“As your older sister, I command you to sit down!” the girl named Chelsea said, her voice slowly rising.
“You’re only older by a few minutes.” Maegan shot back, but she did sit down. Her sister took a seat next to her, but never let her eyes travel away from me. She definitely wasn’t on my side, even if her twin was.
One of the older people walked up to me. She looked me up and down multiple times, trying to find something suspicious. Man was I glad I brushed that lint off earlier. After a few minutes, something occurred to me. She would’ve realized nothing was wrong by now, that was, unless she was stalling. If she already knew I was part of the Rebellion, she wouldn’t even need to inspect me. That leaves a most definitive that she was stalling. By the angels, I hope Fire had seen this coming before he and Waterstar tried to break in.
I held perfectly still, trying to not act like a kid who had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Who the hell even kept cookie jars? When I thought my legs were going to give out, she said, “Fine, go sit in that chair, but leave the headphones,” and pointed toward one of the three remaining seats. I really wanted to ignore that last part. My headphones were my babies, but no. I handed them over like a good little servant to the NOPCW’s cause.
One of the chair’s was obviously hers because it sat at the head of the table, so that left two others. On the assumption that I am last to arrive, my chair would have been decided by me passing her test, or failing it. I headed to the chair that the old hag had pointed at. I heard Maegan choke out something that sounded along the lines of ‘no’, but her twin silence her with a sharp look. Turns out that I did not pass inspection, as if I didn’t know that already.
As I sat in the chair, I felt it adjust to my weight. This was the trap chair, but instead of doing anything about it, I played the ignorant fool and folded my hands then looked straight ahead, just as protocol demanded. I still might have a chance to get out of this. Stupid uptight NOPCW idiots trying to ruin an amazingly last-minute plan. At least Maegan was in front of me so that I could be sure nothing happened to or with her. I didn’t want an innocent getting in trouble because one of our spies had effed up. Plus she was pretty cute, if I do say so myself. Not that I should be distracted on the job, or well, ever. Waterstar would surely kick me now if she had the chance.
The crone cleared her throat and we all turned to face her. “I have just gotten a report from the Shadow Squad.” She paused to let this sink in. The Shadow Squad was a group of elite police that worked for these idiots. I’ve tangled with them before, and I barely got out without using my special. Some, however, are much weaker than others, and I am unsure which were currently on Calsh. They had specific training regimes and patrols on both of the inhabited planets, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they had sent some to the Underworld. “They have captured the intruders, and are coming here right now for interrogation.”
We all faced back to looking straight in front of us. Maegan was trying to communicate something, but at this point I had given her up as a lost cause. I needed to focus and do my own thing; how could someone from the NOPCW help me? She had no where near the training a rebel had, even if we weren’t that organized with it. I also didn’t have as much time as I would’ve liked before Fire and Water were captured. I needed a plan, and not a Waterstar-last-minute plan. I could not be distracted by some stupid girl… but damn did she seem worried.
I looked down to focus. I’d gotten as far as planning how I’d escape this freaking chair I was sitting in when I felt someone try to play footsie with me. My eyes jerked up and saw Maegan. She was trying to tell me something but I didn’t speak eye-motion. I raised an eyebrow and watched her closely. Her eyes kept darting to her left; I looked toward her left and saw her sister. No, that couldn’t be it, she didn’t seem dangerous. The only person that could be threatening was… angels don’t let that be true. Maybe I should’ve tried to figure out what Maegan had been saying earlier.
I was about to confirm my suspicion, though I have no clue how, when the door slammed open. “Commander!” The first guy saluted before four others came in, each pair holding one of my friends. Fire had a nasty bruise on his left cheek; Water's captors looked worse than she did though, which was typical. Well, that answered that question. The Commander here held a similar position as Arctic, except there were multiple commanders within the NOPCW. Star Rebellion only had the one base, and therefore only needed one commander. They brought in the real deal for this invasion. Well aren’t we going to have a fun time.
“Good job,” the crone-commander-hag said, turning into a nasty little snake. Figuratively of course. All NOPCW niceties disappeared as she glared at me. I saw her arm twitch under the table.
“Not in this life you don’t!” I wasted no time. I gripped the arms of my chair by the backrest, narrowly dodging the manacles that popped out of the chair where my wrists had been. I did a ninja flip over the back of the chair, and as I landed, I made sure a foot hit one of the guards holding Firestar.
“Capture him, now,” the crone commander. Damn did she seem bossy. “You cannot let a single member of Star Rebellion escape.”
I saw one of the guards aim their gun against Waterstar. Terror streaked her bright blue eyes as she felt the gun against her temple. I believe there is a difference between capturing and killing someone, though the Shadow Squad didn’t seem on the same page.
“Not her!” I felt the scream tear away from my throat. I knew I’d be too late though, but I charged at him anyways, hoping that I could avenge her at least.
The Shadow member looked up to see who was coming. When he smiled, I realized that this was the guy I had fought with before. This would be like revenge for him in a way. However, every second in a fight counts.
And that was his downfall. In the few short seconds it took him to smile at me, someone had smashed a clipboard against his head. The guy reflexively shot the gun but his arm had jerked and the bullet hit his partner. As the bodies dropped to the floor, blood seeping from both of their heads; a pair of arms caught Water before she hit the ground.
“Get the commander!” Maegan shouted. “I’ll get the other guy and bring them to a safe place.” Waterstar was already on her feet, fighting Fire’s only guard with some difficulty. Firestar seemed out of the count still.
I didn't even question Maegan’s motives, just nodded my head as I switched paths and charged the messed up crone. Of course, it wasn’t as simple as that. The leader of the Shadow Squad branch we were dealing with, which is a really dorky name if you ask me, decided to step in my path.
“Move it!” I growled. With my next step toward him, I threw my fist forward, hoping to land a nasty punch on his stupid, already crooked nose.
“First rule, don’t let anger control you.” The idiot said as he caught my fist and shook his head with a smirk. I had to hand it to him, catching that punch was impressive. However, he left himself open for a dirty trick that Arctic wouldn’t approve of. The Star Rebellion Commander tried to get us to fight fairly so the Rebellion could be remembered with some decency in history, but I’ve spent the majority of my life with Waterstar.
I lifted my knee up and slammed the heel of my booted foot into his crotch, pulling him forward with the arm he had grabbed hold of earlier so he couldn’t dodge my blow. I saw his face whiten as pain contorted his features. “I'm not angry, I'm perfectly in control,” I said with a smirk of my own.
I heard him mutter, “You little-” but I dropped him before he could finish. They really need to build in a crotch protector or something with those uniforms. The crone’s back was turned toward me, so I took my time to be silent. She was still yelling, but now it was at the other representatives, who were huddled in a corner. I heard something about them being incompetent fools for letting me infiltrate this facility to begin with. One man tried pointing at me, but the crone slapped him before he said anything. Maybe the Shadow dude had been right about anger.
When I was only a few ste
ps behind her, I slammed the side of my hand in between two vertebrae in her neck, breaking it instantly. Why have a drawn out fight with an old woman? “Do not take my headphones,” I said to her dead body. I quickly inspected the thick headphones before deciding they hadn’t endured any damage. I would kill that commander a second time in the Underworld if my babies were hurt in any way.
As I sprinted out of the door, and turned around and held up both my middle fingers before continuing my mad dash down the corridors.
I quickly made my way to conference room E, which was the rendezvous location if anything bad happened. I’m not sure about you, but I would consider this as bad. About halfway there I turned a corner and ran into a group of Shadow Freaks. Bad news was that there were a total of nine of them. Two, maybe even three, I could’ve handled. More if my power could be used in battle like Water’s, or even Fire’s special. I wasn’t completely defenseless, but there were too many of them to persuade all of them to go for a cheery little walk elsewhere, preferably off a rather tall cliff.
My dark enforcing, however, I could work with. It’d be a drastic move, using my special this early in the mission, but hey, with Star Rebellion everything was drastic. I felt a smirk settle over my face as I summoned the power, just like what I had learned when I was thirteen. I’ve never used my special outside of class, but there’s a first time for everything. I also doubted that I would be doing much more after this besides getting to rendezvous.
The Shadow Freaks had caught sight of me and had settled into a formation like birds migrating. I could vaguely hear one of them say something into a communication device. I was releasing a steady stream of power but that wasn’t working fast enough. The lights were slowly dimming, and the Shadow Freaks were almost upon me. So being who I am, I did something that’s probably considered suicidal, or at least to us it is. I let all of my power go at once. Everything was black. And I don’t mean night black or even pitch black. I mean black without even a pinprick of light.
Except I could still see every single detail.
I’m just hoping that the Shadow dudes couldn’t see, especially since I now had a splitting headache. I leapt to the side just before they would’ve crashed into me. I saw them swing their heads back and forth, looking for me, though they obviously couldn’t see worth crap. I threw a pen down a branching hallway and stifled my laughter as they all ran toward, two colliding with each other and another running into the wall. I then silently crept to conference room E while I still had adrenaline powering my body.
I knew I was there because I could hear Maegan’s panicked voice and Fire trying to calm her down. Oh and Water was yelling insults at Maegan. After standing outside the door for a few moments, eavesdropping on them of course, I burst through the door and saw why Maegan was panicking. Apparently I had put the whole building into a blackout. It’s good to know how widespread my special is, and that generators don’t work against it. Score one for Darkstar.
I saw Fire’s and Water’s heads snap up, but Maegan apparently didn’t care because her head was still buried in her hands. Or more likely, she hadn’t heard the door open. I had to give her the benefit of the doubt. Why? ‘Cause I wanted to. Don’t judge me.
“I knew it! I definitely called it that you would notify some of the stupid Shadow Idiots! Now look at what you’ve done! You’ll get us all killed. They’re here now, and you know what? I’ll let them take you first, traitor.” I stopped listening because she was in a rambling mode. But she was also moving away from Fire and Maegan, her eyes focused on where she guessed I was. Water was using her voice to lure the non-existent Shadow Freaks to her.
I smiled and closed the door, letting go of the darkness, but slowly this time. The room lightened and I saw relief flicker across all of their faces.
Firestar walked over to me and patted me on the back. “Nice use of the special.” His grin was tight lipped though. He looked over at where Maegan was sitting, then twitched his head towards Water. Something was up between them.
I smiled and nodded my head at him. Maegan still had her head in her hands, but she was peeking at me through her fingers. I closed the distance between us and knelt so that I was face to face with her. I glided my first two fingers against her jaw bone. “You okay?” The question was simple, implying no more concern than a normal person would.
She stiffly nodded her head; I could tell that her heart was racing, but I wasn’t sure what for. “What’s upsetting you?” I asked gently.
She finally removed her hands from covering her face. Luckily she wasn’t crying, which was good. Waterstar hated girls crying. Maegan shrugged and I was her eyes flicker toward Water before returning to me. “Just… I’ve never done anything wrong before. And well… you aren’t exactly good people.”
Waterstar snorted behind me. “Oh, we aren’t good people? What about you, and your stupid New Order for a Perfect Calshian World? Where you use innocent creatures for profit! They won’t have decent living conditions, I can guarantee that.”
“Waterstar,” I barked at her, automatically silencing her rant.
My friend crossed her arms and took in a deep breath while glaring at me. Abruptly she turned around and went to the door, peering out into the hall as guard.
I turned back to Maegan. “We aren’t trying to be bad. Things like this are necessary to restore peace and order to Calsh. We are trying to save the Mystic Animals, and to make a livable environment for everyone.”
“That’s not what the Commander had said.”
Firestar started laughing. He swept an arm out to point back toward the door. “And after all of that, you really trust that had?”
Maegan didn’t have a reply, but she did look down as if ashamed of her previous statement. I slightly lifted her chin up so she was looking at me again. “Come on, we’ll speak of this later. I can answer any questions you have once we return to the Rebellion.” I know what you and probably everyone in the room are thinking right now. Damn, Darkstar! You’ve got the hots for this completely mundane girl that Waterstar will probably hate to death. Maybe you’re right. Hell, I don’t know. Dating is overrated, and there is too much going on in the Rebellion for it to be practical. So quiet yourself and maybe you might be happy to read something at the end of all these shennanigans where there’s a happy ever after. Let me tell you one thing though, happy ever afters don’t exist. I learned that from my sister.
I stood up and glanced at my two friends who were closer than family. “So… What’s the game plan?”
Fire and Water looked at me like I was an idiot. I remembered that I was the only one who knew how to navigate the NOPCW halls, or at least the only rebel. Water hadn't even know what the place looked like until now, and Firestar only knew what the maps could tell him. Plus, when it came to plans, I was normally the strategist.
I started pacing up and down, a tendency taken from Water. We would either have to get out of here and back to Star Rebellion, or we would have to continue on toward the Underworld. Were we in the best of shape to do that though? Would we have the time or even a place to rest if we continued on?
Maegan’s voice broke me from my planning. “Jacob… what are you going to do with me?”
The question had caught me off guard. I really hadn’t considered it when I saw her get Waterstar out of that damned room. I mean, I had already said we’d take her back to the Rebellion, but what all would Arctic say? Technically, she was a prisoner I suppose. I looked over at Firestar and raised my eyebrows. He shrugged and sat down with his back against the wall, closing his eyes. What he was going to look for, I wasn’t sure. Waterstar shot a glare in my direction before taking out some bread and pre-made tea. She wasn't exactly friendly to other girls, especially ones she considered the enemy. Even though Maegan had practically saved her life. Water sat cross legged in front of Fire and completely ignored Maegan and I.
Maegan was watching us like we were all mental; it took me a second to realize that only Star Rebellion members
knew that everyone had certain powers. When Fire’s face contorted in pain, Maegan almost rushed forward to try and wake him up, probably assuming he was just having a nightmare. The only reason she couldn’t was because my reflexes thankfully kicked in and stopped her before she got too close. Waterstar, however, was not pleased, and it didn’t help that she already didn’t like Maegan. I think Water had an issue with being saved by someone she considered the enemy, along with the fact that if Firestar was wakened while using his ability, it was very possible that he would go insane in the wrong way.
“Why you little,” Water didn’t finish her sentence as she swiftly pulled out a collapsible steel rod. She expertly unfolded it and connected the three pieces together. Water started walking forward, as light and quiet on her feet as a sphinx, but far, far more dangerous.
“Water…” I warned, my voice low and deadly. I had already pushed Maegan behind me and was now crouched down, ready to fight. We had been told to never use any of our powers on each other unless we were training or it was absolutely necessary. If she forced me to use my persuasion now, it would show me protecting an NOPCW idiot over my own comrade. This was not going well.
“Darkstar…” she said, mimicking me perfectly except her voice held none of my persuasion. She was right in front of me now, and I was the only thing between her and Maegan. She lifted one eyebrow at me, silently asking me who I would choose….
WATERSTAR
I can’t believe Dark actually had to think about this! It should be as obvious as the fact that the Shadow Idiots wouldn’t be inviting us to an effing tea party! I lifted my rod a little, the only sign I would give to show that I wouldn’t let him protect her. I saw his eyes flick toward it, then back at me.
Star Rebellion Page 4
