▌𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐲-𝐅𝐢𝐯𝐞 ━︎━︎ 𝐀 𝐁𝐚𝐝 𝐅𝐞𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 ▌

━︎━︎━︎━︎"𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐘𝐀 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐈 have been going through the memories she got from that guard and it does not look good." Marcos told them.

John made his way into the room. "What are we up against?" He eyes Aphrodite who was sitting at the table a glass of water in her hands that Clarice was forcing her to drink. He looked towards Sonya. "Is she. . .?"

"Tipsy." Sonya sighed. She shook her head, going back to the conversation at hand. "Well, the lab is hard to get in to against mutant attack. They have motion and infrared sensors connected to heavy-caliber guns that are mounted all over their building."

"Guns? I can handle guns." Lorna shrugged.

"I know, but it is way too dangerous when there's this many, at this range." Marcos shook his head.

John spoke up. "Clarice, can you get us past their defenses?"

Clarice looked away from the red head, shaking her head. "No. It's too far. I don't know the first thing about the inside of that place. I could blink us into the middle of a concrete wall."

"Well there has to be something." Esme huffed.

"I did find one vulnerability." Sage told them. "There is a power substation a few miles away. If we took it out, we could get into the lab before their systems came back online."

"So what are we waiting for?" Esme urged.

"We don't have enough heavy hitters to attack both places at once. And we're checking with the other stations now," Marcos answered.

"Well, how long will that take because my family―︎"

"Jesus, you're whiny." Aphrodite muttered, putting a hand to her head and earning a glare from Esme.

"Listen, I understand―︎"

"Esme." John called to her. "Esme. Believe me. This means as much to me as it does you. But we are gonna get one shot at this. We can't miss." She looked between Marcos and John before giving in and nodding.

As everyone started to disperse, John made his way over to Clarice and Aphrodite, crossing his arms over his chest and nodding towards Clarice, silently telling the woman he could take it from her. Clarice nodded, standing up and placing a hand on Aphrodite's shoulder before walking away. John watched her leave before he sat down in front Aphrodite, watching as she slowly and lazily sipped on the water that Clarice had given her.

"Don't look at me like that." Aphrodite muttered. "I'm not even that drunk. The rooms just spinning a little, that's all. Besides, I've been under a lot of stress, and I just wanted to relax. I didn't mean to drink as much as I did."

"I'm not looking at you like that because you were drinking. I'm actually surprised you haven't gotten drunk sooner. I'm worried about you, Aph. I don't want to be. So, tell me, do I need to be worried about you?" He was concerned. She had been distant and distracted lately, even Artemis had expressed her concerns to him.

She finished the water, setting it down on the table before removing the hair that had fallen in her eyes. She looked at John, forced a small smile and nodded her head. "I'm alright, John. I promise. Thanks for worrying about me. Not a lot of people do that anymore." And then she stood up and walked away, leaving him to sit there and think about what she had just said.

When she had sobered up, she made her way down towards the room where another meeting was taking place. She was surprised to find her daughter sitting there, holding Lauren's hand as Marcos spoke to them. "We need you to do the same thing to the substation transformers that you did with the prison convoy bus. Now, you don't have to do this. We know it's a lot to ask, but . . . now we just don't see another way."

"Look, we want to help," Reed spoke, "but why does it need to be Andy and Lauren?"

"Well, because we need everyone else with combat powers to assault the lab." Marcos shrugged. "Now, we think that we can take down that power substation without putting them at any risk."

"So, exploding high voltage transformers is the safe job?" Caitlin Strucker asked with raised eyebrows.

"In this case, yes." Lorna nodded.

"Sage hacked the security cameras." Marcos informed. "The station only has a handful of guards. Clarice will get everyone inside. Sonya will guide them. Dove will be the back up if something goes wrong."

"We've been through every option." John assured them. "This is the only one that works."

"I'm down." Andy was quick to agree.

"Let's do it." Lauren nodded. Aphrodite watched as Lauren turned her head to look at Artemis, almost as if she knew the girl was worried. She squeezed her head and nodding reassuringly. Artemis was going to have to stay, because they all knew that even though she was a kid, she was the best one to protect them when everyone else was gone.

Reed reluctantly sighed. "Okay. But Caitlin and I need to be the ones monitoring the security."

"If our kids are there, we are too."

"All you sons of bitches are really leaving me here without any friends?" Artemis scoffed.

"Look, Sage will set you up, show you what to do." Lorna continued, ignoring the teenager.

"Alright, everybody get ready. We move out in an hour."

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──

She said goodbye to her daughter before they were all heading out. She sat in the passengers seat beside of Clarice, looking out the window and listening as Reed's phone rang before he answer it, John letting them know that he was in place with Reed responding that they were in route. Clarice glanced towards Aphrodite. "Hey, you alright over there?"

Aphrodite hummed, turning her head to look at Clarice before forcing a small smile and nodding her head. "Yeah, I'm fine. I just. . . I just have a bad feeling." And she should've listened to that bad feeling, not knowing what it was that she was about to walk into.

"Hey, Strucker's, heads up. We're here." Clarice called to the family. She stopped the vehicle and they stopped, standing up and getting everything ready. Reed called Sage, who was quick to help them set up. They watched as the security feed popped up on the computer screen, listening as Sage told them that they needed to move quick.

"Okay, guys." Clarice called. "I'm gonna need some room here, kid." They all backed up, watching as Clarice concentrated for a moment before portal started forming between her hands. Aphrodite watched the Strucker kids hug their parents before Clarice ushered them to go through. One by one they all entered with Aphrodite going in first to make sure that there was no danger.

They made it through the doors, stopping for a moment so that Sonya could bring her hand up to her ear. "Hey, can you hear me okay?" She looked up at the security camera. "We made it inside."

"We can hear you just fine." Caitlin assured her.

"Alright, we're going in." They made their way down the hall only to stop once again when Reed warned them of some workers ahead. They only moved once Caitlin told them it was clear. Aphrodite walked beside of her sister, the two exchanging glances with one another as they carefully continued forwards. They went through a set of double doors, stopping in order to look right and left down the halls.

"You sure you know where you're going?" Lauren asked Sonya.

"Um, pretty sure."

"That didn't sound confident to me." Aphrodite muttered, earning narrowed eyes from her sister.

"The guard I borrowed the memory from had only been here a few times, so it's a little hazy." They turned down one hallway.

"The transformer we need to take out is in the middle of the building." Clarice told them as they continued forwards.

"So, why didn't you just portal us there?" Andy frowned.

They stopped again. Sonya holding out a hand towards them whilst Clarice responded to Andy's question. "Can you make a portal through a hundred walls into a room you've never seen before and land safely next to a high voltage transformer?" And then they were moving again.

"No."

"Neither can I."

"Incoming, door to your left." Reed quickly spoke.

Sonya was quick to stop them, watching as a guard appeared from one of the rooms. He turned to look at them. "What are you doing here?"

Sonya walked towards him. "Oh, did they not call? From the front desk?"

"No, I didn't get a call. Hang on just a second." He reached for his radio, but Sonya stopped him.

"Come on. You remember me." And then she was blowing the pink smoke from her lips, making it surround his head as she inputted memories that had never been there. She pulled it back. "Or maybe you don't remember."

The guard stepped past her, looking at the other four before he pulled out his gun. Lauren stepped forwards, ready to protect them if any shots were thrown. And then he was taking his gun and radio, throwing them away in the trash. And then he walked past them. Aphrodite hummed, cocking an eyebrow as she looked at her sister with a proud smirk before they continued.

It was going smoothly, until it wasn't and Caitlin was yelling at them to get out. The next thing Aphrodite knew, they were running. They found them. They knew they were there and now they were all being hunted. As they were running, Lauren asked, "What about the power transformer?"

"There's no time! Clarice, you gotta get us out!"

Clarice stopped. "I don't even know where we are in this building. I don't know which direction." She was trying, but it wasn't working. "The-the, there's too many hallways, I don't know."

"Hurry please!" Lauren begged.

"I-I know. I'm trying!" It took her a moment before she nodded. "Okay. Okay, I got it!"

Suddenly, Andy was pointing behind them. "Guys! Guys! Hey, guys!"

"Andy!" Lauren yelled her brother's name, pointing towards the bot that had been such a pain in the ass when they had tried to rescue the Strucker's those weeks ago.

"Move!" He yelled, and then he was using his powers to rip it apart, making a pipe break in the process and making steam form. And when the steam faded, the bot was there in full.

"Run!" Clarice yelled and they went running. But before Clarice could move, the bot was attacking her, latching onto her causing Aphrodite to yell her name. "Go! Go!" Sonya was quick to grab Aphrodite's hand and pull her along.

"Attention all employees. This is not a drill. The facility is under attack. Observe full lockdown procedures. Repeat: full lockdown procedures."

"I knew I had a bad feeling." Aphrodite groaned. At the end of the hall, there was a metal door.

"What are we gonna do?" Andy panicked.

Sonya moved forwards. "Sage gave me the codes." She tried the code, but it wasn't working. The sounds of agents could be heard as they ran towards them.

"Come on!"

"They're coming!"

"Move!" Aphrodite snapped, and Sonya was quick to do so, watching as the purple surrounded her sisters hands before she quickly pulled the door open with a grunt. "Go!" She pushed Andy and Lauren inside before she looked at her sister and the two nodded before quickly shutting the door, leaving Andy and Lauren by themselves as the agents approached the two.

"See you on the other side, sis." Aphrodite breathed. Sonya nodded, grabbing her hand as the agents brought them down.