by Jon Davis
Then we went flying back as the still moving body slammed into us. We sprawled back on the ground in a very bloody heap. It wasn’t our blood, but damn! Pushing off the what was left of Reich, I rolled over to try to get back to my feet. Angela got to her feet before I did, flicking off the blood from the sword as she did so.
Then a hand touched my upper right arm. I looked up to see BJ offering to help me. I grabbed a hand and he helped me to my feet. I noticed that BJ had a spatter of blood on his uniform. Angela and I had blood all over us.
I swallowed down the bile. Now was not the time to get sick. Using her a distraction, I went over to Angela. I just wanted to hold her and thank her for saving us. But I stopped myself when I realized that there are some points in a person’s life where a person does not want to hug and cuddle.
Still, I did give her a wide, happy smile and said, “Hey, that was very timely! Are you okay?”
Angela nodded, but said nothing. She looked at Yasmine and Alan. Saying nothing, she started walking toward Yasmine. I knew then what her intentions were and this time, if Angela wanted to shove that sword in Yasmine, I wasn’t going to argue. Then I looked around and saw BJ checking over Ian. The redhead was tense, slow moving, and hesitant. A normal reaction when someone sees a ghost, I’m sure.
I heard his whisper. “Ian…?”
I pushed the worries away. I had to ignore what was going on with BJ and Ian, though. Instead, I ran over and checked on the cameraman. He was in some sort of catatonic state. I passed my hand over his eyes, but there was no reaction. With a sigh, I straightened him out on the ground and made him as comfortable as I could. It was all I could do for the moment. After that, I went over to Ian.
Kneeling, I said, “Ian?”
His eyes fluttered open and he managed a smile. It was lopsided, and he still bled slowly from his nose and mouth. He tried talking. It was heart wrenching to see him trying. But he wouldn’t quit. But after one extreme effort, I could understand what he said. “Takes a lot of power…doing that. I'm not up to Alex’s power level. Nowhere near it, in fact…sorry…”
BJ shook his head, a sound of grief coming from him in a whimper. “Ian, why? How?”
With his one good arm, Ian pointed to something in his jacket. He said, “Take this…don’t let them have it. Too much info…take it and you’ll be safe. For now…”
I reached in the coat quickly and pulled out a DVD case with the disk in it and the pink diamond he’d shown me earlier. Ian said, “Only copy left. And never take the crystal off…they can’t find you. Only legacy of Claire’s left. It’s…the only information left on Empowered. Even ‘lexi Cherenkov has been…dealt with.”
I must have looked alarmed at that, because Ian said, “Relax…Vaughn…ran into him on the way back. Blocked his memory…it’s for the best.”
Looking over my shoulder, Ian reached up and touched BJ’s hand. In my ears, I could hear his heart faltering. But somehow, the former Dane Eisenhawk had summoned the strength to hold tight to BJ as he said, “Dana…tell her I love her. I couldn’t let them take me knowing what I know. See…her…in the Summer Lands.”
He coughed and blood came out, and he said one last thing. “Alex…his message was to us. To all of us…not to abandon each other…we have to relearn it.”
I heard a final whisper. “We are all human…”
Silence.
Then, just as his the last breath left him, Ian disappeared. There was a short rush of air, filling the space he had occupied, and that was it. BJ and I looked at each other, stunned. After a moment, BJ muttered, “Teleported…damn.”
After a moment, BJ said something in Gaelic. I guessed it to be some kind of farewell. I stood there, saddened by the loss. And I felt guilty because I was sure that Ian had done this because of me. Now I just hoped we’d have time to deal with the Noumenonii later. But first, I had to deal with—
*You won’t have time.* A voice that belonged in Hell ripped through my head, like coarse sandpaper rubbing against my brain.
Despite the pain, I staggered back to my feet. I turned to see Yasmine on her feet. She had Angela by the neck. I started to move toward her and screamed as another wave of pain lashed through my head. In fact, everyone screamed and convulsed violently. The mercenaries were worse off, with blood spurting from their mouths and ears.
Even BJ was hit hard by the psi-blast, barely able to stand. On my knees, I could only watch as Yasmine reached down to her belt, and unhook the leash handle. With a tight snap of her arm she yanked Alan toward her. With a cry of despair, Alan crawled to her on his knees. It wasn’t hard to figure out what she was going to do.
She swung around to glare at me. In my mind, I heard. *Orbit…good thought. Let’s go with that, shall we?*
Yasmine then pointed at me and said, “What did Eisenhawk—Ian—give you?”
Waves of pain rushed through my head. But still, fighting her attack, I managed to wave a forefinger and I said, “Uh uh…not for you.”
Yasmine snarled at me. Shaking the leash, Yasmine said, “Alan, kill them now. Leave the bodies! I want that disk. Just take the heads!”
Alan looked at her, horror on his face. “No…please…”
Angela tried to cry out, but I only heard a whisper. Yasmine tightened her hand around Angela’s neck as she looked down at Alan and said, “Do it, or she dies! Do it!”
Alan cried out, then looked at BJ and me and began to concentrate. The world began to go white. I wondered if I’d die while seeing the Earth from space.
Bang.
In an instant, the world returned to normal. I saw Yasmine looking to my left, shock fading from her now-dead eyes. There was a hole in her head. In almost a casual motion, she let Angela go, and fell to the ground. Looking around, I saw BJ holding a gun with both hands. He killed her with the very gun she forced me to toss aside.
He looked at me and said, “Guns work. Just have to know where to shoot. Resilient, not invulnerable…”
But it wasn’t over. A scream came from the parking lot. I looked, and fear rose when I saw Kular staring at Yasmine’s body. Then she looked at me with growing rage in her eyes. She cried out, “No! No! You bastards! No! She was the best! No!”
I ran at her, but skidded to a stop when she liquefied. With a gurgling scream, she screamed, “I will destroy you!”
I yelled, “Angela! Alan! Jaunt!”
The liquid creature rose up as she changed into a column of blackness. Kular grew in height to tower high above us until she was almost the same height as the building. The ground smoked thickly, a hissing sound coming from beneath the acidic Empowered.
Reshaping into a wave, Kular began to come at us. She would burn through the entire building if she kept going. I realized that I wasn’t going to get all of her wavelike form in time. Not with a scream. I froze. A scream did come, though. It just wasn’t my own.
Alan raised a hand, screaming with rage. His frustration and hate let loose in that voice—and with power. Bright sparkles turned to blinding flashes of white-yellow light. I covered my eyes until the blast of light faded.
I still had to wait for a moment until my sight cleared from the retina glare. When I could see again, Rao Kular was gone. All of the bodies were gone. Alan was the only one left in the parking lot. Angela slowly went up to him. She looked back at me, lingering for a moment, as if taking me in one last time. The look in her eyes told me her thoughts. Then she looked down at Alan. He needed help, now. But she couldn’t get it here.
Damn, I knew what was coming. Still, I said, “Angela, we can help him together. Don’t go, please.”
She looked back to me. She shook her head and said, “No. He needs me, Vaughn. I’m sorry…”
I took a lingering look and then I nodded. Alan had been through a Hell I couldn’t come close to comprehending. Angela turned to Alan, and I heard her whisper, “Take us home, Alan…take us home.”
In a flash, they were gone, leaving only a twinkling of fading golden light
. I sighed and turned to the last problem child. I needed to tie Brand up before he—
He was gone, of course.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
I sighed. This was getting ridiculous. It got even more so when BJ gasped and moved to wrap his arms around my chest in a tight hug. “BJ…what the…?”
BJ screamed when the burst of super-heated air hit us. A concussive blast sent us flying into the brick wall of the building. The wall cracked, and we fell to the ground in a heap. It didn’t hurt, but it knocked the air out of us. I turned over and saw BJ, barely conscious. The redhead moaned. His eyes fluttered and closed. The shield flared outwardly as a blue flash, and then it was gone.
Quickly checking him over, I saw that Brand had burned BJ’s jacket to ash where his power had hit. Reaching down, I breathed a sigh of relief when I felt a pulse on his neck. Then I looked at Brand with a mix of sadness and anger. He was standing there, grinning like a madman. But there was no real humor in his smile. There was nothing but hate shining in those eyes.
I said, “So what now? We go into a full on fight to the death?”
Brand laughed. “Nah, I think I’ll burn down the town. You love it so much, only fair I take it from you! Bye!”
I ran at him, praying I’d get a tackle, but he’d been ready and even at my first step he was already blurring. By the time I turned my head, to follow his moves, he was running down the road toward the highway. I yelled, focusing my power to a bolt that would take him off his feet.
He ducked. The bastard ducked! The trees behind him cracked and shattered with the blow from the sound blast. I started to run across the parking lot, hoping that I could cut through the forest. If I could get a bead on him, I might be able to stop him.
Seeing BJ’s motorcycle told me what to do next. Moving fast, I grabbed the motorcycle’s keys from his jacket. A few moments later, I was on the highway heading to town. I had to keep myself from throwing up when I passed the bloody slaughter near the highway. It wasn’t going to leave my mind for years. Not when some of the bodies were ripped apart at the limbs.
Pushing on, I saw in the distance that cars and trucks were heading my way. I could hear sirens and helicopters as well. Good, what few survivors at Ryan Tech would get the help they needed.
The miles peeled away quickly, but I was moving against traffic soon enough. I had to slow down and get off the road. I ran the cycle down the side, spitting up mud and slushy snow as I passed the oncoming vehicles. Ignoring the glares and stares, I did my best to not crash into the ditch. High speed riding on the muddy ground was definitely not a fun thing to do in the middle of an emergency.
Then, when I saw my house, I almost wiped out. My home was burning! I started to head up the driveway, praying that my parents hadn’t been inside. I saw a few men frantically spraying water. But there was only one truck and one hose in use. The fire was spreading over the entire place. The rest of the department was pretty well past me, heading toward Ryan Tech. I was going to have to help those men put that damn fire out.
And that was exactly what Brand wanted. I had to stop myself with every ounce of willpower that I could manage. Then, looking around, I saw a familiar blur go down the side road. He stopped for a moment, then blurred into a run. The bastard was playing. And worse, I could hear more vehicles coming south from town. They would cut me off before I could go after him.
“Damn it!” I said as I revved the cycle. Hitting the highway, I saw trucks as they came down the highway. Amidst honking fire trucks and ambulances, I weaved my way onto the side road.
Then pillars of black smoke came from the power plant. Yet another distraction. Behind me, I heard sirens starting to close in. Someone had seen the smoke and was pulling away from that pack of emergency vehicles to deal with this sudden emergency. I rode past the blaze and sped down the road.
I pushed the cycle’s speed to maximum. I knew Brand wasn’t there. If he had decided to stay, he would have set off the high-pressure tanks that stored the natural gas reserves. No, Brand got what he wanted there. When I passed by the plant, I’d seen that he’d blown out the transformers. Brand wanted the town in darkness.
A panic would be perfect for his unstable mind right about now. I growled and rode on. The engines roar was so high in pitch that it grated on my hearing. I wanted to slow down, but I didn’t have a choice. I had to find and stop Brand before he went after another target. And I knew it was too late for that thought when I saw another fire.
The VFW building? A long rectangular building, the place held a couple dance halls and attached bars. It was a regular hangout for veterans. Ah. Kyle went there at times when he was on leave. And when Kyle was being accused of desertion, a number of the veterans believed the accusations. Brand attacked the place for a reason.
And it told me that the Brand I knew was still there. But Yasmine had perverted him. She had taken all that rage he’d dealt with over the years and had turned it outward. Now, without her control, all that pent-up rage was coming out in the only way it could. He was going to destroy every place and person who had ever hurt him. Brand would create a holocaust in Riverlite if I didn’t stop him fast. But I didn’t need to look for his next potential target for very long.
My eyes widened when I saw a television news van at one of the gas pumps. Revving the cycle, I cut across traffic right as the light went red in the wrong direction. Cars screeched to a halt, and I heard the crunch of car fenders. I cut into the gas station’s driveway and skidded to a stop right next to the van. The guy filling it gave me a quick glare of annoyance, and then ignored me.
I yelled, “Get away from there! Now! There’s a…there’s a bomb! Move away!”
The man gave me a cynical sneer. He said, “Get away from me, pal! I have a major story going on out at Ryan Tech! And I got unlucky and ran out of gas! So you go away!”
Heh, yeah, he was so very unlucky. But before I could tell him to run, again, his eyes grew wide as he looked past me. Cold ran down my spine as I looked and saw Brand on the street. He was gritting his teeth, and his eyes filled with a deep rage. He was practically setting the air around his body on fire.
I revved the cycle and spun it around to run him down. Brand gave me a dismissive look and gestured with a hand. Superheated air passed by me and blew up the van. The shockwave rammed into my back, sending me flying. Before I hit the ground, my last thought was about how much Brand hated reporters. Then a wall hit me. I blacked out.
When I came to, I realized that somewhere there was a heaven for car alarms. It was a place where they could all honk, bleep, scream, and whistle at each other to their electronic hearts’ content. Really, though, did I have to die and end up with them? Nope, not dead, yet. With a grumble, I opened my eyes to find that I was laying underneath what felt like parts of a brick wall.
The world was blurry, and it took a moment to move my head enough to see that debris lay all over the place. Slowly, I freed myself from where I was, underneath the wall that had hit me. Once that was done, I very slowly got to my feet. I couldn’t help groaning as I stood, though.
My shoulder was being grouchy. And my whole body was hurting along with it. What with all the complaining, I wanted to just lie back down on the ground. But I couldn’t do that. This fire needed to be put out, fast. At least I was still alive to ache as much as I did. Eisenhawk was right, my body could take the damage. Didn’t stop me from feeling every bit of it, though, did it?
I took a deep breath, and felt hot air. I winced. I had to give Brand one thing, he knew how to cook a deal…ugh, no jokes, thank you. I looked at the situation I was in. This end of Main Street was now a new slice of Hell. Brand had blown up not just the van, but the entire station itself, and the firestorm was still going strong.
The station explosion had blasted cars all over the road. People were panicking from the rising flames. They were either trying to get out of cars, or they weren’t moving at all. In a horrible reminder of the attack on Main Street only a few days a
go, I saw some victims had been flash-fried. Others were sprawled on the other side of the road, rolling around on the ground and crying out from the pain. I looked back to what was left of the store. Brand had blown it to that proverbial thing, called 'smithereens.'
I sighed and began moving, ignoring the crunching and squishing noises under my feet. The ground had debris all over, from where I was all the way to the houses across the street. Oddly, there were things like candy bars, little medical packs, smashed and leaking cases of soda pop and beer—in fact, pretty well half the store’s contents had ended up out in the street. Oh, who was I kidding? I was avoiding the big horror of the moment. I’d lost Brand.
Without Yasmine to control him, Brand was letting loose on all the little things that pissed him off over the years. I was sure of it. And worse, I couldn’t go after him. If I did, more people would die from this conflagration alone. The fire was already spreading. I could see large sparks flying off in the smoke and the wind. It wouldn’t be long before they set roofs of homes and other businesses on fire.
Damn him.
I got as close to it as I could. I started to inhale for the scream, and boy, was that the stupidest thing I ever could have done. The heat nearly flash-fried my throat and lungs. Brand didn’t need to kill me—I’d do it to myself. Yeah, I’m an idiot. I backed off to hide behind a blown over car and take a moment to get my breath back.
In the shadow of the car, cooler air hit my throat and lungs. Just the same I could barely make a sound. I needed to clear my throat from both the shock of the heat and the smoke in the air. The ironic thought of heading to a house and asking for a glass of water came to me, and I chuckled at the image. I realized that I was not doing well in the brains department. Too much was happening, and I had a feeling that I was reaching my limit. I’d used my powers a lot today. I could barely feel the ‘buzz’ in my nerves that I normally did.
I leaned against the car and just kept breathing. The air was warming up fast. In the background, I could hear people talking into phones. They were begging for help from the fire department and the cops. The problem was, once the fire department did show up, they would be instant targets. I had to stop this before it went that far.
