Petrichor

by R J Johnson

  Alex shouted in surprise and held out his hand, intending to stop any igniting primer in the police officer’s bullets.

  He was too late. A bolt of energy struck Alex in the side, and he fell to the ground, writhing in pain as several thousand volts of electricity flowed through him. His muscles seized, his jaw clenching. Alex bit through his lip and screamed in pain. His healing stone couldn’t stop the pain or damage done by the taser bolts that were currently slamming into his body from all directions.

  He couldn’t move. The pain was too much. His muscles refused to follow the directions his brain was sending. It was too much.

  He was surrounded by men and women on all side, each of whom were pointing their tasers at Alex.

  He cringed and rolled over painfully on his back. The people surrounding him gave his body no quarter as the movement provoked them to fire mercilessly at him again.

  It was then he saw a pair of boots walking toward him slowly. He raised his head an inch to get a better look at the person walking up to him.

  The sun shined behind the man’s head, hiding his face in shadows, but the moment Alex heard the voice, he knew.

  And for the first time in years, he felt true fear.

  “Hello Alex…” Ash said gently. He patted him down, removing the necklace holding his stone of healing from around his neck, slipping it into his pocket.

  “No…” Alex called out weakly. He moved hoping to resist, but quickly found himself on his stomach once again, a boot from one of the Feds pressed securely against the side of his head, keeping him immobile. He felt a hand go through his pockets and remove the fire stone as well.

  “You said there was a third one…” he heard Ash say to someone.

  Emily’s voice carried over to him. She sounded sad and alone. “That’s what he told me. He might’ve given it back to Scott, wherever he is.”

  She crouched down to Alex’s eye level, looking as sad as he’d even see her. “Where is he Alex? Where’s Scott with the stone?”

  “Why Emily?” he choked out, barely understanding the betrayal. “Why did you do this?”

  “Because she knows who you really are now Alex,” Ash called out answering his question. “And she understands this is the only way to stop you.”

  “You don’t know…” Alex panted. “Please don’t…”

  The remaining tourists who weren’t cops hiding in plain sight had run for the exits, looking to escape. One elderly man remained however, staring at the crowd from above.

  Alex felt his eyes draw toward the elderly man who was watching the scene play out below him. He saw the man withdraw an ancient looking timepiece. Putting the timepiece away, he noticed Alex looking at him, and with the faintest wisp of a smile, disappear from sight.

  Unfortunately, he didn’t have time to process what he’d just seen when he felt the cold metallic steel of handcuffs slip around his wrists. The clicking echoed through the courtyard, each one of the teeth closing in on him.

  It was the sound of inevitability. As the authorities rolled Alex over on his back, he looked up at the pink sky, the setting sun bringing a chill to the air.

  They brought Alex to his feet and for the first time in a long time, he was face to face with Ash, the man who sworn to kill him so long ago.

  He struggled against the men holding him, as Ash examined him, a sense of smug satisfaction emanating from the man. Ash leaned in close so only Alex could hear what he said.

  “I told you it didn’t matter how far or fast you ran, that I would capture you and peel your flesh off your bones, didn’t I?” He stepped back and glanced at Emily, his smile becoming devilish. “And now I have the satisfaction of taking your girl along for the ride as well…”

  He nodded to the two FBI agents standing next to Emily who grabbed her and began putting handcuffs on her. She squealed in protest.

  “You son of a bitch! We had a deal!” Emily screamed.

  “That deal was subject to change,” Ash said waving his finger at her. He drew himself up, puffing his chest out proudly. “Alex McCray, Emily Harper. You are under arrest on charges of aiding and abetting a terrorist attack on the Homeland of the United States, including but not limited to, the explosion in Joshua Tree, a destroyed sheriff’s station, a nuclear plant in San Diego and the deaths of over two dozen police and SWAT officers.”

  He smirked at Alex, who still couldn’t believe his shift in fortunes. “Take them away.”

  The Feds pulled Alex and Emily who was still screaming at Ash for his betrayal. For his part, Ash turned and shoved a picture of Scott into the nearby FBI agent’s face standing next to him.

  “Find this man and bring him to me!” Ash snarled. He would not be denied. Not when he was so close.

  The agent nodded and scrambled to go fulfill Ash’s orders. Ash watched as Emily and Alex were escorted down to a nearby pier where a waiting Harbor Patrol boat would take them back to the city where he could properly debrief them.

  Ash withdrew the healing stone and felt the light black claw-like object sit patiently in his hand. He breathed in sharply when the stone hit his bare palm. The energy put out by the stone was incredible. He could feel the potential of more should he want it.

  And he wanted more all right.

  He wanted it all.

  He pocketed the stones and moved down to supervise the rest of his team searching every tourist on the island. They still had a lot of work to do.

  Chapter Fifty-Six

  Lorelei and Johan emerged from the ground. She looked at him in wonder.

  “That’s amazing…” he gushed. “How did you?”

  “This!” She pulled out the stone she’d found in Iceland for her husband to examine. He grabbed it, admiring it closely.

  “I found this in Iceland during my trip,” she said, caressing her husband’s face as he examined her stone in wonder. “Turns out ol’ Prosi knew what he was doing, hiding that treasure.”

  “And it allows you to control…” he frowned, trying to put into words what he’d witnessed his wife do. “The world?”

  “Something like that,” she chuckled. “When I got the phone call you were missing, I swore that I would move mountains to get you back… Apparently, the stone heard my prayers.”

  “I prayed for deliverance myself…” he whispered. He withdrew his own stone, showing it to his wife. Lorelei took it, admiring the beauty of it.

  “What does it do?” she asked.

  “Strange as it sounds, I’m able to control water.”

  “You’re talking to a woman you just saw literally move mountains,” Lorelei said, smiling at her husband. “I think we’re a bit beyond strange at this point.”

  “It wasn’t just controlling the water,” he added. “It was as if I could feel every molecule, every atom that made the water up. I could feel every speck of vapor in the air. It was…”

  Lorelei smiled, handing her stone him to examine, “I do…”

  He took her stone that allowed her to manipulate the world around them and gasped. Just like his own stone, he could feel every speck of matter that surrounded him. He knew that with a thought he could build mountains, and devastate cities. All that power was within his grasp.

  No wonder Lorelei thought she could take on Halprin and his goons by herself.

  She took a moment to orient herself and figure out exactly where her stone had taken them. Somehow the place looking familiar. As if…

  “No!” she screamed.

  Johan looked at her confused and concerned all at once. “What? What is it?”

  “We have to leave now!!” she screamed. There was still a chance, the Old Man had promised she could change the future. Control their destiny.

  “Please, Lorelei,” Johan begged her. “What is going on?”

  “We have to leave now!” she begged him. “Before it’s too late.

  “Too late for what?”

  “Well, for one, you’d miss out on seeing me again…” Kline said lazily. Johan and
Lorelei whirled around to face the man who’d nearly killed them twice now. Johan instinctively pushed himself in front of Lorelei.

  But she didn’t need him protecting her. She jut out her jaw in defiance and called back at the man. “Didn’t you get enough already?”

  “Not until I have what’s mine!” Kline hissed.

  Johan didn’t even bother to reply. This ended now. He used Lorelei’s stone to throw a flurry of sharp missiles made of obsidian at the man. The deadly hail appeared out of nowhere, headed directly for Kline’s brain.

  But before they could hit their mark, the man disappeared into the ether.

  The sound of laughter echoed around them in the dark forest. “Fooools!” the voice hissed. “Don’t you understand the forces you play with are not for mortals such as yourself?”

  Lorelei looked at her husband, “Now what?”

  “Now we carve this man into a thousand pieces.” Johan said determined.

  “Big promises from a small man…” the voice haunted them as they moved through the forest, blindly looking for a target.

  Tree branches began coming at them from all sides, as if hurled by a group of giants.

  “Get down!” Lorelei shouted. She stood next to her husband and held out the water stone in front of her.

  A geyser erupted out from in front of them diverting the huge branches off course. The enormous pines splintered and crashed spectacularly against the other tree trunks, exploding into a million pieces.

  The sound of a man denied echoed through the forest, and Johan looked at his wife with incredible pride. He’d always known she was powerful, but the stone he’d found in the back country proved how amazing she really was.

  Kline dropped down in front of them, his teeth bared.

  Johan growled and nodded his head as two massive boulders appeared on either side of Kline, each moving at sixty miles an hour. Kline didn’t even blink as he smashed one boulder with his right hand and the other with his left. The thunderous crash echoed through the valley.

  Kline fell back, struggling with the weight of one of the boulders on top of him. His strength was nearly immeasurable, but clearly there was some upper limit to it.

  Debris rained down around Johan and Lorelei. They looked at each other and nodded, walking slowly toward the fallen billionaire.

  Lorelei stood over the man, thinking about what the Old Man had shown her. She looked at the stone he’d given her and thought about how they needed to stop this man so they could stop that star from blowing up.

  “He’s got more stones,” Lorelei urged. “We need them.”

  “For what?” Johan asked confused.

  “Saving the world…” she replied.

  She leaned down looking to search Kline for the remaining stones. They had to be on him somewhere. She looked at the ring on his hand and recognized the stone in the setting and reached down to take it off.

  Unfortunately, she hadn’t noticed that Kline had managed to free his arm enough to begin using it as leverage. His fist was grinding into the rock sitting on his arm, and the friction created had begun to work the boulder loose from its station on the side of the hill.

  As soon as she touched Kline, they disappeared into the ether and Johan cried out in surprise.

  They reappeared far above the night time clouds, the moon reflecting on the blanket of white below. Lorelei looked around in terror, seeing where she was.

  Kline hissed and grabbed for the stone in her right hand, and reflexively, she used the power contained within. A geyser erupted from her hand, and hit Kline with the full force of an angry woman. He was launched off of her, rocketing away through the sky, tumbling end over end. Taken off guard, the billionaire made a quick calculation, deciding to use the woman as leverage instead.

  In a flash, Kline winked out from above the clouds and in front of Johan once again. He turned toward the Swedish giant, who began to run toward Kline intent on tackling and tacking him down. Kline raised his hand, using the stone of control to stop Johan in his tracks.

  “What have you done?” Johan demanded through clenched teeth.

  “A trick I learned from a friend. He helped remind me about the power of control,” Kline began, his smile wide across his face. He stepped forward, inhaling the man’s scent, feeling every bit of fear he had to offer “Your wife is currently falling from twenty thousand feet in the air, and even her little stone won’t help her. If you want her to survive the next…” he checked his watch, “thirty seconds, you will hand that stone over to me now.”

  Johan looked up in terror, “Bullshit!”

  “You want to take the chance I’m lying? Even after all the things you’ve seen me capable of?” Kline’s smile grew even larger. “After all the things you yourself have become capable of?”

  Johan felt the panic rising up. He had the stone, he could try and take this man on to try and rescue her himself, but was he quick enough?

  “Twenty seconds!”

  He swallowed, wondering if this superpowered madman would keep his promise to save Lorelei. There was no guarantee that he would even let him go. In fact, every action by this man so far indicated that he was incredibly ruthless and would promise anything just to get what he wanted.

  It began to rain around them, the water pattering through the leaves and dropping down on the ground around them. Johan inhaled the scent, opened his eyes and squinted at Kline in defiance.

  They were already dead, whether he gave this man the stone or not. And Lorelei had insisted that they needed his stones to save the world. If his wife was willing to die to save the world, then so was he. He trusted her. She was smarter than anyone he’d ever known.

  Making his decision, Johan conjured up thousands of yard long spears made of granite. They floated impossibly in midair as Kline’s eyes widened in shock. He hadn’t expected the man to fight, he had figured Johan for a coward.

  Johan smirked and waved his hands forward. The spears rockets towards Kline who cursed, disappearing seconds before his missiles hit their target.

  The billionaire reappeared behind Johan looking to repeat his trick, but Johan was ready for him. He whirled around on his heel, and conjured up an enormous block of granite that formed around Kline’s arm.

  Kline shouted in horror as he found his arm trapped within the conjured boulder. Johan grabbed Kline’s shoulder and concentrated, hoping to ossify his body and turn him into another horrifying gargoyle. Kline cried out, and tried to move back, pulling the massive boulder along with him. But Johan held tight, hoping the power of the stone Lorelei had found would turn this man into stone before he could get away again.

  The rain intensified and water poured off each man’s respective brows, locked in their struggle.

  Kline’s ring of strength flashed as he called upon that power to help him. He pushed his petrified arm back and brought it forward, bashing it as hard as he could against the side of Johan’s head.

  The effect was immediate. The stone hand, combined with Kline’s increased strength caved Johan’s skull in and the tall Swede dropped like a sack of potatoes, his stone clattering to the ground at Kline’s feet.

  Kline held his petrified arm in incredible pain, screaming as he did so. He ripped his other hand out of the granite boulder crying out in pain. Nearly slipping in the mud, he awkwardly leaned down to pick up the stone Johan had dropped, feeling the power from flow through him instantly.

  It was raining harder than ever now. Sheets of water were falling from the skies, the deluge around him intensifying. The ground underneath Kline gave way as a portion of the hillside he was standing on fell over the side of the high cliffs the mansion was situated against.

  He struggled to stand, but the water falling from the sky was too much. He looked up and realized too late that this was far more than just a summer storm.

  Lorelei landed softly, bouncing down against a geyser of water that allowed her to safely land perfectly in the middle of the lawn.

  Kline lo
oked at her in wonder, his eyes wide. She looked at him, her face defiant and proud of avoiding his trap.

  That’s when she noticed Johan slumped to Kline’s side.

  Her eyes widened and Kline smiled at her, like a predator who’d just found his next meal.

  “He died bravely…” Kline said slowly. “But he still died nonetheless. You can join him… Or you can give me your stone. The choice is yours.”

  She stared at her husband’s corpse. She’d survived so much over the last forty-eight hours to be reunited with her beautiful man. From being kidnapped, to chased and hunted to falling from twenty thousand feet, she’d survived it all just to reunite with her husband. The Old Man promised her that they would change the future.

  And she had. Just not enough. Her husband had died anyway, no matter what she’d done. Her choices allowed him to die there fighting bravely to save her life.

  It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t just. It wasn’t how the world should work.

  She turned and stood, facing the man who killed her husband. She was shaking as rage filled every inch of her being.

  Lorelei stepped forward, each foot landing in a puddle of water that flowed up and around her. More and more water surrounded her as she created a massive drop that covered her entire body.

  Kline looked at her, confused, and slowly backed away as she approached him. He began summoning pieces of rock, shooting them toward her at an unimaginable speed.

  The water surrounding her was becoming quite deep, so when the pieces of stone Kline threw at her hit the bubble of water around her, the missiles lost their kinetic energy, and fell to the ground.

  Kline became frustrated and tried a different tack. He used his stone of control, trying to explode the woman from inside out as he had done to the security guards, but for some reason, he couldn’t understand why that power didn’t work. Again, the woman resisted the stone in the same fashion the man in Africa had resisted him.

  Frustrated, Kline rushed the bubble of water and immediately became bogged down inside. He struggled to move forward against the current inside the bubble and felt his lungs begin to beg for air. But, he pressed on. He refused to be defeated by this woman!