[OLD] The Supers Experiment (#1)

Twenty-One

Ivy drummed her fingers against the table as Dr. Newman flipped through the pages she'd handed him. The silence was unbearable.

"Well?" Summer asked.

"I'm glad you made it back safely," Dr. Newman said. "I wish you kids hadn't run off without me knowing."

"Dr. Newman, we aren't kids," Summer said. "I'm seventeen. Terrence is practically an adult, and—"

The door to the lab swung open.. Ivy groaned when Victoria marched into the room.

"What were you thinking?" Victoria exclaimed. She seemed to say that a lot, didn't she? "You could've been killed."

"Victoria, please," Dr. Newman said. Victoria turned to face him and put her hands on her hips.

"Don't tell me what they did was okay," Victoria said.

"It's not," Dr. Newman said. "But I'll handle it, okay?" He spread the papers he had been looking at out on the table the group was gathered around. "Now, would you like to help us?"

"Fine," Victoria grumbled. She grabbed a chair and sat down. "What are we doing?"

"We're looking at Scorpion's plan. Operation Black Knight."

Ivy frowned. "It looked longer when I was looking at it on the computer."

"It looks like a few pages are missing," Dr. Newman said. "The last paragraph on this one is cut off."

Ivy glanced at Terrence, who shrugged. "I just grabbed what was on the printer and gave it to Summer."

Summer shifted in her seat. "Well," she said. "Some of it is better than none at all. What does it say?"

"It's divided into stages," Dr. Newman said. "Stage One seems to be missing, but the rest appears to be a plan to kidnap the president, and reveal themselves to the world."

"Kidnap the president?" Victoria asked incredulously. "How?"

Spencer frowned. "Wouldn't someone stop them? Like, the army?"

"They have an army of their own," Ivy pointed out. A hundred Altered, and the countless soldiers that would join them soon.

"That's stupid," Victoria muttered. "The vice president would take over, or whatever. Did any of you pay attention in school?"

"That's not the point," Dr. Newman said. "They're making a statement. And Ivy's right, they have an army they can make it with."

"Okay, so what's their plan?" Spencer asked, leaning forward in his seat to get a better look at the pages. "Knock on the White House's front door and say, 'We have an army, give us the president?'"

"No," Dr. Newman said. "It looks like they know about the tunnels."

"Tunnels?" Ivy asked.

"You know who the current president is, I assume?" Dr. Newman asked.

Ivy nodded. "President Holmes." That was about the extent of her knowledge. She'd never been very informed in politics and rarely watched the news. She was aware that he hadn't done much since he'd been elected, and the public had a pretty neutral opinion on him. Some people accused him of hiding things, though.

"Well, a few years ago they added three tunnels underneath the White House, under the guise of expanding. The locations of the entrances and exits are secret. They're meant for the president and other officials to escape in the event of an emergency, without being seen."

Ivy's eyes widened. "If Scorpion knows where the tunnel entrances are, they can block them off. Prevent escape."

"Exactly," Dr. Newman said. "Then Scorpion attacks the White House and drives everyone into the tunnels, where they'll be trapped."