Never Get Caught

Chapter 1

After that fateful day in 2000, my dad had always helped me figure out powers.  I live with my dad since my mom left us to run away with her painting teacher to Europe.  I liked it better that way anyways, she was never much of a mother to me.  As it turns out, this mutation gene that gives specific powers to people is hereditary.  And I got this gift from him.  He explained to me that he can see future conflicts, though they are not always very accurate.  It’s more like his dreams have slight references of the future.  It’s not very black and white.  The future is always some sort of shade of gray.  Since then, we have been forming an organization to help people with new powers.  We call it Power Corp.  The name is very cliche, but it serves its purpose: to hide in plain sight.  Like most of its members.  

As of right now, we haven’t had to deal with anyone being exposed for having supernatural powers, but that is our greatest fear.  There are some people who use their powers recklessly, but Power Corp tries to teach people diversion techniques, control, and disguise.  Since my dad is the “president” of this operation, I have had my fair share of hardcore training.  But nothing prepared me for Caden.  

Everyone at Power Corp knows about Caden.  We provide housing for most of the younger teens with powers, and they are the most vulnerable to Caden.  We try to protect everyone, but every once in a while, he gets through our security and manages to extract someone’s powers: killing them in the process.  

The main building for Power Corp is a stone mansion called The Castle. One of its founders, my dad’s friend, has the power to control illusions and thus put an illusion around the mansion to divert regular people’s eyes.  To them it looks like a broken down warehouse with many “No Trespassing” signs.  We’ve never had any problems with normal people coming in.

The Castle is equipped with state of the art combat training rooms, kitchens, indoor pools, and pretty much anything anyone could ever dream up.  It’s my sanctuary when I’m not in school.  Once teens learn to control their powers, they are allowed to attend public high school.  I love going to school; I know it sounds crazy, but it’s true.  It’s one of the few things that is completely separate from my life at Power Corp.  I can feel normal for once.

“Hey Carter get up!!” I heard a girl yell in my ear.  I slowly opened my eyes allowing them to get used to the light coming from my bedside lamp.  After blinking a few times, I realized that the girl’s voice came from Izze, one of my best friends.  She stayed at The Castle in the dorm room adjacent to mine.  She has been one of my best friends for as long as I can remember.  We started our training together when we were both 8, and ever since we met we’ve been inseparable.  She lives in The Castle because she can shape shift into literally anything: a person, an animal, even an object.  You name it, she can be it.  Her parents run some of the training sessions along with my dad and a couple of other trusted teachers.

“Carter, come on we’re going to be late,” she exclaimed, still in my ear.

“I know, I know,” I said lazily.  It was first day back to school after winter break, and I still was not ready to get back into the groove of school.  But as I got up out of my bed, I was ready and looking forward to faking normal.  Since I was running so late, I got ready in the blink of an eye- literally.  I had just copied a new power a week ago and this was the first time I’ve really used it;  I could run and move with super speed.  It obviously came in handy when I needed to get ready in a rush without leaving the house looking like a slob.  Izze just rolled her eyes and went downstairs to start the Jeep.  I took one last look in the mirror to make sure that I was completely ready.  My long wavy brown hair fell gracefully to the middle of my back and my blue/green eyes looked awesome with the new makeup I got for Christmas.  I had on tight, dark wash skinny jeans on and brown riding boots.  I wore a purple floral tunic tucked into my jeans and a braided belt.  I ran into my room (with super speed of course) to grab my brown leather jacket to finish off my look.  I prided myself with fashion and makeup, though I was not obsessed with appearances.  I just loved the artsy feel that my style gave off, and the way that it made me feel confident.  As I was growing up I was always a shy tom boy, but once I started to get my powers, I became more and more confident.  This coincided with going through puberty, so by the beginning of high school I was a changed girl.  

I grabbed my satchel purse and headed for the Jeep.  My dad stopped me at the door on the mansion before I could reach Izze and the car.

“Carter, I had another dream about you and Caden.  They’re getting more and more clear.  I know he is going to come after you.  He thinks you will have some sort of connection with him, that you will be able to help him.  I know that you can take care of yourself, but just be careful.  And remember, *don’t get caught*.”

“I don’t understand what he wants from me!  I mean he’s been trying to find me since the beginning of senior year!” It was kind of getting tiring always looking over my back to make sure that Caden wasn’t there.  I’ve never actually seen him, but I know that I would be able to sense him.  Like my dad said, I can take care of myself.

“I know, I just don’t want anything to happen to you,” he said an he put his arm around me and pulled me into a hug.  

“I’ll see you after school,” I yelled as I pulled away from the hug and ran out the door to the patient Izze.  I was finally ready to go to school.

We pulled into the school parking lot ten minutes before the bell rang.  Izze and I liked to get to school relatively early so we could organized for the day and say hi to everyone we knew.  There was a picnic table in the quad that we sat at every morning with our other “normal” friends.  Izze and I were the only ones with powers at this school and we were the only ones who knew about them.  And we wanted to keep it that way.  

“Where is everyone?” Izze complained.  None of our other friends were at school yet.  We sat there eating our breakfast and gossiping about the new arrivals to Power Corp.  “Did you see that new kid?”  she whispered.

“Which one?”  There are a lot of new people.  Which is good for Power Corp, but bad for me.  With every new member, I acquired a new power.  It was starting to get hard to be aware of all of the ones that I had.  My dad says that my copying power will be a good tool to help train the newcomers because I can show them how to use their powers.  

“The little boy!  The one who can fly!”  she said like duh.  

“Oh yeah him!  I love him, he’s so cute!  And I’ve always wanted to be able to fly!”  This was true.  He was the most adorable little kid ever.  I had fun helping him train and fly around The Castle grounds.

“Oh here’s Anna and Ben,” Izze exclaimed as she ran over and hugged them both.  Anna and Ben were two of our other good friends.  We’ve been in most of the same classes with them since freshman year.  Anna has shoulder length blonde hair and green eyes.  Her frame is tiny compared to me and Izze.  She is about 5 foot 5 inches and super skinny.  Izze and I are about 5 foot 10 and skinny.  Our daily training at The Castle makes sure that we are both strong and fit.  Ben is the stereotypical hockey player.  Minus the bad attitude.  He is huge, muscle-wise.  He has short brown hair and hazel eyes.  Very clean cut.  He seems like a giant next to Anna; he’s about 6 foot 1.  Izze finally returned to her seat next to me and Anna sat next to Ben across from us.  We all began to talk about our classes.  There were still two empty seats on either side of the table.  Alex and Riley weren’t here yet.  They were twins and always late.  They had shaggy black hair and deep blue eyes.  Alex and Riley were the stars of the varsity lacrosse team, and class clowns.  All six of us were really good friends, but they would never know about me and Izze’s secrets.  It was better that way.

“Earth to Carter!  What were you just thinking about?” Ben inquired.  He was very perceptive.

“Oh, I was just thinking about how Alex and Riley are always late,”  I explained.  And just like clockwork, I turned around and saw them walking toward us.  Laughing, like always.  

“Speak of the devils,” Anna giggled.  Our reunion was short lived because the bell started to ring as the twins reached our table.

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