Star Child: Places of Power

by Leonard Petracci

  “If it’s not extinguished now, it will only grow worse,” said The Hunter. “The wound cannot be allowed to fester. What are you hiding, Siri? What is it that you don’t want the police to know?”

  “I assure you, nothing of consequence,” she answered, throwing her arms wide. “Nothing of interest, and nothing of any danger. As I said, simply a training exercise some of the students took slightly too seriously.”

  “Unless you are harboring a rare and strong power,” accused The Hunter. “I can feel it here now; I know it exists. I am absolutely sure that it is not documented. But I don’t know what it can do, and that makes it extremely dangerous.”

  “Rare powers?” Siri threw her head back and laughed. “Art, you and the police supply my feed stock. Any of my students must come through you. You likely know their abilities better than I do! Back at the facility, I will throw my doors open to you and your team for a full inspection. But now, I repeat, stand down. This goes deeper than you know, higher than you know. You will deeply regret any action you take.”

  “Defy me—” started The Hunter, shrill, but I saw an officer rush forward to take his arm. Roland, the same officer who had investigated my apartment with him hissed into his ear, his voice low enough to be missed by Siri but making it to my position.

  “Take the offer, Art. We’ll investigate the facility and you can search as long as you want. I’ll station officers to monitor the subway until this time. This isn’t worth losing lives on a theory, and she won’t go down without a fight.”

  “We have them under our thumb,” hissed back The Hunter. “It’s our best chance in years. Letting them go and giving them time to cover their tracks would be insane.”

  “These are my officers, and therefore my decision to make,” said Roland. “Whatever happened here can technically be explained away. The risk of finding nothing is too great. I need something concrete, Art. Proof of an act of aggression against us, not within her own program.”

  “Then what I do after this, I do without the knowledge of the police.”

  The Hunter’s eyes blazed as he looked upwards and met Siri’s triumphant gaze, preparing to concede when they were so close to discovering the secret in the tunnel. Giving away their opportunity to interrogate the confused students who still couldn’t quite remember why they were fighting. He drew a sharp breath and cracked his neck, the words coming slow but firm.

  “Tomorrow morning, be prepared for a complete search,” he said, and I stiffened in disbelief, knowing that now was when I needed the police most and realizing I might be able to give them the boost that they needed. “If we find but one shred of evidence—”

  As he spoke, I fed the black spheres in my hands, urging them to grow larger.

  “One stray hair—”

  I started to run towards the dual forcefields, cocking my right hand backwards to throw.

  “Or any reason to investigate further, we—”

  I shouted as I released the orb, the gravity around it sucking the dust out of the air in its trajectory until it collided with the force fields. I shouted as the explosion rocked the chamber, my voice the sole noise in the stunned silence.

  “I am the rare power! I am her weapon, created by the facility to destroy those who oppose her, and I will protect Siri with my life!”

  I threw the second orb at a shocked Roland, aiming to just barely miss him and cut a long gouge through the floor. The Hunter jumped backwards, his eyes locking on mine, his expression greedy as I shouted a final sentence.

  “Prepare to die at her hand! The war begins now!”

  Chapter 88

  “Treason!” shouted The Hunter, throwing a hand forwards. “We arrest you for treason!”

  Roland hesitated but his officers had already started moving forward, carried more by instinct than orders.

  “Formation!” he cried. “Formation, unified phalanx!”

  Two officers darted to the front, raising their hands as Siri screeched and an assault of powers began. Fire and ice tornadoes whipped across the station towards them, screaming across the concrete floor with alarming speed. But the two front officers flourished their hands, redirecting the energy back towards their opponents with a power that could only mean they were Bouncers, boomeranging any projectiles back towards the enemy. The other officers fell into a V-formation behind them, while those that had projectile-based powers occupied the outer layer to return fire on Siri’s thugs. Protected on the inner layer were officers with close combat powers, and I recognized Ulrich, the officer with super strength who had forced me into his car several weeks before at the gas station. At the center of it all was Roland, his hands conducting movements like a composer, the reactions to his motions too quick to be natural.

  But before I could admire the cooperation of the police, more pressing matters forced me into action. For while Siri and the police opposed each other, both Siri and the police opposed me.

  Fatal forms of destruction rained down towards me from Siri’s side, the powers intended to cause as much damage as possible as she looked on with rage. And from the police, powers intended to stun like the electric tentacle that had struck Darian emerged. Even more dangerous were the students, half of them remembering their allegiance to Siri to strike at me, while the other half following the police for the same effect.

  I dove back into the recessed subway track as an arc of fire singed my hair. Several cinder blocks followed, shattering against the wall to shower me in chunks of concrete. Creating two black spheres, I positioned them in front of me to absorb the blows, pulling in anything that came close enough to strike me as a shield. But maintaining them eliminated my line of sight to the battle, as well as preventing me from forming an offensive.

  “Oi, SC, mission accomplished?” came a voice from behind me and I turned to see Slugger strolling down the track, holding a piece of steel plating the size of a large shed as if it were made of paper as his own personal shield. “Time to brawl? How about we stir the pot and empty the dugouts?”

  “Slugger, get the students out of here!” I answered just as Miles flung a piece piping ripped from the tunnel wall at me, parts of the metal making it between my spheres and whizzing past my neck. “Some of them are starting to attack the police, and I need their firepower off me!”

  “Aye, coach, clearing the benches of the third string!” he answered and popped over the edge of the subway track before shouting in the direction of the students. “Oi, remember me, ya loons? Wendy waddles, Wendy waddles, yada yada yada, let’s go!”

  Winking at me, he whispered before sprinting away, “Too easy, SC. It’s almost as if they couldn’t think for themselves, eh? Likely due to the sad state of our academic system these days. The taxpayers would be so disappointed.”

  In a wave, the students turned to face him, their faces popping out of cubbyholes and hideaways like curious meerkats. Then Connor emerged, his expression furious and contagious. They leapt forwards in a stream, forgetting the battle as they remembered their initial purpose, rushing after Slugger as he disappeared cackling in a side tunnel. Funneling through the opening in pursuit, their cries drowned out by the sounds of the battle, and though they were numerous, it was impossible to tell if all of them escaped.

  Turning back towards Siri’s men, I narrowly avoided a fire tornado deflected by one of the Bouncers that careened down the track, evaporating into wispy sparks just thirty feet away. I sighed in relief, then frowned, realizing that the heat not only still remained but seemed to be increasing, as if the tornado was getting closer instead of disappearing. And was coming from the opposite direction.

  “Hey, SC!” I heard from behind me in Lucio’s voice. “Just snapped out of zombie mode! Whew, I’m exhausted. Being that pissed really takes it out of you!”

  I held up a hand as I looked down the track, feeling another wave of heat and seeing a smoldering shadow appear. Behind me, I heard Lucio’s footsteps approaching, his voice sill light.

  “Don’t tell me
you’re loony, SC! You would think that you’d be happy to see me, you know, alive! Maybe you should—” He stopped as he caught sight of who I was looking at and cursed. As we both realized that not all the other students had followed Slugger back to the surface.

  Fino had remained behind.

  Chapter 89

  Another heat wave emanated from Fino as his face turned a deeper shade of red, and Lucio crouched behind me.

  “I can’t touch his mind at all,” Lucio cried. “There’s little to no rational thought going on in there, just rage. I could broadcast him a memory of frolicking puppies and he’d torch them into chicken nuggets.”

  “Shouldn’t be a problem this time,” I answered, remembering my initial match with Fino, when I had been unable to use my power because it had been a secret. But now, the odds of the match had changed.

  “What’s wrong here, Fino, lose sight of your friends?” I taunted, luring him forwards. “Even becoming an Upper didn’t score you any of those, did it?”

  This time, the heat wave was scorching as he shook, and I raised a dark sphere between us, letting it absorb the energy. With it as an obstacle, Fino would be unable to cross. And so long as I continued to provoke him, he’d eventually wear down, spent as his Furnace power consumed all his energy.

  “Come on, Fino, is that all you’ve got? Are you scared of a round two?”

  Enough heat poured forwards to turn the rails of the subway a glowing red and make the walls chip, but the black sphere held, stopping the heat like a cork in a bottle. And Fino shouted with frustration as the sphere stopped him too, pulling at him from several feet away as he stopped, realizing even in his enraged state that the orb was a danger that would have to be destroyed before moving forwards.

  And Fino attempted just that.

  Wave after wave crashed forwards as I realized that he was no longer a danger but rather a benefit – with Fino outpouring energy, no one would safely be able to approach from his direction. So long as he was pinned down, he formed a human shield. In a way, he was fighting for me.

  “How long do you think he can keep this up?” asked Lucio, sweating. “And what’s the plan? Are we jetting soon? I’d prefer not to be thrown back in handcuffs.”

  “Looks like the police are winning, so we should be good to go. Then we’ll come back to find my mother after everything cools down. The police are after me too, so if we stay too long, they’ll become a problem,” I answered, watching as Roland directed two of his officers to absorb a stunned guard into the police cluster like an amoeba, handcuffs rapidly following as they left him paralyzed and facedown on the ground.

  “Where are we going to be hiding out, then?” Lucio asked, ducking as debris rained down from the ceiling and the police captured another guard. “They’ll be running a comb through this place finer than The Hunter uses for his hair once this is over.”

  “Once this is over, I wouldn’t worry. Until then, we’ll be wanting to watch the exits,” I said, focusing on the dark orb that had started to grow heavy as it absorbed more of the surroundings. “My mother has a way of avoiding being found. Now that the police have reason to arrest her, the last thing we want is Siri escaping.”

  “Oh, that would be the last thing you would want, wouldn’t it?” laughed a voice from above, and I turned to see Siri staring over the edge. Soot covered her right cheek while a crooked smile spread across her lips, one that failed to reach her eyes, which had narrowed to thin slits. Chills ran down my spine as she spoke again, her voice filled with relish. “And the last thing I would want would be for you to escape the police as well. If we go down, shan’t we go down together?”

  Then she started to sing, directing the words at both Lucio and me.

  You’ve come so far, and now you’ll rest,

  SC, let your power turn lame,

  Lucio, of your spirit we shall now put to test,

  Its strength against the flame.

  Calm washed over me with Siri’s words, and my hands grew heavy. Ahead, the black orb started to shrink, throwing off rays of colors as I released my hold upon it. The colors danced along the subway track, peaceful in their arcs. Lucio sidled beside me, continuing forwards as I heard familiar laughter in the background.

  Lucio stepped forwards again, staggering as his toes dragged and left tracks in the cement, the strength of the orb diminishing along with its size. And the heat surged forwards, bypassing the shield, hearing the buttons on my shirt until they burned into my chest.

  Lucio cried out, shaking, but continued to glide ahead into the wave of heat, his shoes starting to smoke as their soles melted. Then he shouted again, the pain apparent as he took another step.

  And I released my grip on the sphere entirely.

  Chapter 90

  Lucio screamed as he raised a hand, extending a finger towards Fino as the skin around his nail crackled, yet still edging closer. I felt another wave of serenity wash over me as I heard song in the background, paired with another feeling. One of pride.

  Never before had the song been directed so strongly towards me, never before had I been the subject of its poetry. And now it vibrated through my entire existence – not background music but rather the focal theme. As if my own soul were singing with it, rejoicing with it. Becoming it.

  My voice joined Lucio’s as fire singed my eyebrows, a triumphant shout erupting from deep in my lungs as we fulfilled our purpose. I prepared to dash forward, casting myself among the fire, fulfilling the song.

  My leg muscles tensed, a smile forming across my face, just as the singing morphed to a yowl, the sound like a cornered alley cat. The song dissipated as the illusion shattered, and Lucio jumped backwards, holding his hand and whimpering. I scrambled after him, forgetting about the dark sphere as it exploded, the recessed subway track carrying the full force of the blast towards Fino like a rifle barrel. He flew backwards, collapsing thirty feet away as the final energy behind his heat sputtered out, his skin pale white and calm, his breaths ragged.

  But his gasps were not the only I heard as I turned and saw Siri fallen across the track, her eyes wide and unfocused as she stared upwards, a hand clasped across her lower chest. She struggled to breathe, the wind knocked out of her by the fall from the platform above. Without breath, there was no song. And without her song, my thoughts were clear.

  Above her, Arial floated, the pair of handcuffs still dangling from her wrist, her shoulder still lowered from where she had crashed into Siri at full speed. From the end of her handcuffs hung a piece of the bed’s headboard, the cheap meal connection unscrewed at the joint and ripped from the frame.

  She glared as she looked at me, her eyes still as ablaze as when I had last seen her in the gym.

  “Don’t you ever leave me behind again,” she barked, slightly tilted from weight of the headboard. “It almost cost you your life!”

  “And mine!” started Lucio, cradling his hand, his voice pained. “Might do you a little good to listen to the lady next time, SC!”

  “Get down here!” I shouted in response, realizing that she was hovering in the direct line of fire from the battle above.

  “Or what, SC?” she sputtered. “Are you going to lie again, or leave again, or—”

  “Or you might get hit!” I retorted, leaping up to grab her hand and pulling her towards the ground. “It’s a battlefield up there!”

  “Not anymore, it isn’t,” she said. “The police are just finishing up now, everyone is stunned and handcuffed. They’ve got a Healer working on two of them who took some nasty frostbite. And there’s a few students down there that they’re caring for too. But they didn’t notice this one sneaking away,” she said, nodding towards Siri.

  “It’s a good thing you did,” I answered, looking at the tar tracks Lucio’s shoes had left on the ground. “I don’t think we would have made it much longer, Arial. Thank you.”

  I squeezed her hand and she blushed, her eyes meeting mine from underneath her brunette hair. She leaned forwards sligh
tly, her pupils dilating and eyelids blinking.

  “In case you two have forgotten,” started Lucio from behind us, clearing his throat and pointing to Siri where she lay, “there’s a murderer who will literally do us in as soon as she finds her voice on the ground here.”

  He bent over and took off his shoe, then wriggled his toes as he took off a sock and pulled away his shoelaces.

  “If you ask me, it’s time she put a sock in it!”

  He bent over Siri, lashing one of the shoelaces around her wrists with no resistance in her stunned state. The knot was amateur but enough to hold for a few minutes, and he balled his sock up before pushing it into her mouth, looping the other shoelace around her head once to hold it in place.

  “There. Bad breath is the best thing to leave that mouth in weeks, so I’d say the look suits you, Siri,” he said when he finished, admiring his handiwork as she started to recover, her eyes flitting between us.

  “We’ll need the police here now, before she has a chance to work her way out of that,” I said as she started to struggle. “I’ll lure them in.”

  “No, SC, this one’s on me,” responded Arial, putting her hand on my chest and raising to shout over the edge of the platform, her voice high and distressed “Daddy! Daddy, I found one!”

  “Arial?” came the shocked cry of The Hunter from the end of the station as she dropped back onto the track.

  “I’ll need to be going,” I said as she took my hand once more and pulled me closer.

  “I know, but not just yet,” she answered and moved inwards, her lips brushing against mine for an instant in time that seemed to pause the actions around us. They were soft, softer than I would have expected, and my hand instinctively glided upwards to rest on her cheek. And for a moment, I forgot the rest of the world existed, that a battle was finishing around us, that there were others on the track.

  Then she pulled away as I stood still, less thoughts occupying my brain than when Siri had exercised control over me, my mouth still parted.