Omega Zero

by Kurtis Eckstein

  His eyes widened slightly at the hint of spite in her tone, before his brow furrowed as well. “Ms. Locklear, while I understand your unique situation given your connection to certain parties, I would appreciate it if you remember your military courtesies when speaking to those of higher rank.”

  Ava unexpectedly appeared bewildered, before lowering her gaze with a pained look in her eyes. Zayden and I both gawked at the two of them, with Zayden being the first to speak up.

  “Connection to what parties?” he snapped.

  “That’s classified,” Robert replied firmly, straightening up more. “And while all of you have been through a great deal recently, that doesn’t mean we should forget our places in this world. The Major General would have all our heads if he heard such attitude coming from this team.”

  Zayden scoffed. “Oh, I know. Trust me about that.”

  “Good,” Robert replied. “Now Mr. Knight, let’s be on our way. If everything goes according to plan, then we’ll be back by sunset.”

  I didn’t respond, only vaguely listening now, instead focusing all my attention on Ava. Because she had just flinched.

  More specifically, she flinched when Robert mentioned the General, prompting my mind to unexpectedly begin piecing things together. She had some kind of connection to someone in the military, and I recalled her arguing with the General earlier when she wanted to see me.

  Arguing.

  Like, the fact that she phased through the door should be considered disobeying a direct order. And yet she got away with it? She got away with disobeying the Major General Armstrong, of all people?

  Holy crap!

  How were they related? Was the General her grandfather or something crazy like that? He definitely wasn’t Native American, but she had never said what race her mother was. And would they even allow him to be in command of her team? Would Armstrong be okay with his granddaughter risking her life every mission?

  Or were they not related at all? Was there some other connection?

  Either way, I knew that she shouldn’t have gotten away with arguing. Yet she did, and the only logical explanation I could think of was because somehow, he either was family or like family in some way. And the fact that Robert knew about it, only further confirmed that must be the case.

  “Mr. Knight,” our new leader repeated.

  I looked up at him and then back at Ava. “Right,” I replied, slowly standing up and taking a step down off the bleachers.

  He nodded and turned around to walk out of the gym.

  Unexpectedly, I picked up something with my sixth sense. “Wait,” I exclaimed after taking a couple of steps.

  Chapter 9: New Recruit

  Robert whirled around when I told him to wait, looking surprised instead of upset.

  I quickly continued. “I think the new person is almost here. I can sense someone coming – they’re already almost to the base. I might have noticed sooner, but I wasn’t paying attention.”

  “Dammit,” he exclaimed under his breath. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  I blinked at him. “That’s bad?” I wondered seriously, glancing back at Ava again.

  He shook his head. “No, the problem is–”

  A soldier burst through the door then, speaking urgently. “Sir, transportation is about to arrive with a recruit for your squad.”

  “Dammit,” Robert exclaimed louder this time. “Did you really just learn of this now?” he demanded.

  “Yes sir,” the man replied.

  Robert just shook his head, before looking at me again. “The problem is the lack of communication,” he commented, answering my earlier question before glancing at Zayden. “Slight change of plans. You three wait here while I go bring in the new guy. And then, after we’ve had our introductions, Knight and I will head out. I’ll leave it up to Clay and Locklear to show the new guy around while we’re gone.”

  I noticed Zayden nod, but Robert didn’t see, not having waited for a reply. Instead, he spun back towards the other soldier and marched across the gymnasium to leave the room, clearly annoyed.

  I remained where I was, using my sixth sense to focus more intently on the vehicle pulling up to the building. It appeared to be a large armored truck that reminded me of the vehicle that had originally transported me on my first day – like an armored car used to transport money. There were two men in the front seats, and then in the large back, there was a whopping seven people piled inside, sitting on benches lining the sides.

  Well, the six soldiers with guns were seated.

  The person they were bringing was sitting on their knees in the middle, their hands tied directly to the floor with chains so thick that I was confident I wouldn’t be able to snap them with my strength. And that was saying something since I maxed out on bench at about six-hundred pounds. Granted, I could just slice through easily with my blood, but that wasn’t the point.

  They were some big ass chains.

  They looked like chains used to secure an anchor to a ship – something that you could lift a pick-up truck straight off the ground with.

  Could this person really be that strong? Even stronger than Trinity and me? Surely this guy wasn’t that dangerous? I mean, they didn’t exactly seem dangerous. They seemed…

  Female.

  I totally got sidetracked when I really examined the person’s body and realized they were definitely female. Her chest was about the same size as Trinity’s, which wasn’t really that big, but what I generally considered to be sufficient. Although, Avery’s chest had been almost nonexistent, and I was totally fine with that. And I still would have been fine with it too, if she hadn’t stabbed me in the back…sort of literally, if her power counted as a weapon.

  “Umm, he is a she,” I said out loud.

  “Great,” Zayden scoffed. “Just what we need, some more drama.”

  I glanced at him. “Wow Zayden, I didn’t realize you weren’t into girls,” I retorted.

  Ava laughed.

  “Shut the hell up!” he snapped.

  “Hey, I’m not judging,” I continued. “But just so we’re clear – I’m already taken.”

  Zayden’s head literally burst in to flames.

  “Shit Zayden!” Ava exclaimed. “You’re going to set off the sprinkler system!”

  “I’m just kidding!” I retorted. “Dude, calm down! Why are you so concerned it’s a girl anyway?”

  The fire disappeared almost instantly, but his scowl was in full force. “Smartass,” he scoffed. “Because the type of women we usually get on this squad are psychotic! That’s why!”

  Ava didn’t seem offended by that comment, so I assumed she must know she was an exception.

  “Well, she is in some pretty heavy-duty chains,” I replied. “Not to mention she has some kind of weird headgear on.”

  “Headgear?” Ava wondered from behind me.

  I glanced back at her and nodded, before focusing on the girl again.

  The soldiers had already unchained her, and two of them were walking her into the building now. Her hands were still handcuffed, connected by a normal chain, but otherwise she appeared to be compliant. The clothing she was wearing was a little strange though. It was sort of poofy in weird spots.

  It appeared that Robert was hung up with signing some forms, but everything seemed like overkill anyway, especially considering how relaxed the soldiers appeared. Maybe she really wasn’t dangerous at all, and this was just normal when they brought prisoners here for the first time?

  When they walked her through the door, and I finally saw her with my eyes, I found that I couldn’t help but gawk.

  She was really pretty, but she was also like a halfway transformed Zane. She had almost the same skin color as Ava, but it was sharply contrasted against her blonde…fur? It was difficult to call it hair, because it looked more like a combed back lion’s mane, with blonde fur running down the sides of her face and neck. It was also poofy underneath her clothes on her shoulders and legs.

 
; Really, it almost looked like she was a halfway transformed werelion, instead of a werewolf like Zane.

  At least her face looked overall normal, with the minor exception of the one eye that was visible. The headgear she had on was distinctly covering her left eye like a super-duty eyepatch, with her right eye being bright orange. Which also was a sharp contrast compared to her tan skin.

  The moment she entered the room, with one soldier holding her by the upper arm, she stared us all down with a hard glare, making it very clear she wasn’t in a good mood. One of the soldiers carefully worked on a set of chains at her hands, while the other began loosening the straps that secured the eyepatch to her face.

  The one working on her handcuffs finished first, and hurried out of the room, causing the other soldier to scowl as he delicately removed the eye-patch. However, he didn’t even fully get it off before she whipped around in a blur, her posture aggressive as the headgear fell to the ground.

  In that moment, I thought for sure she was going to kill him.

  However, much to my surprise, they both froze solid, both of them completely silent as the guy’s expression instantly shifted to terror, his eyes wide as his body began trembling violently.

  And then he pissed his pants.

  A massive dark stain rapidly covered his crotch and began running down his legs.

  I was completely bewildered by what I was witnessing.

  Did he really just piss himself? Why? Because he was afraid she was going to kill him?

  We all stared in disbelief as the man appeared to recover from what seemed like a paralyzed stupor. He then fell backwards on his rear with a whimper, before flopping around on his hands and knees to rush out of the room on all fours.

  The girl’s postured shifted from aggressive to a proud stance, her hands on her hips, appearing very satisfied of herself as she turned around with a massive triumphant grin on her face.

  And then I saw it – what had been hidden behind the eyepatch.

  A slitted red eye even more vibrant than Trinity’s irises, set within a black sclera.

  The mismatched red and orange together were striking enough, but the difference in pupils was even more so. A circular pupil on her right-side within an orange iris, like an eclipsed sun, while her left eye looked straight-up like it belonged to a demon – a red moon in the midnight sky.

  The girl’s gaze focused on Zayden briefly before shifting to me, her smile disappearing when she seemed to have decided on her next target.

  For half a second, nothing significant happened as I found myself captivated by her gaze. However, I quickly lost sight of her face altogether as I was uncontrollably forced to focus on that demonic eye, my heart racing for no apparent reason. The world around me blurred away until it was just me and that slitted crimson eye, the sensation of being laid out bare before it sending a wave of anxiety throughout my body.

  The demonic eye could see me for what I was, and I could do nothing to hide from it.

  Fear began to settle in my mind.

  My anxiety peaked.

  My heart felt like it was going to explode…

  And then, with one powerful beat, it felt like it did, erupting out of my body.

  Suddenly, the demonic iris vanished from my sight.

  The emptiness it left behind was somehow horrible and relieving at the same time, leaving me feeling like I was teetering off a cliff as the world around me began filling in again. In place of where she had been a moment ago, I instead found tendrils of crimson that seemed to have reached her location only to instantly change directions to the side at a sharp angle.

  However, I couldn’t follow the red threads, continuing to stare at where she had been while my heart calmed down. It felt like that red eye made time slow, and it was only now beginning to speed back up.

  It wasn’t until someone screamed that I fully came to, my perception of time returning to normal.

  The sound fully jarred me back to reality.

  “Shit!” the girl exclaimed. “Okay, I’m sorry! Let me go!”

  I turned my head in her direction, my vision trailing threads of crimson, only to discover that she was much closer than I was expecting. She was on the other set of bleachers, tangled up in a red thread that was rapidly splitting and recombining, actively covering her body in a thin netting that was almost invisible from across the room – a thin netting that was tougher than those chains that had been binding her, making it impossible for her to escape my grasp.

  I wasn’t exactly controlling what was happening though. Much like what had happened when Trinity used her ability on me, I was attacking like a reflex. Capturing my prey, subconsciously wanting to terrorize it before the big kill.

  A second scream echoed throughout the room as my blood squeezed tighter on her body, beginning to cover her face in that netting as well.

  “Shit! Help! Make him st–”

  My blood slammed her mouth shut.

  “Jake,” I heard Ava croak out behind me.

  Instantly, in the blink of an eye, all of my blood vanished from the room, returning to my body.

  The girl must have been suspended in the air slightly, because she fell half a foot to the bleachers underneath her, gasping for breath.

  It was completely silent then, except for her labored breathing. Part of me wanted to turn around to reassure Ava, but the sound of her voice bothered me. I heard fear in her tone when she said my name, and I didn’t want to see that fear in her expression too.

  So instead, despite what had just happened, I continued to stare at the new girl, doubtful that she would try whatever ability that was a second time. And unlike the soldier, my pants were completely dry, probably because I didn’t use the toilet anymore at all.

  Although, after having experienced the effects of that demonic eye, I completely understood. The anxiety I experienced was probably sincere terror to a normal person, especially if the horror on the soldier’s face had been any indication.

  It took her a moment to recover, cursing under her breath after a second. But then, even while still halfway laying on the bleachers, she tentatively glanced in my direction.

  I held the gaze of that paralyzing eye a second time, not feeling anything as I managed to examine her face in its entirety. The look in her eyes had changed significantly. It was now like I was staring down a wounded animal, who wasn’t sure if I was friend or foe – ally or predator.

  In fact, just like a cat might do when it had been caught, she refused to move a muscle while cautiously examining the threat.

  I wasn’t sure how long we stared at each other – it could have been seconds or minutes – but no one interrupted us until Robert finally shoved open the door to the gym. I was glad when he did, because my body was beginning to feel really hot, and the door opening felt metaphorically like being hit with a cool breeze.

  It seemed like he was about to speak, only to stop when he saw the scene before him.

  “What in the hell happened here?” he demanded.

  The girl immediately pushed herself up into a sitting position and gave him her full attention. “N-Nothing,” she replied.

  His eyes narrowed, before he glanced at us, only to glare at her. “Do we need to send you back?” he snapped.

  She immediately shook her head.

  Robert didn’t give her a chance to respond verbally though, continuing loudly. “Make another soldier piss himself, and that’s exactly what we’ll do! Are we clear?!”

  “I’ll be good,” she said quietly. She then raised her voice, sounding a little unsure of her next statement, as if she was trying to come up with a lie. “He, umm, touched my butt. So I was just getting back at him for the sexual harassment.”

  Robert stared at her warily for a moment, before responding. “Then, would you like to fill out a formal complaint?” he wondered suspiciously.

  She shook her head again. “No, he got what he deserved.”

  He stared at her for a moment longer, prompting her to look
down at her knees. He then cleared his throat. “Anyway…” he paused. “Knight, what happened to your shirt?” he demanded.

  I glanced down to see at least twenty puncture holes coming out of my chest. “Umm…” I began hesitantly.

  Robert shook his head. “Never mind, I think I realize what happened now,” he retorted, sending the new girl a glare again. “Switch shirts with Clay so we can go in a minute.”

  Zayden mumbled something under his breath, but complied, pulling off the shirt he had just changed into not even an hour ago, and handed it to me. I did the same, however when I gave him the somewhat tattered garment, it instantly burst into flames, vaporizing instead of burning.

  “Shit!” Ava exclaimed, rubbing her arm. “Not so close!”

  I realized the intense temperature must have affected her. Zayden wasn’t close at all, but the amount of heat needed to vaporize a shirt was probably significant. I was standing right next to him, but didn’t notice any significant change in temperature. And Zayden noticed too, that I didn’t react to the heat.

  “Sorry,” Zayden stated insincerely, appearing annoyed. “It was useless anyway,” he added.

  Robert looked like he was about to pop a blood vessel, however he kept his sudden anger under control. “Anyway,” he resumed loudly in a firm tone, “this is Blair Santos, current codename Feral.” He shot her another glare. “Apparently, they were going to assign her the codename Fang, but she threw a big tantrum about it, claiming that she wasn’t a dog.”

  Blair scoffed. “I don’t throw tantrums! I’m probably older than you are!”

  Robert scoffed right back. “No, you’re not. I’m twenty-seven, three years your senior in life, and I’m several leagues your senior in the military.”

  “Okay, never mind,” she replied in a surprisingly cute tone.

  “Wait,” Ava exclaimed. “She’s twenty-four?”

  I glanced back at her, wondering if she was asking because the girl had a youthful appearance, but the problem was, Ava did too. I felt like it shouldn’t seem too weird to her, of all people.