Cole did his best to smile and make it look genuine. “We need to get started soon then. Let’s rest for just a few more seconds.”
“Okay.” Isla’s voice sounded small. She was trying to be brave, but her lip had started trembling again.
Cole needed to distract her before they got to training, and he asked what first came to mind. “What are you going to do when you get back to Earth?"
He felt like an idiot as soon as the words left his mouth, thinking about her dead father. She might not have anyone to take care of her.
Isla firmed her mouth and answered, "My mom is on the big land. Our family came to Cost’rica for missionary service. I'll ask god to take me there."
Cole really hoped the portal took her where she wanted to go. If not, this whole thing might be pointless, but at this point, it was out of his hands. He had his job to do, and he planned to do the best he could with what he had.
From his vantage point, Cole had seen and heard some reasons for concern. Sounds of the mutant beasts had gotten closer, and for a second, he thought he saw a figure flicker in the treetops above.
Despite how tired he felt, weary to his bones, it was time to get back to work. Cole said, "Okay, listen closely, Isla, because I don’t have time to explain this again. Here's the plan."
Chapter 17
Cole stalked alone through the jungle at the top of the highest hill at the apex of the island. Mutated boars squealed on the other side of a thick copse of trees. He hated that Isla wasn't nearby, but she had her own mission. Hopefully, he wouldn’t need her help and she could just stay safe.
Above him in the jungle canopy he spotted the silhouette of a man. Against the orange light of the dome above, Cole could only see his shadow, but it could only be one person.
Light gleamed off the silhouette, revealing owlish glasses. Cole braced himself. "Hello, Jin."
The branches above shifted, and the figure floated down, light as a feather. Jin Yamamoto's boots landed softly in the dirt. He greeted Efrem with a respectful nod. "I'm Kiddy Whale permanently now, Jin's dead. I'm not surprised you made it."
"Fine, Kiddy. Why aren’t you surprised?" Cole asked evenly. They were only a dozen feet apart now, and as a result, Cole could feel Kiddy's power. He knew what it felt like now, and he reached out using his own ability. Once he’d grasped Kiddy’s power of telekinesis, he hated the necessity, but he needed to test it. With a bare whisper of energy, he tugged lightly on a leaf.
It worked, and Kiddy didn't seem to notice. Good. At least Cole would have the element of surprise.
Kiddy answered, "Because you know how to use your teammates effectively to reach end game. But it's over now. This is where I shine, you should know."
Cole stopped himself from clenching his fists in anger, and he didn’t move his hand any closer to his machete. He wanted to look calm, confident. "I didn't use my teammates. It took all of us to get here."
Kiddy smirked. "How many years did you burn? You look like your foster dad, now."
Cole frowned. He knew his former friend was just trying to throw him off balance, though. "Cheap shot."
Kiddy rolled his eyes. "Whatever you say. Speaking of which, where is Isla?"
"Gone," Cole said truthfully. Despite how tense the situation was, and how weird Kiddy was acting, he had to try. "Are you thinking of giving up and letting her live? You were on the fence before. It’s not too late to do the right thing."
As soon as he’d asked the question, he already knew the answer from Kiddy's blank face and intense eyes. The gamer was serious, focused on winning.
"She's gone, huh? You'd lie to protect people you cared about, so I’m not sure I believe you, but it doesn't matter. The hour is almost up and I’ll be taking the portal. I’ll admit that I had fun, Coleslaw. You won’t believe me, but I did. I'm glad Dolos gave us a chance to play one more game together. But in the end, the only thing that matters is winning. This is a fact in games, it’s a fact of life, and it’s a fact on this island.”
Then the slim young man lifted his hand. The rocks around him rose to be level with his shoulder. Then he curled his fingers into the shape of a gun. "Game over."
All at once, the rocks flew at Cole, but he strained, burning a full year of life and stopped them all with his new, unfamiliar power. “I am the One,” Cole joked.
This time, it was Kiddy’s turn to be thrown. His eyes widened in shock. Unfortunately, Cole knew Jin would recover quickly and would probably puzzle out his ability within seconds. Cole couldn’t hesitate.
He roared, letting his power and his instincts guide him, directing telekinetic power through his feet like he had seen Jin do. Meanwhile, Kiddy did the same, but ascended with hands full of rocks and branches to use as projectiles. Cole used his new power to weave through the trees, dodging some of Kiddy’s attacks, pushing some away, or deflecting them with a light touch. He even managed to sling a couple around his body, redirecting them back with almost double the force.
Kiddy expertly dodged everything that Cole threw back, and they danced around the trees like this for half a minute. With every breath, Cole's mastery of the skill grew, but with it, he understood how wide the gap was between him and Kiddy. This power actually belonged to the other man to begin with, and he’d had three hours to practice. Kiddy’s control and power reserves made Cole’s look pathetic in comparison.
The only reason Cole was even holding his own was because of surprise, and Kiddy’s cautious nature.
If he’d actually had any time to think, he might be worried about all the energy he was using. He darted from branch to branch, using the thick trunks for cover as Kiddy did the same. Cole was no slouch, but his opponent had years of competitive experience, and it was obvious that a lot of it, strangely enough, was relevant for this fight. So far, only one of them had taken any damage, and it hadn’t been Kiddy.
At this point, Kiddy seemed to have aged a few years total, and Cole could feel the months slipping through his own fingers—they were both burning time. The other man had likely somehow been able to eat something within the last hour, since it was likely he’d still had to deal with the dangers of the jungle on his way here and would have needed energy.
Suddenly, one of Jin's missiles was on a collision course for Cole’s chest. He barely managed to slow the rock down, but it still hit him, making fireworks explode in his sternum and tossing him into a tree. He cried out as he fell to the ground.
Cole frantically looked up, scanning the trees, but Kiddy wasn’t there anymore. Something blurred in his peripheral, and Cole lashed out with telekinetic power, inexpertly accelerating a rock. The projectile hit the tree with a tremendous amount of force, sending splinters scattering like a miniature explosion.
"Tap out, Coleslaw. Don't burn through more life," Kiddy warned in the distance. "We should end it here, like this. If you keep going like you have been, soon you’ll be a helpless old man."
Cole acknowledged he couldn’t win like this. He was a much better hand-to-hand fighter than Kiddy to a ridiculous degree, but using powers like this had really given the other man a massive advantage. It was time to try a different tactic. Cole drew on the distant Isla’s power, and used a clumsy, unfocused burst to influence Jin's emotions. He said, “I'm sorry, man."
Silence followed. Cole continued, "I'm sorry I wasn't a good friend. I'm sorry we had that argument. Honestly, I can't even remember what it was even about anymore."
Kiddy’s--no, Jin’s--tone was hurt and resentful as he answered. "I'm sorry, too. I shouldn't have said you were following in your foster parent's footsteps--they abused you. And I'm sorry..."
Jin’s voice went from cold to choked up. Cole's heart ached. Was this it? Would they be able to stop this fight, come to an understanding?
Against his better instincts, Cole stepped out from cover. Kiddy was closer than he’d expected, Cole flexed his borrowed pheromone powers again. His eyes suddenly widened as he saw the truth. A small wind vortex surrounded th
e Asian man as he protected himself from any outside influences. The pheromone power had been useless.
Jin finished, "I'm sorry that this game didn't last longer. But now it's over." He raised a hand and sent a sharpened stake screaming forward like an arrow.
Cole barely managed to grab hold of the telekinesis ability in time to act, but still would have died if not for his MMA training. Through sheer terror and instinct, he managed to combine the power with a parry, barely deflecting the deadly missile enough to miss him by a hair. Behind him, the crude spear impaled a tree at least several inches.
Kiddy narrowed his eyes and tsked. “Your defense stat is impressive. I can see I need to power up, so be it.”
Cole's heart sank, understanding what the gamer had said--he’d been holding back.
Kiddy sprang backward, using his power to half fly, half float as he created space. Then he pressed his hand to the tree next to him, and in a blink, Kiddy’s appearance changed so much, Cole barely recognized the gaunt man standing before him. He must have aged at least a decade or two all at once.
The trees near Kiddy broke apart in perfect rectangular shapes, as if they’d been cut by a machine. Other trees split into other shapes. Kiddy’s telekinesis had grown, evolved. His range of effect had increased, but Cole reasoned he could only extend it that far for stationary objects, otherwise Cole would already be dead.
In a few breaths, a significant number of palm trees on the island's plateau had been broken into pieces. They whirled around Kiddy as he floated up in the air among them. Cole reached out with his telekinesis, trying to understand what was going on.
Beneath Kiddy's floating feet, walls erected themselves between him and Jin, effectively splitting the plateau in half. Platforms, cubes of wood fell together in a rough formation to build a rough pyramid of steps around the wall. Jin floated down, landing on top of the two-story pyramid he’d just constructed.
It was clear Jin had no idea what it took to build a house or a pyramid. The structure he’d just made was more like stacked wood than crafted, but Cole had to admit he was frightened and impressed by the terrifying display of power. This new...fortress of Kiddy’s wasn’t meant to show off, though. The gamer had built a strong defense and had eliminated much of Cole’s cover. The intention was likely to put Cole on the defensive, make him more vulnerable to long-range attacks.
Cole thanked Kiddy’s massive blind spots. Because the other man was truly operating like this fight was a game, he hadn’t grasped the most direct way to use his massive burst of power, to pick up all those trees and throw them at Cole. Instead, he’d built himself a fortress. He was following his usual methodology as a gamer, playing defensively. Cole could only imagine that the more someone used a single power seed, the more distilled certain parts of their personality became, maybe something like being drunk.
Wordlessly, Kiddy waved his hand. The torn-up pieces of trees that hadn’t been used on the pyramid fort were cut and pulled apart into giant stakes. Then Cole was showered with a rain of falling stakes the size of logs. Can he read minds now? Cole thought. What the heck? He threw his hands, roaring as he burned through more life, too. His telekinetic field expanded in a bubble.
When the stakes reached his invisible field, some were redirected, crashing behind him. Some had to be whittled down, and Cole was forced to manually dodge a few to keep his focus on the other, more dangerous missiles. When the sky finally stopped falling, Cole was physically at least fifty years old. In the distance, the screams and squeals from the mutant boars down the hill, likely near the closing dome, had stopped.
After spitting on the ground, Cole asked, "That all you got, Jin?"
Cole’s childhood friend frowned and snarled, "Jin is dead! I'm Kiddy now!" His legs balanced shakily on top of the pyramid, confirming Cole's suspicions. He’d likely aged himself more than he’d intended. This was Kiddy’s first large use of power that had drained his lifespan itself since he’d been on the island.
"No. What you are is dead." Cole was sad, knowing he’d spoken the truth. Jin likely wasn’t very far from falling into his power now. Then again, Cole might be in the same boat. That was a terrifying thought. He turned that fear into energy and yelled, “Banana! Banana! Banana!" as loud as he possibly could. His throat was raw as he shut his mouth.
The jungle fell eerily silent. No birds or insects had been making any noise before, but now it was silent like the grave. Suddenly, the boars that Cole had heard earlier screamed anew, like they’d been enraged. The side of the plateau thundered.
The palm trees and vegetation on the edge of the destruction that Jin had created all shook, and suddenly a stampede of mutant boars appeared. The orcs collided with the bottom of Jin's makeshift wooden pyramid, and the impact of their many bodies splintered the shoddy structure, making it implode on itself. As the platforms fell apart and crashed down, they actually collapsed on top of the boars. The insane creatures didn’t stop rampaging, though; in fact they were barely slowed.
Jin yelled, panicked, and burned through more power to fly up from his ruined fortress.
With a heart like ice, Cole pointed his finger like a gun at his oldest friend, returning the gesture that Jin had made before. He somberly muttered, "Game over."
The stakes that Jin had thrown at Cole earlier were scattered all around, and he used telekinesis to lift them up in a floating spiral. Then he shot them off at Jin, one by one, like the rounds of an imaginary minigun. He flicked his finger for each shot, trying to aim them as best he could. The ability greedily sucked more life out of him; Cole had lost count of his physical age by now.
He didn’t have much left to give, and couldn’t win a war of attrition, but Cole wasn't trying to kill Jin, just keep him occupied, distracted while the other man focused on staying afloat above the murderous boars. Kiddy blocked the oncoming projectiles expertly while also maintaining his flight, keeping good positioning. Cole had to admire Jin’s skill, but he was still aging, and his hair had turned grey. He was paying a price, too.
After Cole had run out of logs, he collapsed to the ground, exhausted. Jin rocketed toward him, an old man now but still mobile. Cole couldn't even raise a hand to protect himself. He began to wonder if this might be his end, but suddenly, Jin faltered. The telekinetic gamer abruptly began to wobble, and his flight spun into a plummet.
Jin was like a human bullet as he shot into the ground. He landed on his side, skidding across the jungle floor like a skipped stone on water. There was another hush before Jin began screaming in agony, turning onto his back. His left arm and both of his legs were bent the wrong way. One large, finger-sized splinter had impaled his shoulder from the ground, and it looked like a small tree trunk had gashed his ankle open.
Somehow, despite the fact they were trying to kill each other, Cole felt a touch of concern. Jin's glasses were shattered, and his broken body trembled. Kiddy couldn't move because of his broken bones, and his face was filled with frustrated tears.
Cole couldn't because he was too tired. He felt like an old man. Hell, from the liver spots on the back of his hand, he probably actually was an old man now. At least he wasn’t an old man who’d just face-planted the ground from fifteen feet up.
A gaunt, but pretty woman wrapped in living leaf clothing walked over the crest of the hill where the boars had come from. Isla's hands were outstretched toward the boars, and their screams quieted. The creatures began milling around, aimlessly shuffling at things on the ground, or rooting in the underbrush. Isla had paid a price for her power too. She was physically older now than Cole had been a day ago.
She ran forward, concern in her eyes. "Are you okay?"
Cole blinked, not ready to speak yet. He looked at his watch. It was broken, so he couldn’t know whether the round was over, but he could practically feel the island's atmosphere shift. The dome wall stopped moving, and it felt like they were inside a glowing orange egg. A portal appeared several paces away. He groaned and coughed, finally saying, "I wo
uld be much better if you ran through that portal right now, please."
Where he lay on the ground, Jin had stopped crying. God, how old was he now? Seventy? Eighty? Jin's gaze settled on Isla.
Cole wanted to get up and stop whatever Jin was about to do, but all he could manage was a twitch. Even now, Cole still hesitated to burn the last few years of his life, which was likely what it would cost to muster a killing blow. Hanging onto his life was cowardly, but he couldn't help it. He was willing to do the right thing, to let Isla go, but he still didn’t want to die.
To Cole's surprise, Jin gave him an ugly grin. His wrinkled mouth was bloody; he’d lost at least half of his teeth. Jin laughed, choking on blood between breaths.
"What's so funny?" Cole wheezed.
Jin's laughter grew louder. It sounded a little different than Cole remembered, meaner, but was still his old friend’s laugh. Cole's heart ached at hearing it even now. Jin had rarely ever laughed, but whenever he did, it always sounded so free, full of joy. The broken gamer stopped laughing, spat, and sputtered, "When we were five, you, Holly, and I promised to grow old together."
The comment was so out of left field that Cole felt his brain stutter. The bizarre feeling in his chest swelled until it burst through his mouth. Cole laughed, too, tears streaming from his eyes. His reaction was ridiculous and made no sense, but the more he thought about it, this entire day had been horrible and ridiculous, like a bad dream while the body had food poisoning. Everything he had ever believed had been tested, broken, and proven wrong.
They had all been destined to die in a tsunami, but then they’d met Dolos. The merciful. Bullshit. He wasn't merciful as he claimed. Cole understood now. To Dolos, he was like an ant, a lab rat. He’d done the equivalent of giving doomed children knives and drugs, then locked them inside an enclosed play pen.
This entire day was ridiculous. Cole's laughter darkened, coming out as a mixture of cackles and sobs. He had lost so much, endured nightmares, and for what?
Cole Blooded Page 15
