There were probably half a dozen members of the League present, but most of them were down – including Luna, who was on her hands and knees, and shaking her noggin in a way that suggested she was trying to clear her head. The only League member still on his feet was Feral – an imposing, eight-foot mass of fur-covered muscle who was probably exceeded only by my father in terms of brute strength.
We were still getting our bearings when Feral leaped at Mouse. The latter, seemingly expecting this, nimbly dove away just in the nick of time. Feral slammed into the helicopter, and the two went tumbling away in a twisted mash-up of man and machine.
Off to the side, Mouse rolled and came up on his feet. I quickly debated trying to teleport him and rejected the notion, recalling that it hadn’t work previously. Before I could consider anything else, a brilliant, blinding flash of light burst from the place Mouse was standing.
Instinctively closing my eyes, I groaned slightly in pain at the hurtful light, and I heard Smokey and Electra doing the same. I shut down the requisite pain receptors and opened my eyes, but couldn’t see anything. Suddenly feeling vulnerable, I quickly cycled my vision through the light spectrum until I could finally see again in a manner approximating normal.
Glancing around, I saw that everyone else still seemed to be rubbing their eyes or otherwise trying to shake off the effects of the light-burst. Looking to where I’d last seen Mouse, I noticed that he was gone. There was, however, what appeared to be an exhaust trail leading up through the dome and out into the open air. Without hesitation, I flew up into the air, following it.
As I cleared the open dome, I telescoped my vision and immediately saw that the exhaust trail was coming from what appeared to be rockets in Mouse’s boots. Turning on the afterburners, I swiftly began closing the distance.
Whether he did so out of caution or because he somehow sensed my presence, Mouse unexpectedly glanced in my direction. A moment later, he was pointing his fist towards me, and I saw that he had once again donned the brace I’d seen in the video.
Something like a pulse of electrical energy suddenly shot out of the brace in my direction. Unbothered, I phased, preparing to let the energy pass harmlessly through my insubstantial form. Unfortunately, nothing like that happened.
Instead of the pulse passing through me without effect, it hit me like a sledgehammer to the chest. All of the air in my body was suddenly, forcefully, and violently expelled, like someone had squeezed it out with a vise. I suddenly found myself not only gasping for breath, but falling; the shock of the blow had been so powerful that my body had seemingly shut down my flying ability in response.
I put all my energy into clamping down on my pain receptors, which thankfully only took a second. I then focused on stopping my free fall and came to a halt in midair a moment later. Next, I focused on expanding and contracting my lungs with my shapeshifting ability, thereby forcing the intake of air. At the same time, I scanned the sky for Mouse, but the exhaust trail abruptly came to an end high above me, as if the rockets had simply shut off in mid-flight. Mouse was gone.
Chapter 44
Smokey, Electra, and I spent roughly the next hour in the infirmary getting treated. Although I was given a clean bill of health almost immediately, my friends didn’t get a green light to leave until their sight came back and they both passed a vision test. While waiting for them, I devoted a lot of time to thinking about the most recent tussle with Mouse – specifically, the weapon he’d used on me.
Upon leaving the infirmary, we retreated to the Alpha League’s teen lounge. It was essentially a break room for members of the League’s teen affiliate, and as such it contained – among other things – a billiards table, video game consoles, and dart boards.
Of course, since it was a school day, there was no one else there. However, it brought to mind the question: why wasn’t Electra in school? Smokey and I were no longer attending formal classes, but Electra definitely was. (And I had been so focused on the situation with Mouse that I hadn’t even thought about the fact that she was missing class. If the absence of people in the teen lounge hadn’t shined a light on the issue, it probably would have escaped my notice completely.)
“I called in sick,” was her answer when I finally put the question to her. “Did it while you and Alpha Prime were inside at DTG.”
“I thought parents had to call in stuff like that,” I remarked.
“I’ll need to take a doctor’s note when I go back in order for it to be an excused absence,” Electra stated. “As long as they get that, the school administrators don’t really care about anything else.”
“Well, that shouldn’t be a problem,” Smokey interjected. “If temporary blindness isn’t an excused absence, I don’t know what is.”
I didn’t disagree with his conclusion, but I found the thought of Electra missing school troubling. The League already had two truants in the form of me and Smokey. We didn’t need any more – and I especially didn’t like the notion of Electra becoming one. The last thing I needed was her dad thinking I was a bad influence.
Thankfully, we didn’t dwell on the subject, as around that time Alpha Prime entered the lounge. We didn’t have to ask how he’d found us; each of us
