Battle of the ULTRAs (4 page)

I
saw
Saint taking Vortex away and I didn’t have to think about what I was going to do.

I fired after him. Flew up into the blue sky as fast as I possibly could. The island disappeared beneath my feet as I got higher and higher, as the air whooshed past my ears and my lips dried with the force.

I felt my hands cover with ice. Saint had taken enough from me. He’d done enough damage to the Resistance, and to the world in general. I wasn’t letting him take Vortex.

I was making him pay.

I wondered if any of the other Resistance members had seen what I’d seen. It seemed weird they weren’t joining me. As much as Orion grilled me for my “obsession” with vengeance against Saint, he’d still defend the members of the Resistance if Saint arrived at our doorstep, right?

Not just that, but Saint was at the island, which meant he knew where I was. What was stopping him hopping over a few more islands and finding everyone I’d ever cared about?

I teleported myself closer toward the glimmer of light.

I stopped when I saw Vortex right in front of me.

She was still. Completely still, hovering in the air. Her eyes weren’t rolled back into her head, which meant she wasn’t in one of her dream-inducing trances. But there was something about her. Something… off about the way she looked at me. Like she didn’t totally recognize me.

“Vortex?” I wondered whether this could just be another part of her resistance training. Maybe she’d gone into a trance. Maybe the whole thing with the imaginary zombies, with me waking up from it, maybe it was all part of the training. Perhaps I hadn’t really woken up. Perhaps this was just another layer to the challenge.

But I wasn’t sure. This felt very real.

“Saint,” I said, looking all around. I couldn’t see him anywhere. “Did you see where he went?”

“Saint’s right here,” she said.

It took me a second to clock what Vortex said. “What do—”

She flew into my chest and knocked me out of the sky.

I fell rapidly down to the island, the wind knocked out of my gut. Vortex had hit me. She’d hit me and she’d said, “Saint’s right here”. This couldn’t be real. This had to be some kind of trance. What did any of it mean?

I readjusted my balance when Vortex flew into me again.

“Vortex, what—”

She punched me in the back of the neck. Hard. And then she pulled back my arms as I tried to swing them at her and kicked me away. I didn’t want to fight her. After all, this was Vortex. She was strong, but I knew my powers were much stronger. Among the strongest in the world.

I could feel someone trying to get into my mind. A feeling I couldn’t explain. I held my ground, resisted it, and stood tall as Vortex flew at me once more.

I dodged her attack. Appeared behind her.

“What the hell is this?”

She swung for me, so I teleported to her side again. I was still winded, but I had enough energy in me to keep on dodging around her, to keep on resisting her attacks.

I didn’t want to fight back. I
couldn’t
fight back. But Vortex wasn’t leaving me much of a choice right now.

I fired ice at her fists as she flew toward me. It didn’t stop her, though. She kept on going until the ice cracked into my chest and knocked me back.

I fell backward. Wobbled through the air. I tasted blood on my lips. “Vortex, what the hell is this?”

I saw Vortex was looking at me then with fear. With confusion. And I saw that she wasn’t in control of her actions right now. Someone else was. Someone was using her to fight against me. Someone was…

I saw the glimmer of silver in the corner of my eye again.

I was torn. Torn between staying here with Vortex, helping her get out of this state.

But Saint.

The glimmer of light. It was Saint. It had to be Saint. He was doing this.

He wasn’t going to get away with it.

Screw what Orion said about starting small. If I was cutting away any part of the snake, it was the head—

A crack against my jaw, then my mind went dizzy.

I fell. And as I fell, I saw that glimmer of silver disappear. He’d gone. Saint had gone all over again.

“You let him get away!” I shouted.

I flew at Vortex this time and didn’t hold back. I rammed her backward. Fired ice at her hands as she kept on swinging, kept on punching. I knew what I was doing was wrong. I knew she couldn’t be in control of herself.

But she’d punched me. She’d got in my way when I was trying to stop Saint. We’d failed to catch him all over again.

I kept on fighting Vortex. And soon, I became aware of just how high we were. We were well above the clouds. The purple glow of space was just inches away. Soon, Vortex wouldn’t be able to breathe. I would—I was special like that. But if I stayed up here much longer, Vortex was going to die.

I grabbed her. Resisted all her attacks. It was weird that she hadn’t just used her mind tricks on me. Whoever was controlling her must not be able to tap into those.

I dragged her back down to earth, through the icy clouds.

She kept on fighting back.

“Come on,” I said. “We’re almost there. We’re almost—”

“You’ve made a big mistake,” she said.

I looked at her then. I didn’t know what she meant. “What do…”

Then I heard the explosion.

The explosion down by the island.

On
the island.

The Resistance’s island was under attack, and I was right up here in the clouds.

I
heard
the explosion down on the island and felt sickening guilt spread through my body.

I squinted down, the sunlight blinding me. The thickening clouds were in the way, too. Those clouds made me feel uneasy simply because I associated clouds with Saint. I just hoped he wasn’t here right now, after all. He’d flown away. He’d disappeared into the sky.

But what was stopping him just appearing down by the island now he’d lured me away?

What was stopping him using powers I knew damned well he had?

I felt something hit my back. A winding punch that knocked the breath from my lungs. I turned around and saw Vortex still hovering there. She had that recognizable look on her face, a familiarity about her. But it was clear she wasn’t in control of her actions, not totally.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “There’s… there’s somewhere I have to be right now.”

As Vortex flew in for another punch, I teleported myself down toward the island.

The moment I tried to teleport, a splitting headache cracked through my skull. I heard buzzing, like the static on a television turned up too loud. Bitter smells filled my mouth, and the taste of sick hung to the back of my throat.

I couldn’t teleport. Something was stopping me from teleporting. Dampening my powers.

I held my breath and tried to disappear again.

That static sound. The taste of sick. Flashes in my vision.

“You need to learn when you’re defeated,” a voice said.

I wasn’t sure where it came from. I looked all around. It wasn’t Vortex. And it didn’t look like there was anyone else here.

I tried to shoot down but felt my body lift up into the air instead.

I bit down on my bottom lip, hard. I couldn’t explain what was happening, couldn’t understand it. It felt like I was losing my grip on my own mind. When I saw Vortex acting the way she was, I wondered whether whoever was doing that to her was doing it to me, too. Trying to worm their way into my head. Control me.

“Just give up, Glacies. Give up and hand yourself over. There doesn’t have to be any more bloodshed.”

I could hear the voice loud and clear in my mind now. So much so that I was convinced of what was happening—some kind of mind-controller was trying to take over my thoughts.

I heard more explosions below. Saw flashes of light between the clouds. The island of the Resistance. It was under attack.

My muscles tightened. My thoughts drifted. Maybe I could just stay up here and watch…

“Yes. Stay up here and watch.”

Maybe I could just—

“No!”

I shook my head. Held my breath. I focused on my body. Tensed my fists. I wasn’t giving up on the island. I wasn’t giving up on my people. My ULTRAs.

I flew back down. It felt like I was running through mud. I wondered about Vortex. She wasn’t chasing me anymore. I wasn’t sure why, but it could only be a good thing, I guess.

I kept on flying down, battling the magnetic force pulling me back, telling me to turn around.

“You don’t have to fight.”

“I have to fight,” I muttered.

“You can stand and watch as your island falls—”

“I have to fight!”

I used a massive burst of energy to blast through the clouds.

When I saw what was on the other side of them, I almost lost my mind all over again.

The island was burning. Mini-explosions were erupting everywhere. The Resistance were fleeing. Trying to hide. Trying to…

Wait.

I flew closer to the island. I definitely didn’t feel strong enough to teleport, so flying had to suffice for now. As specks of warm rain fell from the clouds around me, I saw it wasn’t the Resistance fleeing at all.

It was the Resistance attacking the island.

I saw Stone smashing up our homes.

I saw Roadrunner sprinting around, throwing her body and bashing through things.

I saw Ember setting things alight.

And I saw Orion, hovering over, big powerful balls of energy in the palms of his hands, and getting ready to fire.

“No!”

I flew toward Orion. I couldn’t let him destroy the island. I couldn’t let any of this happen—whatever the hell was even happening at all.

When I flew at him, I saw Orion turn around. Look right at me.

There was fear in his eyes. Fear and a lack of understanding. A look of sheer confusion.

“Go,” Orion said. “Just—just go.”

I held my ground. Shook my head. “I’m not going anywhere. I’m not letting this island fall.”

Within an instant, Orion wasn’t alone.

Stone was beside him. Roadrunner was beside him. Ember and Vortex and the rest of the Resistance, all of them were beside him.

Their powers were charged up.

They were looking right at me, some with fear in their eyes, others with confusion. Others devoid of emotion completely.

“Go!” Orion shouted.

I didn’t go.

I didn’t have a chance to.

The Resistance all lifted their hands and fired their powers right at me.

I
threw
myself out of the way of the collective blast from every single Resistance member.

I saw the beams of power racing toward me. Flames. Water. Electricity. They filled the sky, made the air around me rumble. I couldn’t see the ULTRAs—the ULTRAs that were clearly under the control of something or someone—behind the energy.

I just tried to fly away from them, to teleport away from the blasts of energy.

But I still wasn’t strong enough to teleport.

I gritted my teeth and watched as the energy surrounded me. I could heal from some things, sure. But hundreds of the most powerful blasts of energy imaginable? Yeah. I didn’t fancy picking up the pieces of my body when it covered the island.

I stuck out my hands, as much as the magnetic force behind me tried to pull me back. I wasn’t being controlled by this bastard. I was strong enough to hold my ground. Strong enough to fight.

I saw the energy getting closer and focused on all my anger. I focused on Saint, and the revenge I wanted to take out on him.

I focused on Ellicia. On Damon. On the people I was fighting for, all along.

I focused on my sister.

My mom.

I squeezed my eyes shut. The beams of energy were so close that I could feel their power just inches from my face.

I held my position. Threw everything I had back at that energy.

And then I felt a loosening in the air.

I didn’t want to open my eyes. I didn’t want to see what’d happened just in case it wasn’t something I wanted to look at.

But I did. And when I looked, I saw the energy wasn’t in front of me anymore.

It was drifting upwards. All of the streams of fire, the beams of electricity, all of them were rising up into the sky, controlled by me.

I looked at the Resistance, at the people I cared about. For a split second, I wondered if I’d have to get rid of them. I didn’t want to. They were my people; my family. But if they were fighting me, trying to take me down, then what was I supposed to do?

I threw the energy beams up into the sky, right past the clouds and out of the Earth’s atmosphere.

Then I teleported behind the Resistance and shot around the island.

I could feel it, now. Feel the presence of someone trying to control me. The same person—ULTRA—controlling everyone else. Behind, I heard the whooshing of my fellow ULTRAs pursuing me. I watched more power fire past me, some of it singeing my flesh as it scratched my face, my torso.

But I was getting closer to whoever was doing this. I was going to stop them.

I could feel an energy coming from the very middle of the island. A transmission, almost, reaching out to me and to the rest of the Resistance, making them fight me. I flew toward it. Teleported, now I had my strength back. It still hurt. There was still some kind of static sound, and I figured this ULTRA must have some kind of block set up. Something stopping me using my full abilities.

It wasn’t going to stop me for long.

I stormed past the trees and appeared right in the middle of the island. When I got there, I saw a waterfall. I saw tropical birds flying around.

Up above, I saw a guy.

He was young. Probably my age, maybe a little older. He was dressed all in dark red. His eyes shone.

When he looked at me, I felt like he was speaking to me. Like he was looking around my mind for a weakness, trying to get a grip on me.

“It’s over,” I shouted.

The guy tilted his head. Smiled. “Really? I thought we were just getting started.”

He shot up into the sky and vanished into the clouds.

But not for long.

I teleported in front of him, as much as it weakened me. I grabbed him. Held him there, in the middle of the clouds. Underneath us, I could hear the mass of controlled ULTRAs from the Resistance closing in.

I squeezed this guy’s shoulders and looked deeper into his eyes. “Your party trick. Controlling minds. It’s good, but it’s not all there just yet.”

I tried to teleport the pair of us away, but the resistance to teleportation was so strong that I almost lost my grip on this guy.

He smiled. Laughed. His teeth were bright white. “That’s why they call me Controlla.”

“Controlla?” I said. “Seriously? Like the—”

“Drake song. Yeah. Why, is that a bad thing?”

“No. No, I kind of liked that song. It’s just… I dunno. What next? ‘Hotline Bling’?”

“You haven’t met ‘Hotline Bling’ yet?”

“You serious?”

Controlla shook his head. “No. I’m just kidding. Anyway. Where were we?”

He punched me in the back so hard that I went flying face flat down into the water below.

I lashed free of it. Memories of a blurry past crowded my mind. I’d been underwater. Someone had held me under there. I felt like that was the day where my powers sparked, but I still couldn’t totally explain what had happened.

The weird thing about the memory?

I had a funny feeling, now more than ever, that there were two more people being dunked in the water beside me.

Their little fingertips touching mine.

I dragged myself out of the water. Wiped the water from my eyes and gasped for breath. I had to catch Controlla. Stop his grip on my friends. Stop him—

“Don’t move a muscle, Kyle.”

My stomach sank.

I turned around and saw Stone standing right opposite me.

Even though his eyes told me he wanted to do anything but fight, his arms were totally covered in rock.

He was ready to fight.