PHENOMENAL GIRL 5 (33 page)

Everyone was up now.

“Start explaining, Simon,” Rath said. “And it had better be good.”

Simon seemed to realize he had made a miscalculation. “I was just trying to raise my profile, I wasn’t
helping
them! Jihad came to me, said they wanted to start a fight. I thought any villain crazy enough to request a battle had to be easy to put down, and who knew what damage they’d do if we didn’t show up? So I met with them, started fighting with them, and called you guys. I took out a bunch of major players myself, and was about to take Jihad to the cops when
he
went mental.” He glared at Wesley.

“You got me and him killed!” I snapped. “And caused injury to a lot of civilians! And for what? Publicity? You make me sick, Simon.”

“And you tipped them that we were off-planet,” Rath said, his voice taut.

“Yeah, so they wouldn’t start something when we weren’t there to stop it. Duh.” Simon spoke like we were the ones being unreasonable.

“Syn killed a child that night,” Wesley said softly.

“God, you’re the stupidest person on the planet,” Mindy said.

“You’ve got explanations to make to the authorities,” Rath added.

Simon looked shocked. “But I didn’t do anything!”

“I’ll leave that up to them to decide. But you’re done here.”

“This is unbelievable!” Simon ranted to the room. “Well, fine—like I said, this team was holding me back anyway. You’ll see. You’ll see how well you do without me.”

“You’re going to tell the authorities about this,” Rath repeated.

“What for? My father has plenty of friends in Washington. They’ll clear up this misunderstanding and
your
heads will be the ones on the chopping block.”

“This isn’t a misunderstanding,” Paul growled, outraged. “I don’t care if your daddy is a senator, you’ll speak to the police about this.”

“No, I won’t.” Simon turned to walk out.

He ran into Luke, who had been standing quietly behind him. “Yes, you will.” In a lightning-fast movement, Luke struck him in the throat with two fingers. Simon collapsed on the ground, choking and gasping. Mindy threw a collar to Luke, who caught it effortlessly and snapped it on the rogue Hand. “I’ll take him downtown, sir,” he said to Rath.

“Thank you, Sensei.”

We were all silent as the two of them left.

“Wow.” Mindy broke the silence. “That was surprising. I knew he was dumb, but…wow.”

“So, did you come here for any other reason than to see Lainey and reveal that Simon is incredibly stupid?” Rath asked Wesley, somewhat peevishly. I was reminded with a mild amusement how annoying it would be to anyone for them to have their father pop in and suggest they were running things badly. How much worse would it be when you were in your sixties, your father was in his twenties, and you’d capably been running the show for years?

“The Dragon. He’s going to make a move soon.”

“So you only come around here when you need something? You need our help, and here you are,” Paul grumbled.

“Well, you know, you
are
the Elite Hands of Justice. You are supposed to be saving the world and all. If you can manage.” Wesley said.

“We do it all the time, why would this be any different?” Mindy asked, looking perplexed.

“Because this is the time it will actually be difficult,” Rath said with a sigh. “I’ve been helping with research on this. We’re standing on the precipice of something truly awful if it goes south, people.” He looked at Wesley. “It’s time we put all the cards on the table.”

“Ben, no.”

“If it’s bad enough that you’ve come here. It’s time she knew, time they all knew what we’re up against.”

I turned frightened eyes on Wesley. “What’s he talking about, Wes?”

Wesley looked like he had aged ten years in a matter of minutes. “I didn’t want to scare you, but you remember my dream?”

I grimaced. “Which one?”

“Either. You know what the Dragon’s coming for, Lainey.
You.
He’s spent all this time and preparation, casting the spell by organizing all the events to prime you. He doesn’t have much time left before the sorcery times out.”

“You want to share with the rest of the class?” Toby asked. “What’s the Dragon need?”

“Me,” I repeated, my voice sounding dead to my ears.

“Only partly,” Wesley corrected. “He really needs the Darklight, the one that has to be created through a dark soul and a pure one.”

Kate stared at him. “A child?”

“Most likely. One created between the Dragon and her,” Rath said. “He already began the process of corrupting her by having Syn take a piece of her soul and then having Jihad kill her.”

“And I helped,” Wesley said. “If I hadn’t given her part of mine
—
”

“We don’t know that,” Rath interrupted. “That may have stopped the whole thing; her soul isn’t one hundred percent pure anymore.”

“He’s still going through with it,” Wesley said. “The translation’s a bit off; it could be he wanted just a missing chunk of her soul, or it could be he wanted me to replace it with my somewhat damaged one.”

“It’s too late to worry about now,” I said. “So what do we do?”

“Until the spell times out, you stay inside,” Rath said. “One of us will stay with you at all times; this is the safest place for you.”

“I warded the building ages ago,” Wesley said. “And keep that circle of protection on you at all times.”

“How long until the spell times out?” Paul asked.

“A couple of weeks.”

“He’s going to do everything he can to draw her out,” Rath said. “We all have to be on guard. From here on out, things are going to be
really
dangerous.”

I fought back a shudder. For superheroes, what exactly did that mean?

The alarms went off and my heart raced. I shot Wesley a sharp look. We were sitting in what Rath called the Research Room, which housed all of his
—
and now a lot of Wesley’s
—
old books, doing our favorite activity as of the last couple of days: reading the vague writings and prophecies regarding the Dragon.

Wesley looked up from the book he was reading. “Is that the general alarm, or is it the full alert?”

I was already on my feet and heading toward the door. “It’s the full alert.” I raced down the hallway, knowing he’d be behind me. Since I couldn’t go out, I had become monitor girl well and true, except it had actually become an important position, since the team was split up into two groups while doing reconnaissance for the Dragon.

I went to the monitors, barely sitting as I hit buttons. Mindy had created tiny devices that acted as GPS systems, transporters, and communicators to link the teams to each other and to home base. Each gadget was barely bigger than a pinky fingernail, and was hidden behind the hero’s ear, so no villain could see it, grab it, or end up somehow using it to get into our base.

“Report,” I said into the microphone in front of the computer.

The speakers hissed and a tinny sound came through. “
Lainey?
”

Wesley joined me. “Who is it?”

“It’s Mindy,” I said to him, and then to her: “Mindy, I hear you. Go ahead.”

“
It’s chaos out here
,” she said, and I could hear blasting and God knows what else going on in the background. “
I can’t tell if it’s the Dragon, but someone major’s running the show
.” A strange sound like snarling could be heard, and Mindy cursed. Her voice was temporarily lost to blasting from the laser gun she had with her. “
It’s like a horror movie down here, all sorts of nightmare creatures attacking.
”

Wesley was clacking keys furiously next to me. “Ben and Kate are still with the Power Squad, trying to recruit a new member to take Simon’s place.” He pulled up a new frequency. “I’ll call them, see if I can send them and the Power Squad to her location.”

I nodded. “Min? Help’s on its way, okay? We’re calling in the Power Squad and Rath and Kate. Can you see anyone else?”

“
I’m hunkered down, I can’t see anything
,” she said, and I could hear more blasting. “
When we got here, he split us up. Last I saw, Toby was in the air somewhere, and Paul was blasting something that looked like a giant troll. I…
” Her voice broke. “
I haven’t seen Luke since he was fighting this thing that looked like the Devil with claws.
”

I winced, knowing how much that would hurt her. “Just hang tight, okay? They’ll be there soon.”

Wesley gave me a thumbs up and nodded. “They’ve got the coordinates, they’re on their way. It’s a big enough mess that some other teams are already going in. The Five should be there any minute.”

I bit my lip, knowing Selena would be there and that magic was her super-vulnerability, her weakness. “Mindy, some other teams are going to be on location.”

“
I’m almost out of power
,” Mindy said, referencing her gun. “
These things are still coming at me.
”

Wesley started typing again. “I’m locating the others, give
me a minute.” The computer was running slow as usual. “Damn it, we have the world’s most superior technology, and this computer’s still worthless.
Lavoro ora
,” he said, and laid a hand on the computer. It brought up the locations of the others.

I stared at him. “Teach me that sometime.”

“It’s tricky. Machinery doesn’t like magic.” He scooted closer to look over my shoulder. “Paul’s too far away from her, Toby’s…”

He cut off as we both heard Mindy scream, and a loud roar filled the speakers.

I stared in horror at the computer. “Oh, my God. Mindy!” I smacked the button to speak to her. “Min? Mindy? Can you hear me?”

Wesley was talking to someone else on the other computer. He sounded just as panicked as I was.

My fault. All my fault
, ran through me. If it weren’t for me, they wouldn’t be in this situation. Because I knew this was about the Dragon and his scheme.

“Mindy?” I called one more time, tears beginning to well in my eyes.

Silence greeted me.

A new voice trickled in, laced with an Irish accent. “Come to me, little girl. It’s inevitable.”

An icy feeling raced through me. It was the voice of the Dragon! I recognized it from my dreams.

“I know you can hear me, my innocent,” he continued. “It’ll be easier on all your little friends if you just submit to me now. Our time is coming, can’t you feel it?”

I didn’t realize it, but I had backed away from the computer.

“Next time, they all die, not just one,” he said, and then what sounded like an explosion followed. I jumped, feeling the tears trickling down my face.

Seconds later, there was a strange sound in the corner, and Luke teleported in, holding a body in his arms. I panicked,
remembering Mindy’s scream, until a second later, she teleported in too, holding her bleeding stomach.

“Simon—he just showed up to help,” she said, obviously thunderstruck and cocking her head toward the body Luke was carrying over to the nearest table. “That thing would have killed me if he hadn’t fought it. I can’t believe it…after what happened, he still wanted to help.” She shook her head when Wesley went to her. “No, help him first.”

Luke frowned, going to her side. “You need help too, Mindy.”

“I’ll be okay, I just need to lie down.” She stumbled, and I hurried to catch her as she passed out from the pain.

Luke’s face paled, and he rushed over to me, sweeping Mindy up and knocking a bunch of stuff off the war room table to lay her down, his normally calm demeanor gone. A hundred emotions played across his face. “There was some kind of monster trying to eat her and Simon.” He looked murderous and sick at the same time. “Simon had already done a number on it, but I finished it off.”

“With what?”

His eyes were blank. “My hands.”

My eyes skittered down to look at his hands, which were coated in strange blood that was not Mindy’s or Simon’s.

“Simon’s fading fast, but he’s not gone yet, thank God. I wouldn’t be able to work the resurrection spell again. I shouldn’t have even been able to do it with Lainey.” Wesley was talking more to himself than us. “And I’ve lost a lot of power since then.”

“You can do it,” I said, slipping my hand into his. “I’ll help.”

Toby and Paul teleported in. Toby announced, “Well, the Dragon did the typical my-evil-plan-is-in-place-and-you’ll-pay-next-time thing. Everything just disappeared and…” He trailed off as he saw Mindy, who had passed out, and Simon. “God, no.”

“This shit’s getting old quick,” Paul said to Wesley, who
was standing over Simon, beginning a spell. “Look at the unholy mess you’ve brought on us. You stay away for years…”

“You all need to leave,” Wesley interrupted, his voice commanding. “You’re breaking my concentration.”

I got up, and he sighed. “It figures you’d be the only one who listens to me. No
—
Lainey stay; everyone else go. I may need to borrow from you,” he said to me.

Oh, joy. But if it would save Simon and help Mindy, I’d take the excruciating pain.

Toby snagged Paul. “Come on, man. Mindy has some sort of alien healing technology in her room, but I’ll be damned if I know which of all the gadgets it is. You’re a scientist, you might be able to figure it out.”

Paul nodded and gave Wesley a look. “We’re not finished.”

Wesley’s blue eyes shot him a challenging look, then he went back to work on Simon, whispering softly in Italian. Toby yanked Paul out of the room.

“Luke, out,” Wesley said, looking up, pausing a moment in his incantations.

“I’m staying with Mindy,” Luke said.

“There’s nothing you can do,” I argued, going over to him.

He shot me a nasty look. “There’s nothing you can do, either.”

“I have some magic, so that’s where you’re wrong. Believe me, sometimes I’d rather not, what with the horrible pain of being drained, but if it’ll help save them…”

“If she dies…”

“
Now
, Luke,” Wesley snapped.

“Wes, it’s okay.” I realized why Luke was freaking. “What the hell is wrong with you men? Why do you wait until a girl is dying or critically injured before you realize you have feelings for her?”