CHAPTER TWELVE

"Do you think it matters what brand of soup we get?" Patrick asked as he held two cans of New England Clam Chowder in his hands, weighing the two of them. "For the most part they taste the same."

"Yeah, but this one," she leaned forward and pointed to the can in his left hand. "Has low sodium, and I don't know about you, but I like having a lot of salt in my food." She smiled as she stood up straight, from where she was leaning on her cart. "Cholesterol and all that, it makes stuff taste better."

"It's so funny how people consider us healthy but we have the worst diet ever," Patrick commented as he put one of the soup cans back and started to toss a few more into the cart.

"That's what happens when you end up camping out more often than you are sleeping in a nice room." Rhuben reminded him.

Patrick smiled and nodded back, and then all of a sudden, he frowned and peered closer into the rows of soup, looking closely.

"Mate, last I checked, the soup is arranged by flavor." Rhuben lightly teased, noticing his stare. All laughter was set aside when Patrick motioned for her to be quiet. She moved over to his side and helped as he started to push soup cans out of the way. Once they moved enough of them, a set of angry looking eyes glared back at them.

"What the-"

"Back up!"

Rhuben grabbed her brother by the arm and jerked him backwards, the two of them crashing into the aisle of food behind them as the aisle of soup cans slowly started to tilt over. They winced as it loudly crashed to the ground. Some cans broke open and others rolled away. A man in a SWAT uniform stood across from them, holding onto a shield, slowly advancing towards them.

"This has to be a setup," Rhuben muttered under her breath as the two lay on the floor. "There weren't many other shoppers here and no one has come to see what the commotion was." She turned her head to the side, listening to Zack's voice along with a lower one. "Sounds like Zack's preoccupied as well."

"Who would have guessed that one day we would actually be fighting against 'the man'?" Patrick joked lightly.

"I don't want any trouble." The man said as he continued to move close to them.

Rhuben snorted as she and her brother got to their feet. "That's what they always say." She turned her head so her mouth was by Patrick's ear. "Even if we don't have our powers anymore, I'm sure that we can take him." She slowly clenched her hands into fists.

Beside her, Patrick did the same.

The two waited until he got close enough to them. "Up and over?" Rhuben suggested.

"Ladies first." Patrick replied.

When the man had moved his shield aside, thinking that they were going to submit to him, Rhuben and Patrick took the opportunity to bum-rush him. Using the cans that were in front of them, they stepped up onto them, and jumped up and over the man. Patrick kicked him in the back of the legs, causing the man to fall to his knees. Rhuben turned on her right foot and sent her left one into the man's side.

He let out a cry and turned his shield around to block each of their next attacks towards him. Rhuben and Patrick continued to fight him, trying to knock his shield away as it thwarted each and every one of their attempts to get to him. Frustrated, Rhuben locked eyes with Patrick and he nodded. Patrick slid onto his knees on the ground and then flipped onto his back. When the man moved the shield, Patrick grabbed it between him feet and pulled the shield out of his grasp and swung his legs up towards his head, letting go with his feet. The shield went flying and Patrick managed to get a kick into the man's chest as Rhuben quickly grabbed his head in both of her hands.

The man immediately went still.

"Don't think I don't know how to snap someone's neck." She hissed into his ear. She knew she wouldn't do it though; she couldn't intentionally hurt someone that hadn't hurt her first. In many ways, he was as innocent as they came, working under orders, trying to capture someone…something they couldn't understand. They didn't even know why at this point, but it was like UFOs and Aliens, it was covered up while people secretly worked on it. She tightened her grip, hoping to intimidate him even more.

"Now," Patrick did a kick-up back to his feet and then leaned over the man, holding onto the front of his shirt with his left hand, the fingers on his right hand twitching. "What do you want?"

"We just want to help you." The man said.

"Ha!" Patrick laughed. "The day that anyone wants to help us is the day I die."

"I wouldn't use those words," Rhuben said, lifting her gaze to look at her brother. "You know, just in case you jinx yourself or something. It's happened before." She then looked back down at the man. "Why is everyone following us?" The man didn't answer; he continued to look at Patrick. Rhuben dug her nails into the man's skin and he let out a cry. "What do you want from us?"

All of a sudden, a searing pain flashed through Rhuben's head. It hurt so bad that she immediately let go of the man and backed up a few steps, holding onto her head. It felt like it was splitting in two. She recognized the feeling, but she never got used to it. The feeling of the darkness coming back was unbearable, the screams that she could hear in her head, the pain and despair that she could feel. It made her wonder how she was ever strong enough to control it, but she was always able to. Now it seemed like it was worse.

Patrick immediately noticed her distress and started to say soothing words of comfort to his older sister, knowing that he couldn't physically do anything to help her. "Hold on, Sis." He said breathlessly. "I know you can fight it, you always do."

Rhuben curled into the fetal position, her hands still on the sides of her head, whimpers coming out through her clenched teeth. Her eyes were squeezed shut, she was breathing heavily. Open your eyes, Rhuben told herself. Be brave. Be brave. See it, face it, fight it. But the darkness was in her skull, pushing and prodding, peeking inside her secrets, laughing at her pathetic resistance. And yet, she opened her eyes. A lifelong habit of defiance gave her the strength.

As she stood up, she could feel her strength returning to her. That familiar feeling of when she used to have her powers. Patrick smiled a little when he noticed his sister getting up. Rhuben's hands glowed purple as she slowly walked over to the man.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Rhuben and Patrick turned to see another man dressed in SWAT gear, but he was holding a gun that was pointed directly at Patrick's heart. The younger boy froze. "I know that you can't move fast enough to race a gun, one step and he'll be dead."

Patrick let go of the first man's shirt and took a step back, holding his hands up.

Rhuben's hands stopped glowing as she held hers up as well.

Zack jumped backwards, giving himself some space as the man holding the pipe, lifted the object from the tomatoes and shook it so the seeds and juice went flying off. Zack took another step backwards when he noticed the man turn his way. He needed the space to be sure that he had room to move as fast as he needed to, even if he didn't have his powers, he still knew how to fight. Things were different now, except for those at WingzCorp; they had never been attacked in broad daylight like this before.

And this man looked like a normal person that Zack would walk by on the sidewalk. So something else was going on. By the looks it, it wasn't going to be anything good.

"You're faster than I thought, Zack." The man said as he placed his hand on the pole and slid it down its surface, wiping the rest of the juice off.

Zack's hands fell a little from the position that he had them close by his face. The man knew his name? His eyebrows furrowed a little as he instinctively took another step back. Even though they were on their own in the produce section, he couldn't help but feel that he had his back against a wall. Distantly, he could hear the sounds of a struggle and knew that Rhuben and Patrick had been attacked as well. The man must have noticed Zack's confusion and surprise, for he slowly smiled, revealing pearly white teeth. Although one was gold.

"Yeah, we know everything about you." He said, his smile turning malicious. "We know that you lived in the Tipton Hotel that you lived on and worked on the SS Tipton, we know that your parents abandoned you." Zack's fingernails dug into his palms, his hands started to shake. "We know a lot."

"Who's we?" Zack asked, stalling for time.

"You'll figure it out soon." The man replied. He twirled the pole in his hand. "Let's talk first."

"I don't want to talk to you." Zack spat. He flinched, as the man swung the pipe towards him. Thankfully, he flinched backwards or else his face would have been smacked with the metal pole. He was sure that his jaw would have broken or he would have had some teeth knocked out if he moved the other way.

"Hasn't anyone ever told you to respect their elders?"

"I don't respect anyone," Zack replied flippantly. "Never have, probably never will. I don't know, according to my brother, I don't' really listen to anyone other than myself, so." He shrugged.

"Right your brother, Cody." The man nodded. "Name's Diamond, by the way."

"I didn't ask for your name." Zack pointed out.

"No, but you're going to remember it."

Diamond swung to hit him again and Zack reached out and grabbed the handle of a shopping cart that was next to him. It was filled with jugs of milk and tubs of ice-cream so it didn't move as quickly as he wanted it to, but it was still as effective as he needed it to be. Using as much strength as he could muster, Zack swung the shopping cart around and hit Diamond in the side, just as he brought the pipe down. There was a loud metal clang and Zack's arms shook with the recoil of the metal pipe hitting the cart. Diamond took the opportunity to push the cart backward into Zack's stomach, knocking the wind out of him.

Zack was immediately knocked to the floor and pinned down by Diamond's boot on his chest. He wasn't an idiot; he knew when he was defeated. Zack lay there on the ground, struggling to draw in breath. Above him, he watched as Diamond said something into a walkie-talkie. A few moments later, Rhuben and Patrick were standing by Zack's side. Zack was forced to his feet and Diamond wrapped his arm around his neck, turning him to face Rhuben and Patrick. The two were glaring, breathing heavily through their noses. Zack could tell that they had fought long and hard, to get away, but knew when to give up as well. He studied the men that were holding onto the two of them.

They were in full on SWAT gear.

Zack's gaze lowered to the ground as he felt the fight slide out of him. Things really were as bad as they had thought. Worse even. Diamond tightened his grip around Zack's neck and Zack started to take in some breaths through his nose, feeling his throat getting constricted.

"Now, just so these two don't get any ideas," Diamond shifted and moved his free arm around, Zack couldn't see what he was doing, but he broke out in a cold sweat, knowing that it wasn't good. "Here's what's going to happen to you," he was now speaking to Rhuben and Patrick. "If you try to get away." Out of the corner of his eye, Zack spotted something black in Diamond's hand. As he brought it down, his heart started to thud against his chest so hard it made him feel sick, he knew what was coming.

Never in a million years did he think it would happen, but he knew what was coming.

Diamond pressed the muzzle of the gun to Zack's knee.

"No!" Rhuben yelled.

The explosion was shocking. The pain, at first, didn't register. But Zack collapsed. He fell on his side like a felled tree. The leg, blown half off, buckled and twisted beneath him.

And then came the pain.

Zack let out the loudest scream. He screamed so hard that his throat turned raw and burned. His eyes were squeezed tightly, tears rolling down his face. He reached his hands down to grab onto his leg, but the twinge of pain sent shockwaves to his brain that caused him to pass out almost immediately.

…

..

.

"Zack?"

"Zack, wake up!"

"C'mon, you're going to be ok."

"Zack."

Zack's eyes fluttered open.

"Oh good," Cody gave him a tight hug. "You're awake." He leaned back and squeezed Zack on the shoulder, tears in his eyes. He willed them to go away, his brother was safe, he was ok, and he wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. Not if he had anything to say about it. Zack's eyes drifted over to Cody and he blinked once, giving his younger brother a soft smile before he closed them once more.

"Are you ok?" Bailey asked from Cody's side, her hands were clasped in front of her and her face was white.

As Zack opened his eyes once more, the first thing he noticed was that all of his friends' faces were hovering over his, all looking down at him in concern. The second thing he noticed was that he was in a bed, constricted by the sheets that were tightly tucked around him. The third thing that he noticed was that he didn't feel any pain. He slowly reached down to touch his knee, thinking that he would find his leg to be completely gone, but was relieved and shocked to feel that it was still there, completely intact. There was no blood and there were no bones sticking out through his skin.

Zack sat up quickly and threw back the covers on the bed, running his hands up and down his knee, pushing on it, letting out a somewhat crazy laugh of relief.

"We didn't think that you were going to be able to keep your leg." Sydney commented from where he sat at the end of the bed, watching him carefully. "We didn't think that we would be able to heal it without mine or Cody's powers." He added.

"Then what happened?" Zack asked. His voice was hoarse from how loud he screamed. He swallowed thickly and felt a bit of pain in the back of his throat.

"You didn't think that all of the research I had been doing on you guys was for my own entertainment did you?" Christian placed a hand on Zack's shoulder, squeezing it gently. "Core and I, whenever we gave you guys shots or whatever, that would be too risky to get at the doctor's, we would also take some of your blood as well."

"Yeah," Zack nodded.

"When we got your guys' blood, we would take some of the elemental, well, DNA isn't the right word but it's the best one, and used it to create healing properties." Christian pulled a small vial out of his pocket. It was empty, obviously having been used on Zack's knee. "For gashes and stuff, you would only need to use a few drops, but that's only when you're an elemental. Since you're human now and you'd been shot…we had to use the whole thing."

"How did we…" Zack turned to Rhuben and Patrick, who were sitting on the floor. "What happened? How did we get out?"

"I'll explain," Noah said as he moved to Zack's side. "You guys went to the store to get some food, and then you were attacked by some government officials. Two worked for the SWAT Team and another ne worked for the CIA."

"That would explain why he had the gun." Zack commented, shaking his head.

"What Christian didn't realize was that because he sent you to a smaller store, instead of the bigger grocery chain where you could easily be recognized, he would be sending you into a trap." Noah moved his hair from his face as he looked directly into Zack's eyes, hoping that he would understand the severity of their situation. "It was all a set-up. The government knew that we would be trying to stay out of the spotlight for a while. So they took up a smaller grocery store that had been closed down for months and then opened it to make it seem like it was still thriving, to lure us in. Well, it worked. As soon as you guys went in there, they tried to capture you, possibly using you guys to lure them back here to get to the rest of us."

"Thank God that shield that was put up is still working," Crystal said, nervously cracking her knuckles as she peered out the window that she was standing in front of. She carefully put the curtain back in place before turning back around. "Unfortunately, without one of us being able to produce the shield," she motioned to Sydney, who looked annoyed. "We don't know how much longer it's going to be up."

"Then how did we get out?" Zack asked, bringing a hand up to rub his face. His skin was damp with sweat as well as the sheets around him that were starting to stick to his body.

"Tape sensed that you guys were in danger," Riley said as Tapeworm nodded. "He decided to go, instead of Crys, because the government, potentially, has her picture. You remember the helicopter that was around when you guys were on the roof of the Tipton?" Zack nodded. "We think it may have been a news copter, so we couldn't send her out." She smiled a little. "They got outnumbered pretty quickly when Ursa came through the door. They got you back here as fast as they could."

"Then Uncle Christian healed you." Patrick added.

Zack nodded quietly, everything coming back to him. The fear that he felt when Diamond attacked him. He felt so…vulnerable. He hadn't felt that way in so long he didn't know what it really felt like anymore. He hated the feeling and knew that he didn't want to ever experience it again. When they first lost their powers, and the few months afterwards, it didn't even faze him. But getting hurt that badly really shocked his brain.

"We have to get out of Boston." Zack decided, pushing back the sheets on the bed. He swung his legs over to the side and moved to get up, but Cody held onto his arm, keeping him back.

"Zack, you have to get some rest." Cody said firmly, making sure that he was sitting still.

"He's right," Bailey agreed. "If you don't at least allow your body a day's rest, then you won't be back up to the physical shape that you were before. You might cause even more damage to your body."

Zack rolled his eyes. "I've accumulated enough damage to my body to last a lifetime; one more injury isn't going to kill me."

Cody's eyes hardened and he continued to keep his hand on Zack's arm. Zack glared back at him, hoping that it would get Cody to move. But Cody stood his ground. The others fell silent as the two continued to stare at each other, each one trying to assert their dominance over their twin. Zack's shoulders finally slumped and he scowled as he looked away. Cody took his hand off of his brother's arm and took a step back, crossing his arms over his chest.

"I still say that we should get out of here when we can." Zack said under his breath.

"I can't do that," Tapeworm said suddenly. "What am I supposed to tell my parents?" He frowned. "They're all that I have left, I can't be away from them and not tell them what's going on for that long. They know that we're not at the SS Tipton so it has to be something else. What other lie do you think I can tell that they'll believe?"

"Better question," Rhuben crossed her arms over her chest. "Where are we supposed to go?"

"Well, we may not have to leave Boston completely." Core spoke up. "We could stay somewhere that's always moving, but is in the vicinity. I designed it for that reason."

A/N: Ah, yes, the violence starts. Now, the fact that DeathLiger hasn't come back yet doesn't mean that Gattaca or the Darkness is controlling him. I just thought that I should put that out there before anyone jumps to that conclusion. It's important that you know that. Also, there's a reason that Rhuben hasn't mentioned getting her powers back yet.

I hope you guys liked this chapter.

The next one will be back with the people in WingzCorp.

Cheers,

-Riles