The Cloak Guard

The Sculptor, Part 1

Madison woke up with a slight groan as the sun kept striking her eyes. She tried turning over and covering her eyes but the light was now flooding her whole room. She groaned again, wondering why there was so much sunlight so early, when she stared at the clock.

"What?" she almost shrieked, throwing off her blankets as she jumped up. That couldn't be right. But no matter how much she rubbed her eyes, the time remained the same. Almost 11 o'clock in the morning.

It all came rushing back to her. The fight with Swarm, Travis taking her back home, her hitting her bed with hardly a care. She was so exhausted from it all she'd slept almost the entire morning away. She never did that. She was usually an early riser on weekends, sneaking in to grab breakfast before all the hustle and bustle started.

Madison groaned again. The events of last night seemed so unreal, like they happened to a different person. She barely recognized that girl who stood up to Swarm, who managed to hold him off for a minute. And yet...she liked it. She'd never felt more confident in herself and wanted more.

She formed a small force field in her hand, as strong as before. Her powers must have recharged during the night. Not that she should need them again any time soon.

She got changed and made her way downstairs, already hearing the sound of the TV blaring whatever cartoon Lisa was watching while Todd was playing with his I-Pad.

"Well, look who it is," her mom greeted as she walked into the kitchen, her dad typing stuff up on his laptop. "Someone was certainly a sleepy-head."

"Yeah, sorry," Madison said. "Bit of a late night."

"Oh no worries. It is the weekend after all. I made some pancakes though, want some?"

"Please."

As Madison helped herself to some pancakes, she wondered what she would do now. For the past few weeks, she'd been so worried about what Swarm would do when he came back. Now that he was gone, she wasn't sure what her next step should be. She still wanted to know more about her powers, about where they came from. But she no longer wanted to get rid of them. She wanted to use them. If there were more people like Swarm out there like they suspected, then she wanted to be ready.

She considered a training schedule with Emily, to get stronger. While she hated getting pummeled around like that, she couldn't deny that that one lesson had been a big help during the fight. She had learned her limits with the force fields and how to push past them. If she kept that up, she would be able to make unbreakable force fields.

She smirked to herself. She couldn't believe that she, the geeky computer girl, was thinking about training and getting stronger. About preparing for coming fights. She should be terrified after last night, but she strangely felt calm. If they were able to defeat Swarm, even if it had been close, then they could defeat anyone else that came their way. Especially with Travis.

Madison's eyes widened and her face became flushed as she thought that. Where had that even come from? Sure, he had been amazing last night and had been the one to deliver the final blow. And she had been awestruck when she saw his lightning form. It had looked like he was a living god, the way he moved. And how he'd taken Swarm down before shooting up his lighting had left her breathless. Or how he looked so...

DING!

Madison jumped as the doorbell went off, startling her from her thoughts. She was pretty sure her cheeks were burning as she doubled down on her pancakes while her mom answered the door, trying to not think of anything else. Especially not a certain boy who...

"Hey Madison, I think it's your boyfriend."

Unfortunately, Madison had taken that moment to take a big gulp of orange juice.