Coger

Chapter Five

Christian sat at a large, rectangular table, waiting. David paced back and forth. Christian went to pour himself hia fifth glass of water in three minutes when the pitcher of water suddenly shattered, causing what little water was left to spill into Christian's lap.

"Would you calm down?" Christian huffed, "You're lucky that glass didn't go into my hand."

"If you wouldn't have pulled me into that pod, that wouldn't have happened."

"But if I wouldn't have gone into the pod, I would still be stuck unlocking doors instead of reading minds."

David looked over his way, "You think your plan will actually work?"

"I'm positive," he nodded back.

The door to the room opened as Jonathan led Heather, Matt Pickle, and Matthew Kilby into the room. They all sat at the table, but as Kilby went to take a seat, his weight caused the chair to shatter under him. The room rocked as he hit the floor. "I'll just stand."

"CULT Supers," Jonathan said sternly, "This is your squad commander, Christian Coger."

"Why do you feel the need to address us like we're a huge group?" Heather snapped, "We're only two-and-a-half people."

"Hey," Matt Pickle took offense, "I'm a full person!"

"Can it, short stack."

Kilby smiled, "I'd say that we're still three because I'm about one-and-a-half people."

"Hello!" Christian stood to get everyone's attention.

"Great," Heather rolled her eyes, "The locksmith."

"Are we going to get superhero names?" Kilby asked.

"I want a superhero name!" Matt Pickle jumped out of his chair.

"We can start with him," Heather peered at Christian, "Captain Breaking and Entering."

"Excuse me!" Christian raised his voice as everyone else got quiet, "I am Christian Coger, and I will gladly go over codenames or whatever after we go over what exactly is going on, and to you, Heather, that is no longer my power."

"You can't just change it," she spat back.

"You'd be surprised," David said to himself.

"So why are we here?" Kilby leaned against one of the metal walls only to feel it bend slightly.

"We have found a henchman in The Brain's evil scheme," Jonathan spoke before passing out pictures of Old Man Lura to the others, "Richard Lura, aged 72."

"He looks like my grandpa," Matt said.

"Isn't your grandpa dead?" Heather replied as Matt's face fell.

"He was caught in contact with The Brain." Jonathan began playing the video from the prep room.

"So we got The Brain on camera and no one caught him?" Heather laughed, "You all are idiots."

"We think he knows where The Brain's laboratory is," Christian said only to have everyone just stare at him blankly.

"And how do you plan on getting him to spill the information?" Heather cocked her head to the side, "Can you unlock minds as well?"

"Actually, he--" David began as Christian got up from his seat and walked over to Heather.

Placing his hand on her shoulder, he collapsed, hearing her voice say, "God, his hands are cold."

"Sorry," he said as he pulled his hand away, "They'll warm up in a bit."

She sat speechless as he pulled himself up and headed back to his seat.

"So he can read minds?" Kilby asked for clarification as to what just happened.

"It hurts him, but yeah. That's what he does," David nodded.

"I saw a mind reader in a TV Show once!" Matt exclaimed.

"Stop watching TV," Kilby looked over at him.

"The plan is to have me touch Old Man Lura and find out what he knows."

Heather laughed, "Shouldn't you take him on a date first?"

"I don't get it," Matt looked up at Kilby as Christian sat across the table wearing a look of annoyance.

Kilby frowned at Matt, "You will some day."

"This isn't a joke," Christian replied.

"This may not be," Heather got very serious, "But you are."

"I have a plan--"

"Oh. So you're a party planner now?" She interrupted, "What other powers do you have?"

"Stop it!" David interfered, "Both of you... Listen, Old Man Lura may know where the lab is, and Christian is the guy who can help us figure that out."

"That's if the dementia hasn't set in yet," Kilby laughed before an expression of pain came over his face.

"What just happened?" Heather asked as Christian turned to look at David.

"Did you just force-kick him in the balls?"

David nodded.

"Alright," Christian shook it off, "So the plan in that I've got to touch him to hear his thoughts; the only problem is--"

"You can only hear what's currently being thought about," Heather jumped back in, "So we have to get him on the topic of the lab."

"Exactly."

"Which means--," she paused to censor herself, "Crap is about to go down."

"I'm afraid so," Christian frowned, "I was thinking that Heather, you and I, actually go up to him and try to strike up conversation."

"Yay," she shook her hands with a manner of sarcastic enjoyment, "I can't wait to spend more time with you."

He rolled his eyes, "Matt--"

Both Kilby and Pickle responded with, "Yes?"

"Pickle..." Christian clarified, "You'll play our son. Do you know if other people can get inside of your forcefield or is it just you?"

"I know that I can enclose objects, so maybe it's possible with another person."

Christian sighed, "Okay...so let's plan on it being able to contain other people. What I figure we do is, once inside, have Matt trap both you and I in a forcefield with Old Man Lura. From there, I'll force the topic of conversation and find out where the lab is. Kilby, you're going to take a walk down the road and stay close to the house in case things get out of hand."

"Genius plan!" Heather frown, "Only one question: how are we going to go out in public when there are body doubles of us out there because, and I don't know if anyone in this room remembers this, but we all used to live out there at one time."

"I guess it's time to get creative," Christian crookedly smiled.