by Matt Blake
Luckily, I was strong as it was. That was just part of being Glacies.
But still, it wasn’t easy.
I felt my chest splitting as I pulled the rocks apart and I knew I had to be careful. I’d been stabbed right through my chest not long ago. Although I’d healed myself, I didn’t want to risk agitating the wound any more.
But I had to pull these rocks apart.
I felt rain splash against me and a bitter taste filled my mouth. I felt bad about what I was doing, and about what I was going to do. I knew it was risky and dangerous. But I knew for a fact that I needed help from forces way more powerful than me.
I pulled the rocks right apart. Then, I looked up into space.
I remembered what Damon asked me a week ago. A week that seemed so long ago, to think about it. I remembered when he asked if I’d ever teleported into space. It made my chest tingle and my legs shake, just thinking about it. I knew how much of a risk it was.
But I knew what I needed to do now.
Or at least, what I needed to try and do.
I held my breath.
Then, I shifted all my energy into creating a massive wormhole in the middle of Krakatoa beneath me.
I watched the sea start to swirl, like a whirlpool was forming.
I watched electricity sparkle at the surface of the water.
I watched a vast void opening.
I steadied my focus, held my breath some more as I opened up that void.
I knew what was through there.
I knew what I needed to do when I got through there.
I thought of Dad. Ellicia. Everyone I loved.
I was doing this for them.
But not just them.
I was doing this for the world, whether the world realized it or not.
I closed my eyes. Wiped away a tear.
Then I let go of my focus and allowed the wormhole to suck me into its suffocating clutches.
47
Adam looked at his watch and saw there were only ten minutes remaining.
He couldn’t help but crack a smile.
He looked across the vast expanse of Staten Island. Everywhere he looked, in the glow of the sun, which burned through the rainclouds, he saw people. All of them were holding up banners with his face on. All of them were cheering his name.
He’d never felt so powerful or so mighty in his life.
But there was still something missing. And that something was Kyle Peters. Glacies.
He looked ahead, at the tall building he stood on. In front of him, the people he knew Kyle cared about most. His dad. His girlfriend. His sister. His two best friends.
So where was he?
Why wasn’t he here?
He walked over to Damon, who he’d placed beside Ellicia. He could see the red electricity sizzling at the energy-suppressing ties around Damon’s wrists, the same kind he’d put around Cassie’s wrists. He knew they weren’t breaking through those ties anytime soon. They weren’t strong enough.
“How does it feel knowing he isn’t coming for you?” Adam whispered.
Nobody responded.
He leaned closer to the side of Ellicia. “How does it feel knowing your hero has given up on you?”
“He hasn’t given up on us.”
Adam turned around.
It was Damon who’d spoken.
“What did you say?”
“I said he hasn’t given up on us,” Damon said. He stared straight ahead, over the side of the building, into the crowd. “He’d never give up on us. No matter what.”
Adam felt his grin stretching further. He reached over and put a hand on Damon’s shoulder. He could feel Damon’s powers just beneath his glove. He wanted to drag them away, but at the same time, he wanted to be strong for when Kyle arrived, so he could finally take those powers that were rightly his. “Well. There’s… eight minutes left now. And no sign of your hero. So he’d better get a move on.”
Adam walked away from his hostages. He stood at the edge of the building and looked down at the armies of liberated people. He felt so proud when he saw his followers. So many people he’d gifted. Even the ones who hadn’t been converted to ULTRAs believed in what he was doing.
He was democratizing powers.
He was giving the people something to believe in.
“Soon, we will be free,” Adam called. “All of us will be free from fear. Glacies will be with us no more. And we can share what he has. All of us.”
A cheer from the crowd. The cheers always made the hairs on the back of Adam’s neck stand on end. Of course, he was lying about his plans to share Kyle Peters’ powers with others. He’d done enough sharing with other people. He deserved a little something to himself.
And he’d get it.
“He’ll come for you.”
Adam turned around.
This time, it was Kyle’s father who spoke.
He looked up at Adam through bruised, tired eyes. He didn’t look scared. Just ground down by the world. Like he’d been through so much crap that he just didn’t care what happened to him anymore.
“Got something to say for yourself?” Adam asked.
“I said, he’ll come for you.”
“I heard—”
“And when he comes for you, he’ll take you down. Because he cares about people way more than you ever have. And he’s much, much more of a hero than you’ll ever be.”
Adam smiled. For a moment, he could feel Kyle’s father getting under his skin.
Then the roar of the crowd invaded his soul all over again, and everything felt okay.
“We’ll see.” He looked down at his watch. “Four minutes. Four minutes until you—”
Then he heard the massive explosion above.
He looked up at the sky.
He saw the mass of purple right in the middle of the clouds.
He saw the spiraling hole burned into the middle of the atmosphere.
He saw the wormhole, and he saw the speck in the middle of it.
He knew what that speck was.
Who that speck was.
“Well now,” Adam said. “Look who’s late to the party.”
48
I shot down to the rooftop of the Staten Island building and stood opposite Avi, Damon, Dad, Cassie, and Ellicia.
And Adam.
The rain lashed down heavily. Behind me, on the ground, I could hear boos and shrieks the second I appeared. Some of the crowd had powers, so were floating at the side of the building. I heard the crowd getting more angsty. They clearly worshiped Adam after all his brainwashing. And in a way, I couldn’t blame them. He’d given them so much power.
Or at least, the illusion of power.
In their eyes, all I’d done was shown them the way. I was the past. Adam was the future.
It was my job to make sure they didn’t believe that for long.
I took a deep breath of the humid air and looked Adam in the eye. “My people. Let them go.”
Adam smiled. He was soaked with rain, but his curly locks looked totally unaffected. “Your people? That’s funny. You see, I swear you have some other people somewhere too. Your Resistance. Right?”
I tried not to think about the Resistance. I didn’t know where they were. If they were in hiding, I couldn’t blame them. I hoped wherever they were, they were okay.
But this was my challenge. This was my fight.
Adam was mine to defeat.
“And what about the people on the ground?” Adam said. “The people hovering at the side of the building? The people you’re supposed to represent? What do they think?”
Their cheers for Adam caught my attention all over again. I had to admit it was unnerving how much they’d been won over to his side and his cause. It sure made my fight a lot harder. “They don’t know what they want. Or what you really are.”
“Oh,” Adam said, a feigned look of shock across his face. “They don’t know what they want? You really think so ill of their intelligence, do you?”
>
“I didn’t—”
“Hear those boos? They are boos against you. That is the sound of the very people you claim you fight for telling you they don’t want you anymore. You don’t make choices for them anymore. You don’t speak for them anymore.”
The boos were so loud that my head hurt. I looked across at the people kneeling in front of Adam. I looked into Damon’s shamed eyes, so pitiful, so sorry. I looked at Avi’s fear. I saw Dad’s pride in me, right to the bitter end. I saw Cassie looking at me just as she had nine years ago, like she was scared not just for herself, but for me.
And then I saw Ellicia.
Ellicia was the only one of these people looking at me with a smile on her face. I saw the light in her eyes. The same light I’d see when Damon and I went to that soccer game a year ago. A year in which so much had happened. A year in which so much had changed.
She looked at me with faith.
“I understand I don’t speak for people. Not anymore. I get that.”
Some of the boos receded. An air of confusion radiated, like nobody expected me to say what I’d said. I could hear what they were asking. Was I giving up? Was I handing myself over?
Even Adam looked a little confused. He tried to keep that smile, but I could see it twitching, faltering at the edges. “That’s admirable.”
“I don’t speak for the people. And I understand people should be able to choose. They should have a decision in who leads them.”
The boos started to turn to cheers. But I could tell they were cheers at my impending resignation, if that’s what they were suspecting.
“And I apologize,” I said, my throat clamming up as the breeze grew stronger. I looked right into Ellicia’s eyes. “I apologize for the bad decisions I’ve made.”
I turned to Damon. My eyes were clouded with tears now.
“I apologize for the chaos I’ve caused. For the destruction I’ve caused. For the people I’ve let down.”
The cheers were in full assault now.
Adam looked well and truly thrown. Like he was expecting a fight.
I walked towards him. Stood right opposite him. I looked right into his striking green eyes.
“But you have to see this for what it is,” I shouted.
I heard the cheers stop. More a curiosity now, a sense of confusion.
I saw Adam frown.
“Adam isn’t looking out for you. Adam’s sole priority is getting my powers. Taking them from me so he can rule. He’s pretending he believes in you by giving you powers. But if that’s true, then why has he stopped? Why has he changed his goal to turning on the First Wave? Why has he changed from peace to war?”
There was a mixed response from the crowd then. Like some of them were infuriated by what I was saying, but at the same time, some of them were curious.
“Stop this trash,” Adam said. “He’s manipulated you before,” he called. “Don’t let him manipulate you ag—”
“Remember what happened the last time you followed something that seemed too good to be true? The ULTRAbot program? Remember how that turned out?”
More of a muffled response. People turning to one another, like they were awakening from a haze.
“It turned out to be Saint. And I’m telling you, right here, that this guy is no god. He’s Saint 2. Well. I would say that, if he weren’t such an insult to Saint’s powers.”
I saw Adam blush. Saw the anger building up inside.
“This isn’t your hero. This is just another conqueror. And when he’s done with you, he’ll toss you aside. Just like he has Damon here.”
I wasn’t sure how the crowd reacted to that. I wanted to stay here and try and reach out for them for longer.
But by Adam’s side, I saw people emerge. Adam’s followers. Lots of them.
All of them floating past Adam.
Coming toward me.
“And now look what he does to people who stand against him,” I said. “Look how weak your god is now. He can’t even fight.”
Adam, who was at the other side of a crowd of his charged-up ULTRAs, smiled now.
“Is that so?” he asked.
He walked up to Cassie.
Pressed a hand against her head.
I flew at him. But before I could get anywhere, I felt a pain shoot through my side, another damned electrical bolt, and I fell to the roof.
“I can’t fight, huh?” Adam asked, as he pressed down further against her head.
I saw the tears in her eyes. I heard the pain in her voice. I tried to move, to shake free of the clutch of the electromagnetism, but I couldn’t.
“Let’s see about that,” Adam said.
He pushed harder against Cassie’s head.
I saw smoke.
Heard a bang, then a flash of light.
Cassie dropped to the roof, eyes closed.
There was total silence, then. At least it felt like that. I knew Dad was crying out. I knew there was commotion.
But all I saw was my sister lying there just as she had all those years ago.
Lying there, motionless, all over again, with smoke forming around her.
Adam stepped over her. He walked right up to me. He lifted my chin.
“Anything to say?”
I gritted my teeth. Blasted free of the electromagnetic charge that’d repressed me, as pain and fear filled my body.
Then I felt ice spread across my hands, then my entire body.
“Give up,” I said. “I’ll give you three chances. No more.”
Adam smiled. “Good,” he said, ignoring my command. “I didn’t think so.”
He tightened his fists.
Purple electricity—just like the kind that used to cover Cassie’s hands—sprouted from his palms.
Then he pulled back a fist and cracked it into my face.
49
I felt Adam’s fist crack across my face, and I knew the time to take a stand for humanity was now.
I dug my heels in as the rain lashed down from the thick clouds above. I felt myself flying backward, as a swarm of Adam’s followers surrounded me. There were lots of them now. Thirty. Forty. Maybe more. And behind them, Damon, Avi, Ellicia, Cassie, Dad.
I couldn’t let them get too far out of sight.
I couldn’t let anything happen to them.
I took a punch from an ULTRA with rocks for hands, a little like Stone. I grabbed the rock, twisted the ULTRA around, then threw him at the crowd running at me. Above, I saw movement, and realized a flying ULTRA was powering down at me.
I dodged it, slipping a little in the process.
Then when I regained my footing, I fired ice at that ULTRA.
A lot of ice.
I looked around at the crowd of ULTRAs and I saw then exactly what I could do. I could freeze them all. I didn’t necessarily have to kill them, just freeze them while I dealt with Adam. And sure, it wouldn’t go down well with the people. They’d probably see me as even more of a villain.
But if that’s what it took to protect their best interests, even if they hated me for it, it’s what I had to do.
I lifted my hands and felt the pressure building behind my palms. Every hair on my body stood on end as I scanned the crowd. I didn’t have enough time to create a wormhole. The ice would have to do. It’d have to suffice, for now—
Then I felt someone smack my shoulder and I fell to my knees.
I felt an agonizing pain rip through my body, like my insides were being sucked out through a straw. It was only when I looked up that I saw Adam standing over me, and he had that glove pressed against me.
He smiled. I saw tingling light creeping up his arm. “You didn’t have to take the hard route,” he said. “And you still don’t.”
I gritted my teeth as my powers simultaneously got stronger and weaker. It was as if my body was fighting some kind of invading vaccination, trying desperately to kick the sickness out while at the same time soaking it up for its own benefit.
I saw Cassie, still paralyzed,
with everyone else I loved beside her.
I knew that if I didn’t act fast, I’d reach that state too.
“Neither do you,” I said. “Give up. While you still have the chance.”
Adam smiled. He shook his head again. He clearly wasn’t giving in anytime soon. “You just don’t get it, do you?”
I shrugged. “Neither do you.”
I closed my eyes.
I’d be back for my family. I’d be back for my friends. I’d be back for my girlfriend.
But right now, I had somewhere to be.
I grabbed Adam’s shin and teleported the pair of us far away.
We appeared in the middle of the desert somewhere. The heat was stifling.
But Adam was still holding on to my shoulder. His glove was ripping my powers from my body.
I punched at his legs, knocking him over.
When he was on his back, I stood over him, tightened my telekinetic grip around his neck, and pulled him upright.
“I’ll tell you what the hard route is,” I said, venom in my voice. “The hard route is continuing to fight. I don’t want to have to kill you. But if I have to, to save the people from you…”
Adam smiled. “What?” he spluttered. “You’ll kill me, will you? Bullshit. You won’t kill anyone. Not when we’re your own kind.”
“You’re not my own kind.”
Adam laughed. “Oh, really?”
Then he snapped my telekinetic grip and slammed into my chest.
I flew back into the sand. I could feel him getting tougher, using up Cassie’s powers.
“If you keep fighting, you’ll have those powers to keep,” I said. “You’ll never get my powers.”
Adam wrapped his hands around my neck. He tightened them harder than he’d ever done before. “Maybe I don’t need them.”
I tried to kick back. I tried to activate my powers. But the more I struggled, the weaker I got.
He was using Cassie’s powers.
He was giving up on mine and he didn’t even need mine.
He was defeating me.
“You’ll… you can have mine. But not hers. Never hers.”