Enhance 2: Chapter 13

“Robots. He actually has fucking robots,” Yumi said reaching absently toward the table. Her tumbler with its quarter full brown liquid was just out of reach for her. She kept trying to reach for it, her fingers absently grasping at the table but coming short. “Shadeow help me out here.”

She looked up at him, her head resting in his lap and he shook his head. “If you can’t get it yourself clearly you don’t want it that bad.” He had his own in his hand and sipped from it slowly.

“Clearly you’re a piece of shit,” she responded making a face and breaking into a goofy laugh. “But seriously. Wiz Kid. Did you know that they were doing that? You gotta have known right?”

Darren looked up from their pacing, stroking their jaw in deep thought and focused on her for a second. Blinking they processed her question and finally shrugged. “I had ideas. Didn’t think they would actually commit to them. I mean the last time I saw the damn things they were jokes. And I knew Pierce preferred real soldiers. People that could be weaponized and controlled.”

“Like us,” Phase replied and they nodded. “Well that didn’t really work out for him.”

“Not in your case but you’re what we in a scientific community call an exception to the rule,” they waved their hands into the air. “No one could have planned that you’d all be such an unruly group out of hundreds.”

“Heh, an unruly group? That’s an understatement for us,” Phase said and leaned forward in his chair. Tracing his thumb across the lip of his glass he saw Roxie look up at him, her eyes very tired. He had to remember it was way later than even their dog’s weird sleep cycle was used to. “G’s not a one off person. He’s got an entire group with him.”

Feint nodded balancing her laptop on her leg and kept her mask in hand connecting the two with a cord. She typed with one hand and then looked toward their TV that she was currently taking over. She played through a recording of what her mask had seen in the dungeon. The picture on most of the faces wasn’t great and she’d have to clean it up but for now she had images.

“Man this quality sucks,” Yumi shook her head. “You’re slipping Wiz Kid.”

“The mask can only get so much from the cursory glances you guys throw out,” Darren waved their hand. “I lost contact with you all. Signals got jammed down there. I don’t know how but they were. I’ll have to go through all your masks and check what I can.”

“How many people in there do you think we can black mail into a bad time?” Shade asked setting his drink down.

“Not enough to make a difference,” Darren frowned hard scrunching their nose. “Especially not from us.”

“But it’s video footage,” Echo pointed her hand toward the screen and made a face. “We’re looking at them right now.”

“Yeah but how’d we get it?” Darren shook their head. “You guys are criminals remember. Nothing we bring to the table is really admissible in court.”

“Horse shit,” Yumi rolled over pressing her face against Shade’s chest. “I wanna kick their asses to jail.”

“We know Yu,” Phase tipped his head back drinking the last from his tumbler and groaned feeling his back twinge. “So G dropped a building on us and is going to start trying to push neo onto the streets soon. We learned that much.”

“We did learn something else,” Rogue said. “Or at least confirmed it. Pierce is in hiding.”

“Thought that was just G being a prick,” Shade asked.

“Could be but I don’t think so. Pierce has too much money and power to have dropped out of everything else in his life. He’s working on another project and it’s something as big as you guys,” he motioned to Yumi, Phase, Feint and Echo. “Or enhance.”

Phase nodded slowly standing up, “Do you have any more old Royal contacts that you can lean into. Maybe figure out what the hell either of the Pierce’s are doing. They can’t be entirely radio silent right?”

“I haven’t seriously looked at them but I can start. I don’t have a lot of favors leftover but I can really lean into a few bridges.”

“Do that. And for the rest of us lets be even more careful than before. G literally dropped a building on us after saying maybe he’ll see us again. We’re on his radar and God knows what else he has under his sleeve outside of robots and bombs,” he sighed putting a hand to his head. “If anyone needs me I’m taking a shower.”

Getting up slowly he winced and went first toward his room grabbing a quick change of cleaner clothes and then to the bathroom. He took off his shirt he winced and felt the raw skin from the burns and bruises. He looked at his arms and saw his fingers shaking.

Turning quickly, he swung and slammed his fist into the wall. At least he would have if he didn’t make his hand phase through it on instinct. He started swinging, punching it over and over until his concentration slipped and his fist collided with the wall. The pain was immediate and he grit his teeth through it. Stepping forward he just pressed his forehead against it and let out a shaky breath.

Taking a few steps forward he slid down to his knee and groaned putting his forehead against the bath tub. Gripping the edge of it he started to stand up. He went to the shower, turning the knob, and letting the water roar into the tub. He held his hand underneath the faucet and felt its warmth over his hands.

It stung at first but after a few seconds it stopped hurting and was just soothing. Taking off his pants and underwear he started to step into the shower but paused. Glancing over his shoulder he stared at Feint. She looked at him, taking a deep breath and offered him a smile. He tried to smile back but in front of her he let his shoulders sag.

Turning around to look at her he asked, “What’s up Fei?”

She shook her head walking forward. She was holding a small bundle of clothes in her hand as well and finally pointed toward the tub. “Sit.”

“What?”

“Sit. Just sit in the tub and let me take care of you.”

“I don’t need to be,” he started to say but then he looked at her. Saw the glare that didn’t threaten harm and was ever bit concern. He relented and nodded. “Okay.”

Taking a step forward into the water he flinch at the heat as took him over and he finally sat down. The tub was just barely big enough for him to sit comfortably. It wasn’t something that he ever used it for. He couldn’t even remember if he’d ever seriously had a bath ever.

He turned and watched as Feint rolled up the sleeves of her shirt and then reached past him to take the body wash she knew was his. Sharing a bathroom with six people required a lot of organization. They had two hanging shelves against the wall with sections dedicated to body wash, bars of soap, hair wash, luffas and sponges. It took them the better part of a year to maintain this system and it wasn’t perfect yet but it was something.

She took it and then her sponge. She put out a healthy amount of soap and ran it under the faucet for a second and then turned it off. Getting onto her knees she motioned for him to move forward and started at the back of his neck and slowly worked down his back slowly. She was careful over the burns that were obvious.

She was more careful over the bruises and he stilled but let out a slow breath and visibly relaxed again. The water started to become full of red suds as she worked her way forward, going from his back to his shoulders and arms slowly. As she moved and faced him she saw his eyes were downcast, staring at the water.

She didn’t say anything as she moved down to his legs and he lifted his leg above the water to help her. She laughed softly but appreciated the help. “We almost all died Fei.”

She paused looking at him and he was still looking at the ground but slowly his eyes found hers and she frowned seeing the distant look there. He wasn’t looking at her, he was looking beyond her somewhere in his own head. “What do you mean?”

“We almost died back there. At Harris. If it weren’t for Echo we would have been buried alive. I led us down there thinking it was all fine. Like I had it under control.” He raised both his hands and dug them into his hair shaking his head. “I almost got you all killed.”

“Phase no,” she set the sponge on the bathtub and took his hands away from his head and held them in her own tightly. “You did not almost get us killed. You got us out in one piece. You made sure that we got out of there alive. All of us. You saved us just as much as Echo did. I know you’re scared Phase. I know you’re worried. For all of usl. Its one of the reasons you and Yumi butt heads.”

“She wants to help people despite how dangerous it is. And I just don’t want to lose anyone. Hell I almost lost her in there.” Phase mumbled and she nodded again.

“Exactly,” Feint sighed. “That’s just who she is. If there’s anyone in this world that’ll make her listen it’s you. And you watch after her. You take care of us. You’re our leader. We trust you with our lives every time we go out. We trust that you’re going to make the right call. I know I can speak for everyone when I say that much. Trust us to be careful. And trust yourself to be the leader we all know you are.”

He looked up at her and his eyes zeroed in on her, “It’s hard Fei.”

“I know Phase. But I know you can do this. And I’m going to be right there with you.”

“You always have,” Phase smiled at her and his face softened. The stress there melting away and she finally looked away from his gaze. But he reached out of the water and turned her look at him, “I love you Feint.”

She blinked quickly his words hanging on the air and then they finally registered and she laughed by accident. Blurted it out and grinned at him. “Took you long enough Phase.”

Phase snorted as he grinned at her, “Really that’s how you respond to that heartfelt confession?”

“You’re calling that a heartfelt confession,” she shook her head pushing at his chest lightly. “I just gave you a pep talk. Not I love you, worthy levels if you ask me.”

“Oh I have to some great speech ready before I tell you my feelings now?” he said and reached toward her splashing water just outside of the tub. She laughed trying to get out of the way in time but lose some of her balance and slipped forward. He grabbed her then and pulled her forward into the tub with him.

They fell under the water for the barest of a second and they both came back up for air laughing. She pressed down on his chest and kissed him softly. Touching his cheeks she looked down at him and felt the weight of her clothes suddenly and scowled at him. “You’re lucky I’m not wearing anything electronic.”

“What? You’d make a shock to my system?”

“Jesus Christ. You’re letting Yumi rub off on you in a bad way,” she pushed off him slowly and fought the urge to sneeze. Rubbing her nose, she looked at him and finally smiled again. “And for what it’s worth Phase, I love you too. Always have.”

He reached for her, pulling her forward again but a hard knock at the door echoed in the bathroom. Phase sighed softly and leaned forward against her lips, “If we ignore them, they might go away.”

“If it were anyone but Yumi maybe,” she replied and the knock hit again louder this time. “But she’s your favorite and you’re hers. Go corral her.”

Yumi shouted, her voiced echoing, “Hey Phase get off the toilet and get out here! There’s something you need to see!”

Phase sighed and Feint got off him slowly but leaned down and stole another kiss. She got out of the tub looking at her drenched clothes. “Thanks for soaking me by the way.”

“You’re welcome. I think it looks good on you,” Phase grinned wider.

Yumi knocked again harder. “We’ll be out in a second Yumi!” Feint shouted.

She paused mid knock and Feint could all but see the expression on her face. “Wow. You’re both in there. Okay. Proud of you. But yeah. Hurry. It’s serious.”

The tone that she added to that made them both look at each other all pretense of playing around gone. They dried off passing the towels back and forth to get dry and then changed their clothes. Unlocking the door, they walked into the living room and they could hear the echo of the TV but once Rogue saw them he paused it.

Shade raised his eyebrow and nodded, “I guess this warranted a change of clothes from you both.”

“That’s what I said,” Yumi mumbled back to him.

Rogue rewound it back about ten minutes and Darren looked at the two of them, “Might want to sit down for this.”

They did as they advised and moved to sit down at the loveseat. Roxie went to sit in front of them content as Phase scratched her head. Rogue hit play and the news anchor started speaking, “Breaking news in downtown Chicago. This evening an implosion occurred within Harris LLC. At around midnight tonight the building came crashing down. As far the authorities can comment the only confirmed casualties thus far are the on duty security guards at the time,” the anchor was slid to the side as images of those faces appeared.  “Harris LLC is a massive media managing firm locally built up-“

“Okay that’s tragic but what this have to do with us?” Phase asked carefully.

“Keep watching leader,” Yumi pointed back at it.

He looked and the anchor touched his ear, “Wait. We have a piece of breaking news. Images to point towards the culprit of the building implosion have been uncovered from within the security footage of the building.” And then it appeared. Six images appeared on screen and they all paled because they saw themselves. None of the images were clear but if anything was clear it was that it showed six masked individuals. All pictures captured had to be of them while they wandered the building on the top few floors and while they were below the fountain.

“Though the images were damaged these six individuals were found within the building some time before the implosion itself occurred. The police are investigating this matter thoroughly. We advise that if you were to come across any individuals resembling them to take caution, evacuate the premise and immediately contact your local law enforcement. They are deemed to be terrorist level individuals.”

“What the fuck,” Phase said staring at the screen as they continued to talk. “We’re being blamed for this?”

“Not directly no. They didn’t identify you all,” Darren said. “But it’s not good.”

“How’d they even get those pictures of us. We got Wiz Kid in the system right?” Yumi looked toward Darren. “You covered our tracks, right?”

“I did as much as I could,” they folded their arms. “Those images are shit and can’t be directly tied back to you guys. Someone would have to know about you all to even attempt to connect those dots. But it’s still worrying.”

“So we’re what? Public enemy number one in the city?” Echo asked

“No,” Feint said. “We’ve made sure to keep a low profile in the past year. Some people know we still exist but we’re not in the public eye like that anymore. Mostly just rumors. They’d have to connect the dots.”

“So then are we safe?” Rogue asked.

“I doubt it. We’re on thin ice,” Darren grunted and put both their hands on their head. “Dammit. G actually got ahead of me on this one. This was good. A good setup that’s for damn sure. It’s a callout to say that he can get to us. I can’t underestimate him.”

“So what does that mean?” Yumi asked. “What do we do?”

“It means that we,” Phase picked up his mask. “Need to lay low for a while. Let this blow over for a few weeks. Maybe longer. If we try to go out there and do any real work and we get caught we’re going to be in deep shit. And we don’t need that kind of a danger.”

Phase looked at Yumi this time because he knew even if he asked she would still go out. But she didn’t try to argue this time. Instead she just nodded her head slowly and looked over at Shade. Everyone hung around in the silence letting things weigh on their minds. Their lives were changing irrevocably for the time being and they had to adapt fast.

Roxie yawned at their feet and wandered over to Yumi this time. She looked at her and Yumi slid forward and rubbed the dog’s head slowly. Roxie yawned and licked at her fingers.

“Look at me. Playing with the dog,” She shook her head and kept rubbing her head. “Can things get worse.”

“Do not say that Firebug,” Rogue shook his head. “Knowing our luck it’s going to get worse tomorrow morning.”