by Matt Blake
And where I was powerless.
Or at least, that’s what people thought.
“Hear there’s a new Ethan Hunt movie out,” Damon said.
I wanted to smile at the normality of his words. He was obsessed with Mission Impossible. I was pretty confident there wasn’t another of those movies out. It was kind of his go-to thing to say whenever he was uncomfortable.
“Damon.”
He shrugged.
“Damon, look at me.”
Damon lifted his head. For a moment, his eyes met mine.
Then he looked right away again.
“What happened. Between us. It’s done.”
“But it’s not done,” Damon said. His voice broke. He lifted his hands. I saw the powers tingling at his skin. “Not as long as I have these.”
I walked over to him. Put a hand on his back. It was hard for me to do, especially to a best friend who I thought I trusted, and who I thought trusted me. But I knew it was the right thing to do. “I was annoyed with you. No doubt about that. I think it was a snake-ish thing to do.”
“I never wanted to be a snake.”
“Well you were. But what’s done’s done. And weirdly, I guess you made me realize a few things. Like the mistakes I’d made. And if you hadn’t stood against me then… hell. Maybe I would never have realized.”
Damon didn’t respond to that. There was silence between us. “I betrayed you.”
“You were worried about me and you were worried about what was happening to people. I get that. And I’m sorry if I ever made you feel anything other than a best friend.”
“I… I killed Daniel.”
A bitter taste filled my lips. I remembered watching Daniel take the full force of Damon’s powers. Then not long after that paralyzing blow, I’d watched as one of Adam’s followers eliminated him completely. “You didn’t kill Daniel,” I said. “Adam killed Daniel.”
“But I—”
“You were just doing what you thought was the right thing. Daniel got caught up in it. I… I forgive you.”
Damon leaned into me then. He rested his head on my shoulder.
“Hey, now,” I said. “Not too close.”
He sniggered a bit, sniveling in the process. “Right.”
“Don’t want any rumors going round.”
“Sure,” he laughed. “Sure.”
It was weird seeing Damon so broken down. So out of jokes. He usually had a joke for everything.
I was confident those jokes would return, someday. But it would take time. The wall that’d been formed between us wouldn’t rebuild itself overnight. He was right. He had betrayed me. But I’d betrayed him too.
The reparations were a two-way thing.
“As for your powers,” I said.
When I pulled the glove from behind my back, I saw the shock on Damon’s face. “How did you—”
“There’s more than one of these gloves in circulation. Well, two, and if Psycho Adam found one, I was pretty determined to get my hands on the other. But anyway. What I want to know is, do you really want to give up your powers? ’Cause I can take them from you. Right now. If that’s what you want.”
Damon looked at the glove, then back at me. He was like a kid in a sweetshop.
I saw that red electricity bolt down his arms.
Then I saw him glance at the glove.
“I think I’ll hold onto them. Just for a short while.”
I half-smiled. Lowered the glove. “Good. We can have some fun with Avi now.”
Out of nowhere, Damon grabbed me and hugged me.
“I’m sorry,” he cried.
I rested my hands on his back and patted it. “Don’t be.”
“I just—I… I’m so sorry.”
I closed my eyes when I felt myself tearing up. And I let myself hold onto my best friend of so many years too. “Me too,” I said. “Me too.”
We sat there in my dad’s mechanics for a long, long time, not saying a single word, just holding onto one another and crying.
When it felt like enough time had passed before our holding and crying got weird, I pulled myself from Damon’s bear hug and headed over to the door of the mechanics.
“Where will you go?” Damon asked.
I turned around and frowned. “What d’you mean?”
“Now your powers are gone. Where will you go?”
Now your powers are gone. Hearing Damon say those words made me realize just how much I was deceiving people all over again. But they couldn’t know the truth. Part of my “sacrifice” for the “greater good” was that I’d given up my powers in the name of the people.
And sure. I had given them up.
But already I could feel those powers building inside me again.
And nobody could find that out. Ever.
“I guess I’ll just go back to my old life,” I said.
“Being a wussy nerd?”
I smiled. “Something like that. Goodbye, Damon.”
“‘Goodbye, Damon’? What is this, some kind of cliched action movie?”
I found myself laughing at Damon freely then. Damon laughed too, in turn. “I knew I’d never lose you,” I said. “Not really.”
Damon’s smile turned. It turned just enough for me to understand that he didn’t feel the same. He’d worried he’d lost me. And he still worried he’d lose me. “Stay safe,” he said.
I nodded.
Then I turned around and walked out into the humid summer air.
54
I stood at the top of the Empire State Building, invisibility activated, and waited for my sister to appear.
Got to admit, standing at the top of the Empire State Building was a nervy feat in itself, invisible or not. I was getting there in terms of my abilities. I felt a lot more recharged. Not as strong as I had been once upon a time, perhaps. But stronger than when Adam had taken my powers away for sure.
Still, I worried about being here. Nobody knew I had my abilities.
Well. Just one person knew I had my abilities.
Cassie.
I looked across the bustling city of New York. I could see Staten Island in the distance, the place I’d called home all my life. Down below, I heard horns and the buzz of traffic. I could smell the fumes from the fast food restaurants and the street vendors and the exhaust fumes. But that wasn’t a bad thing. This was New York. This was home.
I looked at the sun half-set and I realized she should be here by now. I’d told her she was strong. That she could find it in herself to rediscover her abilities. I’d managed to recharge, even after Adam had taken my abilities away. So I knew Cassie would be able to, too.
She told me she didn’t think so. She told me she didn’t think she was as strong as me.
I told her she was wrong about that. Totally wrong.
I was about to turn away when I saw movement whooshing below.
For a second, I thought it was Cassie. But I soon realized they were just humans. Well, humans with ULTRA abilities now. Former followers of Adam.
They would be a problem. While they seemed happy enough for now, I knew there was an even greater chance of ULTRAs going rogue and fighting back. The Resistance had collapsed, perhaps in its time of greatest need.
But I saw why the Resistance had failed. People didn’t like bodies being created above them. They didn’t want to feel like they were being trodden down into the dirt, or less important now for whatever reason.
That was why I had to keep a low profile.
Not just because I knew humanity would struggle with the idea that the ULTRA with the greatest abilities was still amongst them, and still powered.
But also because I needed to watch over them from the shadows.
As a great story once said, I might not be the hero these people wanted. But I was the hero they needed.
It was then that I saw her.
She was just a dot against the sun. She was only there for a split second, so she wouldn’t catch the eye of anyone else.
And when I saw her, I knew.
She disappeared almost as quickly as she’d appeared.
But she didn’t have to be present any longer.
Cassie had her abilities back.
I had my abilities back.
Together, we would look out for this world, behind the scenes.
I looked up at the clouds. Wherever Orion and Daniel were, I hoped they were proud of us. I hoped we were making the right call.
I looked back down at the streets of New York. In an alleyway, I saw someone hold a gun to a woman’s head, another man snatching her handbag away.
I took a deep breath and made my invisibility stronger.
I clenched my fists, and felt ice stretch up my arms.
Then I jumped off the Empire State Building and into the next world.
55
When Daniel Septer opened his eyes, he had no recollection of why he was in so much pain.
His body was on fire. Completely on fire. He tried to look around, but all he saw was darkness. He felt like he was floating, and as much as that intense heat suffocated him, part of him wondered whether he even had a body at all.
Then he saw a light.
It was in the distance. And something about that light made him want to go towards it. The closer he got to it, the more his memories came back.
He’d been fighting.
He’d been fighting with Kyle.
And then he’d been captured.
And then…
A sickness filled his mouth. As he looked around this vast, empty darkness, he knew where he was. He was in some kind of wormhole. Of his own making? Of Kyle’s making? He wasn’t sure. Perhaps some kind of safety mechanism had kicked in right before his powers had been stripped away.
Something had happened. He wasn’t sure what.
All he cared about was getting to that light.
He pushed even further. The burning on his body intensified, but he grew more comfortable and accepting of it.
As the light got closer, he realized it wasn’t a light at all.
It was a…
He narrowed his eyes.
His jaw dropped.
“Don’t look so surprised,” the voice said.
Daniel didn’t know what to say. He didn’t know what to think. “But—”
“You really think I was gone for good? Don’t be so naive. Now come on. We’ve got to discuss the next step.”
“The next step?” Daniel was transfixed, his consciousness failing to accept or understand that this person could still be alive. “What… what next step?”
The man opposite drifted further into the light.
The bottom half of his scarred face illuminated, and he smiled.
“Getting out of this place. And getting back to Earth. Together.”
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The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author. Any reference to real locations is only for atmospheric effect, and in no way truly represents those locations.
Copyright © 2016 by Matt Blake
Cover design by Damonza
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