“Mr. Ryoyo?” I asked, already knowing the answer. He smiled.
“Ahhh…I guess my reputation precedes itself. Kind of like a certain boy who can start fires at will.” His hands rolled themselves together. My flames grew brighter and hotter. I was so angry that my eyes had already begun to water from the heat pulsing off my cheeks. I was also surprised that I hadn’t lost complete control yet.
“I’m not usually the hands on kind of guy, but when you and your gift were brought to my attention…well…” he began to laugh lightly. My head started to buzz with growing hate.
“Madison!” I growled. He just ignored my rage and continued.
“Well, I had to meet you. My partner was right.” His smile faded. My head snapped like a laser focused on his words.
“Avery will pay too!” I promised.
“I guess I have no more secrets,” he gloated. My mouth pulled down in a steel frown.
“I’ll break the both of you!” I dared, with venom.
“Mr. Valentine, I trust we can resolve this situation without violence,” he suggested with a wink. My heart sank deep within my throat.
“Probably not,” I spoke with fire. His smile disappeared and he replaced his sunglasses on his face.
“Fine. Show him,” he called out behind him. Two larger men with guns stepped from the truck. One with nervous eyes locked on my burning hands. The other carefully carried Madison in his arms. She looked fine and unharmed. She was loosely wrapped in a dark purple blanket. Its fuzzy ends flapped in the growing breeze. Her little brown curls peeked from it. I hoped that would have settled my fears but it actually made me crazier.
“Madison!” I coughed, and the flames reached up along my forearms. Thunder tickled the streets with the arrival of cold raindrops. I ignored them as they spiraled into my twisting flames. The hired thug walked up to me cautiously before stopping a few feet from my reach. His eyes dropped to my burning arms and he swallowed. My eyes met Madi’s and the rain slowly washed away the fire.
“Now, that’s better,” Mr. Ryoyo said. I ignored his words as I reached for my daughter. Quickly, I scooped her from the man and pressed her to my broken chest. My body silently screamed from the pressure. I ignored the pain and squeezed even harder.
“Madison!” Sam called out and started to run for us but Asia held her back. Her fingers locked around her fair skin. Sam fought her for a second before giving into Asia’s iron grip. She couldn’t believe how powerful Asia’s grasp was.
“Let me, it is not safe for you,” Asia warned with a tilt of her head.
“It’s not safe for you either!” Sam pouted. Asia smiled and turned and walked toward me. When she did the clouds above began to pull together and slowly swirled counter clockwise, a disaster movie was born.
“I’ll be fine,” she said over her shoulder. Sam watched the skies and began to shiver. Asia slowly walked up to Madi and I. She tensed her body with caution and placed her hand on my shoulder. It was electric.
“I’m here Max.”
“I’ll handle this,” I warned. She stepped in closer to me and gently checked Madi with a caress of her hand. Madi reached for her cool, loving touch.
“I know you will. Now hand her to me.” She was quite calm. The opposite of me.
“Asia,” I grumbled. Her eyes locked onto mine as her hands slid into my lower ribs. My body contracted in instant pain and my face fell white. She winced at the realization of how hurt I was. She knew I was getting worse by the minute. Her calmness began to wither.
“Please,” she whispered and the wind covered me with her sweet scent.
“Let her help.” Mr. Ryoyo teased. “This doesn’t concern Ms. Michaels.”
“Is that so.” I didn’t believe him.
“Yet,” he warned, with a slight laugh. His evil intentions shown through the falling rain. I would die before I let him have her. Madison slipped into Asia’s strong arms as mine covered themselves in smoke. Asia looked on as she hurried over to an anxiously pacing Sam. When she reached her, Sam grabbed Madison and ran to the Jeep without a word. Asia didn’t wait for a thank you and turned back toward me with her pulse quickening.
“Now what?” I asked. Mr. Ryoyo laughed and walked back to the open door and motioned for me to get in. His two bodyguards raised their firearms at attention. I looked back at Asia and nodded that it would be okay. She stepped forward with a crack of thunder. Her eyes filled with fear. She would not just let them leave with me. Not on her watch. Sam stared from behind the windshield of the truck, her arms wrapped tightly around our daughter. I took a slow step forward still smoking. Asia and Sam stopped breathing.
“Max…no…” both girls whispered in unison.
As I positioned my breaking body to enter the back seat, I gave up. It was a fair trade. Madison’s safety for my special abilities. I was too tired to care what happened to me anymore. Too weary of a future without Asia or Sam. I slowly stepped forward, but with one last question I would set in motion my downfall. My legacy. My awakening.
“This is over…right. We are even?” I asked within a cough. Mr. Ryoyo smiled wickedly. At that moment a half dozen other black SUV’s screeched up behind Sam and Asia. All 6, as dark as the one in front of me. Their big tires screeched along the rain soaked street.
“Not even close,” he snapped, sliding his glasses down his nose, revealing those hateful eyes. This was just another trap. They had no intentions of letting my daughter go home. They wanted us all. The fire starter, the rainmaker, and the new little healer. I should have seen this sooner.
“We have RED package. Proceed on BLUE package,” Mr. Ryoyo called over his phone. The world began to slow down. Everything was barely moving now. I filled with panic. They had me and were after Asia now.
“Don’t hurt GREEN package! No, I don’t care what you do with the mother,” he said smugly. Madison. They were going after her and Sam too. I snapped.
“Get her out of here!” I screamed through the rain. My voice cracked and the taste of blood was everywhere. The evil man slammed a needle into my neck and shoved me into the backseat. It felt like liquid ice pouring into my veins as the world started to spin. Lightning flashed everywhere, blurring my vision.
“Max!” Asia called out.
“Asia, get in!” Sam called from behind the wheel of the Jeep as it’s engine roared to life. Asia’s eyes filled with swirling blue pools, forcing the sky completely black. They had crossed her line, she would not go quietly. The air fell heavy and thick with her anger. Armageddon was here.
“Leave! Get her away from here!” Asia screamed over the menacing storm.
“Asia please!”
“Go!” Asia demanded, and the ground shook with the force of her growing storm. Sam slammed the truck in gear and drove forward, barely missing Asia in the process. Mr. Ryoyo slammed the SUV door behind my numbing body and waved for the other vehicles to follow Sam in the Jeep. Three of them did while the other three emptied their gun-toting passengers. A dozen men poured from the trucks and quickly positioned themselves around Asia. Their weapons drawn and faces frozen from the blowing cold rain.
“Get him out of here!” Mr. Ryoyo yelled. His meaty hand slapped the top of the truck with a loud thud. The truck peeled out in the opposite direction. He reached in his long coat and pulled out a small handkerchief. It was as black as the sky, and quickly found his wet face. He slowly removed as much of the pouring rain as possible. His other hand slid his cell phone back up to his ear.
“He’ll be there within the hour…” he paused as the other voice on the line asked him another question.
“She shouldn’t be a problem Mr. Wahlberg,” he smiled, watching the swarming grey clouds and removed another long needle from his pocket then hung up. He was 100% wrong.
Asia stood at attention as she let herself be surrounded. The rain fell in a swirling effect. It made it hard for anyone but her to see. Thunder continued to rumble everywhere, drowning out the sound of the squealing tires from
the Jeep that Sam was being pursued in. From the back seat I was confined in, I managed to look out the back window. My head was spinning and I had to concentrate to focus my eyes. As I did, Sam drove past us in the other direction with three other vehicles surrounding her. They were much too close. Their big black trucks scraped against the side of the Jeep, knocking it back and forth like a toy. She and Madison were in trouble. My chest filled with fire, steadying my spinning head.
“No!” I screamed. The two thugs reached for me as I filled the backseat with burning white light. The truck echoed with their screams as they began to burn and go blind from my vengeful fires. Our truck slid out of control down the street, scraping along parked cars and then the walls of buildings. Quickly, the driver lost complete control and the truck picked up speed before colliding into a local store. The buildings front windows shattered in a fiery explosion. My prison on wheels was crumbling to ash. From afar, Mr. Ryoyo’s tall, dark, shadow looked on surprised. The explosion from my wrath reflected in his sunglasses. He shook his head and kept his steady confidence, continuing his advance on Asia.
“You truly are special Mr. Valentine,” he said, and began walking toward Asia.
“Get her Tommy!” one of the dozen men screamed in the torrent of rain.
“I can barely see her!” he hollered back, as his vision fell from the blinding storm drowning them. Asia smiled evilly before smashing her wall of wind into the first of the men. Bodies flew everywhere, twisting like life sized rag dolls across the watery sky. Flashes of lightning filled the scene over and over again. Downtown Hana looked like some disco from Hell.
“Oh God!” one of the men called out at the sight. Asia whirled around with her glowing eyes. They were alive with anger. Her dark hair flickered along her shoulders like a hundred black ribbons.
“Ha! God! She can’t save you now!” she spit, and attacked again. The men tried to fire their guns at her, with no luck. The sheer velocity of wind she was generating now was like a full force hurricane. Bullets flew everywhere, except where they were intended. A couple of them even shot each other in the confusion. Their bodies fell motionless into the wet street. The sounds of the runaway storm filled with Asia’s wicked laugh pierced my collapsing prison. The screams of her victims grew intense and made me beyond anxious. She surveyed her devastation before turning to my burning wreckage down the end of the street. Lightning slipped from her fists and danced along the ground in front of her feet.
“Hold on! I’m coming Max!”
“Don’t worry baby girl…mommies here!” Sam tried to calm a crying Madi from her car seat. The Jeep slid back and forth down the road, losing traction every so often as the storm outside made it impossible to drive. The three SUV’s approached quickly and before she had time to think, they surrounded her. They pushed against the sides of the Jeep forcing her the way they wanted her to go. The scraping metal was loud enough to scare Madison into a soft moan. Her face popped with warm heat.
“Hold on sweetie…” Sam tried her best to comfort her as the rain almost blinded her vision through the windshield. She furiously wiped at the glass as it fogged over from the heat. She slammed the gas pedal down hard, making the Jeep pull ahead from the bookended SUV’s. For a brief second she felt relief fill her. She watched in the rearview mirror as the three chasing trucks tried to regain their traction in the wet streets. Her worried face filled with renewed hope. It would not last though.
“Oh no!” she screamed as she almost collided with another vehicle going in the opposite direction. Madison screamed in awakened terror. Sam’s right arm fell across her carseat in an act of desperation. Her other arm tightened its grasp on the leather covered wheel, trying not to collide with the new obstacle. It took all her strength not to lose control of the truck.
“Max!” she gritted as she realized it was my SUV she almost collided with. The truck whipped past her jerking from left to right, out of control. Her terror doubled as she watched my capturers lose control of the speeding chariot of fire, as it filled with white flames. It poured from the windows and the hood of the truck like haunted smoke. Her eyes squinted through the blurring back window as my burning vehicle ricocheted off parked cars and finally smashed into a distant building.
“No…Max!” she screamed. Instantly she found her Jeep surrounded again by the three SUV’s.
“Not again,” she gasped and focused her worries from me to the safety of our daughter. The Jeep rocked forward with a push of one of the trucks from behind. The other two found their original spots on each side of the Jeep and quickly slammed into its small and beat up frame. Madi wailed as she rocked inside the truck. Sam fought back tears before accepting the truth. If she did not end this now, Madison would surely be hurt.
“Enough!” She slammed her truck into the SUV welded to the left side as hard as she could. Metal scraped and popped with a sickening crunch, causing tiny sparks. The SUV faltered for a moment, veering of into the dark storm. It freed enough room for her to maneuver the Jeep out from the rolling trap, but only for a split second. The truck on the right leaned into her again, hard enough to spin her Jeep around in the wet streets. A quick wave of dizziness found her stomach but she pushed it away. As the Jeep screeched to a quick stop, she focused on the last SUV now facing her. Rain washed over its hulking windshield and hood. The thug behind the wheel flickered his headlights from bright to brighter. He quickly taunted her with a loud rev of its engine.
“Close your eyes baby girl…mommies had enough of this game…” She pushed as hard as she could on the gas pedal, forcing the Jeep forward. The other two SUV’s did not follow as they were now trying to stop their momentum and turn back around. The newly born tropical storm spun a twisting web of debris around them, making their pursuit impossible. Sam squeezed the wheel tighter, aggressively seeking her waiting target.
From the road, Asia watched with a gleam in her ice blue eyes. She balled a fist in front of her face and pushed a lightning bolt into the waiting SUV, stalling it in the road. Its hubcaps blew off and the windows exploded outward. Sam let a small smile of satisfaction crawl along her lips before concentrating on what to do next. Should she help me or get Madison as far away as possible? Just then her tired green eyes saw something terrifying. Something that made her mind up for her. She tightened Madi’s seatbelt and raced directly toward Asia and her massacre.
“Hang in there! I’m coming Asia.”
I could no longer feel pain, only fire and hate. I could tell I was covered in broken glass and shards of hot metal but I couldn’t feel it. Any wound I possibly could have sustained from the wreck was gone. So was my broken body. All that was left was the blinding light. Only the fire that I had become. I was ready to escape this prison of rubble. I pushed with my mind and everything filled with a sizzling crash as the truck and anything else in my way vaporized. The pouring rain and swirling wind greeted me as I pushed myself through the burning wreckage. I stepped to the flooding street, completely engulfed in white and red flames. Thousands of raindrops spun into my fires, sizzling and then dying in an instant.
“Madi!” I screamed. My legs pushed me forward. Slowly at first but they gained strength and speed as my eyes searched through the falling rain, focusing on the circle of death around Asia. She was so wrapped up in her vengeance she didn’t see me or the tall man closing in behind her. As I pushed my renewed body forward I was unstoppable. That was until Sam and the Jeep raced passed me toward Asia. It almost hit me at an unbelievable speed. It swerved back and forth barely under control. She nearly smashed into one of the black trucks that was badly damaged and steaming in the middle of the road. Four shadowy figures jumped from the wreckage as she passed by, with guns drawn. My ears popped from the sight.
“Sam,” I uselessly called out. My whimper was followed closely by the sound of gunfire ripping through the falling raindrops. Bullet holes sprinkled the back of the Jeep. My legs gave out at the sight and I crashed into the puddling water all around me.
&
nbsp; “Noooo!” I wailed. Asia heard me when I did. How that was even possible I did not know. Not with all the destruction going on, but she did. She violently flipped a few men through the air and into the nearby trees. She spun around just in time to see my outlined flame fall to its knees. She stopped breathing long enough to cause the falling rain to stop for a quick moment.
“Max!” she called for me and my flames reached for her voice. As her hurting eyes focused on my distant shadow it was replaced by the tall thin frame of a long jacket. Mr. Ryoyo pushed toward her with the needle in front of him. He slammed into Asia with a dull, wet thud. His attack knocked the wind from her lungs and she fell to her back with his hunched frame above her. She had no time to react as he grabbed her by the neck with his free hand. His bony, long fingers crinkled around her throat tight and unforgiving. What little air she had left slid from her throat and the swirling clouds above started to fade.
“Hold still darling. This will only hurt for a moment,” he grinned, struggling with her strength. His hand pinched off her oxygen, instantly making it almost impossible to gain her composure. She bit down hard and grabbed him by his shoulders.
“You’re quite strong!” he gasped, as she pushed him away from her winded body. His eyes filled with a sick delight at how powerful she was. He tightened his hold around her neck and pulled his arm back ready to strike the needle into her chest. Raindrops twinkled from the long steel needle, sliding their way to the end. Tiny white lights danced inside of the dangling drop. Asia’s muscles tightened and her chest filled with a low howl.
“You…have…no…idea!” she screamed. With a deep breath she stretched her arms out, pushing him up into the air and onto his unsettled feet. He whipped backwards not sure of what was going on when the headlights from Sam’s truck found him. She tried to miss him at the last moment but the right side of the trucks bumper clipped him at full speed. CRUNCH!