Fred squeaked as Ginger leapt to her feet. He certainly had an aptitude for landing on his head.

"It's not what you think!" She held out her hands, again, as if that made her any less threatening. J.D. had a gun trained on her forehead before she could move a toe forward. She blew a curl out of her face, giving him the phoniest shy smile I've ever seen. "Little quick on the draw there, Captain Trigger Fing-Gah!"

Fred seized her ankles, yanking them out from under her so she pitched forward, slamming into the floor with an audible crunch. "No one makes fun of him but me," he said, flipping her over.

The impact messed up her nose worse than Bert's. It sat at a sharp right angle on her face, while a light trickle of iridescent blood leaked from her left nostril.

There was a soft grinding noise.

"Do you hear that?" I glanced at the others. Ginger's nose straightened itself with a final pop. The grinding stopped as her cartilage finished shifting back in place.

J.D. whistled. "That's a neat trick."

"A regular fricking X-23," said Fred. There was a twitch in his cheek as he tried to keep his expression neutral.

She opened her eyes, glaring daggers at Fred but allowed him to keep his hold on her ankles. I kneeled by her mass of coppery curls.

"I can't believe I'm going to ask you this, but how many aliens did you eat?"

Ginger blinked at me, her golden eyes distant. "I don't know. When Liv found me, I was in bad shape."

"How so," said J.D., leaning on the arm of the recliner, holstering his gun.

"My body was intact, but my mind sort of lagged out. Liv brought me back. Took care of me. She kept me from slipping out of my head again." She twiddled her fingers together. "She helped me find my limits. Calls me her little patient zero."

We all shared a look over her head. Fred and I were both confused.

J.D. looked incredulous. "No, f'ing way."

"Patient zero? Where have I heard that term before?" Fred frowned.

"It's a medical term," J.D. interjected.

"Medical? As in doctor/patient privilege? Needles, meds, and lab coats, oh my?"

Ginger nodded. "She's amazing."

The snort was out before I could stop it. "Hot topic princess is a doctor?"

"Pfft. She's got to be like an EMT or a nurse," Fred looked thoughtful. "She looks a bit young to be a professional anything."

"You're one to talk," said J.D.

"Oh, I'm a professional hooligan," he quipped, releasing Ginger's ankles. "So, are you, like, what happens to us when we gobble alien brains like hungry, hungry hippos?"

Ginger sat up, fidgeting under the sudden scrutiny. "I don't know. Liv is the one with all the answers."

I pursed my lips. "How convenient. Well, I guess that brings us back to the point, doesn't it? You want us to help you rescue the Princess." I pushed off the ground, dusting my knees off despite the rather immaculate floor. "Since Wolf Girl and Ernie appear to be trapped with her, we are wasting time arguing. Do you have any idea where the ship would take them?"

Now she looked downright guilty, hugging her knees. "They'll be in Surwich."

J.D. stood. Ginger's eyes followed the muffled click of his dog tags. "How do you know?"

"They're waiting for someone," she said. "I don't know his name. Liv and I saw him a couple times when we were scouting the area."

She kept fixating on those tags. "Another soldier? Like us?" I asked.

Ginger shook her head. "Not like us."

___***___

"I wouldn't have thrown those two together again," said J.D.. The big guy was hunkered down on my right side, Bert to my left behind a crumbling brick wall. The three of us surveyed the not so empty streets of Surwich. Ginger and Fred had split off to approach from the other side of the main street. She told the truth this time. The ship occupied the same space J.D. and I trounced through hours ago. Like the other two, it had the same 'flattened star destroyer' look, triangular, sleek, and with no visible windows or doors.

"He'll be fine. I think Ginger is rudderless without Princess anyway." I frowned at the opaque metal, looking for seams to indicate a door. "How do they even see out of that thing?"

It wasn't like the massive vessel that razed Rochester, though it nearly quadrupled the scout ship Fred knocked out of the air. Mirror smooth, hiding the life inside, like the surface of a lake. I was so focused on it I missed the other vital change to the scenery until J.D. tapped my shoulder.

"She was on point with that too," he said, pointing to a fresh wreck. It was a powder blue mini van, flipped onto its side. The front wind shield was cracked with a smear of dark red on the inside of the glass.

"Holy crap. What kind of soldier drives a soccer mom car?"

J.D. gave me a look. "I would be more curious to know if he survived the crash. If he didn't, we have less time than we hoped."

"Uh, yeah, that too," I said. Bert curled his fingers around my forearm, shifting from one side to the other. He was poised to launch into a full out sprint, his gaze fixated on the ship. "Easy there, we'll get them back."

"Exactly how do you think we'll manage to sneak in without being vaporized, Li?" J.D. peered through the scope of his rifle. "Nothing is stirring out here. The party is closed up tight inside. Charging in blind will get us killed and I want to survive this little encounter."

Quite the statement from a guy who still had a bullet hole through the back of his head. I laid a hand on his shoulder. "You've come a long way in a few days."

J.D. shrugged. "This existence isn't so bad once you get used to it." He glanced sidelong at us. "I'm not alone anymore. I want to keep it that way."

"Are we having a moment?" I clasped my hands together, batting my eyelashes at him.

He rolled his eyes. He was right though. We weren't alone. J.D. could snipe them as they came out of the ship. Fred was strong, Ginger even stronger; they were brawlers. I was the fast one, possibly fast enough.

"I want to survive this too, but one of us has to get their attention. Take a risk. Stupid as it is," I finished on a mutter, shifting to the same sprinter position as Bert. "Don't let him follow me." J.D. realized what I intended a moment too late.

I leapt up and over the wall, running for the ship as if death was nipping at my heels. Funny, since it was squatting in front of me.

"Li!" He yelled. I didn't look back, praying he had the sense to stop Bert from charging after me. Far off to my left, I could see Fred and Ginger struggling as he fought to come after me. I worried he'd get around her until Ginger ripped a blue post box from the ground and smacked him down. Good thing too, as a familiar hum filled the air.

"Oh no, you don't!" I dug deep for the extra burst of speed. The hum leveled out with a mechanical whine as I skidded to a stop under the silver belly of the ship. Hard to hit a target hiding under your ass.

This was our ticket in. One of the spindly bastards would have to poke its head out to deal with me. All I had to do with deck it and get my toe in the door. I waited, listening for a mechanical hiss, grinding gears, beeps, anything to indicate the appearance of an opening. There was nothing but the idling air cannon. Did they want to play a game of chicken? See if I would dart back out?

I chanced a glance at the others. In a complete role reversal, Ginger sat on top of Fred, pinning him spread eagle to the pavement. His eyes were fixed on me, wide with panic, while she wore her usual dispassionate mask. I envied her. It took everything I had not to bolt right back to my foxhole. Lucky I didn't have a pulse like her. It would be thundering in my ears, drowning out everything else. Were those footsteps inside?

J.D. restrained Bert by his bad arm. The Muppet reached for me with his free hand, frantically beckoning me back to safety. His mouth moved without sound. It took me a second to realize he was saying the same word over and over.

I peered at him, trying to split my attention between Bert and the ship at my back. What the hell was he saying?

The metal rippled behind me, like when a fish kisses the surface in pursuit of a tasty bug. I abruptly realized the flaw in my plan as Bert's one word warning finally translated in my brain. Trap.

"Shit!" I snarled.

Two spindly arms wrapped around my waist and pulled me through the fluid wall of the ship.

***Fred maintains his nerd card with an X-men reference. X-23 is Marvel's answer to Rule 63 for Wolverine. Hate to say it Li, but aliens are not Bond villains. They don't follow the same rules ;) Disastrous developments! Only a few more chapters to go! Enjoying Z vs A? Don't forget to vote!***