12 – Blazed

"Luxie."

Lookit all the pretty stars.

"Luxie."

Yawn.

"Luxie!"

Ugh! Fine. Open eyes, I command thee.

"Luxie!"

Blurry.

"Luxie, wake up damnit!"

"Hey, stop shaking me," I whined and tried to match the dark blur to the voice that pounded against my head. Santa? No, Max! "I'm up, Maxie. I'm up." I rubbed my eyes to make the blur go away because with it I was as good as blind.

"Luxie, I need you to do a little job," Max said. She sounded like it was urgent so I decided to take my time. Yes, snigger evilly my evil ego, snigger! I yawned again and stretched my arms. Ah… Hey! Where was my top bunk gone? I looked up and saw the ceiling. That was strange.

"What's matter?" I asked confused. Where was I?

"You stayed here last night. Blaze went into rage and well, angry girl, you know," Max explained without saying much. Ah, so my trusted sidekick had gotten angry with shit. Yeah, that happened. I just got jiggy with… did I? Shit, I can't remember a thing after that little really sexy neck nibble… mmm, neck nibble. My god, has he got a good body. Those abs…

"Luxie!" Max shook me out of my early morning dream.

"Sheesh, easy on the ears, Maxie. Sensitive, you know," I said angry at her. I did not like my ears ringing. "So, what's this job you want me to do?"

"You like danger, right?"

"Hey, I'm one of angry girl's closest friends. Her only friend if I think about it…" I sat back in wonder again. Poor girl. All she had was me. I mean I'm not a bad person to be around, but why did she only have me. And Alec, but he doesn't count cause he's a boy. A boy. Snigger.

"Okay. So yes. I need you to do a really dangerous job for me. I was gonna send Heresy and Alec, because I'm still hoping they'll get killed but…"

"You want you sister to die? I thought you were all yay family…"

"It's sarcasm, Lux. You should be familiar with it," Max said rolling her eyes. Oh right, that… "Anyway, Blaze said she needed out, danger, killing and stuff. I hope you can handle her. She's subdued, Alec managed to get her to take like a whole bottle of trances and she's quite laid-back. She wanted you to come… you being her best friend and all."

"Ah," I said with a smile. Me and Blaze go back a long way. Some people might not think two months is a long way, but it sure is, believe me. With that crazy girl… well, I think I'm the crazy one in this relationship, although she does…

"Luxie, I'm losing you again," Max said giving me a shove. Hey, I was. "You guys are taking Styl with too. I just…"

"Who?"

"Zack's… person who hangs around him 25/7," Max explained.

"25/7?"

"Shush. You are so out of it today, aren't you? Get dressed, pretty yourself up and meet us outside right now, kay?"

"Uh, yeah sure." Max got up, gave me a friendly, yet painful slap on the shoulder and left. "Ow," I whined and flipped my legs over the edge of the slap of stone that had been my bed. Why was Styl coming with? I didn't like her anyway… right? My god, I'm so frigging confused this morning. What did I do?

"Hi," Blaze said with a smile. Her eyes were half-closed and her hair was a mess. She wasn't wearing her jacket but she was wearing a white shirt. She didn't like white shirts, as I remembered but it must have been the drugs.

"Hey," I said with a wide grin. "Lookit, what they've done to you. You look… blazed," I finished with an even wider grin. What a wonderful play on words.

"Sup little girls," I heard Heresy's voice and braced myself for a harsh comment I could reverse and hit her back with. "Just wanted to see you off on your first big tactical-Max mission. I can remember when I had to get you out of jail."

"Yeah and…" She was acting very strange lately. Blaze swayed and before she turned into the Leaning Tower of… eh, Puerto Rico, I grabbed her and stood her up straight again.

"When the drugs wear off, I'll be a lean, green… thing… thing again."

"I better hope so. You're more amusing when you're… livelier. Where is Max?"

"Sorry," Max said walking over to us. Behind her were Zack and Styl. Hm… where were mine and Blaze's men? Come to think of it… where was Two? If I did sleep with him, wouldn't he have been there this morning? I opened my mouth to ask if anyone had seen him, but Max rudely began talking while I was trying to interrupt with my more important personal problems.

"Sector 6, White HQ," Max said simply. "Blaze, Luxie, Styl. I need you three to infiltrate Satan's lair and find out what he's up to in connection with Alex Towers."

"The hotel chain?" Why would White be needing a hotel chain? "He better not be booking any rooms for his snake-cult freak buddies."

"We don't know. And that's exactly why I need you three to go in and…"

"White? You're sending these three after White?" Heresy asked with a snigger. I felt her royal bitchiness returning to Terminal City. Not that it was a good thing or anything. She patted me on the head and I slapped her hand away. "I'm mean, I'd enjoy the news of hearing her being dead and all, but… are you sure?"

"I could to way better than you, smarty pants," I retorted and scolded myself for the 'smarty pants' part. Heresy opened her mouth to say something, but then decided against it, glared at me, folded her arms and held her head high. Luxie one, bitch cat zero. Go me!

"Here are a few blueprints, this is White's office," Max explained holding out the blueprints to me. I leaned over them and wondered why we didn't have a table. I guessed she was showing the prints to me because Blaze was, well, blazed and she, like myself, thought Styl was stupid.

"High security?"

"Lots."

"That's good," Blaze said with a weak smile. Her eyes had opened more and I guessed the effects were wearing off. "I'll get rid of them."

"He'll be using familiars at HQ," Heresy informed us. God, that girl did not know when to shut up. "Not gonna be as easy as bailing your big brother out."

"I'll be fine," Blaze said and glared at Heresy. Oh… cat vs dog, er, wolf.

"Sure, whatever."

An hour later, Blaze, Styl and I were zooming down the road to White HQ. Alec was driving us so that when we got out, Tighty-Whitey wouldn't have stolen our ride.

"Hey, Alec," I said and remembered something. "Where's Two? Haven't seen him the whole hour and a half I was up."

"Why? You expecting him to be lying next to you?"

Yes, I thought.

"No," I said with 'duh' in my voice. "I just wanted to know. I mean, he hasn't been ripping peoples limbs off like my favourite wolf, has he?"

"Nope," Alec said. I noticed he had a scratch across his face and he was sitting rather awkwardly, like his ribs were broken. That's hurts, I tell ya.

"What happened?" I asked suspiciously. He hadn't gone out to have a secret mission with fighting and all that jazz without me, had he? He said nothing in response which was strange because he liked bragging.

"It was me," Blaze said. She sounding like she normally did so I expected the drugs must have worn down quite a bit. "He was trancing me and I… kinda… clawed at him. Caged animal and all."

"Aww, you poor you," I said in my best sing-song whiny voice.

"Thanks," Alec said.

"Not you, you… poop-head," I said with a snigger. Now that was a worthy name. It screamed originality, didn't it? Alec rolled his eyes and me. Tsch!

Styl listened to the three of them talk. Best friends, she supposed. But from what she'd heard the three of them had only know each other for two months and already they were so closely bonded.

The wolf girl seemed vicious enough but the other two didn't seem to care still teased her when they wanted too. There was a risk of being brutally de-limbed, slaughtered or both and they didn't bother.

Her own relationship with Zack was rather touchy and she feared every step she made was wrong. Now that they'd spent a few days in Terminal City she realized that people weren't for her.

I'll go back when this is over, she thought with a sigh. I'll miss Zack, but all these people make me… claustrophobic. It's just not my style.

"Hey, toots," Luxie said and nudged Styl. "What are your special powers then? Heard you're an experiment."

"Nothing," Styl said with a sigh. "I have metal in my system but that's all."

"Is that why your hair is so freaky?" she asked. Rude much, Styl thought but nodded. Then she flipped her hair and exposed the silver barcode.

"All the silver coursing through my veins does this to me," she explained and turned to look at Luxie again. Maybe they could have a normal conversation. "And they gave me this." I held up my right hand. I clenched my fists and the blades came out.

"Awesome!" Luxie said and ran her fingers along the blood. "Like that guy in the old movie." Styl I smiled. Zack hadn't said much about the blades and Two didn't know about them.

"Almost there," Alec said and turned around to look at Luxie. Blaze was busy inspecting the blueprints and kind of fazed. "You sure you want to do this? We can still send Heresy in to get killed if you like."

"I can get myself killed just as well as she can," Luxie huffed. She felt immensely competitive of her furry little… enemy at the current time and anything Heresy could do, Luxie could do better.

Heresy lay on her back blinking at the sun in her eyes. She was getting a sun tan and getting ready for a heist. And no one knew. Perfect.

On the plus side, she even got to see White again. Okay, this time she really had to kill him, but his sexy body pressed against hers whilst… How was she going to kill him? He needed something special.

Heresy sat up and watched the scenery pass by her. Below her Luxie, Styl and Blaze were getting ready for tactical advance and up on top of the car, Heresy was gonna outsmart them. She held her right hand in front of her forehead in the shape of and 'L'.

"Losers," she whispered a grin plastered across her face.

Naughty Heresy! I liked Luxie trying to wake up and her thoughts drifting. Not much happened yet, but we're getting there.

Next chapter goes under the name House of Mirrors