Cursing the Punished

Up Up and Away

"Where are we going?" Vaia asked. "UP!" was my reply. Her screams slowly faded away as she shot up to the sky. I laughed at Aiven's shocked face. "And you get to join her!" I yelled as I sent him shooting up towards the clouds as well, pausing for a second to look behind me, then followed them.

My feet touched the bottom of the crevice, a couple miles from the facility. Immediately I was surrounded by 5 other people. "Where are the other two?" everyone seemed to be shouting at me. I just silently held up one finger and looked up.

A faint screaming could be heard and it got louder and louder until the two figures landed on the ground. The girl immediately bent over and retched at my feet, then, after wiping her mouth, she looked up at me, her eye murderous, and said "What the HECK is WRONG with you!?"

I looked her dead in the eye and said, "Everything." Aiven stepped in and said, "That was cruel dude. Why would you do that?"
Now, you may be wondering why I'm such an jerk to the new girl, but the truth is, I honestly don't like this Vaia. She's too cold, no sense of humor, but when I look at my best friend's face, I can tell that he doesn't feel the same way as I do about the new girl.

I just don't want to be replaced as Aiven's best friend by her. So obviously, humiliating her is the best way to make sure that doesn't happen. But, I'll need an excuse to do that.
"I'm testing her, and my diagnostic is that she's afraid of heights." "What? That's ridiculous, I am not!" Spat Vaia.

I quirked my eyebrow at her, and she turned her eyes downward. "I'm not that afraid at least." She muttered. The people around us started asking questions, but they all immediately shut up when Kahlo stepped forward from the group. Zeno, the leader, said harshly "Well? What is she?"

Vaia immediately spun around to face him, full of rage, and anyone could have guessed she was about to blue frost the crap outta him when Citali intervened. "He means what your power is." Vaia narrowed her eyes for the second time that day and shot at Zeno "Why should I tell you, you piece of-" I covered her mouth with my hand.

"Trust me," I said laughing, "you don't want Zeno as your enemy." She bit my finger, hard. "OW!" "I'm not scared of him, he can't do anything to me." There was a slight smile on Zeno's face, he was obviously amused by this, and in a blink of an eye Vaia's arms were pinned to her sides by what looked like a shadow.

She opened her mouth to yell at whoever was doing that (Zeno) but then her mouth was covered too. Muffled cries of anger escaped from the shadow blocking her mouth. Kahlo again stepped towards Vaia and put two fingers on her temple. She wrenched away from him, but the shadows tugged her back.

"It's okay," he said calmly, "I'm a mind-reader, and I'm just going to see what your powers are." Vaia seemed to relax at this, and obediently held still for Kahlo to do his job, obviously trusting him. When he was done, Kahlo pulled away, facing us and the rest of the group. "She's a Defective." He announced, surprised.

The shadow holding Vaia back started to glow until it was whitish-blue, then shattered, hitting us all with pieces of frozen shadow. She stood there, panting, with white fire in her eyes, and said hoarsely "Don't call me that."