Jack proceeded to explain his plan. While he had been searching for a bike, he had come across the problem of reaching things that were on the top of the racks. In frustration of not being able to find a ladder, Jack turned to his magic. He really hadn’t had any time to explore it at all or what all he could do. Up until now he had really only been acting on instinct.
Jack tried to at first create a pole like he did the small knife from his finger, but as soon as it passed the 3 foot mark it be became too unsteady and broke apart. He found it odd as he thought back to when he stopped the smart car in the air. What about Jimmy’s cousin? He was much further away.. The thoughts of yanking him off the roof started to flood his now overclocked brain. He then started thinking of the body, laying mangled and twisted. Over and over again it started to replay. The box he had been trying to prod off the shelf fell onto his head, breaking him out of the overdrive. He still felt terrible, but he knew he did everything he could to save him up intil Jimmy ruined it.
I had him lashed to the gun! I could have held him there or lowered him to the ground!
Lashed..
The thoughts led him to what he now called the gripping field. Taking what he did to the car and Jimmy's cousin, he wraped the force shield around the objects near him, he found he could push and pull things, lift them in the air and then direct them as they flew. He even could heat them like he did the knives from his fingers he used to open the door. The range was short, a little less the 30 feet from what he could guess. But when Jack made a replica of a throwing knife he saw in a cabinet and was actually able to throw it, he knew he found a game changer.
This will help us survive, Jack told himself. With his mind still in overdrive, he knew what something like that would be used for. To kill. In the long run he knew at this point he would have to again. But he still left the knives out of his explanation to the others.
They all agreed and set to work. Their trust in Jack had been stead fast all day. He had more then proved himself and his new abilities in their eyes. They all just wanted to do everything they could to help. Even Bryan was more readily listening to Jack.
While the girls were busy prepping the front of the store for Jacks plan, he and Bryan were tearing through the gun cage.
Box by box, they emptied all the weapons into a pile in the center of the cage. In the process of doing so, both Jack and Bryan found a few more weapons they wanted to take with them. Knowing there was still plenty of space in one of the carriages, they set those aside away from the front of the cage. It took time, but it had to be done.
Once all the guns were successfully stacked high, Bryan went and grabbed a bunch of the accessories that he had found earlier and added what was left to the pile. Jack was surprised at the size of the pile now before him, almost up to his shoulders and about 7 feet around. He thought it was a shame, but it had to be done. There was no way they could leave it for the gang out front to find if they got away.
O well, time for the fun part, he thought with a grin. He had been wanting to try out a new spell combination.
“You might want to back up,” Jack warned Bryan. Breathing deep with closed eyes, Jack called forth his power as the familiar tingling chill ran through his arms and spine.
Opening his eyes, his second sight still hadn’t returned but he was confident that he could wield what power he had. Taking a few steps back out of the cage, Jack started by using the same hot knife technique to separate off large pieces of the cage. Using a gripping field he sorted the pieces into two piles, once set, Bryan came forward with some heavy gloves they found and started carrying one pile out to the store front.
Jack gripped the other separate pile and started laying it over the pile of guns before him. For time’s sake, as well as the health of his arms, Jack had thought of a new way to melt it all in bulk, he just hoped it would work. Carefully, he created a energy shield around the pile, hugging it closely but not so it was touching the edges. The clear shimmer of his own magic was interesting to Jack, remembering the green that came when he used the trees. I’l have to play with that more when I get some time, he noted. After strengthening the shield even further, Jack started applying heat like he had to the energy knife.
Seeing it all working, Jack poured more energy into it, having to take a step back from the residual heat that was now as blisteringly hot as a industrial furnace.
Plastic pieces from mounts, handles and stocks where melting and catching fire. The barrels that where visible sticking up and out of the pile were turning red hot and drooping over like wilted flowers, slowly dripping into the now molten pile of metals and smoking plastic remains. He kept the barrier tight so even after everything melted it was still over four feet tall.
“Wow,” Bryan stammered, having come back to watch without Jacks notice. “I’m not sure if that is just downright scary or amazing.”
“A little of both,” Jack replied with a smile, watching as Bryan laughed. If only we had always gotten along like this, he mused.
“Now let’s grab these and go help the girls before I drop that shield and the real show begins.”
As the brothers walked through the doors onto the sales floor of the store, their nostrils where assaulted by the smell of kerosene and lighter fluid. It hit Jack so hard he dropped the guns in his arms and almost dropped the barrier containing the molten weapons.
“Smells like they should be done.” Jack said, taking his arm and covering his mouth and nose with the crook of his elbow to help his attempts to breath.
Sure enough, the girls were waiting for the boys by the front doors, sitting behind the carriages, keeping out of smell with bandanas they must have salvaged from somewhere covering their own faces to aid in breathing the chemically filled air. “What took you boys so long? It’s already getting dark! And now what are you carrying?” Sara said, seeing Bryan's arms and the floor in front of Jack loaded up with more boxes for the carriages.
“Found a few guns we just didn’t have the heart to melt down, and more ammo and accessories for each,” Bryan smirked.
Rachel sighed, “Boys will be boys,” she mumbled. “Are we ready to go? To much more of this smell and we’ll all be high as a kite and never make it out the doors let alone past those thugs.”
Bryan packed away the guns quickly in the carriage attached to his bike and then moved to help Jack with the front doors. Using the hot knife again, Jack got the doors back open in relative ease. Carefully and quietly, they all led their bikes out into the night. With the girls standing watch, each with pistol in hand, Jack and Bryan went back in and pulled the pieces of cage against the front doors. While maintaining the barrier still white hot in the back room, Jack struggled to painstakingly melt the cage solidly to each door to insure they won’t be opened. Before closing the final door, Jack created one of his hot knives from his finger and tossed it into the pile of box’s the girls had made and soaked in anything flammable they could find. Immediately flames rose eight feet in the air and Jack quickly closed the door, taking care to seal it tight. “Alright,” Jack quietly whispered, “Lets get as far away from here as we can, see that camper over there about halfway across the parking lot?” All three nodded, “Well let’s get there before this thing blows!”
As quietly as they could all manage, they climbed on their bikes and headed in the direction Jack indicated.
Jack was excited to finally be on a mountain bike, even dragging the loaded carriage was far easier than just riding the BMX he started the day on. The farther he got from the heated shield the harder it got to maintain it. Struggling as he was, he really hoped to be able to avoid confrontation with the gang completely after the distraction went off. The power it was taking to maintain the barrier was heavily taxing.
Reaching the camper, the boys circled the carriages so that they formed up as much of shield to hide behind as they could get. The girls leaned their bikes against the side of the carriage to help brace it, then sat with their backs to the camper and the gang. Bryan grabbed his AR that he had decked out in accessories and crawled under the camper taking a prone position. Like his father had taught him when deer hunting, he started looking down the scope toward the Gang that was now less than one hundred yards away. “Its hard to tell, but I think there are almost fifty people out there now.” Bryan whispered back to Jack who was crouched at the place where Bryan had crawled under. “And you were right little brother. There are three more uniformed bodies at their feet, they look like they were SWAT team.”
Jack sighed deeply, as much as he enjoyed hearing Bryan admit that he was right, about this, he wished he had been wrong. “How can you tell they were SWAT?” Jack asked.
Bryan had turned around under the camper, now facing jack. “Because they just kicked one towards the fire and it said SWAT across his chest genius,” Bryan answered. Seeing his brothers face, he knew what he was thinking. “These guys have to be pretty crazy to take out members of SWAT together. But I guaranty none of them could pull of the stuff I’ve seem you do in the past two days.”
Seeing his brother smile, Bryan knew he got through to him, but Jack still looked troubled. “Is it that hard to maintain that bubble of yours?” Bryan asked.
“Yea, and getting harder by the minute.” Jack said, signs of struggle clear in his voice.
Bryan looked to the girls and nodded, Sara pulled out her own AR and Rachel took the safety off her pistol. “Well let it drop Jack, we don’t need you passing out on us again from over taxing yourself. We’re ready.”
Jack looked down and nodded as Bryan turned back around under the camper to keep an eye on how the gang reacted.
Looking back to the Bass Pro Shop, Jack could see smoke leaking through gaps in the doors already. Adding a last push of heat into the shield, Jack dropped it. The molten metal it had been containing settled out to the floor in a rush. Right into all of the cardboard boxes and boxes of ammunition that Jack and Bryan had piled around the inside of what was left of the cage.
Jack sat a listened, the sound of the bullets being set off and ricocheting around gradually got louder as more and more where set off by the growing fire.
“No movement yet, but their looking in that direction,” Bryan updated.
The girls looked concerned that it wasn’t going to work, Jack saw their faces but only smiled. “Just wait,” he said.
The series of explosions that followed made the group feel like the meteor was back, echoing across the parking lot, there was no way the gang would ignore it. The explosions continued, the glass of the front doors blew out, spreading shattered glass five feet out from the doors.
A hissing noise started coming from inside the store when all of a sudden two huge compressed air tanks shot out the side of the building landing well before the gang, but skidding well past the camper where they were hiding.
With that, the explosions halted, except for the bullets that could still be heard firing off in the open flames.
Sara looked to Jack with mischievous wide eyes, “So that’s what took you so long! Next time I’m helping!” she demanded.
“Let’s hope there isn’t…” Jack stoped as he saw motion in the distance.
“They’re on the move. And it’s not the reaction we wanted.” Bryan whispered back, tension rising in his voice. “They have split into three groups, one leading head on and two smaller groups flanking each side. The middle group has the two berserkers, I can see their red eyes. Ones are the same amount of light as Jimmy’s. The other though is much brighter, whatever that means"
“Alright, we’ll deal with them first. Let’s see if they can catch cars as well as they can throw them,” Jack smiled.
The look on Sara’s face quickly sapped away Jacks smile as he turned and saw her.
“Jack look,” Sara said pointing to the sky, “Its back.”
Looking up, Jack felt like his stomach dropped to the floor. Coming from the west as always, came the meteor. The green light was in view but hadn’t bathed the shopping center yet. Something felt different to Jack. It was closer, much closer, and moving much faster as well. As it crested the horizon jacks feelings where realized, It looked huge in the dark night sky, a testament to how close it must be. The ground began shaking hard. Although it had picked up speed considerably, Jack could feel that the meteor itself was weakening. Just barely able to see the tail of the meteor he knew why, it was finally crumbling in the sky.
Green tails where dropping from behind the meteor like salt from a snow plow in winter.
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“Looks like they see it to,” Bryan called out, “They are all watching the zerker guys. Both flanks are jogging to rejoin the main group. What’s the plan Jack? We should hit it now and they would never notice.”
“Jack?” Bryan called out, turning as best he could under the camper, he saw Jack crumpled on the ground again, “JACK!” Rushing, Bryan scrambled out from under the camper. “No, not now Jack,” he quietly scalded. Looking up at the girls, Sara seemed perfectly fine this time around other than the obvious concern for Jack and his poor timing. She knelt next to Jack, holding his hand and brushing dirt off his face with her other hand.
“He’ll be ok Sara, we need to stay on guard though. Hopefully the gangs leader passed out too and this dam meteor bought us some time.” Rachel assured her cousin.
Glancing under the camper, still sitting next to Jack, Bryan could still see the group of feet all clustered where they had been when he abandoned his post.
“No such luck comrade,” came a deep thick Russian accent from Bryans right. A chorus of deep chuckles along with a few female chortles came from around both sides of the camper.
Bryan didn’t even look up, immediately he reached for his AR that he had set down next to him while checking Jack only to hear a song of bolts locking in place.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” the Russian laughed, “I also wouldn’t have screamed what I’m guessing is this unconscious fellows here’s name, Jack is it?”
Bryan cursed himself for his stupidity. It was his fault they were all ambushed. Glaring at the Russian, Bryan nodded to confirm it was his name.
The Russian nodded to his fellow gang members and quickly several of the Russians men swarmed on Rachel and Sara, holding their arms behind their back and zip tying their wrists together. Hearing the girls squeal and squirm, cursing their captures, Bryan snarled, staring down the Russian.
“Don’t you dare touch them! Let them go!” Bryan commanded. Using the outburst as a distraction, at the same time he jostled his knee forward trying to wake up Jack. In his fear, all he had managed was a nudge.
The Russian left Bryan kneeling next to his unconscious brother and passed over to the restrained girls. “It seems your travel with some quite beautiful companion’s comrade, which one is yours?”
“Neither.. I swear if you touch a single hair…”
“You’ll what? Get yourself shot? Makes my life easier if you do, that way I can make off with both these beauties. Neither you say is yours huh? In that case you have no right to speak after them.”
The Russian made a creepy purring noise as he ran a heavily tattooed and scarred hand down each of the girl’s faces. In unison the girls each bit for his hands. The old Russian was too quick though and nether achieved the bite. “Well well, fierce ones… That can be broken.” He said with a heartless cold that struck them all to the bone.
The trio was quickly aware of what this man was capable of. As well as the direness of their situation.
The smell of the burning store front and screams of the girls had brought Jack back to consciousness quicker then ever. Being slow to actually come too, Jack realized the situation going on around him.
They were caught.
Both girls where hostages and Bryan looked to be cannon fodder for the Gangs amusement. Jack kept dead still as to not arise suspicion. And kept his eyes closed.
It was then Jack realized with the meteors return, so did his second sight. A quick prayer and then a thank you to the meteor later, Jack used the senses of his second sight and reached out for the meteor.
Come on big guy, Jack thought, let’s teach this scum some manners.
As his senses spread out, he could feel the meteor more closely. The green glow it was giving off was energy. He could feel it thrumming just at the edge of his reach. Pushing as hard as he could, he was able to establish a link like he had with the trees. Careful not to draw to much at once, Jack slowly absorbed the raw energy of the meteor. The strain it took was immense but not unbearable. He could feel the energy seeping into his very cells.
Waiting for enough power and the right moment, Jack just kept filling himself with as much power as he could absorb from the green ambient light in the sky.
“You have two options,” Said the Russian, stepping forward into the light of the meteor.
Now in the light, Bryan could finally put a face to his new worst enemy. He had to be in his early fifties, or maybe just having a ruff life made him look like that and he could possibly be in his forties. Grey hair streaked his temples, blending back into his dark, probably black grease slicked hair full with receding hairline. His face was a tapestry of Scars, with clearly Mafia type tattoos on his neck and cheek. A quick glance behind the Russian showed a surprising mix of ethnicity, remembering back to the conversation he and Jack had about the gangs of LA it looked like all parties where present in their own colors still no less.
Bryan had no idea why, but this made him smirk. Jack really had planned ahead.
“Are you even listening?” The Russian snapped, impatience laced his thickly accented wordswords.
Bryan felt a tap from Jack at his knees and almost lost it giving away their advantage, instead he pushed from an awkward surprised face into maniacal laughter.
The Russian looked utterly confused as he reddened in anger at being mocked. Turning to the girls he raised his greying bushy eyebrows while he appraised them. “I can’t believe I can say this and mean it but I think you two pretties are better off with us. This ones cracked.” He explained thumbing to Bryan.
With the Russian’s back turned, Bryan chanced a glance down at Jack. The glow of the power Jack had been gathering was now showing through his eyelids.
To Bryans surprise it was so much that he could actually feel the heat of it radiating from his brother.
Feeling brave, he started in on the Russian.
“Not your usual crew here is it? What, were you the only person strong enough in your little mafia to wake up after the first meteor pass?” Bryan saw the rage in the Russians eyes, the Red power suffused them.
But Bryan noticed that unlike Jacks glow that went all the way to his pupils, this red though stronger then jimmy, was nowhere near his brothers gold eyes. Feeling more confident than ever, he continued. “What about the rest of you? Why follow this Rocky and Bullwinkle throw back?”
He got a few chuckles from the gangsters but the Russian mobster was now almost foaming at the mouth in anger, Bryan did manage to spot the other zerkers red eyes a few paces behind.
One of the gangsters started to pet Sara’s hair and moving his hand up and down her arm, getting a bit bolder every stroke.
Bryan felt Jack tense and knew that his stalling was just about up, but the Russian had taken the bate.
“I was going to give you options, I was going to let you and your little unconscious friend there live. But hear now what I am going to do. I am taking your women and will use them as I see fit, and when I’m done I will let every man and women here tonight then do the same. And through this all I will keep you barely alive enough to watch the entire time and only kill you once I have killed them in front of you, slowly, very slowly.”
Jack had had enough. Holding a field around himself, Bryan and then around the girls, he stood up. Quickly In his head he created the spell he had thought of to solve this. Even still, Jack made sure to keep his eyes closed, he wanted to have this man feel the fear he was trying to project on him and his friends.
He heard the girls deep intake of breath, knowing everything was going to be just fine now when he realized that they hadn’t known he was awake yet. Jack was enraged at what this man had just tried put them psychologically through.
Wheeling towards the man, using his second sight to find his eyes, Jack opened his own eyes and let them shine like stars in the sky. The golden light filled the night, mixing with the green of the meteor still overhead feeding jack power as he spent it. The look on the Russians face was priceless, even the hardened gangster couldn’t shield his fear of the display of power before him. The heat just from the shear amount of power he was channeling was enough to singe the closest thugs eyebrows. The hodgepodge of gangsters behind the Russian looked even worse for ware, some shaking, some cowering behind others like a two year old at their first day at day care. To top it off, if his nose was accurate, among the smell of the still burning store front, and hair, Jack got the distinct idea that at least one had soiled themselves.
The Russian snapped out of his fear and as if trying to reprove himself as a hard gangster and tried rush Jack with all the power he had. Trouble was, Jack had his feet rooted to the ground with his gripping shields anchored down deep below the asphalt.
There was no way he was making a step without Jacks permission.
“Here is how this is going to go,” Jack confidently projected for all to hear. “My friends here and I are going to leave of our own volition with all of our gear, without a single scratch on us.” Turning to the girls, Jack motioned them forward and cut their bindings with one of his shield blades. Quickly they shook themselves loose of their would have been captors. Jack spotted the one that had been holding onto Sara, while getting uninvitingly frisky.
Without as much as a movement of his hand, Jack bound the man to the ground like the Russian. Jack was disgusted by what he saw, the colors of the aura’s before him where all so dark and twisted. These gangsters where truly horrible people. Unable to even begin to comprehend what heinous crimes these people have committed, Jack tried to steel himself for what he knew he must do to keep his friends and brother safe.
Crossing to stand in front of the man that had uninvitedly caressed Sara, Jack saw nothing but contempt in the hardened criminals eyes.
Fight fire with fire, Jack thought.
Making a energy knife, this time levitating it in the air. Jack made a show of punishing the criminal. “So is this what you like to do? Torture people with the fear of what your about to do?” Jack taunted, raising the knife to the man’s cheek, he let it bite deep and mentally pulled it down in the same caressing motion Jack had seen him use on Sara.
“Well let this be a lesson,” Jack went on as he raked the blade down the mans arm, “To all of you. You are not to follow us. Or try to ever harm us or anyone else again. I don’t wish to kill any of you, but know that I can if I need to without so much as a thought.”
The Russian began laughing at Jack. “You barely cut one man, and expect us to be frightened? I’ve taken shits scarier then you kid.”
Jack smiled, “Well I’ll just keep trying then, Bryan, girls, you might want to come a little closer.”
Quickly the girls and Bryan grabbed up their bags and weapons from the Gangsters and huddled behind Jack.
“This is no longer worth my time,” the Russian declared. “Shoot him”
Not only was Jack prepared, he had wondered why they hadn’t tried that already. With a shield tightly packed around himself and friends, the onslaught came.
Maniacal laughter came from the dark as bullets from what had to be at least forty different automatic weapons riddled Jacks shield. But with the direct link to the meteor above him, Jack had no shortage of power.
Getting a spur of the moment idea, Jack tried something new.
He no longer held a conduit to power the shield, he linked it to the meteor itself. It took an extra bit he imagined like a valve to regulate the flow of energy, but it worked like a charm. Nothing they threw at it could come through. With supreme confidence in his shield, Jack started his counter attack.
Reaching up with his senses, Jack once again linked himself to the meteor. The wind slowly whipped up around Jacks huddled group.
The energy of the wind was a lot harder to control then Jack had expected but as soon as he had the proper vortex of air, even at a slow speed, the pace quickly picked up. He had noticed when practicing throwing the energy knives that wind was something he could control as well. He had been trying to move multiple blades in a circle too fast and found it got easier as the wind in the room picked up and circulated.
The gangsters all raised arms to try and block the wind and debris from stinging their eyes. Surely a little shocked that not a single bullet had gotten through to their target.
They have no idea, Jack thought, but they will soon enough.
The wind now was starting to push the gangsters around, many where trying to back up to escape what was quickly becoming a tornado.
Well that won’t do, Jack thought.
With a little trepidation of what he was about to do, Jack reached into his second sight and located all the gangsters. Each one by an arm, a leg, a hand, a shoulder if they were lucky, Jack attached them in place with his gripping shields.
The toll it took on him on top of creating the cyclone was staggering, but Jack was still holding on. He was no longer using any of his own power but the tingling burn of being a conduit for the meteor to do as he wished was taxing his body heavily.
The wind speed was now increased to a point where the people stuck in one place by arms and legs where now flailing sideways in the wind like flags each from their own little flag polls. Gravel and shards of broken glass whipped through the cyclone, scratching, gouging, cutting at every inch of gangster they could find. Remorse for what he was putting these people through popped its way into the corner of his mind as he watched one Gangsters arm jarringly dislocate, without a doubt tearing ligaments in the process. But he looked again at the auras of Black, twisted with angry red, all surrounding grey clouds that ran into a black hole in the very center.
Evil.
And this was what he had to do if he was going to keep them all safe, he assured himself.
Looking through the wind with his second sight, the twister was of a respectable magnitude, but seeing one of the gangster’s arms starting to tear off at the shoulder, Jack thought it time to bring them all down. With a quick counter wind going in the opposite direction, the tornado of Jacks furry fell away. The roar of the wind was quickly replaced with the screams and tears of the tormented hardened criminals that now lay and hung scattered around the parking lot.
“Get the point now?” Jack remarked.
The only reply he got was the groans of the masses. Jack released the gripping shields, dropping the rest onto the pavement. Jack canceled the stationary meteor linked shield he had held around the group to keep them safe, and motioned his friends towards the bikes, it was clearly time to leave. Un circling the carriages took longer than expected, but the thugs made no movement in their direction. Jack took in the sight of his brother and the girls as they got on the bikes. He could see the slight fear in his friends eyes, still taking in what had just happened.
Just as they got sorted out, a crackling laugh again came from the Russian.
“You still couldn’t kill me!” He exclaimed in triumph.
Jack stared at him with pity and shook his head, “You don’t get it do you? I didn’t even try to.”
“You.. no… then what was all that?” the Russian stammered.
“A warning, and one I would listen to if I where you.” Jack coldly replied as he readied his petals to get moving.
“Jack look out!” Sara yelled pointing back to the Russian.
Without even turning Jack put up the thickest shield he could as fast as possible. The Shot that hit it as he turned to look back at the Russian, felt like it could have come from an artillery cannon. Jack had just barely been able to stop the shell only inches from his chest.
A .50 caliber hand gun? Really?
But the Russian had just proved a point, this wasn’t over yet. Not by a long shot for him. The only option Jack had left, he wasn’t keen on, but knew it had to be done. Creating a dozen energy knives, Jack sent them flying as he turned his head, not wanting to watch the destruction that the knives were sure to cause. Without looking back, he guided the knives with his second sight. Alll he heard was the sloppy squish of all the now many pieces of the Russian hit the ground.
Jack pressed the group to hurry along, heading north out of the parking lot, looking for the main street they had traveled the day before. With his second sight, Jack knew the other zerker was still there and was huddled over the pieces of the Russian as they left.
No one looked back to see what happened. They knew they had to act fast.
Pushing along, when they hit the road, Jack had them turn east a few streets. “No reason to just give them a free shot at us showing them where we are going.”
Everyone silently agreed. Other than Sara’s yell of caution, the others where all being as quiet as mice.
The silence scared Jack.
He wanted to know what the others had thought about what he had done. What they thought about how he had treated Sara’s attacker.
He wasn’t even sure how he felt about it. He may have gone to far, but it had kept them all safe. Right?
But until the Meteor was far out of Jacks reach and the morning sun was up, no one said a word until they stopped for breakfast.