Extras

A shuddering moment later, her vision finally cleared.

An ugly face looked down at Aya. Two fingers reached out and carefully pulled her eyes wider?checking one, then the other.

'Try to relax. I think I gave you too much.'

'Too much what?' Aya asked breathlessly.

'Wake-up juice,' the ugly girl said. 'You'll be okay in a minute, though.'

Aya lay there, her heart pounding, the burning sensation fading in her shoulder. She took steadying breaths, waiting until reality stopped spinning.

But steady was a relative concept. As her body soaked up the mad energy that had possessed her, Aya gradually realized where she was: the cargo hold of a large hovercar that was passing through a violent storm. The frame shuddered, the metal floor bucking beneath her, and rain battered the windows.

Lifting fans shrieked as they fought to keep the craft level, adding their cacophony to the howling wind.

In the dim and shifting light, it took Aya a moment to remember that the ugly girl who'd awakened her was in disguise.

'Tally Youngblood,' she breathed. 'You're a truth-slanting, trust-wrecking waste of gravity!'

Tally chuckled. 'I'm glad that was in Japanese, Aya-la. Because it didn't sound very respectful.'

Aya squeezed her eyes shut, forcing the sticky gears of her mind to switch to English. 'You?lied to us.'

'I never lied,' Tally said calmly. 'I just didn't explain the details of our plan.'

'You call this a detail!'

Aya looked around the dark, storm-tossed hold. A windowless metal door separated them from the drivers' cabin. The walls were lined with cargo webbing, which twisted and swung with the rocking of the car. The air was hot and muggy, and Aya felt trickles of sweat inside her heavy coverall. 'We trusted you, and you got us captured by those freaks! On purpose!'

'Sorry, Aya-la. But explaining our plans to some feed-happy random didn't seem like a very icy idea. This was our one chance to find out where these kidnappers come from. We couldn't risk you turning it into your next big story.'

'I never would have done that!'

'That's what you told the Sly Girls.'

Aya's mouth opened, but no words came out. Her fury began to rise again, the last dregs of wake-up juice boiling in her blood. Why was Tally twisting everything?

'That was totally different!' she finally managed. 'I may have misled the Sly Girls, but I didn't use anyone as bait.'

'Not as bait, but you did use them, Aya-la. And we had to do the same to you.'

'But you lied to us!'

Tally shrugged. 'What did you say in your interview? 'Sometimes you have to lie to find the truth.'' Aya found herself speech-missing again, appalled to have her own words used against her. But then she remembered who'd said them first?Frizz. The last she'd seen of him, he'd been spinning toward the ground on Fausto's board.

'My friends ? are they okay?'

'Relax. Everyone's fine.' Tally moved aside.

Aya pulled herself up, leaning back against the shuddering hovercar wall. Shay and Fausto sat cross-legged on the other side of the hold, with Hiro curled between them, still unconscious. Ren's long form stretched down the middle of the cabin, snoring happily.

Frizz lay next to Aya, absolutely still. She rolled closer and squeezed his hand?but he didn't respond.

'Are you sure he's all right?' Aya asked. 'Frizz got stuck with those needles twice last night.'

'I already countered the nanos they stuck you with. He's just asleep.' Tally pulled her sleeve up and glanced at the flash tattoos on her arm. The patterns there were laid out like an interface, not mere decoration. 'You've all been out for six hours, which seems a little excessive to me. Do you always sleep till noon?'

The hovercar lurched, setting off Aya's accumulated aches and bruises. Her muscles were sore after the hours of crouching in the reservoir, fleeing paparazzi, and sleeping on a shuddering metal floor.

'No, we don't. We were pretty exhausted after running around all night, waiting for you to rescue us.'

She spat the last two words.

'Listen, Aya-la. Believe it or not, you're safer here with us than back in your city. The freaks would have snatched you sooner or later?they always do. At least this way we're around to protect you.'

Aya snorted. 'And you've been doing a great job at that so far.'

'You look like you're in one piece to me.' Tally's eyes narrowed. 'So far.'

'But how do you think this feels?' Aya cried. 'You're the most famous person in the world, and you used us!'

'How do I think it feels?' Tally leaned in closer, her black eyes glowing with sudden intensity. 'I know what it's like to be manipulated, Aya-la. And I know what it's like to be in danger. While your city was building you mansions to live in, my friends and I have been protecting this planet. We've spilled more blood than you have flowing in your veins. So don't try to make me feel guilty!'

Aya shrank away. For a few terrible seconds, she'd glimpsed the Special face behind the mask, and heard the razors in Tally's voice. She remembered the shudder-making rumors back in school about what the word 'Cutters' really meant.

Suddenly, she believed them.

'Stay icy, Tally-wa,' Shay said from across the cargo hold. 'The randoms are fragile, and we still need their help.'

The anger faded from Tally's face, and she slumped back against the cargo webbing, as if exhausted by the outburst. Suddenly she looked like an ordinary ugly again. 'Okay, but you talk to her.

She's making me less than icy.'

Shay turned to Aya, spreading her hands. 'I understand your annoyance, Aya-la. You know that feeling you're having about Tally right now? Let's just say I've had that feeling before. A few times.'

Tally smiled. 'You couldn't live without me, Shay-la.'

'I was living without you,' Shay said. 'The rest of us Cutters were having a great time in Diego, until you showed up with this brain-missing plan.'

'Brain-missing?' Aya looked from Shay to Tally. 'But you're friends, I thought.'

'Best friends forever,' Shay said softly. 'It's just that getting captured by a bunch of freaks isn't my idea of fun. How about you, Fausto? You like being stuck in this brain-rattling hovercar?'

'Loving every minute of it,' he said absently, shifting his sneak suit through different dorm plaids, as if he didn't want to get involved.

'I don't remember you having a better idea,' Tally said.

'I had plenty of ideas.' Shay turned back to Aya. 'But I've learned that when Tally gets a plan in her head, it's easier just to go along. Otherwise, you'll find out that Tally can be very, very special.'

Aya swallowed, wondering if her English had been scrambled by whatever the inhumans had stabbed her with. The conversation had started her head spinning again. The Cutters were so different from how merit-rich, world-saving, famous people were supposed to be.

'By 'special'? do you mean something bad or good?' she asked.

'Not bad or good. Just special.' Shay shrugged. 'Tally's someone who makes things happen, that's all, and the easiest thing is just to play along. So are you going to be a good little random and help us?'

'But you're the Cutters!' Aya said. 'You ended the Prettytime, and I'm fifteen. How am I supposed to help you?'

Shay smiled. 'Well, from the rough translation we saw of your story, you seem to be pretty good at fooling people.'

Aya sighed. 'Thanks for the reminder.'

'You're welcome,' Shay said. 'All we're asking is for you to lie a little more. Explain to our surge-crazy captors why a bunch of foreign uglies were trying to sneak you out of the city.' She pointed at her ugly mask. 'These disguises won't hold up if they get suspicious.'