Convergence - The Last Science #2.2 - Heroes and Villains

B2: Chapter 35 - The Court of Public Opinion - II

  Hailey cruised over London, shielding her eyes from the sunset while stream of pings bounced through her phone. Her other hand clutched a handful of gemstones—a variety pack, with all the colors of the rainbow that she could pick up from the Laushire estate. Thomas and Mary had let her take everything they had, down to their favorite jewelry. Really nice people, at the end of the day... Kendra was never that nice a teacher. A good teacher, but man, she was strict. I had to get so much help from Jessic—

  She dropped a few feet in midair as her eyes clouded over. Hailey shook her head, hair flying wildly in the rushing wind as she straightened herself out with a few hard flaps of her wings. She wouldn't let anything hold her back. She wouldn't stop until he was brought to justice.

  Her phone pinged again. Hailey glanced down—and there it was, finally. Not another message from Josh, Nikki, Rupert, Weston, or any of the other innumerable friends desperately trying to get in touch with her. It was from Lani, and it had an address attached, with coordinates—an estate outside London. Lani had included a note, presumably from Rook, that the place was likely heavily guarded and well-armed.

  Yeah, but can they beat magic?

  Hailey clipped her phone back on her belt and shifted her wings, tilting around to the north. A tip forward and she shot into a steady dive, gaining speed fast as she glided above the streets of London. Sirens pursued her—a small cavalry of flashing blue lights trailing her from below. I don't want them to get hurt...

  She climbed back up into the sky with a hard bank to the left, flapping hard to gain enough altitude to dip into the low cloud layer. A shield of swirling wind in front of her caught most of the water before it struck her, but she still felt a mist on her face as she burst through the first few clouds. Still, as Hailey looked down again, the police seemed to have scattered in the entirely wrong direction.

  Hailey turned back to the north again, straight on target for Malton's estate, where she'd do... what, exactly? What am I gonna do when I get there? If he's got tons of armed guards, can I take that on? I can pull their guns, but... what if I get shot? Even Omega couldn't just block bullets...

  ...except he could.

  Hailey suddenly remembered a conversation between Josh and Nikki, from the funeral three days earlier. They'd been discussing defensive options for dealing with firearms, particularly from a range where telekinesis and other similar spells were of no use. Magnetics could be used to pull bullets off course, but Hailey couldn't that due to her diffinity for Nature magic. She couldn't hope to melt the bullets in mid-air either—with some math and the internet, Josh landed the required temperature well above the surface of the sun for the period of time between a bullet firing and hitting its target.

  She was stuck with two options: either try to push the bullets aside with the strongest wind she could muster, or make herself so solid, so dense that she could just brush away the impacts like nothing, just like Omega's golems and—presumably—himself.

  Hailey went for both.

  She couldn't make herself invisible, and there wasn't really a way to sneak into the place anyway, so she didn't bother trying. She needed Malton, and he was right there. His mansion had wide, tall windows—exactly the sort of modern, fully exposed aesthetic she might have expected from a high-power CEO with absurd piles of cash available to him. Malton stood in the wide living room that overlooked the rolling hills out to the north, a phone to his ear. He was no doubt hearing about Rook's betrayal already. Hailey didn't have a second to waste.