Eight tanks and twenty-four hundred more soldiers to go.
Two Supers spotted me and flew up from the rear of the soldiers, coming right for me.
“Two Supers, headed my way,” I said to Samantha.
“Relaying the message,” she replied.
I turned around and flew away. They were going to have to chase me.
I flew toward downtown, the Supers hot on my tail. I flew fast enough that they couldn’t catch me, but slow enough that they thought they could. I barreled straight for one of the skyscrapers, showing no signs of wavering. To them, it looked like I’d go right through the building.
Right before I hit it, I changed my flight path, flying straight up. I heard a crashing sound behind me and looked over my shoulder. One of them hadn’t turned in time and had gone straight through the building. The other had been able to turn, though, and was right on my tail. His blond hair whipped in the wind, and his face showed his determination to take me down.
I reached the top of the building and crested over it. I began flying straight down toward the ground. If the Super who had gone through the building had slowed down a bit upon impact, that meant he should reappear out the other side just in time.
The Super shot out the side of the building in an explosion of glass, right in front of me. I slammed into him, causing him to let out a grunt of surprise. I kept hold of him as I rocketed toward the ground. He was in so much shock that I’d grabbed him that he didn’t have time to fight back.
I threw him at the ground just before I reached it. I changed my path before I too hit the ground and flew straight down the street, just inches from the pavement.
When I looked behind me I saw the one I’d thrown wasn’t getting up from his crater in the pavement. The blond guy was hot on my tail, though. Glass from cars and buildings exploded all around us as we flew lightning fast down the street.
“Tell Drew to be ready! I’m leading this guy up!” I shouted to Samantha.
“Got it! He and Nep are ready for you.”
I shot to the right once I’d reached the end of the street, my stomach almost touching the sides of the buildings as I flew diagonally toward the sky. I flew toward a skyscraper that had a large gap near the top of it. As I flew toward it, for some reason I thought about an episode of the TV show Dallas where they’d flown a helicopter through the gap. Well, now they were about to add two superhumans to the list of things flown through the skyscraper’s gap.
I flew directly toward it, picking up the pace a little bit. The Super following me could clearly see where I was headed, so I wanted to make the space between us a bit larger. Wouldn’t want to get caught up in Drew’s trap.
I reached the gap, flying straight through it. The Super was right behind me, but he didn’t see that Nep was hiding above the gap, Drew in hand. Nep fell in line behind my pursuer, unbeknownst to him. I looked over my shoulder and watched as Nep closed in on him, holding Drew by the bulletproof vest he was wearing. Drew gave a single tap to the Super and his powers were zapped from him. He fell toward the ground, hit the top of a building and went right through the roof. He presumably fell through six stories before he hit the ground. He’d be out of commission for a while. These Supers weren’t nearly as powerful as I was, so their regeneration powers didn’t work nearly as quickly as mine—if they even had them at all. Their not having those powers was definitely a possibility, but that was a gamble I was willing to take.
“Where’s Selena?” I asked Samantha.
An explosion sounded behind me. The tanks were beginning to fire into the city, destroying buildings.
“She’s trying to take out some of the tan—shit! She just got hit by an E-bolt!” Samantha shouted.
It took me a split second to realize Samantha was referring to an Eximus bolt. I did a zero degree turn, flying toward the tanks and soldiers. I had to get Selena out of there before they pounced on her.
I flew over the tanks—which were now rolling down the interstate overpass in a horizontal formation—and saw Selena lying on top of one of them. Soldiers were climbing up on top of them to retrieve her.
I swooped down as one of them reached for her. I grabbed her, pulling her in to my chest.
This time, they were ready for me. A barrage of E-bolts flew through the air, right for me. Two of them made contact, and I fell towards the ground. Using what human power I had in me, I turned my back to the ground, protecting Selena. Then I soared over the edge of the overpass and felt my powers returning as I hit the road, sliding across it.
I came to a stop and felt my body begin to repair itself.
Selena put a hand on my chest and pushed off, rising to her feet. She reached her hand down, and I grabbed it. She pulled me up. “Thanks, but that makes us nowhere near even.”
“Yeah, you’ve saved my ass more than a few times,” I said. I looked over Selena’s shoulder and saw soldiers beginning to run down the slopes on the sides of the overpass. “Shit,” I said.
Selena turned, and the two of us were ready to begin taking care of the soldiers.
A gunshot rang out behind me and one of the Legion soldiers went down. I turned around and saw a man in his forties standing there, rifle in hand. Behind him, more people began to appear, each of them carrying their own weapons and ammunition. Some of them were police officers, while others were dressed in army fatigues. Most of them were regular citizens, however. There were about thirty or forty of them in all.
“You take care of those tanks. We’ve got this,” the man who’d shot first said.
They all ran to find cover as a firefight between them and the soldiers began to break out.
Selena and I flew up out of their way.
“There’s a handful of them, and over two thousands soldiers marching down the interstate. They’ll be dead in a heartbeat,” Samantha said.
“They’re not taking on the entire army, just the stragglers trying to get into downtown right here,” I said. “This is what we hoped for. We’re inspiring people to fight with us.” I couldn’t help but smile. This was actually working. We were actually going to win this battle.
“Kane, Nep says there’s another line of soldiers and tanks coming in from a different part of the city,” Samantha said.
That smile left my face.
53
Reinforcements
Selena and I flew to Nep, who was waiting for us on the west side of downtown.
“It looks like there’s as many over here as there is back with you guys,” he said, pointing down at them.
Nep was right. There were just as many of them. Explosions sounded back in the direction we’d just come from.
“They’re starting to do some real damage to the city,” Selena said. “We need to think of something, quick.”
I began to think, hard and fast. We needed something big. Something spectacular. Something that’d scare them. But something was missing. There was no clear target for us to take out.
“Who’s their leader?” I thought aloud.
Selena looked at me, realization dawning on her. “You’re right. They have no clear leader. But somebody has to be calling the shots.”
I nodded. “If we can find out who it is, we can take them down. No leader, and they’ll fall apart. They won’t know what to do.”
I looked back down at this new faction of soldiers, and something caught my eye. Someone was riding in a large Humvee at the back of the line. I looked closely and saw that sitting in the passenger seat of the vehicle was Sven. I pointed toward him, Selena and Nep following my gaze. “I think our teleporter friend got himself a promotion.”
Selena scoffed. “That son of a bitch.”
“We can’t do it where both factions of soldiers will see, though. We’ll take him out in front of this group. That should be enough to make them retreat,” I said.
“What about the other group?” Nep asked.
I smirked. “I’ve got an idea for them.” I turned to Selena. “I’ll get him out of
the vehicle. You do the rest.”
Selena nodded.
“Nep, you go make sure those people fighting for us stay safe.”
“Will do. Good luck,” he said as he flew off.
“Alright, get ready. This’ll happen fast,” I told Selena.
I flew down toward the group of soldiers. I spotted one who had an Eximus gun and yanked it from him. Then I headed straight for Sven’s Humvee. He didn’t see me coming at all. I fired two blasts into his vehicle. One shattered the windshield, the other took out his ability to teleport.
He convulsed in his seat, unable to escape. I landed on the hood of his vehicle and ripped the roof off, then pulled off his seatbelt and yanked him from his seat. I flew fast toward the front of the line of soldiers and brought him to his knees twenty feet in front of them. Then I fired another blast into him, making sure his powers wouldn’t be coming back anytime soon.
“Everybody, look here!” I shouted.
Soldiers raised their guns, but didn’t fire. They didn’t know what I was going to do to their leader.
“You will turn around. You will retreat. We will show you no mercy.”
Selena swooped in and grabbed the barrel of one of the tanks. She was doing the same hammer maneuver I’d done earlier; she began to swing the barrel over her shoulder like it was nothing.
I fired one last bolt into Sven and jumped out of the way, hovering over the scene.
Holocene brought the tank down onto Sven as hard as she could.
The soldiers stood there for a beat, taking in what had just happened.
A blast shot from the next tank in line, directly at me. I dodged out of the way and it flew right into an apartment complex, blowing a hole that stretched from the seventh to the ninth floor.
Holocene got out of there and joined me, and the two of us flew to safety. The soldiers with Eximus guns began firing their weapons in every direction. They were making sure we didn’t come close to them again as they continued their assault on Dallas.
I thought back to those two Supers that I’d taken out earlier. Of course. They were the leaders of that other faction of Supers, and my taking them out had done nothing to slow them down. I couldn’t believe I didn’t think about that.
“What are we going to do?” Selena asked, looking down at the thousands of people who were marching on her city, now protected by shooting off their E-bolts.
“I don’t know,” I said. “We can’t even get close.” Then I remembered my idea for the other faction of soldiers. “But I don’t think we’ll need to.”
“What do you mean?” Selena asked.
“You focus on that other faction. Do whatever you can to take them out. Any means necessary. We can’t hold back anymore.”
She nodded. We’d intended to do this with as few casualties as possible, but that wasn’t a possibility anymore. They needed to know that we meant business.
“Are you sure you can take this faction out on your own?” Selena asked.
“I’ve got this.”
Selena and I went our separate ways. She went to join Nep. I had faith that the two of them would figure something out.
I smiled as I thought of my plan. This was definitely something they weren’t going to see coming.
I flew toward the famed Reunion Tower. It was the large building in the Dallas skyline, with a top that looked like a Christmas ornament. It was a large ball that would light up at night, sometimes in different colors, depending on the occasion. On the inside were restaurants, observatory decks, and all sorts of little shops. Today, it would be used to end this battle.
I flew beneath the large ball and gave its support one hard punch. That was all it took; the ball began to roll forward and fall toward the ground. I flew beneath it and pushed up on it. Even for someone as strong as I was, this thing was heavy. Very heavy. I let out a shout as I pushed up on it as hard as I could without flying straight through it. The ball continued to fall toward the ground, but it began to slow. I strained harder and harder until finally it stopped falling just a few feet from the ground.
Now came lifting it. Since I didn’t have the momentum of it falling working against me, lifting was much easier. I flew upward, holding the top of the Reunion Tower above my head. I picked up speed as I flew toward the faction of soldiers, who were still firing their Eximus guns into the air. They’d be useless against the Reunion Tower.
I came closer and closer, picking up speed.
“Kane, are you sure you want to do this?” Samantha asked.
“Yes, I’m sure.”
“Once we do this, we can’t go back.”
“Now’s not the time, Samantha.”
“Some of these people are just fighting because they’re afraid of what will happen to them if they don’t.”
“What else are we supposed to do? They’re going to kill everyone they can to take back this city.” I picked up more speed. I was getting closer and closer to my target.
“There has to be another way, Kane.”
“We don’t have time for another way, Samantha. This is war.”
I pushed on the ball in my hands, launching it at the faction of soldiers. It slammed into them, the E-bolts hitting it doing nothing.
One faction down, one to go.
54
Just the Beginning
Just a few minutes after I brought the Reunion Tower down on my faction of soldiers, the first faction was in retreat.
“Everybody, meet back at the office. I think it’s over,” Samantha said in my mind.
I flew back to the office feeling numb. I couldn’t believe it was over, but I was beginning to regret what I’d done to ensure our victory. It was a decision made in the heat of battle, and had I given it more thought, I might’ve been able to come up with something else. But they were getting closer and closer to a city with over a million people. People who’d seen the Legion kill the president on TV just a few hours earlier.
A million versus a few thousand. And the few thousand would’ve won. That was the power of fear.
I reached the office building the same time as Holocene and Nep did, carrying Hank and Drew respectively.
“Is that it?” Drew asked, a big smile on his face. “Is this really over?”
I looked at everyone’s faces, and they all seemed happy. Satisfied. All of them but Samantha.
“I think so,” Nep said with a laugh. He and Drew high-fived. The celebration spread as everybody began patting each other on the back, congratulating themselves on a job well done.
“There’s no going back,” Samantha said in my head, the two of us staring at each other from across the room as everybody else celebrated around us.
“I did what I had to,” I said, barely above a whisper.
Samantha gave me a sad smile. “If that’s what you think, then okay. I’ll respect your decision. I don’t support it.”
I nodded, accepting her compromise.
“That was too easy,” Hank said.
Everybody turned and looked at him.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
He shrugged as he tried to think of a good reason. “I don’t know. It was just…you know…too easy. Something was wrong. Is wrong. I can just…feel it.”
Hank’s words caused an ominous atmosphere to set in. My brain began to fire as I tried to think of what he could mean by that. It hadn’t seemed easy to me, but then again Hank hadn’t played that big of a role. He didn’t have my perspective, or Selena’s.
“Oh shit. Holy shit. Shit shit shit,” Doug said, slamming his fist on his desk.
“What is it?” Samantha shouted.
Everybody ran to Doug, who pointed at his computer screen. “This was all just a distraction. It was too easy because they weren’t even trying.”
I looked at his computer screen and was so taken aback by what I saw there that I actually fell to the floor. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. This was actually happening. My mind raced, and I thought I was going to puk
e. I did, a little. I swallowed it down and gasped for air. I was having a panic attack, wasn’t I? That’s what it felt like. My whole body shook. So much energy rushed through me, I wanted to run and run and fly and run and never stop.
It was true. This was real. It was all real. We had fallen for Atlas’ distraction. He’d played us beautifully.
I read the screen one last time before closing my eyes and crying.
HOURS AFTER DEATH OF PRESIDENT, TWO NUKES SET OFF IN NEW YORK CITY AND LOS ANGELES. MILLIONS DEAD. LEGION OF RICHTER CLAIMING RESPONSIBILITY.
55
Ultimatum
I took a deep breath. I always got nervous in front of cameras.
“You ready for this?” Samantha said, her finger on the record button.
I nodded.
“Rolling,” she said.
Doug clicked a button on his recorder. “Speed.”
Drew was holding the boom pole, a microphone attached to the end of it.
“Whenever you’re ready,” Samantha said. “You’ll do fine,” she added in my head.
I smiled at her and took one more deep breath.
“Hello. My name is Kane Andrews, also known as the superhero Tempest. As you may know, Atlas and his Legion of Richter have taken many millions of lives. He and his people think that they can take over, ruling with fear and anarchy. They think they can do whatever they want, and can kill whoever stands in their way. I’m here to tell you that they can’t. I’m here to tell you that they’re wrong. My name is Kane Andrews, and I am not alone. I’m here to tell you that there is no reason to be afraid. We will fight back against Atlas. We will win. They will not destroy us.
“If you stand with me, we can destroy Atlas and the Legion of Richter. I’ve killed Richter once, and I can kill him again. This time, I need your help. If you want to join the fight against Atlas, come to Dallas, Texas. Dallas is a safe haven for all. No one will be turned away, and we will protect the city at all costs.
“And to Atlas, who I know is watching this, be afraid. This will not be as easy as you thought. We will not go down without a fight.
“My name is Kane Andrews, also known as the superhero Tempest. This is my ultimatum.”
The Siege of the Supers (The First Superhero Book 2) Page 18
