SIXTY-THREE

The girls slowly walked back to Mr Welshes, then Ruby asked if he could give them a tour of the place and he agreed.

He began to lead the way when he get a hand in his, Lucille was holding him, he smiled slightly but continued moving.

He showed them the grain fields, the date palm plantations and the grapevine orchards, passing through the centre of the city, there was a loud hustle and bustle with people trading, working, building and generally living, then Lucille saw something and started pointing, while eagerly tugging Jonathan's shirt.

Rose told her to stop, but he rather led the three girls in that direction and asked her for what she wanted at the fabric boutique.

She asked if she could have some desert clothes, to get into character, and the owner gladly gave it and others to them for free, before Lucille dragged him somewhere else, this time, to a potter's shop, where beautiful clay and alabaster flasks were on sale.

Lucille picked the largest and most colorful one she could find and Rose complained as she had to carry it, but Jonathan took it on his own, then several villagers came and offered to do the work for him, but due to him promising their privacy, he said he'd do it.

Lucille took him all around the village centre, making him buy all sorts of things, of which she only wore the clothing, and he carried the rest, but never complained.

At a fruit stand, Ruby took her first commodity, a pomegranate.

Eating six seeds, she offered some to her father, who was hesitant, but slowly ate them from her hand as she gently placed them on his pink lips, before Rose pounced on him from behind and covered him with one of the silk sheets he had bought for them, then he for the first time in years, laughed as he pulled her over and wrapped the lavender lace around her, while Ruby and Lucille also wrestled with him.

There were festivities going on not far away to celebrate the day of the Sun god Ra, and Ruby dragged her father to dance with them.

He didn't want to ruin the image he had spent so long painting, but due to the girls' continuous persuasion, he obliged.

They made him dance with the men, while they danced with the women, catching the eyes of all who passed by.

Cheers were heard from all around and even though the compliments were blocked by a language barrier, the girls owned their position as the belles of the ball.

Rose carried the large flask that Lucille had begged to be bought, while Ruby carried a golden staff, Lucille carried the incense and scented oils while their father effortlessly carried the rest.

They got to the place they started from, then Ruby hit the back of their father's knee hard, with the staff and Rose smashed the flask at the back of his head.

He fell to one knee as they tried to flee, but he caught Lucille by the robe, then she threw the whole incense flask into his eyes and they ran.

They were getting closer to the Jeep and all voices behind were muffled, till the guards hemmed them and Rose went on with a Webster kick, knocking the one in front of her down and sprinting towards the vehicle.

She looked back and saw that Lucille and Ruby had been caught and was hyperventilating as her sister yelled for her to leave them and go as the guards advanced to her, despite their father's orders.

She turned on the ignition and drove off but one of the guards set off the self destruct sequence placed on the jeep like on all the other vehicles.

Rose was atop a ...dune when the fuel tank began smoking, then she jumped off and ran as fast as she could, till the explosion from the tonne of mass of truck threw her into the air and she went crashing down the sands, till she fell through a thicket of acacias, scratching herself but bringing herself to a stop.

Her vision was tunneling and her breath was peaking as from her half closed eyelashes, she saw massive clouds of dust progressing towards her at the speed of light.

She tried to move with her little strength left, but screamed when the thorns pierced deeper into her flesh, holding her ankle like a chain and her body in the most uncomfortable manner possible.

Her heart was failing as the wind began to kick up, then the storm blew over her...

***

"I cannot do this!"I yelled after my thirteenth hour in a row of sitting, testing and retesting.

"It's a hassle, huh?"He asked, sarcastically.

"Don't patronize me. It's this strain of ankyrins in his skin, not only are they much sturdier than normal ones, but they don't fit with any antibodies I could derive!"

"What gave you that idea?"

"All I need is a pick me up, a...a coffee, a soda, tea..."

"A catalyst for your intelligence deficient brain?"

I frowned at him, then widened my eyes and yelled,"That's it!"

"What?"

"We've been going about this the wrong way, we've been looking for antibodies to inhibit the proteins in his skin and bones, but that wouldn't do much to lower their strength, not to mention antibodies could take years to be perfected."

"So?"

"We need an enzyme! A catalyst that could break down the peptide bonds in the almighty ankyrin."

"You mean digest him from the inside out? You're sick! And I mean sicker than me!"

"The irony is that he severely kicked your butt and your dignity while you had two highly trained person's at your side and shattered your ball kicker with one hit from his."

"Let's kill that bastard..."

"I think I know just the enzyme and how to produce it..."

Going into my bank of extremophiles, Luis looked around as I walked through the cold vapour to a cabinet, where I took out a liquid nitrogen storage tank and brought out a small vial.

I began to laugh maniacally and he was honestly scared.

***

"So you're sure they just wouldn't eat us alive?"

"Enzymes are substrate specific, they wouldn't work on your largely collagen filled epidermis, and it wouldn't eat up his skin like acid, the enzyme is a relatively slow one, so it would just weaken him."

"Enough for us..."

"...to kick his a**, yes."

He shrugged as I began culturing the bacteria.

"Why the heck would a guy working in marketing and business management know how to use bioweapons?"Luis asked.

"A guy can have a hobby, can't he?"I asked back...

The two of us worked on dart firing mechanisms located on the knuckles and nails of specialized gloves we made like the claws of a cat or like contractible curved iron blades poking out from the knuckles.

Two servings out to soften the region he was injected by it were enough to hurt him like a normal human, and for his healing factor...we had bacteria for that too, basically it was a cultured disease had been in sub zero temperatures for over six months, that would eventually spread around his body and take away his superhuman abilities...we hoped.

After making the fourth batch for Lucy, we were done, and Luis then made an electric projectile firing gun, which could electrocute one like a taser for up to double the time, depending on the charge settings on the gun before firing.

That would have been used in case we couldn't reach his weak spot after creating it, so needed Luis to take the long range shot.

***

After Lucy had kicked Mack's but for the third time in a row, without any weapon on her side, while he had the Lightning staff, her only answer for her superhuman strength, speed and agility, not up to three weeks after giving birth was,"I spent a lot of time competing with Mark..."

After we had gone over the plan one more time, we knew it was time to go.