by Lucas Flint
“Incantation, Sarah,” I said as Shade and I stopped. The pain in my wound flared, but I ignored it in order to focus on our enemies. “Didn’t expect to see you two again so soon.”
“Bolt,” said Incantation, her voice sharp. “Did you beat Technical already? I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. She was never a very good fighter, even with her tech. But I can see that she must have gotten at least one good hit in on you, given your bandaged wound.”
I put a hand on my bandage instinctively. “Yeah, but you’re going to go down with her, so don’t get too cokcy. Say, why are you two here? I thought you two would have been with Thaumaturge.”
“He told us to stay back here and fight off anyone who got past Technical,” said Incantation. She raised her wand from under her robes, holding it in a defensive position, almost like a sword. “I thought Uncle was just being irrational, given how we killed everyone else in this place, but I guess he was right to be cautious.”
“It’s not fair,” said Sarah sulkily. She kicked the turned over hard drive of a nearby smashed computer. “I wanted to see Grandpa. It’s not fair that Hopper gets to see him again before me.”
“I know, Sarah, but don’t worry,” said Incantation. “Once we kill these two, you’ll get a chance to see our leader again every day for the rest of your life.”
“Okay,” said Sarah. Her shoulders slumped. “But do we have to kill them? That sounds like a lot of work.”
“Oh, no, you don’t need to kill us,” said Shade. She stepped forward, shadow starting to coalesce around her arms. “If you let us beat you up, then maybe we’ll throw you into the same prison as your Grandpa. That way, you’ll get to see him every day for the rest of your miserable little life.”
“How dare you say that about me,” Sarah said, her fists shaking. “I’m going to kill you!”
“Shade,” I said. “Watch out for Sarah. She might be ugly and spoiled, but she’s far more powerful than she—”
“I know,” said Shade, waving off my warning like it was nothing. “I’ll be fine.”
Shade ran toward Sarah. Sarah just stared at her, stunned, as if shocked that someone was actually trying to fight her, but then Incantation waved her wand, causing a huge burst of light to erupt from its tip.
The light burst struck Shade dead on, causing her to stagger backwards from the blow. Sarah must have recovered from her shock by now, because she shook her head and began scowling angrily at Shade, which I realized—too late—was a sign that Sarah was using her mental powers to attack Shade’s mind.
Shade immediately began screaming in pain, clutching her head and falling to her knees. Incantation pointed her wand at her again, but I wasn’t going to let her cast another spell.
Despite the risk to my bandage, I activated my super speed and ran toward Shade. I lifted her off the floor and zoomed back toward the entrance to the room just as a long line of spiked ribbons shot from Incantation’s wand and hit the spot where Shade had been kneeling mere moments before.
Stopping near the entrance, I lowered Shade onto the floor and looked down at her. She wasn’t moving, but I could tell that she was unconscious rather than dead, though for all I knew, Sarah might have destroyed her mind entirely. I remembered how Sarah had tried to destroy my mind last year and was worried that the same might have happened to Shade, though I supposed I wouldn’t know until later. In any case, Shade was down and out, which meant that I was all alone against Incantation and Sarah.
Turning around to face them, I said, “All right, you two, I’m going to make this quick. I’m not in the mood for a long, drawn out battle.”
“Funny, we’re not, either,” said Incantation. “So we’ll make this quick.”
Incantation aimed her wand at me, but I fired a bot of lightning at her. Incantation twirled her cape and vanished just as the red lightning bolt struck the spot where she had been standing moments before, blackening and cracking the floor upon impact.
Incantation reappeared on the other side of the room, an angry scowl on her face as she snapped, “Sarah! Break his mind!”
Sarah nodded and immediately scowled at me. I raised my hand to shoot another red lightning bolt at her, but then Incantation’s ribbons came out of nowhere and wrapped around me. They tightened immediately, causing me to cry out in pain, because the ribbons were lined with shards of glass, which somehow managed to cut through the surface of my suit into my skin.
At the same time, I suddenly heard screams and banging in my head, which I recognized as Sarah mentally attacking me. The sounds assaulted my mind unrelentingly, making it almost impossible to concentrate. And with Incantation’s ribbons still biting into my skin, including my bandaged wound, the pain in my body was almost overwhelming. I struggled to retain my consciousness, because I knew that if I blacked out now, I would die.
But I didn’t know how I was going to fight against them. It was all I could do just to stay conscious; actually breaking free and fighting them was so impossible at the moment that it felt more like fantasy than real life. Yet I knew I couldn’t keep struggling like this forever; sooner or later I would lose consciousness, and then both me and Shade would die.
But if we died, then I would never get my revenge on Vision. I would never get my revenge on Incantation, who had pretended to be my girlfriend, tricking me into thinking that she loved me, playing with my heart. Just the thought of Incantation getting away was enough to make my blood boil; in fact, the anger was so overwhelming that I ignored the pain.
With a roar, I snapped the ribbons around me. I heard Incantation yell in surprise, but I didn’t pay attention to her right now. I ran over to Sarah, who was now staring at me like a deer in headlights. But then she started scowling again and assaulting me with her mental attacks, which I could feel, but which I also ignored in my anger and rage.
I slammed my fist against Sarah’s face and she collapsed in an instant. As soon as she was down, the screams and banging sounds in my head went away, but I was still too angry to enjoy the relief.
Instead, I turned to face Incantation, who had backed up against the wall. She held up her wand, but her grip on it was shaky and I caught a glimpse of fear in her eyes, as if she knew that she was outmatched.
But I didn’t care. I zoomed over to her, knocked her wand out of her hands, and then grabbed her by the throat and slammed her against the wall. Incantation gasped, but was somehow still conscious, although I was pleased to see a trickle of blood roll down the side of her face.
“Bolt, please,” said Incantation, the fear in her voice obvious now. “Please don’t hurt me. Don’t you remember how we were dating?”
I chuckled darkly. “Dating? What are you even talking about? We were never really together. It was a lie, like every other memory that Alana gave me. And I hate liars.”
“I know you’re angry about that, but that doesn’t mean you have to kill me,” said Incantation in a pleading voice. “I can’t breathe …”
That was because my grip around her neck had tightened deeply. I was tempted to just end her right there and then. She deserved it, she did, she and every other Visionist idiot. In fact, now that my memories were coming back, I distinctly recalled how Vision had aided Robert Candle in killing Dad, which meant that Incantation probably had an indirect hand in killing my father.
But despite my anger, whenever I looked into Incantation’s eyes, I felt something stir within me. It felt like the feelings I’d felt toward her when I had thought she was my girlfriend. I suddenly found myself hating how terrified she looked. She looked less like a powerful supervillain and more like a scared teenage girl now. Maybe she wasn’t powerless, but I found that I couldn’t bring myself to kill her.
As a result, my grip on her throat weakened. As soon as it did, the fear in Incantation’s eyes was replaced by gleeful triumph.
Incantation suddenly pulled a sword out of her robes and stabbed at me, but I let go of her, causing her to fall to the floor. But not before she managed t
o hit me with the flat of the sword in the side of the head, even giving me a small but painful cut on the cheek. The impact from the blow made me stagger backwards, while Incantation advanced on me with her sword, her eyes still gleaming with mad triumph.
But my anger cut through the pain, so when Incantation swung her sword again, I blasted it with my lightning, causing the sword to shatter in two. The explosion sent bits of sharp metal flying everywhere, which I raised my arms to block, but Incantation wasn’t so lucky. I heard metal cut into flesh and Incantation scream in pain and then looked to see what had happened to her.
It was an awful sight. A few chunks of broken sword had somehow landed in her eyes. She was covering her now bleeding eyes, screaming in pain and falling down to the base of the wall. Her screams of pain were terrible, even to my ears, but I had no way to help her.
“Hey, Incantation, are you all right?” I said, raising my voice above her screaming in order to be heard. “Can you—”
“Get away!” Incantation screamed, without looking at me. “My eyes … damn you, my eyes!”
Incantation rose to her feet and tried to run, but I grabbed her arm and said, “No, you’re not running. You need medical attention, which you can’t get if you run away.”
But Incantation jerked her arm out of my hand and pointed her hand at me. A burst of light emitted from her hand, forcing me to cover my own eyes to avoid being blinded. I expected her to take advantage of this moment to attack, maybe even kill me, but I didn’t hear any attacks come my way. I did hear the swishing of her cape, but soon that sound faded as well, and shortly after, so did the light itself.
Lowering my hands, I saw that Incantation was gone. She had apparently fled, but to where, I did not know.
Chapter Fifteen
I heard a groan behind me and looked over to where I’d put down Shade. She had awakened, but had not sat up yet. She was rubbing her forehead, looking weak and tired. I ran over to her and knelt over her.
“Are you all right?” I said to Shade, looking at her in concern. “How do you feel?”
“Awful,” Shade responded. She groaned. “That Sarah girl … she hit harder than I expected. She almost killed me.”
I looked over at Sarah, who was lying unconscious on the floor where I’d hit her. Given how still she lay, I doubted she would be getting back up again anytime soon. “Yeah, I know.”
“Where’s Incantation?” said Shade. “Did you beat her?”
I remembered Incantation’s bloody eyes and pained and angered voice. “She fled. Probably teleported away using her magic, though to where, I don’t know.”
Shade cursed. “Damn it. I thought for sure we’d be able to get all of them this time. Cadmus won’t be happy to hear that one of them got away.”
“Right,” I said. “But we don’t have time to worry about that. We need to go after Thaumaturge and Hopper. They might be getting Sagan out of here even as we speak. Can you walk?”
Shade tried to sit up, but then let out a groan and lay back down, pressing her hands against her forehead. “The pain is too much. I can’t even think.”
“Then you should just stay here and rest,” I said as I stood up. “I’ll go and stop Thaumaturge and Hopper by myself. If any G-Men or backup come, tell them what happened and where I am.”
“But your wound still hasn’t healed,” said Shade, gesturing at my bandaged wound. “How will you survive against them?”
My wound burned dully with pain, but I ignored it. “I’ll be fine. I’ll take them both down before they even realize it.”
“All right,” said Shade, though she sounded doubtful about that. “I’ll make sure that Sarah doesn’t escape, if she wakes up.”
“Okay,” I said. “Stay safe.”
I turned and ran away, running past the unconscious Sarah and through the open doorway leading to yet another hallway, though this one was shorter than the last. A door was closed at the end of the hallway, and probably locked, but I would never know for sure, because I slammed my fists against the door with enough force to smash it straight off its hinges. It landed with a loud boom onto the ground as I jumped on top of it and shouted, “Thaumaturge! Hopper! I’m here and I’m ready to kick your ass!”
But the scene I came upon was not at all what I had been expecting. Thaumaturge and Hopper stood on either side of a medical bed that had the oldest, most infirm man I had ever seen in my life. He looked almost as bad as Grandmother; while Barnabas Sagan, the Visionary, had always looked old and wrinkled, his fall into a coma must have been horrible on him, because he now looked like he was practically dead. His skin was a dead gray color, while multiple pipes and cords had been attached to various parts of his body, with a heart monitor showing that he was on life support.
Yet that wasn’t the strangest part of the scene. The strangest part was the machine connected to Hopper, the machine that connected Hopper to Sagan. It looked kind of like a blood transfusion machine, except smaller and portable. Hopper held it in his hands and appeared to have been in the middle of programming it when I entered, while Thaumaturge stood at Sagan’s side with an urgent look on his face.
As soon as I entered, both Thaumaturge and Hopper looked over at me. Sagan didn’t, because he was still in his coma, but I thought I saw his left pinkie finger twitch ever-so-slightly, indicating that he was probably much more conscious than he appeared.
“Bolt?” said Thaumaturge. He scowled. “So my niece and her friends failed to stop you. But I shouldn’t be surprised; I was expecting the G-Men to send backup, but apparently they sent you instead.” His eyes flicked to my bandaged wound. “Evidently, my niece or one of her friends put up a good fight.”
I just pointed at Thaumaturge and said, “It’s over, Thaumaturge. Vision is finished. You guys are the only two members still active. Once I take you two down, Vision will be over for good.”
Thaumaturge chuckled. “Foolish boy, do you really believe that Vision can be so easily beaten? Vision is an idea, and ideas never die. So long as even just one Visionist breathes, the Vision of a more equal and just world will never die.”
“The world you’re fighting for is neither equal nor just,” I said. “But it doesn’t matter. The fact is, you and your fellow Visionists are going to jail today.”
Thaumaturge stepped forward. “As always, you speak far more confidently than you should. We have already won. Right, Hopper?”
“Right, sir,” said Hopper as he finished tapping away at the machine in his hands. “Just a couple more seconds and … done!”
As soon as Hopper pressed a large red button on top of the machine, the handheld device started humming and shaking. Before my startled eyes, a weird, glowing white energy began to transfer from Hopper’s body, through the tubes of the machine, and into Sagan’s prone form. It must have been extremely painful, because Hopper’s face scrunched and he looked like he was biting his own tongue to keep from screaming, yet he never even tried to turn it off.
I had no idea what Hopper was doing or what that device was, but I knew it couldn’t be any good. So I raised my hand to fire a red lightning bolt at the device, but then Thaumaturge waved his wand at me and ropes launched out of it at me. The ropes wrapped around me like a boa, causing me to lose balance and fall onto the floor. I cracked my skull against the concrete floor, making my vision spin, but then I heard a loud cry of pain and looked up.
For a moment, I wondered what I was looking at. Hopper was still standing by the bed, but he no longer looked like a young teenager. No, he was starting to look older. Before my eyes, his skin became wrinkled, his hair became short and gray, and his posture became stooped. He even had a hard time standing; he gripped the railing of Sagan’s bed, doing his best to remain upright, but it was pretty clear that he was rapidly losing his strength and would soon be unable to stand on his own.
Because I was on the floor, I couldn’t see how Sagan looked, but there was a bright light coming from the old man’s bed, like someone had placed a
giant light bulb on it. Thaumaturge was looking at the light, though he’d raised one hand to protect his vision, and was saying, “Yes … yes … YES!”
I still had no idea what was going on, but I wasn’t about to let these guys get away with it. I struggled to break the ropes, but they must have been really thick or were perhaps imbued with magic, because they didn’t break even when I used my super strength. But then, with more effort, the ropes snapped and I jumped to my feet.
Just as I did that, however, Thaumaturge whirled around and unleashed a series of rings at me. The rings wrapped around me, pinning my arms and legs against my body. I tried to snap them, but these rings, despite being so thin, were much stronger than the ropes.
“Oh, no, you don’t,” said Thaumaturge. “Sagan will rise again and there is nothing you can do to stop him.”
I was about to make a witty comeback, but then Hopper let out another scream of pain and the light on Sagan’s bed grew so bright that it completely enveloped the entire room. I closed my eyes shut, but could still hear Hopper screaming, Thaumaturge laughing, and what sounded like the various devices attached to Sagan starting to go haywire. I wished I could see what was going on, but I wasn’t going to risk losing my eyesight just to sate my curiosity.
After a few seconds, however, I could tell that the light had faded. So I carefully opened my eyes inch by inch until they were opened completely. I was shocked by what I saw.
Thaumaturge still stood between me and Sagan, his back was to me. As for Hopper, he was lying on the floor, looking like a withered old man now. In fact, he looked so frail that I didn’t think he could even stand up of his own volition anymore.
