Halo Squad

Chapter 25

Sophie, Ade, and John then made their way up to Sophie's room, where they spent time working on the wings. An hour later, John came back to Dominic, Emilia, Baby and Karen, who were playing a game of Monopoly. "Dominic, the wing design is finished, but they told me to send you up" "Really? That's great! Thanks, John! Take over for me, I'm the dog piece". Dominic went up to Sophie and Ade, who had created a strange set-up. They had somehow connected Sophie's laptop and Ade's orb with various wires and contraptions that were whirring and beeping loudly. "Dom, place your halo on the orb" said Sophie, not looking away from whatever she was typing on her laptop "It'll only work for your halo, you being the leader of the group". Dom placed his halo onto Ade's orb and it's bright glow turned to a weaker blue glow. Ade, was sat by the open library door, drawing something on a piece of paper. Dominic walked over to have a look, and realised that Ade was using the books to create a visual blessing of his own, like the ones that existed within the pages of some of the books. It was a complex symbol, that consisted of many different lines and constructions, with the image of a halo at the centre. "This should connect your halo directly to the Spirit Force, instead of an indirect connection through you. It'll help with the creation of the portal, as it's much more difficult to create a portal to heaven from earth" said Ade, not bothering to look at Dominic, instead just using a ruler to draw a line, connecting two already existing lines. Dominic then realised that one of the patterns was the star of David, as Ade yelled "Sophie, it's done!" "Bring it here!".

Ade then handed Sophie the paper, and she placed it inside her printer, in a scanner. The image then appeared on her screen, and she placed it into a program. The program converted the image into what Dominic recognised as JavaScript. Sophie copied the code into another window she had open, and the orb pulsed with a white glow as the code was sent to it. Dominic's halo took on the same white glow, Sophie typed some more into her laptop, then pressed enter. Dominic's halo returned to it's original bright glow, and Sophie said "Put it back on". Dominic placed his halo on his head, then his eyes glowed bright yellow for a second. "Woah, I feel different. Powerful! What did you do Soph?" said Dominic, looking at her "I just hacked your halo and gave you the locked functions that archangels have. Your halo has basically been jailbroken". They went downstairs to tell the others that they were finished, but came to see that they were all gone. They then heard discussion coming from Karen's study, and made their way there. Dominic looked in, and saw that they were surrounding Karen's computer. "What are you guys doing?" he asked, and Baby replied "You idiot. Israel is seven thousand miles away. We can't fly that far, and even if we could, it would take 5 full days of just flying. We can't do that. So we decided to go by plane instead. That only takes 12 hours. And from Israel we can use our wings to fly the rest of the way to the... where did Faye say we should go again?" "We're going to a town called al-Eizariya, in the Palestinian Territories. Back in biblical times, it was called Bethany".

"Okay well, that's five tickets you want to book, right?" asked Karen, and Dominic replied "Five of us, and one pet" "Y'all have a pet?" "Well she's not actually our pet. She's my dove. She carried me wherever I wanted to go in heaven, as we didn't have wings. She's also my companion and friend. We need to take her back to heaven with us, she isn't meant to live on earth" "Alright then. I'll make sure to book her in too" "Thanks, we appreciate this so much. May the Lord bless you for all your help" "Amen" "Okay team, let's go get our wings". Dominic lead Ade, Baby, Emilia and Sophie up to Sophie's room, where the completed wing design lay on the floor before them. "Do y'all have your orbs? asked Sophie, and Dominic, Baby and Emilia rushed out of her room to get them. The trio quickly returned, having retrieved their orbs from their backpacks. "Orbs, scan" said Dominic, and all four orbs shot out a red laser grid, scanning the wings. Once the wings had been scanned by all four angels, a holographic display appeared. "Oh yeah, that's a little addition I made" said Ade "You can choose what your wings are like. You can either have them look like robotic wings, the way it was designed, or you can use the texture pack I created, with Sophie's help, and make them look like real angel wings". "Wait, are the wings gonna be white?" asked Baby, Ade replied "No, they'll replicate your hair. Including your lilac section, Em".

Baby, Emilia and Dominic all selected the second option, but Ade closed the display. "Dominic, are there any blessings to change appearance? I don't really remember all the blessing clearly" he asked, and Dominic replied "There's a spell to change colour, will that work?" "Yeah, that's perfect" "It's pronounced ay-ets-ebev med-esh. Just think of the object and the colour you want it to be". Ade, closed his eyes, then said "eyetsevb mhedsh". The four other teenagers looked on in astonishment as Ade's hair turned a deep navy blue. He then tapped his orb. "Let me show you guys the wings" said Ade, then he took off his jacket and school shirt. He turned around, to show the others his back. Between his shoulder blades, where angel wings usually grew from, was a small silver shape. It resembled a kite shape, but stuck out slightly, with a pyramid like point. "That's the wings. They will appear at a certain trigger word, which I set to be 'talaria'". And at that, navy blue wings sprouted from the silver shape. "Talaria" said Ade again, and the wings retracted in. He then tapped his orb again, putting his training kit back on, "Don't worry guys, the wings can materialise without damaging your clothes, provided it's an outfit made by your orb".

The three other angels then tapped their orbs, but before they could bring out their wings Sophie yelled "Wait! Don't all spread your wings in here. Things will get broken. Go into the back garden". The 5 of them walked to the back garden, and John and Karen followed them. "Are y'all gonna test your wings?" asked John, and Ade nodded. Ade spread his wings first, receiving a gasp from John and Karen. Baby said "Talaria", then a pair of light brown wings extended from her back. Emilia's were a darker brown, with lilac feathers on the edges. Dominic had jet black wings, which contrasted the classic white of angel wings directly. "Woah, you guys look so cool!" exclaimed Sophie, while Karen was speechless. "Sophie, come here" said Ade, and she walked over to him. He handed her his orb then tapped the top. Sophie felt something on her back, then moved her hand over her shoulder to try and feel it. Her hand brushed against a hard point, and she looked back at Ade excitedly, "No way! You did not- Talaria!". A pair of blue wings shot out from her back, ripping her school shirt off. Sophie froze on the spot, as she realised she was now standing there with nothing but a bra on the top half of her body. Emilia tapped her orb twice, dressing both of them in her training kit. "Thanks, Emilia" she said, her face turning red. "So John, when's the flight?" asked Dominic, and John replied "Tonight, at 10pm".

"So I guess no school tomorrow, yay" said Baby, but no-one laughed. The joy and excitement from the wings had been short-lived, everyone now dwelling on the possible consequences of their mission. Sophie had been enthralled by the idea of being an angel, but was now facing the chance of dying before she had a chance. Dominic, Baby and Emilia had always subconsciously known the risks of being angels, but they had never had to face the reality. Ade, however, while understanding the idea behind death, had no realistic concept of it. Whilst the others worried and contemplated over the mission's risks, he simply viewed it as a time to prepare further. Being as young as he was, his brain was much more active than the others, still in a state of flux and development. Ade was aware of this, and decided to use it to his advantage. He concentrated, and began to go around his body, tensing all his muscles. As he reached his back muscles, he suddenly heard a noise. He identified this as the movement of his wings, and focused on it. He stood on the spot, eyes closed, mind relaxed, body relaxed, and slowly raised his wings. He then moved his wings downwards, then upwards again. He continued doing this over and over, gradually increasing the speed and force at which he moved them. He remembered some information from the time Dominic had gone bird watching with Tasmin, when she had explained how they flew. As he moved the wings, he also flexed them and used the wings' slight curve to focus the air movements to a concentrated area below the wings. And, slowly but surely, he left the ground.