“Have you seen anything?” Eli asked Blake.
“Not yet,” Blake answered, walking towards the team with his hands in his pocket.
“How can you see in those dark goggles?” Taia asked Blake. “It’s night.”
“Aww, you’re worried about me Taia?” Blake asked smiling. He then tapped his glasses. “It’s all good. They have a night vision setting on them that I’m using.”
Taia nodded and looked at Eli. He was staring in the distance in deep thought.
“Shouldn’t we be able to see them by now?” Jesse asked. “At least somewhat.”
“Yes,” Melissa answered. But she didn’t provide any more information.
“Maybe your information was wrong Mel,” Blake said. “I mean it is the middle of the night. Your connections in the Core could have fed you some false info.”
“They didn’t,” Melisa replied stoically.
Carl had taken a seat on a large rock and was dozing off. Blake and Fielding had gone to stand next to Eli.
The West Gate doors then opened behind the team and Sector soldiers began pouring out of them, led by Connor.
The Lieutenant General walked up to Eli. “Where’s the Regime boy?” Connor asked him. “They should be in our sight by now.”
Eli ignored him. That’s when his eyes suddenly got wide. “We can’t see them,” he said to himself. “You need to tell your people to shoot,” Eli said to Connor hurriedly pointing out into the Wasteland
“To shoot?” Connor asked. “Shoot at what? There’s nothing there.”
“There is something there,” Eli explained. “The Core knows we know that they’re coming. So they know we’d be out here waiting to see them. So they’re hiding. Probably using Supes that have cloaking abilities like camouflage or turning invisible. ”
“He’s right,” Melissa said emotionlessly. Connor flinched at the sight of her completely made of medal. “If they have enough Transcendeds who having invisibility powers it’s what they would do. It’s a classic Core move.”
“I’m not about to fire at nothing,” Connor snarled.
Taia and Eli’s eyes met before they both rolled their eyes. Eli’s eyes began glowing with the power of the Sun and he fired a heat blast from his hand into the seemingly empty Wasteland. Taia aimed her assault rifle and between firing several shots at the same place.
Not too far off, they heard several screams and groans, before suddenly thousands of Core members in their uniforms were revealed to be merely a few hundred feet in front of the Gate.
Connor jumped in surprise. “Fire!” he said over his com, scattering back to the wall. “Fire now!”
Suddenly from the top of the gate, energy blasts began surging forward hitting the Core army. The Core army began trying to run from the blast.
“Wait” Blake said excitedly, grabbing Eli. “When’d you learn to do that bro? When’d you learn to control it?”
Eli looked at Blake and then looked down at his hands. “I don’t know,” he replied.
A voice was then heard from the Core army. “Attack, now!”
The Core officers then began running toward the Resistance. Some of the officers took off to the skies whether it was from suddenly sprouting wings or some other form of flight.
The Sector 6 soldiers began firing at the Core soldiers as quickly as they could with their guns and their tanks. The soldiers handling the guns at the top of the Gate were trying their best to shoot Supes out of the air. Connor was shouting orders into his com.
But the Core had simply brought too many officers. Some were breaking through the ranks and others were using their powers to fire back on the soldiers. And they were advancing quickly.
“Now!” Eli yelled.
And Eli’s team took over.
Eli stuck out his hands and put as much gravity as he could on a group of Core officers. They fell to the ground and Eli took out his energy pistols and shot as many as he could.
“You need to put those guns down Eli,” Blake said to him before opening a large Vortex that sucked a group of Core officers up and sent them to only God knows where. “Use your powers. You can control them.”
Eli ignored him. And Taia knew why. Throwing a little energy blast was nothing, but Eli didn’t trust himself enough to not overheat.
Taia now knew why Eli said Fielding was one of the strongest Supes he knew. His power was incredible. He would grow huge branches the size of semi-trucks from the ground and send them flying at Core officers. He’d ride the branches of all kinds of plants before making more rise out of the ground to crush his enemies.
It was clear that Melissa had been trained like Eli had by the Core. And it was clear that she was very good.
In her metallic form it seemed like nothing could hurt her. Fire, punches, lightning, she just absorbed the brunt of it all. Just like the gate was designed to do. And with her Core training in hand to hand combat, she was causing a lot of Supes a lot of pain.
But who surprised Taia the most was Carl. She thought his ability would be pretty useless in battle but he was very nimble on his feet. He avoided nearly everything and would just touch Core officers to make them fall asleep, now forced into laying useless on the ground. Anytime someone went to attack Carl and he wasn’t able to dodge it, Blake would come in and intercept the attack with one of his Vortexes.
That was something else that astounded Taia; how well this team worked together. Even Eli, who had not accepted his role as the leader of this team until hours before, worked phenomenally with his teammates. It was clear that he had worked with most of them before.
Blake opened up a Vortex. “Eli!” he yelled. And Eli already knew what to do. He flew directly into the Vortex which sent him directly into the middle of the Core army.
He landed on the ground surrounded by Core officers. Several of the officers turned to attack him but Eli forced gravity outward sending those even relatively close to him flying backward.
A Supe that had the ability to grow in size just like the Giant Man that had attacked Taia, Blake, and Eli in Carthage, was giving the Resistance serious problems on the battlefield
Mellissa began running at full speed and called for Fielding. Fielding outstretched his hand and forced a tree to grow from the ground at an angle easy for Melissa to run up.
She ran up the tree several feet before jumping off of it. She fell into a Vortex that Blake opened up and she came out punching the Giant Man in the face knocking him out due to her hard, metallic fist.
A Tyrannosaurus Rex suddenly appeared on the battlefield. Eli flew over to it and forced an enormous amount of gravity on it in order to stop the Supe in its tracks.
“Jesse! Taia!” he called straining due to the use of his power. Jesse and Taia both knew what to do and shot several rounds from their energy rifles into the man turned dinosaur.
A large Supe with Super Strength came over to attack Carl from behind. Jesse slid and took the Supe out from under his legs and Taia followed up by flipping over him and shooting him in the chest.
Connor called for his second wave of soldiers. Taia had been right to learn how to fight Supes from Eli. Her Sector had been ill prepared and many of the soldiers were falling.
She got distracted over concern for her brethren falling and was nearly hit by an energy blast but Eli tackled her out of the way, saving her from out of nowhere. He got up without a word and continued fighting, flying away.
A large swarm of killer bees being controlled by a Supe was attacking the Resistance soldiers.
Fielding grew a Giant Venus Fly Trap. Blake opened a Vortex that the bees flew into and which resulted in them being ejected straight into the Venus Fly trap’s mouth.
Eli sent a gravity push at a group of Supes that forced them to fall down. He and Jesse then began firing on the down Supes with their weapons.
Suddenly Taia felt a pain in her jaw, like she had been punched but when she looked around no one was even near her. Then she saw Carl react as if he had bee
n punched too.
“What in the world?” she asked.
Then she doubled over as if she had been punched in the gut. She looked up.
Smiling at her was a slender young man in a Core uniform. “You’re too slow,” he said.
He then ran at Super Speed alternating between punching Carl and Taia.
“Just let me get my hands on you,” Carl said, obviously irritated.
“No way,” The young man panted. “You’re not putting me to sleep Sand-Man.”
“Is that all you’ve got?” Taia goaded. She then fired several shots at him. He dodged them all.
“Really?” he asked breathing heavily. “You have to know you won’t hit me.”
“I can try.” Taia then fired several more shots at the boy with him having to dodge them all before he stopped, bent over hands on his knees breathing heavily.
Taia walked up to him. He looked like he was about to pass out. “You have super speed, but not super cardio,” Taia explained. Supes only had one base power and she had to exploit that. Her lessons with Eli were really paying off. “Get in the gym,” she finished, before shooting the speedster.
“You’re good,” Carl said, nodding impressively.
And she was, but her Sector wasn’t. They outnumbered the Core but the Core was more prepared and her soldiers were dying. She could even tell that Eli and his team were slowing down. As impressive as they were, it was only five of them. And hundreds of Sector soldiers had already fallen. They wouldn’t hold the gate.
A large figure suddenly landed on one of the tanks nearly crushing it. It was a Supe that looked similar to Carter in that it was some sort of large Rock Avatar. It tore the tank apart before running up to another tank and punching it hard, destroying that one as well.
Melissa and Taia automatically ran towards the Core officer.
“Taia!” Eli yelled before sending a gravity fueled punch at a Supe sending him flying. But he was surrounded.
Taia ignored him. She knew what she was doing. She wasn’t the same scared girl from a few months ago.
Melissa launched a punch at the Core officer sending his large rock figure stumbling back. He brought a punch down towards Melissa’s head that she blocked.
The titanium alloy that Melisa’s body was now made of was stronger than the rock surrounding the Supe but the Supe was stronger.
They began trading blows but it looked like Melissa was losing.
Taia shot several rounds into the Supe’s body but to no avail. He began attacking both Melissa and Taia.
Taia was flipping and jumping to dodge any of the Supe’s attacks while Melissa just tried to block them. Eventually one of the Supe’s punches got through Mellissa’s guard and sent her flying, leaving Taia alone.
The Supe grunted happily before attacking Taia ferociously. Taia dodged his attacks before flipping over the Supe’s head and landing on the much taller man’s back and sitting on his shoulders.
“Get off of me!” the man screamed trying to reach Taia but his rock form was too large and bulky and he couldn’t grab Taia. “Get off me you little money b—“
But he was cut off by Taia reaching into the holster on her waist and putting her energy pistol in the Supe’s mouth. “Learn to shut up,” she said before firing a shot into the Supe’s mouth. She flipped off the Supe as he fell to the ground.
Looking around, Taia had a revelation; they were going to lose this battle. The Resistance outnumbered the Core but they were losing soldiers at a much higher rate than the Core was and Connor was sending more and more soldiers from inside the Sector’s walls out to die. She had to do something.
“Eli!” she called.
Eli came from the sky and landed next to Taia sending a group of Supes back with a gravity blast.
“Are you okay?” he asked her.
“We’re losing Eli,” she said. “You need to use all of your power. You can do this.”
Eli shook his head. “I can’t Taia,” he replied. “Shooting some fire is different, but if I tap into all of that power, we’re all going to die anyway.”
A vortex appeared next to the pair and Blake stepped out supporting Carl.
“Hey, I need to get him inside the Gate,” Blake said. “His leg is shattered.”
Taia looked at Carl’s leg and it was bent in a way that it shouldn’t have been.
Connor ran up to the group. “What are you doing just standing here?” he asked angrily. “You said you were here to help us. We’re losing this.”
And they were. The Core army was only getting closer to the gate. They had already taken out the majority of the guns on the wall and half of the Resistance’s forces were decimated.
“You have to evacuate the Sector,” Eli said. “We can’t win this.”
“Evacuate the Sector?” Connor asked, letting out a bitter laugh. “We’re surrounded with nothing but Wasteland, there’s nowhere to run.”
“I can teleport you all,” Blake said.
“Teleport us?” Taia asked. “Blake, it’s hundreds of thousands of people in the Sector. That kind of vortex would be insane.”
“I can do it,” Blake said confidently, smiling widely.
“Even if you can pull that off Blake” Eli said. “Where would you send them? That many unregistered humans? What’s a safe place to send them?”
“Another Sector,” Connor said. “I know the coordinates to one of them. They’ll take us in.”
Taia was surprised. Connor must have really believed the Sector was doomed if he was willing to give the coordinates of another Sector to a Supe. All he cared about was the Resistance.
“But how do you know that Sector even still exists Lieutenant General?” Taia asked Connor. “We haven’t been in contact with another Sector for decades.”
“We don’t have a choice,” Connor said. “Now go in there and evacuate my people. The Coordinates are 34 N, 118 W. Now everyone should be in the Shelter at the edge of the city or at the hospital. Evacuate the people at both. Go.”
Blake made a motion to move but Taia stopped him. “Wait, Blake. That won’t work. None of the Sector 6 citizens are going to listen to a Transcended. We need someone they know to go with you so that they trust you.”
“I’ll send one of my soldiers,” Connor said.
“Not good enough sir,” Taia said. “They’re going to need you.”
Connor was aghast. “I’m not leaving my soldiers!”
“You have to leave your soldiers to save everyone else,” Taia said. “And they’re going to need someone that they trust. Especially since my father betrayed everyone. You’re the leader now sir. You’re our General.”
Connor struggled with this for a moment before relenting. “Okay,” he said dejectedly. “I’ll go. And after I evacuate the Shelter and hospital, we’ll get your father out of the Stockade and come back here to get you all and my army. Let’s go Supe,” he finished disdainfully to Blake.
But Blake merely smiled. “You might want to close your eyes and hold your breath.”
“What—“Connor began but then he, Carl, and Blake were engulfed in one of Blake’s vortexes.
As soon as they left, the strangest thing began happening. In the scorched Wasteland at the end of summer, a cool fierce wind began blowing. Thunder and lightning could suddenly be heard too as clouds invisible in the night sky began to appear overhead.
“That’s odd” Jesse said loudly over the thunder, sliding toward Eli and Taia, shooting a Core officer in the face who was a few meters away. “It hardly ever rains here. Especially around this time of year.”
“Basically never happens since the Great War,” Taia added.
“Eli!” Fielding said, riding one of his large branches as he had it grow rapidly through the ground toward the group. “With Blake and Fielding out, you’re going to have to power up.”
“No,” Eli said. “It’ll be too much power.”
“Listen, we’re all going to die eventually, even the Earth,” Fielding sai
d. “But can we please make sure that doesn’t happen today?”
Suddenly, rain started pouring down in the Wasteland. A bolt of lightning struck the ground in the battlefield.
Standing exactly where the lighting had struck was a Core officer. He had short brown hair and he had on a purple Core shirt instead of a black one.
“Welp,” Fielding said. “It looks like it’s going to be today regardless of what I want.”
Chapter 23
The Supe from the lightning began stalking towards the group.
“Why do you say that?” Taia asked. “I know he’s a Commanding officer because of the purple shirt but Eli and I have taken out one of those before.”
“No you don’t get it,” Fielding said. “He’s not the Commanding officer of a Core team with just a few guys. He’s the Commanding officer of one of these legions. So imagine how strong he is.”
Jesse swore.
“How strong can he be?” Taia asked. “I killed a Supe that could control lightning myself.”
“You think his ability is only controlling lighting?” Fielding asked, raising an eyebrow. “Don’t you see? He’s controlling the weather girl.”
Taia looked at the Supe fearfully as he walked towards them, getting closer and closer. This could be bad.
She raised her gun to shoot at him but Eli grabbed the end of her rifle and pushed it down.
“I got this,” he said. But he looked exhausted. He had already been fighting for hours and had several cuts and bruises on his face. She wasn’t sure he could do it.
“Eli,” she began.
“You ready to do what you have to do hermano?” Fielding asked.
Eli didn’t answer the question. “Just help the Resistance with everyone else.”
Eli then dropped his pistols and launched himself toward the Core Commander, flying towards him.
The Core Commander sent a bolt of lightning at Eli, which Eli dodged. Eli hit the Commander in the face with a punch that lifted him off his feet and sent him flying back.
The Commander was able to stop himself in midair and was flying just like Eli, using the wind to support himself. He sent a gust of wind at Eli that sent Eli flying through the air.
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