by Riley Tune
I was starting to question more and more just what those pills were, and made a mental note to look into it. They may have been pills for fitness, or something a little stronger. When she said keep the demons away, maybe she meant they put her at ease. I felt my head jerk slightly as the thought that Zeva was on mood altering drugs came to me. Now, I definitely wanted to know more about them.
“ Your oath,” Impervious began, “Will be the spark that will light your path as you grow as an Icon. Once you speak the words you are to live by them.” I could feel my face contort some. He was already laying it on thick. The oath was basically pointless if you became a villain. “Regardless of which path you take, keep the oath in mind. It is possible, that one, two or all three of you, could become villains.”
As he said this, the crowd began to speak gently, and I was positive I heard the word spawn and abomination. I thought it was all in my head, until Impervious spoke. “Silence.” He said forcefully. I could have been imagining it, but it felt as if the walls rattled. “If I hear those words again, you will have to deal with me for insulting an Imperial Lord.” “Wow,” Jen said as she smiled.
“As I was saying,” Impervious continued. “While villainy is a possibility, it is also a choice. You can choose to be great. To have statues all over the world, to save lives, and even have your own line of merchandise when you decide your True Name, if you so see fit, but first it all starts, with the oath. So, repeat after me.”
He cleared his throat and as he did so, we all took a knee, and looked down to the floor. We almost looked like those people who were becoming knights on the old tv shows set in medieval times.
“I am an Icon. I was born a Void, but now I have power.” We repeated this back to him and the crowd. “With my power, I am set free. Free to protect the world, even though I have the power to conquer it. I will save, even if I have the power to hurt.”
I glanced up, as I repeated the second portion to see Mr. Reid mouthing the quote as we went along. Impervious continued. “I will give freedom, even though I have the power to enslave. I will become their light of hope during their darkest hour. The choice is mine, and mine alone. I am an Icon and this is my oath.”
It wasn’t the best oath I had ever heard of, not even close. What it was, was old. Old enough to date back to Atlas himself, so we continued to say it. You weren’t supposed to use your power publicly unless you had taken the oath. It was almost the only thing heroes and villains agreed on.
He touched us all on the shoulder one, by one, and we stood up. “Now, the decision is yours.” Impervious said as the people outside clapped. They clapped for a long time, until he raised his hand and silence fell again. He walked slowly by us and looked almost like a drill instructor. “In time you will figure out your True Name and what path you want to take. But for now, you will be given your first assignments of your internship.”
As he said these words, several other people walked forward and stood behind Mr. Impervious. Flex, Life-Line, Detach, Picasso, Power Prince and a female with a glowing aura. It was Solar Goddess. I didn’t realize she was here. Which is funny considering she has a constant glowing aura around her.
Solar Goddess could channel sunlight to form a continual aura of power around her. While her aura was active she could create constructs out of her light energy. She wasn’t a heavy hitter at all, but it was long whispered that her family and Impervious went way back, and she was accepted into the Lords, as a personal favor. She also rarely came out in public. If she ever lost control of her aura, it could blind those near her. Or, at least that was what rumors would have you believe.
Each of them all stood beside Mr. Impervious. “You will be in teams of two, to help with the process. Jen will be teamed with my son, Picasso, since he is close to your age. You two will be looking into some leads that will help in the case of the dead Icons appearing across Atlas City. You have likely seen reports on the news about it.” Impervious paused to glance at Detach quickly. It was almost done in super speed, and some likely missed the action.
“Despite our efforts to keep reports and word of mouth contained about the deaths, the issue continues to grow. You will report findings directly to Life-Line and myself.”
Jen nodded slightly to Picasso who, in turn, gave a wave to Jen and then quickly put his hand down.
“And Zeva and Hunter will be teamed together.” Impervious said. Flex looked at Impervious and then back to me. I, in return, smiled and stepped a foot closer to Zeva. “They will be looking into what has been reported as gang activity in the Diamond District. Seems various Icons have been doing minor acts of vandalism, just to show off their powers. You’ll look into it and put an end to it.” “Impervious, if I may.” Flex said. Almost every eye shifted to him.
“I think it would be better if Z, I mean Zeva, was to work with Picasso.” Impervious turned to him. “And why is that, Flex?” Flex avoided the question. “It doesn’t have to be Picasso. I’m only a little over two years older than Z. She can team with me. I’m surely a better influence.”
“Careful,” Mr. Impervious said. His eyes narrowed on Flex, who put his hands up. “I’m just saying siblings should probably stick together. Last thing we want is him rubbing off on her and sending her down the wrong path like his father. It’s not his fault, he just has bad stock. We all know it.” “Flex,” Mr. Reid shouted as he turned to face him.
I could see Power Price and Solar Goddess casually take a few steps away from Flex. Murmurs went around the crowd. Even Zeva was looking at her brother with her face turned in disgust. “I just want to keep an eye on her,” Flex continued. Mr. Impervious was visibly red in the face. “Leave. We will discuss this later.” I looked from Impervious and then back to Flex. “Whatever,” He said as he turned and walked out.
In seconds he was through the crowd and walking up the great hall alone. I could still feel myself breathing hard. “That’s it?” I said out loud. “Pretty boy says whatever he wants and he just gets sent to his room like he’s five?”
Mr. Reid went to speak, but as he did the entire room went blue as I felt that familiar charge as energy flowed through me. I saw the look in everyone's face around me. “Hunter,” Jen said as she reached for me, but it was too late. I was already in the air. I let my Impact Blast fly, and destroyed one of the glass walls in the room. People began to scream and disperse as glass shattered around them, and rained down from above. In seconds a force field wrapped around Flex as he was walking.
I landed in front of him. So angry that I could feel myself shaking. “This shit ends now. You don’t have to like me and your sister working together, but you will respect my parents. No matter who they were.” The force field closed in tight around him. I figured I only had seconds before the Lords came to break us up, so I halted them.
I stretched my hand out and created one of the largest force fields I ever had, as it separated Flex and I from the rest of people in the hall. It was a futile attempt. As Flex continued to struggle with my force field, Picasso lit his finger and drew the shape of a door, which in return, turned into a door that was smack in the middle of my force field. The Imperial Lords rushed out.
Flex, then screamed and in a burst of strength he began to repeatedly punch the force field. It cracked severely, but it didn’t give. The gravity of this hit me hard. Flex was stronger than I thought, and clearly stronger than our last fight.
As he drew back far to punch once more, I removed the force field causing him to stumble. As he lost balance, I sent a punch to his face as hard as I could. He moved all of two inches as pain flooded my hand. He smirked and delivered a punch to my chest.
In comic fashion, my eyes bulged as I was sent flying backwards. I caught myself midair as I hovered. Detach, standing beside Impervious and the rest of the Lords looked on, as she summoned her clones to her aid. Several large puffs of gaseous mist floated from her and transformed into her doubles. They all took a step toward us at the same time,
but Impervious halted them and shook his head. I felt confused.
He was allowing us to fight. The door created by Picasso was long gone now, leaving other members of the gathering still stuck behind my force field. Flex capitalized on my hesitation as I watched the Lords. He was next to me in an instant, and grabbed me by the neck. We flew higher into the air, and as we did so, his grip tightened. I couldn’t breathe, and my punches at his hand were not strong enough to even tickle Flex, let alone stop him. Before Flex could do anything else to me, I looked down at his blue face, and released as much of my Impact Blast as possible.
He screamed as he fell to the ground below. I, too, fell but started flying before I hit. He wasn’t so lucky. Invulnerable as he was, my Impact Blast still caused him pain like it did when we were in school. He was back to his feet quickly, though.
He wiped blood from his face with back of his hand.” You little shit,” he said to me as he hovered in the air. Before he could move, I formed a force field around him once more, and slammed it on the ground over and over. “Are we going to just stand here and do nothing?” I heard a voice scream from the side.
It was Zeva, and before I knew it, I could see my own breath blowing from my mouth. She was in panic, and because of this her powers were more prominent. Still, nobody answered her question. I continued to eye Flex. My plan was to keep him away and off his feet. If he got his hands on me and was able to display that strength he had become famous for, I was dead.
Down side, I was using a lot of power just keeping up with him. The eye blast had been at almost full power, so had my punch and force fields and he was still in the game. The force field around him faded and he slowly stood to his feet.
I could feel my throat getting dry from breathing so hard. “This isn’t close to over,” Flex said. I felt like he was taunting me, and gathered as much energy as I could to focus it on my next Impact Blast. This was it. Either this was going to put him down, or drain me. One of us was about to be in a world of pain. So much energy was in my eyes that they felt painful as if my head was going to explode from the pent- up energy.
I released the energy directly at Flex. The light from my blast was so strong that the walls around us flickered with shadows of the Blast. As I released the blast I heard a thunderous sound. Then I saw a blur, and instantly Impervious was standing in front of Flex. My Impact Blast hit him in the chest, full on. My blast was strong enough to destroy a mountain, and it didn’t even phase Impervious.
When the light faded from my attack, Impervious still stood tall. His shirt was mostly destroyed, but he didn’t even have a scratch on him. I may as well have been hitting him with a wet string. As he looked at Flex and I, he truly was, imposing for a man his age. Such raw power trapped inside of one human shell. Likely still stronger than Flex, and totally impervious to any and everything. How could one defeat an Icon such as he?
Well, they didn’t. He was like a force of nature. You didn’t stop it, you just let it do what it did and hoped you were around when it was over.
Camera lights flashed all around. “Great. This cluster fuck will be online and viral in no time,” Impervious said. “Prism, shut it down.” he yelled. Instantly the lights went out and several Prism Holograms appeared and began directing people out.
Jen ran to me and helped me off the ground. I was so tired, that it was hard to stand. The rest of the Imperial Lords, even Mr. Reid looked at me with scowls, and Zeva didn’t look at me at all. She was too busy helping Flex. “Everyone to their rooms. I will deal with you both in the morning.” With those words, Impervious moved in super speed, and was gonna in the blink of an eye and gust of wind. Then in another burst of speed, he was back. “Hunter, don’t unpack your bags just yet.” Then he was gone again. I looked at Mr. Reid as I walked by him, and he simply shook his head, then turned away.
CHAPTER 15
BREAKOUTS AND FIREWORKS
O
n the way to my room, Prism took pity on how awful I looked and directed me to one of the smaller cafeterias so I could put some food in my stomach. Even though I had eaten at the dinner, I had depleted a large amount of energy fighting Flex.
That was another thing the comics and television shows got wrong, all the time, about having powers. If you used them at full power nonstop then you would defeat yourself much faster than your foe would. Let movies and comic books tell it, you could put on a superpowered show for over an hour and only be slightly out of breath when it was over.
It was all bullshit, though. Even in fights like The Battle of Ages, many Icons had to carefully decide when to conserve power, and when to unleash it. Something I hadn’t mastered just yet. “Young Lord, I must say that was quite impressive.” Prism said as he walked, or floated, down the hall with me.
“Flex is a formidable Icon with considerable training. Surviving with him is no easy feat,” he added. I absent mindedly rubbed my neck where Flex had his iron grip only not long ago. “He’s no pushover, I’ll give him that. The most I could do was to keep him at a distance or contained,” I said as I reached for the knob to my door. “He may be a dick, but he is an asset to the Lords.”
Prism flickered a little bit before he commented. “Asset or not, he was out of line for his comments. Off with you, tomorrow is a new day.” Prism said as he did a slight bow, and then flickered away. I stood alone on the empty hall for a second and considered just leaving. I didn’t want them to have the satisfaction of trying to kick me out, but Impervious told me not to unpack my bags, so what else could the outcome be?
“Dude!” I heard a voice come from up the hall. I looked and was surprised to see Kevin running towards me. Funny how we kept having conversations in the hall. “That was insane.” He said as he punched my shoulder. I felt a brief charge flow over me from his hand. “You went toe to toe with Flex, and now I’m hearing that it wasn’t even the first time.” He almost jumped up and down. “You’re a fucking rockstar.”
I laughed some. “Most people say idiot, but rockstar has a better ring to it. Either way, I’m likely getting the boot because of it.” Kevin shook his head. “Dunno man. The other members are pissed, but they also know Flex kind of provoked you. So, don’t sweat it.”
I shrugged as Kevin held his fist up and they began to glow with pink energy. “When the heat dies down, I want to see if I can hang with the mighty Hunter Monroe.” He dipped and moved like he was a boxer. “We’ll have to train together. You know, make it legit and not some brawl like you’re used to,” he said as he laughed loudly.
I shook my head and agreed. “Get some rest man, I’ll catch up with you later.” “Assuming I’m still here,” I added. He laughed and then darted back up the hall. I opened my door, and slouched into my room. With my stomach being full now, all I needed was to rest, and that was what I had intentions of doing. I took a quick, hot shower, changed into some sweats and a shirt, and then fell onto my bed and found myself looking inside of my own eyelids.
My peaceful sleep was interrupted by a text coming through. Before I even opened the message, I saw the time. Only a little after nine, which was good because I had much more sleep that I needed. I glanced at my message and saw it was from Danielle, again. At first, I thought she was still trying to win my forgiveness. I was wrong. She wanted to tell me she wasn’t going to be able to make it to the Young Pyro show tonight. She felt it would be more complicated if we went together, or saw each other, so she just wasn’t going.
I refused to be a jerk, so I did at least text her back, and told her Flex and I got into it again, but that I would give her details on what went down later. Then she said she couldn’t wait to hear about it, and that she missed me. I thought for a moment, and sent back that I missed her too, but it didn’t change how I felt about us. Then I told her goodnight, and put my phone to my side.
I couldn’t believe that I forgot about the concert tonight. With the speed at which I got dressed again you would think I had a fifth power. Super speed like m
y dad, or Impervious.
Once I was dressed, I looked at the door, as if I was afraid to touch it. Should I really be sneaking out for a concert after what just happened? I rubbed my chin and paced a little. It wasn’t really sneaking out, though was it? I had never been told I couldn’t leave after a certain time, and unlike at home, I didn’t have a curfew here as far as I knew.
My decision was made, as if there was ever any doubt. I was going to the concert. After the night I had, I needed some relaxation anyway, and the bass and lyrics of one of the biggest rappers in the world was a good way to start.
I pulled my phone out and sent Jen a text. She said she was down to go. No surprise there. Then she sent a follow up text saying she would need a few minutes to get ready. We had an hour before it started, and I could fly us there in no time so that worked.
Even though I didn’t have a curfew, I still felt like I was breaking out of a high security prison. I stepped onto the hallway and look around before actually coming out and closing my door. It was empty. I made it past a game room, but was caught off guard as I saw Flex, walking into the library. As if he could read, that jerk.
After a few minutes and he was well and deep inside, I quickly ran by the door. All this sneaking around was causing me to sweat. I had a red shirt on, that visibly showed off the moisture of my armpits now.
There were two problems though. One, was I didn’t exactly know where Jen’s room was. I didn’t see where Prism took them to. I sent her a message and asked what her room was near. I knew it was on the same floor as mine, but that was it.
