The woman turned back to the hidden camera, screaming, “They made me! They made me!”
Tick Tock hurried over. “Where is he?”
The team ran up the stairs as the skirmish continued.
TORI heard more yelling, more fighting below, as she ran down an upstairs hall. Everyone followed Lexie until she suddenly stopped.
“Here?” asked Powerhouse. He shoved the door next to him and it came off its hinges. Empty.
Lexie shook her head. “No, he’s gone.” Her face twisted as she focused harder. “It’s like he’s not here. He was and then he wasn’t.”
“We don’t know what Kane’s powers are,” Tick Tock said, “but he may be hiding the boy somehow.”
Tori squinted down the hall. A thick mass of twisting shadows moved toward a steel door. The shadows coalesced into a form, two shapes, and then she could see Kane. And Ben!
“Mamaaa!” he screamed as the door shut behind him.
Everyone ran. It took X and Powerhouse both to take down the door. The second hallway looked medical in nature, white and stainless steel, doors with small windows and keypad entry. They looked through the window of every door. Nothing.
At the last door, the window showed nothing, almost as if it opened into dark space. As Tori stared, the darkness shifted, as if it were looking out at them. Her fear fed Lexie’s, and Lexie’s fear fed her anger.
“Let him go!” Lexie screamed. “Let him go!” She beat her hands against the door, twisting the door handle, pounding until Tick Tock pulled her back. She fought him, trying to get to Ben.
As Tori watched, X and Powerhouse kicked at the door, pulled at it, ran their shoulders into it. Nothing happened.
Completely nothing. The door didn’t dent, didn’t shudder, didn’t move at all.
Supernatural. Somehow Kane used a supernatural power to protect himself in the room. How did you fight that? Tori set aside her fear and tried to use her mind. How could you fight something supernatural? There must be a way.
With something else supernatural, of course. But that wasn’t working. They all had supernatural gifts, yet Kane seemed impervious.
Danny’s words came back to her. Work with Lexie, he said.
How could anger and fear help? Tori shook her head.
The darkness swirled and pulled back. Shadows undulated and dissolved and reformed. As they watched, natural darkness filled the space and they could see a medical laboratory. Kane and Ben solidified at the back. Ben screamed. He kicked and fought and, as they watched, Kane forced him into a chair with metal cuffs at his wrists and ankles. His crying increased.
Lexie screamed and beat against the door. It shuddered normally this time.
“X! The door!” Tori pointed excitedly. “It’s a normal door now. Try again!”
Tick Tock and Green Thumb pulled Lexie away as X and Powerhouse pounded their bodies against the door. It dented. The frame cracked.
Kane looked up at the sound and became shadow. In a moment, the door was supernaturally solid again.
“Get him out of there,” Lexie screamed at Tick Tock. “What’s he doing to my baby?”
Tick Tock shook his head. “Nothing.” He looked at the team and shook his head again. “He can’t,” he said, thinking it through out loud. “He can’t do anything as a shadow. He had to solidify to put Ben in that chair. Ben’s still screaming, so he’s not a part of the shadow now.”
X nodded. “So we need him to stay in human form to get through the door.”
“But in human form, he can do whatever it is he’s trying to do to Ben,” Green Thumb argued.
“Ben may be safer when Kane is a shadow, but then we can’t get in,” added Powerhouse.
Tori sucked in a breath. Could she do it again? Her dad had encouraged her to pray for wisdom and then use it. Was this wise?
God, help me to know what to do, and help me to do it.
X looked at her. “What?”
“He’s creating or using some kind of supernatural darkness,” she said. “What if we could fight him with supernatural light?”
X’s expression moved from confusion to understanding to hope. He clasped her shoulder. “You could do it,” he said, his voice laced with excitement.
“Maybe,” she shook her head a little. “But how?” She thought it might work. She wanted it to work. But she had no idea how she made it happen before.
Tick Tock broke in. “Tell me.”
“She created this bright white light earlier today. It was – I don’t know what it was.” X looked toward the door and back to Tick Tock. “But it was bright enough to chase away any shadow.”
Everyone turned to Tori. “I was really upset,” she said. “I don’t know how I did it. I don’t know how to make it happen again.”
Tick Tock’s mouth formed a grim smile. “Well, I know just the thing to make you upset.” He patted Lexie’s back.
Of course! Work with Lexie! Maybe together they could do it. She looked into the darkness at the window and felt her own fear and anger. She let it burn. Let him try to make her more afraid. She’d feed on his power to grow her own.
Tick Tock laid out a plan and everyone got into place.
Tori and Lexie clasped hands and faced the darkness. Tori felt her sister’s anger grow. It became a monster in the hallway, then a monster in the room. Tori felt Lexie’s rage and her desire for destruction. It was terrifying.
She focused on Ben locked into that chair. She focused on his screams. Lexie fed her images of her worst fears for Ben. Tori trembled under the assault and felt a burning rising in her chest.
She remembered that the first time, the whole room disappeared. Tori concentrated on creating light inside, not wishing the room away. She didn’t want to lose Ben somehow.
“Focus, Tori,” X encouraged her from his position near the door.
Tori felt Lexie’s pain, felt Ben’s pain, felt her own pain that a man who should have loved her more than his own life had betrayed her in such a vile way. She released the churning and cried, “Light!”
Bright white light flashed and hovered in the hall. It filled the room in front of them. Tori focused on keeping it in the room while Powerhouse and X broke down the door. After three tries, the door flew back and against the side wall.
Lexie ran for her son. Tick Tock followed her, pulling something from his suit to pick the locks on the chair.
Tori felt the light shimmering. No! Stay! Light! She fixed all of her energy on keeping the darkness at bay.
Green Thumb and X and Powerhouse searched all the shadows of the room, trying to find where Kane hid. But the shadows increased as the light faded. Someone flipped a switch on the wall. The room brightened for a moment.
“There!” Someone shouted and pointed.
Tori fell back against the wall, letting go. Her light dissolved. Her head pounded. Her legs shook as she tried to stay on her feet.
A sharp series of pops and sparks flew from the light fixtures. Seething darkness settled in the corner where Ben and Lexie and Tick Tock had been standing. Ominous silence shrouded the area.
The rest of the team stood in shock for a moment. Then X shouted to Tori, “Again! We’ll grab them and get them out!”
Green Thumb ran to Tori. She stood behind her and clasped her shoulders. “It’s all because of him,” Green Thumb said. “Focus on that, Tori. They called you crazy because of him. They made you take pills because of him. And Lexie! She became an addict and a drunk and lived in an alley because of him.”
Her friend knew how to push her buttons. Tori stood straighter, felt a renewed rush. She thought of every awful situation she’d been in because of her freakishness. She focused on every moment her mother acted afraid of her instead of holding her tight.
Light blazed out.
Green Thumb kept reminding her of all the bad times. Then she told Tori the worst details of growing up a freak in her home. The verbal abuse, the beatings, the nights she spent locked in a closet.
&
nbsp; The light vibrated around her.
She saw Lexie and Ben. Tick Tock had them in his arms as he rushed for the door. As they came through and ran for the exit, a dense black cloud moved along the floor and out the door.
Tori saw it. She didn’t want Kane to get away. She didn’t want him to have another opportunity to kidnap Ben. He should pay. She pushed the light to grow, to leave no corner for Kane to hide. The cloud moved slower, became denser.
She felt herself shaking, burning. A piece of the ceiling fell. Glass exploded behind her. Green Thumb cried out and let go of her shoulders.
Focus!
The shadow became denser, smaller. Another chunk of the ceiling came down on the shadow. No! She couldn’t let him hide. She forced the light brighter, shining partially under the debris where she last saw the darkness.
“Tori!” X yelled, shaking her. “Stop! You’re bringing the ceiling down!” More glass exploded and he tried to shield her with his body.
Sudden intense pain. She used it to focus the light even more. Why wouldn’t he stand up and be a man? She wanted him to be punished, to go to jail. But she couldn’t force him to change back to his human form.
“Tori, stop!” X ducked as a light fixture fell and swung by his head. “You’re bleeding! Stop!”
X was going to stop her. He was bigger and stronger and she couldn’t fight him. Kane would get away. He’d get away with everything. Unless she could make him disappear so he couldn’t hurt anyone anymore. It was the only option she had left. She focused with all her strength.
“Kane, go away!” she screamed.
She heard an explosion, X tackled her and covered her with his body, then darkness took her.
CHAPTER 20
GREEN Thumb watched the organized confusion outside. This might be the first superhero-police joint bust in the history of Double Bay. Though from her perspective, parts of it looked more confused than organized.
She let the EMT finish bandaging her left hand, then hopped off the back of the ambulance as a child was carried over. Could it be true? Kane had kidnapped more children than Ben? She remembered hearing twelve or fifteen kids had gone missing. She ran back in the building. She needed to help find them.
As she hurried in, Superhero X was carrying Tori out. She had cuts on her face and upper body. Blood flowed from her nose. Her eyes were closed and Green Thumb couldn’t tell if she’d passed out or something worse.
“Tori!” Green Thumb rushed up to them. “Is she okay?”
“I think so.” X’s voice was tight. He didn’t look like he believed his words.
“Tori?”
Tori opened her eyes. “Did we save Ben?” She looked like she’d just done seventy-two hours on her feet with nothing but Cheetos and Red Bull. But she didn’t look like she was about to die.
I know I don’t talk to you much, but thank you, God.
“We did, girlfriend.” Green Thumb smoothed her friend’s hair. “He’s safe with Lexie now, and Tick Tock isn’t letting anyone near them.” In a lower voice, she said to X, “Someone brought out another child. I’m going to see if I can find any more.”
He nodded. “If she’s okay, I’ll come help.”
Green Thumb went back upstairs toward the laboratory area. She was about to turn down a hallway when a redheaded woman in a lab coat almost ran into her. She carried a small boy toward another door.
“Hey! Put him down!” Green Thumb pointed her hands toward the woman, ready to trip her with her vines if she tried to take the child anywhere but downstairs.
The woman looked at Green Thumb’s costume and lay the boy none too gently on the floor. Nice thing about a super suit, no one knew what powers you had, so they assumed the worst.
“I’m trying to help him, to get him out of here,” the woman pleaded.
Green Thumb paused. She’d known enough liars and cheats to recognize one, but she was supposed to let people explain themselves before she tied them up. Tick Tock was trying to teach her the rules of fair fighting. “Who are you?”
“I work for Curtis Enterprises, but I’ve been trying to get the children out when no one was watching,” the redhead said. “Come on, Teddy.” She reached for the boy.
He whimpered and shrank back. That was enough proof for Green Thumb.
“Liar!” She threw ivy at the woman at a furious rate, tripping her when she tried to run. When the woman started to yell nasty things, Green Thumb wrapped ivy around her head, effectively tying her jaw shut.
Satisfied the redhead wasn’t getting away, Green Thumb crouched down next to the boy. She was careful not to touch him. Was he hurt? Afraid of her?
He looked up, hope and hopelessness battling across his perfect little features. He lay quietly, waiting to see what Green Thumb was going to do to him. She knew the feeling.
“It’s okay, sweetheart,” she whispered. “I’m here to take you home.”
He studied her for a long moment. Green Thumb was torn between grabbing him up and getting him out to safety, and giving him a chance to take in the situation. Her patience paid off. His chin began to quiver. Then the tears welled up and fell across his chubby cheeks. Her heart broke when he lifted his arms up to her.
Gently, she picked the boy up, cuddling him to her heart, murmuring comfort. She didn’t want to let him go. This is what it could be like if she were normal. She’d have a child cuddling in her arms and–
Green Thumb cut off the thought. Not gonna happen.
She carried him outside, telling a pair of police officers about the woman tied up on the second floor. She found the EMT who had bandaged her hand. It took a minute for the boy to let go of her and go to him. Green Thumb almost decided not to relinquish him, but she reminded herself there were other children who needed to be rescued.
Upstairs, she headed toward the labs again. She looked down the hallway where they’d rescued Ben from Kane. Lights hung by wires, broken glass covered the floor, a huge section of the ceiling had buckled in several feet. Green Thumb stopped and stared. Tori did all that?
A cop brought another boy out from a hallway farther ahead. Green Thumb took her search in that direction. She found some rooms with open doors, empty now. This must be where the children were kept. She headed for the closed doors but paused at an open doorway when she caught movement inside.
A little boy lay strapped down on his bed. Drool fell from his lips. When he saw Green Thumb, he tried to leap at her, growling and baring dozens of razor sharp teeth. The boy had straight dark hair, olive skin, and huge black eyes with no white showing. He might’ve been five or six, though it was hard to tell. She looked at his hands and feet and saw claws twisting against the bands holding him down.
A sob burst from her throat. The others in the room – two paramedics, Powerhouse, and Superhero X – looked up at the sound.
Powerhouse and X stood to either side of the boy. The paramedics went through their paces, but their faces registered their shock as they tried to figure out how to help, staying out of the way of the clawing hands and sharp teeth. As they leaned over him, he opened his mouth again and growled with an inhuman sound.
“It’s all right, little one,” Powerhouse murmured. He lay his hand on the boy’s shoulder. The growling stopped, but the boy tried to bite him. Bull pulled back and placed his hand on the boy’s head instead. The boy twisted for a moment, then lay still.
Finally, one of the paramedics shook his head. “I don’t know what they’ve done to him,” he said, “but he’s dying.”
Even as he spoke, the boy’s chest moved, expanded. The boy cried out and Green Thumb heard tiny pops and snaps. His body was growing before their eyes, bones breaking from the pressure. The second paramedic bit his lip and tried to remain stoic, but tears rolled down his face.
Green Thumb found Powerhouse’s gaze across the room. This was all wrong. They were supposed to rescue the children, not arrive in time to see them die! She heard him say something to X about calming the boy. X pulled off hi
s mask and the top of his suit. He tightened his grip on the steel pipe in his hand.
Was he going to–? That boy could tear him to pieces if X’s power failed, even for a moment.
“Move back,” he spoke quietly to the paramedics.
The boy screamed in agony again. This scream sounded much more like a little boy. Green Thumb felt her chest convulse on another sob.
The second paramedic moved back against the wall, taking his equipment with him. “He’s dying, Pete,” he said to the first man. “Let them do what they can.”
Green Thumb watched her friends. What could they do?
Nodding to Powerhouse, X unstrapped the boy’s feet. They kicked out at him, twisting and pounding on the bed. One foot made contact and ripped the left leg of his suit. Powerhouse placed one hand on the boy’s head and one on his chest, trying to calm and sooth the child with quiet words. The stretching and cracking had stopped for now.
X loosed the boy’s hands and picked him up from the bed, holding him gently and crooning to him. The boy kicked and clawed and scratched and bit. X’s skin remained unmarked. After a few minutes, the boy calmed down and looked up at the man who held him. The two stared at each other for a moment.
X’s face was compassion itself.
Green Thumb felt years of useless wishes and dashed hopes from her childhood rise up inside. Her friends did have something to give.
Holding the boy close to his chest, X sat down on the bed and rocked him. Slowly, he pulled in the boy’s hands and feet so they faced X’s body. Then Powerhouse slid onto the bed and stroked the boy’s head and back.
The child calmed some more. He relaxed against Joe, his head falling back into Bull’s touch. Over the next few minutes, his body would spasm and the boy would cry out. Then he would curl into his protectors and whimper.
Green Thumb leaned against the wall, her heart breaking, her tears falling unchecked. It wasn’t until the boy finally stopped moving that the men holding him allowed themselves to cry. X held the child a little longer, then let one of the paramedics check his pulse. When the man shook his head, X gently lay the boy on the bed.
Unexpected Superhero (Adventures of Lewis and Clarke Book 1) Page 30