Chapter 75: Lightning Rod

Romaine's POV

It's been five days since Kyle died, though it hasn't gotten any easier. I haven't been able to bring myself to read his note just yet, and to be honest I don't think I will be any time soon.

"Merry Christmas little bro!" My sister cheered, tugging on me

"How can you be this happy when one of your friends just died?" I criticized

"Kyle's death hit us all hard ok." She whispered, "But if we don't pretend like everything's normal then mom's gonna ask what's up. Now have some Christmas spirit."

"My Christmas spirit died along with Kyle." I scoffed

"Hey Mel." My mom called, "Can you come help me with the decorations?"

"Sure thing mom!" she answered

"I'm going out." I notified them, taking up my sweater and heading towards the door

"Not so fast young mister." My mother stopped me, "You always go to hang out with your friends. Today is family day."

"You've got to be kidding me." I mumbled, taking a seat in the couch

Cassandra's POV

"Merry Christmas everyone!" Dondre ecstacized

"What's gotten you so happy?" posed the Prince

"Well if everyone here's gonna be a downer then someone's gonna have to lighten the mood."

"And here I thought you'd be even more depressed since you not only lost your mother but now your close friend." I commented

"If we're gonna talk insensitivity, you should be bringing up yourself; you didn't shed a single tear when you heard Kyle died."

"Does crying necessarily equal remorse?"

"For normal people it does."

It was then that the long awaited crime notifier went off.

"Crimes on Christmas?" Shante questioned

"Yes, it's pretty common to experience a spike in crimes around the holiday season." I pointed out

I rushed over to the monitors to respond to the alert. And once there gave all the details.

"ATM robbery on Barnett Street; right at the intersection of Cottage Road."

"Is that dude, using lightning?" questioned Dondre

"So it would seem, yes. He shorted out the circuitry of the machine by using electricity."

"He must be an electromancer of sorts then. Similar to Alisa." noted the Prince

"Donte, Shante, you're up." I dispatched

"We're on it Cas." Donte chuckled

"So what about me?" Dondre questioned

"You're not needed for this; they can do fine on their own." I responded

Immediately after Donte and Shante had left, the alarm went off again.

"Is that thing on the fritz?" Dondre questioned

"Unlikely, there must be another crime somewhere else." I answered

"Two crimes at once? That's the first."

"Another ATM robbery. This time on St. James Street near the city center."

"I'm on it." Dondre rushed, hastily changing and leaving the building before we were even done analyzing the situation.

Donte's POV

Once we made it out to the bad guy, it looked like he was already expecting us.

"Ah yes." He said, "The two juvenile speedsters. I've heard great things."

"You mind handing back over the money you stole?" I asked him

"Fat chance." He laughed

Suddenly a bunch of electricity started coming out of his body and shooting in every direction. Then was channeled through the ground and shocked all the people around us.

"Hey! That's no fair!" I shouted, "They had nothing to do with this."

"I'll go help them." Shante said

"Right."

Shante ran to help the people being shocked, but once she entered the area where the ground electricity was, she got shocked and got hit back.

"Shante!" I shouted

"Pitiful." He said, charging his hand with lightning

He pointed his hand towards me, causing lightning to strike me from his hand.

I screamed and got thrown onto the ground.

"Donte!" Shante called out, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, but that lightning strike moved faster than I could even see."

"Bwahaha!" He laughed, "Thus is the power of Lightning Master!"

"Pretty lame name if you ask me." I taunted him

"You won't be saying that when you're dead!"

He shot out more lightning, and this time it hit both of us.

"Why can't I see when he's going to hit me?" I complained

-"The comparative speed of lightning is around 434,500 km/h. Hundreds of thousands times faster than how fast the two of you are."- Cas told us

"Then how are we gonna beat this freak?"

-"You can use a lightning rod."- said Future Romaine

-"He's right."- Cassandra agreed, -"If either of you were able to simulate a lightning rod, then you'd be able to redirect his electricity."-

"Yeah except I don't exactly know how one of those lightning thingys work." I told them

-"It's easy actually, a talented speedster from my timeline came up with it. Since your body already naturally conducts lightning due to your abilities and has the suit as an added layer of conduction, all you have to do is intercept the incoming electricity and disperse it throughout your body."-

"Yeahhh, that sounds a bit complicated."

Soon the lightning boy started throwing a bunch of electricity around that we were barely able to dodge; but only because his aim is so horrible.

"I don't know Romaine. I don't think I can do it."

-"Trust me Donte, if anyone can do it, you can."-

Once he started charging up more electricity, I made up my mind.

"Ok Romaine." I said, "Teach me how to do it."

-"Well this is all ironic. Alright then, now listen closely."-

I closed my eyes and focused on his voice.

-"Vibrate your body, charge yourself with your energy. You don't need much, just enough. Now channel it all over your body. Become one with your energy."-

I followed his instructions as best as I could, but was stopped when I heard Shante scream.

I opened my eyes to see what was wrong and saw Shante knocked out on the ground.

"Shante no!" I screamed, running over to her to check if she was fine

"This was fun and all, but I'll be going now." said the lightning man

He took off and started using his lightning powers to fly somehow.

"He can fly?" I questioned

-"Donte,"- Romaine called, -"You have to go after him."-

"But, Shante's hurt."

-"She'll be fine, her vitals are stable. But if you lose him now, even more people could get hurt."-

After a short while of trying to decide, I sped after Lightning Master.

I ran as fast as I could, but no matter how hard I tried I couldn't keep up with his super fast flight.

"I can't catch up to him." I told them

-"Yes you can, just do what I told you to earlier; channel your energy throughout all of your body instead of one area."-

This time it was even harder to do; not only did I have to focus on channeling my energy, but now I had to do it while running and trying not to lose him.

I tried my hardest to concentrate on channeling all my energy, and once I did it was much easier to keep it that way.

"I did it." I cheered

Looking at my body, it was completely covered with my electricity.

"This looks so cool."

-"Perfect."- said Romaine, -"That's what's called a lightning cloak. Not only does it help boost your speed, but now you should be able to get close to him without his electricity harming you."-

"Awesome!"

And he wasn't lying either. Once I had on the lightning cloak, I was going much faster than before. And after not too long I was able to catch him up.

-"This part's a bit risky, but you can't perform the lightning rod from so far; you'll need to get onto a building in order for it to work."-

Darn it, how am I gonna run up a building?

-"I know what you're thinking, but trust me, it's easy. Just run normally and you'll be fine."-

Just as he said, I just kept running. With every step I went faster and faster. When I made it towards a building, it was actually a lot easier than I thought.

I raced up the walls of the huge building, then when I reached the top I started jumping from one building to another.

Lightning Master realized I was on his tail and started flying higher.

"What a nuisance!" he shouted

I kept chasing him for a while, until he started charging up an attack.

-"This is it Donte."- Romaine said, -"The lightning cloak is only the first step to doing the lightning rod. Now focus to keep your cloak maintained, because if the lightning penetrates it then you're as good as dead."-

"Why does everything you guys teach me have to kill me if I mess up?"

-"Focus on Lightning Master. When he fires his attack, don't resist the incoming electricity, absorb it into your body like you would when siphoning, then be sure to fire it back at him. If you don't redirect the energy you'll die."-

Why do they never get that constantly telling me I'll die doesn't help?

Lightning Master shot out his bolt of lightning just as I was jumping off another building. The blast hit me in the chest, but didn't instantly hurt like I'd expected. I focused on siphoning the lightning like Romaine said and channeled it all over my body. Once I was able to do so, I released all the excessive energy in my body through my right hand towards him.

The attack was a multicolored lightning bolt that shot him right out of the sky. I landed my jump on another roof top and managed to catch him.

"I can't believe I used to live my life without powers." I said

-"Great job Donte." Romaine praised, "You my friend, have just learned four separate moves."-