Cherry Blossom Girls 8

by Harmon Cooper

  So we made a run for it.

  Veronique blasted out the big hole she had sealed in the back, and Chloe and Stella floated our group down as people were glued to their seats by Grace.

  The psychic shifter and I were the last to go, and as soon as the others were out, Grace pushed me toward the exit.

  “Go,” she said, turning back to all the people looking at her.

  Even though the plane had stopped, we were still supposed to be taxiing. We wanted to hurry, which was why Grace quickly called everyone’s attention to her and wiped all of their minds in a matter of seconds.

  With that done, she lowered us to the ground, taking off toward a stretch of parched grass between runways.

  “I’m totally regretting this now,” I said as we looked around, a plane landing on a runway a couple hundred feet from us, airport vehicles already making their way to us.

  “Let’s get one of the vehicles, and then get the hell out of here,” Veronique said, pointing at me.

  “Why are you pointing at me?” I asked.

  “You’re the one that knows how to drive.”

  “Dorian can drive too.”

  And with that statement, the punk rock teleporter zipped away, her form taking shape on one of the luggage vehicles barreling toward us. The driver braked and Dorian flashed away again, reappearing next to him, then pushed him out of the vehicle and commandeered it, peeling out as she picked up speed.

  “That’s why,” Veronique said. “She’s a risky driver.”

  “Risky? That was badass,” I told her.

  “Hell yeah!” Michelle said, her eyes wide with excitement.

  “We need to go, people!” Chloe said. “The sooner we get away from the runway, the better. Am I the only one wondering what we are we doing with vehicles when we could just fly away?”

  “Okay, then let’s fly,” Veronique said.

  A plane touched down about four hundred feet away, definitely close enough for me to feel the rumble of its jets.

  Dorian pulled up in the luggage transport vehicle and made a ‘get in back’ gesture with her thumb. “What the hell is everyone waiting for?”

  “Change of plans,” I told her.

  “We’re flying now!” Michelle said, and as the words left her lips, she rose into the air, controlled by either Chloe, Grace or Stella.

  And not a moment too soon.

  I saw Indian military men in tan outfits moving toward us, several piled up in the back of a vehicle that matched their uniforms.

  By this point we were already floating, and I didn’t know who was controlling me, so I just let it happen.

  I still didn’t have the grace of Peter Pan’s delusional ass, but I was used to flying, well, as used to it as anyone could get.

  So I simply let my arms fall to my sides, Chloe spiraling ahead, the rest of us hanging out in somewhat of a cluster.

  “This way!” the sound manipulator said, and our group moved higher into the air.

  They wouldn’t be able to catch us. Hell, even if they sent in the choppers, we would be able to get away, and that was if Veronique didn’t unleash a bit of metal unhappiness at the helicopters.

  Minimize civilian casualties.

  This was still at the back of my mind, especially when entering a new country, but there had already been some deaths on the airplane, none of which were technically our fault.

  Still, I couldn’t help but feel responsible.

  Hummingbird was after us, and the fucker was pulling out all the stops. We were too far away to address him in Mexico (if that was indeed where he was), but it was becoming a necessity to take a step in that direction, to hunt him down.

  And maybe this would be a wild goose chase, maybe Kenneth Thompson, the British hotelier who funded Damon Lord, would be a pointless target in the end.

  There really was no telling.

  We cleared the airport parking lot, dozens upon dozens of taxis and rickshaws screeching as their drivers looked out the window, passengers too. It was hazy; India had clearly missed their 2030 deadline to reduce pollution.

  I saw apartment blocks in the distance, smaller buildings around the airport, highways with bumper-to-bumper traffic, the occasional tree, a billboard with a cricket player on it selling some type of cookie called a Parle-G, a million occurrences of humanity that I wouldn’t have the time to appreciate.

  We moved quickly, trying to get as far away from the airport as possible, traveling at a brisk pace for another ten minutes or so. Eventually, we came down onto a building in what looked to be a mixed commercial and residential area, new too, by the looks of the architecture.

  “Time to regroup,” I told them as soon as we got our bearings on the rooftop. “We still need to head to Nepal, but it looks like we’re going to have to do this the old-fashioned way. Or we can get some Internet connection and try to teleport there.”

  I still had my phone, but the others’ phones were all in...

  Whew.

  I was damn glad to see that Ingrid had one of our bags flung over her shoulder, and it just so happened to be the bag with my laptop, some of our disguises and the rest of their electronic devices.

  An Indian woman came out onto the rooftop to hang clothing, gasping as she took in our forms.

  Grace had control almost immediately.

  “Yes, I can help you,” the woman said in a thick, Indian-English accent, her smile softening. She wore a pink sari with gold sequins on it and a pair of sandals on her feet. Her nose was pierced, and there was a red dot between her eyebrows. “Please, come with me.”

  “Okay, here we go,” I said as we followed the woman to the rooftop entrance and down two flights of stairs to a large apartment. The smell was a stewed amalgamation of turmeric, garlic and onions, oil heavy in the air, the apartment tidy, yet a bit squalid, cozy and foreign.

  “Shoes off,” the woman said as she ushered us in.

  “Are we safe here?” Stella asked.

  “I think we’re fine for now,” I told her. “We won’t stay for long.”

  “Nonsense,” said the Indian woman, “I’ll make you some chai and then we’ll have a conversation.”

  A little boy in an oversized shirt and a pair of shorts came running out of the bedroom. He took one look at us and ran back inside, hiding behind the door and peeking out.

  Michelle took this as a sign to play. She slowly approached the boy, and as soon as he finally started to reach out to her, she bolted away, appearing on the other side of the door, startling him.

  “Stop playing around, Michelle,” Veronique said. “There’s a seat near the door, I want you to sit there.”

  “But I don’t want to sit…” Michelle started to say.

  Veronique shot her a look that could crack a cinder block made of adamantium; Michelle quickly did as she was instructed.

  “Please, everyone relax,” the Indian woman told all of us, “I’ll answer all your questions, but first, it is important for us to have something to drink.”

  Don’t you have control of her mind here? I thought to Grace.

  I’m thirsty, she thought back, and she was about to make tea anyway.

  Chapter Fifteen: Chai

  It struck me as we were drinking chai that we could have died back there in the airplane. Duh. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure this out, nor an aerospace engineer, but because of our mad dash to get away, I hadn’t really had the time to process it.

  Sitting there in the woman’s apartment on the floor, my legs crossed under my body, finally gave me the time I needed to decompress. The chai was good, sweet, a bit spicy and way better than the swill they tried to pass off as chai at McStarbucks.

  It warmed me some, and for some reason, it also reminded me that it was probably better not to be rolling around with Father’s reality manipulation power. I quickly dabbed his blood against my finger, switching powers, and wiping my hand on my thigh.

  Good enough.

  Dorian returned from the kitch
en with another glass of tea. We had already looked at pictures of where we could teleport to in Nepal and had decided on Pokhara, mainly because it was less populated than Kathmandu, and it would give us a place to stay for the night before moving to the bigger city.

  All of us seemed a bit frazzled, and even though Grace looked perfect as usual, I definitely noticed some exhaustion behind her eyes.

  Michelle appeared in front of me, a scarf draped over her head.

  “Well?” she finally asked when I didn’t bite.

  “I thought you were supposed to be sitting.”

  “I got bored,” she said under her breath. Michelle spun too quickly for me to really see her move. “I’m dressed as an Indian woman!”

  Veronique, who rested against the wall, looked at Michelle in a way that told the young speedster that it was best she didn’t annoy us right now. She was gone in an instant, back to the kitchen to join the mother and her young child.

  “Anyway…” I started to tell the group. “Pokhara. That’s where we’re going next.”

  “I thought our mark was in Kathmandu,” Veronique said.

  “After surviving an airplane attack, I figured a little rest wouldn’t hurt anyone…”

  “It’s probably best if we move quickly,” Veronique said. I glanced at the others to see Chloe and Stella nodding in agreement, Grace, Dorian and Ingrid not so much.

  “All right, then let’s teleport to Pokhara, get our bearings, maybe grab some dinner, and keep going from there if we feel up to it.”

  “Isn’t this cute?” Michelle asked, appearing before me again with the Indian woman’s phone. She showed me a picture of the baby and her that was now on the mother’s GoogleFace feed.

  “You didn’t upload that, did you?” I asked, my heart leaping into my throat.

  “Oh…” Michelle said, a scared look coming across her face.

  “We need to move,” I said.

  “What did you do?” Veronique asked. “Explain it to me.”

  “We have to avoid stuff like this while Hummingbird is still alive,” I started to say.

  “Crap, I’m so sorry Gideon! I…” Michelle tore her scarf off, bunching it up in her hands. “I’m…”

  “It’s fine, Michelle.”

  “What did she do?” Veronique asked.

  Dorian and I locked eyes.

  “Everyone up,” the punk rock teleporter said, motioning for the CBGs to gather around her.

  “Are you ready? Do you need to see the Pokhara pictures again?” I asked her.

  It was that fast.

  One moment we were settling on a teleportation location, the next the wall exploded, a terrible blast of white energy bursting into the hallway.

  Stella immediately cast her vector shield around the mother and her young boy, ushering them to safety. Dorian flashed away and reappeared, quickly telling us that there were robots outside, that a portal had opened up on another building, that Tokyo, Regina Lord, and Smiley were there.

  Shit…

  There wasn’t a single second to spare.

  Ingrid charged forward, pinching herself, her transformation taking place as she ran toward the partially collapsed wall, dust everywhere as Tulip emerged.

  The monster jumped to the building across the street and climbed up, his muscles forming, bulging as Smiley waited for him.

  “We’ve got to go!” Dorian slapped her hand on my shoulder, both of us reappearing on the rooftop to give us a better vantage point. Grace was with us as well, the psychic shifter focused on the action on the other rooftop, which was a few stories taller than our current building.

  Blasting forward, Chloe met Tokyo head on, a wave of energy blowing the dark-haired woman off the roof. Regina started tracing up some cosmic energy, only to be brought down by Grace, who stood with her hands in front of her, her eyes blazing white.

  But Grace couldn’t finish the job.

  A series of metal drones attacked our rooftop, humanoid robots flying alongside them.

  Dorian went for her paintbrush.

  I stretched my hands forward, sending a telekinetic wave at the robots that caught some of the drones. They hit the ground, but I wasn’t strong enough to keep them pinned, a few self-destructing, sending bits of metal into the air just as Dorian painted up a series of flaming purple fireballs.

  Michelle appeared behind one of the robots, and quickly took out the cords on its legs with her knife. She jumped in the air and kicked off its back, sending it facedown, allowing me to blow off the back of its head.

  “Grace,” I said as I finally made it to her side.

  I helped Grace up; a loud boom indicating that Chloe was still on the attack. A sphere floated out of the apartment building below us, Stella and Veronique inside, the two landing on the opposite rooftop.

  Ruthless as ever, Veronique cast her hand at Tokyo and started draining the woman long-distance, pulling scraps of metal from an air conditioning unit over to her hand as she approached the power amplifier. Tokyo quickly fell to her knees.

  I had never seen someone get decapitated before.

  It was as swift as it was grotesque, Veronique forming a blade and slicing Tokyo’s head off in one fell swoop.

  Damn...

  Blood squirted out of her neck hole for a moment, Tokyo’s body falling to the side.

  The metal vampire turned her attention to Smiley.

  They had faced off before, Veronique never able to best him.

  And as Tulip tried to deliver a big fist to Smiley’s stomach, the man with the tattooed smile on his face headbutted Tulip and struck Veronique before she could get any protection up.

  The building started to crumble; Regina sent one of her huge cosmic balls of energy through the building, crowds of people moving in the streets below as the apartment block started to collapse.

  “Veronique!” I shouted, mentally sending my cry forward, hoping she would respond. “Take us down there,” I told Grace, “now!”

  “We need to start regrouping…” Dorian said, a wild, scared look on her face. “The authorities will be here any moment.”

  I looked right. From our vantage point we could see some of the roads clearing, police vehicles with sirens blazing racing in our direction, a few trucks with armed men in the back. The Indian military was already out because of what happened at the airport, so it hadn’t taken them long to respond to the disturbance.

  “Get the word out,” I told Grace. “We have to gather around Dorian, but I have to… Veronique…”

  Grace took my hand and led me to the edge of the roof, both of us jumping over the side, only to be swept up in a telekinetic wave that lowered us into the cloud of debris below.

  There were men and women moving about, a grandmother carrying her child, many of them with blood-streaked clothing, utter calamity until Smiley and Tulip exploded out of the debris. The two bruisers traded more blows, neither able to get the upper hand.

  Regina tried to swoop in for another attack only to be brought down by Grace, the woman spazzing out as Grace shredded her mind.

  More drones buzzed into the area, tracking us.

  Michelle appeared out of nowhere and leaped onto one of the drones, dragging it to the ground and driving her blade into the back of its body. Chloe took out another one, a bright sound bursting through it reminding me of a hand clap, the drone fizzing and exploding in the air.

  Guns started firing in the distance.

  Regina started to foam at the mouth, twitching, and she would have died right then and there had it not been for another portal, from which more robots tumbled out.

  Three of them hit the ground, their backs opening and drones rising out of their bodies, all aiming their weapons at Grace.

  She managed to swipe them aside just in time, but this made her lose her focus on breaking Regina’s mind. The woman slipped away only to find herself crawling right to Dorian’s feet.

  Dorian looked up at me, her finger in her mouth.

  I nodded.<
br />
  And that’s how Regina Lord died.

  Dorian sent a blistering purple spike through her chest, and the woman hit the ground, shifting forms until…

  She became a man?

  Regina was clearly a man now, which only made me more confused about whether it was truly her or not.

  Her base form?

  I couldn’t focus on that in the moment.

  I continued searching through the rubble for Veronique, moving aside anything I could, trying to use Grace’s power to augment my own.

  I screamed Veronique’s name again, using all the strength I could muster to lift huge chunks of brick and pipes, cuts appearing on my arm as I continued to dig.

  “Help me!” I shouted to Grace, as she finished taking out the last of the robots.

  She rose into the air, telepathic energy swirling around her and lifting the debris. Grace’s hair stood up, her features fading away as she became herself, the dark-haired girl, thin, blemishes on her skin, eyes white as a cocaine Christmas.

  Shit.

  I spotted Veronique, her eyes shut, blood painted across her face and hair. I dropped to my knees and immediately started healing her, ignoring everything around me, the debris floating over my head, the fight still happening between Smiley and Tulip.

  “Please…”

  I pressed my head against her chest to see if her heart was beating, as a siren went off, drowning out my ability to hear.

  No… no… no…

  I tried again.

  Grace’s hand dropped to my shoulder, the sights and sounds all hitting me at once.

  “Please…” I whispered, pushing forth as much healing power as I could. “Veronique.”

  And something happened to me in that moment.

  It was as if a biblical force had moved through me, beaming down from the sky, my actions no longer my own as I pressed my hands to Veronique’s body, my own skin pulling up as if it were separating from my skeleton.

  An incredible wave of energy swelled around me; Veronique opened her eyes, gasping, back from the brink of death, She brought her hand to my cheek and slapped me so hard that I nearly lost my concentration.