A/N: Wild Flower has a devastating power that's almost Biblical in nature. Not even super-fast Quicksilver can escape it...
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Chapter Five
They ate greasy drive-thru fast food and avoided public rest stops that might be monitored. Carly suspected that once the authorities figured they weren't in Virginia, they might bring in the Feds to expand the dragnet. After all, kidnapping across state lines was a federal crime. Not that she was kidnapping Lance, but they could always spin it that way. There would definitely be a BOLO out for this car. She should ditch it and steal another, but Mom would probably freak.
She put in a quick call to fellow agent Larry's phone service. Yeah, he was busy in Quantico with all his training, but maybe he could help. Better than Mom, who would yell at her for going off-book, especially for involving a boy. Well, Mom would have to suck it. Agents did what agents needed to do. Sort of.
Somehow, they got through it all, tollbooths, exits, streets, without any obvious signs of pursuit, so either the authorities were looking in the wrong place or were laying off for some reason. Her guess was that she was being tailed through a drone or satellite, waiting to see where she'd end up. They probably had found Spider-boy already and were questioning him. She had a little bit of rope. Still, strange that they wouldn't intercept.
Sometime after midnight, they rolled down a long, narrow road. Moonlight flickered through high tree branches. Nice, dense vegetation. Carly poked Lance who had nodded off after gorging on a double cheeseburger, mondo fries, and like a gallon of soda.
"Huh?" He wiped his mouth.
"We're here, I think." They arrived at a closed gate. A plaque with an inscription read, 'Xavier's School for the Gifted.'
"Who's Xavier?" asked Lance.
"I don't know. Maybe this is the wrong place. I thought we were looking for a lab or something." Carly messed with Maps on her phone. "I don't see anything else for miles around."
"It's like 1am. Maybe we should find a place to crash. There's no one here."
Carly shook her head. "If we do that, we're as good as captured. Unless you want to sleep in a dumpster somewhere."
She entered the name 'Xavier' on her secret spy app. "It says here that this place is like a boarding school. I think this McCoy guy might be a professor or something. Xavier runs the show."
"Okay, but if no one answers, we're outta here."
Carly pulled up to a little unmanned kiosk with some kind of intercom. She pushed the button. "Hello?"
A boy stood outside the car and spoke in a weird, low voice. "You rang?"
"Uh?" Carly looked around. Where did he come from?
He spoke normally. "Nevermind, it's a thing I do. Highway's back that way, just keep to the left."
"We're not lost." Carly handed the boy a card.
He looked at it for a second then flipped it away into the night. "Sorry, we're closed." He disappeared.
"What kind of a place is this?" Lance looked agitated. Last thing she needed was him going all Bull again.
Carly put a hand on his leg, firm this time. "Shh, Lance. It's fine." She reached out and pushed the button, this time not letting go for a good ten seconds.
"What?" The boy appeared again in a whoosh of air. Carly realized he wasn't actually materializing, he was just super-fast. "People are trying to sleep."
"We're not leaving until we see either Dr. McCoy or Raven."
"Raven? Who's Raven? Oh. Mystique. Good luck with that." He whooshed away.
Carly glanced at Lance who looked ready to destroy something. Carly pushed the button again and again, and then started pounding on the intercom with her fist.
"Hey!" The boy appeared again. "You're trespassing on private property. You've got two minutes to—"
"Quicksilver!" yelled the dented intercom. "Let them in!"
Quicksilver sighed. "Fine." He disappeared and the gate eased open with creaks and groans. Carly started the car, and suddenly, with a thump, Quicksilver was in the back seat, somehow rearranging Carly's science project in a split second to give him room.
"What the heck is all this?" he asked.
Carly put a calming hand back on Lance. "It's my science project. Please don't disturb it."
"Tomatoes?"
"Yes. I grow tomatoes."
"So what are your names? Where are you from? Why are you here so late? Are you in trouble?"
"My name is…" she thought better of using her real name. After all, the kid didn't use his. "Wild Flower. And this is Bull Boy."
"Bull Boy?" Lance looked at her. "Last time it was Beef Boy."
"Are you sure it's not Mrs. Tomato Head?" asked Quicksilver, looking at the pots.
"Wild Flower." At some point she needed to make her alias stick. She guided the car through manicured gardens.
"So, 'Wild Flower', what can you do?"
"I can destroy the world. You have any talents?"
Lance's hand was in Carly's pants—his fingers pretty much in her privates. He yanked it out. Carly slammed the brakes. Quicksilver laughed in the back as Lance took a futile swing at him. Quicksilver ducked and laughed, superhuman speed frustrating Lance.
Carly thought furiously…her power, there had to be something she could use against this runt. Something even his speed couldn't escape, but nothing too dangerous. She turned around and glared at the giggling boy, at pimped-up hair, his slick leather jacket, his pimpled little face—there. That was it.
Carly extended a hand toward him, sensing his life-essence through her fingertips. "Are you sure you want to mess with me?"
"Do your worst. I'm pretty sure I can evade whatever useless power you have, Tomato-head. Ha ha."
Focus. On the pimples. The bacteria. Grow. Just a little, just enough to feel…
Quicksilver grabbed his face. "What are you doing? Stop it!"
Pink and red bumps covered his face, a couple oozing white. "Stop!"
And ZING he was gone.
"Now that's a trick," said Lance. "I wouldn't want to be that guy. Hey, sorry about my hand. It was weird. I could kind of feel him doing it, but I couldn't stop him. Are you okay?"
Carly huffed. "Yeah." She turned away.
"What?"
"Nothing." Lance didn't get it. That Quicksilver jerk had basically molested her. Heck, he could have taken off her clothes and done whatever he wanted in milliseconds, and she'd be powerless to stop him. She suddenly didn't want to check this school out anymore if that ass would be there.
Lance must have sensed something because he pulled her close and kissed the top of her head. Carly leaned into him, inhaling his scent, like a green field on a summer day. She liked having his warm arm around her. She put a hand against his chest, felt his heart beating. A sudden urge to run away gripped her, escape this life of espionage and intrigue, go somewhere where neither of them would have to deal with their powers, just live normal lives.
"What's wrong?"
Carly fought back a tear that had crept from her eye. "Nothing. I'll be fine. It's been a long day."
"You sure you want to do this now?"