The Secret of the Supers (The First Superhero Book 4) (5 page)

I
had
no control over my body.

I jumped out of bed, and burst through the bedroom door, leaving it hanging on its hinges in splinters.

I tried to stop myself, but my body moved against my will. The hallway was lit up by two beams of white light. My head turned to look at myself in the mirror, and two white lights looked back at me. I screamed inside my head, trying to fight against whatever it was that was causing me to have no control over my body. But whatever it was wouldn’t give. I couldn’t do a single thing.

A door opened to my right. I turned to see Drew looking out his bedroom door at me. He shielded his eyes from my blinding white-eyes. “Kane?” He asked, squinting his eyes. “Is that you?”

I stepped towards him. I knew whatever was about to happen wasn’t going to be good.

Judging from the slow steps back, Drew sensed it too. “Kane, what’s going on? What are you doing?”

I wanted to scream for him to run. I wanted to yell that I wasn’t in control. I wanted to shout for Selena to come help.

But all I could do was watch.

I reached out and grabbed Drew right as he was about to activate the Eximus receivers in his arms that he had implanted back when he worked for the STF, all that time ago while I was trapped unconscious on the moon. I slammed him into the wall, and he fell back through into his bedroom. I stepped through the wall, busting a human sized hole through it, leaving drywall and debris all over the ground. Drew struggled to get up, and apparently my body decided to help him, but not in the way that he would’ve wanted. I grabbed him by his shirt, and threw him across the room. He slammed into the wall, and collapsed to the ground unconscious.

I thought I was going to throw up. I felt so sick to my stomach, disgusted with myself. I had no idea who or what was controlling me, all I knew was that I wanted for it to stop before I hurt one of my closest friends any more than I already had—or worse.

I felt a jolt of electricity hit my back. It was a small shock, but nothing I couldn’t handle. I turned around and saw Eddie standing on the other side of the hole in the wall I’d made, shooting electricity from his hands at me.

It was pointless, however. I walked towards him, the electricity running through me, jumping all around. He clenched his eyes as he put all his focus and energy into making the most powerful bolts of electricity as possible. But it was useless. The only electricity that affected me was the Eximus kind, and the only person who had any of that I’d just knocked through one wall and into another.

I grabbed Eddie, and pulled him through the wall. I wrapped my hand around his throat and began to squeeze. I could’ve snapped his neck in one swift motion, but who or whatever was controlling me wanted it to be slow. Eddie’s eyes begged for me to stop as he tried to get a word out. But I wouldn’t. I was struggling just as hard to get a word or two out myself, but my body wasn’t allowing.

The wall I’d thrown Drew and pulled Eddie through exploded as Selena came flying through it, slamming into my body. The force caused me to let go of Eddie and going flying through the wall behind me and out into the front yard of the house.

The moon was high in the sky as I came to a stop. I stood up, dirt and grass sticking to my sweaty, shirtless body. I looked at the hole in the front of the house I’d just been knocked through, and saw Selena standing there, her blue eyes staring into my white.

Please let this end. Just turn around and fly away,
I pleaded with myself. My body, however, had other plans.

I launched myself at Selena, flying straight towards her. She was ready though. She grabbed my outstretched fist right before it hit her, and swung me around and through the wall on her right. I went flying through Drew’s bedroom wall, through my room, and slammed into the fireplace in the living room.

Selena was standing above me in an instant. She picked me up and pulled me close to her face. “What the hell is going on?” She shouted in my face.

I said nothing. I head butted her and she stumbled backwards. I swung at her face with my right hand but she dodged out of the way. My left fist was ready though, and singled in on her. It slammed into her with enough force that a small shock wave emanated from the connection. It had little effect on her, though, as she quickly countered with a one-two punch to my torso.

I had to tell her in some way that I had no control over my body. Although she of course knew that something was wrong given the fact that my eyes were glowing white, I
needed
her to know that I wasn’t the one responsible for attacking her, Eddie, and Drew.

We continued to fight, our punches landing hard and fast. Any normal humans would’ve been obliterated by the force of our attacks, but the two of us were barely affected.

Selena grabbed my wrist as she dodged one of my punches, and kicked my legs out from under me. She swung me around into the couch on one side of the room. I tried to push myself up off the couch, but Selena didn’t give me the chance. She was on top of me in an instant, pinning my arms down with her knees. She punched my face over and over again, fast and hard. Her teeth were gritted and I could tell by the look on her face that she was very, very angry. “Just stop!” She yelled as she finished her volley of hits with two hard punches.

I wanted to. If only she knew how badly I wanted to.

But my body had other ideas.

I kicked my legs up and slammed my knees into her back hard. She went flying off me and straight through the wall behind us. I jumped off the couch, reached down, and picked up the coffee table in front of us. The glass fruit center piece slid off it, shattering on the ground along with the magazines and books that also called the coffee table their home.

Selena came flying through the hole in the wall at me. I held the coffee table over my shoulder like a bat and slammed it into her right as she flew at me. It exploded in my hands as she flew right through it, sending glass and pieces of wood flying all over the living room.

Selena grabbed me and picked me up, tossing me through the front door of the house. I slammed across the ground, sliding through the grass, sending dirt flying through the air. I hit a pipe and it cracked open, sending water shooting into the air like a geyser.

I finally came to a halt, and for a split, wonderful second I thought I was going to stay down. The hope washed away like the water on my skin as I reached up and grabbed a hold of the white metal fence that surrounded the front yard of the property. I pulled myself up, and I turned around just in time to see Selena hit me with a flying kick to the chest. I flew back through the fence, taking part of the metal frame with me.

I flipped across the ground, digging my hands and feet into it to bring myself to a stop. Selena grabbed one of the poles from the fence that she’d just hit me through. It was a few inches in diameter and a few feet tall.

I jumped from my spot on the ground and dove at her. My fist stretched out before me, aiming for her torso. She took a step to the side, and swung upwards with her pole, slamming into my chest.

This threw me off, and caused me to spiral down to the ground face first. I turned around on my back, ready to block whatever punch Selena was about to throw at me next.

She didn’t punch me. Instead, I flipped over just in time to see her bringing the fence post down and straight through my chest. I wanted to scream in shock and from the split second of pain before my body took to repairing itself. That was a bit difficult to do, given the fact that a five foot pole was going through me, driving me into the ground. My body seared with pain as I couldn’t fully heal myself around the pole.

“Stay down Kane!” Selena shouted, both hands still holding on to the pole. “I don’t want to keep fighting you!”

I didn’t want to keep fighting her either, but my body had other plans. I reached up with my leg and kicked her foot to the side, causing her to lose her balance and fall. Before she even hit the ground, I was already pulling the pole out from my chest. The holes in my chest and back healed themselves as I stood, holding the pole over my head, driving it down towards Selena.

A searing bolt of electricity hit my back as I felt my powers retreat. The fence post grew impossibly heavy in my hands as I dropped it to the ground. I fell down, the electricity running through me.

Another shot hit me. My body seized, going into intense convulsions. I looked up and saw Doug approaching me with Eximus blaster raised.

Then, a blast of pain to my head as Selena punched me, knocking me out cold.

W
hen I woke up
, my eyes weren’t glowing, and my whole body felt groggy.

“He’s moving,” I heard Eddie say, followed by the scrambling of bodies as they jumped up and got ready.

I opened my eyes, and saw the barrel of an Eximus blaster looking back at me. Doug held it tight against his shoulder, finger on the trigger, his eyes wide and fearful.

I heard a buzzing close to my ear. I looked to my right and saw Drew standing by the edge of my bed, Eximus energy dancing from his fingertips.

“I think I have a lot of explaining to do,” I said as I sat up in my bed. Everybody tensed up, and the barrel of the blaster moved an inch closer. “I also think I’m going to need a little space first.” I looked between Doug and Drew, who both turned to look at Selena who stood at the foot of the bed.

She waved them away. “Start talking, Kane,” she said, her voice stern.

I sat up fully and sighed. The morning sun’s rays reached inside the room from the window on the wall across from me. I looked on either side of the room noting the holes in the left and right walls. “Boy we really did a number on this place,” I said with a smirk.

“It’s not funny, Kane. Something is seriously wrong,” Selena said, not having any of my shit.

I nodded. “Right, I know that.” I cleared my throat. “Well, for starters, that wasn’t really me attacking you.”

“Are you sure?” Drew asked. He pointed at the bruise on his face, and lifted up his shirt to show the ones on his back and chest. “Because it sure as hell felt like you.” His voice slowly rose. He was not happy with me, but neither was I.

“I swear to you, it wasn’t. I think the whole eyes glowing white kinda gave that away,” I said, gesturing at my face. I made them glow. “What color are they?”

“They’re blue,” Selena said without hesitating. Her posture relaxed just a smidge.

“See?” I said. “I wasn’t in control of my own body. I was trying to stop myself, but it wasn’t obeying me.”

“But why would it do that?” Drew asked.

“I’m not sure, but it might not have been the most strange thing that happened to me last night,” I said. I explained to them my experience with Athena, telling them how she knew where Samantha was, but I first had to pay the debt I owed her for Doug before she’d help me with anything new. I told them about how she was then drug away by some mysterious force, and about the man with the eyes that glowed green who started attacking.

“So you’re saying that this green guy is the one who took control of you?” Doug asked.

I shrugged. “I’m not sure, but he sure didn’t seem like the nicest guy around.”

“You don’t think it could’ve been Athena?” Selena asked.

I shook my head. “No, I don’t think so at all. If she was, it wouldn’t make sense. Why would she use a ton of energy contacting me, suffer an attack from whoever that guy was, and then take control of me to attack you guys? It doesn’t make sense.”

Selena stepped from the foot of the bed and walked closer to me. “Kane, we don’t understand anything that’s going on. You said the guy’s eyes were glowing green, but yours were glowing white. You know what else glows white?” she asked, pausing for a second for effect. “The
asthenés plásma
. Where she apparently lives or something? Point is, we don’t know enough. I don’t think we should just go around trusting everything she says.”

“She has a point,” Eddie piped up from the back of the room. He had a screw driver in one hand and a cylindrical device with all sorts of wires and cords sticking from it. “We know who has the
asthenés plásma
right now, and that’s Atlas. Who’s to say he’s not manipulating it somehow to do what you want?”

I shook my head. “Athena isn’t just going to bend to his will. She probably hasn’t even talked to him. We had the plasma for over a week and she didn’t even make contact with us until the last second we needed her.”

“Yeah, but we also didn’t have that amulet that you saw Atlas wearing,” Drew said.

I felt a slight chill run down my spine. That amulet that Atlas wore meant something. Even though I only saw it for a split second, I felt a fresh, rejuvenating increase in my power. It also apparently negated the effects of the
asthenés plásma,
given the fact that once he knew for sure Raven had it, he came down and took it.

“That has to mean something,” Selena said.

“No, it doesn’t!” I snapped. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I needed to keep my cool and stay on their good side. “Look, you don’t know Athena. She saved Doug’s life.” I pointed at him. He stood there with the Eximus blaster slung over his shoulder, eyes looking down at the ground as he was reminded of the fact that he was once lifeless. “He was dead, and she brought him back. If she had evil goals and wanted to destroy us—or
whatever
it is you’re insinuating—you’re wrong. If you talked to her for even a moment you’d know that.”

Selena’s fists were clenched at her side, and I could tell she wanted to argue. She stopped herself, however. I was right, she’d never talked to Athena. Her accusations had nothing to go on.

“If I were to bet on whoever was responsible, I’d say it was the only person who attacked me right before it all happened, and that’s the man with the green eyes,” I said.

“Okay, Kane, so what are you saying our next step is?” Doug asked.

I thought about it for a moment and then stepped out of bed. I looked at Selena who was watching me with suspicious eyes. “Athena said that when we are asked, we would go to London to help our friends.” I turned to look at Doug. “So keep an eye out for any communication from them. If we do this, we find out where Samantha is.” I looked back at Selena, whose eyes never left me. “And that’s all that matters.”

****

I
hammered
the final board over the hole in Drew’s room from where Selena threw me into the front yard the first time. My super speed came in handy, seeing as how I was able to get the hole boarded up in only a few seconds.

“You’re pretty good at that stuff,” Drew said from behind me.

I turned and saw him standing in the doorway. “Which part, making them or fixing them?”

Drew smiled and shook his head. “I meant fixing them, but I have to admit, you’re pretty good at making them too.”

I tossed the hammer onto his bed and shrugged. “I try my best.”

Drew walked in the room, grabbing a notebook from the nightstand next to his bed. “Well, next time try doing it with someone else. Got a slight concussion,” he said, rubbing the back of his head.

I felt sick to my stomach. I thought I was going to throw up right there all over Drew’s bedroom floor. I couldn’t believe I’d done something like that to one of my oldest friends. “Should you be standing? You need to go lay down,” I said.

Drew nodded. “Yeah, I’m using Selena’s bed right now.” He waved the notebook in his hand. “Just wanted to come grab this.”

“Okay, cool,” I said, trying to buy myself time to figure out how I was going to say what I needed to. “Look, Drew, I’m really sorry. I mean, I can’t apologize to you enough. You know that wasn’t me, right?”

Drew waited a beat before responding, his eyes examining the floor below him. He nodded his head. “Yeah, don’t worry, Kane. I know.” He smirked and looked up at me.

“Thanks, man. I don’t know how I can ever make it up to you,” I said.

Drew laughed. It was a hearty, loud laugh. I wasn’t quite sure what was so funny. “Oh, don’t you worry buddy, I’ll figure something suitable out. Don’t you worry about a thing,” he said with a smirk on his face and a mischievous look in his eye.

I shook my head and scoffed. “Great, now I owe two people something.”

Drew shrugged as he turned to walk out the door. “Gotta stop putting yourself in these situations, Kane!” he said as he slapped his hand on the wall above the door frame.

I stood in Drew’s room alone, the feeling of guilt still strong within me, yet not quite as bad as it was before. I picked up the hammer from Drew’s bed, and walked out of the room. Just had to fix the hole where the front door used to be, then it was time to try and repair some friendships.