The Demon League

Chapter 5

As we were about to reach the edge of the gym, the intercom came on. We all stopped waiting for the announcement, and a scared, shaking voice uttered the scariest words I might have heard all day.

"Staff and students, we are currently under a hard lock down, I repeat, a hard lock down. This is not a drill. There is an active shooter in the building."

I saw the waves of panic coming over everyone's face. Our gym teachers were throwing us into "the cages" aka where we stored all of the sports equipment. Kids were running to get in. Instead of moving, I stood still. So did Adrienne.

"Ryan. You could stop this." She said, looking me in the eyes.

I had shown her brief glimpses of my powers before, so she knew some of what I was capable of, and she was right. I could stop this. But should I? I caught sight of Hannah and Liz, and sprinted towards them.

"You're not going to be safe in there." I said, grabbing Hannah's shoulder

"What do you mean??" She asked, as if I was out of my mind.

She was probably right to think that. I could see the pure terror written all over her face. I used my telepathic skills to search through the minds of the school, sifting through at lightning speed. I latched onto the shooters, three of them, who were all in different spots of the building. I implanted the thought for them to come into the gym, implanted the thought that the most kids would be there, that they were being smart. I felt them coming closer, agreeing with the implanted thoughts. They really must be stupid. I could see the gym teachers violently motioning for us to enter the cages with the rest of the students, who were starting to slowly stop trickling in. They were almost all safe. The shooters were getting closer. I waved off the gym teachers, a small smirk crossing my face.

"We'll be fine. I got this." I called out to them

Before they had the chance to look at me like I was a total idiot, I snapped my fingers and a dark purple half-sphere appeared around our little group. I saw the mixture of fear, curiosity and confusion cover Hannah and Liz's face. Adrienne just looked at me with confidence. She knew what was happening. She knew everything was going to be fine.

"It's a shield." I explained quickly "Don't leave it. You're safe in here. Nothing can get in. Even me after I leave it. I'm going to stop them. I implanted thoughts inside their head to make them come down here to me. Don't worry, I'm going to make sure everyone here makes it out alive."

I felt the electricity rippling through my body, and it was. The shooters were extremely close. Just outside the door, so I gave one last look over the shoulder at the people I was trying so hard to protect and exited the safety of my shield.

The the three men, maybe boys, stood in a line just inside the doors. They were confused and maybe knew that they had somehow been set up. I sent more thoughts into their heads.

So why do you think that you can come into this school and kill a bunch of kids? I don't think that's very nice, do you?

I saw the panic wash over their faces as I started approaching them. All the students were safe inside the cages, and the doors were shut tight. Good. I didn't want any stray bullets getting in there.

"Do you understand what I'm saying?" I asked

They connected my voice to the one that had pierced through into their skulls. They were terrified. They held their guns at the ready, prepared to shoot holes through me like Swiss cheese if I got too close. At least, that's what they thought would happen. I held my right hand out to my side, and let electricity swirl into a bright blue, crackling orb. I held it in my fingertips, feeling the power of it contained in my grip. When the ball got big enough they started to fire, and with my left arm I cast up another shield, this time lighter purple and the matter swirled faster than the other shield behind me. Bullets bounced off it, some embedding themselves into the lacquered wood floor, and others flying back at the enemy. All the while I continued to walk forward, my pace slow, but confident. I knew I was being cocky, but it was working. I could see the fear on their faces. I could see the sweat dripping down their faces. When I was close enough to touch the barrels of their guns I stopped, standing still. I watched them continue to shoot and reload and shoot again. And then, they realized their mistake. One of the bullets had shot back and hit one of them in the leg, causing him to cry out in pain. He was bleeding, but still continued to shoot at me. The other two didn't bat an eye at his misfortune. They continued shooting, hoping that they'd save their asses in the end. Eventually I got sick of them, and touched one of the guns with the ball of lightning. The electricity spread between the two, giving them serious burns and making them fall back and drop their guns. With great speed, I took up the guns and dismantled them, making sure that they couldn't fire off any more rounds. Then I dropped the shields.

When the men stood back up, they were dazed and confused by what happened. They saw me, standing before them, unwavering and unafraid. They saw their only weapons kicked across the shiny gym floor, way far out of reach and torn apart. Useless. They were scared.

The leader of their group was the first to stand, and his right hand man followed soon after. Was he going to fight me in hand to hand combat? I wanted to see him try. Like my dad I did tons of research with topics I was interested in, and martial arts was one of them. I was inspired by shows I watched when I was little. Mostly Avatar the last Airbender, which combined many martial arts to form the bending styles of the show, as well as Naruto, just because I thought it would be really cool to be a ninja. I spent what would equivalent to many human years studying many hundreds of martial arts, and I knew that nobody could beat me in hand to hand combat. Not even in groups. With the way the guy was built though, I could tell he knew a little bit of something. He decided to strike first.

He threw a few punches and kicks, Tae Kwon Do style. Very common. I was quick to dodge and block them, then follow up with my own Tae Kwon Do. He blocked the first two punches, but couldn't catch the hard roundhouse kick to the side of the head. As I brought my leg down, his buddy started coming up from the side, and I was forced to roll out of the way, taking up a defensive stance. While the leader recovered from the shock of being hit, the right hand man lunged in. He was more of a street fighting guy. A hard hitter, rather than an agile and effective jabber. He was easy to dodge and counter. It only took a quick jab to the side to send him down. He was going to be staying down too, I had a feeling. The leader was back up again, and he wasn't going to hold back. His jaw was red where my shoe connected, and you could see the stitches from the top of my Nike's imprinted on his cheek. He was angry. He swung hard again, this time grazing me. I was getting to cocky now. With three quick punches I was back in my game again. I was on top now. I had got his eye, and he staggered back in pain. I saw the door to the cages open ever so slightly to see the commotion, and I heard that the police were at the school now. Took them long enough.

I decided it was time to break out my secret weapon. I let my body relax as it started to transform before everyone. My hands grew into large paws, with razor sharp claws protruding from the tips of my "fingers". My muscles doubled, maybe tripled in size, tearing through my shirt. I grew taller, my hair growing long and shaggy like a mane, and a lion's tail protruding behind me. If they weren't scared already, they were about to shit their pants. The leader scooted back across the floor as I got closer, and for a moment I felt like I was playing cat and mouse. I pounced on him, picking him up by the shirt, and holding him up high above the ground, then walked over to his right hand man, and put my heavy foot down on his chest.

"Hold still." I growled "You don't want to make any more of a mess."

The other guy was watching, his leg bleeding all over the gym floor. I shot him a glare, but I knew that he knew better. He had to be the youngest of the group, and obviously the most timid and removed from the other two's motives. While I waited for the police, I let my form return to normal and scanned their minds for the reasons behind their attack. Why now? Why here? Why were these three random guys compelled to do something like this? They were given these thoughts by demons. Demons who thought it would be funny to send humans out after kids I was close with. The demons were ones I knew. Younger ones, ones that were new to the elite squad. One's I'd trained with.

The police came and I numbly handed over the three men. They were taken into custody, and I was left to stand there. I robo call had gone out to all the parents. We were to evacuate the building. Kids were going to be kept home for a week. We had a close call. As the men were dragged out of the room, I ran to my little group. Adrienne high fived me, telling me she knew I could do it, but Hannah and Liz stood off to the side, wary of me. I knew that was going to happen... I wanted to explain to them what had happened so they wouldn't worry, but as soon as I opened my mouth to speak I was met with the police, who demanded statements and ushered us outside the gym. I reached back to Hannah, trying to tell them to wait, but we were ushered in all different directions, and she was gone.