The War of the Supers (The First Superhero Book 3) (3 page)

Nep wasn’t going to let it go that easily, however. “I really think we should go check them out, Kane. We need to cover all our bases. Nobody’s been down there in a while. It’s really irresponsible to not check them out.”

I gritted my teeth. I couldn’t think of a good excuse for Nep. He had a logical point, and any more attempts to negate his idea would raise suspicion from him. I didn’t have any choice but to give in. “Okay, I’ll fly through them and take a look. You do a scan of the perimeter, and I’ll catch up with you.”

Nep shook his head. “We’re not supposed to separate, Kane. You know that.”

“Look, there’s nothing to worry about. It’ll literally take me a couple of seconds to go through and check it out.”

“I’m not going to take a chance, Kane. We go together.”

I grew frustrated and angry with Nep. I was ready to go on the defensive when I heard Samantha’s voice in my head.

“Guys, get to the Klyde Warren Park
now
. We’ve got three Legion Supers attacking.”

CHOKED UP

Nep and I took off and headed for Klyde Warren as fast as we could. It’d been too long since an attack by the Legion, and I’d known one would be coming at any time. I shot through the air, leaving Nep behind. I had to get there before any lives were lost.

I came in on the park fast, and landed hard in the middle. Not too hard, though. The large park actually sat on top of a tunnel. A road ran through it which connected downtown Dallas with uptown. Landing too hard could’ve caved the entire tunnel in on itself.

People scattered around me, scrambling to get away. I traced their trajectory back to three Supers who were standing towards the back of the park, beginning their attack.

“It’s just you and Nep out there, Kane,” Samantha said in my head. “Holocene can’t get here in time.”

Come on, Selena,
I thought to myself.

The Super in the middle and the one on the right were both male, probably a year or two older than I was. The one on the left was a female who looked almost like a clown with how much makeup she was wearing. Her black hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail, and out of her hand shot an off-white spike.

I sprang into action. The spike headed towards an elderly man as he tried to run away. The spike traveled at breakneck speed, but so did I.

I raced over towards the spike as it moved in slow motion towards the back of the man’s head. I had a bit of a late start, so I was only halfway there as it closed in, just inches away from the old man. Fear drenched his frozen face. His eyes were wide, and his wispy eyebrows arched high on his forehead. I ran as fast as I could, and even in slow motion, the spike was traveling fast enough that for a split second, I thought I wouldn’t make it in time.

The spike was closing in fast. It spiraled through the air, homing in on its target. I leapt through the air, diving above the old man, and reached down for the spike. I clasped it in my left hand moments before its sharp point could begin burrowing through the old man’s head.

I turned around in the air on a dime, wrapped my arms around the old man’s torso and picked him up. I flew to the edge of the park, taking him to safety. Screams filled my ears as I slowed to set him down and time resumed around me. When I let go of the old man, he fell to the ground.

“Get up! You gotta go!” I said to him.

He scrambled to his feet and began running toward downtown.

I turned and saw another spike leaving the girl’s left hand, heading towards another would-be victim. I tossed the spike I was holding in my left hand to my right, and as hard as I could, threw it directly towards the new spike. Thanks to my spectacular sight, strength, and precision, there was no need to give the spike any lead time. I threw it so hard it would get from me to the other side of the park in less than a second.

I took off running alongside the spike towards the three attacking Supers.

The one in the middle had water coming up from the ground around him, at the beginning stages of coming together to form a wave or something. What, exactly, I wasn’t sure, but I knew it wouldn’t be good. The guy on the right-hand side only had his eyes open in a tiny slit. I could see a bit of white, but nothing else. His hands were stretched out before him, and the air around his hands was pulsating.

I found out real fast what that pulsating meant.

I made my way towards him, and as I got close, a pain exploded in my brain. It was so sudden and intense, I couldn’t maintain my running speed. I came to a sudden halt and fell to the ground hard. I skidded across the grass, sending dirt flying everywhere as my tumbling body made a trench in the earth.

A high-pitched screeching sound filled my ears. I could feel the sound throughout my entire body, and it practically made my bones vibrate. Just a few feet away, the guy on the right had his arms stretched right towards me. The air between us pulsated as he launched sound waves at me. The sound was bad enough for a normal person, but thanks to my superhearing, the pain and intensity of the sound waves was made that much worse.

I slammed my hands against my ears, trying to block it out. It didn’t work. My hands felt wet, and I knew it was blood. He was hitting me at a frequency that tore apart my eardrums as soon as my body repaired them.

I closed my eyes and concentrated. I had to stop this.

I imagined a bubble of sound around me, and pictured the bubble getting smaller and smaller. The sounds from the hands of the Super grew quieter and quieter as I turned my superhearing down.

Still, even at a normal human level of sensitivity, the sound was painful. But unfortunately for the Super, not painful enough.

I came up from the ground into a crouch with my feet planted behind me and my hands on the ground in front of me, and launched myself towards the sound Super. I yelled in pain from the sound waves blasting my body as I flew towards the Super with outstretched arms. His eyes were still closed, and his hands were still out in front him. He had no idea that a freight train of a Super was about to slam into him.

I slowed down a bit right before I hit him, afraid that slamming into him too hard would kill him. Still, I hit him enough force that it was lights out on impact. His body went limp as he slid backwards across the ground before coming to a stop a few feet away from where he had originally stood.

I turned and saw the guy in the middle launch a tidal wave towards a group of fleeing civilians. The wave was ten feet tall and at least twice that wide. I flew towards the wave and slammed into its backside. I came out the other end soaking wet, and flew down to grab the person closest to me. It was a girl in a yellow sundress, her knees scraped from falling down as she tried to run away. I brought her to safety and then flew back to grab the next person.

I cleared all the civilians from the path of the tidal wave in just a few seconds. Once that was done, I flew up above the wave and hovered there. The wave slammed across the ground with incredible force. It pushed cars parked on the street onto their sides, and slammed up against the buildings on the other side of the street. Then the water dispersed and went on flowing down the street.

I turned, ready to continue my attack. “Where the hell is Nep?” I said to myself.

That was when I saw him. He was lying on the ground, grasping his chest. Blood poured from his hands, and the spike girl was lined up to launch a killing spike into him.

The spike left her hand and flew towards him. It was only a foot away as I flew towards him with all my might. A sonic boom exploded behind me as I raced to get to Nep before the spike could. I stretched my arm out beneath me, ready to catch the spike in my hand. I didn’t have time to be careful about how I caught the projectile, and I reached Nep with just an inch to spare. The tip of the spike hit my hand and began to drill its way through my flesh and bone.

Being just inches above the ground, I landed and rolled forward, pulling the spike from my hand mid-summersault. As soon as I was upright, I threw the spike back at the Super who had shot them, sending it straight through her shoulder. Then I ran around to the other side of her and dove through the air for the spike. I grasped it in my hand, twisted my body in the air, and threw the spike back at her other shoulder.

The spike ripped through her shoulder as I fell backwards to the ground. I skidded across the grass, digging yet another trench. I watched as the Super fell to the ground, screaming in pain. She wouldn’t be able to shoot any more spikes if she couldn’t lift her arms.

Just one Super left.

The water Super turned to me, his eyes filling with anger and rage. He yelled as he thrust his arms towards me, water shooting from them as if they were two fire hoses.

I jumped over the two high-velocity streams of water, landed on the ground to the right of them, and began running towards the Super, ready to take him out and end this fight.

He was able to pivot in time, though, and faster than I could dodge. He somehow was able to redirect the water towards me. Just a few feet away from him, the water slammed into me, sending me stumbling backwards. I almost fell to the ground, but I dug my feet into the dirt. I brought my hands up in front of my face, blocking the water, and it hit my arms and split around me.

The water slammed into me with more and more force by the second. I felt the ground begin to give way beneath me, but I gritted my teeth and dug my feet down even deeper. The water hit me harder and harder, and began to push me back little by little.

I pushed forward, careful not to lose my balance. I took a small step forward, then another. The water slammed into me at an even greater force, but I blocked it from my face and pushed forward. I took another step, and that was when I messed up. The Super dialed back the force of the water by a little bit for a split second, and suddenly I was pushing forward
too
hard. I stumbled forward, almost falling over myself. In my moment of weakness, he dialed the water pressure up to eleven, and I was nowhere near ready.

The water slammed into me, sending me flying backwards. I slammed to the ground, and the Super began stepping forward. The water pushed me into the ground, then the Super made a motion with his hands, and the liquid directed its energy towards my mouth. It was no longer blasting my body down, but now a steady stream of water rushed down my throat, and before I knew what was happening, I was drowning.

I felt my body weaken as the water filled my lungs. My body needed oxygen for my powers to work; that was our theory, at least. And since I was unable to breathe, my powers began to leave me.

Panic and fear flashed through me. I was drowning. Could I actually die? Could this be the end? I had spent six months on the moon without dying, but I’d still probably be up there if the government hadn’t brought me back so that I could breathe again.

I didn’t know what could happen, but I knew it wasn’t good and that I had to do something about this.

I gritted my teeth and sealed my lips. The water still pushed its way through them, but I had enough power and determination to push myself up from the ground.

The Super’s eyes grew wide, and he dialed up the pressure. I flung my hand out in front of me, blocking the water. I held my breath and, fighting the urge to vomit up all the water, I leapt forward, closing the few feet of ground between us. My leap was weak and pitiful, thanks to my using only what amounted to my emergency reserves of power, but it got the job done. Before he could do anything, I was on him, my hands wrapped around his throat. I began choking the air from him just as he’d done to me. He stopped blasting me with water and brought his hands up to mine, trying to peel my fingers off his throat. I still held my breath and fought the urge to vomit, determined not to stop until this Super was taken care of.

I grew lightheaded, and my lungs screamed for release from the liquid that filled them, begging for it to be replaced by air.

An explosion rocked the ground, and then the earth fell out from beneath me completely. I was suddenly falling through the air, headed straight for the ground. I had no idea what was happening, but a few moments later I hit the ground, rock and rubble falling all around me.

Water exploded from my lungs as the entire Klyde Warren Park fell around me from the collapse of the tunnel beneath it. I thought I was never going to stop throwing up water. I coughed and gasped for air as the liquid expelled itself from my body. Rocks came falling down around me, but as my powers gradually came back, they either bounced off or broke on me.

After two solid minutes of throwing up and getting my air back, I was finally finished. I stood up, looking at what was left of the park. It was pile of rubble and debris now. The tunnel that it had sat on top of had been imploded, bringing the park down with it. Just as I wondered how that could’ve happened, I got my answer.

I watched as a fourth Super flew down to pick up the water Super from the rubble. There was a fifth one hovering above the debris, the spike girl on his back, and the sound Super in his arms.

Almost as soon as I had spotted them, they were flying away. I wanted to give chase, but I was still recovering, my body consuming oxygen as fast as it could. My powers weren’t at one hundred percent, so I just stood there in the midst of the debris, watching as the five Supers flew away into the distance.

DISTRACTION

I walked into the meeting room, frustrated. We’d spent an hour digging through rubble looking for anybody who might’ve been trapped. We’d found two bodies, but the spikes embedded in their flesh had told us that it wasn’t the explosion that had done the job.

I crossed the room and sat down in one of the large chairs. I slumped down in it, waiting for everybody else to enter the room and join me. Samantha had told them to meet here in fifteen minutes, so I wasn’t expecting to wait long.

I was thankful for the couple of minutes of alone time, though. My eyes wandered to the floor-to-ceiling windows on my left. The view of the city from four stories up was nice, although it was nowhere near as good as the one from the top of that building downtown.