Hey ya'll!! Well I'm back. Whew! That was a long month! I did reach my goal of 50k words in one month (yay me!!) and although my novel is not yet completed (still has about two or three chapters left) I'm very proud of myself. In celebration, look! You have a new chapter!! Hope ya'll enjoy; it's getting to the exciting part now. :-D
Chapter 23/Coup D'état
The coup came too soon. I knew in an instant we weren't ready. We had tried to get together the night before, but everyone was in the dome, working out and getting ready for the fight. We had melted into the crowd and trained individually. When I looked over at Violet and our eyes met, I knew she thought we weren't ready either.
They lined us up and picked out those most likely to do well in the attack. The entire group of Maquis was picked along with several others. Josh, Megan, Gabe, and Chanel were among those picked. Many were surprised with Karl was picked, but no explanation was given as to why he had been.
They then led is down to an underground hanger that held a huge ship that made many eyes boggle at the sight of it. I was not very surprised. I had wondered how we were to get to Sky High and flying seemed like the most likely option. I did wonder how we were to go undetected, but once we were inside and had begun to take off I realized that the ship had an invisibility cloak.
The ceiling opened above us and we flew out from a spot heavily covered in trees. The students were all chatting excitedly but Akira, Richard, Peter, Violet, Karl and I remained quiet. After a while Violet approached me.
"They're going to select a few people to go down first to turn off the engine that moves Sky High. It will be easier for the ship to stay close for immediate departure if necessary."
"Who will they pick?" I asked. I hoped it was not me, I didn't even know where the engine room was.
Violet shrugged. She glanced around and then leaned closer to me in order to whisper, "Just thought I'd warn you . . . this is the night of the Spring Fling dance. Everyone will be there."
I paled slightly. "But that means . . ."
She nodded grimly.
"Magenta?"
A pained look entered her eyes as she nodded again, her lips pressed tightly together.
"She sent me a letter saying she was going with Zach," she said softly. She gave me an imploring look that needed no words.
"I promise that if I find her, I'll keep her safe," I said, nodding.
"Thank you, Alex," she said, sighing with relief as she reached over and gave my hand a light squeeze. I squeezed her hand back with a half-hearted smile. She then moved on to speak to the other Maquis members and after she spoke to him, Richard approached me.
"Alex," he whispered, sitting down next to me. "I need to tell you something."
I glanced sidelong at him, wondering why he was whispering. "What?" I asked, wishing he would just get on with whatever it was.
"I was meditating and I saw something," he went on hesitantly. He stopped.
I rolled my eyes. "Just spit it out Richard."
"You die."
I blinked. "Excuse me?"
"I saw you, on the ground covered in blood. You were dead." He looked very apologetic but I refused to believe it.
"Yeah well you know how your visions of the future often turn up bogus? Please don't blame me if I decide to think that now, okay?" I licked my lips nervously, and chewed on my lip ring once I got to it.
Richard flushed slightly but he nodded. "Sure thing, Alex," he mumbled before getting up and moving away. I sighed and ran a hand through my now short hair. It felt weird.
We were drawing close to Sky High now, and I wondered how they knew where it was in the first place. I started when Megan suddenly appeared at my arm. "Come Alex," she said, her tone business-like, which threw me off immediately. "The Elridges need to talk to you."
I stood slowly, watching her warily as I followed. The Elridges were at a low table, bending over what appeared to be blueprints. I got a sick feeling in my stomach when I began to figure out where this was going.
"Ah, Mr. Newton," Mr. Elridge looked up as me and Megan approached. "Just the young man I wanted to see." He gestured to the blueprints. "Our contact in Sky High has given us these prints, but we need someone with stealth to go and turn off the engine to the school. It must remain in one place if we are to be successful."
"And you want me to do it," I surmised with an inward sigh.
"Right you are. Your invisibility is quite handy when it comes to stealth and you know the school. I'm sure you'll have no trouble finding the room and shutting it down."
"Yeah," I said, huffing silently. "No problem."
"Good man. Our contact will make sure you have no trouble going in. Oh and you'll need a date."
"A what?" I asked blankly.
"Well this is a dance. You can't show up without a date. Megan has volunteered so—"
"Actually sir, if you don't mind. I'd rather it be Akira." She was the first person I could think of that would not look suspicious. Besides with her power she could be virtually undetected if need be. Mr. Elridge seemed to recognize that.
"Very well then," he said and nodded to Megan. "Make sure she is dressed suitably." Megan nodded and hurried off. He turned to me. "Now, you need a tuxedo. A black one will do." He held out his hand and Mrs. Elridge suddenly appeared next to him with a dress bag in her hands. She shoved it at me and I caught it before it fell to the ground.
"Change quickly," she squawked. "We don't have much time."
Somewhat disturbed by this entire thing, I nodded and moved to a different part of the ship to change. I did so quickly, almost ripping a sleeve in my haste. When I was ready I went to the main control room where they were actually flying the thing. Akira was there waiting for me. She looked unusually pretty in a straight red dress that ended just above her knees. It was just a plain dress but her hair was done up and she was wearing makeup for the first time, I think, in her life.
"Wow, Akira, you look hot," I said with a smirk, stepping up beside her.
"Shut up, Newton," she said with a scowl. "I feel naked in this thing. Gah, I hate dresses." She muttered a few profanities under her breath, which just made my smirk widen. She gave me a pointed look.
"Watch it bub, you're treading on dangerous waters here. And I don't mean the mission."
I rolled my eyes and was about to retort when the Elridges entered. They looked over us skeptically and I saw Mrs. Elridge's disapproving gaze when she looked at my lip ring. I figured she was just lucky I didn't have long hair with it.
"You will both go down to Sky High and enter as you would a normal school dance. Once you're inside you will go directly to the engine room. It's in the basement of the school. There our contact will show you how to disable it. Then you must stay there and wait for orders. Understand?" Mr. Elridge stared hard at us and we had no choice but to nod. "Good. Run along then."
"Excuse me sir," I said suddenly. "How are we supposed to get—?"
I cut off abruptly as I realized we were suddenly standing on the lawn of Sky High, looking up at the steps to the front doors. I glanced up and saw the ship move past overhead.
"Beaming technology," I realized in a breath. "Awesome."
"Yeah, yeah, I'm sure Captain Kirk would be very proud," Akira said impatiently. "Let's just get this over with, okay? I don't want to stay in this freakin' villain school any longer than I have to." She punched my stomach lightly and started for the steps.
"Hey wait, you're my date, remember?" I told her, holding out my arm for her take. She smirked.
"Well aren't we the gentleman tonight?" she said with a raised eyebrow.
"Well I don't know about you, but yeah, I try," I answered with a smirk.
Before she could punch me again, we reached the doors. I took a deep breath as we paused, glancing at each other a little worriedly. After we stopped the engines the villains would invade and we would have to fight. And people were going to get hurt . . . possibly even killed. Richard saw me dead. There was that possibility too. I shuddered and Akira reached over to give my arm a light squeeze.
"You ready to do this, Newton?" she asked in a low voice. I glanced down at her and attempted a smile.
"I'm fine," I lied. "Let's do this thing."
We walked into the building together. I could hear the sounds of a band playing in the gymnasium. We turned away from that direction however and headed down the opposite hallway. I wondered when they expected me to turn invisible. The time became evident when a group of students coming from the direction of the bathrooms came down the hall. Instantly I turned invisible and Akira melted beside me. We waited until the students had passed before returning to normal.
"We'd better hurry," Akira said, walking briskly toward the door that would open to the stairs that would lead to the basement. I followed swiftly.
"Who do you think the contact is?" I asked, hoping it was not anyone I knew.
"Well, I'm guessing that since she's the only one down here besides us, that it's that girl," Akira said, pointing to a slender blonde who had her back to us, standing near a door at the back of the basement. She turned around when she heard us and I frowned in confusion.
"Kristi Drake?" I asked, incredulous.
"Alex Newton?" she asked back, just as incredulous.
"Hey, what about me?" Akira asked. Kristi and I just blinked blankly at her. "Fine, never mind." She rolled her eyes. I stepped forward hesitantly.
"You're the contact?" I asked, frowning, wondering how a sweet girl like her had ended up being a villain . . . or at least ended up working for one.
"I had to Alex," Kristi said, looking almost as sad as I was disappointed. "They know where my cousin lives. They were going to hurt him if I didn't help them. He's only a kid."
I chewed on my lip ring absently, thinking. "Hey Kristi," I said, beckoning her towards us. She approached hesitantly.
"Newton, what do you think you are doing?" Akira hissed at me. I ignored her.
"Kristi, we're planning an uprising. Among the students of the Academy. You don't need to work for them anymore. We're going to take them down."
Kristi looked sad. "Oh I wish you could Alex," she said with a sigh. "But I don't think it's possible."
"We've been training, we have a strategy. We can win. The heroes always do, right?" I attempted an encouraging smile.
"Yeah, in comic books," Akira said, snorting.
"Not helping," I muttered to her out of the side of my mouth. She rolled her eyes.
"I-I can agree not to give you away," Kristi said. "I can promise anything more. I'm sorry."
I sighed. "I understand. You've got to protect your cousin."
"He's only eleven," she said softly. I nodded.
"Right then, let's get this engine offline."
Kristi glanced at the door she was standing in front of and we moved up as Akira opened it. We entered cautiously, closing it behind us. "That's the console," Kristi said, pointing at a board covered in buttons. I blinked, surprised.
"And it's not guarded?" I asked incredulously.
Kristi blushed. "I'm guarding it," she told me.
"Oh right, double agent," I said and tried to ignore her wince at the words. I looked over the board. "Which is it then?" I asked.
"Perhaps this one?" Akira suggested, pointing to a dial that had written above it on masking tape "SUBLIGHT ENGINES." One side said "OFF" and the other said "ON."
"Wow, you'd think they'd name it something not so obvious," I said, blinking. Akira shrugged.
"Guess we give them too much credit," she said, turning to dial to "off."
"Now that won't turn off the anti-gravity boosters, will it?" I asked nervously.
"Well if it did we'd be falling by now," Akira pointed out.
I wondered if I should just glue my mouth shut all together, seeing as everything coming out of it at the moment was idiotic. Almost immediately we heard the sound of screams.
"Must have beamed right into the gymnasium," Akira said, glancing upwards. Kristi and I followed her gaze. I grimaced.
"We should go up and help them," I said, heading for the door.
"We're supposed to wait for orders, remember?" Akira reminded me with a pointed look.
"So what, you're going to obey them? The villains?" I scowled at her. Kristi bit her lip.
"Don't you think it'll look suspicious if they call to tell us to do something and we don't answer?" Akira said.
"How are they supposed to contact us anyway?" I asked. "We don't have any radios or—"
An intercom to my right crackled and suddenly spoke. "Drake, Newton, Nakamura, you there?"
I blinked. "Now that is just freaky," I muttered, reaching over to press down the button to talk back.
"Here, sir," I said, and waited.
"Good. Nakamura? You and Drake are to go to the gym immediately and help with the round up. Newton, you need to find your former friends and make sure they don't cause any trouble."
"By myself, sir?" I asked, glancing nervously at Akira and Kristi.
"You're one of our most powerful students, Newton," Elridge said and I could almost see the smarmy smile on his face. "I know you won't let us down."
I sighed as he cut out and glanced over at Akira and Kristi. "Must have had a technopath," I said lamely, explaining the reason for the intercom working.
"Or was just in a room with an intercom," Akira said.
"Or that." I sighed and ran a hand over my face. "Well, we've got our assignments. We'd better get going. Spread the word to Maquis. We've got to get together with Stronghold's gang as soon as possible. Together it'll be easier than trying to take them on one by one."
Akira nodded. "Gotcha, chief," she said, saluting. Then suddenly she stood on tiptoe, grabbed my face between her hands and pulled my head down in order to plant a firm kiss on me. I was too surprised to pull away. After a short second she pulled away.
"Wha?" I asked, blinking blankly.
"Don't get your hopes up, tiger," Akira said in a warning tone. "That's just a 'in case we don't make it kiss.' Nothing else."
"Right," I said slowly, still not completely understanding. Kristi raised her eyebrows at me and I made a face at her. Laughing, Akira left with Icegirl and I was left alone in the room. Taking a deep breath I headed off to find Stronghold, knowing that where he was, the others were probably there too.
Soooooo, that's the chapter. The next one is when the fight starts. Oh goodie! Review and tell me what you think of this one! :-D