face.
As soon as its mouth opened, I used all of my powers to shock its hand and aimed for its eyes.
When the monster’s eyeballs exploded, it tightened its grip on me and bellowed in pain.
I screamed, too.
Why hadn’t it dropped me?
My bones crunched as it continued to squeeze harder, and I fought to breathe.
Just when I was certain I was dead, the monster released me, dropping me twenty feet towards the ground.
Warm arms scooped me up before I hit, and we flew up into the sky.
I closed my eyes.
“Protocol seven,” Transistor said.
“T?” I asked and then groaned at the immense pain talking caused.
“Don’t talk, Lucy. You have several broken ribs. As soon as I get my sample, I’ll take you and heal you,” he said.
Sample? Heal me? What was he talking about? Why was he even here?
The monster roared, and we moved to the right quickly. The movement jarred my body, and I cried out.
“Protocol ten. Lethal force,” Transistor barked.
“What are you doing?” Austin roared. “Put her down and get out of here.”
“I’m saving her and your people. Lucy put herself in danger to save them, so clearly it is important to her.”
“Put her down,” Austin snapped.
I forced my eyes open.
Austin was in his gargoyle form and fighting the monster. Transistor was using several of his robots to help fight the monster, too.
Transistor was helping me.
Austin delivered a devastating blow to the monster, making it drop to its knees.
“Time to go,” Transistor whispered and flew away from the city and Austin.
Austin tried to follow, but Transistor’s robots kept him back.
“Lucy!”
“You’re bleeding internally. Crap. Alright, I’m going to knock you out. Don’t worry, Lucy. I’ll fix you right up. You’re safe now.”
He stuck a needle in my neck, and I fell into a dreamless sleep.
When I woke, my body was completely healed.
Transistor sat at my bedside, wearing jeans and a wonderfully tight shirt. For the first time, he didn’t have his mask on, and I was able to see that he was more handsome than the disguise he wore showed. He hadn’t noticed I was awake yet, since he was reading a paper newspaper.
“You don’t read the electronic version?” I asked as I sat up.
He folded the paper and shrugged. “I prefer holding the newspaper. How do you feel?”
I wiggled my toes and fingers, then rolled my shoulders and kicked my legs. “Perfect.”
“Your powers?” he asked.
Electricity crackled along my arms in tiny blue bolts. I beamed. “Works.”
Transistor nodded once and then picked me up and carried me out of the small room we’d been in.
“I can walk,” I reminded him.
“You need food first,” he said.
The hallway we walked down was barren and looked to be made of stone.
“Are we in a mountain?” I asked.
He nodded. “My base.”
My mouth dropped. “You brought me to your secret base?”
He arched a brow. “Yeah?”
“I work for the Hero Association!”
He rolled his eyes. “No, you don’t. You’re not like them. Plus, I doubt you’d rat me out when I saved your life.”
I wouldn’t rat him out, but that wasn’t the point. “What do you mean I don’t work for them?”
We entered a large room which was obviously the kitchen, unless he used the oven for experiments, and he set me on the island.
“Have you felt extra tired lately? Lethargic?” he asked.
I narrowed my eyes. “Yes.” How had he known that?
“Were you put in a room because the containment cell couldn’t hold you? Escorted by an older man in a suit?”
I did not like where this was going.
“Yes.”
He picked up my right arm and rubbed his thumb over my vein in the inside of my elbow. “I found an abnormal amount of scarring here. Plus, the same thing happened to me, but I only found out after setting up surveillance cameras.”
“Found out what?” I asked swallowing past the lump in my throat.
“That they were taking blood samples every day and injecting me with a serum to make me more compliant,” he said, still holding my arm.
Some part of me had suspected something was wrong, but I hadn’t imagined that. Maybe I should have been more skeptical of Transistor, but I knew of his hatred for the Organization and this made sense. And made sense in regards to my symptoms.
“Those bastards!” I jumped down and paced across the kitchen. I would kill that suit-wearing asshole, no matter how long it took me.
“You can’t kill him,” Transistor said.
I spun and glared. “Why not? Because I’m a woman?”
His eyebrows pinched together. “What? No. That man is the head of their