Rebellion (Zero Series) (6 page)

“They are deep in the forest and they have agents
inside Marsh City that spread rumors about how dangerous the woods are. It
deters people from going into the woods,” I replied.

“Oh well, I can start looking at these things you
brought me. You need to rest,” Jet said. She picked up the bag and took them to
the armory to work.

“I’ll go work with her. I’m trying to learn from
her,” Flare said.

“We’ll catch up with you later,” Frost said. Flare
went to join Jet in the armory. I took off the shirt that Pan had given me to
assess the damage to my ribs. The bandages were tight against my bruises. I
unwrapped them and revealed the carnage. My skin was dark blue and black. The
discoloration caught Frost’s eye.

“Good lord,” he said, “What really happened out
there? I know this didn’t happen just from that plant.”

“It partially was. When I was shot with the barbs, I
passed out for a while. When I woke up, I saw Hades,” I said.

“Hades? What was he doing out there?” Frost asked.

“It wasn’t really him. The plant makes you
hallucinate pretty intensely. He talked to me. He told me that I couldn’t save
anybody and I would fail. I lost it and my spike acted up,” I replied.

“What does that mean?” he asked.

“The power just exploded out of me. I couldn’t stop
it. I created a singularity and…” I said but was interrupted by Frost.

“A singularity?! How is that possible?” he asked.

“I don’t know. I have a feeling that most gene spikes
are controlled but when you completely lose it, the power just takes control of
you. I woke up in a crater. The singularity must have ripped a hole in the
ground around me,” I said.

“Do you think that if we can get the amplifiers
working, you could use that power, but control it?” asked Frost.

“I’m not sure. We will find out I guess,” I replied.
I grabbed a towel by the sink and ran it under warm water. I wrapped it around
my bruises. The warmth soothed the soreness and tenderness of the contusion. I
heard a gasp from the other side of the room. I looked over and saw Jet
standing in the doorway looking horrified at the discoloration. She ran back
into the other room quickly. After a minute Flare emerged and saw the bruises.
She walked over and examined them.

“Why didn’t you tell us about this?” she asked.

“It’s not a big deal. I’m fine,” I replied.

“That is not fine! You look like you got stomped on
by a horse,” she said.

“It’ll heal up in a couple days. I can wear armor to
protect me too,” I said rewetting the towel.

“That’s not the point,” she said rubbing her
forehead, “You keep things like this from us and it upsets Jet. She worries
that you are going to get yourself killed when you disappear for days at a
time.”

“I didn’t mean to worry anyone,” I said.

“I know you didn’t but you need to be upfront and
maybe not run off by yourself. We can’t lose the face of the rebellion,” she
said walking away.

The face of the rebellion. I can’t believe she was
referring to me when she said that. It didn’t feel like we had really done
anything. I had spent most of my time in Sanctum and in Bosque City.

“She’s right you know,” Frost said.

“I know. I will be better about not going alone or
letting someone know where I am,” I said.

“You won’t have to anymore,” Jet said coming into the
room.

“What are you talking about?” I asked.

“I looked at the earpiece you brought back and it is
still functional. I figured that we could use our own earpieces to communicate
so we won’t have to worry about not knowing where someone is. The best part is
that I can calibrate our earpieces so that we can listen in on Kraken
transmissions and talk to each other without them hearing us,” she said.

“That’s good thinking,” Frost said.

“Thanks,” she said walking back into the other room.

“I was thinking,” I said.

“What about?” Frost asked.

“I feel like we need to do something. Something to
make a mark on Kraken. To show that they are vulnerable. To show people that
Kraken can be hurt and that they aren’t invincible,” I replied.

“What did you have in mind?” he asked back.

“I’m not sure. It has to be something more
substantial than raiding a supply caravan,” I said.

“I can’t think of anything,” he said, “We can talk to
Flare and Jet later about it. They might have an idea.”

I nodded and winced as my bruises began to ache
again.

“You should go get some sleep,” Frost said, “Nothing
exciting will happen I’m sure.”

“Let me know if anything does,” I said standing up. I
walked into the room where Jet and Flare were working. I made a groaning sound
as I laid down. Jet looked over and saw me lying on the bed.

“Do you want us to leave?” she asked.

“No. You can keep working if you want, it won’t
bother me,” I said.

“Whatever you say,” she said turning back to her
work.

I lay staring at the ceiling for a few minutes before
finally falling into a deep sleep. I found myself in a horrible dream. I was
standing in the square staring up at the balcony where Pipes was tied up. Hades
was looking down at me with an evil smile on his face. I knew what was coming.
I tried to lift my arms to stop Hades but they felt like they weighed a
thousand pounds. Pipes opened his mouth and was just able to squeak out, “Help
me.”

Hades pulled the trigger and Pipes was gone again. I
tried to move my arms but they stayed motionless. Hades turned his gun on me
and began to laugh in his horrible, deep voice. I tried to run but my legs felt
as if they were chained to the ground. I stood there powerless as Hades pulled
the trigger. In an instant I shot up in bed, covered in sweat. The room was
rumbling as I looked around. I found Jet looking at me, not at all shaken by
the rumbling room. “Are you alright?” she asked calmly.

I tried to regain my breath. “I think so,” I replied.

“What were you dreaming about?” she asked.

“Pipes,” I said.

“I know that must still be hard for you. What was
happening in it?” she asked.

“I was reliving the moment where Hades executed him.
I knew it was coming but when I tried to move, I was frozen. I watched him die
again and then Hades shot me,” I replied putting my head in my hands. She came
over and sat on the bed. She put her arms around me and laid her head on my
shoulder.

“I feel powerless. I couldn’t save Pipes, I couldn’t
save my parents. Who else is going to die before I can stop Kraken?” I asked.

“Nobody. You will stop Hades and return peace to the
city,” she said.

“What if I can’t?” I said hopelessly.

“You can. You can’t afford to think like that,” she
said, “Try to get some sleep. I bet you’re exhausted. Everything will look
better after a good night’s sleep.” I nodded and laid flat on the bed. She laid
her head across my chest and curled up next to me. I felt her warmth as I
drifted into sleep again. I couldn’t explain my stupidity to her. I would do
anything to protect her and make sure she was safe but I knew from the outside
it looked like I was being reckless and purposefully distant. I wasn’t though.
I had a hard time expressing intimate feelings. I think Jet knew and that is
what frustrated her. She just wanted me to be straight up on everything. I
wished it was as easy for me as it was for her.

I slept better than I had in a while that night. I
awoke the next morning feeling refreshed. I heard a loud noise in the other
room, no doubt some sort of mechanical work being done by Jet. I sat up and was
immediately halted by the stabbing pain in my ribs. I stood up carefully and
grabbed a shirt from the footlocker from the end of the bed. I slid it on as
gently as I could. I walked into the main room and saw Jet using a blowtorch,
welding something on the workbench. I sat down at the table in the kitchen and
started eating some bread that was sitting on a plate. I figured that they had
left it out for me to eat when I finally woke up. I wasn’t very hungry and
couldn’t eat more than a few bites.

I looked over to Jet and yelled, “What are you
working on?”

She shut off the torch and held up the spike
amplifiers. She removed the goggles she was wearing and brought the amplifiers
to the table. “I was adding some cushion to the inside of them. They seemed
uncomfortable. I may have solved the issue that the original design had,” she
said.

“How did you fix it?” I asked while examining the
amplifiers.

“The original design had the amplifiers running off
of two power sources, the fusion cell and the host. That is why there were
adverse effects. I guess they figured that if the user had power, it could
sustain the amplifiers. Instead it sapped energy and killed hosts. I was able to
change the power intake so that it runs off of a second fusion cell instead of
the host. The problem that we will face is that we will burn through cells
twice as fast so we will need to find a way to acquire more cells,” she
replied.

“We could use the radios to listen in on Kraken and
see if they mention any technology or labs where they store it,” I said.

“Oh that reminds me. I calibrated the radios so that
we can communicate with each other without them hearing us,” said Jet. She
handed me one of the radios. It was small and gray. There was a red button on
the outside that activated the speech function. I slipped it into my ear and
heard chatter coming through. It was mainly coded transmissions about daily
operations. I listened for a few minutes before removing it. I turned my
attention back to the amplifiers. She had attached a sort of pad inside the
amplifiers to keep the metal on the gauntlets from rubbing away at the skin of
the wearer. I slipped them on and felt the sensors on the inside touching my
skin. The sensors picked up the cellular makeup of the user and was able to
identify the gene spike. It enhanced the power by stimulating the cells and
somehow affecting the spike. It was very advanced and I had no advanced
knowledge of the process.

“What are you doing with those?” asked Jet?

“I was going to go test them,” I replied.

“You can’t. I don’t know if they are ready to use
yet,” she said.

“There is no better time. If they don’t work, we need
to keep working or find another weapon to use against Kraken. Besides I trust
you and your knowledge,” I said. She blushed and stammered as she tried to
think of a way to stop me. Before she could, I walked into one of the empty
chambers. She followed closely behind me. I turned and faced one of the walls.
I held my arm out towards it and started focusing my power. A strange feeling
coursed through my arm. It felt almost as if electricity was flowing through my
body. I focused and felt the release of power through my palm. It shot into the
wall and a cloud of dust exploded out of it. Jet coughed as the room filled
with dust. When it finally cleared, a tunnel three feet in diameter and
perfectly smooth inside sat about two feet off the ground. It had worked. I was
able to focus and enhance my power. Jet stood speechless staring at the hole in
the wall. I stared at the silver pieces on my arms and felt a small bit of hope
rising in me. We finally had an advantage against Kraken. I wanted to test them
further outside where I didn’t run the risk of destroying Sanctum.

“Let’s go outside and test these further,” I said.

“Maybe we should hold off and let me run some
diagnostics on them,” she replied.

“They work fine. Relax,” I said. I started off down
the tunnel and made my way outside. The sun was shining bright and beating down
on the terrain. I stood for a moment and let the warmth wash over me. Being
inside Sanctum was hard sometimes because it was so dark and cold. I stretched
my body out and loosened my muscles as best as I could. I clinched my fists as
they hung down at my side and focused on channeling my power. I slowly
increased the power release and began to hover. The gravity fluctuation was
pushing me off the ground into the air. I felt a power unlike any I had before.
I increased the power and flew a foot higher.

Jet looked up and said, “Be careful.”

“I am. I want to see what I can do though,” I said. I
forced more power out and shot off at a diagonal angle over the forest. I
tested increasing and decreasing my speed as I flew. The sensation of flying was
amazing. I came to a stop in the air and noticed a pillar of black smoke coming
from the center of the forest.

“I wonder if that is Bosque City,” I thought to
myself. I increased speed and flew towards it. I descended into the canopy and
perched on a branch. I saw Kraken agents raiding the city and burning the
houses and trees. Some of the agents were rounding the citizens up on the
ground and gathering them into a group. Suddenly, Pan was led out by a man with
body armor on. I recognized him as one of Hades’ top men. His name was Jekyll.
He received his name based on an old story about a scientist who would change
back and forth between a beastly creature and a man. Jekyll had a gene spike
that allowed him to morph between a beast and himself at will. He was one of
Hades’ generals and was famous for ruthlessly executing people to make a point.