Battlefield (13 page)

 

“Boooooooooored,” JD said and shivered a little as he watched the riverbanks. Something should have been happening. An hour had already passed, at least, and nothing was going on. “Okay, so if we're supposed to be watching this team of other people show off their awesomeness, Alan, where are they?”

They had carpooled from Orlando's house to a nearby park and then hiked through the woods in the dark to their appointed station. It took a bit to adjust to the lighting, but the moonlight provided enough to see by. This portion of the park was elevated from the river. The water had carved its way through and made some fairly impressive hills and drops over time. Here the current was slower. Further north was a popular waterfall a lot of teenagers went to for dates and thus littered the park with their make-out sessions. JD once frequented the place with one of his ex-girlfriends.

“Yeah, Alan, where are these guys? To think I gave up my Saturday night for this,” Orlando mumbled.

“And what exactly were you going to do anyway? Did you have a hot date with your computer?” JD asked.

He rolled his eyes. “Something a lot more entertaining than waiting for mosquitoes to bite me, I can tell you that much. What are you doing wearing that thing anyway? There's nobody here.”

JD pointed at his mask. “You never know who's watching, man.”

“Fine.” Orlando put on his mask and sat down in the grass, shivering.

Alan sighed and paced around the area. “He did this on purpose.”

“Who did?”

Cadence said, “His superior. And I would hope he wouldn't lie to you. Unless there's something going on that we don't know about?”

More secrets, and JD didn't like that. What did she know? Outside of everything.

“If we're out here for nothing—” Orlando said.

JD rolled his eyes. “You need to take a chill pill, man.”

“Shh!” Orlando waved a hand at him. “There's someone down by the water.” He pointed down towards the river, and two forms in dark clothes were just barely visible.

JD's eyes practically lit up, and he crept closer to get a better look. “I see two of them. No, three. No, two.” He did his best to speak quietly despite all of his excitement. His heart was racing so loudly he almost couldn't hear anything else over its thumping. “Yeah, it's two.”

“Glad we've established this.” Orlando stood behind him, also crouching down. “I wonder what they're doing. Are these the people on the other team, Alan?”

When the two teens stared at the alien, his face was pale. “This is who attacked me at your school.”

“You serious? Bad guys.” JD returned his attention back to the duo. The most he could tell about them was one was male and the other female. Beyond that, there weren't any other defining features to work with. Alan either had good eyes or good intuition. “You know, we should think about getting code names. Just saying.”

“We can talk about that later. Shouldn't we tell someone they're here?” Cadence said. She stood back from the group and hugged her arms.

Alan shook his head. “No, I was told to not interrupt their objective no matter what happened. We observe just like we were told to do.”

JD began to creep forward again, finding a nearby bush and ducking behind it. “I'm going to observe closer then.”

With a sigh, Orlando followed him, throwing up his hands in defeat. The two slowly and carefully made their way down the cliffside of the riverbank, trying to make as little noise as possible as they kept their footing while stepping on twigs, rocks, and leaves. How the other two got down so easily was a mystery, because without Orlando's telekinetic abilities, JD was certain one of them would have fallen and broken something.

“I think this is too close to the entrance. We're not even a mile downstream from the park, and I don't think it would be a good idea to—” they could now hear one of Alan's attackers say. He didn't sound much older than them actually.

“The body will drift. The current is strong enough here that nobody is going to know. Unless you think it would be a good idea to carry him further down and then drop him in, but that might look more suspicious. Do you trust me, Bean?” the girl said.

“Yes, Sprout, you know I trust you,” the boy said.

The girl nodded and took a moment to pull her long, wavy blond hair back into a ponytail. The moonlight was hitting them just right, so that the two teens spying could get just enough of their physical features. Not that it made much difference in the end because the masks worn by the other two distorted anything remotely recognizable. All that he could make out was they were both tall, athletic, and blond.

“Do what I say then. Help me with him,” she said and stepped back into the forest.

“Code names,” JD mouthed to Orlando, briefly turning his attention away from the scene.

“Dead people,” Orlando mouthed back and pointed back to the two.

Dead people. It took a moment to sink into JD's mind. He'd never been close to a corpse before; he'd never actually even seen one. Sure, he'd had relatives die, but more often than not he had babysitting duty for the rest of the family. The closest thing he'd ever come to death was a visit to the local mortuary for a school fieldtrip while his health class was studying mortality. Now there was a dead person nearby, and not one that was cleaned up. A legit person who may have just keeled over. It was hard to figure out what was more disturbing—the fact that he was close to this body, or that these two teens were completely unfazed by it.

His stomach turned, and he literally started to shake when he saw that the two didn't pull a body out from the wilderness. They walked out with a third, living one.

“Please, help me,” the third person said in between sobs.

It was a teenage boy, and it took a moment to figure that out because his voice was cracking so badly.

Bean looked at his companion and opened his mouth to say something, but she shook her head, so he held it in.

“Please?”

JD faced Orlando and gestured silently, “Do something!”

He shook his head. “You crazy?”

JD sighed and made more gestures, illustrating that this boy was going to die if they didn't do something—duh. How could Orlando not want to help? But the guy wasn't budging, and they were running out of time. He picked up a rock and decided to take things into his own hands, literally. Right before he was about to throw it, Orlando grabbed his hand to stop him.

He made a small gesture, and then the sound of a loud thunk was heard further away. Bean and Sprout both stopped what they were doing and searched around them. There were more thuds and thunks and rocks actually started to pelt at the two from out of the forest in all directions. Sprout let out a shriek of surprise, and JD gasped as she summoned up a protective wall of vines.

“Who's out there?” she yelled and slowly brought her shield down once the attack subsided.

“Sprout, maybe we should—” Bean said.

“Don't be a coward. Show yourself.”

Neither of the two boys said a word, watching and waiting to see if she would dare try to come after them. She didn't move from where she stood. Instead, she turned her attention back to her captive. That was when JD stepped forward.

“What are you doing? Are you nuts?” Orlando whispered.

“I'm not a coward,” he said, not bothering to lower his voice. He didn't care if she heard him, or if their cover was blown. They weren't going to kill that guy.

Sprout had heard him, and she faced him, peering through the forest. “What was that?”

“I'm not a coward,” JD said louder and stepped closer, carefully making his way down to the banks. The terrain was less steep here, so it was a lot easier for him to maneuver. He was pretty sure Alan and Cadence were watching and freaking out that he would do this. At the bottom he adjusted his jeans, but that was only to distract his mind from screaming at him. He was terrified. There was a snap of twigs behind him. Orlando was coming. JD smiled.

Sprout stared between the two guys and folded her arms in front of her. At least she wasn't attacking or trying to kill them. Not yet at least. “Who are you?”

He faltered a little because he hadn't thought about a code name yet, which was funny because he had everything else figured out for his “super hero” persona. They needed to get working on costumes. His street clothes were just not cutting it. “I'm...”

“You're?” Sprout prodded.

“This is going to be good,” Orlando mumbled, finally joining them. He picked a twig off his jacket and smirked, his eyes fixed on his comrade.

JD stepped forward confidently, determined to not let this girl intimidate him. Sure, she had a rather powerful ability, and he had absolutely no way of defending himself, but that didn't mean she was better than him. Besides, Orlando had his back. He glanced behind her and noticed Bean was nowhere to be found. Looks like he had the better sidekick.

“I'm
Chihuahua Man.”

Clearly, Orlando or Sprout weren't sure if they should take him seriously or not. She frowned, and her eyes narrowed. Orlando, on the other hand, was doing his best to not break out into a fit of laughter. He covered his mouth with a hand, and his blue eyes lit up in the moonlight underneath his mask. It definitely broke all of the tension.

“That's so fierce,” Orlando said once he was able to control himself again. Not that it was much of a compliment, given the way he exaggerated it with a lisp. JD's jaw tightened.

“Stuff it, man.”

“Oh Chi-Chi, you make it way too easy on me.”

“Should I leave you two lovebirds alone to quarrel? Because I have business to attend to. Now that I see you're actually very pathetic, I don't feel like I need to be wasting my time on you anymore.” Sprout raised an eyebrow. She turned on her heel, and moved back towards the forest where Bean was no doubt hiding with their victim.

JD went after her, quickly catching up and matching her pace. “You can't kill him.”

A vine came up and smacked him hard in the stomach, nearly knocking him down. “Don't get involved because you don't know anything. Go home.”

“No.”

She hit him again with another vine. “Go. Home.”

“No.”

Another came up to strike him, but this one froze mere inches in front of his face. It was so thick, and it had thorns that looked like they could tear him apart; and they might have if Orlando hadn't stopped them with his powers.

“I think you should go home,” he said, glaring. He stepped forward, staying even with JD, a move that was appreciated. It was the first time Orlando acted like he respected his peer.

The girl moved forward, getting up close and personal with him. They were practically breathing on one another.

“Are you going to make me?”

A corner of Orlando's mouth twitched up into a half smile. “You'd like that a lot, wouldn't you?”

“Or are you speaking about yourself,” she said.

“Don't flatter yourself.”

“Amateur,” she said with a laugh and the next thing they knew, the two guys were surrounded by vines.

One came up behind JD and tripped his legs. He fell onto his back so hard the wind was knocked out of him, and he watched as another went after Orlando. He jumped one vine, dodged another with a roll, and stopped a third with his psychic powers. He missed, however, another vine snaking around his ankle, and he face-planted into the dirt.

Coughing and spitting wet soil from his mouth, a growl came out from deep inside him, and with a glare he knocked her over onto her backside with a psychic shove. Sprout shrieked with surprise. She tried to pick herself up, but Orlando knocked her down over and over again. JD took advantage of her distraction.

Crawling to the foliage, he ducked behind a tree. He closed his eyes, standing, breathing deeply. Running was an option, but the sound of their victims voice gave him chills.

JD imagined himself being a ninja or a secret agent. That helped him stop shaking
. I'm on a mission to save the world. I am the only hope. I am the Chihuahua Man. Could I have picked something more lame? Dum-didi-dum-didi-dum-didi-dum.
He sang his own theme music under his breath.

He moved in the direction he last saw Bean go. His feet ran silently across the forest floor. The more he thought about being the ninja, the more he acted like one.
Dum-didi-dum-didi-dum-didi-dum.

“There you are.” He slinked up closer to assess the situation before making any definite moves.

JD found Bean hovering over his victim who was lying in a small pile of leaves and grass. The guy was quiet and still. JD couldn't help himself. He had to know.

“Why did you do it?”

Bean faced him. He was so much gentler than his counterpart and couldn't meet JD's eyes. “I didn't. I don't ever...I just...I'm sorry.”

The teens stood silently. JD felt no point in being aggressive. Bean wore enough regret and pain on his face alone to make up for any lack of physical punishment.

“If it's not you, then who's doing it? I don't believe you're a bad guy, Bean. I'm sure together we can get you out of this. Can you tell me what's going on?” JD said, and moved closer. He could see the teen victim, who was still very much alive. The guy's chest rose and fell, shallowly, but it was something, right?

Bean frowned and rubbed his arms. “You can't get me out, and I'm not sure if I want you to. I'm not a killer though, and neither is Sprout. It's The Doctor.”

“The Doctor?”

“Yeah, that's what he calls himself. You wanna stop this, you gotta start with him. I'm just your standard lackey, we both are.” He paused. “You work for the guy who's after my lead, don't you?”

“Your lead?” JD raised his eyebrows. Did he mean Alan's girl? “The woman you take orders from?”