“Only Adam knows,” said Stella. “This was the entrance they used exclusively for him.”
“Well, Adam?”
It comes out at the top.
“Good to know, but that doesn’t help us much.”
That’s all I know.
We reached the top with little issue, the only thing separating us from the outside being a thick, emergency exit door.
“Adam, no!” Grace called out, her eyes going white.
Adam stopped dead in his tracks as Veronique caught him in a net of her power. “What did he do?” she demanded.
The young psychic fell to his knees, his skin starting to shrivel.
“He alerted them to our position!” Veronique said, her hand blazing red.
“He did what?” Stella looked from me to her peers. “Why would he do something like that? Hey! Leave him alone!”
Stella and Veronique locked eyes and the floor began to rumble.
“Everyone get ready,” I said, tightening my grip on Dorian. She was still slung over my shoulder, my hands on her thighs. She wasn’t heavy – or if she was, I wasn’t focused on that; I was focused on the fact that this little fucker hadn’t alerted us to whatever was outside.
“Don’t kill him,” Stella said, stepping up to Veronique.
They were a little farther off, but Ingrid, Michelle, and Fiona, also moved toward Veronique. A wicked smile lifted her lips. “Is that how we want to do this?” she asked, arching an eyebrow. She clenched her fists tighter, and Adam whimpered, his skin shriveling even further.
Stella placed a hand on Veronique’s shoulder, and I swear, whatever was going to happen outside paled in comparison to the tension I felt between the two females.
“I’m warning you,” Stella growled, the floor rumbling again. “You will not like what I’m capable of.”
Fiona, who stood next to Michelle with a globe of water swirling around her fist, glared at Veronique.
It wasn’t easy to step between them, but I was so focused on having them not kill each other that I wasn’t paying attention to the load on my shoulder, nor the fact that we were seconds away from being attacked, nor the fact that both of them could crush me like an ant.
“Veronique, stop for now,” I said through gritted teeth.
Veronique glanced from Stella to me, a look of defiance on her face.
“Please, everyone,” Grace said, “I will deal with Adam later. For now, let’s just focus on getting out of here.”
Veronique let go, and Adam started coughing as he regained control of his body. “We’ll take care of this later,” she told the group of younger supers. Then she turned to the door, blowing it off its hinges and hurling it outward.
Bhoosh! Bhoosh!
Smoke grenades flew inside, but before anything could go off, or any bullet could hit us, we were all protected by a vector force field cast by Stella, who had both hands in the air as she controlled the fields of energy around us. “Stay close!” she said, her hair jetting up, an intensity in her eyes that I’d never seen in a person before.
While she protected us from projectiles and any type of explosives, Veronique gathered up every bullet that came into the small opening. She spread her fingers wide and the bullets reversed order, flying back at the people firing on us.
Ingrid was breathing heavily now, preparing to turn into her beast form. Michelle bounced from foot to foot, ready to take off, and Fiona had both fists completely covered with two globes of swirling water.
As we tried to move through the door, to the freedom and the fury outside, Stella’s vector shield began crumbling the wall, forcing a brick-laden collapse as we exited.
A few dozen MercSecure soldiers, each of them wearing an odd, exoskeleton suit, stood before us, firing their weapons. The mech suits only added about a foot to their height, but I could tell they were well protected in their new armor.
Problem was, their suits were made of metal.
Rather than return their bullets to them, Veronique stepped out of Stella’s protective bubble and begin orchestrating her version of metal chaos. Metal and wires pried free from the men’s exoskeletal suits, the pieces zipping in the air and piercing their armor. Blood sprayed into the air – or, I assumed it was blood; the spotlights trained on us made it hard to tell.
A spark of fire at the back of the group caught everyone’s attention.
I was so focused on what Veronique was doing, and staying in the protective bubble Stella had created, that I didn’t notice the flash of blue, nor did I notice the Hulk-sized woman with a body made of steel charging toward us.
It’s them, Grace thought to me. Chloe, Augustin, and Victoria!
Victoria was in black armor, similar to Stella’s. She tore through whatever mech was left standing and brought her fist back, seconds away from knocking Veronique’s head off.
But Veronique had the metal-bodied Super down in an instant, her body convulsing as Veronique started pulling slivers of metal flesh off the woman. Victoria shrieked and Veronique was thrown sideways by a blast of light.
And it was like no other light I had ever seen before. It didn’t even begin as light, it began as … sound.
Chloe! Grace thought to me.
Veronique struggled to get back to her feet.
Seeing her companion down, Grace launched into action, lifting into the air and pressing out of our protective bubble.
“Grace!” I shouted, looking up at her.
Grace’s eyes blazed white and the few mercs who were still alive turned on the enemy supers. They fired their weapons, and even though they were quickly cut down by blasts of fire and ice, they put up a pretty vicious fight.
Ready to do some ass-kicking themselves, Ingrid and Michelle also jumped out of the protective circle.
Ingrid’s body convulsed, transforming into the she-beast and not a second too soon.
Victoria was already back on her feet, the metal reforming over her muscled arms. The best way I could describe her is to suggest you imagine that Colossus and Juggernaut had a baby, and that baby grew up to be a powerful woman with a stumpy neck.
She charged at Ingrid, and the two collided, sending a shock wave that smashed into the vector shield protecting us.
What I would have traded for a bird’s eye view of the battle rather than being stuck behind a shield with Dorian slung over my shoulder. I could only make out some of the details from my vantage point, but the sound of fists connecting, cries of anger and agony, and craters being made in the earth told a tale of total mayhem.
A slash of fire formed around our protective shield and I saw a man in black body armor with a shaved head fling a fireball at Veronique, who was barely protected by Fiona.
Augustin.
Fiona moved just in time, shooting a column of water at the man’s fire and dousing it before it hit Veronique, who was still trying to recover from the strange blast of light.
Another blast of light slammed into the protective shield around us. It took all Stella had to stop it, and I could tell by the look on her face that things were going to get hairy real quick.
I dropped to the ground and brought Dorian down into my arms. “Come on, Dorian.” I lightly slapped her cheek. “Snap out of it!”
“Gideon?” she asked, slowly opening her eyes.
“It’s getting really bad, Dorian,” I told her.
Adam was next to me, still trying to recover from Veronique’s attack. He was slinking away to the outer edge of the sphere, an unmistakably upset look on his face. His eyebrows were raised, his face was red, and I knew that from that point forward he would be our enemy.
To prove this thought correct, he punched his hand forward, hitting Stella in the back with a psychic burst of energy.
She stumbled forward, lost her control over the shield and an arc of light cut through, burning a line in the asphalt.
Adam sailed backward as a burst of purple energy slammed into his chest. I found Dorian nearby with her finger back in her m
outh, conjuring up another blast as soon as she took her finger out.
She hit the little bastard again, and not only did his shirt catch fire, but by then he was screaming, and when a psychic screams, everyone fucking hears it.
The sound ringing out in my head was only worsened by another blast of light that was cutting into the ground near us. Dorian and I managed to get out of the way, and once we did, I took a quick survey of what was going on.
Victoria was winning in her battle against Ingrid. They still traded punches, but Ingrid’s were noticeably weaker.
I didn’t know where the fuck Michelle was, and Fiona was busy dealing with Mr. Fire and Ice, who kept trying to get a hit in only to have her counter his attack with a blast of water.
Augustin had one arm charged with flames and the other one covered in white smoke that resembled dry ice. He alternated shots of fire, ice, fire, ice, and Fiona blocked as much as she could.
Veronique was back on her feet now, looking for an opening, and when she couldn’t find one she made her way over to us.
“We’ve got to get everyone out of here,” I said, my voice quivering with fear.
Another blast of light came in our direction and it suddenly stopped, disappearing as if it had dipped into a floating hole.
I looked right to see that Stella had created some type of vector hole with light pouring into it but not coming out the other end. She, out of everyone, seemed the worse off, her skin the color of a ripe tomato, cheeks gaunt, throat constricting as she tried to suck in air.
“I don’t think I can teleport everyone at once,” Dorian finally said now that she’d regained her breath.
“I was afraid you’d say that. Veronique, cover us!” Grace, start bringing everyone closer to us. We’re leaving that little fuckboy Adam behind.
Good – hurry, she thought back to me.
Damn, did it feel old school as I got the mini USB cable out, shakily plugged it into my phone, and then jammed the cable into Dorian’s neck. I went to her abilities and adjusted the dial of her Tele-Sphere Radius.
The vein popped up on her forehead, and I knew her overcharge had kicked up. But as long as she could get us away from here, that was all that mattered.
Ingrid, likely receiving a message from Grace to pull back, struck Victoria in the chin, sending her flying backward in a perfect arc. Then she ran over to us, followed by Fiona and Stella, who was limping.
“Michelle!” I shouted.
“I didn’t know what to do!” Michelle shouted as she appeared behind me. “So I kept running around in a circle. I’m sorry! I can be more helpful than that, but I was scared. I’m still scared!”
Grace landed, and Dorian held her arms out. “Everyone touch me,” the punk rock teleporter said, blowing a strand of wet hair out of her face.
“Hold on!” Michelle said, but no one listened to her.
We were all gone in a flash, barely avoiding another bolt of light energy.
Chapter Twelve: Damage Control
We appeared on the back patio of our borrowed home. It wasn’t quite a dogpile, but Ingrid, still in her beast form, did destroy some of the patio furniture before switching back to her now nude teen form, and Grace landed on top of me, her features spazzing out briefly before reverting to her base form.
“You okay?” I asked her.
“I just was thrown off balance,” she said, blinking a few times as she steadied herself.
Michelle got to her feet. “We almost left Adam.”
“Almost?” I turned to see Adam lying on his side, still reeling from Veronique’s attack. Grace, take care of him, I thought in the harshest way I could.
Adam convulsed, his arms and legs slapping against the deck.
“Stop it!” Stella cried and the ground began to rumble.
“I suggest you learn your place in this operation,” Veronique told Stella, her hand charging red. She turned her attention to Adam as well, and it was only when a portion of the patio blew off that Grace and Veronique stopped assaulting the psychic boy.
“I’m warning you all,” Stella said, now floating in the air despite the fact that she was clearly overcharging. “This will not end well if you don’t stop.”
I glanced from the CBGs to the Super Teens. This was going to get much worse if someone didn’t take charge.
Luckily, that was my specialty.
“Enough. Stella, Grace, Veronique, stand down. And remember, Stella, Adam attacked you back there.”
“I remember,” she said, looking down at me over the bridge of her nose.
“Here’s how this is going to play out,” I told them. “Adam is a traitor and keeping him here will give us away. Blindfold him, and once Dorian is ready, we will teleport him as far away as we can. In fact … shit. Shit!”
“What do you mean shit?” Dorian asked, still breathing hard. The side of her head was wet with blood, but she seemed to be stabilizing.
“We need to run the key Dr. Kim gave us that turns off any GPS tracking on them. We’ve got to do it now. We should have done it before we came back here. Fuck, I didn’t think about that. I don’t know if they’re set for tracking, but better safe than sorry.”
Grace and Veronique looked at each other and nodded. I knew where the key was, and I ran inside the house to get it, quickly returning to the back patio.
“What are you trying to do?” Stella asked, moving in front of Fiona, Michelle, and Ingrid.
“Those drives in your neck have the capability to track you using GPS. Do you know what GPS is?”
She nodded.
“We’re going to teleport away from here and I’m going to disable those things. Then we’ll teleport back here. If they’re tracking us, it’ll seem like we teleported somewhere else and then just disappeared off the radar. I’m fine with that.”
Even though she was exhausted, Dorian knelt beside Adam, placing her hand on his head. “Everyone who’s coming, touch me,” she said.
Stella stepped up, and the others followed.
“I’ll stay here,” Veronique said, “just in case.”
I nodded and touched Dorian’s shoulder.
Once Grace had placed her hand on Dorian, we zipped away.
“That’s so cool!” Michelle said as we reformed somewhere in the fucking desert. I had no idea where we were, and that was kind of the point.
“Definitely,” Ingrid agreed. She was partially nude and had tried to cover parts of her body with the torn clothing. Fiona, who was next to her, helped Ingrid by tying one of the sleeves around her chest, covering her breasts.
“Okay, who’s first?” I asked, fishing in my pocket for the mini USB cable.
“Adam first,” Grace said, and her tone of voice indicated this wasn’t to be challenged.
As I had done to the CBGs in our last battle against Angel, I plugged into Adam’s neck, started up the key drive, and then rebooted the system.
From there, I ran the program on the others, Stella going last.
The three teens simply crouched while I did it. Stella refused to sit, opting to stare at me defiantly the entire time as I ran the update.
“See? It’s not as crazy as it seems,” I told them after I’d finished. “And I appreciate the three of you trusting me.”
“That had nothing to do with you.” Stella nodded at Grace. I realized then that Grace had mentally showed them what had happened before. I knew what it felt like to be provided answers in the form of moving pictures in your head, thoughts that don’t really belong to you, and I was glad they believed me.
But again, that was the power of a telepath, really; it’s hard not to believe what they show you.
“Let’s get back,” Dorian said, the vein pulsing on her head. “I need some rest.”
“Gideon, we need to kill the psychic before he joins Mother,” Veronique said.
We had just returned to the patio, and rather than greet us like a normal person would, she’d chosen a different opener.
“That�
�s not how we do things,” I reminded her. “We’re not killing him.”
“Have it your way,” she huffed, turning back to the house. The door opened on its own and slammed shut after she entered, rattling the back wall.
“I’ll deal with her later,” I told those who remained. “So this is our temporary location, and as you can tell, it isn’t big enough for all of us to call a permanent place in any sense of the word.”
Permanent place? Grace thought to me. It’s a brilliant idea, Gideon!
Just let me finish my speech, I thought back.
Sorry, reading ahead.
“Now, you four,” I indicated to Ingrid, Stella, Michelle, and Fiona, “aren’t required to stay with us. If there’s a place you’d rather be, we’ll take you there tomorrow, after Dorian has had a chance to rest and I’ve had a chance to adjust her abilities. But before you make that decision, I’d like to tell you a little more about who we are and what we do. While I’m doing that, Dorian, Grace, will you please take care of Adam? I want to make sure he doesn’t wake up until tomorrow.”
Stella opened her mouth to protest.
“Not now, Stella, we won’t hurt him. I promise.”
She bit her lip as she stared me down. At the time, I still didn’t know much about Stella’s abilities aside from what I’d seen back at the New Mexico facility; had I known more, I might have chosen the way I spoke to her more carefully. But this was Alpha Gideon, the Gidmeister who broke bad back in New England and who simply didn’t give a damn.
Or at least, it was the Gideon I was trying to project.
“As I was saying,” I told the Super Teens and the increasingly skeptical Stella. “Our operation has one goal: to bring down these experiments and stop them from creating more Supers. Or … let me rephrase that because it sounds like we’re trying to extinguish all supers which is totally not the case. The four of us are trying to stop the illegal operation. We have no problem with Supers; as you can tell, three of us are Supers.”
“You’re not a Super, right?” Michelle asked.
I cleared my throat. “We already went over that.”
“Did we? Okay. I think I remember.”
Cherry Blossom Girls Box Set Page 51
