The Last Hero (Book 1): Ultra

by Blake, Matt

  No. No using my ULTRA powers. There were a time and a place for my ULTRA powers, and that time and place was no time and no place. It was too risky. Too dangerous. I’d used them too publicly as it was.

  No, I needed to work on my own problems. I needed to start being more confident in myself, not falling back on my powers to do the job.

  And that started tonight.

  That started with the party.

  I pulled my phone out of my pocket. Part of me just wanted to take off my suit and hide in bed. I felt my heart racing every time I pictured myself in a hall filled with people I detested. What the hell was I doing? Why in God’s hell was I attending this thing?

  And then I saw Ellicia’s Facebook posts and felt a different sort of tingling.

  She was with a couple of friends at one of their places before the party. They were all dressed up, but my jaw dropped when I saw Ellicia. She was wearing a light blue dress. Her dark hair was curly and hung down on her shoulders. She wasn’t plastered with makeup—she had a little something around her eyes—how was I supposed to know what it was? But she looked better for it. She still looked herself. Like the Ellicia I knew and… Damn, the Ellicia I loved.

  She looked beautiful.

  I opened up Messenger and tapped on her name, unable to shake myself from the moment.

  On my way soon, I typed.

  I hovered a thumb over it. If I sent this, there’d be no going back. If I sent this, I—

  My thumb shook so hard that I accidentally tapped on the Send button.

  And I realized I’d caught a wink-faced emoji before sending, too.

  Dammit. No going back now. No going back.

  Almost instantly after sending it, the message marked as read. And then Ellicia started typing. I could hardly contain my excitement and my fear. I couldn’t believe this was actually happening—that I’d be as lucky as I was right now.

  She sent back a single :).

  When I looked back up at the mirror, I saw something poking against my ultra-tight black pants.

  Damn. Yeah. I’d… I’d have to keep that in check if I wanted to avoid being laughed at tonight. That’d be a start.

  I brushed back my hair a little, no idea whether it was making me look better or worse than before. I took in a sharp breath through my nose. Smiled. “You can do this, Kyle. You can freaking do this.”

  When I turned around, I saw Mom and Dad standing outside my bedroom door.

  My immediate worry was, naturally, about my receding semi, which I hoped they hadn’t noticed. But then another fear started to build. The wide look in both of their eyes. The twitching of Mom’s eyelids. That pale look on Dad’s face, a look of surprise, of questioning. They weren’t supposed to see me like this. They weren’t supposed to know about tonight. I didn’t want to explain to them I was going—I just wanted to go, I just wanted to—

  “Kyle?” Mom said.

  I knew right then there was no getting away, no escaping. My cheeks flushed. My knees started to shake. “I… I can explain. Just a last minute thing. Just—I woulda told you but—”

  “You look amazing, son.”

  Mom wrapped her arms around me and held me tight. Her warmth radiated through my body as she stroked my back.

  “I’m so proud of you, Kyle. So proud.”

  I wasn’t sure how to feel as I stood there, my mom holding me, telling me how proud of me she was. And Dad was still just standing by the door, staring over at me like he’d seen a ghost. I wondered why he was looking at me that way. What it meant.

  But then something even stranger happened.

  Dad walked over.

  He put a hand on my shoulder. He didn’t look me in the eyes. He just put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed it.

  “That’s my boy,” he said. I could hear the shakiness in his voice. “My boy.”

  I felt a lump in my throat. Tears building in my eyes. I felt the pride of my parents—the pride at me stepping out of my comfort zone, of doing something I was terrified of doing.

  I was going to the party. I didn’t want to go to the party, but I was doing it. And I didn’t need superpowers to do that. I just needed my own powers. My own strength.

  I let go of Mom, patted Dad back on the shoulder, and told them I wouldn’t be too late.

  “Don’t you worry about being late,” Mom said. “You have a special night. Then tell us all about it, okay?”

  I wiped my eyes and nodded at Mom. I couldn’t explain the emotion. Sadness. Happiness. A bit of both. “I will,” I said. “I will.”

  “Goodbye, Son,” Dad said.

  “Goodbye, Dad.”

  He looked me in the eyes, just for the briefest of moments, and I couldn’t quite figure out what that look was. Pride. That’s what it felt like. For the first time in my life since Cassie died, my dad was proud of me.

  I turned around before the tears had a chance to flow and disappeared out of my bedroom door, out of my house.

  I didn’t need any superpowers.

  I just needed myself.

  If only I knew what was ahead of me that evening.

  20

  Twenty minutes at the party and I hated it already.

  I looked around at all these people I’d spent years of my school life growing up with. Very few of them I actually liked, and very few of them actually liked me. They were all suited, all looking trim and strong and muscular, all smiling at girls and looking like they were having the time of their lives.

  I wished I could feel that way. And as I squeezed past these droves of people, the music thumping from the dance floor up ahead, I became increasingly aware of my own image. I thought I looked pretty sharp in my suit before I left. But now, seeing all these other people tailored and crafted to perfection? Now I wasn’t sure.

  My mouth was dry. I nodded at a few people that were vaguely familiar—people from my year who I never really spoke to. At least they weren’t teasing me, pulling a practical joke on me. That made a change. I figured it had something to do with the events lately. The soccer game, the incident on the field with Mike Beacon.

  Damn. I started to wonder if I was bordering on cool.

  Just a shame I was finishing school for summer break soon. Ah well. Hopefully, the good word would follow me into next year.

  The air was thick with the smell of aftershave. I didn’t bother with aftershave, and in all honesty, I was glad I’d made that call now. It was smelly as hell as it was, no way anyone was gonna be able to tell I wasn’t wearing any.

  I searched around for my friends. Damon told me he was by the bar, which sounded way cooler before you saw it: the “bar” was just a little single-file line where a woman barely older than us handed out plastic cups of Coca-Cola. Not quite the bars you saw on movies. Which, in a way, I was kinda relieved about.

  I squinted over at the dance floor, dared myself to look. Where the hell was Damon? He was supposed to be here. So too were some of our other mates—or rather, Damon’s mates from classes—Paul, Chris, Sam. I got that awful feeling that maybe I’d been stood up. Maybe this was all some kind of prank from Damon to get me to go to the party. I’d made the bold call of turning up alone in the first place, without a grand photo entry.

  Ah well. At least I knew Ellicia was here.

  My stomach turned when I thought about Ellicia. I thought back to her message. She’d said she was here with a little smiley. What was I supposed to do now? Message her again and ask where she was at? Wander up to her looking all cool asking if she wanted a non-alcoholic drink? I didn’t know. I was clueless. How was I supposed to know how to go about these things?

  I decided to grab myself a Coke. It’d kill a bit of time, at least. I got in the awfully polite line and waited there, wishing there was a way I could hydrate myself using my ULTRA abilities without having to wait here dying of thirst.

  I was close to reaching the front of the line when I felt someone push me.

  “Keep moving. Don’t make a scene.”

/>   I was tempted to use the strength I knew I had inside me—physically, at least—to stand my ground. But I figured now wasn’t the time to make a show of things.

  I let myself get pushed away from the queue, past the bar, and into a little darkened corner out of sight of the majority of the party.

  When I turned around, I saw Mike Beacon standing right up to my face.

  He didn’t look happy.

  I thought about what I could say to try and diffuse the situation. I really thought he’d have learned to leave me alone by now. I started to raise my shaky hands. Half-smiled. “Mike, if this is about—”

  Mike pushed me back against the wall. Trapped me between his arms.

  “The hell do you think you’re doing showing your face here?”

  I wet my lips, then realized in hindsight how ridiculous that’d make me look. “It’s the party. I can be here if I want to be. Kinda.” Almost tough. Almost assertive. Almost.

  Mike’s eyes were bloodshot. His jaw was shaking at the sides. “You’ve got some nerve.”

  “What happened. The other day. It was… it was an accident, Mike. But I’m glad to see your asthma’s not stopped you—”

  Mike pushed me back. Only this time, he did it harder. So hard that the back of my head cracked against the wall, sent a fuzzy sensation splitting through my skull.

  “About that, Peters. You’d better watch your step after what happened. You’d better watch it real closely. Not step outta line.”

  I chanced a cocky return that I knew I’d earned. “I’d say it’s you who might wanna watch out. I roasted you with that football.”

  I knew I’d made a mistake the moment the words left my lips.

  Mike pushed me back again. Only this time, instinctively, I stopped myself before my head could crack against the wall.

  I saw Mike’s smile twitch a little. Just a little. But there was a weird look in his eyes. Shit. Had he seen me resist hitting the wall? Had he seen me using my abilities, just for that split second?

  No. I was being stupid. I was being paranoid. I was—

  “Funny thing happened when I got to the hospital,” Mike said. “My peak flow. Way of measuring asthma, y’know. It was fine. Better than ever, in fact. Docs said they couldn’t understand how I’d had an asthma attack when my symptoms were pretty much non-existent.”

  I felt my mouth growing even drier. He knew. He knew something was off.

  “I dunno what happened out there,” Mike said, tightening his grip on my wrists, leaning close to my ear. “But I’d say you might wanna watch yourself, squirt. Because if you step outta line one more time, I’ll make sure everyone knows about our little secret. Everyone.”

  When he pulled away from me and looked me in the eyes, I knew.

  I knew that Mike Beacon—my enemy, my nemesis—was aware that I had abilities.

  ULTRA abilities.

  And he was going to use them against me.

  I watched Mike walk away, smile on his face, and the world around me slipped back into the focus. The booming music. The smiles. The choking perfume and the heat from the people I’d never liked, who’d never liked me.

  Mike was dangerous. I had to talk to him. I had to make sure he didn’t tell anyone. Damn, he could be telling someone right now.

  I rushed in the direction I’d seen Mike go. I pushed past people, knocked drinks over. I felt a few shoves in my back, heard a few moans aimed at me, but they didn’t matter.

  Mike was the only thing that mattered right now.

  Finding him and stopping him from telling anyone what he knew was the only thing that…

  My thoughts froze when I saw Ellicia in the middle of the dance floor.

  She looked gorgeous. Like a 3D version of that photo she’d uploaded to Facebook beforehand. Because that’s exactly what she was, dumbass.

  I wanted to go up to her. I wanted to walk across the dance floor and tell her I was here. Hold her hands. Dance with her.

  But I knew that wouldn’t happen. Not anymore.

  Because she was dancing with someone else.

  Another guy.

  She was looking into his eyes with a sparkling look to her own. Not shifting her vision from him. Laughing at his jokes.

  I felt the tingling burning up the back of my neck. I wanted to end the music. I wanted to bring the roof off this place, end the fun. I wanted to destroy it.

  And then I heard a voice in my head. A voice telling me not to be ridiculous. Destroy this place? That was scary. That was an abuse of power.

  That was the very evil that the ULTRAs were renowned for.

  I looked at the girl in the middle of the dance floor—the only reason I’d come to this stupid event, the only reason I’d psyched myself up, got dressed up like this for.

  I looked at her in the arms of another guy.

  She looked at me. I swear she looked at me, just for a split second.

  But it was too late.

  By that point, I was already leaving.

  Before I did any damage that I knew I was capable of.

  That I knew had been building up under the surface for years.

  21

  I walked away from the party feeling as stupid as I should’ve felt walking to it.

  The moon shone brightly from the dark sky above. The air was cold, a chill to my breath, but I didn’t feel cold. I felt anything but cold. Probably because my cheeks were still burning with anger. Shame. Embarrassment. Hell, a crazy cocktail of all three.

  I’d gone to the party and Ellicia had been there with another guy.

  I saw a bin up ahead. It was overspilling trash. Without even thinking, I watched it topple onto the pavement, spilling its contents out. I knew I’d used my powers on it. And I knew I was being stupid. But shit. What did it matter anymore? What did it matter now Mike Beacon knew I had ULTRA abilities? What did it matter when the only girl I cared about was seeing someone else?

  I squeezed my jaw and tried not to think back to Ellicia’s messages. She’d been fishing for me to ask her to the party all along. Okay, I didn’t think it looked like that, but eventually, I came to believe it.

  She’d seemed happy. Happy that I was attending. So what happened? What had I done wrong?

  I felt a sickening feeling in my gut when I heard the laughter of a couple walking at the opposite side of the road. The woman’s high heels clicked against the pavement. The guy held an arm around her waist. In truth, they weren’t much older than me—five, six years—but it seemed a lifetime since I’d reach that point.

  I kept on walking and thought back to Ellicia’s messages, as much as I didn’t want to. Was it possible she just wanted to be friends after all? Which was cool. I wasn’t one of those guys who berated girls for not wanting to be with guys. That led to all kinds of trouble.

  But still…

  Was that all it was? Really?

  I waited until I knew the couple at the opposite side of the road had definitely disappeared from sight.

  And then I kicked another trash bin over with my mind.

  As I walked down Victory Boulevard, I realized I didn’t really care what happened to myself anymore. Because we were only as good as the things we had, the people around us. And I had jack shit around me. Sure, I had my friends. I had my parents. But I only dragged them down, especially with the added burden of my ULTRA abilities.

  I pulled back my foot and kicked the curb. It hurt my foot, but it damaged the curb even more.

  What did it matter if I used my abilities a little now? Mike Beacon was gonna expose me for who I was anyway. It was only a matter of time before he got sick of holding that information for himself and actually used to it wreck my life once and for all.

  I could keep my abilities under wraps. I could.

  But I knew even the slightest suspicion of ULTRA activity and the police would be right onto it. The ULTRAs were gone, sure. But the memories of their destruction were not. It’d linger in “collective consciousness” for eternity, the
newsreaders often said.

  The last bit of life I had left as a free man, I wasn’t gonna spend it terrified of Mike Beacon. I wasn’t gonna spend it hidden away in fear.

  I was gonna use my powers.

  I was gonna use what I had.

  Upon thinking it, I heard something crumble across the street. It took me a few moments to realize that some traffic lights were falling down. I watched the bottom of them split away from the concrete, watched them rip out of the ground and hurtle towards the road below. And I didn’t care. Not an inch of me cared.

  I just wanted to tear shit up.

  I just wanted to destroy things.

  I didn’t care how psycho or crazy that made me sound. I’d been waiting for a moment to wreak havoc for my entire life.

  Or at least, my entire life since Cassie died.

  I sent the traffic lights falling to the road. I smashed windows. I felt the anger bubbling stronger within, only the new image sparking my anger was the smile on Mike Beacon’s face, the glow in Ellicia’s eyes as someone else held her, someone who wasn’t me.

  I stomped onto the ground and watched the sidewalk split for meters into the distance.

  I bit down so hard that I felt my teeth shift.

  I let out a cry.

  My voice was so loud that I startled myself. It set car alarms off. Punctured tires. It even shifted a few huge trash canisters, opened a few doors. Up the road, I saw a homeless guy pushing along a bundle of clothes in a huge basket. Only he wasn’t anymore—the bundle was on the ground.

  I knew when I saw house lights flickering on that I needed to get away from here. I’d been stupid. I’d drawn way too much attention to myself. Not that it mattered, sure, but I wanted more time. More time to… Oh, I dunno what. Just more time.

  I was about to sprint back home—or at least as far away from here as I could get—when I saw something weird overhead.