His expression was one of shock, and then relief when he realized he was being rescued. His face was weathered and old. He had blood plastered to his gray hair and left temple, like he had been hit over the head a few times.
Zane went straight to work trying to disarm the bomb, finally pulling out his earpiece to focus. “I need light,” he said urgently, prompting two of the soldiers to pull back the curtains covering the large window. Another soldier pulled out a flashlight, but it wasn’t necessary. There were no buildings high enough for sniping, but the soldiers still examined the ground below. Two of the other soldiers remained in the hall to watch our exit, while the last two stayed right next to us.
The bomb was fairly straightforward, so Zane had it disarmed just before it hit one minute. Still, it was stressful to think that if we had been two minutes slower, then we would have failed the rescue. And even if Liz’s shield protected us from the explosion, that didn’t mean the floor wouldn’t collapse around us. We might end up buried with a limited air supply, not to mention that people could easily fall out of the shield. Only I would have been truly safe, since I had her strapped to my back.
Zane helped the man get the bomb off himself, before helping him to his feet. He stumbled briefly, looking extremely worn out. Unfortunately, he had no knowledge of who had kidnapped him or why. He hadn’t been tortured or even interrogated, raising everyone’s suspicions even more. We were all ready to get out of there.
We quickly left the room, hastily making our exit. Trinity had passed out again on the way down, but the screaming started back up after roughly forty-five seconds. The moment we were outside and across the large empty parking lot, I finally spoke up.
“Sir, permission to aid Succubus.”
Fleming hesitated, before responding. “The mission isn’t over yet.”
I wasn’t having any of that. My frustration was beginning to peak, it was going to come out, the only question is who would it be taken out on. I spoke in a controlled, but slightly harsh tone. “Sir, I have thoroughly scoped the area over and over again, and there are no threats here except one. You should be well aware of my capabilities with detecting danger. I have done my part. My orders were to protect the Shield Maiden, and I have. You can take her with you to complete the mission, but I can assure you there are no biological ability-users here, like we were told, who might be a threat to her. She will be safe, which means by extension that all of you will be safe. Permission to aid our comrade, sir!”
I watched the look in his eyes as he evaluated the situation, as he evaluated me. Technically, I was right. I had followed orders perfectly, and I done my part. My specific task was not to rescue the hostage. It was to escort and protect the key to rescuing the hostage. And I didn’t need to be present to accomplish that anymore since I had used my ability to determine no other threats existed.
“Very well,” he finally said. “We will wait for you. Make it fast.”
I didn’t wait for him to finish before I was pulling Liz off my back. But she was ready. She wanted someone to save Trinity too. “I’ll be back,” I promised her.
I instantly spun on my heels and bolted for the parking garage, accelerating so fast I had to dig my blood through my boots into the ground to gain traction – a makeshift pair of cleats. Except this wasn’t a game, and I was in it for blood. I still needed to eat anyway. I was going to thoroughly enjoy sucking the life out of whoever was making Trinity scream so intensely that she was passing out occasionally.
I let that push me forward even faster, my anger, my hatred, my hunger. I was a predator now, hunting my prey, instincts taking over.
I barely noticed that Zane was chasing after me on all fours. No doubt he was out for blood too. He was foundationally an animal after all.
While I knew exactly where Trinity was in the garage, I didn’t immediately know how to get there, allowing for Zane to catch up. However, we quickly found our way leaping down entire flights of stairs as we went deeper and deeper to the bottom level, three floors down.
I could hear her screaming in person now as I landed on the bottom floor, bursting through the metal door without opening it. I expected my body to break something as I hit it, but the blood underneath my skin was instantly as hard as a rock, harder even. And then I saw her, writhing on the ground with her hands at the sides of her head, like something was inside her skull, eating away at her brain.
A large man was crouched over her, holding the microphone up to her face as she screamed. It hadn’t occurred to me that we shouldn’t have been able to hear it, unless someone had activated her mic to talk. I should have realized the bastard was making us listen on purpose. I bolted straight for him, a look of shock suddenly on his face, and then he turned his ability on me.
I knew instantly what his power was – fear.
Horrifying fear.
Mind-breaking fear.
It hit me like a train and my head flew up into the air in a blood-curdling scream, as a panic like nothing I had ever experienced before erupted inside of me. It was so overwhelming that I couldn’t respond, couldn’t even think about using my blood – there wasn’t even a reflex, because the fear didn’t originate from the man. The fear originated from inside of me.
I screamed so loud I felt like my throat was going to rupture.
And then I snapped.
The scream died in my throat, and I stared at the concrete ceiling for a second as the absolute silence filled the empty space. No one was screaming now, not even Trinity. It was complete silence.
And I was empty.
Emotionless.
Dead inside.
A monster.
I slowly lowered my head, meeting the man’s horrified gaze with dead eyes. I saw him struggle. Saw him try to use his ability. But you couldn’t scare something that wasn’t capable of fear.
Finally, I spoke, my voice empty – hollow. “You should not have done that. I might have given you a quicker death if I still had my emotions holding me back.”
Unexpectedly, the guy pulled out a radio and screamed into it. “Panic isn’t working!” I didn’t know who he was talking to, but I didn’t care. My blood shot out instantly, wrapping around the man’s hand holding the radio. The moment he had completed his sentence was the moment I crushed both his hand and the radio to almost nothing.
He screamed in agony just as a voice crackled in my ear. It was the General. “Stand down soldier! This is a drill! There are no enemies here!”
Not even a flicker of emotion sparked in my mind as realization hit me. A drill? To disarm a bomb? No. A drill to test my priorities. To test my loyalties. A game. A game I wasn’t going to play.
The man had fallen to the ground next to Trinity, clutching his mangled limb. Trinity was leaning on her elbow now looking up at me with wide eyes, having finally been released from her prison of horrors.
“Zane…” I said loudly in an empty tone. “Do you see any cameras down here?”
“No…” He said breathlessly from behind me.
“Good.” My blood shot into the man, slamming him into a concrete pillar ten feet away, sucking the life right out of him. I felt a slight rush as a warmth invaded my body, warming my core. I was disappointed to discover that I didn’t need all of it. In fact, I doubted I had even absorbed a liter of it before I was satisfied. He was still alive, gurgling instead of breathing.
I wasn’t about to let him live. He didn’t get to survive, not after what he had done to Trinity. In less than a second my blood erupted into a thousand spikes and tore his body to pieces, leaving nothing recognizable left.
Chapter 12: Performance
Once the fear metahuman was decisively well past being dead, I moved my blood slowly to Trinity, helping her to feet. Her red eyes were cautious – uncertain. I held her hand with my blood as I slowly walked her towards me. I then let her go when she was six feet away, not wanting to make her approach me if she didn’t want to. I heard the General’s voice in my ear again.
/> “Soldier report! I said stand down! Do you copy?!”
Blood from my neck crawled up to the earpiece and sliced it, causing a chuck of wire to fall to the ground. I then turned to Zane expectantly, still with dead eyes. He was in his human form again.
“Umm, sir,” Zane began while meeting my gaze with uncertainty. “It’s too late.” I felt Trinity draw closer, but still maintaining a foot between us.
“What do you mean it’s too late?!” The General yelled so loud that even I could hear it.
Zane continued. “Incubus killed him in less than a second. Before you told us to stand down. But he didn’t hear you anyway, because his earpiece got destroyed.”
“How in the hell did his earpiece get destroyed?!”
“Incubus suddenly started screaming, and his blood went berserk. Tore up his clothes pretty good too.” Zane gave me a meaningful look, and I instantly took care of my clothes to match his story, shredding them in tatters barely hanging on me.
“Let me talk to him!” The General yelled again, his voice cracking.
“I’ll get him.” He then held the microphone away from his face, even though it wasn’t activated, and whispered to me. “Jake, you need to bring your emotions back.”
I stared at him for a second, and then I turned to look at Trinity at my side, my expression empty. My tone hollow. “Would you like to help me with that Trinity?”
She hesitated, still seeming unsure. This was the first time she had really seen me like this. She had been unconscious last time. Then, after the briefest moment, she made up her mind and leaned in to kiss me. Sure enough, my emotions came back like a slap on the back of the head.
I sighed, pulling back and smiling at her. “That was amazing.”
She gave me a weak smile, and then nodded in Zane’s direction.
“Oh, right.” I turned, and accepted the earpiece.
“Sir,” I tried to sound confused. “What’s going on?”
“Don’t give me that bullshit! I told you to stand down!”
“Sir, my earpiece is damaged like Alpha said. But I still don’t understand what’s going on. I defeated the enemy like I was supposed to.” I then paused, waiting for a response. When one didn’t come right away, I lied. “Sir, Alpha just told me this was a drill, is that correct?”
The General’s voice was still harsh. “Yes, that is correct, and you just killed one of my men!”
“Sir, my ability is exceptionally lethal. In the moment that he finished speaking on the radio, I had killed him in the blink of an eye. Please feel free to test my blood’s speed to validate what I’m saying. I didn’t know he wasn’t an enemy.”
His voice was cold but more controlled now. “Yes, well, we will do exactly that. And you better hope it measures up to your story.”
“Sir, I guarantee that it will, but also my earpiece was destroyed. An overpowering fear consumed my mind, and my blood went crazy.”
It was quiet for a few more seconds. “Omega Squad, return immediately for debriefing.”
We all just stood there for a few seconds, uncertain of what came next. Trinity stared into my eyes. “Jake,” she began. “You really shouldn’t have done that.”
I shrugged, not even feeling the slightest bit remorseful for my actions. “Trinity, I had to listen to you screaming for almost thirty minutes. Plus, I was hungry anyway.”
She shook her head. “It was horrible, but I wasn’t in any real danger though.”
“Oh, I know.”
Her eyes widened in surprise. “You did?”
“Yes. I could hear your screaming, but I could also sense that there wasn’t a threat on your life. I didn’t understand why. But that’s why I completed the mission, because I knew you would live through it.”
“So you didn’t choose the mission over me?”
“No, I most definitely did not.” I sighed then. “Which means we lucked out this time. Let’s hope my priorities aren’t tested again anytime soon.”
Trinity nodded slowly. “Well, at the very least, it looks like you picked the mission over me.”
I agreed. “Yes, and maybe they will think twice about testing me again after today. I think I’m valuable enough to them that they won’t take me off the team and shelf me, and I’ve made it appear that my priorities are with them. At least, as long as I can convince them I didn’t disobey orders just now. I’ll be exceptionally apologetic when they question me. However, I think I’ve also given them a clear warning to be much more careful with toying with me. I’m not the kind of serpent they are used to. I’m a dragon, and they would do well to treat me as such.”
Trinity just stared at me for a few minutes, before a smile slowly crept on her lips. “You know what Jake?” She paused as her grin grew even larger. “I think I love you.”
I grinned right back at her. “Oh, I know I love you. Without a doubt.”
Zane just scoffed at us in disbelief.
Before heading back, the first thing we did was collaborate our story. From my teammates perspective, the enemy had used his power on me, causing my blood to go crazy. However, after a few seconds, I began regaining control. It wasn’t an instant process – in reality it was, but they didn’t need to know that. The moment the guy had finished speaking on the radio, I attacked and killed him instantly.
My version was more detailed, with a thorough explanation of the slow process of me controlling my fear and overcoming it. Of course, I was going to avoid telling them the real truth of what was happening to me – that I was turning into an emotionless monster that didn’t give a damn what they wanted. I was saving that little piece of information for the day when they inevitably double-crossed me. I’d play along until then, but once they tried stabbing me in the back, I’d show them who was really the one in control. And I’d have a team of elite warriors to back me up. My own little coup. Now that we had our little Shield Maiden, we could be virtually unstoppable.
When we exited the parking garage, we were all surprised to find a row of soldiers standing across the empty parking lot. It was both Gamma and Beta Squads. Ava and Zayden were behind them looking away, their faces distraught. Even more shocking was that Liz was standing by herself about halfway, but towards our right a fair distance away. She was looking straight down at the ground and trembling slightly. None of us were sure what we were supposed to be doing, but something about the situation felt very off.
We walked slowly towards the soldiers, stealing glances at Liz. As we drew closer to her, though we weren’t directly approaching her, Zane got my attention and handed me his earpiece again.
The General spoke in a cold tone in my ear. “Jacob Knight. We no longer have any use for the Shield Maiden. From where you’re currently standing, you are to dispose of her as fast as possible using your blood.”
Fear griped my chest, and I heard Trinity gasp. I glanced over, reminding myself that she had an earpiece in too. Everyone except Zane could hear what was being said.
My mind started racing as I looked up at the fragile girl standing a good hundred feet away from me. I had to think fast. I didn’t want to kill her. I couldn’t kill her. I wouldn’t kill her. But were my comrades ready to fight with me? Or would I be on my own?
The General wasn’t there in person, although no doubt he could see what was going on through a visual feed. It wouldn’t be enough to kill everyone here. We’d have to try to hunt him down, wherever he was. And even that wouldn’t be the end of it. Killing him alone wouldn’t stop the military from coming after us. After all, even he was a pawn in an endless game of chess.
How could I get myself out of this situation?
“Sir,” I said, trying to buy time. “Of course I will obey your order, but how are you going to see me do it? I’m assuming this is to prove the speed of my blood, correct?”
I wasn’t sure how he would respond, but I was surprised when he actually answered me. His voice was ice cold. “If you’ll notice soldier, we are currently recording. Now kill the g
irl. That’s an order!”
I glanced over at the line of men and saw that one of them did have a camera, holding it up towards us. I had to think, and fast. They knew she had a barrier, and they knew I could penetrate it…Or did they? Did they know everything about it? Did they really know everything about me? Did they know a person couldn’t hit her? Did they know it responded to people’s intentions?
That was my key – certainly they hadn’t tested her barrier enough to know every detail about it. They had only had her in their custody for a day. Furthermore, there was no way for them to know with complete confidence that my ability was partially mental. There was really no way to prove it, even if they suspected it. I could pretend like I couldn’t penetrate her barrier – I already knew the rough size of it and how it theoretically looked. I could do this. I could pull it off.
The General yelled in my ear again. “NOW SOLDIER!”
Liz was still looking down, still trembling. My blood shot out faster than a bullet.
The moment it reached roughly three and a half feet in front of her, I split it to make it look like it had hit an invisible wall, wrapping it around in an arc as if it were trying to get in. In an instant, it swarmed around her, creating a visible eight by eight feet circle of crimson tentacles. Her head jerked up in surprise, panic clearly on her face, but then she fully registered what was happening. Only the six of us knew for a fact that my blood could penetrate her barrier. No one else knew.
I made my blood climb up, tentacles rising like they were still trying to get in, producing the general shape of an oval. However, I knew her shield wasn’t exactly predictable, so I made it look that way, like the point at which it began and ended wasn’t fixed in place, constantly shifting, writhing rapidly. I wasn’t sure if they would buy the act, but I had to admit it looked convincing to the eye.
After a few seconds, I spoke again. “Sir, I can’t seem to penetrate her barrier. I thought you said biological abilities worked on her?” I tried not to smirk as I used his own lie against him.
My blood continued to writhe violently around the fake shield I was creating, while I waited for a response. But none came, at least not for several seconds.
Omega Squad Page 15