“It looks like he took a couple shots to the back,” one of them said. “Probably paralyzed.”
“Nice shot, Hanson,” another one said, and he gave a woman with a shaved head a pat on the back.
My eyes darted from face to face as I tried to figure out what was going to happen next. Were they going to kill me? Could I still be killed? I had no idea. I wished my spine would hurry up and heal; then I could really show these guys what I could do. But my powers weren’t strong enough. It looked as if I was going to be at their mercy for a little bit longer, until my back healed.
“Let’s take him up to Raven,” the one who’d been in my face said as he stood. “I’m sure he’ll want to meet our little celebrity.”
Plásma
I was being carried back up the stairs I’d come down with Selena. I was lying on a gurney being carried by two people: Hanson and Jeffries, the guy who’d gotten in my face earlier.
I couldn’t believe it. I probably would’ve laughed at the situation had I not still been paralyzed. I assumed my body’s healing powers were going to take even longer now, since the farther away from the top of the tower I got, the more my powers increased—and vice versa. Now I was going right to the heart of it, meeting an enemy when I had no idea what he was capable of.
My only consolation was that it seemed Selena had gotten away. Nobody had mentioned her or any other prisoners, so she must not have been caught. If that was true, she could tell Samantha everything that was going on, and while I’d told her not to go straight to Clarissa, when I never showed, I was sure she had. Hopefully, they could figure out some sort of rescue plan. That was the worst case scenario, though. I was still holding on to the hope that my powers would heal me, and I’d be able to escape on my own.
At least this way I’d be able to get in a little face time with Raven.
We reached the top of the building after what seemed like hours. The door opened, and we walked into Raven’s headquarters.
Being on the top floor didn’t seem like the most efficient way to run things when your army was at the bottom, but once I saw the place he was staying in, I could tell that he had a knack for the dramatic.
I could tell that most—if not all—of the walls on the top floor had been torn out. There were candles everywhere, casting shadows across the ceiling, filling the room with an orange glow.
But there was something else glowing, white and very bright. It was ahead of me, and as much as I tried to crane my neck to see what it was, I couldn’t find it.
“What is the reason for this disturbance?” a voice asked. It sounded light and wispy, but had a dark tone lurking beneath it. I could only assume it belonged to Raven.
“We have a prisoner we think you’ll be interested in speaking with, sir,” Jeffries said. “He’s been paralyzed, though.”
“Put him in the chair,” Raven said.
They set the gurney down on the floor. Jeffries and Hanson picked me up and set me down on a chair, and I finally could see the room. Well, I could have if I had been interested in the room. I couldn’t concentrate on anything else, because as soon as my eyes met what was causing the white glow, I couldn’t look away.
On top of an altar that had been covered in smooth purple velvet sat a bottle. It was wide in the middle, with a handle on either side. It was clear, and curved upwards to an opening that was stoppered with a carved crystal cork. Inside the bottle was a shining white liquid. It was so bright, I almost had to look away. The light shone through the crystal cork, casting a rainbow of colors onto the ceiling and the walls closest to it.
In front of the altar bowed a figure clothed in velvet robes with its back turned to me. It seemed as if he or she was praying to the bottle.
The figure stood and turned slowly. My eyes met with Raven’s, and a smile rose across his face, revealing his yellow rotting teeth.
“Hello, Kane Andrews,” he said, his sneer growing. His skin looked as if it was stretched as tightly as possible across his bony face. He was pale, and his lips were so badly chapped, they were oozing blood. “I knew you would be here.”
“You must be Raven,” I said, surprising myself. I’d healed enough that I could speak, which excited me to no end. It was just a matter of time before I’d be out of here.
“Of course,” he said, taking a step towards me. “How are you feeling? Weak, I assume.”
“Nothing I can’t handle.”
“Oh, of course not,” he said, stopping in front of me. “You’re powerful, Kane. One of the most powerful. Not even the asthenés plásma can take all of your powers. Not by itself, at least. But I’ve had fun with it while it’s contained your powers. It’s never been so strong. I’ve never had such clear understanding.”
“What are you talking about?” I said, interrupting him. I looked towards the bottle of glowing liquid. “You’re saying that’s what’s responsible for taking away my powers?”
Raven erupted into laughter, then turned and crossed the room to the glowing bottle. He picked it up and brought it to me, placing it close to my face. I had to look away; the light was too bright.
“Do you know what asthenés plásma means, Kane?” Raven waited a moment for me to respond. When I shook my head, he said, “It’s Greek. You can see by the words etched on the side.” He showed me the side of the bottle. Etched there were the symbols ασθενές πλάσμα. “It means weakling.” Raven pulled the bottle away from my face and stood up straight, then turned around and walked back towards the altar. “It takes the powers away from all Supers who come near it. Well, most of the powers. There are some exceptions,” he said, glancing over his shoulder at me. He placed the bottle back on the altar. “The more Supers within its radius, the more powerful it is. Trust me, if this room were filled with Supers, your powers would be nonexistent.”
Raven turned and walked back towards me. “Do you know why I’m telling you this, Kane?”
I shook my head.
“Because the asthenés plásma told me to, and I am a student of its teachings,” he said with a rotting smile. “Everything happens for a reason, Kane Andrews. There’s a reason you’re here. There’s a reason the asthenés plásma wants me to tell you about it. The asthenés plásma knows all. It is all.”
The more he spoke, the more he sounded like a madman. I had no doubt the liquid was powerful, and if it could take away my powers, I wanted to know everything I could about it. But it seemed as if the liquid was taking away more than just Raven’s powers. It seemed like it was eating away at his mind as well.
I felt a tingling sensation in my fingers. I smiled, my mind racing with excitement. The healing of my spine was almost complete.
“Now that you’re here,” Raven said, “now that the asthenés plásma contains your powers, its teachings have been clearer than ever. The amount of knowledge contained within my brain is so vast I’m not sure even you could handle it.”
The tingling sensation had spread down to my legs. I could now wiggle my fingers a little bit. “Trust me, I wouldn’t want to know what goes on inside that head of yours,” I said.
“Oh, I think you do,” Raven said. “I know all the secrets. I know how our powers work.” He paused, his next words dancing on the edge of his tongue.
I wiggled my feet. I was almost ready to go.
“I even know how to kill Atlas,” he said, then waited for the gravity of his words to hit me.
Except they came as no shock to me. “I do, too. The same way I killed Richter. Throwing him into the sun should do the trick.”“Do you ever wonder why Atlas is so much more powerful than you are? Why Richter was as well? You didn’t stop Richter. I think those two nukes had something to do with it. It was Samantha who told you to take him into space. To throw him into the sun.”
My gaze met his, my brow furrowing. “How do you know it was Samantha who told me?”
“There’s a reason, Kane. There’s always a reason,” Raven said, ignoring my question.
I felt the
strength return to all my extremities. It was time to go. Raven opened his mouth to say more, but I jumped up from my seat, silencing him.
“Son of a bitch!” Jeffries shouted.
I ran as fast as I could towards the nearest window. A gun fired, and the bullet grazed my arm. I reeled in pain, but kept running.
“Don’t shoot!” Raven shouted. “Catch him!”
I looked over my shoulder and saw that Jeffries and Hanson were chasing me, the gap closing fast. When I got close enough to the window, I lunged. I curled my body up, covering my face with my hands, then slammed into the glass with all my might. It shattered from the force of my crash.
The glass rushed past me, racing me to the ground. The concrete was coming up fast. I concentrated, focusing on the wind rushing past me. With each floor I passed, I felt my powers getting stronger. I put all my concentration into flight—I had to stop myself before I hit the ground. I knew if I could do it in the stairwell, I could do it now, even if I was falling faster. I didn’t want to know what would happen if I couldn’t stop myself.
I felt the air around me slowing down; the wind wasn’t roaring as loud in my ears. I came to a stop just six inches from the ground and fell the rest of the way. Right now I could run faster than I could fly.
And run I did. I ran as fast as I could into the night, finally free of Carlton Centre and whatever that liquid was that had taken my powers away.
Rendezvous
I floated above Johannesburg, feeling one hundred percent healed. All my powers were back at full force.
“Kane? Kane, are you there?” Samantha asked in my head.
“Samantha! Thank goodness. I’ve been waiting for you,” I said, overwhelmed with joy.
“Oh my god! Kane, I’ve been so worried. I’ve been trying to contact you for hours, but I couldn’t find you! I was so afraid something terrible had happened,” Samantha said, and I could tell she was almost bursting into tears.
“Don’t worry. Everything’s okay. Can you tell me where Selena is? Did she get away?”
“Yeah, she did. I was able to get hold of her a little while ago. She’s been circling around the Carlton Centre looking for you. She told me what happened. I can’t believe you lost your powers!” Samantha exclaimed.
“I know why, too. I’ll explain everything later, but first I need to meet up with Selena. Tell her to meet me at our original rendezvous point.”
“Okay, I’ll do it. I’m so happy you’re okay, Kane.”
“Me too,” I said with a chuckle.
With that, I took off towards the spot above Clarissa’s where we’d agreed to meet. I made sure to make a wide berth around the Carlton Centre, staying out of the range of the asthenés plásma, as Raven had called it.
When I reached Clarissa’s, I saw Selena already there waiting for me. She flew straight towards me and embraced me in a hug. “Thank you so much, Kane. I couldn’t have gotten out of there without you.” She pulled away, still smiling. “I’m so glad you’re okay, too. I saw them taking you back in. What happened?”
“I found out something...amazing, I guess you could call it. Are you listening, Samantha?”
“Of course. I’m not leaving for a second.”
“Okay, good,” I said. “I wasn’t able to get away, and they took me to Raven. He’s crazy, let me tell you. No doubt about that.” I paused, trying to figure out how best to say what was to follow. “He has this...liquid. It’s inside a crystal bottle. He called it asthenés plásma.”
“What’s that ? I’ve never heard of that,” Samantha said.
“I don’t think it’s something that anybody has ever heard of, really. Anyway, that’s what was responsible for us losing our powers. It glowed extremely bright, like our eyes, except white instead of blue. He said it sucks the powers of any Super nearby—that’s what asthenés plásma means. It’s Greek for ‘weakling’.”
“How can a liquid do that?” Selena asked.
“I have no idea. It doesn’t take away all your powers, though, at least not all of mine. I was too strong for it, but Raven says that the more Supers who are around, the stronger the asthenés plásma is. We’re lucky there weren’t many Supers around, or Selena and I would’ve been in big trouble.”
“That’s...I don’t even know what to say. That’s amazing. We have to get our hands on it,” Samantha said.
“That’s exactly what I was thinking. I don’t think Clarissa could spare the soldiers for us, but getting rid of Raven in exchange for the plásma? I’m sure they’d be willing to do that. That’s not even all of it. Raven knew some things that he had no way to. For example, he knew that Samantha had warned me about the nukes and told me to take Richter into space. There was no way he could’ve known something like that.”
“Oh my god, that’s crazy. I’ve never told anybody about that,” Samantha said.
“Then you think the plásma had something to do with it? With him knowing?” Selena asked.
I shrugged. “I have no idea. But if we have the plásma, there’s no telling what we’d be able to learn. He even said he knows how to defeat Atlas. Apparently he has something in common with Richter. A common weakness or something.”
“And this is all stuff he’s learned from the asthenés plásma?” Selena asked. “Didn’t you just say how crazy this guy was?”
“Yeah, I know. But still, how could he know about Samantha and me? There’s obviously more to this asthenés plásma than it seems.”
“No doubt about that,” Samantha said. “So, what’s the plan? You’re going to march back up there and take it?”
“I know you’re being sarcastic, but kinda, yeah. If we can get Clarissa and her soldiers to draw all the guards out, Selena and I could go to the top and take out Raven.”
Selena thought about it for a moment, then nodded. “It’s a pretty straightforward plan. I think it could work.”
“I don’t know. Rushing in there is what got us into our last situation,” Samantha said.
“That’s very true, but we know what to expect this time. I think we could do this, and do it easily.”
“I agree. I think it’s our best option,” Selena said.
“Okay, then, it’s settled,” I said. “Let’s go check in with Clarissa. And after that, I’m gonna sleep for a very long time.”
“You’re telling me,” Selena said, turning towards the ground.
Burying the Lead
I laid my head down on the bed Clarissa had provided us with. It was in one of the empty apartments in the complex Clarissa and her crew were set up in, and I had a room all to myself.
She’d gone for the plan Selena and I had presented to her with little hesitation. Her only stipulation was that we share with her anything we learned from the plásma, which I of course had agreed with. It was only fair. Vince wasn’t too happy, though; he wanted to keep the plásma as protection against the other Supers, which I understood. Still, if we were going to be able to learn from the liquid what I expected to, people like Raven rising up wasn’t going to be a problem soon.
Come on, go to sleep, I told myself. I needed some rest, but for some reason, despite how tired I’d been earlier, I wasn’t able to fall asleep. My mind was racing at a thousand miles an hour.
“Hey, you awake?” Samantha’s soft voice whispered in my head.
“Yeah. I’m having a little trouble sleeping,” I said. “Have you talked to my parents lately?”
“I checked in with them earlier today. They’re doing good. The camp the STF has them in is in some underground bunker. Supposedly it was designed for a bunch of politicians in case of a major disaster. Most of the politicians are dead now, though. But it’s pretty nice. They’re definitely safe, so don’t worry about them.”
I relaxed a little. That was one less thing to worry about, at least for a little bit. “Did you tell them what happened earlier?” I asked, referring to my and Selena’s disappearance.
“No, I didn’t want to worry them..”
“Thank you,” I said. “So, how are things over there?”
“Well,” she began, “since you and Selena left, we’ve moved to a nearby Army base. There wasn’t anybody there, so we kinda took over. At least their gymnasium and barracks. It’s pretty nice. The best part is that this general or colonel or something showed up earlier today. He has like two hundred troops who volunteered to help him defend the area from the Legion. When we told him what we were doing, they said they would help us!”
I sat up straight in bed. “Holy shit, are you serious?” I laughed out loud. “You kinda buried the lead there, Samantha! That’s amazing news! Two hundred trained soldiers, and a leader who knows how to command them. Wow, I can’t believe it!”
“Well, you know, we’re doing pretty well for ourselves,” she said. I could easily picture the smirk I knew she had on her face. “On the other hand,” she said, her voice turning annoyed. “Eddie showed up. He was able to get a car and drive out of Dallas. His car broke down, and Drew found him while he was exploring the town.”
“Eddie’s one of the best Supers there are. He controls electricity, for goodness’ sake. If it weren’t for him, we wouldn’t have had power in Dallas!”
“Yeah, but he’s a dick,” Samantha said.
“I think he’s nice, and you’re ridiculous,” I teased.
Samantha sighed. “Whatever, Kane. Just hurry up and come home so I don’t have to deal with him alone.”
“Don’t worry. If all goes as planned, I’ll be back in no time. And I’ll have our best bet at defeating Atlas with me.”
“You really think the plásma is going to be that big of a game-changer?” Samantha asked.
“I really do,” I said as I lay back down. “Especially since before now, we’ve had nothing. Anything is really a game-changer to us.” I yawned and stretched my arms.
The First Superhero Books 0-3 Box Set Page 44