by Lucas Flint
Then I heard a door slam close somewhere and realized it came from the door behind Wrath’s seat. It sounded like Alana, probably trying to find some place to hide, but I wasn’t about to let her get away.
I activated my super speed and burst through the door, busting it completely off its hinges. I found myself in another hallway of the Mansion, with rows upon rows of doors on both sides. Unfortunately, I couldn’t tell which door Alana was hiding behind.
“Come out and show yourself, you liar!” I shouted, my voice echoing off the polished wood floor and walls of the hallway. “I’m willing to tear this entire Mansion apart to find you, so don’t think you can hide forever!”
To my surprise, a door at the end of the hallway opened and Alana walked out. She stopped in the center of the hallway and turned to face me, her icy blue eyes just visible underneath her hood. She seemed to be hiding something underneath the sleeves of her cloak, but I couldn’t see what it was.
“There you are,” I said. “I already beat Wrath. So unless you want to get punched through a wall, you should come quietly.”
Alana shook her head. “No. And you will leave me alone, because you don’t even know who I am.”
Immediately, Alana raised one of her hands and balled it into a fist.
A severe pain burned in the back of my head, a pain so severe that it made me cry out. I fell to my knees, my hands grabbing the back of my head, which was starting to feel like it was splitting in half. The pain was almost overwhelming, nearly causing me to black out, but I fought against it, although it was a rapidly losing battle. I could feel my memory starting to fade, but I couldn’t … stop … it …
Abruptly, the pain went away, but now I remembered … nothing. And I mean nothing at all. I couldn’t remember where I was, what I was doing here, why I was on my knees in the first place … heck, I couldn’t even remember my own name. Every time I tried, my head hurt, like someone had taken a sledgehammer to it a few times.
Then I heard footsteps ahead of me and looked up to see a hooded woman walking toward me. I didn’t recognize her, but something about the way she walked and the way she looked at me made me feel very defensive.
“Who are you?” I said. “Where am I? How did I get here? I don’t remember anything. Can you help me?”
“That I can,” said the hooded woman. “You are an old friend of mine who suffered a bad head injury recently. It’s why you lost your memory; you were doing some home repair work for me when a chunk of wood hit you in the back of the head.”
“Oh,” I said. “It must have hit me pretty hard, though, because I can’t even remember my own name. Can you tell me what it is?”
The hooded woman stopped above me. Her right arm—which was hidden under the sleeve of her cloak—moved and something came out of it as the woman said, “You won’t need to know your name where you are going!”
The woman had drawn a pistol and was pointing it directly at my face. Her finger pulled the trigger, but my instincts kicked in and I grabbed her wrist and jerked her arm to the side just as the gun went off. The bullet struck the wall, its sound echoing off the hallway’s walls and floor, while the woman cursed.
But I didn’t stop there. I twisted her arm so much that she dropped the gun and then—like it was the most logical next course of action—slammed my fist against the back of her head with more strength than I realized I had.
The woman instantly collapsed into my arms. As soon as she lost consciousness, the pain in the back of my head vanished and my memories all came rushing back. I gently lowered the woman on the floor, but for safekeeping, I smashed her dropped gun with a single step of my foot, breaking it cleanly in two.
“There,” I said. “Take that.”
“Bolt, is Alana down?” said Cadmus’s voice in my ear. “I heard a gun shot go off.”
“Yeah, she is,” I said. “I knocked her out.”
“That means that both Wrath and Alana are unconscious,” said Cadmus, “which means that the team has probably regained their memories or are in the process of doing so.”
“Yeah,” I said. “You should try contacting them again and see if they remember you or not.”
“Right,” said Cadmus. “But there is also the issue of Thaumaturge and the others going to the facility where Sagan is being kept.”
“Of course,” I said. “Have you hear anything from the guards or employees working there?”
“No,” said Cadmus. “That means that either Wrath was lying about the whereabouts of the others or they managed to take out the facility’s security systems or guards before they could call for help. There were a few agents posted there, but I don’t know what their status is. No one is answering my calls or messages.”
“Then I’ll need to go there fast,” I said. “Sounds like the only way to know is to send someone to check, and I’m the best person for the job.”
“But you need my authorization to go,” said Cadmus. “And you aren’t even a G-Man.”
“I know I’m not, but given how we don’t know if the agents posted at the facility are even still alive, you’ll need to send someone to go check,” I argued. “And considering I am available and have already fought these particular Visionists before, it would make sense to send me there to stop them. I just need your authorization to do it.”
Cadmus went silent for a moment before finally saying, “You make a good point. I give you authorization to enter the facility, but I am still going to send G-Men agents to back you up, too.”
“That’s fine,” I said. “So how do I get there?”
“I’ll send Shade to pick you up,” said Cadmus. “Her shadow travel ability will allow you to get there in an instant.”
“Okay,” I said. “So when will Shade—”
Immediately, Shade stepped out of the shadows of a nearby doorway and said, “Hi, Bolt! Remember me now?”
I jumped when Shade appeared and almost zapped her with a lightning bolt before I caught myself. “Shade, don’t do that, okay?”
Shade smiled mischievously. “You mean you don’t like surprises? You’re way more boring than I thought.”
“That’s not what I—whatever,” I said. “Just take me to the facility where Sagan is being kept. We have to move fast, because for all we know, Thaumaturge and the others might already be in the process of freeing him.”
Chapter Thirteen
Although Alana’s memory suppression power was no longer active, I still didn’t have any memories of Shade’s shadow travel (even though she assured me that I had already shadow traveled with her a few times in the past), so I didn’t know quite what to expect. It was kind of like traveling underwater; I couldn’t even breathe for a second, which almost made me think that I was about to die.
But we were only in the shadows for maybe a second. In the next instant, we left the shadows and found ourselves standing in an empty, concrete hallway in the government facility that Cadmus said was where Sagan was being kept.
Well … it wasn’t entirely empty. Corpses in suits and body armor lay strewn across the floor; the walls and floor were stained with blood; and the lights flickered on and off every now and then. The stench of death and blood filled my nostrils, making me cover my nose, while Shade actually gasped and covered her mouth when she saw the carnage.
“Bolt, what do you and Shade see?” said Cadmus’s voice in my ear.
“Corpses,” I said. I looked down at the nearest corpse, a black man with a long gash down his chest from what looked like a sword. “It looks like the employees and guards of this place were killed, probably by the Visionists.”
“Damn it,” said Cadmus. “Are there any survivors?”
“Not that we can see,” I said, looking at the other corpses, which lay as still as rocks. “It looks like the Visionists killed everyone.”
“Then what are you doing?” said Cadmus. “Stop wasting time and go after them. If you are quick, you might be able to catch them before they reach Sagan, assuming th
ey haven’t already.”
“Gotcha,” I said. “We’re on our way.”
Shade and I ran down the hall, though we had to be careful about where we walked, because the corpses that covered the floor were in our way and would have tripped us up if we didn’t watch where we were going. The pools of blood were also a hazard we had to watch out for, but eventually we reached the end of the hallway and turned down it, but stopped when we saw someone standing at the end of the connecting hallway.
I had never seen this person before. She was a teenaged girl, not much taller than myself, wearing a suit of power armor that reminded me of Dad’s. The eyes of her helmet glowed green, which stood out against the armor’s dark blue coloring. She didn’t seem to have any weapons, but I figured that that powered armor most likely had a whole bunch of weapons hidden somewhere on its form. She almost looked like a female teenage Iron Man, except not as cool.
“Who the heck are you?” I said, raising my fists. “Another Visionist?”
“What, you mean you don’t recognize me?” said the girl, her voice slightly muffled through her helmet’s vent. She tapped the side of her helmet, causing the face plate to flip up and reveal the face of Technical, of all people. “It’s me, Technical.”
“Technical?” I said in surprise. “Where did you get that suit of armor from? And where are the others?”
“I built it myself,” said Technical, patting her glowing chest piece. “I designed it based on the specs of your Dad’s old costume, except with my own improvements, of course. As for the others, they went on ahead of me to save our leader. I stayed behind to hold off anyone who wants to stop us.”
“Do you know if the others have gotten to Sagan yet?” I said.
“No, but I doubt it will be long before they rescue him,” Technical said. “We’ve already taken down this facility’s defenses and killed pretty much all of its guards and employees. There is nothing standing between them and our leader now.”
“Nothing but us,” I said.
Technical smirked. “Oh, really? Are you sure you can beat me? You have probably beaten Wrath and Alana by now, but that doesn’t mean you’ll beat me. My suit gives me all sorts of advantages over the others.”
“You’re pretty confident in your own abilities, given our powers and strength,” I said. “But that doesn’t matter. We have no time to waste with you, so either get out of the way or get ready to hurt.”
“I don’t need to defeat you, you know,” said Technical. “Just hold you two off long enough to let the others find and free our leader.”
Growling in anger, I shot toward Technical. She shut the face plate on her armor, but I wasn’t going to let her do anything else. I swung a fist at her, but to my shock, Technical actually caught my fist and shoved me backwards before she raised her other hand and unleashed a purple energy blast that sent me flying.
I crashed into the floor, rolling across its smooth surface until I hit Shade’s feet. Shaking my head, I looked up at Shade, who was looking at me with less concern and more annoyance.
“What was that, Bolt?” said Shade. “You let her take you down? She doesn’t even have super strength.”
Rubbing my head, I said, “Well, I didn’t know her suit made her so strong. I thought it just protected her.”
“Oh, it does far more than just make me stronger,” said Technical, her voice still muffled by her suit’s face plate. “It also makes me much faster.”
Technical shot toward us, her hands charging with energy blasts. Shade yanked me to my feet and then pulled me into the shadows with her, though it was only a second later that we reemerged from the shadows behind Technical, who landed on the spot where we had been standing mere moments before.
But Technical immediately turned around and fired twin energy blasts at us. Shade raised a wall made of shadow between us and the energy blasts, which absorbed the blasts, but then Technical burst through the wall and punched Shade squarely in the jaw.
The blow sent Shade staggering and Technical advanced on her, but then I got in between the two and threw another punch at Technical. But she dodged this one and then, taking advantage of the opening I stupidly created, stabbed me in the stomach with a dagger that popped out of her suit’s wrist.
The pain from the stab wound ripped through me like fire. I lashed out, but Technical removed her blade from my wound and jumped backwards out of my path. Her blade dripped with blood, while my wound—which I clutched with one hand—bled a steady stream of blood.
“Does that hurt?” said Technical in a mock sympathetic voice. “I hope it does, because you deserve it for putting our leader in that coma in the first place.”
I gritted my teeth, because I was in too much pain to respond, but then Shade loped past me, her form partially obscured in shadows, toward Technical. Technical immediately aimed her energy gauntlet at Shade and fired. The energy blast hit Shade, causing her shadowy form to explode in a burst of darkness.
“Ha!” said Technical. “She didn’t even see that coming! I always knew the G-Men were stupid, but I didn’t know they were that stupid!”
For a moment, I feared that Shade actually was dead, at least until I noticed Technical’s shadow writhing behind her. Technical, however, was too caught up in her own gloating to notice the movement of her own shadow, which was now starting to rise behind her like a creature from the deep.
Then thick dark tendrils shot out from her shadow and wrapped around her arms and legs. Technical’s gloating immediately turned to screams of terror as she tried to free herself, but even her powered armor was useless against the strength of the shadow, which dragged her into its darkness, where she vanished from sight.
Then the shadow collapsed into the floor, leaving me standing there, staring at the spot where the shadow had been mere moments before. I almost thought that I’d just imagined the whole thing before Shade suddenly stepped out of the shadows, wearing a satisfied grin on her face.
“Shade?” I said, staring at her in confusion. “What did you do with Technical? Is she … is she still alive?”
Shade’s grin grew even larger. “Let’s just say that she’s going to be afraid of the darkness for a very, very long time and leave it at that.”
Before I could understand the implications of Shade’s words, the pain in my side burned and I grunted in pain. My wound was still bleeding; not as badly as before, but still pretty badly. I fell to my knees, grabbing my wound with both hands now and trying to apply as much pressure as I could in order to staunch the blood flow, but I’d lost so much blood already and I wasn’t sure I was going to make it.
Shade knelt by my side, putting a hand on my back as she said, “Bolt, are you all right? How deep did her blade go?”
“Not sure,” I said. I bit my lower lip, trying not to scream in pain. “But I need bandages. Fast.”
Shade nodded, jumped back into the shadows, and then was back in an instant with a package of bandages. Before I could ask her where she’d gotten that package, she quickly and cleanly bandaged my wound, wrapping a long roll of bandages around my body so tightly that I felt like I was wearing a corset. But she did manage to stop the bleeding, although I was still lightheaded from the blood loss.
“How does that feel?” said Shade as she tossed aside the now-empty package of bandages. “Can you stand?”
“I think I—” I tried to stand, but got only halfway before the pain burned again. “Damn it.”
“I need to get you out of here,” said Shade, standing up. “You are too injured to keep fighting. You need medical attention, and fast.”
But I shook my head. I forced myself to stand up, but each inch I gained made my wound hurt even more. “No. If we leave now, the Visionists will rescue Sagan. We have to go forward no matter what.”
“But your wound—”
“It’s nothing,” I said. I gingerly touched the bandaged wound. “I’m good at ignoring pain. You bandaged it well, so I doubt it will give me a lot of trouble fo
r now.”
“Are you sure about that?” said Shade. “Because I can take you away from here, if you need me to.”
“I said it’s fine,” I said. I turned around. “Now, come on. We don’t have much time.”
Chapter Fourteen
Despite what I’d said to Shade, my wound really wasn’t fine. It hurt like hell and I couldn’t move nearly as quickly or nimbly as I normally could, mostly because of the pain, but also because I didn’t want the bandages tearing and causing me to bleed out all over the floor. I noticed that Shade kept looking at me with concern as we ran, but I didn’t show even a hint of pain. I didn’t want her to become so worried about my wound that she would become distracted, which would be a huge problem if we ran into any other Visionists on our way deeper into the facility.
Still, I ran far too slowly for my own tastes, mostly because my wound slowed me down considerably. I thought about using my super speed to help me run faster, but I was worried that if I ran too fast I might tear my bandages, so I would have to keep at a steady pace and hope that that was enough for us to catch up to the Visionists.
We rounded another corner, this time coming upon a huge metal door that appeared to have been torn off its hinges. I wasn’t sure who had done that, given that none of the Visionists here had super strength, but that wasn’t my concern at the moment. We just dashed through the open doorway and ended up in a new room, one that was very different from the hallway we’d just been in.
For one, it was much more wide-open, shaped kind of like a dome. Broken and smashed lab equipment lay scattered everywhere, while screens along the walls had been blown up or smashed to pieces with heavy objects. It looked like an elephant had been trapped in here and had gone on a rampage, though there weren’t any corpses, at least.
But that didn’t mean we were the only people in here. Standing at the other end of the room were two of my least favorite girls in the world: Incantation and Sarah. Incantation, as usual, was dressed in her magician’s robes, the tip of her wand peeking out from within the folds of her robes, while Sarah wore a green tank top and jeans, which seemed inappropriate for a mission to break into a top secret government facility to save the leader of an evil cult. She had a bandage around her shoulder where the sniper had hit her, but she didn’t seem to be paying much attention to it.