The Meta Corps - Dream of the Youth

by ToGard

Chapter 21

  Anne held her hair back in the wind, scared for herself and the suffering Levan. If she was unable to subdue the extra power when she had it, than what could she do with someone that had literally absorbed it? Even worse, Anne felt obligated to do something since her main caretaker had betrayed her, and she was the only one of her kind. Levan was the “second.”

  She looked down at the small camp in the middle of the road on 20th Street. She could recognize Florence, Clark, and Juno, a trio of her most intimidating authority figures. Anne was reluctant to ask for help with her obligation because she was terrified that she had done something unfathomably wrong.

  Levan wailed again, bringing Anne out of her train of thought. She looked around.

  “Mister, I’m sorry!”

  Levan jerked his head left to right, his face flushed. Anne held her hand out, her mind reeling for an answer to this problem.

  Nothing was coming up…

  …nothing was coming up!

  Anne had no idea what to do. She knew that she would probably get in very deep trouble for doing that to Levan, even if he had started it. With her fear focused more toward the topical events instead of Morgan, Anne felt the hollow pain of both terror and frustration ring through her tummy. It resonated up through her chest and out the top. She started to cry.

  Tench fell from the vortex. Neither Levan nor Anne noticed him, but they were the first thing that he saw on exiting.

  Is that Anne? Anne! Toyland! That makes a bit more sense.

  Anne felt something large and wet brush her shoulder. She looked down to see Jack falling to the earth. Anne looked up and gasped. Lora and Sarra trailed after them, along with a surprise.

  Anne took Levan’s hand and pulled him away.

  “Come on, come on, please. This things gonna barf!”Anne said. Levan didn’t register as Anne led him away.

  “Flo, the gale force has slowed tenfold since Levan took over and that gave us our missing heroes; all are alive and whole.” Juno yelled.

  Florence straightened her posture and grew another two feet in the process.

  A light blinked on the console.

  “We also have rubble and all kinds of crap being ejected along with them. I just hope that you got everyone out of there unharmed.”

  Florence and Clark exchanged glances.

  Tench and Lora were disoriented to the point where they were convinced that the cloud was the ground and the ocean was the sky. They were unable to figure out why the world was spinning as they tumbled.

  Florence and Clark exchanged glances. Florence nodded.

  “I’ll grab Tench, you worry about Lora.” She said. Clark nodded and the two shot off like lightning.

  Lora was starting to realize that the ocean was not, in fact the sky. She saw Clark fly up alongside her. He looked up to see the rubble pour from the vortex. Clark swore. He matched Lora’s velocity to prevent her neck from being broken by the whiplash. Lora felt herself being grabbed before she could conjure up a greeting. Clark arced above the remains and Lora’s stomach dropped along with the rest of the junk that the vortex had sucked up.

  Lora didn’t feel saved. She felt sicker than she did coming out of the eye. The two heroes were brought back to Juno.

  Jack had relived the moment where he became far, far more EnWol than EnWol. He barely cared about where he was. He lost his shape and fell to Dogpatch, splashing to the ground not a few feet from Morgan where the old, decrepit test building had once been. He was rained upon by the former structures turned to sand.

  Sarra did not recover until she landed. She could not make out anything coherent as she fell, swearing along the way. She hit with a wet splat and went everywhere, her body spreading out and then retracting back to a familiar shape, upside down and in the middle of a rogue I-beam. She saw her predicament, and then the rain of rubble that landed nearby her. She started to run, but she was pummeled before she had a chance to escape. Sarra felt dust cover her and shrapnel pierce her as a deafening roar from the impact filled her ears.

  As the dust settled, Sarra was thankful that she was only coated in small flecks and that she was still out in the open as opposed to being buried under the fallen debris; smaller rocks had just bounced right off of her. She looked up and saw how her body had been split by the piece of steel. She removed herself from it, creating a hole similar to bubblegum being stretched three ways too far. She stood up to dust herself off and reform.

  Clark put Lora down, to which she leaned on him for support.

  “Oh, cheese and macaroni, but do I feel hurfy…” Lora said. She hiccupped.

  “Three G’s will do that, you’ll be fine.” Clark said.

  Florence landed, depositing Tench. He broke off and pretended that his own g-forces had not affected him.

  “Okay, what’s going on?” He stumbled across to lean on Juno’s console.

  “Hey, that’s sensitive stuff.” Juno said brushed him away. Tench almost fell back when Lora rushed up to him.

  “Oh Andy!” Lora latched herself onto him, and Tench dropped his formal attitude. His face flushed.

  “I’m worried about Anne up there.” Florence said. “She hasn’t come down.”

  “A… Anne? My little cousin?” Tench sputtered. He couldn’t think straight. Lora broke her hug. Florence glanced at Tench and nodded, a curt smile gracing her lips from his handling of received affection. Tench cleared his throat.

  “I… I knew that, I saw her as I fell. What happened?”

  “We’re not sure in the slightest.” Juno said.

  Tench nodded.

  “I can tell you that Jack Ogden is involved. He was sucked up with us.”

  Everyone looked at Tench, suddenly very interested.

  “What would Jack Ogden want with Anne Redford? How could he even over saturate Anne’s powers anyway?” Clark asked.

  No one had a good answer.

  Lora stepped up.

  “Where is Jack then? Gee, and Sarra too?”