I need to get there in the next ten minutes - no, half that time.

Eagle has just flown off with Diamond, both of them looking disappointed that I refused to fly with them to meet Gold and the rest of the team. But it's not my fault. The mere thought of flying, just the mention of hovering in the air, in contact with nothing but the winds sends chills down my spine.

I am scared of flying.

Shaking my head, I look up, trying to figure out how to get to Street Querini Stampalia on the second level. Because I have been trying to keep a low profile I'm not carrying the water bottle that is usually strapped to my waist, so I'm going to have to figure out another way to get there. In the worst case, I can use the lift, although I would have to be extremely lucky to make it in the next five - four now - minutes.

Looking around me, I can see various sources of water. There is the obvious choice, the sea, and the not so obvious one, using the water in the water tanks strapped to the bottom part of the buildings above. If I use the seawater, it will be harder to manipulate because of the salt and I will have to push a large body of liquid up, freeze it against a building, and pull myself up, the effort much larger than just pulling water down from the underbelly of the buildings on the second level, using it to pull myself up and then deposit it back into its rightful place.

Jumping up and down to warm my body, I concentrate on the water inside the tanks. The idea was to be able to store water on each level by having individual tanks under each building, all the rainwater which falls upon the building is caught and stored in the tanks beneath it. Over the years, though, the lower level's tanks haven't been cleaned, so they have all the dirt from the years of rubbish that is thrown from the upper levels. There is even a game some of my old classmates used to play that consisted of aiming paper planes at the pipes from the lower level, and whoever managed to get the plane to fly through was crowned royalty for the day, enabling him or her to shout out commands and be obeyed.

Three minutes.

I pull, my arms moving backwards as I close my eyes, the feeling of the water rushing up and finding a hole to sneak out of tingling my skin. After a few seconds, I feel a sliver of water fall down. Opening my eyes, I grab the water, freezing it to a state that is flexible and strong enough to pull me up. With a flick of my wrist, I make it retreat back into the tank it belonged to.

I made myself a promise months ago, a promise that I would know how to manipulate water in order to create icy ropes, and I've been practising ever since, meaning the ones I can create now are almost perfect, although, in order to make sure my part is believable, that I am not as good at controlling my powers as I am, I make sure to lose a few drops of water on the way up, snowflakes falling towards the ground below.

Two minutes.

I repeat the process on the second level, this time more quickly, but instead of pulling myself up, I use the impulse to move towards my objective, swinging from one side of the street to the other, Querini Stampalia Street now in sight.

One minute.

I can see people clothed in purple in the distance; it must be Lilac Royalty.

Grinning, I continue to swing from side to side, avoiding the tall lamp posts dotting the area.

Time is up. 

"I am here!" I cheer, slowly descending and sending the water back into the water tank it came from. "Did I miss anything?".

I can feel the smile radiating from Eagle as she takes a look at me, her eyes shining under the hood, "That was really cool!".

If Hemlock had trained me, I would have said it was inspired by her vines, but in truth, I have never seen her use her powers in front of me, only the photos that I was given when starting my undercover mission.

"Thank you," I say, wrapping my arm through hers and turning to Diamond, "So, what is happening?".

I didn't see anything unusual on my way here, and I certainly can't see anything out of the ordinary here. The roads are busy, workers walking towards the lift to go up to the upper levels, others delivering groceries to those in need - a normal morning for the second level.

"Gold found out there is a heist that is going to happen over there," She points towards the pale green building, the word hotel shining over the front door, although the letter e isn't lit up. "They are storing some pharmaceutics needed in the San Marco district, level one. Turns out that same medicine is also a drug used in the higher levels to get high," there is disgust in her voice as she explains further, "so we are going to wait here until they move in, follow them and capture them. The police won't come, but we can take them to level four - they will be dealt accordingly there,".

I nod in understanding.

Diamond must have some connection in level four since she seems so sure the delinquents who are thinking of robbing the medicine are going to be brought to justice. I do believe it is the right thing to do, but if they go on a heist for fun it must mean they are quite rich, so it would be easy for them to slip out of the law, paying a large sum of money to the police so that they stay quiet. That's why I like my department; it doesn't matter how rich or how poor you are, how old or young, if you are a Lorem who is breaking the law, we are going to make sure you pay for disobeying the law of our city.

~~~~~

Two boys wearing large hoodies have entered the hotel, both of them heading towards the counter. From our new hiding spot across the street we can't see what they are carrying, but the woman working at the desk seems to pale, nodding and stepping away from her workstation, pointing towards the back of the building. The intruders tell her something and the anxious girl nods before moving in the direction she had just indicated.

"Eagle, can you take us down?" Diamond whispers, "Sailfish, you'll figure out how to get down, right?".

"Yes," It seems that she has accepted that I won't fly with them.

"Then let's go,".

We all jump down from the building in front of the hotel, Eagle stopping the fall of the other girls while I use some water from the tank below to slow down my fall, landing in a puddle. Running into the rundown hotel, I take in the interior. At one point, when level two was the best place to be, this must have been overflowing with customers. The red-painted walls, now peeling off, still have some gold detailing, although taking into account nobody has stolen it, it can't be real.

Diamond is the first to run into the room where the woman working at the desk had disappeared, the delinquents following her. Eagle and Hemlock are behind her, and following them is Gold and then me. Ember and Vulcan said they couldn't come, so it is only the five of us.

"Stop, or we will have to take you in!" Di shouts, putting herself into a fighting stance; the rest of us copy her.

One of the boy's laughs, "And how would that work? You're vigilantes, nobody is going to believe you,". The other boy doesn't bother looking up, too busy grabbing the boxes and stuffing as many as he can in his pocket. In the corner of the room, the woman who works at the hotel is unconscious.

Diamond doesn't give any more warnings, her hands clamping together. The stone floor seems to jump up, swallowing the two boys as Gold wraps them in the metal shelving, but not quick enough. One of the boys, whose hood has now fallen backwards revealing a young face, points his taser towards Diamond, who is too concentrated on what she is doing to notice.

Moving my arm in a quick motion, I make the water from the mop bucket fly towards them, freezing it over the boy's hand. I would feel bad because I can feel how much dirt and bleach there is, but frankly, after what they tried to do, I don't particularly care. It's not like I'm cutting their hand off.

Eagle nods at me before walking towards the unconscious woman, picking her up with her magic and moving her out of the room. While she walks out, she picks up the two boys, both of them pleading to be let go, promising they will never try to steal again. Diamond and Hemlock follow behind them, leaving Gold and I standing in the now destroyed room.

"Should we clean up, or..." I don't really want to leave it like this. The floor is torn apart and the shelves that once hung from the walls are now twisted and broken, scattered across the floor. "I can try flattening the floor?", I offer.

Gold walks towards the door, "Don't worry. Diamond and Eagle will take care of it later,".

That surprises me. I mean Di can probably flatten the floor, but what can Eagle do with this mess?

I shrug, knowing that if I ask too many questions they might get suspicious of me. I'll have to figure it out when I'm not with any of the members of Lilac Royalty.

 "Okay. Let's go then?".

CHAPTER EIGHT WORD COUNT: 1677

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Remember to vote and comment on your favourite parts (and the parts you dislike most, that way I can work on it!)!.

Question of the day: If stealing was legal for a day, what would you steal?

Also, Eagle's backstory is turning into a book! Head on over to When Birds Swim to find out more!