Floor 21- Dark Angel

by Jason Luthor

  “What’s going on?”

  “You need to hit the acceleration because we might be about to get front row seats to the worst fight this island has ever seen.”

  Patel’s eyes are already the size of saucers but manage to get even larger. He doesn’t say anything though. He just nods, grips the wheel tighter, and sends the transport flying down the road. Everything’s shaking inside the cabin as we hit a hard right turn and burst onto the street leading up to the bridge. In the far distance, we can see the metal arches of Freedom Bridge. On the road though, just right there in the middle of the streets leading up onto the bridgeway, there’s a whole hell of a lot of soldiers.

  That’s not all. There’s these huge . . . and I mean gigantic . . . power armored soldiers standing in the background. They’re so big, they make other suits of power armor look like toys. They’re standing behind the soldiers on the bridge, while on the ground, I can make out civilians. They’re on their knees, their hands cuffed behind their backs. I can feel a bead of sweat form on my brow when I manage to catch sight of Cynthia and Mandy. The two of them look horrified, and when I follow their eyes, I see a pair of figures staring each other down in the middle of the street.

  “Holy shit,” I say in one breath. “I was right.”

  Patel shoots a look over at me and then back to the road. “Is there something I should know?”

  “You’re about to find out for yourself,” I tell him as I motion to get out of the transport. We’re on the ground, rifles in hand, as we stand a good distance from the showdown. Jackie’s got her back to us, but I can still see the trail of red fire burning out of her eyes. On the opposite side though, there’s Mikey, looking like I haven’t seen since the Tower. There’s a blue energy sparking from his hands and gathering in the air around him. “You see,” I say quietly to Patel, “Mike’s got . . . powers. Really, really strong powers. The kind that can tear a building to its foundation.”

  For one of the first times since I’ve ever met the guy, his voice sounds tense. “Are we in any danger?”

  “Are we in any danger? From a girl who can singlehandedly wipe out armies and a guy who can rip buildings from the ground with his mind?” I heave out. “Yeah. Danger for us, and the whole island.”

  Even from here, I can hear Jackie screaming at him. “You’ve got to stop this, Mike.”

  “Why?” he demands. “You said you were going to do something about this. You said this was going to stop happening!”

  “It is, Mike. I’m going to put a stop to it.”

  “You’re LYING,” he screams back, and when he does, it’s like this rush of air sweeps along the ground. The wind picks up, whipping through the street with so much force that it feels like we’re about to get lifted off the ground. Me and Patel drop to our knees, bracing against the force of it as the earth starts to shake. The blue energy sparking around the air is like lightning bolts, cracking along the ground and even forcing Jackie to brace before Mike launches himself at her. It’s a running start that carries him just a few feet before his body lifts off the ground, his body skimming through the air. I didn’t even know he could do that. Maybe he didn’t even know, until that moment. Jackie sure didn’t, because he slams into her with so much force that she goes rolling backward, head over heels until she comes to a stop. Her feet dig into the ground, and her thrusters flare to life as she goes flying back at him, her shoulder plowing right into his midsection and carrying the two of them to the ground.

  He’s on his back and she’s got her fist raised when Mike thrusts his palm upward. Suddenly, it’s like some invisible hand is sending Jackie into the sky. Mike yanks back down, and that same invisible hand sends Jackie rocketing back down into the pavement. She crashes so hard that it sends cracks ripping along the street, and me and Patel actually have to dive away as a huge tear in the street opens up. It’s not a half second later before red fire bursts from the crater and Jackie’s zipping through the air. Mike opens his palm and thrusts it at her again, but this time that red fire isn’t just dripping from her eyes. It covers her completely. Her body comes up at an angle before her legs flip forward, her jetpack sending her like a missile toward Mike, who eats a kick straight to the chest. It sends him rolling along the ground, blue fire flying off of his body until he comes to a dragging stop.

  Jackie’s already a second from being on top of him when he claps his hands, and two huge chunks of the road just rip out of the ground and slam against her from both sides. They hit with enough force that we see dust and concrete evaporate into the air, and when the debris falls to the ground, Jackie falls with it. She hits a knee but manages to balance herself, her and Mikey breathing hard as they stare each other down.

  “Mike,” she calls out to him. “It doesn’t have to happen this way. I know you think things are going to get worse . . .”

  “Going to? Jackie, they already have. Look behind me. You tell me what you see.”

  Her face flicks to the crowd for a second before looking back at him. “I get it, Mike. You want to protect the people you care about. But this isn’t the way. We can find an answer.”

  “Like before? Maybe when you told Mandy you’d talk to Yousef about the wiretapping. Maybe when you said you’d go to the source, so we wouldn’t be risking our lives just to walk around the city? What answers did you find then?”

  Those words must hit hard, because her head just drops. Mike gets onto his feet, and my eyes just go wide as I start to feel the ground underneath us cracking apart even more. A second later, I drag Patel to the side as the road behind us literally rips upward, like someone ripping fabric that’s been glued to the floor. Maybe Jackie’s too distracted, or maybe she doesn’t know how to respond, but she doesn’t look back until it’s too late. That tidal wave of concrete rolls forward and comes slamming down, collapsing on top of her with so much force that a blast of evaporated pavement surges into the air while a shockwave ripples along the ground. The impact is incredible, and me and Patel get thrown back by the force of it, thick gray clouds of dust and debris billowing into the street in a wave so thick that it starts choking me.

  Everything’s so dark that I actually can’t see anything for a second. I actually hear what’s happening before I see it. Out of the swirling gray clouds, I hear gun fire, thousands and thousands of rounds being shot off. Then, when the dust finally clears, I see every soldier on the ground with their guns pointed at Mike and live with fire. But Mikey’s just standing there, his arm held out and blue sparks flying from his fingertips. I shouldn’t be surprised at this point, but I still lose my breath watching as bullet after bullet stops in midair, forming this blanket of metal in front of him. When the guns do stop ringing, Mike’s still standing, thousands of bullets hanging inches from his fingertips. Then he closes his hand, and every bullet falls to the ground all at once. Half a second later, one of those huge, power armored soldiers comes charging out of the crowd. The guy’s at least four feet taller than Mike and moving so fast it’d normally be like facing down a blitzing tank, but Mike just flicks his hand sideways and sends the whole suit of armor rolling in circles, slamming along the ground until it rockets through the side of a building.

  Every eye goes from the impact to Mike as he lifts his hands, and that’s when the rumbling gets worse. I can see cracks splitting open beneath the cluster of soldiers, pavement starting to rip into the air on all sides of them. Mikey’s breathing hard as the soldiers find themselves closed in, watching this wave of moving concrete that’s suspended on either side of them. You can see them looking to each other, trying to figure out a plan, but what can they do? All I can think is, that’s a lot of lives gone if Mike decides he wants to end them. “Don’t do this, Mikey,” I whisper. “Not like this.”

  And right before it all comes slamming together, this red light bursts out of the rubble behind him and explodes into the air, the pavement tearing upward as Jackie rockets into the sky, screaming so loud that we can all hear it before she stops to hover
around Mike. It’s an inhuman scream, not quite a Creeper scream, but something otherworldly that makes you feel a chill in your bones. Mikey doesn’t seem to care. When he spots her, he turns away from the soldiers, the pavement he was just holding up suddenly collapsing harmlessly back to the ground. But then Mike’s flying skyward, his own mind lifting him off of the ground and sending him flying at her. Patel looks at me and just spits out, “Did you know he could do that?”

  “No way,” I mumble as I watch Mike fly into Jackie. She spins out of the way just as he’s inches from her, and for lack of better words . . . she looks angry. That red fire’s flowing off her hands as she clocks him across the face, and he goes flying so far back that his body smacks hard into a building. He bounces right off of it, leaving a crater in the side of the wall the size of a car. It doesn’t make him freeze long before he goes flying back at her. He comes in like a punch-drunk boxer, swinging wildly at her while she slides left and right. That’s when I remember one thing. It almost doesn’t matter what someone else is bringing to the table . . . you don’t bet against Jackie when she’s angry.

  She slides under one of his punches and clocks him so hard in the ribs that I see Mike double over, right before she takes her clubbed fists and swings upward, bashing him underneath the jaw with enough force to send him flying into the air. The fire in her thrusters erupt, and she screams into the sky, landing an uppercut on Mikey that makes him go limp. I see the blue sparks in his hands starting to ignite, but she must too, because she immediately grabs him by the collar and angles him to the ground, her jetpack exploding with all the fuel it has in it. In one, explosive push, Jackie and Mike go rocketing back toward the earth.

  There’s a long second where it’s like staring at a meteor burning its way through the atmosphere, a bright red trail of fire that cuts through the sky as Jackie’s screaming fills the air. Time feels like it’s stopped in that one second before the two of them finally explode into the pavement, the rippling shockwave throwing us backward and sending huge cracks tearing the street apart. Not far from us, I watch as one of the buildings suddenly shifts, the foundation beneath it giving way just enough that for a second, I think the entire structure’s about to come down. When it doesn’t, I just tap Patel on the shoulder. He’s on his stomach, holding onto the ground for dear life, but he nods his head at me. Then, together, we start making our way to the huge impact crater that’s been left in middle of the road.

  When we get there, Jackie’s still got him by the collar. Mike looks limp in her hands, but he’s conscious. She’s got her fist cocked back while she’s looking down at him, and he can barely hold his head up to stare back at her. Her eyes are burning red, and when she screams at him, it sounds like she’s crying. “You can’t make me do this, Mike. You can’t make me do something I’ll regret this much.”

  “I’m not going to stop,” he spits back, his voice sounding like he’s swallowed stones. “Not until they’re gone. Until they can’t . . . can’t hurt us anymore.”

  “How, Mikey? What are you going to do? Kill them all? You can’t, Mike. You can’t do something like that. Once you do that, you’ve crossed a line. Are you listening to me?”

  “I’ll do whatever it takes. I don’t care if that means killing them . . .”

  “You don’t mean that,” she barks back. “There’s a difference between killing someone in a war and cold-blooded murder.”

  “What would you know about it, Jackie?”

  There’s this long pause when she’s just holding him there a few inches off the ground, her chest rising and falling before she drops her fist. She lets him down, and I just watch as her shoulders rise and fall. “I’ve done it, Mike. You think this is losing control?” She looks around the street and all the destruction around them. “You think this is bad? Nobody’s died yet, so nothing’s happened that can’t be fixed. But I’ve killed, and you can’t take that back. When you lose control with the kind of power that we have . . . Mikey, be the man that Cynthia and Mandy believe you are.”

  Her voice cracks on that last sentence, and for the first time, Mikey seems to spot me, staring down at him from the top of the crater. Then he turns to see all the soldiers on the opposite side. They’ve all put their rifles away. That . . . was probably a smart move. Still, like always, it’s when he sees Mandy and Cynthia that he really seems to find himself. For a long second, he stares back up at Jackie before finally saying anything. “No more lies. Promise me it’ll be different this time.”

  She takes a knee in front of him and holds her hand out. He just stares at it for a long time before stretching his hand back, the two of them shaking hands there in the crater. “No more excuses, Mike. I’m going to make this right, like I should have a long time ago.”

  I turn to Patel. “Go around and talk to the troops over there. Make it real clear that if they don’t let those prisoners go, we’re going to witness ten city blocks get leveled if these two go at it again.”

  “I think they know that. Should be easy to convince them,” he says as he darts away. By the time I look back down into the crater, I can’t help but let out a sigh of relief. It’s Jackie and Mikey, hugging it out.

  For the first time in a long time . . . like old times.

  SECRET ON SECRETS

  Tommy’s Recording 28

  So, I’m not sure what to expect when I sit down. To be honest, I’m not sure any of us do. It’s just the four of us. Me, Dodger, Mike, and Jackie, all of us on folding chairs in as much of a circle that’s possible. For a second, we all just kind of stare at each other. I’m ready to talk first, but that’s when Jackie holds a hand up. I just give her a nod, and she smiles back. She sits there for a second, just her in her jumpsuit, before leaning forward and opening her hands out.

  “I want all of you to tell me how I’ve been screwing up.”

  I rub at my forehead. “I’m not sure that’s productive. Is that how you want this to go down?”

  “Yeah. I do.” She looks over at Mike. “Mikey, we used to spend all our free time together. When we lived in the Tower, you were only one of two friends I had. It was you and Allison. We’ve never connected here like we did back then.” She takes a deep breath. “I’m not jealous of what you and Cynthia have, but I miss us talking. I sort of wish more of our time the last couple of months would have been more like they were in the Green Zone.”

  He smiles at her and waves her off. “Me too. Just never happened. Wish I would have known it would all happen but . . . Guess I never realized Fort Silence would pull us apart like this.”

  “I’m sorry I ignored you.”

  “Not just about ignoring me, Jackie. Situation with Cynthia and Mandy . . . You know I love those two. Felt sort of like you were ignoring what they were going through. Mandy told you about the wiretapping, plus you were there when . . .” He gestures to his face. “You saw it. Doesn’t feel good to get a rifle to the face.”

  “I got into it with Yousef that day,” she tells him. “You all know. The fight at Central Primary.”

  “I know. Just, it felt like you gave him one more chance.”

  “I did, but I also thought the War Council was responsible for most of what was going on, or maybe the Advisory Council. I still kind of do but, at the end of the day, they’re Yousef’s troops. I should have put my foot down more.” She leans his way, the two staring at each other in the eyes. “Mandy’s a great kid. I love her too, and I don’t want her growing up . . .” Her head drops for a second before she looks at him again. “I don’t want her growing up like I did. So, this is it. I’m not putting up with it anymore. I’m just sorry we had to ‘duke it out,’ for lack of better words. Speaking of that . . .” She rubs at her jaw and laughs a little. “Have you been holding back on us, Michael Chapman? Since when can you hit me hard enough to send me flying for half a block?”

  He just smirks at that. “Told you I was coming off the meds. Doc said I’d probably go into overdrive with my powers since I’d been suppressin
g them for more than a year. Honestly, I didn’t even know I could do most of what I did until I was in the middle of that fight.”

  “If you’d had any time to train with your powers, I might not have been able to pull the win out.”

  “Doubt that. Thanks for the flattery, though. Plus, thanks for seeing how bad things have been getting.”

  “It’s kind of hard not to when one of my best friends has his girlfriend kidnapped.” She gives him one last smile before she looks across at me and Dodger. “I know me and Mike just got into a fight, and there’s probably going to be a lot of talking that needs to happen about what happens with him now. But, obviously things haven’t been great between us, either. I do really appreciate all the effort you’ve put into trying to be a good friend to me. I just wish I would have returned the favor.”

  Dodger shakes her head. “Jackie, you encouraged me to have a little backbone and just . . . do what I want. I’ve been trying new things and learning where I fit in around Central. Half the reason I did any of that was because you helped me believe in myself. So, obviously I don’t think you’re anywhere near to being a bad friend.” She pauses a little as she’s looking at her. “Personally, you haven’t done anything to hurt my feelings, but . . .” Then she looks over at me for a second before looking back at Jackie. “You’ve been avoiding Tommy since you guys came back from Fort Silence. I don’t think you two have talked at all since then, and he . . . he was pretty hurt.”

  Her eyes look over to me as she runs both of her hands through that thick head of hair, tracing her skull to the bun she has in the back. For a second she just massages her head, her eyes closed like she’s thinking things out, before her hands finally go back to her knees and she stares straight at me. “Tommy, there hasn’t been a day when I’ve been okay with everything that went down. The way I just . . . lost it in your room. I blew up at you and I shouldn’t have. You did say things that made me angry, but . . .” She shakes her head again. “I wouldn’t have reacted the way I did if I hadn’t gone in there a drunk moron.”