[OLD PREVIEW] The Supers Experiment (#1)

Three

Ivy studied the girl, Claire, as she introduced herself.

"Do you have powers too, then?" Claire asked.

Ivy nodded. "I can... I can create fire, I guess." It was weird saying it out loud. She never imagined the first person she'd tell about her powers would be a complete stranger.

"I have telekinesis and mind-reading," Claire said.

Mind reading? Ivy hesitated a moment, her gaze flickering to her hands. Less than an hour ago they'd been in flames. "Sounds better than what I've got," she finally said.

Claire shrugged, the ends of her blonde hair brushing against her shoulders. "I'm not exactly great at telekinesis," she said. "And I hate reading minds. It gives me a huge headache. I can't even control it most of the time."

"Fire's not much better," Ivy told her. Claire looked like she wanted to know more, but thankfully didn't ask Ivy to elaborate. Ivy leaned back in her seat and looked at the cockpit door.

"Who's the girl you came in with?" Ivy asked. "Is she like us?"

"Wren," Claire said. "I don't know what her powers are, she didn't really explain anything." Claire's gaze darted to the door and she lowered her voice. "She threatened me with a gun. I didn't want to come."

Claire's voice trembled as she spoke. Ivy glanced at the soldiers, wondering if they were listening. "I didn't have a choice either. The guy who picked me up didn't tell me anything." Ivy turned her head to look at Claire. "How old are you?" she asked.

"Sixteen," Claire answered as the cockpit door flew open. Wren walked out, followed by Ash, who looked annoyed. Ivy caught a glimpse of the pilot through the open door. He appeared to be wearing the same red armor as the soldiers.

The door slammed shut. Wren grinned as she faced Ivy and Claire. "We've got a mission, guys."

Ivy didn't like the sound of that. She just couldn't catch a break today, could she?

"It's been so long since I've been in the field," Wren continued.

Ash rolled his eyes. "It's been a week."

Wren glared at him. "And I get to lead this mission."

"I don't see how we're going to do this with only two soldiers," Ash said. "You know, since you wasted three on the police."

"I know what I'm doing," Wren replied. "Besides, we've got these guys." She gestured to Ivy and Claire.

"What's going on?" Ivy asked, fed up with the unanswered questions. "What do you mean 'mission?'"

"Scorpion has a job for us," Wren said. "We need to swing by a weapons facility and pick up some materials." While Wren said something to Ash, Claire turned to Ivy.

"Steal," Claire said quietly. "We're going to steal the materials."

"Steal?" Ivy asked incredulously, watching Wren out of the corner of her eye.

Claire nodded. "I'm trying to figure out what, exactly," she whispered. "It's hard, I usually don't read minds on purpose. And I'm pretty tired."

Ivy clenched her fists. She and Claire had already been through a lot today, and now these kids were going to make them do more?

Calm down, she told herself. You don't want to hurt anyone.

"The facility's north of here, close to the Oregon border," Wren said. "We just have to hop into jet mode and we'll be there in a minute or so."