Decay (21 page)

Nehihe led them to a door in the warehouse. When it opened she saw a tunnel.
I'm getting kind of tired of these.
She'd rather teleport than use another tunnel. They seemed to be the only way anyone got around in the war. Tunnels littered her home town too, connecting schools, businesses, and even homes. It creeped her out. Angela had come to the conclusion a long time ago that the Alturans had planned all of this and put the tunnels there themselves. There was no way to prove the theory, but it did seem all too convenient. They were so important to all of the plans the aliens made.

Silently, they walked through the tunnel. This one was rougher than the others she had traveled through. Usually the walls were clean and straight, with a decent amount of space to walk through. The tunnel she traveled through now was much narrower. Only one person could fit comfortably in a line instead of three or four. The walls were cut roughly in the ground and support beams could be seen above her in the dim electric lighting. She swallowed.
If one of those beams breaks, would I be buried alive down here? No, don't think about that. Focus on the mission. The sooner we get this done with, the sooner I can go back home and look for Orlando. He'd be going nuts right about now. I wonder what snappy comeback he would have come up with for Gabby. Gabriel, I can't call her that or take her seriously. She's too mean.
A small smile formed on her lips as she thought about Orlando. He was a small silver lining for her, missing or not.
We'll find him again. I'm sure of it.

The group was quiet the whole time they were in the tunnels which was how she preferred it. When they arrived at a door, they arranged themselves for the upcoming fight. Permanence moved to the front, followed by Gabby, and then her. Drone stood behind Angela, and for some reason she felt a little safer than she would have if it had been anyone else. Confidence oozed out of him, and she realized he reminded her a lot of JD.
Only without all of the annoying commentary,
she mused with a smirk.
I wonder who this Drone guy works for?

“Three...two...” Permanence whispered, and a second later he opened the door. Angela took the one second to summon up her fire and contain it to her hands. She stepped into the room after him, staying slightly to his left, ready to blast anyone who might be in the way. The room was empty.

Gabby rolled her eyes and smirked. “Easy tiger. We're not quite there yet. Remember the layout?”

Don't say anything. It's not worth it.
But Angela was ready to give the other girl a piece of her mind. Why was she the only one being antagonized? Why did Angela have to be the only one who rubbed her the wrong way?

“I think you're the one who needs to ease off, Gabriel. Keep talking to our comrades like that, and I'm sending you out. At least she was ready for anything,” Drone said. “Even if this is a secure spot on our map.”

Angela had to fight smirking because she knew that would only be rubbing Gabby's face in the mud. For whatever reason, the girl seemed exceptionally angry over the fact that Drone went against her. The way she held herself changed. Her shoulders squared back, her glare became even darker and more frightening to behold, especially with the added effect of the mask around her gaze. A soft white glow began to form around her clenched fists.

“The next room is when the action begins,” Drone added. “Everyone ready? We go inside in five, four, three, two−”

The door burst open, and a person wearing a mask stormed in. Angela had just enough time to get behind Permanence's back before an array of metal pellets began to fly through the room. At first she thought they were being shot at, but there wasn't the loud blast of a gun, nor the constant hammering sound she always imagined a machine gun would make. The pellets made dull clanks and thuds when they hit the walls, and Permanence, but there was no sound from when they were actually released. Angela got a brief enough glance at the source to find they were being splayed from the hands of a teenage girl in a black mask.

If I can peek around just enough to see where she is exactly, I can blast her.
Doing so would be risky however. While the pellets may not have been bullets coming from a gun, they were close to the same size and thrown with similar speeds. They would hurt – a lot – and could even kill.
A shield would be wonderful right around now.
Because also unlike a gun, the girl didn't have to reload, so the attack never let up.

She watched as Gabby snuck a hand around Permanence's side. There was a sizzle, a crackle, and then a girlish shriek. The bombardment of metal stopped. Angela took another look around the massive, rock solid, barrier of a man in front of her, and saw the girl who was throwing the metal at them, holding her hands in front of her. Her skin glowed yellow, her hands were flushed with heat, and lightning sizzled along the length of her body. She wouldn't be the only obstacle the team would face, of that Angela was certain.

Without hesitation, Egypt sent something that reminded her of smoke, flying through the air. It landed over the girls face, and soon she was unconscious. Angela stepped around Permanence and grabbed the girl by her hands. They were hot to the touch, almost like a stove. The pain didn't last for long, however, because she absorbed the heat. Within a second, Angela couldn't feel much of anything in her hands.

“Don't start her on fire,” Gabby sneered from behind her.

“I won't,” Angela muttered and looked down at her hands.
I didn't realize my hands were still in flames. I guess that's why it doesn't hurt to touch her.
She was extra cautious all the same, taking extra care to not let the flames lick at the girl's clothing or hair. Once the girl was out of the way and off to the side, Nehihe knelt beside her and placed her in chains of light then proceeded to rip the girl's mask off of her face.

Everything about their assailant became clear. The most Angela could see before her mask was removed was that the girl was wearing black pants and a black shirt. All of the details filled in. The girl couldn't have been older than fourteen, and not someone she recognized. It disgusted Angela to think that kids so young were being used to hurt others. Sometimes it disgusted her that Alan had chosen her brother, who was seventeen, to fight as well. JD was only a year older than her, and she felt far too young to be in a war. At the same time, she'd been dragged into the fight because The Doctor gave her powers against her will via his injection. If she didn't want revenge so badly, she would have preferred to live in blissful ignorance.

“What are you going to do with her?” Angela asked quietly.

“She'll be taken back to the ship for questioning, rehabilitated, and monitored to make sure she resumes living a normal life,” Nehihe said.

So, it is possible to go back to normal,
Angela thought with a small smile. She certainly wouldn't feel too badly about capturing any more bad guys. In some ways, she was kind of jealous they got to be normal again and she didn't.
When it's all over, I'll see if I can have a chance too.
But what did going back to “before” entail? She needed to understand more what rehabilitating would consist of.

“We need to keep moving,” Drone said, snapping her out of her thoughts. He was right. Obviously the girl would have told someone they were there before coming to attack. Reinforcements would arrive soon enough, or be waiting outside the door.

Without another word, Drone walked out the door and took a good look around. “We're going to divide into two groups from here. Left will be Permanence, Egypt, and Gabby. Lucky Twelve and I, will go Right. Nehihe, I want you to stay here and watch the entrance. Once they figure out where we came in, they'll want to block us from getting out again. Pretty sure these guys thought this way was more secure.”

“Or not,” Angela whispered. Drone raised an eyebrow, his gaze moving to her. “I just mean, if they sent her, they must have known something was coming.” It made sense to her.

“So why aren't there more here, genius,” Gabby snapped.

“Because they thought they wouldn't need more man power, or...” Angela desperately searched for another explanation.

Egypt provided one. “There could be a trap waiting for us. This could have been a diversion or a rouse to make us feel confident. I'm not sure splitting up is a good idea.”

Drone shook his head. “It's our only option. If we don't split up, we're not going to get to the security center in time, which means the other team will not be able to get in and retrieve the artifact. The trap is left, which is why I'm sending you to go and set it off.”

He's sending the power hitters to go and take care of business. The ones who've proven themselves most useful.
I must be awful at this stuff.
When she looked over at the other half of her team, she saw a lot of hesitant nodding from the guys along with a rather sharp glare from Gabby.

“Are you sure? Wouldn't you rather have some better protection?” Gabby asked, her tone laced with irritation.

“I'm positive,” he said and winked at Angela. She hoped Gabby hadn't caught it. “We need to go now before they catch on. They're already starting to ask questions.”

With a loud sigh, Gabby started down the left side of the hallway. Egypt and Permanence followed, the latter pushing his way to the front of the group. Angela glanced back at Nehihe, trying to get a read on what he thought. He wasn't objecting, but she didn't know if he approved either. While Drone was technically in charge, Nehihe was the one supervising the entire mission to make sure it went smoothly. The Alturan was surprisingly quiet, nothing like Alan. Then again, Alan wouldn't have let one of his charges run a mission. He would have given all of the orders himself. Nehihe must have a lot of blind trust in them. Angela hoped to meet his expectations, as well as Drone's. She wanted to be useful.

Drone led them down the right side of the hallway. “Are you with the yellow tribe? With Nehihe's people?”

She shook her head, startled by the question, as well as the fact that he even wanted to talk with her to begin with. “No, I'm with the red tribe, I think. We haven't talked much about who we're aligned with. The most I know is we're not the bad guys.”

“You sure about that?” he asked casually.

“Well, no one from the tribe I'm working with has shoved a needle in my arm or anything. They seem to treat me like I'm a person. Not a whole lot to complain about, you know what I mean?”

He laughed. The guy was full of unexpected reactions. “Just wanted to see how into this you were. You should be questioning everything around you. You're right, they aren't forcing needles into your arm, but they're still here fighting on our planet. They don't need to be. None of them need to be here.”

“True,” she mumbled.
But I trust Alan. He wouldn't do anything to hurt me.
“So what about you? Who do you work for?”

“The local auto shop by my apartment,” he said with a smirk. “Or did you mean in terms of this alien business?”

“The alien business.” But it was also good to know where he worked as well. That said a lot about him, even if she didn't know much about him in general.

Drone picked up the pace. “They're almost near the trap.”

“How do you know?” she asked.

“It's what I do. I can log into computers. I can download information. I can do a lot of things actually. Right now, the trackers are indicating that they're close to the trap that was put in place by the security team. If we take out their central intelligence, then they'll be able to take out the trap and not have reinforcements appear out of nowhere. The enemy's plan is to fight us long enough to get their extra support here, take us captive, and probably brainwash us all into joining them.”

“And they didn't think we'd go after their central security?” she asked, amazed by how much he knew.
He can download things to his brain? That's insane! And monitor our trackers as well as know where their troops are?

Drone's gaze met hers, and she noticed he had rather pretty, olive green eyes. While the color was nice to look at, something about them set her off. He didn't have any kind of sparkle in them, which didn't match his personality in the slightest. Angela had always believed it was the sparkle in a person's gaze that showed whether a person was good or evil in nature. JD's eyes sparkled, not with innocence but with goodness. Orlando was the opposite. He had innocence as well as goodness, despite being slightly jaded. Drone had nothing.

“There's extra forces at the security center too, but you don't need to worry about them,” he said. “I've got it covered. All you have to do is watch the door for me, while I go in and bust some heads.”

“So I don't get to have any fun?” She pouted.

“I didn't say that. I just said you get to watch the door. The reason I picked you is because I trust you to do what needs to be done. My sister, Gabby, she gets a little carried away. She'd go looking for trouble. Can't have that.”

“Sister? I thought she was some kind of a jealous girlfriend, the way she keeps glaring at me,” Angela said.

He laughed. “She is jealous, but that's not something I'm going to get into. Oh, and just so you know, we
are
on the same side, working for the same people.”

Does that mean he's with the red tribe too?
She was about to ask him when they turned a corner, and she caught sight of two masked guards standing outside of a door. Drone nodded at her quickly, that was all the permission she needed to summon up a ball of fire and hurl it at them. There was a small explosion, not something she was anticipating, and it caused her ears to ring slightly. The two guards were unconscious, their clothing lightly singed.

Drone didn't say anything to her. He ripped the masks off of the guards, two young men; again, no one she recognized. These two were older in age than the girl, probably even older than her, and in their twenties. “Stay here, no matter what you hear. Stay,” Drone said.