Aegis: Catalyst Grove (29 page)

Cavaness rolled over to his stomach and bringing one foot up, he rested his elbow on his thigh.
 
He shot an angry look at Chase.

“Hey, don’t look at me.
 
I told you she was a Bridge,” said Chase.

Cavaness was not used to being knocked down, especially by a little girl.
 
He stared at Ailey as she pushed herself up, sitting indian-style in the grass.
 
His snarl turned into a small grin.
 
She was a feisty one.
 
She had a lot of spunk, and good reactionary skills.
 
She was a good find.
 
Still wearing the grin, he fired a blast, hitting Ailey in the legs while she tried to stand to her feet.
 
The force knocked Ailey back to the ground.
 
Ailey grabbed her knee with stinging pain running through her leg.

“GET AWAY FROM HER!” screamed Kel.
 
She reacted like a mother whose child was under attack.
 
She threw a blast at Cavaness, but with a simple flick of his wrist, Cavaness countered her blast with his own, sending it back into her chest.
 
Kel fell to the ground, hitting her head on the hard dirt.
 
Damien looked down beside him and saw the other water bottle laying on the ground.
 
He held his hand above the bottle, and as if throwing a baseball, he flung his hand forward.
 
The bottle sprang from the ground and shot towards Cavaness, but before it could hit him, he raised his hand and caught the bottle.
 
His hand radiated light and with a vice like grip, he squeezed the bottle, bursting the water from within.
 
Without expression, Cavaness threw the crumpled bottle to the ground and turned his attention back to Ailey.
 

Walking over to Ailey, Cavaness put his fist in the palm of his other hand.
 
Light from his palm formed around his fist in the shape of a small bowl.
 
He then removed his fist from the light and a bowl like glow remained in the palm of his hand.
 
Cavaness then grabbed both of Ailey’s wrists and held up her hands.
 
He set the glowing bowl like object over her hands.
 
The light then contracted over her hands, trapping them like handcuffs.
 

Ailey looked down in panicked breaths, fighting against her illuminated shackles.
 
She twisted her arms and pushed against the light, but the bonds were too strong.
 
Cavaness wrapped his large arm around her waist and picked her up again as he had done before.
 
Ailey kicked and slammed her arms against Cavaness trying to escape, but it made no difference.
 
Evidently her power came by grabbing others with her hands, which was impossible now.
 
Cavaness continued to walk over to the hole in the ground where Damien and Kel were.
 

Kel was still trying to stand up, the world spinning in circles around her.
 
Damien took his fighting stance again, ready to take on Cavaness.
 
If he was going down, he was going down swinging.
 
As Cavaness approached, he held up his free hand as swirls of flame-like light engulfed it.
 
Instead of holding it out to blast Damien or Kel like they expected, he bend his arm at a 90 degree angle and held his hand to the side of Ailey’s head.
 

Ailey immediately ceased to kick and flail, her fear stricken eyes reflecting the golden light.
 
Damien and Kel stopped moving. Graham was just now coming back around, blinking his eyes in an effort to bring the dark sky back into focus.
 

Cavaness raised his right foot in the air, holding it a couple of feet above the ground for a moment, then stomped the ground with the intensity of a small earthquake.
 
Damien and Kel could feel a flow of energy flow past them, making the earth around them tremble.
 
The quake flowed to where Murphy and Branson lay, then pushed its way to the surface, cracking the ground beneath them.
 
The force looked as though the ground had given the men CPR, their bodies rising up a few inches and then falling back to the ground, the ground giving way to a miniature crater.
 
As they hit the ground again, they both grunted, and opened their eyes.
 

“Get up, you two,” said Cavaness.

Following orders as best they could, they stood to their feet, both holding their heads.
 
They looked around trying to process what had just happened.

“Murphy, bind these two, then stand guard over Kel.
 
Branson, you take Damien.”

Murphy and Branson walked over to the others.
 
Murphy held his fists side by side with his thumbs touching, as if he were about to pull a sword from its sheath.
 
As he moved his hands away from each other, golden chains of light formed between them.
 
They appeared to be a mixture of light and mist, but as Murphy wrapped them around Kel’s wrists, they were as strong as real chains.
 
Murphy did the same to Damien, binding his hands with the luminous chains, then walked behind Kel to stand guard.
 
Branson was already positioned behind Damien, with his hands on Damien’s shoulders.
 
Tiny bolts of electricity danced across the back of Branson’s hands ready to flow into Damien at Branson’s command.
 

Damien and Kel swallowed hard.
 
They gave it their best shot, but they had exhausted the playbook.
 
There was only one final move to make.
 
Damien looked over at Graham, who was just now beginning to stand.
 

“Time to shine, amigo,” he muttered under his breath.

Cavaness sat Ailey down in front of Kel, laying her gently on her side.
 

“Chase, take the little one.
 
It is time to pop the cork.”

Chase looked over at Graham with a glint of sorrow and compassion in his eyes.
 
He walked past, not breaking eye contact.
 
His eyes were a little swollen from the head butt, and the corners were beginning to turn purple.
 
His wrists were still glowing, and his eyes retained the odd amber color.
 
Graham looked beyond Chase at Cavaness, Murphy and Branson.
 
They all were the same.
 
The wrist bands radiating through their skin and their eyes a deep amber.
 

Chase walked past Ailey, positioning himself between her and Kel.
 
The table was set and the pieces were in place.
 
Damien’s plan, though the details were different than he described, had succeeded.
 
All four men were together, and Graham could make his move.
 

Graham stood facing the others.
 
Cavaness had his back to everyone else as he stepped from the edge of the lake bed.
 
He continued walking towards Graham until there was only a couple feet separating them.
 
The two kings stood face to face, each one believing they had Check-mate.

“Your move, Graham.
 
It is time to show us all what you have been holding back this whole time.”

Graham said nothing.
 
His quickened pulse led to short, shallow puffs of white vapor from his mouth.
 
Graham clenched his teeth and balled his fists as the bands on his wrists began to illuminate.
 
The storm churning from within manifested with streaks of lightening-like flashes darting around his body as his entire form began to radiate with an iridescent glow.

“Now that is more like it,” said Cavaness.
 

A streak of confidence sprang from Graham’s core.
 
“No more games.
 
You wanted a way for our energy to be released, well here you have it, but I will not let you or anyone else take it from us.”

Cavaness grinned.
 
“Then I suggest stop holding back.”

Holding back?
 
This was more than he had ever done.
 
Graham let this fuel him even more.
 
The streaks of light and the glow became more intense as it began to slowly swirl around him.
 
The winds created by the force emanating from Graham made Cavaness’ clothing flap.

“I said stop holding BACK!”
 

Cavaness threw a ball of light at Graham.
 
Graham ducked to the right as the blast shot over his shoulder.
 
Graham flung his hand forward in retaliation, shooting a thick ray of light at Cavaness.
 
Not trying to avoid it, Cavaness shot a larger ray at Graham, overpowering his own and deflecting it straight up into the sky.
 
Cavaness darted to the side, positioning himself so that their blasts were perpendicular to the other kids, out of harms way.
 
Cavaness fired again.
 
Graham leapt into the air, letting the light fly underneath him as he fired at Cavaness.
 
He fell to the ground, ducking his head into a forward roll, then popping back up on his feet.
 
Blast after blast, the two waged war on one another, dodging and deflecting the attacks.

Cavaness kept his feet planted, but twisted his body so that Graham’s blast flew past his head, letting it crash into the tree behind him, causing the entire trunk to explode.
 
Cavaness watched Graham carefully as he finished his roll, then fired another shot, hitting Graham in the chest.
 
The force knocked Graham to the ground, but it did not hurt nearly as much as the previous blast.
 
This glowing force around him must be absorbing some of the shock.
 

As Graham’s back hit the ground, he pulled his arms back, cupping the heels of his hands together with his fingers curled to the sides.
 
Light swirled around in his hands, then fired a shot directly at Cavaness.
 
The force of this blast actually sent Graham’s shoulders digging into the ground.
 
His muscles tensed under the extra force.
 
The beam of light hit Cavaness in the shoulder, causing him to stumble to the side.
 

Finally, a hit!
 

Cavaness regained his balance, but in reaction to the hit, he held his injured shoulder in his hand.
 
Not wanting to waste the moment, Graham fired another beam of light from his hands.
 
The shot was more intense, sending Graham scooting backwards a few feet in recoil, leaving a trail of mud a dirt underneath him.

Cavaness was surprised at how much power this little kid had.
 
The strength of his shots were beyond most adults, however they were still no match for his own.
 
Shaking off the pain, Cavaness fired back, but this time the light did not deflect into the sky.
 
Like Robin Hood’s arrow splitting the competition’s arrow in half, his blast penetrated Graham’s shot.
 
Graham did not know what to do, but there was no time to react.
 
The beam tore through his own until it hit the palms of his hands, exploding in a giant flash of light.
 
The force sent Graham flying backwards into a tree behind him.
 
The glow around him faded away as he crumpled to the ground.

Chase winced as he watched Graham slam into the tree.
 

“Cavaness, that is enough!”

Looking back at Chase he pointed at him and said, “Hold your tongue!
 
He is strong.
 
Stronger than anyone else that has come through here.
 
He can take it.
 
He is going to have to.”

Kel looked over at Chase, perplexed by his compassion for Graham.
 
Why was he concerned?
 
He is the one that led them here.
 

Cavaness walked over to Graham, watching him try to stand to his feet.
 
Before he could stand fully erect, Cavaness fired another shot straight into Graham’s gut, sending him back down into the base of the tree.
 
Graham held his stomach as he fell to his side.
 
He cringed in pain as Cavaness fired another shot into his ribs.

Graham cried out in pain, but Cavaness did not stop.
 
He hit Graham three more times with blasts of light, until it looked as though Graham was going to pass out.
 
Cavaness reached down and grabbed Graham by the collar and picked him up off the ground.
 
Graham grabbed Cavaness’ hands as his feet dangled in the air.
 
He carried Graham over to the others, flinging him to the ground at the edge of the lake bed.
 

Graham looked over to see Kel’s backpack lying beside him. He shuffled his body next to it, quickly opened the front pocket and retrieved the knife he took from the cabin.
 
He pulled the blade from the sheath and held it in front of him.

“Get away from me, or I swear I will use this.”

Cavaness stood there unimpressed.
 
“I am disappointed, Graham.
 
Murder isn’t your thing.”

“You have hurt us enough for it to be self-defense,” said Graham in shallow breaths.
 
He was dizzy from the pain.
 
The metal blade in his hand was multiplying into three knifes as his eyes crossed.
 
He drifted to the side a bit and then forced himself to refocus.
 
His wrists were still glowing, though they were fading with each attack.