Chapter 14

Next morning I woke washed and got ready. I put on my suit, surprises, and school uniform camouflage. I looked at the girl in the mirror when I was done. She looked a little goth-like but not at all dangerous. I felt dangerous.

A healthy breakfast, I would need the energy if I had to power my suit, then into school. I decided I would give Tara a chance. I would not go looking for trouble but if she started something I would finish it. One thing that bothered me going in was that I truly hadn't had a completely successful test of the suit. I blamed myself but what else could I do?

Vicky was waiting for me when I got in. She looked me up and down noticing the suit or at least parts of it.

"I like the new look Lexi. A bit rebellious. Where did you get those funky bracelets?" she asked.

"Oh I made them myself," I said smiling.

"Cool, those boots are great too."

"They're my mums old work boots."

"Nice, what's that plate there for?"

She had spotted part of the jump strut mechanism, "I think it is a safety feature like a steel toe cap to protect your feet."

Vicky looked at me doubtfully. I just beamed back, I figured I would demo the suit at lunch when Vicky, Colin, and I could go somewhere away from prying eyes.

We chatted about some TV programs we both liked and then about music. The classroom filled up around us and eventually our teacher turned up to take registration. After that it was off to class. I began to notice that all the additional metalwork in my already quite heavy boots made them a little hard going. I didn't want to start using the suit now to augment my strength since I didn't want to give away that I was wearing it. I hadn't had the practice with it to use it subtly. I managed to make it to lessons a little more out of breath than I usually was.

"You alright Lexi?" asked Vicky concerned.

"Not used to wearing heavy boots," I said honestly.

"The price you pay for looking so sexy," Vicky said, but then looked away blushing, I guess she was embarrassed by her joke.

Morning lessons seemed to go slowly dragging on. I guess I was keen to show off my new invention to Vicky and Colin. Morning break came but there wasn't enough time so we stayed in the library. Vicky really did seem to like my new look as I kept catching her gazing at me when she thought I wasn't looking. A few more lessons and it was lunch time. I wanted to be in and out of lunch as soon as possible. I told Vicky and Colin I wanted to show them something, Vicky had to go pick up a form for some musical thing she was joining and Colin had to drop off something to his photography club. We agreed to all meet outside the library then I would take them somewhere quiet for my demo.

I polished off my meal and then went to the meeting place to wait practically hoping mad with excitement. Several agonising minutes went by while I waited for my friends to arrive. I was so hyped up that when Colin came running over I didn't really notice his agitation till he got quite close.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"I saw Tara and her gang grab Vicky! She came out of the side entrance of the main block and they ambushed her. I was over at the main entrance so by the time I got there they were gone. I've no idea where they took her!" he said frantically.

They had Vicky and we didn't know where! This was terrible! Just like those cowards to ambush us one at a time. I knew I had to do something! All my efforts in making my suit had been to prevent Tara hurting my friends. First things first I had to find them. I needed to get somewhere high so I could see the whole of the school. I hoped they weren't inside somewhere. It was time to live up to my chosen villain lifestyle.

I quickly put on my gloves and fastened them to my suit then began unbuttoning my shirt. Colin was blithering on distractedly about going for help until he noticed me undressing and stopped suddenly shocked. I pulled off the shirt revealing my new suit in all its glory and shoved my school shirt back in my bag.

"Hold this for me, look after Kittybot!" I said shoving the bag into his hands.

"What are you doing Lexi?" he asked.

"I'm not Lexi, I'm Interface! And I'm going to save my friend!" I declared in my best Villain voice.

I then charged my new jump struts and aimed for the tallest building in the school and leapt into the air leaving a bewildered Colin behind. I rocketed up several stories but I could tell, not quite enough to make it up onto the roof so I deployed my secret weapon. I had cut slits in the back of my suit so my wings could poke through, my wings on their own were too small for flight or even gliding but extended by some shaped sections of the fabric that made up my suit I could make them into something useful. My new wings unfurled dramatically and I beat the air with them using my actual wings to control them. I hadn't been sure they would work and to be honest they didn't really give a lot of lift. They did allow me to add just a little control to my previously ballistic trajectory and glide a bit, allowing me to reposition my landing on a smaller building and jump again to gain more altitude. I flapped my wings and brought myself into a controlled landing on the roof of the languages building, the tallest in the school at three stories. I scanned the school using my enhanced vision like a pair of binoculars.

Some of the people had seen me a winged black shape and were pointing. I guess they assumed I was a MORFS survivor showing off as a lot of people just ignored me. I looked for areas that were quiet away from the places teachers would patrol. After some searching I saw a scuffle round the back of the art block between the school field and the bike sheds. I zoomed my vision in and could clearly make out Lump holding someone who was struggling like a wild cat to get free. It had to be Vicky. There was no way my friend would go down without out a fight no mater what the odds. They had her in a small area enclosed by walls on three sides some of them guarding the entrance to keep her in. I leapt in that direction making use of a combination of jumps and glides to swiftly cover the ground. When I got in range of the area they were holding Vicky I used my wings to glide in silently using the element of surprise while they were fighting Vicky.

I charged up my electric zapper and got my air cannon ready. Amy Zap and Tempest were standing at the entrance to the area jeering, while Lump and Tara wrestled with Vicky. I shot Tempest with my electrical zapper and Amy Zap in the back with the air cannon. Both gave a startled yelp then crashed to the floor. Tara spun at the noise and stared at me in shock. I made sure my face was all no nonsense.

"You!" she cried, "GET HER!"

A groggy Tempest ran at me, I powered my suit and caught the running girl, using her own momentum to throw her at Amy Zap who was just getting to her feet. The two collapsed in a heap of arms and legs.

"Useless, all of you!" screamed Tara.

I didn't wait for them to regroup, so I ran up and kicked Lump in the shins. He cried out in pain and let go of Vicky.

"Run Vicky!" I cried just as I was grabbed from behind by Tara.

She turned me holding me toward Lump, "Hit her!" shouted Tara.

I struggle as Lump lumbered towards me and then smashed me hard in the chest. My armour meant his punch didn't hurt, but it smashed me backwards along with Tara into the wall behind us. Tara, taking the worst of the impact, let go of me and clutching her head. Lump looked a bit worried about hurting his boss for a bit but then came after me again. I dodged and weaved, then when he threw a punch, hit him back. He grunted in pain at my blows then came at me again. This time I dodged his punch and grabbed his arm and his belt. Using all the power I could I heaved him up into the air. Lump was too surprised to react as I held him in the air, so I threw him into a muddy puddle. He landed with a messy splash.

I was the hit from behind by something I whirled and saw no one there, but Tara was back on her feet and gesturing with her hands. Each time she made some motion I got a slap or punch somewhere. The slaps hurt but most of the rest got absorbed by my suit to the extent they didn't hurt, the constant prodding me off balance though. I charged my two arm weapons.

"Two can play at that game!" I said and blasted Tara with both. The air knocked her to the floor and the zapper caused her to cry out.

Another hit from behind spun me, Lump was back on his feet, he smacked me square in the chest again. The suit meant the punch didn't hurt but it knocked me into a wall and caused me to bash my head which really hurt. I saw stars for a moment and when they cleared I made a mental note to add a helmet or hat or something to the next iteration of my suit. Lump came at me some more knocking me down. I fended off the worst of his blows and returned some of them but I was tiring. Eventually he picked me up and threw me towards the far end of the alcove, I lay there for a bit waiting for the final blow but it didn't come so I pulled myself painfully to my feet. Tara and the rest of her gang stood at the entrance. Lump backed away towards them Vicky was being held by Amy Zap and Tempest. At a nod from Tara the two girls shoved Vicky at me. She scrambled along trying to keep her feet and ran into me, clinging for dear life.

Tara had her bag out and was rooting around inside for something, "Time to mark you freaks permanently!"

I didn't like the sound of that she pulled out what looked like a flask they used in science, it was filled with some nasty looking liquid.

"A friend of mine who is a chemical elemental cooked this up. When it comes into contact with skin it binds. It gives off this terrible stink a thousand times worse than a skunk and it never washes off. Soon they will be able to smell you two dirty freaks coming from a mile off. No one will be able to sit in the same class as you, ever. You'll have to go live in a cave somewhere away from people. Just you and that horrible smell. I bet you won't even be able to go near each other after this either. I was just going to mark one of you, but having the two of you both stinking freaks is so much better," she ranted her and her whole gang laughing hysterically.

I had to get us out of here, "Vicky hold onto me as tight as you can," I whispered.

While they were still laughing Vicky wrapped her arms around me gripping me tightly and I poured power into both my jump struts and my air cannon.

Tara stopped laughing carefully uncorked the flask and said, "Smell you later freaks!" then threw the contents of the flask at us.

I blasted the air cannon at them on it's widest setting, which caught the liquid in mid-flight and knocked it back towards them. Then I grabbed Vicky and unleashed the jump I had been charging. The look of horror on Tara's face as the liquid gunge began flying back towards her and her gang was priceless. Vicky and I soared up into the air away from whatever foul liquid she had thrown at us. I saw the stuff splatter all over Tara, and to a lesser extent, the rest of her gang.

We arced up through the air over the art block, quite a bit higher than I had been expecting, and began descending towards the main quad. Vicky let out a squeak of fear and wrapped her flexible limbs round me more tightly. I unfurled my wings to slow us down and we glided gently to the ground, getting a few surprised gasps from the students around us.