The First: EVO Uprising (18 page)

“
Looks like your team is looking to do something really stupid,” Sophia sighed while gazing in the direction where the Tornado sat on the beach.

“
Say what?” Rogers sneered.

Rogers pulled out a pair of binoculars from his pouch to view Rosann touching Blitz’s hand, changing her hair into a black frizzed-out afro while her skin color and features also changed to match his. Her body began to emit a highly intense electrical discharge.

“
What are those idiots doing?” Abe shook his head snarling.

“
While we were here talking,” she answered, “I saw the hard body in blue rallying the troops with a plan to take me down.”

“
You can hear what he’s saying?” Abe raised an eyebrow.

“
If you’re asking if I have ‘super hearing,’ no I don’t.” Sophia turned to him. “But I do have extremely keen eyesight… and I can read lips.

“
That dumbass,” Rogers muttered.  

Rogers reached to contact Hard-On and the team on his headset but paused looking at Sophia.

“
Say, you wouldn’t mind,” he began to ask.

“
You want me to humble them for you…” she finished his request.

“
Just a little…” Abe smirked.

“
If I do this, I’m not going to see a bunch of warships at my front door, am I?” She narrowed her eyes.

“
Like I said, no one knows I’m here.” He tipped his beanie. “So there’s no one to complain to.”

“
So should I just walk out there,” she turned looking out again, “or do they need some motivation?”

“
I guess some motivation wouldn’t hurt,” he shrugged.

“
Then you owe me a new wall,” she sighed.

“
Huh?” he cocked an eyebrow.

Despite him knowing it was a sell, Rogers was still surprised how easily Ms. Dennison snatched him up by the front of his combat harness hoisting him effortlessly into the air, and then flung him through the brand new wall she built launching him half a mile onto the beach he had trekked from. He did not need to sell the impact as his body bounced off the beach several times kicking up sand everywhere. He came to a rest in front of his team before they even put their plan into action.

“
Holy...” Oliver stuttered.

“
Sergeant!” Rosann screamed.

Sophia stepped through the large hole she created in the semi-built hut. She took her time walking down the steps into the warm sand of the beach allowing the grains to sink in between her bare toes.

“
Let’s get the bitch,” Hard-On snarled.

Blitz and Rosann nodded in agreement. With knowledge of his abilities during training, Rosann powered up along with Blitz.

The two of them took to the air propelling themselves at Sophia while Hard-On transformed to metal form darting across the sand toward her. Rosann swung a tight U-turn in midair to take Sophia from behind while Blitz barreled straight toward her. An on looking Erica staying out of the fight shook her head.

“
And the plan falls apart in five, four, three, two…” she started to count.

To the human eye, it was obvious they were going to overwhelm her. They, however, did not count on Sophia moving faster than the speed of lightning. Within nanoseconds, she darted out of their path of attack going straight for Adrian.

She slammed on the brakes extending her right arm out. Adrian unable to do the same ran chest first into an unbreakable arm turning him inside out.

He crashed violently, sending sand spraying.

Not too far off, Mr. Norton, still on the beach, cackled insanely while a terrified Zeek ran his hands through his Mohawk.

“
He gonna feel that for a while!” laughed Mr. Norton hysterically.

“
Mr. Norton, we got to get out of here!” yelled Zeek.

“
Boy, I ain’t going anywhere,” said Mr. Norton. “This is the best seat in the house!”

Hard-On groaned as Sophia sashayed over grabbing him by one of his legs.  

“
Hope you don’t rust,” Sophia sighed.

In one motion, she hurled him into the ocean a half a mile off.  She was sure he called her the b-word as he went sailing.

Blitz, the first to recover, was on his feet transforming his entire body into a plasma electrical form. He exploded across the sand while channeling a surge of energy into his right fist. On impact, it would deliver the force of two tons of TNT.

Sophia allowed him to land it tanking the building demolishing blow causing a mini three-second sandstorm. The blinding spray died down to reveal her holding him high by his throat.

“
Power down,” she ordered him.

“
Screw you,” Oliver groaned.

“
Gotcha!” Rosann yelled.

Mimicking Blitz’s plasma charged form she snuck up behind Sophia the second after Oliver delivered his seismic blow.  Transforming back into her normal form she quickly grabbed Sophia’s left arm and waited to take in her DNA and her power.

A half minute later, nothing happened.

“
What the…” stood a startled Rosann. “What the hell happened?”

“
Let me guess,” Sophia asked, “you’re a morpher, right?”

“
Yeah,” stuttered a startled Roxann.

“
The plan was distract me so that you could grab me, right?” deduced Sophia. “In hopes that you can take in my DNA duplicating my abilities.”

Rosann slowly nodded as the sweat of fear washed over her.

“
Yeah, see although the barbs on your hands possess the strength and density to pierce most organic materials, some with the density level of steel or titanium,” Sophia lectured, “my skin is denser than any material on the planet.”

“
Oh… I see…” she swallowed.

“
You probably chipped or broke a few grabbing me,” Sophia pointed out. “They’ll eventually grow back, but if you want them to grow faster, Sergeant Roger’s regenerative healing will speed up the process.”

During this whole conversation, Sophia still held Oliver high by his throat like a rag doll still in his plasma charged form.

“
Let me… go… you…”gurgled Blitz.

“
Boy, if you don’t want to be a sniveling drooling husk at my feet you better not let that word
slip
from your lips.” Sophia let the bass boom in her voice. “Now power down, or I will power you down myself.”

“
Yes… ma’am,” Oliver managed to nod.

He obeyed reverting to his normal form.

“
I’m going to put you down now,” she said with a stern motherly tone. “You going to behave?”

 “
Yes… ma’am.” Oliver groaned again as he held onto her arm to get a sliver of comfort.

She lowered him back to sand. Adrian during this time, reverting back to human form to keep from sinking to the bottom of the Pacific, managed to swim back to shore. He remained on his hands and knees exhausted by the strenuous ordeal.

“
Go help your friend,” Sophia ordered Oliver.

“
Yes ma’am,” Oliver with head bowed obeyed.

As Oliver trotted over to fish Adrian from the shore of the beach, Sophia turned smiling to Rosann still holding her arm.

“
Soft to touch, isn’t it?” she beamed. “I lotion it with scented baby oil after I shower, and coco butter at night, but it’s crazy how it doesn’t feel like dry elephant or rhino skin.”

“
We lost the second we got out the gate,” Rosann finally pried her shaking hand for Sophia’s forearm.

“
Don’t beat yourself up,” she smirked. “It was a decent tactic. Problem was you used it on the wrong person. Your brother also talks too much.”

Rosann turned to watch as Oliver pulled a drenched Adrian to his feet.

Rogers casually walked over, first glancing at Oliver and a disheveled Adrian with a smirk and a headshake. His gaze then fell on Rosann who lowered her head and quickly fell in line behind him.

“
Hell of an arm you got there, Ms. Dennison.” He dusted himself off a bit.

“
Hope I didn’t hurt you too badly,” she blushed.

“
Think I got sand in places I don’t want,” he sighed, “but other than that, I’m as right as rain.”

“
Well, I really appreciate the unexpected talk and the workout, Sergeant, but my answer is going to have to remain no.” Sophia smiled. “You’re more than happy to stay for lunch.”

“
No, I think we’ve outstayed our welcome,” Rogers said.

He took a minute looking around, absorbing all that he saw, breathing in the fresh ocean air.

“
You got a really nice set up here, Ms. Dennison,” Abe smiled. “It’s nice to know that these people you’ve taken in has someone like you to look out for them. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say what you’re doing here is almost god like. You know, deciding who gets to live in paradise and who gets to rot in hell.”

Sophia’s face switched to an unpleasant look, read by Rogers that she did not appreciate his comment and had officially worn out his welcome.  

“
Anyway, thank you for considering my offer,” Rogers nodded.

He turned to walk away, but then stopped snapping his finger remembering something else.

 “
Sorry, really sorry.” Rogers held up a hand. “Was wondering if you could indulge me by answering just one question.”

Sophia’s eye twitched not caring for the apparent game Abe was playing. Rogers, standing toe to toe with her, did not care.

“
I was just dying to know,” he shrugged, “the day you decided to play chicken with that nuke, and basically turn our world into one nightmarish neverending Saturday morning friggin cartoon… did you…”

“
No,” she shook her head.

She read into his eyes why he truly came to her island to see her.

“
I did not know all of this would happen,” she stared back at him.

He nodded knowing she was not lying.

“
If you knew?” he asked looking out into the blue ocean.

“
I would have definitely done it differently,” she lowered her head.

“
Well, at least you answer when I talk to you,” he smirked. “Thank you for your time. Sorry for disturbing you and starting a battle on your beach.”

Rogers about-faced walking off as Sophia stood there watching him leave. She left out a sad huff, placing her hands at her hips.

“
Alright children,” he barked, clapping his hands. “Tuck your tails in between your legs, and let’s move out! Come on! We got ‘superhero’ shit to do! Move! Move!”

His team with wounded pride, minus Erica, followed him back to the Tornado dreading what was in store for them when they got back to the Ranch.

˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜

The flight home was dead silent and uncomfortable. No music played, while the trio looked everywhere but at each other and Rogers’ direction. The Sergeant sat in his chair with his beanie over his face. They did not know if he was actually sleeping or didn’t want to look at the sight of them.

The second the Tornado landed and was secured in the docking bay the trio exited and lined up without being ordered to do so. They knew they were responsible for the storm coming and prepared in advance to accept the consequences for their actions.

Rogers strolled down the steps of the aircraft followed by Erica. She chose to sit on the steps of the aircraft and watch him get Medieval from afar seeing as how she had nothing to do with the harebrained scheme that she knew would epically fail in the first place.

Rogers, heading to his room, looked as if he did not notice them. He then stopped in his tracks and turned in their direction.

“
You’re all waiting for me?” he asked, bewildered.

The trio nervously looked at each other, then back at him unsure how to answer.

“
I’m just a bit curious,” he casually strolled over, “because from what I witnessed on that beach today, you three are apparently running this outfit. So why are you standing here waiting for me to talk to any of you?”

“
Sir,” Adrian stepped up, “what happened was on me. I was the one…”

“
I know what you did, Esposito.” You know who else knew what you were up to before you put your dumbass plan into motion? The woman you tried to take down today. She could see you a mile away flipping that slit on your face and understood what you were saying.”

Adrian lowered his head in defeat. His accomplices did the same, throwing in a headshake to express how much they knew his plan was a bad idea.