by Lisa Beeson
*****
Cam was about to squeeze her hand back when all of a sudden Ari disappeared with a whoosh of air. He sat there in shock. One moment she was there, and the next, she was gone.
Holy cow! She really is a superhero!
Cam turned his head back around to see the store through the grating. That’s when he realized that she had amped him. He could see through the walls into the store and the apartment. The place was swarming with Suits and Feds.
Aw man, Hawk’s gonna be so pissed.
Cam looked into the apartment and focused-in to see a guy snooping around and going towards Ari’s alcove. He saw the shower curtains shiver slightly then his bureau shook just a tiny bit. If his eye sight hadn’t been heightened he would have missed it. Then a second later, the guy doubled over as if he’d been punched.
Was she invisible? How did she get over there so fast?
*****
Ari pushed herself as hard as she could. She practically flew down the stairs, her feet barely touching the ground. The people in the lobby weren’t just moving in slow motion; they looked almost stationary. A man was holding the front door open for a woman, so Ari breezed through the open door and out onto the sidewalk. It felt like she was gliding, just like in the dream she’d had with Absolem. She saw the Feds and Suits in front of the store. They were going inside to search for who knows what. She zipped by all of them and went up the back stairs.
The apartment door was open and there was someone inside – it was a Suit. She sped by him, too focused on getting her bag to see what he looked like. Ari opened the curtains, got her bag, and put the envelope of cash in with the rest of her money. She put on her dark grey hoodie over her white tank top to camouflage herself a bit more, and then stuffed the rest of her clothes into the bag, all while in hyper speed. She left the alcove, closed the curtains behind her and went over to Cam’s bureau. Opening the top drawer, she found the cash and the knife right away, and stuffed them in her bag. Then, she slipped on her bag and turned to leave. That’s when she saw the Suit’s face.
Briggs.
She couldn’t stop moving; he’d see her if she did. So she ran around him in circles to get a good look at him. She’d know that stony face and cold, metal-gray eyes anywhere. He looked like he was moving towards her alcove, probably wanting to go through her stuff.
You’re too late Briggs. It’s already gone.
He was wearing a dark suit like his buddies, and not the lame substitute teacher outfit he’d had on the last time she saw him. She thought he looked kind of like an evil James Bond.
Not being able to help herself any longer, she punched him right in the gut on her last circuit around.
That’s for trying to kidnap me and ruining my childhood, jackhole!
Ari didn’t punch him as hard as she knew she could in hyper speed because she didn’t want to kill him. She just wanted to hit him hard enough to give him a bad time.
Running down the stairs and out the front door, she noticed that everyone had barely moved, but some of them looked confused and were turning towards the back stairs. Ari thought they must be reacting to the draft of air she made as she passed by on the way up.
Pushing herself harder, she glided down the street, squeezing through the door as it was closing behind the couple. Ari raced up the stairs, almost giving herself vertigo from going up the ten flights so fast. She rushed through the door to the tenth floor and went back through the unlocked door of room #1005. She closed the door behind her and finally slowed down when she reached the sliding doors to the balcony.
She leaned against the door frame, feeling almost totally drained. That was the longest and fastest she had ever been in hyper speed mode.
Cam’s head snapped around and he jumped in surprise. “Goo! You just disappeared! And now you’re over there! Did you just teleport?”
Ari chuckled weakly, shaking her head. “No, I just went really, really fast.” She was starting to feel lightheaded, but the last thing they needed was for her to blackout. “Cam, I need to eat something right now. I don’t want to pass out.”
Cam ran over to the kitchen and opened the fridge. “Do you want spaghetti or chicken?”
“Yes,” she said, stumbling over to find some utensils.
Cam laughed. “Okay, both it is.” He took out the plastic containers of food and put them on the counter. He went back into the fridge to look for something to drink and heard her opening the containers. “Hey, do you want me to heat those up for…” he began, but when he looked over, she was already halfway through the spaghetti. “…you?”
“No thanks, I’m fine. Keep it coming, please,” she said around a mouthful of food.
“Okey doke,” he said, and kept rummaging through the fridge.
By the time Ari felt like she wasn’t going to pass out, she had eaten nearly half the contents of the Hawk’s refrigerator. When Cam noticed she was finally slowing down, he asked, “Did you hit that guy in the apartment?”
“He deserved it.” Ari licked the last bit of pudding off her spoon and rinsed it off in the sink. “He was the guy that tried to kidnap me back in Georgia…wait, you saw that?”
“You amped me before you disappeared and I was able to see it through the wall. I saw the curtains and the bureau shiver a bit. Then the guy doubled over, I blinked, and you were back here.”
“But that’s not possible, I was too far away to amp you…,” she said as she absently washed the dishes out of habit.
Cam gave her a wry smile. “After what you just did? I think we should open our minds to the fact that when it comes to you, anything is possible.”
Maybe I was still holding his hand when I tapped into my energy, and I transferred some to him…
Cam plucked off a grape from the bunch he was holding in his hand and threw it into the air. He was about to catch it in his mouth when he froze, and the grape hit him on the forehead. “Uh oh, Marissa and Lucy are coming off the elevator. We gotta split.”
Ari quickly dried off her hands and put her backpack on. “You can still see through walls?”
Cam nodded, then pulled her back out on the balcony, shutting the curtains and closing the sliding doors behind them. “Yup. You don’t even want to know what the guy in #1007 is up to,” he whispered.
“Now what?” Ari whispered back.
Cam put his finger to his lips, then motioned for her to follow him. He hurdled over the side of the balcony and onto a ledge that went around the building. With her heart in her throat, she followed him over and they inched their way to the fire escape. Hurtling over the railing, they climbed down to the bottom. The sun had fully set, so Ari hoped it was dark enough that no one had spotted them. When they reached the bottom ladder, they jumped down on top of a dumpster, then back down to the pavement. Then, Cam started laughing.
“What’s so funny?” Ari asked, confused.
Cam shook his head. “Hawk is going to be so confused.” He busted out his best Hawk impression, “Why the hell did someone break in and eat all our food?”
The situation was pretty ridiculous, so Ari had to laugh too.
“No, officer, the burglar didn’t steal anything; he just ate all our leftovers and did the dishes,” Cam mimicked in Hawk’s deep voice.
They both cracked up again, but they sobered up quickly when they saw a black sedan coming up the street on their left. Ari pulled up her hood and they ran as fast as they could, sticking to the shadows as much as possible. Cam led them to a busy sidewalk and they weaved through the pedestrians, trying to put as much distance as they could between them and their pursuers. But the sedans kept coming from all directions. Ari knew the Suits were herding them, but there was nothing she could do about it – they were everywhere.
Cam started climbing up the corner where two buildings met, propelling himself back and forth between the ledges. Ari followed him up, and when they reached the top, they ran and jumped down ten feet onto the top level of a parking garage. It was a poor choic
e, because while they tried to figure out what to do next, four sedans drove up on the nearly empty parking level. Cam and Ari looked back the way they came, but it was only a one-way jump. The building was too far away and too high for them to get back up. They were trapped.
The sedans hedged them in, blinding them with their high-beams. Ari’s heart was racing out of control – fear and panic blocking her thinking. The cars parked around them, and the occupants got out and stood menacingly silhouetted in front of the headlights. A tall shadow stepped forward. “You put up a good fight, Ms. Riley, but the chase is over. You and your friend are coming with us.”
Ari knew the gruff surly voice belonged to Briggs. I should have punched him harder.
“The hell we are!” Cam yelled.
“There’s nowhere for you to go. The whole city thinks you two are armed terrorists, and they won’t stop until you’re in custody, which would lead you back to us anyway.” Briggs reached for something inside of his coat. Judging by the silhouette Ari thought it looked like one of those strange guns that the Suits had in Savannah.
“Why can’t you just leave us alone?” Ari screamed, fighting back the dread that was threatening to overwhelm her.
Briggs shook his head like he was trying to explain a very simple concept to someone who just didn’t get it. “I told you back in Savannah that your gifts were meant to be shared. And judging by that little stunt you pulled tonight…,” he said, rubbing the place where she had punched him. “My boss will be even more interested in you now.”
“You don’t even know half of what she’s capable of! She’ll crush you!” Cam yelled, trying to intimidate them.
Ari elbowed him in the ribs. “Shut up, Cam. You’re not helping,” she whispered.
Briggs gave a mirthless chuckle and aimed his gun at Ari. “Play time is over, children. It’s time to go to sleep.”
He shot the gun, and without hesitation, Ari’s wrist came up to block what had been aimed at her neck. She looked at her wrest to see what looked like a tranquilizer dart. It had pierced the leather cuff Jamie had given Ari for her birthday, saving her from the serum.
Thank you Jamie!
Adrenaline coursed through her veins, clearing her thoughts. “Cam, hold on to me and don’t let go no matter what.”
He grasped her hand tightly.
I hope this works…
Briggs saw what she was about to do. “Shoot them now!”
Ari tapped into her inner energy, grabbed Cam around the waist, hoisted him up under her arm, and surged forward just as three tranquilizer darts were fired towards them.
The darts froze in mid air. Ari looked down at Cam, whose pale face and wide eyes barely comprehended what was going on. But he managed to grasp her arm in a death grip, so Ari was able to take him along with her, and that’s all that mattered.
As they passed by Briggs, Ari couldn’t help herself from kicking his feet out from under him. Then, she got an idea. As she sped around the cars, she plucked the dart from her cuff and sliced all their tires. Then she glided out of there as fast as she could.
Ari tried not to bang Cam against anything as she went, knowing that if he hit anything while they were going at that speed, it would pulverize his bones.
They couldn’t go too far, though; she didn’t want to deplete all her energy like she had before. She stopped in the shadow of a stoop by a newsstand. Placing Cam on his feet, he immediately let go to lean against the side of the stoop, looking shell-shocked. “What…the hell…?” he asked looking straight ahead.
“Sorry, it was the only way we could get out of there,” she said while getting out some cash from her backpack.
“It was like being on a rollercoaster from hell. Everything was a blur, and it felt like my bellybutton was getting sucked out through my nose…did I pee my pants?”
“No, you’re good,” Ari laughed. “You get it together while I go get some candy bars from that newsstand guy over there.”
Cam bent over and put his hands on his knees, taking deep breaths. “Okay…,” he breathed out.
Ari made sure her hood was covering her hair and shadowed most of her face. She walked over and bought all the Snickers and Payday candy bars the guy had. She horked down five bars right there on the street before putting the rest of the bars in her bag. As she was zipping it back up and putting it on, she saw an FBI car driving towards her with its internal lights blinking. The passenger door opened and a guy yelled for her to freeze.
Not a chance.
“Cam, run!” she screamed.
He burst out of the shadow of the stoop and followed her down the street. The FBI agent followed close behind. Ari looked around and saw a man going through the metal gate to an apartment complex. “Cam!” she yelled, pointing to the gate. They ran as fast as they could, and Cam caught the gate just before it latched and locked them out. They ran through and quickly closed it behind them so the agent couldn’t follow.
Dashing into the building, they ran to the stairs. Taking their shortcut up the middle of the staircase, they heard a gunshot against metal about halfway up and then the entrance door burst open. They made it to the top floor and found a door that led up to the roof. Looking around quickly, they chose their course, then ran and jumped over the fifteen foot gap to the next building. The roof was slanted, so it was a bit tricky, but they managed. Running quickly, Cam jumped over to the next building. Ari was behind him and just about to jump when the agent shouted from behind her, “STOP!” He had followed them up to the roof and managed to distract Ari enough to throw her off balance as she jumped, causing her to tweak her ankle as she landed on the next building. She hissed in pain as Cam climbed up to a higher level of the roof. She tried to follow quickly, but her ankle made her wince as she limped over to the wall.
The agent caught up and jumped over to the rooftop they were on. He got up and pointed a gun right at her. “Freeze, goddammit! Or I’ll shoot!” he yelled, winded from the chase.
Ari put her hands up and turned around to face him. She looked into his eyes and saw that he was telling the truth. “Please don’t shoot me!” she pleaded. She quickly glanced up over her shoulder at the higher level to see if Cam was still there, but he wasn’t.
The agent blinked and lowered his gun just a fraction. Her hood had fallen off during the chase and when she had looked up, the flood light hanging on the wall behind her must have illuminated her face. “Jesus, you’re just a kid…” he said in disbelief.
“I’m not a terrorist, I swear! It’s a conspiracy thought up by a group led by a guy named Anaximander. They’ve been chasing me for months!”
“Doesn’t matter, I still have to take you in.” He lifted his gun again. “Now, I don’t want to shoot you. So just come with me quietly and we’ll get this straightened out.”
Ari panicked. “I can’t, don’t you see? They’ve infiltrated the FBI. They’ll just get to me from there!” She turned back towards the wall, trying to ignore the pain shooting up her leg.
“Don’t move, kid. I mean it! I will shoot!”
Ari heard a whistle come from atop the wall behind her. She looked up, expecting Cam. With a jolt of fear she saw that it was Shiny-man, and he was reaching his arm down to pull her up the wall. Up close, she saw that his eyes were a bluish-green color, and they had an opalescent quality just like hers.
He’s like me!
For some reason, she couldn’t read his intentions and his energy felt fundamentally different from other Progenies. But if he helped her get away from the agent, she’d take it. Ari grabbed onto his left hand with both of hers, the agent yelling in the background. Shiny-man took out a gun with his right hand and shot the agent while pulling her up like she weighed nothing. The gun shot was so loud that it made her ears ring.
The agent screamed and took a wild shot that made the light on the wall shatter, and Ari felt a searing pain pierce her right shoulder blade. She gasped in shock at pain radiating down her back, as if someone had just hammere
d a rail spike into her. Some of the shattered glass must have got me, she thought.
Shiny-man finished lifting her up on the rooftop, and as soon as she let go, he shot the agent again.
“Did you just kill him?” Ari asked worriedly, cradling her right arm against her body. “The guy was just doing his job.”
Shiny-man put his gun away. “No, I just shot his foot and his shooting arm. He’ll be fine,” he said, like shooting people wasn’t a big deal.
He had a muddled British-y accent that was hard to place. Was it Irish, Australian…maybe, South African …?
The man towered over her, wearing a black, long-sleeved shirt and dark cargo pants, which were tucked into black military boots.
Ari looked over to Cam, who was sitting on the ground, tenderly touching his bruising face.
Aw, heck no. Nobody messes with mine.
“What did you do to Cam?” She stepped towards Shiny-man, challenging him.
He only looked coldly down at her in response.
Cam stood up and walked over. “I was just about to come back and get you, but this guy showed up, so I tried to fight him off. Then, he back-handed me and called me an idiot. He said he wanted to help us,” he explained.
Ari looked defiantly at Shiny-man. “Whether he was being an idiot or not, nobody hurts my friends,” she said, getting in a fighting stance, ignoring the throbbing pain in her back. “You feel like a big man, beating up on some kids?” Her adrenaline high was making her feel brave.
Shiny-man smirked. “I’m the lesser of many evils, girl. And I’m the only option you have right now.”
Ari couldn’t read him, but she could hear the truth in his words. Also, her scalp wasn’t tingling, which was a good sign. She had to trust him…for now. “Fine. What’s the plan?” she said, warily eying him.
“We get out of here, before any more of them show up,” he said, motioning his head towards the agent calling for back up over his radio. Shiny-man made sure his gun was secured tightly in its holster, then he looked over at Ari. “Take a hold of his arm, and we’ll sift over to my car.”
