by Matt Blake
“Kyle!”
I heard Avi’s scream and it made my skin crawl.
He was being beaten up too. So was Damon.
I tensed my jaws, ground my teeth together, the punches against my shield getting heavier.
I pressed down against my teeth so hard that a molar slipped out of place.
“Kyle, please!”
I focused on Avi and Damon’s pain—pain I couldn’t allow to continue.
Then I let out a cry.
I felt the power blast out of my body, from between my lips. It flew up to the people above me. It was a strength I’d never felt before, and the second it left my body, I was sure that I’d taken a step too far.
The people around me stopped swinging their weapons, kicking out at me.
Their eyes rolled into the backs of their skulls.
Their muscles went weak.
They dropped to the ground.
Every one of them.
I stayed on my back for a few seconds, the wind whirring around me. In the distance, I could hear chatter, and I realized a crowd of shocked looking tourists was staring up at me and the scene around me in total amazement.
I got up, ignoring them, and walked over to Damon and Avi. They had to be okay. I couldn’t face it if they weren’t. I’d never live with myself.
I stopped walking when I saw them.
They were both lying there on their sides.
Blood dripped down from Avi’s nose.
Damon was covered in bruises.
They both looked up at me in fear.
“Guys—”
“Go,” Damon said.
I frowned. Then I heard the crowd behind me stirring. When I looked, I saw them jeering and booing at me like I was the enemy all over again.
I looked at the ground, at the fallen people—still fallen—and I knew exactly why.
“We’ve got to get—”
“Just go,” Damon said. His voice was shaky. He sounded weak. But above anything, he sounded certain. Totally, terrifyingly certain.
I swallowed a lump in my throat as the tourists kept their focus on me.
I looked at my friends, beaten and wounded all because of me.
And I looked at the mass of bodies all around me.
This was who I was.
This was what I was.
This was Kyle Peters.
This was Glacies.
11
Adam looked at the crowd of frantic people and he smiled.
The dust had barely settled at the foot of Hekla after the brutal attack on Kyle Peters and his friends. Specks of snow fell heavier from the sky now, covering up the blood on the ground. All around, Adam saw media reporting at the scene—media from all over the world, with the same topic on their lips: what Kyle Peters, their “savior”, had done to the poor souls who’d attacked him.
Of course, Adam knew the truth, as he walked away from the foot of the volcano. He’d set those people on Kyle. He’d promised them great riches—the greatest of riches, and riches that he’d proven to them that he could provide, if they just did this one thing for him.
Unfortunately for them, Kyle had retaliated.
But they’d died a part of the greater good.
They’d died for a very, very important reason.
He took a deep breath of the icy air and walked further away from the scene of the crime. Iceland was nice. It reminded him of a trip he took to Europe with his parents around a year ago. They went on a family vacation, with plans to go to Scotland, then down through England, over to France. But Iceland always stuck with Adam.
He remembered the majesty of it. Remembered the beauty. Even though his visit was only a year ago, it seemed so long ago, with everything that’d happened since. The main thing that stood out to him was the relationship with his father. He’d never really bonded with Dad in the same way as Mom. But on that vacation, they’d done everything together. They’d gone on a road trip along the south shore, to black sand beaches and quaint, undiscovered villages. They’d gone swimming in the Blue Lagoon. They’d even gone snorkeling between the tectonic plates. Everything seemed good. Everything seemed fine between Dad and him, for the first time in a long time.
Then Kyle Peters and his idiot brother had flown into the plane they were boarding from Reykjavik to Edinburgh just before it took off, and neither of his parents had made it.
He wondered where Kyle Peters was now, whether he was afraid. Soon, he would be in hiding. Everything he cared about and loved was falling away, just like everything Adam loved fell away too, and very soon he’d have nothing left at all.
That was all part of Adam’s plan.
He thought about the bloodied, terrified looks on the faces of Kyle’s friends, and how they’d reluctantly disappeared with him, back to whatever world they’d come from. But Adam was good at reading people, and he knew for a fact they would never stand by Kyle in the same way again. Not after what they’d been through. Not after what he’d put them through.
Then he looked at the glove on his arm.
He’d been fortunate getting hold of it. Very fortunate. The good thing about Saint’s rule was that it made many no-go areas suddenly free-for-alls.
Adam had done his research. He’d made plans.
Then he’d stolen what he needed.
He knew he’d have to be patient. He knew it might be years before his plan came to fruition.
Fortunately for him, it was becoming reality way, way sooner than he could ever have dreamed.
He looked back at the foot of the mountain. Saw the flashing lights of an ambulance wheeling the bodies inside. He saw the police trying to keep people away from the scene. He heard the words “Glacies” and “ULTRAs” so many times it made his head hurt.
But that was good.
It meant his plan was coming together.
He chuckled a little, unable to contain his excitement for the next stage of the plan. For his great awakening. An awakening that would not only shock Kyle, but would upset the entire world order.
And Adam would be respected for it.
He would be adored for it.
He held his breath and took a final breath of the cool Icelandic air.
Then he disappeared across the globe, back to America, back to his army.
He looked at the people all standing opposite him. His followers. There were hundreds of them now, and soon there’d be hundreds more. They were growing, slowly at first. But gradually, the army was getting larger. Adam was mastering his gift.
Many of them had electromagnetic guns, too.
Guns that he’d purchased for a pittance of their worth using a stash of Bitcoins on the deep web. Guns that the general public didn’t like to accept were out there.
Enough of them to take down the Resistance and get to Kyle Peters, Glacies.
He looked at his hundreds of followers.
Soon, hundreds would become thousands.
And thousands would…
Well. He’d see how it worked out.
He smiled at his people, all of them with their beautiful powers. With that naivety that was even more powerful than understanding.
He smiled at them, one by one.
“It’s almost time,” he said.
12
I was back in the White House.
Last time, I knew I was in trouble.
This time, well. I knew I was in big, big trouble.
The sky had grayed outside, which captured both my mood and the rest of the Resistance who had been called in with me. I’d learned a term in one of my final English classes. “Pathetic fallacy.” It was a term to describe what happened when the weather reflected the general mood. Of course it was rubbish—writers and directors used it to evoke a certain mood to the reader and viewers, and it was more for dramatic impact and all that hoo-ha than anything else.
But right now, it felt like there was serious truth in “pathetic fallacy.”
I didn’t know what was coming, but I knew it couldn’t be good.<
br />
Vice President Holloway stood opposite me, just like he had when I’d last been in here not long ago at all. He stared out of his window, totally silent. The silence had dragged on a long, long time. I mean, last time was a lengthy wait, but this time was on another level. I knew that couldn’t be good news. If I didn’t already know that. Which obviously I did.
Eventually, Holloway turned around and looked right at me. He wasn’t red and angry. He was pale. Totally pale.
“Speak,” he said.
I looked around at Cassie, Ember, Roadrunner, and a few of the other Resistance members by my side. We were all in here, every single one of us. Which worried me even more. They weren’t exactly going to be my biggest fans after this.
When I looked back at Holloway, I saw again that he was looking right at me.
“I didn’t intend to—”
“No bullcrap. What did you do?”
I felt the back of my neck heating up. “What happened out there. We were set upon. It wasn’t supposed to—”
“Seriously. Cut the crap, right this second. Tell me straight what happened. You surely aren’t too dumb to realize just how much crap you are in right now, and just how much crap you’ve dragged the rest of your team into.”
I heard a few grumbles of discontent behind me.
I lowered my head and took a deep breath of the clammy air as the rain rattled heavily against Holloway’s windows. “I was out there with friends.”
“What were you doing with friends?”
I shrugged. “Erm, doing what normal teenagers do?”
“You aren’t a normal teenager. That’s your first mistake.”
I shook my head. I knew I wasn’t a normal teenager. I didn’t need reminding. “We were leaving when we were surrounded.”
“So you attacked them?”
“No! No of course I didn’t. I tried to get away. But then one of them fired one of those electromagnetic things at me. Before I knew it, I was on the ground being beaten. I didn’t have a lot of strength in me. Just enough to hold them off for a while.”
“So you were shielding yourself,” Holloway said, as if he was weighing up my every word. “And then suddenly you’re on the attack?”
“I heard my friends being beaten up. I… I didn’t mean to hurt anyone.”
“Well you did. You hurt a lot of people. Even killed some.”
I shook my head, my throat tightening. All around me, I saw the disapproving, judging glances of my colleagues. “I had to help my friends. I couldn’t just watch them die.”
“You should know better than to react in the way that you did. Especially with all the negative attention we’ve been getting lately.”
“That’s all this is about?” I said, my skin tingling with heat. “Negative attention?”
“You have responsibilities,” Holloway said.
“Damn right I have responsibilities. I have responsibilities to my best damned friends to keep them alive.”
“The interesting thing here, Mr. Peters, is that the problems are always with you. The rest of your colleagues, sure, they have the odd incident here and there. But you just keep on making the same mistakes. You’re acting recklessly. And in the eyes of the people, you’re doing more harm than good. All of you.”
I saw Holloway look around at more of the Resistance then. He hadn’t said what I knew he wanted to say, not yet. But I knew what he was implying. “You’re punishing us all for my mistakes?”
Holloway sighed. “I’ve been your biggest champion all along. All of you. The last thing I want to do is concede defeat where the Resistance is concerned. Because honestly, I still believe you’re a force for great good.”
“But?”
“But right now I think it’d make a lot of sense if you stepped out of the limelight for a while. All of you.”
I didn’t know what to say. Part of me could understand what Holloway was saying. But another part—a bigger part—couldn’t help hearing Daniel’s words echoing in my mind.
“When I see you and the rest of ’em all tied up by the laws of the world… Seriously, that can’t feel good.”
He was right. I was tied down by these people.
“You use us when it suits, but when it doesn’t quite fit in with your agenda, you don’t want us anywhere nearby.”
“Let’s keep this polite so we can move as smoothly as possible, please.”
“You don’t want to make enemies of us, Holloway. You don’t want to make enemies of any of us.”
Holloway’s eyes narrowed then. “What?”
“I said you don’t want to make enemies of us.”
A smile stretched across Holloway’s face. “You can’t force people to like you, ‘Glacies’. You can’t force people or ULTRAs to follow you. That’s what Saint did, and look how that worked out.”
“Don’t compare me to Saint. Just don’t.”
“You need to take responsibility for your actions in order to be liked. In order to be respected. And that starts right now.”
I felt a massive invisible force slam against me. My ears rang, and I dropped to my knees. Behind me, I saw other members of the Resistance on their knees too. Ember. Roadrunner. Stone. All of them writhing around, their powers suppressed. All of them struggling.
Holloway walked up to me and lifted my chin. His face was covered with regret. “I don’t want to do this. But for now, I think it’s best that we take all of you into a facility for a while.”
“Don’t.”
“It’s for your own good. Your own benefit.”
“Please…”
I looked to my right and I saw Cassie lying flat on her stomach. She was wincing, struggling. I’d done this. I’d caused this mess.
Holloway put a hand on my back.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Peters. I really am.”
He walked over to his window as he called on his guards to come in and take us away.
I looked up at him. Tried to fight back against him, as he stood there, his outline against the window.
I threw everything I had into—
Then I heard it.
A humming noise outside the window. A shout.
Holloway frowned. He turned around to the glass. “What—”
He didn’t finish what he was saying.
A massive explosion tore apart the wall of his office, smashed his window.
Vice President Holloway disintegrated before our eyes.
In his place, a guy stood.
He couldn’t have been much older than me. He was well-built, though, and dressed in a sharp looking suit. He looked at me with his piercing green eyes and smiled.
Behind him, I saw a group of people.
Then, on the ground below, I saw more people gathering around to watch.
The media gathering around to watch.
“Hello, Glacies,” the guy said. “Nice to finally meet face to face. I’m Adam.”
I realized then that whatever had been suppressing our powers had dropped.
Someone beside me—Rhino—realized too. “Let us out of—”
One of the people beside Adam lifted their hands and shot him from existence.
I tightened my fists then. Everyone behind me joined as the smell of smoke grew.
The people behind Adam all activated their powers, too. A classic Western stand-off. I noticed some of them were holding government issue electromagnetic guns. Weapons that were put in place to neutralize the ULTRAs temporarily. Take enough hits from those guns, and we’d be paralyzed for a while.
I didn’t know where Adam had got them from exactly, but I could wager a bet that he’d stolen them from the government. Or bought them underground.
Adam chuckled as he studied the stand-off. “Now now. There’s no need for any more violence. Not today. Today is a day of peace, not of violence.”
He turned around to face the ULTRAs behind him, and the crowd of people around the White House.
“Today is the day we get our world back.”
“Who the hell do you think you are?” Roadrunner asked.
Adam turned back around. He smiled that charming smile, revealing his perfect white teeth. “Who am I?” he said. “Let’s just see who I am, shall we?”
He put his hands on the sides of Roadrunner’s head and she let out a scream.
I tried to throw myself at her, but a flurry of those electromagnetic bullets slammed into me and into everyone else who tried to run to Roadrunner’s aid.
Roadrunner perched on her knees. A blue energy lifted from her skin. She was totally pale. She couldn’t stop screaming.
“People are the ones who should have the decision to control their own futures,” Adam said, intensifying his grip on Roadrunner’s head. “People are the ones who should elect their gods, not the government. And people are the ones with the power, now. People have their world back. And with my help, the people’s powers are going to get even stronger.”
He pulled his hands away from Roadrunner’s head and she fell to her knees, eyes closed.
He walked away from her. I tried to go after him, or to Roadrunner, but my powers were still crippled.
He walked over to the opening where the window had once been. He looked down at the mass of people below, staring up at him. He took in the view, then lifted his hands.
Then he fired at a small group to his right.
I felt my defensiveness kicking in again. He was firing at people for no reason. He was…
Then I realized the people he’d fired at were still standing.
Not only that, but they were running.
Running fast.
Just like Roadrunner used to.
The crowd started to chatter loudly amongst themselves. A nervous excitement had control of them, as Adam turned around and looked me in the eye, smile across his face.
“The powers are returning to the people. Just where they should’ve been all along. Now. Who’s next?”
The group behind him, joined by more people from the crowd outside, activated their powers.
Powers that Adam had taken away from ULTRAs.
Powers that he’d given to people.
People who hated the Resistance.
13