Rebel squad pixie rebels.., p.1
Rebel Squad (Pixie Rebels Book 2), page 1
REBEL SQUAD
PIXIE REBELS™ BOOK TWO
MARTHA CARR
MICHAEL ANDERLE
This book is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Sometimes both.
Copyright © 2023 LMBPN Publishing
Cover by www.mihaelavoicu.com
Cover copyright © LMBPN Publishing
A Michael Anderle Production
LMBPN Publishing supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.
The distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact support@lmbpn.com. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
LMBPN Publishing
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Las Vegas, NV 89109
Version 1.00, March 2023
ebook ISBN: 979-8-88541-955-0
Print ISBN: 979-8-88878-260-6
THE REBEL SQUAD TEAM
Thanks to our JIT Readers
Christopher Gilliard
Peter Manis
Diane L. Smith
Jackey Hankard-Brodie
Dave Hicks
Jan Hunnicutt
CONTENTS
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
The Story Continues
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Author Notes - Martha Carr
Author Notes - Michael Anderle
Books By Michael Anderle
Connect with The Authors
CHAPTER ONE
“Are you sure it’s not too late to go back on our deal?”
Z Thornbrook looked at Domino. “Tell me you’re not serious.”
He scanned the room where they’d been waiting for about twenty minutes and shrugged.
“You know I’m not, but we’d be doing something if we were back on Oriceran instead of stuck waiting in a room. Again.”
His sister Echo fixed him with her impassive gaze and punched a fist into her opposite palm. Because there was no one else in the room with them, she was comfortable enough to share her thoughts out loud. “I’ll give you something to focus on. Like a face sandwich.”
“What?” Domino looked from her to Z and wrinkled his nose. “Did you guys learn something new without me?”
“Knuckle sandwich,” Z replied with a smirk. “The humans call it a ‘knuckle’ sandwich.”
Echo looked at her fist, turning it over so she could study her knuckles. “Huh.”
Domino snickered. “You know, although I like this planet, it’s confusing as hell. How does that even make sense? Fist in face equals a sandwich? Where’s the bread? What about the mayo?”
Z pointed at him. “I do like mayo.”
“Right?”
“I bet if I gave some humans knuckle sandwiches,” Echo added in a toneless voice, “I could get at least half of them to tell me what it means.”
“Oh, yeah?” Z leaned back in the metal folding chair in front of the desk. “How many humans do you think you’d have to hit to get an explanation?”
“At least a hundred.” Echo gazed at the ceiling and narrowed her dark eyes. “Maybe two.”
“Sounds like fun.” Domino straightened and clapped his hands. “I’m in. When do we start?”
“Yesterday,” his sister muttered. “Let’s go.”
Z closed her eyes and sighed. She knew her cousins’ discussion of punching one or two hundred humans in the face was just talk.
With pops, the two pixies disappeared in twin bursts of color. One was dull gray, the other shimmering copper.
Here we go again.
Z joined them, popping in a burst of deep blue before racing after her cousins and zipping in front of them.
Domino and Echo pulled up short and stared at the blue-haired pixie.
With her arms folded, Z blocked her older cousins from the doorknob and cocked her head. “We said we’d wait.”
“We’ve said a lot of things in our lives, Z.” Domino spread his arms. “Did all those things happen? Probably not.”
“But when we give our word?” Z looked from one cousin to the other and adopted a disapproving expression. She hoped it would get the point across. “I thought that meant something.”
“I wanna hand out knuckle sandwiches.” Echo darted toward the office floor and the sliver of space between it and the bottom of the door.
Z was after her in a flash and pulled up in front of her again. “We’re legit now, right? Passed all the tests and everything. There’ll be plenty of time for punching people in the face. Later. After we do what we’d said we do and finish waiting, and only if they deserve it.”
She pointed at the chairs.
Her cousins exchanged disgruntled looks. Then Domino darted back to where he’d been sitting.
His sister wasn’t nearly so eager to give up and wait. Blanking her face, she darted quickly to the right.
Z cut her off in a blur of blue light.
Echo zipped to the left to be off again. In seconds, blurred streaks of gray and blue light were zipping up and down in front of the office door. When she’d had enough, Echo growled in frustration and darted toward the bookshelves at the back of the tiny office. The thick binders and books of regulations stacked on the shelves thumped against each other as she pushed through them to find a hiding place to pout in.
Z sighed. As soon as we’re out of this room, she’ll find something else to focus on. Maybe she’ll get a few knuckle sandwiches in.
With another pop, Z resumed the human-sized version of herself, all five feet five inches of it. She stretched her wings behind her and shuddered as she stared at the disrupted bookshelf.
“Echo.”
“You’re no fun.” Her cousin’s high-pitched voice emerged from the stack of books, muffled but clearly frustrated.
Z couldn’t help snickering. “I know you don’t mean that.”
“Try me.”
“No thanks.” Z clomped across the linoleum floor to her seat and slumped onto it, making the metal frame squeak. “Trust me. I don’t like waiting any more than you guys do.”
“You’d rather stay in this cramped room doing nothing just because we said we would?” Domino leaned back in his chair, clasped his hands behind his head, and kicked out both legs in front of him. Then he and the entire chair rose four feet in the air and hovered so he could prop his boot heel on the edge of the desk. “Sounds like somebody’s trying to play both sides of the dollar bill if you ask me.”
“I didn’t ask you.” Trying not to laugh or to look up at him, Z folded her arms and closed her eyes. “And it’s both sides of the ‘coin.’”
“Well, that’s dumb. We should be able to say it however we want.” He cocked his head, eyeing her from his elevated position. “Did you find some kinda human-translation book or something? ‘Cause that’s twice you told us we got the sayings wrong just now. Makes a guy wonder if you’ve been brushing up on the lingo while he’s been asleep.”
“No, Dom. I didn’t find a human-phrases dictionary.”
“Had to ask.” He closed his eyes again.
A heavy sigh came from the bookshelf, but nothing more. Echo wasn’t ready to rejoin her brother and cousin for their assignment in waiting and more waiting.
This is getting ridiculous, Z thought. We graduated from training over a week ago, and so far, we’ve done nothing but wait.
That was the most frustrating thing about this in-between period. They’d officially completed Basic Training through Major Winters’ Oriceran Integration Program, only to be made to wait.
Every time Z thought she might get some time to herself, she and her cousins were interrupted for “one more thing,” taken to another room or bay or cramped office, and kept waiting to be assigned a task that ended up taking them five minutes to complete.
“This better be the last time we have to sit around like a bunch of useless worms,” Domino murmured.
Z snorted. “I can’t think of anything else.”
“You know what it feels like?” Domino shifted in his chair to look down at her. “Remember that time we were trying to break into that jewelry store, and we kept having to turn back because Bill kept forgetting to bring the right tools?”
“That was a pain in the ass, yeah,” Z mused.
“The humans are forgetting everything here too. Oh, the pixies need more uniforms? Let’s take ’em to another room so they can wait for the guy to take ’em to another room so they can wait for the guy who’s gonna measure them for uniforms. Awesome.”
“Maybe they’re just trying to make sure everybo
“Come on, Z. That’s like saying we all need to breathe, so how about we all line up and everybody takes a tiny sliver of a breath one at a time.”
Z blinked quickly and tried to figure out how her cousin’s mind worked. “I guess.”
“Then with the whole intake thing, right?” Domino must really be frustrated since he was now voicing all his complaints. It didn’t matter that his sister and his cousin had been through the same ordeal. “First it’s fingerprints. Then no fingerprints. Then off to another room so they can throw lasers at our eyeballs and call it biohazard skinning.”
“Wait.” She looked up at him, on the verge of laughter. “I think you mean biometric scanning.”
“You know exactly what I mean.” He stabbed a finger at her and didn’t smile. “Whatever it’s called, it’s just as dumb as everything else they’ve pulled. Like, they know we can change our eyes whenever we want, just like the rest of us, right?” Domino gestured up and down his body. “Even though this right here is a total work of art.”
“Sure, Dom. They know.” With another snort, Z closed her eyes again. “Just like they know you’re a master of disguise.”
“Hey!” Domino leaned over the side of his floating chair, clicked his tongue, and grinned. “I’m flattered, Z. Thanks.”
“Ha. Anything to boost your ego, buddy. No problem.”
As if that was all he’d wanted to hear, the copper pixie tipped his head over the back of his hovering chair and clasped his hands behind it again. “I guess you’re right, though.”
“Oh, really?” Z tried to keep a straight face.
“Well, sure. Winters kept his end of the deal, right? We passed the stupid test he gave us at the end of oipcamp, so now we’re officially Army soldiers.”
“Didn’t the major sound proud when it happened?”
They both snickered, then Domino said thoughtfully, “I told you I asked him about the smoke, right?”
“What?” Z opened her eyes.
“Sure. Saw him in the hall the other day when I went to the little humans’ room. You know, to—”
“I know what a bathroom is, Dom.”
“Right. Of course you do. No idea why the guy acted like he didn’t wanna talk to me. New oip soldier and all that. He should’ve at least acted proud. I asked him about the smoke.”
Z waited for her cousin to continue. When he didn’t, she asked, “What about the smoke?”
“Oh. You know, what he did to it to make it so easy for us to blast through. Not like I’m complaining, but after that last test, I kept thinking about that time on Oriceran when we were goofing around in that wizard’s cabin. Remember his fireplace? The one with all the—”
The bookshelf thumped, and the books shuddered against each other as Echo burst from her hiding place. She darted over to hover above the desk.
“We burned that shit to the ground!” she screeched, her arms spread wide above her, ending in fists of victory.
Z and Domino stared at her, then burst out laughing.
“Hard to forget,” Z finally said. “Especially the look on his face!”
“Like he wanted to kill us and then himself when…when all his little experiments went up in…purple flames!” Domino spat between bouts of laughter.
The pixies enjoyed the memory a moment longer. Even Echo, who had a hint of a knowing smile at the corners of her mouth. With a contented sigh, Domino shook his head and tipped his chair back. “We had some good times on that planet. You know, before…”
“Yeah,” Z replied wistfully. “I’m good with the memories, thanks.” She shot her cousin a curious look. “I’m guessing the major didn’t have much to say about the smoke, huh?”
“Nope. Couldn’t even tell me why it was much easier to blast it all away on this planet with a bunch of blind soldiers behind us. But hey, winners can’t be losers, right?”
Z didn’t bother to correct yet another misunderstood human phrase. She did, however, wonder about the smoke thing too. Now that she thought about it, three pixies blasting away the thick, acrid black smoke had been a hell of a lot easier than she’d expected.
She hadn’t been thinking about anything but finishing their “training” so they could get out of oipcamp and start doing something with their time on Earth. Unfortunately, their time on Earth didn’t belong to them anymore. For the duration of their contract as OIP soldiers, they owed their time, dedication, service, and apparently their lives to the United States Army.
That was what it said on the paper, at any rate.
What was with the smoke thing? Winters would not make anything easy for us. Not on purpose, anyway.
“What did he say?” she asked.
Domino looked down at her. “Who?”
“Winters, Dom!”
“Oh, yeah. He told me to quit wasting his time and go ask someone else a bunch of stupid questions. Couldn’t find anyone else in the hall right then, though, and there was nobody else in the crapper. I checked.”
Z wrinkled her nose at the thought of her cousin checking the stalls in the restroom. She was interrupted when Echo shot down and plunked on the edge of the desk. She popped into her human-sized form, still sitting on the edge of the desk with one leg crossed, and stared at her brother. “Next time, take me with you.”
“To the crapper?” Domino grimaced. “Come on, Echo. That’s too weird even for you.”
The goth slammed a fist into her opposite palm. “I’ll make him answer you.”
“You know what?” Domino pointed at her. “You’d make a great bouncer. That’d totally throw everyone off, right? Does the Army have nightclubs?”
The office was silent after that. Then Z asked the question she’d been silently asking herself about the smoke. “It’s probably just thicker on Oriceran.”
“What, the nightclubs?” Dom asked.
Echo punched her hand again. “Major Winters’ face?”
Z laughed. “The smoke. You know what? You guys sound like a broken record.”
“I think you mean ‘sticky merry-go-round,’” Domino corrected incorrectly. “But I’m willing to overlook it this one time.”
All three heard footsteps outside the office door and the squeak when someone turned the doorknob and opened the door.
The man didn’t bother to knock first, so he found one goth punching her palm, one chuckling dude with copper wings dropping in a chair from four feet in the air while jerking his boots off the desk, and one woman with short blue hair throwing her head back with a groan of frustration that didn’t sound feigned.
All four legs of Domino’s metal chair clanged on the floor. He grunted after the abrupt landing.
“Well, it’s about time, Major,” Z called before turning to face the door. “We were really starting to wonder if you…are not the major.”
Domino spun, grinning as he looked the newcomer over. “Whoa. Nice facelift, Major. You look great!”
The man who was not Major Winters clamped his mouth shut and cleared his throat. He glared at Domino. “If you can’t tell the difference between your CO and your escort, you’re gonna have a real problem getting outta here.”
“Hey, you know who you look like now?” Domino continued, shaking a thoughtful finger at the much younger uniformed person. “Aw, man. It’s right on the tip of my— That’s it! Sergeant Balsam. That’s who you look like.”
The sergeant’s only reaction was to blink a few times in disbelief. Then he turned his attention to Z. “Is he for real?”
She looked the man over and shrugged. “Are you?”
Echo returned to pixie size, darted toward her brother, and resized right beside him.
Balsam took a step back in surprise. “What is she doing?”
