Overpowered

by Mark H. Kruger

  The bigger of the two thugs, a freckled, redheaded hulk with no neck, was talking on a Bluetooth headset.

  “Yeah, everything’s locked down. Over,” he confidently reported back to central command.

  As soon as he clicked off his Bluetooth, Jackson came charging through the double doors like Iron Man with both hands blasting on all cylinders.

  CRACK! WHAM! Blinding bolts of white lightning zapped those unsuspecting linebackers back more than thirty feet, knocking each of them out cold. Those thugs never knew what hit them.

  “Seriously?” I asked, shaking my head incredulously at Jackson as I abruptly reappeared.

  “Sorry. No time to waste,” Jackson replied with a casual shrug. “Besides, they’ll recover.”

  “Never tire of seeing you do that, dude,” Oliver remarked with an approving wink as he strode in past Jackson and checked out the sleeping giants.

  Taking charge, I stepped over the unconscious guards and forged ahead into the main area of the building, while Jackson and Oliver followed. I could see the place was completely empty except for one large thermal-testing chamber that was positioned at the other end of the facility. After a few more steps I saw that there was actually something inside—and it wasn’t one of those satellites I had seen in Building 2.

  “Yech. Smell that?” Oliver asked, cringing and putting his hand over his nose from the overpowering chemical aroma.

  “Oh my God,” I muttered, alarmed, pointing at the chamber.

  There she was, imprisoned inside the sterile box like an exotic creature from the wild. Except the creature in this instance was my friend Maya. She was passed out cold across a blue air mattress.

  Outside the chamber was an array of high-tech medical equipment, some of which I recognized, like EKG and EEG monitors. There was also a collection of serums, syringes, and pills, and enough supplies to outfit a small hospital.

  “Maya!” I shouted out as I rushed over to the chamber.

  Jackson and Oliver sprinted after me. I reached the chamber first and tried opening the door, but of course it was locked. I shook the door so hard that the entire structure rattled and shuddered. I was so enraged that I just wanted the whole thing to come crashing down.

  “Easy, tiger,” Jackson said, gently removing my hands from the door. “Allow me.”

  And Jackson stepped in front of me, preparing to zap the locking mechanism with some heavy-duty voltage.

  Meanwhile Maya barely stirred inside the chamber. She seemed totally out of it. Except for a few empty plastic water bottles scattered around the floor, there was nothing else inside the chamber with her. I assumed that the powers that be obviously didn’t want anything dangerous in there that Maya might use as a weapon if she got pissed off enough. The whole scene looked incredibly surreal to me—like one of those horrible cells inside a psychiatric hospital, except without the white walls and cushy padding.

  Jackson unlocked the thermal chamber without breaking too much of a sweat. I pushed open the door, ran over, and knelt down beside Maya, taking her hand. She looked pale and had an IV in her arm. By the look of things I assumed they’d been sedating her to keep her quiet, so that she wouldn’t be a threat.

  “Maya, it’s Nica. Can you hear me?” I gently swept the hair off of Maya’s face, then patted both of her cheeks, trying to rouse her.

  “We don’t have much time,” Jackson reminded me, keeping an eagle eye on the guards, who were still lying on the floor, passed out.

  “I know,” I retorted. “I’m doing my best. Maya, c’mon, sweetie. Wake up. We need you to wake up.”

  After several much firmer slaps to her cheeks Maya finally started to stir. She seemed a bit agitated, mumbling something I couldn’t quite understand.

  “Did she say something about Chase?” Oliver asked curiously, moving closer to hear a little better.

  “You can ask her later,” I replied. “In the meantime, give me a hand.”

  I was more focused on getting Maya up on her feet at that moment so that we could get the hell out of Bar Tech. I quickly removed the IV from her arm.

  “Maya, do you think you can stand?” I asked.

  Oliver and Jackson rushed over to assist me. They each took an arm and helped me get a wobbly Maya to stand up.

  “Nica . . . ,” Maya muttered, smiling but still incredibly groggy. “You’re here.”

  “Yes, I’m here. So are Jackson and Oliver,” I added, smiling and pointing them out to her.

  “I knew you guys wouldn’t forget about me,” Maya said, overcome with emotion. “We’re friends, right?” Her eyes welled up with tears.

  “Of course we are,” I responded a bit uncomfortably, with Oliver and Jackson there looking over my shoulder. “But we need you to focus on walking.”

  Maya nodded and tried taking a few baby steps before she stumbled. I caught her.

  “Oops. I’m a little drunk,” Maya said, giggling, obviously drugged.

  “We should just carry her,” Jackson suggested, anxious to get going.

  “Hey, I may be able to leap tall buildings, but that’s where the superpowers end,” Oliver quipped, quite dubious about the prospect of transporting Maya out of the building and evading capture.

  “No. I can do it,” Maya insisted, shoving Oliver and Jackson out of her way. She proudly took a few more uneasy steps, her arms extended for balance.

  “Look, Mom, no hands.” A few more wobbly steps and Maya nearly tripped. But I swooped over to stop her from falling on her face.

  “Easy,” I said, steadying her.

  “My head’s throbbing,” Maya said to me, grimacing in pain. “What happened to me? I had this awful dream that these men came to my house. They were sticking me with needles. I tried stopping them . . .” She was now becoming quite agitated.

  “We’ll talk about it later,” I promised, trying to reassure her and keep her focused. “Drink some water,” I ordered, handing her the last remaining bottle, which she eagerly gulped down as if she’d just spent an entire week in the Sahara desert.

  “What about Chase? Is he okay?” Maya then asked with deep concern.

  “He’s in the hospital,” Jackson replied bluntly. “In a coma.”

  “Oh my God.” Maya choked back a sob, overcome with emotion. She was not taking the news well.

  “I’m sure the jerk deserved it,” Oliver quickly added.

  I knew there was no love lost there between Oliver and his newly discovered half brother.

  “You were just defending yourself, Maya,” I interjected, shooting a disapproving look at Jackson and Oliver. No need to rile Maya up when she was still so fragile.

  “He threatened me,” Maya confessed with fear in her eyes. “Tried blackmailing me into telling him who else . . . was like me. I got upset.” Maya’s vulnerability was now spinning into rage. “I refused to tell him anything. I tried to get away from him. But he wouldn’t let me leave his house. He got in my way and grabbed my arms. He was hurting me. I got so angry. Everything started whirling around the room. Next thing, this glass figurine gashed his head . . .”

  I could see that Maya was overcome with enormous guilt over inadvertently hurting Chase.

  “You did what you had to do,” I said firmly, without an ounce of sympathy for Chase.

  “I never meant to hurt him,” Maya replied.

  “Controlling this thing’s a bitch,” Oliver chimed in sympathetically, giving Maya a supportive smile. “But you’ll get the hang of it.”

  Finishing off the final drop of water, Maya crushed the plastic bottle in her bare hand and tossed it to the floor. I could see she was trying to funnel all her anger and emotion into something productive. Taking several deep breaths, she blinked and allowed her eyes to focus. Then she nodded to me that she was ready to try walking again. I nodded back to her. Maya then took a few more steps. This time she seemed a bit steadier and more assured.

  Then she turned to me and proclaimed, “Let’s get the hell out of here.”


  • • •

  Jackson opened the door to Building 4 and peered out into the darkness. Everything appeared quiet. Still. No one was waiting for us, not yet, at least. And the security guards that Jackson had zapped were still lying unconscious on the cement floor back inside the building. They’d most probably be down for the count a little while longer.

  Jackson waved me out of the building first. Maya followed, clutching my hand tightly, and finally Oliver. Jackson picked up the rear and let the door glide shut ever so softly.

  I led the way back in the direction of Building 2, stealthily retracing our steps on the same route we came in. I kept as close to the building walls as possible, staying in the shadowy recesses. Maya, still shaken by what had happened to her, never let go of my hand. A visibly nervous Oliver stayed close behind, followed by the ever-stolid Jackson, who kept glancing around to make sure no one was tailing us.

  However, as soon as I rounded the corner of Building 3, every single light in the Bar Tech compound flashed on all at once, illuminating the vast complex as brightly as New York City’s Times Square on New Year’s Eve. There was literally no corner or crevice for the four of us to hide in anymore. Our cover would be blown in no time. We were totally exposed—like a quartet of sitting ducks. I knew we had to make it down the hill and out of there pronto.

  “Follow me,” Jackson ordered as he brazenly darted out into the open, defiantly leading the way.

  I hurried after Jackson, taking a few steps away from the building. Maya resisted, pulling back a little, still fearful. I turned and gave her an encouraging nod and then tugged her along. She hung on to my arm as we quietly darted between the buildings. I could hear Oliver’s soft footsteps right behind me, not missing a beat.

  The four of us had nearly made it around the perimeter of Building 3 when all of a sudden an alarm rang out. Loud, piercing. Shrill enough to nearly shatter my eardrums.

  Maya immediately clamped her hands over her ears, face contorted into a painful grimace. I could see she was unraveling and on the verge of losing it right there.

  “Run,” Jackson shouted at us over the deafening blare.

  “I can’t,” Maya insisted, shaking her head, eyes brimming with panic.

  “You can,” I forcefully barked back.

  I knew this was no time for a Maya meltdown, so I grabbed her arm and yanked her as hard as I could across the compound road.

  Meanwhile off in the distance I heard the screeching of tires on pavement and the loud rumbling of vehicles heading in our direction. The Bar Tech cavalry would be on us in no time.

  The four of us charged down the hill, stumbling over jagged rocks and jutting tree roots. Jackson barreled ahead of Oliver, Maya, and me. He employed his expert snowboarding skills to slide down the hillside as if he were boarding down the powdery slopes at Aspen.

  I clutched hold of Maya’s arm as we slipped and tottered behind Jackson. Maya was still unsteady on her feet, her legs nearly buckling as we picked up speed during our rapid descent. I mustered every ounce of strength to hold Maya up and prevent her from going down and dragging me with her.

  Hearing the hurried slamming of car doors from above, I instinctively glanced back over my shoulder. The blinding glare of headlights flashed down from the crest of the hill. A half dozen Bar Tech guards appeared in silhouette and just stood there menacingly. Looming . . .

  “Don’t look,” Oliver shouted as he swooped over to my aid, supporting Maya’s right arm with his left. The two of us were now practically carrying Maya aloft so that her feet hardly grazed the ground.

  “Why aren’t they coming after us?” I asked, perturbed by how the guards were just watching us scrambling down the hillside.

  “Because we’re so awesome,” Oliver wisecracked, grinning.

  Undeniable as our awesomeness was, I didn’t quite buy that that was the reason they were just hanging back and not doing anything. My gut told me they were planning something else. And so, apparently, did Jackson’s gut. He kept looking back at the guards with a suspicious eye.

  “If we get separated,” Jackson called out to us, “meet at my car in an hour.”

  “Just get me home,” Maya pleaded, clinging tightly onto Oliver’s arm and mine.

  I knew that Maya returning home was not an option, but I kept my mouth shut, and so did Oliver. There was a time and a place for us to have that discussion. But it wasn’t while we were fleeing for our lives down a steep hillside.

  As the four of us continued down the final hundred yards toward our freedom, I noticed Jackson slowing down. I immediately saw the reason why.

  A dozen Bar Tech guards, including Officer Korey and Officer Lorentz, appeared at the electrified perimeter fence, lying in wait for us. Like rats trapped in a maze, we were being driven right where they wanted us to go—directly into their hands.

  “Let it rip!” Jackson shouted as he barreled straight toward the inevitable confrontation with the guards.

  “Oliver,” I shouted as I deliberately broke away from Maya and him. “Hang on to Maya.”

  Oliver nodded, intuitively sensing what I was about to do.

  “Nica, no!” Maya cried, terrified, trying to pull me back.

  But I was already willing my body to disappear and hide in plain sight. I couldn’t risk Korey and Lorentz recognizing me.

  Besides, the truth was Oliver couldn’t do his whole leap-and-fly thing while carrying both Maya and me. And I knew that Maya was in no state to deal with any sort of conflict, whereas I could take care of myself.

  “Hang tight, girl!” Oliver screamed to Maya.

  As Oliver broke into a full-out run, he let loose his best Tarzan-inspired rebel yell. He then leaped through the air, higher and farther than I’d ever seen him jump before. Maya screamed in terror as they soared way over an astonished Officer Korey and Officer Lorentz. No way those two guards could ever catch Oliver or Maya, and they knew it.

  Distracted by the Oliver-Maya flying spectacle, Lorentz and Korey as well as the other guards hadn’t even realized that I had suddenly vanished into thin air, not to mention darted unseen through the opening in the fence. I literally breezed within inches of these unsuspecting guards without any of them even realizing I had passed so close to them. By the time they noticed that the fourth one of us had escaped, I’d be long gone.

  Meanwhile Korey and Lorentz, now pissed as hell, whipped out their big-ass stun guns and aimed them directly at Jackson. They weren’t going to risk letting this agitator who’d been stirring up trouble all these months slip through their fingers too.

  Emboldened, Jackson continued heading straight for the line of guards, taunting them, his arms open wide as if saying Come and get me.

  I watched with concern as Korey and Lorentz glanced at each other and then fired directly at Jackson’s chest in unison, zapping him with thousands of volts of debilitating electricity. Instead of going down and squirming on the ground like a normal person would do after being tased, Jackson took the hit in stride. He remained standing, barely flinching. Then Jackson fired back at the guards with every volt of electrical energy he could harness from his body. It was the most awesome display of power I’d ever witnessed.

  Dazzling white arcs of electrical energy surged back along the metal coils, literally blasting the stun guns out of the shocked officers’ hands. Korey and Lorentz howled in pain, their bodies shuddering and vibrating, overwhelmed by the voltage. They collapsed on the ground, writhing, incapacitated. The other guards scattered in the confusion, which gave Jackson just enough time to rip the coils off his chest, then escape through the fence and dash off alone into the darkness–well before the rest of Bar Tech Security could come charging down the hill hoping to stop us from escaping.

  18. THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS

  * * *

  “You’ve got to leave here. Tonight,” Jackson said, urgently pressing a set of car keys into Maya’s right hand.

  “Where am I supposed to go?” Maya muttered as she stared
vacantly at the keys and shook her head, trying to comprehend the enormity of what Jackson was suggesting to her. “Barrington’s my home.”

  In the aftermath of our narrow escape from Bar Tech headquarters, Oliver, Maya, Jackson, and I had rendezvoused an hour later in the school parking lot, where Jackson’s Mustang was still parked along with at least two dozen other student cars. They had all been left behind in the morning’s chaos, which already seemed like a distant memory to me. So much else had transpired in the span of only twelve hours.

  “It’s not forever, Maya,” I said, trying to give her some comfort and hope. “Just until . . .”

  I looked to Jackson, wishing he’d offer Maya some additional words of reassurance, since I had none left to give her. I was feeling pretty bleak at that moment too.

  “We just want you to be safe,” Jackson added, being straightforward and honest.

  “Doesn’t your sister live in Chicago?” Oliver piped up, attempting to put a positive spin on the situation, as if Maya were going on vacation or embarking on a fun adventure.

  “Yeah. She’s a senior at University of Chicago,” Maya replied.

  “That’s great. Stay with her,” I urged, giving Maya an encouraging smile. At least she wouldn’t be alone. She’d be with family.

  “For how long?” Maya asked, almost begging me for answers, which I sadly didn’t have.

  “We don’t know,” Jackson admitted somberly. “But we do know that Bar Tech has their sights set on you. You’re in their system. They’ve run tests . . . they’ve got your blood. They know what you’re capable of doing. And they want you. You’re a high-value target.”

  “Can’t we all just leave together? Run away?” Maya proposed, suddenly brightening and sparking with an idea. “We’ll make it a big adventure,” Maya continued, desperate to convince us to follow her plan. “Like one of those lame buddy movies where everybody bonds and learns the meaning of life . . .”

  She let out a little laugh, all the while fighting back a flood of emotion, knowing she was just grasping at straws.