This time, though, things were different. While Neil’s shots drew blood from his opponent, they didn’t have much of an effect in slowing him down.
In turn, Scott hammered away at Neil, and his hands morphed into rock-like structures that were just as hard and just as powerful. Shards of rock from Neil’s body cracked off and flew in all directions. Most of the remaining spectators ran for their lives, but a couple of them stuck around long enough to record the action. Idiots, they probably filmed car crashes for fun.
Callie, in all the confusion, I’d forgotten about her. Where was she? Casting my eyes left and right, she’d hung back at the edge of the action, watching. I furiously gestured for her to stay away. Against this guy, she had no chance.
Scott then decided to escalate things. He picked Neil up by his neck and slammed him to the ground repeatedly like a pro wrestler would do to a jobber. Then he stomped on him—repeatedly.
Moans of pain came from our fallen comrade, but the enemy didn’t seem to want to hurt him any further, as he broke off his attack. Or did he? I walked forward, fists at the ready. “What do you want?”
Lots of teeth flashed in the twilight. It was a shark’s grin that spoke of future feeding. “What do I want? I want to decimate the three of you. As you can see, I have your powers. I’ve already taken out the first two in the chain. I’ll finish them off after I deal you your death. How’s that for a threat?”
What he’d said sent a chill up my spine, but then again, he’d mentioned the three of us. A different monster had attacked Callie the other day. It had probably already dissolved. This thing didn’t know about Callie. “Who sent you?”
“The people who made me, the people on the committee who told me to kill you. To be honest, I don’t really know. That cover at the hospital? He was one of us, too. He’s gone now.”
Fine, and in order to make sure, I asked, “Did you kill Raney?”
He blinked as if confused by the question, and then nodded in understanding. “Oh, you mean the scientist? Yes, I did. It was easy. I was sent here to see what you’d do and what you were capable of. Now I know.”
Okay, the plot had been furthered. One more question to ask. “If you’re so tough, why didn’t you try to kill me and Joe before? You know where we live, don’t you?”
“I know. I just wanted the three of you together. That was the plan all along. Since you three are here, I can finish my job and then leave.”
Leave? “Just where will you go?”
My question had some effect, as a look of confusion once again flashed across his face. One second later a grin split his mouth. “Does it matter? I’ll kill your friends later, but you, I’ll do now.”
The last three words got my blood boiling. “Buddy, unless you can fly, you don’t have much of a chance. I’ve beaten your other friends before. I can do it now.”
Scott sighed. “That’s where you’re wrong, Mitch. Those were prototypes. They were designed to test you, which means they were designed to lose. I’m not. Hang on a second.”
In the same unhurried motion he’d exhibited when taking off his jacket, he removed his shirt, revealing a muscular torso without a gram of fat anywhere. His abs rippled as he breathed in and out. Although he had welts across his ribcage and gut from Neil’s punches, they were rapidly fading. Great, this guy could regenerate, too.
“You’re staring, and if you’re admiring my physique, yeah, I heal fast. I’m not invulnerable, I bleed, but I heal faster than you or your friends. Oh, here’s something else for you to admire,” Scott said with a smirk.
A second later, wings sprang out from his back, which didn’t surprise me a bit. Long and black, they resembled mine but had two-inch blades on the outer surface. In the moonlight, they glittered with lethal purpose. “Like the look? That girl you were with, she didn’t see my wings, but she seemed to be into me. And she will be, or rather, I’ll be in her, once I’m done with you.”
Now you’ve done it! As I let out a cry of rage, my wings and claws emerged, and I charged him, smashing him into the ground and slashing away with my talons. “Leave Callie out of this!”
He took it. Had to give it to him, this guy was tough, and he took whatever I dealt out. Scott replied with the same, although he didn’t have claws, merely hands of stone. I’d never been hit that hard before or even seen that much blood from my own body, but I felt the pain and also a twinge of fear.
Rage, though, overcame fear, and I hit back harder than I’d ever hit anyone. It didn’t do much good, though, as my opponent slammed me across the fairgrounds where I ended up against a telephone post, not feeling super-heroic in any way. Scott flapped his way over and landed gracefully ten feet away. His face was a mask of blood and torn flesh, but he didn’t seem to think much of it.
A few security guards finally came his way, and they drew their guns. “Hold it, mister!”
“And if I don’t?”
They fired, and he simply closed his wings. The bullets ricocheted off and took out each guard. Chief Sullivan ran over accompanied by Upton, but Scott laid them out with blindingly fast punches. They lay half-conscious without having any chance to draw their weapons. “If this is what you call law and order, then that is truly pathetic,” Scott muttered.
He then hauled me up by the collar of my shirt and bunched his fists. “I have to hand it to you, Mitch, you put up a good fight. So did your friends, but none of you is a match for me. I have all your strengths. Once I do you—”
“Hey,” someone called out.
Scott froze and then swiveled his head around. Callie walked over in a slow, unhurried motion, hips swaying. Damn, she’d never swung her hips like that around me—or maybe I hadn’t noticed—and the sultriness in her voice outdid the sultry heat of the night. “Hi, I thought I’d come and get some of your popcorn.”
That had to be the most ridiculous thing I’d ever heard, but a ruse was a ruse. He let go of me. “I’d clean up, but as you can see, I’ve practically wasted your boyfriend. Let me finish him and his friends off, and then we can get together.”
“Sounds good,” she purred in a most seductive manner. “How about I light your lamp?”
Surprise flooded his face as he caught the meaning. “You mean a kiss? Are you serious?”
The sultriness in her voice rose to level ten. “Yeah, I felt something the first time we met, over at the merry-go-round. Didn’t you?”
A look came into his eye, that of conquest, and not just on the battlefield. “You’re pretty enough.” He licked his thin lips. “Are you talking about doing it now?”
She offered a dazzling smile. “Oh yes, I am.”
He returned the smile as if being certain of his winning ways. “Why not? Your boyfriend isn’t capable.”
While the skin on his face was beginning to knit, he still resembled a human patchwork quilt more than anything. The only human thing about him was a brilliantly white smile. However, his smile faded when he bent over to kiss Callie, and she kneed him in the balls. He bellowed, grabbing his ruined crotch and swearing at the top of his lungs. Talk about a trope! Talk about a cliché!
Talk about it working. She cried, “Now, Mitch, now!”
Cue me, and I grabbed Scott in a bear-hug from behind, jetting skyward. So far, so good, but he snatched my girlfriend’s hand, hauling her up with us. She let out a terrified scream. “Let her go,” I yelled.
“We’re already up too high. If I let go now, she falls. So what should I do, hang on and be the nice guy, or let go and watch her go splat?”
A second later, he twisted his head around, and the expression on his face turned positively malevolent. “Your bitch girlfriend smashed my balls. I can’t forgive that.”
Threat made, he let go, and I had no choice but to release him, dive down, and grab Callie twenty feet before impact. “Are you going to be okay?” I asked as we landed.
She heaved in a deep breath and pointed to the sky where Scott was h
overing near the Ferris wheel. “Go and kick his ass.”
Consider it done. I tore into the sky faster than I’d ever done and collided with Scott in a tangle of limbs and fists. My momentum rammed him into an empty compartment. He grunted, but fought back and soon got on top of me, immobilizing my wings.
Punch after punch rained down upon my face and torso. His fists felt like granite and every shot he connected with hurt—a lot. “You’re weak,” he grunted as he continued to pound away. “Weak and soon to be dead.”
Dead, no, not yet, not happening, not now and not ever! The possibility of leaving this plane of existence caused the rage to flow through me once more. A second later, the rage translated into genetic action, and I felt the muscles in my face writhe. “You’re turning ugly,” he said as he punched me in the jaw. “Time to die.”
His threats only made me angrier, and I kicked out with my legs. They connected with his chest, and the impact rocketed him through the opposite side of the carriage. The door and window went with him, and he got entangled in the wreckage. The Ferris wheel shook but stayed in place.
With a grunt, Scott pushed his way out of the mess. But before he could unfurl his wings and fly off, I lunged at him, grabbing him around the chest and immobilizing his wings. The barbs bit into my arms and torso, but I ignored the pain and kept squeezing.
Some frightened occupants were still inside their compartments, and their calls for help echoed in my ears. “Hey, get us down from here!”
Can’t you see I’ve got something else going on?
Scott kept struggling, but I soared up as high as I could go. Higher and higher we went, and once we’d gotten to where the air was thin, the lack of oxygen hit and I immediately reversed direction. He’d been feeling it, too, and gasped for breath.
“Power dive,” I called out on the way down. “Enjoy it!”
Faster and faster we went, and I changed course toward the nearby roller coaster. The attendants at the bottom had already stopped it, and the occupants were busy taking pictures.
With a cry of rage, I smashed his body on top of the tracks. The ride may have stopped, but the power was still on. Immediately, the electricity arced through him, sending up a blue glow. His body shuddered from the charge surging through it. Unfortunately, his torso also acted as a conduit and the energy raced through me as well. “You, you... you c-can’t take it.”
I’d gotten shocked before. I was used to it. He wasn’t. “It... tickles.”
No, it didn’t, but no point in letting him know. The energy continued to surge, and the smell of burning flesh accompanied by howls of pain told me Scott wasn’t fireproof. A second later, someone at the bottom cut the power, and the blue glow vanished.
Once the tingles died away, I grabbed his left wing and flipped him onto his stomach. “You’ve got our strengths, but I wonder what your weaknesses are.” Not waiting for a reply, I ripped his leathery appendage halfway from his body. “Grow that back.”
Blood spurted black in the moonlight, and he cried out in agony. “Stop, stop, just stop!”
Not stopping, I tore it off entirely. A fountain of red covered me with a thin, sticky film, but fury had taken over. Discarding the ruined wing, my claws then scored deep slashes in his back. He pleaded, “I can tell you things. I’m begging you to stop!”
“All out of mercy, sorry.”
Instead of being Mr. Confident, he now came across as being Mr. Terrified. “Spare me,” he gasped.
“Spare you, like you were going to spare my friends?”
He smiled then, something dark and evil, and his left hand morphed from human to something inhuman. His fingers, long with sharp looking nails, flashed in the moonlight. In a quicker than quick move, he spun around, and his nails slammed into my right shoulder. Genetic research—right now, I hated it.
I hated the pain, too, as the nails, hard as steel, sunk in deep. Agony flashed through me, and I fought the urge to pass out. He mocked me by saying, “You’re really not too smart, are you? I’m stronger than you are and I’ll heal. I’ll—”
His gloating ceased when I yanked his hand from my shoulder, bellowing in agony. I then twisted his arm and rammed the palm of my hand against his elbow. A sharp snap echoed in the evening air, and a horrible cry erupted from his mouth. In a flash, the light of triumph went out of his eyes. Instead, impending doom replaced it as I lifted him up and over my head. “Let’s see if you can fly with one wing.”
Time for the old heave-ho, and I threw him as far as possible. Scott fell, his body doing a slow-motion cartwheel through space. He descended in an oddly poetic style, but as he plummeted a scream erupted from him, something high-pitched, jarring, and totally devoid of sounding human.
A nanosecond later, the scream cut off as he smashed through the merry-go-round’s roof.
Painfully, I circled down to the ground. Joe ran over along with Callie, and she clung to my side. “Mitch, what happened?” she asked.
“I got speared, that’s what.” Taking in a deep breath, I felt the transformation reverse itself. Back to normal again.
She tore off a length of her sleeve, wadded it up and placed it against my wound. “Put pressure on it. You’ll be okay.”
“I’ll make it.” I then looked over at our would-be killer. “He won’t.”
Scott lay on the ground, the tip of the unicorn ride’s horn protruding from his chest. Blood spurted from his open wound and poured from the sides of his mouth. I knelt down to catch his words. “You’re tough. Didn’t think... didn’t think you were strong enough.”
“Who made you? Who in the committee made you? I want names!”
A sigh came from him as his life ebbed away. “I don’t... know. I have memories of you... implanted ones. I know my targets. That’s all... all I was programmed to do...”
Those turned out to be his final words. More blood flowed from his mouth as well as the wound in his chest, and his head lolled. He was gone.
Unlike the other creatures we’d fought, his body didn’t dissolve. Callie held onto me, and Joe offered a nod of thanks. It was over—for now.
Epilogue
Chief Sullivan staggered over a couple of minutes later. He was joined by Upton, who wore a sour look as well as a swollen lip at having to deal with us once again. Both of them pushed their way through the milling crowd that had stuck around to watch the proceedings.
Sullivan rubbed his cheek. A nasty bruise had already appeared, and he asked the obvious question. “Who, or what, was he?”
“A dead mutant,” Joe replied. “He was a composite of all of us.”
A grunt came from his partner. “You’ve got some explaining to do,” he said through thickened lips.
Sullivan glared at him. “Upton, shut your mouth. These kids have been through a lot. Help me get that thing off this spike.”
Upton got a chastened look, bent down, and got the body free with Sullivan’s help. An ambulance drove up a few seconds later, its siren wailing, and the attendants loaded the body inside. They drove off in the direction of the nearest hospital. That would be Our Lady of Mercy. It lay about five minutes from here.
“I’m going to bet they never get to the hospital,” Joe cracked as the ambulance disappeared around the bend.
While I didn’t want to admit it, he was probably right. Whoever those people in the committee were, whoever was in charge, they wouldn’t want the body being examined, or the truth brought to light.
Then again, the carnival-goers had stayed here long enough to film everything. It was probably already trending on the social sites. No way to keep it secret now.
Secrets, we all had them, and I realized something. The government would be very careful around us now. Lucas’ words came back to me. I have secrets, too. If that were true, if we ever found out who was really behind all this, then heads would roll. Until then, though, I had a feeling we’d be reasonably safe.
Neil tottered in our direction, ho
lding his head. “Man, I feel like a building got dropped on me. Is it over?”
“It is. Are you going to make it?” I asked.
He nodded. “Yeah, I will. Thanks for saving my butt back there.” He then gave my girlfriend a look of respect. “You, too, Callie—thanks.”
She offered a tiny smile. “Are we good?”
“We’re always good.”
Neil moved off in the direction of his truck, saying something to the effect that he’d have to sleep this off. Once he’d gone, Sullivan tapped me on my undamaged shoulder. “How are you feeling, Mitch?”
“Like crap, what else?”
The bleeding, though, had already stopped and the battle of regeneration began in my body. Callie cast a look around, her brow furrowed in concentration, and swiped some of the dirt and blood from her face and hands. “I think I should be going. I have to change.”
“We can always get you some new clothes,” Sullivan said.
“Not that way,” she answered in the most urgent of voices and turned to me. “Mitch, I want to go home. I think it’s time.”
Uh-oh, her shifting here meant more trouble, so time was of the essence. Joe spun off, saying he’d call me tomorrow. The chief made a move forward, but I waved him off, claws out. “Not now. I’ll come in tomorrow morning, but Callie needs me now.”
Picking her up in my arms, we lifted off to his shout of, “Be in my office at ten!”
Yeah, fine, I’ll come in to listen to you tell me about destroying public property. “Are you really going to change?” I asked once we’d gotten clear of the fairgrounds.
A cute giggle came from her. “No. Remember the paper that scientist gave me? I read it, especially the part where it said the changes would stop. They did—two days ago.”
I almost forgot to keep flapping my wings. We took a dip which provoked a sharp yelp from her. “So, that means,” I began, once we were flying true again. “Uh, what does it mean?”
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