The situation did sound suspicious; this was something that Taia could not deny. But she didn’t care. She trusted Eli with her life and she always would. “Eli was with me all day Connor,” Taia said. Jesse and Kate nodded affirmatively in the behind her. “No way could he have done something to the reactor. And he just risked his life to save all of us.”
“Enough!” the General said. Everybody looked at him. A decent crowd had now formed around the Power Building. “We have to evacuate. We have no choice. And we just have to hope that we get everyone far enough from the explosion that we will be okay.”
The General pinched his nose. “About how long do we have until it explodes?” he asked Craig.
Craig shook his head. “There’s no way of knowing. We could have anywhere from 5 seconds to an hour.”
The General and Connor exchanged words but Taia was not listening. While her father had been talking, Eli had been moving toward the front of the building. He was now standing directly in front of it.
“Eli!” Taia called, worriedly walking toward him.
“Stay back Taia.” was his reply.
“Eli,” Taia repeated calling over to him desperately. “What are you doing?”
A heavy sigh escaped Eli’s lips and he turned and looked at Taia. His eyes were glowing the burning yellow color that they took on when he fought the mayor. “I’m trying out the hero thing.”
“What?” Connor asked looking at Eli. He had seen his eyes glowing. “He’s a Supe!” he yelled. “Shoot him! Shoot him!”
The General turned around in surprise and looked at Eli in shock. Taia stood in front of Eli as civilians cowered and soldiers drew their weapons. “No!” she screamed.
“Don’t shoot!” the General yelled in fear of his daughter.
“Are you insane Tony?!” Connor said angrily. “That Supe is about to kill us all!”
It was at that moment that multiple things happened. First, the Power Building Exploded, energy fanning out at all points. And then, as if in slow motion, all of that energy and power seemed to be absorbed into Eli. He had his arms outstretched and was taking in as much power as he could. And finally, the reactor stopped exploding.
Every light in Sector 6 turned off, before some turned on in key parts of the city. The hospital, the Army barracks, the most important parts of the city came on as they were being powered by the city’s backup generators.
Eli’s clothes were now on fire, burning away due to the energy he had absorbed and all of the heat he was putting off. He turned around hands and eyes glowing looking at Taia. “Shoot me,” he pleaded. And the soldiers surrounding him complied. They began firing shots at Eli.
“Eli!” Taia screamed trying to run towards him but her father held her back. But it did not matter. Because after several shots had been fired into him, Eli was still standing; glowing with more power than ever.
Taia wrenched away from her father’s grasp and ran towards Eli. She grabbed his face as he fell to one knee. He was burning but she didn’t care.
“What’s going on Eli?” she asked. “Talk to me.”
“I’m running too hot,” he said. “The sun could handle all the energy because the sun is the greatest source of it. So I was able to contain it all. But now I’m running too hot and I might explode at a rate worse than the reactor would have,” Eli looked like he was on the verge of tears. “You have to shoot me,” he said.
“They tried Eli,” Taia said. “And it didn’t work.”
“Taia, you have to do something,” Eli pleaded. “I can’t hurt you. I can’t lose you too. I can’t kill you too.”
“But you’re not.”
“I am,” Eli said desperately. “Remember what happened to the Mayor? That’s what I’m going to do to everyone here.”
“You’re not!” Taia said. “Look,” Taia then motioned to the fact that she was touching Eli, holding his face. “You’re not hurting me right now. Everything is okay. We’re okay.”
Eli seemed to be calming down a bit now. He wasn’t putting off as much heat. “You are good Eli Proof,” Taia said desperately.
Eli then took a deep breath and let one out. Soon his eyes stopped glowing and his clothes were no longer on fire, half of them having already burnt off. He smiled widely at Taia and Taia smiled back.
“Get up!” It was General Morris. He had his own rifle pointed at Eli and he was looking murderous.
“Dad,” Taia said. “Please. He just saved our lives.”
“You knew?” Morris asked, his voice cracking, looking betrayed. “After what his kind did to your mother and you brought him here!”
“He just saved us Dad!” Taia exclaimed.
“He’s a Supe! And you should not have brought him here. Get the hell up!” Morris then grabbed Eli and pulled him up. He and several other soldiers had their guns pointed at him and began pushing him forward, while other soldiers grabbed Taia, keeping her away from Eli.
“Taia,” Eli said. “I’m going to be okay.”
“Shut up,” Connor then smacked Eli in the face with his gun. Jesse ran forward to attack Connor but a few soldiers held him back. The soldiers began walking Eli to the Stockade.
“What are you going to do with him?” Taia asked fearfully. “What are you going to do?”
But they all kept walking him forward. “He just saved you all you ungrateful bastards!” Taia screamed tears falling freely. Soon Eli and her father were out of sight and the soldiers let her go. It was only Taia and her friends now.
Surprisingly, it was Kate who spoke first. “I don’t get it,” she said. “They didn’t know he was Transcended?”
Jesse and Taia both stared at Kate. “You knew?” Jesse asked.
“Of course,” Kate said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Otherwise, nothing would have made any sense.”
Taia got up and hugged Kate for being the wonderful girl she was. She knew Eli was a Supe and treated him like he was the kindest person in the world. People may have made fun of Kate and called her dumb, but she was clearly smarter than most of the people in the Sector. And a better person too.
The trio then ran to the Stockade where they knew they would be holding Eli. There were almost 20 guards stationed outside of the Stockade blocking the entrance.
“Let us in,” Taia said.
The soldiers ignored her. Jesse tried running past them into the Stockade but they grabbed him and pushed him back.
Taia pulled out her pistol and pointed it at one of the guards. “Let. Us. In.”
The rest of the guards all trained their assault rifles on to Taia.
Then, General Morris came bursting through the doors of the Stockade with Connor hot on his heels.
“You can’t leave him in there General!” Connor said. “We know he’s a Supe now!”
“Those cells were built to hold his kind Lieutenant. And there are soldiers there to guard him.”
Morris and Connor were walking toward the Sector Headquarters. Taia and her friends took off after them.
“General, you have let him go,” Taia said pleadingly to her father, almost jogging to keep up with him. “Please, just let him leave the Sector.”
Morris rounded on Taia. “Let him leave?! You brought him here! You knew he was a Supe and you brought him here! After all I’ve done to keep Supes out of here -- I just -- I can’t.”
The General then turned around and kept walking.
“So you know you can’t let him leave then?” Connor asked. “And we can’t just live here with a Supe living in the freaking Stockade!”
Jesse looked aghast. “Wait, what are you saying then Lieutenant General?”
“You know damn well what I’m saying, cadet. We need to kill that boy.”
Kate slapped Connor across the face. Connor looked at her in disbelief. “We are not the Regime,” she said. “We are not evil people. We don’t just go around killing people. Especially people who haven’t done anything wrong to us.”
“Hav
en’t done anything wrong?” Connor asked incredulously. “He killed my cadets girl! He killed my Sergeant!”
“That was you!” Taia roared. “You sent us on that mission!”
“To kill some Supes!” Connor sputtered, spit flying everywhere, no longer caring for the pretense of acting like he didn’t organize the mission. He was beside himself. “I sent you there to kill some Supes and you brought one back! If it was a trap girl, I wasn’t the one who set it.”
“Then your informant—“
“Is solid!” Connor said. “He’s the informant that reports directly and only to your father and your father gives me all of the information.”
Taia didn’t have anything to say to Connor. “Dad,” she began desperately. “Please let Eli go.”
Morris did not even look at his daughter as they arrived at the Headquarters. “Lieutenant Connor. Do not kill that boy. I will be back.” The General then went into the building.
Connor glared at the young soldiers before heading back to the Stockade. They followed him.
Chapter 20
“I need to see him!” Taia screamed in the faces of the soldiers outside of the Stockade. Jesse and Kate were standing behind her. Night was beginning to fall as Connor had gone into the building over an hour ago and her father still had not returned from Sector headquarters.
The soldiers ignored her. They just kept looking forward standing at guard in front of the Stockade.
Soon a truck pulled up and the General hopped out of the passenger side.
“General!” But Morris ignored his daughter and simply marched into the Stockade.
He was in there for nearly 10 minutes before Taia decided she simply couldn’t handle it anymore.
“Come on,” she said to her friends. They then left the Stockade and made their way toward the forested area of the Sector.
“We can’t go in there,” Jesse said when they arrived at the trapdoor they had been using for weeks.
“We have to get him out Jess,” Taia responded.
“How do you even know he’ll be in the same cell?”
“Why would they change it?” Taia then looked at Kate. “Stay here and make sure no one stops us okay?” Taia then tried to give Kate her pistol.
“Ew,” Kate said, with obvious revulsion. “I don’t do guns. And I think you might need that more than I will.”
Jesse and Taia climbed through the trap door leading to Eli’s cell. When they opened the door, they found Eli pacing, with a black eye and bruises on his face. Connor had been busy.
“What are you guys doing?” Eli whispered frantically.
“We came to get you out big man,” Jesse said. “Now let’s go.”
“You guys are just going to get yourselves into trouble,” Eli said. “I can handle myself.”
“Connor will kill you Eli,” Taia said. “We have to get you out of here.”
“And how are we going to that?” he asked. “The Gate surrounds the entire city. You guys said if I try to fly out, they’ll shoot me down.”
Taia and Jesse didn’t have an answer for this. “It doesn’t matter,” Taia said. “If you stay here, then Connor will probably kill you.”
The sound of the cell door opening stopped Eli from responding.
“Then I guess it’s a good thing he’s not staying here,” Tony Morris said.
“What are you talking about Dad?” Taia asked her father as he escorted Eli to the front of the Stockade, where Connor was standing looking furious. “You’re really letting Eli go?”
“Should you be questioning me Taia considering you were just about to free this Supe?” He asked her angrily. “What is going on with you?”
“He saved my life Dad!”
“He’s a Supe!” Morris responded. “He doesn’t belong here! He’s a danger to us all.”
“Then why are you letting him go General?” Connor asked vehemently. “You were sitting in your office all that time thinking and all you came up with is that you’re just going to let him go into the world. He’s a liability. He can’t be trusted. Let me put him down.”
“James, you have to trust me,” Morris said.
“Trust you? You’re putting the entire Sector at risk!” Connor was furious.
“I am saving the Sector!” Morris roared. “You have to let me give this boy back.”
“Give him back?” Taia asked. “Give him back to who?”
A soldier burst through the Stockade doors. “General!” he said hurriedly. “Sir, please, you need to come out here.”
“What now?” The General asked before running out of the doors with Connor following him. There were still 3 guards in the room with Jesse, Taia, and Eli blocking the exit for them.
Taia looked at Jesse and Eli. Jesse shrugged.
The 3 guards then fell to the ground as Eli forced gravity down on them. Jesse and Taia then knocked the guards out.
“I really don’t think this is a good idea,” Eli said. “We already said me flying over the gate won’t work and this will just get you all in trouble.”
“We have to try,” Taia replied.
Eli shook his head. “Do the guards have the key on them to these?” He motioned to the cuffs on his arms.
Jesse searched them. “I can’t find it. The General must have taken it.”
“Whatever,” Taia said. “We’ll just have to go without it.”
The trio then left the Stockade in a hurry. All of the guards were gone from outside of the building. Down a few blocks, they could see a crowd forming.
“What is that?” Eli asked.
“I don’t know,” Taia said. “But while they’re all distracted, we need to go.”
“No…” Eli said. “We need to go over there.”
He then took off toward the gathering with the large cuffs still on his arm. “Eli!” Taia yelled. She and Jesse followed after him.
When they arrived at the crowd, Taia suddenly got a feeling of Déjà vu. From wherever the crowd was surrounding, large gusts of wind were being pushed outward. Then suddenly, Taia saw purple lighting appearing from above everyone’s heads.
She looked around. This was the same area where she and Eli had arrived when she returned to Sector 6.
“No way,” she said.
The young teenagers then began pushing through the crowd until they arrived at what everyone was looking at. Soldiers were telling everyone to get back but Taia could not hear them.
A large vortex was open in the middle of Sector 6. Purple lighting and strong gusts of wind were emanating from it.
“That stupid idiot,” Eli muttered.
Connor heard him. “What is this Supe?!” he yelled grabbing Eli. “What did you do?”
The General was right in front of the vortex, arm protecting his face from the wind, seemingly horrified.
That’s when Blake Gates stepped out of the Vortex, but he wasn’t alone.
Blake was wearing a purple hoodie and his purple scarf and goggles. With him to his right was a man that looked to be around Eli’s height but a few years older. He looked to be Hispanic and was wearing a green V-Neck shirt with combat boots. He had tattoos all over his arms and chest.
To the right of that man was a young woman. She was very pale but looked extremely athletic.
To the left of Blake was a boy that looked to be a few years younger than Taia. His jacket was old and worn and he looked like he was just waking up from a nap. He yawned and outstretched his arms in a tired manner, coughing slightly. The youngest boy spoke first after the vortex closed behind them.
“God I hate that.”
“Calm down Carl,” Blake said. “It’s not that bad,” he paused for a second. “Even though I guess you aren’t overreacting like Fielding.”
Taia knew that name. Eli and Blake had mentioned him at the ball. Something about plants.
Fielding was coughing wildly. “Overreacting?” he roared, between heavy coughs. “I’m going to kill you Blake!”
“They’re Supes
!” Connor yelled. “Shoot them! Shoot!”
The soldiers around them all pulled their weapons and aimed them at the group. The civilians then began running heading inside various buildings and homes.
“No!” Eli yelled. His eyes began glowing and the cuffs on his hands exploded from the energy of the sun as he broke them and stood in front of his friends, hands in a fist, eyes glowing wildly.
“Don’t shoot!” The General yelled.
“Eli,” Blake began. “Why are you naked?”
Eli’s shirt had not been replaced since it had been burned off hours before because of the reactor.
“Shut up Blake,” Eli muttered.
“I think it’s a valid question,” Fielding said.
“Tony, what are you doing?” Connor asked him. “Shoot these freaks!”
“I need him alive!” Morris replied, pointing at Eli.
“You need all of us alive,” Blake said. “The Regime is coming to attack this place and you’re going to need all the help you can get.”
Everyone froze. The soldiers of Sector 6 began muttering fearfully to one another.
“Hold on Blake,” Eli said. “What did you say?”
Blake sighed. “Melisa here,” Blake indicated the girl that had come with him. “Is a Core baby. Like you. Human parents, but she’s Transcended. So she’s been spying for me. Got wind an hour or so ago that the Regime is getting together a huge Core task force to attack the Resistance. Coordinates 42 N, 83 W. And I remembered those were the coordinates that Taia told me.”
Morris glared at his daughter, furious. She had told him that she killed the teleporter that took her back to Sector 6. The lies just kept adding up. She looked back at him sheepishly.
“So I got my team together as fast as I could,” Blake continued. “We aren’t much. But we’re better than no help at all.”
“Team? Core baby?” Connor sneered. “None of that is making any sense. It’s impossible for two humans to have a Transcended child.”
“Not impossible,” Eli said. “Just rare. Started happening about 2 decades ago. Makes sense doesn’t it? That the Outbreak virus would cause even human’s children to eventually evolve. The virus affected everybody, just only a certain percentage of the population evolved from it. It would make sense that a few generations down the line, everyone’s lineage would begin evolve from it.”
Becoming Super Page 23
