Hank shook his head. “They just brought me here. Said they’d give more insert—”
“Good evening, gentlemen,” a voice said through a speaker in the ceiling, interrupting Hank. “You’ve been brought here for certain reasons. We’d like to see a good show, so please, don’t go easy on each other.”
The humming in my head subsided and strength flooded through me. I began to hover a few feet off the floor and couldn’t believe how good it felt. It was like being stuck in a cramped car for hours and then finally being able to stretch your legs.
Something whipped past me and I realized I’d closed my eyes. I opened them to see Hank’s arms stretched all the way across the room. Joy filled his face as he enjoyed the same ‘stretching’ sensation I was, except quite literally.
“Whoo hoo!” he hollered. His whole body began to stretch as he relished in the chance he had to use his powers.
“Gentlemen, I don’t think you understand. Fight.”
The joy and euphoria left us instantly. Our eyes met, dread filling our faces.
“Do they really want us to fight?” Hank asked.
“Yes, we do,” the person answered over the intercom before I could respond.
“I won’t fight him!” I shouted. “I won’t do it!”
“You don’t have a choice in the matter, Tempest. Either you fight, or you tell us your name.” This time I recognized the voice. It was that of Director Loren.
I flew as close to the ceiling as I could get without touching the Eximus that flowed through it. “You listen to me!” I shouted. “I will not fight! I will no—”
Hands wrapped around my chest and threw me to the ground. The floor cracked, exposing the subfloor that flowed with Eximus. Some of it zapped me and I jumped to the side, out of its way. I looked up and saw Hank standing there, his body retracting to its normal self.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
Hank didn’t answer. He grabbed me and, using his arms like a slingshot, slammed me into the wall. I was thrown backwards by the power of the Eximus and into the floor.
“We have to fight!” Hank yelled. “It’s the only way!”
“Hank, I’ll kill you. I can’t fight you,” I said as I stood.
Hank stretched his arm back as far as he could and then rocketed it forward. It slammed into my jaw, sending me backwards once again. “You underestimate me, Tempest.”
He was really beginning to piss me off.
I stood up again and after deciding there was no other choice, dashed to his side and kicked his feet out from beneath him. Hank fell to the floor with a thud, but reached out and grabbed one of my ankles.
I tripped and slammed to the floor. I rolled head over heels, leaving a destroyed floor in my wake. I got up slowly and turned to face Hank. He was standing at the other side of the room, the floor between us ripped up from my tumble.
We waited. We looked up at the ceiling, looking for any sign from the people who were watching us.
“You’re not finished,” a voice said.
I opened my mouth to yell something at them, but was thrown back by the momentum of Hank wrapping himself around me over and over again, squeezing as tight as he could. I felt my bones begin to bend beneath the pressure he was exerting on me. I could barely move as he wrapped himself around my face, causing my world to go black. I gasped for air, but there was none. I tried to move, but was completely immobile. Bones began to snap and crack as he squeezed tighter. I was completely helpless.
Even though all I could see was black, I still saw flashes as stars began to paint my vision. My lungs screamed out for air, but they were paralyzed.
I couldn’t fight back. In my head, I began to wave a white flag. I was stunned.
That’s enough, I heard someone say in the distance. The voice was faint and fading.
Hank began to unwrap himself and I felt my body rush to repair itself. I gasped for air once I was free, filling my power return to me.
Then I felt the humming in my head again. The Eximus inside me was switched back on and I was back to being Kane Andrews, not Tempest. And neither one of us could believe we had just been beaten by Hank.
34
Pseudonyms
I sat alone at a table in the common room. I stared at my lunch of a ham and cheese sandwich and crackers and felt no appetite. All I could think about was the fight with Hank, how he had been able to gain the upper hand. I liked to think that given a little bit more time, I would’ve figured out a solution, but I couldn’t be sure. Still, I couldn’t help but fight the feeling that I was lying to myself. That if Hank had kept going, I would’ve passed out, my body slipping me into a coma until I got more oxygen.
“Hey, there, how’s lunch today?” Samantha asked, popping into my head.
“I’ll let you know if I get around to eating it,” I said under my breath, looking around to make sure no one was around to hear my one-way conversation.
“Not hungry today?” she asked, concerned.
I shrugged. “Just not feeling it. How are things out there?”
She hesitated, then said, “They’re getting…tense. More and more Supers are making their presence known every day. Holocene is doing what she can to stop the bad ones—which is 99.9% of them—but she’s just one person and she’s distracted by her search for you.”
“Tell her not to worry about me. I can figure something out on my own,” I said.
“No way,” Samantha snapped. “We’re not giving up on you, not even close. Holocene is putting a lot of attention on finding you, because she knows once she does, keeping the Supers under control will be a lot easier. We need you, Kane.”
I wanted to slam my fist down on the table, but stopped myself so as to not attract attention. I felt so helpless. They didn’t need Kane, they needed Tempest. And he was hiding somewhere in my brain, kept at bay by the Eximus energy constantly flowing through me. “I’m sorry, Samantha,” was all I could end up saying.
“It’s okay, Kane. It’s not your fault. I’m sorry it’s taking so long to find you. These guys are very secretive.”
I changed the subject. “What’s the word on this Atlas guy you were talking about the other night? He still around?”
“Yes and no.” I didn’t like the sound of that. Samantha continued, “I’ve heard whispers—Doug too—about more and more Supers joining his cause. It doesn’t even seem like the Super Task Force is fully aware of them yet, or they aren’t taking them as a threat.”
“I’ve got their hands a little full, I think.” I smirked. “But are they a threat?”
“I don’t know. They don’t seem to have lots of powerful Supers, but their numbers are growing. They’re calling themselves the Legion of Richter.”
My heart froze. “So you mean they’re basically an army of Richters?”
“Well, none of them seem as powerful as he was, but it seems they’re taking up his mantle. His ideals.” Fear crept into Samantha’s voice.
“Tell me what you can about this Atlas guy. I need to know for when I get out of here.”
“Tempest,” a voice behind me said.
Four guards were standing there, Eximus guns at the ready. “I’m eating lunch,” I said.
“Doesn’t matter. You’re needed for more testing.”
“I just did testing this morning,” I said, my frustration growing.
“You think one test on one morning gets you a ‘get out of testing free’ card? Get your ass up, or else we’ll turn a blind eye and let some of these Supers get their hands on you like they’ve been itching to,” the guard threatened.
“Go, Kane. Don’t get yourself killed. We need you out here, remember?” Samantha said.
I stood and followed the guards out the door, but only because of Samantha’s urging.
I was led into a white room with a wall of thick glass down the middle. The walls were plain and bare—no Eximus energy in sight. It seemed I wasn’t going to be getting my powers back for this test, which disappo
inted me. I longed to feel my feet floating off the floor, or the way the world slowed when I ran as fast as I could.
“Instructions will follow,” the guard said. He and his goons exited the room, the lock on the door engaging as he shut it behind him.
Once again, the scientists were up in the viewing chambers, preparing for whatever test would be next.
The door on the other side opened to admit a guy about my age named Rai. From the little bit of talking with him that I’d done, I considered him one of the good guys.
Behind him stood Sven. From the little hand-to-hand fighting I’d done with him, I considered him one of the bad guys.
A queasy feeling grew in my stomach. I had a bad feeling about what would happen next.
“Hello, Tempest. My name is Loren. What’s yours?” Director Loren asked in a patronizing tone from the observation deck up above.
“Oh, just Loren, is it? No last name? Guess I’m not the only one who likes to keep their name a secret,” I said.
“Sven, you’ve been briefed. Do what you wish,” Loren said.
My attention shot to where Sven and Rai were standing. I began to run through the possibilities of what could happen.
And then Sven’s fist smashed into Rai’s face.
Rai fell to the ground, blood spurting from his nose. Sven slammed his fist into Rai as he tried to get up.
The lump in the pit in my stomach grew. I wanted to scream as loud as I could. I wanted to get Sven to stop. I wanted to smash through the glass and do to Sven what he was doing to Rai.
But I couldn’t.
All I could do was cry.
Not sob, but tears did drip from my eyes.
I cried because there was nothing I could do. I was helpless and so was Rai.
Sven grabbed him and slammed his head against the floor. Rai cried out in pain and tried to defend himself. But Sven was large and muscular, while Rai was skin and bones. Maybe he had some sort of power that allowed him to grow huge muscles and be superstrong at the snap of a finger, but at that moment, he had nothing. His only hope was me.
Sven began to kick him. I could’ve sworn I heard ribs crack. Even if I didn’t hear it for real, though, I knew it was happening. As hard as Sven was kicking him, how could it not?
“Please stop,” I whispered. It was all I could do. If I gave up my name, Loren would win. The STF would know everything about Kane Andrews to go along with all they knew about Tempest. They’d be able to learn the conditions under which my powers had developed. They’d be able to go after my friends, my family. There was no telling what all they could learn about the Supers, maybe even what it would take to destroy all of us and keep us from ever coming back. “Please, stop!” I yelled louder.
I rushed to the glass. I found my voice. I slammed my fists against the glass, just like Sven was slamming his into the bloody mess that was Rai.
“Stop this, please! You have to stop! He’s not a Super! Right now he’s human! You can’t do this!” I yelled, my hands beginning to hurt from hitting the glass over and over and over.
“You know what you have to do, Tempest. You know.” The satisfaction in Loren’s voice was sickening.
Desperate to do whatever it took to make Sven stop, I yelled out a lie. “Derek Porter! My name is Derek Porter!”
Sven fell to the ground, the Eximus shocker in his neck giving him a extra dosage.
“It’s nice to meet you, Derek. My name is Loren Westlake.”
I fell to the ground, out of breath, emotionally spent. It was anything but a happy introduction, because once they found out I wasn’t Derek Porter, I doubted the result would be pretty. But there had to be a lot of Derek Porters. Sorting through all of them would probably take a while. I’d bought myself some time and Rai was no longer being beat to a pulp. That was what mattered, even if I had a feeling it would come back to bite me.
Please hurry, Holocene, I thought. Please.
35
Enter the Dome
“So Atlas and his group are just leaving giant Rs everywhere? That’s it?” I asked Samantha.
I was sitting in the same chair I’d been sitting in before the whole Rai/Sven situation went down. Except now it was dinner I was picking at, still not hungry at all.
“Yeah, in all the major cities. Nothing else, though. They aren’t destroying anything, killing anybody, nothing. Super activity has been down today too. I don’t know if that means anything, but if it keeps up, it can’t mean anything good.”
“Well, the lack of bad Supers going crazy is never that bad of a thing,” I said.
“To some extent. If it’s been down because all the Supers are joining Atlas and the Legion of Richter, that can’t be good,” Samantha said.
“But you don’t know that’s what’s happening.”
“It’s what I’ve been hearing. It makes sense, too. If he has a plan, he wouldn’t want his people out there going crazy and wreaking havoc.”
I sighed. I wanted to be out there investigating this with Samantha and the rest of the crew so bad. “Can’t you get into Atlas’ head? See what he’s up to?”
Samantha groaned. “You have no idea how many times I’ve been asked that question. I can only get into the heads of people I know a lot about. I have to be able to picture them in my head, or believe they’re sitting across the table from me.”
“You got into mine and you didn’t know anything really concrete about me,” I pointed out.
“You were all over the news. I couldn’t get away from you. I saw what you looked like as Tempest and was able to put together enough pieces. It was still really hard, though. It took me forever. Atlas? No one is really talking about him. The media doesn’t know he exists, neither does the general public, and I don’t even know if the STF does. I can’t picture him in my head. Knowing what a person looks like is more than half the battle.”
I sighed and fought the urge to lay my head down on the table. I was so tired. Tired of everything, and nothing in particular. This whole ordeal was wearing on me in ways I couldn’t quantify.
Luckily for me, it was all close to being over.
*
I walked with the rest of the Supers in a single file line. There were about thirty of us in total, all of us wearing the headgear I wore every time I used my powers. The fact that all of us were wearing one and were marching off somewhere unsettled me greatly. There was no telling what we were marching off to.
Up ahead, situated in the wall, was an automatic door. As we got closer, the door had slid to the side, inviting us outdoors. We were being marched into a giant domed arena.
It felt like we were about to play football or something. Like all of us were a team headed down the tunnel, about to walk into an arena filled with cheering fans.
“Everybody stop here!” the guard at the front said.
Everybody halted, including all the guards who had come out there with us.
“Make a single file line in this direction!” he shouted, gesturing left-to-right. Everybody began lining up and I found myself standing next to Hank.
“Any idea what’s going on?” I asked under my breath.
Hank shrugged. “Maybe it’s Thanksgiving and we’re about to have the annual football game.”
“If it’s shirts versus skins, I call shirts,” I said.
“What kind of family did you grow up with that played shirts versus skins on Thanksgiving?” Hank asked, looking me up and down with a curious look on his face.
“We’re going to play a bit of a game,” the head guard said. “Practice, if you will. You will go inside the Eximus dome and be given your powers back. You will try to defeat our STF soldiers, who will be hunting you down.”
Right on cue, the Super Task Force soldiers came around a corner and began marching over toward us. They marched in unison, not a single one of them carrying a gun at his side. They lined up in formation, creating a funnel that led to the entrance of the dome.
“Enter the dome,” the guard said,
and we began marching in.
Fire rose inside of me, along with hope. I was going to get my powers back. Even though I would be surrounded by the Eximus, I had a fighting chance to escape.
I looked into the eyes of the soldiers as we walked by. They looked more intense than the regular guards, and they were wearing armor that buzzed with Eximus energy. They were standing at the ready, looking straight ahead.
Except for one. One of the guards was looking right at me. I looked directly back at him, then I realized why he was watching me.
I knew him.
It was Drew. He worked for the STF, and he was about to practice hunting me down.
36
The First Battle
I walked into the Eximus Dome in total shock—pun not intended. Standing out there, about to hunt me and the other Supers, was my best friend Drew. How could he do something like this?
Then it started to click. He’d told me he had powers. He’d told me he’d been gone for a few months too. He’d been dropping hints, and I never caught on. I suddenly got the feeling that—like me—he hadn’t been volunteering to help rebuild during those lost months.
“You have five minutes to make preparations,” a voice said over the loudspeaker.
Fights between the Supers broke out immediately. Rai used his shape shifting powers to turn his arm into a sharp object and thrust it through Sven. I guess he didn’t know that Sven had regenerative powers, because the look of surprise on his face when he pulled his arm out and Sven was still standing was genuine.
A blast of heat hit my back and I jumped out of the way. I turned and saw Brian had begun to attack me, shooting flames from his hand. I saw a building nearby and jumped six stories on top of it. I looked around the dome, looking for any way to escape. Inside the dome was a fake city, complete with cars, street vendors, and city blocks. Behind me a small portion of the area was set up to be like a forest, while another looked to be an open desert. In all, the dome was the size of two football fields in both length and width.
I looked down at the brawl taking place below, where Hank was fighting with the girl who had attacked me in the showers a few nights ago, Beatrice. With a name like that, I could understand why she seemed so angry all the time. She had laser vision, but was having a hard time hitting Hank. He kept dodging out of the way just in time and getting a couple more hits on her.
The Siege of the Supers (The First Superhero Book 2) Page 12