“Changing the colour of our Blasts?” Daniel asked as he, M42 and 24-42 sat down for breakfast together.
“Yeah! I don’t know if it’s indicative of power level or not, but when I cool off, it turns red again.” 24-42 showed them her usual red power, before powering up and showing them how it turned green.
“That…that’s kinda cool!” Daniel looked impressed.
“I wouldn’t use that green power too much though 24-42, look at your hand.” M42 took the hand in his. 24-42 realised her hand was hurting again.
“That’s not good.” She took her hand back and grabbed some ice from the bucket in front of her and wrapped it in a towel to nurse the hand, while Daniel did his best to change the colour of his purple power.
“It’s blue! I got it to blue!” Daniel cried as he finally achieved blue power. He couldn’t hold it though, and the power fizzled out. “My hand isn’t hurt though.” He looked at his hand, curious.
“I wasn’t trying anywhere near as hard as you though?” 24-42 wondered aloud as Alexis and Suzie walked over.
“What’s happening?” Alexis sat down next to 24-42, who rested her head on her friends shoulder. “What did you do to your hand, did you lose your temper again?”
Daniel and 24-42 explained their power colours while Suzie and Alexis looked interested.
“So maybe we CAN train ourselves to be more powerful, and maybe it’s the same for B42.” 24-42 looked hopeful.
“I’ll make a note of it.” Suzie grabbed out her tablet and pen and made notes. Alexis meanwhile was trying to make her purple blasts blue, and succeeding easily.
“Huh. I had to try a lot harder than that.” Daniel looked a little hurt that Alexis had eclipsed him.
“So purple goes to blue. Tytus has blue power, I wonder what his power goes up to?” Suzie wondered. “And can Henna do this too?”
“Can Team B do this?” M42 wondered too. “I’ll get onto MB42, this is quite an interesting development.”
He got up and went to go and find the other Major. The others looked at each other thoughtfully.
“This really is quite exciting to think about. It gives us a power scale too.” Suzie continued scrawling on her tablet. “I mean, we already knew 24-42 was the most powerful, followed by Tytus, but Daniel and Alexis were always a bit on par until this. Sorry Dan.” She smiled sheepishly at Daniel, who sighed dramatically.
24-42 pulled the ice from her hand. It had healed relatively quickly, but it was concerning that her power was hurting her.
“Hey Hens! Over here!” Alexis called over to Henna who was walking to the buffet. The buffet reminded 24-42 that she had a full breakfast in front of her, and she began shovelling it down with a vengeance.
Suzie explained everything to Henna, who then did her best to power up. Her powers still remained yellow, much to her disappointment.
“Don’t worry about it. You have the best control over your powers.” 24-42 pointed out, mouth full of bacon and tomato.
“Say it, don’t spray it.” Alexis frowned at her.
“Where’s Tytus, he should give it a try too.” Suzie asked.
24-42 swallowed. “He’s out on patrol. Besides, he’s distracted at the moment. I tried to talk to him about it last night when we were on guard duty and he blew me off, talking about the bomb he found and how he’d seen something like that before.”
“Ever since that incident he’s been on edge. I’ll talk to him and see if I can get him to open up a bit.” Suzie frowned.
Suddenly they heard yelling from the front hall of the resort. “Looks like the Major found MB42.” Daniel groaned as the five rushed to see what was going on (24-42 grabbing her French toast).
“I’m TRYING to help you here and you’re making life difficult at every turn!” M42 yelled at MB42, who snarled.
“Oh, NOW you want to help me? After your actions lost me a plumb promotion?” He snapped at M42. “You’re not even worth spitting on Experiment, you failed. You and the rest of them were supposed to be my ticket to Easy street.”
“Didn’t you push too far and get people killed unnecessarily?” Daniel asked innocently.
“That’s none of your business Experiment.” MB42 spat at him.
“We’re still people with feelings y’know, you should consider our feelings before being a jerk.” Alexis frowned, her fingers starting to curl into fists. 24-42 stepped back with a grin, taking another bite of her toast. This was gonna get fun.
“You’re tools and nothing more.” MB42 shot. “You’d do well to remember that.”
“At least tools are useful, unlike you.” Alexis fired back. 24-42 snorted, covering her mouth to keep her toast from spraying all over everyone.
What MB42 would have retorted no one knew, because suddenly M42’s phone went off. He walked away to answer it, and came back five minutes later looking grim.
“That was 07-42. There’s a group trying to get onto the base.” He told everyone. “And it looks like they’re well armed with chemical weapons.”
–
“15-42 picked a bad time to disappear!” 07-42 looked pale. He was just inside the perimeter of the base, and the group against them numbered at least 60. Even with his powers, there was no way he was able to take them on, especially when it looked like the weapons they had were laced with something.
Tytus had said he was going to go talk to the CO and get the place locked down, and it seemed that he’d done just that. The base was eerily quiet. The CO was the only person on base who knew just who the Experiments were and he was sworn to secrecy. If Project 42 were to use their powers, the general public could not see.
07-42 looked at the group. All of them were wearing creepy baby masks, each one a different colour, with none of the features highlighted in any way. Just blank baby stares. Where was 15-42, the one they called Tytus MacNeil?!
Suddenly all the baby-faced invaders pulled out automatic guns. 07-42 gulped. They began to fire. Thankfully 07-42 got his orange shield up in time to protect himself. He knew he’d get yelled at, but he had no choice. It was that or get shot.
While this was going on, Team A and MB42 arrived in their transport ute. The Experiments jumped out immediately and rushed to help.
“Blast ‘em Hens, we don’t want to hurt them too bad.” Alexis said.
“Right.” Henna nodded, moderating her power so the explosion would cause more fright than harm. She fired the Blast into the crowd, but a red shield stopped it!
“That wasn’t me I swear!” 24-42 put the last piece of toast in her mouth as the others looked at her accusingly.
That’s when Tytus stepped forward. He too was wearing a baby mask.
“Explain yourself Experiment!” MB42 screamed in fury, about to rush at Tytus. M42 blocked him.
“No, don’t block him, I want to know myself what the heck he’s doing with our enemy.” Daniel snapped, his short fuse lit. “Which country has soldiers in baby masks for a start?”
“No government would hire these people except the most cruel and corrupt. They’re the Haunted Maze Troupe, and they answer to no one.” M42 told them. “A faceless cult dedicated to the destruction of the world, and the number one criminal empire for drugs and weapons.”
“Drugs and…Tytus is one of them?! And you HIRED him?!” Alexis screamed in horror and rage.
“Wasn’t my choice. He never would have been Exposed if I’d had a say.” M42 told them. “He’s completely brainwashed to be one of them. The stakeholders for this project thought that since he’d been in gaol for years that the brainwashing had worn off, and it did look like it. Obviously they were wrong.”
“No. It’s not brainwashing. He WANTS to be one of them. He LIKES being in their group.” 24-42 remembered when they’d confronted him about being a drug dealer.
“If there wasn’t a demand, then I wouldn’t supply.”
Tytus smirked underneath the mask. They had no idea.
“We need to bring them all in for questioning and arrest. They’ve seen 07-42 use his power, they can’t be allowed to talk.” MB42 spoke up.
“Agreed.” M42 nodded. “24-42, 17-42, you handle 15-42. 21-42 and 16-42, you handle the Troupe.”
“Right!” The group split up to attack.
Tytus grinned as the Troupe opened fire, scattering the Experiments and driving Suzie, M42 and MB42 to dive for cover behind the transport. He smirked, and turned to walk away when a red hook and chain burst through his chest and pulled him back!
“Not so fast!” 24-42 pulled him in and slammed him down with a red fist. Tytus smirked and fired a red Blast in her face, that she only just barely dodged.
“So red comes after blue.” 24-42 grimaced. Tytus continued to smirk, but it was obvious the extra power had cost him. 24-42 knew she had the upper hand.
“Enjoying being the Major’s pet?” Tytus taunted. “Enjoying knowing you’ll be a tool for the rest of your life?”
24-42 began to get irritated. “You knew what we were signing up for. We all did.”
“Did we? Did we really understand what was going to happen to us? We can never see our friends again, our families again, fuck we can’t even go to the shops ever again!” Tytus fired.
“Well given I’m an orphan who was bounced between foster families, I think I’m fine.” 24-42 told him. “Now, don’t make me beat the crap out of you.”
“You gonna lose your temper on me?” Tytus smirked. “I think that’d be the only way to beat me. You don’t know how to fight like I do.”
It was so tempting, but 24-42 couldn’t do it. Tytus had stayed by her at the lowest point of her career as an Experiment, she wasn’t going to lose it on him.
“Hmph.” Tytus flew at her using his red powers. Not only did 24-42 feel conflicted about attacking a friend, his flurry of attacks kept her on the defensive, meaning she couldn’t muster up her green power to Blast him down.
Meanwhile, Daniel and Alexis were preparing to take on the Haunted Maze Troupe. The bullets were ineffective against their shields, and soon the Troupe gave up.
“Alright, now can-,” Alexis started, when every member of the Troupe in front of them pulled out their knives and slit their own throats. Alexis screamed as blood spewed everywhere.
“Alexis!” Daniel grabbed her as Suzie ran to her side.
“Like I said, they’re a brainwashed cult.” M42 sounded shaken.
24-42 and Tytus were locked in battle. Tytus might have gone back to his blue powers, but he had fighting experience that 24-42 did not, which evened up the fight somewhat. Plus, 24-42 was caught between her violent anger at being betrayed and not wanting to hurt anyone anymore.
“You’re pathetic.” Tytus slammed his blue fist into her face, forcing her to the ground.
Suddenly he was hit from above with a large yellow Blast! It didn’t do too much damage, but it stung like crazy.
“Henna you b-,” Tytus never got to finish his sentence as he was hit with a green fist, which knocked him out cold. Henna’s distraction had been enough for 24-42 to focus and power up!
“You just got pissed on from above, bitch.” Henna snapped at Tytus.
“Nice work 17-42!” M42 ran over. “The transport should be here soon, we’ll have to put him in the Cage.”
“The Cage?” Henna asked.
“It’s supposed to be able to contain one of you if you decide to go rogue.” MB42 explained. “It’s our insurance policy.”
24-42 couldn’t hear any of that conversation. Her cold, evil temper had risen, and it was aimed at Tytus and anyone who dared stop her from killing him.
Including herself.
“I’m going for a walk.” She stormed off towards the wooded section of the barracks.
“Leave her.” M42 warned the other Experiments, who were about to rush after her. “21-42, are you okay?”
“No.” Alexis replied. “No. They all just…”
“I know. I’m sorry you had to see that.” M42 apologised. “If we had known the threats were from the Haunted Maze Troupe we would have backed right off.”
“But we stopped them!” Daniel protested. “We beat them!”
“You beat one wing of them.” M42 told him. “The Haunted Maze Troupe are a problem all over the planet, we can’t stop them.”
“Where on earth did they come from?! What do they want?!” Daniel roared. Suddenly, they noticed a red light from the woods, then the ground started shaking.
“Stay here!” M42 ran to the woods, while the others hung back, frightened and worried.
“WHY DOES EVERYONE LEAVE ME?!” 24-42 screamed with tears running down her face, her red power surrounding her and her eyes redder than ever. “WHY?!”
Every memory of being passed around from foster family to foster family. Memories of other children at school avoiding her like the plague. Memories of him.
“24-42!” M42 cried, running towards her. “It’s okay!”
“NO IT’S NOT! TYTUS WAS MY FRIEND AND HE LEFT ME!” 24-42 looked at him, gasping between sobs. “EVERYONE LEAVES ME!”
“I haven’t left you.” M42 pointed out, grabbing her in a hug. “H42 hasn’t. The other Experiments definitely won’t leave you.”
“But Tytus has.” 24-42 gulped, powering down.
“But he can come back. We’ll get him back, all of us, together.” M42 said. “I am so proud of you today. You have come so far since we first met.”
24-42 sniffled out a small “Thanks.”
“24-42!” They heard Alexis and Henna call out. Daniel was hot on their heels as they ran towards the pair. “Are you okay?” Henna asked, putting a hand on 24-42’s arm.
“Yeah. I think I’m fine now.” 24-42 wiped her eyes. “Thank you.”
“What are friends for huh?” Daniel smiled at her, pinching her cheek.
Suddenly Suzie appeared, huffing and puffing. “You guys ran off on me!” She accused.
The group started laughing at that.