*Where are Six and Dr. Holiday?* I wondered to myself. “Um, sir? Permission to speak?” I asked. “Permission granted,” the general waved his hand around as if it wasn’t a huge deal. “Where is everyone?” I questioned. “Oh, ah, since Rex never comes on time and always late, we come on time. I’m the only one that gets here 10 minutes early. Are you the new kid?” the general questioned. “Yes, sir,” I answered. “Well, I’ll have someone show you around the building,” he resolved. “Sir, that isn’t necessary. I’m sure your troops have other, more important things to do than show a teenager around the building. I’ll ask Dr. Holiday or Rex to show me around,” I smiled. “Whatever floats your boat,” shrugged the general. We both went back to our separate work.“Mind if I call you Lieutenant?” asked the general after a period of time. “Whatever floats your boat… sir,” I smirked. He went back to his presentation, and I went back to thinking.
What if Rex had done something after the Nanite event, something stupid like a slip, a fall, a crash, that gave him this… amnesia? What if, I realized, it had happened while he was racing the now Dr. Holiday? A tree, a log, not stopping, and passing out were all options. But did Dr. Holiday see?What if, when I was in a coma, Rex forgot who he was?
What if I was supposed to teach him?
I was distracted from my thoughts with Dr. Holiday’s entrance. I didn’t immediately mob her with questions, but I didn’t avoid her like the plague. She sat down, smoothed out the teeny wrinkles in her skirt, and just… started staring out in space.
Because I needed the information and there was no way she would willingly give it to me (DON’T DO THIS), I used my perfectly honed telepathic skills.
Telepathics around the world, I’m a bad example.
So of course I needed the password. I typed in various passwords, but the password was…. (Believe it or not) Yakami!
I was in, so it was time to look before Julie caught me in her head.
I mentally sifted from memory to memory, each labeled with a date. I stopped at a familiar date of this year.
September 27, 2013.
This year.
My birthday.
They lied to me.
Shoot them.
Before I started destroying memory banks, I calmed myself and looked at the memory. It was today.
Darn them.
But then I started thinking, and I remembered that it was June when we went on the ski trip.
June when my tragic story had begun.
I had been in a coma for 2 months.
While I was in my coma, I had turned 15.
I started flipping through memories, this time going 2 months backwards. I found the day I was looking for, and I pulled the heavy screen out.
June 27, 2013.
My last normal day.
I couldn’t see anything. Just snow on the screen.
Dr. Holiday had forgotten.
She forgot the day everything had started.
So, naturally, I had to put it back together.Because I needed to know what happened that day, for me and for Rex and for Dr. Holiday.
It was a broken jigsaw puzzle, but it tore at my heart, because I was remembering what jigsaw puzzles my family worked on. As a family, on Family Night. They worked hard all week, and I was at school most of the time. Friday nights were sacred to me. I wondered, at that time, were they sacred to my mom and dad? Was it still sacred to whoever lived? And now, I know the answer to that. I have the wisdom to answer that question.
But no one told me that the wisdom would hurt my heart.
Because, in my darkest hour, I imagine that no one cares.
And the reason I think that is because nobody cared enough to tell me that my mother was dead.
Until Rex found the body in the body chamber, and the scary thing is, the reason that he knew it was my mom was because he thought it was me.
He thought I was the dead one in the chamber.
Because nobody told him either.
Nobody thought it was important enough to tell the lonely heroes that my mother was in that chamber.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
It was an easy puzzle. When it was done, I sat down and just watched. Nothing was around me. I didn’t feel, I didn’t smell, and all I could do was see.I saw Julie saying, “Bet you can’t beat me!” Rex grinned and pushed off. Then the Nanite explosion happened.Julie watched for a few seconds, and Rex was falling, falling, falling.He could have fallen to his death for all she knew.The reason she couldn’t see him all the way was because she had closed her eyes and was lying under a tree… like how they “taught” us… in my “club”. Julie was in my “club”.I felt a tug, and I was brought forcibly back into my own body.
Let me tell you a bit about telepathy.
When telepathics are inside someone’s head, there are two ways out: when their body has physical contact with another thing other than whatever they were touching in their original position, and when they find the exit and escape that person’s body of their free will. So, yeah, if you’re stuck, you could tell the person you’re in to slap you. Great, right?
You’re dead wrong.
When you’re still in somebody else’s body, and your physical body is hurt, bumped, brushed against, etc, you forget something of your memory.
To this day, I cannot recall my mother’s name.
That might be good, considering she’s dead. It has pluses and minuses. When people say, “Oh my gosh, I feel so bad that Kega’s dead! You poor kid!” I look at them with a sad smile, accept their whatever, say thanks, but inside, I’m like, “Who the heck is Kega, and why are you hugging me?”
Her funeral was a bit confusing for me, but luckily I had written down the thing when I was still with her, just in case. So, it went smoothly. I stayed behind to fling a pile of dirt onto her coffin quickly, and then went to the slopes because I needed to be alone. I was still wearing the black velvet pants and black blouse from the funeral. Noah came out and asked me to listen to him, but I kept skiing. It helps when I’m about to cry.
The reason I walked out on my mom’s funeral and didn’t want to throw a pile of dirt on her coffin was because it felt like I was closing the door on her. Noah is a good friend of mine because-Again, I’m getting ahead of myself.
So Rex had “patted” me on the back. That was how I lost a fragment of my mom. And that was my ticket out, though I wanted to learn more.
My eyes were as big as dinner plates, and I could hear my breath like it was after a ski marathon.
When things were normal, and I still had people to cheer me on.
“Thank you for joining us today, Rex. Next time, please make sure you follow Lieutenant so that you’re here early,” the general said coldly, “Now if you’ll look at the screen, there have been various outbreaks of Nanites in Cabo Luna. It could be Van Kleiss trying to destroy Cabo Luna, but there have been no sightings. However, I think that we should send in Lieutenant and Rex just in case something DOES happen, and we’re not prepared.” I looked at Rex and Bobo’s now empty chairs and smirked. I decided that everyone knew where Rex was going and I decided to follow him to Cabo Luna. Fun times.
Anyways, I felt like it was time to test out my new powers after the meeting. Strangest thing was, my only weakness seemed like MACHINES. Guess that’s where Rex comes in, strategy style. I hopped from tree to tree, and then turned into an eagle for easy flight. Providence’s secret base (not telling you where) was FAR from Cabo Luna. Rex must have been TIRED; because even machines need a rest. (I later learned that he can go faster than me, so it was just a little of his energy.)But I only knew that he turned into machines after I was in an actual fight with someone else and he was by my side. After I landed and turned back into a human
(with clothes on), I suddenly felt (DON’T ASK ME HOW) time stop. Time to face the music of evil. (Cue the Dun dun dun dun dun)“Having a good time on vacation? But this really isn’t your place. More like a mountain, mm?” a deep voice made my body temporarily paralyzed except for-unfortunately- my ears and-fortunately- my mouth. “Dad, I don’t get angry, like Rex. I’m just not that predictable,” I smirked, my back towards the once loving father of mine. “But what if I told you that you have a little brother, and a bigger one, too? What if I was the key to the knowledge you so crave? What if Julie didn’t tell you everything?” he prompted. “Tell me MORE,” a part of me whispered, but I shoved it aside. “What Julie kept to herself is her own business. She-,” I started coldly. “Is keeping your only family away from you for your own good? Notice when you’re being trampled on like a mat! My goodness! I can’t believe you would be the heir to my throne!” interrupted my father harshly, his tone gradually going louder. “Leave Julie out of this,” I managed to put so much ice into the word it felt like a blizzard. My father waved it away like it was a warm compliment. He gestured to two shadows in the dark. “Julie’s too deep. So we’ll have to eliminate her soon. But my, ah,FRIENDS here can take care of that. Soon we’ll kidnap you, and if you struggle, I’ll kill you myself. Julie will come to rescue you, no doubt with your little brother. I’ll kidnap both of them, and then you’ll be trapped forever. Brat,” he hissed. The shadows came out of the shadows, and I saw the horrifying creatures that were his slaves. One was the wolfish creature, a bit blue-but he was the streak of blue I saw before I went into the coma, I know it. Another was a girl with two normal arms and two huge arms. She had positioned herself quite close to my dad. I could care less about who my dad fraternized with now, but she gave me the chills. “Look, I don’t wanna—,” I started as they began to corner me.
“Let her go NOW,” snarled Rex. Six wasn’t far behind, coming in from the ceiling into the middle of the floor. I took the opportunity to jump and somersault over my attackers’ heads, kicking them in the face as I tumbled towards the ground. “—But I gotta go, like now,” I cackled. The girl with four arms whirled around and grabbed me. I did a Vulcan nerve pinch and smacked her with my leg at her neck where she should have never been able to speak again. However, she seemed to only have minor discomfort and her voice was a bit lower. But I wasn’t satisfied yet, because I was going to let this girl see the light.“So you went off to get me? Now what? Do you know what he really wants?” I asked her. “He wants a better world for Evo outcasts like us,” she answered, almost like an automatic answering machine. “Yeah… no. He wants world domination. Once you run out of use, he’ll throw you away like a piece of garbage, and get someone who’s better, stronger, faster, and smarter. And you’ll be rejected, rejected as a betrayer of your kind. You will be the garbage he took to the curb and left there,” I told her truthfully. She let go of me like I was a piece of garbage, and I could tell that my father had planted the seed of evil in her head. I took the opportunity to run, grab Rex by the collar like a bad cat, and motion to Six that it was time to blow this popsicle stand.
“What the heck were you thinking, you idiot? You should have gotten back to the mission! Forget me!” I yelled at Rex. “Wow. You sound like Six is speaking out of your body,” smirked Rex. “SOMEBODY POPPED THE FLOATING BILLBOARD SO LET ME RELAY THE MESSAGE TO YOU: IT… DOESN’T…MATTER… RIGHT…NOW,” I hissed at Rex. “Okay, okay. Geez,” Rex grumbled. “So, seen anything? Evo, weird wave patterns, strange happenings?” I asked Six. “Nothing’s strange but Rex,” replied Six. “And he’s gone… again. Does this happen a lot?” I asked him. “Kid does it almost regularly,” Six answered distantly. “It’s kind of weird, how you guys treat me,” I replied, just as distant, and obviously off “topic” (when you’re talking to Six, it’s like talking to a wall: there is no topic) but kind of curious to hear his response. “We treat you the same way we treat Rex,” Six mused. “Exactly,” I sat down to stare at the waves, and then I told them, “You guys don’t treat me like the enemy’s daughter. You trust me with secrets. If there was a spy, your thoughts wouldn’t immediately go to me. I mean, yeah, if I was the spy, who I totally wouldn’t be but….Knight’s might, but not you or Dr. Holiday, or even Rex. You trust me, and I hope I can honor that trust.” Six sat down next to me. “Kid’s a head case sometimes, but others he’s good to have around,” Six shrugged to the waves.
Time to either take a leap of faith or risk my memory again. I didn’t want to lose who I was, so I would have to take a leap of faith, hoping Six would understand.
Yikes, right?
I took a deep breath, and told Six about my telepathic abilities, “Um, I don’t know if I should be telling you this, but… I’m telepathic.” I guess my first memory of reading someone’s mind was the time when my parents were applying for a property for the ski business in the Poconos. I didn’t know how at that time, but I told the man to please PLEASE give them a property, because it was their biggest dream to own a ski supply business… but I didn’t do it with my mouth. The shaken property dealer gave my overjoyed parents the shop. When the director of my parents’ commercial needed a star actress and skier, I popped the idea of the couple’s very own daughter (me, for all you dumb-dumbs out there) doing her parents’ commercial. MAYBE if I had gotten a really, supremely, awfully horrible teacher that acted the way he or she really was to me and my friends, wouldn’t listen to reason, wouldn’t tell us why they picked on us, and gave us all Fs even if we got everything right I would have used my gift to persuade that teacher that we weren’t that awfully horrible.
So yeah, I guess fate entrusted telepathy to the right person. Not like Rex or Van Kleiss. Rex would use it for personal things WAY more than me. Van Kleiss would use it for (what else is new?) evil purposes.
But I had basically just run out of road. My plan had run out of steam. I….um…..lost it mentally. I yelled at myself, said (MENTALLY) that I was useless, the whole enchilada.
So while I’m doing this, Six is watching me. Then his eyes slowly move to Rex, laughing with a boy his age. His eyes were a pretty “Athena” gray. His eyes trail back to me in a never ending circle.
*He’s about as touchy-feely as a wall.* I thought to myself.”Okay… thanks for…. listening,” I mumbled. I walked over, silent as a ninja, where Rex was laughing with his friend. “Whatcha doing?” I asked, making Rex jump up two feet in the air. “Oh, great. Are you bored or something, or am I in trouble?” Rex groaned. “You could say I’m bored, but I say I’m in serious need of some slopes,” I shrugged.
The boy with blond hair and gray eyes stood up. “Hi, I’m Noah. I don’t think Rex told me about you yet,” he introduced. “Hi, I’m Yakami. Pleased to meet you,” I smiled pleasantly. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Rex’s mouth drop lower than I thought it ever could. “Are you the girl that pinned Rex down?” Noah asked, excited. “Um, yeah, I guess,” I shrugged. “Noah, I thought we talked about this,” Rex suggested through gritted teeth. “I could do it again,” I grinned a playfully evil smile. “Haha –no. That’s a very, very bad idea. Extremely horrible. Bad idea, Noah. Very bad idea,” Rex tried to dissuade Noah. “No, Rex, let the boy choose. He has his own mind,” I smirked. “Hmm… See Rex humiliated… or let Rex live a day in his life that he wasn’t humiliated,” Noah weighed the options. “I’m so GLAD you’ve seen my way,” Rex huffed sarcastically. “I think that I’ll leave this day for Rex to remember, since it IS Spring Break,” Noah grinned. “Wait. Back up a second. Repeat the last part of that sentence. I don’t think I heard it correctly. I’m going to give Rex the BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT, because I’m a nice person,” I exhaled shallowly. “Spring Break?” Noah repeated quizzically.
“Now I’m going to begin the onslaught of my lecture. You came here for SPRING BREAK instead of the MISSION?!?!?!? ARE YOU COMPLETELY INSANE? You must either really like being beaten by a girl or really like getting into trouble or be a complete IDIOT!” I whisper-screamed at Rex.
“Bobo’s idea!” Rex answered. “You’re a liar and all of us here know it,” I huffed. “Okay, okay, yeesh. It was my idea, but Noah—,” Rex started after I almost killed him. “Was completely unaware that you had a MISSION to be completed? I repeat, ARE YOU INSANE?!?” I finished/ whisper-screamed again. “Wait, you guys came here for a mission? Meaning this place has an Evo?” Noah asked. “Yes, Noah, I do what I’m told, unlike REX. The good news is that there have only been highly concentrated readings of Nanites. The bad news is that we saw D-Van Kleiss, which means that something’s definitely up,” I explained. “Couldn’t the guy just be on a vacation? I’d want a vacation from near misses at world domination,” Noah moaned. “The guy’s more of a mountain type, skiing and all. Trust me,” I threw over my shoulder as we walked towards the flimsy plastic seats they had been sitting in before the whole thing with Van Kleiss happened. I could easily burn them, but I decided not to announce that the season’s newest freaks were here. Noah settled himself in one. Rex put his hands behind his head and was lying out in the sun until I “accidentally” put a little more weight onto the chair than it was used to at the top. Then I stole his seat. And then I was sprawled out on the chair like a cat, happy as a clam.
So Noah, Rex, and I just sat there for a minute, talking up a storm, when I heard mentally, *RED ALERT. RED ALERT.* “Excuse me for a moment,” I sheepishly excused myself in the middle of the conversation. “Is it just that you hate hearing me talk?” Rex tried to give a faux-pout. I smirked, but had to run away as the pain in my temples got worse. When I had trekked out to a part of the beach no one had dared set up their umbrella (weird, because it was CABO LUNA in SPRING BREAK), I concentrated really hard. I was next to my computer for the password to my memory bank/brain. In front of me stood… Noah?
*You’re telepathic?* I asked in my head, quit curious to find out the reason he had invaded my privacy. *Yeah. I hope you’re not totally mad at me,* he cringed. *Nah, I just thought it was Van Kleiss, which is why I panicked,* I shrugged. *Oh,* Noah sighed. *Why were you in my brain –or trying to get in- anyways?* I questioned. *Um, well, I wanted you to like me. But now that I’m in your brain, talking to you, that doesn’t seem like the best path to take because you’re telepathic,* Noah mumbled. *It’s okay. It was an honest mistake, and, personally, I think that it was kind of cute. That doesn’t mean, however, that I will refrain from beating you up if need be,* I smiled.
I stopped concentrating and saw Rex racing a blond guy, who had the sourest look I’ve ever seen on a face, save my dad’s after the Nanite explosion and when the dentist told him that I needed braces for my overbite/deep bite. Yes, I had chosen a telepathic “spot” FAR away from anyone in the sand dune area of Cabo Luna, which wasn’t very far from the beach for me. Rex was with a gothic-looking girl that had little red streaks in her pretty black hair. They were on an ATV (All Terrain Vehicles) and Rex was racing Sour Face. Really kind of unfair, because Rex could make the “bike” go from nil to Mach 10 in a touch. Of course, no one knew, but still.
I ran back, slowed my pace to a walk and chilled. The dunes were a long walk, and I needed to conceal my identity. I grinned at Noah. Of course, Monkey (I still call him Monkey, even though I know his name’s Bobo) wasn’t telepathic, and even if he was, he couldn’t listen in on Noah’s and my conversation, so he looked at me like I was crazy. I just sat down on the plastic chair, and laid back, one eye open and wary of attackers.
“So, who’s going to win?” asked Noah, obviously trying to make some small talk. “Is that really a question? Honestly?” I smirked, not even bothering to get up. “Oh, yeah. Right. The guy that can make machines out of his body is definitely going to win the machine based race,” Noah chuckled. “I thought he was just a grease monkey,” I admitted. “Nah, he’s got the whole package. You didn’t know that?” Noah looked bewildered. *The girl in a coma for two months doesn’t learn an awful lot.* I transmitted to Noah. *Two MONTHS? How long did they tell you?* asked Noah. *They told me a week. I got two MONTHS from someone’s brain.* I smirked. *So did you turn 15 yet?* Noah asked. *A couple hours ago. No quiencinera, though. My mom was Hispanic. Mi abuelita de Cubana, y mi abuelito de Dominicana Republicana, si?* I sighed.
*Geez that must be really horrible. What’s a quiencinera?* Noah sheepishly asked. *Well, I would have to invite 15 boys and 14 girls. We’d all dress up – I only hate this part and the next one— and dance in a hall or my backyard or a park, something like that. I dance – ugh, actually I can’t dance – with a boyfriend or a guy that’s been my friend for a long time and my dad, and it’s sort of like a Bat Mitzvah but 3 years late.* I explained. *We can’t do that here because?* smiled Noah. * Well, a) no one’s going to come and be willing to hang out with me, b) my dad is, um, Van Kleiss, c) the guy that I used to like probably either thinks I’m dead and is mourning me or he thinks I’m a freak.* I sighed.
*YOUR DAD IS VAN KLEISS?!?* gaped Noah. *You just HAD to shout it to the telepathic heavens, didn’t you? Shut your mouth. You’ll catch flies.* I noted. *Why can’t Six stand in for your dad?* asked Noah after a fly went into his mouth and he unwillingly swallowed it. *Well, again, I have a list. I think about these things ahead of time: a) I can’t exactly see Six dancing, b) I can’t exactly see me dancing, c) I can’t exactly see me dancing with Six, d) I-think-he’s-my-older-brother.* I sped through the thought.
*Well, the first three reasons are good reasons not to, but the last reason is a good reason why he should stand in for your dad and not some other random guy,* Noah mumbled. *Back to the Van Kleiss issue, I think there was a telepathic old lady in CANADA that didn’t hear you,* I moaned. * Ah, well, at least no one IMPORTANT heard,* Noah tried, but failed epically. Actually, it wasn’t EVEN an epic fail, because it didn’t even require skill. So I guess it was more like a major fail. *There were telepathics who didn’t even KNOW about Van Kleiss or Providence. They didn’t NEED to know, but now they DO, thanks to your ULTIMATE STUPIDITY. Don’t even talk to me. You SCREAMED TO THE WORLD THAT THE EVILEST VILLAN ON THE PLANET IS MY DAD, YOU IDIOT!!!!!* I channeled all my thoughts to Noah, which was hard because the larger the thought, the harder it is to reign it in.
Since I’m such a powerful telepath, Noah stumbled back from the sheer power of my thought. Ooh, scary, right? My telepathy is strong enough to make a normal telepath stumble backwards a few steps. Sooooooo scary.
Actually, I could have released telepathic waves that could destroy your brain, so, really, I should stop making fun of myself. It’s very demoralizing. [Yes, Rex, I’m working on that part. Now shut up so that I can DO that part.][(inaudible background sounds)] [Rex, if you don’t leave me alone, I’m going to kick your butt so hard that it’s in the exosphere, and I’m going to make SURE that you DON’T have an air pack.] Sorry about that--. [Go find your girlfriend, Rex.] [(hiss in the background)] [Rex, shut up before I PERMANENTLY shut your mouth closed, because heaven help me, you know I will. And from what I did to Beowulf, I think you saw that I’m perfectly capable of doing so. SO SHUT YOUR MOUTH BEFORE I DO.] Sorry. This tape won’t be frequently interrupted, but it MIGHT be interrupted by Loudmouth Rex. Now where was I? [Rex! That’s really insulting!] Oh, right. Thanks, NOAH.
So Monkey looked at the both of us, and I guess he thought there was a conspiracy against him. Noah chuckled. “I’m going to go to where the general told us to go for housing. You coming?” he offered. “Nah. This, right here, is where I feel like I… need to be, right now. Just… right here. I’ll come later. Telepathy if you need me,” I smiled. Noah gave me a weak smile, and then ran to catch up with Bobo. I sat on the beach. The feel of the grains of the powerful, unbudging rocks that were washed away by the water, and the sound of the magnificently powerful waves that got them that way gave me comfort, healing my energy somehow from my various telepathic activities and my “fight” with Dad. (You can’t really call it a fight because there were no punches or kicks thrown, it was more insults thrown.) I thought about the way Rex was treating me. Maybe it was just a coincidence, but Rex seemed to be… leaving whenever I was near him. [Yes, Rex, we all know how much all of us “survivors” love each other. Some more than others.] Sorry. Back to the story. I’m not going to name the ELEPHANT in the room, but somebody keeps bothering me. [Yes, Rex, you’re the elephant. Now will you please SHUT UP?!?] Eheh… Sorry. Again. Thing #2 is at it again. [REX, IF YOU VALUE YOUR LIFE, YOU’LL DROP IT. NOW.][(Scuffling in the background)][And THAT is why you drop the matter NOW before I tear you apart atom by atom.] Sorry for the fourth time in a row. Rex is annoying me ONCE again. [Are you satisfied NOW? (Inaudible response) Good. Now be a good person AND DON’T INTERRUPT THE TAPE RECORDING. DO YOU UNDERSTAND? (Inaudible response)] So…. We’re finally getting back on track.
So I was sitting on the beach, minding my own business, getting more telepathic energy (which for convenience I’ll call chi) when I hear a burly voice whisper in my ear, “Don’t turn around and don’t say a word. I have a gun behind your head, and my finger is on the trigger, and it’s loaded.” I freeze up, but luckily I had all of my chi stored up. Otherwise, it would have gone out into a HUMONGOUS wave, killing everything on the beach. If my attacker somehow put up a mental shield, I would be shot. There would be no bystanders, since stress makes my storage of chi tumble out, and that would kill any bystanders to be had. I would die alone.
This guy was really good at not giving his victims options.
“Now stand up, real slow-like,” whispered the man, sounding like an amateur Al Capone crony. Jeez, it was like a rated R mafia movie film set! But there was one thing that set a lot of difference between the film set and real life: I wasn’t prepared with fake blood. If the man shot me and actually hit my flesh, I would be down for the count… forever. [Yes, I know that everyone knows that, Rex. It’s just dramatic.]
The man let me get a glint of his blond hair, which was brown at the roots, and then he whipped it back. “Don’t think you’ll get a good look at me, because I don’t need your rich parents arresting me for kidnapping their WEENIE daughter,” he growled. “Hah! You think you’re going to get a ransom? My mom is—.” I started. “Filthy rich?” he snarled. “No. I’m not going to tell you now because I’m supposed to be quiet,” I smirked, and stuck out my tongue defiantly. “TELL ME, YOU LITTLE SPOILED BRAT,” he gritted his teeth. “N-O,” I stubbornly harrumphed. “Tell me or I’ll-,” he started to threaten me.”Kill the precious cargo? Your boss wouldn’t be too happy,” I icily noted. “I’ll fix your smart mouth, and not with a gun!” he growled and took out a dagger. I made a cross over my chest with my arms, and waited for my “shield” to hurt like heck. Instead, the waves of pain came from my back in an “X” formation. I felt the sticky blood run down my back. “That’s right, missy, and the boss won’t even notice it,” he snickered “I’m saying this at the risk of sounding like a cliché user, but YOU’LL NEVER GET AWAY WITH THIS,” I noted. “Don’t you worry your pretty little head about that,” grinned the man, and then with the blunt end of the dagger, he made everything fade to black.
Unfortunately, past this point, I don’t remember anything really well, because I was, well, K.O.’d. Fortunately, Noah does, and neutrally, Rex had no idea where the heck I was, which developed into quite the problem later.
So now Noah’s going to take over. Goodbye…for now.
Chapter 2-Noah-Cabo Luna Kidnappings
Hi. Yakami told me to start off from where she got kidnapped. I didn’t actually know that the “X” scar on her back was from Cabo Luna. I always assumed it was from some big fight with her dad.
You might get the impression that Yakami tells me absolutely nothing, but that’s really not true. Ever since I saved her from the Hydra testing labs (with no one at my back), she’s told me everything I want to know unless it was top-secret or when I knew it, I’d be putting someone’s life in danger.
Yakami’s a nice girl. I think (personally, don’t ever tell Rex this) that Rex is a bit starstruck by Yakami, but he likes Circe, too. If it boils down to the point where he had to choose, I think he’d choose Circe. Me, I’d choose Yakami, but maybe that’s because a) all of us live in the same room, and b) she’s my best friend that’s not a guy. Rex is my best guy friend.
Anyways, Yakami is getting impatient, which means that I should probably start the story. You probably don’t want to listen to me rant, whoever you are.
Right?
I’m starting the story now.
So I had followed Bobo, and I saw the guy who had been racing Rex. He was in an F-150, probably still hot from the factory line, but it was mud splattered nonetheless. I stood there for a minute, just randomly searching for telepathic energy, which I’ll call chi. The sack in the back of the truck seemed to have chi to spare. This could have been just a minor glitch, since I’m not too awesome at chi sensing, so I checked the beach for chi. It was almost GONE from there if I ignored the natural chi. I double-checked and triple-checked, but the sack still had telepathic chi to spare.
So, yeah, I decided to stop following Bobo and start following the truck. But both Bobo and I knew where to go if one of us (this time me) was missing: go to the safe house. Wait for Rex to come back. People without powers, wait at the safe house in case the person comes back on foot. Rex flies around and looks for the lost person(s). The people in the safe house wait. Rex comes in for meals. If Rex hasn’t found the lost person(s) in 5 days, the people in the safe house take shifts looking. Six. Bobo. Six. Bobo.
Because I wasn’t the best runner, I summoned an ATV with my telekinesis.
I have telekinesis.
So I revved the ATV and “ran” after Yakami. The guy gunned the engine the minute he saw me in his rearview mirror, of course. I cut him off, and that slowed him down quite a bit.
And this was when Yakami regained consciousness, and when I realized that there were two goons in the cab of the truck.
The other goon eased his way into the driver’s seat, and the original goon eased his way out of the cab. *No heroics, Noah. These guys mean business. They’ll fire at ANYTHING once they’re given the okay! Get out of here!* Yakami ordered. *Sometimes, Yakami, orders aren’t orders.* I swallowed. Then I did an amazing feat: I called Rex telepathically, he swooped in and grabbed the ATV, and I did a 720 degree flip onto the back part of the pickup, the actual trunk of it. The goon had just gotten out to where the sack where Yakami was contained, so now I faced him, with Yakami in the middle of us. Yakami moaned, and that gave me enough courage to face this dumb kid alone. I was going to make him pay for what he did to her.
I tried to concentrate, and he tried to bag me. Real pleasant and welcoming. He thought he had knocked me over, but I was still propped up on my elbows. My plan was officially in action.
I reached for my little black Swiss Army knife. It was in my hand, and I was ready to whack him on the head with the blunt end, but he obviously was ready for me. He whipped the knife out of my hand and cracked my skull open with the blunt end (he didn’t really crack my skull open, he just hit me on the head really hard, but it felt like he was cracking me on the head), as I heard Yakami scream and tell Rex, *We’re going to the CABO LUNA BRANCH OF HYDRA! Don’t forget that!* I heard her few shuddering breaths before passing out, and she gave me a peck on the cheek before she passed out.
So what happened after this was much, much later…
I “woke up” in an organic sack (you know, those stupid potato sacks), tied together with a type of tape that restricted telekinesis activity. Yakami wasn’t doing so hot in her machine/organic sack, but she was trying her best and succeeding excellently- for someone who was I guess allergic, for lack of a better word, to machinery- but she was desperately close to fainting. I couldn’t use my telekinesis, and they hadn’t bonded my hands, just my wrists and ankles with that stupid duct tape, so I reached in my pocket for my Swiss Army Knife. Obviously, they (whoever kidnapped us) hadn’t done a clean job of it, because my knife was still there, along with my flash drive and iPod touch. After flipping through a corkscrew, a soda pop opener (the lids that are metal, like the caps), a backup flash drive, and a screwdriver, I finally found the scissors. Of course, they weren’t sharp enough, but I kept a sharpening stone in my back pocket, too – dull from its use to me in the past as a Boy Scout, and as an Eagle Scout.
Much later, the scissors were raring to go, and sharp enough to puncture a lithium-aluminum alloid. Instead of wasting the little time I had left snipping delicately at the bonds and sack, I opened the scissor blades and traced them in a circle. Plenty big enough to get out of, but Yakami had still fainted. She might prove a problem to budge.
Time to do a little backstage magic. Then the show would begin.
I cut Yakami out of her bonds and then cut a giant hole instead of the little one I had prodded the scissors through, right to her back. The area was damp and soggy, but I didn’t know what it was from. Sweat? Blood? Tears? Saliva? Or some other substance I couldn’t think about at the moment, because I had become some scientist-gone-bad’s play toy? I shuddered at the thought. Then I snuck back into my sack. I started to work on my bonds with the ACTUAL knife part of the Swiss Army Knife. COINCEDENTALLY, just when I finished the guy who kidnapped Yakami and his boss came strolling in. If I’d used the scissors, I would have still been sawing away at my bonds.
“…she ought to get us a hefty price, and her boyfriend, too. Those high school rich girls don’t do a lot of martial arts, ‘cause she didn’t budge! By the way, brilliant plan, boss!” he congratulated his boss. “Here’s a surprise for you. The girl would be drop-dead poor if not for her petty little job at Providence, and the boy is rich, but not her boyfriend….He’s my son, and his mother will be so HAPPY that I found him,” said his boss. “Why did you lie to me? TELL ME! NOW!” growled the kidnapper. “All in due time, Sabertooth. All in due time. Meanwhile-,” the boss smiled. I heard an electronic crackle, a fizz, and then the monitor had a HUGE slice mark down the middle as it fell to the floor.
“That’ll teach you to not leave me out of the loop,” he snarled. As the man turned to us, I saw a glimmer of the holographic image of the teen I fought on the pickup truck, then the image faded and the man in all his “glory” if you can call it that. He had long, flowing hair that was a dark brown, and a scarred face. The clothes he wore resembled his namesake’s fur. “Fooled you, didn’t I?” grinned the man, and I saw his teeth. They were big, sharp and ready to rumble: just like his namesake’s. Great. I didn’t like our odds against this guy, even if Yakami woke up.
“Since I guess we’re on the same side momentarily, I’m going to kidnap you and keep you with… a friend of mine. It’ll be right under my boss’s nose, and my friend’s, too.” he shrugged aloud, “It’s really just to aggravate my boss.” He looked at us. Then, as if frustrated from not getting a reply, he just left the room.
Suddenly, the table started to move-or was it just the top of the table? Anyways, the table was moving, and I started to see a big gaping hole in my plans. I guessed that some wacko wanted to test on us (and I’m not saying all scientists are wackos, not even all of the Hydra scientists are wackos as you’ll see later, because some of them do good work for society like medicine testing but Hydra takes it too far), since we were prized test subject. Yay, we got to be a psychopath’s play toys! Ugh. I mended the hole, but not my bonds. Yakami mended her hole as well. Then we both fell asleep.
When we woke up, we were placed in a greenish tank and hooked up to an oxygen mask. Then they shoved us into the tank, and put, as I heard them, “… Weapon X’s DNA.” into us. I flexed my knuckles, which hurt. I saw Yakami unconsciously lash out at an assistant wacko, who backed away before reminding himself that she was behind thick glass, and he was on the other side.
After the infusion, they loaded us back on the tables and stuck us with a needle that healed up pretty quickly, Yakami started to stir, and the stupid assistant backed away before his trainer murmured something to him about a force-field, but to be cautious anyways.
They pushed us forcefully into the room, which would have woken anyone but Yakami up. This room was different than the lab or the place where Sabertooth brought us after he kidnapped us. There were a few robots, but they weren’t buzzing about, like in the lab. Our bonds were removed from the tables. We were out of the sacks. We could finally try to escape.
I heard a whirring sound in the edge of the room, where the robots were all clustered together. I looked around for a control box of a sort, since I had seen no one attempt to power them on manually. I then saw a little box room “concealed” within the wall. Then I saw a little vent, in a blind spot of the box. I tried to move the cover, but something… stopped it. Like a laser, because when I put it back, it was burned.
Yakami moaned, and I focused on the situation at hand. She slumped forward and telepathically groaned, *That’s the last time I listen to mafia teenagers.* I was glad to hear she was fine. *Good timing. We’re up against 50 robots with I-don’t-know-what claws. Do you know who Weapon X is?* I asked Yakami. *We should have no problem slicing these guys to pieces. Now be quiet. I need to focus.* she replied. So yes, I telepathically shut up. And I focus on beating the robots’ butts, though that wasn’t too hard considering I had some wicked claws.
They glinted in the artificial light. Yakami gave something between a grunt and a sigh, and she started to concentrate. The air between the panel and the invisible “lasers” (up until that point I didn’t know if they were lasers or not) became real, and then shut off. I grinned and gave her a thumbs-up. She gave me a weak smile.
The robots started to advance on us, and I felt like… I had some experience with these claws, but I don’t know how, unless in some former lifetime some stupid scientist made the marrow in my knuckles grow out to be claws.
And that really doesn’t sound sane…. does it?
Anyways…
I stuck my hand in my pocket, looking for my Swiss Army Knife. Flash drive, iPod touch….no Swiss Army Knife. Darn it. I must have left it on the table-.
“Looking for this?” smirked a man up in the booth, disturbing my thoughts at the time. Yakami broke the glass using powerful telepathic waves and I grabbed the Swiss Army Knife with my telekinesis. We knocked out a few of the remaining robots and thrust ourselves up to the vent (you thought that the vent was close to the floor? Are you crazy?). Something kept us up in the air, and I was surprised to see that Yakami had bent the thoughts of people and made a platform. I had to focus on breaking into the air vent, though. Those screws don’t unscrew themselves, you know.
“We’re in! Let’s go!” I shouted. Yakami gave a short nod, and catapulted herself into the vent but not before a few whitecoats (bad scientists) grabbed her pants like something fresh out of a zombie horror movie. My breath stopped in my throat and my heart started to pound. I took her sleeves and twisted them to fit into my hands. “I’m not letting go,” I whispered into her ear. She nodded, and her hair bounced in the ponytail like a bobber out in the sea.
I gave a hard yank and shoved the door closed with telekinesis. “Thanks,” Yakami huffed. “You would have done the same thing for me,” I shrugged. “Well, all the scientists will be calling management to fix the vents. You did quite a number on them,” she laughed. I was enjoying her being happy until I realized she had referenced to PLURAL air vents. Not the one air vent that we had escaped through, and ALL of the scientists, not just the ones that had tried to grab her.
“Whaaat?” I asked, “I only did a number on the one air vent.” She sighed as if she knew something that I didn’t. “What did you think was in the shot, Noah?” she asked patronizingly. “A power amplifier,” I answered softly, feeling like a little kid. “Noah, only part of it was a power amplifier. The rest was a virus that was kind of ‘popular’, if you can call it that. Can you guess what it was?” Yakami asked, and bit her lip. I shrugged. *Cancer, to keep the healing powers in check.* she whispered telepathically. *CANCER?!?* I screamed telepathically. Then I remembered that we were trying to NOT be caught, and I kind of made the “ER” part quieter than the rest.
“Let’s go. They’ll find us if we just stay in one spot. We need to go much faster than we were before, because we lost some precious minutes talking and-,” Yakami started, but she froze. “What? What is it?” I asked. She grabbed my shoulder and we hid behind the corner. A man came rumbling past us, wearing a white lab coat and glasses.
“That was way too close to even be called a close call. They know we’re in this general area. How do they know?” she whispered, panicking. “Shhh. Stop all of your telepathic activity, even the lock in your brain. They might have neuro-activity sensors,” I instructed. “Noah, I can’t! It might-!” she whispered frantically. “DO IT NOW,” I yelled at her. She had a distant look of fear in her eyes as she slowly disabled herself.
“Let’s go. We’re losing daylight,” I jerked my head towards the way I thought was out. We kind of crawled along with a couple more diversions, all very distant. Then Yakami almost ran into someone and we decided to make an actual plan to try and throw them off.
Her plan was to just shut down all mental activity, and make them think we were dead. I kind of wanted to make sure they thought we were dead, so I decided to kind of dirty my Swiss Army Knife with a little bit of our blood.
She didn’t really go totally out there, but she did a great job. I cut myself up all over. Anyways, we looked fabulous for people who were dead.
“You ready?” I whispered. “No,” she whimpered. “Me neither,” I laughed quietly. We slowly shut off all activity, EXCEPT for crucial activity, and only then we gave a quarter of our effort.
And then all heck broke loose.
“I don’t have any reading in the one area. LOCKDOWN ON THE AIR VENT! WE HAVE TEST SUBJECTS LOOSE! Repeat, lockdown on the air vent! We have test subjects loose… Test subjects are loose….”
After that, I don’t remember much because I passed out. But what I do remember, I’ll put down on this tape/recording.
When I woke up, Yakami was shaking me, and there was a man behind her. “What happened?” I groggily moaned. “They called off the search. They couldn’t find any bodies because Frank here took us out of the vent and stashed us away here, in the boiler room. They have no idea what happened, and there are rumors floating around that we died, that we lived, that we sprouted wings and flew up and out,” Yakami replied, introducing our new “friend”.
That’s when I came to my senses and out of the post-coma stage. I shoved Yakami behind me, and picked up the nearest weapon. “What do you want to keep us secret?” I questioned. “You idiot,” Yakami mumbled as she smacked me across the head, “This guy grabbed us out of the vents to save us and get us out of here. All he wants us to do is take care of his cat, because he thinks she won’t be safe here. Is that right?” The engineer agreed. He handed me the cat, and Yakami nodded. He gave us a map and we thanked him, snuck out into the hallway, and back into the vent.
“You know the drill,” I told Yakami as she groaned. “Not AGAIN. I could be attacked by- by-,” she sputtered. “Just do it,” I instructed her. She followed the instructions to the letter, however grudgingly. “Now let’s blow this popsicle stand,” I grinned. She weakly nodded, and we crawled towards what I thought was real light.
What we really encountered was a glass box, full of scientists and engineers trying to test a girl who was about 10-ish, maybe a year younger or older. Full of rage, she slashed through all of the robots in one strike. All of them fell gracefully to the floor, reminding me that there were others out there, just as powerful or even more so, that were out to kill us. They could do it as easily as the little girl had killed the robots and maybe even more efficiently. We were being hunted for at this very moment.
That thought made me cold to the bone, and started fantasies of being killed, or worse, having to come back to this dump. So I jerked my head towards the other side of the forked vent and started to climb again. I heard a thump, like a body onto the metal of the vents. I turned my head back, and saw the little girl that had been in the fighting lab.
My eyes were as round as dinner plates, and they probably would have popped right out of the sockets if I didn’t have eyelids. My head snapped back to the relaxed position, and I tried to look as if nothing had happened.
I realized that along the way somewhere, I had dropped my flash drive. I slowly inched my hand out to get it, each inch getting us closer to the chaos we were trying to turn from, trying to escape the flames that they claimed were helping humanity.
I could feel the waxy surface of the familiar drive. But I felt something else… a human hand. I closed my hand around the drive and swept her off of her feet. Then I signaled to Yakami that it was time to go. She gave a curt nod and we crawled out to freedom.
Muffin yowled as if she thought we had forgotten her. Yakami gave her a quick pet, as if she thought that it would be disrespectful to pet Muffin.
