▌𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐲-𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐫 ━︎━︎ 𝐀 𝐒𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐝 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐧 ▌

━︎━︎━︎━︎𝐒𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐋𝐄𝐏𝐓 𝐋𝐈𝐊𝐄 John had told her to. She just hadn't expected to sleep for an entire day. Artemis had been the one to wake her up, catching her up on everything that she had missed. She now stood in the kitchen, a coffee placed in her hand as she stood on the top floor of the Mutant Underground watching from above. She turned her attention away when a hand was placed on her shoulder, smiling when she saw her sister standing there. Sonya pushed a hair from Aphrodite's face as she smiled at her older sibling.

     "How's your head?" Sonya questioned her.

     "Hurts. But less than it did yesterday." Aphrodite answered. Her eyes narrowed in on Artemis talking with Lauren, a wide smile on Artemis' face as she made the blonde laugh at something she had said. She felt for her daughter. She wished that she could help her, but she had to let the relationship develop the way it was supposed to without her intervening.

     "Come on." Sonya sighed, hooking her arm with her sister's. "Meeting's about to start." Aphrodite nodded before finishing her cup of coffee and then allowing her sister to lead her towards the bank fault where everyone stood. John, Lorna, Marcos, Clarice, Sage, and then the telepath that they had picked up. Esme was her name.

     "We need to go after the Trask lab now." Esme demanded, pacing back and forth as she did so. Aphrodite watched her with her eyes, her arms crossed over her chest as she met Lorna's eyes before looking back towards Esme. "We have to rescue those people."

     "Have to?" Lorna stepped forwards. "You're pretty new here to be telling people what they have to do."

     "You don't get it!" Esme snapped. "My family is in there. They're running out of time."

     "I get it." Aphrodite spoke up, making the group look at her. "I've been in your shoes when my daughter was taken by one of those organizations. But I practically went in without a plan. My only goal was to save Art. I almost got both of us, as well as Lorna, Marcos, and John, killed in the process. Just take a breath, alright? We'll figure something out."

     "You got all that information from the woman they sent after us?" John questioned the blonde.

     "Yes," Esme nodded. "I mean, her mind was hard to read. Confused. But I got enough. The mutants in that lab, they were desperate. I-I could hear the screams. I could see the bodies. I could feel the agony when they turned that poor woman into that thing. And it's all happening in that building."

     "We know where this place is?" Clarice questioned from her spot on the other side of John.

      "I'm assembling a site map now." Sage assured.

     "So why are we standing here?" Esme quizzed.

     Sonya spoke next. "Did you get anything on their security?"

     "No. It. . . her mind was too cloudy, but what does it matter? We are the last hope those prisoners have." Esme looked at John, noticing the conflicted look covering his features. She took a step towards him. "You saw what they did to your friend. We sit on our hands, and that happens to more people."

     "No one is sitting on their hands." Marcos objected. "Now, we will make a move on that lab, but if we go in blind. . . like Dove said, we die." Esme looked back towards John with a pleading look, but he said nothing, and instead looked down at the ground before walking away, silently announcing that the meeting was over. Aphrodite watched him go before she glanced at Sonya who nodded her head, telling the girl to go check on him.

      She found him leaning over a desk, and she could tell that something was wrong. She gently closed the door behind her before taking a few steps closer to him. "John, are you all right?"

     He stood up and turned to look at her. "How can I be all right?" He sat down. "Maybe Esme has a point."

     "But she's just a scared kid, who has no idea what she's talking about."

     "She was right about one thing." John cut her off. "Pulse. I left him behind and they took him to that lab."

     "John," she shook her head, "that's not on you. And continuing to blame yourself isn't doing anybody any good. Besides, don't you think it's strange that she knew about Pulse? I know that she's a telepath and all, but no one told her about him as far as I know. It's an invasion of privacy." 

     "Still, it doesn't change the fact that I gave up on my friend and they turned him into a monster." Tears filled her eyes as she clenched her jaw, listening to him continue. "I'll be damned if I'm gonna let that happen to anyone else."

      "John, I want to help her." Aphrodite whispered. "You know that I of all people want nothing more than to help her because I never want someone to go through what I was forced to go through with Artemis. But I don't want to make a move until we have a solid plan."

     "Then I'll come up with one." John answered before he stood up and walked away, leaving Aphrodite to stand there as she let a silent tear trickle down her cheek.

She made it to her room, smiling at her daughter that was already fast asleep. She crawled under the covers, kissing her daughter on the forehead before using her powers to turn off the light. She closed her eyes, and her dreams took over. She stood there, a place she's been before. One all too familiar. She walked down the hall before a scream could be heard. Her daughter's scream.

     "Art!" She ran down the hall, coming across the room in which Artemis lay. Doctors surrounded her, torturing her. And no matter what Aphrodite tried, she couldn't get to her. She cried, sobbed, yelled for her daughter and did everything that she could with her powers but she still couldn't reach her. A scream left her lips and suddenly Aphrodite was shooting up from her bed, Artemis having been trying to wake her up.

     "Mom! Mom, hey, it was just a dream." Artemis grabbed her mother's hands, making the redhead look at her daughter. Tears welled in the mother's eyes as she quickly pulled Artemis in for a hug. She held onto her tightly. "Hey, what's going on?"

     "We need to get into that lab." Aphrodite whispered. "And we need to do it fast."

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──

     "I've been looking into the Trask lab. This place is out in the middle of nowhere. There is no information on it." Sage informed the group. "But there is this." She pressed a button her keyboard, and an image popped up on the screen.

     John frowned. "A bar?" He moved so that he was standing beside of Aphrodite. "What good does that do us?"

     "I cross-referenced credit card activity with places near the lab, and this place is popular with Trask employees."

     "I could go in." Sonya suggested. "Pull some information out of a guard or an operations person."

     "That's a good idea." Marcos agreed. "I'll go for protection."

     "No. I will." Lorna spoke up.

     "I'll come too." Aphrodite nodded.

     "Are you sure babe?" Marcos turned to look at Lorna. "You haven't really been sleeping well."

     "I'm okay." Lorna assured him. "Marcos, if you want to get information from a guy at a bar, you don't send a girl and another guy." She made her way towards the two sisters. "We'll be fine. Besides, Winter here can control any situation that goes south."

     "Well, if we're all in agreement, I'm going to go tell Art that I'll be gone for a little while." She looked towards Sonya and Lorna who nodded at her before she walked away.

      The three woman arrived at the bar, finding one the security guards from Task sitting at the table. They shared a look with one another before making their way over to him, and he smiled at them. Allowing for the three women to sit down before explaining to them his job. Lorna hummed as if she were interested. "So, you're really in charge? Of the entire security system?"

     "I mean, not like the boss boss, but of my shift? Yeah." He nodded. Aphrodite made her way back over to the table with three shots in her hand. "Basically, I run it." He went to go for one of the shots, but Aphrodite was quick to slap his hand away, looking at him like he was crazy before quickly downing all three shots.

     "Wow, that sounds intense." Lorna continued whilst Aphrodite and Sonya hummed.

     "You don't know the half of it. The place is like a fortress. You know, automatic guns, detectors. . ." He looked between the three girls. "I shouldn't be telling you any of this."

      Lorna looked towards Sonya who was quick to step into action. "Must be so scary to work with mutants. Do you ever worry they'll attack you?"

     He shook his head. "Oh, they have a whole program in place to make them behave. Remember when they were calling themselves 'homo superior'. Well, they're not so superior when you. . . crack 'em in the hand with a nightstick." Aphrodite watched her sister place her hand over the guards, exchanging a look with Lorna who was twirling a metal spoon in her hand, her powers starting to surround it. "I mean, one good shot to the temple. . . they drop. . ."

     The spoon was bent around her fingers like brass knuckles. And then she was punching him across the face. Sonya's eyes widened as she covered her mouth whilst Aphrodite just took a sip of her beer. "A little like that?"

     "Lorna, what the hell?" Sonya hissed.

     "What? I'm just teaching him to respect the genetically different." Aphrodite let out a snort of amusement. Sonya groaned. "Quit crying. Nobody saw. Just do your thing." She tucked her red hair behind her ear before she started to blow the pink substance from her mouth until it was covering the guards face. She collected the memories that she needed before breathing in and sitting up.

     "Give him anything to remember us by?" Aphrodite hummed.

     "Mm. Just a lonely night till he cracked his head on a urinal."

     Aphrodite laughed. "Oh, I love that." She got out of booth and the other two followed behind. She smiled before shaking her head as another laugh fell from her lips. "Best girls night ever."