Free Caped (Book 1): The Burdens of Fate by Kerron Streater Page B

and punching
each other as the masses gnarled and hissed in anger and fear. Assaulting each
other (and eventually us) with their cracked and broken bottles, burning trash,
bloodied fists, and busted boots.
    I did my best to focus his anger, his hands,
and the massive wings he flailed about in desperation, on me and off everyone
else. Something I failed at one too many times. He was a wild and slippery
little devil, one moment he'd be focused on me and the next he'd be bolting off
in some random direction, and every time I grabbed him he would find a way to
squirm free. It took him seconds to kill a man, so every time my hands weren't
on him it was just a matter of time.
    He sure could take a hit though, but the fact
that he wasn't himself, that none of them where, kept my options limited. I'm
not going to be the one to weigh one life against another; I'll leave that for
a higher authority than I. I kept my word and I showed up, I was told I could
help and I did my best to do just that.
    Now I know things are only going to get worse,
but at least the air of secrecy is lifted. I just hope to never have that much
innocent blood on my hands again.

Edward Otep (Cont.) -
    ...this was what I couldn't let the world see.
A city on fire and razing itself to the ground one piece at a time, while even
those who'd sworn to protect it were hopelessly consumed within a blinding rage
that seemed to have no end; it still scares me. What if this happens again, but
worse? For all I know it could be some misguided extremist in a second or third
world country venting their misplaced frustrations on innocent people. I don't
look forward to witnessing what that type of fear will do to people.
    Hopefully they'll realize that even through
such atrocities, there are people willing to perform noble deeds. Like the old
man strong enough to move a mountain, the girl who can literally do such with
her mind, and the telekinetic who can stand as their equal.

Michael Serna (Cont.) -
    The thrill of flying loses its luster if the
only thing you have to look at is a crumbling city. There were gaping holes in
the sides of buildings, scorched black from fire and God knows what else… and
not just the ones from Laurie. There were deep craters in the ground,
overturned cars, too many fires to count, and too many bodies to stomach. It
had become an ominous and foreboding endeavor, not words people are eager to
use when describing their current predicament.
    And yet, as terrified as I was, I kept going.
All because a man I'd met for all of five minutes said I could help... and that
I'd live, that's kind of the important part.
    Have you ever seen a teenage girl go into a
hysterical rage? I have and it's far from fun, damn-near terrifying. So the
fact I was asked to take out a seventeen year old seismic event doing the very
same made me more than a little apprehensive. The alternative was to do
nothing, but even doing nothing is doing something and I couldn't handle that
on my conscience either.
    Super-girl Kaylie was right where Edward said
she'd be, a wall of rock jutting upwards to encircle hapless citizens and
cutting off any escape they had. A great majority had taken to the water, a
fact she ignored as she began bringing down giant sections of the rock wall
onto the crowd.
    I took immediate action, telekinetically
pushing her from the levitating platform she was standing on high above the
crowd. It immediately lost altitude, causing Kaylie’s unconscious mother, who'd
been knocked out earlier, to literally fall into view.
    There was no time to feel like a hero, I just
had to be one. I quickly focused on the collapsing wall, which was an uneven
mess of compressed sand she'd molded into massive boulders. There wasn't enough
time to stop it just yet, only to slow its momentum. I had to focus on the girl
and her mother whom I could feel getting closer to the ground. I stretched out
my arm and slowed their decent to a crawl, gently releasing them from my