First Superhero 1: The Second Super (17 page)

All of us mulled Dr. Reynolds’s plan over. It sounded like it would work to me, although I was nervous about having to get Richter in the exact right spot for the nuke to hit him. I’d cross that bridge when I came to it, though.

“It sounds simple enough,” Agent Loren said. “I like it.”

Agent York nodded his head. “I agree. Sometimes the simplest plans are the best.”

“Yeah, kinda amazing how you didn’t think of this before.”

“Oh, we did,” Dr. Reynolds said. “But with every missile we sent his way, he would always deflect it before it got to him. We couldn’t risk him catching it in the air and sending it toward an un-evacuated city. Especially one in another country. Even if it was Richter’s fault, it would most likely still cause an international incident and might lead to war, especially if he sent it to the front steps of Pyongyang. We were hoping for a more elegant solution, but I believe this one will be the most successful. With you distracting him, he won’t see the nuke coming at all.”

I didn’t like being reduced to bait, but I guess it was, in a way, what I always thought they were using me for in the beginning. Besides, if it led to the defeat of Richter, I was down for pretty much anything.

“It sounds to me like we have a plan,” Agent York said.

Agent Loren nodded her head. “Indeed. I’ll go make the necessary calls to get the warheads ready.”

They about to leave the room, but I stopped them. “What should I do?”

Dr. Reynolds smiled. “We will send a message to Richter. A message he can’t refuse.”

I
STOOD
in the parking lot of the middle school, with the destroyed gym of the high school in the background. A man who worked for Homeland Security stood a few feet away from me, holding a large news camera. Another stood next to him, pointing a microphone at me.

Everything felt so weird. I felt as if I was about to give a report on the weather, not like I was about to challenge a supervillain to a fight that would end in a nuclear explosion.

“We’re ready whenever you are,” the cameraman said.

I nodded my head. I took a deep breath, and looked into the camera, my eyes glowing bright. “Richter,” I began in my altered voice. It sounded deeper and slightly robotic. “I will play your game. Let’s begin round one on the mountaintop.” I stopped and said no more. That was all I needed. Richter needed no convincing for a fight. He would know what I meant by the mountaintop. Yes, it was in Washington, far away from the Arizona desert where the nuke would go off, but I had to pick a location that wasn’t suspicious. If I said,
hey, meet me in the desert where they used to test nukes all the time,
he’d probably realize something was up. There was no doubt in my mind, though, that we would be able to fight our way to Arizona, where, hopefully, I’d end it as well.

32

THE FIGHT BEGINS

I
STOOD
on the destroyed mountaintop, next to the giant hole in the ground caused by yours truly. I scanned the sky, searching for any sign of Richter. So far, nothing. I wasn’t worried, though. It would only be a matter of time before Richter showed up, and our plan would begin.

The trees far beneath me waved back and forth in the wind, and I would see the trench in the ground caused by me punching Richter as hard as I could last time we were up there. I smiled, remembering how good that felt. I eagerly awaited the moment that would come in a short time, when I’d be able to do that again.

“Any sign of him?” I asked.

“Nothing yet,”
the voice of Agent York crackled through the earpiece I wore.

I sighed in frustration. This was taking longer then it should have.

Then someone slammed into the ground hard in front of me, sending cracks shooting across the ground where he landed. It was Richter, and he was ready to play.

“Got tired of playing hero, did ya?” Richter said with a smile. “Wanna see how the gods play?”

I shook my head and smirked. “Not quite, Richter.”

Before he had a chance to respond, I ran and uppercutted him at super-speed, sending him flying into the air. I jumped up and grabbed him. I turned course, and flew straight down the hole in the mountain. I slammed him into the ground, causing cracks to web out from the impact site, and up the walls. Our glowing eyes illuminated the area, and I could see small rocks begin to fall. The mountain began to moan, and the hole began to collapse.

I threw Richter up as hard as I could out of the hole, and I flew out after him, the hole collapsing beneath me.

Once back out, I grabbed Richter and threw him down onto the mountain. I flew down to him, and was ready to continue my beating. He’d recovered from the sudden surprise and subsequent beating, however. He was ready and angry.

Whenever I bent over to pick him up and throw him again, he kicked me hard in my chest, sending me flying backwards, landing on my knees. I gasped for air, my ribs having been crushed and my lungs collapsed. I felt them crack and move back into place, and I began to breath again, just in time for Richter to punch me in my chest again. He put all his anger and rage behind the punch, and I went flying backwards off the mountain.

I fell down into the woods beneath the mountain, slamming through trees and sending them falling to the ground.

I slid to a stop just as Richter jumped off the mountain, and landed a few yards away from me. I scrambled up off the ground, just as Richter ran to my side, ready to punch me again. I dodged it, and got in two good punches to his torso.

Anger and frustration boiled within me, and I used it as the power behind my punches.

Richter ran to a tree, pulled it from the ground, and before I realized what was happening, he swung it like a bat, and I was the baseball.

I went flying high into the air, above the trees. I stopped myself in midair and turned around just in time to see Richter flying right at me.

I dodged out of the way, and he went soaring past me. I couldn’t help but smile a little at how dumb he must’ve felt in that moment. I was the matador and he was the bull.

He turned around and flew back toward me, but I started flying too, except in the opposite direction. I flew just fast enough that Richter would be able to keep up. He was hot on my tail as I began to fly south. I got a little too cocky though, and underestimated Richter’s speed. He caught up to me in seconds. We were in Seattle when he grabbed me and threw me.

I tumbled through the air, unable to correct myself fast enough. I hit glass hard, and went flying through some sort of observation deck. I flew through the building, taking out everything my body touched. I fell through the other side, and that’s when I realized that what Richter had thrown me through was the Seattle Space Needle.

I slammed into the empty Seattle street. Water from pipes I’d just broken spewed into the air, and back down onto me. I pushed myself up off the ground, my body in pain. I looked up at the sky to see where Richter was at, just in time to see that he’d torn the observation deck of the Space Needle off the pole, and sent it hurtling toward me.

I ran out of the way, but he’d thrown it so fast and hard, it almost wasn’t enough. It slammed into the ground behind me, sending buildings all around tumbling down. The shock wave of the impact sent me flying forward, into some abandoned cars.

I got up and looked behind me. The top of the Space Needle sat in a pile of rubble in the ground, as dirt and dust filled the air and covered everything around. All buildings in the immediate vicinity were totally destroyed.

I looked around for Richter, and saw him standing on top of the rubble, an evil smile across his dirty face.

“Isn’t this fun?!” he shouted at me with his arms raised. He took in all the damage and destruction he’d just caused. “I don’t know why I didn’t do this sooner. It’s so,” he disappeared in a blur as he ran straight at me. He stopped just inches away from my face, before I had time to react. “Therapeutic.”

He grabbed me by my Tempest outfit and launched into the air. I was ready this time, though, and with a shout, I slammed my arm down onto his wrist as hard as I could, causing it to break and him to let go of me. Richter let out a sharp wince in pain.

“You’re right,” I shouted at him as I flew to his side. I grabbed him by his shirt, and punched him twice in the face, hard. “This is therapeutic.”

I let go of him and began flying south again, Richter close on my tail. This time I made sure I was going fast enough to where he wouldn’t catch me again. I flew toward the Arizona desert, where the nuke would be hitting—and end Richter once and for all.

33

DETONATION

I
T WAS ONLY
a matter of seconds before we reached the Arizona desert. I had to slow down in order to look for the small blinking light they placed in the sand that you could only see if you were looking for it. Unfortunately, that gave Richter the perfect opportunity to tackle me to the ground.

He slammed into me, and the two of us tumbled across the desert floor, head over heels.

I spat out a mouth full of sand, and turned to look for Richter. He was picking himself up off the ground and spitting out sand just like I was.

I searched for the flashing light but couldn’t see anything. I began to be frantic. “Guys, I can’t see the light,” I said.

There was no response from Agent York in my earpiece.

“Gu—” Richter slammed into me before I could finish my words.

He brought me down to the ground and got on top of me. He pummeled me as hard as he could. I tried to fight him off me, but he was pressing down hard on my arms.

“Tempest, this wasn’t my decision. I’m sorry,” I heard Agent York’s voice say through my earpiece.

I couldn’t process what he meant, as Richter bashing my face in was a little distracting. I pushed my arm straight down my side and flew straight out from underneath Richter. His fist slammed into the ground, causing a large pillar of sand to fly into the air.

I shot myself a few hundred yards away from Richter, and it took him a few moments to realize that I was no longer there.

“York, what do you mea—” Before I could finish, though, I realized exactly what he meant.

A blinding flash of light reached my eyes, followed by a deafening boom. I turned around and flew away as fast as I could. The heat on my back was unbearable, as I felt my suit beginning to melt away.

I got far enough away that I couldn’t feel the heat anymore, and turned around to see a mushroom cloud a few miles away, where Richter and I had just been moments before.

It all clicked. That’s why the government had been so open to working with me. They were going to kill two birds with one stone, and take out both Richter and I with one nuke.

Anger boiled within me. I couldn’t believe the people I was risking so much to protect would use me and try to kill me like that.

I floated to the ground, and watched as the mushroom cloud began to dissipate. It was strangely beautiful, and made my knees became weak at the sheer power and ferocity of it.

A large wall of dust and sand reached me, and began to pelt me. I shielded my eyes, and waited for the mini-sandstorm to pass. Once it did, I looked upon the destruction.

A large crater sat in the ground where the nuke went off. I flew high above and slightly to the side of the crater, and looked down. I searched for Richter, but he wasn’t down there. That was a good thing, though, because that meant the plan might’ve worked. If Richter had been disintegrated, there wouldn’t be a body to find.

A smile crept across my face, as I began to realize what had happened. Richter had finally been defeated. I’d won.

My skin felt prickly and uncomfortable, probably from the amount of radiation that was bombarding my body. I figured it was time to get out of there, before the government came by and realized I’d survived.

I turned around, and saw something that made me feel as if I’d been punched in the gut. A few hundred yards away, Richter lay face down in the sand. While he’d still got hit by the nuke, he realized what was happening a split-second before the missile hit him, and was able to get far enough away that the blast didn’t disintegrate him.

I flew to his side, and rolled him over in the sand. Blood oozed from his mouth, nose, and eyes. His skin was almost completely melted away, but it slowly began to web around his body, as his healing powers began the recovery process.

I didn’t know what to do. Nuking Richter was the only thing that made sense, and he was able to escape even that. If they could hurry up and nuke him now while he was unconscious and recovering from the first explosion, that’d be perfect. No more Richter, for sure this time. But firing nukes wasn’t like shooting bullets from a gun. By the time one was ready, Richter would be fully recovered, furious, and ready to destroy everything in sight. I feared for what would happen when he was healed. I knew it’d be unlike anything the world had seen yet.

Which meant I didn’t have much time to figure out how I would kill Richter, once and for all.

My earpiece crackled and rang. I brought my hand up to it, the sudden noise not only frightening me, but the ringing causing me pain.

“Hello? Tempest? Tempest do you copy?” A woman’s voice said, one I didn’t recognize. The voice sounded young and eager.

“Who’s this?” I said, unsure of what was going on.

There was a whoop of joy on the other line, before the lady regained her composure. “Alright, Tempest. Listen to me and listen closely. Preliminary imaging from satellites show that you and Richter are still alive and well. Homeland Security has another nuke on its way, and it will be there any second.”

“What’s going on?” I asked, still confused as hell. “Who are you.”

“Hey, Tempest.
Nuke headed your way.
That’s a little more important right no—” The line went dead.

I looked to the sky, and in the distance, I could see a nuclear missile headed right toward me, just a few hundred yards away, but closing in fast.

I jumped into the air and began to fly away.
That was a close one,
I thought to myself. Once I got far enough away, I turned around to see the explosion.