Unlikely Heroes

"Where are you taking us?" Mikaela asked.

"Don't worry about it," the fake waitress snapped. The silent gunman gestured for them to get into the back of an Escalade with tinted windows.

"Really?" Mikaela scoffed. "Could you have brought a more cliched gangster vehicle?"

"Mikaela," Cal hissed.

"You better watch it before that pretty little mouth gets you in trouble," the waitress said, lip curling.

"You know we aren't supposed to touch them," the gunman said. "The boss wants them alive."

"I didn't say I'd kill her. I could just rearrange her supermodel face a little bit."

"Leave it alone. You three, in the car, now." He poked Mikaela lightly in the ribs with his gun and she flinched as pain flared to life. Definitely at least one cracked rib.

"Hey, don't touch her," Cal growled. Mikaela shook her head and laid a hand on his arm.

"Cal I'm fine," she said. Leon climbed into the SUV first, and Mikaela got in next. Cal sat on her left, holding tightly to her hand. Her right hand reached out to hold Leon's. The waitress drove while the gunman rode in the passenger seat, turned slightly so he could keep the gun trained on them.

"So who's this boss of yours?" Mikaela asked casually. The waitress snorted. "You'll find out soon enough, honey."

Cal squeezed Mikaela's hand and she quieted, head spinning. She was trying to figure out how the three of them could get out of this without anyone getting hurt. Except for the phony waitress and the guy holding the gun. She didn't really mind if they got hurt.

"Quit pointing that thing in our faces," she snapped at the guy.

"Not gonna happen, sweetheart."

"Don't call me sweetheart."

"The one with the gun can call you whatever he wants," he laughed. Mikaela focused and made his window roll down. Then the gun flew out of his hand, and right out the open window. He swore and so did the waitress, swerving dangerously.

"You fucking idiot!" she yelled. "You lost the gun!"

"It wasn't my fault!" he growled back. "The bitch did it."

"Then fucking tranquilize her! She's going to keep causing us trouble."

Mikaela imagined the brake pedal being pressed and the car jerked and swerved again as the tires squealed in protest. The waitress wasn't wearing a seatbelt and her head smacked the window hard. She let loose a stream of expletives. The now gun-less gunman lunged halfway into the backseat, grabbing her already bruised shoulder and she whimpered before Cal punched the guy in the side of the head. The Escalade swerved into a vacant parking lot behind a large building and lurched to a stop.

Mikaela made all the doors fly open and shoved Cal out of the car, trying to tug Leon with her other arm. The waitress appeared in her periphery vision and Mikaela ducked before a fist collided with her head. Cal grabbed her around the waist to tug her to safety and she cried out in pain, wiggling away from him. He looked confused as she clutched at her side but then his eyes went wide and Mikaela heard Leon shout, and then a thud as he hit the ground.

Panicked, she spun around just in time to feel a dart poke her in the leg. The waitress had gotten her hands on the tranquilizers. The world went hazy and wobbly and then she blacked out.



"She's waking up."

"Stand by with another dose if they grow too lucid. We don't need them using their powers to escape."

"The girl has two broken ribs. Did I not make it clear to you that you weren't to harm them?"

"No fucking way I broke the bitch's ribs. She must have hurt herself before we got to her. Or she injured her own stupid self making the car jump all over the road. Besides they're alive and in one piece. That's all we were paid to do."

"So tacky and unsophisticated."

Mikaela didn't know what the voices were talking about, but she recognized the bitchy fake waitress's voice. The man she was speaking to didn't sound like what she expected of a gang leader. He sounded cultured and had a faint trace of an accent she couldn't place. Her eyes fluttered open and she winced, realizing that now that her adrenaline had worn off it was difficult to breathe.

"What do you want with us?" That was Cal's voice. He sounded sluggish but still majorly pissed.

"Well the gang members want revenge. I just want to study you for a bit to learn about the extraordinary side effects of this new drug we cooked up."

"You're not part of any gang." Mikaela struggled to sit up, blinking blearily at the man in a white lab coat standing in front of her.

"No, I most certainly am not, Miss Chase. I work in biochemistry."

"And you're making drugs? That doesn't make sense."

"It does when the company you work for no longer wants to fund your projects," he replied. "This all started as a way to make money, but as is evidenced by you and your boyfriend here, it's turned into something much larger. Think of the implications. This could revolutionize healthcare. Law enforcement. The military. This will change the entire world and how it works."

"Not to mention what people would pay for a drug that makes you super human," the gunman from the pizza parlor added. Lab Coat Guy rolled his eyes and looked pained.

"Your view of the world is so small," he sighed.

"You're a fucking real life mad scientist."

Mikaela was relieved to hear Leon's voice coming from somewhere on the other side of Cal.

"Genius is often dismissed as madness," Lab Coat Guy said.

"You never answered my question," Cal said. "What do you want with us? And who are you?"

"My name is Dr. Larsson. I'm going to study you a bit. Run some tests, take some blood samples. Then I'm afraid I'll be turning you over to these people and I'm fairly certain they're going to kill you for getting their friends locked up. A complete shameful waste, if you ask me. You're the prototype of a new breed of human and they want to bludgeon you with tire irons and dump you in the bay. But sadly it was part of the agreement. It's quite fascinating that you ended up with completely different abilities when exposed to the drug."

Dr. Larsson stared at them like they were interesting specimens in a petrie dish.

"The girl has telekinesis, and they said the boy can turn invisible and phase through solid matter. Incredible. Odd that one power is mental and the other physical. I wonder if it has anything to do with sex or if it's completely random for each individual."

"Yeah, this is really fascinating and all, but can we get moving?" The waitress tapped her foot impatiently. "Cut out all the scientific crap and let's go."

"Yes, all right. I'll just collect the blood samples now. I'll run the rest of the tests when we reach my lab."

"What should we do with the other one?"

"You can kill him when we get to the roof," Larsson replied dismissively. Mikaela saw Cal's face drain of color and his eyes flash angrily. She still felt woozy from the tranquilizer and put up only a feeble struggle when the good doctor drew some of her blood. He readied a second round of syringes, with something else to keep them complacent and groggy. But he paused.

"I wonder. The girl's power is linked to her brain and therefore her nervous system. It would likely react to more stimuli than the boy's. If acting not under his conscious control it seems more like a fight or flight response. But hers could respond to almost anything."

"What's your point?" the waitress asked irritably. "Speak fucking English for once."

"I just want to test my theory."

Larsson balled his fist and socked Mikaela in her broken ribs. She screamed and doubled over, feeling vaguely nauseous.

"Don't fucking touch her!" Cal snarled. They heard the sound of doors slamming up and down the hall of the building they were in and the doctor's tray of still empty syringes rattled and fell to the floor. He laughed and looked delighted, as if he'd just opened a gift and found it to be exactly what he'd hoped for. Mikaela pictured tiny hairline fractures in all the syringes so the clear tranquilizer fluid inside spilled out. The doctor was so caught up in his excitement over their powers that he didn't even notice he stuck an empty needle into their arms.

They were dragged up several flights of stairs to the roof of the building. Mikaela's side was throbbing and it made the climb strenuous. It was easy to pretend to be drugged when she couldn't do much more than shuffle and stagger. She let her knees buckle when they got to the roof and the doctor and his thugs left her be, assuming she was rendered harmless. While their backs were turned, Mikaela gestured wildly at Leon and Cal. She pointed to the crook of her elbow where Larsson had stuck her with the needle, then made a slashing motion across her throat.

"He didn't inject you," she hissed when they looked confused. She looked up as a black helicopter swooped low and started to land on the roof. The whirring of the propeller made her ears hurt and the wind it kicked up nearly bowled her over as she clambered back to her feet. Their friends from the pizza parlor had obtained some more guns, and we're now pointing them at Cal and Leon.

"Get in," the woman snapped. She still felt shaky, but Mikaela made the guns fly out of their hands and clatter across the roof. Cal seized the opportunity to turn invisible before punching the man in the face until he fall to the ground. The woman rushed Mikaela, crying out when Leon stuck his foot out to trip her.

Mikaela looked around and spotted Larsson hauling ass for the helicopter with his vials of hers and Cal's blood. She realized with a start that it was a police helicopter, and she didn't know if the gang had someone on the inside or if they had somehow managed to steal a helicopter. She focused on the propeller and forced it to a screeching halt. The sudden silence made her ears ring. The waitress had gotten to her feet again and slammed into Mikaela. They hit the ground hard and Mikaela let out a sharp cry of pain.

The women had her pinned and punched her in the face. Mikaela scratched at her eyes and when the woman reared back, Mikaela shoved her, rolling free and ramming her knee into the woman's back to keep her pinned on her stomach.

"You picked a really bad day to piss me off," she panted. She grabbed a hunk of the woman's blond hair and slammed her face into the concrete. Her nose made a satisfying crack and blood spurted across the ground. Mikaela got back on her feet and looked around frantically for Cal and Leon. Larsson and whoever he had flying the chopper were still frantically trying to get it running again. Cal appeared next to her.

"Are you okay?" he asked. She nodded.

"I'll be fine. We have to make sure Dr. Frankenstein doesn't leave."

"Cal! Look out!" Leon was running toward them, pointing wildly. Their friendly neighborhood gunman had regained consciousness from Cal's blows and was making a mad dash for one of the fallen guns. Cal lunged forward to beat him to it, kicking the gun out of his reach. The guy swung a dirty right hook and cold cocked Cal in the temple. Cursing a blue streak, Cal rounded on him. Then several things happened all at once, and to Mikaela it seemed the entire world had gone into slow motion. She heard the helicopter propeller start up again as the guy tried to swing at Cal again and the door to the roof banged open to spill out a group of more men wielding semi-automatic hand guns. Cal was still struggling with his attacker. Their feet skidded on the gravel and Mikaela watched as they both tumbled over the edge of the roof.

She saw the helicopter begin to lift off as Leon grabbed her arm and shouted her name. Guns began firing in hers and Leon's direction but Mikaela's head was filled with white noise. Pain exploded in her temples, making her vision blur as her power lashed out with more force than she had ever used before. She just wanted Cal back. She didn't want him to be plummeting to his death. And she wanted the people who had brought him here to pay for it.

The hail of bullets aimed at her and Leon stopped midair, ricocheting backwards and striking the shooters in the arms and shoulders and legs. But her power didn't stop there. Even though all she could think about was Cal and wanting him to be okay, her power latched onto the helicopter as it started to fly away. It jerked and bucked wildly in the air, spinning out of control before the propeller stopped again. It dropped, falling into the vacant space behind the abandoned building they were standing on.

Mikaela's throat burned and she realized she'd been screaming and crying but hadn't been able to hear it over the noise. The world seemed to return to normal time again, and she and Leon were left standing amid the carnage.