Aegis: Catalyst Grove (28 page)

“It’s not,” mumbled Damien holding his aching stomach.
 

“Good.
 
I was hoping for a little more flare.”
 

“Get away from them Chase.”
 
Graham’s voice carried through the clearing, echoing through the trees, making him sound much bigger than he really was.

“Graham!
 
I was wondering when you were going to make your entrance.”

Graham felt sick to his stomach.
 
The last thing he wanted to do was have a death match with Chase.
 
He was older, faster and stronger, but he could not dwell on that now.
 
It was his turn to save his friends.

“I’m done with your games.
 
Whatever you are doing here, we will not be a part of it.
 
If you want to take us, you will have to go through me first.”

Chase’s eyes widened as he chuckled.
 
“Wow, such authority!
 
If I didn’t know you better, I would actually think that you were serious.
 
But you aren’t that serious, are you?
 
It is a good facade, but I know deep down, you are freaking out.”
 

Chase looked back over to Kel and Damien.
 
“Did you teach him that?”

“HEY! Don’t look at them, look at me.”
 
The blood rushed to Graham’s cheeks as the small sticks and rocks from the edge of the woods hovered around him.
 
A faint glow appeared around his body.
 
His eyes began to flicker.
 
A deep amber color began to overtake the blues of his iris.
 

“And put your hand down.”

Chase obeyed.
 
The light around his hand faded away as he turned to face Graham.
 
“That’s it.
 
Keep going,” Chase said under his breath.

Tilting his head backwards towards the pond, Chase said, “You two stay put.
 
Daddy needs to show Graham how playtime really works.”

Chase then refocused and calmly walked towards Graham.
 
Not backing down, Graham kept his pace and met up with Chase.
 
His fists were balled up and his jaw was clenched tight.
 
Chase opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, Graham shoved him with small blasts of yellow light springing from his palms.
 
Chase stumbled backwards a few steps, then regained his balance.
 
He smiled as he patted at his chest, as if to dust off the light from the blast.

“Come on bro.
 
Surely you have more than that.”

Graham quickly realized that there was hardly any force behind his blast.
 
He was still holding back.
 
He wasn’t trying to, but something inside was blocking his ability to let go.
 
Why can’t I use this power outside of my nightmares
, he thought.
 
He glanced at Damien and Kel watching his confrontation, then focused back on Chase.
 
Maybe I just need to warm up the old fashioned way
.
 
He sprang towards Chase.
 
Leaning over, he tensed up and sank his shoulder as hard as he could into Chase’s gut.
 
Chase fell backwards, shocked that he had just been tackled.
 
Before his back hit the ground, he brought his legs to his chest, doing a backwards roll and popping right back up on his feet.

As soon as he landed he fired a blast at Graham.
 
Graham reacted by firing another blast at Chase.
 
The two blasts collided, and like the previous collision, the two balls of light slammed into each other, flattening into small discs, then disappearing in a flash of light and thunderous crackle.
 

Chase fired again and again, throwing two blasts at Graham’s legs.
 
Graham jumped up, tucking his legs as the blasts bolted underneath him.
 
Chase’s wrists began to glow and his eyes had already begun their gradient transition to amber.
 
Once Graham had landed back on his feet, he stretched out his hand, but there was no blast.
 
No glowing of the wrist.
 
He grunted and strained to get something to happen, but nothing did.
 

“Stage fright?” asked Chase.

Not waiting for an answer, Chase ran in a blur behind Graham, held his hand to the small of Graham’s back and fired a blast.
 
In a millisecond Graham was flung forward onto his chest, with his back feeling like a hot iron had just smashed into him at 50 miles an hour.
 
He laid there in puddles of water that had not yet soaked into the grass from Damien’s wave.
 

As he pushed off the ground, he noticed his wrists had a very faint glow.
 
It is not what he hoped for, but at least it was a start.
 
He stayed on the ground as Chase walked up closer behind him.
 
When he was close enough, Graham shot two blasts into the ground, propelling himself quickly upwards.
 
He twisted around with a glowing fist landing a solid punch to the left side of Chase’s face.

Chase took the punch in stride, letting the force of the punch twist him a full 360 degrees, returning face to face with Graham.
 
He hovered his hand above Graham’s rib cage and fired another blast, sending Graham crashing to the ground.
 
Graham crumpled into the fetal position, holding his side.
 
The pain from his back merged with the fresh sting in his side to create an overpowering throbbing throughout his entire mid-section.

Chase walked over to Graham and knelt down beside him.
 

“Come on Graham-y.”
 
He poked Graham in the shoulder a couple times as he continued talking.
 
“Open the floodgates.
 
Why are you holding back?
 
Don’t you want to save your pals?”

Graham could hardly speak through the surges of pain.
 
He winced as he sat up to face Chase.
 

“Why do you want me to open up so bad?
 
So you can take my energy for yourself?”

Chase looked up to the sky with an inquisitive expression, shrugging his shoulders.
 
“Hmm, interesting theory.
 
Did the Casey file give you that idea?”

“Maybe….among other things.
 
Is she dead?”

Chase chuckled.
 
“Well….yea.”

“Did you kill the others before us, once you were done with your sick experiments?”

“What makes you think I want you dead?
 
According to you, I need your energy, so let me ask you this.
 
How exactly did you see me taking it?
 
Was it something like this?”

As Chase spoke, he quickly grabbed Graham by the wrists.
 
His grip was so tight, Graham thought his bones were going to crack.
 
The amber of Chase’s eyes grew more intense, as glowing vapor began to rise from his hands.
 
Graham felt light headed.
 
His wrists tingled as he felt a steady flow of energy flow from his wrists into Chase’s hands.
 
The glowing vapor whipped around Chase’s hands, rising in circular motions around his forearms.
 
Graham’s rebellious stare gave way to fatigue, as his eyes began to roll into the back of his head.
 
Just as the darkness began to overtake him, Graham saw Chase fall with a grunt to the side.

Damien stood at the edge of the bank with his hand stretched out.
 
Chase rolled over to see what had just hit him in the back of the head.
 
A water bottle was laying beside him.
 
He shook his head throwing off the pain, as he picked up the bottle and stood to his feet.
 

“Nice arm amigo!
 
You had some heat behind that one.
 
That actually hurt a little.”

“It wasn’t a throw,” said Damien.
 
His wrist was beaming with light.
 
The bottle ripped from Chase’s hand and hovered in the air for a second before slamming into Chase’s face, then gut.
 
The bottle was throwing jabs at Chase like a professional boxer with his opponent in the corner of the ring.
 
The motion of Damien’s outstretched hand was mimicking the same motion of the bottle.
 
After the 5
^th
hit from the bottle, Chase shot a blast from his right hand, disintegrating the bottle and releasing the water inside to splash in the grass.

Looking over at Damien, Chase said, “Not bad!
 
Not bad at all.”
 
He turned to walk towards Damien.
 
“You know, Aquatics are pretty rare.
 
Actually, I don’t think I have seen one come through here before.”

As Chase walked past Graham in mid-monologue, Graham made his move.
 
His wrists lit up as he fired a blast at Chase’s feet.
 
The force was not strong, but it was enough to send his feet into the air, making Chase fall flat on his back.
 
Graham leapt from the ground and straddled Chase, pinning his arms to the ground, with a tight grip on his wrists.
 
Chase wiggled to get free, but before he could do much of anything, Graham reared back and slammed his forehead into the bridge of Chase’s nose, making blood spray from his nostrils.
 
Graham focused all his energy on his hands.
 
As he concentrated, the bands of Graham’s wrists slowly began to glow like the light from an oil lamp as you turn the dial to increase the flame.
 
Faint, translucent vapor began to rise from Graham’s grip.
 
Chase wiggled under Graham’s weight, but found that the struggle was too taxing as the energy left his body.

“Doesn’t feel so good, does it?” mocked Graham through bared teeth.

Blood continued to run out of Chase’s nose, making a small stream that flowed down past the corner of his mouth and pooling in the hollow of his neck, just below his Adam’s apple.
 
He fought against Graham’s grip, but as the energy from his body continued to escape, he felt his head hit the grass as the star lit sky and fog began to fade.

“ENOUGH.”

Graham whirled around to see Cavaness walk out into the clearing holding a small girl under his arm who was kicking and mouthing silent screams.
 
Hearing his voice sent waves of fear through Graham, so much in fact, that he loosened his grip from Chase’s wrists.
 
Graham quickly forgot about his current battle.
 
In an unanticipated reaction, he stood up, dismounting Chase like a horse.
 
Chase’s eyes rolled back to consciousness.
 
He flexed his fingers trying to regain the feeling in his hands.
 
He sat up slowly.
 
As he did, the pain from his nose hit him like a ton of bricks.
 
He brought his hand up to his face, cradling his nose and forehead in his palms.

“Let her go, Cavaness,” said Graham.

“I don’t take orders from little boys,” replied Cavaness in his usual calm, authoritative voice.

Cavaness looked over at Chase, who was still inspecting the damage done to his face.

“We tried it your way.
 
Now we do it mine.”

Not bothering to turn and look at Graham, Cavaness shot a blast into the ground a few feet in front of him.
 
The ground rumbled, then a small mound of dirt shot up, sending Graham into the air, but before he could go too high, Cavaness fired a blast into his chest, sending him violently back into the ground.
 
The intensity of Graham hitting the ground flattened the mound of dirt back into the earth.
 
Cavaness never broke eye contact with Chase.
 
His stare gave silent command, expecting Chase to acknowledge his insubordination, and confirm his pending actions.
 
Chase let his head sink.
 
He looked at the ground for a moment, then back at Cavaness.
 
He reluctantly shook his head in agreement.

Graham didn’t move.
 
He laid in the wet grass in complete shock from the intensity of the blast.
 
It was much worse that Chase’s hits.
 
Kel and Damien rushed towards Cavaness at the same time firing blasts from their hands as they sprinted.
 
The first two hit Cavaness in the shoulder, but with one large blast from his hand, he countered their attacks, and with one blinding flash of light, the balls of light vanished.
 
Cavaness then shoved his hand forward hitting both Damien and Kel with an invisible force.
 
It hit them so hard that they flew back at least ten feet before crashing into the dry lake bed.

Ailey was still dangling at his side, punching at his stomach and kicking the air.
 
Cavaness did not flinch.
 
It was as if he did not even notice her at all.
 
He remained focused on Kel and Damien as they slowly stood back to their feet.
 
Cavaness held his hand back up. His wrist was glowing like fire, and another ball of light was forming around his hand.
 
Ailey looked up and saw that he was about to hurt her friends again.
 

Not really understanding what she was doing, she looked down at Cavaness’ massive forearm and saw the glow of his other wrist.
 
She grabbed the glowing band with one hand.
 
Her eyes immediately began to turn an amber color.
 
Her wrists lit up and she clenched her jaw.
 
She flung her other hand towards the ground shooting a beam of light into the grass underneath them.
 
The ground erupted like a small volcano underneath Cavaness, hurling them both through the air.
 
Ailey was flung back towards the tree line and Cavaness landed over near Chase.