Run: The Gift

This is a story I wrote from summer of 2011 to summer of 2013. I had so much fun writing it that I wrote a sequel and am working on a third. WARNING: it could need some editing, I apologize.

Run: The Gift

 

Run, run, don’t stop! Just keep running! It was me, Jay Evans (the first in command), Chris Evans (second in command, my brother), Jason Waters, and Marc Bristol that is the group we haven’t quite come up with a name for it, more later. We were getting chased by some super-intelligent terrorists; that’s the only way to explain them. And they were gaining on us. “This way!” Jason shouted. We ducked behind a building. I heard five of them run past, out of seven. It was my turn to make a split second decision. I looked up at the building and saw a fire escape ladder about ten feet up. “Jump!” I commanded at the others. I went first then Chris then Jason then Marc. When Marc jumped he made a special effort to kick the lead terrorist into the other one. Bought us some time.

“That was close.” Jason said.

“Too close.” Chris added.

“Yeah, well its not over yet,” I said “yo, Marc?”

“Yeah?” He said from the edge of the building we were standing on top of.

“You down for a fight?”

“Any day, any time.” He said with a smile and cracked his knuckles. I smiled too.

“Alright, guys, over here.” I said from the edge next to Marc. Okay, lets try to get down to the street as casual as possible, watch each others-”

The door to the roof got kicked down, not open, down. It was the other five, even fiercer looking. We ran to a different edge of the roof facing another building the same height. Without stopping my speed I said “Marc, hold ‘em off.” He whipped around ready to fight. Jason, Chris, and I were running at the same speed headed straight for the edge. Looking almost synchronized we jumped up to the edge and without losing momentum we leapt off the edge. Down one story, through the window on the other building. Sounds easy, right? Not quite, factoring in the room for error of the jump and adding the fact that we were being chased made it nearly impossible. We all went in different windows but on the same floor we met in the hall and found the stairs. “Down.” I said to them. We heard a crash in the room next to the stairs. The door flung open and Marc appeared in the doorway. We sighed in relief. “They’re gone.” He said.

“For now.” I looked at my watch and tapped the “clock” button.

I’m guessing you’re wondering what’s going on and why we seem superhuman and why we have super hi-tech watches. Here’s the background on all that. Chris, blonde hair, Marine style haircut, tan skin, standing at six feet, broad chested, with big shoulders and arms was our tactical specialist, also the fastest talker, he could talk his way out of anything, Jason, blonde hair, standing at five-foot-ten with a long, slender body is the fastest, also the most field-smart person I’ve ever met, if I was stranded behind enemy lines, he’s the one I’d want with me, Marc, dark skinned, small afro standing at five-foot-eight, built with all muscle and big hands, was the fighter of us all, and me, short brown hair, standing at six-foot-two, with a toned body and lighting fast reflexes and quick thinking, I was the leader, together we formed a perfect unit of terrorist fighting teens. We are high school aged kids working for the government. Yes, the US government. The government had been attacked at the pentagon by these terrorists that I mentioned before. Ten government officials killed, hundreds injured. CIA, Department of Defense, NSA, FBI and the D.C. police department all tried to figure out what happened. Somehow the DoD Counter Terrorism Unit found us, we have accelerated running, jumping and fighting ability, so we were tested and recruited. We also have fast healing abilities so if we break an ankle, all we need is about a week of rehabilitation and we can run again. No one knows how, and we don’t talk about it but we love every minute of it. As for the watches, we got them from the government they have calling, speech-to-text, walkie-talkies, GPS tracking, a personal GPS system, and a regular digital clock. As for the guys chasing us they were terrorists but super advanced and well trained. They could also adapt in a split second to blend in with the people in their surroundings. Now, back to the situation.

 4:32 P.M. it read. Incoming text message scrolled across the screen. I held it up to my mouth and said open clearly. It said “debriefing at 5:00.” It was from captain William Lennox, our supervisor. “Oh, crap.” I said.

“What’s up?” Jason said.

“Let’s head to the hotel and get cleaned up, we’re getting debriefed in a half hour.”

We went to the nearest street corner as a black Cadillac Escalade pulled up. We knew it was a government agent sent to pick us up. Oh yeah, our watches have a GPS tracker too. We piled in the back seat and without saying anything the driver pulled away. “Can you take us to the Comfort Inn on 71^st street? We have to get cleaned up.”

“Okay.” The driver said. When we pulled up to the hotel I called Lennox.

“Hey, Lennox, can we have an extra half hour to get cleaned up?”

“I’ll see what I can do.” He replied.

“Thanks.” I said. I knew we had an extra half hour; Lennox had his ways of getting us time. “Pick us up in 25 minutes.” I said to the driver. He nodded and drove off. “Okay guys, let’s make this quick.” I said we ran in and hurried to our rooms that were adjoined on the 21^st floor. We walked past what looked like either a cheerleading squad or a gymnastics team, what’s the difference? We were having extreme amounts of trouble to stay focused on the task at hand. They were looking at us, we were looking at them, wouldn’t be bad except we were busy. “Guys!” I hissed. “Stay focused!” They all snapped back into what we had to do. When we got to our rooms I slid in the card and opened the door. Jason walked in behind me. We decided not to have the brothers in the same room. “Did you see those girls?!” he asked.

“Mmmmhm.” I said with a smile as I grabbed a towel. He flicked on the TV. 
We walked into the hallway where we first saw Marc and Jason and then two of the cheerleaders. I raised my eyebrows in disbelief. “Hey, its Marc, what did you expect?” Jason muttered. I laughed. “Marc!” I yelled. “Let’s go!” I knew I didn’t have to yell at Chris he would follow Marc. Marc looked up. He said bye in his cool way and as he was turning the girl said “Hey wait.” Marc turned back around she slipped him a little note of paper. He didn’t even read it, just stuck it in his pocket and walked away. We looked at each other; he put a huge grin on his face. We all walked out together. I looked at my watch when we got to the door. I saw the Escalade pull up. ‘Right on time’ I thought.

When we got to the building where we were meeting Lennox I noticed it was a long enough walk from the car to the door to ask Marc a serious question, serious to me anyways. “Okay, Marc, its killing me. What does it say?” I asked. He pulled the note out of his pocket. We looked up and saw that the door was five feet away. We pulled off to the side of the door. We all huddled around Marc anxious to see what it said. He didn’t bother read it out loud because he knew we could all see. It said Isabella with a phone number and what I assumed was a room number, 21-37. Our floor, just down the hall. At the bottom in smaller print as if to just fit it in it said bring anyone else that’s there with you, tonight. We all laughed in amazement. Once we pulled ourselves together we walked in. William Lennox was a well built, tough looking, scruffy faced, six-foot-four, thirty-four year old, ex-Delta Force captain who led our team. None of us had the guts to even think about crossing him.

The meeting couldn’t have lasted longer, so it felt. Marc’s knees kept bouncing up and down and we couldn’t keep our eyes off the clock. All together, from when we walked in to when we walked out, the meeting lasted forty-five minutes but it felt like hours.

       We told the driver to get back to the hotel as soon as possible. The next few minutes were exhilarating the car must have been doing eighty on an inner-city street. I didn’t know he had it in him honestly. We stumbled out of the car and ran inside we took the elevator to the 21^st floor. On the way up I said we should probably change saying as we were wearing basketball shorts and grubby t-shirts. They agreed and we went to our rooms and put on some good looking clothes and met back in the hallway we walked briskly down the hall. “37, over here.” I said they all ran over to where I was standing. I reached up to knock on the door and Marc pushed it back down. “My note, my knock.” He said. I backed off. He let out a deep breath of air and knocked three solid times. I looked at my watch, 7:58. It seemed like it went in slow motion but finally we saw an eye look in the peephole. The door unlocked and then opened. Isabella stood there in a pink t-shirt and a jean miniskirt. I looked around as we entered the room, there were four other girls and a guy. We all looked at Isabella. “I know I made it seem like something big and it is but we wanted to get to know you… four first.” She said counting us. Then she invited us to sit down. It felt like an orientation on the first few days at school. We all said our names and where we were from. When the question of where we went to school came up we all looked at each other as if to say ‘uh-oh’. “Well,” Marc started in. He paused, thinking. “We go to school in Virginia about a half hour from here.

“Oh, cool.” She said with a smile. “What brings you to D.C. though?”

Marc had a reply to this too.“ School’s already out for us so we decided to take a month long trip here, our parents barely let us go, but here we are.” He said, calm, cool, and collected as always. One of the other girls phone rang. She flipped it open and read the text. “The DJ’s here!” she said excitedly.

“DJ?!” I exclaimed. Marc shot me a look that said just go with it and I did. Isabella led us to the stairs and she started up. Thing is, the 21^st floor was the top floor. “Rooftop party.” She explained sensing our confusion. As we got closer to the roof we felt the floor shake a little with the beat of the speakers, I smiled, I liked this already. She pushed the door open, which already had a cinderblock holding it open. Before we walked out I said to my guys “In case things go bad, keep your walkie-talkies on channel two.” They all nodded and we walked out to see Isabella and three other cheerleaders with her waiting. I figured the last one was off with the guy in the room. We all went to the other side of the rooftop and sat on the edge facing the crowd. I was engaged in a conversation with a girl named Christina Brooks, who was about five-foot-six with long dirty blonde hair, a nice smile, a cute laugh, l and a personality that made me wonder why God put her in front of me now, when I saw a beam of light at the doorway. I looked at it and saw five big guys walk in definitely not on the guest list. I tapped Marc and nodded at the door saying, “We got company.” 

“As always, no fun.” He replied turning away from Isabella, clearly upset.

“Okay, you four,” I said. The girls turned to us. “Just try to blend in with the crowd, and if people start to get hurt, take the first chance you get to make it to the door and get to your room and lock the door.”

“What’s going on?” A new cheerleader whose name was Shannon asked looking worried and puzzled at the same time.

“We’ll explain later, right now we gotta go.” I said looking around to see where the bad guys went. I motioned for the girls to go. Two went to one side of the building two more (Christina and Isabella) to the other. Without even seeing to where we’d land if we jumped, because it was the only escape route, I told my guys to follow me. It was dark but there was no choice. We took just a few steps backwards, ran and without the slightest bit of hesitation jumped off the edge I looked back to see three things before landing on a roof fifteen feet below the one we jumped from and roll.

1.   My guys right behind me (even Marc)

2.   The girls watching us, scared and holding their hands over their mouths.

3.   The bad guys standing at the edge of the roof looking around for a different way down, there wasn’t anything close by.

I surveyed all this and brought my eyes back down to the roof just in time to spot my landing. I landed, rolled and got up and ran to get out of the others ways to do the same. We all gathered on the far side of the roof when I realized we were free for now. “Alright, where do we go?” I asked.

We looked back to the building we just jumped from and the bad guys weren’t there anymore. I went to the opposite edge and looked down, I guessed it was about ten feet to the ground. “Okay, I got an idea,” I said. “They looked up lets try to get to the street, find an abandoned building somewhere out of the way and stay there ‘til we know they’re gone.” They all nodded and got to the edge. We all dropped down and looked around. We were in an alley and I pointed down to the other side. We all started down the alley. When we got to the end I looked all around for an abandoned building. We didn’t see the bad guys around but we knew we didn’t have much time I looked to the opposite side of the street and saw it. I started to run and they all followed me to a brick building with broken windows we got inside climbed the stairs to the top floor. I looked out a window and saw no sign of the bad guys. I looked at my watch, which said 9:45 P.M. I called Lennox and asked for a pick up. They tracked our location and picked us up. “Hotel.” Jason said.

       When we got back to the hotel we walked in feeling embarrassed with sweat dripping down our faces with our clothes dirty, but we didn’t show signs of embarrassment. The lobby was empty except for some people reading the newspaper and the people behind the desk. We walked to the elevator Marc pressed the 21 button. We all stood there silently. Then as if on cue Marc and Chris said “That was crazy.”

“I know!” I said. “I just hope we don’t do two things: scare the girls off but also bring people from the outside in to our crazy lives.”  We were all silent the rest of the way. When the elevator bell rang at the top floor I peeked out and checked if the girls, or some of the terrorists were in the hall waiting, they weren’t, thank God. We got into our rooms, got cleaned up, changed clothes and walked down the hall thinking we didn’t even have to ask if the girls wanted an explanation. We knocked on the door and waited, no answer. I looked at my watch and it said 10:27 P.M. I didn’t think that they would still be on the roof, nor did I want to check in case the bad guys went back there. Marc, as if reading my mind called Isabella we heard her phone ring from inside the room. It rang, and rang and then it stopped and the missed call tone went off. We ran back to our rooms all thinking the same thing, what if they were held hostage for ransom? Jason and I got to our room and slid the card in I ran my fingers through my hair. “What are we going to do now?” I asked him. He shrugged and thought a minute. “You’re the leader.” He said. But then his face lit up, I knew he had an idea, good or not it would probably work. “What if we went to the front desk and asked the guy to see their security cameras for the whole hotel telling him that peoples lives are at stake.” He said.

“Okay, but what if he doesn’t?” I asked, considering all possibilities.

“Then we break up and search for them ourselves.” He replied. Just then we heard a knock on the door. I peeked out and saw Marc. I opened the door he walked in brushing past me, looking annoyed. Chris walked past our eyes met and his eyes said he was annoyed too. “What’s going on?” I asked.

“What are we going to do?” Marc asked.

“I thought we could go to the front desk and ask to see the security cameras saying lives are at stake,” Jason broke in. “There’s no chance they don’t have a camera in every hallway and every public room.”

“And what if they took them out of the building?” Marc asked. He had a good point.

“Then its up to us to find them.” Jason said clearly feeling defeated.

“Okay, let’s just try it.” I said, making the final decision. I was the one that usually did that, being the head of the group. We all circled up and bumped each others right fist all four at the same time. This is what we did to get ready for a mission. It told one another that we had each other’s back, no matter what. I went to my bed and from underneath I pulled a cardboard box duck taped shut. “What’s that?” Chris asked. He had a reason to be confused. On the side of the box in messy handwriting ‘use them wisely!’ It was from Lennox. I put the box on the desk and pulled out my pocketknife. “I’m actually not sure. Its from Lennox though.” I said pointing to the three words on the side. I pulled the box open trying to think of what it might be. I saw an all black case in the box. I pulled it out. “You ready?” I asked them. They all looked at me as if I was stupid. I flicked the case open and saw four semi-automatic 9mm Glocks with magazines right next to them. The three of them gasped like little girls getting told they’re getting a pony. I put on a look that said ‘oh, yeah!’ remembering that I had asked for something to protect us on serious missions, again Lennox had said ‘I’ll see what I can do’. I remembered he had taught us how to use them but never actually gave us one to keep. They were in a square of foam. We took them all out carefully, as if to be worried they might go off, and grabbed the clips that had already been loaded. When I lifted the case to put it back in the box I noticed something rattled from underneath the foam. I put it back down and lifted the foam. The bottom of the case was full of ammunition boxes and four extra clips. There was a letter on top that said ‘two clips each, that’s it. Call for more ammo. Good luck!’ “Guys check this out!” I said. They all ran over to see what I had discovered. They all looked in amazement. I told them what the letter said and we all picked up our extras. I closed the case and put it back under the bed.

We decided it was too late by then to go looking for them. “First thing in the morning, 4:45 wake up.” I said. I even knew that was too early for us but it had to be done. They nodded and Chris and Marc went to their room. I changed in to basketball shorts and crawled into bed. I knew that sleep was going to be impossible.

     Much to my surprise I fell asleep at around 1:00 A.M. I jumped to an upright position when I heard my watch’s alarm going off. I picked it up and turned it off. Sure enough, 4:45 A.M. I hopped in the shower as Jason was still waking up. When I was changed and came out of the bathroom he was out of his covers but still laying down, legs off the bed upper body on. “Hey Jason,” I yelled. “Pancakes are hot!” He sprang upright and said “Where?!” Once he realized that there were no pancakes he groaned and stumbled to the bathroom. Once I heard the door lock I went over to my suitcase and grabbed my gun and the extra clip. I sat down on the chair next to my bed examining it. It didn’t seem real. Sure we had been trained in street�"fighting and had accelerated everything, but guns just sent our powers through the roof. I heard the bathroom door and Jason walked out, grabbed his gun and clips. We looked at each other and started laughing in disbelief that it was really happening. We went out into the hall and knocked on Chris and Marc’s door. They both came out ready to go. We did our fist bump and walked towards the elevator. With the guns in our waistbands we felt like a million bucks. I punched the Lobby button and we started to go down. I shut my eyes and started to breathe deeply preparing myself for the events to come.

     “I’m sorry, sir I cannot do that for you.” The man behind the counter said.

“It’s a matter of life and death.” I said annoyed.

“What kind of life and death?” He asked, obviously confused. I gave him a look that said ‘what kind of a question is that?

“Real life and death!” I said, trying to not lose my temper. There was a long pause with a stare down between the short man and me. He turned and walked to where we were standing. He didn’t stop where we were he just told us to follow him. We went into a hallway with no suites in it just doors with no numbers at the middle of the hall the man turned with the ‘I’m going to kill you all’ look in his eyes. Before I had a chance to tell my guys to fight back Marc had already blocked a punch and broken the guys nose. He stumbled back. I told him he was out numbered and that he should just lead us to the door without anymore troubles but he retaliated and came at me. I was prepared when he came with a kick right at the left side of my chest. I grabbed his leg and flipped him backwards in the air. He landed on his face and lay still, groaning. Marc put his right foot toes under his stomach and rolled him over. I have to admit, if I hadn’t seen him before the fight, I wouldn’t have known he was human his face was so bruised and bloody. Marc crouched down to get closer to the man who lay flat on his back. “Next time make sure your target is one a bit more manageable.” He tapped him on the chest. “Good talk.” Then he stood up and turned away. We walked a few steps down the hall. “Be careful,” the man said in a distorted voice “danger awaits at every turn.” He started to laugh but laughter quickly turned to a coughing fit with blood coming out of his mouth. We knew he was a bad guy trying to get closer to us to take us down. We also knew that he was probably right, danger was most likely awaiting us at every turn.

By the time we had beat the man up and left him lying on the floor it was 6:15 A.M. A little further down the hall we saw a room that said Security and above that there was a window I peeked in and saw no sign of life in there. I reached for the door handle. Locked. “Back up.” Marc said. He stepped forward and rammed his shoulder into the door. The lock snapped and the door swung open. Who needs to pick locks when you have Marc? Marc pulled out his gun and waved us in. I pulled out mine and went in holding it by my side with my finger on the trigger. I saw an electronic light from the far corner. I walked over with everyone following me, guns in hand. I sat down in the old rolling chair and examined the screens, fifteen in all. No unusual activity, of course, because nothing ever went our way. We heard footsteps from the doorway. I looked at Marc; frustrated that he had left the door wide open. He said nothing and we started to look frantically for a place to hide. When the footsteps got closer we all just ducked behind the nearest objects. The footsteps stopped and the voice said “Huh.” Curious as to why she didn’t see anyone. I looked for a brick, a rock or something to throw in case she shut the door. When she started whistling on her way back to the door I ran as quickly and quietly as possible to get as close to the doorway as I could get. It was unbelievable I hadn’t gotten detected. She didn’t even glance back. She walked out with the door closing slowly behind her. Just then I found the wooden door prop and put it at the base of the doorframe and waited. The door hit it and stopped without a sound. “Come on!” I whispered to the guys. They all came running over quietly. “How didn’t she see the lock was broken?” Chris asked.

       “I don’t even care,” I said. “We’re incredibly lucky she didn’t.” They all accepted this and we circled up by the doorway. “Okay, where to first?” I said bringing the tone down to a whisper worried that someone might hear. They all looked at me confused without a clue what to say. I sighed and poked my head out the door. “Clear.” I whispered back to them. I opened the door carefully and we all walked out casually, we put our guns back in our waistbands and continued down the hall. When we got to the lobby we continued casually towards the front door looking at nothing but the door. We got to the street without a problem. “Okay, we need to brainstorm what to do.” We all decided that we would go to a breakfast diner and discuss it over breakfast.

       We sat down in a booth at a nearly empty diner. All of us ordered as much food as we could eat in twenty minutes. If you were in that much stress in the hours of 5:30 to 6:45 in the morning without food you would too. “Okay,” I said taking a bite out of a perfectly crunchy piece of bacon. “Where would these guys take them if they wanted us to find them but not easily?” We all pondered that for a little. “The pentagon?” Jason said sarcastically. “Not helpful, Jason,” I snapped. “This is serious.”

“What about that sketchy part of town where no one ever goes ‘cause they might get knifed or something?” Chris said almost spitting out food because he was so proud of his idea. I have to admit it wasn’t a bad suggestion.

“Good point.” I said. We thought some more. We didn’t come up with anything better than the sketchy neighborhood that Chris mentioned. We paid the waitress and left the diner, stuffed. Within five or so blocks our lightning fast metabolisms kicked in and we were ready for action. I looked at my watch and tapped ‘map’ it wasn’t a map just on the face of the watch it actually projected out of the screen. I looked around hoping no stranger saw my gadget. It pointed out where we were and I programmed in Lehner Street. It loaded the route and pointed us straight down the street. I closed the map knowing it would beep to tell me to look at it for the next direction. We jogged down the street to make up for the time we spent at breakfast. The watch beeped and pointed west we turned down a street lined with shops and tall glass buildings. At the end of that street we got directed east. As we approached the end we got pointed east again. We turned down that street. It was deserted. I looked at my watch. The words ‘you have reached your destination good-bye’ scrolled across the screen. This is it I said looking at the blue street sign which sure enough said Lehner Street. We started to walk down the sidewalk slowly, watching each other’s back. We came to a building that had cracks in the side and one of those doors that was in a rectangular cave almost. I went up to it. “Looks sketchy enough.” I muttered just to the guys could hear me. I didn’t know quite what to do in this situation, knock on the door and say ‘hey bro, can I have those girls back?’ or figure out how to break in I went with the first one but minus the talking part. I took a deep breath and knocked on the door, which had no peephole or one of those eye slits to see out which was a good thing for us. It took a good three minutes to hear footsteps from behind the door in that time we had pulled out our guns. Marc shoved us out of the way and stood at the door waiting. We heard the lock get unlocked and the door flung open. Before the man in the door even realized who we were Marc had punched him and he was on the floor, knocked out cold. We stepped over the body with our guns ready to shoot anyone in our way. We had an unfriendly greeting by an older man than the one who answered the door. He was yelling at us saying that we should get out before anyone gets hurt. Marc held up his gun and cocked it. The man fell silent and through his hands up. “Shoot me, I dare you to see what happens.” Just then we heard footsteps running towards us, without hesitation Jason, Chris and I shot them all down, Marc stood their staring at the man with eyes that could make some kind of a super-soldier fall backwards, not flinching. Once all the shots had been fired, thirteen in all, we all looked back at the man who had began sweating, who wouldn’t, all of his men were either dead or knocked out. He was alone. I nodded to Jason and Chris. We went to the back of the room to figure out where he was holding the girls. There must have been twenty-five different doors. I knew that no matter what I was not about to open all those doors when they would only be in one. “You’ll never find them!” The man shouted over his shoulder. Marc sprang forward and pressed the gun firmly against his head. “Where are they?” He demanded. When the man looked at him without saying a word Marc started to slowly tighten his finger on the trigger, threatening to pull it. I knew he wouldn’t because he knows better than to shoot someone with the key to something we’re looking for. “Alright, alright!” the man shouted in desperation. Marc didn’t budge.

“Lead us there.” He demanded through gritted teeth. The man turned around slowly and walked us to the left of where we had originally stood just inside the doorway. He looked back with nervous eyes. We all had our guns, cocked and pointed at the back of his head. We turned right down a dimly lit hallway at the end there was a metal door with no label. The man pulled out a key and jammed it in, opened the door and stepped aside. Okay this is getting weird, too easy. I entered first with my guys close behind. I was really surprised the man hadn’t led us to a room filled with fifty guys with machine guns ready to blow our brains out. Just four girls, in metal chairs, hands and feet tied, mouths duct taped shut, and tears running from their terrified eyes. We untied them as fast as we could and made sure they were okay. They wiped their tears and nodded with out a word. Chris walked over to the one he was talking to on the roof of our hotel. Nicole was her name. She had a black eye and a swollen lip. Not gonna lie she looked pretty bad. No one else looked too beat up some scrapes from getting forced into the room. They were alive, good enough. “Okay, lets get you guys outta here.” We led them back down the hallway into the main room where we came in. When we got there we saw the guy Marc had knocked out on his hands and knees trying to pull him together to get up. I crept up and picked him up and put, okay, dropped him on his back a few feet from the door with a loud thud. “We’re good.” I said to the group. We all walked out the door and stood there looking at each other trying to get a grasp on what had happened in the last fifteen minutes. “Okay,” Christina said clearly wanting answers. “I don’t know whether to ask you guys who or what you are.”

“Well, we told you who we are last night,” I began to explain. “But we also lied to you, we don’t go to school in Virginia and we’re not on a parent-free vacation in D.C. you’re not going to believe this but we’re on a government mission that I can’t explain right now.” They all looked at me wide eyed and confused. “So what, do you guys work for like the CIA or something?” Isabella asked with a hint of sarcasm. “Yeah, something like that.” I said sensing her sarcasm. Just then we heard the screech of tires and everyone flinched. I looked down to the end of the narrow street and saw the familiar black Cadillac Escalade pull up. Lennox got out of the passenger side door. “Uh-oh” I muttered as we started towards him. The girls hesitated but followed us. “What the hell is going on?” he shouted. These words echoed off the walls making them seem much louder than it actually was.

“We made a rescue,” I started. I began to explain what kind of rescue it was when he broke in.

“Kidnapping?” he asked seeing the girls. I nodded.

“Who was holding them?” he asked.

“Who do you think?” I said.

“Alright, well let’s get all of you back to headquarters and you can explain, beginning, middle and end, nothing left out.” He said firmly. We knew we had no choice so we got in the car not wanting to do nothing but get back to the hotel, clean up and sleep. The whole ride to headquarters was silent.

       We got there and one-by-one got out of the car. Just then I questioned how we all fit in there but didn’t say anything. Lennox sat us down in a room with a metal table and big comfortable office chairs. We all sat down, four on each side, Lennox at the head. “Okay, go.” He said folding his hands on the table.

       I started to explain how we were on the roof of the hotel and we saw the guys in the doorway and pointed out that somehow they saw who we were with, pointing to the girls. I said we didn’t think that they did so we told them to blend in and jumped to the building next to ours and started to run. Marc explained how we got to the empty building and got back to the hotel when it was safe. “Then we went to knock on their door, and no one came and all the lights were off.” He continued.

“Yeah,” I began to add. “We didn’t go to the roof ‘cause we knew the party ended at 10:00.” Lennox listened intently.

“We all thought the same thing, kidnapping, but agreed that it was too late and that we better get some sleep.” Jason chimed in for the first time.

“When did you find the guns?” Lennox asked. I hadn’t realized he noticed them.

“Last night right before bed, I decided it was time,” I said. “Came in handy if you can believe it.” He nodded.

“What happened with you four?” he asked the girls who looked at each other thinking of who to talk first. “So we were on the roof trying to blend in like Jay told us to,” Christina began. “But the bad guys found us and dragged us to their van, threw us in and drove us somewhere. When we got there they took us to a room and shoved us into chairs and tied our hands and feet, put duct tape over our mouths and just left, locking the door.” She stopped, looking horrified at the memories. “I tried to resist getting put in the chair, obviously a bad idea.” Nicole said pointing to her face. Lennox winced.  “So you guys fought everyone off, found them and got them out?” Lennox asked us making sure he had all the facts straight.

“Yeah.” I replied. He nodded at me.

“Where are you all from?” he said turning back to the girls.

“We go to a high school in Fairfax, we’re here for a cheerleading competition.” Isabella said. Nicole looked as if she might cry remembering the competition.

“Okay, why don’t you all head back to the hotel, get cleaned up, eat something and get some rest.” Lennox said. Then he led us all out of the room and stopped Marc, Jason, Chris and I just before the front door. The girls stopped a few steps ahead when they realized we had. “Good job, guys,” He said with a small smile. “But no more partying.” We agreed, thanked him and walked out the door. We piled back in the Escalade and drove to the hotel.

       We arrived at the hotel and walked in. When we realized that people might have realized what happened that morning we put on our bold faces and walked directly to the elevator the lobby was empty and the people behind the desk didn’t acknowledge us. We got in the elevator and Jason pushed the 21^st floor button. “You believe us now?” I asked Christina with a smile. “Yeah, we believe you.” She said with a giggle then winced in pain. We got to the 21^st floor and separated. When Jason and I got to our room I expected to see bad guys in there. We walked in and saw that everything was as we left it. We sat on the end of our beds in silence recapping what happened. I looked at my watch; it was only 1:27 P.M. “I’m starving.” I groaned.

“Me too.” Jason agreed flopping back onto his bed. We cleaned up and put fresh clothes on planning on meeting up with Marc and Chris to go get lunch. “We gotta do laundry soon.” I told Jason. “At least I do.” I continued when he started to look in his suitcase surveying the rest of his clean clothes.

“Yeah, me too.” He said finally.

       We went to the door adjoining the two rooms and knocked. Chris answered, hair still wet from a shower. Shower, good idea I thought wishing I had taken one.

“What’s up?” He asked.

“I was thinking we could go grab some lunch somewhere, wanna?” I said.

“Sure, hold on.” He said turning back into his room. “Marc!” He shouted. “Hurry up, let’s go!” He turned back to face me and Jason after Marc made a wise guy comment about Chris sounding like his dad. We all met eyes and counted to three on our fingers. Right on three as if on cue Marc swung the bathroom door open and we all laughed at how we knew when he was going to come out. “You ready, there beauty queen?” I said to Marc jokingly. He shot me a look and said, “Hey, I could’ve taken much, much longer.” He said as he ran his fingers through his hair. We all gave him a look forgiving him for taking as long as he did but not taking as long as he could.

We decided on the way to the elevator to treat the girls to dinner since they had stayed calm (for the most part) through it all. We ate lunch just at the hotels buffet in the lobby. We got to our rooms and hung out watching TV or listening to music while we waited. I decided to call Christina and asked her if they wanted to go to dinner.

We got to room 21-37 and I knocked. Christina came to the door and invited us in. We all walked in and stood in the living room of their enormous suite, which was like both of our rooms, combined. They had all gotten cleaned up as we had. Even Nicole looked better. “We thought we should thank you for being brave through this whole situation by taking you all to dinner.” I said. They all smiled and agreed. As we were all walking down the hall I realized I didn’t have my wallet on me. “Hold on, guys I gotta pop in my room, I forgot something.” I said as we got close to the elevators. Our rooms were just three rooms down on the opposite side from the elevators. They all stopped as I continued toward room 21-15. I grabbed my wallet from the desk drawer and left. On the walk to the door I checked to see how much I had. 20, 40, 60, 80 dollars I counted. Should have some left over I thought. I stuck it in my side pocket and walked out. We got on the elevator and started down.

       When we got to the lobby I saw that there were policemen standing on the far side of the room, not facing us. I looked to my left and saw a side exit door. “This way.” I said. I was hoping that Jason, Chris, and Marc knew why but also hoped the girls didn’t. I later found out that it went as I hoped. We decided to go to Applebee’s for dinner, it was close by and not that hard to get in to. “Why do you think cops were in the lobby back at the hotel?” Shannon asked Jason. He looked nervous for a moment thinking of what to say. “I have no idea.” He replied. Shannon accepted this and continued walking. Marc, Chris, Jason and I were constantly looking around making sure we wouldn’t have any trouble. For now at least, we were clear.

       When we walked into the restaurant, it was a lot less crowded than the noise level would have made anyone else think. We got seated and ordered. “So who are these guys and why are they chasing you?” Isabella asked. We all looked at each other with eyes that said ‘you first’.

“Well,” I began with a heavy sigh. “It all started in March this year, I don’t know if you heard about the terrorist attack on the pentagon.”

“How could we not?” Nicole added rolling her eyes. She was clearly referencing how that was the only thing on the news for weeks.

“Right,” I continued. “So by now you’re wondering why that involves us, but just listen. Someone on the National Security team here had heard of a couple kids in the D.C. area that might be able to help, us. So all of our families and us were called to the building we went to today with our supervisor, Captain William Lennox, we just call him Lennox and the Secretary of Defense basically said that we were ‘invited’ to help to hunt down these super-smart-super-quick terrorists that can change to blend in with the people around them in a split second.” I paused. They all looked amazed and puzzled at the same time. “So why did the government think you could help?” Christina asked. Marc gave me a look that said ‘I got this one.’ He took a deep breath trying to figure out how to start. “We have some powers of our own.” He started. Good going, champ, I thought, make it seem that they should have known.

“What kind of powers?” Shannon asked. Jason’s eyes got big.  “Oh, I so got this one!” He shouted excited that he finally got the chance to talk. At least Marc didn’t say anything to make it clear that it was his turn. Just then the waitress finally came out with our plates piled with food. Once the waitress said “Enjoy your meals” with that unbelievably fake smile and left, Jason picked up the conversation as if nothing happened. “We have accelerated running, jumping and strength.” He said, and that’s it. Wow they were not doing so well at slowly explaining things today, they’re caught up in the ‘fast life’ we live.

“To be honest, I was wondering how you jumped off the side of the hotel with out getting scared or stopping I get it now though.” Shannon said. There was about a five-minute pause while we started our meals. “This is really good!” I said with my mouth full pointing to the hunk of steak on my plate. They all laughed when I put on a surprised and embarrassed face. I was disappointed in my manners but no one seemed to care.

“Okay, Jay, what’s it like to just run off the side of a building without hesitating?” Christina asked without a full mouth, which made me more disappointed in my manners. Remembering she had told me she had won the championship cheerleading competition last year with a move she had barely worked on, I reversed the question.

“Hmm, what does it feel like to land that one move, with barely any practice, to win the cheerleading championship competition?” I asked her in one hundred percent seriousness. She smiled at me and blushed a little. “And don’t say it’s an ‘okay’ feeling.” I added.

“Oh, ok.” She said letting out that cute laugh.

“Yeah, that’s how it feels!” I said. We all laughed at that.

       When we got back to the 21^st floor at the hotel we walked the girls back to their room. We said our good-byes and turned to walk away. Christina grabbed my arm and put a piece of napkin in my hand. I unfolded it and read it. ‘More questions on the rooftop at 9:30 tonight.’ I looked back at her once I comprehended it. “Don’t forget or anything.” She said. I smiled and nodded. “Promise me?” She said.

“I promise.” I said assuring her that I would be there. I turned to walk down the hall where I saw Jason, Marc and Chris smiling when I heard the door shut I gave a little fist pump. “What was that all about?” Marc asked when I reached them, knowing that it was something that would make him proud, being the one who was most likely to get a girl within 20 minutes of meeting her. “Let’s get inside and I’ll show you.” Marc grabbed my head and pulled me in and gave me a “noogie”, our way of showing each other our pride for them. We all sat down on the edge of my bed. I slowly unfolded the note as they waited eagerly. They read it slowly. Finally, they all looked at me at the same time. I got the sense they couldn’t decide whether to be confused or proud of me. Finally, they all shouted and bounced me around laughing. I quieted them down and stood up and looked at my watch. Exactly one hour till the meeting. One hour, great. I began to pace around the room. “Ah, Jay’s nervous!” Marc said.

“Just had to point it out, huh Marc?” I said sarcastically. He told me that pacing was going to make it longer so I sat down and listened to my iPod. I was just about to fall asleep, or maybe I was asleep when there was I loud knock on the door. The time it took for me to get from my bed to my feet was about the time it took the person knocking to get through the first of three knocks. I looked at my watch on the way to the door, 9:37 P.M. “Aw crap.” I muttered. Jason stuck up his fist telling me to stay cool. I bumped his fist and went to the door, Christina was there looking as if she was crying with her head down. When she looked up her eyes were actually filling with tears. “What’s wrong?” I asked with a slight tremble in my voice.

“I wondered where you were then I thought I should come down and see if you were okay.” She replied her voice shaky. “I couldn’t get images of you getting beat up by these terrorists that you talked about out of my head.”

“I’m here and I’m not hurt in any way.” I said tenderly. By now Jason was behind me curious as to why she was crying and why I had to tell her that I wasn’t hurt. Without hesitating she threw her arms around me and put her head on my shoulder. I could feel her tears soaking through my thin red t-shirt. She backed up and I looked at Jason with a look saying I’ll explain later. I shut the door quietly and started down the hall. I stopped mid-stride and realized I didn’t have a room key but decided Jason would still be awake to answer the door when I got back.

When we got to the roof I kicked the cinderblock in the doorway so we weren’t locked out. “I didn’t want it to happen like this.” I started.

“Like what?” she asked.

“Having you worrying about my safety more than I do. It shouldn’t be like that.” I said, looking out over the city lights.

“It’s fine, it doesn’t change how I see you at all but it does worry me though, not knowing if I’ll be visiting you in the hospital or if you’ll be visiting me in my hotel room.” She replied. She obviously was the type of person who always knew exactly what to say.

“You said you had more questions?” I said desperate to change the subject.

“Yeah.” She said.

“Fire away.” I said. “Wait, wrong thing to say, what are your questions?” I added. She giggled.

“How did you guys get your powers?” She said. This question hit me like a ton of bricks.

“Ya know, either it happened when we were too little to remember or its from eating our Wheaties for breakfast every morning.” I said jokingly. I got the sense that she wasn’t amused. “Sorry, inside joke.” I said realizing that that, too, was the wrong thing to say in this situation.

“I still don’t get it.” She said clearly wanting a serious explanation. I didn’t really have one because we’d never been told why and I told her that and also that we had never really sat down talked about it. I was hoping this meeting was drawing to a close. I was exhausted.

“Okay,” she said. “Let’s head back down and get some rest.” She said. I felt like screaming ‘THANK GOD!’ but resisted. If it was earlier in the day and I hadn’t been running since 4:45 A.M I would have been happy to keep talking. We hugged again it couldn’t have been more than a half a second to get to each other because during the conversation we had been inching closer and closer slowly. The embrace felt like one of those scenes out of the very last scene of a movie where the couple hugs and the camera circles around them in slow motion and makes it seem like forever when its really only about a thirty second embrace. When we backed up I smiled at her not because of the hug but more because it felt so right to have her, personally, in my arms. She smiled back and we headed back to our rooms. I walked her back to her room. She put her hands on my chest, leaned up and kissed me gently on the cheek. She smiled and turned into her room as if nothing had happened, but I stood there for a second kind of stunned. When I put it all together I turned down the hall and let out a small chuckle. I felt on top of the world, the whole day before that didn’t matter anymore. When I got to the door, I wiped the smirk off my face and knocked. Jason came and said “Forgot your key, didn’t you?”

“What was your first clue?” I said looking at the two keys on the desk. When we stopped laughing there was a knock on the adjoining door. “Of course, everyone wants to know.” I muttered to myself. I opened it up and Chris and Marc stood there and smiled at me and pushed me back until I was sitting at the chair at the desk. They backed off and Marc said. “Now tell me, how’d it go?” There was a long pause of me thinking of how to explain it.

“It went alright.” I said with a big grin.

“Oh, I know that face, it went more than alright!” Marc said.

“Yeah, It went good.” I said admitting that he was right.

“What happened?” Jason asked. I finally decided to spill it all.

“Well, I told her that I didn’t want it to be like this, ya know the whole crying in the doorway worrying about me, more on that later, Jason was the only other one there, but she was like ‘It doesn’t change how I see you I just don’t wanna be visiting you in the hospital.’  Or something like that I changed the subject and her very first question was ‘how did you guys get your powers?’ I mean I don’t even really know, so I didn’t know how to explain it but she got that and we were both tired so we basically said ‘we should get going’.” I explained. I didn’t miss anything, did I?

“Kiss, even a hug?” Marc asked. I figured I had already started so I might as well finish it.

“I wasn’t really done. So then I walked her to her room and right when we got to her door she turned around, put her hands on my chest and kissed me on the cheek. Now I just kinda stood there but she, she just turned into her room like nothing had happened.” I said. “Are we done here yet?”

They all patted me on the back and stood up. As Marc and Chris were headed to their room my watch beeped, text message from Lennox. “Its from Lennox, this can’t be good.” I said. The all walked back over as I opened it. “What’s it say?” Jason asked. “It says; ‘we need to talk, 11:00 A.M. tomorrow, sharp. Its urgent so bring everyone.’” I read out loud. There was a long, ear shattering silence. “Yeah, that doesn’t sound so good.” Marc said. I hit reply. ‘We’ll be there. Can I ask what it’s about?’ There was another long pause in the room. If we were all thinking the same thing it was, terrorists in D.C. and not doing anything legal. “Okay, let’s get try to some sleep, tomorrow will most likely be a big day.” I said. They agreed. Marc and Chris went to their room and Jason went into the bathroom. When both doors shut I went to the desk and put my head in my hands thinking about what the next day will bring. I decided to grab a pen and paper.

Saturday, 10:30 A.M.

Christina, I am going to be gone all day today (Saturday). Lennox said it’s urgent. Don’t worry about me too much I’ll be back later this afternoon if all goes well. I’ll call or text you when I get a chance.

-Jay

P.S. PLEASE don’t worry about me.

I figured I’d slip it under her door before we left tomorrow. I picked up my watch and looked at it, cleared the texting menu, it was 10:45 P.M.

None of us got much sleep that night, I know I didn’t get any so it wasn’t too hard for us to get up when the alarm clocks went off at 8:45 on a sunny late spring Saturday morning. Jason got out of the shower at 10:25 so I slipped out and headed down to Christina’s room. I stopped outside the door and heard hairdryers and noises along those lines. I Jasont down, slipped the note under and walked back. We met in the hall at 10:30. “Everyone ready?” I asked. They nodded and we started towards the elevator.

       The Escalade pulled up and we got in. Half way to the meeting place I got a text on my regular cell phone. I had forgotten how much of a habit it was to bring it with me. It was from Christina ‘Got your letter, thank you. Be careful.’ I could almost hear the anxiety in her voice. I took those two words into account, be careful. They were ringing in my head the whole rest of the way. Almost made me nervous, almost.

       We walked up to the door in our “work clothes”, which consisted of black basketball shorts, running shoes (for obvious reasons), and a grubby dark t-shirt, in case we actually had to do some “dirty work”. Lennox greeted us at the door and walked us to the all to familiar four-wall cement block room. “What’s this about?” I asked hoping I didn’t sound too demanding.

“We picked up a signal last night at about 9:30 P.M. and luckily were able to tap in to the call, thing is, it was in Russian, so we recorded it and translated it.” Lennox began.

“Hold up,” Jason said. “Did you say Russian? These guys are Russians?”

“Yeah, not your typical terrorists from the Middle East that you see all over CNN.” Lennox said. He had a good point. “So once we got it all translated and cleaned up, the main idea was to plan an attack on the Senate building on Monday afternoon when hundreds of senators from across the nation will be meeting.”

“Did the call have the instructions of how to get in and all?” I asked.

“They’re basically geniuses who can make fake federal issued IDs without a flaw and can blend in anywhere.”

“I just hope their English isn’t good. There would be a major tip-off there.” Marc noted.

“That’s true,” I added. “They can change their names and looks but not their voices to sound like US Government Officials.”

“Right,” Lennox started. “I’m going to have a team set up around the building, inside-out, and I am going to get you guys badges to get in there.”

“Badges?!” Chris asked. “You mean like we’re Government Agents now?”

“Yes, the badges will be the real deal, and don’t push your luck at being a Government Agent.” Lennox said. We all got a laugh out of how fast Chris’ face went from smiling like a kid in a candy shop to as sad as that same kid is when their pet fish dies.

“Okay, I need your photos for the IDs.” Lennox said. We nodded in agreement and walked to the ID making room. I didn’t know the official name for it so I just called it that. It was a big room with some hi-tech printers, computers and government issued stamps. We all got our pictures taken and stood off to the side for a few minutes to get the camera flash, which was brighter than normal, out of our eyes. Once they got our pictures printed out they went over and made our badges. I was amazed that they didn’t put up a fight about giving official Government Issued badges to a bunch of eighteen year olds. Then I started to wonder what kind of badge it was going to be, FBI, CIA, or DCPD.

When we got the “badges” they were those plastic cards on the lanyards that you see on school IDs. Not what we expected but definitely official. We were now agents of the Department of Defense Counter Terrorism Unit. We said thank you to the lab workers that made these and then to Lennox. When we were done there Lennox led us back to the four-walled room.

“Okay,” he began. “I see you didn’t bring your gear so I’m gonna send you back to your hotel to get that and right back here. In and out, understood?”

We all nodded and walked back to the Escalade.

       When we got to the hotel I swung the car door open and we all flew out running at top speed for the door. Top speed being about 40-45 MPH. When we realized that it was obvious that we were not normal kids in a rush we slowed down and acted normal in the lobby, got to the elevator and pushed the button. The elevator couldn’t have gone slower. We walked fast down the hall “walking fast” for us was about a triathlon runners pace. We got into our rooms, grabbed our guns and clips and walked out. By the time we were rolling away in the Escalade it had been no more than five minutes.

When we got back to headquarters we had four security guards and Lennox greet us out of the car. “What’s this all about?” I asked Lennox.

“I’ll tell you inside now don’t talk and make no eye contact with anyone.” He replied through gritted teeth. I shut up. Now I was scared that he and the security guards were going to be like the half hotel worker-half terrorist we had the great pleasure of meeting at the hotel. Thankfully they didn’t, they actually seemed concerned for our safety. When we got inside the building two men broke off and went in a door that said ‘Weapons Storage: Authorized Personnel Only.’ We got into the four-wall-no-windowed room yet again and sat down. Just as the last security guard shut the door I heard the loading of an automatic machine gun. That made me jump. “Is all this really necessary?” I asked Lennox.

“We received a call from the Secretary of Defense who informed me that our beloved Russian Terrorist friends want you four dead.” He said bluntly. I’ve noticed over the last three months that Lennox was a cut-to-the-chase, straightforward kind of guy, for better or worse. The room fell silent as we all looked at each other thinking ‘what have we gotten ourselves into now?’ “So what are we gonna do while some advanced dirtbag terrorists want us dead?” I asked making it clear that this upset me.

“That’s why you’re here.” He responded.

“Wait, we’re here to die?” Marc half-shouted.

“No, you’re here to get told how to do your job and not die.” Lennox shouted back in the same tone emphasizing the word ‘not’. “Now if you’ll listen I have your instructions right here.” He said patting to the stack of paper beside him on the table.” We all shut up and listened. “Thank you,” he said giving us all one of the five page packets. We all flipped through them. “Now to save time I’m gonna give you guys a summary of what the whole thing says.” He continued. “On page one after the cover page you’ll see the heading says ‘Mission: Russian Roulette.’” I found this as a little ironic given the circumstances. “That page states that you are to get in, stop the terrorists from getting in the huge meeting room, and that I’ll show you where that is.” He went on. I didn’t see the last part on that page so I took that as a side note. “Turn the page,” he said. “The rest of the pages state what you already know from your training at the beginning and also says no fooling around.” After a long pause after his speech we kept reading our packets silently. ‘No engaging without instructions from Captain Lennox or being engaged upon.’ I read in my head. I knew what to engage meant, to fire a gun intending to kill. I hoped that didn’t mean they were angry that we killed seven Russian terrorists already this week. Yet I realized word probably travelled faster than the speed of light around here so most likely they were. “Okay, head back to the car, lay low and don’t go outside I’m gonna tell the driver to take you to the grocery store and have another SUV follow with security guards incase things go downhill, then back to the hotel, you’re gonna grab your things and go back to the car and he’s going to take you to the safe house.” He instructed us.

“Got it.” We said not in complete unison but we all said the same thing back-to-back-to- back-to-back- back-to-back. There’s a tongue twister for you. We’re kind of into those as a group. We walked out to the car and the security guards waited until our car actually started to roll away to get in the identical Escalade behind us.

When we arrived at the grocery store we were told to wait for the go-no-go. Which means whether we can (in this situation) get out of the car or not. When the head security guard gave us the thumbs up he opened the door with the amount of force that seemed as though it could snap off the hinges.

He signaled for his guys to lead us to the door. They told us to run on the count of three and we gave them the ‘are-you-crazy-or-stupid-or-both look. We went with the request anyways but decided to show off just how fast we were, fast. By the time he finished the word one we were half way to the door, they ran after us. “Sorry, we got a little jumpy.” I said trying to sound calm and not worried that we might get arrested for being accused of running from federal agents. They all looked at us and motioned for us to go inside. “Okay, let’s split up, Jason and I will do meals and stuff and you guys will do snacks.” I said. Once again making the decisions for the no-name group. They all nodded and we split up. Jason and I first went to the frozen section for pizzas and Hungry Man frozen meals. “I think we should get stuff like pasta for energy, ya know to carbo-load.” I said. Then I realized that it wasn’t like we were running a marathon or anything but I just really like pasta. “Okay.” Jason said. We got mac and cheese, eggs, spaghetti, and some spaghetti sauce before we finally made it to the checkout. “I really hope I was right that the safe house has a legit kitchen.” I said somewhat nervously. “Me too.” Jason said. Just then Marc and Chris cam down the isle with huge grins on their faces. “Oh, God!” I said knowing that they had taken “get snacks” as “get junk food”. Marc went into his cart and pulled out Oreo’s, potato chips, tortilla chips, and salsa. “For example.” He said. Knowing we didn’t have much time we checked out and left. When the guards saw us they ran out ahead of us. As if we were going to run with bags upon bags of food. We tried anyways. “Couldn’t catch us could you?” The head security guard said. We looked at him then down at our bags of groceries. “Whatever.” He said and opened the door for us. We all got in the car with our bags of groceries.

The safe house was a couple blocks from the grocery store. It wasn’t really a “house” though more like the hotel we were at on steroids. We all looked at it in amazement. I thought of asking if we were just going to stand out more but didn’t because I couldn’t wait to get inside and also the Russians probably still think were at the Comfort Inn on 71^st street. Hopefully. We all got out and followed Lennox in. We looked around and saw it was an actual luxury hotel and not a chain but I didn’t see the name of it. “Hi, I have a reservation under the name of Lennox.”

“Okay, adjoining with two queen beds each, 40” flat screen and a PlayStation?”

“That’s the one.” He said with a smile. “ 44^th floor room 286 to your left off the elevators.” She gave him five room keys and we started for the elevator. “40 inch flat screen and a PlayStation, huh?” I said mostly wondering how he pulled that off.

“Don’t ask or I’ll take it away.” He said. I shrugged and turned away. The trip to the room was uneventful. When we slid one of the keys in the green light lit up like a normal hotel room but instead of making the unlocking sound, and electronic voice said, “Welcome”, this amazed us. “Okay,” Lennox said “There’s absolutely no leaving this hotel, understood?” We all nodded. “Okay, is there anything else I can do for you guys?”

“Uh, yeah,” I said. “If I call the girls that we ran into at the hotel and saved them better than Superman could, can you pick them up?” I asked trying to be convincing. Of course Lennox pulled his famous ‘I’ll see what I can do’ line. Just as Lennox walked out I whipped out my phone and called Christina. “Hey, Christina, its Jay.”

“Oh my gosh, are you okay? Are you hurt? Where are you?” She asked frantically.

“Yes I’m okay, no I’m not hurt and where I am will take way to long to explain, but I was just wondering, on behalf of all of us, if you four wanted to come to our location for a home cooked meal and to hang out?” I said, not with the slightest tone of nerves, which is surprising saying as my heart was racing.

“Okay, glad you’re okay, and yes we would love to, but how will we get there and where is ‘there’?” she said.

“I have captain Lennox waiting to hear from me and he can pick you up and take you here, and ‘here’ is a surprise.”

“Okay, when should we be ready?”

“You don’t need to get all fancy or anything I mean, Drake said it best… never mind I said that, but he’ll be there in like ten or fifteen minutes.”

“Oh, okay,” she said and started humming the hip-hop song by Drake I was referring to. “Sorry,” She said laughing. “But that songs gonna be stuck in my head now.”

“Oh, my bad,” I said sarcastically, worried that she might have found it awkward. “I’m gonna go call Lennox, so be ready to meet him in the lobby.” We said our goodbyes and hung up. I called Lennox who wasn’t to thrilled with the whole thing but did it anyways.I turned to the guys who had already started playing video games and eating chips, completely unaware of what just happened.

“Guys!” I shouted and they all jumped and looked at me. “The girls are coming over with Lennox for a home cooked meal.”

“Uh, who’s cooking?” Marc asked, clearly doubting me.

“Its spaghetti and sauce, how hard can it be?” I said not actually asking for their opinion. I went in to the kitchen before one of them made some wise guy comment. I walked back out to go into my suitcase for something none of them knew I had. I pulled out a pair of shorts and grabbed my iPod out of the left pocket and quickly stuffed it in my pocket and went back to rummaging around in my suitcase. I pulled out my black iHome speakers and the cords and stuffed it under my shirt. I casually walked behind them and of course they got curious. “What’s under your shirt, Jay?” Marc asked more jokingly than actually serious.

“Don’t worry ‘bout it!” I snapped as I entered the kitchen. They went back to their video games as if nothing happened. I gently placed the speakers onto the counter without a sound, pulled out my iPod and turned the volume up all the way and then back down so it was most of the way but it wouldn’t annoy the neighbors. I placed the iPod on the dock after I selected my favorite song. As soon as they heard the beat start they were coming into the kitchen looking amazed. “Helps me cook.” I said, turning on the stove. It was a flat top stove that said it could boil water in two minutes; I’ll be the judge of that.

Sure enough two minutes and five seconds later the water came to a boil. I put the spaghetti in the pot and a mushroom cloud of steam poured out. “Hey Jason can you find me a strainer?” I said not meaning it as a question but more of a statement. He just looked at me with a blank stare. “It’s a bowl with holes in it to drain the water out with!” I said confused why he didn’t know that but hey, he’s Jason. It took him awhile to look through a few different cupboards to find it but when he did it was time to use it. “Put it in the sink and move.” I commanded to him as I turned off the stove. I carried the pot of boiling noodles over to the sink and slowly poured the contents in. They all watched me like this was the first time they’d ever seen it done. I began to shake the extra water out and went to find a bowl. They were still standing there amazed at my technique. “Where’d you learn to do that?” Chris asked in amazement.

“Uh, I went to cooking school last summer.” I said sounding serious. Then I heard the electronic voice on the door say welcome. I remembered that Lennox must have taken one of the five keys. I picked up a dish towel, dried my hands, threw it over my shoulder and walked to the edge of the kitchen totally forgetting the music was still playing. I saw the four of them but no sign of Lennox. “He gave us the key.” Christina explained.

“You’re just in time.” I said, turning to the speakers to turn them off.

“What’s for supper?” Isabella asked, sniffing the air.

“Spaghetti.” I said. Then I realized that I completely forgot to cook the sauce. “Oh, shoot, the sauce!” I shouted mad at myself. I hurried over to the grocery bags and found the sauce. “Jason can you find me a sauce pan in the same cupboard that you got the strainer from?” I said once again a statement, not a question. Once again he looked at me, clearly confused. I didn’t bother explaining it so I went to the cupboard and got it myself. I put it on the stove kind of flustered that I had no help in this what so ever.

“Here, what can I do to help?” Christina said. “My mom teaches me everything about cooking.”

“No, I can’t put you to work, you’re a guest.” I said.

“Wait Jay did you really go to cooking school?” Chris asked after about ten minutes of being silent. I sighed at the fact that he believed me.

“You’ve never watched your mom cook dinner, have you?” I said sarcastically. He put his head down smirking and walked out to where Marc, Isabella, Jason, Shannon, and Nicole were sitting leaving Christina and me in the kitchen. She demanded that she wanted to help so I let her but I still felt bad. Since I was stupid and forgot the sauce I had to put the noodles back in the pot and run hot tap water over them. While I was doing this Christina was busy stirring up the sauce. I looked over and watched for a little thinking about how we met and how short it took to get this comfortable with each other. “What?” She asked with a giggle. She obviously sensed me staring, which I honestly didn’t realize from being caught up in my thoughts.

“Nothing,” I said smirking. “Just spacing out.” She smiled and looked back at the sauce.

“This is done. What should I put it on?” She asked. I was relieved she changed the subject. I folded the towel that was on my shoulder, put it on the counter as a hot pad and told her to put it on that. She placed it slowly on the towel and looked up at me with her back to the outside of the kitchen. We stood there for a while looking in each other’s eyes.

“Yo, Jay!” Chris shouted from the other room. We both jumped and walked away as if nothing happened. “Sorry, but when’s dinner?”

“Uh, you can all come serve yourselves.” I said looking at Christina who looked just as surprised as me. They all came rushing in like lions to a big hunk of meat. They all figured out the whole serve themselves thing pretty quickly, pick up a plate, put noodles on it, and spread some sauce while Christina and I just watched. Marc passed and without turning his head gave me a look that said ‘I see you’. That was another thing we said when we congratulated someone. Christina and I both looked at each other and motioned to get in line at the same time. We got to the pot of food while everyone else had gone and found a place to sit. We laughed at how little was left in the pot but split it evenly. We finally left the kitchen after slaving over this lovely looking meal. “Jay, this is really good.” Shannon said from the floor next to the desk. I looked around and saw that most people were content being spread out over the floor.

“Well, it wasn’t all me,” I admitted. “Christina made the sauce.”

“Well then thank both of you, its really good.” She said.

“And thank you all for staying out of our way.” I said sarcastically. Everyone laughed and continued eating.

       Once everyone was done we all brought our plates to the kitchen. I was still kind of hungry. “Hey, are you still hungry?” I asked Christina in a whisper. Without turning her head she nodded. I had remembered seeing a buffet-type set-up in the corner of the lobby. “Hey, Jason can you get the other guys to help you clean up?” I said.

“Yeah, sure since you two cooked.” He said. I was glad he understood. “Come on.” I said tapping Christina on the arm. I grabbed a key from the desk and walked to the door. Luckily no one saw us walk out. “Where are we going?” She asked, clearly puzzled.

“There’s a place in the lobby to get food.” I explained. As we were walking down the huge hotel hallway we heard people coming. There was a female laugh and Christina stopped in her tracks and her eyes widened. She pushed me in to a room that had an ice cooler in it and quietly commanded me to stay there ‘til she came back. I got in and noticed that someone was in there, scooping ice into two different buckets. I looked for something to do to make it seem like I actually belonged there. Then I saw it, a soda machine in the corner. I reached into my pocket and pulled out two dollars, those two dollars just saved me. I Jasont over to look and see what sodas they had, Coke, diet coke… “Christina?” Someone from the hallway shrieked. “What are you doing here?” I snapped upright and froze, terrified. I prayed she came up with something believable so I wouldn’t have to go out there to explain. “Aunt Becky!” Christina replied, without a hint of nerves in her voice. My eyes got huge. “I’m staying here with some girls from my cheerleading squad for a competition on Tuesday.” She explained. I let out a sigh of relief. It was believable enough. “What? You know that Christina chick?” The guy from the corner said turning head towards me. I froze thinking ‘did I really sigh that loud?’ “Uh, no, no,” I said nervously. “Just surprised that there’s cheerleaders here, you know.” I finished with a nervous chuckle. The man, who was about six-foot-four and looked about twenty-eight years old, turned his whole two hundred twenty five pound body to face me, clearly upset. I prayed I wouldn’t have to take him out.

“You should really watch who you’re lying to, kid, you could get yourself hurt.” He said. Then shoved me back onto the wall. “Please, sir, this is just a big misunderstanding, no one needs to get hurt.” I said, trying to sound like a nervous, innocent little kid, it was a little loud. I widened my eyes realizing that Christina might have heard me. Then they turned to slits when he pinned me back against the wall. His hands felt so strong holding me against the wall. He got right up in my face. Boy, his breath was awful. “Oh, this ain’t no misunder…” I quickly brought my arms up between his and before he finished his sentence I had gotten his arms off my shoulders and swung my arms in cupping my hands over his ears. He stumbled back screaming and doubling over holding his head. The estimated time for his ears to stop ringing is about three days, if you do it right. I remembered Marc had told us in training, he had taught us street-fighting techniques such as this. He got a hold of him self and came running at me like a pro linebacker. I knew what to do though, trusting my fighting abilities. He came at me and wrapped me up at my gut. Bad idea, I thought. Though the pain in my stomach was excruciating. I had lifted my right arm up as he got closer and before he drove me backwards I brought my elbow down as hard as I could right underneath his neck. He let go and began to drop like a ton of bricks. I kicked him in the chest for good measures. He hit the carpeted floor with a loud THUD. Just then I looked up and saw Christina there with her aunt, both wide-eyed and holding there hands around their mouths. They didn’t move. Neither did I for that matter I just kind of stood there, almost embarrassed. They both brought there hands down slowly and took a deep breath. They looked more scared than me, easily, saying as I had been trained to not get scared at this situation or anything. I snapped out of my embarrassment and Jasont down next to the, hopefully, guy just taking a nap to put it as I would explain it to a little girl. I rolled him over and saw a small puddle of blood under his right ear. Great, I thought, I’m probably going to get charged for murder. Christina’s aunt shrieked at the sight and covered her eyes. I looked over my shoulder and said; “You two can leave if you can’t watch but I have to figure out who this is.” Her aunt walked out but Christina slowly stepped closer. She walked past me and stood near the guy’s feet. Just then I heard a phone vibrate. Neither Christina nor I had our phones. I looked back at the guy’s body and reached in his front shirt pocket. Sure enough it was his. I pulled it out carefully and read the screen. The name on the screen was in Russian. This made the situation a little better. “We need to get back to the room now!” I said.

“We’re just going to leave him here?” she asked. I gave her a look that said ‘don’t question me’ hoping it didn’t look to threatening. It didn’t bother her but she was still worried. She looked at the body while I popped my head out into the hall, checked both ways, and without taking my head back in motioned for her to head out the doorway. When she put a hand on my shoulder I walked out casually, she followed my lead, looking as if we were just going for a stroll. We heard big footsteps around the corner. My heart almost skipped a beat. She grabbed my arm and squeezed it tight probably to stop herself from screaming. I crept to the corner with her close behind. I popped my head around it like I did at the ice room. It was Marc. I was relieved to see him. “Where have you been?” He hissed at me.

“It doesn’t matter, come check this out.” I said. We retraced our steps as I explained the situation that caused this event. We turned into the ice room and Marc made sure it was clear. “Holy crap!” He said with a laugh. “You did this Jay?”

“Yeah, and you wanna know what the best or worst thing is, depending on how you look at it?” I said he looked back at me without a word but everything in his expression was dying to know.

I brought my voice down to a whisper. “He’s a Russian terrorist.” Marc’s eyes got huge.

“We gotta get a hold of Lennox ASAP, this isn’t good.” He had a good point. Just then we heard someone talking on the phone in the hallway.

“Yes officer, that’s correct.” The shaky voice said. The voice was clearly female. Christina ran out of the room as fast as she could and followed the voice down the hall. “Oh, yeah her aunts also here.”  I said to Marc who was still wide-eyed and stunned. “No, Auntie that’s not necessary, they’re professionals!” I heard Christina yell. There was a long pause while me and Marc listened intently near the doorway. “Professionals?” Her aunt said. “But he was just a kid, your age and alone.” I looked at Marc and nodded towards the doorway. He shook his head stubbornly. “I am NOT going out there.” He hissed quietly. I turned and made for the doorway. I heard him sigh as if I had forced him to follow and chased after me. We got half way down the hall when Christina and her aunt noticed us. We didn’t flinch, just stared straight down the hall at them. When we arrived in front of them I held out my hand and stated my name firmly. “How do I know your not gonna start going all assassin-man on me?” She said after looking at my hand then back at me for a second. I put down my hand and said “Because I’m still here and you’re still standing up.” As soon as Christina heard this she gave me a look as if to say ‘cool it’. “Aunt Becky I met Jay and Marc at the hotel that we’re actually staying at about ten minutes away.” I looked at her with huge eyes and almost felt they would fall out. Before ‘Aunt Becky’ broke in Christina kept going. “They’re pretty much spies for a government agency that has been trying to catch the terrorists that attacked the pentagon a while ago.” Becky looked at us as if she might faint, I actually got worried she might. “Why did they take you two? What makes you two so special?” She snapped.

“I can’t tell you that but I can assure you that there’s two more of us and we in fact are all professionals.” I said. It was true, but I said it more so I didn’t have to explain it.

“How can you trust these guys, Christina?” Becky asked, baffled. Without another word Christina walked over to where Marc and I were standing and motioned for us to follow her. Facing her aunt, I smirked at Christina’s attitude, I was almost proud of her. Except for the fact it was her own aunt. We turned and caught up with her. Without a word we walked down the hall. “Wh- where are you going?” We heard her aunt shout at her niece. I glanced down at her face and noticed it was beet red. I worried that she might give her aunt the finger. We rounded the corner not even worried that Russians would be there ready to kill, they weren’t which was a good sign. “She really pisses me off! She tries to be my mom, I swear!” Christina began to vent her anger. I put my hand on her back and offered words along the lines of ‘chill out’.

“Sorry, I shouldn’t be like this around you.” She said with embarrassment in her voice.

“You’re alright, my man Jay here is a good listener.” Marc said with a smile stepping out ahead of us to open the door. He was clearly trying to help. “I know he is.” She said looking up at me with a smile. We walked in the room and I heard Chris say “Never mind, Lennox, they just walked in.” I wiped the smile off my face because I knew Lennox might freak when he talked to me. Chris looked up at me with his right palm over the phone holding it out to me. “It’s Lennox, he sounds pissed.” He whispered. I took a deep breath and grabbed the phone. “Hello?” I said into the mouthpiece with a crack in my voice. I didn’t get scared in a fight with a Russian terrorist, but boy, was I when an Afghanistan War veteran was yelling me at me. There was no answer on the other end I looked at the screen and it was unsent text message that said ‘GOTCHA!’ I was mad that he got me that scared, but then started laughing admitting that it was a good one. “I do have to call him, for real this time.” I said. I picked my phone up off the desk and called Lennox, who had either hung up or was speechless when I finished explaining the whole night from not getting enough dinner to the stare down with ‘Aunt Becky’. He was glad that I didn’t get hurt but not too happy that they found us. He said he had to send some guards to the hotel and that he had to send the girls home. It wasn’t the best way to end the night but it sure ended with a bang. “Lennox is kicking you guys out, a drivers coming in like ten minutes you’re trading spots with some security guards.”

Before the guards got there Christina and I went out in the hall. “I don’t know what to say to you, Christina.” I began. “I mean what happened in the ice room just goes to show that you might not wanna get involved with me, I’m dangerously close with extremely dangerous people.” I said solemnly putting my head down.

       “Yeah, well I’m that one girl that chooses dangerous boys over the preppy ones.” She said lifting my head up. She had that worried look in her eyes. It felt like the right moment to lean in for a kiss but I told myself to not rush it. A few seconds after I told myself that, I noticed she was already leaning in. I decided to meet her half way. It was a short, soft kiss on the lips, okay, not really short but medium, maybe even a tiny bit more than medium, just enough to raise my heartbeat a little. As we backed up we heard voices from the hallway and our heads snapped towards them at the same time, it was Lennox and his guys. I knocked on the door making it sound like an emergency; it kind of was, actually. Marc came to the door and said “What’s up?” We didn’t even acknowledge him but rushed in to the room. “Did you see the Russians?” He asked wanting answers. I gave him a cold look to say ‘I’ll tell you later’. He once told me that same cold look could make a super-angry Lennox but on steroids shiver. He tried to give me the same look but realizing he lost before the stare down began he walked away. I smirked when he turned his back. We heard a knock on the door and I ran over to get it. Just as I opened the door I heard gunshots really close by. Lennox, with reactions like a cat tackled me back into the room. I, being unprepared for this, had knocked the wind out of me with his shoulder in my diaphragm, but when we landed it was a hundred times worse. After hitting my diaphragm he slid down and by the time we hit the ground his same shoulder hit me right where the Russian terrorist had attempted to tackle me in the ice room. I couldn’t breathe so I shoved him off and caught my breath. As soon as I had done this I tried to stand up and as soon as I was sitting upright I began to feel dizzy and nauseous. My head spun for a bit longer and I leaned to my left side and lost every piece of food I had put in my mouth that whole day. Before I even realized what had happened I was falling backwards and losing conciseness slowly.

       By the time I woke up on my bed I felt like I had been out for a month. I opened my eyes slowly expecting sunlight to blind me, it was still nighttime but there was a dimly lit lamp on the other side of the room. I looked around and saw Marc, Jason, Chris, and Christina, no one else, Christina’s friends, not even Lennox was still there. Christina came and sat down next to me and put the back of her hand on my face. Either her hand was really cold or my face was on fire. I went with the second one remembering it was late in May. “Marc, can you get me a cloth wet with cold water, his face is burning.” I took her hand, placed it on my chest and wrapped my own hand around it; it felt like a normal temperature definitely not cold. She smiled at me. Every time she smiles at me I can never put a finger on what it is that forces me to smile back no matter what. It just, mesmerizes me. Of course, I smiled back. Marc finally came back with a towel. He handed it to Christina. She thanked him and placed it over my forehead. The ice-cold water felt good on my face. “Why are you still here?” I asked her once I got my voice back, well at least half of it.

“I couldn’t just leave after you spilled your guts on the floor.” She said.

“Wait, I puked?!” I asked, clearly having no recollection of it.

“Yeah, you don’t remember?” She asked, a little confused.

“No, I remember getting dizzy then it all just went black.” I said, trying to remember. Her eyes got really big just then.

“I guess that’s a good thing.” She said. I tried to get up as I was getting hungrier and hungrier, which made me think that I probably did throw up.

“No, no, you’re staying in bed for the rest of the night.” She said pushing me back down, and then gasped. “I just sounded like my mom!”

“Yeah, mine too.” I said not even really trying to be funny yet everyone laughed. Just then I realized that the other guys were watching all this happen. “But seriously, can I just get some food?” I said breaking up the laughter.

“What would you like?” She asked. I heard Jason mutter something to Marc from across the room but couldn’t make out any words. I hoped that Christina hadn’t.

“What am I allowed to eat, mother?” I said sarcastically. She brought back her hand as if she might hit me and put it back by her side.

“If you weren’t like this I would have done it.” She said sounding threatening.

“You wouldn’t dare.” I said knowing it was a fake threat. We laughed. Laughing made me a little sick to my stomach. I didn’t throw up again though, thankfully. “It’s been a weird night.” I finally said.

“Yeah, you should probably get some rest, it’s late.” Christina said.

“Yeah, its 11:30,” Marc chimed in opening his door. “I’m going to bed, goodnight.” Chris and Jason followed. “Wait,” I said. “Did Jason just walk out, too? I asked.

“Yeah, he gave up his bed for me for the night.” She said once they all left.

“I bet Lennox wasn’t too thrilled.” I said.

“To say the least.” She said to finish my sentence. “Can I use your bathroom though, to get ready for the night?”

“Sure.” I said. She tied up her long, dirty blond hair while walking across the room. That was a bit mesmerizing too. How girls do that so fast is way beyond me, but the way she did it made me smile.

       The next morning was Sunday yet another bright, sunny spring day. I woke up to the same sound I fell asleep to, the faucet. I heard a door open and opened my eyes really slowly. I squinted at first, rubbed my eyes and lay there with my wrist over my forehead. “Morning, how are you feeling?” Christina said in a soft voice walking across the room.

“A lot better.” I replied. She came over and sat down where she was sitting just the night before. “You look a lot better.” She said. I was going to make some comment like ‘What’s that supposed to mean’ when the adjoining door swung open and Marc came in without a word, seeming very upset. He picked up the TV remote and turned on the ‘Today’ news show. It was on a commercial break. “What’s going on?” I said as Christina stood up nervously looking embarrassed even though she was there before when they were in here. “It said, ‘after the break, breaking news out of a luxury hotel in Washington, D.C. where witnesses say gunshots were fired.’ He said, sounding exactly like a newscaster would. My eyes got huge and I thought I might pass out again. If the media really knew that these were the same group of terrorists that attacked the Pentagon just two months ago it could be the end of our government ‘job’. I saw the ‘Today Show’ logo appear on the screen we all stared and listened intently. ‘The breaking news out of a luxury hotel, where residents are shook up claiming they heard gunshots at around 11:00 o’clock last night,’ The broadcaster said, the whole room was silent and we all held our breaths. ‘There is no word yet on who has committed this terrifying act, but terrifying it was.’ Then it went to a witness. “Oh my God!” Christina shouted. “Its my aunt!” I looked back at the screen. ‘I noticed some weird behavior by some people on the 28^th floor,’ she began “No!” I shouted. “Stop talking right now, don’t say anything else.” Then I realized she couldn’t hear me and decided to shut up. ‘Then some guys with S.W.A.T uniforms on came in and I went into my room, there was shouting in a language that I couldn’t understand or tell where it was from, not English, but then I heard gunshots then the S.W.A.T guys yelling in English, and it was over.’ “That’s it, we’re done, and we’re getting banned from working with the government forever.” I said.

“Don’t say that!” Christina said.

“Why do you say that, she didn’t say they were definitely Russian?” Chris asked.

“I know, but what if Lennox says we can’t stay ‘cause we’re the ones they want dead.” I said. Everyone brought their eyes to the ground except for Christina. I realized that I wasn’t supposed to say that in front of her. I hadn’t told her that the Russians wanted us four dead. She ran back over to my bed, sat down and threw her arms around me. “Please tell me you didn’t mean that!” She said almost in tears. I didn’t answer. I was still silent, I was speechless at the thought that we might get kicked off this mission, then I had images flashing through my head of me in a hospital bed with her at my side talking to me while I was in a coma like in the movies. I snapped out of it and pushed the thoughts away. I looked her square in the eye and she put her face down wiping her tears trying to stop crying. I grabbed her hands and held them. “I’m sorry, I’m stressed right now and I don’t know what to think or say.” I said. Trying to make it sound all right when I really made it worse. She put her head on my shoulder and for the second time I felt her tears on my shoulder. I hated to be the one to make her cry. She lifted her head up and looked me in the eye. “Promise me you won’t do anything to get yourself killed.” She said. That got me a little choked up, knowing that I have to do risky stuff in this mission but I didn’t want to say ‘yeah I might get killed’ either.

“I promise.” I said after a long pause. I brought her head closer and kissed her forehead.

Just then I heard a phone buzzing on the desk. “It’s for you, Jay, its Lennox.” Marc said bringing me my phone. “Hello?” I said.

“Jay, something’s come up in my family and I need to go to Baltimore to help out but you guys have a new supervisor, his name is Darnell Carter, we served in Afghanistan together.”

“Uh, okay,” I said, not really knowing what to do.

“He’s giving me a full report when I get back so treat him with due respect.” He said sounding like an elementary school teacher before a substitute teacher comes it.

“Got it.” I replied. We said goodbye and hung up. “Lennox has to go to Baltimore ‘cause ‘something’s come up in the family’ so we have this new supervisor, Darnell Carter, while Lennox is gone.” I explained.

“When are we meeting this Darnell Carter?” Chris asked.

“I didn’t even ask Lennox,” I said. “Should I call him back?”

“Yeah, probably.” Chris said. So I picked up my phone and called him back. I asked him and he explained when and where and I nodded then realized he wasn’t actually there. “He said a car will pick us up out front and take us to the meeting place at 1:00 this afternoon.” I said looking at my watch, 11:29 A.M. “We’ve got an hour and a half till the car gets here, let’s get ready then go to the buffet thing in the lobby.” I said. They all agreed and I turned to Christina. “I gotta take a shower, you can watch TV or something if you want.” I said. She nodded without a word or even looking at me. I grabbed a towel and clothes and walked into the bathroom. I stood under the hot water thinking about why she didn’t look at me, I told myself it wasn’t a big deal, when I heard a knock on the door. I quickly snapped out of my thoughts and turned the water off. “Yeah?” I shouted as I reached for my towel.

“Yo, its Jason, Chris said to see if I could use your shower, can I?” He said.

“Yeah, just gimme a sec.” I said. Once I was dressed and had brushed my teeth I walked out the door. Jason was sitting in the chair at the desk. He saw me and spun around and walked in to the bathroom. I walked over to the window where Christina was standing staring out the window. “What’s up?” I said.

“I’m sorry about earlier, I freaked out when it wasn’t really necessary, I was just kinda stressed with everything.” She said turning to face me. She put her hands on the front of my shoulders and we looked in each other’s eyes again.

“I know, it’s hard when to live with when you’re still getting used to it, but I can assure you it does get better.” I said. Somehow these words made her crack a smile. I kissed her on her forehead when she shut her eyes and leaned in. When we heard the bathroom door unlock the moment ended and we walked around doing random things to look like everything was normal.

I told Christina she could either come with us or stay here and wait for us after lunch. She decided to stay. I picked up my watch and checked the time when we left, 12:26. I decided to put my watch on in case we didn’t go back to the room. The elevator ride was quiet. When we got off Marc stuck his hand and peeked his head out. “Crime scene tape, cops, two bodies, and no Russians.” He said leaning back in. I walked up next to him and peeked out my head out to check again.

“Okay, just walk out as if we don’t know what’s going on.” I nodded towards the lobby and we headed out as a group. I looked up at a gold plated light up sign like a digital clock when I saw a policeman looking at it. I noticed it wasn’t the time though. It said floor 28, the floor we were on. As we got a little further I saw the cop on his walkie-talkie. During breakfast I checked the sign above the elevator, now it said floor 17. “Guys,” I whispered leaning in. “There’s a cop right next to the elevator and every time someone gets off the elevator he checks to see what floor, they know the shots came from the 28^th floor.”

“So?” Marc said.

“I looked back as we walked away and he was on his walkie-talkie.” I said. They all just looked at me. When I looked towards the elevator they turned to follow my eyes, the cop looked straight at us. We made eye contact, great, I thought, what are we going to say ‘no we didn’t even hear gunshots last night’. We had all looked back and down into our foods when we realized we’d made eye contact with him. I peeked up and didn’t see him by the elevator, my eyes wandered over to the crime scene and he was standing there with another cop. Just as I was about to turn my face back down I saw the elevator cop point at us. “We have to go right now.” I said.

“I didn’t finish my toast though.” Marc said upset. He was definitely the eater of the group.

“Take it with you, we need to go.” I hissed. We casually got up and threw out our paper plates and walked through all the tables trying to get out of sight of the cops, and then I saw it. “Over there.” I whispered pointing to a group of potted trees just tall enough to hide us until we got out the door. We got to the trees and there was a door on the wall behind them, it was like a glowing door way in a movie, so lucky. I let them all go by before me and glanced back to see where the cops were, they were gone. Just then I felt my heart sink. I walked out the door and there was the black Escalade that made me feel a lot better. We all got in, unseen by anyone. “I guess I’m coming with you guys?” Christina asked.

“Yeah, change of plans.” I said.

       When we got to the meeting place ten minutes later there was an African-American man about six-foot-four in an US Army camouflage suit and wearing a red beret with pins on it. “You the four kids working with Lennox?” He asked when we reached him. I decided to test his sense of humor, though he was a soldier so I didn’t know how much of a good idea it was.

“Only kids escorted here in an Escalade with security guards, right?”  I said. He laughed and stuck out his hand. “Darnell Carter.” He said. We all shook his hand and introduced ourselves.

“Hold up, who’s she?” He said looking at Christina.

“She’s not technically with us but she knows everything and she’s been in here before, after the kidnapping.” I said.

“Kidnapping?” He asked clearly confused.

“Yeah, Lennox didn’t tell you?” I asked.

“No, he just told me about you guys and about the mission that’s it.” He said.

“Let’s get inside, we’ll fill you in you.” I said. He looked at us and opened the door.

 Once we got to the same room we’d been in almost every day this week we all sat down, and I finally got a good look at Darnell Carter because outside I thought I recognized him from somewhere. Then I realized I’d seen him somewhere in this building before.

“Okay, so what do we call you?” I said.

“Y’all can call me Carter.” He said. “So what’s this about a kidnapping, and how do you know her?”

“Well, we met in our last hotel before we moved to the new one that we’re probably moving out of soon, too, but we were on the roof of the other hotel and we saw these Russian terrorists so we got away,” I said pointing to my guys. “But her and three of her friends got taken by these guys.”

“So how’d she get back?” Carter said.

“We went and got them.”

“Just like that, no problem, no one guarding them or anything?” He asked, looking surprised.

“Well, no, we had to use the guns Lennox gave us and we saved the guy with the keys, but Marc held him at gunpoint while he unlocked the door, and there they all were.” I explained.

“Okay, well that’s in the past, let’s talk about this mission. Can you step out please, though, this is a classified conversation?” Carter said looking at Christina. She looked at me and I nodded. Once she walked out and shut the door it seemed like everyone in the room including Carter took a deep breath surveying everyone’s faces.

“Okay, we have to go to the Senate building soon and get briefed by the Secretary of Defense who we’re meeting there, but do you all have your IDs and weapons?” Carter said.

“No, we weren’t told to bring anything.” I said, I noticed I had done all the talking this whole time.

“Alright, well let’s go get that stuff and head over, but we’ll have to leave the girl either here or at the hotel.” He said. We all nodded and walked out. “We have to go to the Senate building, we have to go to the hotel to grab some stuff you can either stay here or at the hotel.” I said to Christina.

“I’ll go to the hotel.” She said. We all walked out and got back in the Escalade.

When we got to the hotel we ran inside and got to the elevator without a problem. Once we were on I realized the crime scene tape was gone and so were the cops. We got to the room and grabbed what Carter instructed us to. I walked up to Christina and gave her a hug. “We’ll be back soon, I promise.” I said into her ear.

“Okay, be careful.” She said. I looked at her with eyes telling her that I would but I couldn’t spit the words out because I thought what if something went wrong and we weren’t back soon. I started to write the number for my watch on a piece of paper. “What are you writing?” She asked.

“The number for my watch.” I said without looking up so I didn’t mess up the number.

“Wait write it on my hand, I’ll lose the paper.” She said. I didn’t understand but I did it anyways. “In case of an emergency.” I said when I finished. She nodded and we hugged again then Marc, Jason, Chris and I walked out.

       We got to the big white building with a dome on top known as the Senate building at around 2:00 on Sunday afternoon. We got out of the car to see a crowd of hundreds of people in dress clothes running in all different directions some screaming, others just running as fast as they could to get away. We made our way through the crowds headed towards the building. At one point a man came running up to us and screamed, “ARE YOU CRAZY?! YOU’RE GOING THE WRONG WAY!” We acted like we didn’t even notice him and he ran off. “Looks like they had to evacuate the building.” Carter shouted over the crowd. When we got to the steps we got stopped by a muscular-looking man in a S.W.A.T uniform and asked us for IDs we showed him ours just as Carter did but the guy gave him a look that said ‘kids, are you serious?’ “They’re with me.” Carter replied seriously. He clearly didn’t want to deal with this right now. The man looked at us then our IDs then nodded and let us in. We got ten feet inside the door and another S.W.A.T officer stopped us and asked why we were there. “We’re here to see Defense Secretary Panetta.” Carter said. The officer nodded and led us down a hallway then took a left, then a right; it really felt like a game Pacman. We finally came to a tall old-fashioned wooden door and he opened it. It was a huge office with a desk at the back with a man on the phone, clearly in a serious conversation. He put up a finger at us as if to say ‘I’ll be right with you’. We all just stood there waiting for him to hang up the phone. Just then he took the phone away and looked at the base screen and checked if he could get a response on the other end. “Nothing.” He said to us as he hung up the phone. He stood up and walked over to us.

“Good afternoon, sir.” Carter said.

“Good afternoon, Lieutenant.” The defense secretary said. “And you four must be the accelerated kids?” I had never heard us be called that, it had a ring to it.

“Yes, we are.” I said. We shook hands and introduced ourselves just as we did with Carter. He wanted us to call him Mr. Panetta, not sir or secretary Panetta, just Mr. Panetta. Just then a man in a suit with one of those earpieces in his ear walked through. He walked over to Mr. Panetta and whispered something in his ear. He kept a straight face the whole time, not a single muscle on his face moved, in doing this I still got the sense it was bad news. He looked at us with a solemn look on his face. “The rest of the Russian terrorists are on there way here now and it is reported they are very ready to attack with full force.” He said plainly. I could tell he was a straightforward kind of a guy as well. We all just looked around stunned at what we just heard; last we heard the attack was planned for the next day.

“Why were people running around out front screaming?” I asked not being able to couldn’t stand my cluelessness any longer.

“There were gunshots at the back entrance and S.W.A.T came and evacuated the building.” He said. “Expecting a serious terror attack I am being flown to a bunker with the president and we will wait there until it is over, I must be going now there is a short window that the helicopter can wait before the Russians get here. Good luck gentlemen.” He said and hurried out the door leaving us standing there. Luck, I thought, we’ll need some of that today. Carter turned to us. “Alright boys, follow me.” He said. I realized we didn’t really have a choice and while he was with us in a situation like this I didn’t make decisions so I unfolded my arms and we walked out cautiously. “There’s a vehicle out front now with extra weapons in it,” he began explaining. “You need something a bit heavier than the pistols you have now.” I didn’t know whether to be excited or nervous for this but then I realized he was right. We were just about to get out the door when we saw a U-Haul type truck explode right before our eyes and we knew it had begun. “Correction,” Carter said. “There was a vehicle outside with extra weapons in it.” We saw men in all black with ski masks on their heads walking straight for the door. Then we saw them bring up their machine guns and point them straight at us. We ran to the first hallway coming off the one we were on and followed it. It was too bad that Carter wasn’t as fast as us because at first I was worried about him getting shot, then what would we do? It didn’t even matter when the gunshots started, we were the only non-S.W.A.T people left in the building and couldn’t get out now. We saw a S.W.A.T officer with a big machine gun and he looked at us and saw our IDs and waved us on, luckily we had pulled our IDs out when we did because if we didn’t that would have been less space between us and our enemy we flashed our IDs and kept running. We didn’t hear gunshots, screams or even voices behind us even when the officer was out of sight. So we found a wall to hide behind, there was a door at the back with a sign that read ‘EMERGENCY USE WEAPONS’ I pointed it out to Carter. His eyes got big and he tried the handle, of course it was locked. He tried to kick it down which didn’t even move the door. “Gimme your gun.” He said. I handed him my gun and he shot the lock with it. He rammed the door with his shoulder and it cracked open then he pushed it in and we poured in to the dimly lit room that had some heavy-duty machine guns in it. “Okay, I hate to say it but guns are only going to slow you guys down, if you need fire to hold ‘em off while you run just yell ‘cover fire’, got it?” He said. We all nodded in agreement. We stood by the door with our guns out in case someone came by. I heard him pick up a gun and looked back, he went with an M-16, good choice. There was a thirty round clip with it so he loaded up two clips one in the gun and another in his pocket and he stuffed his pockets with extra ammo. I felt like he went a little over the top with the extra bullets but I guess its better to be safe than sorry, or even dead. He left the room first with his gun loaded and ready to fire he looked both ways down the hallway then nodded to us, we ran out with our guns still at our sides and froze when we heard gunshots from down the hallway. We ran up to the nearest hallway and once we were cleared to go down we took off we saw a sign that said stairs. We didn’t know whether to go up or down if we went up we risked getting stuck up there and most likely killed but if we went down we risked running right in to the terrorists. We heard footsteps coming closer behind us and faintly heard footsteps coming from the stairs, we were trapped. We ran to another wall to hide behind but Carter went to one on the other side of the hall and a little further down. The footsteps were so close that I felt if I stuck my head out from behind this wall it would be blown off before I even got a look of the hallway. I heard voices from down the hall around the stairs; whatever they were saying was definitely in Russian. They had met up right where we were seconds before. One sign of good luck: check. We heard them walking up towards where we were. We all made it look like we were glued to the wall holding our breath. The next minute or so seemed to have gone by in slow motion. Carter had come out from where he was hiding and opened fire, one body fell, and then two, then five bodies had hit the floor in the span of about three seconds. I had watched two of the bodies drop right in front of me. I heard Carter’s shots stop and I wondered had he been shot or he gone back into his hiding spot. I saw someone bring a gun up right in front of me and point it where Carter had been or was, I couldn’t tell. I had to make a decision and quick. I nodded to my guys and they got ready to attack then I ran out into the hall and before anyone had realized what I had done I had tackled the man with the gun pointed at Carter as he was about to pull the trigger, then shot him as he tried to get up. Jason, Marc and Chris had all come out right behind me and started to shoot at the men who were pretty much at point blank when we were in the hall. “Marc, cover me!” I yelled over the shots, and I sprinted up to where Carter was. He was doubled over with his knees on the floor holding his left shoulder with blood seeping through his fingers. I looked back and saw Jason fire the last shot, right into a tall Russians chest, done. Ten Russian bodies lay still on the floor, we had shot down ten guys with only five guns and four were just semi-automatic pistols. I asked Carter if he could get to the wall he had been hiding at. He shook his head no. I grabbed his right elbow and dragged him over to the wall and put his back up against it. “Keep pressure there, you’ll be alright.” I told him. He nodded. “You got a radio I can call a medic with?” I asked. He reached and pulled out a walkie-talkie. “Channel three.” He muttered, clearly in pain. I turned the dial on top to three and hit talk I didn’t know quite what to say at first, and then an idea came into my head all at once. “Hi, this is Jay from Lieutenant Darnell Carters squad, Carter’s been shot in the shoulder and needs medical attention ASAP, I’ll have a flare at a window high on the front side, get a chopper there and we’ll hand him over to you.” I said into the mouthpiece.

“Copy that, ETA three minutes.” ETA stands for Estimated Time to Arrival. The voice on the other end replied. I grabbed a flare from one of Carter’s coat pockets and tore the cap off and slipped it into my pants pocket. Marc picked him up and carried him, following me up the stairs we got two floors up and came out in a hallway lined with windows I looked for a way to open the window but saw no lock. I decided I had no time for that so I took off my long sleeve t-shirt, wrapped it around my fist and punched the window as hard as I could. It shattered with no problem so I broke more glass so we could get Carter out of it. I looked down and saw scaffolding that I hadn’t seen before to my right, possible escape route. I took the cap out of my pocket and put it to the end of the flare stick and lit it like you would light a match, it lit on the first try. I stuck my arm out as far as I could with the flare in my hand. It took a couple seconds and then I heard it, the blades and a motor of a helicopter it came around the corner and someone inside placed a backboard as a bridge from the chopper to the building and told us to put him on it. I wanted to scream ‘are you insane’ but I decided to trust him and stepped aside as Jason and Marc laid his body down on the backboard. The guy from the inside tossed us a rope and told us to tie it to the front of the backboard; Marc did as he was told. The guy in the helicopter had strung it through a loop inside the helicopter and pulled it while another medic pulled the backboard into the chopper. We watched as they flew away and we heard people running getting closer and closer. I pointed out the window at the scaffolding and they agreed with me, so one by one we stepped out onto the scaffolding about a hundred and fifty yards off the ground. It was kind of like something we did in training so it was pretty easy for us to get down to the ground.   

We got to the ground and saw military vehicles and figured that they were all in the building so we were free to go. We were looking around for the Escalade, or anything to just get out of there in. I ran to the right for about twenty yards and heard a gunshot from outside the building. I snapped my head back towards the shot. I heard Marc scream out in pain. I didn’t even worry about getting shot at I just started to run back towards Marc. I looked up to where I had heard the shots and saw no one up, down, side and side, no one. He was lying on the pavement bleeding out of the back of his right calf. I didn’t bother to ask if he was okay, I mean, he’d been shot. I saw a military Humvee ten yards away from us. I figured they’d know what to do with him more than we did. “Watch him.” I said to Jason. He ran over and I ran to the Humvee and knocked on the window a soldier opened the door and hopped out and asked what we needed. “One of my guys got shot, he needs help.” I said. I led him and another soldier who carried a machine gun over to Marc, Jason and Chris. “Chris we need a ride to the hotel, try to find either the Escalade or a taxi I don’t care.” I looked back at Marc and the soldiers were tightening up a tourniquet to temporarily stop the bleeding so they could get him to a hospital. “Jay I got a taxi waiting right up here, you got money?” Chris said.

“Nope, but I got an idea worth a taxi fare.” I said smirking.

“Uh-oh.” Jason said. We helped the soldiers get Marc get into the Humvee and walked to the taxi. When we got in there was a sheet of plexi-glass between the backseat and the drivers seat, the guy behind the wheel asked where we needed to go so we told him the hotel then he said it was thirteen dollars, I didn’t even have a penny on me, so I went with my idea. I pulled out my ID and so did Jason and Chris, then I slammed my gun against the plexi-glass and we all held up our Government issued IDs as I said, “Drive.” His eyes got really big and he threw the car into gear and stepped on the gas.

       When we got to the hotel it was about 4:30 P.M. I couldn’t believe we were only gone for two and a half hours. I pressed the 28^th floor button and we went up, the ride was silent. When we got to the room I realized I forgot my key. “Jason, you got a key?” I asked. He shook his head no. Just as I was about to knock I heard the door unlock and it swung open. Christina stood there, tears streaming down her face. I grabbed her and held her close. I took off one arm and started to walk in the room but she was still clinging to me. “What’s wrong?” I said when we sat down on my bed.

“I was worried that you hadn’t come back or even called me after the first hour and now it’s been over two hours, what happened?” She said through tears.

“I’m not going to make this some long explanation,” I began. “But the attack happened today.”

“I thought you said it was tomorrow.” She said puzzled.

“I did, but everyone was caught off guard by this.”

“Is everyone okay, where’s Marc?” She asked. I really didn’t want to answer that right now but I knew I had to.

“Marc’s leg got grazed by a bullet when we were looking for a ride here, so we found soldiers and they made him a tourniquet and took him to a hospital from there.”

“That’s terrible, what about Carter, is he okay?” She asked.

“Carter had a more serious injury, he was shot in the shoulder, and from what I saw it looked like a through and through, now he and Marc are going to have a long recovery, but they’re going to be okay.”

“Oh my God, that’s awful, where did you leave him?” She said.

“I couldn’t leave him anywhere so I used his radio and called a chopper with a backboard and they took him to a hospital as well.” I said.

“Well, I’m glad you’re all still alive and let’s all keep Marc and Carter in our thoughts.” She said. We all agreed and were silent for a while.

“Ever since people have been asking me where we got our powers, I kinda want to know.” I said after a long pause.

“Yeah, I know, it would be interesting.” Jason said. Christina was just standing there letting us work this out.

“Do you think Lennox would know?” I said. Jason and Chris nodded as if to say ‘its worth a shot’.

“I guess I’ll call him.” I said. So I grabbed my phone and called Lennox.

“Hello?” He said.

“Hey, Lennox, its Jay, you busy?”

“No, I got a couple minutes, what’s up?”

“Well, we were wondering if you know who we should ask about where and how we got our abilities, do you know of anyone?”

“Well, the CGR, Center for Governmental Research, wanted to do this experiment, it seemed pretty simple, a couple of vaccines and some tests, so the CGR called all around trying to find labs to help out they found one in New Hampshire who would do it if we provided subjects, you four.” He explained.

“So, where in New Hampshire?”

“Somewhere in Manchester.”

“Okay. Thanks, Lennox, I appreciate it.”

“No problem. So, how’d it go today?”

“Well the Russians attacked today, so we got to the SecDef’s office at around 2:00 and someone came in and told him he had to go to a bunker somewhere so he left and we were in there alone with some Russian terrorists, Carter’s in the hospital with a through and through to the shoulder and Marc’s in a hospital with a slug in his leg.” I said.

“Okay, they’re both good though?”

“Yeah, Marc gave a thumbs up while he was in the stretcher, Carter was in a lot of pain but he was able to thank us for getting him out of there.”

“Okay, cool.”

“So, do you mind me asking what you had to leave for?”

“Well, I became a father at 5:42 this morning.”

“Oh my God! Are you serious?”

“Yeah, she’s beautiful.”

“Wow, congratulations!”

“Thank you, I gotta go now though.” He said. So we said our goodbyes and hung up.

“Manchester, New Hampshire, that’s where it all started, you all still down?” I said.

“I’m in.” Jason said. Chris agreed with this too.

“Looks like we’re headed to New Hampshire.” I said. Then I realized Christina was still there looking sad. I walked over to her and put my arm around her.

“You’re not going anywhere until after my competition, got it?” She said smiling, but I knew she was serious.

“She’s right, we should.” I said to the other two. They agreed to.

       The next day, Monday, didn’t bring much of anything so we decided to sleep in and go from there. Well sleeping in for Christina and sleeping in for me is two totally different things. The shower water was running at 8:45 Monday morning. I woke up and checked the clock next to me, groaned and rubbed my eyes. I hadn’t realized I had dozed off until about fifteen minutes later the door opened and Christina came out. Her hair was still wet and messy; I guessed it hadn’t been brushed yet. She came over and sat down on my bed. She gave me that smile that made me feel like if I didn’t smile I wasn’t human, so I smiled back. Her bangs were falling down over her face so I pushed them out of the way and she leaned down for another one of those kisses that just makes your heart race. I was looking her straight in the eyes when we heard people shouting outside clearly in an argument. I didn’t want to ruin the moment but I had to check it out. I stood up and didn’t even bother to find a shirt. I walked over to the window and peered out. Sure enough there were two men arguing. I couldn’t tell what they were arguing about but I could tell it was about to turn physical. “That’s not your job.” Christina said, clearly not caring about my “job” but not wanting me to leave. 

“Yeah, until their language changes to Russian.” I snapped sarcastically. We both laughed at that. Just then I stared back into her eyes again, totally spaced out. I was thinking about how this started and all we’ve already been through in such a short amount of time.

       The door to Jason and Chris’ room opening snapped me out of these thoughts. “Sorry, but what are we doing today?” Jason asked. Chris was standing next to him. I didn’t have an honest answer for this.

“Well, we could go visit Marc and Carter, then maybe get some lunch?” I suggested.

“Sounds good to me.” Jason said. Everyone else agreed. I looked at my watch, 10:04 A.M.

“Okay, lets shoot to leave here at 11:00 o’clock.” I said. They all nodded.

       We walked into the hospital at 11:13 and headed straight for the front desk. I, as always was the one to do the talking. “Hi, we’re here to see Marc Jones, could you tell us what room he’s in?” I said.

“Room 206, second floor and turn right off the elevator.” The lady behind the counter said after looking at a list. We headed for the elevator, got on and pressed two, another silent elevator ride. We got to the second floor and headed right. 203, 204, 205, 206 we counted. “Got it.” Jason said from the left side of the hallway. We all huddled around the door looking at each other. I knocked on the door three times, no answer. I started pounding my fists on the door playing a beat off the top of my head. “Quit playin’, man.” Chris hissed at me There was a pause then I heard footsteps. “Hi, are you friends of Marc?” The nurse asked.

“Yes, we are.” I said. She stepped back and held the door open for us. Marc was lying there and looked up at us, he had the biggest grin on his face. We all smiled back. “How you feelin’, man?” I asked him.

“Get me outta here, man.” He said still smiling, no doubt, he was really happy to see us.

“I’ll see what I can do.” I said imitating Lennox. We all laughed.

“Looks like you’ve got it made in here,” Jason said looking around the room. “But its not the same without you when can you come back?”

“Doctor said six to eight months of physical therapy.” He said.

“So it’s more like four to six though, right?” Chris asked.

“Probably, he doesn’t know about the powers yet, how do I tell him?” Marc asked.

“Slowly, don’t rush it unless he wants you to.” I said.

“Okay, will you back me up?” Marc said.

“Yeah, but call him in now.” I said, hoping I didn’t sound like I had somewhere else to be, thing is, I didn’t. Marc pressed a button that looked like a doorbell for a house. No more than five minutes later an average height man, five-foot-nine-inches tall, grey hair, glasses and white lab coat.

“Okay, Dr. Johnson, I have to tell you something that will change your guess as to how much physical therapy I need.” Marc started.

“And he’s not saying this to get himself out of here sooner, we all have it.” I said

“Along with accelerated running, jumping and strength, we have internal healers that heal us in almost half the time of anyone else.” Marc said.

“Right, so if you say six to eight months of physical therapy for anyone else its really about two to four for us.” I added. There was a long pause. Dr. Johnson was obviously in complete shock at what he’d just heard. For a second I actually thought he was going to run out of the room.

“Well, that’s incredible, but with physical therapy only time can tell.”

“Okay, thanks for your time.” Marc said. Dr. Johnson nodded his head and left.

“That wasn’t so bad.” I said.

“Yeah, I guess.” Marc said laying back down staring at the ceiling.

“What do we do now?” Chris asked. I looked at the floor and stared for a long time. I couldn’t decide if I was worried about the group or just worried about Marc.

“I don’t know.” I said not looking up from the floor.

“We shouldn’t leave Marc.” Christina said.

“It’s fine. You guys can go do what you want, just don’t get in trouble, at least not without me.” Marc said. We all laughed at that.

“Christina, I got a question for you,” Marc said, Christina nodded and awaited the question. “You keepin’ my boy Jay in line?” I rolled my eyes at this.

“I think so, I’m trying to anyways.” She said. We all laughed again.

“Take care of yourself, alright Marc.” I said. He nodded and we bumped our fists like we always did. We finished our goodbyes and left. I looked at my watch, 12:37 P.M.

“Wow we were in there for awhile, its almost 12:40.” I said. They all didn’t say anything just looked at their watches and raised their eyebrows.

“I’m hungry, you guys wanna go get some lunch?” Chris said.

“You’re always hungry, but yeah I am too. You guys want to?” I said. I more meant for this to go to Christina. “Yeah, I’ll eat.” Christina said. Jason agreed.

       We decided to go get money at the hotel. I looked in my wallet, nothing. Great, no cash and I really didn’t want to find an ATM.

“You guys got any money?” I asked Jason and Chris.

“I’ve got a ten.” Chris said.

“Me too.” Jason said.

“Grocery store it is.” I said making the decision whether they liked it or not.

There were a lot of people at the Capitol Supermarket. It was like they were getting ready for a hurricane or something, I hadn’t watched the news lately so it could have been true.

“Okay, Christina you’re with me. You guys go get cereal, and spaghetti sauce. Can you handle that?” I said. They just looked at me. “Good, now go.” I walked towards where it said produce and started there. I picked up a carton of eggs, checked them to make sure none were cracked, and put them in the basket Christina had picked up. I went over and got cream cheese and butter. Christina was basically following me around.

“Can you go grab a gallon of two percent milk?” I asked her. She nodded and walked towards the refrigerated items. When I heard the door slam shut I noticed I was staring again and snapped out of it.

“Okay, let’s get some bread, then head to the front.” She nodded and we started towards the bread isle.

“You’re not talking too much today.” I said wanting it to be more of a question than a statement.

“Whenever I get nervous before a competition I become mute.” She explained to me.

“Have you ever thought of talking to someone about it, letting them know what you feel?” I asked sounding worried I’m sure.

“No ones really been there to listen, and plus, what’s there to talk about.” She said.

“Well first off I’m hear to talk to you whenever you want and I don’t know about you but it always helps me to talk whenever I’m nervous.” I said.

“I’ll tell you when we make dinner.” She said. I smiled and nodded. We grabbed the bread and walked to the checkout lines where we met Jason and Chris. We put our groceries on the conveyor belt and Jason and Chris pulled out their money. While the cashier scanned our items I stuck out my hand and asked for the money. Surprisingly, they put it in my hand. The cashier tapped a couple of keys and said, “Nine dollars and sixty-one cents.” I was surprised that it was less than ten dollars. I handed her a ten-dollar bill and she gave me thirty-nine cents back. I looked around for a tip jar and found one at the bagging area ‘D.C. Area Humane Society.’ It read and had a sad looking puppy underneath it. I put the coins in the jar, picked up the groceries and walked out.

       When we got back to the hotel we decided to have eggs for dinner. “Okay, who wants scrambled, sunny-side up, or an omelet?” I said. I grabbed a piece of paper and I pen, just so I could feel like I was working at a restaurant, I pretty much was.

Jason: Scrambled

Chris: Sunny-side up

Christina:

Christina said she could make her own omelet. We made it more efficient and grabbed two pans. It was weird not having to add Marc to the list.

“I’ll have an omelet, which ones do you wanna make?” I asked.

“My dad taught me how to make omelets so I guess I’ll make those if you don’t mind.” She replied.

“No, that’s fine.” I said. I grabbed a bowl, a fork, five eggs, and the milk. Then I cracked three eggs into the bowl and started to stir them up. After I added a little milk and finished stirring. I looked over at Christina, and I could tell, even through the hair covering her eyes as she looked down into the pan, she was going to cry.

“What’s wrong?” I said walking over to her. She turned to face me and threw her arms around me, then the tears.

“I’m just so confused, I don’t know what to think anymore.” She said not even fighting the tears. ‘Why now?’ I thought.

“Just don’t think about anything, clear your head and just think about right now, not tomorrow, not even an hour from now, just this minute.” I said trying to calm her down. She looked at me with her eyes filled with tears. She shut her eyes hard and put her left cheek on my chest. Just then I noticed how much taller than her I was. Looking towards the wall behind her, my chin was a good two inches above the top of her head. I heard her taking some deep breaths so I tilted my head down and kissed the top of her head. We heard the eggs sizzling on the pans. We both swung our heads over to the stove and let go of each other. She flipped her omelet and it was black on the other side. We just laughed and put it on a plate to let it cool off before throwing it away.

“Don’t worry you get a retry,” I said handing her the egg carton. “Actually eight.” I said jokingly. She slapped me on the arm and we laughed. I turned my side of the stove back on and waited.

“What is it that you’re most nervous about?” I asked. “Or do you not wanna talk about it?”

“I don’t really wanna think about it right now, lets just get dinner made and eat.” She replied

“Good, that means you took my advice seriously.” I said. We finally finished with the eggs and sat around talking, laughing, and eating. It was a nice time but having Marc would have made it better. When we were done with dinner everyone helped clean up. I heard my phone ringing from where we had eaten. It was Lennox.

“Hello?” I said after clearing my throat.

“Jay, the doctor from Manchester called me, he wants to see you all.”

“How? Marc’s still in the hospital.”

“We’ll figure something out. I made your plane reservations, you’re flying out of Reagan International airport at 10:00 A.M. on Wednesday.”

“Okay, I’ll go tell my guys, you figure out something for Marc.”

“Okay, I’ll call the hospital. Be at the airport at 8:30 Wednesday.

Without saying anything more I hung up and told Chris and Jason about what Lennox said.

“What are you gonna do about Christina?” Chris asked.

“I’m gonna tell her, she’s most likely gonna insist that she comes.” I said. I walked into the kitchen where I saw Christina leaning over the sink. I ran over and turned her to face me. She had tears in her eyes.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“I don’t know what to think anymore. I have this competition tomorrow and you’re leaving for New Hampshire on Wednesday.” She said.

“You’ll do great in the competition and I’m coming to your competition and then leaving on Wednesday.”

“Can I come with you?” She asked. I knew that was the next question.

“Yes, I’ll tell Lennox to make one more plane reservation.” I said. This made her a little bit happier. She threw her arms around me and I tilted my head down and kissed her on the top of her head.

                    Tuesday was competition day. We left the hotel and got in the Escalade and headed to the gym. When we pulled up to the doors I hopped out first and glanced around scanning for possible bad guys. The coast was clear… for now. We all hopped out and waited for each other. When Christina got out last we all surrounded her like bodyguards.

“Is this necessary?” She asked, “I mean I feel famous and all but really?”

“Well considering that you have a lot more than Russian terrorists to worry about, yeah its necessary.” I explained. She just nodded and stared straight ahead. She knew the drill--don’t look at anyone, just stare straight ahead and don’t draw any attention to us. Atta girl. Wait, no it shouldn’t be like that, but she chose to stick around. I wrestled with this for a few minutes when I hear a crowd cheering and I snap back to reality. When we got inside the place was buzzing. It was like we were at the Olympics or something. I look up and saw a sign: LOCKER ROOMS à              

                    ß SEATING

Christina and I let out a sigh directed at each other. She looked more nervous than ever before. I put my hands on her shoulders and said “listen, you’re gonna do great, don’t even worry about it.” She didn’t say anything and just threw her arms around me. I gave her a kiss and she turned down the hallway. I turned to face Marc, Chris and Jason. “Seems like you two are doin’ alright.” Marc said.

“Yeah, we are.” I said with a smirk. We all laughed and continued down the tunnel. We looked at our tickets that Christina had given us on the car ride over and back at the rows and rows of seats.

“Row G.” I said trying to be loud enough so my guys could hear me over the cheering crowd. They all nodded as I pointed to where the seats were. We had to step over a few people who made room. When we got to our seats I looked around the building, half trying to take it all in, half looking for terrorists. In a corner underneath a sign I saw someone pointing in our general direction. “Oh God no, not now!” I muttered.

“What’s wrong?” Marc said. We made eye contact and I nodded towards where the guys pointing were. They were gone.

“Boy, you’re crazy! Relax, man.” Marc said. I looked at him then back to the corner in disbelief. It was time to make a decision. Not worry about it or get up and see who they were pointing at.

“I feel like we should check it out.” I said worried.

“Jay, if they want us, they can come get us.” Marc said.

“Well they can try to at least.” Jason said clearly trying to make light of this situation. They laughed, I decided to fake a laugh although I was still worried. Then we heard a voice come over the loud speaker “Could Jay, Marc, Jason, and Chris come to the front desk?” the voice said. We all looked at each other and stood up slowly. We started up the stairs and realized we were running so we slowed down to walk normally. When we got to the front desk I did the talking. “Hi, how may I help you?” the lady behind the desk said.

“Uh, I’m Jay, and this is Marc, Chris and Jason, we were just paged over the loud speaker.” I said. Just then I heard Christina shout my name from down the hall. I turned towards her and saw her running towards me. When she got close she slowed down.

“Hey, I got you better seats, follow me.” She said. I looked at my guys and we nodded at each other. She led us as we weaved through the crowds of people. We soon came to a sign that said ‘VIP ONLY’. Just then she turned around and held out four lanyards with VIP PASS printed on the tag. “Coach gave them to me, I guess some ones family couldn’t make it.” She explained. We all thanked her and took the passes. I hugged her goodbye and wished her luck. We opened the door and started down a hall. We ended up in what seemed like a media workers section but there were no cameras or note pads just a few spectators who paid big bucks for these seats. We found a place to sit in a corner where we could see perfectly. When we heard the crowd start cheering I looked towards the tunnel, sure enough Christina and her team walked out followed by the other teams. I stood up and clapped and she waved to me. They all made their way to the center of the mats and turned towards the flag that was coming down overhead. After the national anthem was sung the teams scattered towards their Jasonches. I noticed Christina and her team was walking towards where we were sitting I looked over my right shoulder and saw a Jasonch right there. She had gotten us passes to sit right next to them. She sat down on the end closest to me. I reached out my hand and she gave me a high five and we smiled at each other. “You got this!” I yelled to her over the crowd. She didn’t say anything and just gave me a thumb up. I turned back to the mats and noticed a team was already getting ready.

                    There were six teams at the competition and Christina’s team was fourth. During the third I looked over and saw Christina and her team doing group stretches. I was stunned at how flexible they were. When the last team came off the floor Christina’s team walked out on to the floor. They set up in order and they did one cheering, and one to a song. I could tell when they were done they had won it when they were done by the judges reaction. When the announcer walked out I looked at Christina and her team and who were all holding hands and closing their eyes, hoping that they won. They did.

                    No one in the gym mattered anymore I stood up and cheered I looked over at my guys and Marc, who was standing next to me, patted me on the back. Christina’s teammates were hugging each other and wiping tears I scanned the team for Christina. I caught her eyes and she came running over to me. When she got to the rope that was supposed to separate the team from the crowd she lifted it up over her head and jumped into my arms. “You did it!” I said. She kissed me and I put her down and looked her in the eyes. Just then the announcer said, “Cardozo High School cheerleaders please come to the podium to receive your medals and trophy.” Christina took my hand and dragged me out of the VIP section. I looked back at Marc with eyes that said ‘Where am I going?!’ and he gave a hand gesture as if to say ‘go along with it!’ So I turned back and followed her as we made our way to the podium. When we were almost at the podium I looked at what I was wearing. Cargo shorts, a white t-shirt, and my running shoes. I didn’t feel as presentable as I would have liked but it was too late now. When we got to the podium she went up on stage and I stood there among the photographers clapping with a big smile on my face.

Once all the medals were handed out Christina jumped off the podium and into my arms. I kissed her and said, “you did it!” she kissed me back. I noticed a few camera flashes in our direction during the embrace. We walked back to the VIP section and met up with the guys. When we got out to the tunnel I called the driver from my watch.

We waited outside the stadium and finally saw the black Escalade pull up. We told the driver to get us back to the hotel. When we got to the hotel there was a police cruiser outside. “Are you kidding me?!” Chris muttered. I shot him a look telling him to cool it. Sure enough, the police were gathered in a corner talking. We all knew the drill, walk straight for the elevator and don’t ever make eye contact. We got to the elevator and I pressed the up button. We piled in and went to our floor I looked at my watch, 7:38 P.M. I was hungry and tired. “You guys hungry?” I asked as we got off the elevator. They all said they were. When we got to the room I went to the kitchen and opened the fridge, just sodas. I sighed and moved over to the cabinets, Bread, peanut butter and jelly (and a bunch of other stuff that did seem like better options). I grabbed the three items out of the cabinet and put them on the counter. “Looks like its PB and J for dinner.” I shouted to the others. No one responded. ‘Suck it up,’ I thought ‘cause that’s all we’ve got.’ Christina wandered into the kitchen as I was opening the bread bag. She put her arms around my stomach and put her head on my back. I smirked and kept going with my sandwich making skills. I tried to move to go get a knife but she didn’t let me move, “What’s the magic word?” She asked. Just then Jason came into the kitchen Christina quickly let me go and we both turned to him. He definitely had something important to say. “Lennox just called,” he began, “He wants you to call him ASAP.” I stood in silence wondering what it could be about. “Okay, thanks.” I thought about finishing making the sandwiches but couldn’t wait to figure out what Lennox had to say. I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone.

“Hello?” Lennox said.

“Hey, Lennox, it’s Jay I just heard that you called what’s up?”

“I just wanted to remind you that your flight leaves at 10:00 tomorrow morning.”

“Okay, thanks.”

We said goodbye and hung up.

“What was that about?” Christina asked.

“C’mon.” I said motioning to where the guys were.

“Guys, just a reminder our flight leaves at 10:00 tomorrow morning so get all packed and ready to go at 8:00.”

“8:00?!” Marc said.

“Yeah, that’s what Lennox said.”

He shrugged and walked over to the connecting door, Chris followed.

Christina and I walked back into the kitchen and continued making sandwiches. I hollered into the common room and told them the sandwiches were ready. They all came to the kitchen and grabbed a plate. We all sat down in the common room and talked and laughed over the most casual meal ever.

The next morning we were all awake and showered by 7:30 so we headed to the lobby for breakfast. I only got a blueberry muffin and a glass of milk. My watch started beeping and I looked at it. It was a text from Lennox. ‘Sending the Escalade now, be ready!’ I didn’t respond. “C’mon guys, the Escalade is gonna be here soon.” I said. We all stood up and threw out our plates and extra food and walked out the door. I looked up and down the street and saw it parked down the street. We all walked to it, piled our bags in the trunk and got in.

The airport was crowded when we got there. Lennox was standing right inside the door we came in he shook all of our hands and handed us our tickets, even Christina got one. “Thinking ahead I see.” I said pointing at Christina’s ticket.

“Yeah, I had a feeling you’d ask so I figured I’d get it before time ran out.” He said.

“Good thinking.”

“Okay, have a good flight and don’t get hurt.” He said.

We all laughed and said our goodbyes. I looked at my ticket and looked for the gate. “Okay guys we’re looking for gate G6.”

We all started to head to security.

Once we were all through security we all found gate G6 and waited. I looked at my watch and it said 9:30. “Already?!” I said.

“What?” Christina asked as she put her head on my shoulder.

“We board in a half hour.” I said. She sighed.

I looked down the hallway at a store. I tapped Marc on his arm. “Marc, who does that look like to you?” I asked. He sat staring at the man, and then his face became intense. “It’s the guy who kidnapped Christina and her friends.” He said looking as if preparing for a fight.

“Cool it.” I said. Christina heard her name and picked her head up.

“What?” She said, clearly groggy.

“Nothing.” I said quickly. Chris and Jason came back with a soda and a bag of chips in each hand. “Uh, Jay, I hate to say it but…”

“Yeah, I know.” I said interrupting him.

“Flight 2112 is now boarding first class.” The voice on the loudspeaker said. I wasn’t expecting Lennox to get us first class but a little hope inside of me made me check. Good thing I did. “That’s us, guys.” I said. They all looked at their cards and smiled. I pulled out my phone while we were walking down the ramp and called Lennox”

“Hello?”

“First class, huh?”

“Don’t ask, have a nice flight and be careful.”

Before I could say anything he hung up. We found our seats and sat down. The plane started to taxi to the runway and I took a deep breath. “Pre-flight jitters?” Christina said next to me.

“Yeah,” I said. “Every time.” She put her head on my shoulder and I put my head on the top on her head. She shut her eyes and I shut mine, and soon I was asleep. I was running, I look back and see a man with a gun, why isn’t he shooting? Another one jumps down from a ledge and c***s their gun in my face. I heard a loud thud and snapped upright with a gasp. The brakes screeched the plane to a halt. I looked at Christina and she wrapped her arms around mine and put her head on my shoulder. “We’re there!” She said.

“I guess so.” I replied still groggy. The seatbelt sign went off and we unbuckled. I stood up and stretched.

When we walked up the ramp I turned on my phone and called Lennox to tell him we landed. He told me he would text me the address so I didn’t forget it. When we hung up I looked around for a sign that said baggage claim. “This way.” I said nodding down the hall. I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. It was the address from Lennox I clicked view later and kept going. I checked my ticket for the baggage claim number, 4. I looked over at Christina and noticed she was on the phone. She covered the mouthpiece and said “Mom.” I made the face that says I understand. We got to baggage claim number four and waited. I saw my bag and grabbed it and Christina tapped me on the arm and pointed to a bag. I grabbed it and walked over to Jason, Chris and Marc. I looked for a sign for an exit. My phone vibrated in my pocket so I pulled it out, text message from Lennox. It said ‘black GMC outside the next exit going left.’ I found it scary that he knew exactly where I was. Oh yeah, GPS tracker. “This way.” I said as I pointed to the door and we all made for it. I started to check over my shoulder, old habit. Then I saw it, leather jacket, dark blue jeans, and sunglasses. “Guys,” I hissed. “7 o’clock.” They all peeked over their left shoulder and snapped their heads back and ran. I knew that they wouldn’t run if we weren’t being chased so I ran too. The driver opened the door and we all almost dove in the car. We all readjusted so we weren’t piled on top of each other. I pulled out the phone and read the address to the driver. Just then I realized I never knew his name. “I’m sorry, I’m not sure-“ just then he pulled out a gun and put it on my forehead, “shut up.” He said. He was clearly Russian. I didn’t sit back because I knew what would happen next. In all one motion Marc wrestled the gun out of his hands and it fell right near my feet. “Chris, drive!” I said. “Gladly!” he said with a smirk. He got to the front seat and started punching our “driver” I couldn’t help but laugh I looked speedometer and noticed we were pushing 90. I looked out the windshield and saw the back of a Greyhound bus getting closer. Marc opened the door for Chris and they both shoved him out. Chris slowed down the car and swerved away from the bus and got us back on track. “Nice work guys.” I said as unloaded the gun. “Get off at the next exit.”

Ten minutes after getting off we pulled into a parking lot. We got out and looked around and started walking. I was staying right by Christina’s side and she grabbed my hand and whispered “I’m scared.”

“Don’t be, its over.” I said kissing her on the top of her head.

I opened the door and after everyone was in I peered over my shoulder and walked in. “Jay Evans?” A man in a white coat said as he approached us.

“Yeah, that’s me.” I said reaching out my hand he shook it and introduced him to my guys. “Who’s she?” the doctor, Dr. Jason Anderson, asked. “Christina,” she answered before I could “I’m Jay’s girlfriend.” My eyes got really wide at the thought but then I realized, it was true, whether we made it ‘official’ or not. She noticed my wide eyes and put her arm around my back and her head on my chest. “This way, all of you.” Dr. Anderson said. We walked past a bunch of labs and other rooms and came to a door that said ‘testing’ and stopped. “Ok, this is to test the abilities we gave you. The tests are in this order, running, jumping, and fighting, we have men you can fight so you don’t hurt each other. We followed the doctor to a track. I shook out my legs and volunteered to go first. “Ok, just one lap.” The doctor said picking up a clipboard, “When you finish come to me so I can check your pulse. I nodded my head and looked down the track. It was a quarter mile. “Ready, go!” the doctor said and I took off. My legs were pumping as fast as I could but I needed to beat my 50-flat second time. For more motivation I imagined that I was getting chased. I rounded the last turn and ran faster than ever. I stopped right next to Dr. Anderson and he checked my pulse. “You ran a 45.24 second and still have the heart rate of a normal human after a power walk.” I smiled wide and pumped my fist. Chris ran a 49.52, Jason, a 48-flat and Marc, a 52-flat. Marc was happy because he dropped three full seconds from last time.

“For the jumping test you will do a vertical leap standing still.” Dr. Anderson said. I stepped up to the post and looked up at it setting my goal, 57 inches up the chart. I reached up my hand and my fingertips were already two inches up the chart. Dr. Anderson gave me a piece of Velcro. I Jasont my knees and leapt up as high as I could, I could tell when I stuck the Velcro that it was a good jump. When I landed I looked at the Velcro, 55 inches. Marc got 53, Chris (the jumper out of all of us) got 58 inches, and Jason got 54. “Nice job guys.” I said.

“Now, fighting,” the doctor said. “There are 12 enemy’s in the arena and you have five minutes to see how many you can take down.” He led us down a hallway and through a set of double doors. “Good luck.”

We walked into the huge arena and looked around it was all mats, which was comforting saying as the last place we had to fight off multiple enemies was on concrete. We walked to the center of the arena and bumped our fists as we always do. And turned so our backs were facing each other’s so we could see all angles. Besides us, the arena seemed empty. I looked up at the glass room that the doctors and Christina were in and gave a thumb up. I heard a door creek open in a corner and then the buzzer sounded we kept our formation, keeping an eye on all the doors. A big man with broad shoulders came running at me clearly going for a tackle. I stood still staying completely calm, but when he was a foot away I braced myself for the worst but planned for the best. He tried to dive on my shoulders, bad idea. I grabbed his arm and flipped him on his back. He lay there for a minute and then got up and walked away. Marc, being the fighter that he is, had taken down two people, at the same time, singlehandedly. “I guess if they hit the floor their done.” I said to Marc. “Guess so.” He said. I was a few feet behind him when someone tried to run at me while I was handling someone else. Marc stuck out his arm and slammed it into my attackers chest knocking him flat on his back. I put one last hit on my last opponent and he walked away. We all circled up and bumped fists again. The doctor’s voice echoed through the arena. “Nicely done boys!” he said. Christina was at the top of the stairs smiling. I told her I was sweaty but she hugged me anyways. She grabbed my arm when we were on our way into the doctor’s office for results. “Jay, this has been on my mind for awhile and there’s no better time than now,” she began and I took a deep breath. “I want in, I mean I want all this.” This hit me like a ton of bricks.

“Well you’d have to stop cheerleading because you’d have an unfair advantage and…”

“I know, and I’m willing to, I’m ready.”

“Ok, let’s talk to the doctor.” I said hesitantly. She smiled. We walked into the office and the guys were all huddled around the doctor’s clipboard. They all looked up at us but the doctor kept talking. He said we’ve all improved that’s all I needed to know. I waited so I didn’t interrupt him. “Uh, Dr. Anderson?” he looked up at me. “Can we talk to you for a minute?” I said motioning towards Christina.

“Yeah, what’s on your mind?” he asked once we were alone.

“Ok, Christina and I were talking and she was wondering about getting these, uh, powers.” I started. I still wanted to add more but he cut in.

“It’s difficult on an adolescent but it can be done.” He said. Christina smiled with a sigh of relief.

“Ok, how does she sign up?”

“Well we need her parents consent and two weeks time for the procedure and training.” He said.

I looked at Christina.

“I’ll call my mom.” She said.

“And I’ll call Lennox.” I pulled out my phone and called him.

“Hello?” I heard on the other end. I was almost happy to hear his voice.

“Lennox, it’s Jay, Christina’s on the phone trying to get permission to get the powers we have, oh and by the way we’ve all improved in every area.” I said.

“Wow, uh, I guess its up to you if you want her on your team and as long as she’s ready and trained.” He said. “And if you didn’t improve something would have been wrong.” We both got a laugh out of that.

“Ok, thanks, Lennox.” I said and we hung up. I stuck my phone back into my pocket and gave Christina a thumb up. She smiled and told her mom it was okay with Lennox.

“Really?!” She exclaimed into the mouthpiece. Just then, a sense of worry came over me. By this time the guys were all listening intently. I pulled them all aside to talk.

“Ok, guys, it looks like its gonna work out, are you all okay with this?”

“As long as you are.” Jason said. Marc nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, and she can be someone we can send inside to hit on a guy for information.” Chris said. I slapped him on the arm.

“Hey, it’s just an idea.” He said. We all laughed and looked at Christina as she hung up the phone.

“They’re flying into the airport tomorrow at 1:00 in the afternoon to sign the waiver.” She said with a big grin.

“Wow,” I said. “That’s great!” She ran over and hugged me.

“Someone should call Lennox for a hotel room.” Marc said.

“I’m on it.” I said and pulled out my phone and called him again. He surprisingly said he had already booked two adjoining rooms right down the street and that he’d send a car.

“Yeah, I don’t really trust you sending us a car.” I said with a sarcastic chuckle.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked, clearly unaware of the attack in the last car.

“Long story short, we had to kick a Russian out of the car at the airport and drive ourselves to the doctors.” I said.

“Ok, I’ll make sure it wont happen again, I’ll drive. I’ll be up tomorrow morning.” He said.

“Ok, awesome!” I said. We said our goodbyes and hung up. We shook the doctors hand and made an appointment for 2:00 PM the next day. As we were walking out I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. I pulled it out and looked at it, text from Lennox. ‘231 Queen St., registered under ‘Lennox.’’ I smirked and walked out the door. I looked at my watch, 2:34 pm. I opened up the GPS system and punched in the address. Then opened up a new map and searched for pizza places. “Guys,” I said. “I don’t know about you but I’m hungry, pizza?”

“I’m down.” Marc said. Everyone else agreed.

“Ok, there’s a Pizza Hut right up ahead.” I said. When we walked in we got seated and quickly agreed on a half-sausage-half-cheese pizza.

When we were done eating we all contributed to the check, then left. I plugged in the directions to the new hotel from there we were. It didn’t take us more than fifteen minutes to find it, the thirty-something story high Hyatt Hotel. “Damn,” I said in amazement. “How does he pull something like this off?”

“Hey we’re talking about Mr. ‘I’ll see what I can do’, aren’t we?” Jason asked. We all laughed at that because we knew it was true. When we got in we all looked around at the overwhelmingly huge lobby.

“Hey,” I said quietly. “Look for emergency escape routes, and not in case of a fire.” They all nodded and Christina and I went to the front desk. “Hi, we’re here for a reservation for Lennox.” I said politely to the woman behind the granite counter.

“Ah, yes, 31^st floor, room 33 and 35 with a kitchen in 33?” She confirmed with me.

“That’s the one.” I replied with a smile. The lady handed me two room keys, clearly not enough. “Uh, I hate to be a nuisance, but can we have two more?” I asked.

“Yes, no problem.” She said with a smile and took a key to the desk with her back facing us. Christina turned her back and said, “You’re so polite.” I smiled and leaned down and kissed her. “Sir,” I heard the lady say. Busted. “Oh, uh, thanks.” I said a bit flustered after being caught with my lips tied up with my girlfriend. Whatever. I smiled, grabbed the key and walked away. We made our way to the corner that the guys were in talking and they all looked up. “Ok,” I said when we were all back together. “I played it off to not get noticed but there was a mini camera on the button holding that thing around her neck.”

“Russian?” Jason asked.

“No accent.” Christina noted. I looked at her and smiled atta girl, she’s starting her training already.

“Right, so either someone paid a lot of money to get to her to work for the Russians or it’s for work.” I said.

“Let’s plan for scenario one and hope for scenario two.” Marc said as we were turning to the elevator. Just then I got a wrenching pain in my gut. Not a stomachache but that feeling you get when you know something isn’t right. “Guys, lets get a barrier around Christina, the camera saw her.” I hissed. Christina rolled her eyes but realized that she couldn’t fight for herself, yet. We were about fifteen yards from the elevator when a bald man in the infamous leather jacket grabbed my shoulder. I was stunned by the amount of time it took me to go into kill mode, but I was not in the mood for this. I had wrapped my arm around his gripping his shoulder with my whole hand, God it was muscular, and then I twisted it back so his back was facing me. SNAP, oops. Dislocated shoulder, Russian: zero, Jay: one. “Christina!” I shouted. “Call the elevator, Jason go with her!” Then I saw them both sprint over to the elevator and Christina pushed the button five frantic times. Two other Russians had come by now. I felt a piercing pain in my stomach and I doubled over gasping for air. ‘Accept no defeat!’ I repeated in my head. Marc ran over to my aggressor and put a few good hits on him before getting thrown to the ground. I started coughing up blood uncontrollably. By now, the lobby had been mostly cleared out except for some people who were too stunned at the sight of two teenagers beating up four grown men, correction, three. Marc was pissed. A pissed off Marc plus a Russian attacker equals man down. I saw Christina crying by the elevator and the world stood still, it was like I was completely deaf for a moment. We made eye contact and she looked at the puddle of blood under me then at the elevator and told Jason to hold it. She ran over to me and yelled to Marc telling him to help her. But Marc’s opponent would have none of it. As soon as Marc tried to turn the Russian grabbed his arm and tried to pull him back. Christina, making split-second decision number two, ran over to Marc’s attacker and kicked him right in the groin. He stumbled back and crumpled on the floor moaning. The next thing I knew the world was snapping back to the present moment and I was being dragged across the floor to the elevator. Marc had my hands and Christina was walking beside me telling me words of encouragement that I couldn’t quite understand. Everything went black. I was on the roof of the hotel with Christina, re-living it all, the tears, the meals together, everything. I was felt like I was falling then I snapped out of it and my eyes got wide. Blood was welling up in my throat through this. And I doubled over and spit it all up. I looked up and saw EMT’s running over to me. Great, who’s gonna get the honor of explaining this. Not me. When they got over to me I sat up, chose one, looked him dead in the eye and said, “Do not touch me, I’m not dying.” The tension in my voice did not match the condition I was in I was quite surprised. He got off his knee and stood there with his hand out to help me up. I looked at it and took the offer. He was very strong and I started praying he wasn’t Russian. I was officially paranoid. Marc was right next to me, which comforted me. I stood up and got my vision straight while leaning on Marc’s shoulder. Once I felt good enough to walk I went to the elevator on my own. I went over to Christina and hugged her, I wanted to kiss her to prove to her I was okay but there was too much dried blood on my lips. Then came the all too familiar feeling of tears seeping through my shirt. “I’m fine, I promise.” I said. She smiled up at me.

“You have officially started your training, congratulations.” I said smiling.

“I guess I underestimated the amount of danger you meant,” she said solemnly. “I like it!” She continued. My heart skipped a beat.

“So you’re still in?” I said.

“Of course.” She replied putting her head on my chest. I looked at my watch, sighed, wiped the blood off of it, and checked the time, 8:06. I leaned my head on the laminate wall. The ding of the elevator telling us we arrived at our floor was like grenades going off in my ears. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the cards, two for room 33 and two for room 35. I gave Marc and Jason the cards for room 35 and made sure I still had room 33’s. Marc held everyone back and peered out and nodded at us, he was in command for now. We made our way down the hallway. 29, 31, 33. “Got it.” I said raising the key card towards the slot. “Hun, it’s this one.” Christina said nervously from across the hall. I looked up at the door number and it said 32. Then at the key slot which said 33. I wrinkled my eyebrows. “Oh, weird. Must be a mistake,” I said. “The door say 32 but the slot says 33, and I was reading the slots.” I said. Christina gave me a confused look. “Well this one says 33 on both.” She said. I shrugged and walked over to her and slipped the card in. Thank God it worked, I felt like I was about to pass out. I looked at Christina with a smile trying to seem like I was fine. I put my arm over her shoulder and we walked in. It was a large suite, 2 queen sized beds, a fold out couch, a flat screen TV, and a kitchen, nice. Christina dropped her bag and flopped herself on the bed. I walked into the bathroom leaving the door open and splashed some water on my face to get the blood off. When I was done I put my palms on the edge of the counter and looked at myself in the mirror. Something in that moment came over me, something that made me want to cry. It wasn’t because I just got my butt kicked by a Russian, not because I was running out of money, but because I had already brought Christina into my life farther as I had intended and now she wants to fight on the same line as me. I felt a single tear fall off my face onto the counter. Christina walked in and put her arm around me. “You ok, Hun?” She asked with a worried look on her face.

“Yeah, I’m good.” I replied with a sniffle. I walked out and sat down on the bed and she sat across from me on the other bed. I reached out and grabbed her hands and looked her straight in the eyes. “Are you sure about this, babe?” I said, figuring the term ‘babe’ was acceptable because she said ‘Hun’, debatable.

“Yeah,” she said, clearly not phased by the ‘babe’. “I was sure on Tuesday before the competition, I don’t want to have you guys build a barrier around me anymore ‘cause you have enough to worry about.”

I looked down at her hands. “Alright, well I wanna be your trainer, ok?” I said with a half smile.

“I wouldn’t want anyone else to be.” She said smiling. I tightened up my hands around hers and pulled her up so she was standing over me. She ran her fingers through my hair and put her forehead on mine. I looked at her light blue eyes and smiled. She leaned down and kissed me, it felt much longer than usual. Until the door to room 35 swung open, that is. I looked up and saw Marc and Jason standing there with there jaws somewhat dropped. Christina kept her right arm around my shoulder and sat on my left knee. “What’s up?” I asked after a long, almost awkward pause.

“Uh, yeah,” Marc started. “Sorry to interrupt but, uh, what time are we getting up tomorrow?” I thought for a moment weighing all the times that we have to be somewhere tomorrow.

“Um, let’s say wake up at 9:00 and be out of the hotel door at 10:30. Sound good?” I said not caring if it sounded good or not.

“9:00?!” Jason said.

“Well, that was more directed towards Marc, sleeping beauty over here.” I said with a laugh. Marc made a gesture like he was going to hit me, but didn’t. My stomach was killing me. I looked at my watch, 9:23. I sighed and looked at a picture on the wall it was a painting of a field looking out over an ocean. It reminded me of simpler times in my life and almost made me homesick, almost. We said goodnight and went our separate ways. I headed to the bathroom to brush my teeth and Christina followed. She walked in and put her arms around me from the side. I smiled while I put toothpaste on my toothbrush. I hip checked her while she was using the toothpaste and spilled some on the counter.

“You’re cleaning that up, ya know.” She said. I shrugged and finished brushing my teeth. I walked out of the bathroom and started to get into my bed. “Hey, I was serious when I said you had to clean that up!” she said giggling.

“Oh, you were being serious, huh?” I said laughing. Then I got up from my bed and walked back to the bathroom and cleaned up the microscopic speck of toothpaste. Then I made for the door and Christina was standing with her hands on the doorframe. “What’s the magic word?” she said looking up at me.

“Uh, I wanna go to bed?” I said.

“Not quite.” She said. Then, without another word I picked her up, threw her over my shoulder and placed her on her bed. “No fair.” She said looking up at me. I kissed her on the forehead and said goodnight. When I reached to turn my nightstand light off I noticed she was on her side with her elbow on her bed facing me. I didn’t turn the lamp off and brought my hand back down. “What’s up?” I said.

“I think I’m getting the ‘pre-procedure’ jitters.” Christina replied quietly.

“Yeah, that’s normal, you’ll be fine just don’t think about it, focus on your sleep.” Surprisingly, saying as I was very comfortable where I was, I got up and walked over to her bed figuring I’d comfort her. I went to the opposite side of her and lay down. She rolled over to face me and we stared into each other’s eyes. A few strands of hair fell into her face and she tried to blow it out of the way but it fell right back down so I pushed it back for her. “Jay, I’m nervous.” She said quietly. I didn’t know what to say at first but finally spit something out. “You’re gonna be fine, babe, I promise.” She looked at me and smiled. I smile back. Then I kissed her on the forehead. “I’m going to sleep, night babe.” I said as I stood up. “Ok, fine, night Hun.” Then I walked over and got back in bed. Before long I was asleep.

The next morning was Thursday. I opened my eyes at 8:30 A.M. and sniffed the air. There was a faint smell of Christina’s shampoo. I looked over at her bed and saw she was sitting there looking at me. When I saw her I scooted myself over and told her to sit down. “Hun, you should get up, it’s 8:30.” She said. I groaned and took the covers off.

She got out of bed and followed me into the kitchen. I looked into the fridge and pulled out the eggs. Once I set them on the counter I turned towards the sink and saw Christina washing her hands. I walked up behind her and put my arms around her waist and kissed her on the cheek. I looked at the microwave clock, 8:57. “I’ve gotta go get the guys up, can you start the eggs?” I said.

“Yeah, sure.” She said. I walked over and opened the door to room 35. I looked in and heard Marc snoring with Chris and Jason fast asleep. I thought about leaving them be, but decided it was time. I walked to a desk in the corner of the room and started clapping and making a beat on the desk. They all snapped upright at the same time, as if on cue. “Really?” Marc said, “Already?” I opened up the curtains and they all squinted looking around the room. “What’s for breakfast?” Chris asked. “Eggs,” I said. “They’ll be ready in fifteen so hurry up.” I walked back into room 33 and into the kitchen. Christina had the eggs in the pan and a spatula in hand. I walked over and kissed her. It had become almost subconscious, whenever we smiled and made eye contact, I kiss her. She didn’t mind it though. I walked to the fridge and pulled out the milk. “What time do we have to be at the doctors place again?” Christina asked.

“2:30, your parents get in at 1:00, right?” I replied.

“Yeah.” She said.

“Do they know my name?” I asked smirking.

“Well I told them but I doubt they remember.” We both laughed. Jason walked in with his eyes half closed.

“C’mon, man, it’s not that early.” I said. He just groaned at me. I handed him a plate of eggs and he walked to the counter. Christina and I turned back to the stove. “Is something wrong with him?” She whispered. “Give him ten minutes, he’ll be fine.” I whispered back. Marc walked in and asked if we’d eaten. “No.” I said and held out a plate of eggs. “No you always cook, you go eat.” I was astonished, he never cooks. “You sure?” I said. “Sure, they’re eggs, how hard could they be?” He replied. ‘Careful what you wish for’ I thought. Christina flipped the last cooked egg on to her plate and followed me out to the table.

       When we were all done eating we decided to get ready to go. I showered and got dressed as Christina got in the bathroom but she had already showered. She left the door cracked open enough so when she looked in the mirror I could see her perfectly. She started to put up her hair and I spaced out. Then a knock on the door broke me from my stare. Christina swung the door open looking terrified. I opened the door slowly until the chain lock stopped it. “Good to know you’re being careful!” It was Lennox. I sighed in relief and let him in. We shook hands and he looked around. “How was your flight?” I asked as we walked into where everyone was sitting. Christina had gone back into the back into the bathroom with the door shut now. “Smooth, no problems. Where’s Christina?” Lennox said. I pointed to the bathroom door and he looked and looked back to me. “Is she doing okay with all this, joining you guys and all?” He asked.

“Yeah, she’s ready.” I said. I looked at my watch, 10:48 A.M. Christina walked out of the bathroom wearing a white tank top and short basketball shorts, she looked ready. I smiled at her and she walked over and sat on my left knee. I couldn’t quite tell if she and Lennox were getting comfortable together but they had to start. Christina’s phone rang and she answered. “Hey, mom, what’s up?” there was a pause. “Okay, we’ll pick you up then, love you too, bye.” She hung up and looked at me. “They’re gonna be here at 1:00.” She said. I nodded and stated that we’ll leave at 12:30. “Christina, we need to talk.” Lennox said solemnly. “Okay.”

“There are a lot of things in this that you can’t tell your family in this job.” Lennox said.

“I know,” She replied. “I can handle it.” Lennox picked up a briefcase and flicked it open.

“Then let’s get started.” Lennox said pulling out a thick manila folder.

There was a hidden camera snapshot of a typical Russian terrorist. Bald, small black sunglasses, leather sunglasses. “His name is Akim Bardzecki, he is the head of the field ops, and the guy next to him is the big man behind it all.” Lennox explained.

“Hold up, if you have a picture of him why haven’t you caught him?” Christina asked with a puzzled look.

“This picture was taken in Russia twenty-four hours ago at an airport.” Lennox said and the room fell silent.

“Where were they going?” I asked realizing this was now a group briefing. Lennox looked up at me. “Not sure yet, I saw the footage and Akim got in the car empty-handed and got out with a briefcase alone.”

“An assignment.” I said.

“What?” Christina asked.

“Yeah, the bosses always give them a briefcase with an assignment, coordinates, pictures, addresses, all of it, they reach their destination, they open the briefcase and off they go.” I said.

“What do you mean by assignment?” Christina asked.

“Usually killing someone, sometimes kidnapping and bringing to the boss, all the way up to bombing Times Square.” Lennox said quietly. Christina let out a sigh and leaned back on to my chest. I looked at my watch and sighed, I just wanted to get this day going. Something in Lennox’s briefcase caught my eye. I reached and pulled out a picture. “That’s him!” I exclaimed.

“That’s who?” Lennox asked.

“That’s the guy who attacked me in the hotel ice room in back in D.C.” I said.

“This was forty-eight hours ago in Russia.” Lennox said.

“That’s impossible, he was out cold on the floor and if the Russians came I can assure you they wouldn’t have taken him and left.”

“Jay, think about it, they could’ve only brought two or three guys that’s not enough to carry him and take us out, there’s a million possibilities in this.” Marc said. I nodded in agreement then looked at my watch, 12:18. “Let’s get ready to go.” I said. Christina hopped up and walked to her bed and grabbed some things from her suitcase. Lennox began packing up his briefcase. By 12:28 we were in the elevator.

When we got to the airport and waited at gate E for Christina’s parents. Christina grabbed my arm, “There they are!” I took a deep breath and prepared myself to put on the most comfortable looking smile I could. She looked back with a ‘relax you’ll do fine’ look. Her parents smiled and embraced her. They looked to be in their mid-forty’s. Her mother was about five-foot-six, blond hair and blue eyes. Her father was somewhat tall, six-foot-two, brown hair and eyes, ridged posture and muscular, probably ex-military. Her father and I made eye contact once they were all done hugging I stuck out my hand and stated my name confidently. He shook my hand firmly, I never know how hard to squeeze someone’s hand so I wait for them to go first and follow their lead. “Alan Brooks.” Mr. Brooks said with a smile. I smiled back and shook her mothers, Linda, hand. “Keeping my little girl safe I assume.” Her dad said. My heart skipped a bead. “Always.” I replied smiling at him then at Christina. My watch beeped with a text message. I manually opened it and read it. ‘Watch your six’. It was from Marc. ‘Watch your six’ means watch your back. In terms of a clock, if twelve o’clock is in front of you, six o’clock is directly behind you. I peered over my shoulder in both directions nothing to my right but to my left there was a Russian leaning against a wall talking on a cell phone. Another text came in ‘walk to your right and meet us, we’ll form a barrier around her and her family to the car’ “We have to go, follow me I snapped. I started fast walking causing the Brooks’ to have to jog to catch up when I saw Marc and the others we formed a barrier around them and walked casually to the car. When we got there I checked my watch, 1:39. “We should go straight to Dr. Anderson’s.” I said. Alan let out a sigh. “You’re sure you want this, sweetie?” Linda asked Christina. “Mom, I’m seventeen now,” She replied. “I trust Jay with my life and if I’m gonna stay with him I don’t want him to have to worry about me too, he’s got a lot to worry about already.” “I know, Hun, but…” Linda began but Christina cut in.

“Mom, I’ve made my decision, and it’s final.”

“Well, you’re still my daughter.”

“Always, mom.”

We rolled up to the offices at 2:06, good thing, now we had time to check in and I could talk to Christina. I poked my head out the passenger door and looked both ways. Then hopped out, opened the back door and motioned for all of them to get out. When we were all in the lobby I walked to the front desk with Marc, Chris, Jason and Christina. “Hi, how can I help you?” The lady behind the desk said.

“Hi, I’m Jay Evans, and we’re here to see Dr. Anderson. Jason leaned in from my right and whispered something in my ear. “Three o’clock.”

“Yes, you must be the Accelerated Kids, right?” The lady asked.

“Yeah, that’s us.” I said peering to my right. Not one, not two, but three Russians were there. “Just act normal and hope they don’t notice us.” I whispered back.

“Okay,” the lady said. “Dr. Anderson should be on his way now.” I was looking all around for escape routes that would put no civilians in danger and saw the Russians walking towards us. “Well, we don’t have time to wait. I said. I made eye contact with Lennox and nodded to where they were coming from. He turned and walked down the hallway where we saw Mr. Anderson. “Lennox, security.” I said, pointing to a security officer. Some would call it a rent-a-cop but standing at six-foot-six, made up of all muscle and in a uniform I wouldn’t care if they picked him off the street. Lennox nodded and walked with Christina to where Dr. Anderson was standing. I looked back at her and told her to go on and wait in a safe spot. I walked over to the security officer and got close enough so he could hear me whisper, “Follow me.” I continued down a hallway and stopped. I knew he was a real cop because he looked both ways and then came to meet me, if the Russians saw me go then him, they’d know something was up. “Okay, there’s three guys wearing leather jackets jeans and sunglasses in the lobby, they’re after me and my guys, we’re here for a… a check up, can you just keep an eye on them until we’re out of sight.” I said once he was in whispering range. He looked me dead in the eye somewhat puzzled but when I put a cold look on my face he nodded and pulled out his radio. “I need three units to the lobby, possible ambush, I repeat three units to the lobby.” He said into his radio. I shook hands with him and thanked him. Once I got to Christina she looked up at me with almost terror in her eyes. “Don’t worry, babe, you’ll do fine.” I said. She nodded and grabbed my hand as we followed Lennox and Dr. Anderson down the hall. Marc, Jason and Chris came up from behind us. “I got your six, Jay.” Marc said and stayed a few strides behind me. Mental note, think of nicknames for us, sometimes our names are too long. We walked in to a room filled with expensive lab equipment. It all came back to me. They put needles in my arms and legs with formulas to immediately strengthen me. I took a few minutes to catch my breath then Christina came up to me, “Jay they have to do blood tests on me.” She said. “You’ll be okay.” I said not really thinking in the present moment. Once Chris, Jason, Marc and I were within whispering distance of each other. “Did you guys feel that too?” I asked. They all nodded. I walked up to Dr. Anderson and pulled him aside. “Yesterday you said the procedure is difficult on adolescents, so I’m wondering if there are any big risks I should be worried about?” I asked quietly.

“We’re running blood tests now, those will answer that question, but by looking at her she looks like it’ll be a smooth procedure for her.” He said with a reassuring smile. Just then Christina’s parents walked in. “Do you know how hard it is to find the bathroom around here?” Mrs. Brooks asked. I laughed, hoping it was a rhetorical question. Thankfully, it was. Then she joined Mr. Brooks and Christina in another family hug. I watched and then she came up and hugged me. I wasn’t sure if her parents were okay with me kissing her, ‘only one way to find out’, I thought. So I kissed her on the top of her head and let her go. “Risky move.” Marc muttered in my ear. I saw Mrs. Brooks mutter something in her husband’s ear. “Hey, you guys wanna go to the gym?” I asked them. “I’m down, but shouldn’t you wait for Christina?” Marc said smirking, and I knew exactly what he meant. “Oh, yeah, good point.” I said.

“We’ll just go after.” Chris said. We all agreed. In case you’re wondering, the gym is a long obstacle course consisting of running, jumping and even fighting exercises. You actually have to fight off moving targets.

Christina came out of her blood tests within ten minutes. “The results say I’m all healthy!” She said jumping into my arms. I smiled and told her I knew they would. “That’s right,” he said turning towards her parents. “Now we just need you two to sign the waivers and we’ll get this underway.” He led Christina and her parents into a small office area. I paced nervously waiting for her to come back out. Once they finally came back out I noticed Christina was in her zone, the nobody-bother-me-I-need-to-focus zone, the one she had when she was going to her competition. We didn’t even make eye contact she was so focused. “You all should leave and wait by the doorway, we cannot have extra bodies in here for this.” Dr. Anderson said. We all complied and walked out. When we got out in the hall Mr. Brooks came up to me and I swallowed hard. “Jay, let’s take a walk.” He said firmly, making it clear I had no choice. I walked alongside him nervously and when we were out of earshot of the others he began his lecture. “You have to understand, Jay, that Christina is and always will be my daughter,” I nodded. “And though you’ve roped her into getting these… powers, you can’t take her away from me, understand?” He said. I swallowed hard once more. “Yes sir, but not to be rude…” I said before he cut me off waving his hand. “Please, call me Alan.” He said then nodded, signaling for me to continue. “Okay, Alan, again with all due respect just to clear this up, I didn’t ‘rope’ her into this, she decided to.” My head began spinning with thoughts of him getting mad. “I understand that, and thank you for correcting me.” He said. I let out a silent sigh of relief. “Ya know, I like you, you’ve got a firm, grown up handshake which shows maturity, I can tell you respect my daughter because I truly believe that she can, in fact trust you with her life, and you seem responsible, an honest young man, I like that, just keep that trust, understood?” I nodded and smiled. Just then we turned back around and made our way back to where the rest were all standing.

“Thank you,” I said, relieved. “You’ve raised a great girl.” I started to recall when we first met but decided not to tell him.

“Thank you, I’m glad she finally found a guy like you who respects and protects her.” He said as we were entering back into earshot of the others. When we shook hands I felt myself hoping he wouldn’t feel how sweaty they were. “Is there a place where you guys can prove that you can protect my daughter?” He said chuckling. I couldn’t tell if he was being serious but decided to run with it. “Yeah, we were actually planning on going there after this.” I said. “Actually, Jay, why don’t we throw down now?” Marc said nodding down the hall. There were three big, scary looking Russians. “Let’s do it.” I muttered back. Naturally, being trained to never get scared, we stepped forward about ten paces and decided to let them come to us. Four on three, simple fight. “Let’s get ‘em.” I said just loud enough so only my guys could hear me. It didn’t matter that this was an office building anymore, it was a makeshift war zone now. I ran straight at the one in front and punched him square in the nose. Marc was right beside me and roundhouse kicked the guy next to him. Chris and Jason began messing around with the littlest one. First, Jason walked past him making like he wasn’t with us but then crouched down behind him while Chris pushed him and flipped him on his back. He actually landed on his neck because Jason stood up before he was all the way down. Once he was on the floor, it was all over for him. I put two final hits on my opponent, one to the gut and one to the face. Marc quickly did a flat-footed kick to his opponent’s chest. Once the three were down, we all huddled up, bumped fists and turned to walk back. When we got back I wiped a bit of blood off a cut on my hand, I must have caught the guys tooth, oops. The Brooks looked at us stunned, at first. “Trust me now?” I asked Mr. Brooks laughing. “Uh-huh.” He said, nodding, clearly unable to speak. I smirked and walked to the door and peered in the window and saw Dr. Anderson holding Christina up by her arm and I put a worried look on my face. She cracked a smile and gave me a thumb up. I smiled back and opened the door for them. Christina had gauze covering four spots, two on each arm, two on each leg. “It all went perfectly smooth, she’s just experiencing a bit of wooziness, which is normal, but why don’t you all go get some food and come back here in two hours.” Dr. Anderson said. We all nodded in agreement and shook hands with him and left. Mr. Brooks and I helped her out to the car. “I can make it to the car.” She said when we were five or six paces from the car. We slowly let her go and she was walking slow but other than that, looked pretty good. The Brooks’ had rented a car so they went in that but Christina was one of us now so she rode with us.

When we got into the car Lennox started it up then paused and looked in the rearview. “Hold up, who drove when you had to throw a Russian out of the car?” We all looked at each other so I decided to talk first. “Chris did… AMAZING!” I said laughing. “Well that’s good,” Lennox said. “But that’s considered stealing a government car.” We all looked at each other seriously and then laughed. “Let’s go to a diner or at least some place quiet she probably will get bothered by some place loud.” I said. They all agreed and we pulled in to a parking lot at the Red Arrow Diner. We all agreed to sit at a booth but needed two. Lennox sat with the parents because they had questions about the missions we were running, he couldn’t tell them anything. Christina and I sat across from each other and Chris and Jason sat next to me and Marc said next to Christina. “How you doing?” I asked Christina.

“Good, I think the wooziness will go away with food.” She replied. I nodded and smiled. We were all flipping through our menus trying to be able to order food with our drinks. Christina and I both ordered a meatball Parmesan sub and the rest ordered burgers with various toppings. Christina wolfed her sub down in ten minutes disobeying my requests to slow down.

When we finished she was all ready to go test out her new abilities. I was stuffed and was ready for a nap. “I need to let this digest for awhile.” I said rubbing my stomach. “Oh c’mon, Jay, you’re fine.” Marc said. We all laughed and made our way to the door. “You feelin’ any better?” I asked Christina. She nodded and smiled at me. I smiled back and kissed her on the cheek. “Okay, guys, I’ve been thinking,” I started. “We need nicknames, our names are sometimes too long.” Everyone thought it was a fun idea or a good one. “I’ve been getting some ideas but all in all they have to be related to being fast or any powers we have, back at the hospital when we were fighting those guys Marc used almost all kicks and he also wears the fanciest shoe of all of us so I’m feeling like his name should be just that, Kicks.” I continued. They all nodded and Marc shrugged and finally agreed. “Jay,” Jason started. “I think since you’re the fastest we should call you Wheels.” I nodded and kept thinking of nicknames. “Chris is the highest jumper, I think his should be Hops.” Marc said. “Jason’s should be bolt ‘cause at the hotel he ‘bolted’ for the elevator door, get it?” I said chuckling. They all agreed. “Now, for Christina,” I started pondering. “Flash, ‘cause you’re gonna always wear flashy clothes from now on.” Saying as she had a neon green Nike shirt on and hot pink running shorts, everyone had to agree. “And I think a phrase for our group should be ‘ride or die’, meaning that we will ride out anything we face as a group or die trying.” I said. They all agreed and we headed back. Once we were back at Dr. Anderson’s offices, he greeted us at the door. Marc walked the opposite direction on the phone. “How do you feel, Christina?” Dr. Anderson asked her. “Good, I’m ready to get started!” she said. “But can Jay be my trainer?”

“I don’t see why not.” He said. She smiled at me and then walked to her parents. “Jay can we talk for a minute?” Marc said. “Yeah, what’s up?” We walked until we were out of earshot of everyone else.

“Bella just called me,” Marc said. “She wanted to know where we are and when we’re gonna be back in D.C.” I sighed and began thinking.

“What’d you tell her?” I asked.

“I just said we were on a mission and that we’d be back this weekend.” He said.

“Okay, that’s good enough,” I replied. “Let’s just not tell Christina yet, she needs to focus.”

“Yeah, that’s true.” Marc said. Christina came over to us.

“You all ready?!” She asked. They all nodded.

“Yeah let’s go!” I said. We walked back to Dr. Anderson and he led us back to the gym where we’d start Christina’s training. “We’re just gonna take this slow and make sure you feel alright, okay?” I told her.

“Yeah, okay.” She said. When we got to the gym we all walked in the double doors and Dr. Anderson told us while we were gone they set up a special training course. After he had explained the instructions he said I should run through it with her. “Should I test my running first?” Christina asked. “Yes, sprint to that wall and back, say, four times, down is one back is two.” He said. “Jay race me!” She said grabbing my arm. “Ah, fine.” I said. “One, two, three, go!” Marc shouted and we were off. She had the lead on the first two then once we turned for the last leg I kicked my body into high gear and bolted past her. “Jeez you’re fast.” She said. “I’m fast?” I said. “You had me beat until the last fifty yards.” We all laughed and headed for the obstacle course. “I know the drill with this.” I said. We made our way to the start and I glanced over at her parents. They seemed okay with all this, even after they watched their daughter run at forty miles per hour. “Let’s just walk through the first time and I’ll show you how it goes.” I said. Christina smiled and nodded. The first obstacle was a four-foot hole you had to dive through I nodded towards it as if to say ‘watch and learn’. I dove through, stopped and waited for her. She dove through just as I had and did a somersault at the end. “Showoff,” I said, smiling. She smiled back. “Here you obviously have the moves from cheerleading, let’s get you fighting.” I said. She put a smile on that almost looked like a smile of relief. Once we had finished the fighting lessons I gave her a hug. “I’m impressed.” I said. Her parents, Dr. Anderson and my guys all came over. Dr. Anderson actually clapped for a little bit. Her parents did another one of those family hugs and then we all shook hands with the doctor and left.

A few days later, June 18th, after we had gotten back to D.C. we met with Lennox and he told us something that could change the group forever. The five of us on missions, together taking down Russian terrorists for as long into the future as we could see. And still loving it.

 

 

Trust is a big part in doing what we do. We have become really close for years and though we get in fights over power and whether we should do something or not, we never lose hope or trust in one another. Ride or die. Until next time,

                         ~Jay Evans