Guardians of Chicago Chp 6

    First thing was that over on Saturday the marching band participated in “band day” over at Northwestern University. It was a day where the college marching band would invite high school bands in the surrounding area to perform with them at half time. Apparently, the marching band does something like this each year, and this year it would be at Northwestern.

    Let me tell you, it was an interesting experience. For one thing, it was raining majority of the time that we were there. We had to get there really early to practice with all of the other bands that attended the event, and during the practice and even afterwards it was a downpour. For the first quarter of the football game, majority of the bands were hiding out in the covered areas of the stadium where all of the food and souvenirs were sold.  

     Shane, Hannah, a few other band friends, and I were huddled over by a dry spot on the wall as we ate lunch. We had a clear view of the rain pouring down and it wasn’t lighting up at all. Another reason why it was interesting is because during that day I recently learned that Hannah broke her arm after our first home football game back last week. It sucked because her arm had to heal normally. If she broke her arm in Calvatrace, she’d only have that cast for half the time thanks to the trained doctors there using their abilities to heal her.

    Well, besides going to Northwestern for a band thing, we were also celebrating something.

    The following day is Jaillie’s thirteenth birthday. I know, it feels kinda weird to be celebrating birthdays since the whole year thing in Calvatrace, but she’s gotta turn thirteen someday. So right when the Northwestern event was over, Jaillie and our parents picked me up and we drove an hour towards Chicago. We decided for her birthday that we’re going to stay in the city for the weekend.  The city is only an hour drive from our house, so it’s pretty special that we’re staying a day there.

    After a nice nap in the car ride there, our first stop was Greektown that was just on the outskirts of the downtown area.  Reason for going there was that the heritage museum in the town had a special gallery featuring the new Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief movie. Since Jaillie loves reading the books, our parents thought she’d be interested in seeing some of the behind the scenes things from the movie; but of course, the books are always better.

    Following the museum, we decided to eat there for the heck of it since it was already lunch time. Strangely enough, Greek town had the best pulled pork sandwich I’ve tasted so far.

    Anyway, driving to the downtown area we decided to drop off our things at our hotel. It was the Renaissance Blackstone hotel and it was pretty fancy for us staying there for a day. We got a really nice bedroom with these fancy black and orange hanging lights that flanged sliding doors that go to the bathroom and a big TV sitting in front of two queen beds for the four of us. Being there just felt like the perfect time to relax. Our dad took a nap while Jaillie, our mom, and I watched the first King Kong movie made and just made fun of it to no end. It was great. Mean, but great.

    Next thing on the agenda after a bit of resting, we decided to take a walk around the hotel and area. Can you believe that this hotel has a small little art gallery? Just makes the place even fancier. Not to mention that the hotel is right on Michigan Avenue so all of the parks were right within walking distance.  We took a lot of pictures as we walked through the many different parks and famous Chicago landmarks like the Buckingham Fountain, the Art Institute of Chicago’s new Modern Wing, and Millennium Park. It was so nice, and not to mention that while we walked the sun slowly went down and turned the sky above us bright orange.

    The walk was nice, but as time went by we decided to go get dinner at this restaurant called Cosi. We’ve only been there one other time and loved it for the fact that we could make s’mores there. So naturally, right after dinner our parents got us the s’more material so we could have a fun dessert.

    To end off the day, we decided to head down Magnificent Mile just for kicks. We sure as heck weren’t going to buy anything, but just looking around was fun enough. Not to mention that after walking the length of the Mag Mile we decided to hang around the historic Water Tower. The Water Tower looked really cool illuminated in white light with dark skyscrapers and the night sky as its backdrop. On one corner of the Water Tower was a Borders book store. Walking in there for fun, I walked with Jaillie as she searched for a new book to read. Sadly she didn’t find anything worthwhile at the moment, but maybe she would get something in the next stop. I just hoped that she didn’t see it (then again how couldn’t she?)

    To heighten the surprise, as we walked down the busy sidewalk and across the street I told Jaillie to turn around and walk backwards. She laughed at the silly request and shook her head. “Why?”

    “Because it’s a surprise!” I exclaimed over the noise of cars and pedestrians. After guiding her across the street, I made her stop right in front of the building and smiled. “Okay, turn around.”

    Jaillie turned around and gazed up at the long flashing sign that hung off the wall of the building. Grinning from ear to ear, she held her arms out wide and yelled, “Chocolate!”

    My mom and I laughed as we gazed up at the Hershey store sign as the lights around it flickered on and off. I’m sure she knew that we were going here but I just felt the need to keep up the surprise. We walked into the chocolate smelling store and just explored the place; checking out all the merchandise, looking up at this giant Hershey’s kiss with the paper stream slowly spiraling upward, and even scanned the ready-made desserts in their store in the back.

    It was really cool, but we didn’t get anything this time around. Maybe a year or so ago we came to this store for the first time and that’s when we bought stuff. Jaillie got a messenger bag while I got a big Hershey pillow that I still use to this day.  

    We didn’t stay in there long, and before we knew it Jaillie and I strolled through the revolving doors and back outside. I grinned as I nudged her side, “So were you surprised?”

    She opened her mouth, ready to respond, but she hesitated.

    At first I wasn’t sure why but it was seconds later when I realized why. I sensed something I haven’t felt in a long time. Snapping our heads around to find where the sense was coming from, I looked over to and saw something strange move out of the corner of my eye. Looking up towards the sky, a black figure moved so fast that it was hard to keep track off. No Mortal could have seen it. Heck, Jaillie might have had trouble catching a glimpse of the thing, but thanks to my dragon vision I intently stared at the fast flying thing as it rammed right into the side of the Water Tower in the middle of the square.

    My body flinched as I watched the base of the tower erupt in flames. Pedestrians around the area screamed in fright and backed up as fast as they could. The horses along the edges of the sidewalk reared up in a panic and began to gallop away as fast as they could with a carriage strapped to their backs.

    I was no doubt freaking out on the inside, but it was more of who started the fire that got me riled up.

    I watched the black figure closely as it landed over on a building to my left. The creature had a long, greasy face with fish like fins on the side of its head. It was crouched down on four arms and swished two bony tails behind its back. I only got a quick glimpse of the thing before it scurried off down an ally and blended into shadows.

    My god…that was a Creperum, I thought as my pulse began to race. Why was that a Creperum? Why is it here?! Why did it explode the Water Tower?!

    My thoughts were cut off as Jaillie grabbed my arm and dragged me back into the Hershey store. Many people began to pile into the building as if it was safe to run away from a fire inside here. My breath was getting cut short from the shock as I looked at her. “D-Did you see that?”

    “N-No? Maybe?” she stuttered, not exactly sure whether to tell me the truth or not.

    I shook my head and looked outside. I still wanted to wrap my brain around this but there was so many things happening at once that I couldn’t concentrate. Employees of the store were yelling over the crowd, telling them to exit through the back doors and to get away as far as possible. Jaillie, our parents, and I listened to the instructions and booked it, but in the back of my mind I still wanted to know more. I never knew that Creperum created chaos out here in the Mortal world, and even did so without being caught? That’s ridiculous! That’s probably what Shane was talking about. His dad fought Creperum out here and prevented them from causing chaos like this.

    Scurrying out the back of the Hershey’s building, I just couldn’t help but look back towards the slowly growing fire. The eerie, orange glow reflected off of the nearby buildings and the people who were running through the streets and sidewalks. Even people abandoned their cars in the middle of the street to get away. This was literally what happened last time I wanted to help. There was a fire, my element, right in front of me and I couldn’t do anything. I had to run and play helpless.

    I looked over in front of me. Watching as Jaillie gripped onto my hand tight as we kept together in the crowd.

    No, I had to figure this out. I couldn’t just sit back again. I was right here. I could help! Besides, I can understand not dealing with regular Mortal stuff but this is a Creperum we’re talking about. Muneris are supposed to stop Creperum, right?

    Without giving it a second thought, I stopped dead in my tracks and watched as my mom, my dad, Jaillie, and Cecilia run away. Turning towards the flames as Kee, I ran against the crowd and towards the nearest alleyway. A fire escape was pulled down and people were stomping down the metal stairs, but I pushed past them and made my way towards the roof.

    Climbing to the top, I jogged over towards the edge and crouched down low so I could survey the scene. Blaring alarms bounced off the skyscrapers as police and firefighters just got to the square. Pulling out their hoses, they began to spray water at the burning Water Tower, but that’s when I saw it for a second time.

    That Creperum moved so fast that they couldn’t even see it sabotaging them. It ran across each fire truck that was at the scene, grabbing onto the pump with all four of its arms to pulse some type of energy in it. Once that energy was inside the pump, water stopped flowing to the hose, and this happened to every single fire truck.

    The men yelled over the noise and worked furiously to start the water back up, but the fire was now getting bigger. Nearby trees and even cars were starting to catch ablaze. Watching the Creperum carefully, it crawled back up on the top of a building and stopped suddenly. At first, I wasn’t sure why but then I realized it spotted me. I stared at it with a shocked, almost scared expression, as it looked back at me. It even looked surprised that I spotted it. Its two tails flicked uneasily behind it as we continued to make eye contact. I narrowed my eyes and slowly leaned my entire weight forward, ready to attack it, but the Creperum already had a plan to even counter that.

    Jumping off of the building, it swiftly ran down into the street towards the empty cars. One by one, the Creperum slid under each car, slashing its gas tank to let the gasoline drip down onto the pavement. I gasped and watched in horror at all of the tanks that it slashed before crawling back up on another building.

    The Creperum seemed to stare at me as if saying, So what’s it going to be? Me or them?

    Looking down, I saw that if those leaks caught on fire it would be a huge explosion that could hit a lot of the firefighters and police officers surrounding the area. I had to stop that explosion from happening. After taking one look at my startled face, the Creperum already knew what my decision was. So with that, it leapt off of the building and disappeared into an alleyway.

    Taking a deep breath, I realized that there was no turning back now. Whatever I was going to do, I had to make sure I would get away clean.

    I took a few steps back and kept low towards the ground. Fire burned on my back to bring out the rest of my True Form. I tucked my wings close towards me as more flames began to swirl around me, making my body dissolve into them. Blinking my eyes, I watched as the scene changed around me. Suddenly I was freefalling in the air. Flapping my wings, I faltered a bit considering it’s been a while since I last flew. The orange glow of the fire was about a hundred feet in front of me.

    If I wanted to do this right, I’d have to get some serious speed. I had to be as fast as that Creperum so that no one could see me. It’ll look like a miracle, but that’s fine as long as they don’t see me.

    Flapping my wings hard, flames burst out of my heels and I zoomed forward. My flying was shaky but I’d have to deal. Closing in on the Water Tower, I flew high above it and through the smoke it produced. The scales on my wings bleached themselves white and the structure of my wings even changed as I transformed into my Air form. Holding out my hands, I drew the smoke towards me as I flew. Closing my fists, the smoke began to become more dense and thick.

    Making a sharp turn, I began to fly closer towards the ground with smoke in my wake. I circled the area so many times that the smoke made it nearly impossible to see what was going on with the fire, but I could see perfectly fine.

    Quickly changing out of my air form, I flew up and positioned myself right above the tip of the Water Tower. Holding out my arms wide, I commanded the flames towards me. The restless energy pulled into my body, making me gasp with the sudden intake of power. I’ve only done this a few times but not at this magnitude, so it was a bit overwhelming to take in. Once all of the fire was subdued, I tucked my arms in towards me. Concentrating hard, I began to use the technique I last learned at Calvatrace: turning fire into light.

    Pushing my arms outward once more, light energy flowed out of my palms and towards the damage the Creperum caused. The grass and trees grew back, the charred marks on the Water Tower were gone, the melted fences became straight and strong, even the slashed gasoline tanks one the cars and the tampered fire pumps were fixed.

    Once the area was cured, I realized how hard I was breathing. My heartbeat was pounding in my head so loudly that it might have overpowered the sirens of the trucks. Looking around the area, I saw that my smoke cover was slowly blowing away (and it’s no help that I’m flapping my wings so hard that they’re blowing some of it away). I had to get out of here before anyone spots me.

    I watched as my body began to dissolve in flames, taking me away from here to a different location. Blinking my eyes, I saw that I was on top of a different rooftop; the roof to our hotel. Closing my eyes, I concentrated and tried to sense Jaillie or my Mortal form, but I couldn’t sense anyone. That must mean that they didn’t come back to the room.

    Knowing that, I teleported into the room and crashed on the bed, knocking out instantly. The first time –after a while– really using my powers like that really drained my energy. I would have prepared myself, but there was no way of predicting that something like this would even happen. In the few seconds I had before passing out, I had this sickening feeling in my gut.

    What did I just do? God I hope no one spotted me. What if Jaillie figures out about this? Oh god, what if Shane figures out about this? Suddenly all of the negative thoughts started to flood my brain, making me regret the decision I just made. But it was too late for that now. I did it and there’s nothing that can change that now.

    Damn, what did I just get myself into?