by Matt Blake
“I think I know exactly where to start,” she said. “And where to find him.”
29
Stone sipped back his umpteenth beer and forgot what it felt like to be sober.
It was late. Hell, it didn’t really matter what time it was. Every day was the same these days. Wake up, do a few little chores around the house, then go to the nearest bar and drink. If anyone recognized him in that bar, he’d up sticks and move to another town where they didn’t recognize him.
Until they did. And then the cycle would start all over again.
He squinted out of the window beside him. He could see specks of rain hitting the thin panes of glass and hear the wind rattling outside as the ocean picked up in intensity. He’d heard something about a storm being mentioned. Some nasty storm that was going to take the Indonesian island of Lombok by, well, storm. He’d been warned to get out of this place. To find somewhere to shelter for the night, preferably off the island if he wanted to secure his own safety.
But Stone didn’t give a shit about his own safety. Not anymore.
Besides. He was made of rock. He could handle a bit of wind.
He looked around the bar, his eyes barely focusing on everything in his wake. There were a couple of people in here still. A few old-timers, who were too stubborn to make a move. He’d look out for them if he had to. But hell. He didn’t realize how drunk he actually was. Drunk enough that when he looked to the left, it took his right eye a second to catch up. Maybe a storm would do him good after all. Slap him around a little, make him more conscious.
He heard the rattling glass getting louder, the wind shaking the building he was inside. The lights above flickered, and the crappy old static television in the corner above the bar flickered, then finally cut out. A few grumbles of discontent carried around the bar. Well, what the hell did these folks expect? Should’ve stayed at home. They weren’t as tough as him. Weren’t anywhere near as strong.
Anyway, he could do with some peace and quiet.
Even if he was feeling a bit queasy, the beer bitter against his tongue.
Honestly, this was pretty much how Stone’s life had gone since the Resistance had disbanded. There’d been discussions of bringing the team together soon after Adam’s defeat. But it ended up just not being feasible. The old Resistance wasn’t the same. There was too much baggage attached to it. The world needed a new poster force now there were tons more ULTRAs floating about. A new team to make them behave, keep them in check.
Besides. It wasn’t the same since Glacies lost his powers.
Stone sipped some more beer and got another bitter taste when he thought of Glacies. Damned Glacies. He’d always had him down as weaker than he liked to pretend. And sure, he’d stepped up when the time was right. Helped bring down Saint. But he always had this mopey attitude about him that made Stone’s blood boil.
You’re a superhero, alright? Get the hell over it. Suck that bottom lip in and do what you’re supposed to do.
Then again, Stone was hardly one to talk, sitting here on his zillionth beer, just waiting until he’d had enough to black out again.
Vortex said his liver must be made of stone, too. Stone liked to test that out on a nightly basis. It usually ended in defeat, but not until he was absolutely—
The door rattled open. Stone found that strange, especially in a storm like this. Stone ignored it though, but he became more curious when he heard amazed whispers in a language he didn’t recognize from the rest of the old fools sitting in the bar.
He turned around, and he almost fell off his stool.
There were three people standing opposite. Three people stepping into his present like ghosts from the past.
When he saw them, he tensed his fists and felt rock spread across his palms.
Cassie.
Glacies.
And… Glacies’ idiot friend.
“Well, well. The old team.”
Stone saw the shock on Glacies’ face right away.
“What’s that look? Pity?”
“Stone, we need to—”
“Don’t say we need to talk. ’Cause there ain’t nothing to talk about. Haven’t you heard? There’s a storm. A goddamn huge storm that’s gonna wash you the hell away. Might wanna hide, seeing as you’ve got no powers anymore.”
Glacies looked at his sister, then at his idiot pal, Damon, or something.
And then he turned back to Stone and tensed his fists.
When the ice spread across his palms, Stone couldn’t exactly say he was surprised. Glacies always was a sneaky little shit. So either he’d rediscovered his abilities, or he’d just been keeping his abilities under wraps all along.
“Wow,” Stone said, staggering closer to Glacies and his crew. “That what you’ve come to talk about? All this way to tell me you’re a little liar?”
“I’m sorry for not being straight,” Glacies said. “I… I understand me not being straight led to the—”
“To the Resistance falling apart, yeah. Yeah, you’d better be sorry for that. But you’d also better leave before I get too mad. You wouldn’t like me when I’m mad.”
“You’re Stone,” Glacies said. “Not the Hulk.”
“Huh?”
“Nothing. Just… Stone, we need your help.”
Stone widened his wandering eyes and started laughing. He laughed right from his belly as he looked from Cassie to Glacies to Damon and back to Glacies again. “You need my help, do you? You need my help now? Well where were you when I needed your help? Where have you been all this time when other people needed your help?”
“Stone, trust me,” Cassie said. “We’ve talked about this—”
“You don’t get to stop the conversation here. And you don’t get to start it, either. You stopped mattering the second you decided you didn’t want to be a part of the Resistance anymore.”
“I screwed up,” Glacies said. “But I’m here to put that right.”
Stone stepped right up to Glacies. Right up, so he was inches from his face. “Well, good for you. I’m glad you’ve decided to get your shit in order. But it’s a no from me, I’m afraid.”
“Stone, please.”
“I’m not here to satisfy your guilty conscience. I get why your sister and your pal are going along with this, but I’m neither, so I won’t. No more games.”
“This isn’t a game,” Cassie said.
“So I suggest you walk before—”
“The people we’re after could destroy every single ULTRA in existence, Stone.”
Stone held his mouth open at that point. It was strange, because he certainly hadn’t been all that bothered about self-destruction these last few months.
But that didn’t exactly mean he couldn’t care about other people. Other ULTRAs.
“The guy we’re chasing. An ULTRA called Catalyst. He has something called the Failsafe. And if he finds a way to activate that Failsafe, every single ULTRA you’ve ever known falls.”
Stone was still struggling to speak. He felt like he was losing ground in this argument, sobering up way more rapidly than he’d have liked—to a nasty headache. “And why should I give a shit?”
“Because if there’s a part of you that’s ever felt anything for any ULTRA, then you need to understand that all of that goes away if we don’t stop Catalyst. If we don’t get the Failsafe back. And it needs to be all of us, if we’re to do this. All of us.”
Stone glanced to Cassie. “He telling the truth?”
“Trust me,” Cassie said, between biting her nails. “I think my brother’s full of shit sometimes. But no word of a lie here. We need you, Stone.”
Stone looked then at Damon.
“Yeah,” Damon said, scratching his forearms. “Kyle isn’t kidd—”
“Honestly don’t give a shit about your opinion, chubs.”
“Right,” Damon said, nodding, his cheeks a shade of red. “Sure. I’ll just, um. Yeah. I’ll just stand over here and be quiet.”
The four of them stood there in s
ilence for a while, not saying a word. And the longer this silence went on, the more Stone thought about the people he’d cared about. The ULTRAs he’d cared about. The ones he still did care about. And how he didn’t want to risk losing them at all.
“I can help.”
A smile spread across Glacies’ face. “Great. Then we—”
“But only if we have all of us together. All the old team.”
Glacies’ temporary elation wavered. “Stone, I… I don’t know how to tell you this. But Ember. He’s…”
Glacies didn’t have to finish. Stone raised his hand. A silence filled the bar. A silence in memory of another lost soldier. “God bless him,” Stone said.
He took a sip of a bottle that was sitting on a table beside him then he turned around, looking surprisingly more sober.
“I know where to find another troop,” Stone said. He held out a rocky hand. “Teleport us back to my place.”
“Your place? Where’s—”
“Three blocks down.”
Glacies nodded, then reluctantly reached for Stone’s hand. Stone could see he was uncomfortable, which he had to admit amused him a little.
They held hands, the four of them. And although there was the addition of Damon, it was like a flashback to old times. To better times. Times of togetherness. Times of unity.
“On my count,” Stone said. “Three—”
“I don’t have to count.”
“Well I do. I need to barf. And I’d rather barf in teleportation-land, if you don’t mind. Three, two, one…”
I teleported the four of us over to Stone’s place, being sure to check I wasn’t covered in Stone-vom the second we landed.
I was soon distracted when I saw who was perched on the end of Stone’s bed.
“What…” I said.
“Oh yeah,” Stone said, rubbing the back of his head. “Yeah, we kinda hooked up. Sorry to beat you to her, brother. I know how much of a crush you used to have on her.”
Stone patted me on the shoulder, and for the first time since we’d reunited, I saw that genuine mischievous smile on his face again.
Because on the edge of his bed, an old friend sat.
An old crush? Possibly.
Whatever.
It didn’t matter either way.
It was Vortex.
30
“Well. This is slightly awkward.”
A sly grin tugged at Vortex’s cheeks. “Only awkward if you make it awkward. How’ve you been?”
It seemed surreal, being reunited with Vortex all over again. To the point that I felt like I’d been blushing permanently ever since I found her sitting on the edge of Stone’s bed. I’d always prepared myself for reunion with Vortex, and with the others. But there was something different about seeing Vortex again. Not to say she was my favorite, but… Well, yeah, I suppose she was my favorite.
As much as I loved Ellicia, there was always something about Vortex. Right from the day we’d first met. Not a crush, exactly. Just a kind of appreciation. Of understanding. Like we got each other in a way that the others didn’t.
“I’ve been good,” I said.
“Keeping out of trouble?”
“Something like that.”
“I figured. Nothing on the news about you so realized you really had opted out for good. Thought it was a temporary fad, to be honest. Which, well… I guess it is. Seeing as you’re here now.”
I shrugged and wiped my forehead. I glanced out of the bedroom, toward the lounge, where Stone was catching up with Cassie, and Damon was standing there like a piece of wet lettuce. “How did you—”
“Stone and me? I guess it just kind of happened. We hung out a few times. He’s a nice person. Things just went from there, really. You and that girl still together?”
“Ellicia? We… I guess. I dunno. Sort of.”
“So no, in other words.”
“It’s complicated.”
“It always is. Anyway. I appreciate you bringing Stone back here before he’s completely inebriated. You must’ve said something really poignant to him to drag him out of that stupor.”
“The drinking a problem?”
“Liver of stone, he says. Still waiting for proof of that.”
“Huh.”
“But something tells me you’re not just here to escort Stone back home.”
I sighed as the reality of the situation dawned once again. The urgency of what had to be done. Of the stakes involved.
I told Vortex about the Failsafe. About what it meant if we didn’t get it out of the wrong hands. Of the risks and threats it posed to everyone. The old team. The new ULTRAs. Everyone.
She mulled my words over for a while. Sat there, staring intensely at her palms. I wondered whether to break the silence. In the other room, Stone, Cassie, and Damon hardly seemed to be getting on like a house on fire.
But it was Vortex who eventually broke the silence. “What we’ve got here. What we’ve worked to achieve. Some… some sense of normality. It’s taken a lot, you know?”
I totally sympathized with Vortex. “I felt the same. That’s why I gave up who I really was. I didn’t want to face this problem head on. But I’ve seen what I have to do now. Even if I only embrace Glacies one final time, I have to do it.”
“It’s not just the mental effects, Kyle. It’s the physical effects.”
I narrowed my eyes. “The physical effects? What physical effects?”
“You haven’t had them either, then?”
I started to shake my head. Then Vortex rolled up her sleeves.
When I saw her arms, I felt sick.
“How did…”
“The bruises came first. Then they opened up and started weeping. I thought it was some kind of bite at first… or infection. But it turned out it only got worse whenever I used my abilities. Then there were the nosebleeds. And the unconsciousness. Using our powers. It might seem good right now. But it’s not going to be good forever.”
I swallowed a lump in my throat and tried to think of any time I’d had strange experiences. “This… might not happen to all of us. Respectfully.”
Vortex pulled her sleeves back down. “Maybe. Maybe not. But it’s happening to me. And I’m not sure how much further I can push.”
I nodded. I understood Vortex’s concerns. What she was getting at. But I had to make my point clear. “I understand. Totally. And I’m in no position to suggest this is a viable sacrifice for you to make. But if there’s anything worth our sacrifice, it’s surely the safety of not just the ULTRAs threatened by the Failsafe, but the chaos that could cause amongst everyone when that order finally topples again.”
Vortex sighed. “I get it. I do. I just… Kyle, I don’t know if I’m strong enough and I don’t know if Stone’s thinking straight. That’s the truth. The honest truth.”
“Stone says he’s in.”
“Stone says a lot of things. Look. I appreciate your concerns, but this isn’t our fight. Not anymore.”
“Then whose fight is it? Mine? Alone?”
“You’re the strongest ULTRA. You were asked to do this task for a reason. I’m sorry. Really. But this isn’t the old times anymore. Things have changed. Moved on. I really wish I could—”
Vortex didn’t finish what she was saying.
Well, she might’ve. But I didn’t hear it.
An explosion blasted through the road outside.
All of us rushed over to the door.
When we looked outside, my stomach dropped.
Catalyst was here.
And he was heading toward Stone’s home.
31
I saw Catalyst standing on the road outside and I felt my stomach turn.
It was late afternoon. The rain was pouring now. The rest of this street looked totally empty, like life had been paused for Catalyst’s arrival. I heard his heavy footsteps moving closer to us as the damp earth filled my nostrils. I couldn’t taste anything but fear. Fear because he seemed capable of tracking me down no
matter what. Fear because it didn’t matter how far I got away from him, how long I was traveling, he always caught me up, like he was tracing me somehow.
“This the guy you’re on about?” Stone grunted.
I nodded. “That’s the guy.”
Stone tensed his fists, which covered in rock.
Then he started to walk out of his house.
“Then you’d better let me formally introduce myself.”
“Wait,” I said.
I wasn’t sure what it was that stopped me in my tracks. A combination of things, really. Sure, that curiosity as to how he’d found me after all this time. But also why he’d found me.
Catalyst had the Failsafe. He’d taken it from me.
So why had he come back for me?
“What the hell’s keeping you?”
I looked at Stone. Then at Vortex, Damon, Cassie.
I felt responsible for them, all of a sudden. Like I was dragging them headfirst into my fight.
“We’re with you,” Vortex said. “Whether you like it or not.”
I half-smiled at her, then turned back to face Catalyst.
I squeezed my palms and felt ice cover them.
“You made a mistake coming here,” I said.
I walked into the rain, leading the way toward Catalyst. He was standing still now, the rain lashing down and bouncing off his black cloak. I still hadn’t seen this guy’s face. He was keeping it covered up, for whatever reason.
“You going to take that hood off and look me in the eye?” I said. “Or are you gonna just hide behind it forever?”
Catalyst tilted his head. He didn’t say anything in response.
“Well?” I said. “What the hell are you here for?”
I saw a glimmer of Catalyst’s smile then, just peeking from under his hood. I saw the pale skin. The scars.
And then he opened his mouth.
“To keep a promise I made. To finish you. Kyle Peters.”
Before I could react, a massive blast of energy surged under my feet and sent me flying up into the sky. I was moving so fast that the rain felt like little daggers biting at my skin. I spun around, trying to re-balance myself, but then something punched into my right side and I went hurtling out of control again.
