Ultimate Sacrifice

by Damien Benoit-Ledoux

  “Stealth mode,” he said softly, chuckling to himself as he became invisible and masked his presence from Blake and Ana Maria.

  Two hours later, Quinn followed a set of guards out of the facility and gently ascended into the air, a smile of satisfaction on his invisible face. He had just placed the ten devices throughout the facility, all-the-while not bumping into or sensing Blake at all.

  They’ll never know what hit them…but that begs the question…where’s Blake?

  He quickly checked in with David about his successful mission and told them he was heading home for the day. Then, he circled around Portsmouth once more to locate Blake, but didn’t find him.

  ❖

  Blue Spekter finished circling the city and flew toward Breaking New Grounds to pick up his duffel bag from the back room, landing carefully behind the building and appearing when he was sure no one was looking.

  After grabbing his things, he exited the building through the employee door and ran right into Keegan’s arms.

  “Oh hi, handsome!” Keegan said, laughing.

  “Wow, hi! How did you know I was here?” Quinn asked, shocked to see Keegan. I hope he didn’t see me land a few minutes ago.

  “I saw you run into the building and I had to say hi.”

  “Aww, babe, you’re too sweet,” Quinn replied.

  “Walk you to your car?”

  “Sure,” Quinn replied, and the boys walked to Market Square and then made their way up Pleasant Street.

  “I wish we could hang out tonight,” Keegan whined.

  “Me too, but I gotta do this dinner thing with Uncle Mark and Uncle John tonight.”

  “That’s the couple whose wedding we went to on the boat, right?”

  “Yeah. I’m kinda surprised they didn’t mention me bringing you, but…”

  Keegan laughed, “It’s okay, really. My grandparents are flying in and…”

  “It’s not Hanukkah already, is it?” Quinn said, interrupting Keegan.

  “Not yet, but it’s my grandfather’s birthday. We’re heading to Boston in an hour to meet them and have dinner at some fancy restaurant. Apparently, I have to wear a dress shirt, tie, and jacket.”

  “Well, I remember how handsome you looked at the prom, so I bet you’ll be just as handsome in your suit.”

  Keegan smiled. “Now who’s being sweet and adorable?”

  Quinn smiled back. “What does your grandfather do?”

  “He’s some big investment or finance person for Morgan Stanley in New York City, but I’m not really sure what he does. I think he’s flying to Chicago for a meeting tomorrow. Don’t worry, you’ll get to meet the entire Miller clan at Hanukkah. They always come up for the first day and I would love for you to join us.”

  “I can do that?”

  “Of course, why not?”

  “Well, um…because I’m not Jewish?”

  Keegan rolled his eyes. “Like that matters to me. Just come, meet my family, and celebrate with us. The food will be amazing, too.”

  “I’d love to,” Quinn said, nodding and pointing to his car. “I’m right here.”

  “Okay,” Keegan said, sadness in his voice. Then, he grabbed Quinn, pulled him close, and kissed him deeply. The nearby streetlights flashed and flickered.

  “Wow,” Quinn said, breathless. “Now, I really wish we could hang out tonight.”

  “Maybe tomorrow, handsome. See you later. Have fun at your big, gay dinner party.”

  “Ha. Have fun in Boston.”

  They shared one last kiss and then Keegan turned and walked away.

  Quinn inhaled deeply, catching the wafting scent of Keegan’s cologne. He smiled, then got into the SUV and headed home to shower and dress for dinner out with his dads at his uncles’ new place.

  6 | Things are Looking Up...Mostly

  Blake

  After lifting weights and showering during his free period, Blake was getting dressed at his locker when Darien sat near him on the bench, his casted arm full of sympathy signatures.

  “Hey,” Darien said.

  Blake pulled on his sneakers and glanced at Darien, then rolled his eyes. “What does my dad want now, Darien?”

  “I’m not here for your dad.”

  “What you fail to understand is I don’t give a shit about my dad,” Blake snapped. Then, Darien’s words replayed themselves in his mind. “Oh. Then, what do you want?”

  Darien leaned closer so no one would hear him. “I won’t play games with you, but I know you did this to me.” Darien pointed to his broken arm which was held up by an arm sling.

  Blake’s eyes narrowed.

  “Remember that day, Blake? Because I do; I saw your eyes glow orange when you fell.”

  “You saw nothing,” Blake spat, feeling himself heat up. The undried water drops on his shirtless torso quickly evaporated.

  “Imagine my surprise when I saw the news a few days later, when Chief Applegate outed the super villain called Dark Flame and warned us to stay away from him. Ah, there is it, the strange heat I feel around you when you’re angry, like the time you burnt my arm after track practice.”

  Blake’s hands balled into fists and tightened. “You deserved it, you little shit,” Blake said angrily.

  Darien wiped sweat from his forehead and smirked. “And just like after track practice, just like in the park, I can feel heat coming off your body. That’s like, a really bizarre coincidence, except it’s not, is it?”

  Some of the guys in the locker room noticed Darien confronting Blake, but they didn’t approach.

  “You see, Blake, I was in Prescott Park the day Dark Flame and Blue Spekter decided to have their super fight over the river near the shipyard. I figured out your dirty little secret, Blake, and now I know Quinn the Queer’s dirty little secret, too.”

  Kill him.

  In his mind, he sensed Quinn running toward the locker room. That didn’t stop him from reaching out with his mind to squeeze Darien’s testicles, a trick that worked well on Nigel Krause.

  Darien grunted and winced. He tried to move, but Blake used his telekinesis to hold him in place by the balls.

  Kill him now.

  Ugh, these violent impulses…they don’t stop…what the hell is going on?

  Who cares. Hurt him badly.

  Blake glared at Darien and folded his arms across his shirtless chest. “Something wrong?”

  Panic struck Darien’s face as the bully’s eyes shifted around. He tried to respond, but Blake held the boy’s mouth shut.

  No, don’t kill him right now. You’re in school, and he’s just an annoying bully.

  Blake swallowed and relaxed, released Darien, then reached for his button-down shirt.

  Darien’s body twitched when Blake released him, and his hands came up defensively. “You asshole!”

  The guys around them sensed a fight, but when nothing happened, they lost interest and went about their business. Most of them left the locker room, leaving Blake and Darien alone except for a few guys who were still in the showers.

  Blake calmly pulled the shirt on but didn’t button it. Then, he stared angrily into Darien’s eyes. “If you think I’m the evil Dark Flame, then you know what I can do…so what exactly is the point of pissing me off?”

  The door to the locker room burst open and a moment later, Quinn swung around the locker stacks and froze in his tracks when he saw Blake and Darien together.

  “Blake, don’t,” Quinn said.

  I am not in the mood to fight with Quinn today.

  “Aww, look at you, fairy cakes!” Darien said, turning around to face Quinn. “See? I told you he wouldn’t hurt me.”

  “So, you knew he knew?” Blake asked Quinn.

  Quinn shook his head. “No, he only told me two periods ago.”

  Darien chuckled. “Well, I’d like to stay and chat, but you know how it is, nobody likes a third wheel.”

  Blake reached out and grabbed Darien’s shoulder—the one attached to his broken arm—and spun
him around. The bully yelped in pain as Blake squared off with him. Quinn advanced, but Blake held him back with telekinesis.

  Kill him.

  Don’t kill him.

  Blake leaned in close and spoke in a low voice. “If we weren’t in school, I’d kill you. If you tell anyone, I’ll kill you. The only good that comes from your mouth flapping to someone about our secret is that your mouth will never harass anyone again. Understand?”

  Darien swallowed nervously. “Y-yes.”

  Finish him off, once and for all.

  Blake’s eyes illuminated with an angry orange hue as he grabbed Darien by the throat. He smiled wickedly when the neck veins near his hand filled with blackened sickness. Darien’s eyes popped open with surprise and horror. “On second thought, I’m going to end your pathetic existence right now.”

  “Blake, stop!” Quinn exclaimed, unable to move.

  Blake kept draining Darien’s life force.

  Somehow, Quinn pushed forward through Blake’s telekinetic hold. “Enough!” he shouted. The water in the showers turned off and the sound of laughing classmates echoed through the locker room, their approach immanent.

  Blake released Quinn and let Darien go. The bully fell backward into Quinn’s arms, and Blake’s eyes returned to normal.

  A moment later, Darien composed himself and shook his head to clear it. “You’re such a freak, Hargreaves.” Then, he wrenched himself from Quinn’s arms. “Get the fuck off me, faggot.”

  “Darien,” Blake warned menacingly, his voice low and gravely. I should just end him right now…it’s not like Quinn’s going to tattle on me.

  “There isn’t room for two bullies at this school, Hargreaves. I was first. The two of you can fuck off and leave me alone.”

  “But you came to us,” Quinn said, arguing with Darien’s logic.

  The bully stared at him for a moment, then waved him off dismissively. “Screw you, McAlester.”

  Blake and Quinn watched Darien leave the locker room and then faced one another.

  “How did you know?” Blake asked.

  “Ravone overheard him bragging to Kyle and Tony about how your number was up. I was heading to my locker when I saw him walk in here. Since he brazenly confronted me earlier, I put two and two together.”

  “You don’t have to check up on me,” Blake spat. “I’m not your problem.”

  A moment later, three football players came around the corner, towels around their waist. “Everything okay?” Peter asked, the football star Quinn had saved from the capsized boat in the harbor.

  “Yeah, just ducky,” Quinn said, frowning. He turned and made his way out of the locker room.

  Peter pointed at Blake’s chiseled abs. “Whatever you’re doing for a workout, bro, I want your secret. You’ve packed on serious muscle faster than most of us.”

  Blake nodded absentmindedly, mentally tracking Quinn’s path through the school. Next time, Darien…you die. I don’t care if Quinn tries to stop me.

  ❖

  After school, Blake couldn’t get home fast enough to work through an idea that struck him in the middle of history class.

  Sitting at his kitchen table with the three notebooks and his laptop in front of him, he grabbed a pen and one of his empty school notebooks from his book bag and started rewriting the information Melvin and the useful associate had given him.

  After re-drawing the Venn diagram and adding the missing people from the second notebook, he had a much clearer picture of the Archimandrion Council, The Order’s hierarchy, and someone called Madame Presider. Unfortunately, there was no name listed next to the title and he couldn’t deduce one from the information he had.

  Then, he grabbed his laptop and started Googling names. Most of the names were too generic and Google provided results from across the world. When he put the names into Facebook’s search bar, the system returned images of college kids or people far too young to have that kind of influence in The Order.

  He looked back through the second man’s notebook and realized he forgot about the page of locations, all tied back to the names on previous pages. He added the locations to his new notes and resumed his search on the Internet.

  With the locations narrowing down the search parameters, the Internet could more easily assist him and it provided identity, contact, and image data about the people called out in the notebooks. In addition to people, Blake realized some of the locations were facilities hidden in plain sight—including a few labeled reactor core.

  Next, he opened the maps application on his laptop and started dropping pins at the various locations. He added names and other details to the pins and synced the laptop’s maps app with his phone’s maps app.

  Sitting back in his chair, he smiled and reveled in his success, knowing he was much closer to usurping The Order than Victor ever would be.

  ❖

  Victor

  Two minutes to eight o’clock, Victor walked into the control room and checked the various statuses displayed on the wall-sized projection.

  “Are you absolutely certain you wish to proceed, Hegumen?” Dr. Madison asked, her voice sounding tired. She sipped a cup of coffee at her workstation in the control room.

  “The men are chipped?” Victor asked.

  Dr. Madison nodded. “Of course.”

  “Then proceed, Doctor. Commence primary ignition,” Victor responded.

  Dr. Madison tapped a few buttons and then the sound of increasing energy oscillations resonated through the small facility.

  “Put the core interior on the wall monitor,” Victor ordered.

  “Yes, sir,” Arek responded. A moment later, the large, wall-sized projection shifted from various power readouts to a high-resolution camera feed of the reactor core’s interior.

  On the elevating, circular platform in the center of the reactor core, two men, each wearing only black boxer briefs, stood facing one another, their arms tense at their sides.

  “Reactor array at full power,” Miguel commented from his workstation.

  “Have the men lock arms with each other,” Victor said.

  “What?” Arek said.

  “Have them put their hands on each other’s biceps. Do it now.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Penny for your thoughts?” Dr. Madison asked.

  Victor turned around. “A hunch, really. If I was trapped in this thing with my best friend, would I stand there and look at him like these guys are, or would I hold on to him for dear life? The boys can sense each other. Maybe they were holding one another in some fashion. Maybe it’s the connection that keeps them alive during the infusion. Like I said, it’s just a hunch.”

  “Ready,” Arek said.

  “An interesting hunch, although the boys died after they were infused. We resuscitated them, remember?” Dr. Madison commented. Her console beeped, and she checked it. Then, she looked at Victor. “The chamber is ready, firing controls at your command.”

  As he had done before, Victor stepped forward and approached the projected image, dwarfed by the nearly-nude men grasping one another’s arms on the projected on the wall.

  “Proceed.”

  “Auto-sequence initiated,” Dr. Madison replied.

  All the noise and sounds of energy built up in the reactor stopped and silence ensued. Then, a blinding flash of blue and white light descended on the two men in the reactor core and overloaded the camera’s photoreceptors. The screen flashed off and on as the projection attempted to compensate for the unexpected brightness.

  Seconds later, the light faded and the camera feed returned to normal, resuming its transmission of the two men on the platform as it descended to the main floor level. The men—still holding each other—appeared shocked, but they didn’t seem to have difficulty standing.

  In fact, one of them looked up, presumably watching the array above them retract into the ceiling.

  “Status?” Victor asked, feeling hopeful.

  “Stand by,” Dr. Madison said, watching he
r monitors. “Vitals?”

  “Vitals are consistent with anxiety and shock; increased heart rate, elevated epinephrine and adrenaline levels, and strained breathing.

  “Get them out of there,” Victor said.

  “Not yet, orgone radiation levels are still too high,” Miguel responded.

  The men stood and let go of each other. They examined their fingers and checked over their bodies, as if making sure everything was intact. One of them ran his fingers through his hair while the other pulled the waistband of his trunks forward and gave a thumbs up to the other. They laughed.

  We did it. Victor smiled. We fucking did it!

  “Aim the Cloudbusters arrays to the northwest and recharge the reactor with a mega-fusion sequence. I’m going to need two more volunteers as well.”

  “Uh, yeah, sure, right away,” Miguel replied, surprised at Victor’s instructions. He tapped some controls at his workstation.

  “All right, I expect the men have roughly thirty minutes before they experience the symptoms Quinn and Blake did. When you two are finished with the arrays, move the test subjects to the medical bay for monitoring. I’ll be down in fifteen minutes,” Dr. Madison instructed.

  “Yes, ma’am,” Arek said. He and Miguel finished pointing the arrays, grabbed their tablets, and exited the control room.

  Victor turned to Dr. Madison. “We just reverse engineered the process two teenagers accidentally triggered when they stumbled into a reactor core on Labor Day weekend.” He extended his hand to her. “Congratulations, Doctor. We’ve made a huge step forward today, all thanks to your hard work.”

  She smiled and shook his hand. “I admit my reluctance, but I stand by it. Regardless, this wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t pushed me, but it’s a little early to pop the champagne. We’ll know soon enough if the subjects are viable or not.”

  Victor nodded. “Of course.”

  7 | Unexpected Revelation

  Quinn

  Daddio set his knife and fork down on his plate and wiped his mouth with a cloth napkin. “Wow, I’m stuffed. That was amazing, John. Thank you so much.”