Right then, I vowed I would kill every demon I could. I would get my vengeance. I was getting closer to Waterstar now, and no one harmed those I valued. I hadn’t been able to do anything about Sunstar, but Water wouldn’t die. She couldn’t, she was the invincible Waterstar that every fighter in the Rebellion envied. It would be like killing a folk hero.
I watched her fall. Her hair encased her head at first, a mass of swirling blue and blonde. Her body spun in the air, the rope falling slower than she was, but there was nothing for it to get caught on between the buildings, nothing to stop her fall. Waterstar’s body looked eerie; her hair whipped around her, the blond more pronounced as it reflected the little light from the setting sun.
I remembered back to when we were in the Underworld and Waterstar had flown. Why wasn’t she doing it now? Was she just forgetting that she could, or was there something about Earth that wouldn’t let her? These were questions for another time, what mattered was getting her safe.
My leg started to shake and I patted my hair again. There had to be something I could do. I knew Huang couldn’t fly down there, but what if I jumped? No, I wouldn’t reach her in time. Plus the probability of surviving that wasn't logical, even if I could get to her.
There had to be something. My powers wouldn’t help. Making anything explode wouldn’t do much, at most create a hot air current to lift her if she were flying, which she wasn’t. If I could build something out of ice, that would be the way to go about this. But what would I be able to make?
I thought back to when I had been thirteen, just learning how to control ice. The Ice Master at the time was a cheery old man, a proud grandfather who mainly used his power to make small amusement parks for his grandchildren. It had annoyed me that he was not using the power to aid the rebellion, but as I grew older, I made the calculation that keeping the younger generations happy was important too.
He had taught me to make slides out of ice to the point that it was almost a reflex.
I focused my power, watching Waterstar as she fell. I would have to time the position of the slide to how fast her body was falling for two primary reasons: one so she hit it with a stable body part, basically not her head, and secondly, so when she hit it there was a steep enough incline to gradually decrease so it wasn’t like hitting the flat ground at the speed. Also, the first part she touched would have to be thick enough for her not to shatter it.
I readied the power. The timing would be precise, as precise as my engineering mind could deduce. Three... two… one.
I let the power flow out of me, feeling the familiar chill in my bones with pleasure. I watched as the crystal like ice formed exactly as I had imagined it, right underneath Waterstar, catching her almost perfectly. If I didn’t continue building onto it, though, gravity would take possession of her once more.
I let the power continue flowing, making the block of ice longer, and then shooting straight down to the ground as a support beam. I continued the process until I thought she had enough momentum on that length of ice, and then curved it so she was rising in the air. Waterstar made it on my slide long past where I originally caught her before her speed started leveling out. It was a good idea, but it wouldn’t last me long. I could feel myself running out of power quickly. The edges of my mind were already getting fuzzy, and I couldn’t think of what we were doing on Earth.
All I could remember is that I had to keep Waterstar safe.
I made a bowl out of ice where she currently was and she slipped around the edges before settling in the center. After a second’s hesitation, I sloped the walls even more, creating a narrow gap at the top that would be difficult for anything to jump into from the apartment building.
I released my power and felt the sweat beading on my brow. I settled back against my seat and fell into the unconscious without resistance. If I was needed anytime soon, the odds of me being woken were slim.
WATERSTAR
I tried standing up and slipped once more around my little domed, ice safe hold. At first I had been dearly afraid when I felt the slick, cold surface of the ice beneath me, but after traveling a bit along the slide and watching it form, I realized what Icestar was doing. I really hoped he was okay, though. He had just gotten over the serious injuries from the demons, and now he was manipulating so much of his power. Even if the doctor had said he was okay, with Darkstar’s help, I didn’t think doing this much work was good for him. Maybe we should have made Ares help, like he did for my leg.
While sitting in the bottom of this dome, I wonder how the hell Ice had used so much power with success. I still couldn’t fly, trust me, I have been trying to get out of the dome for a while now, but he had managed to create a massive amount of ice all at once. If anything, he had been able to use more power here than on Calsh. I would have to ask either Arctic or Ares about that later.
Somewhere along the ice slide, my headset had fallen off. I still haven’t been able to talk to Huang or anyone in the helicopter. For one thing, I wanted to make sure Icestar was alright after all the power he had just used, though he was probably dreaming by now. Secondly, I needed a way to get out of here, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to be able to do it myself.
I stopped even attempting to stand and just stared up at the hole in the dome while lying on my back. All I could see was a small circle of dark blue sky. How long before sunset? Even the clouds were absent from my view. I hadn’t seen the helicopter in while, but I could still hear the whirring of its blades.
My thoughts started drifting and I wondered if this ice dome would melt, or if maybe it would exist here for all of eternity. I knew that Icestar could create un-melting ice, as crazy as that sounds, but he didn’t do it too often. He liked building things, but for some reason the idea of building something out of a substance that shouldn't be lasting bothered him. I also heard this second hand from other people, so maybe he did build stuff out of un-melting ice rather often. Plus, when you think about it, Icestar likes destroying stuff, it's one of his powers after all. Maybe he likes seeing ice destroy itself. Anyways I really hoped that it wouldn’t start melting before I got out of here; I really did not want to experience falling that far again.
After a few more minutes of staring up into the blank sky, slowly getting darker as night approached, I decided that I would make the most of my time in here. I mean, seriously, I am stuck in a domed ice bowl, and I’m not going to use that to my advantage? Please, I am Waterstar, after all. I’m going to have some fun. The only other thing I could do was contemplate life and our current position, which if you ask me, is too depressing.
I slowly got to my feet, carefully balancing in the center of the bowl, where the ice was the flattest. This would take skill and precision, something that I didn’t always have. I was surprised that I even managed to stand.
I stayed in a crouched position, my arms slightly lifted to my sides, as if I was about to pounce on one of my friends. Then, with as much grace as I could manage while purposely slipping, I jumped forward and fell to my belly, my momentum bringing me around the edges of the ice. I kept moving my arms as if I were swimming, building up speed so I kept going around and around instead of sliding into the center like usual.
I could feel the figurative wind in my hair and the coolness of the ice against my skin, though it still wasn’t cold enough to freeze someone. The ice probably was of the un-melting type.
I have no clue how many times I had gone around in a circle when I finally let my speed slow down. This was starting to get boring, as most fun things end up doing eventually.
“Are you done yet?” an accented voice spoke from above me.
I flipped over onto my back, which completely halted my speed and sent me into the center of the bowl once more. Directly above me was a man with the same color of skin as all of the Chinese people I have met, though he had a different accent. He was also about three feet in the air above me, suspended by a rope. Apparently my rescue squad was here.
“Are you with
Huang?” I asked hesitantly, just to be sure.
“Yes. My name is Yamamodo Toshiro, a pilot from Japan.” The Japanese man lowered himself further down the rope, which I just realized was inches away from my face. I tried my best to slip away from him, but it didn’t work too well. I ended up kneeling next to him while he stayed suspended a few inches in the air.
Yamamodo Toshiro had the same type of harness on that Icestar and I had used previously, but this one seemed to be an automatic system of levies versus our manual one. I hoped it would move faster than what Ice and I had done.
“Uh, Yamamodo Toshiro?” I asked as he held out an arm to help me up.
“You can call me Toshiro. Our second name is your first. It is a common formality in these countries.”
I nodded my head. “Toshiro, will the harness be able to hold both of us? ‘Cause I’ve already fallen once today, and don’t really want to do the same again.” I had been eyeing the mechanism hesitantly for the past few moments.
“No, you and I will be fine.” This guy didn’t really elaborate much, now did he?
I let Toshiro help me up and he attached a couple of belts to my old harness. I had already detached the previous rope that the demon had cut and it was sitting in a rumpled pile in the bottom of the bowl.
Toshiro fiddled with his own harness and we started moving upward. The mechanism was slow, but still faster than the manual way, so it was a win-lose situation. It was going faster, but I was now bored as hell and uncomfortably close to a man I had never met before. Pleasant, isn’t it?
Eventually, like two years later, we finally made it back up to the helicopter. Toshiro severed the rope from the ‘copter and let it fall down into the bowl with the other rope. Well that was a waste of materials. The Japanese man then went into the co-pilot’s seat and I stayed in the back with Icestar, closing the door to finally get away from the wind. It was starting to get chilly at this altitude.
Icestar was still unconscious, though that didn’t surprise me. He had used a hell of a lot of power, and that never was a good thing, no matter what you were doing. The usually pristine spikes in his hair were almost completely flattened. I was pretty sure they had been perfect even when he had stepped out of the window to climb the rope. I guess he also had a rough time all of the way up here.
After a few moments of Huang flying the helicopter so it would be above the apartment buildings, his voice came over the helicopter's headset. “Where do you want the oil?”
I looked out of the nearest window to me. It was hard to see our exact position because of the night, but I trusted Huang’s judgment. “Try and get it over any entrances to the building that a demon could get access too. It is literally just to lure them in mass quantity.” I settled back and started nudging Icestar. We kind of needed him to start the initial explosion of the building. If a grenade was used, the blast radius wouldn't be as controlled and that could be bad. Or amusing.
“Hmm-mph, whaa?” he finally grumbled as I kept nudging him.
“Waaaaake up!” I poked him really hard in the stomach.
“Whaaa, I am awake.” Icestar sat up and tried to glare at me, but I think he was too tired for it to work effectively.
“Huang is dumping the oil, and I need you to do the exploding thing you do. All I have are matches, and I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t stay lit after falling a few hundred feet.
“We aren’t a few hundred feet above the building,” Icestar said, “though no, they wouldn’t stay lit.” Icestar still sounded exhausted, and I was rather amazed I had been able to wake him. Most of the time, after using specials we were out for days. Icestar, however, was older than my normal teammates and I knew he practice his special frequently. Either way, I was feeling a bit bad about waking him up like that. I mean, he had just saved my life after all. I think my line of work lets me almost die way too often, and I hate being the ‘damsel in distress’ and having to be saved like that.
We slid the door to the helicopter open only a tad, though the wind buffeted the inside of the helicopter with gusts of air. Ice and I watched as the watered down oil fell and splashed over the building, quickly leaking down the rest of the stories. It was kind of creepy, especially when I thought about how Ice and I had been on one of those floors just a few hours previously. I mean, we could even see some of the demons reaching outwards, drenching their bodies in the mixture. That just looked weird.
I had looked away from the building to study Ice’s reaction. He was watching it, still obviously a bit tired, but he had a dim glow of… relief, I believe, around his facial expression. I wondered what that was about…. Maybe he thought that he was avenging Sunstar. I know I couldn’t stand her, but Sunstar and Ice had been close, and I could respect that.
A loud clang made me jump, and I looked down as the rigging that had held the container of our oil mixture banged off of the buildings. I had forgotten that they would release it so that with the explosion, there would be no oil residue for the flames to catch onto up here. The helicopter was supposed to be far away by the time that the explosion actually went off, but it was a safety measure.
It also was a good thing that this was a severely abandoned section of Beijing. I hope not too many druggies got killed afterwards here. Sarcasm mostly implied.
“We’re ready for you to set it off,” Huang said over the headset.
Icestar nodded his head beside me before hesitantly raising his hands up. A glowing white light appeared between his palms, then it turned darker before he tossed it out of the door. The ball managed to land directly in the center of the roof. He had good aim.
Icestar pressed the button on his headset to talk. “It will explode once the color returns to white.” Before he had finished speaking, the helicopter was already moving away. A massive stream of demons were already surrounding the building, and from what I could tell, fights were breaking out everywhere around it, especially with the demons closest to the oil mixture. I kind of wish I could have been closer down to the ground to be able to see it all happen and play out, but that wouldn’t be a pleasant place to be hanging out in a few minutes.
Icestar and I sat on the same bench seat as the helicopter returned to the military base. We were sitting shoulder to shoulder, even though the seat could probably hold five grown men.
Icestar was starting to be similar to Fire and Dark when it came to how much I trusted him. We had been through a lot of things together in the past few days; all of us had. Things were starting to get crazy here, and I had a feeling that this wouldn’t be the end of it.
Faintly, I heard the explosion, then a roar as the flames took over the building. I looked back out the window, and even though by now it was night, a dim red glow lit up the skyline, making it easy to see the skyscrapers.
Chapter 21: We’re Running Out of Time
FIRESTAR
I stretched my arms up over my head and did some twists of my abdomen. “Give me two minutes out there by myself,” I started to say between stretches. “I will do a scout, and if possible, get to the car.” Erik handed me the keys, and I was a bit surprised.
“It would make it easier if you could just drive from there to here, instead of trying to sneak us back over.”
I nodded my head, looking at both of them. “If I’m not back in two minutes… well Darkstar, you know what to do.”
I looked at my friend meaningfully. He barely nodded, showing that he knew not to tell Erik anything. I am sure Darkstar had been thinking that long before me, but hey, it felt good act like I had created the plan first.
Someone had to have snitched on us. I wasn’t completely buying the story about the advisers; how would they have known we were at that restaurant? I’m not saying it wasn’t possible, but there were some gaps in the story line. Erik, however, was a very possible person to have snitched on us, and I wasn’t going to let that possibility kill us. Darkstar would be on his guard here, and I would be on mine out there. An ambush could come at any moment, and I wouldn�
�t doubt Erik being in the lead. How he had handled the butcher’s knife had added to my doubt about him, which slightly saddened me. I liked the Russian man. I didn’t want him as an enemy.
I slowly stepped to the front of the alley, keeping my footsteps practically silent. They would have probably heard the door slam, but that wasn’t reason enough to let them know that I was moving closer.
I peered around the corner and saw where their terrorists' cars were. They had black SUVs that looked like a state-of-the-art car. I bet it was the best on the market right now. Sticking out the windows of all seven cars were the muzzles of machine guns. They would have been heavy and cumbersome to transport inside, and not worth the effort it would have taken. They could still shoot me with those guns though.
I searched around the parking lot. It seemed as if none of the cars had been damaged, and I saw the one we had arrived in. The car was parked near the front of the building, only ten feet away from where the majority of the terrorists' cars were now. Well isn’t that just freaking awesome.
The terrorists wasn’t really looking over toward me though. They seemed mostly fixated on the door going into the building, not really caring about their surroundings. I couldn’t see into the SUVs though, which meant that there might be people inside of them keeping watch on their surroundings. I wouldn’t be completely obvious about this; I wasn’t a dumbass.
I looked at my surroundings in the alleyway. Erik was looking at me expectantly, but Darkstar was watching the Russian discreetly.
I eyed the wall next to me curiously. After a few moments of thought, I decided I could do it. I looked back at the other two guys for a moment before digging my fingers into the side of the brick wall, looking for a handhold. Mind you, I wasn’t actually digging into the wall for whichever weirdo takes that literally. Just pressing really hard and not trying to fall. It would take time, but I would be able to scale the side of the building.
Star Rebellion Page 27
