Chapter 33
Jax’s shields began flickering and cracking even before he saw Torrendous pound Ken and his sister into the concrete façade of an old gothic bank. He watched in horror as the twisted twister started to turn his own body into a monstrous funnel of wind, pulling everything from his surroundings into his new form, increasing his mass at a remarkable rate.
Before Jax knew it, all hell had broken loose. The giant tornado that was Torrendous barreled through Cyber City’s downtown with no regard for property damage or human life and headed straight for Cyber City Tower, the largest building in the entire city. Of the three of them, Jax was the closest to the tower, so he fortified his existing domes, anchoring them to the street's asphalt, and hauled ass to make it one block over. By the time he arrived at the base of the building, the damage was already underway. Torrendous had broken through the front door and ravaged the lobby, growing bigger and bigger as he absorbed furniture, plants, glass from broken windows, and anything else not bolted down or anchored in some way. Once the main floor had been weakened structurally, the villain flew halfway up the tower, getting a running, or flying, start. As the whirlwind made contact with the 30th floor, the steel structure buckled, leaning toward Jax. The building swayed ominously in the wind.,
Borealis, as Jax was coming to think of himself in battle, had never tried to reinforce anything nearly as big as this building. Even if he had, it wouldn’t have mattered because he was exhausted, having just spent the last half hour making energy domes and constantly re-fortifying them. As he began to give in to his negative thoughts, Jax’s aurora cloud shifted in size and color, becoming half the size it was and losing all saturation. He needed to stay relaxed and positive, or his power would wane. For so long, he had been jealous of his sister. Her abilities seemed so much less finicky. It wasn't until recently that he realized that although her power was maybe easier to control in some ways, it also lacked the scalability of his. If he could maintain emotional balance and believe in himself, well, the sky was the limit. He laughed at his own dumb mental joke as he steadied himself, took a deep breath, and reached into his very soul for the emotional anchor that would allow him to take on this immense task.
Jax never closed his eyes, maintaining the visual connection to the Aurora Borealis he channeled from within. He pictured his father's face at the All-Star’s welcome party, stern but understanding. Even though Jax and June had betrayed him, the man had given up his career to raise them had shown incredible grace and compassion. A blue ribbon erupted from the no longer waning cloud, filling in the entire right half of the skyline. It even grew a bit to hover over even more of the city’s downtown. He pictured his mother, the Herald Summerset, standing across from the Michigan Supreme Court, testifying about corruption within the ranks of her own organization. She had bravely shared her story of abuse at the hands of her team’s leader and had provided evidence of his internal network of thieves and embezzlers. As Jax’s pride swelled, so did the purples in his particle field until nearly the whole city was blanketed in his power.
It was time to act. As C.C. Tower swayed, a giant hand materialized overhead, tethered to the cloud above. Jax summoned it down to grasp the building in a fist, steadying it. He had stopped the tower’s downward trajectory, but only with great effort expended.
Ken and June ran over and stood half a block away to avoid the chunks of the building that were now raining down on the surrounding area. His sister shouted, “You’ve got this, Borealis! What can I do?”
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Moisture beaded on his brow as he answered, as loudly as he could to be heard over the violent gusts of wind, “Just stop that asshole! Please! I can’t do this much longer.”
June turned to Ken, “Shift, goddamn it! Why aren’t you doing anything?”
Ken just looked at her in anxious defeat.
She didn’t have time to argue. Pop. Bang! She transformed into living fireworks and, with a whistle, flew straight up into the air.
Jax watched as his sister’s attacks did nothing to affect the living tornado because, of course they didn’t. He wondered how they were supposed to. Suddenly, Torrendous crashed into Cyber City Tower again, this time with so much force that Jax’s concentration broke, and the giant hand that had been holding the 60-story skyrise in place disintegrated.
Thinking fast, Jax pulled a cable made of pure purple energy out of the sky like a rope being fired from a grappling gun, and it latched onto the building’s far side. BAM! Motioning with his left arm, he pulled another energy cable down, BAM. The left wall was now secure. BAM! The right wall, too. Secured on three sides, the building’s fall had been momentarily halted. But it had taken so much energy to manifest and to hold everything in place.
“Ken, I need you to do something, man! I need you to stabilize the building so it won’t fall. I can’t keep this up!” Jax pleaded.
“I...I...I can’t!” Ken was frozen in place, stuck in the mental quicksand of his own making.
Jax reached up with both arms, made fists as if he were grabbing a hanging rope, and pulled with all his might. BAM! One more purple energy tendril shot downward out of the sky and locked onto the front of the building, holding it in place. The tower now resembled a crate being hoisted by thick purple wires dangling from a helicopter. The problem was that, in this case, there was no way to set the building down gently or whisk it away to fall into the middle of the ocean.
Finding her attacks impotent, June materialized next to Ken. She was about to yell at her squad mate when the first energy cable broke. Jax tried to replace it with another tendril from the sky, but the new construct couldn't hold the weight of the building and burst into particles instantly. The right wall became unmoored as well, as the cable securing it burst, leaving only two cables to stop the gigantic building from crashing to the ground right on top of Jax.
Anticipating the inevitable, June ran toward her brother to teleport him to safety, and Ken followed. The last two cables broke simultaneously, and the building began to topple over onto Jax. Ken, realizing they couldn’t get to Jax in time to save him, reached out and grabbed June by the wrist.
“I’m so sorry,” he said softly as he pressed his panic button.
Jax looked over and saw Ken and June blink out of existence. He threw a huge shield over his head out of fear and habit. The building landed straight on it, creating a web-like fracture in the dome's center. It was now hanging precariously 50 feet above Jax’s head. He fumbled for the panic button in his pocket, but his hands were shaking from the adrenaline and exhaustion, and he dropped it on the ground. It rolled a couple of feet away from him. Shit!
With his left hand above his head, focused on maintaining the shield, Jax slowly knelt to one knee, patting the ground with his right hand, searching frantically for the button. He glanced down to see where it was, and the building shook, falling a few more feet due to his loss of focus. He again looked up, reinforcing the dome overhead.
He was stuck. If he went for the panic button, the shield would falter, but he was running out of steam now. Jax didn’t know how long he last. That’s when instinct took over. Jax dropped the shield and dove onto the ground toward the panic button. Then, just as he felt the panic button in his hand, the tower tumbled down on top of him.