Power Revealed (The Elementers) (33 page)

The wind caught the door as Justin hurried into the museum out of the wind. He had covered the mile plus distance to the museum in less than six minutes, but Justin was worried it wasn’t fast enough. His biggest hope was that Alexei wouldn’t hurt Raven right away because he needed to use her as bait to get to Justin.

A mass of people milled through the area ahead of him. The museum was huge and if he ran around aimlessly looking for her, Alexei may lose patience and hurt Raven before Justin found her. If only he could sense other Elementers like she could. But he stopped. He might not have Raven’s talent, but he was an Elementer. Besides, he and Raven had a special connection. Maybe he could sense her energy. He closed his eyes to concentrate. He’d never tried to find someone by their energy before, but he had cut off Mr. Hamilton’s and Patrick’s energy, so he knew how to recognize it. Once he focused on looking for the energy concentrations, he was able to sense an Earth Elementer. It was fuzzy and he couldn’t pin point the spot, but she seemed to be in the direction of the main display with all the hanging planes.

Justin headed in her direction, but he stopped when he heard someone call out his name. “Justin! There you are.” Lewis waved at Justin as he approached from across the room. “Where have you guys been? We’ve looked all over for you and now I’ve even lost Nikki.”

“Lewis, I need your help. We need to find Raven right away. I think she’s in trouble.”

 “Why? What’s going on?” Lewis asked.

“I don’t have time to explain it all. Will you help me find her?”

“Sure. Where do you want me to look?”

“My guess is that they’re in the main room with the hanging planes. I’ll start looking on the right side along the windows. You look on the left side. But if you see her, don’t go up to her. Just call me on my phone. Okay?”

“Why?”

“Lewis, I don’t have time to explain. Please, just call and wait for me.” They had reached the room and Justin split off to the right side of the room. Justin scanned the room, but the mob of people jumbled amongst the mix of planes and other flying contraptions parked on the floor and hanging from the ceiling made it difficult to spot Raven. As Justin searched through the crowd, he thought about how to take care of Alexei with so many people nearby. Justin neared the end of the end of the room when his phone buzzed. He pulled it out of his pocket and read Lewis’ message. “Found them under the red and blue hanging plane.” Justin shoved his phone back in his pocket, looked up to spot the plane, and hurried in that direction.

Justin skidded to a halt when he heard Nikki’s name called out. He saw Alexei grabbing onto Raven’s arm. Nikki stood next to them and Lewis was walking toward them. “Lewis.” Justin hissed under his breath. What was he doing? Justin watched as the scene unfolded across the room. Lewis confronted Alexei, probably telling Alexei to let go of his friends. Alexei pushed Nikki to the side, stepped forward, and punched Lewis in the stomach with what must have been extra wind energy. Lewis shot back with great force and collided against the wall. Struggling to his feet, Lewis cradled an injured arm as he resumed his approach.

Justin had to do something quickly, but he needed to stop Alexei solidly so that his friends could get away and to prevent a fight near bystanders. He didn’t want anyone to get caught in the cross fire or see anything strange. But whatever he did it also needed to look ‘normal’. Especially since Lewis’ confrontation had already gathered the attention of a nearby family standing close to the large helicopter.

Looking from Lewis back to Raven, Justin noticed that she had spotted him. Alexei was still focused on Lewis. Justin couldn’t Earth Talk to Raven since Alexei would notice, so instead Justin held up his hand with his fingers extended and lowered one finger at a time counting down from five to zero. At zero, Raven yanked her arm away from Alexei’s grasp and Justin shot a burst of air directed at Alexei’s legs. The force flipped Alexei backwards causing the back of his head to solidly smack against the floor.

Raven grabbed Nikki’s hand and pulled her toward Lewis. Then she let go of Nikki’s hand urging her to run up the stairs. Raven grabbed hold of Lewis’ arm and yanked him up the stairs to the next level. Nikki ran along the next level and headed up another set up stairs to the third level. Raven seemed to be calling her to stop, but Justin stopped watching them and turned his attention back to Alexei.

The Russian sat up and looked in the direction where Justin’s energy came from, but Justin was hidden behind the landing gear of a plane. “Where are you Justin?” Alexei called out. Justin felt a spike of wind energy erupt and he heard a door crash open. Justin turned to see three more doors bang open along the far end of the glass wall as a violent and sustained gust of wind rushed into the building. Justin wondered what Alexei was up to, when suddenly one of the cables snapped that suspended a cherry red plane to the ceiling at the far end of the room. Justin looked back at Alexei, but Justin couldn’t spot him. Justin linked up, felt Alexei’s energy, and tried to cut off his connection, but Alexei’s hold was too strong.

The wind and the drama with the plane had either grabbed the attention of everyone in the entire exhibit hall or had driven them out of the area. The wind continued to roar through the massive hall ripping out a second cable from the ceiling. Justin glanced up in the direction of Raven and saw her running alongside the third floor railing back toward the stairs. But he watched in horror as a gust of wind lifted Raven off her feet and over the railing.

She succeeded in grabbing onto two of the posts hanging dangerously over the edge. Justin heard over the noise of the wind Raven scream out his name. He knew she couldn’t hold on long so he darted in her direction forgetting all about Alexei. But Justin only covered half the distance to Raven when a gust picked him up and threw him against a plane. He looked up in horror to see another gust hit Raven causing her to lose her grip and fall toward the floor two stories below. There was no time to reach her so Justin sent out a solid blast of wind that blew Raven sideways softening the impact of the fall. She hit the floor and rolled to the side.

Scanning the area, Justin caught sight again of Alexei and launched a blast of wind at Alexei smashing him hard against the wall. Justin ran past an unconscious Alexei toward Raven and knelt down to help her up, but she shrank away from him. He knew why she pulled away, but it still pained him. “Sorry for trying to touch you. I’m an idiot.”

“You’re not an idiot. You just saved me from splatting. The Lannix factory?”

“It’s fine and Boris won’t be causing any problems. But Alexei can so let’s get out of here. We need to find a more private place to fight him.”

“Raven!” Nikki rushed up beside Justin. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, just some bruises I think. Help me up?”

Nikki reached out and helped Raven up and then looked over at Alexei. “Let’s get out of here before that psychopath gets up,” Nikki said.

The four of them hurried toward the space section of the museum. It was located across the street and was best reached by crossing the tubular overpass above the street. Half way across the overpass, Nikki must have felt far enough away from danger because she slowed down. “Who was that guy and how do you know him?” Nikki demanded.

“We don’t know him,” Raven said.

“Then how did he know your and Justin’s names? He accused you of wrecking his car.”

Justin wasn’t sure what to say, but Raven spoke up. “We met him only half an hour ago here at the museum. We were working on our science project and he introduced himself. He seemed harmless enough at first. We shared our names, but then he started getting real weird. We left the area and went to work elsewhere. When Justin left to check out one of the other exhibits, the guy approached again and started creeping me out. I tried to hide from him when you called my name and he caught sight of me.”

“Sorry,” Nikki said.

“It’s not your fault.”

“We need to get security and report him,” Lewis said.

Justin stepped in on the conversation. “I agree, but all of the security guards are super busy right now because of the fallen plane and possible injuries. How about we stay away from the guy for a while until security has things under control and then we can report him.”

“Good point, Justin,” Raven said.

As they neared the end of the overpass Nikki stopped walking. The others halted to look at her, but she hesitated seeming to have trouble figuring out what to say. “Raven, what happened when you fell?”

Justin looked at Raven nervously. Raven smiled and shrugged. “What do you mean?”

“Don’t get me wrong. I’m super glad you’re okay. But something—cushioned your fall.”

“Cushioned my fall? My body doesn’t feel like it was cushioned.”

“Raven, you fell two stories and only have bruises.”

“I guess I’m just lucky.”

“Yes, but—” Nikki hesitated.

“Nikki, I saw her blown to the side too,” Justin said. “The wind in there was crazy. It’s no wonder it pulled one of the planes from the ceiling.”

Lewis shook his head. “I tell you. The weather has been insane lately. First, that crazy wind in Bellingham that helped put out the fire and now another one down here in Seattle that knocked down the plane. Weird.”

“Yeah, real weird,” Justin said.

Chapter 46

They were entering the space section of the museum when Raven paused. “Alexei is coming.” Raven glanced behind her to make sure only Justin heard. “I can sense him.”

“The best place to confront him is outside on the tarmac. I didn’t see anyone out there, but I’ll head out right now and try to encourage them to come inside.”

“How?”

“I’ll stir up the storm a little. They won’t want to be sitting in a metal plane or out on the tarmac and risk being tasered by Mother Nature. Besides, it’ll help draw Alexei out there when he feels the energy. Take Nikki and Lewis and hide in the Space Shuttle Trainer while Alexei passes through.”

“You don’t have to fight him by yourself. I can help.”

“I know you can. If it wasn’t for you, the power pole that nearly fell on us in the school parking lot would have fried me like well-cooked bacon. But you’re hurt and someone needs to keep Nikki and Lewis safe. If we both disappear again, you know they’ll come looking for us and Alexei wouldn’t hesitate to take them out if he thought they were in the way.”

Raven sighed and grimaced. “Fine. But that not dead requirement is still in force. Promise?”

 “Promise.” Justin wanted to say— and do— much more. Instead, he just said, “Be careful,” and headed for the doors.

As Justin exited the building leading to the Air Park, the wind grabbed the door and blew it wide open. Justin reached for the handle just in time to prevent the door from banging against its hinges. Justin shivered as the rain and cold wind blew at him. He zipped up his jacket, peered across the tarmac. He was fed up with the cold weather, but at least the storm had hopefully sent everyone indoors already.

Seven airplanes, including the original Air Force One and an old Concorde, were parked out on the tarmac in front of him. The area seemed devoid of people until he approached the planes and noticed small sheds near a couple of the planes and museum employees huddled inside each.

Justin moved to the side to stay out of direct sight of either employee. He thought of locking them in their sheds so they wouldn’t see anything, but if they had radios, they might call for help and draw more people out here. Justin needed to drive them into the museum quickly, so he went for the dramatic, sending a burst of wind at both sheds. The door to the shed next to Air Force One was nearly ripped its hinges and the door to the other shed banged violently against its frame repeatedly. Both employees quickly exited their sheds. In her rush to get out of the shed, the middle-aged woman tripped over a toppled traffic cone and fell down. Justin started to move to help her, but stopped himself since he knew they’d insist he go inside with them. So instead, he whispered an apology and waited for her to stand back up and hurry into the building with the college age guy from the other shed.

Justin figured they wouldn’t have left if any guests were in the planes, but he wanted to be sure. A car honked behind Justin. The Air Park was right next to the street in full view of too many people. Justin needed to check the planes without being seen from the museum employees inside and he needed to keep his confrontation with Alexei hidden from bystanders, but how? Something from one of Mr. Hamilton’s training sessions came to mind. Justin reached out to the water element. Within moments, a layer of fog descended upon the Air Park. It didn’t take long before the cars passing by looked more like phantoms floating through an airplane graveyard.

The fog had barely settled when Justin left his hiding spot and hurried to the nearest airplane and up the metal staircase. The interiors of the planes were sealed off with plexiglass walls except for the center aisles to allow visitors to walk through them. It reminded Justin of some strange mummification process for planes. That combined with the howling wind outside gave Justin an eerie feeling that he had to shake off.