Chapter 5

Friday, December 21^st, 7:31 PM

Zeke was bored out of his mind. His cousin Darnell had talked him into going to the street racer hang out in the middle of nowhere. The racers loved it because it was an almost perfectly straight paved road, just over half a mile long, and the police rarely came out this far even though it was well known for drag racing. Zeke couldn't care less about drag racing. He liked to dance, to run, to MOVE! Sitting in a car and turning the steering wheel wasn't moving, it was ... sitting in a car and turning the steering wheel. Sighing, he leaned against his cousin's Honda Civic that probably had fifty grand worth of parts directly under his ass.

"Shit, bro, watch the paint!" Darnell whined, making Zeke roll his eyes and move to a cooler someone had brought.

"Who has the balls to race for five large?" Zeke was about to tell his cousin to take him anywhere else when the Super Prep walked out in front of the whole group with his slip of a teeny bopper girl and waved a stack of fifties. Zeke's wasn't the only mouth hanging open while the tall Nordic blonde guy strutted around like a peacock. "Only one rule, no NOS."

"Fuck yeah, frat boy, I'll take that bank off your hands!" Darnell jumped up, pulling his own wad of cash out. Zeke frowned at the smirking teeny bopper and a few of the other racers shook their heads like you would at an idiot. As soon as the cash was in the holder's hand, the teeny bopper jerked her blonde wig off and a fall of dark brown curls hit her shoulders. Almost every racer groaned, including Darnell. "That's bullshit! You didn't say anything about racing her!"

"He didn't say anything about racing him either," the teen laughed, as she skipped to her car. "I can start from back here if you want, give you a little head start?"

"Fuck you, bitch!" Darnell spat, as he slammed the door of his car and started it, over revving it like crazy. Zeke walked over to stand beside the big blonde guy, who gave him a perfectly friendly smile.

"I'm Tim," he said, extending his hand.

"Zeke," he replied, as he took the offered hand, expecting one of those crushing handshakes to prove how superior Tim was. He was pleasantly surprised when it never came. Emboldened Zeke asked," So who's the girl and why was she hiding and shit?"

"Not a racing fan?" Tim laughed, barely heard over the cars revving at the starting line, and Zeke gave a shrug followed by a shake of his head. "Well, that girl is Shelly Matulis and her granddad was some big Lithuanian gangster type before he went semi legit, building weapons and stuff like that, and her uncles are some of the meanest knee breakers in town."

"Oh ... so everyone is afraid to beat her in a race?" Zeke's face was a picture of distaste. He didn't so much mind cheating as long as it was honest cheating.

"Yeah, that isn't the reason." Tim was laughing again but the screeching tires as the race started grabbed Zeke's attention. He was by far no expert on racing, but it certainly looked like Darnell wasn't trying to let her win. It was over in seconds, Darnell was just crossing the line and the girl was almost back at the starting line. As she pulled up the holder passed her the ten large and she dropped it in the center console without much thought, pulling up in front of Tim and Zeke.

"Let's go, Tim, the party is starting soon," she grinned out the passenger side window, but Tim had his eye somewhere else.

"Babe, I think I got a new ride," he laughed, giving a little wave to a thin Latino with slicked back hair, a goatee and a gold tooth that sparkled as his grin got wider.

"Damn it Tim, you were supposed to go dancing with me!" She whined, with her bright green eyes sparking in her lightly tanned face. Zeke's heart did a trip hammer stutter for three seconds.

"I like dancing," he said, flashing his pearly whites and wiggling his eyebrows, and was rewarded by a slight blush crawling up her neck.

"Don't hurt him, Leadfoot." Tim yelled as the car squealed away almost before the door shut behind Zeke.

Friday, 7:33 AM

Shelly's Charger skidded around another corner, almost taking out a cluster of pedestrians moving through the crosswalk. Maybe it was the squealing tires or maybe the super-heated flames coming off the trunk and hood, or just maybe it was the screaming, cursing super hero throwing fireballs at the speeding car that had the people scrambling out of the way. Shelly didn't care as long as they didn't slow her down. She was already bouncing between 85 and 110mph just trying to keep COG out of grabbing distance. If he had the raw speed and fine control of Speedfreak, Shelly knew she would have been caught already, but he didn't and that caused him to plow into cars and other objects while running well over 80mph.

"Phone call Ugnis!" she shouted over the roar of the engine. The instant the phone was answered she yelled, "I need heavy backup!"

"What did you do, Leadfoot?" Ugnis, better known as Uncle Jimmy, sighed into the phone.

"I pissed off the COG," she yelled, while swerving to avoid an Accord and another fireball, flinching as the Accord burst into flames as she shot past it. "I think I totaled his Camaro."

"Sonuvbitch ... can you get to the freeway?"

"Yeah, I'm less than five minutes away unless I die first." Her breath fluttered out as she took a sudden turn on two wheels. She flushed and a large grin spread wide across her face. "OP is so getting laid tonight!"

"Stop that!" Ugnis commanded. "Welkin will drop Steinn on the freeway. Try to make it there in one piece!"

"I'm freaking trying!"

Friday, 7:34 AM

May couldn't really hear the gong like sound when she hit the reinforced door, but she could feel it vibrating through her whole body. She was actually enjoying it right up until the first hole appeared in the metal, then all she wanted was to get the big man out of the truck. Digging her fingers into the tear, she put every ounce of power into ripping those doors apart with a suddenly desperate need to free him. His name suddenly floated to the forefront of her mind. She had heard Bokor say it but it had been little more than meaningless words to her then. Now those words weren't meaningless. Now they meant escape and freedom. They meant she was no longer Paul's pet, his plaything. Most important to May was that she wasn't his Prey anymore. She refused to let him make her a victim ever again and she screamed at the door as she pounded on it harder and harder. "I'M NOT AN ANIMAL!"

She could see the man in the bright orange backing up, but she didn't care, she needed to get Blake Wallens out of the armored truck and she needed to do it now! With a massive heave, a door screamed as she ripped it off the hinge and let it drop to the ground. She scrambled into the truck where Blake was strapped into the extremely uncomfortable looking wheelchair, designed to paralyze anyone restrained in it. Rushing forward, May grabbed the two plates placed on either side of his head and ripped them off the chair. Shortly after, Blake shook his head like he was trying to get the fog out of it. She backed up when she saw the muscles start bunching and rippling under his plastic looking skin just before he stood straight up, ripping the chair to shreds. Throwing her arms up, May screamed her victory as loud as she could, then blushed clear down to her toes when he cocked his head and arched a hairless eyebrow at her.

"Can you hear me? I can't hear you and I need you to be able to hear me!" Tears were suddenly pouring down her face as her voice echoed in her own head. She guessed it probably sounded strange to him since she hardly ever used it anymore. He pointed where his ear should have been and gave her a thumbs up, "I'm not an animal! I'm a girl! My name is May!"

She could only assume the look he gave her was stunned. It was hard to tell with his mask face on. He didn't move for several seconds, seconds that seemed like an eternity to May. He gave a firm nod, picked her up, threw her under his arm and ran full tilt for the open door. She almost panicked at first, then she started laughing uncontrollably.

Friday, 7:37 AM

Blake had to shake his head at the girl. Her emotions seemed to be all over the place, but that was for later because right now he was quite intent on fleeing as fast as possible. As he left the truck, he jumped several inches in the air when OverPowered suddenly appeared next to him.

"Is she safe, Master Blaster?" he asked, glancing at her briefly while running beside the much larger super criminal.

"As far as I can tell. Now where the hell did you come from?" Blake boomed as he avoided the prone figure of Speedfreak and then had to leap over Gal's unconscious form. If he had looked closely, he would have seen where May's headbutt had broken the little plastic connector on the goggles. And now that she lay with a bloody nose, there was nothing to distract from the fact Gal was Maggie Andeton. He didn't look down though, neither did Zeke, but May did. She had gotten a really good look at the woman as they fell to the ground.

"Me and Feet were doing a job downtown. We sorta accidentally rolled up on you getting busted," Zeke replied as he flipped effortlessly over a car-sized chunk of what had once been part of a building. "What the fuck happened here?"

"I got to meet The Breaker up close and right in my fucking face," Blake snarled, wishing he had actually been able to end the psycho. "He dropped a building on me."

"Wow, that was dumb," Zeke laughed, while rolling, vaulting, and sliding over, under, around and through whatever got in his way. Blake was pretty sure it was called parkour, and he was only slightly jealous that he wasn't that agile but he made up for it by simply plowing through a lot of what Zeke had to go around. A hand suddenly in his face had Blake skidding to a halt and looking down at the girl's sheepish grin.

"I can run," she said extra loud. Shrugging, Blake set her down and took off running again. She was soon running beside him with less effort than Zeke, and it looked to Blake like her feet barely touched the ground. He was about to point it out when the sudden sound of Metallica singing "Fuel" made him look at Zeke.

"Oh snap! It's the OverPowered phone," he exclaimed, as he dug through his god awful outfit. Finally pulling it out he flipped it open. "Ollo? Baby, calm baby calm! I got him and we're running like crazy bitches! Shit, that freak is still chasing you?! Oh snap, okay I'll tell him where we are for pick up. Love you, now drive that bitch!"

Blake just looked straight ahead and blinked rapidly. He had kind of forgotten what it was like to be around Zeke and Shelly, and there was no doubt that had been Shelly on the phone. Glancing at Zeke as he scrolled through his contacts while still effortlessly dodging around the debris had Blake narrowing his eyes again. Having found the contact he was looking for, Zeke put the phone on speaker. "Where are you?"

"Sup, Burning Man? We're running down the fucking street looking goddamn suspicious, how 'bout you?" Zeke said brightly, and Blake didn't bother not laughing when Jimmy shouted, "Gimme a fucking street address, jackass!"

As it turned out, Jimmy and Erik were three streets over, and seconds later Blake, May and Zeke were stashed in the back of what looked like a plumber's work van. Jimmy stared at May curled up against Blake's side, holding his arm tight against her as she hid her face from Jimmy's intense scrutiny. "That isn't the babe you were with last night."

"Yeah, this is sex toy Barbie." Blake had shed his mask. "Allen and I were taking her to The Zoo to find someone to fix her ears."

"Why?" Jimmy looked as confused as he sounded.

"Railgun blew them out last night." Blake answered with a shrug.

"Okay, but why get her fixed at all?" Jimmy asked like Blake might have taken an extra hard hit to the skull.

"She knows who sent Predator after my girls, Jimmy, and I want to know that name more than anything else." The look on Blake's face reminded Jimmy of a time when they had both been a helluva lot meaner than they were now. Just as quickly, the look was gone. "Besides, I get the feeling she wasn't a willing toy for Predator, not to mention she seems to have adopted me."

"Okay," Jimmy sighed and leaned toward the driver seat. "Erik, we're going to see Knitter."

"Fuck!" Erik exclaimed. Blake closed his eyes and wondered just how bad this was going to be.

Friday, 7:38 AM

The Charger slid sideways almost a hundred yards before Shelly could get it under control again. That last fireball COG had thrown caught the rear quarter panel just as she was drifting into the freeway exit and almost sent her into a spin. As it was, the skid slowed her enough that COG was almost on top of the car when she finally had control again. The look on his face was more than a little terrifying. It was no secret that the Captain of the Guard had a serious superiority complex and thought everyone was put on the planet to serve him. He had all but said so in the first and only interview Bulwark had allowed him to take. Since then he had a dozen assault charges filed against him for excessive brutality and three times as many for property damage. Rumor said he had even killed a couple people and used his plasma to incinerate the bodies so there was no evidence. If the way he was chasing Shelly was any indicator she could believe it. He was less than fifteen feet away and closing. Shelly mashed on the gas harder knowing there was no chance she would be back to speed before he got hands on her car.

"Hey tweakers, you still alive back there?" she shouted, just as she saw a blot in the sky. The moaning from the floorboard almost made her laugh. "Hold on tight kiddies, we're gonna go fast now!"

"WHAT?!" The two men screamed, with the scream turning into one long wail that sounded a lot like the whine of the supercharger, when Shelly hit the button for the nitrous tanks under the rear seat. With both hands on the steering wheel, she was slammed against the seat as the Charger surged forward. She did her best to not hit any of the cars that looked like they weren't even moving as her speedometer rolled past 170mph. She could see the blot a lot clearer now and knew it was Welkin and Steinn. Seconds later, she was under and past them. She didn't look back as she felt the rumbling through the car. She had seen Steinn do his thing enough to recognize it. Her only desire now was to get back home and make sure Zeke hadn't gotten himself dead or busted.