Chapter Two:
Branter was sitting on the end of my bed, looking at my duffle bag with envy. "You think you could sneak me out in that thing?" He asked, not looking away from the dull green, military bag. I laughed.
"Not a chance, sorry. I have a feeling you're 6 foot self wouldn't be able to fit in there. Even if you shrunk down, your ego would still be way too big." I looked up as I laughed and I saw him roll his eyes.
"Well fine," he huffed. "I still don't think it's fair for Jericho and I to stay behind, I mean what fun is training without you, Ace?" He asked, fluttering his eyelashes.
"Flattering, but no dice," I said, throwing more clothes into the bag, breaking his concentration – which was a good thing. Because the way he was looking at the bag made me think he was going to either start making out with it or kill it, I couldn't tell, maybe both.
"Fine, I'll just try my luck with Silver." He said, hopping of my bed. "Hey," he said as he stopped in the doorway. "If I don't see you before you leave, good luck." I smiled.
"Thanks," and he walked down the hall. I could hear him knock on Silver's door – the room next to mine. We were going to be leaving in the morning, or sometime late tonight, I wasn't sure. The rest of dinner had been a blur, basically, Ari giving us the gist.
After packing the bag with a few clothes – not having many to begin with – I packed the weapons, strictly simple stuff, pistol, riffle, knives, etc. I would be getting the bigger and better stuff later; hopefully I would get to take my Sheath Sword – my favorite and best weapon. I'll explain it later if I get the chance, but let's just say it's…awesome.
I threw the bag close to the door and lay on my bed, much more tired than I thought. It must have been Ari; all that hatred bottled up made me so tired.
I awoke to the sound of a familiar voice. "Ace, come on." Silver said, shaking me.
"Okay, okay, stop shaking me!" I said groggily, pushing him away. He just looked at me urgently.
"Well come on, we have to get to the armory room, then Ari needs to give us something or other." He slung my duffle bag over his shoulder and was gone down the hall. I put my tennis shoes on quickly and caught up with him in the elevator. He smiled at me. He was totally wide awake and I was totally…not.
"Stop, smiling like that," I said, running my fingers through my hair, then crossing my arms against my chest.
He chucked, "Why?" He asked quizzically.
"It's creepy." I say, looking as the glass elevator drops 13 floors fast.
"Coming from the genetically mutated girl with super strength and a deadly temper." He mumbled under his breath, a smirk on his lips.
I don't retort, too tired and not in the mood. We stumbled down the empty hall and find Rosa, Slick, David and Ari in the pure white room, the armory room, my best friend. Ok, well not really, but it's an awesome place. On the wall are thousands of weapons, all of them I know by heart.
Rosa and Slick are sitting on the white bench in the middle of the room, David – our mentor, if you forgot – leaning against a free wall, looking at Ari intently. Ari looks up as Silver and I enter, smiling at me. I just glare back. I'm not in a friendly mood. I look at Rosa and see her eyes are puffy. Instantly I want to run. Rosa is one of the toughest, nothing makes her cry. I step back and run into Silver. He touches my elbow and stands me straight.
"No weakness," he mumbles into my ear, I'm confident I'm the only one to hear him. I straighten up immediately and walk forwards and sit next to Rosa. Where she was rubbing on her forearm is red and bulging.
"Tracking device," I mutter to myself, understanding. I glare up at Ari. "A tracking device?" I asked disgusted.
"We're not stupid." He says down to me coldly.
"Could have fooled me," I muttered and I saw Rosa smile slightly, and Slick and Silver did too.
"It's your turn, Princess," Ari said, narrowing his eyes. Well, that's great. I just pissed off the man who was going to shove a metal tracking device into my arm. Oh well, I thought dryly. I stood up and walked towards him, not scared. I saw Silver smile and so did David, I was the brave one.
I held out my arm, my face hard, with glaring eyes. A sly smile comes on his face. Because we're genetically enhanced – or how Silver puts it so delicately: mutated – we don't feel pain like everyone else, neither does loss of blood bother us. We could go on weeks with an ounce of blood left, feeling perfectly fine. But as Ari cut open my forearm and shoved a small, metal, tracking device into my arm I nearly fainted.
He had that same sly grin on his face the entire time, as if waiting for the pain to get to me. And, honestly the pain did get to me, but I wasn't sure as hell going to let him know that. I wanted him to suffer like I did because I bottled up the pain and screamed profanities in my mind.
I saw Rosa snicker, she was probably reading my mind at the moment, and because she snickered I burst out laughing, clutching my side. It was so funny, the way Ari's face contorted quickly into disgust as he sewed up my arm. I just laughed in my creator's face and it felt good. I hated Ari and I just loved to see him snarl in disgust as I won the silent battle.
I saw next to Rosa, not even glimpsing at my arm. Don't rub it, don't scratch it Ace, I told myself. It itched so badly and it hurt like none other, but even the tiniest flinch towards it would give a point to Ari.
Silver went next. He didn't look at Ari, but at me, his face hard and emotionless like I had been. I was proud of Silver. He smiled at me when Ari was stitching him up, much tenderly than he had me. Clearly the hatred was mutual.
Honestly, the tracking chip wasn't very big, maybe the size of my thumb nail, but it hurt like hell for it to be planted into my skin. After Silver was done, Ari turned to all of us.
"Through the tracking chip you will be able to hear me; I will give you the directions. If you disobey me you will feel…" I fell on the floor, twitching, electricity buzzing through me. I gasped and clutched my chest. My heart hurt…is that possible? Well, it did, it hurt. I twitched again, tasting the metallic of the floor. I closed my eyes, tightening them closed, hoping the pain would go away.
The buzzing stopped and I felt drained, like everything, all my energy and power was gone. I gasped and coughed. Silver was next to me. "Ace," he said urgently leaning down. I rasped, trying to speak but stopped quickly, it made it hurt more. I just counted breaths, breathing in and out slowly until I regained some sensibility. Silver helped me sit up, but I was still on the ground. He didn't let me stand, just held me, glaring at Ari. I glared too.
"Word of advice," Ari said looking at me coldly. "Don't disobey me." I was still clutching my chest, Silver's arm secure around my shoulders.
"I'm fine," I whispered to him, trying to stand. He let go hesitantly and I sat back next to Rosa who was looking at me horrified. Slick was next to her looking at me as if he was confused, but I could see the horrified expression in his eyes. I just nodded to them and turned to Ari.
"We will be dropping you off in Albuquerque International. Thirteen, you will check in at the Plaza Hotel in Santa Fe."
"What no Five Star Hotel, no Hilton?" I spat sarcastically. "I'm disappointed Ari," I said. He ignored me, but I could see the vein pulsing from his forehead.
"You will check in under the name Kayla Reynolds."I raised an eyebrow, no way was I going enter under that name; I was going to enter under whatever name I felt like. Ari went on for about another hour of instructions, all of them memorized in Slick's head, I knew, he was the mastermind.
Finally, we were on a private jet. Not as swanky as the movies, but it was better than my room. I sat in the back, a dark corner. I was not in the mood to be social. Honestly, I am never in the socializing mood. Slick and Rosa played cards and drank soda – a delicacy to us mutants. Thankfully Ari stayed behind, but David was with us.
I'd grown up with David, but I didn't trust him, everyone else did, I didn't. Apparently I was just way more messed up than everyone else. David was average height, stocky, balding with red hair. He seemed completely normal, except for the fact that he had premonitions – could see the future, if you didn't know.
He was nice enough, but he had this odd thing in his eye where I didn't trust him. But that's just me, paranoid experiment with temper problems and too much muscle. I'm honestly surprised I wasn't labeled a Dreg after a few years, I never tried very hard and I couldn't do much special, except handle a sword and any other weapons.
Silver sat next to Rosa, pawing through a thick looking book. I leaned back in my chair, pulled up my legs, threw my arms around them and curled into a ball, hiding away from the world. My arm wasn't getting any better and it was actually bugging the crap out of me.
We landed in New Mexico after about four hours. I was last off the jet, not wanting to walk out and hunt down one of my own, better yet my little sister. Yea, you didn't know that? Rue was my baby sister. She looked nothing like me or Caleb though. She was a dark brunette with dark blue eyes. She's short and very talented; she could be the small, cute Rue one second and huge mountain lion the next, and then a tea cup. She was one of a kind, I guess it kind of ran in the family and skipped me. No one else could create illusions like Caleb and no one could even come close to Rue, but there were others like me, not even enhanced humans, but they could do what I do.
So, yep, now that that's out in the open, I'm very opposed to hunting down Rue, which is exactly why there is a plan in my head hatching. I will never hurt Rue, nor will I ever let anyone get a shot at it.