Alien vs. Alien

hopefully it’d give Christopher and Serene something to work with.
    Clarence laughed one of those low, evil bad guy laughs. “You’re never going to see either one of them again. Not that you’re going to be around too long to mourn their loss.”
    I wanted to kick his face, hard, but that wouldn’t get me information. “Blah, blah, blah. Heard that the last time you decided to tangle with us. Where are Ronaldo and LaRue? They
are
the ones pulling your strings, right? I mean, you’re not smart enough to do this stuff on your own.”
    Probably untrހullingue. All the A-Cs were bright. But Jeremy was an empath, so I wanted Clarence’s emotions reacting, in the hopes we’d get something from them.
    “You’ll see them soon enough.” The men were trying to get his hands behind his back, presumably to handcuff him or tie him up in some way, but they weren’t succeeding. Clarence had clearly taken a
lot
of the superpowers drug.
    “Just the three of you against all of us? I don’t like your odds.” I relaxed as much as I could and then sent what I hoped was a really loud, really screaming emotional signal that I needed help, and as many A-Cs as possible, pronto. It had worked before, but that was in the Dulce Science Center. I wasn’t liking my odds here at the Festival.
    “We’ll have your baby. She’ll provide all we’ll ever need.” He struggled to his feet, despite the fact that we had two big, strong A-Cs and a big, strong human all doing their best to prevent this.
    I was going to hit him, but before I could move, Bruno flew off Clarence’s shoulders and right at me, screaming. I managed to stop myself. My rage was high, but I had to keep it in check. Bruno had been clear—if I attacked Clarence right now, he was going to escape, possibly with me in tow. “You’re not getting her, or anyone else.” Bruno landed in front of me and faced Clarence.
    “How’d you get one of those?” Clarence asked, obviously talking about Bruno.
    “What’s it matter to you? Where are Jeff and Chuckie? What’s your evil master plan? Why are you such a raging jerk?” No external reactions, other than an increase in the level of dirty in the look he was giving me.
    “You never shut up,” he growled.
    “Nope, never. Where are LaRue and Ronnie? Why did you start the problems between Bahrain and Israel?” He jerked. Just a little. “What take-over-the-world plan are you guys working on now? Why send dirty pictures of me around town?”
    Interestingly enough, this got a real reaction. Clarence laughed. “Because they’ll ruin everything you’ve all worked for. And my self-righteous brother-in-law will get what he deserves—the knowledge that you’re a slut and always will be.”
    “Wow, you’re all still clinging to that one? It didn’t work on anyone in Paris, and it’s not going to work on anyone here.”
    “Oh, it still works on some of us,” Reader said, as he, Gower, Tim, and the flyboys, along with a good number of field agents, surrounded us. “As in it really pisses us off. Let’s get our missing traitor under wraps.”
    “Can we beat him up while we do it?” Jerry asked.
    “Save that for interrogation,” Tim suggested.
    Bruno screamed again as Clarence flung Jeremy at the flyboys. Jeremy knocked them over like a humongous bowling ball.
    With a hand now free, Clarence was able to grab Buchanan, pull him off, and throw him at Alpha Team. He missed Gower, but took Reader and Tim down, which also knocked over Hughes and Walker, who had regained their feet.
    “Richard, let go!” It dawned on me that the bad guys always had some form of “destroy the Pontifex” in their plan.
    White tried to comply, but Clarence had him. I was going to try to tackle them, but before I could move, Clarence tossed White at me. We landed, hard. As we did, my brain chose to cheerfully remind me that White was no longer the Pontifex while also pointing out that Gower had no one near him.
    Bruno took to the air, headed right for Clarence’s face, while I heard Bellie in the near distance shrieking, “Help! Help! Help!”
    Bruno slowed Clarence down to regular hyperspeed, but no one was close enough to Gower.
    “Paul, run!” As the words left my mouth, I felt rather than saw someone race past us. Said someone tackled Gower to the ground, which meant Clarence shot past them, as Bruno landed in front of Gower and Jennifer.
    Jeremy was up and concentrating. “He’s angry and he’s scared. He’s not