Raven:

Yet another bad guy was loaded into a banshee convoy and I watched as yet another kid was taken from the joker kicking and screaming. She wasn't helping as much as she thought and I knew it. She was all sunshine, jokes, and fun and maybe that was comforting but what good did it do if she couldn't stay with someone?... Okay, maybe she had a point, someone had to be on their side.

In any case, that was NOT how a person should treat my Jaden, my big brother! When the boy, trembling at people who were only taking him home- maybe the car shouldn't have been black on that note- was finally shut in the back of the car and we heard the lead banshee's car engine start, I was done waiting.

In Jessica's mind, I screamed. "You freaking monster! I get that you don't like how Jaden does things but why did you put it that way?"

Jessica looked left. "Put it what way? He doesn't care how they feel, they're not people to him!" Jessica shouted back audibly. Through her eyes, I saw Jaden standing a few feet away from us. He had to have heard that one... as did Xao and J-Star, who were now just staring at her. "You weren't in there!" She snapped at the two of them. "That boy was scared and Jaden wanted to just move on like he didn't even exist."

Jaden just stood there. Jessica looked over at him and I swore I saw tears starting to fall.

"Jaden maybe we should talk about-" Kyle started, but Jaden waved a hand to make him stop.

"No. Tyrin knows we're on to him. We should move out." Jaden headed to the van we were traveling in these days. We had recently repainted it blue, as it had been green for a while- Jaden liked to change its color on random intervals to throw off anyone who might be following us. He threw open the sliding back door on the vehicle. "Get in everyone."

Xao moved in front of Jaden, putting up a hand to stop him.

It was weird to view the two oldest boys together. Jaden towered over Xao. Jaden carried his full military bag of equipment like nothing, where Xao seemed to struggle at times with his blue backpack full of tent supplies. Where Jaden wore guns, Xao wore just his sword with an Indian-style sword handle. Course Xao also had a pulse cannon on his wrist band for range, but if I had to say, Jaden was WAY more prepared for a fight. Besides a wrist band with a half-sphere screen on it isn't as intimidating as a full-sized 12 gauge shotgun. "Jaden, look where we are," Xao waved his other hand at the wide-open desert around us. "And the banshees just did a sweep to make sure we weren't followed besides."

"Yeah, I know, and I don't like how predictable they are. We go, pick up a kid, they do a sweep and we move out. They've been intercepted several times and our informants were taken back each time. It's only the sheer number of banshees in that convoy that keeps Tyrin's agents from fighting things out," Jaden said.

"It's probably the best way to do things, we've been doing this for years," Xao said.

"And we're still having to do it," Jaden started to growl. "I hate staying in place outside a possible Jacobson safe house. We can talk while I drive anyway."

Xao sighed. "Yeah, we can talk while you watch the road like a hawk and ignore us."

"You have a point?" Jaden asked. Xao opened his mouth but Jaden cut him off. "Actually I don't care. Now isn't the time. Get in. We're leaving."

The whole time Jessie just stood watching. Were I in control I would have... I would have... not known what to do either. "Raven... listen. I don't hate Jaden, but something is wrong with him," Jessica said to me under her breath.

'Find a nicer way to say it next time! But I see it... we've all been seeing it.'

She put her hands in her pockets, continuing to talk out loud, knowing Jaden could hear. "And he'll just wait for us to forget and move on. Jaden- look, I know I was harsh and I'm sorry, but it really does feel like something is wrong here."

Jaden just slammed the door to the driver's area and yelled to everyone, "Just get in the back!"

(***)

Hours passed inside that van, me looking up at my big brother's seat. The other boys had tried to talk to him several times, but he either ignored them or shouted them down.

J-Star hadn't tried to talk to him, but in the car, she generally had a job to play lookout which she took VERY seriously. She sat in the middle of the vehicle and looked left every few seconds, then right, then looked over the seat, then between the two front seats. Every so often she would project a blurry image around the van to save the windshield upfront. Other times she would spontaneously project cars around us, or images of other vans. It was confusing to look at from inside, but it did ensure no one would be able to just shoot us at a distance.

Down the road, we continued. Finally, I felt as we slowed to a stop. I held up my head, looking out the windows... this wasn't the banshee's trailer park. It looked like we were still out in the middle of nowhere. "Why are we-"

"Look alive," Jaden said from the front. "There's a concrete block in the road."

"Go around?" Xao asked, himself sitting next to me in the very back seat.

Sitting next to J-Star in the middle, Kyle clapped his hands for attention. "Combat operations, what do we do Raven?"

I shook my head. "Right- slow the van, project something big Jay- on three everyone." Kyle reached for the left sliding door on the van as J-Star reached for the sliding door on the other side. "Remember, keep moving, cover and concealment," I said as I removed my seat belt, Xao following my lead. "One... two... three-"

Three doors were thrown open, myself and Kyle jumping out the left side as Xao and J-Star jumped out the other side soon followed by Jaden jumping out of the driver's side. We all rolled on the dirt, a large gray projection around us, and the van as we moved.

From his pocket, Kyle yanked out a large leather pouch. We heard several gunshots go off on the side J-Star, Xao and Jaden were on.

Kyle loosened a knot on his bag then threw his right hand in the air, a large device on his arm plainly visible. He swiped the bag in the air, gunshots still going off behind us as the other three ran to our side of the vehicle. A cloud of black dust fell out of Kyle's bag- iron dust, and on Kyle's wrist was his magnet weapon. Kyle closed his fist.

A huge black cloud of dust suddenly enveloped the area we were in as the five of us closed our eyes and took off running from the gunfire.

With J-Star's projections and now Kyle's dust cloud, lucky us, no one firing on us could hit anything. Still, I noted Jaden was running with a limp as we took off into the... whatever was around us- I didn't note before closing my eyes.

Looking forward we were headed for a tree line.

Luckily we'd been fighting Tyrin's goons for years now. "Squads guy!" I shouted. Kyle and myself headed left, I didn't see, but I knew J-Star, Jaden and Xao headed right. Kyle and I slammed our backs together behind a large oak tree.

I looked to see on our far left as Jaden took one tree and J-Star and Xao took another.

The gunfire had stopped. All of us were now scanning the area while trying to stay hidden. I spoke up, "Jaden, your leg good?"

"Just rolled my ankle- head in the game everyone."

"Alright guys, trees bushes, rocks, Every time you move, note your next cover." In front of us was a small group of trees- hardly enough to be called a forest, but they were big enough to stop bullets. I ventured to look past mine and Kyle's cover, then quickly sucked myself back behind. "Okay, there's three guys headed to the van."

"How's the van?" Kyle asked.

I gave him a bemused look. I did notice it had lost a headlight when it had apparently continued to a stop just past the barrier when we got out. Didn't matter at the moment, but I had noticed.

"We could just blast the goons from here," J-Star pointed out.

"They take cover they'll be using our van," I pointed out. "I blow that up with my lightning and we're stuck out here. We wait."

Kyle breathed in deep. "So- what if they just call for backup?"

I sat down behind the tree, taking out a hand mirror and angling it to see the men approaching us. They were indeed just settling down behind our van and the stone barricade. They all pointed their guns our way. I doubted they could make out what we were saying, but no doubt they could hear us. "They know we can do projections by now even if they don't know how." I held my head in my hands and squeezed my temples, trying to think.

Kyle spoke up. "Ya know, they know we can make dust clouds, but they don't know what they're made of." He pulled out another bag, this one from one of his belt loops. He looked over at J-Star and mouthed something to her- something that made her smile mischievously.

Kyle stood up and yanked his bag back. He chucked it forward, venturing to expose his arm to the enemy for a split second. A few rounds were fired, but much too late.

Kyle clenched his right fist. I ventured to look back to see as the bag of dust burst open in mid-air and filled the area over the road in a thick black cloud. Suddenly the cloud seemed to burst into flames, the men under it screamed and took off in terror. Two ran down the street as our team ran into the street. We tore into the cloud, eyes closed as we all knew where the van was either way.

However, I realized J-Star's illusion of flames would only work for so long. I had no choice. I opened my eyes in the iron cloud, trying to use an electric field to keep too much iron from getting in my eyes. I pointed my swords at the two retreating men and- two bolts of energy ripped out, impacting the ground on either side of the men.

Our two enemies dropped to the ground. If they survived they would each have one heck of a headache coming too.

I was yanked into the van as it lurched into motion- oh yeah, Jaden never actually turned it off.

As we rolled forward my eyes started to itch like crazy, going blurry. I barely saw our third attacker on the right-hand side of the road as we passed, hearing the issuance of Xao's pulse cannon as we passed him.

My eyes started hurting more and more. "Haaaa... AAAAHHHH!" I started screaming, my sword clattering on the floor of the van. "Kyle- little bro- get this stuff out of my eyes- please!"

I heard rustling around me and I was quickly pushed down on my seat as I continued to scream in pain.

"Get it out, get it out! Kyle please, don't- I won't want to be blind, please- this hurts..."

"Open your eyes!" Kyle demanded. I wanted to, I knew he would need me to, but my eyes just wouldn't listen.

'Raven, c'mon, let me in front,' came Jessica's voice in my head. 'You did a good job but- you know I'm better at this.'

"Just get up here Jessie!" I screamed.

My consciousness slipped back, Jessica taking charge.

Jessica forced herself to peek. Seeing Kyle, he shook his head. "Wide open, c'mon."

Even Jessica was trying to fight the urge to cry, the particles of iron floating in her eyes and blocking her vision of Kyle's attempted reassuring smile. She braced herself and managed to force her eyes wide.

The black blobs in Jessica's vision suddenly vanished and they seemed to flood with water- probably tears. Jessica was released and she curled into a ball, sobbing at the pain that still radiated in her eyes.

'Please Jess- please tell me we're not going blind. Jess, I can't see anything... Jess...' I thought to her fearfully.

"My eyes are closed Raven, give me a minute." Time slowly passed, me feeling anticipation mount, so nervous. I did what I thought I had to, but to actually lose my sight... please no...

"She worried about... blindness?" Kyle asked. "I told you guys to never open your eyes in my iron clouds."

"She had to," Jessica sobbed. She felt Kyle wrap an arm around her and squeeze her tight.

"Just for a few seconds, open your eyes. Just to see..." Kyle said gently.

Jessica finally opened her eyes a small amount. She saw a blur of colors through the water of her tears. She wiped the tears quickly and looked over at Kyle. She saw his face- then her eyes snapped shut again. "I think I'm okay... I think."

Kyle held her tight, saying out loud, "Well... no casualties, but I think a few days of rest should be in order... Jaden?"

Big brother Jaden hadn't spoken the whole time. He was still being quiet, but all eyes were on him. Finally, he spoke. "Yeah..." there was no emotion in his voice. "Yeah, she's definitely gonna need a rest."

"I might be able to still fight if we go out-" Jessica started but she was cut off.

"YOU ARE GOING TO REST!" Jaden shouted. "We already almost lost you years ago, we're not going through that again." Jessica and the rest of the van were quiet. "Kyle said not to open your eyes in an iron cloud, how about being a freaking genius next time and doing what he says?!"

"Raven had to take the chance, what if those guys turned around and-" Kyle started but Jaden was on a warpath.

"We'd be like a quarter mile away behind a dust cloud if they turned around, them having dust in their eyes too. If, by some miracle, all that didn't make them bad shots, you try hitting a moving vehicle with J-Star's illusions to boot. Raven- listen to me. You do what we say on safety. I'm not losing people, got it? I'm not losing any more people- I'm not."

"Dad was a while ago Jaden," Xao said.

"Yeah, he was..." Jaden said. "I'm still not losing more of this family to Tyrin. I f... freaking swear it." He then stopped talking, Jessica crying into Kyle's shoulder.