She Came From The Sky
By Lyda Mae (RavenDove) Huff
Chapter Two
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"Two-Thousand years ago a wise prophet said, "Judge not, least ye also be judged," Hira said. "What you see is not always what it seems, and I would think a man who once went by the name of Sonic Boom would know that."
Coach Boomer raised an eyebrow, "Where did you get that bit of information from?"
"History is one of my favorite subjects." said Hira. "Though you are not currently working as a Hero, you had your victories." She looked Boomer hard in the eye. "Since I know who you are, I know how to defeat your power." She braced herself and said, "Try to blow me away."
Boomer thought nothing of a little showing off so he tried to oblige the girl, but as he tried to yell he felt his chest contract. He couldn't get any air in his lungs and he felt himself falling to his knees. He saw the lips of the girls guardian move, but heard nothing. Then he felt air rush into the space around him and he could breathe again.
It took Boomer a few minutes before he dared to try and speak again. "How did you do that?"
Hira took a moment before she could face him again. "No air, means no sound." she said. "It wasn't much harder than snuffing a candle from across the room."
She pulled back the blanket from around her legs and began to move toward the platform in the center of the gym floor where Coach Boomer stood. Slowly she lifted one leg, moving it forward and then the other. It took her more minutes to do this than the average person, but eventually she stood on the platform beside him.
Boomer looked at her from head to foot. "Oh, I see now. The wheel chair is your dodge. Like glasses for so many other heroes, you don't really need it,"
Hira lifted herself from the platform ever so slightly. "On the contrary, it is my standing and walking that is the illusion."
It was then that Hira's American Uncle spoke. "I can provide the school with verifiable records that Hira's spine was severed by a bullet in the lumbar region." He looked at the girl he'd come to love as his own daughter. His expression saddened. "Her legs are only movable by the will of her mind and couldn't support a feather on their own."
"So she has finely controlled telekinesis." said Boomer. "Can you hold up something heavy?"
"I've done it for short periods of time."
Boomer pressed the button that would drop the car that was kept handy for such tests. "Car!" he yelled in warning.
Hira caught the weight of the automobile with grace, not even losing her height from the platform as she pushed it back to its usual position.
Boomer let her hold it there a moment. "Can you use your ability to make it look like you are flying?"
"Within limits?"
Boomer pushed the button to retract the car. "What else can you do?
"You wouldn't happen to have to melons handy?" Hira asked.
Boomer pressed another button and two water melons pop up on target posts across the room.
Hira concentrated on the first one and the rind pulled apart leaving an explosion of fruit on the floor around it. The second she cause to collapse in on itself.
The effort of the second stunt caused her to fall to the platform beneath her, and she lay there for a moment on her side.
Colonel Skousen climbed the stairs and lifted her into his arms so he could carry her back down to her chair, but Boomer stopped him. "If she can get back to that chair on her own she makes the Hero class, but if she needs help I recommend she doesn't go into the Hero business at all."
Hira shook off her uncle, and used her mind to lift herself into the air. Once she had gently set herself back into the chair and put her blanket back in place she spoke. "I'm not here to join any class Mr., Boomer. "I'm here to please my Uncle."
"But you could be a great hero young lady." Boomer said.
"I do not deserve such a chance." said Hira. "I killed a man in much the same manner as what I did to that second watermelon."
Skousen came down from the platform and took Hira's hand. "That was an act of self defense in a war zone Hira,"
Hira looked away from him. She could not face this man who had been so kind. "It was not self defense, Uncle Mike. It was revenge."
"The guy wouldn't happen to be the one who shot the bullet that paralyzed you?" Boomer asked.
Hira looked him in the eyes. "No, he was the Israeli that raped my seven year old cousin."
"She died from what he did," said Boomer, "didn't she."
"And he would have killed you next Hira." Said Skousen. "That group was out to kill your whole tribe."
"That doesn't make killing him right." Hira said.
Boomer thought about this a moment, "Perhaps knowing that will make you a better Hero."
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