A R L O

I had a bad feeling as we walked into the new location for the United Nations meeting. Though it was supposedly more secure than the last one, though our entire team was here, I felt uneasy.

Maybe it had something to do with the bombing of the last one three days ago in New York City. That attack had thankfully gone wrong, with the bombs only blowing up a parking structure next to the place with all the world leaders in it. It was even worse for us to know that Imperium was—without a doubt—the one behind it.

That brought up the question of whether this meeting would be safe enough or not. But I supposed that was why we were here.

After our horrible first meeting with Marcella Krasowski, we'd all been surprised when she called us in for our first job with her: to guard the building in which the new meeting was being held. We needed to prevent any attacks that Imperium may be launching today.

I thought it would be interesting. I thought I'd be in the thick of a battle, fighting off terrorists. And yet here I was, standing guard of the front main doors of the massive skyscraper with Finn.

Admittedly, Finn wasn't exactly the worst partner to have. But simply standing around and waiting for the action to come to us was not ideal.

I looked far off to my right, where Jake and Jaxon were stationed near another exit. Jaxon gave me a vulgar gesture when he saw me looking. As usual, Jake was doing his best impression of an iceberg. But I'd never say that to his face, especially now that he was worse than usual.

The other two were out of sight, with Kane keeping an eye on the building next door and Riley patrolling outside the door of the meeting room. We weren't allowed inside. Go figure.

Kicking a rock into the street, I slumped against the building and crossed my arms. "I don't even know why we're here. Surely Imperium isn't stupid enough to blow up this building too."

"They didn't even blow up the last meeting place. Just next door," Finn reasoned, his voice calm compared to mine.

"I'm sorry, was I not particular enough?" He gave me a look that told me he was annoyed with my mockery but too nice to do anything about it. He wore that look quite often around me.

There was a silence between us, filled only by the sounds of the city—the meeting was in the center of New York City. The first one had been on the outskirts and had been more susceptible to attack. For someone to attack the heart of this city would be much harder.

Then, Finn said, "Imperium is growing in numbers, weapons and power. It would make sense that they'd try to sabotage the talks, but it's strange that they failed. With so little opposition, they should have just exploded the entire building. But they didn't."

I shrugged. "Despite whatever unstoppable power they claim to have, it can't be easy to approach a building that holds all the world leaders inside."

"I don't know...I just think that if they wanted to do it, they wouldn't have half-assed it."

He noticed me gaping at him. "What?"

"You cursed." My slow smile widened as realization dawned on his face of what he'd said without thinking. "What was it you told me that one time? Something about not becoming like the rest of us?"

"You're a horrible influence," he grumbled.

"Why do you choose to be around me then?"

He didn't answer. I had won. "That's what I thought."

Finn changed the subject and it didn't go unnoticed. "Can you hear anything from inside?"

I tried to concentrate for a moment, doing my best to drown out all the other sounds to focus on the meeting. But there were too many. Car engines, a thousand passerby's footsteps, two airplanes soaring far above us all grated on my ears. There was too much now to make out more than faint voices inside the meeting. I had to block it out or it would drive me even more out of my mind.

My head shook. "There's too much commotion here."

After taking in his worried expression, I asked, "Why, were you really expecting them to let us in there?"

"No. Mr. Hunt would have made sure we were inside, but after the meeting with Ms. Krasowski, I figured she wouldn't be as partial to us."

I scoffed. "She's the most rigid government official I've ever met and we're all famous criminals. No wonder she hates our guts."

"I'm not a criminal."

"I hate to break it to you, but if you're affiliated with us, you're a criminal."

He said something back but I wasn't paying attention. I smelled something on the wind that hasn't been there a moment before. Metal. Gunpowder. Blood.

Wherever threat we'd been anticipating was finally here.

I had a split second to react before I heard the first gunshot. Unsure of who was shooting and where their target was, I shoved Finn down behind the wall and ducked down beside him. It was only after I heard the bullet hit through wall behind me that I realized I'd been the target. And the shooter was extremely accurate.

Another scarily accurate gunshot missed my chest by inches. I hid behind the wall the best I could, running my very limited options through my brain. I did have a copious amount of weaponry, but none that would help me against an Imperium assassin.

Jake and Jaxon stalked over, doing their best to avoid the volley of bullets. Then Jaxon vanished and seconds later, a homemade bomb was lobbed toward the shooters. The explosion rocked a building across the street and cars swerved. People ran screaming from the scene. Jaxon threw another bomb for good measure.

Out of the smoke and ash walked two figures. The street between us was clear, all the nearby people having fled far from the danger. Finn and I rose and stood between the other two, Jaxon coming back into view. Kane rounded the corner, wearing an expression fit for battle. All five of us took a stand against the shrouded figures.

For a moment, no one made any movements. Then they began walking closer to us. Without moving a muscle, Jake launched a series of dagger-like icicles into the two. I could see how razor sharp the edges were. They'd easily sink through flesh and bone.

But with arms sweeping to the side, the assassin on the right redirected the hundreds of icicles so they hit the building behind them. Everyone went still.

There was only one person who could do something like that.

The smoke finally cleared. There stood Benny and Delphinium Tesla. Except she was different now. Not physically; she still had the same white hair, the same face. But she was no longer the person who'd been our teammate.

A strange fire burned in her iron gaze. I recognized it too well—it was the look I often wore. The look of someone who wasn't quite right inside.

As if that didn't make her dangerous enough, she wore more weapons I'd ever seen on her—a sniper rifle slung over her back, four long blades strapped to her thighs and forearms, two more at her belt. And underneath the weapons was the intricate black uniform of an Imperium soldier. She was a living, breathing weapon.

Jake had been right. They'd turned her into something worse, something unearthly.

"I can hear your shock," Benny said loudly to us across the street dividing us. "Did you not expect Orion to bring back his Reaper?"

"I didn't expect you to try to attack us again after how dismally you failed last time," Jaxon snarled.

But Benny wasn't ruffled. Turning to Jake, he asked, "I'm afraid I don't quite agree. I'd say our last meeting was very successful, wouldn't you, Evans?" I could have sworn the air around us dropped a few degrees.

Jake was still. So still that I would have thought he was frozen if not for the murderous expression on his face. He was ready to rip Benny apart.

But it was Kane who ran for his brother first, brandishing both of his spears. Even Benny hadn't expected it, the shock flitting over his face for less than half a second. Delphinium took a shot at Kane, hitting through the abdomen, but our teammate didn't even falter. Jake backed him up by making Benny dodge another volley of skin-shredding icicles.

That left the rest of us to face Delphinium.

Knowing Benny could hold his own, she let him fight his battle. She raised the gun again but Finn was fast to throw his flames to envelop her. The heat burned my face and I knew how hard it much be for him to do it again after murdering that ONNT soldier.

Another gunshot flew through the flames, but because she couldn't see us very well through the flames, it missed Jaxon. We needed to get that gun away from her.

Almost as if Jaxon had heard my thoughts, he lunged for her and went invisible. She didn't back away. The good news was that she let go of the gun. The bad news was that she still had control over it as it hung in the air under her power. That gave her the ability to hold both hunting knives in her hands and slice them in the air toward where she guessed Jaxon was.

Finn and I ran in, not wanting to leave Jaxon on his own to fight our brainwashed teammate. Though I knew I was severely under-skilled to fight her, I lashed out with a dagger. She jumped back and swiped forward with both knives, cutting into my arms and chest.

I had hoped that my distraction would take her attention off of Jaxon, but as soon as she injured me well enough, she spun and lashed out at the open air behind her. Her knife stabbed Jaxon straight through the stomach, as I could see when he flickered back into view. It didn't look as bad as it could be, but I had to draw my attention away to duck, avoiding a bullet from the levitating gun.

Finn took the opportunity to unleash his flames again, this time hitting her directly. Lunging away from Jaxon, Delphinium rolled to the side and landed in a crouch, two knives already flying for Finn and I.

Using my superhuman speed, I got out of the way in the nick of time. Shoving Finn to the side, I made sure her knife wouldn't hit him. The knives returned to her hands like magnets.

Behind her, Jaxon found the strength to kick her in the back. Delphinium launched forward but recovered too well. The glass windows behind us shattered and she sent the shards streaking toward us. It was a trick I'd seen her use many times, but every time she did, her enemies were absolutely slaughtered by it. And we were her enemies now.

Flinging out his hands, Finn sent an inferno before us. The heat was so great I had to close my eyes and duck away. When they subsided, drops of melted glass lay gleaming on the street.

Before anything else could take place, sirens wailed and police cars stopped fifty feet away. The cops leaned their guns on their open car doors, all aimed toward us. "Hands up or we'll shoot!"

Finn backed away, his hands in the air so they wouldn't mistake us as the bad guys. But it was pointless, for the levitating gun opened fire under Delphinium's mind, mowing down every cop unfortunate enough to be outside of their car. Jaxon shoved her down and this time, she collapsed to the ground. But the damage was done: the law enforcement had been slaughtered.

Crouching on the ground, Delphinium glared up at us and I knew Jaxon had made a mistake. If she wasn't pissed off before, she was now.

Bearing her teeth in a snarl, the assassin whirled and brought two police cars tumbling over and over into us. I actually had to jump out of the way of the first car. She had sent the second one toward Benny, Jake and Kane. Jake had been freezing Benny from the inside out while Kane kept him from fighting, it seemed. But they all had to disperse to avoid being crushed by Delphinium's power.

Having scrambled from the launched car, Kane found himself right behind Delphinium. He wasted no time in forcing her arms to her sides so that she couldn't stab him. She thrashed and fought but he was much stronger. The gun she was controlling turned to shoot directly over her shoulder at the strongman. He had to drop her to avoid being shot a second time.

Delphinium was thrown to the ground. Working quickly, Kane ripped off what remained of his shirt—Benny's knives had slides it to shreds. With Jake and Jaxon keeping Benny occupied, Kane pinned a screaming and cursing Delphinium to the ground and tied the torn fabric over her face and around her hands. It wasn't perfect, but it would manage to keep her down for now.

Then Delphinium lashed out with her legs, kicking Kane in his bleeding abdomen. He doubled over in pain and she was able to squirm out from under his strong arms.

"Kane, run!" Jaxon screamed as his arm bent backward. He was holding another bomb.

The strongman obeyed, ducking out of Jaxon's line of fire. Benny went to Delphinium, probably to try and free her from Kane's binds. But his tanned face turned toward us at Jaxon's yell. We all watched as the beeping bomb soared through the air, ready to go off in just a few seconds.

I actually flinched as Benny reached out and caught the bomb. Not letting it sit in his hand for a second too long, he launched it at the street between us. It exploded before it even hit the ground. I had to plug my ears and turn away.

When my vision no longer swam and our ears stopped ringing, the five of us faced the crater in the street. The dust had already cleared, revealing that Benny and Delphinium had gotten away without a trace.