A New Kind of Army

Chapter 2: Discovery

"You see anything?" I asked Nico, my brother, as we patrolled the nearby rocky shore.

"No," Nico answered back, I could tell by his tone that he was mad at something. I didn't know what it could've been at. The recent retrieval mission had gone smoothly, and the trip back to home base was going nicely.

"Nico, what's wrong?"

"Are you seriously asking me that?"

"You know I can't read your mind. I was not gifted with the abilities of a telepath."

"You bring three unruly teenagers on a delicate retrieval mission, and you expect me to just let it go?"

"Those unruly teenagers are well trained, and are my kids. Beside they need to start getting field experience if they ever want to continue the family business."

"This may be true Christin, but I still don't like taking them along."

I rolled my eyes and shook my head. Nico was a trusted soldier and friend, but sometimes his mood was not very uplifting.

"I'll check the rocks; you continue down shore." Nico told me. I didn't mind, it was a sound plan, and I wasn't coming up with anything better at the moment.

I had just found a bunch of tide pools, and couple of shells. I picked a few of the prettier ones up and put them in my jacket pocket. The girls back at the safe house would enjoy these.

"Christin!"

Nico? I bolted towards the sounds of my brother. Was he alright? I ran until I found the rocks.

"Nico!? Nico, where are you?!"

"Over here!"

I ran towards his voice. I rounded a large boulder, to find Nice pushing up and down on a young man's chest. I froze, the boy was covering blood, cuts, ice and burns. His clothes were in shreds. His skin was pale. His hair was matted and his left arm was missing.

"What happened?" I practically screamed and ran up to them. My parental instincts started to take over.

"I'm not sure, I found him like this and pulled him from the water. He's not breathing and doesn't have a pulse." Nico stopped chest compressions and began to give the boy mouth to mouth.

"Back up."

I placed my hand on the boy's chest and focused. I felt the electricity go through my hand and fingers, and the boy's chest arched at the sudden shock. I check his pulse, nothing. I pulled away and let Nico continue CPR while I readied for another charge.

"Ok, I'm ready."

Nico nodded and pulled away. I placed my hand on his chest again and sent another shock. I felt for a pulse again. Suddenly the boy, jerked and I heard a waterlogged choke.

"Turn him." Nico ordered.

We grabbed his shoulder and turned him on his side. Water, amongst other things, began to spew out of the boy's nose and mouth, followed by a choked gasp and coughing. We rolled him back onto his back. He started to shiver and his breathing grew erratic. I reacted my hand out and began to rub his head, and scraped his dark hair out of his face.

Nico started to pull off his tattered clothes, to see his arm better. I barely noticed that ground around his left shoulder had been stained crimson with his blood. I gasped when I saw what was left of the kids arm. The wound was awful. Flesh was ripped and torn, the bone was snapped and although still half frozen, it was bleeding profusely. It was a hideous sight, and that wasn't even considering all of the other cuts and burns on the rest of him. What happened to this kid?