Power Trilogy Book One: An Ancient Power

by Ethan Ransom Becker

  Chapter Fifteen

  The campus of the University of Texas of the Permian Basin was one of the smallest college campuses Kyle had ever visited, but he always liked it. He used to visit it often since his dad worked for the police force on campus. He especially liked being on campus on the weekends. The campus was usually pretty empty on weekends.

  Kyle was currently walking up to the campus’s scale replica of Stonehenge, toward specifically the blonde haired girl sitting on one of the benches around the sculpture. Kyle immediately recognized her as Emma. She had wanted to meet with him once she heard he was okay, so she sent him an email, telling him when and where to meet her. As he did, he couldn’t get out of his head all that he now knew.

  His conversation with the Primal was nothing compared to having to explain it all to Justin and Julianne. First of all, it appeared that he had been asleep for three days after the battle with the Primal. He told them most of what the Primal had told him over a lunch of two sandwiches, a whole bag of chips, and two cans of coke. They barely understood most of it, which was okay, since Kyle had barely understood it himself. However, they did understand that the only way he could solve his dilemma by simply touching the Primal again.

  The one thing he didn’t tell them was the part where he was going to die. He couldn’t find the heart to tell them. He could hardly believe it himself. Other than the sporadic spasms that tell him that the vessels are growing, he felt fine. But, it was the Primal who told him, and it was the Primal’s power, so Kyle would guess that it would know what its own power can do. Of all of the things he learned from the Primal, the prediction of his death was the one thing he would try to not think about. He could accept that he possessed an ancient power of the universe, and even the potential destruction of everything he knew, but his death being the cause of that destruction was too much to take. Whenever he started thinking about it, he put it aside, and ended up resolving to find the Primal’s body before his time was up.

  Although, how he planned to do that exactly was still beyond him. He hadn’t seen or heard of the body since he touched it. There had been nothing on the news; he couldn’t even find anything on the internet about it.

  His battle with the other Primal, however, had made the news. Kyle realized that the battle was probably visible for miles around. News programs showed the battle from the ground from a distance, and others even showed the fight from a helicopter. Kyle could hardly believe the coverage the battle got. One station showed footage of when Kyle kept flying around the Primal, ending in the Primal nudging him. Through the whole battle, Kyle didn’t even remember hearing helicopters. Luckily though, none of the news cameras caught a good enough view of him, other than when he was just zipping through the air. The cameras made the Primal seem bigger; Kyle looked like a fly bugging an eagle, especially since the Primal seemingly had no reaction to such a close proximity to Kyle.

  Yet, no news organization tried to find him, but how much longer could that last? Kyle figured they would eventually find him. His days of hiding his powers from the world were probably numbered.

  However, today was not about thinking about those things. He walked up to the Stonehenge replica, slipping his hands in his pockets. It was a warm day, but relatively cool compared to how the rest of the summer had been; a sign that fall was on its way.

  Emma noticed him when he was just a few yards away from her. She cocked her head over her shoulder, and then stood to face Kyle. Kyle smiled when he saw that she didn’t appear hurt. Justin and Jules had told him that everyone, luckily, was able to get away without more than a couple of bruises, but it was good to see it for himself. When Kyle was only three feet away from her, she rushed the last yard and hugged him. Kyle would’ve hugged her back, but his hands were in his pockets and his arms were pinned.

  “Good to see you,” Kyle said.

  “You, too,” Emma said. “Thanks for coming.”

  “No problem. I needed to get out of the house, anyway,” Kyle said jokingly. “Can I have my arms back?”

  “Oh,” she said, and quickly let go and backed off.

  “Are you okay?” Kyle asked. He knew that she hadn’t gotten hurt, but it still seemed impertinent to ask.

  “Yeah. A little shaken, but fine,” she reassured. “I guess everyone was just a little shaken.”

  “That’s probably an understatement,” Kyle said, “but I’m glad everyone’s alright.”

  They both nodded. Then it was silent before Kyle said, “You didn’t ask to meet me here to tell me what I already knew, did you?” He had seen the news. Somehow no one other than Kyle had received any injuries from the incident, and there was hardly any property damage either.

  “No,” she said. “I asked you here so I could thank you for saving my life personally.”

  “Anyone would’ve done the same thing,” Kyle said humbly.

  “Yes, but that ‘anyone’ was you, so I’m thanking you,” she said.

  Kyle silently accepted her thanks. They started walking the sidewalk circling the Stonehenge. They did a full lap in silence before Emma spoke again.

  “Ready for school in the next few weeks?”

  “Yep,” Kyle answered. “As ready as I could possibly be.”

  “How do you feel about it?” she asked.

  “There’s no more point in trying to hide what I can do anymore,” Kyle figured. “People watch the news, and they’ll find out who I am eventually, so why should I hide?”

  “How will you deal with it?” she inquired.

  “I’ll take the hits as they come. If I can survive a fight with an immortal intergalactic creature, surely I can survive school,” he said. “I honestly don’t know how people would react to me from now on, but I guess at some point I’m going to have to just come out and tell everyone what I am now.”

  “Well,” she began, “just remember that there are people here who care about you no matter what you are.”

  “Thanks,” he said. “I have to find that Primal body again.”

  She looked at him confused. “Primal?” she asked.

  “That’s what that alien I killed was called. Although I didn’t actually kill it, but that would take too long to explain.”

  “Promise to try later?” she asked.

  “Sure,” Kyle promised.

  “I’ll keep you to that,” she said. “Why do you have to find the Primal?”

  Instead of the truth, Kyle went with the first alternative reason that came to his mind. “I don’t know. It’s just something I have to do.”

  “You know,” she said, stopping to look at him, “there are two reasons why people do what they do. There’s a good reason and the real reason.”

  Her comment made Kyle think that she didn’t buy what he said. But she continued. “Remember what you told me, but let me add this: do what you need to do. Don’t let others make your decisions for you.”

  “Thanks,” Kyle said. They did two more laps around the Stonehenge talking about other, less depressing, things, enjoying each other’s company.

  Meanwhile, about a thousand miles away, close to a town called Amargosa Valley in southern Nevada, west of the Death Valley National Park, a man in an office sat watching the now week old news story of the happening in Odessa.

  He was an older gentleman, his hair now more grey than it was its original black, but still in a regulation crew cut. His build suggested that he had been in the military for a good portion of his adult life. He was of average height, and slightly stocky, further suggesting that he was starting the later part of his life. His face was hard and unemotional, right down to his cold ice blue eyes.

  The only light in the room came from the large window to the right of the desk and the desktop sitting on it. The desk was pretty empty; except for the computer, the only items on the desk were a cup of pens and pencils, and an unloaded handgun the man was taking apart and putting back together without even looking at what he was doing.

  The video ended, and the man cons
idered playing it again. He had listened to it enough to know it word for word and the battle play by play. It was all he had thought about for a whole week.

  Instead, he decided to get out of his office. Only a few years ago, he would hardly be able to just sit in a chair all day, preferring to keep moving; another sign that he was getting older. But exercise was important, so he switched the computer off and left the small office.

  The building he entered was just an old hanger with makeshift walls. A large portion of the building was left open; only two areas were actually isolated in opposite corners of each other in the main building. The rest of the hanger was filled with jeeps, vans, motorcycles, and an armory along the opposite wall of the man. People filled about their various duties, checking out the vehicles, running tests or just moving paperwork around. However, everyone stopped to acknowledge him, either with a curt nod or a crisp salute; the man answered both in kind. This wasn’t exactly a military operation, but most of the men did have military experience like him. He would say that the ratio of solders to civilians was three to one. Occasionally, one would stop him to ask a question or to check something out. He would always stop to help if he could. It made him feel more useful than just the one ordering people around.

  He eventually made it outside. The sun was bright and hot; it forced the man to put sunglasses on. His destination was another building already directly facing him with a twenty foot space in between, so most vehicles could easily drive right into either. It was the exact same size as the building he just left, and there was another smaller building to his right, and the whole complex was surrounded by a fifteen foot tall fence topped with razor wire.

  The other building was much more divided than the one he just came from. All along the walls were dozens of small doors, several of them were the sleeping quarters for the men. In the middle were two long tables that stretched most of the length of the building. At the far end of the tables was where the cooks made meals for the entire complex. And behind the kitchen was a back room that he was heading for.

  This room was all computers and prototype weapons, most of which were still having bugs worked out. He stepped in and everyone automatically got to their feet.

  “As you were,” he said, and most of them returned to what they were doing. He beckoned to one man who had remained standing to come with him. The other man was younger by about ten years, and although he was taller, he was definitely much more out of shape.

  The man gave walked out of the room with him and said, “How are we today, Mr. Fox?”

  “Itching for some information, Geoff,” Fox said.

  “Then you came at the right time,” Geoff said. “The operation was a success; the package is on its way here as we speak.”

  Fox nodded, not really surprised that the mission was successful as much as he was annoyed that it took so long. Geoff spoke again. “Sir, if I may, why are you so interested in this?”

  Fox turned to Geoff, saying, “We have a golden opportunity here, my friend. With this, we will usher in a new age, and maybe finally put this country not only back on its feet, but back on top.” He put a hand on Geoff’s shoulder, saying, “When the package gets here, I want you to next discover the identity of the boy in that story.”

  “The boy, sir?” Geoff asked.

  “Yes, the boy, Mr. Geoff,” Fox said. “That boy is the key; he is the one who somehow took power from that space creature. In order for our plan to work, we have to figure out how he did it.”

  “Yes, sir,” Geoff replied.

  Fox nodded, and then continued. “My friend, we are going to usher in a new age. An age where this great country is back in its rightful place in this world. It was by design that that space creature landed on our soil, and so it our right to use it as we see fit. And that boy is the beginning. We could have entire armies of men doing what he just did in just a few years, Geoff. We have reached a new generation of weapons and technologies, and that boy is the pioneer for all of it. We need to find this boy and convince him to help us, by any means necessary.”

  End of book one…