Rebellion (Zero Series) (7 page)

He pushed Pan to his knees and pulled a strange
weapon out. It was obviously one of Kraken’s advanced weapons. I had no idea
what it could do but I knew that I had to stop him before he could do anything.
“Look upon this man,” he bellowed, “He led you and defied the great Hades. He
will now pay for his defiance and you will see that Kraken will destroy anyone
in their way.”

Before he could even aim the weapon at Pan, I shot
out of the trees with my power and tackled Jekyll to the ground. The force with
which I hit him pushed him a foot and a half into the ground. I sprung up and
helped up Pan. “Get your people to safety,” I said.

He nodded and started barking out orders to the
group. They began to run into the forest. Jekyll rose and brushed the dust off
of his armor.

“So, the great Zero associates with the forest
mongrels,” he said in his raspy voice.

“I protect those who need it. I will stop Kraken and
restore peace to the city,” I said.

“You think you can stop Hades?” he asked, “There is
nothing you can do that will upset the tight grip that Kraken has on the city.”
He started to morph before my eyes. His armor broke off and revealed his skin
that was changing from bare into wolf-like fur. It was apparent that underneath
the fur was a rock hard layer of muscle that would protect him from many
things. Claws began growing from his fingers and his ears became pointed. The
most disturbing feature was his face. It stayed halfway between man and beast
so it became grotesque. He finished his transformation and rolled his head
around to stretch his neck out. I bent my knees slightly to brace myself as I
began charging my power. He started walking towards me with his horrific visage
and when he was about ten feet from me, a flurry of arrows stuck in his chest.
It halted him for a moment. I looked back and saw Pan standing with his bow
still drawn.

“What are you doing here?” I yelled.

“I came back to help. My people are safe,” he replied
firing another arrow into Jekyll’s body. I turned back to Jekyll and stretched
my arms out to my sides. I let the power run into my hands before I slammed
them together to create a force blast. It hit Jekyll square in the chest and
launched him back into a tree. The trunk cracked on impact. He was dazed for a
moment, but recovered and sprung back to his feet. Pan ran up a tree, grabbing
branches and pulling himself higher. He perched himself in a tree stand and
began to fire arrows at Jekyll again. The speed at which he could fire arrows
was astounding. I turned and launched myself towards Jekyll. When I was right
in front of him, I swung my arm to land a punch. I threw a gravity fluctuation
behind it to add extra force and when it struck, his head turned so forcefully
that his body spun completely around. I continued throwing force punches
against Jekyll until I was sure that he couldn’t withstand anymore. Just as I
was about to throw my final punch, his clawed hand grabbed my throat. His nails
were sharp against my skin. He pulled his other arm back with his claws drawn
to strike when a flaming arrow struck him in his open hand. It caused him to
drop me and once I hit the ground, I launched myself into his stomach. There
was a series of cracking sounds as I struck him. He stumbled back and was hit
again by another flaming arrow, this time in the chest. His fur began to ignite
and he fell to his knees. I stood about five feet from him and raised my hand.
As I raised it, he lifted off the ground. I found the task of honing my
abilities becoming easier by the minute. I clinched my fist and his neck
snapped. Jekyll fell to the ground in a smoldering pile. I looked over to where
the agents had been standing and only one remained alive. Six of the seven had
arrows through their helmets. One was on the ground at Pan’s feet being held at
arrow point.

“Let him up,” I said to Pan. The look on his face was
one of confusion. He pulled his bow away from the man and pulled him up by his
collar. I looked at him and said, “You go back and tell Hades what you saw
here. Tell him that I stopped one of his top men and that I will stop anybody
he can throw at me.”

The fear in the man’s face was intense. He stumbled
to his feet and sprinted away. Pan looked at his city as it burned. “I can’t
believe it is gone,” he said solemnly.

“Why were they here? How did they find you?” I asked.

“I’m not sure how they found us. They were out here
looking for the missing guards that we took out,” he replied.

“I feel like this is my fault,” I said.

“No. You saved us. You saved hundreds of lives here.
Without you, I would be dead and my people would be sent to a firing squad,” he
said.

“I still feel bad about this,” I said looking at the
fire as it raged.

“Not as badly as Hades is going to feel when we kill
him,” he said angrily.

“We?” I asked.

“I have no place to go now. My people are safe with
some citizens that I had been training to lead in case something had ever
happened to me. They will head north where the forests are thicker and denser,”
he replied.

“You want to help us then?” I asked.

“I have nothing else. I had no stake in this fight
until he sent his scum to attack my people. Now, I have to see his downfall and
help make sure that nobody else dies at the hands of that monster,” he replied.

“You can stay in Sanctum with us,” I said.

“No. You will need a skilled agent inside the city. I
can feed you information and acquire you supply lines. I have contacts inside
the city still from the recon agents I had implanted,” he said.

“Well, you can stay in one of our old houses. They
are empty now and they are relatively well furnished and clean. If you stop by
Sanctum with me, I can get you a radio so we can communicate,” I said.

“Thank you, my friend. We will take down Kraken. I
know it,” he said. We set off towards Sanctum leaving the scorched Bosque City
behind us. We walked silently for a while before Pan finally said, “How did you
do all of that back there?”

“All of what?” I asked.

“Move with such quickness and ferocity,” he replied.

“We found plans for devices called spike amplifiers,”
I said holding up my hands, “and they somehow stimulate the user’s cells and
allow them to enhance their gene spike and focus it. I was able to fly by
focusing my power and pushing off the ground. That’s how I saw the smoke and
came to your aid.”

“Well, I’m grateful. Who is we?” he asked.

“My three best friends and I are all there is. They
are Frost, Flare and Jet. Jet and I are…” I paused.

“I see. You needn’t say anymore,” he said.

I felt like Pan understood me. He and I were similar.
We both wanted nothing more than to protect the innocent. We kept moving until
we finally made it to Sanctum. Jet was sitting outside on a rock and looking up
at the sky. I wondered if she was still waiting for me to fly back. She noticed
us in her peripherals and jumped up. We approached her and she said, “I thought
we agreed you weren’t going to run off by yourself anymore!”

I started to defend myself before Pan jumped in and
said, “He came to my aid. I am Pan. Kraken agents attacked my city and if it
wasn’t for Zero, I would be dead as well as all of the members of my city.”

“What happened out there?” she asked. I recounted the
events starting with the smoke that I spotted over the trees.

“I am truly sorry for pulling him away,” Pan said
after I had finished.

“No I’m glad he saw the smoke. We wouldn’t have met
then. Zero told us about you after you saved him and I wanted to thank you in
person,” said Jet.

“Well, you can and I don’t believe we have had proper
introductions. I am Pan,” he said.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Jet,” she replied.

“Ah Jet. I’ve only heard good things about you from
our friend here,” said Pan.

“Oh really?” she said looking at me. My face felt hot
and I’m sure it turned a dark red.

“He has talked extensively about you,” he said. He
knew exactly what he was doing. I didn’t even need to tell him about our
situation and he already knew. He knew how I would react. Jet started blushing,
too.

I finally chimed in, “Let’s get your gear before you
go into the city.” We went into Sanctum to gather equipment for Pan.

“What do you know about that?” Pan said to himself, looking
around the cavern.

“What’s the plan for you Pan?” Jet asked.

“I will gathering information and supply lines for
the rebellion. I also am going to try to recruit people to join us,” he
replied.

“I am going to give him an earpiece so we can
communicate. I figured we could at least give him some armor and weapons,” I
said.

“I’ll gather some things up for him,” said Jet. She
walked around the room gathering various items and putting them in a bag. Pan
was looking at the large computer that was in one corner of the room.

“I don’t think it works,” I said.

“It would be very helpful if we could get it running
again,” said Pan.

“I have been planning to take a look at it when I get
a chance,” Jet said still walking around the room.

“If we could get that running, we could store all the
information we gather in it. Our allies, our enemies, and anything else we find
useful,” Pan said.

“We will make that our next task,” said Jet. She
finished gathering the items we were giving to Pan and brought them to him. She
handed him the bag and then the earpiece separately. “Try this on to make sure
that it works,” she said.

Pan slid the radio into his ear. “I hear chatter,” he
said.

“Good. I have reconfigured it so that we can listen
in on Kraken as well as talk between ourselves without them hearing us,” said
Jet.

“Ah good,” he said, “Have you been listening to their
transmissions yet?”

“A little bit. Why?” I asked.

“A voice just mentioned something called Operation
Armageddon and I didn’t know if you had heard that already,” he said.

I scrambled to pick up an earpiece and put it in my
ear. Once the radio was inserted, I heard voices talking back and forth. The
transmission was slightly garbled but I was able to make out a voice saying,
“Operation Armageddon in phase one development.”

“What do you think that is?” he asked.

“I have no idea,” I said.

“Whatever it is, it sounds bad,” said Jet.

“What sounds bad?” asked Flare as she and Frost
entered the main cavern.

“We heard something disturbing on the Kraken radio
channel,” I said.

“What was it?” asked Flare.

“Something called Operation Armageddon,” I replied.
They stood silently as we all tried to figure out what it meant. Whatever it
was, I was sure that it was something that would mean the deaths of a lot of
people. We had to figure this out or Marsh City could fall victim to Operation
Armageddon.

We all sat down in various spots around the room with
radios in our ears. We had been listening for two hours and all we heard was
the same line. Operation Armageddon in phase one development. We had been
waiting for something different to come across the airwaves but it stayed the
same. As we listened, I suddenly realized that I hadn’t introduced Pan to Frost
and Flare yet. The news that we had discovered a possibly dangerous plot by
Kraken. “This is Pan,” I said to them.

“Oh hello. I’m Flare and this is Frost,” she said
pointing to herself and then Frost. Frost just nodded when Pan looked to him.

“It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance,” Pan
said.

“Likewise. I don’t want to sound rude, but why are
you here? I thought you didn’t leave your city,” Frost said.

“You aren’t coming across as rude. I didn’t leave it,
but it no longer exists,” he replied.

“What do you mean?” Flare asked.

“Kraken sent one of their top agents with a small
squadron to find out what happened to the two men that we got the radios and
the fusion cells from. They found my city and burned it to the ground,” replied
Pan.

“Oh no,” Flare said, “How did you escape?”

“Luckily, Zero noticed the smoke while he was flying
around and he came to our rescue. He saved me, my people and killed Jekyll,” he
replied.

“Flying?” Frost asked in a very confused tone.

“Jet got the amplifiers working. I was able to push
myself into the air. They also helped me take out Jekyll,” I replied.

“Who is Jekyll?” Frost asked.

“He is one of Kraken’s top agents,” Flare replied,
“He has a gene spike that allows him to morph at will into a grotesque monster,
hence the name Jekyll.”

“I don’t understand the reference,” Frost said.

“It’s an old story about a scientist named Dr. Jekyll
who takes a chemical and becomes a monster,” I replied.

“You were able to kill him?” Flare asked.

“Barely. Pan lit him on fire which lowered his
defenses long enough for me to use the amplifiers to boost my power and his
neck snapped,” I replied.

“Well that’s gruesome,” Frost said.

“It was the only way. He would’ve killed all of my
people,” Pan said.

“I’m not saying he was wrong for doing it. I think we
have all realized that we will have to kill at some point. Hades sure as hell
won’t show mercy,” Frost replied. Just as he finished talking, Hades voice came
over the frequency.

“Attention all Kraken agents. We have lost Jekyll to
the rebel Zero and the leader of the forest people, Pan. If you see Zero, Pan
or any of their associates, kill them on sight. We cannot have these fools
interrupting Operation Armageddon. They will not hesitate to destroy you so you
can not hesitate to kill them. Do not fail me. That is all,” he said over the
crackly transmission. The agent we sent back to Kraken obviously informed Hades
of what had happened at Bosque City, of how powerful I had become. Hades
sounded genuinely worried about his operation. I was sure that he thought that
I would never make it past Jekyll if I met him, but I proved him wrong and
showed Kraken that I was a force to be reckoned with. I looked around the crowd
and noticed that everyone was staring at me.

“What is it?” I asked.

“He is scared,” Flare said.

“Scared of what?” I asked.

“He is scared of you. Jekyll is one of his toughest
men. If you took him down, he realized that you can hold your own,” she
replied.

“If people could see what I saw, they would rally
around you. You have power and you have a legitimate chance to destroy Kraken,”
Pan said.

“I hope so. Even with the amplifiers, we won’t be
able to do it alone,” I said.

“So the amplifiers work,” Frost said.

“I should say so,” Pan replied.

“Jet’s expertise has given us an advantage,” I said.
Jet ran her fingers through her short hair in an attempt to hide her face with
her hand. I was sure that she was blushing again.

“I should probably get going. If I’m going to slip
into the city between the patrol switch, I should go soon,” Pan said.

“Where are you going to stay?” Flare asked.

“He is going to stay in my house,” Jet said. We
hadn’t discussed it yet so it took us by surprise.

“Your house?” Frost asked.

“My house is still stocked with supplies and Kraken
is probably keeping an eye on your houses. I am fairly certain that Kraken has
no idea that I’m working with you,” replied Jet.

“Works for me,” Pan said.

“You should take some clothes from our stash. They
are on the lookout for a “forest man” and you stick out like a sore thumb in
those clothes,” I said.

“Greatly appreciated,” said Pan standing up and
stretching his back. He walked into the room where we kept the clothes. Frost
came over to me and grabbed my wrist. He examined the amplifiers.

“I need to see these in action,” Frost said.

“You can try them out if you want. We are going to
have to build more pairs,” I said, “Do you think you could replicate these,
Jet?”

“Probably. I have the blueprints so it shouldn’t be
too difficult,” she replied.

I slid the amplifiers off and handed them to Frost.
He put them on and stared at his hands. “What do I do?” he asked.

“You have to focus your thoughts on solely your
spike,” I said, “Look at that cabinet and try to put the ice on it.”

He turned to his right and faced a tall silver
cabinet. He held his left hand out and closed his eyes. He flinched after a few
seconds and opened his eyes. The cabinet stood unchanged. “Did you do
anything?” Flare asked.

Frost walked over and opened the locker to reveal a
block of ice in the space inside. It was completely filled with no gaps
evident. “That’s incredible,” Flare said, “Let me try.”

Frost removed the amplifiers and gave them to Flare.
She fastened them on her arms. She turned to the same cabinet that Frost had
filled with ice. She held up her index finger and a small orb of fire no bigger
than a marble appeared above it. She flicked it at the cabinet and when it made
contact, the cabinet exploded. The force of the blast made me raise my arm to cover
my eyes. “I like this,” Flare said once the smoke cleared revealing a small
pile of ash where the cabinet had been.

Pan entered the room wearing a gray ensemble that
looked like common city clothes. He kept his leather boots instead of switching
into some of the uncomfortable stock canvas shoes that Marsh citizens wore.
“I’d better get a move on,” he said.

“Do you want us to come with you?” Flare asked.

“No. I’ll be fine. I can radio in once I make it to
the house. Can you make me a map that will lead me through the city safely?” he
asked.

“I already did. I was working on it while we were
listening to the radios,” she said handing him a folded piece of paper.

“Thank you,” he said slipping the paper into his
shirt pocket, “I’ll be going.”

He exited Sanctum and went on to the city. I walked
into the kitchen and grabbed a small tin cup. I filled it with water from the
tap. I drank the water and realized how thirsty I actually was. I hadn’t had
anything since before I went back to Bosque City. I drank a few more cups
before returning to the main part of the room. Flare was manipulating a small
stream of fire in her hand. It resembled a snake slithering and coiling around.
I sat down in one of the chairs and leaned back. My body was sore from the
encounter with Jekyll. I felt a burning sensation on my neck. I put my hand on
the burning area and immediately cringed when I made contact. I walked over to
the bathroom and looked in the mirror. I had three claw marks on my throat from
where he had grabbed me. I heard footsteps behind me and saw Jet in the mirror.
“Those look bad,” she said.

“It’s fine. They just sort of burn,” I said.

“Let me take a look,” she said coming closer to me.
She grabbed a small towel and soaked it in cold water. She gently pressed the
towel on the scratches. I winced as the cold pressed against the raw area of my
skin.

“Thank you,” I said.

“It’s no big deal,” she said quietly.

“It is. I would have no one else to care if you
weren’t here,” I said.

She smiled and kissed me on the cheek. “Keep this on
your neck for five more minutes and then I will give you some of the medicine
that I made from Pan’s plant,” she said.

I held the towel on my neck and walked to the
bedroom. I sat down on the bed and put the radio back into my ear to listen in
on the chatter of the enemy. I heard the voices passing orders around but all I
could think about was Jet. I had finally shown some feeling toward her and it
made her happy. I had wanted to but couldn’t find the way to say it until that
moment where we were so close. Pan’s voice snapped me out of my trance.
“Sanctum come in,” he said.

“Pan?” I said back.

“I have reached the house, but it was not easy.
Kraken has enacted a strict curfew and a new set of laws after our little
encounter with Jekyll,” he said.

“What kind of laws?” I asked.

“One of their posted signs said that now anyone who
is a suspected ally of ours will be arrested without question,” he replied.

“That’s not good,” I said.

“Not at all. Tomorrow I am going to do some poking
around near an abandoned Kraken laboratory. Some of my informants told me that
there were guards hanging around there which leads me to believe that there is
still something going on in there,” he said.

“Keep us posted and be safe. We cannot afford to lose
you,” I said.

“Thanks mate,” he said signing off his radio.

“Was that Pan?” Jet asked entering the room.

“Yeah. He is safe at your house and he said that
there is a new law in town that lets them arrest anyone who they think is
aligned with us,” I replied.

“Well luckily we don’t have any allies right now who
can get themselves arrested,” she said. She pulled out a tube that had a green
paste. She unscrewed the top and dipped her finger in. She rubbed the salve on
my neck and I felt an instant numbing relief. Whatever it was in the plant that
made it have a medicinal quality was wonderful.

“That’s nice,” I said.

“Good. We will need you at full strength,” she said,
“Can I ask you something?”

“Sure,” I replied.

“Do you think it would be useful for me to learn to
shoot?” she asked.

“Shoot? Like guns?” I asked back.

“Yeah. You three have gene spikes and I don’t want to
sit in this cave while you are out saving the city. I thought maybe I could
learn to shoot a rifle and cover you guys from long range,” she said.

“I guess it couldn’t hurt. I just don’t want you to
get injured out in the field. I don’t know what I would do if you got hurt or
captured out there,” I said.

“I would stay far enough away that I would be safe. I
would only be there to provide cover,” she said.

“I suppose it couldn’t hurt. We have leftover weapons
in the armory, don’t we?” I asked.

“I think so. I’ll probably take a look tomorrow and
pick one,” she replied, “So you don’t know what you’d do?”

I stammered as I tried to answer. “You know I care,”
I finally said.

“Do I know?” she asked, “You certainly act like you
don’t want to share anything with me.”

“I have trouble with that stuff. I thought you would
know that after knowing me for so long,” I replied.

“I do know that but I thought you would be able to
muster something up over the years,” she said.

“I just have a feeling that if I let someone get too
close, I will lose them just like I lost my family,” I said.

“I’m not going anywhere,” she said. She leaned in and
kissed me. I felt a calm wash over me. In this moment, I had her and she was
safe.

I felt my eyes getting heavy. The amplifiers drained
my energy after such extended use. I leaned against Jet and began drifting into
sleep. I listened to the sound of her breathing. It was rhythmic and soothing.
After a minute, I was completely out. When I finally came to, I felt refreshed.
I slept better than I had in a long time. I placed my hand on my neck where the
nail marks had been but felt nothing. There were no marks and the pain was
gone. That stuff that Pan gave us was magic. I had only expected it to numb the
pain but it completely healed the wound. I enjoyed the opportunity to just
relax. I knew that it wouldn’t last. Once we began making moves on Kraken, we
would have little time to rest. I rolled over and looked to see if Jet was
still in the bed, but she was up already. It didn’t surprise me. Jet always was
a morning person. The first time I met her was in the early morning. We were twenty
two years old and had never crossed paths. I usually spent my time with Frost
and Flare and didn’t branch out to meet other people. I was friendly with
people around my part of town but only on appearance. Many of the Marsh City citizens were wary of with whom they made friend. Kraken implanted agents in the
city who posed as normal people and would sell out people who had contraband or
were harboring spikers, or people with gene spikes. I was out getting a loaf of
bread and a new canteen from Still. He ran a small shop that sold normal items,
but also banned items. He was very careful about who he sold to. He gave a
secret signal to some people that he trusted to use when they wanted to buy
restricted items. I stopped in to his shop, purchased my items and slid them
into my bag. As I was leaving, I saw someone sitting on a crate in the nearby
alleyway. She was making something out of metal wire and string.