The Rise of Dark Flame

by Damien Benoit-Ledoux

  What the hell? Blake, no!

  He aimed and flew at Dark Flame with near-supersonic speed, hoping to surprise his former best friend before triggering their proximity sensing power. His eyes and body glowed bright blue in his new super suit as he effortlessly descended.

  As Dark Flame extended his hands toward Chief Applegate, Blue Spekter pushed himself, yelling as he accelerated and put his fists in front of him. At the last second, Dark Flame’s head snapped toward Blue Spekter’s direction, his eyes blazing with orange fury.

  Blue Spekter had gambled correctly; due to his speed, they sensed each other’s presence just prior to impact. He wrapped an invisible shield around Chief Applegate as his fists slammed into Dark Flame’s torso at nearly six-hundred miles per hour, the laws of physics bringing him to an abrupt stop. A massive spray of blue and orange sparks exploded away from the super collision and a loud bang shattered the windows of parked cars and echoed off the brick police building. The force of the impact sent Dark Flame flying across the parking lot at six-hundred miles per hour, his arms and legs flailing in surprise until his body plowed into the earth and carved a massive trench into the lawn on the opposite end of the parking area. The resulting shockwave set off car alarms and knocked over some trees.

  Dark Flame’s unmoving body came to rest one hundred-feet away in a deep crater of earth and broken, tangled tree roots. The cloud of dust, dirt, and grass that had sprayed into the air gently fell back to the ground around his fallen body.

  “What on earth?” Chief Applegate exclaimed.

  Blue Spekter turned to the chief and decided to clear the air before addressing what he just did. “Why did you try to take me down at Goodwin Park?” he asked angrily, holding his broken hands and arms out in front of him. He hadn’t thought about what the laws of physics would do to his body when he decided to tackle Dark Flame at that speed.

  Chief Applegate looked at his cracking hands then looked directly into his eyes. “That wasn’t me. I told you the DHS had something up their sleeves. I didn’t expect them to try something like that, but they have made my life a living hell. No, correction…you two have made my life a living hell.” Then, she looked him up and down as police officers and DHS agents ran out of the building and scurried about, yelling orders to one another about protecting the chief and investigating the deep trench in the ground.

  “What are you wearing?” she asked.

  “It’s my new super suit, Chief. It’s cool, huh?” He powered down his glowing body and eyes.

  Her face lit up, but she shook her head at him. “Are you going to tell me how you got that…costume?”

  “Maybe.” Blue Spekter felt his hands itch, like the blood returning after a limb has fallen asleep. He sighed. “I noticed you weren’t in Goodwin Park and I thought it was strange. They attacked me with some kind of new stun-gun they called a TaseBolt.”

  The chief smirked. “That should have been another clue for you, Blue. Do you think a local police force has the budget to invent and manufacture futuristic weapons to stop superheroes?”

  Blue Spekter chuckled. “I didn’t think about it that way.”

  “Of course not, because that’s not in the comics, ever,” Chief Applegate said.

  Blue Spekter stared at her with shock. “I thought we had found common ground to work from. I don’t need you talking down to me.”

  “I’m not trying to be difficult, but you’re young and you need my help as well.”

  Several officers inched toward them, their weapons drawn. Others gawked at the long trench, unsure if they should investigate.

  “Lower your weapons,” Chief Applegate ordered, pointing at her officers. The officers and agents obeyed and slowed their approach.

  Blue Spekter raised his broken, twisted hands and arms, wincing as the bones popped back into place and the tissues mended themselves. I hope one day I’ll be more invulnerable than I already am.

  “Are your hands…healing?” she asked, cringing at the sounds.

  “Yeah, it’s a useful but somewhat painful little trick.”

  “That’s impressive. I hope it takes Dark Flame a little longer to heal,” she responded, eyeing the trench.

  “You need to hide,” Blue Spekter told the police chief. “If he can see you, he can use his telekinesis against you. If he wakes up, I may not be able to stop him and I’m pretty sure I just pissed him off.”

  “You also ruined that lawn,” Chief Applegate said, her voice reflecting amusement and awe. The DHS team leader—the one he recognized from the Sheraton and the Stratotanker rescue—cautiously approached.

  “It was either the lawn or your life. I hope I chose correctly.” You could show a little gratitude, lady, especially after our chat on the tower.

  She nodded. “Thank you.”

  “This won’t be Victor’s only attempt, you know.”

  The chief regarded him with surprise. “You don’t seriously think he’ll send his thugs after me, do you?”

  Blue Spekter pointed to the trench. “Victor just sent his most lethal assassin after you. What do you think?”

  Chief Applegate looked at the motionless body in the trench. “You have a point.”

  Blue Spekter noticed the DHS agent was staring at him, his eyes tracing over his body with wonder. “You like it?”

  He nodded. “It’s actually, uh, really cool.”

  “Thanks.” Then, his super hearing detected the sound of Dark Flame groaning in the ground. “You guys better go, he’s waking up.” He looked at the DHS agent. “Hey, you know those TaseBolt guns you guys created?”

  The Agent looked at him with surprise. “Um, those are classified...”

  “No, they’re not classified when you use them against me. Nice try, by the way,” he responded sarcastically. Then, he pointed to the trench again. “But, they’ll work on him.”

  “Good to know.”

  Suddenly, Dark Flame shot up from the ground in an explosion of dirt and grass and hovered ten feet in the air. Blue Spekter and all the agents turned to gawk at him in surprise.

  That was fast; this isn’t going to be good.

  Then, Dark Flame’s face twisted with pain and rage. He tumbled forward and fell to the ground, his left hand snapping up and grabbing the back of his head as he screamed in agony. He hit the ground next to the crater his body made with a thud.

  “Should we take him?” The DHS agent asked.

  “Unless your men have TaseBolts on them, no,” Chief Applegate responded. “It looks like he’s in pain and you know what a wounded animal does when it is cornered.”

  “Those are classified,” the agent protested.

  “Not when it concerns him!” Chief Applegate stated firmly, pointing at Dark Flame.

  They watched Dark Flame struggle and try to push himself up, but he fell back to his knees on the ground. He shook his head, but that seemed to cause him more pain. Then, he grabbed the back of his head with both hands. With his super hearing, Blue Spekter heard him crying.

  “So, you do have a control chip in you,” Blue Spekter said softly.

  “A what?” Chief Applegate asked, looking at him with concern.

  “A control chip or a micro bug. When we tried to destroy the Rangeley facility, Dark Flame managed to knock me out for a few minutes. That’s when Victor told Dr. Madison to put a micro bug in my head so he could control me.”

  And Blake helped her by holding me down…

  “She failed, but I bet that explains why he’s behaving so violently. Look at the way he’s grabbing the back of his head, like he’s in pain. Everything makes sense now. Somehow, Victor is making him do these violent things.”

  “Who the hell are Victor and Dr. Madison?” Agent Potter asked.

  “Are you going to tell him, or am I?” Blue Spekter asked the chief.

  She sighed and rolled her eyes. “I’ll tell him everything, I promise, but you need to hear something first. Victor told me to use the control phrase, freeze asset one, if Da
rk Flame ever became a problem. When I said that to him before you arrived, nothing happened. That might confirm the control chip is malfunctioning, right?

  Blue Spekter nodded. “It would seem so.” A control phrase? To stop him or something?

  Then, Dark Flame yelled loudly one last time. Everyone stared at him as the air around him warped and shimmered into a transparent sphere around him. Then, it popped like a giant soap bubble. The silence of the stunned police and agents around him was deafening. Dark Flame looked at Blue Spekter and pointed at him.

  “You!” he roared. Whatever pain was bothering him seemed to have subsided and Dark Flame’s eyes suddenly blazed with orange fury as he pushed himself to his feet, then reached out with his hands.

  Holy crap!

  Blue Spekter stared in disbelief as his former best friend picked up two cars and hurled them at him, the DHS agent, and Chief Applegate. Blue Spekter’s eyes ignited with brilliant blue light as he brought his hands up and created a defensive shield that caught the cars in midair. Dark Flame roared and pushed against him, but Blue Spekter held his ground.

  “Open fire on Dark Flame!” Chief Applegate shouted. A number of officers and agents pulled their firearms, took aim, and fired.

  Blue Spekter felt the cars succumb to gravity as Dark Flame diverted his attention to the incoming bullets. Lowering his arms, Blue Spekter watched Dark Flame catch all the bullets in midair several feet in front of his body.

  “Stop firing, stop firing!” Blue Spekter yelled, but it was too late. Blue Spekter’s super vision saw the hovering bullets rotating around to face the police and agents

  “No!” Blue Spekter reached back like a javelin thrower, formed an ice spear in his hand, and hurled it at Dark Flame as a distraction. Then, he spread his hands wide and created the largest defensive shield he could summon, its concave shape curving and protecting the officers and agents.

  The ice spear shattered when it struck Dark Flame’s body and he grunted and staggered backward. Recovering quickly, he wound his arm back and thrust it forward like a baseball pitcher throwing to home plate. All the bullets flew back to men and women in uniform who fired them. Fortunately, Blue Spekter caught them all except for a few that passed through the edge of his shield and struck the police headquarter’s brick facade, inches away from the heads of two very surprised officers.

  Dark Flame glared menacingly at Blue Spekter and yelled at him. “Traitors!” Then, he set his feet firmly on the ground, balled his hands into fists at his sides, and ignited his body.

  Blue Spekter instantly felt the heat radiating from Dark Flame’s body.

  “Wow, he can really throw some heat,” Chief Applegate said, taking a few steps back.

  Oh no, he’s figured out how to explode like I can. “Tell your people to get inside, now!” Blue Spekter barked.

  “What? Why?”

  “Just do it!”

  As purple and orange flames continue to grow and fan out from Dark Flames body, Chief Applegate took cover behind a car and radioed instructions to her officers. The DHS agent ran toward police headquarters, waving his hands and yelling at his people to get inside. Most of the police and agents scurried as fast as they could to the safety of the police station. Others hid behind parked cars.

  “Traitors will die!” Dark Flame shouted, then his body exploded with fire and fury. The resulting incendiary shockwave traveled outward from Dark Flame’s body and consumed everything in its path for fifty-feet around him.

  Blue Spekter winced, lowered his stance, and crossed his arms in front of him. He projected a defensive shield in front of him and the car Chief Applegate hid behind. The shield absorbed the damaging effects of Dark Flame’s shockwave as it dissipated. Then, a shirtless Dark Flame took off and flew toward the harbor.

  Relaxing a little, Blue Spekter lowered his arms—and the shield—and gaped at the wake of devastation left in Dark Flame’s absence. The lawn had been scorched and burnt, trees were on fire, and several police cruisers and civilian vehicles showed signs of extreme heat and fire damage. A moment later, he lost the proximity awareness of Dark Flame’s location. Oh man, Blake…what have you done?

  Blue Spekter turned around and looked for Chief Applegate. He spotted her on the ground twenty paces back, coughing and struggling to get on her feet. He looked in the direction of police headquarters and yelled out, “Get a medic!”

  It appeared no one had died, but Blue Spekter suspected the super-heated air might have burnt some of their lungs. Blue Spekter ran over to Chief Applegate and squatted next to her.

  “Are you okay?” he asked.

  “I’ll be fine,” she wheezed. She suffered a coughing fit, then looked into his eyes with an irate face. “Go stop that son-of-a-bitch before he hurts any civilians.”

  Blue Spekter nodded. “I’ll do my best, Chief.”

  The DHS team leader who had hassled Blue Spekter so much approached and extended his hand. “Let’s start over, shall we? I’m Agent Eric Potter. I’m sorry we got off on the wrong foot. Perhaps a conversation would have been better than failed attempts at capturing you.”

  “You wouldn’t be saying that if you had succeeded,” Blue Spekter retorted, folding his arms.

  “Touché. What can we do to help, Blue Spekter?”

  “She needs a medic,” Blue Spekter said, pointing at Chief Applegate.

  “They’re on their way. Anything else?”

  “So, what, just like that, we’re on the same side now?” Blue Spekter asked.

  Agent Potter nodded. “You just saved our butts back there, young man. Tell me what you need, and I’ll make it happen.”

  “I need you to pull your goons out of the high school.”

  The man regarded him with a bewildered expression.

  “Today!” Blue Spekter said, loudly.

  Agent Potter nodded. “Consider it done.”

  Blue Spekter looked skyward in the direction Dark Flame had flown. “Thank you. I don’t know where this fight is going to go down, but now would be the time to bring out those TaseBolts.”

  “We’ll do our best. If possible, fight over the river to minimize destruction…and keep him away from the shipyard if you can. There are nuclear submarines in dock right now. We’ll be in Prescott Park and on Four Tree Island. Get him there if you can.”

  “I’ll try,” Blue Spekter answered. He saluted as he lifted off and flew after Dark Flame, his body glowing bright blue in his new suit. He ascended as fast as he could and looked around for Dark Flame’s orange trail of light.

  Blake hasn’t figured out how to turn off his body glowing yet, so that’s a huge advantage I have over him.

  Out of range of their sensing power, Blue Spekter wasn’t sure which way to look. He swung around until he spotted Dark Flame hovering over the river near the Memorial Bridge.

  Blue Spekter sighed. Damn, that’s right near the shipyard. There’s no point reasoning with you, old friend; you need to be stopped, now.

  For a moment, both boys hesitated, each one glaring at the other. Then, coiling his hands into fists, Blue Spekter willed himself forward and flew at Dark Flame as fast as he could, hoping to knock him upriver.

  Dark Flame pulled his hands back and yelled, “Batter up!” Then, he swung his arms as if swinging a baseball bat.

  “Oh crap!” Blue Spekter exclaimed.

  A moment later, the invisible telekinetic force of Dark Flame’s imagined bat slammed into Blue Spekter. He grunted at the powerful strike against his person as he fell, out of control, toward the churning river beneath them. I deserved that for being stupid because I should have seen that coming, but Blake won’t expect this…

  He took a deep breath and let his falling body splash into the river. He doused his glowing body and eyes, hoping to hide in the depths of the river as he willed himself deeper. Then, using his water powers, he steadied himself in the current and looked up at the orange glow hovering above him. He knew his ex-best friend could sense where he was, but he di
dn’t know if he sensed if he was conscious or not. The orange light moved back-and-forth, indicating Dark Flame was looking for him.

  Blue Spekter spread his arms out to his sides and summoned as much water as he could contain with his powers, which was a lot given the raging current.

  If I time this right, I’ll catch him off guard.

  One,

  Two,

  Three!

  Using flight and water powers, he soared upwards through the water and forced a twenty-foot wide column of swirling, churning water into the air and surprised Dark Flame. The water surrounded him, and as Blue Spekter rose through it, he saw that Dark Flame was caught up in the swirling water column. Then, he super-chilled the water and froze the column straight down into the river’s depths, anchoring it to the rocky riverbed.

  For the first time ever, a frozen mass of ice towered over the river. When he sensed the ice column had secured itself to the river bottom, he focused on the ice surrounding Dark Flame, super freezing it to contain him until DHS could get here with their TaseBolts.

  Blake should pass out soon without oxygen, which gives DHS time to get here. But, um, how the hell are they going to capture him from up here?

  He frowned. Shoot, am I going to have to use one of those things against him?

  Blue Spekter looked to the Portsmouth side of the river and watched as gawkers stared and pointed, laughing as they took pictures with their camera phones.

  What is it with people in imminent danger? Why can’t they just stay away? Seriously, people, run and hide!

  A loud pop and a crack drew Blue Spekter’s attention back to the ice. A moment later, the ice around Dark Flame exploded in a slushy blast of frozen water, steam, and intense heat. Deadly chunks of ice flew outward from Dark Flame’s hovering body, crashing into the river, shipyard structures, the Memorial Bridge towers and roadways, and Prescott Park. Tires screeched on the bridge and people screamed and ran from the killer ice boulders that pummeled the water’s edge of the park.

  Aw, crap.

  16 | Frenemies

  Blake

  Dark Flame used the element of surprise and charged at Blue Spekter, punching him multiple times in the chest and stomach. Each time his fists connected with Blue Spekter’s body, a sharp crack and blinding flash accompanied by blue and orange sparks erupted between them and fell to the river below. Blue Spekter grunted and fell backward, succumbing to the force of his attack. His body sailed backward in an uncontrolled tumble toward the dark waters in front of the shipyard.