Revenge of the ULTRAs (The Last Hero Book 4) (14 page)

I
watched
Damon’s electricity fire into Daniel as he threw himself in front of me, and I knew right then from my emotions on the situation that everything had changed.

Daniel convoluted. His head flew back, knocked me right in the nose, which made me fall back and hit the floor in turn. He landed on top of me, his sparks of that paralyzing electricity singeing at me. I pulled myself away, even though I felt pretty weak myself. My head throbbed. I felt sick, especially now I could smell burning, and hear the groans coming from my brother.

“Come on,” I said, pulling Daniel away. I wanted to teleport away from here, but I felt too exhausted, too weak. “You’re strong. You can fight through the paralysis. If I can do it, you can.”

At the opposite side of the room, Damon stood there and watched. He looked totally baffled about what to do next.

I pulled Daniel further to the other side of the room. The wall had broken away in the conflict, and I could feel the heat of flames surrounding me. “We have to go. We have to get out of here. Come on.”

Daniel kept on shaking and struggling on the floor. I knew I had to do the heavy lifting myself.

“Don’t go,” Damon said.

I looked up at him. And right then, I felt nothing but hate. This guy wasn’t my best friend anymore. He’d turned on me. He’d sold out to Adam. “You were supposed to trust me.”

Damon shook his head. “How could I? When I saw what you were doing to the world?”

The pain of Damon’s words made my stomach knot. I looked down at Daniel, who was unconscious. “Bye, Damon. You won’t see me again.”

He lifted his hands. “Wait—”

I teleported myself and Daniel away.

We landed a few blocks away. Dammit. I was trying to teleport us further, but clearly I was weak right now.

I felt the rain falling down on us as I dragged Daniel along. “Stay with me, brother. Stay with me.”

I pulled him further, then teleported us away some more, aiming to reach the other side of the world.

We only made it about five hundred meters.

I looked over my shoulder. I could see someone following me then. Someone getting closer, in the shadows.

I turned around and teleported further away. Still, I was struggling to get outside of New York. Why was it? What was stopping me?

When I teleported even further, I realized why.

I was in the middle of a crowd of people. On a stage, in fact. There were masses of these people. All of them booing at me. Some of them hissing, and spitting. They were holding up placards:

BRING BACK MY SON!

MURDERER!

FALSE GODS!

As I stood there and listened to the angry roar of the crowd, I wasn’t sure I’d ever felt as ashamed in my entire life.

“Come on,” I said.

I went to pull Daniel away when I saw we weren’t alone.

Adam was standing right beside us.

He lifted that gloved hand.

Out of instinct, I teleported above, so I was looking down on the events. Damn. I’d managed to teleport. Must’ve been pure instinct kicking in.

Only one problem.

Daniel was still down there on the stage.

I flew down towards Daniel when I saw Adam lift a hand.

“You come down here and you give up your powers. Right now.”

I stopped, then. I stopped because as much as I wanted to save Daniel, I knew Adam wasn’t going to let him go even if I did go down there. I knew he was too dangerous for Adam to allow to disappear.

I knew that if I flew down there, both of us were finished.

And I had a responsibility to the world to make sure I protected it from Adam.

Protected it from itself.

“No?” Adam said. “That’s a shame. Then we’ll get started.”

I tried to shoot my way back down there, but I just bounced back off some kind of invisible force field that must’ve been set up. I punched at it. Tried to get through. But I couldn’t. I just couldn’t.

“Let him go!” I shouted.

Adam stood behind Daniel. He put his hands on his shoulders, and pressed him down onto the surrounded stage. “This is Daniel Septer. Nycto. You saw who he was flying with just then, didn’t you? You saw who this terrorist is aligned with, didn’t you? That’s right. Glacies. Glacies the golden boy. The rumors are true.”

I felt my stomach sink. I realized what was happening.

Adam was turning the people against me even more.

I rammed into that force field even more. I could feel it weakening. I had to be quick. I needed to get in there. I needed to get to Daniel.

I couldn’t let Adam finish this speech.

“Nycto represents everything bad about the ULTRAs. He is responsible for so many deaths. And yet he flies
with
the gods who are supposed to police our world?”

“That’s not true,” I shouted.

Adam ignored me. As did everyone else. “He flies alongside the ULTRAs who claim they are looking out for us?”

Boos and jeers amongst the crowd.

Adam pushed Daniel down onto the stage. Daniel looked totally weak and broken. “Well I don’t think that’s right. I don’t think it sends out the right message at all. Do you?”

A desperate cry of “no!”

So many people.

People I swore I’d protect.

None of them wanting my protection anymore.

“He flies with them and he destroys with them. Do we want any more of that?”

“No!”

Adam smiled as the crowd roared. I could tell he was enjoying this too much. And that unsettled me. Completely unsettled me.

He looked up at me, and that grin of his flickered. “We don’t want any more of this. We don’t want any more illegal rule. We don’t want death. We want freedom. We want to be responsible for our own lives. We want to rule again.”

A chorus of cheers, so loud and so deafening that the hair on my arms stood on end.

“So this is a symbol of the new way of doing things. This is a symbol of the new world order. This is a symbol of everything we once feared falling. Because I promise you, my people. We will never be afraid again.”

From behind him, a woman walked up. She was short. Meek.

But she looked angry with Daniel.

Very angry.

“This is the new world order. And it starts right now.”

The woman lifted her hands.

I saw a black liquid dripping down them.

“No!” I cried.

I tried to throw myself past that force field once more.

I tried to get in.

To get to Daniel.

The black liquid on the woman’s hands got solid.

Then it glowed red.

“No!”

“This is the beginning,” Adam said.

“Daniel!”

He looked up at me. Regained consciousness in that split second. And I felt relief because I knew he was quick enough to get away. I knew he was powerful enough to focus.

But then the woman fired those glowing red balls at him.

There was a flash of red light. It seared at my eyes, temporarily blinding me.

I heard a cheer from below, and it made my body collapse.

I knew what that cheer meant.

When my vision returned, beyond the cheering, celebratory crowds, and beyond Adam’s raised arms and smiles, I saw a dark patch on the stage.

A patch where Daniel had once crouched.

Daniel Septer was gone.

Nycto was gone.

My brother was gone.

M
achu Picchu would look
a hell of a lot more amazing if I didn’t have a dark cloud hanging over me.

A dark cloud of memories of what had happened.

I sat right at the top of the Andes. It was hard to breathe up here, what with the difference in altitude. Of course, I was used to sudden changes in altitude. A part of my powers was that I could change my body’s receptiveness to altitude, and easily adapt to new climates with a click of my fingers.

But I didn’t change anything right now.

I just sat at the top of the hills opposite Machu Picchu and let the sickness fill my body.

The silence was comforting. I didn’t want any more outside noise. Not anymore. I was dealing with enough as it was already.

All I wanted to do was lay low and stay far, far away from trouble.

A part of me wanted to go back to Staten Island. Whenever I was in a tough moment, I always clung to the hope that no matter how bad it got, I could just go back home.

But home had changed. Home had changed a lot.

I’d watched Damon develop powers.

And I’d watched him use those powers against me.

It made me cold just to think of it. Just a year ago, the pair of us had been at school. Naturally, I’d scrapped school since I’d taken on a very different kind of education. But it seemed like so much had changed in such a short space of time.

I wanted to go back. I wanted things to be the way they used to be. Simpler. Less responsibility.

Now, I knew things would never be the same ever again.

I stood up and walked away from the edge of the mountain edge. I walked for miles and miles, rubbing the soles of my feet right down. I could’ve healed them. But again, I didn’t want to right now. I didn’t want to use my powers for anything. Powers had got me into this mess in the first place.

I just wanted to be Kyle Peters again.

But then a foreboding sense hit me when I thought of that, too. Because I could
never
be my old self again, not just because my circumstances had changed, but because of who I was. My identity was known to the world—my
real
identity. I was a celebrity, whether I liked it or not. Just not the kind of celebrity I wanted to be.

And anyway, I’d slipped way, way out of the public’s good graces. I was like… actually, no. I won’t say their name. Libel’s a crapper, right?

I walked a little further when I saw a group of ULTRAs in the distance.

They were swooping down over the ancient Peruvian sites and knocking them to pieces. I could hear them laughing, whooping and cheering. Clearly they hadn’t had their abilities for long, but they weren’t wasting much time in using their abilities for bad rather than good.

I tensed my fists and felt ice singe at the tips of my fingers. A freezing sensation stretched up my forearms. They were causing chaos. I needed to go over there and stop that chaos.

Then I saw what’d probably happen. I’d get into a fight with them. Someone would get badly hurt. Then I’d get blamed not only for hurting someone else, but for destroying an ancient site.

I sighed, and unclenched my fists.

I’d had enough of using my powers to help other people out, especially with the way they were repaying the good faith.

I watched the ULTRAs destroy that place that was so many years etched in history.

I took a deep breath, and turned around.

I was through with Glacies.

Damon was gone. Alive, but gone.

Daniel Septer, Nycto, my biological brother, was gone. Really gone.

And Kyle Peters, the life I’d lived, was gone. In all its forms.

I walked off into the hills.

I wasn’t fighting anymore.

A
dam stood
over Hong Kong at the top of the International Commerce Centre and stared down at his army of newly transformed ULTRAs.

He looked at the vast expanse of them from left to right. There were so many of them. An army of thousands. And the ones right here were his most loyal, the most committed to the cause.

Originally, he’d just wanted to convert as many people to his way of thinking. After all, he had a cause. Something people believed in. The Resistance were unelected gods. And sure, they’d done
some
good for the world. But they’d exceeded their stay on this planet.

He wanted to give a voice back to the people. He wanted them to see what was happening right before their eyes.

Now they’d seen that, he wanted something more.

He looked beyond the vast array of ULTRAs right in front of him. Beyond, he could see the clouds thickening. He thought about the many ULTRAs still out there. The original ULTRAs that’d been a part of the Resistance. But also the ULTRAs who were newly formed, too. The ones he’d given powers to, but who hadn’t shown any evidence that they were fit to take responsibility for their powers.

Now, Adam couldn’t help but worry about them. He’d given them a key to destruction. He wanted to take that power back. He wanted to be in control again.

He had an idea how he wanted to do it. And in the end, he’d always had his eye on the prize. Kyle Peters, or Glacies, as he was known. He’d been close to him many times. But now, he knew he needed to ramp up his assault.

Not just because he wanted his powers.

But because he wanted to bury him.

Forever.

He thought back to Daniel Septer. The confrontation and stand-off he’d had with him. As he’d watched Alison charge up her powers and prepare to eliminate him forever, he’d seen an opportunity to step in and take his powers away, becoming almost as powerful as Kyle.

There’d been a moment of crisis. A moment, where Adam saw what was in front of him and faced a real dilemma. Take Daniel’s powers away, and be
almost
as strong as Kyle?

Or wait for Kyle to take his powers away, and be the strongest of all?

Then, out of nowhere, there’d been an explosion. Adam felt it radiating from his palms.

When the flash of light cleared from Adam’s view, Daniel was nothing more than a mark on the ground.

Alison had finished the job that Adam had made her start.

The chance of taking Daniel’s powers was gone.

It wasn’t an ideal end for Adam. After all, he’d had an opportunity to become much more powerful.

But Daniel wasn’t the endgame. Nobody but Kyle was the endgame.

And he wasn’t giving up on that endgame now that Kyle was weak and on the run.

Nearly as strong as Kyle?

That wasn’t what Adam wanted.

He wanted to
be
as strong as Kyle.

And he was going to achieve that goal, very soon.

“There are ULTRAs out there hellbent on our destruction,” Adam shouted.

His voice boomed from the top of the International Commerce Centre, down onto the streets filled with his followers, all recently converted, all worshiping him.

“We can’t allow them to fight much longer. Because they don’t fight in the interests of the people. They don’t fight in
our
interests.”

A cheer. A roar from the crowd.

It made the hairs on Adam’s arms stand on end.

“As long as those enemies are out there, we face the risk of losing. I have full confidence in us. Believe me. But all of us know we’re not totally safe and clear until we defeat one ULTRA. Kyle Peters. Glacies.”

A bigger roar. A roar that was total music to Adam’s ears.

They believed in him. They were on his side.

They worshiped him.

So why was he so afraid?

Why was he so paranoid?

He swallowed a lump in his throat as the first specks of rain started to fall. “What we have to do won’t be pretty. There’ll be some loss. There’ll be some chaos. Hell, there’ll be some destruction. But the way I see it, a little more chaos is worth it in return for us getting our world back.”

“Yeah!” some of the crowd cheered. Hands started lighting up, a whole cocktail of powers and abilities sparking right before Adam’s eyes.

A cocktail he’d started.

“I say it’s worth all those risks if it means saving humanity. Don’t you?”

More cheers. More applause.

Adam smiled. He smiled, as the voices got louder. He smiled as ice and fire and water and electricity shot up into the sky. This was the uprising he’d created. And finally it was taking shape.

Finally, it was happening.

Adam felt a smile spread across his face. But it was a smile filled with anger. With frustration. Because he didn’t have what these people—these ULTRAs—had. He didn’t have any abilities. Just a piece of government technology on his arm that gave him the power to take other abilities away.

A piece of technology that would be worthless when he absorbed someone else’s powers for himself.

He knew exactly whose powers he wanted.

He knew exactly where his conquest to share abilities with the world—to democratize powers—ended.

“It’s time to take our planet back,” Adam shouted.

“Yeah!”

“It’s time to fight back against our oppressors.”

“Yes!”

“It’s time to destroy every single ULTRA in our path.”