The Last Hero (Book 1): Ultra (18 page)

I
watched
Nycto drop Peter to the ground below and I felt the pain little Tommy would feel if I allowed this to happen.

I shot to Nycto’s right to try and maneuver past him, but he shot in that direction even faster. I shot to his left, but still no luck. I was cornered. Cornered by my nemesis. He wasn’t going to let me pass. Peter was going to hit the road.

“You’ve got nerve, Kyle,” Nycto said. Hearing him say my real name reminded me of the real self underneath my costume, my disguise. “Thought you’d have learned your lesson back at Krakatoa.”

Peter continued to hurtle to the ground below. I had no idea how Nycto knew I’d been trying to save Peter, reunite him with his child. I didn’t have time to consider it.

“Me too,” I said.

I shot downwards. Stretched my hands out. I fired the ice out in front of me, watched as it curled around Peter, softening his fall.

While I was holding on to Peter, I concentrated. Focused on that warehouse back in New Jersey, where Tommy was waiting for him.

I felt my body shifting through space when something smacked into my back.

I fell down onto the road. Smacked my face right up against it. I felt the bones in my cheek crack, a sudden pain that only lasted a few seconds, and then I felt the bones rebuilding themselves as I rolled onto my back, turned around.

Nycto hovered over me. His hands were filled with flames.

“You should’ve learned your lesson,” Nycto said. “You can’t save humanity. We’ve tried reforming them before and it just never works. They never learn.”

I watched the fireballs in Nycto’s hands get larger. Peter was a few meters away from me. I needed to get to him. Quick.

“You’re wrong,” I said. I crawled towards Peter, the ice from my hands melting around him.

I heard Nycto chuckle. “Wrong about what?”

I stretched out. Grabbed Peter’s arm. “I can save humanity. And I’ll make them learn.”

I saw Nycto’s fireballs widen.

Leave his hands.

Hurtle down towards me.

I focused all my energy, all my attention, on getting back to that New Jersey warehouse, on getting Peter back to his son.

I squeezed my eyes shut and…

“Dad?”

I opened my eyes. I wasn’t on that New York street anymore. My face felt better, not as painful. I smelled the musty air that I’d smelled not long ago.

“Tommy?”

I looked up and saw Peter run towards his son. Lift him up. I saw them smiling. Saw them crying.

But best of all, I saw Tommy’s mom upright. Awake. Alive.

“Thank you,” Peter said, turning around and looking right into my eyes. “Seriously. Whoever you are. Thank you.”

I felt pride inside me. Felt a lump in my throat. As I stood there, I became more aware of myself, and I felt strong. Stronger than I’d ever felt in my entire life.

I’d done something. Something that’d earned the respect of someone. I’d done something that’d make my family proud. That made myself proud.

“I’ll never let you down. Any of you.”

I saw Peter open his mouth, prepare to say something else.

But before he could, I shot myself back to New York City.

I had work to do.

I
looked all around
for Nycto, but everything had gone quiet.

The streets were warm with the flames. I could smell smoke in the air. The sound of sirens surrounded me. Whenever I saw people, I camouflaged myself. They looked too scared to be thinking rational right now. Too fearful. If any of them saw me, they’d probably think
I
was Nycto.

But I’d saved people. I’d saved lives. I knew positive word would spread.

The streets of New York City seemed too quiet. I couldn’t believe Nycto had just disappeared. He never gave up. He relished the fight. And, crucially, he felt he was stronger than me.

So where had he gone to?

What was he up to?

I thought about my family. My friends. And I felt sickliness in my stomach. I had to save people on these streets as Glacies. But I—Kyle, underneath—needed to know my family were okay. They should be. Nycto’s attack seemed limited to the main island, and my family and friends lived on Staten Island.

But Staten Island was close. Too close for comfort.

I looked over at Staten Island, over past the Statue of Liberty. Maybe I could just check in on them, quickly. Maybe I could just fly over there, check they were okay, then disappear. They’d probably be wondering where I was. Maybe it’d be better to show my face. Better to—

“Remember what I told you, Kyle?”

The voice came from behind me.

I turned around and saw Nycto standing in the middle of the road by the Staten Island ferry terminal.

“I warned you,” Nycto said. “I warned you about what I knew. About what I’d do if you stood against me. Don’t you listen?”

I fought through the urge to back down, to cower, that’d been with me all my life. And I said what I truly thought. “Why would
I
back down? I think it’s you who should be backing down.”

Nycto laughed. As he laughed, I felt electricity. A breeze. I saw litter lift from the ground, then hit it again when he stopped. “You really think you’re strong enough? You really think you can defeat me in any way? They hate you. The people, the government, they hate you. You’re fighting a losing battle. We’re both the same to them. We’re both freaks. So why don’t you give up while you still have the chance? Why don’t you listen to what I’m saying?”

I held my breath, and I walked up to Nycto. Shoulders slumped. Defeat filling my body, I stepped right up to him. Looked him in the eye.

“You know, for a super villain hell-bent on destroying the world, you really don’t know when to shut your mouth, do you?”

Nycto hesitated. He didn’t speak for a moment. “What—”

He didn’t finish asking his question.

I punched him so hard, so full of anger, that the pair of us disappeared.

I
punched
Nycto as hard as I could and heard the second loudest explosion of my entire life.

I saw a blinding light all around me like I’d disappeared into the very middle of the sun. My ears rang. I could taste a hint of blood on my lips, smell a sweetness in the air. I had no idea where I was, how I’d ended up here.

I just knew that I’d punched Nycto and I’d teleported at the exact same time.

I’d punched him into another place.

And that was the very core of how I was going to defeat him.

The brightness disappeared from my eyes. I saw desert all around. Felt the blazing heat from above. I was in Arizona. Yes. That’s it. I’d thought of Arizona right before I punched him. I’d thought of the desert, someplace well away from people, from Nycto’s destructiveness.

And here I was.

I heard coughing, and it startled me from my thoughts.

Nycto was lying on the ground. Some of his silver armor had cracked and split. He looked up at me, coughing, smoke coming off his body.

“It’s over,” I said. “This madness, it ends. Right this second.”

Nycto stared at me a few seconds, wincing. His leg looked bent out of shape. I wondered how good his healing powers were. How effective. Judging by the fact he was still lying there, I wagered a bet that they weren’t as good as mine.

Maybe I was strong after all. Maybe I really was stronger than this monster.

“The murder. The destruction. All of it. It ends right here.”

Nycto winced a few more times.

And then he started laughing.

“You shouldn’t’ve done that,” he said. “You really shouldn’t’ve done that.”

Quicker than I could think, Nycto sprung into the air. He flew into my chest. Knocked me back, off my feet.

I felt myself fly backward and heard a splitting explosion again. I saw the brightness, heard the ringing in my ears, and then I looked around and saw the familiar buildings and skyscrapers of New York. I was back here. He’d teleported me back here. He wasn’t giving up. He wasn’t down. Not yet.

“One thing you’ll learn about me,” Nycto said, pulling back his fist, “is that I never give up on something I’ve started. Never.”

He went to plummet his fist into my face.

“Me neither,” I winced.

I grabbed his fist and heard another explosion.

This time, when we came round, I was on top of him. We were in the jungle now. In the middle of the stifling hot rainforest, way away from any life, anything that Nycto could destroy.

I punched him in the face. Punched him as hard as I could, thinking of all the pain he’d caused people I cared about. Thinking about Mike Beacon. An enemy of mine at school, sure. But just another victim of Nycto’s. Just another victim of Daniel Septer.

“You might think you’re strong,” I shouted. “But you’re not. Not really.”

I went to punch Nycto again and another deafening explosion threw us back into New York. This time, we were underneath the Statue of Liberty. Nycto smacked my head against it so hard that I heard the statue crack.

“I’m stronger than you are,” Nycto said. “And unlike you, I don’t have a thing to lose. How about we take a trip across the water, see if we can have a word with the people you care about?”

I thought of Mom, Dad, Damon, Avi, Ellicia, all my friends, as Nycto rammed my head into the feet of the Statue of Liberty once more. I held my breath. Focused all my attention on slithering out of his grip, teleporting right behind him and smacking him to the ground, then taking us far away again.

This time, we were in the sky. We were up in the clouds, high in the impossible winds. I saw commercial planes flying past right beside me. I felt the air thinning, impossible cold. But still I punched at Nycto. I kicked at Nycto. Because this was what I had to do. This was my duty. To defeat him. To rescue the people I cared about. To rescue everyone from mindless oblivion.

Eventually, after punching Nycto for a while, he flew back, out of my grip. I saw him faltering. Saw him falling through the sky like he was losing ground. I knew this was my chance. My chance to get him somewhere where I could finish him off once and for all. I had a place in mind. I just needed to time it right. I just needed to be quick.

I flew at Nycto. I flew at him and let the love and the anger and everything inside me power my final punch.

“You really should foolproof your own method before you use it,” Nycto said.

I didn’t know what he meant until I hit him.

Until he grabbed my hand and the explosion ripped through my mind once again.

When I opened my eyes, something was different.

I was underwater. Far underwater, the surface miles above me.

I could see Nycto drifting upwards. See him disappearing towards the surface. I couldn’t breathe. I tried to use my powers to hold off the water, to hold my breath, but it wasn’t easy. It wouldn’t last forever.

I had to get out of this water.

I had to get away from Nycto.

I had to…

I tried to move my arms, but they were trapped. So too were my legs.

I looked around, and I saw why.

I was trapped. Trapped between rocks. Massive rocks at the bed of the sea, squeezing around my body, making it impossible to escape.

I watched Nycto rise to the surface. And as he rose, I swore I heard a voice in the back of my head. A tormenting voice in my mind, whispering out to me, taunting me, as I struggled between the rocks.

“You made a mistake, Kyle. And now the people you care about most will pay.”

E
llicia stared
at Facebook Messenger and felt her stomach turn.

Her curtains were drawn. Her room was pitch black. Most people had their televisions on, but she didn’t. She could see images and videos of Nycto’s attack on New York all over Facebook and Instagram as it was. She could hear it outside her window. The shouts. The screams. The destruction. She never really thought Nycto would get to her home city. Guess everyone who’d been attacked probably thought the same.

But now he was here, she wasn’t sure she’d ever felt this afraid in her entire life.

And yet, despite everything, there was only one person she wanted to speak to right now.

The realization that she wanted to speak with Kyle, to make sure he was okay, hit her suddenly, soon after she’d seen the first building go down. She realized she was thinking about him. Hoping he was okay. And sure, he’d acted weird when she last saw him. He’d brushed her off like he didn’t care. But the thing was, they’d all been through tough times. They’d all seen things, experienced things, that no sixteen-year-olds should have to. He was bound to be acting weird. Bound to be acting a bit, well, crazy.

But now, she just wanted to know he was okay.

She sent another message. Another one asking if he was okay. Again, no response. Which was weird. Whenever she sent messages in the past, Kyle would read them right away. He wouldn’t reply to them right away—he’d start, she’d see the little ellipses at the bottom of the screen telling her he was working on something, he was trying to figure out what to say. But even though he took his time, he always read. He always replied.

Kyle’s Messenger said he was last active forty-five minutes ago.

Nycto launched his attack forty-five minutes ago.

She felt a bit sick as she thought through the possibilities. Maybe Kyle was in New York City with his parents or his friends. Maybe he’d been there when Nycto and this other mystery ULTRA attacked. Maybe they’d stood in the view of the fireballs as Nycto launched his first attack…

No. She couldn’t think that way. She didn’t know that was the truth, not for definite.

It didn’t seem good for Kyle. It seemed strange. But she didn’t know anything for sure.

She scrolled back up her Instagram feed. More footage from the attack on New York. It looked like Nycto had given up his attack after taking down the Rockefeller, after searing Central Park, and he was now engaged in some kind of fight with another ULTRA. Nobody knew who this ULTRA was. Nobody knew what they wanted. The government spoke of the danger of all ULTRAs, the caution and vigilance to show towards all of them.

But Ellicia had read the stories. The stories of how this second ULTRA had saved people. Rescued people from burning buildings. Reunited children with their parents.

As much as the government wanted the people to believe all ULTRAs were bad, right now, it seemed like this guy in black was their only real hope.

Their final hope.

Ellicia put her phone down. She knew scrolling through Instagram was going to do no good. She had to get out. Find out if Kyle was okay. Sure, everyone was supposed to stay in their homes, but Staten Island hadn’t been attacked. Besides, there’d been no concrete reports of attacks in a while now. A few false flags but nothing set in stone.

She walked over to her window. Peeked through the curtain. Kyle’s place was about ten minutes away, but if she ran, she could get there in less than that.

She just needed to know he was okay. She just needed to check on him.

And that’s exactly what she was going to do.

She turned around to walk out of her bedroom when she saw a shadow move behind the door.

She froze. There was nobody home. Mom and Dad were in Vermont with family for the weekend. They’d hesitated about leaving Ellicia here, especially with all the Nycto talk, but Ellicia had convinced them she’d be fine.

But there was someone in the house.

She crept slowly to the door. The silence inside the house suddenly seemed loud, like the quietness was crying out to her.

“Hello?” she called.

Nothing in response.

She cleared her throat. Maybe she’d just imagined things. She’d been through a lot of shocks lately, first with the attack at the soccer game, then at the party, now this. Seeing a few things was forgivable, understandable.

She walked out of her bedroom. Headed toward the stairs. Made a break for the door.

“Hello, Ellicia.”

Ellicia’s skin went cold. She recognized the voice, but she wasn’t sure where from exactly.

She turned around and saw Daniel Septer standing in her hallway.

He was smiling. Smiling with a confidence she’d never seen on this weedy, scrawny kid from the year below.

“Dan… Daniel?” she said. There was something not right about this. Something off. “What’re… What’re you doing here?”

Daniel smiled at her. He looked too calm about this. Too at ease.

It was then that she noticed what Daniel was wearing. What covered him from toe to neck.

That dark silver armor.

The armor just like… Nycto.

Ellicia froze. She froze right there as she realized. She didn’t want to believe it. Didn’t want to accept it.

But she could only believe what she saw in front of her.

Daniel Septer was in her house.

Daniel Septer was Nycto.

“Well?” he said. “Aren’t you gonna run?”

Ellicia stayed still for a moment.

Held her breath.

Then she swung around. Grabbed the handle of the front door. Started to lower it.

Something grabbed her hand. Snapped it away from the handle. And before she could scream, a warm hand covered her mouth.

“I wouldn’t if I were you,” Daniel said.

In his other hand, burning bright, a fireball.

“Time to see how much your dearly beloved really cares about you.”

He moved the fireball closer to Ellicia’s face.