Young Heroes

Portrait

*Ashlyn's POV*

For the past day or two, I've been narrowly avoiding my captors drugs that aimed to suppress my powers. When the man would come in, he'd put it in my mouth and leave pretty quickly, then I'd spit it down my shirt, so he wouldn't find them on the floor. This room was too clean and bright white to hide anything. I feel they may have done that on purpose.
However, without having proper nutrition, I was starting to feel it with the painful pang taking a hit in my stomach. The good news was, I've experienced far worse then this.
I was also slowly regaining my powers as the drugs slowly left my system. I was starting to feel my powers again and I could use them for short periods of time. I had to take it slowly though, or else the strain I'd put on my eyes would further extend the time it'd take for my powers to reach their full capabilities again.
I was just testing out my enhancement mode, which basically was like super zoomed eyesight, when Buffy walked in. Since I didn't know his actual name, and I wasn't expecting him to ever tell me, I decided to refer to him as Buffy because he was muscle-y. I quickly switched back to my normal eyes with a single blink, and turned my nose up at the sight of him.
"Hello my dear." Buffy said sickly sweet.
"What."
"Guess your grandmother never taught you manners." He said, tilting his head to the right.
"She taught me perfect manners, you bitch. She also taught me 20 ways to rip a guys nuts off." I sneered.
"Wouldn't think there'd be so many ways." He mumbled, rolling his eyes.
"Want me to demonstrate a few on you?" I offered, leaning forward and glaring, the cuffs cutting into my skin.
"So I guess this conversation will answer the question of us incorporating yourself into our team."
"I guess it will." I snarled, tightening my grip painfully on my cuffs.
Buffy glanced to my wrists then back to me. He looked like he was about to leave when I called out to him.
"So who are you, Buffy?" I called out.
   He turned around and looked at me skeptically. "Buffy?"
  "Well, I don't know your real name and it takes too long to refer to you as, 'the strange man', in my head."
  He scoffed, almost chuckling, and shook his head. "Who am I? I'm nobody, girl. I do my job, and I'm very good at it." He said coldly.
  I rolled my eyes. "I don't believe anyone can enjoy doing this." I said intensely, shaking my head.
  His eyes flashed for a brief moment before the cold returned in them and he swept across the room and was standing in front of me in a fraction of a second.
  "This is what I do! You have no right to ask who I am, or question my authority! Got it?" He said with his hand painfully gripping my jaw. I rolled my eyes and mockingly nodded. "Good. God, I wish we could just get rid of your smart ass." He said, releasing my face and pulling down the cuffs of his crisp black blazer. "Watch those cuffs. Keep pulling on them and they'll cut your hands clear off." He called over his shoulder bitterly as he turned around.
  "Buffy." I bit out shortly. He slowly turned around and glared at me dully. "When I take you down, and I will take you down, I am coming for you. And I'm coming for you personally." I snarled, emphasizing my last word and leaning forward.
He squinted and huffed a breath before storming out.
  I groaned in frustration once I was alone, and rolled my eyes. I looked down and shook my head.
  I sighed and switched back to my x-ray mode, and instead of glitching in and out and making my eyes burn, everything came into view clearly. I let out a laugh for the first time in a long time, and looked around gleefully. I had my powers back.
  I looked around the room and scanned the walls. My eyes widened in surprise. There actually was a door. I could see it right on the wall.
I looked up at my chains and then looked at the locks that held them. The mechanism actually looked a bit complex and I bit my lip, looking around. Maybe I could actually do this.
Maybe I could finally escape.

*Alysa's POV*

  The next day arrived, and this would make day six since Ashlyn's been missing. I felt like I was slowly edging closer to a cliff. I just wanted to fall to the bottom, so I could start recovering already.
  Ashlyn was basically a sister to me. We grew up together, she called my parents mom and dad, and basically lived with me. We had the easiest time talking about anything, and things were never uncomfortable like things could be with some people.
  But I was refusing to believe we weren't going to find her any other way except alive. So I was going to focus on the positives.
  Joe was alive. We have a location on Ashlyn. We have a dog. When we got Ashlyn back, she'd probably have some intel on SDI. We were going to take down the SDI. Nathan, Carson, and Sophia had returned a while ago to recuperate, but I had to literally hold down and sedate Nathan to get his stubborn ass to sleep.
  Other then that, it was a slow day, with just me and Rianna laying out a game plan for Colorado.
  "Ok so the coordinates I found are actually..." Rianna said, puckering her lips and tapping a few times on the iPad. She squinted at the iPad confusedly. "Underneath a huge Starbucks." She said, looking up at me, with a dumbfounded expression.
  "What? That can't be right. I don't believe that." I said, taking the iPad.
  "Believe it." Said a voice from the doorway.
  I jumped and whipped around, holding up a stapler to throw. I saw Joe in the doorway, wheeling around an IV cart, and looking at me like I was stupid.
  "Ok it's nice to know if a scary man was ever to attack you, you'll be protected by a stapler." He said sarcastically, rolling his eyes and shuffling forward.
  I rushed forward and grabbed his arms to help him along, but he shooed me away.
  "I don't need help. I'm fine, I actually feel great, but having not been in good condition for over a week, I'm pretty pathetic to look at." He said shrugging and sitting down at my chair where we were working.
  "Ok, but Joe. I'd like to run some tests and run a checkup." I said walking over to him.
  He rolled his eyes and lifted up his shirt. I knelt down in front of him and examined his gunshot wound, which now had been reduced to a lined, silvery scar. The site didn't appear infected. I applied light pressure around his abdomen, and he didn't even wince.
  "Ok I'm gonna do a scan." I said, looking up at him. He breathed in and nodded.
  I spread out my palm flat and pressed it to Joe's abdomen again, closing my eyes.
  In seconds, the scans to his stomach appeared on my tablet and I picked it up.
  "I will never get tired of watching you do that." Rianna said, amazed, grinning like a child.
  "I don't like it. Why do your hands turn so damn cold when you do that?" He said, rubbing his stomach where I touched.
  I actually didn't know why my hands turned to ice when I did scans. I guess it just happened, and he wasn't exaggerating when he complained about it. You could see the fading red mark of my hand.
  So to answer his question, I just shrugged. I looked down to my tablet and quickly analyzed his scans, and they looked clear.
  "Ok, Joseph. I officially clear you for the field. Just get some protein and strength in your body before you leave these head quarters." I said sternly.
  "Yes, sergeant." He said, saluting mockingly.
  I looked at Rianna. "I don't think I've ever had a conversation with that man without his sarcasm." I said, rolling my eyes and walking back to the table.
  "Doctors say if he's nice for too long, he'll die." She replied, and I chuckled.
  I sighed and enjoyed the moment of silence. I took a deep breath. "Ok so do we have an Earth shot of these coordinates?" I asked.
  "Well right now something's jamming our signal, but I should be able to hack it no problem." Rianna replied, beginning to type like a mad person.
  "How're we going to get in there?" Joe spoke up, crossing his arms.
  "I'm not sure yet. We have no idea the layout of the perimeter, or how these people even have the ability to have a secret headquarters underneath a popular coffee franchise."
  "It really doesn't make any sense." He replied.
  "I got it!" Rianna called out. "Ok, so nothing to see really. It's big and everything, but there's no way to see anything underground on Google Earth. God I could use Ashlyn's powers right now." Rianna grumbled.
  A lightbulb went off in my head. "Why don't we just have Nathan and Joe teleport inside Ashlyn's cell, grab her, and come back? That's like a two second mission." I said clapping my hands together.
  Rianna pondered for a moment, before slowly shaking her head. "No...too much could go wrong. Her cell could have power dampeners so you wouldn't be able to transport out. You could all get killed. It could be a trap. Too much to go wrong."
  My hopes deflated again and I walked back over to the clear dry erase board we were laying out a plan on. The room fell dead silent, and I stared at the board, trying to think outside the box, and I looked at the portrait of Ashlyn that was in the middle of the board. I remember when we took that picture. We were on the rooftop and had just gotten back from a mission, and she was really happy for some reason. She still had on her combat leather pants, vest over her tank top, and her silver bow strung across her back. I think she was happy because we were planning on a whole movie night in later that night, and our mission had gone very successful, so she was dancing around and smiling. Laughing. I took out my phone to film her because she looked absolutely crazy. I ended up accidentally taking a picture in portrait mode, right when she turned to me, caught off guard, looking off to the right with her hands in the air, smiling a huge smile. It was my favorite picture, as it was everyone else's, so we decided to make it her official WP-8gency portrait.
  I smiled sadly at portrait and turned away.
  "OH MY GOD!" Rianna suddenly screamed out, throwing her pen in the air and making Joe fall out of his chair.
  I yelped and clutched at my chest. "What the hell! What?!"
  "The SDI get shipments right?!" Rianna yelled, practically bursting with excitement.
  "Uh...yeah."
  "And they get shipments of like robots and stuff right?! In crates!"
  I still didn't get where she was going and eyed her like she was going crazy. Hey, well, I guess we all are these days.
  "Where're you going with this Rianna?"
  "What if we sneak you guys into the crates? They receive their deliveries. You guys are on the inside." Rianna ranted out, jumping up and down practically.
  I processed and thought about it in my head before nodding.
  "You know what, I think it could work...yeah let's look into that. We'll find where Red Sky's next shipment is taking place."
  "YES!" Rianna screamed once more, running out of the room as I sat down across from Joe.
  I smiled a small smile and shook my head, looking down at my tablet.
  "She never seems phased huh?" Joe said, causing me to look up.
  "Hm?"
  "I don't know. Just amazes me that she always acts like a dog on Red Bull. Even in situations like these." He muttered, looking down. 
  I reached out and rested a hand on his arm. He looked up at me and his face was devoid of emotion.
  "We're gonna save her, then we'll find them. Then we'll kick some major ass." 
  He sighed and brushed his hair back. "It's just that...she saved my life, you know? And I never got to thank her."