It was a little hard for Zac to believe that he was standing next to Mikayla in a Chinese body about to casually enter a military bunker to stop a terrorist attack and save the President.
I mean ... it's Mikayla.
Zac glanced at her hesitantly as they made the march toward the bunker door.
"What?" she hissed. "Stop looking at me like that."
"Do you speak Chinese?"
"Do I look like I speak Chinese?"
"I always thought you were part Asian."
"I'm Italian," she growled.
Zac rolled his eyes. "Let's just get this over with. You take out the Fearne clone and I'll handle the rest."
Mikayla didn't look like she trusted his plan-making skills, but it was too late to take it back.
A large part of Zac felt absolutely no fear at the thought of a murderous clan of Chinese and Korean assassins/soldiers waiting in the room ahead. While someone else would normally see the absurdity of what they were doing and otherwise run screaming for the hills, Zac couldn't contain his excitement.
When they came to the bunker door, they saw that their only way in was to crack the coded keypad filled with numbers and complicated algorithms that made Zac's head swirl. He really wasn't technical. At all.
"We didn't think this through," Mikayla muttered.
Suddenly, there was a whisper in Zac's ear and he jumped around to see the empty corridor behind him.
"Who's there?"
"It's me, dumbass," said Marcus's voice. He started tapping on the screen to force the door open. After a long moment, they started to grate apart.
Zac and Mikayla marched into the bunker. It was exactly as it seemed from the cameras, only smaller. There was a bank of computers against the far wall, something you'd imagine in an old-school call center. The equipment looked ancient. This was definitely not the President's first choice as a back-up safe house.
There were, in total, eleven Chinese soldiers – or Korean, he couldn't tell – including General Chang and his advisor. To their left were the hostages: three men in suits, a woman and the President himself. They were all sitting against the wall with their hands tied. Zac resisted the urge to salute him.
The General and all his men turned to the two of them looking confused, suspicious and ready to murder all at once. The bunker doors grinded shut behind them. Zac saw Korean-Mikayla put her hands behind her back and creep toward the creepy-looking girl in the white dress who stood beside the hostages. The General was on the lower level of the room at the head of the communications desk where he presumed the nerdy hacking was taking place. If it hadn't already. That was where Marcus, Koko and Imogen would be heading so that Marcus could stop the viral terrorist attack.
The General barked something in Chinese and the tension in the air was so thick, Zac felt breathless. But then he remembered what he'd always learnt whenever he became somebody else – if he didn't embrace his character and give it everything he had, they would never believe him. Confidence convinces people. It wasn't just about acting the person, it was about being the person.
Zac straightened his coat compulsively and – without speaking a single word – he strolled away from the bunker doors and down the steps to the power dashboard.
The soldiers raised their guns and pointed them at him.
Shit, thought Zac as he froze on the spot. They've got me.
Again, the General shouted at him, and this time it felt like something final. Clearly he trusted Hu enough not to shoot him straight away, which gave Zac some time to distract them.
Problem was, he only knew one form of distraction aside from his ability to change form. If it didn't work, at least he had the opportunity to test it out before he died. He cleared his throat, took a deep breath and started to sing.
"Imagine there's no country ... it isn't hard to do. Nothing to kill or die for, and no religion too." Holding their attention – very tentatively – Zac started to sway and click at the same time. "Imagine all the people ... living life in peace–" Zac took a deep breath and steeled himself for the high note of the chorus when the General snapped a sharp word and silenced him.
Then the young girl in the white dress spoke aloud and he knew it was over.
"He's one of them," she said. Her tone of voice was exactly like Fearne's; dreamy and breathless. "The song is a distraction."
"And a damn good one!" Zac yelled.
The General gave him a terrifying smile and raised his arm to signal open fire.
Zac threw up his hand as if to protect himself, ready for the pain, waiting for death, but ... death never came. The gunfire roared. Tentatively, he opened his eyes and there was a sparkling wall before him, bullets slamming against it like glass that would not shatter. Zac grinned, amazed at the sight before him, when suddenly, it was gone.
Imogen stood beside him with a cute smirk on her lips.
One of the Chinese women at the computer started shouting at the General and all of a sudden, the screens were flashing. She stepped back from her chair and knocked someone over. That someone was Koko and she and Marcus were wrenched apart, severing their invisibility and revealing them both. The soldiers aimed their guns at them and they were surrounded.
The soldiers were waiting for a command from the General. He seemed taken aback, which confused Zac. If he were planning a terrorist attack with the help of superheroes, wouldn't he bank on other superheroes trying to stop him?
That's where copycat Fearne must have come in. The General turned to her as though expecting her to take control of their minds. He relied on her. But the girl in the white dress was not looking at the General. She was watching Asian Mikayla.
And suddenly, his hands went up in flames. His body transformed back into Mikayla and marched at the Fearne clone, who screamed and cowered beside the President. Clearly her fear of fire was derived of the torture Dr. Wolfe put her through.
"Games up, General," said Zac.
The General merely laughed at him. The soldier near the President aimed a gun at his head.
"It's not over yet," said the General. The soldier cocked the hammer of his gun, and at the exact same time, the other soldiers with their weapons aimed at he and Imogen cocked theirs too. Imogen panicked. She couldn't shield every one of them individually.
"Stop what you're doing and put your hands up."
A voice – a sweet, melodic voice – came over the speaker system and Zac's body went weak with relief. Everyone in the room dropped their weapons and put their hands up. Even the President and his men lifted their hands – still bound together.
The General happily raised his hands, however, just moments before Chantal's command sounded over the radio, his assistant had activated something in the security system and suddenly, the room was filled with sirens and flashing lights that told Zac something very, very bad had just happened.
"What is that?!" screamed Mikayla with her hands over her ears.
"That's the sound," the General said gleefully in clear English, "of your country being blown apart!"
"You're freaking in our country!" Zac yelled back.
The soldiers then decided that their mission had ended. One by one, they picked up their handguns, pressed them against their temples and fired. Zac watched in horror as soldier after soldier fell dead on the ground. All but the General.
"You're too late," sneered the man. "Phase one is complete. Now, you will all perish. We have won."
"But you're forgetting one thing, General."
The voice came from the bunker door and Chantal appeared with Yung and Ryo. The young time traveler looked tired and weary, but the strength in her voice was enough to make Zac proud.
The General snorted. "What's that?"
"Evil does not win."
Ryo and Yung split apart and that was when a huge, lethal-looking black panther leapt through the air with a hair-raising screech and landed on the General with its jaw clamping down on his head. The last thing they heard was the General's screams before Illya tore out his throat.
Marcus leapt from the ground and practically fell on the desk with his hands tapping furiously at the touch screens. The rest of them crowded around him, staring at the countdown on the monitor that was coming up to ten seconds.
"I'm guessing that's not the countdown for One Direction's new album, right?"
"Not helping, Zac!" said Chantal.
Marcus's fingers blurred across the dashboard of dials and keyboards. The clock read nine seconds.
"Marcus?" said Ryo nervously. "Now would be the time to use that power you were given!"
"Come on, nerd power!" yelled Zac.
"Marcus!" Chantal squealed as the clock hit five seconds.
Marcus turned to them with a crooked smirk. "I'm just screwing with you guys," he chuckled. His hand came down on a red button and the bank of computers – the entire room, in fact, exploded with electric sparks. They ducked down for cover as a message in green appeared along the giant screen reading 'SYSTEMS DE-ACTIVATED'.
"Piece of cake," he smiled.
It took them all a moment to realize that they had done it: they had won. And then they were turning to each other with grins like Christmas morning spread across their faces, eyes glistening in relief, so happy to be alive and together and victorious.
Cheers and whoops of joy rang throughout the room. Zac felt as if the moment needed another classic song of which he could actually belt out, loudly and perhaps in a microphone. But all he needed was the wonderfully passionate kiss Chantal gave him after she flung her arms around his neck. The kiss was so powerful, his knees grew weak and it took him a few seconds before he was able to wrap his arms around her, soon realizing that he was not himself but a Chinese man. He shifted back and when Chantal pulled away, she gave him an even bigger smile.
"Don't ever change," she whispered.
"I can't promise anything," he winked.
Someone cleared their throat and they turned to the men and women who were now free of their bonds and standing on two feet. The President fixed his tie and gave their team a very serious look. Zac felt as if that look were directed at him and lowered his head. He'd nearly gotten the President killed.
"I've met a lot of heroes in my time as President," he said to them. "But none had ever stood before the enemy and sang a John Lennon classic with such ... finesse."
Zac raised his head and saw that the President was smiling. He couldn't help the gigantic grin that spread across his face.
"Thank you," said the President. "For being brave and for saving us. For saving America."
And then he raised his hand and saluted them.