by Matt Blake
Damon was standing at the other side of his bedroom.
He looked pale. Thinner and more gaunt than I remembered.
But more than anything, he looked like he’d been crying.
“Damon?”
I stepped closer to him and heard voices outside. I saw lights in the streets. I heard movement downstairs.
I looked back. “We need to—”
“I’m sorry, Kyle. I’m so sorry.”
I looked back at Damon.
But this time, there was something different. Something very different.
Blood-red electricity sparked across his hands.
37
As much as I wanted to, I couldn’t look my best friend in the eye. Not for long.
Because he had powers.
And by the looks of things, he was threatening to use them.
Against me.
Outside, all around, I could hear footsteps approaching. It didn’t take a genius to realize what those footsteps were. They were Adam’s followers. They were on their way to surround me. All of this—the way I’d been brought here on the understanding that Damon needed help—was a setup.
Adam had got to Damon. The bastard had got to my best friend.
“Damon, don’t—”
I saw Damon close his eyes, lift his hands, and fire in my direction.
I jumped out of the way of the electricity. It burned a hole in the back of Damon’s room. I could smell burning; taste it, too.
“Please, Damon,” I pleaded. “You don’t have to—”
“I’m sorry.”
He fired at me again. But once again, I jumped out of the way of the electricity. Damon might’ve had powers, but he didn’t have the same experience with them that I had. I knew I was stronger. I knew I could defeat him in a heartbeat, taking him down completely, if I wanted to.
But I didn’t want to. Of course I didn’t want to.
Damon was my best friend.
I dodged a few more of his attacks. As he fired at me, I heard the footsteps getting further up the stairs. I wanted to teleport away from here with Damon, but he wouldn’t let me get close. He was reckless. If he wasn’t careful, he was going to bring his whole house down.
“You need to stop this,” I shouted. “We need to talk. Not fight.”
“I’ve tried talking,” Damon said. I saw then that he was full-on crying. Clearly this wasn’t easy for him. “But you just don’t hear me, man. You don’t hear any of us. There’s no other way anymore.”
“There are other ways. Ways we can—”
Another blast of electricity flew at me.
I swung back.
This time, something was different.
I felt something smack into my chest. It hit me before I could do anything about it.
I fell to the floor, totally paralyzed, twitching and shaking. I struggled to breathe.
In the corner of my eye, I could see red electricity crackling all over my body. I knew right then that I’d been hit by Damon’s powers.
My best friend’s powers.
The taste of blood and sick filled my mouth. My head was banging, and I could barely hear a thing.
I tried to shift myself away from this place, but that biting electricity on my back just intensified.
I tried to create a wormhole, but it intensified even more.
Then I noticed there were lots of people in this room. Lots of people crowded into Damon’s house. ULTRAs. ULTRAs that, not so long ago, weren’t ULTRAs at all. They were people. People who felt betrayed and let down by the Resistance and me. People who had seen something in the words of Adam.
I was on my knees in front of my new leaders.
Damon was one of my new leaders.
My best friend.
I heard Damon’s sluggish footsteps walking towards me. I didn’t want to look up at him. I didn’t want to face him after this.
But I knew I had to.
I looked into his tired eyes as he stood above me, hands sparking red electricity. His bottom lip shook. His cheeks were stained with tears.
“Please,” I said. My voice was cracking now, too. “Damon, please. You’re my best friend.”
“That’s why I’m doing this. Don’t you see?”
I half-smiled and shook my head. “I get it. I get that—that you aren’t happy. With the way things are. But Adam. He… he’s using you, Damon. He’s using you to get to me. And now he’s got me. Unless you let me go. Please.”
I saw a glimmer of our old lifelong bond and understanding in Damon’s eyes. Just for a split second, I thought he was going to change his mind, and come around to my way of thinking.
Then he closed his eyes and sighed.
He lifted his hands.
“He’ll be here soon. Don’t… don’t make me do anything.”
Hearing Damon say those words was painful. Mortifying. I didn’t know what to think or how to feel. I couldn’t even feel betrayed.
Because I knew now that I’d done this. I’d formed this wedge between us.
I hadn’t listened to what people like Damon wanted. I had been reckless. I’d caused chaos, with good intentions, sure. But chaos nonetheless.
Something had to change.
And to Damon and the rest of Adam’s followers, Adam was that change.
“He’ll take your powers away,” I said. “The second he’s done with you. He’ll take your powers away.”
Damon wiped his eyes. He tilted his head. “Then—then I guess that’s fair.”
“You know I’m not just going to back down right now. Don’t you?”
Damon didn’t budge.
“And you know what that means you’re going to have to do. To your best friend.”
Damon’s cheeks flushed. He shook his head. “Don’t. Please. Don’t.”
I closed my eyes.
I focused all of my energy on teleporting myself away from here, no matter how much it hurt with the paralyzing electricity singeing at my skin.
I gritted my teeth.
Bit the sides of my mouth.
“Kyle, don’t—”
I heard a blast.
And as I crouched there, still trying to fight my way out of Damon’s house, I was convinced that it was Damon who’d fired. I was convinced that he’d shot that electricity at me, and soon I’d be writhing around on the floor, totally broken, totally weak.
When I opened my eyes, I saw something entirely different.
38
Daniel Septer didn’t like to admit it, but since he’d re-acquainted with his biological brother, he got a bad feeling whenever Kyle was in trouble.
He was in the middle of San Francisco when the latest sense of foreboding hit him square in the chest. He was watching the sun set at the side of the Orange County. It was a really nice, peaceful day. Of course, Daniel had to keep as low a profile as possible since Adam’s followers were hunting down every ULTRA they could get their eyes on. The people wanted that, too. They wanted to see the current wave of ULTRAs all lose their powers in the hope that Adam could hand them over to them.
It made Daniel feel a little sick. He had to take his proverbial hat off to Adam, of course. He’d really struck a nerve, and found a way to manipulate everyone into following him, for whatever end goal he had in mind.
But that was just the thing. There was an end goal for Adam. There was always an end goal where conquering the planet was concerned.
And dress it up however you like. Adam was conquering the planet right now. It might be subtle, it might not be as bold and untidy an approach as Saint took.
But he was brainwashing the world to his way of thinking.
And the world was buying into it at an alarming rate.
Damned people. There was a reason Daniel thought about wiping the earth of them not so long back.
But hey. Everyone matured.
He listened to the silence of San Francisco, the sun shining down on him, and he got that feeling in the middle of his chest. It always brou
ght on a funny taste in his mouth too. Like chlorine. He guessed it was something of a flashback to his earliest memory—being held underwater by his biological father, Orion, and Saint beside him.
It was a memory he’d only recently discovered. But when he’d discovered it, and discovered his real identity, his whole life had changed.
Cassie was his sister. And Kyle was his brother.
For better or for worse, Daniel was forced to put his long term plans for world domination on hold for that.
But hey. Long term plans were still long term plans.
He closed his eyes and teleported in the direction the feeling took him.
He was in New York in a flash. The contrast to San Francisco was depressing. It was dark in New York and raining.
He was somewhere he recognized, though.
Staten Island.
The street where Damon, Kyle’s idiot best friend, lived.
Daniel tensed his fists when he elevated into the air and saw Damon and Kyle in Damon’s room.
Damon was standing over Kyle. His hands were covered in… damn, was that electricity? So Damon was an ULTRA now? Daniel should’ve known the big guy would get too greedy.
He saw Damon lift his hands and point them right at Kyle’s face. And in that momentary flash, Daniel felt a sense of defensiveness over his older brother. Not to say they were best friends—they weren’t. Their views on the world differed too much. They were just putting their differences aside for a few years of world peace. But neither of them was under any illusions about the truth.
One day, there would be war between them again.
It was just a matter of when.
But right now, it was important Kyle stayed alive.
Because Kyle was his brother. And Kyle was the ULTRAs’ best hope against Adam.
It was a pity Daniel couldn’t just leave humanity to destroy itself, and then realize the damage it’d done the hard way.
One day. One day.
Daniel flew in through Damon’s window and slammed into the back of him.
He knocked him aside. Left him rolling in a mass of electrical sparks.
He jumped to his feet and felt time slowing down.
He punched the ULTRA behind Kyle in the face.
Then, when the rest of the surrounding ULTRAs lifted their hands and went to blast Daniel in their many ways, he bounced their powers right back at them.
Others, he soaked up the powers into one big ball, then sent it flying into that crowd.
Soon, there were only four left.
Daniel held out a hand to Kyle. “Come on. We have to get out of here.”
Kyle looked totally distraught. Distraught like Daniel had never seen him. He took a bit of pleasure in his temporary defeat, but mostly he felt sympathy for his older brother. Clearly, Damon’s betrayal had really hit him hard.
“Come on, man,” Daniel said, hearing more footsteps emerge up the stairs. “We don’t have much time.”
Kyle stretched out his shaky hand and planted it in Daniel’s.
He half-smiled at Daniel. And Daniel found himself half-smiling back at him.
“Thank you,” Kyle said. He sounded weak. Bereft of confidence. “Thank…”
Daniel drifted out of the conversation then.
He drifted, because he saw something in the corner of his eyes.
Red.
He turned around and saw Damon firing electricity towards Kyle.
The electricity was too close to do anything about.
And judging by how weak Kyle was, he wouldn’t survive any more of it.
Daniel did the only thing he could.
He did the only thing instinct forced him to do.
It wasn’t the comfortable option.
Hell, it might not’ve even been the right option.
But it sure felt right.
He closed his eyes and threw himself in front of Kyle.
The red electricity hurtled at his chest.
For a moment, as Kyle struggled to drag him out of the way, Daniel thought maybe something had happened. Maybe the electricity had failed. Or maybe Kyle had found a way to repel it.
He opened his eyes and he saw the electricity make contact with his chest.
Then, he fell to his knees, and felt all his energy drift away.
39
I watched Damon’s electricity fire into Daniel as he threw himself in front of me, and I knew right then from my emotions on the situation that everything had changed.
Daniel convoluted. His head flew back, knocked me right in the nose, which made me fall back and hit the floor in turn. He landed on top of me, his sparks of that paralyzing electricity singeing at me. I pulled myself away, even though I felt pretty weak myself. My head throbbed. I felt sick, especially now I could smell burning, and hear the groans coming from my brother.
“Come on,” I said, pulling Daniel away. I wanted to teleport away from here, but I felt too exhausted, too weak. “You’re strong. You can fight through the paralysis. If I can do it, you can.”
At the opposite side of the room, Damon stood there and watched. He looked totally baffled about what to do next.
I pulled Daniel further to the other side of the room. The wall had broken away in the conflict, and I could feel the heat of flames surrounding me. “We have to go. We have to get out of here. Come on.”
Daniel kept on shaking and struggling on the floor. I knew I had to do the heavy lifting myself.
“Don’t go,” Damon said.
I looked up at him. And right then, I felt nothing but hate. This guy wasn’t my best friend anymore. He’d turned on me. He’d sold out to Adam. “You were supposed to trust me.”
Damon shook his head. “How could I? When I saw what you were doing to the world?”
The pain of Damon’s words made my stomach knot. I looked down at Daniel, who was unconscious. “Bye, Damon. You won’t see me again.”
He lifted his hands. “Wait—”
I teleported myself and Daniel away.
We landed a few blocks away. Dammit. I was trying to teleport us further, but clearly I was weak right now.
I felt the rain falling down on us as I dragged Daniel along. “Stay with me, brother. Stay with me.”
I pulled him further, then teleported us away some more, aiming to reach the other side of the world.
We only made it about five hundred meters.
I looked over my shoulder. I could see someone following me then. Someone getting closer, in the shadows.
I turned around and teleported further away. Still, I was struggling to get outside of New York. Why was it? What was stopping me?
When I teleported even further, I realized why.
I was in the middle of a crowd of people. On a stage, in fact. There were masses of these people. All of them booing at me. Some of them hissing, and spitting. They were holding up placards:
BRING BACK MY SON!
MURDERER!
FALSE GODS!
As I stood there and listened to the angry roar of the crowd, I wasn’t sure I’d ever felt as ashamed in my entire life.
“Come on,” I said.
I went to pull Daniel away when I saw we weren’t alone.
Adam was standing right beside us.
He lifted that gloved hand.
Out of instinct, I teleported above, so I was looking down on the events. Damn. I’d managed to teleport. Must’ve been pure instinct kicking in.
Only one problem.
Daniel was still down there on the stage.
I flew down towards Daniel when I saw Adam lift a hand.
“You come down here and you give up your powers. Right now.”
I stopped, then. I stopped because as much as I wanted to save Daniel, I knew Adam wasn’t going to let him go even if I did go down there. I knew he was too dangerous for Adam to allow to disappear.
I knew that if I flew down there, both of us were finished.
And I had a responsibility to the world to make
sure I protected it from Adam.
Protected it from itself.
“No?” Adam said. “That’s a shame. Then we’ll get started.”
I tried to shoot my way back down there, but I just bounced back off some kind of invisible force field that must’ve been set up. I punched at it. Tried to get through. But I couldn’t. I just couldn’t.
“Let him go!” I shouted.
Adam stood behind Daniel. He put his hands on his shoulders, and pressed him down onto the surrounded stage. “This is Daniel Septer. Nycto. You saw who he was flying with just then, didn’t you? You saw who this terrorist is aligned with, didn’t you? That’s right. Glacies. Glacies the golden boy. The rumors are true.”
I felt my stomach sink. I realized what was happening.
Adam was turning the people against me even more.
I rammed into that force field even more. I could feel it weakening. I had to be quick. I needed to get in there. I needed to get to Daniel.
I couldn’t let Adam finish this speech.
“Nycto represents everything bad about the ULTRAs. He is responsible for so many deaths. And yet he flies with the gods who are supposed to police our world?”
“That’s not true,” I shouted.
Adam ignored me. As did everyone else. “He flies alongside the ULTRAs who claim they are looking out for us?”
Boos and jeers amongst the crowd.
Adam pushed Daniel down onto the stage. Daniel looked totally weak and broken. “Well I don’t think that’s right. I don’t think it sends out the right message at all. Do you?”
A desperate cry of “no!”
So many people.
People I swore I’d protect.
None of them wanting my protection anymore.
“He flies with them and he destroys with them. Do we want any more of that?”
“No!”
Adam smiled as the crowd roared. I could tell he was enjoying this too much. And that unsettled me. Completely unsettled me.
He looked up at me, and that grin of his flickered. “We don’t want any more of this. We don’t want any more illegal rule. We don’t want death. We want freedom. We want to be responsible for our own lives. We want to rule again.”
