by Chad Kunego
Something heavy suddenly slammed them against the ground again. Slightly dazed, he forced the object off of them before lurching back into the air. Looking back, he spotted the mangled remains of the vehicle that had battered them out of the sky. Redoubling the strength of his shield, he pulsed away again, desperately trying to reach Zarina in time.
Closing in on her position, Rick felt fist-sized chunks of hail coming toward them. Reaching out, he attempted to deflect them away. By the time he realized his powers had harmlessly slid across voids surrounding the hail, the first chuck slammed into his ankle, snapping it with a loud crack.
Pain lanced through him, throwing off his trajectory and causing him to go into an uncontrolled spin. The random movement was the only thing that kept the second chuck from snapping his spine when it slammed into his back. Instead, the impact only knocked the wind out of him, cracking several ribs in the process.
A third one glanced off the side of his head, making the world spin around him before he slammed into the ground several feet away from Zarina. The world swam before his eyes as he struggled to his feet, still holding Kaitlyn in a tight, protective embrace.
A white-hot flash of pain erupted from his shattered foot when he tried to put pressure on it. Little flashes of white obscured his vision. Thought moved sluggishly through his mind as he struggled to make sense of what was happening, the exact opposite of only moments prior. Wiping away the blood slowly pouring into his eyes, he strained to focus on the double-image of Zarina in front of him, ignoring the pain in his ankle and back. Lurching forward, a single though slowly formed in his mind.
We’re all going to die if I don’t get us out of here…
Through force of will alone, he pulled Zarina toward him. Grabbing both women under his arms, he spun away, trying desperately to get them out of range before this demon could attack them again. A blinding flash of pain erupted across his back and chest, knocking the wind out of him again. Ignoring it, he gathered all the energy he had left, pulsing away as blackness slowly crept in on the edges of his vision.
Chapter 16
Kaitlyn watched Rick’s aura deflect the chunks of debris the funnel cloud kicked up before accelerating it upward into the sky. She watched him dodge the attack by flying straight up into the storm.
He’s getting away!
Bursting into flames, she launched herself skyward.
“NO!”
Before she could turn her head, the sudden blast of horizontal wind snatched her sideways, extinguishing her flame aura. An instant later, she was being held tightly by something. The world blurred around her before the landscape completely changed. Lashing out instinctively, her hands bounced off an unyielding surface. A surface that grunted. Twisting, she realized she was being carried by Rick like a sack of potatoes under his right arm. Glancing over, she spotted Zarina being carried in a similar manner under his other arm.
“What the fuck? What the hell are you doing…” she began, trying to wiggle her body far enough to see Rick’s face. Something pointed and glittery was jutting out of his chest, bringing her up short.
“Won’t… let… either of you… die…”
His voice it was so weak, she could barely hear it over the sound of the wind rushing by.
Wait, why can I hear the wind…?
Looking up at his face, frothy blood was slowly trickling out of the corners of his mouth. The world around them seemed to be slowing down. Rick’s grip on her appeared to be loosening as well.
“Rick!” she yelled, trying to get his attention. After a few more yells, he slowly turned his head to look at her.
“You… were right… I wa… wasn’t a match… for him,” he said, his voice gurgling before his body shuddered under a coughing fit.
His eyelids began to droop, then started fluttering while his grip continued getting weaker.
If he drops us at this speed, we’ll all be killed.
“Rick! You need to stop! We can’t survive the impact if you pass out at this speed.”
Relieved, she noticed Rick nodding slightly before decelerating further. A few seconds later, he went limp, letting both women go before tumbling across the ground like a rag doll.
Panicking, she flared up, keeping her from slamming into the ground at speeds well above her top flight speed. Forcing herself upward, her head throbbed with the strain, but bit by bit, she managed to bring her movement under control, slowly coming to a stop and hovering several yards above the ground.
Shit! Zarina!
Spinning around, she searched for the young psionicist. In shock, she spotted Zarina floating several feet off the ground, rapidly flying toward Rick’s crumpled body. Flames crackling loudly, she swooped low to the ground, lightly touching down several feet away. Hurrying over, her concern grew when Rick didn’t move.
“Rick! Why are you just laying there? Get up,” she said, kneeling down beside him. When Zarina rolled him onto his back, he let out a low, hissing moan. Kaitlyn noticed his foot flopped over at an unnatural angle.
What the? Jesus! His ankle’s shattered. Why hasn’t he healed yet? I’ve seen him recover from worse injuries in seconds.
She gently pushed Zarina over slightly so she could examine Rick more closely.
“What the…?”
A fist-sized chunk of ice jutted out of his chest while frothy blood appeared to be frozen around the exit wound.
That’s what I saw glittering from his chest, only now the point’s broken off. How the hell did he get skewered by ice? How did it even get through his aura?
She slapped him in the face, trying to rouse him
“Why are you hitting him!”
Kaitlyn slapped him again, ignoring Zarina.
“Rick, wake up! You need to heal yourself!”
“Is he going to live?”
Zarina’s shaky voice brought home how serious the situation was. Reaching forward, she checked his pulse.
It’s weak and thready, but still there. We need to hurry!
“I don’t know! We need to wake him up. His healing factor works partially by conscious control. If we can get him conscious enough to heal, he should be fine, but he won’t be able to heal if we don’t get that chunk of ice out of his chest first. We need to act fast. Help me get him in a seated position.”
The other woman shifted position, getting behind him before helping Kaitlyn get him upright. Pressing lightly on the block of ice, she felt it shift slightly.
“Okay, here’s what we’re going to do. I need to push this out of his chest, but he’ll bleed to death if we don’t get him conscious. So I need you to slap him hard if he doesn’t wake up from the pain of me pushing this out. Understand?”
The other woman nodded before responding.
“I have better idea. Just let me know when you are ready to push it out.”
“We don’t ha—”
“Just do it! We do not have time to discuss. His aura is fading.”
“Fine. On the count of three. One… Two… THREE!”
Please let this work. We need him for this mission… I… I need him to survive. I can’t do this without him.
Steeling herself, Kaitlyn shoved the chunk of ice hard, feeling it catch on his shirt before popping out the rest of the way.
Thank god. It looks like the ice froze the wound enough to slow his bleeding, but we still don’t have much time.
She looked up at Zarina, wondering what she was going to do. Bright purple light spilled from the Russian’s eyes, stopped Kaitlyn in her tracks. Awed, she barely noticed the other woman whispering quietly.
“Rick, you need to wake up to heal… I can help, but you need to do it…”
Continuing to whisper, Kaitlyn noticed a faint violet glow emanating from the hole in Rick’s chest.
She’s keeping him from bleeding out, but is it enough?
Without warning, Zarina yelled in his ear.
“Wake up damn you! I cannot do alone!”
The sudden gasp of ai
r caused her jump. Rick’s eyes snapped open, then suddenly filled with agony.
“Holy fu—!”
Kaitlyn grabbed his face, staring into his pain-filled eyes.
“Rick! Heal! Now! You’ll die otherwise!”
The air suddenly became still, making it difficult to breath. Her heart paused mid-beat before thumping again hard, like it was trying to break through her ribcage.
One moment she could see completely through him, the next it looked like his flesh was made out of honey, smoothly flowing together. When his wound finished closing, a slight round scar remained.
A scar? His skin wasn’t even discolored after he healed from having his heart incinerated by a laser. Something is seriously wrong here…
He let out another gasp before slumping back into Zarina’s arms. Kaitlyn looked at the other woman in alarm.
“Is he okay?”
“Yes, is unconscious. I heard his thoughts before he passed out. He never needed to use so much energy to heal before. Before he fainted, I sensed fear in him, something he has not felt in long time.”
“Do you know what happened? All I remember is getting yanked by the wind, then being here.”
“Da. But not much more. I saw you get pulled away, then Rick disappeared. I partially saw what happened, even though he was moving so fast. He risked life saving you. He took impact of car across back to protect you.”
Kaitlyn watched the play of emotions crossing the young woman’s face.
“I think he realized he was outmatched and just ran with us to keep us safe. I think he believed he could not protect us.”
Kaitlyn gave her a questioning look.
“How are you able to know all this?”
“Eidetic memory,” she said, tapping the side of her head, “Even though it was too fast for conscious mind to catch, my subconscious was able to track some of what he did. I also accidentally saw some of his memories while helping him heal.”
The sheepish look on her face seemed out of place.
“Is that unusual? That you shared his memories?”
“Da. At least when not trying to read mind. With him,” she said, gesturing to the man in her lap, “is different. Is easier to read, both ways. Is why he accidentally invaded my mind when healing me. Now I return favor.”
“Well, it won’t mean much if we don’t get out of here. There’s no telling how far behind us that mutant is. If Rick couldn’t stop him, then we don’t stand a chance.”
“He is like Rick, you know,” the other woman stated.
“Huh?”
“Is like Rick. White aura.”
“Oh shit…”
Chapter 17
Rick looked around. His surroundings looked familiar, but something wasn’t right. Last thing he remembered was being unable to breathe, then a blinding pain in his chest, exhaustion washing over him to the point he couldn’t keep his eyes open, then blackness.
Then a bright light rush through the darkness at him, swelling to fill his vision until he appeared here, which was impossible. He found himself in a forgotten, and long buried, memory. His thought felt murky and sluggish, making it difficult to understand what was happening. It felt like he was missing something, like he wasn’t fully in control of himself.
“Newton, cover the left flank. I’ll take Charlie team in through the right side. Use your big brass balls if anyone pokes their head out.”
Rick stared in confusion. His brother Hal was standing in front of him giving orders. Except this was one of the last missions they were on together, over thirty years ago, long before he’d become Reaper. Before he’d had to kill him. Instead, this was the mission that changed everything.
“Newton! Get your mind in the game! You can’t be distracted or you’ll get killed,” his brother said before smiling slightly, “I might not be there to protect you.”
Rick nodded blankly, trying to piece together what was happening. His thoughts were becoming more muddled. Did he really fight against a storm…? Or was it just a dream?
“Come on little brother, let’s show them why they don’t threaten our friends. Just make sure you keep your head down. And if you see one of their robots, aim for a spot about three inches above their hip joint, dead center. That’s where our R&D guys located their main power coupling.”
His brother turn away, jogging to catch up to the rest of Charlie company. His dreams of fighting angry storms and rescuing sexy damsels in distress would have to wait until later. They had a mission to accomplish and any distraction could be fatal.
With his abilities, his brother expected him to act as a sniper, especially since he could launch inch diameter spheres at nearly the speed of sound. Too bad he still couldn’t completely control their direction after launching them. Under fifteen hundred yards though, he was deadly. Shaking his head, he moved out, trying to figure out why he was having such a strong case of déjà vu. It was like his mind was in a fog. Maybe he was coming down with something…
Snap out of it. Your brother is depending on you to provide overwatch. Stop getting distracted.
Slapping the side of his head, he took off running in a different direction, his ability allowing him to move at nearly a hundred miles per hour. He’d only recently managed to reach that speed, but it took a lot out of him. Struggling to maintain focus, he tried to silence his footfalls. A random snap of a twig here and there told him he wasn’t being entirely successful though. It was still so hard splitting his concentrate between multiple uses of his powers, but he was slowly getting the hang of it.
I hope someday my powers get strong enough to be more useful to Hal. He’s right. Now he’s the one who has to protect me on missions. Kinda funny really. After all this time, he finally gets to be a big brother to me.
Rick came to a stop before responding, unable to focus on moving at speed while talking.
Rick glanced down at his GPS, tapped a few buttons, then read the display.
Rick grimaced slightly. Ever since his cybernetic limbs increased all his natural abilities, it seemed he thrived on pointing out how much weaker Rick was compared to him.
Is this how I treated him when we were younger? I didn’t mean to. I need to ask him when we get back. If I did, I need to apologize.
Rick examined his GPS again. Tapping a few more buttons, he got a satellite overlay of the terrain and the base location. A blinking red dot lit up, indicating the spot they’d decided to have him set up a sniper’s nest. Based off of the indicator showing his current location, he actually only had a half click to go. Checking the padding that kept his bags filled with different projectiles silent, he took off again at a slower pace, using more effort to be silent rather than fast.
After another five minutes, he spotted the tree they’d determined would give him the best line of sight to the target. Concentrating, he extended what he’d decided to call his awareness shell to see if anything was around. It was something he’d just learned to do the other day, so it took a lot of effort to maintain. It didn’t have very much range, probably a couple hundred feet, but it was something he felt he needed to get better at. Hopefully he could surprise his brother with his increased usefulness when he got good at it.
Satisfied that, as far as he could tell, he was alone, he gathered his energy and jumped skyward. Almost overshooting the branch he was aiming for thirty feet up, he managed to mentally pull the branch toward him slightly, something else he’d just learned he could do, and managed to get a hand on it.
That’s all I need to do. Fall flat on the ground and let everyone at the base know
I’m here. I’d never hear the end of it.
Pulling himself up, he heard the wood cracking slightly from the amount of force he used boosting himself into position.
Guess I’m stronger than even a week ago…
There was just so much about his powers that he didn’t understand yet. Either current abilities continued getting more powerful, or he developed new ones, like the ability to scan his surroundings. In terms of raw power, he felt only marginally more powerful than the other test subjects from the group he’d been a part of. Then again, he’d already had a small amount of ability before he went through the program. Something he didn’t want his superiors to find out about.
Let them think my powers came entirely from the program. Maybe it’ll convince them to keep going with it.
Finally reaching his position. He pulled out safety straps, anchoring himself into position. When he was satisfied, he keyed up his mic again.
Rick saw a flash of light reflecting off something near where he knew his brother and his team was.
The radio suddenly cut off as the jungle near his brother’s location erupted with gunfire and explosions. Whipping his binoculars up, he scanned the area. Hidden in the canopy was a small army of battle droids slowly advancing on his brother’s position. Without thought, he grabbed one of his tungsten spheres, launching it at one of the targets. A loud echo cracked across the landscape as the projectile shot away before he saw sparks spray out of his target.
I just made that go supersonic!
Grabbing another sphere, he scanned the area, looking for another target. An odd feeling appeared to his left, causing him to drop his field specs. Looking in the direction of the sensation. Almost in slow motion, he spotted a robot launch a missile at him, causing his reflexes to take over. In one smooth motion, he pulled his combat knife out, slashing through his safety lines. With his other hand, he launched the sphere at the missile slowly crawling toward him. Continuing his twisting motion, he pushed his whole body downward with his powers, propelling himself toward the jungle floor.
