Attack Doll 5: The End of Lily Lee

By Douglas A. Taylor

Twenty-one-year-old Trevor Chiao is Prime Blue; he is a member of the fabulous Primes, a group of seven men and women whose mission is to protect the Earth from Enclave, an alien organization bent on taking over the world.

Protected by a blue force shield that enhances his strength and speed and keeps his identity secret, he travels all over the world with his fellow Primes, battling monsters, Zoinks, and the mysterious Lily Lee, a beautiful Asian woman who refers to herself as . . . the Attack Doll.

Nothing lasts forever. Even attack dolls eventually outlive their usefulness, but what happens to them then? When Trevor and his friends are menaced by a new threat, one which strikes to the very heart of their powers, they face a difficult choice. Is it finally time for the Primes to say goodbye to the attack doll? Is this . . . The End of Lily Lee?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Douglas A. Taylor
• Release date: Aug 4, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310846540

Douglas A. Taylor

Douglas A. Taylor lives in central Ohio with his wife and kids and two small dogs. He is currently a third-degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do.

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Attack Doll 5: The End of Lily Lee

by Douglas A. Taylor

Copyright 2014 by Douglas A. Taylor

Smashwords Edition

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Chapter 1

All right, team, Wizzit says this will be the last one, so let's not let up!

That was Mike, our team lead, trying to keep our spirits from flagging as we faced our fifth monster of the day. And as I looked around at my fellow Primes, all of whom were standing around in various stages of exhausted readiness, I privately agreed that we needed something to inspire us.

Toby and Bill were limping heavily, Nicolai and Padma were each leaning on their battleaxes for support, and Mike was definitely favoring one arm. The sword in Trina's hand was drooping almost to the ground; I hurt all over, and I could barely see out my left eye, which was rapidly swelling shut thanks to the death struggles of the last monster we had fought. Yup, we were going to have some serious healing up to do after this mission was over.

It used to be that the alien would-be conquerors of Earth who ran Enclave could send down no more than a single monster every couple of days, and at the time, that seemed like a lot for us Primes to handle. Then, about six months ago, they started sending out as many as three monsters in a single day, and for the past two months they had been sending up to five at a time.

Granted, that didn't mean that we suddenly had five times as much work to do. For one thing, Enclave has as much trouble as anyone else finding quality recruits. Of the fourteen or so monsters we had faced so far this week, five were real pushovers and two had vaporized the moment any of us had fired a blaster at them. Then, too, we were getting some extra help; besides us seven full-time Primes, we had the four retirees, the so-called Primes Emeriti, helping us out as often as they were able.

Today had been a bad day, though. The four previous monsters had been real doozies, and this one looked worse than the others. It was a large, long snake -- large as in I couldn't get my arms all the way around this sucker and long as in if you laid all us Primes end-to-end, that would make it a whole lot easier for him to gulp us down. And fangs! I know the Enclave folks love fangs on their monsters, but this pair were some of the biggest I had ever seen -- as long as my arm and dripping with something I was afraid was probably poison.

Shelley raised her triple-blaster, the one she was borrowing from Trina, and fired a shot into the creature's gaping maw. Shooters, let's position ourselves and start whittling this thing down to size, she called out. Although Shelley has been a Prime Emeritus (or Prime Emerita, I suppose, since she's female) for only a couple of months, she has quickly become the unquestioned leader of that little subgroup of ours.

The other three Emeriti -- Mayumi, Alvaro, and Cathy -- gamely spread out so that they formed a rough square with the snake in the center and began firing. The four of them had to be at least as tired as we were, but they were probably in better shape, injury-wise. Paradoxically, this was because they had no force shields to protect them the way we regular Primes did. We tended to keep them back, out of harm's way, while we did the close-in fighting and got beaten up the worst.

All right, let's the rest of us start attacking in pairs, Mike ordered once the Emeriti were in position. Green and I will go first. Ready?

Actually, Wizzit broke in, Blue's got this.

Everyone turned to look at me. I do? I gulped nervously, trying to gauge how much bigger this monster was than me. Wizzit is the alien cloud of pink gas who gives us the tech we use to fight Enclave, and he usually knows what he's talking about. I wasn't so sure about this time, though.

You do, he affirmed. It's time to start putting some of that extra practice to work.

Uh, right. I took a deep breath and squared my shoulders. Okay, then, I guess I've got this. Um, everyone back away and stop shooting. And . . . here goes! I concentrated briefly, the way Wizzit had taught me, and inhaled a quick, sharp breath.

Nothing happened. After a moment, I said sheepishly, Uh, let me try that again . . .

Yup, you're just taking him apart, aren't you, Blue? That was Toby, supportive as ever. He hefted his hammer. Come on, Red. Let's start this.

Just a minute, Green. Bill stepped forward. I know what Blue is trying to do, and it's not a bad idea. I don't know why I didn't think of it first. Blue is just not experienced enough to handle it yet. Here, step aside, Blue; I'll take care of it.

I held up a finger. Hang on, Black, I said sharply. I've got this; just give me another shot. I set myself, concentrated, and drew in another sharp breath.

I'm not sure what I did differently, but whatever it was, it worked this time. My lungs burned as I drew in part of my force shield along with the air. The energy spread rapidly throughout my body, and the whole world changed. The light around me became darker, redder. My teammates' voices drifted down the scale into subsonic rumbles and then vanished into silence. And everyone and everything surrounding me slowed down until they eventually froze into immobility.

I had done this trick, this speeding-up of my personal timeframe, a couple of times before in battle. I had never before done it on purpose, though, only in response to some great need. And now that I had this monster helpless before me, I wasn't quite sure how to take advantage of it. Should I kick it in the gut? Punch it in the eye? Shoot it with my blaster? What would do the most damage?

Blue, I would suggest you use your weapon to slit this thing open from head to tail. That was Wizzit, who was somehow able to keep up with me even in this accelerated state. All the practicing of this trick that I had been doing in our gym had benefited him, at least. Before, he had had trouble adjusting his synthesized speech to my rate of speed, but now his voice wobbled only a little as he spoke.

I nodded to indicate that I had heard him; I still hadn't mastered talking while in this state, and I wasn't sure I ever would. Pulling my weapon from my belt, I advanced upon the snake. From past experience, I knew that I had ten minutes or so, subjectively speaking, before the effect faded -- about five seconds or less of real time. Certainly enough to take this critter down, but probably not enough to dawdle.

Even though I was moving faster than the eye could follow, it felt as though I were slogging along at the bottom of an ocean of mud. Yep, air resistance was a real problem. Still, it took me only a couple of minutes to make it to the snake's, er, throat. Or whatever you called the part just below its head.

My weapon was one that Padma had built a couple of months ago in a burst of creativity. We had just fought a faux Hindu god called Indra, and afterwards, Padma had decided to make her own version of Indra's mythological weapon, the Vajra. Knowing that I liked to use small, hand-sized weapons, she offered it to me to replace my recently-destroyed sais.

My own personal vajra was basically just a short fighting stick, with ridges on the shaft to facilitate gripping; when I held it in my closed fist, it stuck out a little over an inch on either side. The part that came out past my pinky had been filed to a conical point, sort of like a sharpened pencil, and Padma assured me that it ought to be hard enough to penetrate the hide of any Enclave monster if I struck with sufficient force.

The other end consisted of a spherical golden knob. The knob, according to Padma, had been packed with an extra amount of the tech that we use in our weapons to disrupt the monsters' Enclave enhancements. A good, hard blow from that end of the vajra ought to feel like a mini-thunderbolt to any beastie unlucky enough to receive it.

The two ends together symbolized both the cutting power of the diamond and the irresistible force of the thunderbolt and thus made my vajra a fitting replica of the weapon that the original Indra had used to slay the legendary serpent Vritra. Or at least that was Padma's breathless, excited explanation as she handed it to me for the first time. I'm not Hindu, so the backstory didn't mean all that much to me. It was obviously important to Padma, though, and since she is important to me, I accepted the gift enthusiastically. And I have to admit, it's a pretty nice weapon -- one of the best I've ever had, in fact -- and for the most part it has lived up to expectations.

I gripped the vajra with both hands, ready to begin slaying my own serpent. Reaching up as close to the thing's head as I could, I stabbed down with all my strength and began the task of dragging the tip along the creature's body. Let me tell you, slicing this thing open was a lot of work, kind of like trying to etch a line in asphalt with an icepick. Between that and fighting the ever-present air resistance, it took me almost all the rest of my available time to cut my way through this critter's hide.

When I was done, I took a step back to survey my handiwork, being careful not to bump into any of my still-immobile teammates. The part I had first stabbed was just beginning to spark, and I watched the line of sparks travel down the length of its body, accelerating rapidly as my timeframe slowed down. By the time the fireworks hit its tail, my vision and hearing had returned to normal and I was moving at regular speed again.

I heard the startled gasps from my fellow Primes as I (to their eyes) vanished from the spot where I had been standing and reappeared at my current location. The monster was in full fail mode now, as all of its Enclave enhancements self-destructed at once. A largish spark flew out from the dying beastie and struck my hand. I yelped and shook it off, then ducked for cover behind Trina. Speeding up my timeframe had temporarily drained my force shield of power; right now, I had no more protection than one of the Emeriti. Less protection, actually, since I couldn't even use one of our weapons to defend myself. A little over a minute later, the monster was completely gone and Wizzit teleported us back to HQ.

As the teleportation haze cleared from my vision, Toby slapped me on the back hard enough to make me stumble. Hey, nice work, Trevor, he said with a grin. He had unblurred himself -- that is, he had turned off the greenish mist of his force shield -- so I could actually see that he was grinning. "I know I wasn't looking forward to fighting that thing."

Thanks, Toby, I replied. I looked down at the vajra in my hand. The supposedly diamond-hard point had snapped off sometime during my attack on the monster. Kind of broke my weapon, though.

Padma came over with a cry of dismay. Already? Trevor, you go through weapons too fast! Nicolai and I can't keep up with you!

I handed her the broken weapon. Sorry, I said with a grin. I liked this one pretty well -- well enough to ask you to make me another one -- but I guess it just wasn't hard enough to cut through a monster like that.

I have located the broken tip back at the battle site, Wizzit announced. It is now destroyed. That's our Wizzit, thorough as ever. He guards our tech pretty jealously; he doesn't take any chances on it falling into outside hands, ever.

Nicolai had joined us and was looking at the weapon in Padma's hand. I hardened it as much as I could, she said to him. What do you think? Is there anything else I could try?

Nicolai looked at her, then over at Trina. I have an idea, he said thoughtfully. Not for the vajra, but for something else. Let us discuss it later.

Enough chitchat, Wizzit broke in. You kids went through a meat grinder today. Healing comas all around, starting in two minutes.

We all looked at each other, shrugged, and began heading for the lounge. Wizzit could be an awful pain sometimes, the way he insists on healing us up ASAP after missions, but in this case, I didn't think anyone was going to complain.

Looking around, I was a little surprised to discover that the Primes Emeriti were coming along with the rest of us. Shelley sometimes hung around HQ after battles, since she and Bill are engaged to be married, but Mayumi, Cathy, and Alvaro usually teleported out right away. They have lives, after all. Busy ones, too, from what I have heard.

What's going on? I asked Shelley.

She gave me a surprised look. You mean you don't know? she asked.

Trevor spends most of his time sulking in the gym these days, Trina said, laying a hand on my shoulder. She gave me a wry smile. He might not have heard us discussing the plans.

Trina, love, if 'sulking in the gym' is what enabled him to destroy that snake today, Mike pointed out, then perhaps we could all stand to sulk a bit more.

You do know that today is Bill's last day, right? Shelley said to me, ignoring Mike and Trina.

Sure, I said with a shrug. And tomorrow I'm bringing Angie her new Prime belt.

Yes, well, we decided we'd throw Bill a bit of a going-away do, Mike said. Food in the kitchen after healing comas are done. Attendance is not optional, mate. We'll do our standard debriefing tomorrow after breakfast.

Sounds good to me, I said. Of course, I'll be a little late. Got to wait for my force shield to recharge itself before my healing coma can start. Mike nodded and turned into the lounge with the other regular Primes.

Mayumi, Cathy, and Alvaro took the right turn into the kitchen, and I headed for my room to give the others some privacy. See, when you're in a healing coma, you don't really want anyone around who's fully awake. Healing comas aren't usually comas in the medical sense; most of the time when Wizzit's healing you up, you're just sort of half-asleep. One side-effect of that is that you talk. We call it babbling. It's usually nothing important, just whatever comes into your semi-dreaming mind, but it could be embarrassing to have someone else listen in while you're doing it.

Shelley continued walking beside me as I entered the hallway that led to the boys' rooms. Listen, Trev, she said confidentially, I know you and Bill don't get along . . .

I shrugged. We try, but it doesn't always work out.

I know, and I appreciate the effort. His heart's in the right place, but . . . well, the two of you are too different in some ways, and too alike in others. She smiled and laid a hand on my shoulder. At the party today, I'd like you to try to say something nice to him, okay? It doesn't have to be anything big, and it definitely shouldn't be anything phony. Just some positive thing you can say to him -- and really mean it -- before he leaves the Primes for good. I'd take it as a personal favor, and I know it would mean a lot to him.

I grinned. I like and trust Shelley as much as anyone I've ever known -- heck, everybody does. For her sake, I'd gladly do something like that. Sure thing, Shelley.

She smiled again and squeezed my shoulder. Thanks, Trev.

Chapter 2

The party was a lot of fun. We live isolated lives at HQ, both geographically and socially, so we seize upon any chance for a celebration, especially when we have guests. Today's was a big one.

Okay, let me quickly explain the situation with Bill: Our leader, Commander Windham, was killed about eight months ago, and Shelley, who was Prime Red at the time, was captured and imprisoned by the US military shortly after that. In light of all the chaos that ensued, Wizzit decided that we needed to replenish our ranks with someone who could come up to speed as quickly as possible. He invited a former Prime, Bill Harding, to return to active duty until we got things straightened out.

I have a few small complaints against Bill, mainly his tendency to be awfully full of himself and his often-casual dismissal of me as a young punk who wasn't ready for the big time. And I still held a grudge over what I considered his biggest blunder of all time: to my mind, he was largely responsible for the death of a young woman I cared for very much.

Even I had to admit, though, that he did a bang-up job as Prime Black -- as an advisor, a talented builder of tech devices, a kick-ass fighter, and generally a capable extra set of hands. I think most of my teammates would have liked to see him stay on indefinitely. Still, with Shelley having been released from military custody a couple of months ago and my sister Angela eager to come on board as our new Prime Violet, I think we all knew it was time for Bill to re-retire.

Mike's not especially good at making speeches, but he stood up and said a few heart-felt words, and then Bill said some nice things, and finally Nicolai presented him with our going-away gift. It was a wide, black-metal bracelet, similar in size and shape to the bracelets worn by our other Primes Emeriti. In keeping with our practice of naming our retirees after metals, Bill would be known after today as Prime Blackiron, or just Iron for short. (Or who knows, we might just keep on calling him Black. He seems to like that designation.)

After Bill had fastened the bracelet onto his wrist and activated it for the first time, Mike clapped a hand on his shoulder. I think the thing I'm going to miss the most is your help with the paperwork, he said. I don't know how I'm going to keep up with it all without a Prime Commander.

Prime Commander will be joining you tomorrow, came Wizzit's voice from the overhead speakers.

He said it so casually that it took a moment for it to sink in. Within ten seconds, though, all conversation had died away in response to that bombshell. Everyone looked up at the ceiling. Say that again, Wizzit? Toby said.

I have selected a replacement for Commander Windham, Wizzit said calmly. The new Prime Commander will join you on a permanent basis first thing tomorrow morning.

Who is it? Trina asked eagerly. Is it anyone we know?

Not tellin'!

We groaned and collectively rolled our eyes. See, the annoying thing about Wizzit is this childish streak of his. He knows a lot about a lot of things, he's given us all this cool alien tech to fight Enclave with, and he even has the occasional deep insight into the human personality, but . . . well, he can be a real jerk sometimes. A lot of the time, actually. I don't know whether all the beings from his home planet are like that or whether he's the exception. I have to think it's the latter; I just can't imagine that an entire race of these long tubes of pink gas would survive for long if they were all like him.

Don't you think this is something we ought to know? Nicolai said, trying to sound cool and reasonable.

You will know -- tomorrow! Yup, Wizzit sounded just like a little kid who knew something that the grownups didn't.

Oh, come on, Wizzit! Padma said impatiently. Tell us!

Uh uh! Not tellin'!

Nicolai laid a restraining hand on Padma's arm. Don't bother getting angry, he told her quietly. Let him have his fun. When he gets like this, the only one who can ever talk him out of it is Shelley.

He has always been like that, Mayumi added.

Padma turned to look meaningfully at Shelley, who laughed. I agree with Nicolai, she said lightly. Let him have his fun. There's no reason you have to find out today.

Mike nodded. That sounds good to me.

Let us know when you find out, though, Alvaro said. We're curious, too.

But Mike -- Padma began.

He silenced her with an upraised finger. We can wait until tomorrow morning to find out, he said, sounding uncharacteristically calm. I, for one, trust Wizzit's choices.

When Padma seemed as if she were going to protest some more, he leaned forward and whispered something into her ear. She frowned and looked quizzically at him. No! Do you really think so?

Just a guess, love. Just a guess. He laid a finger knowingly alongside his nose, then went over to get more punch. Padma remained frowning at the floor for a moment longer, then shrugged and appeared ready to drop the matter.

What did he say to you? Nicolai asked her curiously.

Padma hesitated, then gave him one of her thousand-watt smiles. Not tellin'!

After that, there wasn't a whole lot left to do until lights-out except eat and socialize. Healing comas tend to make one hungry, and we made a pretty serious dent in the food that Shelley and the others had prepared for us. Each of us approached Bill at one time or another to say our personal goodbyes. When my turn came, I went up to him and shook his hand solemnly. Bill, I said, looking him straight in the eye, you are, without a doubt, the best sparring partner I've ever had.

He blinked at me in silence. I think he didn't know how to respond. After a moment, he nodded. I can honestly say the same thing about you, Trevor. And that was how we left it. Eventually Wizzit started dimming the lights; us regulars bid the Primes Emeriti -- including Bill -- goodnight. Wizzit teleported them back to their homes and we went to bed.

The next morning, I hurriedly dressed and got stuff ready for my trip home. Then I practically ran down the hall and tried the office door.

It's locked. That was Toby's voice, coming from the kitchen. Already tried it. Can't tell whether anyone's inside or not.

Hmph! I shrugged and went to join Toby, who was eating his favorite breakfast of late, toast with Marmite and cheese. I honestly don't know what he and Mike see in the stuff. I tried it once, and it was awful. Shuddering, I went to make myself some tea and buttered toast.

The others joined us a few minutes later. Breakfast was a silent affair; the six of us kept staring in the direction of the locked office door. Finally, though, we all finished eating, and Mike led the way to the office. He rapped lightly.

Door open, came a voice from within.

Mike pulled open the door, then held it for the rest of us. Padma stepped in and stopped short. She turned to Mike, astonishment written across her pretty features. How did you know?

Mike gave her his most confident grin. Just a guess, love. But I didn't see how Wizzit could have chosen anyone else.

The rest of us pushed past her, eager to get our first glimpse of our new executive director. For a moment, I think we were all too surprised to speak. Trina was the first to find her tongue. Shelley? she exclaimed.

That's 'Commander Windham' to you, Prime Orange! Shelley replied with mock severity. Then she grinned at us all. Come on in and sit down. She explained, Wizzit offered me my father's old job about a month ago. I didn't have anything better to do, so I took him up on it. I wasn't allowed to say anything about it until today, though.

I knew it all along. Mike smirked at the rest of us. Like I told Padma, I didn't see how Wizzit could have chosen anyone else.

I'll take that as a compliment, Mike. Shelley looked around with evident satisfaction. I have to say, it's good to be back.

It is certainly good to have you back, Trina said. We had been wondering what you were doing with yourself.

Shelley shrugged. As the only Prime ever to have been publicly outed, so to speak, I've become something of a minor celebrity. The news media have me on speed-dial; they ask me for an opinion every time you guys fight a monster. I've turned down loads of opportunities to sell energy drinks and sports shoes, and you wouldn't believe how many offers I've had to do porn! She made a face. For the most part, though, I've just been going on the occasional mission with you guys, helping Mom and Francesca run the ranch, and giving interviews to the press. And, of course, figuring out how Bill and I are going to meet publicly.

Meet publicly? Nicolai frowned. I don't understand. The two of you are already going to get married, so . . .

So, I said, when they do get married, people are going to say, 'Shelley, where did you and Bill first meet?' What's she supposed to tell them, that they got to know each other when they were both Primes?

Oh, I see. Nicolai nodded in understanding. You need a cover story to keep Bill's identity secret.

Exactly, Shelley said. The current plan is for us to meet at a martial arts exposition that's taking place in Toronto next month. I'll be there to sign autographs, and Toronto is Bill's old stomping grounds. We'll bump into each other, strike up a conversation, have dinner together, and he'll sweep me off my feet! She sighed dreamily, then leaned forward, all business once more. But enough about me. Bring me up to speed on how the team has been doing. I'm probably a little out of touch.

Mike shook his head. Not much has changed, except that we've now five times as many monsters to fight, and you already know about that. I've got Trevor setting up some occasional cross-training sessions, but we've been so busy lately that it's hard to schedule 'em. The only real bit of news is the new Prime Violet.

Let's talk about her, then. It's Angela Chiao, right? Trevor's sister?

That's right, I said. I'm going out today to bring her her new Prime belt, in fact. And Toby's going out with me.

In response to her questioning look, Mike explained, While you were a prisoner, Shelley, we decided that it would be safer if we went out on our vacations in pairs. It worked out so well that we're continuing the practice.

We're planning to stay at my parents' house for a day or so, I went on, until after Angie's high school graduation ceremony. Then we'll bring her back here.

And that's okay with your folks?

Sure. They like Toby. It may be a bit awkward if you have to call us in for a battle, since my older sister and my two brothers will be visiting as well, but my folks can cover for us if they have to.

That's good. Shelley smiled. I have to say, I think Angie's a good choice. She's worked with us before, so she won't need quite so much training as a completely raw recruit would. In fact, Mike, I'd think that she should be able to start going out on missions immediately. It's your call, though.

Mike nodded. Just as soon as she's physically able.

Shelley frowned. "Physically able? What does that mean?"

Mike waved her question aside. It's a long story; I'll explain later. Now Trina, you had been acting as Angie's minder when she was Junior Prime Pink. Still want the job?

Trina shrugged. Sure. She's good to work with. And I will train her to use her blaster as well.

Good, he replied. Who wants to work with her on hand-to-hand? Probably not Trevor.

Not Padma, either, I said. Angie's a fourth-degree black belt, like I am. I still outrank her, but Padma's only a second Dan. It probably wouldn't work out.

Toby tentatively raised his hand. I'll do it. He gave us all a sheepish grin. I mean, she won't need much teaching, will she? Just practice fighting someone a whole lot bigger and stronger than she is? That'd be me.

Mike grinned. Thanks, Toby, he said. That's good thinking.

Shelley, I noticed, was leaning back in her chair giving Toby an appraising look. There was no denying that Toby was big; at six-four, he was taller even than Shelley, and he's stronger than anyone else on the team. I wondered, though, whether she was thinking the same thing I had been thinking lately, that he might be getting a little sweet on my sister.

Toby was a decent enough guy, I guess, but he was also about ten years older than Angie. Sure, I trusted them both, but I wasn't sure I liked the idea of him spending hours and hours alone with her.

Shrugging, I decided not to go borrowing trouble; Angela was a big girl, after all, and she was used to guys being sweet on her. And besides, I knew she would not appreciate my involving myself in her love life. The one time I had tried that, when we were still in high school, she hadn't spoken to me for a week afterwards.

I turned my attention to the vid of our most recent battle that Wizzit was putting up on the screen. One of our traditions is that we debrief after every battle. Shelley's dad used to run the debriefings when he was alive; Bill had been running them lately. Now that Shelley was our new Prime Commander, we would be reporting to her.

Mike narrated most of it, since his group had fought two different monsters. Trina described the fight she had led her team on, and Toby talked about the monster he, Bill, and I had taken on. Shelley didn't ask very many questions, even about the parts she wasn't personally involved with. She didn't say much at all, in fact, until we got to the part where I took out the snake monster.

At that point, Wizzit treated us all to a Trevor-eye-view of my attack, slowed 'way down so that it looked like I was moving at only about four times normal speed. As we watched the snake dissolve into sparks, she nodded to herself. I thought that's what you were doing, she commented.

Mike said, Any chance you could teach me to do that little trick, mate? Seems like it could come in awfully handy.

I looked over at him, a little surprised. Mike doesn't often speak directly to me like that, at least not lately. He has been treating me with kid gloves for the past two months, in fact, rarely disciplining me or even commenting on anything I do during our battles.

I think he has been avoiding me because he believes I'm still mad at him over Lily's death, and to some extent I suppose he's right. I mean, I'm still hurting over what happened, and I do think he bears part of the blame, although not as much as Bill. But Lily was dead, after all, and all the blaming in the world couldn't change that. So maybe this would be our chance to begin to repair relations.

Probably, I said with a nod and a grin. I'd be willing to try, anyway.

In fact, as Prime Red, Mike ought to find the speeding-up trick easier to learn than I had. Nicolai says that each of us Primes is equally powerful, in theory. Practically speaking, though, things become easier, more intuitive, as one progresses from Violet to Red. Still, Wizzit seems to think that I have a special talent for things like this. Who knows, maybe Mike wouldn't be able to learn it at all.

It's harder than just generating a shock wave, Mike, Shelley warned him. I did the same thing a couple of times when I was Red. I could never do it when I wanted to, though, only by accident.

How fast was Trevor moving, Wizzit? Nicolai asked.

His personal time frame was speeded up to one hundred twenty-one times normal, Wizzit replied.

I frowned. One hundred twenty-one? That was oddly exact, and the number itself sounded familiar . . .

Nicolai was obviously thinking the same thing, and as usual with math, he was a couple of steps ahead of me. The number associated with Prime Blue is eleven, he mused, and one hundred twenty-one is eleven squared. So, if I, as Prime Five, learned to do this, I would move at only twenty-five times normal? He sounded disappointed.

You could speed yourself up to five times normal, twenty-five times, one hundred twenty-five times, or, with practice, even six hundred twenty-five times. Any power associated with your prime number. That last speed, though, would not be practical; paradoxically, the air resistance would keep you immobile.

It's a big enough problem when I do it, I added. It feels like I'm wading through molasses.

Ah, I see. Nicolai nodded with satisfaction. Thank you.

Shelley looked around at us. Anything else? No? I think we're done, then.

I had a couple of hours before Toby and I would teleport to the small town in Ohio where my parents live. At HQ, Wizzit keeps us on Greenwich Mean Time, which, taking daylight savings time into account, put us four hours ahead of my folks. I knew Angie would be eager to get her Prime belt, but I didn't think my parents would appreciate being woken up in the wee small hours of the morning.

I didn't want to work out in the gym and get all hot and sweaty before going home, so instead I retreated to my room for some serious piano practicing. My mom teaches piano, and she still gives me lessons whenever I come home for a visit. I've been working on Gershwin's Three Preludes lately, and I was hoping to move onto something else, so I decided to put some extra polish on them today.

I tend to lose track of time when I'm practicing, so it seemed like no time at all had passed before Toby was knocking on my door and telling me that he was ready to leave. I grabbed my overnight bag, and Wizzit teleported us out to a corn field beside a gravel road that led to the Chiao family home.

My mother's face lit up when she answered the door. Trevor! she exclaimed. And Toby! It's good to see you. Would you boys like some breakfast?

She was speaking English to us. If it had been just me, I'm sure her greeting would have been in Mandarin Chinese; she and Dad have always wanted us kids to get a good grounding in the language of the homeland, so we spoke the mother tongue at home whenever possible.

They weren't fanatics