Free Decay by J. F. Jenkins

wanted to put his foot down, to make it clear he did not approve and would not stand for it. But Tuliy was the prodigy. There was only so much Alan could protest. In the end, who knew better, Alan, the lowly junior officer who had no experience and no credibility beyond his father's accolades or Tuliy, who had an impressive school record, several military achievements, and an expertise in strategy and research? No way could Alan logically win the argument.
    So he kept his mouth shut, and hoped his disapproval was conveyed through his body language alone. Sir Tuliy had been good at reading it earlier, and he'd no doubt pick up on it again, especially if Alan made sure to slam his bedroom door upon arriving back in their apartment.
    Once he was in his room, he settled onto his bed and grabbed the electronic tablet on his nightstand. Two side projects and one upcoming mission, there was a lot of preparing to do. He couldn't help but smirk a little. Everything was going just how he had hoped.

 
Chapter Seven
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    Angela sat in her usual chair in The Apartment and gazed out the window, while the group waited for Alan to arrive. He'd told all of them he wanted to hold a meeting so they could discuss the latest work needing to be done. There hadn't been anything solid for a while. Cadence had her research to do, and for someone who was so smart, she seemed to be having a lot of trouble with it. JD still had his task of teaching Alan how to look, and act, like a normal human being from Earth. The guy couldn't have been any older than twenty, but sometimes he acted like he was forty. He stuck out like a sore thumb a lot of the time, especially on days he refused to wear clothes that actually covered his chest in a decent manner.
    Everyone had something to do except for Orlando and Angela. Well, mostly Angela because Orly had to hang out with, and spy on, some girl from his school. Angela would be jealous, but he didn't look too enthused about the idea whenever they talked about it and kept putting it off. Besides, it was wrong of her to even think about being jealous in the first place. While she may have liked Orlando, a lot, he was technically off limits due to the girl code. After all, he had dated one her friends. Granted, Angela and Tait weren't long time best friends. They'd met at cheerleader camp, bonded, exchanged phone numbers, social media information, and talked about two or three times a week when neither was too busy for the other.
    They were definitely friends, and they'd been talking lately, more than usual. Oddly enough, Tait never mentioned her, now ex, boyfriend. Not even when they had been dating did his name or even the fact he existed, get brought up. Angela couldn't help but wonder why. In the past, any time the girl had so much as a crush, Angela had heard all of the details. Now, Tait only seemed interested in what was going on in Angela's life. Generally, the girl was a bit more self-centered than that. Angela loved her to pieces, but there was no point in denying the truth. The sudden change of interest made her feel as if Tait was trying to pump her for information.
    She has to remember I was at the party where The Doctor was injecting all of those teenagers. I'm pretty sure she knows I was one of the kids who got experimented on. Hopefully she thinks nothing has happened to me. She can't ever know the truth. If she found out I actually did get powers, it would get ugly pretty quick. Not to mention, Angela also wouldn't be able to get her revenge. Her friendship with Tait died the moment Tait used her vines to help restrain Angela so The Doctor could force the injection into her arm against her will. A real friend would have stood up to him. No, still meant no right? The guy was scary, but even her brother had managed to do the right thing, and he was quite possibly the most chicken of any person she knew. JD didn't so much as argue with their parents because he was afraid of making them angry.
    Her