Chapter 3

I always have a small firearm with me. Beretta M9 Pistol, got 4.92 inch barrel, and pretty convenient to whip out. 

Never predicted that my friend would try to burn me with a human flamethrower.

Gabe had opened up the nozzle of the extinguisher and let loose the contents, but it was no match for Collin's heat. For me, time slowed as I raised the pistol up to eye level, but everything else around me was going at a normal pace. The scientists who had experimented on me had warned me that although I was invulnerable, heat would slow down everything for me. The flames went straight through me, as I predicted, and I heard screaming, but not of death. Just fear.

I turned the safety off, and aimed at Collin's shoulder. Too slow. He threw a fist at me, but it went straight through me. In slow motion, I managed to trip him before he could see it, and the heat stopped. I threw myself at his back and put the gun straight to the back of his neck. I looked behind me, and saw awe in the faces of the crowd. I ignored them and looked straight forward to see Keva, past out; Matthew looking terrified; Shay looking grim, a bit of fear; Katie was on the floor, probably fainted, and Emily looking pale. I looked back down at Collin and said,

"I don't hate you this much, but if you as so much as twitch a muscle before I exit those double doors of glass, I swear, I will shoot your foot until what's left of it can't be replaced." I stood up, shakily, keeping my gun in a place where he could still see it, directed towards his foot, and walked, backwards, towards my little group.

"Alright, guys," I said. "I need all of you to stept behind that brick wall, out side the building, and Keva, if you love your boyfriend enough, you can stay with him and avoid getting roasted. If none of you are going to my place, I guess I'll drive myself home."

Matthew stared at me. "Bruh, you ain't old enough."

I pulled out my badge and said, "Sure, I'm not. But the buses aren't gonna drive themselves, are they?" I turned to everyone else. "Guys I know how you all feel. Just go home, or go to someone else's home and live your life. No more school, but every week, starting this Saturday, we'll be having meetings in the gym, down in this school." Groans. "We need a strong leader. We need to unify this city against outside forces, or we'll all collapse."

"WE don't need a leader, ghost." That voice sounded familiar. That same voice which had mocked me in that class room, looking for...

A big, big kid stepped out of the crowd. Not fat, big. Taller than I was. I'm five foot nine, going on ten. He's a good seven feet tall, and he wasn't skinny either. In his hands, he carried a wrench, taken from the custodian's closet, no doubt.

"What's your name, boy?" I asked. I've dealt with his kind before.

"Why am I gonna tell a freak, a radioactive weirdo like you, eh?" His voice sounded like wet gravel and cement.

"Maybe a full clip of a Berretta in your guts might change your mind. Besides, you don't scare me." I replied smoothly. I watched as the gears in his head turn.  You could almost here them grinding with the lack of oil.

"Well, what if I hit one of your friends? Maybe I'll smash in that pretty girl's face to change your mind. I bet you can't kill me without me not killing you." He advanced towards Keva, and I turned my pistol towards his noggin.

"He sure wouldn't, but that doesn't mean that I won't," a voice from behind Mr. Wrench said. And Mr. Wrench started screaming in pain. I lined up the iron sights on Wrench's thigh, where two nine millimeter holes appeared. Blood trickled out his thigh, and he roared in pain. I looked back at the crowd, and was sickened by what I saw. Collin was between the crowd and Wrench, in a tight hallway, and more and more people were siding with Wrench. Several were now carrying improvised weapons: broken tips of compasses, baseball bats, and broken glass bottles. 

"Collin!" I shouted. He looked in my direction, and I saw cold rage in those inhuman eyes. "Collin, let's get out of here!" Frost had formed over the grounds, and he was hovering a bit over the ground. He sort of drifted towards my direction, over the frost forming over a bleeding, burnt Mr. Wrench. He broke into a run as Wrench yelled "Get them!" I tried running, but my legs failed me, as always. I frantically started doing this walk, hop, jog, thing, when Collin noticed that I was having trouble catching up, so despite having just tried to kill me, he used the winds and threw me outside, next to a  transit bus. The engine was still one, so I threw my self through the door of the bus, and ended up inside it. That's right, I turn slow motion in heat, can't run, but I can pass through objects like I'm air. No, like I'm radio waves. Maybe that's what I really turn into. Than a question popped up inside my mind: How'd Collin know I can get inside here without breaking the vehicle? Maybe it was because of the fire going straight through me, but-

Here come Matthew and Emily dragging Katie, and Shay holding up Keva. I jump into the driver's seat and open the doors like I've seen the driver of this bus do so many times before. They all rush in, and I close the door as I here a cry, "Wait!". It wasn't Collins. I peek into the mirror. Collin was standing on the roof, having no problem with the wind. He gets to control the elements, I thought. Oh, boy, and I can barely run. "Wait!" The voice cried, and I peeked out the window, and saw Chauncey, one of my friends, so I slowed down to the point where he could jump in through the doors. He fell straight on the floor after that. Oh boy, I got guests tonight.