Hidden Potential: Nibiru Rising: Book 1

by Chad Kunego

  Kaitlyn noticed the strain on the other woman’s face. From her service jacket, Kaitlyn knew the amount of ice she’d formed inside the jet shouldn’t be that difficult so she was still doing something, but Kaitlyn couldn’t figure out what it was. Kaitlyn cast her a questioning look.

  “Encasing… jet… in… ice…” she hissed out just before the plane impacted the ground, starting a mad carnival ride of bouncing and wildly spinning before coming to an abrupt halt, causing Kaitlyn to get knocked senseless for several minutes.

  She tried to shake her head to get the cobwebs out, but couldn’t move. It took her a minute to remember she’d been encased in ice. From how it felt, she determined the jet had come to a stop on its side. Whether it meant the wing had been ripped off, or they were dangling in the air was something that would have to wait. Concentrating, she raised her body temperature until she started shimmering from the heat, causing the ice to start liquefying around her.

  “Glaizia! You okay?”

  She heard a groan from the other woman before she responded.

  “That wasn’t very fun.”

  Kaitlyn could only nod in agreement as the ice continued melting off her.

  “Can you do anything about this ice? Or are you only able to generate it?”

  Without warning, all the ice vanished. She felt herself become weightless for a split second before the jet came to a sudden stop a split-second later. She managed to catch the edge of her seat the sudden lack of support caused her to tumble sideways to what now constituted as down.

  “Sorry…”

  Kaitlyn nodded at the other woman before letting go of the chair, dropping to what was now the floor. Clamoring over broken equipment, she made her way up to the cockpit to check on the pilot. After determining he was just unconscious, she glanced out the cockpit window. She’d assumed the multiple impacts had been them bouncing along the ground, but what she saw told her otherwise. From the carnage she could see, it appeared they’d actually bounced off of several roofs before coming to a stop in their current position.

  “Shit! Glaizia, what’s your maximum range for ice projection?”

  The other woman cleared her throat tentatively before responding.

  “I think around several hundred feet. They never tested for range, just intensity.”

  She glanced back toward the cryomancer before responding.

  “Well I think we’re going to find out,” she said, glancing out through the cracked glass again, looking at the ground about twenty stories down from where they were embedded in the side of a building. Feeling the jet shift again, she pulled the pilot from his seat.

  “We need to get out of here before the jet falls. Let’s move.”

  §§§§§§§§§§§§

  “Hold onto him while I cut a hole.”

  Kaitlyn handed the pilot over to Glaizia, who had secured her position by freezing a hand and both feet to the interior.

  “You may want to create a shield in front of you! This is going to get hot!”

  Working her way down carefully, she finally planted her feet so she could start cutting. Her hand ignited as she pointed at a section. Concentrating, the fire changed from a flickering to intense blowtorch flame. Increasing the intensity further, she slowly started cutting an escape hole in the side of fuselage. She had made it about halfway around when the jet shifted again. The sound of shearing metal started vibrating throughout the craft.

  “Shit, whatever’s holding us in place is about to give way. I’m going to have to turn up the heat and see if I can just melt a big hole instead.”

  “Move boss!”

  Kaitlyn glanced up and saw Scattershot stretching his hand out. Diving out of the way, the sound of thousands of projectiles striking the side of the hull started echoing around the interior. Regaining her feet, she watched as Scattershot’s fusillade eroding the metal, quickly widening the gap she’d started, his projectiles vanishing as quickly as they struck.

  Then she watched as a huge icicle wedged itself into the widening hole her and Scattershot had created. With the screeching sound of tortured metal, the spike of ice wedged the hole open still further, gathering speed as the spike rapidly grew in size. Suddenly, the jet shifted again before dropping into open space. Suddenly weightless, Kaitlyn struggled to reorient herself toward the opening that was now completely cleared. Without warning, dozens of icy poles appeared, crisscrossing the interior of the cabin.

  “GO!” she yelled at Glaizia, the fate of the still unconscious pilot foremost in her mind. Nodding once, Glaizia launched herself forward toward the improvised hatch, creating an ice wedge in front of her while creating a pillar of ice underneath her feet to propel her forward. As the other woman cleared the opening, the pole that she’d been hanging onto shattered, causing her to start tumbling around the interior of the jet.

  She watched Scattershot start to work toward her, but she waved him off.

  “Get out of here! Now! That’s an order!”

  She caught a moment’s hesitation on his face before he easily maneuvered through the interior before launching himself out the exit.

  I’m gonna die if I don’t do something quick.

  With that thought in mind, she got angry. Bursting into flames, she regained some control over her position inside the tumbling vehicle. At the last second, she kicked off the side wall, launching herself through the opening, fire trailing behind her as she exited the jet seconds before it hit, becoming a crumpled pile of twisted metal. She spotted Scattershot climbing out of the crater he’d created by using the recoil from his projectiles to slow his descent.

  She looked around rapidly, trying to determine where Glaizia was. Glancing up, she realized the other woman had turned into solid ice and was currently in the process of making an icy spiral slide anchored by huge chunks of rime ice wherever it contacted the outer wall of the building they’d been embedded in.

  Satisfied that Scattershot, Glaizia, and the pilot were safe, she tapped the mic at her throat.

  “Status report!”

  “Jetlag here. On my way to your position. ETA one minute.”

  “Blitz here. ETA three minutes.”

  Kaitlyn waited a nearly a minute before keying her mic again.

  “Thunderclap, what’s your status?”

  Still not getting a response, she started to get worried.

  “Jetlag, change of plans. Find Thunderclap. He’s not responding to hails.”

  “On it HellKat, I’ve got his position on GPS. Heading there now.”

  By that time, Glaizia had touched down and was waving her over.

  Jogging up, she noticed the other woman had reverted back to normal and was gesturing toward the pilot still in her arms.

  “He’s got frostbite and the start of hypothermia. You need to heat him back up before he goes into shock.”

  Nodding in response, she started projecting waves of heat toward the pilot. Glaizia started looking uncomfortable and positioned the unconscious man gently on the ground before moving away. After a few minutes, the pilot groaned. Satisfied he was going to recover, she tapped her mic just as Blitz appeared.

  “Jetlag, what’s your status?”

  “Jetlag here. Status is not good. It looks like the side of the building fell down on top of him. I can’t reach him to ascertain his condition. I’ve trying yelling, but he’s not responding and I can’t isolate his position. We need some excavation equipment here fast before it shifts again and crushes him.”

  “Understood, calling for help. Stay there and see what you can do.”

  Switching frequencies, she watched in surprise as Glaizia got up and started forming a sheet of ice in front of her, pushing herself forward by creating a wave underneath herself, almost like falling down a perpetual ski ramp or surfing. As the giant woman disappeared from sight, Kaitlyn looked around at the destruction.

  What the hell just happened? Why did Newton do something like this?

  Chapter 12

  “My Go
d…”

  Kaitlyn looked at the aerial photos of the damage.

  “How big of a blast radius are we looking at?”

  “Nearly a half mile across for just the blast itself. That’s not including damage from the shock wave. If it wasn’t for the lack of radiation, the damage is comparable to a tactical nuke. The lack of scorch marks rules out a FOAB as well.”

  Kaitlyn looked at the image again.

  “Wait a second, how come there’s no blast crater? If Newton was the epicenter, there should be some type of crater, right?”

  The technician glanced at the photos before going back to his equipment.

  “That's kinda odd, but without knowing how this guy’s abilities work, there’s no way to tell if there actually would be a crater or not.”

  She nodded to herself, turning and walking back toward her team.

  “Any word on Thunderclap’s condition?”

  Glaizia looked between her other teammates before responding.

  “He’ll live, if that’s what you’re asking,” she said hesitantly.

  “If he’d been closer to the blast, it might have been a different story. As it is, he has a half dozen broken ribs, a dislocated shoulder, a fractured femur, and a torn ACL.”

  “Damn… Did the doctors say anything else?”

  Glaizia nodded.

  “Yeah, it uh, appears they’re expecting him back up on his feet within the next few days. Apparently he has some type of accelerative healing ability that wasn’t in his medical records. They actually had to re-break his femur because it’d already started fusing together incorrectly because it took us so long to dig him out.”

  “Thanks,” she said, patted Glaizia on the hand since it was the lowest thing she could easily reach. Turning on the other two members, she stared at them before speaking.

  “What the hell happened today?”

  Both teammates looked embarrassed before Jetlag responded.

  “Uh… we were getting our collective asses handed to us Kat.”

  “Yeah, I hate to admit it, but I’ve never been that outclassed before in a fight,” Blitz added quietly.

  Kaitlyn stared at them, watching their indecision before losing her patience. Jabbing a finger out at Jetlag, she raised her eyebrows slightly.

  “Okay, you first.”

  Clearing her throat, she looked at Blitz before speaking.

  “Well, here’s the thing. Neither of us got to see the start of the fight. It’d been going on for several minutes while we cleared the area of civilians.”

  “Ok… and?”

  “Uh, well, after I’d verified the area was clear, I did a quick flyover the fight and…”

  She trailed off, looking slightly embarrassed.

  “Go on,” she snapped.

  “The thing is, this Newton guy was sitting on Thunderclap’s back.”

  “Sitting?”

  “Yeah, I’m not sure how he did it, but Thunderclap was face down on the ground, wiggling around but not able to prop himself back up. It was like he was pinned under Newton somehow.”

  “So it’s starting to look more like some form of gravity manipulation.”

  “I don’t think so ma’am.”

  “How so?” she asked, cocking her head to the side.

  “Well, after I’d hit him with lightning a few times, he jumped up and caught me in mid-flight. Stopped me dead in my tracks. It was the weirdest sensation. One minute I was moving close to the speed of sound, the next it was like I was hovering. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t move forward.”

  Kaitlyn thought back to how she’d felt when Newton had grabbed her and moved her to safety.

  “Noted. Continue.”

  “That’s the other strange thing. He had me dead-to-rights. This is a guy who had already overpowered Thunderclap, yet all he did was ask who we worked for. Very politely I might add. Then Blitz nailed him with one of his energy blasts before I could respond. After that, I hightailed it away before he had a chance to grab me again.”

  “I guess that’s my cue I reckon.”

  She turned her attention to Blitz.

  “It was right after Jetlag here had blasted Newton off Thunderclap’s back. I thought I’d run up and plow into him from behind. Without even looking, he managed to sidestep me while I was running a sight over mach 1.5 and trip me. I never even saw him move. One instant I’m about ta nail him, the next I’m diggin’ a trench.”

  Kaitlyn barely caught herself before her mouth dropped open in surprise. Instead, her eyes just widened slightly in shock.

  “Honest truth. I took off out of there when Thunderclap tried to knock his head into next week. From there I circled from a distance, looking for another opening. When he’d latched onto flygirl there, I nailed ‘im with an energy blasts. Seemed to do some damage to ‘im, too. Then he did something with this shiny blob that was floating above his head. Next thing I knew, it turned into a mirror and I got clipped with my own attack.”

  “Ok, then what?”

  She watched with some annoyance as both they looked at each other again.

  “What?”

  “Well, that’s when the really weird thing happened. Both of us talked about it and it seems the same thing happened to the both of us.”

  Jetlag nodded at the comment.

  “Yeah, once minute we were heading toward Newton and Thunderclap fighting, the next minute it was like we were swatted away by an invisible hand. Honestly,” she said, glancing toward Blitz for support before continuing, “I’d never traveled so fast before in my life. I was nearly twenty miles away before I regained control of my flight path again and was able to head back this way.”

  “Same here. I was running toward them and it was like I got bounced away. I must have damn near hit Mach 3. What was stranger was that my feet didn’t touch the ground for most of the trip. The last thing I saw before I was outta range was Newton catching Thunderclap’s mace with one hand and grabbin’ the man ta throw him wit da other. I must’ve been near five miles away when I saw the mushroom cloud start rising up.”

  “Wait a minute… Is it possible Newton trying to throw Thunderclap out of the blast area?”

  “Now that you mention it, that seems about right ma’am.”

  So was he the source of the blast, or was it someone or something else? What’re we missing?

  §§§§§§§§§§§§

  “Why was he classified as a target! I reviewed the intel. Nothing in the files indicated he was a threat to the country! Why did you have me eliminate him?”

  Rick’s hands shook. It was the only external indication of how angry he was. Making it worse was how Reaper was basically just blowing off his concerns. Something hadn’t felt quite right on his last mission. The technology magnate didn’t seem to match the dossier he’d been given. The man just didn’t strike him as a cold-blooded killer he’d been accused of being. Upon returning, he’d spent several days confirming his suspicions. What he’d found out was that he’d been lied to. All the charges levied against him by Skywatch had been falsified. He wanted to know why. One way or another, he was going to get the answer out of Reaper.

  Reaching forward, he grabbed Reaper by the shoulder and spun him around to face him. The other man brought his cybernetic arms up in front of him in a pacifying gesture while taking a couple steps backward.

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Easy there champ. Maybe someone got some files mixed up or something. Let me look into it.”

  “Bullshit! Don’t try and tell me this was a clerical error! You’re the one who signed off on it! How could you not verify everything?”

  Pressing the issue, Rick noticed an annoyed look cross his CO’s face.

  “What’s the big deal, anyway? He wasn’t a very nice person to begin with.”

  He started to turn away but Rick spun him back.

  “What’s the big deal? He wasn’t a threat to national security!”

  Reaper shoved him backward angrily, bouncing Rick off the opposit
e wall.

  “Yes he was!”

  As he said it, Rick noticed a strange look cross the other man’s face, something resembling a look of rage.

  “What do you mean, exactly, when you say he was a threat to us?” he asked, slowly moving toward Reaper.

  Realizing what he’d said, Reaper tried to change the subject.

  “Listen, I’ll go back to my office, review the intel, and let you know later how this happened, okay? Make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

  Rick grabbed the other man by the upper arms, lifted him off the ground, and slammed him into the wall, the drywall caving it in a few inches.

  “What do you mean he was a threat to us?” he said in a low whisper.

  Rick noticed a strange look cross the other man’s face before Reaper relaxed in his grip.

  “You want the truth? Fine! Yes, he was a threat to us! Not the country! To us! So he had to be eliminated. Happy now?”

  Rick’s stomach tightened in a knot. He’d been tricked into murdering an innocent guy. Not because he was a danger to the country he loved, but because he was a danger to this department. What made it worse was the civilian family he’d accidentally killed on the mission. Collateral damage on top of murder. As his anger swelled, his grip tightened on the cyborg’s arms, slowly crushing the metal under his fingers.

  “NEWTON!”

  The sudden shout snapped him back to the present. Looking into Reaper’s eyes, he saw the same look of rage he’d just displayed when Rick had pressed him about his latest target.