After the impact of the explosion knocks most people over I start to hear screaming. For a second I am thrown back to my training with Casey a couple of days ago and I find myself looking about wildly for a rogue robot before I suddenly realise this is real. There is no robot. Students are running everywhere, blindly as the smoke from whatever caused the explosion is still thick in the air around us. Eve has grabbed my arm and is screaming in my ear.
'Shut up!' I tell her sharply before reaching out to calm everyone's mind.
Instantly I am forced to reel my powers back in. Wow, Casey was right. In a real life situation it is not possible to control hundreds of panicking people all at once. Their brain waves are too messy. Desperately I reach out to contact Casey, even though he is all the way in the city. I cannot find him, though, and realise he must still have his defenses against me up. Damn!
'Sapphire, what is happening?' Eve whimpers in my ear.
'I think someone is trying to attack the school,' I hear Zoe say from my right and I had no idea she was there. I stretch out my hand towards her outline and she takes it. She is shaking.
'I cannot see anything!' says Eve.
I peer at my friends through the smoke, they are both so afraid. I realise I do not need to be able to influence their minds to take control of the situation. All I need is a little wind! Quickly I call out to the air element, I feel it rush around my body but I hang onto my friends. The wind whirls around us and then starts to whirl outwards, clearing the school yard and fields as it goes until everything is clear again.
Then I wish I had not.
Up ahead, coming through the school gates, is a large group of people dressed in grey jumpsuits. As Eve and Zoe squeeze onto my arms even harder than I thought humanely possible I see the bodies lying at the feet of the group in grey jumpsuits. As they draw closer to students there is a quick blast and a student will fall. Or a student will just collapse without warning, spewing vomit or worse.
'Grey Heights inmates,' Zoe whispers to me fearfully. 'It must be a breakout.'
'This is the kind of situation the Circle of Nines should be dealing with, right?' says Eve, equally as afraid.
Oh, God. Right. The Circle. Why are they not here? I scan the skies for any sign of Nickolas or Alistair's flying machines but I cannot see any evidence the Circle are coming. Vaguely I wonder if this is a test, sent by Marianne to see if I can do my job, but I remember that would be against the law. The authorities cannot reveal who I am until I finish school.
We start to back away from the approaching group. I wonder if going into the school building is a good idea but more students are pouring out of the school and into the yard looking equally as worried. I start to tell a group near me to go back in but then I see there are more Grey Heights inmates coming out of the school and herding the students outside. Soon we are going to be trapped.
Eve spots an adult nearby, one of the teachers called Mr Jukes who teaches superhero history. He is standing fixed to one spot looking worried and Eve waves at him.
'Sir! Sir!' She drags us over to him. 'Do something, sir!' she begs him.
'Right.' Mr Jukes seems to snap out of his daze and instantly puffs up, marching over to one of the delinquents herding students out of the school with his scary pointed horns on his head. 'What on earth do you think you are doing, young man?' Mr Jukes barks at the horned criminal. 'You have no right-' But he is cut short as the inmate mercilessly impales Mr Jukes with his horns.
As Mr Jukes slumps to the ground, blood gushing from a hole in his chest, Eve staggers backwards into me. She looks like she is about to faint.
'It is OK,' I whisper to her, putting my hands around her protectively, but the horned guy is just trying to get all the students into the middle of the yard and barely pays us more than a savage glare.
Once we are all there, minus the ones who are already dead, I see Mr Bryant and Mr Koal our headmasters being dragged in front of one of the inmates who appears to be the leader.
He is covered in strange tattoos that are constantly changing shape and shifting. There is a large scar across one of his eyes which appears to be glass and his head is completely shaved.
'I am Crazer,' he says softly but loud enough to be heard over the whimpering of the students. 'I am here to liberate the superhumans from the humans' control.' When he says this he looks directly at Mr Koal who is the human head of the school.
Mr Bryant steps defensively in front of his co-head. 'You have no right to be here,' he says loudly, 'this is a school. A place of learning and equality. These are just children. We have no quarrel with you.'
Crazer ignores him and looks past the heads towards the rest of us. 'We only want the humans,' he shouts to us, 'if you are a superhuman and choose to step away from the human filth we will spare you.' He looks back at Mr Bryant as a lot of the superhuman students start to wiggle away from the human students. 'Very equal,' he hisses to Mr Bryant.
Eve, who is human, stares in horror at me and Zoe but I grip her closer. 'They cannot tell,' I whisper to her but even as the words leave my mouth I see Crazer point to a girl I know is a human and call her out.
'You,' Crazer says, 'human.'
I stare in horror as the people surrounding the girl step back from her. She turns desperately to a superhuman girl who must be her friend but the girl looks away, her lips a thin line. The human girl then looks at a boy on her right who I guess might be her boyfriend. She mouths his name, her eyes wide in fear, but the boy shakes his head.
Crazer is laughing. He runs a hand down the side of the human girl's face whilst she trembles in fear. 'There is nothing to be afraid of,' he says to her, 'death is too good for you filthy humans.' Then he grabs her by the throat with his big beefy hands and starts to choke the life out of her.
A lot of students start screaming then and I am horrified to see more human students being pushed forward by their superhuman peers shouting, 'take them!' at Crazer and his gang of criminals, who are all laughing.
I stare open mouthed as Mr Bryant and Mr Koal attempt to step forward to stop the supervillains as they start attacking the human students but some of the other gang members get in the way. I realise with a sickening feeling in my stomach that Crazer intends to make Mr Koal watch the other humans die before he kills him.
Then Crazer lets go of the human girl, her body slumps to the ground, and he looks right at Eve. It takes him seconds to reach us and he stretches out his hand to touch Eve.
I realise then that the Circle are not coming. A group of crazy supervillains escaped right out of prison are attacking a school of children and the Circle do not care. My own hand snaps out and grabs Crazer's before I can even stop myself.
As soon as I touch him I feel a tingle as I gain his powers. Suddenly I am aware of every human around me and every superhuman. I can also sense how strong they are and what level they have been given, or will be given. I shove the sensations away and glare at Crazer. His eye widens at me. He attempts to release his hand but thanks to Marco Cane I have super strength and Crazer practically writhes in my iron-like grip.
'Do not touch her,' I say to Crazer keeping my voice steady.
He strains against my hold but he cannot move. His real eye bulges and finally he relaxes and I let go.
'You are strong,' he says through gritted teeth. He is using his power to see what level of superhuman I am and as soon as he realises a pale colour comes over his tattooed face. 'Crap,' he says and steps back.
'Crazer what is going on?' another inmate says coming up behind Crazer.
'She is a nine,' says Crazer to the other criminal, 'a freakin' schoolgirl!'
I hold Crazer's gaze whilst he watches me. In his mind I see a flicker of uncertainty. He is wicked through and through, he wants to make an example for the whole world- that is why he chose a mixed school to attack. He plans on killing all the human students to prove that no matter how far the world has come since the days of the One War, superhumans and humans can never live peacefully. He wants to prove the superhuman students will not stand up for their human friends. But he is afraid of the Circle. He did not expect them to arrive to defend the school because of another threat currently occupying them elsewhere! Now I know why the Circle have not shown up. And Crazer knows I am not just any nine but he is contemplating fighting me anyway if I resist. He reasons him and his gang could probably defeat me.
I smile then, in a way I know is not like me at all. It is a smile I have seen Casey use sometimes. A smile that shows I know everything.
'You can try,' I say to Crazer, 'but think about it logically. You know what I am capable of. Do you really think you and your gang will escape this?'
'She is just a schoolgirl,' sneers Crazer's buddy and he lunges at me to attack, some kind of red electricity crackling from his fingertips.
I push Eve and Zoe out of harm's way and jump aside faster than an average human can move. The red electricity guy tries once more and I am tempted to move again but then stop. I cannot die, right? So what do I have to lose. The electricity hits me and I grab hold of it, pulling it away from my body and into a ball in my hands where it wiggles. It hurts like hell and I can see my hands are blistering and burning from the impact but I put another smile on my face and look at Crazer's friend with feigned amusement.
When I am sure he is watching I crush the ball of painful electricity to ash in my hands. It takes a bit of effort but nothing too exhausting. Without waiting for him to respond I point at the ground beneath his feet and plants spurt upwards, cracking the dirt of the ground. Thick vines wrap themselves rapidly around him, stopping him from moving, stopping him from breathing.
'Sapphire!' Zoe's shout brings me out of my concentration and I let go, just before Crazer's buddy can draw his last breath. I blink rapidly and realise I almost lost control. If I had killed that man it would have made me no better than the criminals.
Crazer is already backing up, his power might be impressive but he knows against me he has nothing. His gang are still attempting to kill the humans. Hardly any of the superhuman students are attacking back, although some of them have seen what I did. Crap.
But I am feeling pissed off now. The Circle might be off somewhere dealing with another threat but surely the six most powerful superhumans in the world would have caught wind of the attack on our school by now. Why are they not here? It cannot take all of them to deal with some other threat! And I am annoyed at my fellow classmates. Sure teenagers can be selfish but are they really that afraid of the inmates to fight back to protect their friends? I get inside their minds, my anger making me stronger.
Fight back, I whisper, drawing on their strength and courage and growing it in their minds, it is what they are afraid of. They do not want us to fight back. But together we are stronger.
I let go before any of them can realise they have had someone in their mind telling them what to do. But the impact is wonderful. They each snap into action almost as though before they were under some kind of spell. It was just a suggestion anyway, it is not like I forced them to do it. I just showed them it was possible. In a few minutes all the superhuman students are fighting back and the inmates' attacks are starting to falter.
But I know it is not over. There are a lot of bodies lying around. People I have spent six years at school with. Tears prickle my eyes, how could anyone let this happen? Then I remember what Marianne said to me: you have a rare gift. Could it be possible that I can heal other people? But with only my elemental powers? I consider it.
I focus on the dead lying around me, I close my eyes and feel each broken bone, each ruptured organ. Each poison that sped them into death. I clear my mind. My fellow superhuman students will take care of the criminals. Now it is up to me to take care of the dead. I send my powers into each body, I am not even sure which powers I am drawing on but I feel the elements rustle around me. I can hear the wind whispering in my ear and the rush of water far below the ground. Heal, I urge the dead, heal. The sounds in my ears grow stronger as I feel surges of new life erupt all around me, minds stretching out and grasping at the impossible. My eyes are still shut but with my new power from Crazer I can see each human life as it blinks awake, gathering momentum among the lights of the superhumans. All I can hear now are the voices of the elements, they are shouting at me all at once, projecting images into my mind I cannot fully understand. Somewhere, among the images I see a heliflyer which I recognise as belonging to Alistair Varbanova. But for some reason when I open my eyes all I can see is red. Someone is calling my name, sounding faintly through the noise of the elements and finally, finally I hear that female voice again:
Stop, Sapphire! Before you burn us all!
And then there is nothing.