Misplaced Magic (Book 8)

Chapter 5

"Bad things can happen, and often do, but they only take up a few pages of your story; and anyone can survive a few pages." ― James A. Owen

--xxxxxx--

They reached downtown whilst the clean up was getting underway. Christina parked the car and they got out, looking at the scene. Firetrucks and police were lined up on the street with areas taped off so that the public couldn't walk through. 'Everyone have a potion?' Christina asked.

'Yeah.' Amy said. She handed them out in the car.

'How do we want to do this?' Katherine asked. 'Split up?'

'Is that safe?' Lauren asked.

'It's only one human, granted he has uncontrollable magical powers.' Lisa thought.

'We'll cover more ground and we have more active powers to use.' Christina pointed out. 'Why don't I power up Lauren and she can take Amy and Lisa. Dani and Kath can come with me.'

'Sounds good.' Dani agreed. Lauren and Christina linked hands and Christina let her energy flow into her sister.

'Thanks.' Lauren said.

'If that runs out and you haven't found him, come and find us.' Christina warned.

'Got it boss.' Lauren saluted as she, Amy and Lisa made their way to the end of the street.

'I guess we're going this way then.' Katherine pointed to the shopping mall.

'What do you think his other power is?' Dani asked as they walked along the street.

'No idea.' Katherine said. 'But I hope it's something less frightening than the one he already has.' She looked to a car which was burnt out from the inside.

'If the powers are too different they may be creating conflict within him, especially active ones.' Christina added. 'Making him more aggressive.'

'That's a thing?' Dani asked.

'Yeah, like if I had my power and Lisa's death beam inside, they'd be fighting each other to become the more dominant power.'

'It's why our powers develop naturally. They grow with us, they don't just come out of the blue.' Katherine said.

'Huh, that's interesting.' Dani said. 'So how crazy do we think this guy is?'

'We have to remember that it's not his fault, not really.' Katherine said.

'I know, but he's still going to be aggressive so I want to know how much power I'm allowed to use.' Dani said.

'Just, don't do any damage that Amy can't heal.' Christina said.

'Got it.' Dani gave her a thumbs up as they continued walking down the street.

xxxxxx

Lauren, Amy and Lisa were walking down a side road. They had ventured away from the destruction because Amy had a feeling. 'What kind of feeling was this Aimes?' Lauren asked as they looked around. They were walking between two rows of shops down a narrow street. Everything was quiet.

'I don't know, it was just odd.' Amy confirmed.

'That doesn't really help us.' Lisa said.

'Did it feel evil?' Lauren prompted.

'No it felt confused.' Amy said.

'So it could be our guy then?' Lisa queried as she jumped down from a small curb.

'Could be.' Amy said. They turned at the end of the road and saw that it came to a dead end. A brick wall was blocking their way. A row of trash cans and a large trash bin were standing in front of it. There was a loud thumping noise coming from behind the larger waste disposal unit.

'What the hell was that?' Lisa asked as they all stopped and stared.

'Hello?' Lauren called out as she was getting an energy ball ready in her hand.

'If you need help, you can trust us.' Amy added. 'You don't need to be scared.' They took a few steps closer and suddenly a woman stumbled out from behind the metal bins. Amy let out a breath, Lauren dropped her energy, and Lisa just rolled her eyes.

'Aunt Steph.' Amy put her hands on her hips. 'What are you doing?'

'I'm trying to do the same thing you are.' Stephanie started to brush herself down. 'That was not the best place to hide.'

'Why were you hiding?' Lisa asked.

'Because I knew you wouldn't approve if you saw me.'

'I assume The Supremes have taken away all of your powers now then?' Lauren asked.

'Yes, they've taken them all.' Stephanie admitted. 'But I wanted to help fix my problem.'

'You're no help if you're human Aunt Steph. And we told you we'd take care of it.' Lisa reminded her.

'I know. Where are the others anyway?' Stephanie sighed.

'We split up to find this guy.' Lauren said. 'Amy can you feel anything from them?' Amy closed her eyes but opened them almost immediately. She looked at them with a worried expression.

'We need to go.' Amy said, she took off running and the others followed.

'Amy, what's happening?' Lauren asked as she caught up to her side.

'They're in trouble.' Amy said simply.

xxxxxx

Katherine rolled onto her side and looked back to the direction she was just thrown from. Her shield wasn't strong enough to withstand the uncontrolled blast from the young man. She coughed and tried to pull herself up but her ribs weren't allowing it. Katherine looked down and felt in her pocket for the potion vial. All she pulled out was some shards of glass. It had smashed on her landing. The next thing she knew, Dani was in front of her trying to send the man's yellow energy back towards him. She did so but only partly. Katherine saw a blast of yellow strike Dani in the stomach and she immediately crumpled in pain. He was so wild he wasn't worrying about how much power he was putting into his attacks. 'Dani!' Katherine winced and tried to crawl over. They saw a blast of Christina's blue energy hit something, it might of been him or it might have been a distraction. Whatever she did took his attention away from her sisters. Katherine reached Dani just in time for Dani to face her. She was holding her stomach, trying to stop the blood flowing from a deep burn.

'Kath...' Dani wheezed. 'Shit.'

'I know.' Katherine said. 'It's okay.' Katherine took of her own jacket and put it over Dani's wound.

'Have you.... seen Chris?' Dani asked.

'I don't know.' Katherine looked up but all she saw was an explosion. She lent over Dani and shield both of their heads, waiting for the debris to settle. 'Dani, where's your potion?' Katherine asked.

'I threw it at him, but I think I missed.' Dani admitted.

'And Chris doesn't have one.' Katherine remembered out loud.

'Shit.' Dani said again. Katherine nodded but she was more focused on stopping the bleeding coming from her youngest sister.