Blinq And You'll Miss It (gxg)

Chapter Five

"Okay, are you sure about this?" I asked Libby over the headphones. She'd modified the goggles to fit under a motorcycle helmet so we could hide my hair, and then done up a gorgeous black suit with red accents, and little one piece foot boots with Nike bottoms. She even made cool gloves with the backs of my fingers exposed so I could touch someone if I needed to, but I still wouldn't leave fingerprints. I had to admit, I looked pretty good as I crouched on the roof of a Manhattan office building overlooking Columbus Circle, right on the corner of Central Park. It was Thursday after school, and I was about to initiate our plan.

"Yep, the only brother near you is Hayden. If you want to do something crazy, this is the time." Libby's voice sounded calm in my ears, and I could imagine her in her room with the laptop open. One of the best things about the goggles was that they had a little sensor that gave their location. But Libby adjusted it so that mine wouldn't show up on my mom's sensors, only on Libby's. Even better, because she had the original equipment, she could keep the location of my brothers on her computer too.

Hayden was the easy one, because I could see him right in front of me in the center of Columbus Circle, surrounded by the little fountains in the water feature as well as a few civilians that were asking for autographs. Obviously, I wasn't going to do anything to hurt Hayden, sorry, Crystal Cube, but I could sure embarrass him and have a little fun. "Okay, I'm going to go mess with him, let me know if the others react."

"I'm watching and recording!" She had installed a little spy cam in my helmet so she could watch everything I saw, and I couldn't wait to see it. I hoped it would be a fun video to share with my brothers later!

I crouched down, examining what I wanted to do. It wouldn't be too bad, I'd just get my brother wet, and maybe some of the people around him. But it was a nice summer day, and it would be a fun prank. I reached out with my mind, gripping all the slippery water in one of the pools on the far side of the little park from Hayden and lifted it in a globe, using my telekinesis to maneuver it around the statue in the middle of the circle, and over my brother's head. There were several people giggling and laughing at the edge of the circle as they noticed the water bubble floating there, and I was one of them.

The mighty Crystal Cube was oblivious though, talking to some admiring young women that liked the look of his body in the suit he wore. It was a patchwork of light and dark blue, with some stylized icebergs on it. Not exactly my style, but oh well. He had a little cowl with a dark blue cape, and the standard issue goggles to help mask his identity. Seconds later, that suit was covered in a layer of ice.

Much to my shock, when the water landed on and around him, it all turned to a sheet of ice, making several of the girls slip when they panicked. One girl started windmilling her arms at the edge of the ice, and I raced down the side of the building with my super speed, getting there to catch her just before she fell back onto the stone at the base of the statue.

Hurting the civilians was not at all what I wanted, but I had no idea that water hitting my brother would do that!

"Who are you and why did you attack these people?" Hayden demanded while sinking into a fighting stance as I helped the girl off the ice. People in the area did the typical human thing and retreated only far enough to record the situation on their phones.

"I'm sorry!" I stammered through the vox unit on my throat. "It was an accident! I didn't know you'd turn everything to ice like that."

"Ha! I don't think anyone with powers uses them by accident. Put your hands up, you're coming with me."

Shit! This wasn't going well. "Nah, I don't think so. I'm sorry for the trouble, but I'll just be on my way."

"That wasn't a question!" He pointed at me with his hand, and I took two fast steps to the left, just as a globe of ice appeared where I was.

"I realize you weren't asking. But I'm still not going," I hold him with a little sass.

Hayden was a good looking guy, he certainly had no problem getting dates, but the snarl that was currently on his face wasn't part of his normal look. "You're not making this any better for yourself. You've endangered civilians and attacked a member of the city's protection unit. That puts you in violation of at least a dozen laws."

"Kam, be careful. Iron Hawk and Flaming Panther are on the way," said Libby's worried voice in my ear. "It looks like your mom must have been monitoring the feeds and called them in."

I wasn't really surprised, they'd all been complaining about being bored last Sunday, so having someone new challenge them must have been exciting. I wasn't too sure I wanted to deal with all three at the same time though. Maybe for the second run through I could handle that, but for now, I just needed to mess with Hayden.

Now, something that Libby had done for me was to add some very convenient zippers on my skin tight suit so I could go to the bathroom if I needed to. My brothers didn't have that, so they had two piece suits instead, so they could pull the bottoms down if a crisis of the nether regions occurred. Of course, that also meant that if they faced someone with super speed, that person could pants them.

Which I did.

Hayden couldn't see the grin through my helmet visor, but it was there when I zipped behind him and pulled his pants down below his butt, letting him moon the people making the videos, and then I ran right behind the statue to peek at him. "Is that against the law too, Crystal Palace?"

"It's Crystal Cube!" he yelled while covering up his icicle and pulling up his pants at the same time. "And yes, that is another assault! You're going to be in jail for a long time!"

"I don't think so Cubic Zirconia. I'm not going anywhere with you."

He opened his mouth, no doubt to protest me messing up his name again, then snapped it shut. He started walking around in a circle, trying to get a better look at me, and I just kept the statue between us. "You have nowhere to run."

Oh, really, he had no idea. "Kam, Hawk is coming up on your left, and Panther is behind you. It looks like they're going to try to box you in against the Hudson River." I knew the Hudson was four blocks to the west, but I had no interest in allowing them to follow through with their plan.

I ducked behind the statue again, then turned and ran into Central Park. I could see Kian coming down one of the park pathways on the same motorcycle he complained about the other day and headed right for him. I wasn't sure what information had been shared, but he did look surprised to see me running towards him, even if I wasn't going too fast. He quickly got off the bike, and then got into a fighting pose with his three balls of fire orbiting him. I was never going to match him with his martial arts training, but I had no intention of getting close to him either.

I pulled up about ten feet from him and gave him a little salute. "It's an honor to meet the Flaming Pantera! Any relation to the band?"

"Crystal Cube mentioned that you had stupid jokes," he muttered. He had a cool black suit, which was why I was able to steal so much fabric and had the same goggles to go with it. "But they won't save you from jail.

"You're right!" I pulled out a small black sphere from my belt that was about the same size as a golf ball. "But this might." Libby had given me three of the little balls, like a magician's prop that would make a cloud of smoke, to use to make a quick escape.

Speaking of which, she was now screaming in my ear. "Hawk and Cube are coming in fast!" Rhett was the dangerous one, because he could fly faster than the other two could move.

"See ya!" I yelled and slammed the ball down into the asphalt. I was instantly enveloped in a cloud of black dust, and I accelerated to the east, zipping right past Iron Hawk without him even realizing it, and was out of the city in under a minute.

When I appeared in Libby's bedroom just a few minutes later, she was jumping up and down happily.

"That was awesome!" she screamed as soon as she saw me.

"Yeah." I agreed, giving her a high five since she hated hugs. "And the next time will be even better!"