by Jason Letts
Aoi saw Jeremy’s patronizing look when she emerged from the forest and stuck her tongue out at him. They snuck through the narrow area between the side of the house and the brush. Looking through the window, they couldn’t see anything. Rowland peeked around the side. He could see two enemies standing by the road and one on the porch.
“Is that guy holding a wheel?” he whispered.
“I think he is,” Will said, craning his neck. “Dummy thinks he’s driving a boat or something.”
Aoi pulled them back around the corner.
“OK, this should be easy. How about Jeremy distracts them and then we all run out and stomp them?”
Everyone consented, and soon moths and mosquitoes were fluttering around the enemies’ heads.
“Are you ready?” Aoi said, excited and smiling. All together, they poured out of their hiding place and with whoops and hollers hurled themselves at the enemy. The man with the wheel in his hands, looking out from the front steps, watched them emerge onto the lawn. A mean-looking girl veered at him, and he twisted the wheel.
In a second, all five of them dropped to the ground and writhed as they tried desperately and unsuccessfully to get to their feet. Their war cries turned into painful moans. The man with the wheel looked down at them. His victims were dizzy to the point of complete ineptitude.
“Tie them up,” he said.
Back behind the house, Mira approached the broken glass door with a despair she never thought she would experience at entering her own home. The place looked trashed and vacant. The shelves had been emptied onto the floor; there were broken glass and dishware everywhere. Mira didn’t want to go inside. Seeing her home like this caused deep pain.
A sudden crash came from her right. She ran around the house to check it out.
A man stood on the ground, beneath a broken window. He seemed to recognize Mira, because something ugly and vicious came over him. He ran toward her, but in a moment he fell forward over his feet as Vern pulled him back. Chucky stepped in and delivered a crushing blow that knocked out the intruder.
“He’s sleeping,” Chucky reassured them. He entered the house with Vern. The girls followed them in.
The sound of thumping came through the ceiling.
They tiptoed around the wall. Mira noticed the door to the basement was shut, and she tried to remember if she had shut it or not.
Chucky led the way. Just as he turned to go up the stairs, a large and brutish figure popped out, causing Chucky to stumble back and smear oil all over the wall as he tried to regain his balance.
“Looks like they’re cooking something up here,” Fortst said, waving them on. “Let’s hurry.”
They all sighed with relief at the familiar face. The sound of thumping and scraping came from above, and Mira wondered in what state she would find her parents.
Outside, things seemed even worse.
“She keeps breaking through the rope,” a deep voice said.
“You have the worst rope I’ve ever seen!” Aoi gurgled.
“We didn’t come for hostages,” the man with the wheel said. He set it down on the ground and removed a long knife from his waistband.
“No!” Will yelled, before collapsing back on the ground. He blew wildly with no effect but to further disorient his peers. A colossal swarm of insects similarly performed a bizarre and unhelpful dance in the distance.
The man kicked Aoi flat to the ground and then raised his knife over her. Then a rock struck the side of his face and he stumbled to the side. Dot’s arm swabbed the ground for another stone to throw. She found a smaller one and she threw it at his temple.
At that moment, the other group raced from the other side of the house behind a wave of hollering.
“That one! That one!” those languishing on the ground ordered, and Dennis grappled the man with the knife from behind as the others attacked his comrades. Dennis overextended his enemy’s elbow joint, causing him to fling the knife down. Rowland, managing to get a hold of it, turned the blade into a smooth round ball. Others in black uniforms with suns and clouds on them came from the roof, the forest, and through the front door of the house. As they wrestled and fought, those on the ground slowly regained their senses. Though they fought clumsily, the students managed to make it an even fight with their numerical advantage.
They battled back and forth, an intruder would throw off one student only to have two more jump on him. They fought with their gifts as much as with their hands. Icicles grew from under the arms of one man. He hurled them at Dennis, but they turned to slush by the time they splashed against his chest. Aoi tore the wooden pillars from the porch railing and launched them at her combatants until someone dropped down on her from the roof. Will blew him off balance and then Aoi threw him into the side of the house.
Together, the students piled their opponents in the center of the lawn, and Jeremy imprisoned them behind a thick wall of swirling insects. Aoi wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and saw blood.
They looked at the front door, left wide open, and the dim light that trickled through. The light from the moon shone down on the second floor windows, and they could see one window covered from the inside by a thick white mist.
Fortst and the students crept silently up the stairs. They could hear the floorboards creaking under the weight of footsteps above. At the top of the stairs, Mira peeked down the hallway to her parents’ room. The door had been ripped from its hinges but a dense cloud filled the doorway completely.
The sound came from the study at the end of the hall, which shared a wall with the master bedroom. They crept past Mira’s bedroom, which had been trashed much like the living room below. Fortst turned back to the students. Without saying a word, he signaled that he would charge. He pointed to Mary and then the study. She nodded and held up two fingers. He signaled to Vern and Chucky to follow him in and for Roselyn to watch for anyone who might try to escape into the hallway.
Then, Fortst ran for the study door. He kicked it in like it was nothing. Two intruders were inside, trying to build a fire with wood torn from the wall. Fortst swung his pipe at one of them with a smooth, powerful motion. When the pipe struck the man’s head, it made a loud clanging noise but didn’t stop him.
Vern and Chucky ran in behind him, and they saw cloudy mist poking through the holes in the hacked and clawed wall. Seeing the man Fortst had tried to strike, they drew back. He looked big and mean. Naked except for a loincloth, his skin transformed in waves. Wood, metal, fur, plastic, rubber, leaves, glass, porcelain, stone, and so many other textures seemed to sweep over him as his skin changed its appearance. His fists became iron mallets that he slammed down on Fortst’s shoulders, knocking him back between Vern and Chucky.
Watching from the hallway, the girls saw the man grab Chucky and throw him against the wall. Vern jumped on the intruder from behind, but his skin became like a shark’s, covered in microscopic needles. Vern yelped and let go, his hands bloody and shredded.
Fortst had gotten up, and he showered blows down on his opponent in the hopes of finding a weak spot. The tube always landed on metal and had no effect. Dodging a blow and blocking the next with his weapon, he struggled to hold back the attack as the man’s arm grew teeth like a razor-sharp saw. The arm pulled down, raining rust down on Fortst. He swung again for the man’s head, but the impact snapped the tube in half.
Behind them, the other man worked at creating a fire. Rubbing his hands back and forth, he twisted a thin stick, trying to create enough heat for a flame to start. A fragile flame soon sprung up and ignited the splinters. He held the torch to the cloud wall and laughed as the flame started to eat its way through.
“Predictable. Now let’s burn them out,” he said to his companion, who elbowed Fortst in the stomach.
“OK,” he said, igniting his own wooden hand. He stood over Chucky and touched his flaming hand to the oily wall.
“Much obliged, friend,” the fiend laughed, putting out the fire on his hand by changing it t
o stone.
“Get out of here!” Vern yelled, and Chucky scuttled to his feet and through the door. He ran past the girls and down the stairs. The oil caught fire and spread on the wall. It followed the thin trail Chucky had left behind until it met with a metal tube. Fortst, giving his enemy a grim and nasty glare, wiped the burning oil onto the broken tube.
“Run, Vern!” Fortst said, and the battered student scampered for the door. The intruder sent a metallic fist down to strike him, but Fortst caught it with his bare hand. Holding him in place, Fortst struck him in the back with his flaming weapon.
The fire spread quickly along the walls and the ceiling. Smoke raced out into the hall above Mira’s head.
“We have to get out of here!” Mary said.
Mira went to her parents’ doorway and put her hand against the mist, which felt warm instead of cool.
“Mom, Dad, you have to get out! There’s a fire!”
She didn’t think they could hear her, but she had to try anyway. The man with the changing skin shoved Fortst out of the way and made for the hallway, but Fortst grabbed his shoulder and threw him to the ground.
The impact of the heavy weight cracked the weakened floorboards, sending all three men crashing through to the living room below. Quickly, Mira grabbed a towel from her room and held it to the flames surrounding the gaping hole in the study. It caught fire, and she brought it back to the floor near the doorway.
“What are you doing?” Mary asked.
“Better I get through to them than they do,” she said.
The fire ignited the wooden doorway and began to dissolve the mist. She watched anxiously until a small hole appeared.
“Mom, Dad, it’s me!”
She could see them coming closer and looking in the tiny space between the fire and the cloud.
“Mira!” Kevin gasped. “You have to get away. They’re after you!”
“I know, but the house is on fire. Let’s go!”
The cloud wall disappeared completely. Though Mira felt overjoyed to see her parents, they had to hurry. The five of them ran down the stairs and then stopped dead.
They could see Fortst’s body lying face down on the floor. A man with a body of stone lurched toward them. Vern and Chucky were nowhere to be seen, and Kevin’s power was useless for the heat.
“I suppose I might as well do something,” Roselyn said. She began to sing, and her simple and charming song slipped in under his tough exterior. The threatening and dangerous look dropped from his face. His skin looked plush like a pillow.
“You look sleepy,” Jeana said, leading him outside through the broken glass door. Once they made it out to the grass, she tapped him on the forehead and sent him off to sleep.
“I sure wouldn’t trade places with your mother,” Jeana said, shaking her head.
Kevin and the girls attempted to drag Fortst outside. They heaved and strained, until they heard a voice.
“There’s a fire!” Aoi said, running into the room and sizing up the situation. “Try the gym,” she admonished them, grabbing her teacher and carrying him through the front door by herself. The students outside had captured the second enemy who tried to escape after falling through the study room floor, and they gasped when they saw Fortst unconscious. Aoi set him down on the grass and went to get Jeana and her prisoner.
The students crowded around Fortst. He wasn’t breathing. Mira knelt down and slapped him across the face.
“Get up!” she wept. “You saved us. You could at least be around to enjoy the glory.” She shook him as hard as she could and pounded on his chest. Too much time had passed, and Mira was starting to give up when suddenly he began coughing. He finally opened his eyes.
“Did you catch me sleeping on the job? Sorry about that.”
Mira broke down, overjoyed. Jeana came around the side of the house and took her place by her husband’s side. Seeing them together, Mira finally let herself believe that everything would be OK.
“I was so worried that something would happen to you,” she said to them.
“Us? You shouldn’t have come. We thought you would be safe as long as you were with your group.”
Mira hugged her parents warmly, glad to be able to touch them and feel that they were there. When Mira stepped away, she saw Chucky approaching her.
“I’m sorry about what’s happening to your house. It’s all my fault,” he said. The fire spread around the house and glowed through the windows. The roof looked like it would catch any minute.
“Let me see what I can do,” Kevin said.
“You can’t blame yourself, Chucky,” Mira said. “Just because they used your power against you doesn’t mean you did it.”
A sheet of white mist formed over the house. It grew dense and thick, sucking water from the air. The droplets became too much for the air to hold, and they dripped and rained down on the house. The mist crept in through broken windows and watered the shrinking flames. The smoke began to look more like steam.
“This is strange,” Kevin said. “The water isn’t putting it out completely. What’s going on?”
“That’s because it’s burning the oil, not the wood. Water won’t put it out because it’s a different kind of fire. You’ll just have to wait for all of the oil to burn away and make sure it doesn’t spread to the wood,” Mira said.
“I guess that means Corey was wrong. Not all fire blends together perfectly,” Jeremy said.
“That’s true,” Mira said, “but our differences can be our strength. Where one of us fails, another will succeed, and in that way, together, we will meet every challenge that comes before us!”
Soon, the last flames ran out of fuel and disappeared. The sound of running footsteps came from down the road, and four town guards approached the house. While one spoke, the others began to tie up the prisoners.
“We just finished rounding up the townsfolk, and we’re here to take these prisoners off your hands. Corey sends his orders for you to meet with him in the outpost at once.”
When the prisoner exchange had been completed, the weary warriors mustered what energy they had left to hurry down into town.
Natalie stood at the gate and escorted them inside. The entire town, a few hundred people, occupied the outpost courtyard. Not one of them knew the nature of the emergency; confused and worried faces surrounded them as they worked their way through the crowd. Natalie called on someone to escort Fortst to the healer’s tent.
“No, I’m fine. Really. Just let me walk it off,” Fortst pleaded as the man dragged him to Nora, who already had a pair of shears in her hair.
The rest descended below ground. Entering the office, they saw Corey in front of the conference room door. He looked strangely amused and satisfied despite the circumstances.
“How you all survived is a mystery I will never comprehend. You’ve done this town a service, but I would be careful not to tempt fate so recklessly next time. I think all of our graduates learned more training is in order before they are ready to meet our enemies in battle.”
Kevin, leading Jeana, Mira, and the rest of the students, followed Corey into the underground room with the long table. He was shocked to find Yannick standing there.
“What is he doing here?” Kevin asked.
“If you must know, he followed that band of raiders all the way back here to warn us. Without him, I fear the events of this evening would have passed much more dreadfully. Yannick has managed to gather some crucial information while risking his life for you,” Corey said.
Yannick wobbled back and forth before leaning his arm against the wall. The candles in the room illuminated the cuts on his face, his bloodshot eyes, and his torn clothing. He looked gaunt, starving, and in need of a good bath.
“I couldn’t make it to the other side like you wanted, Mr. Ipswich. I couldn’t find the man who entered your home and tried to take your daughter’s life. I couldn’t find Pyrenee, that faceless name pulling the strings. But I did find those grunts you met with tonight
, and they said plenty when they thought no one was listening.
“I heard about their plot to kill Mira. Pyrenee, a fierce and cold-hearted woman, put them up to it. It sounds like she’s sold her humanity for a sharp sword. She leads the Sunfighters’ army. So I don’t have to guess to know what horrible things she’s done to good people I knew. But that ain’t the end of it.
“You said Mira’s sister was kidnapped in a fire by a wild man. She’s still alive and they’re holding her captive. I heard it from their very mouths. She rots in some putrid dungeon, but she’s precious to them, and they’d go to any lengths to keep her. They’re afraid you’re going to come for her, Mira. You’d better do just that.”
The revelation that their long lost baby was alive cut into Kevin and Jeana. They held each other and braced themselves for Mira’s reaction.
Mira’s emotions waffled through curiosity, confusion, and outrage to despair, sympathy, and wonder. She couldn’t let herself believe what Yannick said. She nervously glanced at her fellow students, embarrassed. What would they think of her now that they knew the sorrows of her family?
“What is he talking about? I don’t understand,” she said, scared.
“He’s telling the truth,” Kevin said. “You have a twin sister, Clara, but someone took her from us when you were only an infant. A man without heart or conscience, he took your power and he took your sister from us. We always assumed she had been laid to rest, but somehow she’s done it. She’s survived!”
The feelings stirred so deeply within Mira that she could hardly keep them contained. Her legs could no longer support her weight, and she collapsed into a chair. Gulping for breaths, she covered her straining face with her hands.
“Is that all? Please, tell me that’s all. I had a power, but I was stripped of it and left to live as a hollow shell! I have a sister! And to top it all off, you never told me that someone came to kill me.”
