The Vindicators

Chapter X: The Next Mission

When I had finished telling him what had happened, he replied with, "So what you're saying is that you guys have some sort of powers now right?"
"Exactly," I said.
"Hm. Well this is definitely a first for me."
He then turned around and yelled to the driver. "Cody! Is the airport here safe to land a plane on?"
"Yes sir," Cody said. "Logan is looking pretty decent for Air Force One."
"Good. Tell 'em to land and we'll be there with several other passengers."
"Of course sir!"
Cody closed up the truck as he drove down the roads while talking to someone through the radio.
"So what's next?" I asked.
"We'll talk about that soon on the plane," he said. "For now you should get some rest."
I walked to the back of the truck where Kaylee was sitting down so I sat next to her. As I sat down she handed me a stone.
"What's this?" I asked as I took it from her.
"Prove to me that you've got some sort of powers," she said. "Crush it."
I sighed as I crushed the rock in a split second and her eyes went wide.
"You scared?" I asked.
"No," she said. "It's actually pretty cool."
I smiled and opened up my hand to see the stone broken up into several little pieces.
"I'm scared," I told her.
"Why?" She asked.
"I'm scared I'll hurt someone by accident. Someone I care about. You, Logan, Elizabeth, Payton. That's about it though. So losing one means I'm losing almost half of the people who matter to me. And that frightens me more than anything."
"You barely know me," she said. "And yet you care about me. Why's that?"
"I don't know. Maybe I find you attractive. Maybe I just need friends. Or maybe it's because I have to care about something. If there's nothing I have to care about, there's nothing I have to live for. And I wanna live for something. A life without something to care about isn't a life at all. You're merely just spending time on a planet that's full of people who have the same problem."
She stayed quiet until I felt her lay her head on my shoulder. Not knowing what to do, I did the first thing that came to mind. I put my arm around her. She didn't seem to mind. In fact, I think she even smiled a bit.

After a little while of driving, we finally arrived at the airport where Air Force One had just landed.
Kaylee lifted her head off of my shoulder and got up to take a good look at the plane.
"Never see one before?" I asked her.
"Not in years," she said. "I saw them fly by all the time before all of this but I've never actually been in one while it's in the air before. Have you?"
I got up and stood next to her. "Only once. On my way here about a week before everything happened. Didn't like it much though. I got sick afterwards." She laughed slightly and I laughed along with her.
"Alright guys," Kelton said. "What do you say we get outta here and you can sit on real seats rather than these uncomfortable things?"
"That sounds amazing," Elizabeth said.
"Alright," Kelton said as he pressed a button to open up the back of the truck. "We'll let's go then."
We all hopped out and walked towards the giant plane. It was huge but only slightly bigger than the ones REVO used for certain shipments.
We stood near the plane as a door opened up on the side as two cables shot at the ground parallel to each other. We stood in confusion as a glowing white walkway appeared between the two.
"What the heck is that?" Kaylee asked.
"A light bridge." Elizabeth said. "It was originally thought to be a near impossibility until now of course. How'd you make one of these?"
"That's classified," Kelton said. "And it's a ramp. Not a bridge. Not even REVO has this stuff. Well, at least we think they don't."
"I doubt it," I said. "I've never seen this kind of stuff in REVO's possession before."
"Awesome," Kelton replied. "Now everyone, please follow me." We walked after him as he stepped onto the ramp leading into the plane. Then one by one, we all went up with him.
As we stepped into the plane, we all stood in shock at pretty much everything. There were loads of comfortable looking chairs and TV screens in every direction. My first impulse was to sit in one of them. I rushed over and sunk into the amazing feeling of the leather seats. Everything I was worried about had suddenly left my mind. All I could think about was how amazing it all felt.
"You think that's a relief," Kelton said. "Just wait for the food."
We all looked at each other with excited expressions on our faces. Food. Good food. Not the crap that we had to scavenge for. Real food that wouldn't leave a terrible taste in the mouth.
"You'll have to wait a bit though. There's a few things we need to discuss." He sat down with the rest of us and crossed his legs. "We need you guys to infiltrate the rest of the cities and take out REVO. Can you do that?"
We looked at him as if he had just stabbed us in the chest.
"You want us to destroy REVO?" Elizabeth asked. "From the inside? That'll easily get us killed."
"I know. But I'm not telling you to. I'm asking. Can you do that for me?"
We all just stood there thinking about it for a minute.
"It won't get you anywhere," I said. "They'll kill us easily. They've got that black metal that can go through anything and that includes my skin."
"Actually that's not true," Elizabeth said. "All of the REVO outposts are the same. Except Boston. Boston was the first to be invaded and it's in charge of science and weapons development. The black metal was only available to Boston in case one of the experiment subjects was successful but got out like you did. They don't have much of it."
"Okay but still. I can't do it alone. I need a genius with me just in case we run into something technical that I can't do anything about. But they're not like me. They can die from normal bullets."
"Mr. Walker," Kelton said. "What other choice do we have? When REVO busted down our doors we moved mountains to come up with a plan to take back our nation and yet, we came up empty. You guys are our only hope. There's nobody else who can."
I thought for a long moment. As I was about to say no, Elizabeth spoke before me.
"I can handle my own," she said. "Just give me a lab, some time, and I'll make a suit even better than the ones REVO has."
"Deal," Kelton said. "Dawson? Your opinion?"
I thought then finally said, "Fine. But I'm taking Logan. He'll probably just sneak on the mission anyway if I tell him no."
"And me," Kaylee said. "Surely I can help."
I sighed and asked, "Another suit Liz?"
"Of course," Elizabeth said as she smirked. "Girl power all the way."
"Well then," Kelton said. "Looks like we're all set. You guys need a name. And T-shirts. Every group needs T-shirts."
"No," I said. "Just. No."
"Fine. Just trying to make you guys laugh a bit. If you need me, I'll be in the room behind you. We'll be in Washington pretty soon."
We all sat in silence as he got up and walked away.
"A name wouldn't be so bad," Elizabeth said.
Then Logan finally spoke up and said, "I think I've got one."