We debriefed her on everything that had happened. Then, we asked her if she could get a lot of water.
"So you pissed off a lava monster," Sage said.
"There's a little more to it than that," Cassie said, glancing at me. "But that's a story for another time."
Did she know about Zero?
"Okay," Sage said with a sigh. "So...how are we going to stop Ms. Loving?"
"With my help."
Sierra flashed in next to me. If I had been paying attention, I would have seen her coming.
Her eyes had also turned a deep, dark red, I noticed, whereas Adam had bright red eyes and the same power set. Could that be a side effect? Like healing made you live forever?
"Where did you go? I though you were right behind me," Cassie said.
"I waited to watch where she headed," Sierra replied. "She went downtown."
"Well, that's just perfect," Sage said.
"Great," I said.
"No, I mean that's actually a good thing. The river is down there. Maybe I can channel some of that water onto Ms. Loving and dry her out that way."
"Good idea," I said. "But how are we going to get her there?"
"Lightning probably doesn't affect her," Sierra wondered aloud.
"It doesn't. I tried," I said.
"Laser vision?"
"Probably not," I said.
Sage turned to Cassie. "Can you use your telekinesis to push her around a little?"
"I doubt it. From what I saw, she's literally like living fire," Cassie said. "She'll only turn solid when she wants to. I could try trapping her, but...no promises."
That reminded me of what I had pulled off before sending Ms. Loving in demon mode. "If only I could use my force field," I muttered.
I put my thumb and index finger close together and concentrated. A tic-tac-sized ball of undulating energy formed in the center.
I pulled my fingers away, and it dissipated. I may have been able to do that, but a real one would be a lot more trouble.
"Jay and I can make a wind barrier to guide her while Cassie tries to contain her," Sierra said. "Right, Jay?"
I looked up quickly. "Yeah," I said.
"Let's go, then. We don't have much time." Sage left the school and sped toward the direction of the river.
Sierra was close behind, flying out instead of running. I guess there were less obstacles in the air.
Now, Cassie and I were the only ones left.
"Hop on." I jerked my thumb over my back, talking to Cassie. "You'll probably want to close your eyes, too."
She moved towards me, but then she hesitated before getting on. "Won't this make me nauseous?"
"Not if I move fast enough," I replied. Then, the sickness would hit her later, but she didn't need to know that. "Just get on and close your eyes. Count to one, and we'll be there."
Only slightly more reassured, she climbed onto my back and closed her eyes.
"One," she said.
She opened her eyes and gasped. And not just at the change of scenery.
Ms. Loving was not our teacher anymore. She was easily visible overhead, reaching several feet higher than the tallest building.
She wasn't that hard to find. Even if she wasn't this big, all I had to do was run in the opposite direction everyone else was headed.
I had stopped us at a street that ran straight through what was most likely Ms. Loving's path.
"Which way's the river?" Cassie asked.
Panting, and on my knees, I pointed in left.
"Right. Thanks." She pecked me on the cheek, and then levitated herself to Ms. Loving's height.
Landing on top of a building, Cassie reached out her hands. She was a nondescript speck up there, but her effect was huge.
Ms. Loving was stopped in her tracks, and a hand appeared out of the mass fire to reach forward. It hit an invisible wall that stretched out in front of her.
Forming another hand, she pushed against the telekinetic construct with added power.
Sierra came into the scene, shooting her heat vision right into Ms. Loving's center. But, as with my lightning, it did nothing against her.
Sierra began to dart around the teacher in the air, distracting her from tearing down Cassie's barrier. Ms. Loving was pretty much just a floating mass of fire with two hot, rocky hands, but that made her nonetheless dangerous.
I finished recuperating from the run and got ready to join Sierra, but a hand on my shoulder stopped me.
"Now, we can't have you going off and joining the circus, shall we?" A blue glow emanated from behind me. "After all, I can't have you hurt; you get put in the crazy place for self-inflicted pain, you know."
I shrugged off his hand with force. The twinge of guilt I had felt before now disappeared as I thought about how many people he was hurting right now through Ms. Loving.
"You may have my memories, but you are not the real Jay West," I said. "I would never do anything like this in any lifetime."
"I wouldn't be so sure about that. I betrayed them on a mission that resulted in some pretty bad things happening to them. Sage, at least, should be trying to kill you."
"Enough small talk," I said affirmatively. "Why are you here? Why are you doing this?"
"Ms. Loving was just a distraction for your friends and your girlfriend." He wrinkled his nose when he said the word, "girlfriend."
"After last night, or this morning, however you look at it, I went to do some digging of my own. It's obvious that we both believe we're the real Jay West, so we'd have to have someone in the project to tell us which one of us is Jay and which one is...not." He trailed off, causing me to think that he knew more about what he was than he was letting on.
"And?" I asked, raising my eyebrows. A stray fireball landed down the street a few yards away, setting a grocery store on fire. No one was inside.
"I found some information I think you will want," he said with a smile. "Maybe we can help each other."
"You want my help, but you're also trying to kill me? No thanks," I said. I turned to help Sierra.
"Wait. I know you want to find out who you are- who I am- just as much as I do. We can make a truce to figure it out. After, it can be back to the way it was."
I stopped. Not because the offer seemed decent, but because that actually sounded like something that would come out of my mouth, for once. Maybe he had a little Jay inside of him after all.
"Okay," I said. "But call off your lackey."
"My power doesn't work that way. You'll have to figure out how to beat her by yourself."
I glared at him.
"Don't worry," he said. "You have more powers at your disposal that can help you out. All you have to do is figure out what those are."
With that last piece of advice, his body began to dissipate into blue mist, floating into the air.
His last words were, "I'll be there when you need to find me."
But as the particles of his body faded off, I could have sworn some of that blue turned green.