Evil Maybe

Chapter 6- Ree

“Don’t go into the middle of the fighting. Do whatever you need to do from the sidelines. If you see someone coming towards you, tell me and I’ll rip them to shreds. Got it?”

I paused from my typing to look Genevieve in her bright blue eyes. She nods, orange curls bouncing, and says in her small nine-year old voice,

“Got it.”

My shoulders relax slightly, and I go back to fiddling with Genevieve’s cybertrans. I’m changing the settings so that she doesn’t have to type my name, only speak it, and it will activate.

I’m still angry at Commander Lea for letting a little girl into the battlefield, but apparently, Genevieve is needed.

I finish and hand it to her, and she proceeds to place it carefully on her nearly indestructible bracelet, the same that we all wear.

It clips on and I pull her into a hug. “Stay safe Gem.”

Without another word I point my palms towards the ground and let out a blast of electricity, propelling me into the air.

I land in the middle of the fighting.

We had only just gotten here, but I had missed the very beginning while prepping Genevieve.

My feet had barely touched the ground before a villain in blue is in front of me.

His teeth are bared, and I realize that they are razor sharp. He lunges towards me, and I hold out a hand, blasting a hole straight through him.

I’m gone into the whirling crowd before his body even hits the ground.

After being stopped by three different villains I decide that I would do better on higher ground, instead of down here.

I run, blasting people out of my way as I go, and reach the outskirts of the fighting.

My mouth falls open as I see the destruction. It hasn’t even been fifteen minutes and half the town has already been destroyed.

Glass, glistening in the sunlight, is strewn across the streets. Whole building have caved inward, the jagged edges of the ruins jutting upwards. I have been surveying the scene for only a few seconds when I see the perfect place.

It stands out like the moon on a completely black night; completely intact in a sea of chaos. My feet start working again as I sprint towards it. I blast upward, and land crouched on the roof, then stand up immediately.

From here I can see everything, including Genevieve’s small but determined figure on the opposite end of the battle. I smile and blow a kiss in her direction, even though I know she won’t see it.

“That’s my Gem,” I whisper under my breath.

But I then remember I’m up here for a reason, and my eyes veer to the crowd. At once I spot a woman with eight arms, seven of them wielding knives. The eighth one holds a man with a purple face, but whether it is from lack of oxygen or just the normal color of his skin I cannot tell.

Either way, I know he’s on my side due to the THINK emblem shining on his chest, a lightbulb surrounded by a shield, sword, pen, and medicine bottle inside a blue circle.

I narrow my eyes and aim a finger at the arm holding him. A small bolt of lightning shoots out my finger and singes her hand. Over the roar of battle I can hear her shriek, more surprise then pain, but she drops him nonetheless. She falls the moment he’s free and fighting.

A smirk finds its way to my lips, and widens as I shoot down four more. I’m about to obliterate another when I notice a boy lost in thought, a device I recognize as a terrapad in his hand. I had overheard part of his fathers comments, but I hadn’t thought much of it.

I study him now, taking in his features and storing them in my brain. The first thing I notice is that he’s slightly cute, in a nerdy sort of way. His shaggy hair is brown, the color of chocolate, which I don’t usually like but for some weird reason do a the current moment, and falls adorably into his face.

A smattering of brown freckles makes his pale skin even paler, and brings out the sheer greenness (is that even a word? I’m not sure. Jack is the one good with words, not me) of his eyes, like the trees in the middle of the summer doused in green sunlight.

Don’t judge; I have seen green sunlight before.

To snap myself out of whatever weird trance had overcome me- maybe his power is mind control?- I remind myself how Zeke is much cuter then him, which is strange, since I hadn’t even thought that Zeke was cute before I was trying to take my mind off this evil stranger.

But now I see what’s on the screen of his terrapad, and my smirk melts of my face. The word initiate sends my brain into a whirl. So that’s where the bombs come from. I do the only thing I can think of to stop him from pressing that button and silently drop to the awning.

I plant another smile on my face (a real one, now that I’ve thought of a brilliant plan), dig my heels into the edge, and let myself fall backwards. My smile turns taunting as I see his face.

“Hello.”

The only reason I left the boy- Max- is because I can hear Genevieve whispering my name into her cybertrans. By the time I get away, her whisperings grow louder, as does my sense of panic.

“Genevieve!” I shout as I near the place my tracker led me. I can barely hear myself over the screams and shouts of the fighting, so I have no hope what so ever that she will hear me. I keep going.

This time when I shout I hear a small voice call back. “Ree!”

I hurry forward and realize the sound is coming from an alleyway. I slip into the shadows and silently run, my boots making no noise as they strike the ground.

When I find her she is cowering in a corner, clutching a piece of rubble. For a dizzying moment all I can see is the shiny red burn that stretches up her thin arm. And then I notice a villain approaching her, unaware of my presence.

My anger soars and I burst forward, hair crackling with energy and eyes lit up in fury. My hands glow for a moment before a blinding explosion of electricity soars forward and reduces the man to cinders.

Genevieve watches this exchange with wide eyes, but as soon as the villain is gone, she slumps to the ground. “Gem!” I shout as I practically soar forward to catch her. Her body is frail in my arms, and as I finally realize where we are, an understanding comes to me.

The area around us is literally in pieces. I hadn’t noticed the cracks in the walls and the absence of several key parts in the ground, but I see it now. This was one of the areas that the boy with a brain full of gears had planted a bomb.

The burns on Genevieve’s arms are because of him. But as I feel my anger rising, I realize it isn’t him I’m angry at. It’s for his family who made him do it.

What is happening to me?