Enhance: Chapter 4

“Whys it our turn to grocery shop?” Yumi asked tilting her head back. Her focus was trying to see the top of the office buildings they were near. So far she had not been successful with her attempts but that didn’t stop her from trying. Better than focusing.

The pair of them were walking side by side downtown Chicago. Feint was back at the penthouse doing whatever research she could find on Enhance and she wasn’t letting Phase stop her this time. So she kicked them both out so that she could work in peace they could be useful.

Both of them were wearing jackets and jeans. Yumi had on a red beanie while Phase had opted out for a black scarf and a hood pulled over his head. They weren’t expecting anything eventful on this errand run.

“Cause someone’s gotta do the chores.” Phase told her and looked up as well. He couldn’t see the tops quite yet. “I think I can see the antennae tip.”

She stopped suddenly and narrowed her eyes. She could see up to a point and then things started getting blurry. She would squint and scrunch up her nose but to no avail. Glancing back down and rubbing her eyes slowly she sighed. “Who the hell built these things so damn tall?”

“Probably people during the industrial era or something like that. Proving that they could. Proving the strength of human imagination and creativity.”

“What’s so creative about a huge building?”

Phase simply shrugged. “Getting it to be that high is definitely impressive. Especially without it falling right back down.”

“I bet I could do that.” Yumi mumbled.

“You can barely play Jenga without causing the tower to crumble.”

“That’s cause you guys fucking cheat! You always make me take the side pieces!”

“It’s called careful planning,” Phase laughed and Yumi punched him in the side.

He grunted and glared at her. She was stronger than him and a love tap from her was anything but. “You sound like Feint,” she mumbled.

“Let’s focus on the errands.” Phase said trying to change the subject for the better.

“Other than groceries what else are we doing?”

“Well we need to go to the bank. At least one of them. After last night we need to put some of the cash away into the accounts. That way Darren can start moving it around.”

“Right. Get that interest accruing so that we have something to fall back on. Nice little nest egg.”

Phase nodded and grinned. “Since when did you get interested in our money situations?”

“Since I got the idea of wanting to buy us a jet.”

Phase let out a short bark of a laugh and turned to look at her. “What do you mean a jet? What the hell would we do with a jet?”

“Fuck if I know. But it’d be cool. Especially since none of us can fly.”

“No normal human can fly Yumi. I don’t think one of us could fly either.”

“What about the glowing guy?” She asked thinking back to their prison break. “I’m pretty sure that guy was at least floating,”

“I don’t know what that guy was.“ Phase voice dropped in tone for a moment. That caught her attention but it lightened up almost instantly. “Besides he was shooting lasers from his hands.”

“Lasers of doom and death.”

“Lasers of freedom and promise.”

Both of them laughed at that point hands in their pockets. Yumi bumped into Phase lightly with a small smirk. She pulled back to point ahead. The bank was ahead on their left but a street over.

They got to a 4-way intersection and waited. They waited and waited and waited some more but the light wasn’t changing. Yumi was tapping her foot against the ground, energy and impatience bouncing together.

“Fuck this. I’ll meet you on the other side.” Turning around she started quickly back tracking down the path that they had taken. She took a right down the first alley she passed. Glancing upward she jumped atop a dumpster before jumping again, finding a crevice in the wall. She took a breath and then hopped slightly upward as she got her bearings.

One hand and then foot movement at a time she began to climb. She made it to the rooftop in no time flat. Once she was up and standing the wind that blew into her was a little unsettling. She stumbled backwards slightly but kept her footing  forcefully. Turning she walked toward the edge and glanced down at the sidewalk. She could see Phase still standing at the intersection.

Phase had watched her disappear down the alleyway. It took him all of three seconds to guess what she was going to do and he put his hand against his eyes. He was hoping that she wasn’t doing that. Tilting his gaze to the rooftop he stared at her. She was doing that. She even waved at him.

He waved back before turning around to not look at her. The light had changed colors and he along with the other pedestrians were crossing. Yumi on the other hand started sprinting across the rooftop. She pumped her arms with each step and focused on the other roof. Once she hit the edge she jumped and pushed as hard as she could.

Kicking her legs like she was still running she laughed silently, trying not to draw more attention to herself. Landing on the other side and still running she worked to slow down before skidding to a halt. Wiping her brow and laughing she walked to the edge of the building. Hopping over she plummeted to the ground before landing hard. She should have rolled with it.

Stumbling forward she laughed again and then put a hand against the wall and glanced at Phase as he came toward her. “Really? That was your big plan?”

“It worked didn’t it?” She asked a bit breathless from the run and the laughing.

“Learn patience.”

“Patience is for losers. And you apparently.” She laughed again.

He grabbed her arm and shook his head. “Come on. Bank. Money. Now.”

She grinned and walked along with him into the bank. On this side of things, they looked like everyone else. They stood in line waiting for a teller to open up. Once again Yumi’s foot began tapping and Phase wrapped his arm around her shoulders tightly.

She glanced at him with a challenge in her eyes. He however put a finger to his lips and shook his head. “Please don’t do a you thing.”

“What’s a me thing?” She asked and he met her eyes. “Fine fine. I’ll be good.” She pouted looking away.

He laughed softly. “Good. Once we’re out of here we can do something fun.”

They stayed in the line for what felt like hours to her. But Phase kept his arm around her shoulder to keep her still. They walked forward as a unit and she did her best to cooperate

“So this Enhance thing. Think it’s worth worrying about?”

The question caught him off guard. “Not really. I mean what’s the worst it’s gonna do?”

She laughed dryly and poked his arm. “Right, because you’re a strapping young lad and nothing’s gonna stop you.”

“You know it.” When they came to the front of the line he smiled his usual pleasant smile. “I’d like to make a deposit into this account.” He said placing a piece of paper as well as photo ID onto the counter.

The man took it and examined the paper for a moment and then the ID. He entered it into his computer and the name popped up. “Mr. Quinn?”

“That’s right.” Pulling an envelope from his jacket he opened it before taking a nice stack of bills from inside. “Can you get me a slip dear?”

“Of course darling.” The sarcastic spin she put on the word was none too subtle. 

Returning with the slip she handed it over to him. He bent over and started filling out the information from the dollar amount as well as the account number and other such things. Once he gave them the slip and the money, the man finished off the account.

“Alright you are all set sir. Do you need anything else?”

Phase shook his head. “No that’ll be it.”

“You have a good day then.”

Together they walked out and Phase looked toward the sky. It was still daylight outside but the sun was doing its thing where it would dip into the horizon. “So where are we getting food from?”

“The usual place. Not far from home.” He said and then glanced up toward the rooftops. “Want to race?”

She laughed and nodded. “Go.” She said and turned on her heel racing down the streets.

“Cheater!” He shouted and dashed after her.

She stepped around people, doing her best not to run into anyone laughing the whole way. After a while people started getting out of her way for their own self-preservation. If they knew what was good for them they wouldn’t want to get hit by her.

Phase was at her back easily, putting on the speed but still had a ways to go. And then he heard it before he saw the commotion. It sounded like a screech, which couldn’t be good in any stretch of the imagination.

“Yumi slow down!”

“You’d like that wouldn’t you?”

“Seriously!”

From around the corner a car jumped the curb and sailed forward. Phase’s eyes went wide as he watched it go. And then he watched her disappear and the car sail into traffic slamming into someone else’s car. There was screaming and a big commotion. The blaring of car horns from the now backed up traffic filled his ears.

His eyes darted back and forth as he tried to search for her but to no avail. “Yumi? Yumi!” He shouted and waited for her answer but her voice didn’t sound above anything else. His eyes jumped back and forth between strangers faces and any car honk that might be his friend.

Where did she go? What happened to her?

Everything was moving fast around her. She swore that she had seen a face in the darkness but couldn’t focus. There was a rushing wind around her when suddenly she hit the ground. It was a rough awakening and she groaned at the ringing in her ears. Coughing she rolled to her side and then got to her knees. Turning her gaze around she couldn’t tell exactly where she was. For the most part she knew it was a dirty alleyway.

She pushed herself to her feet and ran her fingers across her head. It was pounding and when she touched it she felt moistness. Frowning at the sensation she looked at her hand and saw the blood. She leaned against the wall and made her way to the street where she heard the sounds of panic.

Poking her head out she was the car crash. She could see the smoking remains and the gathering of people. There was an ambulance parked out along with a fire truck. The police were starting to rope off the area from the public.

She didn’t care about them though. She was looking for one person in particular. Wiping her fingers across her forehead again she forced herself to stand up normally. Walking toward the crowd she pushed people aside and tried to focus on finding him.

Phase turned around in the crowd hoping that if he back tracked through the crowd he’d find her. One second she was there and then the next she was gone. Someone had to have stepped in because he knew that Yumi couldn’t do that. She’d have bragged about that until the cows came home. Pushing through the crowd slowly he felt a grip on his jacket.

Taking a quick breath, she looked at Phase and managed a small smile. “Thought you could get rid from me?”

“Yumi.” He said and wrapped his arm around her tightly. His breathing slowed and the adrenaline dripped away. “What the hell happened to you?”

“What makes you think I know?” She said muffled by his shoulder. “I was there and then suddenly everything was dark. It sucked me down and I was in an alley. She pointed behind them and shook her head. “About a block or two down that way.”

Phase was silent for a moment as his hands went over her cheek. He pushed his fingers against her forehead then brushed the hair from her face. He saw the small gash but it was healing already.

“Forget the groceries. We’re getting you home.” He said making an executive decision.

“Yeah. Home sounds good.” She said and that worried him. Normally she’d argue.

Wrapping his arm around her shoulders he led her back to the penthouse. It was a bit longer journey without being able to run, and actually abiding by the traffic rules this time. When they were getting into the elevator the sun had gone down outside.

The elevator creaked slightly as they came up and when they got to the top they could hear music playing. It was for the most part heavy in the beat as well as fast paced. The lights were on and it smelled like pizza.

They glanced around for a moment before they found Feint in the armchair. She had her laptop hooked up onto the TV and there were several windows open. She had her arms folded, wearing shorts and a tank top. Her hair was a mess and a laser pointer was, in her teeth. Most of the windows were articles about Enhance.

“You guys are late.” She said quickly pointing at the TV with the laser pointer. The screen reacted instantly and the article was pulled to the front. “You need to check this out.”

“What is it?” Yumi asked and fell across the couch. Her forehead was healed over by this point and the blood had dried. “I mean you’ve been here all day studying. I’d figure you found out how to make the shit in the house.”

“If I had the chemicals I probably could do it.” She said and folded her arms. “I’ve been looking it up but on public and private forums. Enhance has been around for a while but it wasn’t always called Enhance.”

“What other names did it have?” Phase asked as he moved around and glanced at her face. Her eyes had a tired redness to them. Across the wooden table were several cups of coffee. All self-made with way too much caffeine.

“Well it was a The Roid, Skull Candy, X, Dick Squad RX-“

“Dick Squad RX!” Yumi shouted sitting up sharply and regretting it from the sudden wave of nausea.

“Yes. Once it was called that.” Feint said rubbing her temples.

“I’m calling it that now.” Yumi laughed.

“Please don’t.”

“Tell me more about Dick Squad RX.” Yumi said in her serious voice.

Feint made a sound of exasperation. “From what I’ve been learning the stuff is powerful. It goes down to a cellular level and alters the body of those who take it. No one’s sure about how it works exactly but from the bodies it causes some severe cellular deterioration.”

“English please Feint. I can only handle so much.” She said with a shake of her head.

Feint rolled her eyes but then pointed the laser pointer at a small sticky note in the corner of the screen. It blew up to fill the screen and it was captioned by ‘dumbed down for Yumi’

“Fuck off.” She said throwing one of the coffee mugs at her. She was lucky it was empty.

She caught it and continued on. “It improves people at a cellular level. So stronger, faster, more durable, and heal faster. It makes people better in every way. But because it changes the cells to cause this increase it also destroys them faster. It can kill them. Taking years of their life span with each and every use.”

“So it turns them into us?” Phase said. “What else?”

“It’s highly addictive. A mixture of the power and the drug itself.” Feint said and shrugged. “But there’s something else in it that’s got me interested.”

“What do you mean?” Phase asked and returned to sit down beside Yumi.

“Who makes a drug like this?” She said and flipped her hand forward. “It’s just a lot of stuff that’ll bother me until I get the answers. Anyway, what took you two so long? And where are the groceries?”

Phase glanced at Yumi, “We had a run in with a car. At least Yumi almost did.”

Feint focused in on her and saw the blood which looked worse than it was. She immediately went to her side but Yumi shrugged her off,  “Oh you care what happens to me?”

“What happened?” Feint asked ignoring her.

“Some guy was driving aggressively. He jumped the curb and almost got me. Then the darkness came and I was safe. No biggee.”

“Darkness?” Feint repeated a bit skeptical and surprised.

“It’s probably nothing. Odds are I just blacked out and somehow escaped. I’m good like that you know?”

Feint wasn’t convinced but Phase shook his head So she said. “Please be careful Yumi.”

“I know. Sheesh, give me a break. Go back to being a pain in the ass. Please. Easier to deal with.

Feint rolled her eyes, “It’s so much easier disliking you.”

Feint closed down some of the windows that were on the computer and then let her screensaver kick in before leaning back on the couch again. She took a slow breath and sighed. The evening was far less eventful then the rest. They ate, they  a show on Netflix and then they slept like always.