Subject Seventeen: Wraith Among Shadows
Chapter 12

I groan as I shift to a sitting position. My head is ringing again. It seems like this happens every time that I use my powers. Maybe it’s a side effect? Blood is pouring out of my ears again. I think that using these so-called powers that I have is damaging my body.

Looking up I notice that someone else has appeared. A blonde girl with a scar covering one eye. Three is lying on the ground to the side dazed. Behind the newcomer I see Four flung over Six’s shoulder, blood staining his entire outfit.

This is a battle. Now I understand. People can die from this. I’ve never truly been exposed to the world the way I am now. At first it began like a dream and I played along, not bothering to think about it too much. Now, however, I realise how bizarre everything is; suddenly being flung into this abnormal world and gaining abnormal abilities. In fact, I doubt that my calmness has been a choice. For a little while now I’ve begun noticed that I can’t feel emotions the way I used to; anything other than intense moments of emotion, such as an intense rage or moments when I think about Sky doesn't seem to register with me. And I don’t feel as much pain as I should either; sometimes.

I shake my head to try and rid myself of these thoughts at a time like this. Sky and the rest are here. Well, all except for Ten. Six picks up the blonde girl in her free hand and flies off. They’re gone.

“What the hell was that all about?” I ask. It’s only now that I can taste the blood in my mouth as well. Eleven had healed me earlier but now I feel even more worn out than before.

No-one answers me. Instead Eleven rushes forwards to heal Three and Thirteen stares at me. In his eyes I sense a hint of what appears to be fear. I wonder why he’s looking at me like that?

Nine is also looking in my direction. He looks at me for a while before his eyes slowly widen.

“Eleven!” he shouts, his head snapping to look at her. “You need to heal Seventeen, now!”

What on earth is he talking about? Who or what is Seventeen? The ringing in my head grows stronger and I feel something wet building up in my left eye. Eventually it rolls out and down my face, travelling over my lip. I reach up to wipe away the tears. Looking down at my hand I realise that it isn’t tears. It’s blood.

This is the moment when I’m supposed to freak out. I know it. My mind is thinking one thing whilst my boy is doing the other. Inside I’m crying and screaming, desperately trying to yell for help, however my body simply remains still. I’m not even shaking.

The dark skinned guy who was looking at me just a second ago turns to whisper something into the ear of the guy with glasses as a girl with amber eyes approaches me. I raise my head to get a better look at her as she places her hands on my forehead. I’m hit by a flood of warm energy, bathing and cleansing me.

Then I remember. I’m Seventeen. The girl who just healed me is Eleven. How could I have forgotten? The ringing in my head fades away and I shakily get to my feet. Am I forgetting things again? But this time I forgot something which happened so much more recently. This may not be a good sign of things to come.

“Thanks,” I say to Eleven. She nods at me and moves on to heal One and Seven who have been standing in the background the entire time. I try to push what happened out of my mind. Maybe I’m starting to lose it. I wouldn’t be surprised if I’m losing my grip on reality given the speed and magnitude of recent events. From a nobody to a super soldier in the blink of an eye.

I look around for Sky but I can’t see her. She may have gone off to join Ten in cleaning up the rest of the remaining soldiers. This makes me think about Four and Six. And also that blondie. I don’t get it. Aren’t they supposed to be with us? What’s more, how convenient is it that they keep showing up and causing a mess? What are they after? Something doesn’t feel right. Actually, right now, absolutely nothing feels right.

“Seventeen,” Nine says.

“Huh?”

“You’re not to use your powers from now on unless I say so. Alright?”

“Why not?”

Nine glares at me and places a gun in my hands. Then he pats me on the shoulder and turns his back to me.

“Just follow your orders for now,” Nine says. My mind flashes back to that instant in his room where he threatened to kill me. I don’t doubt that he will if I annoy him in any way. I reluctantly agree.

“Where’s Ten?” Eleven says.

Only now do I notice she’s become a little pale. She takes small breaths in a raspy manner, almost as if she’s about to cough up a fur ball. I start to put two and two together. Nine had said that we got our powers from our DNA and genetic code being rewritten by Nano-mites. Sure, they increased our physical prowess and strengthened us, not to mention giving us each incredible powers but no matter how much our physical prowess has increased our bodies haven’t evolved naturally, right? This must mean that all our powers not only take a toll on our bodies but we also must be demonstrating some side-effects. I think back and try to think about what side-effects each of us could have.

I for one already know mine. I doubt my lack of emotion is a side-effect – there must be another reason for that. Every time I use my powers my head rings and my ears start to bleed. It might be internal damage. I think back to Nine. Telekinesis and increased I.Q. What deficiency could that cause? It might be something to do with they way he constantly switches moods and the lifeless feeling I get whenever I look into his eyes.

I haven’t been around the rest of the team long enough to confirm my suspicions, but I did notice something earlier when I touched Sky. Her body feels unnaturally light. Almost like the wind itself.

“Follow the explosions,” Three says.

I come back to reality as Three answers Eleven’s question. The assault hasn't ended yet. Five – who has been silent this entire time – steps forward, his eyes closed. It’s a little while before he speaks.

“I can feel electrical signals coming from exactly sixty-one hostiles. Ten is still fighting by himself. He doesn’t seem to be tired or injured yet.”

“That's within expectations,” Three replies. “Where did Two go?”

“Two? I don’t know. I can’t sense her.”

“What?!”

Three straightens up as lines begin to crease her forehead. Her eyes swivel left and right as if she’s searching for something.

“How is it possible you can’t sense Two?” Three questions.

“I don’t know. Wherever she is I can’t feel her signal. Either she’s pretty far out or she’s dead.”

Silence seems to follow Five’s words but I can tell he’s not being truthful. The energy around him is distorted and murky, just like the time Eight lied to Sky. She, Five and Nine are obviously up to something. Regardless of whatever they're up to, how did Sky slip away unnoticed?

“What about Sixteen?”

I had forgotten about Sixteen. I didn’t even notice her in the jet on the way here. Five points up to the sky, and what seems like a griffin comes hurtling down. I don’t even have time to get a good look at it before it morphs back into the small figure of Sixteen.

“Where’ve you been, Sixteen?” Three asks.

“Stuff,” she shrugs.

I see One snicker and Seven laughs. I don’t get it, what’s the joke?

“It doesn’t matter,” Nine says. “She’s here now. What we need is to regroup with Ten and replace Two. We still have to take out the remainder of the enemy forces. Sanders ordered us to wipe this entire place of the map. For that we need you, One.”

One grins at the mention of her name. She's definitely the loose and carefree type who enjoys chaos just as much as she enjoys relaxing. Three hands her a small vial with a clear liquid inside. The same one she used in the jet earlier. One hastily takes it and injects herself quickly. I wonder how much stronger this will make her.

“I haven’t had a chance to go all out in a while,” she says. “And this time I’ve even got a boost so I plan to make it count.”

“And what do I do?” Seven says. Her straight hazel hair covers one side of her face so only one of her eyes is visible. She moves closer to Five and takes his hand in hers.

“Stay here,” Three says. “You and I will protect Eleven and Thirteen. I won’t be able to fight to much since I need to conserve the rest of my energy to ghost us up to the jet when it passes by, but that won’t be for another ten minutes.”

Their discussion continues along the same lines for a few more minutes. It gives me enough time to make a decision. I’m going to replace Sky.

I walk off in the direction of the explosions going off in the distance. I don’t pay attention to Nine calling me. I can see the connection of energy all around me. Maybe if I concentrate enough I can trace the Sky's energy back to her. I search among the strings frantically, trying to replace one that matches Sky’s energy. It takes me a while to replace it. I recognise her familiar pale blue energy coursing through the air and don’t hesitate to follow it.

I break into a sprint as I follow the trail of energy. Sky is the only thing on my mind as I jump over bodies and pieces of shrapnel strewn across the base. A few minutes pass and I can eventually see a small flame darting left and right in the distance.

How on earth is Ten still so energetic? He’s been fighting non-stop for nearly an hour now. Is that part of the reason he's seen as one of the strongest ones in the squad? His stamina? There must be more to it than that surely. I stop to focus on his energy, only to replace myself surprised at its vastness. It’s as if he has a bottomless pit of energy to feed off. Another explosion goes off, and this time – as far off as I am – I feel the heat and force of the explosion.

I avert my gaze from Ten and focus on replaceing Sky again. Rushing forward I notice something strange. Sky’s energy wavers for a little while. Something is disrupting her energy flow. The only times I've seen this happen is when someone lies or gets heats up. So a person's energy reflects their soul I guess? If so then technically any action or feeling that contrasts their nature can affect their energy, right?. It’s just like how Five’s and Eight’s energies turned murky when they lied. Sky’s definitely up to something, and what’s worse is that Nine and Five know exactly what that is. I just hope she isn't putting herself in any danger again. She's not going to get in trouble for going AWOL is she?

I near a small complex filled with several single storey buildings. Parts have been blown off the buildings and anything that's still somewhat intact is scorched black; Ten’s doing I guess. Sky is somewhere nearby. Probably in one of these buildings.

I dash straight through the doors of the nearest one. The building is still standing at least. What I replace inside makes me gasp.

It’s filled with large tanks of a strange transparent liquid. I count twenty exactly. Inside each of the tanks are children. None of them seem like they’re breathing. I look around and notice that the glass tanks are connected to long tubes leading underground. Inside the tubes I see minuscule objects; even smaller than dust, all darting around. A few bang violently against the wall of the tube but is pushed back.

Nano-mites. That’s the only thing I think of. I know I’ve seen them somewhere before, but I can’t quite remember. It slowly begins to make sense. Nine said that we’re not fighting a war, that we’re just simple terrorists. However, no matter how much you think about it there’s no way that simple terrorists could get their hands on Nano-technology.

What’s more, if I remember correctly, Nine says that our powers can’t only be from the use of Nano-mites. Baltec is the cause of them. So the question that needs to be asked is how does a small terrorist group get their hands on something like Baltec without being discovered by the two superpowers who are controlling it?

Simple. They don’t. The facilities we have at our headquarters – not to mention the technology – that's not something that anyone can just get their hands on. This goes much deeper than terrorism.

I’ve had enough experience over the years hacking into various data-bases to know that no-one has been able to get their hands on Baltec except the U.S government and the Chinese government, along with their affiliated countries who only use it strictly for research. Not that I’m proud of my illegal activities or anything.

When I woke up after the last mission I saw the Doctor with some military officers. I'm pretty sure from their looks and the uniform they were wearing that they were Chinese military. If my memory hadn’t been forcibly returned to me and I was still influenced by whatever drug they had hooked me up to I wouldn’t be questioning all of this right now. However, that’s not the case. I can think for myself without any false memories now.

Nine and Five said that we’re soldiers for the British military. The funny thing is that the U.K doesn’t retain any rights for the control and distribution of Baltec; except for research projects developed in collaboration with the U.S.A. They wouldn't be able to man such an expensive off the books operation like this without full access to Baltec. As for the U.S.A, I doubt they could develop such an incredibly complex scheme like this and attack all the places that the team has – it would be incredibly stupid for America to start a war right now considering their economic situation. Meaning there’s only one likely culprit who would benefit greatly from a war.

I hate to point fingers but the only likely perpetrator of such an incredibly complex plan is China. The evidence is right in front of me. They’re the only other power which has access to Baltec, and all the leading experts in Nano-technology today are from China. Not to mention that since over forty years ago, since 2054, China has been making significant strides in gene therapy and nanotechnology.

It all makes sense. The U.S.A have been slowly edging all other countries out from Temere and they have majority control over the island and its resources. China, facing the ever-increasing problem of overpopulation and pollution would benefit greatly from full access to Baltec. Since they can’t have full access they can just start a war, knowing that with their present technology and allies they will most likely win. But they needed an excuse to start a war. So they created one. Today’s mission may be the final spark.

Sanders deliberately sent us on a mission here to wipe this place out knowing what would happen. Did he count on us discovering this facility also? It's most likely where they began testing their prototypes; that would be a good reason to want to wipe this place out but he clearly didn't think in advance that any of us might discover this area. They’ve clearly been trying to create Shadow Soldiers here.

Ever since the Treaty of Sumatra all nuclear weaponry has been disabled (for the past two decades). Of course they’d need something to give them an edge. This Shadow Soldier scheme is almost perfect. It would have been perfect had they brainwashed all of us with that drug they used on me. Why didn't they just do that? Don't tell me they got careless simply because we're all a bunch of teenagers who don't fully understand the way the world works?

I don't think Sky and Nine fully understand the entire situation or the gravity of our actions. What's coming isn't something so simple that we can put a stop to it just by destroying the entire Shadow Soldier plan. It's an untamed wildfire intent on destroying everything in its path regardless of whether it's friend or foe.

I turn around to see Sky standing in the entrance of the door. She doesn’t seem to be surprised by the sight. Clearly she’s already been here.

“We need to move,” she says. With that she turns and runs off. It takes me a while to register what she said and follow after her. If my theory is correct then we’ve done something a lot worse than simple terrorism. If I’m right I dread to see what happens next. Because if I’m right, we’ve just single-handedly lit the fire for World War Three.