Just then, the bird girl leaped through the window again, terrorizing the nine of us, especially Uma, who was in no danger at all. Everyone except Sabine and Marco ran for cover.

"She's the one who threw me out the window!" I exclaimed.

"Ipsiota Melis Anteibos!!" Uma shouted through the screen.

"This is the boy who killed my dad, aunt!" she spat.

"Why the hell would I do that, huh? I'm not a murderer!" I shouted a little too loud.

"I don't know, but it was in my vision!" she said, no doubt in her voice.

"You're trusting a fucking vision?" Sabine yelled. She rolled up her sleeves and was obviously preparing for a fist fight. You could say she was a bit protective of me.

"Calm down, Sabine..." Grady said in a low voice.

"No need to get angry," I reassured her, "we can sort it all out just fine. Because I'm not a murderer!"

She roared and the entire apartment was thrown into darkness. Through the window I could see all the city light slowly dying down. Through dim emergency lights I could see the hovering furniture and the hovercraft slowly float to the ground. The call with Uma was terminated. Marco quickly produced a fireball in his hand, and with that guidance, I kept Ipsiota in a telekinetic hold.

"Sabine, calm down," Grady repeated, "I don't think that you holding the city like this is good."

From within the telekinetic hold, Ipsiota managed to speak, "The Sky Grid keeps people alive, kid. Bring it back."

Sabine slowly let go. Everything hummed back to life. The hovercraft resumed their flights and the furniture began floating again. The city lights returned.

Immediately, Ipsiota produced a blinding orb of light, which expanded through the apartment. While we were blinded, Grady jumped onto her back, but Ipsiota wasn't deterred. She flew even with Grady clinging onto her screaming her head off.

I flew after her with Marco following my lead. His wings flapped ungracefully, and I was almost ashamed of having him as a cousin until he started throwing fireballs at Ipsiota. They all missed because he had no practice at all, but they served to scare her.

We were several dozen buildings away from my apartment, and Marco couldn't keep up. He was struggling to fly and I was struggling to maintain my own flight hold on myself. Marco lagged and Ipsiota was getting away, so I flew up higher and higher while keeping Ipsiota in my sight.

When I got to a good height, I let go of myself and dove at Ipsiota. As I approached her, I got a telekinetic hold of Grady and pulled her off the bird girl. I brought us down as slowly as I could, but I could see the other girl tumbling through the air.

"Get us an X Flier!" I yelled.

It materialized around us and from all the momentum we had, we hit the ceiling and then the floor.

"Take us back to the apartment and let Marco in here," I commanded. We moved forward and then the X Flier materialized around him.

"Shit," he wheezed as he regained his breath.

"That was a good job, Marco," I acquiesced, "Despite, you know, lagging behind a bit."

"Huh," he was barely able to grunt. Flying was still new to him.

We arrived at the apartment and the Flier offered to let us out, but I just stuck my head out the hole in the floor.

"Get in kids!" I yelled, "We're off to college a year early!"