The War of the Supers (The First Superhero Book 3) (23 page)
Read The War of the Supers (The First Superhero Book 3) Online
Authors: Logan Rutherford
“What do you mean?” Selena asked. She took a step back and looked me up and down as I stood in the doorway, my hand wrapped around a door half off its hinges. “Are you okay?” I scanned the faces around me one more time, just to be sure. My suspicions were confirmed.
Samantha wasn’t there.
45
THE AMULET
I walked out of the library, determined to find her. What was left of my team followed close behind, along with Avery.
“Kane, wait!” Avery shouted, then grabbed my shoulder and spun me around. “Stay here with your team. Let us take care of the rest of it.” “No,” I said. “Not if they have Samantha.” I looked past her at Selena and the rest of my group. “Go grab guns off Raven’s men, and let’s go get Raven the hell out of here.”
“Kane, you’re going to get in our way,” Avery said.
I took a step towards her, my frustration growing. “I’m not standing aside and doing nothing. Stop acting so high and mighty. You and your team may train 24/7, but this is our home and we’re going to take it back.”
I turned around, not letting her get in a response. I ran as fast as I could towards the gymnasium, where all the gunfire was coming from, leaving everyone else in my dust.
As I neared the gym, I saw Leopold speaking into a radio atop the Visitors Center, a sniper rifle propped up next to him. I also saw Ellie, Thomas, and Nathan set up in strategic locations around the front of the gymnasium. A fair amount of bodies were at the mouth of the entrance, which had been blown apart by the opening RPG fire from Thomas. Now there was only gunfire coming from Raven’s men here and there, as they had quickly learned their lesson.
I was about to start walking towards Ellie, who’d been set up closest to me, when a black streak came down from the sky and slammed through the gymnasium, interrupting me. The sound of the object crashing through the building was as loud as an explosion. Everybody nearly jumped out of their skin, then turned to the site of the crash.
Seconds later, a figure was ejected through the front wall of the building. It flew right past me before slamming into one of the military Humvees behind me, the whole vehicle bowing under the sudden force.
I took a step towards it before realizing it was the lifeless, bloody body of Raven, the bottle of
asthenés plásma
in his hands, not a single scratch or crack on it.
The same black streak that had crashed through the gym flew past me. It stopped in front of Raven’s body and pulled the
asthenés plásma
from his dead hands. The man let out a satisfied chuckle, his black coat blowing slightly in the wind. He turned, and I was paralyzed with fear.
It was Atlas.
“Oh, I knew you had this, Raven. I told you not to keep secrets,” he said, standing in front of the destroyed vehicle he’d thrown Raven into. Holding
asthenés plásma
in his hands, he examined its glowing white contents.
Any power I had once had was now gone; not even a fraction remained.
Atlas took the crystal cork off the bottle and placed it inside the pocket of his black trench coat. Then he reached up into his shirt and pulled out some sort of amulet. Its had a blue crystalline center surrounded by a silver circle, and was attached to a black strip of leather.
As I made eye contact with the necklace, I felt a buzz rush through me. I looked down at my feet to find that the rocks around them were floating in the air, just like they had before I flew for the first time.
I looked back up at Atlas and watched as he lifted the amulet from his neck and clutched it in his hands. He slowly dropped the amulet down inside the bottle of
asthenés plásma
.
An intense white glow exploded from the bottle, blinding me for a couple of seconds. I felt all my powers return at a level I had never experienced before. It was as if the flash of light was the fuel to the engine that was my powers. But a moment after I felt the surge, it was gone, along with all of my powers.
The light dimmed, and I was able to look at Atlas again. He was holding the
asthenés plásma
in one hand and the necklace in the other. The amulet was now glowing a bright blue, just as our eyes did.
Atlas grinned as he placed the necklace back on and corked the
asthenés plásma
.
His skin began to turn a sickly pale, and it seemed to crack. Atlas gasped for air, stumbling backwards against the Humvee he’d destroyed with Raven’s body. I took a step forward, my fear leaving me. Even though I had no powers, I wasn’t about to let a moment of weakness from Atlas go unexploited.
But then he opened his eyes, and they glowed as bright as ever. His cracked, sickly-looking skin receded, and he once again looked normal.
His gaze met mine and he smiled, finally acknowledging my presence. “You’re falling behind, Kane Andrews,” he said as he floated into the air, laughing.
His ascent wavered for a split second, but he recovered. Our eyes stayed locked for a few moments longer before he turned to the sky. He blasted off, and a sonic boom slammed into me.
The
asthenés plásma
had barely affected his powers.
46
SAMANTHA
Leopold Renner stretched out his hand, and I shook it without hesitation. “Thank you for everything you’ve done,” I said.
“Thank
you
,” he said. “If it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t know about the
asthenés plásma
.”
I nodded. “Except now it’s in the hands of Atlas.”
Leopold waved that off. “Which means he’s even weaker than normal. Besides, now we’ve got a lead to go on.” Leopold paused, then smiled. “It sounds sappy, but you’ve given us hope, Kane. Now we’re getting somewhere.”
I returned the smile, but it was fake. I had never told them about my experience with the
asthenés plásma
—with Athena. I’d never even told them about what had happened with Doug. If I had done so, there was no telling what their superiors would have them do to make sure the
asthenés plásma
belonged to them. “These next couple of months are going to be interesting ones, that’s for sure.”
Leopold chuckled as he turned and walked towards his team. “You’re right about that. If you need anything, you know where to find us.”
“Same goes for you,” I said.
“I’ll be seeing you, Kane Andrews.” Avery locked her arm through Leopold’s, and a few moments later, after having spent a week in Texas helping us get back on our feet, Leopold and his team were gone.
I turned to my own team: Selena, Drew, and Doug, with the big-box store we’d escaped to after Dallas standing tall behind them. Eddie had already run off and found something else to tinker with.
I walked towards them, their warm smiles greeting me. All except for Doug, whose gaze was cold, and his skin still a bit pale, even though it’d been a week since I’d used the
asthenés plásma
on him, bringing him back to life.
“So, what do we do now?” Selena asked.
I stopped and took a deep breath. I reached out and laid a hand on Doug’s shoulder. His eyes met mine, and he did his best to seem happy. “We’re going to find out what happened to your sister.” I gripped his shoulder, doing my best to comfort him, even though I needed comforting as well. “We’re going to find her and bring her home.”
Doug nodded. “I’m sure she couldn’t have run far. She has short legs,” he said, chuckling at his own joke.
“There’s the Doug we know,” Selena said, patting him on the back.
I forced a smile. I wished I could laugh along, but the situation weighed heavily on me. Instead, I walked far enough away from the group that they couldn’t hear me.
“Samantha,” I whispered. “If you can hear me, please say something.”
I stood there for a few moments, but—like every other time the past week—I got nothing in response. Still, I closed my eyes, tensing my body in anticipation. I just knew
this would be the time she answered.
“Hey, Kane,” Drew said from behind me, bringing me back to reality. “We’re going to go out to the woods and see if there’s anything we missed. You coming?”
I sighed. “We’ve searched a million times.”
Drew shrugged. “You never know. We could’ve missed something.”
I looked past him at Doug, who was standing next to Selena. I could tell he was fighting to keep the smile on his face. “Okay,” I said, turning my gaze back to Drew. “Let’s find Samantha.”
47
V.M.I.
Director Loren sat up in her chair as the door to her office opened and Dr. O’Donnell walked in, his red hair a mess. Agent Cassidy jumped up from her seat in the corner of the office and stood at attention.
O’Donnell’s eyes darted around the room. He looked much more tired than usual. “You wanted to see me?” he asked.
“Yes,” Director Loren said smoothly, and gestured at the chairs in front of her. “Have a seat.”
Agent Cassidy sat back down and picked up her pen, ready to start taking notes. Director Loren had had to give her some sort of job in order to keep her around.
“May I ask what this is about? I’d like to get back to my work,” O’Donnell said.
“Are you feeling sick?” Loren asked, leaning forward in her chair. “Your voice sounds a bit off.”
O’Donnell cleared his throat. “I am feeling a bit under the weather, yes. Is that what this is about? My health?”
“I’m always concerned about the health of my colleagues, but, no, that’s not what this is about. How is the V.M.I. coming along?”
O’Donnell hesitated for a moment before responding, his bloodshot eyes darting around the room. “It’s coming along well. We’ve done our first full tests and learned some valuable information from them. I’ll be implementing what I’ve learned and conducting more tests soon.”
Loren wanted to pull more information out of him; he was being a bit too vague for her liking, but she wasn’t sure how much she’d get if he was really feeling sick. “Alright, Doctor. Thank you for the update. That’s all I wanted. Keep me updated. I’d like to stand in at your next test run.”
“Yes, of course,” O’Donnell said, standing from his seat. “Have a nice day.” He shut the door behind him, and Loren turned to Agent Cassidy. “I want you to keep an eye on him.”
“Me?”
Loren nodded. “Yes. I trust you to be discrete.”
Cassidy nodded. She set her pen down and closed her notebook. “Don’t worry. I won’t disappoint you.”
Director Loren smiled. “I’ll hold you to that. You can go.”
Cassidy got up and left the room, a little too eager for Loren’s tastes.
Then Director Loren sat alone in her office for the first time in a while. She leaned back in her chair, wincing as the Eximus device attached to her arm gave her a jolt. She closed her eyes, waiting for the pain to pass.
It did, just like always.
She breathed a sigh of relief. She had a few more precious minutes before her body tried to shift into a hideous monster, like it had once before. Then the Eximus would trigger, jolting her back to her normal human self.
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BOOK FOUR
Book Four of The First Superhero Series releases August 2016.
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ALSO BY LOGAN RUTHERFORD
The Mortis Desolation:
The First Superhero:
The Second Super
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Logan Rutherford is a twenty year old author living in Texas. If you really want to get to know him, contact him at any of the places below. (Warning: His twitter is filled with dumb jokes and retweets of entertainment news and anything good anybody has ever said about him.)
