by Matt Blake
“You’re supposed to be having some kind of weird seizure on the floor.”
“I feel better now.”
“You feel better? Kyle, what’s going on?”
I knew I wasn’t going to get away from Cassie’s grilling anymore. She was good at telling whether I was lying, so it was better just not even attempting to cover up the truth. “It’s… it’s this craft. This thing that’s fallen from the sky.”
“It’s weird, I know. Doesn’t take a genius to see something’s off about it.”
“Saint’s back,” I said.
There was a pause, then. I saw the shock on Cassie’s face. She turned pale, opened her mouth, then closed it again. “He’s… How’s he…”
“All I know is he’s back, and he’s brought Orion and Daniel with him.”
Cassie’s face went even paler. “And you’re only just telling me this now?”
“Look. I struggled believing it myself. But Saint insists that something’s happening with this craft. That somehow, someone from outside of this planet found a way to intercept our wormholes and attack Earth. I know. It’s weird. It’s absurd. I’m not sure if I believe it or not either. And I sure as hell know I can’t do a thing about some intergalactic threat. But I can get you and Ellicia and Damon and Avi as far away from here as possible. I just need to find them.”
There was a look on Cassie’s face then. It didn’t take me long to register that it was disappointment.
“You knew,” she said.
Shame crept into my body. I felt my cheeks turning red. “I didn’t—”
“You knew, and you kept it from us. You knew something was wrong, and you ignored it.”
“I didn’t ignore it.”
“You’re a coward, Kyle.”
That word pierced me like a sword to the gut. “What?”
Cassie was crying now. “You’re a coward. Since you got back, I can tell you’re afraid. Like you’ve regressed. It’s almost like you—”
“Like what?” I shouted. “Like I don’t want to be a freak anymore? Like I don’t want to be the world’s damned savior every time it needs one? Like I don’t want to die?”
My voice echoed against the walls. I knew right away I shouldn’t have shouted.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
Cassie didn’t even flinch. “And I’m sorry too. For whatever happened to you in Antarctica. But what you’re doing now? Quitting? Giving up? That’s shitty.”
She turned around and walked away.
“Cassie,” I said.
“I’m getting my gear, and I’m getting ready to do what I have to do. Even if you aren’t going to be by my side. I’m not letting you hold me back. Not again.”
I didn’t want to let her go. I was so close to doing.
But then the lights flickered, and everything went black.
I stood in total silence for a while. The nerves built up inside. “Cassie?”
“I’m here. What’s… Blackout or something?”
But as I walked to the window, I realized it wasn’t a power cut at all. Not any ordinary power cut, anyway.
The world outside the window was pitch black. Every light, every car, everything electrical had come to a stop.
There was total blackness.
The only thing I could see made me want to puke.
It made every muscle in my body tighten to the point of no return.
“What is that?” Cassie asked, standing by my side, staring out the window.
I looked up at the large, dark object hovering over the pitch black planet, and I cleared my dry throat. “It’s them,” I said.
“Who?”
“The ones Saint warned me about. The one in my dreams. They’re… they’re here.”
12
I stared out of the window and watched as the mothership—if that’s indeed what it was—hovered above Earth.
It might be totally dark outside, but this mothership was even darker, a thicker black than the rest of the surroundings, making the night sky seem like daylight in comparison. There was a total silence to New York City that was eerie, like everyone here was watching. Of course, the whole world wouldn’t be watching, because something had happened to the power when this obelisk of a structure arrived. It’d cut out, presumably leaving everywhere in the dark as to what was going on in this city. Maybe the whole world was even plunged into darkness, too.
Cassie was by my side, but she might as well have not been, and I might as well not be here either. We were both transfixed by this thing. We’d seen a lot of things in our lives. All sorts of remarkable, unbelievable things that previous generations would dismiss as science-fiction.
This was real.
The mothership was enormous. It was perfectly smooth. A low hum seemed to radiate from it, which made my stomach turn. There were things around it, too. Smaller ships, I realized, much like the crafts that had crash-landed into New York.
So they really were just crafts, here to accompany the real thing.
I stared closely at the mothership and somehow, I thought I could see something familiar right in its midst. Like piercing eyes staring back at me.
“What… what is…” Cassie started.
She didn’t finish, because an enormous screech blasted out of the mothership. I clenched my teeth together, fell to the floor. My head was spinning. It felt like this screech really gnawed at the core of my abilities.
Then, a few seconds later, right in my mind, I heard a voice.
“People of Earth. ULTRAs of Earth. You don’t know who we are and you do not need to know. All that you need to know is that you have to cooperate.”
The voice was deep. Male. It sounded both alien and familiar, both at the same time.
I turned to Cassie. “You hearing this?”
She didn’t have to answer to give me her response.
The voice continued, “The ULTRAs of this planet will tear you apart. You might believe that the threat has subsided; you might think that you are comfortable, and you might be able to sleep at night. But you cannot. Because they are still out there, and they will destroy this world. That’s why you have to let us do our work, even if it means a few sacrifices along the way.”
My guts turned to mush. I looked at Cassie, and she looked back at me, fear on her face.
“So now you must understand something. This world is ours, while we do our job. If you allow us to do our job, without resistance, you will be rewarded. If you do not…”
The voice didn’t finish. It drifted off into the distance. But it was even more foreboding by the fact that it didn’t finish.
“Allow us to do our work. Hand over your ULTRAs. Otherwise, we will find them. Because if we don’t, they will destroy you. They will destroy all of you.”
The voice disappeared, like a popping in my ears. I felt pretty sick. I took a few deep breaths, steadied myself, then I stood back up, light-headed.
I stood up and looked at Cassie. She stood up too, clearly not at ease.
“Now you have to make the call,” she said. “You have to be strong. You see that, don’t you?”
I swallowed a lump in my throat. I didn’t want to have to face up to reality, but I could see reality in front of me, like a fork in the road: either I continued trying to deny what was happening, or I faced up to it.
I couldn’t just deny what was happening.
As Kyle, I wasn’t strong enough. I was going to have to be Glacies if I wanted to survive, let alone win.
But I was going to need some help.
“Yeah,” I said. “I guess. But we’re gonna need some help.”
Cassie nodded. “I know where we can find Vortex, and—”
“But first, I need to get to Ellicia. I need to make sure she’s safe.”
Cassie sighed, then nodded. “Yeah. Of course. Right. Let’s go get her.”
I looked out of the window and saw the tentacled crafts hovering around, preparing to launch their reign of terror on the world.
“I�
��m coming for you, Ellicia,” I muttered. “I’m coming.”
13
I held Cassie’s hand tightly and teleported us over to Ellicia’s place.
But again, something was wrong.
And that something was me, lying on the ground outside, back aching after slamming into it.
My teleportation had failed again.
I rubbed the top of my head and winced, trying to reorient myself. I could taste blood again right at the back of my throat, and there was a strong metallic smell in the air. Out in the darkness, everything somehow managed to seem even darker than it had when I was looking out at it, if that was at all possible.
I was nervous, of course I was. I couldn’t help it.
But nothing was going to stop me getting to Ellicia and making sure she was safe.
Not this darkness.
Not whatever the enemy had to throw at me.
Not even my dodgy teleportation.
Nothing.
“So, how long’s your teleportation been playing up?” Cassie asked.
I steadied myself to my feet. “Since the aliens showed up, pretty much.”
“You really think that?”
“Think what?”
“That they’re aliens.”
I paused for a few seconds. “I don’t really know. But it doesn’t matter who they are. We’ve got to—”
“Get to Ellicia. Right. Got it. After you, Mister Dodgy-Teleportation.”
I felt diminished when Cassie mocked me like that. Like I was more Kyle Peters than I was Glacies. The enemy must be hampering my abilities somehow. For all I knew, I was sending a signal of my location right to them just by using my powers.
“You ready?” I asked.
Cassie nodded. “Ready.”
Nervousness crept in as I closed my eyes, held my breath and thought of all the bad things that had happened in the last few years.
The deaths.
The destruction.
All of it…
I felt that energy burning in my chest, building up, and a part of me wanted to resist it.
Instead, I let it flourish.
Then I blasted it out in front of me and teleported myself over to Ellicia’s.
We landed in an even darker alleyway. I could hear footsteps somewhere behind me.
“Is this Ellicia’s?” Cassie asked.
Truth be told, I wasn’t sure if it was Ellicia’s. It was too dark even to get my bearings. There wasn’t much moonlight or starlight anymore, not now the massive craft that the enemy had arrived on was blotting out the sky.
“I don’t know,” I said.
Cassie snorted. “You don’t know?”
“Why’s that so wrong?”
“Oh, no reason at all. Just expected you to know where your girlfriend lives, that’s all.”
“Look, if you don’t want to be here, you don’t have to be. I’ve got this, Cassie. Okay?”
There was no response.
“Cassie?”
I turned around slowly.
Cassie was staring right at me. Of the low level of night vision I was using, I could see that her eyes were wide.
Something had her attention. Something… terrifying.
I heard footsteps, then. Rustling, right behind me.
I swallowed a lump in my throat as that rustling got louder.
Don’t turn around. Don’t turn around.
But I had to.
I turned.
There was a large, circular being opposite me. It was standing on two metal tentacles, for legs.
Two more of those tentacles were sprouting from its side.
“Kyle, watch—!”
I didn’t hear the rest of what Cassie said because the tentacle smacked me right across the face.
I hit the floor with a heavy thud. I tasted blood. All sounds and senses were muffled.
I opened my eyes and tensed my fists. I could hear Cassie shouting things, and the blast of her purple electricity hitting the being that had knocked me down.
I tried to pull myself up and fight.
Then another knock smacked me in the head.
My vision distorted even more than it already had. As I lay there on the ground, I couldn’t deny feeling weak. I wasn’t Glacies anymore. Whether I liked it or not, I was Kyle Peters, and Kyle Peters wasn’t as adept to fighting enemies as Glacies was.
Then I heard a yelp.
Right away, my stomach sank. I tightened my fists. That yelp. It was Cassie’s.
I clenched my jaw and held my breath.
I bounced up to my feet. My hands were covered in ice. My heart was racing, and sustaining my powers felt far, far harder than it ever used to.
But I was standing, and I had my powers activated.
That counted for something.
The craft was standing over Cassie. Cassie was on her back. The tentacle was getting ready to hurtle into her.
“Hey,” I said.
The craft turned around, human-like in its movement.
“Be careful who you screw with,” I said.
The craft swung a tentacle at me, fast and hard.
This time, it didn’t hit me.
I stopped it before it reached my face, using my powers of telekinesis.
I twisted it around so that it started curving away from me, pointing right at the craft.
The craft kicked back with another tentacle, trying to knock me off my feet.
I hopped up instinctively, then I grabbed that tentacle with my icy hand and started to freeze it, the metal sizzling as I poured more and more power into my resistance.
Behind the craft, I saw Cassie standing. The purple electricity was charged up in her hands. I felt a twinge of adrenaline. We were doing this, together. We were taking this monster down.
And then I slipped and fell back once again.
All the ground I’d made felt like it slipped away in that instant.
The craft was over me.
All its tentacles were free of my grip and raised right above my head.
I looked into its shiny metal body and waited for the arms to hit me.
Then electricity sparked all over the craft.
I scuttled back as the craft was drowned in a sea of purple. It tried to swing left and right, but in the end, it was useless.
It fell down. Its tentacles started spraying out everywhere; then they went limp.
It was finished.
Cassie stopped firing the purple electricity. She rubbed her hands together, then walked over to me, holding out a slightly blackened palm. “You can thank me later.”
I felt my cheeks blush and ignored Cassie’s hand, pulling myself to my feet. “I had it.”
“Oh yeah. Really looked like you had it. Anyway. Where were we?”
I took Cassie’s hand and teleported her much easier this time. We ended up right outside Ellicia’s home. It was strange, seeing it again after all this time. It felt like so long had passed, but at the same time, no time had passed at all.
I walked up her driveway, toward the main door.
Then I hopped through the walls and into her home.
Her kitchen was dark and empty. My footsteps echoed as I walked around. I moved from room to room, searching everywhere, and Cassie did the same.
But when I got back down to the kitchen, I knew what the outcome was from the way Cassie looked at me, and the way she shook her head.
Ellicia wasn’t here.
She’d already gone.
14
It didn’t take me long to find out what had happened to Ellicia.
I was back at the old, derelict office block that I’d been in before. Saint, Orion, and Daniel were still there, keeping a low profile. Only this time, Cassie was with me too, as was Damon.
“She got evacuated, mate,” Damon kept saying, shaking his head, like it was the worst news in the world. “Her and Avi. Everyone in New York, taken out of here quicker than we could click our fingers.”
I sank my
teeth into my bottom lip. “I can’t believe they’d just get evacuated so quickly.”
“Maybe the government were prepared for something like this. Especially after the things that happened in the past.”
Orion nodded. “Or perhaps they have a way of teleporting people to safe places, now. Using the abilities of ULTRAs to protect their own.”
It was the first time he’d spoken for a while, but it made sense. It still seemed eerie, being back in his company. After all, this man was my biological father. And Daniel Peters was my biological brother.
It just didn’t feel like any of it had sunk in yet.
“Anyway,” Daniel said, sparking up some fire in his hand. “You should be happy, shouldn’t you?”
I felt a flicker of shame. I cleared my throat, twitching either side. “Of course I’m happy.”
“You don’t seem like you’re happy.”
I couldn’t act happy if I weren’t. “You’re right,” I said. “I’m not happy. But not because Ellicia and Avi and Dad have been taken somewhere safe. Just… just everything. The fact that this is even happening. The fact I’ve only been back, what, a day, and already shit’s going down. I’ve barely even had a chance to say hi to Ellicia again.”
“Perhaps you were brought back for a reason,” Saint said.
He was standing over by the window. The dark sky cast a peculiar shadow over him. Outside, there were occasional flashes and blasts as the enemy did their work, trying to purge this world of ULTRAkind—and not caring so much about who got caught in the crosshairs.
I frowned. “What do you mean I was brought back for a reason?”
Saint turned around and faced me. My toes still curled when he did. Another weird thing to get used to, suddenly being allied with the man who’d destroyed your life and attempted to destroy so many others. “I mean, perhaps it’s no coincidence that you were out cold for eighteen months and just so happened to return a day before the greatest threat to our civilization since… well, me.”
Daniel tutted. “Give me some credit, at least.”
Saint ignored him. “I don’t just mean you. I mean me. Your father. Your brother. Don't you think it’s remarkable that we’ve all been brought back here—the four most powerful ULTRAs ever to have lived—right on the eve of destruction.