Chapter 28: Invisible Lies (part 2)

I read the letter over and over again until I was satisfied, though it left me feeling hollow. Sleep eluded me, and I spent the long hours in my office, the dim light of the city outside casting shadows on the walls. The reality of things weighed heavily on me— the world was twisted, and it only seemed to grow darker with each revelation.

The letter was written from Ebony’s point of view, a haunting retelling of my experiences in the Dome. Each word, each line, was a reminder of the horrors we had endured together as rivals and foes. The memories of those dark days were like a distant dream, a nightmare that I had tried so hard to forget. But now, they were resurfacing, clawing their way back into my consciousness.

“No wonder I can’t remember my childhood,” I muttered to myself, the words heavy on my tongue. The memories were there, buried deep, locked away as a desperate coping mechanism. I had wanted to forget, to erase the pain, the fear, the anger. But now, the truth was staring me in the face, and there was no running from it.

“I have more reasons to rebel now,” I whispered, my resolve hardening. The World Order, the Guard, the Union—they were all part of the system that had created me, that had turned me into a weapon. They had to pay for what they had done, for the lives they had destroyed, for the innocence they had stolen.

I rose from my chair with the letter still clutched in my hand. I walked over to the window. The city stretched out before me, oblivious to the storm brewing within me. The rebellion wasn’t just about toppling a corrupt system anymore—it was personal. It was about reclaiming the memories, the life that had been stolen from me.

And I would stop at nothing to see it through.

Enough with the drama, there was too much work to do.

I made a few phone calls. Planet Mol’s registered superhumans were roughly around five hundred, of which two hundred were combat-capable. I would only need to rouse a few of them, and many would follow. Dissatisfaction was rampant here on Planet Mol, and this was the perfect time to strike back.

My directives were clear—control the growing insurgent element by playing the good little soldier, and maintain the status quo. However, as it stood, such directives had become inconsequential.

“You’ve been compromised,” a voice suddenly remarked from the shadow. “We don’t need to resort to violence. Come peacefully, and the World Order might choose to be merciful with you.”

A dozen figures emerged from the darkness, all clad in black suits and sunglasses, their presence suffocating the room. High-level superhumans, no doubt, and were directly under the Guard’s command. They were here to take me in, to silence me before I could make a move.

“It’s so dark at night, yet sunglasses?” I mocked them, trying to buy myself a moment to think. They didn’t flinch, didn’t react. Professional to the core, just like I had been trained to be.

But I was no longer a puppet, no longer a weapon they could control. It must have never crossed the management's noggin that their brainwashing could be so... easily undone.

I couldn’t take them all on—not here, not now. But I didn’t need to. I reached into my pocket, my fingers brushing against the cold, metallic surface of the device hidden there. A last resort, something I had prepared for moments like this.

“Let’s see how merciful they’ll be when I bring this whole building down,” I said, a smile tugging at the corners of my lips as I pressed the button.

The explosion rocked the office, the force of it sending me flying backward as the windows shattered and the floor beneath me crumbled. The guards were caught off guard, their suits torn and bodies flung across the room. However, I didn’t get them all.

I encased myself with a barrier of telekinetic force, resisting the brunt of the explosion. As the office disintegrated around me, I hovered softly in the air, watching with cold detachment as the chaos unfolded below. The blast had thrown everyone into disarray, some of them still struggling to regain their footing amidst the falling debris.

A brute with impressive leg power attempted to jump through the ceiling, perhaps thinking he could outrun the destruction. With a mere thought, I caught him in my telekinetic grip, suspending him mid-air as I similarly seized the others. They flailed helplessly, their powers useless against the invisible force holding them in place.

More explosions followed.

I could have easily torn them apart with my telekinesis, but that wasn’t the plan. The explosives served a dual purpose: to frame Heartstopper and to ensure the World Order would target him instead of extending any misguided mercy. Backstabbing had been my oldest trick in the book. The building continued to collapse, its once-mighty structure reduced to a pile of rubble. Most of my ambushers were buried alive beneath it, their screams muffled by the weight of concrete and steel.

More explosions followed.

One of them, a flyer, managed to escape, dragging another with her through the air. I reinforced my telekinetic grip on them, yanking them back toward the building and slamming them into the wreckage. The force of the impact crushed them against the debris, their bodies disappearing under the falling rubble.

As I surveyed the scene, I knew the destruction was absolute. The building had crumbled into nothing more than a twisted mass of debris, smoke rising into the night sky. There were bound to be civilian casualties, but such sacrifices were necessary. The explosion had been eye-catching, a spectacle designed to ensure the blame fell squarely on Heartstopper.

Heartstopper and I did have a public spat after all… considering the level of power Heartstopper had shown, the Order should take him more seriously. Irregulars after all didn’t grow on trees.

I drifted down to the ground, my telekinetic barrier dissipating as I landed on the rubble. Sirens wailed in the distance, the first responders already rushing to the scene. I pocketed the detonator, slipping back into the darkness of the night. I couldn’t afford to be seen—this needed to be perfect.

Heartstopper would take the fall, and the World Order would be too busy hunting him down to suspect me. This was only the prelude.

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I used my telekinesis to scan the wreckage, searching for any signs of life. The air was thick with dust and smoke, but through the haze, I could feel the faintest of movements—a few shallow breaths, the weak flutter of a dying heartbeat. As I concentrated, I shared my five senses with my telekinesis, honing in on the exact locations of those beneath the debris. The survivors were few, their breaths growing weaker by the second. Civilians, most likely. Perhaps one of my attackers, clinging to life but too broken to fight back.

It didn’t matter. They wouldn’t last long.

The seconds ticked by, each one stretching into an eternity as I waited, listened, and felt. Five minutes passed, and the faint breaths I had detected earlier slowly faded, one by one, until there was nothing left but silence.

Satisfied that no one had survived, I let my telekinetic field retract, drawing it back into myself as I prepared to leave. The job was done, and there was no reason to linger.

I cast one last glance at the scene, ensuring there were no loose ends. The rubble smoldered in the night, a testament to the destruction I had wrought. The sirens grew louder, the first responders now dangerously close. It was time to disappear.

I flew away, disappearing into the shadows of the night. My mind was already thinking three steps ahead, planning the next move. The destruction of the Portal Station was critical—cutting off their transportation would cripple the World Order’s ability to respond. The portals had become humanity’s key to the stars, replacing the outdated dreams of rocket ships and space shuttles. But under the World Order’s iron grip, the use of these portals was strictly regulated. Only the privileged few had access, while the rest were left to rot on dying planets.

I wasn’t about to let that stand.

My destination was a hidden facility far to the south, a place known only to a few—Guard’s headquarters, where the portal network was controlled. It was buried deep underground, far from Kane City, shielded from prying eyes. But I knew where to find it.

I crashed into the facility with the force of a meteor, tearing through their defenses like they were made of paper. Alarms blared, but they were too slow, too late. The guards, a mix of superhumans and heavily armed soldiers tried to mount a defense, but they were no match for me. I tore through them with brutal efficiency, my telekinesis ripping them apart before they could even react.

I was momentarily stopped by the elevator... funnily enough, I took my sweet time riding the thing down the facility. Ding. ding. ding.

And then level zero.

Blood splattered the walls, bodies crumpled to the ground, and still, I pushed forward. No amount of firepower or superhuman abilities could slow me down. They were weaker, and they knew it.

I reached the heart of the facility, the central control room where the portal network was managed. The last of the guards tried to hold their ground, but I dispatched them with a flick of my wrist, sending them crashing into the walls. The room was now mine.

I approached the control panel, my hands hovering over the array of buttons and screens. The portal network was a marvel of technology. It was proof of human ingenuity. I could feel the hum of power coursing through the room, the energy of countless portals waiting to be unleashed.

But I wasn’t here to marvel. I was here to destroy.

With a thought, I unleashed my telekinesis, tearing the control panel apart piece by piece. Sparks flew, the screens shattered, and the entire system began to fail. The power that had once connected worlds now flickered and died, plunging the facility into darkness.

I took a moment to admire my handiwork. The portal network was down, and with it, the World Order’s control over interplanetary travel. The repercussions would be felt across the galaxy, and chaos would soon follow.

But I wasn’t done yet. There was more to destroy, more to tear apart. The World Order had built its empire on the suffering of countless innocents, and I was going to make sure it crumbled.

As I turned to leave, I felt a faint tremor in the ground, a sign that the facility’s self-destruct mechanism

I felt a sudden tug, and before I could react, a powerful force slammed me into the ceiling. The impact sent a shockwave through my body, but I quickly regained my bearings, hovering in the air as I traced the source of the attack. My telekinesis extended outward, wrapping around the invisible tether that had snagged me, following it back to its origin.

Seven rooms away, in the cafeteria, I sensed a group of telekinetic teens, their minds collectively focused on trying to crush me. They couldn’t have been more than fifteen years old, and yet here they were, displaying a level of coordination and raw power that was almost impressive.

“Low to mid-level, at best,” I muttered, assessing their abilities. They had potential, but they were still far from being a real threat. With a flick of my wrist, I dissolved their telekinetic hold on me as if it were nothing more than a cobweb.

“This is how you do it,” I said coldly, my voice carrying through the shattered walls as I unleashed my power.

The air rippled as I sent a wave of telekinetic energy surging toward them, suppressing their abilities with ease. Their collective force buckled under mine, their minds unable to withstand the overwhelming pressure. I could sense their panic, their fear, as they realized how outmatched they were.

Without a second thought, I tore through the walls separating us, debris flying in every direction as I carved a path straight to them. The youths were huddled together, their faces pale with fear as I approached. They had been so confident, so sure that they could take me down. Now, they were just scared children, trembling in the face of real power.

Superpowers were generally divided into three categories: low, mid, and high. These kids were barely scraping the mid-level, and they had dared to challenge someone far beyond their comprehension. And then there was the irregular rank, where power defied logic and boundaries—where I stood.

“The youth of today, so brazen,” I remarked, almost amused by their audacity. “But you’re not ready for this.”

I raised my hand, ready to finish them off. But as I looked into their terrified eyes, a thought struck me. These were just kids, perhaps misguided, but still with a chance to grow, and to learn.

I lowered my hand, the telekinetic energy dissipating as I stepped back.

“Consider this a lesson,” I said, my voice stern. “Next time, think twice before you challenge someone you don’t understand.”

This was better than recruiting idle superhumans: I thought to myself that, for the first time, I had my lucky break.

I counted over thirty of them, kids from varying ages, the older ones standing protectively in front of the younger ones. “Hey, kids. Do you want to get out of here? I need minions after all… What do you think about rebelling?”

“Kill her!” One of the guards shouted as he kicked the door open and aimed his energy-based shotgun at me. “Die, you fucking bi—”

With a thought, I snapped the interrupter’s neck.

It seemed I didn’t get all of them, huh?

“So?” I prodded the youths with a telekinetic poke.

A young blonde kid stepped forward, clearly the leader of their group. “We’ll come with you.”

“Perfect,” I said, wrapping them all in my telekinesis and dragging them out of the facility before the self-destruct sequence I had triggered fully activated. “Hold tight, we’re going to fly very fast, so don’t bite your tongue.”

Their collective fear and excitement were almost palpable as I lifted them into the air. They clung to each other, a tangle of limbs and nerves, as we shot through the night sky like a missile. The wind whipped around us, and I could sense their awe, their disbelief at what was happening. For many of them, this was probably the first time they had ever been free—truly free—from the clutches of the World Order.

The facility behind us erupted in a fiery explosion, the shockwave rippling through the air and sending a gust of hot wind in our direction. The kids gasped, some of them clenching their eyes shut, but I kept us steady, sailing smoothly through the chaos. There was no time to stop and no time to let them catch their breath. We had work to do.

I descended toward a remote part of the city, far from prying eyes and curious onlookers. The building I landed us in front of was nondescript, blending in with the surrounding structures. But beneath it lay a hidden base, one of many I had scattered across the planet. It was safe, secure, and most importantly, it was off the radar.

“This is our new home,” I announced as I set them down on the ground. “For now, anyway. You’ll find everything you need inside—food, beds, training facilities. From now on, we are family.”

The blonde kid stepped forward again, his gaze steady and unwavering. “What do you want us to do?”

“Simple,” I replied, meeting his gaze. “Batteries.”