Chapter Nine
My other powers, Jack thought, what are they? It seemed like everyone else had theirs figured out and he held the group back. He needed to think, to concentrate. It was like in school, the teacher would talk and Jack would try to concentrate. There was always something else on his mind.
He decided right then he would stop that.
Haley took his hand and he held onto Gabby as hard as he could with the other. All of this just didn’t seem real, all this stuff about powers and Gorgons and saving the world. Maybe it was just a dream and only he experienced it. If that was the case, he couldn't wait to tell them about it when he woke up. If not, well, they would have a lot to talk about.
“You ready?” Haley asked.
“I guess so.”
Haley chuckled. “I guess none of us really are. But we gotta do something. Here we go.”
Haley and Jack started running, Jack making sure not to run too fast. The dust kicked up around them, forming a cloud. Jack heard a rumbling from somewhere behind the buildings. The Gorgons readied their next attack. He had to find his other powers before it was too late.
Haley bent down while running and yelled “Hold on!”
With that she leaped, taking Jack and Gabby with her. They almost flew through the air. Jack couldn’t believe it. He looked down at the ground, watching it get further away. He felt a rise in his stomach as they soared, a nervous and excited feeling at the same time. Right then he hoped all of this was for real.
Ahead of them, the building on the right approached, and fast. Jack worried they would crash, but he trusted his sister. He really had no choice. Uncle Johnny had told them they had to trust each other. Even if it meant crashing, Jack thought.
They landed with a thud, and Jack felt just a little pain in his ankles, luckily nothing more than that. Haley had landed them right next to a huge metal box that Jack recognized as an air conditioner; his father had shown him one at the top of a building in the city not long before. He didn't completely understand how they worked; something about taking in hot air and cooling it with a chemical.
Thinking about his father, and then his mother, made Jack a little scared. Where were they? Did they know what happened? Would they be okay? He didn’t know the answers and thought maybe he didn’t want to. Uncle Johnny hadn't told them anything about it, and Jack's mind started to race. He thought something bad might have happened to them. Trying to stop thinking that way only made him think about it even more.
The fear he felt made his face feel cold. He’d felt something like that before when he was scared. He told himself to control his fear. His sister and cousins needed him to remain strong, to not be scared.
“No,” the boy’s voice told him. “You need to give into your fear.” The voice was more forceful than before. Jack really wanted to know who spoke to him.
“But Uncle Johnny said not to, he said it was dangerous,” Jack said in his mind, feeling a little silly doing so.
“Not all rules are true all the time. Sometimes you have to bend them, or break them, to get done what you need to.” “Who are you?” Jack asked.
“Not now. Now, you just have to trust me. Did I help you before?”
“Yes,” Jack answered.
“This one will be harder. I'm going to ask something big of you, something dangerous. But you have to trust me. Do you?”
“I don’t know.”
“There is no time for I don’t know,” the boy said, this time sounding like he was losing his patience. “You have to trust me. All of your lives depend on it. Your sister’s life depends on it.”
“Okay,” Jack said. He didn’t want to be responsible for anyone else getting hurt. He’d do what the boy told him. After all, he was right the first time.
“Okay, what I am about to tell you do to might seem crazy…”
The Gorgons were coming. They had arranged themselves in battle formation and prepared to make their move. They didn’t have powers like the Dream Fighters so they needed to use their physical strength instead, and they had plenty of that. They were known around the galaxy for their strength.
The first part of the Dream Fighters’ plan had worked, the Gorgons did not know Haley and Jack and Gabby had moved to the top of the building. The Gorgons would make their attack where Braden and Jillian stood. They would be confident in their attack with Braden and Jillian seemingly unarmed and terribly outnumbered.
“They’re coming,” Jillian said, opening her eyes after having them closed to concentrate.
“I don’t see them,” Braden said, scanning the horizon for the large enemies.
“I can feel them. They are ready to go,” Jillian insisted. She couldn't explain why she felt so sure. Something told her, something from within her, but she couldn't place it.
Braden thought maybe Jillian made it all up but after what they all had gone through, he was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. Maybe she could feel them. Anything seemed possible.
“You know what to do?”
“I think so,” Jillian answered.
“Don’t think. Be sure,” Braden said, remembering what Uncle Johnny had told them earlier.
Jillian did not want to let her brother down. “Okay.”
“Let’s do this. Whenever you are ready.”
Jillian closed her eyes and thought back to that Christmas. Sure, Braden yelled at her a lot, like most big brothers do, but she was pretty sure she remembered the toy he mentioned. She concentrated like Uncle Johnny taught her and made something appear.
In front of Braden appeared a container of Galaxy Slime. “Okay, you’re close. You brought it to me in the box. I need it out of the box so I can put it all together in one big ball.”
Normally, Braden might have lost his patience with Jillian but this time he didn’t, he actually said it nice. That inspired Jillian. Maybe she could make up for bringing the ice cream truck. Maybe she could show her brother that he actually did need her, that she could help and not be a useless little sister.
“How about this?” she said, closing her eyes and picturing a big blob of the Galaxy Slime, as big as she could imagine.
A huge blob appeared in front of Braden. It stood over ten feet wide, almost the exact size he thought of using.
“Great job,” he said, and then he pointed his hands toward the blob and raised it in the air. Uncle Johnny had told him that the size of what he could move with his mind didn’t matter. He believed him and the ball stayed in front of him, suspended.
“Wow,” Jillian said, “We did it.”
“Not so fast. We have to make sure part two works.” Braden built up as much energy in his mind as he could. He could feel the heat in his fingertips. It rose from the bottom of his feet all through his body. He didn't know how he did it, only that it worked. He calculated a path in his head from where he stood to the Gorgons. Once he had the right angle set, he figured he'd score a direct hit.
“Hey, Gorgons, eat this!” he said and he launched the huge blob of Galaxy Slime toward the spot where Haley and Jack said the Gorgons were hiding.
The blob flew through the air, flattening a little bit from the speed, but holding together. Braden had worried it might fall apart. He followed its flight path, looking up at the blob and then down toward the target. Now, he understood why his teachers always said to pay attention during math. It really could be used in real life.
The blob was moving fast, maybe 50 miles an hour, and it raced toward the Gorgon hideout. It appeared right on course, but at the last second, it smashed into the left building, splattering all over.
“Darn,” Braden said, "the wind." “That’s a bad word,” Jillian said.
“No it’s not. “
“Well, it’s not a good word.”
“Okay, maybe it isn’t. I’m just mad because I forgot to calculate the wind. I know better than that. Can you do it again?”
“Of course,” Jillian said, as if it were nothing. “But we better move fast. They know where that came
from.”
“Go.”
Another big ball of Galaxy slime appeared, this one even bigger than the last. Braden lifted it and launched it even faster at his target, this time aiming higher and more to the right so it would drop right on the Gorgons.
He nailed it. The blob landed right in the middle of the Gorgon army, covering half of them in the sticky goo. It didn’t hurt them but it would slow them down. The plan worked so far. And they had come up with it together, like Uncle Johnny suggested. He would be proud.
“You hit them,” Jillian said, "I can see it in my mind.”
“Great. Let’s keep doing it. We’ll hold them back until someone comes up with a way to stop them.”