One of the Marines snorted in disbelief. “Uh huh. And I suppose she can make an entire person explode, too, right?”
The guys near him snickered, but Frog nodded vigorously.
“Yep. I’ve seen her do that, too.”
Stephanie’s jaw dropped and she met Vishlog’s stunned gaze.
“You have to stop this,” the Dreth murmured.
“Yeah. Now tell me something I don’t know,” she whispered in response.
In the background, Frog continued to brag. “I’ve seen her charge into a horde of Dreth and reduce them to nothing but sludge for the rest of us to wade through.”
“As if,” one of the Marines sneered.
“Full true,” the guard retorted, “and that stuff is slicker than snot.”
“It’s slicker than something,” a Marine retorted, “and you’re full of it.”
“He’s not wrong,” Vishlog muttered and she nodded.
She peeked through the door and wondered where the hell the rest of the team was because surely, they weren’t letting Frog go nuts on his own. It took her a moment to catch sight of them but there they were—and yes, they were letting Frog go nuts on his own.
Lars wasn’t there, though.
Well, that’s something, she thought and looked up and down the corridor. Where is Lars? He’s supposed to be riding herd.
She caught sight of the team leader as he emerged from the toilets. He took one look at her face and hurried over to stand beside her.
“What are you doing out here?” he whispered and she jerked a thumb toward the door.
“Listen,” she ordered as Frog spoke once more.
“How well do you know magic?” he sneered. “I watched it happen.”
That wasn’t exactly true, and she knew it. Frog had watched the footage of her when she’d leapt over the horde and sprayed a sheet of magic over it. Vishlog had boosted the jump. It wasn’t like she’d actually charged into them.
“I’ll deal with this,” Lars told her, but she rested a hand in the middle of his chest.
“No, I’ll deal with it. That man will think twice before he ever opens his mouth, again.”
He gave her a doubtful glance. “I’ve tried to achieve that for years,” he told her, “but sure, go ahead.”
Stephanie took a deep breath and turned to the door.
“Next, you’ll be telling us she can fly,” another man snarked and she covered her face with her hand.
“Funny you should mention that,” Frog responded cheerfully. “In that same battle, she did fly. There’s no other way she could have reached the platform.”
“I threw you,” Vishlog whispered and she nodded. “Yup.”
Lars groaned. “Oh, dear Lord...”
“Magic’s useful for all kinds of things,” the boastful guard continued. “I’ve seen her use it to generate little grenades of magic that she sends out in bursts. They stick to what they hit and explode.” He paused dramatically. “There isn’t much left once that happens.”
The Marines weren’t impressed. “Oooh. That doesn’t mean she’s that formidable, only that she has shiny new toys. It’s not like she vaporizes whole units.”
Stephanie snuck another peek and saw Frog’s jaw drop.
“Didn’t you knuckleheads listen?” he demanded. “She napalmed an entire unit while she literally flew over them and she had enough juice left to shield her teammates while she melted a second much bigger group.”
“Uh huh.” The Marines did their best to look unimpressed and he took his story-telling up a notch.
“I’ve seen her walk through walls, reach through space armor and rip a Dreth’s heart right out of his chest, and dive into the void while pulling magic around her to form a bubble before she exploded.”
“Well, at least that last bit was true,” she muttered, and Vishlog stared at her, surprised.
“And the rest?”
Stephanie and Lars shook their heads.
“All lies,” she told him. “I have never walked through a wall or ripped anyone’s heart out through their armor. It’s a nice idea, though. I might try it on him.”
Frog was oblivious to her impending ire. “I’ve seen her blast a building to rubble,” he went on, “and leave a smoking crater where there used to be a communications array.”
“Didn’t we use rockets for that?” Lars asked and kept his voice low.
She groaned and pushed away from the wall. “I’m going to put a stop to this.”
The guard had already started his new tale when she walked through the door.
“I’ve seen her take a battleship...” His voice petered out. “Oh—hi, Steph. We were just talking about you.”
Stephanie pretended surprise. ‘You were?”
She looked at the Marines. “I’m sorry, guys. That must have been a really boring thirty seconds or so.”
Without a glance at her errant guard, she moved to the service counter and retrieved a plate on the way. One of the Marines spoke as she dumped the first ladle of scrambled eggs onto her plate.
“So, is it true?”
“Is what true?”
“That you can fly?”
Stephanie thought about it before she answered. “I come close.”
“And run up the side of skyscrapers?”
She froze and made herself take whatever was in the pot next to the eggs. What the Hell has Frog been saying to these guys?
“Yeah... I did that two weeks ago. Why?”
“Well, your man here says you can whip our asses with both hands tied behind your back.”
With a heavy sigh, she rolled her eyes and turned to snatch a knife and fork from the cutlery stand. She made a pretense of studying the Marines carefully and decided not to drop Frog completely in the shit.
“I don’t know,” she said. “I think I’d need at least one hand—and maybe some of my team to back me up.”
She gave them an assessing stare, “But, yeah, Frog’s basically right. I think we could take you.”
“It’s funny you should mention that,” the Marine captain said from the door, “because the ship’s captain says he’s gonna televise our match to keep the rest of the crew entertained.”
Now, the Marines looked from the captain to Steph.
“You knew we had a match?”
“We organized it last night.”
One of the men jerked his hand at Frog. “Did he know?”
Stephanie shook her head. “Not for sure.”
The captain stepped into the dining hall. “So, how will we do this?”
She grinned and gave Frog a mischievous glance. “Well, seeing as Froggie has given away so many of my secrets in head-on combat, why don’t we do something a little different?”
“I’m listening.”
“I said I’d need some of my team to back me up, so I’m gonna limit my guys to four. You boys can bring along as many of your Marines as you want. That will make it somewhat fairer.”
“Do we get to choose the competition?” the captain asked and she smirked.
“Do you want to?”
He appraised her quickly and matched her smirk with one of his own. “Naw, I reckon we can handle whatever mad scheme you can think up.”
Over in the corner, Johnny sputtered, and Avery choked on his coffee. Frog grinned.
“How about instead of a head-on battle, we do a VIP protection scenario?”
The captain looked at his guys and she followed his gaze. She saw several shrugs and a couple of nods. Apparently, the Marines didn’t really care, either. Finally, she looked at Frog.
He appeared to be happy with the idea. Her smirk became a smile.
“Uh oh.” The mutter came from someone in her team’s corner, and she pointed at Frog.
“Froggie here will play the VIP.”
His grin faltered. “Are you sure, boss? I’m good in combat, too.”
“I know, Frog,” she assured him, “but we need to try to be fair about this. Besides”
—she tilted her head, her smile wide—“don’t you think you’d make a good VIP?”
The man’s grin disappeared, and the blood drained from his face. He was in it deep and he knew it.
He cleared his throat. “So... How many games?” he asked and her smile returned, as evil as before. “Oh, let’s say...best of seven. What do you think? Does that sound fair?” He stared at her in horror before he managed a slightly off-key, “Sure, Steph. Whatever you say.”
In the team corner, the guys burst out laughing and the Marines looked concerned.
Stephanie ignored them. “This is how it’s gonna go,” she began, “and feel free to interrupt if you want to change something.”
The Marine captain nodded. “Will do.”
By the time she’d finished, Frog’s face was pale, and he hadn’t eaten anything more from his plate.
What would happen was that he would die horribly—and that would happen more than once. The Marines had to take him across the game zone to a safety area. If they got him there alive, they won the round.
The thing was, this was Stephanie, and she intended to kill him but good—on each and every attempt. If he was lucky, she’d only kill him three times before she got around to teaching the Marines a lesson on magical firepower.
He really hoped he was that lucky.
“What do you think, Frog?” Her voice brought him back to reality. “Does that sound fair?”
He managed a jerky nod but his voice came out as a hoarse whisper. “Uh…it sounds great, Steph.”
Over in the corner, the team snickered but the Marines merely studied him like he’d finally done something interesting.
Not one of them said anything but they all watched as he lifted his coffee cup with shaking hands and drained it.
I am so screwed... He watched as Stephanie and Vishlog headed over to join the guys.
Lars followed and slapped his shoulder on the way past. “Nice one, Frog.”
Chapter Twenty
They chose to relocate to the pod room immediately after breakfast. The team decided to go past their quarters first, but the Marines surrounded Frog on the way out the door. “It looks like you’re with us, little man.”
He didn’t even protest their use of the term and simply accepted the arm draped across his shoulder and let them steer him down the corridor. Johnny snickered as he watched him go. “It looks like he’s made a few new friends.”
“Awww,” Marcus quipped. “Anyone would think they didn’t trust him or something.”
“I’m very sure it isn’t ‘or something,’” Brenden added.
“Yeah.” Lars watched their teammate being led away down the corridor with a sour look on his face and turned to Steph. “So, who’s staying behind?”
“Well,” Johnny pointed out, “it can’t be Frog since his role’s already been decided.”
“No,” Stephanie agreed. “I’m gonna keep Marcus out of this one and you, too, Johnny. Avery and Brenden have spent considerable time in the cockpit and I want to make sure they’re not out of practice.”
Johnny sighed. “Me and my big mouth...”
She frowned. “You’ll have your turn,” she told him. “Besides, I want you and Marcus to watch on the monitor and prepare the AAR. We might as well make this a full training session.”
“So, we get to watch the shuttle, then,” Marcus concluded and she gave him a gentle push.
“Yeah, you do, but it’s a fancy shuttle and you’ll wield a wrench because I want a full run-down and Elizabeth isn’t here to do it.”
Johnny smiled. “Cheer up, Marcus. At least she didn’t say it was so I could keep you company. We get to be Ms E.”
The man looked happier. “You have a point there,” he said. “I’ve always wanted to be her.”
“Right. Now that’s settled, we’d better get a move on,” she told him. “I don’t want those Marines saying we were chicken.”
“Or tark lizards,” Vishlog added.
“Did you tell them about the cats?”
“Nope.” Stephanie grinned. “I thought I’d let that come as a surprise.”
Lars regarded her in astonishment. “Did anyone tell you that you’re becoming quite devious?”
“No one would dare,” she retorted, opened her quarters, and called for the cats to join them.
Zeekat and Bumblebee greeted them happily and she stooped to scratch both their heads. “Are you boys ready to go play in the VR?” she cooed. “Shall we go chase Froggie? Yes? We shall?”
Both cats rubbed against her and purred loudly. She straightened and her smile faded.
“Frog is today’s squeekie,” she declared, and the smile returned.
Lars took one look at the mischief there and shivered. “That boy won’t know what hit him.”
“Oh, he’ll know all right,” she declared. “By the time I’ve finished with him, he won’t be able to help but know.”
“Remind me never to piss her off,” Marcus commented and Johnny nodded. “Uh huh. Marcus...never, ever piss Stephanie off. Okay?”
“Oookay,” he replied as they reached the pod room.
“Well, this is where we leave you,” Johnny told them and she opened the door. She nodded as he and Marcus moved toward the video room. “We’ll get set up for the AAR.”
“Thanks, guys,” she told them and stepped through the door.
“Well, well, well,” Lars commented when they saw how many people had already arrived. “Look what we have here.”
“Someone is compensating,” Vishlog added softly once he’d counted the number of Marines standing beside pods.
Frog had been assigned a pod in the middle of them and looked morose. He watched Stephanie and the rest of the team enter and his eyes widened when he registered the cats. “Aww, Steph...” He shook his head.
She looked at the Marine Captain. “Your VIP seems worried,” she commented.
He favored the man with a glance and met her gaze. “I don’t see why,” he told her. “He’s being protected by the best Marines in the Universe.”
This statement was greeted by a chorus of oorahs, and she smirked. “That’s good to know, Captain. Let’s see if the best of the Marines can beat the best there is.”
This drew several disbelieving snorts from the Marines and brought a smirk to her team’s faces. She slid into her pod, aware of the flurry of movement as the other combatants joined them.
“You have five minutes to prepare your avatar,” the pod’s AI informed her once she reached the white room.
“Thank you,” she told it and went through the array of weapons and armor provided to choose items as close to her own as she could.
The weapons selection was fairly broad and she took the time to study it. It helped to know what she might have to prepare for. The AI activated before she’d finished.
“Transferring you to the Game Zone,” it informed her. “Please acknowledge readiness.”
Stephanie scanned the rest of the weapon selection hastily. “Ready.”
The world twisted and dumped her in a small room with Vishlog, Avery, Brendan, Lars, and the cats. She grinned at them and they responded with enthusiasm.
“So,” Lars asked. “How badly are we gonna kill him?”
“First time round?” she asked. “I say we blow his head clean off his shoulders.”
“Do you want to use magic or shall I simply use one of these?” He hefted the sniper rifle he’d brought with him.
“I’ll do your spotting,” Brenden said.
“And Avery, Vishlog, the cats, and I will see how many of the best Marines in the universe we can eliminate before you take him out.”
“If you get past five, we owe you a night out on the town with Todd,” the team leader told her.
“And if I don’t?”
“You take the team dancing.”
Stephanie arched her eyebrows. “Now, there’s a challenge.”
She high-fived him and Brenden and studied the HUD. Sure eno
ugh, Frog and the Marines had started across the game zone.
For this round, the AI had located them in a city, with the safety zone being the armored lounge of a luxury mansion. The scenario started with a broken-down limo and no replacement car available.
Their mission was simple. Kill the VIP with bonus points for the escort. Her little side game with Lars was merely an added adventure.
The team moved closer and positioned themselves so she and the cats could attack them from the front, while Vishlog and Avery struck from behind.
“Five, Lars? You should have made that number higher,” she murmured.
“I can hear you, you know.”
“And that matters because?”
“Because I’m almost in position and you so obviously are not.”
“Do you wanta make a bet?”
“We already did, remember?”
Stephanie proceeded until she was parallel with the intersection. She waited until the first pair of Marines drew level with her before she threw a handful of the sticky magic balls. One of the men caught sight of her and raised his weapon.
He hadn’t even come close to firing before his chest exploded. Stephanie raced to the corner as Zee and Bee dragged another of them down and the protection team hustled Frog into the cover of the nearest building.
The unwilling VIP yelped with alarm and the man in front of him erupted in an explosion of gore.
“Damn,” Lars muttered.
“Sorry,” Brenden added.
“My bad,” the team leader told him. “I was too slow.”
She snickered. “Three to one,” she told him, “and the principal is still kicking.”
“Not for much longer, he isn’t.”
“I sure wish I could get into the building’s security system,” Stephanie told him.
“That’s usually Frog’s job,” Lars reminded her, “or Johnny’s.”
“It will be okay,” Vishlog told them when he came online. “Avery and I have the next street covered.”
“And I have this one.”
“I’ve found a window.” Lars sounded smug. “Frog does not look happy.”
He was right. Their teammate was not happy.
“I am so dead,” he moaned and drew disgusted looks from the Marines escorting him.
Witch Of The Federation III (Federal Histories Book 3) Page 23