Caged.

16

Crimson grinned and Sabrina looked interested as she asked, "Can I see the wall of cuteness?" Crimson nodded as Larissa fan-girled over how much I looked like both herself and Kyle. Then, out of the blue, she squealed, "Oh my fluff, you should get your ears pierced!" And that is how we ended up at the jewelry shop, with me sitting in a chair and a trained professional sticking a needle through my ear. Once the lady at the shop had stabbed a tiny needle through my ears, she put a pair of tiny ball studs in. As Larissa drove us back to the house in her massive van, she told us about my adopted sisters Alex, Mari, Laura, Casey, Annabel, Isabel, and Allison. And, turns out, I also had two ten year old blood brothers, Joey and Ethan. Apparently, back when Kyle was a lawyer, he was quite famous and therefore made a lot of money. But he really hit it big time when some random celebrity got accused of murder and went to him. Kyle made millions when he won the case. As a result, instead of just using their money for random crap, they got a big house, adopted seven girls, and tried to make the world a little more fun.

Later, while Kyle and Larissa were out on a date, Alex saw me looking kinda nervous about telling my parents that I was a Bipower. She came over to me and said, "Don't be nervous. Those two are chill with basically anything. Hell, Allison told them she was lesbian and dating her best friend and they were just like, 'Cool. What's her name?' So don't worry." When my parents got back, I told them and the first thing Kyle did is hand Larissa twenty dollars and say, "You were right." Larissa took the twenty dollars and hugged me, squealing, "I knew it! Both of our powers were dominant traits and I knew you would be a Bipower!" Crimson stuck her head in and said to me, "Hey, Lila, I hate to break you away from your family, but we need to head back to base. Gallic gave us permission to come back tomorrow." I hugged Larissa and Kyle goodbye and Crimson, Sabrina, and I all headed out to Crimson's car. Much to Sabrina's dismay, Crimson shot down the road at about ninety miles per hour, taking sharp curves at insane speeds. And she didn't slow down on the main road. We roared into the parking garage and only then did Crimson slow down. She spun the car into a spot and slammed on the brakes. Sabrina fell out of the car onto her hands and knees and cried, "Are you psychotic? You could've gotten us killed!" Crimson waved it off and said, "I know what I'm doing. I was taught to drive by two police women." The three of us went in through the front of the building and, just like on my first day when we came in, we got strange looks. As we passed one lady, she stopped Crimson and asked, "What are you young ladies doing in this government building?" Crimson smiled and answered, "We work in a special division." The woman raised an eyebrow and asked, "What division would that be? You ladies don't look like you're part of the combat division." Crimson forced herself to be polite as she responded, "We are part of a subdivision of the combat division, known as the Broken Skies, focused on training men and women with special abilities. Now, if you don't mind, we need to get going. If we are late for training, Scythe will kill us." Crimson proceeded to lead us back towards the elevator and we all went in, setting off the metal detectors again, just like on the first day. Crimson pulled out her security pass and showed it to the men that had come running, saying, "Those two are with me. They'll get their security passes tomorrow." The lead man nodded and let us go up to our floor. On the way, Sabrina asked, "We have weapons training? It's like, 11:30." Crimson laughed and answered, "No, I just needed an excuse." When we got up to our room, we went in, only to find Blondie sitting in a desk chair with her back to us. Crimson pulled out her dagger and growled, "What are you doing in our room?" Blondie answered, "Put the dagger down, Crimson Curse." Crimson glared knives at the back of Blondie's head, saying, "Don't bother with the vocal hypnotism. It won't work on me." Blondie repeated, "Put the dagger down, Crimson Curse." Then she turned to face us. Her eyes were completely vacant, almost like she was dead, and her hands were holding something in front of her. Crimson swore loudly and shouted, "Cover your eyes. She's got a flash bomb!" Both Sabrina and I quickly covered our eyes just as there was a loud bang and the smell of smoke. Then the smoke alarm went off, almost deafening us. Crimson was coughing and I uncovered my eyes in time to see Blondie coming at us with a a pair of knives in her hands. Just as she lunged at Crimson, Sabrina tackled her, knocking Blondie onto her side. Blondie seemed to snap out of her trance and wriggled out from under Sabrina, who had hit her head on the floor and was unconscious. Then she asked, "What the hell? What's up with all the smoke? And why am I on the floor? Why am I in your room? I was going to get coffee and- that WITCH! She hypnotized me!" Crimson opened the window, asking, "What witch?" Blondie answered, "Lady whatever her name was. She came up to me and hypnotized me!" Crimson's breath hissed through her teeth and she growled, "Lady Annika Von Kali." Then she proceeded to use every profanity in her vocabulary, plus a few that I think she made up.