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Chapter 14 - A Wild Dead Bolt Appears!

"Really? That's the best thing you can say?" I snorted. The man, who I only assumed was Dead Bolt, frowned and tilted his head to the side.

"And here, I thought I was snarky," he commented. I rolled my eyes and readied my electricity beneath my gloves. Dead Bolt's gaze seemed to shift down to my hands. "Ah, it seems we share the same gift."

As if to prove his point, Dead Bolt flashed his own blue electricity in his palms. I had a feeling that we would end up in some kind of electricity battle similar to one between Voldemort and Harry in the Battle of Hogwarts. Except this time, there would be less movie magic and more actual pain; which I wasn't looking forward to.

"What do you want?" I tried to keep my voice from shaking because I was legitimately afraid for my life. This wasn't any kind of simulation or exercise. I could die and never come back to try again.

"I want to speak to Merlin. We have some things that we have yet to settle," he replied. I shook my head.

"There's no way you're getting to Merlin. The whole place is on a lockdown and it's a building full of superpowered kids. What makes you think you can stand a chance against that?" At this point I was trying to distract him as my team got stray bystanders to safety. But there was no way to reach the people inside of the labs, and there was no way to know how many people were trapped in there.

"The fact that I can do this." Dead Bolt shot a string of electricity at me and I shot a bolt of black in response. They collided in midair and exploded in an array of sparks. I shielded myself from the sparks, and when they cleared Dead Bolt was making his way towards me. He sent a wave of blue from around his feet so fast that I couldn't react in time. I was jolted with hundreds of watts of electricity and was somehow still standing.

Out of nowhere, a sword slashed past Dead Bolt and struck him across the stomach. His nice, navy blue vest was slashed open and a long, thin cut was forming. This stopped him in his tracks long enough for me to run away to conjure up a plan. I hid behind a nearby tree and peeked around to see him going at it with Aer. I knew that she was at a disadvantage because of her wings, and, from what I knew, electricity and flight don't really work.

I flattened myself against the tree again and took a couple of large breaths to calm my erratic heartbeat.

"Okay," I whispered to myself, looking back around to make sure they were still fighting. "What do I do? This guy has the same powers as me, but he's only a little stronger. That's good. That's fine."

Suddenly, a bolt of lightning struck the tree next to me and I made a break for it around the other side. "No, it's not fine. It's not fine at all."

I jumped over a fallen chunk of siding and ran to the other side of the building for protection. And I would have made it, too, if it weren't for that meddling piece of wood laying in the grass to trip me up.

In an embarrassing jumble of flailing limbs and falling fire, I fell to the ground with a pained thud and made a fool of myself in front of the bad guy.

"Way to make a first impression, Zoe," I muttered, picking myself up. "Nice job, you dingdong."

Dead Bolt was coming my way, but he was a little slower because of his battle with Aer. I saw her lying on the ground behind him, unconscious, and internally swore. This was going to be harder than I wanted it to be.

"Hey, Jitterbug!" came a voice from somewhere off to the side. Both Dead Bolt and I looked to the right to see a charging Ruby with knives blazing.

She jumped onto Dead Bolt and confused him, slicing and stabbing but not really getting anywhere because he shocked her off of him in a second. Ruby got back up and started with the combat. She kicked at his legs, but he jumped and threw a fist of electricity at her face. Ruby ducked with expertise and a metal covered fist came in contact with Dead Bolt's already injured stomach.