Opheliac (18 page)

Tait walked home with her brother from the high school, one of the advantages to living close. The night was a little warmer than usual, but she held herself tightly as they went, shivering. The red tribe was coming for them, possibly any minute. Wouldn't the best time to come for them be when they were vulnerable and alone?
I still don't understand how they know. Obviously, I trust Alona enough to believe her when she says this whole plan is a good thing, but I'm still scared. Still bothered. Having holes in my memories sucks. Nobody seems to care about that except for me.

She took a deep breath, reminding herself to breathe and relax. Payton couldn't clue in to her inner turmoil, or else he'd badger her until she spilled the entire plan. There was no doubt in her mind that he could sense her distress all the same. They were twins, best friends; how could he miss the fact that something was off?

He didn't say anything. All he did was put an arm around her as they walked. She relaxed in the security of his embrace, and as if on cue, a few young men in masks stepped out onto the dimly lit street. Payton tensed up, moving her behind him—a futile gesture she appreciated. Really, it should have been her who made the move to protect him. Her powers were stronger and aggressive in nature. The lack of fight in her should have been Payton's tip off that there was no point in trying to lash out.

All the same, he clenched his fists together as the men approached them. Since it was night, no one in the nearby houses was paying any attention to what was happening outside. The men coming toward them were silent anyway, eerily silent. Tait didn‘t recognize any of her would-be kidnappers due to the distortion caused by the masks. She did, however, see the slight red aura about them identifying them as part of the red tribe.

It's time.

The leader of the small group was quick as lightning, charging at them and hitting Payton dead on the chest with his shoulder. In one smooth movement, he twisted behind her brother, taking hold of Payton's arms and pinning them tight against his back. Tait was knocked to the side and onto the hard concrete. Another member of the red tribe took advantage of her fall and restrained her as well.

“We're good,” the one who held Payton said.

An Alturan moved closer. She knew he was Alturan because he didn't bother to wear a mask. He was near to her height with red hair that glowed like fire under the orange lights of the street lamps further down the street. His hazel eyes rested on her as he reached out to touch her and Payton with his hands. In the blink of an eye, they were gone from the street and in the middle of an empty room. The instant journey disoriented her.

Shackles were placed on her wrists once they arrived. Fear set into her heart. What if Drone didn't come? What if she and Alona had been set up in exchange for their secrets? The red-tribe goons nudged her in the back to get her to march forward, practically pushing both her and Payton out of the room. She was in some kind of a compound. The walls were boring and a dull gray color. Perhaps even…metal? Not a lot of buildings were made from metal.
Where are we?

She and her brother were brought into a new room, and she caught sight of the planet Earth through a window looking out into space. A quiet gasp escaped her lips. Payton, who had been continuing to struggle, completely stopped moving. He didn't take another step forward. His jaw simply dropped and slowly, he glanced her way.

Determined to stay strong, Tait raised her chin and tried to not let the implication bother her. So she was in space? So what? She was okay, and safe from harm. Alona promised they would be okay. She had to hold firm to those truths.

In the middle of the room were two examination chairs. Déjà vu hit her then. She'd been to this place before; she was sure of it.
Of course I have. Alona said as much when she told me they were taking my memories away from me in the first place.

New people were in the room with her. One she recognized right away as Drone: even if she didn't know his true identity, she could still see enough of his features to know it was him. Another new one who was present startled her. The Llama Kid.

It had been some time since she'd last crossed paths with Chihuahua Man's faithful, slightly annoying, and incredibly handsome sidekick. At least, she imagined he was handsome. He dressed in nice slacks, a loose, white, button-down dress shirt, and a matching fedora covered what she was pretty sure was a mass of shaggy dark hair. Underneath his mask, piercing blue eyes continued to gaze at her with a rather peculiar and unidentifiable expression. It almost seemed like he cared about her?

The members of the red tribe placed both her and Payton onto a chair. Both of them were restrained before being injected.

“It's easier if they aren't conscious,” one of the Alturans said.

The Alturan leader of the operation nodded and observed from the back, standing next to Drone. He leaned in and said something only Drone could hear. Drone in turn smiled and then gazed over at her, smirking. She was almost positive she saw Drone wink at her, but nausea and fatigue hit her at full force then. Her vision started to blur and she was almost positive she was hallucinating. Why else would The Llama Kid, her sworn enemy, hold her hand?

“This is bogus,” JD said, sitting on his living room couch. “Totally boring and bogus.”

Cadence rolled her eyes and tried to not let his sourpuss attitude infect her too much. “We're going to have an adventure soon enough. Unfortunately, we can't all work together all of the time.”

“But I wanted to go into space too! No-o! I get stuck babysitting tonight instead.” He folded his arms in front of his chest, still grumbling under his breath.

“And you're going to wake up your siblings if you keep getting all grumpy.”

He huffed. “It just bugs me that anytime there's a big adventure involving a lot of danger, Orlando or Angela get to go on it, and I get stuck doing observation and research.”

“Because we don't know what your powers do exactly. They're unpredictable.”

“You mean, because I don't have any powers?” he provided.

She sighed. “I'm positive you have powers. They just aren't obvious. Besides, we're going to be witnessing something more important than what's going on tonight.”

“Space, Cadence! They're in space! I want to go too! It's gotta be awesome,” he protested.

Shaking her head, Cadence reached her hand into the popcorn bowl. At least the awkward tensions were no longer present between them. For the moment, they were back to their normal friendship. She remembered why she loved him in the first place.

“I'm sure we'll have a chance to go,” Cadence said. “Maybe try asking Alan to take you sometime. He probably doesn't think it's as cool, but I'm sure he'd oblige you if he's okay with taking Orly and Gideon up there for work.”

JD also ate some popcorn. “Yeah, okay, I'll ask him. And I get that what we're going to be doing is super important for the war and whatnot. I do, seriously. It's just super frustrating. For being a team, we haven't done a whole lot as a team lately.”

“No, I suppose we haven't,” she agreed. “I think Alan struggles with putting us in dangerous situations.”

“Yeah, because he doesn't think we can handle them.”

Again, she shook her head. “No, that's not it. I'm positive he believes in us and our ability to take on whatever comes our way. He's starting to give off this vibe that maybe he doesn't agree with using us to help in the war. Like it's ethically wrong to involve us.”

JD snorted. “They should have thought about that before they came to our planet.” JD snorted.

“Yes,” she said. “Anyway, don't take it so personally. We're going to be gaining vital information. Like who the other tribes are dealing with and what they plan on doing.”

“Good point.” He glanced at the clock. “Where is Angela? She said she'd be home by now from cheer practice. Orlando is gone, so it's not like she has anything to do.”

Cadence raised an eyebrow. “I wasn't aware they were spending that much time together outside of our meetings.”

“Because you've been living under your science experiment rock.” He poked her in the side.

She poked him back. “So what's the story? Enlighten me.”

“Angela is more or less in love with him. She was having a diva fit about a status update online the other night. Pretty sure I saw smoke coming out of her ears a few days ago after one of their non-dates to the mall. And by non-date, it's totally a date.” He rolled his eyes. “I hate it.”

“You hate everyone she wants to go out with.”

“I don't hate
him
, I just hate the idea of it. The other guys she's crushed on have all been losers. Orlando is…complicated, though, and if they got together, it'll get serious. She isn't ready for something serious.”

Rolling her eyes, Cadence ate some more popcorn to stop from saying the first thing on her mind.
More double standards, I'm sure. Angela can't get deeply involved until she's married, but every other girl is allowed to so long as it's with him.
Instead, she said, “Your sister is mature enough to know how to handle what's okay and what isn't in the dating world. Give her more credit. And him. I don't see either of them just leaping at each other in the throes of passion.”

“I'm not talking about sex,” he grumbled. “She falls fast and hard and then burns out quickly when it comes to everything she wants.”

“Like you?”

He shrugged. “Yeah, I'm kind of an expert on the subject, aren't I? What if she does that with him? He's not the most forgiving of people. But there's more. His ex. I can tell he's still kind of hung up on her. It's obvious. She doesn't need to be his rebound girlfriend. All I see is bad things happening with this crush thing. What makes it worse is I can't tell if it's one-sided or not.”

“Orlando doesn't wear his heart on his sleeve, no,” she agreed. “Your sister is going to do what she wants to, whenever she wants to.”

“Yes, and she was supposed to be home almost an hour ago.” He picked up his phone. “Forget texting. She's getting an angry call.” He dialed her number and waited. When he frowned, Cadence knew he'd gotten her voicemail. “Where are you? You better not be in a ditch! Call me so I know where you are!”

When he was done, he threw his phone to the side and went back to huffing. He and his sister were a lot more alike than they realized.

Cadence wasn't sure how to defuse the situation, so she focused her attention on the movie they'd put on for background noise.

His phone vibrated, signs of a new text message coming in. He read it right away and his frown deepened. “I'm not sure what this means.”

Taking the phone from him, Cadence looked down at the text. “Epic tunnel party. Walk the chihuahua over. L12.” She read it again. “It's a code. Epic tunnel party must be something with the tunnels, obviously. ‘Walk the chihuahua over' is a reference to your alter ego, and I'm guessing L12 is hers. The question is which tunnel she's referring to, seeing as how they're all over the place.”

“Her page online says she was last checked in near Morningtide High School, and that was about five minutes ago.” He stood up. “Come on, let's go.”

“Problem,” Cadence said. “You're babysitting your baby brother and the twins.”

“She could be in serious trouble here!”

Good point, but we can't just ditch the kids either.
Cadence raked her lower lip between her teeth. “You go, I'll stay. If you don't make it back before your parents get home, I'll make up some kind of an excuse about Angela having car trouble so you went to go rescue her.”

JD leaned down and kissed her cheek. “You're the best.”

“Sure thing,” she said softly. He left the house in a matter of seconds. The warmth of his lips against her skin only caused her heart to feel even more dread.

I need to keep it together,
Angela told herself as she sat in the small, cold, concrete room hidden deep within the tunnel system near her school. She had no idea how anyone was going to find her. A text went out to JD and Orlando. Beyond them, she didn't have a whole lot of other options for a hero to come save her. Cadence would be with JD, but she wouldn't be able to do much. Alan didn't have a cell phone of any kind. There was no way for her to get in touch with him, he was always the one who made contact with her.
And Orlando is in outer space tonight, and I doubt he gets reception up there.

Which left her with JD. As much as she wanted to believe her brother would come for her, she felt nothing but doomed. How was he going to be able to do anything for her? He had a hard enough time keeping himself out of trouble.

She shook her head, knowing everything was her fault to begin with. After cheer practice, she'd gone out with Beth, one of the other girls from her squad, for a quick dinner at a fast-food joint. Her parents were out all night, and she didn't feel much like cooking. The last time she'd done anything with her school friends seemed like a millennium ago. As they were leaving, a guy Beth had a crush on showed up. Supposedly, he liked her back. The way he watched Angela, however, made him come across as scuzzy.

Until she realized he wasn't checking her out because he thought she was cute. Angela didn't realize he had a completely different sort of motive until she'd already agreed to be the wingman for Beth and had gotten into this guy's car.

“There's an awesome party going on underneath the school,” he said. “You two need to check it out.”

“It's the middle of the week,” Angela said.

He laughed. “People who only party on the weekends don't know how to live.”

“Please, please, please,” Beth begged. “We have to go.” She leaned toward Angela and whispered, “I'll owe you a huge one for forever.
Please
.”

Why did I agree to go? I don't even recognize this guy from school, though something about him does seem familiar.
It didn't matter much. As soon as they entered the tunnels, Beth betrayed her. She used something similar to lasers to cuff Angela's hands behind her back.

“She's quiet,” the mysterious guy observed.

Beth risked a glance her way, but didn't say anything. With a lot of gentleness she walked Angela into a large, concrete room, all too similar to the other rooms the Doctor liked to use for his portable labs in the past. No doubt, after tonight, the lab would move again. Seeing all of the vials resting on a table, she shivered. The insane genius was working on a laptop, his brow furrowing underneath the black mask he wore.
He's going to inject me again.

A few seconds passed before the Doctor would even look up from his work at them. “Brought me a present, I see.”

“Yes, she's one of the experimented,” the teenage boy said. “She was on the list Sprout gave us of students from the party who had received the injection. Reading her DNA, I can confirm the drug is in her system.”

The Doctor nodded. “Thank you, Sensor, I can always rely on you. Go ahead and put her in the chair for me. We can administer the upgrade and get to work on figuring out what it is she does to see if it will be of any use to us.” He peered at Angela. “Unless she'd like to just tell us what she can do and who she works for.”

“I don't know what you're talking about,” Angela lied. “I can't have a job. My parents want me to focus on my schoolwork.”

“Sensor, see if you can get an imprint off of her. If she's been tapped by a tribe, they'll have left an impression.”

Sensor, the teenage boy who helped capture her, nodded. “Of course.”

“And bring one of the memory sticks.”

“Yes, sir.”

Angela was going to puke. She could feel it in her stomach, threatening to rise. It took some effort, but she was able to choke it down. This was the end. The enemy would figure out who she was, brainwash her, and then all of the others would be caught as well. Hopefully, her message made it through to her brother and he wasn't ignoring his phone.

The cuffs were removed from her wrists and she was forced to sit in a medical chair before being restrained again.

“I've almost got all of my experimented back,” the Doctor said. “Outside of you, there is only one more missing. The other ten have all been accounted for. Most of you already work for me. You'll find I'm not a bad boss.”

“He's not,” Sensor added. Beth's nervous gaze didn't seem to agree.

Smiling, the Doctor approached her. “If you relax, it won't hurt as much.”

Angela wiggled in the chair, desperate to break free. Without thinking, her fire powers began to come to life, and flames covered her body.

The Doctor stepped back. “Fascinating.”

“Yeah, she's pretty hot,” JD's voice said from the doorway.

“You,” the Doctor spat. “Why is it that every time I'm about to do something productive, you come around and distract me?”

“It's what annoying teenagers do best.” JD moved closer and stepped into Angela's view. Of course, he had to be completely decked out in his costume. Boxers over his jeans, a T-shirt with a Chihuahua on it, and a cape made from an old bedsheet. Each time she saw the outfit, it changed slightly.

Growling, the Doctor pushed away from the medical chair and went to his desk. He grabbed a gun and pointed it at JD. “I don't particularly want to hurt you, but you drive me crazy. And since you have no posse to protect you, and I don't have anyone to help guide my moral compass, I can actually get away with taking matters into my own hands.”

“Hey now, we don't need to do anything rash. Maybe we can just talk. I'm posse-less, and I'm not armed. Let's just chat, the two of us.” JD approached slowly, keeping his hands in front of him. “All I want is for you to let her go.” He pointed to his sister.

The Doctor scoffed. “Why would I do that? She belongs to me. She's one of my experiments, and I would like to make her complete, train her, and then sell her to an appropriate client. With what I'm seeing of her powers, I could get a great deal of money off her. She'll help with me getting more funding, among other things.”

“I get that you gave her powers, but she doesn't want this. Can't you let this one go and be normal?”

“If I do, then I'm down an experiment.”

“What's one experiment?”

The Doctor narrowed his gaze under his mask. “Everything.”

“W-what if I offered you a trade,” JD said. He moved closer to Angela and put his hands on her chair, avoiding the flames licking off her. It was a small miracle that nothing else was starting on fire. If she focused enough, she could contain her power to not harm anything else around her. A skill that took a lot of her concentration. JD's proposal was almost enough to break it.

Slowly, the Doctor's head cocked to the side. “I'm listening, but I'm making no promises.”

“I don't have powers,” JD said. “You can experiment on me instead.”

“Are you crazy?” Angela cried out. “No!”

JD glared at her from under his mask. “It seems like a fair trade to me. I'm sure you've got all kinds of new formulas and whatnot.”

“I do,” the Doctor said. “I'm not sure if I should believe you or not. Hold still. We'll see if you're lying or not soon enough.”

Sensor approached JD, now also wearing a black mask. Everything about his features was a mystery, and Angela kicked herself for not paying better attention to what the guy looked like before he put the thing on.

With an outstretched hand, Sensor touched JD on the shoulder and closed his eyes. “He's tapped by a tribe. Rosalotuve, to be more specific, but he's telling the truth. I'm not getting any abilities from him. Or rather, they're there, but they're still…blocked. Odd.”

JD folded his arms in front of him. “So there you go. You can experiment on my body all you want. Inject me with anything. Don't expect me to sell the secrets of my people to you, though. That's not going to happen.”

“No, of course not,” the Doctor said. He eyed Angela curiously. “She's important to you.”

“All of these teens you're experimenting on are important to me! How many have wound up dead since all of this began?” JD snapped.

The Doctor waved his hand in front of him. “That was nothing more than an unfortunate incident. This last batch has had no deaths, thankfully. While your proposal is noble, I'm not sure how much it will benefit me.” He pointed to Angela. “She, on the other hand, is powerful. I can use her.”

“Sir, if I may interject?” Sensor said.

“Of course.” But she noticed the Doctor roll his eyes. He sat down at his desk chair, but never once did he take his gun off JD.

Sensor eyed her brother. “There's something inside of him, building up. The more he talks, the stronger it gets. What I'm noticing, however, is that it can't be released. It trickles out slowly. I think there's a great deal of potential in his powers. If anything, he's a great example of those from Altura who are born with a gift but can't get it unlocked. It will also show the ineffectiveness of the Wimosiphyer . I'm assuming that's what was used to give you powers in the first place.”

JD nodded slowly. The more this Sensor kid spoke, the more Angela wanted to punch him. He shouldn't have been encouraging JD's idiocy, and he tried to sound too mature for a teenager. It all ground her nerves the wrong way.

For a moment, the Doctor tapped his chin with his free hand. “I'm still not sure if I'm liking this trade. You get your powers unlocked and I get what, exactly? The pleasure of experimenting on your body? Please, that is hardly worth it. I can get all sorts of teenagers to willingly contribute to my operation.”

“Yet you're choosing to work on one who never wanted your stupid drug in the first place?” JD snapped.

“If it's so stupid, why do you want me to inject you with it?”

JD dropped his gaze. “Either way, she's busting out of here. Just figured I'd try to do it in a more civil way than come in and blowing up the joint.”

“Like that's stopped you before?”

“Obviously, I don't have the firepower to do it now. But I can get it. Thing is, I'm tired of everything going off in a big bang, and we all know you're going to move your lab again anyway when you're done tonight. Plus, maybe your work isn't as awful as everyone says. You just have crummy outcomes.”

Did he smoke something on his way here? How does he think any of this is a good idea? The Doctor is evil. Why? Are you that desperate for powers? Seriously?
Angela closed her eyes. If she took one more look at her brother, she might have burst through the restraints and strangled him. Was that what he wanted? To make her royally mad at him so she could get free? If that was the case, he had a lot more confidence in her strength than she did. She caught things on fire but didn't gain any actual extra muscle.

There was a great deal of quiet. She hated only hearing ambient noise because it made the whole situation suffocating. Being trapped in the tunnels was more evident, and she found herself taking deeper breaths to keep herself from having a meltdown. Maybe JD thought it a great idea for her to explode—she didn't. Her powers in tight, enclosed space could prove dangerous.

“Okay,” the Doctor said at last. “I'll trade you for her. Disappointing, but I'll have other moments to work with her. That being said, I want something more from you than just your body.”

“I told you, I'm not—” JD began and he clenched his fists.

The Doctor laughed. “I won't make you spill any secrets you don't want to spill. No, I want something else, but we'll discuss that just the two of us after I release the girl.”

“Okay, deal,” JD said, holding out his hand. The Doctor took it, and the deal was sealed.

Sensor stuck a metal strip onto Angela's arm and loosened her restraints. “Memory stick in place.”

“You have an hour,” the Doctor said to Angela. “Then everything that happened from the past six hours of your life is going to be a complete blank. I suggest getting home as quickly as possible because some of the side effects aren't all too great.”

“Like?” she asked, her voice shaking. She kicked her legs down so she was sitting upright.

“Nausea, in some cases actual vomiting, headaches, fever, chills. None of them are permanent or life threatening. It's just the body reacting to the chemicals distorting your memory. The memory loss itself will be the most frightening part of the whole thing. I hate having to do it, but it's necessary. Can't have you leaving and telling what you've seen.”

No, of course not.
Getting home in an hour would be harder than it should have been since she didn't have the car. She got off of the chair, gave JD one last shake of her head, and bolted from the room before someone changed their mind.

Finding the exit to the tunnels was her first goal; the second was finding cell phone reception. Looking up at the signs by all of the pathways, she tried to get a feel for where she was in town. They had gone into the tunnels near her high school, which wasn't far from home. She could walk home from school in about twenty minutes. But when they entered the tunnel, she had also walked for a few minutes. The tunnels were deceptive in direction as well as distance. Without the sky and the outside landmarks, it was hard to discern where she was going.

“Main—two and a half miles, Royal Oaks—one mile, and Saints Arena—four miles.” She tried to calm herself enough to not go into a panic. Thinking clearly was key. “Royal Oaks is closer, but I'm not sure what that is. Saints Arena is in the opposite direction of home. Main I recognize.” It would get her in the right direction to home. From Main, home was about a ten-minute walk.
If I can find an exit before actually reaching Main, I might find myself closer than I thought.
And time was not on her side.