He held me to him and said, “So Misty, did you get your powers?”

  “Yes. I think I can move things with my mind,” I told him and pulled back.

  His eyes widened and his jaw slacked in disbelief.

  “You can move objects?”

  “Not just objects,” I told him, suddenly feeling shy and looking down, “but people too.”

  I told him the entirety of what happened to me. How when I first woke up, all I wanted was everyone to give me space, and the next thing I knew, they were floating in mid-air.

  “That’s amazing, Rainy!”

  “What about you? Do you have any idea what it might be?” I asked.

  He grabbed my hand but shook his head. “Not sure yet. We will have to wait and see. Man, I'm starving. I feel like I haven’t eaten in weeks.”

  “You went through fifteen IV bags, and your heart rate is faster than anything I have ever seen.”

  He placed his hand over his heart as if wanting to see for himself. He raised an eyebrow. “Strange.”

  The door opened, and I flushed red when I noticed how Ian and I were entwined. I backed away quickly and sat on my own cot. Ian shot me a smirk, and my cheeks heated even more.

  Frank and Randi entered the room. They seemed thrilled that Ian was finally awake.

  “You two will begin training tomorrow morning. We will first work on developing your powers, and then we will get to the physical training,” Frank said. “For now, just go get something to eat and relax.”

  Ian and I nodded. Ian hopped off the cot and reached out his hand for me. I placed mine in his, and we headed down to the cafeteria together.

  Chapter 13

  “Telekinesis,” Frank told me.

  “Teleka-what?” I asked.

  “Telekinesis. It is the ability to move things with your mind. We haven’t ever come across a person with your power. It was only mentioned once in our textbooks and is a very unique power,” he said.

  Ian and I got up early this morning and were told to meet in the training room. At first, I thought the training room was the fitness center. But it turned out to be a separate, enormous room, with obstacles, targets, and an open area for practice. I had spent the morning trying and failing to move an apple directly into my hand.

  Ian had been working with Trip. They were trying to decode what Ian’s power was. Trip threw everything he could at Ian, but Ian was reacting normally; nothing superhuman about his results.

  “Why don’t we step it up a notch?” Trip announced.

  I sat on a mat, dripping with sweat from the effort I had put in. I turned to watch them. Trip went to the weapons area and picked up three knives. Before I even realized what he was doing, he threw one straight at Ian. I screamed and got to my feet. I anxiously looked to where the knife clattered on the floor, but Ian was not there. He was on the other side of the room, looking just as confused as me.

  A big smile appeared on Trip’s face, and he threw another knife. This time I saw it. The blur that raced at the speed of light, and then ended up at my side.

  “You have super speed!” Trip shouted, practically jumping up and down.

  I turned to look at Ian in awe.

  “That would explain it,” Frank piped in. “The fast heart rate and burning through calories like there’s no tomorrow. Your body can move faster than the normal human, and it’s basic functions move faster too.”

  “Huh,” Ian said. “Pretty cool.”

  “Pretty cool?” I started. “That is amazing! He literally defied the laws of physics. How is he even able to move that fast?”

  “Says the girl who can move stuff with her mind.”

  He looked over at me and then reached to give my shoulder a squeeze. Butterflies exploded in my stomach, and I couldn’t hold back my smile.

  For the next few weeks, we trained every day. Constantly learning and relearning how to use our powers. Ian got increasingly faster, but I, however, was having no more progress than when I started.

  “You have to believe you can do it,” Frank told me. “You may realize you have powers, but I am not sure if you have accepted the fact yet. You can’t hold back. There is no fear of failure in this room, or fear in general. You need to believe you can do this because you can! I have seen it firsthand.”

  I nodded at him. He was right. Ever since I got my powers, I had been wondering if the next time I woke, they would be gone, and the anxiety would be back in their absence.

  Every day, I had woken up, and I felt a sense of peace. It was like I could finally see clearly now. I thought how before I was so terrified of things that I would be able to deal with now that I didn’t have an additional opponent in my mind. I was living in the moment and dealt with each situation as it occurred. I had never felt freer. So why was I holding back with my power? I was not sure. It was hard to accept this reality when your entire life has taught you not to.

  I concentrated hard on the apple that sat on display. I closed my eyes and breathed deeply. In and out. In and out. I can do this; I know I can. Even if I fail this time, I will keep trying and trying until I get that apple to come to my hand.

  I felt the connection within me. It was almost like an invisible wire was tethered to different objects around me. I could feel the cord connected to Ian, Frank, the various equipment pieces, and the apple. I could feel the apple like I hadn’t felt it before. Like it was attached to a string, and I was the puppet master, able to make it dance.

  I opened my eyes and gave the string a big tug. The apple came flying toward me, and I held up my hand waiting, knowing it was at the end of the string, right where I wanted it. The apple landed with a solid smack in my palm, and the room around me erupted in applause. I was so focused, I honestly forgot there was anyone in the room with me.

  Ian ran up to me using his super speed. It startled me and I almost fell backwards. Before I could fall, he wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me to him. When he looked at me, I could see pride shining in his eyes.

  “I knew you could do it,” he said, and then took the apple out of my hand giving it a big bite.

  I giggled at him and then looked toward Frank. He was beaming at me too.

  “I had no doubt that you could do it, Rainy. Now, I want you to keep practicing because with access to your power we can achieve our mission of getting the Great Book much sooner.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked him, confused.

  “Never mind that now. I want you to keep working on mastering your power and becoming the best version of yourself that you can be.”

  I nodded at him and turned to Ian. A sly grin broke out across my face, and I could see his eyes widen as he realized what I was about to do. Pulling on Ian’s invisible tether I launched him up into the air and kept him suspended in mid-air.

  I couldn’t hold in my snorting laughter, when he struggled in the air, and it got him nowhere. I flipped him upside down, and he let out a yelp. Then I lowered him to the ground so that his face was level with mine. I looked around and saw Frank was occupied with training Trip, so I leaned in and gave Ian a peck on the lips.

  When I tried to lean back, he wrapped his hands around my head and held me to his lips a minute longer. I sighed in his embrace, then flipped him right side up again, and lowered him to the ground. His face was red and flushed, and I am not sure if it was from our kiss or from being suspended upside down. My thoughts were startled by Freddee, who ran into the room.

  “Frank, you need to see this,” she told him, and I could see worry in her eyes.

  Frank started toward her, and I grabbed Ian’s hand pulling him along with me to see what was going on. They walked down the hall until they got to one of the rooms containing dozens of computer screens. On one screen was my face and Ian’s blown up large, with the words MISSING AND WANTED in bright red at the top of the screen.

  “Please be on the lookout for these two teenagers, Rainy Summers and Ian Fury. They have both recently reached the maximum level of medication and are on the run from the government. It is imperative that if you see them, you call the authorities immediately. They may be dangerous, and you should refrain from direct contact. If you have any information on their possible whereabouts, please contact your local government agency.”

  My heart dropped.

  “They are making us out to be criminals,” Ian said as his hand tightened on mine.

  What did my mom and dad think? What was happening to Dewy? Everyone thinks I was now a running fugitive and highly dangerous.

  I swallowed the lump in my throat and looked to Frank for guidance.

  “It is fine,” Frank told us. “They need to cover up the fact that you ran away, by saying that you are on the run from the government. They need people to be scared and loathe the idea of fleeing. If we weren’t in the location that we are, I would bet that they would have already found you. The idea that they haven’t irks them, and they must assume you are with us. That is why they marked you as criminals.”

  “Will they go after our families?” I asked him.

  Thoughtfully, Frank said, “No, I don’t think so. It is you they want. You were so high on your medication doses, and it was obvious that you both were possible candidates for achieving powers. They don’t want you to be plotting against them because they know the government soldiers would have a very tough time defeating humans with supernatural abilities.”

  Frank took a big breath and then continued, “It won’t be long, though, until they find out where we are. We need to act soon and grab the book while they are distracted and searching for you. We will take the book out from under them.” Frank nodded, and then talked to himself, “Yes. Yes. That is what we need to do.”

  With that he turned and left the room, while Ian and I stared at our pictures on the TV screen.

  Ian’s hard gaze was trained on the screen. I was not sure what he was thinking. I wanted to ask him, but he turned to me and said, “Everything will be alright.”

  He squeezed my hand and then left me alone with Freddee. She turned to me with a sympathetic smile on her face.

  “He is right. Everything will be alright. For now, we just had to work on getting The Great Book, so we can save this world and our families who live in it.”

  “But who knows if we can pull it off?” I murmured with a frown.

  She just shrugged, “Nothing is guaranteed. You just need to have faith that everything will work out as it should. Everyone down here works their butt off every single day, and I like to think that if we keep working hard, we will achieve our goals in the end.”

  She was right. I just needed to have faith. Faith that my powers would progress as they should. Faith that my family would be ok. Faith that the U.P. would set out to accomplish what it must. And most importantly, faith in myself.

  The next few weeks were spent training and planning. I moved objects with my mind over and over. It was almost second nature to me now. It became hard for me to remember when I didn’t have these powers; a time when my anxiety was so crippling, so terrifying, that I could barely get out of bed in the morning. These powers had liberated me from experiencing such pain, and they had awakened something wonderful within me.

  I was finally starting to feel like I had control over my life, and control over myself. I did what I want to do when I wanted to do it. I felt like I could do anything, and the new freedom had lifted a weight off my shoulders. I had never felt better. I understood now why everyone was so insistent for me to unlock my powers. It seemed scary, when you had anxiety weighing you down, but the reward in the end was much greater than the risk. I wanted everyone with anxiety to have the choice to access their powers.

  Sweat beaded my brow as we ran laps around the track in the fitness room. We hadn’t done much physical training other than running, but Frank said if this mission goes according to plan there won’t be much need for it. I had been dying to learn to fight, though. Watching the others be able to make such an impact with moving their body put me in awe. I wanted to have that kind of power and control. I wanted to be able to defend myself. Frank promised that I would be taught to fight soon, and I was going to hold him to his word.

  Ian blurred past me, completing his laps at the speed of sound. My head hurt just thinking about trying to count how many times he went around this track.

  Lesslee interrupted our fitness session. She came into the room and announced Frank had called an important meeting. I grabbed a towel and wiped off my sweat and took a few chugs from my water bottle. Ian did the same, and then we both followed her out the door.

  She took us into a large conference room I had not seen before. When we entered, Frank tapped on the glass and blurred it so no one could see us from outside the room.

  I looked to see who else was in the meeting. Around the table sat Graci, Randi, Freddee, and Trip. Lesslee, Ian, and I stood by the door. There were also five older men and women sitting together. They all seemed to be in their late sixties. I had heard of them. Apparently, they were known around here as the Elders. They were the ones responsible for the U.P. being as successful as it was today. One of the Elders, the man near the head of the table, had the power to build. He was able to manipulate materials and construct architecture with his mind. I guess it was like my power, but he was only able to move materials to construct an overall design or structure.

  Frank sat down in the head chair, and the moment he did it became obvious that the Elder who could build was his father. They looked eerily similar and had the same features other than their eye color. The woman who sat on the other side of Frank had the same green eyes as him, and the same smile. She must be his mother. She had the ability to manipulate technology. These two Elders, husband and wife, and their best friends, were the founders of the organization. In total, the Elders consisted of three men, and two women. They seemed very old and must have passed down their leadership to Frank but were still actively involved.

  We moved to the open seats around the table, and Frank waited for us all to be seated with his hands folded together on the table.

  “Alright, I am going to get straight to it,” Frank began. “The time has come for us to act on retrieving The Great Book. I want you all to listen very carefully, and very closely.”

  He pulled a blueprint closer to him that depicted the layout of a building. He grabbed a pen and made a big X on one of the rooms.

  “OK,” he started. “The Great Book is located in the president’s private den inside the capital. In order to get into the den, we will have to first get past a row of guards that are stationed outside the building. Then another set that are stationed at the first entrance, and the occasional guards that are posted by different rooms inside. Ian, Freddee, Trip, and Lesslee will be responsible for taking out these guards and clearing the way for Graci and Rainy who will be invisible. Once they make it inside the building, Graci will take Rainy up through the servant’s quarters to the president’s private suite. The suite has a secret bookshelf that is password protected and leads to the den. The password is eight-two-five-three, the newest versions of the eight-two-five-serum. Once the bookshelf is open, Rainy will retrieve the book and then Graci will take them back out the way they came. Ian, Freddee, Trip, and Lesslee are merely a distraction so Graci and Rainy are able to make it in and out undetected.”

  “But why do you want me to get the book?” I asked. “Surely, there must be someone else. I have no idea what I’m doing!”

  “That is the tricky part. The book is contained in a glass display, and if any pressure whatsoever is placed on the glass, an alarm will go off, and everything will shut down, locking you in the room. Only the president knows how to disable the alarm. The glass case is moveable though, but nothing can touch it. That is why Rainy is going to use her telekinesis to lift the glass and retrieve the book without laying a finger on it. Then once you snag the book, you will get the heck out of there.”

  I nodded and swallowed the lump in my throat.

  “How do you know all this information?” Ian asked, while raising an eyebrow.

  “We have an inside source. One of the president’s supreme guards works for us.”

  “How do you know he won’t just rat us out?” Ian blurted.

  “He is trustworthy and has been working with us for a long time. There is no need to fret. He wants us to succeed, and he has no reason to betray us. Even so, I have not told him any aspect of our plan, I have only received information from him as to what protection is in place around the book. It is safer for all of us that way.”

  Ian nodded, accepting his answer.

  “However, he did say,” Frank continued, “that other than the president, the president’s assistant, Star, is dangerous and a person to look out for. It is rumored that she too has power, but we are not sure what it is.”

  I looked around the group. Everyone seemed calm and collected, but I could feel the tension in the air. The urge within all of them to get this show on the road.

  They all listened eagerly and absorbed every detail of Frank’s plan. I could tell they had been waiting a long time to be able to participate in something this monumental. It almost didn’t seem fair how quickly I had been promoted to be part of something like this. I had seen firsthand the hours upon hours they all spent training, physically and perfecting their powers. They had been doing this for years and years. They were ready for this mission, and every mission ahead. But the big question was, would I be able to handle it?

  Chapter 14

  Two days later, after an intense review of every aspect of the plan, we filed into the garage to board a large sailboat.

  “How do we not drown out here?” I asked as soon as we were all piled on.

  Freddee held her finger in the air, and then dramatically lowered it to press a button. Instantly, the top of the boat became surrounded by a transparent bubble that provided enough room for all of us. The boat rolled forward through the first set of doors, and they sealed behind us ensuring no water got into the base. The second set of doors opened, and my heart started pounding. We were really doing this. I took another look at the base as the room flooded with water, not knowing if I would ever be able to see this place again.

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12