Ultimate Sacrifice

by Damien Benoit-Ledoux

  “So, you never practiced which means you have no idea if you have telekinesis or not.”

  “No. I mean, all my other powers just…happened. Wouldn’t the same happen with that?”

  She shrugged. “Even my knowledge of how and why is considerably lacking. From here on out, I want you to assume you can do anything Blake or I can do.”

  “And I should assume he could do the same?”

  “Correct, only he doesn’t have anyone like me working with him to tell him that. He’ll figure it out once you use a few of his own powers against him.”

  “Okay, cool.”

  “Now, to our first lesson. I noticed you can project a very powerful force field around yourself or a group.”

  Quinn nodded. “Yup. That’s come in handy several times.”

  “What does it protect against?”

  “Um… it protects me from attack?” he replied, unsure of where she was going.

  “Put your shield up,” she instructed. Then, both of Ana Maria’s hands came up and turned into living flame.

  “What?” Quinn asked, caught off guard.

  A moment later, she blasted him with scalding beams of fire. Quinn reacted and crossed his arms in front of him, making an X with his forearms. He projected a shield around him that dispersed the fiery attack around him. She pulled back and then wound up like a baseball pitcher throwing a fast ball.

  “Good!” she yelled. “Don’t drop it!”

  “What the hell?” he exclaimed as she sprung forward and hurtled six-pointed ice blades at him. They shattered when they smashed into his invisible shield. She relaxed her stance and nodded at him.

  “What the hell did you do that for?” Quinn said, lowering his arms and his shield.

  “Tell me what just happened,” she said.

  “You attacked me and I stopped your attack with my shield,” Quinn responded, flustered.

  “That’s right. Now, stop this attack.”

  Oh shit.

  Quinn crossed his arms and projected one of his strongest shields, bending the visible spectrum of light around him. Ana Maria’s eyes ignited with pink, swirling power. A moment later, she leaned forward and blasted him with raw power.

  The energy assault passed right through his shield and struck him squarely in the chest. Quinn grunted and lurched backward, tossed twenty-feet back by the energy that overwhelmed him. He caught himself in midair with his mind, hovering for a moment before he landed and walked back to where Ana Maria stood.

  She relaxed her eyes. “That was a low-powered attack. I suspect Blake hit you with a much more powerful beam.”

  “See what I mean? That power just appeared, and he’ll figure out how to use it. It doesn’t make any sense that I wouldn’t have telekinesis, especially now that he can fly, but I don’t.”

  “I understand your frustration, but that is not the lesson to be learned at the moment.”

  “Okay, so, why didn’t my shield work?” Quinn asked looking at his hands, not that his hands had anything to do with it. That must be what you’re going after, right?

  She chuckled. “Your defensive shield protects you from physical or elemental attack. What I suspect you haven’t learned is how to defend yourself from an energy attack.”

  “But, I can absorb electricity,” Quinn protested. “Most of the time, at least. If I’m surprised, it tends to hurt. Once I calm down, I can feel it surging through me and I can control it.”

  “You’re on the right track and you might have figured all this out with time, but with Blake becoming more and more erratic and Victor on the verge of creating more super humans, time is a luxury we don’t have. Today, I’ll teach you how to protect yourself from an energy attack by absorbing the energy, so it doesn’t adversely affect you.”

  “Will absorbing energy help defend against Blake’s telekinesis attacks?”

  “What do his attacks feel like?”

  “When he hits me or grabs me with that power, it feels like a baseball bat smashing me or a vice grip squeezing my body,” Quinn said.

  Ana Maria shook her head. “But it’s not, it’s pure orgone energy directed at you. You can absorb it. Between your defensive shield capabilities, and your evolving absorption ability, you will be able to defend against his attacks, but I can’t guarantee it will be one-hundred percent effective.”

  “How will I know when I’ve mastered it?”

  Ana Maria tilted her head and thought for a moment. “You keep projecting a shield for yourself because what you fail to realize is the shield is already a part of you. Learn to integrate your powers so they become more intuitive and you’ll spend less time defending yourself, saving critical seconds for an offensive attack that just might win the day. You only need to project the shield when you want to defend someone or something else.”

  “Okay,” Quinn said, unconvinced.

  “When you fly, do you think about it mechanically?”

  “I’m not sure what you mean.”

  “Do you think to yourself, fly up, fly left, roll, fly down, land, or take off?”

  Quinn laughed. “No, of course not, I just do it.”

  “Exactly. Because it’s intuitive to you; it’s muscle memory for the mind.”

  “I think I understand what you mean now,” Quinn said, considering the concept a moment. It makes sense.

  “Good,” Ana Maria answered. “Now, I saw those TaseBolts incapacitate you in Goodwin Park, but I saw you harness electricity to stop Blake from choking you over the river.”

  Quinn nodded.

  Without warning, Ana Maria’s hand sparked and discharged a bolt of electricity at him, akin to the Emperor zapping Luke Skywalker in Return of the Jedi.

  Quinn howled with painful surprise and collapsed to the ground, the electricity stunning him momentarily.

  “You really can be surprised,” Ana Maria said incredulously, lowering her hand.

  Quinn grimaced, then returned the favor. Opening his palm, electricity leapt from his right hand and connected with Ana Maria’s body. Instead of screaming and falling to the ground like he expected, she simply smiled at him as the electricity danced over her clothing.

  “I did not bring a change of clothes, so I would appreciate it if you did not singe or incinerate what I’m wearing.”

  Quinn stopped his assault. “Tell me how you did that?” he asked, pushing himself to his feet.

  Instead of answering him, she raised both hands and hurled multiple arcs of electricity at him. He crossed his arms and created a shield, but the hot, blueish white electricity pushed through it and connected with his forearms. This time, she did not stop her assault.

  Quinn yelled as his body convulsed and collapsed to the floor again as the electrical current coursed through it.

  She stepped closer, her eyes blazing with pink fury. “You must absorb the electricity and make it yours,” she said.

  Quinn struggled to think as the intense pain interfered with his thoughts. Focus! Do what you did with the TaseBolts.

  He felt the current shift in his body and the electricity’s offensive power over him faded as it became part of him, coursing through his body like the blood in his veins. A moment later, he felt the electricity submit to his will as if he had generated it himself. He smiled and looked up at Ana Maria, who only turned up the voltage. He grunted under the new barrage of electrical power, but it quickly became part of him.

  Then, feeling like a smart ass, he raised his hands and redirected the electricity back at her. She ceased her assault immediately.

  “Very good!” she said, clapping her hands. “I didn’t even know that was possible. It’s not like I have someone to play electricity war with.

  Quinn smiled. “I guess I’m not the only one learning things today.” He pushed himself to his feet, hoping she wouldn’t knock him down again.

  “Don’t get cocky, kid. Why do you think the electricity stuns you in the first place?” she asked.

  Quinn shrugged. “Because I’m
not ready for it?”

  “Possibly. But I think it’s because your body is not used to absorbing energy when it has to.”

  “Is this like when I go back into one of the orgone reactors and I feel all buzzed and woozy?” Quinn asked.

  She nodded. “Your body knows when it’s near a high concentration of orgone and it automatically absorbs it. Like I said to you before, orgone is everywhere, it’s all around us. All you have to do is tune your body’s reaction and you’ll discover how much easier it will be to protect yourself when someone attacks because you won’t always have to think about defending yourself.”

  Quinn nodded, then Maria blasted him with electricity again. This time, he was ready and quickly raised his right hand to attract the electrical charge. There was no pain, only an intense feeling of his body harnessing energy.

  She stopped assault and beamed with pride. “You’re getting it. Now, try this.” She wound back like a baseball pitcher and threw nothing at him. A split second later, an invisible, super-powered fist slammed into Quinn’s stomach, knocking the wind out of him.

  He gulped for air, but she reached out and grabbed him with her mind, pushing his arms to his side and forcing his legs together, squeezing him like a boa constrictor.

  “You need to absorb this attack, too,” she said. “I saw how Blake was able to toss you around, but you deflected him when he fell.

  “Ugh! I…this…” Quinn grunted, struggling to speak as she crushed his torso.

  “You’re invulnerable, so act like it. You can be hurt, but not destroyed. Your bones will break and your muscles will tear, but they will mend within seconds and you will heal.”

  She squeezed him harder. “Absorb my attack, Quinn, just like you did the electricity.”

  “I can’t!” he wheezed.

  She squeezed harder and Quinn felt his ribs break. He cried out in pain. “Is that what you’re going to say to Blake when he’s trying to kill you? When he’s shoving rebar or something worse through your chest? That you can’t do it?”

  He looked it at her with anger, ready to pass out from a lack of oxygen. She shook her head then dropped him to the ground. He grunted when he hit the cement floor, then twitched when his ribs popped back into place.

  Ana Maria walked a circle around him. “Perhaps you’re not ready for this yet.”

  “I just need more help,” he pleaded, discreetly wiping a tear from his eyes. “Tell me what to do. Tell me why Blake could skewer me with rebar.” He shuddered at the memory of that moment.

  “The only reason Blake could skewer you with rebar is because he’s figured out that physical pain temporarily inhibits our abilities and powers. I’m sure you’ve noticed.”

  “Yeah, it sucks,” he muttered.

  “I’ve had my fair share of accidents, but the healing factor responds quickly, even in those moments. Unfortunately, it’s not limited to physical pain. Emotional pain—like heartbreak—can take its toll on us as well. There just isn’t time to teach you everything I’ve learned. If you aren’t ready, Victor or Blake will win and all will be lost. I can’t sacrifice any more of my time with you.”

  Quinn launched himself to his feet and roared at her, his body blazing with blue fury and his eyes shimmering with angry energy. “Don’t you talk to me about sacrifice, you hypocrite!”

  She squared off with him, smiling devilishly.

  “All you’ve done is hide like a coward.”

  Ana Maria threw a telekinetic punch at him, but he deflected it.

  “You could have done so much good in the world but instead you let evil grow all around you,” Quinn yelled.

  She threw a stronger a telekinetic punch at him, but he deflected that as well.

  “You could’ve done so much good by coming out, but instead you hid the gift of who you are.”

  She telekinetically shoved him hard, but the energy dissipated through him. Quinn was furious, his shoulders heaving with anger.

  “I’m leaving!” she exclaimed, then turned to walk away.

  “No, you’re not!” Quinn snarled, reaching out with an unknown power and spinning her around with his mind.

  He gasped. Oh my gosh!

  In a flash, his angry emotions faded to wonder and awe.

  “Holy shit! Did I just do that? Are you okay?”

  Ana Maria grinned at him. “You don’t get angry very much, do you, Quinn?”

  He shook his head. “No.”

  She nodded, then stroked her chin as if puzzle pieces were coming together in her mind. “Our powers reveal themselves against the full spectrum of human emotion. I figured that out early on, but with you…it’s no wonder you’re each missing certain powers because you and Blake are emotional opposites. That must be why you have a different power set from him. I now suspect that will be the case for anyone orgone-created super humans.”

  “I’m sorry for what I said.”

  She smiled and approached him, then took his hands in hers. “You’re not entirely wrong, Quinn. I am afraid; I’m very afraid, but not for the reasons you think. I’ve waited in the shadows, lurking where evil lives, keeping it under my watchful eye while hoping the day would never come when I would be forced to expose myself to the world, a lone super human with no support system. You’re right though, I could have done so much good; I have hidden the gift of who I am, but unlike you, I am not ready to come out yet. I hope you can understand that.”

  Quinn nodded. “I can totally relate to not being ready to come out. But you can’t leave me alone. I can’t guard the city or the world without you. I don’t think I can defeat Blake or Victor without you.”

  She chuckled. “Guard the city? Who, you and me?”

  He shook his head and gently squeezed her hands. “My team. I want you to be on it.”

  She tilted her head with curiosity. “Who, you and your science teacher?”

  “And a few other people, too.”

  “Interesting. I had no idea. You’ve been busy.”

  Quinn grinned at the idea of knowing something else Ana Maria did not. He let go of her hands and stepped back. “I suppose you want to go another round? I know my unexpected ability to absorb your attacks had something to do with my anger.”

  She nodded. “How about we take a break and learn something else?”

  Quinn nodded.

  “I will teach you how to mask your presence from both of us.”

  “Explain something to me first, please. If you were the only superhuman around, how did you figure out you could hide your ability to hide yourself from others if there were no others to hide from?”

  “That’s a great question, Quinn.”

  “A few days after escaping the morgue, things started happening to me. Suddenly, I could manipulate water and fire, but I didn’t understand why. I knew the only way I could learn the purpose of their experiments was to stick close to Orgonon and hope to learn what happened. Of course, as a dead person, it would have been unsettling to show up at the front door in my military uniform, and I was already leery of what the experimentation would produce based on my symptoms.”

  “You thought you were sick?” Quinn asked.

  “I was too stunned to understand the things I could do were abilities and not signs of a new, horrifying disease.”

  “Makes sense.”

  “I reached out to one of my trusted allies and they provided me with a new identity. Then, I got a job with the company responsible for the facility’s cleaning and grounds keeping. To conceal my true identity, I added extensions to my hair and adopted my mother’s immigrant lifestyle, a ruse I could successfully employ. Thus, I lived as a Hispanic woman would have in 1965. Also, I conveniently spoke only Spanish, a comforting notion to the pompous all-white male program leadership because they assumed I could not understand their secrets.”

  “Okay.”

  “After a brief orientation, I was back inside the facility with unlimited access, cleaning its offices and the reactor core, all the while reading wha
tever documentation they left open on their desks. Since I wasn’t the last test subject, I could sense the new creations as my abilities took hold in my life. The test subjects after me never lived for more than a week, but I could always sense them. I suspected they could sense me, too, so I learned—rather intuited—how to hide myself from them.”

  “But you if you didn’t interact with the test subjects, how did you know you had hidden yourself from them?”

  “I knew I had succeeded when one of the viable subjects crazily insisted he could sense someone else like him in the facility, but the guards only found two terrified Hispanic women mopping the floors. My cleaning partner was like my abuela—a grandmother—and when the guards cornered us she carried on like the men were looking for a good time and shooed them away. That test subject stood ten feet away from me, but he couldn’t sense me anymore. I think he died the next day.”

  “Oh.”

  “I was lucky. A few weeks later when they shut down the program, I quit my job and left Rangeley, secure in the knowledge that my secret was safe and the project was dead.”

  Quinn thought for a moment, then looked at her. “So, is your given name Ana Maria?”

  She smiled and shook her head. “No, it isn’t. Let’s work on masking yourself, shall we? Then, I’ll teach you how to channel your energy.”

  4 | A Jigsaw Puzzle with Missing Pieces

  Blake

  The next day after school, Blake changed into his purple tights and put on a white, form-fitting long sleeve athletic shirt, knowing it would probably burn off if he got in a fight. He tucked his cell phone into the waistband of his tights and made his way out to the balcony, closing the French doors to his condo behind him. He looked around but saw no one because it was too cold for most folks to enjoy the outdoors on a balcony. A moment later, his body glowed orange as he launched himself into the air and flew upriver, using his phone’s GPS to guide him back to Rangeley, Maine.

  Just over two hours later, Blake circled the snow-covered Rangeley, Maine woods that surrounded Orgonon, searching for the line of fallen trees that pointed the way to the bunker he and Quinn discovered so he could sneak into the reactor core once more. Moments later, he spotted the cleared line of fallen trees and followed it to the bunker.