A snake—a mutated sea snake. Of course it had to be a snake.
Pinned like I was, I had no momentum. Without momentum, my power was useless. Think, Marrow. Think!
The snake’s coils spiraled further around me, swallowing my shoulders and ankles.
No. My power wasn’t useless.
Because my dad’s power wouldn’t be useless in this situation.
I desperately tapped into my skeletal structure. Although my density was already maxed out, I clenched my teeth, pushing that density into every joint in my body. I could feel the sweat beading on my face from the pressure.
“I.”
A forked tongue hissed out of the snake’s scaly mouth, grazing my face.
“Hate.”
Rearing its head back, the snake pierced me with its hungry, beady eyes.
“SNAKES!”
The snake struck. So did a dozen impaling spikes from my body—shoulders, elbows, kneecaps—the whole enchilada. Some spikes stabbed out of me from places that weren’t even joints. I cringed as fiery pain stabbed through every inch of my body.
I was a human pincushion. And the snake was a shish kabob. Its bulky head dropped beside mine. Its mouth lolled open at me.
I winced again, retracting my spikes, and fought my way out of the lifeless coils binding me. I staggered to my feet, fists up, ready to punch the head off the next thing that snarled its ugly face at me.
There was no snarling. There was nothing.
I turned back around. I had left a pathway of death and destruction behind me. Mutant corpses littered the hallway and the glass was splattered and glazed in green. I glanced down at myself. It looked like I was covered in snot.
Good thing I kissed Sapphire earlier because I definitely wasn’t getting anything now.
A sharp crack sounded from the adjacent chamber—the elevator. I couldn’t even make out what was behind the glass door. It was simply a compacted mass of tense, gray flesh.
The elevator door struggled to slide open. As it did, a muscular gray arm the size of a tree slumped out. Claws jutted from its stumpy, webbed fingers.
Crap. I knew exactly what this thing was.
Grating its claws into the metal floor, it heaved itself out of the elevator. Its head was a thick slab of meat with beady eyes, ending in a pointed snout and exposing serrated razors for teeth from its exposed gums.
Specimen 751—Thresher.
The metamorphosed great white shark snarled as it hauled itself onto the floor. Its curved dorsal fin popped back up; the rippling muscles of its upper back emerged. Forget riding the elevator. Thresher had squeezed and wiggled his way up the entire elevator shaft! Hoisting itself upright, Thresher towered over the network of supercomputers. Its head practically scraped the top of the sphere.
My gaze shifted from Thresher to the hallway entrance. There was no way that thing could fit.
Just like there was “no way” it could fit in the elevator shaft. Crap.
Boom, boom, boom!
Thresher stomped to the hallway. It lowered itself onto its white underbelly, propped up on vein-bulging forearms. A glass door half its size zipped open. Scraping its claws into the metal floor once more, Thresher shoved its colossal body into the cramped space. Even with its thick shoulders bunched together, it filled the entire passageway. Squirming back and forth, Thresher wriggled forward. A spider web of cracks snaked across the glass. It heaved closer. With every writhing movement, the glass splintered wider and finer, filling the entire rounded surface. I felt the brush of air with every snap of Thresher’s jaws.
The kraken wannabe was one thing. But there was no way I was jumping inside this thing’s mouth.
I didn’t have to. The metal framework groaned beneath Thresher’s weight. The sound drowned out its snarls. The shark’s head perked up. The floor beneath it lurched, bending down an inch. The metal wailed louder than ever under its last string of resilience—KIREEEEEEEEEEK!
The passageway collapsed.
The floor caved in from both sides of the hallway—two slanted slabs of metal meeting together in a gaping fissure. The wind howled from below. Thresher clawed desperately for something to hold on to, but its massive gray form slipped through the opening. It plummeted to the distant shoreline below. The metal framework above crumpled down as well. Shattered glass rained down in a storm of glistening shards
The floor buckled beneath me.
I fell, sliding down the slanted surface. My hands grasped aimlessly. A shaft of metal framework swung down, scraping the floor beside me. I frantically latched onto it. I skidded to a halt, hanging with my stomach against the slanted ledge—only inches away from a lethal plunge. My legs dangled and swayed in the open wind. Struggling to pull myself back onto the slanted surface, I tapped into my bone structure, reversing my density.
The top of the slant groaned. Not good.
I released the shaft of metal and flew up the ramp. The slanted ledge dipped slightly lower. My foot slipped.
KIREEEEEEEEEE—
I lunged, gripping the top of the broken, slanted slab—only inches away from the solid ledge. My arms quivered under the pressure and nerves. My teeth gritted.
The slanted slab broke. Thrusting every ounce of strength I had in my arms, I hoisted myself over the edge of the freefalling slab. Time seemed to slip into slow motion. My feet touched the other side of the slab as it flipped entirely. I dashed across the falling surface as if I was running on water, braced my foot on the opposite ledge and launched myself. My right arm flailed out. So close.
My momentum ended. My hand missed by inches.
Before I could fall, a body hit the ledge and a hand snatched mine.
A hand with blue nail polish.
“There’s no way my first kiss is dying right after he kisses me!” said Sapphire through gritted teeth. “NO. FREAKING. WAY.”
Strands of loose blue hair strayed across her determined face. Apparently she had lost her mind cuff helmet somewhere in the chaos. Frost formed over our hands, freezing them together. I wasn’t going to fall without taking Sapphire with me. Fortunately, I only weighed about half my normal weight. Sapphire hoisted me up. I flung my free hand onto the ledge, pulling myself up the rest of the way. The frost instantly melted off of our frozen hands. Together, we collapsed on the edge of the severed passageway.
“Thanks for saving me,” I said, breathless.
Sapphire was breathing heavily as well. She attempted a casual shrug. “Hey, I’m a Superhero. That’s how I roll.”
She shifted over onto her side. When she looked at me, she had that look that girls always have when they want you to kiss them. You know—when their eyes get big, and their lips are all soft and slightly parted. I’ve seen enough James Bond movies. I know that look.
The TV screen hanging over us flickered with static, drawing Sapphire’s big kissy eyes away from me. The screen crackled and distorted before focusing on a single figure—a figure that caused me to bolt upright.
My dad.
The bruises on Spine’s face were gone. He didn’t even have a scratch. I remembered Flex saying something about our power giving us accelerated healing, but holy cow!
Just as alarming was the backdrop. Though the camera was trained on him, the rounded glass in the background was obviously from a sphere chamber of the Tartarus. A section of the glass was cut out, however, replaced by a shimmering metal rim, the inside of which extended into a sprawling tunnel with a soft green glow at the end.
No… It wasn’t a tunnel at all. It was the barrel of the Cronus Cannon.
“Hey, Fantom,” said my father, sporting a cocky grin behind his beard. “Heard you were having a party without me. Thought I’d drop in.”
His voice echoed throughout the Tartarus. However Spine was transmitting this video, it was clearly being played on every screen in the research facility.
“So here’s the thing,” he said. His grin vanished. “We have a debt to settle. And we’re going to settle it rig
ht here and now. Sure, you can beat me when you’re controlling me as your little puppet. But I dare you to face me like a man. Because I promise you, Fantom—I’m going to kill you.”
CHAPTER 37
If this was Nightmare and Havoc’s brilliant plan to stop Fantom, I was going to throw up.
Yeah, I knew my dad was strong. But Fantom, even without his telepathy, was an unstoppable force. He had been stealing telekinetic power from Supers like Nero for decades.
He was going to squash my dad like a bug.
Scrambling to my feet, I took off down the broken passageway to the chamber I had come from. Sapphire trailed close behind me.
As the door to our original chamber zipped open, the sound of rapid gunfire was accompanied by a chorus of ghastly screeches. Both seemed to simmer down almost instantly. We rushed past a considerably calm group of news crew members and Telepaths in hospital gowns, encompassed by half a dozen armed police officers.
Fantom was gone.
“Is everything okay on that end?” said an officer.
“Yeah,” I said. “You don’t have to worry about anything coming from that side, I promise.”
We continued past them to the far entrance. The sliding door remained open, held by a small mountain of broken furniture and expensive shattered computers. Dozens of police officers had taken cover behind it, armed and sweaty. All of them had ceased fire.
“Don’t forget to reload,” said Lieutenant Reese. He was perched behind a desk at the very top of the mound. He proceeded to remove and inspect the clip from his own weapon.
“Lieutenant Reese,” said Sapphire. She rushed ahead of me. “Is everything going alright?”
“We’ve held ‘em back so far,” said Reese. “We’re running low on ammo though. Don’t think we can hold ‘em back for too much longer.”
“Fantom went through here?” I asked.
“Yeah,” said Reese. “Flew right over the top of our blockade. And boy, he looked ticked. I don’t think he likes being called out in public.”
I swallowed hard. “I need to get through.”
Reese raised an incredulous eyebrow at me. “You what? You do realize that’s the side the monsters are on, right?”
“That’s the side my dad’s on.” My hardened expression didn’t flinch. I wanted everyone to know just how serious I was. They had the same mounted display screens in here. They knew what was happening. I wasn’t about to let a bunch of cops stand between me and my father.
Reese stared me down for several long seconds. Then he nodded. “Men, back away for a sec. Let the kid through.”
“What?” said Sapphire. As I started for the mound, she latched onto my arm. “Marrow, no! What do you think you’re doing?”
“My dad can’t fight Fantom,” I said. “Not by himself.”
“So what?” she said. “You’re just going to barge in there and die with him?”
“Well I’m not going to let him die all alone!” I snapped.
Sapphire recoiled slightly with a hurt look.
I bit my lip in response, my face softening. “I…I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m just…”
“No, I understand,” said Sapphire quietly, staring at the floor. “He’s your dad.”
“I just want to see what’s going on. I know this is part of Nightmare and Havoc’s plan somehow. I just…I want to know what the heck their plan is.”
Sapphire glanced up timidly from the ground. “You promise you won’t go in there with them? You’ll just look through the glass?”
I hesitated. Sapphire’s big blue eyes stared up at me pleadingly.
“Promise,” I said, extending my pinky.
Sapphire shoved my pinky aside, pulling me in a fierce hug. When she finally let go, she was teary-eyed all over again. I couldn’t stand to see her cry.
So I turned and quickly scaled the mountain of broken furniture and electronics.
Hopefully I wouldn’t have to break my promise.
I rushed with light feet down the corridor. The last thing I needed was to not make it around the corner in time and be in the line of fire when the next wave of mutants came crashing in. As I distanced myself from the solemn voices of the police, I found myself immersed in eerie silence.
I barreled into the next sphere chamber. My eyes went straight to the elevator. None of the buttons were lit up. Through the glass, I could see it was still stationary on our floor.
What was going on? Where was the next wave of creatures? I knew for a fact that there was still a butt-load more of them.
The thought occurred to me that maybe they just weren’t coming. If they were under Fantom’s control and he was off to fight my dad, then maybe he was too preoccupied to keep them coming. Or maybe just wanted to kick back and enjoy the carnage rather than let it happen while he had his attention focused elsewhere.
I pulled my gaze from the elevator, shifting it down the long glass passageway to the next chamber. It was this chamber that the vast barrel of the Cronus Cannon was pointed into.
Even from the great distance, I could make out the red of Fantom’s flapping cape. The sliding glass door whizzed shut behind him.
Then a large hand clasped my shoulder.
I screamed—probably like a girl. Whipping around, I nearly tripped on my own feet. Nightmare towered over me. Not only that, but his big primate lips were curled into an amused grin.
“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up,” I said.
“Oh no, I’m not smiling about that,” said Nightmare. “Well…okay, maybe I am a little. I was actually smiling about what’s about to happen to our friend, Fantom.”
My eyebrows lifted. “You mean this is part of your plan?”
Nightmare’s grin grew wider. “Let’s go get a closer look, shall we?”
Nightmare led the way at a brisk pace, and I trailed close behind. Though we were still a ways from the Cronus chamber, the mounted display screens showed Spine and Fantom staring each other down in a cold, silent standoff.
Fantom’s eyes were still glowing green behind his mask.
“Do you really think you stand a chance against me?” said Fantom in Gaia’s multitude of voices. His voice still stood out loudest and most distinct among them.
“I don’t think I stand a chance,” said Spine. “I said I’m going to kill you. And I’m a man of my word.”
Fantom snorted. “And how exactly do you plan on doing that?”
“I know something that you don’t.”
“You’re lying.”
Nightmare and I finally reached the Cronus chamber, cautiously approaching the glass barrier. Because Fantom was still somehow in control of his face, his expression was tense. I even detected a hint of nervousness. Even though the odds were clearly in his favor, it was obvious that no one had ever challenged him like this before. He had probably never fought a real, honest fight in his entire life.
“How did you even get here?” said Fantom.
“Ah, now that’s a good question,” said Spine. “The obvious answer would be that I got here the same way you, Nightmare, Flex, and the kids got here—Havoc’s teleportation. However…”
A gentle hum sounded behind him. It revved up to an escalating roar. The long tunnel behind him lit up in an intensifying green glow.
“…the truth is that I’m actually not here,” said Spine. His very being seemed to flicker and distort like an illusion. “Havoc, NOW!”
Spine vanished. A hallucination! I glanced up at Nightmare who was now laughing. Fantom turned to face us, and Nightmare simply waved back.
And that’s when the hallway door zipped open and shut behind us. I don’t know where he came from or how he got here. He just was.
Spine. The real Spine. My dad. Had he been hiding on the Tartarus this whole time?
Then again, he’d been hiding for most of my life, so I don’t know why his lifetime game of hide and seek should be so shocking.
“Pulling the wool over Fantom’s eyes three times in one day,” said Nigh
tmare. “I think I’m on a roll!”
Spine didn’t laugh. He didn’t even smile. He did offer a brief glance my way. He glanced away just as quickly when he realized I was staring at him.
His gaze focused instead on the man who ruined his life because he was sure as heck gonna enjoy this.
But he didn’t know what I knew. I didn’t laugh either. I couldn’t even breathe.
If using the Cronus Cannon on Fantom was Nightmare and Havoc’s big plan, then we were dead meat.
Reaffirming my dread, Fantom smiled. A blast of raging green energy swallowed him whole, filling the entire chamber.
“Marrow, are you alright?” said Nightmare. “It’s okay. We beat him!”
“No…” I said, shaking my head. “It’s not going to work.”
“What are you talking about? Of course it’s going to work.”
“The Cronus doesn’t absorb powers. All it does is amplify Fantom’s power. There’s a compartment built under the Cronus where it channels his energy. He has the ability to steal the mind powers of other Telepaths and Telekinetics. That was the whole point of the Cronus device—so he could steal everyone’s telepathic power when the Cronus Order was given.”
Spine’s cold eyes shifted from me to the glowing chamber. “You mean…?”
“I mean that machine is just a flashy show. It doesn’t do anything unless Fantom’s controlling it!”
His jaw slackened. Slowly, he turned to the glass surface and the pulsating green energy flowing behind it. A red cape flapped closer, slowly approaching the entrance.
“Marrow…get out of here.” Though Spine’s voice was firm, his quivering eyes betrayed him. Bone spikes splintered from his hands and joints while thick bone plating quickly covered the rest of his body. He looked like a kick butt combination of Wolverine and Iron Man.
“What?” I said. “What about you?”
“I said get out of here!” Spine snapped. When I didn’t move, he grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me. “I didn’t come here today to watch my only son die, Marrow.” He shoved me down the hall, and I staggered. But stubbornness is hereditary. I tapped into my skeleton and spiked my bone density outward. By the time I regained my balance, I had my own painful set of bone armor and spikes. I almost cried from the pain; how did my dad make it look so easy? He pointed a fierce finger at me. “Go. NOW.”
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