Academy of Secrets (original version)

Gifted (remade)

Almost as soon as my mom broke the connection, Solvakes sprang up behind us on their hover-bikes.  Dead? They wanted to kill me? Why would they want to kill me? Maybe it was my symbol; it had to be. One of them screeched again. Then we were bombarded by a volley of plasma blasts. Zeke dove down, throwing both our heads back. He did everything he could: swerving around buildings, ducking under aerials, making sharp turns. But nothing worked. Then I thought of the red stuff and decided to give it another try.

I never got the chance. A blast of plasma hurtled into the back of the levitator, rocking Zeke and me forward. We just made it out of the inner city before we crashed. I tumbled on the floor and saw Zeke skid ahead of me. The world spun. I staggered up to go after him, but then I felt an enormous hand wrap around my arm. Still in a daze from the crash, it took me a second to realize that a Solvake had grabbed me. It raised its plasma-arm-gun thing. My symbol heated up and I hit it with more of the red energy. The Solvake was propelled into its buddies.

“Zeke!”

I scrambled across the road. When I saw blood on the ground, my stomach turned. Then I found Zeke curled up next to a small building, so I rushed over to him. He groaned when I picked him up.

“Bleeding,” he sputtered.

His arm was covered in blood from a huge gash on his shoulder. Somehow, I managed to escape without a scratch. I tried giving the wound a quick wrap with part of my shirt before hauling Zeke up. To my utter relief, I saw automated security soar over our heads in the direction of the Solvakes, which were regrouping. We ran. We just ran away as fast as we could, sprinting across the outer city non-stop. We ran until we couldn’t breathe. Eventually we stumbled behind a repair shop to catch our breath. I couldn’t stop shaking. My entire torso trembled, and I think I started hyperventilating. Zeke doubled over, retching. While he tossed his lunch, I tried to pull myself together.  

Where could I even start? Aliens, really scary-looking ones, wanted me dead. It had to do with my symbol, or at least I thought so. Plus, I had superpowers: I could shoot red explosions from my hands. My mom knew about them. Maybe that was why we moved all the time. I didn’t want to leave Seattle. Boom! Another red blast erupted from my hand. Then another one came. Oh my god, how the hell did this work? I tried telling it to stop. It didn’t work of course. Yet another blast shot out and hit a decomposer.

“Will you stop it?” shouted Zeke, “Turn your weapon thing off!”

“It’s not a weapon!”

“Then what is it?”

“I have no idea. I think it’s—I think it’s coming from me!”

I started down at my hands. My symbol kept glowing from under my skin brace and I really wished it didn’t. We were in gang territory now, and the last thing I needed was for someone to see red light coming out of my arm. Zeke saw it too. His entire expression changed. He pointed a shaky finger at my arm.

“It’s not a light up skin brace is it? What’s under there?”

His eyes widened like he was a cornered animal.

“Something I’ve had since I was little. Look, Zeke—”

I reached out to touch him, but he jumped back.

“No, don’t! Wh-what are you?”

“What am I? The hell’s that supposed to mean?”

A red explosion came from my hand again. Zeke turned and dashed off. Cursing, I stormed after him. Where did this ass even plan on going? I knew where he lived. For someone who spent all day inside, Zeke ran pretty fast. By the time he came back into sight, I started gasping for air. Maybe it was the adrenaline, but by some miracle, I caught up to him. I threw myself at him, catching his legs. We both tumbled to the floor.