Alien Research

CHAPTER 88

BUCHANAN RETURNED, with Jeff and Chuckie in tow. Adriana returned, with White and Gower in tow. And the reinforcements the Crazy Super Twins had called arrived, with lots and lots of firepower in tow.

Vacillated between being glad to see everyone and wishing they’d stayed home. Maybe with Chuckie here he could calm Naomi down. Then again, should someone hurt him, that would undoubtedly flip Naomi over to the side of Kill ’Em All. And I wasn’t sure if she’d be selective about the “all.”

Naturally the bad guys started shooting, because that was what was expected of them. They seemed unclear on the concept of who to shoot, though, as at least some of the bullets were aimed for the floating teenagers. Perhaps the bad guy reinforcements were freaked out about glowing people floating in the air after bombs had already gone off elsewhere and they were standing on the shredded bodies of their work buddies. Could not imagine why that would throw them.

“Shoot the glowing bitch!” LaRue shrieked, as the rest of us hit the ground and rolled under the body beds. “Bomb her! Blow her up!”

“Bombs,” Naomi said, as if she’d just remembered something. My purse was lighter and I saw some small orbs spinning in the air. Great, Naomi had remembered something—that she and I were carrying explosives courtesy of Serene. And no one made better explosives than Serene.

“Kill all of them!” Reid shouted.

“Okay,” Naomi said. She sent the bombs into the reinforcements.

“Run!” I shouted to the others. “Serene made those!” Heard Jeff and Gower curse. Yeah, they’d also experienced Serene’s explosives firsthand.

I was closest to the reinforcements and, therefore, the bombs, and decided now was the time to run like hell for the other side. Could run on all fours or I could stand up, risk the bullets, and go a hell of a lot faster. Decided to go for living dangerously and left the ground like I was leaving the blocks for a race. I was able to stay low as I zigzagged through the hanging beds. Slammed into Adriana and dragged her along with me.

White and Gower had both grabbed Chuckie, Jeff had Buchanan, and all of us were running for the far end of the room.

“Down!” Jeff bellowed and we all hit the ground, moments before the bombs went off. Hyperspeed, it was probably the best A-C talent going. Why the Flash and Quicksilver weren’t considered higher-level heroes was a mystery, really.

The explosions were loud, almost drowning out the screams of the dying. Not quite, though. The body parts splattering throughout the room were a rare treat. The special fluids in the glass tanks, along with the shattered glass, were adding a unique thrill to the whole situation, too.

“Mimi, what are you doing?” Chuckie shouted, sounding horrified.

“Making them pay,” Naomi said calmly.

“Don’t worry, some of the parts are the pre-clones or whatever we’d call them. That sounds less reassuring said aloud than it did in my head. By the way.”

“Of all the commando raids in all the world, why did you have to go on this one?” Jeff asked, as we rolled out of the way of falling bodies and steel girders, because, of course some of the explosion had affected the cables and beds set up, and it was crashing down around us.

“Just lucky, I guess.”

The rain of parts, cables, beds, and metal stopped. “I hope you’re bringing more reinforcements,” Naomi said conversationally. She still had Reid and LaRue held up in the air. “You know, I can see everything. The entire universe. And beyond it, to all the other ones.”

“What is she talking about?” Gower asked as he and White held Chuckie down.

Now wasn’t the time to explain that multiple universes existed. Now was the time to share that we were well on our way to DEFCON Oh My God. “Dude, she is not in her right mind. She’s injected at least thirteen syringes full of Surcenthumain Pure. She did it to protect us. But it’s, ah, affecting her. Like, for instance, she may now think—”

“Chuck, why did you marry me if you still love Kitty more?”

“That. She may think that.”

“Seriously?” Jeff asked. Chuckie looked too shocked to speak.

“Wow, Jeff, the personal growth is impressive and I’m really hoping I get to reward it somewhere in the near future. The two teenagers she’s holding up in the air? They’re really good at baiting her. Just like we were all in high school with them. Because they know her weakness.”

The Mastermind knew us well. He knew Chuckie well. There had to be a clue in there somewhere. Reid and LaRue knew who Father was and I might have been able to trick them into telling me, or giving me enough clues to guess. But that wasn’t an option any more.

“Naomi,” Jeff shouted, “are you out of your mind?”

“Yes, she is. I keep on saying it, but no one listens. She’s higher than anyone has ever been, in the history of the world.”

“How can you allow it, Jeff?” Naomi asked, sounding sad.

“Because I know he loves you more,” Jeff said. He got up slowly. “Naomi, look at me.” She didn’t turn. “Look at me,” Jeff said, Commander Voice on full.

Naomi turned in the air. “Why?”

“I’m the strongest empath in the galaxy. I can read him. I can read you, too, you know. Your powers are so out of control that the blocks in here can’t affect my ability to read you. You know you’re not thinking right. Chuck loves you. He loves you as much as I love Kitty, and as much as you love him.”

“Why isn’t he saying so?” she asked petulantly.

“Because we’re not letting him up, in case you try to hurt him,” Gower said, as he got to his feet. “You need to stop this, right now. Let those children go.”

“No, no, no,” I said quickly, as I scrambled to my feet. “They’re bad kids. The worst, really. We don’t want her to let them go, we just don’t want her to kill them. Yet,” I added for honesty’s sake.

Naomi cocked her head and all of a sudden, all of us were floating in the air in front of her. I could feel her in my mind, so I was sure everyone else could, too.

“Get out of my head, Mimi,” I said. “You’re not ACE. You don’t have the right to do what you’re doing. You want to rummage around in heads? Rummage in Reid and LaRue’s heads and figure out who Father is.”

“ACE . . .” She looked away, but not at anything, more like she was looking off into the distance, or at something only she could see. “I . . . can see ACE. He . . . needs help.”

“So do we. We need to know who Father is. All this can stop if we can find the Mastermind, Mimi. You know that.”

She looked back at all of us, and, once again, I had the hope that we’d all be able to laugh about this somewhere down the line.

Her expression softened as she looked at Chuckie. “I love you.”

“I love you, too. Mimi, please put us down, come down, and let’s go home,” Chuckie said gently. “Please, sweetheart.”

“You’re afraid of me,” she said sadly.

“You’re scary right now, Mimi. I told you that earlier. Of course we’re all afraid of you.”

“I don’t mean you, Kitty. I mean Chuck. He’s afraid of me.”

“I’m afraid of what you’ve done to yourself,” Chuckie said. “I want my wife back, Mimi. Please, sweetheart, we need to get you home so we can get that drug out of your system.”

“No!” She dropped us.

Fortunately, she hadn’t had us up too high, and also fortunately, Jeff, White, and Gower hit the ground first, so Jeff caught me, Gower caught Chuckie, and White caught Adriana. Buchanan landed, rolled, and came up without missing a beat.

“We could have done what Malcolm did,” I said as Jeff put me down.

“Sure you could, baby. We just wanted to be impressive. We also,” Jeff said quietly, “need to be ready to run like hell.”

“Mimi, we need to help you,” Chuckie said, with more than a little desperation in his voice. Yeah, he was Mr. Anti-Drug. Having his wife OD herself willingly was definitely one of the nastiest things to do to him. And the kids had said Father knew she’d do it, too. Meaning this was likely to be part of a long-term plan. Always the way.

“You will not take my powers away again!” Naomi was glowing more brightly and she looked, if possible, even angrier and crazier.

“Dude, what is the first rule of Just Say No? It’s don’t tell the addict you’re going to get them clean until they’re ready.”

“That’s not the first rule,” Chuckie said, as Naomi looked around and, apparently just for fun, brought down the area where the teenagers had been living. Meaning we weren’t going to be able to get any information out of there. “But your point is taken. What the hell are we going to do?”

Buchanan squinted. “I think she’s drawing more of the drug into her.” He pointed, and sure enough, there was a glittering trail coming down from above and feeding into Naomi’s glowing aura.

“I am,” Naomi said. Buchanan hadn’t been speaking loudly, so either her hearing was also heightened, or she was inside all our minds still, or both. Bet on both, because that was just how our luck ran. “The drug is increasing my powers.”

“These aren’t your powers,” Chuckie said. “These are powers created by a drug that’s killing you.”

“You wouldn’t let me take this before. If you’d really loved me, you would have. What I can do—I could have saved Michael, saved Gladys, saved everyone.”

“Mimi, that’s the addict in you talking.” Maybe telling her the truth would help. At the rate things were going, probably couldn’t hurt.

“I’m not an addict. I’m a god.”

Oh goody. “You’re not a god. You’re high. Remember how my mom said she hoped you’d prove her wrong? You promised you would, Mimi. You promised.”

She didn’t argue.

Pressed this line of thought, in the hopes that it would work. “The Mastermind took your powers, Mimi. Father took them. Find out who he is. Search Reid and LaRue’s minds. Find the Mastermind, make all this worth it.”

“We have ways of preventing that,” Reid said.

“Oh, shut up,” Naomi said. And again, I had some hope.

And then LaRue spoke up. “You know, if you did it right, you could bring your brother back. Alive, well, just like he was before he was murdered.”

Naomi looked at LaRue. “What do you mean?” she asked. Hopefully.

And I knew then that we’d lost Naomi forever.