Family Reunion: Family

Felix had tracked down his former apprentice and copycat to the burnt ruins of a seaside hotel that Tom had burnt in order to disrupt a meeting where humans were trying to sell a drug that stripped a Protector of their powers to a group of Vinto. The resulting blaze killed Vicky and her parents, Marcus and his bodyguards and had been presumed to have killed Professor Timothy Ritchie.

Knowing that Tom wanted to atone for the mistakes that he made that had sent Faye insane, Felix was able to convince his friend to tag along. The two of them were leaning against the seawall opposite to the hotel in the middle of the day, readying themselves for what they may have to do once inside.

            ‘You sure you want to do this?’ Tom asked as Penny and Faye walked up to the hotel.

            ‘Absolutely,’ Felix nodded. ‘They’re not like us, they can’t resist her control. And because of that they are a threat to our lives.’

            ‘But they are family,’ Tom noted.

            ‘So were Geoff and Matt, hell even Jackie is family,’ Felix countered.

            ‘Yeah, but they sided against us, even if she turned them against us. Penny and Faye stood by our side as we dealt with Grey and his little extermination plan,’ Tom explained as the traffic lights turned red, allowing them to cross. ‘It may be worth keeping Pen alive though,’ Tom suggested once they reached the otherside.

            ‘Why?’ Felix questioned.

            ‘Because Jackie killed her mother. Kelvin explained that we didn’t want to be controlled because we hated her, so why would Penny want to be controlled by her if she killed her mother?’ Tom described as they made their way up the stairs.

            ‘So you think we could use her as an additional Protector against Jackie,’ Felix guessed as he looked across to Tom to see his eyes glowing faintly red.

            ‘Actually, I think her part in this stretches far beyond Jackie,’ Tom smiled. ‘Promise me one thing.’

            ‘Okay, what?’ Felix questioned as they stood outside the burnt doors of the hotel.

            ‘If I die, I want you to take my place,’ Tom detailed. ‘I want you to take control of what will remain of the Protectors and lead them against whatever threat rears its ugly head.’

            ‘But you’re not gonna die,’ Felix exclaimed. ‘You are basically immortal because you can just refresh your body by changing your age.’

            ‘Even I have a limited number of lives,’ Tom sighed. ‘Each identity can only die once. And if they all die quickly enough then I won’t be able to regenerate into an alternate identity if I don’t have any free, especially as there isn’t much use in turning into a baby. And that isn’t even considering if the death is so quick that I don’t even have time to react. So promise me.’

            ‘I will,’ Felix nodded in agreement. ‘What are you seeing?’

            ‘Just images,’ Tom explained. ‘Taleon and Zoombian fighting; the planet on fire; Jackie’s body; you leading the remnants of the protectors alongside Lizzy and Penny…’

            ‘And Naomi?’ Felix pushed, noticing Tom’s trail off into silence.

            ‘She’s fighting alongside me but not me, protecting a world that isn’t her own,’ Tom sighed. ‘You take Penny, I’ll handle Faye.’

            ‘Yes, because it always works out like that,’ Felix laughed as Tom’s eyes slowly began to fade back to normal.

            ‘Better to enter with a plan that changes on the fly than enter without a plan and need to improvise everything.’

Without saying another word, the two pushed the burnt doors our of their way and began canvassing the burnt remains of the hotel’s reception, searching for any traps that could kill them before they even made it to their targets.

            ‘Nothing,’ Felix whispered quietly. ‘This doesn’t make sense…they’ve never been this careless.’

            ‘You’ve never been this careless,’ Tom shrugged. ‘They probably think that they are safe, that no one is going to go after them.’

            ‘But why?’ Felix countered. ‘Jackie wants to kill everyone who stood against her, which narrows the list down to every Protector who is still alive, including Penny and Faye.’

            ‘I dunno,’ Tom smiled. ‘They’re both insane last time I checked. Perhaps that’s why.’

            ‘Or this is going to be a lot harder than we think,’ Felix noted as he put his hands against the door that led to the Swimming Pool. ‘This way,’ he gestured as he pushed the door open.

            ‘What makes you so sure?’ Tom asked quickly.

‘I trained them,’ Felix explained. ‘Hide in the area that is easiest to fight in.’

‘A swimming pool?’ Tom questioned, unable to see how it is the easiest place to fight.

‘Josie came after us a few years ago. Faye killed her,’ Felix explained, causing Tom to follow him through the door.

‘So that’s why Josie disappeared,’ Tom guessed. ‘You reckon it was Jackie?’

‘Absolutely,’ Felix nodded in agreement as they approached the glass windows that separated the pool from the corridor opposite. ‘Anything?’

‘No. I haven’t received any short term images since I killed my dad,’ Tom sighed sadly. ‘I think the extra power that is flowing through me is causing the long term images that used to only come at night now come during the day. However, on the bright side, I was able to sleep properly for the first time ever last night.’

‘So we have no idea what they are going to throw at us?’ Felix complained, initiating a nod in confirmation from Tom.

‘Since when do we ever?’ Tom laughed as he placed his hand against the window, using his superspeed to vibrate the glass until it shattered.

As the glass crashed to the ground, Penny ran out of the changing room while the water in the swimming pool began to thrash back and forth before a plume of water erupted upwards and landed next to Penny. As the water subsided Tom realised that Faye had materialised next to Penny.

            ‘Are we really that big of a threat?’ Faye questioned, shocked at the fact that Tom and Felix were coming after them.

            ‘No,’ Tom shrugged. ‘We’re here because you can be a threat if Jackie is able to invade your minds with her own.’

            ‘Mind Control?’ Penny questioned. ‘Wasn’t that Tanya, and only Tanya. You know, the girl who was slaughtered by the Zoombians in 2984?’

            ‘And apparently as a supressed ability in my mother,’ Tom shrugged as the water began to boil.

            ‘We have somewhere we can hide you until this all blows over,’ Felix suggested as a plume of water began to grow out of the pool.

            ‘Fat chance. I am not being locked up again!’ Faye screamed as she thrust her arms forwards causing the water plume to suddenly dart towards Tom.

            ‘We don’t want to hurt you Faye,’ Tom exclaimed as he caught the water in a force field.

            ‘Well I really want to hurt you,’ she snarled back.

            ‘Get to Penny, get her out,’ Tom whispered to Felix.

            ‘What are you going to do to her?’ he asked as the plume of water began to weaken.

            ‘Hopefully take her in,’ Tom sighed as the water stopped completely. ‘But if I have to, then I will.’

            ‘Hopefully you won’t,’ Felix noted shortly before Tom disappeared in a blur that stretched across the pool and into Faye, who shot backwards into the wall.

Using the distraction, Felix ran to Penny who pulled her two knifes off of her belt. As he ran around the pool he began to take in the surroundings and piece together what had happened on the day that the hotel had burnt to the ground. He looked out into the hallway from which he came and then back at the walls of the pool with the realisation hitting him slower than it should have. They were here whilst the deal occurred above… And Faye stopped the blaze? But for what?

In her currently life, Penny was a sixteen year old serial killer who had the ability to mimic anyone she sees to a near perfect degree. This meant that even Tom and Felix didn’t know how many people she’d killed, with a number of her murders being mimics of other killers. However, by looking at her you would never be able to tell that she was a killer.

For starters, she looked around eight years old, in addition to having her hair being in a two long black pig tails, being four foot ten inches and having to almost exclusively wear clothes meant for a thirteen year olds. She also acted very much like a kid, having fallen into the habit of mimicking Faye whom had essentially gone insane after meeting Felix, and then proceed to go even further insane after he dumped her, causing her to revert to simpler times from before her body was overcome with hormones.

            ‘I don’t want to fight you Felix,’ Penny warned with her knifes raised.

            ‘I don’t want to fight you Penny,’ Felix promised. ‘We’re here to take you in.’

            ‘Tom seemed ready to fight, almost like he was planning it,’ Penny countered.

            ‘Only Faye, we knew Faye wouldn’t come with us, and would likely try to kill us,’ Felix explained as he moved closer to her, his hands in the air to show his lack of weapons. ‘We know you don’t want to fight. I can help you,’ he promised.

            ‘Help me how?’ she snapped, pushing the knifes closer to Felix as a warning.

            ‘By giving you a fresh start, without your powers, without your memories, without everything that I turned you into,’ he promised, unfazed by her warning. ‘All I ask in return is that you help us take Jackie down.’

            ‘That’s your fight, not mine,’ Penny retorted.

            ‘The bitch has taken just as much from you as the rest of us. If not even more,’ he pushed as Faye flew across the pool and into the burnt wall of the corridor.

            ‘What has she taken from me exactly?’ Penny cried. ‘There was nothing for her to take,’ she added as tears began to flow down her face. ‘I was nothing but the bastard child from a one night stand whose mother ran away.’

            ‘Your mother didn’t run away,’ Felix elaborated. ‘And besides, at least your parents loved each other! Mine hated each others guts and chose to stay together solely for Leo and I!’

            ‘What happened to my mother then? If she didn’t run away then what happened to her?’ Penny yelled as Tom threw Faye into another wall.

            ‘She was murdered, by the same person that we want your help in fighting,’ Felix described. ‘And our dad fared no better, she turned him against his family to the point that he didn’t stop attacking me until I finally ended him.’

            ‘I guessed my mum was dead, but murdered?’ Penny cried. ‘You want me to help avenge her, don’t you?’

            ‘I want your help to finally rid this world of that monster before she figures out how to amplify her powers to the entire planet,’ Felix explained as Penny lowered her knifes.

            ‘Why me?’ she questioned as the knifes clattered to the ground and she fell forwards into Felix’s arms, openly weeping.

            ‘Because you may think that you are weak, but your mind is strong, and there is absolutely no way of her getting into your head,’ Felix smiled while comforting her. ‘You are stronger than you believe sis, always remember that.’

            ‘Okay,’ she cried as she finally accepted the world around her for the first time since the robots had kidnapped her.

            ‘Wrap it up!’ Felix yelled after sitting with Penny for a couple of minutes.

            ‘Aw…but I was having fun,’ Tom complained as Faye landed on the opposite side of the pool.

Beneath them, Felix began to feel the vibrations of the Earth itself. He looked to Tom for confirmation that he could also feel the vibrations.

            ‘She’s already set it in motion,’ Felix warned.

            ‘I have to,’ Tom moaned. ‘I have to kill her in order to take her power. It’s the only way to stop it.’

Felix nodded and looked away as Tom held his palm up towards Faye and released a small black beam of energy that struck and enveloped the girl before causing her lifeless body to slump to the ground.

            ‘Sorry,’ Tom sighed sadly as a blue aura rippled up off of the corpse and towards him. Shortly after enveloping him, the tips of his hair began to slowly turn blue as the power took root inside of his body. ‘Take her back to the house, get her some rest,’ Tom suggested before he disappeared in a blur.

Tom rematerialized out on the beach, much to the surprise of those watching as the tsunami approached, not quite realising that their lives were in danger. ‘This should be fun,’ he stated sarcastically while stretching his neck. A couple seconds later and he was a small blue blur running across the shallow bay as he raced to strike the wave before it could do more damage.

He awoke later on in the day, back at his house with Felix and Penny hovering over him. ‘What happened?’ he questioned as he sat up, his head aching.

            ‘Jackie happened,’ Penny complained.

            ‘She’s had her power longer than you have, so when you tried to stop the wave she simply overpowered you, which caused the wave to crash into you,’ Felix explained. ‘However, I had managed to get enough kinetic energy from the vibrations that the wave was causing in the ground to send a shockwave at it and vaporise it.’

            ‘Don’t be bummed about not being the one to destroy it though,’ Penny added cheerfully. ‘It was a tag team effort on your part that destroyed it. Had you not been running across the water like you were then she would have focused on Felix and taken him out instead.’

            ‘Who are you and what have you done with Penny,’ Tom questioned as he took note of her out of character cheerfulness.

            ‘Reality,’ she stated simply. ‘Without it I was insane and went through my day mimicking people, which was mostly depressed people who hated their jobs. But you guys helped to pull be back to it, which made me remember how to be my own person without having to mimic off of anyone in order to get through my day. So when do we kill a bitch?’

            ‘Soon,’ Tom promised. ‘Soon…’