CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
SON OF FLAME, CHILD OF WIND
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Having to attend school the night after a party like the one they’d been at was not a good thing and it was even worse for Daniel and Megan. For reasons only they knew, Daedalus had chosen not to turn up at school the following day. Both Dang and Dante were there but the doppelgangers were blessed with an incredible metabolism which meant liquor did next to nothing to either of them.
Unfortunately, neither one of Daniel nor Megan shared this gift. This only mattered for Daniel since he was the only one who’d had anything to drink of the two and as a consequence, his head throbbed as he and Megan trudged into the Physics lab. Megan had been doing their best all morning to not burst out laughing at Daniel but it was getting harder and harder for them to do so.
They headed to a table in the back of the Physics lab. Daniel sat and rested his head on the table, preparing himself to drift off to sleep. Dante and Dang joined them at the table, the two of them chuckled as they sat.
“Long night?” Dante asked, his voice filled with mischief and sarcasm. A loud thud occurred as he intentionally dropped a textbook on the table, much harder than he’d needed to.
Daniel groaned and sat up, staring at Dante with an expression of annoyance. “I hate you so much.”
“I didn’t even think it was possible for you to get tired,” Dang said. “You’re all over the place all the time. Seeing you like this is weird. How much did you have to drink again?”
“Not a lot,” Daniel shook his head. “Just two cups. Something tells me Scott might have accidentally given me the stronger stuff.”
‘“If Scott gave you the strong stuff, it wasn’t accidental, trust me,” Dante snorted. “Don’t you have like a whole regeneration thing going? Just shake the effects off.”
“I don’t think my regeneration ability works like that,” Daniel sighed. He buried his face in his hands and groaned. He glanced at Megan. “Tell me again why you convinced me to come in for class today? I could be home right now, lying in bed, sound asleep. I have no reason to be here.”
“Do you want to get your grades up or not?” Megan asked.
“Ugh,” Daniel groaned.
Dante tapped his shoulder in a friendly way. “Just shake it off, champ. How hard can it be?”
“Never again,” Daniel sighed.
“It’s what they all say,” Megan snorted.
Physics class went by and while it was absolutely dreadful for Daniel, he’d made a full recovery by noon and was back to his usual perky self. Dang, on the other hand, had excused himself from school without explanation between the second and third period.
“You’re his doppelganger, right?” Daniel asked Dante once he noticed Dang’s absence at lunch. “Can’t you like talk to him and figure out what’s going on? You know how we’ve been searching for Arkanis since the fight, you don’t think there’s a chance that he–you know–,”
“He’s not possessed,” Dante cut Daniel off before he could continue with that conspiracy. “He’s just, I don’t know, occupied or something.”
“Well, he better not be possessed,” Daniel scoffed. “I don’t know about you but I am NOT a fan of possessions in movies and sure as hell won’t like them in real life! Also, could I have your hot dog, please?”
Dante stared down at the last hot dog on his plate. He shrugged and pushed the plate toward Daniel. “Sure, help yourself,” he said.
While Daniel ate, Dante had somewhat of an absent-minded expression on his face. When lunch came to an end, Dante rose to his feet and announced: “I’m going to head on to the observatory, go check if Dang’s there, see if everything’s good with him.”
“Okay,” Megan nodded. “If he’s there, text us, let us know what’s up. If anything’s wrong, we’ll be there in an instant.”
“Sure,” Dante nodded.
The rest of the school day went by relatively uneventfully for Daniel and Megan, with the day closing with PE. None of them chose to go all out during PE and in fact, did their best to appear as unimpressive as possible.
Once PE was done and school over for the day, they started the walk back home, a routine part of their days.
As they went, they waved goodbye to classmates and other students at the school who they knew personally, at least to an extent. On the way, Megan glanced at Daniel and said: “You know Dante thinks the two of us are a thing?”
Daniel made a choking sound. “Wait, he mentioned that to you too?”
Megan nodded slowly. “I ignored it when he asked, obviously. What’d you say when he brought it up with you?”
Daniel shrugged. “Dunno. Guess I told him he had it wrong? It’s actually absurd that anyone could see us two and assume we’re a couple.”
“Right,” Megan chuckled. They were quiet for a moment, then they looked up at the cloudy sky. “You know it’s six years today?” they asked.
Daniel frowned. “Six years since what?”
“Since you saved me,” they answered. “Since the Heroic Heroes met for the first time. And to think, I tried to kill you the first time we met.”
“Eh, you couldn’t have even if you’d tried harder,” Daniel snorted. “I’m stronger.”
“I’m impressed that you still believe that even after the past six years,” Megan laughed. She turned serious again after a moment. “But do you remember it, though? The exact day and time when we met? How we met?”
“Yep,” Daniel nodded, sliding his hands into his pockets. “It was a Tuesday, weather was horribly stormy, it’d been that way for an entire week. News forecasts kept saying it ought to get back to normal but it never did. At the time, I was at the orphanage. I already knew about what I could do and I had a hunch that there was someone else like me, someone responsible for the storm. So, I ran away from the orphanage to try finding them and then…”
***
He got lost in the storm.
In hindsight, his mission was an incredibly stupid one and he dreaded what would happen if it turned out he’d ran away for nothing. Miss Agatha would certainly be displeased with him if he returned to the orphanage after pulling something like this.
But then again, Miss Agatha was always displeased. Not just with him, but the world as a whole. She thought the entire thing broken. And she thought of him as one of the worst parts of the broken world considering he was a kid who could control fire and she was a fervent Catholic—a deeply unfortunate conversation.
Actually, now that he thought about it, she would probably be glad that he’d gone away. She probably wouldn’t even want him to return. Which was good really, considering he had no intention of returning. If he could find the source of this hellish storm that had raged on for the past week, he wouldn’t need to return to the orphanage.
He’d flown around for more than an hour now and the effort had taken so much out of him that he’d resorted to walking. The streets were empty, since everyone had decided it was far too risky for them to be caught outside during this storm. It would take a certain level of idiocy and insanity to risk the danger of the storm.
However, Daniel was willing to risk it. Not because he wanted the danger or anything but because he was curious. He knew freak storms didn’t just start out of nothing. If there was a freak storm then it had to mean there was also a freak. Someone like him.
The chance of there being someone else like him was the entire reason he was out here. The entire reason why he hadn’t yet turned around and gone to find some run-down apartment building to find shelter in for the night.
He walked for close to an hour and had just about given up when he spotted the first people he’d seen out in the storm that night. There were five of them in total, and they’d just climbed out of a black van parked outside of what looked like a jewelry store. They had on masks and held duffel bags around their arms.
At the sight of them, Daniel paused and quickly ducked behind a trash can. From there, he watched, watched as the men helped themselves into the jewelry store. The store’s alarms went off but was quickly silenced.
The wind started to howl then, picking up speed and frightening strength.
He glanced upward and a curious frown came across his face. Over the past week, there’d been six robberies and six storms.
He got to his feet and cleared his throat. He slipped his hands into his trouser pockets and strode forward, coming to a stop just outside the jewelry store’s entrance. He watched the robbers empty the display cases, throwing the items into their bags. One of them went to empty the cash register.
He cleared his throat again. “Gentlemen, you know this is illegal, right?” he asked, his voice perky. “And you’re being so careless about this, someone could get hurt.”
The robbers all halted and glanced at him, their eyes widening. The robbers exchanged looks and then glanced at him.
“It’s just a kid,” one said.
Another snickered. “Run right back home, kid. Trust us, this ain’t the sort of stuff you want to get involved in.”
“Can’t do that,” Daniel shook his head. “It wouldn’t be very heroic of me to just turn around and run.”
“Oh, so you’re trying to be a hero?” one robber asked. He aimed a gun at Daniel and flicked the safety off. “How exactly do you plan on doing that? You’re outnumbered and outgunned.”
“That’s the thing with criminals,” Daniel sighed. “It’s always guns with you guys. As if you think those pieces of metal in your hands are power.” He took a step forward and held out a hand. He summoned a ball of flame in it, the orange glow reflecting in his eyes. He cracked a smile. “This is real power.”
“What the—,”
Daniel wasted no time. At once, he blasted at the robbers and surged forward with speed before they could fire their guns off. For all the things he could do, he was fairly certain he wasn’t bulletproof and he hadn’t yet figured out how to shield himself with his powers. That meant he couldn’t risk getting shot.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
He went at robber after robber, dodging when they attempted to aim a gun at him before retaliating by delivering flame-coated blows. One of the robbers had crept up on him while he’d been focused on another and had smashed his pistol into the back of Daniel’s head.
The force of the blow had actually dazed Daniel momentarily, but then he’d quickly recovered from it. The blow he’d landed in retaliation had been critical. He’d been angry when he retaliated and hadn’t thought to pull back on his strength. As soon as the blow landed, he heard the crack of the robber’s ribs, the force of the blow sent the crook flying and crashing straight through the window back onto the street.
The robber howled in pain, clutching his side where the cracked ribs must have been. Daniel paused for a moment; eyes wide with terror. He hadn’t hit anyone that hard ever. He stared at his hands which were somewhat quivering.
By the time he looked up, the rest of the robbers were getting into their van, and had helped their wounded friend in.
The van’s engine ignited to life and then it took off.
Daniel cleared his throat and shook off his concerns about the blow he’d landed. He had a job to do here.
“Oh no, you don’t,” he hissed, before breaking into a sprint, tearing after the van. After a while of pursuit, he leapt into the air and fired off a jet of flames from his hands and feet, using them to propel himself through the air and guide his flight which, at the time, was still unsteady. The aerodynamics of superpowered flight wasn’t something he’d figured out yet.
The van was pretty quick and Daniel wondered if there was a chance the wild wind was somehow helping it considering the very same wind seemed to be acting against Daniel, blowing against him intensely as though trying to slow him down.
The van took several sharp turns, cutting through narrow streets and alleys, but Daniel managed to remain on its tail the entire time. He decided he needed to end this before the wind ended him, so he concentrated more of his firepower to his hands and feet, rapidly gaining speed and drawing closer to the van.
One of the robbers poked his head out the front passenger window. “Crap,” the thief cursed. “He’s on us!”
Daniel went faster still, extending one hand toward the van. He was just a few feet away now. Just a little more speed ought to—
WHAM!
He wasn’t sure exactly what had happened, just that one moment he’d been on the brink of catching the van and the next, he was flipping through the air uncontrollably, half-unconscious. As he sailed through the wind, his face throbbed, as though an insane force had just driven into him.
He slammed into the brick wall of an apartment building and crashed straight through. He landed hard on the concrete floor of what turned out to be the abandoned living room of an abandoned apartment and rolled a few times before coming to a stop.
He groaned and clutched his side. He too had cracked something.
After a few seconds spent trying to regain his breath, he hurried to his feet and sprinted toward the hole he’d just left in the wall. Going back out wasn’t an option anymore considering the wind had gotten rather frightening.
He squinted his eyes, hoping he might be able to see the van through all of the windy madness. But instead, he picked up on what looked like a person flying through the air, the lower half of their bodies surrounded by some sort of windy vortex.
The person looked back at him and though there was enormous distance between them and the wind was making it hard to see, he thought it looked like a little girl.
He smiled. “Gotcha.”
***
“I should have been angry about failing to stop the robbery but I was a little excited because I’d pretty much just confirmed there was someone else like me,” Daniel said. “Days later, another robbery. I knew whoever had hit me with the wind with the first time would have to be somewhere nearby. So, I went searching for you again, and then I found you, on a rooftop. Inside a ball of wind.”
“You hit me with fire.”
“I didn’t expect it to hurt.”
“You didn’t expect fire to hurt?”
“Well, it worked out for the best, didn’t it?” Daniel grinned. “You lost the fight to me and then I took care of the thieves you’d been running with. Even though, you never did tell me exactly how you came into cohorts with them.”
“I was like you,” Megan shrugged. “In and out of the foster system. With powers like mine, everyone who adopted me thought I might have been possessed or something. It’s never a good thing when you walk into someone’s room and find them floating several feet above their bed.”
“Tell me about it. I was a kid with flame powers at an orphanage run by a Catholic woman.”
“Six years ago, on this day,” Megan smiled. “I think a lot about what it would be like if our paths had never crossed.”
“You think there’s a world out there where we never met?” Daniel asked. “Maybe there’s a world where I’m the one who was being used by someone like Carl and you had to save me?”
“I imagine there’s an infinite number of worlds with an infinite number of ways things could have turned out with us,” Megan said. “But I am grateful for this one. I really don’t think it could have been any better.”
“Yeah,” Daniel nodded. “Me too.”
“You know, it feels like things are about to get serious again,” Megan said, tilting their head upward and staring at the clouds once more. “Maybe even more serious than they’ve ever been. I don’t like it.”
“How do you know that?” Daniel queried.
They held out a hand and stroked the air in front of them. “I can feel it,” they answered, their tone soft. “In the wind, I mean. It feels different. It’s been that way for a moment, it’s like the wind is changing every day. Growing more and more different with each passing moment.”
“That’s scary,” Daniel gulped. “Have you told the others?”
“I think they know it too,” Megan shrugged. “I think that’s why Dang’s been acting a little weird recently. I think he knows something the rest of us don’t. I think he’s scared.”
“Well, if he knows something, he should share it with the rest of us, right? We’re all fighting the same fight here, aren’t we? He can’t withhold the sort of information that could get the rest of us hurt.”
“I don’t know for sure,” Megan said. “It’s just a thought, one I’ve had for a moment.”
“Well, let’s head over to the observatory and ask him, right?” Daniel suggested. “It’s been almost a month since the fight with Arkanis and we’ve all been careful to not pry too much into whatever’s going on with him. But if there’s a chance it has something to do with the rest of us, we need to know.”
Megan considered for a moment, then they nodded. “Okay,” they said. “Let’s go talk to him about it at the observatory.”
***
Daedalus had built something at the observatory. When Daniel and Megan arrived, their expressions had immediately been one of confusion since neither knew what they were looking at. Dante was there, his arms folded, looking every bit as confused as the two of them were.
“What’s going on?” Daniel asked, deeply curious.
“An experiment,” Daedalus answered without looking up at them. He was fitting in rather thick cables into the machine he’d built, one that Daniel didn’t even know how to describe. All he could say was that it looked nothing like anything he’d ever seen before.
It was a little like a cylinder, with weird arm like things that jutted out of it at every direction and a bit that looked sort of like joysticks. Within the cylinder was a small transparent cube. One that had wires hooked up to it.
“This is what you skipped school for?” Megan asked.
“Yep, pretty much,” Daedalus nodded.
“What exactly is it?” Daniel queried.
“Potentially a way home,” Dante murmured. Despite his general look of confusion, Daniel thought he detected a hint of hopefulness in his eyes. “He’s trying to generate cosmic energy out of, well, nothing. Literally.”
“What?” Daniel blinked in confusion.
“I can’t explain all of the technical stuff, but Dante and I are from different dimensions, right?” Daedalus said. “And our energy signatures are it’s very different from anyone’s in this world. This thing will recognize our different signatures, and the traces of cosmic energy we’ve still got left on us. When I fire this up, it should be able to focus on those cosmic traces and well, amplify it. This is only a test to see if the idea works. If it does then, well, it could have other applications. I could open cross-dimensional portals with this, stabilized ones, not the sort Dante and I came through.”
“Holy—,” Megan murmured.
“But hang on,” Daniel frowned. “Like, sure, let’s say the thing manages to pick up on your energy blah blah, whatever it is you just said, how the hell do you plan to amplify that enough to get something powerful enough for what you’re suggesting? Like I’m no expert but judging from both your stories, the energy will have to be significant for it to send you across universes.”
“You’re absolutely right,” Daedalus nodded. “But–,”
“That’s where I come in,” Dang emerged from the observatory. He walked toward Daedalus’ contraption and examined it, a curious look on his face. He ran a finger along the entirety of the thing, nodding as he did so. He turned to face Daniel and Megan. “This whole thing was my idea, sort of,” he said.
“It was?” Daniel raised one eyebrow over the other. Out of the corner of their eyes, he and Megan exchanged suspicious looks. “How?”
“I don’t know,” Dang shrugged, sounding genuine. “It just sort of came to me. Like when an idea just pops into your head out of nothing, right? My ‘Resonate’ can make this machine work. I can identify the trace energy it picks up on and generates, and I can amplify it. Obviously, like he said, it’s just a test run. I don’t need to amplify it enough to displace anyone across universes, only for us to be able to verify that it works.”
“And you guys trust this idea?” Daniel asked the other two. “You trust him?” he gestured toward Dang.
Dang frowned at him. “Why wouldn’t they trust me?”
“You’ve been weird lately,” Daniel went straight to the point. “Like you’re hiding something. Megan thinks something’s off about you, and she also says she can sense something coming. Something big. And now you guys are trying to build, what? What do we even call this?”
“Waymaker,” Daedalus answered. “A Cosmic Waymaker, that’s what I’m calling it.”
“Right,” Daniel nodded. “Off an idea that just randomly popped into Dang’s head, right? Because he’s the resident expert on quantum physics now, right?”
“Dude,” Dang looked hurt. He sighed and looked at the others. “Look, I know I’ve been weird recently, alright? And sure, I promise I’ll tell you exactly what’s been going on with me if you really want to know but I swear, I’m not suddenly a bad guy or anything, okay? Daedalus and Dante have both had cosmic loonies invade their world and there’s a chance they’re coming here too. The Waymaker is more than one thing. Sure, it’s a way for the two of them to get back to their worlds. But it’s also a way for us to fight. If this works, then it’ll mean we have a chance.”
“And if it doesn’t work?” Megan asked.
Daedalus shrugged. “Back to the drawing board then, I suppose,” he said. He gave the two of them a reassuring look. “But don’t worry. It’ll work.”
Daniel studied Dang intensely as if trying hard to deduce whether it was the same person he knew. Finally, he nodded. “Alright, alright, sorry,” he said. “I suppose I just got caught up in my conspiracy theories. If the others trust you and think there’s a chance this could work then sure, I’m on board too.”
Dang nodded at Daniel. “It’ll work.”
“Alright, ready,” Daedalus said, connecting the last cable. He gave everyone a sweeping look. “Here goes.”
He stood by one of the joystick looking things and grabbed it. He nodded at Dante who stepped forward and grabbed the other joystick thing. Daedalus then hooked up to the machine. The cables that connected him to them started pulsing with blue light instantly.
“Dang, get ready,” Dante instructed.
Dang went on the other end of the cylinder and grabbed onto two of the arms that jutted out from the thing. He nodded. “Alright, here goes.”
Daniel and Megan exchanged looks and took each other’s hands, eyes filled with a mixture of concern, anticipation, and excitement.
The machine-made whirring sounds as it powered up and they watched as the slightest sparks were generated inside the inner cube. With each passing second, the sparks seemed to grow stronger, wilder.
And then came a brilliant spark, one that brought a small orb of energy into existence right at the center of the cube.
“That’s it!” Daedalus announced. “Dang, you’re up!”
“No way,” Daniel murmured.
Dang focused on the orb in the cube, eyes filled with intent. A few seconds passed and then his eyes glowed.
“Amplify,” he commanded.
The machine’s whirring sounds moved to another level and the ground started to tremble beneath their feet.
Daniel gulped and glanced around warily. At first, it was just the quake. Then the hairs on his skin stood on end, as did the hairs on his head. The same thing happened to everyone else. As the orb in the cube seemed to glow larger, a screen attached to the cylinder showed numbers that climbed up exponentially.
The orb grew larger and stronger still, and Daniel gasped as the world glitched for a split second, as though all of it were a prism that had been fractured. He looked at Megan whose eyes were wide in a way that said they’d seen it too.
“Guys,” Daniel called warily. “I think you should stop.”
“Not yet,” Dante shook his head. “Almost.”
The energy levels climbed up even more, and dirt particles started to float upward from the ground. Daniel felt his entire body tingle in the sort of way he’d never quite felt before. Again, the world glitched and this time, Daniel thought he saw another him, one that had been smiling right at him.
“Shut it down,” he said, the fear in his voice unmistakable this time. “This doesn’t feel right.”
“We’re not there yet!” Daedalus yelled so his voice could be heard over the machine’s whirring. “Dang, again!”
“Amplify,” Dang commanded.
Multicolored sparks flew from the machine and then came a pulse explosion that swept everyone off their feet.
Gasps escaped Daniel and Megan as the explosion swept them into the air and they gasped again when they realized they weren’t falling. They were floating, as if suspended in stasis of some sort.
“What’s going on?!” Daniel demanded frantically.
They all stared at the cylinder, at the fully charged cube within it now. The cube was pulsing, rather dangerously. And the pulsing seemed to be getting quicker with each second, almost like it was sequential.
Or a countdown.
“Oh no,” Daniel said, realizing what was about to happen.
“Shield yourselves!” Daedalus roared.
Daniel’s eyes glowed as he hastily willed into existence a ball of flames to shield both him and Megan.
But just before the ball had fully shielded them, the cube completed its sequence.
And the world exploded with light.