Hero

Chapter Twenty-Six

“Stop being so nervous,” said SnowSword as she fiddled with a microphone beside me.  “It makes you tense up and you can’t fight right when you’re tense.  Here.”  She clipped the microphone onto the neck of my supersuit, testing it out quickly by blowing into it.  She grinned as Tempus Manum as he yanked his headphones off and stared at them in alarm.  “Testing, testing, is Temp creeping sufficiently on Stryke?”

“The volume’s fucking amazing, Snow, thanks for that lovely test,” he growled at her as he put the headset back on.  The left side slipped down as he used his finger to mock going deaf from the loud noise.  I would have giggled, but SnowSword was right about my being nervous; my meeting with Mistress had my stomach in knots.

“Tell me again what’s going to happen in there,” said Pyschico, planting a hand on my shoulder firmly.

“Energia and I will enter the room along with Mistress and Mace.  Energia and Mace will each guard the door on their side, in case we need to be extracted.  I will sit on my side of the table across from Mistress and not cross the center of it.  I will then proceed to ask Mistress why she stole the lightning rod and what she plans to do with it.”

“Good,” he said, nodding.  “As long as you don’t cross over the table, you should be fine.”  He let go of me and I let my shoulders slump a little.  They’d warned me enough times about the goddamn table, as if I wasn’t nervous enough already.  I wasn’t allowed to cross from my side of the room because then my actions could be taken as a direct assault on the EVILS.

“Does anyone else have any advice to offer her before we send her in?  No?”  Psychico gazed across the faces of the group, an eyebrow raised in expectation.  Energia leaned against the wall, Tempus Manum fiddled with his radio, Kat attempted to make my microphone look more natural, and the Prophet paced nervously.  It was obvious he knew something that the rest of us didn’t, but everyone knew he wasn’t able to tell us.

Speaking of everyone, where was Nova?  I hadn’t been able to find her on campus all day and she’d skipped Italian, but I’d put a note in her room and texted her about the truce.  She’d also never picked up when I called her Comm unit.  It just wasn’t like her to avoid something as monumental as this; had I done something wrong?  I didn’t think I had…

Oh, well.  Her loss.  “Is everyone ready?” Psychico asked.  Tempus Manum gave a thumbs up as he adjusted his headset, SnowSword flashed a smile while fiddling with the microphone, and Energia raised an eyebrow skeptically, as though she couldn’t believe we were actually asking her this question.

The Prophet muttered to himself, rand a hand through his hair, and shook his head vigorously.  “Mm-mmm.  Nope.  I can’t…”  He groaned in anger and covered his eyes with his hands.

“Proph, if it’s that important, just fucking tell us,” said Energia, rolling her eyes.  “I mean, at a certain point, don’t you just have to say ‘fuck the rules’?”

“I can’t,” he whispered.  “I want to warn you, but I can’t see what past what happens directly after I tell or I don’t tell.  It’s like they’re blocking my powers or something.  All I know is that if I tell you now, none of you would ever forgive me.”  He slammed his fist against the building and groaned.  “Just go, Stryker.  It’s the only thing you can do for now.”

“Okay,” I said, trying to act more confident than I felt.  Maybe this wasn’t the best idea…

But I didn’t have time to dwell on that fact, as Energia grabbed my wrist and pulled me into the warehouse where I’d first met Mistress.  It was exactly the same as I remembered it, with stacked boxes and high, grimy windows.  Someone must have cleaned up after my fight with Mistress, because the table and chairs were set upright and the boxes weren’t scattered around the floor.