Page 23: Broken Hopes
Alex threw the door behind the U.N. meeting chamber wide open, charging down the hallways after the sound of footsteps that she could hear running away from her. Several guards leapt out in front of her, but the whirled with a grace born onto of experience and sent them all flying into the wall in a heap. She darted past them, never losing her momentum as she tracked the president through the building.
Suddenly two more guards whirled out of hiding at the end of the hallway, leveling their weapons right at her. They looked like laser-rifles instead of the normal bullet-firing ones that most of the men she'd been fighting lately used. They weren't playing around.
Alex whipped out a hand mirror she'd been using to fix her hair as the guards opened fire, sending a stream of lasers down the hall. She gripped the mirror like a tennis racket and batted the lasers back toward the guards with quick, furious strokes.
The lasers burned into the guards' chest, sending them against the far wall. Alex stuffed her mirror into her backpack and ran past them, turning to the right where she heard the heavy squeak of a door opening.
She burst through the door, looking down at a winding spiral staircase that seemed to extend for miles beneath the Earth. She could see a well-suited figure running down the stairs as fast as he could, taking them three at a time.
"Oh no you don't!" Alex charged down the stairs after him, reaching into her backpack at the same time to pull out her Just-Sticky-Enough Gloves. She slipped them on and made a great leap over the side of the railing to one of the lower spirals, falling through the air faster than she'd anticipated.
Her hands slammed into the steel railing and stuck automatically, slamming the rest of her body into the staircase below it with a dull thump. "Ow... I didn't think that one out too well..." She muttered. After regaining her senses she pulled herself up and over the rail as President Chamber rounded the last spiral above her. He stopped when he saw her.
"How did you...?" He demanded angrily.
"Old spy trick." Alex quipped. "Now are you gonna come quietly or are you gonna come loud?" Alex put her fists up in front of her, staring up at the president. Chambers smirked and reached up to adjust his tie, regaining the composure he'd lost at her sudden appearance.
"It's a shame you decided to turn against your government Alex... you're quite skilled in your profession." He told her.
"I asked you a question."
"No." The President answered.
"It... uh... wasn't a yes or no question." Alex reminded him, confused. Chambers chuckled and shook his head.
"It is now." The President quipped as a blue-suited form leapt over him from behind, coming down in a graceful arc with her leg out. The blue boot slammed into Alex's chest, sending her tumbling down several steps until she hit the curving wall with a heavy thud. The tumble had banged her up pretty bad, but she wasn't about to let it stop her.
"Brittany...?" Alex pushed herself painfully to her feet, looking up at the blue-suited spy. "What are you doing? Weren't you listening to the queen in the meeting room? This guy's evil!" Alex shouted, jamming her finger in Chambers' direction.
"I still have a job to do." Brittany replied regretfully. Alex cocked her head to the side, staring up at her in amazement. "Especially as a spy, there are lots of things we have to do that we'd rather not. It's a part of life, and I don't intend to let my heart get in the way of my life."
"Brittany, he killed Jerry! Our Jerry!" Alex shouted back angrily.
"He only ordered Jerry dead... someone else actually pulled it off." Brittany replied softly. Alex' eyes went wide, staring up at her in complete shock.
"You... you're responsible..." Alex said softly. "Wh... why... how..." Questions tumbled from her mouth in an unstoppable wave.
"That's not important." Brittany replied. "Get out of our way or I'm going to have to move you Alex... and personally, I don't want to move you." Brittany cracked her knuckles against one palm, giving a clear warning to the wide-eyed Latino girl who stared up at her in shock.
"But... but why... Brittany why!?" Alex shouted.
"I had my orders." Brittany answered softly. "Just like I have orders now... orders not to let you touch the president." Brittany raised her hands in front of her defensively. Alex stared up at her, still lost in the shock of learning that one of her friends had indeed been responsible for Jerry's murder. Just not the one everyone had blamed.
"You... evil... lying... murderer!" Alex lunged up the staircase, jumping into the air. She planted her foot on the railing and used it as a spring to reach Brittany with a sweeping mid-air kick. Brittany leaned back to avoid it and darted forward, slamming her shoulder into Alex's stomach. Alex slammed into the rail, leaning backward out over the long drop down the middle of the spiral staircase.
She gripped the rail as Brittany struggled to push her over. The Just-Sticky-Enough Gloves attached themselves to it, keeping her from slipping even the tiniest bit. Her head jerked to the side when President Chambers made a run for it, heading down the spiral staircase again.
Alex growled and threw her head up, slamming it into Brittany's face and knocking her back. Alex jumped off the rail, but the gloves kept her stuck to it. She yanked her arms out of them just in time to duck a roundhouse punch that would've knocked her out, and came back with an uppercut. Brittany hit the wall with a thud as Alex turned to charge down the stairs.
"You're not getting away Mr. President!" Alex shouted, reaching into her backpack to take out the Lip Bombs. She twisted the bottom of one and hurled it down the center of the stairs, aiming for the spiral the president was currently running on. The detonation sent a wave of fire coursing through the metal tube, and twisted the steel of the staircase. Her target was halted in his tracks.
"Alex are you insane!?" Brittany grabbed her from behind as she prepared to throw another one. "You could collapse the whole damn staircase!"
"Then let it collapse!" Alex shouted back, turning the bottom of the lipstick in her palm until it began to beep in her hand. Brittany's eyes widened and she shoved Alex down the spiral, but Alex flung it over the side toward where the president was trapped at the broken and blasted section of the staircase. Brittany growled and leapt into the center of the spiral, hurtling through the air headfirst.
She slapped the bomb off course on her way down, sending it hurtling to the other side of the spiral. It detonated in a burst of magnificent fire, engulfing Brittany as she hit the stairs further down from even the President, rolling to a stop against the far wall with a dull, limp thud.
Alex charged down the staircase again as the President managed to snake his way around the ruined section of the staircase and continue his path downward. He ran past Brittany's unconscious form on the stairs without even glancing at her.
Alex jumped the ruined staircase, and stopped when she reached Brittany, looking down at her. She was still breathing, despite the blackened flesh, burned outfit, and unnatural angle of her left arm. Alex knelt down beside her on the staircase, putting one hand on her neck to feel for a pulse. Brittany opened her eyes and looked up at Alex, each breath obviously bringing her great pain.
"Why did you have to go and do this Brittany? What was it all for?" Alex asked softly, pulling her hand back and staring into her slim eyes almost hidden under the scorched and blackened flesh of her face. "What did they give you for you to kill Jerry and turn on us all?"
"It wasn't about any rewards, Alex..." Brittany croaked, wincing in pain as she took a deep breath through scorched lungs. "Some things are more important than rewards... and loyalty..."
"What?" Alex asked. "What was so important?"
"Let's just say... we all have our reasons for what we do..." Brittany smiled slightly. "You do what you must... and I did what I had to..."
"Brittany..." Alex muttered softly. Brittany shook her head and closed her eyes slowly, falling silent on the steps. Alex closed her eyes and lowered her head... but as Clover said when this mission began, she didn't have time to dwell on her emotions. President Chambers was escaping, and if he got away war wouldn't be far off.
Alex slowly pushed herself to her feet and took off down the stairs, finally reaching the bottom and pushing through a pair of large double doors. She gasped and skidded to a stop. There was a massive steel hangar underneath the building, in which a very deadly looking jet was beginning to rise toward the ceiling on a large platform. She could see the president inside, with a ring of armed guards surrounding the jet.
Alex sprinted toward the platform and leapt into the air, grabbing the edge just before it lifted out of reach. She pulled herself up quickly. "Shoot her!" One of the guards yelled quickly. Alex reached down and turned on the Electro-Magnet on her wrist, reversing the magnetic polarity. She held up her hand as the guards all began to open fire.
The bracelet whirred to life, and the bullets turned away at the last moment, repelled by the magnetic force. They tore into the floor in a shower of sparks and metallic bangs, while others slammed into the wall behind her. But not one bullet was able to reach Alex through the magnetic interference. When they realized this the guards stopped, staring in surprise.
Alex grinned. "No fair trying to use toys against little unarmed me." Alex sprinted forward suddenly, her bracelet pulsing against her wrist. As she neared the guards' guns flew away from her, taking a few guards with them as she leapt into the air and slammed her feet into two of their chests. They collapsed to the floor while she jumped off them, slamming her foot into a third guard.
She whirled on another guard, kicking him in the stomach before whirling on yet another, back fisting him across the jaw. One of the stupider guards tried to open fire on her again, but the magnetic bracelet sent the bullet flying away from her, drilling holes into every guard around her. The guard stopped and bit his lip guiltily in a moment.
"Hey, I wanted to do that!" Alex ran up to the guard and whirled, kicking him in the face hard enough to send him hurtling off the side of the rising platform. The sound of steel grating together drew her gaze upward, where the roof was opening up to the dark night. Rain poured onto the platform, soaking into her electronic bracelet.
"Ow... owowowow!" Alex howled as the bracelet short-circuited. She ripped it off and threw it to the ground before it could electrocute her. She turned to the jet in the middle of the platform, ignoring the pounding rain as she marched up to the door.
She grabbed the doorknob and yanked it open, stopping when she saw President Chambers standing just inside with a gun already aimed straight at her chest. Time seemed to slow as he pulled the trigger, sending Alex flying back with a tremendous pain building in her chest. She hit the platform with a heavy thud, sliding on the slippery surface. She finally came to a stop with the rain pounding down on her, lying limp on the cold steel...
TO BE CONTINUED
Alex threw the door behind the U.N. meeting chamber wide open, charging down the hallways after the sound of footsteps that she could hear running away from her. Several guards leapt out in front of her, but the whirled with a grace born onto of experience and sent them all flying into the wall in a heap. She darted past them, never losing her momentum as she tracked the president through the building.
Suddenly two more guards whirled out of hiding at the end of the hallway, leveling their weapons right at her. They looked like laser-rifles instead of the normal bullet-firing ones that most of the men she'd been fighting lately used. They weren't playing around.
Alex whipped out a hand mirror she'd been using to fix her hair as the guards opened fire, sending a stream of lasers down the hall. She gripped the mirror like a tennis racket and batted the lasers back toward the guards with quick, furious strokes.
The lasers burned into the guards' chest, sending them against the far wall. Alex stuffed her mirror into her backpack and ran past them, turning to the right where she heard the heavy squeak of a door opening.
She burst through the door, looking down at a winding spiral staircase that seemed to extend for miles beneath the Earth. She could see a well-suited figure running down the stairs as fast as he could, taking them three at a time.
"Oh no you don't!" Alex charged down the stairs after him, reaching into her backpack at the same time to pull out her Just-Sticky-Enough Gloves. She slipped them on and made a great leap over the side of the railing to one of the lower spirals, falling through the air faster than she'd anticipated.
Her hands slammed into the steel railing and stuck automatically, slamming the rest of her body into the staircase below it with a dull thump. "Ow... I didn't think that one out too well..." She muttered. After regaining her senses she pulled herself up and over the rail as President Chamber rounded the last spiral above her. He stopped when he saw her.
"How did you...?" He demanded angrily.
"Old spy trick." Alex quipped. "Now are you gonna come quietly or are you gonna come loud?" Alex put her fists up in front of her, staring up at the president. Chambers smirked and reached up to adjust his tie, regaining the composure he'd lost at her sudden appearance.
"It's a shame you decided to turn against your government Alex... you're quite skilled in your profession." He told her.
"I asked you a question."
"No." The President answered.
"It... uh... wasn't a yes or no question." Alex reminded him, confused. Chambers chuckled and shook his head.
"It is now." The President quipped as a blue-suited form leapt over him from behind, coming down in a graceful arc with her leg out. The blue boot slammed into Alex's chest, sending her tumbling down several steps until she hit the curving wall with a heavy thud. The tumble had banged her up pretty bad, but she wasn't about to let it stop her.
"Brittany...?" Alex pushed herself painfully to her feet, looking up at the blue-suited spy. "What are you doing? Weren't you listening to the queen in the meeting room? This guy's evil!" Alex shouted, jamming her finger in Chambers' direction.
"I still have a job to do." Brittany replied regretfully. Alex cocked her head to the side, staring up at her in amazement. "Especially as a spy, there are lots of things we have to do that we'd rather not. It's a part of life, and I don't intend to let my heart get in the way of my life."
"Brittany, he killed Jerry! Our Jerry!" Alex shouted back angrily.
"He only ordered Jerry dead... someone else actually pulled it off." Brittany replied softly. Alex' eyes went wide, staring up at her in complete shock.
"You... you're responsible..." Alex said softly. "Wh... why... how..." Questions tumbled from her mouth in an unstoppable wave.
"That's not important." Brittany replied. "Get out of our way or I'm going to have to move you Alex... and personally, I don't want to move you." Brittany cracked her knuckles against one palm, giving a clear warning to the wide-eyed Latino girl who stared up at her in shock.
"But... but why... Brittany why!?" Alex shouted.
"I had my orders." Brittany answered softly. "Just like I have orders now... orders not to let you touch the president." Brittany raised her hands in front of her defensively. Alex stared up at her, still lost in the shock of learning that one of her friends had indeed been responsible for Jerry's murder. Just not the one everyone had blamed.
"You... evil... lying... murderer!" Alex lunged up the staircase, jumping into the air. She planted her foot on the railing and used it as a spring to reach Brittany with a sweeping mid-air kick. Brittany leaned back to avoid it and darted forward, slamming her shoulder into Alex's stomach. Alex slammed into the rail, leaning backward out over the long drop down the middle of the spiral staircase.
She gripped the rail as Brittany struggled to push her over. The Just-Sticky-Enough Gloves attached themselves to it, keeping her from slipping even the tiniest bit. Her head jerked to the side when President Chambers made a run for it, heading down the spiral staircase again.
Alex growled and threw her head up, slamming it into Brittany's face and knocking her back. Alex jumped off the rail, but the gloves kept her stuck to it. She yanked her arms out of them just in time to duck a roundhouse punch that would've knocked her out, and came back with an uppercut. Brittany hit the wall with a thud as Alex turned to charge down the stairs.
"You're not getting away Mr. President!" Alex shouted, reaching into her backpack to take out the Lip Bombs. She twisted the bottom of one and hurled it down the center of the stairs, aiming for the spiral the president was currently running on. The detonation sent a wave of fire coursing through the metal tube, and twisted the steel of the staircase. Her target was halted in his tracks.
"Alex are you insane!?" Brittany grabbed her from behind as she prepared to throw another one. "You could collapse the whole damn staircase!"
"Then let it collapse!" Alex shouted back, turning the bottom of the lipstick in her palm until it began to beep in her hand. Brittany's eyes widened and she shoved Alex down the spiral, but Alex flung it over the side toward where the president was trapped at the broken and blasted section of the staircase. Brittany growled and leapt into the center of the spiral, hurtling through the air headfirst.
She slapped the bomb off course on her way down, sending it hurtling to the other side of the spiral. It detonated in a burst of magnificent fire, engulfing Brittany as she hit the stairs further down from even the President, rolling to a stop against the far wall with a dull, limp thud.
Alex charged down the staircase again as the President managed to snake his way around the ruined section of the staircase and continue his path downward. He ran past Brittany's unconscious form on the stairs without even glancing at her.
Alex jumped the ruined staircase, and stopped when she reached Brittany, looking down at her. She was still breathing, despite the blackened flesh, burned outfit, and unnatural angle of her left arm. Alex knelt down beside her on the staircase, putting one hand on her neck to feel for a pulse. Brittany opened her eyes and looked up at Alex, each breath obviously bringing her great pain.
"Why did you have to go and do this Brittany? What was it all for?" Alex asked softly, pulling her hand back and staring into her slim eyes almost hidden under the scorched and blackened flesh of her face. "What did they give you for you to kill Jerry and turn on us all?"
"It wasn't about any rewards, Alex..." Brittany croaked, wincing in pain as she took a deep breath through scorched lungs. "Some things are more important than rewards... and loyalty..."
"What?" Alex asked. "What was so important?"
"Let's just say... we all have our reasons for what we do..." Brittany smiled slightly. "You do what you must... and I did what I had to..."
"Brittany..." Alex muttered softly. Brittany shook her head and closed her eyes slowly, falling silent on the steps. Alex closed her eyes and lowered her head... but as Clover said when this mission began, she didn't have time to dwell on her emotions. President Chambers was escaping, and if he got away war wouldn't be far off.
Alex slowly pushed herself to her feet and took off down the stairs, finally reaching the bottom and pushing through a pair of large double doors. She gasped and skidded to a stop. There was a massive steel hangar underneath the building, in which a very deadly looking jet was beginning to rise toward the ceiling on a large platform. She could see the president inside, with a ring of armed guards surrounding the jet.
Alex sprinted toward the platform and leapt into the air, grabbing the edge just before it lifted out of reach. She pulled herself up quickly. "Shoot her!" One of the guards yelled quickly. Alex reached down and turned on the Electro-Magnet on her wrist, reversing the magnetic polarity. She held up her hand as the guards all began to open fire.
The bracelet whirred to life, and the bullets turned away at the last moment, repelled by the magnetic force. They tore into the floor in a shower of sparks and metallic bangs, while others slammed into the wall behind her. But not one bullet was able to reach Alex through the magnetic interference. When they realized this the guards stopped, staring in surprise.
Alex grinned. "No fair trying to use toys against little unarmed me." Alex sprinted forward suddenly, her bracelet pulsing against her wrist. As she neared the guards' guns flew away from her, taking a few guards with them as she leapt into the air and slammed her feet into two of their chests. They collapsed to the floor while she jumped off them, slamming her foot into a third guard.
She whirled on another guard, kicking him in the stomach before whirling on yet another, back fisting him across the jaw. One of the stupider guards tried to open fire on her again, but the magnetic bracelet sent the bullet flying away from her, drilling holes into every guard around her. The guard stopped and bit his lip guiltily in a moment.
"Hey, I wanted to do that!" Alex ran up to the guard and whirled, kicking him in the face hard enough to send him hurtling off the side of the rising platform. The sound of steel grating together drew her gaze upward, where the roof was opening up to the dark night. Rain poured onto the platform, soaking into her electronic bracelet.
"Ow... owowowow!" Alex howled as the bracelet short-circuited. She ripped it off and threw it to the ground before it could electrocute her. She turned to the jet in the middle of the platform, ignoring the pounding rain as she marched up to the door.
She grabbed the doorknob and yanked it open, stopping when she saw President Chambers standing just inside with a gun already aimed straight at her chest. Time seemed to slow as he pulled the trigger, sending Alex flying back with a tremendous pain building in her chest. She hit the platform with a heavy thud, sliding on the slippery surface. She finally came to a stop with the rain pounding down on her, lying limp on the cold steel...
TO BE CONTINUED