Starstreak

Everything Goes Wrong

Later (I don't ask how much later), I finally remembered to check the time on my phone. My eyes went wide. "Holy mother of Jesus, it's late! I think I should get home now." 

"I can drive you," Alex suggested. 

"That'd be great!" I said, relieved. That'll be much faster. 

We started walking down the path together. Then I heard the unmistakable sound of a pistol being cocked. Alex and I stopped in our tracks. I surveyed the trees around us, trying to pinpoint where it had come from. 

Men stepped out of the trees, surrounding us, all holding guns pointed directly at us. I was suddenly terrified. It was like the general goods store all over again. 

Calm down! I told myself. I sized up each one (a trick I learned was helpful in the past week). There were about 7 of them, all in black. The guy directly in front of us, who seemed to be in charge, was tall, blonde and confident looking. The next one was Indian and a little shorter, and uglier to say the least. The one redhead of the group was handsome and held himself well. One was Asian, and he seemed to be the oldest of the group, which meant he was probably the most experienced. Two of them looked like they might have been related. They were both brown-haired and had similar heights, the only differences between them were varying levels of scruffiness. 

The last one caught my attention and a sense of familiarity washed over me. His blue-gray eyes held almost no emotion except for the slightest bit of weariness that none of the others had. He was the same black-haired guy from the shop where I'd discovered my powers. That's probably why he's the wariest of me. He knows what I can do. 

I turned my attention back to the leading man as he started to speak. "Hand over the girl," he said, threateningly. 

Alex held out a protective arm in front of me. I felt a glimmer of admiration for him. But judging that he probably couldn't fight, it didn't help much. 

The leader shifted his gaze to me. "Girl, come quietly, and no one gets hurt." 

"Over my dead body," I replied savagely. Alex gave me a look of confusion. He was probably thinking, What the hell are you doing? or something along those lines. I kind of understood his reaction since he had no idea why this was happening, and I wasn't exactly helping it. 

"As much as I'd love to take you up on that offer, I unfortunately cannot," he said with a laugh. "But if it's a fight you want, I'd be happy to oblige." 

Oh, I so want a fight. I thought clenching my fists, and the area around us slowly darkened. 

The black-haired boy tensed, obviously noticing the sign from our last encounter. ready for me to deliver a blow. 

"What makes you think I don't want one?" I said coolly, purposely antagonizing him. 

The leader smirked. "This shouldn't take very long." With that he fired a shot. 

I shoved Alex out of the way and ducked before the bullet could meet its mark. 

There was the sound of more gunshots coming from all directions. I made a barrier of light to block all of them. None got through but they pummeled my barrier with the force of falling trees. 

Before long, I'd had enough of playing defensive. I modified the light shield so that instead of disintegrating, the bullets bounced off in all directions so that maybe they'd hit one of the men. I expanded the barrier pushing away the attackers with almost no difficulty at all. 

While they were all distracted by their own bullets, I got rid of the light barrier and checked out who was still standing. 

Most of them were doing fine just dodging their own shots. Although, the smaller of brown-haired boys was hiding behind a tree trying not to be seen, by me or his fellows.