Flicker, Fade, Soar Page 6

  Part Five

  Ms. Walker immediately rushed over and healed Alexia, but she was still vulnerable. Alexia’s leg had snapped clean in two, and it was still sore once she’d been healed. Winnie helped her limp over to take shelter by a rock, but Abomination was throwing Sparks at us, and unlike Jonah, his charged in two seconds.

  From what I’d learned, a Spark was similar to a ball of light. It could start fires, form lightning bolts that did even more damage, or if it hit directly in the chest of its target, kill instantly. Luckily, during the battle, this never happened, it only hit other body parts, which took a few minutes to kill, and in which time Ms. Walker could normally heal the victim.

  Right after knocking Alexia off the rock, Abomination tried to catch us all off guard using Dark Bubble, which was a part of the Power of Dark Magic. He made a certain motion with his hand, and a bolt formed. He threw the bolt on the ground near all of the ABC, and it knocked anyone near it unconscious for a full hour, unless Ms. Walker healed them, which she normally did.

  There was no time for a battle plan, it was more of a don’t-be-killed thing. I hid behind a rock, turned invisible (usually succeeding, yay) and went up to Abomination, throwing him off balance, to make way for Alexia’s power of telekinesis.

  After a bit of this, Abomination started to get really angry, throwing so many Sparks around that it was impossible to go anywhere without being hit. “What do we do?” screamed Winnie, promptly being hit by a Spark. Ms. Walker quickly healed her, but then she sprawled to the ground being hit with a Dark Bubble.

  Oh no. There was no way everyone could survive without her power of healing for a full hour.

  “What now?” yelled Josef, dodging a Spark that would have hit his head.

  I took cover behind a rock. “I don’t know! We just need to survive until she wakes up,” I sobbed. This was a nightmare.

  Abomination threw a Spark at the rock I was hiding behind, and it exploded. Pain shot through my body as I was thrown in the air and I landed hard, pain flooding all my senses. I lay there, trying to regain my wits.

  “Rose!” Somebody was calling. I blinked. “I’m OK!” I yelled to whoever was wondering. I was ok. I just needed to rest for a moment.

  I dragged myself to where Josef was hiding. He flashed me a grin, then, anger in his eyes, shot a fireball at Abomination. Abomination roared and stumbled backwards.

  I stood up, a bit shakily. Actually, more than a bit. As I was about to fall again, Josef caught me around the waist, promptly shooting another fireball at Abomination. He let go after a long moment. “Even now,” he said breathlessly. I smiled as I remembered how I helped him get up after the water battle.

  I turned invisible (three tries, but I did!) and kicked Abomination in the back of the knee, then ran as he stumbled and nearly fell.

  “So close, R!” Winnie yelled at me, blood running from a cut down her face.

  “You ok, Win?” I ran to her and examined her injury.

  “Stupid every-weapon-on-the-face-of-the-earth hand,” Winnie tried to smile, then grimaced as a fresh wave of blood ran down her cheek.

  I ripped off a sock and threw it at her.

  “Thanks, Rosey,” she breathed, clutching it onto her face.

  The normal Winnie would have checked the sock to see if it smelled or at least made a joke. Hard times.

  I came up to Abomination, invisible again. But (darn) as soon as I reached his feet, I felt myself becoming visible.

  He roared and picked me up, holding his knife hand inches from my face. I shuddered so hard I was surprised that alone didn’t make him drop me.

  Abomination grinned in my face. It made me shudder harder. “Well, well, well. The little invisible bugger,” he snorted.

  Just as he was about to toss me to the ground a lot harder than the first time, I felt a wave of heat as one of Josef’s fireballs hit Abomination in the chest. Abomination growled and doubled over in pain, dropping me. I landed on my feet, luckily only about two or three feet from the ground. I regained my balance and ran.

  “We’re seriously all going to be dead by the time Ms. Walker awakes,” I gasped to Sandra (she was the closest one), noticing a long, thin cut down my leg.

  Sandra looked at me. “Maybe. But we’ll all keep fighting, and in my opinion, that’s the best way to go down.” She smiled weakly.

  I agreed with Sandra, but hey, I’d rather not go down at all. So I turned invisible again and kicked Abomination in the leg again mechanically.

  Over and over and over it went. I was exhausted, and felt dizzy from all the blood I’d lost (the bandage on my earlier arm injury had torn off almost as soon as the battle started).

  Just as I was readying myself for another go, Nicole took a deep breath and said, “I have an idea.”

  “Is it dangerous?” Davies asked anxiously, flying a foot in the air to avoid a Dark Bubble.

  “It’s our only hope!” yelled Nicole, flying out from behind her wall and zooming towards Abomination.

  “Oh, no, Nicole, don’t!” A Flyer groaned. “Don’t!”

  Too late. Abomination sent bolt after bolt at Nicole, but with her obviously superior flying skills, she dodged them all.

  I watched, awestruck.

  She was about to reach Abomination to kick him in the head when he hit her stomach with a Spark. She froze in midair for a moment, suspended, then crashed to the ground, landing in a heap, eyes closed, the color slowly leaving her face.

  Abomination laughed.

  “Oh no!” yelled another Flyer.

  Davies rushed to Ms. Walker and violently shook her. She did not wake up. Nicole stayed as still as ever.

  All the TOCS kids and Flyers ran towards Nicole. The other Supers continued the battle.

  Tears streaming down his face, Davies gently picked up Nicole, lay her near Ms. Walker, and put Ms. Walkers hand on her.

  Nothing happened.

  If Nicole could just hold on until Ms. Walker woke up… I lay a hand on Nicole’s chest. Not good.

  A Flyer came towards us. He stopped when he saw Nicole’s unmoving body. “Nikki?” he gasped.

  Soon, the whole TOCS and all the Flyers were gathered around Nicole, murmuring words of encouragement and hope. “You can pull through, Nikki. Just hold on for one more minute.”

  I heard a yell from the battlefield. Abomination had stepped directly on top of a LOFS Super.

  “Ms. Walker, wake up, we need you!” Cat wailed, shaking her aunt.

  “Where’s Jenna? We need Jenna to heal Ali!” yelled a LOS Super from the other side of the battlefield.

  “Jenna is unconscious!” I screamed to whoever was yelling, tears splattering my own face. “A kid Flyer is dying over here too!”

  Ms. Walker slowly woke up, but, not knowing the urgent situation, she just sat up blearily. “What?”

  “Heal Nicole! Heal Nicole now!” Davies said urgently, putting Ms. Walker’s hand on Nicole.

  One of the Flyers that was monitoring Nicole looked up, her face drained of color. “Too late, Davies. She’s gone. Forever.”

  It started to rain. The rain mixed with my tears as the last bit of life drained out of Nicole. I had hardly known her, but I thought we could have been friends. And nobody was supposed to die today. Today was supposed to be a day of victory and triumph. Even though the odds were impossible, I’d never really thought that we’d lose, anyone would lose their lives.

  “Ali’s dying! Where’s Ms. Walker?” the same Super that yelled before came over holding a young woman with quite a few obvious broken bones and injuries.

  “She’s right here,” I said dully, motioning to Ms. Walker. Ms. Walker looked stricken, bending over Nicole, trying to heal her, even though it was too late. It was always too late, and I saw that now. Too late trusting Alexia, she’d already planned to trick us, though in the end it worked out. Too late becoming more than friends with Elias, his sights were already set on Lily. Too late killing Abom
ination, even if we ended up doing it, because no matter what now, we had lost. We had lost Nicole. And that haunted me.

  The rain picked up. It was impossible to see Abomination or any other human being, even your hand in front of your face. I stumbled a few steps and fell down, my knees scraping the dirt.

  I sobbed, kneeling there on the ground. Josef came up to me and put a hand on my shoulder. “Hey, girl. What’s going on? I thought you hardly knew Nicole.”

  “Exactly, but I could have,” I gasped. “We could have been friends. We could have had a future. What did she want to do with her life? I’ll never know. Nobody was supposed to die. Nobody. No Supers, no Nicole, no kids, no nobody!” I sobbed all the more that I didn’t care about my terrible grammar.

  Josef knelt down to my level and gave me a long, calming hug. Weirdly, this helped. A lot. I hugged him back as my tears and the downpour slowly dried up.

  I heard a yell from the battle field. “Kids, can we please get your help over here? You worked together amazingly.” I looked towards the voice in astonishment. It was a League of Supers member, wanting nine messed-up kids to help them? Wow. How wrong they were.

  Or were they?

  I remembered how we worked together on the battlefield, all nine of us, like a well-oiled machine, with only a few weeks of training. I remembered our laughs together, and how we knew each other’s deepest, darkest secrets.

  Anyone would want a group like that helping them.

  So with the last bit of strength I could muster, I yelled, “TOCS, to me!”

  The Flyers looked surprised, but I think they knew that this was our time. This was time for The Team of Challenged Supers to show what they had. The time for ABC unity would come later.

  It was time for TOCS to prove that they had what it took to be real Supers.

  We ran over to Abomination with the strength of tigers. Even the League of Supers got out of our way.

  Winnie struck Abomination with lightning.

  Josef shot fireball after fireball at Abomination’s (robotic) heart.

  Ty and Etty confused Abomination with their twin movements.

  Jonah matched Abomination’s Sparks in midair.

  Sandra turned Abomination’s feet the same color of the grass so he got tripped up.

  Lily attempted to make Abomination feel sad and surrender.

  Elias turned small and dislodged some of Abomination’s mechanical parts.

  I turned invisible and followed any or all of their powers with a good kick to Abomination’s shins.

  These were my unique and (in their own way) powerful friends, and if as Sandra said, we all “went down,” this was the time to do it, with TOCS by my side.

  And suddenly, it seemed Abomination couldn’t take it anymore. His steps faltered, and he roared, and fell to the ground, unconscious.

  There was a moment of silence, and then we all started screaming.

  Winnie high fived Josef, and hugged Elias. She looked surprised for a second, then shrugged and gave Lily a kiss on both cheeks. Everyone laughed, and smiled, and temporarily forgot that we had lost Nicole.

  As soon as the last high-five was slapped, a tall, thin man came up to us. “Congrats!” he said. “That was worthy of the League of Supers. I will have my eyes on you when you are of age.”

  Then his happiness changed to worry in an instant. “How is Jenna? Is she OK?”

  “I’m OK, Miles,” a weak voice said from behind. We all spun around. It was Ms. Walker, supporting Ali!

  “Al!” An elated voice called. The man that had brought Ali over to be healed ran and caught Ali in his arms, and they kissed.

  Miles grinned at Ms. Walker, and they hugged.

  “Wow, two happy couples reunited,” Winnie said, raising her eyebrows. “Never seen Ms. Walker’s husband before.”

  “How can you make jokes at a time like this?” demanded Davies, walking up.

  “That wasn’t a joke, but I’m sorry if it offended you,” Winnie told him, a surprised tone in her voice.

  “I’m so sorry about Nicole,” said Elias in a small voice to Davies.

  Davies let out a sob. “She was the best sister anyone could ever ask for.”

  Oh. That made things about a thousand times worse.

  I was feeling utterly awkward, and again on the verge of a breakdown. So I walked over to where Miles and Alexia were having an argument. “But you can’t!” She paused for as a second as Miles said something. “I know, I know!” Alexia said back exasperatedly.

  As I came closer, I could also hear Miles’s calm voice. “Alexia, you know if we hesitate any longer, he will wake up, and we’ll have to start all over again.”

  “I know,” Alexia said again. Then she covered her face in her hands. “Ok. Do it.”

  My eyes widened. They were going to kill Abomination.

  I heard a flash, then a groan, and then it was all over.

  Suddenly, a feeling of hopelessness hit me like a wave, so fierce I stumbled and fell on my bottom.

  “You ok, Rose?” Cat asked.

  “I just feel so hopeless…” my voice trailed off and my eyes widened.

  Oh no.

  Oh no.

  Oh no.

  Everyone gathered around me. “Her Power Core,” Cat said sadly. “It’s failing.”

  That was the hopelessness I’d felt all day… It wasn’t just a poor attitude. It was my Power Core. I hadn’t been as strong as Ms. Walker hoped. I might have survived if we’d worked nonstop, but the battle… and the whole LOS being captured…

  The ABC all stared at me as the world started to fade. I wanted to say something to them, to let them know I had a good time at TOCS, to thank Cat and Ms. Walker, to let Josef know I wished there was more time for it all, but there was no time, and I gasped trying to get the words out. But no words could express my love for all of them. Just like with Alexia, they had become my family.

  Would I rather have the short time I had with TOCS and then die, or rather never meet the TOCS kids that I’d come to know and love, and live? I knew I should be noble and choose the first, but to be honest, I was hoping to have a long, happy life. And it’s not like I had a choice, anyway.

  Pain started building in my head, so fierce that I felt like my head would explode. I tried to struggle, to hold on as long as possible, but there was that sensation again, of someone punching me in the stomach, and I fell backwards, sending a new spark of pain to my head.

  The physical world faded entirely and I was at the mercy of my mind.

  Pictures started playing in my head as the pain built further. Josef. Winnie. Cat. Ms. Walker. Josef again. Josef saying thanks to me. Josef defending me against Jonah. Josef shooting a fireball at the rock for me, the sparks like fireworks in the sky. Josef looking into my eyes…

  Of all the things to think about during dying, I was thinking about Josef? Somehow, this seemed right, and I tried to hold the picture in my head for longer, but I couldn’t.

  The pain finally reached its max. I couldn’t take it anymore and I didn’t think I could hold on any longer. I tried to think happy thoughts, but all I could think of was the pain, building further… and further…

  And then the pain stopped and I had one moment of blissful peace before everything went black.