Invincible

Chapter Ten: /Travel/

*August 5th, 2093, 12:10pm*

After lunch, we set out to complete our two assigned tasks. With a hop, a skip, and a blue flash of light, Ram had teleported Dylan, Adela, Alex, and himself to where Midas was last seen, but we couldn't get to our destination as quickly. We had to take another route to Shadow.

Diesel had been working on some sort of transportation device to get us there, but the rest of us hadn't seen or heard anything about it so far. When we walked to the garage exit of the HQ, we found out what that transportation device was. Diesel was standing by a large car-sized thing covered by a giant white sheet.

I expected many things out of Diesel. I expected a giant steampunk contraption or maybe just a regular car, but no. As Diesel lifted that sheet, the one thing I would have never guessed was under it. An old station wagon had been modified to have its roof replaced with dune buggy bars, spikes on its tires, and orange flames painted on to its side. It was the most horrendous thing I'd ever seen.

"So," Diesel said, "How much do you love it?" It was at this point I realized how young Diesel actually was. He didn't act like it most of the time, but he only looked to be eleven or twelve. That is pretty amazing when you consider that he is an engineering genius. 

"Uh... won't this whole um... look here give away the stealthy mission we're on?" I said.

"Oh, Sir said it would be fine and suitable for the mission," Diesel responded, sadly, "But I have been working on it for a very long time."

"Yeah, I can see," Trix said sarcastically and then jumped in the monstrosity. We were all about to jump in the car when Twitch popped his head in the door. 

He looked at me and said, "Caleb, can I see you in here for a second?"

"Uh... yeah sure," I responded. As we walked back to where Twitch's desk was, I realized that Twitch and Diesel looked a lot alike. They had the same skin tone and they had very similar facial features.

"Are you Diesel related?" I asked him.

"Um, we don't really know much about where we came from or who we are, hell we don't even know our real names, but we do think me and Diesel are cousins or brothers or something," he replied. I understood him. I don't remember my parents, but apparently Mr. and Mrs. Artemis used to be friends with my mother.

"Back to my point. You guys would get killed out there without some arsenal, but luckily I've got you covered," he said, pulling out a box from under his desk. "Me and Diesel have been working on some gadgets for you guys. We think you'll love this little thing." He reached into the box and grabbed two non-brass brass knuckles and handed them to me. I didn't know what they did, but I decided to wait for a threat to find out. He handed me another contraption that looked like a small metal disk. "And this is for 'the car'," he said making air quotes with his fingers. "Just stick that on the side of the car and press that button on the side to disguise the whole thing and this..." he reached back inside the box to pull out a tiny metal sphere. "this thing is for Trix to plant on to Shadow once she is disguised as Midas." He paused and then sat down in his chair.

He spun around and said, "Well, good luck, dude. I'll be monitoring you on your earpieces." He tapped the Bluetooth microphone on the side of his face.

"Thanks, uh bye," I said as I walked back to the garage, my hands full of weird gadgets.

As I walked back into the garage, I went over to the car that Trix, Diesel, and Isabeth were sitting in and put the small disk-like device on the car and pushed the button. The car transformed before my eyes from a modified station wagon that made your eyes bleed to an average and normal-looking family mini-van. I got in and to Diesel's disappointment, we didn't stand out very much. 

He drove us to a denser part of the city, but as we arrived there something messed up our plans a bit. An Order guard's car's lights lit up the back of our heads as Diesel realized he was speeding.

"Uh, guys we have a problem," he said, glancing at his mirror. His seat and probably the gas and brake pedals were raised up so he could reach everything properly.

"Don't worry," Isabeth said, coolly. "I've got this." She looked down at her tablet, unlocked it, and then started quickly typing. After a couple more seconds, the police car turned off somewhere else, likely pursuing a different target, and we were in the clear.

"Well that was close," Trix retorted, "Man how bad would we have to be to be stopped by a cop on a super-secret mission."

"Pretty bad," I said, encouraging everyone to break the semi-silence. Which almost failed, but then Isabeth and Diesel started talking about some technology stuff I don't understand. So, progress. 

Our journey was stopped as Diesel braked hard, realizing this was the place he was supposed to be. We all got out and heard over our earpieces the familiar voice of Twitch as he said, "Alright Trix, this is yo time to shine. Picture Midas in her full-demonic golden figure and transform."

"Just so you know that totally not how it works," Trix said back.

"Okay, sure, " he said through our earpieces. We all watched as Trix slowly morphed into the girl we saw in the picture at the HQ. Isabeth and I had watched this a couple times, but Diesel was severely confused and concerned.

"You're gonna need to turn on the permanent microphone on your earpiece so all of us can hear you," I quickly remembered to say.

"Gotcha," she said just before taking in a deep breath and walking into the building where Shadow was.