Omega The Girl in the Box - By Robert J. Crane Page 0,88
it was Kurt, standing behind him, uber-taser cannon firing into Bjorn’s back, causing the big man to buck from the fury of it. He didn’t fall, though, not completely, instead dropping to one knee as the discharge of lightning halted, leaving Bjorn bathed in a blue glow as the electricity died. “I don’t think you’re gonna be beating anyone today, you steroid-pumping freak.” Kurt’s face was lit by the glow of the barrel. “Now back the hell away from her before I light your ass up with another 1.21 gigawatts.”
I pushed to my feet again, ignoring the pain in my shoulder. “Did you just make a movie reference?”
“It was one of my favorites,” Kurt said, keeping the weapon trained on Bjorn, who was still on one knee.
“You attack me with lightning?” Bjorn spoke, a low rumbling, and I saw his head shift toward the side to look at Kurt. “Me? The son of Odin? Do you know who my brother was?” He stood, and I swore he was even taller as he stared down at Kurt. “I’ve been taking hits from lightning bolts since I was no bigger than a foal—”
“Did you say fool?” I asked and launched myself at Bjorn before he could take a step toward Kurt. Fair was fair, after all, and he had just saved my life, even though I knew I was going to pay for this one. “You’re still a fool, though you’re a bigger one these days than you probably were then—” I tackled him, causing him to slowly begin to tilt over. I brought my working arm up and clobbered Bjorn in the jaw with the hardest punch I had in me, then another as we started to fall to the ground. “And you have to tell me—did your brother look like Chris Hemsworth? Because—”
“Enough!” He hit me with a backhand that caused me to flip off of him. I heard a popping in my jaw as I spun through the air and hit the ground. Another flash drew his attention away, and I saw Kurt fire three times in rapid succession. A red light lit up on Kurt’s face, and I knew from experience that the weapon was running out of charge. I threw myself at Bjorn again, more pain overwhelming me than I knew I could honestly take. I grasped at his leg and he kicked me in the head, hard. I faded out for a moment and awoke as I saw Kurt get lifted and thrown through the glass doors, the shadows wrapping around my eyes as I thought about the time limit I had left to get out of the dormitory before it exploded.
Bjorn let out a roar at the kids, the students, the metas that were here to be protected by the Directorate. A stray thought washed through my mind, wondering where M-Squad was when they should be protecting the kids, but that disappeared quickly. A lone figure stepped out of the crowd, interposing himself between Bjorn and the rest of them, and my eyes, though unfocused, recognized Joshua Harding’s glasses even before I saw his face, that still damnably familiar face.
“All the little children of the Directorate,” Bjorn said, a tickle of glee in his voice. “Little sheep. You’ll all be part of our flock soon.” The big man focused on Harding. “It looks like someone needs to be culled from the herd. Our success as metas is predicated on strength. The weak, the stupid, they should not live, polluting our bloodlines to the next generation.” He closed on Joshua, shoulder down, as though ready to charge, “They should be killed before infecting us with their—”
“I’m afraid I disagree,” I said, leaping onto Bjorn’s back, my hands free of their gloves. I jammed my skin against his neck, holding on tight, “though in your case I am sorely tempted to make an exception to that ‘no killing’ rule I’ve got going.” I felt the throb of blood in his veins as I wrapped my fingers around his throat. He bucked, trying to throw me off his back, his hands prying at mine, trying to wrench them free. I felt the first pull of my power at work, felt the tug of his soul against mine, heard the first grunt of pain from him as his strength began to fail. He screamed, and his legs buckled, and I rode him to the ground, catching it with my feet, holding him in a sleeper hold as he flailed