Omigosh, I'm so sorry! Zeta, Omega, Mu, Gamma, I didn't mean to take that long, honest to God! Dang, I used God's name in vain...I'm in trouble...but last night, my older sister, Marin, arrived from Japan. She's an exchange student, and I've been waiting to meet her for about four months. I call her Mari. Which, I just realized, is Max and Ari...so never mind.
Since I'm so late updating, here's two chapters combined in one. It's over four thousand words, but it's mostly filler.
Have fun!
Luna: Don't own.
Rose: Really, she doesn't.
Ella: She doesn't even own the computer.
Luna: Thanks. Just so much Thanks. You don't know how good that makes me feel.
Rose: Oh, you're welcome! I don't own anything either!
Ella: No, duh, Rose, you're imaginary.
Luna: *brightens considerably* But Ella doesn't own anything! YES!
Ella: ...I'm so glad my misery causes you joy?
Luna: YAY! On with Commanding Lightning!
"Code is 5, big T, little a, 3, 3, 9, big B, little W, 0."
Angel and Ben both nodded simultaneously, and Juju knocked him out.
"Let's go."
"Nudge. Can you do this one for me?" Jon asked her.
Silently Nudge typed in the three passwords that would allow him to access Itex's secret files. Words filled the screen. Jon took out a camera and took a picture of every page, so they could read it later. Nudge was impressed. She watched him in silence for a while, patiently.
But not that patiently.
"Are you almost done?" she whined ten minutes later.
"Still a while left to go. Look, kiddo, I trust you. Stay in this area, free the mutants, come back in..." he frowned at the screen. "Twenty minutes. If you're not here then I'm leaving without you."
"Seriously? Thanks so much!" Nudge told him, then ran off, her footsteps muffled by the carpet. She opened doors and looked for mutants or anything else interesting.
She found them behind the third door, more than a dozen of them. Three were dead. Nudge's eyes filled with tears as she looked at the cages. No humans, but animals were bad enough.
Someone had tried to splice wings on a wolf. Now, they were splotched with red where it had worried at them with its teeth and hung limply by its sides. As Nudge approached it, it snarled at her.
In the cage next to it was what Nudge guessed was a dragon. It was a snake, with over-sized bat wings and lizard legs. Something had obviously gone wrong, because it was dead.
She couldn't stand it anymore. One by one, she opened the cages, letting out the animals. Even the wolf didn't try to bite her once it was free. As she opened the last cage, where there was a scaled cat, she heard a voice behind her. "Freeze."
Nudge froze, then turned around, her hands up.
It was a whitecoat, and he was holding a gun.
Nudge glanced behind him for anything she could do. But there wasn't anything metal behind him that she could move. She was helpless.
Suddenly, there was a shot. Nudge squeezed her eyes closed. This was it; she was dead.
But the bullet never hit her. She opened her eyes. The whitecoat lay dead on the ground. Peter stood in the doorway, holding a gun.
"That was stupid," he told her.
Nudge blushed, glad it wouldn't show with her dark skin. Of course it had been stupid. She should have checked the room. But she'd wanted to free the mutants.
Suddenly Peter yelled, "Behind you!"
Nudge threw herself to the ground and rolled behind a cage, then came up, ready to fight. She heard Peter screaming with mirth from the doorway.
"You're just priceless. Priceless!" Tears were streaming from his eyes. "They shouldn't let kids like you into this thing. Really, you're useless. You and your family of mutants-no wonder you have a soft spot for these. Well, they do look better than the emo kid. If they're all as hopeless as you, I'm surprised more of you didn't kick the bucket like Max-"
Nudge had had enough. Screaming with rage, she launched herself at Peter, hitting every inch of him she could reach.
"You-jerk-don't-ever-insult-Max-again-or-I'll-kill-you!" She yelled, punching him hard with every word.
He stared at her in total shock, his nose bleeding, some of his ribs cracked. "You're crazy!" he gasped, and sprinted in the other direction. Nudge shouted after him, "Take that, you son of a-"
Jon came running up to her. "What the heck is going on?"
Nudge looked down. "He insulted Max," she said defiantly.
He took a deep breath, then got a pick-you-battles look on his face. "I'll chew you out later. C'mon, let's get these to safety."
The door slid open under my touch. I steeled myself for what lay inside, then walked in.
Ella was lying on the bed, a bandage around her arm. "Di!"
I rushed forwards, then stopped awkwardly at the edge of the hospital bed. Ella would find it weird it I hugged her. "Where's Gira?"
Ella swallowed. "Other room."
"Juju, how long do we have?" I asked her over my shoulder as I walked over there.
"An hour until the bombs go."
I nodded to her, then opened that door.
Gira was sitting up on a chair, seemingly perfectly fine. Of course, life is rarely that easy. "Are you Gira?" I whispered. You never know who's been replaced by a clone.
She nodded.
"Favorite color, DOB, ID number and crush."
"Dark blue, January third, 26567 and..."
"Answer the question." I told her.
"Mart," she mumbled.
I snickered. "You know, you didn't have to tell me that, I just wanted you to admit it." I showed her the tape recorder in my pocked. "I now have suitable blackmail material!" I yelled.
"Give that to me, NOW!" Gira screeched, and started chasing me. I tossed it to Juju and then freed Ella in the room next door.
"Ha, no, blackmail!" I tossed it to her, but she didn't realize I'd pocketed the tape. "You ever gonna tell the poor boy? He's practically dying!" I mock scolded her, but she could hear the seriousness in my voice.
She opened her mouth to reply, but then Jon called in on the commlink.
"Di, we're going to have to separate Nudge and Peter…" Jon trailed off.
"What did he do this time?" I asked wearily.
"Insulted Max. Then Nudge nearly took his head off. She was about ready to commit homicide when I separated them.
"We'll deal with that later. Let's get going." I dropped a few of our explosives around the room and then we bolted. I blocked the hallways with energy barriers.
We met up back by our planes. I performed roll call right after the building exploded.
"Report." I said calmly.
"Here, minor injuries." Mart called.
"Fine. No damage." Jon added.
"Parked. Mildly scraped up."
"Blood loss, possible DNA transfusion, trauma." Gira commented quietly. Mart was kneeling next to her, helping her.
"I'm fine." Dag was helping Ella.
"Broken arm." For some reason, Angel was sitting on Nudge, even as she nursed her arm.
"Mild burns. One of my explosives reacted early." Gazzy came over and helped Angel restrain Nudge.
"I'm fine, but Peter won't be when I'm done with him." Nudge growled. Oh, so that was why Angel and Gazzy were sitting on her.
"Still blind. I can deal with everything else."
"I'm the same as Gira." Ella was being checked out by Dag, so I didn't worry.
"Brogen nose, cragged ribs, split libs, bruises. I want dat girl logged ub," Peter snarled through his 'brogen' nose. "She'll kill us all inw our sleeb."
"Only because he insulted MAX!" Nudge roared and threw Gazzy off of her. Then she gently shook Angel off-scared of hurting her arm more, I guess. After patting Angel on the head, she snarled and leapt into attack. Poor Peter never had a chance. I had to put her in an energy bubble and Peter in another one.
"Okay, back to the report, Ben, Mal, what's your status?"
"Tortured for three months, still haven't found Omicron and Theta. Ben's got a sprained wrist, even though she won't admit it, been bleeding on and off for the past two months, electric burns on our feet, miscellaneous bruises and cuts, mental health is fine." Mal said curtly. She knew that she had better tell me everything and fast. "Also…I broke a rib, and it healed wrong. They wouldn't let me set it. And Ben's ankle broke funny. They were testing the strength of her bones. Same with mine." Iggy knelt next to Mal and helped her while I tended to Ben.
"I swear, Ben, if you fight this, you will regret it. They've got plenty of work for you in Ocean." I hissed when Ben struggled. She sat still, eyes wide. She knew I was dead serious.
"Jon, meet Ben. Ben, Jon." Ben was a pretty little eight-year-old girl. She had long, dark, almost-black brown hair and caramel brown eyes that darkened or lightened depending on her mood. Mal had lighter brown hair, like almost blonde, but it had a reddish tint to it, and bright green eyes. Mal was eleven, but she acted older. Much older. Being locked up in a torturous scientific research location did that to you.
"This is Ben?" Jon asked, surprised. He must have been expecting a boy.
"Yeah. Benevolence Rose. That's my sis, Malevolence Rose." Ben showed him a pendant as she spoke. It showed a white rose intertwined with a red rose, a blue rose and a black rose. Then Ben turned around and asked me, "Did they ever find Omi or Thei?" I had to look away.
"No. They tried...they just haven't been able to find them." My voice was soft, but the news made tears roll down Ben's face.
"I hope they're not dead too, sweetie, but we can't change it. Now wipe those tears. You've gotta help with the people we found. But I'll look into the future to see." Some of the mutants looked surprised. I had called them people, not experiments. They were even more surprised when a glowing portal opened. "I'll be back in about ten minutes." I stepped in, holding Ben's hand.
We were greeted with a hallway of doors. Each of them was different, labeled with a name and such. This hallway stretched as far as we could see in every direction.
"Di, what's all of this?"
"Each of these doors is a choice. But we don't want one of these, we want to go into that door, there." I pointed to a blue one. It was labeled Alive, and the current date. I stepped in and saw a large screen. I spoke.
"Omicron, Theta." The screen, which looked like a hologram thing from some sci-fi movie, began to whirl.
"Omicron and Theta are alive. Thank you for coming. Is there anyone else you need to know about?"
"I think we're good." I ushered Ben out of the room and pushed her out of the portal. "I gotta find some stuff. You can't get back in. I'll be back soon."
I ran down the hall until I found the door with my name on it. It was the most convoluted room we had. There were so many futures for me. It was because I had to make so many choices about other people's futures. I pulled my favorite one out. It was me, sitting on a front porch swing, waiting for a school bus to pull up.
"Mommy, Mommy!" A little girl with curly brown hair ran off the bus and hugged me tight.
"Hey, sweetie. How was kindergarten?"
"It was great, Mommy! I painted a picture!" She held up a picture, clearly done by a small child, made of bright, clashing colors, but you could clearly tell what it was of. It was a family, in front of a house. "See, there's Auntie Molly, and Uncle Dag, and Auntie Juju!" She pointed to three of the figures. "And there's you, Mommy, and me!" The last two figures. There wasn't a Daddy in the picture. No matter what future I pulled up with this little girl, there never was.
It's because knowing will lead you to chaos. You'd freak out at knowing who you'd end up with, and even if you didn't feel like that towards them, you'd feel obligated to be with them to get this girl.
I pulled out of the vision, and tucked it into its slot. I searched through the futures for the flock, seeing how they'd find out. But there were thousands of them-they would take longer than the five minutes I had left to go through them, and any one of them could happen. I'd have to come back.
I stepped out of the portal in time to see Juju contacting Base, and three hours later, we had a transport team there helping us pack up. We had reps from Phoenix. They practically trampled us in the haste to get to Ben and the mutants.
Then those of us who didn't get kidnapped by Phoenix had to fly back to Base. We'd meet up with everyone else there. We still had our planes to get back. Those people were Mart, Jon, Tommy, Dag, Nudge, Iggy, Juju and I. Angel had to go back to back to base because of her arm, Ella, Gira, Ben and Mal were in the intensive care unit (despite massive protests. Ben started screaming until I threatened her with Ocean again) and Peter was having several Nudge-inflicted injuries tended to. I think his nose was going to have a scar for the rest of his life, though. Everyone else was being transported back in the supersonic jet.
So anyway, a plane needed two people to pilot. Since Gira and Ella's plane was teensy tiny smithereens on the ground somewhere, we only had four, and we had eight people. Perfect.
Juju and I took our plane, Mart paired off with Iggy, I stuck Nudge in with Jon 'cause I knew she wouldn't kill him, and then Tommy and Dag piloted the last plane. There. Not the normal pairs, except for Mart and Iggy, and Juju and me. But it would work. Hopefully…
We managed to get home with Mart having a breakdown only once. That was unpleasant. I won't go into details, but I will tell you that the area we landed in won't ever be the same…I think the dents in that boulder will testify to that…
Long story short, I was ready to throw Mart into the loony bin. And Ben, but that's beside the point.
"Okay, everyone who was on the mission, clean up and then day off." I called after my team's retreating backs. Dag cheered, and then met up with Molly. Yeah, he wasn't going to take his day off. He was going to help Molly. I don't know what he has against off-days, I just know he never takes them.
Weird kid. Shaking my head, I vaulted over a railing. I ducked through the vent system, and dropped into the center of the training court, landing in a crouch, and managed to dodge a blow.
"Voshay!" I yelled, and everyone knew it was me, not a clone, or anything. Unless you're me, you don't willingly drop into the center of the Blue Lightning training court. Continuing what I was doing, I raced through the hallways, moving faster than most people could track with their eyes. I stopped in my room briefly, and grabbed my iPod, setting it to shuffle. Then I took off again. I got around the base four times before someone stopped me.
"Di. Sit. You're going to wear yourself out." Oh. It was Molly. "How many laps have you done?"
"Four." I mumbled.
"FOUR?! FOUR LAPS AROUND BASE?! AT THAT PACE?! ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL YOURSELF?!" Molly screeched. Base is huge. It's about the size of five or six football fields. It's shaped like one of those * things, six points. Each point is the size of a football field, and I had run along the edges. Let's just say it's a LONG run to go around once, much less four times. And with the speed I was going at, it would have killed most people.
"I don't know what's wrong with you, Di, but that's just not healthy." Dag started scolding me. I shrugged.
"You're just noticing now? I do this every morning. I normally do about six laps, seven when the nightmares were bad, then manage to beat everyone up on the training court, do inspections, training, and run missions. This is the way I keep the pain away."
"By inflicting it upon yourself? This isn't healthy for you! You just got back from a mission. You're supposed to be relaxing!" I pushed Molly out of the way and raced off, slamming into my routine. I pushed myself harder and farther, running, faster, faster, faster! I whipped past Molly, and she had a stunned look on her face. I had kicked my superspeed in, and gone around the whole building in less than a minute. Juju just watched, and eventually, when I slowed to an unmodified human pace, she ran with me.
"Molly's right. You gotta stop running."
"When the only option is to run, you run. When the only option is to bleed, you bleed. When the only option is to fight, you either fight or run like heck. I choose to run like heck. I'll have to fight eventually, but until then-" slowed in the training court and delivered a swift, decapitating roundhouse kick to a training dummy, then picked up my pace again, Juju fighting to keep up "-I'm going to run. There was a large, glass window in front of me. I glanced at Juju and she grinned back. I shattered the window with an energy pulse, and the two of us leapt out.
Yeah, an energy pulse. Weird skill I developed. Turns out that's what saved my life when I jumped off a cliff-I subconsciously made a platform out of thin air that slowed down my fall. That's the first thing I learned, but I can do more things with it, too. No, I can shoot off pulses that break objects. They're better than bullets, but it's tiring to do. I can make shields, but for some reason they're not bulletproof. It's pretty good at stopping energy, and they can be self-maintaining, it just drains me.
Just so you know, this base wasn't in Antarctica. It was on an island near the southern tip of South America. This particular window was over a cliff. I somersaulted neatly, and I heard gasps from behind me. Juju unfurled her wings, but I made an energy path that I ran on. Someone shouted, and I heard someone streaking after me and Juju. A quick glance showed me it was Gazzy and Nudge. Well, they weren't catching me. I ran faster, and then leapt off the end of my energy bridge. Juju shouted and dove after me. I let myself fall until I was just above the water, then I blasted an energy path open. Laughing, I ran along the water. Juju, Gazzy and Nudge just gave up on trying to stop me and played along.
When we returned, about two hours later, our cheeks were flushed, but I saw Juju's eyes sparkling from our games. I was the only one who didn't fly, but my energy paths solved that.
Gira and Ben had blackmailed the infirmary to let them out, so when we returned, I was tackled by Gira who wanted us to do Karaoke night. I turned and ran right back out the window. I hate karaoke, and I can't sing. Even though Juju insists I can, I broke a mirror once.
I am pretty good with a guitar, though. I've written a few songs, and they're mostly soft, quiet acoustic songs. Unfortunately, Juju always catches me, and she always makes me do karaoke night. Normally, I sing something quick, and then vanish. Now, I didn't want to sing because I'd sung Angel to sleep. The Flock thought I didn't know that they would sit at the door and listen, but I knew. I always knew.
"Just sing one song. Maybe Stand In The Rain or Anthem. Please?" Yeah, I'm a Superchic[k] fan. Deal. They've got awesome songs.
"If you can get Nudge to do One Girl Revolution, I'll do Anthem and one of my songs." Nudge had hated Superchic[k]. She'd never sing One Girl Revolution without a) mind control or b) serious blackmail. Therefore, I was safe. Unless Ben started that boys vs girls sing off thing again. Then they'd make me do Anthem again, and I'd lose it for us. I still can't believe Mart and Dag can sing. You wouldn't think it, but they're both pretty good.
Juju didn't know about Nudge disliking Superchick[k], so she turned to Nudge and started rambling about singing. Nudge's eyes narrowed, and six seconds later, an unearthly, deafening shriek echoed through base.
"NO WAY IN HEAVEN OR HELL WILL I EVER SING A SUPERCHIC[K] SONG!" Angel slipped over and I whispered what was going on into her ear. Angel got this evil grin on her face, and whispered to Ben, who got an equally evil smirk. Uh-oh…
"Would you do it if I threatened to tell everyone about your little secret? The videos I've compiled over the years? Those videos that Max made? Your drawings? YOUR DIARY read over the intercom? You don't sing, all of these things happen."
Nudge turned very pale. "You wouldn't."
"I would. Now, are you going to sing or not?"
"I'll sing…" she mumbled. "But please, can I choose the song?"
"Um, no. You have to sing One Girl Revolution." Juju swiped my iPod…which I was kinda listening all throughout this…and switched it to One Girl Revolution. She tossed it to Nudge who listened to it.
"Oh, that's not so bad. What's Di doing?" Gira smirked.
"She's singing Anthem, which is also by Superchic[k]. And one of the ones she wrote…she doesn't really like performing, but she's good. Like, if she hadn't been commander of Lightning, she could've gone professional."
I scowled. "I am NOT that good. I keep breaking stuff."
Juju winced. "The mirror again?"
"And the lamp, too. And yeah, the mirror." Juju winced again.
"Anthem doesn't go that high."
"I told you, it's not the notes sung, it's the voice singing it."
"And your voice is good. I still don't get why you don't go professional."
"Four reasons why not. One, I can't sing. Two, how long do you think it would be before I decapitated fans? Three, I couldn't stand the publicity. Four, don't you think it would make it easier for them to find me?"
Juju just grinned wickedly. "And they haven't found you already?"
"I swear, if you've told them, I will decapitate you." Something in my tone must have convinced Juju I was serious because her eyes got really big and she started backing away slowly. Then she turned tail and ran. Everyone started laughing as I took off after her. It was my way of unwinding-threatening my sister. This was fun.
The pace starts picking up again later, but right now, Di and everyone just has to have some fun.