Chapter 1.1.28 — Knock-off Brand

Emmett took a minute to stash his phone and wallet on the roof of a nearby coffee shop, hiding it in a crevice of the air conditioning unit. Then he backtracked to the warehouse roof, keeping an eye out for any guards as he leaped across the rooftops.

While Emmett and Athena waited, crouched in the dark on the edge of the warehouse roof, Athena explained how she’d been tracking the new mutagen variants.

“There’s a group of us keeping tabs on shipments. We’ll get word a day before a van arrives, destroy the contents, interrogate the drivers… So far we haven’t had much luck—the drivers know about as much as we do. Most of the time, they don’t even realize what they’re transporting.”

“What’s so bad about these mutagens?” Emmett asked.

“Well, Gnosis has some respect for the scientific method and human experimentation, and I stress the word some; whoever is making these knock-offs doesn’t.”

“How’d they even break into Gnosis?” Emmett saw the main compound more than most. Calling it formidable was an understatement.

Athena shrugged. “Gnosis reported a security breach to the papers, but they were extremely tight-lipped with the details.”

Emmett nodded, looking from the alley behind the warehouse to the surrounding rooftops. “Speaking of security… There's not a lot of security here. Is that normal?”

Athena sighed. “Yes. At first it seemed like whoever stole from Gnosis didn’t learn their own lesson. I thought it was ironic…”

“...But?”

“We’ve destroyed twelve shipments so far, and there’s still more that we’ve missed. They’re not bothering to defend them because there’s plenty more that make it through. It’s a numbers game.”

Damn. That was a depressing thought.

Athena must’ve seen the look on his face. “Cheer up. Even tigers only catch ten percent of what they hunt.”

“That doesn’t really help.”

Athena chuckled. “Did you think of a name yet?”

Emmett stared down at the alley, dumbfounded for a moment. “No. Still thinking.”

“It’ll come to you. Speaking of, I think this is our guy.” Athena ducked lower and pointed down toward headlights—a nondescript white van driving into the alley. “We’ll wait for them to open up and give us a look at the cargo before we drop down. Do you need a hand getting down from the roof?”

Emmett shook his head, not taking his eyes off the van. It was only three stories down, but his heart was pounding.

“I can get down on my own,” he finally said.

“Good. Move when I move and watch my back.”

“Says the woman with precognition.”

“It’s not that kind of precognition. Now listen, there’s usually two to four in a van and these guys are probably armed, so be careful. Some carry guns—I’ll take them. If you see a gun, just get away or get behind something.”

Emmett nodded along, even though this was only his second mission and even though never practiced working as part of a team before. It all seemed straightforward enough.

But that didn’t reassure him.

In the alley below, the van had backed up to a loading bay door and two men in coveralls got out of the front seats. They walked around to the back, opened up the van doors, and started unloading white boxes.

“Let’s go,” Athena said, and leapt over the edge.

Emmett was right behind her, grabbing the edge of the roof with his whip to slow himself down.

Athena landed in a crouch beside the van, making the three-story drop look effortless. The two nearest men startled and dropped their boxes—one turned to run away while the other reached for a gun on his belt.

Emmett watched the scene as he descended: The guy that turned to run slammed face-first into an invisible barrier, and the second aimed his gun at Athena.

“Get out of here, cape!” he shouted.

Simultaneous shouts came from the warehouse and the front seats of the van—

Emmett didn’t catch any of what they said, though, because the passenger-side door opened, and Emmett could only focus on the pistol the person was carrying. It positively gleamed in Emmett’s vision.

Emmett threw himself at the passenger-side door, careening into it shoulder-first. The impact knocked the passenger backward and crumpled the door inward. Gunshots went off behind him. Emmett bounced off the door and saw both men struggling in the front seats—he’d knocked one on top of the other.

A man behind the van shouted and then flew through the air and slammed into the opposite wall of the building. He slumped to the ground, unconscious.

Time seemed to slow down for Emmett—he watched dumbfounded as the two men in the van recovered and pushed open the driver’s side door. He felt like he was moving through molasses.

“Gun!” Emmett shouted.

A moment later, the two men were hurled into the same wall and crumpled on top of the other unconscious bad guy—like they’d been shoved by an invisible forcefield.

Emmett winced at the impact, but turned back to the van. He kept his back to the side and slid around to the back of the van.

Athena was hunched over one of the crates, rifling through vials of liquid—ambers, browns, reds, and greens. Cold, smokey air seeped over the edges.

“Give me your phone,” Athena said, without looking up.

It wasn’t until Emmett rounded the back of the van that he realized she was talking to one of the men—the one who tried to run away. He clutched his bloody nose and was sitting in the back of the van.

“Here, take it!” he shouted, voice muffled. With a shaky hand, he tossed Athena his phone.

It skidded off the van and Athena caught it with her power, then slipped it in her jacket pocket.

“Huh… that’s different,” Athena muttered. She pocketed three different vials.

Then the man screamed.

Seven more bad guys in coveralls appeared in the loading bay, each aiming a pistol or a rifle at Athena. They fired.

Emmett only had time to recoil—wincing at the erupting cacophony of gunfire. For the moment Emmett shut his eyes, he was blind and deaf.

He might’ve screamed for Athena, but he couldn’t hear anything but ringing in his ears and the faint popping of gunfire.

Distraught, Emmett peered cautiously through his fingers and saw Athena, still hunched over the white container of vials.

She looked up at Emmett, smiled, and said something to him—maybe “I think that’s it”.

Pops of gunfire sounded again, and this time Emmett didn’t wince. Muzzles flashed and Emmett watched as a hail of bullets slammed into Athena’s invisible forcefield and fell harmlessly to the ground; she’d blocked the entire loading bay.

Emmett’s mouth was open in disbelief.

He walked over and knelt down on the other side of the case. “You can block bullets?” His voice still sounded faint to him, even though he was shouting.

“That’s why I said for you to get out of the way.”

Emmett still couldn’t believe it, but he found his gaze dropping to the open container of vials. And found his hand reaching inside it.

He already had Mutagen-A in his system… Could he take something else? It was probably a stupid idea—who knew what would happen if he mixed mutagens. Emmett could already imagine Dr. Venture saying the same thing.

But it wasn’t like Emmett was going to use any of the vials now. He could be a little patient. Besides, even if Dr. Venture talked him out of it, maybe Venture could help track down the origin of the compounds.

Emmett paused. The vials were only a few inches away from his fingers. He looked to Athena for approval.

Athena was already looking at him, her face a mix of apprehension and concern.

“I’m not your mother,” she finally said. “I’m not going to stop you, but I think it’s a bad idea. You’ll need to keep them on ice, and for gods’ sake don’t take more than one at a time.”

Emmett quickly grabbed two of each color vial—ten in total and stuffed them into his hoodie and his trousers.

The men fired another impotent barrage at Athena’s barrier, making Emmett flinch.

“Do you have everything you need?” Athena stood, eyeing down the guards.

“Yes.”

“Good.” Athena turned and swept her hand toward the van, and an invisible forcefield shattered all the crates and the interior of the cab. Metal screeched, wood and glass shattered, and mutagens sprayed across the van and the pavement.

Emmett jumped back in surprise, shielding his face.

Athena grabbed him by the shoulder of his hoodie to get his attention. “Step exactly where I step.”

She started running upward like she was bounding up huge invisible stairs… which Emmett supposed she was. Emmett followed, keeping his eyes on her shoes. It was even more nerve-wracking than walking a balance beam; Emmett kept his whip ready because it felt like he might fall at any second.

Moments later they were back on the roof and sprinting toward the center of the city, crossing the coffee shop roof so that Emmett could grab his stashed items. Emmett clutched the vials as he ran, trying his best to keep them from clinking together.

Two blocks later, they heard the first police sirens.

“Down into the alley,” Athena said. Emmett followed her off the roof, using his whip to drop to the ground. “Now change up your disguise.”

Emmett pulled off his hoodie and wrapped all the vials inside it, along with his mask. He made sure to keep his face turned, so it was hidden by his hair and by the darkness of the alley.

Athena slipped off her dark leather jacket and flipped it inside out. It was plain red leather on the inside. Emmett hadn’t realized that it was reversible; it couldn’t have been comfortable—the original dark side had shards of mirror woven into it…

Athena finished by wrapping her long white hair into a bun and slipping on a beanie.

It wasn’t until Athena was done changing her disguise that Emmett realized her jacket shouldn’t have been able to flip inside out like that.

Athena noticed him staring and said nonchalantly, “It’s a magic coat.”

“Oh.”

“One day I’ll tell you the story, but for now, we need to split up. Are you okay going home from here?”

Emmett nodded. “Yeah, I think I’m good.”

“Alright, see you around,” Athena replied, giving him a quick nod. “Next time you can tell me about that arm.” With that, she walked down the alley, leaving Emmett holding his hoodie full of Gnosis knock-off contraband.

Emmett let out a sigh that he didn’t know he’d been holding.

Well, that was something.

Just when Emmett was about to start walking home, Athena stuck her head around the corner and said, “Don’t forget to think of a name!”

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