Chapter 72: Descending....Wonder Owl!

 Agent Hawk arrived at the back gate as soon as he could, the police were trying everything to hold back from kids climbing and forcing to open the gate with their shields. However, with only around 14 children they had though they were held in custody, they were using their powers rampantly without regards to their health and stamina. Those kids vary in age and were small, but they’re out of control use of powers are not something to take lightly. One of them was trying to blast the gate with explosion he made, a telekinesist that tries to crush the police outside with cars, another made a few carbon copy so they could climb themselves over the gate, there were a few behind them still distracting the unit that infiltrated the school.

             His face showed obvious surprise as he saw his college, Jeremy Ferd and walked beside him. Seeing him smirking at the wild scene in front of him ticked him off. "This is no joke, if those kids were let loose outside, lots of people will get hurt before we take them to custody again."

             "IF we could take them in custody, I'm sure things will get harder if we want to capture them alive. We could kill them but then the press would spread our horrible ways and the public will lash us out until someone has to take the fall."

            "Not helping Ferd...what should we do now, if we slightly open the gate, I'm afraid of what will happen if few of them came out."

            "I know what you mean but this one of the times where you need to make hard decision Hawk, one of those kids could easily fight back 10 armed adults and we as heck never expected we'd be fighting children so you better prepare the trigger if it comes to that."

              "I'll make sure that won't happen and that should go the same for you."

             "I like to use my power Hawk, but if you want to let most of the kids go cripple then I'll go when you give me the sign."

             Hawk curled his lips, "Get your team ready Ferd, under no circumstances will you use your power on them, just lead your damn team and get them in custody, do I make myself clear?!"

             Without letting his smile fade he answered to Hawk, "Loud and clear Sir."

             I was about to gather the team to explain the game plan I had in mind when the unexpected happen. "Hey someone is there!" the two of us turned our attention, but not just us, even the children that was banging the gates stopped when they look behind. It took everyone surprised, the grounds fell to silence. When you find a woman, there shouldn't have been nothing out of ordinary of her that caught all our attention if it weren't for the weird mask she was wearing.

She walked slowly toward the closest child and touched his head, maybe because she didn't have any malice in her action, the boy was late to react and suddenly fell on his knee. My heart almost stop, thinking she killed him with just a touch but then I saw his chest, gently going up and down indicating he was only a sleep. The others, still confused at the sudden appearance of this mysterious character.  

However, a girl who saw her friend suddenly collapse charged at her with a yell, the girl let out a great sound wave which normally could knock out adults, instead though the sound wave began to diminish until no sound was heard even while she's still yelling. The masked woman grabbed her hand that charged at her and touched her forehead again before she fell asleep as well.

            More and more of the children began to see her as a threat, they began to charge at one all at once but Hawk could see she was smirking. One with super speed got to her first, but then the boy's leg looked like it was tugged back before he slip, he would have fell head first if she hadn't broken his fall and touch his head as well. They began to hesitate to get closer to her but started to try attacking at the same time from a distance. Agent Hawk began to walk closer to the gate, worried but mostly curious at the black haired girl. He watched as she raised her hand and the earth began to crack beneath them, and a row of rocks sprouted from the crevice, locking their feet.

             The children tried to squirm out of their way but to no avail, one girl who had telekinesis crushed the rock with her mind and began to concentrate all the rock and pebbles around her, lifting it and began to flung them in bombardment. Those rocks and pebbles flew like bullets, but her effort looked like a jock that every attack that should have hit began to deflect, as if a barrier...no, Agent Hawk had seen this, this is the effect of another telekinesist deflecting her attacks, only stronger and better. She used this chance to knee her in the gut, the girl couldn't scream or fight in deviance because the moment she recoiled, the masked woman put her hand on her and the same thing happen again.

            At this rate, she'll be done with them one at a time. Though Hawk. He train of thoughts was broken when the situation was kicking up a notch. The kids that were supposed to be knocked out slowly got up, they were staggering but they had their eyes on her. Her face was hidden but I could tell she was surprised, she hadn't expected they'd wake up so soon. They surrounded her and they look like they were about to attack together.

The blond boy that was first to be knocked out, turned invisible and the woman began to cringe as she hold her stomach in pain, the girl that had telekenisis started to gather the same dust and pebble around but instead of attacking her, she created a kind of whirlwind around her. The boy who could use apportation, began to free himself along with his friends,  they all gathered around the woman and jumped into the battle.

         However, when she let down the whirlwind, the only one there was the boy who got hit by their attacks. The masked woman was nowhere to be seen, actually, everyone was preoccupied by their showy attacks that they failed to notice the girl that appeared suddenly beside the gate. Everyone other than Agent Hawk that it. He examined her while he was close, half her face was hidden by a gold owl-shaped owl but he could instinctively tell she was still young. Her mouth moved and he could make out the sentence 'Nice safe, Rick' and while she had them on their back, she spread her hand toward them.

            "I have to be rough for this, [Shock]"

               Sparks began to fly, followed by a weird crackle sound surrounding them. All the kids began to scream in pain as flashes of light surround them. Each of them fell to the ground and stopped moving. The masked girl turn toward the authorities, her emerald eyes glimmered through her mask. There was a slight flicker in her eyes when she saw him, but then spoke with her hard voice "Get the medics, I lowered my power but they should be tr--"

            "Behind you!"

            The moment she turned around, a wave blast hit her, throwing her off balance and her back crashed into the gate. Claudia gritted her teeth as she tried regaining her stance but she couldn't, the speedy kid brought a boy to her side and the moment he touched her, she felt the immense force pushing her down. She tried getting up, but it was no use, she was too heavy. She screamed in pain every time she forced herself to stand but it was no use. They thought she was done for but then the earth under them began to shift and random boulders started popping out, splitting them from her. [Air Barrier]

            Speedy tried to ram on her but he hit a wall in midair, he tried banging whatever it is standing between them but to no avail. Claudia felt it was creepy to see them looked expressionless when their actions looked desperate. "Damn it, why can't they just stay in place?" Claudia wasn't sure what she should do, she can't hurt them too badly, but every time she knock them down they got up, it frustrates her. Her face fell to her hand until someone called out to her behind the gate.

            "They're being mind-controlled." Everyone who heard his words turned to him, Claudia also looked at him questioningly, "a device was said to have been used on them, forcing them to pull out their maximum capabilities of their brain. If nothing is done then it won't be unlikely to say they'll go brain dead." soft nervous murmur enveloped them, but Agent Hawk paid no heed and continued. "Anyway, this device isn't something come out on the fly, someone has done research on it  and maybe making a test run with them. That's why there are two ways to fight this."

             "Let me guess, either find the ones that's controlling them or destroy the device that controls them."

            "Exactly," Agent Hawk turned to one of the officer and pointed at him. "You, find anyone with Clairvoyance or any sensing ability, there's a chance this device has an area limit when controlling them."

            "No need, already found them." the barrier faded quickly since Claudia didn't maintain it with her mana. Before she could take on the children's bombard attacks, she yelled as loud as she could, hoping her backup would hear her. "INSIDE THE GREENHOUSE!" she roared into his direction. Claudia got up and decided to face head on with their abilities. As swiftly as she could, she managed to counter their ability one by one in a short span of time.

             Claudia focused and predicted where the speedy kid would hit her, they were kids so their attacks were quite simple and straight forward. She pushed his side away by her elbow, knocking him out of balance. She took this chance to grab his collar and threw him toward the person close to him. They both landed to the ground and struggled to get up.

She turned her heels and while facing a green colored gas that was obviously speaking 'Breath me and die'. The gas however changed color and billowed unnaturally fast as it spread towards them. They began to cough hard enough and when they started to move toward her, their pace slowed and eventually stop. Their stance showed that they had qualm on moving but they were unable to.

            Hawk might thought himself as crazy thinking the woman had the power to change the property of the gas that would paralyze their nerves and spread it. It was an absurd thought but not impossible nonetheless. They were still a few who could move though, the telekenisist girl jumped and flung  herself at the woman, Claudia flicked her hand and a light flashes in front of her, slowing her pace to cover her eyes. Claudia used this chance to put her hand on her head and chanted a new spell she made few minutes ago.

            [Blind]

             With that, her power was sealed for the moment. Once she shoved her away, a boy emerged in her view. He screamed right in front of her and Claudia couldn't dodge fast enough against the horrid sound wave. The waves came in rounds with blows hitting her every second, the pain accumulated and that gave her immense pain she never felt before. She took a few step back and fell on her back, her ears were bleeding, and her eyes wide from shock. Her body felt oozy and as much as she wanted to get up, her hands and feet felt like jelly, as if she had lost her balance.

              Such injury could heal easily, but it would still take time.

             Thinking they've had her, all those who could move began to surround her. Not knowing that as long as Claudia could speak, they will regret going against her. When one by one, they had surrounded her, Claudia started whispering a chant, but she never got the chance to do it, the children began to act strange. They were holding their neck while gasping, their arms flail around as if searching for air.  The children started collapsing with one another, they all began tear up and drool began to break from their mouth.  Claudia cut her chant, her eyes widen in wonder on what happened, her eyes stopped at a peculiar woman at the other side of the gate. 

             Among the lines of men, she was the only woman there wearing casual cloth. She didn't look like she belong there but she noticed the men eyed her with respect. She had a pale skin so white that you might think it was colorless, her blue eyes glared at her coldly, she also had a pale blond hair cut just above her shoulder with streaking blue line behind her ears.  She was holding out her thumb and index finger, making a pinching form. This is her doing?

             "ENOUGH!" cried the man beside her. Claudia noticed the man that she talked to had certain authority. The woman widens her hand and Claudia noticed the heavy inhale her surroundings had took. She wasn't calm yet, she healed her ear as much as she could, took her stance and waited. Few seconds past as she waited intently. 

             They didn't got up. 

              Claudia could finally take a breather, the gate opened up and a group of people began to pour through the school's gate. Most of them were wearing white uniform, one she thought must have been the medic. One of them also came up to her, he wanted her to sit down so he could examine her, but Claudia refuses with a gesture. She would have walked away quietly if Agent Hawk and the pale woman didn't stand in her way. Claudia was already uncomfortable standing with that expressionless woman, she didn't want to get tangled up with someone of her past to add with it. 

           "I have a lot of questions for you Miss..."

            "And I don't have the time to answer you." she said with a slight growl in her tone. She couldn't help if she was rude, she had her butt kick by a bunch of kids that hadn’t even reach their puberty, got her ear smashed, and she met one of the people in her 'Never to Meet in this Life List' of course she'd be in a bad mood. 

            Hawk wanted to rebuke her, but before he got the chance. Claudia slip out another piece of paper and at the same time she crumples it, she disappeared.  Hawk blinked in surprise, the woman left as suddenly as she appeared. It was then that Ferd started to laugh aloud that almost everyone turned to look at him. "What's so funny?" Hawk asked. 

             Ferd wiped his teary eyes, he turned his phone to face him and asked him to watch the video recently posted. Hawk felt annoyed that  he could easily use their time to make videos out of all things while they risked their life, but it's not like his words would go anywhere. He clicked the sideway triangle, the background was blur but the character in the video was serene. There was BGM of one of those action movies, below it were comments that kept popping out, commenting the video. 

'dude, is that who I think it is?'

'hahahaha, she's wearing Wonder Owl's mask'

'Really, she's masking as Wonder Owl from Animal Squad in a school that’s facing  terrorism, talk about crazy'

'WONDER OWL ARRIVE!!!'

'Seriously, if she wants to mask as her, she should at least get better cloth'

'is no one going comment about her freaking weird ability, esper shouldn't have more than three!"

'You must be new, obviously you haven't seen enough strangeness'

'I only care the ass kicking, too bad she got her ass kick instead hahahaha'

'Talk about a failed hero, she couldn't even beat kids'

'don't forget she was outnumbered and they were espers, oh wait...you did'

'at least she's strong enough to kick all your lousy butt' 

                "Wonder Owl, what's that?" Ferd opened another tab in his phone and showed Hawk the trailer of one of the most popular cartoon currently airing, Animal Squad. 

               "We just got saved by an animated superhero, now isn't that hilarious?" 

               Apparently, Hawk didn't find it funny at all as he continued to frown. He turned toward the men who was helping the medic, pick up all the injured children. One of them came to him, reporting of the situation. “Sir, 13 children all in our custody. Most are injured but nothing fatal”

                “I see, good work but make sure when you treat them you put up the brain jam device to their max output, we don’t want them to wreak havoc again.” The man nodded and quickly turned tails. Hawk silently observed his surrounding and noticed the hard-to-spot surveillance camera just behind the tree. Were they watching this? Was all to this moment part of their plan? Hawk walked toward his college, hoping to recollect his thought and think of his next step, but stop and lifted his head at a sudden thought. “Wasn’t there 14 of them?”