The sound of the lead striking Trip's head shook another memory loose in Zane's brain. It was odd how such a horrifying event could spark such a happy memory deep inside his brain. He found himself chuckling slightly.
He was eight, in his family's basement, and his father was readjusting a pipe in the wall, a steel panel removed so he could reach the plumbing. His left arm was covered in grease up to the elbow and he was pounding against the pipe with the head of a hammer, oddly the same sound the lead pipe had made when it hit Trip's head. His father was grunting with the effort of trying to force the tube back in place.
Zane was standing behind him, shifting his weight from foot to foot. He watched his father with apprehension as he often had. Present Zane saw his younger self curl and uncurl his fingers into fists and breathe heavily, wanting to impress his father but not knowing how.
He watched himself open and close his mouth continuously, searching for words. "Do you need help?" his younger self finally asked, his small body shaking slightly.
His father paused, the hammer raised. He turned around, and the faint stubble on his chin crinkled. His green eyes, the same color as Zane's, flashed. Zane's small body relaxed when he saw the playful look in his father's eyes. His dark hair was disrupted on his head, making him look rebellious.
His father smiled at him.
And Zane was jolted back to reality, to Trip collapsing to the floor, blood trickling down the side of his face, from his ear. The assailant seemed to think Trip was not their target and discarded the pipe down a long hallway piled with rolled-up maps and documents. They obviously didn't know Zane and his friends were in the elevator.
Trip groaned from the floor and the elevator dinged, its doors beginning to close. Needing no permission or assurance from one or the other, they all leapt out of the elevator, narrowly avoiding the metal doors as they seemed to close with a vengeance.
The small man from the car was standing next to Trip's form. His eyes widened when he saw them. He opened his mouth to speak, but Mallory's arm stretched out twice its normal length and clapped a palm over his mouth. "Talk and you're dead," she hissed, and Zane had no doubt she would follow through with her threat. The man nodded meekly, not bothering to try and remove the hand from his mouth.
Joseph moved Trip's figure back so it was leaned against the elevator door, out of harm's way. The young man groaned unconsciously but could not say anything. The small man's eyes were wide and terrified. Mallory appeared grimly violent and on a mission. Zane made a few subtle gestures and they each set off down a separate aisle of maps and files, searching for the yellow-clothed girl they had seen with the man.
Zane's eyes followed titles of the folders and maps as he passed, and many of them were simply marked London along with a year or even a specific date or time period. Others were identified as world maps or statistical maps, and Zane could see why London was one of the greatest cities in the world. They had records of everything, including, Zane saw, reports of militarism and growth in other countries and cities. They could monitor everything from FEPE, which claimed only to be an embassy to protect the environment. Just like with Wawrzynski, not everything was as it seemed.
Zane saw files on New Vancouver's participation in a self-sufficient, enclosed civilization experiment. No documents followed the initial volunteering of New Vancouver, and Zane knew this was because they had cut themselves off, partly for Wawrzynski's genetics experiments, partly to prove they were completely self-sufficient and needed no assistance to preserve their population.
He saw a document titled Forthrite, and raised an eyebrow. It was filed with the New Vancouver documents.
Just then, a screech echoed from several aisles down, distinctly Anastasia.
Zane, without thinking, dissolved his body and sent his cells through gaps in the shelves, taking the fast way to her. He barely noticed the surge in his senses because he was focused only on depositing himself where he'd heard the screams. He knew it was the girl, and he knew he was about to find out just how dangerous she was.
When he reformed, Daisy was already there, struggling to move her sister, whose legs were most assuredly broken. Anastasia sobbed in pain and fear as her legs bent at awkward angles and began to swell. Without thinking, Zane knew he had to save her. He directed his power toward her legs, dissolving them into small particles. He began to sweat, his power depleting.
He didn't look for the thin girl. He was intent entirely on saving Anastasia. She watched miraculously as both her legs disappeared and reappeared, uninjured. She gasped.
Anastasia stood shakily after Zane reformed her injured legs. He turned to see the small girl in front of him, her thin frame looking like it could easily be blown over by a stray breeze. How she managed to harm Anastasia so badly, Zane knew he was about to find out.
She smiled and it was the most unnerving thing Zane had ever seen. Her eyes were a startling green, almost the same color as Zane's. She cocked her head to the side and walked forward slowly, nearing Zane and the twins. Zane, beads of sweat rolling down his forehead, didn't know if he could face off against this girl when she had already broken several bones in the past minute.
Luckily, he didn't have to. Jonas careened around the corner, his arms outstretched. The glass windows all around shocked them with sunshine, and the girl was standing in front of a paned glass door and it reflected her bright shirt with startling brilliance.
A steel panel from the floor ripped itself up and flew at the girl from behind. Jonas slid forward, the immense magnetic force tugging him as well as the steel. Zane yelled a warning. "Jonas, no! We don't know what she can do!"
The steel panel collided with the girl and bounced off harmlessly.
She strode forward. Jonas was level with Zane and struggling to slow his momentum.
He wasn't fast enough.
She grabbed him by the shirt collar and, despite her skinny arms, raised him up high, snarling furiously. "You're a failed experiment," she spat, her voice strangefully light. She spun around, throwing Jonas in the process. He yelled as he sailed through the air, his body tumbling. He collided with the glass door and it shattered, spilling shards across the floor. He grunted in pain and fell to the ground, cuts springing up all over his body and leaking drops of blood. Zane winced.
The girl punched at Zane, and he managed to prevent it. He dissolved his midsection the moment she punched at him, so her fist went straight through him without hurting him. He gasped at the mental strain it took, the immense concentration and focus that was required to use this power. She smiled again.
Daisy yelled in defiance and struck a bookshelf from the other side, and it toppled. Zane disintegrated fully, hoping Anastasia had gotten clear.
The rush of senses he felt when the shelf hit the floor was almost too much. His cells scattered from the rush of noise and sight. The shelf clattered to the floor, spilling maps and folders across the steel panels and producing a deafening crash. The girl screamed back at Daisy and remained standing, shoving the shelf off of her, unharmed.
Daisy ran out of the way as a skinny fist was thrown in her direction. "She's really strong!" Daisy yelled, as if it wasn't already obvious, seeing as the girl had literally thrown Jonas into a wall. The blue-haired girl lifted off the ground with practiced ease and flattened herself against the roof, where the skinny girl could not get at her.
Zane reformed quickly, the onset of senses quieting. He fell to the ground in exhaustion. He may be powerful, but his abilities were exhaustive: they didn't last forever. He gasped for breath as the small girl struggled to reach Daisy.
An iron fist slammed the girl from behind, finally coercing a response from her. She grunted in pain and whirled around faster than Zane could blink. The owner of the iron fist was prepared. Joseph ducked sideways and her punch flew through the air beside him. He swept out with a leg, taking her out at the knees.
The girl fell.
Zane took stock of the situation. Anastasia was no longer injured but could do nothing. She couldn't locate lava inside a skyscraper. Perhaps that was an intended consequence. Same with the aisles being far too skinny for both Daisy's flight capabilities and Mallory's rubber limbs. As well, it was too small for Marcus to even use his horse form.
Wawrzynski had set this encounter up perfectly. Only Zane and Joseph's powers would be useful, for there was minimal metal for Jonas. Wawrzynski had also known Zane would focus on saving the others, so the girl probably had instructions to harm the others, the ones without defenses. He had known that, in the end, it would only be the girl against Joseph because he knew Zane would not let anyone die if he could help it.
But Wawrzynski's one overlooked factor was that Joseph was much broader and bulkier than the girl, and, in steel form, almost just as strong and agile. The girl hadn't considered this as well as she groaned with another impact of Joseph's iron fist to her sternum.
Daisy was still plastered to the roof, breathing heavily. Jonas and Trip were unconscious on opposite sides of the room. The others didn't want to get involved. They had no power to match this girl's.
Zane agonized over helping Joseph fight this lady hulk or see if Jonas or Trip was okay. Trip was groaning, but Jonas was completely still. Watching the skinny boy lay in silence, Zane felt agitated and his foot began to tap as Joseph and the girl continued to throw fists. He glanced frantically between his two options, and he knew exactly what Wawrzynski would anticipate he'd choose.
Zane needed to go against the grain. He had to prove he wasn't who Wawrzynski thought he was. The problem was, he was exactly who Wawrzynski thought he was. He was a lover, not a fighter. However lethal and dangerous he was, he felt the constant need to gratify others and help them no matter their problem. He wanted to help Joseph forget New Vancouver and live a great life. He wanted to help Marlene, hence why he'd done her dishes that morning. He wanted to help Jonas rebel against his foster father.
Wawrzynski thought Zane would go to help Jonas or Trip.
Zane proved him wrong.
Jonas's figure taunted and haunted him as he turned back to Joseph and the girl. Joseph was frozen in steel form, his metal hair stuck up in a wave as if he'd been running when he transformed. His jeans crinkled at his knees, frozen in time. His shirt was bunched up over his stomach. He threw a steel-fisted punch for the girl's chest but she ducked away at the last moment.
Zane saw why Wawrzynski had chosen this girl to be injected with a strength serum. The fact that she was by nature a skinny person helped her greatly. She retained her agility and speed whilst being extremely strong. It was a tactical move by Wawrzynski to create a weapon equal to Joseph. Zane was scared of what Wawrzynski would inject some kid with to try and make them an equal to Zane's terrifying power.
Zane concentrated, reaching far into the depths of his abilities. He was mentally and physically exhausted, but he couldn't let Wawrzynski win. Even hundreds of miles away, the guy managed to make Zane's life a living hell. He took a deep breath, filling his lungs. The relatively fresh air seemed to calm his mind and the noises faded into moderate silence. He released the breath and also released his arms from his body, detaching them into clouds of cells that replicated and spread out.
The girl's jaw dropped and the viciousness of her punches increased, desperately trying to incapacitate Joseph so she could deal with Zane. Wawrzynski had obviously told her to expect no trouble from Zane because she was already backing away and lashing out blindly at Joseph, who easily dodged her strikes.
Zane, his arms completely gone, stepped forward, his balance slightly uprooted by the absence of some very useful appendages. His face was grim, his emotions battling for dominance inside his brain, but the one that won out was the brave fear, the absolute contradictory feeling that felt right. He was scared of facing off against this girl, but he knew he had to. He could afford to sacrifice nothing. He wanted to help his friends.
Joseph backed away, giving Zane control of the situation.
He took it.
His cells flooded forward and down and the girl rushed backward quickly, but not fast enough. His particles reformed into Joseph's steel and locked her feet to the ground. The metal made of Zane crawled up her until it reached her knee. She was completely immobile in regards to her legs. She could only wiggle her hips.
It was Zane's turn to smile.
The girl, breathing very heavily, struggled to pull her feet free, but not even her great strength could disrupt the bond between Zane's cells and the metal floor. She gasped as her knee popped. "Don't do this," she pleaded. "I'm only following orders."
"You looked pretty happy to be following his orders," Zane told her. Then, to Joseph, he said, "Get her hands." The boy, still steel, creeped behind her and twisted her arms behind her back, allowing Zane to form some extra cells into a pair of thick, metal handcuffs.
The girl, previously fearsome, began to sob. "I don't want to be here!" she said. "He threatened my family if I didn't cooperate. I didn't know he'd inject me and send me off to kill people!"
Zane smiled. "Well, if you're so against his methods, it should be easy for you to answer some questions we have," He thought he probably looked quite harmless without his arms. He chuckled inwardly.
"He didn't tell me much, but I'll give you everything I know," she pleaded. "I don't want to kill anybody." Her head fell forward.
Zane moved forward.
She threw her head upward, clacking his jaw together and making him stagger back, windmilling arms that were no longer there to retain his balance. He fell down hard, his head colliding painfully with the floor. It jarred his brain and he groaned. Joseph yelled something, but the girl was smiling viciously.
"Watch your back," she spat, and crunched something between her teeth.
Foam bubbled out of her mouth. Poison. She had been willing to poison herself for Wawrzynski's cause. Whatever he had told her, it was enough to coerce her into sacrificing her own life. Her head slumped forward and Zane pulled his cells back to him, toppling her body onto the floor, where it convulsed once.
"Well, that was fun," Daisy said, floating down from the ceiling. She turned to the small man. "If she won't give us answers, he will."