Conjure a Storm

Chapter 6

Karina had no idea how it happened, but three or four people ended up jumping her and Oscar.

Oscar was going to teleport, but they had injected some blue liquid into his wrist, quickly.

"We know all about you and your teleportation skills, buddy," the man restraining Oscar seethed. Turns out, Oscar's six-pack was just for display.

Soon, they appeared in the basement of an old abandoned tenement. They were tied down to a chair in opposite ends of the room.

"Hey," Oscar said.

"What do we do?" Karina sighed. "I don't have any powers."

"Yeah. I'm sorry," Oscar ducked his head down. "I couldn't react fast enough to teleport. I can't fight with my powers. I can only run, and running only gets us so far.."

"It's okay," Karina said. He still looked unhappy. "Oscar, it's alright. We'll get through this." Oh, how she wished she could be by his side right now and hug him and say sorry.

Just then, a man burst in with a gun. "Alright, kiddies. We can do this the easy way, or the hard way. Where is it?" They both remained silent, puzzled as to what he was talking about. The man raised his gun. "Where is it?!" he shouted.

"Where's what?!" Oscar said quietly.

The man raised his gun to Oscar. "Don't play games with me, teleportation boy. You know what I'm talking about."

Oscar eyed the gun warily. "Alright, let's stay calm, and talk about this..."

The man put his finger on the trigger. "I don't need any of your bullsh*t."

Karina panicked, looking back and forth between the gun, the man, and Oscar. What do I say?! What if he gets shot?! "Wait!" Karina shouted. The man turned to her instead.

"Do you know something, girlie?"

Karina stared right into the barrel of the gun. It was hollow and threatening. A bullet lived in there. It was like watching a lion, as it was about to attack, and Karina began to feel tears pricking at the edge of her eyes. The man pulled it.   

---

---

--

--

-

-

--

--

---

---

"NO!" Karina yelled, but it was too late. The bullet grazed her forearm, and the blood started dripping almost immediately. Then, the ceiling cracked. Water began dripping. It really hurts, Karina thought.

"Water? From the ceiling?! What's going on up there? A f*cking flood?" the man cursed.

"Karina... Are you okay?" Oscar said, looking at her arm.

"Hey, no talking to each other or you're next!" the man yelled, aiming the gun at Oscar's face. "TELL ME WHERE THE GOD DAMN THING IS!"

CREAK........

Karina looked around, worried.

"Hey, stop it with the funny business, otherwise I'll kill you both!" the man threatened.

CREAK.........

"I SAID STOP IT!" The guy screamed, his pointer finger near the trigger, still aimed at Oscar's face. The ceiling started to rattle and shake. He was about to pull the trigger when the door busted open, revealing a woman who quickly conjured needle-like icicles to pin the man to the wall. She knocked the gun out of his hand and was quickly followed in by a young, familiar girl and a tall, handsome man.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" The man pinned to the wall asked.

"Quick! Untie them, we need to get out of here!" the young girl said in a panicky tone. The woman went to untie them out of the chairs. "Hurry up!"

Karina's eyes were on the woman untying her ropes. "Ashley? Is that you?" Karina questioned. She wasn't so focused on everything else anymore.

"Oh. Hi Karina.." Ashley grinned cheekily while untying Oscar. Ashley was Karina's twin, but Karina wasn't aware of her involvement with superpowers. Karina stood up and looked around.

"Hey, stop freeing my prisoners! I have to..I have to find out where it is!!" The man yelled, still stuck to the wall. No one listened to him. The ceiling cracked some more, about to fall on them.

"Quickly, hurry up!" The young girl said. She was brave to be here. Oscar wrinkled his eyebrows together and gave her a questioning look.

"Peggy? Why are you here?" Oscar said, recognizing the face from 8B, the class he mentored with Karina. He got up from the chair that Ashley untied him from.

"What are you guys even doing here?" Karina asked, in shock.

"Saving your fat butt! What does it look like?" Ashley joked. Peggy gave a humorless laugh.

"Excuse me, but I believe that I'm the one that saved he-" the masculine voice was cut off when Ashley pushed him aside.

Ashley gasped quietly. "Karina! Your arm!"

Karina remembered her graze. "Oh yeah. That crazy guy shot me! Who was he?!"

"He was-" she was cut off by the ceiling making a sickening crunch sound.

The ceiling began to crumble, dropping plaster all over the floor around Karina. Karina was stunned and took a few steps back, but the crack was spreading. Soon enough, the ceiling began to collapse right on top of her. She shut her eyes, and braced for the impact, her bullet graze sending pain throughout her body. Her panic caused her to stumble backward, hitting the floor.

"No!" a voice mumbled, and Oscar threw himself on top of her. They both waited for the impact.

It never came.

After a few moments of Karina feeling his breath on top of her head, she looked up. His face was really close, and she could almost count every eyelash on his eye.

His hands were holding him up on either side of her forehead, his body covering hers. Feeling a bit awkward, she began to back away slowly. Oscar blushed, stood up, and turned around. The ceiling didn't fall on them, but why?

"Great job, Peggy," Ashley said behind them. They turned to see a person in front of them. It was Peggy, with her hands outstretched. Karina, bewildered, looked closer at her surroundings.

There was what seemed to be a dark purple barrier circling them. It had a diameter of probably 6 meters; enough to protect everybody from the ceiling that was still falling. Peggy was too far to extend her forcefield to protect the man that shot Karina.

"Thanks, Ashley. But, I'm getting really...really tired," Peggy sighed. "This hurts."

It was then that the man accompanying Ashley started dishing out orders. Soon, the ceiling stopped falling, and they were able to escape.