by Matt Blake
It was my responsibility to fight.
It was my responsibility to be a Hero.
It was my responsibility to be Glacies.
Even if it killed me.
My eyes opened some more.
I pushed. Pushed to spark my powers, while staying as stealthy as I could.
I could do this if I believed.
I could do this if I really tried.
I was weak. Dizzy. Hazy. And I was going to pass out again if I wasn’t careful.
But screw it.
I wasn’t here to be careful.
I was here to save the world.
I clenched my teeth together and one final time, as a tear rolled down my cheek, I pictured Ellicia and all the love I felt for her, all the pain I’d felt at losing her.
Then I felt power surge from my chest.
For a split second, although Catalyst couldn’t see, I swore he looked down at me, like he knew something was happening.
“Unlucky,” I said.
Then I grabbed the sides of his head and I teleported us away from here.
When we re-appeared, the snow was heavy from above and thick below.
The ice was biting.
But I was standing.
I was covered in ice.
We were on my territory now.
42
I wasn’t totally back to full strength. I could still feel the darned almond allergy eating away at me inside.
But I was on my feet.
Catalyst was on his ass.
And we were in the middle of Antarctica.
So it looked to me like I had the advantage again.
It was dark, but for a glimmer of light that peeked over the horizon. Naturally, it was freezing. The snow underfoot was thick and it fell heavily from above. If I wasn’t Glacies—icy by nature—I’d probably have contracted hypothermia already.
I could tell from the way that Catalyst was lying there, shaking and gasping for air, his breath freezing on his face the second he let it go, that I was at a good advantage right now.
I walked toward him, eager to get done what I had to get done. Because it was simple, now. I saw it clearly.
The Failsafe couldn’t be trusted in the hands of anybody.
As long as the Failsafe was in existence, humanity would be at risk.
And I was a key part to the threat of that Failsafe.
Without me, there was no threat.
I stepped over Catalyst and grabbed his neck with an icy hand.
I tensed and lifted him up, putting all my strength and power into raising him into the air. His shaking body fell flimsily below. He made a few half-hearted punches and kicks, but I could tell he was clearly in deep shock with the cold.
And I was going to make him a whole lot colder.
“You won’t kill me,” I said. “Because you need me to activate that Failsafe. You need me to be powerful. So you can try locking me away. You can try pinning me down with a million anti-energy bolts. You can try any damned thing. But as long as I’m alive, I’m never going to give up who I am.”
I tightened my grip around his neck and felt his skin go hard as the ice froze him.
“I am Glacies. I am a Hero. That’s just who I am.”
I kept on holding tight as the energy drifted from Catalyst’s body. I didn’t like what I was doing. But I still didn’t feel recharged enough to open another wormhole and send him flying through it, not after opening the last one so recently.
Besides, I was done with wormholes. I was through with them.
People like Catalyst never gave up.
So it was time to send out a message.
More of Catalyst’s skin went cold and hard. He reached out a hand, gently put it on the back of mine. He’d stopped shaking, and his heart was beating very, very slowly. He was almost down. Almost completely out.
“Never…”
I barely heard his voice. “What did you say?”
“Never… give up.”
I didn’t understand what Catalyst said until I felt a thumping blast right in the center of my chest.
I went flying back. I hit the snow with force, barging through it and winding myself in the process. I tried to shuffle out of this mess, tried to stand, when I felt another punch in my chest and went further down into the snow.
Catalyst was above me.
Shaking, but above me.
He was rabid with anger.
“You might say you’ll never give up,” he said, before cracking a head-splitting punch right across my temple. “But neither will I. I’ll never give up what I want, either.”
Another punch cracked against my head, knocking back what energy I’d recharged.
I felt anger. I felt pain.
I scrambled to feel and embrace love before—
Another punch.
Borderline unconsciousness.
My throat was closing up again as my resistance to the allergy, which was taking everything out of me, faded.
Catalyst picked me up then, and threw me out of this hole of snow we were in.
I landed right at the side of an icy lake. I heard cracking all around me with the force of my fall. The ice was thick, but I knew it’d only take one tap from either of us ULTRAs to split it open.
Catalyst appeared above me. I barely saw him through my blurred, swollen eyes. I’d used the last of my energy, and now all of it was focused on holding off that allergy, keeping it from killing me.
I didn’t have any more energy left.
But I wasn’t sure I needed it.
Catalyst lifted the Failsafe out of his pocket. He opened it, and the light beamed from it.
Then in his other hand, he lifted a long, sharp knife.
“Any final words?” he asked, teeth chattering, lowering the knife and the Failsafe toward me.
I had lots of final words. Things I wanted to say. Things I needed to say.
But in the end, I just found myself smiling and laughing.
“I hope you’re a good swimmer.”
Catalyst’s face twitched.
He shuffled back, right off the ice, so I couldn’t send him falling under it.
But he didn’t realize that he’d just done exactly what I’d wanted.
Given me some time.
I closed my eyes. Or they closed over, I wasn’t sure which.
I let my throat swell up to the point I couldn’t breathe.
I thought of Dad. I thought of Cassie. I thought of Damon. Avi. Ellicia.
Mom.
And then I lifted a fist, threw all the love and the pain into it, and slammed it against the ice.
I heard the ice crack around me.
“No!” Catalyst shouted.
And for a moment, I thought he was going to get to me.
Then I fell.
Total freezing cold water covered me.
It slipped into my nostrils.
Poured into my lungs.
And as I sank down into the water, I thought I saw a light above.
And that light was in the shape of my mom.
She held out her hand, smiling.
“Come on, now, Kyle. Come on.”
I reached my hand up and grabbed onto her.
Everything went cold, dark, and silent.
But I’d never felt warmer in my entire life.
43
Catalyst listened to the water rippling against the cracked ice and couldn’t quite believe what he’d just witnessed.
The snow had eased. He was still freezing, totally freezing, but somehow he felt numb to it. Perhaps it was hypothermia kicking in. Or maybe he was just growing hardened to it.
Whatever it was, he couldn’t quite get his head around what had happened.
Kyle had lay back on the ice. He’d punched the ice hard with his powers.
And then he’d fallen down into the water.
Catalyst swallowed a dry lump in his throat. He was sure Kyle wasn’t strong enough to use his powers anymore. He’d been having a
n allergic reaction, and it was clear to Catalyst that he was using his abilities to stave that reaction off.
But Catalyst had felt the shift in the air.
He’d felt the change of power from Kyle.
He’d let that allergy take over his body and he’d sacrificed himself.
All so Catalyst could never use the Failsafe.
He felt a creeping sensation in his chest. The sides of his mouth started to twitch. Because the more he perched here, in total disbelief, the more he realized the ramifications of what had just unfolded.
Kyle had sacrificed himself so that Catalyst could never use the Failsafe. So that nobody could ever use the Failsafe.
Which rendered Catalyst powerless.
Well. Not totally powerless. He was strong. Stronger than perhaps anyone, now that Glacies was…
No. He couldn’t accept Glacies was gone.
He had to do something about it.
Because he was strong. No doubt about that.
But strong was no good. Strong wasn’t what he wanted to be.
He wanted to have total control.
Without Glacies to make the Failsafe complete and allow him to rule over the humans using fear, before purging them, one by one, he was just another ULTRA.
He held his breath and walked across the ice. It had frozen over almost immediately, thick and solid.
With every step Catalyst took, he increased the power with which he lowered his feet. He kept on increasing that power, using his abilities, until he heard the first crack in the ice.
And when he did, he added a little more power, kept on going, until there was a hole in the ice.
A hole that he had to go down into if he wanted to stand any chance of finding Glacies and saving him before he died.
Or at least using him while the final bit of life was still left.
Catalyst perched closer toward the opening. He could feel how cold the water was even when he wasn’t in contact. When he was younger, he’d gone snorkeling in the Thingvellir National Park in Iceland, between the tectonic plates. It’d been an amazing experience, but it’d been a cold experience. And it wasn’t one he was keen to replicate.
He dipped his little finger in the water and immediately jolted it back with the bitter, painful cold.
He bit his lip. No way. No way was he climbing in that water. It was insane. It’d kill him. Finish him off.
Maybe that’s what he had to do, anyway. After all, Kyle had proven himself willing to sacrifice himself for a cause. Maybe if Catalyst could find Kyle, he could activate the Failsafe and die in the process.
It would be a shame to miss the fireworks as humanity collapsed. A great shame.
But at least his final act would be the most devastating, important act in the history of the planet.
At least his final act would be one of kindness toward the world.
He took a few deep breaths, still unable to believe he was actually considering doing this.
But it was his responsibility to do this.
It was his legacy to do this.
He leaned his head back and dulled his senses, eased his mind.
He held his breath.
Activated his strength, so at least he’d be able to fly down into that water and slam into the depths, getting it done with as quickly as possible.
Then he held a foot over the icy water and plunged into it.
It was even colder than he’d expected.
The pain was sudden. He felt like he was being stabbed all over. He tried to hold his breath, but he couldn’t help opening his mouth, screaming in silence.
He felt like he was waking up again after a long, dreamless sleep. He lost all sense of what he was doing, of why he was down here in the water.
Then it came flooding back into his mind.
The urgency.
Find Kyle.
Activate the Failsafe.
Do what you have to do.
He drifted further down into the water. He knew he didn’t have long left. He had to get this done with, and he had to get it done with fast.
He felt the water temperature for a sign of warmth. Kyle would be cold, sure, but anything would seem like lava compared to the surrounding water.
He kept on descending down. And the more he sank, the less his thoughts made sense. The more they became abstract, not adding up.
And the more he needed to breathe.
He was about to turn around and give up when he felt a mass of warmth right ahead of him.
He reached out. Grabbed it.
When he felt the object, he knew right away what it was.
Who it was.
Kyle.
He pulled out the Failsafe, unable to stop his lips from opening. The icy cold trickled into his lungs, almost finishing him off right here.
But he was almost there.
Almost done.
Then he grabbed the knife. Placed it against Kyle’s chest.
His heart was still beating, very slowly.
He still had time to do this.
He still had time to finish his life’s goal.
He sensed his family in his mind. Heard his mother’s voice. Felt her soft hair.
Then he pulled back the knife.
For a split second, something strange happened.
Something very strange.
Catalyst couldn’t describe the sensation. Kind of like dreaming, only way more detailed, way more lucid.
It was when he saw the person beneath him, floating away, that he realized he was seeing again.
He was seeing, all over again.
Only he didn’t feel joyous or relieved for long.
Not when he saw that Kyle’s eyes were wide open, too.
And he was holding onto Catalyst’s arm.
He smiled at Catalyst.
Then something sparked across his body.
Something perfect.
Something blue.
Electr—
Catalyst didn’t have any more thoughts after that.
He just felt a million knives pierce through his body.
He felt his grip on the Failsafe slip. And as much as he wanted to go after it, he couldn’t. He was trapped. He was paralyzed.
Kyle Peters held onto Catalyst for ten long, grueling seconds, the electricity pouring from his arms and shocking the pair of them.
After those ten seconds passed, Catalyst was still.
Kyle was still.
They sunk down into the depths of the water, right below Antarctica, as the opening above froze over.
The Failsafe drifted even further beneath them.
Both of them were silent.
44
Three weeks later
Damon raced down the hospital corridor, eager not to be late for this.
It was snowing like mad outside. Freak weather for the last couple days. Hailstone. Snow. Rain. Wind. Everything. You hate it, name it, it’s probably happened.
And sure, Damon was drenched. Completely drenched, head to toe.
But he’d come out in the rain and the storm, despite all the weather warnings, over to the hospital because he couldn’t miss what was waiting for him.
Who was waiting for him.
Alive.
He felt his stomach tingle as he raced through the main entrance area to the corridor leading to the wards. He dodged a woman holding a clipboard, then ended up stuck behind two old people walking crazy slow. He thought about sparking up his electricity, blasting them out of the way. Cruel to be kind, sorta thing.
In the end, they took a left, and his road to the ward he had to get to was clear all over again.
He was so, so close.
He ran further down the corridor. His trainers squeaked in contact with the floor with every step. They were wet through. Behind, he heard someone calling out to him, telling him to stop because he was creating a hazard.
Screw the hazard. He’d let someone else deal with it.
Because his friend was still alive.
He’d found out the news fifteen minutes ago and the moment he heard it, he’d been right down here. He hadn’t told his parents where he was heading. Hadn’t told Avi, or anyone.
He would tell them. He’d tell them in time. But right now, his friend needed someone beside them. Someone to… Well. Someone there for them.
Because his friend was on their own now.
He held back the tears when he thought about the loss. The loss he’d suffered. The loss all of them had suffered. And he knew he needed to make sure he was the rock for the person that was still living.
After all, it’s what his friend would’ve wanted.
He’d got out of Vesuvius. As had the rest of the Resistance. Vortex had struggled. There was something wrong with her. Something making her weaker that she couldn’t explain. And Roadrunner, too. Something suspicious about her. She’d seemed far too eager to get back to… to… well, wherever it was she wanted to get back to.
But anyway. They’d searched for Kyle, tried to find him everywhere, but to no avail. And then the news broke…
No. The news was too painful to think about.
He went to take a right turn when he slipped over and smacked his head against the floor.
He rubbed his head, feeling dizzy and sick. His ankle hurt, and he knew he should probably see someone about it. But hey. He’d get the chance to do that. He was in the right place.
But he couldn’t waste any more time.
He got up, still rubbing the back of his head. He could feel a little blood, so he’d definitely have to get it checked out.
Still, he turned the corner, headed into Ward 34, and began his search.
He hurried down the ward, looking at each and every bed. He didn’t want to miss the bed he was looking for. He didn’t want to accidentally walk by.
But the further he got down the corridor, the more Damon wondered if he’d perhaps got the wrong ward. Maybe he’d made a mistake, heard the number wrong, or something. It was just all old people in here. Smelly old people, coughing and spluttering, looking at him through wide eyes in their pale, bony skulls.
He was about to give up and search another ward when he saw them.
They were sitting upright in the bed like they were just kicking back at home, watching Netflix.