My mind made up, I launched into the air, just high enough to see over the two to three story buildings, and searched for Angela’s Star Stone. Broadway looked pretty bad. The road was torn up. Bumper to bumper traffic went on for miles on the west lane. The cars in the east lane kept moving, but slowly as they merged away from the fight.
A large group of people got out of their cars and watched Zack and me fight—well, they couldn’t see Zack, so they probably thought I was some crazy, drunk, superhuman teenager who chose the middle of the road as the prime location to practice my Olympic gymnastics routine.
I looked carefully at the tops of the buildings, looking for the glimmer of Angela’s white stone. Most of the buildings’ roofs had a small layer of gravel on top of them, which made looking for her stone like looking for a golf ball in the middle of a blizzard. I knew the stone was somewhere within one or maybe two square miles, which was not a small area to search at all. I huffed, feeling overwhelmed.
I heard something to my left. It was like the sound of a kite on a very windy day that was swiftly approaching me. The sound of someone flying. All Starlings made that sound as they flew. As fast as I could, I lifted a leg, extending it to my left with my foot flexed. My foot disappeared as it connected with Zack’s gut. His momentum pushed me back in the air, but I kept my leg firm. I heard him groan.
I couldn’t pass up this opportunity to hit Zack while I knew where he was. I didn’t want to fight my cousin, but he obviously wanted to fight me. I swung a fist at where I heard him groan and hit nothing but air. Barely missed. I heard him fly away from me, escaping from his bad position. He was probably trying to approach me more quietly.
I wouldn’t let him. I redirected my powers and rocketed horizontally through the air, keeping my eyes downward, looking at the buildings’ roofs for any hint of Angela’s stone. I zigzagged as I flew, trying to shake Zack off my tail. Honestly, I didn’t know if he was on my tail or not. I couldn’t hear him while I was flying, too much wind in my ears. Unfortunately, my Star Stone did not grant me super hearing. Maybe I could get him to talk.
“Zack!” I said over the wind as I flew. “Why are you doing this?”
No answer.
“Dude, I’m your cousin! I don’t want to fight you!” I kept my eyes darting back and forth as I flew. I didn’t even know if Zack was close enough to hear me. I was probably just talking to myself, but it was worth a shot. “Why are you in cahoots with Ray Simmons? You hate him almost as much as I do! And what do you want with Angela? Where did Ray take her?”
No answer. Just wind in my ears.
Come on, come on! I thought as I flew in circles. Where is that stone! The sun going down didn’t help my odds of finding it. Yes, I could see better in the dark than non-Starlings could, but the white stone would reflect the sunlight much better than it would the moon or star lights.
I heard something ahead of me. It wasn’t the sound of Zack. It was the thumping sound of a helicopter. Multiple helicopters. I raised my eyes and saw three choppers, two white, one black, each with their searchlights shining toward me. I sighed, exasperated. Wait, I thought. Maybe their lights will help me find Angela’s stone.
I shot below the helicopters and flew a few yards above the buildings. They tried to keep their searchlights on me, but I soared too fast for them. I slowed down, letting them shine their lights on me. I could see my shadow as I hovered over the buildings. Still no sight of Angela’s stone.
“Ouch!” I screamed out loud. Something had bit me! Right on the back of my shoulder. I reached back with my hand and felt a small welt forming on my skin. Was it a bee sting? No. That wouldn’t affect me with my powers on. It was a bullet! The people in the helicopters were shooting at me!
I felt another sting on my back, just above my waist. It didn’t penetrate my superhuman skin, but it felt like getting hit by a paintball gun. Whatever gun they were using, it was pretty powerful. I concentrated on my powers, causing the tingling to surge even more. Something I’d learned about my powers is that I could increase their potency if I concentrated hard enough, just like a boxer can flex his abs before getting punched to soften the blow. My powers were just another muscle that I could flex. And after learning how to fly, I was much better at using it. I felt another sting near my neck, but this time it felt like getting pelted by a rain drop.
Something caught my eye. I pushed my powers in front of me, coming to a stop. The search lights lost me for a moment, but I held still until they finally found me again. There! A white stone lay on a sidewalk next to a bank. Fortunately, nobody had picked it up.
I dropped to the ground, snatched up Angela’s stone, and stuffed it into my pocket. A lady walking on the sidewalk with her dog jumped when she saw me drop from the sky, her dog barking at me. I ignored them. Now, I thought. I need to get this stone to Angela. Where would Ray take her? I thought about the direction Ray had flown off with her. Toward South Tucson. What’s over there?
Suddenly, something grabbed my arm, spun me around, and hurled me at the bank. The bank’s brick walls were no match against a hurtling Starling. I felt my back break through wall after wall, debris flying around me in a blur, until I burst out the other side of the bank and slid to a stop in the bank’s parking lot.
I lay on my stomach, not moving. Something bright was shining down on me, causing me to squint. The choppers’ searchlights. I climbed to my knees, still unable to breathe. I looked up at the bank. It looked like a bulldozer had driven right through the middle of it. I finally caught my breath, my head throbbing.
Before I could get to my feet, an unseen fist punched me back down. I lay on my back, dazed. I tasted blood in my mouth and my bottom lip felt swollen. All I could see above me was the piercingly bright lights from the helicopters.
Suddenly Zack appeared out of thin air, towering over me, shadowing me from the lights. His curly red hair hung over his forehead as he glowered down at me. His eyes no longer glowed with black light, just the normal yellow light. His eyes must change colors when he turns invisible. I remembered Ray’s and Angela’s eyes changing colors when they used their special powers.
“You are not fit to have this power, Michael,” Zack said. He made some quick movements that I was too dazed to pick up, and then he stood up with two stones in his hand. One white, and the other dark blue. My Star Stone!
“I don’t want to kill you,” he said. “But I will do whatever’s necessary to remove your powers from you! You abused them, Cuz! You were bestowed with the powers of the gods, and you tried to hide them! You were irresponsible and you don’t deserve this stone! You were the wrong person to touch it!”
“I can’t tell you how many times I thought the same thing,” I said as I reclined myself onto my elbows. I looked at my Star Stone in Zack’s hand as if it were my beating heart he’d pulled out of my chest. “You’re right, Zack. I was irresponsible. I made poor decisions. I was scared of my powers and I didn’t want anyone to know I was a freak. But, I’ve learned better now…”
“Psh!” Zack spat. “Yeah right! I know how indecisive you are, Michael! You say you’ve learned; you say you aren’t afraid, but I know you’ll go right back to hiding under your bed eventually. That’s why I went and found the Scorpio Stone and became a Starling myself; to become the superhero you didn’t have the guts to be.”
I narrowed my eyes. Things had changed since Zack and I last spoke. That was before I’d fought with Ray, before I discovered Angela was a Starling like me, and before I’d found the right way to be a hero. I wasn’t afraid to act like a hero anymore… but I hadn’t proved that to him or to anyone yet. I could understand why he would have so little faith in me.
I sat up, regaining my lucidity. Zack stood just above me, my stone in his hand; it was still close enough to grant me its powers. I needed to get it and Angela’s stone from him somehow. Snatch them when he’s not expecting it. If he turned invisible and flew away, I wouldn’t be able to catch him. I needed to distract him somehow;
get him to stall.
His tattoo on his right arm caught my attention. He’d always had it, but I didn’t know what it was until that night I saved Mary Sanchez. The tattoo was a black S with a stinger coming out the top and claws coming out the bottom. The symbol of the Scorpion gang.
Realization hit me like a brick. That’s how he knew so much about their hideout! That’s how he knew they had kidnapped Mary Sanchez! He didn’t have a cousin in the gang that gave him all the info! Zack was a member!
He noticed me looking at his tattoo. “It was fitting that I got the Scorpio Stone. It helped me become leader of the gang. But now that gang only consists of Starlings.”
He’d tricked us! I gritted my teeth in anger, awaiting the right moment to pounce. “Zack, where did you hear the word Starling?”
He snorted. “How do you know that word?”
We both looked at each other for a moment, slowly realizing what that meant. Someone was helping him and Ray. Someone from MARS? That couldn’t be good.
“Well,” Zack said, raising the white and blue Star Stones up in front of him. “Doesn’t matter. We won’t have to worry about you anymore; you won’t have your—”
I surged my powers and bolted upward, clawing for my stone. Zack reacted too quickly, moving his hand with my stone just out of reach, and then he put a foot on my chest and shoved me back to the street. I groaned, my ribs still tender.
He laughed at me, his face silhouetted by the helicopters’ searchlights. “Nice try. You thought that I—AH!” Zack screamed, arching his back. Both stones dropped out of his hands and clanked on the asphalt near my feet. I blinked. What was happening? I heard the sound of gunshots coming from the helicopters above. They were shooting Zack!
This was my opening! I surged my powers, the world going in slow-motion, and grabbed the two stones at my feet. Zack’s scream transformed into a growl as he surged his powers. He stood up straight, the bullets bouncing off him like hailstones on a trampoline. I saw his eyes shift color from standard yellow to black light with green glowing irises, and then he disappeared.
I was already in the air by that time, flying high into the evening sky. I couldn’t see Zack, but I was certain he was on my tail. The helicopters lost track of me as I picked up speed. I flew toward south Tucson, where Ray was headed with Angela. I had a hunch as to where he went, especially now I knew Zack (a.k.a. Scorpio) was in league with Ray.
Chapter 37
Ray
“No?” Mark said through gritted teeth.
“No!” I repeated. “That’s stupid! Think about it! If we bring her stone here, then she could use her powers, and it will be more difficult to hold her down. It would be like giving a prisoner the key to her cell and letting her escape. If you want to hurt her, why not do it now while she’s weak? Bringing her stone here seems like the dumbest thing to do!”
“Do not question my methods, Draco!” He pointed a finger at me. “Just do as I say! I need her stone in my hands before we kill her!”
I stepped around New Girl and up to the ancient Starling. “I’m not your hitman, Mark! I didn’t sign up for killing teenage girls! I said I’d help you find your stone, and that’s it! She said it’s in a volcano in Italy, so let’s go check it out! I’d prefer a trip to Italy anyways…”
“You don’t understand!”
“You’re right! I don’t understand! How is killing other Starlings supposed to help you find your stone?”
Mark glared at me, but didn’t answer. I could see a huge vein in his neck pulse as he fumed in anger. He glanced hungrily at New Girl standing behind me, like a zombie would look at a fat man. He wanted something from her, and he wanted it desperately. What more could he want? She already told him where his Star Stone was.
Then, Mark’s expression turned from hungry to wide-eyed. I spun on my heels and saw what he was looking at. It was New Girl! Her eyes were glowing!
She seemed just as surprised as us at first, but quickly spun into motion. Semi-transparent wings appeared out of nowhere, twirling around her like massive whips, filling the entire space of the small hideout. I didn’t react in time; her right wing swatted me across the room. With a crunch, I broke halfway into a concrete wall. Her other wing hit Mark, but he summoned his powers just in time, causing the wing to collide with an invisible barrier surrounding him. The blow was still powerful enough to knock him backwards, sending him rolling along the sand-covered floor. He didn’t get up, obviously weakened from the blow and from using his powers.
I pushed against the wall, breaking myself out of its cold grasp, and focused on my powers and emotions. Disrespect, I thought. She hit me! And Mark used me! That’s not how you treat a god! Like a dam of energy breaking loose, I tapped into the Second Degree, my powers surging and my hands bursting into flames.
New Girl turned on me and raised her wings to defend herself. How did she get her powers back? I wondered. Her stone should be miles away. Unless…
She dismissed her wings and flew out of the hideout. She didn’t want to fight, just escape. If she hadn’t hit me, I probably would’ve let her go, but now she had to pay. I soared close behind her, fire trailing behind my hands. She took a few wrong turns, obviously not knowing her way around the dark bottom level of the abandoned stadium. I caught up to her and threw a fireball at her back.
She turned back just in time to summon a wing to shield herself. She grunted as the fireball knocked her hard backwards and into a wall. The wall broke from her impact, turning into a pile of cinder blocks and gray dust. The wall led outside the abandoned building. I could see a hint of moonlight filter in the building as she continued to fly backwards from the force of the fireball. The flames danced around her wings for a second more, and then died. She dismissed her wings and flew away from me.
“Oh no you don’t!” I shouted as I flew through the hole in the wall, out of the building. There were no clouds in the sky. No lights nearby; Trotting Park was pretty remote, except for the interstate about three football fields from here. The cars’ headlights didn’t point toward us. The moon was just beginning to rise. The stars were shining brightly, especially the Draco constellation. There was more than enough light for two Starlings to see each other from a distance.
I brought my hands together and tugged them apart, forming a fireball between them. I clawed at the fire with my fingers and managed to split it into two fireballs, one in each hand, both the size of pumpkins. I soared toward New Girl and chucked the fireballs at her.
She stopped and easily swatted them away with her wings, just like I’d expected. She turned to fly away, but I was gaining on her.
I formed two more fireballs and threw those at her. She swatted one away and one right back at me. I’d hoped she’d do that again. I picked up speed as I flew directly through the fireball. I spread my hands and focused on the flames around me, allowing them to surround me, but not to burn my bare chest or my pants. I could manipulate the flames, but not the fireball itself. It already had too much momentum, so I let it fly behind me.
I emerged out of the fireball and flew directly toward New Girl. Her wings were down, just like last time, leaving a big opening for me to give her another uppercut. The moment before I reached her, I saw something out of the corner of my eye.
A blur of motion slammed into me from my upper left. It felt like a giant foot stepped on my back, crushing me like a bug. My world spun in circles as I hit the ground and rolled for what felt like an eternity. The dirt caved in around me and I finally came to a stop.
I lay for a moment, waiting for the world to stop spinning. Eventually, I surged my powers—only in the First Degree—and crawled out of the miniature dirt cave created by my fall. My back ached terribly, but I walked it off. I coughed as a small gust of wind cleared the dust out of the air around me.
I wasn’t surprised when I looked up at who’d stomped on me. Of course it was him. Of course it was that stupid dweeb who always got in my way and never seemed to stay down. I gritt
ed my teeth and clenched my fists. Stoner was going down!
Chapter 38
Michael
I flew over to Angela. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” she said softly. “A little shaken, but not stirred.”
I smirked as I handed her white Star Stone to her. “Don’t drop this.”
She took it gratefully. “I won’t. It’s just… the pockets in girls pants are so tiny! It’s ridiculous! How do they expect us to fit the massive cell phones they keep making these days in them? I don’t get—”
“Angela!” I cut her off, gipping her shoulders. “Get your wings up! Now!”
A second later, we were surrounded by a force field of wings made of pure energy. Another second later, we heard a loud thud against the wings directly above us followed by a grunt of pain. The wings held, but we were bumped downward a tad.
“Great,” Angela said. “You brought the invisible Starling with you?”
“Yeah,” I said. “Angela, it’s Zack.”
“Your cousin?”
I nodded. “And he’s got a personal vendetta against me. Wants to take away my powers, even if it means killing me if he has to. And I think someone from MARS is helping them too.”
An explosion sounded behind us, though it was muffled by the wings, causing us both to jump. Flames spread across the force field for a couple seconds and then died out. We could see Ray through the wings in the distance, summoning another fireball.
Angela pulled me close into an embrace. It may have been for comfort or to help her focus on the protective emotion she needed to have to summon her wings—either way, I wasn’t complaining. “Michael,” she said into my shoulder. “They do have someone helping them, a guy named Mark, but he’s not with MARS.” Another fireball hit the force field, knocking us back a bit. “He’s another Starling who lost his stone and he’s getting Ray and Zack to help him find it. And for some reason he wants to kill us. Especially me. He scares me, Michael.”
Orion: A Heroic Novel Page 25