Outcasts

Chapter Nine

"Your mom came up with hover cars?!" Me and Ryan screetched at the same time.

Cassie covered her ears with her hands. "Yes, okay? Geez."

"How is that even possible?!" I asked.

"Well obviously she didn't do it alone," Cassie said. "She had others who helped her. But... While she was a teenager, she came up with the idea."

"Um, no offence," Ryan said, "but how old is your mom?"

"Ummm..." Cassie thought for a moment. "Sixty-five?"

"How old-" I started, but Cassie cut me off.

"She was sixteen when she came up with them."

Me and Ryan gaped.

"Ookay, you know what? We've wasted too much time. We need to find a hotel." Cassie turned around and studied the city. "Maybe we can ask some of the locals which ones they think are best."

Me and Ryan looked at eachother.

"Come on," Cassie said. She started walking. 

Me and Ryan started walking.

As soon as we got out in the open, we saw huge billboards. Busy streets. Flashing lights. Honking.

"Whoa," I said, "This is a big city."

Cassie nodded from in front of me. "It is the capitol, and hometown of the king, after all."

I kept walking, but something on the billboard caught my eye.

A picture of a very familliar forest. Burning.

I gasped. There was a female news reporter talking rapidly about a wildfire starting is western Querto only a couple hundred miles from here.

"Guys!" I gasped.

"What?" Ryan asked.

"Yeah?" Cassie replied.

"Look!" I pointed to the billboard.

The looked.

The captions under the screen said: "Three possibly dangerous teen mutants were believed to be housed here before the fire started. They seemed to have escaped right before the forest went up in flames. They..." The words filed off the screen.

Cassie squeaked.

"My guitar..." Ryan said.

A tear pricked my eye.

"Mutants?!" Cassie said.

"Don't ask me," I said, pushing my emotion back. I just moved there. I couldn't even think what Cassie and Ryan were going through.

Pictures of us flicked across the screen. Mine right before I ran away, and it looked like Cassie's and Ryan's had been off someone's phone while we were heading toward the hospital in Beiga.

"Great," Ryan said.

Cassie grunted. "Now everyone's looking for us."

"Let's go," I said, pulling them behind me. I dragged them up to the nearest hotel and pulled them inside. I swiped Cassie's arm under the scanner and hastily thanked the employee at the front desk before dragging them into the elevator.

"What are you doing?" Cassie asked me.

"We just need somewhere safe to sleep. Just tonight. Then, we're going after Kile."