The next few days, Taylor didn’t leave my side. Even when the others went to train, she stayed in the tower. It felt nice, though I felt terrible. She had better things to do than take care of me. Mom also hovered over me, which annoyed me because I couldn’t just lock the door when I didn’t want to be bothered.

By Wednesday, I was starting to get stir crazy. It wasn’t that I was lazy. I just didn’t feel like using my crutches. They were quite painful. Not to mention that using crutches on a waxed floor was very difficult. The bandages made me itch like crazy, but I couldn’t take them off.

As I laid there in bed, I heard a knock at the door. I could only guess who it was. “The door’s open,” I said as I shifted myself into a sitting position. The door opened, and there was my mom right on time. I rolled my eyes.

“Don’t give me that look, Angel. I know you are eighteen, but you are still my daughter, and it is still my responsibility to look after you.” mom said as she sat down on the bed beside me. I could try to argue with her that I was old enough to take care of myself, but looking at my legs, there wasn’t any way I could pull it off.

“I’m sorry, mom, I know that you are worried, but I am getting better. My legs don’t hurt as much. And besides, like I’ve said before, it was to save Maddison,” I said as I ran my fingers through my hair. Then I saw her frown. Something I said seemed to have caused some discomfort. “What’s wrong?” I asked.

Mom didn’t answer right away. She looked at the ground. It must have been terrible if she couldn’t even tell me right away. Then she looked at me with worry in her eyes. “Maddison went missing the day after the accident. One of her friends said she saw two guys load her into a van. They said something about the Doc needing more emergent,” she said. I tried to remember where I had heard that before. Then it hit me.

“Wait, you mean the same person who took Ashley, Esme, and her brother?” I asked before a sharp pain ran up both my legs. In the excitement of the news, I didn’t realize that I had moved. Gritting my teeth, I laid back down and looked at her. If Maddison really was with that man, who knew what he was going to do with her.

“That’s not all. The man that you helped capture on the night of the storm, he has gone missing too,” mom said. There was even more, worry in her eyes. If he had escaped, would he try to come after me? I know that some people seek out revenge when they escape from prison. And the guy wasn’t exactly friendly.

I was just about to ask something else when Taylor walked in. She looked like she was about to pass out. I had forced her to go to training today so that she wasn’t too far behind. When she noticed my mom in the room, she smiled. “Hi, Mrs. Avery. How long have you been here?” she asked as she sat on her bed. Although she enjoyed sleeping with me, with the injuries, it had become difficult. Somehow she always ended up on top of me, and her legs would bump against my burns. She said it was best if she slept in her own bed for the time being.

“I haven’t been here long. I was just talking to Angel about something, but I have to go get Angel’s dinner, and you should go eat as well,” mom said as she got up from the bed. She leaned over and gave me an awkward one-armed hug before walking out of the room. Taylor looked at me suspiciously but followed behind my mom. I knew that she would probably ask what we talked about when she got back in the room. I didn’t know if I was ready to tell her. However, I did know that somehow I would need to find a way to save Esme’s’ brother as well as Maddison. I wondered if Mr. Carver would have some idea of what to do.

After I was done eating dinner, mom helped me clean up in the makeshift tub that Mr. Carver put together. Then I laid in bed thinking of how I would help free Maddison and Esme’s’ brother. Then I remembered what the wolf from the white room had said. I needed to awaken my real power. Easy for her to say. I didn’t even know what they were. Annoyed at how my brain didn’t answer, I decided that it was time to go to bed.

By Friday, my legs were healed enough that I could walk on them by myself. Of course, that didn’t keep my mom from trailing behind me to make sure that I didn’t fall. Mr. Carver had put his VR project on hold so that he could help us train to be the heroes that he thought the world needed. Walking out onto the roof of the tower, I stretched my wings for the first time in a while. I had conferred with Mr. Carver about the situation with Maddison and Esme’s’ brother, who I found out was named Arron. He said that he would get ahold of some of his new contacts within the Emerged community.

“Ah, I thought I would find you up here,” a voice came from behind me. Turning around, I saw Joey standing there smiling, his crimson hair illuminated in the sunlight. He stretched his wings out as well before joining me. “I have been coming up here for a few days now. It’s nice to be so high above the city.” I nodded as I looked out at the city below. Ever since the Missouri Organization for Emergent Rights went into effect, people seemed to have down. You did hear the occasional report of an emergent killed or monstrous emergent wrecking havoc. Still, otherwise, things started to slow down.

“Anyway, Mr. Carver said he wanted you to report to his office. He says that it is time for you to start your training now that you can walk,” Joey said as he nodded to the door. Sighing, I waved him goodbye and headed towards the door. I knew that it was only a matter of time before Mr. Carver decided to take me out to train as well.

The meeting with Mr. Carver went as I had expected it would. He told me that I needed to work on following orders and giving them as well. He wanted to see where I would fit in in the team. Then he summoned Ashley. After a five minute wait, a rift opened up in his office, and Ashley and Esme came through. Ashley had really gotten good at using her rift for transportation.

“Ah, there you are, Ashley. I need you to take Angel to the training grounds. It is time for her to put the work in.” Mr carver said. Ashley looked at me and had a massive grin on her face. Oh boy, what was going through her head.

“It’s about time. I was starting to think that everything that Taylor told me was just a story she made up. Now I get to see first hand what she was talking about,” Ashely said as she flew around excitedly. Apparently, she was happy about my training, though I didn’t see how my training would be so exciting. She closed the rift that she and Esme had just come through before opening another. “Right this way, Miss. Wolf,” she teased. With a sigh, I walked into the rift. It felt like my body was being thrown through a hole at an incredible speed. Before I could even blink, I was stepping out on the other side.

We stood in the middle of a field far on the outskirts of the city. It seemed that the entire area we were standing in was cut down just enough for training.  Nobody would be able to see what was going on unless they actually knew where to go. Standing on the other side of the field was a man dressed in black, but what caught my eyes was his skin. It was purple, and weird designs were covering his arms and leading to his chest.

“This is Stone Skin. He won’t tell us his real name, but he is someone that Mr. Carver knew before the storm. He agreed for all intents and purposes to be the bad guy. He does have some powers, but his main ability is to take an insane amount of damage. Or so he says. Taylor has managed to freeze him in place for a minute and even throw rocks at him using telekinesis.” Ashley said. The man bowed then made eye contact with me. that sent a chill down my spine. It was like I was looking at the embodiment of evil.

“It will be a pleasure to spar with you, wolf girl. Mr. Carver warns that you can be quite dangerous, but I assure you, I can handle a lot.” He said. His sheer confidence was enough to make me worry. “Part of your training will be to try and figure out any and all abilities you have. Once we have established that, we will work on how to use them in a real fight.” He continued, never taking his eyes off mine. It was almost like one of those Japanese kung fu movies.

“Well, then this should be fun,” I said, smirking as I pulled out one of my larger feathers and watched as it hardened into a blade. The man looked a little surprised but grinned as he held his hand over the ground below him. I watched as a shadow formed under his hand before the handle of something began rising from the ground until I realized it was a sword as well.

“Well. If you don’t have any questions. Let’s begin,” Stone Skin said as he started charging at me. I had little time to prepare as I watched this man come at me like a beast. I would have to be careful around him. He seemed very strong. Spreading my legs apart, I braced myself for the oncoming attack. I just hoped that I had enough strength to deflect the oncoming attack.