The Last Hero (Book 2): Rise of the Ultras

by Blake, Matt

  More silence grew amongst the crowd. Nycto kept on floating there, his army behind him, waiting for his call.

  I drifted closer to the ground. This made some more people run away, disappear. “Now isn’t the time to fight,” I shouted. “There’s a great threat heading our way. And when I say ‘our’, I don’t just mean ULTRAs. I mean ULTRAs and people. Because we’re the same thing. Different in what we can do, sure. But I wasn’t so different to any of you down there. Not long ago.”

  On the massive screen on the side of the 20 Times Square building, I saw a woman’s eyes filling with tears. A few people looking at me with… with something like understanding.

  “You might think we are the enemy. And I’m not denying that some of us have bad intentions.” I cast a glance at Nycto. “But the good ULTRAs, the ULTRAs that have fought for you behind the scenes for so many years, we’re not the bad guys. We want to protect you. To live amongst you. To help you.”

  “Then why do you blow our cities up?” a man cried. More protest erupted on the ground below.

  “The ULTRAbots,” I said. “You might think they are the saviors. You might think they are the protectors. But there’s something you should know. Something you should understand. Mr. Parsons. The man claiming to be fighting for your cause. He isn’t who he says he is.”

  Many confused glances spread around the crowd like a fire.

  “I found the real Mr. Parsons locked away in one of the ULTRAbot production facilities. He’d been trapped in there for months. He had no idea about the ULTRAbot program. About anything that was going on. So we have to ask the question together, all of us. Who is behind the ULTRAbots? And when they get us ULTRAs out of the way, what do they really want?”

  “Liar!” someone called.

  “No, he’s telling the truth.”

  I wasn’t sure where the voice came from. Not at first.

  And then, as my eyes adjusted to the pixelated screen, I saw exactly who it was. Right on cue.

  The real Mr. Parsons walked through the crowd. Cameras snapped at him. He’d had a shave and a haircut, but he was clearly emaciated and withered. He stood in the middle of the crowd and looked everyone in the eye.

  Even Nycto and his army froze in confusion, in puzzlement.

  Mr. Parsons cleared his throat. Scratched at the back of his neck. “I don’t know who’s pretending to be me, taking my form. But I know one thing. Glacies saved me from that cell. From that personal hell. If it wasn’t for him, for his—his people, I dunno if I’d ever have got out.”

  He nodded at me. And I felt the sincerity in his words. Sheer confusion gripped Times Square. It was the final day of Mr. Parsons’ deadline. The day he claimed every ULTRA would be wiped off the face of the earth. Every single one.

  “We need to unite,” I said. “All of us. We need to demand whoever is in government shows their real face. Because we won’t stand for this. We won’t take any more loss. Any more fighting. Not anymore.”

  I saw some of the rival ULTRAs nodding. And then, by my side, I saw that Orion—in his Vesper gear—and the rest of the Resistance had joined me. They nodded at me, some still looking a little pissed after my walkout earlier, Stone in particular. But they were by my side. They were with me now.

  “Got your back, kid,” Stone said. “We must be crazy, but we’ve got your back.”

  I floated above Times Square with the Resistance behind me. Beneath me, Nycto and his armies, who were clearly wavering in their opinions. Under them, humanity, holding its breath, waiting for something to happen, something momentous.

  “Nycto,” I called.

  He turned around. Looked right up at me, at the Resistance.

  “We don’t have to fight. We shouldn’t fight. Not anymore.”

  He was silent. The rest of the ULTRAs were silent. The humans on the streets below covered their mouths with their hands.

  “Attack,” Nycto shouted.

  I held my breath and braced for the impact of Nycto’s ULTRAs. I clapped my hands, sparked up a fistful of ice. Stone took on his rocky form. Aqua sprayed water below. We braced ourselves. Prepared for war.

  But something happened.

  Or, rather, something didn’t happen.

  Nycto’s ULTRAs were still. Completely still. All of them were looking up at us with uncertainty in their eyes. With understanding in their eyes.

  “You heard me,” Nycto barked, turning around to face them. “Attack!”

  “No,” one of the ULTRAs—a ginger guy with thick black smoke spewing from his hands—said.

  A pause between them. Then, “What do you mean, ‘no’?”

  “We mean no,” another ULTRA said. And then before I knew it, all of the ULTRAs were flying past Nycto, rising up towards the Resistance, floating by our side.

  All of us, all one hundred, two hundred of us, looked down at Nycto, as did the cameras. He cut a lonely, dejected figure. Part of me was happy to see him like that.

  But part of me wanted him to join me. Because I knew if I could win him over, he could be an asset. Not a friend, but an asset. Someone who could help.

  Nycto took off his helmet. Threw it down to the ground below. More people gasped as his burned face was revealed. His good eye was bloodshot. His jaw shook.

  He was silent. For a moment, he was silent.

  “Never mind,” he said. “I’ll just have to take you myself.”

  Balls of flames grew rapidly from his hands.

  “But first…”

  He raised his arms. Pointed them down at Ellicia.

  “No!” I cried.

  He went to fire.

  And then I heard it.

  An explosion. An explosion bigger than any I’d ever heard, ripping through the air on my right.

  Instead of the brightness I expected to see that always accompanied an explosion, I saw darkness. A cloud of sheer darkness heading my way.

  A cloud I’d seen before in my life. I’d seen it on television. I’d seen it firsthand. But a cloud that couldn’t be possible.

  Because Saint was gone. Saint was long gone and buried.

  Wasn’t he?

  I saw the darkness getting thicker.

  Saw the day turn to night.

  “No,” I heard Orion whisper. “No.”

  I knew from those words that my worst fears were true.

  My nightmares were realized.

  My nightmare was Saint.

  And he was coming right towards me and the remaining ULTRAs, with a million-strong army of ULTRAbots behind him.

  47

  I watched as the black cloud grew closer and I felt a shiver moving up my spine.

  The ULTRAs around me were silent, both those of the Resistance and those who’d been behind Nycto originally. Even Nycto was quiet, watching as the sheer darkness edged nearer, the thousands upon thousands upon thousands of ULTRAbots along with it.

  I could hear a faint humming growing gradually louder. The more I thought about it, the more certain I was I’d heard that same humming all those years ago as an eight-year-old kid, on the day I’d watched my sister die.

  The humming that terrorized humanity.

  The humming that came from Saint.

  It was here again.

  I squinted into the middle of the darkness and saw him moving closer.

  It was strange, seeing someone so talked about through recent history that they were pretty much a myth. It was like I was in the middle of an inescapable dream, and this ULTRA rapidly gaining on me and the rest of the ULTRAs around me weren’t really here. I felt like I could open my eyes and snap back to reality; a reality without Saint.

  But there was no denying that silver armor. There was no denying that skin-tingling hum.

  And there was no denying the confidence that he floated with just meters away.

  Saint was back. Saint was right here.

  And he had an army of ULTRAbots behind him.

  He lifted his hands. Below, it was easy to forget there were so many hu
mans, all watching the drama above unfold. They were dumbstruck. Stunned to silence.

  I felt my teeth chatter. Beside me, I saw the terrified looks on the faces of my fellow ULTRAs—ULTRAs of both sides.

  I wanted to fight. I wanted to strike back at Saint right away. I wanted to finish him before he even had the chance to start.

  But it was true what people said about him; people who’d lived in the old days. There was something about him that hypnotized you. Something that filled you with a twisted kind of awe, even if you were in fear of him.

  Which I was. Everyone was.

  He brought his hands together and he started clapping.

  “Bravo,” he said, his voice echoing through a silent Times Square. Even the cabs and cars had ground to a halt, keeping their hands off the horns.

  Saint kept on clapping, his focus on me, on Nycto. “I mean, it didn’t work out exactly as I wanted. Ideally, you would’ve killed one another right here. Destroyed each other. Met the little deadline Mr. Parsons set. But never mind. We’ll be finished with you soon.”

  I saw the ULTRAbots edging closer. There were so many of them, they blocked out the light from the sky.

  “How?” Orion shouted. “How are…”

  “Nice to see you again,” Saint said. The bottom half of his mask was cracked slightly, revealing a smile. “Just so we’re clear, there’s no hard feeling between the two of us, right? I mean, we’re two sides of a coin, really. The two originals. The birth of the legend. We shouldn’t be standing opposite one another right now.”

  “I killed you,” Orion said. As he spoke, I heard mumbling below. More people realizing that Vesper—the Figure in Black—was, in fact, Orion.

  Some people even started to flee as they realized just how catastrophic all these revelations could be.

  “You wounded me,” Saint said. “Critically. But I’ve been putting my downtime to good use. Building up to this day. This… very special day. This historical day—”

  “Let me join you!”

  I heard Nycto’s voice echo across Times Square. He drifted over towards Saint, towards the ULTRAbots, who all turned their attention to him.

  Saint glanced at Nycto like he was nothing more than an annoying fly. “And you are?”

  “Nycto,” he said, pulling off his helmet and revealing his charred face, like it proved his identity somehow. “I—I believe in you. I created Nycto in your image. To achieve your goals. And it was you, wasn’t it? It was you who let me break the ULTRAs out of Area 64. You did that for me. Didn’t you?”

  Saint let out a cackle. Moved backward, the laughter so biting that it was electric. “You really believed you were important to me? You really believed you were anything other than a pawn in my game?”

  I saw the redness spread across Daniel’s face as Saint continued laughing at him, laughing at him like bullies had laughed at him all his life. And I felt something weird. Sympathy. Because Saint was a much bigger deal than Nycto. Saint was the real deal.

  “I’m insulted, frankly,” Saint said, regaining his composure. “Insulted that you would offend my image with that cheap waste of a costume.”

  “It’s not cheap.”

  “You failed,” Saint shouted. “One chance to take control of the world, and you failed at the hands of another kid. How does that make you feel?”

  Nycto—Daniel Septer—turned and looked at me. I swore I saw a tear roll down his cheek.

  “Anyway,” Saint said. “I’ve just about had enough of you for one day, little fly.”

  He lifted his hand and swatted gently to the right.

  Nycto went crashing out of sight. He flew through buildings, explosions following in his wake. Debris fell and rained on the people below.

  I stared stunned at the spot where Nycto had been tossed away like garbage. Nycto was strong. He was almost my match. Almost.

  And Saint had flicked him away like a gnat.

  “We have more important matters at hand than pesky idolators,” Saint said.

  Now, he looked right at me.

  “Your little game. All of you. It’s over now. If I were you, I’d get out of here. Fast.”

  I clenched my jaw. Felt my hands turn to ice.

  “Kyle,” Orion said.

  “We’ll never run,” I shouted.

  Saint smiled. Tilted his head to one side. The ULTRAbots behind him kept their trance-like focus on me, on the rest of the Resistance. “Really, kid? Is that the game you want to play?”

  “It’s not a game,” I said, feeling the anger building inside. The anger at the person who’d killed my sister. The person who’d killed her, standing right opposite me. “And you aren’t going to get what you want. Not this time.”

  Saint shifted, suddenly just inches in front of me. So close that I was staring right into the dark eyes behind his helmet.

  “You’re wrong,” he said. “I will get what I want. I will get what I started. Total rule over humanity. Only now I have the ULTRAbots on side, well… I don’t need ULTRAs anymore.”

  He lifted his hand and shot a blast of electricity behind me.

  I heard a scream. A shout of pain.

  When I turned, I saw Aqua falling to the ground below.

  Her body was tingling with electricity. Vortex and Stone hurried down after her. Slice held his ground, his face growing redder, the anger building in his eyes. “You—you killed—”

  Another blast of electricity flew from Saint’s hand.

  It slammed into Slice’s chest.

  Knocked the consciousness from his eyes.

  Sent him falling to the ground below, down below with Aqua, like a swatted fly.

  I felt sick. Tasted vomit in my mouth as my heart pounded. I heard the cries of the ULTRAs. The panic. Saw some of them disappearing. Some of them fleeing. Everything collapsing. Everything falling apart.

  I looked back at Saint. He had his hand raised. Electricity tingled from his fingertips.

  He smiled.

  “Time to dance, Kyle Peters,” he said.

  He shot a bolt of electricity right at me.

  I dodged the shot. I didn’t have much strength in me, but I swung out of the way of it.

  And then the ULTRAbots flew towards me. Sent shots firing at the Resistance, firing at the ULTRAs of Nycto’s side. I saw the panic on the streets below as the battle of confusion raged in the skies. As buildings exploded, as explosions erupted all down the streets. I saw chaos everywhere. Explosions. Madness. Panic.

  And then I saw Ellicia.

  She was still hanging on to the edge of that window ledge. Looking right up at me as the world around her fell apart.

  “Better hurry, Kyle,” Saint bellowed. “Wouldn’t want to let the girl fall now, would we?”

  I wanted to stop Saint. I wanted to fight him as the ULTRAbots and the ULTRAs all fired at one another, scrapped in the air, as more ULTRAs fell from the sky like the snow New York had been expecting, down onto the panicked streets.

  But then I saw Saint raise his hand.

  Point at the building Ellicia was dangling from.

  Fire.

  I flew down towards her. Hopped through the sky. Because as much as I knew I was going to have to be Glacies now, I had to save Ellicia. I couldn’t just let her fall.

  I saw her lose her grip. Saw her drop down towards the street below. I stretched out my hand to fire some ice at her, or to ease her fall using my telekinesis, but then an ULTRAbot grabbed onto my arm, pointed a gun at my chest.

  I batted free of it. Shifted behind it and fired its own weapon into its robotic skull.

  I didn’t have long. More of the ULTRAbots surrounded me.

  I flew down toward Ellicia as her fall grew faster. I felt time around me slow down as I saw the chaos, the flames, the destruction.

  I clenched my teeth into my lips so hard I tasted blood. Tried to shoot ice, to use telekinesis all over again.

  Still, my powers failed me.

  Still, Ellicia fell.

&
nbsp; I saw her just meters from the ground. Then just one meter. Then half a meter. And as the humming of Saint echoed above me, I thought about Cassie. About Mom. About everyone I’d lost all ’cause of this.

  I felt the ULTRAbots closing in as Ellicia fell closer to the ground.

  I felt my time running out completely.

  And then I let out a cry.

  A blast of power left my chest when I cried. I felt cold light slam out of my body, shattering all the ULTRAbots around me.

  And as I screamed, I saw Ellicia was still falling in slow motion.

  Millimeters from the ground.

  The sidewalk drifting up to meet her inevitable fall.

  I kept on screaming, and I felt myself getting closer to Ellicia, but not close enough.

  I kept on screaming, and I saw Saint above, embroiled in a battle with the people I’d fought with, with the ULTRAs Nycto had fought with, tossing them aside like they were nothing.

  I kept on screaming…

  And I saw Ellicia hit the ground.

  Then, darkness.

  48

  I felt the darkness surround me as Ellicia hit the ground.

  But something stopped her. Something deep inside me. I forced myself towards her. Then I forced a wormhole to appear in the ground beneath her. And in the total silence, despite all the destruction around us, despite everything in the world that I loved falling apart, I rushed into that wormhole with her and disappeared into the nothingness.

  While I was in there, I held on to Ellicia. It was dark. Jet black. I could hear screams and see images from my youth—being held underwater, muffled voices above me. Cassie’s face as the Great Blast ripped through the world.

  “It’s okay,” I whispered to Ellicia as we disappeared into this endless dark oblivion. It felt like behind us, the world was still there. Like the Battle of Times Square was still in full force. But we were getting further and further away from it, closer and closer to the one true place we needed to be.

  Somewhere at peace.