The Clash (The Permutation Archives Book 5)

by Kindra Sowder

  Newton continued to disappear into King in streams of Nanos, King taking on more metallic qualities then he previously had. It happened slowly enough but then sped up.

  “That’s because you have,” John answered, looking at Gaia. “He tried to do the same to me.”

  “Oh, but John, this is so completely different,” King said, Newton’s voice morphing into his along with a metallic grind just underneath. “He isn’t attempting to absorb me…”

  “We are a symbiotic force,” Newton’s voice finished. “We are one…working together to achieve a common goal.”

  “To kill the terrorist, Mila Hunter, tear down the foundations of the Fallen Paradigm…” King began.

  Newton completely absorbed into King’s body, and the change in his physical appearance was practically instant. Portions of King’s face looked like Newton, his muscles bulked, he became at least an inch or two taller, and his eyes turned from deep black pits into reflective pools of steel. The sensation of the Nanos moving along my skin became even stronger – King and Newton’s integration complete, and as soon as he opened his lips, a terrifying voice came out.

  “And bring the world to its knees.”

  Then something snapped inside me, and I felt the power in the room grow exponentially. I realized every Nano and Special in the room activated their abilities – ready to fight a war we all had known was coming since this all began. Rage, strong and intense, flowed outward from John. When I looked at him, his face was full of outrage, his eyes changed from brown to black, and it spread out into the whites until there was nothing else left.

  “You’re an abomination!” he shouted, his voice taking on an edge that sounded like two voices coming from his vocal chords at once.

  The new man before us shook his head, keeping eyes on John and myself.

  “No, we are the next step of evolution,” he said.

  John’s rage only grew as I watched. I felt it warp and turn inside of me – like his emotions were my own, and I knew the Nanos had something to do with it.

  “Baker?” I called out to him, watching him tremble with anger. “John? Are you all right? John? Come on! Snap out of it!”

  He then began to growl, which obviously made everyone nervous.

  “Mila what’s going…what’s going on?” Gaia asked frightfully looking toward me.

  “I don’t know, he’s freaking out! John!” I shouted. “John! What did you…”

  “John, what the fuck is wrong with your eyes?” I asked as his eyes turned pitch black from pupil to iris, even stretching all the way across so the whites completely disappeared.

  “Abomination!” John roared, the metallic screech of his own Queen under the surface of his smooth baritone.

  “Oh, must you be so dramatic?” the King-Newton hybrid chuckled.

  My eyes met John’s, and he nodded. I quickly returned it and turned my attention to my sister and friends. Baker looked to my sister, and I could see the hurt and the determination in his expression, along with a longing so deep I felt it deep in my chest – as if he was trying to memorize her face. Or say good-bye. I wasn’t certain which.

  Fear and adrenaline ran rampant, and I could tell everyone saw it, which caused every one of them to take a breath in preparation to say something to stop what I was about to do.

  There was another metallic snap inside of me, causing me to almost gasp and stumble, but I held my ground – I knew something was coming, and it was coming quickly. His muscles tensed, ready for a swift attack. Out of pure protective instinct, I screamed, reached out toward the others with my ability, wrapped them in the protective shield I created and pushed them toward the open doors we had just come through.

  The only person that could remain to help me fight this was John – because not only did he deserve revenge, but because this was his fight too.

  They cried out and fell to the ground as I released them, slamming the doors shut in one fluid motion. I could hear their shocked and angry shouts from the other side, palms slapping against the metal.

  “John! Mila! No! No! Don’t you…!” Gaia shrieked from the other side as I effectively sealed the door shut with my ability – making their re-entry impossible.

  Staring at Baker’s bewildered face, I saw the determination just underneath. We would end this, and we would end this together.

  Together…we would save everyone.

  Chapter

  THIRTY-ONE

  Nodding at one another, I pulled my focus away from the screaming on the other side of the door and moved it toward King who absorbed Newton. Granted, it wasn’t a complete integration, but it was enough of one, so they could work together.

  For that reason alone, I wasn’t certain how we could win this fight, but we had to try. Not so much for us, but for those on the other side of that door. I knew John didn’t care if he lived or died as long as Gaia survived, and I felt the same way. We were just in the fight for their lives, and those around the entire world.

  King took the last brazen steps away from his throne with arms outstretched. I could sense him in there, controlling so much of the brain itself while Newton seemed to have some semblance of control over his body, but who knew how much of that was true. He could do anything and give off whatever energies he wanted us to sense as far as I could tell, and I wasn’t about to be taken for a damned fool while trying to save the planet from the insane tyrant.

  No guessing. I needed firm readings, which I was certain the Nanos rummaging around inside me may be able to provide if I just focused hard enough. I clenched my fists and put some of my energy into heightening my senses. Not so much that it would be debilitating, just enough to be helpful. I heard and felt the Nanos in John’s body working away, and the pounding of his heart as well as his rapid breathing. Could even smell the sour tinge of adrenaline moving through him, coming through his pores.

  Moving my attention swiftly to King, I felt the Nanos, but not much of anything else, like Newton was able to hide anything going on internally.

  In an instant, he shot toward me, and I was able to act quickly enough to engage the shields of my telekinesis – but not around me to protect myself. Around my fists so that I could put more impact and force behind every blow. I wanted to get my hands on him, and I wanted him to hurt. I wanted him to feel pain, just like so many others had at his hands.

  John dashed toward us, and he almost didn’t make it in time. I stayed where I was and braced myself for impact, and when he hit, it felt like a small explosion had gone off in my chest. My power snapped back into me like a rubber-band releasing, and I went flying – John being thrown in the opposite direction. Everything inside my body shuddered when I hit the floor and slid across its smooth surface. I heard John land all the way across the room, slamming into a far wall, and King laughed like the maniac he was. Luckily, my ability wrapped itself around me just in time to save me from too much of an impact, but I still felt it ripple through every cell with stinging pain.

  The energy moved back into my flesh, and when I sat up, I spotted John across the way – already rising to his feet as if nothing had happened. I slowly rose, still slumped slightly, and looked to King who smiled like a child in a candy store who was told he could have whatever he wanted.

  “I’m ready to die in this room if it means taking those fuckers with us,” John said in a voice that still echoed with his Queen’s energies.

  “So am I,” I replied, narrowing my eyes at the King-Newton hybrid beast.

  “Well,” the hybrid chuckled, “you both have one thing right. Neither of you will be leaving this room alive. When it is all over and done, you will be ground beneath my boot heels as I rule not just America, but the entire world!”

  His laughter as he spoke flooded with lunacy, causing a chill to roll up and down my spine and over my flesh like a wave. Triggered by t
he sensation, my ability fluttered over my skin as if to warm me. The shiver abated slightly but still remained.

  John sucked in a deep breath and roared, “Abomination!”

  Then he was gone from sight in a flash, causing me to have to adjust. I was still rusty, but my Nanos seemed to guide me much like my ability had a number of times. My brain fired rapidly, and my eyes were able to catch his flurry of violent movement while he rushed toward the hybrid. I saw each attempted strike and every dodge, the hybrid’s laughter only drawing more rage from John. But it also caused John to move faster, leaving him wide open as the hybrid became even more distracted with each dodge.

  If there was ever a moment for me to act, this would be it.

  I charged toward the men, focusing my power into my balled-up fists, intent on inflicting as much damage as humanly possible. I closed the distance a lot quicker than anticipated and watched as the hybrid dodged another assault, choosing that moment to strike. Lunging, I lashed out toward the hybrid’s face, but just as quickly as it had been there, it was gone. The next thing I saw was John’s face filled with confusion, and we managed to stop our attacks before hitting one another. Stunned, I scanned the room, finding King, Newton, whoever, just far enough away that we couldn’t attack as swiftly.

  “Tsk, tsk children,” came the voice of Newton. “Why are you unable to understand that you are outmatched?” He began to chuckle again, his voice merging with King’s. “And in being outmatched, you have no hope.”

  “Really?” I asked, drawing on my power again. It began to whip a slight wind, causing my hair to float around my head in a halo of dark strands. “I don’t think you boys have the slightest idea of just what we can do.”

  The hybrid’s brows knit together and then rose with amusement. It was hard to tell whose features I was looking at at any given moment – who was doing what?

  “Oh, and what are you planning to do, girl? My cells? My atoms? They are in constant flux. Even if you manipulate them and force them to burn, I can simply…”

  I saw it as John dove, missing the hybrid of King and Newton altogether as his form quickly softened and turned into a puddle of human tissue and Nano-tech metal. It swirled and undulated. John leaped away from it as his foot almost made contact, and landed nimbly beside me. I had no idea what I was looking at, but it was obvious by his actions and his wide eyes that he had seen this before and knew what to do. The small pool slid and slithered across the floor like a serpent, moving to encircle us like a predator.

  “What do we do here, John?” I asked, petrified.

  “We don’t let it surround us!” he shouted.

  Out of nowhere, he grabbed my waist and hoisted me into the air, over the pool of hybrid gunk that was attempting to rise into a wall to stop us from escaping. I landed on my feet and expertly rolled through the impact, hearing a loud and hollow thud from behind me. I winced as soon as I turned and spotted John being slammed into the ground again, to be thrown into the wall over and over. With a wave of my hand and a call to my power, John’s ankle was instantly freed from the hybrid’s grasp with a sharp explosion, the energy rippling through the gelatinous mess so strongly I felt the energy tingle against my own insides. Muck and pieces of human and machine splattered disgustingly in all directions, snapping across the floor to reunite with its original body.

  The puddle began to rise, taking on its human form again so it could more easily speak to us – chide us as it had been doing during its entire speech, no doubt. The liquid sound of it nearly caused me to gag, but I choked down bile and froze in place as John came to stand, Nanos rushing to areas of injury – especially a gash on his cheek. The only sign of it after barely a second was a trace of blood smeared across his cheekbone. I felt them moving like I could feel my own – like I could feel the horrifying hybrid of King and Newton’s doing the same as he reformed before our eyes.

  I almost gasped seeing the guise they decided to take. King’s face and body came to fruition, but he had the same glasses as well as the salt-and-pepper beard and hair that Newton had before he had morphed into this monstrosity with King. The black suit jacket was open, exposing a missing tie and halfway unbuttoned dress-shirt. His dark eyes looked disappointed as if he were dealing with incompetent children that he had no choice but to discipline. It looked like an expression that Newton seemed to wear a lot more often than King ever did. King didn’t do disappointed. He did amused, but never disappointed. The man didn’t even seem to be capable of being disappointed in anyone – fascinated by the actions of others when they surprised him instead of appeased him.

  “Children, I have to say that I am thoroughly disappointed in the both of you.” Then those dark eyes swung over to me, and King’s tickled grin took the place of the displeasure. “Especially you, Mila. As my daughter, I expected so much more of you.”

  “You’ll find out, Dad,” I spat with all the hatred I felt for the man in every word. John gripped my hips, and I decided to go with whatever he had planned. “I’m full of surprises.”

  Then, picking me up off the ground, John hurled me toward the King-Newton hybrid, and I raised my arm – putting all the energy from my ability into it as I could, the shield tingling around my clenched fist – and prepared to slam into him. The hybrid sent out a long tendril of the same, disgusting humanoid goo in my direction. I sent a slice of air and energy into the floor that sent me in the opposite direction of his attack. He struck the wall just behind where I had been, leaving a dent in the wall.

  My feet hit the ground just as the creature hissed at me with rage and hatred, and in a matter of seconds, Baker came out of nowhere – slamming into the President with a thunderous strike that I swore I could feel reverberate through my body and my teeth. I wasn’t about to give him a chance to rebound. Building my power inside of myself to the point of nearly exploding with it myself, I launched my attack and came down on King’s head with so much force it felt like an explosion went off inside my chest again. The hybrid fell to the floor, landing on one knee, but not completely down. John came toward us and shoved his knee into the man’s chin. The human form of King and Newton melted into a puddle once more to stop the hits from coming, but little did he know, after all he had done to me, I wasn’t about to give up until he was a puddle of whatever I created with his death at my feet.

  “Fuck! He melted again!” John roared at me as the pool of flesh and metal began to move around him. “Get ready, Mila.”

  The puddle exploded toward John, contorting into a cylinder that slammed him into the ground, effectively trapping him. He couldn’t move, and from what I was able to feel, could barely breathe because of the pressure.

  “Blast him,” John yelled.

  I could hurt him. I could kill him if I did anything while that thing was still on top of him. Uncertain of what to do, I shook my head and swallowed hard.

  “John, I could…”

  “Just do it! I’m ready to die down here if I have to. Just do it!” he prompted through struggling breaths.

  Narrowing my eyes, I pulled my power into my chest, building it within myself for a much more potent attack. The Nano-human rippling mass sent a tendril out in my direction, but I continued to push every bit of power I had into the center of my chest. Sending it out toward the creature and John, the tendril impacted with it and sizzled with a screech. Baker cried out in pure animal agony as his skin began to bubble and melt, almost like plastic. I wanted to pull back, but I couldn’t. The flow of power was too strong. Wrapping his arms around the mass with a grimace, he held it tight against his chest. It attempted to break down and shift, but John held it in its current form as I continued the onslaught. John roared, and I almost dropped my hands.

  “Keep it up! Don’t stop!” he growled.

  His brown flesh began to turn pink, and then white as it pulled away from the bones in his skull. Tears streamed down my ch
eeks at the sight. I was killing him. I knew I was, but now it was far too late to stop if John refused to let go. His brown irises turned white like cataracts had formed, and then the orbs erupted in their sockets, causing a scream to leave my lips.

  “John, let him go,” I shouted, hoping he could hear me over the sounds of sizzling flesh and metal. “Don’t make me kill you. I can’t…”

  “Don’t stop! If I let him go he’s going to get…a…w…” his words trailed off into wet gurgles as his face continued to melt away.

  The flesh puddle continued to bubble, its volume decreasing as it melted under my power, consistency thinning weakly. I sent another blast of power toward the two, forcing John away from the contorting mass. He slid across the floor, leaving trails of broken flesh and blood on the linoleum in his wake. As soon as John was out of range – at least ten feet away — I forced all my concentration and all my power into the creature that had been King and Newton.

  “Fry, you bastard! Fry!” I shrieked, sounding like an animal more than a human being as I sent another wave of power toward the thing. Quickly, it disintegrated into a pile of decaying, radioactive ash on the floor. The power snapped back inside my body as I pulled it away, and I turned toward John with a massive smile on my face, coming to the realization that this – this war – was finally over. “I got you…you bastard…I killed you!”

  I looked toward John who seemed to be healing, but I couldn’t tell how well or how quickly. All I felt was the rush of Nanos through him that felt like a million tiny spiders crawling over my skin.

  “John? Are you all right?” I asked.

  From the short distance, I could see clearly how his flesh and muscle knitted themselves back together and attached back onto his bones. He grunted as his eyes rolled back into his sockets and refocused, landing on me.

  “I’m fine,” he said. “Good job.” He paused. “I…”