The Gifted Chronicles: Power

Chapter 18: Morning

Blaze woke up on the couch off the main lobby to see Scorch buried in his arms peacefully sleeping. While People move about by the main desk, he notices the others walk out the front door. He tries to move to get up but Scorch not being the lightest girl in the world gives him trouble, "Scorch wake up our friends are leaving without us."

Scorch groans and shifts her weight, "Get up, Scorch." He claws himself out from underneath Scorch, and falls onto the carpeted floor. "We need to go." Scorch gets up still half asleep and rubs her eyes. "I'm hungry." Blaze motions off that thought, "Hold on." Blaze wraps his arms around Scorch and makes a portal behind her, He jumps through holding onto her. Damn, why did they not wake us up we were on the couch in the lobby where everyone can see us!

He appears on the green grass outside the doors with Scorch still in his arms. "Well look who decided to join the party you two are late." Blaze looks up to see as a shadow falls over the two, "Ash, I'm sorry we stayed up too late, we were sleeping in the lobby, why didn't any of you wake us up?"

Scorch gets up off the ground, Ash crosses her arms and stands in an angry position, "You are in charge of waking yourself up in the day, alarm clocks are usually set for 6:30 a.m. but I guess you two slept through it. We have other more important things to do today, since most of us woke up in the night." Blaze became a little scared never seeing Ash angry before, he could tell it by the tone of her voice and partly her posture, 'why does it matter what I do when you, you kidnapped us!"

"If I didn't, you'd be dead on the streets."

"Ash, we are ALL tired stop playing the blame game." Scorch cuts in rolling her eyes.

Ash "you shouldn't blame all of us of being tired when you are the most important person on the team Smokey. Pyrah, Sparks, Freddy and I all need you to be vigilant Scorch, If we are severely injured we will need you to heal us so we can protect each other." Ash shakes her head in dissatisfaction her small brown ponytail wags on her head and walks away. "You're right I shouldn't blame all of us, I blame you for us getting caught in this mess!"

Ash stops in her tracks, "you blame me?" she says in a low flat tone. Smokey remains silent as she picks the grass on the manicured lawn watching the whole thing go down. You lovable idiot why did you have to say that? Blaze notices Ash was moving her hands, "Watch out She's going to-"

Ash turns around sending a silvery bubble around everyone's heads "This is what your future could be if we do not sleep!" Blaze sees a silver lining of a bubble noticing everything outside in the real world appeared blurry. He turns around to see he was in a whitewash building, "Aw man, I'm so tired!" He yells, he tries to make jump away but fails, guess I have to fight these guys. He draws his sword and moves to the left side of the hallway. He jumps up into the air and punches the lights out ahead of him, he then runs at the guards who seem cautious to the dark surroundings. Blaze's blue-green holo-sword glows in the darkness, the guards aim at him.

"Over there!"

Bullets suddenly come ripping up the ground and concrete walls, Blaze teleports behind the guards and flanks them taking each one out one by one. Blaze breathes as one of the guards shoots him with a different round, dizziness suddenly succumbs Blaze.

"OH crap they tranquilized me, now I have the possibility of dying." Blaze's knees buckle from underneath him and he falls to look straight in the face of the guard that shot him. He fights the sleep that tries to relax his brain but fails in doing so. Blaze wakes up in a warm blinding light, he feels the ground underneath his feet covered in grass. He focuses his vision on Ash who seemed to be going through some motions with her staff.

She stops and turns around "Why Blaze did you enjoy your nap?" Blaze looks at her with his mouth gaping open, "How did you-"

He looks around at the others then at Ash, "what did you?" Ash laughs "I was supposed to be the bad guy, it was Sparks and Pyrah's idea to simulate an escape out of S.T.E.P. HQ."

Sparks wakes up, "what a head rush, hey was the lady with the red and blue hair supposed to be in our illusions?" Ash frowns, "I only took a fragment of a video surveillance I saw inside the facility we will be infiltrating, and there shouldn't have been any mishaps only guards. Although the memory can alter the manufactured illusion." 

Sparks helps Pyrah up, "So you're saying that the lady is not supposed to be in our illusions?" Ash twirls her staff, "Correct, we need to leave."

Ash begins running towards the building, "Why it's safe her right?" Ash shakes her head no at Blaze, "She can see into your minds as well as I can if not better, she is an illusionist as well which means her gift is very similar to mine." Scorch is the only one still laying in the grass, "Hey you guys go get your backpacks packed, we'll meet in the car garage." Ash runs over to Scorch, "hey Scorch, get up." Scorch shifts her body to lay on the side, "we need to go now out plans are coming early." Scorch groans. "Fine, but I was just getting to enjoy the sun." Ash helps Scorch up then she helps her into the building.

Soot wakes up with a devious smile on her face in her hotel room, "Effio, give me the location of old military bases around a river and out of the city." Soot stands up and puts on her civilian clothes, she then gets ready for the day and proceeds by dying her hair black. She finishes washing her hair minutes later and stares at her new self in the mirror.

Soot fights back the feeling deep inside herself, the small voice that comes back and screams in her mind, the one she has been fighting for years. She looks in the mirror to see her eyes change from steely grey to their original auburn brown color. Soot bites back and squints her eyes shut to concentrate.

"Your mission is to locate the Headquarters of the gifted ones, you need them for a proj- otherwise death is eminent!"

Soot reaches for her scalp in anger and kicks at the end table in the hotel room, "Okay let's get this over with...But what if I fail?"

Soot grabs her A.I unit and head out to the parking lot to look for a new car, she finds the lowest profile car around, a white Toyota Camery with seemed only about 2 years old with no special features detailed on the outside. "Hey Effio, can you unlock a car door without the alarm going off?" Effio blinks in her purse, "I am not sure Madam-"

"It's Soot not Madam, you can call me by my name, okay, it makes it easier on my part."

Effio blinks once more, "Okay, Soot I have never attempted to manipulate something other than plasma, I might be able to make you a key to match the keyhole on the side." Soot raises an eyebrow, why didn't he just say that in the first place?

Soot presses a button to attach Effio to the side of the car with a suction cup, "here give it a try." Soot slaps Effio to the side of the car, she looks around to make sure the owners don't come up anytime soon or anyone around is watching. She sees a middle-aged couple and their teenaged daughter hop onto a red truck and drive away seemingly oblivious to the world around them. Effio begins calculating the thousands of different lock combinations in mere seconds. The doors instantly unlock letting Soot in, Effio produces a holographic key and a car charger for himself, "I am running low on power do you think you can plug me in? I am terrified of dying it gives me time to think for myself and I dislike that." Soot shrugs her shoulders at her A.I. "I need some quiet time." She powers down Effio and tosses him on the back seat. Soot powers up the car and drives out onto the highway, Classical music begins playing on the radio, "Ugh. I want some...Yeah travel radio." Soot changes the radio to a channel of most genres randomly playing. Soot begins to think of common names and a backstory she could use for her espionage once she gets to the compound. "I am Anna, and I have been on the run for years from S.T.E.P. they have been chasing me all over the place, everywhere I go I cannot get out of their grasp it seems like they are there." Soot thought of every possible question the guards were going to ask her like

Where did you get this car? How old are you? Do you have anything that you would like to tell us about S.T.E.P? Soot begins to laugh as Evil Woman by Electric Light Orchestra begins to play realizing that her plan might actually work.