No ordinary hero (Keepers of justice # 1) (15 page)

“We have to do something,” X says. “Sitting here isn’t an option.”

“Like what?” Stretch asks, twisting his fingers.

“In case you haven’t noticed,” I say. “We’re locked up. We don’t even know where the hell we are. They probably moved us.”

X grunts. “I’m not going to just sit here.” He points somewhere. I can’t see because the door is blocking. “There’s an escape route.”

Stretch’s eyes widen. “Let’s do it.” He jumps to his feet.

“Hold on.” I grab the hem of his shirt, pulling him back down. “We can’t go anywhere. Vlayne is a telepath. She’ll sense our every move.”

X shakes his head. “No, we still have Scar’s protection.”

“Scar betrayed us, man. No one is protecting us.”

X lips form a straight line. He shakes his head again. “Scar didn’t betray us.”

“He sent us into a trap!”

He’s quiet. I get up and start pacing around. “Maybe we should do as they ask.”

“And get your dad killed?” X says. “No. I trust Scar. You don’t know him as well as I do. He keeps his word. We still have his protection. Vlayne won’t be able to sense what we’re up to. Trust me.”

I look at Stretch. He looks at me. X is my best friend, and I have to believe in him. He’s right— with Scar’s block, Vlayne might as well be blind. “Okay,” I say. “
What’s the plan?”

X
gets down to his knees and presses his right eye against the wall. “There’s a small hole. I can see the other side.” He gets to his feet and squints his eyes at the door. “That guard looks like a moron, busy reading a magazine. It’d be easy enough to take him down,” X continues. He nods to Stretch. “You go through this hole, quickly beat the living hell out of that dumbass before he alerts the others, grab his keycard, and free us. We make a run for it.”

“Dude,” I say. “You can’t be serious. First of all,
that hole is too small for Stretch to fit through. Second, that guard is a Blade! You make it sound like it’s no biggie.”

“If we do it right, it’s that simple.” X has his eyes on the
door. “Stretch’s karate and self-defense has improved greatly. He can easily take the guard down. He’ll come from behind, and the guard won’t know what hit him.” How can he be so calm?

“No,” I say. “Hell no.” I turn to Stretch. “It’s too dangerous.”

“Man, Kale,” X mutters.

“It’s too dangerous!”

“I want to do it, Kale,” Stretch says, peering out the small window. “I can do it fast. Slide in through the hole, knock him down, get the card, free you guys, and we run. I’ll be so discreet, he won’t see me until it’s too late. And by the time the Blades realize we’ve escaped, we’ll already be gone. Then we’ll tell your dad everything.”

He makes it sound so simple, too. Is it so simple?

“We don’t know where we are,” I say. “How’ll we find our way home if the Blades moved us?”

“We’ll figure it out,” X answers. “We’re not staying here. We need to get to your dad before Vlayne contacts him.”

Both of their eyes shine with hope and determination. I puff out some air. What should I say? “I want to do it, Kale,” Stretch says, almost pleading. “I’m the only one who can save your dad, the League, and us all. It’s my turn to be a hero.”

I’m about to answer that, tell him he’s being ridiculous, but he continues, “X found the spy infiltrating the League, you’re saving the world. And what about me? I can finally save us and do something brave and honorable. Please, Kale. I can do it.”

What can I say? It’s not like I can stop him. Maybe he’s right. Maybe I’m over thinking this. “Fine. Do it fast.”

“I’ll keep watch,” X says. “Go on, man. You can do this.”

“Right...I can do this.”

He sounds so scared. “Remember,” X continues, “it’s your turn.”

“Don’t push him,” I say. “There has to be another way.”

“Stretch is ready to do this. I’m not pushing him.”

Stretch takes off his sneakers and stretches the top of his body as thin as thread and slithers into the hole. Then he pulls the rest of himself through. I’ve never seen him get that thin, and it’s kinda freaky and disgusting. But it’s working. He’s out of the cell, back in his usual body, and slowly, quietly makes his way to the guard. He fists his hand and rams it into the back of his head. Crap, that must have hurt. But Stretch must be holding in the pain because he uses his arms and legs to beat the guard up.

The guard, who’s like a pissed
-off lion, growls and fights back. But X is right—Stretch’s self-defense has improved since the last time I saw him fight, especially because he’s using his powers to evade the guard’s fists by bending and twisting his body in all different directions. Stretch knocks him down like he’s some weak, helpless wolf who picked a fight with the alpha. He stretches his arms and covers the guard’s mouth and nose, suffocating him. The guard falls to the floor. I’m not sure if he’s dead.

“Good job!” X says. “Get the keycard, Stretch. Quick.”

Stretch digs into the guard’s waist and pulls the keycard off. Smiling the widest smile I’ve ever seen, he holds it up to us. Awesome! He did it. He’ll get us out, then we’ll find our way back to the Tower, warn Dad, save his life. Save us all, just like Stretch said.

Simple.

“No,” X gasps.

“Big mistake, Andrew Mason,” Lightning’s voice says as he moves closer to Stretch and the unconscious guard. He clicks his tongue. “Such a bad little boy. A shame it has to end like this.” Stretch’s eyes widen with fear and his body trembles. Lightning’s in front of him, his lip curling up. Raising his hands, Lightning shoots electric bolts at Stretch. Stretch recoils against the wall. His body convulses. The keycard drops to the floor.

Lightning keeps going at it. Burning him.

I bang my fists against the window and kick the door with my feet. “Stop, stop! Don’t hurt him!”

X bangs the door, too. “Get off him!” He’s trying to break the door down with his hands and feet. His knuckles bleed. “Get the hell off him!”

Lightning stops, finally. Stretch’s body falls limply to the floor, stretched as thin as pasta. His skin looks like barbeque chicken. The room smells like burned flesh.

Is he...?

No. No!

X pounds his bloody fist on the door. He curses.

My throat constricts as I stare at Stretch’s body.
Tears fill my eyes. No...he can’t be...this wasn’t supposed to happen.

Lightning has a smile on his face. Bastard. He just
murdered
Stretch, and he’s
smiling
?

“Release my son.” Dad’s voice echoes down the hall.

He steps into the room, dressed in his uniform, his face uncovered. Lightning moves to hold up his hand, probably to fry him, but Dad’s quicker and raises both his hands. Lightning just stands there like he’s frozen in place. “Samson, what a lovely surprise,” he says.

Dad, keeping his hands raised, says, “A surprise indeed. My son and his friends were telling me the truth. I was a fool to trust you.” Dad’s eyes flick to Stretch’s body. They fill with grief, but I can tell he’s trying to cover that up with anger.

Lightning snickers. “Perhaps you should have believed the boys, Samson. Now that you’re here, let’s negotiate your son’s release, shall we?”

Dad
surveys the room. His face hardens. “There’s nothing to negotiate. Release Ray and my son.”

Wait a minute. Something’s weird here. “Where’re all the Blades?” I whisper to X.

His eyes rove around. “They’re upstairs. Battling with the Elites. I don’t see Vlayne anywhere.”

The guard opens his eyes and sits up, rubbing his head.
He growls at Dad and pounces toward him, but Dad stops him midair, sweeps his hand like knocking a pesky fly away. The guard crashes to the floor, neck twisted.

Lightning pants. Sweat gathers on his forehead. Like he’s scared? “Let’s negotiate calmly.”

“You crossed the line, Marvin,” Dad says, his gaze back on Stretch. “There is nothing to negotiate.”

“The boy was in the way,” Lightning says, voice rising a little.

It looks like Dad’s blood boils. His face gets deep red.

“A trade,” Lightning quickly says, glancing toward the doorway like he’s expecting Vlayne and the others to come in and help. “Your life in exchange for your son’s. No one else gets hurt.”

We were so stupid. All we had to do was wait for Dad to come. Five frickin’ minutes. Stretch would still be alive. Why did we let him risk his life?

Lightning shoots electricity at Dad. He’s going to kill him like he killed my best friend. “No!” I yell, bashing my fists on the door. But the lightning doesn’t hit dad. Doesn’t come close. Instead, Dad holds up his hands, deflecting the electricity back at Lightning, who ducks out of its path. Lightning shoots more at Dad, only to have them hit the walls instead.

Lightning roars and hurls car-sized bolts at Dad. Dad, looking calm and cool, shuts his eyes and uses all of his energy to push his hands forward, shoving the bolts away. They head toward Lightning at such a fast speed, and this time he doesn’t move away. Did Dad freeze him? The electricity slams into Lightning and he collapses on the floor, burned to a crisp.

Dad uses his powers to tear open the cellar door, and X and I rush out. We run to Stretch and fall on our knees. He’s charred. There’s not one ounce of white skin left. His brown hair stands up. It’s the only thing that’s still the same about him.

Everything gets blurred. I can’t see a thing. Does X touch him? Is he crying over him, too?

Hands rub my shoulders. “Kale,” Dad says. “You have to go now.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

“Kale,” another voice says. It sounds like Premo
nition. I wipe my eyes with my shirtsleeve. He’s alive? What’s he doing here? “You must go to Lindsay.”

Lindsay? Go to Lindsay? What?

“She’s going to go off in less than an hour,” Premonition says. “I had a vision two days ago, but Vlayne had me locked in the dungeon downstairs.”

“
Snake contacted me as soon as Lindsay ran away from home. League members are keeping an eye on her, but there isn’t much they can do. Lindsay needs you.”

What’s he talking about?

Dad squeezes my shoulders. “I know you don’t want to hear this right now, but you are the only one who can stop Lindsay.”

“No!” I say. “Stretch just
died
! I can’t leave.” Tears burst out of my eyes and down my cheeks. I don’t wipe them as I grab Stretch’s hand.

“Listen to me, Kale,” Dad says, pulling Stretch’s hand out of mine. “I understand that stopping Lindsay is the last thing you want to do, but you have to remember your mission, your role, what’s expected of you. Stretch died, yes, but if you don’t save Lindsay right now, then his death will be in vain.”

“He was stupid,” I yell. “We were all so stupid!”

Dad buries my head in his chest. “If circumstances weren’t so, I wouldn’t ask you to push aside his death.” He raises my head to him. “Focus on saving Lindsay right now. After that’s done, you can mourn Stretch’s death.”

“What? No!”

“Regina.” He points to the Elite teleporter. “Is going to bring you to the correct location. Glen believes you have forty minutes to stop Lindsay.”

I don’t say anything. Just sniff and wipe my eyes. I want to be with Stretch.

But I can’t
lose Lindsay, or fail the world. Stretch would have wanted me to complete my mission. Dad gives my shoulder another squeeze. “Go on, son. I know you can do it.”

Regina grabs
my arm and we poof out of here.

I’m on the roof of some building. Regina dropped me off here and poofed out, but I’m not alone.
Some of the undercover League members hide in the shadows.

Tears are still leaking out of my eyes. Maybe it’s from the wind. Yeah, it’s from the wind. No, that’s a lie. It’s not from the damn wind.

I hear a whimper a few feet away. Straining my eyes, I see someone bent over on her knees, face buried in her hands. Lindsay?

“Lindsay!”

I rush over and fall to the floor near her. It’s dark out, but there are lights on all over the neighborhood and street lamps, so I can see her face clearly when she lifts it. Pale like the first drops of snow, lower lip trembling like she was dumped in ice-cold water. And her eyes are big and haunted. And all wet.

“Billy?” she asks, dazed.

“Yeah, it’s me. What’s going on?”

She shoves at my shoulder.

“Hey! What—”

She shoves at me again, stronger. I roll over and fall onto my back. She gets up and steps over me, her eyes possessed. “WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?”

I hold out my hand. “I know that—”

“I’ve been calling you for hours. For
hours
. Why couldn’t you answer your freakin’ phone? You said you’d be there for me. You said you’ll
always
be there for me. You jerk!”

I scramble to my feet and take a hesitant step closer to her. She doesn’t move back like I thought she would. She stands still like a statue.

“Lindsay. Lindsay.” I take some more steps closer. “I’m here now. Everything is going to be okay. Tell me what’s gotten you so upset. Come on, talk to me.”

Finally, when I’m only a few feet away from her, she moves. Glares at me with such deep eyes. Are they red? It looks like her irises are turning red. Or is that a reflection from the light?

“My uncle came home drunk tonight,” she says, her voice emotionless. “It was different this time. I knew that as soon as he walked in. Aunt Dana was in the middle of making supper. Beef stroganoff, one of Uncle Aaron’s favorite dishes. She said she needed to feed him well.” She wipes her eyes.

“She said something to piss him off,” Lindsay continues, her eyes staring straight at me, unblinking. Her tone is still emotionless. Then she laughs bitterly. “I’m not even sure what it was. Something stupid, probably. He took the spatula. He smacked her in the face.”

“God, Linds—”

“He kept going at her!” Lindsay yells. “Over and over and over again. Aunt Dana begged him to stop. She put up her hands over her face as a shield, but he just continued hitting, breaking her fingers, making them bleed. I watched her blood drip onto the kitchen floor.”

She’s in my arms now. Her whole body trembles. I’ve never seen or felt anyone tremble like this. It’s like she’s a shaken can of soda. Ready to explode.

“Lindsay, listen to me—”

“I reached for the phone to call 911,” she continues. “But he saw me. He went after me. He chased me all the way to my room. I had no phone in my room. My cell phone was in the kitchen. He said he was going to kill me, too. That all I brought him were bills. Another mouth to feed. More bills. I was a curse the second I was born. He said he needed to finally end it.”

I rest my mouth on her temple, murmuring some comforting words. But she continues talking.

“He broke the doorknob. He lunged at me. I ran out to the kitchen and grabbed my phone, started dialing 911. Then he was on me. He knocked me to the ground and raised the spatula, ready to hit me. I reached for whatever I could find, and my hand closed around the knife Aunt Dana was using for the stroganoff. It had fallen to the floor when he hit her. I grabbed it and stabbed him. I rammed it in his chest.” Her body continues to quiver. “It wasn’t enough. I stabbed him again. And again. And again. Until I knew he was dead. I took my phone and ran out. You never picked up. I was so scared and alone. Why didn’t you answer?”

“I’m sorry, Lindsay. I was...” Crap, Stretch. I forgot about him
for a sec. But I can’t think about him right now. He’s...dead and he’s not coming back. I have to push that all aside and focus on Lindsay now. “You should have called the cops, Linds.”

“I
killed
him. I don’t want to go to jail.”

“You won’t go to jail. It was self-defense.”

“He...” She hiccups. “He wanted to kill me. He killed Aunt Dana.”

“Linds—”

“He killed her and he was going to kill me! You didn’t answer your phone. You weren’t there for me. I want to jump off this building.”

“No, Linds—”

Her body quakes. Eyes turn bright red. Then her face gets red, too. Fire is brewing in her eyes, on her face, even on her hands.

Lindsay stares at them. “What...
what’s going on?”

I take her hands. They’re really warm, like water starting to boil. Will they feel as hot as an iron soon? I draw her closer to me and
gaze into her eyes. “Lindsay, you have to listen to me.” Her eyes get wide with fear, the flames growing bigger and bigger. “You need to calm down. You need to trust me. Take a deep breath and clear your mind, forget about what happened at home. Focus on me now.”

Her face engulfs in flames, but it’s not like a fire. It’s more pinkish and it doesn’t
seem to be hurting her. It’s coming from
inside
her. I see some of the League members shifting in the shadows. Ready to step in in case I fail. I won’t.

“Billy...I feel...
I don’t feel good. I’m getting dizzy, and I can’t feel my hands or feet.”

“Lindsay, look at me. Look into my eyes. You’re upset. But you need to focus on the positive now. Think about me and how you feel about me. How I feel about you. Clear out everything else in your mind and think how happy you are when you’re with me.”

Her eyes scan around, getting wider and wider with fear. “He almost killed me. I killed him. I’m a murderer! I can’t forget.”

The fire
slams into my face. It’s not sizzling as I expected it to be, but it still is pretty hot. And her hands are getting hotter by the minute. I feel the flames all over my body, but they don’t burn me.

Trying not to freak out that
Lindsay is going to explode any minute, taking the entire planet with her
, I whisper, “Lindsay,” and rest my forehead against hers. She’s getting really hot now. “I always think back to how I chased you around when we first met. You were so stubborn, but I wanted to get to know you and I didn’t want to give up. We had so much fun together, watching that movie, skipping school to hang out in the park, laughing at my lame jokes. It wasn’t until I saw all those guys flirting with you that I knew how I really felt about you. From that day on, all I thought about was being your boyfriend. When we shared our first kiss, it was like magic. The most awesome feeling ever. I want to feel that every minute of every day. Because you are the most amazing girl I ever met, and I love you so much.”

She closes her eyes, takes a deep breath. I see her eyelids fluttering and her li
ps pressing down together. “You...you mean that?”

I stroke her hair. “Yeah, I do. You need to relax now. Take control.”

She closes her eyes again. “I...can’t,” she rasps.

“You can. You have it in you to fight all the crap you’re feeling. Replace them with all the good stuff. Happiness. Kindness. Hope. Love. Think about me
. Think about us.”

She shuts her eyes. Presses down harder on her lips. I can see her trying to fight it, but the fire is still growing hotter and hotter.

Suddenly, fire blasts out of her full speed, and I’m thrown back, knocking my head on the ground. My head pounds as I lift it, and I see Tranquility and Container heading toward her, but she blasts them away like she did to me. Man, the fire is really strong now, shooting out of her. This is it. Lindsay is going to explode, die, taking the world with her.

“Billy,” I hear her say. She’s on her knees, and it looks like she’s in a lot of pain. She raises her hand toward me.

“Lindsay.” And I raise my hand toward her. “I love you. Please...relax. You can...you can do it...please...try.”

Her eyes focus on me and she shuts them tight as her eyebrows knit together. I drag my body to her, slowly, so slow. Feels like it’s taking ten years. When I’m close enough to feel the fire, I raise my hand to her again.

“Lindsay, you’ll die...I’ll die. Everyone will die. Please, take control. Push yourself. You’re a strong person.”

She floats up into the air and spreads her arms and legs out, her hair blowing in the flames, face tilted upward. I can’t believe I’m going to witness another person’s death tonight. Another person I love.

Lindsay lets out a howl that echoes through the night. She’s fighting the explosion. The fire begins to lessen as her face scrunches up in pain. Her eyes are shut tight, her lips smashed together. I don’t know if she’ll have the strength to live even if she does fight this off.

Her eyes roll over as she lets out a loud grunt, and collapses on the ground. The fire is gone. “Lindsay!” Using all my might, I crawl to her and take her into my arms. She’s got markings on her body, not burn marks but some sort of blemishing.

I stroke her face, her hair. Is she okay? Is that it? Was that the explosion Premonition’s been seeing? It seems like Earth’s intact. But what about Lindsay? Is she even breathing? No, I
can’t
lose someone else I love tonight. “Lindsay, please be okay.”

Tranquility, Container
, and some others rush to Lindsay to check her out. I reach for my phone and call Dad.