At last, the beginning of the end.
Blue Spekter stood and took a deep breath, the heat of the flames around him growing quickly as the plastics and flammable materials melted or caught fire. The sprinkler system switched on, but he reached out with his powers quickly froze the pipes.
That will delay that for a bit.
“Quinn,” Helion shouted, “Go to the control room and stop the ignition sequence!”
Blue Spekter did as Helion instructed and dashed past Nightmare and his goons to the control room.
❖
Blake
“You treacherous little imp!” Nightmare shouted as he pushed himself up from the floor. Sparks rained down from the busted lighting and electrical work in the ceiling above him. “I’ll see to it you never walk out of here alive.”
“You will never defeat me,” Helion shouted back.
Nightmare grimaced. “You lack imagination, which is why I will always beat you.”
“I doubt that very much.”
“I don’t. If you had imagination, then you would have done this to me first and we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
Nightmare reached out telekinetically outstretched Helion’s limbs, like he was being drawn and quartered. Pain shot through him as Nightmare pulled Helion apart.
Oh crap, he’s literally ripping me apart.
Nightmare extended both hands and cried out as he focused and exerted the full force of his telekinetic power.
Helion grunted and as he fought against Nightmare’s attack, his body became engulfed with raging flames.
That’s not going to help me!
He tried using his own telekinetic powers to counter Nightmare’s assault, but he was too late. Bones broke and popped in Helion’s body, and he cried out in pain. “Quinn!” he yelled, hoping his ear comm would activate. “Quinn, help!”
“No one’s going to save you, Blake. This time, you’ll die a death you won’t come back from.”
Then, Helion cried out in agony as his right shoulder dislocated despite his forceful attempt to repel and counter Nightmare’s lethal assault.
❖
Ana Maria
“Oh, I disagree,” Catamount said as she pushed herself up from the floor and stepped forward a few paces.
“Take her out,” Nightmare ordered. Before his henchmen could even ignite their eyes or take a step forward, Ana Maria reached out with her powers and redirected the electricity flowing through the exposed wiring of the hallway ceiling above them. With a blinding flash and the crack of something like thunder, she blasted them with the full power of electrical grid around them.
The brown villain—the one who had been the most lecherous toward her—seemed the most traumatized by the electrical bolts so she focused the electricity on him. A moment later, his skin blackened as he convulsed, but she kept the power flowing through all of them.
“Enough!” Nightmare shouted as his body exploded with red power and fury. A small shockwave traveled down the hallway in each direction and across the workroom. It was strong enough to break Catamount’s concentration and force her to put up a defensive shield to protect her and Helion, whom Nightmare had released.
❖
Quinn
“Stop the ignition sequence right now!” Blue Spekter boomed, his eyes and body glowing bright blue. “There are innocent people in there who are about to die!”
The surprised technicians jumped back from their consoles and frantically waved their hands. “We can’t!”
“What? Why can’t you stop it?” Blue Spekter asked.
“The system is automatic, once the firing sequence has been initiated, it can’t be stopped.”
“Whose stupid design idea was that?”
The technicians looked at each other and shrugged.
I don’t have time for this.
“How long until it fires?” Blue Spekter shouted back, panicked. He recognized two of the male technicians from his hospital stay at Rangeley Medical over Labor Day weekend.
One of the technicians looked at a wall monitor and Blue Spekter traced his line of sight to a chronometer that read 0:35…0:34…0:33…
Crap!
An explosion in the hallway and several thuds against the hallway wall momentarily distracted everyone. Then, one of the technicians spoke up. “Listen, the system is automated, and you’ve got less than a minute to get those people out of there.”
Shit, shit, shit…
He dashed back into the hallway, only to be surprised by a powerful red shockwave that almost sent him tumbling down the hallway.
No!
With his thought, a shield automatically formed in front of him, dispersing the shockwave around him.
Huh, she’s right.
Then, he ran toward Victor and his goons with a wild war cry and let loose an explosive blast of power that sent the four men tumbling down the hallway toward the reception area.
Two can play at that game, Nightmare.
He stopped in the workroom door way and spotted Helion and Catamount. “Come on, the reactor is on autopilot and we only have seconds until it fires. We have to save them together. I can’t get them all out alone.”
Blue Spekter spun around and ran down the hallway to the closed door that granted them access to the antique elevator shaft, the control room, and the reactor core chamber below.
“I’ve got the door,” Helion called out from behind. One second later, the door forcibly slid open and the electro-magnetic locks in the doorframe sparked as Helion tore the mechanisms from their mountings.
“You guys get my dads and Keegan, I’ll stop the reactor.” Blue Spekter shouted. Then, he jumped into the air, put his arms out in front of him, and swan-dived into the dark, antiquated elevator shaft. At the bottom, he swung his feet down and landed hard on the floor below, cracking the old cement. Although Helion and Catamount were seconds behind him, he didn’t wait for them. Instead, he dashed through the old control room to the reactor room door and opened it.
5-24 | Nightmare’s Triumph
Quinn
BLUE SPEKTER BURST INTO THE reactor core and quickly assessed the situation. He immediately felt pure orgone power swirling in the room as the pulsing electrical hum became louder and higher in pitch. His fathers and Keegan were chained back-to-back-to-back in the center of the metal disc that had already elevated to the firing position. They were all still wearing their tuxedoes from New Year’s Eve, though his dads didn’t have their jackets on.
Dad saw him first. “Quinn, get out of here! This thing is going to blow!”
Keegan looked at him with exhausted, sad, and teary eyes.
I need to stop this thing, now. You are not dying today!
Blue Spekter looked up and saw the blue-white ring of energy-light was spinning quickly, releasing a shimmering cascade of energy into the chamber. The conical array with the three antennas moved down toward them and the pulsing energy sound increased its cadence and speed at the same time.
Oh my gosh, this thing is gonna fire any second now!
“Everyone, heads down!” Catamount shouted as she and Helion leapt into the air, jumped over the elevated disc, and telekinetically destroyed the chains as they grabbed Tim, Aren, and Keegan from the platform and landed on the other side of the chamber with Quinn’s family.
“Get down!” Helion shouted.
“Quinn, don’t!” Daddio yelled out, tears running down his face.
There’s no time. This is going to kill us all!
“No!” Blue Spekter shouted as he jumped and dashed to the apex of the chamber. He brought his right fist around in a powerful hook to smash the conical silver thing with three upside-down antenna arrays, but he was too late.
Helion extended his arms around Tim, Aren, and Keegan, and pushed them to a huddle on the floor against one of the reactor chamber’s eight walls. Catamount landed behind them and leaned against Helion. She huddled with them, extended her arms, and created a powerful defensive
bubble to protect the McAlester dads and Keegan from the deadly blast.
Although Blue Spekter knocked the energy array loose, the blue and white energy swirls they contained rocketed downward, exploding through Blue Spekter’s body with a blinding flash and a deafening blast that slammed him onto the metal disc. The chamber shook as a second, much louder rapid energy blast rose from the disc, moved up to the ceiling, and overloaded the conical energy array. The array broke loose and along with a cascade of dazzling energy, fell to the metal disc and crushed Blue Spekter. The chamber shook when the heavy metal array crashed onto the platform.
Then, all was quiet as the energy dissipated into the panels.
❖
Ana Maria
Catamount turned to examine the scene and gasped when she saw the massive array had crushed Blue Spekter and impaled his body. Blood and torn flesh made the scene quite gory.
Oh, no…
“Let me see my son!” Aren shouted.
“Are you sure?” Catamount asked, purposefully obstructing his view of the descending disc platform.
He pushed her out of the way and stood, his eyes and face instantly dropping with sorrow and grief. “Quinn! No!” he shouted, then ran past Catamount and Helion and jumped onto the descending platform.
This can’t be. He paid the ultimate sacrifice for us…
Catamount relaxed her stance, settled onto one knee, and watched Aren struggle to reach Quinn’s body in vain. The mangled array prevented him from taking Quinn into his arms, but he managed to reach through the twisted metal and grab his son’s lifeless hand instead.
“My boy, my beautiful boy,” he sobbed as blood from Blue Spekter’s wounds dripped onto the disc.
“Quinn saved us,” Keegan said softly as he sat back against the wall and cried, momentarily taking comfort in Tim’s embrace until Nightmare and his four goons rushed into the chamber.
“Finally!” Nightmare exclaimed at the sight of Blue Spekter’s crushed body. Then, he maniacally laughed.
“You monster!” Tim shouted, lunging at Nightmare, but Catamount held him back. “He was a seventeen-year-old boy!
❖
Blake
“Quinn,” Helion whispered, his body nearly collapsing to the floor in shock at his best friend’s demise.
Nightmare roared at them. “No, he was the monster, but you were too blinded to see how dangerous he really was.” He stepped forward onto the platform and Aren scrambled back, slipping on the expanding pool of blood on the metal disc, terrified of the red-glowing super villain. Nightmare glared at the mourning father but turned his attention to Blue Spekter. With superhuman strength, he lifted the destroyed antenna off Blue Spekter’s body and tossed it aside. The chamber shook as the heavy metal array bounced on the floor and skidded to a stop.
Nightmare bent over and grabbed Blue Spekter’s cowl and tore it from his head and shirt. The superhero’s neck snapped and his head dropped to the disc with a sickening thud.
“Don’t touch him,” Tim yelled.
“Leave him alone,” Aren shouted.
Nightmare tossed the cowl aside and then grabbed a fistful of Blue Spekter’s hair and raised his hand above his head, pulling Blue Spekter’s limp body up from the disc until it hung in the air.
“Pathetic, isn’t he, your supposed superhero son?”
Nightmare’s words only encouraged more tears and sobs from the already emotionally wrecked dads.
This has gone on long enough. I can’t believe I gave you the time of day and believed you would make my world a better place.
Helion stood and balled his hands into fists. With tears stinging his eyes and his emotions churning, he summoned all the orgone energy he could muster and drew from the residual power he sensed in the chamber. All of a sudden, his body transmuted to living flame and he charged at Nightmare, loosing a fiery barrage strong enough to incinerate a superhuman.
Nightmare tossed Blue Spekter aside, raised his arm, then slammed it down like a hammer. The telekinetic result caught Helion by the head and swatted him down to the floor. Helion grunted in pain and the fire barrage immediately dissipated into thin air. His body returned to normal as well.
Nightmare lunged at Helion, grabbed him by the nape of the neck, and threw him against the broken antenna array. Then, he wrapped the metal around Helion and squeezed it tight. “When I am done here and your cold corpse is rotting in the woods outside, I will hunt down your family and your elusive sister, Elizabeth.”
I don’t think so.
Helion grimaced and superheated his body, softening the metal array that held him prisoner. Then he wrenched himself out of his confinement, jumped to his feet, and lunged forward, swiping his hand through the air in front of him. The four henchmen advancing on him were thrown back against the opposite wall. One of them slammed into one of the now-dormant vertical energy conduits and shattered it, while the other two knocked loose several panels from the wall. They fell to the floor with heavy thuds.
This tight space is hard to fight in. If Catamount doesn’t keep Quinn’s family protected, they could get hurt. I need to get them out of here somehow.
“We’re leaving, Victor,” Helion announced loudly.
Nightmare sneered. “There’s no place you can run, Blake. I’ll always find you, and I’ll always torment your days.”
Nightmare reached back and then hurled deadly fire bolts against Helion.
“Catamount, shield!” Helion shouted. As Helion leapt into the air through Nightmare’s flames, Catamount created a protective barrier around herself and Quinn’s family and boyfriend. Then, Helion coiled his right arm back and used super speed to lunge at Nightmare, simultaneously super-heating his hands and body.
Red and orange sparks erupted between them as Helion repeatedly super-punched Nightmare in the face and gut, knocking the man against Catamount’s shield. It reacted with flashes and pulses of blue light.
When Nightmare’s men climbed to their feet, Helion used telekinesis to grab Nightmare. Then, he flung the villain across the chamber and knocked over his four surprised thugs like a bowling ball would knock down pins.
Without hesitation, Helion pounced on Nightmare again, grabbed him, and tossed him up to the ceiling where the metal antenna array once hung. Nightmare grunted on impact and as he fell to the floor, Helion reached out telekinetically and started jerking him around the chamber. He slammed Nightmare into the walls of the reactor core, back-and-forth, left and right, beating the man’s body in a rage of revenge. Conduit glass shattered, and the panels Nightmare collided with cracked and fell. Some bounced off Catamount’s shield while others thudded to the floor. A few of them cracked or shattered when they crashed into the silver metal disc.
At last, Helion pulled Nightmare to the floor of the chamber opposite the family and pinned him to the ground. With his eyes and body blazing with superheated orange fury, Helion pulled his right arm back and straightened the fingers of his hand, ready to stab Nightmare through the heart.
“This ends now!” Helion shouted, but Nightmare only grinned at him.
A tangle of arms wrapped around Helion’s torso as the orange, purple, brown, and amber villains tackled him, a spray of colorful sparks erupting around them. Their strong hands latched onto whatever they could grab and pulled as they slammed him into the side of the chamber.
Oh, no, you don’t.
He brought his legs up and kicked off the wall of the chamber, taking the four villains back down to the floor. They landed in a pile on top of the brown villain, who swore. Nightmare watched, wringing his hands with sinister delight.
Helion superheated his hands, intending to decapitate whichever villain he could reach first. We need to even the odds. Four on two isn’t fair at all.
The amber-glowing guy reached for Helion with an electrified hand, but Helion grabbed the man’s arm and redirected it at the brown-glowing villain’s chest. Both men yelped in pain for different reasons. Wrenching himself free from the tangle, H
elion targeted the weakened brown-glowing guy and grabbed his neck, then spun around him and pulled him into a strong headlock. Helion’s body surged with orange color as he super-heated and used the life-drain power at the same time.
The man yelled and elbowed Helion several times in the kidneys, but he held fast and refused to let go. The purple guy watched as the orange and amber guys tried to blast him with fire and electricity, but Helion backed himself against one of the walls and hefted the dying brown villain up, using him as a shield. The brown guy’s body went limp as it shook from extreme fatigue and no oxygen, a result of the life-draining effect. In a flash, the man’s flesh incinerated and Helion tossed the body at the other two henchmen.
“No!” Nightmare shouted. “You’ll pay for that! An eye for an eye, a tooth for tooth.”
Helion ignored him and glanced at the door that led to the venting tunnel. If we don’t get Quinn’s dads and Keegan out of here, they’re going to get killed. I need Catamount’s help to finish this. If she’s focused on protecting them, there’s a strong chance I might not survive.
He pointed to the door and addressed Catamount. “Come on, let’s get them out of here. You and I will finish this later.”
“I don’t think so,” Nightmare cackled, laughing maniacally again. “There can be no witnesses to what has transpired today. The world must never know what happened to its precious superhero or his family and friends.”
“That’s what he thinks,” Agent Hartman said in their ear comms, breaking radio silence. “Joint strike force is nearby, awaiting your signal.”
“You four, you’re an embarrassment to The Order. Prepare yourselves,” Nightmare said. Then, he spun around and smashed Helion with a powerful telekinetic strike that hurled him across the chamber. Helion hit the wall with a grunt and fell to the floor, taking a few panels out with him.
Ouch. Didn’t see that coming. Still, these panels keep coming off. I wonder if I could use them…after all, I know how to unhook them…
The Guardians Omnibus Page 120
