But Mother Earth wasn’t finished. She made a motion like parting curtains, and the ground under Bloodbath ripped apart. He fell into a trench, and Mother Earth clapped her hands together, closing it with him inside.
She slumped forward to catch her breath, and I glanced up at the rollercoaster. Elisa had pushed the car down the slope to one of the lowest points of the track. She was climbing through the car now, ripping the safety harnesses off the trapped passengers. A few of them were already sliding carefully down one of the columns.
The ground rumbled, but this time it made Mother Earth stagger. A harshly shining hand shot up from the ground, and Bloodbath crawled out of the earth like a zombie from the grave. Not even that could stop him? My gaze flicked to the rollercoaster. Elisa was still in the car freeing those who were trapped. She needed to hurry.
Bloodbath stalked toward Mother Earth, who pulled out all the stops. Her thin arms waved through the air in a strange, fluid dance, turning the ground beneath Bloodbath’s feet into a weapon. As he ran toward her, the earth split, shook, and shot at him. The cracks and booms filled the air like a violent symphony until Bloodbath couldn’t walk straight. But whenever he fell, he got right back up again.
A metallic screech pierced the sounds of the fight as the track shuddered and slipped. The earthen pillars Mother Earth had created to prop it up cracked and threatened to crumble.
Her assault using the surrounding ground was shaking them. As I watched, one of the people climbing down the column lost his grip. He fell the rest of the way and didn’t get back up.
I had to stop this. Even if Mother Earth won, shockwaves from the fight would bring down the coaster. Elisa hadn’t come down yet. She was helping a boy who’d probably just passed the height requirement to ride. I needed to buy more time. I needed to— Bloodbath’s real body.
I twisted my neck, and there he was: lying prone in the grass unprotected by Mother Earth. I pushed myself up, but my trembling arms gave out and sent my face to the dirt. Fine, then. I still couldn’t stand, but I could crawl. I dragged myself across the ground, which shook violently from the fallout of Mother Earth and Bloodbath’s battle.
My arm muscles strained, dripping wet and covered in blue and purple bruises. I clutched the ground in front of me, dirt getting shoved under my fingernails, and my bad knee screamed when I used it for leverage to push myself forward. The pain nauseated me, but I kept going. My body protested, but what could it do—collapse? I was already on the ground.
She opened another trench beneath Bloodbath’s feet, and he dropped from view. The shift in the earth collapsed one of the columns propping up the coaster. Without the column’s support, the track leaned, its massive metal pillars bending. Not everyone had escaped yet. Elisa held a fair-haired child in her arms and carried him as she climbed out of the car.
I crawled faster. Bloodbath’s real body was less than ten feet away, but the distance seemed to stretch on for miles. Mother Earth moved to close the trench, but Bloodbath jumped out before she could. His superhuman strength launched him into the air, and he landed with such force it left a small crater. The impact made Mother Earth stumble; he landed only a few feet from her. She jabbed her hands up and conjured a rock wall between them, but he broke through it like he was nothing. Before she could react, he struck her.
Mother Earth collapsed. The blow wasn’t as violent as when Bloodbath attacked Tidal Wave or Agent Lagarde, but it still killed her instantly. She lay crumpled on the ground, green dress spread out around her, and Bloodbath turned away. He stormed back to the rollercoaster as Elisa climbed down one of the breaking pillars, the child riding piggyback on her. Another earthen column crumpled, and the track tipped over even faster, but Bloodbath seemed determined to push it down himself. He took about five angry steps, arms swinging. Then he stopped.
His back straightened, and he spun around as if he just realized what he’d done. He rushed up to Mother Earth and dropped to his knees, cradling her body in his huge arms. She didn’t move; it was too late for that. Her head lolled back, and Bloodbath’s shoulders slumped. As his head bowed, his whole back curving in as he hugged her, the light of his body flared brighter. Then it dimmed, flickering.
His guilt was making him lose control.
Maybe his emotions would dissolve his other form without me having to do anything, but I wouldn’t count on it. I kept dragging myself closer to his real body, though my arms were like sickly kittens trying to pull a cart meant for Clydesdale horses. As I inched laboriously closer, Bloodbath’s bright form began to unravel. Wisps of light spread out from him, and… no, he wasn’t unraveling. He was getting bigger.
Oh, come on. I crawled faster as Bloodbath swelled to an enormous height over Mother Earth’s body. The light of his body strobed, and I smelled ozone as a sudden wind came up around him. The rollercoaster groaned as the last earthen pillar crumbled. It fell toward Bloodbath, its metal bars warping and snapping. Elisa jumped the last ten feet to the ground and ran in the opposite direction with the child on her back.
My body sagged as the adrenaline faded. She’d made it.
A roar cut through my relief. It seemed both low and high-pitched at once, and I couldn’t tell if it came from Bloodbath or the wind. He slammed a humongous hand into the rollercoaster’s track before it fell on him. The bang of impact rattled my eardrums and knocked the rollercoaster in the other direction—toward Elisa.
“Elisa!” I shouted, but she couldn’t hear me over the roar. She heard Bloodbath hit the rollercoaster, though, and turned around in time to see it about to collapse on top of her.
She couldn’t outrun it. The track was too huge and falling too fast for her to get out of the way in time. She pulled the child off her back and crouched protectively over him. A split-second later, the track slammed on top of her with such force it shook the ground.
“No!” I clenched fistfuls of grass, hyperventilating. Where was she? Had she survived? I couldn’t see through the cloud of dirt the impact had kicked up.
High above, Bloodbath’s head turned in my direction. His face twisted in absolute rage, and slowly, the goliath took a heavy step toward me.
I crawled frantically closer to his real body. It was only a few feet away, but Bloodbath would only need one more step to stomp on me. At least his movements were sluggish now that he was so huge. He seemed to move in slow motion as he lifted his colossal foot. I pulled myself forward with shaking arms, grinding my teeth against the flaring of injuries all the way from my head to my toes. Just a little farther. I was close enough to see the ripped edges of his shirtsleeves, sweat coating his biceps. My breaths were shallow and short. Almost there. I could lose consciousness after I reached him.
The harsh light of Bloodbath’s foot gleamed off the blades of grass around me as it descended. With a desperate burst of energy, I heaved myself forward. The foot crashed into the ground right behind me, and the force sent me—and Bloodbath’s real body—about three inches into the air. I landed hard and instantly started crawling again, my peripheral vision catching Bloodbath’s colossal hand reaching slowly down toward me.
My arms burned. My legs felt as if they’d melted. I moved frustratingly slow, like I was trapped in tar. The glare of Bloodbath’s door-sized hand glowed brighter as he reached for me. I was almost there. Less than a foot lay between us. I stretched out my hand—
Glowing fingers as thick as tree trunks wrapped around me. Bloodbath’s grip tightened and pulled me up, away from his real body. I made a frantic lunge and just barely grabbed his limp, sweaty wrist.
Bloodbath squeezed, compressing my ribcage. I screamed but didn’t let go. His real body dangled below me, helpless.
I pulled his body up with my right hand and bashed him over the head with my left.
The hand gripping me flickered and vanished. For a moment, I was weightless. Then my body fell, feeling as if it left my stomach somewhere in the air above. I hit the ground shoulder-first, tangled up in Bloodbath’s real bod
y. I shoved him away and rolled onto my back. The ground seemed to sway, so I closed my eyes and waited for it to stop.
Just breathe, I told myself. That was hard enough.
I waited for another attack, but nothing came. Was it really over? I’d seen Bloodbath shrug off so many lethal attacks that I was afraid to believe he was gone for good. I turned my aching head toward his body, seeing a splotch of blood matted in his short hair right where his head was misshapen. I’d felt his skull crack under my hand when I’d struck him. He was dead this time. It was finally over.
If life was fair, trumpets would start playing triumphantly right about now, and I’d be whisked away to the hospital. I didn’t feel like a hero for killing him. I just felt… tired. I stared up at the darkening sky, clouds moving slowly across my vision.
Elisa. I had to find Elisa. I rolled onto my stomach and started crawling to the section of the rollercoaster that had fallen. Dirt still drifted through the air, but everything else was so still. Where could she be?
I dragged myself on and on, but the rollercoaster didn’t seem to get any closer. My head nodded, and everything went dark.
•••
I dreamed I was back at Bloodbath’s trial after he’d first attacked Washington. He hadn’t appeared in court himself. People had been too afraid, so they’d tried him through a video feed to his cell in the Inferno. When he was called to the stand, they moved his TV screen to the front, a camera attached to the top of it so he could see the courtroom. He ranted and raved about the government, the stooges who enforced its laws, and the ignorant sheep who did nothing to fight the system. Aggressive and foul-mouthed, he made me want to find a remote control and change the channel.
When I was called to testify, I spoke about the carnage in Union Square, the innocent people and brave police officers Bloodbath had killed without a thought. But then the dream jumbled the past with the present, and I talked about the people Bloodbath had killed in the Hero Experience, events that hadn’t happened yet at the time of his trial. I said he’d killed my daughter, and I was crying, and Val was there, too, and she couldn’t even bear to look at me.
Then the courtroom rumbled, and the TV screen showing Bloodbath in his cell was suddenly gone. People started running and screaming. Bloodbath was right outside. He was attacking.
“Stay here! I’ll handle him!” Julio rose from him seat and ran out the door.
“No! Wait!” An overwhelming sense of dread filled me as I ran after him. I shoved open the door, but all I saw was an empty hallway, Julio nowhere in sight. I rushed down the hall, shouting his name, and another door opened into the theme park. It was a bright, sunny day, and people were talking, laughing, and waiting in line for the rides. Didn’t they know Bloodbath was here? I called out for Julio, utterly certain that he’d die if I didn’t find him.
Julio had been in his current costume, but I wore my old White Knight suit. The mask pinched the bridge of my nose, and everything was uncomfortably tight. Everyone stared as I ran around searching for Julio. But I didn’t find him. Instead, I found Bloodbath.
I tried to charge the giant glowing figure, but my feet grew heavy and stuck to the ground. Bloodbath ran me down like an oncoming freight train, and he beat me mercilessly. His fists struck my head, back, stomach, and sides, and I was helpless to fight back. He was killing me. He’d killed Elisa and Julio, and I was next. I’d failed them. I’d failed everyone.
Elisa called my name, but I couldn’t bear to face her after letting her die. “I’m sorry,” I whispered, letting Bloodbath beat me because it was no more than I deserved. “I’m sorry.”
Elisa shouted angrily now and threw in a few curses for good measure. Something shook me, and I woke with a gasp.
“Dad!”
I lay on my back, and the sky above was the dark shade of blue that meant the sun had set just recently. My clothes were damp, which felt oddly refreshing in the hot evening. Jumbled voices met my ears, meaning there were people around. The rollercoaster was still visible in the low light, most of the serpentine track still standing except for the collapsed slope. The fight. I remembered it now. I sat up—and a surge of pain convinced me that wasn’t a good idea.
“Dad, don’t move.”
Elisa. Was I still dreaming? She crouched in front of me, her clothes and skin covered in a thin layer of dirt. But the rollercoaster—
“You’re okay,” I breathed, letting my head fall back.
“Who, me?” She glanced down. “Oh, yeah! A rollercoaster fell on me.” She stared into space for a second as if contemplating the sentence she’d just spoken. “Anyway, my back really hurts, but I’m good.”
Looking at her face, I couldn’t help but laugh, though the movement hurt my ribs. My invulnerable daughter. I’d never been so happy to have passed on my genetics.
“Aw, jeez.” She turned and shouted, “Ju—Freezefire! You’d better hurry up. I think he’s delirious.”
Julio was alive, too. I let my eyes close, breathing deeply. Then I rolled my head to the left. Bloodbath’s corpse was still there, his skull cracked. It was really over.
“Hey, man.” Julio jogged up to me. “Still with us?”
I grunted.
“Good,” he said. “Remind me never to leave you alone for five minutes again.”
He called people over, and someone drove one of the golf cart-like vehicles from the tunnels across the uneven ground toward us. Julio gave instructions like a seasoned leader, directing the survivors to help the wounded, and I wondered why I’d ever fought against him taking command.
“Oh, yeah!” Elisa turned around and waved at someone. “Owen, come here!”
A boy with curly hair walked up, covered in dirt just like Elisa. He looked just the right size to have been the child she’d carried off the rollercoaster.
“Dad, this is Owen. He’s a big White Knight fan. Owen, this is my dad.”
Owen looked over my grotesquely bruised, swollen face, the torn clothes on my zombie-like body, and Randall Nash’s blood on my left hand.
He promptly started crying.
“Hey!” Elisa jumped back, panicked. “Hey, it’s okay. He’s gonna be fine.” She glanced at me, biting her lower lip. “You’re gonna be fine, right?”
“I’ve survived worse.” Though actually… huh. Had I really? That was a tough call. I thought back over all my previous fights.
The vehicle came to a stop beside me, and Julio frowned. “Think you can stand?”
I braced myself up onto my elbows. “I think—”
Something in the distance rumbled. My stomach seized, and I stared wildly around. It couldn’t be Mother Earth. Bloodbath had killed her. But the ground trembled, and everyone fell deathly silent. It was undeniably a small earthquake, and those weren’t natural to Central Florida. Had everything Mother Earth had done somehow destabilized the crust beneath us?
A crack split the air, followed by a low roar. My heart missed a beat, but then I realized what was happening. Behind the broken rollercoaster and beyond the neatly trimmed trees, a section of the massive earthen barrier was crumbling away. Just a little bit at first, but the effect spread like a breaking wave as it approached the beach. The claustrophobia-inducing wall that trapped us here fell, and without its looming shadow, the evening turned brighter.
A cheer went up from everyone around me. Finally, we were free.
Chapter 21
Outside the park, it was madness. Police tape cordoned off the area around the remains of the wall, but bystanders and news reporters crowded right up against it. Sirens blared, and red and blue lights flashed from every type of emergency vehicle imaginable, and the air was a cacophony of noise. Police officers shouted instructions. Bystanders chatted and snapped pictures. Reporters stood in front of cameras, speaking professionally into their microphones as they attempted to be heard over it all. I lay on a surprisingly comfortable cot inside an open ambulance, hoping they’d soon get permission to drive me away from all this chaos.
“Stupid signal.” Elisa glared at her phone and jabbed her thumb at the screen. “It won’t let me text Mom. She’s probably going apeshit by now.”
“Language,” I scolded drowsily.
There was a sudden swell in the noise outside, and through the ambulance’s open doors, I saw someone literally drop from the sky. Blue Sparrow landed gracefully, her flared wings folding behind her, and rushed to a stretcher the paramedics were wheeling to another ambulance. Julio ran alongside it, and I could make out Agent Lagarde strapped down and wearing an oxygen mask, her eyes closed.
“Is she—?” Blue Sparrow put a hand over her mouth as if afraid to finish the question.
“Alive.” Julio put his arms on her shoulders. “But it’s not good. They’re taking her straight to the ER.”
“Oh God.” Blue Sparrow flung her arms around him and buried her face in his chest. A storm of flashes went off as everyone snapped a photo. The poor kids. They’d be on the cover of every tabloid in the country by tomorrow morning, “journalists” spreading rumors about a romance when Julio was just comforting a friend. Although… I squinted, giving a second look to the way Julio held her. Maybe the journalists were on to something.
They exchanged murmured words and broke apart, Blue Sparrow following her mother and Julio hurrying over to me.
“Dav—White Knight,” he corrected, rubbing at his mask. “I need to—”
“Go,” I said. His mentor and his partner were in different ambulances. It wasn’t hard to figure out his dilemma. “I’ll be fine with Elisa.”
Elisa looked up from her phone and grinned.
The corners of Julio’s mouth twitched. “Don’t let him wander off.”
She saluted. “I’ll tackle him if he tries.”
“Hey!” Before Julio could leave, Rosa rushed up. Her face was flushed, her hair still wet, but she’d gotten no new injuries since the last time I’d seen her.
The White Knight & Black Valentine Series (Book 3): Almost Invincible Page 15