The Last Hero (Book 2): Rise of the Ultras (10 page)

I
sat
opposite Ellicia in Benny’s Shakes and just like when I sat opposite her for the very first time, I didn’t have a clue what the hell to say.

It was a nice day outside. The winter sun peeked in through the window. The streets were lined with snow, but not so deep that you had to trudge through it. Again, the snowstorm that analysts predicted to hit New York hadn’t quite been as strong as they expected. Which worked for me. I had enough storms to worry about right now to have snow on my mind too.

The milkshake place had the smell of somewhere new. A crispness to the floors as you walked on them. There were quite a few people inside, as the sounds of milk frothing and glasses chinking together, as well as laughter, filled the room. It was nice. Somewhere I could imagine visiting a lot with Ellicia.

Because Ellicia was staying in New York. And I was staying as Kyle Peters.

“You like it?” Ellicia asked.

I sipped back my Oreo milkshake. Truth be told, it didn’t taste much like Oreos, but I liked it anyway. And it didn’t matter. The main reason I was here was Ellicia. The main reason I was
anywhere
was Ellicia.

“It’s fine,” I said.

“Just fine?”

“Well, the milk to Oreo ratio is a little off.”

Ellicia rolled her eyes in a way that always made my heart melt. She leaned back, sucked on the straw of her chocolate and raspberry shake. “Trust you to bring ratios into milkshake. Nerd.”

I caught the playfulness in her voice. It made everything feel okay all over again.

I looked into Ellicia’s eyes. There were so many things I wanted to say, but I didn’t know where to even start. I was worried. Course I was worried. ULTRAs like me were being hunted down all around the world. I had to keep as low a profile as possible.

But looking into Ellicia’s eyes made everything seem okay.

“So yeah. I’m staying here for now. So you’re gonna be stuck with me a little longer than you thought.”

I tutted. “Huh. That’s a shame. Thought my evil ploy to hire your dad over in Arizona was going so well.”

Ellicia grinned, then kicked me under the table. “Yeah, right. If I’d really left, you’d probably figure out a way to
fly
to see me.”

I almost choked on my milkshake. Then I realized she was still just joking.

“Anyway,” Ellicia said, twirling her hair. “Are you…”

I didn’t hear her next word.

Something smashed over at the other side of the building.

I flinched up out of my seat. My attention sharpened, honing in on where I’d heard that smash.

At the other side of the milkshake bar, a woman in an apron was covered in milkshake.

“Kyle?” Ellicia said.

I turned around. Saw she was looking at me strangely. And so too were so many other people. I wondered if they were looking at me because they knew. They knew I was an ULTRA. They knew what I was capable of… No. No, they were looking at me ’cause of how I’d reacted. I’d jumped out of my seat at a glass hitting the floor. That’s all it was.

I sat back down. My hands were shaking.

“What’s up?” Ellicia asked. She was looking at me in a way I knew I’d struggle to escape.

“Nothing,” I said.

“No way. You’re acting… well, you’re acting creepy. And you’ve been acting creepy for days now. What’s up?”

I looked across the table at Ellicia and I wanted to tell her. I wanted to open up to her about everything. She’d never been a fan of the ULTRAs, mainly because she saw them through the same lens as the rest of the world. But I had a feeling that if I told her, I could win her over. I could make her understand that I wasn’t a monster. Being an ULTRA was… well, it was just who I was.

But I couldn’t. I couldn’t tell anyone I was an ULTRA. It didn’t only put me in more danger—it put the people who knew the truth in danger, too.

And I wasn’t putting Ellicia in danger any time soon.

“I’ll be straight with you,” I said, trying to regather my composure. Around the counter, people were still looking at me, whispering to one another. “All this ULTRAbot stuff. It just… it just scares me.”

Ellicia nodded and sighed. “Yeah. Damon mentioned you weirded out when you saw the ULTRAbots the other day.”

“You and Damon have been talking about me?”

“Course we have,” Ellicia said. “He’s your best friend. And I’m your… We’ve been worried about you, Kyle. Especially after how you were after the attack at the party last summer.”

I knew what Ellicia was referring to. The way I’d pushed everyone away after Nycto’s attack on the school party. Really, that wasn’t the reason I gave up and started moping. The real reason was that Nycto had hovered over Krakatoa and told me he knew who I was. And if I did anything to try and stop his reign, he’d not only expose my identity, but he’d destroy everyone I’d ever cared about.

I still felt the pain of those threats right now. The pain that hung around my neck everywhere I went as Kyle Peters, in everything I did as Kyle Peters.

“Anyway,” Ellicia said, opening up her purse and searching for some more cash. “I wondered if you wanted to, like, get back together, maybe?”

I frowned. But it was more out of surprise than anything. “Get back together?”

“Well, yeah. Like, together-together. As we were. Remember?”

I sipped on my not-so-Oreo milkshake and let myself relax and smile. “I didn’t even think we’d split up.”

She blushed a little. Then I saw her smile back. I knew everything was okay again. I knew that all was going to be fine. Ellicia wanted to stay with me. She was letting me off the hook for the way I’d acted like an asshole at school the other day. And as much as I knew it was dangerous to be attached to someone right now, the thought of being with Ellicia outweighed all that by a million.

“Another milkshake?” Ellicia asked, standing.

I nodded. “Another—”

I didn’t finish.

An explosion ripped through the street outside.

I
didn’t want
to go outside. I didn’t want to see what the source of the explosion was, or what was going on. ’Cause deep down, I knew. I knew damned well what it was, and what it was to do with.

But I didn’t have a choice.

Everyone rushed out of Benny’s and ran onto the street. Some of them screamed, fled their way home. Others stepped back inside the second they saw what was happening.

Across the street, a building smoked. Just minutes ago, I’d looked outside the window and seen it full of life.

Now, it was an empty shell. A burning mess.

And in the sky above, something was happening.

Something was unfolding above New York. Something terrifying.

“Come on, Kyle,” Ellicia said, grabbing my hand. “We need to get back.”

I wanted to move with Ellicia. I wanted to run. But all I could do was stare up at the sky.

There were ULTRAs flying around. ULTRAs
and
ULTRAbots. Both of them were engaged in battle, firing flames and ice at one another, shooting through the sky, ramming each other into buildings, into the ground.

I saw more debris fall beside me. Up the road, I saw a crowd of screaming people running away as this battle commenced. My kind. The ULTRAs. They were staging a battle against the ULTRAbots. They needed my help. They needed my…

Then, I saw something that froze my body to the very core.

A blast ripped through the crowd of fleeing people in the distance.

But it wasn’t a blast that came from the hands of an ULTRAbot.

It was from an ULTRA.

I knew then what was happening, and it made me totally cold.

It wasn’t the ULTRAbots causing the chaos here. They were just trying to stop something else.

They were trying to stop the ULTRAs attacking people. Innocent people.

“Come on!”

I ran a little with Ellicia, but I had no real sense of what I was doing or where I was going. I felt lost. Lost and confused. The ULTRAs. Why were they attacking people? What was any of this all about? Were the government right all along? Were ULTRAs the bad guys, and the ULTRAbots just the ones trying to do their jobs?

I ran down the street, debris falling beside me as more bolts of electricity and fire blasted past me. I dodged fallen people. Ran past falling buildings. I kept hold of Ellicia’s hand all the time. But I didn’t stop looking up, staring at the sky, trying to figure out what was going on and what I could do about it.

I saw something else happen then. One of the ULTRAs—a guy dressed in green who I’d seen attack that crowd of people just before—charging up a green ball of energy in his hands. He was free. There were no ULTRAbots around to stop him.

I felt my anger kicking in. The urge to go up there and fight him. To stop him.

And then someone blasted into the side of him.

I thought at first that it was an ULTRAbot, and I considered going up there and taking them both down—or at least away from here—while I had the chance.

And then, as I ran, I realized it wasn’t an ULTRAbot at all.

It was Angel. The woman who I’d seen in the Pazza Notte restrooms. She was with some other ULTRAs too, all of whom were fighting with both the ULTRAs attacking the people
and
the ULTRAbots.

There was a war going on above me, and I was right here on the ground.

“Down here,” Ellicia said. She started to pull me down the side of an alleyway.

I didn’t go though. I couldn’t. I knew as much as I wanted to live my life as a normal seventeen-year-old, I had a duty to protect not only people but the other ULTRAs, like Angel. I’d already let them down by allowing the ULTRAbots to take the ULTRA called Spark away. I couldn’t fail them anymore. There was a time for sitting by and there was a time for acting. Right now was a time for acting.

“Run,” I said, putting my hands on Ellicia’s arms. “Seriously, just run down this alleyway and get someplace safe. I’ll be back.”

I ran away from Ellicia.

“Kyle! What the—what the hell are you doing?”

I stopped at the alleyway opening. I felt so guilty for what I was doing—turning my back on Ellicia. But I had to do this. I had a duty. I had something to do. “I’ll be back for you. I promise.”

“But—”

I ran around the side of the alleyway and then I focused all my attention on teleporting myself back home.

I landed in my bedroom. The sudden change to silence was deafening. Downstairs, I could hear the television breaking the news of the events. I could hear the explosions in the distance, too, muffled over here on Staten Island.

I had no time to waste.

I walked over to the cabinet where I kept my Glacies gear. I opened it up, stared down at it. I’d felt so sure about what I was doing just earlier. I’d felt certain that I had to put this gear on and I had to protect people.

But now I was back home, I just wanted to stay here. I just wanted to stay and let everything blow over…

No. There was a war going on. I had to do something. Even if I couldn’t risk giving up my identity as Glacies, I had to do something.

I put on my black hoodie, my gray tracksuit bottoms, and a white skeleton Halloween mask I’d worn earlier in the year.

I caught a glance of myself in the mirror. Yes, I looked ridiculous. But I didn’t look like Glacies
or
Kyle Peters.

That’s exactly what I needed right now.

I teleported myself back to the scene of the chaos. There was an even stronger smell of smoke in the air right now. The screams were high-pitched and deafening. I heard approaching sirens and saw flashing blue lights.

I stood around the corner of an alleyway. Checked to see I was clear.

Then I looked up at the sky.

Focused my attention on the ULTRAbots.

I saw one of them flying towards the ULTRA called Angel. Pulling back its hand and getting ready to attack.

I lifted my hand.

Fired a spark of ice at it.

I knocked it off its course, and Angel went in with a massive punch, taking it out of the sky.

I turned to another of the ULTRAs. This time, there were two ULTRAs in a fight. A guy in black covered in blades, and the guy I’d seen fire the green bolts down on earth earlier. The guy in green looked to be stronger, winning.

I focused my energy and attention on him, and I fired.

He slipped. His grip on the ULTRA with the blades loosened.

The ULTRA with the blades broke free, and then he gained his ground—or air.

I shot at another few ULTRAbots and ULTRAs. And the more I fired, the more confident I was that I didn’t have to become Glacies. I didn’t have to make a show of myself to help fight. I could still be Kyle Peters. I could aid this war from the sidelines. I could…

Out of nowhere, I heard rattling. Like the blades of a helicopter.

The sky darkened. The screams diminished. The fighting ULTRAs stopped and looked around.

I held my breath. Stared up at the sky. Waited.

Then, out of nowhere, I saw them.

At first, I thought they must be some kind of migrating bird, there were that many of them.

But then as they got closer, flying through the sky, I realized they weren’t birds at all.

They were ULTRAbots.

Lots of ULTRAbots.

And they were closing in on all of the ULTRAs.

I saw the panic in the eyes of the ULTRAs then, both sides. Saw some of them finishing their scraps, some of them disappearing.

One of the ULTRAs held her ground.

Held her ground and faced up to the oncoming ULTRAbots.

Angel.

“Come on!” I heard her shout, goading the ULTRAbots towards her. “Bring it on!”

I wanted to go up there and help her. She couldn’t fight these ULTRAbots alone. I could freeze them. Or I could teleport her away.

But I wasn’t dressed as Glacies. I’d be giving up another identity. I’d be—

My thoughts stopped.

The ULTRAbots swarmed around Angel.

I heard shouts. I saw blasts. A few ULTRAbots fell out of the sky. But so many of them swirled around Angel, getting thicker and thicker in number, like bees around a nest.

I watched and waited for Angel to emerge from those ULTRAbots. She seemed strong. She could do this. She could fight this.

But the seconds rolled on. The seconds became minutes. The minutes became…

The ULTRAbots hovered aside.

Someone dropped out of the sky. Hurtled towards the ground.

Slammed into the road.

The ULTRAbots watched for a few seconds. Looked around to check everything was resolved.

And then, as people gathered around the fallen combatant, the ULTRAbots disappeared.

I couldn’t move, though.

I couldn’t disappear.

Because Angel was lying in the road.

Completely still.