Flicker, Fade, Soar

  Part Two

  “We must leave immediately!” Cat said, after explaining to the rest of the students what was going on. “Men and women may die if we delay.”

  Josef, probably feeling more confident now that his normal light brown hair had returned, pumped his fist into the air. “When we save the League of Supers, can we be on TV?” he asked.

  “If we save the League of Supers,” Sandra reminded him. I knew she was being realistic, but did she have to make us feel so hopeless?

  Winnie must have been feeling the same way. “When we save the League of Supers,” she said firmly.

  Jonah groaned. “How are we going to get all the way to wherever Abomination is? Walk?” he said with disgust.

  “No, swim,” Ty squeaked. That got a laugh.

  Elias raised his hand. “Do you know where Abomination is, Miss Cat?” he asked politely.

  Cat laughed. “Whoa, boy. First of all, it’s Cat. Don’t add on a Mrs. until I’m married. Second of all, yes, I actually do.”

  “How?” Etty asked curiously.

  Cat held up her LeagueMessenger. “Villain tracker app. It has the hideout of all our major rivals plugged into its database.”

  Sweet!

  Cat smiled at me. “It is, eh?”

  “How far away is it? Could we even walk there, or would it be too late by the time we got there?” Lily pointed out the obvious flaw in plans.

  Cat looked thoughtful. “It’s about a day’s walk, two hour fly, or thirty second teleport.”

  “The flyers are coming back from their vacation tomorrow,” I broke in, knowing this from Ms. Walker. “We could get a good night’s sleep tonight and wake up early to fly there. Plus, then we have probably ten other kids on our side.”

  Cat nodded. “Sounds like a plan. Try to get some sleep, guys. We’re not going to do well tomorrow if we’re tired.”

  Everyone nodded, but I caught Winnie whispering something to Sandra nervously. I didn’t think anyone was going to get much sleep tonight.

  I trudged off to bed. I didn’t expect to fall asleep quickly, if at all, but as soon as I got into bed, I drifted off. It had been a long day.

  The next morning, I was up at seven. Most of the girls in the dorm were awake as well. Only Etty snored on.

  “Somebody, like, wake up Ty in there!” Sandra yelled at the door that connected the boys and girls dormitories.

  We heard groans, and shuffling noises, and Josef slammed open the door. “We were all still asleep, genius. Thanks a lot.”

  “Cat said we needed to wake up early to leave to save LOS,” Winnie reminded him.

  “Well, wouldn’t she wake us up if we needed to leave?” Jonah grumbled blearily, coming to the door.

  Just then, the door opened and Cat peeked in. “Hey guys. I’ve contacted the Flyers on their way back. They’re running a tad late, and won’t be here until ten. You guys can go back to sleep if you want.”

  Josef and Jonah gave us a glare. “That sounds fabulous. Thank you, Cat,” Josef spat.

  “You’re, like, so welcome, Josef,” Sandra said sweetly.

  “We weren’t thanking you,” Jonah muttered darkly.

  “Now, now, Jonah, you know we need to work on our team unity,” Winnie scolded him lightly, trying to hide a sly grin.

  “Who said anything about a team?” Lily broke in.

  I spoke up, “We do need to have a team and a team name. Like Winnie said, we have no chance of beating Abomination and rescuing the League of Supers if we don’t know how to work together,” I pointed out.

  Everyone looked thoughtful.

  “Um, the LOS Rescuer Squad?” Lily giggled. This was shot down from all angles.

  “The Linked TOCS kids?” Etty tried.

  “That would really only work for you and Ty,” Josef said what was running through all our minds.

  “But it was a good thought!” Winnie added kindly.

  “The Sparks?” Jonah said slyly.

  “You’re the only Sparker here, Jonah!”

  “Like, The Abomination Busters?” Sandra asked.

  We gave this some thought.

  “The Team of Awesome Souls that are going to Kill Abomination? Or TASGA?” Josef butted in.

  “We’re already TOCS!” Ty said.

  “I think the Abomination Busters is the best one out of all those,” I concluded.

  “Ok, ok, I’ve got it. The Abomination Busters of Coolness, or ABC!” Winnie said excitedly.

  “And, we’ve got a winner, folks!” Lily said in an old-timey announcer voice.

  “When the flyers get here, they can also be part of ABC, right?” Elias asked nervously, always the sensitive one.

  “Of course,” said Winnie soothingly.

  “Next, we better elect a leader,” I said, knowing that this mission would be a lot easier if we had someone like Winnie or Elias to follow.

  “Ok, how about you, Rose?” Sandra said, staring at me.

  I flushed, completely caught off guard. “What? Me?”

  “Yes, you!” Etty squeaked.

  Ty nodded his agreement. “All votes for Rose?”

  To my astonishment, all hands flew into the air except Josef’s and Jonah’s.

  “They don’t want me as leader,” I said to the room as a whole.

  Sandra raised her eyebrows. “Hold on, before you feel, like, too bad about yourself, let’s see, like, who they do want as leader. All votes for, like, Josef as leader?”

  Josef sheepishly raised his hand.

  “All votes for, like, Jonah?”

  Jonah pointed to himself.

  “Yeah,” Sandra said, “I don’t think, like, either one of them would make, like, a good leader, do you?”

  “But what do I do as leader?” A thousand thoughts whizzed through my mind, primarily how I was likely to mess up and fail and send them all to their deaths.

  Suddenly the door creaked open. Cat poked her head in. “You hardly need to worry about that, because I’m going to be the one responsible for their deaths when and if they do happen, and I’m going to put all my power into making sure they don’t.” Cat smiled reassuringly at me.

  I took a deep breath. “Ok. I’m the leader.”

  “Don’t go getting a big head,” sneered Jonah.

  “Don’t go worrying about missing your dad while you’re away fighting, Jonah,” Cat sneered back.

  Jonah turned beet red, and everyone howled with laughter, knowing that Cat was not lying about what she saw in his mind.

  “So, the Flyers arrived about two minutes ago. They’ve gotten situated. There’s a bit of a problem, though. I’ll let you guys come out and hear about it.”

  The ABC TOCS troops marched out of their dorm with a renewed sense of purpose.

  There were eleven Flyers in the training room when we walked in. I counted, hope swelling in my heart.

  “There’s an issue, TOCS students.” The biggest Flyer stepped forward. “We have nine Flyers licensed to carry Supers under eighteen on their backs.” The eight other largest Flyers stepped forward.

  My heart sunk again. I saw the problem. “But neither one of these students is, are they?” I sighed, looking at the remaining two almost toddler-sized Flyers. The leader nodded sadly.

  “Couldn’t they both work together to carry the last person?” Winnie asked. I nodded at this smart idea.

  “They’re not legally allowed to!” The largest girl explained, a little exasperatedly.

  I pondered this.

  A couple minutes later, I still had no amazing brainwaves. But Elias’ face was slowly brightening, and then he grinned. “I have an idea.”

  Fifteen minutes later, I was on the back of the largest girl who had spoken earlier, Nicole. I was amazed to learn that she was my same age, and had always been big for her age. Ty was on Davies, the biggest Flyer of all who had spoken earlier. The rest of the TOCS students and Cat, except Etty, were on other Flyers.

/>   “Let’s see if this works,” Davies said, pushing off from the ground and hovering three feet in midair with Ty still on his back.

  To everyone’s astonishment, Etty, though nobody was carrying her, flew three feet off the ground in Ty’s exact same position.

  We all cheered and clapped Elias on the back.

  After filling the Flyers in on everything from Ms. Walker’s call to now, we began the most amazing ride of my life. As we rose high above the clouds and soared, the wind rushing in my face seemed to strip all my worries away. The bliss of the blue, blue sky and the blazing sun that it seemed I could reach out and touch made me forget everything else.

  Well, almost everything. One issue had been pressing on my mind ever since we’d decided to rescue the LOS.

  I was worried about my Power Core. I knew this rescue mission was a break in training that I might not be able to afford. But I knew that saving the League of Supers was very important. Ms. Walker thought I was strong. It probably couldn’t hurt to take just a day’s break.

  But if it was fatal to take just a short break, I didn’t know what I was going to do. I didn’t think I would be able to find a Power Core transplant. I assumed nobody would die during the battle. And even if someone did, they would have to have my exact age and gender. I wouldn’t wish an early death on anyone my age, nor did I think there were many people here that fit that criteria. I felt selfish for having a tiny twinge of hoping I could find a transplant. That was horrible. I didn’t want anyone to die.

  Including myself.

  So getting back to training quickly was my only option. After the battle, I would make sure everyone left quickly.

  A blast of cold blew my thoughts away. We were riding through a cloud! “Hold on tight,” yelled Davies from up ahead.

  He didn’t have to tell me twice. I wasn’t normally scared of heights, but the misty chill, and the way I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face scared me to death! I gripped Nicole so hard she had to patiently ask me to let go so she didn’t lose all circulation in her shoulders.

  My now-damp chocolate-brown hair waved wildly in the wind.

  Suddenly we broke out of the cloud, to an astonishing and terrifying sight. A huge rock was looming in midair, right in front of Davies, who was in the lead. “LOOK OUT!” all the Flyers yelled as one. Obviously, Davies was skilled, because he expertly dodged the rock within a centimeter, yelling, “Flyers, follow me!” The rest of the Flyers swerved around the rock in the same close proximity. Nicole was no different. I shut my eyes tightly.

  “What the heck was a boulder doing in the sky?” yelled Lily, her tight, dark braid thumping up against her back over and over as her Flyer made the tight curve.

  “I don’t know, and I don’t think I want to know,” Josef muttered, looking nearly as scared as I was.

  “Telekinesis, probably. Not my favorite power in the world, obviously,” Nicole told us calmly. “Very dangerous for us Flyers.”

  “And for the rest of us, apparently,” called Winnie. “That was a close call!”

  I was embarrassed to ask what telekinesis, but to be fair, I had just learned I was a Super a few weeks ago. “Um, what is… tele-whatever?” I asked quietly, my face a little flushed.

  Elias answered me, “It’s moving things with your mind, Rosey-Posey.”

  I smiled at him. Things were going well with Elias and me. “Thanks, Eli.”

  I heard a stifled giggle from Jonah, and a bit of a growl from… Josef? I looked over and saw Josef staring at Elias with anger on his face. Josef had gotten better at controlling his anger, so Elias should be safe from fireballs, but why was Josef angry? Did he… like me? No. NO. Not Josef. Josef was mean, sometimes funny, RARELY funny, had gorgeous brown chocolate eyes that matched my hair…

  No, wait. I didn’t like Josef, did I? No, of course not. I liked Elias, he liked me, and that was that. I refused to think of Josef anymore and gave Elias a grin.

  Then I turned my thoughts to the issue at hand. “Um, who do we know that can move things with their mind?” I asked.

  Silence.

  A Flyer spoke up. “Davies, this is it. This is about where Abomination’s hideout is. We could go down and see who is controlling that rock, and whether or not it’s Abomination.”

  Davies was silent for a moment, then he gave a crisp nod and hurtled into an air-dive. Ty hung on for dear life. Nicole kindly floated to the ground, which was good, because I would have barfed if she repeated Davies’ dive.

  We all settled onto the ground and dismounted our Flyers. I took a couple moments to look around. We were in a sort of forest, with trees and bushes spaced widely apart. A thin layer of leaves and pine needles coated the ground. If we attempted to sneak up on the girl, the dead leaves could make a crunching noise, but otherwise, there were lots of good trees and cover if we wanted to make a stealthy approach to the figure ahead.

  There was a definite person a couple hundred feet away from us, and from the looks of her, she was in total concentration mode. But she looked too small to be a supervillain.

  Cat looked at all of us. “This could be a trap, be careful. Abomination could have sent the little girl here to trick us.”

  I hadn’t even seen Abomination yet, but I could tell he was a tough one.

  I led ABC slowly and carefully through the semi-forest. Everyone was in stealth mode, and we were making progress. It gave me such a surge of pride to see ABC moving with such skill. None but the best trackers would be able to tell a single person, let alone twenty (other than the mysterious person in the distance) were in these woods.

  We finally got close enough to see the girl. Her face was crinkled in concentration, but it was still beautiful. She had long, flowing red hair with a small braid at the front. Her face was a sea of freckles, her eyes pools of green. She wasn’t a large girl, maybe a little shorter than me.

  I knew, as leader, I was expected to make sure this unknown girl was safe. To do this, I needed to observe her for a few moments. So I motioned the rest of ABC to hide, and I crouched behind a tree myself. Unexpectedly, Josef came up and hid behind the same tree as me. He flashed me a grin. I gave him an uncertain smile back.

  The rest of the Flyers and TOCS kids took up positions behind bushes and trees, and we observed the powerful child that made my power seem like a joke.

  Her hands, with jagged nails, flew through the air in a complicated motion. The rock in the air moved in the exact direction her nails did. And then she just put her hands down. The rock started falling. “Brace yourselves in case it hits the ground!” Nicole mouthed to us.

  But when the rock was inches from the ground, the girl’s hands shot out like a snake capturing its prey. The rock hovered in midair, and then she slowly lowered it to the ground, where it landed with a thud that shook the earth around her.

  “Oh, man. I’ve only known one Telekinesist, and the biggest thing he could control was a book. And a paperback too!” Josef whispered to me.

  Oh man was right. If the mystery girl was against us, we were dead. Quite literally.

  The girl controlled the rock into the air again, but this time it was directly over most of TOCS, including the tree where Josef and I hid. Josef looked at the rock, then looked at me. “Do you think she’ll drop it again this time?” he said quietly and nervously.

  Winnie nervously bolted behind a tree that was further away.

  Ty started running, and Etty obviously had to follow.

  Elias whimpered and shrank.

  I felt a rush of anger at Elias. He could have pushed away his fear, grown, and pushed the rock away from all of us.

  Cat ushered the rest of the TOCS kids and one Flyer that was in the fall zone behind trees that were out of the danger area.

  Josef tugged at me urgently. “Rose, we’ve got to get out of here. Move it, slow-bones!”

  But I couldn’t. I was frozen with fear. I was staring at Alexia as the sharp nails moved faster through the
air, pushing the rock towards the ground faster, and faster…

  And suddenly there was a yell from beside me, and Josef shot a fireball… at the rock! He’d only been able to do it on people before. The rock shuddered for a moment, and then exploded.