The First Superhero Books 0-3 Box Set Page 27

  Please hurry, Holocene, I thought. Please.

  Enter the Dome

  “So Atlas and his group are just leaving giant Rs everywhere? That’s it?” I asked Samantha.

  I was sitting in the same chair I’d been sitting in before the whole Rai/Sven situation went down. Except now it was dinner I was picking at, still not hungry at all.

  “Yeah, in all the major cities. Nothing else, though. They aren’t destroying anything, killing anybody, nothing. Super activity has been down today too. I don’t know if that means anything, but if it keeps up, it can’t mean anything good.”

  “Well, the lack of bad Supers going crazy is never that bad of a thing,” I said.

  “To some extent. If it’s been down because all the Supers are joining Atlas and the Legion of Richter, that can’t be good,” Samantha said.

  “But you don’t know that’s what’s happening.”

  “It’s what I’ve been hearing. It makes sense, too. If he has a plan, he wouldn’t want his people out there going crazy and wreaking havoc.”

  I sighed. I wanted to be out there investigating this with Samantha and the rest of the crew so bad. “Can’t you get into Atlas’ head? See what he’s up to?”

  Samantha groaned. “You have no idea how many times I’ve been asked that question. I can only get into the heads of people I know a lot about. I have to be able to picture them in my head, or believe they’re sitting across the table from me.”

  “You got into mine and you didn’t know anything really concrete about me,” I pointed out.

  “You were all over the news. I couldn’t get away from you. I saw what you looked like as Tempest and was able to put together enough pieces. It was still really hard, though. It took me forever. Atlas? No one is really talking about him. The media doesn’t know he exists, neither does the general public, and I don’t even know if the STF does. I can’t picture him in my head. Knowing what a person looks like is more than half the battle.”

  I sighed and fought the urge to lay my head down on the table. I was so tired. Tired of everything, and nothing in particular. This whole ordeal was wearing on me in ways I couldn’t quantify.

  Luckily for me, it was all close to being over.

  I WALKED WITH THE REST of the Supers in a single file line. There were about thirty of us in total, all of us wearing the headgear I wore every time I used my powers. The fact that all of us were wearing one and were marching off somewhere unsettled me greatly. There was no telling what we were marching off to.

  Up ahead, situated in the wall, was an automatic door. As we got closer, the door had slid to the side, inviting us outdoors. We were being marched into a giant domed arena.

  It felt like we were about to play football or something. Like all of us were a team headed down the tunnel, about to walk into an arena filled with cheering fans.

  “Everybody stop here!” the guard at the front said.

  Everybody halted, including all the guards who had come out there with us.

  “Make a single file line in this direction!” he shouted, gesturing left-to-right. Everybody began lining up and I found myself standing next to Hank.

  “Any idea what’s going on?” I asked under my breath.

  Hank shrugged. “Maybe it’s Thanksgiving and we’re about to have the annual football game.”

  “If it’s shirts versus skins, I call shirts,” I said.

  “What kind of family did you grow up with that played shirts versus skins on Thanksgiving?” Hank asked, looking me up and down with a curious look on his face.

  “We’re going to play a bit of a game,” the head guard said. “Practice, if you will. You will go inside the Eximus dome and be given your powers back. You will try to defeat our STF soldiers, who will be hunting you down.”

  Right on cue, the Super Task Force soldiers came around a corner and began marching over toward us. They marched in unison, not a single one of them carrying a gun at his side. They lined up in formation, creating a funnel that led to the entrance of the dome.

  “Enter the dome,” the guard said, and we began marching in.

  Fire rose inside of me, along with hope. I was going to get my powers back. Even though I would be surrounded by the Eximus, I had a fighting chance to escape.

  I looked into the eyes of the soldiers as we walked by. They looked more intense than the regular guards, and they were wearing armor that buzzed with Eximus energy. They were standing at the ready, looking straight ahead.

  Except for one. One of the guards was looking right at me. I looked directly back at him, then I realized why he was watching me.

  I knew him.

  It was Drew. He worked for the STF, and he was about to practice hunting me down.

  The First Battle

  I walked into the Eximus Dome in total shock—pun not intended. Standing out there, about to hunt me and the other Supers, was my best friend Drew. How could he do something like this?

  Then it started to click. He’d told me he had powers. He’d told me he’d been gone for a few months too. He’d been dropping hints, and I never caught on. I suddenly got the feeling that—like me—he hadn’t been volunteering to help rebuild during those lost months.

  “You have five minutes to make preparations,” a voice said over the loudspeaker.

  Fights between the Supers broke out immediately. Rai used his shape shifting powers to turn his arm into a sharp object and thrust it through Sven. I guess he didn’t know that Sven had regenerative powers, because the look of surprise on his face when he pulled his arm out and Sven was still standing was genuine.

  A blast of heat hit my back and I jumped out of the way. I turned and saw Brian had begun to attack me, shooting flames from his hand. I saw a building nearby and jumped six stories on top of it. I looked around the dome, looking for any way to escape. Inside the dome was a fake city, complete with cars, street vendors, and city blocks. Behind me a small portion of the area was set up to be like a forest, while another looked to be an open desert. In all, the dome was the size of two football fields in both length and width.

  I looked down at the brawl taking place below, where Hank was fighting with the girl who had attacked me in the showers a few nights ago, Beatrice. With a name like that, I could understand why she seemed so angry all the time. She had laser vision, but was having a hard time hitting Hank. He kept dodging out of the way just in time and getting a couple more hits on her.

  But then I saw a huge guy named Barry charging at him, and Hank had no idea. Barry had super strength, and if he blindsided Hank, it wouldn’t end well.

  I jumped off the building head first, my hands to my sides. I flew toward the ground like a bullet, but swooped up just in time. I flew over the heads of the fighting Supers, sending those who weren’t on steady footing stumbling backward. I flew past Barry and grabbed Hank, pulling him up in the air.

  Beatrice jumped out of the way just in time to not get run over by Barry.

  I flew to the building I’d been standing on earlier and set Hank down. “You good?” I asked.

  “Y-yeah...I’m good,” Hank said, out of breath.

  “Kane, what’s going on? Are you out?” Samantha asked frantically.

  “No, some sort of exercise. Samantha, did you know anything about Drew working for the STF?” I asked.

  “Who are you talking to?” Hank asked, but I ignored him.

  “Oh my god, I had no idea! You mean he’s known where they’ve been keeping you this entire time?”

  “I think so. I’m about to find out exactly where that’s at once I find him. Make sure Holocene’s ready. I’m getting out of here today.”

  “Good, because I need to tell you something. The Legion of Richter is mobilizing. Atlas and his strongest soldiers are going somewhere to do something, but we don’t know what yet. It can’t be good, though.”

  It looked like I wouldn’t be getting any R&R once I got out. “Okay, I’ll be out of here soon. Don’t worry, everything’s goi
ng to be okay,” I said. I believed it, too. Just knowing that I’d be out soon made me feel invincible. Even though I pretty much was out already, I felt confident. The cards were turning out to be in my favor.

  “Five minutes is up,” a voice said over the loudspeakers.

  I turned to Hank. “You stay here, I’ll be back. We’re getting out of here today, Hank.”

  Hank looked at me with wide eyes and nodded, like I was crazy.

  “Don’t worry,” I said with a smirk. “The voice in my head is a real person, and she’s going to help get us out of here.”

  I turned away, toward the entrance. The doors that led to the holding bay opened and out walked STF Soldiers.

  Then I realized why they didn’t have guns: because all of them were Supers. Every single one of them had purple Eximus electricity jumping and crackling from their arms. I scanned the faces as they marched to the playing field, searching for Drew.

  I found him. Third row, far right.

  It was time to get some answers.

  I flew down and grabbed Drew by the back of his armor, being careful not to touch his skin. I realized that the Eximus energy wasn’t coming from him, though; his powers were off. I flew toward the forest and landed near the back wall of the dome.

  Drew looked around frantically. It happened so fast, he hadn’t even realized what was going on.

  “You have some explaining to do,” I said, not dialing back the anger in my voice.

  “That’s rich, coming from you,” Drew said, taking a step toward me. “I’ll explain everything later, but right now we need to get out of here.”

  “And why should I trust you?” I said.

  In a quick swooping motion, Drew activated his powers, slid behind me, and smashed his finger into the back of my neck. I felt an intense heat and a surge of pain. I jumped forward, ready to fight Drew even though that was the last thing I wanted.

  “I just overloaded your Eximus generator. It’s been destroyed, so they can’t remotely take away your powers,” Drew explained. “Take your headgear off.”

  I pulled the device off my head, threw it to the ground and smashed it with my foot.

  “Do you trust me now?” Drew asked.

  “A bit more than I did five minutes ago. Tell me where we are,” I said.

  “I don’t know the exact location. They brought us here in a blacked-out bus. I do know that it’s somewhere in the Oregon woods, near the coast. Should be easy to spot from the sky.”

  “You get that, Samantha?” I asked.

  “Yep, telling Holocene now,” she responded.

  “Who was that?” Drew asked.

  “Backup. What’s next?” I asked.

  “I’m going to overload this section of the force field like I did your generator. I’ll only be able to take out this small section, though. Go grab your friends and bring them back here. Once we’re out of here, I’ll explain everything,” Drew said, then walked towards the force field wall.

  I hesitated for a second, taking a long look at Drew. He seemed genuine, and he had destroyed the tracker in my neck. Even if this was all just a ruse and he was trying to trick me, I had my powers back and they weren’t going anywhere. I’d have to stay on my toes, but I felt as if I could take care of any situation that might arise.

  I flew toward where the battle was taking place. When I reached the building where I had left Hank I saw that Sven had teleported himself up there. Sven knocked Hank to the ground just as I got close. I sped up and turned in the air, slammed into Sven feet first, and sent him flying off the building.

  “Thanks for that,” Hank said as I helped him up.

  “Looked like you could use some help. Come on, we’re getting out of here,” I told him. Then I grabbed him and flew him back to Drew.

  Drew had both of his hands on the force field, the Eximus flowing through him. He grunted and groaned, concentrating as hard as he could on overloading the force field.

  I turned and flew back toward the fight, searching for Rai. He was fighting one of the STF Soldiers, dodging the punches from their Eximus-infused skin.

  I swooped down and grabbed him, then flew back to Drew and Hank.

  Once I’d set Rai down, Drew let out a shout. I could taste the electricity in the air as a twenty-foot section of the wall sparked. The purple Eximus energy stopped flowing on that section. There were burn marks all over and it looked as if it was in bad shape.

  I walked up to it and touched it, jerking my hand away quickly just in case. Nothing. I touched it again, holding my hand on it for a bit longer. It had worked. Drew had shut it down.

  I turned and looked back at Drew, Rai, and Hank, smiling, then punched the wall as hard as I could. That section of the wall exploded outward, and I took a step outside.

  We were free.

  Escape

  Drew destroyed the generators on Hank and Rai. “We need to get out of here fast. The guards will be on their way any time now,” he said once he was done.

  “Okay, give it a few seconds. Holocene should be here any moment,” I said.

  I looked up to the sky and saw a blur fly by, another right behind it. The blur came back and hovered over the complex. It was Holocene. Next to her was a dark-skinned guy who was carrying a blonde girl on his shoulders. “Down here!” I shouted, waving my arms.

  Holocene and the guy flew down, landing in front of us. Holocene walked toward me and wrapped her arms around me. I hugged her back. It was an incredible feeling, knowing I was actually going to escape. With Holocene and her new friends here, I felt as if we could take on anything.

  “I’m so glad you’re safe,” Holocene said, pulling away. “I’m so sorry it took us so long.”

  “Don’t worry about it. We’re going to have to save introductions for later,” I said, nodding toward the people she’d brought with her.

  “Right. Let’s get you all out of here,” she said, looking at the guys standing behind me.

  Something else caught my eye. All the purple Eximus energy that had been flowing through the dome had stopped. It had turned into a regular metal dome.

  A blur fell from the sky and crashed into the roof of the dome. I could hear it slam into the ground inside.

  “What the hell was that?” Drew said.

  “Oh, no,” Holocene said. She turned and looked up at the sky and the rest of us followed her gaze.

  A group of ten Supers flew in, each of them carrying another on their back, except for the one flying at the front. Some of them flew through the hole their friend had made, while three of them landed around Holocene and the rest of us.

  They were all wearing long black jackets and had what looked like body armor on underneath their shirts, but I couldn’t tell for sure.

  The one in the middle stepped forward, tall and confident. His black hair was slicked back, perfectly shaped. He looked at me with evil, menacing eyes. They were colored purple, a shade I’d never seen in person before. He walked with power, like he knew he could take each and every one of us down in a second. “How nice to meet you, Tempest,” he said in a calm voice, looking right at me. His tone was patronizing, his smile not genuine.

  “What makes you think I’m Tempest?” I said. He had no way of knowing. I wasn’t wearing my costume and this was the first time we’d seen each other—in costume or not.

  “I know a lot of things. If you’ll just give my men and me a moment, we’ll be taking care of this STF scum. Don’t go anywhere, though. We have a lot to discuss,” he said with a smile. He hovered in the air for a moment, as did his henchmen, then they flew into the dome.

  I watched them disappear in disbelief. I wasn’t going to stick around to ask questions. “Let’s get out of here fast, guys,” I said.

  I grabbed Drew and put Rai on my back, while Holocene took Hank. The girl she’d brought climbed onto her other friend’s back.

  One of the buildings in the complex exploded to my right. I jumped into the air and we all flew out of there as fast as we co
uld.

  It was time to figure out exactly what was going on.

  The Name of the Enemy

  Director Loren looked at the wreckage of her STF Complex from her helicopter. It had been a little over eight hours since the Legion of Richter had attacked, and she was just as angry as she’d been when she found out. She had been in Washington D.C., trying to secure more funding for her project. As soon as she found out about the attack, she’d flown back to Oregon as fast as she could.

  Looking upon the wreckage of what she’d worked so hard to build, she felt her anger grow.

  “Land over there,” she said to the pilot, pointing to a clear spot outside her Eximus Dome.

  The helicopter landed and she stepped out, three guards following her. She looked at the sight. All the Supers had escaped and their generators and trackers had been destroyed. She was back at square one. Her complex had been destroyed, her people killed; everything was gone. Even Agent York was dead, the poor bastard. Nobody stood a chance, not even the Eximus soldiers she was so proud of. They were all gone.

  She walked through one of the holes in the front of the dome. The fake city on the inside was rubble. Nothing was left standing. She kept walking toward the wreckage, stepping past the bodies of her soldiers as she did so.

  She stepped onto the city street and took everything in. She still couldn’t believe that all her hard work was gone. Not only that, but she’d never figured out Tempest’s name. Secretly, that frustrated her more than anything. There was so much to learn from him. So much that could’ve stopped this from happening. But he had to be stubborn. He’d refused to tell her his name, and now she had no idea where he was. She had no way to make him pay.