Metahuman Book 1: Augmented

Prologue

This is a story about my “family”. Now, We're a bit weird but, if we weren't weird, you'd be dead. There’s Camille our shapeshifter, Gryffen our elemental user, Damian our ninja, my biological sister Alex, Joseph our firearms expert and resident pyromaniac, Rachel, Cammy, Marta, Robert and Charles, the resident bird-kids, and finally me. Cypher used to be a part of our family and he was the brainiac strategist until he betrayed us and nearly killed Camille twice. This story needs to be told and fast. Cypher’s forces are still out there and they are slowly taking over the world. It’s my job to stop them, our job to stop them. I hope you’ll join me, because if you don’t and we die. You’re all screwed. So listen up! This is a call to arms, get out there and oppose Cypher! We can do this!

The Saviors of Humanity,

Avery, Alex, Joseph, Camille, Damian, and Gryffen

Chapter 1

Fugitive

I’m jolted awake by the noise of glass breaking. My fuzzy brain tries to process the sound but to no avail. I know that nothing should be happening at 2:00 AM, but I can’t get out of bed. After I hear a muffled thump I finally will myself to get up. I stumbled into the hallway and call out, “Mom? Dad? Alexa? Yo Alex, dearest sister, where are you?” No one responds so I walk into Alex’s room and see the curtains ripped. Everything’s in pieces including, Alex’s first place dance trophy. I know something is wrong. That girl would KILL to keep her room intact. Trust me, I’ve been on the receiving end of one of her frenzies. Then I see what is on the bed. Alex is lying down and this dragon-like creature has pinned her and is getting ready to kill her. Without thinking I charge the creature and slammed into it hurling it into the wall. I began punching it until I hear Alex scream. I turn, 3 masked men are trying to take her away. She is kicking and screaming and suddenly energy pulses from her, throwing all to the ground. I hear a noise in my parent’s room and in seconds they are punching and kicking our assailants away (Ooh fancy word, yeah, right). My father Kevin beats down (that’s more like it) his opponent and says, “Get to the study! Pull the lever! You know where it is. It can only be used once! GO!” My mother, Paula kicks another one the window, ‘oooh that HAD to hurt’. Kevin backhands another attacker and we run, pell-mell for the study. Beams of light slash down the hall after us and we somehow out run them. I don’t know what lever he was talking about, but when we reach the room Alex yanks a lever on the side of the wall that I had never noticed before. Two devices that I would soon know as instant-changing chambers popped out. We step inside and in a flash I was in my favorite pair of jeans and a shirt. Alex is out seconds before me and she’s in white short-shorts, and a pink top. A hidden door has also opened up and we sprint through it. As soon as I’m through it slams shut and glow lamps illuminate the tunnel. I soon overtake Alex, having actually participated in the track meets at school instead of watching from the sidelines. We emerge from the tunnel and find ourselves in a vast hanger filled with aircraft. Alex looks around for the perfect craft looks-wise, while I dash around checking the speed and armament of the different ships. Finally we find a perfect one with a top speed of mach 4 and tons of weapons. It looked just like a regular Gulfstream…with missile launchers and cannons. As soon as we step inside the ship a blue AI pops up from a holo-display on the control panel, “Greetings. I am Alexandra, I my duty is to take you to the Stronghold and guide you from there. Please strap in.” We do and I ask Alexandra, “Can you teach me to fly this thing?” Alexandra looks pleased when she says, “Yes. We’ll start right now. Do you remember the flight simulations your father always taught you to do? The control’s are just like that.” I nod and hit the ignition. The engine roars to life and I start to drive it forward. The ship picks up speed until finally we are roaring down the runway. A door opens up and we raced through it gaining altitude quickly. As we fly higher our house explodes and I screamed, “MOM! DAD! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” I see several ships fly after us and turn to meet them. I fire the main cannons and watch them explode. I dive for the remains of the house and leap out yelling to Alexandra, “Take the controls!” I land and immediately more masked people come after me. I truck through them somehow and with the last one I launch into a spinning roundhouse kick, which slammed the guy through a wall. I turn and try to find my parents but I can’t see due to the fire and smoke. I run out the door and am thrown to the ground as the house exploded. I stumble to the jet and run in. Alexandra flies away as the rest of the house explodes behind us. Alex is crying and I lay a hand on her shoulder. She leans on my shoulder and begins bawling. I draw her close and we just sit there in shock and grief. I think that was one of the first times we ever looked to each other for comfort in the past 3 months. Alexandra calls out from the pilots chair, “Incoming ships, beginning evasive maneuvers. Strap in.” We weave and dodge through lasers (yes lasers, apparently we’re in Star Wars now) and Alex and I barely hang onto our dinner. Suddenly Alexandra pulls up and loops around our pursuers. “Gotcha!” she whispers and cuts loose with the cannons. All the ships explode and we fly through the debris. Well that’s a shock. Let’s see, extreme awesomeness list: Alex throwing people to the ground with sheer willpower, epic hanger filled with amazing planes and other fighting craft, me kicking a dude through 1-no make that 2 walls, and finally that stunt that Alexandra pulled just now. But of course, since it’s my life it has to get weirder, because just then, we land at the Stronghold and all hell breaks loose.

The plane rolls to a stop inside a vast hanger and we walk out. I see Alexandra’s avatar transferred to a projector that is among 10 arranged around the room, “Welcome to the Stronghold. This is your new home.” Alexa has another pulse of energy and then suddenly collapses along with me in a burst of pain. Two hands haul me to my feet as a treasure trove of knowledge and power streams through my brain. A girl’s voice says, “Gryffen! Get the girl.” Then to me, “Get up, you are not dying on me.” I drowsily reply, “Yes ma’am.” I open my eyes and see an Asian girl carrying me through a door and setting me on a table. ‘Whoa she’s HOT!’  I try to get up but one look from the girl makes me lie back. She looks apologetic, “Sorry, but we need to be cautious during the transition period. You’re getting your powers. I’m Camille and Gryffen has your…” “Sister.” I say quickly, “She’s my sister, Alexa or Alex. I’m Avery Jackson. You can call me AJ or Avery” A flash of emotion crosses, Camille’s face is it relief, amusement? She takes my hand helps me up. Her hand is soft and I make sure not to hold on too tight. She leads me through a door and up into an elevator. There’s still a down button but Camille hits the up button. The elevator whisks us upwards at an alarming rate and I grab onto a rail. She laughs and I look at her. I can’t help but rake--sorry, rake is too harsh a word. How about slide? Yeah, I slide my eyes over her physique. She’s trim and definitely fit. I peel my eyes away to see the main foyer of the Stronghold and I think, ‘Holy crap! This is our house?’ The main hall is at least 50 ft. tall and all around the room are busts of famous people. I walk through the middle of the hall and as I turn the corner, I see Alex and a bunch of boys sitting around a fireplace. I immediately start forward thinking, ‘Oh HECK NO!’ but Camille grabs my shoulder and whirls me around, “Let me introduce you to your new family.”

A golden-haired boy stands and says, “I’m Gryffen, the elemental user.” Then, just to prove his point water and fire flash from his hands. Another guy, brown haired, “I’m Joseph, firearms expert and pyromaniac”. He whips out two pistols and with uncanny accuracy shoots the center of two targets. Then he lights himself on fire. A tall kid with black eyes and sandy hair step’s forward and says, “The name’s Cypher. Jack Cypher. I’m the brainiac. Ask me any math equation or military strategy and I’ll know it.” He then proceeds to instruct me on how to destroy a heavily fortified enemy stronghold. During all this I’m masking my shock but when Damian turns invisible, I have to say, I’m pretty impressed. My jaw actually drops when I turn to Camille to ask what she can do and I am staring at an exact copy of me! “Shapeshifter.” I guess.  Camille responds in my voice, which creeps me out so much, “Yep. So, what can you do AJ?” Immediately by sheer willpower I levitate everyone and say, “Psychic powers, flight, energy projection, super strength, enhanced speed, fire, and paralyzation.” They actually try to back up at this last one. Damian whispers, “He’s loaded!” Alex nods knowingly, “I have all of that, except the paralyzation and the fire. I have ice instead but nothing instead of the paralyzation. But enough of that, how did we get here and why are you here?” Camille looks at me, “Do you know who your father really was?”

Chapter 2

Number 1 Dad

“Judging by the nature of your question, no I don’t.” I reply as Camille begins walking towards a projector. A screen pops out and I flick my arm and dim the lights. The projector starts and a movie of my dad starts. As the film goes I suddenly realize that his scientific research on genetics was a cover for something else. He had experimented on the others and me! I step back like I had been punched. Camille sees my shock and looks at me sympathetically, “You had no idea? Oh, that must be so hard.” Anger roils inside me but in a calm voice I says, “You have no idea.” The movie documents the changing of our genes as he exposed us to direct radiation and gene splicing. It then showed how we grew stronger and faster and better than normal. When it ends, I’m shocked and Alex is near breakdown again. Gryffen stands and looked at the others, “Hey, we’ll leave you guys for some time alone. You can stay with us but if you want to leave, by all means, go.” Camille puts a hand on my shoulder, “See you later.”

I look at Alex, “Did you know?” She looks at me, “I suspected. I didn’t have proof. I actually remember what he did to me. All the needles, it was horrible AJ!” I’m shocked, she remembers! How this is possible, I don’t know, ‘cause I don’t remember jack. I try to contemplate this but she stands up, “Why did he do it? Was he preparing for this? Was it government sanctioned? No, it probably wasn’t. I refuse to believe that. It was probably private, for a corporation of some sort. Maybe the same corporation that was after us! Do you think that dad betrayed the company because making us would save the world instead of them destroying it?” I’m warming to her idea and shoot to my feet, “We’re joining them. We have to, if we want to find out what our purpose is, or perhaps Alexandra knows…” I call out, “Hey Alexandra, do you know why we’re here?”

“Certainly.”

“Why?”

“You and the others need to stop the SOLAX Corporation from taking over the world. They are creating weapons based on solar energy and a backup fusion battery. Soon they will amass an army or robots and destroy all the nations of the world. Already they are looking for you and have homed in on your position.” I stand there numb and Alex has to slap me to get me awake again. We pelt upstairs, “Alexandra says that there’s a task force coming!” Camille blinks like she herself had been slapped, “Oh, no,” but Gryffen launches into action, “Battle stations everyone! Cypher bring those turret’s online! Damian set the traps, Joseph, activate the defense androids! Camille, Avery, Alexa come with me. We have work to do”

            Five minutes later I’m explaining my strategy to Camille, who is apparently the leader. I want to set up defensive barriers and have the androids defend from there. Then we attack after the first or second wave. Cypher wants to fight fire with fire and attack them without support. In the end Camille goes with my strategy because, “Like I said, none of us are dying today.” A flash of pure rage crosses Cypher’s face before he is calm again. “Fine,” he snaps, “we’ll do it your way.” He storms away and Camille looks worried, “Damn it.”

            The squad leader walks out of the aerial transport to his snow-bike. His troops would be attacking a base hidden somewhere in this area. Apparently their enemies are children. Well, not just any children, mutant children. His mission is to catch them by surprise and try to break their defenses. Then the aerial transports would put troops directly on the ground to support them. He straps a saber to his back and motions to his squad, “Mount up!” They climb onto their bikes and race away over the cold, hard snow.

            I walk out into the snow (yeah there were windows in the hall and I didn’t know it was snowing. Quite sad.), and see the bikes speeding towards us guns blazing. I yell “NOW!” and Gryffen makes lightning flash out of the sky and strike three of them. I sprint forward as the androids begin firing, running along with me. Three more explode due to hidden claymores. The bikes stop a quarter of a mile away and the soldiers kick them over crouching behind them and firing. Clearly they didn’t expect this much of a fight. There are 37 soldiers left and they are firing with uncanny accuracy at me and the androids and several fall even though it’s a bit hard to see. I’m deflecting everything with my hands and thinking, ‘All I need is a Mechquest Energy Sword, then I would be golden’ I loose bolts of energy from my hands hitting two of them. I realize that I’ve killed them and I begin to feel sick. Suddenly some hidden impulse banishes all feelings of wrongness. I spin and blast another soldier and then slam others into a tree with so much force that they continue to fly backwards through the surrounding forest. I can dimly hear everyone else fighting in the background but I only have eyes for what’s in front of me. I kill the squad leader and take his saber. Then I run at the masses utterly obliterating them. I parry a slash from a soldier and lop his head off. I stab two others running past me. One leaps at me slashing downwards. I sidestep and stab him in the chest. Another soldier has his chest staved in by my punch. 3 others have their necks snapped and I look around. Blood spurts around me as the others join in. Camille is a huge black wolf and she’s slashing with her claws. Joseph is burning people and mowing them down with twin SMG’s. Gryffen has made a sword of ice and is making short work of all his opponents. Out of the mist loom several transports and Alex uses her psychic abilities to smash them together. The explosion lights up the sky and more bikes come our way. Damian pulls out a katana and leaps from bike to bike slashing and stabbing. Cypher leads the androids and they give us fire support. I pick up another sword and go on a rampage, stabbing, slashing and generally causing panic. I backhand one soldier and then stab him as I spin. The others use their powers and we destroy the next batch of foot soldiers with the androids keeping pace. I see transports coming in and fly to meet them. Energy fires from my hands and spear the nearest ships. They explode and 3 others ships are caught in the explosions. Jetpack soldiers attack me after I stab the engines of two other transports. I punch them with supernatural speed and strength, knocking them out cold in normally 1 punch. I see their Base of Operations in the distance and without a further thought aim a huge beam of energy at it. After about five seconds the base explodes throwing all to the ground. I fly towards it and slam into the ground in the center of everything. If the explosion didn’t kill people, the shockwave did the trick. I stand and run back to the group, “We’re done here.” Camille morphs from a bear back to a human, “THAT WAS AMAZING!” The rest agree, “That was pretty awesome dude.” Even Cypher admits that I did well, “In fact, with a little practice, you could surpass Camille as leader.” I look at her for some reaction but her face is neutral. When she speaks, her voice is deadly, “Forget your power play Cypher. Avery is not one of your pawns.” Cypher responds in an equally deadly voice, “No, your right, you all are.” With that he pulls a knife on us and tries to attack Camille. I step in front of her but I don’t see the lone rouge android shoot at her. That’s doesn’t hurt her much but Cypher teleports behind her and stabs her with a saber he picked up. I kick Cypher away and hold Camille. Alex begins to fight Cypher as I sprint towards the Stronghold. I lay her on an operating table in the med room and Alexandra begins to work, “You have to save her.” Alexandra works quickly and effectively. Even so, she’s hard pressed to stop the bleeding. Finally it stems and she to puts an auto-healing patch over Camille’s abdomen. She also administers painkillers to her. All the while I’m trying to calm myself. My adrenaline is pumping at twice its normal rate. I feel faint and before I know what’s happening I pass out on the floor.

Chapter 3

Dreamland is Not Happy

            I wake up in my now burning house. I know it’s a dream but I can’t help but jump when tongues of flame reach out towards me. Suddenly they part as a figure walks towards me. The figure looks at me before saying in a deep baritone voice, “Avery. Come to me my son. I am waiting.” I back up, “You’re not my father! What have you done with him?” The figure laughs, a hearty bellow that pisses me off even further, “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH HIM!” I burst into flames, and soon all the fire in the house is swirling around me in a spiral, “I will tear you limb from limb! YOU WILL WISH YOU HAD NEVER TAKEN MY FATHER!” The voice becomes quiet, “I answer to no man, boy. I am evil incarnate! I AM ZEPHOS! “Zephos whips out a huge red sword and launches himself at me. My fire blazes even higher and he flies back, being chased by my fire. Arms and claws of fire reach for him as he dodges around the house destroying stuff. Suddenly he’s behind me! He raises his sword for the kill but the dream ends and I wake up in a cold sweat, whoever this guy is, he really doesn’t like me now.

            After that lovely dream I rise and find myself beside Camille who is breathing slowly. I get up, stretching and walk over to her. She’s awake and turns her head, “Hey, hero.”

            “It was nothing.”

            “Yeah, right. You saved my life! How can I forget about that?”

            “I don’t know. Just, I don’t think that you’re ready for what I have to say.”

            Camille stopped teasing, “And what is that?”

            I gathered myself before speaking, “I…I love you. That’s why I rushed back here so fast. I could have healed you, but I wanted to bring you back here. The first time I saw you smile I knew I had to make you smile like that again.” All the words are coming out now and it sounds like a jumbled mess. Camille listens patiently and when I’m finished says, “You know, I think your cute too.” I put my hands on my hips and assume a mock annoyed expresion, “Not hot? Cute?” She smiles, “Oh your hot. I said that to make you hotter. Your soooooo cute when you’re embarrassed.” Just like that she accepted me, “So, we’re together?”

“Yeah”

“Cool.”

She raises herself up onto one arm and pulls me closer, “Well while we’re alone I might as well do this.” Then she kissed me full on the lips. Yeah, it was pretty sweet. I pulled her to her feet and we leaned into it. After we come apart we’re both breathing hard. I get one look at her face and laughed, “I imagine that we both look like lovestruck fools.” She laughs and then tenses up, “Did you sense that?” I cast out my senses with my psychic powers and hear a muffled roar coming this way. “NO!” I bellow, and cast up an energy wall between all the walls and us.  Then the door explodes inwards.

            Cypher barrels in brandishing a blood red laser sword and my mind flashes to Zephos. I’m skeptical to the use and practicality of such a weapon but I psychically grab two of his other weapons off his belt, one for me and one for Camille, leaving him without a backup. We ignite our swords; mine being purple and hers green. He laughs at us as several more rouge androids come it and begin firing. We deflect the bolts of energy and slash them to pieces. I step to engage Cypher and he ignites a second side of the blade. Camille and I attack slashing and stabbing at his defenses. I flip over him and slash at his head backwards. He blocks it while blocking a low slash from Camille. He pushes us away as Alexandra says, “Missiles incoming, activating defenses.” He runs down the hall but I stop him, yanking him back to me. I’m about to stab him but Camille cries out, “Avery!” I turn as laser bolts are launched our way. I push Cypher away, hard and turn to block the projectiles being sent our way. We manage to destroy the other rouge androids with their own lasers. Camille and I hear the missiles being shot down. We rush to the window and see hundreds of troopers advancing on the Stronghold. The defenses are cutting them down by the dozens. Suddenly, bombers fly in and line up with the Stronghold. A huge shield activates and forms a protective dome over the Stronghold. I turn and sprint to the hanger as the bombers fly into the shield and are blown to bits, “Let’s fly.”

            I leap into a modified SR-71 Blackbird with gauss cannons and missiles. It roars out of the hanger and I fly into the midst of the ships, blasting away. Explosions surround me as I fire my cannons at the bombers and fighters. Soon they scramble more ships as Camille flies out in a Nighthawk stealth bomber. The others are fighting on the ground and watch as we race over their heads. We race towards the new Base of Operations and fire our missiles. As it turns out, there is an invisible shield so we fly around looking for the generator. My sensors spot it 15 miles away. I engage the Mach and go to 3.2. I’m there in 8 seconds and I slow down towards the end. I fire my missiles and it blows to pieces. I fly back at Mach 3.2 and see the base under attack. Suddenly it blows and we’re racing against an explosion. We’re flying as fast as we can as the others retreat into the Stronghold. I pull up and Camille follows me mimicking my evasive moves a millisecond after I make them. We out-fly the explosion and I whoop as we fly back into the hanger. As I land Alexandra says, “I have your first lead, I need you to get to Cypher’s room immediately!”

            Five minutes later we were all clustered around Cypher’s computer with Damian slicing through the codes, “Amazing! He was corresponding with the enemy but kept all of their secrets on his computer. It’s a miracle that he didn’t succeed with his assassination attempt.” I rose, “We can use this information to strike a crippling blow to SOLAX. We also have to lock down this computer in the most high tech vault we have. Damian, I trust you with that.” They looked at Camille and she nodded, “Do what he says, he got us through two battles. I trust him.” Damian nodded and continued gleaning things from the laptop. Alex looked at me and I nodded. A flash of pride shone in her eyes as she smiled. “OK, Gryffen, I need you to research SOLAX and see where the closest base is. Alex and John you guys prep a ship with supplies and weapons. Take all of Cypher’s weapons if you need to, just stock up. Camille you come with me, we’re going on a little recon.”

            We walk out and put brown cloaks on. We pull the hoods over our heads and walk into the snow. After we clear the perimeter we begin to run, cloaks flapping in our wake. Soon we run into some SOLAX soldiers from the last attack. We slash through them and keep going. After we go through the woods, with their slapping branches we emerge into a clearing. Suddenly an explosion throws us to the ground and I groggily look up. Cypher is standing on a boulder, hand outstretched. He just blasted us!

Chapter 4

 Round One

            I literally fly to my feet and ignite my blade, attacking him in rage mode. I drive him backwards relentlessly slashing and hacking. Camille is dealing with the soldiers that have surrounded us and is making short work of them. Suddenly Cypher teleports to a ledge and watches mutant lizard-men leap out of the ground and attack us. Camille and I back up and I say, “Such fair odds!” We stand there, back-to-back, fending them off. She’s slashing low and I’m going high. “I have to say,” she pants, “We make a really good team.” We dispatch more enemies and then leap apart as a huge one with armor attacks. He roars at me and I get into a fighting stance. He throws a punch and I catch it. His arm trembles and I snap it. He howls and I follow that up with a brutal barrage of punches, kicks and uppercut’s to his face. I slam another one into the ground killing it instantly. A third get’s deep-fried from 30 yards out. As I walk away towards Cypher I spin my sword and stab the fourth one, which was creeping up behind me, “Oh yeah, I’m good.”

            Cypher backs up as I leap onto the ledge. I feel like a Jedi-freakin’-Master and say, “Much to learn, you still have.” He launches himself at me and I make a wide sweeping attack, intended to cut his head off. He blocks it and retaliates. We slash at each other with enough power to make the mountain tremble. It’s lightning fast and I can tell that he can barely track my sword. The only reason he can block is because he anticipates my moves. Suddenly 6 missiles streak towards us and I leap away as they slam into the mountain and it explodes throwing rocks everywhere We leap from rock to rock slashing at each other whenever we get the chance. I run up a rock, slash another in half, blast a third and attack Cypher. I land and Cypher throws a huge spear shaped rock at me. I punch it and it splits in half. I sprint towards him dodging more rocks and slapping and kicking other aside. I attack him again and he flies backwards into a cliff face. He manages to get away right before I spear him and a dropship picks him up. I leap towards it but it fires lasers at me and I’m forced to fall back down blocking as I do so. I touch down and look to try and grab the dropship with telekinesis but its gone. I scowl at the sky and turn back. Camille joins me and we run back to the Stronghold.

            When we come back Alex and the others are waiting watching the dust rain down. John speaks first, “That was quite a display. Jesus, you’re powerful.” My scowl darkens, “He was lucky that his dropship came when it did. I wasn’t able to catch up to it in time.” Damian pats me on the back and says, “Come on. The Shadowhawk is ready.” I look at him quizzically but his expression says, ‘later’.

            I soon find out what later meant as when I walk into the hanger I see an oversized, Blackbird fighter, but with room for about 8 people and weapons to boot. Damian gives me a mock salute, “Captain we are ready for launch!”

“Excellent, prepare for cast-off. Secure everything and give us the fastest possible route to SOLAX. They’re about to receive the gift of eternal sleep.”

Chapter 5

Round 2

            Damian takes the ship up as I review the armament. There are 4 laser cannons, 5 magazines of missiles with 10 missiles each, and four gun-pods, two attached to the top and two that pop out of the bottom. There are also top-of-the-line sensor systems and radar jammers installed and it can go to Mach 4. I activate the sensor and the sonar and tell Camille to keep her eyes and ears peeled for anything suspicious. I tramp to the back and try to catch some z’s.

            In my dream, I’m in a gigantic hall with high-tech screens and equipment all around me. There are people all around and they’re busily typing and moving stuff on touchpads. Cypher walks in the room and everyone salutes. A scientist comes to his side and I creep forward, “Sir, they are on their way. We are scrambling everything. The AA Cannons are online.” Cypher nods, “Have 100 men in each section of the woods.” Slowly he turns and looks right at me as if he can see me. Suddenly a net falls down and electrocutes me. I scream, a high pitch girly scream that is not my own. I look at myself in the polished floor, and see my long hair, my legs and chest. I realize that I’m a girl. My change nonetheless, I look up with venom in my gaze, “What do you want, Cypher?” Cypher activates his sword but I don’t flinch. He leans closer touching my face, “Oh my dear Rachael. I want revenge.” I lurch to my feet and shake my head, “Rachael, whoever you are…we’re coming.”

            I sink into the pilot’s seat and check the radar, “Incoming bogies! They know we’re coming! Gun pods get ready!” We race out of the clouds and into a maze of lasers lancing up at us. I check my sword and look at the base, “You guys ready?” John responded from the upper gun-pod, “Yeah just let us get through this! Then, I’m good.” I fire the cannons and lasers stitch the air interspersed with explosions. Fighters race all around us and I maneuver through. Fighters fly in front of me and I destroy them all. Others loop around and go behind us. John and the others rotate their cannons to follow them and knock out all of them. We burst forward and I fire some rockets. They streak towards the ground and I follow them down into a clearing. I lower the ramp and we all leap out firing and slashing. One trooper punches me while my back is turned and I stumble. I barely recover to dodge a blow from a rock spear wielded by another giant lizard man. I punch it in half again. This time I throw my sword and slice the lizard-man in half. I summon my sword and run through the forest with the others, owning everything in sight. I blast a hole in the wall of their base and we run inside. We knock out the scientists as Cypher walks into the room. I turn to him with a snarl on my face, “Guys. Go find a tall girl with wings. I’ve got Cypher.”

            I run at him slashing in pure rage. It seems that I can feel everything in the room at once and I stab two drones flying in silently behind me. They fall, smoking and I advance on Cypher. He readies himself as I attack with an up-down pattern. We whirl, cutting at each other in a deadly dance, well not really a dance, but kinda, since there were steps and everything had to be perfect. Suddenly the wall explodes next to me as he activates a mine. I’m thrown across the chamber and he begins pummeling me. Camille runs into the room and flying-side-kicks Cypher away, green blade ablaze. I groggily get up as they fight. I see that Camille is clearly outmatched in every way. She whirls away with a determined look on her face but quickly leaps back into the fray, hair flying. Cypher cuts Camille sideways from shoulder to hip as she tries to stab him. Just then, the rest of the group runs in with Rachael. I roar in anger and begin punching Cypher as fast as I can. I then summon my sword and stab him. He clutches his stomach and falls. I would have cut off his head, but just then Camille groans. I heal her as fast as I could, but she turns pale right before I finished. I redouble my efforts and she gets up shaking, “That’s the second time. The SECOND TIME that he got me!” With a huge effort Cypher gets up and leans on a table for support, “Ahh, Rachael, you’re free. Maybe you should tell your new friends, what you’ve done.” Rachael, dressed in all black, pales. Cypher smirks and then doubles over grimacing in pain, “You, Rachael Marina Johnson, have started this entire debacle. You transferred the genes to everyone else. You volunteered! How can you live with yourself? I am trying to make things right. Without SOLAX, the world will be destroyed, and it’s all because of you. YOU Rachael, no one else! Without you the experiment could have never gone on, but NO! You had to spread the mutagen.” Rachael was seething and spat, “You’re not trying to make it right, you’re trying to kill us all!” This is when I know Cypher has lost it, “That does make it right. YOU ALL MUST DIE!” He begins rambling on about Rachael but she repudiates Cypher’s claims of being a traitor to humanity. Finally we see that he has healed himself. He picks up his sword and blasts the roof open. A rope comes down from a chopper and he grabs it. Rachael shouts, “NO!” and grabs my sword off my belt. She unfurls her wings (15 ft. long with pure white primaries with brown and white speckled secondary’s) and leaps into the air. She ignites the sword and streaks towards him. He activates his sword and she makes several passes trying to cut the rope. Suddenly troops appear in the side of the chopper and begin firing at her. I move the guns with telekinesis and they hit the rotors sending it crashing to the ground. Rachel grabs a grenade and chucks it a Cypher. He slices it in half, but it explodes throwing all of us to the ground. When we rise, Cypher’s gone and there’s the sound of a plane roaring away. I search for it with my mind and find it racing to the north. Suddenly 4 other winged people fly through the hole and race towards Rachael. The biggest of them a boy with gray feathers, immediately zeroes in on me as the biggest threat and attacks. I simply flick my hand and he goes crashing into the wall, stunned. I grab my sword from Rachael still hovering with an amused expression on her face. The guy gets up and tries to dive-bomb me but I leap aside and he smacks into the ground at terminal velocity knocking himself out. The others cringe and I revive him, “Are you ok?” He nods, embarrassed. I help him up and say, “Just so you know, we got her out, so calm down buddy.” Another cute girl with green eyes and black wings floats down and says, “Yeah Charlie gets a little, overprotective at times.” Charlie glares at her and she smiles teasingly. His face brightens and he laughs, “Yeah I guess. As you know, I’m Charlie, this is Cammy,” the black-winged girl bats her lashes at me and Camille clears her throat loudly. Charlie goes on, “The tawny one up there is Marta, and the albino with the golden eyes is Robert. You already know Rachael.” I let the group step forward and introduce themselves and finally I step forward, “And I’m Avery Jackson, A.J. for short. So,” I look at the others, “ do you have a place to stay?”

            An hour later, we’re at the Stronghold going over the data captured from their computers. The newcomers are making themselves at home—well technically, it was their home now. I walked down to Camille’s room and knocked on the door.

           “Come in.”

           “Hey.”

          “Did you see the way Cammy was looking at you?”

          “Huh?”

          “She looked like she wanted to jump on you and start…you know!”

          “Okaaaaaaaaayyyyyy? That’s kinda strange, but alright then.”

          “You are my boyfriend. I am not going to have some bird-girl come in and take you! I swear—if she so much as hugs you longer that 5 seconds, I WILL KNOCK HER INTO LAST MONTH!”

I chuckle at that last bit, and she glares at me. I put my hands up in a placating gesture, “No need to be so, overprotective! That’s my job. I’m supposed to beat up anyone who hits on you. So stop it and let me do my job.”

          “So do something about it.”

          “I can’t yet.”

          “Why?

          “We have another SOLAX base to destroy. Soon. And I have to check on Robert. See what he’s up to.”

         She rises and walks towards the door, “Then do something after. But I’m making it clear that you are with me.” I watch her go and shake my head, “Here we go.” Now I turn to look for Robert. Something’s not right about that dude.

            I invite Robert to take a look at our facilities of training and he gladly says yes. He cracks many jokes along the way and I’m almost in tears when we open the door. Camille is in the sword-fighting arena surrounded by models of Cypher. I can tell that her swordsmanship is much better because she is fighting two at once. We walk over to the sparring mat and bow to each other. Reaching out with my mind I can see that Robert is completely calm. I get in a fighting stance and Robert launches himself at me, golden eyes cold.

Chapter 6

Avenge the Fallen

            I evaluate Robert while we spar. He seems affable (I’m trying to use sophisticated words so bear with me) enough, with plenty of spring in his step and a propensity for cracking jokes, but there is also a deep sadness in his heart. Almost as if something has been irrevocably damaged. As I leap backwards to avoid a snap-kick, he whips out a contraband laser whip one of the newer, yet forbidden models (for now). It’s one of SOLAX’s and obviously he has worked hard to get it. I have a hard time dodging it and he almost clips my face with it on his third swing. I draw my sword and disarm him. I’ve heard a story of his adventures before any of us knew him. Apparently he was drunk once and killed 32 SOLAX members before being incarcerated. Then he had punched through the wall of his cell and fought off 100 guards before escaping. If this story is true, then he could be one of the most deadly people in the world. I dodge another kick, grab his leg and slam him into the ground. That was the final point and the score was 3-2. We bow as is the custom and walked out. As I watch him go, I feel that in 30 minutes I have discovered more than anyone will ever know about Robert.

            Damian summons us all to the main hall and as I walk in Camille sits next to me. I put my arm around her and she rests her head on my shoulder. Cammy goes, “Humph!” and turns away. I smile at Camille and Damian pulls up a map of all the SOLAX bases around the world. Apparently SOLAX is a part of everything, from cars, to baby products. “In short,” he says, “they’re a huge part of the worlds economy. Taking them out would be a major blow to the value of all money. Fortunately there are other huge companies that rival it. They’ll be able to take up where SOLAX will have left off. Our only problem is exposing SOLAX. I’m sure A.J. will explain.” I rise as if I knew this was coming, “So what we’re going to do is split up I lead one group, Camille leads another. We’re going to create enough racket that the news choppers will come and get footage of the wreckage.  Since Alex has the same powers as me, she will go with Camille. Everyone else, pick your group now. Cammy walked over to me along with Robert and Marta. Charlie and Rachel went with Camille. Damian went with me, and John with Camille. We nodded and I said, “Alright. We have the Shadowhawk you guys get another ship.” Camille nodded, “Happy hunting everyone.”

            The amorphous clouds shifted and whirled as we flew towards California. We were in the middle of a thunderstorm and the crashes and bangs of the lightning and thunder reverberated throughout the ship. Robert was once again inscrutable; his emotions became one big block when combat approached. We were hoping to get there and sneak in and out, but he seemed to sense a fight was coming. An aura of balance and calm was flowing through him. Well---that’s what I sensed. Unfortunately what I didn’t sense was that all hell was about to break loose.

The facility is huge. We do one flyby of the city and spot it immediately in the countryside. I race towards it at top speed and immediately, reaction fighters are scrambled. We race through the flak (that’s a fancy military word for explosions even when the bullets and missiles and lasers don’t hit anything) firing from all directions. I release a barrage of missiles but they impact upon an invisible shield. I curse, “We’ll have to do this the hard way.” I looped around and take the fighters head on, guns blazing. They all are shot down and we land in a clearing. We all sprint out, guns and swords ready. They’re soldiers surrounding us but we killed them all quickly. More came from the direction of the SOLAX base and I wave everyone forward blocking the bolts of, I think it its plasma, yeah, plasma. The opposing soldiers are cut down like trees in fire. I reach the door and telekinetically blast it open. We run in slashing and stabbing. Robert’s downright ruthless. He’s flipping, slashing and stabbing like a pro. I roll, come up behind him and stab someone about to shoot him in the back. In return he shoots a sniper out of his perch. Cypher runs in the room and Robert engages him laser whip crackling, “GO!” he bellows in his deep voice, “I’ll hold him off.” We run through the halls slashing and shooting anything in sight. We don’t hold back and many of the scientists are struck down. I make it to a room full of computer systems and slash them to pieces. Suddenly two plasma swords activate and a girl steps out of the shadows. She’s in a black bodysuit with two orange swords and she’s twirling them at uber-fast speeds(Yeah I said uber. What now?). I attack her and she retaliates. I blast her through 5 rooms and she rises relocating all of her broken bones. I snarl and race through the holes slamming my hand into her neck. She slams into the wall again but kicks me off of her. I fly back and attack again coming on with an up-down combo trying to clear both of her swords, she blocks my strike and swings back. My sword is blocking left and right and up and down as fast as I can. She’s insanely fast and I’m not at all surprised when she launches lightning at me. I expected it and blocked it, sending it into another data set. It short circuits and explodes the flames wash over me and I control them. When the smoke clears I’m inside another whirlwind of fire. I smile wickedly and reach out my arms of flame to chase her. She throws lightning but the heat only fuels my fire. Finally she rears back and launches a huge one at me. I enclose myself in fire and it rages higher as the heat is transferred to me. I tell everyone to get out of the building and to the Shadowhawk. I dimly see Marta and the others surrounded in my mind’s eye. With a mighty shout I release all of the fire around me and it blows everything to shreds. I search for my friends and find them flapping above the wreckage with Damian clinging to the walls. He drops to the floor and we all race out as a self-destruct sequence activates. I activate the Shadowhawk and we take off as the building explodes behind us. We shudder because of the turbulence and I level out racing away. I crow in triumph and we all slap high-fives. Suddenly the COM crackles to life. It’s Camille, “We need back-up! We found the second most-important facility! They were waiting for us to come!” I engage the Mach, “We’re on our way.”

I see them on the ground surrounded, firing and blocking lasers behind the wreckage of their ship. I fire some missiles and blow the enemy away. They cheer as we land and run through slashing and hacking at everything. We clear a path through the enemies and destroy them. There are more defenses than usual and it takes about an hour to break through them. We’re all breathing much faster than normal and cringe as lasers stitch the area around the hole. Marta launches into the air and the guns track her we all take the hint and sprint through the hole. She races towards the hole, feet first and I wince as she barrels into a guard. She gets up shakily, wings bent at an odd angle, wobbles and then says, “I think I’m hit.” Then she collapses, eyes rolled back in her head. I leap to her side and see the wound. A laser slashed right through her side. I try to feel for a pulse so I can heal her, but there’s nothing; she’s gone.

I have a cold feeling in my gut as I face Rachel, helpless. Her face is stony, but I see tears running down. Robert is like a block of ice, silent tears streaking down his face as well. Charlie comes over and closes her eyes. We had just met her, now she was gone. I felt like I could have prevented this. I had only thought about getting through the hole. I hadn’t used my powers. I could have destroyed the turrets! They had (probably) never dealt with anything of this size and hadn’t been prepared to risk their lives like this. Cammy falls to her knees, sobbing, next to me. I look at Camille and she nods. I tentatively put my arm around Cammy and when she doesn’t react, finish the movement. She turns and cries into my shoulder and I hold her. Camille bows her head and Alex says a prayer. I rise, hands stained with Marta’s blood, “Come on. We have a job to do. Marta would want us to finish this.” Rachel nods, “You act like you’ve known her all your life.” I look at her, “It feels like it.”

Suddenly I hear a rumbling and then the roof explodes. Through the hole leaps 50 elite SOLAX soldiers with swords and guns. Cypher follows them and I look up to see a huge flagship. I draw my sword in a rage along with everyone else and scream, “WHY CAN’T YOU LEAVE US ALONE!” On the last word a huge wave of energy blasts our attackers back. We charge and the entire room is filled with the sounds of fighting and screams of dying men. I block several bolts flying at me and spin, slashing three other soldiers. I blast several others with fire and energy. Others are thrown through the walls and roof by my telekinesis. I leap at Cypher and we engage in battle once more. He kicks me away, and Alex attacks, yellow blade ablaze. I watch, stunned as she drives Cypher back and then punches him through the wall. I dodge a sword swipe and then go to work again, slashing and stabbing through the masses. I race after Alex after Cammy says, “Go. Help your sister.” I see them still fighting and am again stunned when she slashes Cypher from shoulder to hip. He shouts in pain and blasts her back with a bolt of energy from his hand. I leap at him and am about to stab him when the girl with the orange swords attacks me. I’m now frantically defending myself while steering her away from Alex who is still recovering from her earlier bout with Cypher. Suddenly I have an idea and I deactivate my sword; bad idea. Before I can react she stabs me. I groan in pain and almost fall but Alex blasts the girl. With this distraction, I implement my original plan and grab her shoulders, releasing almost every ounce of energy I have. It courses through her obliterating her and everything within a 7-foot radius. Cypher rises, half of his face blackened. I heal myself and attack again this time with rage as the memory of Marta’s death course through my head. I stab and slash just like the other girl and soon Cypher retreats. I follow him onto the roof hacking and slashing. He falls over the edge and I follow him, he lands on a flagship and I attack, determined to finish this. I see Alex grab something and realize that it’s a rocket launcher. I change tactics and allow Cypher to drive me to the edge of the hull and right when he’s about to kick me off the edge I hold my hand up, “Wait.” He falls for my stall tactics, “What?” I smile wickedly, “Psyche!” I leap off the edge as Alex fires, Cypher slashes the rocket in half and it explodes. I cringe while falling and then I turn in the air, hearing the whine of an aircraft heading my way. The three remaining fighters are heading my way. I fly towards them and slice their wings off. Suddenly the Shadowhawk flies under me and I land on the right engine. Alex lands next to me and I nod to her, “Nice shot.” The ramp opens up below us and we swing down onto it. Camille closes it and we race away as the burning building explodes.

We all fly back in triumph, with the SOLAX facility burning behind us. I make a mental note to have a funeral for Marta when we can. John is the most rowdy, as he attempts to aggrandize his role in the sacking of the SOLAX base, but I shoot him down, “Oh, shut your face, John.” The entire ship erupts and I look around and shrug my shoulders. Suddenly we hear a huge rumble and I look up through the window as a gigantic battleship flies through the sky above us heading towards the SOLAX base. I begin to turn the ship around but Damian remonstrates violently against going after the ship. Suddenly lasers blaze to life across the ship’s starboard side and I dodge and juke while everyone else holds on for dear life, Robert shatters my facade of calm with these 5 words, “They have a missile lock!”

I panic, “What?!? Can we dodge or send up flares?” Robert shakes his head, I sigh. Alex begins to go out and I say, “I’m coming with you.” Camille holds up her hand, “No I may not have telekinesis, but I can fly.” She changes into a small dragon, which immediately cramps up the space inside and I say, “Alright fine. Be careful you two.” I settle back at the controls and begin evasive action, “Alright guys. Hold on.”

Alex leaps out of the bay of the Shadowhawk followed by Camille. The wind tugs at her jacket, but she propels herself forward. Camille breaths fire at the first few missiles but some get past her. Alex deflects the others and the Shadowhawk dodges the last 4. The lasers coming from the airship are still blazing and the Shadowhawk is buffeted a bit by the flak. Alex summons her sword and begins to deflect the bolts of energy. Soon Camille lands beside her and before she can realize what’s happening, everyone with the exception of AJ is there. Then all the bird-kids take flight as well as Camille in the form of a giant eagle. Immediately all the lasers begin to track them. John lets loose with a multi-firing rocket launcher and the missiles streak into the side of the ship, but when the smoke clears a shimmering silver shield fades out of sight. They have laser shields!

I turn the ship around as the others streak towards the airship. They’re dodging like pro’s and making their way towards the ship. Suddenly the missiles fired by John impact upon a shield. I concentrate my fire on once spot but the shield holds. Lasers are flying around me and I weave, roll and dodge through them. I race over the hull of the ship with the turrets on auto. I race towards the command tower and fire 6 missiles. The last one impacts on the side of the ship. The shield goes down and I figure that I had a lucky shot at the generator. I race around the back guns blazing and then make a tight turn back in. I race through the lasers destroying turrets so the others can assault the tower. I see them land and make their way towards the tower. Damian decides to leap off the ship and he lands on a turret, which he hijacks. He turns it around and fires it at the tower. The lasers slash into it and the others use their powers. I fly around distracting the rest of the turrets. Finally the tower falls and I land on the hull as the others leap into the ship. We race away while the ship plummets into a lake. Alex and the other collapse into the chairs and Damian asks, “What’s the plan?” I smile, “Washington D.C.”

Since a huge Blackbird fighter would probably be shot at, we decide to contact the President before we arrive. I open up a hailing channel and soon a voice crackles over the speaker, “White House. Who is this?” I look at the others and then speak, “Listen and listen closely, SOLAX is evil and has to be stopped.” I continue recounting the story of our recent adventures to the agent and at the end he says, “When will you be here?”

“Six minutes.”

“Make it two.”

“Deal.”

Chapter 7: Evil Ex-Girlfriends Suck

            We arrive at Andrews Air Force Base and see Air Force One parked in a huge hanger. I land the Shadowhawk and we all stride out. A Secret Service agent hurries over and whispers to me, “It’s a trap!” I hold up my hand, “We arrived in two minutes how could it be a --.” Suddenly he falls over with a hole in his chest. We all scatter as laser bolts blaze to life around us. SOLAX Special Ops Soldiers rappel down from the roof and surround us. One is holding President Dickenson. He looks resolute but as I touch his mind, he’s scared. I clip my sword to my belt, “Stand down everyone. I’m requesting a meeting with your commanding officer.” A French girl in a long red cloak, capris and a tank top steps forward and I look into the face of my old girlfriend, a five-stripe black belt in Ti Kwon Do, Judo, and Ju Jitsu, Genevieve Rousté, “That would be me.”

            Alex gasps and nudges me, “Isn’t that Genevieve Rousté?” I nod, “Fine, we’ll talk inside Air Force One.” Genevieve turns and walks into the hanger and we all follow, deactivating our weapons. A soldier comes up, “Should be confiscate their weapons General Rousté?” She waves he hand, “No. This plane is rigged with explosives. We’ll be fine.” I can feel her mind probing around. Suddenly she concentrates on me and a barrage of mental energy hits my consciousness. I let my mental barriers down and she begins to sift through my memories. Suddenly she stops and withdraws, “Avery?”

            I smile wickedly and paralyze her and the other soldiers using only my mind, “Yeah, baby it’s me.” I turn to Camille, “Don’t be offended by this.” She smiles, “I won’t be.”  I turn back to Genevieve, “ So, where was I? Yes it’s me, Avery Jackson. The star wide-receiver of Ulysses Grant High School. Hey, sure you dumped me and crushed my heart. Sure, you hooked up with my best friend and sure you destroyed his life as well. But this is revenge. I just love the way it tastes.” With that I hurl her through the door of Air Force One. The others I kill with a single thought and stalk after Genevieve. She’s getting to her feet and she draws her sword, a blazing yellow plasma sword. I charge her and she blocks my stroke, moving impossibly fast. It’s her turn to smile as waves of mental energy batter the defenses of my mind. She opens her arms and blasts me back and I flip and turn through the air. I land and ready myself for another onslaught. Suddenly she stops and a wave a pure force slams into me. I flip through the air and run to her. I dodge another energy blast and keep sprinting. She unleashes lightning at me and I absorb it with my sword. I try and step towards he but the force of the lightning hinders me. I eventually break through and hack and slash at her. She cuts at my legs and I jump over the blade. I take a stab at her and she leans backwards. Suddenly more SOLAX Special Ops soldiers drop from the roof of the hanger and my team attacks. I run at Genevieve again and we slash as fast as we can. I come on with a whirling attack, leaping through the air and slamming my sword into hers. We spin around each other, cutting, slashing and stabbing with murderous intent. I launch a full mental assault at Genevieve and she drops to one because of the force of my attack. I break through her defenses and try to subdue her. I charge her and prepare to slice her in half (how someone prepares to slice your ex in half I don’t know) but she grabs my hand breaks the bones in my wrist and punches me away. I heal my wrist and look at her. She disarmed me! I call my sword to my hand but she’s right on top of me. I try to clear some room so I can swing my sword, by dodging, but I can’t get away from her lightning fast kicks and punches. A few of them hit me and I use their momentum to throw myself back and get some room. Finally I am able to spin my sword around while blocking her lightning fast sword strikes. I disarm her and spin around. I drive my sword forward and shout, “Gotcha!” I hear her laugh and look up. She redirected my sword with her hand! She is still touching it and when I gasp in shock, she begins punching, kicking and generally battering me. She throws me into the air and comes at me like quicksilver from all sorts of different angles. I dodge her last 3 punches and on another one I throw her into the wall. I slam into her and she grunts. She leaps to the floor and we reengage in sword combat. I spin, slash and stab from all angles and she whirls away and we circle each other. I chop at her head and stab at her stomach while assaulting her mind. Suddenly Charlie slams into her. They both stop each other’s punches but Genevieve a knees him in the balls. He grunts and goes down. Genevieve prepares to execute him but before I can react, Rachael swoops down, orange sword a blur of light, and slashes at her. Genevieve blocks the swipe and Charlie leaps up and flying side-kicks her. I drive her backwards and she snarls in frustration at my speed and persistence. I fake a slash at her head, and watch as the Shadowhawk lands behind her with Damian at the controls. I wave at her, “Bye.” She charges at me and I leap over her blasting her with energy from my hands. I land on the hull of the Shadowhawk and Damian lifts off. I see the President at the co-pilot’s seat and salute him. Genevieve parkours towards a Bugatti and leaps inside as I fire bolts of energy at her. Before I can hit the car, she guns the motor and races away, busting through 4 gates and killing several SSA’s. I fly to the hatch and land inside, hitting the button to shut it. We race away and I ask, “Where to?” President Dickenson turns, “The Stronghold.”

Epilogue: Retreat

            We fly quickly towards the Stronghold location land in the hanger. Suddenly Alexandria interrupts, “You must leave! There is an entire army of robots on the way!” I stop, “Is there another Stronghold?” Damian replies, “Brazil!” I clap my hands, “GET EVERYTHING WE CAN AND TAKE 5 SHIPS! We’re leaving.” Camille nods, “Alexandria, activate Ares the back-up AI. He will manage the affairs of this Stronghold.” A male voice comes over the speaker, “Okay then. Good luck you guys. The Stronghold will be safe and waiting for your return.” I thank him and turn to the others, who are busy loading everything onto the Shadowhawk, the Minerva, the Justice, the Avenger, and the Katana the last two were VTOL’s (Vertical Take-Off/Landing). I chose them because sometimes we’ll need to jump from about 3000 ft up (like when we need to get an adrenaline rush). I help them and as soon as we’re done I activate the Shadowhawk, “Alright everyone, lets go.”

            We race out of the hanger and into a cloud of fighters. The lasers from our ships slam into the fighters and clear a path through them. The gun pods rotate and blast away at the fighters behind us. We race towards a fleet of 3 airships and fly between them blasting away. Several missiles crash into their towers and engines causing them to explode violently and John whoops, “Heck yeah!” The airships crash into each other and disappear in a huge conflagration. The ground troops are being annihilated and I feel that we can leave. I turn the ship towards the south and engage the Mach Drive. I push the lever forward and we race away towards South America.