The Center: Best Served Cold - Part Fourteen by: Enemyoffun Becca has been having nightmares, all of them involving a certain Mr. Green and how he ruined her life. Now Green's whereabouts might be known and Becca will do whatever it takes to make sure that he doesn't get away from her this time, no matter what the cost.

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Author's Note: Here's 14, it starts out in Becca's POV then switches to Stella then goes back to Becca. Don't worry, I label the POV switches. I'd also like to apologize for the Character Vs. Character that seems to pop up in this chapter, it just sorta happened. Though it might be interesting to listen to the theme song from the Mortal Kombat movie while you're reading it. I'd like to thank djkauf for the fantastic editing.

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Chapter Fourteen:

Barry’s words echoed in my head. Everything fell into slow motion for me. I saw him standing there, one minute laughing and now frozen in fear. The look on his face, the way his expression seemed to disappear. I’d seen it all before, in fact very recently. It was Emma all over again and if so, that meant the two of us were no longer alone. I’ve dealt with Dominators before; hell, they seem to be the staple of the Syndicate army. I’ve had run-ins with Declan, his crony Scarlet, little Melanie Crane and most recently that demented psychopath Anastasia. But all of them were peanuts compared to this guy. I haven’t even met Miles and I could already tell he was a force to be reckoned with.

“Barry?” I asked softly, seeing the blank look on his face. “Can you hear me?”

I know I should have been running but I just couldn’t leave him. Call me a moron all you want but there was no way I was going to lose any more friends to this asshole.

My former boyfriend continued to stare ahead, his eyes the only thing that seemed to have any life left in them. I bit my lip, waving my hand in front of his face. His eyes followed it and a tear slowly started to swell up. I cursed. Barry was there but there was nothing more he could do to help me. I didn’t waste any more time after that, I turned and ran. My heart was pounding in my chest, my feet pounding heavily on the floor. I knew I was going in the wrong direction but I didn’t have much of a choice anymore. I’d find another way out, there had to be more than one. I heard Barry running after me, his feet pounding just as loud as mine. Ok, so my ex-boyfriend was now a brainwashed zombie. I could deal with that, I think.

I put on the speed, trying to get some distance between the two of us. This has been one of those days---or has it been two? I really need to figure this stuff out. Clearly it’s morning now, at least I think it is. Regardless of the time of day, I need to figure out another game plan. Barry had everything worked out; of course, he was a lying traitor so I wasn’t really keen on his plan from the start. But it would have gotten me out of this place. I could have dealt with him after we made tracks. But now that plan was shit.

I got to the end of another hall; I think it was my third one. I’m not sure what way I was going though, all these damn halls looked the same to me. As I was turning the corner, I saw him. I stopped dead in my tracks, skidding to a halt. It was that gargantuan pyro jackass, Brock. Damn, why can’t that guy stay down? He looked pretty battered; there were bruises all over his face, his top lip swollen and purple. All of it my handiwork. He didn’t notice me at first but I knew that wasn’t going to last long. I snapped back around and heard Barry coming. Son of a bitch, they had me pinned in. How is that something could go to shit so quickly?

I closed my eyes, concentrating on the rest of the noises. There were a lot of them. Earlier when we were escaping, I thought I heard a dull thud like an explosion but it happened so quickly I couldn’t be sure. Now I heard a lot of running. I think Declan had the whole place on high alert. Barry’s little diversion worked pretty well except I was pretty certain they knew it was fake now. So the question was why weren’t there more people out looking for us? I concentrated more on the running and noticed something off about it. There were too many people. There were at least ten people in Declan’s merry band of rejects, which included him, Diana and Barry. Brock was included in that as well and I knew for a fact he wasn’t running. Listening to the footfall around me, I picked up at least five more people.

I smiled. Things just got very interesting indeed.

But interesting or not, I still needed to get my ass out of here. I weighed my options. I could deal with brainwashed zombie or crazy, pissed off pyro. I took a deep breath and snapped around. A fist drove into my face, knocking me on my ass. Son of a bitch. Brainwashed Barry stood over me, smirking. How he’d sneak up on me? I’m losing my touch. I jumped to my feet, wiping blood from my mouth. I raised my hands in a defensive position, ready for it. Barry cheated, whipping out the knife. I groaned, I knew I should have never given him that. He came at me, quick, aiming for my left breast. I spun with his slash, rolling up his outstretched arm, driving my elbow into the side of his head. He stumbled back, clearly taken off guard by my ability to outmaneuver him. I guess all that practicing with Ray really paid off after all.

Barry may have been a badass who taught me everything I know but he’d been going soft. He spent all his time with his computers and very little in the training room anymore. On the other hand, I’d only gotten better. I trained whenever I could, honing my skills and picking new ones up as well. Let’s face it; Ray was a far better teacher too, not at all distracted by me because he had his own lady friend.

I used the stunning blow to land a few more. I came at the other side of his head, delivering another swift elbow. Barry blocked it but it was a feint. It distracted him from my real blow, which was the knee I delivered to his chest. Guess what, Becca learned a new fighting style. It was called Mauy Thai, native to Thailand; it uses a technique referred to as the “Art of eight limbs.” It was something that Ray recently picked up, meant to train others who might find themselves in close quarter situations. Naturally, he went to me first with it, knowing how much I liked to get into my little scraps. Every chance we got the two of us practiced. It didn’t take me long to pick it up. I still had a lot to learn but I was getting the basics.

Barry stumbled back, allowing me to deliver another elbow to his head, this time he didn’t block that one. He dropped his knife, abandoning it on the floor. Brainwashed Barry was sloppy, a clumsy shell of his real self. I think Miles took too much away when he did whatever to control him. There was no finesse there, no real purpose other than to turn Barry into a mindless automaton. I pushed Barry back down the hall, delivering blow after blow, changing things up with fast moving fists, elbows and knees whenever he allowed me to get close enough. He fought back valiantly but I overwhelmed him. I was too fast, even the real Barry knew that. The only real chance he had against me was the knife and he lost that.

I delivered another punch, hitting him in the left temple. Barry dropped to his knees, I smirked. I’m not even sure why I ran from him before. I think I thought he was going to be more of a threat. But this was kind of pathetic actually. Declan prided himself on his Super Dominator but clearly Miles was a really bad puppeteer.

Ok so maybe I was getting too cocky or maybe I was losing myself in the moment because what happened next I never heard coming. I felt it though. It was a sharp sting; it exploded in my shoulder blade. I didn’t feel any pain but I felt what came after it. There was a great on rush of heat, whatever it was in my back got extremely hot. I snapped around. That brute Brock was standing behind me, Barry’s knife in his hand. The blade of it was red hot, covered in blood. I stumbled, feeling woozy and disoriented. Oh God, the burning sting. I felt the blood trickle down my back, soaking my shirt. The son of a bitch stabbed me.

The blow came from behind, right in the back of my head. I saw stars and then everything went black.

___________________________

Stella:

I can’t believe they actually made me go into a room and promise to stay there. It was kind of infuriating, like a little kid being told not to touch anything. But at the same time, I guess I can’t complain too much. After all, we were in enemy territory now and anything was bound to happen. So here I was---in a dark, cold room---trying my best to keep my mind occupied. It’s not as easy as you think. There’s no windows and the only chair is a hard wooden one, near a desk. The worst part, I’m not sure the last time this place was cleaned. I could feel the dust creeping into my nose, tickling it horribly. I withstood sneezing at the moment, in case it was going to draw attention to me but it was only a matter of time before I let it blow.
Ok, so I’m, not exactly the greatest spy but I’m not pretending to be one.

After we arrived and the alarms sounded, I actually panicked a bit. Hey, I thought it was us. Brad had to drag me into a corner---after I rematerialized of course. He was able to calm me down enough and told me that this wasn’t really a place for me. I didn’t argue there. I did argue with the fact that they wanted to leave me behind, though. Connor offered to download some of his combat knowledge into my brain but I refused. It was bad enough that he put all that other crap in there before but there was no way I was letting him near my head again. It was too damn creepy. So after refusing that, the others thought I was too much of a liability. I’m not sure why they didn’t tell me that before they let me follow them into the dangerous, enemy run facility.

I took a deep breath, trying my hardest to occupy my mind. But when you’re sitting here, all by yourself there isn’t really much to think about except how much you want to be with everyone else. Maybe I should have taken Connor up on his offer after all. I reached into my shoulder holster and took out Bart; he was a lot heavier than I would have thought. Back at the Center, Becca talked me into using a Beretta for my Small Arms training. She said it was the perfect gun for girls like us. I think it was because she was so in love with hers that she wanted everyone to feel that very same love. The only thing I felt for Bart was fear. Here in my hand was something dangerous, something life ending. All I really wanted to do was toss him aside, crawl into that corner over there and curl up into a ball. Yeah, I’m a coward but come on, who wouldn’t be in a situation like this?

A noise in the hall startled me. I gasped, dropping the gun. In the empty room, the thudding sound of it hitting the linoleum echoed about. I cursed but was glad that I knew enough to put the safety on. As I was bending to pick up, I heard the same something in the hall. It probably would have passed me by if I hadn’t dropped the stupid gun. Damn it. Instead of picking it up, I left it there and slowly slipped out of the chair. Whoever was on the other side of the door---it was definitely a person---was now stopped directly in front of it. I heard a jingle of keys and then the doorknob turned slightly.

I took a deep breath and lowered my concentration. When I first turned invisible---back before my Second Emergence---it scared the hell out of me. It’s not every day that a kid vanishes into thin air like that. I mean I was standing, feeling like hell and them wham, my arms disappear. It was pretty damn jarring. I wandered about the forest, dazed and confused. I puked a few times. I would have felt a whole lot worse if Becca hadn’t found me when she did. I owed her a lot. But even after I transitioned, I was still really scared of it. I knew there were other photokinetics at the Center--- hell Heather and I are really good friends---but it took me a long time to open up to people. Once again, Becca helped me with that too.

Now turning invisible was like taking my clothes on and off. Sometimes I did it without even thinking about it.

Now wasn’t one of those times.

The door opened up and a blue haired girl stepped into the room. My heart skipped a beat. It was the same blue haired girl I saw carrying Becca out of the coffee shop. I gripped my fists at my sides. This was the bitch that kidnaped one of my best friends. I bit my lip, forcing back all my anger and hate. The girl looked around the room, squinting her eyes. She didn’t step from the doorway but she didn’t leave either. Behind her, the hallway was bright and welcoming. I wonder if there was a way I could slip past her without her noticing.

She smirked. “You think you’re pretty clever don’t you?” she said, there was definite malice in her voice. “You’re Stella, right?”

How in the hell did she know that?

“I know all about you. In fact, I know a lot about all of you. I’m not sure if you’ve gotten the 411 yet, honey but you’ve been compromised.” She laughed again, stepping into the room and shutting the door. “Your buddy Barry has been feeding us information for a long time now.”

I gasped. Son of a bitch. So it was Barry, he really did sabotage the communications. That bastard was so dead. But I still found it hard to believe he could be involved with this girl. She kidnaped his girlfriend.

“You want to know something else?”She didn’t wait for me to answer.

Instead, she walked into the room further and stared right at me. She smiled real big. “I might not be able to see you but you’re emotions are all over the place.”

Damn it. A fricking Empath, that’s all I needed. I’m not sure which was worst, knowing that she could read me or trying to force down anything that might draw her to me. I tried my hardest to keep things in check but there was a combination of things floating around in me at the moment. Top among them was fear, followed a close second by anger. I wanted to tear this bitch limb from limb for fucking with my friend. But I needed to keep that in check or else…

“Oh, such strong emotions” she said, walking over and sitting on the corner of the little wooden desk in the room. “You don’t need to hide from me anymore sweetie, I know exactly where you are.”

I didn’t rematerialize. Instead, I slowly slipped along the room, making my way ever so quietly toward the door. Unfortunately, for me, this bitch seemed to follow my every move. It was as if she had x-ray vision or something. I guess she kinda did. If she could feel my emotions, it was probably the same thing as seeing in the dark. I probably lit up like a Christmas tree as far as she was concerned. Did that mean I wanted to stop doing what I was doing, hell no. It just meant that I needed to be a little more secretive about it.

I took another step toward the door. “Seriously” she laughed. “I know what you’re doing. You honestly think that slipping out of here is going to stop me from finding you.”

There was no point keeping quiet anymore. “You may have the upper hand but let’s see if you can outrun me.”

I made a mad dash for the door. I grabbed the knob, pulled it open and started running. I got a pretty good head start too. I took off down the hall, running like a bat out of hell. Hey, there was a reason I ran every morning. Only part of it was to keep from being so lazy like Mike used to be. I was tired of being looked upon as someone less than they should have been. My father was a big track runner in high school; he was All State and everything. At my old school, there were several trophies in the display case and every morning I used to see them when I walked into school. They used to taunt me, showing me a life I could have had if it wasn’t so shitty. I’m sure my father would have helped me to follow in his footsteps. But all of that was shattered because some drunk jackass couldn’t show some restraint and not get behind the wheel.

I got to the end of the hall when I felt this overwhelming feeling of dread. My entire body seized up and I dropped to my knees. I’m not sure what was wrong with me but for some reason I just couldn’t run anymore. I didn’t feel like it. My entire body trembled and all I wanted to do was curl into a ball and cry. There was a laugh behind me and someone came down the hall. I turned my head, tears in my eyes. It was the blue haired bitch, laughing as she walked slowly down the hall. She had the biggest smile on her face.

“There you are,” she said, stopping about ten feet away. I looked at my hands, they were visible again. “You are a lot prettier than Barry reported.”

She put a hand on her hip, smiling. “What’s the matter, sweetie? Feeling a little depressed?”

I glared at her. “What did you do?”

She smirked. “I’m what you might call an Empath with Attitude. Unlike your little friends at the Center, I like to wear my feelings on my sleeve and sometimes I like to give those sleeves to other people.”

I groaned. The dread slipped away and I felt excited. Really excited. My nipples started to harden and I was moist between my legs. I moaned, rubbing my hands across my chest. This bitch was going to pay. I rubbed my nipples, giving them a good squeeze. She laughed even harder, walking over so she was only a few feet away, crouching down to look me right in the eye.

“You’re kinda pathetic you know that” she laughed. “You and your friends. You didn’t think you could slip in here without us knowing. Declan figured you’d try to pull something like this. In fact, he was counting on it. All of you’ve been a great interest to him for quite some time now.”

Declan? Did she just say Declan? I thought this whole thing was Dekker’s game. But if Declan was involved, Oh God. It was a setup, the whole damn thing. Not only that, it was the biggest trap imaginable. Declan was a nut job. If there’s one thing I knew from being Becca’s roommate, it was how much she couldn’t stand this guy. She told me all about him, all the crap he pulled, all the shit he wanted to do. He took over Section Four; he was there at Section One and killed the guy in charge there. Every day Becca said she regretted leaving the bastard alive instead of killing him.

She reached forward, grabbed a bit of my hair in her fingers and actually sniffed it. Yep, this girl was a real winner. “So beautiful” she said, stroking my cheek. All I could to was moan and play with my nipples some more.

“You’re a bitch,” I moaned, my voice laden with ecstasy.

She laughed. “When this is all over I can make you mine.”

Her hands moved down my chest, brushing against my breasts and stopping on the necklace dangling around my neck. To the naked eye, it was probably nothing more than a plain looking bauble. In most instances, you’d probably be right. But for me it was something else entirely. Ever since I got to the Center, the R&D team has been working on a way to keep my pheromones in check. After some rigorous tests, they’ve discovered that somehow jade seems to keep it at bay. I’m not sure why---there was some technical mumbo jumbo---but it worked. Well on everyone except Becca. Feeling her running her hands over my breasts was enough of a fake excite---she was doing it to me after all but maybe there was a way to turn things around.

“You like it” I moaned, barely containing myself. “Why don’t you take it? Consider it a gift from me to you.”

She smiled. “Don’t mind if I do.”

She slipped the necklace around my neck and as soon as she did, I saw the look on her face. I’ve only seen what the pheromones could do from a distance. I know what they do to Becca and I’ve seen what they can do to others. But most of the time, I turned invisible and disappeared before things got out of hand. Now, with her so close, things were interesting indeed. Double for her because she was an Empath. I’m not sure how much control she needed to keep me going but however much it was it didn’t seem to last very long. As soon as the necklace was off, it was like flipping a switch. Whatever whammy she was giving me, my pheromones probably turned it back on her times ten.

She screamed out, moaning and started writhing on the floor. It took me a few seconds to recover from my own orgasmic throes but as soon as I did, I clambered to my feet. She reached out for me, rolling about on the ground like a cat in heat. I smirked and disappeared. She screamed and I lashed out with a swift kick. My foot connected hard, snapping her head to the side. It wasn’t a deadly blow---I’m not a monster---but it was enough to knock the stupid bitch out. After that, I grabbed her legs and dragged her back to the room I’d been hiding in before. I took Bart off the floor, stole her keys and locked the door. Before I left, I took back my necklace, slipping it around my neck where it belonged. No point in having a repeat performance. If I was lucky, she’d be out cold for the remainder of the mission.

I didn’t even turn back. I made a decision about which way to go and ran as fast as I could. I needed to find the others before they blundered into a trap. I was running pretty strong, only paying half attention to where I was going. When I came around the corner and slammed right into something, I didn’t even know what it was until I landed on my butt. Staring down at me, in the trashy outfit imaginable was one of my best friends.

She looked down at me with a blank expression on her face. “Hi there” she said in a bimboish voice.

“Emma?”

“Do I know you?”

Oh shit.

___________________________________

Becca:

I groaned when I finally managed to open my eyes. It was kinda embarrassing being knocked out all the time. I was supposed to be a team leader and I probably spent more time on the floor then my whole team combined. I sat up -- surprised I wasn’t strapped down-- and rubbed my head. The room was dark, which was perfect for me and there were no windows. I was lying on another cot, in a room that was a similar shape and size to the first room they put me in. I have to stop getting knocked in the head and waking up in places like this. I moved to take in the rest of my surroundings, noticing a few new things about my situation. For one I was clad only in a bra and another, I had a bandage on my shoulder. I twisted my body---not feeling the pain I should---and looked at work. Someone was pretty skilled; it was a field dressing.

I looked around the room, hoping to find something to cover up with. When that jackass stabbed me with the knife, it cut clean through Barry’s jacket, my shirt and the Second Skin. I could still feel the Skin on me but there was a bare spot where someone cut it away to dress my wound. Though I felt no pain there, it was still pretty tender. I’m glad that most of the pain was over now; I probably succumbed to it while unconscious. I guess being knocked out has some advantages. But that still didn’t mean I enjoyed the practice. It was kind of jarring waking up in a strange place, sometimes with strange and crazy people all around you. I thought I was done with it all after I left Section Four but apparently, I was losing my touch. It was one thing to let Brock get the drop on me with that knife but for Brainwashed Barry to do it only a few seconds later. I was really starting to slip…

I finally found something. There was a blanket lying on the floor, it was probably covering me at one time. I climbed off the cot, my shoulder was a little stiff but I managed to pick up the blanket. As soon as I did, I heard someone coming down the hall. I quickly slipped into the corner and listened. It was a small someone, moving slowly, with little feet. It was a familiar sound, one that I didn’t expect to hear anymore. The person stopped in front of my door and it slowly opened. A head peeked inside and I heard a soft feminine voice:

“Becca?”

Déjá  vu? It was Diana. I watched her for a few seconds, looking for any tell tale signs that she might be brainwashed like Barry and Emma. But she looked normal enough, if a little battered. There was a bruise on her cheek and her top lip was swollen. It made my skin crawl to think those bastards would hurt such a sweet girl. I watched as she continued to search for me in the dark. She didn’t act brainwashed either. But then again Emma acted like a semi-normal person. It could all be an act. I needed to know for sure so I paid careful attention to her eyes. For some reason the eyes were important. I’m not sure why but both Emma and Barry seemed so alive when I looked into their eyes.

Looking at Diana’s eyes, I could see she was still with me. There was no despair or pleading in them.

I took a deep breath and stepped out of the shadows. “Close the door” I said, softly.

She jumped, startled by my presence. Then she quickly shut the door behind her.

“I brought you a clean shirt” she fumbled into the room, trying to find her way to the cot no doubt.

I grabbed her hand gently and guided her over, helping her sit on it. She was trembling and her arm was so cold. I sat next to her and put my arm around her. She dropped the shirt on the ground, rested her head on my shoulder and cried. She cried for a long time. I whispered soothing words into her ear, telling her that everything was going to be ok. In truth, the two of us were in hell. A hell that there didn’t seem to be any escape from. But I couldn’t tell this poor traumatized girl that.

Diana stopped crying finally, wiping her eyes and grabbing the shirt from the ground. “I was worried about you, seeing you lying there like that in the hall.”

In the hall? “Did you find me?”

She nodded. “There’s some crazy stuff going on here. Some people blew a door on the south side of the facility and have breached it. We thought it was another one of your diversions to escape until the gun fire started.” She burst into tears again. “They killed Reggie. He tried to fight back but a female soldier shot him where he stood.”

I bit my lip. I wanted to comfort her for the death of her friend but at the same time I was pretty certain it was my team. Who else could it be? “I’m sorry about your friend” I finally managed.

She shook her head. She looked up at me and even though there were tears in her eyes, she was smiling. “He was the worst. The son of a bitch got what he deserved. I’ve just never seen anyone killed before.”

I nodded. I needed some information. “Can you tell me how many people there are?”

She shook her head. “It happened fast. There were at least two soldiers and two guys, about our age. When the shooting started, everyone ran. One of the guys took off after Tobias, he ran through the wall.” I smiled, so it was them. It was only a matter of time then. “I ran too. I was going for the exit and that’s when I found you lying there. I thought you were dead. I saw the stab on your arm but luckily for you it looked cauterized too.”

Probably when the hot knife went in. I urged her to continue.

She took a deep breath. “So I made sure you were all right and I dragged you here. There was a lot of shouting by then. But I was able to get you this far without being noticed. I dressed your wound and after I left to get you a shirt I ran into that new girl, Emma” She shuddered. “I’m sorry but I had to tell her that you were here. She asked me what I was doing and I told her I caught you. It was the only thing I could think of to keep her from dragging me back to Declan. She’s strong; she had one of them on her shoulder already, a red head girl.”

I bit my lip, forcing back my anger. Stella. I was so going to kick Declan’s ass for this. Diana burst into more tears, burying her head in my chest. I soothed her again, rubbing her back. We sat like this for a while but I needed answers. I hated being the heartless bitch but we didn’t have time for the crying game. I took a deep breath and gently pulled her away.

“Where’s Declan and the others?”

She shook her head. “If I know him he’s probably holed up in the west office, he always goes there. It used to belong to the facility administrator. It’s heavily fortified now. Miles will be there too and Jasmine if she’s not already dead.” I nodded. “Are these your friends? The ones from the Center?”

I nodded. She smiled real big. “They’re here to get me and Emma.”

“Do you think they’ll take me too?”

I smiled. “I’ll make them take you.”

This time she laughed and threw her arms around my neck, wrapping me in a big hug. She hung off me for a little bit. I laughed too then gently pushed her away again. “But in order to do that, you need to get me out of here.”

Diana nodded, passing me the shirt. But before she did so, she pulled something out from underneath it. “I found this on you. I think it’s yours?”

This time I smiled. It was the P. Gun, now we were talking.

Photo Credit: Model AJ Stewart