Learning to Breathe
Disclaimer: Keep your paws off! I have enough animals to deal with at home!
A/N: Another trip falls on the horizon as Zartan gets sent to yet another far-away Cobra base, and Shadowatch is forced to follow. What adventure will await our young stars? You'll have to wait, because I'm still working on it.
Chapter Forty-eight: Trouble up North
Chicago, Illinois—Home of deep-dish pizza, pro sports, and several superheroes. However, the city also housed a Cobra base. Unfortunately for the commander, these base inhabitants were less than par-excellence. The antics of this fine May morning definitely didn't help their cause.
"Have you seen what happened to my axe?"
"I thought she moved in with that Benny guy?"
"AXE!! Not ex! For the love of rock, pay attention!"
"Are you calling me stupid?"
"So what if I am?"
"Good lord, they're at it again." A safari-gear clad man grumbled. Gnawgahyde, an expert in poaching and weaponry, was a member of the Dreadnoks' Chicago branch (at least for the time being.). He rolled his eyes at the sight of Burnout and Thrasher—two of the other Dreadnoks—arguing again.
"Will you two stop killing each other and pay attention?" Gnawgahyde shouted. The two bikers stopped taking swings at each other long enough to stare.
"What gives you the right to tell us what to do?" Burnout asked.
"I don't know. Let's compare our last status review scores and see." The poacher mocked. "Just listen up! We have a bigger problem to deal with than your missing tools."
"What would that be?" Thrasher asked, arms crossed.
"Some little punk calling himself Kid Razor has been focusing a lot of attention on the city's crime rate." The mustached man explained. "If we don't get rid of him, he'll find us out and have us arrested."
"Can't we just shoot him?" Thrasher asked.
"Don't you think I've thought of that?" Gnawgahyde exclaimed. "The kid's some kind of super powered vigilante! We don't have the kind of firepower needed to take him out."
"He's got a point." Burnout, the resident mechanic, nodded. "None of us have any kind of powers, and all the kids are sayin' Kid Razor's got some kind of power of rock 'n roll. Can make force fields, fly, and all that kind of stuff."
"Where did you hear that?" Thrasher asked.
"They did a special story about him on the news last night." The mechanic answered. "Had pictures of him, interviews with eyewitnesses, the whole deal!"
"Sounds like we have a fan in our midst." Gnawgahyde grumbled. "Did this special happen to mention any kind of weakness of this 'Kid of Rock'?"
"Nope." Burnout shook his head. "Just fun facts."
"Fat lot of good that all does us." Thrasher said. "What can we do about him? The only super powered staff in Cobra lives in Florida!"
"Along with our buddies." Burnout added. "I wonder what they've been up to? Haven't gotten a call from them in a while."
"What I heard, Zartan's got himself some new recruits." Thrasher said. "Bunch of kids too. Wonder where he found them?"
"That's it!" Gnawgahyde shouted. "We'll call the base down there and ask them to bring those kids up here!"
"Why?" Burnout asked. "Ain't they just normal kids?"
"Not on your life." Thrasher said. "All seven of 'em are mutants. Some of them pretty powerful, if rumor counts for anything around here."
"And with seven to one odds, that meddling Kid Razor won't stand a chance!" Gnawgahyde grinned. "Uh, do you two know what happened to the phone directory?"
"Do you know when you can get out of that wheelchair, Andi?" Neal asked. The two-toned blond parked next to him shrugged. Almost a week after the mission, Andrea Creed still hadn't been allowed to move under her own power.
"I'm supposed to go in for a check-up this afternoon." She said. "I hope I can at least get some crutches."
"That's doubtful considering your shoulder wound, but at the very least you should be able to walk around now." Regan replied.
"Way to stay positive, Reg." Kristen quipped as she walked in and plopped down on the couch. "Has anyone seen Virus around?"
"He's locked in his room doing something or another." Neal said. "He said research; I think otherwise."
"As long as he's not focused on me, I'm okay with it." Andi grumbled.
"I think he's looking up info on those files we stole from the Joe base." Neal said. "Especailly something on some chick named Althea. He seems to like her a lot."
"Maybe she'll like him back and he'll leave me alone." Andi replied as the phone rang. "Somebody better get that!" A rush of footsteps followed.
"Why can't you roll over and get it?" Neal asked.
"Because there are way too many walls and corners between it and me." The hydrokinetic replied. "I doubt it's for me anyway."
"Hey Boss! Phone call!" Ripper shouted upstairs.
"See?" She grinned.
"I wonder who's on the phone?" Regan asked. "We normally don't get many phone calls."
"Might be worth investigating." Andi nodded. "Kris, why don't you sneak up to Zartan's office and put those bat ears of yours to good use."
"No problem." The raven-haired girl grinned, using her speed and stealth to zip up the stairs. She almost knocked two of her teammates over in the process.
"What's with her?" Mitch asked, indicating with his thumb the path Vamp had taken.
"She's spying on the boss for us." Regan said. "Now hush! We don't want anyone to overhear."
"Don't worry about us." Bryan waved. "You know how we are with secrets!"
"That's what I'm afraid of." Andi grumbled as Neal, dissatisfied with the current television program, began to channel surf.
"What do we normally watch at eleven?" He asked.
"Jeopardy." The entire group responded. Neal nodded and tuned in the appropriate channel.
"Now this is what I call educational programming." Bryan smiled, leaning back on one of the couches.
"Yeah, Bill Nye is for losers." Regan said, earning a whack on the back of her head from her blue-skinned teammate. "Hey!"
"I'd better not hear you talk about that show like that again!" The other girl growled.
"What is your facination with that show anyway." Neal asked. "It is just a man in a labcoat explaining stuff. Can't we run to Mindbender's lab and see the same thing?"
"Yes, but then we'd risk him doing experiments on us." Mitch said. "Not a good trade, if ya know what I mean."
"Still, why the interest in knowing how things work?" Neal asked.
"So if we break something important, we can put it back together." Bryan said.
"Plus it helps me understand some of what Mindbender brings up in his reports at the staff meetings." Andi shrugged. "Oooh! I know this one! What is Sequoia National Park!"
"Hey, you got it right." Mitch said as Kristen breezed back down the stairs.
"Hey, who was calling?" Andi asked.
"Some guy I don't know." The dhampire shrugged. "The strange dude wants us to help take down some superhero up in Chicago."
"How do you know it's all of us?" Regan asked.
"I heard them talking about taking us up there! We get to go to Chicago!"
"Keep your voice down! We don't want him to know we know!" Andi admonished.
"I see you already know what I came to talk about." The group turned to see Zartan standing behind the couch.
"How did we miss him coming downstairs?" Mitch whispered to his brother, who shrugged in response.
"Too late." Neal said. "Thanks a lot, Kris!"
"Sorry." The silver-eyed girl shrugged. "I didn't know he was behind me."
"Your senses are getting worse instead of better, Fang." Andi glared. Kristen stuck her tongue out in response.
"Grow up, you two." Zartan admonished. "Where is everyone else?"
"I think they're in the garage." Andi said. "Why?"
"They need to hear this too. You six stay put while I go retrieve them."
"Okay." Bryan said, not taking his eyes off the television. A few minutes later, Zartan returned with the other Dreadnoks.
"Why do we have to sit in on this?" Monkeywrench asked.
"Because it's about all of you, so be quiet." Zartan groaned. "The Chicago base just called me asking for help dealing with a local vigilante. That faction of the Dreadnoks need some backup, so they have asked for Shadowatch and a couple of handlers to travel up to their Chicago headquarters to aid in their efforts."
"Are you going?" Monkeywrench asked the martial arts master. Zartan glared in response.
"Yes, I am going. The question is: which of you knuckleheads will go with us?"
"I wanna go!" Ripper bounced up and down. "I wanna go visit with those guys! Besides, I need Burnout to take a look at the carborator on my bike anyway."
"Who the hell is Burnout?" Andi asked.
"One of the Dreadnoks up in Chicago." Zartan said. "He's also a mechanic."
"Ah." Mitch nodded. "That makes sense."
"Still, why would they want our help with some joker running around in tights?" Kristen asked. "Can't they take care of him themselves?"
"This 'Joker in tights' has some kind of special powers that make him hard to deal with." Zartan explained.
"And they want to fight fire with fire." Neal said. "Wonderful."
"At least we get a free trip to Chicago out of this." Regan shrugged.
"Andi won't be out of her wheelchair yet, though." Mitch said.
"You don't know that!" The blue-eyed shapeshifter protested. "I could be out of this thing today!"
"We'll see what the doctors have to say about that." Zartan replied. "You're dismissed for now."
"Lot of good it does us." Bryan said. "There's nothing on the tube and nothing to do."
"We could always play spoons." Kristen shrugged.
Meanwhile, on the northern side of New York, a hired scientist stumbled on a new discovery.
"This is it!" The man exclaimed, his blue eyes shining with pride and glee. "This is the compound that will make me famous! Certainly Extensive Enterprises will pay thousands for this. I'll finally be rich!"
"It seems that way, Doctor Rankin." A lab aide nodded, looking over a clipboard. "The test results are promising. If only there were a way to stabilize its structure."
"Yes, its instability is quite a fault." Dr. Rankin sighed. "Shame nothing can be done with that broken machine over there. If we could only fix the power coil, we would work at twice our current speed."
"Shame indeed." The aide said. "Well, sir, I do believe it is time for lunch. Do you want anything?"
"Certainly!" The scientist grinned. "I'll go up with you."
The pair walked out of the laboratory, leaving everything as it sat. Not long after they left, however, trouble came knocking.
"Where the hell could he have put the damn sodas?" A teen grumbled as he walked in through the sliding doors. He was about sixteen, and had shaggy blond hair and blue eyes. His name was Calvin Rankin, son of the lab's chief scientist. "I don't get why he feels the need to hide all the canned drinks. Its not like he ever has any booze around here anyway. Well, what is this?" He said, picking up a container of sea-green colored liquid. "Looks strange and smells" he took a whiff "of dried pineapple. Huh. I'll hold onto it. Maybe it could be of some use to me."
Calvin continued to rummage about the lab in search of a soda. Finding none, he turned to sneak back out the doors. However, he was caught.
"Calvin! What are you doing down here?" One of the aides demanded. Calvin groaned.
"I was just looking for something to drink, man. Why are you geeks always riding my arse? Its not like I can go anywhere around here!"
"The prototype!" the aide exclaimed, seeing the container the young man grasped in his right hand. "You put that down this instant, boy!"
"Prototype?" He asked. "So this is what father's been spending all his precious time on. Better make sure I don't drop it then, huh?" An evil scheme formed in Calvin's mind. He would keep the experiment for himself, then blackmail his father for all the years the man spent away from his family. He dangled the glass beaker over one of the machines and wiggled it around, expecting to keep a tight grip on it. It didn't work. The container slipped out of his hand and crashed onto the machine, which overheated and exploded. Bits of machinery and pale green smoke flew around the room. The heated liquid exited through a hole in the machine and drenched Calvin.
The aide, who hid behind the doors when the glass beaker slipped, hit the alarm button on the outside. Within minutes, every scientist assembled in front of the lab. Smoke vents were turned on, and the room was cleared of the sweet- smelling particles. Calvin, however, lay unconscious on the floor.
"Calvin!" Dr. Rankin exclaimed. "Oh, my son! Quick! Take him to the medical wing and don't dawdle! His very life could be in danger!"
"Sir! He smashed the prototype!" The aide who witnessed it all exclaimed. "I think he was doused in it!"
"From the stench in here, I'd say so." Another scientist grumbled. Dr. Rankin paled.
"My God!" He exclaimed. "If this prototype can be absorbed through the skin and into the bloodstream, we have a big problem on our hands."
Wow. Lots of stuff happening this chapter. Will Andi get out of the wheelchair and be able to go to Chicago? Will Shadowatch be ready to take on Kid Razor? What will happen to Calvin Rankin? Tune in for further updates!