Emily found herself hanging onto every single word Calypso spoke. If the woman had asked her to jump off a cliff, she would've found the nearest ditch and dove in headfirst.

And she had no idea why.

Her body had begun to feel like someone had wrapped a warm, weighted blanket around her. She could almost smell it too. It smelled like jasmine and tea—things that reminded her of home. A satisfied sigh left her lips as she stared dreamily at the beautiful woman ahead of her.

In the depths of her mind, she knew something was wrong. But she couldn't push behind that dull, aching thought. It was as if the connection between her brain and body had been severed.

Calypso was to blame. She had to be. Emily just wasn't sure how.

"Mustafa," Calypso said, her voice sounding softer than the clouds in the sky. "Please, close the case and put it back in your truck. This area doesn't look safe enough for us to continue." She cast Emily a dirty look.

Sandstorm straightened his posture and nodded obediently. Emily watched him as he closed the case full of stolen artifacts and loaded it into the pickup truck. As he did so, she noticed his dark eyes—which were no longer being shielded by his sunglasses—were glazed over. In fact, his movements had turned robotic and stiff as soon as Calypso spoke to him.

Emily's eyes widened.

She's a Prime.

That had to be it. How else would she be able to control people with just a few words.

Blinking a few times, Emily felt the groggy feeling that had swallowed her begin to wear off. She faced Lucky, who was still working on keeping the crowd behind them at bay.

"Field," she managed to get out. Her throat felt tighter than usual. She figured it was due to whatever Calypso's ability had done to her.

Lucky glanced at her over his shoulder. He immediately arched an eyebrow at her after seeing Mustafa climb into the pickup truck. "What're you doing?" He turned away from the crowd and approached her. "They're getting away."

Emily tried moving, but her muscles still wouldn't respond to her internal commands. Groaning in irritation, she gestured at Calypso with her chin. "She's...she's got me under some kind of spell. Call the others and make sure she doesn't escape."

Lucky nodded and turned his attentions to their targets. "Hey, stop right th—"

"Stay where you are," Calypso ordered, her sultry voice more commanding than before. She narrowed her emerald eyes, which seemed to be sparkling with power, at him.

Lucky furrowed his brows at her but followed her command. "What the? I can't...I can't move!"

Oh no.

Emily grit her teeth. Great. Now they both were stuck under the woman's control and the rest of their team had no idea.

Calpyso grinned at the two frozen Primes. The crowd behind them murmured in confusion as they kept their distance. The woman ignored them as she joined Sandstorm in his truck. "It was nice meeting you, but I'm afraid we have to go." She turned to her partner and he started the vehicle.

Straining her neck, Emily tried to reach for her bow on the ground. She still had no control over her body, though. Lucky didn't seem to be faring any better.

Fortunately, one of their other teammates had been lurking nearby.

Danai swooped down from the air like a bird attacking its prey. A cloud of sand and dust rose into the air as her silver braids settled on her shoulders. She looked around with a concern expression.

"What is going on?" she asked. "Why aren't you two moving?"

"We can't," Lucky replied.

"She's controlling us," Emily revealed. "Don't listen to her speak."

Danai, seemingly getting the message, nodded. She turned her attention to Sandstorm's truck, which had begun to drive away.

"I'll call Kai and Theo to bring the car this way," she told them. Her face darkened as she glared at the retreating vehicle. "I'm going after them."

Emily never even got the chance to agree to her plan of action before the girl took off for the sky. She zipped through the air, her long hair trailing behind her as she went.

"Reverb. Field. You two alright?" Kai's asked in Emily's ear.

"We're fine," she answered. "Just come get us. We need to stop Sandstorm and Calypso before they get away."

"We're on our way," Kai said.

During the minutes it took for the girl to arrive with their vehicle, Emily and Lucky gradually regained the ability to control their own bodies. Once Kai and Theo, who had been running alongside the car, showed up, Emily and Lucky hopped inside and began their pursuit.

The three of them chased down their targets through the busy streets of Cairo with a speeding Theo leading the way in front of them.

Emily pressed her finger to her ear. "Vortex, how far ahead are they?"

"Not too far," the girl answered breathlessly. "They've just left the market and are heading for the desert."

Emily nodded and dropped her hand. She peered at Kai, who was focused on steering their car and making sure not to hit any civilians. Luckily for them, the roads had widened enough for them to not be too much of a safety hazard.

Though, she wondered how much longer they could go without someone getting hurt in the crossfire.

She clenched her jaw at the thought.

We need to end this before people get killed.

"Blur," she said through her earpiece. "Think you can slow their car down?"

"I'll try my best."

In front of them, she watched as Theo pushed himself forward. He sped away from them and inched closer to the bulleting pickup truck ahead of them. They both left clouds of dust and sand in their wake.

As the curly-haired speedster approached the vehicle, Sandstorm held one of his hands out the side of the car and swiped it through the air. A solid wall of sand rose from the ground right in front of Theo.

He narrowly avoided colliding into it, but the same couldn't be said for Emily and the inhabitants of their car.

Before they hit the sandy barrier, though, a transparent bubble covered the front of their vehicle. The sand bent around the forcefield, protecting them from the wall.

Emily turned around and spotted Lucky holding his hands up. Sweat dripped down his face as he maintained the forcefield.

"Thanks!" she yelled over the wind rushing past them.

"No problem!"

Facing the road, Emily watched as they gained on Sandstorm. They continued bursting through walls of sand, thanks to Lucky. Theo tried his best to slow them down, but there wasn't much he could do.

Emily's eyes widened. "I have an idea."

Kai took a split second to glance at her. "I'm not sure whether to be relieved or afraid."

"Shut up," she retorted. "I got this." After grabbing her bow, she notched an arrow and crouched in her seat. The bumps in the road weren't making it easy to keep her balance, but she was managing. For now, at least.

"Uhh, what are you doing?" Lucky asked from the backseat.

"Saving the day," Emily replied. She narrowed her gaze at the vehicle in front of them and licked her lips.

She had to land this shot. If she didn't, something bad was definitely going to happen. But someone had to make the hard choices. Besides, she was the leader of this mission. If anyone was going to step up and take charge, it should've been her.

Taking a deep breath, she refocused her aim on the pickup truck's back tire.

You got this, Em. You got this.

"Are you sure about this, Emily?" Kai asked after swerving to avoid an oblivious pedestrian.

"Yes," she replied with her brows knitted together. "Just keep the car steady."

Kai did as she was told.

Emily inhaled and then exhaled. The tension left her body as she released the arrow nestled between her fingers. Time seemed to slow down as it hurtled toward the truck's all-terrain tire.

Her eyes lit up when she saw it sink into the rubber.

Her heart sank after the tire exploded.

The pickup truck spun out and collided into a couple bystanders as it whirled around the sandy street. It finally crashed into a nearby building. The wall that it hit collapsed on top of it.

Kai cursed and slammed on the brakes. Emily's jaw dropped as she stared at the people on the ground, their clothes bloodied and their bodies mangled by the impact of the vehicle that hit them.

Screams rang out through the air. They sounded louder than they actually were in Emily's ears.

Police sirens wailed in the distance. They pierced her eardrums. She almost thought they were bleeding.

Her eyes widened as she felt her stomach twisting into a tight knot.

Beside her, Kai stared at her in disbelief. She didn't have to turn around to know Lucky was doing the same. She hung her head and glared at the bow in her hands.

Fuck.

"What did you do?" Lucky asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

"I-I don't know," Emily whispered back. Her vision blurred as her heart thumped in her chest. "I...I was just trying to stop them."

Her eyes traveled to the cloud of dust swirling around the area. Sandstorm and Calypso were both beginning to wake up inside the crashed truck. Theo stood nearby with a horrified look on his face. He cast a disappointed glance in Emily's direction.

She didn't meet his eyes.

"What do we do?" Kai asked.

Ahead of them, she watched as Sandstorm and his female partner exited their wrecked vehicle. They had stumbled into the crowd of people who had formed around the carnage.

Emily took a couple seconds to breathe. Her heart felt like it was in her throat, making it impossible to breath. Her body trembled, her fingers fumbling with the car's door handle.

"We can't let them escape," she told her team. She was the first to leave the car. "Field, make sure that fire doesn't get out of control."

He nodded quickly and scrambled over to the burning car. After moving the people away from it, he encased the vehicle in an invisible bubbled until the flames began to die down due to the lack of oxygen.

Emily and Kai shared a look of apprehension before bolting after their fleeing targets.

The two girls nimbly navigated through the large amount of people filling the streets. Most were gravitating toward the commotion. That made it easy to spot the ones heading in the other direction.

Emily and Kai were gaining on Sandstorm and Calypso, who weren't moving that fast due to their obvious injuries. The former seemed to be walking with a limp while the latter's dress was stained with speckles of red.

Sandstorm peered at them over his shoulder. "They're on our tail!" He flicked his wrist, sending a block of sand at Emily.

Emily yelped as she leaped over a slab of moving sand. She touched back down on the road, not even breaking stride. Behind her, Kai beat away a makeshift obstacle with her silver trident—which had previously been strapped to her back.

The girl continued forward and aimed her weapon in front of her.

"Stop running or I will be forced to engage!" she ordered.

Emily resisted the urge to roll her eyes. They didn't have any time for protocol. If they didn't capture their targets soon, she feared they'd lose them.

Unsurprisingly, Sandstorm and Calypso ignored Kai's warning. The girl grunted in annoyance and thrust her trident forward.

The long, three-pronged blade whistled through the air as it sought out its mark. Sandstorm cried out in pain as he dropped to the ground. The silver shaft of the trident stuck out from just below his left shoulder. Blood trickled out from his wound and onto the street.

Ahead of him, Calypso kept running.

Emily launched an arrow at her dress, pinning it to a nearby wall. Before the woman could escape the temporary trap, Kai retrieved her trident and knocked the silver-tongued Prime out with the shaft.

Emily advanced on Sandstorm with an arrow drawn. The man groaned on the ground while he pressed his grubby hands against his punctured flesh. When he saw her approaching, he tried standing up.

Not on my watch.

She released her arrow into his thigh. He choked back a scream as his hands flew to his pierced leg. She watched him bite his lip, most likely to keep himself from crying.

Shaking her head, she continued toward him.

It's time to end this.

"It's over, Sandman," she told him. "Don't make this any harder than it already is."

He spat at her feet. Specks of blood decorated the tip of her black shoes. Sneering, she narrowed her eyes at him. Just as she was about to drive her foot into his face, he held his hand out to the ground.

The bronze rings coiled around his fingers vibrated as he focused his attention on the grains of sand beneath him. Emily took a shaky step backward, her eyes widening.

In an instant, her feet were swept out from under her. The ground shifted and moved like a treadmill. She desperately tried to stand up, but her feet couldn't handle the vigorous sliding. Before she knew it, a wave of sand had crashed into her.

She shielded her face, but it did little to protect her skin from the sharp, tiny rocks digging into her.

It felt like she was drowning. The sand forced itself into her mouth, nostrils, and eyes. Everything burned. She coughed violently, struggling for her. She tried screaming, but her vocal chords weren't working.

Through her slightly blurred vision, she searched for her bow.

"You looking for this?" Sandstorm said from the ground.

She cut her eyes to him. The man had her weapon in his hands. A smile was plastered across his sweat-coated face. She watched as he loaded an arrow into it.

Her upper lip curled into a snarl.

Another wave of sand was moving toward her, but she was prepared this time. Squeezing her eyes shut, she opened her mouth and released the loudest scream she could muster.

Bolts of sonic energy rippled left her mouth and rippled through the air. They tore through the wall of sand and into the man controlling it. He yelled as his body was pushed across the floor. He eventually collided into an abandoned shop. His head hit the ground, his eyes shut. Fruit from the tables he smacked into fell on top of him.

Breathing heavily, Emily took a moment to regain her bearings before rising to her feet.

Moments later, Theo appeared by her side. He wiped his brow and whistled in awe. "Well...that was something." The both of them turned around to see Kai slapping a pair of cuffs onto Calypso's unconscious body.

Danai swooped down from the sky and Lucky emerged from the crowd of people at the end of the street.

The five of them stood around awkwardly, observing the destruction that had been caused by their battle with the two Primes.

Lucky sighed, his shoulders slumping. "This isn't good."

Danai readjusted her braids over her shoulder. "Director Shaw is going to be pissed."

"Don't remind me." Emily scowled and drug a hand down her face, which was raw with miniscule cuts.

Her stomach sank at the thought of facing Director Shaw after their mission.

She shook her head and exhaled. It was going to be a long plane ride home.

——-
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