Defiant [book 2 of the Mastery series]

Townhouse

Amanda

I was woken up by the sudden silence. The monotone buzzing of the motor dissapeared and i heard two doors slam shut. I struggled to sit up and rubbed my eyes but the darkness didn't seem to go away. Someone opened a door to my left and what i figured was someone's head poked inside.

"You okay?"

I sighed, letting out a breath I didn't know I was holding in. It was Rory. I nodded even though he probably couldn't see me seeing as how I couldn't make out his face. He reached out a hand and I grabbed it, letting him pull me over the seat to the door. His hands wrapped around my arm and waist as I climbed out. My eyes looked around the toom, searching for a hint of light to comfort me.

"W..where are we?"

"That was a hell of a nap wasn't it?, follow me"

Another figure appeared from the front of the car and I figured it had to be Ace. I felt to my left to find Rory's hand but he found mine first, his fingers curled around mine and he gently pulled me towards Ace.

It still didn't feel real. Any of it.

We reached a wall and i heard a little panel slide open and then a bright blue light shot out of the wall, onto Ace's face. I could make out his ruffled hair and sharp jawline. He looked straight into the light until it turned off and seconds later a section in the wall slid away, revealing a small narrow staircase.

Ace went first, then Rory, and I followed close behind still holding Rory's hand tightly while the section shut quickly behind me. The stairs were so narrow i couldn't make out how much further down we had to descend and the dull red light was making me sleepy again. I heard Ace push some buttons on a keypad and another door slid open revealing a huge brightly lit warehouse type of space. 

"Welcome to the office guys" Ace spread his arms and turned around with a big smile. 

It took my eyes a while to get used to abrupt change of lighting, but when they did, i was amazed. In the middle of the room was a big blue training mat, surrounded by dumbbells, weights,  cables, pulleys, squat racks and a bunch of equipment i couldn't name. I looked over at Rory and noticed his eyes were on them too. The whole right corner of the room was cut off from the rest by a glass wall reaching all  the way to the ceiling. 

"Ultra resistant glass" Ace winked at me.

To our left were two big bookshelves and two lounging chairs. Further along was what looked like a changing room with a table that had various pieces of cloth thrown on it. In the far right corner there were big monitors and computer screens  in an L-shape. Behind one of them sat a guy, maybe 14, 15 years old frowning at one of the screens and a hand holding his chin like he was focusing really hard. 

"This is Paul, he's 15, science and his Mastery is Hyperspeed" Ace said as he ruffled the boy's hair. 

So this was Paul. He got up and turned out to be the same height as Ace which for some reason i didn't expect a 15 year old to be. He stuck out his hand to me first.

"Hi Paul,  Amanda Walsh, my Mastery is i guess... heat?" 

He smiled and shook my hand. I felt pretty dumb and he probably thought I was too. Was 'heat' the best way i could describe what had my life upside down at the moment?

"Rory, Foster. Uhm... I guess super strength?" 

Paul's eyes lit up and he put up the biggest smile.

"NO WAY" 

"Calm down Paul they're probably tired from the trip so he can show you tomorrow"

"I read so much about you dude, where are you guys from?"

"Portland" I uttered. Portland felt like a far away dream. I was already missing my bed. 

"Wow that is further away than usual" He held his chin again before he plopped back into his chair and started typing really fast.  Rory and I looked at each other confused. 

"My sister is probably upstairs"

Ace started walking towards a metal door and we followed as he surely expected. I kept glancing back at Paul and how fast his fingers moved over the keyboard in front of him. I heard a familiar ding and an elevator appeared where the metal doors used to be. Rory let out a chuckle of disbelief and Ace shrugged at us. We stepped into the elevator and the silence reminded me that Rory and I hadn't said a word to each other since we got inside. 

The elevator came to a halt, made that familiar ding sound again and opened up to a small white room with boxes and random items. We stepped out and as I looked back the elevator doors slid back shut and blended back perfectly with the wall; it was obviously not meant to be noticed. Ace opened up the next door to reveal a floral wallpaper. We stepped out into a hallway into what looked like a normal house with a few closed white doors standing out in the colorful wallpaper. We took a left and followed Ace around a corner where I could hear a television. 

"Camari, we're here"

It was a living room with tall white windows and very thin white curtains that were blowing in the wind. There was a beige carpet and a big L-shaped light blue sofa on which lay Ace's sister who was watching a talk show. She looked up at us and jumped up when she saw us. She approached us with a huge smile.

"Hi guys, I'm Camari. You must be Amanda and Rory right?"

I was still looking around the room, in disbelief. We were standing in a normal townhouse with normal-looking furniture meanwhile right under us, was a huge warehouse. I looked around to find the front door and I rushed towards it to open it. Where the hell were we?

A normal street with normal houses alike. A row of trees to the right and a row of trees to the left. The sun shone on all the white houses with white picket fences. 

"Is this a joke? Where the hell are we?" 

Apparently I interrupted a conversation that had started between Ace, Camari and Rory as they all turned their heads to look at me. Camari stepped forward.

"You probably have a million questions, i'm sorry you haven't gotten the chance ask any of them yet"

She was wearing grey sweatpants and a red tank top and her hair was in a bun. A single platinum blonde curl hung in the back and my thoughts went back home to David and Diana. Would I ever see them again? A sob escaped and when Rory put his arms around me I realized I was crying. It was all I seemed to do lately.