all. Maybe we’ll be able to get some info there.”

  “Good call,” Grace said, turning to the rubble.

  “Did anyone see that?” Michelle asked, wide-eyed, standing at the edge of the building.

  “See what?” Dorian asked her.

  There was no time to prepare for the blast that took down our rooftop.

  We were catapulted toward the island, and those quick enough to react, like Stella, were able to protect some of the others. Veronique was already standing too far off, and I didn’t see where she landed. All I knew was that she wasn’t protected by Stella’s shield.

  “Shit…” I whispered, the blood draining from my arms and legs.

  A towering robot loomed before us, partially concealed by dust.

  It was like something out of Iron Giant. And from what I could tell, the huge robot had formed out of one of the buildings on the island, clearly some type of advanced Transformer technology. I tried to get my bearings and locate the others, my ears ringing, dust and debris obscuring my view.

  The CBGs were going to have to take down a giant robot.

  Chapter Eleven: Avian Holograms

  I didn’t quite shit my pants, but I definitely felt my sphincter pucker up as the towering robot brought both hands forward, shields cascading out of its forearms in a way that reminded me of blinds being lowered, a whirring noise signaling that the shield had solidified.

  Chloe tried to blast it with sound, her ear-piercing attack creating a bundle of energy that slammed into the robot’s shields, which were now easily as tall as a one-story home.

  The robot hunkered down for the attack, only to be met by Tulip, who came running forward prepping to leap onto the metal fucker.

  Tulip was swept aside in a matter of seconds, the robot’s shield connecting with the beast, sending him somersaulting to the left, where he slammed into a pile of building material.

  The robot did not have a head; it simply had a body, no silly red eyes on top or anything tropey like that. It was sleek, mean, and poised to kill. But it had to see us somehow. There were enough compartments on it that a few of them must have been host to cameras.

  “We need to locate the cameras!” I said, suddenly getting my bearings.

  I saw Grace using her power to lift rubble and fling it at the robot, the metal monstrosity blocking most of it with its shield. One rock went a little wide, clipping it in the shoulder, the sound of rock scraping against metal as the robot charged forward, shrugging it off.

  Two wolves made of purple energy took off toward the metal monster. Dorian was now off to my left, her paintbrush whipping out of her mouth as she conjured a spear of energy and chucked it forward.

  The wolves slammed into its shield, Dorian’s spear also fizzling out.

  “I have an idea!” Dorian started to say, but she had to teleport out of the way as the robot came at her, using its shield to push up soil as if it were a bulldozer.

  Tulip leaped forward again, only to be sideswiped, this time flying far enough to the right to actually land on the shoreline.

  Its cameras! I thought aloud. If we can take them out…

  But we don’t know where they are! Grace thought back to me.

  “Stay behind me, Gideon!” Stella shouted, forming a shield around us.

  The robot took a knee as the ground beneath it rumbled. The sand started to give way, the robot stabbing its shields in front of its body, trying to pull itself out from the trap that Chloe had conjured up.

  I shook my head, trying to think of how we could take this damn thing down. We needed Veronique, but I didn’t know where she was, and wouldn’t be able to find her with that thing around.

  It struck me in that moment that Veronique could very well be dead.

  No…

  No way...

  The thought caused my fists to tense as the punk rock teleporter vanished, reappearing on the huge robot’s shoulder, dropping both hands onto it, trying to charge its body. She was bucked off, disappearing in a puff of purple energy again, and reappearing at my side.

  “It’s fast,” she said, sucking in deep breaths.

  “Try charging and then teleporting,” I told her quickly. “So once you land, you can let off your charge. Like a video game.”

  “Now isn’t the time for video games!”

  “I definitely know that,” I told her, “but try. Try it with a… a rock!”

  Dorian lifted a rock easily the size of a basketball, holding it under one arm as she licked her finger and charged it.

  She vanished, reappearing above the robot and tossing, vanishing in a flash.

  The explosion sent the robot face first into the ground, and for a moment, I thought we were in the clear.

  That was, until it pressed back up to its knees, its legs now becoming its arms, its arms becoming its legs.

  “Whoa…” I whispered as the metal fucker lumbered to the right, where it lifted an iron storage container.

  I dove, sure that the storage conta
iner would land on us, only to see it suspended in the air, a combination of Stella’s shield and Grace’s telekinesis. The psychic shifter was in her base form, on her knees, her eyes completely white, her head thrown back, her mouth open as she held the object.

  It took Chloe’s power to shift the storage container to the left, where it sat erect for a moment and finally fell to the ground, causing the earth to shake.

  The robot turned one of its palms to us, blasting our location with a concentrated energy weapon. Compartments opened up on its back, homing missiles firing out all aimed at Chloe, who had just landed at its side.

  Michelle appeared out of nowhere, tackling Chloe, saving the sound manipulator from an explosion that sent sand and rock into the air.

  The young speedster appeared next to me in a matter of seconds, her knife in her hand. “What do I do, Gideon? What do I do!?”

  “Just… Keep doing what you’re doing,” I told her. “Make sure none of us get hit.”

  “Okay,” she said, and just as she was about to zip away, my eyes fell upon her knife.

  “Michelle, see if you can take out any of the power cables on its body. You see them, right?” I asked her, putting my hand on her shoulder and pointing at the damn robot, which was now engaging more of Dorian’s energy creations as well as telekinetic attacks from Grace.

  While most of his body, legs and arms were covered with black metal armor, there were some sections that were partially exposed, and in those sections I could see that there was wiring beneath it, wiring wrapped in... steel.

  Dammit...

  “No, that won’t work,” I said with a huff. “Just run interference; distract it if you have to, and make sure…”

  “I understand,” Michelle said, disappearing again.

  Tulip came from out of nowhere, jumping onto the robot’s leg and quickly crawling up to its back, pounding his fists into its shoulder. The robot tried to throw Tulip off, but the beast held strong, until one of the compartments opened on its back, a missile firing straight into Tulip’s chest.

  Tulip flew up into the air, only to be hit by another missile that sent the beast spiraling to the left, where he hit the ground, rolled, and came to a stop, facedown in the sand.