The Last Hero (Book 2): Rise of the Ultras (21 page)

I
watched
as the black cloud grew closer and I felt a shiver moving up my spine.

The ULTRAs around me were silent, both those of the Resistance and those who’d been behind Nycto originally. Even Nycto was quiet, watching as the sheer darkness edged nearer, the thousands upon thousands upon thousands of ULTRAbots along with it.

I could hear a faint humming growing gradually louder. The more I thought about it, the more certain I was I’d heard that same humming all those years ago as an eight-year-old kid, on the day I’d watched my sister die.

The humming that terrorized humanity.

The humming that came from Saint.

It was here again.

I squinted into the middle of the darkness and saw him moving closer.

It was strange, seeing someone so talked about through recent history that they were pretty much a myth. It was like I was in the middle of an inescapable dream, and this ULTRA rapidly gaining on me and the rest of the ULTRAs around me weren’t really here. I felt like I could open my eyes and snap back to reality; a reality without Saint.

But there was no denying that silver armor. There was no denying that skin-tingling hum.

And there was no denying the confidence that he floated with just meters away.

Saint was back. Saint was right here.

And he had an army of ULTRAbots behind him.

He lifted his hands. Below, it was easy to forget there were so many humans, all watching the drama above unfold. They were dumbstruck. Stunned to silence.

I felt my teeth chatter. Beside me, I saw the terrified looks on the faces of my fellow ULTRAs—ULTRAs of both sides.

I wanted to fight. I wanted to strike back at Saint right away. I wanted to finish him before he even had the chance to start.

But it was true what people said about him; people who’d lived in the old days. There was something about him that hypnotized you. Something that filled you with a twisted kind of awe, even if you were in fear of him.

Which I was. Everyone was.

He brought his hands together and he started clapping.

“Bravo,” he said, his voice echoing through a silent Times Square. Even the cabs and cars had ground to a halt, keeping their hands off the horns.

Saint kept on clapping, his focus on me, on Nycto. “I mean, it didn’t work out exactly as I wanted. Ideally, you would’ve killed one another right here. Destroyed each other. Met the little deadline Mr. Parsons set. But never mind. We’ll be finished with you soon.”

I saw the ULTRAbots edging closer. There were so many of them, they blocked out the light from the sky.

“How?” Orion shouted. “How are…”

“Nice to see you again,” Saint said. The bottom half of his mask was cracked slightly, revealing a smile. “Just so we’re clear, there’s no hard feeling between the two of us, right? I mean, we’re two sides of a coin, really. The two originals. The birth of the legend. We shouldn’t be standing opposite one another right now.”

“I killed you,” Orion said. As he spoke, I heard mumbling below. More people realizing that Vesper—the Figure in Black—was, in fact, Orion.

Some people even started to flee as they realized just how catastrophic all these revelations could be.

“You wounded me,” Saint said. “Critically. But I’ve been putting my downtime to good use. Building up to this day. This… very special day. This historical day—”

“Let me join you!”

I heard Nycto’s voice echo across Times Square. He drifted over towards Saint, towards the ULTRAbots, who all turned their attention to him.

Saint glanced at Nycto like he was nothing more than an annoying fly. “And you are?”

“Nycto,” he said, pulling off his helmet and revealing his charred face, like it proved his identity somehow. “I—I believe in you. I created Nycto in your image. To achieve
your
goals. And it was you, wasn’t it? It was you who let me break the ULTRAs out of Area 64. You did that for me. Didn’t you?”

Saint let out a cackle. Moved backward, the laughter so biting that it was electric. “You really believed you were important to me? You really believed you were anything other than a pawn in my game?”

I saw the redness spread across Daniel’s face as Saint continued laughing at him, laughing at him like bullies had laughed at him all his life. And I felt something weird. Sympathy. Because Saint was a much bigger deal than Nycto. Saint was the real deal.

“I’m insulted, frankly,” Saint said, regaining his composure. “Insulted that you would offend my image with that cheap waste of a costume.”

“It’s not cheap.”

“You failed,” Saint shouted. “One chance to take control of the world, and you failed at the hands of another kid. How does that make you feel?”

Nycto—Daniel Septer—turned and looked at me. I swore I saw a tear roll down his cheek.

“Anyway,” Saint said. “I’ve just about had enough of you for one day, little fly.”

He lifted his hand and swatted gently to the right.

Nycto went crashing out of sight. He flew through buildings, explosions following in his wake. Debris fell and rained on the people below.

I stared stunned at the spot where Nycto had been tossed away like garbage. Nycto was strong. He was almost my match. Almost.

And Saint had flicked him away like a gnat.

“We have more important matters at hand than pesky idolators,” Saint said.

Now, he looked right at me.

“Your little game. All of you. It’s over now. If I were you, I’d get out of here. Fast.”

I clenched my jaw. Felt my hands turn to ice.

“Kyle,” Orion said.

“We’ll never run,” I shouted.

Saint smiled. Tilted his head to one side. The ULTRAbots behind him kept their trance-like focus on me, on the rest of the Resistance. “Really, kid? Is that the game you want to play?”

“It’s not a game,” I said, feeling the anger building inside. The anger at the person who’d killed my sister. The person who’d killed her, standing right opposite me. “And you aren’t going to get what you want. Not this time.”

Saint shifted, suddenly just inches in front of me. So close that I was staring right into the dark eyes behind his helmet.

“You’re wrong,” he said. “I will get what I want. I will get what I started. Total rule over humanity. Only now I have the ULTRAbots on side, well… I don’t need ULTRAs anymore.”

He lifted his hand and shot a blast of electricity behind me.

I heard a scream. A shout of pain.

When I turned, I saw Aqua falling to the ground below.

Her body was tingling with electricity. Vortex and Stone hurried down after her. Slice held his ground, his face growing redder, the anger building in his eyes. “You—you killed—”

Another blast of electricity flew from Saint’s hand.

It slammed into Slice’s chest.

Knocked the consciousness from his eyes.

Sent him falling to the ground below, down below with Aqua, like a swatted fly.

I felt sick. Tasted vomit in my mouth as my heart pounded. I heard the cries of the ULTRAs. The panic. Saw some of them disappearing. Some of them fleeing. Everything collapsing. Everything falling apart.

I looked back at Saint. He had his hand raised. Electricity tingled from his fingertips.

He smiled.

“Time to dance, Kyle Peters,” he said.

He shot a bolt of electricity right at me.

I dodged the shot. I didn’t have much strength in me, but I swung out of the way of it.

And then the ULTRAbots flew towards me. Sent shots firing at the Resistance, firing at the ULTRAs of Nycto’s side. I saw the panic on the streets below as the battle of confusion raged in the skies. As buildings exploded, as explosions erupted all down the streets. I saw chaos everywhere. Explosions. Madness. Panic.

And then I saw Ellicia.

She was still hanging on to the edge of that window ledge. Looking right up at me as the world around her fell apart.

“Better hurry, Kyle,” Saint bellowed. “Wouldn’t want to let the girl fall now, would we?”

I wanted to stop Saint. I wanted to fight him as the ULTRAbots and the ULTRAs all fired at one another, scrapped in the air, as more ULTRAs fell from the sky like the snow New York had been expecting, down onto the panicked streets.

But then I saw Saint raise his hand.

Point at the building Ellicia was dangling from.

Fire.

I flew down towards her. Hopped through the sky. Because as much as I knew I was going to have to be Glacies now, I had to save Ellicia. I couldn’t just let her fall.

I saw her lose her grip. Saw her drop down towards the street below. I stretched out my hand to fire some ice at her, or to ease her fall using my telekinesis, but then an ULTRAbot grabbed onto my arm, pointed a gun at my chest.

I batted free of it. Shifted behind it and fired its own weapon into its robotic skull.

I didn’t have long. More of the ULTRAbots surrounded me.

I flew down toward Ellicia as her fall grew faster. I felt time around me slow down as I saw the chaos, the flames, the destruction.

I clenched my teeth into my lips so hard I tasted blood. Tried to shoot ice, to use telekinesis all over again.

Still, my powers failed me.

Still, Ellicia fell.

I saw her just meters from the ground. Then just one meter. Then half a meter. And as the humming of Saint echoed above me, I thought about Cassie. About Mom. About everyone I’d lost all ’cause of this.

I felt the ULTRAbots closing in as Ellicia fell closer to the ground.

I felt my time running out completely.

And then I let out a cry.

A blast of power left my chest when I cried. I felt cold light slam out of my body, shattering all the ULTRAbots around me.

And as I screamed, I saw Ellicia was still falling in slow motion.

Millimeters from the ground.

The sidewalk drifting up to meet her inevitable fall.

I kept on screaming, and I felt myself getting closer to Ellicia, but not close enough.

I kept on screaming, and I saw Saint above, embroiled in a battle with the people I’d fought with, with the ULTRAs Nycto had fought with, tossing them aside like they were nothing.

I kept on screaming…

And I saw Ellicia hit the ground.

Then, darkness.

I
felt
the darkness surround me as Ellicia hit the ground.

But something stopped her. Something deep inside me. I forced myself towards her. Then I forced a wormhole to appear in the ground beneath her. And in the total silence, despite all the destruction around us, despite everything in the world that I loved falling apart, I rushed into that wormhole with her and disappeared into the nothingness.

While I was in there, I held on to Ellicia. It was dark. Jet black. I could hear screams and see images from my youth—being held underwater, muffled voices above me. Cassie’s face as the Great Blast ripped through the world.

“It’s okay,” I whispered to Ellicia as we disappeared into this endless dark oblivion. It felt like behind us, the world was still there. Like the Battle of Times Square was still in full force. But we were getting further and further away from it, closer and closer to the one true place we needed to be.

Somewhere at peace.

We landed. I felt the ground smack into my side as Ellicia landed onto me. Her mouth was still covered by duct tape. Tears rolled down her cheeks.

I looked around at our surroundings. Mountains. Trees. A little village in the distance, where people tended to their cattle. One of the islands I’d rescued when I’d destroyed Krakatoa. One of the places where I’d earned the trust and respect of the natives.

Which is exactly where Ellicia needed to be right now.

I put my hands on her arms. She flinched as I moved towards her, her eyes wide and confused. I knew then why. She knew who I was. She knew I was Glacies. And she was afraid.

“It’s me, Ellicia,” I said, as if that was gonna do any good. “Please. It’s me, Kyle. Let me take the tape off.”

She hesitated. Held herself back. But this time, as I moved my hand to the tape, she let me pull it away gently.

“That’s it,” I said. “You’re okay now—”

I felt a crack across my face. “Get away from me!”

I watched Ellicia run away. I saw the fear in her eyes, and it made my heart sink. Here she was, the girl I loved, the girl I’d spent so much of my life trying to convince to love me back, treading through the tall grass in a place she didn’t know where she was to get as far away from me as she possibly could.

“Wait,” I called.

Ellicia fell. Her knees landed in the dirt. I caught up with her. Sat by her side. And as I did, she punched at me. Kicked at me. Spat at me and threw soil at me. And I let her. I let her do all this without repelling the pain because I deserved to feel this way. For keeping my true identity a secret for so long. For trying to live two lives.

If I hadn’t lived two lives, Ellicia wouldn’t be in this kind of danger. She wouldn’t have had to go through what she’d just gone through.

Eventually, she stopped kicking and punching. I held her arms. “Please,” I said. “Just hear me out. Just hear me out…”

She wrapped her arms around me and cried before I could even speak. I put my hands on her warm back and I cried too. She was burning up, so I made my hands a little cooler as we stood there in the Asian sun, some of the villagers down below starting to take notice of us.

She backed away. Looked at my Glacies bodysuit. Then back at my face. She stroked the suit, then moved her hand up to my face and stroked that, as if it was a mask. “You’re him,” she said. “You’re really him.”

I shrugged. Forced a smile. “Sorry to disappoint!”

I realized my attempt at humor was lame and well out of place. But it was something. It was an interaction between us.

As much as I didn’t want to admit it, Ellicia and I weren’t going to be interacting much after today.

“Why didn’t you…?”

“Tell you? Because I was afraid. Partly, anyway. Another part… well, I didn’t want to accept that I had to be Glacies. Because believe me when I tell you that Glacies doesn’t want anything bad to fall upon the world.
I
don’t want anything bad to fall upon the world.”

“You saved me,” Ellicia said. Her breathing was speeding up, and her cheeks were whitening. “From the party. The school party. And—and then from Daniel when he was in my house. You saved me.”

I nodded. “I did what I had to do to keep you safe.”

Ellicia shook her head. Staggered backward. “God. Oh, God.”

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m sorry I was never honest with you. In all truth… it’s because of what being honest meant. For us.”

She looked me in the eye again. “What does being honest mean for us?”

I opened my mouth and felt my Adam’s apple quivering as I prepared to say the words I knew I had to. “We can’t see each other. Not for a long time. It’s… it’s not safe. For you. For you or Damon or Avi or Dad. All of you need to lay low. Until it’s over. Until I’ve dealt with Saint.”

She stood there shaking her head, like she was taking it all in. “When you said goodbye. When you told me you and your dad were going away. You were saying
goodbye
then. I knew it. Weren’t you?”

I looked at the grassy ground and nodded just the once.

“Kyle I… I can’t just let you walk away. Not now.”

“You have to,” I said.

“I won’t let you.”

“And I won’t let you follow me.”

She looked at me like she didn’t recognize me. And that was the hardest thing to take at all.

“There’s a village down there. Helpful people. They helped me get back to strength after my battle with Nycto. After I saved their village and their island from Krakatoa. They owe me a favor. I’ll get your family here. You’ll be safe here. And then when the world’s safe for you again, I’ll be back. I promise.”

I turned around and wiped a tear from my face. I couldn’t have the conversation anymore.

“And when will that be?” Ellicia asked.

I opened my mouth. But I knew I couldn’t answer. Saint and Orion’s war had raged for three years and had been raging behind the scenes even longer as the pair planned their next moves, unbeknownst to the other. I wanted to lie to Ellicia. To tell her I wouldn’t be long. But I was done with dishonesty. “I really don’t know.”

I stood there for a few seconds. Breathed in the warm air. If I cleared my mind enough, I could convince myself I was still just Kyle Peters. That I didn’t have ULTRA responsibilities.

But I did. It was who I was. And I had to accept them.

I felt a hand on my arm.

I didn’t want to look into Ellicia’s eyes again because doing so was painful. But still, I turned around.

She smiled at me now. I saw that look she’d given me when I’d seen her at the soccer stadium before all the madness happened with the gunmen. I saw the way she’d looked at me before we’d known each other properly, and I felt like we were learning to know each other all over again.

“Let me come with you to wherever you’re going,” she said.

I wanted to say yes. I was touched that she’d asked.

But I knew it wasn’t possible.

“I can’t do that, Ellicia.”

She tightened her grip on my arm. “I want to. If I want to, you have to—”

“The world’s not safe,” I said, sternly. “And it’s not going to be safe as long as Saint is out there. The world needs me. People need me. Even if they don’t think they do… they do.”

She lowered her head. I knew right then that I’d broken her argument. She was usually so good at getting back at me. For the first time since we’d got together, I’d left Ellicia speechless.

“You’re safe here. And as long as I’m alive, you’ll be safe. That’s a promise. But right now… I need to go, Ellicia. I need to fight. I’m so sorry.”

She looked up at me. I expected her to argue back.

Instead, she pulled me close and pressed her tear-tasting lips against mine.

She backed off. I could smell the sweetness on her breath, and felt that icy sensation up the back of my neck when her eyes met mine. “Come back for me. Please.”

I felt my teeth chattering and pretended it was the cold. “I will,” I said, holding eye contact with Ellicia, precious eye contact.

“Promise?” she asked.

I stepped away. Looked back over the mountains, at the island. “I’ll get your family here. You’ll be safe. And I’ll be… I’ll be back for you.”

“Promise, Kyle?”

I cleared my throat. “Promise.”

I stood there for seconds, maybe minutes, not saying anything. Just waiting. Waiting for the right moment. Waiting for the moment to disappear.

“Bye, Kyle,” Ellicia said.

I turned back. Looked into her eyes. Her gorgeous blue eyes. Her chocolate brown hair. Her beautiful face.

I felt another tear hit the top of my lip, and I knew, staring into Ellicia’s eyes, that right now was the time.

“Goodbye,” I said.

I held my breath. Embraced all the upset, all the pain, inside.

And then I disappeared.

Ellicia vanished in front of me.

But she’d never vanish from my mind.

Never.