A Whateley Academy Adventure
Drinking and Gambling
by
Morpheus
Part Three
Portland Or, Tuesday morning, Dec 25th 2007
Roulette
It was a nice relaxing Christmas morning and I was sitting down with a cup of hot cocoa, after having just finished a plate of buttermilk pancakes. Mom was out of her lab and sitting beside me, which was an uncommon occurrence. While I’d been growing up, Mom had spent a lot of Christmases and other holidays down in her lab.
At the moment, it was just the two of us, but we planned to meet up with Kara and Beth for dinner. I was looking forward to seeing my best friend/girlfriend, but at the moment, I was simply enjoying the rare opportunity to actually have Mom’s full attention.
“I suppose we should get to presents now,” Mom said.
I perked up at that. “Presents are good.”
A moment later, I was crouched down beneath the tree, a two-foot-tall artificial thing that Beth had probably brought by one day. Mom was famously bad about remembering to decorate anything for Christmas. The last time she’d actively tried getting into the holiday spirit, she’d gotten carried away and made a robotic tree that followed me around the house, singing carols.
“This one first,” I announced as I held up the small present that Alyss had given me. “This thing has been taunting me for days.”
Mom laughed at that. “Well, we can’t have that.”
I carefully unwrapped the paper, then opened the unmarked box. Inside was a small glass jar.
Mom leaned closer and stared at the jar with a confused expression. “Little red threads?”
“Saffron,” I told her with a grin. “This is probably like, fifty dollars worth of saffron.”
That made Mom blink. “It’s that expensive?”
“The most expensive spice in the world,” I explained with a grin. “They come from an orchid, and you only get three of these little threads from each flower. So…”
“Oh,” Mom responded, looking a little skeptical. “If they’re that much trouble to get, they’d better taste good.”
“Good enough,” I assured her, already thinking about what I could use this for. “Maybe a nice paella. I haven’t made that before…”
Now I really felt bad for not getting Alyss anything. I’d definitely have to fix that once we got back to Whateley. In fact, I could do a little shopping before going back, and return with her present in hand.
“My present now,” Mom announced, grabbing a larger box and handing it to me.
Mom had an eager, almost impatient look on her face, so I took my time with unwrapping the present. Watching Mom get a bit antsy was actually kind of fun.
Knowing Mom, I was expecting a devise, or more likely, tools to work on my own devises. Mom was very supportive of my devisor abilities. However, what I wasn’t expecting was the leatherbound book that I found inside.
I flipped through the pages and my eyes widened slightly. “Spells…”
“It’s a book on some basic rune magic,” Mom explained a little nervously. “I heard that this works well with the enchantment stuff that you’ve been practicing, so I reached out to an old contact in Chicago and got this.”
I stared down at the book for several seconds, still a little surprised because this was about the last thing that I would have expected from Mom. In fact, there was a good chance that Beth was involved in giving her the idea.
“Thank you,” I told my mom before giving her a hug. “And now I feel bad for just getting you socks.”
“Socks?” Mom asked with an amused look. “Again?”
I did get Mom socks. Several pairs. They were very comfortable socks though, ones that would keep her feet nice and warm while she worked in her lab. Of course, that wasn’t all that I got for her though.
Mom was always hard to buy for. What can you get for someone who can build whatever they want? In this case, I got her a reservation for a full body massage at a local spa. That would work out all the kinks that build up from countless hours hunched over her lab table.
There were a few more presents after this, but mostly smaller ones. Mom did give me a couple tools for use on my own devises. She just couldn’t help herself, but I knew that I’d get some good use out of them. Mom never skimped when it came to getting quality tools.
Once we were done with the presents, I settled down on the couch with a fresh cup of cocoa. I had my new book open in front of me and was carefully looking through it, seeing that it was a primer for rune magic, and that it included a few basic rune spells. None of these were very powerful, but that made them perfect for me since they didn’t require a lot of essence. It would be nice to add these to my repertoire.
“You know,” I said, pausing and looking up from the book. “This reminds me that I need to head back up to Seattle again in a couple days.”
“What?” Mom asked in surprise.
“You know that thing that happened yesterday?” I asked cautiously.
“With that Bombastic woman?” Mom asked, her eyes going narrow.
For several seconds, it looked like she was about to slip into one of her Diedricks rants about how she was going to take revenge on Bombastic. Then, she’d disappear into her lab for another day or two while she invented a new death ray or killer robot. But instead, she paused, took a deep breath and nodded.
“Yeah,” I responded with a faint smile of relief. “Well, Crucibelle said that the Seattle Supers wanted to do their own debrief on what happened…and ask about my run in with Bombastic last month too.”
Mom nodded slowly. “That makes sense, but it is a bit of a trip.”
“Which is why she promised that Witchling would give me another lesson,” I added with a faint smirk. “As compensation for the trouble.”
“Does Witchling know that she’s been volunteered?” Mom asked with a chuckle.
“By now, she probably does,” I said with a grin. “Anyway, I figure, I can ask her about this rune magic and how I can incorporate it into my enchantments.”
As it was, I was already thinking about how I could place runes on some of my devices in order to anchor my enchantments a little more firmly. However, I was sure that there was more I could do with them, once I knew how.
“That sounds good to me,” Mom said, though she was frowning. “But this time you need to be better armed.”
“That was the plan,” I told her with a sigh, wishing that I’d brought my coil gun from Whateley. At the time, I’d thought that would be more hassle than it was worth. “My needle gun works great against normal people, but was pretty useless against Bombastic. I’ll probably borrow something from the armory.”
“You know,” Mom said, her eyes beginning to gleam with excitement. “I have a new particle cannon that needs testing…”
“Something a little smaller and more discreet,” I quickly added. “And preferably, something that doesn’t need to be mounted to a vehicle.”
“Oh,” Mom responded, looking a little disappointed.
I chuckled at that, then gave her a hug. “I’m sure I can find something suitable.”
Seattle Wa, Tuesday late afternoon, Dec 25th 2007
Absinthe
“This next,” Mom said as she handed me the bowl of mashed potatoes.
I didn’t say a word as I carried the potatoes to the dinner table and set it next to all the other food that I’d already put there. Normally, I just had to set the table, but this year, Mom was making me play a much larger role than usual.
I’d only been a girl for a few months, and most of that time had been spent at Whateley. Because of that, Mom and I were still getting used to our new relationship as mother and daughter, and she was still trying to figure out how to treat me. Or at least she had been. As of today, it looked like Mom had decided to treat me as a normal girl, which apparently meant that I was now expected to help cook and prepare holiday meals. The extra work was annoying, but at least Mom wasn’t making me wear dresses the way that Mrs. Lauriant did.
“Do you have anything else for me?” I asked Mom, sure that I’d already brought over all the food.
“Just some extra napkins,” Mom added. “Just in case.”
Once the last touches were added to the table, Mom finally announced that dinner was ready. It was only then that Dad came into the dining room, where he paused to admire everything before sitting down.
“It looks amazing,” Dad announced.
Mom just beamed at that. “Gwen helped.”
I squirmed, a little uncomfortable with the attention. Before this, I’d always done the same thing that Dad had, which was find an out of the way place to sit and wait until dinner was ready.
Dad had flown in last night, arriving in Sea Tac around the same time that I was running for my life. He’d thought to surprise me and Mom, but instead, had been surprised to find me in trouble with a dangerous mutant. Again.
My relationship with Dad was a bit strange, but it always had been. Growing up, we hadn’t ever seen eye to eye. He was a stickler for the rules, whatever the rules were, while I hated rules on general principle.
Dad was with the MCO, which made it extremely ironic that it took my becoming a mutant for us to become a bit closer. Now, I could see a bit of the reasoning behind Dad’s ‘by the book’ philosophy, and recognize that he wasn’t nearly as inflexible as I’d always believed. In fact, he’d even taught me a few things about how to use the rules for my own benefit.
I sat down at the table and a moment later, four green pixies settled down as well. One of them perched on the handle of the wooden spoon that was currently stuck into the mashed potatoes, while the other three darted about, appearing to play a game of tag while using the gravy boat as an obstacle.
“No pixies on the dinner table,” Mom insisted in a gentle tone.
Dad was watching the pixies with no real expression, but I’d come to recognize the sights of a faint smile. He was entertained by the pixies antics, even if he was pretending that he wasn’t.
I gave the pixies a mental command and they all flew up and out of the way. I looked at one of them and made a mental note to get rid of that one soon. It was fully charged with my stored glamour, and the last thing I wanted was for it to pop and make my parents hallucinate. Then again, that could be amusing.
Once the table was cleared of pixies, I began loading up my plate, though I only took a thin slice of the ham. Ever since I’d become Sidhe, meat had become a lot less appealing to me. I hadn’t gone full vegetarian yet, but I was definitely leaning in that direction, whether I wanted to or not.
“This is delicious, as always,” Dad told Mom a minute later.
“Gwen helped,” Mom told him again.
Dad gave me a nod of acknowledgement. I just squirmed a little self-consciously. Cooking wasn’t really my thing, and I didn’t want this to become a regular thing. However, I already knew that since I was now a girl, Mom would continue to expect my help in the kitchen.
We were about halfway done with dinner when Mom abruptly asked me, “So, when do I get to meet your boyfriend?”
I nearly choked at the question, then gave my Dad a cold glare, knowing that he must have spilled the beans about Collin. However, he sat there with his carefully controlled expression, pretending that he didn’t even notice.
“Collin and I are just friends,” I lied.
“Of course you are,” Mom responded with a faint smirk. “But I have to admit that I’m a little surprised since it hadn’t been that long since you were a… Well…”
“Since I was a guy too,” I finished for her.
Mom nodded at that, looking just a little concerned. “Does he know?”
I hesitated for a moment before reluctantly nodded. “Yeah… He found out who I used to be, and we had a bit of an argument over it.” I winced at that. “But, we kind of talked it out.”
“Lucky for him,” Dad mused, almost under his breath. “I’d hate to imagine what you might do to the boy if you were upset with him.”
I paused to consider what I’d done to Centurion after he’d pissed me off, not to mention the little jokes that I’d played on a few of my fellow Poesies. And now, I could actually bounce ideas off some of the other kids in the prank club and come up with some truly devious ideas.
“Very lucky,” I responded with a faint smirk of my own.
“And speaking of Collin,” Dad said, looking at me. “Crucibelle told me that she wants you and Collin to come by for a little debriefing over what happened yesterday.”
“Again?” I asked with a sigh.
“You talked with the MCO and the police,” Dad explained, “but the Seattle Supers are interested in the event as well.”
“But Crucibelle was there,” I reminded him. “They don’t need to ask us about what happened.”
“Detailed reports require all information available,” Dad told me with a serious expression. “And you may have noticed something that she missed.”
I let out another sigh. “Fine. But there had better be snacks.”
“I’ll let her know,” Dad replied with a faint smile, one that was barely noticeable. However, it was there.
Seattle Wa, Thursday late morning, Dec 27th 2007
Roulette
“So, how was your Christmas?” I asked.
I had just stepped into the comfortable meeting room in the Seattle Supers’ headquarters, a room that was more like a living room than the corporate meeting room that I’d imagined. Gwen and Collin were already there waiting, along with a couple of the Seattle Supers.
Since I wasn’t sure what else to say, I asked about Christmas, then immediately grimaced in embarrassment. I probably sounded pretty stupid.
Kara, who was standing right beside me, actually giggled. Mom, who’d somehow managed to make it, just looked amused. And Kyle, who’d been extremely reluctant to come at all, just looked like he wanted to be anywhere else.
“Christmas was great,” Gwen answered with a grin. She glanced over at her boyfriend, then smirked. “Collin got me a jigsaw puzzle. It has a really cool picture on the cover, so I’m looking forward to putting it together.”
“I thought it looked cool,” Collin said, looking both pleased and self-conscious at the same time. “And the artist is named Candice Kane, or something like that, which immediately made me think of Christmas.”
“That sounds like a good Christmas name,” I agreed.
“What about you?” Gwen asked. “What did you get for Christmas.”
“I got a new spellbook,” I answered, which suddenly caught Witchling’s attention.
Witchling was sitting a short distance away, looking like she should have been one of my classmates at Whateley instead of being my unofficial mentor. She looked way too young to have that much experience, but that was just because of her power.
“It’s about rune enchantments,” I told Witchling. “And I’d like to ask you a few questions about them when we’re done.”
“No problem,” Witchling answered with a look of anticipation. “I’m curious to see what you have.”
“It came from Chicago,” Mom said, putting a little emphasis on the city, as though that explained things. “An old classmate from Whateley made the introduction.”
“Chicago does have some good suppliers,” Witchling agreed. “Though they aren’t usually known for sharing their techniques.”
With that, Mom reached up for the large devisor weapon that had been slung over her shoulder, positioned so that it hung down her back. A moment later, she leaned the large rifle up against the wall, making me more aware of my own weapon, my needle gun which was holstered on my belt. Nearly everyone in the room had their eyes fixed on Mom.
“Oh,” Mom said, blinking as she realized that everyone was watching her. “That’s just my freeze cannon. I brought it just in case.”
“You carry a freeze cannon around?” Collin asked blankly.
Mom shrugged. “Doesn’t everyone?”
“Not even remotely,” I told my mom with a wry smile. “You know that.”
“Are you a hero?” Collin asked curiously.
“Oh no,” Mom responded with a chuckle. “Just a devisor. I tried being a hero when I was younger, but that work just isn’t compatible with having Diedricks.” She shook her head. “You have no idea how embarrassing it is, to have an episode while fighting a villain, then spend the next fifteen minutes ranting to HIM about the horrible things you're going to do to him while all the victims stare at you as if YOU are the dangerous one."
“Beth told me about that,” Kyle commented with a chuckle. “And from what I heard, you also scared Safecracker into going straight.”
“Yeah,” Kara agreed with an enthusiastic grin. “Aunt Beth told me all about that.”
“Now THAT would be something to see,” Crucibelle commented as she came into the room.
I gave my mom a reassuring pat on the hand. “It looks like you were a better hero than you thought, if you could get the villain to actually quit.”
“There is that,” Mom admitted with a chuckle.
“I brought some cookies,” I abruptly announced, setting down a tray of chocolate chip cookies that I’d made last night. “Chocolate chunk.”
“My favorite,” Doctor Tempest said as he helped himself to one of the cookies. He took a bite then smiled. “Very good.”
“Thank you,” I responded.
“Amy is a great baker,” Kara bragged on my behalf.
“I can tell,” Witchling agreed as she took a bite of her own cookie. “Even better than what my sister makes.”
After this, everyone settled down into their chairs or seats on the couches. There were a lot of people present, more than I’d really expected. Kara, Kyle, Gwen, Collin, and myself were there, of course, having been there when Bombastic attacked. Mom had come, partly for moral support and partly for security. And then there were the heroes.
Crucibelle, Witchling, and Doctor Tempest were all present as representatives of the Seattle Supers. I had no idea why three of them needed to be here. In fact, I had no idea why all of us had to be here either. Crucibelle had been there for the fight, and we’d all given our statements.
“Is Goodboy coming?” Witchling asked. “Or is he still chasing his tail?” She smirked. “I mean, Spot. Or is he still chasing Spot?”
“The latter,” Crucibelle responded flatly.
Witchling nodded. “He is stubborn that way. Unfortunately for Spot.”
“Thank you all for coming,” Crucibelle said as she looked at us one at a time. “I apologize for having to ask you all to come do this. I know it isn’t easy, especially coming up from Portland.”
“We didn’t have anything better to do today,” Kyle responded wryly.
“We still appreciate you coming,” Dr. Tempest said. “Now, one at a time, can you tell us what happened in your own words?”
Collin started off, describing what had happened with Bombastic from his point of view, and then Gwen did the same thing. I just listened, wondering what the point was to all of this. Then, it suddenly hit me.
The Seattle Supers had already fought Bombastic previously, and she was now captured and in custody. They weren’t doing this in order deal with her, either now or in the future. They were doing this whole debriefing in order to show us, the police, Whateley, and our parents, that they were taking the whole incident seriously. This whole meeting was one big PR move.
I leaned back into the couch, relaxing a little now that I understood what this was about. Kara gave me a curious look, apparently wondering about my shift in body language. I just gave her a reassuring smile.
Mom listened to all the descriptions with a growing scowl and I saw her fingers twitch a few times, as if she was eager to start working on something. I took a deep breath, bracing myself for what I knew was going to come. Soon, she would either go into one of her devisor fugues, then rush off to build something, or slip into a Diedricks rant about how she would destroy Bombastic, then she’d rush off to build something.
“Mom,” I gently said. “Maybe you should wait in the other room.”
Kara gave my mom a worried look, now realizing what was about to happen as well. “That might be a good idea,” she offered.
Mom took a deep breath, then slowly let it out before reluctantly admitting, “You might be right.”
“Do you want a cup of tea?” Crucibelle asked her with a concerned look.
After a moment of hesitation, Mom responded, “That would be nice.”
We took a pause in the debriefing while Crucibelle went to get Mom a cup of tea. While we waited, everyone just watched Gwen’s pixies, which were darting around the room and getting into mischief. I wasn’t sure how much of that was the pixies, and how much of that was actually Gwen messing around.
Kara crouched down close to a pair of pixies who were wrestling with each other on the table, looking as if they were replaying a scene from some professional wrestling match. I was pretty sure that these particular antics were pure Gwen.
Crucibelle came back a couple minutes later with a cup of tea, which Mom happily accepted. By this time, Mom had calmed down and no longer seemed to be on the verge of dricking out.
“Now then,” Witchling said with a grin, her eyes still locked on the little pixies. “Where were we?”
But before anyone could answer, Natsilane came into the room with a grim expression on his face. As soon as he arrived, the other members of the Supers tensed up, as if they immediately knew that something was wrong.
“The Narrator is in Pike Place,” Natsilane announced grimly. “And apparently, he’s playing a murder mystery.”
“Crap,” Witchling exclaimed. “I hate that guy.”
“The Narrator?” I asked blankly.
“A villain,” Crucibelle answered as she stood up.
“An annoying one,” Witchling added as she joined Crucibelle, adjusting her hat as she did so. “He’s a mind controller who likes to make people play out parts in whatever story he comes up with. I have nightmares over the time he tried to make a musical,” Witchling grumbled. “A bad choice for someone who seems to be tone def.”
“It looks like we’re going to have to end this,” Crucibelle told us. “Thank you all for coming.”
“It was our pleasure,” Kyle said with a friendly smile and a sense of relief.
After this, we were all quickly ushered out of the headquarters while the Supers took off to deal with the supervillain. I was relieved that the debriefing was over, but annoyed since I never got that additional lesson with Witchling that I’d been promised.
Seattle Wa, Thursday early afternoon, Dec 27th 2007
Adam Krayche stood atop a building with his hands behind his back in a manner that reminded him of the ‘parade rest’ position from his Army days. Of course, his days in the military had been surprisingly uneventful. The scars that covered his face and body had come afterwards, the result of a mutant terrorist who’d killed seventeen people in a random attack, including the woman he’d loved. After this, Krayche had joined the MCO, where he’d found his purpose. The same purpose that he was here to serve now.
“The target is leaving the compound,” Krayche’s partner announced.
Ty Green was a dark-skinned man in his early thirties, who was crouched down and staring through a pair of binoculars. He’d been watching the headquarters of one of the local hero teams, a team that they had to avoid at all costs.
“The target is surrounded by other people,” Green continued professionally, “but otherwise in the open.”
“Good,” Krayche responded with a nod. “We can’t take her yet. Not until she’s further away from this place.”
“Understood,” Green replied. He looked up from the binoculars and commented, “This little elf girl hardly looks like any kind of a threat.”
“A single cancer cell doesn’t either,” Krayche commented. “Until it starts to spread.”
Then Kayche looked to the third person present, Jacob Owens, the newest addition to his squad. It hadn't been easy to break Owens out of prison, but it had been worth it. There weren't many agents who'd been able to kill off a powerful mutant 'hero' the way he had
“It looks like you’ll finally get to see our squad in action,” Krayche told Owens.
“I look forward to it,” Owens told him with a smirk. “It’s good to be back in the field after my little time out.”
“Should I notify the local office of our operation?” Green asked, looking at Krayche.
“No,” Krayche snapped, his expression turning hard. “The local office has been compromised. There are too many sympathizers who would interfere with what needs to be done.”
“Understood,” Green said with a sharp nod. “Off the books.”
“Off the books,” Krayche agreed. “Now get to it.”
Seattle Wa, Thursday afternoon, Dec 27th 2007
Absinthe
Back before I’d manifested, I hadn’t had many friends, if any. I was used to being out on my own, so, I found it strange to be back in Seattle, walking down the street with a whole group of people. It made me feel like I was some kind of celebrity, with my very own entourage.
There were currently six of us. I was pretty close with Collin, and I knew Amy from Whateley. I’d only met Kara and Kyle the other day, but we’d gone through something scary together, which created a kind of bond. And then there was Amy’s mom, who was tagging along for some reason.
I knew that we were an odd looking group, what with me and Amy both having unusual colored hair while Amy’s mom carried that big gun slung over her back. I could have used a bit of illusion to hide us, or make us less noticeable, but didn’t really see the point. Green and purple hair were unusual, but nothing to freak out over. After all, hair dye existed.
Several of my pixies flew overhead, darting from lamp post to window ledge, keeping a low profile from and avoiding being spotted by anyone on the street. Those would be a little more difficult to explain, so I was using a bit of illusion to make them even harder to see.
“You know,” I joked with Amy, “we’ve been seeing each other more on vacation than we actually do back at the school.”
“That is true,” Amy agreed pleasantly. “We share a few friends there, but don’t usually hang out together.”
“Maybe if you’d stayed in Poe,” I joked.
Amy shrugged at that. “Consider me a Poesie in exile.”
“So,” Collin asked with an amused look. “What do you think the odds are of running into some of our other classmates?”
“Well, Jinx isn’t around,” I mused, “so probably not that great.”
“Jinx?” Kara asked.
“Someone from school,” Amy explained. “She has…weird luck.”
“Hence her name,” Amy’s mom added with a chuckle. “We had a mangler in my cottage when I was going there. I wonder what ever happened to Horseshoe. Last I heard, some casino had put a hit out on him.”
That made me chuckle. “I wouldn’t be surprised if something like that happened to Jinx one day. She’s really nice, but…”
I shrugged, thinking about all the odd things that tended to happen around her. It was easy to blame manglers for anything that went wrong too, even when they had nothing to do with it.
“You know,” Collin said a moment later. “I thought I saw Downpour walking down the street earlier this morning. At least, I thought it was her until I realized she was smiling.”
“That wouldn’t be Downpour then,” I agreed with a sigh. “She’s from Vancouver, so it wouldn’t be impossible that we’d see her here, but…”
“But Downpour isn’t known for smiling,” Amy agreed with a sad look on her face.
“I think Vulpine is from Vancouver too,” I mused, trying to remember which of our other classmates were from the local area. “But I think, we’re more likely to run into Kit than anyone else. She’s from Seattle too.”
Kyle chuckled. “I keep hearing about that school, and it almost makes me regret that I never went there.”
“It was an experience,” Amy’s mom assured him. “And you do meet a lot of…interesting people.”
“Interesting,” Amy mused. “That is a bit of an understatement.”
“Tell me more,” Kara urged us to continue. “I might go there too one day.”
“You’d have to manifest first,” Kyle reminded her. “And I wouldn’t count on that. Just because there are two mutants in the family, that doesn’t mean that you’ll be one too.”
“Don’t get your hopes up,” Amy’s mom told her. “And remember, with some powers, its better to never manifest at all.”
Kara stared at her, then at Amy with a worried look. I felt a faint knot in my stomach as I remembered Amy’s little ‘issue’, the one that had resulted in her being put in Hawthorne. Her powers came with a medical issue that could kill her at any time. A lot of the kids at Whateley considered her to be something of a pity case, or a tragedy waiting to happen. I could only imagine how much worse than would be for her friends and family.
“Anyway,” I said to change the subject. “Since we’re all here anyway, why don’t we do something?”
“Like visit Pike Place,” Kara suggested innocently. “I want to watch some of the fish throwing.”
Amy snorted. “You just want to watch the Supers fight that villain.”
Kara shrugged. “Free entertainment.”
“I think we can do without that kind of entertainment,” Kyle commented with a look of amusement. “Especially after the other day.”
“Yeah,” Collin added. “I would have thought that you’d have enough of seeing a supervillain up close. I know that I sure have.”
“Well, some of us don’t go to a school where we can see cool things every day,” Kara responded, sticking her tongue out at him. “So we have to take our excitement when we find it.”
“She’s YOUR niece,” Amy’s mom told Kyle, who just shrugged.
While the conversation continued, I shifted my attention to my pixies, taking a peek out through their eyes. I’d gotten into the habit of using them as spies and lookouts, especially when I’d spent so much time dodging Centurion and his buddies at school, and I continued to do that now.
“Oh shit,” I gasped a moment later.
From one of my pixie drones, I saw down an alleyway that was just ahead of us. There were two men in the alley, dressed in unmarked, dark grey, SWAT type gear, with what looked like night vision goggles of some sort on. And they were both armed with expensive looking weapons.
“We have trouble,” I announced, pointing ahead of us.
The armed men leapt out from around the corner, their weapons immediately pointed at us. However, because of my warning, everyone was already reacting.
Kyle dove to the side, drawing a pair of high-tech looking guns in the process. Amy began forming a ball of glowing blue energy in her hands, while her mom stepped back and unslung her own weapon.
“I brought some toys this time,” Collin exclaimed as he pulled out a police baton. It wasn’t much, but I knew that he’d been practicing with those things.
“Me too,” I responded as I drew Needle from its sheathe, keeping it in dagger form. Needle was a great weapon for fighting up close and personal, but I preferred to keep my distance and avoid fighting at all. Unfortunately, that wasn’t always possible.
Kara was the only one who didn’t have any powers or weapons to rely on, so she let out a yelp of surprise and scrambled backwards, looking for cover. Then Amy’s mom grabbed her and pulled her back behind one of the cars that were parked alongside the street.
The attackers hesitated a moment, apparently surprised to realize that we’d noticed them and were already moving. Then one of them threw something at us, though it hit the ground and rolled. Kyle immediately kicked it and the small object when skittering along the ground until it went beneath a car and exploded.
“Flash bang,” Kyle stated as he opened fire on the attackers.
The attackers opened fire as well, shooting in our direction. I was already throwing up an illusion, one to obscure us all so that they wouldn’t be able to make out exactly where we were or what we were doing. But in spite of that, both men aimed their weapons directly at me and fired again.
“Shit,” I exclaimed as I dove to the side.
Their attention followed me, even through my illusion. It had to be their goggles. They were letting those men see through my illusions. I cursed again at the realization.
“Just like my combat final against Jericho,” I grumbled. What good were my illusions if my enemies could just ignore them?
“Their armor looks like it will stop my needle gun,” Amy said as she threw the ball of glowing blue energy. “This…not so much.”
Both men jumped to the side to avoid the ball of energy, though a moment later, there was a beam of blue light instead, which hit one of the attackers. He hit the ground, suddenly covered with a sheet of ice. My eyes darted to Amy’s mom, who was taking aim for another shot with her freeze cannon.
More gunshots filled the air, but they hadn’t come from the men in front of us. There was a yelp of pain and I snapped around to see Amy’s mom holding her arm while her freeze cannon fell to the ground, sparks popping out from the side.
“MOM,” Amy cried out while Kara exclaimed, “LIZ!”
“It grazed me,” Amy’s mom snarled as she dropped down behind the car, still holding her arm. “I’m bleeding, but it doesn’t look deep.”
Kyle opened fire, shooting back behind us, where I saw three more attackers emerging. One of them was shorter and thinner than the others, giving the impression that this one might be a woman, but the body armor and goggles made it difficult to tell.
I looked around, automatically searching for an escape route. However, I couldn’t just run off and abandon the others.
“Remember,” one of the attackers told the others, “the green-haired one is our primary target. Focus on her first.”
“Me?” I blurted out in surprise.
I had a lot of questions, but at the moment, I knew that they would have to wait. Instead, I focused on surviving these guys. If my illusions wouldn’t work, then I’d have to try something else.
Two of my pixies dove towards the new attackers, one of them hitting a man and popping, releasing all the stored up glamour that it had been holding. It wasn’t anywhere near a full charge, but it was enough. The attacker immediately turned and began shooting at something that only he could see.
My other pixie swooped around another attacker, acting as a distraction while a third pixie began moving in. I didn’t really have any offensive spells, but I’d learned a few tricks to work around that, and this was one of them. A moment later, I overcharged one of my pixies with a spell and it exploded, sending the attacker to the ground with a charred uniform.
“Kamikaze pixie,” I exclaimed for Kara’s benefit. “It might not be a fireball, but it still does the job.”
“You killed it,” Kara gasped with a look of horror.
“It’s not a real pixie,” Amy quickly assured her, even as she drew her needle gun and opened fire. A spray of tiny fléchettes appeared across one of the attackers. “It wasn’t really alive in the first place.”
“What she said,” I agreed.
The man who Amy had shot, staggered back and then caught himself against a nearby wall. His armor had stopped most of her flechettes, but at least one of them had gotten through. From what I could see of his new limp, it must have gotten him in the leg.
One of the attackers came rushing in, opening fire and spraying the area with gunshots, only to suddenly freeze with his feet stuck to the ground. Collin crouched down nearby with an almost predatory grin.
“Gotcha,” Collin exclaimed, having locked the attacker in place.
A moment later, the attacker simply turned and pointed his weapon directly at Collin. My boyfriend cursed and dove to the side, releasing the attacker in the process.
“Watch it,” I called out.
Collin hit the ground and then lashed out with his police baton, hitting the attacker in the legs. The attacker staggered back, having been knocked off balance. And in the time it took him to regain it, Collin was back on his feet and in the man’s face.
“I don’t think so,” Collin exclaimed as he tore the gun out of the man’s hand and then threw him up against a wall.
It was easy to forget that Collin was an exemplar, even if not a very powerful one. He was stronger than he looked though, and he looked pretty athletic.
Another of the attackers came at me, though he stopped well out of my range and simply took aim. I threw Needle at him, hitting him in the arm enough to draw blood, but not much more. He yelped, then quickly recovered.
I rushed the man, cursing as I did so. I hated having to fight up close and personal, especially when my opponent was armed. Because of that, I did what I usually did in those situations. I cheated.
One of my pixies suddenly slammed into the side of the man’s head while a second pixie hit the gun, pushing it away so that it was no longer pointed at me. A moment later, I was in the man’s face.
My foot came up and kicked the man between his legs as hard as I could. He let out a pained gurgle, but I wasn’t done. I mentally called Needle back to me, and it soon as it was back in my hand, I drove it into his side, catching him in a gap in the armor.
Collin let out a yelp of pain as one of the gunshots grazed his side. I felt a cold anger at that, one which helped to contain the surge of terror and dread that I also felt.
Amy rushed in, holding another ball of glowing energy. “We need to finish this fast,” she said, seeming to ignore the fact that most of our attackers were already down. “They may have friends.”
My eyes widened at that as I realized she was right. And at the moment, I no longer had any pixies out as scouts and spotters. There was no telling how many enemies might be sneaking up on us at that very moment.
“There’s another one,” Kyle added, gesturing to the side where I saw yet another attacker, one who stood back and seemed to be watching us.
“I have an idea,” Amy said, only to suddenly freeze in place and let out a loud gasp. The ball of energy dropped from her hand and hit the ground where it exploded into a burst of sparks and vanished.
“AMY,” her mom exclaimed as she jumped out from behind cover and ran towards Amy, ignoring her own injury.
Amy collapsed to the ground like a puppets whose strings had been cut, and she began shaking with some kind of seizure. I watched this with horror, knowing that she had to be going into another burnout.
“NO!” Kara yelled as she ran out from behind cover to join Amy’s mom by her side.
I looked around, suddenly realizing that the tide had just turned.
Amy was down, with a condition that could kill her even without these attackers. Kara had no powers or weapons, while Collin and Amy’s mom were both injured. My heart raced as I took this all in.
“They’re after me,” I gasped, realizing what I had to do.
“No,” Collin protested, apparently realizing what I was about to do. “Gwen…”
“I’ll lead them away,” I told him, taking a deep breath as I did so. “Get everyone to safety.”
“Don’t do this,” Collin insisted.
I just flashed him a grin. “I’m good at giving people the slip.”
With that, I pushed as much essence as I could spare into a single pulse, one which wasn’t directed into an actual spell. Five new pixies appeared, and I sent each of them flying off towards the attackers. My illusions might not work on these guys, but there was more than one way to distract people.
A moment later, I turned and ran as fast as I could, hoping that my distraction would buy me enough of a head start.
“THE TARGET,” one of the attackers yelled, pointing at me. “DON’T LET HER ESCAPE!”
A nervous smile formed on my lips as I left my friends behind, hoping that I could buy them a chance to get away and survive. I’d spent years practicing for this very thing, running away from bullies, dodging supervillains, and training with the Hooligans back at school. I just hoped I wasn’t being overconfident.
