Extraction (3 page)

In his teens, Plasmatic had had the misfortune of falling in with a bad crowd, and as a result found himself eventually rounded up as part of a massive crackdown on supervillains. However, the judge had taken pity on him because of his youth (and presumably impressionable personality), and had given him a light sentence that basically equated to being slapped on the wrist with a wet noodle. And now he had somehow ended up here at Chamomile.

The other super was a different story altogether. He was older, probably mid-to-late thirties, although he wore his long, blond hair in a youthful ponytail. Tall and buff, he had a musculature that was clearly visible through his blue-and-gray outfit every time he moved. Unlike Plasmatic, who was clearly overeager and spoiling for a fight, the second super seemed almost bored. He stood in a relaxed posture, barely looking in my direction. However, emanating from him was a confidence and self-assuredness that was almost frightening in its intensity. I didn’t know who he was, but I had no doubt that he knew how to handle himself, and of the two supers in front of me, he was unquestionably the greater threat.

A second later, Smokey and Electra stepped out and took up positions on either side of me. I had told them to stay back, but apparently they didn’t think I should face the threat here alone, and I loved them for it. Plasmatic’s cocksure grin got even wider when he saw my friends, and he made a show of cracking his knuckles in anticipation.

I telepathically said to Electra, and heard her mentally acknowledge my statement.

We stood there, facing each other – three against eight (although technically we were only face-to-face with the two supers). No one said a word. Nobody had to. They knew we were there to break in, and we knew they were there to stop us. Both sides were just waiting for someone to blink.

I didn’t think we were waiting for someone to literally blink, but that’s just what happened. A few seconds after the staredown started, the air suddenly became thick with smoke.

Thanks, Smokey
.

As his name implied, Smokescreen actually had the ability to create copious amounts of vaporous substances – from breathable, cloudlike fog to harsh, choking fumes. In addition, since being infected by the virus at the Academy, his abilities had morphed into something significantly more. Now, he could not only
create
smokelike haze, he could actually
become
vaporous himself.

In conjunction with the smoke appearing, Smokey’s stealth suit dropped to the ground, empty. At the same time, seven of our adversaries suddenly began coughing violently and profusely (indicating that the mist surrounding them was of the barf-up-a-lung variety). The only exception was the big super, who was apparently holding his breath – unless he didn’t need to breathe. As for myself and Electra, the smoke kept itself a reasonable two feet away from us – seemingly respecting our personal space – even though we were wearing rebreathers.

I switched my vision over to infrared, allowing me to keep all of our opponents in sight. Presumably Electra changed her goggles over to thermal imaging or something along those lines, because she had no trouble blasting Plasmatic through the smoke with a bolt of electricity while he was caught up in the throes of a coughing fit. He flew through the air like a discarded banana peel before striking the side of a winding metal staircase and flopping down to the floor.

The big super bent his legs slightly, then took a powerful leap that landed him on one of the upper walkways running along the power plant walls. An eerie yellow glow formed around his eyes, which a few seconds later shot forth two beams that broadened out like spotlights. The beams raked back and forth across the smoke in the area until they fell on me.

The big super cocked his head to the side for a second and his eyes narrowed slightly, as if he found something interesting about me. From his expression, you would have thought he recognized me in some way, but that was impossible; shapeshifting is one of my abilities and – in keeping with the theme of remaining anonymous on this mission – I had adopted a blond-haired, blue-eyed persona. Still, it was pretty clear that the super could somehow see through the smoke.

On my part, I didn’t even feel the beams at all, but people don’t always feel radiation, either; that doesn’t mean it’s not harming you in some way. With that thought in mind, I zipped away at super speed.

I mentally shouted to Electra and Smokey, as I began dashing around the plant and disarming the security guards, all of whom were vehemently hacking like it was the new national pastime. Electra clearly heard me and started running towards the appropriate exit door. I presumed that Smokey heard me as well, but I had never tried to telepathically talk to him while he was in his smoke form. When I tried to locate his brain, I picked up an odd, fuzzy sensation. Regardless, the smoke seemingly began roiling in the proper direction.

It only took a few seconds to get all the guards’ guns. Then I zipped back into the room with the giant fan, went between the blades and dumped the guns on the ground there. Confident that the weapons wouldn’t be easily retrieved, I darted back into the power plant (picking up Smokey’s discarded stealth suit and tucking it into my backpack along the way).

Still coughing, Plasmatic was somehow back on his feet. Firing on the run, Electra sent a blast of electricity his way but missed, striking the stairway by his head instead. Startled, Plasmatic began firing plasma bolts from his hands wildly in all directions through the smoke, still coughing the entire while. One of them hit a wall, blowing out a chunk of it like a stick of dynamite. Several others hit various pieces of equipment in the plant, including what looked like a generator. Another struck a walkway on which one of the guards was positioned, destabilizing it and causing it to pull away from the three-story structure it was attached to. Still coughing, the guard didn’t even have enough air to scream as the walkway pitched to the side and threw him off. I moved without thinking, racing up the side of a nearby wall and jumping out towards the falling man.

Grabbing someone who’s falling, while moving at super speed, is a lot like trying to catch a falling egg: unless you’re extremely careful, something’s likely to get broken. Basically, you’re a human-sized bullet about to ram another person. That being the case, I was prepared to cheat just a little.

First of all, once airborne, I actually used my power of flight to make sure my trajectory was perfect. As I closed the distance to the guard (who was falling in slow motion from my perspective), I thought about how to handle the situation. The best option seemed to be to gently poke and prod him with my telekinesis, nudging him to the side – in the direction I was going – and subtly giving him the proper momentum. That way, as I passed him, I could hopefully catch him in a way that would do a minimum amount of damage.

That whole plan altered, however, as the smoke around the guard started to change. It wasn’t happening quickly from my perspective, but I could see the vapors starting to coalesce. My eyes widened as I realized what was happening, and I let myself sail by the guard without touching him. I flipped over in the air so that my feet touched the opposite wall, then sprinted back down to the floor where I could see the action.

A portion of the smoke had condensed, consolidating into a pair of hands that had grabbed the falling guard by the shoulders and were slowly lowering him to the ground. Smokey’s new powers were clearly more advanced than I’d given him credit for.

Movement out of the corner of my eye drew my attention. The big super with the ponytail squatted and leaped from the walkway towards Electra, who had reached the door. I rushed up a wall and leaped out at him. As with the guard, my leap actually changed to flight once I left the wall. Unlike the guard, however, I made no effort to avoid hitting this guy at full speed.

I bulled into him with my shoulder, striking him along the side at his waist. It was like hitting a telephone pole, most likely inflicting more damage on me than him as I ricocheted towards a nearby wall, which I ran back down to the floor. It did, however, change the direction of his movement, like a cue ball striking one of its compadres in a game of pool.

Eight ball in the side pocket
, I thought as the big fellow went straight into a power transformer. I don’t know what exactly Electra had knocked offline at the wind farm, but it obviously wasn’t the transformer because the thing had to be close to being fully juiced. When the super hit, it lit up like a supernova, shooting sparks like firecrackers as electricity visibly whipped across, around, and through the guy’s body.

At that point, Electra was through the door, with Smokey right on her heels in vapor form. I zipped over as well, and took one last look at the power plant. Plasmatic was still on his feet, and able to get his bearings now that the smoke had fled the room. Nearby, his fellow super fell to his knees, seemingly exhausted by his torturous encounter with the transformer, which was now billowing real smoke into the room. And if that wasn’t enough, a small explosion sounded from the generator that Plasmatic’s shot had gone through earlier, and flames were now visible through the hole he had made. I slammed the door shut, but not before the super with the ponytail glared at me with his yellow eyes.

*****

We knew we needed to go up to get to the living quarters, so we took a nearby set of stairs as indicated on the blueprints. Something else I knew, from the look the big super had given me, was that they’d be coming after us right quick.

When we got to the proper floor, we paused for a second so Electra could catch her breath. I had no idea whether Smokey could even get fatigued in his current form, but he hadn’t made an effort to change back yet so I assumed he wasn’t having any issues.

The area we were in was actually a large foyer. There were lots of sofas and chairs around for sitting, as well as tables set up for board games and the like. There were two areas with numerous chairs laid out in rows in front of a large flat screen television (obviously TV viewing areas). A couple of the walls had large, intricate murals painted on them, reflecting scenes of the outside world, such as children playing in a park and a woman working in her garden.

All in all, the place had the vibe of one of the huge activity rooms that you see in mental hospitals in the movies. I mentally shuddered, thinking of the life Rudi and her brother were living here.

“You guys go ahead,” I said after a moment. “Find Rudi and Josh – their room is marked on the blueprints – and then follow the plan to get out.”

“What about you?” asked Electra.

“They’re coming,” I said. “They’re practically on our tail right now. I need to slow them down.”

I could sense that she wanted to argue with me, but then she just nodded and started moving towards a set of double doors directly across from the stairwell we’d come through. Those doors should lead right to the area where Rudi was. Smokey, floating like a cloud against the ceiling, followed her.

In addition to the double doors that my friends had gone through, there were also similar doors to the left and right of the stairwell we’d entered through. Hearing footsteps on those stairs now, I raced around the room, grabbing furniture and stacking it up against the stairwell door.

I was about to do the same to the side doors and was actually in the process of dragging a couch over to one of them when the door in question burst open. One of the guards stepped through, carrying an ugly-looking weapon in both hands, with a muzzle big enough to put my fist in.

Already at super speed, I watched as the guard fired. The projectile that left the barrel was somewhat bullet-shaped (although about the size of my hand), but seemed to be shooting fire out of the far end. Apparently, the weapon was some kind of handheld rocket launcher.

I was close to the center of the room at the time, and I watched for a few seconds as the rocket approached. Then I flipped the couch up lengthwise and took off towards the opposite door. About halfway to the door, curiosity got the better of me, and I turned around – while backpedalling at super speed – to see what would happen. It was easy enough to explain: one second there was a couch; the next, there was kindling and toothpicks as the rocket exploded.

I turned back around, ready to dash out the available side door and find some other way to my friends, when something like a sledgehammer caught me across the jaw. I went flying back towards the center of the room, close to the stairwell door that I had blocked off just a short time earlier.

I shook my head, trying to clear it, but it was immediately obvious what had happened. While I was glancing back at the exploding sofa, Mr. Ponytail – the big super – had come into the room through the door I was to head out of. I’d set myself up perfectly, and when I turned back around towards the door, he’d caught me with a solid backhand.

Mr. Ponytail was actually walking towards me now, striding confidently towards where I was still practically laid out on the floor. Flanking him were two other guards.

I was tempted to head out the doors to Rudi’s room, cut my losses and try to finish the mission. But the whole point of me staying back was to buy them time. It wouldn’t do much good if I made a beeline for them now with most of Chamomile’s security detachment in hot pursuit. I looked towards the door where the guard with the rocket launcher stood, getting ready to make a dash by him. He obviously sensed what I was up to, because – as I shifted into super speed again – I saw his finger start to clench on the trigger.