Stolen Powers: Rise of the NGZ

Chapter Twenty-Two: The Heroes and the Villains

As we entered the east side of the city, I began to realize that this was definitely the poorer side of it. However, it was relatively nice compared to the other cities we've visited. There were a lot of people sitting on the sidewalks with dirtied faces that made me slightly uncomfortable, but I told myself to keep looking forward and follow Landon's lead. 

"It's not too much further, guys," he reassured. "I'd say we have about twenty minutes left until we get there." 

I could tell he was saying that mostly because of how uneased we were. It felt like we could get jumped at any given moment. But, I stayed calm and close behind Landon in case anything were to go wrong. 

"And there's a giant building in a place like this?" Donovan mumbled. "Makes no sense to me." 

"I mean, I guess it makes sense," I said. "Less people to interfere with their work and more space to do it." 

He pursed his lips. "Yeah, I guess you're right." 

I shrugged. "I guess." 

Sometime later, we arrived in the part of the city that seemed to be mostly for tourism and special attractions. There were a lot of open wooded areas and smaller buildings that held restaurants and other things like that. As I was looking at them, I wondered what it would be like to visit this place on a not-so-serious intention. It seemed like it would be a great getaway from the winter and experience warmer weather since it was still almost time for the holidays and it was still around seventy-five to eighty degrees. 

Landon suddenly stopped, almost making me run into the back of him. I frowned. "What's wrong? Do you see something?" 

"Yes," he answered. "NGZ soldiers seem to be nearby to the east of here." He pointed straight ahead. 

"Should we take a detour?" asked Quentin. 

Landon sighed in thought and resumed walking. "Maybe. I can see a road two blocks down that might be useful in case they get too close for comfort. If we can hurry, we might be able to make it." 

"Let's hope," I mumbled as we picked up the pace. 

A couple of minutes later, we arrived at the street that Landon was speaking of. It looked quite cramped, as the houses hardly had any yard room and many of them were trashed with a mix of garbage bags, ruined kids' toys, and even some clothes. A bad smell was also coming from down the street and made me cringe a bit. I glanced at Donovan, and I could tell that he was thinking the same thing. 

"This is disgusting," Jamie said with her nose dug in her shirt. "Couldn't we have picked another route?" 

"If we got any closer, it would've been too risky," Landon sighed, shaking his head. "Anything else wouldn't have done us any good. They head back in the other direction." 

It was a mix of awkwardness and nervousness the entire way down the street. All of us would occasionally glance back where we came as if we were expecting an ambush at any given moment. 

Well, except for me. 

I was more focused on getting there as quickly as we could. I didn't necessarily care about getting ambushed or not. I knew that we could take them down if we use our powers correctly and work harder as a team. However, there was one thing that still bothered me. When we got attacked in Viacha, we struggled to take the NGZ soldiers down. Yes, there were other distractions like the police force and the citizens in the cafe, but still, we could've managed that better than it went down. That's not even including the Falcons. 

Landon led us to another right turn and walked a few steps before stopping. "Let's rest here for a couple of minutes." 

I really didn't want to stop, but I figured that it was probably for the best in order to conserve our energy. I sat down on the pavement in front of Landon and beside Quentin and Donovan. A few seconds passed before Quentin cleared his throat.