Atlas raised his sword, going for decapitation instead of throat slicing. I didn’t close my eyes. I didn’t wince. I showed no fear.
A gust of wind blew over me, causing my hair to whip about. Atlas looked around to see what was going on. Then he flew backward, having been thrown by someone.
Selena stood there in her Holocene gear, having just thrown Atlas back a couple of feet. Not far, but far enough. The crowd booed as she reached down to grab me. She jumped into the air and we flew off, away from the crowd. Away from the Legion of Richter.
“What took you so long?” I shouted in order to be heard over the wind.
“I had to take care of a couple of things first. Besides, I wanted to be a little dramatic,” she said with a laugh.
“Where are we going?”
“Dallas. I’ve gathered everybody there,” she said.
“What for?” I asked.
“Because in just a few hours, the Legion is going to launch a full-scale attack on the city.”
Regroup
Drew fried my Eximus generator and I felt my powers return. That was one of the greatest feelings ever, although it was one I didn’t care to experience again, given the circumstances I had to be in to feel it.
I looked around the large office we had gathered in, situated on the 34th floor of one of the skyscrapers in downtown Dallas. Nobody was at work, or even outside of their homes, giving us full access to any building and office we wanted. Everybody was too scared to come out. They were all glued to their couches, all their attention on their TVs, watching the murders of our leaders along with society as we knew it.
Samantha was sitting behind the big mahogany desk, typing away on her laptop, tracking all the news flooding in from all over the country: the news that the Legion was taking over all the major cities, killing government officials and inserting themselves into power. They were turning the entire country into a tyranny and there wasn’t anything anyone could do about it. No one but us.
Doug was sitting at the end of the desk, typing on his own laptop. Hank was standing next to him, leaning against the desk. Nep stood looking out the window at what was now a ghost town. Drew grabbed a bottled water from the mini fridge and Selena was standing across from me. I lay down on the large leather couch that sat in the corner of the office.
“How long was I gone?” I asked.
“Just a day. They kept you hidden so we were unable to find you,” Selena said.
“So what do you know about this attack?” I asked as I sat up.
Selena sighed, trying to figure out where to begin. “Well, this was the only city we were able to completely drive the Legion away from. Of course, they really want to take it from us. Their Supers are flying in their soldiers from D.C. and are gathering them outside the city. It looks as if they’ll be ready to attack in the next couple of hours.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. It was beginning to dawn on me that this really was turning into an all-out war, and there were only seven of us defending the city. “Where’s the STF?” I asked.
“A lot of them are dead,” Selena said. “Those who aren’t are either surrendering and joining the Legion, or doing what the rest of the population is doing and hiding.”
“Shit,” I breathed. We really were completely on our own. “So, what’s the plan?”
“Honestly?” Samantha said, peeking over the top of her computer screen. “We really don’t have one. None of us has the slightest clue what we’re doing. Atlas must have some sort of military background, or at least his people do. They’ve got tanks, missile launchers, guns of both the bullet and Eximus variety—everything you’d need to launch an invasion of the city. I don’t know how much of a chance we stand.”
Hearing her say that discouraged me more than anything. Samantha had always had a plan. She had always been optimistic. Now? Nothing. She was accepting defeat.
“We stand at least a small chance, and that’s enough for me,” I said.
“How? How do we stand even a small one?” Samantha asked. “He has an army at our doorstep, armed with guns that are designed to take away our powers! No matter how fast you are, you can’t run away from every single bolt of Eximus energy. We know that for a fact. Besides, if Atlas decides to show up, it’ll really be over then. I just don’t see an outcome where we come out on top.”
I hated to admit it, but I was beginning to think she was right. Even if Atlas didn’t show up, our chances looked slim. If he did? They were next to zero. There was no way we could successfully defend the city. And why wouldn’t he show up? What would stop him from coming here to finish what he couldn’t on the steps in Washington? Definitely not one of us.
“Well, then, we’ll die defending this city,” I said.
They all turned to look at me. “You can’t be serious,” Doug said.
I nodded. “Everybody’s looking at us, seeing what we’ll do. People are counting on us. Depending on us. We have to show them that we won’t give up. We’ll fight until our dying breath, and then we’ll be martyrs. We can’t inspire people to give up. We have to inspire them to fight. Our only option is to fight. Whether or not we’re fighting to win, that’s up to you.”
Nobody would look me or anybody else in the eye. Their gazes wandered around the room as they considered what I’d said.
Selena sighed. “He’s right,” she said, looking at everybody. “We really don’t have a choice. We can’t run and hide. We have to show everybody that we’re not going to give up. But I disagree with you on one part of that, Kane,” she said, turning to me. “This isn’t going to be a final battle. We’re not going to die today. We’re going to fight, and we’re going to win. We’re going to defend this city.”
“She’s right,” Samantha said as she nodded. She turned to me, smiling. “This isn’t a final battle. This is the beginning of a war.”
The Siege of Dallas
The soldiers of the Legion of Richter were marching alongside their tanks as they entered Dallas. I looked to my right, where Selena was floating next to me, decked out in her Holocene gear.
I pulled up the hood of my fresh Tempest outfit. “You ready?” I asked.
She nodded. “Let’s get this party started.”
I grinned, and we moved into action. I flew fast and hard, straight for the tank at the front of the line of ten. I grabbed its barrel as I flew over and peeled it back like the lid on a can of food. It flew over my head and I brought it down like a hammer onto the tank in front of me. The tank folded in on itself, destroyed.
The multitude of soldiers around me began to realize what was going on. I jumped out of the way an instant before they began firing their weapons at me. Some fired bolts of Eximus, while others fired regular bullets.
I flew back toward Holocene, who was holding Hank in her hands. I grabbed his ankles, while she had hold of his wrists. We stretched him out twenty feet and flew down the line of soldiers to the right of the tanks, knocking them off their feet. We flew down until we reached the forth tank, then flew up and out of the way as the other soldiers began to figure out what was happening and got their guns ready to fire.
I let go of Hank and he came back to his regular self. Holocene flew off with him, and I looked at the damage we’d done so far. Two tanks and a hundred or so soldiers.
Eight tanks and twenty-four hundred more soldiers to go.
Two Supers spotted me and flew up from the rear of the soldiers, coming right for me.
“Two Supers, headed my way,” I said to Samantha.
“Relaying the message,” she replied.
I turned around and flew away. They were going to have to chase me.
I flew toward downtown, the Supers hot on my tail. I flew fast enough that they couldn’t catch me, but slow enough that they thought they could. I barreled straight for one of the skyscrapers, showing no signs of wavering. To them, it looked like I’d go right through the building.
Right before I hit it, I changed my flight path, fl
ying straight up. I heard a crashing sound behind me and looked over my shoulder. One of them hadn’t turned in time and had gone straight through the building. The other had been able to turn, though, and was right on my tail. His blond hair whipped in the wind, and his face showed his determination to take me down.
I reached the top of the building and crested over it. I began flying straight down toward the ground. If the Super who had gone through the building had slowed down a bit upon impact, that meant he should reappear out the other side just in time.
The Super shot out the side of the building in an explosion of glass, right in front of me. I slammed into him, causing him to let out a grunt of surprise. I kept hold of him as I rocketed toward the ground. He was in so much shock that I’d grabbed him that he didn’t have time to fight back.
I threw him at the ground just before I reached it. I changed my path before I too hit the ground and flew straight down the street, just inches from the pavement.
When I looked behind me I saw the one I’d thrown wasn’t getting up from his crater in the pavement. The blond guy was hot on my tail, though. Glass from cars and buildings exploded all around us as we flew lightning fast down the street.
“Tell Drew to be ready! I’m leading this guy up!” I shouted to Samantha.
“Got it! He and Nep are ready for you.”
I shot to the right once I’d reached the end of the street, my stomach almost touching the sides of the buildings as I flew diagonally toward the sky. I flew toward a skyscraper that had a large gap near the top of it. As I flew toward it, for some reason I thought about an episode of the TV show Dallas where they’d flown a helicopter through the gap. Well, now they were about to add two superhumans to the list of things flown through the skyscraper’s gap.
I flew directly toward it, picking up the pace a little bit. The Super following me could clearly see where I was headed, so I wanted to make the space between us a bit larger. Wouldn’t want to get caught up in Drew’s trap.
I reached the gap, flying straight through it. The Super was right behind me, but he didn’t see that Nep was hiding above the gap, Drew in hand. Nep fell in line behind my pursuer, unbeknownst to him. I looked over my shoulder and watched as Nep closed in on him, holding Drew by the bulletproof vest he was wearing. Drew gave a single tap to the Super and his powers were zapped from him. He fell toward the ground, hit the top of a building and went right through the roof. He presumably fell through six stories before he hit the ground. He’d be out of commission for a while. These Supers weren’t nearly as powerful as I was, so their regeneration powers didn’t work nearly as quickly as mine—if they even had them at all. Their not having those powers was definitely a possibility, but that was a gamble I was willing to take.
“Where’s Selena?” I asked Samantha.
An explosion sounded behind me. The tanks were beginning to fire into the city, destroying buildings.
“She’s trying to take out some of the tan—shit! She just got hit by an E-bolt!” Samantha shouted.
It took me a split second to realize Samantha was referring to an Eximus bolt. I did a zero degree turn, flying toward the tanks and soldiers. I had to get Selena out of there before they pounced on her.
I flew over the tanks—which were now rolling down the interstate overpass in a horizontal formation—and saw Selena lying on top of one of them. Soldiers were climbing up on top of them to retrieve her.
I swooped down as one of them reached for her. I grabbed her, pulling her in to my chest.
This time, they were ready for me. A barrage of E-bolts flew through the air, right for me. Two of them made contact, and I fell towards the ground. Using what human power I had in me, I turned my back to the ground, protecting Selena. Then I soared over the edge of the overpass and felt my powers returning as I hit the road, sliding across it.
I came to a stop and felt my body begin to repair itself.
Selena put a hand on my chest and pushed off, rising to her feet. She reached her hand down, and I grabbed it. She pulled me up. “Thanks, but that makes us nowhere near even.”
“Yeah, you’ve saved my ass more than a few times,” I said. I looked over Selena’s shoulder and saw soldiers beginning to run down the slopes on the sides of the overpass. “Shit,” I said.
Selena turned, and the two of us were ready to begin taking care of the soldiers.
A gunshot rang out behind me and one of the Legion soldiers went down. I turned around and saw a man in his forties standing there, rifle in hand. Behind him, more people began to appear, each of them carrying their own weapons and ammunition. Some of them were police officers, while others were dressed in army fatigues. Most of them were regular citizens, however. There were about thirty or forty of them in all.
“You take care of those tanks. We’ve got this,” the man who’d shot first said.
They all ran to find cover as a firefight between them and the soldiers began to break out.
Selena and I flew up out of their way.
“There’s a handful of them, and over two thousands soldiers marching down the interstate. They’ll be dead in a heartbeat,” Samantha said.
“They’re not taking on the entire army, just the stragglers trying to get into downtown right here,” I said. “This is what we hoped for. We’re inspiring people to fight with us.” I couldn’t help but smile. This was actually working. We were actually going to win this battle.
“Kane, Nep says there’s another line of soldiers and tanks coming in from a different part of the city,” Samantha said.
That smile left my face.
Reinforcements
Selena and I flew to Nep, who was waiting for us on the west side of downtown.
“It looks like there’s as many over here as there is back with you guys,” he said, pointing down at them.
Nep was right. There were just as many of them. Explosions sounded back in the direction we’d just come from.
“They’re starting to do some real damage to the city,” Selena said. “We need to think of something, quick.”
I began to think, hard and fast. We needed something big. Something spectacular. Something that’d scare them. But something was missing. There was no clear target for us to take out.
“Who’s their leader?” I thought aloud.
Selena looked at me, realization dawning on her. “You’re right. They have no clear leader. But somebody has to be calling the shots.”
I nodded. “If we can find out who it is, we can take them down. No leader, and they’ll fall apart. They won’t know what to do.”
I looked back down at this new faction of soldiers, and something caught my eye. Someone was riding in a large Humvee at the back of the line. I looked closely and saw that sitting in the passenger seat of the vehicle was Sven. I pointed toward him, Selena and Nep following my gaze. “I think our teleporter friend got himself a promotion.”
Selena scoffed. “That son of a bitch.”
“We can’t do it where both factions of soldiers will see, though. We’ll take him out in front of this group. That should be enough to make them retreat,” I said.
“What about the other group?” Nep asked.
I smirked. “I’ve got an idea for them.” I turned to Selena. “I’ll get him out of the vehicle. You do the rest.”
Selena nodded.
“Nep, you go make sure those people fighting for us stay safe.”
“Will do. Good luck,” he said as he flew off.
“Alright, get ready. This’ll happen fast,” I told Selena.
I flew down toward the group of soldiers. I spotted one who had an Eximus gun and yanked it from him. Then I headed straight for Sven’s Humvee. He didn’t see me coming at all. I fired two blasts into his vehicle. One shattered the windshield, the other took out his ability to teleport.
He convulsed in his seat, unable to escape. I landed on the hood of his vehicle and ripped the roof off, then pulled off his seatbelt and yanked him from his seat
. I flew fast toward the front of the line of soldiers and brought him to his knees twenty feet in front of them. Then I fired another blast into him, making sure his powers wouldn’t be coming back anytime soon.
“Everybody, look here!” I shouted.
Soldiers raised their guns, but didn’t fire. They didn’t know what I was going to do to their leader.
“You will turn around. You will retreat. We will show you no mercy.”
Selena swooped in and grabbed the barrel of one of the tanks. She was doing the same hammer maneuver I’d done earlier; she began to swing the barrel over her shoulder like it was nothing.
I fired one last bolt into Sven and jumped out of the way, hovering over the scene.
Holocene brought the tank down onto Sven as hard as she could.
The soldiers stood there for a beat, taking in what had just happened.
A blast shot from the next tank in line, directly at me. I dodged out of the way and it flew right into an apartment complex, blowing a hole that stretched from the seventh to the ninth floor.
Holocene got out of there and joined me, and the two of us flew to safety. The soldiers with Eximus guns began firing their weapons in every direction. They were making sure we didn’t come close to them again as they continued their assault on Dallas.
I thought back to those two Supers that I’d taken out earlier. Of course. They were the leaders of that other faction of Supers, and my taking them out had done nothing to slow them down. I couldn’t believe I didn’t think about that.
“What are we going to do?” Selena asked, looking down at the thousands of people who were marching on her city, now protected by shooting off their E-bolts.
“I don’t know,” I said. “We can’t even get close.” Then I remembered my idea for the other faction of soldiers. “But I don’t think we’ll need to.”
“What do you mean?” Selena asked.
“You focus on that other faction. Do whatever you can to take them out. Any means necessary. We can’t hold back anymore.”
The First Superhero Books 0-3 Box Set Page 32