EX0L8: Retribution (Book 2)

Chapter 4: Triple Attack

                “When did you start distancing yourself from your fellow people? You are human, no matter what tampering they did to you in that laboratory.” Miranda asks quietly.

                Sara looks at Miranda with a looks of disgust.

                “Talking as if you know me really pisses me off, you know. It isn’t just some neat abilities they strap on to you that you can just ignore. What they did is much worse than being a superhero in a comic or having chemical X ingested. You can’t escape the curse of being different, a freak.” Sara’s eyes light up with a glimmer of red, and her tone becomes unstable with suppressed violent anger.

                “What they do to you is part of what you become. As for me, I’m not human, not anymore. I don’t answer to anyone but myself. I am my own law.”

                She lifts her hands, pointing pistols at Miranda.

                “I’ve got no time to be playing with you little mice. I have one last business with what was once my home, and then I will leave, and this freak will never be seen again.”

Her eyes light up with insane desperation.

“Just the two of us…” She says in a choked, deranged voice. Her eyes almost seem to be tearing up from unseen distress.

Miranda eyes Sara’s firing fingers, waiting for the slightest twitch or movement to give away the moment of her attack.

Four shots ring out, two bullets knock Sara’s guns out of her hands, and another two target her feet, forcing her to jump away to a safe distance.

Her face contorts into a wild snarl. “Leave me alone!” She screams, and reaches into her pockets desperately. She pauses as she feels a unfamiliar object, and eyes an approaching Thomas and Miranda, while from behind, EX80A lands.

She slowly pulls up on the object, slowly lifting it out of her pocket.

Thomas sees the movement and raises his guns higher.

“Hands up, take whatever it is you have in your hands and drop it on the ground.” He says in a steely voice.

She lets out a wicked cackle, and says,

“Yes sir.”

And that is when she releases the pin from the grenade and throws it at the two agents, and jumps back, spinning and kicking EX80A in the face, knocking him to the ground. She lands both feet on his face, and leaps off, running down the road and away from the problem that an explosion would soon clean up.

Behind her, EX80A swats the grenade, just enough to prevent the explosion from seriously injuring the two agents.

As Miranda looks at him bewildered, Thomas gives him a nod of approval. As much as he hates relying on the humans, they have turned out to be useful allies, especially given his prey. EX80A flies up to EX0L8, his greatest rival, and smashes a fist into her head, knocking her against the side rail of the bridge, severely bending it from the force of her impact.

She gets up, dusting herself off. She quietly glares at him, until he sees her chest expand, and he gets a flicker of concern.

I don’t know what it is, but I’m getting the feeling I don’t want to be in earshot of this…

He runs back toward the agents, waving his arms in the general ‘look out!’ manner, just as she lets out a mind shattering screech of rage so loud and intense it cracks the metal braces holding up the bridge, causing it to sway dangerously. The audible attack cripples the two humans, while blood runs down EX80A’s ears, his eardrums shattered.

While her nemesis and the two pests lie helpless, Sara rushes off further down the road to home. As she runs, she gets the sensation that another presence is watching her, and not a benevolent one. Wouldn’t be the first time today either. She presses on, before she hears swift running behind her. She tries to outrun them, but the presence persists, refusing to relent.

She finally turns around, and sees The Director staring her down only a few feet away from her. Her eyes glare with animosity to him, even as he continues his approach.

“You can’t run from me. Come home with me, I promise I will treat you kindly. You are precious; I cannot afford to lose such a magnificent specimen such as you… no… such a prize as you should not be lost to the tragic irony of this world. Come with me, and I can give you more than Matthew ever could. I can give you peace.”

Sara has only one thing on her mind when she speaks: “I’ll pass.” As the storm draws closer, the Director’s face darkens.

“You don’t know what you’re doing…” He whispers, as the sprinkling, the first sputter of life to the approaching storm begins.