by Bryan Young
“STOP!” Tye shouted. As he was about to rush forward to intervene, the alien pulled out an energy blade from his suit and held it to Dallas’s back.
“You take a single step forward and I’ll sever his spinal cord,” he said coldly.
Tye stopped dead in his tracks, gritting his teeth. Silent, waiting for the alien to speak.
He chuckled with sinister glee. “Since when did you care about Dallas, Tye?” he asked, putting more pressure on the prone boy’s back. “I’ve been watching you... There never was a moment I can remember…” he paused for a second. “Unless...” Trailing off to think and then starting again, he said, “Unless, maybe, you feel responsible for what I could do.”
“How is it Tye’s fault that you’re threatening to murder Dallas?” Kato spat at him.
Another laugh escaped his masked face, his interest piqued by what he now knew to be true. “This is quite intriguing,” he hissed. Looking at Tye directly, he said mockingly, “Don’t tell me, boy. You haven’t told your friends your little secret? How you’re connected to all of this?”
Tye stood quietly, his head bent. Kato and Ashley looked at him with confusion. Before they could ask what the alien meant, Dallas transformed back and groaned. “Wha... What do you mean?” he said weakly.
The alien raised a large hand towards Tye and jeered, “The boy you’ve called a friend is responsible for all of this. The dome. Your freakish abilities. Your world being in great jeopardy. The fact that you’ve all had to risk your lives to protect it. And he’s kept it hidden from you all this time.”
“What the hell is he talking about?” Ashley asked. She looked at Tye with worry as he stood, unmoving.
“He’s too much of a coward for the truth,” the alien mocked. “I, however, have no such reservations.”
“So, tell us!” Dallas demanded, using the last of his energy for his outburst.
The alien looked down at the boy under his boot. “Gladly.” Raising one of his hands, he conjured up a hologram in his palm that showed Tye on the day he made contact with the object in the crater. “Decades ago, when our probe crash-landed on earth, a malfunction caused it to become decommissioned on impact. It remained inactive for years but maintained its defensive systems, preventing humans from moving it to another location. But more importantly, it kept sending out signals, looking to attract the superhumans we were looking for. Luckily for us, something brought Tye right into the range of the signal and as soon as it hit him, he was subconsciously drawn to the probe like a fly to light. But he didn’t stop at just admiring it from a safe distance. No. He made contact. And as soon as it sensed his unique biosignature, it reactivated with a newfound sense of purpose and the rest as they say, was history.”
Everyone remained silent in shock of what they had just been told. Tye had indeed been the unknowing catalyst for all this and had kept this a secret their entire time together. Ashley walked over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Tye,” she said softly. “I—”
“No,” Tye said, stopping her. He looked back up at the alien. “You’re right. It is my fault. I’m the reason for all of this shit. It’s my responsibility, but you know what? I’d give my fucking life to stop it. And if you’re in the way of that, then—” he conjured up his blade and pointed it in the alien’s direction “—I’ll move you the hell out of it,” he spat.
Another laugh escaped the alien’s maw. “I appreciate your enthusiasm for death, boy. But...” He removed his foot from Dallas’s back and stepped back. With a single snap, a portal just big enough to fit his body appeared behind him. “I won’t kill you just yet,” he boomed over the powerful crackling of the vortex. “Wait for my signal tomorrow. As soon as you see it, the challenge begins. If you don’t come to me, make no mistake I will find you. Prepare as you must but I sense weakness and don’t foresee any of you surviving. If I feel that same weakness when we fight then mark my words, you will all die tomorrow.” With that, he turned and walked into the opening. It shut behind him, leaving an odd serenity as if he had never appeared in the first place.
As soon as he was gone, Tye rushed over to Dallas’s side and picked up his head, checking him over. “Are you okay?” he asked with great concern.
“Does it even matter? You’re the reason I’m here in the first place,” Dallas murmured.
“Dallas, I—” Tye began.
“Guys,” Ashley cut in. “Can we not do this here? We should get back to base camp to regroup and take a deep breath. And then, once we’re settled in, we can talk.”
“I agree with Ashley,” Carmelita followed. “I know we all have questions, but it can wait.”
“Fine,” Dallas said weakly but refused Tye’s help in getting to his feet. Guilt flooded Tye’s body as he began to feel like the bond he had formed with the others would be severed forever.
He turned around to see Ashley take off with Kato with. Carmelita walked over to Dallas to help him up and fly after them. She stopped mid-air and looked down at Tye who was still standing unmoving. “You coming?”
Momentarily brought back to reality, he simply said, “Y-Yeah. I’m coming.” He slowly flew up towards the rest of the group. They were not heading home but heading towards their most difficult challenge yet.
Chapter 19: Who Would Win in a Fight?
They sat around the fire and stared into the flames that danced on their quickly dwindling pile of wood.
“So...” Ashley said trying to cut the viscous tension in the air. “Tye, what happened? Why did you keep this from us?”
“I don’t know.” Tye said staring into the fire, holding his hands in his front hoodie pocket. “I was scared? Thought you’d blame me for all of this? I guess I didn’t want people I was spending an entire week with to hate me for something that I didn’t—”
“Didn’t do?” Dallas completed. “Because you fucking did.”
“I didn’t know, dude!” Tye defended himself.
“Didn’t know what?” Kato asked. “Can you at least tell us what happened so we have some kind of context?”
Tye nodded. “It really was nothing... There’s this spot in a bunch of hills where I live that had a bit of urban legend surrounding it. My friends and I just thought it would be cool to explore it. Plus, I wanted to take pictures to impress this girl that I kinda had a thing for. It was technically trespassing but we’re just kids. When we came up on the hills, we saw this egg with the pods that the administrator mentioned but we didn’t know we’d find... that. I saw it and something... something came over me that made me want to touch it and when I did, it kinda kicked off... Everything.”
No one spoke once Tye had completed his tale. Everyone simply looked at each other, waiting for a response, then looked at Tye to add more. They waited for the pop, for the moment where he had really done something malicious to screw over the earth to come to light, but there was nothing.
Unexpectedly, Ashley began laughing. It started off as a slight chuckle and then evolved into loud and raucous laughter. Tye raised an eyebrow at her as she wiped away tears. “Are you... okay?” he asked.
“Yeah! I’m...” she fought to hold back laughed. “It’s just... that’s why we’re all here? You guys were bored and wanted to impress a girl? Tye. While, yes, this fucking sucks, you had no idea any of this would happen. You can’t blame yourself for that. How could you have known it would turn into... this?”
Kato nodded in agreement. “She has a point, dude. You’d have to be pretty insane to expect that trespassing on a hill somewhere would lead to superpowers and aliens trying to take over the world.” He smiled and continued, “You could’ve told us and we would’ve understood.”
“Understood what?!” Dallas shouted, standing up and ignoring the pain. “The fact that his dumbass antics led us here?” He pointed a finger accusingly at Tye, “If you weren’t trespassing on fucking someone else’s property, we wouldn’t be here! You could’ve done anything else that night and you chose to break the law and put
everyone else in danger?!”
“I didn’t know, Dallas! Was going there dumb? Absolutely. But I wouldn’t expect the consequences to be this!” Tye argued.
“Who gives a shit what you knew?!” Dallas yelled. “The reality is what fucking happened! And all of you are pissing me off by simply accepting the fact that this is his fault and he lied about it!”
“What do you want me to do, Dallas?” Tye asked calmly. “I was scared, man. It’s not like I can go back in time and fix things, I—”
“And there you fucking go!” Dallas spat out. “That’s your problem, you know? You don’t want to take any goddamn responsibility for what you’ve caused. Because of you, we may never see our families again. Because of you, we almost fucking died. And what about my football career, Tye? The only thing I’ve ever wanted in life. I... just wanted to be different. Be better than the small-town shit. My biggest dream is dead because of you!” he screamed. “And you know why?” He paused for a moment, staring daggers at Tye and then lowered his voice to a deadly serious tone. “Because of you, I’m a freak now and will be forever.”
Tye rolled his eyes and threw up his arms, “I’m sorry then, Dallas! Is that what you want?” Tye stood up. “I’m sorry! I get it. This is a rough time for you. It’s a rough time for all of us, but if it means anything, I truly am sorry. Trust me, I feel a lot of guilt about putting us in this position, but we can’t sit here and let this tear us apart! That’s what it wants!”
“Trust you?!” Dallas shouted, accidentally stepping into the fire. He screamed in pain and recoiled, limping over to the cave wall. He shot Tye a cold look of pure rage and then stormed outside.
“God damn it,” Tye sighed. “I’ve gotta get him.”
“Eh. Gotta isn’t the word I would use, personally,” Kato shrugged, reclining on his rock.
“Be careful, Tye,” Carmelita warned.
With a nod, Tye walked outside and saw Dallas storming off towards the woods with a slight limp.
“Where the hell are you going?” Tye shouted.
Dallas stopped and turned around. “I’m going to kill that bastard alien and then I’m going home! Hopefully I’ll never see any of you again!”
“Dude, what? You can’t take him by yourself! We need to do this as a team!”
“What team? You decided you didn’t want to be a team player the second you chose to keep this place’s biggest secret for yourself.”
Tye was about to stop him by force but stopped when Dallas put his hand out and simply said, “Tye, if you come near me, it will be the last thing you ever do. Leave. Me. Alone.” He then limped into the darkness, leaving Tye standing by himself.
Tye clenched his fist and tried to think his way out. He was heavily conflicted about what action to take. Should he chase after Dallas and risk facing his wrath? Would it be better to grab the others and start a mini-search party? Or would he dare let Dallas fight the alien by himself and face the consequences of his own poor decisions? Racking his brain over the choices before him, he drew in a deep breath in recognition of his only true choice. He had to take responsibility and get Dallas. Cursing, he walked off into the dark woods.
He walked on, shouting Dallas’s name. He stopped when he heard a faint rumbling from around him. He stopped to listen. Footsteps. He turned towards the direction of the sound and heard leaves crunching under something heavy. His breath was still as he quickly spun around and was met with a large fist colliding with his face, sending him flying backwards until his momentum was stopped by a large tree.
Shaking off the impact, he looked up to see a charging Dallas with his long reptilian tongue hanging out of his mouth full of razor-sharp teeth. Tye rolled out of the way just as Dallas punched the tree. He pulled his arm out of the bark with ease.
“We don’t have to do this, man!” Tye shouted with his hand up. “We don’t have to fight!”
Dallas said nothing and instead slowly walked forward before breaking into a sprint. He tackled Tye through a set of trees, ramming him into a boulder.
He let out a cry as he stood back while Tye fell to the ground and softly said, “Okay. Maybe we do have to do this.” Dallas noticed Tye getting to his feet and raised his hand up to strike but was taken by surprise when, with blinding speed, Tye caught him with a straight punch to the stomach that sent Dallas flying backwards. Though he landed on his feet, he was too slow to defend himself. Tye was quickly upon him and landed a flurry of rapid punches to the head and finished it off with an explosive bolt of energy that staggered Dallas.
Breathing heavily and landing roughly ten feet away, Tye tried to talk to him again. “Dude, I really don’t want to hurt you!” he shouted. “We can go back to camp and talk this out like two mature people!” Dallas paused for a moment and for that split second, Tye thought he was actually considering his offer but quickly realized that the fight was far from over when Dallas clapped his hands together, sending a shockwave that forced Tye back.
As he tried to regain his balance, he felt Dallas’s mighty knee catch him in the gut, lifting him up into the air where he was brought crushing down again with a hammer fist to the spine. He then grabbed Tye by the back of his hoodie and threw him hard against a tree, causing bark to fly everywhere as his body left an indent.
Trying to get back to his feet, he heard something cutting through the air. He jumped forward just as a large boulder crashed against the tree he had pulled himself from. “Really, dude? A boulder? What is this? A 1950s cartoon?” he muttered to himself in exasperation, throwing his hands up.
Out of the darkness, Dallas blindsided Tye with a large stick but at the last second, Tye blocked the brunt of the force with his forearm. However, he didn’t see the right hook that followed and was forced back again but managed to stay on his feet this time. Regaining balance, he fired multiple energy bolts to create some distance but Dallas ran through them, completely unfazed. He threw a punch that just missed Tye as he rolled out of harm’s way.
A surprise kick staggered Tye and Dallas used the opportunity to land a critical blow. He stretched out his long tree-like arms over Tye’s head and then swiftly brought them down but he caught his hands at the last second, struggling to keep Dallas from crushing his head. The two powerhouses struggled for control but Dallas’s immense strength slowly began to overtake him. Hho was sweating profusely and gritting his teeth, trying to summon the strength to defend himself.
As the seconds passed, Dallas’s massive hands inched closer to Tye’s skull. He could feel his arms trembling as they began to give out under the great force. Dallas sensed blood and his resolve to keep up the pressure increased. As he saw Tye on the brink of giving in, he leaned forward. With a wide devilish grin and in a deep gravelly voice, he slowly said, “You’re. Too. Weak.”
In this moment, something snapped in Tye’s mind. A flickering light bulb deep inside him ignited a burning passion and pure instinct. The feeling increased tenfold as those words rung in his ears. You’re. Too. Weak. He contemplated those words and suddenly, a flash went off inside him. “No!” was the first thing that escaped his mouth as he started pushing back against Dallas’s powerful grip. “I’m,” came out the second word as his resistance matched Dallas’s strength and began overtaking it. “NOT!” he shouted as his power completely broke Dallas’s grasp. The hulking beast now found himself in a position where he was the weaker adversary as Tye hit him with a powerful eye blast, forcing Dallas back. In less than an instant, Tye rushed forward and threw a flurry of hits to Dallas’s head and chest, causing a green fluid to flow liberally from his mouth and nose slits.
Trying to defend himself, Dallas threw a punch but Tye caught his hand mid-air and delivered a kick that sent him flying backwards against a boulder. He followed it up with multiple energy bolts for good measure. As Dallas lay there on the brink of defeat, Tye walked over to him with sheer determination on his face. Dallas yelled out in an attempt to scare Tye away but he held his ground.
Realizing th
at the fight could be over, Dallas closed his eyes, bracing for the final strike and waited. Nothing. He slowly opened them to see Tye reaching his hand out. “Dallas, I’m very tired. Can we just end this please?” he looked up at Tye, confused. He had been certain that Tye would’ve tried to kill him in that moment. Could this be a trick? No. His heartbeat was steady. He showed no signs of lying. Was he simply too exhausted to fight? Not that either. His breathing was calm and he had barely broken a sweat apart from their mini-tussle.
But something inside him wasn’t done. He needed to see Tye suffer for all that he had put him through and whether or not the gesture was honest, in that moment, Dallas made a choice that he could never take back. Instead of reciprocating, with a wicked smile, he snapped up and wrapped his agile tail around Tye’s neck and torso. Dallas roared triumphantly, finally having gotten the upper hand. He relished the prospect of crushing Tye slowly.
Gasping for air, Tye pleaded with Dallas to release his grip, but his pleas fell on deaf ears. Instead, Dallas beat his chest in a celebratory manner. Again, Tye cried for him to stop the fight, telling him that he didn’t want to do what Dallas was about to make him do. Dallas ignored Tye and continued to slowly suffocate him.
Desperate and now fully convinced that he absolutely needed to put Dallas down, Tye shouted with guttural might and summoned his energy blades from both his arms to cut through the section of Dallas’s tail that held him. Once free, he swiftly cut the entire tail off from the base.
Dallas screamed in agony, the flesh, muscle, and bone completely sliced through and cauterized at the end. He wailed and beat the ground at the searing pain. His shrieks could be heard throughout the forest and his rage and frustration grew with every second.
Tye jumped back, observing the scene from a safe distance. His eyes widened at what transpired next. Dallas began shooting dark-red bolts of energy from his eyes in his rage. He had somehow managed to evolve a new power through his anger. The bolts flew everywhere, severing trees, obliterating boulders, and causing large craters in the ground where they struck.
