After a couple of minutes of sitting there, once my nerves had calmed down, I began to listen closely. I wanted to see if I could hear anyone discussing what they were doing here, so I could get more of an idea of what exactly was going on. The result of my listening was eerie, though. Nobody was saying a word. The only sounds were those of shuffling feet and clicking keys.
I listened for a few more minutes, hoping that someone would get bored and let something slip about anything. But there was nothing. That is, until someone cleared their voice and began to shout. The sudden noise almost made me jump, but I recovered quickly and began to listen as carefully as I could.
“Everyone pay attention,” a woman shouted. All other sounds stopped at once as everybody listened closely, myself included. “If your workstation is set up, I want you to go to it immediately. If it is still being set up, once I am done speaking you have five minutes to get it finished and ready to go.” The woman paused for a few moments, letting everyone acknowledge what she’d said. “Now, many of you know why we’re here, but you don’t know the specifics. I will tell you our main mission goals, and then your commanding officer will tell you the specifics of what he or she wants you to do. Understood?”
Everybody in the room shouted “Understood!” in unison. I brought my hands to my ears and pulled back on my listening as my ears rang in pain from the noise. I quickly expanded my listening reach back, though, not wanting to miss a thing.
“We believe that Ebon is the most likely candidate for the town that Tempest is hiding in. There are a few other possibilities, and smaller teams have been deployed to scout those locations. However, all of you here are working at the largest branch of this operation. If you’re here, it’s because I wanted you here. It’s because you’re the best at what you do. And I expect nothing less than excellence. There are many lives on the line here, and many have been lost already. The sooner we take down the superhuman menace, the sooner the world can return to normal.
“Tempest is our primary target. You are to find him and capture him. This will not be an easy task, but given what we’ve learned from studying Richter and now Tempest, we believe that Tempest is weaker than Richter. Therefore, tactics that did not prove useful on Richter may work on Tempest. Some of you are here to figure out which ones will work best, while others are here to execute the missions. It’s important that we bring Tempest in alive. We must study him in order to find out what weaknesses these bastard Supers have, so that we can put an end to them. We only may get one shot at this, so I will accept no failures. Every failure is a life lost due to one of Richter’s rampages, or a battle between him and Tempest.”
I heard someone’s sleeve brush against the body of their shirt as—I assumed—they raised their hand.
“Yes?” the woman asked.
“Yes, Agent Loren, I was wondering why we’re treating Tempest as the enemy? It seems like he just wants to help.”
“This isn’t a goddamned think tank. You don’t think we’ve thought through this shit? When has a Super ever done good? Billions of dollars in damage, cities destroyed, an unfathomable number of lives lost. The numbers speak for themselves. If we want peace in this world, the Supers must be eradicated.”
I listened to every word she said, enthralled and terrified. But something tore me from Agent Loren’s briefing. My range of listening contracted as I realized that the doorknob above me had turned, and the door was swinging open. I looked up and came eye to eye with two soldiers. Their guns were drawn and pointed right at me.
A Few Questions
I was sitting at a desk in the front row of the classroom for probably the first time ever. My hands lay handcuffed on the desk while two guards stood in front of the teacher’s desk, the safeties on their guns off. Moonlight filtered through the window of the classroom, giving everything an ethereal glow. It was probably really dark to most people, the moonlight not offering much illumination. I, on the other hand, thanks to my powers, could see everything crystal clear. Not as if it was daylight, but everything was just...clear. Nothing was hidden, not even the slight look of worry the soldier on the right had, no matter how hard he tried to hide it.
The door opened, and in walked a man in his late twenties or early thirties. He walked over and stood between the two guards, and leaned up against the teacher’s desk. He examined me for a moment before pushing himself off the desk. He walked over to me and extended his hand.
“Hello, my name is Agent York,” he said, charm and charisma oozing from his every word. He was holding out his hand as if he expected me to shake it.
I raised my two cuffed hands. “Sorry, I can’t shake your hand in these cuffs.”
Agent York scoffed. “Oh, please, it’s not like they’re behind your back. Still—” He gestured to one of the guards and pointed at my restrained hands. “I’ll still remove them, if to do nothing more than humor you.”
The soldier uncuffed my hands, and I rubbed my wrists, acting as if they hurt, even though I felt no pain. I shook Agent York’s hand. “A pleasure to meet you,” I said with a knowing smile.
York smiled, dimples appearing on his face as he did so. “And your name is?”
I hesitated for a moment, then decided that it would probably be best to give them my real name. They would be able to find out as soon as I left whether I was lying or not by doing a search in one of their many databases. Besides, they didn’t have even the slightest idea who Tempest was. “My name is Kane Andrews.”
York cocked his head to the side and looked up toward the ceiling. He leaned back onto the teacher’s desk and crossed his arms. “Hmm. Kane. That’s an interesting name.”
I let out a sigh, over-exaggerating to let him think I was getting impatient. Even though, really, I was slightly freaking out on the inside.
Agent York smirked. “Getting impatient, I see? Well, there’s no reason to keep you here much longer. I just have a few questions for you.”
“Then I can leave?” I asked.
“If you answer them correctly.”
I didn’t like the sound of that. “Can I ask you one?”
“Sure, why not. We’re all friends here.”
I wasn’t so sure about that, but I ignored his comment for the time being. “Who exactly are you?”
“Well, we’re the Department of Homeland Security,” he said, gesturing to the DHS lettering over the right breast of his black jacket.
“No,” I said. “Who are you? Are you in charge here or something?”
Agent York nodded. “Yes, I run this show.”
I gave him a look like I was impressed, but really, I knew it was all bullshit. Agent Loren was the real person in charge. It took me a minute to figure out why she wasn’t the one questioning me. I then realized that of course they wouldn’t want to send in the person in charge. If I was a bad guy, I’d know who to target. Agent York was like a taste-tester: he had to make sure everything was good, so if something went wrong, he’d be the one taken out, not the person in charge. It made sense, although I did find it slightly morbid.
“Can I get on with my questions now?” he asked.
I leaned back in my chair and crossed my arms. “Please,” I said, my confidence growing. They were trying to play me, but little did they know that I was already figuring their game out.
“What are you doing in here, Kane?” Agent York asked, giving me a quizzical, almost over-the-top look.
“Well, I was hanging out with some buddies of mine when we drove by here and saw what was going on. We started betting one another to see who had guts enough to try to sneak in and back out without getting caught. Finally I decided that the bets were high enough for me to risk sneaking in, and, well—” I gestured toward the two soldiers standing on either side of York. “It looks like I owe my buddies seventy-five bucks.”
Agent York chuckled and shook his head. “Teenagers,” he said. “They’ll do the stupidest things for a few bucks.”
I shrugged. “What can I say?”<
br />
“How about you tell me if you know anything about Tempest?” Agent York suggested. “I mean, you had to have heard something, right? You look like you’re a popular kid. You know some people. Surely you’ve heard rumors?”
I looked away from York. My stomach twisted, but I maintained a straight face. “Listen,” I began, turning back to him. “Pretty much all of us around here keep quiet about that Tempest guy. Dude’s a bad omen. A buddy of mine mentioned him and the next day his car was stolen.” I winced. I was laying it on a little thick, and told myself to back down a little. It felt so good, knowing something that they didn’t know I knew. Feeling like I was the one in control of the situation, while they still thought they were.
“So you’re saying you don’t know anything?” Agent York pressed me for answers.
I shook my head. “Nope. Just a guy looking for a thrill, making a couple bucks off my friends, and coming out with a good story in the end.”
Agent York smirked. “Well, Kane, I’m sure your buddies will love to hear this one.”
“Does that mean I’m free to go?” I asked.
York nodded. “Yes, as long as you promise to stay out of our way. And if you hear anything at all about Tempest”—he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a business card—“you give me a call.”
I took the business card from him and looked it over. It had Agent York printed on the front in italic letters. I flipped it over; on the back was his phone number. That was it. Nothing more, nothing less.
I shoved it in my pocket and stood up from my desk. I extended my hand to Agent York and smiled. “Thank you,” I said as he shook my hand. “And I’m really sorry if I caused any trouble.”
“Of course, Kane.” He gestured to the soldier on his right. “This gentleman will escort you off the premises.”
“Thank you again,” I said as I turned and walked out of the room. The soldier followed close behind before catching up to me and walking with me side by side. He said nothing as we exited the building, which was good, because I was listening to what was going on in the classroom.
“Should we follow him?” the soldier who was still in there asked.
There was a pause before Agent York sighed. “No, not yet. We were expecting some punk kids to come see what was going on. It’s a small town, middle of summer, nothing to do. Kids get bored. Besides, we’re still getting set up around here. We can’t spare the manpower until all the agents coming in arrive tomorrow. I’ll have one of our technicians run his name through the database to make sure nothing pops up. I want you to tell your men to keep an eye out for this kid, though. If we catch him doing anything suspicious, I want people watching him like a hawk.”
“Yes, sir,” the soldier said. The two men exited the room, ending the conversation.
I returned my attention to my surroundings, and I noticed we had reached the end of the parking lot. “My friends are parked across the street,” I said, pointing to the almost-filled parking lot of the high school. “Late night volunteering at the shelter,” I added.
The soldier shrugged, not caring about my excuse. “Just get out of here, and stay out. We could’ve accidentally killed you tonight.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
With that, I jogged across the road and into the parking lot. I ran around to the back of the high school, where it was pitch black and no one was around to see me. After scanning the area a couple more times to be sure the coast was clear, I launched myself into the air and flew home.
To The Stars
I picked up the tractor and launched it into the air with ease. I didn’t send it too high since I didn’t want anyone to see a tractor flying through the air and wonder what was going on. Even though I was in a clearing I’d found deep in the woods behind my house, I still wanted to play it safe.
I flew up beneath the tractor and brought it safely to the ground. Once it touched down, I picked it up, threw it, and caught it again, bringing it down as easily as I could. It wasn’t the most glamorous or useful form of training, but it was better than nothing. I couldn’t just sit around and do nothing; I had to try to improve in any way I could to be ready the next time I faced Richter. Which was something that I was going to have to do fast. I had to find Richter and defeat him before Homeland Security found me and experimented on me. I had to defeat Richter, if not for anybody’s sake but my own.
After playing catch with the tractor for a little while, I decided to work on my flight. I stood in the middle of the clearing and closed my eyes. I took a few deep breaths and became aware of every little sound around me. The insects singing, the birds chirping, and the wind blowing through the trees, causing their leaves to whisper in harmony.
It all disappeared as I launched myself into the air at super-speed, breaking the sound barrier before I reached the tops of the trees. My ears popped, and the wind whipped my hair back. I was somehow able to keep my eyes open, but they didn’t fill with tears from the wind. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that I was making them glow, but I wasn’t certain.
I came to a stop at around fifteen thousand feet and looked at the world beneath me. I could see far off into the distance. I could see everything on the horizon clearly, thanks to my enhanced vision. I would’ve been able to see much past the horizon but couldn’t because of the curve of the Earth.
I turned my eyes upward and could see a plane flying above me at about thirty thousand feet. That’s when the question popped into my head, one that I couldn’t help but answer as soon as I’d asked it.
How high can I go?
I smirked to myself. This’ll be fun, I thought, right before I flew upward as fast as I could. The earth below me shot away like a bullet. I flew up and up, faster and faster. The sky began to turn from blue to black as I began to leave the atmosphere.
Suddenly, all the wind that had been blowing in my face just moments before stopped. I freaked out for a split second, thinking I’d stopped flying. When I looked down, though, I could see that the ground was still getting farther and farther away.
I realized I’d reached the upper levels of the atmosphere, where there was no wind resistance. I remembered something I’d learned when I was a kid, obsessed with space and being an astronaut, like most kids are at some point. When a space shuttle is going up to the International Space Station, it reaches speeds of seventeen thousand miles per hour once it leaves the Earth’s lower atmosphere, thanks to it not having to fly against the wind resistance, and because gravity is getting lower and lower.
Which meant that even though I thought I was going as fast as I could, once I began to leave the Earth’s atmosphere and venture into low orbit, I began to go even faster. It was like somebody had strapped rockets onto me. I began to fly so fast I began to wonder if I’d be able to stop.
That thought terrified me and I began to slow down. I went slower and slower until I came to a stop.
I began to examine my surroundings, and my breath was taken away. The sky was black and endless, like an infinite void. I realized that it wasn’t the sky anymore; it was space.
I turned around and my whole body went weak as I looked upon the Earth below me. It stretched as far as the eye could see on either side of me. It was bright and blue, with white clouds spread over much of the green United States. I soaked in the unbelievable sight. I wanted to say something for some reason, but the words were escaping me.
Then I found them. “How the hell have I not suffocated or frozen?”
I tried breathing in and out a couple of times, but I couldn’t get any air in. I began to panic, the feeling of not being able to breathe being a terrible one. I realized then that I wasn’t actually suffocating. My regenerative powers were somehow still keeping me alive, even though I wasn’t breathing at all. Still, I began to feel weak, the same as I had when Richter threw me into the mountain. Once I got out of my hole and began breathing clean, fresh air, I regenerated much quicker. I suspected that while I could survive up here, I
would fare much better if I was in an environment with oxygen.
I also felt warm, despite the fact that the temperature was definitely well below freezing. I wanted to know how and why all these things were possible. Not knowing how I could do such spectacular things really annoyed me. I was beginning to get used to my powers, and now I was simply curious as to how they all worked.
But that would have to wait until Richter had been taken care of and I was safe from the government.
After admiring the view and being alone with my thoughts for a few more moments, I decided it was time to return to the Earth. The feeling of not breathing was an unnerving one, one I doubted I would ever get used to, and I was beginning to feel weak. I began to fly toward the ground, eager to be breathing fresh air once again.
I admired the amazing view that surrounded me as I began to fly back home at a much slower pace than I had taken on my way up. It was all so beautiful. I know the word beautiful is thrown around so much that to most people, the meaning behind it is lost. Same thing goes for the word awesome. But the flight down was literally awe-inspiring, and filled with beauty.
I looked north, and could see Indianapolis in the distance. It was about a hundred miles away from Ebon, but from my height with my eyesight, I could see it as clear as day.
Something flying above the city caught my eye. I began to slow my descent, and that was when I realized that the object above the city wasn’t flying, it was hovering.
I recognized the glowing eyes and evil grin. It was Richter, and he was staring right at me. Even though he was a hundred miles away, I knew he was watching me, and he knew I was watching him. I stared at him for a few moments, waiting for him to do something.
After a minute, he moved. He flew straight down, into the streets of Indianapolis.
As soon as he moved, so did I, aiming directly for him.
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