xx49.07.29 | 18:20 | Still Tuesday | [LUS]

and now Chass is heading towards the building. He parked around a hundred metres away. I'm supposed to wait here until he gets inside, then move up and start climbing. I want to just run and get to C2, but ... but even though I don't like Chass he DOES seem to know what he's doing. He's halfway there now. Come on, go faster! It's not like he's creeping or anything, just walking casually along, is EVERYTHING this guy does utterly infuriating? I think it just might be! He could at least, I don't know, TRY to look like he's concerned about C2, that he's rushing in to save her as fast as he can—I know he doesn't care about her, probably he doesn't care about anyone, but, oh, I don't know, I'm just babbling to myself, all of this is going into my LUS journal entry I guess—yep, babbling away, Chass is—

Gunshot. More gunshots, oh no, C2—

Chass is running.

So am I.

SOMEONE'S FALLING oh please don't let that be C2 PLEASE don't let that be her—

"C2!"

Can't see Chass. Can't see anything.

"C2!"

It's her, it's her, she's just lying there, she's dead, she—

"Charlotte. I may have some good news. I think that I may be partially invulnerable."

Have to stop hugging her, have to let her go because gunshots haven't stopped, they're still firing, I can hear the bullets ricocheting off the concrete. I can't see Chass anywhere, I can't even see his stupid car, there aren't any lights around here, not away from the building—

"Can you run?" I ask.

"I can run," C2 says.

I put my hand up, palm flat to the sky, and a dull-glowing disc of purple energy pulses into life above us.

Under the umbrella of my force shield, we run—but C2 makes a horrible little hurt cry and stumbles, I have her but she's hurt her foot, her leg, something, she CAN'T run, I have my arm around her and the shield's still up, I think the car's this way, I hope the car's this way—

"Apparently I'm not immune to pain," C2 says, and even in the darkness I see her smile, and we stumble on, the gunshots are closer together now and I cry out as the snap and whip of a bullet's impact surges through me like electricity, now C2's supporting me, stopping me from falling, but there's no pain, no blood—

"The shield," I say, somehow. "It hit the shield."

I start laughing but stop myself. Together C2 and I walk on, into the night, the building is still so close behind us, we've hardly moved at all and there's so far to go—

The car isn't there. Chass abandoned us.

"Charlotte. You should tilt your shield back, the angle has changed."

Not only that, they're coming out of the building—I put up another shield, it's bulbous and raw but it should block anything they—

"Ugh."

"Charlotte?"

"I'm okay, it just feels so weird when bullets hit my shields. We should—"

There's the sudden glare of headlights then Chass's stupid car comes rattling towards us. The back door's open, I push C2 in and let my shield disappear as I follow, then slam the door shut and put up another shield along the side of the car as Chass accelerates away. Some of the gangers are already in SUVs, I can see the headlights, but I've got something more important to get upset about—

"Why'd you move the car? You were going to abandon us!"

Chass doesn't reply—we're on the road now, the SUVs behind us.

"Perhaps he needed to turn the car around in order to effect a more efficient 'getaway'," C2 suggests. She looks at Chass, in the front seat. "Mr Chass? Thank you."

"Welcome," Chass grunts. I scowl as I look back. The SUVs are definitely getting closer. I shift my force field to the back of the car.

"They're chasing us," C2 says. "Perhaps we should go a little faster?"

"Yes! Faster! NOW!"

The engine cuts out, just rattles to a stop.

"Oh, GREAT! This STUPID car—"

"Seatbelts."

"What? What's the point of—"

I notice that C2 is already wearing hers before I'm thrown back against the seat, my head hitting hard but oddly unpainfully against the window—or not the window, actually against a pillow-like force field I guess I must have instinctively put up. There's still no sound, it's like the car's gliding along the road—gliding incredibly fast. Before I can get my seatbelt on Chass slams the car around a corner, and I go sprawling against C2—she catches me awkwardly and manages to get me sitting up. With her help I get my seatbelt done up just before Chass rips around another corner. I can't see the SUVs any more.

"Drop the shield."

I grumble a bit, but do as Chass says. He takes a left, then almost immediately a right. The streets are narrower here, the buildings taller and older. Not a reclaimed area. Old Powerstone. There are other vehicles, too, and pedestrians at the sides of the roads. The shift was really sudden, it's like we turned a corner and came out of a ghost town and into a real city. Chass turns another corner and now we're on a main road, six lanes, dozens of other cars around. He slows, and there's a clattering as the car's engine starts up again—or its first engine, or 'decoy' engine or whatever you want to call it.

"This isn't the way back to Mr Johnston's house," C2 says. I lean forward.

"It's a REALLY bad look for you to be abducting two young—hey!"

The air between the front and back seats just turned black—I lean further forward and whack my head against the blackness.

"Ow! HEY!"

"The side windows appear to have a secondary barrier in place," C2 says, as she runs her hand over the air in front of her window. She reaches forward to touch the blackness separating front from back. "It appears to be the same substance. Non-reflective glass, perhaps."

"Who cares what it is—hey!"

The side and back windows just went black, the last thing I saw was a narrow street with high stone buildings, old metal fire escapes up their sides.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!"

"Charlotte, it's likely he cannot hear you."

"Huh."

I sit back in my seat with my arms crossed. I knew I shouldn't have trusted that guy. Anti-Heroes. They're just not PROPER. Who knows where he's taking us? Maybe he's actually working for the supervillains! Yes, that's so likely!

"Charlotte."

I look over at C2. She's smiling.

"Thank you for coming to rescue me."

I can't help but smile back, despite everything. "Thanks for, um, for being okay. I'm really happy you're safe."

"So am I."

"You were doing pretty well on your own, though. Um, they didn't ... they didn't do anything, did they?"

"I was hit several times, although to be fair I intentionally provoked some of the attacks. Fortunately, I wasn't hurt. As I mentioned earlier, I believe that my promotion—"

"Oh hey, yeah, how do you have limited invulnerability now? You're supposed to have psychic shielding as your power! Powers don't just change, how does that work?"

"I had hoped you would know." C2 looks at her black side window, then back at me. Well, at my shoulder, anyway. "Seeing as you are my expert on superhero culture."

"No, I've never heard of that before—and nobody's ever had more than one power. Unless the LI is your actual power and the PS is just a secondary ability, but I've never heard of that happening either ... maybe you were right, maybe it's your, um, your 'condition' that makes you immune to psychic manipulation—but no, wait, that doesn't work at all, because I copied your psychic shielding in Emerald Hill. This is really weird, C2."

"I agree. Fortuitous, but strange."

"Unless ... wait, unless your power is actually aura hardening—like Structulus or Lady Iron, oh wow, that's SO rare! And it makes sense, because aura hardening can block psychic attacks as well as physical—you only got a sprained ankle from that fall, I'm not an expert or anything but a fall from that height definitely seems like it should've been worse, how's your foot now?"

C2 pushes her foot carefully against the floor of the car.

"It doesn't hurt much."

"Okay, great! I mean some people can hurt their foot just stepping off a curb, right? So falling from four floors up is just like stepping off a curb to you! And you got punched and didn't get hurt, right?"

"It hurt a little and I felt the impact."

"But no damage, that's the important thing, no damage! There's not even a tiny mark on your face! Of course, because aura hardening is so good against impact damage, C2, this is amazing! You have an amazing power—oh! Oh! That means I get it too, at least a little ... but I've gotten hurt even while I've been around you, right? Haven't I? I must have ... have I? I can't really remember."

"I have a question. Does aura hardening work constantly?"

"Huh? Oh, you mean like 'is it always on', yep, it's a reactive power, if anything threatens your aura it'll harden up against it, psychic, physical, whatever's trying to get you, your aura will repel. Unless you WANT it to get to you, like food or water or air or whatever, it's YOUR aura after all, it's on your side."

"But there have been times in my life where I have been hurt. For example, I have cut myself while helping my mother prepare meals or snacks."

"That doesn't count, aura hardening is INFAMOUSLY ineffective against cutting attacks."

"Cutting," C2 repeats. "Yes. I read about this in your family's files. However, there was one incident when I was younger, I don't remember well but my parents have told me I came close to breaking my arm."

"Aha! 'Came close', that's a CLUE, C2, you've got to pay better attention to these things!"

C2's thinking now, she's got that cute look in her eyes.

"Is it possible that my power changed or evolved over time, perhaps in response to my circumstances?"

"Hm. I mean once you've got a power that's that, you can't lose it or swap it for something else ... although it IS true that powers grow stronger over time and with use, maybe your aura hardening kind of levelled up?"

"Do powers 'level up'?"

"Well ... not exactly. You don't just get big jumps, any increase in strength is gradual—that's why 1st Gens like my parents are so strong, especially with all the adventuring they did. Still, I guess your power got a real workout, constantly defending you against that mood control for so long. It'd make sense that it got stronger in that time."

I was going to say more, but we just went down some kind of ramp—we're going underground.

"His base, I guess. Huh."

"I don't think he's 'abducting' us," C2 says. "Perhaps he wants to keep us safe from the gang?"

"We'd be safe at Motoplasm's—no, he wants these." I pick up the bag from under my feet. "I did kind of make a deal with him, but—"

The windows just all went clear and both of our doors opened. I look at C2, then we both unbuckle our seatbelts and get out. We're in ... it looks like an underground parking garage, bare concrete and harsh artificial lighting, the ceiling reinforced with long, thin metal girders, it's all pretty stark and cold actually. There's no obvious entrance or exit, just blank walls all around. There's a shower in the corner with a recessed drain, and a bed—well, mattress. There's a crisp white sheet over it, tightly tucked in, and it's on a wooden base. On the nearest wall there's a big screen with a bunch of different equipment below, Chass is walking towards it, tapping away at the little holo-interface thing on his wrist.

"You can't just treat us like this!" I say, as I run after Chass. "You can't just drag us around without a word of explanation!"

Chass doesn't reply. I puff out an irritated breath, then glance back as C2 joins me. She's looking at the screen and the equipment beneath.

"Compact laboratory," she says. "Similar to the one in your brother's workshop."

The screen's on now, it looks similar to my Opal's 'home' screen, except way bigger. Chass is doing something but I'm not sure what. C2 looks fascinated.

"Be more upset!" I tell her. "You agree with me, right? He can't just drag us to his base, I mean aside from anything it looks totally sketchy, he's really old and we're practically schoolgirls!"

"I am a schoolgirl."

"You know what—right, yes, exactly! Hey, creepy old guy! Do you make a habit of abducting schoolgirls?"

Chass doesn't reply, just holds his hand out without looking back.

"What? Oh, you want the drugs? Is that it? Well you're not getting them, not until you explain some things!"

Chass turns a little, just enough to show me the blank expression on his face.

"Don't try your stupid intimidation stuff on me, that might work on—okay, fine, take it."

I put one of the huffers in his gauntleted hand, and he starts taking it apart. I can't help but join C2 in being interested, the huffer is just a plastic tube with the drug in a little capsule thing, I guess you push in the lever on the side and then inhale if you want to actually take the drug. Chass has the capsule out now, he's breaking it into a little glass dish—the drug's a powder—and he's putting that into one of his machines ... now he's standing back, looking up at the screen, his arms crossed.

"So? Care to tell us what's going on here? It's not like—"

I stop as the screen begins to fill with text, none of which means a thing to me.

"This is an illegal drug, isn't it?" C2 says. "Why would it contain so much silver?"

"You can UNDERSTAND all that?"

"Yes. It's fairly basic chemistry. Did you not study this?"

Vague memories arise, of insurmountably huge tables of elements and radiations.

"Um."

Chass is still and silent, staring up at the screen, then he turns and walks past us.

"Back in the car."

"What? Look, 'Chass', I'm getting pretty sick of you—"

"Back in the car."

"At LEAST tell us where we're going!"

Chass stops and looks back at me.

"To Leroy's clinic. By now the Mercy Killers will be attacking it."

I stare as Chass turns and continues walking to his car.

"WHAT?"

"It seems to be a reasonable assumption," C2 says. She seems nervous—she wants to go to the car but she doesn't want to move until I do. "I was thinking something similar myself."

"But that's terrible! We have to get back!"

"Good thinking," Chass says. "Let's go with your plan and get back in the car."

I scowl as I run to the car, C2 behind me, and as we get our seatbelts on the windows go black, predictably enough, and then we're moving.

"I can't BELIEVE he took us here instead of going straight back to Motoplasm's base," I mutter. "That's SO irresponsible, to just abandon them like that."

"Is The Force there?" C2 asks.

"Yes, of course, but—"

"They'll be fine." I'm surprised to hear Chass speak.

"I know The Force is awesome," I say, feeling stupid for talking to the blackness in front of me, "but he's only one person against dozens of—"

"He's protecting Leroy." Chass chuckles unpleasantly. "I'm not worried."