by Matt Blake
She was still again for a few moments. Quiet, as she tried to get her head around what was going on.
She looked to her left and right. Screw it. She’d made it this far. She wasn’t giving up now.
She pushed open the door.
The room was empty, but the lights above the double bed were on. There was a clinical vibe about the room like it was soulless.
But Chaos didn’t dwell on that.
Not when she saw what was sitting right on top of the bed.
She walked into the room towards the metal box. She knew what was in there. She’d seen it so many times already.
Adam’s glove.
She looked around the room as she rushed toward the bed. She was still alone. Still totally alone.
She reached the bed. Held her breath. The glove had to be here. It just had to be.
To Chaos’ delight and relief, it was.
She felt a smile stretch across her face.
Then she heard footsteps behind.
The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. She didn’t want to turn around because she didn’t want to see who or what was there.
But she knew exactly who it was already.
So she turned around.
Adam stood right by his door, smiling.
Behind him, a man and a woman.
Both of them were clearly his followers.
He lifted a hand. Pointed at the box. “Go on. Take it. Keep it as a souvenir.”
Chaos didn’t move for a second. She shook all over, sure, and her heart was rapid, absolutely. But she didn’t move, like a rabbit caught in the headlights of Adam’s charming, bright green eyes.
Then she lunged into the box.
She fumbled to get the glove on. She tried to drag it over her arm.
She had to get it on.
She had to use it before Adam got to her.
She turned. Pointed it at Adam, and the two people beside him.
And then…
32
I knew the guys entering the club were looking right at me even though my invisibility was activated, and I knew damned well that I was in for a fight, whether I liked it or not.
I could do with a good, unfair fight stacked in my favor. But I was feeling sluggish for some reason, like something was suffocating my powers. So I hoped I wouldn’t have to get into a fight.
But yeah. The guys at the door now—twenty of them—lifted their hands.
Flames emerged from the palms of some.
Electricity from others.
They were all looking right at me and getting ready to fire.
Didn’t look like I was off the hook this time.
They fired at me.
I flew to my right, out of the way of the initial blast. I didn’t land as smoothly as I’d have liked, cracking the right side of my body against a table. A man and a woman were sat around it having drinks. Both of them screamed when I landed in front of them, the guy a bit louder than the woman.
I jumped back up and was face to face with a muscular man with a padded black outfit.
I pulled back my fist and punched him, but he knocked it away.
I kicked at him.
He swooped his arm toward my legs, trying to knock me from the table.
I jumped up, teleported right behind him, then grabbed his back and lifted him.
I turned around and threw him across the club, over into three of his friends, who were charging up and getting ready to fire at me.
The electricity hit their friend as he hit them, and they fell down like dominoes.
I ran along the wall to dodge the small spray of gunfire which came from the hands of another of Adam’s followers. The club was in chaos now. Everyone was screaming, battling to get out. I kept on moving against the wall. Then I jumped up and elbowed a guy right in the head.
Again, though, my landing was sluggish, and before I knew it I was lying on the floor surrounded by six of Adam’s followers.
All of them had their powers activated.
All of them got ready to fire.
I spun around on my back and made a tiny wormhole appear underneath all of their feet.
Then I clapped my hands together.
They fell down through the floor, like it’d crumbled away beneath their feet.
I closed the wormhole then I jumped back up.
There were just four of them left now.
But they had hostages.
I felt anger building up. I tensed my fists. Taking hostages was weak. It was a total coward’s game. I wasn’t going to leave these people behind. I wasn’t going to let them die.
I looked at the four men standing with their hostages, all of them one each, all of them on their knees.
I ground my teeth together, and felt the floor shake. I saw lights sparking, and I felt like time was slowing down.
I closed my eyes.
Took a deep breath.
Then I fired at the hostages.
They disappeared, dragged away from the club and through a wormhole.
Only I’d sent them somewhere safe.
Now it was just me, face to face with the remaining four ULTRAs.
I started to power up when I heard more footsteps outside, and saw more ULTRAs running in. Dammit. There were more of them. I had to check on Adam’s room upstairs. I hadn’t seen Chaos in a long time. I had to know she was okay.
I thought about fighting off the rest of these ULTRAs. No doubt I had the ability to. But I just didn’t know if I had the time to.
So I shot over to the other side of the club.
I transported my way up the stairs, as the fire of the remaining ULTRAs sounded out behind me.
I ran over to the third door on the right, which Chaos told me was Adam’s.
It was already open wide.
I ran inside.
There was nobody in the room.
Just a box on the bed.
A box, which Chaos said contained the glove.
I heard the footsteps getting closer and I knew I didn’t have long left.
I rushed over to the bed, my powers still a little shaky for some reason. Must be an ULTRA who had the ability to weaken the powers of others.
I opened the box.
When I saw what was inside, my body went totally cold, and I felt vomit fill my mouth.
I heard the footsteps reach the door and I knew Adam was here for me. I knew this was all some kind of trap.
And as much as I knew I needed to fight, I knew I couldn’t. Not right now.
I teleported myself away before they could catch me.
But as I disappeared, I couldn’t get what I’d seen out of my aching head.
The glove wasn’t in the box.
Instead, Chaos’ head was in the box.
And next to her head, a little note written in blood.
Too late.
33
Damon watched the news unfolding about his best friend and his latest mishap.
This time, there was a showdown at a nightclub in the middle of Tokyo. Not only had it left an ULTRA dead, but it had left several security guards wounded, too. It was unconfirmed whether anyone else had died. No doubt more reports would emerge in time.
But the amount of chaotic confrontations Kyle was getting himself dragged into was unsettling Damon.
He wanted to bring his best friend back down to earth.
He wanted Kyle back.
He rolled over in his bed and squeezed his eyes shut. He was tired, and he had no appetite. Downstairs, he could hear his parents’ television, and he could hear rain rattling against his window. He just wanted to keep his eyes closed and forget about everything. He didn’t want to be a part of all this anymore.
But he had powers, now. He had been given abilities by Adam. The ability to paralyze people and ULTRAs. And he’d been given a responsibility that he was genuinely starting to believe would benefit the world, too.
He had to bring Kyle to his knees, and then Adam could take his pow
ers away from him.
He thought about approaching Kyle directly. Working something out between them. Getting him to disappear so Damon didn’t have to do a thing, and Adam would never find him.
But Damon knew damn well Kyle wasn’t going to listen to him. Not now he was “Glacies”. Not anymore.
There was no glossing over the facts. They were on the news. They were in the anger of the people on the streets.
Kyle was not just hurting himself.
He was hurting other people.
That had to stop.
He lifted his phone and hovered over Ellicia’s name. He didn’t like this method. He didn’t want to take this approach. But he needed to do something radical, and if Kyle listened to anyone, it would be Ellicia.
He tapped on her name and held his breath.
He listened to the dialing tone and waited for her to answer.
After six rings, he went to cancel the call. No. He had to go about this another way. He couldn’t scheme and go behind Kyle’s back. He had to—
“Damon?”
Damon heard Ellicia’s voice and his mouth went dry.
“You there?”
“Yeah, I…”
“Are you okay?”
Damon tensed his eyes shut and squeezed the bridge of his nose. The sickness in his body intensified. “Ellicia, I—I need you to get in touch with Kyle.”
“What’s going on?”
“I need his help. Desperately. Please.”
“Damon? Are you—”
Damon canceled the call.
He threw his phone across the room.
When he looked down at his hands, he saw electricity tingling across them.
Now, he just had to wait.
34
“A head in a box. You’ve got to give the guy credit. That’s some Grade-A Se7en level shit.”
I was in the Lake District, England, with Daniel and Cassie. It was dark. And cold. And rainy. Yeah, all the stereotypes about Britain were true after all. We were right at the top of one of the highest hills. It felt like we were in the middle of nowhere, looking down at the mass of trees and the tiny villages in the distance, barely a speck on the landscape. And that was just how we wanted it right now.
The discovery of Chaos had left us all shaken.
The rest of the Resistance had gone AWOL. I couldn’t blame them, really. They were being hunted down by Adam and his followers. And as much as I could do with all the support I could get right now, they all had problems of their own. They all had lives of their own.
I had to let them fight their own battles.
I knew they’d be here for me in time when I really needed them.
At least I hoped so.
I listened to the breeze and smelled the fresh pine in the distance. I hadn’t spoken for a long time. That’s because I couldn’t stop thinking. Thinking of what to do next. Of how we had to progress.
“I mean, the glove’s gone,” Daniel said, echoing my thoughts. “And we know now that Adam ain’t too kind to his exes. So he’s hardly gonna give up without a fight.”
“We take the fight to him. Directly. To him and his people.”
Cassie tutted. “And how do we do that?”
I opened my mouth. I truly didn’t have an answer.
But I had to try.
“Whatever happens, we know for a fact that we have to take on Adam and his people.”
“You keep saying that,” Daniel said, crunching down on an apple. “Not a real plan.”
“We’re strong, the three of us.”
“But we still need a plan,” Cassie said.
I sighed and nodded. Why couldn’t it just be as easy as the three of us forcing our way to Adam through his mass of ULTRAs and take him down?
“I appreciate what you want to do,” Cassie said. “But to get to Adam, we have to get through his followers. And they won’t go down without a fight. And fighting them… well, Adam’s framed that as us fighting the people.”
“I say we mow them down anyway,” Daniel said. “They’ve picked their side. Let them pay for it.”
Cassie shook her head. “No. You know how we work. We don’t kill our own.”
“They’re not our own,” Daniel said. “They’re power-mad idiots that’ve been gifted their abilities by an even bigger power-mad idiot.”
“But they’re still people,” Cassie said.
We were quiet again for some time. Then eventually, I found myself speaking, out of nowhere, as if someone was speaking through me.
“The people might not want us to win right now. We might look like the bad guys for even fighting Adam. But in the long run, we’ll go down in history as having done the right thing.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Cassie asked.
I stood up. Took a deep breath of the damp air. Then I turned back round to face my biological brother and sister. “We’re going to find a way to take Adam down. And if that means rounding up every single one of these people he’s given abilities to and throwing them into a wormhole, then so be it.”
Daniel smiled. “That’s the spirit.”
Cassie didn’t look quite as impressed. “I don’t know. It’s…”
“We have to take difficult choices sometimes. We have to make the tough decisions. But right now, this is me taking responsibility. This is me and us stepping up and doing what’s right for the planet. And I don’t buy the crap about us not representing the people. We are people too. We just need to learn how to reconnect again.”
More silence followed. I could hear an owl hooting somewhere nearby.
“So are you with me?” I asked.
Daniel looked at Cassie. Cassie looked back at him.
Then they both looked at me and nodded.
I felt a weight rise from my shoulders. The weight of questioning whether I was doing the right thing all along. “Good. I—”
I felt my phone ringing. That was weird. It was… it was the emergency phone. I only accepted calls from Ellicia, Damon, Avi and Dad on there.
I saw it was Ellicia.
“Ellicia?” I said. “What is it? Are you okay?”
“It’s Damon,” Ellicia said. “He—he’s in big trouble. He needs your help.”
35
Adam watched Kyle appear right outside Damon’s place, just as he’d planned.
He could see the panic on Kyle’s face. He could see just how worried he looked.
That made him smile. Because it meant that the plan must be coming together.
And there was nothing more wonderful than a plan coming together.
He looked over his shoulder at his followers standing behind him.
Then he turned back around and watched Kyle enter Damon’s home.
He took a deep breath.
It was almost time to make his move.
Then, the world would be his.
36
When I got to Damon’s, I knew right away that something was wrong.
I couldn’t explain the feeling I had, other than it was an overwhelming sense of foreboding. Like I just knew something wasn’t right. I’d had this feeling a hell of a lot in my life, but more so since I’d discovered my ULTRA abilities.
And when I’d had them since discovering my ULTRA abilities, they’d more often than not been totally right.
I stood outside his house and stared up through the windows. I couldn’t see any movement, but after what Ellicia had said to me on the phone, there was something wrong with Damon. Apparently he’d called her and didn’t sound too good, and that he needed my help immediately.
I wanted to press Ellicia for more information. I wanted to know more about Damon’s predicament, and exactly what I was heading into.
But I didn’t have time.
I walked up the steps and teleported my way through Damon’s door.
His lounge was empty. The rest of the house seemed quiet, too. I knew his parents were away, so that perhaps had something to do with it.
I look
ed around the lounge for a sign of him. Maybe he was hiding. Maybe he was hurt. God, I hoped not. I dreaded to think how I’d feel if he was hurt. I didn’t want to let someone else I cared about down.
I left the lounge and headed into the kitchen.
I’d worried about this day ever since my first confrontation with Nycto. I feared that the time might come when someone I cared about got caught in the crossfire. And they had already, numerous times. Mom. Orion. My sister, Cassie, who’d remarkably turned out to be alive all along.
I didn’t want to lose anyone else. Especially not my closest friend.
I searched the kitchen, but there was still no sign. I didn’t want to shout in case someone was in here, watching. The house just felt empty, though. I had something of an intuition about me since developing my powers. Usually, my snap verdict was often right—as much as I didn’t want to believe it a lot of the time.
But maybe this time, it was wrong.
Hopefully the whole thing was just a big misunderstanding. Then it dawned on me that Ellicia hadn’t even told me Damon was at home at all. Maybe he was elsewhere. Maybe he’d been taken from his home, and someone was keeping him hostage.
I thought about teleporting over to Ellicia’s when I heard footsteps upstairs.
I looked up at the ceiling.
There was a definite creaking around.
And then, just as quickly as I’d heard it, the creaking stopped.
On one hand, at least I knew someone was in.
On the other… it could be anyone.
I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and activated my invisibility. Now was the time to take the stealthy route.
I crept up the stairs. Still I couldn’t see anyone. The creaking was still going on though.
And it was coming from Damon’s room.
My heart raced faster as I made my way to Damon’s bedroom door. A whole host of scenarios circled my mind. I didn’t know how I was going to find him in there. I didn’t know what sort of condition I was going to find him in.
I just hoped to God he was okay.
I steadied my breathing, then I opened the bedroom door.
When I looked inside Damon’s room, what I saw wasn’t exactly what I expected.