You Better Bring an Umbrella, Vol. 2

Chapter 36: Brand New

"Mina!" he snapped, bringing me back to reality.

Realizing I didn't have much time, I started to move in careful circles, taking care not to misstep and fall on my ass. Every part of me burned, overwhelmed with an intense fire as I noticed the glow of electricity intensifying out of my peripheral vision. I wasn't exactly sure what qualified as 'ready', given I'd only done this once before, and it was on accident, but at some random point, I made the decision to stop. Taking only a split second to catch myself, I took a leap into the air and slammed myself back down onto the cold, muddy ground. As the wet grass beneath me splattered and squelched between my fingers, a large wave of electricity shot out in front of me, causing a good quarter of the group to cry out and fry before collapsing to the ground.

I didn't have time to celebrate my victory, however, because the bullets just kept coming, forcing me to duck right back down behind the tractor as Diego threw the suspended projectiles to his right, causing a generator to explode. I flinched and stared at the fire until Diego ducked down beside me, unsure of how to react to what had just happened. Immediately, I flashed him a big, cheesy grin.

"Since when have you been able to do that?" I laughed, somehow jovial despite the circumstances.

"I took a wild guess," he admitted, throwing his hands over his head as the next wave of bullets came right at us. "What about you? I didn't know you could make shockwaves."

"I did it once, when we were seventeen," I informed him. "It was on accident that time, and I totally forgot about it until recently. I didn't know how to do it, so you could say I took a wild guess." Through the panic and fear, he flashed me a smile as I tossed his words back at him.

I turned myself around for a moment, peering over the edge of the massive tire. I wasn't entirely sure what I expected to see, but it sure as hell wasn't any better than the scene we'd started with. In the moment, I'd thought I'd done a pretty substantial amount of damage, but looking at the group now completely squashed that thought. My brothers and sisters and I wouldn't be able to do anything about this, especially because most of us couldn't do any damage from where we sat; Vanya was likely still wrapped up with Harlan, meaning we were shit out of luck at the moment—a fact only further cemented when a surge of energy boomed from the barn, followed by the sounds of woods and boards crashing. No doubt that knocked her down for a while.

"What do we do know?" I shouted over the endless sputtering of bullets released from their weapons, trying to think of anything myself.

"I can try and direct some of those bullets back at them, but I'll need a couple minutes." Only now did I notice Diego's tanned skin had taken on a slightly more pallid appearance. That really must have wiped him out.

A sudden wave of dizziness came over me—a delayed reaction to that shockwave. It had been a long while since any use of my abilities had worn me out, but I supposed that was the consequence of something so big; that probably would have wiped out Luther if he tried to use it.

"We're running out of options," I observed, though that wasn't really necessary. Even the densest among us could have figured that out. "Someone's got to do something and fast, because some of us can't go out there without getting shot!"

Right as the words left my mouth, I heard a high-pitched tone resonating from the barn. What had previously been a source of unease now filled me with overwhelming determination. The best solution was being handed right to us, so long as Vanya could work up enough energy.

My jaw dropped slightly when Vanya floated out of the goddamn barn like some sort of ethereal balloon, draped in an aura of sound energy. The tone she played only grew louder as she stared down the army, which somehow had failed to notice her yet. Light flooded straight into the orb resting against her chest, causing it to grow in a matter of milliseconds. I'd been so caught up in the awe of it all that I completely neglected to process the fact she was about to blow, until Diego grabbed onto me and pulled on my shoulders, forcing me to duck down.

The impact of the energy wave she sent out went completely over our heads, but it did no less to completely jar me. I jumped as the 'boom' she sent out echoed in my headspace, bouncing off all the corners of my skull, but she didn't do any more damage to the rest of us. Instead, everything was concentrated on the mob of Commission field agents, who were sent tumbling and crashing together in the air, before landing definitively on the grass, unmoving; no chests moved with desperate breaths, no fingers unconsciously twitched. They weren't an issue anymore.

The damage done, Diego and I cautiously peered out from behind our hiding spot, noticing only the dead bodies at first and thus, deeming it safe to come out. We reveled in our triumph for just a moment, until our eyes dared to wander past the fall line, and we caught a blue glow eerily similar to that still emanating from our sister. Curiously, it enshrouded Lila and her mother, completely protecting them from Vanya's wrath. Admittedly, somewhere buried deep down, there was a part of me that was relieved Lila hadn't been hurt, but the horror of the scene in front of us completely overtook any of that. Nothing like this had ever come up in our late-night conversations, but then again, what did I expect? The life she'd presented to me had been a lie, what's one more?

Before I had time to question anything, Lila completely mimicked Vanya's prior actions, right down to the whole show of rising in the air. I felt frozen in my spot, caught off-guard and unsure of what to do, and it wasn't until Diego shoved me away that I managed to bring my mind back to me. Lila fired of her own energy, sending the tractor and other transport systems into the air, as well as the rest of us. Luther managed to get launched all the way through Sissy's roof, while the rest of us were simply sent right onto the ground. Thankfully, Klaus managed to summon two ghosts to catch him before he made impact, while I was just forced to take it.

The intense pain surging through my chest paled in comparison to the terror that washed over me when I looked up. Lila had lowered herself back onto the ground, her eyes scanning over the rest of my downed siblings before she turned to me, specifically. Her smirk made something within me turn to ice, wary of what she'd do next.

The tables had turned, and I wasn't so sure I liked the direction they now faced.