“Come on!” Andrew said.
The others ran up the stairs.
“I’m going to charge them,” Clark said.
The others nodded to him. Clark threw his arms out and the fourth floor door shot open at an intense speed. The armed men were knocked to their feet as the costumed teenagers all entered the room. Before the men could reach for their guns, Clark and Sarah concentrated on their weapons and made them lift high into the air. Dan, Andrew, and Donny preceded to each pummel the three men.
“Where is she!?” Donny yelled to one of the men after lifting him into the air.
The man hacked and refused to give an answer. Donny placed his arm out and the man slammed to the floor.
“I said where is she!?” Donny yelled again.
“She is with Wu,” the man coughed weakly.
Donny gritted his teeth as the others watched him lift the man up with his powers. Donny sent him flying through the air and the man shot through a wall.
“I didn’t know you had it in ya!” Dan clapped.
“Come on guys,” Clark said. “We have a job to do. Let’s split up. Donny you take the next floor. Andrew and Dan, you two take the two floors above that and Sarah and I will take the top two.”
“Alright,” Dan said. “Sounds good.”
When they went back to the stairs, instead of walking to a different floor, they each flew up the staircase to the floors they were meant to check.
When Donny went to the fifth floor, he encountered a man armed with a gun. The man whipped his gun out in order to shoot Donny but Donny quickly focused on a metal table. The table shot into the air and blasted the man, sending him flying against the wall. Donny looked around and yelled out for his girlfriend. Chloe was nowhere to be found so he exited the room and joined Andrew on the sixth floor. Andrew was taking cover behind an unhinged metal door as two men shot lead bullets at him.
Donny took cover near the doorway of the stairwell. He waited for a moment and flung his arms out. Two desks jumped up and smashed the two men together, knocking them to the ground. Andrew threw the unhinged door down that he was hiding behind and thanked Donny.
“I never knew you were capable of this sort of stuff,” Andrew said as he adjusted his mask. “Damn this mask is getting on my nerves.”
“You didn’t know I could kick ass?”
“No,” Andrew said. “Not even with these powers.”
“Then there’s a lot you could learn about me,” Donny said as he patted Andrew on the back.
“Let’s help Dan,” Andrew told him.
The two of them left the sixth floor and went back to the stairwell.
After discovering a single armed man who they dispatched with ease on the eighth floor, Clark and Sarah flew up to the ninth floor. It was the final floor and Clark knew it had to have contained Chloe. Sure enough, they opened the door and discovered Zhang Wu gripping Chloe. He had a gun to her head and a look of desperation on his face. To the left of them were Chloe’s parents, bound and gagged.
“You have fought your way through all of my men,” Zhang Wu spat. “My bodyguards, my security, my mercenaries. But you will not walk out of here alive.”
Clark slowly lifted his arm and told Wu, “Let her go.”
“Don’t bother,” Wu sneered. “The entire gun is made of lead. So is every object in this room. Here─ you are powerless.”
Donny ran into the room and he was followed by Andrew and Dan.
“No!” Donny yelled.
“One step closer and she dies!” Wu hissed.
“Please,” Clark begged of Wu. “It doesn’t have to be this way.”
“First I will kill this girl,” Wu said as he staggered while holding Chloe. “Then I will kill each of you.”
“You’ll never win, you stupid son of a bitch,” Donny said.
“You have attempted to bring down my empire but I swear that I will have the last word,” Zhang Wu said with both confidence and nervousness.
“You’re not a man,” Donny countered. “You’re pathetic.”
“You enter my city as costumed clowns and attempt to eradicate what I have spent decades to build,” Wu said before his voice became louder. “The girl will die first! All of you, hands where I can see them.”
Clark, Sarah, Andrew, and Dan all placed their hands in the air. Donny was the only one who did not.
“How about you point that gun at me?” Donny said defiantly.
“I think I will do just that,” Wu sneered.
Wu threw Chloe to the ground. He pointed his gun directly at Donny but before he could pull the trigger, a glass window shattered into a million pieces and a figure swooped into the room. Clark looked at the broken window and by the time he turned his head back to the center of the room, he saw John holding Zhang Wu by the neck.
John, wearing his trench coat and military beret, pulled the gun out of Zhang Wu’s hand and tossed it to the ground. Then John lifted Wu up, holding him only by the neck. Wu placed his hands up to his neck in an attempt to make John loosen his grip to no avail.
“John!” Clark yelled.
John stared Wu in the eyes but when Clark called his name, John turned his head to face his old friend.
“Please, John,” Clark pleaded. “Turn him over to the police.
“Perhaps Wu is exactly what this city needs,” John said. “In order to alleviate this city from the so-called superheroes who think they’re making a difference.”
“We have made a difference, John,” Sarah said softly.
“I see we even have a few old friends joining us today,” John said, still holding Wu by the neck. He turned his gaze toward Andrew and Dan.
“It doesn’t have to be this way,” Andrew spoke up. “Remember, John. Remember what you told me before I left? We can always make a difference. We have don’t to give in. The light is not going to take you away.”
“How dare you even SPEAK of that!?” John yelled to the top of his lungs. “You know nothing of the light.”
“You’re right,” Clark told him. “Just leave Wu to us. You can’t let him go.”
“Zhang Wu is leaving with no one but me,” John said, his mouth tight, his expression filled with anger.
John still held Wu by the neck but he lowered Wu to the ground. Then with Wu in his grip, he shot up through the building at the speed of a bullet. The others looked on as John blasted through the ceiling, leaving a large hole through the top of the penthouse.
Donny quickly ran over to Chloe and hugged her.
“I’m so glad you’re okay,” Donny said.
“You saved my life,” Chloe told him. “You were so brave.”
Donny was suddenly filled with pride as he helped Chloe untie her parents. They were scared and started asking numerous questions when Clark told Donny and Chloe to get them home. So Chloe’s parents followed her and Donny out of the room and down the stairwell.
“Where did John go?” Sarah asked.
“I don’t know,” Clark said.
“I think I know,” Andrew said. “Before I left Cincinnati, John took me to the old train station. I know he visits there.”
“The old abandoned train station over the tracks?” Clark asked.
“That’s the one,” Andrew confirmed.
“Then come with me and Sarah,” Clark told Andrew. “Dan, you stay here and help Donny with Chloe and her parents.”
“Sure thing,” Dan said.
And with that, Clark, Sarah, and Andrew rose up and flew off through the same hole in the ceiling that John blasted through. The three of them flew through the air as their capes billowed behind them. They sped up and headed east.
When they arrived over the tracks, they stopped just shy of the old train station and entered it, not through the ceiling, but through the rickety rusted entrance door. Wu was standing up and John was behind him, his arm around Wu’s neck. In the dark train station, John and Wu were standing right under the hole in the ceiling where light regularly shone in. It
looked as if there was a spotlight upon them.
“Please, John,” Clark said as he pulled down his goggles. “Don’t kill him. Do you know how many people he’s killed? How many people he’s turned into monsters because of the sorts of crime he’s spread throughout the city? You’ll be no better than him.”
“That’s what it’s always been about─ who’s better than the other? Right, Clark?” John spat.
“You’re not thinking straight, John,” Sarah said to him as she pulled her mask off.
“How dare you bring them here!” John yelled to Andrew, “To my sanctuary!”
“We can help you, John,” Andrew said. He also pulled his mask off.
“None of you can help me,” John bemoaned. “Only my mother can do that.”
“Your mother is gone!” Andrew told him.
“Liar!” John spat. He turned his head and saw his mother appear before him. She glowed like an apparition and smiled to her son. Clark, Sarah, and Andrew watched on as John spoke to thin air.
“What do I do, mother?” John asked.
“You cannot stop here, John,” his mother said with a faint smile. “You are so close. Become who you were always meant to be. Seek the greatest power.”
“And what about Wu?” John asked, his voice cracking.
His mother’s smile turned to a frown. “He must pay for his sins. You are his judge, my son. You are their judge. And only through seeking the highest power can you also be their savior.”
“Who are you talking to!?” Clark asked, confused.
John ignored his question but turned to Clark and spoke. “Charles will never be the same because of this man. He must suffer. He must be held accountable for his transgressions.”
“That’s why we can turn him over to the authorities,” Clark yelled, his hand outstretched.
“No,” John stopped him. “His crimes against humanity are too great. He must suffer for his sins.”
To everyone in the train station, it felt as if time suddenly slowed when John forced Zhang Wu to his knees. The moment Wu dropped to the ground John wrapped his hands around Wu’s head and snapped his neck. Wu’s head was twisted to the side and he lifelessly fell to the ground.
“No!” Andrew and Sarah both yelled.
Clark was silent. It was as if he knew what was coming and his silence engulfed his friends’ shock. He watched as Wu fell over. Clark was not surprised it happened; he was, however, surprised by John’s next act of disappearance. John shot through the roof of the train station in the blink of an eye.
“We’ll never catch him!” Sarah said.
“I don’t know where he’s going this time,” Andrew placed his head down.
“He keeps talking about wanting to gain more power,” Clark said in an ah-ha moment. “How would he do that?”
“The crystal!” Sarah beamed.
“Exactly,” Clark said. “I think he’s going to Mecha.”
“If he holds onto the crystal, he’ll kill himself,” Sarah said with worry in her voice.
“He’s gone insane, he’s not thinking straight,” Andrew told them. “You saw him stand there and talk to thin air right before he snapped a man’s neck.”
“Come on!” Clark said urgently.
Clark flew off through the gap in the train station’s roof as Sarah and Andrew followed behind him. They raced through the air without their goggles and masks but being seen by others was their last priority. It took less than three minutes for them to fly to the warehouse. They flew around back and landed on the ground. They noticed the door had been ripped off its hinges as they ran into the warehouse.
Sarah and Andrew followed as Clark ran to the basement of the warehouse. He shot down the steps and saw the large glowing crystal in the middle of the room. John was in the basement. He placed both of his hands on the crystal and the crystal’s light began to intensify. An electricity-like shock shot through John’s body. He yelled, unable to let go, as the crystal grew brighter and brighter. Clark, Sarah, and Andrew watched as John’s screamed in pain. Then the crystal went dark. It glowed no more and John fell over. Clark and Sarah rushed to his side and dropped to their knees. They shook him lightly but there was no response. Clark stood up and held Sarah in his arms. Despite John’s shortcomings over the past week, they couldn’t help but grieve over their friend’s lifeless body.
CHAPTER 15
It was Monday morning and things were as back to normal as they could possibly be after a long week of loss and tragedy. Clark was in his room getting dressed for class. Down the hall he could hear his baby brother crying. As he buttoned up his shirt, he could hear his mother trying to calm her new child.
“Hush, hush,” she said. “Everything’s going to be alright.” Then she chuckled, “Wait until daddy’s home to cry.”
The doorbell rang and Clark ran out of his room and down the stairs. “I’ll get it mom!” he shouted. He answered the door and Sarah stood in front of him with her backpack draped over her shoulder. She walked into the house and hugged Clark as tightly as she could.
“I’m glad to see you too,” he told her. “Come on.”
Clark took Sarah by the hand and led her upstairs to his room. He pulled out a box from underneath his bed and opened it. Inside the box was his full costume.
“It’s all there,” he said.
“I put mine away too,” Sarah told him.
Clark reached into his pants pocket and pulled out the horn rimmed glasses that he had gotten accustomed to wearing over the past month. He tossed the glasses into the box along with the rest of the outfit.
“I don’t think I’m going to need any of this anymore,” Clark said as he closed the box. “One day I think I’ll burn it but for now I’ll just toss it in my closet.” And he did just that by placing the box as far back into his closet as possible and shutting the door.
“It was quite a ride,” Sarah said.
“Oh yeah,” Clark reminisced. “We saved a lot of people. But I guess the consequences were just too great. This is sort of why superheroes don’t really exist.”
“We lost half our friends,” Sarah said.
“I know. I didn’t think our lives would be changed like this.”
“So how’s your little brother doing?”
“He’s healthy,” Clark chuckled. “He cried all last night so I wedged a few towels under my door. Still didn’t help.”
“Good, I’m glad he’s doing well.”
“Matthew,” Clark said. “Matthew’s not bad, but my name is cooler. He can never say he was named after a superhero.”
Sarah laughed, “How are we getting to school today?”
“I don’t really want to use my powers anymore. You know, before Andrew went back to Florida last night he told me that he rarely uses telekinesis aside from golfing. It makes him feel normal.”
“So you’re going to do the same?” Sarah asked him.
“Well, just occasionally, I guess.”
“Like for a football game?”
“Exactly,” Clark laughed. “That’s exactly what I mean.”
“So that means no more flying?” Sarah said.
“I think it’ best we lie low.”
“So it’s the school bus then.”
“Once again, you are exactly correct,” Clark smiled.
Clark grabbed his backpack, said bye to his mom, and left the house with Sarah. They walked to the bus stop and boarded the bus when it arrived. Many of the students on the bus remained silent. It was their way of grieving for Charles and John. When Clark and Chloe sat together on the bus, several students turned around and said they were sorry to hear about what happened to their two friends. Clark and Chloe thanked them and respectfully remained silent on the ride to school as well.
When they made it to Franklin Pierce High, it was more of the same. Students stopped them, Clark especially, in the hallway to offer their condolences. A few said they thought that Charles was dead but Clark corrected them and said that Charles had be
en shot and was expected to make a full recovery.
“Kind of lonely,” Sarah said as she and Clark stood together in front of her locker. “I mean, despite all the kids stopping to give their condolences.”
“I know,” Clark agreed. “It’s just me and you now. I’m so used to having Charles and John here.”
“Are we going to see Charles after school today?” Sarah asked.
“Definitely,” Clark brimmed. “I plan on seeing him every day.”
“I love you, Clark,” Sarah said out of nowhere. She wrapped her arms around him for a full minute before letting go.
“I love you too,” Clark told her. “After all of this, I don’t think I could make it without you.”
“Okay, I’ll see you later then,” Sarah said as she pointed to the clock in the hallway that was sealed to the wall. It was three minute before class. Clark watched as Sarah bounced away and then he hurried into first period history class. He sat down and watched as students flogged into the room right before the bell. Then he turned his head slightly and stared at the empty chair that John used to occupy. “I miss you, buddy,” Clark whispered under his breath. He could hardly pay attention to the teacher as he sat alone without a friend to pass notes to or whisper about how boring class was.
An hour and fifteen minutes later, the bell rang and Clark was glad to leave the classroom. He was the first one out and he headed directly to computer class. He was relieved to see both Donny and Chloe sitting together in the computer lab. He took a seat next to Donny and immediately struck up a conversation.
“How are you holding up?” Donny asked.
“Forget me,” Clark said. “How’s Chloe?”
Clark looked past Donny and waved to his girlfriend.
“I’m okay,” Chloe said. “Nothing I wasn’t accustomed to after fighting crime for two months.”
“What about your parents?” Clark asked.
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