Era of the ULTRAs (The Last Hero Book 5)

by Matt Blake

  He looked at the Failsafe. “What this really is.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “What…”

  “Anyway. You mentioned ‘letting go’.”

  He looked up and flicked his middle finger.

  I heard a cry.

  When I looked up, I saw Damon tumbling clumsily into the lava.

  He had seconds to live.

  37

  Catalyst could activate that Failsafe in the space of a second, but it didn’t matter.

  Not when my best friend was flying at a wall of lava.

  I raced toward him, teleporting through the air. I started to feel weaker, like this entire volcano was suffocating my abilities.

  Damon was just inches from the lava.

  I could see the orange glow bouncing off his face.

  I raised my hands and let out a cry. It was the most forceful, pained cry ever to leave my body. I let out all my anger at Catalyst. All my anger at Saint, at Adam, at everyone who’d stood in my way before.

  And when I let out that cry, I felt ice blasting from my entire body.

  I knocked Damon out of the way of the lava wall and went flying inside the lava myself.

  Initially, I felt sheer agony. Intense, suffocating heat, hotter than anything I’d ever felt.

  But the very fact that I was still comprehending those sensations meant I was alive.

  I was still here.

  I looked around and saw I was covered in a thick skin of ice. The lava wasn’t even slightly piercing through it. Sheer instinct had kicked in, keeping me alive.

  I let out another cry and I felt the lava turn hard all around me.

  Then I stretched my arms either side and smashed the frozen lava into tiny pieces.

  When the lava disappeared, falling everywhere but onto Catalyst, I checked first that everyone was okay. Damon was alive. That was the main thing. As was Cassie. As was everyone.

  They were still hovering above, though. Which meant Catalyst was still holding them there with telekinetic force.

  Which was a good thing. Because I wanted to deal with Catalyst myself.

  I landed right opposite him. He was still holding the Failsafe open, light beaming from it. Catalyst was smiling, like he wasn’t too surprised that I’d survived.

  “You made it,” he said.

  “Of course I made it. Now where were we?”

  I went to throw myself at the Failsafe.

  Then I had a flashback.

  It was inexplicable. Something I couldn’t really get my head around. But that light. That glowing white light that came from the Failsafe.

  It felt familiar.

  Like I’d… felt it before.

  I stopped, and I saw Catalyst’s smile grow wider.

  “Do you see now?”

  Suddenly, everything felt very alien. Like the pieces were falling into place all around me, even if I didn’t totally understand them yet.

  “You were easier to lure here than I imagined. But now you’re here, we can get on with what we’re really here for. Can’t we?”

  I didn’t have time to react as Catalyst threw a paralyzing bolt of electricity at my chest. It sent me tumbling to my knees, suffocating me and my powers right there.

  Catalyst’s heavy footsteps walked over to me. He stood over me, looking down at me, that arrogant grin still on his face.

  “You thought you’d come to the Source, didn’t you?” he asked. “You poor boy. You thought you’d come to the Source. When in fact, you are the source.”

  Everything clicked, then. The reason Catalyst had lured me here. Why he’d been determined to capture me even after he’d got the Failsafe. “How… How am I—”

  “Michael Williamson,” Catalyst said. “Our mutual friend. He told me where to find the Source. Well. He didn’t tell me exactly. It took a lot to get the truth from him. But when I found out the Source wasn’t a place but a someone, well. I shouldn’t have been surprised that that someone was the most powerful ULTRA now, should I?”

  My heart raced. I was the Source. I was the thing that activated the Failsafe. Inside me, the power to destroy every one of my kind.

  “Then why would… why would Michael send me after the Failsafe? If he knew how dangerous it was when it was with me?”

  Catalyst’s smile spread as he walked around me in a circle. “I discovered a secret from Michael a long time ago. A secret that you’ll be very interested to hear. See, at first, I thought the Failsafe would give me power over the ULTRAs around me. But when I discovered what it’s really capable of… well. I saw then that it was much, much more dangerous than an ULTRA off-switch.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “The Failsafe isn’t an ULTRA off-switch. It doesn’t have the ability to destroy every ULTRA. Or any ULTRA, except you. It is, in fact, something else entirely.”

  He let that statement hang. Like he was just begging me to ask him what its purpose was.

  “It’s a weapon,” Catalyst said.

  I struggled against the paralyzing energy crippling my body. Above, I heard the shouts and cries of my peers. The night sky outside the volcano seemed to be getting darker and darker. “Well, duh.”

  “But it’s not the kind of weapon you think it is. It’s a failsafe against the Failsafe.”

  I narrowed my eyes, unable to wrap my head around what Catalyst was saying. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

  “Michael Williamson was many things. But he loved his ULTRAs more than he loved people. He figured if the ULTRAs were ever threatened in any way, he could use a failsafe of his own. A failsafe with the ability to wipe out the entire human race.”

  He looked at the glowing metal ball in his hand, then turned back to me, smiling.

  “A bomb. A bomb with enough power to wipe the planet of humans in an instant. The kind of power only the strongest ULTRAs have inside of them.”

  “No.”

  “And you are the key.”

  “That’s not… He wouldn’t do that. He wouldn’t—”

  “Michael used you, Kyle. He used you because he wanted you to be a part of the arms race that everyone in the know wanted to win. Including himself. And he wanted you because he needed you. To destroy humanity.”

  I shook my head, unable to accept what I was hearing. Michael had used me so that he could have me and the Failsafe together in one place.

  And once I’d got that Failsafe to him… he was going to use it to wipe out humanity?

  “The group who ended up in possession of the Failsafe,” Catalyst said. “The one in Australia. Who you kindly broke into and stole it from.”

  “No,” I said, unable to accept I was culpable in this mess in any way.

  “They were government. And they were just trying their best to bury this Failsafe. To destroy it somehow, forever, so its powers could never be utilized. And you went storming right on in there and started the greatest arms race in the history of ULTRAkind. Without even realizing what you were doing.”

  I kneeled there, shaking my head. I felt empty. All that time I’d resisted responsibility. I’d fought against the urge to become a hero again. I’d wanted to be normal.

  And when I’d finally taken a call of duty, I’d been used.

  All along, I’d been used.

  “But anyway,” Catalyst said. “I figured I’ll show you a little example of this failsafe’s powers. Just a sample.”

  He lifted my finger telekinetically and no matter how hard I resisted, he cut the tip of it.

  A little of my blood dripped into the light. And when it hit that light, I saw the light turning red.

  Then I felt something.

  Something building inside my body.

  Inside my heart.

  “The beauty of this failsafe?” Catalyst said. “Because you are the source, it tends to hone in on those you care about first.”

  “No!” I shouted.

  “So do your best to keep a clear mind, Glacies. I’d hate for anyone you care about to get…”
<
br />   I didn’t hear anything after that.

  I just heard a blast of high-pitched static squeal through my skull.

  I let out a cry, and I felt something leave my chest. Something sharp. Something piercing.

  And I tried to keep a clear mind.

  I really, really tried to.

  But when that sharp pain jolted from my chest, when that burst of red energy ripped its way out of my body, I knew who it was heading to.

  I knew exactly who it was heading to.

  And it broke my heart.

  38

  Ellicia was enjoying college. She really was.

  But a part of her longed for home.

  For Kyle.

  It was night, and Ellicia had opted against going out. She’d been out partying a few nights in a row now. She couldn’t drink, not legally, but try telling a bunch of newcomers not to drink when they’d all moved out of home and into a new city.

  But honestly, Ellicia hadn’t been all that fussed about drinking. She hadn’t been bothered about partying.

  She had a headache. And it was getting worse.

  And she knew exactly why she had that headache.

  She lay back on her single bed and stared up at the ceiling. She could hear horns honking outside. Strange how different the sounds of a different city could be. In a sense, there was nothing really different. There were lots of cars buzzing past. The chatter of people. The clatter of cutlery in restaurants and glasses in bars. But it just felt so different to New York. So different to home.

  Besides, she was missing Kyle.

  She hadn’t taken the decision to move away from New York lightly. SFU offered an amazing course in marine biology, something she was passionate about, and always had been. But to be honest, before things started going sour with Kyle, she’d never even considered moving this far away from home.

  She’d felt like she needed a clean break. And she saw now it’s because she knew all along that Kyle wasn’t being totally honest with her about his abilities.

  She’d seen the look in his eyes when faced with situations he was supposed to resolve. She’d seen the guilt that engulfed him when he wanted to act but couldn’t, because he was, after all, still just eighteen-year-old Kyle Peters underneath his Glacies persona.

  And eighteen-year-old Kyle Peters was just as entitled to a life as the rest of the world.

  Ellicia’s headache started to grow more intense. Her taste buds were spent, so the thought of tasteless food or drink made her feel sick. She’d been told about first-week flu before. Only this didn’t feel like flu. It felt more like homesickness.

  She got out of bed and walked over to her window. She opened it and stood there for a while, just taking deep breaths of the cool night air, listening to the sirens in the distance, watching the planes descend overhead. Wherever Kyle was, whatever he’d gone to do, it seemed important.

  She couldn’t shake the dread she’d felt when they’d exchanged that final glance. When he’d said those final words.

  Because to Ellicia, as much as she hated to admit it, it felt like Kyle was saying goodbye.

  A knock at her door made her jump. She turned around, looked at it. She was sure everyone else in her apartment had gone out. So who could it be?

  She crept toward the door, heart thumping. She didn’t want to call out. If it was a roommate, she wanted them to think she was asleep or something.

  Then the door banged again. Harder, this time.

  Ellicia stopped. She stopped right by the door and waited.

  There was silence. A silence that stretched on for a long, long time.

  She swallowed a lump in her throat and—

  A searing pain.

  A searing pain split through her skull, like she’d been hit over the head with something heavy.

  She felt crippling sickness in her gut, like a load of razor blades were swirling around in there.

  The taste returned to her mouth, and all she could taste was blood.

  But those weren’t even the worst things.

  The worst thing was the sound.

  A screaming.

  A human screaming.

  “You okay in there?”

  Ellicia snapped back into reality just as suddenly as she’d jolted out of it. She felt no pain. Tasted no blood. And that screaming, it’d gone too.

  “Hello? It’s… It’s Kathy. I moved in late. I heard something in there. So, um… I hope I’m not talkin’ to myself.”

  Ellicia unlocked the door and opened it right up. Kathy, of course. A Texan girl who was supposed to be getting here midway through first week. Ellicia had chatted to her over Messenger before she’d got here. She’d even told her she wasn’t going out tonight ’cause she wasn’t feeling it. Damn. She’d forgotten. Totally forgotten.

  She opened up the door and saw Kathy standing there, smile on her face.

  That smile soon dropped when she saw Ellicia, though. “Sorry. I… Are you okay?”

  “Hey, Kathy. Nice—nice to meet.”

  “You too. Hey, Ellicia, you… you look pretty sick.”

  “Oh, just the flu, you know?”

  “Caught it early?”

  “Something like that.”

  Kathy nodded and attempted a smile. But she didn’t look convinced by Ellicia’s insisting she was okay. “Anyway. I, um. Just thought I’d check in. Say hi. I’d better go get unpacked.”

  “Right,” Ellicia said. “Flight okay?”

  “Delayed. As usual.”

  “As usual.”

  Kathy gave another one of those uncertain smiles, like she was holding back from saying something. “I’m, um. I’m in. If you need anythin’.”

  “Right,” Ellicia said, smiling. “I appreciate that.”

  Kathy started walking away.

  Then she stopped and looked back.

  “You sure you’re okay?”

  Ellicia gave a thumbs up and immediately felt like an idiot. Who gave thumbs ups anymore? “A-OK.” A-OK? Who the hell said A-OK anymore?

  “Well, like I say. You know where I am if you need me.”

  Kathy walked away.

  Ellicia watched her walk down the corridor. Kathy looked back a couple times, shot that uncertain smile in her direction.

  When Kathy had gone into her room, Ellicia locked up, turned around and headed for her bed.

  She didn’t feel particularly sick anymore. Just weird. Like the echoes of that cry she’d heard splitting through her skull were still reverberating. Like she… wasn’t totally here, somehow.

  She headed over to her window again. Looked out at the city lights, at the stars and the moon above. She thought about Kyle. Wherever he was, she hoped he was okay. Whatever he was doing, she hoped he’d—

  The sickening punch in the gut.

  The taste of blood, thicker this time.

  And worst of all, that screaming.

  A screaming that felt like nails on a chalkboard.

  Ellicia fell to her knees. She might’ve smacked her head on her desk. She might’ve started shouting, having seizures, convoluting. She really didn’t have a clue.

  ’Cause all she could focus on was that scream.

  She could hear whose scream it was now.

  She recognized the voice.

  “Ellicia, no!”

  It was Kyle.

  And then there was nothing but total silence.

  39

  I sat back against the wall of rocks and I stared into the darkness.

  I had no idea what time of day it was. I didn’t know where I was, or how long I’d been here. I was cold. Or… no. Maybe I was warm. I wasn’t sure. I was shaking so much that it made me feel like I was cold, but perhaps I was completely boiling, but just couldn’t recover from the shock.

  The shock of what had happened.

  When Catalyst cut open my fingertip and dripped a little of my blood into the Failsafe.

  I shuddered even more when I recalled the memory. I didn’t want to replay it. I did
n’t want to see what had happened, how it had all played out. I’d seen it once, and once was enough.

  I’d tried to stop myself. I’d tried to resist going ahead with what’d happened the second I saw what was happening.

  But in the end, my resistance was futile.

  The pull of what the Failsafe wanted me to do was just way too strong.

  Because that was just how it—and I—had been designed.

  I looked up and tried to illuminate my dark surroundings, but I felt too weak, too apathetic, to even care. I listened for sounds, but all I could hear was total silence. Maybe I was still down in the earth at the bottom of a volcano. Maybe Catalyst had left me here until he saw fit to use me and the Failsafe to wipe out the human race.

  Or maybe he didn’t ever plan on using that Failsafe at all. Maybe it was just a power thing. A control thing.

  Whatever. It didn’t matter. I was here, and I was stuck down here. He had me, which meant the possibility of his threat was always going to be there.

  And he’d been sure to rig the place with total anti-energy to make sure I couldn’t teleport out of here or fly my way out of here, no matter what.

  And even if I could, I didn’t feel strong enough.

  Not after what I’d seen happen to Ellicia.

  Just the thought of what’d happened made my stomach turn as I saw it playing out again.

  At first, he’d cut my fingertip and dropped the blood onto the light of the Failsafe.

  Nothing had happened. Not at first. I’d felt slightly lightheaded, sure, but I was a wuss with cuts and bruises despite all the bones I’d snapped back into place over the last couple years, so that was hardly surprising.

  But then it felt like I’d passed out.

  No.

  Not passed out. Something had left my body. A bolt of bright energy. I’d seen it leave my chest and I’d followed it. I became it. I could see through it.

  And when Catalyst told me the Failsafe took down those I cared about mostly first, just by nature of its design, I knew how much trouble I was in.

  I’d passed by New York, by Staten Island, and for a split second I’d felt relief because that meant Dad and Avi were okay.

  But then I’d seen the Golden Gate bridge, and my stomach—even though I was having some kind of out of body experience—dropped.