Brothers of Chaos (The Unstoppable Titans Book 1) (11 page)

Michael
didn’t understand at first why Jason asked where Christian’s house was moments
later, but after returning to the cave, the reason became very clear. Jason had
just done something Michael would never forget, something he himself would do
to Marco Garcia years later.

Once they
reached Christian’s house—a blue one-story with white shutters—Jason rang the
doorbell, then darted behind some bushes where Michael waited.

“If they
want monsters,” Jason said quietly, “we’ll give them monsters.”

A moment
later, the cold night air was rent with the screams of Christian’s parents as
they gazed upon the “gift” from Jason, sitting on their front porch.

*
 
*
 
*

Les sat,
horrified by the story Michael had just told him. “Oh man, that’s awful. I’m
sorry.”

Michael
nodded, his eyes glazed and his thoughts elsewhere. “Thanks.”

“I can’t
believe they killed your foster parents like that.”

“Jason said
it was inevitable. People fear what they don’t understand.”

“Wait a
minute,” Les said, suddenly remembering something. “You said your dad turned
into a giant monster. I don’t remember ever hearing about that on the news.”

“It happened
somewhere else,” Michael simply said.

“Yeah, but
no matter where it happened, I think the news would have reported a bunch of
monsters attacking the planet.”

Michael said
nothing.

“What about
your mom—your real mom? Do you know anything about her?”

Michael
shook his head. He clearly didn’t want to talk about her, so Les changed the
subject.

“What about
the orb?” Les asked. “Does your dad have anything to do with that?”

“No,”
Michael said, hesitating. “That’s something else entirely.”

They sat in
silence for a moment, the board game practically forgotten.

“Hey,”
Michael said, breaking the silence, “you want to see a trick I’ve been working
on?”

Les didn’t
answer right away, but then finally nodded. Michael slowly reached up and
placed his hands on either side of
Les’s
head, being
careful not to touch him.

At first,
nothing happened and Les, who wasn’t sure what to expect, started to get
uncomfortable. Then he started to feel something, a low vibration in his head.
It started to get stronger, making his face tingle.

He felt his
whole head shake, his plump cheeks flapping. It was a horrible feeling and Les
wanted it to stop, but he couldn’t pull away. Despite the pain, he could see
his thoughts as if he were looking at pictures held in front of him.

Then it
stopped. Les fell to the floor, shaking uncontrollably for a moment, as if he
were having a seizure. Finally he sat up again and stared, wide-eyed, at
Michael.

“What the
hell was that?” he asked Michael.

“I’m not
really sure. I recently discovered I could do it. I think it’s something I
could always do, but I just forgot how to do it. The first time I did it was to
some guy when Jason and I were on the run. It was an accident. Jason doesn’t
even know I can do it.”

“I could see
some of my thoughts, clear as day,” said Les.

“I saw them,
too.”

Les gasped.
“Were you reading my mind?”

Michael
nodded.

“What did
you see?”

“I know the
joke you told Curtis at that party,” Michael said with a grin. “No wonder he hates
you.”

Les was
spellbound. If Michael had seen that thought, then surely he saw—

“I know
you’re holding out on me, too,” Michael added. “There’s a party tonight, isn’t
there?”

Les nodded.
“I wasn’t invited, though.”

“Well then,”
said Michael, “let’s crash it.”

“Uh,” Les
hesitated. “Do you think that’s a good idea?”

“No,” said
Michael. “I think it’s a
great
idea.
You said you’d help me, remember?”

Les nodded.
“I remember.”

Daniel had convinced the
others to join his softball team a year ago, and they were getting ready for a
game now. Their team, The Unstoppable Titans, hadn’t won a game this season,
however.

Alyssa met
everyone in the garage. They were all wearing matching red shirts with the team
name etched in black. They arrived at the field fifteen minutes later, meeting
up with the rest of the team in the dugout. They were playing against The
Turtles Who Are Terrible today.

Daniel
practiced catching with Owen before the game, though he couldn’t play on
account of his broken arm.

“You ever
think about getting your diploma?” he asked Owen.

“Sometimes.
I should go back to school before it’s too late. I’m not getting any younger.”

“It must
suck never having experienced high school like the rest of us.”

“Yeah. Well,
at least I got my freshmen year out of the way. I mean, I just left Cullen’s
house and went straight to downtown. High school just doesn’t seem like a
priority now.”

“Yeah,
yeah,” Daniel said with fake annoyance. “We all know the story.”

Owen
thought, not for the first time, about what his life would’ve been like had his
father not been killed. Would he still have met Chris and the others at some
point? Would he have ever encountered any monsters? The attacks didn’t start in
the city until after Owen arrived. He liked to think that was a coincidence,
however…

“What
brought this up?” Owen asked, knocking himself from his reverie.

“I don’t
know,” Daniel said, looking at the sky. “I just think you should finish high
school or get your G.E.D. That’s all. I mean, we’re not going to be fighting
monsters forever.”

“What do you
mean?”

Daniel
looked thoughtfully at Owen now. “We’re not always going to live together, the
four of us. Eventually we’ll go our separate ways, start families, et cetera. I
don’t want that to happen, but it will. I just think you should be prepared for
when it does.”

As Owen
threw the ball back to Daniel, he ignored the other’s words and instead
remembered the day he found out he had super strength. It had been out on this
very field. The team had been warming up when Owen accidentally threw the ball
too hard. Daniel had reached up to catch it and had been pulled into the air by
the force. Luckily no one else had seen this except Alyssa and Chris. It had
been a pretty exciting day.

Today’s game
started a few minutes later. Chris was up to bat first. The pitcher, a
dark-haired boy in his teens, threw the ball underhand. Chris knocked it into
right field and made it to first base.

Alyssa ran
up to bat. She knocked the ball far into center field. Chris was able to make
it to third base. Alyssa was right behind him on second.

A
blond-haired boy in his late twenties stepped up and hit a home run. When it
was the Titans’ turn in the outfield, Owen was pitcher.

Up to bat
for the Turtles was a tall blond guy in his early twenties. Owen couldn’t
remember his name, but he knew the guy had a short temper. Owen had heard a
rumor the guy had punched a hole in a microwave once, because it wouldn’t work
properly.

The guy was
now pointing his bat right at Owen, indicating that was where the ball was
going. Owen grinned—there was no way this sucker was laying anything on his
pitch. Owen wound up, and then pitched as hard as he could.

There was a
loud clap as the bat connected, sending the ball straight at Owen’s head. There
was a sickening smack, and he fell on his back. Everything went dark.

*
 
*
 
*

Owen was
surrounded by green light and the familiar humming sound as he placed a furry
slug onto his silver worktable. It only squirmed a little, but stayed at the
center.

He then
reached for the orb, which was on another table. He ran his long, pale fingers
delicately along its surface. Something bubbled within the orb and a light
slowly built from its center.

Owen held
the orb up to the furry slug, which crawled closer and rubbed against it. Moments
later, Owen grabbed the slug and set it down in a cage at the far end of the
lab. Inside the cage was another creature, this one a lot bigger than the furry
slug.

Leaning over
the cage, Owen said to the slug, “Kill.” For a moment, nothing happened. The
other creature, something resembling a dog, growled and approached the slug
slowly.

Suddenly the
slug’s mouth opened wide and engulfed the dog-thing’s head whole. When the slug
pulled away, the other creature’s head was gone, its neck spouting blood. There
was another dog-thing in the cage, but it whimpered in a corner after what
happened to its mate.

“Good,” Owen
said.

*
 
*
 
*

The sun was
beating down on Owen when he woke up. People in red T-shirts that said
“Unstoppable Titans” surrounded him.

“Are you all
right?” a girl asked. It took him a moment to recognize Alyssa.

“Yes,” he
muttered. Chris and Daniel helped him to his feet. His head was aching from
where the softball hit him. He had a vague memory of the dream; the furry slug
had looked familiar to him.

His team
helped him back to the dugout and told him to sit the rest of the game out,
which he gladly agreed to. It gave him more time to think about what he’d just
seen while he was unconscious.

He’d seen
the orb again. This time, it had been activated.

And the slug…

Its dark
furry body reminded Owen of another furry, unidentifiable creature, the one
swimming around in a fish tank back at the condo.

*
 
*
 
*

Owen’s close
call scared Chris for a moment. Seeing his friend drop like that had not been
fun, and he had run over to Owen as fast as he could. For some reason, Chris
had automatically blamed himself for the incident—a curse of being a leader,
perhaps.

And then
Owen had started mumbling while unconscious. It was like he was possessed. Or
having a vivid dream. Chris couldn’t even guess what was going on in his
friend’s head, but he knew he didn’t like it. He shook Owen, trying to wake
him. After a minute, Owen opened his eyes, and Chris breathed a sigh of relief.

As he
escorted his injured friend to the dugout, he saw a young woman walking down
the path from the parking lot. He recognized her flowing brown hair, her
beautiful green eyes. He left the dugout and met her halfway.

“Stephanie,
what are you doing here?”

She smiled.
“I have some friends who play softball over here. They have a game today.” She
looked happily bewildered, as if trying to make sense of this wonderful
coincidence. “What’s a ‘terrible turtle’?”

Chris looked
over to one of his opponents in the field. “I have no idea. I think it’s a turtle
who is terrible.”

She laughed.
“I hope that affects their athletic abilities, for your sake.”

Now it was
his turn to laugh. “It isn’t today, unfortunately. But we’ve actually had a
pretty bad run the past few seasons.”

“I’m sorry
to hear that.”

“Thanks.”
Chris grew serious now. “How are you feeling? Better, I hope.”

Stephanie
touched the bandage on her neck. “I have a headache right now, but I don’t feel
too terrible. Thank you for asking.” She hesitated before adding, “And thank
you again for saving my life.”

“It’s what
we do.”

She nodded.
“I should get going. The game is about to start. Maybe you and I could do
something together sometime. Dinner, or a movie.”

Chris
grinned. He couldn’t believe he was being asked out by a girl. “I would like
that.”

She gave him
her number and then walked to a field in the far corner of the park. Chris
smiled as he returned to his friends.

*
 
*
 
*

The
Unstoppable Titans lost yet again. Daniel constantly joked the reasons for
their losses lay in Owen, Chris and Alyssa. Before they’d joined the team, the
Titans never lost. After the game, they headed back to the condo. When they got
there, Owen noticed the dogfish still swimming.

“He looks so
cramped in that tank,” Alyssa said.

“There’s
nothing we can do about that right now,” Chris said.

“Actually, I
think there is.” Alyssa and Daniel grabbed the tank and took it to her
bathroom, where there was a big tub. She filled the tub with cold water, then
dumped the creature into it. The others gathered around her and watched the
dogfish swim around happily.

“That is
just too dang precious,” Daniel said, and he actually sounded like he meant it.

“I wonder if
he’s hungry,” Alyssa said.

“He ate a
beer can when we met him,” Chris said, standing next to Owen just outside the
door.

“I don’t
think I’ll be feeding him aluminum today,” she said with a smile.

Owen could
tell Chris was staring at him (he could see Chris out of the corner of his
eye), but he didn’t acknowledge him.

“What’s
wrong with you?” Chris finally asked.

Owen
continued looking at the dogfish as it swam around in the water. “Nothing. I
just want to know what this thing is. I have a bad feeling about it.” He
couldn’t quite piece it together, but he knew this creature was somehow related
to the one in his dream, and that slug had proven to be very dangerous.

“You know
what,” Alyssa suddenly said as she picked up the creature. “I don’t think this
guy’s getting enough swimming room. I’m going to take him down to the pool.”

“Hold on,”
Chris protested. “Are you crazy? People will see.”

Alyssa gave
a sly smile. “Not if we close it down.”

The four
Titans and the one dogfish crept down to the Olympic-sized pool without
encountering a single person. It was relatively early in the day, and the condo
still seemed to be asleep. Owen couldn’t help but feel how crazy this plan was.

Alyssa was
carrying the fish in her arms, its bulbous eyes sticking out of the sides of
its head. It looked around curiously, occasionally looking up at the girl
holding it, seemingly happy. Owen still didn’t trust it, however.

The pool
area could only be accessed by two doors, and Alyssa taped hand-made signs to
them that said “Closed for Maintenance.” There was a glass ceiling over the
pool and Owen could see the condo surrounding the area on all sides. It was a
dizzying sight, and he had to stop walking in order to keep from tripping over
his own feet. Surprisingly enough, in the two years he lived here, he never
swam in this pool.

The Titans
were not alone in the swimming area. There was an elderly woman in a navy-blue
one-piece swimsuit. She was swimming slowly from one end of the pool to the
other.

“Should we
wait for her to finish?” Daniel asked, but Alyssa was already on the move.

“Excuse me,
miss,” she said to the old woman. “I’m afraid we have to close the pool down
temporarily for maintenance.”

“Oh, dear,”
the woman said as she climbed out. “Is there anything wrong?”

“No, we just
need to clean it. It should only take an hour or so.”

The woman
nodded, pulling her long, surprisingly thick silver hair from her face. “I do
love to swim. Keeps you young, you know.”

Alyssa
nodded and smiled as the woman grabbed a towel and left the swimming area.

“All this
for a stupid fish-monster?” Chris asked, irritated. And in that moment, Owen
could have sworn he saw the dogfish give Chris a scathing look.

Alyssa
dropped the monster into the water and it immediately began swimming the length
of the pool. Owen was impressed by its speed, but was wary of it as well. He
was making sure it didn’t try to escape, though, if it really wanted to, it
would have done so long before now.

Owen
remained cautious, however. He couldn’t get the dream out of his head. He knew
the dogfish was somehow related to the furry slug, but despite his protests for
a more secure holding cell for the creature while they studied it, Alyssa had
insisted upon its minimum-security tank.

Maybe Owen
was wrong about the creature. It hadn’t tried to escape since its capture, and
it seemed perfectly happy—and dare Owen think, cute—in the pool. But what about
the way it attacked him when he and Chris first found it? That hadn’t been cute
at all.

Owen didn’t
know what to think anymore; there were times when he hated being responsible
for his own actions. Sometimes he wished he’d never met Chris and started the
monster-hunting business. Owen was too young to be killing monsters that looked
so much like people. He never told Chris about the nightmares he’d had, of all
the human faces disappearing to slush with the introduction of stakes to the
heart. He was worried it would make Chris feel guilty about dragging him into
this life.

No, Owen
would never tell Chris how he sometimes felt, that they shouldn’t be doing what
they do. They were living their lives all wrong.

*
 
*
 
*

Alyssa was
getting ready for the party, which was to start half an hour from now. She was
wearing blue jeans, a black blouse and black stilettos. After making sure no
one was around, she reached into her desk drawer and brought out of some
paperwork.

Suddenly
Chris walked in, scaring her. She shoved the papers back in her desk.

“What were
those?” he asked.

“Nothing,”
she said unconvincingly.

He stepped
closer, eyeing her suspiciously. “You know we don’t have secrets around here.”

She sighed
and pulled the papers back out. “I wanted to keep this a secret until the right
time, but I’m opening a homeless shelter.” She showed him the papers; they were
documents and building plans. “I wanted a place for people to go when there was
nowhere else for them to turn. Of course, I got the idea after meeting you and Owen;
you guys were my inspiration.”