Stolen Powers

Chapter Twelve: The City of Angels

Los Angeles is a huge city. And I'm sure that you already know that by now, but you need to actually see the city to know what I'm actually talking about.

Once we got into the Riverside city limits, that was when traffic got stuffed.

"Here we go..." my mother mumbled.

I sighed nervously. "Where's the headquarters located?"

She was quiet for a couple of minutes before speaking up again. "I believe it's outside of Pasadena. It's just north of LA."

I nodded and slumped back in the seat. Bailey took my hand again and rubbed it with her thumb. The way she did it, I could tell that she was nervous as well. I tried my best to stay calm, but my heart was beating rapidly.

Donovan sensed the mood and leaned forward in his seat between the door and Jamie. "Let's just check out the headquarters first. I don't think we should barge in with only half of our energy available."

He had a point, and I was sure everyone could agree with that. I was tired from being in a car for eleven or so hours straight.

It got to a point where traffic got so bad that we came to a complete stop. I looked ahead and I saw an exit about a half mile up the road. The problem was that every lane was filled with cars. No one was even honking their horns at anybody. It's like they expected it to happen.

"I know what you're thinking, Mason." My mom said. "I'm taking that exit up there."

I nodded and didn't say anything. After a few minutes, we creeped up a little down the road, and I saw the exit sign move towards us a little.

I looked out of the window, and I saw thousands of cars moving west towards the ocean. I wanted to go with them, to see the ocean, but I knew better.

Family comes first, after all.

Fifteen slow minutes passed, and we were lucky that we stayed in the far right lane so that we didn't have to piss everyone off moving over. After another couple of minutes, we were able to squeeze through the exit off of the heavily packed interstate.

Riverside was located about an hour east of Pasadena. Yes, the LA metropolitan area was that big. I hoped that we could at least get to Pasadena to stay the night there and get my dad out before Lin even saw us. That would be a miracle if it was that easy, but one question kept coming to mind.

What if Donovan was right?

————————

"We need to fuel up soon," my mother said about thirty minutes of complete silence. I figured she said that because all of us knew how dangerous Los Angeles could be, but with our powers it shouldn't be that bad.

We weren't bulletproof though.

As we entered another city named Pomona, we could see LA over the horizon. It looked gloomy in the late afternoon hours, but I've seen worse, probably.

My mom pulled in at a gas station that had a few other cars there. Nothing seemed too out of the ordinary, just people minding their own business.

"Mason, can you come out with me? I don't really trust anyone here," my mom asked, and I quickly agreed.

"Of course."

I climbed out over Bailey and stretched my legs out before pulsing. The electricity sparked in my hands giving me a satisfying feeling.

My mom swiped the card and took out the nozzle and began to fuel up. I constantly looked around, seeing if anybody was checking us out.

I did see one person look over at us in a strange way, but he went to his car and drove off with heavy rap music blaring. I covered my ears and my mother grumbled at that.