by Matt Blake
I headed over to the jungles, across the Darien Gap, searching for hours. I flew through them, searching, just eager to find some sign of a compound, some sign of…
I saw it, then.
Movement.
Movement between the trees.
An ULTRA, down there on the ground.
Fat Morgan. No doubt about it.
I flew down toward him. I knew he had the Failsafe. And I knew I had to take it off him.
I crept through the air as slowly and stealthily as I could.
Then he turned around.
Even though I was invisible—at least I was certain I was invisible—he looked right into my eyes and shook his head. “Shoulda stayed far away from here, kid.”
I tensed my fists and readied to fire a blast of ice at him.
But before I could, he lifted his hands and threw me back into the sky telekinetically.
I slammed into a tree, cracking the back of my head against the bark.
I tumbled down toward the ground, rapidly losing consciousness.
And as much as I tried to use my abilities to ease my fall, I couldn’t.
They weren’t working.
I wasn’t strong enough.
And I was falling. Rapidly.
23
I regained my composure, held my breath, and twisted around in the air so I was facing Fat Morgan.
He wasn’t there anymore. He’d run inside.
But I wasn’t alone.
I felt the blasts of anti-energy surge toward my body, and I knew right then I was in for a fight.
Again.
Hey. I was retrieving a Failsafe that had the power to shut down every darned ULTRA on the planet. I couldn’t exactly expect the thing to be weakly guarded.
I spun to my right, swerving out of the way of an anti-energy blast. Then another one came flying at me, and I had to teleport just out of its reach.
I scanned my surroundings then. Beneath me, I realized there were four of those guards. They didn’t look like ULTRAs, which did me a favor in the long run. I figured Fat Morgan must’ve kept this little metal building under wraps as a kind of safe place in case of emergency and had guards right on call.
Well he was lucky it was me who’d arrived and not Catalyst. I might just be a little more lenient.
In that I’d try my best not to kill everybody in this darned compound.
Out of nowhere, another anti-energy blast surged at my face. And another, right to the middle of my chest.
They were flying at me too fast.
I couldn’t dodge them both. Not with more of those blasts circling me.
So I closed my eyes and followed my instincts.
Those instincts took me down to the ground. Right behind two of those guards.
I tapped one on the shoulder as he looked around, baffled at where I’d gone.
“Boo,” I said.
I slammed my hands against him and immediately opened up a wormhole right behind his friend.
He went crashing into his friend, and the pair of them slipped into that wormhole and vanished. They’d wake up, somewhere. I wasn’t killing them. Just giving them a little punishment for poor life choices.
They’d learn from their mistakes.
And if they didn’t, well. Maybe next time I wouldn’t be so lenient.
I felt something sting my back and I knew I’d been hit. But instinctively, I spun around and dragged the surge from my flesh before it could sink any deeper. I threw it back at the two guys firing at me. They sizzled with the blast, smoke rising from their bodies.
I thought about leaving them there. They’d hurt me, after all. And I didn’t like people who hurt me. Not one bit.
But I couldn’t help feeling a twinge of sympathy for them. They were only doing their jobs.
So I clicked my fingers, dulling the impact of the electricity in an instant, and then sent those to the other side of the world to join their buddies in a new life.
Then, I turned around and faced the building.
It was a small place. Easy enough to miss. Like a big metal hatch covered in grass and weeds. All around me, I heard the sounds of the jungle. I didn’t want to stay out here too long and risk coming face to face with anything nasty, so I made a break for the door.
To my surprise, the door opened easily. Not much like the hatch out of Lost that it looked like at first glance after all. I made my way through the dusty corridors, the smell of rusty metal strong in the air.
As my footsteps echoed against the metal, I swore I could hear somebody else. I wasn’t sure where from, but you know that feeling you get when you’re being watched? Well I got that. And being Glacies, I got it to the extreme.
That feeling was tingling like mad right now.
I kept on walking, though, picking up my pace, keeping invisible just in case I came across anyone. I looked behind every single door, even the ones with massive locks, but nothing.
Not until I reached the fourth door from the end on the right.
When I went in there, I saw exactly what I’d come for.
It was the Failsafe. It looked a little less shiny, like it’d been through a lot. Which it had, really.
But it was here. So I had to get it and I had to take it back.
I lunged for it. Went to pick it up.
The Failsafe didn’t move.
I frowned. There was something wrong about this. The Failsafe was stuck. It was wedged in. It was…
At that point, I realized I wasn’t holding the Failsafe at all.
I heard footsteps behind me.
I looked back.
Fat Morgan was standing opposite me.
He was holding onto the Failsafe.
“One false move and I’ll switch this thing on and wipe out the both of us,” he said.
24
I watched as Fat Morgan held onto the Failsafe—the real Failsafe—and threatened to push the button that would put the pair of us out of existence.
Well. Not push a button exactly. There was no button on that thing that I could see. But… do whatever he had to do. Whatever that was.
Shit. I really should’ve done my homework. Would’ve appreciated a lesson or two from Michael Williamson on how the Failsafe actually worked before going after it. I didn’t exactly want to accidentally sit on it and blow everyone up. That wouldn’t exactly be the smoothest of moves.
Fat Morgan’s eyes looked bloodshot and transfixed. Other than his breathing, there was total silence in this hideout of his. I could smell his sweat, and I knew he was terrified. Terrified of what might happen if he lost the Failsafe. Of the power it would strip away from him.
“You killed my men,” he said. “That wasn’t a good move.”
“I didn’t kill your men, for what it’s worth. As for whether it’s a good move or not, well. I’m here now.”
“And you’re gonna regret ever setting foot in here.”
“I’ll believe that when I see it. But let’s get one thing straight right now. Only one of us is leaving this place with the Failsafe. And I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure that’s me.”
A smile stretched across Fat Morgan’s face. “Y’know, all my life I’ve had to deal with people tellin’ me I’m not good enough. All my life I’ve had to put up with people taking and taking and taking. But enough’s enough. There ain’t gonna be no more taking. Not from me. Not if it kills me. So you’re gonna turn around and get your weak ass outta here, or you’re gonna kill the both of us. You were wrong when you said just one of us is gettin’ outta here. Very wrong. It’s either me or none of us. Take it or leave it.”
I thought about zooming over there and snatching the Failsafe from Fat Morgan’s grip. But I knew it was too risky. The way he was talking, it was like a man who’d lost everything. Who was making the biggest gamble of all. Playing a lethal game of Russian Roulette that he hoped was going to work in his favor.
“I’ll give you ten seconds to get your ass outta here or I�
�ll—”
“That Failsafe. It’s… It’s important that it doesn’t self-destruct because there’s people out there I care about. ULTRAs. Good ULTRAs. You have to know good ULTRAs too. Ones you don’t want to see fall. Surely you can see that?”
Fat Morgan’s eyes narrowed. “There ain’t no ULTRAs I care about. And I don’t give a rat’s ass what you care about either. All I care about is my mansion. My future. All I care about is sitting on the sofa and eating chicken wings without a worry in the world.”
“And if you detonate that Failsafe, you are never going to see that life.”
“And if I don’t, what? You’re just gonna walk away with it, and I ain’t ever gonna see that life either.”
I swallowed a lump in my throat. “Not—not necessarily.”
I saw Fat Morgan’s eyes narrow as he tried to understand what I was implying.
“You hand that Failsafe over and I’ll return it to safety. As soon as I do, I’ll… You can take me. Take me as prisoner. Sell me to the highest bidder.”
Fat Morgan started to smile. Then he chuckled. “You’d do that, would you?”
“Yes.”
“You’d really give it all up just to keep our kind alive?”
“My sister is an ULTRA. I have friends who are ULTRAs. If it’s a choice between a life of captivity or a life without them, I know which option I’d choose every time.”
There was silence between us. No sounds but the tropical birds outside. The heaviness of Fat Morgan’s breathing.
“Hand it over. Please. I don’t want this to get ugly.”
Fat Morgan looked down at the Failsafe. His face started to soften.
Then he looked back up at me and smiled. “’Fraid it’s already gonna get ugly, kid.”
He twisted the Failsafe.
I closed my eyes and waited for non-existence or whatever awaited to occur.
I saw a bright light surging out of the Failsafe.
I waited for it to cover my body, to tear me apart…
But nothing happened.
Nothing at all.
The pair of us stood there, frowning. Fat Morgan held the Failsafe in his shaking hand, his eyes transfixed by the beauty of the thing he was holding.
He looked up at me, and for a second, I saw realization in his eyes. Realization that his plan hadn’t worked. Realization that he didn’t even know how to activate this thing at all.
I was about to fly toward him and grab the Failsafe when I heard a bang on the roof, and then Fat Morgan was no more.
It took me a few seconds to understand what I’d just witnessed, as I tumbled back onto my ass. My head spun. My ears rang with the shockwaves.
I lifted myself up and I saw exactly what had happened.
Catalyst was here.
He had crashed through the roof and landed right on top of… well, what was once Fat Morgan. The less description about his current violent state, the better. Just safe to assume he wouldn’t be eating any more fried chicken anytime soon.
And in Catalyst’s hand, the Failsafe.
He looked at me. Tilted his head.
“I’ll deal with you, in time. But for now, I have somewhere I need to be.”
I tensed my fists and ice covered them.
I lifted my hands and fired at Catalyst.
The ice just stopped in thin air.
Then it turned back to me, pointed in my direction.
“You’re weak, now. Which is why you aren’t an immediate concern. But I promise you, I’ll deal with you. I have to hurry. More important matters at hand. Watch your step. Glacies.”
My ice blasted back toward me and hit me right in the chest.
I fell back with violent force, cracking my head, my back, everything on the ground.
I struggled to get back up. Tried to re-activate my abilities. Did all I could to spring myself back to life.
But it was too late.
Catalyst was gone.
The Failsafe was gone.
25
I sat on a rocky slope in the middle of the Australian Outback and sipped back an icy cold Coca-Cola, imagining my problems were non-existent.
Of course, I could only trick myself for so long. Reality had a funny way of catching up like that.
I looked across the vast expanse of barren land at the setting sun. It was glowing orange, the sandy ground simmering with the heat. I knew we were only just getting to the end of Australian winter, but their winters were something special compared to the ones I got back home. There was no sign of snow in sight, for one. Which was convenient. I spent enough time with icy hands as it was. Didn’t need a load of snow to remind me of who I really was, deep down.
The silence was what brought me here more than anything. Total silence. Total lifelessness. I really felt like I could hide out here forever, alone with my thoughts, and nobody would find me. And that’d be totally fine because it meant I didn’t have to be anyone else just to satisfy others anymore. It meant I could just be myself.
And I wanted nothing more than to be myself. Power-free.
I looked to my right and saw the space where Daniel had sat not all that long ago. We’d sat on the top of this slope and discussed the way things were going, Daniel sipping a beer. He’d told me that I needed to watch my step. That I needed to focus, now more than ever, because something big and bad was coming. And although I knew things were different now—although circumstances had changed—I still heard Daniel’s words as clear as I’d heard them that day back then.
Only he wasn’t here to guide me anymore.
Weird thought, really. The idea of being guided by someone like Nycto. Someone I thought I hated, once. Someone I’d fought against, who I’d put at the bottom of a volcano in the hope he never resurfaced.
Really, such a short amount of time had passed. And yet so much had changed in that space of time.
I wished Daniel was here right now to talk to again. I wished he were here to consult. Sure, he was no angel, but he was clever. Cleverer than me, probably.
But I was alone right now.
I was alone, and Catalyst had the Failsafe.
Just thinking about Catalyst holding on to the Failsafe made my skin crawl. He was dangerous. Very dangerous. And I had no doubt about his intentions to use that Failsafe, even if it meant his own destruction. Or if he didn’t use it literally, he’d still use it as an object to lead a reign of fear over everyone beneath him. There were so many ULTRAs in the world now. They made up a percentage of the population. A very small percentage in the grand scheme of things—in the thousands—but they were a significant enough group to worry about the consequences of someone dangerous like Catalyst threatening them.
Or using fear to turn them into his very own army, for whatever reason.
All of the possibilities terrified me.
Besides. My sister was an ULTRA. And even Damon had absorbed—and lost—ULTRA abilities. I couldn’t put any of them at risk. I couldn’t allow anything to happen.
I put my face in my hands and squeezed my eyes shut. I was hungry, but my appetite was crowded out by the nerves I had over the inevitability of the situation I was in. I was at a crossroads. A crossroads between sinking back into that life of running away from who I was, from all my responsibilities as a hero—and another road—a road where I embraced who I was now. Where I stopped running away from my fears and started truly chasing my goal.
It might mean sacrificing my life as Kyle Peters, human, once and for all.
But if I didn’t do anything, then it’d mean sacrificing my life—and the lives of all the ULTRAs in the world—in the process.
I pulled my head out of my hands, took a deep breath, and stood up.
I stared over the edge of the cliff and looked at the sun as it got closer to the horizon. I didn’t know why the Failsafe didn’t work when Fat Morgan tried to use it. I didn’t know whether he’d even activated it properly at all. Come to think of it, perhaps he just didn’t know how either. Perhaps no
one did.
But regardless of anything, I wasn’t willing to risk anyone dying.
Might be uncomfortable embracing who I was. But I would do. Even if it meant giving up my life as Kyle Peters for now, I’d have a chance to turn back to it later, when all this was done.
There were just no guarantees of that anymore. That was something I had to live with.
I looked up into the sky and I saw my future clearly, for the first time in a long while.
I had to be Glacies.
I had to embrace who I was.
I had to get that Failsafe back from Catalyst.
And I was going to do everything within my power to make sure that happened.
I closed my eyes, took in a deep breath, and felt a tingling sensation spread across my body.
Then I flew up into the sky and teleported out of here.
26
One week without contact and Michael Williamson was starting to get worried about Kyle Peters.
It was late at night, but it could’ve been any time of day down here in Michael’s windowless, underground office. Apparently, it was a warm night, but again, his air conditioning in this place did a solid job of disguising any natural weather conditions on the outside and converting them to those of his preference. He leaned against the edge of his table. The table he ate his food at, at least twenty-five days a month. The table he’d spoken to Kyle Peters across just days ago.
He could sit down. He could make some food. He could go home and see his wife, Olive.
But he was worried about Kyle.
Especially after hearing the rumors.
A bitter taste crossed Michael’s lips when he glanced toward his laptop. Talks of an ULTRA in Australia. An ULTRA with a strong telekinetic ability, as well as serious strength. He’d heard of this ULTRA several times over the years. He’d been biding his time, waiting in the background for his perfect moment to strike. And Michael knew exactly who this ULTRA was.