Apex 2: Rise of the Super Soldiers (10 page)

At a Loss

When Watson received word that
Delacourt was missing, he had to sit down. Everything had fallen apart in such a short span of time. He wasn’t used to so much chaos.

Melanie offered, “Maybe he teleported like Jack does.”

Watson nodded absently. None of this made sense to him in the least. He had no options available to him to hunt down superhumans. It would be irresponsible to send his soldiers after them. And it was out of the question to ask a couple of teenagers to clean up his mess.

Jack said, “I want to stick around until they surface. You’ll never contain them by yourself.”

Melanie nodded. More than ever, the Commander needed their help.

Jack
mused, “I could go out and see if I can find them. They can’t have gotten far.” He wondered if his newfound ability to empathize from a distance might come in handy once again. It would help him pinpoint their whereabouts, if he could summon the ability to come forth like it had at Everest.

Watson stood and said angrily, “Absolutely not! You’re in my custody. I’m not going to risk putting either of you in harms way. I need to get a handle on this situation before I’m willing to take action.”

Jack smiled. “You know you can’t stop me, right?”

Watson cocked his head to the side, trying to figure out why the boy was so hell bent on bucking authority. “I’m asking nicely, son.”

Jack conceded. “Alright, but I’m here if you need me.”

Cheyenne
 

Delacourt had his personal puppet drive him to the nearest hotel in Cheyenne. It was a poor decision considering it would be the first place Watson would look as soon as he discovered he was missing, but he was confident enough in his new abilities to risk it. If Watson came, he’d be dealt with in brutal fashion.

He mentally instructed his puppet to
hand over his firearm and to forget they’d ever met and then sent him on his way in the truck. Then he used the power of his mind to get keys to a room for free from the desk attendant of the hotel.

He locked the door behind him and checked through the curtains to see if he’d been followed. He was suddenly exhausted. He fell on the floral blanket with a thud and instantly blacked out.

Little did he know that Hank and Sally were staying just a few rooms away, unconscious too.

Hotel

Sally woke up in a strange place. It was dark and musty, with the smell of stale cigarette smoke and left over human odors clinging to her nostrils. She sat up painfully and looked around. On the bed next to her was Hank, passed out and snoring like a saw.
He was nude and only then did she notice that she was naked too.

What had happened? Had he lost his mind and raped her? No. He was crude but he was her friend. Had they gotten drunk together off-base and decided to sleep it off?

Then her memories came to her. The last thing she remembered was that sphere spraying them with an aerosol that stung her bronchial tubes and sent her mind reeling. After that, she remembered nothing. Had she been unconscious since then, and if so, how had she gotten here?

She
wrapped the blanket around her bare figure and jostled Hank’s shoulder. He woke up languidly, wiped his mouth and rubbed his eyes.

She asked sheepishly, “Where are we?”

Hank sat up and cleared his throat. She couldn’t help but notice that he looked like he’d been working out his entire life. His musculature was awe inspiring.

He said,
“That metal orb knocked us out. I woke up strapped to a bed that was on fire. I got loose from the restraints and tried to carry you out of the room but the bastards locked us in. I broke out and took off with you draped over my shoulder. They tried to kill us. I didn’t know what to do so I ran here and found an empty room. I broke in, laid you down, and then passed out again.”

Sally had a cockeyed smile as he explained. She said, “None of that makes any sense. I don’t trust the military but what we did wouldn’t warrant execution. Plus, have you ever heard of the military conducting such a weird type of execution? What really happened?”

Hank chuffed, “I’m telling the truth. You were out like a light so you don’t remember. After I got out of the room and they discovered I’d escaped, they even tried to lock the place down. Steve shot at me as soon as we got outside. We were lucky to escape with our lives.”

She shook her head, exasperated,
looking for the bullet wound on his body that she knew he’d concocted. She said, “We’d better get back before they say we went AWOL. Where are my clothes?”

Hank stood up and said, “You don’t understand. We can’t go back. They’ll kill us or at the very least, imprison us.”

Sally said, “We did nothing wrong. Your story is nonsense.”

Hank felt his anger well up as it had before. He’d saved her life and now she was calling him a liar. Just like the last time, he felt it build and build and then in an almighty outburst, it released, escaping from his body like an explosion.

Sally flew backwards into a wall and all the furnishings either blew apart or flew outward from the epicenter of the blast, which was his body. The bed was in separate pieces, the box spring standing on its side, smoldering. The curtains wafted out of the window now that the glass had been shattered, and they were on fire.

He rushed over to Sally, but she was alright. In fact, she didn’t have a scratch on her. The blanket she’d had wrapped around her body was in shreds though.
He noticed for the first time that her body had changed. She was far more robust than ever before, with muscles taut and piled atop one another.

He took her hand and helped her to her feet. He said, “That’s why we don’t have any clothes. I did that back at base and it ripped our clothes to bits. But it’s how I got us out of the locked room.”

Her mouth fell open. “This can’t be real. What the hell happened to you?”

He looked at his feet, deep in thought. “I suppose the metal orb might have done this to me. Maybe the mist that knocked us out gave me this ability.”

“But I breathed it in too.”

“Those teenagers all got superpowers from the orb they found. I got this weird ability from the orb in the truck. I’m pretty sure you must have an ability now too.”

Sally smiled like a child. “Do you think? I wonder what it is.”

Sirens split the air. Hank said urgently, “We’ll figure that out later. We need to get out of here.”

Crossed Paths

Delacourt was woken by a loud boom from outside. He could barely believe his lucky eyes when he went to the window to see what had happened. Two naked figures rushed past his room and he recognized them. It was a serendipitous event to say the least. He heard sirens approaching and realized that any kind of window of opportunity was shrinking rapidly. He acted on pure instinct. He hurriedly opened his door and called out for Hank and Sally.

They turned his way, and because they had so few options, ran into his room breathlessly.

Delacourt made a show of locking the door and drawing the curtains to make them feel safe.

Sally was trying to cover her breasts with one arm while shrouding her groin with her other hand. Delacourt stared at her lustfully but he quickly chided himself for being so obvious. He had already lost Jack and Melanie’s trust and if he continued like this he’d lose Hank and Sally’s too. He retrieved two towels from the bathroom and handed them over.

Hank said, “Thanks. What the hell are you doing here?”

Delacourt considered fabricating a story but he couldn’t come up with anything on the spot. He said, “I ingested the same blue stuff that affected both of you. I had to escape from the base after that.”
That was all true. He just omitted the part where he stole the blue contagion and murdered a man.

Hank turned on Sally and said, “I told you they tried to kill us.” Then he turned back to Delacourt and asked, “Did they try to kill you too?”

“Yep,” he lied.

“Do you have an ability?”

“I do. Do you?”

Hank said, “Those sirens are coming because of my ability. I don’t have any control over it. It blew our hotel room apart. What’s yours?”

“I can telepathically influence people. What ability does she have?” He was staring at Sally.

Sally sneered at him. “Hank doesn’t speak for me.”

“I apologize, young lady. I meant no harm.”

She said, “I just woke up so I haven’t discovered mine yet.”

“Well when you do, make sure to let us know.”

The sirens ceased meaning that the responders had arrived. Hank asked, “What should we do? We need to get out of here. They’ll find out about the destruction to the room back at base and probably figure out that one of us did it.”

Delacourt said, “Let me find you some clothes and then we’ll decide what to do next.” He looked to Hank and then to Sally. “You don’t need to fear the military anymore. Nothing they do can stop us now.”

Intercepted Intel

The First Mate said to Shaylo, “Sir, I’ve translated an encrypted communiqué sent from a human military base. Apparently a so-called alien contagion is responsible for a select few humans enhanced abilities. It seems that while we waited in orbit, three more humans have now been infused with the enhancer.” She knew better than to mention that as they stalled, the earthlings were becoming better equipped to fight back, but she was infuriated by the lack of decisiveness from her General. Now she understood why so many of his First Mates chose death rather than continue to work directly under him.
His tactics went against her natural instincts.

He eyed her coolly.
“How many enhanced humans do they have?”

“From the intercepted communiqué, there are a total of five
known humans who have advanced abilities.”

“What is this alien contagion they speak of?”

“I have no idea but it would seem that it has somehow fused with their DNA, altering it in beneficial ways.”

“Can we deduce in which ways they’ve been altered?”

“Not from out here.”

“Do they have access to any more of that contagion?”

“No. They used up the last of it.”

Shaylo smiled. “Five superhumans is hardly anything to worry about, no matter how advanced they are. Try to pinpoint their whereabouts just to be sure they’re not a threat to the invasion.” He paused and locked her in a vicious stare. “Don’t ever question my decisions again. You’re lucky I haven’t killed you for your insolence.”

“Yes sir. I apologize sir. I’m a warrior at heart. I hate to strategize when there’s a fight out there just waiting for us.”

“The first invasion was defeated because they went in blind. I’m the best at what I do for good reason
s. Just do what’s asked of you and I might let you live for awhile.”

“Yes sir.”

Formulating a Plan

Delacourt got Hank and Sally some clothes from a store down the street. Then they moved to the next closest hotel just to be safe.

Delacourt would have a small army if he could just get the other two to side with him. He barely knew what he would even do with
such an army, but the egomaniacal part of him was already formulating a crude plan to take over the world. The human population was thinned out so it was ripe for the picking if he only had the guts to try.

But first, he had to see how formidab
le his little army really was. To test them, he would attack the mountain bunker. If that fell easily, any fortified installation in the world would fall to him. He knew in his heart that they had to kill those punk kids or else they’d always be looking over their shoulders. Killing Watson would just be the cherry on top.

H
e just had to convince Hank and Sally to join him. He tried to influence them via telepathic thoughts but there was a mental blockage of some sort, either from him or from them. Maybe they were immune to it because they were similarly affected.

But it turned out he didn’t need to trick them.

Hank said, “I’m going back there as soon as I get my strength back. Those assholes tried to kill us and they’re going to pay. I’m going to kick the shit out of them.”

Sally wavered so Delacourt weighed in, if only to convince her that she was the odd one out. “Watson imprisoned us and tried to kill you both. That entire base has gone rogue. It’s my duty to take them down by any means.”

Hank smiled like an imp. “You could send for your troops, right? I like our chances if we can get some muscle behind us.”

Delacourt shook his head. “We don’t have time for that and I doubt we’ll need them.”

Sally said, “I can’t believe you two are talking about this. It’s treasonous.” She stared at her feet in deep contemplation and then went on. “I’ll join you but only if you let me take out the aliens.”

Delacourt tried to stifle the laugh that erupted from him, but he was too late. These two troops were as bloodthirsty as he could’ve ever hoped
for even without his influence.

“What’s so funny?”

“Nothing. You’re right, of course. They wronged us more than Watson ever could. They’re all yours, young lady.”

“When do we move out?” Sally asked, suddenly eager.

“I know what I bring to a fight. I sort of get what Hank can do, but we have no clue if you can even contribute.” He let the words hang in the air accusatorially until Sally took the hint and started to attempt to bring forth whatever power she’d acquired.

They watched in silence as she squinted and knotted her face up in concentration. Her hands started to shake and her breathing became shallow. But nothing happened. Her eyes teared up as she turned back towards them.

Delacourt wanted nothing more than to mock her but he held his tongue.

Hank said quickly, “When I exploded, she was right next to me and she didn’t sustain injury. Maybe she’s impenetrable or immortal or something.”

Delacourt was getting sick of her. He said, “Prove it and we’ll start preparing for the attack.”

Sally shrugged her shoulders. “How do I do that?”

Delacourt rolled his eyes and then quickly pulled the handgun that he’d confiscated from the truck driver out.

Hank yelled, “No. Don’t,” and then he lunged at Delacourt, but he was too late. The boom was ear-shattering in the enclosed space.

Sally buckled over from the gut shot but she righted herself when she realized the bullet hadn’t penetrated her skin.

She laughed as she stabbed a forefinger through the hole in her new shirt.

But the levity was going to be short-lived because Hank was losing control of his powers again. Clearly his ability was governed by his own anger or fear.

His skin seemed to bubble from some unseen force beneath it trying to break free
, looking like bugs under a blanket. His eyes became engorged with blood and his mouth fell open as he screamed like a trapped animal.

Delacourt hit the deck just in time.

Hank went off like a bomb, blowing up with an almost invisible energy that ferociously tore through everything in the room except for the three human occupants. In fact, Sally didn’t even bother to shield herself from the onslaught. She stood stock still as her hair whipped around and her brand new clothes were ripped into confetti by the blast.

Hank fell to one knee, panting, with eyes unfocused and hands quivering.

Delacourt jumped to his feet and helped pick him up. “If we can help you control that power nothing can stop us.”

Sally
shielded her nudity with her hands. She said, “I need another set of clothes. We need to move again. The cops will be here any minute.”

Delacourt nodded. “We need to acquire some firepower too. Let’s get going.”