Chapter 3: Bounce

The light dims down as Goldie hunches over to take a hold of his now bleeding nose. He whimpers, although he tries his best to stifle his own voice. Leonardo looks down on him, wondering if this was the same person that Ines deemed as ‘crazy’. He notices something that was wrapped around the glowing man’s neck. He leans down to inspect it further and comes to recognize the contraption. A shock collar secured tight on Goldie’s poor neck.

Standing up straight, Leonardo places his hands on his hips as he looks at a security camera in disappointment. His bewilderment for the strange yellow glow has worn off.

“I thought you guys finally became competent after catching me!” He calls out to the camera, assuming that it has a built-in microphone. He turns to Goldie who was still recovering from a single punch. Leonardo clicks his tongue and mutters under his breath, “Can’t believe I lost to this. How embarrassing.”

“The man in orange is bad, Goldie. You need to punish him, or else,” The voice from the speaker says in a reprimanding manner, almost like scolding a child. Goldie groans. He staggers as he tries to stand up straight. Leonardo watches him with his guard up, steadily walking backwards. He wasn’t sure what they were planning with Goldie, but it does not look appealing.

Unexpectedly, Goldie lets out a scream and claws at his neck. His body convulses ever so slightly, making Leonardo assume that the shock collar was in effect. The yellow light becomes brighter than before, almost blinding, but Leonardo could still squint through it with his hand over his eyes. The collar comes off with a snap, it gets violently thrown across the room, making a harsh impact against the steel door. A loud clang soon follows along with the ground vibrating. The sound was similar to what Leonardo heard earlier after Ines had locked him in this room, except that it’s more deafening. Leonardo could feel his legs shake involuntarily as the sound bounces off the walls. Right as when he thought that the room was about to collapse, the light quickly fades away. He looks around with wide eyes, nearly disoriented as a result of what had just happened. In his daze, he comes to realize that he’s now alone in the room. The steel door got busted open, and Leonardo could see a bit of yellow light coming from the previous hallway. He spares no moment and makes a run for it. Getting close to Goldie is his ticket to jailbreak.

He sees the golden boy stopping in front of another door. Leonardo watches him push against it with his body, not even bothering to turn the knob. It folds and gets blown away. He hears new voices, screaming and yelling at each other to handle this catastrophe. Goldie continues to advance further.

“Hey, hey, hey!” Leonardo calls out to him, running to the doorway as well. He quickly jogs up the stairs of the basement, keeping a close eye on the young man ahead of him.

As Goldie reached the top, he sees a group of armed men pointing their guns at him. Bullets started to rain, the sound of the firing squad was all he could hear. To defend himself, he holds his hands up. He has seen this before, and he does not intend to get shot or hurt again today. At this moment, his vision became clearer than before. The trajectory of each bullet becomes easier to spot. They all slowly come to a halt, remaining suspended in the air. The metal projectiles shake slightly in the air, encased in yellow light.

However, one bullet managed to come through, whizzing past his left side. He hears a loud grunt from behind him and recognizes it as the prisoner who punched him on the nose. He takes a glance behind him and sees the prisoner bleeding from his left arm through his orange jumpsuit. Another bullet makes it past his defense. Luckily, it hits no one. Goldie looks back at the firing squad ahead of him, still shooting, with most of their bullets still unable to reach him. He gets a feeling that he won’t be able to shield himself and Leonardo for long. The sound of gunfire and yelling is slowly starting to get to him. All he wants is for this to stop without anyone getting hurt. He sees a car from behind the firing squad and immediately sends the bullets towards it. With a strained yell, he pushes the armed men using the unseen force of his powers. As they are all being knocked off their balance, Goldie runs back to Leonardo and grabs him by his unscathed arm. The two of them make a break for it, running towards a nearby fence which is basically a wall with barbed wire on top.

The yellow light slowly fades away, letting Leonardo finally see things normally. He looks around, and finds everyone besides them, on the ground, He also notices the shot-up police car, with gas leaking out. He tugs the arm that Goldie held on as he abruptly stops. Goldie looks back at him with a questioning look. Leonardo turns and points to the car.

“Can you make that explode?” He asks with an urgent tone. Goldie could only look back, and Leonardo could see that he was a little bit confused.

“Like, uh - Boom! Kapow!” He quickly adds, hoping that onomatopoeia helps him understand. Goldie looks at the car and nods. He promptly lets go of Leonardo and raises his hands. The car begins to glow with the same color as always. It floats off the ground, reaching about two meters high before violently crashing into the ground.

“Okay, I think that should do it,” Leonardo says in a haste. He turns to the wall and then looks back at Goldie. The young man notices his gaze, and without any warning, he sends him flying over the wall.