It was waved around a bit, but not pointed at her.

  “You two will be blindfolded, and have to tell when I’m about to shoot at you. Get out of the way, because these things sting and neither of you have bothered to grow armor yet. That will be acceptable, if you can manage it. Armor, or a force field? Still, no mercy will be given.”

  She grinned, but didn’t shoot at them yet. They needed blindfolds first, so they couldn’t see it coming. Those were just sleeping masks, the kind that Hannah was used to using on long airplane flights. The landing zones were pointed at, by Patty. Each was marked with a different item. A chair, a coffee table, a small piano, a foot stool, and a soccer ball.

  That the Sinclair family had a soccer ball was actually kind of shocking. Even more than the idea that Patricia had picked up and carried a piano on her own. For a woman who was being hidden due to being passive, that didn’t seem to show when she spoke about what was about to happen, either.

  “I’ll call out where you need to go. Then I’ll either start shooting immediately or wait, and count to a random number first. The goal is to make it to the next location without being hit. If you are struck, you still have to get to the next location, as soon as possible. Teleportation only, to start with. When that changes, I’ll let you know. So… blindfolds on?”

  Kate seemed skeptical, but did it first, the tiny black mask being pulled over her eyes. Hannah did it, the world going dark, except around the edges, which was bright, since it was a nice summer day. The grass felt even under her feet, as she reviewed the locations she needed to find.

  “Kate, chair! Hannah, piano!”

  It took her a while to set up the move and make it happen. She was kind of ready for it, so hurried along in a little over twenty seconds. That was good for her.

  “Hannah, chair. Kate, table!”

  They ran through all of the locations, with Hannah cheating by the third one, setting up the next move before it was called out, by the third round. Then, after that, things suddenly got intense. She heard the word chair again, and as soon as she was there, had to lie flat on the ground, to not be hit by the paintballs, then roll, since the stream of projectiles didn’t stop at all.

  “Hannah, ball!”

  She was already trying to get on her way, while not being hit. In the next round she was struck, three times. In the face. That was while she was trying to dodge, even and it was a real distraction to her next move. As she cheated more, trying to push herself to move while not being hit, Kate clearly doing the same, the fire became even more accurate and came with less warning.

  The only way for her to improve, past a certain point, was to simply leap ahead, holding a partial move, or the information energy for it, all the time, inserting the location hard, when she was finally told what to do. While reading the world around her constantly. She didn't manage it all the time. When she failed, it hurt. Enough that she nearly asked for Patty to stop.

  Giving in to weakness.

  Kate actually did it, finally, and even if she couldn’t see it, Hannah heard a change going on. What that was, she didn’t know, at first. It took nearly ten minutes before she got the idea. Instead of being shot at with the wicked paintball gun, there were several of them aiming for her. Three, she thought, from the lines of fire. To make it worse, they all started moving, fast.

  Up into the air, changing location mid-stream as they shot at her and coming from all sides, without warning. Hannah was hit, over and again, trying to protect her face by covering it with her arms, as well as dodge and teleport as soon as she could. Finally, she just forced herself to hold a move, without the new location data, constantly. Mentally she was slamming that information home, as soon as she heard the words.

  “Chair… ball… table…” There was a pause, as she had to dodge again, a new voice calling out to her. It sounded like Kate, only wasn’t.

  Meaning it was, likely, Devya.

  “Fly! Twenty feet up, move, right to left. Dodge!”

  She did it, moving into flight faster than she’d ever done before. Honestly, she wasn’t certain she hadn’t teleported up at first, but managed to keep the faint lines of pain from hitting her, as she heard the popping noises. Hannah figured she was done then, but it didn’t happen.

  Instead of a break, or congratulations for doing a good job, Patty simply called out again.

  “Front yard, walkway!” It was clear that the new location, on the far side of the house, wasn’t going to be a long-term fix for her troubles. It took her longer to set up, too, having missed that it was going to happen that way.

  She was shot twice as she set that up.

  Only to be hit again, on the far side. This time Katherine yelled.

  “Chair!”

  Slamming that home and jumping right, she was yelled at to fly again, as soon as she was by the nice piece of furniture. Then things changed again, as Devya screamed at her.

  “Over the target by ten feet. Fly, constantly! Ball!”

  Patty called out when she managed it, without firing at all. There was no pause though.

  “Piano! Chair! Stool! Ball! Table!”

  After that, doing it as fast as she could, not really letting the move drop each time, holding herself ready constantly, she was finally given a small respite. She was gasping for air, for several different reasons, and dripping with sweat. When she took the mask off, she realized that she was also covered with paint.

  “I look like I was the centerpiece of a clown bukkake party.”

  Only Devya laughed at the words. Patty simply nodded and Kate didn’t seem to get what she meant at all. She didn't explain, either. The woman had Google, after all.

  There was applause though, as she smiled, her face stinging. Her arms, chest and legs, too. Not that she could see the welts. They were all covered with paint. That or paint-soaked clothing.

  She was about to say ow, when Kate shrugged.

  “Better, as for speed. About ten seconds for each one. So, practice that from now on? No more than ten seconds per move. For any of us. Devy, you’re up next. Patty, set us up for that?”

  That was done by giving Hannah one of the paintball guns, with a fresh air canister and a full hopper of red paintballs. Her being involved, as it turned out, made things a lot harder for Devya Pond than it had been for her. Plus, even being hit like she had been, Hannah had managed to avoid being hit a lot, using precognition. Devya was better at both teleporting and flying, but not getting out of the way or finding locations using her mind.

  The biggest difference was that Hannah was a much better shot than any of the others there. Paintball guns weren’t exactly sniper rifles, but inside a hundred feet they weren’t too bad. She gently pulled the trigger, and kept hitting three and four round bursts, directly into the woman’s blindfold. On purpose, since the thick fabric offered a bit of protection that bare skin simply didn’t. Still, there were stinging blows to the face as well, when she missed the moving target, occasionally.

  Which after seven minutes, had Devya stopping, even if she’d been doing fairly well, hitting her targets faster than Hannah had managed by a lot. Near the end, probably out of desperation, the woman had been almost flickering from one spot to the next.

  So Hannah clapped, loudly, when Patty said her sister could stop. Their might have been a bit of enthusiastic hooting, as well.

  “That was… brilliant! So, no excuses? You can do a move every second or two. You too, Kate. I’m not up to that yet. My best still had me basically holding a partial move constantly. I don’t know if I can walk around that way. Not that I won’t be doing that, if I can. Which…” She brought that up, while trying to hold a trance state and being aware of what was going on around her psychically. It wasn’t really working, but she did her best.

  Meaning she wasn’t really taken by surprise when Alistair spoke in her head.

  ~Hannah, Kate, Devya… You’re being requested for a mission, Society HQ. Emergency transport.~

  “Got it, Al! Heading that way now.” Hannah simply moved, trying to get there first. Even cheating and starting first, she was the last one in the conference room. June was there already, sitting at the table, with Vidya, Green Running Guy and Brain Trust. Hannah had seen the last man, who was portly, bearded and dressed in a suit, not a super outfit, once or twice before. If she passed him on the street she wouldn’t have known who he was, of course.

  The last man looked at them and gave a single nod.

  “Attacked by clowns?” That was a joke, clearly, since the man went on. He glanced at the others and nodded, seeing things that most would miss. Pieces of information that Hannah wouldn’t have gotten at all, in fact. “Or, training in… Teleportation, flight and several psychic functions? Using three different paintball guns from the pattern, with… Four shooters.”

  Hannah pointed at the man, sharply.

  “That last one. You need transportation?”

  June took over then, seeming in charge. More so than she normally did.

  “Thank you for all coming so quickly. We need to move ten people to the Congo. We have a map location. There’s a battle going on. An attempted coup, by a powered supremacist group. The U.S. State Department was asked for help, so they came to us. Everyone should be here for that in a few minutes. They had to suit up. Um, here… on the screen. Can you find this location?”

  For once, Hannah was the one to nod first, getting it without the map being needed at all.

  “I have it. I… Here. I’ll take both of you with me, then come back here, directly? In and out, away from the fighting. I have a good spot, I think.” She held out her hands, starting to make the move, trying to spread her field over both women, before they made contact with her. The din and racket on the other side nearly took her breath away.

  The world felt like it was exploding, even if the fighting was taking place in the distance, like she’d promised.

  Kate spoke first.

  “Got it!” Then she vanished. Devya simply went back, as a large streak of golden light headed toward her. There seemed to be a person in the middle of it, though she didn’t really realize that until she was back in the conference room, in the location she’d left from.

  Death Princess, dressed in her leather outfit, looked angry.

  “What the fuck was that? You all did two teleportations inside fifteen seconds? How?”

  The real answer was training, as well as holding the movement constantly, at least for her. Living like that felt impossible. Like a constant stress that she couldn’t hold for much longer, but she didn’t let go of the feeling.

  Devya shrugged.

  “Never underestimate the motivating power of clown bukkake?”

  That didn't go over well, but Vidya didn’t try to hit anyone. Katherine nodded though. It was cute.

  “Practice. Like it or not, we’re at war, so we’re all trying to get ready. You’re in with the kids this weekend, Hannah?”

  Her answer was a little slow, thanks to the focus she had going on.

  “Yep. Luther and Death Princess are as well. At least you need to make a showing, if possible, Vidya. Bring Stan, too? Honestly, we need to have Null working with Acid or Devastator.”

  She had to explain that then, since Brain Trust, the smartest person in the room, by far, wasn’t up on things totally. Not informing him about almost anything was probably a mistake.

  “We arranged powers for the new Trainees that didn’t have them already. To test the alien committee that judges that for us now? Don Welling can turn powers off. Code named Null.”

  That had the fat man nodding.

  “I understand. Those are good people for him to work with, then. You’re doing that as well, Damsel? On transport for the people who can’t be touched, most of the time?”

  She nodded, since that had actually been mentioned once, some weeks before.

  “Are they going in today? I’ll need to get there and hide first, in that case, then try to bring them to me. Well, I can do more than try, but I haven’t practiced being fast and doing that. It still hurts a lot.”

  Liberty shook her head.

  “Not this time. Everyone should be here in a bit. Trust, you hang back here. You three, drop the rest of us off, then get out, as fast as possible. We’ll handle the rest, on the ground there. Then you can pick us up, later? It will be faster than a plane flight. Not that we can’t do that, if you’re busy?”

  There was no wheedling in the words at all. Hannah shrugged.

  “We’ll all go in first. I’ll do the pickups on the far side of it myself? I need a shower, if I can do it, but, well, no one can tell who we are this way, at least.”

  Devya had a bare patch of pale skin where the blindfold had been, the rest of her face well covered with splotches in green, red and blue. Mainly red. Kate looked a bit better, but was covered well enough. In a few places there were visible welts, however. Raised areas, under the bright colors.

  Death Princess stood up, and gestured for the others.

  “That works. Thanks, Damsel. I agree, the slow pokes who are taking too long to get in here can work all weekend, helping to be a good example for the trainees. They’re sleeping in tents, you say?”

  She hadn’t said anything like that, but got the idea, when six new people jogged into the room. She just stepped away from the table, and waved.

  “Three at a time? It will be a bit slow, but I’ll take two in the first round. We’ll be about… A quarter mile from the fighting, in a small clearing, near the building that seems to be under attack.”

  Red Cape all but ran at her then, with Death Princess doing something similar. Accel, looking like a green blur, closed on Devya, with a man she didn’t even have a name for, dressed in a sexy bodysuit that had black, red and blue on it, went for Kate.

  It was hard, but as soon as she could slap the movement information over her two, she took them away. It hurt a bit, but they seemed fine. Kate and Devya were both gone by the time she got there, so she hurried back, to grab the next person, who was about nine feet tall, and made of gray stone.

  “Stoney?” She grabbed for the living golem statues arm, as it spoke. The voice was deep and manly.

  “Nice to see you, Damsel.”

  The words were finished in Africa. Kate already gone, her last person already there. In the end, the last one in was June, who went with Hannah, yelling go, as soon as everyone was there on the ground.

  She did, but only to touch base in the conference room. Kate and Devya were already gone, if they’d come back at all.

  “I need to clean up. That will probably be twenty minutes. You can get with Alistair if you need me before that?”

  Brain Trust smiled at her.

  “I can, thank you. That… You slowed down, on your second and third teleportation events. The others didn’t. Is that due to energy requirements? You were moving more mass than either of them.”

  She tilted her head, trying to think about the subject, not having a real answer.

  “I don’t know? One of the issues is that they’re just stronger than I am that way. On a biological level. They’re both genetically gifted and I’m just a baseline human.”

  That got a snort as the man looked at one of the three screens he had set up around him, which hadn’t been there before she’d left. Not opened up at least.

  “That’s doubtful. That you’re a baseline human, that is. You clearly didn’t directly inherit specific super human abilities from June’s line. There’s shape shifting as well? Your mother is Solaire, and your brother inherited her abilities, so that might have altered the situation. Clearly, not the part with your brother, but you aren’t from a normal line, on that side of your family at all. I’d love to do a genetics work up for you, if we ever get the time?”

  She nodded at the man.

  “Sure? I get flowers first, if you want that kind of thing from me. Maybe dinner?”

  A bit abstractly, the heavy guy nodded.

  “I’m pretty sure it doesn’t work that way. I mean, you should be giving me presents for the work, right? I’m incredible, after all.”

  It didn’t seem to be meant really, or even flirty, even if the words were right for that. She grinned anyway.

  “Fair enough. Right now, I need a shower. I’ll be right back. I’ll even put on my special uniform before going back into a battle zone and everything.”

  That seemed to be allowable. She left then, moving fast. Not just in the teleportation, but on the other side. A thing, a sense of urgency, that turned out to be a good plan. Every second she waited the paint was drying a bit more, and already took real scrubbing to get off. At the same time, she was pretty certain that the outfit she’d had on was ruined now. A thing to be replaced. That or kept for her next practice session. When she was out from under the water, not at all certain she’d gotten all the paint off, she noticed the pink and red welts all over her arms and chest. The mirror confirmed they were on her face as well, making it seem like she was sick.

  Possibly with something deadly.

  Sighing, she dried off as well as she could, then struggled into her tan body armor, which had a matching full faced mask. The whole thing was bland, and way too heavy for hanging out in Africa, in the jungle, but if she caught a stray bullet, it would do a lot more for her than her good looks would have.

  From her bedroom she moved directly back to the HQ building. After all, even if it had been a full two, possibly three hours, she didn’t want to see if Al and her sister were moving on to round three of the day’s events. That they’d done that almost instantly, as soon as they could get together… well, she had no clue what that meant.

  It probably wasn’t her business, and she wasn’t going to even think about it, if she could stop herself. Al would know if she was, after all. A thing which had to be annoying for him, even if he got that she wasn’t judging him over it.

  When she was back in the conference room, Brain Trust waved at her, almost instantly.

  “Pick up Liberty first. She’s standing by.”

  Hannah could have gone to get her, but the man pointed at a spot, about ten feet away, as if indicating where the woman in purple needed to go. It really was slower, trying to get her from a distance. She managed to do it after a full minute, and shuddered at the pain, but didn’t gasp. Moving his finger a bit, the man gave her a nod.

 

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