Orion: A Heroic Novel

by Travis Johnston

  “Where did you go, you coward?” I shouted toward the building as I hovered in the air, shifting my eyes toward the lower floors. It would be impossible to find him in there; the place was huge, and he was freakin’ invisible!

  Something caught my eye. A man standing near one of the broken windows on the highest floor. I burst into motion, flying directly toward him. As I approached, I stopped, hovering just outside the window.

  I recognized him. Dark skin, slick black hair, a goatee, and a thick build. He wasn’t as tall as me, but he postured himself as if he were above everyone.

  “Hey, Draco,” Mark said casually. “Thanks for coming. We need to talk.”

  Chapter 32

  Michael

  It was hot in here. I didn’t want to get up yet. But it was so hot!

  I slowly opened my eyes, staring straight up at the orange and grey tarp that covered my tent. I could see silhouettes of ants and cockroaches climbing up the tent, looking desperately for a way in so they could find me and eat me alive. Evil little buggers.

  I reached for my phone next to my sleeping bag. It was nearly dead, but had enough juice to still tell me the time. 8:03 a.m. I groaned, putting my phone down. I wanted a couple more hours of rest, but sleeping in was nearly impossible while camping in Arizona. The sun had only been up for an hour, but it had already transformed my tent into a man-sized oven.

  With a sigh, I sat up, unzipping my sleeping bag a little. I rubbed my eyes and glanced down at my bare chest. My ribs felt much better today. Angela and I had been camping out here for the past few days, and most of the time I relaxed with my powers on, letting my ribs heal as fast as possible. It wasn’t instantaneous, but much faster than it would’ve been without my blue stone.

  I reached into my pocket. Yep, I thought. It’s still there. My meteorite was cool to the touch, and felt as ordinary as any skipping stone, but I treated it as if it were a sacred relic. I had formed a habit of checking on it often. Losing that stone would be miserable. I’d have limited powers like Angela had for most her life. And I admit that I’d become addicted to using the powers the stone granted me.

  I closed my eyes, imagining the top of a roller-coaster ride, and the ball of energy in my gut burst, spreading its tingling power through my limbs. It felt so good. Without my powers on, I’d felt so weak and fragile. And I had my powers on pretty frequently the past few days, so it felt weird whenever I turned them off—which was basically whenever I slept.

  Okay, I thought. It’s too hot in here.

  I put on my clothes, unzipped my tent, and stumbled out. Angela was already up, sitting next to the fire. She looked up to me and laughed.

  “Nice hair,” she said.

  I frowned, brushing through my hair. It was all over the place. “Um… thanks.” I said, embarrassed.

  She laughed again and turned back to the fire. I tilted my head as I gazed at her.

  Even though neither of us had used a proper bathroom the past few days, she still looked stunning. Her light brown hair streamed out from under her Yankees ball cap, her smile was soft and inviting, her eyes were a tasty, chocolaty brown. She was tall and slim, with all the right curves in all the right places.

  Not only that, but she was super awesome too. I mean, she was a Super Chick! Not many of those around, last I checked. And she was so assertive, decisive, and productive. Attributes I admired so much because I desired them myself. And she was smart, an astronomy nerd just like me. I couldn’t get over how cool that was!

  She shot a glance back at me, an eyebrow raised, obviously aware that I was totally checking her out. I started, stumbling over a rock, waving my arms, trying to catch my balance. She chuckled under her breath. “Careful, Michael,” she warned. I caught myself. Was there a second meaning in that?

  “I made you some breakfast,” Angela said, handing me a paper plate full of eggs, sausage, and hash browns.

  “Awesome! Thanks!” I said sincerely, as I slumped in a camping chair next to the fire, trying to pretend nothing had happened a few seconds ago. “I didn’t know you were such an expert at cooking.”

  “Oh I’m not,” she corrected. “Just an expert at camping.”

  I thought back to the burnt-fish-sticks smell at her house.

  “How are your ribs?” Angela asked as she forked some food into her mouth.

  “Better. Much better. I think I’m feeling good enough to run into the city today.”

  “Good to hear, but we’ve got enough supplies out here to last us a couple more days.”

  “Yeah, but I was thinking about going to the city for something else.”

  She tilted her head. “Oh yeah? What’s that?”

  I took a moment to swallow my food and leaned forward in my chair. “I’ve got an idea, Angela. And I think it stems off what you told me the other night about being a good Starling and breaking the law.”

  “Mm hm?” she hummed, looking curious.

  “Your dad said there are dozens of us Starlings. In the Western States, Canada, and Mexico. Chase Whipple showed us news reports of other Starlings. Some of them robbing banks and some putting out forest fires. Some good, some bad. What if we could get in contact with them? Form a team?”

  “Like a super hero squad?” Angela said skeptically.

  “Yes, actually. We could gather together with the good ones, so that together we can stop the bad ones.”

  Angela swallowed a slice of sausage. “It’s not a bad idea, but it sounds a little too idealistic to me. How are we supposed to find them? And just the good ones?”

  “They will come to us,” I explained. “And this is the best part. What we do is come clean to the media.”

  She stared at me for a moment. “You mean turn ourselves in?”

  “Sorta. But, not to jail. No. We tell the whole world who we really are. That we really have powers and want to use them for good. We tell them what your dad told us about Starlings. That there are more super humans out there that are too powerful for humans to stop.

  “So we basically use the media to give a warning to the people and to call the Starlings to us. The good ones. We can say that this is the gathering place for them, a safe haven. If we do that, and the people see that a big group of us really are good, then maybe they will stop sending cops after us. And maybe they will let us live among them with an agreement to not bother each other. That way… we could return to our homes, our families, our lives. Yes, everyone will know that we’re super humans, but we will just learn to get along.”

  Angela frowned as she thought about it. “Won’t that also attract a lot of attention to us and to Tucson?”

  “For sure,” I said. “Every bad Starling will know to stay away from this city, making it the safest place on earth.”

  “What if the bad Starlings start attacking people in other cities?”

  “Then we will run over there and stop them,” I said, putting my plate down and gazing into the fire. “Maybe that will be part of the agreement we make with the people. We will protect the world if they will let us break some laws in order to do so.”

  “So,” Angela said, rubbing her chin. “We will basically be superheroes without a secret identity?”

  I thought about that and nodded. “Yeah, or the police for the Starlings. The Starling Police. You know how cops are allowed to speed to catch a criminal? It’s the same idea here. We will be given leeway to break some laws so we can catch the superhuman criminals.”

  Angela gazed at the fire, slowly nodding. “It’s a good idea, Michael. Sounds like quite the adventure, but do you really think you and I should spearhead this? We’re both only sixteen years old after all.”

  “I turn seventeen in a month.”

  “Okay, but my point is… do you really think that we could gather a group of Starlings and fight other Starlings across the nation? I mean, you and I both had a hard enough time stopping Ray. We may be super humans, but we’re not fighters. We’re not police. We’re just teenagers. I got my driver’s
license six months ago!” She brushed some of her hair out of her eyes. “And some of the Starlings out there may be adults. Who knows who could have touched those stones? What if some psychopath serial killer got a stone and plans to murder thousands of people? Could we really stop someone like that?”

  “Probably not,” I admitted, looking away from the fire and at her. “But that’s why we need a big group of us. Together we should be able to stop anyone.”

  She turned away from me, stewing over my idea as she played with the fire with a stick.

  I rested my hand on her shoulder. She looked at me, concern in her eyes. “I know this will be very dangerous,” I said. “And life-risking. But, it’s better than just hiding from the world out here, hoping everything will turn out well while Starlings are popping up left and right. This is the only way that I can think of where I would actually feel like a good Starling. Like the hero my dad wants me to be.”

  “Heroes?” Angela said softly; not in a skeptical way, but more in a “I can’t believe this is finally happening” way. She wore a big grin, imagining the idea. And then she frowned. “There’s one problem we have to deal with first, before we can make Tucson a safe haven for Starlings.”

  “What’s that?”

  She threw her plate in the fire. “Ray Simmons,” she said. “Last night, after you went to sleep in your tent, I stayed up listening to my portable radio. I heard that Ray robbed a bank yesterday. The police have no idea how to stop him. There was talk about bringing in the National Guard.”

  “Ooh, that could get ugly.” I threw my empty plate into the fire and stood up. “This could be our chance, Angela. We could prove to the people that we’re good by stopping him.”

  “And how do we do that? Yeah, we’ve got a good chance because it’s two on one, but he didn’t stay down after our last fight. How do we keep him down? Kill him?”

  “No,” I said. “By taking away his stone. Without it he can’t use his powers, and we can let the police throw him in jail.”

  She nodded, looking at the dying fire, thinking about it. “Okay. Sounds like a plan. I hold him while you go digging through his pants.”

  “Please don’t say it like that.”

  She snickered as she slugged my shoulder. “Well one thing’s for sure. If we’re going to have a face-off with Ray, then we need to practice.”

  I looked up from the fire and noticed Angela’s eyes were glowing. She wore an evil grin.

  Before I knew it, I was shoved off my feet and sent rolling through the desert dirt and rocks. I sparked my powers to life and climbed to my feet, trying to gather my bearings. What was going on? I looked back at the fire. Where did Angela go?

  I heard something thundering from my right, and turned just as Angela pushed me to the ground again. I lay on the ground for a while this time. “What are you doing?” I stammered as I got to my feet. It took me a while to find Angela. When I finally found her, she was standing in the distance with a bundle of rocks in her arms, throwing one rock up and down, her eyes glowing.

  “Practicing,” she said with a teasing smirk. “Here, catch!”

  She chucked a rock at me, and man, could she throw! Even with my superpowers, that rock flew too fast for me to bring my hands up. I barely managed to dodge it as it zipped past my face and nailed a large cactus, completely toppling it over.

  I looked back at Angela, bewildered. “What, are you crazy?” I yelled. “Are you trying to kill me?”

  “C’mon, Orion!” She emphasized my nickname, handling another rock. “Let’s see how tough you are!”

  She flung the rock at me, and it was still faster than I’d expected. This one pegged me in the shoulder, knocking me off balance, but just for a moment. The rock didn’t hurt as much as I thought it would. It was more like getting hit by a dodgeball. When I looked back at Angela, another rock was soaring my way.

  I dodged it just in time, and saw the next one fly. Angela was throwing rock after rock at me. This is a crazy way to practice, I thought. But I’ll play along.

  I felt my powers surge as I lunged toward a rock, my goalie instincts kicking into gear. I caught it with one hand; it stung, but only a little. I caught the next one with my other hand.

  Angela threw a few more. I punched the first two with my fists, knocking them to the ground, and I spun and kicked the third one into the air, losing sight of it as it sailed above the clouds.

  I looked back at Angela. She still wore her playful smile, her eyes glowing. At first I thought this was crazy dangerous, but this was actually a lot of fun!

  I quickly picked up a few more stones nearby. “Alright, Cygnus. Your turn!”

  I threw three rocks at once with one hand, not at full strength—I didn’t want to hurt her—but hard enough to make her run for her money. I’d expected her to dodge them, since there were three coming at once, but she had a better idea.

  Her grin disappeared and was replaced with a focused expression. Her eyes suddenly shifted to a deeper white color, and with an explosion of light, glass-looking wings appeared out of nowhere and circled around her. The three rocks thudded against the wings, each one splitting into tiny little pieces.

  I could see Angela through her transparent wings, deep in concentration, her arms out to her sides, as if they controlled the wings’ movements.

  “Whoa,” I said out loud, dropping the other rocks in my hand. I sped over to her and stopped a few feet away from her wings. “These are so cool…” I reached a hand out to touch them. Angela didn’t seem to mind.

  They were warm to the touch. They looked like they were made out of glass, intricate feather carvings throughout, like they were made by an expert glass-blower in a theme park. But they were too flexible and indestructible to be glass.

  “They’re not so much wings, as they are force fields,” Angela said, reading my thoughts. “They’re made out of pure energy, but solid and smooth. I’ve tried to figure out the science behind it, but it’s too complex.” She swung her arms downward, next to her thighs, and the wings followed suit. With a grinding sound, the wings cut through the desert ground as easily as a knife through butter, until they rested at Angela’s sides, mimicking the movement of her arms, the tip of the wings buried ten feet underground. “All I know is that it works,” she said. “Almost like magic. I’ve never been able to summon them for long periods of time, until now that I’ve got my stone.”

  “Angela,” I said, gawking. “You have force field wings… that is so cool!”

  She smiled proudly. “Yeah, it’s pretty cool, won’t lie. Problem is…”

  She started pumping her arms up and down, and her wings did the same, blasting dirt and pebbles with huge gusts of air. I raised an arm to protect my eyes as the air blew all around me. After a moment, Angela stopped flapping her wings, standing in the same spot, her lips drawn to a line, looking disappointed.

  “They don’t fly,” I finished for her, understanding. “It’s because they’re not connected to you. They can blow a lot of wind, but it doesn’t give you any thrust.”

  She nodded somberly and her wings disappeared, her eyes returning to their normal dull white glow.

  “How do you summon them?” I asked. Angela raised an eyebrow. “The wings? How do you get them to appear?”

  “It’s weird,” she said. She hesitated a moment, and then continued talking. “I have to think back to a memory I had back when I was nine. The first time the wings appeared. Mom and I were caught in a storm while we were out hiking. It started to hail, and there wasn’t anything to cover us nearby. Mom was getting hurt and I had an overwhelming desire to protect her from the hailstones. Then, suddenly, out of nowhere, the wings appeared around the both of us, blocking us from the storm. I didn’t even realize I was using my powers until I got weak and passed out moments later, and my mom carried me to shelter.”

  She paused for a moment. I hadn’t heard her talk about her mom much. Her parents got divorced a few years ago. Her mom still lived in New York. J
ust a few days ago, Angela learned from her dad that the divorce was partially due to her powers and how her parents struggled to keep them a secret.

  “After that,” Angela said, looking up at me. “I tried for months to get my wings to reappear. And finally they did, when I thought back to that memory. It hurt to use my powers, but I was so fascinated by the wings, I just wanted a glimpse of them. I wanted to fly with them so desperately. It wasn’t until now, that I’ve gotten to fully test them out.”

  I hummed, folding my arms. “There’s got to be a connection.”

  “Hmm?”

  “A connection between your powers, my powers, Ray’s powers, and every Starling’s powers. You’ve got force field wings. Ray can throw fireballs. And me… I don’t know what I can do.”

  “I saw the balls of light that came out of your hands during your fight with Ray,” she said.

  “Yeah, that was weird.” I started pacing casually. “And I don’t know how I did it, or why it happened, and I don’t know how to do it again. And I’ve thought back on when it happened several times, just like you did for your wings, and nothing has happened.”

  “Hm,” Angela said, folding her arms. “It took me a while to get the hang of it. When I think of the memory, I have to really convince myself that I’m there, and I have to feel it. That same feeling I had to protect my mom and…” With a deep humming sound, her wings reappeared, surrounding both of us. “Voila!”

  I looked around at the shimmering wings, impressed, and gazed back at Angela. I couldn’t help but realize how close we were to each other, inside the comforting dome of her wings. She wore a soft smile, looking back into my glowing eyes. We held each other’s gaze for a while.

  She broke the gaze and dismissed her wings, but still wore a grin. “Hey,” she said walking past me, patting me on the shoulder. “Let’s keep practicing.”