Cherry Blossom Girls 8

by Harmon Cooper

“Yes it does. The network is called My Limo. The password is China, all capitals.”

  Once I logged in, I was given a bunch of prompts from the Chinese government letting me know the Internet restrictions. I accepted them and used a rerouted search engine to find the WuBo GoogleFakebook app.

  It downloaded in a jiffy, and I quickly fired off a message to Vince, letting him know I would send him the hotel information in a hot minute.

  For once, everything was going to plan.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine: All or Nothing

  While all of us wanted to just launch right into the attack and go after the factory where Hummingbird was making these robots, we also knew it was a good idea to have a place to teleport back to, a home base.

  And talk about a home base.

  We were somewhere on the fortieth floor of a hotel that overlooked the city, a view that would have been wonderful had Beijing not been so polluted. I felt like we were in the sky, floating above a storm cloud heavy with rain.

  We wouldn’t be here for that long, just enough time for us to formulate a plan and do as much research as we could. The Emperor also had another gift for me as well, a laptop that was already being charged once we entered our room.

  And luckily for me, he also had a VPN set up so I wouldn’t have to figure out how to use China’s most popular search engines.

  A translator had greeted us at the door, a thin man with a calm look on his face named Kaito. The clean-cut man quickly explained that he was fluent in Chinese, English and Japanese, and he also apologized profusely for not meeting us at the airport.

  “I wanted time to set up the place,” he assured us with a slight bow.

  “So we have a laptop, I can use the real Internet, and we’re pretty much good to go from here on out, right?” I asked him as Ingrid and Michelle made their ways to the white sofas and plopped onto them.

  Stella went to the balcony, while the others joined me at the table with Kaito.

  “Whatever will make your mission easier to accomplish, I will procure it for you,” he assured us.

  “Are you like Secret Service or something?” Michelle asked him from the living room.

  “No, I am merely a man who works for the Japanese government here in China, at the embassy. I take care of…” He thought for a moment. “Things that need to happen discreetly.”

  “I guess we should be as clear as possible, then: we are all superpowered in some way,” I told him, feeling proud from just uttering the words. “The likelihood of us wiping your mind after we utilize your services is high. I’m sorry about that. It’s just a safety precaution.”

  “The Emperor has already explained this to me.”

  “Good, just so we’re clear. Anyway, we’re looking for a particular factory on the outskirts of Beijing. Grace,” I said, nodding to the psychic shifter, “has an idea of what it looks like and its location. But that’s about all we have.”

  “I’m sending it to you now,” Grace said, her eyes flashing white. “I believe it is in the northwest part of the city.”

  “The Yanqing District,” Kaito said, a look of realization on his face. “That’s not so far from the Great Wall, but since they don’t want the factories to be seen from the wall, I believe that…” He pulled out his phone and started typing stuff in Chinese characters. A few seconds later he showed us what he was talking about. “I believe it would be in this area.”

  “That looks about right,” Grace said. “But we would need to go there to confirm before we bring all of us to level the place.”

  “I’m going,” Veronique said.

  “I guess that means I should go too,” I said, starting to shift my form into that of the avatar I created for the Manchester Missions outfit. A nice, middle-aged American with a bullshit smile.

  “We haven’t been spotted yet by Hummingbird,” Dorian started to say, “which is probably because we have been using private transport. But if we go closer to his factory, who knows what kind of surveillance he will have in the area.”

  “They also use drones in that area,” Kaito said. “It’s quite radical.”

  “Then going at night wouldn’t really help us,” I added.

  “The best people to go would be Kaito and me,” Grace said.

  “I can’t let you go there alone,” I told her. “What if we took a ride there in a vehicle with heavily tinted windows? Then you and Kaito can get out and confirm the place. He won’t raise any suspicions, and with your shifting power, you won’t either. But a whole crew of us? We will definitely catch someone’s eye.”

  “I can arrange a diplomatic vehicle,” Kaito said. “There will be several traffic stops along the way, and if we are in a vehicle like this, they won’t stop us.”

  “You speak Chinese; what’s wrong with them stopping us?” I asked.

  He nodded. “Fair question. The Chinese police at the borders all wear glasses that take pictures of every person in the vehicle. If you’re trying to be discreet, the best way would be through diplomatic means.”

  “Okay, that works for me then. Anyone have any objections?”

  “So you, me, Dorian and Veronique, right?” Grace asked.

  “I believe everyone can come,” Kaito said. “The diplomatic vehicles are quite large, meant for a big group.”

  “And the windows are tinted, right?” I asked.

  “Most assuredly. I will make a call; it may take up to an hour for the vehicle to get here because of Beijing traffic. In the meantime, I’ll have snacks brought to the room.”

  “I love snacks,” Michelle said, and sure enough, it wasn’t ten minutes later that we heard a knock at the door, and a Chinese man and woman both in three-piece tuxedos wheeled in a cart full of food.

  There was everything one could desire, from Korean dishes like kimchi to British scones. And as they placed the food on the table, another man came in with a fully stocked beverage cart with hot tea, coffee, soda and expensive whiskey.

  “This is the life,” Dorian said, going for one of the cans of soda.

  Veronique raised her hand, requesting a cup of coffee. She looked at me in a way that told me she would want to feed soon, and I gave her two thumbs up in response.

  “She’s mentally communicating with you,” Michelle said, her mouth full of cookies. “Holy moly, this stuff is good.”

  “Michelle, chew with your mouth closed,” Grace said.

  Behind her, Kaito paced back and forth in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, talking in Chinese and Japanese. I didn’t know what he was saying, but I could definitely tell when he switched from the Chinese language to a softer tone.

  I scarfed down some food as well, feeling satiated by the time the waiter came around to refill my glass of soda. It was an interesting soda, something in between Coca-Cola and Dr Pepper, but I dug it, and I wished that they had it in America.

  “Everyone should change after this,” I reminded the group.

  “We can’t wear touristy clothes anymore?” Michelle asked.

  “It’s better if we’re ready to jump into action,” said Dorian.

  “But remember, we’re just getting information right now. We’re not trying to engage just yet.”

  “If we’re all going, why don’t we just engage?” Veronique asked. “I don’t understand the point of just doing a little espionage and coming back here. Let’s take it out. Let’s wipe that place off the face of the planet.”

  “She has a point,” Stella said.

  “I’m definitely ready.” Michelle stuffed another scone into her mouth. “I hate those stupid robots.”

  “All right, if that’s what you guys think, then let’s do that. Let’s be ready to attack, but also be willing to come back here, especially if it looks like there will be civilians in the way,” I said. “Remember, we’re trying to avoid any and all civilian casualties. I think it would be better to fight at night, to be honest with you, considering that there may be human employees in the warehouse. But if it looks like it’s the ti
me to go, let’s go. And also, don’t forget that we’re trying to get info too. So if we can salvage the place some, let’s try to do that.”

  “Yeah,” Veronique said. “And then we can take the night off after we destroy the place.”

  “Has this been your plan all along?” I asked.

  “Sort of, yes.”

  Chapter Thirty: Robopocalypse

  The Beijing traffic reminded me of Mongolian and Nepali traffic, except there were more vehicles, wider lanes, and even more congestion. So like New Delhi?

  Sort of, but with more pollution.

  The factory district wasn’t very far from our hotel, but it still took us a good forty-five minutes to reach it with the crazy number of vehicles on the road. Chinese drivers liked to use their horns, and they liked to try to fit their vehicles into spaces that they shouldn’t go, but our driver, who apparently worked for the Japanese embassy, was a pro.

  Cool, calm, collected, he even wore white gloves like the taxi drivers did in Japan, an eerily serene expression on his face as he passed police checkpoints and zipped around other vehicles and people on bicycles wearing pollution masks, a literal sea of humanity.

  Kaito instructed the driver to creep around the district until Grace could find the factory in question. It took another twenty minutes or so, but eventually, we pulled up to a place with a tall gate mostly made of iron, no markings at all along the outer wall.

  “That’s it,” Grace said, her eyes white as she looked in the opposite direction of the building in question.

  She was in full trance mode, and it wasn’t like her vision would help her anyway. But just to be sure, she morphed into a man that looked just like our driver, telling Kaito that they needed to get out to check.

  Grace shuffled out and Kaito followed after her. A bike whizzed by, the man carrying a cart filled with packaged ramen boxes. There was also a roadside shop across from the factory, which looked pretty much like any food truck I’d ever seen, an old woman inside frying something.

  All of us watched as Grace and Kaito approached the factory wall. She turned to me and confirmed, and as she did, two drones came up and over the wall, hovering above her.

  “I’ve seen enough of this,” Veronique said, and the drones collided and spiraled to the ground.

  “Dammit,” I started to tell her, but it was too late, more drones were coming.

  I noticed a shift beneath us, the ground trembling as if we were experiencing an earthquake, the driver immediately bailing.

  So much for calm and collected…

  The blood drained from my hands and arms as I saw a robot start to stand, large enough that it dwarfed the one we had fought on Hashima Island. The robot was made from parts of the factory itself, pieces of the exterior wall visible in the form of armor.

  If there were people inside, they were now part of this terrible mechanical monster, a towering creation that must have been the height of three city buses stacked vertically on top of one another.

  “Everyone out!” Stella cried, her eyes closed as energy radiated off her.

  We filed out of the vehicle, Dorian latching on to my arm and teleporting away, both of us reappearing across the street. I saw Ingrid start to morph, and as soon as the teenager took her beast form, Tulip tore off toward the robot, easily scaling the factory wall.

  Veronique stripped two streetlamps from the road, forming an enormous spear which floated in the air before taking off toward the robot.

  But it already had a shield up, formed of cascading metal that extended from its forearms, a shoulder cannon firing a missile at our parked vehicle.

  Dorian flashed away and reappeared again, this time with Kaito, who was so scared he could no longer speak.

  “Stay here!” I told him, pointing behind the nearest barrier I could see, which just so happened to be a parked taxi.

  A compartment on the robot’s chest opened, dozens of drones spilling out, all making a beeline toward Veronique.

  She tried to take them down, but they were…

  Apparently made of plastic.

  And as muzzles withdrew from their undercarriages, I knew Veronique didn’t stand a chance. Dorian grabbed her just in time, as dozens upon dozens of rubber bullets fired out of the drones, hard enough to leave small craters in the pavement.

  They took off toward us, but Grace brought the drones down with a swipe of her hand, Dorian on my right now, Veronique with her, the punk rock teleporter pulling her paintbrush from her mouth and quickly painting up a snake that was easily her height.

  Once it was finished, it took off in the air toward the robot, only to explode against its shield.

  The robot lifted its large foot and stepped onto the wall, crumbling it and bringing it down, kicking up dust as it took another step forward in the streets. Stella blasted away using her vector powers, landing near us and reconstructing her shield.

  I had no idea how we were going to take the damn thing out.

  It was clearly too large to really be affected by any of our attacks, and I didn’t know if I would be able to get into a focused mind space to try to play around with Father’s reality manipulation ability.

  Tulip climbed up the monster’s leg. Michelle was nowhere to be found but was probably running up and down his body, trying to find an opening.

  Even with Grace now ignoring the people trying to escape the area and focusing on disrupting the creature’s movement, I knew that we were going to have to think outside the box to bring the robot to its knees.

  And if this was what Hummingbird was capable of…

  More drones fired out of the robot’s chest, quickly making their way to Tulip and firing rubber bullets, which did little to stop the beast from climbing up the robot’s leg. The robot tried to swipe him off, but Tulip merely used this as a chance to move to its hand, to climb up its arm.

  Another compartment opened next to the robot’s shoulder cannon.

  A larger drone fired out, helicopter blades lifting from the top of its body and quickly taking shape as it started to fall.

  The larger drone rose into the air, moving toward Tulip and shooting a giant net at the beast. The net was attached to a cable that was hooked to the drone’s body, and as thrusters fired, it ripped Tulip off the large robot, Tulip’s weight instantly pulling the drone to the ground.

  The drone was useless now, that was clear, but the net that it fired seemed nearly indestructible, Tulip roaring as he tried to break his way out.

  Panels opened on the robot’s stomach, dozens of needlelike missiles firing out, exploding everything from vehicles to nearby buildings and streetlamps, some of them homing missiles that tracked civilians trying to escape.

  Grace tried to focus on those as I came to her aid, just barely managing to telekinetically swat a drone away in time.

  An explosion at my feet sent me sailing forward, where I hit my chin hard on the ground. I heard something crack in my body, my jaw possibly dislocated.

  The other CBGs were too distracted to see that I had sustained an injury, but this wasn’t the first time something like this had happened, so I scooted to cover, immediately bringing my hand to my chest, blood dripping onto my fingers. I focused my healing power, manually moving my jaw back into place, feeling something tighten within my skin.

  Kaito ran toward me just as a metal bolt fired through his chest, spearing him to the pavement.

  I cringed, but I knew I had no time to process what had just happened.

  And thank God for Michelle.

  I was just getting to my feet when she tackled me, pulling me to the side just to avoid another metal bolt spearing the place that I just been hiding.

  “That… that would have killed me…”

  “We have to take it down, Gideon!”

  And with that Michelle was gone, leaving me to fend for myself.

  I saw Chloe zip toward the robot and let loose a blast of sound that nearly caused it to take a step backward.

  Veronique worked
her way up its body, pulling metal until she was thwarted by another net fired from a drone. The net brought her to the ground and slammed her against the concrete hard enough to knock her out.

  And that’s when the idea came to me.

  I took off toward Stella, mentally shouting at her to create a shield.

  Stella, who had been conjuring up something to hit the robot with, immediately followed my command, running to meet me, a shield forming in front of us.

  I pulled out my phone, jamming my phone on the CBG app. I had to adjust the brightness, but once I did, I clicked on Chloe’s name and her abilities appeared on the screen:

  Main: Acoustokinesis

  Sound Sculpting: 5

  Acoustic Acceleration: 6

  Sonoluminescence: 5

  Rhythm Manipulation: 6

  Sonokinetic Combat: 6

  Sound Detection: 5

  Sonic Stimulation: 6

  Overcharge: 3

  Echolocation: 5

  “What are you doing?” Stella asked as I looked at the phone.

  Rather than say anything, I mentally fired a shot off to Grace to let her know that I was going to use Chloe to bring the robot down, and to tell Chloe to land somewhere away from the fight for a moment just in case I cause any internal issues for the sound manipulator.

  I’ll tell her, Writer Gideon! Grace thought back to me.

  I started making adjustments, my tongue halfway sticking out of my mouth as I kept my eye on Chloe’s Overcharge.

  Main: Acoustokinesis

  Sound Sculpting: 1

  Acoustic Acceleration: 8

  Sonoluminescence: 8

  Rhythm Manipulation: 10

  Sonokinetic Combat: 10

  Sound Detection: 0

  Sonic Stimulation: 0

  Overcharge: 4

  Echolocation: 0

  It was a radical departure from how her stats normally looked, and once I had them set…

  The robot threw a burned-out vehicle at Stella’s shield, the mere sight of the vehicle coming in my direction causing me to drop my phone, the screen shattering.