Hidden Potential: Nibiru Rising: Book 1
Page 20
Kaitlyn slowly noticed the body count was slowly decreasing the further away she traveled from the cavern. Passing another side corridor, she came to an abrupt stop before drifting back. She recognized one of the hallway her and Scattershot had traveled down after Rick took off. Making a quick decision, she changed direction and flew down the hall to where they’d been ambushed.
Retracing her steps, she finally came to the hall just before the room. Touching down, she peeked around the corner before walking the final distance. Approaching the room, she heard movement. Readying a fireball, she poked her head around the doorframe.
“Scattershot!”
She hurried into the room heading toward her teammate slumped on the floor, with several new bodies lying around him. She quickly froze when he raised his left hand toward her reflexively. A look of recognition slowly passed across his battered face before his arm dropped in exhaustion.
“May-ja?” he managed to ask, badly slurring the word.
Dropping down in front of him, she noticed the entire left side of his face was swelling along with his jaw hanging loosely at an odd angle.
“Are you okay? Can you stand?”
“Ma ja ith bokin… an ma tholdr’s dithloctid…” he mumbled, gesturing to his face and shoulder.
“Do you want me to try and pop in back into place?”
His paused for a moment before nodding tentatively. Sitting down on the floor next to him, she gently probed his shoulder, wincing at his pained groans, before putting her foot under his armpit and bracing his hand under her arm.
“This is going to hurt. There’s no way to do it gently.”
She watched him squint his eyes tight as she tensed herself. With a quick movement, she pulled on his arm while guiding the joint back into its socket. Scattershot yelped in pain, quickly becoming a low moan. Tearing a pant leg off her uniform, she tore it into strips. Tucking his right arm into his shirt, she bound his arm in place with the strips she’d created. Moving slowly, she got him to his feet before she slung his arm over her shoulder, guiding them toward the exit. They’d walked for several minutes before Kaitlyn thought to check if Scattershot’s comms were working since Reaper had somehow disabled hers. She took his earpiece out before tapping the pairing button, causing her mic to link up with Scattershot’s headset.
“Glaizia, Jetlag. Do you copy?”
“Jetlag here. We copy. Under fire. Could use some backup.”
“Copy. Unable to assist. Scattershot’s badly injured. We’re heading for the exit. Withdraw if possible. The base is likely to be dust shortly.”
Thunderclap’s voice suddenly interrupted.
“’Lag, what’s your twenty?”
There was a slight pause, with gunfire echoing in the background, before Jetlag responded.
“I just pinned our location in the GPS.”
“Roger. Blitz is inbound. ‘Kat, what’s your position?”
Kaitlyn leaned Scattershot up against the wall before hitting the homing beacon. Tapping her mic, she responded.
“Beacon is lit.”
“Understood. Inbound to your location. ETA five minutes.”
“Copy, five minutes inbound. Confirmed. Out.”
“Out.”
§§§§§§§§§§§§
Kaitlyn shifted position, trying to make it easier to carry Scattershot. Between his awkward weight and her injured ankle, she was having serious doubts about getting out of the base in time.
She was so focused on just putting one foot in front of the other, it took her a minute to notice the sound approaching in the distance. She couldn’t it, but it sounded vaguely familiar. A moment later, the sound of electricity arcing fully reached her ears nearly a minute before Thunderclap arrived. She wasn’t sure of the mechanics behind it, or how it allowed him fly. All she knew was, sometimes lightning arced off it, other times it was silent. Drifting into sight, he softly touched down a moment before the energy discharge stopped. Striding over, he set his mace down.
“Looks like he took quite the thrashing. What happened?”
“Reaper ambushed us. It happened so fast, we didn’t even have time to respond. He abducted me and nearly killed him. Honestly, I wasn’t even sure Scattershot was still alive, but I refuse to leave anyone behind if I can help it.”
“You ran into Reaper?” he asked, looking around warily.
“Yes, but he’s been neutralized for now.”
“And Newton?”
“Right now, he’s the only thing keeping this place from being leveled. He forced me away so I could get everyone out of here.”
“A noble warrior indeed. So what now?”
“Now, we get everyone out of here and hope Newton can make it out before this place gets reduced to rubble. From what I saw before I was forced to leave, the amount of energy concentrated here will make the explosion look like a firecracker going off compared to a nuke.”
She watched his eyes widen slightly before he squatted down, gingerly lifting Scattershot and cradling him in one arm. Holding his hand out, his mace shot up from the ground and settled into his outstretched hand with a meaty thunk.
“Can you fly okay while carrying him?”
He nodded, slowly lifting into the air. She spotted small arcs of electricity playing across the surface of his mace.
“Lead the way, major.”
She burst into flames before lifting into the air as well.
“Let’s get the hell out of her!” she said, rocketing away.
§§§§§§§§§§§§
Kaitlyn hurled another fireball, setting several soldiers on fire. The explosions caused by Thunderclap and Blitz destroying the power station seemed to have caused a general evacuation alert. Ducking back around the corner, she glanced back at Thunderclap.
“We don’t have time for this. Not counting the ones I just cooked, I counted at least thirty to forty armed soldiers blocking our exit.”
Leaning Scattershot against a wall, he strode past Kaitlyn.
“Leave it to me.”
He started rapidly twirling his mace in a broad circle, lightning crackling in a halo around it. Suddenly, he leapt forward, diving out of cover while launching his weapon down the hallway. Thunder echoed down the corridor, followed by a massive explosion. Tumbling forward, he sprung back to his feet, casually catching the handle on its return flight.
“Quickly, before more show up,” he said, before taking off at a slow jog.
She hooked Scattershot’s arm around her neck again, helping him to move toward the exit as quickly as he could manage. She heard movement behind her, but before she could react, an arc of electricity shot by her, making her hair stand on end for a few seconds. A abruptly silenced scream let her know the bolt had found its mark.
Cautiously moving through the rooms next to the guard station, they made their way outside. They continued for a couple hundred yards before Kaitlyn tapped her mic again.
“Glaizia, Status?”
“Making our way to the entrance. We’re under heavy fire but making headway. ETA’s probably another ten minutes.”
“You don’t have that much time. Don’t be gentle. Plow through them as fast as possible.”
She heard an unearthly roar come thorough the mic followed by screams.
“Talk to me! What was that?”
In a much lower tone of voice, Glaizia responded.
“On our way.”
In the distance, heard loud booms that shook the earth, coming from inside the base. She glanced at Thunderclap, but he only shrugged his shoulders. Looking back , she noticed part of the mountainside start to glitter in the sunlight several hundred yards away from the entrance. Before she could make sense of it, the side of the mountain ruptured outward in a hail of rock and ice. Striding out from the new opening was the icy form of Glaizia, followed by Jetlag and Blitz. As she emerged, Kaitlyn realized Glaizia was missing her right arm. The giant woman staggered a few steps before regaining her balance. Glaizia cast her hand f
orward while Jetlag got behind her and start pushing, causing the two of them to rocket forward. Getting closer, she realized the giant woman was creating an icy trail in front of them, allowing Jetlag to push her forward like an ice-skater while Blitz provided cover fire.
Approaching Kaitlyn’s position, Glaizia lost her balance again and tumbled forward, barely catching herself on her remaining arm before landing in a heap in front of them. In surprise, Thunderclap rushed to her aid, lifting her in his arms like she was weightless, then carrying her the rest of the way over. Kaitlyn could see the skin in contact with Glaizia’s form slowly turning blue-white while he carried her. Setting her down gently against a tree, he looked back up at Kaitlyn, worry etched across his craggy face.
“Her arm…” he said, trailing off.
“It’ll… be okay…”
They all looked at Glaizia, who appeared to be struggling to keep her eyes open.
“I just need… some water… to reform it. As long as I don’t… turn back into flesh before that, I’ll be fine…”
Kaitlyn spun around, facing Jetlag and Blitz.
“I’m not going to order you to do this, and I don’t know how long she can maintain that form, but you heard her. Without water, at the very least, she’ll be crippled. At worst, she’ll bleed out.”
She waved back in the direction of the base.
“There’s gotta be water somewhere in that base and we need as much as possible. You two are the only ones fast enough to have a chance to escape if that place blows. Are you up for it?”
They both nodded before vanishing with loud pops. Seconds later, they started arriving with buckets and other containers full of water. Within the space of a couple minutes, they’d returned with enough water to create a small swimming pool.
“That should be enough,” Glaizia whispered, sticking her hand in the first container and drawing the water up into her. Before Kaitlyn’s eyes, she noticed the ragged stump start to grow longer. Blitz’s voice caused her to turn.
“What now ma’am?”
“Now we wait and hope Newton makes it out alive.”
Chapter 32
Rick was exhausted. The energy from the tower throbbed again, pulsing outward against the field Rick was maintaining around it, but only barely. Sweat poured down his face as he concentrated on smoothing the ripples again.
After he’d gotten the flow reversed, it had started coming through in a rush, almost like a siphon pulling water from a reservoir. Instead of being a struggle to draw it back, he now fought to choke the rush down before it overwhelmed him.
He’d lost track of time, struggling to react quickly enough to thousands of variables every second keep them from causing a catastrophic chain reaction, one that ended in an explosion. Each adjustment held the potential to destabilize the field, but he pushed on, hoping to buy the team just a few more seconds.
How much more is there? I can’t keep this up much longer.
In a corner of his mind, his senses suddenly shot back through the rift, allowing him to more clearly see the other side compared to the last time he’d checked. With a quick scan, he determined the amount remaining was less than the amount released at his workplace.
Well, at least the city will survive. Might only lose a few floors off the top now.
Unexpectedly, another bolt of kinetic lightning lashed out in a momentary gap in his containment field, striking his already saturated aura. The air around him ignited in a fiery globe around him from the sudden influx of energy into his aura, instantly turning the platform he’d been standing on to drip away as molten slag. Catching himself, he suddenly had to split his concentration between maintaining his position and the field around the tower. His momentary lapse caused a large ripple to start oscillating through the field while a sudden inrush of the remaining energy from the other side pushed him further away from the tower.
Something dribbled from his nose while he fought to regain control of the field. Reaching up, he wiped it away before looking at it. A shiny trail of red fluid coated the back of his hand.
Blood.
Expanding his awareness outward, searching for the rest of the team. A split-second later, he sensed they were located safely outside.
Good, at least they’re outside. Gives them a slight chance of surviving this. Me… not so much.
The sudden flood of regret for all the things he hadn’t done washed over him unexpectedly. All the times he chose the safety of remaining hidden instead of really living his life caused his heart to ache. Realizing he might be experiencing last moments of his life, he could only wonder how his life might have been different if he’d made different choices.
I wish I’d had the chance to take Tim up on seeing that warehouse skate-park he talked about building with his friends. It might have been fun showing them what the old man could do. At least they’ll have the chance to build it.
He felt more blood now flowing freely out of both nostrils as his control, fractures slowly forming across the field he was maintaining.
Not much longer now.
In his mind, he slowly sensed a growing presence at the edges of his conscious awareness. It took him a moment to realize it was the source of the alien thoughts he’d heard earlier. While he didn’t hear any words, he suddenly got an image in his mind of a sphere transforming into a vertical column. Through the haze of exhaustion, it took him several seconds to understand what it meant.
That might work, not that there’s a lot of other options. Only going to get one shot though.
Glancing up, he prepared himself for one last ditch effort.
§§§§§§§§§§§§
A brilliant column of light lanced out of the top of the mountain base, blinding everyone. A split-second later, the first shockwave hit, blasting them violently backward. The pressure waves erupting from the mountain ripped the tops off the trees that didn’t topple over entirely. A few seconds later, they were tossed up into the air as the ground rippled up like the surface of a stormy sea before slamming them back down.
“QUICK! GET EVERYONE IN THE AIR! NOW!” Kaitlyn screamed. The ground at the base of the mountain started rupturing from the strain of it rippling up and down violently. Her legs burst into flames as she frantically threw Scattershot over her shoulder in a fireman’s carry and prepared to jump skyward, but the ground underneath them split open, revealing a rapidly forming chasm dropping away beneath them. They dropped several feet before she could regain control, rocketing out of the chasm and into the air overhead. She saw Jetlag snatching Blitz off the ground before the ground fractured under them, but watched in horror as Thunderclap and the unconscious form of Glaizia tumbled into the crevice.
“NO!”
The ground rippled again, the ragged gap reversing direction and slowly closing beneath them instead. With the sound of a thunderclap, Thunderclap rocketed out of the rupture seconds before the ground slammed shut, Glaizia cradled in his arm protectively. Catching her breath, she looked back up toward the opening of the mountain where the light had come from. Fully a third of the mountaintop had vanished from the explosion. A moment later, magma shot into the air out of the gaping hole.
“Everyone, we need to get away from here, now! Whatever happened in there, it just created a new volcano. This place is going to become a lake of molten rock really quickly.”
“What about Newton!” Jetlag yelled over the rising roaring sound coming from baby volcano.
“There’s nothing we can do for him now! If he didn’t make it out of there, he’s gone!”
Casting one last glance toward the newly formed caldera before spinning around, flying away from the devastated base.
§§§§§§§§§§§§
Rick focused on what he needed to do. Taking a deep breath, he mentally grabbed his energy globe, pouring even more energy into it. Changing its shape to match the column shape he had in his mind. He extended it downward into the floor while reshaping the top into a reinforced cap.
Pulsi
ng himself upward, he broke the sound barrier in the process. His ears popped and started bleeding as the pressure explosively released, the result of the energy rupturing downward along the path of least resistance.
He could feel his containment field below him weakening at a pace that was increasing. Redoubling his efforts, he strained to go faster, putting as much distance between himself and the tower as possible. Looking down, he watched the floor of the cavern turn white-hot before vaporizing, almost falling in on itself as the energy wave burrowed into the bedrock, thrusting deeper and deeper into the subterranean levels. His enhanced senses felt the progression beneath the cavern floor surging deeper.
Time became more and more distorted, an aftereffect from struggling to contain and direct the energy-wave’s passage deeper into the bedrock. His powers surged again, his awareness accelerating downward. Leaping ahead of the beam, he sensed movement he couldn’t immediately identify nearly twenty five miles down. In shock, he realized what he was sensing was a pocket of magma slowly roiling around deep under the surface. His mind raced ahead, coming to the conclusion that the energy beam would reach it before he’d cleared the top of the cavern.
This is probably going to hurt…
Drawing his energy back in, he pulsed himself upward with everything he had, breaking the hypersonic barrier before reinforcing the protective field around him.
Almost there. Just a few more feet.
The cap on the containment field shattered, allowing the energy blast to surge upward, enveloping him just as he reached the outside. The world went white, the force slamming into him harder than the previous energy detonation while the temperature shot past anything he’d ever attempted to absorb before. He didn’t even have time to scream before the world disappeared.