The team would sleep in shifts, and while awake watch assignments required them to keep a wary eye in all directions. For the plan to work, they needed to arrive in Denver in one piece, so they prepared for the worst and hoped for the best.
Arica packed along extra water and food provisions and a portable medical kit. Sam packed weapons and ammo, and Finn loaded in all the tech gear they needed along with H.I.V.E uniforms and credentials. Tessa, Norine, Melody, and Stonewell were the Evo muscle along for the ride. Tessa let the experts handle their individual areas of expertise.
Five were awake and on watch while two slept, making the sleeping shifts short four-hour bursts. Tessa had a difficult time falling asleep and staying that way, but she needed to get as much rest as possible.
They reached Des Moines, Iowa, in about five hours and stopped to stretch and refuel. Refueling was a trick, requiring them to enter a town and risk being discovered and reported. Stonewell filled the tank at a rural station while Sam conversed with the station attendant. H.I.V.E only allocated a certain amount of gas to each town, and farming received the most fuel rations in this area of the country. Travelers weren’t frequent and raised red flags. Sam’s job was to convince the station attendant to stay quiet. Tessa also knew Des Moines as Nitro’s territory, an Evo with explosive powers. They didn’t want to bring him down on them either.
All seemed to run smoothly as Stonewell finished pumping, and Sam returned to the vehicle. Finn pulled away from the station, and Tessa kept a wary eye as the station disappeared into the distance. They would find out in the next few minutes if anyone spilled the beans about their team.
Tessa remained vigilant as they drove out of town, and just when she took a deep breath to relax, she noticed a line of dust headed toward them. A gang of trucks and motorcycles pulled out in front of them, blocking their path. A stream of curse words escaped the mouth of everyone in the van. Nitro and his gang of thugs had other plans for them. Tessa would rather deal with Nitro than H.I.V.E right now so she would figure it out.
Melody offered to negotiate, “I’ll go talk to them. Maybe a friendly smile will work. Tessa, you got my back?”
Tessa agreed to protect Melody if the situation turned sour. She didn’t like sending her friend out unarmed, but they needed to get through this altercation raising no more alarms. A fight just outside of Des Moines on a major highway would draw H.I.V.E attention. Tessa watched as Melody exited the van with her hands in the air. She approached the group and started talking, but they were too far away to listen to what they said.
“Finn, can you turn on her comms so we can hear what’s going on?” Tessa needed to ensure the conversation didn’t turn hostile. Finn turned on the comms, and they heard what Melody said but not what the gang asked her.
“…on our way to Kansas City.” There was a pause, “Visiting family,” another longer pause, “We have seven people, and only want safe passage through Iowa.” Another pause, “We have nothing of value.”
Melody turned to the group with hands up and walked back toward the van with a gang member trailing her. The large man following her had a handgun aimed at the back of her head, so Tessa assumed the negotiation went poorly. She put up a force field around Melody and the van. The sudden pinkish-purple illumination prompted the gang to fire.
Tessa exited the back of the van and sauntered toward the enemy. Melody put her hands down and turned to face the gang. Tessa dressed in plain clothes, a pair of jeans, and a tee-shirt. She didn’t look menacing, but her display of power startled these men, and she planned on using their ignorance to her advantage.
“She asked nicely to let us pass. Now I’m telling you we are passing, and you’re going to back off.” Tessa used the most assertive tone she could muster.
A man with long greasy dark hair and black sunglasses walked to the front of the group, “Or what?” He took off the sunglasses, and his eyes glowed red like fire. His men backed up, giving him space to do his thing. Tessa assumed this was none other than Nitro himself.
“I don’t have time to play games. I’ve got places to go and people to kill.” Tessa would need to flex her muscles on this one.
Nitro’s body glowed red, and she knew he prepared to unleash his explosive power. Tessa acted without hesitation. She used her blink speed first to smack his men with a force field wall so hard it sent them and their vehicles tumbling backward and through the air a hundred yards. In the same instant, she dropped the force field surrounding her and her friends and wrapped it around Nitro. As he began to explode, she blinked in front of him and with a swift super strength charged kick in the gut, sent him flying through the sky. He traveled high into the air and far away from the group. Tessa dropped his force field, and an explosion lit up the sky, after which he fell to the ground, landing in a poof of dust.
Nitro’s men got back up, but they were uneasy on their feet. Being thrown through the air that far and landing so hard disoriented them. Tessa and Melody climbed back into the van and continued down the road. There wasn’t
