Read Online The Indestructibles by Matthew Phillion - Free Book Online Page B

as if catching on a seatbelt. Then she was upright.
          "Move around a little," Jane said.
          "One thing at a time, Xena Warrior Princess."
          But Emily complied, scooting a few feet in either direction, then drifting vertically.
          "How does it feel?"
          "Well I'm not seasick. Is that a good sign?"
          "You're also right-side up," said Jane.
          "Depends on your definition of right."
          Billy looked at Jane.
          She returned his glance.
          "Guess there's one last thing to try out," Billy said. "Catch me if I fall?"
          "Stop flirting with Thunder Girl and get it over with Billy Case," Emily said.
          "Thunder Girl?" Billy and Jane asked simultaneously.
          "Whatever. Do it."
          Billy drifted up right next to Emily and put a hand on her shoulder.
          "Hey look. No hands!"
          Billy gave Emily a playful shove.
          She squinted at him.
          "Bubble."
          Billy dropped out of the sky like a rock.
          Jane and Emily exchanged glances.
          "I can't make more than one," Emily said. "You probably should save him."
          And Jane did.
         

 
     
    Chapter 12:
    The Failsafe
     
         
    Kate found Doc in the watchtower, a room with an entire wall of windows that looked down onto a gymnasium designated for training exercises. Below them, Titus transformed back and forth repetitively — from wolf to human and then back again. Kate took up a place beside Doc to observe.
          It was difficult to watch, and not because the transformation itself was so violent, with the stretching of skin and impossible growth of teeth and claws. More painful was the change back to human. Titus was still learning to control the beast within; sometimes it cooperated and he flowed back to human form like liquid. Other times, he looked like he was engaged in an argument with himself, great wolfish snout snapping at the air as he fought for control.
          But then, there were instances when it was an outright brawl, the wolf-man pounding fists into the ground and walls as Titus tried to interject logic and reason on the beast.
          Kate examined this inner conflict as long as she possibly could. Her heart ached. Kate's entire life was about control. Witnessing her friend battle for it over and over again was almost unbearable.
          Doc observed the process impassively, but as Kate began to understand him more and more, she discerned that he watched Titus not with a scientific curiosity but rather a paternal concern. He clearly favored Jane as he would his own child, but Kate sensed his attachment to Titus and the boy's condition was much closer to empathy than curiosity.
          "So I've been wondering," she said.
          Doc turned away from Titus and gave Kate his full attention. He always did that. If you asked for his consideration he offered it; this unnerved Kate. She didn't like anyone's complete attention. Especially now, when she planned to ask a difficult question.
          "What can I do for you?" he asked.
          "Why me?"
          Doc studied her for a moment, waiting for more, not responding.
          "You've got a sun goddess, a werewolf, a kid with a super-powered alien parasite, and a girl with a baby black hole where her heart should be."
          "Quite the party."
          "Yeah," Kate said. "And then there's me."
          Doc nodded. He walked away and gestured for her to follow.
          He led her out of the watchtower and down into a room that Doc's old team had once used as a debriefing area. His old team. They'd all retired, or gotten themselves killed, or flown off to another galaxy to solve some other world's problems. And left him here. Doc never said why. Kate had her suspicions, however. She hoped to run her theories past him directly, but the time never felt right, and it always