String - Framework 2.5

To say our scouting night had gone pear-shaped would be a colossal understatement.

When Sam had asked if I wanted to join her tonight for some scouting, I had assumed we’d be doing just that; scouting. It was the moment we heard screeching tires echo from outside the store that I realized we had been overzealous in our decision to break in.

Now the jig was up and we needed to get the hell out.

Gold was quick to make the first move and head toward the door while I snagged a bag off one of the downed goons to stash away Deadlock’s prototype mechatech. Botched scouting mission or not, I was not yet in a position where leaving something like this behind was even remotely in consideration.

Before I could make it out the door, I hesitated on an intrusive thought. The guns the Cains had stolen might come in handy and I could bypass the biometric lock if I really pushed myself. Gold, however, had different plans and snagged the sleeve of my jacket, pulling me out of the staff room.

“No time,” she said.

I grunted in agreement.

I couldn’t afford to strain myself in a situation like this.

As we left, I snatched up my drone resting easily by the door and shoved it haphazardly into the bag before descending the stairs. We got about halfway down before Gold grabbed onto my jacket and pulled me down. Beams of lights shone through the front windows of the store and I thought for sure it was the police.

“He called for backup during our attack. He stalled us with his power,” Gold hissed. “I hate when I’m not in control. I can’t see things as clearly.”

I was still confused as to how he had managed to escape without making a sound.

“He has powers?”

“Some form of perception manipulation. Keep up,” Gold growled. “He played with us. If I had been active, I would have seen right through his words. He’s Grim’s right hand man, Mirage. Damnit, Pink never wants to switch when it’s important!”

I could confidently say I had never heard of him. Banshee was new – I knew the name but didn’t know she had gotten involved in a gang. I did recall hearing the name being attributed to some local robberies on the news.

The main villains for the Cains were Grim, Gold Rush, Nemesis, and Bonesmith.

Mirage didn’t ring any bells.

“Is he new?”

“No,” Gold whispered. “Founded the group with Grim. In fact, he might actually be leading them,” she paused for a moment and blinked. “No… no, I need to think more on that. Too many variables there. There’s a distinct possibility. Definitely not new though.”

“Why wouldn’t he just kill us? If he had us under his… spell or whatever, why not just take the opportunity to off us after we busted his operation?”

“Hard to say,” she said, peeking over the railing. “Give me a second… hmm, okay. It’s power related. He plays with our senses but can’t risk anyone seeing through them. If someone under the influence of his power is able to see through a loophole and perceive him, his illusion shatters and leaves him vulnerable.”

Where she had pulled that information from, I hadn’t the slightest clue.

“How do you figure that? If he’s able to control our senses, can’t he just make us see a whole bunch of crap to keep himself concealed?”

“No. I said ‘perceive’ him. Illusions, idiot. What happens when you realize you're seeing an illusion? When you know you're dreaming? The magic is broken,” she explained with a frustrated sigh. “The trick to illusions is to make them convincing enough so whoever they’re being used on believes they’re real. How are you not getting this?”

I stared at her.

“I’m starting to realize why Alice doesn’t like showing you off.”

“Call me a bitch if it will make you feel better,” Gold grumbled. “It’s what Pink and Blue do.”

My brow rose. “Blue?”

“Alice. The one you're most acquainted with,” Gold grumbled before shifting tones immediately. “We’ve got to move.”

“Have they seen us? I know they know we’re here but they haven’t broken into the store yet.”

“They won’t, it’ll cause too much of a commotion. If we want a clean getaway, we’ll have to move because if we take too long, they’ll figure out the car parked on the other side of the road is ours. If I can get a good line of sight, I can use Purple to teleport us both into the front seats.”

“Then what?” I asked, not entirely comfortable with the idea of another high-speed getaway chase through Bayside's streets. “They chase us down through the night? There’s no traffic, it’s past midnight.”

“If we stay, we give them more time to plan and trap us in. If we try to fight, we’ll likely die because you have eight shots left and there’s at least fifteen guys out there all armed,” She squinted at the window. “Plus Nemesis. You’ll definitely get killed.”

“Just me? What about you?”

“I can survive with Red, probably long enough for me to get far enough away to safely switch to Pink to make a faster getaway. Chances are slim but I’ve dealt with worse hands,” Gold replied. “Besides, I’m not leaving you. You might be horribly underwhelming so far but you're an investment and I can see your worth in the long term.”

“...Wow.”

Gold smiled. “Now you're getting it. Come on, this way.”

We made our way to the bottom of the stairs before making a hard turn to head toward the back of the store. My guess was Gold was leading us to the back door or a fire exit because even I knew going out the front door was suicide.

On the way, I managed to snag myself a laser pointer from one of those bargain bins. Reforming it as an attachment to my laser pistol was fairly quick, painless, and allowed me to have a better guide to help my aim.

We found the fire exit at the back of the store but to no one’s surprise, we could hear voices waiting for us on the other side. Gold held up three fingers and the message was clear. Three guys outside, ready to put us in an early grave.

I mouthed ‘where do we go now?’ and felt a little frustrated when I didn’t get an immediate response.

Considering the situation, Gold looked way too calm but maybe that sense of serenity came with the superintelligence. She probably couldn’t utilize it properly if she was too busy panicking.

She began moving again, this time toward another door. This one wasn’t an exit and was located closer to what I could only assume was the janitor's office. I noticed her still a little and I was beginning to pick up on the little quirks of her switching. When she dropped to one knee and pulled out a bobby pin, I guessed she had switched to Orange.

In seconds, the door clicked and swung open to reveal stairs into the store basement.

“The basement, why? It’s a dead end.”

She stood back up and turned, her eyes shifting from Orange back to Gold in the blink of an eye.

“Mirage can’t have left the building yet. The reason they haven’t broken in to confront us might be because he’s spying on our movements and feeding back info,” Gold reasoned. “Down here, he shouldn’t know what we’re up to.”

“But it’s a dead end!”

She ignored me and descended the stairs skipping down two at a time. Grumbling, I closed the door behind me and followed her down.

The basement of the store was surprisingly clean but it still smelled mostly of cardboard and plastic. Products the store wasn’t able to sell were down here, wrapped up and left to gather dust. From what I could see it was either old stuff or damaged merchandise, TVs, and electronics. There were pallets full of crap, all boxed together.

“I don’t see a way out down here, Alice.”

“There’s always a way out,” She replied swiftly.

We moved through the maze of pallets, Gold’s eyes scanning the floor. I wasn’t entirely sure what she was looking for until we got to the center of the basement. Gold stopped right in front of a pallet wrapped with dusty old boxes that looked like old TVs. She tapped the ground with her foot before jumping up and down. Then, she turned and nodded.

“Here.”

She switched to Red and began pushing the pallet out of the way, revealing a manhole. It was covered in concrete dust and looked like it hadn’t seen use in about an eternity. Red didn’t hesitate to dig her fingers into the side before ripping it out of the ground effortlessly. Red looked like she wanted to toss the thing into the nearest wall before she took a deep breath and laid it down next to the open hole.

“Talk about a security risk. What’s a thing like this doing here?”

“Easy access to the building’s plumbing,” Gold replied, having just switched back. “The city council declared this area a flood plain in 06. Most of these buildings need extra water maintenance for storm protection. In other words, our way out.”

I peered down into the darkness and the vile smell of sewage made me recoil.

“Not exactly a dignified escape route.”

“It’s better than being riddled with bullets,” Gold grimaced. “I’m not jumping for joy either. You first, I’ll need to go last to use Red to close the hatch and I don’t trust your flimsy arms.”

I tucked my laser pistol into the back of my waistband before securing the bag I had been carrying over my shoulders. “Are the insults really necessary?”

“Get moving.”

As I descended the ladder, I was glad to have a costume that covered everything. The filth was far worse than I had expected.

The area at the bottom of the ladder was narrow and led out into a larger cemented room with various pipes and large stormwater drains. Clearly, Gold’s plan was to move down one of the stormwater pipes as they were the only ones big enough to move through. The only issue was which one.

“Where to?” I asked.

Gold shimmied past me and skipped past the first human-sized pipe on the left and entered the second one.

“This one.”

“You know the layout?”

“Are you going to question everything I do?” She asked sourly. She hadn’t even turned to look at me. “Of course I know the layout. Learn to trust me, I’m rarely ever wrong.”

Rolling my eyes, I followed her into the pipe.

“Alright then. Lead on. I won’t ask anymore questions.”

Thankfully, we weren’t down there for long. A few left and right turns later, we arrived at another ladder. I was overjoyed we didn’t have to wade through any sewage but that was the only silver lining I could find because the pungent smell was ever-present.

“You sure we’re in the clear?”

“What happened to 'I won't ask anymore questions?',” Gold snidely replied as she slowly pushed open the metal hatch. "We'll be fine. Again, trust me. I know what I'm doing."

She poked her head out and looked around before climbing out. As she helped me out of the dank, musty manhole, I saw that we had come out at the back of an alleyway across from the department store. We were a couple of buildings down, so getting to the car would require some stealth.

A lot of the Cains were still hovering around the edges of the building, peering inside and flashing their torches through the window. Nemesis stood in the car park next to a Jeep, similar to the one that had chased us from the Mall. From behind, Nemesis wore a sleeveless crimson cloak that covered his head while the rest of him looked armored. As he paced, I could see his armored gauntlets and boots that looked like they could turn someone’s skin into grated cheese. What really caught my eye though, was the long pointy metal spear he carried in his left hand.

He was no Red Impaler but I didn’t want to be on the receiving end of that thing.

“Straight shot to the car. I can see it. Are you ready?” Gold asked.

I replied with a stiff nod.

Teleporting with Purple made my stomach churn. Just getting into the store had been weird enough but I wasn’t looking forward to doing it all over again. I’d deal with it for now, if it meant getting out of this situation quickly.

Just as I felt her muscles relaxing as she made the switch to Purple, I heard a vicious crack echo.

The corner of the building we had been peeking around splintered as a bullet ricocheted off the masonry. I immediately gripped Alice and tried to pull her back into cover but another crack splattered blood across my helmet’s visor.

Alice fell back onto me as a hailstorm of bullets echoed from across the street. Adrenaline surged through me like a tidal wave as I found cover behind a large metal dumpster. I dropped Alice and she collapsed to the ground, groaning in pain and clutching her shoulder.

Her eyes switched from Purple back to Gold.

“Fuck!” She hissed. She lifted the hand from her shoulder to see it dripping with blood. “Bastards! Stupid me. Our reflections in the windows gave us away!”

My pistol was already in hand as I peeked out from behind the dumpster. I didn’t have time to think of a reply to Gold’s discovery. I would have probably said something snarky but the prospect of being turned into swiss cheese made me focus.

I saw two thugs closing in and I didn’t hesitate to aim and fire. The newly minted laser sight helped given the distance, but aiming was still a challenge.

I fired once, then twice.

Six shots left and I had missed both.

One of those missed shots had managed to set fire to a bush. The flash of red light seemed to intimidate the two approaching guys into defensive action. One of them dropped their gun out of panic and the other dove to the ground.

I fired twice more and hit both.

They screamed as their clothes caught fire.

A quick look to the right showed everyone was mobilizing on our position, including Nemesis. Speaking of, the moment I caught sight of him, I saw him hurl something. I evaded death by a fraction of a second when I pulled my head back behind the dumpster. Nemesis’ spear zipped past me and impaled the wall.

I could hear my heartbeat in my ears and my eyes locked on the metal spear. I poked my head out again to find a good dozen guys crossing the street.

Then, the spear was pulled out of the wall by an invisible force and zipped back past me toward its owner.

What the hell?

“Magnetism… Polarity?” Gold grunted. “Crap. Not looking good here.”

“Not looking good? We’re totally fucked!” I hissed. “A plan would be good right about now!”

“I’m working on it,” Gold snapped angrily. “There’s not exactly much we can do here. We’re cornered.”

The peppering gunfire suddenly ceased and all I could see were the beams of light flashing down the alleyway. I held my position behind the dumpster, the laser pistol shaking in my hand as I waited for the inevitable to happen, but it never came. I could hear footsteps but they didn’t sound like they were getting closer. Instead, they stopped at the entrance of the alley.

“Come out and we won’t shoot you,” One of them shouted. It was probably Nemesis, judging by how the voice seemed synthetically modified. “There’s no way out.”

“Stall them, they won’t shoot you,” Gold murmured from my side. I stared at her like she had lost it and I was willing to bet I wasn’t far off the mark with how bloodied her shoulder was. “I need a little bit of time. Three minutes, tops. Then, wait for my signal.”

“Three minutes,” I said, peering out from behind the dumpster. They were all lined up like a firing squad with Nemesis standing at the front, casually twirling their spear. “What signal?”

“You won’t miss it.”

I wanted to protest, throw my hands up in the air and scream at the world about how unfair this situation was but the logical part of me had taken over and kicked me into survival mode. We were outnumbered and outgunned by a mile and if Gold had a plan that required three minutes to execute, I needed to give her those precious three minutes without argument.

Slowly, I raised my hands and stepped out.

I half expected to be dead after taking the first step but I was met with flashlights in my face.

“Nice gun,” Nemesis called out. “Drop it and kick it over here. Don’t want you shooting anymore of my guys.”

I swallowed before slowly complying. I needed to stretch out every single second I could. My laser pistol skidded across the surface of the ground and hit his armored boot. He reached down and picked it up, carefully examining it with a nod of approval.

“Definitely Mechatech. You must be the guy.”

“Did Mirage tell you about me?”

He tore his eyes away from the gun.

“You could say that. Some kid out to earn some cash in our territory. Goes by the name Upgrade,” he chuckled. “Didn’t mention you had managed to find someone to work with. Where is the girl?”

They didn’t know?

The one I had managed to hit must have been the one to hit Alice if they didn’t realize she was injured. They just assumed she had managed to escape without me. This could potentially work in my favor if they didn’t know she was next to me.

Time to employ some extreme measures.

“She ditched me.”

There was a chorus of laughter from the firing squad as Nemesis just shook his head. I could almost feel his pity for me.

“Can’t trust people like that to watch your back. In cities like this, independents are always out for themselves,” Nemesis lectured like he was speaking from experience. “Why not join the Brotherhood? My boys here wouldn’t abandon me if the going gets tough.”

“A gang of criminals and lowlifes, sure,” I snidely replied. “I’m sure someone like me would fit in perfectly after the shit I pulled tonight. Five of your guys inside are out cold and two more behind you are hurt.”

Nemesis spared a glance behind him at the two guys I had managed to tag with my shots. Their tops were burnt and they were groaning, clutching their scorched wounds.

While he did that, I risked a small little glance to my side. With my head covered by the helmet, my eyes wouldn’t draw any suspicion. Gold – who was now Orange – was digging around in her shoulder. I had looked just in time to see her remove the bullet.

Then she switched to Red and mouthed ‘two minutes’.

“Are you not even going to help them?” I asked. None of them moved to help their fallen comrades. I snorted. “Some brotherhood you guys are.”

Nemesis offered an indifferent shrug.

“They broke away from the plan and got overconfident after getting in a couple of good shots at you. Now, they’re paying the price. They’ll live and it’ll be a good lesson about how stupid it is to go at an evohuman like that.”

None of the other thugs reacted to his admission so they probably agreed with him. It was a brutal philosophy but I couldn’t deny it probably worked very well. The two guys I had shot would probably think twice before approaching a super again.

“Alright, let me guess. Am I going to get the recruitment speech now?” I asked, eyeing up the firing squad. The pieces of Alice’s plan were starting to come together in my head and I could tell it wasn’t going to be pretty. “I’m not going to join you guys. You tried that already and it didn’t exactly go well for Bonesmith or Banshee, did it?”

Nemesis growled.

“You got lucky, punk. Grim’s got plans for Bonesmith and you better believe you’ll be paying us back for what you did to Banshee.”

“In my defense, she drugged me, stole my money, and held a knife to my throat. A bullet to the leg feels like an even trade.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Nemesis sneered.

I grimaced at his tone. From the sounds of it, it seemed like he was actually quite fond of her.

“Are you expecting an apology? You’re going to be waiting for a while. She should have been more careful with who she was dealing with. She got cocky.”

A boisterous laugh sounded from Nemesis. “You’re a kid who got lucky, twice. That isn’t going to help you here. You got no way outta this. It’s either in a body bag, or with us. I’d make my choice real quick before I lose my patience.”

Alice still wasn’t ready, I needed more time. I needed to try a different approach.

“Are you sure? I’ve been underestimated twice and I’m two for two so far. I’m willing to bet I can make it three after tonight. You might think you have me trapped here but you couldn’t be more wrong.”

The firing squad stilled, their heads slowly turning and looking at each other. The uncomfortable and unnerved look on their faces was pronounced and I could easily make them out. Nemesis, however, didn’t look very concerned.

“Is that so?” Nemesis challenged. “Sounds like you're just itching to die.”

“Maybe I’m just trying to bait your guys into shooting me. I’m actually curious to see what will happen. This suit is rather new and I haven’t tested out all its functions,” I said, feeling like I was on a roll. “I’m actually willing to bet that’s why Mirage hasn’t shown up to gloat. He doesn’t want to get caught in the crossfire.”

That actually caused Nemesis to pause.

I waited with bated breath, seeing if my ploy would coax Mirage out of hiding. Maybe he’d walk out from behind Nemesis and start taunting me again, or maybe, he’d appear behind me out of the darkness and ruin Alice’s upcoming surprise. I waited for the pin to drop but it never came. Mirage was a no-show.

Regardless, bringing him up was crucial to my desperate gamble to buy more time.

Someone like Mirage didn’t exactly seem like a team player and the more I thought about it, the more it began to make a little bit of twisted sense. This place really was like a big ocean and even the scariest of predators took advantage of their own weakened brethren.

“Seems like he turned tail and ran.”

Nemesis grumbled.

“Mirage is a coward and never likes to show his face. I’m not surprised he ran away the moment he put in the call.”

Gold was wrong. Mirage wasn’t feeding them information at all. What was his game then?

“Actually, it seems to me like he wanted someone else to take the fall for his screw up.”

Come on, Alice. Any day now would be great…

Despite my egregiously bad position, I decided to do something insane.

I lowered my hands and took a step forward.

“He failed to mention what kind of Mechakinetic I am,” I took another step. I heard some clicks as the firing squad readied their guns. “He ran because he knew he couldn’t win and he’s set all of you up to take the fall.”

I was floored by the fact some of the gangsters actually took a step back. The only person who held their ground firmly was Nemesis, whose grip around his spear tightened significantly. It was so quiet I could actually hear the fabric around his knuckles stretch.

Nemesis stepped forward, leveling his weapon at my chest.

“You talk like you’ve already won.”

“Go ahead, shoot me,” I turned my head to the rest of the firing squad. “I dare you.”

The anticipation was so thick I could have sworn my heart was going to burst out of my chest. I was confident I could survive the first couple of shots. My armor was more than enough to resist mundane firearms but withstanding consistent fire was another question altogether. Places in my armor would probably weaken and one bullet might manage to break through. That was my guess.

Regardless, my gambit had won out. All the thugs suddenly looked too scared to pull the trigger.

“Bullets might not work on you,” Nemesis completely bought into my lie, sounding a tad more serious. “But I’d wager my spear could pierce whatever shield you’ve got. I’ve managed to cut through Nanoforge’s armor before. I doubt you have anything that could match.”

If his spear could cut through Nanoforge’s Mechatech, then my suit stood no chance.

“I dare you to try.”

Now, I was really rolling the metaphorical dice.

I hadn’t been counting but it had to be longer than three minutes.

Death loomed over me but I could see the hesitation flash behind Nemesis’ mask. His eyes narrowed as he heaved his spear up, holding like a javelin to throw up. I could have sworn my life flashed right before my eyes as he took a step forward to throw.

A shrill cry sounded from behind me.

“DUCK!”

I dropped to the ground as something big sailed over my head.

I looked up in time to see Nemesis and his firing squad get wiped out by the metal dumpster. Like tenpins, they were bowled over and sent rolling across the street.

Rushing to my feet, I locked onto the primary threat and rushed Nemesis.

He was still trying to gather his bearings when I dived on top of him, wrestling for control of his spear. I grabbed a hold of it right in time to hear some gunshots sound from my distant right. A stray bullet pinged off the side of my helmet and I almost lost my hold on his spear. Nemesis tried to take advantage of my momentary shock but I managed to keep a tight grip on the metal.

There were more gunshots but they seemed to be directed at Alice.

“Let go!” Nemesis snapped.

We rolled and wrestled for his spear. He wasn’t much bigger than me but he was definitely older. He didn’t feel much stronger than me either, which I was grateful for. If he had any sort of strength enhancement, this little bout would have ended very quickly with my neck snapped and various other limbs broken.

As we continued to struggle for dominance, I knew I wasn’t going to last much longer. His experience was eventually going to win out and he’d come out on top, so I made another desperate gamble.

I focused on the spear and let my power take hold.

I spent the last charge I had and transmuted the material. We both lost our grip on the spear as it turned into liquid. This, however, gave Nemesis the opening he needed to kick me away.

I coughed, winded as I tried to climb to my feet.

Nemesis was already up and running toward me. Before I could make it to my feet, he kicked me again, this time in the stomach. It was enough to incapacitate me for a few seconds.

“You piece of SHIT!” He growled. He turned and raised his hand out toward his weapon that had since reformed. I watched with bated breath, hoping my change hadn’t been for naught. The spear did not move. “What the hell?”

I managed to claw my way back to my feet in the midst of his confusion. He lashed out and tried to kick me again but I jumped out of the way.

“WHAT DID YOU DO!?”

I felt like laughing.

Magnetism. It was a simple solution.

I just made an alteration to a titanium variant.

Out of the corner of my eye, Alice – or Red – was making short work of the thugs that were shooting at her. It seemed not only was she very strong, but also bulletproof while as Red. Very handy. On the moral downside, some of the thugs didn’t appear to be in very good condition, with limbs twisted in the wrong direction.

Nemesis shook with a rage I could honestly say, I hadn’t seen in anyone before.

“You’re going to regret messing with my spear when I skewer you like a fucking pig!” He broke into a sprint toward his weapon.

I remembered my laser pistol – the one he had been holding before our surprise attack. My head turned toward where he had been standing and sure enough, there it was, lying on the ground just a couple of meters away from me. There was nothing for it. I put all my remaining strength into my legs and made a break for it.

I heard the scrape of metal behind me as Nemesis snatched up his spear and raced toward me.

I reached for the pistol, my hands latching onto it as I ducked into a roll. I spun and blindly emptied the magazine.

Nemesis was quick – surprisingly so with his heavy-looking costume – but he wasn’t quick enough. He was just beginning a thrust when my shots landed.

Two chest shots, one headshot, and a shoulder shot. His whole upper torso was set ablaze. He fell back with a scream, thrashing around on the ground wildly trying to put out the flames.

I straightened up, breathing so heavily that my visor was starting to fog up. There was a gust of wind and suddenly Pink was at my side holding the backpack I had abandoned back in the alley. The wound on her shoulder still looked fresh but it wasn’t bleeding any more.

Something to do with Red, I was willing to bet.

“ECU bozo’s are almost here. I can hear the sirens, we need to skedaddle!”

We raced to our car and by the time I made it there, Pink had already unlocked it and switched on the engine. Without a shred of hesitation, she slammed her foot on the accelerator and we raced off into the night.