Part one

“What’s happening?” 

“I think we’ve been hit.”

“By what?!” 

“Lightning.”

The plane is falling through the sky split in half by a blast of electricity. It hurtles down, ripping the clouds into pieces. 

Earlier that morning...

Her pillowcase is wet again. 

She groans and gets out of bed hoping her mom won’t be too upset. It’s her third time this week. It must be all this rain, she thinks, it’s making her go crazy. 

She gets dressed and makes her way downstairs. Breakfast is on the table and her younger brother Leo is already eating. 

“Gwen, the school called, they asked that bring your suit today.” Her mom says. 

Gwen nods, “I figured, it’s been a month since our last mission.”

She eats quickly, while her brother smirks at her from across the table. 

“What?” She asks. 

“You froze your pillow again, didn’t you. If you’re not careful you’ll have to put your ring back on. Next thing you know your whole room will be ice.” He says trying not to laugh. 

She responds by sticking her tongue out at him and freezing his fork to the table.

Leo just laughs, reducing the gravity around her backpack until it touches the ceiling. 

“Give it back.” Says Gwen. 

“First melt my fork.”

“Fine.” She waves her hand and the ice melts around the fork leaving a puddle of water. 

Her backpack drops to the ground with a thud and she picks it up. 

“I’ll text you if it’s an overnight mission.” She says to her mom as she goes out the door. 

The rain keeps falling all the way to school. Gwen freezes the rain around her leaving a trail of snow as she walks. She gets a few stares but she’s used to that and it’s better than getting all wet. 

She was born with her powers, no one knew why. Her brother is a mutant as well. Their parents tried to help them hide it for awhile. Her dad invented a ring she could use to control her powers at first, but by now she had learned to use them. Except for the past couple nights when she had frozen her bed while she was sleeping. It was always melted by morning leaving her bed a soggy mess. 

“Gwen, it’s about time you got here, the director needs us in the meeting hall.” Her friend Alyssa calls when she finally reaches the school. 

“What is it this time?” Gwen asks as she walks over to join her. 

“I don’t know but I think it has to do with all this rain, you know Violet has been suspicious for awhile.” She says. 

The meeting room is full already. Gwen takes the only seat left, in between Ebony and Noah. 

“As you know,” the director begins “the rain has been going for a month now. Up until now most people have still thought it was just weird weather. But we now have reason to suspect that someone is responsible for it. In the last week ten people have been struck by lightning, we think there may be a pattern. We are going to send out a team to figure out who is responsible. Whoever is on the team may not engage in a fight with the culprit. Do you have any questions?”

“What do we do if we’re attacked?” Asks a boy named Simeon. 

He has a bit of a smirk on his face as if he’s hoping that will be the case. 

“Try to stay on defence and get away.” Says the director. 

Someone laughs earning a glare from the director who continues “Violet Reed, Gwen Brooks, Alyssa Rider, Noah Hoffman, Simeon Bird, and Quinn Ramirez will be in charge of finding out who is responsible for the deaths. Everyone else will be assigned possible targets to protect.”

Everyone leaves the room except the six chosen for the mission.

“Where should we start?” Asks Simeon. 

“We need to find out what kind of people are being targeted first.” Says Quinn already a step ahead of everyone. 

Gwen pulls out her laptop and the search begins. An hour later Quinn thinks he’s found something. 

“All of them were leaders of an organization that is working towards taking freedom away from people with special abilities.”

“I don’t get it, what does that mean?” Asks Gwen. 

“It means they don’t want us to be able to use our powers, even to help people.” Says Noah. 

“Oh.”

“Anyone else feel on board with the culprit?” Simeon asks sarcastically. 

No one laughs. 

“I’m not “on board” with either of them. And murder is not the right way to go about things. Our job is to stop whoever is doing this, we don’t have to agree with the people we help. Maybe we can change how they think about us.” Violet says. 

“Agreed,” says Noah “now lets go get him.” 

“There is one person who didn’t die from the lightning,” Quinn says “her name is Carol Anders and she most likely has a target on her back. Keeping her safe might help us find him.” 

“Where is she?” Alyssa asks. 

“A hospital in British Columbia.” Says Quinn. 

“I’ll get the plane ready,” Simeon leaves the room. 

Gwen texts her mom, telling her where she’s going and that she won’t be home for a few days. 

The plane is quite. Everyone has their own opinions but are keeping them to themselves. 

It took about an hour to get on board along with everything they needed, and now they’ve been flying for two hours. 

“It looks like there’s a storm up ahead.” Says Simeon breaking the silence. 

“How bad?” asks Noah. 

“It doesn’t look like a big deal.” Says Simeon. 

As the best pilot in school, if he’s not worried about something no one is. 

Gwen comes out of the bathroom with a pale face. She sits down on her seat and sighs. 

“Are we almost there?” She asks. 

“Yeah, I think so,” says Alyssa, “are you alright?” 

“Yeah, I guess I get plane sick though.” Gwen admits. 

The clouds outside the window darken as they approach the storm. Thunder rumbles and a flash of lightning strikes nearby. 

“Should we be worried about getting hit?” Violet asks. 

“No, planes are built to withstand lightning. In fact, airline planes usually get hit once a year without suffering any major damage.” Says Quinn. 

“Why do I not find that comforting?” Alyssa mumbles. 

Everyone relaxes a little, just in time to get struck. A bolt of lightning slices the plane in half. The jolt causes them to fall to the floor as the plane splits in two. 

“What’s happening?” Simeon yells from the cockpit. 

“We’ve been hit.” Says Gwen. 

“By what?!” 

“Lightning.”

The nose of the plane makes a flip dumping it’s cargo into the sky. As Gwen falls to the ground she has time to wish her powers weren’t just snow and ice.

Someone catches her from behind and she stops her downward plunge. She looks around quickly, Simeon is holding her as he flies. But he can’t save everyone. 

Out of the corner of her eye Gwen notices someone else falling. Someone small and blond and not part of their original group. 

“Leo!” She yells. 

As she does the gravity around her turns to almost nothing leaving everyone floating in the air. Looking around she can see Quinn and Alyssa, but Noah and Violet are missing. 

“You’re welcome for saving your lives, and thank you for not being mad that I stowed along.” Says Leo smiling. 

He gradually increases the gravity letting everyone fall slowly towards the forest below them. 

“I thought you said the lightning wouldn’t hurt us.” Alyssa says looking at Quinn.

“Well obviously that wasn’t normal lightning.” He says sounding snarky.

“Simeon, can you see Violet and Noah?” Gwen asks. 

“No, they fell a lot faster than we did. I didn’t see where they landed, I was a little busy trying to save everyone remember.” He says. 

“Okay, everyone grab a tree,” says Leo “I don’t think I can hold you much longer.”

Everyone obeys except Simeon and the gravity returns to normal. 

Gwen builds a slide of ice and makes it the rest of the way to the ground. Leo and Simeon are already there. Alyssa changes into a bird, and Quinn is stuck climbing down his tree by himself. 

“What now?” Asks Gwen. 

“Now, you don’t move or you die.” 

The voice is coming from the trees behind her and the owner of the voice is holding a knife to her back. 

To be continued...

part two of this story is written by Keri Dyck and you can find it by pressing the link below.

https://blog.reedsy.com/creative-writing-prompts/author/keri-dyck/