Power (Book 1)

Chapter 25

"Dad, what are you doing?" Cassie said in a panicked voice.

"Eliminating an enemy," Officer Wilkey said. "Don't worry, honey. Everything will be alright soon enough."

"Cassie." I looked at her, and she nodded her head, understanding what I was going to do by reading my mind.

"See, you want to kill Metagor," Wilkey started, not noticing us talking. "And I don't know what you will be able to do eventually, Jay. If there is even a single chance that you can kill him, then you cannot live. I'll have to kill you before you get too powerful. Now," he said, cocking his gun. "Step away from Cassie so she won't accidentally get hit. I know you wouldn't hurt her, would you?" He sneered.

I liked knowing that he thought that highly of me, but seriously. I couldn't take Metagor before. Why would now be any different?

"How do you know I can't catch the bullet?" I challenged him, moving away from Cassie. I kept my eye on the gun trained on me.

"You don't know how to use all of your speed yet," he said. "If you could learn how to control your time-altering abilities, then I would have something to worry about. Lucky for me, you're only a novice. Turn around with your arms up. Get on your knees."

I did as he said.

"I have a question before I die," I stalled. "Why are you doing this, again? Why are you protecting Metagor?"

"Because the Master told me to," he said.

I couldn't help but chuckle at that.

"Stop laughing!" he said angrily. "The Master is not a person you want to mess with. You do as he says, or you'll get erased!" He made it sound like a threat.

He sounded like a psycho. Erased? The Master? If I had never heard of him, then he must not have been very important.

I called up the feeling of protectiveness, and my refrax activated immediately. Bullets couldn't pierce diamond skin.

"No. We can't have that." Officer Wilkey wagged his finger at me in disdain. "If I were you, I would power down right now."

"Why?" I asked. "You can't hurt me. I'm invulnerable- maybe even invincible."

"To me, yes. But to your sister? Oh, no." He pulled a walkie-talkie out of his belt. "Hey, Sage. You there?"

If I had actual skin right now, both Cassie and Officer Wilkey would see the color drain from my face. Sage was back. Even worse, Cassie was here. Which meant there was one extra person that could be hurt by Sage. 

Cassie stared intently in my direction. If there was any doubt that she needed to get out of here, it was gone.

While Wilkey was looking at the walkie-talkie, waiting for an answer, Cassie made her move. She raised her hand and used her telekinesis to rip the window glass out of its place and send it hurtling into Wilkey's direction. He just barely dodged it, retreating to the hallway.

While he was out, Cassie took the opportunity to get away. After taking one long glance back at me, she leaped through the window, using her telekinesis to cushion her fall.

I watched her run. I had to stay to distract Sage and Officer Wilkey so no one would follow her.

That being said, I didn't hear Sage enter the room.

"Hello, brother." Sage spoke in that ethereal voice.

I jumped, turning around quickly. I didn't say a word to her.

"I see you've grown accustomed to your new powers," she commented. "Can you turn that off? It's kind of blinding."

Still no response.

"Fine," she said. "I was trying to have a nice conversation with you as family before you died, but since you want to be the mean one, we can go straight to business."

She lunged forward, but I easily sidestepped her. "You lost last time," I finally said."

"Well-" she fired off two sets of eye beams at me. I deflected them with my hand. "-I have a few new tricks up my sleeve. And help. Metagor shouldn't be in the field right now, but I have a feeling he'll be here any second."

"That means I have to hurry up and take you out," I said. I charged at her. She stepped to the side, just as I had done with her, and laughed.

"Wow, you're one for originality," she said.

"Originality this," I said. I spread my hands out and brought them together as hard as I could.

A sonic wave spread out into the room. Sage was thrown through the wall and down the stairs below.

I ran after her. I punched through the wall and jumped down the stairs, landing on Sage.

This was too easy. She was holding back.

I got up so she could breathe. I didn't want to kill her- she was still my sister, after all.

She coughed up blood. Hers was bright blue too. I allowed her to stand up so she could talk.

"Yep, mine's blue as well." She caught me looking. "Makes me wonder why the maker of this thing inside of us knew what he was doing."

It occurred to me that she might know more about the infinity matrix than I did. If she could tell me who created it, and I could find that person, then I could find out more about what happened when we were babies.

"Who created it?" I asked her.

"Oh, I don't know," she said. "Just that he isn't here. He got erased."

"What is that?" I asked, irritated. "Is it another way of saying someone died? Or is it something else?"

"Something else," she said. Her face seemed to darken. "Getting erased isn't dying, but it's what dying could be. You get sent to an alternate dimension- where we originally came from."

"Ha!" I laughed. "You honestly expect me to believe that crap? Alternate dimensions?"

"It's true," she insisted. "The whole city of Greenville got teleported into this dimension a long time ago. I don't know when, exactly, or how, or why, but it happened. And ever since, people who don't please the Master have been sent back to the first dimension- erased. That's why I work for him."

I still didn't know who this Master guy was, and I didn't think I wanted to. "You don't want to end up getting erased," I realized. "You're not a bad person- you're just looking out for yourself. Those things you said before, that was the Master."

"No, that's not it. You're only half right. Certain people can't get erased, like me and you. I'm doing this for someone else."

"Like who?" I said skeptically.

"Our mother."