The Last Hero (Book 2): Rise of the Ultras (19 page)

V
esper tried not
to feel too pessimistic. Pessimism was a fool’s game.

But right now, optimism was a liar’s game.

They were losing a war before it had even begun.

He stood at the front of the secret room where he and the other members of the Resistance always met. He’d stood here so many times over the last few weeks, the last few months, the last few years. But now was the first time he’d seen such a look of defeat across the faces of those who were supposed to be fighters. Such a stare of disillusionment, frustration, with the current situation.

Still, it was his job to make the plans. To galvanize the troops. He just wasn’t sure how much fight was left in them, let alone in himself.

“The ULTRAbots are much more resilient than we might’ve assumed,” he said, hating the echo of his own voice as it boomed around the room. “We destroyed one of their facilities, but the government responded violently by ramping up production at another of their facilities over the Pacific Ocean. We also believe that several new facilities have been erected. The truth is, the ULTRAbots are getting stronger, they’re growing in number, and the ULTRAs are decreasing.”

A blank stare from Stone, a look of worry from Aqua. Even Vortex looked concerned, lost in a real-life nightmare for a change.

“Then what exactly’s the plan?” Slice asked.

“There’s only one thing we can do,” Vesper said. “Launch another attack on an ULTRAbot facility. Reduce their numbers.”

“And you really think that’s gonna work?” Ember snapped.

Vesper shrugged. He wasn’t sure what to say. In truth, no. He didn’t think it was going to work. But what other option did he have? “It’s all we’ve got.”

“It’s like whack-a-mole,” Aqua interrupted. “We take one down, another will step up. And then they’ll just keep on stepping up until… well, until whatever.”

“But we have to fight until whatever,” Vesper said. “Because that’s just who we are—”

“No,” Slice said.

Vesper looked right at Slice. So too did a few of the others.

Slice shook his head. Pushed his glasses up the bridge of his long nose. “No, that’s not who we are. It’s who
you
are, but it’s not who we are.”

“We are one—”

“Enough of the shit,
Orion,
” Slice snapped. “We’ve lost this. It’s over. There’s nothing else fighting’s gonna do for us. Our best shot right now? Hide. Get far, far away from each other and hide. ’Cause there’s one day left, in case you hadn’t noticed. One day, then Mr. Parsons’ big ULTRA-cleansing plan comes to an end. If we can just hide until that day passes, then maybe. Just maybe.”

“The ULTRAbots aren’t gonna just stop operating after tomorrow,” Aqua said, impatiently. “That was just a ruse to get people on side. There’s no real plans to ditch the ULTRAbots. Not now the government has the perfect security system.”

“Then maybe we shouldn’t hide at all,” Slice said. “Maybe we should just throw the towel in right now. Hand ourselves in. Hell, maybe they’ll even go easier on us. Whatever we do’s better than staying here and walking into another suicide mission.”

Vesper shook his head as Slice turned away. “Don’t do this.”

“I’m sick of following every command you give us,” Slice shouted. “The fact is, there isn’t a resistance. There never was a resistance. There was just you and those dreams of yours. It’s over, Vesper. Orion. Or whatever you want me to call you. See it for what it is. It’s over, and there’s not a thing you or anyone on this planet can do about it.”

“That’s not true.”

Vesper looked to the right. He wasn’t sure who the voice came from. Not at first.

Not until he saw Glacies standing at the opposite side of the room.

Everyone turned and looked at him, open-mouthed.

“How did you…” Vesper started.

“We are going to fight,” Glacies said, walking past the ULTRAs in the middle of the room. “We’re going to fight because if we don’t fight, every last ULTRA is going to die. And then worse. Something’s gonna happen to the humans, too. We know it’s not Mr. Parsons really behind this. We know something weird’s going on. We don’t know
what
exactly yet, but we know something’s wrong, and if we don’t act fast, we’ll be finding out the truth very soon. And we can’t just stand around and let it happen.”

Stone tutted. Rolled his eyes. A few pieces of rock sprouted around his fists as he tightened them. “And why in the hell should we listen to a weak little runaway?”

“Because I’m here right now,” Glacies said, his voice getting stronger, more confident. “I’m here because I’ve seen what happens when I try taking the other route. When I give up on who I really am. We can try hiding, sure. We can try living our life like we’re normal. But we’re not normal. And we need to use that. We have a duty to this planet to use that.”

Vesper saw a few of the ULTRAs’ faces turning. None of them protesting. Even Slice was holding his ground.

Glacies kept on walking in front of them. “This is our lives. This is who we are. We don’t give up. We keep on fighting. Because we’re ULTRAs, and that’s what ULTRAs do.”

A pause. A silence.

Then, “He’s right.”

Vesper looked across the room. Saw that it was Vortex who’d spoken. She had a smile on her face now, like she was enjoying all this way too much.

“I don’t particularly like the guy’s methods. But he is right. We stand together. We take their dreams. And if we have to, we fall crying into the night.”

Glacies stepped in front of Vortex. Nodded. She stepped forward and joined him.

“You don’t have to do this,” Glacies said. “Not if you don’t want to. But please. Think about the world. Think about all the people out there, just trying to live normal lives. Think about the ULTRAs like us. Hunted down by the governments. Put through unthinkable pain. Think about them. And only then, decide you don’t want to join us.”

There was no movement for a while. To the point that Vesper thought this was it. Just Glacies and Vortex.

“Hell, I’m with the kid.”

Stone stepped forward. Then too did Aqua and Ember, and Roadrunner. And soon it was just Slice standing where he’d stood all along, cutting a lonely figure.

“Please,” Glacies said. “Join us.”

He hesitated. And then he sighed. “If I’m going to join you, I at least want to hear your plan.”

It was at that point that Glacies turned and looked Vesper right in his eyes.

“We do what Vesper said. We take the fight to the ULTRAbots. We take down every last one, just like they want to do to us. But above anything, there’s something else we need to do. Something way more important.”

“And what’s that?” Slice asked.

“We need to find out who their leader really is. And we need to take them down.”

“
A
re you ready
?” I shouted.

I saw the ULTRAs behind me, hovering over the ULTRAbot compound in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, waiting to attack.

“Ready,” they shouted.

“Good,” I said. “Then we attack.”

I flew down towards the ULTRAbot compound beneath us. Immediately, I felt the bullets from the drones blasting around me, trying to fire into me. I dodged them. Focused as intently as I could and jumped around them, out of their way.

I ran up to one of the drones. Grabbed the back of it. Latched on to it. And then I held my breath and teleported it opposite another of the drones, sending both of them erupting in a burst of flames.

I looked back. The rest of the ULTRAs were all engaged in fighting of their own. We’d spent a day planning, deliberating, and decided to take a different approach attacking this facility, going for the hammer-blow instead of the sneakiness of the previous attack. We figured it’d be a good way to surprise the ULTRAbots.

Besides, we were together. We were focused.

And when we were focused, we were strong.

I heard a door opening over on my left. When I looked, I saw a crowd of ULTRAbots all stepping out in that mechanical way they always did, all looking right up at me, at the rest of the Resistance.

“Watch out!” I shouted.

And then as the ULTRAbots lifted their guns, I pounded right into them with force.

The explosion was enough to blast away a good twenty, thirty of the ULTRAbots upon contact. I felt the flames surrounding me. Tasted smoke in the air. My neck ached from the contact with the ground, but I didn’t have time to mope about it, didn’t have time to worry.

I readjusted my footing and turned to the ULTRAbots opposite me.

They were surrounding me. Hundreds of them. All standing around, all with weapons raised, all getting ready to fire.

“Bring it on,” I said.

The first ULTRAbot to make a move was one on my left.

It pulled the trigger and fired right at me.

Only I wasn’t there when the bullet reached my position.

I punched it back. Knocked it into the ULTRAbots behind it. And then as the gunfire rattled all around me, explosion after explosion erupting, I kept on moving, jumping, shifting around and knocking down as many ULTRAbots as I could. I heard shouting from the rest of the ULTRAs fighting alongside me. I saw flashes in the sky. I knew this time, the plan was for Stone to go inside and disable the ULTRAbots. And I hoped he hurried. I was doing okay right now, but I couldn’t hold off an army like this forever.

I felt a heavy fist crack right across my face.

It knocked me to the ground. Sent me flying into the concrete.

More ULTRAbots pointed their guns at me as I lay there, blood in my mouth, wounded.

Then, they fired.

I shifted out of their way again with my dwindling strength. I hovered above them, then rained down a ball of ice right on top of them, freezing them instantly.

I crashed down into them. Sent their frozen bodies shattering all over the place.

But still there were hundreds of these things, swarming around me like flies around cattle.

I kept on punching back. Throwing punches and fighting with all I had. But I could feel my powers weakening the more punches I took in turn. I could feel my head spinning. One slip and they’d have me. One slip and everything would be over.

As I fought back, the ULTRAbots getting stronger and stronger around me, I thought of Ellicia, Damon, Avi. I thought about Dad. He knew who I was. And he’d told me what I had to do.

“You go and do what you have to do, son. Do it for Mom. Do it for me. Do it for everyone.”

I thought about Mom. The last time I’d seen her, smiling at me as I left the house for what seemed like such a normal day compared to now. How I’d never see her again.

And I felt my chest tightening. I felt my punches back getting stronger.

“You go and do what you have to do, son. Do it for Mom. Do it for me. Do it for everyone.”

In my mind, I saw the look of pain in Dad’s eyes as I walked away from him in his hardest moment. As his own son turned his back on him to be here—where he needed to be. This damned place. This damned—

Another smack, right across my face.

I fell. There was nothing I could do to shake myself free of my current situation. I lay back on the ground and watched hazily as the ULTRAbots lifted their rifles, as they pointed them at me.

I closed my tearful eyes. Braced myself for the blast.

I’d be with Mom soon.

I’d be with Mom.

And then I heard a shout.

I opened my eyes. Above, I saw Stone jumping into the middle of the ULTRAbot ring. They turned their attention away from me to him.

He was completely covered in rock. He punched the ULTRAbots out of the way, one punch taking down about five of them at a time.

“Go!” he shouted.

I watched as he fought off more of the ULTRAbots, all of their attention on him now. I held my breath. Tried to fix my face, which ached like mad. Focused on healing. Focused on getting away from here. On getting inside the ULTRAbot facility.

But all I could see was Stone.

All I could think about was him standing there in the middle of this ring of ever-advancing ULTRAbots, surrounded.

“I’ll hold ’em off instead. You go and disable ’em. Quick!”

I closed my eyes. Clenched my teeth together.

Teleported myself just outside the ULTRAbot facility, being careful not to teleport through the door to avoid being fried—a security measure that Roadrunner warned me about from her scouting missions.

I looked back at the ring of ULTRAbots I’d stood in the middle of just moments ago. I could see Stone in there, still punching back, still fighting. But the punches were getting weaker. He wasn’t knocking as many of them back. Not anymore.

I wanted him to be okay. He’d put his life on the line for me.

But I knew what I needed to do if I wanted to save him.

I ran inside the compound. Jumped past the bullets of the ULTRAbots standing guard right in front of the main door, just like the last compound. I opened up wormholes, portals, whatever the hell they were with all the strength I had. Threw the ULTRAbots through them, as heavy as they were, and tossed them somewhere in the ocean far away.

And then I ran down the stairs.

When I stepped inside the compound where the ULTRAbots were produced, I noticed something different in there.

The ULTRAbots weren’t in their chambers. They weren’t sleeping, ready to be awoken.

They were standing.

Hundreds of them. Thousands of them. All waiting to fire.

I looked over at that red button. The de-activation button. I could try getting over there. But I didn’t have much—

Gunshots. Gunshots blasted past me, crashed into the concrete wall beside me.

I moved back up the stairs and fell. Smacked my head onto the concrete. As I lay there, I heard the ULTRAbots progressing, getting ever closer.

I looked over at that red button as the footsteps marched nearer. I thought about Stone. About what he’d done for me. Putting everything on the line for me.

Then I thought of the fire.

Thought of Mom. Of Dad. Of Ellicia.

I couldn’t give up.

I couldn’t ever give up.

The ULTRAbots stepped around the corner. Hundreds of them. I could hear them walking into the compound from the main entrance now, too. I was surrounded. We’d lost.

They all lifted their guns.

For a moment, I thought I saw smiles on their faces.

“Too late,” I gasped.

And then I used every inch of power in my body to press down that red button with nothing more than my mind.

I saw the ULTRAbots shake. Saw them lower their weapons. And then electricity sparked from them. Their eyes went wonky. Their mouths opened and closed, opened and closed.

They fell to the floor, all of them, shaking as electricity sparked from their bodies.

Then, there was a massive bang. A massive bang followed by an eruption of smoke.

Then, the ULTRAbots were still.

I took a moment to appreciate the silence. To recover from the falls I’d had. I’d come close. So close. But I’d done it. We’d all done it. We’d shut down another facility.

We had to keep going.

I got up. Ran past a ton of fallen ULTRAbots and outside the main door.

When I saw the mound of ULTRAbots lying in front of me, saw the morose looks on the faces of Aqua and Vortex, I knew there was bad news.

“Stone,” I said. I walked over to the ULTRAbots. Tossed them away, two at a time.

“It’s over, Glacies,” Orion said, struggling for air. The battles were still taking it out of him. He put a hand on my shoulder. “He’s gone.”

“No!” I shouted. I kept on throwing the ULTRAbots aside. Kept on tossing them away. I couldn’t give up on Stone. He’d not given up on me. He’d sacrificed everything for me.

I was about to toss another ULTRAbot out of the way when I saw Stone lying right beneath me.

His eyes were closed. His body was still. There were no stones on his body. Just bruises. Lots of bruises.

“No,” I said, backing away. “I can’t—”

“We have to leave,” Orion said, defeat in his voice despite another victory. “I’m sorry. For all of this. But we have to—”

“Damn. You really ain’t a soppy bunch, are ya?”

I looked down and saw Stone staring angrily up at us.

“Stone!” Aqua shouted. She went down to join him, as did others, as he pulled his way from the mound of ULTRAbots.

“You’re alive,” I said.

Stone raised his eyebrows. “’Course I’m alive. Just wanted to see how you guys’d handle my funeral. As it happens, not well at all. Gotta improve on that.”

I felt myself laughing at Stone. I couldn’t believe I was laughing, especially after everything that’d happened. But I was. I was Glacies, and I’d conquered this place. All of us had conquered this place. We were the Resistance. We were a team. And we weren’t going to stop at anything.

“Wait,” Aqua said.

I turned to look at her. So too did everyone else. “What’s up?”

She was looking at a screen. “You… you need to see this.”

I walked over to Aqua. And as I walked, I saw the rest of the ULTRAs look up at me in turn, then back down at the screen. I knew right then this was something else about me. More bad news.

I considered all the options. All the horrible options.

What I found was completely different.

On the screen, I saw Mr. Parsons. Not the real one. But the government one. The one taking his form.

He was talking. Lecturing a crowd on the day of his deadline.

And on the screen, there was a photo of me.

Not me as Glacies. But me as
me.

Kyle Peters.

“We all know this young man,” Mr. Parsons said, “but by a very different face and a very different name.”

“No,” I said, feeling my world melt around me.

“This young man is the leader of the ULTRAs. This young man is the one individual standing between peace and war.”

“No!” I started to run, to get away, but Orion grabbed me, stopped me from moving.

I looked into Mr. Parsons’ eyes as he spoke. I knew what he was going to say. I knew what the words were going to be. I knew my entire world was going to fall apart, again.

“This young man is Kyle Peters. Glacies.”

I heard gasps from the crowd. I imagined Ellicia’s parents watching the news in disbelief. I imagined the nurses tending to my dad suddenly looking at him with fear. I imagined it all, and I felt everything caving in.

“Mr. Peters,” Mr. Parsons said, looking into the camera now. “I know you’re out there, somewhere, engaging in some kind of brutal fight against humanity with that band of bloodthirsty misfits of yours. It’s time for you to come back to reality. To see how much you really care. To complete your…” He smiled, and for the first time, I thought I saw another face behind this avatar of a man. “To complete your impossible mission.”

My stomach sank.

Every muscle in my body dropped.

I heard voices. I heard words. I knew the ULTRAs around me were trying to talk, trying to calm me down.

But I couldn’t. Not after what Mr. Parsons just said.

My impossible mission.

“Ellicia,” I said.

I pushed Orion and Vortex away. Rushed over the fallen ULTRAbots to the edge of the manmade island in the middle of the ocean.

“What?” Orion asked. “What is this?”

“My impossible mission,” I said. “Mission Impossible. It was our—our first date.”

Aqua frowned. “I don’t understand.”

“Ellicia!” I said, as the horrifying reality of my situation welled up. “He’s—he’s got Ellicia.”