by Matt Blake
But then it hit the lava and it disappeared in the space of a second.
I wasn’t Glacies anymore.
I was just Kyle Peters.
40
“So. It’s taken a while. But here we are, on Earth, grabbing a beer. Who’d have thought it, hmm?”
Orion cracked open a beer and sipped back the fizzy liquid inside. It was non-alcoholic beer, of course. He didn’t like alcohol. It severely affected his judgment.
Saint, however, had a real can of beer, of which he had already sipped down half. He looked at Orion like he was stupid, on his fake beer.
“What?” Orion asked.
Saint frowned. “Just… zero alcohol? In times like these? Really?”
Orion sipped some of it. Truth be told, he wasn’t even liking this fake stuff. “I don’t like real beer.”
“Nonsense. Nobody dislikes real beer.”
“Well, you’ve finally met someone who does.”
Saint tilted his head to one side and sipped that beer back, finishing it off. He crinkled up the can, crushing it in his palms, threw it into the distance, then grabbed another one.
“Shouldn’t you go slower on those?” Orion asked.
Saint stopped for a second. He had his mask off, which revealed the true extent of his scarred face. “I’m not going slower. Especially not during a special occasion like this. And neither should you.”
He telekinetically made a can of beer appear right in front of Orion.
“So are you going to drink, or not?”
Orion felt the bubbles popping on the edge of his tongue.
Then he sighed and took the beer.
“I guess I don’t have a choice,” he said.
“No. You don’t.”
Orion cracked open the beer, and together with Saint, he drank as they sat there in the middle of the Sahara desert.
“I used to come here,” Saint said. “When I needed a little… downtime.”
“Downtime from attempting to destroy the world? Never have guessed you might’ve needed it.”
Saint smirked, and drank some more beer. “You know, as hard as it must be for you to believe this, I never hated you.”
“Yes. It is hard to believe.”
“I never detested you. If anything, I respected you. You stood up for your values and fought for what you believe in, just like I do. I can’t help admiring you for that.”
Orion shook his head. “You and I aren’t like one another. Make no mistake about that.”
“There is something you do have to thank me for, of course.”
“Go on. What’s that?”
“Kyle. Cassie. They wouldn’t have the strength they had if it weren’t for me.”
The beer turned to a bitter taste in Orion’s mouth. He remembered the past, as ugly as it was. The battle with Saint. And even before that, taking his two children to Saint in order to cure them, only to find them turned into ULTRAs instead. Then them being taken away from him and forced to live a life where he wasn’t their father at all. “Don’t you dare take credit for the pain you’ve caused my family.”
“Pain? Sure. But without Kyle, the world wouldn’t even be here anymore. You could say, in a sense, that I was the architect of my own downfall.”
“I’d say you’re an arrogant asshole who needs reminding that he isn’t the good guy. You’re just not the biggest bad guy in this situation.”
“And who is? Your son, who flies up there however old he is, promising to purge the world of all its badness?”
Orion couldn’t help taking on board what Saint was saying—as hard as that was to admit. If the man in the mothership really was a future version of his son, then didn’t that change everything he thought he knew?
“Face it,” Saint said, finishing off another beer. “There are no good people and there are no bad people. There are just morals, which are individual things anyway, and there is perspective. To future Kyle, what he’s doing must seem right. He wouldn’t be trying to eliminate the people he cares about so dearly if it wasn’t.”
“And I’ll bet you’re loving this all, aren’t you?” Orion asked.
Saint shrugged. “I’ve dabbled with humanity’s imprisonment. ULTRAs, well, they long ago proved their problematic nature to me. I’d be lying if I said part of this isn’t satisfying.”
Orion clenched his fist. One wrong word, and he’d put Saint down.
“But,” Saint said, continuing, as he opened another beer. “I am able to look back and reflect. And I do see that, in my darker moments, I made some mistakes.”
He didn’t continue that statement. He just left it at that. And when Orion saw how sincerely Saint was looking at him, he realized that was the closest he was ever going to get to an apology.
Orion wanted to say something back to Saint. He wanted to open up some more. He couldn’t lie—he was enjoying sharing a moment with his oldest ULTRA associate, foe as he may have been.
But he didn’t get to finish his conversation.
The sky lit up with green light.
He looked up. Saint lowered his head.
The light shot through the clouds. Around it, the clouds parted, then started to move upwards as if they were being dragged from the Earth’s atmosphere.
“What is this?” Orion asked.
Saint sipped back some more of his beer. “This is the end,” he said. “Unless…”
Saint didn’t have to finish.
They both knew what the “unless” was about.
They both knew who the “unless” was about.
The fate of the world depended on Kyle Peters, aged nineteen.
If he didn’t pull himself together, the world would fall.
He was Earth’s last hope.
“To Glacies,” Saint said, lifting his can of beer into the air and gesturing it toward Orion.
Orion hesitated, as he felt a strong breeze sucking him to that opening and saw stormier conditions gradually growing down on earth—wind, rain, lightning.
Then, he lifted his can and tapped it against Saint’s. “To Kyle.”
Together, they sat back and drank, as the contents of the Earth started to float up into the sky.
Together, they waited, in hope that the last hero would prevent the fall, once again.
41
It was when I sat on the edge of the rock in the middle of the Australian outback that my life changed again.
The sun was setting, casting a beautiful orange glow over the horizon. It was the Australian summer, so it was staggeringly scorching. I knew I could cool myself down with my ice if I needed to, but honestly, I didn’t really want to.
I had teleported my way here, sure. And, of course, sometimes I’d have to use my powers in stickier situations.
But I wasn’t just going to use them for no real reason anymore.
Glacies had run his course.
There was nothing else I could do.
I sipped back some cola, the taste of it stinging my mouth. I’d been under for so long that I’d forgotten just how refreshing the drink was, but also how sugary it was.
It didn’t stop me drinking it, though. Like taking candy from a baby.
I listened to the sound of the wind brushing past me, and smelled the earthiness of the scorched ground. I’d failed Damon. And by extension, I’d failed, full-stop. Sure, I might be moping, but what else was there for me to do now? What other purpose did I serve? What other role did I have to fulfill?
I was about to crack open another cola when I heard a whooshing noise.
When I looked around, I saw Daniel Peters—Nycto—walking over toward me.
“Oh, hey,” I said. “Good of you to join me. I was just opening another cola.”
Daniel snatched the cola from my hand with his mind and made the can burst all over me.
“Hey,” I said. “You can pay for that.”
He grabbed me by the scruff of the neck then and pushed me down to the earth.
Instinctively, I punc
hed back. But it was a weak, powerless punch.
“So this is what you are now, is it?” he spat, the disdain clear to hear in his voice. “You’re just a quitter?”
“I didn’t quit.”
“Yes, you did,” he said, pushing me down harder. “You didn’t get your way, so you’ve given up. You’ve spat your dummy out.”
I pushed back harder this time, using some of my abilities in the process. “And what else am I supposed to do? Keep fighting and watch more people die?”
“Damon died,” Daniel said, returning my push. “And I’m sorry for that. Really. But you can’t just give up on everyone else just because you can’t face screwing up again.”
I felt my skin crawl. I kicked Daniel between the legs, right into the air. Then I flew up there and grabbed him, me with the ascendancy and the elevation on him now. “Don’t talk about Damon like I could’ve stopped what happened.”
“Why?” Daniel spat. “You blame yourself for his death. And you know, maybe you’re right to.”
I wrapped my hands around Daniel’s stomach and went pounding to the ground.
He vanished, just as I hit the solid earth, and left me with a mouthful of blood and sand.
I turned onto my back, cracking my bones back into place. Daniel was standing over me, in a cloud of dust. “Kyle, I’m not doing this because I want to punish you or anything like that.”
“Then what do you want?”
“I’m doing it because you are strong. And there’s so much left to fight for.”
Deep down, I knew Daniel was right. I lowered my head, unable to face up to the shame I felt for giving up on everyone, all because I didn’t believe I was powerful enough anymore. “Alternate Kyle’s from the future. There’s no point fighting the inevitable.”
Daniel smirked at that and shook his head.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“No, what? What’s so funny?”
“Look, I’m not a time travel expert, but something tells me you aren’t supposed to die at all. Because there you are, still living, in the future.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Right. You’ve really lost me now.”
“Bear with me,” Daniel said, crouching opposite me. “You are still alive many, many years into the future. And I dunno. Maybe something does go wrong. Maybe what future you is doing does turn out justified, all along.”
“You’re saying I should just let the world burn?”
Daniel shook his head. “Quite the opposite. I’m saying you should fight. You should stand up to Alternate Kyle. Because sure, things might go shitty a zillion years in the future. But right now, and going forward, we need you. The world needs you.”
The future stuff was giving me a headache. But I could see Daniel’s point. “I just don’t know what I’m supposed to do.”
Daniel tilted his head to one side.
Then he put a hand on my shoulder and immediately teleported the pair of us out of the outback.
“You could start with this,” he said.
In front of me, there was a massive light beaming down into Earth’s surface. Around it, a whirlpool-like phenomenon sucked everything up toward it. Mostly people. The ground shook with its intensity.
My heart pounded. I could barely speak. “What… what is…”
“I don’t know what it is,” Daniel said. “Not yet. But I can’t see it being a good thing. Can you?”
I watched as the green light powered down against the earth’s crust. Part of me already knew what this was. “ULTRA energy,” I said.
“Huh?”
“This is what he was taking the ULTRA energy for. Using it to create something to… to take humans off the face of the earth. To protect them. And then…”
I stopped then, because it all clicked.
“Oh, God,” I said.
“What is it?”
My mind spiraled as the truth dawned. “He’s going to destroy Earth. He’s going to leave ULTRAs here and wipe us out.”
I took a few steps toward the light. As afraid as I was, as terrified as I was, and as exposed without my Glacies gear as I was, I knew there was no giving up now. I had to fight.
“Does that mean the fight’s back on?” Daniel asked. He held out a hand.
I studied it for a few seconds as the ground beneath me shook.
Then, I took it.
“Let’s go get a team together,” I said.
42
Orion. Saint. Cassie. Daniel. Stone. Roadrunner.
I stood opposite all of them above the city, the green light dragging the contents of the Earth up and away, and I said the words that I knew would be some of the most important I ever spoke.
“What we’re about to do is going to be tough. Impossible, perhaps.”
Stone nodded. “If it avenges the bastards who wrecked Vortex’s abilities then I’m all in for whatever.”
I half-smiled sympathetically in return. “There’s no guarantee any of us will come back from this alive.”
Roadrunner puffed out her lips. “I’m kind of tired of living, anyway. With all these responsibilities, it’s getting a little overrated.”
“But you have to trust me when I tell you that we are stronger together. And when we are together, we can take down anyone, and anything.”
I saw the uncertainty on Cassie’s face.
“You can believe in me, sis. I’m done with being Glacies, sure. But I’m not done with being Kyle Peters. And Kyle Peters is going to fight. For humanity. For ULTRAs. For the planet.”
She sighed, then. And a few seconds later, she stepped forward. “I’m in. 100%.”
Daniel joined me first. Then Orion soon followed and put a hand on my shoulder. “I’d never abandon your side.”
Then it was just Saint left, of all ULTRAs.
“We could use your help,” I said. “You’re a strong fighter.”
Saint smiled then, as if I’d just paid him the highest compliment I possibly could. “Indeed I am.”
He stepped forward and together we stood in a circle.
We looked over at another of the green lights as it had smashed into the surface of the earth. We watched the spiraling clouds rapidly rotate, slowly but surely swallowing up the water from the sea, then the vehicles, and then eventually humans themselves.
“Earth might have fallen once,” I said. “But not again. Are you ready?”
Everyone looked at one another. They nodded. There was hesitation, of course, but that was to be expected. This was a journey into the abyss. This was a march into the depths of hell.
“For Damon,” I said.
“For Damon,” everyone repeated.
Then we shot up, following that green bolt of energy, and readied ourselves for war.
43
Hielo looked down at the eight green beams as they headed down toward the surface of the Earth, and he waited for the final two to strike.
He knew what would happen when the final two struck. And he felt guilty about it, in a way. Because as long ago as it was that he’d moved away from Earth, as far in the past as that was, that attachment was still there, of course. It was still his world. It was still the place he was born, the place he’d grown up, the place he’d made his first friends and his first enemies, the place he’d thought he was so weak, then discovered he was so, so strong.
In a sense, as he stared out of his wide, open window and down at the Earth as the beams dragged up humanity to somewhere much, much safer—a process that admittedly would take a lot longer than he liked—it was like he was looking back at old videotapes from his youth. Watching the happy memories, so present but at the same time, so different, like he was looking back at something that hadn’t even happened at all.
He felt his throat welling up when he thought again of Damon and the loss he’d felt when he’d watched him go. He felt wracked with guilt, having to do what he’d done. But he wouldn’t let it cloud his judgment. The future had already happened, and Damon had lived ou
t a long and fulfilling life. Longer and more fulfilling than even he would have ever imagined.
His path had already been carved out ahead of him. His life had already unfolded. So he could have no guilt where that was concerned.
But it was difficult.
“Are you ready for the final two beams, sir?”
He heard B9484’s—another of his AI friends—voice, and he longed for human—or ULTRA—attachment. He longed for someone else, someone who wasn’t artificial, to connect with.
But again, he’d had that life already. He’d lived it. He’d had the friends and he’d had the allies—he’d had it all.
And yet something inside him made him want it all over again. It made him envy Kyle, his past version, because he knew he had that all ahead of him.
That’s another reason he had to put a stop to Kyle before he grew any older.
He was destined for an amazing life that would end so bitterly when he realized exactly what his legacy was.
He was doing him a favor, in a sense. Saving him from himself.
But as he stared down at that green beam, a part of him wanted to spare Kyle. To see if he could change him, in any way.
“You should know,” B9484 said. “The Resistance, as they call themselves, are on their way here. They seem focused and determined. Would you like us to deal with them?”
Hielo gritted his teeth. Of course the Resistance were heading his way. He had to applaud Kyle’s resilience. He admired himself, in a way. His younger self was even stronger than he’d thought.
“The rest of them. Orion. Saint. Daniel. Cassie. (He hesitated when he said their names because he had been so close to all of them in different ways, over the years. But they were a part of the problem, going forward. And he couldn’t show any mercy where they were concerned.) Stone. Roadrunner. You can deal with those.”
“And Kyle?” B9484 asked. “Because he does appear to be leading the charge. And he is strong. Stronger, perhaps, than we even thought.”
Hielo gritted his teeth together and watched the whirlwind spin even faster, dragging all the contents of earth—except the ULTRAs—up into the sky, toward a better future; a paradise.