Then The Drone laughs and holds the stone out for me to get a better look.
“This came from beneath Austin’s skin,” he says just before closing his fist around it. “Now it’s mine along with everything else.”
His fist closes tighter on the stone and suddenly his hand begins to glow with a strange blue light. It’s as if his hand is wrapped around a light bulb. The light gets brighter and brighter until the pieces of metal that make up his armor begin to crack and bend. One by one they come apart and clank to the rooftop until he is standing freely.
He crouches down and retrieves the shard of the Vestige from its compartment.
A lump gets stuck in my throat as I try to accept what I’m seeing.
Bill’s paralysis is now reversed.
Whatever that stone is, it’s extremely powerful. Perhaps it’s not from this world. Could Austin have been telling the truth about extra-terrestrials?
No matter the answer, that stone has now made The Drone incredibly strong. I wonder now if my call to Grandpa will truly be the last time that I speak to my family.
My strength is so depleted now that I can barely lift myself up onto my elbow any more. My injuries, combined with the pounding of the rain, is enough to make me believe that these moments will be my last.
The Drone starts to walk towards where I lay. Any minute now he’s going to reach me and take the Vestige from my arm and then dispose of me the same way that he’s disposed of everyone else.
My thoughts move to Mae, who is still down in the archives. I wonder if she is still unconscious, or if somehow, by some miracle, she has woken up and made it out of the building.
Could she still have a life after this, if she escapes?
I wonder now more than ever what going to the Winter Ball with her would have been like. I suppose I’ll never know.
The Drone stands before me now. Even though my vision is fuzzy, I see him crouching down...reaching out for the Vestige…
Just before his hand gets to the medallion on my arm, something unexplainable happens.
The Drone suddenly jerks violently back. His shoulders arch as his arms are thrown out to the side, and his neck cranes up towards the thundering clouds. A strained cry escapes his lips as a spray of red mist speckles the rain-drenched rooftop.
It takes me a moment to realize what has happened, but as I blink away the water from my eyes I see a long metal rod protruding from just below The Drone’s left shoulder. He’s been speared like a wild animal.
But, how…?
I struggle to look over my shoulder to see where the spear must have come from and let out a gasp when I recognize a familiar figure stepping out through the sheets of rain.
Jean Smith, the man from the convention and father of the girl that Bill Flagrant murdered, walks forward until he stands between me and The Drone. He’s already fixing another rod-like spear into a crossbow that he carries.
“It’s time to pay up for what you’ve done,” the man says as he comes to a stop. There’s only a few feet between him and The Drone, and I’m amazed that he has come forward without any trepidation. He managed to get the jump on The Drone in a way that Mae and I couldn’t have achieved.
The Drone looks like he’s in considerable pain. His hand, which holds both the shard of the Vestige and the mysterious obsidian square from Austin’s arm, twitches and for a moment it looks like he’s going to drop them both. However, that doesn’t happen. Instead he strengthens his grip on the items.
Even with his powers, The Drone isn’t impervious to pain. The obsidian square has somehow healed him of his paralysis, but can it heal him of this impalement, or even a second spear to his torso?
I can see that some of the intensity of The Drone is wearing off and his features return to the very vulnerable human ones of Bill Flagrant. He snarls at Mr. Smith.
“You?” he says with a strangled, pained voice. “I thought you were dead…”
“I’m not,” Mr. Smith replies. The spear clicks into place on his bow as another blast of thunder sounds directly above us. “You’re not going to kill this boy today,” he goes on. “You’re not going to kill anyone else.”
Bill, who has fallen to his knees with the excruciating pain that no doubt is coursing through his body, glares at Mr. Smith.
“And you’re going to see to that?” he growls.
“I am.”
Mr. Smith raises the bow, aiming it at Bill’s chest.
It seems like the man expects things to be at a standstill now, but as I watch on I see a flicker in Bill’s eye. A smile tugs at his lips, and I see his hand clench around the obsidian square and the Vestige shard.
My eyes widen as I realize too late what’s about to happen.
“Mr. Smith - look out!” I yell, but my voice is overpowered by the sound of thunder and a crack of lightning overhead as The Drone thrusts out his good hand and blasts the man straight in the chest.
The energy is so great, even despite The Drone’s injury, that it sends the man flying backwards, past where I lay, until he smashes head-first into one of the air conditioning units. Just like Mae, he lands in a heap and I’m back where I started.
The Drone struggles to his feet and begins to grip the rod sticking out of his chest. He gives it a pull, but it’s embedded too deeply to be moved. For the moment it seems like he’s distracted.
“Do it…” a voice says faintly behind me.
I turn and see Mr. Smith looking weakly in my direction. He’s rolled onto his backside and propped himself up on the air conditioning unit. He nods at me.
“Do it now… End it!”
I don’t know how I can possibly end anything in my current physical state. I can’t even stand, though I try to get up onto at least one knee, and even that sends jolts of pain through my injured one.
“How…” I mutter. My energy level is waning because of my injuries, the same as The Drone.
But, then I see the answer.
Just a few feet away from The Drone is the edge of the building. If I can knock him off somehow… I lift up my hand and try to generate a ball of energy, but I can feel within the bones of my hand that the energy is not going to be strong enough to do anything but annoy The Drone.
I need some other way.
A crack of lightning causes me to jump. The sky lights up and I can feel the rumble rolling through the building.
Then the idea solidifies in my head.
That’s it! I can use the lightning to power up my energy and blast The Drone off the roof. Even if it doesn’t kill him, I can at least immobilize him further. Maybe I can even shock him enough to kill him.
The thought sends shivers down my spine.
I wish there was another way, but Bill has already tried to kill my friends more than once. He’s made his stance, and I’ve made mine. Justice is in my hands.
I just need to attract the lightning…
Thunder rumbles once more and I take the Vestige from my armband, holding its glimmering surface between my fingers. I don’t know what being struck by lightning will do to me while I’m an Aberrant, but even if I go down, at least I can take him with me.
I stretch out my hand, reaching up until the Vestige is the only thing between me and the sky. My other hand reaches out and aims at The Drone, who is still preoccupied by trying to remove the rod from his body. He gets it out a few inches, but it’s still embedded.
I charge up the ball of energy in my hand and stretch the Vestige higher into the air.
“Come on…” I mutter, my eyes glued to the clouds. “Come on, please…”
The clouds flicker above me like great blankets with a flashlight underneath.
Come on…
The Drone gives the rod one more giant tug and yanks it free from his flesh with a yell. His hand releases the spear and it clangs to the rooftop.
My eyes widen as he aims his now bloody hands at me, ready to lash out with a great blast of energy, when something sharp goes whizzing by my head an
d lodges into The Drone’s upper leg.
Behind me, Mr. Smith has managed to get a hold of the crossbow and he’s successfully immobilized The Drone once more.
With a rage-filled scream, The Drone doubles over just as a beam of lightning comes zagging down from the clouds. The white-hot lightning connects with the Vestige with a thunderous clap and engulfs my entire hand, traveling in a split second down my arm and through my core. With every ounce of might that I can muster, I grit my teeth and channel the lightning into the already building ball of energy in my other hand and grow it until it becomes too great to hold.
The now broiling ball of energy streaks away from my hand, leaving a long tendril behind it, and crashes into The Drone.
Everything about him lights up. His form is now pulsating with an overabundance of electricity, and he looks to me like someone on an operating table. His entire body tenses up and begins to jerk rapidly in all directions.
His hand, which is closed around both the shard of the Vestige and the obsidian square, glows the brightest for about two seconds. I can feel both my own hands becoming so hot that I fear that they are being melted.
Then, just as brilliantly as it started, the lightning finishes its channel and flickers out.
The Drone’s entire body slumps and he loses his grip on the shard which goes clinking across the rooftop, landing in a puddle of rainwater. The obsidian remains in his palm, looking like it’s been burned into his flesh.
He takes a step back, seemingly involuntarily, fixes one last undecipherable look on me, then tumbles backwards over the edge of the roof.
34
The Authorities
My chest feels like it’s about to explode. There is a horrible, stinging pressure that continues to circulate within my rib cage as I watch The Drone disappear over the edge. I wonder for a brief moment if the lightning is frying me the same way it just fried Bill Flagrant.
The stream of lightning that connected my hand to The Drone’s chest flickers out like a bulb and suddenly I collapse onto the rainy rooftop with a painful splash.
A white light clouds over my eyes and I can’t see anything now - not the rain, not the tar-covered roofing, or even the dark sky.
I wonder if I am dead.
But, there is no hallway. Isn’t there supposed to be a long hallway with a light at the end? This is just a haze of blinding light that is surprisingly painful. Why would I still be feeling pain in my arms and legs if I was dead?
This tingling pain intensifies and crescendos until suddenly the light around me is extinguished. I blink my eyes and see that no, I’m not dead, but instead I am lying on my back looking up at the rainy sky.
A helicopter flies overhead and my visor, shorted out by the lightning blast, barely shades me from the spotlight that roams across the rooftop.
I go to sit up, expecting more pain, but find that the pain is gone. I feel totally normal, despite being brutally thrown around by a super villain.
I reach down to check on my injured leg and am shocked to find that there is nothing wrong with it at all. I can bend my knee as if nothing ever happened to it.
Have I been miraculously healed?
As I get to my feet it seems like that is the case. But, how?
As I step forward to look over the edge of the rooftop, my eyes catch the glimmer of the tiny shard of the Vestige. I bend down and retrieve it. The piece feels like it has been waiting to be reunited with its other half.
An ethereal glow emanates from the Vestige as I press the two pieces back together.
The rain begins to slow down. Now there is only a slight drizzle.
As I peer over the side of the building my stomach turns. If I expected to see The Drone coming back for more, I am mistaken.
Bill Flagrant is lying facedown in the construction zone, having landed in the wet cement. Even if he survived the fall, he would have suffocated by now with his head in the deadly mixture.
This whole battle is finally over.
I let out a sigh of relief.
Then a pang of fear enters into me as I remember Mr. Smith behind me, and Mae a few floors below.
I turn and see Mr. Smith standing up, though he is clearly nursing his head. The sound of sirens floats faintly up at us and I nod to him.
“That must be the emergency personnel,” I say. “Can you make it down to the ground on your own?”
The man holds up a dismissive hand.
“I’ll manage,” he says. “Your partner needs your help more than I do, Shaun.”
I blink.
“You knew it was me?” I ask, to which Mr. Smith laughs.
“I knew it was you from the moment I saw the videos of Bill Flagrant chasing you down on social media.” He grunts, but gives me a slight smile. “You finally finished what your father started.”
I don’t know how to take that, so I shrug.
“My destiny was to kill a man?” I say.
Mr. Smith shakes his head.
“Your destiny was to bring about the justice that the rest of humanity could not. Only you could take down The Drone.”
“You helped a bit,” I add, motioning to the bloody rod lying off to the side.
“Every hero needs some help once in a while,” Mr. Smith replies. “I did it for my little girl. Now, get down there and check on your partner!”
I nod, then I go to sprint over to the emergency exit - but instead of my normal sprint, the world around me becomes a horizontal blur and I am navigating the stairs and hallways of the Marshall-Crichton building as if everything is in fast-forward.
I hold out my hands and come to a screeching stop just inside the ruined doorway of the archives room.
“What was that…?” I mutter under my breath.
Did I just use super speed?
There is barely a moment to ponder this because I spot Mae still lying on the floor where I left her.
“Mae!” I say, speeding out of control once more until I’m by her side. The rush of wind from the intense speed is still whirling around me as I kneel beside her. I tear off my visor and grab onto Mae’s shoulder.
“Mae, can you hear me?” I ask, knowing that she is at least still breathing by the rise and fall of her chest. I’m more concerned with her back, or even her mind. I squeeze her shoulder to keep from shaking her in case of spinal damage. “Mae…”
Suddenly her mouth opens and she takes in a deep breath. Her eyes flutter open.
“Shaun?” she says. Her voice sounds rough, as if she has been wandering around a desert in search of water. She starts to sit up, but I stop her.
“Take it easy! Are you injured? Any broken bones?”
She lies back down for a moment then shakes her head.
“My back is just a little sore.”
I have to blink away the tears in my eyes as she sits up for real this time.
“Well, you were just thrown against a shelving unit,” I say.
The two of us get to our feet and survey the damage around us. It looks like only a few areas of the archive were affected by The Drone’s flame thrower.
Mae squeezes my arm.
“The Drone,” she says. “Is he still out there somewhere?”
I shake my head.
“He’a dead,” I reassure her. “He fell off the top of the building.”
She cringes.
“And The Cloak?”
I blink, suddenly remembering Austin. There is no chance he can be a real threat now, but what about that piece of obsidian that The Drone ripped from his arm?
“He’s been taken down,” I say. “Not killed, but not a threat any more.”
A look of relief washes over Mae.
“So, this is finally over,” she says.
It sounds weird to hear, but I think - and hope - that she is right this time.
“It’s over,” I say, taking Mae by the hand and leading her to the doorway. “But, I still need to get down to the ground floor and check for something -”
W
e are about to walk through the doorway to the hall when Officer Murphy blocks our path.
I step in front of Mae, shielding her in case something funny is about to happen. But, the man’s eyes are not lit up like they were when he was hypnotized. In fact, he appears normal and doesn't even have a weapon in his hand.
“The two of you need to wait a minute,” he says. “There’s something we need to talk about.”
35
Regards
Something inside me says to turn around and run before Officer Murphy can get a good look at my unmasked face. Before I can move, Mae has the same thought and steps in front of me. Her hands come up to bar the officer from coming any closer.
“Stop where you are,” she says in a commanding voice. “I don’t mean any disrespect, Officer, but if you are here to turn us over to the authorities, you will have a pretty hard time.”
Officer Murphy holds his hands up in an innocent gesture, obeying Mae’s command.
“I’m not here to arrest you,” he says. “I actually came to thank you. If it weren’t for the two of you, those maniacs would be enslaving us all. I’m sorry I was wrong about you.” He closes his eyes and gives his head a little shake. “You two aren’t hurt, are you?”
Mae glanced back at me, but I have no injuries due to whatever happened during the lightning strike, so she answers.
“Just a little bruised. How about you? The Drone clocked you pretty good downstairs.”
“The Drone…” mutters Officer Murphy with a slightly amused smile. “That’s what Bill Flagrant was calling himself, wasn’t it? I’m going to be alright, I think. My side feels like it was struck by a freight train, but I’ve seen worse. The sprinklers put out the fire downstairs, in case you were wondering. It was a good thing you led those villains up here when you did because the fire could have been a lot bigger if The Drone and the other guy weren’t distracted by you.”
“Austin Spencer,” I clarify from behind Mae. “The Cloak. He had you under some form of hypnosis.”
The Aberrant Series (Book 3): Super Villain Page 15