Toka-Ace #1: The Re-Emergence
Chapter 25

I was in an upstairs room with Katherine and Yasmine. The bedroom seemed like it was made for a boy. There was a poster of Russell Wilson on the wall overlooking the computer desk and a cool looking Window’s PC on the desk itself. There was a TV in the corner and a PlayStation console with Assassin’s Creed and other cool games. Were it not for the circumstances, I’d be seething with jealousy over all his stuff.

Adam was still guarding the front door and making sure that no one left.

A couple had been out jogging when they were suddenly attacked and mauled by what one witness described as being a wolf. Someone had fired a gun to scare it away, but by that time the alleged ‘wolf’ had already done its damage. The couple was going to the hospital with life threatening injuries.

“It’s beginning,” Katherine said in an urgent whisper. “Tovlin will kill innocent people. We have to stop them.”

“But Troy is the only one who’s powers have manifested,” Yasmine said. “The kids would have to be protected. Especially Troy; he’s Beatrice’s legacy.”

Beatrice’s legacy? I let the words wash over me. I felt a swelling of pride and at the same time a longing for the woman who had acted as my mother.

“This is a trap to draw us out,” Yasmine stated.

“We swore that we would do the right thing,” Katherine argued. “They’ll kill people.”

“I know,” Yasmine said. “What’s the right thing, retreat or stop Tovlin’s ruthlessness?”

Katherine began to pace. “I know that we swore to do right by these kids. It’s not of question of whether or not we fight Tovlin, but how do we fight Tovlin?”

“So how do we fight?” Yasmine asked. “We don’t know the extent of Tovlin’s resources.”

“We know that they’re desperate,” Katherine said.

Yasmine and I looked at Katherine.

She was absolutely confident in her statement. “Why else would they try to negotiate and try to strong-arm us into handing Troy and the others over?”

“That sounds good in theory,” Yasmine said. “But it’s dangerous as a solider and tactician to underestimate your enemy, It’s best to error on the side of caution.”

Katherine was unwavering. “I know that.”

“Besides that, Tovlin has enough to carry out their attacks on us and on the public,” Yasmine pointed out.

“We’re losing time,” I cut in impatiently. “What’s our plan of attack?”

“Tovlin promised that their next attack was going to take place downtown,” Katherine reminded us. “Troy and I will go ahead.”

“Are you insane?” Yasmine grabbed Katherine. “You’re going to fight Tovlin, just the two of you?”

“I’m not a pushover, ya know,” I said to Yasmine. “You said that I was Beatrice’s legacy. That means that I have to do right by people.” I turned to Katherine. “Okay, Katherine, what’s the plan?”

“The plan is to do whatever we can to stop Tovlin,” Katherine said. “We’ll avoid fighting unless we absolutely need to.”

Yasmine left the room. I could hear electronic keys beeping in the other room. Katherine and I waited patiently.

Yasmine returned with a black backpack. She set it down on the bed and opened it to show Katherine and me the inside.

“I kept some things from the old days, just in case.” Yasmine reached in and pulled out something that looked like a magnum six-shooter except that where the chamber was supposed to be, there was an orb that glowed blue. There was something that looked like a baton and several explosives.

“That’s an impressive array,” I complimented. “But I think I have you beat.”

Wisps of white fire swirled around me, and then those wisps thickened into flames and engulfed me. In a flare of white fire I was transformed.

“You’ll need to be careful,” Yasmine said.

“Ready to go?” Katherine asked.

“Sure,” I answered.

I put my arm around Katherine and merged the two of us into a shadow. We shot upwards up the wall and emerged on the roof. The cool night breeze greeted us as we overlooked the rest of the apartment complexes. I willed for my wings to appear.

“Ready?” I asked.

“Let’s go,” Katherine replied.

“Then here we go.” I swept Katherine up into my arms to carry her. I bent my legs and flared my wings. With a flap, we were in the air. Higher and higher until the houses and apartments below looked like little rectangles. We flew over traffic and more neighborhoods on our way downtown.

I flew over Wisconsin Avenue on my way downtown. “The Bradley Center, The Marcus Center, There are so many targets,” I fretted. “Where is Aug-Ig going to strike?”

“What’s going on downtown tonight?” Katherine asked.

Katherine and I were stuck. Downtown was a big place, especially when you looked at it from above and saw the stream of traffic and crowds of people, at restaurants, clubs, theaters, all enjoying a night out.

Aug-Ig only said that his attack would be downtown. But where would it take place? How would Tovlin carry it out? Lives were on the line. We needed the correct answer and we needed the correct answer fast.

I landed on the roof of an apartment complex and set Katherine down. She Googled a list of scheduled events.

“We can rule out sports the Bucks don’t play tonight. Currently, there are no plays,” I said aloud as I read Katherine’s screen.”

“So that leaves the fish fry,” Katherine said.

“It’s as good a place as any to start looking,” I said. I picked Katherine up and flew.

Any fish fry would be held near the lake. It was easy enough to replace. It was the park near a very popular jogging path that went along the lake. There were conveniently placed port-a-johns for the fish fry-goers. There was going to be a movie shown, so a screen was set up inside a large metal frame on a stage. Off to one side was a series of deep fryers. There were several places to get food. A medical tent was off to one side.

The smell of fried food filled the air. People were smiling and joking, out to have a good time. I saw various workers. First I noticed the cooks and the servers at the food serving station. There were a few policemen both on horses, and on foot mixed in with the crowd.

Some people had blankets laid out on the ground where they sat and enjoyed the movie. Couples leaned on one another and fed one another, smiling. Groups of friends enjoyed a good time out together.

Luckily, Katherine and I were in the night sky and everyone below was far too involved in the movie or their conversations to look up. Would any Tovlin operative think to look up? I wondered.

The moving mass of people had no clue of what dangers were down there.

“Those police men down there,” Katherine said. “We should land and convince them to evacuate the crowd.”

“How do I make them listen?” I worried.

“Your very appearance should get their attention,” Katherine said. “Just land.”

Before I could land…

KA-BOOM!!

Fire shot into the sky. People screamed in confusion and horror collecting their loved ones and abandoning their blankets. It was an ugly scene; people who fell were trampled by those who fled to make their own escape.

I could feel the shockwave reach me in the air. I teetered, thrown from my place as the ground forced me back. I recovered and watched as horrified as anyone on the ground, but with a much better view.

A second and third explosion rocked the area as the flames reached the grease from the deep fryers. The panicked screams of people below reached me. I felt helpless to do anything but watch.

“Troy!” Katherine yelled.

Her voice shook me from stunned inaction.

I flew over the scene feeling guilty, and angry. The heat from below was intense, the smoke was thick and for a moment, I felt like I was staring into the mouth of hell.

The metal frame of the screen had fallen on top of someone, pinning the poor woman underneath its weight. A little girl, who couldn’t have been more than six years old, was trying to pull her mother out. It was a futile attempt. “Someone please help my mommy!” she cried, the words nearly swallowed by the crackling of the flames. But there was no one around to help.

At that moment I decided to act. I dove into the inferno below. There was a small clearing near the stage where it was safe to stand. I set Katherine down. “Just be careful, you can’t survive in this kind of environment for too long,” Katherine warned.

The woman’s face, already in agony, became awash with terror at the sight of me. “I’m here to help,” I assured.

Katherine grabbed the little girl and pulled her back. “Get my daughter out of here please!” the pinned woman begged me.

“I will,” I promised. “I’m going to get you out too.”

I placed my hands underneath the beam and heaved. It was heavy even with my enhanced strength. On top of that it was hot. The flames had spread to nearly surround us and they were growing bigger all the time.

The fire seared my hands as I touched but I huffed and strained to lift the heavy metal beam. It came up six inches. My arms quivered I was in such exquisite pain as the smoke began to fill my lungs and make me weaken.

“Listen to me,” I said hoarsely straining to hold this beam. “I need you to crawl out; I can’t keep this thing up forever.”

Katherine rushed in and pulled the woman out from underneath the beam.

“What about the little girl?” I asked.

“She’s alright,” Katherine assured. “She’s right behind me.”

Once the woman was safely out, I dropped the beam. Katherine held the woman up. They were both sweating and their hair was plastered to their forehead. “Troy, you have to get us out of here, right now.”

I didn’t need Katherine to tell me that. She loaded the woman onto my shoulder. Katherine held the little girl tightly. I held onto Katherine and I flapped my wings. We rose but not nearly as much as I expected.

My body hurt and my muscles felt stiff and sore. I flapped harder and we rose a little more.

I was too weak from the flames to hope to make it very far. I hoped to rise high above the flames, but I was not going to be able to make it. I’d have to sacrifice flying high for flying far.

Thick black smoke rose. I swerved in the air to avoid it. “Troy you’re lowering!” Katherine yelled. I flapped harder.

“I’m looking for a place to land.” I said.

“Those trees,” Katherine pointed out. “If you can manage to fly above them, then you can glide down and land on the other side safely.”

I focused on rising and gave more flaps of my powerful wings. I rose and then spread my wings to glide over the tops of the trees. On the other side was a small park. It would take a few minutes for the flames to get that far. The woman and her daughter would have ample time to get away.

With a graceful glide, I landed in the middle of the park. Katherine and the woman got off of my shoulders and immediately hugged her daughter. “You saved my life, thank you.” She said.

“You’re welcome.”

“Thank you for saving us,” the girl said appreciatively. “I was so scared.”

At that moment, my body hurt, my muscles were stiff and sore but I felt a tug at my heartstrings.

“Hurry and get away from here. Get to some place that’s safe.” Katherine instructed.

The mother took her daughter and ran away from the flames leaving Katherine and I alone in the middle of the small park. The fire raged on the other side of the line of trees and it was making its way toward us.

“Give me a minute,” I said. “Then I’ll replace some way to fight the fire.”

“Don’t,” Katherine objected. “Let the firefighters worry about that. We have to move on to stop Tovlin’s next attack.”

“But,” I started.

“I know how you feel but there’s nothing we can do here.” Katherine said. “We have to get to the lake to Aaahhh!!”

Katherine was suddenly knocked off balance. Another shot knocked her to the ground. But I could hear no shot.

I looked around to see where the attack had come from. Standing twenty feet away was a man holding a gun. Upon closer inspection, what he held didn’t look like a typical gun. The barrel had a frill going all the way around it that looked like the frill that a triceratops had and was metallic looking.

He aimed the weapon at me. I saw the frill glow green and then I the pain hit. Suddenly I felt very disoriented. The sky blended with the ground and I felt like the world was spinning around me.

I felt a hand close on my collar. As the effects of the weapon began to fade away, I could feel that I was being dragged on grass. I jerked my body and grabbed the man who was dragging me. My thrashing threw him off balance. He released me and I got to my feet. He leveled his weapon at me. I quickly zapped his hand with an electrical shock.

Then I leapt and kicked him in the stomach.

He went down hard. I grabbed him and lifted him up by the lapels. Katherine had recovered and was now coming towards me. “That’s a pulse distortion weapon,” she explained. “It’s good for stunning your opponents. Normally that is, it won’t work on you for very long, but I’m guessing that this man didn’t know that.”

“What about you?” I asked.

“I’m still feeling the effects, but I equipped myself with a Tifil. It’s a small orb that’s used to absorb and redirect energy.”

The man raised his arm and bit into the flesh between his index finger and thumb.

“What the?” I yelped startled.

The man foamed at the mouth as he shook violently like a six-foot trout out of water. He coughed up blood and it ran down his mouth. His eyes and ears bled, his eyes then rolled into the back and he stopped moving.

I set him down. Katherine knelt down to examine the man. “That’s weird.” she commented.

“What?” I asked.

“Troy, get this man some place out of the way of the fire and I’ll have Adam come and pick him up.” Katherine said. “We still have to get to the lake.”