The boy thrust his arm forward far enough to reach the stun gun in the unconscious guards holster. He pulled his arm back quickly and shot the fatigue-clad man coming up behind him. 
"Duck!" a voice commanded, and the he did just that as a strike of lighting collided with the ceiling. He barely had time to thrust his hands over his head as a rafter fell toward him. The beam collided with a green force field, splintering on impact and sliding to the ground.
Stretch opened his eyes and glanced down at the one responsible for the energy field. "Thanks, little man." The blonde nodded gravely.
A bullet ricocheted off the energy barrier and the blonde stumbled, his defenses wavering.
"Woah there." Stretch looped his arm around the kid's waist and deposited him on his back. "Let's blow this crazy bin. Bugger! 'Lectra!" 
A black-and-white haired girl ran down the hall. A guard stepped in the way to block her path, but a rod of lightning from the girl's palm knocked him out. She leapt over his twitching body and caught up with Stretch. Another boy scurried across the wall toward them, aided by his extra pair of arms. 
Once all together, the four sprinted for the door at the end of the hall. Two guards threatened to stop them, but a double-lighting zap from Electra put them out. 
"The door's bolted shut!" she shouted.
"Not for long. Move!" They headed the warning just as a giant sphere spun threw the air. The razor-spikes on his back cut the chains keeping the doors shut, and he busted through. The other three filed out into the courtyard as Bugger was getting to his feet and brushing snow of his coat, spikes retracting as they reached him. 
"Nice," Electra complemented. Bugger blushed at the praise; however, Stretch had no chance to make a jest at either of them, for a voice piped up behind them.
"What took you guys so long?" They all turned to face an azure-haired girl leading a palomino stallion. Her glittering eyes, dark with the reflected night sky, widened when they landed on the 12-year-old slumped on Stretch's back. "Thirteen?"
"He's fine, Whisp," Stretch promised. "Just used a lot of juice. Where are the other horses?" 
"In the bushes," she indicated the brush with a thumb over her shoulder. "I'll take Thirteen. Arion can carry us both." Stretch nodded as the girl mounted her steed. He helped Thirteen climb on, then ran to get his own horse. 
A minute later, four horses were galloping down the road, away from the CADMUS building burning in the midnight snow.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Hurry, hurry!" Electra ushered. Stretch finally started the ignition and pushed the boat into gear. "Bugger!"
Bugger leapt from the pier and tumbled onto the speed boat. "Go! Now!" he shouted. The boat sped away from the dock just as the troop of soldiers reach it. They yelled angrily in Greek as the teens steered out of the bay.
"The others?" Stretch asked. Bugger shook his head in defeat.
"Wait," Electra pointed to a cliff ahead. Two figures were running along it, a hoard of others behind them. "There!"
Stretch changed course toward the cliff.

"We have to jump!"
"We'll never make it!" Thirteen argued.
"Trust me!"
He did. And when the cliff ended, the 13-year-old made no hesitation in leaping off. He fell toward the water, toward the jagged rocks, toward a certain, painful death. But then Thirteen stopped falling. A blue wisp of smoke threaded around him, always shifting, yet steady beneath him. The cloud wafted the boy over the water and deposited him onto the speedboat that awaited below.
Thirteen leaned against the railing to steady himself. The blue wisp funneled downward, creating a small tornado. The cloud dispersed, leaving a lean girl in a raspberry-red dress in its place. She turned to gave the blonde a smile and winked. "Told you you could trust me."
"I did not doubt you for one moment," he responded, a matching grin on his face.