The Last Hero (Book 2): Rise of the Ultras (20 page)

I
flew
towards Ellicia’s house without a thought of the potential repercussions.

The air was thick and humid considering it was winter. There was no snow on the ground anymore, like it had all just melted away with all the battles between ULTRAbots and ULTRAs, and with the news that had broken just minutes ago.

The news identifying me, Kyle Peters, as Glacies.

The news exposing me to the entire planet.

I landed outside Ellicia’s house. I didn’t know where else to go. I knew the rest of the Resistance had tried to stop me leaving, but that was worthless. Sure, I was Glacies, and I had responsibilities and duties to the ULTRAs above anyone. I got that now.

But I wasn’t losing anyone else.

I wasn’t losing Ellicia.

I held my breath and camouflaged as I looked down the pathway leading to Ellicia’s house. I looked around for signs of life. The road was too quiet. I felt like people were watching me, even though they couldn’t possibly see me.

I held my breath again and teleported myself inside the house.

I stood in Ellicia’s bedroom. My heart sank when I saw she wasn’t there. I looked around for her. Looked under the bed, inside the wardrobe. I checked the other rooms. The bathroom, her parents’ bedrooms, downstairs in the living room and dining room.

But it was worthless. Ellicia was gone.

I stood there and looked around. A bitter taste filled my mouth. I’d let someone down, again. Here I was, being played, all because I’d tried to live two lives. I regretted ever meeting Ellicia. I regretted ever getting attached to anyone. The damage had already been done. There was nothing else I could do.

I knew right then that there was something I could do, though. Something I could try, anyway.

Mr. Parsons, or whoever was pretending to be Mr. Parsons. He knew about Ellicia. What he’d said about my “impossible mission,” that couldn’t just be a coincidence.

He was trying to draw me to Ellicia. One way or another, he wanted me here.

I looked around and saw shadows creeping closer to the house.

I stood still. Completely still. I wasn’t sure who was outside, but I could guess. The army. ULTRAbots. All of them closing in, surrounding me.

I pictured the footage of this siege unfolding on the news. I pictured Ellicia watching it, hand over her mouth, unable to believe or accept that her boyfriend was the most powerful ULTRA in existence. That he’d lied to her about his identity for so, so long.

I realized then that there was no going back now. No matter what, life would never be the same. Not now Damon knew. Not now Ellicia knew. Not now everyone knew.

I’d tried to live two lives. Kyle Peters and Glacies. Now, I’d been left without a choice, just like Orion told me I would be all along.

I was Glacies.

I’d live as Glacies, and I’d die as Glacies.

But one thing was for sure.

I wasn’t letting anyone else I cared about get hurt.

I closed my eyes. Focused my rage as the footsteps outside got closer. I needed to go. I needed to get away before they closed in completely.

And then I heard something upstairs.

It was faint. Very faint. And I swore I’d checked upstairs thoroughly.

But then I heard it again.

A kick. A cry.

Ellicia.

I flew up the stairs, no regard for the surrounding army outside. I searched every room for Ellicia. Again, I looked under the beds, in the wardrobes, in the…

When I looked in the bathroom, I saw her.

Ellicia was lying in her bathtub. She was tied at the ankles and the wrists. She had tape over her mouth and was crying out underneath it.

“It’s… It’s okay,” I said, stepping into the bathroom toward her. “I’m here now—”

I felt myself bump into an invisible wall.

I tried to push past it, to push through into the bathroom. But something was stopping me. I lifted my hands. Banged against it. Still, I couldn’t get through.

It was then that I felt that horrible sensation like someone was watching me.

“Hello, Kyle.”

When I heard the voice behind me, I didn’t want to believe it at first. It couldn’t be possible. It couldn’t be true.

But as I turned around, the sickliness growing deep in the pit of my stomach, I knew it added up. I knew it was real. I knew that everything had been building towards this impossibility all along.

“Good to see you again.”

Dark hair.

Silver armor.

A wry smile across his skinny face.

“You can’t be…”

“Well, I am. I am.”

Daniel Septer was alive.

Nycto was alive.

“I think it’s about time we caught up properly, don’t you?”

“
W
ell
? I thought you’d be a little happier to see me.”

I stared across the upstairs hallway of Ellicia’s house into the eyes of Daniel Septer. My mouth was dry. I couldn’t speak, couldn’t think. Every muscle in my body was tense as if the ice I could blast from my hands had coated me, wrapped me in its clutches. Outside, I could hear the muffled advance of the approaching soldiers. Behind me, the faint whimper of Ellicia as she lay tied up in that bathtub.

Daniel Septer—Nycto—who I’d fought.

Daniel Septer—Nycto—whose reign of terror I’d ended six months ago.

Daniel Septer—Nycto—standing opposite me.

“How you finding my new look, anyway?” Daniel asked. He stepped closer to me, his silver armor not glowing as strongly as it used to. One-half of his face was covered in shadow. But as he moved towards me, I saw it clearly.

It was burned. Burned on the scalp, right down across his left eye. His neck was covered in burns, too. I knew it was Daniel just from the good half of his face. But as I looked at the wrinkled mess of skin that the bad half had become, I couldn’t help feeling guilty.

“You certainly made your mark, Kyle,” Daniel said, grinning. Only one-half of his face moved. “I mean, I’m sure you wanted more than to wound me. I guess that’s the whole reason you threw me down into Krakatoa in the first place. Left me beneath the lava. But hey.” He extended his arms and his grin. “Here I am. Here we are. What a wonderful reunion.”

“How?”

I knew how pathetic I sounded spouting out that single word. But it was all I could say. Nycto was supposed to be gone. I was supposed to have dealt with him.

So how was he here right now, standing opposite me, in Ellicia’s house?

Daniel chuckled. He leaned against the wall. I could still feel the force field he’d created between the hallway and the bathroom pushing against my back like two magnets opposing. “Hmm. Now, how I got out is a long story. I mean it. Considering a book deal, but I hear the self-publishing route’s just as good these days. Anyway, how I got here doesn’t matter. How I got out of that volcano… well, let’s just say you underestimated my strength.”

“I buried you in that lava. I froze it and brought Krakatoa down.”

“You thought you did,” Daniel said, a slight hint of laughter to his every word. “I mean, I can see why you thought you caused those series of eruptions. I can see why you thought that was your power and not mine. But anyway. You were so busy trying to save humanity that you didn’t even notice me escape.”

I cast my mind back to Krakatoa’s eruption. I’d put all my focus into saving those islands from the eruptions that I hadn’t even considered Daniel might’ve escaped.

“I mean, you hurt me,” Daniel said, stepping closer. “You didn’t just give my body scars. You gave my powers scars. And that upset me. A lot.”

I felt a tingling sensation at the back of my neck and knew Daniel was inches away with his powers.

I saw the flames grow from his palms as he moved closer. He was so close that I could smell his sour breath. He looked into my eyes with something that resembled bitterness. Anger. “But I’m here now. I’m here, and you’re here. And I’ve got you all to myself. Not to mention her.”

He looked over my shoulder and I knew what he was referring to. “Leave her out of this.”

“Oh, it’s way, way too late for that. I mean, the world knows who you are. The world knows Kyle Peters is Glacies. How does that feel? How does it feel being the most wanted ULTRA in existence?”

“Stop this.”

Daniel laughed. “All this time and you still haven’t changed. Not a bit. Not like me. No, I realized the error of my ways before. I realized I had the wrong approach. I couldn’t take the world alone. I needed ULTRAs. ULTRAs on my side. ULTRAs who’d been screwed by the world. I needed them, and only then could I destroy the vermin of humanity. Only then could I create a beautiful new world order.”

“You haven’t changed,” I said. “You’re still a psychopath.”

Daniel smiled. Shrugged. “Maybe I am. Maybe I’m not. But I’m powerful. More powerful than ever before. And that’s the main thing.”

I heard shouting outside. I knew whatever happened here, I had to make a decision. I couldn’t just let everything come crashing down around me at the hands of Nycto.

“The ULTRAbots,” I said. “They… they were yours. All along.”

Daniel frowned. “No. Oh, God no. I wish they were.”

“You’re lying.”

“Why would I lie, Kyle? Why on earth would I lie when I have a whole army of ULTRAs behind me?”

My mind raced for answers. The escaped ULTRAs from Area 64. The ones attacking the people. They were Nycto’s.

But then, if they were Nycto’s, then who was behind the ULTRAbots?

Who was Mr. Parsons?

“Let’s just say I made a very powerful government friend with a very similar interest to me. I gave him your identity, as well as the identity of other ULTRAs who I knew were never going to turn to my cause, and he gave me some ULTRAs of my own.”

I shook my head. “It doesn’t make sense.”

“Maybe not to small minds,” Daniel said. “But this isn’t a world for small minds. Not anymore. This is a world for thinkers. For—”

“Mr. Parsons. The man behind the ULTRAbots. He isn’t who you think he is. He’s playing you. Playing you like he played me.”

Daniel’s smile didn’t falter. Not for a moment. “It doesn’t matter really, does it? I’ll destroy him too, when the time comes. Right now though, the ULTRAbots are providing a necessary distraction. We will strike. When the time is right. But anyway. We have more important matters at hand right now. Like your first inauguration speech.”

I felt sickness creep over my body. “What do you mean?”

Daniel smiled. “I’d advise you keep an eye on your girl in future.”

I frowned. Turned around.

Ellicia was gone.

She’d vanished.

I went to run into the bathroom, to look for her.

Then I stopped.

“Where is she?” I barked.

Daniel put his helmet on his head, became the full embodiment of Nycto. Stretched out his arms. “Why don’t you come and find out?”

Anger filled my body. Rage dripped through my system. I wasn’t letting him win. Not again.

“I’d like to keep it peaceful, ideally,” Nycto said. “But I understand if—”

I didn’t listen to another word Nycto said.

I flew at him.

Hard.

I didn’t make contact with him, though. I didn’t make contact with him at all.

I heard a bang. Saw a flash of light.

When my eyes cleared, a sense of dread overwhelmed me.

“Welcome,” Nycto said. “To your inauguration.”

I was hovering above Times Square, above thousands and thousands of people, all of them staring up at me, taking photographs, watching.

Many of them holding photographs of me, Kyle Peters. Of my family. Many of them shouting, spitting, booing.

There weren’t just people, though. Beside Nycto, there was a massive line of ULTRAs hovering in the air. Nycto’s ULTRAs. Nycto’s army. All waiting to fight.

I wanted to get away. To leave. But I had to save Ellicia. I had to stop…

Something was different.

A breeze hit my face.

When I lifted my hand, I felt pure skin.

I wasn’t wearing my Glacies mask.

Nycto had it in his hand.

He lifted it up. Smiled. “Time to say goodbye to the good old days,” he said.

He tore the Glacies mask in two.

I stared down, my live image on the screens of Times Square, my identity known to the angry world, and I knew right then that life would never be the same.

If I survived to live another day.

“
C
ome on
, Glacies. Or should I call you Kyle? Come down. Fight me. Show the whole world who you really are.”

Nycto’s voice spun around my head. I floated there above Times Square, my face and my name all around me in the glow of the afternoon sun. I pictured Damon and Avi seeing the news. I pictured my teachers from school. The government. Families, people I knew, people I used to know.

All of them knew who I was now. All of them saw exactly what I was.

I wasn’t Kyle Peters to them anymore.

I was Glacies.

“If you’re so powerful, come down here. Fight me. Save Ellicia.”

I swallowed a lump in my throat as I looked down into the middle of Times Square. Nycto was hovering part way off the ground. Behind him, his crowd of ULTRAs braced for battle. And beneath them, Ellicia, dangling off the edge of a window. I knew I’d have to pass Nycto if I wanted to save Ellicia. I knew I’d have to fight him, causing destruction in the process, turning more and more people against me, against ULTRAs.

I knew I’d have to embrace Glacies if I wanted to save the girl Kyle Peters loved.

“Come down here and show your true face to the world.”

“You’re more talkative than I remember,” I shouted.

Nycto had his silver armor mask on, but I could picture the smile on his face from up here. “And you’re less action than I remember.”

“That’s what happens,” I shouted, “when you learn to care about people. When you learn to give a damn about the world.”

A pause. I heard my voice echo through the massive speakers in Times Square. Some of the crowd were beginning to disappear, to run away. Icy sleet started to fall. I knew they were braced for an inevitable battle; an unstoppable showdown that would claim more and more lives.

But as I hovered there, exposed, without my mask, I felt an understanding growing inside. Yes, the world knew who I was now. They knew what I was capable of. The strength I had. Yes, I was going to be hated by some. I was going to be hunted by many.

But I had a chance.

A chance to speak.

A chance to do the right thing.

“I don’t want to fight,” I shouted.

My voice reverberated down the sides of the buildings. I saw some of the ULTRAs turning their heads, looking right at me. Whispers grew amongst the crowd of people below.

I hovered there, looked around at as many people and ULTRAs as I could. “We’ve fought enough. Humans. ULTRAs. All of us. We’ve fought enough already.”

“It’s all your fault!” someone screamed.

“You aren’t the only ones who’ve lost in this,” I shouted back. “I… I’ve lost too. I lost my sister eight years ago to the Great Blast. I lost my mom—my mom, just yesterday.” My voice stuttered when I spoke those words. “I’ve lost my life. My own life as a seventeen-year-old dork. I’ve lost it all, and there’s nothing I can do to change that.”

More silence grew amongst the crowd. Nycto kept on floating there, his army behind him, waiting for his call.

I drifted closer to the ground. This made some more people run away, disappear. “Now isn’t the time to fight,” I shouted. “There’s a great threat heading our way. And when I say ‘our’, I don’t just mean ULTRAs. I mean ULTRAs and people. Because we’re the same thing. Different in what we can do, sure. But I wasn’t so different to any of you down there. Not long ago.”

On the massive screen on the side of the 20 Times Square building, I saw a woman’s eyes filling with tears. A few people looking at me with… with something like understanding.

“You might think we are the enemy. And I’m not denying that some of us have bad intentions.” I cast a glance at Nycto. “But the good ULTRAs, the ULTRAs that have fought for you behind the scenes for so many years, we’re not the bad guys. We want to protect you. To live amongst you. To help you.”

“Then why do you blow our cities up?” a man cried. More protest erupted on the ground below.

“The ULTRAbots,” I said. “You might think they are the saviors. You might think they are the protectors. But there’s something you should know. Something you should understand. Mr. Parsons. The man claiming to be fighting for your cause. He isn’t who he says he is.”

Many confused glances spread around the crowd like a fire.

“I found the real Mr. Parsons locked away in one of the ULTRAbot production facilities. He’d been trapped in there for months. He had no idea about the ULTRAbot program. About anything that was going on. So we have to ask the question together, all of us. Who is behind the ULTRAbots? And when they get us ULTRAs out of the way, what do they really want?”

“Liar!” someone called.

“No, he’s telling the truth.”

I wasn’t sure where the voice came from. Not at first.

And then, as my eyes adjusted to the pixelated screen, I saw exactly who it was. Right on cue.

The real Mr. Parsons walked through the crowd. Cameras snapped at him. He’d had a shave and a haircut, but he was clearly emaciated and withered. He stood in the middle of the crowd and looked everyone in the eye.

Even Nycto and his army froze in confusion, in puzzlement.

Mr. Parsons cleared his throat. Scratched at the back of his neck. “I don’t know who’s pretending to be me, taking my form. But I know one thing. Glacies saved me from that cell. From that personal hell. If it wasn’t for him, for his—his people, I dunno if I’d ever have got out.”

He nodded at me. And I felt the sincerity in his words. Sheer confusion gripped Times Square. It was the final day of Mr. Parsons’ deadline. The day he claimed every ULTRA would be wiped off the face of the earth. Every single one.

“We need to unite,” I said. “All of us. We need to demand whoever is in government shows their real face. Because we won’t stand for this. We won’t take any more loss. Any more fighting. Not anymore.”

I saw some of the rival ULTRAs nodding. And then, by my side, I saw that Orion—in his Vesper gear—and the rest of the Resistance had joined me. They nodded at me, some still looking a little pissed after my walkout earlier, Stone in particular. But they were by my side. They were with me now.

“Got your back, kid,” Stone said. “We must be crazy, but we’ve got your back.”

I floated above Times Square with the Resistance behind me. Beneath me, Nycto and his armies, who were clearly wavering in their opinions. Under them, humanity, holding its breath, waiting for something to happen, something momentous.

“Nycto,” I called.

He turned around. Looked right up at me, at the Resistance.

“We don’t have to fight. We shouldn’t fight. Not anymore.”

He was silent. The rest of the ULTRAs were silent. The humans on the streets below covered their mouths with their hands.

“Attack,” Nycto shouted.

I held my breath and braced for the impact of Nycto’s ULTRAs. I clapped my hands, sparked up a fistful of ice. Stone took on his rocky form. Aqua sprayed water below. We braced ourselves. Prepared for war.

But something happened.

Or, rather, something
didn’t
happen.

Nycto’s ULTRAs were still. Completely still. All of them were looking up at us with uncertainty in their eyes. With understanding in their eyes.

“You heard me,” Nycto barked, turning around to face them. “Attack!”

“No,” one of the ULTRAs—a ginger guy with thick black smoke spewing from his hands—said.

A pause between them. Then, “What do you mean, ‘no’?”

“We mean no,” another ULTRA said. And then before I knew it, all of the ULTRAs were flying past Nycto, rising up towards the Resistance, floating by our side.

All of us, all one hundred, two hundred of us, looked down at Nycto, as did the cameras. He cut a lonely, dejected figure. Part of me was happy to see him like that.

But part of me wanted him to join me. Because I knew if I could win him over, he could be an asset. Not a friend, but an asset. Someone who could help.

Nycto took off his helmet. Threw it down to the ground below. More people gasped as his burned face was revealed. His good eye was bloodshot. His jaw shook.

He was silent. For a moment, he was silent.

“Never mind,” he said. “I’ll just have to take you myself.”

Balls of flames grew rapidly from his hands.

“But first…”

He raised his arms. Pointed them down at Ellicia.

“No!” I cried.

He went to fire.

And then I heard it.

An explosion. An explosion bigger than any I’d ever heard, ripping through the air on my right.

Instead of the brightness I expected to see that always accompanied an explosion, I saw darkness. A cloud of sheer darkness heading my way.

A cloud I’d seen before in my life. I’d seen it on television. I’d seen it firsthand. But a cloud that couldn’t be possible.

Because Saint was gone. Saint was long gone and buried.

Wasn’t he?

I saw the darkness getting thicker.

Saw the day turn to night.

“No,” I heard Orion whisper. “No.”

I knew from those words that my worst fears were true.

My nightmares were realized.

My nightmare was Saint.

And he was coming right towards me and the remaining ULTRAs, with a million-strong army of ULTRAbots behind him.