The Edge Of Destiny

CHAPTER ONE A Night Mission

CHAPTER ONE

A Night MissionPresent Day, California

The five teens stood on the flat roof. This side overlooked the alley of the long-closed department store they stood on top of. They all took turns peering over the short half wall, down on the tagger spray painting the back wall of the building. Lucas seemed disinterested as he leaned his thin frame on the large air conditioning unit. Ariana stood next to him. Zacke, Katie and Cody whispered by the half wall overlooking the criminal.

“This is stupid.” Zacke folded his arms. “I'm not wearing that.” He handed the mask back to Cody.

Cody sighed and scratched his short brown hair in frustration. “If you don't, they'll see who you are. This is classic secret identity stuff.”

Katie snatched it and compared it to her own. “Are they Ninja Turtle masks? Where did you get these?”

“After Halloween.” Cody pointed to his own dark blue mask, with two eye holes cut out. “Half price.”

Zacke looked over the ledge, keeping it to a loud whisper, “We're not ninjas, or superheroes. Stop trying to…”

“Shhh.” said Cody, finger over his mouth, very serious, glancing over the wall “Mirror man has…”

“Mirror Man?” Katie whispered to Lucas.

Lucas put his hands up, “Not my idea, I wanted Cody to be Electron.”

Ariana furrowed her brow at the name.

Cody straightened up. “Mirror Man is all I could think of. Name doesn't matter.”

“Then I'm calling you Electro boy.” said Zacke.

“Stop it.” Cody leaned over the roof ledge, making sure not to be seen, “If we don't do something soon, he'll move on and damage someone else's property.”

Katie shot side eyes to Lucas. “What do you think, Viking Boy?”

“I'm definitely not going to be Viking Boy.” Lucas shrugged. “What's the plan again, Cody – umm, Mirror Man?”

“We've been over this,” answered Cody, concerned over the volume of their voices. “The masks are to hide our identities. The names… the names don't matter, I guess. But we need to act. Do something. This is our team's first mission.”

“What team?” asked Zacke. “It's been months since the fire tower. John and David still haven't contacted us. There is no team.”

Cody pointed to the tagger. “Yeah, I know. That's why we need to do something. We can't wait for John or my dad.”

Katie asked, “Still no word from them?”

Cody just shook his head. “We can't just wait around. At least we can do this.”

“Fight petty crime?” asked Zacke.

“You were the police explorer. Better than doing nothing.” Cody shot back. “This will be easy.”

“Does this seem dangerous to anyone else?” asked Ariana. “Maybe the guy has a weapon.”

Lucas smiled “Hmm. Not a problem.”

Zacke said, “There's a big difference between doing training and these 'missions,' or whatever.”

Katie touched Zacke's arm. “Let's just give this a chance. Cody worked really hard on this plan.”

Zacke kept his arms folded.

Lucas joined the rest of the teens. “Come on. We all agreed. Let's just do this. If we don't stop this crap, no one else will.”

“Except the police. Let me just call them.” Zacke pulled his cell from a back pocket.

“No!” said Cody, too loud.

“Hey!” a shout came from below. “Hey, who's up there?”

They all froze.

“Who's up there?” shouted the tagger from the alley. “I hear you!”

“Stop what you're doing!” Cody said, his voiced deepened.

Lucas finished, “Or I'll pull your lungs out through your shoulder blades.”

Ariana smacked Lucas. “Lucas? What the heck?”

“What? It's a real thing.”

“Lucas? Lucas who?” shouted the tagger.

Lucas' inner warrior said, “Hey, I wasn't joking, criminal. It's a very effective ancient way to kill.”

“We're not here to kill him!” Zacke shook his head and reluctantly put on his mask, “never mind. Lucas, you better stay here. Katie and Cody, with me.”

Before Lucas or Ariana could object to being left behind, Zacke had taken flight, a tight arm around the waists of Cody and Katie. They adjusted their masks as they flew over the roof's edge.

“What the fu…” started the tagger.

Zacke touched down in the alley, Katie and Cody awkwardly finding their feet.

“Come on man,” said Cody as he tripped and almost went over, not finding his feet well at all.

They had landed in between the tagger and his “art,” a large stylized “Never” emblazoned on the cinder block wall. The tagger dropped his can and casually grabbed for his cell phone. Before he could find the camera button, Cody had fried the phone with his ability.

“OWW – son of a whore.” The phone dropped to the ground, sparking wildly.

Zacke tried to follow Lucas' script, “Sir, you need to stop destroying personal property.” He noticed that the tagger was no older than he was, maybe 16. He changed the script, “Man, just stop destroying other people's shit.”

“Place is derelict. Owner got insurance,” the tagger shot back. “Mind your business.”

Zacke shook his head, “Dude, the guy that owns this business works probably works really hard, trying to find someone to rent it.” He pointed to the “art.” “Who's going to rent it now? You ever heard of a deductible? He pays that out of pocket.”

The tagger wasn't listening. He casually reached down for his can of paint and reached for something else in his other pocket.

Before Zacke could react, the tagger has pressed the button on the spray can and lit his lighter at the same time. The flame shot out at Zacke's head. Just before it reached him, it curved back toward the tagger as though hitting a curved shield.

Just then, a wild cry came from above and Lucas landed behind the tagger.

Marveling at the perfect landing from two stories, Cody began, “How did you?” when he saw Lucas flick his wrists. The twin extendable metal batons clicked in to place.

Katie acted fast, throwing a shield ball at the tagger's face. He took the impact, spun and splayed back five feet, also hitting Lucas.

Lucas made a “what did you do that for?” motion as he slid the batons back into their handles. He put them in his back pockets.

Ariana shouted from the roof, “We wanted him to stop, not get his head bashed in!”

A faint smile played across Lucas' lips. Katie winced. Is that Lucas or his warrior?

Moans came from the tagger boy. They went to him. He was face down in an unnatural posture on the ground.

From the roof, Ariana asked, “Is that guy okay?”

The guy on the ground moaned his response as they turned him over.

Zacke asked, “What did you do, Katie?”

Katie couldn't speak, starting at the boy's face. The light from the streetlamp above lit his face and showed the damage. They all stared.

The boy tried to speak, “Uww oke my yaw!”

“I… I just threw a shield ball.” Katie sputtered. She went to yank off her mask but stopped.

Zacke winced as he looked at the boy, “Well, it looks like he took a cannonball to the jaw.”

A siren wailed, only blocks away.

“Damn!” said Cody. “Battle stance 13!” shouted Cody.

“What is that? We aren't fighting the cops.” said Zacke, the siren closer. “Never mind. Katie, shield ball. I'll lift us to the roof.”

Lucas, Cody, and Katie bunched close together. An invisible ball surrounded them all, like they were in a giant invisible bubble. Zacke lifted them all as the cop car swung their lights into the alley. He landed on the roof, next to Ariana. Katie dropped the shield, and they all found their feet. They waited. The siren stopped, but they saw the lights flash in the alley, throwing colorful lighted shadows on them.

“Umm Ugg!” came the incoherent sounds of the tagger. He pointed to the roof.

“Hey, who's up there? Come down right now,” demanded the authoritative shout of a policewoman.

“He ratted us out,” said Cody.

“You fried his phone, remember?”

“Oh yeah, how did they get her so fast?” asked Ariana.

“No idea,” said Zacke. “We better go. Katie broke that guy's jaw,” said Zacke.

“I didn't mean to!” shouted Katie, too loud.

“I know,” said Zacke.

“Units are surrounding the building right now. There is no way off that roof,” came from the policewoman below.

“Uhgg ummm!” said the tagger, probably hoping the cop would pay more attention to his pain.

Zacke didn't hear any more sirens. The policewoman was probably exaggerating, but more cops were coming. “Okay. We'll run to the other side of the roof and bubble lift out of here.”

Lucas chimed in, “Escape plan 17! You did read my playbook.”

“Shut up!” Zacke said louder than he meant to. He crumpled his mask and crushed it into his pocket. “We just better pray no one saw us.”

Cody didn't say anything else.

They ran to the far side of the roof. They huddled in close together. Katie threw up her shield ball and Zacke lifted them in the air. He hoped he chose a direction least likely to be seen. Since they were in a busy part of the city, no one could be sure. Katie chose a thick green shield in her mind, though only Ariana and Cody were able to see it. To everyone else, it was totally invisible. She promised herself more experiments and training later.

They floated away into the night. No one noticed the shadowy figure across the alley with his high-res digital camera.