The War of the Supers (The First Superhero Book 3) Read online

  THE WAR OF THE SUPERS

  THE FIRST SUPERHERO, BOOK THREE

  LOGAN RUTHERFORD

  Contents

  Copyright

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  The War of the Supers

  The Long Day

  1. Freefall

  2. Choked Up

  3. Distraction

  4. A New Assignment

  5. A Few Questions

  6. Twisted Words

  7. Street Fight

  8. Table Talk

  9. Prisoner of War

  10. Attack on Dallas

  11. Headcount

  12. The Human Elevator

  13. Tea Time

  The World of the Supers

  14. Making Luck

  15. A Familiar Voice

  16. Pub Stomping

  17. Half-Truths

  18. A New Plan

  19. Goodbye for Now

  20. Johannesburg

  21. A Rushed Plan

  22. Window Breaker

  23. Into the Darkness

  24. Asthenés

  25. Backseat Driver

  26. Distraction

  27. Plásma

  28. Rendezvous

  29. Burying the Lead

  30. Storm the Tower

  31. The 55th Floor

  32. High Dive

  33. Homeward Bound

  Asthenés Plásma

  34. The Board

  35. Seven Days

  36. Shots in the Dark

  37. Always a Super

  38. Breakthrough

  39. Athena

  40. The Only Way Out

  41. The Messenger

  42. Return

  43. Struggle

  44. The Library

  45. The Amulet

  46. Samantha

  47. V.M.I.

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  Book Four

  Also by Logan Rutherford

  About the Author

  The War of the Supers © 2016 by Logan Rutherford

  All rights reserved.

  This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, businesses, events, or locales is purely coincidental.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Cover Art by Damonza (www.damonza.com)

  Copyedited and Proofread by Carol Davis (www.caroldavisauthor.com)

  Fragments & Fictions

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  I

  THE LONG DAY

  1

  FREEFALL

  I flew in silence. Nep soared alongside me to my right, scanning the ground like a hawk searching for its prey. I scanned as well, but my mind was elsewhere. I had been constantly thinking, worrying, and analyzing everything for a month straight. I could almost never get my mind to shut up.

  We reached the edge of our patrol and banked right. Not the edge of Dallas, or the metroplex even, just a small circle made up of downtown and a little bit of the outer areas. Not a lot of space at all.

  The city was pretty much deserted. A few hundred people were staying at our camp downtown, while the rest had scattered. Most people lived in shelters or stayed with friends or family, just as they had over six months ago, when Richter had first appeared and gone on his rampage. A lot of people hadn’t come back to the city after that, and surely now, after Atlas and his Legion of Richter, they’d never want to come back.

  We flew closer to the battleground, where my friends and I had taken on the Legion and won. That battle had two losers: one was the Legion, the other was Dallas. Looking down on the wreckage still struck me with guilt, even a month later. I could remember it all vividly, and suspected I’d be able to do so for the rest of my life. Then I looked into the distance and could see the smashed remains of the top of Reunion Tower—an icon in the Dallas skyline, and I would suspect in the future, an icon of history.

  That was, if there was even a future for its history to be a part of.

  “See anything?” Nep asked.

  “No, I’ve got nothing.” I had to yell to be heard over the wind. Nep might have had super strength and flight, but that was the extent of his powers. He didn’t have my super-hearing.

  “Wanna take a break to eat?” he asked as he began to slow down.

  “Sure, might as well,” I told him as I slowed to a stop. I pointed towards the top of the tallest skyscraper in Dallas. “Let’s sit up there.”

  Nep and I flew to the top of the building and sat on the edge, our feet dangling hundreds of feet above the cement. Nep dug through his backpack, searching for our lunch.

  The cold wind bit at my skin, and I gritted my teeth. I shivered slightly under my red flannel shirt and light jacket. Clouds covered the sun, offering us no relief. Still, it wasn’t the coldest I’d ever experienced, and it’d have to be much colder before I’d give up the view for some warmth.

  I scanned the horizon, the clear view of the city doing its best to take my breath away. With no cars running, all the factories shut down, and no airplanes flying in and out, no pollution clouded my view. After a few hard rains a couple weeks before, the pollution had been washed out of the sky.

  It was somewhat ironic, really. The lack of pollution made me feel sad whenever I really thought about it. There was nobody around. Nobody left in the city. Nobody to pollute it. Dallas turned into a ghost town, its former residents fleeing the city in fear as they hid from Atlas.

  Still, despite the reason for it, it sure was a damn nice view.

  “Killer view, huh?” Nep asked as he took a bite from his sandwich.

  I gave him a fake smile and nodded. “That’s for sure.”

  Talking was the last thing I felt like doing, but I knew that wasn’t going to stop Nep. I’d spent a bit of time with him over the past couple of weeks, but not much. Holocene had brought him onto the team during my time as a captive of the Super Task Force. He seemed like a really great guy and a huge asset to the team. I guess everybody’s an asset when your team is so small, though. Still, I didn’t feel like talking.

  “What’s the plan when we’re done here?” Nep asked.

  I took a bite from my sandwich, chewing slowly to give myself more time to not answer. “We’ll do one more circle before heading back to base.”

  Nep sighed and grumbled. I could tell he felt frustrated by something, and despite my longing for silence, I knew it’d bug me until I found out what. “You had something else in mind?”

  He waited a moment before responding. “I’m tired of doing patrols and sitting around waiting for the Legion to come to us. How are we supposed to defeat Atlas when we’re just sitting around doing nothing?”

  I shook my head and chuckled. “And how are we supposed to defeat Atlas whenever we’re just a dozen or so Supers, and he has an army?”

  “I know, I know. You say that all the time. I’m just tired of waiting, you know? I feel like we’re not making any progress. We’re just picking away at their installations here and there. Nothing substantial.”

  “I get that,” I said as I took another bite of my sandwich. I swung my feet back and forth over the edge of the skyscraper as I thought. “Don’t worry—it won’t be long until they mess up. As soon as we can find their
Achilles’ heel, we’ll be on top of them.”

  “Is this really something we’ll be able to do on our own?” Nep asked as he fidgeted on the ledge.

  I sighed. “Let’s do another patrol.”

  Nep nodded. “Alright, sounds good.”

  I handed him my trash and he stuck it in his backpack. I set my hands down on either side of me, and pushed myself off the side of the building.

  The wind roared in my ears as I went feet-first in total free fall. The ground rushed towards me as my stomach twisted and my heart leapt to my throat. I didn’t move. Didn’t fly. I just fell with my arms at my sides and a smile creeping across my face.

  Just a few feet from the ground, I willed myself to slow. I came to a graceful stop as I placed my feet on the ground and breathed a sigh. My body rushed with adrenaline. That feeling never got old. A small part of me still couldn’t believe I had the ability to do such things.

  “You’re insane,” Nep said with a smile as he landed next to me a few moments later. He’d decided to simply fly down, opting out of the Kane Andrews Free Fall method.

  “Well, it’s not like it’s gonna kill me,” I said.

  “It certainly doesn’t look that way,” he said as he adjusted one of the straps on his backpack.

  “Well, this one time I threw a guy into the sun and that didn’t kill me, so I doubt slamming into the concrete’ll do it,” I said nonchalantly, as if throwing supervillains into the sun was a normal thing for one to do.

  Nep looked at me, his mouth slightly open. “I guess that’s one way to look at things.”

  “You ready to go?” I asked. I felt my sour mood dissipating after eating and jumping off a building.

  “Yeah, I’m good. What do you think about checking out the tunnels? Nobody’s gone down there in a while. Some people could’ve wandered down there, or maybe there’s some Legion spies in them or something.”

  My chipper mood left.

  “What? Come on—there’s nothing in the tunnels. We need to do a sweep of the perimeter, and then we can go home,” I said. I turned around, about to take off, ending the conversation.

  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.”

  2

  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 ou
tstretched 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.