Invincible (20 page)

Taylor puts her arms around me. I could tell by the look on her face that she has come to realize her fate also. She begins to cry again as I stare at the men stepping forward, toughening myself as w
e await our forthcoming demise.

Then all of a sudden, a voice yells behind us.

“Move!”

I begin to hear a whistling sound speeding toward us, and in a reflex, I grab Taylor and duck to the floor. I look up and see a dagger drive into one of the guys’ chest. As he falls to the floor, Taylor and I get up, and we turn to see the person behind us.

It was a girl, to my surprise. She was thin with long jet black hair, ocean blue eyes, and from the looks of it, seemed to be a few years older than me.

Taylor and I run towards the wall to take cover as the girl charges toward the men. They shoot at her with their guns—the ammunition resembling some kind of green lasers—but she blocks them with the two knives in her hands, exploding as it hits the blade, but not damaging it at all. She then walks
up to them and starts fighting.

I begi
n to space out as I think about the girl. Who was she, and why on earth was she fighting my battle, attacking the men that were obviously chasing after me?

My mind starts to boggle even more as I stop thinking about her and actually witness her fighting the attackers. Her combat skills were uncanny. The way she ducks under one of the guys’ arms as he tries to swing at her, the way she swiftly kicks the other guy in the chin as she gracefully flips backwards into the air. That was the only way to describe her movements. Graceful, elegant, beautiful. But in a way, it wasn’t too beautiful, as it seemed to have more of a rougher edge to it. It was…gracefully tough.

It was then that I realized the speed she was going at, one that I’d grown accustomed to, one that a normal person would’ve easily mistaken for as a blur.

The men were laid
out on the floor, their bodies lifeless. The girl puts her knives into holsters attached to her belt and picks up one of their guns. She turns around to face me and Taylor, who for a moment, I had completely forgotten was there.

“Are you okay?” the girl asks.

I grab hold of Taylor’s trembling hand and step out from the corner, fully exposing ourselves.

“Yes,” I say.

“Good,” she sighs in relief, a slight grin crossing her face as she walks towards us.

“Who are you?” I ask.

“The name's Alex,” she says. “What? You don’t know your own cousin when you see her?”

“Cousin?” I say, bewildered. Was this true? Was this some kind of sick joke? Could this mysterious girl, who saved my life not just a few minutes ago, actually be my cousin? My real relative? “My cousin? Are you serious? Wait, hold on! First of all, who are these people?”

“They’re Catchers,” Alex says, staring at me with confusion as she walks past us, retrieving a backpack at the end of the hallway from where she first stood. “They’ve been sent to destroy us.”

“Destroy
us
?” I say, now forced to comprehend the fact that not only do I have a cousin, but now there were men bent on killing us both. “Why?”

She continues to stare me down with her perplexed
expression. “Don’t you know?”

I shake my head. “Been having an amnesia crisis, lately. I can’t remember anything.”

“Anything?”

I shake my head.
“Nothing at all.”

Alex pauses for a moment, her lips parted as if she were about to say something, but then closes them shut. “Well, I’ll explain later,” she says instead.

She walks past Taylor and I, stepping over the dead Catchers as she heads forward, and when we realize she wasn’t waiting for an invitation, we follow.

“So, who’s this young lady?” Alex asks.

“My girlfriend,” I reply.

“Oh, that’s interesting.”

As we walked, many thoughts began to run through my head. About Alex, who saved me and told me I was her cousin, and then these Catchers, who she says are trying to kill us. None of this made any sense. Not one thing seemed to add up. But if what she’s

saying is true, and she w
as really my cousin, who could provide me with the answers I needed about my past, I’d follow her anywhere.

“So where
are they? The Catchers?” I ask.

“Everywhere,” says Alex. “They have the entire school locked down. From what I’ve seen, all the doors are blocked.” She then stops and turns around to fa
ce me. “Do you know a way out?”

I shake my head.

“We can get out through the stadium,” Taylor mutters.

Her voice startles me for a moment, my mind once again oblivious to her presence.

“But the only way to get there is through the gym,” I say. A sudden thought sends a chill down my spine. “And there’s no way we can go in there.”

“No, it’s not,” she insists. “There’s a door down one of these hallways. The teachers use them all the time to get there easily.”

“Well, then,” Alex says, “I guess we’ll go there.”

She pauses once again, going into the holsters on her belt, pulling out one of he
r knives and throwing it to me.

“What’s this?” I say as I catch it.

“Protection,” she says. “You’re gonna need it.”

“I have
all
the protection I need,” I say, making sure that Alex understands and Taylor doesn’t.

“I bet you do,” she says. “But there’s nothing wrong with a little help.”

I ignore her comment as we turned a corner, and paused with the others at the sight of someone standing in front of us.

Alex raises her gun and Jack immediately puts his hands up in surrender, his gym clothes replaced with his casual wardrobe and a backpack slung over

his left shoulder. I put my hand down on the arm she uses for the gun and forcefully lower it.

“Jack,” I say, angry and confused. “What are you still doing here?”

“I stayed behind,” he says, putting his arms down. “I know you thought you could handle it, but I couldn’t just leave you here to fight that monster alone. I had to see if you were okay.”

“Well, it was useless because I’m fine now,” I say to him. I then gesture to Alex. “And I’ve been having a little help.”

Alex faces me with disbelief. “Wait, does he mean a Cinotar? You fought a Cinotar?” she asks. Judging from her expression, she must’ve meant the green monster. I nod. She grins. “Wish I was there to see it. Skills must still be pretty good.”

Still?
I think.
How could she say my skills were
still
good?
I wanted to ask her what she meant by that, but the rumble of Jack’s throat turns our attention to him.

“So…who’s this?” he asks smoothly, trying to put on a seductive face.

“My cousin,” I say.

Jack’s eyes bulge from their sockets, his mouth hanging in the air. “Y-y-your cousin?” he says.

I shrug. “I know. I thought the exact same thing—well, not really. But right now, I don’t have time to explain. We need to move.”

“You’re telling me. Those guys are
all over the place,” Jack says.

“We know,” Alex says irritably. “We need to get to the football stadium. Now.”

Jack nods his head in approval. “Okay, then. But first…” He removes the backpack from his shoulder and throws it in the air. It is only when I catch it do I recognize its familiarity. “I managed to

get it from the locker roo
m. Thought you might need it.”

And indeed, I did. I walked to the nearest classroom and removed my gym clot
hes, leaving them on the floor as I put on my normal attire. Ah, the feel of comfortable clothing brought what little joy I could have at the moment. Where would I be if it were not for Jack?

“Thanks, Jack,” I say, adjusting my shirt as I step back into the hallway. It was then when I heard the faint taps of Alex’s foot that I realized the time for subtlety would have to be set aside. “Let’s move.”

We then start to run again, continuing our route.

“Man, you sure do have a lot of company,” Alex says. “How do you keep up with
other
things?”

I expected myself to stop running when she said those words, but instead I continue running, forcing myself to pretend that wha
t she said had no effect on me.

She knows
, I think.
She knows I’m Lion-Man.

We were about to turn another corner when all of a sudden, two
Catchers walked in front of us.

Before they started shooting, I used my super-speed to grab hold of Taylor and Jack, pushing them into the nearest classroom and closing the door.

“Stay there!” I order. Then I turn and run towards one of the Catchers.

I try to punch him numerous times, but he keeps blocking me with his gun, so I grabbed onto it and pul
led, flipping the Catcher over.

He immediately got up and tried to swing at me with the gun, staggering back. But I continued to duck and tried to at least get a hit in. I grab the gun and attempt to pull it from his hands, but his strength seemed to be same as mine, so I was out of luck. So

instead I pull it down on his stomach. As he releases it from his grasp, I throw it to the side. I am now able to punch him countless times, hitting him repeatedly for a short period of time. I try to prolong it as much as I could, but it all comes to a halt when I notice him reaching into his black cloak, pulling out a reflective object. I pull out Alex’s knife and stab him before he even has a chance to use it.

As I remove the object from his body, wiping away the green slime that covered it against my jeans, I turn to see a dead Catcher on the ground
, with Alex walking towards me.

“Wow,” she says to me, smiling. “I stand corrected. You’ve gotten better.”

Are you serious?!
I think.
How many times must you compliment my skills? I mean, honestly, how good I was before?

Not that I was offended by the comment. In fact, I was very appreciative of it. But that still doesn’t mean I wasn’t a little taken aback. She continues to puzzle me by saying things about me
that I didn’t know, and it really has me set on edge. But time is not my best friend at the moment, and the only thing I can do now is grit my teeth and relax. Once all of this is over, I will have my say.

“You can come out now,” I say aloud, slipping the knife back into my pocket.

Taylor and Jack exit the classroom, and we were about to continue moving when suddenly I notice a Catcher walking behind them. Without thinking, I run towards him with my super-speed, grab the gun and punch him in the jaw. He tries to punch me back, but I duck and avoid his swing. I grab hold of his arm, elbow it downward and flip him over, causing a powerful impact as he hits the ground, leaving it with cracks.