The Suns of Liberty: Legion: A Superhero Novel by Michael Ivan Lowell Page A

okay?”
         Kimberly nervously nodded her head.
         “Don’t be afraid, this will just last a second.” Fiona
squinted and reconsidered. “Maybe it’s best you just close your eyes. Don’t
move a muscle,” she repeated. Her hands flew up and she opened her palms wide.
Beams of light shot out and a wide field of light surrounded Kimberly on all
sides. 
         Flash!
         “Okay, you can open them now.”
         They were standing in the middle of the Palace at Lake Tahoe.
         It had taken exactly one second.
         Kimberley was completely thrown, not sure what she was
seeing.
         But her sister, Kristen, saw her immediately, and
tears began to stream down her cheeks. She squealed her sister’s name and
rushed toward her, and in the same moment that Kimberly realized who it was,
Kristen had her in a bear hug.
         “Oh, thank you! Thank you!” Kristen cried, smiling at
Fiona through her tears. “How bad are you hurt?” Kristen asked her sister,
releasing her from the death grip, trying to see where all the blood was coming
from.
         “No, it’s not my blood.”
         ‘Whose blood is it?” came an accusatory question from
behind them.
         Becky.
         “They resisted,” said Fiona, defiantly.
         “Nice,” Arcadia laughed and held up a high five to
Fiona, who returned it as carefully as she could, still glowing in her own
power. She didn’t want to rip her friend’s arm off, after all.  Especially with
Becky watching.
         “This is not a game, girls.”
         Arcadia shot Becky a look that said she was the
biggest prude on the planet and that she just didn’t get it. There was also a
bit of fuck off in the look .
         “Can we not do this here?” Fiona said, nodding toward
the two weeping sisters.
         Becky’s eyes shot past Fiona, and it was in that very instant
that something tweaked Fiona’s consciousness. It was like a memory that flashed
for a second, or an image from a dream recalled and then forgotten just as
fast.
         Fiona shook her head.
         Had she heard something? She listened, but Becky was
squawking. She squinted, tried to concentrate. Something was wrong, but what
the hell was it?
         “Fiona!” Becky finally barked. And the girl peered up
at her, confusion clearly mapped across her face. “Are you okay, honey?” Becky
said in a softer tone, recognizing a look on Fiona’s face she’d seen before..
         “Yeah, uh, what were you saying?”
         Becky motioned behind her and Fiona turned. “They
wouldn’t take no for an answer.”
         It was Fred Elders, mayor of South Lake Tahoe, flanked
by two state troopers from the CHP. “Ms. Fletcher,” Elders said as politely as
he could, but his impatience was clear in his voice, “I can’t hold off any
longer. The city council voted to take legal action if you don’t move this
encampment. Now, you’re on city property here, and this commune, or whatever
you call it, is chasing away all the tourists.”
         “What do you call those,” Fiona asked him, motioning
to the thousands camped out below them.
         “They don’t spend any money. It’s hurting our bottom line.
Our town lives and dies on tourist dollars, and if I can’t get you to move,
then the state’s gonna have to do it. Now, you don’t want that kind of
trouble.” 
         One of the state troopers beside Elders nodded, “Nope,
you sure don’t.”
         But Fiona wasn’t listening. The sound was back. Or was
it a memory? She still couldn’t tell. But something was wrong. And as she concentrated
on what it was, a solitary chill of light and energy ran down her spine. A
feeling of complete and total dread like she had never felt washed over her.
          She lifted her burning eyes to Elders. And the old
man wilted. The power that radiated off the girl was immense. It grabbed every
molecule in the air and suffocated