“Great, let’s do that,” I said. “Then we’ll get him to the New Mexico facility, get the hell out of there, and start Plan B.”
“Plan B?” Dorian asked.
“Actually, it’s more like Plan A, because it hasn’t failed yet. We need to get everyone new clothes, we need a new vehicle, and we need a new place to stay for a few days. Also, I’m going to need some concentration time tomorrow to finish this book I’m working on. So wherever we end up staying, it needs to be a little off the beaten path, if you get my drift.”
“Will it be here?” Michelle asked.
“I don’t know yet. It would be nice to be close to the facility, but we don’t want to be close enough where they may find us. For teleportation reasons, it’s better to be close, so Dorian doesn’t have to take us in two trips.”
“What about the Colorado mountains?” Grace asked. “We watched a show where they renovated a ski lodge up there. I’m sure there are some people that have big houses in that area.”
“That’s not a bad idea,” I said. Then I became unsure if Grace had encouraged me through her powers to go with her idea, or if I had actually thought it was a good idea.
Regardless, I went with it.
“Here’s what’s going to happen: Dorian, you’ll drop Adam off at the facility and get out of there as fast as you can. Then we’ll get a vehicle, bring it here, load everyone up, and take a road trip north to Colorado. Along the way, we’ll get some new clothes and a ton of food.”
“Road trip?” Dorian asked, a smile forming on her pale face.
“That’s right. Let’s find a mansion.”
“Can I help you find a mansion?” Michelle asked.
“I’ll help,” Fiona said.
“I can definitely help,” said Ingrid.
Don’t forget about Angel’s head.
Good call, I thought back to Grace.
Knowing it wouldn’t go over well, I told the Super Teens to simply focus on getting packed and ready for the big road trip.
“But we don’t have anything to pack,” Ingrid reminded me.
“Well, in that case, watch some TV for a little while. There’s got to be something interesting on. Hell, there’s always something interesting on; that’s why people own TVs. Which reminds me – Michelle, I promised you I would look at your abilities. And over the next day or so, I’ll look at and modify everyone’s abilities, including you two.” I motioned to Grace and Dorian. “But for now, let’s just focus on getting the hell out of Santa Fe.”
Chapter Seventeen: Shopping Spree!
Dorian took care of Adam while I did some research. It was quick, taking her only about a minute, but once she returned, Adam was now someone else’s problem.
One minute’s worth of research wasn’t a lot, so I told everyone to check the house to make sure we hadn’t left anything while I searched for rich neighborhoods in Colorado Springs.
It wasn’t hard to find rich neighborhoods; I simply did a search for ‘expensive homes for sale,’ found the neighborhood they were located in, and then used GoogleFace maps to look around the neighborhood until I could find a few good options.
I was going for a number of things: it needed to be semi-secluded; it needed to have a lot of bedrooms; and it needed to have enough property so the girls could train.
I found a few options and saved them, figuring I’d have a little more time to check around while they shopped.
Veronique and Dorian came into the study. Veronique went straight to the closet to drain more from Angel, and Dorian approached me, lightly placing her hand on my shoulder.
“Are you ready to get the vehicle?” she asked.
I snapped my laptop shut, happy with the shitty yet fruitful research I’d hastily performed. “Let’s do it.”
“See you, Veronique,” Dorian said, and we were gone.
“Holy shit, that was weird.”
We appeared along the highway, near a large convenience store parking lot. I saw the getaway car we’d planned for yet had never used.
I was surprised it was still there.
The steering wheel was a little hot, so after I started up the vehicle, I used my fingers to control the wheel rather than fully wrapping my hands around it. I cranked the AC up and we were off, headed toward the nearest residential area we could find.
It was never too hard to find suburbia in America; just follow the new shopping developments.
We were on a mission to get a vehicle big enough to fit everyone. There would be eight of us, and I didn’t want anyone sitting on anyone’s lap. (Well, I wanted a few of them sitting on my lap, most notably Dorian and Grace, but that wouldn’t be conducive to driving.)
Like a pair of Wet Bandits, Dorian and I rolled around the neighborhood, checking out houses and looking for the right type of vehicle.
“Come on, Cadillac Escalade,” I said, my brain still warped by the rap videos I’d seen as a child.
If you’re thinking I was envisioning us driving in a lowered Cadillac Escalade with chromed-out twenty-inch rims, you’d be correct. Of course, I wasn’t stupid enough to get a vehicle like that – you know, keeping a low profile and everything – but I wasn’t opposed to moving around like a hip-hop mogul.
Alas, and not for lack of trying, we could only find one vehicle big enough for all of us: a Honda minivan.
It was new, but still.
We pulled into the van’s driveway. “Shit – we need Grace and some dough.”
“I’ll be back in a second.”
By the time I got out of the vehicle, Dorian and Grace were standing there. Grace was in her brunette form, yoga pants practically molded onto her lower half. She had one of the duffle bags of cash flung over her shoulder and a cheery look on her face.
“Here goes nothing,” I said as we approached the home.
A bulky woman with heavy bags under her eyes and her hair in a short ponytail answered the door. She wore a shirt with a cactus on it and a pair of sweatpants pulled up past her belly button.
Hi,” I told her as Grace took over her mind. “The first thing I want you to do is take these keys and drive this car somewhere. How about somewhere an hour away from here? Do you have kids?”
The woman nodded.
“Are they home?”
She nodded again.
“Okay, take them with you. Then I want you to arrange a ride back here. Have you ever used UberLyft before?”
She gave me the double thumbs up.
“Good, that’ll work. Now, we need the keys to the minivan. And I want you to forget you’ve ever had the minivan. When your spouse comes home, I want you to not remember having it. I do, however, want you to explain that you have twenty grand.”
I gave her a stack of cash.
“That should cover the cost of getting another van, or at least close to it. Actually, I have no idea what they cost, but I’m assuming a used one can be purchased for less than that. Then again, it’s cold hard cash, so you may have to figure something out there. I just don’t want to steal it from you.”
As I looked her over, I realized just how crazy it was going to be when her spouse came home. I also realized how stupid my last statement was.
But that was neither here nor there.
We needed a vehicle large enough for us, and hell, I would have let her keep the car we’d driven here, but that would only complicate things. Better to abandon it and move on.
Keys were exchanged, we got the child’s car seat out of the minivan and gave it to her, and then we left.
Down twenty grand, I had Dorian locate a bank not too far from suburbia, and once we arrived, Grace started up on the same stunt we’d pulled the last time we needed some cold hard cash.
And the time before that.
Basically, with Grace around, we would forever be ‘in the money.’
And why does cash have to be cold and hard? I’ve definitely had some wet, soft cash before.
Semantics.
After netting aro
und twelve thousand dollars, we returned to our borrowed home.
By the time we arrived, the garage door was open with several bags waiting to be loaded into the minivan.
There was the backpack with Angel’s head, the other duffel bag of money, some backpacks full of shrapnel, our body armor and helmets, as well as the water bottles of gas that we had yet to use.
I felt the urge to cry ‘Road Trip!’ out the window but suppressed this when I saw Veronique.
She stood guard wearing her wolf shirt, a pair of ultra-short jean shorts with the pockets hanging out, and an indecipherable look on her face. Stella came outside with the Super Teens in tow. Fiona was the first to comment on the minivan.
“It looks so cool,” the water wielder said. “So much cooler than the vans they had back at the facility.”
Michelle slid the back door open and zipped inside. “There’s a TV back here!”
“Really?”
Ingrid waited for Fiona to pass her and got inside too – delicately, I might add. The shape-shifting teen was at odds with the monster she turned into. From what I’d seen of her so far, she was light on her feet, polite, and not at all beastly.
But the thing she turned into …
Yikes, I thought as I helped load the bags into the back, careful not to disturb Angel’s head.
Once we were finished, and after I gave the home one final check, I strapped myself into the front seat, and like a responsible driver, told everyone else to buckle up.
“You too, Veronique.”
She narrowed her eyes at me, but I persisted until I heard the click of her seatbelt.
The three Super Teens sat in the far back, Veronique, Dorian, and Stella were in the middle row, and Grace rode shotgun as usual.
“Interstate 25, here we come!” I announced.
“Let’s go!” Michelle said. “Road trip!”
“You sure are excited,” Grace called back to her.
“Why wouldn’t I be? We’re going somewhere new!”
The minivan was at three-fourths a tank, and I figured it would be good for a while. The vehicle handled well, and its auto drive feature was exceptionally stable.
Twenty minutes later, the teens were watching the latest DisNike princess flick, whatever the hell it was called. The DisNike princess sang about her new running sneakers and how they would change her life. I was just about to comment that the entire movie was a glorified advertising campaign, but decided not to burst anyone’s bubble.
Disney and Nike had merged in the 2020s, one of the strangest unions at the time. In the end, it was all about licensing and making more money, because when you already have enough money, why not try to make even more? Shit, I was surprised DisNike hadn’t tried to purchase McStarbucks or WalMacy’s. That would have been a trifecta.
“Grace, can you turn into a princess?” Michelle asked over the high-pitched singing from the film.
Grace turned to the teens, and as she did, her form started to melt away. She now wore a tiara, which matched the long flowing gown that boosted her breasts up. Her skin had turned the color of light caramel – diversity and inclusion! – and her nails were covered in glitter.
I’m glad I wasn’t driving. Or, should I say: Thank god for auto drive. My eyes didn’t quite fall out of my head, but I did find myself staring at her bosom a lot longer than I meant to.
With a smile that would have put the British royal family to shame, Grace lifted a gloved hand and gave everyone in the back a cupped-hand-princess-wave.
Michelle waved back; Stella gave her a skeptical look; Dorian was resting; Fiona and Ingrid were still glued to the television; and Veronique was staring at me.
Damn those dark eyes, I thought as we continued along the highway.
I found the mall in Pueblo and routed us to it.
It was going to be quite the drive to get to Colorado Springs, but I was prepared for the long haul. We stopped at a gas station on the border between New Mexico and Colorado. While I filled the tank, I tasked Grace with getting snacks and sodas and gave her thirty bucks to do it.
“Don’t use your power,” I reminded her. “Let’s just keep a low profile for a while.”
“I’m going with Grace,” Stella said, and together they went inside the small convenience store, all men in the vicinity watching as they entered.
As I filled up, a guy in a Dodge truck looked over at me and gave a friendly nod.
It seems like men always do this when they happen to lock eyes. Perhaps it harkens back to a time when you never knew if someone was going to try to kill you or not, and the quick nod just lets them know you’re friendly, not looking for any trouble, and just going about your business.
That, or he just wanted to check out Dorian, who had kicked her feet out of the minivan and was stretching her arms over her head.
Probably the second reason, I thought as the pump clicked, letting me know the minivan had taken all it could take.
Grace and Stella returned with two liters of cola and a few bags of trail mix.
“I would like some meat too,” Ingrid said.
To appease the beast girl, I went in and bought her a hot dog.
“What’s that?” Michelle asked when I handed it to Ingrid.
But Ingrid wolfed the thing down before Michelle could get a proper look at it.
“A hot dog; meat,” I said.
“We want hot dogs too.”
“I want something with meat as well,” Stella said.
“I’d like a cup of coffee,” Veronique chimed in.
“Okay, okay, let’s all go in there and get what we want. But no powers. And don’t look at people. Shit, that makes me sound like a dick. I mean, don’t cause trouble. No powers, promise?”
They nodded and together, we all returned to the convenience store.
This raised a few eyebrows – me, a twenty-five year old soy boy with glasses and a scar on his face followed by a beautiful Asian woman, Grace; a punk rock badass, Dorian; a hot blond with sharp features and shorts that were way too short, Veronique; a woman in a too-tight black bodysuit who looked like a combination of Grace and Veronique with her hair braided, Stella; two teenage girls in oversized clothing we stole from the house we’d stayed at, Fiona and Ingrid; and a teen who wore scrubs and had black hair with a pink streak, Michelle.
“Shit,” I murmured as I saw more people starting to look at us. “Grace, will you wipe everyone’s minds of this as we leave?”
“Already on it,” she said, her eyes flashing white.
No one started singing ‘99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall’ as we continued deeper into Colorado, which was possibly a good thing. Although I would have preferred that to more DisNike tunes about the health benefits of wearing sneakers and why all young princes and princesses should choose DisNike sneakers.
But like a good parent (or older brother?), I tuned out the terrible music and enjoyed the scenery.
I’d never been to Colorado before, but I’d heard a bunch about it, and I wasn’t disappointed.
The snow-tipped mountains in the distance reminded me of Appalachia, the winding roads slightly harrowing but fun, especially for the Super Teens. While they mostly continued watching their movie, whenever we took a big curve they would laugh and chatter about the view.
Hell, even Veronique was getting into the spirit, a genuine smile on her face as she looked out the window, not staring at me for once.
So it was a great ride, and eventually, we arrived at the mall in Pueblo.
“Each of you gets a thousand to spend, and each of you,” I said, looking in the rearview mirror at the Super Teens, “will be shopping with a chaperone.”
“A chaperone?” Michelle asked. “I’m going to buy everything!”
“Grace, you’ll go with Fiona; Dorian with Michelle – please try to keep up with her, and I’m speaking to both of you when I say that; Stella with Ingrid; Veronique, you’re on your own. Unless you want to go with any of the other groups, then by all m
eans. And remember, absolutely no powers.”
“Where are you going to be?” Michelle asked.
“I’m staying in the van,” I told her. “I have some writing to do – well, at least some editing – and I want to do a little more research on homes in Colorado Springs.”
“I’ll stay here with Gideon, to protect him,” Veronique said in a playful tone.
“Yeah, he definitely needs some protection,” came Dorian’s reply as she got out of the vehicle. Grace simply laughed and winked at me as her form changed to that of an Hispanic woman with curly dark hair and a mole on the left side of her nostril.
I got out as well, moving to the back to get the cash. Each Super got a thousand, as I had promised, and I gave Grace an extra five thousand just in case people needed more money. It was a shitton of money, actually, but I had no idea what they would buy, and I really didn’t care. It was up to them.
Besides, who doesn’t want to go on a shopping spree?
“Everyone – and by ‘everyone’ I mean Dorian and Grace – if you see something that ‘you know who’ would like,” I said, nodding toward Veronique, who still sat in the back, “then go ahead and buy it.”
The group left, and I got in the back seat with Veronique, the minivan still running so we could keep the A/C on.
I opened my laptop and began by searching the map, cross-referencing it with some of the mansions that were for sale. It was easy to tell the mansions’ sizes by the GoogleFace sky view imaging. I simply zoomed in, and if the home looked as big as a JC Targets or a WalMacy’s, I took note. I marked the address of three places, typing them into the notes app on my smartphone.
By this point, Veronique had lain down in the seat, her head on my lap.
You know,” I told her, “it’s kind of hard to type with you right there.”
“You’ll be okay,” she said and turned her head to the side even more. My brain began to fire: Her head is inches away from your penis! Her head is inches away from your penis!
Damn you, brain, I’m trying to work.
So even with the fact that Veronique was lying on my lap, dangerously close to my mini writer, I kept my focus up.
Cherry Blossom Girls Box Set Page 55
