Strike 2: Dawn of the Daybreaker (21 page)

Tobin—his eyes filled with anger and staring straight ahead—marched with heavy footsteps and eventually reached a small general store on the corner near Chad’s house. Walking behind the store, where nobody was near, the boy reached into his pocket, retrieved a blue portal pistol, and pointed it in front of him. After pulling the pistol’s trigger, he created a portal of blue energy, and walked into it.

On the other side of the portal, Tobin emerged and walked onto the landing platform outside the Museum of the Heroes. With the same focused, intense look across his face, he marched toward the museum’s entrance, and pushed open the giant double-doors.

Three floors below the entrance, in the museum science lab, Orion, Junior, and Wakefield were inspecting Jonathan, who was sitting upright on a medical bed. The pale man’s sleeves were rolled up, and there were several IVs and sensors attached to his arms. Wakefield was showing Orion the latest readings about Jonathan’s bat-transformation disease, while Scatterbolt and Keplar were sitting nearby at a table, playing cards.

Tobin pushed open the door of the lab.

“Where is he?” Tobin said. “Where is he, where’s—”

Tobin saw Jonathan, sitting on the medical bed. The boy walked quickly toward the pale man, his fists clenched.

“Tobin, what’s wrong?” Orion said. “Why are you—”

Tobin grabbed Jonathan by the shirt collar, shaking him. “What’s happening?!” the boy shouted. “How is this happening? What did they do?”

Jonathan was amused, leaning away from Tobin. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, kid, but you need to let go of me right now, I know that much.”

“Tobin, what’s happened?” Orion asked. “We’re trying to get some readings on Jonathan’s disease, so he can help us find—”

Tobin ripped the IVs from Jonathan’s arms and flipped over a nearby computer station. Grabbing Jonathan by his neck, the enraged boy pulled the pale man from the medical bed and slammed him to the floor.

“Tell me what’s happening!” the boy shouted, kneeling over Jonathan, his fist cocked. Using his other hand, he pinned Jonathan to the floor. “Tell me what is going on!”

“Tobin,” Orion said, walking to the boy, “you need to tell me, right now, what you are talking about. What’s happened?”

Tobin spun around. “Turn on the TV! Turn on the newsfeed from Earth!”

Orion picked up a remote control from a table and turned on a large monitor that was hanging on the science lab wall. The screen took up half the wall of the lab, and when Orion tuned it to WNT, everybody in the room could see Strike standing on the roof of the arena in Boston. The masked hero was firing bolts of blue lightning at the helicopters and jets flying over him.

“Oh my god...” Orion said. “What is...how’s that...”

Keplar and Scatterbolt stood up from the card table.

“What the hell…” Keplar whispered, staring at the screen, his mouth dropped.

Scatterbolt was frightened. “What’s happening, Tobin? Orion, how is that possible? What’s he doing?”

Orion watched the screen. “Is this live footage, Tobin?”

“Yes!” the boy shouted. “That’s the Daybreaker! He took off his armor, and that’s what was underneath!” The boy turned back to Jonathan, grabbing his shirt again and shaking him. “Tell me what’s happening!” he shouted, his voice booming through the museum. “Now!”

Jonathan laughed, shaking his head. “Wow. You still don’t get it, do you, Tobin? Have you ever wondered, for even a second, why one day you didn’t have superpowers, and then all of a sudden, the next day you did?”

Tobin loosened his grip on Jonathan’s shirt. He stared at the pale man, listening.

“We awoke your powers in you, Tobin,” Jonathan continued. “I practically gave them to you, that night at the bookstore.”

Tobin thought back, to the first night he had used his powers, seven months ago: he had received a strange call on his cell phone from a bookstore, and when he arrived at the store, he had found a frightened woman there, held captive by Jonathan. In a bizarre trance, Tobin had fought Jonathan and rescued the woman, and since that night, the boy had been able to create blue electricity and lightning.

“By putting someone in danger near you,” Jonathan said, “someone only you could help—we awakened your powers, Tobin.

“That was always Vincent’s plan: to activate your powers, and then use them how he wanted—use them to take over the Earth. The second part of his plan failed, because Orion rescued you, brought you here, and you became a hero. But, if Vincent had things his way...”

Tobin stood and turned to the monitor. Orion, Junior, Wakefield, Keplar, and Scatterbolt were standing underneath the screen, watching the newsfeed from Earth. The news was showing the Daybreaker, with his eyes closed and raised to the sky, and his palms open and extended over his head.

Lying on the floor of the lab, Jonathan sat up.

“You were never meant to save the world, Tobin. You were meant to destroy it.”

Tobin watched the newsfeed. The Daybreaker was standing on the roof of the arena; as he held both of his hands over his head, roiling, massive, grey storm clouds formed in the skies above him, snapping with purple lightning. Soon, the frothing, poisonous clouds grew so thick and heavy over the city of Boston that they began to drift downward, until they touched onto the ground and merged together, changing color. As the WNT helicopter’s camera rolled, the black-and-purple clouds became a black-and-purple dome, forming around the city and cutting it off from the rest of the world. The swirling, toxic dome looked identical to the Dark Nebula that had surrounded Tobin’s hometown of Bridgton seven months ago, but this one was immense; soon, the Daybreaker, the sports arena, and everything else in the city, was no longer visible.

As Tobin watched the skyscrapers and millions of people disappear under the black-and-purple Dark Nebula, only one thought ran through his mind: the entire world had just watched Strike, The Hero From The Sky, attack and invade Boston, Massachusetts.

The STRIKE Trilogy will conclude in

STRIKE: THE RETURNING SUNRISE.

Charlie Wood lives with his wife, Kate, in Massachusetts. He enjoys baseball, movies, and comic books. This is his second novel.

For more information, please visit:
www.charliewood24.blogspot.com