There is an author's note at the bottom that will be very helpful for later on in the chapter. It becomes relevant when the POV goes to the ghost twins.
Chapter 18
I walked into my art class and dumped my bag on the floor. When I stood back up Wally was sitting in the chair across from me.
"I saw you on the news last night," Wally said, plopping his elbows on the table.
"And he's back," I muttered.
"Someone broke into your house," he pressed.
"Really? Why didn't anyone tell me? Maybe I could have done something about it!" I said, rolling my eyes.
"The police dragged him out with an arrow in his foot, duct tape over his mouth and his hands and feet zip tied together. And I'm pretty sure that that isn't police protocol."
"Is the point coming soon?"
"Did you do all of that?" he asked plopping his hands down on the table and leaning closer.
Before I would reply with some witty remark, Jade walked up to Wally and crossed her arms. "You're in my seat."
"First come, first serve."
"I said, you're in my seat," Jade repeated.
"There is another spot right there," he said, pointing to the seat next to me.
"Jade, please take a seat so I can start my class," our teacher called.
Jade moved around the table and sat in the seat beside me, never once taking her eyes off Wally.
"So come on, spill."
"Well, Wallace, you seem to know the whole story already so I have nothing left to say."
"Nothing left to say about what?" Jade asked with a confused look on her face.
I sighed, knowing that answering Jade's question would be answering Wally's question but I couldn't help that. "Someone broke into my house last night and I took him out," then thought for a moment, "with some help."
"Someone broke into your house!?" Jade screeched.
"Help? The news didn't say anything about you having help." Wally said cocking his head, disregarding Jade's banshee moment.
"Wally, could you please excuse me while I yell at Jamie," Jade said smiling sweetly.
"But—" Wally started but stopped when Jade shot him a look that if held of too long I'm pretty sure will cause spontaneous combustion. He slunk back to his normal seat and Jade turned and looked at me like my keeping quiet was ridiculous.
"Why didn't you tell me that someone broke into your house?"
"I just hadn't gotten around to it. I took care of the guy and Tempest showed up and gave me a hand. She nearly got herself shot though."
Jade kept her emotions carefully in check and responded with, "What do you mean shot?"
"I had my bow. I almost shot Tempest when she slammed into me but when I saw who it was I turned my bow on the idiot in my dad's office and shot him in the foot."
"Did you call the cops?"
"Well, sure. But they didn't show up until after the guy was tied up with tape on his mouth and the shaft of an arrow still sticking out of his foot."
"Tape—Jeez Jamie, doesn't that seem a bit extreme?"
"He was an intruder so he got shot. He needed to be contained so he got tied up with zip ties. And his vocabulary is more colorful than a sailor's so he got duct tape over his mouth. It was all for good reason," I told her very calmly explaining everything.
"Who was he? Why was he in your house?"
"His name was Zeke. And he was stealing my dad's dragons."
"His dragons? He was after your dad's dragons. Are they expensive?"
"Not that I know of but that may be worth looking into. It's not like he goes out and buys them, people are always giving them to him as gifts."
"Maybe one of them is actually worth something."
"Maybe so… but anyways, I was going to tell you."
"But you didn't. You have a cell phone for a reason you know," Jade said looking a little put out.
"Well I'm sorry I didn't realize I had to report every little thing to you." I was getting mad now.
"Someone breaking into your house isn't little, Jamie. You could have gotten hurt."
"But I didn't, I'm fine. If something had happened I would have let you know. But nothing did."
"You keep talking about this like it's no big deal—"
"It isn't a big deal. It was all taken care of. And it's not like I didn't have some help.
"All Tempest did was hold him and tie him up."
"How do you know that? I never said how Tempest helped," I asked, suddenly suspicious of my best friend.
She stuttered for a moment before getting out the sentence, "I must have heard Wally say it or something."
"I never told anyone what happened; you would have had to be there."
"Well clearly I wasn't so you told someone and I somehow heard it."
"That's not possible. I am telling you. Tell me the truth Jade," I demanded, staring intently at her.
"There is nothing to tell," she insisted. I've known Jade long enough to know when she is hiding something. Now was one of those times.
"Stop lying to me—"
"—I'm not."
"JUST STOP!" I yelled at her. "I've gone through enough in the last 24 hours without having my best friend lie to my face."
"Jamie, I'm not—"
"I said, stop." I got up, grabbed my bag and left the class room. I walked down to the library and sat in the back corner where the bookshelves covered up where I was. I just needed to be away from people for a while.
After a few minutes I heard footsteps coming down the aisle. I looked up, ready to tell Jade to go away but was surprised to see Wally standing in front of me.
"What?" I asked, glaring up at him.
"Well you aren't one to go running out of the room. Jade was frustrated and wouldn't say anything so the teacher sent me down to check on you," he explained as he slid down the wall till he was sitting next to me.
"Well, I'm here. I'm not planning on coming back to class. You can tell the teacher I said that if you want but I don't need my friend to sit there and lie to my face. I know she's hiding something. I can't stand it when people lie to me," I told him, leaning my head back against the wall.
"why do you say she is hiding something?"
"She knew how Tempest helped me even though I never told anyone. She knew… she knew… it's almost like… Never mind."
"It's almost like what?"
"It's gonna sound stupid but, it's almost like Jade knew what Tempest did because Jade is Tempest."
"I could find out," he offered.
"Yeah, because you have "connection"," I mocked.
"No really, one of my friends can find out anything. He's…. well, he's talented like that. Are you sure you want to know?"
I thought for a moment and decided that I did want to know. "Find out what you can."
Wally got a weird smile on his face and asked "So this means that we're like partners now, right?"
"Don't push your luck buddy boy," I told him narrowing my eyes.
He stood up and held his hand down to help me up. I took his hand and he hauled me to my feet. Wally gave my hand a quick squeeze but held on longer than was strictly necessary. I cocked an eyebrow at him but he wasn't looking at my face, but at the hand he was holding.
"I never asked before but, what happened? How did you get the scars?" He wasn't trying to pry but was genuinely curious.
"When I was 13 there was an accident while my dad and I were camping. Well, the long and short of that story is I got burns up to my elbows and I smacked my face on a tree branch and got these gashes. Basically I have a better reason than most people to not like lightning." I pulled my hand back and rubbed the scarred skin.
"It doesn't look that bad you know," Wally said.
"Excuse me?"
"The scars; they aren't that bad. It gives you personality."
"Because I would be such a dry person if I didn't have these lovely scars," I told him sarcastically.
"That's not what I meant."
"It's a lot harder to blend into the back ground when everything about you says "Look at me!"" Unless you have a mask, masks and gloves are my new favorite thing. Assuming I actually get my uniform sometime in the near future.
:3( )~~
Luke paced back and forth in his cell in Bellrev. It was two days past the time that Lilly said she was going to bust him out. Something must have happened. And he couldn't get to her because of the stupid inhibitor collar. He stuck rubbed his neck the best he could but it didn't give much relief. He walked to the cell door and saw one of the security guard running down the hall.
"Where's the fire?" Luke called out to him, jokingly.
The guard turned pointed back behind him. Luke pressed his face against the bars and could see smoke billowing out of one of the cells.
"Whose cell is that?" he asked his buck mate, Nova. (See authors note at the bottom, I suggest you read it all, the rest of the chapter will make more sense if you do.)
She jumped off her bunk and peered out the bars next to look. Nova gasped and then screamed, "BEM!"
Luke knew from talking to Nova that Bem was the little girl she took care of. Nova was reaching through the bars as far as she could, trying to reach the little girl in the flaming cell.
Luke gripped her shoulders and turned her around so that they were eye to eye. "Nova, Nova, look at me. Who was her cell mate?" Luke asked franticly. When she didn't respond he gave her a shake and she finally looked at him.
"Arson, his name is Arson. He's a pyro."
"He is immune to fire, if she stays close to him she will be fine." I bet my lunch that this is part of Lilly's plan. He pulled out the pocket watch he smuggled in and opened it. The face that had been blank before was glowing green. "Green means go," Lilly had told him.
"Nova, we have a green light, let me see your collar." He popped the back off the watch and pulled out a small tool and began picking the inhibitor collar.
:3( )~~
I waited under the light post once again, waiting for Robin to come with my uniform. I figured I'd just stay as a dog instead of as a human since I didn't bring a jacket, so I had no way of hiding my identity.
Robin melted out of the shadows and quirked a smile. "Hello, Mutt."
"Well, you're persistent, I'll give you that," I told him.
"I believe I have something for you." He dropped the bag he was carrying down in front of me. "Do to the nature of our work; I did some… modifications, you might say, to your uniform."
I nosed around in the bag, trying to find these so called "modifications."
"You won't be able to tell until you put it on, mutt. That is another security feature that I had installed; nothing special about it can be accessed until you and only you are wearing it." He stood there looking very proud of himself.
"Well I'm going to head out now. Thanks for bringing this by." I picked up the bag in my mouth and started walking away.
"Hey Mutt, quick question," Robin said as I walked away. "Do you know where a Jade Lebeau lives? I know she's close but I figured it'd be easier to ask you than to just waltz around the neighborhood."
Jade.
"Umm, yeah, I think I know who that is. Follow me." I shifted into a small dragon (about 3 feet long) and flew in the direction of Jade's house. When we got there I motioned to the one story house.
"A dragon? Really?" Robin asked.
"I'm not bound by reality. I can literally be anything I want to."
"Whatever Mutt," he chuckled. "Thanks for showing me where she lives."
"What is this for any ways?"
"Favor for a friend."
I came up with Nova, also known as Super Nova. She can glow extremely bright (causes blindness. 10 times more powerful than looking at the sun) and produce an explosion that disintegrates everything around her. (She can control how big the blast is, but what finally landed her in Bellrev is the destruction of an entire city.) Basically she has the properties of an actual supernova, well… those two things anyways. Real name is Nora Scott. She has long blonde hair with purple tips
Her partners in crime are:
- Black hole; a little black girl (about 12 years old) who can absorb anything she wants to. Even though she has this ability she is still tiny. As she gets older the ability increases and the pull around her gets stronger. She can reproduce what she absorbs so she has become quite the pick pocket. She calls Nova "Aunt Nova" or "Aunt Nora" even though they aren't blood related. Nova has taken care of her since she was abandoned by her parents when she was 7. Her real name is Bem Hedley. This is kinda funny since Bem means peace.
-Pulsar; a 17 year old boy that can emit different types of waves. Like sound waves, radio waves, microwaves and so on and so forth. Most of the time just plain waves don't do too much damage but when they are concentrated… well, it's not good. His real name is Parker Bryd. He is deeply tanned with short cut black hair, and has clear grey eyes.
All three of them have tattoos of their astronomy related name on their right shoulder.
Arson is another of my creations. Since I'm not planning on having arsenal in here hopefully it won't be too confusing. And it's pretty easy to figure it out but he is quiet the pyro. He cant control fire or start it but he is immune to it and if he is touching someone/ something else, they too will be fire proof.