"Hey! How are y'all doing today?" The officer asked in a polite tone. The front wasn't enough to fool anyone in the van as they all remained silent as he waited for a response.
"Alright then. Anyways, the radar in my vehicle didn't pick up a vehicular tracker in this here van, do you happen to have one?" The officer pointed at the dashboard where a government mandated vehicular tracker would usually be placed when bought.
"No." Alex stated with a cold demeanor.
"I'm sorry, they must have forgotten to install it when we bought the car. We'll go to the dealership as soon as possible. Sorry for the inconvenience!" Bloom continued. "Now, we'll just be on our wa-" She was interrupted by the officer.
"It seems that some of the citizens in this van are exhibiting some suspicious behavior. I'll have to bring one of you in for questioning." The officer put one finger up to signify one as the van went silent.
"Just one of you. It won't take that long. Just a couple of questions and you'll be on your way." The officer scanned the back of the van to see if any one of the kids were willing to come with him.
Hendrix almost raises his hand to take away the burden from his friends. His hand is caught by Vida, who gives a quiet "Don't. Please.".
"I'll just pick at random, then. You. You can come with me." The officer opened the van door and reached for Vida as he began to read Vida her rights.
"Under this great nation's law…" The officer continued as he tugged Vida out of her seat.
"Ow. Stop." Vida tried to tug back.
As the officer began to tug even more violently, Vida began to scream in pain.
Out of nowhere, what seemed to be guitar strings rose out of Hendrix's sleeves, not only pulling the officer's hand back but also breaking all of his fingers on one hand.
"Shit." The officer yelled in pain as he jumped back to a safe distance. He put his wrist up to his mouth.
"Target has become violent. Back up at my location requested." The officer said as he took his service weapon out of his utility belt.
"Are you alright?" Hendrix put his hands on Vida's shoulders as she nodded.
"Kids, stay in the van." Alex said as she nodded towards Bloom. They both got out of the car as the officer began to shoot at the couple.
Alex quickly put her arms in front of her face. Her arms emitted a glow similar to when the kids were training. The bullets began to ricochet off of her arms, causing her no damage whatsoever.
The officer began to panic as he, once again, spoke into his wrist watch.
"Need backup. I am not equipped to deal with users." The officer said as he switched from his gun to his taser.
Before he could shoot, Bloom used her super speed to get behind the officer, quickly subduing him into an unconscious state by choking him from behind.
"Kids, are you guys okay?" Bloom ran back to the van to check if anyone was hurt. The teens all nodded.
"Bloom, what should we do with this guy?" Alex dragged the unconscious man by the shirt.
"I think we shou-" Bloom and Alex turned towards a correctional forces car driving up to them with its sirens blaring.
Bloom and Alex thought back to the fact that the officer called for back up, specifically because of the fact that he couldn't handle Spirit users. They started to panic inside as the correctional forces car swerved to a stop.
Three officers got out of the car. One of them looked familiar to Vida.
"Is that-?" Vida mumbled to herself.
"It can't be." Amora's voice began to grow weak from fear.
"It's him." Akilah confirmed the others' fears.
Officer 1060 came out of the car with two deputies on his tail.
"You better not fuck it up like my subordinates before you." Officer 1060 said to the two deputies behind him as they both nodded in acknowledgement.
Hendrix got out of the van, instinctually confronting officer 1060 in front of the van.
"Hendrix come back! Stop!" Vida tried to follow him but was brought back by Akilah.
"Don't get yourself in danger too." Akilah said, trying to calm Vida.
"Let's hope Hendrix knows what he's doing." Amora said as she looked on from the window.
"You motherfucker." Hendrix pointed at the officer.
"Seems like you got a pretty price on your head, boy. I'll bring you in with all your limbs if you turn yourself in right now." Officer 1060 materialized two daggers from his wrists as he grinned at Hendrix.
"I'm gonna kill you for what you did to Mr. and Mrs. Frewin." Hendrix said.
"You killed my sister, didn't you?" Alex's expression went blank.
"Honey, calm down." Bloom grabbed Alex, who quickly escaped her grasp.
Alex ran past Hendrix and towards Officer 1060 with her fist up and ready to pummel him.
Officer 1060 started running towards her with one of his daggers towards her too. Alex grabbed the hand holding the dagger, only for Officer 1060 to reveal it was a diversion by dropping the dagger into his other hand and stabbing her in the front of the shoulder. Alex screamed in pain as she loosened her grip.
"My business isn't with you, lady." Officer 1060 said as he continued his way towards Hendrix, who was looking down at his hands, holding them in front of his face.
"C'mon, body. Do it again." Hendrix began to shake his hands, trying to replicate what he had just done
"Alex!" Bloom ran over to Alex to make sure she wasn't fatally wounded.
"I'm okay." Alex said as she got up. "Make sure the kids are okay"
"Shit. The kids." Bloom had been so caught up with Alex that she ran past Officer 1060, who was now rapidly approaching Hendrix.
"I heard you were a problem last time. Let's see what you got." Officer 1060 pointed his dagger at Hendrix, who was preoccupied at the moment.
Bloom, using her super speed, snuck up on the officer, surprising him with a blow to the side.
Quickly, Bloom would start making rounds around the officer, trying to hit him wherever he wasn't expecting. Surprisingly, not one of these blows hit, as the officer predicted each hit, moving out of the way in the nick of time.
The officer's eyes followed the blur left behind by Bloom. Out of nowhere, 1060 put his hand out, grabbing Bloom by the head and stopping her in her tracks. He then slammed her head into the asphalt, rendering her unconscious.
"Bloom! Ahh." Alex tried to get up but winced in pain.
"You're mode is speed but you're that slow? Fucking pitiful." 1060 deliberately stepped over the unconscious Bloom and continued to make his way towards Hendrix.
Bloom's head began to bleed from the impact.
"Bloom!" Kai began to tear up as he watched. The kids were frozen in fear yet grew their anger grew.
Hendrix patted his body for anything he could use as a weapon since it seemed that his body wouldn't cooperate with him. His hand instinctively grabbed the neck of his guitar, bringing it from his back to in front of him.
Hendrix held it like a sword, not entirely knowing what he would do with it.
Officer 1060 started to chuckle.
"Whatever it takes, you're not going to hurt them." Hendrix ran towards the officer as he slammed his guitar into 1060's dagger. Unsurprisingly, the guitar broke against the materialized daggers that the officer wielded. Hendrix was able to get a kick into 1060's abdomen as the debris from the guitar distracted him. Hendrix's kick pushed the officer back to a safe distance as Hendrix surveyed the damage of his guitar. His eyes began to water.
"Be smarter next time, kid. Spirit's vibrations break anything without Spirit into pieces." The Officer flipped his dagger around in his hand as he materialized another in the opposite hand.
The other six kids looked on from inside the van, feeling powerless in a fight against trained Spirit users.
All of a sudden, Akilah began to put Hendrix's actions together like a puzzle.
"There's no way he thought that far in advance." Akilah put a hand on her forehead in amazement as she mumbled to herself.
"What is he doing? Tell me." Vida asked in desperation in hopes that there was a way she could help Hendrix.
"He broke his guitar so that he could feel anger. He's only been able to use his powers when something angered him." Akilah spoke as the crowd in the van looked in surprise at what happened next.
All that was left of Hendrix's guitar was the neck and the strings attached to it. At the end of the neck, the strings' ends dangled from the broken wood.
Hendrix's two handed grip on the neck tightened as the strings began to grow in length. At once, they came to life, lashing about violently. Hendrix seemed as though he was trying to keep these strings under control, like wild predators disobeying their master.
Hendrix let out a guttural scream as the strings continued to thrash.
Through all of the mayhem, the two supporting deputies snuck behind the main fight and were now hiding in the blind spot of the van.
Akilah seemed to suddenly be aware of their presence, like she had some sort of sixth sense. It was the same feeling she had when she was eavesdropping on the officer's conversation in the mall.
"There's two officers that are about to jump us. Hide." Akilah said as she moved from the window where they were watching the fight.
"How do you know tha-" Chase's question was interrupted by a voice coming from the open passenger door.
"Sorry I have to do this, kids." The deputy pulled the trigger of his gun twice in the direction of Chase and Amora. Instinctively, Chase grabbed Amora and covered her with his body. Chase braced for impact.
In an even shorter instant, Taro jumped in front of both of them and put his arms in front of his face, trying to replicate Alex's move. It was somewhat of a success as the bullets did ricochet off his arms, but still broke his skin.
"Taro, you good?" Chase became confused as to why Taro would do this.
"If my brother cares about you idiots, then so do I." Taro let out a little smile as threw a punch at the deputy.
The deputy put his arms up to block it, but was still thrown back into the middle of the street.
"I didn't expect a strength Mode from a kid." The deputy said as he got up and off of his back. "2010, take care of him, there's no way the others are as strong as him." the deputy pointed to his partner.
"Copy, 2009." 2010 responded to her companion.
"Kai." Taro turned to his brother.
"Got it." Kai said, as if he read his brother's mind.
Kai ran up to 2009, who was still on the ground, and threw a punch, but 2009 was ready this time. Kai's fist was caught as the deputy flipped Kai onto his back.
"We may not have Modes yet, but our Spirit is trained enough for Spirit-induced martial arts." 2009 spoke as Kai broke free from his grasp and threw a punch at 2009 chest which was blocked again.
As Kai got back to his feet, the exchanging of fists continued. Kai's raw speed was null to the deputy's precise, thought-out movements, and vice versa.
The other deputy, 2010, rolled up his sleeves as she made her way towards Taro. Taro hopped out of the van as he made his way towards 2010 as well.
"You pigs ain't shit to a real Spirit user." Taro punched the ground, breaking the asphalt into pieces as he picked up the biggest piece to use as a weapon.
"People still call Correctional Officers that? That's so 2000's." 2010 said as she assumed a karate stance.
They charged at each other as Taro broke the asphalt over the fist of 2010. She then threw a kick from under her arms, hitting Taro in the side.
"Shit!" Taro exclaimed as he winced in pain.
"Try harder next ti-" 2010 dropped dead as a bullet went through her head.
Taro jumped back in surprise as he looked to his left to see Chase holding the gun from the unconscious correctional officer that stopped them in the first place.
Chase stared at his smoking hand as if it belonged to someone else. 'I—' he whispered, and the word died.
"Watching all those movies paid off." Chase chuckled nervously as he looked at the bleeding body.
Taro quickly went to help his brother on the other side of the street as Chase followed.
Kai and 2009 continued to exchange blows. Slowly, they both began finding openings in each other's defenses as they began to land their hits on each other. By the time Taro and Chase got over, both Kai and 2009 were battered and bruised.
Taro put one final blow to 2009, who was too weak to defend himself from an additional attacker. Once the deputy fell, Kai followed as he collapsed from a combination of exhaustion and injury, being caught by Chase.
"Kai! You ok?! Kai, talk to me, man." Chase picked Kai up and put him on his back. "Let's get him back to the van." Chase said as he and Taro made their way back to the van.
On their way across the road, they looked at Hendrix as a sound from his direction startled them.
"I'LL KILL YOU!" Hendrix screamed as the guitar strings charged wildly at Officer 1060.
The strings whipped free like iron snakes, a chorus of twangs that cut the air. They surged for 1060, coiling around his wrists, lashing across his chest as he jumped back. Hendrix screamed, palms white on the neck. The cords moved of their own will: hungry, brutal, and very nearly insane.
One of the strings hits the van, scaring the remaining teens in the van.
"Why would Hendrix do that?" Amora questioned after the van settled.
"He doesn't have control, does he?" Vida said in a shock to herself.
Vida looked on in horror as one of the shorter strings seemed to accidentally slice at Hendrix's side, opening up what looked to be a very serious wound as blood covered his left side.
Instinctually, Vida jumped out of the van and began to run towards Hendrix.
"Hendrix, stop! Don't push yoursel-." As Vida got close, one of the strings slammed into her side, causing her to fly into a building on the side of the street.