I jerked into full consciousness, which freaked me the hell out as before it was always one of those gradual-waking things. But my eyes snapped open, I gasped, and scrambled to my feet, assuming a martial arts pose from my Kung Fu movie binge with Nat.
“You look fucking ridiculous.” Jack said, sitting on a cloud chair.
“Fuck you.”
“I wouldn’t enjoy that.”
“I’d enjoy watching that,” Kate said. “You seriously need to get fucked over, Jack.”
“Harsh!” Jack said, but no one was taking his side in this.
“So, what now?” I asked.
“We’re kind of running out of ideas to try,” Nat said.
“Which is why I zapped him,” Jack smirked.
“Which didn’t help at all,” Nat continued.
Jack shrugged. “Hey, when in doubt, throw lightning at the problem.”
The words pissed me off, and stirred something. It felt like a latent charge in me. The tingling on my skin increased. I’d say I was absorbing an ambient charge, but my skin never tingled while doing that, before.
Whatever, just go with it.
As usual, I ionized a channel and let loose. A pencil-thin . . . something shot out of my hand, sending out pops of white light as it flew, to collide with Jack. As soon as it hit him, he exploded, sending us flying.