Eleven

  I Channel My Inner Avatar

  With my friends listening intently, I told them my story.

  How my last memory of my home world had been my parents putting me to sleep in my bio-pod. Then waking up in the big, white tent and encountering the first humans I’d ever seen. The ones in the blue clothes, that I now knew were called scrubs, who’d helped me escape. My time in the forest with the hunters, my first flight, and the men in helicopters shooting at me with actual bullets, leading up to the group finding me in the alley. I explained that I’d never known I had powers until the day before, except for my natural telepathy and apparent strength. Seeing Matt plug in his phone had reminded me how I’d been connected to my pod and its data stream.

  “Now, the only problem is, I know more about Earth than I do what happened to me,” I fidgeted with my braid. “All I can think to do next is try and get my pod back and see if my parents left me any clues about how to get home.”

  Lucas cracked his knuckles. “I don’t know about you guys, but I’m getting some serious Race to Witch Mountain vibes here.”

  “Lucas, no,” Brooke glared.

  “Nah, I’m thinking Lucas yes!” he grinned.

  “What are you gonna do? Break in to the nearest, heavily guarded, government facility and be all, “Hey, guys! Do you have any stolen alien pods around here?”. You’d get shot before you even reached the front gate,” Brynn scoffed.

  “The girls have a point,” Matt agreed.

  Lucas tossed his hands in the air. “Well, you guys got any better ideas?! We can’t just sit here and do nothing!”

  “You might have too.”

  They all stopped and looked at me. Chewing on my lip, I’d been tapping my finger rapidly against the counter and bouncing one knee, unable to sit still as I thought. The people who’d captured me before had been more than willing to use lethal force. With my new ability to generate energy into shields, I was confident I could take them on again. But if my friends got involved? I looked around the counter at them.

  “You guys have already done so much for me. A lot more than I think any other humans would have. If you keep helping me and end up getting hurt …,” I shook my head. “Like Lucas said, I have powers and now I know how to use them. I can protect myself.”

  “But there has to be something we can do. We want to help you, Genesis. Or at least I want to,” Lucas eyed the others.

  “It’s not that we don’t want to help, we just don’t know how,” Brooke said.

  “We’ll save Lucas’s plan for later, just in case we can’t think of anything else,” Conor winked.

  Then the six of us nearly jumped out of our skin when the doorbell rang. My friends glanced at one another, and I didn’t need any telepathy to realize they weren’t expecting anyone. I let a surge of power fill my body and ripple me into invisibility as Matt went to the front door. He pressed his face to the peephole before turning the handle and pulling the entrance open a crack. What I glimpsed through the sliver made my blood run cold.

  Standing behind the front door was a pair of very intimidating men. Hair cut short and slicked back, their eyes were hidden by dark glasses. Both wore spotless black suits with white undershirts and black ties. My mind flooded with yet another onslaught of new information, Men-In-Black becoming the central theme. There were a ton of fictional liberties taken with them in the media, but that didn’t cover the fact that their existence and purpose was very real, as was their presence on my friend’s doorstep. I could imagine Matt’s nervous swallow as he stood face to face with the two sinister looking spooks.

  “Um … can I help you?” he asked.

  “Is this the Barringer residence?” the black-suited meat robot in the lead inquired.

  Matt postured uneasily. “Who wants to know?”

  “I’m Agent Cullen, this is Agent Verbek. We’re here on behalf of the Louisville Federal Bureau of Investigation,” the man pulled a shiny badge out of his inside breast pocket. “We received a tip of some suspicious activity in the area. We’re just going door to door to see if anyone’s seen anything.”

  “Dude, this is the most boring neighborhood in all of America. If something weird is going on around here, it’d be an improvement,” Matt scoffed.

  “Regardless, would you mind if we came in and took a quick look around?” Agent Cullen removed his glasses in an oddly intimidating way.

  Matt glanced over his shoulder at the others and where I still remained invisible before cautiously opening the door all the way. “Um, yeah, okay, I guess.”

  The two agents nodded to him as they stepped inside, surveying the cozy suburban home like it was some dusty desert hideout – looking for threats. Matt returned to the counter, strategically standing in front of where I was, all of us watching the pair mill about the living space and poke their heads into the adjoining rooms. After about a minute or so, Agent Cullen sauntered over and took up a casually dominant stance leaning with one leg slightly propped on the back of the couch. He pulled a notebook and pen from somewhere in the void-like interior of his suit and began flipping through it in search of a fresh page. All the while I couldn’t help but notice Agent Verbek out of the corner of my eye as he silently crept up the stairs.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  “So, you folks haven’t seen anything out of the ordinary lately?” Agent Cullen began scribbling notes on his pad.

  “What exactly would you describe as being out of the ordinary?” Brynn crossed her arms, studying the man with no attempt to hide her suspicion.

  “Oh, you know, unusual activity from your neighbors, flickering lights, power surges, things of a similar nature,” he shrugged.

  Conor huffed a laugh. “So, the FBI’s investigating paranormal activity now?”

  “I almost expected him to ask if we’d seen any green spectral trails,” Lucas leaned over and muttered with a smirk.

  This drew a few snorts and snickers from the others. Agent Cullen just watched them like he’d had his sense of humor surgically removed through his nostrils several years prior. Then Agent Verbek came back down the stairs, and my hearts dropped to my stomach when I saw what he was holding. A feather, bright gold and as long as his forearm. He handed it off to Cullen who stared in fascination for a moment before looking at my friends again with a renewed aura of a man who knew he had the upper hand. My wings flinched as he flipped his notebook shut.

  “Withholding information from law enforcement can be considered a crime, you know,” he purred, twirling the shaft of my feather between his fingers.

  “Isn’t that only in criminal investigations?” Brooke hesitantly peeked out from behind Conor’s shoulder.

  “What crime are we being accused of?” Brynn demanded.

  Agent Cullen steely met her fiery glare. “Harboring a fugitive.”

  The tension in the air was so thick I could practically feel it on my energy-covered skin. I could feel my friend’s thoughts racing, trying to think of some way, any way, they could talk themselves out of this situation. Then Cullen’s expression softened, his posture changing to convey something akin to trustworthiness. This only made me frown, my fists clenching as I felt his mindset hadn’t shifted in the slightest. It was all just an act.

  “Look, kids, we’re not the bad guys here,” he said softly, filling his voice with false reassurance. “We’re just trying to keep innocent people out of potentially dangerous situations. We don’t want to see good, young people like you getting in over your heads and getting hurt … or worse. And I’m willing to bet you don’t want that either.”

  “Our job is to protect you, even if that means taking you down to the county jail and booking you for obstructing law enforcement,” Verbek added.

  I ground my teeth. These men sure knew how to back people into inescapable corners, and corners and I didn’t have the best track record. This time, however, I could do more than just run away. I had friends to protect. Cullen and Verbek were intimidating, but I had a power stronger than physical presence alone.

  Get out. I growled in their minds.

  Both men flinched and went ridged. I don’t know what they saw, but for a second, their eyes seemed to focus on me before unfocusing and darting around. I took a step forwards.

  Get out. My voice resonated louder.

  Cullen and Verbek shrunk back, their poise shattered, everything about their movements screaming fear. My friends just watched in confusion, unable to feel the full force of the telepathic waves I was bombarding the two agents with.

  Leave … my friends …… alone.

  I leaned right into Cullen’s face and snapped into full visibility. The grown man choked on his own primal scream of terror as he flailed backwards over the couch. Verbek was frozen in place with his jaw hanging open, staring at my huge golden wings filling the room. The next moment, Cullen came back to his senses and stumbled back to his feet and drew his sidearm. My body moved before I could even think, my leg swinging up and kicking the pistol out of his hands. Verbek snapped out of his trance and reached up, grabbing the edge of my wing.

  Nope! Nope! NOPE! My body screamed.

  I yanked my wing back, the momentum pulling Verbek forwards, right into my primed fist. At the last second, I remembered how strong I was and flinched, but my punch still landed. Verbek went flying across the room like a ragdoll, slamming into the front window so hard the glass cracked. Cullen lunged at me, and I caught him in the stomach with all three left wings, flinging him right into Verbek. As both men slumped into a groaning pile on the floor, I felt Brynn grab my hand and pull me with her, the others already making a mad scramble for the garage door.

  “Oh, my God, oh my God! That was awesome!” Lucas cackled.

  “C’mon, we’ve gotta get Geni out of here!” Brynn shouted.

  Brooke fumbled getting one of her shoes back on. “But where do we go?! There’s nowhere around here that we won’t get caught!”

  “I know a place, just get in the truck!” Matt swung into the driver’s seat and jammed his keys in the ignition.

  The truck roared as we all piled in, my friends in the cab, and me in the bed. The tarp was still back there, and I dove under it as the tires screeched, launching us out of the garage and onto the street. I peeked my head up, looking back towards the house, eyes widening when I saw Cullen and Verbek stagger out the door and trip over the lawn towards a black sedan parked at the curb. The lighter, sleeker vehicle was soon on our tail and quickly closing distance. I felt Matt put the pedal to the metal, swerving the truck out of the suburbs and into town. I turned around and crawled towards the back of the cab, lifting the tarp up so I could see through the rear window. We were heading straight for a river of cars and a traffic light about to turn red.

  “We’re not gonna make that light!” Brooke screamed.

  “Well, we’re not stopping for it either!” Matt answered.

  I slid open the partition and called out. “Just keep going! I’ll make sure no one gets hurt!”

  Turning back around, I pressed my fingertips together, closing my eyes, concentrating. The well of power in my chest rose from simmer to rolling boil. Time seemed to slow as I extended my mind, mapping the oncoming vehicles and gauging potential points of impact. Brakes screeched and horns blared as Matt barreled towards the intersection.

  Bringing my fingers and palms flat against each other, my energy rushed and pooled along the sides of the truck just as it plowed into the flow of traffic. In my telepathic vision I saw a car that was going to hit our left side. I moved my corresponding hand away in an arc, gently pushing the smaller vehicle to the side. A second came up fast on the right. Another languid wave of my and it was harmlessly redirected. Matt’s knuckles were white as he wrangled the steering wheel like his life depended on it, which at that moment, was entirely possible. He swerved back in and out of the lanes as soon as a gap opened up, pouring on more speed when we reached the head of the line. My mind was several seconds ahead at the upcoming intersection. Two cars were going to come up on either side, a third from dead ahead.

  “Geniiii…!” Matt shouted in a warning tone.

  “I’ve got it,” I answered.

  I put my hands flat against the truck bed and gathered all my energy underneath it. At the last possible moment, I slammed the power cushion downwards and launched us into the air. I heard my friends screaming as the other cars shot underneath. I couldn’t stop a grin from spreading over my face, adjusting my energy to balance our fall. The tires hit the pavement with a screech and a plume of smoke accompanied by the smell of burnt rubber. I opened my eyes as the tarp slid off my head, looking up to see the FBI agent’s car perfectly boxed in by the collision we’d just avoided.

  Giggling triumphantly, my friends cheered as we sped off out of sight and left the town behind us.