Project Gold Sparrow

“CJ? Are you sure this is a good idea?”

“Mink, of course it’s not a good idea. We’re sneaking into a top secret government lab to rescue my brother with a ninety-nine point nine percent chance of being caught.”

“Thanks for the reassurance.”

“That’s what I’m here for.”

“Shh! We’re coming up on the fence!” CJ looks at the fence, checking for the sign that would confirm they were in the right place.

There is was. AREA 0012. The test field for Project Gold Sparrow. The fence was covered in barbed wire thicker than her wrist. Cutting through it would be impossible. Going over it, already tricky because of the barbed wire encrusting the top, would be impossible looking at the fact that it was twenty feet high. It was that tall for a reason, CJ knew, but she also knew that she had to get in. And, two thirteen year old girls wouldn’t be let in, with or without clearance. Too much risk.

But CJ wasn’t leaving without Tyler. No matter what it took. CJ took a risk and touched the fence. A small shudder went through her. On top of all that, the damn thing was electric. 20 thousand volts, by the way it felt.

CJ, like her brother, was extraordinary. Her brother only got caught because you can only hide pyromancy for so long. CJ’s power was much more suttle. She absorbed electricity. Tyler told her that if she practiced, she’d be able to use it. But she had no time for practice after Tyler’s kidnapping. She had to dig up files, from all over, to find him. And she had to learn how to hack. Luckily, she knew a guy - or rather, a girl, named Ming “Mink” Ralin. The two had become inseperable ever since.

Here they were. Stopped by a fence.

“I’m gonna climb it,” CJ said. Mink looked at her.

“What? You-”

“I can handle a little electricity.”

“Yeah, but you don’t know how much! You’ve never tried to-”

“Mink. I’m doing this.” Mink fell silent, knowing that any attempt to sway CJ was in vain.

Mink watched CJ climb the fence with enough apprehension to fill the Atlantic ocean. She watched the tiny sparks dance across her skin like psychedelic butterflies. If Mink hadn’t seen this before, she’d have assumed she was hallucinating. But, as it turns out, hallucinations can’t climb electric fences without gear. CJ could. Mink knew better than to talk. Any sound now could blow their cover and screw everything. Maybe it already was blown. CJ waved from the top before dancing over the barbed wire. Now came the tricky part. Coming down. If she fell, she’d be dead or broken. Either way meant getting caught. If her electricity absorbers stopped working, she’d be fried. Also bad. And if someone saw her, she’d be shot, which didn’t prove useful either.

CJ winced as her feet found the fence. A pressure was building behind her eyes. The pressure was so distracting that she didn’t even realize that her hands had slipped and were now slashed by the wire. She started climbing down as fast as she could. The electricity was building in the pit of her stomach.

At last, she reached a safe distance from the ground, and dropped the rest of the way. The fizzing inside her started to fade.

She was in. Now, she needed Mink.

“Where do I go from here?” she whispered into the microphone on her cheap walkie talkie. It was cheap, but it worked.

“You see those trees?” CJ nodded before realizing Mink couldn’t see her.

“Yeah.”

“Go there. Then, the entrance on your left. It’s unlocked. I hacked it.”

“Damn, Mink. You’re the best.”

“That’s why I’m here, girlfriend. Now go! The next guard’ll be at your spot in five minutes. Hurry up beforr he comes around a corner and sees you.” CJ ran like the devil towards the trees. She ducked behind a trunk at the first spot she could. She easily found the unlocked door.

“Mink, is this the place.”

“Yup. Proceed with caution.”

“Caution’s my middle name.”

“Sure, CJ. That’s what the J is for.”

“Yup.” CJ grabs the handle and tugs. The door opened, and she took a step forward.

“Carmen Jane Stewards. Nice to see you here.” CJ looked up into the eyes of Marion Grey.

“Give me back my brother,” she growls.

“Don’t worry,” says Grey with a twisted grin. “You’ll be joining him soon.” In an imperceptible movement, CJ turns the power off on her walkie. Mink couldn’t reach her now, and that meant they couldn’t reach her, either.

Now would be a very good time to learn how to discharge electricity, CJ thought as Grey led her down the hall. Since I have so much stored up. She tried very hard not to look at Grey. She didn’t want to say his first name, even in her head. That made him human. That made him real. As of right now, he was Grey, and he was nothing in her mind but another color on the spectrum. She looked up at one of the other agents. Her name was Jewell Reed. Her nickname was Blue. CJ had made color coordinated names for each agent on the case. There was George Arwin, Black; Rain Quallen, Purple; Onna Lapell, Red, and Gertrude Belle, Turquoise. Then there was Grey and Blue. CJ passed all of them on the way to her cell, and she gave each a withering look that they expertly ignored. Then she entered the holding cells. There was George Garten, GG, the boy with lizard skin. There was John Sparrow, the one who the project was named after. He had bird wings. Then their was Scarlette Ingrid, who could read minds and move things with hers; Karl Johannessen, a water manipulator, and last but not least, Ean Knopp, a girl who could bend steel with her bare hands. Her cell was the most secure. CJ searched with all her might, but she didn’t see Tyler. Just the other Sparrows that she’d read about in the files that Mink had dragged up.

“Where is he?” CJ asks, barely audible. Grey chuckles.

“He’s in the lab.” CJ stewed in silence for a moment.

“We always figured you were like him. A freak. We just waited for you to slip. And, with the video of you climbing that fence, we have our slip.”

Of course, CJ cursed herself. They let me in. They were waiting for her to reveal her talent. And now she had. She looked up. Straight ahead was a compound cell, big enough for two people, with a glass wall seperating the two parts. She assumed that’s where her and Tyler would be kept. Like pets. No, not pets. Lab rats. As if they were being tested to cure cancer. But no. She was thrown into one and she hit the metal hard. Then, she realized it wasn’t metal at all. It was stone. Of course. Metal would bend and melt if fire heated it for long enough. And they were assuming she was a pyro too. Family ties and all that. CJ curled into the corner farthest from Grey and found herself up against a cell with an old man in it.

“Hey there, girly,” he said in a scratchy voice. “You’ve gotten you-self stuck-y.”

“Yeah,” CJ said, shifting away from him. “Why are you ‘stuck-y’?”

“Me can see the future,” the man said. “And you’s future is good-y for me.”

“Why is it good?”

“You gets us outs of here, he said, “all us Sparrows.”

“I do? How?”

“Don’t know,” said the man. “With your lighty.” CJ assumed he meant her lightning. What was an old man doing here? He seemed so much older than the rest. Everyone else was under twenty. In their teens. Carmen, if the files were correct, was two years younger than Ean, who was the youngest in their files. How did the old man fit into all this?

“What’s your name?” CJ asks, not remembering his face from any of the files.

“I is Levoy. Levoy Lemmings. L is me name, please.” CJ nods slowly. He wasn’t ringing any bells. Odd. He was either new, or...

Could he be from an old project? What if “L” wasn’t a Sparrow at all? What if he was the true starter of this mess? This project could be called Project Lemming for all she knew. Something bigger than the Sparrows was going on here. The Sparrows was just the most recent generation of freakazoids. What if L was the first?

“Ack!” yelled a boy as he’s shoved into the cage next to CJ.

“Halloo, Ty-lee,” says the man.

“Hi, L,” says the boy in a tired voice. He turned to CJ and froze.

“Carmen...” he said, as if not comprehending who’s in front of him.

“Tyler?” CJ asked, staring at the figure in front of her. This couldn’t be her brother. The look in his eyes was one of utter defeat. Her brother was invincible.

“Carmen, oh Lord, they found you...” He slumped over. “Oh God, no...” His shaved head moved back until it rested on the back wall. He didn’t have a cage behind his cell like CJ did. He only had concrete.

“Tyler?” Carmen pressed her face up against the glass, scrutinizing him like a kid in a zoo. “Is that you?”

“It’s me, CJ.” CJ knew he was telling the truth. This was her brother, the mighty Tyler Stewards, the one who could scare off the worst gang, protect her from the cruelest of bullies. Here he was, looking more like a dead man than her brother. She heard the torment in his voice.

“What did they do to you, Ty,” she asked in a hoarse whisper.

“They’re trying to make more of us. More Sparrows. To make an army.”

“And L? He isn’t a Sparrow.”

“No. He’s from an earlier project. Not sure what, though. If he is from a project, the others are all dead. Haven’t seen any like him.”

“What did they do to you?” Tyler smiled weakly.

“They tried to beat the freak out of me.” He lit his middle finger like a candle as he stuck it up. “It didn’t work, so now they’re trying to clone me. That doesn’t seem to be working, either.” He struck his burning finger into the glass. “Back up. First thing’s first, I’m gonna give my baby sis a hug.” CJ smiled a little. Her eyes were sparkling. Here he was, trying to be noble and play things off like he had when she was ten.

“They’re taking me to a summer camp,” he’d said. “I’ll be back before you know it.” But he wasn’t coming back. And CJ had found him. She scooted back from the melting glass that was now pooling in the crevices below her feet. Steam rose from it as it cooled. Within minutes, the barrier of glass had all but melted away to nothing. CJ scrambled across the stone bars and smoking glass to throw her arms around her brother.

“Tyler, I thought you were gone forever...” Tears started leaking uncontrollably from her eyes, and she felt water drip from Tyler’s as well.

“I thought you were too,” Tyler whispered. CJ looked up at him.

“Hey!”

“What?”

“I planned the break-in date, so that it came at the same time as something else.” Her eyes sparkled.

“What?” Tyler asks.

“You’re twenty-one today!” Tyler looks up.

“Huh. I forgot,” Tyler says. “It was three years ago, right? You were ten.”

“Yeah,” says CJ softly.

“You’re thirteen now,” he says with a smirk. “Welcome to your teen years!” CJ laughs.

“They’re going great so far,” she says with a smirk. "I've finally gotten to see you again, for starters." Tyler grins.

"Wow. Going great for sure."

"And I broke into a government base," CJ says with a laugh. "Not many thirteen year olds can do that, even with help." Tyler's head shot up.

"You had help?" he whispered. CJ nods.

"I have a walkie talkie. Want it?" Tyler shakes his head.

"Absolutely not. Keep it hidden. That could be our ticket out of here." An idea starts boiling in CJ's vat of escape plans.

"Do they watch you pee?" she asked. Tyler shook his head slowly, a grin spreading across his face. Now there's the brother I know, CJ thought. Nothing can defeat him.

"Hey!" CJ yelled. "Grey! Some official asshole here! Lemme out! I need to freakin' pee!" A man carrying a mop and a bucket walked over.

"Kid, you need to take a piss?" he asked in a heavy southern drawl.

"Yes, and if you don't get me to a bathroom, I'll make sure you're the one to clean it up."

"A'right," the man said. "Try anything funny and I shoot y'all." CJ nodded as if solemnly promising. The man unlocked the cage, staring fixedly at Tyler, who he presumed to be a larger threat. After all, CJ couldn't burn anything. He leads her into a stall and shackles her to the sink. "You have two minutes." CJ stared at him.

"Are you gonna watch me? Man, what a gentleman you are." The man grumbled and shut the door.

"It's a minute and thirty seconds now," he said through the door. CJ pulled the walkie out of her pocket and turned it on.

"Mink! It's me! I got caught! Help!"

"Mink in. I told you this would happen, CJ. You earned it. I'll be in, tomorrow morning. Can't make it any sooner."

"That's great."

"Did you find Tyler?"

"Yeah. He says hi."

"I'm sure. Anyway, I'll be there. Tomorrow at six a.m. And I'm never late." CJ shoved the walkie talkie into her pocket and turned it off. She flushed the toilet.

"I'm done," she yelled. The janitor yanked open the door.

"About time." He shoved CJ roughly back into the cell and locked it with a horrible click. "Freaks." Tyler shoved a flaming hand at the janitor, who stumbled back.

"Call my sister a freak," he hissed. "And I'll kill you." The janitor turned around, feigning nonchalance, but the wheels on his little cart squeaked because he pushed it a little faster than it can go.

"Nice," CJ said. "I wish I could figure out how to dispense electricity."

"You weren't practicing?"

"I was finding you."

"Of course you were," Tyler said. "Hey. Thanks. I just hope we get out of here."

"We will," CJ said with more confidence than she actually feels. "In the meantime, you can give me lessons." Tyler snorted.

"Yeah, but it won't help." CJ raises an eyebrow.

"Even if I have tens of thousands of volts absorbed?" Tyler's eyes widened.

"You're kidding."

"Am not."

"You really have that much?"

"I climbed the fence to get in," CJ reminded him. "There's a lot of electricity in those. It was making me itch." Tyler laughed.

"Sis, if we can figure out how to shoot lightning bolts, we won't even have to wait for your friend. We can get out of here. And hell, let's bring the other Sparrows with."

"Wait... how?"

"All the locks in this place are electric. Overload them, we're out. For good." CJ laughs. Freedom seemed alien. She hadn't even spent a night in this thing, and already it was feeling impenetrable. Flawless. Imposing. Trapping. Impossible to escape. But there were cracks appearing in that facade. We can get out of here. It seemed impossible. But it was not. It was implausible. But, CJ was realizing, maybe those two were more seperate than not.

"Look at the family reunion," said a cruel voice. CJ growls, sounding more animal than human.

"Grey." Grey leaned down so he's face to face with them. Tyler shoved his hand at him. The fire only barely missed him. He was inches too far away, and he knew it. CJ could see it in the taunting look on his eyes. If only she knew how to shoot him in his smug face with her own powers. He would be too close, then. Too close to escape. She stared at Grey with less compassion in her gaze than a rock that had been abused it's whole life. Her gaze was harder than rock, actually. More like a steel dagger. Hungry for blood.

She felt her hate harden. She was almost scared. Scared by the emotion she felt towards this man. He didn't deserve any of her attention. But he stole her brother. He'd ruined her life. He had karma chasing after him like a rabid dog. She realized she was sparking when she looked down at her bone white knuckles. Little fireflies danced around her fists. If only she could direct it at him. Direct raw power at him. Fry him. If only.

She closed her eyes. That's how people did it in the movies. They closed their eyes, and then they blew things up. She closed her eyes and imagined lightning strinking Grey directly in the chest.

"Oh my God," she hears Tyler say. That must be good. It must be working. She imagined lightning pulsing through him. She opened her eyes. Grey was smoking. She scrambled back.

"Holy shit! Did I do that?" She hugs the back of the cage. Her breath turns ragged. Had she really meant to do that? Had she meant to kill him, as evil as he was. She zapped the lock and the door opened. Tyler laughed.

"You did it!" CJ wasn't listening. She was staring in horror at the smoking crater in Grey's chest.

"I... di... oh God, shi-" she rushed out of the cage to a trashcan and vomited on it. Tyler ran up to her.

"It's okay. Now, come on. Let's get out of here." They ran through the aisles of cages, blitzing all the locks. Soon, two dozen Sparrows, only half of which CJ had even heard of, were following them down the hallway, including a very giddy L. How many of these people had been squirreled away without public notice. The ones she’d heard of had family who noticed. What if all these others didn’t? A guard came running around a corner at top speed. Tyler blasted him with fire. The magic of being a freak meant that being hopelessly outnumbered didn’t matter. It was no wonder that the government wanted an army of them.

**UNFINISHED**

CRITIQUE REQUESTED!!

(if there are any spelling/grammar/capitalization mistakes, please tell me as the check doesn’t work on the prose site and I have to it all manually and I am lazy and often forget to do it. Also, I changed the character’s names halfway through, so tell me if you see any names that need to be corrected. Thanks!)