Control

by J. F. Jenkins

  He seemed to buy it, because The Doctor nodded and continued to prepare this next injection. “I see, and does your friend have a name?”

  “Of course she does, but she didn’t want me to say anything in case she got in trouble. And we don’t rat each other out.” It’s a good thing I know how to lie well.

  The good thing about her position was she could see the door and The Doctor couldn’t. The bad part was she couldn’t see the other teenager in the room. There weren’t a lot of places for him to hide either. The lab room wasn’t big by any means. One chair—and she was sitting in it—a table with a line of syringes filled with the newest injection, another small table with a laptop, and a filing cabinet stuffed in a corner along with a desk. Unless the teenager was under the desk, then there was no way for him to be in the room.

  Unless he’s not here. And that’s when Angela saw the communicator on the table next to the laptop.

  All The Doctor did was nod again, and started to hum as he tapped the needle a few times. He put an alcohol swab on Angela’s arm, cleaning her skin.

  “Wait, wait, wait, what are you doing?” she asked and flinched away from him, trying to buy some more time.

  “Giving you answers. This will help you adjust to the changes. I’m finding a lot of you who received the injection are having a hard time controlling the abilities you’re exhibiting. Some of you are also getting some not-so-nice side effects. This will hopefully minimize all of it and make the process more natural,” he explained. He flashed her a smile, though it came across as fake. “You trusted me once, you can do it again.”

  No, don’t think I can. I didn’t trust you last time either. You just did it without my permission, jerk. She took in a deep breath. “Can I have just a couple more minutes? Needles freak me out like no other.”

  “Close your eyes then. It won’t hurt if you don’t pay attention.”

  “But I’ll know. I’m anticipating, and—”

  “Okay, one more minute. I have a couple of others coming in soon to prepare for, but then I must get back on schedule. There’s a lot to be done.”

  She nodded, trying to show she understood. “Right.” With a glance to the door, she looked to see if Orlando was there yet. No sign of him, not at first. She couldn’t see him through the small window in the door, but she did see the shadows of his feet through the crack at the bottom. Time to take one for the team.

  “I’m ready,” she said, and the vomit rising in her stomach that she had to swallow down was not something she faked.

  The Doctor faced her and reapplied the alcohol swab to her arm. “It shouldn’t hurt much. I’ve been told there’s a slight sting and some tenderness at the site for a few days. Nothing different than a flu shot. Did you get one of those?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Think of this as something similar.”

  Angela closed her eyes briefly, hoping she hadn’t gotten herself into something she’d later regret—again. When she opened them again, she could see the door open a crack and the laptop floating over towards it. Orlando worked fast; it was almost across the room.

  “Relax...and it won’t...hurt as much...” The Doctor said. She could feel the needle just beginning to prick her skin when the syringe flew out of his hands. Turning his head in all directions, The Doctor searched the room. “Who? What? Sensor?”

  “Stay down!” Orlando shouted just before he sent more of the syringes flying through the air. Angela crouched down lower into her chair, covering her head with her arms, and watched The Doctor dive to the floor for cover.

  “Sensor? Behemoth? Where are you? I need you, now.”

  “Incapacitated, I’m guessing. Oops?” Orlando said.

  The Doctor glared at him. “You again.”

  “Me, yes, again.” Orlando overturned the table where the laptop had been and sent it towards The Doctor.

  Angela used this distraction as an opportunity to escape, but not before sending a small ball of fire to destroy the remaining upgrade injections. She bolted for the door. Grabbing the laptop from off of the floor, she squeezed past Orlando, and the two ran down the hall. He was able to slam the door shut just as The Doctor was about to run out after them with a gun. A couple of seconds later, she heard the gun fire and the bullet shattered one of the lights over her head. They turned a corner and ran straight into Alan.

  “Teleport! Pronto!” Orlando screamed at him. Without hesitation, Alan put a hand on both of them. With a bang and a small puff of smoke, they left the hallway and reappeared outside. The moon illuminated the area around them just enough to see, and it was not a place Angela recognized. They were in the middle of some kind of industrial development. Many businesses were closed, creating a creepy, hollow sort of feeling, like a ghost town. And it was cold.

  She shivered, and held the laptop close to her chest hoping it would provide some kind of warmth. No such luck, and her ears were ringing from all of the noise. “W-w-w-where are we?”

  “Outside the building we were just in,” Alan said quickly, and started down the street. “There is a convenience store two blocks north. I would have taken us back to The Apartment, but I have done a lot of teleporting in a short period of time. Once I get some more energy, we can go.”

  Two blocks north did not sound far. In fact, Angela could see the gas station up ahead, and she couldn’t have been more delighted. The cold made her want her to run towards it, but the ice on the ground prevented her from doing so. After what could have been the longest five minutes of her life, they finally got inside. Orlando bought them hot chocolate. She tried to ignore the stares from the other customers in the store. Everyone probably thinks we’re crazy. Who am I kidding, we are crazy. This is nuts. I almost let him inject me, again. JD is going to kill me.

  But it felt great, being helpful, doing good. And she hoped that if The Doctor wasn’t scared of them before, he would be now.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  JD loaded the box of supplies into the back of the car. He was driving one that Jaes had provided for them, so that was a plus. Originally, JD had been nervous about taking his parents’ car. So far the mission was going well. The three were able to remain incognito while they worked around Sprout and her masked minions. She had five of them, including Bean.

  When Sprout’s group went to collect something for their shipment, JD’s group went to smuggle from a different vehicle. There were four cars. Three were regular midsized sedans each carrying a trunk full of goods. Each one had a different supply. The fourth was a large van that was being used to transport the entire load to where The Doctor was doing his work. It was a good system, and JD was patient enough to wait for his part. He was much better at sneaking around than he thought. It helped that they only needed a small sample of the materials. What they did, JD didn’t know, but they were all labeled with the words “Fragile” and “Bio-Hazard.”

  While JD’s group only had one more car to steal out of, Sprout’s still had two cars to fully unload. They were all parked outside of a warehouse. The large spacious lot was surrounded by several buildings, creating a nice cover for them to do their work.

  “We’re on a deadline people, go faster,” Sprout ordered.

  “Slave driver much?” JD whispered. He had a hard time believing that Orlando dated the girl. She was bossy, arrogant, and all around controlling. I guess he’s into that kind of thing? Or she may have put on an act. It’s his problem.

  “Shh!” Cadence shifted her weight between her feet and glanced around her. There was no way they’d be able to blend in if they were caught. JD’s ridiculous, but amazing, costume would see to that.

  He’d made sure to follow his heart when making his costume. Going for something practical given the weather, as well as fitting to his personality. Layers were key to his ensemble. Black long underwear was underneath his outer clothes to help keep him warm, then he had his jeans, and a long sleeved shirt with a giant Chihuahua face on it. In true superhero fashion, he wore a pair of
boxer shorts covered in pictures of tacos over his jeans.

  There was a lot of muttering going on between Sprout’s minions as they picked up the speed of their work. With one quick wave of his hand, Jaes directed JD and Cadence to the last vehicle they would have to steal from. Unlike the other two cars they had robbed, the trunk to this one was still locked.

  “Crap,” JD whispered, and glanced back at Jaes hoping he had a good idea how to get the car open. JD didn’t have powers and he didn’t have the knowledge to break into it either. Not without anyone noticing at least.

  Jaes shook his head. “I’m not sure what to do. I do not have a kit to open the door.”

  “Do you have a screwdriver handy?” JD asked. Worst case scenario, he could pull the lock out of the socket and they could make a run for it. They only had to grab this last set of materials. The car was old enough, it could work.

  Cadence sighed heavily and crept around the car to the driver’s side front door. She gave the door a pull and it opened. She reached inside, ducking down low and out of their sight for a moment. There was the sound of the trunk popping open, and then she quietly shut the front door. Jaes was frowning, clearly confused.

  “There’s a release lever under the steering wheel sometimes,” JD explained. Why hadn’t he thought of the possibility of the car itself not being locked?

  “Oh,” Jaes said and took a look around before lifting the trunk open. He reached in, then pulled out a small cardboard box about the size of a baseball. On it was a sticker that read “Bio-Hazard” and “Highly Flammable”. He handed it to JD and waited for the right moment to shut the door again. He synchronized the sound with the doors to the van closing so that no one would notice. Jaes opened his mouth to say something more, and then stopped when a new female voice filled the air.

  “What do we have here?” Her tone was lighthearted, her pitch high and innocent sounding. When JD found the source, his jaw dropped in shock.

  The voice was directed at Sprout. Standing somewhere around thirty feet away was a petite, curvy, dark haired teenager wearing tight black leather pants, a laced up black leather corset, and a heavy matching trench coat. Her hair was short and spiked up in a pixie cut. There must have been glitter on her mask because it sparkled under the moonlight. She didn’t look as innocent as she sounded. She looked hot. And by the way she was all decked out in a costume, and no one else a part of Sprout’s team wore anything outside of normal street clothes, she wasn’t on their side. But she might not have been on JD’s side either.

  JD let out a quiet whistle, impressed. He couldn’t help but stare at her, and how tight her costume was. Cadence took one look at him and scowled.

  “Please,” she mumbled and gave his arm a tug. If she was jealous, he liked it. A good sign for him.

  All of Sprout’s workers stopped what they were doing and stared at the new girl.

  “Who are you?” Sprout asked.

  Both Cadence and JD watched the exchange as Sprout stepped into view. There was a face-off of sorts happening between her and the new girl. JD had a hard time looking away.

  “Keep moving, this is not our concern,” Jaes whispered and led the way for their escape. He was right. They didn’t need to be involved in whatever was about to go down between the two teenage girls.

  Sprout took a step forward and vines began to appear from her hands, lashing out at the new girl. “I asked you a question. Who are you?”

  “Ophelia, well, that’s what you can call me at least. My real identity is not your business to know,” the girl said and didn’t so much as flinch when a vine cracked like a whip in front of her face.

  This is going to get ugly fast, JD realized as he moved from one spot of cover to the next. They had to cross the entire parking lot unseen, or it was game over. He couldn’t look away either, and that hindered his escape.

  “Whatever, keep moving people. Ignore the psycho,” Sprout said after taking a few seconds to size up her opponent. She must have not thought of Ophelia as a threat because she turned her back on the girl.

  “Halt what you are doing in the name of justice!” Ophelia shouted after her.

  Wow, I thought I was getting into this, JD thought, wanting to say it out loud. He held back, not wanting to get caught by saying something when he shouldn’t. Then everything started to go wrong without his help, so it wouldn’t have made a big difference in the end.

  Sprout shot a vine at Ophelia, slapping her hard across the face. She’d done the same thing to Cadence the night of the party. Watching Sprout do it again to someone else brought the image back to JD clearly, and it made his blood boil with rage.

  “You don’t take orders from her. You take them from me. Keep working!” Sprout snapped. Her workers were still torn, no one moved a muscle, and they continued to watch the two. Sprout briefly glared at them all. “Move it!”

  That got everyone going again, and at double the pace they had been working at before. Soon the group was ready to unload the next car—the same car JD, Cadence, and Jaes had been at only moments before. In fact, JD and his comrades were not far enough away yet to go unnoticed.

  “Oh snap,” he whispered.

  Ophelia was clearly seething from the slap across the face. For a long time all she did was glare at Sprout with her fists clenched. Then through gritted teeth she spoke. “All right, you asked for it.”

  More people appeared then, creating a ring around both groups. They all wore black, their faces shrouded with hoods.

  “Oh. Snap,” JD repeated louder. One of the hooded figures was fixated on him especially. Ophelia gave one snap of her fingers, and the entire ring of black-hooded followers charged forward. Think fast. What do we do? Dodge and run for the car? Will that even work? Think, think, think.

  Shifting his body weight to provide more power in his legs, JD charged forward, determined to hit his attacker straight on and hopefully send him flying if he could angle the blow right. He thrust his shoulder into the person’s gut, and was surprised to find it was a girl and not a guy like he had originally thought. She was strong, hard, and cold to the touch. He plowed her over, and the two rolled for several feet before she landed on top of him. When he caught sight of her face, he screamed.

  Staring back at him was the half decomposed face of a teenage girl. Her hands were literally bones with only a few small bits of flesh connecting them together. She tried to slap him across the face, but he was able to deflect the attack with his arm. Her body was so much stronger than he imagined. Leaning over him, her hands went to his neck and tightened, strangling him. JD tried to kick her off, but to no avail.

  Something white zoomed over his head and hit her square in the chest, stunning her. Another flash and something hit her face. Ice covered her body and she fell backward to the ground with a crunch that sent shivers down JD’s spine. He kicked the girl away for good measure and then scrambled to his feet to see Jaes standing behind him. The ice had come from the alien, his hands glowed a bright, pale blue.

  “Thanks,” JD managed, then frowned when he noticed something cold and sticky against his shirt. For a moment, he thought it might be blood. Blood wouldn’t be cold though, would it? Unless it’s not mine? That didn’t seem right. When he touched it with his fingers, he found them to be covered in a thick, black goo. He recognized it instantly as part of the drug that had been injected into his sister by The Doctor. It was all over his clothes and chest. Then he saw why. The small container of the goo he had been carrying back to the car had broken open during his rumble with the zombie-like girl.

  JD groaned. “Guys we’ve got a problem.” He pointed to the mess.

  Jaes stopped to inspect the goo on JD’s shirt and frowned. “We will have to return without the component and hope for the best.”

  “I think this part is essential,” JD said. He rolled up his sleeves with determination, feeling not quite so cold anymore, and filled with adrenaline.

  “I’m going back for it,” he stated.

&nb
sp; “No,” Jaes said firmly. “I will not allow it. You have no means to defend yourself and it is chaos back there.”

  All three of them took a moment to look over their shoulders to watch the fighting between the people in the dark hoods and Sprout’s minions. Except for the one girl who attacked JD, the other hooded individuals didn’t seem all too interested in the trio. Shivers went down JD’s spine as he watched the others fight. One boy shot black liquid out of his hands, and the liquid took on a life of its own, attacking and smothering anyone in a black hood who got near him.

  Bean was being attacked by two of them. Sprout came to his rescue and with her vines threw them aside like ragdolls. Another girl began to shine in the dark as if she were made of metal, liquid metal, because she coated one of the people in black hoods with it. When the hoods fell, most of the time they didn’t get back up again. Soon, everyone in a black hood was down and all that remained was Sprout, her cronies, and Ophelia.

  “That was a charming exercise, but we’ve got work to do.” Sprout casually brushed blonde hair away from her face as she glared at Ophelia.

  JD nodded at Jaes with pleading eyes. “I can do this. Go get the car and bring it around. We’ll hightail it out of here. We need this stuff.”

  “You have five minutes to get it and get back here,” Cadence said tersely. Why was she mad? JD was doing the right thing.

  “All right,” Jaes said with a sigh.

  He didn’t stick around to find out what her beef was. Jaes didn’t stop him, and that’s what mattered most. Running back to the car where the goo was being kept, JD crouched down and hoped he could pop the trunk open again with ease. Maybe he’d luck out and it wouldn’t be closed all the way. He gave it a firm tug, but the lid of the trunk didn’t budge. I’m going to have to do this Cadence’s way. But as he crept around the side of the car, he noticed that Sprout’s group was already getting ready to head over his way to unload it.