"That was totally different!" she finally managed. "I may have misled the Sly Girls, but I didn't use anyone as bait."
"Not as bait, but you did use them, Aya-la. And we had to do the same to you."
"But you lied to us!"
Tally shrugged. "What did you say in your interview? 'Sometimes you have to lie to find the truth.'"
Aya found herself speech-missing again, appalled to have her own words used against her. But then she remembered who'd said them first - Frizz. The last she'd seen of him, he'd been spinning toward the ground on Fausto's board.
"My friends ... are they okay?"
"Relax. Everyone's fine." Tally moved aside.
Aya pulled herself up, leaning back against the shuddering hovercar wall. Shay and Fausto sat cross-legged on the other side of the hold, with Hiro curled between them, still unconscious. Ren's long form stretched down the middle of the cabin, snoring happily.
Frizz lay next to Aya, absolutely still. She rolled closer and squeezed his hand...but he didn't respond.
"Are you sure he's all right?" Aya asked. "Frizz got stuck with those needles twice last night."
"I already countered the nanos they stuck you with. He's just asleep." Tally pulled her sleeve up and glanced at the flash tattoos on her arm. The patterns there were laid out like an interface, not mere decoration. "You've all been out for six hours, which seems a little excessive to me. Do you always sleep till noon?"
The hovercar lurched, setting off Aya's accumulated aches and bruises. Her muscles were sore after the hours of crouching in the reservoir, fleeing paparazzi, and sleeping on a shuddering metal floor.
"No, we don't. We were pretty exhausted after running around all night, waiting for you to rescue us." She spat the last two words.
"Listen, Aya-la. Believe it or not, you're safer here with us than back in your city. The freaks would have snatched you sooner or later - they always do. At least this way we're around to protect you."
Aya snorted. "And you've been doing a great job at that so far."
"You look like you're in one piece to me." Tally's eyes narrowed. "So far."
"But how do you think this feels?" Aya cried. "You're the most famous person in the world, and you used us!"
"How do I think it feels?" Tally leaned in closer, her black eyes glowing with sudden intensity. "I know what it's like to be manipulated, Aya-la. And I know what it's like to be in danger. While your city was building you mansions to live in, my friends and I have been protecting this planet. We've spilled more blood than you have flowing in your veins. So don't try to make me feel guilty!"
Aya shrank away. For a few terrible seconds, she'd glimpsed the Special face behind the mask, and heard the razors in Tally's voice. She remembered the shudder-making rumors back in school about what the word "Cutters" really meant.
Suddenly, she believed them.
"Stay icy, Tally-wa," Shay said from across the cargo hold. "The randoms are fragile, and we still need their help."
The anger faded from Tally's face, and she slumped back against the cargo webbing, as if exhausted by the outburst. Suddenly she looked like an ordinary ugly again. "Okay, but you talk to her.
She's making me less than icy."
Shay turned to Aya, spreading her hands. "I understand your annoyance, Aya-la. You know that feeling you're having about Tally right now? Let's just say I've had that feeling before. A few times."
Tally smiled. "You couldn't live without me, Shay-la."
"I was living without you," Shay said. "The rest of us Cutters were having a great time in Diego, until you showed up with this brain-missing plan."
"Brain-missing?" Aya looked from Shay to Tally. "But you're friends, I thought."
"Best friends forever," Shay said softly. "It's just that getting captured by a bunch of freaks isn't my idea of fun. How about you, Fausto? You like being stuck in this brain-rattling hovercar?"
"Loving every minute of it," he said absently, shifting his sneak suit through different dorm plaids, as if he didn't want to get involved.
"I don't remember you having a better idea," Tally said.
"I had plenty of ideas." Shay turned back to Aya. "But I've learned that when Tally gets a plan in her head, it's easier just to go along. Otherwise, you'll find out that Tally can be very, very special."
Aya swallowed, wondering if her English had been scrambled by whatever the inhumans had stabbed her with. The conversation had started her head spinning again. The Cutters were so different from how merit-rich, world-saving, famous people were supposed to be.
"By 'special'... do you mean something bad or good?" she asked.
"Not bad or good. Just special." Shay shrugged. "Tally's someone who makes things happen, that's all, and the easiest thing is just to play along. So are you going to be a good little random and help us?"
"But you're the Cutters!" Aya said. "You ended the Prettytime, and I'm fifteen. How am I supposed to help you?"
Shay smiled. "Well, from the rough translation we saw of your story, you seem to be pretty good at fooling people."
Aya sighed. "Thanks for the reminder."
"You're welcome," Shay said. "All we're asking is for you to lie a little more. Explain to our surge-crazy captors why a bunch of foreign uglies were trying to sneak you out of the city." She pointed at her ugly mask. "These disguises won't hold up if they get suspicious."
Aya frowned, slowly realizing how tricky this was going to be. "But you don't even speak Japanese."
"I'm sure you'll think of some explanation," Shay said, then laughed. "Just imagine the great story you'll get out of it. Honorary Cutter!"
Aya nodded slowly. It would be an amazing story: an ugly drawn into helping the Cutters save the world. Plus, she could show what the famous Tally Youngblood was really like.
"But I don't even have a spycam. Stories don't mean anything without shots."
"Are you sure about that? Check your eyescreen."
Aya flexed her ring finger. The familiar feeds were all missing, but a few signals hovered at the edge of her vision: an unrecognizable language from some passing city fragments of the hovercar's interface beneath layers of security. And in its corner, her last known face rank captured as they'd shot through the flash-bombed hovercams: eight.
"I made the top ten," she said softly.
Then she saw it: Moggle's signal, its power minimized but steady, coming from only meters away.
Her eyes widened. "Moggles stuck to the bottom of the car."
"Yep. It snuck under there while they were loading us on," Shay said. "Pretty clever little hovercam you've got there."
Aya looked down at Ren's sleeping form. "It's his mods, not mine."
"Smart boy."
"Okay, you've got a story," Tally said. "So is it worth your time to help us save the world?"
"You promise to protect us?"
"Yeah," Tally said. "I promise."
Aya took a slow breath, remembering Lai's words on the sled.
"Sure, I'll help. I happen to like the world, after all."
"That's just bubbly of you, Aya-la," Shay said. "Now what about your friends? Are they going to be a problem?"
"No, I'm sure they'll help too." Aya took Frizz's hand, wondering if she should wake the rest of them up. It was best if they all learned what was going on now, before anyone had a chance to ...
... give everything away.
Aya looked down at Frizz, her eyes widening. He was beginning to stir at her touch, a soft moan escaping his lips...his beautiful lips that could speak nothing but the truth.
And suddenly Aya realized that now was not the best time for Radical Honesty.
ADVANCED ENGLISH
"Aya?" Frizz murmured softly, his eyes fluttering open. "Is that you?"
"Yeah, it's me." She leaned closer. "Are you okay?"
"I think I'm covered in bruises," Frizz answered. "And I know I'm very upset with Tally Youngblood."
Aya squeezed his hand, unsure how much to tell him about their situation. After what Shay had said, she wondered what Tally would do to Frizz if she found out that his brain surge threatened her plans.
Knock him out again? Toss him out of the hovercar?
Aya decided that she needed help with this.
She turned to Shay. "Wake those two up, Shay-la? I might as well explain everything at once."
Shay nodded, then nudged Hiro and Ren. They came awake slowly, their eyes sweeping around the shuddering cargo hold in disbelief.
"What happened?" Hiro said, sitting up. His lifter rig had been removed, and his party clothes were rumpled beyond repair.
Aya helped Frizz sit up, then gestured the others closer. When they were huddled together, she spoke in rapid Japanese.
"They used us as bait, and let us all get captured. So I guess we're headed to wherever those freaks come from."
Ren glanced at Shay. "So that's the real reason they're in disguise."
"Yeah. And now they need our help," Aya said. "They want to sneak into the inhumans' base without anyone knowing who they are. We have to pretend they're friends of ours."
"Are they brain-missing?" Hiro cried. "How dare they drag us into this?"
Aya turned to him and shrugged. "I guess Tally's so famous she thinks she can do anything."
"Well, I'm not helping them." Hiro crossed his arms. "Not after they got us kidnapped on purpose!"
"But we wouldn't just be helping than" Frizz said. "Tally said there were more mass drivers.
Lots. Don't you think that somewhere there might be a cylinder pointed at our city, Hiro? Maybe programmed to take out your mansion?"
"Well, maybe," Hiro mumbled, casting an annoyed look at Tally.
"And don't you think this will make a better story if we help them?" Aya asked. "They want us to be sort of ... honorary Cutters."
"Honorary Cutters?" Ren whispered. "That would be a pretty big story."
Hiro shook his head. "Pretty crappy story without cams."
"Not to worry," Aya said. "Moggle is still with us, stuck to the bottom of this car."
"Moggle did that while we were all knocked out?" Ren laughed. "My mods rule!"
Aya nodded. "So what do you say, Hiro? Do we kick this?"
The hovercar hit a patch of serious turbulence, dropping out from under them for a moment.
They all lifted into the air, then came down hard against the metal floor. But Hiro just sat there as though the storm wasn't happening, thinking hard.
Finally he nodded. "Okay, but we all kick our stories at the same time. And everyone gets to use any of Moggle's shots they want."
"Agreed," Aya said.
"You two are very strange sometimes," Frizz said. "Can I point out that how you kick this story is not our biggest problem."
Aya sighed. "You're right about that."
Ren's excited expression fell, and he let out a slow breath. "Radical Honesty."
"So what?" Hiro said. "Can't you just keep quiet?"
Frizz shook his head. "I can't even keep a surprise party a secret. How am I supposed to hide the fact that the world's most famous person is standing next to me in disguise?"
"You can't keep a birthday party secret?" Hiro said. "Okay, Radical Honesty is officially the most brain-missing clique I've ever heard of!"
"Not as bait, but you did use them, Aya-la. And we had to do the same to you."
"But you lied to us!"
Tally shrugged. "What did you say in your interview? 'Sometimes you have to lie to find the truth.'"
Aya found herself speech-missing again, appalled to have her own words used against her. But then she remembered who'd said them first - Frizz. The last she'd seen of him, he'd been spinning toward the ground on Fausto's board.
"My friends ... are they okay?"
"Relax. Everyone's fine." Tally moved aside.
Aya pulled herself up, leaning back against the shuddering hovercar wall. Shay and Fausto sat cross-legged on the other side of the hold, with Hiro curled between them, still unconscious. Ren's long form stretched down the middle of the cabin, snoring happily.
Frizz lay next to Aya, absolutely still. She rolled closer and squeezed his hand...but he didn't respond.
"Are you sure he's all right?" Aya asked. "Frizz got stuck with those needles twice last night."
"I already countered the nanos they stuck you with. He's just asleep." Tally pulled her sleeve up and glanced at the flash tattoos on her arm. The patterns there were laid out like an interface, not mere decoration. "You've all been out for six hours, which seems a little excessive to me. Do you always sleep till noon?"
The hovercar lurched, setting off Aya's accumulated aches and bruises. Her muscles were sore after the hours of crouching in the reservoir, fleeing paparazzi, and sleeping on a shuddering metal floor.
"No, we don't. We were pretty exhausted after running around all night, waiting for you to rescue us." She spat the last two words.
"Listen, Aya-la. Believe it or not, you're safer here with us than back in your city. The freaks would have snatched you sooner or later - they always do. At least this way we're around to protect you."
Aya snorted. "And you've been doing a great job at that so far."
"You look like you're in one piece to me." Tally's eyes narrowed. "So far."
"But how do you think this feels?" Aya cried. "You're the most famous person in the world, and you used us!"
"How do I think it feels?" Tally leaned in closer, her black eyes glowing with sudden intensity. "I know what it's like to be manipulated, Aya-la. And I know what it's like to be in danger. While your city was building you mansions to live in, my friends and I have been protecting this planet. We've spilled more blood than you have flowing in your veins. So don't try to make me feel guilty!"
Aya shrank away. For a few terrible seconds, she'd glimpsed the Special face behind the mask, and heard the razors in Tally's voice. She remembered the shudder-making rumors back in school about what the word "Cutters" really meant.
Suddenly, she believed them.
"Stay icy, Tally-wa," Shay said from across the cargo hold. "The randoms are fragile, and we still need their help."
The anger faded from Tally's face, and she slumped back against the cargo webbing, as if exhausted by the outburst. Suddenly she looked like an ordinary ugly again. "Okay, but you talk to her.
She's making me less than icy."
Shay turned to Aya, spreading her hands. "I understand your annoyance, Aya-la. You know that feeling you're having about Tally right now? Let's just say I've had that feeling before. A few times."
Tally smiled. "You couldn't live without me, Shay-la."
"I was living without you," Shay said. "The rest of us Cutters were having a great time in Diego, until you showed up with this brain-missing plan."
"Brain-missing?" Aya looked from Shay to Tally. "But you're friends, I thought."
"Best friends forever," Shay said softly. "It's just that getting captured by a bunch of freaks isn't my idea of fun. How about you, Fausto? You like being stuck in this brain-rattling hovercar?"
"Loving every minute of it," he said absently, shifting his sneak suit through different dorm plaids, as if he didn't want to get involved.
"I don't remember you having a better idea," Tally said.
"I had plenty of ideas." Shay turned back to Aya. "But I've learned that when Tally gets a plan in her head, it's easier just to go along. Otherwise, you'll find out that Tally can be very, very special."
Aya swallowed, wondering if her English had been scrambled by whatever the inhumans had stabbed her with. The conversation had started her head spinning again. The Cutters were so different from how merit-rich, world-saving, famous people were supposed to be.
"By 'special'... do you mean something bad or good?" she asked.
"Not bad or good. Just special." Shay shrugged. "Tally's someone who makes things happen, that's all, and the easiest thing is just to play along. So are you going to be a good little random and help us?"
"But you're the Cutters!" Aya said. "You ended the Prettytime, and I'm fifteen. How am I supposed to help you?"
Shay smiled. "Well, from the rough translation we saw of your story, you seem to be pretty good at fooling people."
Aya sighed. "Thanks for the reminder."
"You're welcome," Shay said. "All we're asking is for you to lie a little more. Explain to our surge-crazy captors why a bunch of foreign uglies were trying to sneak you out of the city." She pointed at her ugly mask. "These disguises won't hold up if they get suspicious."
Aya frowned, slowly realizing how tricky this was going to be. "But you don't even speak Japanese."
"I'm sure you'll think of some explanation," Shay said, then laughed. "Just imagine the great story you'll get out of it. Honorary Cutter!"
Aya nodded slowly. It would be an amazing story: an ugly drawn into helping the Cutters save the world. Plus, she could show what the famous Tally Youngblood was really like.
"But I don't even have a spycam. Stories don't mean anything without shots."
"Are you sure about that? Check your eyescreen."
Aya flexed her ring finger. The familiar feeds were all missing, but a few signals hovered at the edge of her vision: an unrecognizable language from some passing city fragments of the hovercar's interface beneath layers of security. And in its corner, her last known face rank captured as they'd shot through the flash-bombed hovercams: eight.
"I made the top ten," she said softly.
Then she saw it: Moggle's signal, its power minimized but steady, coming from only meters away.
Her eyes widened. "Moggles stuck to the bottom of the car."
"Yep. It snuck under there while they were loading us on," Shay said. "Pretty clever little hovercam you've got there."
Aya looked down at Ren's sleeping form. "It's his mods, not mine."
"Smart boy."
"Okay, you've got a story," Tally said. "So is it worth your time to help us save the world?"
"You promise to protect us?"
"Yeah," Tally said. "I promise."
Aya took a slow breath, remembering Lai's words on the sled.
"Sure, I'll help. I happen to like the world, after all."
"That's just bubbly of you, Aya-la," Shay said. "Now what about your friends? Are they going to be a problem?"
"No, I'm sure they'll help too." Aya took Frizz's hand, wondering if she should wake the rest of them up. It was best if they all learned what was going on now, before anyone had a chance to ...
... give everything away.
Aya looked down at Frizz, her eyes widening. He was beginning to stir at her touch, a soft moan escaping his lips...his beautiful lips that could speak nothing but the truth.
And suddenly Aya realized that now was not the best time for Radical Honesty.
ADVANCED ENGLISH
"Aya?" Frizz murmured softly, his eyes fluttering open. "Is that you?"
"Yeah, it's me." She leaned closer. "Are you okay?"
"I think I'm covered in bruises," Frizz answered. "And I know I'm very upset with Tally Youngblood."
Aya squeezed his hand, unsure how much to tell him about their situation. After what Shay had said, she wondered what Tally would do to Frizz if she found out that his brain surge threatened her plans.
Knock him out again? Toss him out of the hovercar?
Aya decided that she needed help with this.
She turned to Shay. "Wake those two up, Shay-la? I might as well explain everything at once."
Shay nodded, then nudged Hiro and Ren. They came awake slowly, their eyes sweeping around the shuddering cargo hold in disbelief.
"What happened?" Hiro said, sitting up. His lifter rig had been removed, and his party clothes were rumpled beyond repair.
Aya helped Frizz sit up, then gestured the others closer. When they were huddled together, she spoke in rapid Japanese.
"They used us as bait, and let us all get captured. So I guess we're headed to wherever those freaks come from."
Ren glanced at Shay. "So that's the real reason they're in disguise."
"Yeah. And now they need our help," Aya said. "They want to sneak into the inhumans' base without anyone knowing who they are. We have to pretend they're friends of ours."
"Are they brain-missing?" Hiro cried. "How dare they drag us into this?"
Aya turned to him and shrugged. "I guess Tally's so famous she thinks she can do anything."
"Well, I'm not helping them." Hiro crossed his arms. "Not after they got us kidnapped on purpose!"
"But we wouldn't just be helping than" Frizz said. "Tally said there were more mass drivers.
Lots. Don't you think that somewhere there might be a cylinder pointed at our city, Hiro? Maybe programmed to take out your mansion?"
"Well, maybe," Hiro mumbled, casting an annoyed look at Tally.
"And don't you think this will make a better story if we help them?" Aya asked. "They want us to be sort of ... honorary Cutters."
"Honorary Cutters?" Ren whispered. "That would be a pretty big story."
Hiro shook his head. "Pretty crappy story without cams."
"Not to worry," Aya said. "Moggle is still with us, stuck to the bottom of this car."
"Moggle did that while we were all knocked out?" Ren laughed. "My mods rule!"
Aya nodded. "So what do you say, Hiro? Do we kick this?"
The hovercar hit a patch of serious turbulence, dropping out from under them for a moment.
They all lifted into the air, then came down hard against the metal floor. But Hiro just sat there as though the storm wasn't happening, thinking hard.
Finally he nodded. "Okay, but we all kick our stories at the same time. And everyone gets to use any of Moggle's shots they want."
"Agreed," Aya said.
"You two are very strange sometimes," Frizz said. "Can I point out that how you kick this story is not our biggest problem."
Aya sighed. "You're right about that."
Ren's excited expression fell, and he let out a slow breath. "Radical Honesty."
"So what?" Hiro said. "Can't you just keep quiet?"
Frizz shook his head. "I can't even keep a surprise party a secret. How am I supposed to hide the fact that the world's most famous person is standing next to me in disguise?"
"You can't keep a birthday party secret?" Hiro said. "Okay, Radical Honesty is officially the most brain-missing clique I've ever heard of!"
