Chapter 3

Paul was still staring at the video screen when Lauren walked into the room.

"I see you're getting the same briefing as me," Lauren said shortly, looking at the still playing video.

"Yeah," Paul responded, a flick of his mental energy shutting the video off, "the General here was just a tad bit slow to get to the point. No offense, General. So, why are you briefing us two on it, and not just briefing us with the rest of the soldiers?"

"Well," General Thomas began nervously, "I'm afraid there won't be any general briefings for the soldiers. We don't want the news of these powers leaking out; not only would it scare the public, but it might entice some of our soldiers to join the Supernus just for the benefits it would offer. So, we decided we'd use an assassination team to remove the last evidence of Tarlas' little invention before it became public knowledge. We needed a team that was so powerful that they would not easily be tempted by the power of the Supernus, and that had proven their loyalty many times in the past. The closest thing we could find was you two."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Paul responded dryly. "But exactly how are we supposed to kill that Pyrokinetic guy if he's locked up inside of a Supernus base somewhere? We're damned lucky we got out of Tarlas' base alive."

"Luckily the Pyrokinetic, whose name we don't know I am afraid, has solved that bit of a problem for us." General Thomas was looking happy that he could finally give some good news. "He escaped from Supernus country, and has... let's say... established his independence. From the satellite photos we received, it doesn't look like the Supernus base he burned down is anything more than cinders anymore. It took ninety-two firefighters, fourteen fire engines, and four helicopters to put the damned blaze out. This guy is incredibly powerful, so watch it. He is making it easy for us to track him though."

Paul watched as the screen came to life once again, showing a path of sixteen red dots on a satellite photo. He immediately understood.

"He's leaving a trail of blazes behind him, that we can follow. He wants a confrontation."

General Thomas nodded. "Exactly what our intelligence guys have concluded. He's currently somewhere in Nevada, according to this trail."

Paul's eyes suddenly flashed in alarm. "WHAT? There was a Supernus base in the United States? This guy is in the fucking United States? Oh hell no! We need to go right now; no firebug dick is going to go burning down my country!"

Three Hours Later

Paul groaned as he looked towards the ground from about a mile above it.

"How the hell are we going to get down near him without getting caught by a blast of fire?"

Both Paul and Lauren had agreed that they would have to drop nearly directly onto the Pyrokinetic; he was in the suburbs of Las Vegas, and rapidly approaching the city itself. If he got much further, he could end up burning down the entire strip, along with tens of thousands of people.

"Hope like hell that our kinetic shielding will hold?" Lauren said in an unconvinced tone.

Paul nodded grimly, and leapt from the plane. Both of them knew that to minimize the risk of being picked off in the air, they had to stay in the air the least amount of time possible. It was Lauren who had come up with the idea of actually using their kinetics to accelerate them downwards, forming a ball of energy around them as they neared the ground. Hopefully it would allow them to roll to a stop without as much as a bruise.

It didn't work quite as planned. Paul slammed into the ground first, followed by Lauren. They were both flat on their backs, the wind knocked out of them. Evidently, kinetic shields were not up to impacting the ground at MACH 2. Paul was the first to get up, glaring daggers at Lauren.

"Oh no... we won't feel anything... not a damned thing..."

Lauren got up slowly, moving stiffly. "Sorry... I thought it would work."

Paul suddenly ran forward, grabbing Lauren, and flinging them both to the ground ten meters away... just as a gout of flame as wide as a city bus encompassed the area they had been just moments before. He could feel the searing heat of the flames wash over him, causing him to immediately break out in a sweat.

Paul looked down the street, towards the Pyrokinetic that was walking towards them. He gathered up the biggest blast of telekinetic energy he could muster, throwing it towards the Pyrokinetic with amazing speed. Unfortunately, Paul's attack was waived aside as easily as if it had been made of nothing but wind. The Pyrokinetic gave him absolutely no time to think of a stronger response. It was all he could do to erect a telekinetic shield strong enough to deflect the flames that were launched towards him and Lauren. It held, but only barely.