Caped (Book 1): The Burdens of Fate (26 page)

By popular demand, Edward was the first to go,
just to see how long it would take him to fall over. Haha! It gave us a good
laugh if nothing else, but it turns out 92mph was his unlucky number. Carter
volunteered to go next because he was eager to best Edwards score, he wasn't so
lucky though, lost his footing and fell over around 87mph. Of course after that
we all wanted to try. Ivan topped out at 84mph, and Thomas at 94. Not bad for a
super genius.

Laurie was the last one to go who couldn't fly
or propel themselves through the air, sans Alvin, and I think it's fair to say everyone
was curious about this one. He went in the chamber and the door slid shut, he
gave the thumbs up to start and, bam! Without any warning he gets hit with a
wall of air. You could tell it caught him off guard cause he staggered back a
step or two, but the cool thing was Ivan started him off at 200mph and it
barely phased him, 400mph barely phased him too!

There were a couple of news papers we left
lying in there alongside some waving flags, just to get an idea, those were
just stuck flush against the thin metal gate in the back. But Laurie stood firm
as if enjoying a cool breeze. I was wondering how he wasn't suffocating, but Alvin explained how his
lungs most likely increased in strength too. Cool stuff, especially seeing the
sound barrier broken in a wind tunnel. Which I thought would’ve broken the
glass, until Ivan explained that the glass wasn't actually glass, but a crystal
structure similar to diamond. Definitely cool stuff. The chamber tops out a
little over Mach three, and at those speeds the friction of the air actually
burns the skin, and Laurie was beginning to show some signs of the wind shear getting
to him but he still barely struggled to keep a footing, we could feel the
ground tremor each time he moved his feet. Such strength. Damn impressive if
you ask me, but then again, super-strength has always been my favorite
super-power.

When it was my turn my hands were shaking and
my legs were trembling. Just as with the others, all eyes were on me, watching
with smiles and intrigue. I hovered in place above the red square in the middle
of the chamber and waited for the green light to switch on. A light breeze at
first, which caught me off guard with its gentleness, but then came the strong
gust, slowly increasing. I couldn't tell how fast the wind was blowing from the
inside, but after about two minutes I do remember how happy I felt hearing the
pop and the silence of the sound barrier. So cool, I had no idea I could fly
that fast, but unfortunately it wasn't shortly after that I was struggling to
stay above that little red square and eventually called it quits. So what was
my top speed? 874Mph! Not bad if you ask me. Hell, I'm impressed, and
I
did it!

Kaylie was next, and boy was she excited, she
actually tried to take my turn. Nice young lady but wait your turn, okay? She
didn't do too bad either, she peaked at 428pmh, but mainly because she was
having trouble breathing. But the real kicker. The
piece de resistance
,
was Alvin vs.
Michael. Oh yes, after Michael easily maxed out in the wind tunnel his big ego
led him to challenge Alvin, flight vs. foot, and lucky for us Alvin has a sense
of humor.

Okay, so we were about twenty miles off the
southern coast of Chile,
just to give you an idea of how far they had to go, and the finish line was Tokyo tower. Thomas
pointed the way, joking with Michael that if he needed help to "just
follow Alvin."
Lol. I don't think he actually thought he stood a chance, we all knew he
didn't, but there was something about the atmosphere and the rush of a
challenge that filled the air with excitement.

They lined up at the starting line, ready for
the go-ahead. Ivan fired a pistol into the air which was immediately drowned
out by the sonic boom. They we're long gone, a tower of water that climbed into
air several times the height of a grown man and extending the endless miles
into the horizon. Whoa. You should have seen them go! I get exited just
thinking about it.

They didn't come back for a couple of minutes,
but that's only because Michael was chasing Alvin all over the globe. Alvin won, of course, but Michael topped out
close to 600,000mph. Crazy, right?

But that's it for me. It feels nice to get
these memories down. Crazy, cause you never really hear of people keeping these
anymore. Till next time.

Kaylie Horn
-

So, what's the first step: The basics? Well,
first you have to learn how to aim and shoot. A small clearing right on the
edge of the island, the open ocean glimmering in the back, littered with
different targets posted in the ground at various distances. Prisca was
surprisingly good, managing to actually hit the targets, even if she didn't
make it anywhere near the bulls-eye, at least not at first.

You know how they say when you're holding a gun
you get this sense of power, a rush that goes straight to the head? Yeah, being
a noc doesn't change that, the feeling was amazing. You put on the earmuffs,
wait for the target to slide out to its set position, put that sucker right in
your sights, and... bang, bang! There's a recoil from the gun, something Thomas
told me about, but still managed to catch me off guard; almost slipped out my
hand the first time.

Sure, it makes firing multiple rounds a little
tough, but you get the hang of it. And I mean
really
get the hang of it.
With each attempt we got increasingly better, until we were each hitting within
an inch of the center at 20 meters. That was a massive improvement in
relatively short period of time. One round and then another, across the board,
and the only ones who'd even handled a gun were Alvin and Michael.

Started small and worked our way up, from pea
shooters to shotguns, carbines to chain-guns. I kind of wish Laurie was there,
it would've been cool to shoot at him. Ha! I know, I sound so heartless. It has
nothing to do with secretly wanting to see an old guy dodge bullets, I swear!

By the way, in case you're wondering, and I
know for a fact you're not, it's been sooo hard not to tell my friends at
school about all of this. I mean honestly, I thought keeping secrets got easier
with time?

I told Veronica and Marissa that I went to a
gun range with my brother a couple days ago, and while they thought it was
cool, the first question they asked was, "Where is it?!"

Yeah, I'm so smart, huh? I told them it was
some place my brother knew just outside of town, thank god they're not too
nosy!

–
5/21
–

Prisca
Amin
-

Yup, my body aches. Sure does. Which kinda
makes me feel alive when I think about it, and definitely lets me know it's
time to get in shape, which of course I've been telling myself for the past
couple years.

All this secrecy kind of makes me feel like a
secret agent. I've got these early morning meeting and secret hideouts, all
things I can't speak of in public. A double edged sword, I guess, and a tad
difficult when friends start asking where I've been all week. Perhaps I should
let a few in on my secret? I think my ex might not go too crazy if I told him, or
it would surely give me a reason to hang out with my cousin more. She lives
three blocks away and I almost never speak with her; that's
city living I guess, we've all got our own
lives to deal with.

Speaking of dealing with stuff, Daniel, this
guy I've never mentioned within the pages of this thing because he is literally
that inconsequential, will not stop texting me. He's not a bad guy, he's not,
but he has serious punctuality issues, and coming from this woman, that's
saying much. He blew his chance and he needs to see that.

Alvin
however, is definitely a man who's peaked my interest, and although I
never seen myself dating an
Alvin
,
I can't get past that brilliantly chiseled jaw. That, and of course, saving my life
(twice) adds on a few bonus points. We're still working out our schedules but
expect a date night sometime soon. Prisca is one happy woman.

Indeed I am, in fact...
all I can say is,
"if I were a bell I'd be ringing."

–
5/22
–

Kaylie Horn
-

Another week, another cold as hell location.
You'd think that for an island paradise they'd find some warmer location to
park the thing. Something about Thomas being afraid Alvin's magical gel is some type of tracker
so, until he's sure it isn't, he'll be moving the island every couple of days.

Such an amazing life, right? But that wasn't
even the best part about it, nope. Today we began
active
demonstrations
of our powers. Thomas' idea. It's one thing to hear about them, it's another
thing to see. Mucho fantastic!

OMG these people are amazing! Michael went
first... wait, before I go into that, I did mention we were back in Antarctica, right? You know sunlight/darkness for months
on end, subzero temperatures and whatnot. Yeah.

And OMG those suits kept us SO WARM! Oh! And
there's a little flap, that totally doesn't look like a flap, that covers the
mouth area so your lips don't end up looking like glass shards. So cool. I felt
like a covert ops navy seal person or something.

Back on topic! :P ...So Michael went first,
started off with a demonstration with how fast he could fly, and then Ivan
livened it up with a few giant bean bag machine guns that he had to avoid. It
was a little loud, but
sooo
cool seeing him dodge things in the air like
that. Michael started by blocking them, then catching them and throwing them
back. One accidentally hit Laurie and he threw it back at like ten times the
speed. Michael blocked it, but it definitely took him off guard. All in good
fun, of course. And then Carter in his excitement started shouting,
"Fight! Fight! Fight!" And they did!

So Michael's throwing the basketball sized bean
bags littered on the ground and Laurie's blocking them, picked up two, leaped
almost forty stories into the air, and throws the two bags he was holding onto
as soon as he gets close enough. Michael grabs him mid-air, but Laurie breaks
free and falls to the ground. The moment he lands, Michael hits him with a huge
wall of telekinetic energy, and a stupid massive depression forms in the
ground, with Laurie standing unfazed in the center. That old man is tough! It
was so great!

Another moment later and the depression grew
even deeper, and I could feel the wind from the displaced air; and if I
squinted, could even barely make out Michaels telekinetic construct. You could
see Laurie tensing his muscle slightly, and then he gave, buckling down on all
fours. But he wasn't defeated, not yet. He buried his arms deep into the soil,
like down to his elbows, and picked up massive chunk of land. It had to have
been the size of about four tour buses.

There was nothing that should've been keeping
it together, but it held. He lifted it high above his head, still pushing
against the force of Michael, who was continually pushing harder. Then tossed
it at
blinding
speed.
Blinding
!

Lady, my jaw dropped! Now I've officially seen
it all. And I'm the one who moves rock!

It was a direct hit too, they had to reset
Michael's nose afterwards. It slammed against Michael like a car hits a bug, no
resistance. It carried on for a few more feet and then came to an abrupt stop.
And was then sent flying back at Laurie with twice the speed! It crashed into
the ground, digging further in until it stuck, stopping abruptly, with the
remaining mass tearing off and flying up into the air, along with Laurie, who
was flung several more feet before rolling to a stop.

Carter began clapping furiously with
excitement, partially out of excitement, and partially to stop the show before
it turned into an actual altercation. We all joined in, shouting a yelling.
Prisca flooded the area with so much cheering you'd have thought we were in the
Roman Colosseum.

It was amazing. And I'm not going to lie, I had
the biggest smile on my face. Michael flew down, laughing about his nose, and
Laurie went over and gave him a big man-hug. Crazy little Prisca was jumping up
and down in excitement shouting how she was next, ran out in front of the whole
group and challenged... pause for effect... Alvin!!

And he burst into hysterical laughter! OMG it
was so funny!

Alvin Turner
-

I think I love these people, they are so much
fun to be around. We get together and we're just telling stories and joking
around with our abilities. We handle serious business in casual conversation,
and we know why we come together. I don't believe anyone has forgotten that,
but we've naturally, mentally, as group and unspoken consensus, refused to turn
this into some second job type of corporate structure. We're like some crazy
club with a secret agenda. Best of all, everyone appears to be working on their
abilities, evident by the improvements I saw today. Gives me a bit more
confidence when someone is always doing something we haven't seen before,
surprising each other in different ways.

Seeing those two spar today was amazing. If you
ask me, those are the type of activities we need to pursue; learning the limits
of our abilities in the moment. Training only goes so far.