"That has to be the one", Lars began as he adjusted his binoculars. "It's guarded by armed men."

"Yeah, that's not conspicuous at all", Rico observed as he looked through his own binoculars.

"Maybe it's a not a secret what's going on in there", Lars wondered aloud.

"Or maybe it's a ruse", Liv said as she moved to get a better angle. "You know, a place that attracts all the attention, while the real lab stays hidden."

Rico and Lars turned to Liv with raised eyebrows. "She really has spent too much time around the master", Rico said, only to get punched in the back by Liv's big fist. "Owww", he stifled a scream.

She smiled, showing her perfect teeth. "I'll take that from him", she explained while motioning to her brother.

Lars just shook his head. "I see two types of guard uniforms. There are ones with blue stripes on their pants and jacket sleeves then there are others with green stripes."

"I see them", Liv said. "What do you think that means?"

"No idea, but it might have to do with their jobs", Rico replied. "They certainly have plenty of guards no matter what type of stripes they have on their uniforms."

Lars let out a long sigh before turning to his sister. "Why can't your normal form look like a swimsuit model? I'd send you over there naked to distract them. Rico and I could just walk through the gate."

"You're no Skarsgård yourself", Liv fired back with a frown.

Lars grinned at her then looked to Rico. "We'll have to go with our first plan", he said.

"Wait", Liv said and looked through her binoculars again. "What kind of weapon are those blue stripe guards are carrying?"

Rico and Lars both looked quickly because if Liv didn't know a gun type then that was serious. She could tell a Chinese made AK from one made in the former Yugoslavia, and she could tell a Queen Anne pistol from a French duelist with a single glance from a hundred feet away.

"At first I thought they were Heckler's like the Green Stripes have but you're right", Lars agreed.

"They might be built on Heckler & Koch frames, but what's that bulge back near the stock?", Liv asked. "It's not an extra magazine."

"No it's not", Rico agreed then put the binoculars in his pocket. "We've got to get in there regardless so let's just do it."

Lars nodded and Liv moved into position with her back to the compound. Rico stood facing her. "I hope your aim is good."

"Good enough", Liv said, giving him little comfort before lacing her fingers together and holding them low. Rico put his right foot onto her hands as she looked back over her shoulder. "Ready?", she asked in Spanish which made him smile.

"Si." Liv stood up fast, her massive muscles barely flexing to lift Rico's weight as he rocketed into the air. He flew over her head and was forty feet in the air by the time she turned to look at her throw and eighty feet high a second after that. He was a hundred feet in the air as he passed over the razor wire topped fence and the roving guards who patrolled it. He looked down at the guards then forward to see where he would land. 'Increíble', he thought to himself when he saw that he was about to land on a large patch of grass rather than the asphalt that surrounded it. He righted himself a bit and let out his breath as he landed. He hit hard enough to break a normal man's legs, hips, and back, but his body could easy take a jolt like that. He looked around, but nobody had seen his landing or heard his thud. "I'm in", he reported. "Moving to the west tower, stand by."

It was hard to stay in the shadows, but Rico managed to stay out of sight, timing his movements to miss the traversing cameras. He thought he was in a good spot to wait for a moment, but then he heard two men coming around a corner towards him. He had to move quickly, but there wasn't really anywhere to go. He was about to break into a sprint just to gain some distance when he saw a gap between a building and a shipping container. It was only a few inches wide, but it was going to have to do. He looked back towards the approaching men then blew all the air from his lungs. He pushed his arm into the gap as far as it would go and then the rest of him began to follow. His shoulder separated then dislocated while his ribcage began to deform, his bones collapsing in on themselves with a sound snapping pencils. His pelvis distorted and flattened. It hurt like crazy as he forced his head into the space. His eyes felt like they were going pop out of their sockets, and his jaw completely unhinged itself. Rico barely looked human as he waited for the men to pass, but they didn't. Two Green Stripe guards stopped just beyond the opening and decided to have a chat. Rico couldn't believe it. He couldn't just wait there, since he couldn't even breathe in the position he was in. To make things worse, every time his heart beat, it slammed into an out of place rib making his chest hurt terribly.

He raised his leg and wedged his foot between the two walls and pushed upward. His skin didn't want to slide against the relatively rough concrete walls, but it didn't cut him so he did it again and again, inching his way towards the roof of the one story building.

As annoying as it was climbing a little at a time, it was even worse listening to Lars ask for status updates every few seconds. Rico finally felt cool air against his hand and grabbed the roof to pull himself up. His bones began to take their proper places, but he had to give one bone some special help.

"Rico, please respond", Lars said into the radio, getting worried that something might have happened.

Rico grabbed his jaw and pushed it up and to the left a bit finally forcing it back into place. He worked his mouth a little before saying, "I'm here! Can't a man go radio silent for a moment?"

"We're supposed to stay in contact", Lars replied.

"Not when they're guards breathing down my neck. Now stand by." Rico stood up straight and popped his back a couple of times, all while looking at the two men below him to make sure neither of them looked up. He could have waited for them to move on, but there was another way. He went back to the gap between the buildings and wedged his feet in place before relaxing his tendons again and stretching with all of his might. His back and pelvis popped again, so did his shoulders as his body elongated. He could almost reach high enough before this stretch, but now it was easy for him to reach the second story roof of the building across the gap from him. He got two good holds and pulled his feet free then shortened his body until he could easily put his feet on the roof now. He looked back to the guards with a smirk. Getting across that gap had been child's play. He stayed in the shadows as much as possible as he inched his way towards the interior of the tower. There was just one Blue Stripe in there, and he was looking the wrong way. Rico slipped up behind him and applied a textbook choke. The man struggled and reached for the alarm switch, but Rico dragged him backwards. When the guard was unconscious, Rico laid him on the floor before tying him securely and gagging his mouth. This didn't have to be a messy operation unless the need arose, and they weren't there yet.

He picked up the weird weapon that Liv hadn't been able to pin down and even looking at it up close he had no idea what it was. That bulge was built into the stock and the weapon had a smaller than normal magazine. There were no markings of any kind on the gun either. He could have sat and studied that gun for an hour, but he didn't even have a few more seconds. He slung the gun over his shoulder and reached his arm through the side window, stretching it to double its normal length. Finally his fingers touched the camera showing the approach to the west gate. With just a little more effort, he was able to grab the camera and point it towards the sky. With that done he went to the gate control.

"Okay", Rico reported into the radio. "Make your way to the gate."

Lars and Liv had already moved into a position to make a short trip to the gate. They had to move when guards weren't looking. Liv had to extra careful to fully hide her bulk as they moved from place to place. She'd thought about going to her smaller size, but she had a feeling that she'd need all of her energy on this mission. "Okay, crack the gate", Lars said as they got closer.

"Wider", Liv called as she jogged behind her brother, who was at a dead sprint.

Rico saw them coming and moved the lever a little more. Lars slipped in with no problem, but Liv's massive chest just barely slid through the opening. She gave a sigh of relief then headed towards a stack of shipping containers. Rico closed the gate then looked around the yard, picking out a likely first destination before jumping the twenty feet to the ground. He stayed in mostly darkness as he made his way to Lars and Liv.

"I see you got one of those guns."

"I still don't know what it is", Rico said.

"Hopefully we won't have to find out", Lars said but Liv wasn't so sure. There were too many people, but at least Rico gave them a location that he'd seen. It kept them from having to go building by building. They spit up and moved a little at a time, dodging both Blue and Green Stripe guards as they got closer to a low built building near the center of this area. It was shorter than the shipping containers stacked near it so it would have been impossible to see this structure from outside the compound, but it was very well lit. Somebody was taking extra pains to keep this building hidden and very secure.

The guards didn't seem to be giving this building any extra attention though. While that was a little strange, the team still thought the low building was the one to start with. Lars had split the team, putting several meters between each member so they could cover more ground and see more threats. He took up position behind a line of shipping containers and started counting guards. Liv was off to his left behind a stack of shipping containers while Rico had made his way to the far right, almost in front of the building. Instead of staying behind a double stack of containers, Rico had climbed up and was lying prone the top.

The team members heard the approaching vehicles at the about the same time. The southern gate opened and a military style cargo truck came in with several vans behind it. "Fucking hell", Lars swore under his breath as the vehicles drove towards the low building. He motioned for the others to stay put. The truck and vans backed up to the building and parked with the engines still running. The only door the low building seemed to have opened and suddenly people appeared as if from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. There were Blue Stripes leaving through the door with Green Stripes. The Blue Stripes made a perimeter while a dozen or more Green Stripes stayed closer to the trucks. While the cordon was being set up, two Red Stripe guards got out of the big truck and began giving orders. Just that quickly the loading and unloading began. Green Stripe guards slung their weapons and began unloading pallet after pallet of plastic wrapped cash from the truck while other Green Stripes loaded cases of what had to be drugs into the vans. Lars, Liv, and Rico realized then that the Green Stripes had to have enhanced strength of some kind since they were lifting loads with their bare hands that should have required a fork lift.

Lars signaled to Liv and Rico to remain in position, although his direction hadn't been necessary. Unless the Cookmaster showed his face neither of his teammates had a burning desire to start a fight if one wasn't needed. While Liv would have loved every second a battle, she was more interested in completing her master's mission than having fun. Everything seemed to be going well anyway. The guards had obviously done this loading exercise before. The team was sure that in a few short minutes this would be over and they could go back to their mission, although there was a problem.

The Red Stripe furthest away stopped pacing near the drug laden vans and began walking away from the commotion. His face showed a bit of concentration. None of the team had any idea that this man was gifted with super human hearing. He heard everything around him even beating hearts. He'd already heard Lars and Rico's heartbeats, but dismissed them as Blue Stripes' heartbeats. There was one loud booming so out of place that it caught his attention. The Green Stripes had stronger everything than normal people, but even their hearts didn't compare to the pumping machine his ears were hearing. He'd heard hearts boom like that, but when he looked around he didn't see any elephants or hippos around so his preverbal ears perked up. His right hand grabbed the handle of his special weapon while he pointed with his left. "There!", he yelled in Georgian and pointed right where Liv was hiding.

A dozen guards came towards Liv, Blue and Green Stripes alike. A Green Stripe let loose a rip of automatic gunfire, but the bullets couldn't penetrate both sides of the forty foot long container. Liv ducked as low as her bulk would allow then leaned out and fired her gun three times, hitting three different guards in the chest. Lars always marveled at his sister's marksmanship, not that she used it much when she was in her muscled form preferring to crush people rather than shoot them.

Rico aimed that weird gun at a Green Stripe guard and pulled the trigger. A small bullet shot with almost no recoil. After leaving the barrel the bullet pulsed brightly, leaving a trail of pure white light in its wake like a laser. It struck the guard near the center of his chest, exploding with a shower of sparks. The big guard staggered backwards and fell to one knee. The wound looked tiny but bled profusely.

"They have one of our weapons!", the Red Stripe yelled and concentrated fire on Rico's location.

Liv and Lars tried to draw some of the fire, but it wasn't enough. Then a detachment of Green Stripes fired everything they had at Liv while a group of Blue Stripes shot their special weapons towards Lars. Unlike regular bullets, these bright laser like rounds punched right through the shipping containers. He ran along the container's length, getting to a dead end and jumping up to grab the top lip of another container. He looked over his shoulder as he pulled himself up, seeing half a dozen Green Stripes running at Liv's hiding place while regular bullets and special ones all came her way. Liv had already been hit by two regular bullets, but something inside her said not to expose herself too much. That thought had just run through her mind when one of the special rounds pierced the container and hit her shoulder. For the first time in a long time Liv screamed in pain.

Lars wanted to help his sister, but more guns aimed up at him. His left hand shimmered just before he sent a blast of energy at the nearest guard who immediately dropped to the ground. He wasn't dead, but his nerve synapses were so fried that it'd take him some time to get up. Lars dug deep and sent a powerful, less concentrated blast out of his palm hitting three guards, putting them all down. The rest found some cover as Lars ran along the top of the container towards his sister.

The six Green Stripes lowered their shoulders and drove them into the shipping container at the bottom of a stack, caving in one side of the big steel box as they slid the stack backwards towards Liv. She was just behind the bullet riddled shipping container when it was hit by the sliding one. She barely had time to put her hands up to block her face as it crashed into her. The pinching of the bottom edge hitting her hurt worse than the impact with the broad side, but all of it was unpleasant. She went flying backwards until crashing into the stack of containers behind her. The unclamped containers came crashing down on her like a steel avalanche.

Lars' eyes narrowed and his lips pulled back in a snarl as his hands began to glow brightly. He thrust his arms out, unleashing his most powerful blast yet. All six Green Stripes felt the mind numbing pain and dropped to the ground. Lars raised his gun to finish those men off, but had to jump down to the ground when bullets started flying his way again. He rolled along the ground, but kept his eyes on the pile of steel that covered his sister. His mind raced with ideas of how to get to her, but soon he was reminded that Liv could take care of herself.

The din of battle was pierced by the sounds of steel being ripped apart. The entire pile bulged and shook. A few containers rolled off of the top of the pile like the blocks from giant's toy set. The Green Stripes had recovered enough from Lars' blast to start to crawl away, but they weren't making much progress as Liv's power became evident to them. She put her thick bulging bleeding shoulder against the crumpled steel and powered up. The pavement beneath her sank and cracked as her massive thighs flexed to lift the pile. Her calves finally grew until the huge pants were stretched across them. Each super human muscle fiber showed through the material like it wasn't even there. Her muscles were so hard and so huge that it was actually a throbbing vein along the inside head of her right calf that punched through the fabric first. The still growing muscle just widened it more as she pressed the soles of her rapidly disintegrating shoes against the cracking pavement and the five containers still on her shoulders began to come up higher and higher. She stood up and then all at once she lunged forward.

All six of the stunned Green Stripes saw the containers coming, but none of them could move fast enough to get out of the way. The Green Stripes had enhanced durability to go along with their strength and might have been able to survive a couple containers falling on them, but not five. Liv's chest surged with each deep breath as she looked on and admired her latest feat. She didn't stay in one place long, firing the last of her bullets as she ran across the drive to Lars' side.

"Rico! Status?", Lars asked, desperately hoping for a reply this time.

"Pinned down!", Rico shouted. "I need help!"

"We're coming!", Lars yelled, expecting to devise a quick strategy with his sister, but she had other ideas. She ran towards the blocked off end of the row and drew her fist back. Her big shoulders and traps bulged with stored power just before she punched a hole right through the side. She used both hands to widen the hole big enough for her to slip inside. Lars followed her. He was almost inside when she punched open the doors at the far end of the container.

"Get in!", she told her brother in Swedish and he climbed through the jagged hole. Liv put a hand on either side of the shipping container's door then began to push. Loose gravel and layers of asphalt began to building up along the container's leading edge as it dug into the pavement. Liv's legs were so powerful that she barely felt it. "Come towards me!", she yelled and Lars stumbled through the moving container towards his sister.

She pushed faster and faster, gather more momentum until she judged that the container had enough speed.  She took one hand off of the steel and grabbed her brother while letting the container continue on its way. It crashed into the military truck and a couple of the vans. That got plenty of attention from all the guards. Lars and Liv used her distraction to head towards Rico who climbed from behind a container and unloaded three of those special bullets into a Blue Stripe only to get a bunch of special bullets shot right back at him. The pulsing white shots barely missed as he stretched his arms and pulled himself higher up the stack of containers. Liv was almost to Rico's location when a group of Green Stripes came at her. One of them threw a looping punch that connected, hitting with enough force to push Liv's head back. By then the rest were on her punching and kicking her while another Green Stripe used his gun to shoot her a couple of times. If the Green Stripes had carried the special guns Liv might have been worried, but these guys were an annoyance and not a problem. Her problem came when two Blue Stripes saw the melee and took careful aim at Liv with their weapons.

Lars had been about to sizzle the brains of a couple of the Green Stripes attacking Liv, but he spun and sent his blast at the Blue Stripes instead. Both got a little of the jolt, but one of the Blue Stripes took the brunt and dropped to the ground near death. The other Blue Stripe didn't get a chance to even aim his weapon at Lars before Rico fired his last special bullet and hit this Blue Stripe in the chest. Lars glanced up to Rico but ran towards Liv. He was almost to her when he felt some liquid hit his jacket. He didn't think anything of it until it began to smoke. Then he felt the burn and he screamed, ripping off his jacket and shirt as quickly as he could. Three Green Stripes were trying to drag Liv to the ground while the other two were pounding her face, but she spun around, dragging the three super human guards against their will to see her brother retreating behind a container. Then as her muscles flexed and bulged to defy the will of the super strong guards, she saw a Red Stripe open his mouth and shoot a thick liquid out towards Lars. It barely missed him, hitting a corner of the container instead. That corner began to smoke just before the steel itself began to melt like it was being blasted by some huge invisible torch. Lars found a puddle in the pavement to splash some water on the few drops of acid that had irritated his skin, but that Red Stripe was already moving towards him.

"No!", Liv screamed and flung the three remaining Green Stripes off of her like they were children. She punched one in the head so hard that he went flying through the side of a container. She raised her leg and kicked downward, hitting a Green Stripe's lower leg, breaking both the tibia and the fibia putting him down. She grabbed the last standing Green Stripe by the throat. His hands instantly went to Liv's wrist, but she squeezed him until he thought his head was going to explode. She took careful aim like she'd done with Rico but she threw this man overhand.

Lars looked up, seeing that Red Stripe opening his mouth and knew that he didn't have time to move. His drew on his power, and his hands began to glow brightly, but there wasn't time to discharge. Just as the spray came out of the Red Stripe's mouth, a screaming Green Stripe guard flew in the path of the thick liquid, getting a full dose of acid. The man screamed, moaned and writhed in pain as the acid ate huge holes in his body before he mercifully died.

The Red Stripe looked on angrily as he watched the grisly friendly fire death before raising his head to see where that Green Stripe had come from. He had just a split second to see a wall of female muscle falling out of the sky towards him. He dropped and rolled away so Liv missed him on landing. He scrambled behind Liv as she spun the wrong way and opened his mouth. He released his acid, but it didn't spray out of him mouth.  It just dribbled because his before he spit, he felt like his mind had caught on fire.

Twin beams of energy hit the Red Stripe, freezing him in place. He couldn't move or even think as his nerves went into overload. Lars was on his knees as he focused his power through two little bullet holes in the container. Some of his energy was scraped off the beam and entered the container walls, causing one side of this twenty foot long box to blast into pieces. He kept up the blast, hitting this Red Stripe with the full force of gift. The man smoked in the cold air before Lars stopped and the Red Stripe dropped to the ground. Liv was only steps away finishing off the Red Stripe when two Green Stripes jumped her. She knew it would take a moment for Lars to power up for another discharge after the one he'd just done, so for a while she was on her own. 

The Red Stripe was already recovering from Lars' blast. It would have killed two regular people, but the Red Stripe wasn't regular or even chemically enhanced. His gift gave him just enough protection from Lars to save his life. With his mind working now he knew his luck wasn't going to last for long if he kept lying on the ground. He rolled to his knees and turned his head with some effort seeing Lars getting to his feet too. The battle between that big muscled woman and the Green Stripes wasn't going to last long. The Red Stripe had a choice to make, and he decided to kill Lars first. He got to his feet and stumbled towards the back of the container. He might have lived longer if he'd attacked Liv. Between the punches, gouges, and bites, she saw the Red Stripe heading for her brother and went wild.

Liv screamed with untapped fury and grabbed one of the Green Stripes by the head like she was palming a basketball and slammed him into the other Green Stripe, knocking him to the ground. Then she bent down and smashed their heads together with enough force to shake the ground and rattle the mult-ton containers near them. To her disappointment both of their scientifically enhanced skulls were still intact. Two more muscle bulging efforts at cracking their craniums worked. Then Liv turned her attention to the Red Stripe stalking her brother. She took one powerful step then jumped.

The Red Stripe never saw Liv coming as she landed on his shoulders the force nearly breaking his back. They both ended up on the ground and the Red Stripe opened his mouth to spew his acid, but Liv had other ideas. She knocked out several teeth as she forced both of her hands into his open mouth and pulled them apart. Her muscles barely had a chance to flex as she tore this Red Stripe's face in half. A shrill scream echoed in the container yard as this Red Stripe died painfully. Liv slung the now severed jaw over her shoulder and punched the Red Stripe's head until it ceased to be recognizable as a head at all. The other Red Stripe, the one with good hearing, ordered the remaining guards to fall back after seeing his comrade dispatched. They were going to need some reinforcements.

"Are you alright?", Liv asked her brother as he came running from behind the partially melted shipping container. He nodded and ran towards Rico.

The Chilean was surrounded by Blue Stripes bodies, but he was locked in combat with a Green Stripe. The guard with enhanced strength sent his fist towards Rico's chest, expecting the punch to blast right through this skinny kid's body. Instead, Rico's body absorbed the impact, his body barely distorting from this guard's strength. Rico was used to taking punches from Liv in training. This Green Stripe couldn't begin to measure up. Rico grabbed the man's wrist and twisted hard, using all the built up tension in his muscles. The Green Stripe yelped as his wrist broke. He backed away from Rico only to have the lanky 19 year old spin behind him, gripping his head. With the last of the extra strength stored in his body, Rico snapped the Green Stripe's neck.

"Now you come!", Rico exclaimed as Liv and a shirtless Lars running over.

"Sorry, we got tied up", Lars explained.

Rico frowned. "I'm used to you being shirtless", he began and pointed at Liv who was still wearing a shirt, "but what are you doing, Lars? You don't have the pecs to pull off the shirtless look, or the abs."

Liv snickered and Lars picked up a gun. "There will be time for jokes later!", he said and hurried towards the low building. "They are retreating inside."

"She gets Chilean humor!", Rico yelled as they rushed towards the low building.

The living Red Stripe stood by the door, holding it open as the remaining guards made their way inside. Some healthy guards were helping wounded men, but it was taking them too long. The Red Stripe lifted the special weapon and fired at the three attackers as they came into view. They ducked behind cover, but he could hear them so he shot there too. That should slow them down a bit he hoped. He urged the men to hurry, sending some Green Stripes out there to carry the wounded men inside.

"We have to hurry", Lars yelled and ran towards the building. Liv started out behind her brother, but she was much faster than him in this form, her legs powering her towards the door.

"HURRY!", the Red Stripe yelled as the attackers approached. He unloaded every round in the special gun, managing to hit that big muscled woman on the thigh. She jumped from the pain, but didn't stop. A Blue Stripe and a wounded Green Stripe were near the door, but not near enough. The Red Stripe couldn't wait any longer. With a heavy heart he moved out of the way, releasing the button holding the door open.

The automatic door began to close and the men tried to pick up speed, just like Liv. She ran as fast as she ever had, getting close to the door and diving at the last moment, just barely managing to get her hands in between the sliding door and the door frame. Liv grimaced when the pressure built up to painful levels as the door tried to crush its way through her hands. She was exposed, lying on the ground with her hands outstretched. She looked through the opening, seeing the Red Stripe leading the remaining guards through some sort of opening in the floor. He paused above the opening and took careful aim with one of the special weapons, pointing it right between Liv's eyes. She'd already felt the pain from those weapons on her still bleeding shoulder and leg. She had no idea what would happen if one of those rounds hit her in the head.

Lars ran across his sister's back to get close enough to stick his hand through the opening and fire off a blast of energy that missed the Red Stripe but hit a box on the wall behind him sending electric sparks flying. The Red Stripe moved his aim to Lars, but saw the third attacker through the window hastily kill a Green Stripe and a Blue Stripe. He groaned, but didn't take the shot. He had to get the special door closed to have any chance at saving the rest of the men. The Red Stripe guard pulled up the gun and disappeared beneath the floor. Liv's vision was getting blurry from the pain in her hands, but she saw a massive door close into the floor followed by another one.

"Hang on", Lars told his sister then put both of his hands against the door that was threatening to crush hers. "This might hurt a little more", he told her before putting his energy directly into the door. It began to vibrate and jerk. The mechanism that controlled the door short circuited and Liv exhaled as the pain went away. She quickly got to her feet and shoved the door so hard that the wall cracked a few feet away. She shook her hands out and hurried towards the spot where the men had disappeared. She didn't see any signs of a trap door though. The floor looked completely normal.

"I saw it right here!", Liv shouted angrily, and Rico put a hand on her back.

"We saw it too", he assured her.

Lars was down on his hands and knees feeling for any sort of crack or gap, but if this was a trap door, it had to be the best one he'd ever heard of. "Back up", he told the other two and once again his hands shimmered. He sent his power into the floor, making the entire building tremble, but then it stopped and the floor looked the same. Lars' jaw flexed as he bit down hard and sent more of his energy into the floor. This time the building shook like it was being hit by an earthquake.

"Right here!", Rico shouted and pointed to a line on the floor. "That has to be it."

"Okay!", Lars exclaimed and put his hands directly on the trap door. This time his hands and arms glowed brightly, almost like Wen and Shu's did when they used their gift. The trap door exploded into rubble beneath Lars. The three of them cleared the debris only to see a completely undamaged door beneath it, this one made of shiny metal. It looked as impenetrable as any vault door any of them had ever seen, and it looked to be built directly into the very bedrock beneath the building.

Lars wasn't worried about any of it. He'd broken into more than one hardened bank vault. He put his hands directly onto the shiny metal, and they began to glow again. He sent his energy into the door, but this metal alloy was like nothing any of them had ever seen. The energy entered the door, but this metal just absorbed it before emitting the energy right back at Lars. He flew out of the pit traveling across the room almost to the far wall. Liv called his name and ran after him so fast that he landed in her arms instead of hitting the floor.

"Are you okay?", she asked and he opened his eyes.

"I don't think that's going to work. We're going to have to find another way in."

Liv put her brother down gently and stood up, veins and arteries beginning to show prominently on her still relaxed muscles. "I know exactly how to get in", she declared and marched towards the door. She put her legs on either side of the pit before bending her knees and reaching down to the door, gripping it on the raised sides. She took a breath so deep it caused Rico and Lars' pant legs to quiver as she filled her cavernous lungs. Her eyes looked intense enough to burn through the cement walls as she flexed her entire body and pulled with all of her might.

Cords stood out along Liv's neck and shoulders as her titanic muscles strained. The tile floor crumbled to powder beneath her feet as they sank into the concrete which didn't last long either. Her feet finally settled to the rock beneath it all, but still the door wouldn't budge. Her quads and hamstrings swelled hugely. Arteries thick with blood throbbed across the grated, corrugated face of Liv's muscles, feeding oxygen to her muscles like coal into a steam boiler. The big pants that she'd draped over her body earlier were stretched like a second skin, but they couldn't handle her at this level of power. Thick, hot, striated quad meat burst through her pants and steamed in the chilly air, but still her muscles grew denser, thicker, and larger.

Rico and Lars stepped back as cracks formed in the floor beneath them. Neither had seen Liv work this hard and demand this much from her body before. She shook with strain and the ground itself shook along with her. Glass broke in the interior doors behind them as the shaking increased. The lights began to flicker and the cracks formed in the building's walls. All of the specially reinforced ballistic glass panels rippled like they were huge bass drums until a crack formed in one of the two foot thick clear panels, but Liv still pulled, gaining more strength. Showers of dust fell from the widening crack in the ceiling as Liv began to crack the building in two. The bedrock itself began to bulge as she was actually lifting the bedrock that the building itself sat on. Her legs were already bigger than they'd been when she'd lifted an entire cliff face. Her arms and chest were denser and more chocked full of muscle than when she'd crushed a military truck into a tiny ball, but this vault door stubbornly stayed right where it was. Liv had no idea that this door had been specifically designed to resist the gifted. It had repelled her brother's power with ease, but Liv was determined to show this door and its designer that there was power and then there was POWER!

She threw her head back, her face beyond crimson and covered in sweat as her head sat nestled between the surging mounds of her traps. Her breathing came in ragged, labored breaths, but she wouldn't relent. She's told her master that she would complete this mission, and she would rip her own arms off before she'd stop. She sucked in another breath deep breath, this time sucking in enough air to make a full breeze inside the building.

Then with a roar that broke out the cracked windows and made both Lars and Rico cover their ears, Liv pulled with every ounce her strength, finally tapping into the full amount of power that lay inside her. Her flex was monumental. Lars' mouth dropped open and Rico stared with wide eyed amazement. He thought he'd seen Liv at her worst, thought he'd felt her strength, but not even close.

Fissures shot away from her feet at a hundred miles an hour, cracking the building's walls all the way to the roof. Her calves were bigger than her thighs usually were, and her thighs were other worldly. Ribbons of bulging naked beef flexed up bigger than any two legs of a normal bodybuilder. Knots of muscle pressed out in her waist and along her sides and her lats were so big they looked like billowing muscle bound sails. Her pecs bunched and crowed each other for space as they filled the front of her massive frame. Bloody tears mixed with gallons of sweat as Liv powered against the door.

Somewhere beneath her roar Rico heard squeaks and squeals coming from deep below the rumbling ground. Then they heard what sounded like dozens of little explosions, but really they were thick cables snapping under the onslaught. Finally with an ear splitting sound, Liv snatched the door up, but the door didn't come alone. She staggered backwards, holding the still intact door, its locking collar, and a massive twenty foot chunk of bedrock that ripped through the concrete floor as Liv leaned back to lift it higher. Still more had broken off in Liv's arms. A piece of some elaborately built tunnel along with the top of an elevator shaft, and a ladder clung to the end of the bedrock for a few moments before breaking off and hitting the mostly destroyed floor. Liv staggered backwards holding up the rocks and door with the broken anchor bolts, cables, and electrical wires. She put her left leg back, trying to stabilize herself. Her foot went straight through the floor and concrete and actually cracked some bedrock, but still Liv struggled to find balance.

Rico put his hands against her back and instantly felt the crushing pressure of Liv just trying to stand up straight. It was so heavy that even his bones compressed, filling him with just enough power to push Liv up, barely. Now that she wasn't falling, Liv turned to her left and released her massive load. Parts of the building actually collapsed when all that stuff hit the floor. She looked over at it all with relief and anger. Even after all of that, the vault door still wasn't open. She wanted to run over there and punch it as hard as she could. Instead she fell to her knees.

"Thank you", Liv told Rico between quick breaths. Her chest rose and fell so quickly that Lars feared his sister was hyperventilating.

"Tell me you're fine." Lars dropped down to a knee and put his hand on his sister's massive back.

"Be careful", she managed between shallow breaths and with blood still oozing from the wounds the special projectiles had caused. "You know they heard that or felt it anyway."

Rico shined his light down the hole, but saw only blackness beyond the beam's reach. "We've got to go down", he said then looked to Liv. "You're not going to fit like that. The tunnel's too narrow. Normally you could probably widen it", he said with an infuriating smirk.

"I can't change back yet", Liv said then spit bloody phlegm to the destroyed floor. "I'd probably pass out if I did. You two go. I'll come as soon as I recover a little."

"I can't leave you like this", Lars told her.

She looked up at him and smiled with her set of perfect teeth. "I'm not helpless. If somebody comes who can actually hurt me, I know what to do."

Lars sighed then stepped towards the hole. "Don't do anything stupid, Liv", he told her then looked down the hole himself. "She tore out the elevator and the ladder built into the wall. I see some rungs down there where the tunnel's still intact. Rico, can you catch me if you go down first?"

"Sure", he said. "Let me see what kind of shape the ladder is in." He dropped out of sight, disappearing into the darkness. After a moment he turned his flashlight back on. "Okay, come on down!", he called up to Lars who dropped down into the hole. Rico caught him and the two of them went down the ladder. They shined their lights in both directions once they got on to the bottom and a main tunnel looked like it went on forever, in either direction. It was big enough to drive a truck in. Lars shrugged and chose to go left. Rico had no objection and they started on their way.

The two of them kept their hands on their weapons as they slowly navigated the pitch black tunnel. There didn't seem to be any damage to the light fixtures or the bulbs. They'd turned these lights off on purpose, which meant that they could turn them on at any time, like for an ambush. Lars began to worry that the enemy might have night vision goggles. Turn off the light", he told Rico and they were plunged into complete darkness. Then Lars' hand began to glow, lighting their way more dimly.

"Won't that wear you down?"

"I'll still be able to pull triggers", Lars said as they continued. They had no way of knowing how far they'd gone when they heard footsteps behind them. Lars and Rico were about to look for a place to set up an ambush of their own when they felt just a bit of heat brush past their face. Lars grinned because it had to be Liv.

"I probably shouldn't have done that", Liv told the group after catching up. "I should have just stayed small."

"Yeah", Lars agreed. "You're already exhausted."

"I didn't even know it took much effort for you to change forms", Rico admitted and Liv chuckled.

"You've seen me change! You don't think that takes much effort?"

"I guess I never thought about it", Rico admitted as they continued.

"Just because I make it look easy doesn't mean that it is", Liv said and started walking down the tunnel.

Rico gave a little chuckle of his own. "At least this way you might scare the guards away." Liv hit him in the back again, just as hard as the first time. She was tired, but she wasn't spent.

They had no way of knowing how long they'd traveled when there was a bright flash behind them followed by a chest thumping boom. The ground lurched beneath them and all had to seek out the wall to stay upright. Liv and Rico looked over their shoulders towards the other end of the tunnel where the explosion had happened, but Lars kept looking ahead. "There!", he yelled when he saw light coming up ahead from an opening. "This way!", he urged the others and started running towards light.

Two Blue Stripes came out carrying their special weapons followed by a couple Green Stripes. Liv bore down, running even faster. There was no way she was going to let herself get shot by one of those special guns again. The two wounds she'd gotten from them still hadn't healed, even after she'd reverted to a normal form and back again. The men didn't see the muscle beast coming from the darkness until it was too late. Liv grabbed one man by the shirt and threw him against the wall so hard that she broke more than fifty of his bones. He died before his broken body slid to the floor. She snatched the other man's special gun from his hand.

"No please!", he yelled in Georgian. "I have a family!"

"How nice for you", Liv growled and punched the man in the face, only she didn't kill him. She didn't even break any bones. Liv dropped the unconscious man and turned towards the opening as an overhead door began to close. Liv rolled her eyes and rushed towards it knowing all long that this was going to hurt badly. A rip of nearby automatic gunfire made Liv want to turn her head, but she couldn't. She bent down as she approached the door and with another muscle bulging effort, stopped the door at about waist level. Her quads, glutes, hamstrings, and calves were once again burdened with loads that normal people couldn't even fathom. Blood dripped from her hands as the bottom of the door cut into her palms, slicing all the way to her bones. Her muscles once again flexed to titanic proportions. Biceps swelled up and flexed as gallons of blood rushed into feed the thickening sinews. Huge mounds of trapezius muscle crowded against her neck while her legs flared and expanded. Her quads were massive, like sail billowing in the wind, but they were solid and immovable. They held up against all the pressure the door was exerting even as Liv's back and arms began to give out.

Rico and Lars battled just behind Liv's massive still expanding back and there was nothing she could do to help them.  Rico rolled to his left and fired from his side, killing a Blue Stripe who dropped his special gun. Lars raised his hand and the beam of energy hit a Green Stripe, stopping him cold. The man struggled against Lars' waning strength to move, but he didn't struggle long. Rico put two holes in the Green Stripe's chest. There were more rushing footfalls as more guards approached.  Lars went to Liv who was sweating profusely by this point.  Every muscle on her body was a bulging striated mass. Lars and Rico could have easily gone through the waist high opening that Liv was maintaining, but Lars wasn't willing to leave her back there with more guards approaching. He could actually feel Liv's rapidly beating heart in the floor and the wall as it raced to supply blood to her straining, overtaxed  muscles.

Rico swore under his breath and started running down the tunnel. Lars jumped off the ground and both of them went running down the tunnel. There was explosion behind her and some screams, but Liv couldn't turn enough to see who they were coming from. She heard men running behind her and gears turning in some mechanism over her head. She set her teeth on edge and strained, lifting the door up a little higher, but her progress was quickly reversed. The door started coming down and despite her super human effort that door was going to close and there was nothing more she could do to stop it. The pain of her impending failure hurt more than the lactic build up inside her epic muscles. The heavy door began to buckle from the strain but so did Liv's legs. Just when she thought she couldn't hold out any longer, two big pale hands slipped beside hers and the pressure relented. Liv took a deep breath as Damteni added his strength to the effort. His face set and the two of them overpowered the door, lifting it over their heads. Rico and Lars ran inside with weapons ready. They both searched for a switch or handle and Lars found it, deactivating the door. The gears above them finally ground to a halt. Liv lower her arms feeling like she might collapse.

The reunited group found themselves in what had to be a drug production area. There were large vats one side of the room with smaller containers spread around. The three of them moved through the area as quickly as they dared, looking for traps and ambushes with each step. They all paused when they saw the backs of guards running away from them though a set of double doors up ahead. "Shoot them?", Rico asked and Damteni shook his head.

"So the Cookmaster wasn't at the other location?", Lars observed as they passed a pallet stacked with drugs.

"He was not", Damteni replied. "Save your bullets." They spread out, putting some distance between themselves so one volley of bullets wouldn't be able to hit more than one of them. Lars looked back to his master and saw the signs of battle all over Damteni's body. His clothes were singed and torn. Marks from impacts with special bullets showed on his impervious skin. He wasn't able to tell if those impacts hurt or not, or even if it was possible for Damteni to feel pain. The group continued forward until across a big room, a set of double doors slammed open. Bright, almost blinding light spilled out from beyond it. Everyone except Damteni shielded their eyes against the glare but were able to make out dozens of armed men coming through that door.

"Attack on my signal!", Damteni yelled then a man came running through the door waving his arms above his head.

"Stop this attack!", he screamed. "You're destroying everything."

Damteni stepped forward to see the two leaders of the merged drug cartels standing to the side of another man, the man he'd been looking for, the Cookmaster. "Yes, yes! I'm the one you've been looking for", the man said and stepped away from the group of men behind him and motioned for them to stay back. They weren't going to end this losing battle with more fighting. His words were their only hope. Several Red Stripes and the two heads of the cartel stepped back to.

"We were lead to believe that you worked for those two men", Damteni said.

"That's what everybody was supposed to think. They get paid well for being the public faces of this very private organization. Well it was private until just now", Ayet lamented. "What in the world did you do all of this for!?!", demanded, looking around at the chaos.  "The drugs?  The money?"

"I respectfully asked for a consultation with you", Damteni reminded Ayet. "I'd thought that one or both of those phony cartel bosses were refusing me, but now I know you refused me personally", Damteni said in a way that let the Cookmaster know that this was ultimately his fault.

"What can be so important that you were willing to do all of this?"

"I have an artifact that used to belong to the recently departed Karim Azimi, a tablet that seemed to be very important. You are the only person who seems to know anything about it."

"You have the tablet!?!", Ayet asked, all the dismay over the near destruction of his drug production facility seemed a distant memory, just like the deaths of so many of his personnel.

"Not on me", Damteni began. "Gaining access to this location was quite strenuous."

"Yes, well my personal laboratory is this way", Ayet said and motioned for them to follow him.

"Wait!", a Red Stripe with a thick accent yelled.

"What is it, Hassan?", the Cookmaster asked.

"Where is my brother? I did not see him come down."

"Which one is your brother?", Damteni asked calmly.

"He was helping oversee the loading and unloading of the merchandise."

"There was no loading happening at the location I entered", Damteni told Hassan.

"No", Ayet said. "That was going in the closer facility."

Liv, Lars, and Rico looked at each other. "Did your brother wear the red stripe uniform like you?", Lars asked.

"Yes", Hassan declared.

"Did he spit acid?", Lars asked in a quieter tone.

"Yes, just like me!"

Lars looked down before meeting Hassan's gaze. "I'm sorry. Your brother is dead", he said respectfully.

"No! It cannot be", he wailed, getting angrier and pushing his way towards Lars. "You killed my brother! Why did you kill my only brother?!?", Hassan screamed.

"Because he was trying to kill my only brother", Liv spoke up for the first time, yelling louder than Hassan ever could. Her muscles flexed as she leaned towards him. "I am sorry that your brother's dead, but all of us here try and do what we're tasked to do. Your brother died doing his job. At least he didn't run", Liv said, looking at the faces of some of the other guards who had.

"I'll kill them!", he yelled and opened his mouth. Damteni stepped in front of Liv just as Ayet motioned to a Green Stripe who hurried behind Hassan and knocked the man out.

"Make him comfortable. I'll speak to him when he wakes up", Ayet said. "We suffered here today, but this battle is over, and it needs to stay that way."

"Your men are loyal", Damteni remarked as Ayet and a couple of Blue Stripe guards lead the group towards the lab. "All that destruction we caused and they are still following your orders."

Ayet sighed. "At this point, most of my men simply want to survive. The four of you scare them, but I'll build their moral back up eventually, so long as you don't attack us again."

"We have no intentions to", Damteni said. "We could have avoided this if you'd agreed to meet me."

"Hindsight is perfect… or something like that the Americans say."

"What are those special guns?", Liv asked as they walked.

Ayet turned, considering not answering her question, but he was already beaten. There was no need to try and put up a front of strength. He had to appease these people and hope to get them far away. If that meant spilling some closely held secrets, then so be it. "The tablet has a peculiar energy signal, like nothing at all I've ever seen, manmade or natural. I'm not exactly sure how it works, but a while ago I figured out how to harness and crudely reproduce the energy. When used properly it can serious injuries." He noticed the wounds on Liv's shoulder and on her thigh. "They must hurt."

"Enough to make me ask about the weapons that made them", she replied.

"Just not enough to stop you", Ayet said with some regret. "My preparations were pure folly."

"You're wrong", Liv said. "Your security was quite good, and I should know. I've seen a lot of security systems."

"If it was so great then why are you down here with me?", Ayet asked sharper than he probably should have.

Liv didn't seem to take offense. "There aren't many people like us, even among gifted people", she replied. "There are probably less than 50 people walking the planet who could have done what we just did. So your security would have kept out 99.99 percent of humanity." She paused. "Actually there should be nine nines then an eight, but you get the idea."

Ayet laughed. "Wow there is a brain beneath all of that muscle."

"A brilliant one", Damteni remarked. "That's why she must learn discipline."

Ayet looked Liv up and down, from her still wet blonde hair to her remarkable shoulders and chest down to her legs and powerful calves and back again. He laughed and shook his head. "It's not fair at all."

"Life's not fair", Liv said as they continued.

It took some time to retrieve the tablet and even more time for Ayet to turn his custom machines back on. He'd put them in storage, not figuring that he'd need them again so soon. He was quite excited as his machines finally began to hum. The two Blue Stripes stood near the door as their boss got to work. He set the tablet down inside of a plexiglass box and watched data began to appear on a screen.

"This is certainly the same artifact that I was working on in Tbilisi", he said, still excited.

"Good", Damteni said.

Then Ayet began to frown and typed furiously on the keyboard. "No! No! The energy signature, it's gone!" He worked for some time longer then motioned for Damteni to come over. "This is a recording of the energy signature that  I made shortly before the tablet taken. See how strong the peaks are? But here, I'm barely picking up anything at all. I had to turn the detector as high as it will go just to get this much of a signature. It's like the energy in the tablet has been drained or erased.

"If your data is correct then something happened between the time the tablet left my hands and when it got back into Karim's."

"This data is correct. I assure you. It'll take more study. If you will permit me to keep it and study it, I will share all of my findings with you", Ayet proposed.

"And I will help repair the damage that me and my team caused your facilities also I'll pay for your lost product. We don't have to be enemies."

Ayet smiled and extended his hand. "I don't think we are."

By the next day Lars and Rico were on a plane back to their former location watching the shipping container while Liv was sharing another hotel suite with her Master. They were in Istanbul which was nice. Perhaps Damteni would let her go shopping again. She had gifts for all of the team members, including the new guy Francis, but she still hadn't figured out what sort of gift to get Chris Adams. Liv knew that she had issues, but Chris was so broken that she wasn't even sure if Damteni and Ansari could put him back together again.

She got up after a while and walked into one of the bedrooms. "Do you think that man Ayet will really do the research and keep you in the loop, like he promised?", she asked Damteni.

He put down the document he was reading and looked up. "There's no way to know for sure. So many things are uncertain in life, so we must weigh one reaction against another one. This time I chose to trust him, not because he's an honest person, but because if he lies, he knows that we will return."

"I understand", Liv said.

"And if we do have to go back to deal with Ayet", Damteni began then sat up with a little grin on his face. "I wouldn't put any restrictions on you."

That made Liv smile broadly. "But Master, you agreed to help him rebuilt his defenses. Between the two of us Master, if that tunnel was made any stronger than it was, I would have never been able to get through it."

"We all have our limits Liv, even me and even you. That's where knowledge comes in to help us. I agreed to help reconstruct those defenses in an effort to learn something about them. They were, as you say, some of the strongest, most well thought out and well constructed defenses I've ever encountered. And they seemed to be geared towards stopping gifted people like us. Why go through the trouble of building a vault that could resist your brother's power and almost resist your strength? Why construct special bullets to hurt those with regenerative powers or injury resistance? None of those things are needed to stop the average attacker. There's a lot Ayet isn't telling us, but we'll learn in due time."

"Yes, of course", Liv said, while wondering when she'd be able to think three or four steps ahead like her master could. She turned to go back to the sitting room.

"So how did you like being on a mission with Lars?", he asked.

"It wasn't what I thought it would be", she replied, all the time wondering if she should have just kept this to herself.

"How so?"

"I think we work well together, and I like having him around, but I didn't like it at all when he was hurt. The guard who spit acid nearly killed him." Liv swallowed a lump in her throat then looked up to meet Damteni's gaze. "In that moment Master, I forgot everything about the mission and about our goals. I forgot everything you and Ansari have ever taught me. The only thing in the world I cared about was keeping Lars alive. We completed the mission, but right then, I failed you."

Liv looked down at the carpet as Damteni rose from the bed, walking over to her slowly. Normally he would have put his hand on her shoulder, but they were still hurting from those special weapons. He put a finger under her chin and lifted her head instead. "My family is long dead", Damteni told his pupil. "I miss them, but I have few regrets. You shouldn't have regrets either. We are all quite powerful, but even we don't know when our end will come. I know you serve the cause the same as me, but Liv Olsson, don't you ever think for a moment that I would step between you and your family. Lars is your blood, and the moment I make you choose between me and your blood, is the moment I'll no longer be fit to lead you."

"Master", Liv began. "I shouldn't have said anything."

Damteni smiled, a real one this time and Liv saw once again how handsome her Master really was. "You usually keep your emotions as guarded as I do, perhaps even more so. It's nice to finally see inside your head, inside your heart."

Liv felt relieved and a bit awkward. "I know you wonder sometimes because of… because of the way that I am, but there are people I care for… people that I love. Not too many, but there are some."

"Hold on to that love, Liv. It will serve you one day."

It smelled horribly wherever he was but the scenery outside the breathing holes was beautiful, much better than the dusty plain he'd been on a few days earlier. Maybe he was next to a farm or a ranch. It would be nice to see a cow or a horse Mathias Ekholm thought to himself as he maneuvered to look through one of the tiny holes. Those holes did a much better job of letting air in than they did of letting air out so that horrible smell just lingered. He'd endure it though, just like he was enduring missing his family. He longed so much for them that it physically hurt, but he hadn't shed tears over his plight in weeks. He'd cried for someone several days earlier though. A smuggler had climbed to the top of the box and when the hatch had opened to deliver food, the man had stepped into view and smiled. That little act of kindness had lifted Mathias' spirits so much. In that instant, he felt that man's inner kindness and the love that particular smuggler had felt for his fellow man. Smuggling was a job to him, not a way of life and he didn't like that a kid was in a container all alone. Mathias had used his gift to touch that man's mind, leaving a bit of his power inside to make a connection. That little bridge had made both of them feel better even though Mathias was the only one who knew why. That nameless smuggler had walked around with a nearly constant smile for days, and for those same days Mathias' sadness had been at bay. In the end, it hadn't profited either of them. The kind smuggler was dead now, murdered savagely not long after Mathias had been moved. The bridge was still intact and even from many miles away, Mathias felt the very instant that smuggler had been killed. He'd even felt the bone chilling fear as death had approached. Mathias didn't have to be the smartest eleven year old in the world to figure out that a single act of kindness had cost a man his life, and most of his comrades too. That night, that slaughter, had finally made Mathias understand just how evil the people holding him were, not the smugglers who moved him from place to place, but the people who paid them to do so. Whoever was behind this was so focused on getting Mathias that it might be blinding them though.

Shortly after the the horrific murders, two gifted people had come to watch the new group of smugglers. He could feel them both as they tried to keep the proper distance, but Mathias' gift was like a thirsty man in the desert and the power of those two gifted people was like moisture in the air. They were right that Mathias couldn't get too much energy from them if they stayed so far away, but he was getting some. His captors wouldn't expect it, but if those two gifted people stayed around for  a few more days, Mathias wouldn't be helpless when he got delivered. He'd give his kidnappers everything he had. Mathias was young, but he wasn't scared. He was desperate. He wanted to feel his mother's hugs and to see his father's reluctant smiles. He wanted to be there when his new sibling was born. He wanted to kiss his grandparents and see his friends. Mathias was getting worked up just thinking about it, so he made himself calm down. Until the right moment, Mathias knew that he'd have to quietly bide his time, so he sat down in a corner of the shipping container, opened up a Batman comic and started reading where he'd left off.

more on the way soon...

Recent Chapters

There are plenty of others where this story came from.  Please check out the bookshelf for all the past chapters of Power and Fury and my other series.

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