Magic Children

Chapter 35 Lyons Public Defense Research Facility---14 years earlier - Sam

When we get to the facility it's already well ablaze. The smoke isn't billowing high enough to be visible to the town, but it soon will be. Which means it's over.

"He's at the gate house," Arthur says, wiping his face one more time before we descend to the main road. I can hear sirens in the distance. We don't have long.

Inside the guard house, three are already dead. The fourth, presumably Aurora's father, is pinned against the wall, upside down, as flames lick down the wall around him. He's screaming, he already pissed himself. And Angel is standing there, tears in his eyes, as he controls---the fire? How is he manipulating the fire?

"Where is she???? Where is Aurora?" Angel cries, as he forces the fire closer and closer to the man's face.

"I don't know---I swear I don't know---" the man barely chocks out.

"You're lying!! Where is she???"

"Angel he's not---he's not lying---he's got no idea where he is. Let him go," Arthur insists.

"Look then! Look in his mind where did she go? How can he not know?" Angel asks, rounding on Arthur.

"I don't know---he doesn't know! He hasn't seen her in weeks— she ran away," Arthur says.

"Aren't they looking for her? She has to be here?" Angel says, confused.

"Don't hurt him, let him go, we'll just go," Arthur pleads.

"I'll do what I want," Angel says, and the man screams as he explodes into flames.

"Stop it! We'll just leave," Arthur says, about to burst into tears again.

"Find her for me then---how do you not know?" Angel asks, suspicious now.

"He said he doesn't know," I say, wondering if it's true even as I say it.

"It is! I can't find her---I can't I'm sorry," Arthur says, as Angel slams him now up against the wall.

"Really? You wouldn't lie to me just because you think it's better? Because you've never trusted me? I heard you two little queers arguing---you lie to him," Angel says.

"Back off," I say, stepping in between them, "It's not his job to find her anyway---and he's not lying."

"Get out of my way," Angel says, and then I slam him through the wall of the guard house and into the pavement outside. I slam him so hard his head smacks the pavement and I hear snaping as his shoulders collide with the ground.

"Pathetic," I say, wiping blood from my mouth. He did resist. Oh, he tried.

Angel stands up, slowly, spitting out blood.

"Don't," Arthur whispers.

"This isn't doing you any good----you're not going to find Aurora by torturing people and killing them. It's pretty clear she isn't in Lyons so let's just get out of here before we're caught!" I say, as he slowly wipes blood from his face.

"Please, let's just go," Arthur says, slowly standing as well.

"You'd better run," Angel says, wiping blood from his face.

I step in front of Arthur as I feel an intense cold wash over me. I start a force field around us but not before I'm brought to my knees in pain, my fingers loosing all feeling and my lips aching with cold.

Arthur gives a cry behind me, but I don't dare look back. That wouldn't do any good.

Around us the forest erupts into flames, as Angel levitates himself off the ground. My force field saves us from the flames, but not by much. The fire flows through and around Angel, harmlessly. He's not just manipulating heat energy. He's absorbing it.

"It's making him stronger," Arthur says, a hand on my shoulder, "He's drunk on it. Try to distract him. I'll handle the police."

"Distract him from what?" running right now was my plan. But---oh fuck. The fire's spreading, abnormally quickly. He'll burn the entire town.

"I have a plan," Arthur says, squeezing my shoulder one more time, then he's gone. Of course he's not fucking gonna tell me the plan, little shit. That's because I won't like it.

"Fine, distracting him," I mutter, climbing to my feet. "Distracting him from what?"

Angel is hovering in the sky above me, head tipped back, as flames course through and around him. The flames lick up from the giant trees that sway as they are slowly reduced to ash.

"Hey asshole," he did say 'distract him'. My time has come. Why am I so negative about this? I was born to die like this. I can be annoying as much as I want until I drive someone to murder me instead of a lot of other people. No one will be proud of me, because only two people know my name, but that's fine at least I'll die being the most aggravating human being I can be.  I was made for this.

Angel doesn't look or seem to hear me. That's absolutely fine. I can be annoying without being heard.

While keeping my force field steady with one hand, I use my other hand to wrap a force field around Angel, slamming him to the fiery ground. In retrospect, I should have found some water, but that might not have hurt as much as I'm sure this did, and the goal here is not to actually win because I doubt that that will happen, but instead to cause as much emotional and physical pain as well as create a lasting aggravating  memory before I die.

Slowly, Angel climbs to his feet in the flames, which are blossoming around us. My force field is wavering. If I keep it up I won't be able to attack him again. If I can deal another decent blow then he might not be able to immediately set me on fire.

I drop the forcefield and put all my efforts into slamming him back into the ground.

But this time he's ready.

He meets me onslaught of energy with fire, and again rises up in the air, flames licking up greedily around him. He's aware by now we're trying to stop him. That's fine, he's not smart enough to fear Arthur.

Flames surround me as well. I'm getting immeasurably cold. I'm almost done. And I'm nowhere near winning.

This time instead of just trying to throw him from the air I form a force field around him. If the flames can't reach him then he can't keep getting power from them. And chances are he'll have no idea how to stop that. I've never used force fields around him before, and he's never done one and he's a show off. He would if he knew how.

Angel tenses, struggling as the flames are stopped by my force field, making him weaker and weaker.

But I'm freezing, yet flames are licking my jumpsuit, melting the horrible fabric to my skin. Of course, I'd die with this thing baked into my body. I can't keep this up. I can feel blood rushing down my face. He's fighting to get his fire through the force field harder than I can hold it together. And once it breaks I'm done. Once it breaks most of Colorado is done. I don't know how big Colorado is. A very large portion of these mountains will burn if he's loose. He's furious now. Whatever his initial plan was---torch this place and then run?

The more fire the more powerful he is. He's going to burn as much as he can and warp himself well away from here. I need you to keep him fighting. All I need is a little more time. Please. Trust me Vali.

"I don't think time is something we have," I say, but my mouth is so full of blood I can barely speak. It's almost over. No it is over. It's over for me.