James' P.O.V.
"What the hell are you doing? You know this wasn't part of the mission. Besides, it's over. Sam was never a threat, and you bloody knew that!" Noah yelled at Max.
Max grinned as he floated above the campus. Outside the front door, students crowded together. As newscasters claimed their stories, Mark made his grand escape in the background, disappearing in the large crowd gathering in front of the high school.
"I don't fucking care about the mission anymore, Noah. Dad and I have much bigger plans," Max acknowledged.
"He's not our father, Max," Noah snapped. Max laughed again, this time swooping higher in the air.
"He's a much better father than Sam. Was it dad who took us away from that bloody hell hole government laboratory and raised us?" Max looked at me, his eyes glowing crimson under the morning sun.
"No, Sam was too busy tending to his nephew, James, and his new superpowers even to care. Alexander has a plan. A plan to create a whole new generation of supers. An army, if I must. Dad wants to help better society. Strengthen them and make them more powerful. That's something Sam cannot do." My father still struggled in the air. Sam and Derek pulled up with their cars, rushing to Noah and me.
"You're wrong. Sam is a good father and would do anything to make society great." Noah yelled. Max didn't care. He had his own opinions of Sam.
"Do you think Sam would spare you after everything you've done, mate?" Max smirked, gesturing to Sam. "Hey, Dad. Nice to see you."
Sam was furious, watching his malicious son turn into a monstrous villain. "You psychopathic son of a bitch. Let my brother go," Sam screamed.
"You want to go there, dad? I'll let him go right now." Max let my father slip out of his telekinetic grip. My dad fell fast to the ground. Noah tried to act, but Sam lifted off the foot and swooped to catch his brother without warning. Sam never ceased to amaze me. The son of a bitch had superpowers all this time.
"Son of a bloody bitch, dad. You fucked this family up, Sam, but I saw that one coming." Max muttered, flying higher.
"Fight me, Max." I stepped forward. "I know that's what you want. So come do it already." Max's grin grew.
"And the powerless hero has stepped forward. Un-bloody-believable." Max swooped down to the ground and dropped next to me. I puffed out my chest, trying to keep what little dignity I could.
"This will be easy, James. Power is something you don't have now. You're..." Max shoved me across the sky. I landed on the pavement across the schoolyard. "Weak."
Off to the side, Sam landed on the ground with my dad. Max lifted Derek in the air, squeezing him tight like a boa. He squirmed, but it was no use. I dragged myself across the floor. Every inch of my body ached from being tossed around, but I still fought to push myself up from the ground.
"Stop," my voice came out weak. I tried to reach out, but I was in too much pain.
Max was in front of me. "Superboy, huh? You seem like a worthless bastard to me." Max barked. Noah's fists balled, ready to pounce, but with little faith, he held back.
"Max, don't do this." I pleaded. I found the strength to push myself to my knees. Max gripped me in his powerful telekinesis, holding me locked in place under an invisible force. My brother still dangled in the air.
"This happens to pathetic freaks like you." His grip tightened, pinning Derek and me in place and forcing me to look up. Derek whimpered in pain while Sam tended to Matthew in the distance. Max leaned down in front of me now.
"Scared freak?" He spat in front of me. I concentrated hard, trying to muster the power from the inside. The crowd and my family watched with anticipation. Then I sprang to my feet in a short rage, thrusting my hands forward against Max's chest with great exasperation. My eyes glowed Amethyst, and the ground shook as Max flew backward into the wall behind him.
I gained my powers back amid pure chaos. Max peeled himself from the crushed wall and materialized near the door to the school. I healed like Superman without kryptonite and wiped superfluous blood from my face, smearing it across my dried lips.
Derek plummeted from the sky.
Down.
Down.
Down.
I caught him in my arms, put him off to the side, and pulled my fingers open and closed, grinning as the feeling of power surged through my body and back to my hands.
"Alright! Alpha got his powers back. Three supers against one." Derek counted Sam this time. "Go get 'em, tiger," Derek shouted. Max's dark red eyes were darker as he hovered in the air.
Grace appeared, not trying to hide her face, as she swooped in the air beside her brother, and Gray suddenly made sense. A new cropped hoodie and baggy sweats. She grinned, floating next to her brother, Max.
"You miscounted, lover boy." She cooed. Derek looked up at her, wide-eyed.
"Grace?" he whispered under his breath.
"Gray?" Noah whispered, too. Derek and Noah exchanged looks. Things were getting awkward.
"Game on," I shouted. Noah, Sam, and I rose into the air. Derek rushed over, tending to our father.
"It's three against two. I would stand down if I were you?" I gave a fair warning.
Max laughed. "That's cute." He made the first move, flying full force at me. We collided with one another with mighty power and tumbled from the sky to the dirt below, dust wafting around us.
Grace smiled with an eyebrow raised, looking at Sam and Noah. "Which one of you is down for a fight?" Grace covered her eyes, pointing her index finger between them, and landed on Noah. "You're Dead, Noah-Samuel-Kinley." She flew forward, crashing into Noah like a linebacker, and they hurled fast to the ground below. Sam floated downward to help Noah.
Off to the side, I battled Max. It was a swift fistfight, one right hook and sucker punch after another, and Max was winning now. He shoved me into the dirt, pinning me to the ground, grinning like an idiot as he held me in place. I struggled in his grip, still weak from losing my powers, but soon I grabbed Maximus's biceps and flipped him over, crushing the pavement beside him. Max was quick to roll over to his feet. So was I.
We stared at each other and, like two wrestlers, prepared to attack. We circled each other with cautious movements. In the background, Sam and Noah pinned Grace to the pavement nearby.
"I'm going to kill you, James-bloody-Everett-Knight." Max snapped me out of my thoughts.
"You think so? I would look behind you if I were you." I smirked.
"You son of a bitch," Max snapped, spitting more blood into the dirt, following orders, his eyes darting back at Grace, who struggled under Noah and Sam's strength. Then he backed away, wiping blood from his puffy lip like a coward. His eyes deepened with bruises. But both of us were an even mess.
"Would you like to take a rain check?" I teased. Max huffed, spitting blood from his mouth to the ground.
"I'll be back for you, Knight, and when I do, you better watch your fucking back." Max took one last glance at his sister before taking off. Sam and Noah released their grip on Grace, and she took off.
Derek helped our wobbly father weave over to Sam and Noah before gaining his balance. I followed. "Dad seems okay, but he needs a lot of rest. Maybe the hospital—"
"No hospital, Derek." My father interrupted. "It's not safe for any of us. We need to leave Phoenix right now. I never sold our old house in Los Angeles. We can move back tonight and pick up the rest of our stuff later."
"What do we do about Max and Grace?" I asked.
"We'll have to take chances. They won't follow us. But Noah's coming with us." Sam made a reasonable point. Noah was family, no matter what, and he proved his loyalty.
"Agreed. Noah makes a great addition and can help protect the family." My father accepted.
Noah grimaced. "Who knows what Alexander and Max are planning, but knowing both, it can't be anything good." We returned to the cars parked at the school's front, avoiding police presence, the camera crew, and people staring, pointing, and taking videos and pictures.
"Superpowers?" My father chuckled in disbelief. He patted me on the back as we walked to the car. "I would have never figured, bud."
My father and Derek declined to answer when Mr. Reignson requested to question us, including Noah, Sam, and me. That night, we packed up what we could and would return for the rest another time. We were off to Los Angeles, California that night, we were off to Los Angeles, California, hiding from the obvious. It was my last home when I was younger. We were starting fresh again, but my life was only beginning.
∆∆∆
Mark's P.O.V.
"What the hell are you doing?" Max grunted, tossing his leftover sandwich in the trash bin by the sink. I held James's blood bag to eye level. The kid was a god. My eyes widened as I licked my lips, and Mia busted through the hotel door holding two syringes in her hand.
"You're going to do this or not. You don't know what I went through to get these needles," Mia sighed, holding her hands in total disgust.
"I'm ready," I hissed, grabbing the syringes from Mia's fingertips. Max rolled his eyes and pulled himself up on the countertop as he watched the two of us.
As I pulled out the end of the syringe, blood poured out of the bag, and I placed one back into Mia's thin palm. I assume there's no need for a blood thinner.
My heartbeat rushed into my chest as I pressed the needle into my flesh. I shifted my gaze to Mia. The lights above glistened in her eyes.
"You ready," I muttered. Mia grimaced as she pushed the needle tighter against her porcelain skin.
Max eyed us from the kitchen, growling as we contemplated pushing in the needle. We were playing chicken. What if this didn't work, and we ended up dead instead? Max was far from the countertop anymore.
My eyes surveyed the room, but he seemed to have gone M.I.A. "Dude, where did you go?" I called into the open air. I spun around when I felt a fiery breath on my neck. Mia collapsed to the floor. Her forearm darkened, and bruises replaced her fair skin where the needle had penetrated deep into her veins. I took a deep breath.
"Where are you, Max," I growled. Max stood in the room's corner with his hood flung over his head, and he held out his hand, holding onto a dry syringe.
I looked back at Mia. Her peach-colored lips were a deep shade of blue, and her comatose eyes stared at the syringe hanging from her upper arm. My eyes traveled to my forearm as an ice-cold discomfort trickled down my fingertips.
I had little success in trying to stay conscious. My head swam as my body crashed to the floor. Another dark, amethyst pair of eyes stalked my blurry vision as my pulse slowed. My body stiffened in place as the man's eyes turned a shade of blue before me.
"Is the plan working?" the man asked.
Max's voice echoed in my head, "Yes." Before my eyelids fluttered shut and I lost consciousness with the world, I said one name: "Alexander Kinley."
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