Chapter 1
Willy thought dryly and sarcastically, Stupid man, stupid man, does whatever stupid can. He crossed his arms over his chest as he raised an eyebrow.
Dr. Xander paled a little at that prospect and then said, “I’ll answer this, but when I’m finished with this person I’ll throw out the phone.” He answered the phone and left the cabin. As he walked out he heard a brief discussion about himself being a traitor, which stung a little.
Willy looked at Storm who seemed only mildly concerned, he wrapped his arms around his legs, worry filling his mind. Because of it he sent up his prayers to God, there was no use worrying when he had a heavenly father to talk to that was bigger than his worries.
“Doctor? I was wondering why your house is up in flames, also, the genetic children and I were worried. I caught a soldier outside your burning house, I interrogated than killed him, I have his friend in my custody,” The male voice said in a quiet voice.
Dr. Xander didn’t need to know who was calling to recognize the voice, “Hello Shadow. How are Froggy and Molly doing?” He had met the experiments a while ago and knew that Shadow had been taking care of them.
Shadow chuckled, saying, “They’re doing fine. They made a huge circle around the building looking for you, so other than the panic attack these two are doing fine.” His voice had relaxed into a vaguely easy going tone.
“Are they growing?” Dr. Xander asked curiously, he wanted to know how the two were doing developmentally, they were unusual children and they needed to keep a close eye on them.
“Yeah, at a pretty unusual pace. Why?” Shadow asked with concern, he didn’t want the children to get hurt; he had too much invested in them, as a guardian anyways. He couldn’t have them die or become…giants.
“How tall?” Dr. Xander asked, wanting specifics. He hated that people attempted to tell him stuff without really telling him, Shadow and Storm had a lot of similarities which entertained Dr. Xander.
“Molly is five feet five inches and Froggy is six feet even. Which is kinda unusual considering their age...” Shadow sounded like he was musing, “What exactly were they injected with?”
“I honestly don’t know,” Dr. Xander felt worried and then he glanced back towards the cabin, “I’m going to rally the troops tomorrow and we’ll come see you. Storm is with me by the way.” He looked back at the ground and into the snow.
“Really? Well, we’ll wait here then. I’d like to see Storm again and I’m sure you’d like to see the children,” Shadow replied, a smile evident in his tone, “Storm probably won’t be happy to see me though.”
“Of course, Thank you, Shadow,” Dr. Xander hung up and then threw the phone as far away as he could. Then he realized how stupid that was and trudged after it, he caught up to his phone and took out the memory chip, broke the phone, and threw the pieces in different directions. If it snowed again the device would be buried. Dr. Xander huffed, muttering to himself, “Well, I could have saved myself a walk if I had thought of that beforehand.”
Dr. Xander walked back in and reported to Storm, “That was Shadow. He wondered where I was, we’ll be going to my burnt cabin tomorrow. He is there with the genetic children.”
Storm nodded once and Ramona knew she had been overthrown for the time being. That was fine, she didn’t always have to be the leader and she needed a break anyways. To be more truthful, she liked to think she was okay with it but she was really not. This was pride getting in the way and she had to ignore it.
Moisés signed to Dr. Xander after he signed what had been said, you say he is on our side, correct? When Dr. Xander nodded, the boy continued, how do we know he’s not leading us into a trap because we believe he is our ally?
Dr. Xander paused for a moment; he never really considered this, out of all the experiments Shadow had been the least aggressive, which was why the doctor trusted him. But would Shadow try to get out of being killed by helping the Queen? It was unlikely but a possibility, Dr. Xander signed back to the boy after his thoughts, what I’m thinking of doing is sending Storm first. We’ll know for sure if Storm’s there if he can be trusted or not.
Moisés nodded once, satisfied by this answer; Storm could take care of herself, of that much he was sure. Dr. Xander couldn’t be sure; but Shadow was probably thinking along the same lines. Shadow’s name came from the way his advanced abilities worked, he acted like a person’s shadow and had been altered to be an assassin. He could be a powerful ally or the greatest enemy.
Shadow looked at the ten-year-old and fourteen-year-old kids that were with him, was he willing to risk their lives if the Doctor was no longer on their side? He decided to ask the kids what they thought, “Do you think the doctor is still on our side?”
The two experiments looked at each other then back at him, Froggy answered for the both of them, “I think he is, he was really horrified by the experiments going on. I don’t think he would go back to the Queen, although that is a possibility.”
Molly shook her head adamantly until both of them were looking at her, “He would never do that. Mr. Xander is so nice, besides, isn’t Storm with him right now?” She tilted her head and raised her eyebrows in question.
“Yes, but we don’t know that Xander isn’t lying or that Storm hasn’t turned either,” Shadow rubbed the bridge of his nose as his head started to pound from stress. He felt a little dizzy from it then scolded himself for allowing himself to get that stressed.
Molly said dryly to Shadow, “How about we give Storm and Xander the benefit of the doubt.” She was tired of all this suspicion and would like to trust someone for once, the ten-year-old sat down and wrapped her arms around her legs, “Trusting people is nice.”
Froggy and Shadow both looked at the girl with curiosity, not because of anything she said, but they were both wondering how in the heck she managed to keep her knees so close to her body with her arms wrapped around them. Neither of them could do it, so this amazed them to no end.
Molly, very patiently, spoke to them, “This isn’t hard, you don’t need to look so amazed about this.” She unwrapped herself so the two of them would look somewhere else, “See? This is just something normal I’ve seen other non-genetics do.”
Shadow shook his head then walked back into the forest, “We should hide, just in case someone comes to check it out.” He continued to walk as he talked to them, his form melding with the shadows then flickering back into view.
“Just in case? I’d be shocked if no one checked in on it,” Froggy followed him as Molly situated herself so she could get up without tripping over her own feet. Molly walked after them, trying to maintain a natural pace; she was still struggling to control her newfound, fast paced, movement. It wasn’t really newfound, but she would trip if she ran now, she was growing too fast.
Froggy entered the woods and turned around, watching his young friend choose her steps carefully so she wouldn’t fall. He smiled, “Hurry up, Molly,” he suddenly stiffened as his eyes zoomed in on something past her in the trees. Froggy gestured for Molly to move faster and she blazed by him, hiding behind Shadow. Froggy started reciting almost like a computer, “Sniper, Twenty miles off, exposed areas are neck, groin, and chest. He moved, now it’s just neck and groin. Do we want him to live?”
