Battle of the ULTRAs

by Matt Blake

  “Compared to your way,” I said. “Attacking the prom venue. Killing Mike Beacon.”

  Daniel lifted his shoulders. “I am sorry for what happened there. Truly. I was angry. I’d just discovered my powers and I had a point to prove.”

  “Well, you proved it. You proved it alright.”

  “And then when you put me down, I was mad. I was filled with vengeance. A vengeance that… that muddied what I was really trying to do.”

  “Kill everyone on the planet,” I said.

  Daniel shook his head. “It’s not as clear cut as that.”

  “It looked pretty clear cut to me.”

  He paused, then hovered a little off the ground. “I made some errors of judgment. But now I see clearly what I must do.”

  He instantly appeared above me. He held out his hand. For a moment, I thought he was going to fire a ball of fire at me.

  But he didn’t.

  He just kept his hand out.

  I frowned. “What is this?”

  “This is what I call a hand,” Daniel said.

  “You know what I’m asking. This. All this. What are you doing?”

  Daniel sighed, then crouched down, pulling me to my feet.

  I pushed his hands away once we were standing. “Get away from me.”

  “When I discovered the truth, I saw things clearly for the first time in my life. I saw… I saw what has to happen. What I have to do.”

  I shook my head. “I don’t get what you’re saying.”

  “We’re brothers, Kyle. Dammit, our surnames even have the same damned letters.”

  I took a moment to consider that. Peters. Septer. Shit. He was right. Bit weird, but right.

  Daniel stepped closer to me. “I’ve seen what Saint’s doing, firsthand. I’ve seen what he wants. And while I agree that the planet’s out of control at the hands of humans… Kyle, there’s something else you need to understand, too. Something about… about that day we were given our powers.”

  Before Daniel told me the secret, I was confident I’d never come around to his way of thinking. I was certain I’d never be able to trust him.

  When he told me the secret, my entire world changed.

  “What… what does it mean?” I asked. It was the only thing I could think of. The only words that would leave my lips.

  Daniel put a hand on my shoulder. It should’ve made me feel sick. It should’ve made my stomach turn. But it didn’t.

  Instead, it made me feel comfortable.

  It made me truly understand.

  “You’re going to take me back to the Resistance,” he said. “You’re going to take me to Orion. To our biological father. And then you’re going to hear the truth from him. We both are. We both deserve to.”

  I was so stunned by Daniel’s revelation that I couldn’t even argue.

  “What then?” I asked.

  Daniel hovered upwards, and I hovered with him. Underneath, the Amazon got further and further away. “We’re going to lead the Resistance into Saint’s tower,” he said. “And we’re going to stop Saint. Before he takes the secret away from us for good.”

  27

  “So, I hope you’ve got the Resistance ready to roll out a nice welcome party for me.”

  Just hearing Daniel Septer’s voice in my ear reminded me of the stupidity of what I was about to do. “Don’t push your luck,” I said.

  The morning sun shone over the Tanzanian coast. I’d tracked down the Resistance to an island around the Southern Hemisphere. It was a risky find. I knew a lot of islands around this way had fallen already. But before I launched my attack on Saint, there was something I needed to do.

  There was something I needed to understand, and as much as I hated to admit it, Daniel deserved an answer just as much as I did.

  “Didn’t you always dream of this day?” Daniel asked, as we hovered through the skies trying to track down the exact island, the sun beating down on our backs.

  “I mighta had a nightmare about it once or twice.”

  “Don’t get me wrong, I’d much rather we were conquering the world together. I mean, I did offer.”

  “Yeah. Somehow I don’t think our goals matched up too well.”

  “But it’s kind of nice,” Daniel said, as the breeze brushed our faces. “You’ve got to admit. Right?”

  I didn’t admit it, of course. The thought of flying around with someone I was so keen to take down was sickening. I felt like I was in the wrong for even hearing him out. He’d hurt Ellicia. Threatened my entire family.

  But he was family. He was the brother I’d never known I’d had.

  There was an unshakable bond I just couldn’t put my finger on.

  “So how exactly do you go about a thing like this?” Daniel asked.

  “A thing like what?”

  “Taking, you know, one of your arch enemies into your circle of friends. Can’t be the easiest of tasks.”

  I looked down at the island below. I could feel the power radiating from it. “It won’t be. But I doubt you’ll be sticking around for long.”

  I shot down toward it. Daniel pulled me back with his powers, a reminder that he was every bit my match.

  He smiled. “Maybe I will stick around. Maybe I’ll fit right in.”

  I pushed back with strong powers of my own. “Let’s take things one step at a time.”

  We landed on the island. There was a sandy beach that stretched on for a mile or so. The waves crashed against the shore. The thick trees to our right shook in the breeze, the sounds of wild animals partying within.

  Otherwise, it was silent. Empty.

  “You sure this is the place?” Daniel asked.

  “Yeah. I can feel it. Can’t you?”

  Daniel glanced down. “Sure, I can feel it. I just—”

  “You saying you can’t feel it and I can?”

  “I didn’t mean that.”

  I shrugged and walked along the beach. I couldn’t believe it, but I was actually smiling. “Guess you are the younger brother. Makes sense that your powers won’t be quite as sharp.”

  I felt a sharpness against my neck, like a knife. It stopped me in my tracks.

  Daniel was smiling. “Don’t talk to me about ‘sharp’.”

  I pushed back against his powers and continued my walk along the beach. I was certain I could feel the presence of the rest of the Resistance around. I’d wanted to be the one to see them first, not the other way around. I didn’t want to surprise them. The last time the group had seen me, they’d cut me loose after the escape from Saint’s tower. Vortex had seen me since, and the last time we’d been together, Daniel had shot her from the sky. He’d reassured me she was okay, though. He’d just insisted we needed a little time.

  “Hold your ground. Don’t move a damned muscle.”

  I heard Stone’s voice. I lifted my hands and turned around.

  “Hey. I told you not to—”

  “We’re good. We’re not here to hurt anyone.”

  I saw the amazement in Stone’s eyes. Beside him, Ember. Flames sprouted from his hands. “You’re walking along the beach with Nycto,” he said. “How in the name of hell can you say ‘we’re good’?”

  “Kyle’s right,” Daniel said. Dammit. I’d been hoping he’d just keep his mouth shut and let me do the talking. He lifted his hands. “We’re here totally in peace.”

  “Well, I obviously am,” I said.

  “Neither us are going to hurt you.”

  “Daniel, you don’t have to speak for me. They know I’m not gonna—”

  “Just shut the hell up,” Stone said. “I can’t think right now. And when I can’t think, I get mad. Real mad. You’ve seen me when I’m mad, Kyle. You know you’re gonna wanna explain what’s happening here and calm me down fast if you don’t want me to be mad at you.”

  I looked at the Resistance. All the original crew was here now. Stone. Roadrunner. Ember. Vortex. No sign of Orion, though. “We need to speak to Orion.”

  “You want
to take Nycto to Orion?” Vortex said, holding her face. “That devil teleported me right to the middle of a Texan farm. I got stomped by cattle. Lots of cattle.”

  “Sorry,” Daniel said. “I tried to picture where you’d fit in most. If it was being shat on by a bunch of bulls then hey, that’s just how the world works.”

  Vortex shook her head. Her eyes started rolling back. “I’m not standing for this crap.”

  “Wait,” I said.

  “Time for waiting’s over, kid,” Stone said. His arms covered in hard rock, as did his chest.

  Beside him, Ember ignited.

  “Get the hell away from here right this second or we’ll attack. I swear we’ll—”

  “Wait!”

  Orion walked out from the trees. He was dressed in his usual Vesper gear. The black coat. The bowler hat. His face was covered. I’d still never seen his face.

  “Watch your step, Orion,” Ember said. “Nycto’s here, and I think he’s got into Kyle’s head.”

  “He’s not got into my head,” I said.

  “Which is exactly what you’d say if he’d got into your—”

  “What’s happening here?” Orion asked. “What is this about?”

  The calm way he asked it made me realize he knew. He understood exactly what this was about. He was just bracing himself to admit it.

  I stood with Daniel by my side and I prayed to God he didn’t open his big mouth. Now wasn’t the time.

  “Kyle,” he said. “What’s… What’s this about?”

  I swallowed a lump in my throat. I knew now was the time.

  “We know,” I said. “Both of us know.”

  Orion looked at us both for a few seconds. Then, he lowered his head.

  “Then I think it’s time I was completely honest with you both. I think it’s time you… you heard it from me.”

  He turned around and started walking into the forest.

  Daniel walked around the back of me, slapped my back.

  “Sounds good, Daddy,” he said.

  I bit my lip and listened to the whispers of shock as they spread through the Resistance, and I walked into the forest toward the news that changed my life forever.

  28

  Never underestimate just how rapidly your life can change.

  I stood beside Daniel Septer—Nycto. Neither of us were fighting, which was a remarkable change in itself. But even weirder than the end to our conflict?

  The fact that we were looking at our biological father.

  And the fact that our biological father was Orion all along.

  “How did any of this happen?” I asked.

  Orion hadn’t spoken yet. We stood in the middle of the forest. I could hear the splashing of a nearby waterfall as the warm sun beat down on my head. In the distance, I heard the faint chatter of the rest of the Resistance. But they weren’t close enough that they were going to be a problem.

  “It’s a long story that spanned many years.”

  “And we’ve got time,” Daniel said. “We deserve to hear what happened. Whether the rumors are true.”

  It felt weird to be stood beside Daniel against Orion. Daniel had threatened to destroy humanity. Orion was the one who’d fought against Saint when destruction seemed inevitable. And now it was me who was standing against Orion; against the true leader of the Resistance.

  “When we had you… your mother and I—”

  “Who is our mother?” I asked.

  “She was called Eleanor. She was a lovely woman.”

  “’Was’?”

  “She died soon after I was taken in for government experimentation. Cancer.”

  A sickly taste filled my mouth. She was a woman I’d never met and a mother I’d never even known I’d had. And yet it hurt to know that she’d gone. The woman who’d created me and raised me in a life I didn’t remember was gone, just like Mom.

  “Why didn’t you tell us the truth?” I asked.

  “Because it wouldn’t be fair on me to tell you the truth.”

  “So instead you thought it was fairer if we just grew up not knowing who our real dad was?”

  “I wanted to open up to you both. Believe me, I did. I tried, several times.”

  “Clearly tried really damned hard.”

  “But I saw the lives you were living. I saw you were with… good people. Plus, you had memories of your own. I’d look like a madman. You wouldn’t believe me. No one would.”

  Daniel laughed. “You thought I was with good people?”

  Orion shook his head. “What happened to you at the hands of your stepfather was regrettable.”

  “Yeah,” he said. “Yeah, it was. What a pity I didn’t have, like, one of the most powerful ULTRAs out there as my biological father with the ability to help me… Oh, wait a sec.”

  I could understand Daniel’s bitterness. I didn’t know he’d grown up in a bad household, but I knew he got a rough time at school.

  “I knew what I was,” Orion said. “It scared me. The thought of us interacting terrified me. Because for all Saint’s flaws—and he has many—he never did pursue you.”

  “So Saint knew who we were all along, too?”

  “No. When Saint helped me transmit my powers and his into you… I was taken away, and so too were the pair of you. That was a government decision. You were given new identities, new memories.”

  “New memories?”

  Orion nodded. “Like I said. So too did the people around you.”

  I couldn’t believe what I was actually hearing. It was like something out of a sci-fi movie. Then again, I guess I was like something out of a sci-fi movie, too. “So my family thought I was theirs all along.”

  “The abilities of the government are amazing and terribly scary. All of us could’ve lived lives we’ve no idea actually occurred. But in a way, those changed existences were a blessing in disguise. Because if Saint had known who you were when you were younger, then I dread to think how he might have abused his powers.”

  All this information was making me dizzy. My chest was tight, and I felt like I couldn’t breathe.

  “What happened to you… to both of you. I apologize.”

  “Would you ever have told us who you were if we hadn’t found the truth?” Daniel asked.

  Orion nodded quickly. “Of course. I would.”

  “When?”

  He didn’t respond to that. He just stared into my eyes.

  “Your face,” I said.

  “What?”

  “You’re our father. And we’ve never even seen your face.”

  Orion lowered his head. Then he looked back up at the pair of us. “You won’t like what you see.”

  “I don’t care what I see. I just… I just want to see what you look like.”

  Orion hesitated. Then he lifted his hat from his head, lowered the mask covering his face.

  His skin was completely wrinkled. His eyes were just little dots in his skull. It looked like his eyebrows were on the verge of swallowing up his eyes completely.

  “You look…”

  “Old?” Orion asked.

  I shook my head, but he was right. He looked centuries old.

  He went to pull his mask back up. “That’s what years and years of using abilities like ours does to us. You’d better get used to it. Appreciate your good looks while they last.”

  I looked into Orion’s eyes and for a split second, I saw myself, and I saw Daniel.

  “What about the other thing?” Daniel said.

  Orion covered his face. “What other thing?”

  “The other part of the story. Our… our sister.”

  Weirdly, I’d been avoiding bringing up that part of Daniel’s story simply because I was positive it couldn’t be true. And if it was true, then it changed everything.

  If it was true, I wasn’t sure what to believe about the world anymore.

  Orion looked at the ground. There was a detachment to him now he was masked up again. He didn’t respond.

  “Is i
t true?” I asked, echoing Daniel.

  “Your sister was… She was ill. Very ill—”

  “I want to hear you say it. I want to hear it from you.”

  Orion hesitated again. He looked from me to Daniel and back again. The trees behind rustled, and the rest of the Resistance appeared.

  “Everything okay here?” Ember asked.

  “We’ve got ’em if you want ’em dealt with, boss,” Stone said.

  Orion didn’t react to any of the Resistance. He just looked into my eyes, and I knew the rumor was true already.

  “Kyle, I… I don’t know how to tell you this. But your sister. Cassie. She was your biological sister. And she didn’t die in the Great Blast at all.”

  29

  Eight Years Ago…

  Orion watched the funeral from afar and he knew he needed to act fast.

  Rain lashed down from the thick gray clouds above. He stood behind the church, completely exhausted, but knowing full well he needed to watch himself if he wanted to get out of here alive. He was risking everything by being here in the first place. But he couldn’t just walk away. Not when he knew the truth about Cassie, or Sophie, as he called her.

  His daughter.

  He saw them lowering the coffin. By the side of it, his son’s new parents. They looked filled with grief. Orion had always thought they were doing a good job with his biological children. Then again, they would be. Apparently, the government had imprinted some kind of memories into them so that they were convinced they’d had these kids themselves. It worked out better that way, for their own protection.

  He watched as young Kyle, as he was now called, walked up to the side of his sister’s grave and threw a flower down toward her. Orion could tell just from the look in his eyes that he didn’t really understand what was happening here. This was so cruel. He wanted to tell this family the truth.

  But telling them the truth just meant more danger for his daughter, more danger for his entire family.

  He waited for the families to depart before making his move.