The Cloak Society (19 page)

Alex wanted to scream, but his body and brain would not cooperate. The energy built up inside him, like a kettle threatening to boil over, but despite his best efforts, he was unable to overcome his mother's interference. He crawled to his knees and slowly made his way across the floor, but Kirbie and the rest of the Junior Rangers were too far away. There was no way he could make it there in time to save them.

“Eeny, meeny,” Alex's mother said, alternating her aim with each word. “Miney . . .”

A bolt of energy flew through Shade's shoulder from behind, sending her hunching forward, screaming out in pain. As she fell to the ground, Alex saw Gage at the staircase, a laser pistol in hand. Misty peeked out from behind him. In their elation, Cloak hadn't noticed the two of them sneak in.

Gage looked as shocked by his actions as the rest of the room. A high-pitched scream from Misty brought the inventor back to his senses as Julie lunged at the two of them, claws first. Misty wrapped her arms around Gage's waist and closed her eyes. They disintegrated immediately, and Julie landed on the ground, sliding into the side of the staircase.

Kirbie got to her feet and hobbled over to Kyle, who was staring at the Cloak members across from him, shaking.

“It's okay. Try to get up. We have to go,” she said. But he was in shock and barely responded.

Gage and Misty reconstituted beside Alex.

“Are we all that's left?” Gage asked. “Did they get Lone Star and the others?”

Alex nodded, blinking his eyes as he stood. The static in his head had suddenly disappeared. The laser shot had broken his mother's hold on his mind, and he was feeling better with every second.

“The bomb prototype is attached,” Gage continued. “But it doesn't appear to be activated yet.”

“Take care of Misty,” Alex said, staring down his mother, who was inspecting a smoking hole the size of a dime in her left shoulder. “I'm getting that gun.”

He stood and walked toward the High Council and the Beta Team standing in front of the elevator bank. The energy he'd been gathering while his mother had been blurring his thoughts poured out of him with each step. His emotions ran rampant, and his powers were raging.

“Are you going to beg us to take you back?” Julie asked. “You can start by bowing.”

“What do you expect to do now, take us all on? You and the crying Kid Rangers in the corner? It's over,” Titan said from his sister's side, watching Alex walk toward the center of the room.

Alex could feel his mother's thoughts pressing against his, but he was ready for her this time. He wrapped a thick shield of telekinetic energy around his mind. Shade's silver eyes grew wide as her thoughts slammed against his mental blocks, her head flinging back at the power of her son's defenses. She smiled broadly, standing in the center of the group.

“So angry,” Shade said as her eyes returned to normal. They took on a kind, warm appearance as she stared into her son's. “I've trained you well.”

“Do you know what happens now?” Alex asked, looking over his mother's shoulder at his fellow Beta Team members. “They're going to use the Umbra Gun to send part of the city into the Gloom. I'm talking about thousands of people gone in an instant. Is this what we've been training for? Is that what our birthright is? We're not running drills or playing capture the flag anymore. This is murder.”

“So?” Titan snorted. “They call us supervillains, you idiot. How will they ever respect us if we don't live up to their expectations?”

“The sacrifice is for the greater good,” Phantom said. “The reign of Cloak will turn Sterling City into a paradise. Petty crime, murder, theft—all ended.”

“A paradise for us, but that's all,” Alex said. “You don't care about the city or the people. All you care about is power. And revenge.”

“Son,” Volt said, his fingers twitching with electricity at his sides. “Stand down.”

“Mallory,” Alex said, pleading now, “you can't be okay with this. I know you. And if you had any idea how much my mother messed with your mind. . . . They killed your parents, Mal.”

Mallory's face grew pale, but she didn't move.

“Will you please shoot him already?” Julie asked.

Shade stepped forward. It was the end, and everyone in the room knew it. The Junior Rangers were all but defeated, and Gage and Misty were poor excuses for soldiers. Their only real opponent was Alex, the boy who had spent most of the battle cowering on the floor, unable to move. The boy who time and again failed to meet expectations or control his powers properly. Whose conflicted allegiance and inability to take action would be his downfall.

“Poor Alexander,” Shade said, raising the gun's barrel to once again point it at her son. “You brought this on yourself. Maybe a few years in the Gloom will teach you a lesson.”

“Alex!” Kirbie yelled from behind him.

The Umbra Gun fired, aimed at Alex's chest, but he stood tall. Thrusting his arm out, he focused on the black, glimmering ball of energy and pushed against it with his mind. It slowed until it came to a stop right in front his outstretched palm, causing his Cloak mark to surface and his hand to freeze. Then he did the only natural thing—the thing that he had perfected in his training sessions. He took the energy and flung it back where it had come from.

Shade realized what was happening before anyone else and jumped to one side as the black mass sailed back at her. Unfortunately for the others, it was impossible for everyone to dodge successfully. The energy struck Alex's father in the stomach. Volt looked at his wife, his mouth falling open as the darkness washed over him. In a few seconds he was immersed, and his body, like Lone Star's, melted away.

“Shade?” Phantom asked.

“Leave him for now,” she said. “We'll get him on the way back.”

She handed the gun off to Titan—it was of no use against her son now.

“Very good,” she said to Alex. “Even now I can see myself in you. In your rage.”

“I am not like you,” he said. “I never will be.”

Alex's hands fell to his sides, shaking as he focused on the individual members of Cloak, concentrating on the energy crackling around their bodies. Their satisfied expressions were beginning to drop away. Barrage hurled several balls of energy at Alex, but they never came close to hitting him, instead flying away and exploding somewhere on the other side of the room.

Alex had never felt so much raw power. It was as if the very air was under his control, each molecule charged and ready to react to his thoughts. The bits of table and tile and other refuse on the ground were lifting up, floating around him as he raised his outstretched arms. His feet rose off the ground, his body moving slowly into the air, his coat fluttering out at his sides. He thought about Kirbie. And Misty. And Gage. Of how much he cared for all of them, how he couldn't lose them. He had to save them.

His mother's eyes grew wide, sensing his great power. All of them could see it now, his blue energy crackling in the air around them. His eyes blazed like twin blue stars.

“Alexander,” Shade whispered, calm, despite knowing what was to come. “It's beautiful.”

And with that, Alex flung all the energy forward with one immense push. His former teammates, gathered together, were thrown backward, flying through the debris-filled air or sliding across the ground. They piled up, one on top of the other in a great heap of stunned bodies. Had it not been for the elevators behind them, they would have sailed straight through the floor-to-ceiling-length windows that were shattering around them, sending glass falling from the tower.

The backlash of the blast was unexpected, and Alex found himself sailing through the air as well. He landed with a thud in front of the Junior Rangers of Justice, who were now the
only
Rangers of Justice. Kirbie was by his side immediately. Alex felt weak, but otherwise fine.

“You're okay, you're okay, you're okay,” Kirbie chanted over him.

Alex's wild attack had destroyed several pillars in the room, and large patches of ceiling were starting to fall down all around them. Deep within Justice Tower, there was a moaning, as if the walls were crying out in pain.

“I believe your blast has caused structural damage,” Gage said, running to Alex's side with Misty in tow. “We must be making our exit.”

“Right,” Alex said. “Just get the gun and we'll be out of here before they can pick themselves up.”

The gathered members of Cloak were struggling to lift themselves from the marble—except for one. Titan was more resilient. He could take a beating and pick himself right back up again. He was on feet already, and in his hand was the Umbra Gun.

“You,” he grunted through gritted teeth. Metal shone through parts of his face.

“Titan . . . listen . . . ,” Alex muttered. He was frantically pushing energy toward the boy, but it was no use. He was tapped out.

The tower began to tremble above and below them.

“Shut up,” Titan said. He held the weapon at his side, the barrel pointing at the ground. “I've been waiting for an excuse to get rid of you for a long time. I guess I should be thanking you for giving me the opportunity.”

Misty screamed. Gage stepped in front of her.

“Think about what you're doing,” the inventor interjected. “You don't have orders to use that weapon.”

“We're better off without you. Without all of you,” Titan said. “You can rot in the Gloom together for all I care.”

A sound blast from Amp shot past Alex's ear and hit Titan square in the chest, but he was ready for it. The bolt bounced off him and ricocheted back at the group. It smacked Kirbie on the side of her head, stopping her in mid-wolf-transformation and knocking her backward. Slowly Titan began to lift the gun, taking his time, savoring their looks of desperation.

But then Titan's expression changed. He was confused. He tried to step forward, but his legs weren't working. Looking down, he saw frost on his pants, drawing ever closer to his chest. He'd been so caught up in the moment that he hadn't noticed that a hand had slid under the cuff of his pants and grasped his ankle. Mallory was on the ground beside him, her eyes icy and staring up at him in disgust.

“No! No! NO!” Titan screamed, hurrying to aim the Umbra Gun and fire before the freezing took over his body. But he was too late. His arms were frozen now too, and the barrel stopped at a sharp angle, pointing too low for anyone to be in any danger. Within seconds only Titan's head was mobile, and he thrashed it about, shouting, until it too stopped, his face frozen in an expression of pure wrath.

Mallory slowly came to her feet. Behind her, Shade and Phantom were shaking their heads and rubbing their bruised limbs. Mallory looked back at them and over to Alex, her face as measured as ever, but her breathing heavy and anxious. Glancing once more at her Cloak teammates, she started toward Alex and his huddled group of rebels.

“The gun!” Alex called to her.

She pulled on the gun, bracing her foot against Titan's leg. There was a snap, and the gun broke, the light metal casing brittle from the cold. Mallory held the barrel and part of the framing in her hand, the skeletal bomb prototype hanging from it. The Excelsior diamond fell to the floor. Gage was at her side in an instant, inspecting both parts of the weapon.

“We have to get out of here,” Gage said. “Immediately.”

Across the room, Shade's eyes darted from Titan, to the large chunk of the Umbra Gun stuck in his hand, to Mallory helping Alex to his feet. He held the other half of the gun now—her two greatest Cloak weapons together at last. She wiped away a trickle of blood that was now streaming from her left temple.

The trembling of the floor became a definite quake. Beams of wood began tumbling from the ceiling. The sky was falling. A few of the remaining pillars shook violently, threatening to crumble at any moment.

“Phantom, open a portal,” Shade said. “Get our people back to the base. And pick up my husband on the way.”

“What about the rest?” Phantom asked, nodding to Alex and the others.

“I'll worry about them.”

Another violent shake, and the ceiling around the stairwell caved in completely. Wood and tile and steel fell on top of the only usable exit from the twelfth floor.

Beside the mangled elevators, Phantom called forth her power and opened a swirling oval of dark energy. She raised her hand and a tendril shot forth, latching onto Titan. It spread over him and the remaining half of the Umbra Gun, until they both dropped away into a black pool on the white marble. Barrage and Julie, both unconscious, were the next to go. Phantom stood at the edge of the portal, waiting for Shade.

“You've put me in quite a predicament, son,” Shade said. “You're obviously exhausted. I doubt you could muster enough power to save even yourself right now, much less the others.”

Alex didn't want to return to the underground base, but it seemed like their only option. They were far too high to jump, and Kirbie could only carry them one by one. The only way to ensure they all survived was to have Phantom drag them through the Gloom.