Chapter 6

The Monday after that Thanksgiving, before school I ran into a new Paladin. She met me outside my house when I was walking out.

“My name is Scarlet, I need to talk to you. Will you meet me after you get out of school?” She asked.

“Where do you want to meet?” I asked her.

“The coffee shop just outside the base on the edge of the Docks,” she said.

“Okay see you then,” I said to her before heading to school. Calling Control on the way I got information on Scarlet, she had registered last Friday which meant she was very new.

School was strange, everyone knew about the attack at my house, and that I had been shot. I was touched by the get well card from the junior class that everyone had signed. But by lunch I was sick of being asked what it felt like to be shot, I was about to the point of asking some of them if they would like me to show them. Getting my lunch I saw John and Wendy, they were holding a spot for me to sit.

“So how does it feel to get shot,” Wendy barely managed to get out, before laughing. John joined her after he looked at my face.

“HARDY HAR HAR,” I said sarcastically before sitting down. ‘At least its pizza day.’ I thought to myself.

“I couldn’t resist, sorry,” Wendy managed to get out between giggles.

Oh well, at least my friends felt well enough about it to tease me. I enjoyed lunch with them, we talked about the upcoming finals, and what we were doing for Christmas. Turns out both of them were going out of town for the holidays.

When I met Scarlet after school, she told me a secret that I promised to never tell. She soon became my best friend, meeting me three or four days a week for coffee. We would walk around the part of her patrol area by the coffee shop, meeting the people in the area.

After days of cramming, finals were a breeze. I had arranged to meet John and Wendy at her car after the last class before the start of Christmas break. “Hey guy’s, I have your gifts,” I said, holding out a box to each of them.

Wendy opened hers first, “I love it,” she said, gushing while holding up the flame colored scarf.

John opened his, “I can really use this,” he said looking at the mechanical pencil set that I bought him.

Wendy handed me her gift, it was a dream catcher. “Thank you,” I said with a hug.

John handed me a picture frame, I was surprised when I looked at it to see a picture of Wendy and me from training. I had my wings spread over Wendy to protect her as she was sending out a blast of flames.

“Wow, this is amazing. How did you get it,” I asked him in awe. Showing Wendy she just smiled.

He blushed, before saying, “My mom works at Control, she knows how I am with equipment. So she brought home videos from the Danger Zone, for me to see if I could improve on the equipment there. When I saw this moment in the video, I knew just what I wanted to do with it.”

I grabbed John and Wendy up in a hug, spinning around. I put them down, saying, “I love you guy’s and I’m going to miss y’all ‘till school starts again.”

I flew, home holding my gifts close. I couldn’t wait to show the picture to Mom. I ran into the house, “HEY MOM, Look what I got,” I yelled as I saw Mom in the living room, shoving the picture into her hands.

“Oh baby, this picture captures you perfectly, always protecting people,” she said while beaming at me. I helped Mom fix supper, we had one of my favorite meals, grilled pork chops, black eyed peas, and fried taters, yummy.

Dad came home with a surprise, a new Christmas tree. Our old one would have looked tiny in this huge house. We all put it up starting the decorating after supper. Once we had everything but the tree topper on Mom brought out a new angel she had bought, she had very carefully painted its wings and hair black to match mine. I got the honor of putting it on the tree. I loved looking at it, sitting up there looking over the living room.

The next day the attacks on Paladin’s started again. We had not had an attack or even a rumor of one since that first weekend. Though we did find that SGT. Grey hadn’t been a part of the larger plot but was simply out for revenge on Clint. The first attack was on Clint’s Dojo. One of the kids from the neighborhood that Clint had befriended saw a man aiming an RPG and hit him with a rock hard enough to make him miss. Clint managed to capture him, he was another ex con.

Three days later Wendy’s car was firebombed in her driveway, thank god her and her family were already out of town. Di and Bohica, both had attempts on them in the next week, but strangers in their neighborhoods stuck out like a sore thumb. So those were stopped before they even started.

The last few days before Christmas they seem to stop again. Christmas Eve dawned with overcast skies and a forecast for snow before midday. Looking out my window I couldn’t help thinking, ‘maybe I’ll get my first ever white Christmas’.

I smell something, OMG Mom started baking cookies without me. I quickly got dressed and flew down stairs, “MOM, how could you start without ME!” I demanded as I ran into the kitchen. You have to understand my mom bakes the best cookies and she does it from scratch.

Mom just smiled and pointed at the mixing bowl, she knew what I was really after. I grabbed it and started cleaning it with the old fingers to mouth technique, when I heard Mom giggle saying “The only reason you help me is to lick the bowl, and you miss sleepy head almost didn’t get any.”

I looked at the clock, WOW I had overslept, it was almost 10:00 AM. “Sorry Mom not sure why I overslept like that,” I mumbled around a mouth full of cookie dough.

Right after lunch it started snowing, “MOM, I’M GOING TO GO FLY IN THE SNOW,” I yelled as I ran out the back door. I thought I heard her say something, but I wasn’t sure so I kept going.

It was amazing, I flew up about 200 ft. Just below the cloud cover, hovering there I watched the world slowly turn white below me. I was snapped out of my reverie, when a rocket zoomed past me. Spinning around I saw a man, in a backyard four houses down trying to reload what looked like an RPG.

I didn’t have my bow with me,’Dumb Ass’, So I went up into the clouds to where he could no longer see me. Flying at an angle going past where he was, I dropped down from the cloud’s. He was still watching where I had been, looking around I checked to see if he was alone. There was a car with the motor running parked on the street in front of the house he was behind.

I went back up into the clouds before calling it in. I got a response from Clint saying, “I’ll be there as soon I can get there with the snow.”

That’s when I realized I could not wait for Clint. The nice couple that lived there had not gone out of town. Which meant they were home and probably either dead or prisoners. I came back down just low enough to see the guy who had shot at me. I had to time this just right so I lined up and dove at him, not to drive him into the ground though I felt like doing that. But rather to be able to hit him in the back of the head and carry him to my backyard. I had practiced this in training so I was hoping it would work now. We had found in training that my wings were kinda like an owl’s making almost no noise when I fly, which was why I thought this would work.

It worked. He didn’t hear me coming. I think I broke him as I heard a couple of bones snap when I hit him. Holding him I flew, barely clearing fences, back to my backyard. Landing, I called to Mom to come bring me zip ties for his arms and legs. I flew low away from my house, circling back to land in the backyard where he had been. Thanks to the gloom of the snowfall and the lights in the house I could see the couple tied to their kitchen chairs.

I didn’t see anyone else in the house with them, I crept up to the back door and eased it open. “Mr. Cooper, is there anyone else in the house with you?” I whispered while peeking around the door.

“No, but there are two of them out front in the car,” he said. Knowing that I could be seen from the living room windows if I walked in, I kept low as I crept inside on my hands and knees. Grabbing a butcher knife from the counter I cut them free.

“Head out the back door and I’ll take you to safety,” I urged them. Mr. Cooper led his wife outside, Taking one in each arm. I flew them the long way around to my house.

I repeated my flight to get back into the clouds unseen, Maneuvering around until I was above the car. I dove at the car, aiming for the center of the roof. I hit feet first crushing the roof down to the top of the seats. Rolling through off the driver’s side, I jumped up and ripped hisdoor off.

As I pulled the driver out, the man in the passenger seat shot me. My first thought was ‘Thank God I have my armor on.’ Popping the driver in the jaw he went limp, I really didn’t want the ass hat to shoot me again. I took the driver’s gun and threw it at the passengers head. It barely clipped him, but even that made a mess of his head.

When I was pulling the passenger out of the car, Clint and the police arrived. I quickly gave my report, including that the one who shot the RPG at me was in my backyard tied up. I must have seemed a bit rushed cause Clint kept giving me a slow down look.

Finally he asked, “Are you in a hurry or something Angel, you seem kinda rushed?”

I just looked at him before saying the magic words “Mom’s hot, fresh homemade cookies are coming out of the oven right, NOW!”

Both Clint and the police started laughing before telling me to go home. When I got there I found the first batch had burned while mom was helping me tie up the guy in the backyard. I wanted to beat up those thugs even more, They shot me so yeah I was feeling a little ticked with them.

Clint came in a little later, “Well, once again it was a bunch of ex cons, but this time one of them was a druggie, not sure yet if that means anything. You will be glad to know that the rocket that missed you hit probably the one safe place it could have. Your neighbor six houses down will need a new pool,” he said to me explaining what they had been able to find out so far.

Clint sighed, “We will be having a funeral in a few days though.”

Gasping I asked, “Who?”

He looked at me, “You might have met her Scarlet, the speedster that moved into the Docks area last month. She was shot stepping out of her house, she never saw it coming. She was invulnerable a bit more than you are, but that doesn’t help when you take a .50 caliber AP round to the head.”

I just stood up and walked back outside, hovering just off the ground letting the snow cover me. Maybe it would hide my tears. I did know Scarlet and I knew something about her that even Control didn’t know. She was only 15, but like me when she changed she looked older. I met her the first time at Sister Clarissa’s, she was at my first slumber party before her change.

I felt a touch on my leg and looking down, I saw my mom standing there holding out her arms like she used to when I was a little girl and was hurting. I fell into her arms and was crying and shaking so hard I couldn’t stand up. I went to my knees with Mom holding me and stroking my hair the whole time.

I’m not sure how long we were there before I felt myself being lifted and carried into the house. Clint put me down on the sofa. As soon as he did Mom had me in her arms again. I saw Clint pull out his phone as he walked away. A few minutes later he came back, “I have to leave, will you be alright?” he asked in a concerned voice. Mom just nodded to him, he stroked my head and turned and walked out.

I’m not sure how long Mom and I sat there. I heard Dad come in and say he would fix lunch. I guess I must have fallen asleep because I woke up laying on the couch and Mom wasn’t with me anymore. I had a giant dead weight on my legs, looking down I was glad I hadn’t tried to kick it off because it was Fang. I could hear what sounded like Mom and Di in the kitchen, I woke up Fang, getting up and heading in to see what was going on.

They were sitting at the table talking, but stopped and looked at me when I walked in. I sat down in my chair, and as soon as I did Fang plastered himself against my leg laying his head on my lap. Resting my hand on his head, I gently patted him.

Mom looked at me, “Are you feeling any better sweetheart?” she gently asked, putting her hand on my arm.

I just shook my head no. Looking at Di I stated flatly, “I want to speak at Scarlet’s funeral, and I’m not taking no for an answer.”

Di looking surprised asked in a worried tone, “Are you sure that’s a good idea considering the effect her death has already had on you?”

“I knew her better than anyone even Control did. We have been seeing each other since she emerged, she was my best friend,” I said. Mom gave me a strange look. I had never talked to her about Scarlet.

Di just nodded,”Okay then, we will arrange that for you.” she promised me.

“I need to call Wendy and John and let them know, they met her on a couple of our coffee dates,” I said to Mom while reaching for my phone, “No, I’ll wait till after Christmas to call them no reason to ruin their holiday.”

Getting up, Mom grabbed a plate of food out of the oven, setting it in front of me, “Eat some lunch, I know you don’t feel hungry right now but humor your old Mom, Okay,” she said. I ate even though my stomach was aching.

When I finished, while putting my plate in the sink I said, “I’m going to go lay down, for a little while thanks for coming to check on me Di, and my bed is big enough if your going to be here awhile Fang can join me for awhile if he wants to,” I walked out of the room. Fang followed me upstairs climbing into bed with me, he was still laying beside me when I fell asleep.

Feeling someone stroking my hair woke me up, opening my eyes I could see Dad sitting on the side of my bed. He was doing just like he did when I was ten and got the flu, it was comforting then and now. “Honey, your Mom has supper ready if you can get up and eat,” he said gently. I just hugged him, before getting up to wash my face. For the first time since I moved into this house, I walked down the stairs, I just didn’t feel like flying today.

I sat down to eat, pushing my food around my plate eating a little at a time. I saw the plate of Christmas cookies on the counter. I got up and found a ziploc bag and put two cookies in it. Mom was looking at me funny. I knew I had to explain myself to her.

“Scarlet, had never eaten homemade cookies ... I had invited her over today to help bake and eat some. The only reason she was outside was because she was leaving to come here for the c-o-o-k-ies,” was all I managed to get out before choking up.

Both my parents came and put their arms around me. I could feel their love for me, and I knew they were worried for me as well.

“Mom, Dad, I’ll be ok. Not today or tomorrow but I will be but I have thing’s I need to do before her funeral,” I reassured them.

I went upstairs, to my room to get the Christmas gift I had bought for Scarlet. Taking it and the bag of cookies, I walked outside. I called Clint to make sure he was at his Dojo, he told me he was going to be there for a little while. I landed by the back door and knocked, Clint raised the door letting me in.

“Clint, I need to know who to see about details for Scarlet’s funeral, I have a dress I would like her to be buried in.” I had to stop speaking for a second because I was choking up, “I also have something to go in her coffin.” I finished holding out the bag of cookies to him.