Enhance 2: Chapter 5

“Police are still investigating the explosions that occurred late last night. There were reports of the shockwaves felt as far as the center of the city proper. Two men were found dead in the aftermath though they could not be identified. It is an ongoing investigation as to the cause and nothing is being ruled out.”

Yumi blinked slowly setting her bowl down on the table and looked back toward Phase on the love seat. Without the mask his skin was a dark brown, a flat nose, thick eyebrows over auburn eyes and high cheekbones. He rubbed his head slowly brushing his fingers through his curling hair and just flashed a smile, “Things got wild last night. Fei’s fault.”

“And Senpai calls me the fire starter,” she mumbled picking the bowl back up and resuming her cereal.

“That’s a bad nickname,” Echo said coming by in her pajamas. Her hair was platinum blonde and her skin pale. Her eyes were cloudy white, blind as the day she lost her sight.  All of the whiteness of her skin and hair weren’t natural. The former brown was bleached away by the experiments that she’d been subjected too.

She walked over to Rogue as he stood against the refrigerator. He was wearing a grey hoodie and shorts. His eyes were narrow, his nose small, skin a rich tan and chin sharp. His lips were thin and he was eating pieces of trail mix out of a bowl. His normally short cut hair was hidden behind one of his bandanas. He and Echo were on the taller end of the team.

“I don’t call her that anymore,” he said picking a small chunk of granola and fruit. “Firebug is way more accurate.”

She hit his shoulder lightly but looked over to the door down the opposite hall. There were really only two rooms down that side. One was their tinkering room for making tools and the other was Darren’s room. “Is Darren awake yet?”

“They should be,” Feint replied. “Just doing some follow up from last night.

The TV trickled in grabbing the attention of all three, “In the wake of Nathan Pierce’s withdrawal from the Senate seat many potential names have been tossed forward to fill it but a decision has yet to be made in regards to it. It has been some four months since he announced his resignation citing personal reasons to make him no longer suitable for service.”

“What has that guy been doing without the weight of politics stopping him and his brother’s bullshit experiments,” Rogue mumbled.

“Nothing good,” Feint added.

Echo glanced back toward the kitchen she looked over at Feint who was eating from a yogurt cup.  Her eyes were brown, teetering on golden, her nose small and skin a rich brown, shades lighter than Phases. Her thick frizzy hair was tied back in a managed pony tail. Licking her lips quickly she took another spoonful of her yogurt, “What?”

“Nothing. I mean, I did say be careful before I left you two alone,” Echo said in a sing song voice opening the fridge getting an orange and going to the counter to peel it. “And you blew up a dockyard?”

“It was not intended. There were X factors that I didn’t see coming. I just needed a distraction and we got one. Now here we are,” she went back to her breakfast and walked to the living room and sat next to Phase.

“I’ve never been more proud of you than in this moment,” Yumi said reaching out toward her with a longing expression.

Shade came by and slapped her hand down lightly, shaking his head. “Don’t start Yu. What were you guys even doing out there? Echo said Darren gave you a tip. What was it?”

“Darren heard some chatter on an old Royals line about some new deal that was going down. At least that was the guess. They were talking in their own kind of code despite not really securing the line. We went to go investigate and see what was up. Turns out these not Royal guys were doing a deal with some of the Vanguard. Some new guy named Dusk.”

“Dusk? Who’s picking the names on these guys,” Yumi said. “They need to hire me. I can get them some great names.”

“Sure Yu,” Shade said. “Because Shadeow is such a great name.”

“It’s an improvement on Shade. Which you picked yourself.” She stuck her tongue out at him and he rolled his eyes.

“I did not pick that name. Big Mac threw that name at me when I first joined the Vanguard. It just stuck after that,” he shrugged his shoulders. “Besides it works with what I do.”

“Point stands that I can definitely pick better names,” she replied. Shade ignored her best he could and looked toward Phase for him to continue.

“We got there, deal was over a new drug. Dusk called it Aug but the Royals guy called it Neo Enhance.”

“Neo? Like new?” Echo asked. “A new strain of that stuff?”

“Neo Dick Squad RX?” Yumi all but shouted jumping to her feet eliciting a very specific grown from Phase and Feint. “It’s my favorite name for it.”

“We’re aware,” Feint sighed coming into the living room and going toward the TV hanging off the wall. Shifting the news off she plugged her USB into it taking over the screen entirely. “We got spotted while we were there and things got hectic. We got out and ruined the deal in one go which was less than ideal considering things.”

The screen came to life and two faces appeared on the screen. One was the oily smug smile of Danny Guy and the other was a mug shot of Dusk though his face looked a year or two younger. “G here was supplying the Enhance.”

“He looks like a trust fund kid,” Shade commented.

Rogue walked past and tapped the picture of Dusk, “I know that guy.”

“Dusk? From where?” Feint raised her eyebrow.

“He used to run the arena before Rook took over. Rook was good at making things entertaining for people but Dusk was better at making money. So good that he got moved around in the organization. Neither of them liked each other. After Rook took over he got kicked out.”

“Well he moved up to securing new drug deals. Or started something new,” Echo walked around to sit on the couch beside Yumi. She shared a few of the peeled slices to which Yumi took eagerly. “But after that explosion they should both just be dead now right?”

“I wouldn’t count on that. G was already getting out of there on the yacht. And Dusk seemed good enough to know when to cut and run. But that deal is definitely boned.”

“So that’s it then? No more new Dick Squad RX. We go about our merry lives.”

“Wishful thinking Yumi.” The last member of the house came out from their room. They weren’t that tall barely 5’7’’. They had a messy curly bowl cut of a brunette hair, pasty pale skin, and thick framed glasses on their face. Their face wasn’t quite feminine but wasn’t quite masculine. Part of that was genes but part of that was on purpose. They wore a flannel shirt on top of a white t-shirt and sweats and socks. Roxie was trailing behind him her tail wagging quickly.

They went to the kitchen filling Roxie’s bowl with the soft clink of dog food and set it down for her. She dug in immediately and they came back around toward the TV with their own USB stick. Feint took hers out blanking the TV for a moment and Darren placed with theirs. The screen shifted to with articles based on Augment, a few that Feint had found but herself but a few that looked like police reports or scientific studies.

“Alright team. Neo Enhance. It was a rumor back when I first heard about it in the Royal. Enhance may have been new to the streets but we’d been R&Ding a better product for a long time prior. Neo was more than just a new coat of paint. It was like Enhance on steroids. One hit of that and you’ll be a real good functioning addict with super powers. All the basic augmentation stuff and then some. Turned their skin into body armor, let them see in the dark and just this side of faster than a car. It was ugly.”

“You guys were really a bunch of mad scientists,” Yumi mumbled. “What’s the downside?”

“Outside of the super addict?” Darren asked. “Well without the drug continuously in your system you shut down faster than a heroin addict without your fix.” They shrugged.

“Doesn’t sound like it was ready to be put on the market yet like Enhance was,” Phase said rubbing his jaw.  “And that toxicology report is dated to half way through last year.”

“Exactly. I doubt in the last year there was enough priority into Neo that they had fixed that small problem,” Darren folded their arms. “Which means that G getting his hands on that stuff wasn’t meant to happen. And he’s been doing it for a long time.”

“So what? He’s been using his dad’s connections to start up his own business?”

Darren nodded and circled a few locations on the reports. “Yeah. A lot of stuff on the other side of the lakes from the looks of it. And now he’s been bold enough to do it here in Chicago. My guess, he sent some samples for them to cut themselves and spread around but this new batch is something special.

“I’d heard a few things about a new strain of enhance but nothing as potent as you described it,” Echo frowned. “Has that been something different?”

“The samples probably didn’t have the oomph of Neo. At least not the version I know,” Darren rubbed their jaw. “What you interrupted last night was likely the real deal.”

“Think the rest of the royals know about this?” Shade asked clasping his hands in front of him.

“Not a chance,” Yumi said getting up to her feet. “No way they’d let junior run around with some top secret drug and try and sell it. Especially not to the Vanguard.”

“Firebug has a point. They’ve been oil and water for years.”

Phase looked at the map and pointed at the notes, “It says that G and his father had to cut ties with the Royals?”

They nodded, “The Royals have also been quiet this past half a year.”

“Finally went under?” Yumi suggested. “Good riddens in my book.”

“I wouldn’t go that far Yu,” Shade said and put his head on top of hers lightly. “But there’s a vacuum to be filled. The Vanguard are filling theirs and these guys are trying to fill the Royal.”

“So let’s sum it up,” Phase held up his hand ticking off as he went. “We’ve got a new player vying for power where the Royals fell off. They may or may not be working with the Vanguard. Or some not Vanguard new group. Who knows. They do have access to a new super drug that’s likely going to become our problem in the near future. Oh and the Royals are likely cooking up something really intense for this to happen under their noses. I miss anything?”

“No you hit it all on the head,” Darren replied looking over at her. “The question now is how much do we care.”

“What are you talking about?” Yumi asked turning to face them. “Of course, we care.”

Darren looked at her and shook their head, “It’s not our job to police the city. We never have. If someone wants to pick up for the Royals power to them. Neo being on the streets is a bit concerning but again, it’s not our problem to stop it.”

“You can’t be serious,” she said scoffing at him. “Phase back me up on this.”

She looked at him but he was frowning hard. When he met her eyes, her expression fell before he even had a chance to say a word. “I agree with Darren.”

“You’re shitting me.”

“Think about it Yu.”

“No. You’re just saying it’s okay for people to get caught in the middle of the shit. It’s bad enough that enhance is still circulating out there. God knows the fucking police might as well be a gang with the shit they pull.”

 “We’re not some sort of road block against injustice. We’re a bunch of misfits and experiments scraping out a living by stealing from people who aren’t quite poor enough to be hurt by it,” Phase said standing and facing her. “We stumbled into that last night and it went to hell for us. Almost went worse.”

“That hasn’t stopped us before. We ruined the Vanguards day last year and kicked them out.”

“No we didn’t. That was almost all you. You would have gone on your fight against them without us helping you so it was either let you do that on your own or have your back.”

“What makes you think this time is any different,” she asked somewhere between anger and stubbornness.

“I’m hoping that you’ll think it out,” he said slowly trying to keep his voice calm.

She looked at him and took a step back then shook her head. “Yeah fuck that leader.”

Turning around quickly she moved quickly and shoved open the door to the balcony. “Yumi wait!” she could barely hear Feint say. She moved quickly, stepping off the ledge and jumping to the closest building. She kept going running as far and fast as she could. Feint watched her disappear and sighed turning back to look at Phase.

He had his hand in his hair and shook his head. “What?”

“Nothing. Just,” she pushed her fingers through her hair as well and walked back toward the kitchen. “This is some real shit you know?”

“Trust me. I’m aware,” Pinching the bridge of his nose Phase walked toward the balcony but Shade came over holding his hand out.

“Let her cool off.” He said softly and sighed.

“Right. Assuming she actually does cool off,” Phase shook his head. “What a mess.”

Echo walked past him, sliding her jacket on and taking a hoodie along with it. “I’m going after her. I’ll talk to her and make sure she doesn’t do anything stupid.” She directed her sightless gaze onto both Shade and Phase. “Stay put.”

“Okay,” Phase said and looked  over to Darren. “You’re keeping an eye on G and whatever the hell else is going on.”

“Of course,” they said adjusting their glasses. “Though I do have a side project I’m working on. Rogue can you help me out with it?”

The thief raised his eyebrow and glanced at him, “What do you need?”

“I have some materials I need you to get. I’ve got a list of things and locations where you can pick them up at this time before anything goes wrong. And since you teleport it should be simple.”

Rogue thought for a few moments and finally shrugged his shoulders, “Fine. I’m not doing anything today. Send me the list, I’ll change and get it all taken care of.”

“Great. Feint that data dump you pulled from last night is still getting processed. Can you help me get through the one that Phase pulled out of the other computer?”

Feint looked toward Phase before finally nodding her head and walking with them toward the tinkering room. Phase finally went back to the couch and sat down leaning his head back. Roxie padded over and jumped over to sit beside him and lay her head in his lap. “Guess it’s just me and you huh?” She licked his nose and he laughed.