Chapter One: A Bang Baby is Born

I can't believe it, why did this have to happen to me? Just as I finally agreed to move, after so many weeks of refusing, I move to a new town and this is what happens. The reason I moved to Dakota City was because my dad was transferred here to study more about the gas explosion and to learn more about the Bang Babies. I thought my life would stay the same, but no. Just as I was walking home from the library from getting my card set up, I had to get kidnapped. I lost track of how many hours, days, weeks it was before I was finally unstrapped from the metal table.

Quietly, I planned on how to get out as they ran daily tests on me. As each day went by, I learned just what kind of powers I had been given from these mad scientists. One thing I knew for certain; if I get out of here, how would I visit my mom and dad? I would probably have to live on my own for a while. Maybe sleep in a tree, in an abandon building, or on people's roofs. When the time comes, I'll figure it out.

But the thing is, each time someone comes to do my daily tests, they spray some kind of gas into the room through the vent, making my vision all messed up.

One day, before they sprayed the gas, I held my breath and waited for the gas to disappear. Once it disappeared, I wrapped a bandana around my mouth and breathed in it as I laid with my back to the door. The moment I heard it open and footsteps come up to me from behind, I jumped up and kicked them in the chest, making them hit the wall. I ran out the door, down a series of hallways and flew up several flights of stairs, then I spotted a door with a red, glowing sign that said 'Exit.'

I threw the door open and saw that it was night time out. Walking out the door, I spread my wings open wide and flew off the roof. In the distance, I saw white lightning and fire balls shooting through the night sky. Quickly, I flew towards it and saw Static Shock. The other guy had red and yellow streaks through his air, his hair was sticking up in all directions, a red muscle shirt, light brown pants that looked like they were falling off his waist even though he was wearing a belt, and black and white shoes.

Suddenly, a guy with some kind of helmet, a blue and green tight jumpsuit-slash-scuba diving suit, black gloves, knee pads, elbow pads, and some weird shoes that helped him fly came out of no where, shot a gadget of some sort at the guy throwing fire that pinned him to a tree.

"Nice one Gear." Static commented. "Now time to get out of here."

The moment they left, I watched the guy struggle as he tried to get unpinned from the tree. Just as I flew to the ground, the guy got so fustrated he (literally) burst into flames. The gadget melted and the tree was burnt to a crisp.

As if nothing has happened, the guy begins to walk away. I fly above him, watching him as he walks down the street. Seeing that he doesn't notice me, I fly just ten feet above him. Suddenly he turns the corner into an alley, and just as I went to turn into it as well, a small ball of fire was thrown at me. Since I don't know how to fly quickly, the fire burns my arm and the inner part of my left wing.

The pain spreads through my entire arm and wing, causing me to fall to the ground. I lay on the ground for a while, and just as I tried to get up, he puts his foot on my chest.

"Who are you?" he questioned with a growl. "Why are you following me?"

I couldn't answer back because my voice was mute from so many tests being done for so long. When I didn't answer him, he made a fire ball and went to throw it down at me but I stared straight into his eyes. I blinked and suddenly I saw his mother dying through his eyes.

'Your mother.' I thought to him, learning a couple of days ago that I was a telepath. 'She's beautiful.'

When I looked at him, his eyes were wide and blank.

The fire in his hand disappeared but his foot kept me in place as he asked, "How did you..."

I didn't answer. Suddenly, his foot came off my chest and he was standing a foot away. Carefully, I got to my feet without putting any weight on my left arm.

I walked towards him but he looked as if he couldn't see me as he still had a blank look on his face. Just as I reached out to touch his face, he looked up then tackled me just as I heard a shock hit the brick wall, leaving a scorched mark.

"You can't leave people alone can you?" I heard Static Shock ask.

Just as I looked up, I rolled us out of the way from another attack. Quickly, I got to my feet and stared to see what would happen next. Just as he threw what looked like a lightning bolt at the red head, I stood in front of him with my arms spread. Before he could stop it, the electricity hit me square in my chest. For a moment I was paralyzed with pain before my knees buckled and I fell to the filthy ground.

Before anything else could happen, I spread my wings as wide as they could over my body and the red head's then disappeared somewhere safe.

To the red head's home.

When I woke up, all of my wounds were healed and I was laying on a mattress. I remember before I fell unconcious that I was on the concrete floor. Opening my eyes, I saw that the guy was propped up against the wall across from the mattress, eyes closed as his head hung forward.

As he slept, I got up from the bed and saw that I wasn't in the clothes the people had put me in. I was dressed in a pair of clean boxers that felt like they would fall off my waist any second and a muscle shirt that was so big my bare shoulders were seen.

I walked from the bed towards what looked like the bathroom. In the mirror I saw myself, atleast what was left of myself.

My eyes were all black, no white what-so-ever, my hair was black and fell down to my waist instead of at my shoulder blades like it used to, my skin was even paler, I had lost alot of weight (making me look like I was only skin and bones), it looked like I had lost ALOT of my height as well (instead of being 5'8" I was now 4'11"), my skin looked blemish, zit, and pimple free, and my wings were no where in sight. Turning around, I pulled the back of my shirt up and only saw an upside down V scar.

Pulling the shirt back down, I walked out of the bathroom and into the kitchen-slash-dining room. I opened the fridge to see a gallon of water, a small bottle of cranberry juice, and more than a dozen snacks from a gas station. Softly, I closed the fridge then walked into the living room to see a tiny, broken entertainment stand, a stained up couch, a dozen of books stacked up in the corner, and an old oil lamp.

I sighed then went to the stack of books to see if the red head had anything interesting to read. The first couple of books were a math book, a science book, a history book, a spanish book, an english book, then I looked at the last couple of books. On all of the spines were, what looked like, taped on pieces that said Dakota City Public Library. I couldn't tell because they were half ripped off, half left on. I picked up a book that was on the bottom of the stack that didn't have any writting on it.

Opening up to a random page, I saw pictures of the red head, a woman with red hair who smiled at the camera, and a man with blonde hair who frowned at the camera, a picture of the red head entering elementary school, the red head playing soccer, and a couple of others. I didn't notice that the red head was awake so I continued to look through the photos. I found out from the writing underneath that his name was Francis but someone had crossed it out to write underneath Hotstreak.

Suddenly, the book was out of my hands. When I looked up, I saw the red head, Francis, turning away with a blush on his face.

'What's wrong?' I asked him.

Francis said, "Nothing. Just please, don't go through this book."

'Either you're the hot head's gentle twin or you had a serious attitude adjustment.' I commented as I stood up and brushed the boxers off with any dirt there was.

He didn't say anything as he put it on a high shelf that I could have reached before but couldn't now. I frowned as I looked out the window and saw people my age running somewhere in a hurry. Now that I was thinking about it, didn't hot head have school today?

Before I could ask him the question I was asking about, he said, "Stay here, I'll be back in a couple of hours."

And just like that, he grabbed a bag from the floor near the couch and disappeared out the front door. I opened the window and saw a fire escape. Stepping through the window, I stood on the fire escape. As I sat down and leaned against the metal stairs, I stared up at the sky and felt the breeze pick up as I listened to the town start to wake up.