by Simon Archer
The jet itself matched his assessment. It was a sleek black machine, its flight largely silent when it took off and sailed over the bay.
“A Phantom jet?” Andie’s brow raised upward. She wasn’t nearly the level of fangirl that Eric was, but she was still very impressed. “They were used to transport heroes back and forth on long-distance missions, right?”
Triton nodded. “This is the very same one used to transport Ice Bringer to Otevale.”
Eric’s eyes grew wide as golf balls. “Omigod. Where did he sit? Am I sitting in his seat? Wow. Wow!!”
I sucked in a harsh breath at the sudden devastation seen beyond the window, and both Andie and Kara’s hands tightened around me. Eric and Aylin both cursed softly, the latter in her native tongue. When I glanced to her, Aylin’s glowing eyes were struck by terrible sadness.
Once a beacon of industry for most of the northern continent, the city was now a ruined wasteland of cement, steel, and glass. Skyscrapers lost to time were charred and warped, with large chunks bitten out of them. Parks had been long neglected, and nature now spread beyond its man-made borders to crack through the rest of the city. Grasses and bushes pierced up through the broken pavement. No human was living here, so the local wildlife had taken it back. I spotted deer darting through a shattered storefront, and a snake curling along the main road without a care in the world.
The pilot settled our jet on the top of a sturdy-looking building. It wasn’t until Eric excitedly pointed at a sign that I realized it was the old safehouse where Otevale’s finest heroes made their home.
“This was the last stand!” Eric couldn’t climb out of the jet fast enough. He scooted by Triton with an excited, “Thanks!” and then hopped down on the roof, examining the local devastation with all the vigor of a child. I thought his eagerness was in bad taste, but Triton smiled after him with a certain glint in his eye.
“I thought my father wanted to conquer Otevale. Not destroy it.” I scowled out at the wasteland beyond the window and crossed my arms. Andie and Kara had both stood and started to gather gear.
“He tried,” Triton said gently, knowing the verbal minefield for what it was. “And afterward, he also tried to rebuild.”
“What happened? No one’s here!” I jabbed an angry finger out the window. “It hasn’t been touched in years!”
“One cannot rule an empty room, Mr. Gateon. Inferno encouraged rebuilding efforts, but there was no one left within the city to perform them. The rest of the world was content to abandon it altogether.”
With a gentle wave of his hand, Triton encouraged me to follow him out of the jet. I was unhappy to be even closer to my father’s terrible mark in history, but Triton was not a man with infinite patience. I sighed and carefully stepped out of the jet, only to find Andie and Kara’s supporting hands each in mine. Their smiles were tentative.
Aylin floated high above the devastation, a hand pressed to her mouth in sorrow. Eric was the only one pleased to be here. He excitedly examined the blasts so he could determine who must have done what, and where.
“This devastation you see came from both sides. It was we who evacuated the city, and with no hostages left to protect her, powers flew wild and careless. The decision to evacuate was Ice Bringer’s, after insisting that any life left to Inferno’s cause was a villain-to-be. He was wrong.”
I lifted a brow at him, tearing my gaze away from all the rubble. “Wrong? What do you mean, wrong?”
“Inferno is many things, and sometimes a murderer among them,” Triton sighed. “But he is not known to kill innocents blatantly and, in fact, generally kills those who do so.”
I thought about arguing that my father’s version of ‘innocent’ was greatly different from ours, but the point was moot. Triton was right. Dad would never kill a round of terrified hostages, and he intended to conquer Otevale, not ruin it.
“His empire is clean of most violent crimes, in fact,” Triton continued. “Despite attacking the city first, Inferno earned the loyalty of the Otevale survivors he kept by providing housing, food, clean shelter, and paying jobs within his own empire. By contrast, nearly all the people evacuated by Ice Bringer were eventually poured into ghettos and refugee camps across the world. They had nothing and would continue to have nothing until many defected back to the empire.”
“Yeah. I saw that too, when I was there,” I confessed. “So you’re saying—”
“I’m simply pointing out that the history between Inferno and Ice Bringer is a very complicated one,” Triton interrupted. “Ice Bringer is regarded as a hero to most from Otevale, but it was because of this war that he left us and has not been active since. To me, Otevale is not an example of Inferno’s ruthlessness, but rather the devastation that happens when you allow powered warfare on this scale.”
“Yeah,” Eric piped up from where he was leaning against the edge of the roof. “It’s like rescue class, right? You’re supposed to save the innocents and protect the city. That’s rule number one. You focus too hard on the villain... well, stuff like this happens.”
Triton nodded in approval. “Precisely, Mr. Meyers.”
I pulled from Kara and Andie’s grasps to gesture out at the city. “This is all fine and good, but why am I here?” I didn’t want to be there. Not when I could see melted steel beams and know exactly who had done so.
“You are here to train, Mr. Gateon. Your power is too devastating to truly let loose in Alexandria, and I’m quite fond of the forest which borders it. To that end, I’ve brought you to a ruined city to test the limits of your potential. Power up, please.”
I bit my lip, suddenly nervous. “But he did this. I’m just going to make it worse.”
“It is alright, boy.” Triton smiled gently in response. He closed the distance between us and clapped a hand on my shoulder. “The world has abandoned this place. There are no more innocents to harm.”
With a nod, I let the power sing through my veins. I stood a little straighter as it rocketed up my spine. Endless, relentless, unending potential.
“You want me to test my limits?”
“I want you to exhaust yourself,” Triton amended. He pointed out at the ruined buildings. The city was quiet after so long abandoned, but I could hear the creaking of metal in the wind. The place smelled of ash, even now. “Destroy as much of the city as you like, Mr. Gateon. Just... please leave this building standing.”
Well, it wasn’t every day that was an order given to you by one of the greatest heroes in the world. Everything felt surreal like the ground had vanished underneath me, and I was falling forever into an endless abyss. Even still, I nodded to him and then flew up next to Aylin.
She was still very upset, and I frowned when I saw dark tears sliding down her cheek.
“Aylin, are you—”
“I am well,” she cut off, palming them angrily when she realized I’d noticed. “It is nothing.”
“Are you sure?”
“I said I am well, Starlight,” she spat. Her tone was curt.
It was so unlike the sweet-natured girl I knew that I lifted a brow at her. She stared at me with an odd expression, like she was seeing through me to some other painful memory.
“I will go,” she sighed, after a moment. “Continue with your training.”
She started to fly off, but I caught her arm before she could leave and pulled her back again.
“Aylin—” I looked deep into her glowing eyes, trying to read them, but she gave away nothing.
“Starlight... please let me go.”
I did so without hesitation. Aylin looked me up and down for a moment, a frown twisting her dark purple lips.
“I will go,” she repeated.
“If you ever want to talk—”
“Not now.” The tone was sharp, and she twisted away from me as if scared I was going to snatch her again. She flew off a moment later, deep into the mountains beyond Otevale.
“Don’t worry about it, Nick!” Andie called out with cupped hands,
“I think I know what’s going on with her. You just do you, man! She’ll be back!”
With a light sigh, I nodded and looked over the ruined city. A dusty haze had settled over her, and through it, I caught glimpses of fallen architecture, concrete, steel and glass spilling out all over the streets. The roads were cracked and fallen to disrepair. I tried to look at things from Eric’s eyes, but it was impossible to determine which hero had done what.
Sure, some of the steel was partially melted, and I knew that to be my father’s signature, and others were shattered like they’d been made brittle—Ice Bringer’s, but the rest?
Then again, in the end, it didn’t really matter. I was here to train, after all.
Slowly, I channeled raw energy into my palms and let it build there. It quickly began to glow like a small star, its light and heat pouring out with growing intensity as I kept on feeding it.
It felt... really, really good to let it go.
Too good.
I’d always held back when fighting powered in the past, scared of the damage that I could do. I didn’t know if there was an end to the energy that I held within me, and each day was a constant struggle to hold it back. It wanted to be used, it begged and pleaded me quietly throughout each day like a maddening itch that I’d long learned to ignore. It was strange to give in.
When the star was bright enough that it cast a glow over most of the surrounding buildings, I sent it hurtling toward the other side of the city. There was a moment right before it connected, where the ruined buildings waited with bated breath. Then the entire world exploded.
I’d overcalculated the bomb, and when it burst, the bright white heat flew at me with tremendous speed. Immediately, I came down to the roof and shielded Kara, Triton, and Eric behind me. Andie tried to shield me, but I shook my head. The explosion missed the building by inches. A tremendous mushroom cloud towered over the area. Everything smelled like smoke and ash.
Behind me, Eric whistled and peeked out over my shoulder to get a better look. “You made an atom bomb, Nick!”
“Not quite,” I said. “That would have taken out the entire mountain range, probably.”
“Can you make an atom bomb?” Andie wondered from her place on my right.
“Well, my attack doesn’t give off radiation,” I said with a shrug. “But I could probably make it bigger, yeah.”
When it was safe enough, I stepped aside to let Triton and the others get a better view. Immediately, Eric ran to the edge of the roof and squinted at all the damage done. Andie pulled Kara aside to whisper something about Aylin, but I didn’t listen in.
Instead turned to Triton. He was wearing a curious smile.
“Intriguing,” he said as he nodded toward the fading mushroom cloud. “You haven’t reached your limit yet?”
I shook my head. “No. Shall I do another?”
“Yes.” His smile twitched. “I want to see more, Mr. Gateon.”
With a nod, I took off back into the sky and looked over the damage that was done. Where there been buildings, there was now only dust within a huge blast radius. I winced in apology but knew the whole point of coming here was to prevent loss of life.
Still, it was unnerving to feel power still thrumming in my veins, knowing that I only stopped feeding the bomb because I didn’t want to hurt my friends. Maybe I really could destroy a whole mountain range?
I fed energy into my eyes, and twin beams of red laser fire sprayed over the dust. I marked black lines at random. The range seemed relatively endless, but it was hard to say for certain.
My power worked based off an endless supply of energy, and all it took was concentration to form it however I wanted. I could manifest it as kinetic energy, or turn it into light or heat. I blinked the laser fire away and heard Andie whistle approvingly from down below. When I glanced her way, I noted Aylin’s return. She and Kara were hugging, and Andie was winking at me with a sassy expression.
I smiled down at her and then focused my hands in front of me. I wondered if I could make a shield. Some heroes could manipulate fields and create hard bubbles of light to protect them from harm. It was entirely based on energy, so maybe I could do the same?
I squinted at the space in front of me, and at first, nothing happened. But as I concentrated, I noticed a glowing white field shimmering in and out of existence. Excited, I powered more energy into it, and at first, it shone bright and hot. But then it fizzled and became a ray of heat instead that shot out of my palms and exploded into the city below. It didn’t do as much damage as the bomb, but devastation wasn’t on my mind anymore.
I shook my hands in frustration. With a quiet sigh, I concentrated on controlling the perfect amount of energy while watching the glowing white shimmer fade in and out of existence.
Too much.
Too little.
Just right.
A wall of light finally appeared before me. I shaped it into a bubble with a happy smile and then expanded it around me.
Eric pointed excitedly from down below, and my concentration broke at his shriek of joy. The field faded again.
I scowled. Apparently, I needed more practice controlling my abilities because this was a lot harder than it should have been.
I tried again, and this time, I managed to summon the wall of light a lot faster. I expanded it and then shaped it like a huge dome that I rested over the entire building below. At first, I concentrated on maintaining it. Andie and Eric reached out experimentally to see if they could move through it, and I was as surprised as they were to discover that they couldn’t.
“See if you can keep it up,” Eric hollered from below.
I nodded, and a moment later, several sharp bolts of lightning slammed against the barrier. I grimaced and held on. It was one thing to note his abilities from a safe distance inside of a gym, and another entirely to experience them through the energy drain it took to maintain the barrier against his assault. He’d kept up his training because the damage was severe, and I felt energy pass through me in a rush as the barrier struggled to keep up.
Still, the glowing white dome held on. After a moment of debate, Aylin joined him by piercing it with laser fire. The barrier flickered dangerously under their mutual assault, but I held on with a grimace. A few minutes passed like that, and eventually, I released the dome with a sigh.
I landed on the roof, smiling at them all.
“I never did that before,” I said proudly. “That’s going to come in handy once I master it.”
“I’d say you mastered it very quickly,” Triton noted. “It seemed to take a lot of energy to maintain.”
“I need to keep a perfect balance, which means feeding energy into it when it takes fire. I’m still not tired, but it did take a lot of concentration to maintain. Realistically, I should keep the barrier small, so it’s more manageable.”
Eric lifted a brow at that. “You mean, you could make it bigger?”
“In theory.” I nodded. “I’m pretty sure I could cover the entire city, given some practice.”
Triton noted the time on his watch and gestured upward. “You have just enough time to test if you like.”
Instead of rising up into the sky again, I spread my arms outward where I stood on the roof and closed my eyes to concentrate. I felt the barrier form with a slow draw of power. I shaped it into a dome in my mind, visualizing it growing wider and wider over the city. Andie and Kara both cursed softly, and I opened my eyes. Above me, the dome shimmered over the district, wavering dangerously in and out of existence. I grimaced and held on to the balance of energy, trying to spread it further. It nearly winked out of existence, but with a bit more concentration, I managed to strengthen it again.
“Very good,” Triton murmured beside me. “You learn quickly.”
I wasn’t done. I spread the dome out further along the streets and buildings, spread it outward until I felt it reach the borders of the city itself. At some point, I’d closed my eyes. When I opened them, I looked up to see the whi
te glow of the dome high above.
“Wow,” I whispered. “I’m doing that.”
“You are indeed, Mr. Gateon,” Triton affirmed with a pleased smile.
“This is amazing, Nick.” Kara pointed and bounced a little on her heel. “You can save a lot of lives with this.”
“It’s... hard to control,” I grimaced as I noted the way it flickered dangerously again. “The bigger it is, the more it takes.”
Triton lifted a brow. “Have you reached the limit of your energy?”
I shook my head. “No. There’s more. There’s always more. It’s... it’s me, I think.” With an exhausted breath, I finally released the bubble, and it faded immediately out of existence. I stumbled backward when the power left me a moment later. Kara and Andie immediately reached to catch me when I nearly fell down. I leaned against them with a thankful nod and blinked tiredly at Triton.
The old man noted the time with a calm expression and smiled back at me. “Two minutes early. It is as we expected. Your energy seems to be limitless, but the strength of your body is not. High use will yield an early limit.”
“So I need...” I tried to stand on my own, but then immediately stumbled as my knees gave out. I cursed and wobbled with Andie’s help toward the jet. I leaned against it with a yawn. “So I gotta be... y’know, careful,” I slurred.
Triton smiled knowingly. “As ever,” he nodded. “You also seem to be weaker than usual, Mr. Gateon. Fortunately, your crew is aware of the dangers, yes?”
Andie, Eric, Kara, and Aylin each nodded in turn when he glanced at them. “To that end, I would like to address your roles,” he continued. “You’ve fallen into them naturally already, but each group has a specific dynamic that needs to be maintained for better effectiveness. Mr. Gateon is a natural leader, and I don’t think anyone will protest his role as one in this group. Am I correct?”
“He’s the boss,” Andie said with a smirk. Kara nodded, and I rolled my eyes tiredly, knowing that they were referencing bedroom habits more than anything.
“He’s a Gateon, that makes sense.” Eric smiled innocently and bounced on his heels a little.