The Last Hero (Book 2): Rise of the Ultras (15 page)

I
reached
out for Orion’s hand and an enormous explosion rippled through the room.

I thought at first that something had gone wrong. The explosion had been so loud, so violent, that I worried that maybe there’d been a fault in the teleportation. Maybe the combination of mine and Orion’s powers had created something terrible and killed all the other ULTRAs in that room with me—the last of the Resistance.

When I opened my eyes, I saw I wasn’t in a room at all anymore.

I was at the side of a hill. It was dark still, so I figured I must be over in the west somewhere where the sun still hadn’t risen. Down the bottom of the hill, there was metal fencing with barbed wire wrapped around the top of it.

And at the other side of the fencing, there was a compound.

“This is it,” Roadrunner whispered.

Her voice made me jump. She’d shot over by my side quicker than I’d even been able to take in my surroundings. I looked around and saw the rest of the ULTRAs here with me, perched in the grass, waiting to launch their attack.

“So are we going with plan A or can I get smashing some skulls yet?” Stone asked.

Orion sat at the front of the group. He was breathing heavily, like the teleportation had taken it out of him. He cleared his throat, then looked up. “We go with Plan A. Are you ready?”

Stone grumbled. “Rather not take a shit loada bullets to the body. But I guess I’m made of the strongest damned stone in the world.”

“Good luck, Stone,” Orion said. A few of the other ULTRAs patted him on the back as he stepped up towards the fencing. He looked at me and he didn’t raise his hand to shake it or anything. Just stared at me, a look of cynicism about him.

“Don’t screw up, kid. You got a helluva lotta people counting on you.”

“No pressure,” I joked.

Nobody laughed.

“Where is she, anyway?” Stone asked.

“Me?” Roadrunner appeared at his side, slightly out of breath, her hair in her face. “I was just scouting the area. Looks to me like the first ULTRAbots have left already. Which means the ones who’ve just finished their shift should be inside right now.”

Stone stared at her with a frown. “You figured all that out, right then?”

“I told you. I’m super speedy.”

“You’re super something.”

Roadrunner shook hands with all of us. Exchanged a few hugs. When she reached me, she hesitated, then opened her arms.

“Ignore this bunch,” she said, as she wrapped her arms around me. “They’re just salty they aren’t as powerful as you.”

“Good luck,” I said.

She stepped away, went to Stone’s side. “Hope we get a chance to get to know each other a little better, Glacies.” She grabbed Stone’s hand.

“Me too—”

I hadn’t even finished when I felt the kickback of Roadrunner’s power, dragging Stone along with her inside the compound.

We waited for a few seconds. Waited for some kind of news. Some kind of signal that they were inside, and that the plan was starting.

“When will we know?” I asked.

Orion raised a hand. Held it there.

A blast of gunfire ripped through the total silence of the desert.

“Now,” he said.

I did what we’d planned to do, my hands and body shaking with adrenaline. I grabbed Orion’s hand, and then we all linked hands again, getting ready to shift ourselves inside the compound. In theory, Stone would attract all the attention his way. He’d trigger the ULTRA booby traps that were set up. Hold off a few of the weakened ULTRAbots while Roadrunner distracted them some more.

All the while, we’d go inside, destroy the power source and leave.

Simple as that.

“See you on the other side,” Aqua muttered, as the rest of us linked hands.

“I hope so.”

I closed my eyes. Held my breath. Focused my anger.

Then I heard that mini explosion again, and me, Orion, and the rest of the ULTRAs appeared behind the fences.

Being inside the fences brought a whole new meaning and a whole new reality to what we were doing. I felt vulnerable, all of a sudden. The gunshots were near. Somewhere close, I could hear Stone smashing things up, pieces of rock chipping away from his body.

“Bring it on, assholes!” he shouted, before smashing something else. “Bring it on!”

I felt a hand grab mine. Aqua. “Come on,” she whispered.

I wanted to activate my camo, but I knew it was worthless anyway against the ULTRAbots and the booby traps, plus it took a lot of energy. Energy I didn’t have to waste.

So I crouched down. All of us crouched down, wormed our way closer to the compound.

When we reached the edge of the container we stood behind, I peeked around. Stone was stomping around, taking the heavy artillery from loads of flying drones. But those drones kept on falling down every now and then, as Roadrunner played whack-a-mole with them.

“I can bring them down—”

“We don’t have time,” Orion said. “We have to get inside. The ULTRAbots left less than ten minutes ago. They’ll know we’re here soon.”

I wanted to help Stone and Roadrunner. Even though they were doing a hell of a good job handling the situation, I couldn’t help worrying about them.

I saw the entrance to the compound up ahead. There were cameras, electricity wired fences. We kept on hopping through the traps, hand in hand. Getting closer and closer to the compound entrance as Stone and Roadrunner continued their distracting mission.

“Just one more jump,” Orion said. “Just one more, and then we’re—”

He stopped speaking right away. Threw me back, and everyone else.

“Shit,” Slice said. “What on earth was that all about?”

Orion raised a finger. Pressed it to his lips. And then he pointed at the compound entrance.

When I looked over at it, my body solidified.

Fifteen ULTRAbots stood by the door. They looked wobbly. Weak. But they still had that ever-present pissed-off look about them.

They were the ones supposed to be recharging.

They were looking right in the direction of the container.

I kept still. Completely still. So too did everyone else. I hoped they wouldn’t see us. Prayed they wouldn’t see us. Sure, they were weakened, but I wanted Plan A to work. I didn’t want to fight them. I wanted to get inside that compound and get this done with. If I used any abilities right now while they were looking right at me, then I’d be putting everyone else in danger.

The first of the ULTRAbots took a step closer to the container.

“Bring it on, suckers!” I heard Stone scream, laughing as it sounded like even heavier artillery fired into him.

The oncoming ULTRAbots stopped their approach to the container.

Lifted their heads.

Then, they raised up and flew in Stone and Roadrunner’s direction.

I let go of my breath. So too did Orion and everyone else.

“Got a clear path,” Orion said. “One way in. We walk right in there. We can’t use our abilities because we’ll be incinerated upon entrance.”

“Great,” Aqua said. “Just wander in like we’re going for coffee.”

“Exactly. Are you ready?”

I saw the entrance up ahead. Listened to the chaos that was unfolding between Stone and the ULTRAbots. I heard metal snapping. Heard bombs exploding. If we weren’t quick, the recharged ULTRAbots would be on our tails. We didn’t have long at all. We had to do this.

“Let’s go,” I said.

The walk to the compound entrance was the longest most painful thing I’d ever had to do. But the closer we got, the more hopeful I grew. This hadn’t been so bad. Not bad at all. The plan had gone perfectly. We hadn’t lost anybody. All we needed to do now was get inside and destroy the power source. Tip the scales in our favor.

We reached the entrance and stared down the long, dark corridor.

“Al-right!” Slice shouted, clapping his rattly metal hands together. “That wasn’t so bad now, was it?”

I went to take a step inside the compound when I heard something behind.

I turned around. Looked up into the sky. There was a low drone growing. Building. Heading closer toward us.

“What is that?” Aqua asked.

I didn’t answer. But as I looked at the little figures moving closer—loads of them—I felt dread building up inside. Because I knew what they were. I knew exactly what they were.

“Are they…” Slice started. And then his face went completely red. “Shit. Oh shitting shit.”

We all stood by the entrance to the compound and stared up into the sky.

An army of ULTRAbots—freshly charged ULTRAbots—headed in our direction.

I
looked
up at the army of ULTRAbots and, not for the first time since getting here, I got the feeling we weren’t going to make it out of this one alive.

There were lots of them. Hundreds, all drifting in our direction. They gave off a humming sound as they moved towards us, like angry bees, only if we weren’t careful, it was them that were going to be doing the swatting away, not us.

I felt my body shivering. Beside me, Orion, Slice, Aqua, Ember and Vortex all stood, silent and waiting. I could tell they were afraid too, as they stared up into the face of the oncoming enemy.

“I thought they were supposed to be far away from here by now,” Ember said.

Orion shook his head as the ULTRAbots got closer. “Something must’ve happened. Something must’ve gone wrong.”

“Then what do we do?” Slice asked.

Orion looked up at the ULTRAbots. Then he looked around at the rest of us. Looked at me, directly into my eyes.

“We do what we came here to do,” he said.

He crouched a little. I saw a blue force field growing from his hands, just like I’d seen so many times when I’d watched Orion on the television as a child.

“We fight,” he said.

He jumped up towards the ULTRAbots. I saw him smash his fist into the face of one of them, and then move onto another, all of them engaged in a mad battle now to throw the first punch. He looked strong, but like this action was taking a lot out of him; like he wasn’t running at max.

“Well,” Aqua said, beams of water spraying from her hands. “No point standing down here.”

She joined Orion in his counter-attack. Then Slice did, too, as did Ember, all of them up there in the sky, all of them engaged in this ruthless dance to the death.

“Well?” Vortex asked, a little grin on her spooky face in spite of the circumstances. “Aren’t you gonna join us?”

She stuck her tongue between her yellowing teeth. It might’ve been the light or the angle I saw it, but I swore it was black.

And then she turned to face the ULTRAbots.

Her eyes rolled back into her skull. Her neck snapped right back. She let out a scream that sent shivers through my body.

In the sky, I saw ULTRAbots changing direction. Flying into one another. Becoming caught in whatever nightmarish trance Vortex was subjecting them to.

I didn’t know what ULTRAbots dreamed about. But whatever Vortex was doing, it seemed to be working a treat.

I stood and watched the battle unfold. In the distance, I could still hear Stone and Roadrunner taking fire from the drones and the smaller group of uncharged ULTRAbots. I was scared. I was afraid.

But wasn’t everybody?

I was here for a purpose. I was here for a reason.

I was here to fight.

I held my breath and shot into the air.

I flew into a crowd of three ULTRAbots. Slammed my fists into the first one’s chest. The shockwaves reverberated through it, knocking three more down with it.

I saw an ULTRAbot flying towards my left. It was close. Really close.

But I just kept my anger at the surface.

Focused on shifting around it. Teleporting behind it.

And then I sent a blast of ice down its spine and froze it in mid-air.

I fought off more of the ULTRAbots. And after a while of fighting, timing my punches just right, making my moves at the perfect opportunities, I felt like I was in a flow state. Like I was invincible. Like no matter what happened, I could fight off these things; these enemies. Because I was Glacies. I was strong. And I could take on anything.

And then I saw five ULTRAbots surrounding Slice and Ember, swarming around them.

And another three holding Aqua up by both her arms.

Down on the ground, six ULTRAbots all flying towards Vortex, dodging her nightmarish trance-induction.

I knew I couldn’t save all of them. I could use some help from Orion, but he was already well engaged in battle. I could maybe save one of them, if I were lucky. But I wasn’t strong or quick enough to…

No.

No, I
was
strong enough. I
was
quick enough.

I could do this. I had to do this.

I felt time slow down around me. Felt the battle between a hundred ULTRAbots and a small group of ULTRAs come to a sudden, jarring standstill.

I teleported over to Slice and Ember. Clapped my hands together and sent a blast of ice flying up into the faces of the ULTRAbots surrounding them.

I pushed one of the ULTRAbots down towards the ground. Hard. Watched its lifeless body fly in the direction of Vortex.

And then I pulled out my hands. Sent two blasts of ice to over towards the ULTRAbots holding on to Aqua.

Time still moved slowly. Infinitely.

And then it sped up to normal speed.

The blast of ice I’d fired around Slice and Ember blew up into the ULTRAbots’ faces.

The ULTRAbot I’d thrown to the ground hit Vortex, knocked her out of the way of the oncoming ULTRAbots.

When they smashed against the ground, I focused all my energy and felt something opening up. Something like my teleportation. And then I realized, as a ripping sensation crossed my chest, that I’d opened up a wormhole using a deep strength I didn’t even know I had. Another depth to my powers.

I sent the ULTRAbots flying down towards Vortex through it.

And then I rushed over to Aqua. Slammed my fist into the backs of each of the ULTRAbots and sent them shooting out into the sky.

I saw Aqua look at me, amazement in her eyes. She didn’t say thanks. She just nodded.

Slice did, too. Looked at me, baffled. But I knew I’d earned my stripes. I knew I’d earned their respect, just for that move.

“I’ll make you regret putting me on my ass someday,” Vortex shouted.

I looked down. Smiled. “Yeah, I think you’ve already punished me enough—”

Something slammed into my side.

Sent me flying down to the ground.

My back cracked against the solid concrete below. When I looked up, I saw that my fellow ULTRAs were surrounded again, caught in the throes of battle. I was alone down here. They had no time to help me.

Standing above me, the biggest ULTRAbot I’d ever seen.

And he was holding a gun to my head.