Chapter 10

Unfinished Business

I don't know what it was I was hearing, but something sounded like it was boiling, and I felt a kind of hot feeling all around me. It wasn't burning, or uncomfortable, but it was hot. I opened my eyes and the pink liquid was boiling really hard. I started looking around, but all I saw was bubbles. I started panicking because I don't know what was happening, and suddenly all the liquid was down to the bottom. The scientist wasn't at the terminal either. Did the water evaporate? I looked around, and a fog was developing on the glass. I reached out to wipe it away, and my hand was on fire all the way up to my shoulder. I looked at myself, and all of me was engulfed in flame. I started panicking some more then I realized it wasn't burning. The scientist ran in and raised the glass up. I stepped out still on fire. He grabbed a fire extinguisher, and sprayed me up and down. It took the whole canister to douse the flame, and then some. I looked at myself, and it was all over me with some of my fur sticking out. I shook off like a dog, and the chemical went everywhere. I still had some of it here and there, but I rubbed it out.

"Well at least you're dry."

"How come that didn't give me third degree burns, it didn't even hurt?"

"That's because you're a pyro."

"Pyro? Like pyrokinesis?"

"Yes, pyrokinesis. I hope you know what that means."

"I know what pyrokinesis means, it means the ability to create and manipulate fire. I learned that off of Psi ops. I got a question, how do I control it, and do I need anything special to control fire?"

"Correct, okay, and all you need is concentration, and you control it with your body."

"Okay. That I can do easily."

"Well I guess I better wake the rest of them up."

"Huh."

"Nevermind."

He typed a couple of things on the terminals, and handed them their towels.

"Hey Echo, guess what."

"What?"

"I gots Pyrokenesis."

"Guess what I have telekinesis."

"Pyro better."

"Is not."

"I can burn you."

"I can break your neck and not even touch you."

"They're both equal then."

"I won."

I snapped my fingers and caught his hair on fire a little.

"OOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWW. GET IT OFF."

I snapped my fingers and the fire doused off to smoke. His hand started glowing, and he pushed me down.

"You bunch of dorks." Brittney said frustrated

The scientist handed us the clothes we had on yesterday. We followed him to a hanger, but it was full of APCs not planes and jets.

"Alright, get in and settle down."

I sat down beside Brittney, and Echo sat in front of me. Ok it only takes thirty minutes to get to Chattanooga from Polk County. So we'll be there soon. I wrapped my arm around Brittney. She turned her head the other way.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothin'."

"Yes there is."

"I don't wanna talk about it right now."

I sighed, and put my arm on my knee. I stared at Echo halfway down there. I don't think he noticed though. I started popping my knuckles then my arms then my neck then my back.

"Would you stop!" Brittney yelled

"Why?"

"Cuz I said so."

"Why?"

"HMMM!"

I chuckled. We sat in that tiny APC for a long while,

"Are we there yet?"

No answer.

"I know it's been longer than thirty fricken minutes."

After I said that the door opened. The light nearly blinded me, so I blocked my eyes. After I got used to it I put my arm down, and got out. I stretched, and my back popped again. This time a bald headed scientist walked up to us.

"If you'll follow me, we'll get you started on training."

I followed him, Brittney and Echo close behind. We went inside a white room. It was empty.

"ECHOOO!" I hollered

It reverberated off the walls then Echo said "What?"

He didn't even yell and it reverberated off the walls more than my yell did.

"That was weird."

"I know I heard it." Echo said reverberating off the walls.

"You don't have that much of a deep voice, cuz it's as deep as mine, and it reverberated off the walls more than mine did." I said

"Okay, we already know that you can shape shift X, and that you're a pyro too. Echo we know that you have telekinesis, and we think you can manipulate sound too. Brittney can do the same thing X can so we can just sit you out if you want to."

"Sure I'll just watch."

"Okay, how about we start on the pyrokinesis and telekinesis ability."

"K." We both said in unison.

Okay he said to concentrate, I can do that, but how do I control it though. He said with my body, so does that mean body movements. I started to concentrate on my arm being engulfed with flame. It took a little bit, but my entire arm was engulfed with flame up to my shoulder.

"Oh, yeah." I said smiling

The scientist walked over to the wall and a terminal came out of it. He typed a couple of things on it, and then some targets and boxes showed up.

"Okay, the targets are for you X, and the boxes are for you to practice on Echo." The scientist said after typing.

I looked at the target, and swung my arm. The flame came off my arm in a ball, and hit the target exploding on contact.

"FIYAPOWA!" I said shooting my hand in the air balled up into a fist.

I watched Echo as he concentrated. His eyes started glowing, along with his hands, and the boxes lifted in the air. He closed his hand into a fist, and the boxes exploded. I clapped my hands slowly.

"Congrats."

He stuck his tongue out at me. I shrugged and turned back to the target. It was on fire. I held out my hand, and closed it into a fist, and the flames doused to a smoke.

"Okay if you can do all of that, you can do more. Let's go to the hanger, and let the commander debrief you."

"Oh I prefer a deboxing." I said with a smirk

Echo chuckled, Brittney blushed. I followed him beside Echo and Brittney behind me. We got into the hanger, and the scientist told us we have to wait a little while that the commander was on his way. I leaned against an APC, and started forming fire on my hand, and dousing it over and over again. I created a ball of fire over my hand, but it wasn't touching it, just hovering. Suddenly all the soldiers saluted, and the commander walked in. The fur on my neck and back stood up on end, my ears laid back, and I started growling. I turned my hands to claws, and faced him.

"Don't you know who that is, that's X-istence. Your commander's infected, he's been lying to you all this time, and ya'll just didn't know because he looks like the commander. I can prove he's infected too." I said pointing at him.

"Don't listen to him, he's just trying to get out of doing work."

"Ain't done it."

I started walking to him. All the soldiers aimed at me with their guns. I thought to myself, Need a distraction.

I pointed to the door, and said "Look it's Drake Bell!"

They all looked to the door, and I dashed toward the commander, and slashed his stomach open. He jumped back a good few feet, and the soldiers looked at the commander. A bunch of black and red goop fell out of his stomach. All the soldiers started looking at him then they aimed at him.

"Come on change back ya chicken."

He charged at me, and punched me in the stomach. He nailed me, but I managed to scoot back to keep from knocking the breath out of me. He changed back to his normal form. His seven feet tall, cat tailed cat eyed self. He looked just like me, but he was grey, and his spikes went straight up in a line. His eyes narrowed down some more and he looked at me. The soldiers started firing at him, all the bullets ricocheting off. I dashed forward and connected a punch to his jaw. He whiplashed from it, and grabbed my arm. I kicked him in the stomach, with my right foot, and he let go a little. I jerked my hand out of his grip then kicked him in the chest. He caught his breath back, and kicked me back. I lost my balance, but got it back. He turned both of his hands to blades, and I turned mine to claws. I charged at him, and slashed at his chest then at his throat. He dodged all of them. He swung at me and I ducked underneath it, and slashed upwards, cutting him a little bit. I left a cut right across his chest going up. I kicked him in the stomach, knocking him down. Suddenly he started glowing white, and he was stood up on his feet. I looked at Echo, and his hands and eyes were glowing. I looked back at X-istence, and he was struggling trying to get loose.

"What should we do with him?"

"Let's throw him in quarantine in straps, metal ones."

"How about we electrocute him with ten million volts and end his life."

He started struggling more, then his eyes flashed. Echo flew back, against the wall. He fell to the ground, and started sprinting to the door. I sprinted after him, and tried to tackle him, but he dodged it, and disappeared into the hills.

"Damnit." I muttered under my breath.

I stood back up and dusted myself off. I turned around, and ran to Echo. He was unconscious from the impact on the wall.

"Get some alchahol, and hold it under his nose then he'll wake up." I said holding his head down to keep any blood from flooding his brain and lungs.

A scientist came running back with some alchahol, and held it under his nose. Echo woke up, and started coughing. He tried to stand up, but we held him down.

"Sit down, and keep your chin on your chest."

He sat like that for thirty minutes. He stood up, and rubbed the blood off his nose.

"Well I guess you guys can go home, since the commander plan was probably fake."

"Thanks, uhm can you get these rebreathers off of us?"

"Sure."

He reached around my neck, and the rebreather fell off to the floor. I almost puked when the tube came out of my mouth. I started coughing, and he did the same thing to Brittney. She almost puked like me. I felt around my mouth, and took in a deep breath.

"AAH, smells good to smell fresh air and not rubber mixed with plastic."

"How we gonna get home?"

"We take you down there in an APC, and drop you off at Brittney's house."

"Okay."

I walked over to Brittney, and was about to kiss her, but she stopped me. I frowned, and walked into the APC. I sat down then Echo, and Brittney joined. We rode back down to Polk County in silence. I walked out of the APC, and into the house. I sat down on the couch, and fell asleep as soon as I touched it.