Kinetics: In Search of Willow (49 page)

"Nobody ever did, or ever
will, escape the consequences of his
choices." 
~Alfred A.
Montapert

I yelled. I shouted. I cursed. I
nearly screamed. Nothing brought Jacob back. I hurled the mattress
at the bars but it only resulted in singeing the mattress and
filling the air with the smell of burnt polyester.

There was nothing else I could throw.
I walked the perimeter of the cell trying to find some way out.
There had to be a way. If they didn't have teleporter Kinetics, how
else could they get people in and out of these cells? I kicked and
punched the walls. I felt every minor bump in the concrete and
explored every crevasse. This place was sealed tighter than a
spaceship. I dragged the mattress out of the way and, without
touching it, I examined the bars with a meticulous eye. The
electrified bars hummed quietly. I put my hand up to one of the
bars but didn't let my hand come in contact with the metal. The
energy put out by the bars tickled my hand.

I raised both my hands up to the bars
and clamped my hands down on them. Energy shot through my arms and
I could feel all my nerves exploding with fire. I felt blood
trickle from my nose, but I refused to let go. Each and every time
my powers acted out, it was when I was under attack.

I closed my eyes, and held onto the
bars tighter and tighter. I could feel my skin burning on my hands.
I could smell it. And then… I felt it…

Fire blossomed from my fingers and
swirled around me. I was the center of the firestorm. I was the eye
of the storm. My raging fire screamed out and began melting the
metal bars. In seconds the bars were reduced to nothing but hot
white puddles of molten metal. The concrete around me was black.
The mattress was a roiling bonfire. I took a breath to suppress the
pain everywhere in my body. Soon, it would all be over.

With one last intake of congested air,
I ran through the mess of cooling metal and sprinted around the
corner of the hallway. I had no clue where I was going. For the
first few minutes I ran blindly, turning corners in what seemed to
lead outwards. The prison was a labyrinth.

I could feel hyperthermia setting in
again, and my thoughts began to get muddled. I stumbled and ran, at
the same time searching for the way out. The walls were blending
together with the floor and ceiling so it was getting harder and
hard to walk straight. I found myself in an open room with a huge
pool of water in the middle of it. The water was pouring out of a
huge hole in the ceiling where electrical wires were hanging down,
spurting sparks.

I ran right through a cascade of water
and felt my body release some of the heat that was building. The
water was ice cold. I moved out of it as quickly as I had entered
it and searched for the clarity of mind that had begun to escape
me. The hyperthermia would set in again. I had to move quickly. I
reached out with my telepathy and tried to find the source with the
most Kinetic minds attached to it. Far off I sensed hundreds of
minds broadcasting an array of emotions, everything from shattering
fear to unbridled glee. Confused, but certain that that was the way
I needed to go, I waded through the water flooding the halls. The
further I went, the more sounds I heard. Gone was the bone white
silence and quickly coming was the sound of terror.

Screams and shouts twisted through the
hallway toward me. I found my way out.

A ramp in the hallway made a sharp
incline upward leading toward the sounds of fighting, but also to
the light. Bright orange light shone down onto the ramp heralding
the way. I ran the last few feet up the ramp and burst out into a
world on fire. The Isiroan base that, only a couple days ago, had
seemed a serene place despite the people who occupied it was now
burning from the ground up. Every building was either on fire,
crashing to the ground or somewhere in between.

There were Alliance and Legion
fighters battling it out on every square inch of the base. Light
from various powers flashed everywhere, returned by the rumbles and
sounds of other powers. The sky was filled with ominous clouds that
struck lightning onto the ground and base. Wind howled through what
few trees were left standing and rattled the wreckage. I looked
around and tried to find my brother among the
pandemonium.

A woman was thrown to the side by a
Telekinetic. Her ragdoll body flopped and she was still.

A man was torn limb from limb by a
rock spearing up from the ground.

Another man was screaming as his skin
was being burned off.

Blood was everywhere.

The screams were getting louder and
louder. I couldn't tell who was who. Blood, mud, dirt and sweat
obscured the insignias and the identities of the fighters. Brother
could be fighting brother at this point, not knowing that he was
killing his own kin.

Some of them were resorting to
fighting with fists and whatever blunt objects were available.
Anarchy ruled. This war wasn't a war. War was supposed to be
organized. One side fights the other, with clear lines and
discernible borders. But this… this was mayhem. This was
chaos.

I ran through the
fighters, trying to recognize 
anyone. 
I had to find out where
Willow was. I had to make sure, if anything before I die, that she
was safe. I didn't care what Jacob said. There had to be a way to
save her. There had to be a way to make it all okay.

A young woman stood over a fallen man
and pulled a bloody knife out of his chest. She turned as I was
running past and I stopped in my tracks.

"Laura!" I called to her.

She looked at me, confused.
"Eugene?"

"Laura, what are you
doing?"

"Eugene," Laura smiled, calm, at ease
with herself. "Jacob has given me the way."

"What way?"

"The way to take revenge for my
family." Her smile got wider and she looked to her left where a
small contingent of Isiroan soldiers was fighting an even smaller
group of Alliance soldiers. Suddenly the Isiroan soldiers stopped
and all of them began screaming and clutching their
heads.

Laura raised her hand gracefully
toward them and then clenched her fist. All of the Isiroans fell to
the ground and an odd purplish light seeped from their ears, eyes
and mouths. The Alliance soldiers took that chance and within
seconds all of the Isiroans were dead.

"I have the power now," she laughed,
and a wild light entered her eyes. "My parents will be
avenged!"

"Laura…"

"Eugene, your brother will be happy to
see you." Laura closed her eyes and tilted her head upwards. "Go
toward the center of this place and you will find him."

I backed up a few steps and, feeling a
cold wind flow through my body, ran straight toward the center of
the base. I became lost in the fire, blood and falling bodies.
People on all sides were falling to the ground, dried leaves
falling from dead trees.

"Eugene!" Jacob's voice speared
through the other sounds of chaos.

I whirled around and stared at him.
"Jacob!" I hissed.

He grinned, brotherly-like, "You
escaped. Good for you. I'm proud."

I felt a rebellious trickle of hope at
that, but it was dashed when I remembered. "You betrayed me! You
lied to me!"

"Oh, Eugene, you're not still stuck on
that. It's in the past!" Before he had finished his sentence an
Isiroan had run at Jacob with a wave of ice daggers. Jacob had
flicked his wrist and the man seized up and exploded. No blood, no
gore. Complete combustion. I had never seen my brother's power so
up close before. It wasn't nearly as bloody as I had thought. But
it was oddly more brutal. There was no humanity at all in that
Isiroan's death. I felt an odd rumble in my chest as my brother
clapped his hand on my shoulder.

"You really have proven yourself. I
don't know how you managed to get out of that cell."

I shoved his hand away. "Don't
patronize me."

Jacob grinned and held his hands up.
"You'll thank me later, Eugene. This will make you
strong."

I growled deep in my throat and spun
around. I had to find out where Willow was. My brother called to
me, but I ignored him. I ran toward the dormitory. Jack would know,
and if he didn't, then Harry would. I knew it. They had been in on
this the whole time.

The elevators were destroyed in the
dormitory. Scorch marks and large blackened spots marred the once
pretty entryway. The roof was slightly caved in at the back and
wiring and water was leaking from a couple holes in the
ceiling.

I ran toward the stairs and sprinted
up them. When I reached the floor of the dormitory where I had
lived for a couple days I found all the doors ripped from their
hinges and laying in sad heaps through the hallway. Half of the
lights were off or flickering. Far off I heard screams and shouts
and the noises of battle. The rooms that I passed were ransacked.
It seemed impossible to me that the Alliance could have caused so
much destruction in so little time.

Jack and Roy's room was a duplicate of
the other rooms, ransacked, with items thrown everywhere. I kicked
some of the shirts and books out of the way as I stepped further
into the room.

Voices coming closer made me stop and
I shoved myself into the closet and closed the door only enough so
that I could peek out.

Roy, Jack,
Harry…and 
Logan,
 Laura's allegedly dead brother, all entered the room. I
hardly had a chance to register that he was standing there, alive
when they started talking to each other.

"I can't believe it." Jack sighed and
looked around the room.

"Nothing is surviving." Harry
whispered.

"We should go, quickly. Your dad is
waiting for us." Roy looked out the broken door and frowned. Logan
picked up a charred pillow off the floor and let it drop to the bed
into a sad heap.

"Right." Jack picked up a few books
off the floor and stuffed them in a messenger bag. He was about to
join Harry, Logan and Roy who were standing at the door when I
decided to make my presence known. I pushed open the closet door,
visibly startling the three others.

"You've all been working
together, haven't you? This has just been some sick joke, hasn't
it?" I yelled out.

"You!" Roy was at my neck in a split
second. He pushed me up against the wall and I felt my breath
leaving me. I dug my fingernails into his arm, drawing
blood.

He squeezed harder and I kicked out,
hitting him in the groin. He flinched and retaliated with a punch
to my face. I fell to the ground and rolled away just before his
foot came down where my stomach was. I jolted to my feet and
tackled him.

Roy grabbed my hair and shoved my face
into the wall. My vision went black for a second and then I
regained my balance and punched his jaw.

Roy was off balance for only a second
before he returned with three successive punches, two to my stomach
and one to my face. I fell to the ground but he didn't let up. He
kicked at my chest and I felt the air in my lungs leave
me.

I tried to roll away and was only half
successful as his foot came down again and caught my arm. I
staggered to my feet and lashed out at him with my fists. He ducked
and grabbed my neck again.

"Roy!" Jack and Harry finally pulled
him away and I fell to the floor coughing and gasping.

"Wh—where—is—she?" I heaved
out.

"Who?" Jack asked.

"Willow." Harry supplied, answering
for me.

"Where?" I pushed myself to me feet
and glared at all three of them.

Jack's fingers clenched. He looked
about ready to do what Roy had just tried to do. "What makes you
think that we will tell you?"

"Where is she!" I took a step toward
Jack but both Roy and Harry stepped in front of me. Logan appeared
bewildered and actually backed up.

Jack and Roy looked at Harry in
surprise. I was confused for a moment, and then realized that Harry
must have sent them a telepathic message.

Jack glanced at me with a
new look in his eyes. The gleam
wasn't
one I was comfortable with.
He looked like he was planning something.