Ordinaries: Shifters Book II (Shifters series 2) (8 page)

Chapter 13

A Blow to the Head and a First-Class Ticket

–TANNER–

So, Ryland isn’t totally useless. Just because we need Marques doesn’t mean we have to give away all of our secrets. Mona is ours, and even though Ryland totally hates her, she has to admit the AI
is
cool. Okay, maybe she doesn’t.

Bryce is staring in awe at the ship.

Viktor stands gawking at Marques for an awkwardly long time. I look at Ryland and glance around the group. Obviously, I’m not the only one thinking this is strange.

“Ummm . . .” Marques says, looking confused. “So are we going to . . .”

Viktor motions his eyes toward the workers in the underground hangar.

“Of course,” Marques says, finally understanding. He claps his hands and motions for the crew to evacuate.

Viktor becomes more animated as he buzzes around the ship, muttering in Russian.

I turn to Gale and say, “I don’t get it.”

Gale begins, “Oh, the entrance technology is . . .”

“Not that,” I say. “If you’re both from Gaia, then why does . . .”

“The Russian?” Gale smirks.

“Yeah.”

“You may have noticed . . . Viktor has a little trouble . . .”

“The stutter?” I ask. “It’s kind of hard to miss.”

“Well, when we first got here, we decided to split up,” Gale explains. “I went west, to America, and Viktor went east. He ended up in the Ukraine.”

“So, they speak Russian there?” I ask.

“Not all do, but he ended up in a Russian-speaking community, and for some reason, when he learned Russian . . .” Gale shrugs.

“No stutter,” I say, totally understanding. I know how he feels. I was the smallest kid in school, and other than Chucky and Frederick, I didn’t really have any friends, not to mention breaking all of the video games and stuff. Since Viktor is not exactly tall and handsome and he had problems talking, he was probably made fun of. Like me.

“Enough of the sob story,” Ryland says. “Look, I think Mole Man is onto something.”

“Ry,” I say, giving my best disappointed fatherly look. “His name is Viktor.”

“Okay,” she says. “Geez! When did you turn into Dad?
Viktor
,”—she air quotes—“has figured something out.”

Bryce breaks his stare and gives Ryland a look. All I can think about is how mean I’ve been. I was calling him Rodent Guy. I’m not about to tell Ryland that though. Sometimes I can be such a jerk.

“Check it out,” Bryce says as he walks up to Viktor.

I walk up to Viktor and watch him trace the markings on the side of the ship.

“From what I remember,” Viktor says as he presses a marking. “The s-s-sequence is . . .”

He pushes several more markings and a panel slides open from the side of the ship. Viktor smiles and places his hand over the screen that is now pulsing.

We all jump as three cylinders quickly eject from the ship. Viktor smiles. Our eyes grow wide as several streams of light spring to life from the cylinders. As the lights converge, a holographic sphere is formed. Several smaller spheres are generated, then begin to orbit the larger one.

“Wow!” Bryce says. “Is that . . . ?”

“That’s home,” Viktor says as his mouth eases into a comfortable smile. Viktor looks at Gale, who is staring longingly at the display, practically ogling it. “You remember the sequence?”

“Of course,” Gale says incredulously. “Since grade school.” But he looks unsure for a moment and asks, “You sure you don’t want to?”

Viktor nods, smiling like he’s waiting for his best friend to open his Christmas present.

Gale walks to the hologram and touches one of the spheres. It lights up, so he touches the next, and it too illuminates. “They represent the twelve original colonies,” he says as he touches several more, and each shines in a different color. He pauses, looks at his old friend, and says, “Are you ready?”

Viktor nods as Gale gently, hesitantly touches the last sphere. They all begin to pulse, glowing brighter and dimmer as one, and then, just as quickly, they converge on the largest sphere. I have to block my eyes as the light grows too intense to look at.

The bottom of the ship starts to glow. I slowly step backward. Fluffy abruptly barks at the ship. About a million lights—okay, maybe not a million—like lasers, all emit from the ship and travel up in unison. I look back as they move up the side of the cavern, illuminating the entire space with an ominous red glow.

Ryland hits my shoulder and tells me to look at the hologram. As the beams travel up the sides of the walls, the display is creating a perfect replica of its surroundings.

“It’s mapping the cave,” Bryce whispers in awe.

When the lights all meet directly above the ship, everything goes dark except for the control panel and the hologram. I can see Viktor and Gale both smiling by the glow of the panel. Marques looks like a child seeing Santa Claus. He really wants his shiny new—or in this case very, very old—present, but the fat guy with the filthy beard saying, “Come, boy. Sit on my lap,” is terrifying.

Seriously, why do parents make their kids do that? I still get the chills every time I see someone in a red suit. Who knows what kind of weirdos have time to take a temp job every Christmas at the mall?

We all jump when the ship hisses so loudly that I have to cover my ears. Around the side of the ship, an opening appears, and a platform extends. The sound ceases as abruptly as it began, then the ship hums quietly.

Gale turns to Marques and says, “You might want to evacuate the area.”

Marques looks around the cavernous hangar with eyes like a rabid, calculating wolf contemplating his next meal—you—and whistles. An agent peeks around the corner, and his eyes widen as he looks at us stepping onto the platform.

“Robin’s nest!” Marques shouts.

The agent straightens, saluting his commander. This is not the correct response. Marques bristles.

“Not a drill,” Marques says, sounding annoyed. When the agent doesn’t respond quickly enough, he shouts, “Now, Commander!”

The agent looks stunned, but he turns and runs, shouting, “Robin’s nest! Not a drill! I repeat,
not
a drill!”

I hear the phrase repeated throughout the cavernous space by several distant people, and it is accompanied by the sound of boots echoing down the corridor.

We all turn and board the ship quickly, knowing that we don’t have much time. I don’t know what “Robin’s Nest” means, but I don’t want to find out. Both Gale and Viktor run in like the gates just opened for a magic morning at Disney World.

Not that I would know. Chucky told me about his trip last summer, and it sounded awesome. I thought I would never get to go anywhere. Look at me now!

–RYLAND–

We race into the ancient ship just as bullets start to fly. Are Marques’s men really shooting at us? So much for unwitting allies. Clearly, he
is
the enemy.

Granted, I suppose we are stealing what he considers to be “his” ship.

I am startled by the massive interior of the ship. “Is this thing even bigger on the inside?” I ask, puzzled.

Viktor laughs hysterically, “I’m not The Doctor.”

I frown as Tanner cracks up. “No, you’re a pilot,” I say, confused yet again.

“It just appears to be larger due to the strange, reconfiguring shape,” Gale answers as he, Viktor, and Clay scramble for the controls.

Kai is missing, and I realize the gunfire has stopped. The opening begins to seal itself, growing together like vines on speed. I begin to panic. “Wait, Kai isn’t here!”

Clay shrugs as Viktor says, “I’m n-n-not waiting. There are gu-gu-guns out there.”

“Kai!” I yell as the opening narrows to only a foot wide. I dive toward the small gap to see that Marques is holding Kai, a gun to his forehead.

“No!” I yell as the wall closes.

Tanner looks at me, eyes wide. He isn’t sure what to say. We just left Kai behind—in the hands of the very man who killed his parents.

“We need to go back,” I say fiercely. “Right now.”

My voice has more venom than any of them has ever heard before.

“It’s too dangerous,” Gale says. “There are too many of them.”

“We are going back,” I say determinedly.

“N-n-no,” Viktor stammers.

I rip him from the controls and shove him to the ground so quickly he doesn’t have time to react. His mouth makes this amusing surprised face, but I am too angry to notice how stupid Mole Man looks.

“Ry . . .” Bryce says gently.

I realize that in my anger, I have manifested a new power. I am floating off the ground. My rage is so complete that the laws of gravity no longer apply to me.

“We’re going back,” I say through gritted teeth.

No one answers this time.

We land next to Mona back in the barren wasteland. Only Clay tries to stop me as I head for the door. He puts his hand on my arm, pulling me close. “It’s too dangerous,” he says.

“I’m not leaving him with that monster,” I snarl, glaring at Viktor and Gale. “I’m no coward.”

Clay nods slowly. “Then I’m coming with you.”

I shake my head, my anger receding. “No, Clay. You can’t shift. It’s too dangerous.”

Clay looks at me with eyes that could melt an ice cube in, well, Siberia. “I’m not going to lose you.”

I glance at Tanner as he makes a gagging motion with his finger. Grow up! You and Devon were way worse.

“I’ll be fine,” I say. “They’ll never see me coming.”

“Ryland, we need you. You’re too important,” Gale pleads.

“Screw you!” I shout. “Sol
é
said that it could be any of us, i
ncluding Kai
. That means we need him, too.”

Gale and Viktor grow pale. “A seer has spoken? About the prophecy?” Gale asks.

Tanner nods. “She said it’s one of us three.”

Gale stares at us for a long time with alarm in his eyes. He turns to Viktor. “She’s right. We can’t leave him here, not if he might be the one.”

“We ca-ca-can’t risk them either,” Viktor says nervously, clearly hoping that we can, in fact, leave Kai behind.

Gale nods slowly and begins to pace, thinking intensely.

Clay speaks up, his voice smooth and calm. “We’ll go back for Kai. Viktor can take Ryland and Tanner to Canada.”

“No way!” I shout. “There’s no way you two are going back, and I’m being shipped to Canada like cargo.”

Next thing I know, Viktor is flying Tanner and I back to Canada while Mona is humming the Canadian anthem and driving me insane. I pace back and forth, worried.

I can’t believe somehow Tanner and Clay managed to knock me out and get me on this stupid ship. How is it that Supergirl is here hoping her friends are safe while two ordinary humans risk their lives to save one of her best friends? This is crazy!

Tanner eyes me guiltily, the bruise darkening around his eye. “I said I’m sorry, Ry. They were right, though. It was too dangerous for you.”

“For me?” I snap. “Why for me, but not for them? They’re freaking Ordinaries, Tanner! Geez!”

Tanner’s face pales as he thinks about all the things that might go wrong, the same scenarios that have been playing over and over in my mind since I woke up. “You weren’t thinking clearly,” Tanner mutters quietly. “You were so angry that you were actually floating.”

“And you don’t think
that
would have intimidated some Keeper Siberian B Team?” I snap, a growl rising from somewhere deep in my chest.

Tanner balks slightly at the inhuman sound emerging so naturally from me that it may always have been there. Slowly, he continues his pathetic attempt to convince me. “We have things back home that we need to do, an army to gather and prepare,” Tanner shrugs. “They look up to you. They need you.”

“Do you think I care about some nerdy Keeper kids?” I practically scream.

“I think you should,” Tanner says quietly. “We can’t win a war on our own.”

He may be right, but I can’t admit that right now, not when Clay and Kai are in danger while I enjoy a first-class ride back to Canada. We need them, too. If Kai is the one, we need him most of all. And even if he isn’t the one, he’s one of the best fighters we have.

Chapter 14

We Break Out of a European Resort

–TANNER–

Ryland isn’t the only one that came out on the short end of that fight. She was actually levitating. Not Criss Angel or David Blaine kind of fake floating. Like superhero, the-laws-of-physics-don’t-apply-to-me levitating. Did you catch that? I bet you didn’t think I would know about physics in ninth grade. Well, I don’t really, but Chucky is already taking it, and we talk a lot.

Anyway, when she looks away, Clay slams her in the back of the head. I’m in total shock. I swear my eyes are as big as coconuts or something. The dog—you know, the one my sister named Fluffy McFlufferson—growls at him. Apparently, this new dog has already adopted my sister, and he’s very protective. Clay stands over her looking down with what I think are tears in his eyes. Weird.

I feel a rage building inside of me. My chest begins to burn.

He looks at me with a pained expression. “I had to,” he says. “To protect . . .”

“What are you doing?” I scream, not caring about whatever lame excuse he is about to give. He hit my sister! My older brother is standing right there. Not. Doing. Anything. Come on . . . he’s as big as Clay, and he towers over Viktor!

I feel the shift coming on. Clay may be bigger than me, but I can stop time! We’ll see how much size matters when he’s totally frozen.

The world begins to slow, and I see a flash of light. The right side of my head explodes with a sharp pain. The world spins. I stare, wondering about the round, fleshy lump before me. Then I realize that I’m on the floor, looking up at Viktor’s face. He’s holding a pipe or something.

“Why did you…?” I manage to ask as the world darkens.

I wake up on some platform that would be amazingly comfortable if it didn’t feel like I was just run over by a truck. I try to sit up. I stop short as the pain in my head spikes.

“Welcome, Tanner,” Mona says cheerfully. “I trust you slept well.”

Slept? Is that what you call it when a bat, pipe, or whatever that was renders you unconscious?

“Where’s my sister?” I groan.

“Ryland?” Mona asks cheerfully. “Your sister is taking a nap over there.”

A nap? Yeah, right!

I follow her hand to see Ryland sleeping peacefully on an identical platform with Fluffy at her feet, like some sort of wolf-y guard dog. A lot of good he did her.

“So, what are you guys?”

I turn my head toward the quiet voice. Bryce is sitting on his own platform. “What are you talking about?” I ask him.

“Mom and Dad told me about Shifters,” he says. “What’s up with her?” he asks, pointing at our sister. “How was she doing that?”

“What?”

“Don’t give me that,” he quietly spits out. “You saw it! She was floating.”

“Oh,” I say, looking at him. “That’s kind of her Apt. I guess it is anyway. I’ve never actually seen her do that before. The floating, I mean.”

“So all of that Supergirl stuff is actually true?” he says, his voice filled with skepticism. He’s eyeing her as if she’s some sort of alien in a sister suit. Not cool. He’s an alien too, after all, even if he can’t fly.

“No, of course not,” I tell him. “She can kind of fly, though. Not like Superman or anything, but sort of.”

“Ry,” I say, sitting up slowly, holding both hands against my temples, hoping that my brains won’t spill out when I let go.

My sister moans and stirs. Her face scrunches like a toddler who’s skinned her knee, and she says, “Why are you guys so loud? You’re giving me a headache.” She rolls over without opening her eyes. “Get out of my room, losers. I’m not going to school today. Tell Mom I’m sick. My head really hurts.”

Mona appears next to her and tells her, “I apologize. Your mother is not yet accounted for.”

Ryland shoots up. She stares at Mona, then both hands cover her face as she lets out a groan. “Do you have any Advil or Tylenol or something?”

“Certainly,” Mona tells her. “We have a fully stocked medical supply kit behind the control area.”

Ryland makes her way to the control panel, arguing with me about what happened, then downs some pills. Mona begins singing something about Canada, and I tell Ryland that I’m really sorry. I know it wasn’t me, but I should’ve stopped them. A part of me also knows now that they were right. They couldn’t risk losing her, not that she will ever understand that.

She finally calms down and sits next to me. “What are you doing?”

“Checking our Facebook,” I tell her.

“What?” she asks incredulously. “We have a Facebook? Let me see that!”

She messes with my phone and says, “I thought you can’t use these when flying. Don’t you need cell, or Wi-Fi, or something?”

“I don’t know. The J’s set it up,” I tell her. “It’s like a satellite thing or whatever.”

“You’ve been
posting
about me?” she asks.

I snatch my phone from her and say, “It’s on yours too, if you’d bother to look.”

Ryland pulls her phone out of her pocket and starts flipping through pages. “Oh . . . by the way, you’re a jerk.”

Okay.

Viktor is at the controls, humming along with Mona.

“So, Viktor,” Ryland says. “Shouldn’t we be in Canada by now? Meeting Marcus?”

“We have to make a st-stop first,” Viktor says.

Ryland stands straight up. “Wait! What?”

“Gale and C-Clay are having a little trouble with your f-friend in Siberia,” Viktor stammers. “We have a little b-bit of t-t-time, so we c-can pick up a friend. I have wanted to show Mona to him.”

“Viktor!” I yell. “We don’t have time for you to show off! We have to get back!”

Viktor turns in his seat and stares me down. “You want me to help you, yes?”

I look at my sister. We understand one another perfectly, this time anyway. We nod in unison.

“Then you will do something to help me,” he says flatly.

“We’re not just gonna show up and show your friend, are we?” I ask.

“It’s . . . complicated,” he tells us.

“Okay . . . Where’s your friend?” Ryland asks, trying to mask her annoyance behind some sickeningly sweet girl voice. It must work because Viktor smiles sheepishly.

Mona says from behind us, “We have arrived in Styria. Enjoy your stay, darling. And you as well, Miss Ryland and Mr. Tanner.”

Ryland gives Mona a dirty look. “Styria? Where the heck is that?”

“Austria,” I tell her.

“What?”

“Styria is in Austria,” I explain.

“Whatever, Magellan,” she says, giving me a look. “What do you mean, complicated?” Now she’s staring daggers at Viktor; all her sweetness is gone.

“Well,” Viktor explains. “When we acquired the plutonium . . .”

“Don’t tell me,” Ryland spits.

“He was detected and . . .”

“He’s in jail?” Ryland spits with clenched teeth.

Viktor frowns. “D-d-detained.”

“So you brought us here to do a jail break?” Ryland says with her teeth clamped shut.

“Listen,” he says leaning forward, now full of confidence. “It’s my fa-fa-fault he is in there. I’m not leaving wi-wi-without him.”

My sister and I look at each other.

“Besides,” Viktor says. “With your . . . a-a-abilities, you just go in and bring him back. Lickety-split. No problem, yes? Besides, Chri-Chri-Christopher will be a great help. He is a mechanical ge-ge-genius. I will need him.”

“Okay,” I tell Viktor.

“What?” Ryland spits. “We’re not breaking someone out of prison.”

“Ry,” I say. “How hard can it be?”

“Don’t ‘Ry’ me,” she says. “We don’t have to do it just ‘cause Mole Man tells us to.”

I ignore my idiotic sister and say, “We’ll do it.”

Viktor smiles as my sister crosses her arms and pouts.

Bryce pipes up, “Where is he?”

–RYLAND–

Tanner is insane if he thinks I’m going to break some guy out of prison who tried to smuggle weapons-grade plutonium into the United States. He is probably in some kind of crazy, high-tech terrorist prison underground or something. I don’t want to end up locked away in a cell.

“No way,” I say, putting my foot down. “Tanner can go alone. I’m not going.”

Viktor shakes his head violently. “Ta-Ta-Tanner will ne-ne-need you. He can’t go a-a-alone.”

“Nope,” I say firmly. “Tanner is a terrible fighter. I’m not storming into some foreign prison with only Tanner.”

Tanner’s jaw drops, and he looks hurt. The truth is he may not be the
worst
fighter in the world, but he’s not
Prison Break
good. He’s more the take-on-the-school-bully type. Maybe.

Really, that’s pretty generous. I heard from Marcus that Tanner got beat up by some little girl named Cooper or something. I wasn’t there, but it sounded hilarious. Plus, if Cooper is that tiny girl I think she is, he’s even worse off than I thought.

“Besides,” I say, drawing my words out slowly. “If I wasn’t allowed to risk myself to rescue Kai, our number one fighter and potential prophesied savior, why on earth are you letting me risk my neck for some terrorist nerd loser?”

Viktor’s face turns the brightest shade of red I’ve ever seen on a human being. I mean, he literally turns the color of a tomato or maybe even the color they paint fire trucks. He stammers incomprehensibly for several minutes. I know that Tanner is mad about the lame fighter comments, but he’s got to see what I’m saying. Also, he has to recognize how funny it is when Viktor gets this angry.

Viktor finally calms down enough to stammer. “I-I-It’s ha-ha-hardly dangerous. It’s gu-gu-guarded by Or-Or-Ordinaries.”

I roll my eyes. “As opposed to Kai, who was being guarded by . . . oh, that’s right. Kai is being held by Ordinaries,” I growl the last word at Viktor.

Fluffy must hear my tone and read the anger in my body language because he too lets out a low growl in Viktor’s direction. I lean down to place a hand on his head, scratching behind his ear as if to tell him “good boy.”

“Look, Ry,” Tanner finally speaks up. “The sooner we get this over with, the sooner we get out of here.”

I glare at him. Viktor stammers, “He-he-he’s in Justizzentrum Leoben.”

Tanner gives Viktor a blank look.

Viktor beams back at him, totally proud of himself for convincing two makeshift superheroes to break his friend out of prison.

“Are we supposed to know what that means, Mole Man?” I snap at Viktor.

Viktor blinks at me as if he has no idea what I could have possibly meant by that name. Really? It’s kind of an obvious resemblance. I’m sure his family reunions are ridiculous, not that he would be able to attend, what with being on another planet and all.

An opening begins to form in the ship’s wall on my right, and I see we have landed near some sort of luxury hotel. A steel and glass building is in front of us with modern architecture and furniture. It looks like my dream college apartment complex or something.

“I’m confused . . .” I say slowly, not even remembering how angry I was a moment ago.

Viktor beams. “Justizzentrum Leoben is one of the best prisons in the world.”

“
That
is a prison?” Tanner says incredulously.

“No way,” I say. “That’s like a five-star hotel or something. Are you sure you didn’t get the coordinates wrong, Genie?” I smirk at Mona.

“I call the sh-sh-ship The Wizard,” Mole Man stutters angrily, “and of course the coordinates are correct.”

“Well, I wouldn’t mind being sent to prison there,” Bryce mumbles. “Sure better than where Marques had us.”

“Us?” Tanner asks, concern growing in his voice.

Viktor decides it’s time to get down to business, interrupting that line of questioning, although we will have to go back to that at some point. Who else does Marques have? “He’s in ro-ro-room 127,” he stammers.

“How the heck do I find that?” I snap.

“Maybe we ask the concierge . . .” Tanner mumbles sarcastically.

Viktor shrugs. He doesn’t care what we have to do or risk. He didn’t plan this part out. He just knocked us out and kidnapped us so that we could break international law. No big deal.

Okay . . . I decide to go for the most forward approach. I walk up to the front door. The tiny rings of barbed wire at the top of the fence are the only indication that this is actually a detention facility.

A buzzer sounds, and the gate opens. A guard begins speaking to me in . . . Russian? German? What do they speak here?

I raise my hands over my head. “American? Anyone here speak English?”

He frowns and then says, “Ascunse?”

I bristle at my name, unsure of just why they would be familiar with that here in . . . what country are we in again? “Yes?” I answer nervously.

He breaks into a wide grin. He turns to yell behind him. I hear something about Ascunse and Ryland.

Suddenly, I am swarmed by guards and prisoners all grinning and clapping. Apparently, I am some kind of celebrity in Austria, probably because their television sucks.

“127?” I try asking over and over again.

Finally, a huge 7’2” giant of a man with bright green eyes and black hair says, “Viktor send you?” in a heavy accent.

I nod, confused and overwhelmed. He’s wearing a white jumpsuit so I assume he is the prisoner I am here to rescue.

He shakes his head as if in annoyance. “Tell him that I am not coming. I don’t care about seeing Mona. He left me here, so screw him.”

“Okay . . .” I draw out. “Awesome.”

Suddenly, Tanner is behind me. There is more commotion from the excited guards. “Look,” Tanner says firmly. “You’re coming with us, whether you like it or not because Viktor won’t leave until you do.”

The prisoner shakes his head. “No.”

“Yes,” I say quickly. I shift without effort this time, grabbing him and Tanner as I leap into the air, far above the prison.

By the time my shift is broken and the prisoner is aware of his surroundings, we are already standing beside Mona. I even stuck the landing this time.

Apparently,
Prison Break
wouldn’t take more than one episode in Austria.

Fluffy breaks away from Bryce, who I asked to hold him so he wouldn’t follow me, and bounds toward me. He jumps up to lick my nose, and I can’t help but laugh.