✔ WHEN FISH FLY (OpenNovellaContest2021)

𝔼𝕡𝕚𝕝𝕠𝕘𝕦𝕖

Through the window, I glimpse Sailfish nearing Hemlock, her footing steady as she steps over the vines wrapped around the bodies on the floor. I have only ever seen Hem lose control of her powers once before, and only Diamond had managed to get her to snap out of it.

I want to shout a warning at Fish, but I have my own things to worry about. Countless officers are following me on honts, and although I now have smoke from the damage some of the police officers have done, I still have to throw them off course, pick up Amber, Gold, and Vulcan and hopefully find Diamond before she consumes herself. Then I need to fly us all to our safe house while Hemlock holds off the rest of the police force.

I wish there was another way for us to act, but there is no time to plan another scheme, not enough time for Diamond to come here and knock out Hemlock - that is, if she even has the power to do so because she has been throwing rocks towards officers for the past half an hour and is no doubt starting to become drained, her powers dissipating the more she uses them.

The person who probably has the deepest pit of power is me due to my extensive training and my parents being two powerful beings themselves. I have been using quite a lot of my powers though, carrying more than a hundred Lorem's up to level twelve while misting us with the smoke. Some of them seemed to be in quite a bad condition, so I can only hope my uncle will take care of them until Gold has talked to her mother on the subject.

"Eagle!" Gold screams, waving at me. Not a second later Vulcan and Amber jump, my cushion-like cloud keeping them floating in the air as Gold jumps after them, landing behind Vulcan.

For us to get away, Hemlock is sacrificing herself. Because of her affinity with the mind of other beings, she is able to lock into their power source and drain them. That's why she has always been our back-up plan - once she starts consuming other Lorem's powers she can't stop, only able to control the minds of those who touch her vines. She has killed countless people against her will just as she was trained to do, our teachers making use of her lack of control and using her for their own deeds. Once we managed to get out of our old school she swore she would only use her powers in the most desperate moments if it is completely necessary for the well-being of others, and although Diamond and I tried to convince her that she only needed some training - real training - she refused.

"Eagle, let's go!" Vulcan shouts while holding her sister in her lap as she stares down at the men who are starting to look up at us from the ground.

A scream pierces the air sending chills down my back, the sound reminding me of the terrors Hemlock and I went through, the memory too fresh for me to forget, my body instantaneously flinching.

"Wait!" Gold shouts, pointing towards the window they had just jumped out of.

Sailfish throws Hemlock over the stone panel without even giving us a second look, my friend flailing towards the ground beneath her. I snap out of my panic and place a cushion of air underneath her, a frown appearing on my forehead as I stare at Sailfish. She looks so different. Just the way she moves makes me realize just how much she has been hiding from us - she is not a weakling with no training, but a fully-fledged warrior willing to go through anything in order to save the innocent.

My thoughts are confirmed when I feel the air shift, the water from the canal rising and swallowing the police officers who have been banging against my force field for the past few seconds. The water doesn't go back down, instead quickly moves towards the Aqua Lorem standing inside the building, her arms stretched wide as she receives the river rising to greet her.

The image is breathtaking. She looks like a goddess ready to meet her demise but deciding to fight against everything and everyone before she is taken down. As the water splashes over and around her, her hood falls down, revealing her pink and black hair.