"Otto, how soon until the new pod is ready?" The shadow man asked in his regular deep disguised voice as he was growing most impatient.
"It should be ready in a week's time since it wasn't completely destroyed, and I can get started on it now that I'm finished with this." Otto replied.
"And what is that exactly?" the shadow man asked.
"An old project I've been tinkering with, I initially designed it as a protective covering for an arm, but I spent the entire day modifying it into a prosthetic arm that responds to my brain waves to replace my missing arm." Otto explained as he was putting on the cybernetic arm.
"Great, now that that's taken care of, I'll get to work on the pod immediately, don't worry sir." Otto reassured him.
"You better not disappoint me again." he said as he walked away from Otto.
ONE WEEK LATER
"Work, please work." Otto pleaded with the finished pod not wanting to incur his boss' wrath.
"Finally." He said in relief as he activated the pod and it seemed to be functioning perfectly.
"I take it the pod is fixed now?" the shadow man asked as the henchmen walked into the room with a guest.
"Yes sir, it's fully functional." Otto reported.
"Excellent, just in time; meet our new volunteer, Ray Ramirez." said the shadow man as he made the introduction.
"So you're not messing with me?, you can really give me powers?" Ray asked with skepticism.
"Of course, but just so we're clear, after I give you these abilities there's something you have to do for me." The shadow man reminded him.
"If you can give me powers then I'll do whatever you want." said Ray all excited.
"Then step into the pod." He instructed.
Ray went into the pod and as the door closed behind him, the oxygen levels started to decrease after Otto activated the pod.
"I…I can't breathe, I can't breathe!" said Ray gasping for air in fright.
"What's happening Otto?" asked the shadow man.
"Sorry Sir, I guess I forgot to make the pod breathable while I was rushing to finish it." Otto explained his blunder.
"Let...let me out." Ray begged as he began banging the glass.
"No, don't do that, the glass I used for this pod is very fragile." said Otto.
Desperate for air, Ray began kicking the glass until it cracked and created openings allowing air to pass through. However, the cracks in the glass caused a dangerous amount of oxygen to flow inside the pod because of the new pod's structure.
Ray began taking deep breaths but he was inhaling too much oxygen to the point where his lungs started to hurt.
"We need to get him out of there, these high levels of oxygen can kill him." Otto suggested.
"No, we can use this, administer the energy." said the shadow man, seeing a great opportunity.
Otto activated the injectors and they made their way in his body releasing the energy inside him as he was suffocating.
Otto opened the door after the procedure was over. Ray stepped outside holding his chest in pain.
"How do you feel?" asked Otto, noticing that he wasn't showing any signs of rejection.
"Besides the pain in my chest, I don't feel any different." Ray replied.
Ray then exhaled through his mouth and suddenly, a great gust of wind was released from his mouth, causing almost everything in the room to be swirling around in the air.
"Wow." Said Otto in awe.
"Did I just do that?" Ray questioned in disbelief.
"Yes you did, but remember, you still have something to do for me." said The shadow man.
"What is it?" asked Ray.
He began explaining to Ray what he wanted him to do.
"Do you understand?" he asked after he finished explaining.
"Yes." Ray replied before he left to carry out his wishes.
"Are you planning to capture the boy again?" asked Otto.
"Not necessarily, the energy we managed to take from him should be more than enough to complete our plan, right now I'm just sending him a message in case he decides to keep investigating." said the shadow man.
"Do you think that the boy will keep digging? You did threaten the people close to him." Otto asked.
"I think I gave him a lot of incentive not to, but this will ensure that he doesn't." said the shadow man.
MEANWHILE
Justin was on his way to school wearing a jacket since it was now December and the beginning of the Christmas season. While he was walking, he ran into Max.
"Oh, are you finished stalking the love of your life?" Max asked.
"I'm not stalking her, I'm just keeping an eye on her because of that ominous message that was on my bedroom wall last week, plus I've been keeping an eye on her dad, just because his daughter was threatened by the shadow man doesn't mean he's not the shadow man himself." Justin explained.
"True, he could just be bluffing and threatening his own daughter, could just be a means of throwing you off his trail." said Max.
"I'll continue to keep an eye on Amethyst and you guys for a while longer…and she's not the love of my life." said Justin.
"He's just now realizing that I said that?!" Max thought to himself.
"Sure thing kid." Max continued to tease.
Justin and Max walked through the school's main entrance and walked towards their lockers which were conveniently near each other.
"Hey guys." Chloe greeted as she walked up to them alongside Kade.
"Looks like that threat from last week was just an empty one." Chloe whispered.
"I hope it is," said Kade.
"It may or may not be, but we should still be cautious." Justin implored them.
"Hey guys, looks like we're going to have a white Christmas this year." said Amethyst who seemed to be in high spirits.
"You seem to be in a good mood." Chloe pointed out.
"How can I not be?!, It's the start of Christmas, It's snowing, and the winter dance that I've worked so hard to organize is only a few days away." said Amethyst as her joy and her enthusiasm became contagious.
"She's right, we should all be happy right now." said Chloe agreeing with her.
Their conversation was suddenly interrupted by the loud sounds of rattling windows due to a strong wind that just appeared out of nowhere that seemed to have grabbed everybody's attention.
"That's weird, it just got windy all of a sudden." Kade voiced .
Justin then became alert due to the bad feeling he got from the strange weather.
Suddenly, the windows near the school's main entrance shattered and fell to the ground; screams filled the hallway along with the sound of broken glass being trampled on. The doors flew open and Ray walked through them.
"Hey, you can't be here." said the security guard as he grabbed Ray's arm about to escort him out.
Ray turned to him, took a breath and blew him straight through a door.
"It's one of those freaks." one of the students shouted as the rest of them quickly turned around and ran towards the emergency exit screaming.
Justin then gave Max, Chloe and Kade a certain look indicating that they needed to get out of the school so that he could take care of this since he got the feeling that this guy was here for him.
"Okay, let's get out of here." said Justin as they followed the crowd of scared students to the emergency exit.
Justin then pulled the fire alarm alerting everyone else who were still in the building before slipping away looking for a place where he could change into his suit.
While all the students were running towards the emergency exit, Amethyst realized Justin was no longer behind her, with the crowd in front of them and not behind them, she realized that there was a reason why they would've got separated.
"Justin?, Justin." she called out as she started looking around for him.
"Where are you going?" Kade asked Max.
"There are security cameras all over the place which means Justin could be in big trouble if he uses his powers." Max replied as he was running in the opposite direction of the panicking crowd.
"You're right, I didn't think of that." said Kade.
"Go with him, I'll direct the incoming crowd away from where Justin is, it would be another problem if anybody saw anything." said Chloe.
"Ok, be back soon." said Kade as he chased after Max.
"Max, what're you doing?" asked Kade as he caught up to see him trying to get into the principal's office.
"I was trying to get inside so I could turn off the cameras but it's locked." Max explained.
"Hmmm, I have an idea." said Kade as Max followed him.
Kade took Max to the school's distribution panel.
"Yeah this could work, if the electricity goes out then the cameras should shut down too, let's hope they don't use batteries." said Max as he proceeded to tamper with the distribution panel shutting off the electricity.
"It's a good thing there are no cameras in this area." Kade pointed out.
Max and Kade made their way back to the exit and rejoined Chloe, and the rest of the students and faculty that evacuated.
"Hey guys, where's Amethyst?" Duncan asked, seeming worried.
"She's right here, what?, she must still be in the school." Chloe asked in surprise when she turned around and saw that she was gone.
"What's she doing?" asked Duncan as he ran back into the school.
"Wait!" said Max as he and others were also about to give chase.
"And where do you three think you're going?" one of their teachers stopped them.
"You're staying out here with the rest of the students." said the teacher as Amethyst and Duncan got away.
The three of them wondered how Justin was going to get out of this.
Justin found a secluded area in the school away from Ray, and he was about to change into his suit.
"There you are, what are you still doing here, you realize that the school is being attacked right?" Amethyst asked as she spotted Justin.
"Amethyst?You can't be here right now," Justin replied.
"I could tell you the same thing, come on, let's get out of here." said Amethyst as she grabbed him by the arm.
"There you are, you've just saved the trouble of hunting you down." Ray said to Justin as he spotted them as he turned the corner.
"Get behind me." said Justin as he stood in front of Amethyst.
"What does this guy want with you?" asked Amethyst.
"I don't know." said Justin even though he knew that whoever this stranger was, he was after him.
Ray took a deep breath and then blew, releasing a dangerous amount of wind. The windows shattered due to the strong wind pressure, it was like a hurricane inside the school. Amethyst started to run but Ray blew her down to the ground, knocking her unconscious. Justin ran to check on her and noticed that there were shards of glass piercing her skin as a result of falling on the glass covered floor.
Justin knocked Ray to the ground to buy himself time to quickly and carefully pick up Amethyst and carry her in his arms to safety when he ran into Duncan.
"What happened to her?" asked Duncan, noticing that was unconscious and bleeding with shards of glass sticking out of her.
"Never mind that now, you need to get out of the building fast; here, take her." said Justin as he gently placed her in Duncan's arms.
"What are you gonna do?" asked Duncan.
"Don't ask questions, just get her out of here and get her wounds taken care of,…GO!" Justin dismissed him.
As Duncan took Amethyst back the way he came, Justin ran off to change into the suit and mask and then went after Ray.
"There you are, I was starting to think that I wouldn't get to pay you back for that cheap shot earlier." said Ray.
"I really don't have time for this." said Justin, very annoyed at this point as he flew quickly towards Ray and grabbed him as he flew out of the school carrying Ray by his arm. Ray started squirming to try to break free of Justin's grip. He took a breath and blew Justin straight into the wall of a building and plummeted to the ground.
Ray suddenly found himself falling and quickly took another breath and released it towards the ground to cushion his fall as they both found themselves in the city surrounded by civilians. Ray began attacking Justin with more wind blasts causing the snow that was lying around to be swirled around and even harming the bystanders. The wind blasts kept growing in power as even some cars in the vicinity were lifted up. One was about to fall on a lady which made Justin react fast and he caught the car before it had the chance to crush her.
"Get out of here, it's not safe." said Justin as she ran off without so much as a thank you.
"Your welcome." said Justin sarcastically as the other civilians ran for cover.
Justin then charged at Ray a few times but the wind blasts that he released were powerful enough to keep him at bay. This all started to feel pointless to Justin since he was just wasting his energy reserves since he couldn't get close to him plus with all the snow combined with his wind power started to impair Justin's vision, it was like fighting in a blizzard.
Justin realized that his method of fighting him wasn't working and attempted to strategize a way to defeat him.
"You might as well give up, you can't get near me." said Ray as he took another deep breath.
This made Justin realize that he had to take a deep breath before attacking which gave Justin an idea on how to beat him. Justin started to fly around him in circles which started to confuse Ray. Justin continued to fly around in circles going faster and faster.
"What do you think you're doing?" Ray asked.
"You're not the only one who can use the wind to his advantage." Justin replied.
A mini tornado started to form around Ray, caused by Justin constantly flying around in circles.
"What the hell?!" Ray exclaimed in surprise.
Suddenly, the oxygen levels around started getting lower and lower, making it hard for Ray to breathe, it was like he was suffocating all over again.
"Getting hard to breathe, isn't it?! I noticed that you took deep breaths right before attacking; the oxygen levels are extremely low in a tornado, so if you can't take air in, you can't let air out." Justin patronized while he was flying around in circles while trying not to get sick.
Ray tried to get out so he could breathe but Justin made sure that he stayed in the center by expanding the circle pattern that he was flying in which made the tornado grow in size. Civilians started to evacuate the area after noticing the tornado. While Ray started feeling weak from the lack of oxygen as he fell to his knees while gasping for air, allowing Justin to finally get close to him for a point blank attack; charging his fist with energy, he knocked Ray unconscious.
Fortunately, the tornado dissipated as Justin had ceased from flying in circles. Justin soon fell to his knees as he was feeling dizzy from the fight but quickly and disorientedly got back on his feet after noticing that some civilians were starting to reenter the area and quickly grabbed Ray and flew off.
LATER AT THE A.D.A
"Hurricane," said Jones.
"What?, what're you talking about?" asked Justin.
"I think that's what we should call him, you know, because of his powers." Jones explained as they escorted Ray to where they were keeping the other super-powered criminals they've encountered so far.
"You really need to stop giving these guys code names, anyway, are you sure that high tech muzzle will keep his power suppressed?" asked Justin referring to the high tech metal mask that covered Ray's mouth that Jones modified to stop Ray from using his powers.
"Of course, I know what I'm doing." Jones replied feeling that his intelligence was being questioned.
"Hey, where's Director Stone?" asked Justin.
"Oh, he had to leave, he got a call about his daughter being in the hospital." Jones replied.
"Hey, where are you going?" asked Jones.
"The hospital." Justin replied as he walked away.
LATER AT THE HOSPITAL
"Hello, I'm here to see Amethyst Stone." Justin told the receptionist.
"Oh one second… She's in room twenty." she replied after checking the patient list.
"Thank you." said Justin as he went to room twenty.
While he was walking to the room, he spotted Duncan coming out of her room.
"How is she?" asked Justin.
"She's going to be okay, her father's with her now." said Duncan as he walked by him.
"Hey, after you handed her over to me, what did you do?" Duncan asked as he turned around.
"Oh, I um…I thought I heard someone else in the school, sounded like a scream or something but I checked and I didn't see anyone, so I guess I was hearing things." said Justin with some quick thinking on his part.
"Oh, okay, see ya around I guess." said Duncan as he walked away while Justin was wondering whether or not Duncan believed his lie.
Justin opened the door to see Amethyst conscious, lying in bed with a few bandages with Director Stone sitting next to her holding her hand.
"Justin, hi, I wasn't expecting you." Amethyst greeted him cheerfully.
"Dad, this is Justin, he's one of my friends from school, Oh, and Chloe's cousin." Amethyst initiated the introductions.
"Ahh yes, I remember you, you're Sarah's son." said Director Stone as he shook Justin's hand.
"Um, yeah, that's right." said Justin realizing that Director Stone was putting up a front and decided to play along.
"I guess I have you to thank for saving my little girl's life, I don't think I can repay you for that, if there's ever anything I can do for you let me know." said Director Stone.
"Sure, thanks Mr. Stone," Justin spoke a bit confused.
"No, thank you, alright I'll give you two some time to talk." said Director Stone as he stepped outside.
"Duncan told me what you did," Amethyst spoke as soon as her Dad left.
"Yeah well, technically he was the one who got you out of the school," Justin replied, trying to downplay his chivalry.
"But you carried me most of the way by the time Duncan showed up," Amethyst countered.
"Oh, he said that?" Justin asked surprised.
"Yeah, plus the last thing I remember was you trying to protect me when that wind guy showed up, so if it weren't for you I'd probably be dead, and I don't think I can thank you enough for saving me." Amethyst expressed her gratitude.
"Sure, don't mention it." said Justin as they both smiled a bit at each other.
"Oh, I had a feeling you'd already be here." said Chloe after she opened the door and walked in with Max and Kade.
"I tried calling you." She informed him.
"Oh, my battery's dead." said Justin as he checked his phone.
"Oh girl, I'm so glad you're okay." Chloe spoke sincerely as she hugged Amethyst tightly.
"Aww, thank you guys for coming." Amethyst spoke gratefully.
"You had us a bit worried," said Max.
"How're you feeling?" asked Kade.
"I'm feeling a lot better now that you guys are here and the doctor said I can go home tomorrow," Amethyst revealed with a smile.
They all kept her company for a while until a breaking news segment popped up on the television with a headline at the bottom of the screen which read 'Tornado appears in Manhattan with a video that someone managed to capture.
"A Tornado?, wait, that's the guy who attacked the school ….and he's fighting the masked guy that's been all over the news lately." Amethyst pointed out.
"Yeah, looks like the masked guy beat him," Max added, calm and composed.
"That's good at least." said Kade as they pretended everything was normal.
"Hello, just came to inform you that visiting hours are closed now." said one of the nurses as she walked through the door.
"Okay, I'll see you guys tomorrow." said Amethyst as they said their goodbyes and left.
LATER THAT DAY
"Wow, you guys really did all that?" asked Justin as his friends told Justin what they did to help make sure nobody would catch Justin using his powers inside the school.
"Thanks," said Justin.
"No problem." said Max.
"You guys feel like hanging out tonight," Kade asked.
"Sure, let's meet up at the movies since our last trip to the movies got...interrupted." Chloe agreed.
"Yeah, let's just hope Justin doesn't get kidnapped this time," Max added with a bit of humor.
"Ha, ha." Justin laughed sarcastically as they went their separate ways.
At the house, Sarah was in her room going through a box of Joe's things that she stumbled upon. She came across a crumpled photograph.
"Hey mom." Justin greeted her.
"Hey sweetie, Jayce just told me what happened at school today, and about what happened to Amethyst, are you okay?" Sarah asked as she quickly threw the picture back into the box and closed it since it was a picture that she couldn't afford for him to see.
"Yeah I'm okay, what are you doing?" asked Justin as he wondered what was on the paper that was thrown back into the box.
"Oh it's nothing, just some of my old junk that I've been meaning to throw away, are you hungry?I was about to get ready for dinner." said Sarah.
"Yeah thanks, I'm meeting my friends at the movies later." Justin informed her.
"Yeah that's fine." said Sarah as she put the box in her closet and walked out the room.
Justin went into her closet and looked into the box since his mother was acting suspiciously again. He took up the paper and saw something written on it, it said 'family, forever together'. Justin was confused so he turned the paper over and realized it was an old photograph.
"What the..?!" exclaimed Justin as he saw what was in the picture.
LATER AT THE MOVIES
"Hey Justin, what took you so long?" asked Kade as he and the others were waiting for him outside the theater.
"What is it?" asked Chloe as she realized something was troubling him.
"I found something among some of my mother's stuff, something that I think you guys should see." said Justin as he took out the picture and showed them.
In the picture were eight children, they all were around the ages of six or seven give or take by the looks of them, five boys and three girls and they looked really close, and Justin and Chloe were two of the children.
"But this doesn't make any sense, we couldn't have taken this picture, we both moved away and my mom kept me from seeing you around this time." said Chloe as she noticed the date that the picture was taken.
"That's not all, do any of the other kids look familiar to you guys?" asked Justin as he was trying to point something out to them.
"Wait, that's me." said Max as he pointed at the little boy sitting beside Justin.
"And that's me sitting beside Chloe." Kade pointed out.
"And what about her?" said Justin as he pointed at one of the girls.
"That's,…that's Amethyst." said Chloe in shock.
"This doesn't make any sense, we've only known each other for about two years, and we've known Justin for a few weeks, so how could there be a picture of all of us together?" Max started asking some very good questions.
"And who are the other three kids in the picture with us?"
They all stood there looking at each other in bewilderment wondering what this could mean and just how many secrets were being kept from them…
~KEOKROSTOS