Chapter 36

Michael

"Zack?” I said, baffled.

My cousin held my gaze with his simmering eyes. Their glow was unique. Different than mine, Angela’s, or Ray’s. Our pupils were the only thing that glowed, and so did his, but his irises glowed too. I admit, I was a little bit jealous. They simmered bright green and his pupils had a dark violet tint in them. It looked like someone was shining a black light directly at his eyes. Didn’t scorpions glow in black light?

We stood in the middle of Broadway, a traffic jam before us. The sun touched the horizon, causing long shadows to cross the street. I loosened my grip on Zack’s shirt collar, surprised to find out I’d been fighting my cousin the whole time.

“Zack,” I repeated. “What’re you—why are you—it was you who touched the third Star Stone?” I thought back to that Saturday afternoon when I’d first used my powers in my backyard. I’d told Zack where I’d found my stone, and I’d mentioned that we’d seen three meteorite impacts. He must’ve gone looking for the third one himself. But when? How long has he had his powers? And why…? “Why are you doing this, Zack?” I asked.

My cousin didn’t answer; obviously not in the mood to talk. Instead he tucked in his knees, planted both of his feet on my chest, and pushed. I sailed backwards about fifty yards down Broadway, surging my powers as I hit the asphalt and rolled to my feet, skidding to a stop. I raised my eyes back towards Zack and saw nothing.

Suddenly, an invisible fist punched me in the jaw. I staggered but remained on my feet. I moved my powers out of my body and above my head, which helped to keep me grounded. I covered my head with my arms, trying to predict Zack’s next attack. He hit me in the side, in the back, in the gut, and then again in the face.

I groaned in pain, trying to catch my breath. Okay, I thought. Zack obviously hates me and wants to kill me for some reason. And he’s invisible, which makes it nearly impossible to fight him. I need to run. Live today to fight another day. But where would I go? Hiding from an invisible Starling would be difficult. Especially when he knows all my hiding spots. My house was probably still on fire. Angela’s house was swarming with cops. I needed another plan. My thoughts turned to Angela. She needed my help and I needed hers. Her stone was around here somewhere. I’ve got to find her stone and take it to her.

My mind made up, I launched into the air, just high enough to see over the two to three story buildings and searched for Angela’s Star Stone. Broadway looked pretty bad. The road was torn up. Bumper to bumper traffic went on for miles on the west lane. The cars in the east lane kept moving, but slowly as they merged away from the fight.

A large group of people got out of their cars and watched Zack and me fight—well, they couldn’t see Zack, so they probably thought I was some crazy, drunk, superhuman teenager who chose the middle of the road as the prime location to practice my Olympic gymnastics routine.

I looked carefully at the tops of the buildings, looking for the glimmer of Angela’s white stone. Most of the buildings’ roofs had a small layer of gravel on top of them, which made looking for her stone like looking for a golf ball in the middle of a blizzard. I knew the stone was somewhere within one or maybe two square miles, which was not a small area to search at all. I huffed, feeling overwhelmed.

I heard something to my left. It was like the sound of a kite on a very windy day that was swiftly approaching me. The sound of someone flying. All Starlings made that sound as they flew. As fast as I could, I lifted a leg, extending it to my left with my foot flexed. My foot disappeared as it connected with Zack’s gut. His momentum pushed me back in the air, but I kept my leg firm. I heard him groan.

I couldn’t pass up this opportunity to hit Zack while I knew where he was. I didn’t want to fight my cousin, but he obviously wanted to fight me. I swung a fist at where I heard him groan and hit nothing but air. Barely missed. I heard him fly away from me, escaping from his bad position. He was probably trying to approach me more quietly.

I wouldn’t let him. I redirected my powers and rocketed horizontally through the air, keeping my eyes downward, looking at the buildings’ roofs for any hint of Angela’s stone. I zigzagged as I flew, trying to shake Zack off my tail. Honestly, I didn’t know if he was on my tail or not. I couldn’t hear him while I was flying, too much wind in my ears. Unfortunately, my Star Stone did not grant me super hearing. Maybe I could get him to talk.

“Zack!” I said over the wind as I flew. “Why are you doing this?”

No answer.

“Dude, I’m your cousin! I don’t want to fight you!” I kept my eyes darting back and forth as I flew. I didn’t even know if Zack was close enough to hear me. I was probably just talking to myself, but it was worth a shot. “Why are you in cahoots with Ray Simmons? You hate him almost as much as I do! And what do you want with Angela? Where did Ray take her?”

No answer. Just wind in my ears.

Come on, come on! I thought as I flew in circles. Where is that stone! The sun going down didn’t help my odds of finding it. Yes, I could see better in the dark than non-Starlings could, but the white stone would reflect the sunlight much better than it would the moon or star lights.

I heard something ahead of me. It wasn’t the sound of Zack. It was the thumping sound of a helicopter. Multiple helicopters. I raised my eyes and saw three choppers, two white, one black, each with their searchlights shining toward me. I sighed, exasperated. Wait, I thought. Maybe their lights will help me find Angela’s stone.

I shot below the helicopters and flew a few yards above the buildings. They tried to keep their searchlights on me, but I soared too fast for them. I slowed down, letting them shine their lights on me. I could see my shadow as I hovered over the buildings. Still no sight of Angela’s stone.

“Ouch!” I screamed out loud. Something had bit me! Right on the back of my shoulder. I reached back with my hand and felt a small welt forming on my skin. Was it a bee sting? No. That wouldn’t affect me with my powers on. It was a bullet! The people in the helicopters were shooting at me!

I felt another sting on my back, just above my waist. It didn’t penetrate my superhuman skin, but it felt like getting hit by a paintball gun. Whatever gun they were using, it was pretty powerful. I concentrated on my powers, causing the tingling to surge even more. Something I’d learned about my powers is that I could increase their potency if I concentrated hard enough, just like a boxer can flex his abs before getting punched to soften the blow. My powers were just another muscle that I could flex. And after learning how to fly, I was much better at using it. I felt another sting near my neck, but this time it felt like getting pelted by a rain drop.

Something caught my eye. I pushed my powers in front of me, coming to a stop. The search lights lost me for a moment, but I held still until they finally found me again. There! A white stone lay on a sidewalk next to a bank. Fortunately, nobody had picked it up.

I dropped to the ground, snatched up Angela’s stone, and gratefully stuffed it into my pocket. A lady walking on the sidewalk with her dog jumped when she saw me drop from the sky, her dog barking at me. I ignored them. Now, I thought. I need to get this stone to Angela. Where would Ray take her? I thought about the direction Ray had flown off with her. Toward South Tucson. What’s over there?

Suddenly, something grabbed my arm, spun me around, and hurled me at the bank. The bank’s brick walls were no match against a hurtling Starling. I felt my back break through wall after wall, debris flying around me in a blur, until I burst out the other side of the bank and slid to a stop in the bank’s parking lot.

I lay on my stomach, not moving. Something bright was shining down on me, causing me to squint. The choppers’ searchlights. I climbed to my knees, still unable to breathe. I looked up at the bank. It looked like a bulldozer had driven right through the middle of it. I finally caught my breath, my head throbbing.

Before I could get to my feet, an unseen fist punched me back down. I lay on my back, dazed. I tasted blood in my mouth and my bottom lip felt swollen. All I could see above me was the piercingly bright lights from the helicopters.

Suddenly Zack appeared out of thin air, towering over me, shadowing me from the lights. His curly red hair hung over his forehead as he glowered down at me. His eyes no longer glowed with black light, just the normal white light. His eyes must change colors when he turns invisible. I remembered Ray’s and Angela’s eyes changing colors when they used their special powers.

“You are not fit to have this power, Michael,” Zack said. He made some quick movements that I was too dazed to pick up, and then he stood up with two stones in his hand. One white, and the other dark blue. My Star Stone!

“I don’t want to kill you,” he said. “But I will do whatever’s necessary to remove your powers from you! You abused them, Cuz! You were bestowed with the powers of the gods, and you tried to hide them! You were irresponsible, and you don’t deserve this stone! You were the wrong person to touch it!”

“I can’t tell you how many times I thought the same thing,” I said as I reclined myself onto my elbows. I looked at my Star Stone in Zack’s hand as if it were my beating heart he’d pulled out of my chest. “You’re right, Zack. I was irresponsible. I made poor decisions. I was scared of my powers and I didn’t want anyone to know I was a freak. But, I’ve learned better now…”

“Psh!” Zack spat. “Yeah right! I know how indecisive you are, Michael! You say you’ve learned; you say you aren’t afraid, but I know you’ll go right back to hiding under your bed eventually. That’s why I went and found the Scorpio Stone and became a Starling myself; to become the superhero you didn’t have the guts to be.”

I narrowed my eyes. Things had changed since Zack and I last spoke. That was before I’d fought with Ray, before I discovered Angela was a Starling like me, and before I’d found the right way to be a hero. I wasn’t afraid to act like a hero anymore… but I hadn’t proved that to him or to anyone yet. I could understand why he would have so little faith in me.

I sat up, regaining my lucidity. Zack stood just above me, my stone in his hand; it was still close enough to grant me its powers. I needed to get it and Angela’s stone from him somehow. Snatch them when he’s not expecting it. If he turned invisible and flew away, I wouldn’t be able to catch him. I needed to distract him somehow; get him to stall.

His tattoo on his right arm caught my attention. He’d always had it, but I didn’t know what it was until that night I saved Mary Sanchez. The tattoo was a black S with a stinger coming out the top and claws coming out the bottom. The symbol of the Scorpion gang.

Realization hit me like a brick. That’s how he knew so much about their hideout! That’s how he knew they had kidnapped Mary Sanchez! He didn’t have a cousin in the gang that gave him all the info! Zack was a member!

He noticed me looking at his tattoo. “It was fitting that I got the Scorpio Stone. It helped me become leader of the gang. But now that gang only consists of Starlings.”

He’d tricked us! I gritted my teeth in anger, awaiting the right moment to pounce. “Zack, where did you hear the word Starling?”

He snorted. “How do you know that word?”

We both looked at each other for a moment, slowly realizing what that meant. Someone was helping him and Ray. Someone from MARS? That couldn’t be good.

“Well,” Zack said, raising the white and blue Star Stones up in front of him. “Doesn’t matter. We won’t have to worry about you anymore; you won’t have your—”

I surged my powers and bolted upward, clawing for my stone. Zack reacted too quickly, moving his hand with my stone just out of reach, and then he put a foot on my chest and shoved me back to the street. I groaned, my ribs still tender.

He laughed at me, his face silhouetted by the helicopters’ searchlights. “Nice try. You thought that I—AH!” Zack screamed, arching his back. Both stones dropped out of his hands and clanked on the asphalt near my feet. I blinked. What was happening? I heard the sound of gunshots coming from the helicopters above. They were shooting Zack!

This was my opening! I surged my powers, the world going in slow-motion, and grabbed the two stones at my feet. Zack’s scream transformed into a growl as he surged his powers. He stood up straight, the bullets bouncing off him like hailstones on a trampoline. I saw his eyes shift color from standard yellow to black light with green glowing irises, and then he disappeared.

I was already in the air by that time, flying high into the evening sky. I couldn’t see Zack, but I was certain he was on my tail. The helicopters lost track of me as I picked up speed. I flew toward south Tucson, where Ray was headed with Angela. I had a hunch as to where he went, especially now I knew Zack (a.k.a. Scorpio) was in league with Ray.