White Sasha

by Sasha MacPherson

  An instant later, a large ball of fire smacked into the gunship from above and exploded in a huge globe of flames, engulfing the entire aircraft. Sasha turned her head and spotted Firebird coming out of sun and soaring right towards the helicopter.

  But the helicopter’s armour shrugged it off just like it had shrugged off Sasha’s lightning, and delivered the response in the form of two more anti-tank missiles fired at Sasha.

  This time the white-haired woman had anticipated the attack and positioned herself between the helicopter and the ocean, to make sure the missiles couldn’t cause any unintended harm if she evaded them. Sasha accelerated her body vertically and watched the two missiles passing underneath her and hitting the water below, disintegrating in two giant balls of water and fire.

  Firebird attempted to switch her fiery assault to a more precise, concentrated beam directed at the craft, but the attack continued to deflect off the gunship’s thick armour, doing no apparent damage.

  Sasha’s eyes narrowed. She had one more spell in her arsenal she didn’t yet try against the chopper. But that would mean having to get closer to the helicopter. Much closer.

  Reinforcing her protective shield, Sasha propelled herself towards the helicopter. A hailstorm of 30mm bullets greeted her, bouncing off left and right from her shield. To offer the gunner the least possible target, Sasha zig-zagged herself towards the helicopter in wild and abrupt manoeuvres, evading a good portion of the machine gun rounds, and conserving precious power for her protective shield.

  The helicopter grew larger and larger in her eyes as she soared closer to it. And then Sasha was in range for her spell.

  Drawing on every little bit of power she had, she focused on the floating gunship that was now less than fifty metres away from her and filled her entire field of vision.

  Sasha abruptly stopped her forward flight and went into a full spin. As she came out it, both of her hands were pointing at the helicopter. She released the energy, conjuring the most powerful pressure wave she had ever created, and hurled it at the gunship.

  The concussive blast would have been strong enough to reduce a multi-story building to tiny pieces of rubble– but the helicopter was heavily armoured and also absorbed a part of the blast’s kinetic energy just by being able to be shoved backwards.

  It was still more than enough to do considerable damage to the gunship. With a sharp crack a part of its tail rotor came off and sailed away - in the same moment as the pilot fired another anti-tank missile at Sasha from point blank range. A split second later, the helicopter went into a slow spiral, as the pilot of the battered chopper was no longer able to hold the aircraft steady, having lost its primary means of keeping it stable.

  But the missile still came in at Sasha - who at this short distance had no means to get out of harm’s way fast enough to escape the hit. Instead she did the only thing she still could do and reinforced her energy shield with all energy she still had left, and desperately hoped it would be enough.

  The missile hit her dead on and exploded right into her face.

  Sasha gasped as her vision went momentarily blank by the flash of light, the following concussion, and the extreme drain the immense blast inflicted on her magic energy. Her protective spell flickered and dropped, and Sasha found herself in the perilous position of not even having enough magic power left for her flight spell - while still floating in mid-air, 500 feet above ground.

  Unable to keep her body afloat, Sasha spiralled down towards the hard concrete ground around Vancouver Convention Centre. Sasha’s eyes fixed on the ground below. Her flight spell required only a minimum of power, and she would need only a few seconds to regenerate enough magic energy to recast it and stop her descent. But a few seconds could be a long time for someone dropping like a rock towards a concrete floor. Sasha’s analytical mind quickly calculated that she had only around five seconds left until she would find a sudden but violent end in a large puddle of her own blood when her body would smash into the ground at terminal velocity, breaking every single bone inside her. She closed her eyes and counted the seconds, closely monitoring her energy levels, constantly probing if she was again able to recast her spell.

  When her count reached four seconds, Sasha’s magic came back to life. With a quick command of her mind she re-casted her flight spell and brought her body to a sudden halt with an abrupt snap that sucked the air out of her lungs. Only then Sasha opened her eyes again.

  The concrete floor was filling her entire field of vision, as Sasha’s body was horizontally hovering in the air, face-down. She breathed heavily as she fully realized her literal close encounter with death - which she had escaped by less than five feet.

  “Umm...you scared me there a little, you know?” Firebird’s voice said behind her, as the blonde heroine caught up with her and floated by her side.

  Sasha wiped a few drops of sweat from her pale forehead as she brought her body back upright. “You’re not the only one.”

  “You did a nice job with that helicopter, though,” Firebird said, pointing at the aircraft in the distance.

  Sasha looked into the direction indicated by her companion and spotted the chopper as a black dot against the blue sky. Her spell had not caused enough damage to outright shoot down the gunship, but it would be unable to use its weapons with any sort of accuracy again. And she had condemned it to land very soon, as helicopters couldn’t be safely flown with a damaged tail rotor. She witnessed the pilot struggling with the controls for a bit longer, and then smiled as the gunship went into a steep descent, as the pilot was not able to compensate for the damage she did to his aircraft and finally gave in to the need to land.

  As one, Sasha and Firebird shot into the air, once again in pursuit of the attack helicopter.

  After less than a minute of semi-controlled tumbling in the air, the helicopter sat down on the large open plaza in front of the burning Canada Place building. And Sasha’s eyes narrowed as she spotted an iron clad figure jumping out of the cargo hold and running away.

  “Where is he running to?” Firebird asked, pointing at the armoured man.

  “Waterfront Station – that’s where the Skytrain line from the airport ends.” Sasha said and set to pursue the fleeing Roger Brooks.

  Then both women gasped in unison as two VPD patrol cars sped towards the scene with blazing lights and formed a road block right in front of Roger with screeching tires.

  Any attempt to warn the cops at this range would be futile. One cop jumped from the passenger seat of each patrol car. They both positioned themselves behind their vehicles, pointing a handgun at Roger over the car roofs.

  “Freeze!” the policemen shouted in unison.

  Unable to intervene from this distance, Sasha and Firebird had to watch in terror as Roger lifted his arms and launched a RPG into each patrol car from point-blank range, long before the two women could close the range.

  Not designed to take this sort of punishment, the twin explosion lifted both patrol cars off the street and knocked back the two cops standing behind the vehicles. One vehicle flipped around in mid-air as its tank exploded and crashed back onto the pavement upside down, folding in its roof almost all the way down to the wheel. The other car got thrown back and aside by the impact, ending up standing vertically on its passenger side.

  Not stopping for a second, Roger charged through the devastation, his armoured feet clanging on the pavement.

  ***

  “This...is not good,” Firebird muttered, shaking her head.

  The two women sped downwards and towards the scene of destruction, splitting up without having any need to coordinate their effort. Firebird landed on top of the vertically standing, lesser damaged patrol car. She quickly pulled the stunned and bruised, but otherwise unharmed driver from the vehicle, putting him gently on the ground, in safe distance of the fire. A quick glance at his groaning partner rolling back and forth on the pavement told Firebird that he was shaken and in obvious pain, but otherwise not life-threate
ningly injured.

  ***

  Sasha peeked into the other car and flinched as she glanced at the badly injured driver inside, and the raging fire gnawing its way towards the female cop from the rear end of the vehicle.

  Her partner had fared much better and had already pulled himself back to his feet, stumbling towards the car.

  “Help me!” Sasha yelled at the male cop, who nodded and rushed to Sasha’s side.

  Together, they managed to pry the door open and pulled the female cop out, dragging her quickly to safety, before the fire consumed the remainder of the car’s interior.

  Firebird joined the duo and cringed as she looked into the unconscious cop’s badly burnt face. “She needs EMT, quick,” she whispered.

  The cop’s partner sadly shook his head. Sasha realized that he had likely seen this sort of injury often enough to know that people suffering such extensive burns usually have no chance to survive.

  Sasha placed her hands on the cop’s most gruesome wounds and closed her eyes. Calling on her magic, she opened a transcendent conduct to the female cop and let her own life energy flow into the other woman’s body. Her mind reached out to the policewoman, scanning for injuries on and inside her body, closing damaged veins and repairing burnt skin alike.

  The white-haired woman sat unmoving and silent, while her magic worked.

  Sasha had no idea how much time had passed when she finally removed her hands and let herself sink down to the pavement with an exhausted sigh.

  When she opened her eyes again, she stared into the stunned female cop’s face - which didn’t show the slightest trace of burn marks. The woman was awake and slowly shook her head at Sasha in disbelief.

  Firebird stood next to her, motionlessly. "Incredible," she mumbled after almost a half-minute of silence.

  “Try to keep out of harm’s way for a while,” Sasha said in the direction of the cops. “I can do this trick only once every so often.”

  Firebird nodded at Sasha. “Ready to go after our friend?”

  Sasha slowly pulled herself back on her feet, still breathing heavily. “No major spells for a while, but otherwise yes.”

  ***

  Waterfront Station used to be Vancouver’s transcontinental railway hub until all long-distance operations were moved out of downtown in the late 1970s, and relocated to Pacific Central Station. This meant in no way that the impressive station was longer being used - quite the contrary. Serving as the largest public transportation hub in the city, Waterfront Station connected all of Vancouver’s Skytrain lines to various bus routes, the regional commuter railway and the SeaBus ferry connecting downtown to the north shore parts of the city, which were otherwise only reachable by bridges. On most days, Waterfront Station easily rivalled many airports in terms of busyness, but today it was more silent than a graveyard. Sasha couldn’t remember it being that deserted at any time on any given day she had ever been here - but when she gazed at the lone metal figure standing in the middle of the great hall, she understood why.

  “Like a bad dream you always come back, Sasha?” Roger said, his sonorous voice echoing in the vast interior hall

  “Where are the hostages, Roger? We know that you brought them here,” Sasha said.

  Roger laughed out so loud that Sasha thought the sonic assault from his speaker-amplified voice might collapse the building. “What? My little beer wench figured that out all by herself? Incredible! Or did Miss Firefighter here assist you with that?” he said, pointing at the red and white clad heroine standing next to Sasha.

  Her eyes reduced to mere slits, Sasha reached out with her arm, pointing at him with her fingers. “I mean it, Roger.”

  Roger shook his head. “After our earlier episode in the airport, you should know better than thinking you can hurt me, Sasha. All you will do is wreck another building. And it would be a real shame in this case, no? But...nobody should ever say that I can’t grant a beautiful woman her wish, particularly if she’s looking at me in such a cute, angry way. I will tell you where they are.”

  Roger opened his right hand for Sasha to see his palm. A tiny electronic device, about the size of a pack of cigarettes lay in the centre of his palm. With a flex, Roger closed his hand firmly. Three beeps echoed through the main hall.

  “You know what that is, Sasha?” Roger asked.

  When Sasha shook her head, he spoke on. “It’s a remote detonator, Sasha. I am afraid the poor hostages are sitting on a bomb. Oh, and this is a release-activated trigger, which I just happened to arm. It has a range of 400 metres. If I open my hand again, they will die. If you kill me, they will die. If you try to wrestle it out of my hand, they will die. Clear?”

  Sasha bit her lips as she nodded. From the corner of her eyes, she could see Firebird clenching her fists.

  “Fine. So, you two can officially consider yourselves to be my prisoners now. If you make the slightest move against me, or try to use any of your powers...ka-boom! Hostages gone! I think you’re getting the picture by now. So, would you please come with me now? I shall you reunite with your parents, Sasha.”

  ***

  With hanging heads Firebird and Sasha trotted after the waltzing iron behemoth that was Roger Brooks. Two of his goons had taken the rear, pointing assault rifles at the two women.

  To Sasha’s genuine surprise Roger didn’t lead the group downstairs to the Skytrain platforms, but walked down the long gangway towards the Seabus ferry terminal instead.

  More armed gangsters were waiting for them at the end of the gangway, throwing hateful glances at Sasha and Firebird.

  “After you, ladies,” Roger said and ushered the two women onto the waiting ferry through the only opened one of its six double doors.

  Sasha gasped as she boarded the ship and stared into the horrified faces of around 150 men and women sitting in the passenger seats, all of whom were bound at their hands and feet - and under guard of three more armed gangsters pointing automatic weapons at them. In one of the far rows, Sasha spotted her parents, who opened their eyes wide as they saw their daughter being escorted in.

  Sasha and Firebird were told to take two seats in the front row.

  “Want me to tie them up?” one of Roger’s goons asked him.

  “I am afraid that would be quite futile in their case, but watch them closely,” Roger said, and turned to Firebird and Sasha. “Here is the deal: Your government is to wire 150 million dollars into my account within the next fifteen minutes. One million for each hostage – I think it’s actually a steal. If they don’t comply, I will detonate the explosives and sink this ship in the middle of Burrard Inlet - and I think you have noticed that we have made sure that none of them will be able to swim. You two will sit here and enjoy the show. You wanted to be part of this, so be part of it.”

  And Roger turned his back to them to speak into an intercom.

  Sasha’s gaze never unlocked from Roger’s right hand holding the bomb trigger, as the SeaBus left the terminal, heading for the open water.

  ***

  “The government will never agree to it,” Sasha whispered to Firebird. “About the ransom I mean. They’re not going to give in to his demands. Meaning Roger will kill them all.”

  “I know. No government ever would,” Firebird whispered back. “This is up to us. Any ideas?”

  Sasha stared out of the window, having no answer to Firebird’s question. They had crossed almost half of the distance between downtown and North Vancouver. Roger was probably going to stop the ship in the middle of the waterway and wait for an answer from the government, that Sasha was sure would never come. Sasha’s gaze fell on Roger’s hand once more. The remote detonator was the key to it all. If she could take it out of the equation, they would likely be able to free the hostages. But there was no way to forcefully take it out of Roger’s hand without triggering it.

  Sasha’s gaze wandered around the ship. She looked into the frightened faces of the hostages and into the indifferent ones of the gangsters. And she stared lon
g at Roger Brooks, who had caused too much grief to too many innocent people.

  There was no way Sasha would allow him to harm any of the passengers. And most certainly she was not going to allow him harming her parents.

  She thought about luring Roger away from the bomb and then wrestling the trigger from his hand while it was out of range, which with the help of her magic wouldn’t be all that hard to do - but according to Roger, the detonator had a range of 400 meters. The entire ferry wasn’t that long, so there was no place on the vessel where that idea might actually work.

  The only logical conclusion was that the trigger had to leave the ship, but it had to stay in Roger’s hand as long as it was in range.

  Sasha’s eyes narrowed when her mind finally solved the logic puzzle and realized what she would have to do to save the hostages. It would come with a hefty price, but Sasha was willing to pay it.

  She leaned in closer to Firebird’s head. “Think you can take out the goons before they do any harm to the hostages?” Sasha whispered barely audibly.

  Firebird nodded ever so slightly. “Easily, but there's still the issue of the bomb trigger. He’d just blow us all up.”

  “Leave that to me,” Sasha whispered, and gazed once more at the hostages - and very long at her parents. One hundred and fifty people who depended on her. “Please tell my parents that I love them.”

  Firebird’s eyes narrowed. “Sasha...”

  But it was too late. Sasha had waited until Roger was standing exactly where she wanted to have him – a few steps away from one of the ship’s exterior doors. Exploding out of her seat like a lightning, she propelled her body into motion, partly running, partly flying towards Roger. One of the gangsters yelled a warning at his boss, but it was too late. In the same moment as Roger turned around to her, Sasha’s left hand grabbed Roger’s fist holding the bomb trigger and firmly closed around it. At the same time Sasha locked Roger’s fingers in place with her telekinetic powers, so that he would be unable to open his hand, even with his superior physical strength. Sasha knew that this was only a temporary solution though, as Roger would eventually find a way to break her grip, shake her off him, and trigger the bomb. The detonator still needed to leave the ship and fast. With a snarl, Sasha drew on her magic and launched a kinetic blast at the centre of the door behind Roger, blasting the entire door out. A chilly ocean breeze assaulted Sasha and she could hear the waves of the ocean clashing against the ship’s side just behind the gaping hole.