Kihonne: Alright, I'm back, and as I promised, you're going to get to see the battle. Awesome huh? Anyway, before we get onto that, it's shoutout time!
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Tor Raptor: I'm glad that it touched you, and don't worry, Adam's death will be avenged. And they're going to see how strong Maybank's army is very, very soon. Anyway, enjoy!
LabGirl2001: You think they'd be good together? Good, I thought I was the only one. Oh, and you might want to prepare yourself. I promised that at least 3 characters would die, but I never said I wouldn't add a few more to the body pile.
Dirtkid123: Wow, if you hated that cliffhanger, wait until you finish this chapter…enjoy!
PrincessSparkleKitty: Yes, it has. I'm glad you had so much faith in S-1's morality, and you'll be getting plenty of action in the next few chapters, so enjoy!
Candycanelila: Yeah, they might get together…or not. Haven't entirely decided yet.
Clarity665: I remember it too. In fact, I'm definitely going to reference that scene in an upcoming chapter. And I know cliff-hangers are tough for the readers, but they're really fun for the writers to write. So um, don't get mad that there's another one at the end of this chapter. And don't worry; they'll find out that Rhyder's still alive very soon. But right now, they have every reason to think otherwise. Good guess (back during the 1st chapter) about Derek. Sorry about the Perry/Trent confusion, but I'd already written it out with Trent, then changed it because Perry's going to have a major role in the 3rd story and I needed to reintroduce her to this series. And yeah, it is sad. It's sad to write it too, especially since I know who else is going to die by time the story's done. I'm glad you liked the darkness of Rhyder's vision. As for what 'flames' are, it's when a reader sends an overly and unnecessarily cruel or mean review to the writer simply because they didn't like something they did in the chapter. It's one thing to critique, but it's another to just be plain mean about it. Now you've got me craving ice cream, but I'm glad you like the angst.
AllAmericanSlurp: It's good that you're weary of things like this. I do enjoy destroying friendships by having someone backstab their ally. Oh, and thanks!
Guest: Well, I'm glad your prediction came true! I might kill off your favourite character (sorry in advance if I do) but I might not. Guess it depends on who your favourite character is. Anyway, enjoy.
AlienGhostWizard14: Thanks.
UrFriendTheNinja: Excited, are we? :)
Lord-of-Unicorns: Oh, butt will be kicked, that's for sure. And while your idea for a talk show is a good one, I just feel that it doesn't fit in well with the dark vibe of this story. Also, since the plot for this story is continuous, unlike the Lab Assistant is done chapter-by-chapter, I feel it wouldn't fit in well. Maybe at the end of the last segment though.
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Kihonne: Alright, so…who's doing the disclaimer this time? Oh, I know! Mr. Davenport! You're not in this chapter and you haven't done it…ever, actually. It's about time you do it.
Mr. Davenport: Kihonne doesn't own lab rats. She only owns this story, all of her OCs, and anything else you don't recognize.
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Marcus' POV
"What in the world…?" Alex wondered aloud, staring at the sight with wide, frightened eyes. He looked up at Vivyanna. "The army from Rhyder's dream? Are you sure?"
"What else could it be?" She replied, her voice hushed with horror and awe. I could sense the dread and tension rising in the room, the seriousness of the situation hitting everyone at once. We'd already lost Adam and Rhyder, now this? Couldn't we catch a damn break?
"We need to get down there. Come on." Chase pulled on Vivyanna's arm, intending on leading the group towards the street. The pyrokinetic dug her heels into the ground though, refusing to move.
"You want us to go down there and what? Fight?" She demanded. Chase nodded.
"Well yes. People are getting hurt down there, Vivyanna. We have to help." He insisted. Vivyanna shook her head, pulling away from him.
"Are you crazy?" She demanded. "I'm not going down there."
"Why the hell not?" Bree demanded. Vivyanna fixed her with a cold look.
"Well, I'm not exactly eager to die, for one!" She retorted. "In case you've forgotten, Rhyder predicted that we'd die fighting those guys."
I had to admit, she had a point. Rhyder had seen this coming, and he had seen that it would end bloody. But still… "If we don't help, other people are going to die. What makes our lives more important than theirs?"
"What makes their lives more important than ours?" Vivyanna retorted, looking at him. Before he could respond, she hastened to finish her statement. "Look, you were raised to be heroes, I get that. I do. And in the end, I'll probably do whatever you need me to, but I just want you to actually think about this for a second. If we walk down there, if we walk into that fight, I promise you that at least some of us won't be walking out."
She paused for a moment. "Do you really want to lose someone else?"
That made everyone stop. How many sacrifices were we really willing to make before we couldn't make any more. The thought of losing Bree, of losing the sisters, of losing anyone in fact, cut into my heart, and I knew I wasn't the only one.
"We…look." Chase looked at all of us. "I'm not asking you to die. I'm not asking you to fight. But I know this is the right thing to do, and I'm going to do it. You don't have to help if you don't want to."
"It's not that. I just can't bear the thought of losing anyone else." Vivyanna murmured.
"C'mon baby sister." Roxanna smirked at her. "It'll be fine."
"Who's in?" Chase asked. Bree nodded.
"For Adam." She stated.
"And Rhyder." Roxanna agreed.
"Let's just kick some ass already." Leo decided. I chuckled.
"Couldn't have said it better myself." I agreed with him. Only the end of the world could get us to work together.
"Alright." Alex nodded. Chase looked at Vivyanna and she sighed.
"This is completely suicidal." She muttered. "But I'm in."
"Good." Chase smiled at her gratefully. She narrowed her eyes at him.
"But if I get killed, I'm coming back to haunt your ass." She warned, grabbing one of the comm sets off the kitchen counter.
"Looking forward to it." Chase muttered, following her out.
Chase's POV
By the time we got down there, the soldiers (for they were definitely trained soldiers, despite their seemingly young age) were already prowling the streets and terrorizing the civilians. Flames burst out from nearby buildings as icy stalagmites the size of minivans broke through the asphalt roads.
"Hey, do you guys know what this is about?" Bree glanced back at the only pyrokinetic and cryokinetic around. Both girls shrugged, eying the disasters wearily.
"Oh my god!" Alex grabbed my hand, pointing across the street. We watched in horror as two soldiers lifted up a massive truck with their bare hands, to reveal two children underneath.
"Hey!" Alex sped at them, pulling the kids out of the way. He disappeared in a blur, reappearing who-knows-where.
"Quicky?" Vivyanna called, activating her comm set.
"I'm here. Just getting these two out of the way before those guys kill them." His voice was strained, and I assumed that he was ran while speaking to us.
"Right, so these guys have powers." We should have guessed that by the fire and ice spikes. "Alright, that complicates things."
"But it doesn't make this impossible." Marcus added. I nodded, then looked at my sister.
"You and Quicky use your speed to get the civilians out of the way. Find as many as you can, and bring them to the easiest to protect buildings. The police station, the hospital, the school. Anywhere you can think of." I ordered, getting back into the role of mission leader.
"Right." Bree nodded before speeding off in a blur. I looked at Vivyanna.
"Vivy, do you think you can control those fires?" I asked, gesturing at nearest flaming building. She gave me a look.
"One, it's Vivyanna, and two, duh!" She replied before jogging off towards the fire. As she walked, I could see the flames curling around her, shrinking in size and being drawn towards the pyrokinetic.
"Get any civilians you can to safety!" I called after her. She didn't acknowledge me, but assuming she'd heard me, I turned back to Marcus and Leo. "Alright Leo, I need you to find Mr. Davenport. We need info on these guys, especially on their powers and numbers, and he's always been the best at getting information on missions."
"On it." Leo nodded. He quickly ran off, but not before adding, "Be careful."
"You too!" I called after him, a pit growing in my stomach. Vivyanna's words kept coming back to me. She had been right; the chances of us all making it out of this in one piece were virtually non-existent, but I hated the thought of losing someone else. But here I was, sending the only one of us without powers, across the city on a hope that Mr. Davenport could get us any information on the enemy.
"Hey!" Marcus' voice dragged me out of my thoughts. I looked at him. "Leo's a tough kid; he can handle himself."
"Yeah, right." I nodded. I had to stop letting my mind go to the worst possible situation. "We've got bad guys to fight and asses to kick."
"Now that's what I like to hear." Marcus chuckled. "I'm guessing we're going to be taking out any and all soldiers we see?"
"Exactly." I nodded. Marcus almost smirked.
"Let's do this." He said before running off towards the nearest solider.
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As it turned out, super strength, pyrokinesis, and cryokinesis weren't the only powers the soldiers had. I found this out the hard way when one of them, an ugly brute, threw me into a brick wall using molecular kinesis.
"Ow…" I pushed myself, shaking my head slightly to clear it. The soldier appeared above me, throwing a kick into my side. I rolled with it, and the second I was on my back and facing him, I raised my hands, throwing him far into the air. I didn't wait to see where he landed, or if he got up, but immediately focused on my second opponent. Even though this one was a girl, she'd clearly been given been given super strength. She threw one punch at my ribcage just as I threw up my shield, but I was a little off on my timing. I wasn't able to stop it completely, but I did manage to soften the blow enough for me to remain standing.
Taking advantage of her surprise (I guess she hadn't expected me to block it) I hit her in the stomach with a plasma ball.
"Ah!" A sudden cry of pain came from behind me. I spun around in time to see a soldier fall to the ground, clutching his chest. Marcus was only a few feet away, eyes still glowing green from the use of his heat vision.
"Thanks." I nodded at him gratefully. He nodded, wiping some sweat off his brow.
"No problem." He replied as I looked around. The rest of the street was mostly clear, with the exception of a few civilians with their heads poked out the window. Most of them looked terrified out of their minds, and I didn't blame them. The sight of super-powered humans, good or bad, was enough to at least scare people a bit.
It had been almost an hour since we'd come out here, and things still weren't calming down. I didn't know who was leading this assault, but whomever it was seemed to have an endless supply of soldiers working for them. I was exhausted, every inch of my body sore and aching.
"Dude," Marcus glanced at me. He looked as exhausted as I felt. "We have to figure out a different plan. We can't keep this up forever."
"I know." I agreed just as my comm set came to life.
"Guys?" Alex, thank God. He'd been one of my biggest concerns, considering how young he was.
"Quicky, yeah. I'm here. You alright?" I demanded. I heard him let out a shaky breath.
"Running a little empty of fuel and energy. I guess skipping breakfast this morning wasn't such a good idea." He admitted sheepishly. "Listen, I've cleared civilians from about ten streets now, but you need to know something. Bree and I aren't the only speeders out here."
"Nor are you and Marcus the only ones with molecular kinesis." Bree added. I nodded, even though she couldn't see me.
"Yeah, I know about the molecular kinesis. Thanks for the tip about speeders." Like we needed to add super speeders to the mix. "Where are you guys now?"
"Fifth Avenue." Alex replied.
"I'm on the roof of the hospital on 3rd. Figured I'd get a better view." Bree replied. "Chase…there are at least fifteen soldiers on this street alone."
"Yeah, that's nothing compared to ten cryokinetics." Roxanna interjected, joining our little conversation. Her voice was strained, but she didn't sound to be in too much pain. "Managed to deal with them, but they threw me around a bit first. I'm fine, but I don't know how much longer I can keep this up."
"Vivyanna?" I asked, concerned. Usually, she was the first to speak up, but so far I'd heard nothing from her. There was a moment of silence. "Vivyanna!"
"Give me…a sec…would ya?" Her voice was low, gasping. I could hear violent coughs coming from her end of the line.
"Vivy, you okay? What's wrong?" I demanded.
"Y-yeah. Yeah, I'm fine." My concern grew when she didn't respond to the nickname. "But as it turns out…while I am flame-proof, I am not smoke-proof."
"You're sure you're okay?" Roxanna questioned.
"I'm fine, Roxy. Just needed some air." The pyrokinetic replied, her voice raspy. "But let me tell you, fighting against these guys sucks when they have the same powers as you."
"No kidding." Roxy agreed. "Chase, tell me you have a different plan than us just doing this until we all collapse?"
"I'm working on it." I insisted. "Leo, now would be a great time for that information I asked for."
"I don't have much." Leo warned, joining the conversation.
"Anything will do." I assured him. The others were right; this wasn't working. Not only were we vastly outnumbered, but we no longer had the advantage of superpowers since they had some too.
"Well, we don't know who's leading the attack or why. Nor do we know much about their powers. Certainly not anything that you haven't already observed." Leo began. "But we do know that there's approximately 200 hundred of them."
"Shit." I swore. Two hundred? There was no way we could handle all that, not on our own.
"Yeah." Leo sounded regretful. "The good news is, we think we know where their base is."
"Tell me." I ordered.
"Alright. You know that tunnel we saw from the roof? The one where all the soldiers were coming from?" Damn, I'd only thought that it was the way they entered the city. It'd never occurred to me that they may have made a base.
"You're sure that their base of operations?" Marcus demanded.
"Not entirely, but it seems to be where the wounded are heading. Even if it's not, we'll be able to round up a bunch of them at once." Leo offered.
"Good work Leo." I nodded, though he couldn't see it. "What are the cops doing?"
"They're mainly focused on saving people. Their few attempts to fight the enemy haven't worked out well." My step-brother replied. "They're up against forces they've never had to deal with, guys. They don't know how to fight them."
"Good thing we do." I nodded. "Alright, listen up. Everyone clear out as many civilians, then head straight to the police station."
"But if we head to their base now, we can take out their leader!" Vivyanna argued. "We could finish this now, without anyone dying."
Anyone else, I corrected her silently. "Civilians are our main concern, Vivyanna." I ordered. I heard her sigh, but she didn't complain. "And besides, it would be suicide to go in there alone. We do in together or not at all. Agreed?"
"Fine." Multiple voices agreed, seeing the reason behind my decision.
"Alright. We'll see you all soon." I told them, ending the conversation. I looked at Marcus. "Let's go."
We headed towards the police station, taking care of a few soldiers and helping civilians into zones that were considered 'safe'. Safe being a loose term. I really meant that no one was on that street, so I assumed that they weren't about to die in the next three seconds.
We were helping said civilians out of the way when all of a sudden, there was a massive explosion coming from the center of the city. Even from here, I could see flames high in the sky, smoke floating upwards as debris rained down. The whole world seemed to shake with the impact.
"What was that?" I demanded, eyes wide. Marcus looked at me, then activated his comm set. I followed his example.
"Everyone, check in now!" He ordered.
"I'm alright."
"Did you guys see that?"
"Is anyone hurt?"
"Oh my god."
Four different voices, all shocked and stunned, checked in. That accounted for six of us…out of seven.
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Kihonne: I'm cruel, aren't I? Leaving you on that type of cliffhanger. But hey, wanna guess who blew up?...Wow, that sounds a little blunt, doesn't it? Anyway, tell me what you think (of the chapter and your guess at who didn't respond to Marcus and Chase) and I'll see you all again on the 8th of May.