by Matt Blake
I took in a shaky breath, and then I forced a smile. “Goodbye, Vice President.”
I walked out of the office, and security escorted me away.
Outside the gates of the White House, I saw my sister, Cassie, standing there waiting for me, arms folded. She didn’t look impressed.
“You really screwed up this time, didn’t you?”
6
“I was just trying to do the right thing.”
“The right thing by who?”
“The people.”
“Really? So why weren’t you in Tokyo?”
“Tokyo?”
“Yes, Kyle. Tokyo.”
“Why would I be in Tokyo?”
“There was an armed robbery. Three people were taken hostage. All of them died.”
A bitter taste filled my mouth. “I—”
“And what about Bali?”
“What about Bali?”
“Eight people trekking in the hills. They got cut off from the outside world in extreme weather. Two of them died.”
I shook my head. “I didn’t see that.”
“You didn’t see it, or you chose not to see?”
“What’s that supposed to mean, Cassie?”
Cassie tutted. She leaned back against her chair. We were in a coffee shop just outside of Vancouver. It was a quiet place, and one we could always rely on to avoid any kind of attention. Usually, the smell of the coffee was so calming and appealing. But right now I wanted anything but to be able to smell it. I didn’t want to be having this conversation. I wanted Cassie to believe in me. “You weren’t in Tokyo because there was no suspicion of ULTRA involvement. You weren’t in Bali because there was no suspicion of ULTRA involvement.”
She glared at me as I tightened my hands around my boiling hot coffee cup. If there was one thing I admired in my sister, it was her reluctance to embrace a pseudonym. Said they were “for kids.” “And?”
“Don’t pretend you didn’t see those stories, Kyle. You were in Kenya because you saw an ULTRA going rogue, and you saw red.”
I sighed, and leaned across the table. “I still don’t see why that’s such a crime.”
“In itself, it’s not a crime. But we have a job to do. We accepted a job to serve the interests of the world governments.”
“And saving people from an ULTRA-led attack in Kenya wasn’t in the world’s interests?”
“We don’t make the rules.”
“That’s no excuse for just standing by and watching.”
“No. And you went in there and didn’t save anybody.”
“I stopped the attack.”
“And triggered an explosion in the first place.”
“That was a mistake.”
“So correct me if I’m wrong, but you didn’t only trigger an explosion that killed many people, but you let the ULTRA called Chaos slip. Right?”
I turned away from Cassie and looked out of the window. It was raining in Vancouver, surprise surprise. But the rain soothed my thoughts, which was what I needed right now.
“All over social media, people are making out like you’re the enemy. Like we’re both the enemy.”
“Screw social media.”
“Those people are people from your school, Kyle. People from Staten Island. People from all over the world are starting to worry about what might happen if just one of us breaks procedure one more time. They’ve been through it with Saint twice already. They don’t want to go through it again. You can’t blame them for worrying.”
I leaned back on my chair. Cassie had a point. It was only natural that people were worried about the ULTRAs after what’d happened with Saint. But still, it frustrated me. “They need to get over the past and let it go.”
“Could you get over the past and let it go if you’d lost someone to the ULTRAs?”
A knot in my stomach, I said, “We have lost people to the ULTRAs.”
“Exactly,” Cassie said. “And if I remember rightly, you hunted down Saint to the end of the world to punish him for what happened to… to Mom and to me. So you can understand the skepticism.”
“I just think people need a little more trust; that’s all.”
“You don’t just click your fingers and get trust, bro. Trust is earned. You’ve got to work toward it. That’s what we’re doing by grouping together with the government. That’s what we’re building toward. We have to show we’re in control of ourselves. We have to show people can believe in us. That we can be responsible. Only then can we ever hope to win the people over completely.”
I felt sick about the things Cassie was saying. “The Cassie I knew wouldn’t just leave people to die.”
“And the Kyle I knew was too chickenshit to fight for anyone. I guess we can say we’ve all changed.”
I stood up and walked away from the table. I wasn’t taking this anymore.
Cassie’s chair scraped the floor. “Whatever you do, whenever you act, remember that every single action is under public scrutiny.”
“I don’t care about public scrutiny. I’m doing what I can to help people. Why isn’t that enough?”
“Well I do care about public scrutiny,” Cassie said. “And when you act, it reflects on all of us. So just think about that before you go on another ULTRA-hunt of yours and kill a load of people in the process.”
“What is your problem?” I shouted.
Cassie frowned. “Kyle?”
“I saved you. I brought you back. I put everything into bringing you back and now…” I shook my head and started to walk away.
Cassie put a hand on my arm.
I brushed it away.
“Hey,” she said.
I turned around and reluctantly looked into her eyes.
She half-smiled at me. Her eyes were so similar to the sadness that’d been in them the day she’d “died.” “I’m thankful for what you did for me. Really. But this isn’t about you or me, Kyle. Not anymore. This is about doing what’s right for the world. And it might not be easy. Nobody ever said it was going to be easy. But it’s what’s right. And I worry what’ll happen to all of us if you keep on like this.”
I opened my mouth to say something back to Cassie. To apologize to her. To tell her I was just a scared kid, really. I’d been thrown into this sea of responsibility and wasn’t sure whether I could swim without armbands. I wasn’t even sure I wanted to swim. “I’m going away for a bit,” I said. “See you around.”
“Oh, Kyle.”
I teleported back to our Staten Island home before Cassie could follow me. A bit bad, leaving her there, really. She hadn't mastered teleportation as well as me, and she wasn’t as fast a flyer. But she’d find her way back eventually.
I walked over to my locked cabinet, cracked the padlock away, and then tore through several layers of security. I looked down at my fresh Glacies outfit. I started to put it on when I heard footsteps behind me.
I spun around.
“Shit,” I said. “You should know not to creep up on me like that.”
Daniel Septer emerged from the shadows at the far side of my bedroom. “We need to talk,” he said. “Right now.”
7
I sat beside Daniel in the middle of the Australian outback and hoped to God he had a good reason for bringing me here.
The sunset was a thing of beauty. All around, I saw the red rock of desert, a vast expanse stretching right ahead. It was the kind of place that if I somehow lost my powers, I wouldn’t escape. I was way too far removed from reality to get away from here. And in a way, that scared me.
As did the thought of all the spiders, snakes, and lizards waiting to bite.
I heard a crack. When I looked to my right, I saw Daniel Septer—Nycto—had opened a beer can and was sipping it back, some of it dripping down the side of the can.
I glared at him. Eventually, he turned to me and frowned back. “What?”
“Beer?”
Daniel lifted it. “Yeah. Beer. Want some?”
“You’re not ol
d enough to drink beer.”
Daniel snorted. “Kyle, we’re two of the most powerful ULTRAs on the planet. We can do whatever we damn well please.”
“You… you shouldn’t be drinking and powering.”
“Drinking and powering?”
I nodded, like there was such a thing.
Daniel sniggered a bit and turned his head back to face the setting sun. “That’s your problem, bro. You need to let yourself go a little. Loosen those shoulders of yours. Can’t be comfortable being that tight.”
I looked away and cleared my dry throat. Truth be told, I fancied trying a beer, but I knew I shouldn’t. I guess I was still a bit of a bluenose in that way. Suddenly becoming an ULTRA hadn’t done much to change that. “Don’t tell me you brought me here for a beer and a sit in the sun.”
“Well it’s nice, ain’t it?”
Daniel smiled at me. When I didn’t smile back, he shook his head and gulped back more of that beer. “We’re alcohol resistant anyway. Jeez.”
He tossed the can off the edge of the rock we were sitting on and zapped at it in midair.
He missed, and the can fell to the rocks below.
“Not that alcohol resistant,” I said.
Daniel didn’t say anything back to that. “There’s some weird shit going on, Kyle. Some strange developments.”
“‘Strange developments’? I thought you decided not to join the official Resistance?”
“And I’m proud of that decision when I see you and the rest of ’em all tied up by the laws of the world. Seriously, that can’t feel good.”
“It keeps us in check,” I lied, trying not to blush.
“Don’t bullshit me, Kyle. You can’t bullshit me. I know damn well you won’t like the way things are.”
I shrugged. “It’s the way things have to be.”
“For you, maybe. But anyway. I’ve been coming across a lot of ULTRAs.”
“A lot of ULTRAs?”
“Ones I’ve never seen before.”
“Well, not everyone joined the official Resistance.”
“No, but these ones are different. I’ve seen at least five of them crop up that I honestly didn’t know existed.”
“Why is that so weird?”
“Why? Because it means there’s more than we first thought.”
“That’s not so weird. We only unlocked our powers when we were a little older.”
“But we’re Orion’s sons,” Daniel said. “Maybe we were different.”
My throat tightened when Daniel said “Orion”. It was still a sore spot between us, and forever would be. Orion, the greatest ULTRA to have ever lived—the first Hero—was our father. He’d stood by our side as we tried to take down Saint upon his resurgence. Only we’d lost him.
Daniel had stood by and watched as Saint hurtled him through a wormhole.
I’d never forgive him for it. I’d never forget.
“There’s others, too. Others who’ve only unlocked their powers when they were older.”
“Alright. Give me my moment, at least.”
I nodded. “So say there is something weird going on,” I said. “What d’you think it is?”
Daniel shrugged. “I dunno. I was hoping you’d know that.”
“You were hoping I’d know?”
“Well you are working for the Resistance. Don’t you get like, super-government-technology? Or are you all so tied up that they don’t even let you play with their toys, either?”
I stood up and started to walk away.
“Kyle, wait. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”
“There’s no reason for me to be here,” I said. Although I wasn’t exactly keen on rushing back to reality, not now the world hated me even more for the events at the Kenyan mall.
“You need to look into this ULTRA situation. Something isn’t right.”
“I’ll handle it.”
“You’ll handle it? ’Cause you’re not doing a very good job of handling anything else right now.”
I turned around and tensed my fists. I felt a combination of nerves and anger spiraling inside me. “What?”
Daniel didn’t look intimidated by me. He was one of the few who didn’t. “You messed up at the mall. And it isn’t the first time you’ve messed up. No wonder people are turning on you and the Resistance. Starting to feel pretty good about not getting myself involved.”
I wanted to turn away before I said anything I regretted; before I did anything rash.
But I couldn’t help myself.
I lifted my hands and punched the new can of beer from Daniel’s hands.
He glanced around at me. Then he caught the beer in midair with his telekinesis. “Not a good idea.”
“You owe your life to me. I saved you. I didn’t just spare you, but I saved you. Don’t ever forget that.”
“You did save my life. I accept that.” He pulled back his beer and took another sip, and then he walked toward me. “But something’s coming. Something very big. And I just hope you and your little team of soldiers are ready for the storm when it finally arrives.”
“You should…”
I didn’t finish my words.
Daniel disappeared.
The beer fell to the ground where he’d stood, perfectly upright.
I looked down at that beer can. Then I looked up at the orange sun as it made its final descent, simmering against the vast landscape.
As I stared into it, preparing to head back home as the heat diminished, I couldn’t let that final thought go.
I hope you’re ready for the storm when it finally arrives…
8
Chaos kept her head down. She didn’t want to draw any unnecessary attention. Or any attention, for that matter.
The Evoque nightclub in Tokyo was loud and busy enough for her to blend into the crowd. All around her, neon strobe lights pulsated, people dancing and partying on the floor. She could barely hear herself think, which again, was good news, because it meant that everyone else’s senses would be distorted even more than her. She could hone her hearing on a particular person if they were speaking to her. She’d been doing it for fun the whole night, jumping from conversation to conversation. Even if they were at the opposite side of the club, she could focus.
She thought back to the events earlier that week. The mall in Kenya. She felt bad about what’d happened. Truth be told, she wasn’t expecting the gunmen to be in there. That wasn’t part of the plan she’d agreed.
And the explosion. Yes, she could cause explosions. That was one of the gifts she’d discovered that day at the diner four months ago and had been training to hone ever since.
But that explosion at the mall wasn’t her.
In the first days of meeting Adam, their relationship had been… well, pretty blissful. He saw something in her. He told her he’d not given her abilities, but rather he’d unlocked them.
She liked that. Especially after all the hell she’d been through with family recently. It made her feel special.
She knew now that the whole unlocking powers thing was bullshit. As much as she still felt something for Adam, she knew she wasn’t his special snowflake anymore. And as much as she liked his plan for changing the world and shifting the power from the Resistance to the people—especially after what happened to her sister in the midst of an ULTRA conflict—she just wasn’t sure it was the reality she’d wanted anymore.
Especially not after what happened at the mall.
She’d thought about changing her allegiance. But she knew it was already too late. The world was talking about her. She was involved in the attack on the Kenyan mall. And sure, the plan to set Glacies up had gone pretty well, framed him as even more of a bad guy in the eyes of the masses. But it just wasn’t what she’d agreed, the whole killing thing.
So she was here to meet him.
She was here to quit.
She looked around, the strobes giving her a headache. She saw guys leaning against the bar with open-necked shirts. At the opposi
te side of the bar, a couple of Westerners looking over at her with interest. She tutted, then looked past those. She wasn’t legally able to drink, at seventeen. Adam had friends running this place, though, so she was always allowed in. She'd get in even if she were turned away, though. That was another one of her little tricks, too. She didn’t exactly need ID to get into anywhere. She could just walk through the wall.
Which is exactly what she’d done when she’d disappeared from the Kenyan mall.
That brought a bitter taste to her mouth too; now she saw those events for what they were. Her part of the agreement was that she’d destroy a door, cause a bit of furor and then go onto the lower floor of the mall, then lure Glacies into chasing her. And she’d done that. She’d done everything she was asked.
She thought it was particularly weird when she was asked to make it then look like she’d flown upwards when really she’d flown downwards. But she trusted Adam. He’d been trustworthy as long as she’d known him. She couldn’t exactly dispute it.
But when she saw the explosion, when she saw the, for want of a better word, chaos, she knew right then that she was messing around in something way, way out of her comfort zone.
She was an ULTRA now, sure. But the Resistance wasn’t for her. Too many shackles. Too much order. Too undemocratic.
Plus, her mentor—the guy she looked up to so much—hated everything the Resistance stood for.
She looked down at her watch. Quarter past twelve. He was fifteen minutes late. That wasn’t like him. He had a way of getting under her skin in a way that nobody ever had. Chaos wondered if she was the only one. He had a way with words. A charming manner. A confidence beyond his years.
And he had grand ideas.
She was about to get up and leave when she saw him standing right at the back of the nightclub.
She felt her skin crawl. He was wearing a black suit, all black, with a black shirt and tie underneath. He had dark hair tied back into a man-bun, which he pulled off way better than anyone Chaos had ever known. He was muscular, and although he had a bit of a baby face and was only eighteen, he carried himself like a man who had been around for a long time.