HalfWorlder #Wattys2017

Chapter 23-I hang ten in Egypt

It all happened much faster than I wanted it to. The water pulled back from the shore. The ship flew out over the sea and I jumped off the roof. Luckily, I remembered I could fly after I panicked halfway down.

Oh, yeah. Alien super powers.

I landed with one hand and a knee on the ground and gazed out over the wet land that had amassed after the sea pulled back to gather its waters into one bone-crushing tsunami.

I never felt less capable than I did right now. Here I was alone – even though I asked to be. And I didn't know what to do to save them.

I looked back toward the city.

Or myself.

How could I let my friends stay though?

It was the only way to protect her– to let her go, which made me think back to all those pharaonic princes and princesses in the burial chamber. Some of those guys were my age. They should have lived much longer. What kind of heroics had they tried to pull that put them there? The thought was disconcerting for a person about to face a killer wave alone.

"What am I supposed to do?" I screamed up at the sky. "Save the world! I haven't even done that yet. Now save the Egyptians? Anything else while I'm at it? I'm only 17!"

Then I did something crazier than jumping off a building. I sat down defeated while a killer tsunami formed at sea. The wet sand crunched coldly beneath me, and I buried my head in my knees. I shifted my weight over the knobby sand. It was already freezing. I picked some up and turned it over in my fingers and heard the roaring waters begin heading my way.

Great.

Not in any hurry though, I surveyed the beach. Two men stood 100 feet out where the sea used to be.

So, they'll be the first.

The sand stayed frozen between my fingers, not even melting from the heat of my body. It must be artic cold out here. I shivered even though my Bau helped keep me somewhat warm. The wave would be here soon. The Oracle believed in me, but there was some consequence coming too. What was I about to do to save the day while simultaneously messing things up?

I squeezed my eyes shut and mentally flipped through all my favorite comic book characters. What would they do to stop a tsunami?

My eyes opened wide. And I ran.

And I mean, I really ran. Like super-Oasen super hero kind of fast straight toward the approaching death wave. I heard it before I saw it. But then it loomed. I reached deep inside me until I found my Bau. It was warm inside me, but that's not what I needed right now. I melted away the heat until the cold within me was nearly unbearable.

The edge of the wave was five miles south of me. I'd start there and finish at the end, I thought. There wasn't enough time though. But there hadn't been enough time in the gym either when the walls were coming down.

This wouldn't be the first time I manipulated time.

The cold within me fought against what I wanted, but it didn't have a choice. It was going to obey me now or we were all going to die. Time slowed to a crawl as I ran faster south, freezing inside, until I caught the wave and rode it like the Silver Surfer north towards where it ended.

I ejected the subzero chill I housed within me until the waters turned to frozen rock beneath my feet. As I rode the wave north, I stopped the killer surf in its tracks. Exhaustion nearly collapsed me, but I wasn't finished yet. A sound like metal grinding distracted me and I saw a force of cold water escape the wave and head toward the shore while my attention was diverted. Thankfully it dispersed harmlessly across the empty sea bed.