things happened at random times. Caleb's eyes had to take every shred of information in and his brain had to calculate exactly when he could jump, with how much force he needed to push off with, where he could land and how fast he would have to start running as soon as he hit the ground on the other side of the leap.
Caleb skirted around a family mini-van, saw a clearing three cars ahead, readied himself and sprang into the air, soaring above the vehicles, momentarily flying.
The second he landed on the road in front of the line of cars, his knees automatically bending to absorb the impact, he began running.
Pursuing Mr Beta had been easier, Caleb reflected as he struggled to keep his sights set on the food delivery truck. Mr Beta was unaware of his pursuers, he was driving at the legal speed limit, he wasn't putting civilians at risk and traffic was much lighter.
Lance was not a good driver, not in a panic, anyway. The truck swerved madly, making the teenage criminal panic as he tried to correct his movements, resulting in an overcorrection, causing the large vehicle's back half to veer into oncoming traffic.
The wild movements tossed Ethan, who had clung to the metal handles for the past three minutes, off like a limp rag doll. Caleb heard tiny Ty gasp in his ear as their brother fell on the hard road, in the path of approaching traffic.
One of his glasses lens cracked, Ethan blinked, dazed, winded and confused.
"Get out the way!" a driver shouted, uselessly.
Ethan quickly recovered, assessed the situation, and rolled off the freeway, into shrubs growing undisturbed by the side of the road.
Frightened, enraged and unnerved drivers punched their car horns and Caleb's ears exploded with the noise of hundreds of car hooters' blasting.
Eventually, Lance managed to get the truck moving in a straight line. As soon as he did, he sped up, far exceeding the speed limit.
Caleb stepped up his game, too.
In his training with Rust, he discovered his furthest bounce was the length of a football field. With the truck gaining speed and barrelling, dangerously, down the freeway, Caleb thought fast and acted immediately.
He had no time to prepare himself for a leap; he would have to master a running jump.
Putting his everything into the last stretch, Caleb ran fast. His sneakers pounding the asphalt, his heart racing and his eyes glued to the truck, Caleb's mind had only one objective: get on the truck.
Sometimes, you can't think. Sometimes, it doesn't matter how much book smarts you have. Sometimes, you have to roll with the punches, forget the mathematical equations and scientific formulas, and just... jump.
Soaring through the air, gliding to his target, Caleb couldn't help but laugh.
This was serious, this was dangerous, this was real. But, man, was this fun!
Caleb stuck the landing on the top of the stolen food delivery truck, flawlessly. He felt a small tickle as Ty jumped off his shoulder.
Ty was a speck of black hair, pale-tanned skin, a dark red T-shirt, jeans, and sneakers on a massive, white football field of a truck roof.
He had one mission in mind: get to Lance. The plan didn't include what would happen after he reached Lance, but that was not the problem right now.
Ty put his head down and ran, fighting the truck's speed, velocity and the wind. He hadn't covered much distance when the stomping of a giant, accompanied by the sound of thunder, knocked him down.
Propping himself up by the elbows, he looked up to see giants against a fiery afternoon sky.
They were not actual giants: just three, regular-sized, high school seniors.
Two boys, one tall and lean, the other short and stocky, and a girl with dyed black and blue hair. They looked familiar.
As Ty scrambled to his tiny feet, he recalled his first meeting with the three super-powered teenagers. On their first day at Hero High, the Accidents had tried to join their table, but the girl rudely excused herself and the boys followed as she left for a table on the other side of the cafeteria.
Ty ran between their towering sneakers and bolted for the driver's compartment, fixated on reaching Lance.
He didn't get too far.
Bright, dazzling and hot as the surface of the sun blasts of plasma shot from the tall boy's hands, narrowly missing Ty.
Ty shrieked, doubled back, but carried on running, dodging dangerous plasma blasts as he dashed across the speeding truck.
Okay, he has powers. What about the others? Ty thought as he ran, uncertainly and unprepared.
Looking over his miniature shoulder, Ty noticed a bug on the roof of the truck. He had seen bugs at this angle many times before and it didn't bother him anymore. Nevertheless, there was something different about this particular bug.
As it got closer, Ty could see it wasn't a bug. It was the stocky teenager. A fellow shrinker! There was no time for catching up, reminiscing or celebrating, though.
The miniature boy ran up to Ty, put his head down and, like a football player, tackled him to the ground. He pinned Ty down. Ty struggled, but the stocky boy was stronger than he was.
Defeated, Ty gave up on fighting to free himself, and let his fellow shrinker keep him restrained. The stocky boy grinned, wickedly.
"You're just going to give up? Just like that?" he asked, tauntingly.
"Yeah, well, you can probably go from an inch to regular size in under 1.25 seconds, anyway," Ty replied.
The stocky boy looked confused.
"Oh, let me demonstrate," Ty offered.
With that, he grew back to his standard size, starling his miniature captor, who could not hold on to him as he enlarged.
Ty couldn't even see the shrunken senior as he smiled, smugly, to himself.
"That was 0.95 seconds," Ty said to no one.
He never got the chance to enjoy his victory, however.
One second, he was standing at his normal height, the next, he was involuntarily shrinking.
Eyes widening as he slowly reduced in size, Ty panicked.
"Hey, what gives?" he questioned, hoping for a reply, but honestly not expecting one.
The girl with black and blue-streaked hair towered over him as he gradually miniaturized, a sadistic grin curling her lips.
"Power manipulation," she answered him. "I can control your powers, your friends' powers, anyone's powers."
Ty was an inch small, against his will, staring up at a young psychopath whose head was literally in clouds to the minuscule teen.
"You've got nowhere to run," she told him as she raised her foot, ready to squash Ty like a bug.
He always knew this was how he'd die. He wouldn't die of old age, a car accident or some illness. No. Tyrone Percival Black was destined to a death by boot.
As the boot came down, Ty wondered where his team was. He knew and accepted that it was too late for him. But he did wonder where Jack and Bella were, if Ethan was okay and what happened to Caleb after he landed on the truck.
Ty closed his eyes, something he found himself doing for most of his life. He wondered, if he could go back and do it all over again, if he would do things differently.
Would he take more risks? Caleb took more risks before breakfast than Ty had taken in his entire life.
Would he reach out to more people? Ethan had made plenty of friends.
Or would he stick his head in the sand, just like he had done for the past sixteen or so years?
Why did he run, anyway?
He would never know.
23
The girl didn't get a chance to finish Ty off.
Her sneaker was hovering above Ty's head, practically touching his black hair, when she was suddenly attacked by a crazed gaggle of Canadian geese.
She shrieked, her arms flapping to fight the insistent birds away, she stepped backwards, away from Ty.
Released from her hold and grateful for the sudden (though odd) attack, Ty returned to his regular size.
The girl valiantly fought the geese, but it was hopeless. It was an unfair fight: ten crazed geese
against one girl with black and blue hair. The geese were dead-set on fighting with the girl. They were warriors: they made guttural noises, their brownish-grey feathers flew everywhere, their black beaks snapped like the jaws of a shark.
These geese weren't ordinary geese. They had a mission. Just as it looked like the girl was about to fall off the truck and onto the road, the geese snapped at her clothing and carried her far away, where to, Ty couldn't guess.
"Well, that's not something you see every day," Ty said to no one in particular.
"Really? I've seen it seven times," a new voice said.
Ty had heard that voice before.
The rumours and stories rang through Ty's mind.
"No one knows exactly who his family is, but everyone says his dad is a notoriously evil villain who destroyed the old Zealand."
"No one knows exactly, but everyone says he's survived typhoons, hurricanes, freak storms, intense blizzards and five mutant shark attacks."
"No one knows exactly what his power is but everyone sums it up in one word: death."
Ty gulped as he turned around, only to come face to face with the notorious, the infamous, the ill-famed Dean Lightbody.
Tall and muscular, tanned skin and dark hair, indigo eyes locked in a dead-stare. Ty could be dead in less than three seconds and never see it coming, a kid in the locker room told him. He felt his knees buckle just standing on the same truck roof with Dean.
Stupidly, he ran. There was nowhere to run, but he figured he would have better odds of surviving if he dived headfirst into traffic, off a speeding truck than if he hung around and waited for the torture Dean was about to inflict.
"Hey, what are you doing?" Dean questioned as he watched Ty unwisely run. "Dude, you're