Sorry, this chapter is a bit of a filler and pretty short, but I hope you'll like it….
"No!" I screamed, struggling to my feet.
"Mikayla," my dad said quietly.
"What?" The hooded figure asked me, a malicious smile creeping into his voice. "Scared for your boyfriend? Well, you should be, because after I'm done with him…" He started walking towards me menacingly. "And when I'm done with you…"
"Don't touch her!" Brady snarled, breaking free of my dad's grasp and hurling himself in front of me.
"Who is going to stop me?" He asked.
"Me," Brady said, standing in front of me protectively, his shoulders squared and his arms spread out. His hazel eyes were dark and stormy with anger. "You killed my family and destroyed my home. You took everything else I have away from me. But you won't get her. Ever."
"What about over your dead body?" The figure asked, his eyes glinting under his hood. "Because that can be arranged."
I grabbed Brady's arm (he didn't shock me this time), and said, "Brady, no."
He shook off my hand.
"Brady!"
He turned to look at me, his eyes full of sorrow. "Mikayla, I've lost everything that I care about. It's all gone. I can't lose you too."
"Oh, how sweet," the figure mocked. "Unlucky for you, I don't have a sensitive side!"
A loud boom resounded through the air, quickly followed by a white crack of lightning. It was headed straight for Brady!
"Look out!" I shrieked, but he didn't move, didn't even look fazed. As the bolt came down towards him, he flung his hands up into the air, palms up, and suddenly a jet of burning hot blue lighting shot out of his hands and soared up to meet the white lightning, the two bolts colliding in midair and exploding.
"What the heck was that?" I heard my dad ask Dr. Amélie.
"I have no idea," she responded, sounding puzzled… and a bit awed.
Meanwhile, the figure was staring at Brady, probably surprised and confused and just completely dumbfounded, though these were all guesses, since I couldn't see his face.
"I didn't know you could do that," I whispered to Brady, trying hard to keep the awe out of my voice.
"Neither did I," he breathed, clearly still in shock.
"How did you-" the figure began, but before he could go any further, Brady had held out his hands and sent another bolt straight at him. He dodged, but it still hit his arm.
"Run!" Brady yelled, grabbing my hand and yanking me into action.
We ran as fast as we possibly could, my dad and Dr. Amélie right behind us.
"You can't run forever!" The figure yelled at our retreating backs. "And you can't hide! There's nothing to hide you out here."
He was right. There was nowhere to hide on this flat, barren plain, nothing that could conceal us, keep us from the figure's watching eyes.
"He's right," I panted. "Brady, there's nowhere to go."
"We can't give up," he said, panting even harder than me. "Can't. Can't. Can't-"
Another clap of thunder boomed out across the plain, sending shivers of fear running up and down my spine.
"Brady," I said, interrupting him. "How did you get those powers?"
"I don't know," he said. "Maybe… maybe I got them when I was struck by lighting."
"Oh, that makes so much sense!" I panted, trying to slow down a little to catch my breath, but Brady kept pulling me on.
"Come on, Mikayla! You can't quit on me now. Please."
I twisted my head around and saw my dad and Dr. Amélie right behind us, panting and puffing as well, then I looked past them, trying to make out the figure in the distance, but he had disappeared from view.
"Brady, I can't see him anymore. Can we stop for a minute?"
He looked back too, squinted, then sighed heavily. "Okay, we can take a break."
We all came to a halt, where me and my dad doubled over, panting and wheezing. Dr. Amélie and Brady did the same, though they seemed to be less out of breath.
We all sat in a circle as we tried to get our breathing back to normal.
"Brady, how did you do that? With the lightning, I mean," Dr. Amélie asked him. It was obvious that she'd been bursting to ask him this.
"I think it happened when I was struck by lightning," he said. "I never could do that before."
"That explains why he kills people when they try to touch him!" I exclaiming, suddenly realizing. "He electrocutes them, with his lightning."
"But it still doesn't explain why you don't die," she said, frowning. "You can't control it, can you, Brady? The electrocuting?"
He shook his head, then paused mid-shake. "I don't know if I can or not now, since I just controlled it with the… hooded figure. But then I couldn't. I didn't kill them all on purpose. I would never…"
"We know, dear," Dr. Amélie said kindly. "So that explains a lot, but we still have a lot of holes…"
"But we aren't being scientists now," I said quickly, giving her a look. "We don't want to figure out how it works, we just want to protect him."
She nodded emphatically. "Yes, of course. I'm sorry, my scientist side just can't help seeping in…"
"It's o-"
But just then a shadow crossed over us were we all sat, like something was blocking out the sun.
We all looked up.
It was a helicopter, the whirring blades making a loud whizzing noise that we could hear all the way down on the ground.
A tall dark-haired woman leaned out the window, looking down at us, a satisfied smile on her lined face.
Dr. Felton.
Her megaphone enhanced voice called down to us. "GIVE US THE REFUGEE OR YOU WILL SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES!"
Uh-oh. ASSULF is here. What'll they do?