30 The First Encounter

Cassidy and Waze had taken to walking home together most nights. Marco had pouted a bit at first at not being able to drive Cassidy home, but Cassidy said she could use the extra exercise. In reality, she mainly just enjoyed the time with Waze. They talked about a lot on their walks home. It had turned out that they lived a few neighborhoods apart so Waze would go to her own house first and Cassidy would walk another few minutes past it to her own. Tonight, they had decided to stop at a gas station on the way back to grab drinks. Abbus had just given Waze some money for helping out the Sunday before.

Waze popped open her juice can and took a long sip. They were sitting on the curb behind the store, relaxing for a moment.

"Byrd's doing pretty good, huh?" Waze glanced down at Cassidy.

"Yeah, she is." Cassidy nodded and took another sip of her soda.

Byrd had been fitting in just fine with the group. Everyone loved the sweet girl and she was a prodigy in martial arts, though her style was a bit ragged. She had gotten to the stage where she could make flowers grow from seeds in a matter of seconds. The others still didn't really understand how her ability could be useful in combat, but who were they to doubt Norris?

Collin and James had been friendly as well. Their friendship was somewhat public now. Another high-step had been talking them down and Waze had come up behind them and slapped them on the back. After that, she proceeded to give a quite harsh speech to the high-step telling them to stay away from the two. There were now even more rumors and gossip, but the majority of people left Waze, Collin, James, and Byrd alone. After all, they were a pretty powerful group. Some people had messed with Byrd again, but she had proceeded to kick their asses without any help. So Byrd was mostly left alone as well. They may have found friends within their circle, but the group was the epitome of outcasts.

The others at the training center were happy Waze had made friends at school, though Duke and Marco had given Waze some strained mumbling about how Waze shouldn't forgive them yet. Waze took it with a grain of salt. She had overheard Collin defending her from some high-steps, so she knew that they had really changed.

School was getting harder, it was a lot to keep up with along with the hours of training that she did after school. Her ability was growing, though. She had been able to use it multiple times in fights without destroying her body. Usually only for one hit or so, though.

"We should get going." Cassidy finished her drink in one sip and tossed it into the trash can, Waze doing the same.

"Yeah let's g-" Waze paused, tensing up. Cassidy did the same. Waze's instincts were screaming out, the hairs on the back of her neck tingling. Someone was there.

Waze and Cassidy went back to back, ready to defend themselves. Whoever this was certainly wasn't after their bags.

All of a sudden, Waze saw a leather strap flash out. If it weren't for her reflexes, it would've closed around her neck. Waze saw it come in slow motion. That was part of her god-given power, Waze had decided a while back. During crucial moments of fights the world seemed to slow down. Waze dodged to the side, her hand flashing out to grab the whip before she quickly let go. The plan had been to grab the whip and pull them forward, but Waze's hand came back dripping with blood from the barbed leather. Waze cursed under her breath and took a fighting position.

Waze did her best to look carefully at the men in front of her. They were dressed in all black, armed heavily. All of them had some sort of bandana over the majority of their faces. Waze looked closely and saw some sort of swirling symbol on the side of one man's neck that resembled an E. Could this be... Ebony?! Shaking her head, Waze decided she needed to focus on the fight right now. She narrowed her eyes at the men.

"Cassidy, before you do anything remember we shouldn't go overboard. If this is who I think they are, then they're probably aiming to sell us. And high-steps sell for more. So the least we do the better." Waze whispered quietly to Cassidy before she felt her nod behind her. Alright, lets go.

Waze shot in and easily knocked the men's knives out of their hands. One even appeared to be holding a machete. Of course, they wouldn't use guns. That would draw too much attention, and that wasn't what they were looking to do. Waze dodged around the men as she hit their weak points. One by one, they fell. Waze heard a strangled sound behind her and turned to see a man with a knife raised above Waze's head being choked by a snake. After a few seconds, he dropped to the ground.

Cassidy and Waze regrouped in the center of the area. There were only a few men left, but they still looked strong. Waze flung forward and slammed her foot into one man's side before she felt her foot crumple. Waze gritted her teeth in surprise. He must have an ability like Collin's, skin hardening of some sort. Cassidy was busying herself with the other two, so Waze stared at the man before her. She couldn't put much pressure on her foot, it was probably broken. But that was an issue for another time. Waze stepped back into her fighting stance, ignoring the searing pain in her foot. And then she dashed forward.

Waze feigned going into a punch before she fell forward into it, swinging her leg around and up. She concentrated all of her power into her leg, and saw it glow with light as it crashed into his face. He stumbled backwards, but before Waze could do anything else, she felt a hand grab hers and pull her forward.

Cassidy dragged Waze away from the scene and Waze looked back to see the men struggling up from the ground to run after them. Waze clenched her jaw and squinted through her tears before slamming her feet on the pavement after Cassidy.

Her foot was on fire with pain, and sprinting all the way home probably didn't help. But that's what Waze did anyway. They reached Waze's house panting and out of breath, and Waze slouched onto her porch in defeat. Cassidy had automatically followed Waze, there was no way they were separating at this point. It seemed as if the men hadn't followed them, or at least hadn't been able to keep up.

Finally, the pain in her foot grew too intense. Blood oozed from Waze's hand. Waze collapsed on the ground just before her front door.