Battle of the ULTRAs

by Matt Blake

  I held my breath and pushed against the paralysis my body was in. I tried to stretch every muscle, tried to cry out and scream because I just had to break free and Cassie had to break free.

  We couldn’t let the world beneath us fall. We couldn’t watch it crumble.

  I saw images flash into my mind as my body vibrated. The convulsions were violent and hard. If I shook any harder, I knew I could do some damage.

  Screw it. So what if I did some damage? So what if I killed myself trying to get out of this?

  I was doing whatever I could to get my sister and I out of this mess, even if it ended my life.

  I gritted my teeth together, hard. My life flashed before my eyes. Painful memories. Memories of being dunked under that water with Cassie and Daniel either side of me. Memories of growing up, being bullied, having my lunch money stolen.

  But most of the memories started to turn into good memories. I thought of the people I loved. Mom. Dad. Damon. Avi. Ellicia. All those people who’d made my life something positive for all these years. I was doing this for them. Not just for me, not just for my sister, but for them.

  The resistance pushed back at me harder. In front, I could see a massive ball of light now. It looked as big as the earth itself. I knew if I let it grow any larger, it’d just swallow the planet whole, and the world would never be the same again. Ever.

  The world would be Saint’s.

  “I’m not letting that happen!” I shouted.

  Shouting was agony. My lungs felt like they were being squeezed between vice grips. But I resisted the urge to give up fighting and focused my attention on Cassie. I was weak. I didn’t have much left.

  But what I did have left, I was going to use to get her back.

  “Cass-ie,” I gasped.

  She didn’t respond. The ball of energy grew larger.

  “Cassie. It’s… It’s Kyle. It’s—”

  A searing pain lurched through my body. I felt it in every single muscle from head to toe like hot needles were being wedged through me.

  And still I kept on fighting.

  “Cassie we need to—to stop this. It’s me. It’s your brother. And you—you need to fight. Even though it’s painful you need to fight.”

  I felt like my words were falling on deaf ears. But that didn’t matter. At least I was trying. At least I was fighting.

  I twisted my neck around, a maneuver that made my spine feel like it split. “Look at me, Cassie. Just… just fight the pain and look at me.”

  Cassie kept on staring ahead. Energy moved through her body, out of her eyes.

  “Look at me, Cassie!”

  Still, she looked onwards.

  I felt tears fall down my face then. I knew what this meant. I’d pushed everything I had. I’d done everything I could. One more exertion and I was pretty certain it was game over for me.

  I felt the resistance pushing back at me, just egging me on to continue and break myself.

  “Screw it,” I said, my voice weak and crackly. “Screw it.”

  I closed my eyes and let every inch of power leave my body.

  In my mind, as that power left, I heard myself saying Cassie’s name. I heard myself screaming it, and then reaching out and trying to drag her out of her paralysis.

  My body was on fire.

  Everything was agony.

  But still I pressed. I pushed through the wall of energy fighting back at me. I felt my power’s arms wrapping around Cassie, whispering in her ear, telling her who I was and that everything was going to be okay.

  Then, with the last of my strength, I saw Ellicia in my mind, and more tears rolled down my face.

  “I love you,” I said.

  Then I dragged Cassie out of her cocoon of energy.

  I heard an explosion. It ripped through this weird non-body reality. Then I opened my eyes and saw I was back on that bed. Electricity was sparking around me. The ULTRAbots who’d put me on this bed and hooked me up were all on the floor, smoke rising from their bodies.

  Saint lay flat on the floor, too.

  I lifted myself forward, my hands shaking. The electromagnetic bands had come loose. Power tingled at the surface.

  I’d done it.

  I’d broken out.

  I’d—

  “Kyle?”

  When I heard her voice, even though eight years had passed, it was just as I’d remembered.

  I turned around.

  Cassie was sitting on the edge of her bed. Her eyes were wide. She looked confused. Terrified.

  But she was looking right at me.

  “Kyle?” she said. “Is… is that really you?”

  I went to open my mouth but my jaw shook.

  I went to speak, but instead I cried.

  I went to grab her hand to get us out of here, but instead I just ran over her and fell into her arms.

  I made the contact with her I’d been waiting to make ever since I ran toward her eight years ago and watched her fall.

  “Sis,” I said, crying. “I’ve missed you. I’ve missed you.”

  “You too, little brother. You too.”

  We both held on to each other.

  We didn’t want to let go. Not again.

  We just stood there and held each other and cried.

  48

  Miriam held her arms around her boys as the massive ball of energy approached.

  She saw the light surround her even though her eyes were squeezed tightly shut. Warm tears streamed down her cheeks, which she could taste on her lips. She smelled the hair of her two boys and imagined she was cuddling them in their beds after lulling them to sleep with a bedtime story. What she’d do to be back home again. What she’d do for everything to be back to normal again.

  She felt her hair stand on end. A force pulled against her, and she knew what it meant. Her memories would soon be gone. Her consciousness would soon be gone. Everything she knew and loved would disappear around her in an instant.

  “I love you,” she whispered. She wasn’t sure if her children heard her, because a deafening static sound blasted out of this ball of energy, reminding her just how powerful it actually was. “Boys, I love you.”

  She held them tighter.

  Michael’s arms clung around her.

  Paddy tucked his head closer under Miriam’s neck.

  And then there was a loud pop, and nothing.

  Miriam kept her eyes closed after she heard the bursting noise. She was convinced that was it. Everything was over.

  But she was still having these rational thoughts. So there had to be something, right?

  She opened her eyes.

  The light had gone. The ball of energy had disappeared.

  Michael and Paddy were still in her arms.

  She looked at them just to check they were okay, that their minds were still present.

  “Boys? Are you okay? Boys?”

  They looked up at Miriam with a deathly stare.

  Then, “Are we okay now?”

  Miriam lunged down to her boys and squeezed them again. They stood there, hugging each other, crying together, like so many families across the world.

  “Thank you, God,” she said. “Thank you.”

  She’d prayed for a miracle.

  She’d got a miracle.

  Her boys were still here.

  And she was still here for them.

  49

  I wanted to hold on to Cassie forever, but I had more urgent matters at hand.

  Like getting out of Saint’s tower and destroying it. For good.

  I pulled back from Cassie. When I looked at her, I always had to blink and double take just to check she really was alive and opposite me, and that this wasn’t some kind of mad trick.

  “What?” she asked.

  I shook my head. I couldn’t stop myself smiling even though all I could taste were my tears. “I just… I just can’t believe it.”

  “Pull yourself together, little bro. It’s weird for me too.”

  The way she
joked and smiled like that reminded me of how it used to be between us when we were younger. The games we’d play. The dens we’d create together when we were camping upstate. The stories she’d tell me in the middle of the night, both terrifying and fascinating.

  I wasn’t going to lose her again.

  “We need to get out of here,” I said.

  Cassie nodded. “That much is clear.” She spoke like she understood everything that’d happened, like she was conscious of what’d gone on. “What about him?”

  She tilted her head across the floor.

  When I saw where she meant, I felt the hairs on my arms stand on end.

  Saint lay flat on the floor. He was completely still. Smoke rose from his body. I wasn’t sure he was dead, but he was definitely in a bad shape, and that was enough for now. “We won’t have to worry about him. Not when we’ve got out of this place.”

  “You got a plan?” Cassie asked.

  I nodded. “Something like that.”

  The pair of us walked out through the door of the room and into the dark corridor. We rushed through it, then headed into the room where many of the humans were stacked up just waiting to be awoken, for their brainwashed, zombie-fied lives to begin.

  They were still lying there. I knew I’d have to do something to get them out of here before I destroyed this place and made it disappear. I just had to hope I had the strength in me to do that.

  But of course I did. I was Kyle Peters. I was Glacies.

  And my ULTRA sister was beside me.

  I grabbed her hand and we ran out of this room toward the corridor, which would lead us up and out of Saint’s tower.

  “You know where the exit is?”

  “With our powers, we don’t need an—”

  I heard a blast. It crashed past me, past Cassie.

  When I looked out of the door into the main area of Saint’s tower, I saw exactly what’d caused that blast.

  All of Saint’s ULTRAbots were gathered around the middle of the tower. Alarms rang out through the tower. Red lights flashed. I knew this was some kind of emergency signal, triggering a meltdown.

  “Hope you planned for this,” Cassie said.

  I held my breath. “Would it upset you if I told you I’m just winging it?”

  Cassie smiled. “Not really. You were always a good winger.”

  I smiled back at her.

  Then I turned to the mass of ULTRAbots, all of their weapons charging and ready to fire.

  “When they shoot, push back.”

  “What?”

  “Just push back. Push back with all the anger and love you have.”

  “How do you know it’ll—”

  Cassie didn’t finish speaking.

  The ULTRAbots fired their weapons.

  I gritted my teeth and raised my hands. I tried to see the things that made me angry, but in their place, I saw love.

  I saw my sister.

  I saw the people I cared about.

  I kept on pushing back against the oncoming mass of ULTRAbot bullets.

  I tried to slow them down and stop them but they didn’t seem to be losing their pace. For a moment, I was convinced I’d made a grave error. That Cassie was going to be taken away from me again just moments after we’d been reunited.

  But no. I couldn’t let that happen.

  I threw all my powers back at those bullets.

  They froze in midair. Hovered in front of my face, in front of Cassie’s face. I realized then that she was pushing back, too. Both of us were holding them off, doing what we had to do to protect each other.

  “Now what?” Cassie winced.

  I turned my focus to the ULTRAbots. “Now we fight back.”

  I pushed the ULTRAbot bullets right back toward the ULTRAbots.

  I saw some of the ULTRAbots try to dodge them. I saw them try to worm away.

  But they didn’t make it.

  None of them made it.

  The bullets slammed through the surrounding ULTRAbots.

  All of them blasted apart, one by one, like fireworks cracking in the night sky.

  From left to right, I watched as yellow flashes of light filled Saint’s tower. I watched these metallic beasts erupt, then fall to the floor below.

  I watched Saint’s army fall apart at the hands of my sister and me, and I’d never felt happier than right now.

  When they’d all fallen, there was a strange silence to the place, except for the alarm still ringing out. I took Cassie’s hand. “Come on. We need to get out of here while we still can—”

  “Wait!”

  I heard the voice to my right. I wasn’t sure who it’d come from. I thought I recognized it from somewhere, but I couldn’t be certain.

  When I looked closer though, I saw exactly who it was.

  Nycto—Daniel Septer—my biological brother, was locked up in a cell. His hands were on the bars. He looked totally worn down. Totally dejected. “Don’t leave me in here. Please.”

  I felt fire burn in my chest. Daniel had betrayed me. Not only that, but his betrayal had caused Orion to die. “You watched him die. You let it happen. You aren’t going anywhere—”

  “I made a mistake!”

  I walked off, my sister beside me. “Too right you did.”

  “Kyle, I thought I could rule. I thought the world could be mine.”

  “That’s where you were wrong.”

  “But when we spent time together. When I… when I spent time with the Resistance and fought by your side, that was real. None of it was fake. I… I started to see your side of things. I started to want what you were fighting for. And I messed up. I messed the hell up and I’m sorry.”

  I gritted my teeth and resisted the urge to walk back to Daniel’s cell and freeze him for eternity. “You should’ve thought about that before you let our dad disappear into a void.”

  “I have. I’ve thought about it a hell of a lot. And I swear I’ll do everything I can to reverse what happened to Orion. I swear I’ll do what I can. I just… I need a chance. A chance to make it up to you. A chance to make it up to myself. I need you to—to forgive me. Please.”

  I turned around. I walked back over to Daniel’s cell. “You want me to forgive you?”

  “Kyle, we have to go,” Cassie said.

  I ignored her and stood right in front of Daniel’s cell. Daniel was opposite me, hands on the bars. “After everything that happened, you want me to forgive you?”

  “Saint was double-crossing me. Soon after he added you to the brainwashing program, he was going to throw me into the mix so we had a hold of humanity forever. You weren’t supposed to break out of that. None of us were. So you must be stronger than he thought.”

  “I am stronger than he thought. But that doesn’t let you off the hook. Not in the slightest. Goodbye, Daniel.”

  I turned around and walked away.

  “Forgive me. Please.”

  I ignored him at first. But then a memory flashed in my mind. Words Orion had said when we’d been training for our fight against Saint.

  “Forgiveness burns a much brighter light than the black void of vengeance.”

  I didn’t want to believe him then and I didn’t want to believe him now. But in this battle, I’d seen the damage and the hate blind vengeance caused. I’d seen the power forgiveness could have.

  “Please,” Daniel said. “Don’t leave me here to rot.”

  “We need to go,” Cassie said. There was sadness and uncertainty in her eyes.

  I turned around and looked back at Daniel’s cell.

  “Forgiveness burns a much brighter light than the black void of vengeance.”

  I walked over to Daniel’s cell.

  Every instinct in my body told me to shove my hands through those bars and freeze him for good.

  I lifted my hands. Pointed them at him. Felt the lust for vengeance at a tipping point.

  “Please,” Daniel said.

  I turned my hands to the side and dragged the cell door away.


  I threw it across Saint’s tower. There was nothing between me and Daniel now. Nothing at all.

  “Come on,” I said. “Let’s get out of here.”

  Daniel looked shocked. His eyes were wide. “Thank you. I… I’m so grateful. I’m so—”

  “Yeah yeah. Let’s leave before I change my mind.”

  I turned around and ran back to Cassie. Together, the three siblings of Orion, we made our way toward the top of Saint’s tower.

  We were almost ready to leave when we heard footsteps behind us.

  When I turned around, my stomach sank.

  “Leaving so soon?”

  Saint stood opposite us.

  His mask had been torn from his burned face.

  Massive spheres of energy grew in his hands.

  50

  “How nice. A little family reunion. Kind of sweet, I suppose. And fitting that you’ll all fall together.”

  Saint walked toward me, Cassie, and Daniel. We held our ground, as much as I wanted to get away. The energy ripping across Saint’s hands as his tower collapsed all around us wasn’t something to be messed with. I knew what he was capable of. I knew the risk he posed whenever he was near.

  I knew just how strong he was.

  His footsteps echoed against the metal walkways as he got closer. I could smell burning. I knew I needed to act fast if I wanted to save the brainwashed humans he had imprisoned in here.

  “So how does it feel, hmm? The old gang, all reunited.”

  “It’s over, Saint,” I said.

  Saint shook his head. The energy in his hands grew bigger, more threatening. “See, I don’t think it is over. I don’t think it’s over at all. Because you’re too forgiving. I mean, even after what Daniel here allowed to happen to Orion, still you forgive him.”

  “I should’ve seen what you were a long time ago,” Daniel said.

  Saint tilted his head to one side. Although his face was burned badly, I could tell he was smiling. “And you really trust him, do you? You really trust Daniel not to make a power grab the second I fall? You don’t see this for what it really is?”

  I had to admit I’d considered that this might all be some kind of ploy. Surely it was only right to be a little skeptical.

  But a part of me just kept on hearing Orion’s words echo around my mind.