by Nick Cook
‘Those are Storm Shadow fire-and-forget stealth missiles, rather aptly named considering their target,’ General Hammond said. ‘Like the MRLs, their usual payload has been replaced with charged bomblets.’
We watched the missiles streak away towards the dark line on the horizon. The outermost missiles began to turn until the Storm Shadow missiles were spaced out with what I guessed was at least a mile between them. Each of them were heading for a different region of the leading edge of the fog bank.
‘Five, four, three, two, one…we have impact!’ came a woman’s voice from a speaker on a pole nearby.
Six flashes of light were followed by firework-type bursts as thousands of sparks tore great chunks out of the front edge of the dark tsunami.
The troops whooped and cheered, but the fog swirled and its tendrils weaved together to close the gaps up.
The soldiers quickly fell silent as the fog bank shuddered and began to roll forward again, an unstoppable juggernaut of dark energy heading straight for London. Several giant tendrils billowed out of the dark bank of vapours and converged to form a phalanx of fog over the city’s skyline.
‘I think we’ve got their attention,’ Chloe said.
Something roared, the cry echoing across London and bouncing between the buildings – a blood-curdling shriek that spoke of death.
‘Chloe, I was told about this. I think Archios himself is about to put in an appearance.’
Chloe stared at me. ‘Who told you exactly?’
‘If we live through this, there’ll be plenty of time to explain it to you.’
‘Right…’ She sucked her cheeks in.
Hammond peered through his binoculars again and grimaced. ‘Jake’s right. That’s Archios.’ He handed the binoculars over to me and I stared through the eyepieces at the dark shape striding in the middle of the gigantic fog formation. Archios. Within moments, the phalanx of fog had closed to less than a few miles. Everyone had fallen silent as Archios became visible to the naked eye. The dark energy connected him like an umbilical cord to the main fog bank. Archios strode over the rooftops, a monster made huge by the hundreds of thousands of Shade swirling through him.
He’s coming for me.
I gazed around me at Hammond, his men, and then Chloe. Finally, I turned to gaze at the Millennium Dome. Inside it, Dad and Claire were doing everything they could to save this city.
Not enough time.
Mum’s words came back to me. Within you, Jake, you have everything you need to defeat a monster, even one as powerful as Archios.
I knew I’d already made my decision when I found myself calming my mind to absolute stillness. I wrapped my consciousness round my body and raised myself with my TK ability. A floaty feeling flooded through me as my feet lifted and I rose quickly upwards. A murmur passed through the soldiers and then everyone was looking up at me, as I floated ten metres above the ground.
‘Where the hell do you think you’re going, Jake?’ Chloe shouted.
‘I’m going to buy us some time.’
Chloe’s chest expanded as she sucked in a big lungful of air. I knew she was about to let loose with an argument about why that was such a bad idea. But I had to do this for her sake and all the others. I lifted myself higher and soared upwards. Whatever Chloe shouted next was lost as I adjusted my flight, sweeping straight towards the approaching phalanx of fog.
Mum’s words again filled my mind. You have everything you need…
A tapestry of roofs sped beneath me, criss-crossed with empty roads. There was no one to be seen anywhere. Probably all indoors, saying their last goodbyes since the golden dome of the Waverider hadn’t appeared like planned to protect them. The vibrant city had been brought to an unnatural stillness as this threat sped towards it. Millions of lives, millions of souls, linked together by the Light Web…
I came to a hovering stop next to the Shard skyscraper. The eastern windows reflected the light of the rising sun, while the western windows were mirrors of the darkness that was about to extinguish all light.
Inside the building, I saw people filling the luxury flats. What had to be an end-of-the-world party was taking place in one apartment on the eastern side – where they couldn’t see what was coming for them. People were drinking champagne, dancing wildly and doing what people did when they thought they were about to die. The people at that party were in stark contrast to occupants on the western side of the Shard, who had a ringside seat of the oncoming spearhead of dark energy containing Archios. They stared at it, frozen, many filming it with their phones, despite the fact they’d probably never get the chance to share it. A few spotted me and turned their cameras, but it didn’t matter. All that mattered was survival.
The lumbering titan closed the distance, his monstrous footsteps shaking the buildings as he approached, the Shard included. This thing was no longer a phantom, but made partly real by the density of the Shadowlands surrounding him.
I cupped my hands round my mouth. ‘Archios, can you hear me?’
No reaction. But I needed to do something else to distract him to give the others a chance to get the L3 online. I had to use myself as bait.
I launched a plasma ball that went streaking into the billowing fog bank around Archios and past his shoulder.
The titan slowed to a stop and turned his massive head in my direction.
‘Fancy running into you here of all places!’ I shouted.
Archios peered at me. ‘So you have chosen to take a last stand against us before we wipe out the rest of your species, Jake Stevens,’ he boomed.
I ignored the fear spiking through my gut. ‘The human race isn’t down and out yet. Every one of our major cities will survive.’
‘That’s inconsequential, when most of your race will have been exterminated within the next forty-eight hours, Awoken. And besides, your precious London is about to fall.’
Anger boiled inside me. ‘You think? Well, I’m personally going to take you down, Shade.’
His laugh, impossibly loud, made my ears buzz. ‘Spoken with the true arrogance of an Awoken. However, I’m about to give you a lesson in reality to replace your one based on foolish hope.’
He started to stride towards me along the street. He lashed out his fist from the fog phalanx, dark energy rippling out ahead of it.
I dived sideways as the fist, swarming with shadow crows like leaves caught up in a knot of wind, rushed for me. The blow sped through the empty air where I’d been hovering…and into the side of the Shard. My stomach clenched as glass and metal exploded and shadow crows swarmed from Archios’s fingertips, striking at the occupants inside and hauling them out screaming into the depths of fog.
White-hot fury erupted through me. ‘You bastard!’ I shouted.
I circled back towards the titan and launched a huge plasma ball straight at Archios. My burning sun smashed into his shoulder and he staggered backwards. But any brief hope that gave me quickly evaporated. Fresh shadow crows flowed along the umbilical cord linking him back to the fog bank, and like a blood transfusion restoring him, the wound healed in a matter of seconds.
Archios strode towards me, his footsteps like earthquakes that sent parked cars flying. His hand swept up in a chopping motion to swat me from the sky.
I dodged sideways again and his palm skimmed me as I flew out of his reach.
With my heart racing, mouth dry, adrenaline humming, Mum’s words appeared again in my mind. You have everything you need…
I reached out with my TK, probing the scattered vehicles along the road far below.
I breathed deeper, ignoring the fear bubbling inside, and wrapped my mind round the cars, a couple of black cabs, even an abandoned bus. I raised both hands and my mind burned with effort as I threw the whole lot up at him. The vehicles slammed into Archios, tearing huge chunks from him. He bellowed, but managed to swat a black cab away, forcing it to crash into a restaurant and burst into flames.
I saw a flicker of light behind me and glanced round
to see flashes coming from the direction of the Millennium Dome. A swarm of flames burst up and arched over the city trailing smoke.
I knew what this was: General Hammond had ordered the MRLs to fire, and I was in the way.
I sped to the left, out of the line of fire, as each projectile exploded over Archios. He roared his challenge at me, not seeing what was heading his way. Bright flashes of light erupted high overhead as the sky was filled with canisters on small dark chutes trailing metallic strips like metal rain. A cluster of the ribbons struck Archios’s leg as he tried to back away. At once, lightning danced across his limb, vaporising thousands of shadow crows in a moment. His leg dissolved and the titan toppled over with a thunderous crash that flattened a whole block of buildings. The horror of what had happened to anybody trapped inside, was replaced with one of fury. Now bloody stay down!
But once again, shadow crows swarmed into Archios along the corridor of dark energy connecting him to the Shadowlands and repaired his shattered leg.
A sense of hopelessness began to fill me. Despite all my power and Hammond’s weapons, even working together we couldn’t stop this monster.
I poured plasma shots down at Archios like a meteor storm, but he still stood up again snarling. He ignored my projectiles, bricks, hoardings – anything I could find to throw at him – and started to stride again towards the Millennium Dome.
At once, the Apache gunships rose into the air to meet him like a group of swarming insects. They sped forward, their gun pods blazing.
I found myself frozen for a second, just watching as my heart thundered.
Archios roared as explosive charges ripped through him. He pointed a hand towards the Apaches and dark fog billowed to swat the helicopters, shadow crows swarming the craft. As engines screamed, the Shade hauled the gunships from the sky and onto the city’s rooftops with sickening crashes. The whole squadron of Apaches exploded in fireballs, debris arcing away from them as they blew up in an awful kind of firework display.
If it was possible, I became even more numb as howls came from the distance and a large pack of shadow wolves rushed along the street after their master.
No!
I sped towards the dome, the wind whistling over my body as I overtook the titan. Two miles ahead I landed and skidded to a stop next to Chloe and General Hammond.
‘What the hell was that?’ Chloe said, waving her hands at me.
‘Giving Martin and Claire a bit more time. How long do we need now?’
‘They’re still about five minutes away from getting the L3 online,’ General Hammond replied.
Five minutes more and maybe we could turn this hopeless fight into a victory.
But then ice crackled over the buildings as the phalanx of dark energy, Archios inside it, rolled towards us.
‘Fire at will!’ General Hammond shouted into his radio, amplified by the speakers set up across the site.
Bursts of light erupted from hundreds of guns.
‘Let’s kick their arses!’ Chloe shouted. Together we launched our own barrage of plasma balls into the maelstrom of outgoing fire. The MRLs, at almost point-blank range of Archios, launched rocket after rocket at their closing target.
The monster’s body blazed within the fog with the almost continuous lightning storm and he staggered under the assault, the smell of cordite filling the air, but still it wasn’t enough.
The fog bank swept over us, extinguishing the sky in an instant, and day turned to night, an Arctic chill stealing the heat from my blood.
In the sudden suffocating darkness, screams came from all around us. A soldier hurtled past Chloe and me through the air, swept away by a swarm of Shade as he fired his pistol at them.
The ground shook as Archios loomed out of the fog, a giant to the ants that were us.
‘Let’s give him everything we’ve got, Jake!’ Chloe shouted.
We stood side by side, creating huge plasma suns so hot that, despite the grip of the icy fog, I was instantly beaded with sweat.
I nodded to Chloe. ‘Now!’
Our twin suns sped towards the titan, blazing light through the fog and burning it away so that we could see the others again. But Archios twisted a fraction and our shots blazed harmlessly past his left shoulder.
‘Fire till you have nothing left!’ Hammond’s voice boomed through the speakers.
Once again, the MRLs roared their challenge and launched another round of rockets that exploded across Archios’s chest, blasting great holes through the monster.
But this time Archios just laughed, the sound echoing and shaking the world. Then his swept his arm down and he grabbed the nearest MRL. Metal scrunched and soldiers screamed as he crushed it in his fist and threw it in the Thames where it exploded in a fountain of water.
And then, right in the middle of all the chaos, I felt familiar static wash over my skin, my mind tingling.
I shifted into the Light Web to see the lattice of energy was dimming under the onslaught of the Shadowlands, but nearby several knots of energy had gathered themselves round me and Chloe.
My eyes filled with tears. Our family, our friends – they were with us for the end.
A whisper came in my ear. Ethan’s voice. ‘Use the Light Web, Jake.’
‘What do you mean?’
Chloe shot me a sideways look as she fired another volley of shots up into the giant, who was now stamping on a tank.
The knots of energy vanished, the Light Web too, and I was back in the nightmarish Real with people screaming all around us.
‘Everyone, back into the dome to form a defensive line around the Waverider!’ Hammond’s voiced yelled from the speakers.
Soldiers loomed out of the thickening dark energy fog and disappeared through the doorway behind us.
But what had Ethan meant about using the Light Web – the energy that linked every single living thing…?
Right there in the middle of all that madness, right on the edge of oblivion, the answer hit me. The Light Web wasn’t just pure energy, it was also the consciousness of the entire world – something that was very much alive. Maybe if I could channel that…
Archios’s bellow came through the black fog as the outline of his mass looked directly at Chloe and me. ‘Time to die, Awoken!’ the titan bellowed. He raised his foot and brought it slamming down towards us. Chloe screamed and threw a last desperate fireball up at him.
Time slowed to a stop as my awareness accelerated. Fresh adrenaline powered through me. In that moment, I took in every detail. The swarming dance of shadow crows in his foot, swirling in endless spirals; the putrid rubbish smell they carried with them; the growing cry of sirens in the distance; the chill of ice spreading through the souls of my trainers.
I focused, ignoring all of it, and shifted back into the Light Web. In that frozen second, I stretched my arms in the air, feeling the energy of linked life extending away around me throughout the city. ‘Through me,’ I whispered.
A jolt passed within my whole body as the Light Web exploded into brilliance. Pure molten power raced into me from the surrounding world. Then I was burning as the heat of a star grew within me – way too much power for my body to hold.
I tipped my head back for a cry that wouldn’t come. And then a volcano of energy gushed from my mouth. I shook as thousands of fireflies flew from me and swarmed over Archios. White-hot plasma fires erupted all over the titan and he screamed as his body began to blaze with light. He toppled backwards and thrashed around as he dissolved away. And then there was nothing left but a pattern of cinders that drifted down through the air to settle on the ground, forming a sooty outline of his body. The energy coursing through me shut off and I collapsed down, heart slamming in my chest, my body washed out.
Chloe grabbed my shoulders. ‘Oh my god! What was that, Jake?’
Howls came from the distance. ‘This isn’t over yet,’ Chloe said. She hooked an arm beneath mine and pulled me back up to my feet. ‘We need to get inside and protect the others.�
�� She half carried, half dragged me through the doors and into the dome.
At once some soldiers began to barricade the doors behind us. Not that it would do much good to protect us from shadow wolves.
I staggered with Chloe towards the Waverider, where less than thirty soldiers waited, panting, eyes wild. Presumably all that was left of the hundreds outside. They stood with General Hammond, Williams, Captain Ericsson and Chloe’s Awoken to form a defensive circle round the machine.
‘How long?’ Chloe shouted.
‘Two minutes,’ Claire called back.
The howls and yips outside grew louder. The Tiger squad lit their sparks, Chloe included. I tried, but failed.
Then the doors burst open and black fog billowed through, immediately swamping the room with impenetrable gloom.
‘You have to be shitting me,’ Chloe muttered, expanding a plasma ball between her hands.
Howls seemed to come from all around us, answered by the soldiers’ Voletar gunfire and Awoken fireballs streaming off into the fog.
A huge wolf appeared, slamming into me and knocking the air from my lungs. I was sent flying and lost Chloe in the murk.
Clutching my side, which burned with pain from the impact, I hauled myself back over the floor to where she’d been a moment ago. I saw her lying face down, the massive shadow wolf standing over her, jaws opening to bury its teeth in her with a death bite.
I lifted a trembling hand, but once again no spark appeared.
‘No!’ I tried to shout, but my voice came out as a whisper.
Another shadow wolf loomed out of the fog, padding towards the larger one, its grey eyes fixed on Chloe.
My heart clenched as I recognised it. ‘Gavin, please help her.’
The grey-eyed wolf turned his head to look at me and then back to stare at the bigger wolf. He snarled, his whole body vibrating. And then Gavin launched an impossibly fast attack, springing up and striking the larger wolf hard and barrelling it sideways in a split second.
I crawled over to Chloe, trying to protect her with my body as the two creatures fought, teeth and claws slashing at each other.