“Samantha, just tell me which one is the Prime.”
“The one in the back, on the phone. He’s still on it now.”
I jumped up and began flying as fast as I could toward the bank. Holocene was bursting through the front of the bank as it came into sight. I kicked into overdrive, the windows all around me shattering as the sonic boom sounded.
I passed Holocene in a blur—apparently she wasn’t nearly as fast as I was, which filled me with joy. I didn’t have time to maneuver through the hallways, so I slammed through the walls of the bank. I punched holes in one office after another, heading straight for the break room where Prime and his hostages were.
I slammed through the last of the office walls and saw the gathering of people before me. In the back stood Prime, still talking on his phone. I was moving so fast, none of them had even begun to react to the fact that I had just flown straight through the building. I looked behind me, and didn’t see Holocene. This victory was all mine.
I reached Prime and slowed down just a little bit. With my strength and speed, all I did was lightly poke Prime on his chest. He slammed backwards into the wall and fell to the ground, incapacitated.
I flew out the back wall of the bank and stopped myself in the alley. I ran back in through the hole I’d just made just in time to see the last of his doppelgängers get sucked into his body.
The guns they’d been holding fell to the ground with a clatter. One of the hostages snatched one of them up and pointed it at Prime.
I ran to the wannabe hero-hostage and yanked the gun from him, then threw it against the wall. I opened my mouth to say something, but was stopped by loud cracking sounds, followed by rumbling.
Holocene appeared around the corner. “Get them out of here!” she screamed as she grabbed two hostages and dashed out of the building in a blur. It wasn’t until she came back seconds later for the next one that I realized what was going on and jumped into action.
I grabbed two of the former hostages, ran out the building with them, and set them down by some police officers. I ran back in, grabbed some more, and ran out. Holocene and I had the building cleared in a matter of seconds.
The building began to collapse in on itself.
Prime was still in there.
I ran in one last time as fast as I could. The building collapsed around me in slow motion. Rubble and dirt seemed to float in the air in front of me, but if I looked closely enough, I could see it slowly falling toward the ground. I ran through the holes I’d made earlier, putting together the puzzle pieces.
In my haste and need to show up Holocene, I’d caused this. I was trying to be a hero, and instead, I’d brought down an entire building. Yeah, I’d saved the hostages, but there were a million other ways to do that that would’ve ended much better.
I reached Prime and stopped for a second to grab him. The collapsing ceiling was just inches from the top of my head when I started running again. I ran out the hole in the back of the building and down the alleyway to the safety of the street.
When I stopped I heard the deafening sound of the building collapsing behind me. A cloud of dust and rubble plumed through the street, and I had to cover my mouth to keep from inhaling it.
Once the worst of it had passed, I grabbed Prime and threw him over my shoulder. I ran to the police and set him down in the back of a police car.
I didn’t stop for the cameras, or for thanks. I jumped into the air and flew away, trying to out-fly my embarrassment.
But no amount of flying could change the fact that my ego and I had just brought down an entire building.
9
The Top of the Tower
I landed on top of York Towers. It took everything I had in me to keep from punching a hole in the ground in frustration.
I felt a cool itch in the back of my head.
“Are you okay, Kane?” Samantha asked in a soft, sweet voice.
I clenched my eyes shut and sighed. “Yeah. I’d just like to be alone for a little bit.”
“Okay, well, you know where to find me,” she said.
I felt her presence leave my mind.
And felt another land right behind me.
I whipped around and saw Holocene storming toward me. Before I could react, she planted a solid punch straight to my face. I fell to the ground, but didn’t fight back. I deserved what was coming.
“WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?” she yelled. You probably could’ve heard her for miles.
“How did you know I was here?” was all I could say as I stumbled to my feet. I could feel the bones in my face restructuring, popping back into place. It was a strange sensation, right on the edge of being painful. Like popping your knuckles. It was a feeling that I kinda missed.
“I followed you, dumbass. I don’t want to ever see you within a hundred miles of Dallas again,” she fumed. Her cheeks were turning red with anger.
“I was only trying to help, alright? I’ve been out of the game for a while. I’m a little rusty,” I snapped back.
“Yeah? Well, leave the helping to the heroes, alright? Go back to whatever beach you’ve been kicking back on for the past six months, and stay out of my way.”
Holocene turned around to fly off.
“I’ve been in a coma for six months,” I said. Holocene stopped. “Killing Richter took a lot out of me, and without oxygen, it took longer for my body to repair itself. It wasn’t even fully repaired until I came back to Earth on a NASA shuttle.”
Holocene turned. “You mean you’ve been in space for the past six months?”
I nodded. “Yeah, so I’m sorry if I don’t know exactly how things work. To me, it’s only been a few days since I took out Richter. It’s a whole new world, and I’m still trying to figure it out.”
Holocene sighed. “Well, first thing you need to learn is that you’re not the only Super anymore. There’s a few of us, and more all the time. So going around like you’re head honcho? That’s not going to work. There is no hierarchy. You’re either a hero or you’re not. Most Supers fall into the latter.”
“Don’t worry, I’m a hero.”
“Are you?”
I was taken aback by Holocene’s accusation. “Of course I am. I saved everyone from Richter. I saved those hostages today—even if it wasn’t the way I would’ve liked.”
Holocene looked me up and down and shrugged. “You taking out Richter? The way I look at it, that was just you doing what needed to be done. You were forced to be a hero. Had you not been, he would’ve kept on with his rampage until there wasn’t anyone left on Earth. You didn’t really have much of a choice. So if you think you’ve proven anything, you haven’t. Not to me. To me, whether or not you’re a hero or a villain is still up in the air.” She walked to the edge of the building and was about to jump off. “There’s no Richter anymore. There’s no one to decide who you are for you. Hero or not, it’s up to you now, Tempest.”
10
Ghosts
Director Loren sat behind the desk in her bare office. No paintings or pictures adorned her walls and desk. There was nothing in her office that would’ve led anyone to believe it was the office of one of the most important people in the United States government. She was the head of the recently sanctioned, top secret government agency STF—the Super Task Force. It was the job of Director Loren and her agency to track down all Supers and bring them in to be experimented on. Figure out what made them tick. What made them super. It was a job she’d been very good at. She’d gotten the position thanks to how well she’d handled the Richter/Tempest situation.
She smiled as the memory came back to her. How she’d convinced Tempest to fight for them, how she’d almost taken the two of them out at once.
Almost. That was the word that haunted her. Tempest had still carried out his own mission successfully. Hers? Not quite. Well, she wouldn’t make the same mistake twice. Soon, if she had her way, all the Supers would be gone. There were a few people up in Washington who wanted to try to train a few of them
for their own special uses, but Loren would have none of it. She’d seen what the Supers could do, as had most of the world. No matter what it took, the Supers would be eradicated. The world was a safer place without them. No person deserved so much power. She wouldn’t have a repeat of the Richter Crisis.
She’d made good progress toward her goal, though. They’d been able to learn a lot from the few Supers they’d captured. They’d even been able to develop a weapon that was—for lack of a better term—a nuclear Taser. She smirked at the thought of the name. There was even some truth to it. The tiny radioactive particles that mixed with the electricity incapacitated a Super, frying his or her brain, paralyzing them and preventing them from using their powers. It wasn’t permanent, however. It couldn’t be. Not yet. Her people had yet to find out everything they needed to know about the Supers. They had to learn everything they could about them to make sure there would never be another one ever again. Once she was sure there was nothing else to learn, then she would give the order: the execution of all Supers.
Her head tingled at the thought. She would be infamous then. The woman who’d saved the world from the Supers. A true hero.
She couldn’t wait for that day.
That’s the day you’re going to have to look for a new job, she thought with a slight chuckle. She’d be happy to join the unemployment line.
A knock at the door broke her from her train of thought. “Come in,” she said.
Agent York stepped into the room. “Are you busy, ma’am?”
“I am not. What have you got for me, York?”
Agent York stepped into the room and sat down in the chair across from her. “We’ve gone through all the details about Tempest that were transmitted to us before the shuttle went down. Really, it was just pictures of his face, fingerprints, et cetera. All the blood samples and everything else they gathered about him were destroyed in the crash.”
Director Loren sat up in her chair, preparing herself for what Agent York had to tell her next. She tried to hold back a smile, but she knew what was coming. She was about to get him. She was about to learn who Tempest was. “You ran the pictures through facial recognition, yes? The fingerprints?”
Agent York nodded, but hesitated to speak. “Y-yes, ma’am. We did.”
Loren didn’t like the hesitation. This should be great news—fantastic news. News that Agent York should be bursting at the seams to tell her. “What is it? Who is Tempest?”
Agent York let out a deep breath. “We ran all the identifying information we have on him through the database. We ran it a dozen times. I personally ran it. Nothing. This guy’s a ghost. He’s not in any databases. Not in ours, or any other government’s.”
Director Loren sat back in her chair and closed her eyes. Anger welled up within her. All that work retrieving Tempest, and all they’d managed to do was set him free into the world once again. The things they were going to learn from him—the answers they would get… He was the most powerful of all the Supers, and he’d slipped through her fingers.
She should’ve captured him when she had the chance, back during the Richter crisis. She knew that she’d had no way of doing so then, but still, she kicked herself for not thinking of something.
“Agent York,” Loren said as she opened her eyes and looked at York’s worried face. “Get out of my office.”
“Yes, ma’am. Sorry, ma’am,” York said as he stood from his chair and backed out of the room.
He shut the door behind him and left Loren alone in her small, bare office.
Director Loren wished she had some pictures on her desk, or paintings on the wall. Not because looking at them would calm her down, but because she wanted nothing more than to grab something and throw it against the wall. She wanted to break something. To destroy something.
Her intercom buzzed. “Director Loren?”
Loren picked up the phone. “Yes, Sierra?”
“We have that new Super arriving from Dallas. He’s being unloaded and brought to cell 903,” Sierra said, her voice calm and professional.
“No, take him to the Chamber, and tell Dr. Finn not to begin the therapy until I get there. I want to do it personally,” Loren said.
“Yes, ma’am. I’ll be sure they’re waiting for you.”
“Thank you, Sierra,” Loren said.
She hung up the phone as a bit of sadistic joy washed over her. She’d get her chance to break something, that was for sure. She’d get to take out her anger and frustration about her failures with Tempest on something. This new Super, coming from Dallas. A Duplicator, if she remembered correctly.
The more the merrier, she thought as she grabbed her coat from the back of her chair. She slipped it on and exited her office.
Part II:
The Rise of a Hero
11
Riptide
September 20th, 2078
Leopold Renner tried to think back to the events that had led to his bleeding out on the floor of Tempest Memorial Museum. It was all he could do to try to stay awake. The darkness was always there, pulling him in. But he had to fight it. He didn’t want to die. He couldn’t die.
And it seemed like someone was trying to save him.
Leopold’s eyes grew heavy. He’d barely had any sleep last night. Just a bit here and there. Nothing substantial, though, and he felt the drowsiness hitting him in waves. It felt like he was being washed out to sea by the rip currents. He was fighting to stay afloat, even though in the back of his mind he knew the best thing to do would be to relax. To let it take him.
The young woman he’d heard called Cassidy fell to the ground next to him. He looked into her eyes and saw fear. She reached up, clicked something behind her ear, and screamed, “GAMMA BASE INFILTRATED BY TEMPEST. HE’S TAKING EPSILON. SI—”
A gunshot rang out, causing Leopold to jump. The smell of gunpowder brought back memories of his own injuries, and the pain in his torso roared to life.
He looked into Cassidy’s dead eyes as blood dripped onto her face.
Her body disappeared.
Leo wanted to yell out in shock, but instead, he yelled in pain.
Kane Andrews picked him up, sending flashes of pain searing through his body. Kane threw Leo over his shoulder and began to run out the front door of the museum as fast as he could.
“Door, open!” Kane shouted.
Leo heard the hiss of a car door opening, and his world tumbled around as Kane put him down in the backseat of a car.
The face of a beautiful woman with brunette hair filled his vision. He recognized her from somewhere, but couldn’t quite put his finger on it.
“Go, Kane!” she shouted as Kane got into the driver’s seat.
The car jerked forward as they took off. Leo heard bullets ding off the side of the car as they sped to God knew where.
The woman ripped open Leopold’s shirt, exposing his wounds. “He’s not looking good, Kane. He’s lost a lot of blood.”
“We can’t lose him, Selena!”
“I’m trying!”
“Samantha! We’re heading for the extraction! We’ve got him, but he’s been shot!” Kane shouted.
“Just keep him alive until you’re out of there!” the girl Leopold assumed was Samantha replied.
His vision flickered. Sorry, guys, he thought. Don’t know if I can do that.
He closed his eyes, and let the riptide take him out to sea.
12
The Statue
January 31st, 2016
It’d been a week since I destroyed the First National Bank in downtown Dallas. A week since my discussion with Holocene. A week of being scared out of my mind. I couldn’t help but think about what she’d told me. Hero, or villain? I wanted to be a hero, but so far, I’d only caused destruction. Not just the bank, but back in my battles with Richter. Not to mention the fact that I’d killed Richter. Could I call myself a hero if I killed my enemies?
I looked up at the bronze statue of myself. At my feet, fountains shot into a
pool. The statue had been put up on the UCLA campus shortly after my disappearance, once everyone knew Richter was gone for good. Apparently, there were several of them around the country. This one was the only one I’d seen, though. The only one I’d wanted to see.
I wasn’t sure if I deserved it. Holocene had said I was a hero because I had to be one. I was forced to. She didn’t know that I hadn’t even killed Richter myself. I wouldn’t have known what to do if it weren’t for Samantha. Had Holocene known that, she really wouldn’t be a fan of Tempest.
“Hey, there. Looks like they went a little generous on the jaw line, don’t you think?” I heard a familiar voice say. This time, it was behind me, not in my head.
I turned around and saw Samantha bundled up in a coat. It was dark out, and Los Angeles could get surprisingly chilly at night in the winter. I smiled and patted the seat on the bench next to me. She came and sat down.
“Sorry I haven’t checked in lately,” I said.
“Don’t worry about it. I can only imagine what you’re going through,” Samantha said as she rubbed her hands together.
“How’d you know I was here?”
Samantha looked at me with an expression that said, ‘How do you think?’
“Right.” I tapped my temple. “You shouldn’t get into people’s heads without permission, you know,” I said, half-joking, half-serious.
“You shouldn’t go a week without checking in with your friends, you know,” she fired back.
I conceded. “Fair enough.”
“Speaking of which, have you been back to Ebon yet? I’m sure your friends would like to see you.”
I got the sense she was ignoring the elephant in the room, like why I’d been gone for a week, or why I was staring at a statue of myself.
I shook my head. “I’m going back to school tomorrow, so I’ll see them then.”
“That should be fun, although probably a bit awkward.”
“Yeah,” I said. I wasn’t sure what else to say. I was expecting the worst at school the next day, that’s for sure. Dad had had all the homework sent to him while I was gone, and had done the work for me. I’d spent a lot of the past week going over everything so I would be as caught up as possible, but it had been difficult, since my mind was either on what Holocene had said, or on school itself, not the work.
The Siege of the Supers (The First Superhero Book 2) Page 4
