Halflight

Tony Luz

PROLOGUE

Anthony Luz was a quiet boy, of average height and an average build. In fact, everything was average about him, except his messy, black hair and his intellect.

Hailed as a prodigy from the age of five, Tony was a special boy. He had been nominated for prizes coveted by people who were many times his age, and he found all of his primaryschool classes pretty boring. So much so that he had applied to a local highschool a the age of seven, and he had been accepted easily.

Tony was a boy who was loved by everyone he met, and none more so than his parents. The Luz family was a small one, Tony, his mom and dad, and his older sister, Holly, who was around the same intellect as Tony, but four years older. He had often been told that when he was happy, his eyes glowed. As far as he knew, his eyes were always glowing.

At least until the tragedy.

When Tony was eleven, a raging fire decimated his house, and spread, covering the entire block before it was put down. This fire was the type of fire that stuck in one's mind, and had been given the local nickname, the Savage Fire. Witnesses claimed that it was alive, that it raged and roared, and that was why it was so hard to kill.

The only survivors, a little Tony being cradled by his older sister, in the charred wreckage if their room. His father survived, but was maimed severely. His mother was killed.

Anyone who looked at Tony could see that he wasn't physically injured, but mentally scarred. The glow in his eyes flickered, waned, and vainshed.

It never came back.

Tony's father died months later, the day before his twelfth birthday. Since then, he and his sister migrated from foster home to foster home, never really settling in.

Then, one day, Tony discovered he had a special 'power'. On an average day, he was too lazy to reach for the remote, and reached out for it, not really expecting anything. Something snapped in his head, and he was bewildered to see the remote float over to him, bathed in a soft, red light. He reached further, and the remote fell quickly to the ground, slamming against the tiles loudly.

'This is the start of something beautiful', he thought to himself.

PRESENT DAY

Tony, now seventeen, flew into his chair, seconds before the bell rang to start first period. He really didn't have to be in school, but staying home all the time was boring, so he decided to enroll in a local highschool.

"Hey loser, what's shakin'?" Said Lester, the class bully. A lot of the other students had made a pun on his last name, Luz, calling him loser, among other things.

"Don't you have to go steal some lunch money?" Tony asked, burying himself in a book he pulled out of his bag.

"Why you-" Lester snarled, grabbing Tony out of his chair.

"Oh, I'm so scared." Tony lied. He pointed his finger at Lester's waist, and his belt buckle exploded with a bang. His pants dropped to the ground, exposing his Scooby Doo underpants.

"The f-", Lester started, clutching his thighs. The class exploded with laughter. He aimed a punch straight at Tony's head, fire in his eyes. His fist connected with air.

"Maybe you need some glasses." Tony said casually, seated on the teacher's desk (on the other side of the room), casually looking at his book.

"Y-you're a monster!" Lester screamed, running from the class, headed to the nurse who would soon mend his pants.

Tony snickered.

He was crowded by students, each with their own torrent of questions.

"How'd you do that?"

"Was it magic?"

""Course it wasn't magic dumbass, my father said magic doesn't exist."

"Take that back!"

The display had started a feud in the class, all without Tony saying a word. The teacher appeared in the doorway a second later.

"Everyone take your seats, physics is about to begin." said Mr. Jekyll, a tall man with a dark complexion, who was also Tony's physics teacher.

Class had begun.

A few hours later, Tony strolled across the parking lot in front of his school, looking for a sign of his sister. This had been his first use of his powers, something he had named Kinetics, in a public place. He had to be careful how he used it.

It had been years since he developed the power, and he had developed a whole lot of control over it. Not only had he learned to move objects, but he had also found a way to teleport, turn invisible, and create small mental explosions he called Rifts.

TOOT!!! He looked over his shoulder to see his sister speeding toward him in her new, yellow Chevy Camaro which she had bought it a few weeks earlier. It was her favorite car so far.

Holly Luz had matured into a fine woman, with long, blonde hair, sparkling green eyes, and the body of a supermodel. She had the brains to match. Recently employed as a surgeon at a local hospital, she had a pretty good salary. Well, that was an understatement. They had enough money to support both of their needs, and enough to allow herself to buy a new car every few months. She would sell her old one, and buy a newer, faster one a day later. Her newest purchase had been inspired by the newest Transformers movie.

"HEY TONY!" she called, ushering him over to the shiny, new car. She had gotten the attention of more than just Tony, and she got cat calls from most of the boys in the parking lot, to the irritation of their girlfriends.

"Hey." he said, almost falling into the car beside her. He threw his very light bag in the backseat. After all, when you're a genious, why carry textbooks?

"You kept me waiting." she said. "Do you have a girlfriend now?"

"Nope." he said, not getting her joke. He was too busy thinking.

"Oh... Well, how was school?" She asked, trying to lighten his mood.

"Average." he replied, just as dryly as he had before.

They drove the rest of the way home in silence.

Meanwhile, somewhere in the hills nearby, a hooded figure watched the pair with a dusty set of binoculars, thankful that his scouting job had gone so well.

All that was left was the capture.