Invincible

Chapter Five: /Crash/

*August 4th, 2093, 9:54am*

"It's all over the news," Isabeth said, looking at her tablet.

We had stayed in a hotel overnight and now all six of us sat at a long table in a diner near the ruins of the Artemis house. Mr. Artemis was away trying to figure out what to do about the house-fire situation. Isabeth and Vince were the only ones still slightly crying.

"Now everyone knows we're homeless," said Isabeth, a tear rolling down her face. She wiped it away, but she was extremely worried about everything. Isabeth decided to call and check on her father.

The tablet's ring reminded me of something. I remember a woman holding me as a child. A phone rang, and she had to set me down to pick up an important phone call.

I snapped back into reality. They had gotten Mr. Artemis to face-call them.

"Hey girly," Mr. Artemis said as he pushed his horn-rimmed glasses back onto his nose. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, honey. We just wanted to check on you," responded Mrs. Artemis. "We needed to make sure you were okay."

"Yeah, I'm fine. Wait. What is that?" Mr. Artemis said, focusing on the road. "Who is th-."

All of us gathered around the tablet as we heard a series of screeching and a large crash. Mr. Artemis's car had crashed. Our eyes clung to the screen as we watched the blurry camera pick up nothing but more blur. Mrs. Artemis couldn't handle watching anymore and quickly looked away. As the tablet finally stopped moving, we realized it was outside. Though the camera on it had cracked, we could see a blue sky and a bit of the pavement.

About thirty seconds later, a black boot came into our very small view. We told Mrs. Artemis that it was okay to look. Mrs. Artemis usually didn't look her age, but she was aged from worry and sadness. The person next to the tablet bent down and picked it up. It wasn't Mr. Artemis. The mysterious man, never showing his face, ended our call. Our only way to Mr. Artemis was now severed.

Mrs. Artemis couldn't handle it anymore. She burst out crying and clang to Vince. Dylan, Isabeth, and I developed a plan simultaneously. The three of us stood up and quickly headed for the door.

"Stay with Vince and Trix," Dylan said, knowing this was not the time to joke about Trix's name.

"Wait," Mrs. Artemis managed to say through her crying. "Where are you going?"

"To save him," I said.

*August 4th, 2093, 10:27am*

Our feet were tired from running. Isabeth had managed to hack and track Mr. Artemis's tablet. We realized we were running into a lion's den. The tablet's tracker was leading all of us into a military base controlled by the Order. We stopped running right before we got in range of the base.

"Dylan, you might want to make us invisible," Isabeth said. She was still staring at her tablet. Her connection with technology was her power, but she seemed to be struggling with it currently.

"Nah. If we see any Order members then we will just punch them in the throat," Dylan said jokingly. Then, she grabbed both of our hands.

"Okay, 'Miss I'm going to go invisible and hide,'" I said. She let go of my hand and punched me in the arm. Under the cover of invisibility, we continued to run towards the base. Dylan's hand was warm and comforting, but now was not the time for that.

As we got closer to the military base, we saw a lot of army trucks parked in one spot on the road. We walked up to the gathering under the cover of invisibility. There were many Order guards surrounding a crashed car. Mr. Artemis's car. The front of his car was in pieces, but there were no other car he could have crashed into. This must have been set up.

I was about to crack. He couldn't have crashed into thin air. Mr. Artemis wouldn't have crashed anyway because he is an amazing driver. We walked to his car, expecting the worst, but he wasn't in his car. I knew it was set up now. I couldn't handle my rage anymore.

I whispered in Dylan's ear, "Stay hidden," and then I let go of her hand. I ran towards the nearest guard and just started punching him everywhere. My punches didn't even phase his body armor.

"Hey," the Order guard said. "Look at this little runt." He tried to hold me back with his hand, so I kicked him in the shin. He was just angry now. The other guards were walking towards me.

I panicked and fell over onto the ground. I glanced over to where I had left Dylan and Isabeth. Isabeth was out in the open tapping on her tablet. Where was Dylan? The realization rushed over me that she was invisible. A swift rush of air went past me. One of the guards grabbed his throat and seemed to be knocked back by nothing. Dylan probably punched him in the throat like she said she would.

"Dylan! Caleb! Get back!" yelled Isabeth. With that, an Order member's truck's engine started up. The car started to drive by itself. It drove itself down the road, but it turned around quickly. "I'm about to do something cool!"

Isabeth, still tapping on her tablet, made the self-driving car drive towards the group of Order members. The car hit the group of five Order members in front of me and barely missed me. I probably should have listened to Isabeth.

There was still one Order member up. The other ones were either knocked out or trapped under the car. I ran up to the remaining Order member, who was still stunned by the "ghost" car, and kicked him in the chest.

"Where is Artemis?" I asked Dylan as she walked up to me. She was panting from running around so much.

"I don't know," Dylan responded. "We probably should check his car."

By the time Isabeth got over to us, we were all looking in Mr. Artemis's car. He wasn't there. We all simultaneously realized we had no choice. We started to walk towards the military base.