Chapter 11
Lexi, Duck, Slam, Jack, Austin, and Sarah were fighting away against Weathervane and Massive.
Not going so well.
Finally, Jack used his telekinesis to prop a table up in front of them as a shield. When Massive started attempting to pull it back and against them, he fought it hard. "Plan…would be good…right about now…" he groaned as he fought psychically against the gravitational pull of their enemy.
Lexi quickly opened her COMM again. "Ace! Benny! Guys! A little help would be good! How much longer till you get here?!" All she got was static, same as the other end. "Guys?!" Still nothing. She shut off her COMM. "I don't think they're coming any time soon."
"Well, the only other reinforcements we have are either in single-digit age or between five and eight months pregnant!" Sarah snapped, "So what do we do?!"
That's when Jack's hold fell.
Massive tossed the table out of the way. "Looks like you'll have to lose." He then held the table over their heads and increased the weight…
At the jail…
Nadine was now lying down on the jail floor, screaming every minute or so.
"Remind me again why we took my seven-months pregnant wife to investigate the prison with us?!" Ryan growled at the others.
"She volunteered!" Sophie sighed, "Besides, it's not like she'd be faring any better with the others! …well, she wouldn't be in labor, but…"
"Not helping!" Nadine groaned out, breathing shallowly yet rapidly.
Back at the fight…
The table was getting closer fast.
Slam and Austin quickly put their strength together to hold it over their heads.
Austin started groaning with the effort within the first second. "Might wanna run now…table's really heavy…Vampire strength ain't what it used to be…!"
Lexi, Duck, Jack, and Sarah rushed out of the way.
Austin then made use of his Vampire speed. Once he and Slam started losing their hold, he pushed him out of the way, letting the table slam into the ground and make a large pothole (or table-hole, whatever).
Weathervane growled and started in her own trouble. "Think you're so cool, don't you? Why don't we test that theory? Blizzard anyone?!" She held out her storm power and formed a dark and dreary cloud layer.
Snow and ice started falling at bullet speed to them.
Lexi quickly brain-blasted apart all the hail she could.
Sarah screamed back what she could, holding an echo to keep it back.
Duck started tossing fire eggs every which way. "Where's Nadine when you need her?!"
At the jail…
Daniella was trying to keep Nadine calm. The contractions weren't getting there. "…keep calm…keep calm…why can't I keep calm?!"
Nadine glared. "You're not…helping either!"
One of the guards then rushed up. "We can't find the doctor. And that Jasmine kid is missing!"
Nadine groaned and leaned her head on the wall. "That's really not helping!"
At the bad guys' lair…
Jesse saw everything. "You've done a good job, brother."
Hunter smirked. "And it only gets better from here. Tomorrow night's the next Blood Moon in the Cycle. And our new guest of honor will be showing some pretty fantastic fireworks that night…"
Jasmine sat in the corner, looking at them in shock.
At the fight scene…
Lexi fell against a building, shivering and rubbing her arms in the cold. "SARAH?! AUSTIN?! SLAM!" She couldn't see anyone past the winds of snow and the noise of the blizzard was drowning out all the other sounds. She knew that, by now, Weathervane and Massive had fled the scene and were off going about their crimes. Suddenly, she found herself wondering why the foolishly-conceived argument of the jailbreak possibilities had convinced them to send so many of their teammates to investigate the prison.
Man, it was cold!
Lexi collapsed in the snow, freezing her cottontail off. Cottontail…Lucy… At least she knew the pregnant among the gang were safe with the children at the tower. Problem was, their enemies knew where the tower was and could easily break in through the living room window or any other way they pleased. How long would it be before their weakest were the next target of attack? She couldn't let that happen.
Lexi started crawling through the snow until she found a tree. She climbed up and hid inside the warm-by-comparison safety of the branches. She nestled up in a ball between the leaves (how long would it be before those fell to the blizzard and the whole plan went kablooey, she wondered) and opened her COMM again. "Please work, please work, please work…" She dialed it until she got a signal. It was staticky, but at least it was a signal. "Nadine! Benny! Lucy! Ace! Someone answer! I think Weathervane and Massive are attacking the tower! I've lost sight of Duck, Slam, Jack, Austin, and Sarah in a blizzard Weathervane formed and I can't see a foot in front of me! Hello?!" It wasn't working. Either the signal was scrambled or the COMM units were broken—there was no telling which until she could get a hold of Tech, which wasn't likely at the moment.
Suddenly, the branches were rustling. She clung tight, her eyes glowing pink as she prepared for a fight—
It was only Austin.
Lexi sighed, calming down her powers. "Are you OK?"
"Luckily, one of the Vamp capabilities I still have is a temperature resistance—as a walking corpse, cold didn't affect me. Plus, I have night vision."
"Well, we need to find the others or get to the tower. What if—"
"Calm down, I think Weathervane and Massive are off pulling some heists. It'll probably be a while before they make it anywhere near the others." He then smirked. "Besides, they're not at the tower."
Lexi looked at him. "Huh?"
"I told Kelly to haul tail as soon as she couldn't reach us over the COMMs. They could be at the Runners' place on a surprise 'visit' by now."
"You couldn't have let us in on the plan?! Way to freak me out!"
"Sorry! Look, Duck has fire eggs, Slam generates a lot of body heat, and I think Jack and Sarah were pretty close to each other when the blizzard actually started having blinding effects, so they're probably close together right now."
"Well, how do we get out of this?"
"I think I have a plan. The building behind the tree has a highly effective A/C system. As well it should, it's a bakery. If we can jump out of the tree and rush into the building without losing sight of it or each other, we can easily reroute their systems and shoo off the last of Weathervane's hold—or as much as we can, at least, but that shouldn't be a problem since she's not here to hold it up."
Lexi considered. Neither of them really had a tech-savvy brain like Tech or Ryan, but, as far as she could tell, it should work. "OK, tell me when we're ready."
Austin quickly grabbed her wrist, holding as tight as his Vampire strength would allow without breaking her arm. "1…2…3!"
They both jumped from the tree and rushed through the winds to the bakery. Once they could see the double glass doors, they rushed it.
The doors were locked and wouldn't budge.
The two exchanged looks. Then smirks. Then Austin pried the lock apart with his Vamp strength and Lexi brain-blasted the other lock down. The doors swung open then.
They quickly rushed to get the doors closed. Now that they were in a safe and not-so-cold environment, they could think straight and easily locate the rest of the plan. They rushed to the heating and cooling system and cranked it as high as it could go. Lexi fired up all the ovens and Austin turned off all the freezers. Once everything was ready, they rerouted all the systems.
The hot air flew through the vents to the blizzard, dispelling the snow completely as soon as the full blast did its magic.
"I can't believe that worked," Lexi sighed.
"Neither can I," Austin added, "I felt sure it was kind of Duck-level."
Lexi shrugged. Then another idea hit her. "Does this place have a communications computer?"
"It's a bakery, Lexi." He then thought it over. "Then again, it is the 28th century—late 28th century, at that—so, most likely, yes."
"I'll patch my COMM signal in, maybe we can get a feed on the others. While I'm working, go find Duck, Slam, Jack, and Sarah."
Austin nodded and rushed off.
Lexi then rushed to locate the computer. She finally found a computer room and set to work. It took a minute for the system to turn on, but she finally got it working and set to patching in her COMM signal.
While it was still loading, the others came in.
"Hey!" Sarah sighed with relief, "You're OK! What are you doing?"
Lexi looked at the computer. The loading was over. "Either contacting the others or making a complete fool of myself—we're about to find out which." She turned on her COMM unit. "Guys! Can you hear me?! Is anyone there?!"
"We're fine, Lex," Kelly's voice came through, "Happy to hear you again and hiding with Rip, but we're fine."
"Yeah, no contractions or anything," Brenda's smirking voice added on.
"And the kids, are they safe?" Lexi asked in worry.
"Ask them."
"Hi, Mommy!" Virginia's small voice sounded.
Lexi sighed with relief. "I was so worried. Weathervane and Massive were out—"
"And Fudd, Sam, and Velvet, as far as my visions can tell," Kelly pointed out.
"WHAT?!"
"The prison couldn't find them when security came back up. In fact, if that much is right, then the others are trapped in the prison right now!"
"Well, are they OK?"
"I don't know, I can't tell."
Lexi then realized…she wasn't hearing anything from the others trapped in the prison. The signal hadn't reached them. She quickly started fiddling with buttons and controls, not caring what she did wrong as long as it ended with something going right. She needed to know they were OK. "Ace? Nadine? Benny! Anyone!"
"I think someone took out the systems, Lex," Kelly continued, "You won't be able to reach them from here!"
"I'm guessing whoever took out the systems is the same person that caused the blackout the other night," Austin suggested.
"Bingo, honey."
"Isn't there some way we can reach them?" Sarah asked.
"Uh, hello!" Duck snapped, "Are we forgetting something here? Bad guys on the loose!"
"At least six of them, at that," Lexi groaned, "I think we're in over our heads, we'll need backup."
"What, do we call everyone in again?" Jack asked, "Like with Toymaker or with Valentina and Esmeralda? Don't you think we've bothered them enough already?!"
"We can't take the risk! We need help!"
"Tell you what," Lucy jumped in, "We'll go with Rip to scope out the prison. If we can get the others out, we'll do it. If not, then we'll call in everyone."
"I think we're overlooking a possibility, people," Brenda pointed out, "See, we don't know who Black-Out-Baddy is, let alone where they are or what they're up to. …what if they've already gotten to the others?"