Chapter Two: The Flying Chainsaw Chipmunk
The wind rushed through Nikki’s hair. Spencer yelled, “Faster! Faster!”
Nikki knew the helicopter was gaining on them, but that was okay. If she escaped too easily, the STING team might go back to the mountain. She didn’t want that. She needed to lead them far, far away.
Nikki twisted her head to look back. The sleek, black helicopter was whirring and churning behind her, like an evil monster tearing through the sky, searching for children to eat. And it especially liked kids with powers, like Nikki. But she wasn’t worried, or scared. Because she had a trick up her sleeve. One that would guarantee her escape from the flying hunk of metal.
When the helicopter got close, she dove for the ground. The copter dipped, chasing after her. It was remarkably agile for such a large vehicle. When it dipped, however, she cut sharply to the left, circling around behind it. Nikki thought for sure that the pilot would be confused, unsure of how to pursue her.
Instead, to her amazement, the copter stopped instantly, and then swung around to face her. The tinted black window looked like a giant eye, staring at her and Spencer, gleaming in the sun. Nikki expected the pilot to propel the copter toward her again. But he didn’t.
With an awkward lurch, the helicopter swept to the side, facing a different direction and leaving its side door angled toward Nikki.
The door slid open.
A man wearing dark green army pants and a dark gray tank top peered out. She couldn’t see his face because he wore a helmet with a dark visor. He was huge. His arms were like steel poles, bulging with rock hard muscles. His chest was the size of a boulder and looked like bullets would bounce off of it. He was Superman, except bigger, and stronger.
Then Nikki noticed his gun.
It was big and black. With two handles. Despite the man’s size he had to use two hands to hold it. Nikki knew he would shoot at them. So she faked like she was going to fly to the left and then flew to the right. A perfect fake. The man didn’t expect it. Luckily. Because just as Nikki turned to the side, the man fired the gun.
Nikki had expected an ear-splitting BOOM! as the cannon-like weapon exploded from close range. However, it was remarkably silent. All she heard was a whizzing sound and then a poof! Something tickled the bottom of her leg as she dove away. She looked back to see what had almost hit her. Her eyes detected movement below her.
A thick net was hurtling toward the ground. A net designed to catch someone. Like a power kid, for instance. It was probably the same net that had caught Samantha. The net stopped falling and began moving back up toward the helicopter. It was connected to the big, black gun. He was reeling it back in, like a fisherman pulling in his fishing line. Nikki knew he would try to catch her again. It was time to use her trick—the one she was saving for the right time. Now was definitely the right time.
She reached in her pocket and extracted the gray glove. The man wouldn’t be able to shoot at someone he couldn’t see. But then she fumbled the glove. She had never dropped one of her powergloves like that before. It skipped off her fingers and dropped like a rock toward the ground, falling much faster than she expected it to.
The man fired the gun again. Whizzzzzzz!
Nikki closed her eyes and waited for the spider web of ropes to entangle her.
She heard a faint buzzing sound. A voice yelled from above her. “Flying Chainsaw Chipmunk!” the voice said. It was Spencer. In the heat of the fight against the black STING helicopter, she had forgotten that Spencer still clung to her back.
She didn’t feel anything. No ropes. No net. Nothing. Except Spencer on her back.
She opened her eyes slowly. The man was still in the copter doorway. With the gun. But the net wasn’t hanging from it anymore. The ropes had been shredded, cut away from the gun. They twirled and twisted as they fell to the earth. What saved us? Nikki wondered.
Then she saw it. Something small, arms extended, flaps of skin filled with air, gliding around her. She felt like the thing was defending her. But what was it?
She saw Spencer’s hand appear in front of her face. It was cupped slightly, like he was holding something. His hand was empty. “Return to me,” Spencer said. Nikki wondered what he meant.
She watched as the flying thing came closer and closer until she could see what it was: A chipmunk, brown with white and black stripes, soared toward her. Its tiny arms were connected to its legs by leathery flaps of skin. The flaps caught the wind and allowed it to fly. Nikki had heard of flying squirrels before, but never flying chipmunks.
The chipmunk was right in front of Nikki now, so close she could have touched it. It swooped in and landed gracefully on Spencer’s cupped hand. “Do you like it?” Spencer asked.
“What is it?” Nikki said.
“One of my gadgets. Dexter helped me build it yesterday while you and the power kids were planning the stakeout. I call it Flying Chainsaw Chipmunk.”
Nikki stared at the cute little chipmunk. She said, “I understand Flying and Chipmunk, but what do you mean by Chainsaw?”
Spencer chuckled. “Open up, Chippy, and show Aunty Nikki your teeth.” The adorable chipmunk grinned and flashed his teeth. Except they weren’t really teeth. With a bzzzzzz! each “tooth” began to spin rapidly. Each had sharp claws that looked like they could cut through metal. They looked like miniature chainsaws. Suddenly, everything clicked for Nikki. The net had been about to capture them, and then it was shredded, falling to the earth. The little chipmunk’s chainsaw teeth had saved them. Spencer had saved them, like he had many times before, with his gadgets.
Nikki was about to thank her friend and tell him what an awesome sidekick he was, when she heard a loud whirring on her right. And then a loud whirring on her left. The sounds were just like the loud whirring sound that the black helicopter was making in front of them.
She glanced to each side, one after the other. Two more black helicopters had arrived. And each had a door open with a masked man with a big gun. A gun with a net. To catch her. She was nearly surrounded. Her only way out was to spin and zoom back. Then she heard it. A fourth whirring sound, from directly behind her. A fourth helicopter. Now she was surrounded.
Even Spencer’s Flying Chainsaw Chipmunk wouldn’t be able to cut them out of four nets. With a sharp twang! the first net was fired. Twang, twang, twang! Three more nets were fired.
Nikki knew she would be caught.
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