Starlight (Book 1)

1: Sit Back, Relax, Enjoy the Show

Nothing said Wednesday quite like being trapped inside of a glass case.

Needless to say, I really disliked Wednesday. The day was smack in the middle of the week, was spelt oddly, and was altogether totally useless. I would gladly take another weekday if I could bargain Wednesday in exchange.

The aforementioned glass case might have had something to do with my personal vendetta against Wednesday. But I didn't know.

I mean, it could have been anything. Maybe the middle of the week simply sucked.

"Sorry, kid." My aunt Nia rushed over to me, adjusting the golden bracelet around her wrist. Her iron heels gleamed in the tiny fragments of monochromatic light. Wearing her reinforced armoured suit, her name became Diamond Prism, but it was her enemies who would shatter. "I didn't mean to scare you, but you need to stay safe. I told your father I'd make sure of it."

Of course. I squinted at the highway overpass below me. Dozens of cars were strewn along the roadside, with the doors flung wide open as their drivers abandoned them to flee. The zigzag of fire blazed its way through the street, forming a crater in the pavement. A shiver ran down my spine. Phantom and Spark caused that?

"He's coming here?" I asked. My voice faltered through a scratchy throat. I balled my slick hands into fists. "It's dangerous."

Diamond shrugged, stretching her fingers towards the highway. A cube, formed from glass, rose from the tree line and surrounded the civilians, protecting them from the chaos. "It's more dangerous for you than it is for him."

As she finished her handiwork, Orion's voice yelled, "To your left!" With an overly dramatic flick of his wrist, his telekinetic force pushed Diamond out of the way.

She stumbled into a nearby telephone pole, glaring at him, but with Orion's aid, had managed to avoid Phantom's greeting attack.

The villain and his henchman emerged from a patch of darkness, standing over the ruins of the destroyed city. Fire crackled around the potholes and roared higher, until it had engulfed them whole. Dimly, I wondered if their suits were fireproof.

Turning to me, Orion said, "All good, Kace?"

"Safe and sound," I replied, grinning at him.

"We've got this." He nodded, simultaneously sending Phantom Shadow barreling across the street and into a nearby building. "Sorry you're missing English class."

"Orion," Diamond said, pulling my father away from me. "Phantom coming in... three... two..."

She was a little behind on her countdown, and didn't get the chance to finish before Phantom appeared a few feet in front of us, rising out of the smouldering remains of Nymphéa street like an undead zombie. The ash covering his suit made him look as if he'd just flown through a chimney and come out on the other side. Phantom flashed Orion an amused smile and threw both hands into the air, letting them fall at his sides as the sunlight faded around him, shielding his face from cover.

"Almighty Orion," he sneered.

"Phantom Shadow," replied Orion, raising his hand out as an offering. "And Onyx Spark. What a pleasure indeed."

The henchman was flanked by Phantom's cover, but he didn't seem all too bothered. Spark's presence was to be expected, after all.

I glanced up. The sky was turning craggy grey, each cloud gathering to form a clump of paper-mâché, glued together by the damp, early morning air.

"We both have somewhere to be. Things to do," Orion said, nodding behind him, perhaps trying to remind everyone to hurry up and get on with the destruction already.