“Dammit.”
Blake.
Quinn dashed between the marines and slid on his knees when he arrived at the side of his best friend’s body. Blake’s skin appeared dehydrated and had become cracked and ashen in color. A dark, sickly looking black gash of dried blood and torn flesh ripped across his chest and his abs.
“Blake!” he cried out. Please, not again.
The gaping wound in his chest and back had not closed, nor did it show signs of healing. His heart was motionless on the ground next to him.
Quinn cradled Blake’s torn, lifeless body and wept once more at the death of his best friend.
23 | The Boot is on the Other Foot
Quinn
Blue Spekter picked up Blake’s lifeless body in his arms and stood. A medic on site quietly picked up Blake’s heart, placed it into a cold-storage bag, and followed behind him as they silently walked across the grounds to the command and medical units near the baseball field. What was once a loud battle zone full of marines shouting, TaseBolt energy, and four superheroes battling it out had become eerily silent except for the sound of the river and heavy machinery on the shipyard side of the island.
After placing Blake on the gurney again, Blue Spekter walked to the river’s edge to be alone. His emotions bubbled up and his shoulders shook as tears forced their way out of his eyes. He squatted, then sat on the ground, wrapping his arms around his knees. He cried alone, the nearby marines and medics unsure of how to console him.
Ana Maria shifted to the visible spectrum in front of him and startled nearby marines, who aimed their TaseBolts at her. He immediately sensed her presence in his mind.
“Where were you?” Quinn yelled, as tears streamed down his face. “Blake would be alive if you had helped me.”
Ana Maria shook her head. “I told you, I can’t risk it.”
“That’s bullshit!” he snarled, jumping to his feet. “If you’ve been paying attention then you already know The Order restarted Project Genesis. You told me so yourself. Victor showed up with two super-powered goons. You have nothing to hide anymore because they already figured out how to make superhumans. Who knows how many other super thugs Victor is training right now?”
She swallowed, looked down at the ground, then shook her head.
Quinn continued chastising her. “My friend is dead because you were too scared to help me. So, if you’re not going to help me, I don’t need you on the team. I’ll figure out how to stop Victor without you,” he snapped.
“Quinn, I…”
“Save it,” Quinn interjected, raising a hand to silence her.” You’ve been a big help, but you need to wake up, Ana Maria, because it’s not 1965 anymore. Tonight, the world has changed and you’re too stuck in the past to see it. Our worst nightmares are in motion. It’s not about preventing The Order from making more of us, it’s about stopping the super humans they’ve already made.”
Blue Spekter pushed himself to his feet, flashed with brilliant blue light, lifted off, and flew upriver from Seavey Island to the apex of the Piscataqua River bridge to be alone.
❖
Quinn landed on the painted green metal of the massive arch bridge and pulled his cell phone out of his waistband. Miraculously, it was still in one piece. He scrolled through a number of missed text messages, including one from Keegan, who asked him to swing by after he was done battling the forces of evil because he would not be able to sleep without knowing if he was safe or not.
He smiled and read through a few messages from his dads. He thumbed a message back telling them he was okay and that he would be swinging by Keegan’s house to check on him before heading home. He deliberately omitted an update about Blake because it was still too emotional for him to think about.
A text message from Keegan arrived, telling him he was not at home but at Quinn’s house with his dads and that he should come straight home when he finished saving the world.
Wow, he’s really changed his tune.
Quinn pocketed his phone and swan-dived off the bridge and rocketed toward home. As he flew over his neighborhood, he changed direction at the last second and dove toward the earth, landing in the backyard of his home. Then, he let himself into the house and made his way to the living room where his dads and Keegan were sitting.
Keegan saw him first. “Babe!”
Quinn’s dads jumped up and ran to him, each one visibly relieved to see he was okay. After Quinn reassured his dads he was unscathed, Daddio looked at him with concerning his eyes. “You’ve had one hell of a night. Keegan told us what happened at his house and on the Memorial Bridge. What happened to Blake after you saved Keegan??” Daddio asked.
Emotions welled up behind Quinn’s eyes and caught in his throat. He looked down at the distressed blue pattern in the carpet. “I did it; I actually saved him. I electrocuted the back of his head and disintegrated the chip, but I incinerated the back of his head in the process. I thought I killed him. Somehow, he was able to heal and he came back. He fought alongside me when super-Victor arrived with two evil super humans. Somehow, Victor figured out how to replicate the accident that created us. And then…I…”
He started crying. “I had to kill the two evil super people. And then Blake jumped in front of Victor’s assault and that’s when…Victor…ripped Blake’s heart out of his chest and killed him.” His fathers gasped at the revelation and Quinn broke down and fell into his father’s arms.
“Holy shit,” Keegan whispered. “Blake is dead?”
“Oh, my brave boy, I’m so sorry,” Daddio said, as his shoulders shook with emotion as he and Dad consoled their son. Quinn heard words and confusion as his dads and Keegan talked around him, but only Daddio’s words reached his ears. “We understand you had to kill two monsters to save the world. That’s a big deal we understand. If you hadn’t done that, they would be terrorizing the world as we speak.”
Quinn nodded in his father’s embrace, but he didn’t find much comfort in his father’s words. What happens when you disagree with one of my decisions or I make a really big mistake?
Several minutes later, Quinn pushed himself up and realized that somehow he and his dads had managed to sit on the couch. He wiped his eyes and looked at Keegan, who sat alone on the couch next to them. “I’m so sorry, I wanted to tell you everything, but when you kept talking about Blue Spekter the way you did, I became so afraid you would hate me and want nothing to do with me…and I was right.”
“You don’t have to apologize for anything,” Keegan replied, scooting his butt to the edge of the couch. “I was the idiot, and my mother and father made sure I knew it tonight. So did my grandmother, especially after the story that came out tonight. Talk about a Hanukkah to remember.”
“But…”
“No buts, I was serious about what I said when I kissed you tonight.”
“A kiss?” Dad asked. “Huh, you left that part out of the story.” A whimsical expression danced on his face.
Keegan smiled and shrugged. “A lady doesn’t kiss and tell.”
They shared a laugh together, and then Quinn relaxed on the couch between his dads and walked them through the painful experience of battling and saving Blake, and then his crazy battle with Victor and his two super goons.
“I can’t believe you flew to space,” Daddio said, astounded.
“That must have been so cool, to see the curved earth like that,” Keegan added.
“You’re probably the only human being to see the earth from that perspective without an atmospheric suit or a spacecraft,” Dad said.
Quinn shrugged. “I just wish I didn’t have to toss someone into space. It’s clear that us super beings can inflict mortal wounds upon each other…even death.”
“Maybe that’s Mother Nature’s way of providing checks and balances—and to prevent evil super heroes from dominating the planet.”
“Will there be a funeral?” Keegan asked.
Quinn and his dads looked at him, and Keegan sank bank in the couch. �
��I mean, for Blake…”
“I have no idea. His body is in the hands of the government now. Who knows what they’ll do with him.”
They sat silently for a moment, but Quinn knew what everyone was thinking. They’ll dissect him and try to figure out how the orgone reacted and changed his body to have super powers.
“Not to change the subject, but I’m going to, but um, does this mean you two are…um…” Dad stopped, frowning at his own awkwardness. Daddio lightly slapped him on the shoulder
Quinn and Keegan looked at one another. Keegan smiled, which forced a grin to spread across Quinn’s face.
“I need to go shower,” Quinn said. Then, he looked at Keegan. “Can we talk after?”
Keegan nodded. “I’d love to.”
❖
Quinn finished toweling off and pulled on a pair of boxers and a T-shirt. He rinsed off his super suit in the tub and then hung it to dry so it didn’t stink up his hamper with the smell of brackish water and dirt. He tried to focus on his excitement to see Keegan again, but his mind was distracted with the loss of Blake.
When he walked into his room, Keegan was laying on his bed, playing on his phone.
“Hey,” Quinn said, noticing Keegan still wore—or had put back on—his matching boyfriends ring. Quinn still hadn’t removed his because he hoped Keegan would change his mind.
Keegan clicked off his phone and sat up. “Hey, yourself, handsome.”
“So um…are we…” Quinn paused as tears ran down his face.
“I’m so sorry about before. I’m here now, though.”
“You said some pretty mean things,” Quinn said, blinking through more tears.
Keegan’s face became remorseful. “I know, and I’m sorry. I never meant to hurt you. I was…”
“You pushed me away and called me a super-powered freak, just like Darien does.”
Keegan nervously grunted. “Yeah. I remember.”
More tears streamed down Quinn’s face and his shoulders shook, but they weren’t because of the hurt Keegan had caused him; they were for Blake.
“Do you want me to go?”
Quinn shook his head, sniffled, and wiped his face with his hands. He sat down on the edge of the bed and said, “No. Would you just…hold me tonight?”
“Like, all night?”
Quinn nodded and struggled to hold back another bout of sobbing, but he couldn’t. Instead, he leaned into Keegan and let his emotions out.
Keegan wrapped his arms around him. “I can stay. I’ll never hurt you like that again, I promise.”
Keegan took a deep, sorrowful breath and exhaled, gently squeezing his crying boyfriend. “I love you, Quinn.”
Quinn felt grateful and smiled as he cried. All the angst he felt about losing his longtime crush melted away in his boyfriend’s arms. Keegan’s embrace is one of the special places I feel safe and the problems I have to deal with just…melt away.
❖
Victor
Alone and defeated, Victor flew back to the Androscoggin facility in the cloud cover of the cold winter night. The red streak trailing behind him illuminated the clouds with a red hue that would raise the curiosity of anyone who noticed it. Moments later, he landed next to the front door of the facility and powered down his glowing eyes and body. The mercenary guards regarded him with awe and nodded.
“Welcome back,” one of them said.
Flustered and fuming inside, Victor ignored the man and entered the facility, peeling back the black cowl from his head and pulling off the cold, wet shirt from his body.
With determination and focus, he marched into the workroom where Dr. Madison and her team were tending to a secret group of superhumans who were showing promise and adapting to their newfound powers well beyond his expectations.
“Where are Buck and Roger?” Dr. Madison asked.
“They didn’t make it,” Victor snapped.
Dr. Madison’s shoulders slumped. “ I don’t understand, what do you mean, ‘they didn’t make it?’ Their vitals and skills were more than sufficient for the field. What did you do?”
Don’t tell her what really happened, she’ll only get pissed off if she realizes I tried to recover the Seavey Island facility and I don’t need to deal with her I-told-you-so crap right now.
“Roger was struck with some kind of affliction I don’t understand. He was playing with his heat and flame powers and then spontaneously combusted. I think he tried to transmute, but it went horribly wrong.”
“I see. And Buck?”
“He flew too high and escaped earth’s gravity. Unfortunately, he had not mastered the ability to fly in the vacuum of space where I presume he is now frozen in orbit or traveling away from the planet.
Okay, so that one’s not exactly a lie, but he did have Quinn’s help…
“And you just let him go?” Dr. Madison asked incredulously.
He rounded on her in anger. “Do you really think I would risk my life after I saw his inability to return to an altitude he could fly at? There is no guarantee I can fly back from space at this point in the development of my powers.”
“The money we’ve spent…”
“Is not your concern,” Victor snapped. “I consider the valuable lessons we learned tonight more important than several million dollars of lost investment money.”
“The Archimandrion Council will disagree.”
Victor glared at her. “All but two members of the Council are dead, Doctor, all thanks to Blake.”
“By your command, of course. I highly doubt Blake chose to eliminate the council on his own, am I right?”
Victor smirked and ignored her question. “Only Absalom Miller and Reginald Barkley remain alive, but they won’t be a problem. They’re too old, incompetent, and afraid to retake the reins. I intend to seize power before anyone else thinks of ascending to leadership and I will set a new direction for The Order, one that will see the end of Quinn McAlester and secure our dominance in the history of mankind on this planet.”
She sighed. “What do you need me to do?”
“Prepare another group for orgone infusion. I have some other matters to attend to.”
“Consider it done.” She left his presence and returned to her workstation.
Victor wandered over to Arik and Miguel and spoke softly to them. “Come to my office in thirty minutes. I have a special project for you. Keep your mouths shut.”
The technicians nodded and Victor made his way to the locker room to shower.
❖
Ana Maria
“Are you sure about this?” Agent Hartman asked.
Ana Maria shook her head as two marines pushed the gurney holding Blake into place. “No, I’m not, but the secrets of orgone energy have yet to be unlocked. Perhaps placing in Blake in the idle reactor core with his heart will trigger the healing factor and bring him back; perhaps he is truly dead and our efforts will yield nothing.”
“But is this wise? Agent Potter and our superiors will not appreciate…”
“Agent Hartman, now that orgone is in the hands of the government, it’s only a matter of time before your superiors become the threat.”
Hartman chuckled. “And the general public? They will not understand why we’re bringing him back, given his murderous and destructive history.”
“A criminal history he had no free will to walk away from.”
“I see you’ve quickly taken to defending him. I expected Quinn to stand up for his friend, but…”
Ana Maria crossed her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes at him. “So did you, Agent Hartman. Enough posturing, or are you second guessing yourself?”
“I stand by my original beliefs, but you need to tell me something. If you were here, why didn’t you help Quinn tonight?”
Ana Maria pursued her lips for a moment as medics placed Blake’s cleaned heart into his body cavity where it belonged. “I was ready to help, but we needed Blue Spekter to rise to the occasion. Tonight, he discovered he could do
it on his own because he was strong enough—and he needed to prove that to himself.”
“But his best friend died in the process, and you’re okay with that?”
She cleared her throat. “Blake paid the ultimate sacrifice with his life tonight. That is a reality Quinn must be ready to face in war.”
“Ana Maria, he’s a sixteen-year-old kid. Are you really that cruel?” Hartman asked, regarding her with surprise.
Ana Maria met his gaze. “A sixteen-year-old with more power and responsibility than his peers or most adults and he handles it all with tremendous courage.”
Agent Hartman sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Well, we stand ready to continue helping Blue Spekter from here on out, especially since the threat has now multiplied.”
“Good. Victor holds the upper hand and the technology to create and train more evil superhumans. We need you on our side to fight that red devil and win.”
“Red Devil, huh? So, am I to understand you’re going to fight now?” Agent Hartman asked with a smile.
“Quinn was right. I have no choice but to fight.”
“I’m glad to hear that. For all the wisdom you preach, it’s about time you put your money where your mouth is.”
❖
The End of this Book
Guardians will conclude in…
Book 5:
Balance of Power
As The Order’s decimated leadership cowers and licks its wounds after Blake’s brutal blitz against the Archimandrion Council and the successful capture of the Seavey Island facility by U.S. Marines, the maniacal Victor Kraze seizes control of the organization’s resources and strikes back at teenage superhero Quinn McAlester.
Dumbfounded by Victor’s sudden and zealous propensity for destruction and revenge, Quinn enlists the help of the enigmatic and reluctant tutor Ana Maria Garcia to stop the super villain from enacting his master plan of unleashing an army of sinister superhumans determined to to destroy anything that gets in his way.
Faced with growing odds, a sinister plan, unexpected loss, and no time to grieve the loss of his best friend, Quinn and his small team of dedicated individuals risk everything to protect the people they love and keep the world safe until they can restore balance to the awesome power Quinn wields.
Ultimate Sacrifice Page 24