Chapter Twenty-Two
The next morning, I roll out of bed quite early. I have a lot of little things I want to do today, and I would rather not be bothered by a million people. Walking into the gym, I am thankful when it's empty. I go through a long leg day work out and do some heavy cardio before going upstairs, showering, and heading out to the archery range. I get an hour of free, range time because it's my birthday.
Walking over to my usual stall, I set up and become lost in the slow rhythm of shooting the arrows. I focus and start hitting the target in the center and I feel pride for once. Benjamin would be ecstatic that I stuck with archery after all this time, he could never get either of his boys to ever show any interest in it.
Walking back outside, the air is crisp and my nose tingles. I sink my face deeper into my scarf and start walking towards the grocery store. I glance around enamored at the frost still covering parts of the city. I've always loved winter the most, the world is always just a little calmer and the cold and snow make everything more beautiful.
Grabbing my order from the store, I continue on my long walk home and I relish in the peace of the walk. I have some soft music playing from my headphones and the sidewalks aren't quite as crowded as normal. Arriving back at Caspian, I feel my phone blowing up and I don't pick it up. When I step off the elevator, I see flour all over the counter and some in Click's hair.
"Happy Birthday!!" She screams excitedly, I drop my things on the couch, and she washes her hands before darting over to give me a massive hug. I laugh at her excitement and she hugs me tighter.
"Thank you, now how can I help?" I ask her.
"All the ingredients for the cake and dough are sorted and measured. Can you work on the dough?" She asks and I nod.
Walking over, I plug my phone into the speaker and start playing some of our favorite albums. Grabbing the ingredients for the dough I mix and follow the recipe I have memorized from my grandfather off of my dad's side. Click puts the cake batter in the oven before emptying the bag I brought home. We smoothly dance around each other in the kitchen and sing along to the music.
Working the dough over, I relish in the simplicity and calm of this moment as the music washes over as we just do the thing that really brought us together, cooking. I could always cook but Click is a phenomenal cook and has taught me so much and so many of the recipes her and her father made up over the years.
"Hadley, you have a few missed calls," Click says as we start cleaning up the flour everywhere.
"From who?"
"When I say everyone, I mean it," she says before checking her phone and I see a few missed calls on her phone.
"Cabe, Orion, Faith, Lyle, and Alexander have also called me," she says and we both laugh. We aren't really used to anyone but one another trying to call us.
"I got it," I say, and I call Alexander back first. It rings a few times before he picks up.
"Good morning," he says smoothly, and I grin.
"Morning Alexander, what do I owe the early morning phone call?" I ask amused.
"Well today just happens to be the day you were born, and I wanted to grace you with the overdue birthday wishes," he says, and I laugh at his phrasing.
"Oh, dearest me, I do see that the date is the day I was brought into existence. Please feel free to stop by for customary pizza for dinner," I muse, and I hear Click giggling from the other room and how silly I sound.
"Seriously?" He asks, breaking character.
"Click and I made a double batch of my grandfather's homemade pizza," I say and something inside me almost feels giddy.
"You know the recipe? Your dad lost the recipe card and Cathleen hasn't been able to recreate it!" Alexander says and that surprises me. My dad was always the organized one out of my parents, it's a part of the job of being a financial advisor.
"I do know the recipe, down to the ingredients in the sauce. If you want to bring Cathleen and Aviva too... I can give her the recipe," I say, and Click pops her head around the corner and she looks pleasantly surprised. She gives me a big smirk before hoping in the shower. I may have flicked extra flour at her at some point and it all ended up in her hair.
"We'll be there," he says excitedly before hanging up.
I get to work crushing all of the tomatoes and writing down the recipe as I go. Staring at all the spices on the counter, I try to remember the exact measurements, I guess as I go, and everything turns out correct. I put estimates down on the index card, before writing the dough recipe down perfectly, that sauce's measurement's are flexible, but the ones for the dough are not. Popping the cheese out of the freezer, I slice it up now that it isn't so slippery and rubbery.
"Hadley, are you feeling okay? You just willing invited your family and ex-boyfriend over to our apartment to celebrate your birthday," Click says with a twinkle in her eye.
"I am perfectly fine Click, I am trying to be more civil with them it's my new year's resolution," I say as I flatten the dough out.
"There is a difference between being civil and wanting to be close with them again," Click points out and I just ignore her remark and start placing pizzas in the oven.
"I invited Faith, Orion, and Cabe up too," she follows up while starting to decorate the cake.
"That's fine, this should be enough food for all of us," I say, and I put the music back on and hum along, occasionally singing. Click dances around the kitchen grabbing things to decorate. When I turn around, the cake is fairly well frosted but the piping on top is borderline illegible. She bursts into laughter at my expression and I join her and pull the first pizza out and drop it onto a large plate before putting the next one in.
I don't even notice the elevator dinging and the doors opening to release a herd of people into our apartment until someone else starts singing with me. Faith walks over and gives me a big grin and opens the oven for me as I flip another set of pizzas. Calling to my phone, I order it to pause the music and grab something to cut the pizza. Cutting it with ease, I grab the first slice before everyone starts digging in.
"You nailed the recipe," Cathleen says excitedly, and I search around for the index cards I was writing on. Finding them, I fling the cheese off of them and hand them to her and her whole face lights up.
"You know it well enough to write it down?" She asks and takes them excitedly.
"You are going to have to figure out the exact measurements in the sauce, but those are the approximates. I don't measure it, I usually just throw it in," I say, and she just smiles and sends photos of the cards to our dad happily. I am thankful when I don't see any gift bags or presents in hand.
"Oh, we didn't come empty-handed,' Alexander says, and he hands me a gift card.
"Twenty-five hours at my favorite archery range," I read, and Click bounces excitedly.
"Thank you, this means a lot," I say to everyone in the room and they all grin at me before I turn and put another pizza in the oven.
They spend over an hour in our apartment, eating and chatting. It's a nice feeling to have family over, but something is still off. I can sense the faint tension between Cathleen and Aviva. I also take notice of how much attention Cabe seems to be giving to Click and how enthusiastic she is to talk to him. His energy levels also seem to be slightly off, but I know he just started his new job, so I quickly dismiss it.
Our delight is cut short very quickly as all of our watches ping. Looking down confused, I read the alert and my stomach drops into my feet at the words mass bombing in Times Square.
"Mavericks, move!" I order and I rip my sweatshirt off to reveal the top of my suit. My mask drops onto the counter as we all scramble to move. Orion grabs Click and Cabe, and Cathleen grabs Alexander and me. When we land in the middle of the chaos, none of us could have prepared ourselves for the scene in front of us. The chaos is crazy, people are getting trampled.
"Alpha, search for more bombs. Breach start taking people to the hospital. Invi, Feedback, start channeling people and helping to clear the area," I order easily, and nobody bats an eye before taking off.
"What can I do?" Click asks
"Fly with me, we need to check the structural integrity and watch for falling debris," I say, and we take off.
Click stays right by my side and we stop massive chunks of building targeted from smashing into the ground and onto injured people. Metallica shows up and takes Click under her wing to start bending metal. As I zip across the square to go start transporting people, there is a second explosion that sends me flying through the air. Smashing into one of the many flashing signs, I scream as I am electrocuted repeatedly. Forcing myself out of the hole in the sign, I feel it shift.
Looking at the enormous screen I just crawled out of, my stomach drops as there is a massive and undeniable groan. If that sign hits the ground, who knows what will happen considering it weighs thousands of pounds and covers a quarter of the block. Activating my boots, adrenaline pumps through me as I try to mentally prepare myself from keeping this from falling on the injured people below me.
"Influx, that will cause another fire and possibly another explosion if it falls," Alexander's voice drifts through my headset and there is another massive groan.
"This is going to hurt," I grumble and we both move towards the leaning screen. Pressing our backs against it, I can feel Macie trying to hold it upright, but the structure of the whole building collapses and the sign gives way.
"Alpha now!" Alexander screams as we take the full weight of the sign and slowly move it towards the ground. Orion and Cathleen clear out the few remaining people as we come within a few feet of the ground. It slips from all our grasps and hits the ground hard. Something smashes into me and we tumble through the air as the sign falls forward. Trying to control my breathing, I am dizzy. Landing gently, Times Square is now a ghost town and full of nothing but smoke and debris. Looking at all of the scattered bags and burnt clothing thrown to the ground, my stomach churns violently.
"Can you cauterize a wound Influx?" Someone asks and I look around disoriented. My head is spinning and every muscle in my body aches.
"Yes, where too?" I ask trying to catch my breath.
I end up creating enough heat to cauterize quite a few people who are bleeding out onto the pavement. As I continue to patrol around, I see hundreds of firefighters starting to pour into the area, but I am stopped in my tracks. Bending down slowly, I pick up what is left of a burnt stuffed animal. The little blue bunny is tattered and charred around its ears. My heart aches with fear not knowing what happened to the child who was holding it.
"Influx, can you start powering down some of the signs?" Someone asks and I draw the energy and watch my heart rate carefully. Slowly the lights dim, and the area falls silent as we continue to work. The Federal Bureau of Investigation pulls up and more people flood the area. This is unheard of, there are so many police officers staffed here. How did they miss something like this? What could have we been doing to prevent this from happening?
"Influx, can you cover my six for a few moments?" Cathleen asks and I follow her a few feet away watching our surroundings. She bends down to examine a similar stuffed animal to the one I was looking at earlier, but then I feel a tingle of electricity.
"NO!" I shriek and I charge and tackle her a few back as an explosion goes off right at my heels. Flames lick my back and we smash into the ground hard. My hand cracks as I protect her head and the pain is instant. Trying to figure out what is happening, there is another explosion and I hear the panic as I keep my death grip wrapped around Cathleen.
"I need to get out of here," she says, and her breathing is ragged. She doesn't have a mask on to help with the smoke inhalation and I don't protest as she disappears from under me.
"Alpha, I thought I told you to look for bombs!" I scream as I dart through the flames and help people off the ground, we all retreat to the side streets where buildings threaten to crumble.
"They put the bombs in stuffed animals," she says, and I hear the anger and frustration in her voice, we all missed it. They put the most lethal thing of all, in children's toys so we wouldn't notice.
"Invi, get to the hospital and start checking all of the toys. Breach, go with her!" I order as the flames grow larger, what is feeding these fires?
"On it!" I hear both of them yell and I try to figure out what the hell to do.
"I don't understand what is fueling the fire. The material of whatever it was housed in should be gone by now," an injured firefighter says.
"Wait, where is Alpha?" Alexander asks and I see her lying on the ground.
"Shit," I curse before darting through the fire. The flames are starting to die back but I can feel the suit singing my skin. Grabbing her with both hands, the pain is instant, and I see stars. She opens her eyes and starts coughing violently, getting her on my back, I turn on my watch and we shoot upwards and to the side before landing by Cabe.
"I need a doctor," she says, and she starts coughing and rips her mask off to vomit. I watch as water starts pouring into the area, the flames diminish quickly, and I drop to one knee with my head spinning.
"This is Omni requesting immediate feedback from Circa City, Aegis we are in trouble," I hear Cabe say and I see him holding onto something around his neck. I feel as if I blink and there are six people in front of us. There is another explosion and all of our ears ring.
"Someone get Alpha back to the tower," I say as I push myself to my feet. One of the boys who I think is the healer grabs her and they take off.
"Aegis, Invi reported three bombs found at the hospital, can you handle that?" I ask and she grabs one of the men and disappears.
"What can we do?" Spade asks me and I blink.
"Assist the safety professional in whatever way they need," I say, and they salute and disappear. There is a fourth smaller explosion and my annoyance grows.
"Influx, what are you doing?" Feedback yells at me as I dart back into the flames.
The fire doesn't scare me as I go into a total state of calm. Feeling for the unique electrical signal that seems to be coming from the bombs, I short them all out before the lack of oxygen starts to get to me when a hand appears in my vision. Grabbing Click's hand, she easily hauls me into the air. Turning on my own boots I try to hover, but my body is burnt out. I have no energy left and I can't even muster enough strength to hold myself up. Grabbing the board, I haven't used in forever, I click my boots into it and hover behind all of the firetrucks and slowly everything goes quiet.
Smoke fills the air like smog, and I wish Aviva was here to try and clear the air for us. I stand back and let the firefighters and bomb squad start doing their job, but I am dead on my feet. I land hard and just stand there and observe and answer questions. The voices in the earpiece tell me that the bombs found at the hospital have been disarmed and that Faith is there singing to the kids and helping mellow everyone out.
"Status check on Alpha," I ask as we all slowly leave ghost town that is one of the most populated areas in the city.
"She's alive, she was suffering from major smoke inhalation, but I helped clear her lungs. I will keep an eye on her," Antibody says; it takes me a few moments to figure that out.
"Are you okay, Influx?" Click asks me, the world is spinning.
"Feedback, help," I say, and I drop quickly. I overdid it, I am injured, and my adrenaline has worn off. Two strong arms grab me, and I am pulled tightly to his chest before my eyes fall shut, everything falling black.
Dun dun dunnnnn. Drama!!
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XX Cc