Dark Skies

"Get up."

Anita didn’t react until a loud bang snapped her into a sitting position. Migraine smirked, twirling the metal pipe she’d cracked against Anita’s cell bars. The Rogue was wrapped in a skintight combat suit, which stood in stark contrast to the filthy, torn jeans and shirt plastered to Anita’s sweaty, haggard body.

"There she is," grinned Migraine. "Time's up. Time to pay the piper."

"Where are our children?" growled a voice from behind her.

Migraine faced Max, pressed up against his own bars. Anita had met him briefly in the halls and staff rooms of the Den. She knew little about him other than the bags his infant son always left hanging under his eyes. He'd often make jokes about it, saying he was 'stretched too thin, even for me'. One of her friends had to explain to her why the joke was funny.

That was Max. Hardworking, funny, and a little strange. Rarely angry.

Until now.

The school's alarms never rang. That alone made no sense, as their systems were cut from the same cloth as the Chasm’s. The storm hid the Breakers' approach, and in minutes, the Academy was swarmed. Then shackled. It'd been days, and she still had no idea why. By the time they'd disembarked from the buses to load the ship, half the faculty were dead. The six left sat with her at the bottom of this prison, located on the Breakers' island. There was also no way to know where that was.

They’d been below deck the whole time, and her maritime awareness had its limits.

"Quiet." Migraine stood to address the others, then dropped her pipe when everyone was up.

"The systems used at Syracuse are designed by SWORD technicians, which mirror the rest of their hardware. You're all going to tell me everything you remember about them."

Jed, on Max’s left, snorted. "No. We will not."

"Yes, you will. Every time you refuse, we will kill one of the children."

"We want proof of life," demanded Max.

"We don't have to prove anything," retorted Migraine. "Our engineers will be here soon. Collaborate, or you'll have more blood on your hands."

She met each of their eyes, searching for defiance. Then, with a dark smile, toggled her psychic power. Excruciating mental pressure drove the teachers off their feet, writhing on the ground. Max was the only one able to keep his footing. Migraine's face contorted with effort before she balked and released them.

"You won't kill the children," said a soft voice from the back of the brig.

Migraine turned to face it. "You want more?"

"You won't." Laura's small, pale body emerged from shadows concealing the rear of her cell to lean tiredly against the bars. "Your superiors risked too much bringing them all here alive, as well as us. You won't kill them for the same reason you won't kill us. You need them for something, the same way you want us for information. And we're not saying– ARGH!"

"LAURA!" shouted Jed. He whirled on Migraine, who'd stretched her glowing yellow hand in Laura's direction. "Stop! Let her go!"

Migraine gave Laura a few seconds to scream before lowering her arm. "You were saying?"

Laura loosed a wet cough. "None of us will speak until we see the children safe. You can kill me. You can torture me. I don't care."

Migraine rolled her eyes. "You get bonuses for that?"

"It's sad that you think we'd need them," Pamela, locked opposite Laura, intoned with biting derision. "But I'm not surprised. What have you ever not done for money?"

"Throw my life away for someone else," retorted Migraine. "Which is why I'm standing in a seventy-thousand-dollar battle suit, commanding a superhuman militia, and you're seizing on the floor of a concrete cell."

Laura wiped blood from her nose. "And that makes you, what? Safe? Free? Do you genuinely think your life is in your hands?"

Migraine hesitated. Laura smirked. "Didn't think so. Children or no deal. Unharmed."

Migraine drilled Laura with a glare, then spun on a heel and stormed out. Laura waited until the brig door slammed shut to crumple and clutch her head. Tears soaked her cheeks as she shuddered violently.

"You're okay, Laura. She's gone. Breathe," comforted Pamela, glancing at the door.

Max punched his back wall. "Fuck! Laura, don't goad her like that! You're not built for that kind of punishment."

"I'm fine." Laura managed to rise to a knee. "Besides, there was no other way."

Jed blinked. "For?"

"Me to get a good look at her palm."

Anita's eyes widened in sync with everyone else's. Even Flynn, who hadn't spoken a word, shifted in his cot.

"And?" asked Anita excitedly.

Laura glanced up at one of the security cameras hanging from the corner. "Jed, remember the Central Park field trip?"

He nodded. "What about it?"

"When Oliver dropped his game thing in the river? How you recovered it?"

Jed just got more confused. "Yes...?"

"I'll need you to do that, but the opposite."

Jed looked lost. "Right... Um, how?"

"Think about it." Laura got to her feet. "Anita, how are you feeling?"

The question clearly went beyond amiable concern. She was needed.

"I'm okay. What do you want me to do?"

Laura gave her a small smile. "Be ready."

Anita frowned. "For?"

"When I'll need you." Laura looked at Pamela. "Any luck?"

Pamela shook her head. "We're too far. I can't reach beyond the island." She pointed to the small stones Max punched out of the wall. "You mind?"

Max glanced down, then shrugged. He scooped up one of the rocks and stretched his arm to leave his cell, wind down the hall and slip through Pamela’s bars. After depositing the stone in Pamela's hand, Max retracted it back to normal length with an elastic snap.

He then turned to worriedly inspect their bars. "These aren't even Cruisium. They can't challenge anything over Knight. Surely they know this?"

Pamela snorted. "What, you're saying you can break them?"

"Easily. Flynn as well. The question is why." Max crossed his arms distrustfully. "Why give us this option?"

"We're locked in a cell on an island in the middle of the ocean," replied Pamela. She tapped the stone, and a golden, star-shaped mark appeared on its side. "They also have our children somewhere. We don’t have options."

She snapped, and the stone disappeared with an electric crackle, replaced instead with a branch. She held it up for the group to see. "I marked a bush on the beach when we landed. I should be able to reach anywhere on the island."

Laura reclined against the wall. "Good. Very good."

The captives lapsed into tense, uneasy silence. Flynn, surprisingly, broke it. "Our systems didn't even pick them up. That’s not possible. Tech or power-wise."

"What's more," Max reasoned, "is the issue of intel. Why? They already know how to bypass our security. We’re redundant. Even if they just wanted to cover bases, the danger posed by keeping us alive far outweighs whatever potential, extremely unreliable openings we expose." He scratched his head. "Why lease a rickety, old, unreliable Prius when you’ve already got a brand-new Mustang?"

Flynn bolted to his feet, which, considering his height, was unnerving. "Because they never had the Mustang! Some–"

The door banging open cut him off, where a flurry of footsteps carried new jailers down to their brig.

"At the risk of indelicacy," remarked Max, casing the leader curiously, "you’re a bit chunky for a 'technician', no?"

Black Ram elected to nod his flanking Breakers on as opposed to acknowledging Max. The henchmen unlocked all the cells with keycards before dropping back in formation.

The Rogue studied each prisoner before tilting his black horns at the door. "Come on."

The teachers stepped out of their cells. All wore looks of suspicion.

"No cuffs?" asked Pamela tentatively.

"What good would that do?" shrugged Black Ram. "We're not going to waste Cruisium on you, and I doubt the Den employs Alphas hindered by blank-intentioned restraints. Hurry up. You said you wanted to see the children."

Flynn's eyes narrowed. "And you're taking us?"

At six-and-a-half feet tall, Flynn cut out an imposing silhouette. He was by far and away the most physically powerful of their group. Anita wished he’d taken his chance back in New York and gone after the big, bad, bald Rogue.

Black Ram twitched apprehensively at his clenched fists and wide shoulders. "You made your terms clear."

It reeked of a trap, but they had no choice.

Please let Laura read him first, Anita prayed silently.

The sextet followed their escort up and out of the brig. The door above them led to an open hallway teeming with computers and weapon crates. Anita didn't recognize the logos, but she wasn't exactly current with modern terrorist symbology.

Black Ram led them out the building's doors. Anita glanced up at the crescent moon. It bathed the grass in thin rays of soft white light, thinned further by the harsh glare of artificial lamps and neon equipment.

"What is this?" demanded Max. They'd been blindfolded immediately upon arrival, so everything was new.

"This," explained Black Ram, "is the power of the Family."

Tents and crude structures covered the flat expanse of land. Guard towers employed powerful infrared spotlights to cast invisible beams across the water. Dozens of Breakers milled about, jogging in squads of four or five. ATVs zipped across bumpy dirt roads. Drones filled the sky. There were satellites raised at almost random intervals.

Here, speed clearly took precedence over structure.

The sophistication of the equipment, though, astonished Anita. She knew what was considered 'top of the line' since the Academy was chock-full of it, and these men put up stiff competition. Their computers, weaponry and defensive systems were something most governments still didn’t have access to.

It was terrifying.

Laura coughed again before stumbling to her knees. Blood dribbled from her mouth as she struggled to catch herself. Jed and Pamela hurried to check on her.

"What's her problem?" demanded Black Ram as the Breakers reached nervously for their waistbands.

Max scowled furiously. "Migraine got excited. She paid the price."

"Doubtful. Migraine's a handful, but she doesn't act outside orders."

Max's eyes clouded over. "No? Hell of a tongue bite, then."

Black Ram regarded him, then turned to Laura. Grounding his teeth, he asked, "Can she walk?"

"Yes," coughed Laura. "I'll be fine."

Black Ram paused, then turned to one of his Breakers. "Get her... a water or something."

The man jogged off and returned with a metal bottle. Anita's mouth was already dry, and she had to fight the temptation to wrestle it from the Breaker's hands. She tried focusing on the dandelions at her feet, but her body was contracting.

How long since she'd been in contact with water? Her skin felt like it was made of sandpaper.

Laura accepted the bottle, uncorked it, then offered it to Anita.

Black Ram narrowed his eyes. "No. It's not–"

"She needs it more," Laura said definitively.

Anita thanked her with a nod and took a heavy swig. It was like purging poison. Energy flooded her torso. She poured the rest on her hair, which greedily absorbed it all. By the time Anita handed the empty bottle back to the Breaker, not a drop was left.

"Huh." Black Ram observed her. "What do you do?"

"Teach," Anita replied guardedly. "At least until recently."

Black Ram snorted. "Adorable. Answer the question."

"I don't see why I have–"

Black Ram took a threatening step forward. "Answer the question."

The ground shook. Everyone went a little still as Jed, hand pressed against the grass and clouded by hazy brown mist, growled a calm but menacing warning.

"Careful ."

Branches surfaced to wriggle across the ground. The few trees still standing had their trunks grow and twist, sprouting arm-sized thorns.

A dozen lasers tagged Jed immediately.

Black Ram shot him a single, uninterested look before returning to Anita. "What are your powers?"

"Water breathing," she replied. That usually satisfied most people. At least until they noticed the suction cups on the inside of her arm. "I don't do well for extended periods without it."

Black Ram scrutinized her features for signs of dishonesty, then spun and strode on. The Breakers relaxed, and so ended the impromptu standoff. Jed rose and gave Laura a strange nod.

Pamela interrupted Anita’s confused pause by patting an exposed part of her shoulder.

"Keep walking before they shoot you," Pamela muttered, gently guiding her to follow Max.

They passed through the camp to reach a grassy hill. At the summit, the group was treated to the sight of three large, heavily modified shipping containers. Migraine stood amidst a detachment of geeky-looking Breakers, none of whom seemed to notice or care for their arrival. Behind them lay an ominous cliff face. Anita fought the temptation to jump off the side and lose herself in the ocean.

The strangest thing, though, was the bright circular platform. Each container was connected to dozens of computers, which fed multiple cables bundled in a nauseating tangle, and yet everything somehow ended up plugged in the circle. The Breaker techs fussed over it, cross-referencing data from their tablets to those on the mounted monitors.

Max glanced at Flynn, then glared at Black Ram. "What the fuck is this? A Bluetooth ouija board?"

Black Ram chuckled. "Show them."

The container doors swung open, and Anita immediately wished she’d acted on her earlier impulse and jumped.

Flynn’s fingers clamped over Black Ram's throat, veins popping as he cocked his free arm back. Nobody even saw him move.

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO THEM!?!"

Suddenly, the geeks had guns, and the teachers were back in a standoff.

Black Ram didn't flinch, though he did scowl at the restriction. "Careful. They're sleeping. No need for us to interrupt, yeah?"

Anita looked back into the containers. Their students were strapped to metal chairs and hooked into a sinister nest of wiring. Small EKG monitors sat against each child’s chest, tracking their vitals. They’d even managed to nail seats to the ceiling, allowing almost a hundred kids to occupy a single container at once.

One of the girls Anita recognized as a tenth grader named Elle jerked drowsily. Sedation tubes snaked across the wall to ensure she stayed unconscious.

"See? Dandy. Now talk."

"What are you doing to them?" yelled Jed, lasering in on Black Ram.

"What we're paid to." Black Ram shrugged noncommittally.

Max managed a single step toward a container before being intercepted by a Breaker. "What will happen to them?"

"They'll be drained."

They turned to Pamela. She looked sickly and pale.

"Andre Church. Sarah Underwood." Pamela, in turn, faced Anita, though why, she had no idea. "Jasper and Lydia."

Black Ram's mouth quirked to stave off a grin. "That must make you the brains of this band." He spread his arms. "Welcome to the Nursery."

Pamela's eyes were wide with horror. "This machine. You want to drain them all at the same time. Why? It'll kill them! They're just kids!"

"Hey, I don't call the shots," shrugged Black Ram. "Look, I'm not the biggest fan of it either. But these guys are bigger than either of us. We do what we're told."

"You're evil," Max spat. "So vile and– AAAHHH!"

Migraine appeared to have had her fill and butted in with a decisive psychic interruption. Max collapsed as his body got flaccid and rubbery, spasming with sufficient volatility to damage nearby equipment.

Black Ram tutted in irritation. "Enough! He’s fucking up the gear."

"He should learn to mind his manners," retorted Migraine.

"Migraine, that's–"

THOOM!

In the chaos, Flynn managed to slink all the way over to the platform and touch it, assimilating its tough metallic properties into his skin. Next, he rocked Black Ram with a thunderous punch. The Rogue landed on the other side of the camp.

Migraine spun, only to get smacked off her feet by Max. His backboard-sized hand punched Migraine into a computer stack, hard .

"You know the best thing about my powers?" he asked as she desperately tried to paralyze him with psychic energy. "Stretchy mind. Can take a lot of punishment, especially from your types. But you wouldn’t know that, would you? You couldn’t point out an act if it ripped your larynx out."

His giant hand curled into a fist and sent her flailing down the hill. The Breakers, not actually having expected a fight, scrambled to arm themselves.

"STOP! We'll kill the–"

"No you won't," snorted Jed, reaching out for his power. "Not when your superiors need them."

Wood erupted from the ground and obliterated the equipment. Jed left the containers untouched, unsure of how much punishment it could take before the children would suffer. The platform, on the other hand, was far too durable and simply frisbeed into the sky. He then proceeded to join Flynn and Max in beating the Breakers to submission.

"What are you doing?!?" exclaimed Anita. "This is an island ! We'll never get the children off before we’re overrun!"

Laura grimaced, glancing down at her palm. "Of course not. That was never the plan." She looked up at Anita. "You are."

Anita paled. "What?"

"Get to the mainland. Get to Director Skies and warn him. We’ve bought time, but I don't know how long it'll take them to repair this machine. You have to hurry."

As she spoke, Anita noticed a gash on her tongue. When did that get there?

"Swear it," begged Laura.

"They'll kill you," Anita choked out. Panic grew as she began to realize what was expected of her.

Laura only smiled. "You’re the octopus, Anita. You can swim and camouflage. We'll stall as long as possible. But you have–"

BOOOM!

Night became day. Blinding, brilliant energy appeared and disappeared in the blink of an eye. Anita felt the heat from almost thirty feet away. The raw power went against everything she knew.

This wasn’t an Alpha.

This was the work of a god who’d turned the Sun into his own personal flamethrower.

The plasma beam tossed Flynn like a hacky sack, instantly vaporizing his right arm and a good chunk of his torso. His corpse crumpled to the grass thirty feet away, dangerously near the looming cliffs. Anita’s slacked jaw stared, uncomprehending, at his empty eyes.

Flynn, their prized combat instructor, was dead.

In a single blow.

The group spun to see a massive, bronze-eyed Rogue calmly making his way over. His right fist was smoking, but he didn’t seem to care. His expression relayed irritation as opposed to discomfort.

"What the fuck is that?" growled Jed, summoning massive wooden constructs to assail the approaching enemy.

"No clue. But we're out of time." Laura glanced down at Anita's palm and read whatever version of her future she needed to see. "I believe in you, Anita." Then she spun and shouted, "Max!"

She was suddenly in the grip of a giant hand. She didn’t even have time to shriek before Max sent her spinning into the sky.

Anita flew fast and high before, in the most confusing of twists, the world warped. The black sky vanished as strength suddenly flooded her body. Literally, as she was now underwater. But she hadn’t actually hit the surface, or she’d be immobile with pain.

She'd just... appeared in it?

Oh. Of course.

Anita then remembered how Jed helped Oliver find his game system. Central Park, with its thousands of trees, meant he'd been able to create the world's largest nervous system and track the Nintendo Switch to a tiny puddle. Then he'd dragged it through the earth, all the way back to their group.

Pamela must've grabbed hold of some irrelevant object on their way up, then given it to Jed to push through the earth. Laura had bit her tongue. Migraine's attacks were painful but quick. They'd all recovered. It didn't make sense for Laura to have been so badly wounded, even if she wasn’t built for fighting. Anita then contributed by unwittingly baiting Black Ram into a brief confrontation that allowed Jed to shove the mark all the way into the ocean.

If her aquatic senses were accurate, she was on the opposite side of the island. Closest to the largest landmass, which she could feel as maybe one or two hundred miles away.

Laura knew they wouldn’t just let her leave, so she had Max pretend to throw her one way. Then Pamela, after having marked her, switched her with the object.

Which was in the complete opposite direction.

If the Breakers and this ‘Family’ did decide to go after her, they’d spent all their time looking the wrong way.

Anita shook her head in amazement.

Serves them right , she snarled, stripping off her clothes, as she could only cloak her skin. That's what you get for fighting a seer.

Anita swam for hours, and she swam fast. There was no telling if the Breakers had seen through the ruse, or if her friends were still alive. Fear was pulling her inside out, even submerged in her natural element.

She had to make it. She had to save them.

Anita was so distracted, in fact, that she failed to notice the blur that suddenly materialized above her, seized her arm, and wrenched her out of the water.

She crashed into a buoy. Her teeth rattled and her skull wailed. She was tougher than any human, but the impact almost put her to sleep.

Did they find me? she choked out in a panic, trying to find her assailant. How—

"I’m going to be honest," said a familiar voice from above. "It is going to suck if you’re a terrorist spy, ‘cause you are one hot mermaid."

Anita’s lower lip quivered as she fought to retain composure. She couldn’t crack now. The mission wasn’t over.

"Sir, I need your help. It’s urgent. Please."

Novax, geared in a well-fitting combat suit, studied her warily. Though he remained ominously aloft, content to regard her from a height, his eyes lost their threatening glow.

"Don’t call me sir," he sniffed, scanning her with a concerned once over. "Makes me sound old."