Chapter Sixteen:

A Running Jump

Kayce Grey

Mina placed her hands on the table and stared me right in the eye. Everything about her seemed strained recently, and she definitely looked tired, but the fire in her eyes hadn't died out. I couldn't help but admire her tenacity as a leader.

"Come again?" she said, the hope in her voice suddenly making me feel pretty proud of my plan.

"We attack Bishop and shut down the force field," I repeated, "and get the hell outta here. From what I've seen around the campus, mixed with the knowledge of a few second and third-years, there're tons of ways to get to the main building. We have to exploit that, and get a large team to infiltrate and destroy that force field for good."

"And what's the catch?" Ellie asked as she crossed her arms over her chest. "You're making it sound too easy."

"All plans sound easy," I told her, "but you're right—there's a catch."

"Knew it."

I cleared my throat and gently placed my hands on the table, and looked the Paragons in the eye. "The team that goes… Well, to say the least, it's practically a suicide mission. The generator is at the top floor of the main hall, which is no doubt where Bishop's decided to make his home. On top of that, he has an army of rogue students who're gonna try to kill us all on sight, and he has the teachers held captive somewhere inside." I tapped my fingers on the table. "If we can somehow free the teachers and get them to tell us the weak spot on the generator, then our problems will go down tenfold. Unfortunately, that still leaves us to deal with Bishop and his army."

"We took out a lot of 'em," Mina pointed-out. "They've got to be recovering from their losses too."

"That's what I'm countin' on." I stood up straight and put my hands on my hips. "To start, I'm volunteering. I'm not forcing anyone to join-up; I'm only taking volunteers. And out of them, only those who know the danger. And anyway, people always need someone to take a first step before they take a running leap."

Mina snapped her head up. "Then I'm goin' with ya. I can't have you gettin' lost as soon as you leave the town."

"Me too," Ellie said quickly. "Someone's gotta keep the ball-cruncher in line."

I grinned. "Then that's three. Hopefully, more will volunteer."

"I'll get on the intercom," Mina offered. "I'll let everyone know, and tell whoever wants to join-up to meet us in the lobby in two hours. That seems like enough time to decide if you want to risk your life or not, right?"

Ellie shook her head, not in disagreement, but rather as if she'd never be able to get her leader.

"It's settled then," Mina exclaimed, slapping her hands together excitedly. "Well, I'll go get it done then!"

I sighed as she left, feeling as if a great weight had been lifted from my chest. I was grateful that Ellie had left as well without asking me why I was so relieved. I was practically ecstatic that they'd volunteered. Knowing they were on my side just brought our survival up by about a million points.

I decided to take a walk outside by the barrier. I needed a moment to myself, plus I needed to practice trying to touch things with my right arm and know it was moving. I found a building a little farther from the hospital and touched it, then closed my eyes and tried to memorize how it felt. For a second, I thought I was moving my hand across its rough surface, but when I opened my eyes I saw that my hand was in the same place.

"Damn…" I muttered. "Well, that's inconvenient. If I'm gonna fire a gun or punch someone, I should be able to know I'm doing it… Don't wanna find myself accidentally choking someone on my side because they're pissing me off…"

I heard a bark suddenly, and it made me jump about ten feet in the air. After I'd calmed my racing heart, I dared to turn and look. It was a sleek black wolf/dog thing, and it was just sitting a few paces away from me.

My first thought?

Oh my God! It's a puppy!

My second?

It's… so… cute!

(I dunno why, but I find big dogs absolutely adorable. It's my Achilles Heel.)

I patted my hand against my thigh. "Here, puppy! C'mon!"

(May I also note that this was a full-grown animal, and not, in fact, a puppy? Like I said, Achilles Heel.)

The dog looked confused as it padded up to me, but it seemed to be trying to ignore the looks of adoration I was giving it. It slipped its head underneath my right hand and seemed to smile a bit.

"Aw… You're a cutie, aren't you?" I asked in a completely ridiculous, animal-lover voice. "Aren't you?"

"Please, please, please don't talk to me like that."

I jumped, pulling my hand back and staring incredulously. "D-Did you just talk?"

"No, you read my mind. I figured that that'd be one of your powers, since you kept getting uncomfortable whenever someone walked by you. Animals can't talk."

I blinked and sat on the ground. "Nicholas?"

The dog/wolf tilted its head to the side. "What? Wasn't it obvious? I mean, all of those puns that James kept dropping…"

I snapped my fingers in realization. "So you're a beast Conduit!"

"Duh."

I cleared my throat. "Um… about that cutie comment earlier…"

"I won't tell if you don't."

"Gotcha." I looked around to see if anyone was watching. "So… did you just go for a stroll or somethin'?"

"Well," he said, pawing at the ground, "I realized that I hadn't gone for a run in a while, so I just decided to go out for a bit. Then I saw you, and I figured we could walk together. I was just about to turn back, actually."

"Should I turn around?" I asked. "I mean, are you gonna be—?"

"Naked? God no! Geez, I don't tear outta my clothes or anything! You watch too many horror movies…" Nicholas shook his furry head. "I'm fully clothed under here. Don't ask me how it works; I'm just glad that it does."

"Yeah, me too. Didn't wanna be caught in that awkward situation…"

"Tell me about it…" He walked off, pretty much telling me he was gonna change back. I didn't mind; he probably just wanted some privacy.

I tapped my foot against the wall of the building for a bit while I was waiting for him. I didn't even notice when he came up behind me.

"I'm back," he announced, once again scaring the crap outta me. "I'm not hairy anymore, either, as cute as you thought it was. Good thing you're an animal person, I guess."

I frowned at him for scaring me for a second time in less than ten minutes. "Haha. Very funny. My sides're splitting."

"I noticed." Nicholas smiled. "So, what were you doing?"

I pursed my lips. "I was just touching stuff."

"I noticed that too," he said. "Only it was with your right arm."

I keep forgetting that he's good at details… "I'm just testing it out."

Nicholas tilted his head. "For what?"

"Oh, nothing. I just volunteered for a suicide mission and am trying to get used to the feeling of no feeling."

Nicholas laughed at that. I guessed that my sarcastic take at the truth really did feel like sarcasm. When he saw I wasn't laughing or smiling, he still had a smile on his face, but he looked confused.

"Were you serious?" he asked carefully. "You weren't serious… were you?"

"I'm dead serious," I said. "Hey, it's a pun!"

Nicholas facepalmed before he came over to me. "Woah, so you just volunteered to leave the town and fight James?"

I blinked. "How'd you guess so easily?"

"Are there any other bad guys keeping us inside a giant dome and killing us off?"

"Homer Simpson?"

Nicholas rolled his eyes. "Don't even." He put his hands on my shoulders. "You're sure about this? You could get worse done from this than an arm that can't feel any more."

I smiled up at him. "I need to do this. It's my fault that we're here, anyway; if only I'd been a little faster, we could've caught Bishop and—."

"We obviously weren't meant to get James then," Nicholas interrupted swiftly. "Blaming yourself isn't gonna help a thing, Kay. There was nothing you could do; he'd fooled you all. He's my responsibility, anyway."

"Yeah… you guys're brothers. I remember him saying something like that…"

"Half-brothers," he corrected. "We share the same father. Dad was married to my mom, and since he's the owner of a company, it makes sense that he'd need an heir. Mom found out that her chances were almost zero if she wanted to have a kid, and so my dad went into a whacked-up depression that had him screwing around—literally—with women he barely knew. James was the product of that. The woman, however, didn't tell my dad that she was pregnant, and so she was eight months through by the time she contacted him. Well, during that time, my mom had found out what dad was doing, and, in a desperate attempt to keep him from divorcing her because she couldn't produce a male heir, seduced him into bed." Nicholas shrugged. "And that's where I came in. When dad found out about James, he didn't hesitate to help the woman take care of him, but James wouldn't inherit the company. James and I met on several occasions, mostly on our birthdays, but we were never friends. James always blamed me for what he believed was rightfully his. I told him once that he could take it, but he thought I was just feeding him bullshit."

"And so you became enemies," I finished for him.

Nicholas smiled weakly. "Yeah. I guess that this whole thing is just a hissy-fit to make a name for himself. That's why he wants to be called 'Bishop'."

"This is one hell of a hissy-fit."

Nicholas suddenly looked downcast. "Kayce… Look, I know we haven't had much time to get to know each other, and I'm happy that you wanna go for a date with me after… But I want to ask you something. Something serious that really, really means something for me."

I blink in confusion, but nod. "Shoot."

"Will you try to kill James?"

I remembered what I'd told Trish. Yeah, I wanted to kill him. I wanted to rip his guts out and skip rope with them. But Bishop was Nicholas' brother… No, what he's done means everything. He's killed people! He's killed kids!

"So have you."

I ignore the voice at first, but then I realize that someone would have to have been reading my mind for them to have an answer like that. I realize that Nicholas is waiting for my answer, so I ultimately decide to investigate later.

"I'll do whatever it takes to get this barrier down," I answer evenly and honestly.

Nicholas's expression remained unchanged. "I hope he'll back-down. He's my brother, despite what he's done. I can't let him die."

I nodded. "I understand that, Nick. But… I can never forgive him."

"I can't either, but we share blood." Tentatively, Nicholas put his left hand in my right. "We have to stop him, but I don't want to kill him."

I wondered what the next day would bring. I wondered what would happen, who we would lose, or if I'd even see anything after the next twenty-four hours. It was crucial to me that I did.

"If he can be stopped without him being killed…" I gulped. "Then I'll help."

I really did hope that I could kill him.