Battle of the ULTRAs (13 page)

W
hen you’re lying
on the ground under a bunch of falling skyscrapers with a hole in your chest, you know you’re pretty much screwed.

Oh, and when a bunch of ULTRAbots are closing in on you, giving you zero chance to heal the gaping wound that’s on the verge of killing you? Yeah. You’re very goddamned screwed.

I looked up at the mass of ULTRAbots above. They all had their guns primed and pointed them at me, ready to fire. Usually when I was in this kind of situation, I’d find a way to use my powers to blast them out of my line of sight. But the pain in my chest was too strong. I was getting weaker by the second. I had to focus on healing myself, or I’d die.

The problem with focusing on healing myself? It might just kill me anyway.

I looked down at my chest. The bitter taste of blood was on my lips. I could hear the droning sounds of battle above and hoped my ULTRAs were okay. I hoped wherever they were, the Resistance was giving the ULTRAbots all they had.

The ULTRAbots hovered lower toward me. I was surprised they hadn’t shot me by now, in truth. It seemed weird. They had a golden opportunity to deal with me, put me down, and they were letting the seconds tick by.

And every second that ticked by, I used it as a bonus. I focused on my chest. Healed the broken tissue. Shit, if I’d taken a blast a little further to the left, my heart would’ve been ripped apart.

Could even
I
bounce back from something like that?

I certainly didn’t want to take my chances.

The healing process was agonizing. I bit my lip and tasted even more blood. I winced every time a small piece of tissue was healed, as the muscle regenerated, as my skin healed over. Even I was surprised by the sheer strength of my powers when I was in as dire a situation as this.

Still, the ULTRAbots weren’t firing.

I felt myself getting weaker the more of my powers I put into healing. I wondered if this was one of those moments Orion spoke about. The ones that took so much strength that it completely wounded an ULTRA. If it did, then I’d never take down Saint. I’d never be able to lead the ULTRAs again. I’d be totally lost.

But then the skin on my chest healed over.

The ULTRAbots hovered above me.

I looked up at them, into their staring eyes.

“What?” I shouted, stumbling to my feet. “What are you waiting for?”

They held their guns. I thought I saw something in their eyes, then. A glimmer of confusion, like they were caught in two minds about what to do. They were trained to hunt down ULTRAs, so that concerned me.

If they weren’t hunting me down, then who was giving that order?

“What are you waiting for?”

I listened to my voice echo around the crater. Rubble tumbled down as my voice bounced against it. Up above, I saw a glimmer of light where the city of New York stayed engaged in battle.

Then the ULTRAbots’ stares focused.

They lifted their guns higher. Tensed on the trigger.

I closed my eyes.

I heard a blast above. It cracked through the rubble and sent more debris falling down in my direction.

It was a blast of orange energy that slammed into the backs of half of the ULTRAbots, disabling them in an instant.

I stood. Flew up at the ULTRAbot nearest to me. I crashed into its chest, knocked it back up toward the ceiling of rubble. It pressed back against me, squeezed my hands. And as I tried to take it down, ice spreading across my hands, I saw that look of confusion once more. The ULTRAbot was caught in two minds about what it wanted to do. Why?

I heard more explosions around me. More balls of energy hit the ULTRAbots. More of them fell down. And above, I saw the rubble falling. The sky appearing. Only it wasn’t as full of ULTRAbots anymore. Many of them had fallen.

I went to punch my fist into a final ULTRAbot when a massive rock hit my side.

It knocked me down. I felt myself flying below and prepared for it to crush my head.

Only I stopped.

So too did the rock.

I looked around. Tried to figure out what’d happened.

It was only when I looked above that I realized Daniel was the one keeping me hovering.

He moved the rock away from me. Then he moved the ULTRAbots below it. His eyes were bright, and his body was shaking.

Then he threw the rock down at the ULTRAbots, crushing them in an instant.

His eyes became normal. “Okay. So now we’re even?”

I flew up toward him. Together, we looked across the city of New York. The ULTRAbots were lowering in number. Saint was nowhere to be seen.

“So that’s Plan A down the crapper,” Daniel said.

I looked down at my chest. It was completely healed over. And it dawned on me that maybe I really was a lot stronger than I thought. I knew I was
strong…
but the way I’d actually healed myself when I was in such immediate danger. It made me understand I could use that power and strength even more.

“We don’t need Plan A,” I said, not anymore.

I flew up into the gray sky. A few ULTRAbots still hovered around, but enough for the Resistance to deal with.

“Where you going?”

I turned around. “We’re going to Saint’s tower. We’re going to face him directly. Then we’re going to stop all this mess once and for all.”

W
hen I saw
Saint’s tower in the distance, I couldn’t help the knotting sensation in my stomach.

There was a dark cloud all around, the kind that followed Saint wherever he went. Below, the waves were strong and rapid. If any normal person swam in there, they’d be lost to the sea in an instant. The smell of saltwater was strong in the air, its taste covering my lips. I could hear the gradual hum of something in the distance; the sound of life, as Saint’s human brainwashing program powered on. My chest still stung from the blast I’d taken through it not long ago, but I was fine. It still amazed me that I’d survived that blast. Again, it made me realize I was probably stronger than I’d first thought. 

“So what’s the plan, Einstein?”

I looked to my right. Daniel hovered beside me. He was dressed up to his neck in his Nycto gear, but his mask wasn’t in place. Truth be told, I’d still been skeptical about him even when we’d stood together and waited for the ULTRAbots to attack New York. But after he’d helped me fight out of the rubble of the fallen skyscrapers, and after he’d carried on with my new plan to attack Saint’s tower head on, my faith in him was growing. My lust for vengeance was falling. I saw the truth clearer than ever before. I needed to protect humanity and ULTRAs from Saint because Saint was evil. Sure, I wanted to get my own revenge on Saint for what he’d done to the people I loved, for those he’d taken away from me. But there was more to it than that. Taking Saint down was a goal in itself. It didn’t need to have my own lust for vengeance behind it.

But still, it’d be an absolute treat if I could be the one to put a stop to his era of chaos.

“We can both turn invisible, right?”

“Well, yeah,” Daniel said. “But if you think that’s gonna get us past Saint’s ULTRAbots, you’re very wrong.”

“It might not get us past the ULTRAbots, but I’ve… I don’t know about you, but I’ve felt something more recently. A stronger power than I thought I had growing inside me.”

“Sounds like a crackpot theory to me.”

“Just… Just hear me out. When we were locked in Saint’s cells... when the ULTRA called Controlla came to get into my head... I found a way to reverse his powers and turn them against him. It made me wonder if I could do more than I’d been giving myself credit for.”

“You give yourself enough credit as it is. You’d be insufferable if you gave yourself anymore.”

I ignored Daniel. “And back when you helped me from the ULTRAbots in New York. I had a hole in my chest. I should’ve died. Hell, I know I can heal myself, but even I shouldn’t have been able to bounce back from that.”

“So what you’re saying is… No. I really don’t know what you’re saying.”

“I’m starting to think that the more danger we’re in, the more powerful our powers become. When I put you at the bottom of Krakatoa—”

“Cheers for the reminder.”

“Just listen, please. When I buried you there, I put every single damned effort into making sure you’d stay at the bottom of that volcano.”

“Thanks for that.”

“I tried, but you must’ve wanted to get out more than anything else.”

“Surviving is always a wise priority when you’ve got a flood of lava heading toward you, sure.”

“So you found it in yourself to fight. And sure, it weakened you for a while. It took the energy out of you. But you did it. I’m starting to think maybe we could use that strength to get inside, get past Saint’s ULTRAbots and take him down, head on.”

Daniel shook his head. “Even if it
did
work, there’s no getting past the barriers Saint has in place. They repress our powers. There’s definitely no teleporting inside his office and being done with it.”

“I’m not sure that’s totally true,” I said.

Daniel hovered in front of me. He looked right into my eyes. “I’m still not really sure what you’re actually suggesting here.”

I looked down at the waves below. Watched them bash against each other.

“Kyle?”

“If I go in there. If I… If I throw everything I have into getting in there, alone. I might fail. If I do, I want you to go in there and… I want you to go in there and be the one to take Saint down.”

I looked into Daniel’s eyes. Something shifted in them. I saw him looking at me with his defenses totally down. “You want me to take Saint down?”

“I might not make it, like I said. And if I do make it and destroy the defenses in the process, my powers are definitely not going to be what they were beforehand. I might not be strong enough. So I need you to be ready. To do what you have to do.”

Daniel wiped his face. It looked like he was rubbing a tear from his eye.

“You’re my brother,” I said. “Sure, we’re not exactly best friends, but we’re family. And if there’s a chance… Just the smallest chance our sister is still in Saint’s hands, then we owe it to each other to find her. Not just that, but we owe it to the world to stop him.”

Daniel looked at the waves below. “You’ve really put the past behind you, haven’t you?”

I took a deep breath of the sea air, then I nodded. “I’ve learned that I can’t go hating everyone who’s done wrong against me. Sometimes to defeat those you really need to defeat, you need to let go of your own vengeance and focus on forgiveness.”

Daniel paused for a second. Then, “Nice speech. So what’s the—”

Daniel didn’t finish speaking.

A blast of energy smacked into his side.

He went flying toward the sea.

Up above, a group of ULTRAbots dropped their invisibility and watched him fall down to the water.

Their guns were turned on me.

I
flew
down to Daniel as he fell into the ravenous sea.

Lightning struck above. Torrential rain flew down. The waves grew stronger and stronger. I knew the ULTRAbots weren’t far behind me. I could see their bullets blasting past me, firing into the water. Again, that struck me as weird. I was trying to dodge their attacks of course, but my attention was more on stopping Daniel from falling into the sea. He’d taken a bad hit. He was clearly unconscious. I needed him by my side if I was going to carry out my plan of taking down Saint.

But again, why weren’t the ULTRAbots’ bullets making contact with me? Why weren’t they shooting right at me?

I swooped over to the right and picked up my pace toward the water, keen to divert the ULTRAbots’ attention from Daniel’s falling body. As the water approached, I saw that flashback clearly in my head.

My biological father, Orion, dunking me under the water.

Daniel by one side. My sister, Cassie, at the other side.

The combined abilities of Orion and Saint coming together to make us what we were.

Two generations of the most powerful ULTRAs that ever lived.

I felt the water hit my face and I held my breath. I swam around to where I knew Daniel was going to fall. I had no doubt he could look after himself, but I couldn't bear to lose him. He was unconscious so he was in danger. I couldn't just let him fall.

As I swam around the powerful waves, I got an idea. I knew it was wrong, but it was tempting. Daniel Septer was still Nycto. As much as he was my brother, the rest of the Resistance had a point. When Saint was out of the way, what was stopping him just making another power grab? Did I really need him by my side to take down Saint at all?

Or did I have my golden opportunity to finally get rid of him right here?

I quickly banished that thought from my head when the water splashed.

The ULTRAbots were swimming through the sea, powering toward me.

I moved quicker to where I figured Daniel was about to fall. I’d lost him. He was falling fast, but I’d hit the water quicker than him for a reason. I squinted up as the ULTRAbots got closer. I was putting a lot of attention on holding my breath down here so my powers wouldn’t be as…

No. Wait. That wasn’t true.

I
would
be as strong.

I’d seen for myself just how strong I could be.

I steadied myself and turned to the ULTRAbots.

I lifted my hands and felt the energy and the power coursing through my system as I looked the ULTRAbots in the eye. They still had that uncertainty to their demeanor, like they were split on what to do, which I still couldn’t understand.

Still, I wasn’t going to stick around to find out why.

I blasted my hands together and opened up a massive wormhole in the middle of the water. Through it, I could see the desert, somewhere in the Middle East. I watched the ULTRAbots flood down through that wormhole like they were being flushed down a toilet and felt my energy getting stronger, my powers getting stronger.

I was Kyle Peters. I was Glacies.

I could do this.

I could…

Shit.

Oh shit.

I saw another figure fall down that wormhole and into the desert just as I closed it.

Daniel.

Dammit!

I tried to open up another wormhole in the exact same place, but my powers weren’t strong enough. I needed air. I felt like I was getting weaker. Above, I heard more ULTRAbots splash into the water. I could deal with them, sure. But I wasn’t totally confident I could hold them off forever.

I tried to open that wormhole again as my oxygen levels dropped and my muscles weakened. In the place of urgency to save Daniel, I felt that vengeance creeping in again. That destructive vengeance which always had a funny way of paralyzing me.

Saint had done this.

This was Saint’s fault.

I was going to make Saint pay for…

No!

I ripped open a wormhole right in front of me. It was the biggest one I’d ever seen, a mass of land and a tunnel of air right in the middle of the water.

It was the desert where Daniel and the ULTRAbots had fallen into.

I let the water carry me out of that wormhole then when I was through, I closed it.

I splashed to the ground below. It must’ve been the first water this land had seen in a long time. To my left, I saw a man holding a camel with an empty vial of water. He was covered in the seawater, and his jaw was agape.

“This is seawater,” I said, holding my hand over it to rip the salt away from as much as I could, purifying it in an instant. “It might still have a salty tang but it should be good for now.”

The man didn’t say a word back to me. He just looked on, dumbstruck.

I turned ahead to where I’d seen Daniel fall. There was no sign of him.

I thought about going back through that wormhole and dealing with Saint myself. I knew what I was capable of now. I knew how strong I was.

But Daniel was my brother. He’d turned his allegiances to help me. I couldn’t just walk away.

I took a deep breath of the scorching desert air and walked through the sand.

I was finding Daniel Septer. I was saving Nycto’s life.

If only I’d known then how things were going to turn out.