Project Jamboree

Chapter Ten

The initiation turned out to be standing in a ring of fire.

"No abilities to win the fight," the kid in charge smirked, "Red fights alone. Green and blue together first."

They entered the pit. At the same time as a boy wearing a hood. They removed the hood.

He was a kid. A scared kid. That twitch with his neck as he looked around. He was a red.

I watched for a few minutes in shock as he tried to kill Ruby and Vida. After a while of that, right before he could engulf them in fire, I dove through the barricade of flaming tins and shoved Ruby and Vida out of the way.

The red's fire engulfed me, returning my warmth, yet otherwise not affecting me. Reds are immune to psi fire.

The normal fire from the barricade, however, was burning.

Pain was just a message. I ignored the message, taking his fire into my hand and swirling it around until it sat there, docile.

He looked at me in confusion, the crowd of watching blues screaming at me to kill him. I shook my head.

With the flick of the wrist, I had extinguished the barricade and all other sparks of flame around the floor. The fire healed the pain from all my bruises, which were also likely disappearing.

I welcomed the pain.

"Somebody kill her," the blue in charge ordered.

I raised fire around me, as if begging them to just try to kill me. I walked over to the red, who looked at me in confusion.

Looking down at him, I offered him a hand to help him up. A bang rang out.

"Roo!" Jude's voice screamed.

But it wasn't Ruby. It was the kid in charge. And the bullet had killed the red, hitting him in the lung. Only after that did I find out his name was Mason.

All the others had just called him Twitch, after the red twitch.

Before I could retaliate, Vida was in front of me, shaking her head. The fire around my fists turned violet, then extinguished.

My eyes darted around, the twitch again, and i locates Chubs leaving the building as Ruby revealed her orange psi powers by using them on the blue kid in charge.

I tapped Chubs on the shoulder. He turned around as if to attack, but then saw it was me and sighed, "Come to try to kill me again?"

I sighed, then tapped the muzzle.

He shook his head, "I tried when you were passed out. There's no easy way to get it off. I'm going to check on Liam."

I taped him again, using a variation of hand signals to generally get across the idea of In sorry for trying to kill you.

"And I'm sorry for bringing up-" he caught himself, "That thing nobody talks about. It was insensitive. Thanks for saving Ruby."

I nodded ever so slightly as we walked into the supposed 'medical' tent. Basically a room full of people too sick with hypothermia or pneumonia to help out, or even move.

Even in his sick state, Liam looked a lot like his older brother. The only difference was a scar on his cheek, and though I couldn't tell from where I stood, Cole seemed taller.

I sighed. I hoped he was safe back at HQ. I hoped Rob wouldn't kill him for the stunt Ruby pulled. I hoped Rob was dead in a gutter somewhere, but the world is not in the wish-granting business.

"Hey," Liam's barely conscious for said before drifting off again.

"He needs medicine," Chubs told me, "Otherwise he might not make it. We've planned a hit on an airport storage facility fifteen miles away."

I nodded.

Ruby and Vida walked in, along with Jude, who carried a jacket proudly, and another girl I didn't know.

"I'm Olivia," she quickly introduced herself. I shook her hand gently.

Vida stepped towards me, holding out her hand and closing her eyes. The muzzle snapped off my face. I rubbed my jaw tenderly as it fell to the floor.

"Made so only a blue could use it," Vida told me, "Genius."

Just looking at it was driving me mental. I reached down and melted it to a shapeless blob.

"Alright, everyone's ready to go on that supply run," Ruby told us, "Let's get going."

I patiently sat in the back of the truck that drove us to the airport. Jude would have killed the electric fence, but I shook my head. I needed to make myself useful.

The initial electricity didn't affect me as much as I thought it would, just a small zap before the fence melted away.

Sirens blared behind us.

"Everyone inside now!" Vida ordered.

We moved silently into the building. The only trouble we ran into was the locks, but I took care of them, melting them or simply burning the doors down.

The kids ran around the storage room frantically, looking at the food packets from all over the world.

The government hordes it all for themselves. He kept this all for himself. I stopped myself from thinking about him before I could explode in an inferno.

"I got the medicine!" Ruby shouted. And then she screamed. Someone drove a knife into her back.

"Roo!" Jude screamed.

Vida held him back as I ran over and incinerated whoever had stabbed her, entirely neglecting to notice who it was.

Helicopter blades sounded above.

"Everybody get out!" Ruby shouted, "I'll meet you back at the blue camp! Go!"

I looked between her and Vida with Jude. I sighed, taking the medicine from her hands and running after the others.

It should've taken ten minutes to get back, but Vida kept going around corner after corner, road after road, just in case someone saw us escaping.

When we finally did get back, I took the medicine straight to the tent, where Chubs administered it.

I let out a deep breath of relief as Cole's lookalike little brother woke up.

Vida arrived in the tent," Olivia's gonna run this camp from here on. We need to go find Ruby."

I grabbed a few supplies and stuffed them in an old backpack I found, then ushered Vida, Jude, and Chubs into a car I'd just stolen.

Knowing that Vida and Chubs couldn't sit together without killing each other, I made sure Vida sat in the passenger seat, me driving. Ruby would get to sit with Jude, unconscious Liam, and Chubs in the back if we found her.

If.

When.

When we found her.

Vida used her blue powers to stop the car for me. There was a crashed car at the side of the road. The man in the front was crushed by a the steering wheel due to the crash. It was- Rob.