Chapter One: Rooftop Travelers

His emerald green eyes skimmed the rooftop, searching for anything that might be a threat. When they found nothing a shadow walked out into the open in cautious strides, silhouetted against the beautiful gold and crimson of the setting sun behind it.

The figure belonged to a young boy, ten years of age. His slim body was dressed in black jeans and a tee shirt that was starting to feel on the small side, accenting the fact that he was already developing some muscle mass from his time spent running. His black hair was messy, but not as dirty as it could have been considering his living conditions.

He sighed and looked out over beautiful Pittsburgh, the sunset reflecting off of the glassy water of one of its many rivers. Which one it was he had no idea but he didn't care, the sight was breathtaking. The sun was fading fast and he knew that the city would soon be lit up; and it would be the bridges' lights reflecting off of the water's surface in place of the sun. He smiled at the thought. Nighttime had always been his favorite time of day, it seemed so peaceful and was easier to hide in if need be.

Maybe his feeling had been wrong, everything seemed fine. As soon as the thought crossed his mind he caught a flicker of movement in the corner of his eye. He whirled around to see what is was, but it seemed to have disappeared.

He moved slow and careful, but not quiet, knowing that whoever it was already knew full well that he was there. "Show yourself," an air of authority surrounded him, though he did notice that he had to fight to keep a tremble out of his voice.

At first nothing happened. He waited in patience for the being to make a move, but when he sensed movement behind him he panicked and swung around, coming face to face with a girl around his age, but about a foot shorter than himself and dressed in rags.

It all happened so fast, he hadn’t even seen her kick coming. Her movements were so fluid that it looked as though she had practiced the technique to the point of obsession, over and over again until she had perfected it. The force of the blow sent him flying back maybe five yards before he was able to plant his feet on the ground once again. As soon as he was stable he shifted his body into a defensive position, glaring at the girl who he had noticed was still hanging in midair. His eyes widened as he realized what she was.

She glared back at him, ferocious and he made a mental note to move slower so as not to startle her again. He raised both of his hands up to show her that he was not trying to hurt her, his angry expression fading away into a pleasant one. Or as pleasant as he could make it after having the wind knocked out of him; he could already feel the bruise forming underneath his tan skin and he noted that her feet were clad in some dangerous looking steel-toed boots.

"Chill," he said in an even tone, looking her in the eye, "I’m obviously too young to be an agent."

When the word "agent" left his mouth her face lost its fierce expression, but she stayed hovering a few feet above the ground. "Why are you up here?" her voice was hard.

"I could ask you the same thing," he replied, "I was here first after all." He pointed to a spot to her left and her eyes followed finding that he had a little bed set up next to a large crate. She looked back at him, sheepish.

"Sorry," she said, "I didn't know. Are you a…" she looked around in a nervous state before looking back at him, "gifted?"

He smiled at her though it didn’t reach his eyes, "Yeah.”

She stared at him for a moment, sizing him up and finally lowered herself to the ground again. She walked a little closer to him and he immediately stiffened.

"I won't kick you again," she promised, her voice a lot calmer now. He relaxed a bit, though still kept his guard up.

He looked her in the eye again and found to his complete shock that they were the same stunning emerald green color of that of his own eyes. Her jet black, messy hair whipped around her face as a sudden gust of wind blew around them. His skin was a tad tanner than hers he noticed, but they could almost be siblings with how alike some of their features were.

"So," she said, breaking the uncomfortable silence, "You know what mine is," she thumped down on the floor, sitting cross-legged, "but I still don't know what you can do Mr.-"

"Summon. Just Summon."

"You mean you can summon something?" she asked, clearly confused by what he was trying to tell her.

He chuckled, "Well, that's half right. It’s my name."

"Oh! That’s a weird name," she replied, her face turning red with embarrassment, "My name's Skye."

"Cool to meet you Skye," Summon noticed her social blunder, but said nothing about it, already more comfortable with her, "I don't think I've ever met another gifted before."

Skye nodded with impatience, "Yeah, me neither which is why I want to know what you can do."

Summon could sense her eagerness and grinned, "It'd be easier to show you."

 

Five years later…

 

Summon ran across the top of the skyscraper, refusing to look back. He would regret it if he did. Sweat dripped off of his forehead, though his body's natural cooling method was doing nothing for him. Not even the cold October night wind blowing in his face did him any good. His legs and lungs were screaming at him to slow down and use his precious energy to unleash his gift, instead of taking it out on them. He didn't listen, he couldn’t.

The one thing he had on his side was that the agents had never seen what he could do. They had no idea of how powerful he was and he didn't want to give away that advantage unless it was absolutely necessary. All they knew was that his body gave off waves of what the scientists called “tainted energy”, and he assumed Skye radiated it as well. They knew what her power was, so he was certain she was already utilizing it.

Skye was the one person he was still in contact with who had ever seen what his special ability. Ever since the day they met they had been best friends and partners, they helped each other survive. Where was she now though? Sooner or later he was going to run out of skyscraper to run on and he would need her help to escape.

He heard a loud sound to his right and looked over to find that Skye had just kicked a large metal object behind him. He couldn't tell what the object was, but he grinned in delight as he heard one of the male agents shriek in a high pitched soprano, "Speak of the devil," he muttered to himself, "Where did that hit him?" Summon panted when Skye caught up to him. Instead of running she was hovering a few inches off the ground, flying at the same speed he was running.

"Well, I wanted him to hurt… bad," she trailed off, also out of breath, though not as much as he was, "You're a guy... Kind of. I'm sure you know what I mean," she smirked in impish delight at him though she knew it wasn’t the best time for jokes.

Summon's eyes widened, though he wasn't at all surprised. The grin never left his face, "Well, you always did have quite a kick."

Skye laughed and turned her body so that she was flying backwards, facing the agents. She beamed at them with sadistic malice, sticking her tongue out. Summon kept his sights trained forward. They were nearing the end of the skyscraper's roof.

"Skye, get ready, I'm gonna need your help with this."

She faced forward again, spinning her body so that it was now parallel with the rooftop, her legs sticking out behind her, toes pointed. She slowed down a bit so that he would have a few moments in the air before she would catch him. They had tried this a thousand times before (though never this high up) and it always worked better when he was airborne for a few seconds instead of Skye catching him right away. It gave him time to get in the best position for her to catch him, and gave Skye extra time to brace herself for the extra weight.

Summon squinted his eyes as he prepared to jump. He had always hated this part of the escape plan and the fact that they were so high up didn't help things at all, "Three," he counted, letting Skye know that he was about to jump, "… two… ONE!!!" He jumped as far as he could off of the building and spread his arms and legs out so that he would fall at a slower pace.

"SUMMON!!!!" he heard Skye’s shriek. Her voice seemed far away. In a normal scenario she would have been a few feet behind him. Come to think of it, she would have grabbed him around the waist and started soaring with him at this point. This was a tad concerning.

He spun around in midair, looking back at the building he had been running on to find that somehow the agents had caught up with her. One of them had tackled her and grabbed her legs while another jabbed her arm with a needle, a murderous expression on his face as he was hunched over in pain. It must have been the man the piece of metal had hit. Half of Skye's body was hanging off of the skyscraper and her arms were stretched out toward him as though she would somehow still be able to catch him. Their eyes met for a moment and Summon could see the apology behind her brimming tears.

Summon twirled around again only to realize that in the few seconds that he had used to look up at what was happening on the roof he had dropped and uncomfortable distance. He felt his eyes burning from the wind blowing in his face and tried to take a deep breath, but it seemed that his lungs were too busy hyperventilating to obey his command. Letting them do as they pleased for the time being, he focused instead on using his inner energy. Hiding his gift from others wouldn't be beneficial if doing so killed him.

As he concentrated, his eyes glowed crimson, as did his hands, “Malandra, if there was ever a time when I needed your help, it would be now.”

There was a loud ripping sound above him and he looked up to find a black dragon flapping her silver wings, flying as fast as she could toward him. Summon looked down again and found to his utter horror that he was so close to the ground that he could see the terrified facial expressions of the people below him as they ran to take cover.

Malandra flapped her powerful wings even harder and opened her large, silver-clawed hand wide, positioning the rest of her scaled body upside down right above where he was falling. She roared loud and fierce, though to Summon it sounded more fearful than anything else. She ceased beating her wings, tucking them against her back, falling a couple of yards and grabbing his right shoulder in a  sloppy catch about fifty feet above the ground before spreading her wings yet again and gliding over the alarmed people below.

He screamed in pain and looked over at his right shoulder. One of the dragon's enormous talons had pierced his deep into his skin when she caught him. Summon gritted his teeth and grabbed onto Malandra's claw with his left hand, trying to take some of the pressure off of his wounded arm. She looked down at him, eyes laden with worry and began to glide toward the ground, but he shook his head.

"No! We have to go get Skye! We can deal with this later."

The dragon looked at him, disapproving and seemed like she was about to say something, but Summon glared up at her. She looked away from him and let out a large sigh through her nose, sending a tongue of flames out in exasperation before shooting upward in an abrupt motion, comfortable with increasing altitude at such a rapid pace; and swooped in toward the top of the skyscraper where two men were restraining a still struggling Skye. When they spotted the colossal flying lizard headed straight for them they cried out in terror and ran backwards, dragging Skye with them.

Skye looked at Summon for a moment, contemplating whether he was really still alive, or if she was just hallucinating. Finally she dropped to her knees, forgetting all about fighting the agents that were restraining her, "Thank God," she whispered, still unable to stop the tears from falling. She wasn't one to cry, but today wasn't really a good day for her.

Malandra touched down on the top of the large building and let go of Summon’s arm, removing her claw from his skin with care so that she did not make his injury any worse. She then stood over him in a protective pose, glowering at the agents with menace, bearing her dagger-like, pearly white fangs.

Summon grabbed his shoulder as soon as the claw was out of it, trying not to think of how disgusting the hot, slippery liquid felt in the palm of his hand. He stared the agents down with the same expression as the dragon, though maybe not quite as intimidating, "I suggest," he began, letting his lungs realize that they could breathe normally again, "that you let her go now, before I have Malandra here cook and eat you." Malandra opened her mouth and blew a small puff of fire out to emphasize her friend's words.

The man whom Skye had almost castrated recovered from his state of shock first. He moved, grabbing something from his belt and shoving it right up against Skye's head. She flinched, knowing what it was.

It took him a minute to make it out through his still glowing red eyes. A gun. He clutched his shoulder even harder, ignoring the fact that the action caused more pain.

"Look kid, I'm not in a great mood," growled the agent in a voice that Summon assumed was supposed to be intimidating. The voice alone wasn't, but the fact that he was holding a gun up against his best friend's head added to the effect, "I can't promise that your little friend will come out of this alive unless you send that abomination back to where it came from. After all, what's one gifted’s death? No one cares about any of you, I'm sure they wouldn't notice. And she could have gotten shot by some punk on the streets. She's completely superfluous."

Summon sized the man up, trying to see if he was serious or not. He certainly looked it. Would he get in trouble for killing one of his "assignments"? He was right after all, no one cared whether they lived or died.

The man smirked when he saw the distress written on Summon's face, "So we can do this my way and you'll both live, or we can do it your way and she will die."

He looked at the man for a moment and nodded. Skye was speechless.

"Good. Now walk forward and don't let that creature move. If I see it move toward me at all I will pull the trigger."

He walked forward slowly, projecting into Malandra's mind that she was not to move, though he knew she had heard the man perfectly well. When he was a few feet away from where Skye and the agents were standing he stopped.

"Don't move," the man said, and then whispered to another man in an undertone that Summon could not make out. The man he had whispered to walked over to Summon and stabbed a needle into his neck. Summon flinched in pain and discomfort, feeling a burning liquid enter his veins and his eyes and hands were cleared of the glowing red light surrounding them in an instant.

The air ripped open behind Malandra with a violent noise, making everyone including Summon, jump. The dragon roared in surprise and what he knew was pain as an invisible force pulled her crudely, back into her own dimension. Skye gasped while the others stared in awe as the door to the dimension closed again. The agent wasted no time, snapping his hands into handcuffs behind his back and dragging him over to his partner. It was Summon's turn to look at his best friend, apology written on his face. This was not supposed to happen. They were supposed to be able to take care of each other as they had promised to on the day they met.

Skye managed to smile at him, "It'll be fine," she muttered so that only he could hear, "We can handle a few years of rehab before being freed again. We've been through worse."

Summon nodded, she was right after all. He just didn't like the fact that they were being taken prisoner and thrown into an institution simply because the untainted were afraid of them, "We've been through worse," he repeated Skye's words, trying to sound convinced. He had to believe that things would get better. What else did he have to live for if not that?

 

Author's Note

Honest feedback is much appreciated.

Reviews

[C. Rose]

I'm assuming Skye is the girl from the first chapter, but that girl could see the future and Skye can levitate so I am hesitant.
I loved how Malandra was introduced.
It felt a little strange to essentially have two prologues: the mother's death and Skye meeting Summon. Consider saving one or both of these prologues for a flashback.
This chapter was very exciting. Keep an eye on character Point Of View.

I felt like the five years later part is stronger than both prologues. Strongly consider turning both prologues into dreams or flashbacks. It is okay if the reader doesn't know exactly what rehab is or how it was decided upon at the end of this chapter. Definitely keep the two prologues, I just recommend not starting with them.

[Ashira Macy]

Thanks Rose, I was a little concerned that it might seem like two prologues, so I will have to do some editing and see what I come up with. Malandra is one of my favorite characters, so I am happy you felt her introduction was well done. Thank you again for reading and reviewing my friend!

[Lyan]

it makes me think of Hunger Games and a cross between something else that I cannot think of at the moment. It also makes me think of this reallly awesome show called Star Crossed. Check out the show when you have a chance I think you will like it:)

[Ashira Macy]

Thanks doll, I will try to check that out when I find the time.

[Albert Teague]

Whoa!!! What an opening, although I think the 5 year time jump was a bit awkward but as I kept reading it made more sense. Don't forget to check out my chapters. Keep the good work and keep me updated

[Ashira Macy]

Thanks Albert, glad you liked it. I will head over to you chapters as soon as time permits. =)

[Jack Wolfe]

Emerald green eyes skimmed the rooftop thoroughly, searching for anything that might be a threat. (you need a subject her, just add his, at the beginning of the sentence.

Avoid adverbs, Especial(ly) ones, you have two in your first two sentences, read over the line, cautiously adds nothing to the sentence.

The figure belonged to a young boy, maybe ten years of age. (The figure, a young boy, ten-years of age.) The narrator should know the boys age.

His slim body was covered in black jeans (this implies his entire body is covered in jeans, 'he had a slim frame and wore black jeans.'

He sighed contently and looked out onto the beautiful Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (needless words and a adverb.

He sighed and looked out onto beautiful Pittsburgh.

his mind she caught a (he caught)

He moved slow(ly) and careful(ly), but not quiet(ly), knowing that whoever it was already knew perfect(ly) well that he was there.

The only seemingly new clothes she wore were a black leather jacket with a broken zipper and a humongous pair of steel-toed combat boots protecting her feet, reaching halfway up her calves. On her wrist was a strong looking chain with a silver key hanging off of it. (when you first meet someone (and in this scenario it's an out-of-nowhere moment) Do you do an inventory of everything they are wearing?

She glared back at him ferocious(ly) and he made a mental note to move slow(ly) so as not to startle her again. He put both of his hands up slow(ly) to show her that he was not trying to hurt her, his angry expression fading away into a friend(ly) one. Or as friend(ly)

"Chill," he said calm(ly), looking her straight in the eye, "I’m obvious(ly) too young to be an agent."

She stared at him for a moment as though she was sizing him up (she's either sizing him up or not, it's her mind, she knows)

Straight in his eyes, square in his eyes (cliché phrasing)
Avoid words such as so, anyways, etc, etc. This comes down to showing and not telling; the problem becomes 'us' as humans tend to write like we talk . . . If I asked you how was school or work, you would give me a list of events. I got there late, that b***h Sandra kept glaring at me, went to lunch with John, finished my report, came home. We are trained to 'tell' which is why it's hard to learn to show when writing. You have a interesting story line, and it's enjoyable, but you're still having the problem mentioned in the prologue, and the few mentioned above (I could point out each one, but they all boil down to the ones already mentioned.)

I hope this helps, and if you have any questions or comments feel free to contact me.

[Ashira Macy]

Yikes, now that you point it out, I do use adverbs and awful lot. I will revisit this and see if I can buff it down a bit. Glad the story line is enjoyable.

Were there any points that you saw the point of view switching? I tried to keep it in Summon's point of view, but I may have missed some spots.

[Jack Wolfe]

No, you managed to keep it on track, but you did over use his name to make your point, just glance at it and you'll see it strung through-out.

[Ashira Macy]

I will go through and fix that as well, I thought I may have. Thank you!