The students were all in a crazy trance that I couldn’t reverse. “Great,” I said. “I can’t shut down any of their minds.”
“Of course you can’t, my dear.” Thorne laughed haughtily. ”I have shielded their minds from you. Let’s see how you fare against your peers. Students, please apprehend these ominous rebels.”
The students charged toward us, ready to tear us apart.
Adrian said, “I don’t think we can face them all.”
“We can’t. Run!” Eric commanded.
We all ran as fast as we could to escape chancellor Thorne and her traumatized hybrid soldiers. But before we could, I stopped to carry Natalie.
“Are you crazy?” Adrian said incredulously. “Why would you bring her along? She’s pretty much like them.”
“No, she’s not. She wouldn’t have cried that much if
To say that getting better at reading people’s minds was both exhilarating and distracting would be an understatement. Since I had already probed Natalie’s mind, I chose to look into Rick’s head next.I gradually penetrated his thoughts to see if I could reach his subconscious. I opened my eyes, envisioning his memories rushing through his mind like a California highway during rush hour.It turns out Rick was born on a Native American reservation in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He never knew either of his birth parents, human or alien. He was adopted by an Irish couple who were business partners with Rick’s birth mother.His mom owned a local casino. Rick’s grandfather was an Indian chief who’d owned the casino before his mother did. He and Rick’s mom had a falling out before Rick was born. He disapproved on people outside of his tribe owning property on his land. He deeply resented his mom owning a casin
Did you ever defy your parents’ advice and try something dangerous after they told you not to do it? Did you try exploring a mysterious estate that even the police won’t enter?We were about to do just that.We followed the directions on Natalie’s device, arriving at the property without incident. Some of the people in the group of pedestrians that passed us had puzzled expressions.We still wore our training uniforms.“I hate people staring” Adrian said.“Weren’t you a basketball player? Eric asked.“Yeah, but people recognized my jersey.”“Quit complaining, princess,” Daryl said. “Aside from the clothes, we blend in.”“Maddie, are you okay?” Eric asked.I nodded toward several security men guarding the property.“Great, now we have to deal with the bloody authorities,&rd
We knew our parts to play in stopping Lisa from burning Seattle and began implementing our plan. Natalie ran underneath Lisa and summoned a machine gun to fire multiple rounds at her. Although the bullets exploded when they hit her, Lisa’s flames offered protection from any impact they would have caused. But they distracted her from attacking Adrian. Lisa directed her attention to Natalie instead.After Lisa changed targets, Eric used his telekinesis to block off every window in the house, cutting off ventilation. While Eric worked on his project, Daryl swung his arms toward Lisa, sending shock waves of purplish energy around his arms. When Lisa avoided the waves of energy, Daryl lunged at her.Breaking her focus from Natalie, Lisa summoned a substantial pink flame and projected it towards Daryl.Daryl jumped out of her range of fire and dodged Lisa’s attack.Next, I joined in the action and flew in to distr
Still trapped in the chair, I couldn’t stop staring at the blue ball Mom left behind.What was that thing? I noticed the symbol on it. It’s the same one embedded on the device Zirocco brought.Two new guards came in, and these two were all too familiar.“Marcy, Chad, what are you doing here?” I asked, shocked.“Hello, Maddie,” Chad said. “We’ve been looking for you.”“We’re responsible for taking you into our dissection chambers,” Marcy said, showing no emotion.“Dissection?” I said freaking out. I tried to break out of that chair but my abilities failed. It looked like I was about to meet my end.“It’s nothing against you, Maddie, it’s about our survival,” Marcy said. “We can’t take any chances with hybrids running around so we make sure we understand their powers and defend ourselves a
For anyone who’s ever felt lost before, you probably understand what I was feeling at this point in my life. I curled up next to Marcy’s body, trying to understand how this happened.“Madelyn, I am sorry,” Mom said. “I didn’t expect this to happen.”Without thinking, I summoned a tiger shroud around my arm and grabbed my mom by the neck, pushing her into the wall. I had lost two of the most important people in my life. Now my mother, who betrayed me is trying to apologize for it. Why should I forgive her?“It’s all your fault!” I roared.“Madelyn! I know that you’re upset, but…” she said.“I am past being upset. You sold out to Vanity.”“Let me make up for it,” Mom pleaded. “Please allow me to help save all of us.”“What are you talking about?”“I kn
The six of us landed in an area resembling a spaceship pad. I mourned Mom and hung my head in sorrow while Daryl and Natalie held my arms.“Where are we?” Eric asked. The device we used to escape flew out of Rick’s hand, projecting a hologram of Zirocco.“Hello, children,” Zirocco said. “I see you’ve found the Omni Tower.”“The Omni Tower?” Daryl asked“This is one of the few structures left on this planet that is composed of the same material that as Zen Academy. It was abandoned by your Akarrian parents who rebelled against Chancellor Thorne before she captured and attempted toassimilate my programming into the academy.” “What do you know about Vanity?” Eric asked.“How do you know about our parents?” Rick asked.“According to your genetic signatures, each of you who are offspring of
I started to enter Natalie’s mind and to be honest, I was scared of what I’d find, based on how we met.I learned Natalie didn’t start her life as a soldier or a mercenary. At first, she was a farm girl who worked on a small plot her family owned. She grew up never knowing about her mother, but her father was a soldier in the Vietnamese Army.Natalie and her uncle chose to separate themselves from the Vietnamese government to create a private Taskforce for International Affairs.One day, Natalie received a letter from her uncle informing her father had been killed in action. The news made her angry at the world, shutting out every person in her village.She mostly kept busy doing extra chores around the village to avoid thinking about her father. But one day while she planted vegetables in the local garden, she went through the “change.”Her body collapsed when she felt painful surges of e
It was the ultimatum from hell, and we knew it. Chancellor Thorne’s voice swirled in my head.Submit yourselves to me, and you shall see your loved ones resurrected. It is only logical.Where do your loyalties lie, anyway? With a human planet that abhors your kind, or with me, who has always been on your side?Argh! Thorne was at it again, using twisted logic to try to control us. If you didn’t know better, you’d think siding with her was the moral thing to do.But I had seen too much. Thorne was a monster, and her blood flowing in my veins was poison to my heart. I would give anything to get my dad back—almost anything, that is—except for joining any cause with Thorne written on it. My stomach did flips thinking that the others might not agree with me.I glanced at Rick. I hadn’t known him for long, but I knew his story.Thorne’s ultimatum wasn&r