Power (Book 1)

Chapter 26

I took a step back in surprise. "Mom?" I whispered.

"Yes. Now I have your attention." Sage looked away for a second, then looked back at me, a deathly serious face on her. "Look, I don't have much time. Metagor is almost here, and I have no idea how much time I've got before the Master starts watching us. All I can say is this: this is the Master's game. We're all just puppets to him. If there is a way, there's only one way to stop him. You have to find his hideout and kill him. That's the only way you can take his power away from him.

"When you find him, there should be a keyboard nearby. When you see it, type 'break away, make way.' That will transfer us back to our dimension."

"How do you know I want to go back to our old dimension?" I questioned her. "And are you a good guy now?" I asked. For some reason, those were the only words that came to mind.

"There is no good or bad. Only your goals and how others view them," she said.

"What about my first question? You never answered it."

But she never got a chance to respond. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head. She dropped to the floor.

"Sage?" I said frantically. "Sage!" I grabbed her shoulders and shook her violently. She didn't wake up.

I heard a giant thud come from outside. Metagor had arrived.

I put down Sage gently and turned around slowly, deliberately. I wanted Metagor to take in my diamond skin now. That meant he couldn't hurt me, no matter how many times he wanted to stomp on my body and throw me around like a rag doll.

I opened the front door. There he was in all of his slimy glory.

He growled at me menacingly. His rough, gurgling voice reminded me of everything I'd lost: my family, my house, my old life.

Suddenly, everything else melted away. All that was left was anger. Every cell in my body was primed and focused on hurting him.

Without me consciously knowing, my refrax left me. I used my speed to hurtle my body into Metagor's chest. He didn't move.

I reactivated my refrax to defend from Metagor's oncoming attack. He brought his fists together and tried to crash them down on me. I saw the move coming, though, and put up my arms so he wouldn't bury me into the ground.

He roared in fury. I picked him up and threw him several feet into the air. I watched him go high into the sky, unable to control himself. When he came down, I punched him before he could reach the ground. He was getting beat- badly.

He landed on his feet, skidding on the road. Crouching down, he looked like a cornered animal.

With a flick of his tail, spikes came hurtling at me. Lucky for me, my refrax protected me from the projectiles. The six serrated edges bounced harmlessly off of me.

I calmly picked up one of the spikes off of the ground. Then I threw it at him faster than he could move. It stuck fast in his cheek, going deep to the inside of his mouth. He screamed in agony.

I walked to stand in front of his nearly unconscious body lying on the ground. After a moment of thought, I picked up his impossibly heavy frame, lifting him by the neck as he had done with me. "It's not as fun being on the other end of the hand, is it?" I said cruelly.

He didn't talk. He tried to claw at my hand, but to no avail. His claws couldn't pierce my diamond skin.

I grabbed him by the spike on his head and slammed his face into the ground. It felt good to hurt somebody else for once. So good that I decided to do it again. And again. And again.