Meta (23 page)

  
In the old days, helicopters used to do this job. I can't even begin to tell you how many helicopters, and their crews, were lost during those times. They'd get too close, or a meta would decide to use one of them as a weapon itself and that was that. By the end of the first wave of metas, there was no one left crazy enough to go near a fight with a helicopter even if you offered them a million dollars. And companies did.

  
I feign ignorance to Jim.

  
"Oh, that's today? I thought it was tomorrow," I say.

  
"What? No it's not tomorrow, you idiot. It's today. Five o'clock," he says.

  
I might have gone too far with pretending not to be aware. Everyone is aware. Businesses are closing early all over the country, just because they know everyone will be glued to the nearest screen to watch. The lakefront is one such business, so of course I would know that the fight would be today.

  
"Right. Stupid. Like I said, I didn't get much sleep last night," I say.

  
"I'm having people over my place to watch it if you wanna come by. We're getting pizza," he says.

  
"Ah, thanks man but I'm pretty beat. I think I'm just gonna watch it from my couch with Derrick," I lie.

  
"Suit yourself. Sarah's coming," he tells me.

  
"She is?" I ask, probably too quickly.

  
"Yup. Does that change your mind?" he says with a smirk.

  
Is there a way to be two places at once? No. Stop it. Focus. You've got a meta to defeat today, this isn't the time to try to concoct a way just to be in the same room, at the same time, as Sarah.

  
"Nah, I can't. I already promised Derrick," I say, somewhat crestfallen, even though I have no choice.

  
"Fair enough. Well I'm getting out of here a little bit early to go home and set up," Jim says.

  
"What time is it?" I ask as I look at my phone's clock.

  
Shit! It's already four! How did this happen? Right, because I spent a few hours today staring at the sand and the water, wondering if it'd be the last time I'd ever see them again. So stupid. I'm late.

  
"I didn't realize how late it is. I've got to get out of here too," I say.

  
"Relax, these things always start late. You remember how it is," Jim says, "See you tomorrow?"

  
"I hope so," I say by accident. Luckily, Jim doesn't notice that that's a weird thing to say. Probably because I'm being paranoid, and he isn't thinking that the guy with two garbage bags in his hands is on his way to go possibly save the world. Or at least a city. Well, at least the downtown area of a city. But it is a very nice city.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

I teleport into Downtown Culver and meet Midnight with about ten minutes to spare. This isn't because I'm trying to be particularly punctual. If anything, getting here early is a liability, as the earlier we're here, the sooner the drones will spot us. This gives The Controller the edge early on in this little game if he plans to play dirty, and I assume he does.

  
Luckily for me, I've actually made a little detour. Midnight's asked me to meet him a few blocks from the actual place I'm set to confront The Controller face to face for the first time. We're in a small, extremely dingy apartment that looks like it hasn't been cleaned or inhabited by anything that walks upright in a very long time. I have no idea why we're here, but I don't question it. His reasons for this are his own and at this point, I don't even ask. If he's not willing to tell me on his own, there's no point.

  
"You're probably wondering why I asked you to bring us here first," Midnight says.

  
"Yeah actually, I was." Can he read minds now?

  
"We're here because of this," he says, opening up a closet to reveal an extremely elaborate, but also very foreign looking device. Half of it looks like a computer or server rack, and the other half looks like an amalgamation of random household appliances, like microwaves and mini refrigerators.

  
"Ok," I say, "of course. That makes sense."

  
Midnight turns away from meddling with the device to give me a look that lets me know, he knows I don't know what I'm talking about.

  
"All right, I'll bite. What is this?" I ask.

  
"It's an EMP bomb. Do you know what that is?" he says.

  
"Electromagnetic pulse. Of course. We learned about them in school. They make everything electronic that's nearby go haywire and shutdown when they go off. They tried to use them to stop the metas way back, but it never worked. Oh my God, did you actually make one that can shut down metabands?" I ask.

  
"No, but it can shut down the next best thing," he says as he pulls a lever and the device whirs into action. The lights dim, and then go out completely.

  
"Great," I say, "so at least we're in the dark now. That's your plan?"

  
And with the end of that sentence, there is an absolutely enormous crash outside the nearest window. I probably shouldn't, but I run to it immediately to see what I just heard. It's a news station drone. Looks like it crashed nose first directly into the pavement.

  
"There you go," Midnight says.

  
"Disabling drones? I'm guessing all the stationary cameras too?" I ask.

  
"Yes," he says.

  
"Brilliant idea," I say back. Midnight can tell I'm not actually sure why he did this.

  
"Look, if we're going to pull off the plan that we discussed, we're going to need the rest of the world to not be privy to it. At least not yet. Not until it's done and they fully understand. Otherwise, The Controller is going to be the least of our problems," he tells me.

  
"Okay," I say, "I trust you."

  
"Good," Midnight says, as he gives me a slap on the shoulder that is maybe just a little bit too hard, even with my metabands turned up full strength. And with that, a grappling hook flies past my head and out through the window from seemingly nowhere, with Midnight following quickly behind it.

  
I'm on my own now.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

I was expecting that the streets would be quiet. That tends to happen when the government issues a mandatory, city-wide evacuation, but that doesn't mean it's still not creepy as hell. A pigeon flies out of a nearby garbage can as I walk down First Avenue, and I nearly die of a heart attack before the battle even starts. It's five o'clock and there's no sign of The Controller. I consider using my enhanced vision ability to begin looking through the walls of the various buildings, but I'm so paranoid about wasting any of my energy that I hold off. I still haven't fully tested these things, and I have no idea what their power limits actually are yet.

  
In the distance, I think I can hear something. A scrapping sound. With the quiet right now, I can't tell if it's my mind playing tricks on me, a sound being made by some automated machine left on, or a warning I should start taking very seriously. I have my answer a few seconds later as a fifty foot long snake, that's at least four feet in diameter, comes slithering quickly around the corner of Fifth Street. The coloring is unnatural and unnerving. All florescent pinks and greens. One of the few things that I know about snakes is that brightly colored ones were usually the most dangerous. This one is brighter than anything I've ever seen existing in nature. Oh, and it's also about the size of a tanker truck.

  
The snake stops half a block away from where I am standing and begins to rear its head up. It opens its mouth with a hiss, baring its fangs.
 
I'm frozen in place, staring. I've always hated snakes. Before I can even process that thought, it strikes. I dodge to the right and it misses me, but just barely. The speed of it is unbelievable, even to me.

  
To hell with conserving power I think as I leap off of the curb and into the sky, hoping to gain an advantage over this thing from the air. Presuming it can't fly of course.

  
Luckily, I find out very quickly that it can't fly. Unluckily, I find out that what it can do is climb up the side of buildings like an insect. I have no idea how it's doing this, but these are stupid questions to ponder when you're looking at something that shouldn't exist in the first place, and it's trying to kill you.

  
Hovering about five stories in the air, I move away from the building it is quickly climbing up and back around the corner of the block. I need to give myself some breathing room, so I can consider what my next move is going to be. My first few haven't been very impressive.

  
"Just keep it busy," Midnight's voice crackles over my earpiece. I'd forgot I was even wearing this and the sound of his voice startles me.

  
"Yeah, I kinda don't have much of a choice so don't worry about that. How are things going on your end?" I ask.

  
"I've found The Controller. He's in an apartment on Third Avenue and Fifth Street," he says.

  
The snake rounds the corner of the building and locks its eyes on me. It hisses again, showing me its fangs that must be half the size of my entire body. I turn and fly down the street as quickly as I can. Glancing back, I can see it moving along the sides of the buildings. Not only is it keeping up, it seems to be gaining on me.

  
"I don't know how much longer I can play cat and mouse with this thing. Whatever your plan is to take this guy down, you need to do it, now!" I yell. It's the first time I've barked orders at Midnight, but the stakes have never been this high before.

  
The snake is now right alongside me. I turn to change direction, but before I can react, it's in the air. It might not be able to fly but it can jump. Pretty far too. I duck just in time to miss its razor sharp fangs and begin a controlled fall back towards the ground. The snake's instincts are quick though, and it twists and contorts its body to compensate for its near miss.
 

  
Its tail hits my back hard and unexpectedly. As we both continue falling, I feel the very end of its tail wrap around my leg. Quickly, the rest of its body follows suit. By the time we both hit the ground my legs are already wrapped up. Now that I'm partially immobilized, its head makes another attempt at removing mine. I see the mouth coming at me, and I'm able to dodge it and strike it in the side of its face with my fist. The tension from the snake's tail wrapped around my legs loosens for a second, and I think I have my chance to escape, but before I can react it comes back, tighter than before.

  
The snake pulls its head back up and hisses at me. I can tell that it’s not happy. It goes to make another strike, and I think it misses, but it hasn't missed at all. Instead, it's circling around my body, faster and faster, wrapping me up in its grip. I begin hammering away at it with my fists, but to no avail. Every time I feel its grip loosen in the slightest, it comes back even harder an instant later. Within a few seconds, it has my entire body wrapped up.

  
The Controller might be too cowardly to face me in person, but he's close enough that his creations are stronger than ever. Despite my struggling, I cannot free myself even an inch from the snake's vice-like hold. As it finishes wrapping around my head, everything goes dark. That's when I feel it start to squeeze. I can't breathe and with every exhale, the grip just becomes tighter, taking up the space vacated by the air that was previously in my lungs.

  
Everything starts to feel cold. My body is beginning to go numb. I might have a lot of abilities, but I still need to breathe oxygen. All I can think about is how cold this feels. My mind focuses on this singular thought, and I begin to feel even colder, like I'm surrounded by ice. The snake is still wrapped around me tightly, but I can feel it beginning to squirm. Its grip loosens slightly, allowing for light, and more importantly, air to seep in, and I realize that I
am
surrounded by ice. Lots of it. The snake's entire body is slowly freezing, starting with the areas where it is making contact with me.

  
I'm doing this. I have the power to freeze things. Who knew? Maybe I'm wrong about the whole 'needing oxygen' thing too and I just don't know it yet.

  
While the snake's grip has loosened, this isn't over. I concentrate harder on the cold, imagining the entire snake turning to one big ice sculpture. It lets out a horrific squealing sound as the freezing continues its path towards the snake’s head. The sound of crackling ice all around me echoes inside the trap it has created with its own body. The squeal stops, as does the sound of icicles forming. Then, with as much strength as I can muster, I throw both fists deep into the ice.

  
The snake shatters into thousands of pieces. They rain down upon me as I fall to my knees, gasping for breath. I can feel the color slowly returning to the part of my face which isn't obscured by a cowl.

  
It's quiet again and all I can hear are my own strained gasps for air, but then another sound breaks the silence. The sound of two hands, slowly clapping. I look up and there he is.

  
The Controller.

  
"Very, very well done," he says. I'm still too out of breath to even respond. "It was a close one, but that was one of my strongest creations yet, so my hat is off to you, good sir," he says, offering a patronizing bow.

  
I begin to finally catch my breath and work my way up to my feet, slowly steadying myself as I rise. What's going on? How is he here? Midnight had him cornered in an apartment. This doesn't make any sense, but I can't let on that there is a plan.