CHAPTER NINETEEN
Bailey closed her mouth and silenced a whimper that threatened to come out. She crouched down and felt along her right ankle, feeling the loose skin and the blood that seeped down into her sock. She had been badly scratched by a branch that she didn't see. It had gotten caught in front of her left leg and behind her right leg and when she moved forward, it had drawn a line across her skin.
"Are you ok?" Tapeworm asked in a hushed whisper. He crouched along beside her and felt the wound. "It's not that bad."
"Yeah, but it hurts," Bailey replied. She pushed herself to her feet and looked about twenty feet in front of her (the only time she was grateful for her 20/20 vision, as when she was a kid she wanted glasses) and saw Core still walking stealthily ahead of her and Tapeworm.
He didn't know that they were following him.
"How much longer do you think he's going to go?" Bailey asked as she and Tapeworm started walking again. "I thought that he was going to go to the government but…we're still in Boston."
"He may have figured that there was another place to look at before he went to DC," Tapeworm replied. He then paused. "Unless he's going to…where the army stays when they were in Boston." He suddenly stopped, throwing his arm out and halting Bailey's steps. He licked his lips. "You know how Boston is being overrun with the army and stuff, trying to get footage of us around?"
Bailey nodded.
"They have to have a place to stay, and the only place that I can think of that they could have taken over, with the evacuation that happened before, is the Massachusetts State House."
Bailey slowly nodded. It made sense. It was big, it held a sense of political power, and it was probably the last place that anyone (who knew about what was going on) would look for a stone that held so much power it could probably wipe the United States off the face of the Earth. That's probably where they had come from when the attacked Rhuben, Zack, and Patrick. If there was any place besides DC that was held as a headquarters for them, it would be the State House. Especially because it was where Core was staying and he was the one that had started the whole thing by hacking into the government in the first place.
"That must be where we're going," Bailey agreed.
"We should get there first," Tapeworm said, backing up a few paces. "At this point, I don't care whether or not Core finds the Stone; we need to check it out to see what we're dealing with." He held out an arm. "Climb on."
Bailey looked at him incredulously. "Climb on, what?" she questioned.
"Climb on my back," Tapeworm said patiently. When Bailey didn't move, he continued. "Ursa is a bear, I'm sure that we can't get anywhere near the State House without anyone seeing a bear. Then we'd have more cameras following us than we can afford, especially since we don't know what happened to the footage with Dricer. I can get there faster by running than I can on Ursa."
Bailey continued to hesitate.
"I'm not going to let you fall off," Tapeworm reassured her.
"Ok," Bailey walked over to him with a slight limp. "If you're sure." She grabbed onto his shoulders and jumped up onto his back. She then wrapped her arms around his neck, tight enough so that she would stay on, but not so that he couldn't breathe. She then wrapped her legs around his waist, holding on as tightly as she possibly could.
"Ready?" Tapeworm asked.
"Ready," Bailey replied.
The words barely got out of Bailey's mouth before Tapeworm started running. She could hear nothing but a hurricane wind in her ears. She could feel nothing but the manic bouncing against Tapeworm's back, rattling up through every bone in her body. That and Tapeworm's hands on her legs, holding onto her, pushing her, again and again grabbing her, righting her, guiding her on a ride that made the craziest roller coaster Bailey had ever experienced look like a quiet stroll.
Up a road.
Down the highway, slaloming through abandoned or moving cars. Then a blistering few seconds of tearing through Boston. A turn so sharp that Tapeworm lost his grip and she was airborne; flying through the air. Tapeworm quickly skidded to a stop and turned back, racing in front of her, grabbing onto her arms, and pulling her into his chest. Bailey couldn't believe that she didn't get the wind knocked out of her. There was a blur and a sudden, shocking, gut-wrenching stop.
She was pretty sure she had been screaming the whole time.
"We're here," Tapeworm said.
"Good," Bailey replied.
Tapeworm slowly let her down to her feet. Once she was standing, Bailey could feel her whole body shaking. She walked over to the bushes that sat in front of the State House, leaned over and promptly threw up. Her body felt horrible. How could the others stand doing that for so long? Tapeworm chuckled at Bailey's plight before she regained her composure and walked back over to him.
"It's not that funny," she muttered, walking by him.
The two went around the side of the building, looking for a way in that wouldn't be too obvious. Bailey was partially surprised that there wasn't anyone guarding the outside of the place. But they probably didn't expect a lot of people to try and break in, either. She felt Tapeworm nudge her arm and walked over to him. He pointed up and she tilted her head back and looked up towards the top of the building. Tapeworm then held his hand out, and his hands glowed green. Vines appeared, coming out of his wrists. When it got long enough, he moved his right arm up and moved it back and then forward, like he was throwing something. The vine reached the done at the top of the building and wrapped around the point. Tapeworm then used the other vine to wrap around Bailey's waist.
"Ursa," Tapeworm whispered.
Tapeworm's guardian appeared at his side and Tapeworm climbed onto his back, pulling Bailey on behind him, making sure that she didn't fall off. With a slight nod of his head, Ursa started to climb the side of the building. Bailey looked down as he climbed; the higher they went the more of the city that she could see. The bright lights and the cars that passed by, it reminded her of when she was back in Kettlecorn and how much she wanted to go and travel the world. Then she got on the SS Tipton and met Zack and Cody. Honestly, part of her hated the fact that she met them; she wouldn't be in constant danger and would probably be off at college at that point, but a greater part of her was glad. It showed her that there was much more to the world than a small farming town that most people never heard of.
Once they reached the top of the building, Bailey went over to the edge and looked down. It seemed that no one had noticed their excursion to the top of the building. No alarms had gone off either, so that was good.
"Alright, now we just have to get in," Tapeworm said under his breath. "Of course with all little noise as possible."
"With us, that's impossible," Bailey reminded him. She went over to the glass that made up part of the sun roof and produced a gun from her pocket. She used the butt of the gun to knock out the glass. The two of them then waited for a few moments, waiting for a shout or a cry that let them know that they had been caught.
But nothing came.
"Ok, I think you can go, Master Tapeworm," Ursa said. In a bright flash, he turned into his small form. "It doesn't seem like anyone is up here right now."
"Got it," Tapeworm held his arms out and vines twisted their way to the floor below. "Bailey, you go first."
Bailey nodded and slid over to the hole. She carefully swung her leg over to the side, making sure no left over glass would stick her, and then used one hand to grab onto the vines. She tested it, making sure that Tapeworm could hold her weight, though she knew that she probably felt like a feather to his amount of power, and then leaned forward, wrapping her other hand around it. She swung her body forward onto the vines before carefully starting to lower herself the 100-feet to the ground. Once she touched the floor and held up her hand in a thumbs-up to Tapeworm, Ursa climbed onto Tapeworm's shoulder and he lowered the two of them carefully to the ground.
"That was too easy," Tapeworm muttered to himself. "Nothing's ever this easy for us." He shook his head as the sound of the cloaked figure in his dream came back to him. "If you leave I will find you. If you die I will follow you. You're not going to get rid of me."
Maybe being there, searching for the stone, could help him figure out the voice that he kept hearing. Maybe something will actually be explained enough for them to understand. Maybe things would finally get better for them.
Tapeworm nearly snorted out loud at the idea.
"Where do you think we should look first?" Bailey asked.
Her questioned was answered when they heard footsteps coming their way. Bailey and Tapeworm looked around for a place to hide. The room they were in was as open as they could see and there weren't many tables or desks that they could hide under or behind.
At the last second, they could hear the voices fading away, as if they had been passed by. Tapeworm and Bailey went after them as quietly as they could. They ducked back behind a corner when a man and a woman had walked into what looked like an office. The light was on and they could hear numerous voices inside. Bailey slowly crept forward and Tapeworm followed her, looking over their shoulder to be sure that they weren't going to be caught.
As soon as the two reached the door, they could hear the woman talking.
"I'm telling you, these people are freaks. There are wild animals that usually don't live around here running around Boston. And it might not only be Boston, word from Diamond is that they're all over the world."
"If that's the truth," a gruff voice responded. "How come we haven't seen any other than the ones that we're going after?"
"Because they're good at hiding things, these kids…their luck ran out. They can't seem to stay out of trouble."
"As soon as we find Nathan Reeves, then we can figure out the cause of all of this and contain it, before any more innocent people get hurt."
"Well, luck has it that Diamond was able to nab some of them, the two blondes and some others. The other ones got away. They're searching the facility now for some evidence that can be used against them."
Bailey's heart leapt into her throat. Behind her, she could hear Tapeworm stifle a gasp. She knew what the two of them were thinking. Their friends had been caught while they had gone off searching for Core. Bailey closed her eyes, resting her head against the wall. Geneva and Gattaca might have been able to help them if she hadn't left.
"All things happen for a reason, Bailey," their voices responded to her doubts.
Tapeworm grabbed onto Bailey's arm and pulled her back away from the door. They ducked down another corridor. After they were sure that they were alone, Tapeworm finally spoke. "Bailey, before you think it, none of this is our fault. We didn't know that they were going to be caught and they didn't know it either. You heard what they said, some of them got away."
"But Zack and Cody got caught," Bailey reminded him. "You know that's the worst thing that could have happened. They're the strongest ones; they're the ones that are going to be tested on first."
"You don't know that," Tapeworm said evenly. "They might be held away from the others for questioning, they don't have their powers right now, so there's no proof of anything."
"With the footage that they may have, it's just as bad," Bailey remarked, her hand swinging at her side. Tapeworm watched her movements, his eyes lowering to the gun that was still in her hand.
"Where'd you get that?" Tapeworm asked, pointing to the object.
"Syd, I think it's time that we try your invention." Noah commented to his brother, holding out his hand. Sydney looked at him for a minute and then nodded before putting down Crystal's laptop and pulling a gun from his back pocket. He went to hand it to Patrick, but Noah grabbed it from him. "I think that if we're going to use your new Element Gun, its best if Patrick isn't the one to use it." He explained and then took a small step back. "Shield your eyes; we don't know if this is going to work." He warned and lifted the gun.
After taking a deep breath, he fired it.
There was a flash of blue light and the sound of something shattering.
"Sydney's element gun," Bailey explained quickly. "I figured that I was going to need some sort of protection if Geneva's and Gattaca's powers fail, or if you can't use yours." She shrugged. "I figured if it was enough to shatter an elemental barrier, what could it do to a human?"
"I just hope that you're never going to need it," Tapeworm said grimly.
Wham!
Wham!
Wham!
Cody's eyes opened slowly. He thought that the slamming sound was just the sound of his blood thumping in his head, but it was a lot closer than he expected. Cody rolled off of the bed that he was lying on and went over to the bars on his cell. He looked across from him and saw that Zack had heard the noise and was waking up as well. The two exchanged identical glances. Cody then went to the further part of his cell and pressed his face against it, trying to angle his head to that he could see what was going on.
From his vantage point, he could see a cell a bit further down. Every now and then, he could see something shoot out and strike the bars on the cell, some of them were already bent, letting him know that whatever it was had been at hit for a while. It wasn't until Cody felt the coldness of the room, in comparison to how warm it had been before, did he finally realize who it was.
"Crys, what are you doing?" he called.
The hammering sound stopped. "What does it look like?" she shot back. "I'm trying to get out of here." There was a lengthy pause. "Wherever here is," she added quietly.
"Is anyone else with you?" Zack asked.
"Aaron's with me," Crystal replied. "I see Patrick sitting over there," there was a scraping sound, as if she moved to the other side of her cell. "I'm not sure about anyone else though. I don't know who got away and who didn't."
"Is Patrick awake?" Cody asked.
"He can sleep through anything," Aaron's little voice replied.
Wham! Wham! Wham!
The sound came I a rapid-fire succession, causing Cody to put his hands over his ears. Everything echoed down where they were. It made each sound of the bars being hit move through his body and rattle his teeth.
"Alright," Crystal said after a minute. "I think I got it now." There was a low cracking sound and then one more wham. Then there was the sound of metal clattering against the ground. Crystal then appeared in Zack's and Cody's view, shaking out her right hand, slush falling to the ground.
Aaron stood by her side, his hands out, as if he was trying to get a vision of the room in his head, through the stale air that moved around the room.
"You guys ok?" She asked.
"As good as we can be," Zack replied, his voice sounding hollow.
Crystal noticed and turned to him with a look of concern on her face, but Zack looked away from her. Cody could tell that he was still thinking about the man whose head that he had blown up. Cody couldn't stop thinking to it either. Or what Zack had said before. If their powers were coming back and they were that strong now…who knew what would happen if they lost control or if they got to the stone.
Core and Christian had warned them; whoever had the stone could go drunk with power. Cody used to believe that none of them would be the kind of people that would fall for that sort of thing. But he didn't know for sure anymore.
"Get us out of here," Cody said, lowering his voice, in case anyone was around them.
"Alright," Crystal held up her right hand; it glowed a bright blue as it slowly started to become encrusted in ice. "But it might take a while."
"Stop," Zack hissed. "The sound of you wailing on it may have alerted some people. Someone may be coming down here as we speak."
"But we don't k now how much time we have," Cody reminded him. "If there is anyone else around; like Noah or Sydney, we have to find them. We need to get out of here quick before we give them the chance to come."
Crystal pulled her fist back, getting ready.
"Don't," Zack continued. "They might be armed."
Crystal dropped her hand, frustrated. "Oh, will you guys just make up your minds, please?!" she snapped. She shielded her face as there was a sudden flash of bright, white light. When she lowered her arms, Zack, Cody, and Patrick were out of their cells, looking confused. "How'd you do that?" she asked.
"It wasn't me," Zack replied, shaking his head.
"None of our powers are associated with the color white," Cody replied.
"Dude," Patrick rubbed his eyes, his movement having waked him up, and turned to Aaron, who was quietly standing by Crystal's side. "I think it was Aaron." His youngest cousin turned to Patrick at the sound of his voice.
"But Aaron's not an elemental," Crystal protested.
"Stranger things have happened," Patrick replied. "I mean, take a look at Bailey."
"He's got a point," Zack reminded her.
"We don't have time to talk about this," Cody turned on his heel and started to walk off in a random direction. "We have to find the others and figure out where we are and we have to do it now."
A/N: Well, it took me forever to get this updated, but I'm glad I finally did. Crystal, Rhu, and I were talking and we had gotten more ideas for this story,Anomaly, and Rhu's future Suite Life fic so there's lots of good stuff to come.
I'll update again soon.
Cheers,
-Riles