Pulling up it looked like an ordinary storefront at the bottom of one of the residential buildings, one that I had walked past many times since living just a few blocks away.

“What it’s in a cafe is it?” I scoffed sarcastically as Tai brought his car to a stop across the road.

“There’s a basement underneath. That’s the site.

“Let’s get a coffee, you’ll have to persuade the staff to let us out back.”

Tai didn’t allow me a chance to get a word in before he took off across the street, leaving me to enter the cafe without the slightest idea of how I was going to approach it.

It was quiet inside the cafe with only a few people sitting around drinking tea and coffee. As soon as I opened the door the counter girl locked eyes with me, a pleasant smile on her face waiting for me to get that little bit closer to welcome me and take my order. A few steps for me to think of a reason to go into the back.

“Hiya, how’re you doing today. What can I get for you?” Said the girl in a happy, welcoming voice.

She might have had a smile and a happy tone but that was not what was going on underneath when I started to sense her. She was irate, about to explode at any misstep. It completely threw me off.

“Hey uhh—

“So I got a call to come check out issues with your electricity box out the back,” I stammered.

Oh damn I fucked that up.

I quickly locked eyes with her to attempt to calm her. I of course could do this from a distance or without looking at her but direct eye contact made any connection stronger and more effective.

“Oh yeah and who did you talk to?” She snapped back. I was losing it.

“They didn’t leave a name.”

She started to go mental — shouting, cussing, and crying. She slid down the to the floor, her head in her knees.

“Well that’s one way of doing it,” said Tai as he decided to join me again. I broke the poor girl but at least she was out of the way now and let us make our way to the back.

The back linked into a communal space, with a door leading to each shop. Except for one.

“This is it, are you sensing anything yet?” Whispered Tai.

“There’s someone close by, they’re distracted.”

“Perfect.”

Without so much as a warning, Tai kicked open the door and struck the guard across the side of the head in a quick and admittedly impressive way. The guard dropped to the floor and Tai picked up his weapon before walking over to some conduit that ran along the wall.

“Thought you said we needed to stick to the plan!” I said.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

“Nah, was starting to take too long, time to improvise.”

Tai dragged his hand along the conduit as we walked further into the entrance, a hum electricity gradually grew louder before I started to hear some pops around the corner and a smell of burning plastic.

As we turned the corner, I could see, what I guessed were, two smouldering security cameras.

“Wait. Did you do that?”

He ignored my question and motioned me over to a doorway, he touched the electronic lock and zapped it open.

He had the same ability as Jake but to a stronger extent — Bioelectric manipulation. It would have been eating up all of his energy reserves. To short circuit the cameras and then to open a lock, to me, was insane. No one could have that much sustained generation, but there he was still looking sharp as ever as we entered the next room.

The entrance was nothing but a snaking hallway, with dark concrete walls and stone floors that opened up into an office layout behind the door we just entered. There were a bunch of offices with large windows, most were empty, in fact majority of the place was empty and seemingly pointless.

“Jake’s close,” I whispered to Tai.

I could feel the panic and the familiarity of my brother. As we zigzagged around the basement office I tried to calm him the best I could from a distance, but at the same time I was picking up two more people.

“Argh fuck,” I groaned, my head started to thump and spin, my eyes ached, and I fell against the wall, only just holding myself up.

It was the first time I had simultaneously focused on multiple things at once. I was trying to calm Jake; pick up a new set of emotions from the approaching people; while trying to read their abilities.

“What, what is it?” Said Tai as he grabbed me.

“Two people,” I started to pant, the pain in my head was excruciating. “A couple of pissed off regenerators.”

Regenerators had the ability to rapidly heal themselves, and getting into fights with them was an absolute pain in the ass. You had to fight them for long enough for them to tire out or deal strong enough blows on them to tire them out quicker. Like all abilities, their energy was not infinite, you drew it from your own body.

“Ah shit, get yourself together Reed.”

I decided to try and block it all out, including my connection with Jake. It eased the migraine and got me to my feet just as I saw Tai run forward, jump, pull his knees to his chest, turn in the air 90 degrees, while hurling himself in the direction of one of the men running toward us. When he was mid-air and close enough, he kicked out both his legs, straight into one of their chests.

The thud filled the room, sending the man flying backward and crashing into the wall. With Tai temporarily on the floor, I set my sights on the second guard, and got into a comfortable stance as he rushed toward me.

Jake and I enjoyed practicing anything where we could inflict pain on each other in a controlled manner, so naturally we gravitated toward any sort of boxing or martial arts — activities that paid off in similar situations to that I was about to find myself.

I stood my ground, waiting patiently, luring the guard into my range. As he got close I shifted my weight onto my back foot, pulled one knee up, and used the momentum of my hips to throw my foot outwards in a kicking motion.

My foot hit him in the sternum, pushing out all the air from his lungs, and making him stagger a few steps backwards.

I put my weight back down on my front foot and pushed closer to him, throwing a surprisingly effective hook, jab, cross into his head. It rattled him only for a second as he quickly regained his composure.

Tai came in from the side and slashed the side of his face. The guard raised his hand and felt the small cut down his cheek, not even fazed by the blood on his hand as he started stepping toward me again. By the time he reached me the cut had closed in on itself.

Fucking regenerators.

I could see Tai off to the side, occupied by the other guard again. With no hope of immediate backup, me and the guard started exchanging blows akin to a hockey brawl.

I started to fade before finally Tai was back in. He jumped onto the back of the guard I had been punching on with, wrapping his forearm across his throat, and hooking his legs around him before pulling him backward onto the ground where he slowly but surely choked him out.

I rolled the guard off the top of Tai and helped him up. Tai let out a small laugh, “that wasn’t so bad was it.”

Admittedly, his reaction and sudden disregard for any of his own plans had made me laugh too.

“Alright let’s find Jake, I’ve had enough brawling for today.”

We quickly stepped over the bodies of the two guards, Tai did a number on his one, who was laying in a pool of blood and definitely not healing himself out of that situation.

After a few minutes we found a locked office That had Jake inside pacing back and forth. I wasn’t too sure I wanted Tai to unlock it either. Once Jake spotted us, he stopped on the spot and glared at me in such a way that I knew I was in for it once we got back home, plus his panic had turned to rage.

As Tai raised his hand to the electronic lock, I stared at Jake and tried my hardest to rush calmness onto him. Once that lock popped open, he did some popping of his own.

He pulsed Tai, sending a shock through his body before popping a hit to his head, and then proceeded to do the exact same thing to me.

“What have you gotten yourself into Reed? Gotten us into? I got fucking kidnapped,” he shouted before walking away.

“Do you even know where you’re going?” Laughed Tai as he called after Jake.

“I’ll manage. Fuck you guys.”

“you’re welcome,” I added as he flipped me off while still walking away.

He was pissed but to me that wasn’t unusual. Even as ungrateful as he was to be rescued, I was happy he was safe and unharmed.