Abilities

The middle school that Michael and Brittany taught at was a fine, award winning school building, but once the sun set the building looked like the outside of an old, abandoned prison. The lights and lampposts were all shut off except for a couple strays. The dim lights made the school unapproachable. The bushes and the trees threw shadows on the wall that came to life when the wind blew.

William and Michael pulled up to the side of the building in silence. They hadn’t spoken much in the car ride. Michael wanted to show William what had happened to him the other day. Telling him was one thing, but he wanted to give a minute-by-minute walk through of the unexplainable events. Maybe William could help him understand.

They entered through one of the building’s side doors thanks to Michael’s faculty key. The halls were dark only being lit by the moonlight that poured through the many windows. It was a creepy scene like out of a horrifying clip from the movie Nightmare on Elm Street. They were very similar. It was dark, eerie, unexplainable things were happening, and each story had a Mr. Kruger, although they were very different.

Michael was a couple of steps ahead of William. He had his phone out texting Brittany and never looked up to see where he was going but he knew the halls so well at this point he didn’t have to. “I’m sorry,” he texted her. He didn’t know what else to say. He was late for dinner by over half an hour but he had been waiting for this moment. The moment to talk to William and hopefully Brittany would understand later.

“It’s down here to the left,” Michael said as he stuck his phone back into his pocket.

They walked down the vacant hallway at a slow pace like they had all the time in the world. They weren’t being rushed or worried about running into any other staff. They turned the corner and Michael stopped in front of the restroom.

“In there?” asked William. “Right in there?”

“Yeah.”

William, who was giggling to himself, stepped inside ahead of Michael. Michael made sure that no one was in the hallway one last time before going into the bathroom. William looked around the floor. It was spotless. The mirrors didn’t have a smudge on them. The janitors finished their week by cleaning earlier in the day and they didn’t miss a single spot.

“I take it they fixed everything,” said William.

“Yeah, they did.”

“Who was the culprit?” asked William.

“What?”

“I mean as far as everyone else is concerned.”

“Oh,” Michael looked around the room amazed himself that there were no signs of anything broken or out of place. “They have no idea. They think some of the students but couldn’t catch anyone. They just gave an announcement to report any bad behavior, accidents.”

“So, walk me through it,” William leaned on the wall and crossed his arms like he was a director of a movie waiting for the actors to run through their lines. “Son.”

“Well,” Michael stopped. Hearing his father, who was practically a stranger, call him son threw off his train of thought. He stared in the mirror like he was having a telepathic conversation with is reflection trying to remember what they were talking about before the dreaded “son” comment.

“Well,” he continued, “I was holding my hands under the blow dryer and…I didn’t feel anything at first, but then got a warm sensation and the stuff just shot out of my hands.”

“Hmm.”

“Hmm what?”

“It was like an electricity blast?”

“Yeah, William, I already said that,” Michael was agitated.

“Ok, ok. I’m just trying to get all my facts, Michael.”

“You’ve got them all, now tell me what’s going on.”

“I already told you. You didn’t want to believe me, remember?”

Michael leaned on the sink. He scrunched his face up and stared at his reflection in anger. He wanted to smash the glass in front of him with his fist. He’d use the apparent powers that he had, but he had no idea how to do that. He could do it when a car wouldn’t start or when he finished using the bathroom, but not when his biological father pissed him off.

“You’re an Ability, Michael. Both you and your brother are Abilities. Destined to have great powers. Destined to be bitter enemies.”

“What was the Brothers of the air thing?” asked Michael.

“Brothers of the Sky. One brother inherits the powers of the sun and the other from the moon. One good. One Evil. Enemies that are going to destroy everything around them before killing each other.”

In disbelief, Michael asks, “How can you say that and remain so calm? If your two sons are destined destroy so much, how can you say it like you’re ok with it?”

“Because you’re going to do the right thing. You’re going to kill Mitchel.”

“And then what?” Michael threw his hands in the air and turned to his father. “You say that like it’s ok. You don’t know me. Technically, I haven’t been your son for twenty-three years but he has. He’s been your son his entire life and you want me to just kill him.”

“No, but I need you to so that everyone you know and everyone I know can continue to live their entire life.”

“Why don’t you just kill me than? If one of us has to die why did you tell me all this? Why didn’t you just walk up to me in the park that night and pull the trigger?”

“You’re not the moon, son. Mitchel is.”

“Look! I’m glad I finally met you but can you stop calling me son for two damn minutes, please?”

“Of course,” William responded like a small kitchen knife was plunged into his heart.

Michael left the bathroom without saying another word. William watched their relationship evaporating in thin air. He watched the door slowly closing. It was like a time bomb ticking to zero. He thought to himself if the door closed then everything would be over. He had to run after him and save him, calm his nerves but he had to do it before that door closed or that bomb would go off. He snapped out of it and slipped his fingers between the door and wall inches before it closed and followed Michael out.

“Michael,” he said as he followed him down the dark hall.

“Why’d you even come here, William? Did you ever want to meet me or did you only come now to save your own ass?”

“Michael, I’d be lying if I said I never thought about you and that I didn’t want to meet you, but you were happy. You have a good life here. I didn’t want to screw it up. Trust me, I didn’t want to meet you under these circumstances.”

Michael stopped walking and leaned against one of the student’s lockers. He dropped back onto it so hard that had he hit his head he could have gotten a concussion. William stopped abruptly to the side of him like if he wasn’t allowed to take a step in front of him. William looked around and decided the lockers across the hall were the best place to stand. They stood across from each other, Michael looking at the floor and William looking at Michael, both leaning on their respective lockers.

“We’ve got to figure out how to use your abilities.”

“I have no idea how to.”

“That’s why I said figure out,” William said with a smile. He kept the smile until Michael finally looked up from the floor. Michael didn’t smile but a puff of laughter came from his nose.

“How? Have you ever dealt with this before? Did you help Mitchel?”

“No, Mitchel developed his powers all by himself. He’ll never take help from anyone.”

“So, what do we do?”

“I have an idea, but you have to trust me.”

“Ok,” Michael said. There wasn’t much certainty in his voice.

“I know a place where we can go. It’s a place for Abilities. They’ll help you control your powers and you’ll get to meet other Abilities, too.”

“Will Professor X and the rest of the X-Men be there?” joked Michael.

“I’m serious, Michael. This place could really help us.”

“Ok. What is it?”

“They’re called the TDAA.”

“The what?”

“The TDAA. They specialize in helping Abilities. You’ll need all the help you can get.”

“Where are they?”

“They are located outside of Chicago.”

Michael put his hands on his head like runners do when they try to catch their breath. He walked in long, slow circles. He clicked his tongue on the roof of his mouth. It sounded like a game show tune in the last thirty seconds of the show right before the final winner is decided.

“I guess we got to call them. Let’s go.”

“No,” William interrupted, “It’ll take them less than an hour to chopper in.”

William pulled his phone from his pocket. He walked down the hallway. If it weren’t for the blue glow that came from the phone pressed against his face, the darkness would have swallowed him whole.

Michael tried to hear what William was saying but all he could make out was a location of the school. The rest of it was mumbling and nonsense. Michael’s eyes shot open. Seeing William on the phone made Michael realize he hadn’t checked his in some time. He dug his hand into his pocket. Deep into his pocket like the phone was down by his knee.

“I’m trying to understand, but I just don’t. Call me when I fit into this new life of yours.”

Brittany’s text didn’t say anything that Michael wasn’t expecting, but it still hurt. She didn’t break up with him, and he knew she wasn’t planning on it, but he wondered how much more of the lies and the secrets she could take. He wanted to tell her, too, but he just couldn’t say anything. He knew it would be wrong to drag her into it all.

“They’re on their way. They’ll be here within the hour.”

“So, what till then?” asked Michael.

“We’ll wait outside…catch up.”

William didn’t wait for Michael to answer he just started walking, but he stopped when he saw Michael wasn’t moving. Michael had too many thoughts running through his mind to get the rest of his body working. William cleared his throat and kept moving down the hall, after a couple seconds Michael started to follow.

They walked down the same eerie hallways that they came in through. The entire walk was made in silence. Together they pushed through the double doors to leave the building. The one spotlight outside was above the door they walked through and it blinded them. It was as bright as the sun compared to the hallway they just came from.

“William, I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can hop into a plane with these people and leave my life behind. I got to stop and talk to Brittany. I’ve got to let her know what’s going on.”

“There’s no time for that. If you are serious about this, and you need to be, we need to leave now.”

“They won’t be here for an hour. Why can’t I go meet Brittany and they can pick us up there?” Michael pleaded.

“This isn’t exactly the FBI, Michael. The TDAA is a very discrete government agency. They can’t go walking through town picking people up.”

William and Michael stared at each other unwilling to give up on either of their stances.

A ball shot through the air above their heads like a meteor dropping to the planet. It crashed into the building light above them cutting off all the power in a tiny explosion dropping pieces of glass and metal to the ground. William and Michael covered their heads to protect themselves from the falling debris.

They looked around the parking lot to see what happened. They scanned the entire area from the left to the right and then back again. It was dark but they finally saw a figure that could have done it. Their eyes adjusted to the darkness now that there was no more light above them to see a man staring a hole through them.

“Hey, dad,” Mitchel said. He looked toward Michael and a small smile curled over his face, “Brother.”

Michael glanced at William who couldn’t take his eyes away from Mitchel. Michael watched his father stare at his brother with so much terror in his eyes. He was afraid of his son and seeing that was enough for Michael to know that he should be worried as well. He looked over to his brother and swallowed everything he could in one large, frightened gulp.

CHAPTER 46

The restaurant was all but emptied out. Only a small family that snuck in late for dinner was the last customer and then there was Brittany. After a couple of rum and coke’s she decided to hold the rum and stick to the coke so that she could sober up. The bartender returned her debit car and slipped her the receipt. She filled out a friendly tip and signed her name at the bottom.

She waited for over an hour and a half and still there was no Michael. Another promise was broken and the bond between her and her boyfriend was snapped in the middle. Besides the pleasant conversation with Mitchel, the rest of her time sitting in the same, uncomfortable bar stool ticked by in slow motion. She watched the seconds on the digital clock count up and then when she thought it couldn’t get worse the seconds struck zero and started going up all over again.

The arms of her coat were cold from not being worn for so long. She slid her left arm in the coat and braced herself for the other. Once it was on, she rubbed her arms so that the friction would warm her sleeves up. She held her arms to her body and walked out of the restaurant. She was embarrassed that she sat alone the whole night and made it worse by convincing herself that people were watching her. She thought it couldn’t have been any worse if she was in the middle of a crowded food court, tripped, spilled her food across the floor, and had to walk out with everyone staring at her. There were only five people in the restaurant who she would most likely never see again, but she still felt the humiliation.

The air outside had a scent of spring drifting through the breeze. The wind provided a chill, but with it just brought more of the springtime aroma. She let her arms drop to her side and embraced the fresh air. She pointed her nose to the sky and enjoyed the cool air gently brushing against her face.

She walked the sidewalk replaying the events of the last couple of months in her head. She replayed their first day of teaching, Michael telling her about his dream and the picture his student drew, and about Michael’s whole new family he never thought he had. At some point throughout all of that time, she began to lose him. She lost him to something. Something she might not even know yet, but nonetheless she lost him.

The weather was warming up and the sun was planted in the sky for longer hours during the day. The temperature was changing and so was their relationship. During college they couldn’t be separated. Classes, homework, her sorority work were all put on the backburner. They came first. And now everything else was ousting her like she was an old movie that was getting an up-to-date remake by a successful director.

She came around to the parking lot that was only occupied by four cars. The lot was small compared to a Wal-mart parking lot, but the lack of motor vehicles made the lot look bigger. Brittany’s car was parked against the back of the restaurant. She pulled the keys from her pocket and used the button to unlock her car, and then she noticed that a car had blocked her in.

There wasn’t enough room to back the car up without doing damage to the other car or, worse, her car. They were parked in a “T” and she was pinned between the wall and the car. She walked to her car and looked into the windows of the unaccompanied car. There was no owner anywhere around.

She pulled her phone out not sure who she was going to call to fix the problem. Michael probably wouldn’t be able to do anything if he showed up, but sadly she knew that he probably wouldn’t show up, let alone answer his phone. She leaned back onto her car and rolled her head to stretch out her neck. She decided it was too late to sit around and wait so she dialed the number for a tow trunk.

“Hi, yeah I’ve been blocked in and the owner of the car isn’t here,” she said into the phone. “No, it’s parked illegally. An hour? Yeah, I guess I can wait. I’m at O’Dooleys on Rangeline Road. Ok, thank you.”

She heard footsteps behind her. Whoever it was they weren’t trying to be subtle. They were walking at a normal pace, but approaching Brittany from behind. She turned around and identified the man.

“Mr. Kruger?” she asked as he walked around the wrongly parked car.

“Hi, Miss Goudreau. How are you?” he asked like it was an everyday run of the mill conversation.

“What are you doing here? Is this your car?” there was aggravation in her voice, but she was also nervous and uneasy about the situation.

“Yes, it is. I’m sorry is this your car? I just had to run to the store quickly for something.”

“And you couldn’t park in one of the dozen open spots?”

“I’m really sorry, like I said I didn’t think I’d be in there too long. I was in quite a hurry.”

“Well, I’m sorry, but I’ve had a bad night so could you please just move your car?”

“Of course. My apologies.” Mr. Kruger slowly walked to the driver side door. He looked at her on several occasions during the short walk. The same strange, creepy smile that always was plastered to his face made her uncomfortable.

“I’m guessing the store was closed?” she asked when she noticed that he wasn’t carrying any bag of groceries, or anything at all but his keys.

“I’m sorry?” Mr. Kruger asked. He turned and walked back towards her. Slowly. Shrinking the gap between them.

“The store, was it closed?”

“Oh,” he said. He thought about what to say next but instead resorted to laughing. His laugh was slow and monotone. “No, I didn’t go to the store.”

“But you just said,”

“I know,” he interrupted. “I lied.”

“You lied?” Brittany looked around the area but there was no one there. If she needed to scream for help would anybody be around to hear her, she thought. “Mr. Kruger, did you know that this was my car?”

He looked at her car and looked at his car. He smiled like he was embarrassed, like he had just confessed he had a crush on her. A creepy, no chance in hell kind of crush. His peculiar reputation was preceding him.

“Yes.”

“Ok, could you please move your car now?” she asked. Her tone was serious but her nerves shaky.

“Of course, I’m sorry, Miss Goudreau,” he took a couple steps closer moving further from his car.

“What the hell are you doing, Mr. Kruger?” she asked, “This is very inappropriate.”

“I’m sorry. I’m not trying to scare you. Would you like a ride?” He asked with a sideways smile across his face.

“What? No, I do not need a ride, Mr. Kruger. I need you to move your damn car.”

“No,” he said peacefully.

“What? What do you mean no? What the hell is wrong with you?”

“Get in the car,” Mr. Krueger said violently.

“What?” Brittany put most of her weight on the back of her heels.

Krueger stepped closer to Brittany. She was pinned between him and the car. His voice became quiet and friendly, but it was anything but.

“Get in the damn car. I would hate to have to lock you in the trunk,” he said with a neighborly smile.

CHAPTER 47

There they were for the first time in their lives, the whole family, together. William stood between his two sons. Michael was taken back by the moment. He couldn’t take his eyes off his brother. He looked at him like he was looking at a bad car accident. He knew that it was wrong and insulting to stare but couldn’t help himself. Mitchel’s presence was overwhelming.

Just as Mitchel thought, he felt like he was standing with strangers and, for the most part, he was. He had never met Michael. He had no idea what his brother looked like. He could have passed him on the street a dozen times in the last couple of nights and never would have realized that he was his brother. If it weren’t for William walking out of the school with him, Mitchel would have kept on walking to the next guy.

Mitchel felt nothing. He looked into his brother’s eyes and didn’t feel any regret for the things he had to do to get to this point. He felt no sorrow for the things that he knew he would have to do. He knew what had to happen and was prepared to do it. He was prepared to kill the brother he never knew. To Mitchel, Michael wasn’t his brother or William’s son; he didn’t care that he had a family or a girlfriend, he was an unknown stranger that was standing in the way of a lot of people who wanted to live a full life.

“It’s been a while,” Mitchel said to his dad.

“Yeah, about four months?”

“About seven,” corrected Mitchel. “Good to see you haven’t changed, though, dad”

“I’m sorry, I’ve…”

“Been busy? With Michael? My brother?” Mitchel patted William on the shoulder and walked closer to his brother. “It is Michael, right?”

Mitchel reached his hand out, but it wasn’t accepted. He nodded and pretended to shake an imaginary hand. His attempt at humor was ignored by Michael. Mitchel was much more relaxed than his brother.

Michael didn’t smile. He didn’t move. Only the lump in his neck bulged like he really did swallow an apple. Mitchel’s cartoonish antics were being ignored. Michael stared his brother in his beady eyes. His expression read like a mug shot. Cold and calculated, but on the inside his thoughts were screaming, his blood was rushing through his body, and it took all his energy to stop his hands from shaking.

“Sorry I didn’t call. I was in the neighborhood and I just—I also don’t have your number. I hope this is ok,” Mitchel said with a smug attitude.

“What do you want?” asked Michael. He tried hiding his nerves, but his voice was shaky.

“Oh,” Mitchel smiled wide like The Joker. “He speaks. Well obviously, you’ve heard the whole ‘Brothers of the Sky.’ story?” Mitchel walked around William and spoke close to his face, intimidating him. “I’m sure dad told you. See, I didn’t hear it from dad," each time he said dad with anger in his voice.

"I heard it from a sad, strange, little Irishman. And I know what you’re thinking; hard to believe, right? I didn’t believe it at first either, but life has a way of making believers out of us.”

William stared at the smooth black top. Under the absence of light, it looked like a dark calm moat protecting the school building from any danger. His eyes shifted from Mitchel to Michael and then bounced back to his other son.

“Anyways, we know that we’ve got these powers, right?” Mitchel asked his brother. Michael refused to answer, so Mitchel continued, “Ok. We also know that we’re destined to be brutal enemies. Now I don’t know why. I’m sure we would have gotten along greatly. You like baseball? The Reds? No? Anyways, I guess our powers are going to force us to do bad things. That we’re going to destroy everything and everyone around us. And the only way to stop it is for one of us to kill the other. You’ve heard all this, right? I mean it is quite exciting,” Mitchel was trying to break Michael’s spirit. He slipped in humor from time to time, but the look in his eyes was very serious. He held so much anger in his eyes.

It was a scene from an old cowboy western film. Mitchel and Michael stood twenty paces away from each other. Both still, standing tall, staring into each other’s eyes. William stood in the middle as the mediator. Like the guy that was going to say “draw.” He looked back and forth at both of them. Not knowing what was going to come next.

“So that’s the story,” continued Mitchel. “Without the stupid Creator and the ridiculous Mundus, I mean forget that crap because it’s not about any of that. It’s about you and me, right? We are the heart of the story. I mean, are you ready for this? Because I don’t know how…I feel about killing an unarmed man…I mean I can do it—I will do it, but you’re my brother, Michael. So…are you ready for this?

CHAPTER 48

It had been a long drive from New York to Ohio to Indiana. The only times they got out of the car was to pump gas, stop at the Wehde’s house, and now to stop at O’Dooley’s looking for Michael. Brick leaned on the car with his right arm across his chest. He pulled on it with his left arm to stretch out his triceps muscle. He kept his legs spread wide to stretch out his groin.

Karen came walking out of the restaurant with her hair put up in a ponytail and with a pair of fake eyeglasses on. She pulled the glasses off her face and tossed them to the ground. Brick watched her and noticed she didn’t care about those glasses at all. Then she pulled the tie out of her hair and let it fall to her shoulders.

“I feel like you’ve played the innocent girl role before,” Brick said without making eye contact.

“Once or twice. A pretty girl can get the information they want. A pretty, ditzy girl gets all the information they need.”

“I’ll pretend that makes sense,” Brick said as he put his forearms on the roof of the car. Karen stood in the same position as they talked. “Where’s Michael?”

“I don’t know,” she responded in disappointment.

“I thought his parents told you he would be here.”

Karen and Brick stopped by the Vernor’s house to see if Michael was there. He wasn’t but she played her innocent-girl routine on Michael’s parents to find out where he was. Luckily, she caught them minutes after they were returning from their date night.

“That’s what they told me. They said he had a date with his girlfriend and that they were coming here.”

“Well,” Brick said looking around the area, “Maybe they are in the back talking, or making out, or saying goodbye.”

“No. The bartender said that Michael never showed up. She sat at the bar all night waiting for him. He said that some guy came in and they talked for about ten minutes but wasn’t the boyfriend.”

“So, what do we do? We can’t bloody drive around until we see him walking down the street. What’s the plan, captain?”

“I don’t know, Brick. He could be anywhere,” Karen turned away from the car and took a couple steps in each direction. She walked in circles trying to plan her next move but nothing was coming to her. She looked at Brick who looked like he wasn’t trying to help at all. He had been cooperative the entire trip to Indiana, but now it looked like he was leaving everything up to Karen.

“We need to get to Chicago then, Karen.”

“What? No, we need to find the brothers. You said you’d help me, Brick.”

“And I did help you. I told you I would help you find them but we didn’t find them. Mitchel’s house is torn to pieces and Michael is nowhere to be found. I’m sorry, but you tried. I came on this trip for one reason and one reason only; to get Gazet out of the TDAA.”

“Gazet isn’t a prisoner,” she cut loudly cut him off.

“What?” Brick separated himself from the car and stared a hole into Karen. “You told me the TDAA had him locked up.”

“I never said that— “

Karen’s words shut off abruptly when Brick punched the brick building behind him. He put a bowling ball sized hole in the brick and Karen watched chunks and crumbles of hardened clay fall to the ground.

“You lied to me!” Brick yelled.

“I never lied. Gazet is there on his own free will.”

“Gazet would never walk into that place on his own power. Stop lying!”

Brick moved around to the front of the car angry, stalking Karen. She back up and put her hands out, “Listen, Brick. Gazet was in a bad car accident a couple months ago. My dad found him and brought him to the TDAA medical unit to help him. My dad saved his life, ok?”

“Why? You need to tell me everything,” Brick urged her.

“My dad is trying to figure out why Abilities are they way they are. He’s done tests on Abilities before but he’s never found any answers. Paul's been trying for years to get to Gazet. Gazet wants to be cured and my dad is trying to do it."

“Cure? Being an Ability isn’t a disease, Karen.”

“No, it’s not. But being one without control of your powers is. Gazet was in a car accident because he had a vision while driving. He almost died, Brick. My dad is helping him and Gazet can leave any time he wants.”

“Why didn’t you tell me this? What if he’s already gone and I walk into the TDAA? They’re going to lock me up.”

“Don’t you get it? When we show up, whether Gazet is there or not, we’re going to end it all. There’s not going to be a TDAA to lock you up. And who knows…maybe Gazet will be cured by then. Gazet’s not in any danger. I promise you that. We have the time, Brick. We need to find Michael and Mitchel. We can’t do this alone.”

After a moment, once Brick had calmed down after a few deep breaths, he realized that while she was a liar, she was right. They wouldn’t be able to do it alone.

“So where to?”

Karen’s phone played three quick chimes, a sound of a text alert, as if it was the answer to Brick’s question. She reached into her pocket and uploaded the alert. Brick was uninterested in her phone conversations and looked away. He looked at the hole in the wall that he punched and made sure that no one was around to see what he did. He glanced all over looking for security cameras that might have caught his punch but there were none.

He looked back at Karen after she mustered up a small laugh. She dropped her arm to her side and looked up at Brick with a smile on her face. His face was left in utter confusion but she tossed the phone to him and waited for his response.

He read: Talib has made contact. He and [target] Michael Vernor are at Carmel Clay Middle School in Carmel, Indiana. 520 East Main Street. Michael is unaware of TDAA involvement. Abilities seem to be developing. Approach with Caution.

He tossed the phone back to her and opened the passenger door, “Let’s go.”

CHAPTER 49

“I didn’t know what to expect with you,” said Mitchel.

The two brothers were still twenty feet from each other. Mitchel was relaxed. He had been in a situation like this before and knew what he was capable of. He took a couple steps to the left, pivoted, and then took a couple steps to the right. He was talking like it was a normal family reunion.

Michael wasn’t as relaxed. He was tense. He left most of the talking for Mitchel during the confrontation. He studied his brother. Trying to get a feel for him. He studied his mannerisms. The way he moved. The way he talked. The way he thought. Michael feared that the epic battle that William had warned him about was coming and it was coming fast.

“You need to kill him, Michael,” whispered William.

“What?” Michael didn’t hear. He was trying his best to keep his attention on his brother.

“Kill him, Michael,” shouted William.

All of Mitchel’s arrogance flushed out of him from hearing his father give the order to have him killed. His own father. The man he lived with for twenty-three years told the son he never knew to kill him.

“Michael, you need to do this. Now kill him, son,” William moved closer to Michael and screamed at him, “Kill him!”

Michael’s breathing got heavier. His fists clenching at his side. He started to tense his face and his muscles trying to find the power within him. Trying to feel the warmth rushing through his body that he had felt the first day he used his powers, but a car honking and speeding up to the school caused him to lose any train of thought.

“Mitchel, stop!” Shouted Karen. She and Brick left the car running and raced over to the others. “You don’t have to do this.”

“What the hell are you doing here, Karen?”

“Mitchel, you don’t need to kill anyone. You don’t need to kill Michael!”

“Oh, I don’t? Ok. Then slap the cuffs on me and let’s go see daddy,” Mitchel held his hands out to her teasing that he was giving up.

“Who’s that?” Michael asked William.

“That’s Karen Dunn. She works at the TDAA. I’ve never seen the big guy before.”

“I’m not here under my dad’s orders anymore. I’m done with the TDAA. I’m done with my father,” Karen yelled to Mitchel.

“You’re a good liar, Karen, but did you forget who you’re talking to? I don’t buy it.”

“She’s telling the truth, Mitchel. We’re going to take down the TDAA. All of us. Together,” Brick said stepping between Karen and Mitchel.

“Who the hell are you?” asked Mitchel.

“My name is Brick. I’m a friend of your father’s.”

Michael looked at William with his eyebrows furrowed. The big Irish guy that was easily twice Michael’s size claimed he was a friend of William’s, but William had said seconds before that he had no idea who he was. Michael took a couple steps backwards away from William and away from the rest of the group. He wanted to keep distance between everyone in case things got violent.

William glanced behind his back and saw that Michael was backing up and figured that he should do the same thing. Except he moved in the opposite direction. Slowly at first but then taking quicker steps to get away from the group.

“Mitchel. Michael. That isn’t your father,” Karen said to them.

“What are you talking about?” Michael finally spoke up. William was the only one he trusted in the group but once she said that a part of him believed her.

“Michael, I worked at the TDAA. I don’t anymore,” she reiterated for Mitchel’s trust. “Your father, the real William Wehde is locked up in our prison. He’s been in there for over four months. This man is an imposter. His name is Talib.”

William stopped moving and gave each of them a couple seconds of eye contact. He knees buckled slightly but not from being frightened, he was preparing himself to take off running and leave everyone behind.

“Karen, don’t lie to me,” this time Mitchel didn’t sound threatening. He sounded compassionate. He wanted the truth and he didn’t want to fight her anymore for it.

“Mitchel, I promise you. Your dad would never let you two hurt each other. Your dad loves you, Mitchel.”

Mitchel stared at Karen and it was as if their entire time together flashed before his eyes. The first time that they met in the park by the tree that Mitchel always curled up next to. He saw them together on the day that she Graduated from Cincinnati, the day she introduced him to Paul. He finally saw that no matter how fake everything was, or how many people had planned for the two of them to meet, that the feelings they shared for each other was real.

William’s eyes grew wide when he saw the flashing sparks appear in Mitchel’s hands. He turned to run but wasn’t quick enough. Mitchel pushed a shot of electricity out of his hands and everyone watched it land on the chest of William. The force sent William to the ground and as his limp body hit the ground he had transformed into his original identity. Talib with his white necklace and red eyes lay on the ground completely unconscious.

Michael’s mouth dropped to his chest in awe. Even though he knew he lived in a world full of people with super human powers, he was still amazed at what he had seen. The man he thought was his biological father was actually a complete stranger. He felt angry and betrayed, but he couldn’t think about that because he was amazed at the sight of William changing into an entirely different person.

“His name is Talib. He works for my dad. He’s been posing as William for the last couple of weeks,” Karen said. She turned to Mitchel and continued, “And the man you met in Ireland, Gazet, was Talib. Gazet is at the TDAA. They’ve been trying to convince you that you two to kill each other, but you don't have to!”

“But…” Michael lost his voice for a moment, still in shock at what he had just seen. “What about the story? Our powers are going to make us hate each other.”

“We don’t know if that’s true,” Karen said.

“We can worry about that later,” Brick interrupted. “Right now, we are going to the TDAA to save Gazet and to save your father.”

“You really want to do this?” Mitchel asked Karen. Things had been so rocky between them, filled with lie after lie that he had no idea what to believe.

“My dad has screwed up enough of our lies. Yes. We need to put an end to this,” Karen responded.

At that moment, a helicopter hovered above the school and shined its spotlight down on top of Mitchel, Michael, Karen, and Brick. They all put their hands over their eyes to look up at the light. They heard sirens coming from a distance and saw that down the street were more TDAA issued SUVs speeding toward them. Mitchel’s eyes lit up in anger as he aimed his attention at Karen. She looked back at him and could immediately feel what he was thinking.

“Mitchel, listen to me, I didn’t do— “

“You lied to me! You bitch!” Mitchel yelled back to her.

“No!” Brick yelled over the sound of the chopper, “She’s telling you the truth.”

“Shut up!” Mitchel yelled back and shot a bolt of his powers at Brick. It was bigger than the one he shot at Talib. The energy knocked Brick back into the wall of the school, which put a large dent in the brick.

Mitchel looked up at the helicopter and show a burst of his energy at it. Karen’s eyes were as wide as she could get them and her hands covered her mouth as she watched his latest bolt fly towards the helicopter.

It crashed into the side and the helicopter imploded on impact. The propeller became dislodged from the rest of the vehicle and took off flying through the air uncontrollably. Mitchel saw that it was flying in the direction of Karen, but all the sentiment that he was feeling was gone. He watched with no love in his heart as the giant propeller flew her way. She dove at the last second freeing herself by a mere couple inches. The propeller stuck in the ground, cutting up the concrete where she once stood.

The rest of the helicopter fell to the ground in flames crashing onto the trees and bushes that surrounded the yard. It set them ablaze and whoever was in the helicopter wasn’t going to live through the crash.

Michael, witnessing another amazing sight, quickly grew angry because he still believed the TDAA was a place that was going to help him develop his powers, but in a way, they already did because he was so angry that he felt his blood beginning to warm up again. He looked down to see that his hands were beginning to glow a solid gold color. He pushed his arms forward and a slight bolt shot out. It wasn’t as big as the ones Mitchel threw, but it was still an accomplishment to him.

It struck Mitchel in the back of the shoulder and knocked him to the ground. Mitchel let out a quick scream and looked up at Michael whose hands still had that gold glow.

“Well, it’s about time,” Mitchel said as he rose to his feet. He walked toward Michael and rotated his shoulder to stretch out that kinks that Michael’s blast put in his arm.

Before Michael could defend himself, Mitchel threw his hands up and shot his own blast at Michael. It connected on his brother’s chest and threw him through the school doors.

Michael landed hard on the hall floor, his head bouncing off the thin carpet. Pieces of door, metal, and wood landed by his side, underneath him, and even on top of him. He shoved and threw the pieces off him quickly ignoring the pain that shot through his chest and spine. He got up and ran down the hallway when he saw Mitchel walking toward the hole in the wall.

Mitchel walked quickly, staring at Karen as he entered the school after his own flesh and blood.

Karen knew that there was nothing else she was going to be able to do. Mitchel probably wanted her dead now. He thought that she was once again a liar and there was no time to try and convince him otherwise. The TDAA and her father probably wanted to take her into custody and lock her away for as long as she was alive. She realized that there was nobody around her to help her so she got into her car and drove away from the school and away from the TDAA agents pulling into the parking lot.

Four SUVs pulled up to the scene followed by a large SWAT-like van that had a dozen agents jump out of once the vehicles stopped. Eric and Lawrence hopped out of the lead SUV and ordered the agents into the building.

“Remember, we want them alive!” Lawrence yelled to his troops.

Brick, who had been lying on the ground in pain from that blast that he took at the hands of Mitchel, was slowly rising to his feet. All of the agents ran past him into the building, which left him standing in the parking lot with Lawrence, who could multiply into countless people, and Eric, who could transform into any animal of his choosing.

Brick had never been face to face with Lawrence before, but he had been with Eric. They had fought in the parking garage twenty-three years ago and hadn’t seen each other since. Brick stared at both of them and knew that the only chance he had of getting out alive was to stand and fight.

He slowly put his hands up and waved them forward.