Enhance: Chapter 37

The cold air whipped across the jeep as they sped through the empty streets. They managed to find the perfect time to whip down the highway. Deep in the 3 to 4am window. If there were any cops to hear their traveling Feint was messing with their radar guns.

“It’s been a long time since we were last here,” Phase said watching the street.

“Do any of you three actually remember when you guys first did this?”

“It’s been over two years.” Feint said thinking back on it. “And we took shifts driving. I only remember parts.”

“I remember legitimately none of it.” Yumi leaned her head back and stared up at the sky.  “Though I will say that my driving is amazing.”

Ace scoffed. “I barely know you and I know that’s bullshit.”

“I think I like this guy.” Phase said and Yumi kicked his seat. “Jesus, no type of loyalty from my so called family.”

“That means they really are your family. They pick on you and will always have your back.”

Phase nodded, “I remember barely liking either of you. I was going to ditch you guys soon as I could and disappear.”

“What stopped you?” Feint asked.

“I don’t know. I guess you guys were interesting. Wanted to see how deep the rabbit hole went.”

Feint reached forward and squeezed his should, “I’m glad you stayed.”

They fell into silence as the hours passed. Taking one of the off ramps they hit onto a rural road as signs of human progression began to dwindle. Establishments and capitalism became spaced out homes and mom and pop shops. An hour later even those faded to sparse houses. And then there was nothing. The occasional tree but mostly emptiness.

“Guys look up.” Feint pointed upward and they all turned their gaze to the sky and saw the tiny white pinpricks. The stars were out and the sheer amount of them present was shocking.

“Wow. Never seen so many.” Yumi mumbled.

“Pretty.” Phase said softly. The hush that fell over them was a calmer one. Pleasant to be around. When the car began to slow it startled them out of their gazing and silent contemplation.

Yumi and Feint both stood and Phase leaned forward as they each looked at the facility. Large even than they remembered even though they knew some of it was underground. Ace slowed down his jeep some distance away as they all looked at it. “What’s your plan?”

The three thieves got out of the car and pointed at the facility. “We break in there. Like proper thieves.” Phase motioned for him to join them. “We all have our parts to play.”

The hole in the building that they had escaped through the first time had been patched. The garage where they’d stolen the truck the first time was closed tight. Feint and Ace stood at one of the faces of the building. It was empty with a window here and there but not really approachable. But that didn’t mean that there wasn’t a way in.

“Darren we’re in position. Highlight the spot for me.” Feint told them and she watched as a square appeared over her right eye. She stared at the wall and watched as it expanded and then lay over a section of the wall. Her vision changed and turned black, white and grey. As she stared through the wall she could see people moving around in the facility but in their particular area there was no one there.  “Clear on my end.”

Darren nodded, “Clear over here too. Cameras aren’t aimed at you so now’s your chance.”

“Alright Ace. Time to lift me up.”

Ace nodded and crouched holding his hands out.  She walked back a few steps before running at him. She jumped over him and then the telekinesis kicked in. He raised her up and she started floating. She floated through the wall and landed on a linoleum floor.

She was in a server room, the computers nearby and more than a few dozen clumps of wires across the walls. She walked forward slowly before reaching into her pouch. Two IHDs taken out she placed one against a server box and another underneath a console.

She glanced at each device sending the signal out her mask to both devices. One of them went green and then the other. She turned back toward the wall and stuck her arm through it. She felt a hand grip her own and she pulled Ace through the wall.

“We’re good on the digital end.”

“Good,” Taking Yumi’s hand he rested a finger against his mask and looked at Yumi. “Remember. Quiet.”

“Of course leader.”

The pair of them walked through their door and then the next few walls, They kept going and then began to slow down. He glanced back at her and shook his head, pointing toward the corridor. Yumi nodded staying low with him around the corner.

Peeking around the corner they watched as a trio of armed guards walked past, talking about their struggles. Once they were gone they rushed down the hallway and then rounded the corner the guards came from. This locker room was pretty sparse, closer to a barracks than anything else.

“Now for the fun part.” Yumi said letting go of Phase’s hand. Bumping her fist together her palms ignited. “What am I setting on fire?”

“Something manageable.”

Going to a locker Phase ripped the door open and glanced through the insides. With a momentary frown he pulled out a pair of shirts. “Here, have at it.”

He threw them and she caught them both. Squeezing hard she felt them warm up in hand. The smoke rose up and she coughed slightly. “Yep. That’s burning well.”

She tossed them onto the bench and watched as it started to burn more completely, the flames leaping to life. They licked at the bench trying to spread further but failed to catch the wood. A sudden alarm sounded startlingly her.

“Mission accomplished?”

“Yeah. Moving on to the next step.”

The pair of them joined hands and then ran through the wall beside them, phasing through it completely.  Stepping onto the linoleum floors they glanced around before watching as Ace and Feint fell through the ceiling to join them.

“So far so good with everything.” Phase said. “Now for step two.”

They stopped as they heard shouting and guards running as the siren continued to wail. They waited a bit longer and then rushed in the opposite direction. Darren pinged them giving dropping them the blue print and their path.

Rounding the corner they slowed as they ran into a few guards. Before any of them could react to Ace raised his arms and picked them up. Knocking the guards against one another he threw them against the walls and then dropped them.

“Easy peasy,” He said dusting off his hands and then glanced back. “Looks like we’ve got another visitor.”

“Jeez not you guys again. I was hoping I wouldn’t be fighting you guys again.”

The three thieves turned around to stare at the new comer. Yumi rolled her eyes, “Ramon. Great.”

“They said you guys might be trying something. And when Luce didn’t come back I was told to keep an eye on things. Guess they were right.”

“This guy a friend of yours?”

Yumi glanced at Ace before shaking her head. “Nope. More like a pain in our ass.”

“Oh good. Then you guys go on ahead. Me and him are going to exchange a few words.” None of them could respond as they were shoved backwards by his telekinesis. They watched them for a second and then sprinted away, hearing the start of the battle.

“You sure we should leave him behind?” Feint asked but Phase was already running.

“He knows what he’s doing. We have a mission to finish.”

The trio took a hard turn and were in a stairwell. Grabbing the railing they started heading down. Three floors later and things got darker. According to the blue prints they were in a basement. Upon stepping into it both Yumi and Feint shivered. They exchanged their glances noticing it.

“You feel it to?” Feint asked.

Yumi nodded. “Memories. We really are back home, aren’t we?”

“Unfortunately.”

“We won’t be here long.” Phase told the both of them as he took the lead again. “Darren can you hear us?”

“Bar…. lly…. rd… hea…”

“Great. Wiz Kid can’t communicate with us.” Yumi mumbled as they started moving again. “We’re on our own down here.”

“We can do it.” Feint said as she went over the screen shots to the map that she’d taken earlier.

The trio continued their walk down memory lane. The few rooms they were caged in. The room in which they fought one another, sometimes to the point of incapacitation. Yumi could recall a few times that she’d had to fight for her life. Kill her opponent or she herself would die. And then there were the few times where she’d almost died and only lived because of the mercy of their creators.

Closing her hands into fist she dug her fingers into her palms hard. Phase glanced back at her and saw the smoke that billowed up. Eyes widened slightly he reached out and put his hand on her shoulder. “Yumi, come on you gotta calm down.”

“It’s hard Phase. This place. Part of me is glad DJ isn’t here to see it.”

He reached down and took her hand in his. He grunted and Feint gasped as Yumi tried to jerk her hand away from his. But he held on tighter, squeezing it and then looking at her. “Breathe, Yumi.”

She stared at him but she forced the breath to come out. As she did the warmth from her hand pulsated and started to dial down. When her hand returned to normal. Both of them looked at his hand but it was already healing over. With a slight grimace he smiled at them.

 “You okay?” Feint asked resting her hand on both their shoulders.

Phase flexed his hand slowly. “Good as new.”

“Calm as the ocean.”

Feint shook her head. “Prone to violent mood swings you mean?”

Walking again they focused more so on where they were going. They all knew that outside of one of their more frequent training rooms there was a computer room.  All the data ever recorded on them and all the results of that research. That was what they wanted from all of this.

The lights went dark and there was a loud bang. Each of them reacted, looking toward the sounds. They could each hear footsteps pouring in around them. Without being told their masks dipped into night vision and it became painfully clear that they were surrounded. All wearing body armor but unarmed. Thanks to their new masks they could see exactly who was around them.

“It’s nice to see you three return home. After all it’s about time the field test was ended.” The trio homed in one the voice and each one glared.

“Nigel Pierce.” Phase said slowly and then smirked despite the situation. “Nice to formally meet you.”

“Should we call this guy dad?” Yumi asked as she took a step closer to them.

“The fact that you three came back here on your own is amusing. However, these experiments around me will see to your defeat. Perfect sight, perfect hearing. All of their senses perfected. And of course, enhanced endurance and strength. You are all obsolete compared to them.”

“Are they immortal too?” Phase asked definitely.

“No, we wouldn’t waste something so valuable on fodder. Now take them alive. Just because they are failures does not mean we can’t still discern something from them. Especially 052.”

The crowded group of experiments surged forward and the trio jumped into action. Phase hopped over the head of one and drove his knee into another’s chest. They took the blow and then managed to grab and throw him down the hall.

Dazed and groaning Phase turned intangible to avoid getting grabbed by three of them. Jumping through them he reached into the pouch and felt for an IED. Tossing it forward it exploded blowing the experiments away from.

Whirling around he raised his catching the hands off an experiment. Focusing on that one he lunged thrusting his hand through their neck and ripped out their spine. He let them drop before getting punched in the jaw and jumped by another.

“Heads up fearless leader!”

Nearly on reaction he ducked low as a flaming body flew over his head. Yumi was laughing as she raised her hands, both palms glowing bright orange. She ducked low to the ground, lunging at an experiment and grabbed an experiment by the chest. The heat flared and engulfed the experiment in flames.

Feint went through the punches of an experiment, grabbing their wrist and rotating it around their back. Stepping backwards, keeping her hand on theirs should phased the arm through their own chest and left it there.

“They may be enhanced but they don’t know how to fight. Not really.” Feint said grabbing an experiment by the back of the head and turned tossing them into the ground. Looking over her shoulder she watched as Pierce began to retreat. “Yumi can you catch Pierce?”

“’Can I catch him’ she asks,” Leaning forward she jumped off the head of an experiment before leaping off the wall. Flipping into a kick she landed on the ground and reached into her pack. Tossing her arm forward she watched the tiny piece of metal fly out.

It hit the wall and then exploded the force enough to throw Pierce back toward her. The debris was an added bonus. Walking toward him she punched her fist together letting her palms reignite. “Nowhere to run.”

Pierce stood slowly then dusted off his pants and turned to face her. “Still impulsive and destructive. You haven’t changed much since your time here 365.”

“Fuck you I have a name.” She shouted as she ran.

“No you don’t. You have a number. Not a human, not a person. Just an experiment to further the goals of our organization.”

Yumi grit her teeth together as she took a step forward. “I’m just as real as you are mother fucker.” She punched him hard in the jaw and then again lifting him off the ground. “And I’m gonna really enjoy this.”

She brought her arm back and palm struck him in the face just as hard as she could and sent him flying back across the hallway. She heard him groan against the ground and she shook her hand out. She walked over to him, pulling him over ready to attack again and then paused as at her handiwork.

Burning metal, charred circuits, and oil. She stared at the machine lying on the ground in a broken heap and glared. Feint and Phase joined her and stared at what they thought had been Pierce. “Is this a fucking robot?” Yumi asked.

“Looks like it,” Feint shook her head. “He was never here.”

Phase shook his head, “Course not. But that’s fine. It means we get back to the plan.”

“Hello? Can you guys hear me?” Darren said suddenly said very loud and they all winced.

“Loud and clear,” Phase said looking around. “Pierce sent a robot to say hi to us.”

“Really? Whatever, we can unpack that later. For now, go and get that data.” Darren told them.

“Yeah yeah Wiz Kid.” Yumi said and glanced at the experiments on the ground behind them. She watched them and sighed softly. “That could have been us.”

Phase put his hand on her shoulder. “But it’s not.”

“Yeah,” She looked at Pierce’s body on the floor and shook her head. “I wanna blow this place sky high. Wipe it off the map.”

Phase looked at her and then glanced at his pouch, “We can do that.”

The trio continued their walk, careful in the darkness but also careful for more rogue experiments jumping them. The second leg of their journey was smooth and uneventful. So, as they walked toward the room where all the information tended to be stored and written down, they were a little tense.

As they walked through the door they had to deal with the darkness again. However, the mask more than compensated for it.  Phase went toward a desk and Feint sat down at it, plugging in an IHD and her mask activating it. The files started processing the files and they raced across her eyes.

“While she does that, we do our part,” Phase said glancing at Yumi.

“Alright fearless leader.”

While Feint worked the pair of them left her to work on things they walked down the hallways taking IEDs out. Their masks highlighted positions where if the bombs went off they be the most effective. As they walked Yumi glared at the ground.

“You think there are any other experiments still here?” Yumi asked.

Phase glanced back at her and then shook his head, “If the ones the Pierce bot sicked on us are any indicator the ones that were still here have been turned into weapons or moved.”

“Right,” she placed one high against the corner of the hallway. “I wonder if we were just too late to help them.”

“We got lucky to get out. But I doubt we’re the only ones that seriously escaped. Probably others out there keeping a low profile. Maybe we can find them.”

She laughed, “I might like that. I’m out of bombs leader.”

“Me too,” he said rolling the last one into the darkness of the hallway. He linked them all to his mask and then turned around. “Feint how’s the download going?”

“Almost done. I’m doing some reading on your new healing ability as well,” Feint said softly. “It’s pretty robust and powerful. But please be careful with it. It eats away at your life the more it heals you. And eventually you’re going to just fall over dead.”

“Oh that sounds pleasant,” Phase shook his head. “Gonna want to avoid that. Hey Darren how’s Ace doing?”

“After the Pierce bot went down Ramon backed off. Ace is causing some trouble up above and keeping the guards down but he’s backing off soon.”

“Good.”

They walked their way back to Feint who was taking her IHD out of the computer and shoving it into her pocket.  “This place made us. And is one of the leading productions of Enhance. There’s another one out there but we get rid of this one and they’re going to be in the hole for a long time.”

“Good,” Yumi glared. “Let’s take it down.”

“Better get moving,” Darren said quickly. “Once you start setting them off the building is coming down on your heads.”

“Roger that. Set em off Darren,” Darren said as they sprinted down the hallway. They hit the stairs taking them three at a time. They left their basement after a few minutes and grabbed the railing going further up.“Ace if you can hear me start heading out ASAP.”

They cleared another floor when the ground shook. They nearly lost their footing. The first explosion was strong but there was a dull rumbling from the walls and the rest of the facility. They looked at one another and the ground shook again not as vibrantly but for much longer.

“Alright, let’s short cut this,” Phase said taking Yumi’s hand. “Follow my lead.”

He crouched and jumped as they passed through the stairs passing floors quickly. But as they jumped many times pieces of the ceiling above were collapsing down on them. They got to the top and the door they had used was covered in debris. Sprinting through it like it wasn’t there they kept going and the alarm from before was blaring but broken and choppy.

Rather than find a proper exit they ran straight toward the wall and braced themselves. More explosions rocked the building and they lurched to the side almost losing balance but they helped each other and kept going. Going right through it they were in the open air. Before they could crash into the ground they were caught out of the air and gently lower t the ground. The cool air greeted them as the sun started to make its presence known.

They turned and looked back at the facility and watched as it started to rumble. More and more of the structure began to fall. It sank like a giant jenga tower kicking up dust and debris. Ace grabbed them and they flew backwards away from the majority of the danger. Coughing on the dust they took their masks of breathing clean air.

“Is everyone okay?” Phase asked fighting another cough. “Sound off.”

“Here,” Yumi said.

“I’m here,” Feint replied.

“Still standing,” Ace grunted. “I don’t remember dropping the building down being in the plan.”

“It was an improvisation,” Phase said. “I told Darren to let you know to get out.”

Ace rolled his eyes, “Lucky I was able to do that. Did you at least get what you came for?”

Feint nodded her head, “As must as we could. Their operations. Some of their members. And info on us and Phase.”

“Don’t bet on it staying relevant for long,” Darren said. They were typing through it already and shaking their head. “Some of it’s being clear as we talk. A fail safe in case someone else gets it. I’ll save what I can but this is going to be rough.”

“Dammit,” she folded her arms sharply. “So was it for nothing?”

“No,” Phase said taking one of her hands. “We took down this facility. And got one up on the Pierces. Plus none of us got killed. That’s a win in my book.”

“Here here,” Yumi chimed in. She looked at Ace and smirked, “What about you? Have a good fight with Ramon?”

He clucked his tongue, “Guy’s a pain in the ass. It was even and then he just ran away randomly. But whatever. I’m not done with them. Not by a long shot.”

“Well we definitely are. At least for now,” Phase said and leaned his head back slowly. His shoulder sank and he felt lighter at least for the time being. He was tired but he felt good. Looking at the ruins of the building, the collapsed wreckage of where he’d spent the better part of his life.

Turning around he looked at Yumi and Feint as well. They both smiled back at him, eyes tired but warm. They felt the same thing that he did. “Let’s go home.”