The Risk Takers

Part 6 | Remedy

Liam, Teddy and I climb into my mother's car and look around us before pulling the doors shut. It was the safest place we could think of where no unwelcome ears could listen in. Liam and I spin around in the front seats to look at Teddy, who has situated himself in the middle of the back seat.

"Okay Teddy, what's the plan?" I ask him eagerly and he excitedly rubs his hands together.

"Well now that we are up to speed on my parents research, I can tell you that only three remedies have been made. One of those three, is upstairs in my room."

Liam and I glance to each other and Liam says, "So what form does this remedy come in?" Using his pointer fingers, Teddy holds his hands a few inches apart before saying, "A syringe with a needle about this long." He moves his fingers to sit about three inches away from each other.

"We have to stick Topher with a needle?" I gasp and Teddy quickly nods his head. I dart my eyes back to Liam again but Teddy remains positive.

"I told you I have a plan," Teddy tries to convince us and Liam nods to him to continue.

"Okay Ellie, I told you that you were going to give Topher the details to Liam's location right?" I nod my head so he continues, "Well, the plan is to get Topher in a vulnerable location. I want Ellie to go over to your house Liam, and speak to your mom. Ellie is going to tell Lisa that getting the cops involved about what happened yesterday is going to hurt her permanent record and therefore screw up her chances at getting into a good job after college. That Ellie can't have any kind of criminal behavior on her record."

"Which makes sense," I add with a quick look to Liam but Teddy goes right back into explaining the plan.

"So since you've already convinced Lisa that you are in a new relationship, you are going to tell her that you don't want to have to explain what happened to me or try and explain to your parents or the police so instead, you're willing to tell her where Liam is in exchange for dropping the charges."

I hold my hand up in disagreement, "I can't tell her that Liam is in Highland Park. Topher will get to him too quickly."

Teddy quickly shakes his head, "The deal will also be Topher's willingness to cooperate. You want to convince Topher that you've moved on from Liam and your goal is to focus on school. That you want to hear from Topher personally that he'll drop all charges."

"Why? What will that do?" I ask again and Liam looks to me to let Teddy finish explaining the plan before asking questions.

"That will get us face time with Topher if he isn't already there. If he's not, I'm hoping Lisa will be so anxious to get in touch with Liam, that she'll do whatever's necessary to get him to come over."

"Okay so once we get Topher out in the open how easy is it to stick him with the remedy? How long does it take before his powers are rendered useless?"

Teddy suddenly looks nervous as he says, "Two minutes."

My jaw drops in shock as I shake my head, "Two minutes?! It took him less than a second to produce fire out of thin air. A lot can go down in two minutes."

Teddy nods, "I know. Which is why I brought in back up."

*********

I pull into the parking lot of the Dallas mall's underground parking garage and glance to Liam before cutting the ignition. Teddy quickly hops out of the car and Liam and I follow. I watch him head towards a small white car parked at the far end of the garage, secluded from any of the mall's entrances. It's eerie to be at the silent and dark closed mall on Thanksgiving. Teddy excitedly jogs down the parking garage while Liam grabs my hand to comfort me. Teddy filled us in on who is joining us on our little adventure and my stomach flipped from nervousness. I'm putting a lot of trust in people I don't know deserve it. I watch the back door of the car swing open and a blonde head appears. She quickly shakes hands with Teddy and then her focus swings over to Liam and I.

"Someone cleans up nicely," she says to Liam and I thought maybe, just once I could see Stephanie without wanting to strangle her- guess not. Liam gives her a quick hug and I see Ryan climb out of the driver's seat.

"Not where you were planning on spending your Thanksgiving right?" Teddy says to Stephanie and Ryan still beaming with positivity. They quickly smile back to him and Stephanie replies, "I'll spend Thanksgiving anywhere if it means taking that bastard out!"

I look to Stephanie and ask, "How do you two know Teddy?" Teddy points over to Ryan and says, "Remember when I was keeping tabs on Topher and I watched him meet with Ryan? Well when you invited me to Thanksgiving, I thought it would be good to go introduce myself in case things panned out in my favor- which they did. Fortunately, Ryan here already knew all about you and Liam so he brought Stephanie on board."

"Not that it took much convincing," Ryan adds. I look over to Liam who looks much more relaxed knowing we will have back up with us. I'm slightly annoyed that Teddy has been setting this whole plan up behind my back before I had even known about his abilities. But I guess it does make me more at ease that we have someone who can teleport us out of the house after we stab Topher with a syringe.

Stephanie pulls her plethora of long blonde hair up and out of her face while she says, "Okay Teddy, let's go over the details." We have managed to form ourselves into a circle so we can all see each other and Teddy stands at the center addressing all of us, "Okay guys, so the plan is simple, but we all know Topher can complicate things quickly. First we send Ellie in to speak with Liam's mom about dropping all the charges she had filed with the police in exchange for bringing Liam home. Hopefully, Lisa will agree and then Ellie will demand to hear a truce from Topher before disclosing Liam's current location. We will all cross our fingers that Topher will quickly meet with Ellie. Once we get Topher alone with Ellie, Liam will be invisible and stick Topher in the arm with the remedy. We will have two minutes to blaze the hell away from Topher which will hopefully, with Ryan's useful skill of teleporting, be a breeze."

Ryan holds his hand up and looks to Liam and I, "I can only teleport one person at a time. Which is where Stephanie comes in."

All of our focus gazes back to Stephanie as she says, "I am going to clone myself to look like Ellie so he won't know who to go after. Ryan is going to get Liam out first since Topher wants him the most. Then he'll get out Ellie and last but of course not least, he'll come and get me." Stephanie pops her hip out and places a confident hand on her hip. No one seems to be terrified of sticking Topher with a needle that takes all of his power away.

"Okay, so this sounds like it could work but what if one of these details don't work?" I ask the group and they all look to me like that option isn't possible.

"Then we'll fly by the seat of our pants darlin," Teddy jokes back and my stomach somersaults. They just want to wing it if something goes wrong?

"Ellie, he'll be drained of his powers as Ryan is taking us away. There's not much he can do if we aren't there," Stephanie says in a tone that implies I am stupid.

"And it also means you are going to have to completely shield your thoughts love. My dad can't get any kind of heads up that this is happening," Liam says to me, much kinder than Stephanie's harsh tone. The whole group looks to me because everyone here knows I am the least skilled at sealing my thoughts completely off.

I swallow hard as I nod to the group. If my thoughts aren't completely closed off, I will put this entire group in danger.