The Hub is dead silent. Doctors, unarmed agents, and analysts all stare at the newcomer. No one responds to her question, and for that I am thankful.
"I will not hesitate to shoot every last one of you, one by one, if you do not answer me. Where are the children?" The young woman repeats, pulling out a pistol. When still no one speaks, she aims at a nearby nurse and fires, instantaneously killing the unarmed woman. Several people cry out, and Kasper lets out a muffled whimper.
"Who's next?" The woman asks, waving her gun around.
Another silence. Right before I am sure someone else is going to get shot, Dante does the unthinkable. He stands up from his crouch in our hiding place and walks to the center of the room. Before I even know what I'm doing, I follow after him. I hear Kaishi and Kasper get up behind me. I only hope that Liam has the sense to join them.
We stand in a line, facing down the woman.
"So eager to die, are we? Mr. A picked out a suicidal bunch!" The woman laughs.
"No one else is dying today. Actually, I take that back. You are going to die today for hurting our people, then no one else is dying today," Dante spits at her in his own unique, witty way.
The woman gives a serpentine smile that sends chills up my spine. "You have fire in you! Too bad I'm going to have to crush it. Now we can do this the easy way, or we can do this the hard way. Either you all can come with me right now, and nobody else needs to get hurt; or you can resist, in which case we will beat you into submission and kill everyone in this base. Your choice." As the woman speaks, what I am assuming are her soldiers file into the Hub behind her and aim their weapons straight at our pathetic line.
"I don't really like either of those options. Maybe if you came by and asked nicely, I would feel much more obliged to come with you, but considering you've killed so many innocent people..." Dante trails off.
"You know, I really like you kid. Brave, buff, and hot; what's there for a girl not to like? It's a shame that you're going to have to watch all of your pathetic friends die around you. Fire at will," the woman commands, nodding to the masked soldiers.
The room suddenly erupts into bright light. I can feel the heat of the blast coming from my right side, from Dante. The woman appears to dodge the blast just in time, but her friends aren't so lucky. Two of the armored soldiers are directly hit. They erupt into charred flesh and boiling blood, splashing onto their allies. Those splashed by the blood scream in horror, drop their guns, and wipe themselves off. Those who aren't start firing at us. I dive behind one of the overturned steel medicine carts. The others find similar cover.
It seems that Kasper sees this chaos as an opportunity to attack. She crushes one of the men's guns with her gravity-altering powers, diminishing the weapon to scrap metal and bolts. Liam fires a few rounds from his own pistol, and he screams curses at the enemy, growing more enraged by the second.
I try to figure out my my own pistol, but remembering Comrade's instructions at a time like this is near impossible, especially with my hands shaking so badly. Instead I try to focus on my own powers. Work! Work dammit! What use are powers when you can't even control when you use them?
Dante lets out another blast, but I can tell that he has lost control. Blinding yellow plasma shoots from the boy's hands without aim or accuracy, destroying anything or anyone in it's path.
More gunmen stream into the room, and I hear bullets thwack dangerously close to my hiding place.
Kaishi fires into the enemy lines with extreme precision, and I'm starting to wonder if him being blind was just some sick joke to fool the new guy. Kasper throws a few men against the wall, but she's fading fast, panting and red faced, her hair sticking out every which way.
Work. Shoot. Go? Fear? Come on! I scream at myself. I'm being totally useless, and I know I need to help my new friends or we're all screwed.
Kasper lets out a blood-curdling scream. It is the most heart-wrenching, most pitiful noise I have ever heard. Dante screams after her "Kasper!"
His voice is filled with anguish.
I snap.
I stand up from my cover, and all gunfire ceases. All noise stops. All movement slows. I'm in control. The armored men scream, howl, grunt. Some claw at their helmets or masks.
"The bugs! They're inside my armor! They're in my skin!"
"M-Maria? I left you for dead..."
"Stay away from my girls! Why?"
"It burns!
"Shut up! Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up..."
As the soldiers go mad with fear, I can't help but smile. This is power.
True
Power.
I press the mental assault on the men who hurt my friends, reveling in their absolute terror, the feeling of their minds snapping under the weight of their own worst fears.
Dante is crying.
That single, silent, terrible sound pulls me out of whatever just possessed me. I slump to my knees, completely drained. My arms are shaking and my head is absolutely killing me. Something warm drips down over my mouth. I wipe it with a finger. Blood; my nose is bleeding. I can't focus on that now. Something is terribly wrong.
Dante is crying.
I make sure we aren't in immediate danger. We aren't. Most of the attacking soldiers have fled, or else are still on the ground hugging their arms to their bodies and rocking back and forth. Some whimper, some mumble over and over to themselves. Some are perfectly still, most likely dead.
I force myself to my feet despite the pain. I almost fall back over from the absolute dizziness that barrages my senses, but I make myself take a step. Then another. And another. Liam helps a few of the analysts and injured agents tie up our attackers with whatever they find lying around: belts, chords, wires. They won't be going anywhere anytime soon.
Dante is kneeling with his back to me. Terrible sobs wrack his body, but his cries are breathy and silent. I don't know how I possibly heard them over the screams of my... victims.
Kaishi kneels across from his friend. He looks up at me as I approach, but his eyes don't focus on me, or anything around me. He is actually blind.
"Kasper," Kaishi mouths to me.
Then I notice her, laying between the two boys. Her hair is splayed out behind her head like a pool of blood. Dante cradles one of her arms in his lap, the other lays by her side. I don't see anything wrong with her until I'm right above her. The left side of her ribcage down to her hip has been badly seared. The flesh is red and angry, covered in blisters.
"I did this... I knew it was... going to happen. I always hurt people, always..." Dante says between sobs.
I'm choking up myself, but I try to take initiative and call some form of medical care.
"Help!" I try to call, but my voice comes out a hoarse squeak. I clear my throat and try again. "Help! Kasper's burnt badly," I force myself to scream.
The doctors seem to have their hands full, but a middle aged man in blue scrubs makes his way over to us. When he sees Kasper, he takes in a sharp breath. He calls over another nurse, and they hoist the small teen onto a gurney. Dante refuses to leave her side, despite being ordered by the doctors to leave them alone so they could operate as quickly as possible.
Once I'm certain that Kasper is in good hands, I slump down in a corner at the far end of the Hub.
What did I do? What did I do? What the hell did I just do?
How can I ever use a power like that again?
How can I not?
XxXxXxXxX
Not so much of a cliffhanger this time, but definitely not any closure! I'm sorry if my action scenes are kinda corny, but I hope this chapter was semi-decent. I feel so bad torturing Dante and Kasper like this, but I love their relationship just as much as I'm sure you guys do, so... Also, we will be learning more about Liam and Comrade in the next few chapters, as well as our mystery woman, so keep your eyes open. Again, I love reviews, and if you haven't been reviewing but you have a character in this story, I would love to hear from you (though I will never, ever, require my readers to review to have a character in my story). Also sorry for the shorter length of the chapter, but I've been working at my church's vacation Bible school... Also, while it may not always seem like it, I do have a well mapped out plan for this story, and this was in it haha. So, yeah, thanks for reading!