"Garmen! We have a huge problem!"
"What?!"
"I forgot my pheromones!"
Still hanging upside down in Jack's hand, my tormentor and I shared a private conversation with our eyes alone.
"What is that weird blue-haired alien talking about?" Jacks curious gaze asked me.
"Trust me, you don't want to know," I answered with an exhausted glare.
Jack tilted his head. "Should I even bother stopping to fight them?"
"... Using pheromones as a weapon is stupid enough in itself without you forgetting to bring them in the first place! Honestly, Havoc, it's stupid, even for you."
"I am not stupid! One splash of Chemical 377262 K and a swarm of killer bees would descend upon him like an Army of Angry...Bees!
"Not only do we not have Killer Bees on this continent, Havoc, that particular variety of bee lives on the other side of the planet from us."
"Really?"
"Obviously."
"Huh... Well, that puts a very serious hole in that plan."
"I believe you are right.....But still, leaves the question of what are we going to do? "
"....what about chemical 452738 H?"
"I don't think snapping turtles are going to help in this situation..."
"Just ignore them and keep walking," I told Jack with a wave of my hand.
As always, Jack just smiled, seeming amused as he silently walked past the arguing supervisors.
Not particularly using misdirection, Jack had made it all the way to the double doors before the two supervisors even noticed.
"Hey! Don't ignore us!" Havoc cried indignantly.
You're one to talk...
Now that the Supervisors were behind Jack, I was able to see them over his shoulder, and what I saw shocked me out of my ire.
The two idiotic, nerdy, cricket-crazy supervisors looked like they had both been in a car accident.
Covered in scratches and bruises, their lab coats torn and even one of the lenses in Garmen's specs was cracked.
But most importantly, their eyes had lost the eerie blue colour.
The colour that indicated that they were synchronised with the system that controlled the nanotechnology inside their bodies.
I'm going to take a stab in the dark here, and say that is not a good sign.
Jack slightly turned, giving the two men an apologetic smile over his shoulder.
"Oh, I'm sorry. It's just that you seemed busy... and I didn't want to interrupt anything important."
"Damn right it was important!" Havoc growled, hands on hips, grey eyes furious. "Doesn't mean we'll let you get to run off with our star cricket players though!"
And so the motivation becomes clear...
"No. I suppose you won't." Jack turned with a heartfelt sigh, giving the two his full attention.
Garmen raised an eyebrow, face calm, but his dark brown eyes showing more anger than I had ever seen from the serious man before.
"Young man, would you mind not handling our patient like that," Garmen demanded in a dangerously low tone, his hands twitching at his sides.
Wait! Don't tell him to-
Havoc pointed accusingly at Jack, his spiky blue hair seeming to bristle as he shouted. "Yea! Put her down, you creepy Brat!"
...Drop me.
I had already begun wildly waving my hands in the "Shut up before you get me killed" sign when Jack's lips twitched into a smile.
Like a real happy to oblige, Smile.
"Don't you dare ... Jack!" I shrieked as the pressure around my ankle suddenly shifted, and I was flung backwards. Freaking out, I scrambled to find something to grab onto....but there was nothing.
What Jack said next, crushed all hope that I was going to survive this.
"Catch gentlemen."
Oh no.
"Stop!" Was all I had time to scream as I was swung forward and up in an underarm throw.
"Please!" I cried desperately, but it was too late. He let go, and I was flung into the air, my stomach dropping painfully to my toes as I was suddenly airborne.
Already dizzy from my time hanging upside, I couldn't make sense of the spinning world around me. All I knew was that any second now I was going to experience a bone-shattering impact with the floor.
Some things are just not meant to fly. Penguins. Lead balloons. Little shrunken delinquents...
"Shit! Assume the fetal position NOW!"
If anything could shock me out of my panic-filled haze, the sound of Garmen swearing did the trick.
Doing as I was told, I curled up as tightly as I could. It made me a smaller target, but at least my head and limbs were less likely to get snapped off.
Always a bonus.
"Catch her Garmen!"
"What does it look like I'm doing!"
A second later, the air was knocked out of me as I was suddenly enveloped on all sides, pressed tightly to a soft, warm surface. I whimpered slightly, utterly confused by the massive movements around me.
What felt like fabric brushed against me on one side, and I could feel the warmth of skin at my back. I smelled peppermint, and even more strongly, blood.
"Miss Trampth, are you alright?"
My surroundings shifted, exposing me to the cold air of the room. Rigid, I let my limbs unfurl enough for me to look up, into the concerned face of Garmen.
The giant man had caught me in against his chest, which explained the feel of fabric I was being pressed into.
"You..." I began, but my body felt so stiff I couldn't even force the word out.
"Are you injured?" He asked again, his clinically calm eyes searching me over for injury.
"Y-you'd think..." I gasped out breathily, my chest tight with anxious breathing. "That it would be illegal... For a cricket couch... to suck this badly at catching..."
The chest in front of me shifted as Garmen let out a relieved sigh.
He smiled slightly, just an upturning of the lips, but the expression made him seem less severe as he raised an eyebrow in surprise. "You survived it didn't you...?"
Speaking of survival...
"Damn it!" Panic shot through me as I shoved against Garmen shirt, and he shifted his hand away to give me room. "Where is he?"
It's not over.
Garmen gave me a confused look. "Who?"
"Jack!"
Garmen's face registered shock as he jerked his gaze up, realising that he had somehow forgotten the most dangerous person in the room.
"Garmen-Ack!"
The room spun as Garmen turned to face Havoc.
I hissed wordlessly, stiffening when I saw that Jack had Havoc pressed to the wall by his throat.
The thin Supervisor struggled, but all the super strength that had come with the nanotech seemed to be missing along with his light blue eyes.
Without the nanotech, Havoc was a slight man whose hobby was to experiment with chemicals.
And Jack....was Jack.
The insane boy pinned the smaller man, sending us a sideways smile as he spoke.
"I have to admit, I really do admire your devotion. I hear that disconnecting from the system after such a long time is quite a... Disconcerting experience."
Disconnect from the system? They had done it voluntarily...?
"Garmen... Get the kids... Out..." Havoc choked, his eyes flickering over to where Nigel's and Artemis' box sat abandoned by the doorway.
Jack tsked reproachfully, eyes speaking of betrayal as he ruthlessly slammed his knee up into the pit of Havoc stomach.
Havoc gasped at the pain, curling into himself and falling to his hands and knees as Jack let him go.
Garmen's hand went rigid beneath me but didn't make a sound as Jack took a step closer.
"I know that you've grown attached to my schoolmates here... but I am afraid that we really need to be going now. Our ride is waiting after all."
Jack reached a hand out towards Garmen, his eyes full of compassion.
"Come now, you don't want to make me separate you by force, now do you?"
... Ahh, damn it... Chickening out and relying on elderly nerds to save me would look really lame, wouldn't it...?
Being such a total badass sucks sometimes...
"Welp, when you put it that way...." I climbed to my feet to face Jack, cracking my knuckles in a show of nonchalance. "... Looks like I have no choice but to handle this bullshit solo from here on out."
I half turned towards Garmen, not quite able to look at him as I silently begged him to take the hint and surrender without a fight.
"Sorry about the trouble we caused...just send us the bill or something..."
When he didn't speak, I chanced a glance up at the Supervisor's face, my own chest tightening with guilt when I saw his frustrated expression.
I couldn't really blame Garmen, for wanting to help us, even if that meant risking his own safety. I would too if I were in his place
"Garmen." Still kneeling on the floor, Havoc looked up at us, expression grim.
His grey eyes were determined, unafraid of what he knew was going to happen next.
I stared, having a hard time reconciling this seriousness with the dorky cricket coach/scientist I had come to know over the last week.
What I saw in his eyes unnerved me...
All the Supervisors were like that, gentle and a little weird on the outside, but every one of them had a steel core.
"I'm going to reconnect." Using the wall for support, Havoc climbed to his feet. "Get the children out."
Garmen stiffened in surprise. "Havoc..."
"I know." The blue-haired Supervisor shook his head. "Don't worry about it. Just get them out of here Garmen."
"Are you intending to fight me, little Supervisor?" Jack's voice wasn't where it was supposed to be, and I jerked as I realised that he had used Havoc as a distraction to slip past unnoticed.
... behind us.
The hand beneath me suddenly jerked as Garmen went rigid, letting out a stifled grunt of pain.
I looked up frantically to see Garmen's jaw clenched and his eyes wild as Jack pressed in against his back, resting his chin on the tall Supervisor's shoulder.
At this size, I couldn't tell what he had done to Garmen, but the Supervisor was shaking with pain as Jack raised a hand, running it through his short green hair.
Eyes directly on Havoc, Jack spoke, lips close to Garmen's ear.
"If so, I suggest you start paying attention."