Embers & Ice (Rouge) (26 page)

“I’ll
try,” he whispered, gripping her arms and breathing against her chest. “I
promise.”

FORTY-SEVEN

The
fire was stronger this time. Maybe it was the probability of never being
trapped again that fuelled the flame. Maybe being free of her restraint in a
place where she was not confined and forced to fight another mutant made it
easier to believe there was hope. That escaping was actually possible.

Regardless,
the fire had never felt more alive as it swarmed within her. It was hungry for
flesh to burn and it gave Hunter a sense of power.

The
others were deactivating their restraints in secret, except Fearne who had to
turn away from Steel and disarm her head brace privately. The moment their
powers were returned to them, it was as if a heavenly light had broken through
the oppressive storm clouds. Suddenly, her friends were glowing, pumped and
ready rather than gray and sunken and full of defeat. Only Will looked the
same.

It’s
time to raise hell,
she thought with a grin and led the group to
the door.

Almost
immediately, Steel stepped in front of their exit. He crossed his arms under
his pecks and grinned down at them all.

“Where
do you think you’re going?”

“Back
to our cells,” Hunter said innocently.

“There’s
a problem downstairs. Everyone needs to remain in this hall. Doctor’s orders.”

Hunter
opened her mouth to answer back, but Chantal had moved through the crowd and
put a hand on her shoulder.

“Let
me handle this,” she said sweetly.

Steel’s
cocky smile dropped away the moment his eyes fell upon her neck collar. It no
longer poisoned her veins and hung there like a chunky necklace. His eyes moved
from hers to Fearne gathering the other children and deactivating their
restraints. His hand went to his taser.

“Not
so fast,” said Chantal in the softest tone, but it was commanding enough to
make Steel freeze and stare down at her as though she were a giant bowl of
strawberries and ice cream and everything good that ever was. “Drop the taser.”

The
weapon slipped out of his hands and clattered to the floor. Marcus scooped it
up fast and pointed it at his head.

“Should
we give him a taste of his own medicine?” he asked, his finger hovering over
the trigger.

“
Please
make him sing,” Zac begged her.

“We
don’t have time.” Hunter shoved Steel away from the door and nodded for
everyone to pass. “Hurry!”

But
Chantal hadn’t finished. As everyone ran by Hunter, she saw the beautiful blond
girl slide closer to Steel. Her eyes were murderously happy. Hunter could just
hear her whisper, “I’ve waited a long time for this Steel. You’re gonna regret
ever taking advantage of me-” Her gaze met Hunter’s and a glimmer of
understanding passed between them, “-you
all
are. So I want you to grab
hold of your little
friend
down there… and pull as hard as you can until
he comes
off.
Can you do that for me?”

Hunter’s
stomach churned as Steel – whose stoic face went whiter than his uniform –
reached with an enormous struggle slowly to the zipper of his pants. The spark
of justice in Chantal’s eyes was almost poisonous as she gave him a pat on the
back and met Hunter in the doorway. They both watched Steel as he turned to
them, his pleading eyes filling with tears, every muscle straining and his
whole body shaking as he fought to disobey her. But Chantal’s power was too
strong for him to refuse.

“You
were right,” Chantal said as they turned to the corridor and walked away from
the breakfast hall. “Revenge is sweet.”

Steel’s
screams followed them even after they ran to catch up with the others.

It
seemed luck was on their side, because there were no guards on the bottom
floor. The elevator opened up completely empty when Zac stabbed the button.
They all scrambled inside, Ryo hit ‘down’ and the door slid closed. 

“Everyone
okay?” Hunter turned to the group.

Their
faces were a mix of anticipation and excitement. The energy in the small
elevator buzzed as they stood squished together like sardines.

“Ryo,
any way you can check ahead and see if we’ll run into trouble?”

She
peered up at Hunter with a pained expression. “I don’t know. I haven’t used my
powers in years, I don’t remember how. I could end up in a different
dimension.”

“That’s
okay,” said Hunter, “looks like we’re going in blind.”

“Maybe
not completely blind,” came Fearne’s small voice from the back corner. As
everyone turned to her, she shut her eyes and concentrated hard. After a
moment, she lifted her head and stared directly at the door. “There’s trouble
in the labs.”

“Specifically?”

“Someone’s
waiting to trap us.”

“We
have to go through the labs to the other side,” said Marcus as he stared at the
map in his hands. “There’s no other way.”

“We’ll
just have to face it,” said Hunter. She stepped into the corridor and carefully
peered around the corner. “It’s clear. Follow me.”

Heart
pounding, Hunter crept down the walkway followed by the others, their footsteps
padding lightly on the linoleum floor. She went straight for the double doors
that led into the lab. She didn’t hesitate when she opened the door, only
because she was surrounded by ten super powered kids. Whatever they faced, it
couldn’t stop them.

But
as soon as they entered the giant laboratory she found a greater bump in the
road than she’d ever expected.

At
the other end of the room, standing before the door they needed to get through,
was Jet and Mikayla, flanked by at least twenty Men in White. Their tasers were
aimed and ready to fire.

“Leaving
without us, are we?” Jet said loudly. His voice echoed around the brightly lit
room, reverberating off the glass windows and steel ceiling.

“You
didn’t give us a choice,” Marcus seethed. Hunter had never seen him with such a
homicidal expression. “You ratted us out, didn’t you?”

Jet
chuckled. “Come on, bro, lighten up! I wanted to get out of here as much as the
rest of you, but I’m not an idiot. You’re making a huge mistake and it’s only
gonna make things worse for you in the end.”

“Bite
me,” Marcus spat. “Or get out of my way,
now
.”

“I
was hoping it wouldn’t come to this,” said Jet.

In
one swift movement, he signaled to the Men in White.

Their
taser guns fired. Hunter went to duck when something incredible happened.
Bright lights flashed before her eyes as the electricity from the tasers hit an
invisible force field protecting them. Hunter looked around and spotted Imogen,
her hands raised and shaking, her eyes focused. The others whooped in
encouragement.

All
of a sudden, the Men in White’s tasers were jerked from their hands and
launched around the room. Petrified, the guards did nothing until, one by one,
they were knocked down with their own guns by a force strong enough to send
some of them into unconsciousness. A blur of papers blew up around them and a
second later, Benji appeared beside Hunter. He gave her a grin.

“Nice
work, Benji!”

The
Men in White scrambled to their feet and stared searching the room for their
tasers, looking back at Jet for instructions.

Marcus
had suddenly had enough. He shot his hand out and Hunter expected to see a bolt
of electricity shoot from his fingers, but nothing happened. Marcus frowned,
stared at his palm and turned back to the group.

“My
power is gone,” he whispered.

“Technical
difficulties, Marcus?” shouted Mikayla. “Guess my power isn’t as useless as you
all think.”

Marcus’s
rage consumed him. He clenched his fist and started charging straight down the
walkway towards them. But Jet wasn’t going to let him get that far. Marcus took
no more than three steps before he was flung five feet into the air and
crash-landed on a desk, glass from test tubes shattering around him. He groaned
and rolled over, slowly getting to his feet.

Hunter
wished more than anything that she could throw balls of flaming fire at them,
but it seemed her power – and those of everyone else around her – had vanished
too. Benji could no longer move fast. He gave Hunter a panicked look.

I
underestimated Mikayla’s power,
she admitted to herself.
But
this has to end now. We don’t have much time.

“If
you’re not coming with us,” she called to them, “why are you stopping us?”

“Because
you’re an idiot,” Mikayla snapped back. “You’re all idiots. You can’t win this
fight, and I’m not just talking about getting out of here. I’m talking about
the fight of good and evil.”

“When
did this get so freaking biblical?” Zac whispered from behind her.

“We
just want to be free,” Hunter called. “What’s wrong with that?”

“You’re
making the wrong choice, that’s what,” said Jet. “Sometimes it’s not about
doing what’s right, but doing what’s necessary. You go against Dr. Wolfe,
there’ll be consequences. There’s
always
consequences for people who
break the rules.”

“Well
I think we’ve made our choice,” she replied, sick of the banter. “Now let us
go.”

“We’re
trying to help,” Mikayla pouted. She turned to Jet and said, “why don’t they
understand that?”

“Cut
the bullshit Mikayla,” said Will. Hunter shot him a glance and suddenly
realized one of them was missing. She turned slowly, her eyes darting everywhere,
and panic rose in her when she spotted a small head of blond hair ducking
behind the desks, making his way towards Mikayla and Jet.

No.
Sammy, no!

Desperate
to keep their attention on her and not the small boy who was growing closer and
closer to the opposition, Hunter stepped away from the group and raised her
hands.

“Fine.
You guys want to stay here and kiss Dr. Wolfe’s ass for the rest of you
lives?!” she shouted. “Go ahead then!”

“Easy
there, Hot Stuff,” Jet chuckled. “Dr. Wolfe will be here any moment now to set
things right with you, and then everything will be back to normal.”

“Isn’t
he a bit preoccupied with, oh I dunno, a giant prehistoric monster?”

“They’ve
developed a way to stun the queer long enough to sedate him,” said Mikayla. “I just
hope that this time they’ll learn their lesson and put that fugly creature
down.”

A
rumble of rage rippled throughout the group. Most of the younger ones looked
ready to pounce. But Mikayla and Jet were grinning, completely confident.
Unaware of what was going on around them.

That
was their biggest mistake.

Sammy’s
power was beautiful. He could radiate a blinding white light from his body,
making his appearance completely angelic – if you had a long enough look at him
before your eyes started to burn. Mikayla’s power seemed to act as a
force-field against whomever she directed her gaze at, because suddenly Sammy
had leapt out from behind a desk and dove on her. It was like seeing a shooting
star flash by in slow motion. Mikayla screamed and the moment she broke
concentration, their powers returned.

Sammy
wrestled with Mikayla and Jet threw his arm up to shield himself the light.
Benji disappeared and zipped to the back of the room, attacking the Men in
White from behind. Hunter charged directly down the walkway, the others right
on her heels, and Marcus recovered quick enough to direct a lethal current of
electricity at Jet from a power plug a few feet away from him. Jet seized up
and every muscle clenched as he twitched to his knees.

The
others went into fight mode. Zac, Chantal, Ryo, Will and even the younger ones
applied the skills Mosi had taught them in their gym session. The Men in White
put up a good fight – ignoring the fact that they were fighting children and
using their most brutal methods – but against super powered kids, the Men in
White didn’t last very long. Zac found a taser and started firing at random.
Hunter didn’t have time to ensure that they were winning; she had to get them
all to the exit before more guards arrived.

Sammy
released Mikayla from his blinding light and smiled at her cowering form
beneath him. She was sobbing and groping around for Jet beside her with her
eyes squeezed shut. Hunter slid to her knees besides Sammy and held her arms
out to scoop him up.

“Did
you see what I did?” he grinned at her proudly.

“You
were so brave, Sammy,” she whispered into his hair. “So brave.”

Then,
a scream came from behind her.

“No!”
Fearne shrieked, but it was too late.

Jet
was on the floor just feet away, his arm outstretched, a psychotic look in his
eyes. Sammy jerked and went limp in her arms. Time slowed. The room fell eerily
silent.

Hunter
pulled Sammy away and felt his body slide to the floor. She lifted the boy’s head
– his neck loose like a spaghetti string – and rested it in the crook of her
arms.