EVOLVE 16 Chapter 16: Let's See How Many Answer The Call

Its. .h.i.tting me now how much I'm hurting physically, adrenaline and endorphins can do a lot for a person I didn't feel my injuries and pains from the last few days for a while during the fight, now I'm feeling it all add the a bullet wound and pains from Frank's pressure point punches.

But enough about me.

Winter and Janice are both awake, a little bit shaken and pale but otherwise fine. They're seated next each other the couch in the half circular living room of the hill side pad, which I maintain has a h.e.l.luva view.

We had let them rest for a few hours but I need answers to a few things, we need answers because frankly I'm not sure how safe we are. I'm considering proposing a night watch duty schedule of sorts just so we can be a little bit more cautious.

From the way we are sitting its the five of us sitting across and facing the two of them.

"How do you guys feel?" I ask

"Fine," replies Janice. Winter only looks down. By the look of it she does look a tiny bit nervous.

"Hey uh, you said your name was Winter right?" I ask

She looks at me saying nothing for a moment before nodding.

"Do you have anyone out there that'd look for you?" I ask

"That's the same question he asked." She replies

"Well I'm not him," I say, "I'm the guy who has been trying to help you out."

"I know... It's just the things they did." She say, her voice breaking.

"I don't have any family except for my dad but he lives in an old folks home, he's got a memory problem, so it's unlikely he'd have a search party come after me." Winter says

"What about your employers at the broadcast station?" Asks Marc

"I can't speak for them." She says

"Best case scenario they think you died in the building collapse," I say, to which she frowns,

"If they didn't I'm guessing there's some kind of protocol for a missing person if they choose to look... Either way you can't go home, because you now know who all of us are and where we are and frankly we're a bunch of bleeding hearts, so if you aren't with us someone could get a hold of you and use you as a bargaining tool and we don't really need that. That being said it'd be a d.i.c.k move to not let you visit your old man, so for as long as this thing my friends and I have going on we'll take you to visit him once a week on a day of your choosing." I say

Winter goes quiet for a moment, glancing at Janice.

"And what exactly is that?" She asks

And right on cue the programming on the TV fizzles out and the footage plays, I'm watching Winter closely as she observes it with curiosity. It ends returning to the programming that was playing.

"That pretty much covers it." I say.

"Ohkay.... But you're all a bunch of kids, that is a crazy person's idea. When he said you wanna start a war I thought he meant it figuratively or one of those small riots that scare people a bit but what it sounds like you're proposing is insanity." Says Winter.

Hearing it from another person sounds both demotivating and motivating all at once somehow. And also come on she's not that much older than us, maybe a lot older than Toni and Nicole but not that much older than myself and the others in the room.

"Maybe you're right, but these kids walked into a building filled with danger and got you out, I'd say that should make you a mild believer and you saw the footage. I'm guessing you've got some skill with computers and electronics," I say. Glancing at Janice who nods, "We could use your help but you can decide what you want to do but it just won't be going home."

"Now on to other matters," wihout giving her a chance to respond I switch my gaze to Janice, "We need the first meeting to happen, very soon." I say

Janice frowns, "How soon is soon?" She asks

"A day from now." Replies Carla

"If I have my laptop, sure I can connect to the satellite I latched onto, it'll take a while but I can do it." She says

c.r.a.p, I completely totally forgot to look for their personal effects inside Frank's building, in other words I forgot the laptop and who knows where it might be right now.

"Uhm we didn't get your laptop," I say.

"Yes we did." Says Toni.

"You did?" I say turning to turning with a raised eyebrow.

"Sure, I suggested it while we were on our way out of that place. Carla seached real quick and found it. It's in my room." Says Toni.

You're a life saver kid.

"Great, I'll get to it first thing tomorrow." Says Janice.

"How exactly would that work? How do we give the right people a when and a where?" I ask

"I'll put this simply. I designed that video and everything in it to make an imprint on the brain every time it's seen, "leave the mark of the five" to any one else listening and watching would think it meant leave a painted palm print on a wall or something, but in essence I made it mean when the time comes the subliminal message within would click linking a place and time to the reciever's brain. And as for the right people, it wasn't an exact science but I'm 95% sure that people who will rally won't be authorities." Says Janice

"What about the other 5%?" Asks Nicole

"Perfection doesn't exist, we can only ever come close to it." Is Janice's reponse.

Deep reponse.

"How many places world wide would we need to go to?" I ask.

Speaking of which it's just hitting me that we'd need to go world wide and actually see the people we want to fight with us, Toni and Marc are the only ones that can't get across water using their powers, maybe Toni could float across telekinetically I don't know. That is a.s.suming Carla can run on water, that being said how far can she run on a surface like that without get.i.tng tired? What about me or Nicole how far can either of us fly without getting tired. I'm guessing our bodies were changed when we got our powers to handle the exertion from their usage though but I still wonder.

I honestly didn't factor any of that into this, travel.

"I thought you'd have a personal gathering of people here and just broadcast it live to the rest of the world." Says Janice raising an eyebrow.

That's actually not a bad idea.

"That's not a bad idea, but I think a more personal touch as many times as we can would work better. I know we live in the era of electronics and all that." I say

"Well that complicates things a bit, sure I can get different people to gain knowledge on different locations depending on where they are to maybe ten other places world wide but it'd be hard to contain" Says Janice

"What do you mean by that?" Asks Marc

"If we were just gonna have it here in the country I'd be able to prevent any and all devices that enter the location from sending out signals that would reveal the location to undesirable parties for however long you wanted to talk to the people there but to do it for you at different places in different times, it won't be easy." Says Janice

Nicole was right, it's always something when it comes to us.

"There's gotta be some kind of way." I say

"Terry, I can't do it in a day. It'd be sloppy and there's a high chance you'd end up captured again." She says

"There might be a way," says Winter speaking for the first time since I told her she can't go home.

"Can it be explained in plain English." Asks Carla

"Uhmm let ne just say Janice and I can buy you ten ninutes from the other locations that are outside the country." Says Winter

"But I still like Janice's initial suggestion," says Marc, "I think we should still broadcast the gathering that we have here chief, because we ain't gonna go and see everyone in person even wity the other places included." Says Marc.

I nod, "you're right, I'm putting you and Nicole on equipment acquisition, get a production truck or something and get it to the location." I say

Actually I don't know where the initial location is.

"Where is that again?" I ask

"The place where O.R had his fight nights." Says Winter. I hear Marc grumble behind me.

It's actually a pretty good location.

"There's gotta be a criteria for how people join up, I mean it's not just everyone with an ability that's particularly useful in a fight." Says Carla

"Yeah but for now we can't exactly be picky. There's maybe a work around that." I reply

Now to find out what happened to Jacob and Lerato

"Janice, Winter what happened to Jacob and Lerato?" I ask

"Who's that?" Asks Winter. To which Janice quickly iterates who they are to her.

"Neither of us really knows, but we did over hear something about them having gone somewhere this morning. I guess they hadn't come back from that errand yet." Replies Janice

Somehow I doubt there's an errand that would need those two.

"Frank was working with WECA did you know that?" I ask watching Janice very carefully before she responds.

She chuckles, "That's crazy, he was crazy but he was all about going against them and maybe you and him had your differences and I probably shouldn't defend him considering what happened but he couldn't have." She says

"He was, he told me himself." I say

"And because of that," pipes up Nicole, "we think they were sent there for nefarious reasons and that means bad news for us. I just wanna know if they've got any weaknesses we should know about?"

"Everyone with one ability's got a weakness, the backlash of using powers is always a wealness." Says Janice

"We don't think that's the case anymore," says Nicole.

Janice glances at me.

"I suppose maybe I didn't tell you, the Shudder sisters, the two we fight in the footage sort of let it slip that WECA had somehow synthesized a counter to the backlash using our DNA, minus Nicole's, and whatever they used to make The Black Forms." I say

Janice says nothing for a moment, her eyes darting between myself, Toni, Marc and Carla.

"Then that changes things. I don't know their weaknesses, especially Jacob I had only been around him for as long as you were." Says Janice.

Winter suddenly stands, walks around the couch and begins backing away from us, backing up toward the seciton with all the musical instruments. She has a wide eyed look that pretty screams 'you guys are all nuts'.

"You're... All so normal about this... How can you be so normal about all this?" She says slowly.

d.a.m.n, I really hope this isn't one of those times where someone loses their mind. I don't wanna have to lock her up for the duration of being with us or something.

"You get used to it or at least adapt." Says Nicole slowly.

"She's a normal isn't she?" Toni whispers to me.

"As far as I know." I say whispering back.

All of us are now standing facing her but none of us really know what to do or how to deal with this new current predicament that has been thrown our way.

I catch a glimpse of Nicole who looks me to do something.

"Look... It's crazy and it has been from the start, " I say,

"And I get that its maybe hard to accept that you're now a part of the crazy but that's just how it is. Everyone here would love to go home. h.e.l.l I would love to be in my room playing videogames whilst procrastinating on a school a.s.signment, then wake up the next day and be late for cla.s.s, then head home for my mom's home cooked meals.... But I can't because the second I try to do that I end up a guinea pig, so do my friends and after that the world becomes fairly tyrannical. And you are right we're just a bunch of kids, but that doesn't mean we can't change the world or at least try to."

Winter blinks rapidly, I can't quite tell but I think she's calming down.

"Nice speech, chief. I hope you got one of those for the gathering." Whispers Marc patting me on the back.

The piano starts playing, my gaze fixes across the room and rests upon Marlea. She sits dressed in a flowing black dress playing a sorrowful beautiful melody on the piano. And I gotta say she plays it wonderfully.

Winter can see her too because she moves quickly across the room and joins Janice standing behind myself and the others.

It's always bad news when she comes around, I wonder what's gonna happen this time. Someone loses a leg? Goes blind?

She finishes her shot song, turns and stands then begins walking across the room and very calmly sits on the couch elegantly facing us with one of her signature smiles, her strobe light eyes pulsating as always.

"You have added an unexpected twist to your team, it's exciting." She says, glancing over at Winter briefly. "Don't mind me, please sit." She says with a gesture

And against my own will I find myself seated on the couch, the others find seats as well, on the couches or the floor, we all sit with a grunt. All except Winter of course, I guess she can only affect those with abilities.

Marlea stares at her with an air of intimidation until Winter sits of her volition.

"What is it this time?" I ask

"I was bored, granted it was an exciting bit of contest over the last few days. Tipping off Frank to your activities at the broadcasting corporation yielded interesting results." She says widening her smile.

So that was her too, I was wondering how they could have know.

"However I am here bearing a gift." Says Marlea.

A small portal opens just slightly off the floor and from it two boxes drop, they are wrapped in a bows.

So she meant it literally

"In those boxes is two things. The one on your right, is the answer you seek to what comes after you've taken it to WECA, to what I have in store for you. On your left is a cure." She says

"A cure to what?" Asks Carla

"A cure to the disease growing in the body of one Carla Cole. One that will kill her in a matter of minutes." Replies Marlea with a smile.

"You're lying." Says Carla

"Terry Barnes you've known me longer than anyone in this room, all the things I have done to you. Have I ever lied?" She asks

And the answer is no. She's evil and all but she hasn't lied yet.

"Did you put it in her?" I ask

"Of course, as I played the piano I wove it." Says Marlea standing and opening a portal beside her. "You have 20 seconda to decide before both boxes disappear and healing hands just won't do for this one if you're considering using Toni Lewandowski. Chop. Chop she's about to drop."

Carla collapses to the floor face first breaking into violent shakes.

"Carla!" Toni and Marc say simultaneously, my first instinct is to move toward her but I can't move.

Time is running down, we're down to 16 seconds.

And Marlea hangs around for another 7 seconds holding us in place. In that time Winter moves for the cure box but is flung across the room and sent cras.h.i.+ng into a wall by a flick of Marlea's hand.

Toni's crying and and my heart's beating fearfully. It's too early to lose someone. Carla has stopped shaking but she isn't getting up.

8 seconds.

And with an anger fueled yell I strain to move to no avail but I keep struggling as hard as I can, practically screaming at this point and I can't access my powers, the others are doing the same.

I catch a look of twisted pleasure on Marlea's face as she laugh as she finally enters the portal.

4 seconds.

The sudden ability to move sends me hurls forward rapidly, I turn thinking to grab the cure but Toni has already grabbed it, the other box has disappeared, tears stream down Toni's cheeks as Marc rolls Carla over.

Toni tears the box open and brandishes a needle filled with blue liquid from it, he hands it over to me and I stare at it briefly before taking it.

Please let this work.

Marc tears a bit of his s.h.i.+rt and wraps it tight around Carla's arm tapping it so a vein bulges. I inject the needle and push in all the contents.

And nothing happens.

I feel for her pulse and there's nothing.

"Toni... You gotta try, okay just try." I say as I try not to panic, grabbing him by the s.h.i.+rt to pull him closer.

He places his hands on her forehead and focuses but the increase in pain on his face and snivelling tells me there's no luck.

Nicole comes up behind him hugs him and pulls him away.

"Car.... No..." I whisper. Tears begin clouding my vision as I stand and stumble backwards, cras.h.i.+ng to floor.

I slam my fist on the floor and feel it leave an imprint. I stand and turn to leave the living room.

I can't be here, I gotta go somewhere, anywhere.

A ma.s.sive gasp fills the room, I wipe my eyes as I turn so sharply my wounds sting.

Carla is seated taking long deep wild breaths that start off fast and begin to slow down, she stares around the room at the faces that are shocked and relieved.

Toni drops down to his knees beside her and hugs her tightly. I simply fall to my knees my gaze fixed to the floor, my tears don't stop flowing though.

"Terry?" Says Carla.

I look up as Carla makes her way toward me. She reaches me then kisses me on the forehead.

"That was some John Snow s.h.i.+t only way scarier." I say to her.

"I almost die and you've got references." She says with a smile

Humour is only an escape Carla, in truth I'm scared to death that something like that could happen again and next time someone could die permanently because Marlea would be "bored". From now it'll feel like an episodic show where I gotta worry about the audience's entertainment.

We need to start up that fight soon.

I wipe my eyes and stand, then give Carla a brief hug. Then move to stand in the center of the room.

"Winter, welcome to the crazy. Now I need you and Janice to get me those gatherings, you have one day." I say with the utmost seriousness.

"The rest of us are gonna go to the middle of the desert and train. With our luck there's a chance there'll be trouble, I'd rather we were a little tougher. And we're also gonna need to test as well as push the travel time from place to place after we know the locations." I say

Everyone nods.

"Carla I know technically you just woke up from death but can you go get the suits?" Carla nods and Toni eyes me disapprovingly. "Janice you got any idea where the the suit you found with Frank might be?" I ask

"Last I checked he had it hidden behind his safe." She says

"Okay you go with Nicole and see if you can find it, be careful." I say

"Why do these suits sound so important? Some kind of uniform?" Asks Winter

"Nah, they just maximise the abilities within us." Says Marc

"You want us to leave now?" Asks Nicole

"Yeah, under cover of darkness is best." I say.

Carla zips away, the door closing slowly after she's long gone. Janice and Nicole head out as well.

_______________________

The day has come, and they were able to do it or so Janice and Winter say.

Like a band going on tour we have eight instead of ten locations. One is here in the country at O.R's old stomping grounds. The others are in Glasgow, Stuttgart, h.e.l.l's Kitchen, San Paulo, Kyoto, Jeddah and Moscow. The last mesaage that played had also been tweaked to include information that the first gathering will be broadcasted live to the right people supposedly. And of course later to be released to the general public after 38 hours.

Now over the course of 38 hours we have eight meetings, with a test average of about 4 hours 10 minutes travel time, some further places may vary but that's the time frame we've got and baring there being any or much trouble we oughta make good time. The girls also figured out a way to keep us from heing tracked via satellite and radar.

All of us now stand at the ready outside inside the car belonging to the owner, an SUV. It's around 9am with the first gathering being at 10am. Marc drove the girls to the site earlier getting them into the production truck so they set up, they'll be there for the duration of everything using the truck as their base of sorts.

Carla, Toni, Marc, Nicole and myself are wearing our suits. Underneath our clothing of course.

"Alright, Marc takes us there and let's hope it's more than ten people gathered at 10am." I say.

Marc starts the car and away we go

On the way to the place I realise I didn't give myself time to prepare anything and somehow that doesnt bother me. It probably should though.

The inside of the car is quiet, I guess everyone's kinda nervous, I mean who wouldn't be really. We're about to ask people to revolt Animal Farm style.

As the car rolls around into the quiet part of the city far from everything I see the remains of the warehouse peak as we turn a corner, and standing on the parking lot around the production truck which will serve as a stage is hundreds of people, stretching as far as to the remains of the warehouse itself.

There are cameras set up on automated arms around the edges of the gathered people.

We drive in and park just behind the gathered crowd catching their attention, Marc shuts off the cars engine.

"You ready chief?" Asks Marc looking over at me.

I nod curtly and open the door stepping out and shutting the door behind me, indistinct chatter begins as soon as people get sight of us and it increases as I lead the way through the crowd of people opening up a path for us as we head for our makes.h.i.+ft stage, the truck.

Reaching it I turn my augmentation on and help the others climb up, except for Marc who scales to the top easily, Nicole could have gone dragon but her wing span might have been knocked a few people off. Besides I'm saving up her transformation is for later. I float up and land ontop of the truck using flight and land on the truck.

From up here looking at all these different faces, young and old is making me nervous and by old I do mean I'm spotting a few gray haired men and women that could be in their 60s if not older. The whispers are still going, coupled with expectant faces that also somehow seem unsure, and who wouldn't be it's hundreds of people gathered at the behest of teenagers.

The hatch on top of the truck opens and a megaphone is placed on the roof followed by Janice's head popping through.

"We're on in five seconds." She says then disappears closing the hatch.

After the count down I take a deep breath, time to speak. Marc hands me the mega phone which I switch on and bring to my mouth.

"h.e.l.lo everyone... Or does ladies and gentlemen sound better? Honestly I don't know and honestly I'm nervous as heck standing here in front of you all... You've all seen our faces but none of you really know who we are, but before that there things I would like to say." I say with a pause to look back at my friends behind me.

"We live in a world ruled by WECA, world wide and we live trying to ignore that fact because the boot on our necks isn't really pressing down. I'm not saying they didn't restore order in a time when chaos reigned but that was merely a first step, the smile before the heel turn. Pledged or not pledged WECA punishes and forbids the use of your abilities because they fear what we can do together and because they were buying time until they removed the pain of using powers through the DNA of the five people standing before you." I say.

"Well? Did they do it yet!?" Asks a voice within the crowd.

"Yes they did, using the partial results they had gotten from our brief capture, yes we were captives within one of their facilities. Now it's only a matter of time until they wage war on the world's governments to take their control from them to implement their world order... What do you think that means for us, quite possibly the only threat to their power?" I ask letting my words sink in

"They'll take us out!" Comes a screech from somewhere

"Yes! They'll hunt us down and destroy us, and believe me people it'll be swift. Because this ain't X-Men they won't come at us with giant robots, they won't be bargained with. They will come at us with creatures far worse than The Black Forms that killed all those people until they were stopped by us, they'll come at us with people like the sisters you saw us fight. They have a lot more monsters and a lot more people with abilities, and they'll be enchanced and----" The I'm interrupted

"And why the h.e.l.l should we follow a group of kids?" Comes a voice from somewhere in the crowd before a woman distinguishes herself by floating from the far side on a piece of debris headed toward us. She's maybe in her late 30s dressed in baggy clothing

"What happens if you actually succeed in toppling WECA mhhm?" Says the woman, "We go back to the chaos? Will the five of you suddenly have a run of the world?"

I'm kinda at a loss for words as she comes floats right in front of me looking me in the eyes, there's no malice on her face but I can't read anything past that, I'm guessing she's not Pledged even if she was an alert of her powers being used wouldn't go past this area.

"I don't have the answers to those questions or many other questions, what I know for certain is that WECA will bring plenty of death to those that aren't bowing low enough." I say..

Of course after WECA it's whatever Marlea has waiting.

"The look in your eyes, in all your eyes shows determination and you may succeed but everything has consequences. I will be rooting for you but I cannot be a part of this and if indeed it goes down the way you say it will then I will enjoy the time I have left." She says before floating away and landing outside and getting into a car.

This is followed by a max exodus of people and frankly I'm not inclined to try and stop any of them. I don't have the words of to stop any of them and maybe I should have prepared something but honestly I doubt that'd have changed anything.

Unexpectedly Nicole takes the megaphone from my hand and changes into her dragon self then she roars into the megaphone alarming everyone all around and catching their attention.

"You're all fools!" She says in her deeper voice, "You're afraid to stand up for yourselves, every day you walk with your heads hung and your abilities off because someone tells you so, that's dumb... My name is Nicole and yeah I'm a kid but I'm gonna fight with my friends even if it ends up being just my friends and I WE'LL BREAK WECA.... So f.u.c.k the consequences that come after!" She says.

Marc takes the megaphone form her next. "I am Marc and I concur with my friend and I'll follow the chief anywhere." He says

Carla takes it next. "My name's Carla, I wasn't on any of the footage looping but I'm fighting to go home and I am going to fight for my friends and family."

Carla hands it to a nervous looking Toni, "I'm Toni. This is my family and I fight with them."

Toni thrusts the megaphone into my hand.

"I'm Terry, sometimes I'm called chief, sometimes I'm called Optimus. I'm the leader, and I know not all of you will fight with us and that's okay. You only need to stand back and watch us change the world." I say. The exodus of people continues but some people stay

The remaining people gathered below us number maybe fifty. A healthy mix of diverse people men and women of different creed and origin.

"So how do we know when to be ready?" Asks one of the people

The production truck opens and out steps Winter.

"We'll send you an app right here before you leave, it'll serve as way for us to relay information to you." She says with a smile.

The remaining people gather around here with their phones out.

I confess myself disappointed though, it might just end up like this everywhere else.

"Don't be b.u.mmed," Says Carla, "we've got people." She says

"I know, I just had an extravagant vision for this whole thing and I definitely thought it'd last longer." I say.

"We should get going." Says Marc.

I nod and walk over to stand above the people chatting happily below standing around Winter, she actually has a really good way with handling a crowd.

"Hey everyone thanks for coming and actually staying." I say gratefully.

"Don't sweat it."

"You're doing something and you've done something so far, that's a lot more than a lot more people can say."

"We're counting on you."

I nod and smile to everyone speaking.

"Hey kid!" Says a person in a hoodie.

"Uhm yeah?" I reply unsure and a little on guard, turning on my energy projection.

The person removes the hoodie to reveal a young teen boy around my age, his hair is sleeked backwards neatly and he actually looks familiar.... Wait a second it's O.R! He's younger, more time travel I'm guessing. Now that he's revealed himself around him I start to see men who seemed inconspicuous until now, I'm guessing those are his guards.

Question is why is he here?

"Come down here for a second." He says gesturing.

I float down and land next to him, somehow he still has that air of danger that commands respect for him.

He smiles at me putting his hands in his pockets.

"You've moved up in the world since we last met, got yourself a decent operation. I didn't just come back to my stomping grounds for kicks, I want you to cut me in. Any way you looks at it you're gonna need a supplier for arms, training for the people who'll wield them and resources to keep them, can't win a war on just powers, it ain't everyone who's got ones good enough for combat and I've got the connections everywhere. I sense big changes coming and you look like the right boat to hitch my sails to.." Says O.R

"Something tells me you've got conditions." I say.

A part of me wants to say something about his youth but I don't, its still hard to believe this person is a 70 year old mob boss who uses his time travel ability to visit his dead wife in the past, the toll it takes on the reversal of his age is extraordinary actually but how long can he last?

"We'll talk terms another time. So unless you got another offer like one I'm putting up shake my hand right now." He says extending a ringed hand toward me.

This would be pretty much the equivalent of making a deal with the devil. Is this really a choice?

Looking in his eyes I have no doubt he can get weapons and everything else he said when the time comes but would it be worth the price.

Regardless of my thoughts I find myself shaking his hand anyway, O.R smiles and nods toward one of his boys who walks up to me and hands me a card.

"When you're done with your campaign you call me and we'll get to talking." He says.

Then he proceeds to walk away flanked by five other people.

"What was that about?" Asks Janice from behind me making me jump.

"We'll find out after this." I say taking one last look at O.R before turning to face her.

"Are we good to go at the other places?" I ask.

She stares at me curiously, I guess she's reading my mind. This is confirmed by the slight twitch of pain visible on her face.

"Everything looks good so far. But there's possible trouble in Kyoto, WECA presence around the meeting place, they're communicating. Take the camcorder and get some more footage if you can." She says.

"Which way do we go first?" I ask

"Glasgow first, just head North West. The phones I gave you guys will guide you the rest of the way." She says

"I have no idea which way that is." I say blinking blankly

Looking slightly disappointed she points to my right.

She then disappears back into the production truck for a moment before making her way through the small crowd of people to hand me the camcorder.

"We're going North." I announce to the others as I land on the top of the truck then pointing.

I walk and stand in front of Carla.

"You sure you'll be okay on the water?" I ask

"We've run test runs, I'll be fine." She replies

"For some reason I keep imagining you running through a storm with choppy waves trying not to drown." I say

"So let's hope that doesn't happen." She replies smiling as she walks past me to jump off the side of the truck.

Marc pa.s.ses really close to me, "You gotta make your move some time, chief." He whispers.

To which I feel my cheeks flush slightly.

Marc climbs on Nicole back and she lifts off flying away with rapid speed. This time I'm carrying Toni, I augment my strength pick him up then shoot into the sky blasting off in the direction Nicole went. Toni will serve as my navigator with a smart phone and Marc will do the same for Nicole. Carla is her own navigator.

Man I hope we have better luck in the other locations.