by Matt Blake
“People always die. At least now we have a way to minimize the impact.”
“You can never minimize the impact of death to someone who’s lost. Ever.”
Michael tilted his head to one side. “I suppose not. But we’re trying.”
He stood up then, with surprising agility for a man clearly as old as him. “What happened in the past is irrelevant. It’s now we have to think about. The Failsafe has resurfaced, whether we like it or not. And some very dangerous people have got their hands on it.”
“So you keep saying. What’s so dangerous about these people?”
“They are a militia. A glorified gang, really. But as long as they hold that Failsafe, they hold the key to power.”
“What have they got against the ULTRAs?”
“They can bide their time. Grow their armies. They can gain support. And when they’re ready to use that Failsafe, they can topple ULTRAkind and become the most powerful force on the planet.”
“Not bad for a glorified gang.”
“Read some history books. You’ll soon see it’s the glorified gangs who always reign supreme in the end. But not this time. We can’t allow that.”
“‘We’?”
“There’s a reason you’re here, Kyle.”
“I guessed that much.”
“You might’ve convinced the rest of the world your powers were gone, but I’m not as stupid as that. I know for a fact that powers as strong as yours don’t fade that easily.”
“I’ve seen it happen to others. It wouldn’t be too ridiculous.”
“You’ve seen it happen to others, have you? Really?”
“Damon. My best…”
I saw the look in Michael’s eyes and I wondered whether Damon was being totally straight with me all along.
“But that’s beside the point. You’re here because, like it or not, you’re still the strongest ULTRA in existence. And that means you are going to do what you have to do. Serve your… let’s call it your moral duty.”
“Which is?”
“You are going to retrieve the Failsafe from the militia. You are going to take it away from them. And then you are going to return it to me, where I can look after it in safety.”
“And why should I trust you?”
“Huh?”
“Why should I trust you won’t just destroy me and my kind?”
Michael’s eyes watered right then. He shook his head. “I created you. In many ways, I am your father. Why on earth would I destroy my beautiful children when I didn’t even want a failsafe creating in the first place?”
I pondered Michael’s words. He had a point. If he’d created me, if he’d created all of ULTRAkind, then surely he was more trustworthy than some random criminals.
“I’m not sure I can do this,” I said.
“And why on earth wouldn’t you do this?”
“The world. They… they think I’m normal now. And I just… I guess I like that. I want to be normal. Being normal for a while’s done me good.”
Michael smiled. He wiped his eyes, and then held out a hand, resting it on my shoulder. “Kyle, you are normal. You are just growing up. That is a part of life everyone has to accept.”
I swallowed a lump in my throat and felt my world falling apart once again.
“So what do you say?” Michael asked.
I took a few deep breaths. Ran through scenarios in my head. Should I? Shouldn’t I? Did I have a choice, really?
In the end, I closed my eyes, took a final cleansing breath, and went with my heart.
“Where do I find the Failsafe?”
11
I hovered over the Australian Outback and had to admit, being Glacies again didn’t feel all that bad.
It was night. The air was cold, way colder than the stereotypes about Australian weather suggest. But I supposed this was technically the desert. Scorching during the day, cool at night.
Probably didn’t help that I had ice coming from my palms.
Or that I was dressed in nothing more than my Glacies gear.
I looked down at the compound in the distance. It was dark, but I could see in the dark now. I’m special, remember? One of the advantages of being super-special was the discovery that you had abilities beyond your understanding, sometimes. You just kinda had to let them happen. A list of them would’ve been nice, I had to admit.
The place was bigger than I expected, like some kind of warehouse. There were lots of black vans parked up around the front, and high barbed wire fences to keep anyone who might cross by this place out. It was totally dark, though. No lights or anything like that. I’d only recently learned I could see in the dark if I put my attention to it. Like, very recently. As in now.
The beauty of being an ULTRA. You’re learning new things about yourself all the time.
Just a pity I wasn’t keen on being an ULTRA anymore.
I could hear chatter down below, cutting through the otherwise silent Outback landscape. Well, I say silent. There were loads of crickets chirping away. More than I ever thought was possible.
I felt the tension in my gut as I hovered, invisible, down toward the compound. I took in deep breaths of the dry air, still hungry having not eaten for… well, Michael Williamson never actually told me how long he’d had me captive. He’d never told me who the people who captured me were, either. There were a lot of things he hadn’t told me. Why me? Why did I have to be the one to retrieve the Failsafe? Did “because you’re the strongest ULTRA” really cut it?
Whatever. I was here. And I was going to get the job done with as quickly as I possibly could, with as little fuss as I possibly could.
In. Get the Failsafe. Out.
Simple.
Right?
I lowered closer toward the compound. The nearer I got, the more aware I became that there were people right below me. Guards—dressed all in black. I became conscious that they might be able to see me. I hadn’t used my abilities for so long that it felt like I was discovering them all over again.
I took some deep breaths, drifted further downward…
Then I saw a blanket of electricity sparkle right above the compound.
I lunged up back into the sky. I could feel my skin singeing, my invisibility faltering. Shit. There was some kind of trigger over this place. I’d hovered right into it.
“Did you see that?” an Australian accent called.
“Jeez, Martin. Not seeing things again are ya?”
“I swear. Something triggered the electricity. It could be him. He could be here already.”
“Who?”
“You know who. You know damn well who.”
I saw two men walk over to just under my position, where I hovered in the sky, trying to get my invisibility to cover me again.
They looked up. And for a moment, I swore one of them—must’ve been Martin—looked right into my eyes.
Then the guy with him nudged him and laughed. “See? Nothing there.”
Then he lifted his rifle and fired up toward me.
I dodged the bullets and watched as a wall of electricity sparked just inches from me. I bounced around every shot, taking my time, steadying my focus, but I was rustier than I used to be. I wasn’t as quick. I wasn’t as—
A searing pain shot through my left leg.
It took all my composure, all my guts, not to scream.
“See?” the guy said, patting Martin on the shoulder. “Nothing.”
The pair of them walked away as the blanket of electricity continued to crackle.
I gritted my teeth. The pain of being shot was worse than I remembered. I quickly hovered back to the side then put all my attention on healing my leg. It was painful. This wasn’t what I signed up for. I should be at home, enjoying one of my final days with Ellicia before she went to college. Instead, I was fighting someone else’s battle, all over again.
I healed my leg and floated back above the compound. I had no choice. I had to get in here. If I didn’t, I was putting every
ULTRA in existence at risk.
So I closed my eyes.
I didn’t just make myself invisible. I made myself non-existent.
And then I appeared at the other side of the electric barrier.
I was surprised I’d actually got through it at first, still amazed by my powers. I’d got so rusty that I’d forgotten just how handy they could become.
But getting into this compound was the easy part, surely. The hard part was getting the Failsafe and then getting out of here.
The sooner I could get back to normality, the better.
I hovered just above the ground. I headed toward the doors of the compound, which two people stood guard by. I was constantly aware that they might just look at me and shoot at any moment, and God knows how I’d react to another bullet.
But they didn’t.
I was right beside them, and they didn’t even glance at me.
I closed my eyes again and pictured the world behind the compound door. I could sense that there was someone right on the other side. A few people walking the corridors. All of them armed.
I thought back to those electric barriers.
What if they weren’t just keeping something out?
What if they were keeping something in?
I didn’t have time to dwell. I floated inside and headed down the corridor, keeping as low a profile as possible. The corridor was long, metal, and dark. I could smell grime. This place was in need of a serious clean.
But I wouldn’t be sticking around here long anyway.
The further I got down the corridor, the more I started to doubt that I was in the right place. The Failsafe, if it were so powerful, wouldn’t just be in here, would it? This group wasn’t possibly as organized as Michael claimed they were, right?
And then I saw it.
It only just caught my eye, through a door on the right. But it was exactly as Michael described.
Small. About the size of a tennis ball.
Metal.
There could be no mistaking it.
It was the Failsafe.
I drifted toward it, creeped out that no one was guarding it. I looked down at it and I smirked. This little thing was really so powerful? This was the very thing that could end the lives of my entire species in an instant?
As I lifted it, feeling the smooth metal, I felt it. The weight of it. Not heavy in the conventional sense. But just a feeling like it was filled with something very special. Like it carried secrets I didn’t, and couldn’t, understand.
And then I heard footsteps behind me.
I turned around and saw eight people standing at the door.
All of them had guns.
At the front of the group, a woman with short blonde hair.
“Drop it,” she said. “Immediately.”
12
I held onto the Failsafe, fully aware that I was in deep, deep crap.
There were eight people opposite me, all but one of them dressed in black with their faces covered, all pointing rifles in my direction. Right in the middle of these people, a woman, with silvery hair. She was holding a pistol. Her face wasn’t covered.
“You don’t want to resist, Kyle Peters. I mean, I’d hate for the news about the truth to leak. The truth about your abilities. Wouldn’t you?”
I knew right away what the woman was referring to and it knocked me sick. “You’re threatening me?”
“Well, I think the public deserve to know that the world’s most powerful ULTRA is still flying around the world with his powers intact, don’t you?”
I shook my head, feeling a little bead of sweat slip down my forehead. “This Failsafe. It doesn’t belong to you.”
“And it doesn’t belong to you, either. In fact, it especially shouldn’t belong to you. Not with the kind of power you have.”
“Because you really have good intentions with this Failsafe, do you?”
“Oh, I can assure you our intentions are very honest. It’s about time the power balance was shifted back in favor of humanity. Your kind is dangerous, and you do not know what you’re messing with. You had a good run. But now it’s time to hang up your boots and accept your new masters. Or, don’t. And face the consequences. But we will come after you. We will come after you and everyone you care about. Hard.”
I’d been threatened lots of times. I’d had the people I cared about threatened lots of times. That was just part of my life now.
It still got to me. It still scared me, the thought of someone taking everything that mattered to me away.
But I’d heard enough threats to know when they were empty.
“The press will find out about you the moment you leave this place. The world will question why Kyle Peters hasn’t been looking out for them all along. You’ll never live a normal life because everyone will know you’re nothing more than a liar and a coward. Or, you can hand over the Failsafe, and we’ll go easy on you. A lot easier.”
I looked down at the Failsafe. What was it worth? Was it worth me giving up who I really was? Would these people really use it, if they had to? Was I honestly the last hope in retrieving it?
Then I looked back up at the group. “I appreciate the offer. Really. But I think I’ve got a better idea.”
I fired a sheet of ice at the group and teleported behind them, the Failsafe still in my possession. As I ran down the corridor, away from the compound, I felt bullets spraying around me, and I knew I was going to have to fight as much as I wanted to run.
I shot a few blasts of ice back at the crowd firing at me. I froze some of their bullets too and threw them back at them, taking them down with the flick of a finger. I hadn’t seen the woman since I’d made a break for it. I could picture her now, calling the news, telling the media that I was still powered, and I’d been cowering from my responsibilities—my reality—for a long time.
I imagined the disappointed looks on so many faces. The faces of Ellicia. Damon. Avi. Dad.
I imagined the disappointed looks on the faces of all the people who’d idolized me, all the people who truly believed I still wanted to help them, but was limited by my new found condition.
I saw my entire life falling apart. Both as Glacies and as Kyle Peters.
And then I stopped when I felt someone smack me in the face.
I fell back. Hit the floor.
A man stood over me.
He lifted a rifle to my head.
I saw him pull the trigger. I saw the bullet moving out of the gun as if it was in slow motion.
But my focus wasn’t completely on the gun.
My focus was on the Failsafe, which had slipped between my fingers.
I watched it tumble back down the corridor, back toward the woman and the people with her that were still standing.
It was going to be in her hands again.
Or I was going to have a bullet in my head.
I had a choice.
Well. I would’ve had a choice. If I wasn’t an ULTRA.
I kicked the gun up in the air.
It spun around so quickly that it knocked the gunman in the chin, the bullet firing inches above my scalp.
The gunman spun around in the air and fell back onto the floor with a crack.
Then I turned around.
I could run. I could make it to the Failsafe.
But the woman and the people around her, more of them now, were getting ready to fire. I could take my chances, but it wouldn’t be easy.
“Leave,” the woman said. “Leave. Now. For your own good. You don’t understand what you’re getting involved in. Not fully.”
I wanted to. I wanted to give up. I didn’t want to fight.
But I shook my head. “Not happening.”
Then, where the Failsafe bounced, I created a thick sheet of ice.
It acted as a shield from the bullets. Not forever, but just for now.
The main thing was, the Failsafe bounced off it.
I sprinted toward it.
Picked it up.
Ran
back toward the door of the compound.
I heard the ice shield smash just as I threw myself through it and stepped outside.
I put my hands on my knees. I didn’t have much time to stick around or catch my breath. I had to get out of here.
I lifted my head and went to run.
I didn’t make it very far.
A bigger armed group surrounded me. At least fifty people.
All of them pointing their weapons at me.
All of them ready to fire.
13
I looked at the crowd of people pointing their guns at me and wished I’d never got involved in this damned mess in the first place.
I held on tightly to the Failsafe. The people opposite me were all shining flashlights at me, which were perched on the top of their rifles. I felt like I was a performer on a stage, only I wasn’t up on stage by choice. I was here because I was a puppet. Not just for these people, but for Michael Williamson too.
I wanted to just get back to normality, but I’d jeopardized my hopes of returning to normality now. There was no doubt about that.
I just had to find a way to get away from these people as quickly as I possibly could.
“Final chance,” a voice behind me said. When I turned around, I realized it was the woman who’d been leading the group earlier. She looked at me through steely eyes, her silver hair stark in the brightness of the flashlights. “I’m being incredibly lenient right now; I’m sure you’ll agree. You can hand over the Failsafe, and we can forget this ever happened. Or you can resist, and I promise we will rain hell on you.”
I heard something then. Helicopters, it sounded like. When I looked up, I saw them approaching.
“That’d be the media,” the woman said. “I called them just in case. Gave some friends an anonymous tip about something big going down here. Wouldn’t it just be great for them to see you as you really are?”
“You’re just full of shit,” I said.
The woman frowned as if she was staggered that an eighteen-year-old guy had just sworn. “What did you just say?”
“I said you’re full of shit. All these threats. All these ‘one more chances’. Sounds to me like you’re the desperate one.”
