Fortified (13 page)

For a moment, everyone stopped, watching the pile, as if expecting the artifact to sprout legs and crawl away to safety on its own.

“Gabby! Get it!” Drone barked out.

The mysterious girl went running for the pile. JD picked himself up and did the same, only she was a tiny bit faster. A fraction of a second made all the difference. Just as her fingers were about to grab hold of the Ilotus, she was knocked off her feet and into a bush, getting tangled in the branches. He glanced over his shoulder and saw Orlando with an outstretched hand, pinning her into the foliage with his psychic abilities.

With clenched fists, Drone pulled out a gun and pointed it toward Orlando.

“Behind you!” JD shouted.

Angela fired another ball of flames toward Drone, which caused him to fumble his aim as he fired. The bullet whizzed at a safe distance overhead. Unfazed, Drone reloaded and pointed it at her next. Orlando saw this just in time, and with one infuriated yell, the ground shook. Anyone not within a few feet of him was pushed to the ground.

“Get out of here!” Jaes managed as he struggled to lift his body off of the dirt. Whatever hold Orlando had on the area, it was a powerful one. JD also found himself unable to get up, let alone move.

Gently, Angela grabbed a hold of Orlando's arm and pulled him toward JD. The two of them reached down and helped him up.

JD picked up the Ilotus, using his body to shield it from another blast of lightning coming from a gap in the bushes where Gabby was still trapped. Another narrow miss, but a miss all the same and that was all that mattered. He ran deep into the forest, not once looking back.

O
rlando leaned against a tree
, hiding his face in his arms, desperate to catch his breath. “Did we lose them?” He glanced back over his shoulder and his gaze was full of what appeared to be genuine concern. For all of his talk, the guy was easily spooked. Granted, they were running for their lives at the moment. JD just expected more toughness and less melting down, and Orlando definitely gave off the impression of a volcano ready to blow at any time. He had to keep cool or they'd all lose it.

“No clue,” JD said, panting. He groaned as his side ached from his spring. “We've got the Ilotus though, so they might have followed us. Where'd Alan run off to? I could sure go for his convenient teleporting right now.”

“Same,” Angela whispered, closing her eyes. “I don't hear anyone.”

“That doesn't mean they aren't coming,” Orlando said. “We need a plan. Fast.”

“Yes,” she agreed. Both of them gazed over at JD.

He was the group appointed leader despite his lack of powers. He'd made the assumption it was because they felt bad for him. At that moment, he wondered if perhaps it was because they weren't confident enough in their own decisions. That, maybe, they actually valued his opinions enough to trust in his guidance. No pressure or anything, they were only in the thick of battle.

Swallowing, he started to think out loud. “We have the Ilotus. It needs to get to our allies. I don't trust Alan's tribe. Not everyone in it, at least. Even Jaes is sketchy right now. Unless we give it to Alan himself, I'd rather it be someone from the yellow tribe since that's who the device belongs to in the first place. Know anyone from there who can give us a pointer on what to do next in case we can't catch up with Alan?” With all of the fighting, JD didn't want to think of his leader, his friend, being hurt. They needed to prepare for the worst all the same.

“Nia is part of the yellow tribe,” Orlando said, his gaze on the forest floor as if deep in thought.

“Do you know how to get to her place from here? Where are we, anyway?” Angela asked, and JD was proud she could put aside whatever beef was between them aside for the time being. Good to know she could keep herself in check when the need arose.

Nodding, Orlando pulled out his cellphone. He ran his fingers over the touch screen. “I know where she lives. I'll try to figure out where we are with my GPS.”

“Stop,” JD said. “There's gotta be a way the bad guys can trace the signal or whatever.”

“Signal is pretty accurate of a description,” Orlando deadpanned, ignoring JD's request.

With a huff, JD marched over and snatched the phone from his hands. “I'm not a tech guru. Okay? But we should all turn off our phones.”

Angela sighed and did as she was told, pulling out her cellphone from some hidden pocket in her pants. “I hate when you're right. Especially since we're up against Drone,” Angela added. “The guy is a cyborg. A computer. He probably has access to all kinds of programs and databases and whatever else he needs to locate us based on a phone.”

Orlando gazed at her coolly from behind his mask and it was hard to tell if he agreed with her or not. “We can't wander blind.”

“What if he learns who you are? If Gideon can find out a life story from hacking a phone, don't you think Drone can too?” Angela pressed.

JD hadn't even thought of that. “Where's the off button? Glad I left mine at home.”

“Are you nuts? What if we lost track of you?” His sister gasped.

“I'd figure it out. Mom would murder me if I broke mine in a fight.” He flipped Orlando's phone over in his hands, content with just taking the battery out if need be. His friend reclaimed ownership over the device before he could pry off the slick, black, casing.

“Two seconds, that's all I need to figure it out,” Orlando insisted.

“Fine! Seriously, one Mississippi, two—”

Orlando frantically swiped his fingertips over the screen of his phone. A few seconds later he was powering it off and putting it back into his pocket. “We're about an hour from home,” Orlando said. “There's a gas station a couple of miles that way.” He pointed to what JD thought was Southeast. “Otherwise there wasn't a whole lot of civilization nearby. I think we're in some kind of forest boarding the rural towns up north.”

“Okay, plan!” JD clapped his hands together. “We go to the gas station, turn everything back on, check in with the proper family units so no one freaks out and then—”

A crack of lightning ended their moment of rest. The tree above Angela split at the point of impact, causing an explosion of bark and branches to fall down around her as she screamed. A shield of fire appeared above her just as a branch almost smashed over her head. It landed off to the side and Orlando redirected it out of their way, his body tense as he anticipated another attack. He reached for Angela's hand, and she took it, much to JD's surprise.

The three of them prepared to run but Drone stood in their path. The one Drone called Gabby, and a third unmasked teen flanked their sides. He was a young man, pale, with vibrant red hair and even more passion in his olive green eyes than any of the others. And that was saying a lot because Drone's gaze was intense enough as it was.

Drone sighed and pulled out his gun, keeping it ready but not pointing it at a target. “I know you can protect yourself from our attacks. Eventually, you're going to tire yourselves out and we're going to overpower you. Because I know you're not trained to conserve your abilities for longevity. And you know what? That's okay. We're all just teenagers thrown into a fight that shouldn't be ours in the first place. Wouldn't you like to go back to worrying about who to take to prom, getting your homework done on time, all of those simple, trivial things that we once took advantage of?” Drone stepped forward. “I can make that happen for you. Just give me the Ilotus, and life can go right back to normal.”

“And how exactly do you plan on making
that
happen?” Orlando sneered. He folded his arms in front of him and did what he did best: talk. It bought them time if nothing else. Time JD could use to find a Plan B. “Hypothetically, we give you this device. What happens next? What do you plan on doing with it? What do you plan on doing to us?”

“Your leader called it rehabilitation,” Drone said. “Though you're more than welcome to join me and my group of justice warriors.”

“Justice Warriors, cute.” Orlando scoffed. “Come up with that all on your own?”

Drone smirked. “A collective effort.”

“And who are you providing justice
for
? The Doctor and his clan of murdering monsters?”

Shaking his head, Drone relaxed his posture, and JD briefly believed the guy didn't mean them any harm. The steel in his gaze sent shivers down JD's spine however, not letting his intuition allow for his guard to come down. “Hardly, but I admittedly don't stand for any Alturan faction at all. I fight for Earth and her people.”

“Then we're on the same side,” JD said carefully.

“No,” Drone snapped. “You work for Alturans and their priority is
them
. They come here and ruin our lives. Uproot us. Turn us into their unwilling experiments because they seem to think we all want to be superheroes, then drop us when we're done so we have to pick up all of the pieces.”

The breeze rustled through the trees while JD processed what he'd just heard. “Sounds like you know from personal experience.”

“Smart, not that I'm surprised. Sir Jaes always talked you up. I still haven't figured out why.” There was a sharp bitterness in his tone.

JD held his hands out in front of him, urging peace and knowing it was probably a vain effort. “I don't know much about Jaes or how he runs things, but not all Alturans are like him. Alan is kind and considerate. Let's not do something we're going to regret later. Maybe we can all meet together and work through—”

“No.” Drone shook his head. “I'm done with them. The Ilotus. Now.”

“What do you want to do with it?” JD clutched the gold box to him tighter.

“If you're not going to help me, you don't get to know.” Drone lifted his gun and pointed it at JD. “Don't worry, I won't kill you, but hurting you isn't something I want to do either.”

Before JD could utter a reply, the gun fired with a loud bang. Everything seemed to move into slow motion then. A scream escaped from his sister's lips while at the same time Orlando raised a hand. Psychic energy pulsed away from him and JD watched it slowly ripple through the forest. More interestingly, he watched the bullet inch its way toward him like some special effect from an action movie.
I'm controlling time?

He moved out of the way of the bullet and walked over to Drone, standing right behind him. Smirking, JD tapped on the guy's shoulder and life resumed at its normal pace. Drone spun to face him. Without a second thought, JD punched him square in the jaw, knocking him over. There was just enough time to grab the gun from his hands. All the while JD ignored the sting in his knuckles and pain in his joints.

With a shaking hand, he held up the gun, doing his best to manage its weight with one hand while he gripped the Ilotus with his other. “Call off your teammates.”

“You're not going to shoot me,” Drone mumbled.

“I don't know what I'm going to do next, actually!” JD backed away. “Call them off.”

Drone only chuckled until a rock flew into his head, knocking him unconscious.

When JD gazed over at his sister and his friend, he saw Orlando trapping the other two assailants in a prickly looking bush. His blue eyes narrowed as he focused all of his attention on moving them a few more inches in the plant, and his entire face was flushed red. Once he was satisfied with his work, he breathed hard, his skin slowly returning to its normal pale shade.

“What did you do?” JD demanded.

“Are you complaining?” Orlando whined. “You've got to be kidding me.”

“I'm not complaining.”

“Good, because I was about to say…”

Angela grabbed both of them by the arm. “Walk and talk, okay? Actually, run and talk sounds better.”

“Run then talk,” JD advised, putting the safety on the gun and then tossing it deep into the forest.

“Whatever!”

They ran, stepping over branches, dodging bushes, trees, and anything else in their way.
If I don't think about how tired I am, it'll be easier to keep going.
And there was a lot to distract JD's mind.
What happened back there? I thought for sure I was toast. Then everything went to a standstill? Cadence and Alan have mentioned weird stuff happening when I'm around, but this is definitely the weirdest.
Maybe Orlando did it? He's the one with the super cool, super strong powers, and he did look pretty beat.
He glanced over at his friend who struggled to keep up.
Still does, actually. We should rest soon. Assuming we can.

When the forest abruptly ended at the border of a farm, JD put his hands on his knees for support as he tried to catch his breath. Of the three of them, Angela was the least winded. Orlando lay down on the ground, groaning loudly.

“I'm done. If they still get us? I'm done.” He closed his eyes. “Pretty sure I broke my brain using my powers back there.”

JD smirked at him. “Whatever you did to help me, thanks.”

“That was all you,” Orlando countered. “I was going to try and get a shield around you, but the super speed…no it was almost like you teleported, only…I'm not sure how to describe it…you did it.”

He was about to open his mouth in protest when Angela interjected.

“Can we talk about this later? I'm kind of freaking out here!”

Slowly, Orlando pulled himself into a sitting position. His gaze never left her. “We should check where we are, again. Permission to use my phone, fearless leader?”

“Yeah, sure,” JD said. His eyes darted to the forest, waiting for Drone and his team to appear once more, like a shadow haunting their every move.
They're either coming for us or they aren't. Might be a good idea to reconnect. If all else fails, we can tell Cadence what's going on.

Orlando got his phone out and turned it back on. “According to the map, there's a highway of some kind on the other side of this field.” He pointed in front of them at the newly tilled ground. “If we travel east a quarter of a mile, we'll be at that gas station. I'm going to go ahead and call us a cab to ride back in. By the time we get there, it should be waiting for us. We can get snacks for the trip, recharge, that kind of thing.”

“And talk about what went down,” JD said.

“In the cab?” Orlando raised an eyebrow. “How about we try to get in touch with Alan first.”

“This is mega-important, though.”

Angela sighed. “It is. JD, you got your powers. He might have some insight on what they are, how they work!”

“And he'll hopefully have information from Jaes,” Orlando added. “Assuming they're both okay.”

“I'm worried about him too,” JD said in a soft voice. He still didn't agree about waiting, but perhaps they both needed more time to process their most recent adventure.
I know I do.

Once Orlando got back to his feet, he started to unbutton his mud spattered white shirt. “Here, Angela, it's getting cold.”

“I'm fine,” she insisted.

“You're shivering.” He handed it to her and JD noticed her eyes were more or less glued on Orlando's lean muscled arms. Thankfully, he had on a white undershirt, a sleeveless one, but he was covered.

Rolling his eyes, JD watched his sister reluctantly put the shirt on. “At least you don't look like a yoga class reject anymore.”

“Bro, you have absolutely no room to critique my outfit.” Angela pulled off her mask and let down her long, dark curls from her messy bun. “I feel like I should go find the circus you escaped from.”