Fan Fiction ❯ Raven ❯ Angry Nerds ( Chapter 10 )

 

We walked for a moment before the guy started speaking. His leather jacket was ruffled and threw odd shadow across the ground.

“Don't worry about them. Davis has been ragging on everyone and `Liz has been itching for the chance to get back at him. But we're kinda on a mission right now so we can't let our powers be discovered.”

“Oh,” I couldn't help but like him. “So what exactly is your power? They all seemed pretty scared of you in there.”

He laughed. “Well, we're kinda a mixed group. I'm actually the only norm among us. No powers whatsoever.” We reached the edge of school property. His eyes drifted out across the rows of houses and buildings stretching outward from the school.

“They're afraid of me because I'm the only one prepared to do whatever's necessary.” His eyes had changed to a cool ice blue.

“Hey, you wouldn't happen to be named Susan would you?” His voice changed with an obvious effort. At my nod of assent, he went on, “Yeah, Melanie told me someone new had moved in to our place. I haven't been around much. My name's Alex.”

 

 

We went out to lunch at a restaurant and eventually returned to school. No one said anything about the wall I had dented. Over the next few weeks Alex and I hung out together between periods. It was fun. We had a lot in common, although neither of us really talked about our pasts. And then some guys decided to come and fuck it all up.

 

 

 

 

I was walking amidst a crowd of other students towards one of my classes when they snapped. Two guys, pretty much nerds. I had seen people picking on them, calling them names, but it was all just jokes. Or at least to everyone else it was.

The nerds wore long coats, the kind you might get a thrift store. They were coming in my direction and I knew something was wrong. They looked different, something had changed in their normal demeanor.

A football player brushed past one and them and the kids exploded.

“You've called my four-eyes too many goddam times you assholes!” He pulled a gun out of his jacket, the black automatic kind with the short barrel and the long clip. His friend pulled out a handgun. And somehow the first kid had ended up in front of me with the auto pointing at me.

It had all happened so fast up till this point that I didn't even get the chance to use my power. I did the one thing I could think of to stop the gun from blowing me away. I grabbed it and shoved it to the right. The auto spewed out three shots. Two went through my palm, one smashing into my shoulder. It didn't matter. With the gun no longer an immediate danger I could focus enough to control my power.

I pressed the index finger of my uninjured hand to the boy's forehead. Speckles were flashing across my vision and distantly I heard someone screaming. No! I had to focus. I pressed my power into the thinnest possible width and forced it out through my finger. With a sickening crack it pierced the geeks skull and he crumpled to the floor. I thought I caught a glance of Alex somewhere in the crowd but I couldn't be sure.

“Sorry bub, guess its just not your day,” I told the corpse.

“What the hell!” his friend now had a gun pointing at me. He was trembling and his voiced cracked as he spoke. I acted quickly, not letting him get the chance to shoot. Fire burst from my outstretched hand and he screamed as his flesh began to melt.

I forced my mind to quit searching for another target and let go of my power.

As my concentration was released the rest of the world rushed in to take its place. Girls screaming, people running in all directions, chaos. A warmth had built up along my shoulder and I wondered whether my fire had somehow burnt me as well as the kid. But no, it was only the shots having mutilated my hand and arm. I could not fully close my right hand, but somehow I had kept hold of the barrel of the auto between my thumb and palm. Blood seeped down my shoulder onto my bleeding hand.

“Freeze! Drop the gun!” I looked up and a half dozen blue uniforms with faces stared back at me. Cops. Suits with guns. I dropped the gun.

One of them ran forward and pulled my good hand behind me, cuffing it before grabbing my other arm. I cried out and felt tears on my face as he wrenched my wounded shoulder behind me. I passed out as the cuffed was forced onto my wounded wrist.