Subject Seven

Chapter Thirty
Joe Bronx

Joe opened his eyes and smiled. He wasn’t sure he could do that until now, but he’d managed. He’d forced the change, truly controlled it. He hadn’t even had to work hard at it. As soon as Hunter heard about the attackers, he got distracted and that was when Joe took over.

A simple push, really, and he was changing, growing into his proper shape, freed at last from the smaller, weaker form of Hunter Harrison. He was so much stronger than his Other.

A quick look around and he saw the others panicking, all except Kyrie, who was looking at him as he changed and maybe getting a hint that everything he’d said was true. He called out to them, screamed for them to wake up, and they did, all of them. He saw their muscles twitch, their bodies start shifting, even as his was finishing its transformation.

They changed, of course. Joe Bronx told lies, but not this time.

Kyrie fell to her knees and clutched at her head, unaware of the way her muscles shifted and pulled as the bones beneath them grew. Her hair changed as well, darkening. The change was painful, but Kyrie’s Other reveled in the unexpected transformation, freed at last from a very different sort of darkness. He felt the excitement inside of her.

Gene roared as he changed. His skin grew darker, his eyes, his hair. There was little about him that looked at all like Gene by the time he was done changing. His uncle (the Right Revrund Robbie) would have recognized the man he became in an instant. The odds were good that Robbie would never forget the face of the brute that threw him through a tempered glass window. Joe saw him for the first time in the light of day and was as impressed as ever. He was a predator, a killing machine, same as Joe himself.

Tina screamed too, the pain overwhelming her. The skin on her body stretched and pulled and her entire body rearranged itself, grew broader, stronger, taller. For her the change was shockingly painful. He rode through the pain with her, feeling it in every part of his body as surely as she did. His mind was flooded with sensory input from four additional sources and he blinked back the brief panic and dizziness that the feeling caused. He’d learn to control all of this if he had the time, but for now he had to deal with everything going on around him.

Cody didn’t scream. He clenched his teeth and bent nearly double over on himself and stared hard at the ground, a smile pulling itself from the grimace of pain. What woke up in him had been waiting patiently and now, finally, was free. The change was just as violent for Cody, perhaps even more so as he grew so much, taking on a full foot of height and almost one hundred pounds of muscle and sinew. And if Joe thought Gene had experienced bleed over, he was nothing in comparison to what went through Cody’s mind. The other mind that hid inside of Cody understood that they were in danger, that they were about to get attacked, and immediately dropped into a defensive crouch. He remembered the soldiers while all of the rest were still trying to figure out where they were.

Joe Bronx smiled and shook his head. He’d started changing the second Kyrie said that they had visitors. “We have company. The failures were about to make a few hundred mistakes and get us killed.” The Others looked at him, none of them doubting his words. He was the one who woke them, after all. He was the one who gave them life.

The boy who had been Cody was the first to answer: “Tell us.”

Rather than speaking with words, he showed them the situation: soldiers were surrounding the building.

What had been Tina was the one who suggested the next move. The others listened to her words and chuckled quietly.

And then the soldiers came through the doors and the slaughter began.

Joe stood his ground and watched as the soldiers came in. There were several men and they were armed. On seeing him they relaxed a little and he smiled politely at that notion. They’d learn soon enough.

The others were nearby and he could feel their questions. They wanted to know if there would be trouble. They were like little kids. They wanted to know everything.

One of them was trying to hide from him. He could feel a resistance, like he was running into a transparent wall, whenever he tried to dig too deeply in that one’s mind. It was unsettling, doubly so because he couldn’t really tell them apart. He didn’t know most of them very well yet. Well, except for Tina and Kyrie’s other selves. He’d already spent more time with both of them.

Best not to think about that. He didn’t know if they could hear all of his thoughts or only the ones he chose to share. Just in case, he decided to keep their ears busy.

“So, it looks like about ten of these losers coming our way. Stay put for the moment.” He stood still as the soldiers headed for him. He could have attacked. He knew his limits and knew he could probably put a hurt on the men before it was too late. Could he take down ten men before they could put a bullet through an important part of his anatomy? He didn’t know. He wasn’t quite willing to find out, either.

“You need to stay where you are.” The command came from the man in front as he and his followers started spreading out. They kept their eyes on him. Of course they did. The others were hidden away, just like he told them to. Just like Not-Tina suggested.

“I’m not going anywhere.” He held his hands up over his head and kept eye contact with the man speaking to him. Slowly, meticulously, the men moved around, spreading out into a loose circle.

“The alarm went off a little while ago.” The man came closer. He looked Joe over from top to bottom, unimpressed with what he saw. Joe could have taken offense but decided it wasn’t worth the trouble.

They wouldn’t be alive long enough for him to be offended by their attitudes.

“What are you doing here?” The tone was harsh. It was supposed to be. The first job of any cop-private or on the streets-was to take control of a situation.

“Relaxing with a few friends, taking in a movie.” He smiled as he spoke. He was supposed to be intimidated by the uniforms and by the weapons, but he was not. There had been very few things in his life that had made him nervous.

“Yeah? So where are the rest of your friends?”

Joe let his grin bloom into a broad smile. “All around you.” He answered the man with his mouth and at the same time sent out the command with his mind. Now! Come and get them!

The others dropped from the ceiling, where they had been holding on to the pipes. Most of them dropped and landed on the ground, no longer needing to hide themselves, but one of the males-Cody, he thought-hung from a pipe in the ceiling, his feet locked around it, and reached for the guard closest to him without bothering to drop down and land. They’d hidden themselves away and waited for his signal and it worked perfectly. None of the men had been expecting them to drop from above. Tina won points for that.

While the uniforms were trying to look everywhere at once, Joe moved, lunging forward and snatching the weapon from the hands of the first officer. The man opened his mouth, either to scream or to bark out another order, but Joe was done with him. He used his free hand and drove the blade of his hand into the man’s throat. Something cracked in the man’s neck and he dropped like a sack of rocks.

“Ladies and gentlemen, feel free to join the fun!” He didn’t wait for an answer but took advantage of the chaos and aimed his newly acquired weapon. The next guard in line was just starting to aim, his movements so slow in comparison to Joe’s enhanced reflexes that he looked like he was fighting his way through molasses. The pistol in his hand kicked as he pulled the trigger and the slowpoke let out a soft grunt as his right shoulder exploded. “Bang!”

One of the men came toward him, weapon drawn and aimed already. “You need to stop right there!”

Joe had an agenda. He could have cared less about showing the guards what he was capable of, but he needed the Others to understand not just how fast they all were, but how dangerous he was.

All of them had enhanced reflexes, enhanced senses and strength. What they lacked, what he had that they did not, was four years of training. Part of his free time had been spent learning tae kwon do and the basics of weapons training. He had been taught by professionals. It was an edge and he needed to make sure the others knew he had an advantage over them. They were like children, really. They were young and impressionable and he intended to make an impression that would last.

Joe took a fast sliding step in the direction of the trigger-happy guard and slapped him across the face with a blow that fairly blurred. The man never had a chance to continue his sudden need to bark orders before Joe broke his jaw and his nose. Before he could recover, Joe was pushing past him and firing at the next in line.

“Reflexes, kids. This is what I’m talking about. Our reflexes are easily ten times the normal human average.” He kept his voice casual as the next man fell, the shot having taken him square in his chest.

The rest of the men took the hint and stayed quiet as they took aim. Get them! he called out silently, and the Others answered, attacking even as the guards were focusing on Joe. Not-Cody didn’t waste time with finesse. As big as he was, he was unsettlingly fast. In all of his existence, Joe had never seen one of his kind attack a human being before. He was impressed. Cody swung a thick arm around in a fast arc and the man he hit let out a short scream before he lifted off the ground and soared through the air. The odds were good he was already unconscious before he hit the wall ten feet away.

One of the girls-Tina, maybe?-was bleeding from a split in her lip. The guard had struck her, apparently, and the look on her face said she didn’t take kindly to being hit. Not-Tina let out a screech and grabbed the guard with both of her hands. She caught his neck with one hand and his gun hand with the other and while the man struggled and tried to break free, she brought her knee up and drove it hard into his crotch. He let out a muffled moan and turned deathly pale. A second later whatever pain he was feeling didn’t matter anymore because she’d knocked him unconscious.

Joe fired again and missed, his shot thrown off as another of the guards reached him. The combat was getting too close, too personal for weapons. That was all right, he preferred hand to hand. It was more fun.

He let out a growl and used the butt end of the pistol on the man’s face. The impact ran from his hand up to his elbow and he grinned as Mr. Grabby’s jaw took on a new shape.

Not-Gene caught the guard in front of him in a strangle-hold and lifted the man off the ground. He squeezed hard and let out a snarl of anger at the same time. The man shuddered in his grip and tried to break free. His hands beat at the Other frantically, but it was like watching a five-year-old trying to get away from a full-grown man.

Another one of the guards aimed at Not-Gene and without a word Joe warned him, sending the image directly into his mind. Not-Gene spun his new toy to the right and laughed as the bullet punched through the man he’d been strangling instead of him.

The joy coming from the Others was brutal and pure. They liked violence, liked breaking bones and crushing their enemies. Joe knew exactly how they felt.

Kyrie-no, he corrected himself, NOT-Kyrie-surprised him the most. She delivered a perfect side kick into the leg of her opponent and danced backward as the leg broke and the man screamed. Before he could fall to the ground, she hit him again, a second kick that nearly took his head off his shoulders.

Joe grinned. Each of the Others had taken out a single opponent. He had eliminated six.

That should get the point across, he thought. That should let them know who the head honcho around here is.

Not-Tina was looking at the man she’d taken down like he was her worst enemy and he just might get back up and try to hit her again.

He reached out with his mind and felt her emotions, picked at them and studied them. He couldn’t do that with most people, only with the others like him. If he tried hard enough, he could capture images from the minds of their weaker counterparts, like he had when he spoke to Cody on the phone, but it took effort. This sort of eavesdropping was easier.

Not-Tina was aching inside. Though she wasn’t sure why, exactly, she felt grief. He knew. He understood all too well. She was feeling her counterpart’s grief. All the sensations, none of the memories. She was experiencing a little bleed over. Not a lot, just enough to guarantee that she came awake in a piss-poor mood because Tina was in a bad state of mind. He might tell her eventually, but for now it was best to let her learn.

Not-Gene was a different story. He looked down at his enemy, thrilled at the damage he’d done. He was happy. He wanted to cut loose, to make up for the fact that Gene held everything inside. He wanted to be alive in ways his Other never was.

Not-Kyrie looked at the man she’d taken down with mild curiosity, but she also took the time to look at each and every one of the guards Joe had taken down. She got it. She understood his message. She took her time before looking at him with her dark, almond eyes. The smile she cast at him was enough to get his attention even if he hadn’t been able to read the attraction she felt for him.

And then there was Not-Cody. Joe frowned as he looked at the last of the Others. He was big. Physically he was actually bigger than Joe, and that was unusual, especially since Cody himself was damned near the runt of the litter.

It wasn’t his size that caught Joe’s attention, however. It was the fact that he got nothing at all off Not-Cody.

The other Hyde looked in his direction, his expression unreadable.

For just a moment, Joe was nervous.

He pushed that notion aside. He still had the ultimate card in his deck. He could wake them up, and he could put them back into a deep sleep.

“We have to leave, kids, right now.” Joe looked at his new friends and smiled. They had no names yet, but that was okay. They’d figure out what they wanted to be called when the time was right. “They’ll be sending in more armed men-a lot more. We’re faster and stronger, but that doesn’t mean we’re indestructible.”

Not-Cody dropped down from his perch and walked over to the man he’d slapped senseless. The guard stayed where he was, unconscious. He crouched and lifted the man easily from the ground. “We supposed to kill these losers or what?”

Joe shrugged. “You decide.”

Not-Cody looked at his new toy and nodded. The man in his grip started to stir and struggled, tried to fight back. Not-Cody broke his neck. “You look too much like Chadbourn.” Joe had no idea who Chadbourn was but figured Cody had a few issues that Not-Cody was going to have to work out.

Not-Gene squeezed his hands into tight fists, then growled his response. “Get on with it. We probably have more people coming to kill us.”

“Well, that’s my point. If you think you can figure out the guns, pick them up and use them. We have to go.” Joe laughed softly as he looked outside. There were more vehicles pulling up.

Not-Kyrie spoke. “I can hear them. They’re coming.”

Joe frowned and leaned his head to the side, straining. Nothing. He reached out with his mind again and took in the sensory information coming from her. She heard the vehicles coming. No one else did. Just her. A quick check and he understood. They were different, all of them. They were failures, after all, experiments that had not worked out properly. It shouldn’t have surprised him that they were all different. Her senses were sharper than his by a long measure. He kept that information to himself and looked out the window. There were easily twenty men outside, all dressed in the same black outfits, complete with bigger guns.

“You’re right. We don’t have time to escape. We’ll have to face them. Do as I say, and we’ll be fine.”

There were only five of them, less than he’d hoped for. Less than he thought he needed to carry out his plan. That meant he needed all of the Others alive.

“We need to divide and conquer,” Joe said calmly.

Not-Cody shook his head. “No shit, Sherlock.” Joe bit back a hard comment. He didn’t have time to school the new boy on his attitude.

He pointed at the big one. “Take the back door. Be ready.”

Without another word the bruiser took off, rolling his shoulders as he ran.

Not-Tina and Not-Gene were next. “The front of the building. Cover it.” If they disagreed with his orders, they decided not to complain for now. They nodded and headed off.

“You.” His eyes locked on Not-Kyrie. She had skills and he wanted her close by. “You come with me. We’re taking the high road.” He quickly untied his shoes and wrapped the laces around his arm. Climbing was easier with his toes than it was with the shoes that covered them.

Without another word he reached up and caught the same pipe Not-Cody had hung from and started climbing past the acoustic tiles and into the ceiling. There was no time for looking around and trying to find an access point. He explained with his mind as he worked. They were going to the roof.

The area they were in was long and narrow, no more than five feet wide. It was a crawlspace, really, designed to allow people to move between floors, to fix the guts of the building. He could feel a breeze from the right and urged Not-Kyrie to move in that direction with his mind. She listened, following without question. Up ahead they found that the source of the breeze was an access point to the roof.

Not-Kyrie followed him, scurrying along the pipe with hands and feet alike, not forgetting the shoes wrapped around her neck but not bothering with them as yet. When they’d hidden before, their bare toes had pressed into grooves that they’d never have felt with shoes on. The same careful consideration worked this time as well. Joe preferred being without shoes. Most of his life he’d gone barefoot and he knew exactly how limiting shoes could be.

The access point to the roof was a ladder that ran along the side of the building.

Not-Kyrie moved up the ladder with unsettling grace. Joe could understand her thoughts well enough to know that she was already considering what she would have to do to gain the advantage over any possible enemies. Sometime in her past Kyrie had been shown how to defend herself, and she’d already used that knowledge a few times now, hadn’t she? Bleed over was an accident, part of why Janus believed them to be failures-but it was working out in their favor, wasn’t it? Whatever training a Jekyll got, a Hyde got at the same time. That was how bleed over was supposed to work. Long-term memory was supposed to go to both bodies, both minds. Short-term memory was supposed to stay separated. Short-term memories were the sum of a person’s life experiences. Long-term memories were the things people were trained to do, like driving a car or reading a book. So far Kyrie was closer to a proper success than either of the males.

Ask Not-Kyrie to do long division and she could. Ask her to give directions in Spanish, and as long as she knew where she was and how to get from point A to point B, she was good to go. Ask her what her name was and suddenly you were dealing with a different situation.

Mom would have been so proud. The thought brought a scowl to Joe’s face.

Joe paused for a moment and fumbled with a padlock that was supposed to keep the roof access secured. The lock was too strong for him to break. The hook that attached it to the roof was not. He hit the trapdoor four times and finally broke free onto the roof.

The light was almost blinding after the darkness between floors. He squinted and let himself adjust. Far below her Not-Kyrie heard the voices of more strangers calling out and Joe heard them with her. They’d been discovered.

It’s okay. We want to be discovered. He assured her with his thoughts and she relaxed.

They wanted to be discovered because at least one of the people coming after them might have answers that Joe needed.

They reached the roof without worry, well ahead of the men after them. Joe looked around quickly. “This’ll do. They’re going to come for us. I know you can fight. I saw that already. The others, they’ll probably be okay, but I need you at my side. We need to have at least one of these jokers awake and not too badly hurt. Understand?”

She nodded and moved quickly, putting her shoes back on. The roof was covered with rocks over tar paper. She could walk on the stuff, but it hurt her feet. Joe did the same.

They’d just finished putting on their shoes when the guards made it to the roof access.

They had seen the bodies down below. This group was more cautious. They came up with weapons drawn. Joe watched Not-Kyrie as she stared at the guards, at the weapons that were leveled at her chest and face.

“You need to put your hands over your heads and stand still!” The man’s voice was stern. His eyes were locked on hers for a moment and then he looked over toward Joe.

Joe returned the favor, staring hard even as he sent a mental warning to Not-Kyrie to avoid attacking yet.

Joe lifted his hands into the air and then moved them to the top of his head. She did the same, following his lead.

The rest of the team came up and the bossy one sent two men to restrain them.

Not-Kyrie tensed, and Joe’s voice came again in her head. Steady. Let them come closer.

The man that came toward her didn’t hesitate. His hands roughly patted down her shoulders, slipped briefly over her breasts-not seeking a cheap thrill but looking for concealed weapons, despite the fact that her clothes were too tight. His hands moved down to her ribs, her waist, then her hips as she stared at him coldly.

Joe could sense that she didn’t like him. It didn’t matter why he was touching her, simply that he did so without first asking.

Another guard did the same thing to Joe and he looked toward Not-Kyrie and spoke again in her head. Do it. Take him out.

She jumped. Barely bending her legs at all, she pushed herself into the air, and as she rose she drew her knees up to her chest. Before gravity could force her to the ground, she launched a front snap kick at the man who’d been groping her. He had exactly long enough to look surprised before the ball of her foot connected with his mouth and nose. His head snapped back hard, and with little more than a grunt he fell back, unconscious and bleeding.

The leader looked at her and barked his orders. “Do not move again or you will be shot! Don’t test me!” Joe smiled and sent the command to attack, his blood thrilling as she moved. He felt what she felt, her body responded to his commands, and he grinned as she smiled and jumped, again, powerful legs kicking her high into the air and toward the man even as he aimed for her.

“Bite me!” Her voice was harsh, her kick was harder. The guard tried to fire. His aim was good, but she was too fast. The guard started to say something, but her weight slammed into him. There was no finesse, no fancy maneuvers this time. She merely rammed into him with all of her strength and sent him staggering back, trying to catch himself before he fell.

“Shoot them!”

Joe brought his arm down in a savage stroke. The man grunted and before he could even stagger backward, Joe attacked again and again. Three fast strikes and then the guard crashed into the rooftop.

Joe was next to Not-Kyrie a moment later and smiling. He’d grabbed another of the men, with one arm on the man’s neck and one holding the guard’s hands together. The man was trying to fight back, desperate to defend himself against Joe, but he failed. Joe looked toward the leader and called out in cold, savage tones: “You want him alive, you’ll back down right now.”

“You don’t even have a weapon, you idiot,” one of the men answered. The rifle he’d been carrying was knocked aside, but he reached fast and pulled a pistol from his side.

Joe laughed and his eyes flicked over to his assistant. “I don’t need one. I have her.” His mind voice spoke again. Take him out.

She kicked him on his elbow, and even from a distance Joe heard the bones in his arm snap under the impact. The blow left Not-Kyrie’s foot aching, but in comparison to what he suffered, she got off easy.

Another of them tried to get at her from behind. And Joe gave her a silent warning that she didn’t seem to need. She had felt the impacts of his tread on the roof behind her.

That was different. Her Other, Kyrie, was not as sensitive. Joe had come to realize that Kyrie couldn’t hear or see or smell the world as easily. Not-Kyrie responded to his warning with sudden violence, spinning her body at the hips. Her hands caught the man as he reached for her. She used his own momentum and shifted her weight as he reached her. Powerful muscles moved and tensed and the guard let out a loud, terrified scream as he sailed through the air and over the side of the building.

The next one came in low, his left arm held out in front of him and his right pulled back, holding a stout wooden club. She let him come in and as he swung the weapon, she blocked his attack, her wrist slamming into his forearm. A quick twist of her hand and she caught his sleeve. She pulled him forward and swung her other arm in tightly in an elbow strike. His face broke against her. Joe could tell that the blow hurt her arm, but she took her enemy’s club before it hit the ground.

Joe grinned, excited by the conflict, by how quickly she adapted. Her mind was still almost a blank slate in a lot of ways, but she was waking up, learning more and more every time she was in her Hyde form. When he’d first contacted Kyrie’s Other, she was so new and so easily confused by the world that he’d doubted she’d ever be useful. Now she was coming into her own. The self-defense training that Kyrie had been given by her parents carried through the way it was supposed to, and unlike many of the Others, Not-Kyrie reacted to the attacks with a warrior’s instincts.

Her combat-ready mind looked at each person coming her way, assessed the best-possible option and responded immediately. Fleeing was not a part of her makeup. Her reactions were those of a fighter, a survivor. Joe watched her, his arms still holding his target, and reveled in the fury he’d unleashed.

She hit the man she’d already struck once with his club and stepped past him, not bothering to check if he was conscious.

The one Joe had used as a shield started rising to his feet, his eyes looking from her to Joe and back again. Not-Kyrie caught him in her grip and lifted him completely off the ground. He windmilled his arms and tried to regain his balance but before he could she’d slammed his back into the roof hard enough to stun him.

Joe knocked the gunman to the ground and brought both fists down on the man’s skull as hard as he could. Bones shattered under the blow. Joe rose to his feet, not caring if his enemy was alive or dead so long as he was unmoving.

Joe looked at Not-Kyrie for a moment and nodded, his face stony and expressionless. Then he moved over to the man whose arm she had broken. His hand reached out and gripped the spot where the man’s bones hung uselessly within his skin and he squeezed.

The man bucked and thrashed and screamed before he passed out, the sudden, shocking pain too much for him.

And then Joe moved toward her and the one she’d just subdued.

Good job. I knew I could count on you.

“You got shot!” Her voice was loud, nervous.

He looked at his arm and tore the sleeve of his dress shirt down, revealing the wound. It had already stopped bleeding.

We’re fast healers. I’ll be better soon.

Joe crouched next to the man in front of her, who was still trying to catch his breath after being body slammed. He grabbed the man’s left ear in his hand and lifted the man into a half-sitting position. The guard yelped and started to fight until Joe hissed at him.

“Stop fighting. Stop fighting, or I’ll tear your ear off your damned head.” The man was smart enough to listen. That was for the best because Joe wasn’t kidding.

“What are you?” The man’s voice shook. He was terrified.

“Right now?” Joe looked up at the sky for a moment and then looked back down at his prey. “Right now I’m extremely pissed off.”

“What do you want?” The man’s voice broke and he was breathing too fast. He looked ready to cry.

“I want you to answer some questions for me.”

“I can’t.”

“Wrong answer.” Joe shook his hand and the man’s head moved with it. It was simply a choice of going along for the ride or getting his ear torn free. “We’re going to have a talk. You’re going to answer some questions for me.” He smiled and leaned in closer. “And unless you want me to let her start biting pieces out of your thighs, you’re going to answer them.”

He felt Not-Kyrie smile behind him as she looked at the man. His eyes bounced from one of them to the next and then he stared at her teeth. Finally he nodded. Joe could feel her disappointment. Part of her was curious as to what he might taste like.

Not-Cody waited outside for his attackers and rolled his shoulders, keeping himself loose and ready. Joe looked through his eyes and sensed his adrenaline levels. Not-Cody was excited but being cautious. He wanted to know what he could do, how much damage he could deliver and how much he could take, but he wasn’t being stupid about it. Joe looked on through Not-Cody’s senses but felt that same odd resistance he’d experienced before, almost like radio feedback. He tried to shake it off and focus on the battle ahead. On the other side of the building, where the other main entrance lay, he could sense Not-Gene and Not-Tina bracing themselves, preparing for the attack to come.

The air was fresh, clean and laced with dirt, soot and the faint smell of burnt gunpowder.

“Come on then. Let’s dance, you losers.” The voice was deep, and the body it came from was so radically different from Cody’s that Joe had trouble believing they shared a body. Cody’s Other was almost twice the size of the little squirt. His shirt strained and stretched across his shoulders and chest and the waist of his pants was too tight for comfort.

The door opened and two men pointed the business ends of their rifles in his direction.

“Stand still!” The guy on the left came forward, his hands shaking just a bit as he looked toward him.

Joe was tempted to answer them, to see if he could speak through Not-Cody’s mouth, but instead merely sent a command for the Other to attack and defend himself. Just the same Not-Cody’s mouth opened and he answered. Joe frowned, puzzled. Not-Cody was more… awake than the other Others.

Not-Cody’s voice was loud and clear. “I got a better idea for you. You drop your guns and run away and I won’t have to beat your sorry asses!” Joe looked down from the rooftop and shook his head.

The first of the uniformed men aimed and pointed, only what came out wasn’t a bullet. Joe knew immediately because he’d dealt with the box-shaped guns before. Tasers. The darts were moving at high speeds, Joe saw through Cody’s eyes, but they seemed to slow down as he looked at them and the two long wires that led back to the gun.

Not-Cody dodged the darts with ease.

Joe smiled as Not-Cody loped forward, using his hands and his feet alike to get him where he was going. The man was still looking at the dart, his eyes just starting to widen, his mind just registering that he’d missed his target, when his target delivered a vicious uppercut.

Not-Cody had no combat experience. He just had his speed and his strength, his mind and his intuition. The sound of bones breaking reached his ears and he lashed out with his other hand, slapping the man toward the next gunman. The one with the automatic rifle. Not-Cody was excited, his emotions so easy to read: the men attacking moved so slowly-at human speed-while Not-Cody recognized himself to be far from human. Joe could understand the feeling.

The second man let out a yelp that was cut short as his body smashed into the doorjamb. Not-Cody charged forward again, knocking both of the men out of his way as he headed for the next ones.

On the left was a man with a pistol in one hand and a Taser in the other. He would have been a threat, but he didn’t seem to know which weapon to point. Not-Cody grabbed the man with both hands and heaved, swinging the soldier toward the right, once again using the meat he was fighting as a weapon. The guy on the right was still bringing his rifle up when his friend ran into him and sent them both staggering.

Joe Bronx called out in Not-Cody’s head. Take them out. Break them. No mercy.

And to his surprise, Not-Cody answered. “I don’t do mercy. That’s Cody’s shtick.” Joe frowned. This wasn’t what he’d expected. Not-Cody was so different from the others that he pulled himself from the other Other’s mind and merely looked on as the brute finished fighting the guards.

Not-Cody’s hands hit the ground and he brought his legs up to his chest as he twisted his body around. When his head was close to the ground, he kicked out with all his might and his feet drove into the chest of the fifth opponent. The impact sent the soldier through the air and drove him into the ceiling’s tiles before he dropped back to the ground.

And just that fast, the fight was done.

Joe looked down from his position on the roof and stared at Not-Cody as the Hyde stared at the soldiers, all of them bleeding, broken.

Despite his hesitation, Joe moved back to eavesdropping on Not-Cody’s mind, taking in his senses, his emotions, but not saying anything, merely observing. Not-Cody was interesting but also unsettling. He didn’t like that sensation at all. Not-Cody leaned over the first one, the one with the broken face. The man moaned and looked his way, but there was no sign of actual thought in those blue eyes.

“That all you got?” The man didn’t answer. “Heh. Loser.”

Joe wanted to call out-there were others to fight and Not-Cody could have helped-but instead he just observed. There was something going on inside the Hyde’s head that he wanted to understand.

Not-Cody could have charged through the building, could have gone to help the others, but instead he looked at the broken soldiers for a long moment and then shrugged.

Joe pulled away from Not-Cody’s mind when he realized what the Hyde intended to do. Not-Cody wanted to play. The first of the soldiers let out a moan and tried to sit up. He became the first toy.

Not-Gene and Not-Tina stood together at the front of the building, their hands held over their heads. What had been Gene stood on the left. What had been Tina was on the right. Both of them fully understood how the other felt. This was intoxicating. This, all of it, was life, and they were not used to it.

Joe Bronx spoke to them, his voice calm and smooth. Let them come to you. Let them think they have the advantage. When they come closer, take them down.

Not-Gene shook his head. “Why don’t we just kill them now?” He was genuinely curious, Joe could feel that.

Not-Tina nodded enthusiastically.

There are too many of them. You have eleven of them coming your way. The view from the roof had its advantages.

They looked at each other. “Eleven?” Not-Gene frowned. He was already cautious, like his Other. While Not-Gene was thinking, Not-Tina crouched down and grabbed at the cement near her feet. It was broken and her fingers broke it a second time, tearing chunks of the stuff away from the sidewalk. She squinted at the debris and heaved, pulling two substantial lumps of the sidewalk away.

She hefted the pieces, each weighing easily twenty pounds, and then stepped back from the door.

“What are you doing?” Not-Gene looked toward her, but Joe already understood. He could feel her thoughts, limited though they were. Neither of them was as fully aware as Not-Cody was yet. They were still waking from their fifteen-year naps, and they were not as capable of thought as Not-Cody. They were growing, becoming full personalities, but they weren’t there yet. What made Not-Cody so different? Joe had no idea.

Not-Tina looked to Not-Gene. “Ever go bowling?”

“No.”

“Time to learn a new game, hon.”

The door opened a moment later, and the soldiers started pouring out. They were not cautious enough. They were carrying firearms and probably thought that gave them an advantage. Not-Tina hurled a slab of concrete toward the men, taking several of them out at once.

Not-Tina let out a battle cry and jumped at the doors and the men started retreating, probably ready to piss themselves. She was a savage and Joe had been in her mind when she attacked the mobsters and took the money from them. Not-Tina was filled with rage; it was a part of her as surely as Tina shared the same body with her. Tina was loud and brash, true, but this one? She wanted blood. She wanted to break things.

Apparently Not-Gene didn’t want her to have all of the fun. “Save some for me!”

She didn’t answer. She just screamed and threw her whole body into an effort to knock a man senseless. The soldier slammed into the wall of the building and his body left a dent.

Not-Gene didn’t charge into the fray. Instead he reached for the pistol he’d shoved into his belt and checked the safety. Joe grinned again. Not-Kyrie had been trained in self-defense as a result of Kyrie taking the classes. The same was true of Not-Gene. Gene had been taught firearm safety by his father. Apparently the men in the Rothstein family went hunting. Joe could glean that much with ease. Gene was afraid of guns. Not-Gene didn’t share in that fear.

Not-Gene shot two soldiers that would have probably killed Not-Tina. Joe, meanwhile, was marveling at how savage Not-Tina was and how careful and calculating Not-Gene was in comparison. Just then Joe felt two Taser darts slam into Not-Gene’s arm. Joe shut off the mental connection he had with the Other just before the current blasted through him. On the rooftop he could hear Not-Gene scream in pain.

Tasers are interesting devices. They send electric current through the body at a voltage level that closely mimics the charge the human brain and nervous system use. The end result is a complete and very painful overload of the nervous system. Muscle control is instantly removed and most people are paralyzed for as long as the charge is administered. Normally the only damage done is in the form of two small punctures that allow the charge to contact the body directly.

Ah, but the pain they generate? That’s something else entirely. Joe had experienced it a few times and had no desire to feel it again.

Gene’s Other had never experienced pain directly before. He had never experienced much of anything before, really. He howled as the charge hit and promptly dropped to the ground. His vision blurred, his teeth clenched, his hands jittered and a deep groan came from his throat.

Just as quickly the pain vanished. The man on the other end of the long leads from the Taser looked down at him and stepped closer. “You got any kind of sense, you’re going to stay there and behave. I don’t want to juice you again.”

Not-Gene let out an animal roar and tried to stand up. He reached for the darts in his arm, intent on pulling them out, and the man hit the switch and juiced him again. The pain hit again and laid him flat. Spittle flew from his lips, and the world through his eyes lost shape and definition.

“Gunnnnna k-killl yhuuuuu… ” Without even trying, Joe could feel the Other’s frustration.

“Stay down, you idiot.” The man was talking, his lips moved, his face started to smile or to sneer; it was hard to say which.

Not-Tina took two darts in her hip and let out a shriek as the current hit her nervous system. She hit the ground, her body twitching and a long, drawn-out “Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee” coming from her mouth.

Joe felt their rage; their helplessness was almost as overwhelming as their fury. Not-Gene tried to sit up again and felt the current smash him backward again. There was nothing he could do, and that knowledge was worse than the pain moving through him. Joe understood that. So he sent for help, even as he and Not-Kyrie crossed the rooftop to look down on the fighting below.