“I started getting letters from kids who were—different. They wanted answers. I want answers too. I thought we could find them together.” Maya looked at him when he said “together,” and his heart raced. She stepped closer to him, leaning over his shoulder to look at his computer.

“And what’ve you found?” she said, now inches from his face. Fang kept his eyes locked straight ahead on the screen. He could practically feel the warmth of her skin.

He’d been so stupid. But he’d needed another good fighter on his team and hadn’t been sure that the other four would work out. He’d wanted someone… familiar. He’d been a freaking idiot.

Now he didn’t know what to do.

“Well, everyone here seems to have been experimented on pretty recently,” he said as evenly as he could. “They didn’t grow up with it, like we did. They were just regular kids,” he said quietly. “And some of them had harsher experiences than others.” Fang looked at Holden and frowned. “Anyway, we think it has something to do with these guys.” He clicked open a new window, and a banner popped up that read, “Save the Planet. Kill the Humans.” Maya gave a low whistle.

“Sweet. These people seem like real winners.” Now her lips were close to his ear, and Fang forced himself to breathe normally.

“Yeah, you could say that. They seem to be all for genetically modified kids, though. What they don’t get is that not everyone wants to be ‘improved.’ ” He nodded over at Ratchet, Holden, Kate, and Star. “The gang here joined up because they’ve got a thing or two to tell the people who did this to them.” He squinted at the screen. “If we can just figure out how these Doomsday jerks work…”

“Hmm,” said Maya. “Well, I know I can fly, and I know you can fly, but what can they do?” She pointed her bottle at the others. They’d just met, but Ratchet already had Holden in a headlock.

“Ratchet’s got, like, insane senses,” Fang said, and Ratchet nodded to them from across the room. “Holden can heal really fast, and we think he has the ability to regenerate limbs and stuff.”

“Like a starfish,” said Maya, nodding. “Cool.”

“Yeah,” said Fang. “But slightly less cool when you think about how many times they cut him open before the potion actually worked.” Fang glanced across the room at Holden’s scarred arms and shuddered.

“And the girls, Kate and Star, were injected at the same time, but apparently with different stuff. Seems like the whitecoats screwed with their DNA, just like they did with ours. You wouldn’t think it to look at her, but Kate’s, like, wicked strong.”