The Master of Jinx

Chapter 7: The Recruits

"Where are we," I ask confused.

"I don't... I don't know," she says frantically, "I was following you."

Okay. Get ahold of yourself. It was around noon when we left so... What time is it now.

"Okay, how long have we been running," I ask.

"I don't know about two and a half hours, maybe more," she answers.

"What? How did this hap....." I get interrupted.

"Are we actually just going to overlook the fact that you killed a bear with your finger tips," she says.

"Yeah, pretty much. But anyways, how did this happen. I was running one minute, I hit the briars, got caught by you, I glided through the air, closed my eyes, and now we are here," I get distracted by a shadow move slowly out of the corner of my eye, "but in other news I think we are being...," I lunge just left of a large willow tree,"followed".

I look down to see the captured victim and to my surprise it wasn't him being captured, 'twas me. He looks up at me and his eyes light up bright red and a piercing screech follows. I can see every vein in his arm glow a yellowish-orange. This is when I realize my leg is on fire. I let him go and grab my leg in pain, what am I suppose to do. I look to my right at the lake. I lift him over my head to throw him in the lake and cool him off when he grabs my arm and slams me against a tree. Man, trees are hard. Like really hard. Trees don't make a "ting" noise.

He drops me and starts to take off but that's not in my plan. I swing my arm out to snag his foot but instead get kicked from behind. Great, just great, two of 'em.

"Why are you following us," a small child says.

"We aren't, you are following us," Angela says from... from somewhere. Clever, clever girl. Knows how to hide.

"Who's there," a voice boomed from behind me.

"Angela don't come out they..." I get distracted by a loud thunk behind me.

"Angela, what was that," I roll over and there is a metal giant hovering over me, looking confused, and slightly angered.

"Angela? Who's Angela?" a slightly scared kid says from in front of me.

"Oh. Angela. Angela's just this mutant aviary hybrid that can block speeding bullets with a flick of her wings. Oh yeah, wings. And she can also turn invisible at will. Oh yeah." I say trying to convince them to leave us alone.

"I am, am I. I guess I'm a mutant. Just a personal freak show. Just your own little freak. So I can just do whatever you say. No. That's not how it will be. That's never how it'll be." she says unfolding her 14 foot wingspread. A light brown feather tip abruptly meets a metallic end.

She flaps he wings with one swoop and to my surprise I was in her firm grasp. She flies to top altitude and closes her eyes. No, no, no. She passed out she can't survive this drop. The pond. I look around trying to ding the only safety and there it is. The only thing between life and death for her is a thin layer of water. Who would've thought it. I try to glide over to the water with her but the added weight won't allow it. No time to think. I sweep my feet around as hear as I can and let her go. Nothing more to do. Not enough time to glide to slow me down. I did the only thing I could do. Brace for impact. I did a maneuver Pru taught me I wait till I am close to the ground and pull forward into a monkey roll. My foot makes contact with the ground and I hear a crack, I think its my leg so I open my eyes to check and get shot winded at the fact that I'm moving at the speed of sound. I slam my feet to a stop and look back. It's a good mile maybe more back to where Angela is... Angela. I use my new ability to get to the pond just in time to see. Natal man and flame boy pulling her out. God knows what they'll do to her. I speed over to them and swipe the big ones legs out and lift Angela by grabbing behind where the cold wet wings meet her spine and under the sopping jeans.

"What was that for. I was saving 'your' friend," a loud voice boomed from behind me.

"What do you mean 'saving'. You nearly tore her wings off dragging her out of the pond," I say feeling distressed, "Did you even check to see if she was still breathing?"

Did I. I drop to my knees and lay her down beside me and check for even the slightest movement of breath. And then it prevails. A sign of life.

"Here let me carry her back to the base. We have doctors there that will help her. And your arms a little tore up yourself," the metal man says. I look down and see small amounts of blood trickle off of my finger tips.

After seeing them pull her out of the pond I don't think I could let him do that. I drop my hand in the water and think. This is the first time I've bled in a long time. What's happening? Can't let this biter me now. I have to get her to that base. I walk over to the pond and wash the blood and patch it with a small piece of cloth from the tail of my shirt.

"Let's roll, Clunk," the child says already walking on the way out.

I lift Angela back up to carry her to the base of the onward travelers and get her some sort of medical attention.

"So. If we are traveling together we might as well get to know your name," the metal man says.

"I'm X." I say to them, "Thats what you get for letting your sister name you. What about you, you must have some sort of name?"

"Well, this here is Clunk and I'm Flicker," the boy says. "Who's the pretty one."

"I've already told you. I'm X." I say in a joking tone, "Kidding she's Angela."

"Your lucky you stopped us before we got to the base. They don't handle visitors too well," the metallic voice rang out in a low belch.

"So Clunk, how big is this base of yours," I ask hoping for a large place so we could recover and leave without notice.

"Well it's decently large. And it's close to a little forest station. And there's about a million things to do there. And it's so fun," Flicker says.

We walk for a good twenty more minutes and my arms start giving out. All hope is not lost. A forest station. I follow the giant of a man around the corner until I see a wooden shack. Great. My resting place is an outhouse that hasn't been operational in was appears decades.

I swing the door open expecting to be followed and it never happens. I turn to see two humored faces.

"Move," Clunk says scooting me aside.

He drops his shoulder to my eye level and lifts on the building, picking it up at least two feet before swinging it around and dropping it. What happened next I almost couldn't believe. This is it. The "Promised Land".