BEACHWOOD PLACE MALL Summer. The glorious time where students no longer had to attend the long, boring days of school. They were free to do whatever they pleased. Not only was it the beginning of summer, but Gwen's father was celebrating his
48th 40th birthday.
Tess shrugged her backpack strap back over her left shoulder, admiring the bustling atmosphere of the Beachwood Mall. "So damn cool." She grinned, glancing at various different kiosks and mini-stores. There was an infinite amount of different presents they could get Gwen's father. "What does he like?" Tess asked her friend. "I mean, like where should we look to get his birthday present?"
Gwen followed Tess's gaze at the numerous stores within the mall. She grinned at her friend's adorable excitement. It had been a month since Gwen moved to Cleveland but she too still couldn't believe how many shops someone could shove inside one place. Malls didn't exist in Gwen's small town back home. Where would they find her dad a gift?
"Well, whatever we get him, I'm sure he'll love it. Seriously. We could buy him a pair of black socks and he'd be happy," Gwen laughed before an agonizing pain filled her head. Dropping to her knees, she clutched her aching head. To most, it might seem like Gwen was suffering from a severe headache. However, a small message was slowly venturing to her mind. Someone with supernatural gifts had entered the mall.
A couple of bystanders took note of the occurrence and weren't sure what to make of it. Tess knew what was going on, though. Gwen's headache meant there was another super powered being nearby. Tess dropped down to her friend's side in worry. She couldn't exactly relate to the pain that Gwen was going through, since it seemed like a pretty unique experience, all she knew was that those headaches sucked. Tess opened her mouth to mouth to ask if she was alright but was cut off when a booming voice came from all around the mall. “People of Beachwood!” It sounded like hundreds of voices were screaming at them. "You have become weak! You have diluted your essence in your quest for material things! I and my brothers have come to show you the way! Your prison could not contain us or the truth of our message..." Tess stopped listening to whatever the voices were saying, and she honestly didn't even know some of the words they were chanting existed. "Gwen, I'm sorry, but I think your dad's present might have to wait..." Tess was grateful that the outside voices had taken all the attention away from them. Her green eyes lit up when a particular idea popped up in her head. "This is our chance. To be real heroes," Tess looked at Gwen and hoped she agreed.
Gwen shook her head as the painful ache slowly disappeared from her mind. "There's more. Not just us or that villain wannabe shouting random nonsense. Oh by the way, he can multiply himself. Be prepared. Dang that was painful," Gwen said and looked around the once energized mall to find multiple versions of the man scattered everywhere destroying property faster than her eyes could keep up.
"Who does this guy think he is?" Gwen asked aloud, "but you're right. We can finally step up to the plate and show that these two teenage girls are heroes not to be reckoned with."
It wasn't long before the copies began blocking all doors, windows and any other exits available. They were locked in. Customers screamed and fled, running in all directions. It was complete chaos. Gwen closed her eyes and sensed someone with the gift of simple magic nearby. They needed to deal with these civilians before anything though.
"Tess?" She asked "I think this is something that'll go down in history for a long time. Let's make the most of it. We need to calm these people down... Any ideas?"
Tess pumped her fist in the air in triumph when Gwen agreed with her about being heroes. She looked up to the ceiling, there were windows. She needed a good outlet to the fresh air outside to boost her powers a whole lot more, but she could still hold her own without one. Some of those clones started racing towards them, a little too quickly. Tess instinctively reached for her backpack to pull out a pistol, but it was a futile action. She'd forgotten that she had ditched the weapon a few days ago after she starting feeling truly comfortable in the presence and company of Gwen and her dad, something she hadn't experienced in years. And besides, what kind of hero was she carrying a gun around?
Tess gulped but took a deep, concentrated, inhalation of the air around her. Taking control of the surrounding air. The air belonged to everybody, but especially her. She owned it. And with that final thought she leapt in the air and performed a drop kick in the air. The motion caused a gust of powerful winds to shoot from where she extended her feet for the kick, blasting back a few clones that were coming up the stairs. "That was awesome," she showed her teeth in a wide grin to Gwen before continuing, "but I don't really have a plan." She stood back to her feet and tried to formulate some sort of plan. "Uhhmm... Maybe we should try unblocking all these exits so the civilians could get out first? Make sure to blurt out a one liner or something cool, that's what heroes do. And you definitely have to say your codename!" Tess was letting her geeky hero perfection requirements from comics slow them down. That was only a minor problem, though, they had to start opening up exits before those duplicates overwhelmed them.
Gwen smiled and laughed "Look at you go Tess, you're already a superhero. Alrighty! I'll go break open an exit, cover me, okay?" Gwen walked toward a nearby window covered in random store materials. Trusting Tess had her back, Gwen threw the materials out of the way and smashed open the window with her bare hand. Biting her teeth, she waited for her hand to quickly heal. Just like that. Gwen still felt the pain of injuries, but it was over within a matter of seconds. With nothing cooler to say than her name, Gwen blurted out the first thing that came to mind.
"The White Guardian at your service," She moaned silently to herself.
How lame... Once everyone was aware of a giant exit, a stampede of people rushed toward it. Of course, they weren't the only ones that noticed it. Clones of the boy raced right for Tess and Gwen.
"Umm... Think fast... Fight? You can do that right? I just have to... uhh.. punch them," Gwen rubbed her hair and stepped in front of the escaping civilians. She was a superhero and she would protect them, no matter how frightened she was. "Alright! I can do thi-" A clone kicked her right in the face, sending her flying into a nearby store. Civilians gasped in shock, but continued scrambling to freedom. Any normal person wouldn't have survived the crash, but Gwen obviously wasn't normal. Rubbing off the dust of her fall, Gwen rose from the ground, covered in blood, but fully healed.
"You little-." Gwen said.
Tess absolutely forgot about the fact that she could control wind and instead just sprinted and tackled the clone that had just kicked her best friend into a store. She started throwing punches at his face repeatedly. "Don't. Ever. Touch-" before she could finish her threat was easily overpowered as another clone joined his fellow duplicate in forcing her to the ground. "Get off of me!" she struggled to get a clean blast of wind off as she fought to escape their grasp.
Out of nowhere, Gwen appeared and smashed the clone's, holding Tess down, head off with a metal baseball bat. The store she had been sent flying in just so happened to be a used sports store. Glowing with pride, Gwen stuck her hand out for Tess.
Tess gladly accepted the hand that Gwen reached out to her. Several more clones burst into the area but Tess had to get one thing certain before anything else. "Please tell me you said something cool."
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Quinn Myers