New Release Sample: SEMI-PSEUDO-SUPERHEROES

We crossed the yellow line together in slow, steady, almost synchronized steps. Kind of like the scene where the team of sheriff and deputies walk down the center of the street to meet the outlaw gang. We stepped up onto the curb, and crossed the tree lawn in two steps. Actually, the strip of grass between the crumbling sidewalks of Darbyville and the equally crumbling curb, glopped up with asphalt, didn't really count as a tree lawn. We lost our unified steps on the sidewalk. Ford and Kurt put one foot onto the lawn of the abandoned house about a second before Stephanie and I did.

Angela wobbled and her knees folded a little bit. She was in the middle of our group, with Stephanie and Ford on either side of her. They both looked back at the same time and reached for her. Angela let out a breathless little chuckle and took two steps onto the patchy, matted grass, and this time did go to her knees.

"Get her out of here!" I shouted, and didn't wait for anyone to respond. Looking back, that wasn't smart.

When I mind-lifted Angela, they were still holding onto her, and naturally they resisted when she rose up in the air and sort of went into a reclining/seated position. The couple of seconds of mental tug-of-war, hurt. Something kind of reach up through the power I had wrapped around Angela and dug claws into my brain. I had a nosebleed by the time we all got back across the street. Kurt yanked the back door of Stephanie's Jeep open and they got Angela inside.

I leaned against the back panel, my hands pressed against my temples, trying not to be sick. I had never worked myself into a strain headache like that before, and certainly not so quickly. Kurt ran around to the other side of the Jeep and found my emergency stash in my backpack. Dark chocolate studded with raisins and almonds, and a backup slab of fruit leather. By this time, Ford saw I was in bad shape. He pulled out his enormous blue cotton handkerchief to deal with my bloody nose. Stephanie saw the chocolate and snatched it out of Kurt's hand before he had it unwrapped, broke the bar in half, and pressed her half to Angela's mouth before tossing the rest back to Kurt.