by Matt Blake
It hovered in midair. More of the crafts flew at me, but all of these went still, too. In no time at all, I was completely surrounded by these crafts, all of them blocking my vision outside.
I felt warmth in the middle of my chest, and I knew the feeling and what it was now. I didn’t understand it, not completely. But that warmth was like a vibration. It was making me feel stronger and more powerful, and more energized.
I can do this.
The crafts started to drift further back, gradually, one at a time.
I can do this!
I clenched my fists together.
What happened next amazed even me.
The crafts were there one second.
The next, they disintegrated, disappearing into nothing but fine pieces of dust.
I looked at the dust cloud that was on the crafts in awe. My breathing raced, with what little oxygen was left up here. I’d just made the crafts vanish like they were nothing. I’d just disintegrated them, one by one.
“Glacies,” Vortex called. “There’s an opening. This is our chance.”
I looked up and saw what she meant.
There were no more crafts coming out of the mothership.
The mothership was gearing up to drift off into the distance.
It had to be now.
I tightened my focus and headed in the direction of the mothership, Vortex by my side. This was the moment things turned. This was the moment we started winning. This was the—
First, a splitting headache.
Then, images of my family, my friends, of everyone I’d ever known and loved falling.
Then, paralysis.
I floated there in the sky, totally still, and tried to shake free of the invisible grip that had me in its clutches.
But nothing could break me free.
Then I saw something else.
Vortex was paralyzed, too.
She was in the grip of whatever I was.
Only she was being dragged up toward the mothership, away from me, away from everyone.
“Vortex!” Stone shouted.
He tried to fly in her direction to save her, but he hit an invisible wall.
She got further away.
I pushed even harder, resisting the pull of the mothership. I shook, twisted, and turned, and eventually, using all the energy I had, I managed to shake free of whatever this grip was.
“Vortex! We have to go after her, kid. We have to get her!”
But as I looked up at the mothership, which was disappearing into the distance, I saw already that it was too late.
One second, Vortex was there.
The next, she was gone.
31
Vortex opened her eyes and right away, she knew she was in danger.
She was pinned down to some kind of table. Above her, there was an opening, that stretched upwards for what seemed like miles. She could taste blood on her lips, and there was a dizziness to her head that she could only describe as similar to waking up after being under anesthetic.
She used to be terrified of falling to sleep, right from a young age, because of the nightmares. Her parents weren’t concerned, not in the early days. They told her it was a phase that she’d grow out of.
But she didn’t grow out of it. And when she finally hit nine years old, it was then that her parents accepted that something was horribly wrong. They were exhausted. They didn’t know what to do.
Then Vortex had gone in for an MRI scan, and the doctors had found something wrong with her brain. They hadn’t been able to identify what it was exactly. It wasn’t a tumor. More… a shadow. An unidentified darkness. It wasn’t long before they were operating on her, and she was under general anesthetic, her parents waiting to find out whether their daughter was ever going to return to them again.
Then, a funny thing happened.
Soon after they’d identified that shadow, all three of the lead doctors that had been working on Vortex’s case had killed themselves.
Again, nobody really thought much of it. It was a coincidence, and nothing more.
But Vortex always felt like she was involved, somehow. Like she was responsible.
That’s because she hadn’t been totally unconscious when she’d been under anesthetic.
She remembered seeing the three men poking around her skull and she’d bitten back against them. She’d got into their minds, made them imagine all kinds of ugly, horrible thoughts.
She’d haunted them, as far as Vortex was concerned. And that haunting had led to their suicide.
It was in the years after that which Vortex really started to hone her skills, and realized she was, in fact, an ULTRA, and she had a very powerful ability—the power to get inside people’s minds and haunt their thoughts.
But as she lay there, trying to wriggle free of the bands wrapped around her body, Vortex felt weak. She felt like she couldn’t use any powers at all. Of course, by default, being an ULTRA gave her the ability to levitate. Eight out of ten ULTRAs were gifted with the same abilities. Levitation wasn’t something that just crept up on you, though. It was something you realized whether you had it or not very suddenly, like if you fall from a height or see a car speeding toward you.
Vortex’s discovery of levitation had been the latter, when a jealous ex-boyfriend, Riley, whose thoughts she’d haunted decided he’d had enough of both his life and hers.
She jumped inhumanly out of his way.
He’d gone crashing into a wall.
Levitation was never an easy thing for Vortex to trigger, though. Some ULTRAs had it better than others.
Then there had been the jarring realization of what she was and what that made her in the eyes of the people and the government. There’d been some hard times.
But she’d found the Resistance. And then she’d found Glacies. And Stone.
Since then, life had been much better.
She heard footsteps approaching her. She seized up, trying to activate her abilities but unable to.
The footsteps walked around the side of the metal bed—or slab—and stopped right by her side.
She hesitated for a few moments before looking. She didn’t want to see who it was. She didn’t want to face reality. At least, not the reality that Kyle had told her about.
When she looked at the figure at her bedside, she could have no doubts.
“Vortex,” the figure—Alternate Kyle—said. “Long time no see.”
Vortex felt tears filling up in her eyes. This man might be old, with pale, wrinkled skin, narrowed cheekbones, and a frail body. He might be dressed in black now, and hooded. But there was no doubting that this was Kyle. “Glacies.”
“Oh, please,” he said. “I prefer Hielo now. It’s Spanish for ice. A rebranding, if you will.”
He smiled, and Vortex saw the Kyle she’d had a crush on ever since she’d first met him in that smile. That’s what haunted her about it. There was no denying who this was.
And yet he had her tied down here, staring up into some kind of endless abyss.
“Now, I know this isn’t exactly the ideal surroundings for a reunion. But unfortunately, it’s the only surroundings we’ve got. How are you? How have you been keeping?” He paused then. Looked down at the ground. “No. Of course. You aren’t the Vortex I knew. You’re just a past life. You’ve already lived your life, you see. A long and great life. And please be assured that you play no part in what happens many, many years into the future. Your hands are clean of blood.”
He put a hand on her chest.
“But that doesn’t mean you’re exempt from this.”
Vortex swallowed. Her throat was so dry, and she felt so weak. “Please, Kyle. We’re—we’re your friends. Wherever you’re from, whatever you think you’re doing, we’re the Res—”
“The Resistance,” he spat. He smiled then, a speck of spit on the side of his chin. “That’s what we called ourselves, wasn’t it? The Resistance. Little did we know how the Resistance would turn out. Little did we know how much that we were
on the wrong track. Because the truth? You want the truth about all this? About everything?”
He leaned into Vortex’s ear, and he told her.
Everything, right from the beginning, right through the ages, and right to this moment, right now.
After he’d spoke, he stepped back. Vortex felt heavier, somehow. Like there was guilt inside her for what Kyle—Hielo—had told her.
Was it true?
Could it be true?
Were they really so responsible for everything Hielo had said?
And if so, was what he had planned really so wrong after all?
“Vortex,” he said, his voice cracking as he elevated his hands over her body. “For what’s next. For what I have to do. I am sorry. Really. And I… I know you’ll believe me. After hearing what I’ve had to say.”
Tears streamed down Vortex’s cheeks. She shook her head, tried to fight, but all she could do was beg. “Please, Kyle. Please.”
He looked away then. She could see he was tearing up, too.
Then he took in a sharp inhalation of breath and patted her on the stomach, snapping back into the detached self he’d become. “Right. We’d better get started.”
He walked away, and the lights in the room went out.
All except for one.
It was directly above her, spiraling its way down that tunnel above, down toward her. It looked formless, but it was snakelike in its movement. It wasn’t anything like anything that had been invented on Earth.
Not yet.
“Please,” she said.
She kicked. She twisted. She gripped her fists together to fight free.
The light moved out of the mouth of the tunnel and hovered right over her face.
“Kyle. Kyle. Please.”
She saw him making eye contact with her. And just for a fraction of a second, she swore she saw regret in his eyes. She swore she saw pain.
And then he turned away.
And after that, she didn’t see anything.
The light slammed into her chest.
Her eyes squeezed shut.
And as Vortex’s powers were sucked dry from her body, she started to scream.
32
I watched as the mothership disappeared into the distance and I didn’t want to give up anymore. I wanted to fight.
The invisible shield that was blocking our assault on the mothership was still in place. No matter how much I or any of the other seven remaining members of the Resistance pushed and slammed against it, they just couldn’t break through. The crafts had stopped flying out of the mothership, but they didn’t need to be. Not anymore.
All that was needed was this glass barrier.
All that was needed was our knowledge that Vortex had been taken.
I looked around and saw Stone still slamming into that invisible barrier. He was hitting it so hard that he was bleeding. His eyes were only focused on one thing—that mothership.
“Stone,” I said. I floated over to his side.
He kept on slamming into the invisible shield. “I have to get to Vortex. I can’t give up.”
I felt so bad for him. I reached over for him. “Stone, we… we can’t. She’s—”
“No!”
He swung around and punched me, hard. The punch stung like mad, but I was able to steady myself. I could feel blood seeping down from my right eyebrow. I was dizzy.
But I couldn’t blame Stone.
He loved Vortex. Just like I loved people myself.
And now Vortex was gone, and I was trying to tell him just to give up?
He kept on slamming against it, hitting it with his rock arm and his head until eventually, his attacks slowed down to a halt, and he hovered there, crying. Roadrunner went to his side, comforting him. They held each other, and they cried.
“What now?”
I looked to my right. Orion was standing there. Some of the others were listening, too.
I felt my skin tingling. “I don’t know,” I said. “How about you come up with some suggestions for once?”
Orion didn’t seem fazed by my words. “Kyle, I’m sorry. Of course I’m sorry. But we have to make a call here.”
I looked at the mothership in the distance and I knew what the call was. We could continue our attack against Alternate Kyle, or we could just give up.
Giving up seemed like the easiest option right now. I didn’t want to lose anyone else. None of us did.
But that wasn’t in our nature.
We were fighters.
I floated over to Stone’s side. This time, I put a hand on his back, but it was a solid hand. Not in a patronizing manner.
He looked up at me, into my eyes.
“I won’t give up,” he said. “Not until I find her.”
I nodded. “I’m not asking you to.”
I turned to face the rest of the Resistance.
“I know it seems impossible right now. But we can’t give up our fight. If anything, this gives us even more of a reason to carry on.”
They all hovered around me looking exhausted, defeated.
I couldn’t let them give in.
“The only thing we can do is fight. Because we don’t give up. That’s not what we do.”
“So what do you suggest?” Damon asked.
I looked him in the eyes. Then at the others, one by one. “We’re going to clean our wounds. We’re going to take a breather. And then we’re going to intensify the fight.”
“But Vortex,” Cassie said. “You need her. She was a part of the plan. You aren’t strong enough without her.”
I nodded and looked up at the mothership. “That’s why we’re going to get her back.”
“And if we don’t?” Daniel asked.
I took a deep breath and hovered above the rest of the Resistance. “Then I’ll die trying.”
33
We all linked hands, and held our breath and readied ourselves to fly toward the invisible shield as the mothership disappeared into the distance.
“Ready?” I shouted.
Cassie nodded. Saint nodded. Everyone nodded. “Ready,” they called.
I turned back to the invisible shield, and to the mothership. I tightened my grip around Stone’s hand. “Good.”
Then together, we flew in the direction of that invisible shield with as much force as possible.
I felt it smack against me and knock me back. It wasn’t like a solid object exactly. More like a stretching form which was trying to keep us from moving past it.
But I could feel it shifting.
I could feel us breaking through.
I could feel…
We jolted back, all of us.
Electricity sparked across that invisible wall.
We were still on the wrong side of it.
“Shit,” Stone said. He flew at the shield again and punched it some more. “Goddamned shield!”
“Can’t we just teleport through it?” Damon asked.
I shook my head. “If we could, I’d have thought of that already. But no. The shield just blocks my teleportation, too. It’s kind of like an—”
“Invisible net,” Roadrunner said. “Right. You’ve only told us eighteen times already.”
I felt my cheeks blushing a little. Then I looked back at that mothership, right in the distance. I thought about Vortex, who would be on board. I thought about what might be happening to her. I didn’t know for certain, but there had been lucidity to the dreams I’d had when I’d been inside that mothership and watched a long arm of energy reach down and drag the powers from Rhynart’s body.
I didn’t want Vortex to suffer the same fate. I wasn’t going to let that happen.
I might not have my Glacies gear on, but I didn’t need it. Deep down inside, I was still Glacies. That was what mattered. That was what counted.
“I’m going to try something else,” I said.
“Oh,” Stone muttered. “You tell us that now.”
“Just… just bear with me. Be patient. Please.”<
br />
“What is it you’re doing?”
I lifted my hands and steadied my focus on that mothership. “I’m not entirely sure yet.”
“Well, that’s just dandy.”
“Please. Just have patience. I can do this.”
I focused, then, on the tingling sensation I’d felt in my chest and right across my body when I’d rolled back time—however I’d done it. It was the same deep, rich energy that I’d used to fight off so many of those crafts in just a matter of seconds. I didn’t know how to activate it on call. It seemed to just come to life in times of great need.
But right now, I could feel myself getting closer and closer to that tingling sensation, and I knew I needed to embrace it.
I heard voices behind me. Mumbles of confusion and bafflement at what I was doing.
In my mind’s eye, I saw the mothership.
I saw myself getting closer to it.
I saw all of us getting closer to it.
The further we got to it, the more my skin started to burn.
I loosened my focus, then.
The mothership slipped back into the distance.
“Kyle?” It was Saint. “I appreciate your desire to help, here. But I can’t see what good floating there and—”
“Shut up.”
And he did. Chain of command duly noted.
I closed my eyes again and saw the mothership edging closer. I felt the vibrations in my body moving up my toes, my ankles, then up my legs to my knees, up my torso, right through my neck, all around my head. Before I knew it, every single fragment of my body was shaking with these violent, burning vibrations.
I felt the pain kicking in again. It intensified to a point where I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to hold on.
But we were getting closer to that mothership again.
The closer we got, the more intense the burning felt.
I felt like I was being submerged in that lava from the bottom of Krakatoa.
I felt like I was bathing in the fires of the sun.
And still, I forced myself onwards.
Still, I got within inches of the mothership, my heart racing, my body shaking, my—
“Holy shit!”
The voice—Damon’s—distracted me from my trance. The pain receded. The mothership disappeared from my mind. Everything was back to normal.