San Diego in summer was beautiful.  Having grown up in the Tidewater area of Virginia, Deb was used to oppressive heat coupled with 100% humidity but the gentle onshore breeze cooled the area to a comfortable 90 degrees.  The riot of tourists, the skaters, the Frisbees and the smell of corndogs was nothing new to her, having spent many a summer on the beaches of Nag’s Head North Carolina and as they walked Deb had to poke about in the minds of passers-by.

            “What are your preferences?” Wren’s question caught her off guard.

            “In what?”

            “Men, of course,” Chris said with a grin.

            “She means bathing suits,” Alicia interjected.

            “Oh, bikini.”

            “And men?” Chris spun as she walked, watching guys.

            Deb shrugged, “Nice ones, I suppose.”

            “You’re trying to read people now, aren’t you?” Wren asked as she gestured toward a standard looking surf shop just up the boardwalk.

            How was she picking up on that stuff?

            “Yeah,” Deb said, a little sheepishly.

            “Get anything good?”  Chris asked.

            Deb shrugged, “The usual, lots of thoughts about sex and food, a couple over there are arguing, that kind of stuff.”

            Wren’s hand stopped her.  She was peering intently up the street.

            “You see that black guy in the black jacket?” she asked without pointing.

            The guy stood out as much in that crowd as Josh had stood out in their little crowd.

            “Yes?”

            “All I want is a name, nothing more,” Wren said.

            Deb couldn’t be certain where the man was looking behind his shades but she felt his eyes on them … no, more specifically Wren.  She took a look.

            “Holy shit,” Deb whispered.  She grabbed Wren by the arm and pushed her into the surf shop.  Once out of the man’s line of sight she turn on her new teammate.  “What did you do to him?!  I’ve never read anyone as evil as that!  And he wants to hurt you, bad!”

            Wren stopped before a rack of bikinis.

            “You prefer prints or solids?” she said as if Deb hadn’t spoken.

            “He is planning on raping you!” Deb insisted “And then killing you.”

            Chris snorted.  “Good luck with that!”

            “You have a good tan already, I’d suggest a solid, maybe something pale blue?”  Wren pulled out a suit and held it up.  “What do you think?”

            Deb did not like being ignore and said so, “Listen to me!  That man is evil!  He wants to rape and kill you!”

            Wren looked at her steadily.

            “I am very aware of that, I assure you, and I believe his next attempt will be as unsuccessful as the first.”

            “First!”

            “That the guy that broke into your place?”  Fuji asked.

            “Oh, please, let me go kill him,” Chris offered.

            “You can’t kill him for thinking bad things,” Alicia said.

            “Miller was supposed to have put him away,” Wren growled.  “Next time I think all Miller will get is the body.”

            Deb looked at the other four, astonished by their nonchalance.

            Wren looked down at her, “Did you get a name?”

            “Yeah,” she replied.  “LaShaun Martin.”

            “Thank you,” was all Wren said then she moved off to the next rack of bathing suits.

            “Broke into her place?” she whispered to the others.

            “She pinned him to the floor,” Fuji said.

            “Nat wanted to rip his head off,” Chris added.  “But settled for dislocating his shoulder.”

            “I guess Miller let him go …” Alicia said.

            “And he and I shall be discussing that very thing the next time he oozes into my line of sight,” Wren said from five feet away.  “How about this one?”  She offered a cute little flowered suit.

            Half and hour later and down nearly five hundred dollars from Alicia’s AMEX, they stepped out of the shop, bags in hand.

            “Where are we going now?” Deb asked.

            “Back to change,” Wren replied.

            They made a left hand turn and walked in a line a breast up the narrow street.  Deb stopped and snagged Wren’s arm.

            “What is it?”

            “He’s here,” Deb whispered.

            The black man in the black coat stepped out from behind a dumpster, slapping a baseball bat into the palm of his hand.

            “Ain’t this a sweet sight,” he purred.

            Chris started laughing.  Alicia sighed heavily.  Fuji pulled out a Game-boy and leaned against the wall, ignoring the man.

            “Must you, LaShaun?”  Wren said.

            “What you say?” He looked a little surprised.

            “Please let me kill him, Wren,” Chris was bouncing on the balls of her feet.

            “We can’t kill him,” Alicia reminded them.

            “But I can hurt him, right?”  Chris’ bounce was gone and in her hands a pair of foot long wooden stakes had appeared.

            There was no doubt in Deb’s mind that Chris was perfectly willing to kill this man.

            Wren held up a hand.  “I do thank you for your concern and offer of help,” she said.  “However, I do believe that I should handle this myself as there seems to be no other way to convince Mr. Martin that it could be hazardous to his health should he continue.”

            “Your boyfriend ain’t here to save your sweet ass this time, bitch.”

            Wren smiled slightly.

            “I believe that you have misinterpreted the situation in our last meeting,” Wren said calmly.  “Nathaniel was not saving me from you, he was saving you from me.”

            The man’s knees buckled and it appeared he might drop to his knees but after a moment, he pushed himself erect.

            “Ain’t gonna work this time, bitch,” he growled and took a step forward.

            Wren gave a little shrug.

            “Then how about this?”  She made a gesture like drawing a line toward the sky …

            It was as if the man had been plucked from the street by a giant hand.  In a split second he disappeared from sight.

            “Where’d he go?” Deb looked up when the other four pointed up.  It took a few moments.  “Holy shit!  How high up is he?”

            Wren shrugged.  “Probably with falling now, something over 18000 feet.”

            “How?!”

            “I can manipulate gravity, as you might have noticed back at the cottage.”

            “You aren’t going to let him hit, are you?”  Alicia asked, looking up, not being able to spot the man.

            “I don’t know,” Wren said.  “But I have a few more seconds to decide before he bounces.”

            “You mean splats!”  Chris was grinning.  “This is better then me killing him.  I finally get to see what you really CAN do.”

            “You threw him up 20000 feet?!”  Deb was incredulous.

            “So, what are we watching?”  Nathaniel was standing next to Wren staring up.

            “Nothing important,” Wren replied.

            “She just threw this black guy into the sky!” Deb told him.

            The other three male members of the team stood around looking up too.

            “Cool,” Josh said.  “Never seen anyone go splat before.”

            “Oh, here he comes!”  Alicia covered her eyes.

            LaShaun Martin came to a sudden stop six feet from the ground.  Wren sauntered over to him.

            “It would have been very easy to let you hit the ground, Mr. Martin,” Wren said.  “But think about this … right this moment you are weightless … and my boyfriend, the very large and powerful and gorgeous guy right over there would like nothing more than to test a theory of his … to see if he could throw you into orbit.”

            “He can do that?” Deb whispered to Chris.

            “Ten to one he can,” Chris whispered in reply.

            “We need to give him to Miller,” Alicia suggested.

            “And we saw how successful that plan was …” Nat said.

            “Mr. Martin,” Wren continued.  “I hope you appreciate the situation and the possible outcomes and if I so much as see your face again, I will not hesitate to put you into a decaying orbit and no one will ever find a body.”

            The man dropped to land face first on the street.  Nat reached down and hoisted him to his feet.

            “Last time I just dislocated your shoulder to sooth my male ego,” he said.  “But as you can see, I am not the dangerous one.  She doesn’t need me to save her …”

            “But I do appreciate it when you happen to show up,” Wren said.

            “Now, one last lesson, shall we?”  Nat looked down at Wren.  “Can you use that other thing you’ve been dying to try?”

            Wren’s smile was pure evil.

            “Of course, thank you for playing guinea pig, Mr. Martin.”

            And with that same gesture, LaShaun Martin disappeared into the sky.

            “What did you do to him?” Deb asked, terrified at what the answer might be.

            “Oh, he’ll hit like 20000 feet then float slowly to the ground,” Nat told her.  “Think of it as parachuting … without the plane … or chute …”

            “Where will he land?”

            Nat shrugged.  “Depends on the winds that high up.”

            Fuji looked up for a moment then said, “I’d say somewhere in the desert … winds are about 100 knots that high and headed east … but he’ll drop below those at about 15000 feet, then he’ll drift south some.”

            Nat leaned over to Deb.  “Fuji is called the Mountain Wind for a reason.”

            “I suggest we get changed and then join the party,” Wren said.

            “Yeah!  Can’t wait to see you in a bikini, Deb!”  Zach took a hard punch to the ribs from Fuji followed by a comment in Japanese.  “I was kidding, Fuj!”

            She turned her back to him and stalked off toward the cottage.

            “Fuji!”  Zach trailed after her.

            Slater relieved Alicia of her purchases and Nat followed suit with Wren.

            “What did you get?” he asked, peering into the small bag.

            Wren snatched it away from him.  “You’ll see it later.”