The Next Page 5

Everyone stared silently at Wizard momentarily. Wizard was one of the lesser villains who had been initially a hero, but due to being relegated often for his powers, which were, at that time, a particularly eidetic memory, he had begun to seek power at all costs, in order to bring the city that had spurned him to its knees.

Now he stood before the librarian and the six kids, watching them menacingly. Mack whispered to his two cohorts, “let’s take him out. I guess he’d just caught Monolith unawares back then, but we can nail him if we attack all at once.”

They nodded their consent, and attacked, each of them bringing their powers of fire, water and electricity to bear on the white-haired villain. But Wizard, with a flick of his wrist, sent them all flying, to the same effect as Monolith.

“I’m getting tired of games as stupid as this,” he said, grabbing the librarian by the collar. “Where is the book I seek?”

“I—I have no idea what it may be…” the librarian stuttered.

Wizard smiled. “Yet my mind tells me that you’re lying. And I will get the information, whether you like it, or not.”

He furrowed his brow, and the librarian screamed, before falling to the ground. “Ah,” the villain said, “furthest shelf from the door, twelve books to the right.” He ignored Dru and the boys, and walked further into the library.

“Let’s get out of here,” Alex whispered, taking a step, when Wizard suddenly turned, his eyes wild. “Don’t even try to escape,” the villain hissed as the books began to rattle. The three teenagers froze as his gaze rested on each one of them in turn.

“Ah,” Wizard said with a faint smile, “keen intelligence, light projection and paper manipulation. Underdogs.”

“He’s a psychic!” Alex whispered.

“His powers must have somehow evolved,” Dru muttered. “There’s hope for us, yay.” She sounded quite like there wasn’t hope, though.

“Hey, children,” Wizard suddenly said, gesturing with his hand, as the three children rose into the air, and were hurled into a small cubicle. “Do stay here and be nice. Not like people with your miserable powers can do anything to thwart me, but it would just be distracting for me to keep having to watch you.”

The door to the cubicle slammed shut, trapping the teenagers inside.

“Might as well just stay here till the real heroes come and save the day,” Dru stated calmly, finding a stool and sitting on it.

“No,” Lincoln replied. “What if Wizard had a plan that could kill thousands. Won’t you feel responsible for their deaths?” Dru said nothing.

“Look, a console,” Alex said. “I don’t know, but I might be able to do something with it.”

“Like what?” Dru asked.

“Like get us out of here,” came the reply.

“Let’s do it then. And take Wizard out while we’re at it,” Lincoln said enthusiastically. “I may be a knucklehead, but I have a plan of my own.”

To be continued...

Thanks for coming!

That little boy,

@pearlumie