by Corey Tate
“But—”
“No! We need you for this!” Thaught yelled, turning into a gorilla-spider combo and attempting to punch a boy who was extremely flexible and acrobatic.
—Sorry, Claire, Scott whined. I have a job too.
—It’s okay, Claire immediately responded. We’ve got this. Help Thaught.
He teleported next to Thaught, and the acrobat boy jumped up, aiming a kick at Scott’s face.
Scott shot a torrent of water at him, and the boy twisted impossibly in midair, completely dodging the attack. He landed lightly on his feet, closer to Scott, and punched this time.
Scott hardened his face, and as the boy’s fist connected, Scott heard his opponent’s bones crack all the way up to his shoulder.
The boy cried out, and Thaught changed into a mammoth. While the boy was in the fetal position, Thaught stepped on him and made sure that every bone in his body cracked, effectively turning the kid to pudding.
They fought for hours like that, leaning on each other for help. They killed so many Upgrades that Scott lost track, and he didn’t even care anymore. The faces of his enemies just blended together, and all Scott could remember at any given moment were a few important phrases:
Throw him. Save her. Teleport there. Go intangible! Use water. Jump! Tell Nick to move. Holy crap, Claire’s brother can fight.
* * *
“The Gateway!” Artam screeched from somewhere. “It’s opening!”
“There are still seven more Upgrades!” Thaught yelled.
Scott looked around the battlefield again with fresh eyes. About fifty Icranu were left, when there originally were hundreds. It was a slaughter.
“Hey,” Scott called to Thaught. “How do we—”
Thaught turned to answer Scott, and someone came up behind him. Before Scott could say anything, the boy behind Thaught put his hands on Thaught’s shoulders.
The boy grinned, and Thaught grimaced in pain. Thaught somehow wriggled out, turned into a falcon, and flew weakly into the air.
Scott immediately teleported in front of the boy and shot lightning at him. The boy just stood there grinning, as his body somehow absorbed the blast from the lightning.
The boy continued to walk toward Scott.
Scott threw a boulder at the boy, and the kid was hit dead on.
The boy flew thirty feet back, away from the active wormhole that was now behind Scott. He was obviously dead now.
Scott went to turn around when he saw a familiar face. It was Claire, and she was stepping next to the body of the dead boy.
Suddenly, the boy’s hand shot out and grabbed her ankle. Claire gasped and crumpled to the ground.
“Claire!”
It was Seth. He flew in like a rocket with two other men behind him.
He knelt and punched the boy through his chest, burrowing straight into the ground.
The boy was still holding on to Claire, grinning. His chest started healing rapidly, right before everyone’s eyes.
Seth took his hand out of the boy’s torso and saw, along with everyone else, that his wounds were closing.
Someone came out of nowhere and sliced off the hand that the boy was holding on to Claire’s ankle with.
The boy didn’t utter a sound. He just used his other hand to grab Seth’s wrist.
Seth felt deathly cold. His mind shriveled, and he saw his life flashing before his eyes for the second time that week.
Scott saw this and teleported there next to him. The boy looked at him, grinned mischievously as his wrist began to regrow, and grabbed Scott’s wrist instead.
Scott felt like death was coming for him, and then he felt the familiar tingling feeling in his body.
He copied the boy’s ability and grabbed his wrist. He forced the dark energy of death back into the boy.
The boy screamed uselessly as all his teeth fell out of his mouth, and he turned to a skeleton in less than five seconds.
Scott stood up and looked at Claire and Seth.
Billy was kneeling over her, cradling her in his arms.
“Is she . . . ?” Scott swallowed nervously.
“She’s alive,” the boy muttered. “But really weak.”
The boy looked up, and Scott remembered his face from the Coliseum. It was the boy with no eyes.
“Who are you?” Scott asked, dazed.
“He’s Billy,” Seth groaned, standing up. “Claire’s brother.”
Oh, Scott thought. I knew that.
“Finish this,” Billy told Scott. “Please.”
Crrrraaaaccccckkkkk!!!
Scott whipped around and examined the appearing Gateway for the first time.
It was a blinding flash of all sorts of colors. It floated two feet in the air and was about four feet wide in diameter. It was a perfect circle if he ever saw one.
“Three more Upgrades left!” Artam screamed.
Thaught landed next to the wormhole in bird form and then transformed back into a regular, Accelerated Armadronian.
“A few have already made it through!” Thaught screeched. “Don’t let anyone else get past us!”
Scott took a quick look around and saw that now there were fewer than twenty Icranu left standing.
“Excuse me.” A teenager with short brown hair and a thin build suddenly appeared in front of Thaught. “You mind? I’m trying to get to Earth, mister.”
Before anyone could react, the guy moved faster than a hummingbird and created a mini sonic boom, perforating everyone’s eardrums.
Ten seconds after he crossed through the wormhole, they could all still hear his childish laughter.
“I’ll be going next,” someone said in a pleasant voice.
Nearly all the remaining Icranu were standing in front of the wormhole, guarding it.
They all looked out to a young girl who looked about fifteen. She had long brown hair and a cute smile, or at least Scott thought so.
“No. You’re not,” Nick threatened, stepping up in front of everyone.
“Oooh, big muscles,” she said, flirting with Nick, stepping closer.
She was ten steps away.
Five Icranu rushed to stop her. She started running, and all their attacks went through her and came out the other side.
She’s intangible, Scott realized.
Scott stepped in front of her and became intangible as well.
He jumped to tackle her, but as he came in contact with her, he felt immensely dizzy.
One second, he was in front of her, and the next he was behind her.
She stopped a couple steps before stepping into the wormhole and winked at Scott as he lay on the ground.
“Boys,” she commented. “Always wanting what they can’t have.”
She ignored the dozen or so people who were flinging attacks through her.
“Walton!” she suddenly yelled. “What’s taking so long?”
“Shut up. I’m right here!”
There was a large guy charging for the wormhole about fifty feet away.
Ten Icranu, including Nick and Seth, ran up to the guy going for the wormhole.
Four Icranu were literally flattened, punched, swatted aside, or kicked effortlessly as the large boy ran.
Nick covered himself in metal and punched the guy as hard as he could in the face.
The sound of bending metal filled the air. Nick fell to the side, got up, and ran after him, pissed. His punch had no effect, other than to bend the metal on his own fist.
Scott noticed Seth nearby shooting extremely hot fire at the kid. The boy, running with his mouth open, began swallowing the fire.
As he ingested more and more fire, his body grew even larger until he was the size of the Incredible Hulk.
Walton reached the wormhole and then jumped through with the girl.
Suddenly everything became silent. Everyone put his or her senses on overdrive, looking for anyone else. They couldn’t let any more through. Enough of the Upgrades had already slipped by.
Scott sa
w Artam out of the corner of his eye, backing up toward the wormhole, looking around.
Scott started to walk toward him, and Artam beckoned to him.
Scott bumped into something—or someone—next to the wormhole, but he saw nothing. He felt a tingling feeling in his limbs and stared at the spot.
Suddenly, clear as day a boy appeared. He was a little younger than Scott, and with his hands outstretched, he pointed at the wormhole. He seemed to be concentrating very hard.
“Hey,” Scott asked, “who are you?”
The boy ignored him.
Wait a minute . . .
Scott remembered something Seth had told him about a kid named Brandon who could manipulate and even create wormholes. But if this was Brandon, why was he here? Whose side was he really on?
Artam suddenly appeared next to Scott and spoke quietly. He muttered words in a language that Scott did not understand.
Scott felt his limbs grow heavy. He slumped to the ground, but Artam caught him.
“It’s okay, boy, I have you,” Artam said soothingly.
Artam lifted Scott easily and took a step toward the wormhole.
“Hey!” someone called to Artam. “Where are you going?!”
Artam ignored the question and stepped toward the wormhole again.
Suddenly Nick stepped in between Artam and the wormhole.
“Where are you going, Artam?” Nick asked.
Scott saw some form of green energy build up in the fist that Artam was holding behind his back. He tried to warn Nick about it, but he couldn’t speak.
Mind over matter, he remembered Claire saying to him.
—Nick! Artam’s going to hurt you! Scott projected to him. Put up a shield!
Nick reacted just in time. He raised a wall of metal up from the ground as Artam jabbed his fist at him.
The fist connected with the metal and warped it, turning it into molten pudding.
Artam turned his hand through the metal and waved his hand.
“No!”
Nick flew backward through the wormhole.
Scott saw the look in his eyes. He had never seen Nick look so afraid.
Artam took another step toward the wormhole, still dragging Scott. Suddenly Artam was shot aside by a blast of fire.
Seth now stood in front of the wormhole, glaring at Artam, as were the twenty remaining Icranu.
—Nick! Scott yelled in his thoughts.
—I’m okay. I’m on some kind of floating island, I think, Nick thought from back on Earth.
Somehow Scott could still pick up Nick’s thoughts.
—Claire, are you picking up on this? Scott asked.
—Yeah, but . . .
Artam stood up and left Scott limp on the ground, unable to move.
All of the other Icranu just stood by. They didn’t know anymore who the good guys and the bad guys were.
“I had my suspicions about you,” Seth said, staring down Artam.
—Come back to the wormhole, Scott projected to Nick.
—I can’t get through. The Gateway has reversed, remember? It’s one-way only.
—Just do it! Scott thought.
“But no one ever believed you,” Artam said with an evil grin.
What are they talking about? Scott thought.
“I always knew you were the traitor. I just knew it,” Seth said. “Terminus never killed you when he could have, you brought Scott here, and someone knew that we were going to the Infinite Cave. The real Artam was connected to the other Conjurers with a hive mind like he should have been, and you killed him and morphed into him before Terminus enslaved them all five years ago. Also, that fake death that you pulled, Kane? I know that you were controlling Nick with one of the curses that you stole, making him your puppet. You would never be taken down so easily like that.”
“Seth, what are you talking about?” Thaught questioned, stepping up next to Seth.
“Kane. He’s Kane,” Seth said, pointing at Artam.
After hearing this, several Icranu rushed forward with weapons, intent on killing Artam.
Kane, in the form of Artam, made a rapid symbol in the air with his hand, and the rest of the Icranu, except Seth and Scott, suddenly looked like they were in a time warp, including Thaught. They were all now moving slower than a snail’s pace.
“Well, good for you,” Kane said, smiling. “You figured it out. I killed old Artam long ago. But I must be going now. It’s time for me to rebuild.”
“Rebuild?” Seth asked.
“Yes.” Kane grinned. “I will assume control of the Six Worlds Complex. You see, I never really needed Terminus. Even though he was more scientifically inclined than I, I am a Mediator like Scott. My abilities are diverse and will allow me to manipulate the Upgrades and go from world to world, changing history as I see fit. I will look like everyone, be no one, and yet influence all.”
Scott, immobilized on the ground where Kane had dropped him, realized that he no longer had the energy to project his thoughts to Nick.
“I’ll find you and kill you,” Seth growled.
“How?” Kane challenged. “You are useless on Earth, and on Zwataru—”
Seth fired a blast of lightning at him as fast as he could.
Kane held out a hand, and Seth dropped to the ground, convulsing. The lightning died away in pathetic sparks.
“Time to go,” Kane said happily to Scott. “Bernard, kill them for me. Kill them all.”
From the ground Scott looked around at the remaining Icranu and saw a familiar face.
Bernard, the absorber Scott had faced in the Coliseum, was walking toward Billy, who was in suspended animation at the back of the group.
He walked right behind Billy and stretched his hand out, grinning.
Kane picked up Scott, and he lost sight of Billy.
Kane stepped toward the wormhole, and Scott just hung there on his shoulder like a sack of useless Mediator potatoes.
I need to freaking move! he shouted inside his head. But I don’t have any power!
Then the craziest thought occurred to him.
Kane was two steps away from the Gateway when Scott opened a portal to the Chaos Dimension with his mind.
Recharging
The first thing that he felt was the power. Secondly, he felt him.
Acoadis sensed the Gateway and was mere seconds away from him.
Scott absorbed the power that he needed and closed the Gateway.
“Nooooooooooo!” Acoadis screamed, tearing apart that section of the Dimension as Scott snuck back into Armadron.
—We will kill you! Plegaborne screamed behind him. We will see you soon, boy!
* * *
Scott returned when Kane was only one step away from the wormhole.
He felt the rush of energy and kneed Kane in the face. Kane fell to the ground, dropping Scott in the process.
Scott rolled quickly and prepared to end the traitor’s life.
“I wouldn’t do that,” Kane said, smiling. Somehow, he was on his feet again and holding a glowing purple knife up to Seth’s neck.
Scott’s shoulders dropped. Kane was levitating Seth slightly off the ground, holding him in front of him. Seth also had lost all his new fire look, likely from Kane’s attacks.
“Grrrraaaahhh!”
Scott looked over at the sound. It was Billy. His mouth was wide open, and he was turned toward a different scene.
Scott followed Billy’s gaze and saw Thaught holding a sword that he had just run through Bernard’s back. Bernard dropped to the ground, dead.
“Everyone who allied with you is dead,” Scott announced. “It’s over, Kane.”
“Never! A dozen of my Upgrades are already through the portal. Now, come with me through the wormhole, or Seth will die,” Kane ordered.
Scott thought about going to the Chaos Dimension again. If he went there, then he could kill Kane faster.
He knew that Acoadis and Plegaborne were waiting there for him, though. He couldn’t risk it
.
“Put him down,” Scott said evenly, racking his brain for a curse that could get him out of this mess.
“I will if you step with me through the wormhole,” Kane said.
“I will go with you after you put him down,” Scott replied.
“You will go with me now,” Kane corrected. “Start walking.”
Scott slowly walked toward the wormhole, looking at Thaught out of the corner of his eye. Thaught was the only one not in suspended animation anymore besides Scott and Seth.
Seth funneled all his remaining energy into his eyes to send Scott one message: Don’t do whatever it is that you’re thinking about doing.
Scott nodded his head slightly and glanced at the other Armadronians. They were all pleading with him in suspended animation to save them.
“Thaught,” Kane said.
“Yes?” Thaught replied.
“We both know that Artam’s powers didn’t work on you, but they work just fine on Scott and Seth. Do not move or I will kill them. Do you understand?”
Thaught remained where he was.
“Good”—Kane smiled—“Now—”
“Don’t black holes dice people into a million pieces?” Scott asked.
“This is a wormhole,” Kane explained quickly. “It is safe.”
“It is?” Scott looked at it fearfully.
Seth shot a confused look at him.
“We do not have much time!” Kane argued. “Look. It is safe. You see?”
Kane stuck his arm through the Gateway to prove his point. Suddenly something or someone from the other side pulled on Kane’s arm, and he teetered, about to lose his balance.
Scott used telekinesis to fling Seth away from Kane, and then he teleported next to him.
Kane tried to make a symbol in the air, but Thaught was faster. He turned into a large octopus with scales and wrapped his tentacles around Kane’s arms and legs.
“Aaaarrrggghh!” Kane screamed like a madman, thrashing about wildly.
The Armadronians ran forward, finally free of the spell.
They all ran up to Kane and—
“Wait!” Scott yelled.
Kane’s stomach and head were shrinking, causing his body to fold like a paper airplane. He tried to move, but his body looked completely stuck between the two worlds, likely from standing near the wormhole for so long.