The Battle for Sanctuary: The Titan's Legacy: Vol: 2 (Volume 2) (24 page)

Aaron stepped forward and stood beside him. He was also
watching the wreckage.

“
You
got it, Just.” Justin heard him swallow loudly. “Ready
when you are,” he said. “I hope,” he added under
his breath.

Justin ignored that last comment. “Okay, let me
break it all down first,” he said tensely. He knelt down and
put both hands deeply into the sand. He closed his eyes and tried to
feel his way through the earth around him to the remnants of the
staircase. Ah, there is it, he thought.

The mass of metal and stone was like the remains of some
great beast to his earth-attuned senses, lying there like it had died
and was awaiting burial. Justin felt his way into the structure. Push
into the stone blocks. Could he break them down? Yes, of course.
Easy. A small push here, a vibration there and they broke into
pebbles. Block after block, each one easier to pulverize than the
last. All done.

Now, the metal beams. No titanium, thankfully, but
strong steel buried inside the stairs for support. He paused, eyes
still closed. Metal had a different feel than stone or sand. A
different...taste? Yes, a metallic tang. Cool, sharp, hard, yet
brittle if you looked at it a certain way, along its length instead
of across it. Could he break it apart, like ripping off long strips
of licorice? Yes, there's a piece separated. And another. Easy.

Once he had started, Justin found snapping the beams
into small shards was as easy as breaking the stone. He never knew
how long it took to reduce the pile of rubble down to a heap of
gravel and slivers of steel but finally, it was done.

Justin opened his eyes and took a deep, gasping breath.
Sweat was rolling down his face and his shirt was soaked. As he tried
to stand, a wave of dizziness made his knees buckle. But Aaron
quickly put his arm around him and kept him upright until he could
stand on his own.

“
Whew!
Thanks Aaron,” Justin said with a weak smile. “That was
exhausting.”

Aaron was staring at him with a look of awe. Justin
stopped smiling.

“
What?”
he asked. Aaron pointed mutely toward the wreckage and Justin spun
around, almost falling over again.

Where there had been mounds of huge blocks of stone and
massive girders of steel, there was now a huge pile of gravel, heaped
higher than the wreckage had been, with bits of metal shining in the
artificial sunlight. It was really enormous and Justin stared at it
in disbelief.

“
Did
I do that?” he said to no one in particular.

“
You
did indeed, Justin,” came Maria's voice from behind him. He
looked over and saw her approaching, smiling widely. She offered him
a water jug and he gratefully gulped some down.

“
What
was that like, Justin?” she asked curiously. He could see the
others standing some distance away on the road, looking at him or at
the mound. Most were smiling, although a few, Dominic in particular,
had the same look of disbelief on their faces that Justin was sure he
did.

“
Like?”
he replied. “It was like, making the road, really. I just felt
my way into the earth and, I don't know, suggested what I wanted. You
know, sort of aimed the power at my target. And then it took over and
did what I wanted it to do, in its own way.” He considered what
he'd just said. “Makes it sound alive, doesn't it?” Maria
nodded without comment. “But it isn't, not really,” he
continued. “I think it's just me, my subconscious or whatever.
It knows how to do what I want. All it needs from me is direction.”
He shrugged. “But whatever. It worked and that's what matters.”

Justin looked around and then back at Maria and Aaron.
“Give me a few minutes before I try to mix in the sand, guys.
I'm a bit tired, but I should be okay in a bit.”

“
Sure
thing, Justin,” Maria said. She patted his shoulder and offered
him some fruit bars from the pack on her shoulder. “Here, eat
something. I think your energy is low. Take your time.” She
looked over at the heaps of gravel. “That stuff isn't going
anywhere.”

With a last smile, Maria went back to the others. They
began asking her questions and Justin assumed she was telling them
what he had told her.

Good, he thought. They will have to use their own
talents eventually. Maybe my experiences will help them. He glanced
at Aaron and saw that same look of concentration on his friend's
face.

“
Going
through it in your mind, Aaron?”

“
Yeah,
Just. I'm thinking about your explanation. It fits what happened to
me when I got that candle to light and relight. I just told it what
to do, finally. Mostly from frustration. And it worked. I'm hoping
the same will work here.” He looked at Justin anxiously. “And
I'm hoping that it's like you said, that it's simply a matter of
degrees. Melting this stuff together is a hell of a lot more
ambitious than a candle flame.”

Justin shook his friend's shoulder. “It isn't
really, Aaron. Like I said, it's the same thing. The same talent and
the same power. All you need to do is focus and direct it, tell it
what to do and let it happen. That's it.”

“
Yeah,
here's hoping,” Aaron said weakly.

After eating and drinking some more water, Justin sat
and rested for a while. He and Aaron went through the plan several
more times and Justin made sure he reassured his friend again about
the process of using his ability.

Aaron's problem is simply a lack of confidence, Justin
thought. Once he has a little success, he'll be fine.

Finally, Justin felt he was ready. He called over to the
others.

“
Maria,
we're going to start now. Things may get a bit hot over there, so
make sure everyone stays well back.”

“
No
problem, Justin. Good luck to you both!”

Justin waved and Aaron nodded once at her, his nerves
obviously showing.

“
Okay,
bud,” Justin looked at Aaron seriously. “When I have
everything churning together, I'll let you know. Then get that heat
in there fast.” He knelt down and drew a diagram in the sand.
“I'll try to build it up like a funnel, wide at the bottom,
narrowing as it goes goes up. Heat it as I go and it should work.”

“
Wait,
Justin, wait!” Aaron looked confused and a little panicked. “I
thought we were going to build it in sections? What are you doing?”

“
I
don't think sections will work, Aaron.” He cut off his friend's
objections. “I'll be too exhausted after building a base. We
need to do this now, while we're still energized and rested. Well,
sort of rested anyway.” Over Aaron's objections, Justin
continued talking. “Look, bud, I know you can do this. Just
melt the sand and metal together from the bottom up. Then you
withdraw the heat from the first section, the melted mixture will
solidify and you can move up to the next. I really think it will
work.”

He let Aaron digest the idea for a minute. The truth was
that Justin wasn't sure that Aaron was strong enough or confident
enough to help him build section upon section of a ramp. With Aaron,
it was all or nothing. He was headstrong and single-minded and Justin
knew that once he started, he would continue until they were done, or
they failed. That was just the way Aaron was.

Time to do this, Justin thought. “So, you ready?”
he asked, nudging Aaron.

His friend blinked, stared at Justin and then shrugged.
“Let's do it,” he said. Justin finally saw that look of
determination that he knew so well. It was a good sign.

“
Okay,
here we go.” Justin knelt down again, thrust his hands into the
sand, closed his eyes and felt his way back to the towering mound of
metallic shards and gravel.

Okay, he thought. Here's the mound. Try to grab a hold
of all of it with my mind. Okay, got it. And the sand? The sand is
everywhere. Grab it, move it, suck it up and mix it into the mound.

With his eyes still closed, Justin heard the sound of
the materials being pulled together. It sounded like distant thunder;
a vibration that just rumbled on and on. He didn't look because he
knew that whatever he saw would simply distract him and cause the
whole thing to collapse. Back to the mixture, he thought. Can I get
any more sand in there. A bit more. No, that's it. It's saturated.
Now, hold it, spin it, keep it together.

“
Okay
Aaron, do it now! Light it up!”

He couldn't see Aaron and for a long moment, nothing
seemed to be happening. How long can I hold this monster together? As
long as you need to, he said to himself. Wait. Something's happening.

He could feel a change in the small stones and bits of
metal. They were changing somehow, altering their shape. Stretching?
No! They were melting! They were merging, beginning to stick
together. Was the base thick enough to hold together while he moved
up, forming a spiral of the raw materials? He thought it was.

“
Okay
bud,” he said between clenched teeth, his concentration locked
on the slowly-forming funnel of rock. “I'm moving up. Follow me
along and pull your heat out of the base to freeze it into place.”

Aaron didn't answer, but Justin could hear him panting,
forcing his will upon the very air around Justin's construct. He felt
the base suddenly return to solid form, a mass of glass and melted
metal holding firm against the weight above it.

Justin moved up the spiraling mass with his mind, slowly
narrowing the swirling stone, sand and metal. He could feel it
turning to solid below him as he went. My God, we're actually doing
it, he thought with astonishment.

As the structure approached the ceiling, Justin knew,
somehow, where the opening leading to the level above was. A gap in
the stone could be seen clearly in his mind's eye and he forced the
structure over slightly, aiming toward the center of the hole.

Finally, they reached the ceiling. Aaron was gasping as
though he was running full tilt and Justin could feel himself on the
verge of collapse. He had barely the strength left to connect the
last of the debris with the edge of the hole above it. He held on,
waiting for Aaron to catch up and then, as the last bit of melted
material solidified, he fell over and darkness overcame him.

When he woke up, Justin found himself lying on the road,
someone's pack under his head. Julia was kneeling beside him talking
to someone out of his line of sight.

“
He's
fine,” she said with a little shrug. “He looked as white
as a sheet but his color's coming back and...” She glanced down
at him and grinned. “And he's awake! Hey Justin, how ya doing?”

He smiled a bit painfully. “Okay, Julia. A little
groggy but okay.” She helped him to sit up and Justin
immediately looked around to see where Aaron was.

His friend was lying a few feet away. His face was pale
and he had dark circles under his eyes but from his breathing, Justin
could tell that he was sleeping normally. Seeing him glance at Aaron,
Julia reassured him.

“
Aaron's
fine, Justin. He passed out, just like you did, but Richard checked
him over and it was just exhaustion, same as you.”

“
Excellent,”
Justin said as he struggled to his feet. “Everyone else okay?”
he asked as he looked at the other teens.

“
We're
all fine, Justin,” Maria said as she came over. “You and
Aaron did all of the heavy lifting, after all.” She shook her
head in disbelief. “That had to be the most...surreal thing I
have ever seen. Watching that monster of a funnel just climb higher
and higher, the ring of fire following it as it grew.” She
grinned widely. “You and Aaron make an amazing team, you know
that?”

“
We
do, don't we? But I think I'm better looking.” They all looked
over in surprise and saw Aaron sitting up and smiling. Everyone
laughed at his comment.

“
If
you say so, bud,” Justin chuckled. “How you doing?”

“
I'm
okay,” Aaron said and pushed himself up. After swaying a few
times, he found his balance and brushed himself off. “Let's not
do that again...ever. Okay?”

Justin laughed. “No promises, bud, but we'll try
to avoid it.”

“”
Good,”
Aaron said. “I never...” He stopped talking and Justin
saw Aaron's jaw drop as he looked over his shoulder.