by Matt Blake
“Show me what?”
Bouncer didn’t have to answer.
He pulled the thing behind his back out and immediately Fat Morgan felt an iron rod of fear pierce through his chest.
In front of him was a head.
Root’s head. Torn from his body.
Bouncer dropped the head to the floor, and it rolled into Fat Morgan’s room. Fat Morgan would usually have gone mad at that. He would’ve reacted.
But then he saw the massive hooded figure stomping his way to him.
“What do we do?” Bouncer asked.
Fat Morgan gritted his teeth. He looked at the approaching figure, then he looked over his shoulder at the Failsafe.
“Morgan? What do we do?”
Fat Morgan took a deep breath.
Then he put a hand on Bouncer’s shoulder.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
Bouncer didn’t have time to understand what Fat Morgan was apologizing about.
Fat Morgan smacked both hands and sent Bouncer flying into the oncoming assailant.
Fat Morgan didn’t stick around to see how the figure reacted. He didn’t wait to see whether Bouncer survived, or whether he even hit the figure.
He just turned around and flew at the Failsafe.
He grabbed it. And at that point, he did look over his shoulder.
When he did, he saw that the figure was close. So close.
And there was blood on his black cloak.
Bouncer’s blood, surely.
“You ain’t getting your dirty hands on this,” Fat Morgan said, slipping the Failsafe into his pocket. “Not a goddamned chance.”
The figure didn’t do anything. Not at first.
And then he lifted a hand and some weird, swirly energy started appearing in front of it, spinning faster and faster.
Fat Morgan wanted to stay and fight for his people. He wanted to protect the ULTRAs—the valuable ULTRAs, like Glacies—who he had in those cells.
But the Failsafe was way more important.
The Failsafe was going to make him a rich man, and he wanted to be a rich man more than anything.
He watched a surge of energy fly toward him from the ULTRA’s hands.
Fat Morgan squeezed his eyes shut.
And he held onto the Failsafe.
Tightly.
20
I held my breath and readied myself to do what I had to do.
I knew it wasn’t going to be easy breaking out of the bands that were wrapped around my wrists. I’d tried a few times, pretty damned hard too.
But Ember was right when he’d told me what I had to do. I didn’t have to try hard. Any old schmuck could try hard.
I had to try harder than hard.
I was Kyle goddamned Peters. Glacies. The strongest ULTRA alive.
And I wasn’t going to let a bunch of lowlife bounty hunters dictate my life.
I squeezed my eyes shut and focused on the bubble of power I felt in the center of my chest.
Right away, I felt a kickback. Electricity burned up my arms, down my back, into my pelvis and through my legs.
I tensed my jaw and groaned as the agony stretched up the back of my neck, making the hairs on my head rise on end.
I couldn’t see because my eyes were closed, but I could feel the pressure underneath my eyelids growing. I had a horrible image of my eyes bursting, leaving me totally blind. Then, I’d be screwed. Well and truly screwed.
I had to work hard to make sure that didn’t happen.
I felt the electricity growing overwhelming and I knew I didn’t have long left to fight. My energy was waning. Soon, I’d be dead.
Then I heard Ember’s voice.
“Keep on pushing, Kyle. You can do this. You can do this…”
His voice faded away, but somehow I knew he was still speaking. I could feel his words moving through my body, giving me the strength to keep on pushing, to keep on fighting. It wasn’t easy. It was the hardest damned thing I’d ever done. Okay, maybe a slight exaggeration. Not the hardest thing I’d ever done. But definitely up there.
Still I pushed back against that electricity.
Because I was going to get to the Failsafe.
And I was going to finish what I’d started.
I was going to—
I heard a blast in my skull.
Every muscle in my body went limp.
I wasn’t sure how long I lay on the floor, stretched out. I was looking up at the ceiling; I knew that much. I couldn’t hear properly. I could taste blood.
But I was alive.
The electricity might’ve hurt me, stopped me moving out of the cell, but I was…
When I lifted my head slightly, I realized I wasn’t inside my cell anymore.
The anti-energy bands were inside my cell. They were lying on the floor, smoke rising from them.
Ember grinned and gripped onto the front bars of his cell. “Now go on. Go do what you have to do.”
I didn’t want to leave Ember behind. I felt so guilty about it. But it wasn’t for good. “I’ll be back for you. I swear.”
“Just go,” Ember said. He was smiling. And it wasn’t a fake smile, either. He looked truly happy, truly relieved, to see me escape that cell. “Don’t worry about me. I’m fine in here.”
I turned toward the steps at the end of the corridor and I ran right up them.
I activated my invisibility, but I still felt like I was being watched, as empty as these corridors were. I couldn’t believe how silent the place was. I swore I’d heard voices earlier, a constant movement.
When I reached the end of the corridor, I saw why.
There was blood on the walls.
And on the floor beside those walls, there were bodies.
I looked away, the smell triggering my gag reflex. I didn’t want to look. Something had gone down here. Something big.
And a niggling feeling inside me told me it was probably to do with the Failsafe.
I walked through the door at the end of this corridor, which was ajar.
Inside, I saw a chair, which had a massive hole in it where someone clearly sat quite regularly. There was a bucket of chicken—well, once chicken, now bones—by the side of that chair. A smashed gin bottle lined the floor.
On the door, “Fat Morgan. Do Not Disturb.”
This was where the leader of this place, Fat Morgan, lived.
But there was no sign of the Failsafe.
I searched the room, growing more and more agitated, more and more frustrated. I knew I wasn’t going to find anything. Fat Morgan had fled, and of course he’d taken the Failsafe with him. I was going to have to go after him. I was…
When I turned around, I saw a dark figure standing in front of the doorway.
Catalyst.
He lifted his hands and went to fire a wave of energy at me.
I teleported myself out of the way of that blast and back down into the cells. Before I knew it, I was standing opposite Ember.
“Did you do it?” Ember asked, dragging his face closer to the cell. “Did you get what you wanted?”
“Ember, I—”
A blast opened up the door at the top of the corridor, knocking me to my ass. When I got back to my feet, I saw that Catalyst was just meters away.
“Go, Kyle,” Ember said. He was lying down now, too. “Leave. Get out of here.”
I shook my head. “I can’t leave you.”
“What you’re chasing down is more important than me. It’s more damned important than any of us. Just go. I’ll let you off. This once. But I’ll kick your ass when I see you again. That’s a promise.”
Ember smiled and laughed, but I could hear the sadness in his voice.
Catalyst stepped over me.
“I’m sorry,” I said, as tears filled my eyes. I wanted to teleport Ember away too, but he still had bands on his arms. And I wasn’t sure I had enough time. “I—”
“Just go.”
“Ember. I’m so sorry.”
&n
bsp; He half-smiled, and for a moment, I saw total terror in his eyes as Catalyst went to blast me with his shockwaves.
And then I let out a cry and I teleported far away from this place with the last of the strength I had.
21
Catalyst walked down past the cell blocks and felt the anger burning up inside.
He listened to his footsteps tapping against the metal floor beneath. The air was thick with the smell of sweat and other bodily fluids. He could hear whimpering; the pained whimpers of people who had been trapped down here in this place for a long, long time. He didn’t know their stories. He didn’t know their pasts, and he didn’t know whether they deserved to be here.
He just knew he was angry. Very angry.
He’d let the Failsafe slip again. He’d let that ULTRA slip, again.
He knew it was the same ULTRA he’d encountered over in Australia. He could smell it. Something about the way he perspired gave away his identity.
He didn’t know who he was, exactly, but he was starting to wonder. Starting to question whether it was possible, all along.
He heard that niggling voice whispering in his ear as he carried on walking.
You’re not good enough.
Failed again, like you always fail.
And he’d believed it. Catalyst had really believed he was weak, just like the voice in his head used to always tell him.
But now he was strong. He’d spent time training. Working hard to get to the stage he was at. He knew about the Failsafe, and he was going to track it down and use it. That was always the plan. He was strong enough to get that far. It was the goal, and it wasn’t supposed to be this difficult.
He didn’t account for the mystery ULTRA standing up to him. The one making it difficult for him.
He’d find out who he was, for certain.
And he’d kill him.
He kept on walking alongside the cells until he reached the one that was empty. He knew it was empty because he could feel his feet echoing against the wall at the back.
He could smell the presence of the mystery ULTRA, too.
This was his cell.
And there was someone in the cell next to where he’d been.
“You,” Catalyst said.
He couldn’t see the reaction of the person in the cell next door, but he could tell from the subtle change in temperature in the air that whoever was in that cell was worried. “Me?”
“The ULTRA in this cell. Who was it?”
Again, another subtle shift in the air temperature. And a long enough hesitation in speech for Catalyst to know that whatever was coming next was most likely a lie. “I don’t know who the hell he was. And I wouldn’t tell you if I did.”
Catalyst smiled.
Then he lifted a hand, magnetically dragged the prisoner toward the cell bars and slammed his face and body right up against them.
“I’ll ask you one more time,” Catalyst said. He could detect real warmth about this ULTRA in particular. And he got the sense that, if allowed to use his powers, he’d be able to go up in flames. Fire was bubbling under his skin. Just a good job he had bands wrapped around his wrists, then. “And this time I suggest you answer. Who was in the cell?”
Resistance in the air. A struggle, as the prisoner choked, Catalyst pulling him even harder against the cell bars. “I… don’t…”
“You think this is some kind of game?”
“I… I think you’re—you’re desperate. And there’s nothing… nothing you can do to make me give up what I know.”
Catalyst pulled the prisoner even harder against the cell bars and imagined all the horrible things he could do to change this stubborn bastard’s mind. “Are you sure about that?”
He tightened his grip on the prisoner’s arm and got ready to yank it from its socket.
“It was Glacies.”
The voice came from the cell to the right of the empty one. And when Catalyst heard it, he dropped the prisoner right away and walked toward that cell. “What did you just say?”
There was silence for a few seconds. But there was no shift in the air. There was no panic. Just pure calm. Honesty. “Glacies,” the voice repeated. “Kyle Peters. That was him in here just then.”
Catalyst knew the name. He knew the legend. Everyone did. Kyle Peters was a big part of culture and society these days. He was a celebrity, in a way.
He was strong. He was powerful. He’d done some good things for the world.
But he’d supposedly lost his abilities.
Which made things interesting.
Very interesting.
Catalyst looked at where he knew the prisoner was standing. And then he turned and looked back at the other prisoner. The stubborn one.
He walked over to the front of his cell. He stood there for a few seconds, just listening to his heartbeat, feeling the fear that bubbled under his skin no matter how hard he tried to prove he wasn’t afraid.
“You’re lucky I just got the information I wanted,” Catalyst said. “For that, I’ll make this next part a lot less painful.”
Then he slammed the prisoner against the bars once more, hard enough to knock all consciousness from his body.
He heard every bone crack, and then a thud, as the body of the ULTRA hit the cell floor.
“Sleep tight.”
He turned around and walked to the cell doors.
“Wait,” someone shouted. The man who’d given up Glacies’ identity. “What about me? Not gonna let me outta here?”
Catalyst turned around and looked at the prisoner’s cell. “Thank you. Sincerely. But now you must serve your time.”
“Hey! You bastard! You let me outta here! You let me go!”
Catalyst turned away and climbed the steps toward the cell doors as the man’s shouting continued to echo around this hellhole.
He knew what he had to do.
He knew who he was up against.
And he was going to stop him reaching that Failsafe, no matter what it took.
22
I flew away from Fat Morgan’s prison as quickly as I could, but in all honesty, I didn’t have a clue where I was heading.
It was light now, which was disorienting, as I’d been plunged into near darkness for God knows how long. My lips were dry and chapped, and my stomach was calling out with hunger. I still hadn’t found a chance to take a break. I was too eager to get away from Catalyst.
But more than that, I was too eager to chase down Fat Morgan and get to the Failsafe.
As I flew through the sky, no real sense of direction or purpose, I thought about my family and friends back home. They’d be worried now, surely. At least I hoped they would be, goddammit. They’d see by now that something was amiss and they’d be concerned. As much as I didn’t want them to think anything bad had happened to me, I couldn’t talk to them. I had another duty right now, as painful as it was, and as reluctant as I was to pursue it.
I thought about the last time I’d been home. I’d been in that arcade with Damon and Avi. I’d gone to the bathroom and got surrounded by those mysterious people, who turned out to be working for Michael Williamson. They’d have been worried right away. They’d probably start asking questions like how could I just disappear like that.
I knew that wherever Cassie is, she’d be cautiously optimistic about all this. She’d maybe believe that I was embracing my powers and abilities again.
And, sure. I wouldn’t go as far as saying I was embracing them. That’s a little too strong a word to describe my attitude to my newly re-discovered hero status. But I was using them. And I was going to keep on using them until I found that Failsafe.
And then, when I’d finally put all this shit to bed, I’d hang my costume up for good.
Or burn it. Probably a more permanent solution.
But for now, I had to keep going. And the more I moved, the more I realized how aimless this was. If I wanted to find where Fat Morgan had gone, I needed to go back to where they’d gone from and find som
e kind of trace. Some kind of clue.
Of course, being an ULTRA, that didn’t exactly mean I had to physically go back.
I closed my eyes while I hovered in the sky and took myself back to Fat Morgan’s office. I looked around it. Looked at where the Failsafe had been. Looked at the notes scattered across his desk. Looked at the indentation in his chair, where his fat ass had dug a hole. I looked at the magazine on the floor.
Nothing.
I gritted my teeth as I continued to struggle. There had to be something. Some kind of clue or other. A place like that couldn’t just be empty of clues or evidence. It wasn’t possible.
I started to consider that maybe actually physically returning to the place was a good idea.
And then I heard the voice in my head.
“We go to the base in the Darien Gap,” it said. “Anything goes to shit, that’s where we go. We lay low there for two weeks near the jungle and we don’t say a word to anyone else. Okay? There’s guards there. There’s troops there. Tough mother-f-ers. They’ll keep us safe. Help us lay low. Right?”
The voice was muffled, and I couldn’t recall when I’d heard those words uttered the first time. But I knew I must’ve taken it in when I was sitting in that cell ready to give in.
Darien Gap.
A base in the jungle.
That vastly narrowed down my search radius.
Before I returned to reality, I had to look at the cells. I had to know Ember was okay. I didn’t know what’d happened to him, and a part of me didn’t even want to find out.
But I had to see.
I followed my consciousness, my physical body still elsewhere, down those steps toward the cells.
I saw the prisoner that had been in the cell beside me holding onto the bars, shaking them.
I saw the cell I’d been stuck inside.
And then the one…
When I looked inside Ember’s cell, I flashed right back to my physical self.
My teeth chattered. My body shook.
Ember wasn’t there anymore.
But his cell was filled with blood.
I immediately teleported over to the Darien Gap, the border between Colombia and Panama, and was hit with a wave of humidity. I felt dizzy, too, like my powers were taking it out of me more than they used to. Besides, this place wasn’t exactly safe. The most dangerous place in the world, apparently.
