Then a Super came and hit me like a Super.
He hit me square in the face, but I didn’t fly backward like I had with the others. This one wasn’t nearly as strong. He swung at me again, and I dodged, but was surprised to find that his next punch landed as well. He made up in speed what he lacked in strength.
But what would take him twenty punches only took me one.
I reared back and slammed my fist into his face. He rocketed backwards, crashing into a glass-walled bus stop. He wasn’t going to wake up for a while, that’s for sure.
I looked up and saw Selena was getting her ass handed to her by the two other Supers. Feeling a sense of déjà vu, I flew down to the STF soldiers who were watching us, unsure of what to do. They didn’t seem to want to fire, afraid they’d hit Selena and me, who’d just saved four of their own and seemed to be fighting the same people they were.
I reached out to a soldier at the front. “Give me your gun,” I demanded.
He gave it to me without hesitation and I flew up to the Supers. I pulled the gun up to my shoulder and fired two blasts into the male Super. He fell to the ground and the STF was on him in a heartbeat. The only one left was a girl Super, who was ready for my shots.
I fired three blasts, but she dodged them easily. She lunged at me, but was jerked back by Selena grabbing her neck. Selena wrapped her arms around her, holding her tight.
I fired a blast right into her chest and Selena let her go. She fell to the ground, the Eximus energy zapping her powers.
I flew down and dropped the Eximus gun down next to her unconscious body just before the STF reached her.
Selena and I flew off before the STF soldiers could change their minds about attacking us or receive explicit orders to do so.
“Anything else, Samantha?” I said once Selena and I were hovering high above the city.
“No, it looks to me like everybody’s got everything under con—oh god,” Samantha exclaimed.
“What is it?” I shouted.
“Kane, Atlas himself is in Ebon. He’s destroying the entire city,” Samantha breathed. “I’m picking up more Supers right there in Chicago, too.”
“I got Ebon, you take Chicago,” I told Selena.
She opened her mouth to protest, but before she could, I rocketed toward Ebon. Nobody messes with my hometown.
49
HOME FIELD DISADVANTAGE
I FLEW to the center of Ebon just in time to see Atlas rocket out the other side of the Ebon hospital.
I aimed directly for him, slamming into his body before he could reach the next building. Atlas and I tumbled toward the ground, landing in the middle of the street in a heap. Our impact sent cracks webbing out into the street. A water line cracked, sending a geyser of water into the air.
“Have you come for front row seats to the destruction of your hometown?” Atlas asked, raising his hands around him.
I said nothing. The last time I’d seen Atlas, he’d killed Macy. I didn’t have the need or desire to talk.
I let out a yell and charged for him, getting one solid punch in to his face, sending him stumbling backward.
He swung back at me and I leaned back out of the way, his punch gliding right over my face.
I cocked my arm back, about to unleash a fury of attacks, but Atlas was quicker. He landed a solid blow into my chest, sending me rocketing into a car. The car exploded on impact, taking out the front of the store it was parked in front of.
Atlas jumped onto the burning car, standing over me in the flames. He grabbed me and threw me out of the wreckage, sliding across the street. The water raining down from the burst main extinguished any flames on both me and Atlas.
“You think you’re a match against me, Tempest?” Atlas said with a laugh.
I jumped up and charged at him, putting my shoulder down. He braced for my impact and as soon as I hit him, he grabbed me and threw me behind him. I flew through the front of a convenience store, taking out racks of snacks, flying through the selection of drinks and slamming into the dumpster in the back. I pushed myself up from the mangled dumpster, feeling lightheaded from my beating.
Atlas landed in front of me from nowhere and grabbed my throat. A look of evil washed over his face. A look of hatred. He squeezed my throat tight, cutting off my breathing. I couldn’t get any oxygen. I punched at his hands, trying to get him to let go of me. But it was no use. He was much, much stronger than I was. I gasped for air, but none would come.
“You’ll see,” Atlas said as my vision faded. “You will pay.”
I punched him once more in the chest, but I was weak and he was too strong. It did nothing.
Atlas produced a device that was charged with Eximus energy. I tensed, unsure of what he was about to do.
I didn’t stay awake long enough to find out.
50
RED STEPS
THE MUFFLED SOUNDS of a man shouting with a crowd cheering in the background reached my ears. I felt a tired pain through my entire body. The pain in my head was a dull roar, washing over every inch of it.
A hum.
Eximus.
My fingers drifted to the back of my neck, and I could feel a hum of energy at the spot where my Eximus generator was implanted. I cursed under my breath. A new one had been implanted, and my powers were gone.
I realized I had yet to open my eyes. I tried to crack them open, but the process was painful. I got them open, but it wasn’t much use. I was in some sort of cage, covered with a brown blanket. The cage was small, for a human at least. It seemed to be a dog cage big enough for a Great Dane. I got off my back and crouched.
“…We will not be hunted!”
Slice. Gurgling. Cheers.
“We will not be afraid, shamed into not living up to our full potential!”
Slice. Gurgling. Cheers.
“We were meant to be in charge! Do you want someone in power who isn’t the maximum a human can be? More than human? A superhuman?”
Cheers.
“Fret no longer. We will take this country, little by little. We will make America free again!”
Slice. Gurgling. Cheers.
“Once we are finished with America, we will move on to the rest of the world! No one can stand in our way! And you, my people, will never want for anything. You will be taken care of. You will be kings and queens in a world filled with princes and princesses!”
Cheers. Slice. Gurgling. Cheers.
“But there are those who wish to stand in our way—”
Boos.
“—Those who wish to keep the world as it is. Those who don’t realize that with this great leap in human evolution, there is no need for an evolution of society. Take Mr. Kane Andrews, for example.”
The blanket was ripped from the cage and light flooded into my eyes. It took a moment for them to adjust, but once they had, I wanted nothing more than to have that blanket back.
A sea of people stretched out before me. They all shouted and booed at me, throwing things like rocks and water bottles, although none of it reached me.
I looked to my left and saw one of the most horrific sights I’d ever seen. Bodies lay with their heads hanging off the tops of some steps, their faces turned to the sky and blood pouring from their necks. The crimson blood ran down the many steps, dripping into a puddle at the bottom.
I looked behind me and saw the Lincoln Memorial. A giant marble Abraham Lincoln sat in his enormous chair, looking out at the Washington Monument. Again I looked down at the dead bodies and recognized one of them. It was that of President Martin. Next to him lay the vice president. My mouth dropped as I realized that all the dead bodies next to me were government officials. Politicians. Anybody who had had any power in the United States government lay next to me dead.
Atlas went on preaching to his crowd. His sea of hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions. Some of them were his human soldiers, other his Supers. Some of them were just humans who believed in following him and his Legion. Whether or not it was
out of fear, or because they actually believed in his cause, I didn’t know. All I knew was that every single person out there had stood there and watched while Atlas killed the entire United States government and they all seemed pleased about it.
“…and he thinks he’s doing the American people—you,” Atlas said, pointing to a camera. I realized there were cameras all over, transmitting his speech to viewers all over the world. People at home were watching while the United States died. “—a favor!” Atlas turned to me and got right up to my cage door. A grin covered his face. He held a microphone up to his mouth. “Isn’t that right, Tempest? Are you doing these people a favor by holding them back? By not allowing those who deserve to rule the freedom to do so?”
He put the microphone up to my cage door, the sound of it hitting the metal echoing out of the speakers. I said nothing. I just looked into Atlas’ dark, evil eyes. And for a moment, I was frightened.
Atlas turned around to face his followers. “Good point, Tempest. Don’t you agree, everybody? Maybe you all should follow him instead. He puts up a great argument.”
The crowd laughed. They were laughing at me. Someone who had saved each and every one of their lives less than a year ago, they were now laughing at. Crazy how short their attention span was. All they cared about was that someone was in front of them, putting on a show. Making the most noise. Being the loudest voice in a sea of loud voices. They didn’t care about the fact that he was murdering people right in front of them; all they cared about was whatever empty promises Atlas made them. At least for some, that was the case. Others were just afraid. To them it seemed like Atlas had already won, and if they didn’t join him, they’d be dead.
Well, no matter what they thought, Atlas hadn’t won. Things were far from over. They were just getting started.
“He thinks he’s powerful, doesn’t he?” Atlas said. He turned around and kicked my cage, sending it flying backward. It skidded across the marble floor until I was right underneath the feet of Abraham Lincoln.
The crowd cheered as Atlas floated through the air toward me. I grabbed my head, feeling blood coming from it. Atlas grabbed the front of the cage and tossed it behind him. Again I slid across the ground, this time until I reached the stairs and began tumbling down them, my whole body slamming around the cage. I felt one of my ribs crack, and the pain shot through me with every breath and tumble I took.
The crowd’s cheering reached a fever pitch as I landed at the foot of the stairs. Supers were keeping the crowd back, but I could see a few try to get over them, wanting to take a crack at my cage. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. It was total anarchy.
Atlas flew down to my cage and dragged me behind him as he walked back up to the top. The cage bounced up and down on the bloody steps, sending shocks of pain throughout my body. I tried to hold back tears. The whole world was falling apart around me. I was being humiliated and the people loved it. The blood that surrounded me had come from the people who had had control. When Atlas killed them, all that power had transferred to him. Now he was the most powerful Super, the leader of an army, and had control over the most powerful country in the world.
I looked at the face of the dead president. No number of Secret Service agents could’ve saved him. He’d been powerless to stop Atlas and his Legion. And at that moment, so was I.
Atlas reached the top of the stairs, bent down, and ripped off the front of my cage. He lifted it and shook me out of it. I fell to the ground in a heap, trying to keep gasps of pain from escaping my throat.
The crowd cheered.
“Here is your hero! Here is your Tempest!” Atlas shouted.
The crowd booed.
“Watch as he suffers the fate of your former leaders. No one can stand before me. No one!” Atlas screamed.
The crowd cheered.
Atlas produced a sword from inside the long jacket he was wearing. The sword crackled with Eximus energy, the hilt of it looking like some sort of steam punk, Frankenstein’s monster creation.
I wasn’t sure if I could be killed, but I didn’t have my powers at the moment, so if anything could kill me, it was that Eximus sword.
Atlas threw me down, my head hanging off the steps. He planted his foot on my chest. It felt like a giant anvil had been thrown onto me.
“You should’ve joined me, Kane. You should’ve listened,” Atlas said, away from the microphone.
I said nothing back. I just stared into his crazy, hate-filled eyes with hate-filled eyes of my own. I wanted nothing more than to kill him in that moment. To end his reign of terror before it began. But I couldn’t. I was powerless.
Atlas raised his sword, going for decapitation instead of throat slicing. I didn’t close my eyes. I didn’t wince. I showed no fear.
A gust of wind blew over me, causing my hair to whip about. Atlas looked around to see what was going on. Then he flew backward, having been thrown by someone.
Selena stood there in her Holocene gear, having just thrown Atlas back a couple of feet. Not far, but far enough. The crowd booed as she reached down to grab me. She jumped into the air and we flew off, away from the crowd. Away from the Legion of Richter.
“What took you so long?” I shouted in order to be heard over the wind.
“I had to take care of a couple of things first. Besides, I wanted to be a little dramatic,” she said with a laugh.
“Where are we going?”
“Dallas. I’ve gathered everybody there,” she said.
“What for?” I asked.
“Because in just a few hours, the Legion is going to launch a full-scale attack on the city.”
51
REGROUP
DREW FRIED my Eximus generator and I felt my powers return. That was one of the greatest feelings ever, although it was one I didn’t care to experience again, given the circumstances I had to be in to feel it.
I looked around the large office we had gathered in, situated on the 34th floor of one of the skyscrapers in downtown Dallas. Nobody was at work, or even outside of their homes, giving us full access to any building and office we wanted. Everybody was too scared to come out. They were all glued to their couches, all their attention on their TVs, watching the murders of our leaders along with society as we knew it.
Samantha was sitting behind the big mahogany desk, typing away on her laptop, tracking all the news flooding in from all over the country: the news that the Legion was taking over all the major cities, killing government officials and inserting themselves into power. They were turning the entire country into a tyranny and there wasn’t anything anyone could do about it. No one but us.
Doug was sitting at the end of the desk, typing on his own laptop. Hank was standing next to him, leaning against the desk. Nep stood looking out the window at what was now a ghost town. Drew grabbed a bottled water from the mini fridge and Selena was standing across from me. I lay down on the large leather couch that sat in the corner of the office.
“How long was I gone?” I asked.
“Just a day. They kept you hidden so we were unable to find you,” Selena said.
“So what do you know about this attack?” I asked as I sat up.
Selena sighed, trying to figure out where to begin. “Well, this was the only city we were able to completely drive the Legion away from. Of course, they really want to take it from us. Their Supers are flying in their soldiers from D.C. and are gathering them outside the city. It looks as if they’ll be ready to attack in the next couple of hours.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. It was beginning to dawn on me that this really was turning into an all-out war, and there were only seven of us defending the city. “Where’s the STF?” I asked.
“A lot of them are dead,” Selena said. “Those who aren’t are either surrendering and joining the Legion, or doing what the rest of the population is doing and hiding.”
“Shit,” I breathed. We really were completely on our own. “So, what’s the plan?”
“Hone
stly?” Samantha said, peeking over the top of her computer screen. “We really don’t have one. None of us has the slightest clue what we’re doing. Atlas must have some sort of military background, or at least his people do. They’ve got tanks, missile launchers, guns of both the bullet and Eximus variety—everything you’d need to launch an invasion of the city. I don’t know how much of a chance we stand.”
Hearing her say that discouraged me more than anything. Samantha had always had a plan. She had always been optimistic. Now? Nothing. She was accepting defeat.
“We stand at least a small chance, and that’s enough for me,” I said.
“How? How do we stand even a small one?” Samantha asked. “He has an army at our doorstep, armed with guns that are designed to take away our powers! No matter how fast you are, you can’t run away from every single bolt of Eximus energy. We know that for a fact. Besides, if Atlas decides to show up, it’ll really be over then. I just don’t see an outcome where we come out on top.”
I hated to admit it, but I was beginning to think she was right. Even if Atlas didn’t show up, our chances looked slim. If he did? They were next to zero. There was no way we could successfully defend the city. And why wouldn’t he show up? What would stop him from coming here to finish what he couldn’t on the steps in Washington? Definitely not one of us.
“Well, then, we’ll die defending this city,” I said.
They all turned to look at me. “You can’t be serious,” Doug said.
I nodded. “Everybody’s looking at us, seeing what we’ll do. People are counting on us. Depending on us. We have to show them that we won’t give up. We’ll fight until our dying breath, and then we’ll be martyrs. We can’t inspire people to give up. We have to inspire them to fight. Our only option is to fight. Whether or not we’re fighting to win, that’s up to you.”
The First Superhero (Book 2): The Siege of the Supers Page 17
