The Last Hero (Book 2): Rise of the Ultras (3 page)

M
r. Parsons looked
around the emptied prison cells and felt sickness fill his body from head to toe.

This place was massive. But it was usually so full of life, even if that life was trapped behind the strongest metal doors. It housed some of the most dangerous ULTRAs the government had been able to track down over the years. After all, they couldn’t just
kill
the ULTRAs they’d created. They had to use them. Use them for research. Try and find ways to retrain them so that they worked consistently in humanity’s favor, and not against it.

But right now, every single cell door in Area 64 was open.

The ULTRAs were gone.

“What do you think we should do about it, sir?”

Mr. Parsons walked along the metal corridor past the open cell doors. Every single footstep echoed down through this vast chamber that usually housed so much power. The air was rich with the smell of burned metal. He wondered how this had happened—who had instigated the breakout. He had an idea, but that wasn’t something he could worry about right now.

All he could worry about was how he was going to get the ULTRAs back.

How he was going to avert a national—international—crisis.

“I mean, one hundred and forty-four of them,” Idris said in that pitiful little British accent of his. He was a short man with extremely round glasses perched on the end of his big, chunky nose. He never looked comfortable at the best of times, so you could imagine how he looked right now.

“I just don’t understand how a thing like this can happen,” Mr. Parsons said. He stopped by an open cell door. Looked inside it. He saw the bed erect in the middle of the room. Saw it propped up on that circular metal pole. He saw the bands where their arms were supposed to be chained down. The bright light above, that shone on and off intermittently throughout the day, so they could monitor each individual ULTRA’s reaction to different stimuli.

“Main power down. Backup gens down. Backup to the backups—”

“Down,” Mr. Parsons continued.

Idris blushed a little. He nodded, pushing his glasses back up his face. “So what do we do?”

Mr. Parsons looked around the vast expanse of Area 64. He’d been the one to come up with this place. During the last Era of the ULTRAs, when the figureheads of the governments wanted the ULTRAs banished from existence, he was the one to propose to the president that they didn’t destroy the ULTRAs. Not entirely. Because they could come in handy one day.

The world of eight years ago wasn’t ready for ULTRAs, or Heroes, as they then called them, but nobody dared utter now. Not just that, but the ULTRAs weren’t ready for the world of eight years ago. It was a beta test gone horribly wrong. But they’d managed to get them under control, with the indirect assistance of an ULTRA called Orion. They’d managed to end the most immediate threats to existence.

And now, just like the Russians supposedly had samples of the smallpox virus hiding frozen in labs deep beneath the ground, America had a weapon of its own. An ultimate weapon that it was working on, refining to perfection, until the day came when the world would be ready for ULTRAs all over again.

But the fact of the matter stood.

The ULTRAs had escaped.

Someone had helped them escape.

“I mean, we can put out a warning,” Idris said, scratching at his nose. “We—we can reach out to the news networks. Broadcast it globally. Tell people to stay in their homes. But that still leaves us with a lot of explaining to do.”

Mr. Parsons looked over the balcony and waited a few seconds before responding. It was always his way. He was never one to interrupt. Never one to snap. He believed in always carefully considering what a person had to say, what their argument was. His temperament was a strong reason he’d managed to drag himself so far in the government’s Secret Service, he believed.

He was renowned for his bold but successful decisions. His scary calls that, as terrifying as they sounded, always paid off. Always.

And as he saw the sequence of events paving out in front of him, he knew what he was going to have to do to end this chaos.

He knew what risk he was going to have to take.

Idris kept on mumbling away. “But I’m thinking we should just be honest and sincere. I’m thinking we should just go out there and tell the truth.”

Mr. Parsons looked into Idris’ eyes. He smiled. “We’ll wake Project Ceta 453.”

The glazed look that washed over Idris’ face said it all. “But… but we can’t—”

“I know it’s not ideal,” Mr. Parsons said, a rare moment of interruption to stop Idris getting in a frenzy. “I know it’s not the perfect way to do things. And I know the project still has a lot of work to go.”

“Too right it has a lot of work to go. We’re risking a catastrophe here.”

“And what other suggestions do you have?”

Idris’ mouth hung open. The sheer time that passed told Mr. Parsons he didn’t have an answer.

They only had once choice.

The pair of them walked out of Area 64 and made the long trip underground towards the next labs. The secret labs that required an even deeper level of security. The generators and power here were still running. They always would be.

But even if they weren’t, this place didn’t worry Mr. Parsons quite as much. Because he knew he had the capability to control what was inside it.

Mr. Parsons walked up to the door and went through the deep security measures, which took a whole fifteen minutes to pass. When he’d finished, he looked around and saw Idris standing there in a daze, just staring towards him.

“Are you okay, Idris?”

Idris snapped back into consciousness. He still looked glazed, though. Glazed and panicked. “It’s just… I keep thinking.”

“Thinking about what?”

“I thought it was over. This… this ULTRA business. I mean I knew we had them in captivity but I… I really never thought I’d see this day.”

Mr. Parsons offered a half smile of understanding. Idris was weak. Very weak. If he weren’t in the position of power he was in, working on some of the most secretive medical research programs in world history, he’d not be fit for the new world.

Well, he probably wouldn’t be fit for it anyway.

That much remained unclear.

After Idris had worked his way through security procedures of his own, he joined Mr. Parsons in walking through the door and inside the labs.

They passed scientists working in white coats on their way. Passed enormous screens, the sound of chatter filling the air in a way that completely contrasted Area 64.

He walked right to the back of the room. Leaned over Commander Browne’s shoulder, as the commander sat staring through a thick glass window at something beyond.

“Activate Project Ceta 453,” Mr Parsons said.

Commander Browne, a bulky man with a permanent frown on his face, peered around in amazement. “Are… are you sure?”

Mr. Parsons smiled. “Yes. It’s our only option right now.”

“But—”

“I understand your concerns. But it’s all we’ve got left. So activate it. Please.”

Commander Browne’s reaction echoed that of Idris’ earlier. Open mouthed amazement followed by closed mouth acceptance. After all, he couldn’t reject Mr. Parsons’ request. He was his boss.

Commander Browne shouted commands down his microphone. The room erupted to life with the tapping of keyboards, the rush of adrenaline. All Mr. Parsons could do was look through that window of glass in front of him. That huge window into the future.

“They’re scary bastards, huh?” Commander Browne asked.

Mr. Parsons kept on staring through the glass. Staring at the masses of people strapped to beds. Hundreds of them, all pinned down, all eyes closed.

“And they’re absolutely ready to go?” Idris asked.

“Tests indicate so,” Commander Browne said. “No minds of their own. No focus of their own. Complete blank canvases that can’t be changed. Speaking of which… what’s our target? Because that’s what we have to implant right now, and what we need to get rollin’ for the next batch.”

Mr. Parsons smiled at his army of ULTRAbots. Artificial creations with the abilities of ULTRAs, only completely controllable by humans. Not weapons that could grow to have a mind of their own, but mechanical weapons themselves. The perfect next step. The ideal evolution.

“Our target is the ULTRAs,” Mr. Parsons said. “Every last one of them.”

A pause. Then a few clicks of keys.

“And you’re totally sure you wanna go ahead with this?” Commander Browne asked.

“The consequences of sitting back are far greater than leaving the ULTRAs to roam.”

Commander Browne nodded. He hovered his finger over the return key. “Then we’ll initiate the awakening.”

A huge hiss of steam filled the room behind the glass. It completely covered up that army of ULTRAbots, completely whitened the room. And as Mr. Parsons waited, the entire room watched with quietened anticipation. With adrenaline.

This was the only option.

This was all he could do. All anyone could do.

The room was totally quiet, totally silent, for another few minutes.

And then an ULTRAbot flew at the glass and stared, red-eyed, right through at the labs, before shooting up through the roof, out into its new world.

The ULTRAs’ days were numbered.

Whether they’d escaped Area 64 or were still out there for whatever reason, hiding, their time was coming to an end.

A new era had arrived.

“
I
’ve got the squirts
, sir! Sir, I’ve got the squirts!”

Okay, a quick recap. I might have ULTRA abilities, I might have the girl of my dreams, I might have more confidence and a hell of a happier life now than I did before I’d discovered my powers.

But when you were at school, did that make you immune to being remembered for your past?

No. Did it hell.

I walked past the two freshmen and tried to smile as they did an impression of me. Yes, I might’ve been Glacies. I might’ve saved the planet. But to them, I was just the guy who ran away from the end of semester football game to shit himself.

Even though I technically
didn’t
shit myself. Not literally, anyway. Fake-shit. That’s what my friends called it. In fact, that term had been coined since for people making excuses.
“You’re just fake-shitting!”

I was kinda proud. Kinda.

Just a pity these guys didn’t know me for my real heroics.

“Seriously don’t think anyone’s ever gonna let that fake-shit thing die,” Damon said, as we walked from Art class towards the yard. It was cold and icy out, New York in the grasps of a long winter. There hadn’t been much snow yet, but apparently a big storm was on its way. I was pleased about that. Always loved snow days. We had just over a week to go at school before we finished for the Christmas break, too, so right now was a pretty good time to be alive.

“Sure it won’t be that big a deal in a few months.”

“You said that like a week after it happened. Kids who never even know what happened are comin’ up to you and sayin’ it.”

I looked back. Saw those two freshmen still doing an impression of me, laughing away to each other. “Yeah, well. I guess Mike Beacon’s memory’s living on in a weird kinda way.”

We didn’t speak much about Mike Beacon or the other victims of the end-of-year-party attack. No one did. It was one of those scars was still extra sore. Mike might’ve been a douchebag to me, but he was a hero to the rest of the school. They’d built a memorial garden over by the tennis courts, but students tended to avoid it. It was weird, in a way. Reminded us of our own mortality, which wasn’t something you wanted to be reminded of when you were only seventeen.

Those deaths were a scab that nobody wanted to pick. A reminder of what ULTRAs could do, the chaos they could cause if they really wanted to.

A reminder that a world with ULTRAs would never be safe.

“Still gets to me,” Damon said.

I looked at him. He wasn’t looking directly at me. But he was speaking serious, which wasn’t like Damon at all. “What does?”

“The whole party thing. How it coulda… Man, you’re the luckiest dude in the world that you weren’t in that place when it got attacked. Where I was, in the middle of the floor. It was like hell opened up.”

I was immediately transported back to the moment I’d saved Damon and Ellicia from the smoke and the flames inside that party venue. If only Damon knew what I’d done for him, what I’d seen, all the things I’d seen.

“Anyway. Looks like I’m gonna get stolen off you in three, two…”

I didn’t know what Damon was on about until I saw Ellicia walking towards me. I found that weird. Ellicia and I didn’t hang around much at school, even if we were together. We decided we’d keep within our friendship groups. We’d seen so many friendships split apart by relationships that we didn’t want to risk the same happening to us, not with friendships as strong as we had. Besides, we hung out a lot outside school anyway.

So it was weird seeing her walk towards me on her own.

“Hey,” she said. She didn’t look right in my eyes, but I could tell she was upset about something. “Can we talk?”

She glanced at Damon, and I knew what she was hinting at right away. “Sure. Damon, do you, um…”

Damon raised his hands. “Hey. Whatever you got to say, you can say it in front of…”

Ellicia glared at Damon.

“Okay, okay. I’ll meet you in the yard in five. Be there or be… well, the same shape, but slightly lower in my estimations.”

He punched me on the arm and disappeared around the side of the school.

“You okay?” I asked.

Ellicia nodded. And then she shook her head. I was convinced right then that something had happened with her friends. It wasn’t common, but girls did seem to argue over fickle things a hell of a lot more than boys. “Kyle, I… there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you.”

I felt the dread building up right then. Saw a million scenarios in my mind. She was ill? She’d kissed some other guy? She was, heaven forbid,
breaking up
with me?

But the answer was far worse than I could imagine.

“My parents. They’re moving. We’re all moving.”

I narrowed my eyes. My cheeks heated up. I rubbed the back of my neck. “That’s… Moving where?”

From the upset tone in her voice, I figured she wasn’t just moving down the street.

“Ellicia? Where?”

“Arizona,” she said.

“Ariz…” I nearly collapsed right there on the spot. “But that’s… that’s, like, miles away. Lots of miles.”

Ellicia nodded. “My dad. He got a new job. They didn’t give him long to start so we’re gonna have to get packing soon.”

“Soon? How soon is soon?”

“Three weeks.”

“Three…”

I looked away. I couldn’t speak anymore. Couldn’t say anything. I didn’t want to make a fool of myself. Besides, getting upset only triggered those powers inside me that I knew I didn’t want to emerge right now.

“I like what we’ve got. And I still wanna see you.”

“But you’re gonna be the other side of the country.”

“We can Skype,” Ellicia said.

She smiled, and I wished I could’ve shared her enthusiasm, but I knew what was happening right here. I wasn’t stupid. “You’re breaking up with me.”

“Well, it’ll be hard, but… Kyle, I’m sorry.”

“What about Columbia?”

“Well hopefully I’ll still go there. But that’s still some time away.”

“Time to find someone new to change your plans.”

“What?”

“Nothing. Nothing.”

Ellicia reached her hand out. Touched my arm. Instead of it making me feel warm like it usually did, I felt cold. Cold all over. “I’m sorry, Kyle. I really… I really like you. But it’s just the way things go sometimes.”

I nodded. Kept my focus away from Ellicia. I resisted the tingling sensations in my body which pulled at me to teleport myself away from here. Far, far away.

“We’ve still got three weeks. We should… we should hang out. Until then.”

“What’s the point?”

I didn’t mean to say it with such venom. I felt like an idiot right away. But I saw the bloodshot look in Ellicia’s eyes and I knew the damage had already been done.

“Ellicia, I’m…”

She pulled her hand away and turned around. Started to walk away.

I wanted to fight for her. Hell, I wanted to tell her I could go visit her using my ULTRA abilities whenever I wanted. But that would just bring problems. There were only so many times I could explain to her how I’d afforded the flight, only so many times I could avoid my friends and family figuring out my secret.

My only option would be to watch her while she was alone.

And that wasn’t right. That was just… creepy.

I wanted to fight for the girl I loved.

Instead, I watched her walk away, and I stood alone.

I
didn’t see
them watching from the opposite side of the school.

Watching very closely.