Enhance: Chapter 12

“Where are you guys?” Shade asked from his apartment.

“Under the bridge waiting for your guy.” Yumi said and leaned against the wall. She was doing her best to keep her phone against her ear with her shoulder while not getting her entire back wet. She was definitely in a bad mood induced by her stress.

It was the dead of night and she could smell something rotten. Or molded. The wind rolled through and almost went through her as if she wasn’t wearing a supposedly winter jacket. Being near the river didn’t help matters.

“Phase you nearby?” Yumi asked with another grunt of annoyance.

“Yeah. Passing on the bridge now. Just keeping my eye out for anyone and everyone.” He said glancing around. From on top of the bridge, with the lights on it wasn’t as bad. There were cars passing back and forth though not in any sort of traffic. Just the lone car here and there. They had gotten his mask working again but it wasn’t up for field work yet.

Walking to the edge of the bridge he crossed his arms against the railing and stared down at the water that was flowing below them. At this time of year the river wasn’t that strong, more likely going to ice over in a few more weeks.

Raising his head he narrowed his eyes. “I think I see someone.” Phase said into his phone and frowned for a moment. “Hang up but be on the lookout.”

“Right. In case things go bad get your ass down here.” She said and hung up as she stood up straighter.

The silhouette of a hooded person appeared in the distance and she narrowed her eyes. Standing against the wall of the bridge she tried to keep her face hidden but at the same time flicked her head toward him.

The guy came closer and he sped up as if he was going to pass her by. But he slowed as he passed by her. “Hey watcha doin out here by yourself?”

She made a face because that voice sounded familiar though maybe she was crazy. “Just tryna get my fix. A friend said you hooked him up with something nice. Real quick shot of it.”

The guy laughed and ran a hand across his face. “Only the finest for my buyers. What can I get for you? Something to take the edge off? Something to take you down low or get you real wired. What you tryna get tonight.”

She leaned forward for a moment glancing down both sides of the tunnel as she fidgeted. “I’m lookin for something really strong. The strongest. Know what I mean?”

The guy glanced back at her for a second and she dipped back into the shadows as if she was startled. The guy laughed and reached into his jacket. “You talking bout this?” He showed her a black case and for a moment her eyes widened.

“Enhance.” She breathed softly the words coming out in a short breath.

“Right you are. But only the best cash can get it.” She’d heard that before. She knew that she had heard that voice before. She’d bet money on it. However there was only one real way to test it out.

She stepped out of the shadows and cracked her knuckles slowly. “Right. I just hope you’ll take my cash over the cash of kids.”

The man started as he looked at her. His hood fell backwards and stared at her in shock. “Nah. Nah man. Not you again.” He stumbled backwards but Yumi rushed forward. She grabbed the guy by his collar and raised him up, pressing him up against the wall.

“Yes me again. You been a good dealer? Hopefully you’ve been staying off the play ground. Cause you know what’ll happen if you haven’t, right?”

“I shot you last time. How the fuck is you even still breathing.” With an annoyed sigh she set him down before slamming him into the wall again.

“I’m doing the talking here okay?” She glanced at the ground for a moment as and saw he dropped the case of Enhance. “That right there. That’s mine.”

She reached into his pocket slowly and felt around until she got his gun. Taking it she turned it over in her hand before tossing it into the river. “Shoot me again and you die. Simple as that.” She told him and then shoved him onto the ground.

Walking toward the Enhance she picked it up and opened the case. Sure enough there was her clear liquid and syringe. She nodded slowly. Feint would be able to take this and once she had she’d be okay. She was sure of that fact.

“What’s your name dealer?”

The guy looked at her and shook his head slowly. “I ain’t telling you shit.”

Yumi scoffed at him then and shook her head. “Wrong answer my friend. You see I might need your help later.”

“What the fuck makes you think I’ll help you bitch?”

She looked down at him for a moment and began walking forward. With a swift and deliberate kick she slammed her foot into his knee. She heard it crack and wasn’t ashamed that she enjoyed the sound. Maybe this was why Phase got violent.

She kneeled down and watched him. “You feel that pain? I’m going to do worse than that if you don’t agree to helping me out.”

She reached into his pocket and took out his phone. She unlocked it and watched as a profile appeared before her. A man’s profile who looked an awful lot like the one on the ground in front of her.

“Now Reggie. I want you to pick yourself up and limp back to whatever hole you call home. I might be calling you in a few days.” Snorting to herself she turned walking around the bridge and taking the stairs up to the top of the bridge finding Phase.

“That was quite the performance.” Phase had his arms folded as he looked at her. “I’m almost proud.”

Yumi shrugged, “Just did my best impression of you.  We got Dick Squad RX.”

Phase nodded quickly and walked forward and hugged her tightly. Yumi wasn’t expecting it but she definitely needed one. She hugged him back and took a shivering breath as she held onto him.

“She’s gonna be okay right?” Yumi mumbled and Phase nodded.

“I hope so.” Phase mumbled into her hair and took another breath. Pulling his phone out he turned toward the direction of Shade’s apartment and dialed. “We’re on our way back Shade.”

“You got it?” Shade asked surprised. “That was fast.”

“We’re good at our job. Be back soon.” He hung up and they started heading back. It didn’t take long for them to run their way there but as they got closer their anxiety spiked more. They slowed down as they walked toward the apartment. “Up here.” Shade said from his balcony.

Both of them looked toward him and then was quiet for a moment. They turned back and forth to make sure that no one was around them before jumping. Climbing over the railing quickly Shade got out of the way so they could walk inside. It loosely smelled like rice, beans, and ground beef.

“How is she?” Phase asked as Yumi rushed over.

Shade shook his head. “She hasn’t moved and she hasn’t woken up again. Heart rate is steady but basically no change.”

Phase nodded and joined Yumi. She was holding Feint’s hand and running her fingers across it slowly. Phase brushed Feint’s hair back slowly, looking at her for a moment. “Let’s do this then.”

Yumi nodded, “Right.”

Taking the vial out he shook it for a moment. He didn’t quite get it. He didn’t understand how what was in this vial turned people into him, into his friends, into Shade even. But science wasn’t his thing.

Pulling out the syringe he poked it through the top of the vial and pushed down. Holding the syringe out he flicked the needle lightly before taking Feint’s arm in his hand. Tracing his fingers against her arm injected the syringe, he pushed on the trigger. He watched as the liquid do it’s thing and then waited.

“Hey Shade. When does this stuff normally take effect?” Phase asked glancing back at him.

Before he could even respond her body jerked started jerking on the couch. Her eyes moved around under her closed lids and her breathing got rapid almost like she was hyperventilating, as her shaking got even more violent.  Yumi and Phase both jumped not sure if they should leave her be or try to hold her down.

And then all of a sudden it stopped. Her breathing slowed down and her body stilled against the couch. Her head tilted to the side slightly and the trio just stared at her. This was a better alternative compared to before.

Yumi touched her neck and her pulse was strong. Yumi collapsed to the floor sitting down. She glanced at Phase and asked, “What do you want to do now?”

“I don’t know. At least not at the momen-“

Feint sat straight up and shouted. All of them jumped hearts racing raising their hands. Feint’s chest was heaving as she took in huge lung fulls of air before turning around to look at them.

“What’s… going… on?” She said softly and then lowered her head for a moment. “God. I feel… great!”

She jumped off the couch and stretched before going down and lifting Yumi to her feet.  “What are you doing down there?”

“How’re you feeling?” Yumi asked as she dangled off the ground slightly.

“I told you I feel great.” She said and then Yumi’s eyes went wide. “What?”

As she hugged Yumi she suddenly passed through her. She just dropped her and suddenly was on the other side of her. She turned back around to touch her but she passed through her again. Eyes wide she looked at them and then at her hands which were barely translucent.

“What. What the hell was that?” Feint said and shook her head quickly. “What was that? How did I do that?!” Phase and Yumi exchanged a glance but Feint saw it and glared at the two of them. “I saw that. What’s going on? Tell me. Now.”

“What do you remember?” Phase started with and Feint turned toward him with a frown on her face. “Since you last woke up I mean.”

“I remember waking up for a bit and then coughing up blood and passing out again. Nothing much.”

Yumi grimaced and opened her mouth but Phase spoke first, “You weren’t healing. Your vitals were getting worse. We were running out of options so I made a choice. Better to ask forgiveness than permission from a corpse. The floating is the side effect.”

Feint glared at him for a long moment and then very slowly said, “Why?”

“It was my fault.” Yumi said quickly and forced herself to meet Feint’s glare. “I was afraid. I was afraid you were going to die. I didn’t want to imagine you dead.” She clenched her hands into fist and looked down. “I couldn’t let that happen. I. I did the only thing that I could think of.”

Then Yumi started doing something that none of them ever thought they’d see. She started crying, slow tears at first. She touched her eyes trying to stop them but her shoulders shook. She looked at Feint and the tears got worse she tried to walk toward her and stumbled.

Phase walked over slowly, taking one of her hands. She almost flinched away from him and then relaxed. Feint walked forward slowly and hugged her tightly as finally Yumi began to sob. She hated this. Hated the fear of Feint hating her and hated the fact that she was almost gone for good.

Feint held onto her sighing. On the one hand she was angry at Yumi and Phase for doing this to her. But they had done it to save her life. She wasn’t sure what she would have said given an actual choice.

“It’s fine Yumi. What’s done is done.” She said softly. “We’ll just make the best of this.”

Yumi looked at her with her slightly red eyes and then took a deep breath as she sighed heavily. “Sorry. I. I don’t know.”

“It’s fine Yumi.” Phase said and took a slight step back. “Just take a few breaths.”

Yumi did as he said and took a several deep breaths. Shaking her head slowly she slapped her cheeks and scowled. “I’m okay.”

“Guys, you’re not going to guess this.” Shade said. He had been staying on the edge of the apartment as they had their moment and now his face was bathed in the light of his phone as he checked the message.

“What happened?” Feint asked ready to get back to work. Anything like their old lives was better than this.

“Darren sent me a text. They said that they’re underground for the time being however they found us a job.” He was surprised and looked at them all.

“Anything more?”

“Nope.” Shade said tossing the phone onto the kitchen counter. “You guys even good for a job?”

They looked at one another and then looked at Feint. She made a face and nodded her head. “Yeah. I need to move. Be active. Are our systems still down?”

“Pretty much.” Yumi said and glanced at their mask stacked next to one another. “90% useless for us.”

Feint nodded and liked the challenge. “When does Darren need us to take the mission?”

“In about a week.”  Shade responded.

“Do we have money?” She asked next and Phase smirked.

“We always have money.” He told her and Feint smiled.

“Good. Then I’m going to get to work. A week is enough time for me to at least get us above cell phones.”

“You don’t have to be the only one working. Give us stuff to do.” Yumi said and spreading her arms. After the burst of emotion and having Feint awake and moving she was regaining the restless energy of hers.

Feint nodded quickly, “I’ll find some things for you to do. We may have money but we don’t have parts and not all of them can be bought.”

“Right.” Phase said and was glad for this. “Feint you’ll work on getting our communications back. Me and Yumi will run errands.”  Glancing at their new friend he extended a hand and laughed. “And I can’t really give you a job to do.”

“No worries. I’m good money wise. If you need a hand I got you. Otherwise I’ve got side projects I can do,” he shrugged leaning back against the kitchen counter.

“Shade what’s the mission they want us to actually do?” Yumi asked hoping it wasn’t anything out of their wheelhouse. Beggars couldn’t be choosers but they could be complainers.

Shade glanced at his phone again skimming the text. “They wants us to be body guards. For some future CEO or other shit. I really don’t know. Some kid.”

Phase made a face at him Let’s get to work.”

The following week was one of the fastest weeks they had ever had. The three of them had gone throughout the city, stealing the bare minimum that they needed. Feint however was right there in the field with them. She had been working out her new powers and she learned two things. Her powers worked almost identical to Phase’s in going through solid objects. But on top of that she could cause some level of issues with electronics when she phased through them. It didn’t happen with her mask while wearing it but she shorted other things out otherwise.

As the others stole Feint was constantly trying to work on their mask. She had to make a new network from scratch and that was a bit harder to do on short notice. However, she did manage to get the basic functioning back. Their maps and calling people were the extent of the job. If they wanted the other types of vision or anything extra special they were out of luck.

The week passed by quickly and the trio had left to go find the meetup for the job. They had to go out toward the edge of the city and escort their client toward the finical district toward some hotel chain. Should be easy enough, “Hey Shade where you at. Almost time,” Yumi said calling from her mask.

“On my way to you guys. Just locking up.” He told her making sure to lock up the apartment as he went toward the window. He stated to open the window when he heard something.

His eyes narrowed and the feeling of something being wrong hit him. He stated toward the door bringing the shadows around him on instict. He jumped away from the door as someone kicked it in. That someone was followed by at least five or six more someone’s. Each one of them was armed with guns that were more than he could deal with.

They were Vanguard and he ducked behind the kitchen keep his head down as they fanned out . With narrowed eyes he did his best to remain invisible and watch them.

“Hey, this the place right?” One guy turned to look back at the door and a squirrelly looking man walked in. He had slick hair and a thin appearance. He was wearing very skintight clothes and his eyes were fidgeting, checking every door and corner. He was afraid and it showed on his face.

“Yeah this is his apartment,” the squirrelly man said.

“Alright. Tear it apart. Fuck it up. I want to send a message.”

As if on cue they stepped forward and started the rampage. Breaking his TV, his fridge. Tearing holes in his walls. Flipping and breaking the table as well as the couch.

The only person he’d met was the rat that led them here. So much for loyalty to their contacts. Shaking his head slowly he glanced to the man. He was going to make him pay for this but not right now. Right now he had to get out of here.

“Fuckin masked freaks.” One guy mumbled as he went to Shade’s room. The guy found one of the book bags in the closet and after tearing it open shouted, “How the fuck does he have so much cash?!”

Shade narrowed his eyes at that and moved almost instantly. He suddenly appeared out of the thin air and tackled the man to the ground. “Don’t touch that.”

The crash and even his voice was heard by the rest and he knew that they were coming. There wasn’t a big distance so he had to figure his way out. Grabbing the bag and zipping it up he slung it over his shoulder and made for the window in the room.

The door burst open and only one bullet got off as he dove from the window and tumbled to the ground. He land hard and shouted, limping back to his feet.  As he moved forward he closed his eyes for a moment and then stared back at the apartment. One of the guns was coming toward the window and he dashed away from it.

He kept himself low and stuck to the shadows avoiding any and all chances of getting seen. He had to get in contact with the others. Let them know that their only home left was gone. “Guess I’m homeless again.”