Her mirror image sneered, sending a shiver down her spine. It wasn’t right to see herself so sinister, “The Director has told me of my purpose and why I was created. She never promised me anything more than this mission. She designed me without a conscious or emotion; that way, I don’t feel. I don’t have the same weaknesses as you, and I’m glad to die when my mission is complete.”
Tessa figured her reasoning would not work, but she had to try. Plus, the conversation provided a brief opportunity to catch her breath after being clobbered by the refrigerator.
Tessa took a deep breath and charged again. A flurry of energy attacks and super strength punches ensued between blinking to and from different positions. They both tried their best to outdo the other, but they were the same. Tessa landed several hits by either punching or kicking. The fake Tessa was slow to block because she was less experienced in fighting.
Tessa let herself be distracted by her evil twin and failed to see the H.I.V.E agents enter the mess hall with some odd-looking gun slung over one of their shoulders. Tessa was too busy fighting herself. The two Alpha Evos collided in a violent melee, tearing apart the surrounding arc.
The H.I.V.E gun operator tried to find the perfect opportunity to get both Evos in the sights. When he did, the gun released a stream of concentrated sound waves so high pitched and intense; both Tessa stopped fighting and covered their ears, falling to the ground in agonizing pain. Not only were her ears on the verge of bleeding, but she felt like her insides might explode. She struggled to stand, and one of the H.I.V.E agents fiddled with the gun to increase the intensity of the sound waves.
Tessa was incapacitated, but so was her twin. The Director stepped over the rubble and into the mess hall, gaping at the mess the two Evos made of her creation. She wore a pair of high-grade earplugs, so the sounds didn’t affect her. She lifted a remote in her hand, and with the press of a button, she deactivated her cloned Tessa who fell limp to the ground. The Director now knew which Tessa was real, and which one was her creation.
The Director pointed to the gun they used to tag Finn and gestured toward Tessa. A H.I.V.E agent made his way around the room into position. With a gun aimed at the back of Tessa’s head, the Director signaled for the sound wave beam to drop at the same time the power dampener shot into the back of her head behind her ear.
Tessa tried to seize her power. It was faint, but she could still sense her power floating there just out of reach. She grabbed the Director with what energy power she could muster and squeezed. It took so much focus to use her power that she didn’t notice the H.I.V.E agent sneaking up behind her to fasten a metal collar around her neck. As soon as the collar clicked shut, Tessa was entirely cut off from her power.
In a swift reaction moment, Tessa used what resources she had left to grapple the H.I.V.E agent to the ground, snapping his neck and taking his sidearm. She opened fire on the handful of H.I.V.E agents in the room, including the Director. They all scrambled for cover, and Tessa did the same. As she fired from behind an overturned table, she clawed at the collar with her other hand, but the collar was on tight with no manual release that she could find.
Panic set in as H.I.V.E surrounded her, and Tessa realized she would not escape this one. She was outnumbered and outgunned without her power. It wasn’t long before she was out of ammo, and H.I.V.E agents swarmed in to take her. She tried to fight off as many as possible. She tried to run but didn’t get far.
They cuffed her hands and drug her from the arc wreckage. She screamed and cursed at them. Tessa vowed that she would get free, and there would be hell to pay. She was determined to get free, eventually. They had nothing strong enough to hold an Alpha Evo for long.
25
H.I.V.E agents drug Tessa from the arc and back into the main bay area. By this time, she was bloodied and beaten, but refused to give the Director satisfaction in seeing her defeated. Tessa tried to maintain her composure, but that facade failed when she exited the arc.
Finn knelt on the concrete floor outside the arc with his hands above his head. Two H.I.V.E agents stood behind him with rifles aimed at the back of his head. If he defied them, they would take him out execution-style. She hoped Finn escaped to warn the others, but he didn’t make it. They were on their own.
“Let him go,” Tessa was in no position to make demands, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t try.
The Director cackled, “You presume to give me orders.” She looked down on Tessa, battered and beaten. “No, I think not.” The Director addressed her minions. “Take her to the memory lab and bring him. He can watch.”
H.I.V.E agents led Tessa through a maze of corridors outside the arc chamber. The Director swiped her key card, and the door slid open to reveal a stark white room. It reminded Tessa of the sterile hospital room she woke up to when H.I.V.E kidnapped and imprisoned her the first time.
There were two chairs in the center of the room positioned back to back.
