CONTAINS CONTENT:
action violence.
{{Unedited}}
Coffee had been made and pastries had been set out. Everyone had eaten what they could stomach and was sipping down their coffee as expectant eyes watched Klara’s computer screen and the highlighted images of the people moving around on it.
Liam had stretched a map across the top of the piano.
Austin was sitting on the motorcycle that he’d acquired the night before, finishing his coffee. He was there at Vincent’s behest, and ready to go when told to go, but not before he’d passed Marielle at the coffee stand and she’d gotten a good look at him. She smiled in approval.
He tried to hide a smile, and gently touched her back before heading out to the bike, a chocolate chip bagel hanging from his mouth. He glanced her over, dark jeans, boots, a loose fitting black, backless t-shirt that tied at the top behind her neck. –You look good, too. Kinda sad knowing that you’re going to stop wearing those backless shirts once you feel better. Your back is perfect, Marielle. He said with a wink on his way out.
Her gaze flicked down into her coffee cup and she smirked and tucked her lips in, enjoying the chill that he’d given her.
Then they all checked in on their ear pieces, Liam starting it off.
When they got to Austin, he paused, “Austin Rancor checking in,” he whispered. Tundra didn’t feel right anymore; not after Tala.
Liam nodded, understanding, “We’ll find you a new name.”
The room with the bar and the piano was strangely quiet as everyone finished bagels, croissants and other various pastries and coffee.
Vincent knew that it was his fault. Tala was already gone, so was Mateo… and losing them both felt like a massive blow to the team.
“How will we know-,” Jamie began. Everyone turned to him – he was whoofing some chocolate thing down – he took it in two large bites, “like, let’s say that we come into contact with a double… how do we know who’s who?” Everyone looked at him curiously. “Like, how do I know that I’m not shooting Han, or another Han, or…” He paused, unsure if he was coming across.
Sasha nodded, understanding, “Right. If we’re in the crossfire, how can we be sure who the bad guy is.”
Jamie nodded sucking something gooey off his thumb.
Klara smiled and glanced at Vincent. A flicker of hope for their relationship remained. “Relax… I’ve thought of everything.” They’d worked on this together. Klara pulled a vial of something green from her briefcase. Tayane leaned over her right shoulder, eyeing it. “It’s similar to the way that we are tracking them,” she said gesturing to her computer screen and the glowing dots moving around.
“Don’t get careless, assuredly they’re doing something similar. But one drop of this, and the others will appear to glow yellow or gold,” Klara added.
“Yellow?” Han asked, leaning forward from the couch.
“Oui,” Vincent said. “We have to inject it, but it’s the best bet so that no mistakes are made,” he explained.
“How do I know that stuff won’t eat my liver or something?” Sabine hissed, glaring at the green vial. Marielle found this amusing, considering that all of Sabine’s poisonous gas looked just like this.
Austin chuckled silently from outside, as he stuffed the last of the bagel into his mouth. “I’ve had this in my system for over two years,” Vincent explained. “You all glow red to me. Same compound, different color.”
“Wait, wait…” Tayane said standing from the back, “We are all… red to you?”
Jamie coughed into his hand, “Racist!”
Vincent shook his head, “No, you have like… a halo. You won’t understand until you do it.” A brief silence. “It also has a tracker in it,” he explained as Barbara filled a needle. “You go missing, you get captured- you die and we can’t find you… this will tell us.” Everyone looked impressed. That would be useful. “Also, just so everyone understands, this stuff takes a good twenty minutes or so to kick in, so if nothing looks different at first, that’s why.”
“Wei Ling, coming in,” Austin said into the earpiece, his eyes followed another figure approaching as well with a sigh. “And Chamber…” he added, nodding once at the distant figure, who nodded back at him. Vincent thanked him.
All eyes turned towards the door, and at that moment, Wei Ling entered the room, and everyone jumped up to meet her.
Kirra went into her arms, and the two embraced, crying on one another. “If I’d been here-,” Wei Ling began.
“No, no…” Kirra was whispering, shaking her head in affirmation at her friend, “there was nothing left. She couldn’t be revived. Trust me,” Kirra said taking her face into her hands and looking deeply into her eyes. “Don’t do that to yourself,” she added. Wei Ling still bowed her head in sadness.
Marielle drew Wei Ling against her. “It’s not your fault. It was no one’s fault,” she said. Wei Ling nodded. “Where is she?”
“They took her, and Mateo already,” Han explained.
Others took their turn greeting Wei Ling. There were several hugs and many tears. Chamber wandered toward the back to lean on a wall, arms crossed and watched everyone and everything that was occurring. He and Vincent briefly exchanged looks and gave one another a strong nod.
“Austin, come in, we need to inject you with the serum,” Liam said.
“You got it.”
Marielle winced as she went for more coffee, her skin starting to flare up again. “I hate to state the obvious,” Jamie began, gesturing, “but Marielle is in no condition to fight.”
“I fought last night,” she reminded. “And kicked their asses…”
Vincent nodded, “Yes, but for a short period of time, and you had no other choice.”
Austin was already getting the shot from Barbara.
Vincent looked her over and after the needle, Austin went to Marielle, and cooled her again. “No, she’s going with Austin, again.” The room fell into an uncomfortable silence once more and both Marielle and Austin looked at Vincent like they’d misheard him, then looked at each other, trying to hide that part of them that was relieved to be together, and failing miserably. Vincent looked from face to face. “They’re going to go between the two sites. We need someone guarding the middle ground.” He looked at Austin, giving him a nod of approval. “Austin can handle it.”
“Damn straight, he can,” whispered Kirra under her breath. Sasha threw her a suspicious look, and Marielle got the impression that he knew that she’d spent some time alone with Austin the night before.
Then Vincent nodded at Marielle, “She can help.”
Marielle gave Vincent a soft smile that said, ‘thank you for believing in me.’ He nodded at her once. Chamber went to the coffee, and poured some into a cup, then started pouring sugar.
“Okay, what part of…any of this did I miss?” Tayane asked, a hand up as she gestured slightly to Austin.
“Oh,” Chamber said flatly, he was still pouring sugar into the cup. “Austin is a government spy here to kill me.” The room fell silent as a graveyard at three in the morning; all eyes went to Austin, then Barbara, then Vincent, then Chamber. Chamber stopped the stream of white, and looked at everyone, then drank the sugar with some coffee added in.
Barbara heaved an exasperated sigh, confirming this to the room; cover blown. “Okay, we’ll deal with that later,” she said frustratedly. They had no choice but to move on. Barbara gave Chamber a serious glare, and he smirked in reply with a wink as he folded his arms over his chest, and casually rested a foot against the wall.
“He’s the right man for the job,” Vincent said dismissively. No one argued.
The room took their turns getting their injections while Klara watched her screen, waiting for any movement away from the Kingdom facility that she was monitoring.
Vincent took a deep breath in and looked to each of them, “We need to address something important,” he began. Everyone, coffee, and pastry in hand turned to him. “Cory is working with Kingdom…” he nodded at Chamber, “when Chamber and I were at Everette Linde, -” Klara winced at the mention of Everette Linde. “We discovered that they were using teleporters to bring in doubles from other dimensions… this means that just because your double might be dead from my home dimension.”
“That-” she made a face, “we might still come into contact with ourselves,” Sabine said with a long, exasperated sigh.
Sasha tensed, and promptly added a shot of Smirnov to his coffee. Marielle looked at him with an expression that said, you’ll be okay. He met eyes with her, looked down into his plastic cup, and threw it back, swallowing it all down and returning Marielle’s look with one that said, thanks.
Han patted his back, he looked to her and forced a weak smile.
Austin dunked a second bagel into his creamed and sugared coffee. Then he caught Marielle staring. She tried to hide it, but he’d seen it, and hid a small smirk as well. –How you doin?
She looked away, meeting eyes with Vincent, and hoping that he didn’t realize that they were both talking to one another. Vincent was helping Jamie get his injection. He knew. –I’m okay.
Austin dunked the bagel again, and took a huge bite. –How’s your back?
–I honestly don’t think I could have done any of this without you. It’s better, but I am still in pain often. He set his coffee aside, removed one of his gloves, and tenderly caressed the small of her back, cooling her. She exhaled, relief. –I think this might be the last day that I’m really in need of this.
–Use me as much as you need.
“Okay, let’s do this quickly… this is how it’s going to go,” Vincent started, standing in front of the fireplace. “Chamber, you’re with me.” No shock there for the room. “I’m also going to take Sabine, John, and Kirra.” Sabine looked annoyed, but agreed with a nod. Vincent glanced at Klara’s computer screen. Black figures were still loading dark SUV’s.
“Han, Jamie, Sasha, and Tayane, you’re all with me,” Liam said pointing a thumb at himself, then crossing his arms.
“What about me?” Wei Ling asked, leaning forward a bit from the couch.
“I’m sending you mid, but closer to this site than Marielle and Austin,” Liam said pointing at the location.
Vincent held up two fingers, “There are two specific plant sites that they’re attempting. Here, and here,” he gestured to a map of the outskirts of the city that they were currently staying in. “These sites are about four miles away from each other, and due to the water levels, and other varying factors, they both contain less radianite to destroy. Remember, they want ours, so they’ll try and plant in places where they don’t destroy as much.”
“Is one of those a church?” Tayane asked, leaning over the map.
“Yes, but it’s abandoned,” Vincent explained.
“Refresh my memory, what happens if this thing – the spike – goes off?” Sasha asked.
Vincent gave him a grim expression. “Then every living thing in about a mile radius is vaporized,” he explained. He flicked his gaze to Chamber who was shaking his head as if to remind Vincent that the teleporter would be no good. The golden zone was only about three thousand square feet. Vincent nodded, he didn’t need Chamber to say this, they were both thinking it.
Vincent sat, with his arms folded, on the arm of the couch on his right, the same one that Marielle and Austin had spent so much time on the night before, and Marielle couldn’t help but think that he was doing this on purpose; like claiming the territory for himself. She and Austin’s gaze flicked to one another’s and then away.
Marielle had said that they were not going to flirt, or act out today. Both knew that they’d already failed, but both also knew that they were going to try and keep that promise again. “I want to be clear that those are the stakes. We’re not the only ones who die in this scenario if this thing goes off… Everyone around us dies as well, and then so does the rest of the planet once they pave the way for the next one. Are we clear?” Everyone nodded, tension pressing against the walls of the entire room.
“Sadly, our best course of action here is not to cause panic,” Liam began. “But if you can save someone and it doesn’t risk anything to you or the situation, do it. Tell them to leave the city.”
“Wait,” Sabine stood, “You want us to try and defuse the spike- this bomb that could wipe out everything for a mile radius… and not tell anyone to get to safety?”
Liam took in a deep pull of air and let it out, looking down, “It’ll be easier to get our job done, and get this over with if there isn’t mass hysteria taking place around us.” He gestured to the church, and briefly glanced at the screen watching the load up, then back to the church, “both plant sites are actually thin on population. People exist, but not like in the city. This abandoned church has its own graveyard, and grounds,” he gestured across part of the map, “and we’re calling this other site site A-” he gestured again, “this area was affected during the war at the beginning of the decade. There’s a lot of debris, broken down buildings. Again, there is a population, but a good chunk of it is vacant.” He turned back to them, “If there are casualties, and we fail, it’ll be minimal on both ends… worse if the explosion takes place near the church,” he added.
Everyone nodded gravely, taking this in.
“So let’s not fail,” Vincent said. Then he removed his glasses with a hand, although his arms remained crossed. “I want to take a minute to remind everyone of what training was like. I know that we are… not in a good place mentally and emotionally. One of the reasons that I beat you all up in that training room was for this, exactly. Again-” he let out a heavy sigh. “Everyone in this room hates me right now. I understand. I probably deserve this. This is one of the many reasons that I’m going to stay until this is over, until we’re done.” He wiped his left eye. A tear? No one was sure. “Tala was the youngest of us, and she didn’t deserve to die. This was my fault. I should have taken the shot and killed Austi- Tundra. I’m apologize for my lack of propriety.” Sabine seethed, but said nothing. “I want to remind everyone to put aside all feelings and emotions about one another. Protect one another at all costs. Have each other’s backs.” He went to Ausin. “If I can put aside this,” he clasped a hand on Austin’s shoulder, and squeezed, “to make sure that he’s safe, then nothing else that anyone is fighting with should matter in this room,” he explained, and he turned, looking Austin straight in the eye. They nodded at one another, “Protect my wife,” he reminded, quietly.
“With everything,” Austin replied, quietly. “With my life.”
Vincent squeezed him again.
The room was silent, considering this. Vincent let go and turned back to them. “I suggest everyone do a personal checklist, now. They look like they’re getting ready to go shortly.” He gestured with his head to the glowing people on the computer. He paused, “One last thing… Today we’ll be mostly fighting Kingdom lackies; do not be too concerned with whether you’re fighting yourself or not if they’re masked, just get the job done. Hesitating could mean death.”
He dismissed everyone, and they all got their guns and strapped them to their bodies.
Austin turned away as Marielle went to Vincent and put her arms around his middle. He smiled down at her adoringly, stroking her face. “What would you do if you lost me today?”
He shook his head, “Masin,” he whispered, leaning down closer to her face. “I can’t lose you today…” he intertwined their fingers. “I can’t ever lose you like that again. I don’t know what I’d do.”
What moved through her then was a strange mix of curiosity, disdain, need, desire, and disgust. What would he do? The first time that he lost her he destroyed the space time continuum, albeit accidentally… but he made a lot of questionable, and at times terrifying decisions that caused this entire situation.
Would he move into another world until he found her again? He’d said that in most worlds she was dead. Would this ever end?
He looked down into her eyes, “I can’t lose you again,” he ground out between his teeth, stroking some of her dark hair behind her ear.
Klara bolted upright, pulling away from an extended holding session with Tayane. “They’re on the move!” She cried.
“Go!” Vincent shouted, and everyone filed out, rushing to the vehicles.
Austin straddled the motorcycle, and helped Marielle on. He smirked as she put her arms around the front of his body, feeling every caress and reveling in it. He spoke into the earpiece, “Going mid.” Then he took off, taking them to a street where they waited.
Sabine and John pushed into the back of the SUV, with Chamber while Kirra was sitting in the front with Vincent driving.
“Sabine,” Chamber began as he wiped something off Tour De Force with the edge of his sleeve, “you must let me take you out sometime… dinner, dancing? I know the perfect place.”
Vincent was shaking his head adoringly at himself as he took off toward B site.
Sabine rolled her eyes as she fit her gas mask over her face, “Chamber, I would rather drink my own poison.”
John snickered under his gear, and squeezed her hand.
Chamber shrugged dismissively like he knew she’d reply this way. Vincent knew that he was a persistent little prick.
Vincent punched the gas pedal, speeding them down the street.
It didn’t take long for a black rider on a motorcycle to fall in beside them. He was quickly joined by three others.
Vincent instantly got the impression that they were lackies and not doubles.
“Chamber, left…” Vincent intoned as he rolled down the windows.
Chamber switched Tour De Force for Headhunter, aimed, and fired. Ear-piercing cracks split the noise of the chase. The rider ducked. Neither Vincent or Chamber were used to shooting and hitting moving targets too often; especially not when they were also moving. “Enemies spotted, going toward site B,” Vincent said into the earpiece.
“Roger, no movement on our end, but we’re peeled,” Liam replied.
“Nothing,” Austin added from his and Marielle’s location.
Chamber growled as the rider sped up to move ahead of them. He glanced up at the rim of the open window, and sucked Headhunter back up into his arm, “Oh, hell no,” he hissed, and using his gloved hands on the top of the open window, he pulled his upper half out of the car, into the breeze pounding against his body, where his butt landed on the door, and he hung from the window.
“Careful!” Vincent cried, seeing this in his side window. Kirra was rubbing her temples, and blocking what was happening to her left. She might not have been Chamber’s biggest fan, but her expression made it pretty clear that she didn’t want to see him splatter on the pavement.
“Je sais ce que je fais,” Chamber growled.
The wind whipped through his hair, and he pushed his glasses up his nose before pulling Headhunter again, taking aim, and firing. The spectacular crash caused Vincent to have to swerve the vehicle a bit to miss burning debris and the dead body. The other riders parted like a wave, moving around it all as well, and coming up alongside of the SUV.
“I win again!” Chamber cried, throwing his fist with Headhunter into the air. The golden gun gleamed.
“He’s so damn cocky,” Sabine hissed.
“He knows who he is,” Vincent replied, grinning.
Kirra glanced back, then whirled forward, covering her eyes again.
Sabine lifted her left arm and fired one of the vials that was strapped to it. Soupy green poison splattered on the ground, causing all the riders except one to swerve to miss it. The one that skidded and slipped on it, fell, and they drove past him just as his suit around his left arm was starting to sizzle and melt. They heard the crackle and scream as his flesh quickly followed.
Sabine smirked cruelly, and Chamber pushed his glasses back up his nose.
“I have to say… that is incredibly sexy,” he quipped, still hanging from the window. He aimed, fired, missed, cursed, and steadied himself by readjusting a little; tongue poking out of the left side of his mouth.
John looked like he was considering spraying Chamber with his dimensional dust in response. Vincent flashed him a look– remember your training, support each other regardless of feelings. John nodded.
But this gave him an idea. He shot the dimensional dust out to the street beside them, growling, “Cover going out,” and his purple dome appeared about thirty feet ahead on the left. The riders had to pass through it, or swerve to avoid it.
Kirra still had her hands up to the sides of her shaking head like blinders on a horse.
Once the riders came through the other side of the dark cover, Vincent pulled Headhunter as well, and leaned his left arm on the open window. He glanced at the road; open, no issues, glanced to his left, aimed, fired, headshot, the rider was down. The vehicle swerved a little, Vincent steadied the SUV again, and kept driving in a straight line.
“Mon Dieu, it isn’t a competition,” Chamber sighed.
“I was always told that the only appropriate person to compete with was yourself,” Vincent replied throwing a glance over his left shoulder to check the last rider and the road. Clear.
“Well, you have me, there,” Chamber replied with a shrug, as he aimed, fired, and took out another rider, the bike went rolling, and again they had to swerve to miss the wreckage. There was only one left; and they’d briefly disappeared somewhere.
Vincent wondered for a moment if it was Tundra, but quickly realized that they probably had him doing something more important than whatever this was.
There was a blur, and Vincent peeked into the rearview again…the rider had already passed on the left. When he looked forward, he jerked the wheel to right, causing the car to careen left, and skid a little. There had been a dog in the middle of the road.
Kirra screamed upon seeing it, and he just barely missed the animal as the vehicle jerked one way, then Vincent straightened it again, the wheels gripped the road, and they continued.
Someone from one of the shops they’d past came running out into the street shaking his fist at them.
“I’m not killing a dog for no reason,” he growled under his breath, throwing another glance to the rearview.
“Well, I’m with you, there,” Kirra agreed, nodding furiously. She was gripping the seat.Chamber pulled himself back into the vehicle, his hair completely windblown and puffy. He ran his fingers through it several times until it stayed, minus a little piece that fell back into his right eye.
He smirked when he caught Sabine’s eyes darting away from him.
Vincent had seen this in the rearview and smiled, thinking, maybe she’d never respond to him in any way that was romantic… but she secretly maybe kind of thought that he was a little cute sometimes…
Sabine smiled softly, and touched her bottom lip before turning fully to John.
The last rider came up alongside them, and Vincent once again put his arm out the window and fired at him.
The air split with another disgusting pop sound… miss. Vincent pinched his lips together, and looked at Kirra, then at the others for a moment. “They’re not actually doing anything, just…” His voice trailed off and he sucked Headhunter back up into his left arm and drummed his lip in thought for a moment. “This is a distraction,” he realized.
That’s when his eyes widened as they fell on a man. He was standing like a statue in the middle of the road, staring them down up ahead.
The moment that Vincent realized that it was Cory was the same moment that everything for everyone went black.