Orion: A Heroic Novel

by Travis Johnston

  It was very impressive. I didn’t know Angela could do that with her wings, but Ray reacted quickly.

  He flew right through the fireball, his hands extended forward as if he were diving into a pool of fire. And then he burst out the other side, untouched by the flames, and flew toward Angela while her defenses were down. He swung an uppercut, hitting her right under the chin. The blow was massive, sending her upward in a blur of backflips.

  “NO!” I shouted as I flew toward them as fast as I could. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed something small fall from her and plummet to the distant city below.

  Ray flew after her and formed a small fireball in his right hand. He threw it at her, but just before it hit her, she righted herself and summoned her wings again. The force field blocked the fireball easily.

  Ray shouted in anger as he continued his flight toward Angela, frustrated that she went back to shielding herself. He punched her wings with everything he had. They held strong, but the momentum caused her to bounce away from him like a soccer ball.

  Angela flew dozens of yards before finally coming to a stop. Ray charged after her, and I was on his heels.

  And then Angela’s wings disappeared. Her body went limp and she started to fall. I gasped, realizing what’d happened. That small thing I saw falling from her was her Star Stone. We were in serious trouble!

  Ray kept flying toward her, his hands still aflame. I reached out my hands to grab him, but something grabbed a hold of me first.

  It was Scorpio. He grappled me around the torso and pushed me downward, away from Ray and Angela. I pried at Scorpio’s grip and pushed against him with all might, trying to get away from him and go help Angela, but he held firm. My torso had turned invisible, and so had my hands as I tried to break his grip. His invisibility must extend beyond his own body, I realized.

  I stole a glance up at Angela. Ray flopped her limp body over his shoulder and flew away, leaving the fight. What? I thought. Where is he going with her? I realized that this wasn’t a fight to kill me and Angela, it was a kidnapping. That’s why Scorpio had pulled her out of my house at first. But why would they want to kidnap Angela? What were they going to do to her?

  I wouldn’t have it.

  I surged my powers, the tingling coursing through my veins, and reached back at Scorpio with both hands. I found his face and started pounding it with everything I had, over and over again. He grunted and let go of me.

  As soon as I broke free, I redirected my powers and launched toward Ray. It was difficult to see him. Even though there weren’t any clouds in the sky and the sun was about to set, the main thing that obscured my view was the city smog. But I could barely spot Ray as he soared toward the southern part of Tucson. He was too far away.

  Wait, I thought. I stopped flying and turned my attention toward the city below. I need to find Angela’s stone. I can’t fight Ray and Scorpio on my own. I need her help. I tried to remember where it’d fallen. I wasn’t quite sure, but I flew to where I thought her stone was. I thought it’d fallen toward Broadway Boulevard, a busy highway lined with restaurants, gas stations, and Park Place Mall.

  I didn’t get far before Scorpio grabbed me again from behind, pushing me downward. I redirected my powers below me, trying to push back against him, but with gravity on his side, he won out.

  My back slammed into something hard. It was Broadway. Scorpio grinded me along the street, asphalt breaking apart by the force. I was still pushing against him, trying to soften the blow. It helped; not hurting as much as when Ray drilled me into the ground, but it still wasn’t like falling into a pool of flowers.

  We finally slid to a stop. I tucked my feet in, getting them between me and Scorpio. It was strange because half of my body was invisible along with the Starling, but this was no time to get distracted. I pushed my feet upward, kicking him off of me.

  An oncoming semi-truck suddenly crashed to a halt, its grille and hood caved in around the form of a person. I stood up, dazed. Cars swerved around the truck, bumping into other cars, and going out of control. Fortunately, no cars flipped over, but there was a massive pile up that stopped the traffic completely.

  I hoped I hadn’t killed anyone, but I kept my focus on Scorpio. I had to stall him, so I could search for Angela’s stone. I flew toward the semi-truck and reached inside the grille’s man-made cave. My hands disappeared as I grabbed the Starling’s shirt. Good, I thought. I’ve got a hold of him. That’s my best chance of beating him; wrestling him into submission by touch.

  I yanked him toward me. He must’ve been dazed because he didn’t push against me. I suddenly understood how his invisibility worked. It was like an invisibility bubble that surrounded him, and everything within that bubble would be invisible from the outside. I knew that because as I pulled him toward me, my face passed through the bubble, and Scorpio suddenly became visible to me for the first time.

  I gasped at what I saw.

  Looking back at me, with furious, glowing eyes, was my cousin, Zack Larson.

  Chapter 35

  Ray

  I frowned as I flew. New Girl hung over my shoulder, not moving. The sun was close to setting, and I was starting to feel a little cold without my shirt on. Though, I knew a quick way to start a fire if needed.

  I glanced over my shoulder. No one was following me. Invisiguy was keeping Stoner busy. I clicked my tongue and turned my gaze forward. I was disappointed with the turnout. I wanted to be the one fighting Stoner. I was enjoying my brawl with him for a short moment, but then Invisiguy had to go and screw things up by getting distracted by New Girl’s glass wings.

  Now I got the job as delivery man, and I didn’t like it. Something didn’t feel right about the whole thing, but I couldn’t put my thumb on it. Maybe it was beating up New Girl. She had challenged me to a fight that night before I touched my Star Stone, and it felt good to show her now that was a mistake. But, something still felt off.

  She was really beautiful. And seemed like a nice person. I didn’t really have anything against her. My thoughts turned to Britney. I hadn’t heard from her ever since the news found out I was a superhuman. I guess we’d had a silent break up. Oh well…

  Mark wanted only New Girl. He told us to separate her from Stoner and bring her to him unconscious, but not dead. He hadn’t explained how any of this was supposed to help him find his Star Stone, but honestly, Mark didn’t do much explaining at all. He was just so good at getting us to do what he wanted. And he did it by getting us what we wanted. A good bargainer.

  I descended my flight toward the abandoned horse racing track and flew through one of the large broken windows closer to the bottom of the building. With New Girl still over my shoulder, I swerved around the dark corridors and eventually came to a stop where Mark was waiting for me: our headquarters.

  It was a small, makeshift living space that was put together by some gang that was there before us. They had beds, a miniature fridge, a microwave, and even a large smart TV with Wi-Fi. It was awesome. Mark stood on his feet, his arms folded, as he watched the Tucson news. He was probably wanting to see if anything popped up about our Starling fight, but it looked like nothing had come up yet.

  He snapped his attention to me as I flew in with New Girl over my shoulder. “We got her,” I said.

  “Good,” Mark said. “And Orion?”

  “Invisiguy is holding him off.”

  “Great. Let me see her.”

  I lowered New Girl off my shoulder and laid her on one of the dusty beds. “She was harder to capture than we expected. Those wings of hers were tough to break.”

  “You didn’t kill her, did you?” Mark snapped at me as he placed a hand on her head. I thought it was very apparent that she was still breathing.

  “No,” I said. “We gave her wings a real pounding, and I think she could only take so much until it knocked her out.”

  “Hm.” Mark frowned. “Peculiar…”

  “What is?”

  “Oh it’s just that I don�
��t ever remember Cygnus fainting from shielding herself for too long. Also, this girl is obviously not Alexandria.”

  “Who’s Alexandria?”

  Mark looked up at me for a moment, and then returned his gaze to the unconscious Starling. “An old friend,” he said softly. “And enemy.”

  “Oh, so a frenemy.”

  He chuckled. “The words you modern Americans invent are so queer.”

  “Hey. I’d rather invent a new word than say something like queer. Only old people say stuff like that.”

  “I am an old person! Older than English itself! Anyway, we need to wake her up. I need to ask her some important questions before I kill her.”

  I frowned. “You’re going to kill her? Dude, I signed up to help you get your stone, not to go around killing people!”

  “It is necessary in order to find my stone, Draco! You wouldn’t understand. You’re far too young. Far too naïve. Do you want me to teach you the Third Degree or not?”

  I was taken aback. I did want to learn the Third Degree, but was it worth murdering someone?

  Mark took my silence as an answer. “You agreed to help me find my stone, and if you don’t have the stomach to follow through with that, then you can just leave.” He turned his attention toward New Girl, waving a hand over her head as if he were some sort of shaman.

  I just stood there, feeling stuck. I was fine with helping Mark find his stone, and beating up Stoner and New Girl was fun, but killing them seemed to be crossing a line. I was a god, though. No one could stop me from killing people, if I wanted. But was that what I really wanted? “What are you doing?” I asked Mark.

  He was leaning over her with three fingers pointing directly at her nose. “I need to irritate her mucus membrane, just like a smelling salt would. So, be quiet. I need to focus.”

  His eyes began to glow a silvery color. He concentrated on her nose. Without any movement that I could pick up from Mark, New Girl awoke with a start. She reflexively withdrew her head away from his fingers, as if she were smelling something terrible. Her eyes—not glowing—darted around as she took in her surroundings, looking back and forth between Mark and me.

  “Hold her down!” Mark ordered.

  I obeyed without thinking, kindling my powers and grabbing her by the wrists. She pushed against me a few times, but gave up quickly, accepting that she was trapped. It was odd that she hadn’t turned on her powers. Something triggered in my memory, something falling…

  “Where am I?” New Girl asked, looking scared.

  “You’re safe,” Mark said in a non-threatening tone. “I just wanted to ask you a few questions, Cygnus.”

  Her eyes widened. She pushed against me, but I didn’t budge. “Where is Michael?” she said.

  I laughed. “Stoner is—”

  “No, no, no,” Mark said, cutting me off. “I said I was asking the questions here. Stand her up, Draco!”

  I pulled her off the bed and up to her feet. She wobbled a little, looking weak, so I stood behind her, keeping her upright. Mark paced in front of her, sweat streaking down his forehead. His eyes had returned to their dark brown color. Using only a smidgen of his powers without his stone had exhausted him. He was silhouetted by the camping light that was placed on one of the concrete pillars. This place would have seemed especially dark to a normal person, but to the three of us, it was like standing in the shade of a tree under the setting sun.

  “You’re name is Angela Johnson, right?” Mark said. “I’ve seen you in the news and I’ve done some research. You moved here to Tucson a couple months ago. Your father studies meteorites, which I find… interesting. He just happened to move to the part of the nation that had the most Star Stones fall, as if—like me—he knew it were coming. And you… you have moved around the nation, never living in one place long enough for someone to truly get to know you. It makes me wonder if you have been hiding something your whole life. We know you are Starling, but there were only three Star Stones that landed here: the Orion, Draco, and Scorpio stones. So, my basic question, Cygnus, is this.” He paused. “Where did you get your stone?”

  New Girl didn’t answer. Her breathing quickened, at a loss for words.

  “Fine,” Mark said. “If you won’t answer my questions, then I have no further use of you.” His eyes began to glow a simmering silver and he leveled a hand at her, as if he were going to shoot her with the palm of his hand.

  My mouth gaped open. Should I stop him?

  “Wait!” New Girl said. “I’ll tell you!”

  Mark immediately turned off his powers. He tried to hide his fatigue, but I could tell he was breathing harder.

  “I found my stone when I was a little girl!” she said. I could feel her trembling as I held her upright. She was about to go on explaining, but Mark cut her off.

  “I knew it!” he said. “Your stone is not from this Condescension! It’s the original from my time! The Cygnus I knew! Was the stone given to you? By someone named Alexandria?”

  “No. I don’t know who that is. I don’t remember it, but my dad told me I found my stone in a cooled lava bed near Mount Etna in Italy. That’s the honest truth, I swear!”

  Mark frowned. “I searched near that volcano thousands, if not millions of times! You’re certain that’s where you found the Cygnus Star Stone?”

  New Girl nodded. “I don’t know where exactly. My dad just told me Mount Etna, Italy.”

  “Looks like your father and I will need to have a talk.”

  “No! Please don’t hurt him!” She pushed against me, but I held her firm. A part of me was about to let her go.

  Mark laughed. “Don’t worry, Cygnus. You won’t be around to mourn his death. But you’ve been very helpful. What you told me confirms that Alexandria died in that volcano. Her Star Stone and mine both fell in with her. Hers was pushed out by the lava, but mine may still be resting deep within that volcano. I haven’t been able to get close enough to it without my powers, but now…” He looked up at me. “I have the Dragon God to help me retrieve it.”

  I raised my eyebrows. He wanted me to go swimming through a volcano for him? Could I actually do something like that? Did I really want to keep helping this psychopath?

  Mark extended his hand toward New Girl. “Now hand over your Star Stone, child, or Draco will have to take it from you.”

  She froze in my arms, her body tense with fear.

  “Um, Mark,” I said sheepishly. “I didn’t realize it till now, but I think she dropped her stone while we were fighting. That’s probably why she fainted. And probably why she hasn’t turned on her powers yet.”

  He looked at me for a moment, letting the news sink in. Then, he stared at Angela, anger boiling under his skin. “Where did you drop it, Cygnus?”

  She continued to tremble. “I—I don’t know. We were flying over the city when it happened. I didn’t even notice it had fallen out of my pocket until I started passing out.”

  Mark roared in anger, throwing a metal chair—the closest thing at hand—at one of the concrete pillars. It bounced off, still in one piece. I shook my head. Good thing he’s not a Cleveland Browns fan, I thought. Or a golfer; he’d run out of clubs on the first hole.

  “Draco!” Mark said, pointing a finger at me. “We need that Star Stone! I’ll stay here with her; you go find it!”

  I didn’t move. I stood still, just behind New Girl. Just before Mark threw another chair, he noticed that I wasn’t obeying him, and looked up at me. I glared back at him and said, “No!”

  Chapter 36

  Michael

  “Zack?” I said, baffled.

  My cousin held my gaze with his simmering eyes. Their glow was unique. Different than mine, Angela’s, or Ray’s. Our pupils’ were the only thing that glowed, and so did his, but his irises glowed too. I admit, I was a little bit jealous. They simmered bright green and his pupils had a dark violet tint in them. It looked like someone was shining a black light directly at his eyes. Didn’t scorpions glow in black light?
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  We stood in the middle of Broadway, a traffic jam before us. The sun touched the horizon, causing long shadows to cross the street. I loosened my grip on Zack’s shirt collar, surprised to find out I’d been fighting my cousin the whole time.

  “Zack,” I repeated. “What’re you—why are you—it was you who touched the third Star Stone?” I thought back to that Saturday afternoon when I’d first used my powers in my backyard. I’d told Zack where I’d found my stone, and I’d mentioned that we’d seen three meteorite impacts. He must’ve gone looking for the third one himself. But when? How long has he had his powers? And why…? “Why are you doing this, Zack?” I asked.

  My cousin didn’t answer; obviously not in the mood to talk. Instead he tucked in his knees, planted both of his feet on my chest, and pushed. I sailed backwards about fifty yards down Broadway, surging my powers as I hit the asphalt and rolled to my feet, skidding to a stop. I raised my eyes back towards Zack and saw nothing.

  Suddenly, an invisible fist punched me in the jaw. I staggered, but remained on my feet. I moved my powers out of my body and above my head, which helped to keep me grounded. I covered my head with my arms, trying to predict Zack’s next attack. He hit me in the side, in the back, in the gut, and then again in the face.

  I groaned in pain, trying to catch my breath. Okay, I thought. Zack obviously hates me and wants to kill me for some reason. And he’s invisible, which makes it nearly impossible to fight him. I need to run. Live today to fight another day. But where would I go? Hiding from an invisible Starling would be difficult. Especially when he knows all my hiding spots. My house was probably still on fire. Angela’s house was swarming with cops. I needed another plan. My thoughts turned to Angela. She needed my help and I needed hers. Her stone was around here somewhere. I’ve got to find her stone and take it to her.