House of Cards

The Tour Part III: Hero of Olympus

Jake just sat there on top of the pile of bodies that he had incinerated ad just stare at us blankly, I saw his lips move as if he was trying to tell us something but all the sound that left his mouth was the burning of flames spewing out of his mouth. I was starting to have doubts in my heart if I can really get out of here alive. Everyone who gathered here were all elites from their respective offices but still, they burned to a crisp. Even our teacher who was a bit confident who told us to run if things get dangerous stood stiff like a pole while Chris stepped forward trying overcome his fear. Our teacher wants to stop him before he does something hasty and would lead to his death but he can’t, the only thing he can do is watch from a distance where his survival instincts kicked in telling himself. ‘I need to save myself first.’

With that in his head, he silently brought out his phone and sent a message to call for immediate support and back up from various sources. ‘Chris should be confident of his special ability but walking towards Jake is a really risky move right now. There is no way of telling when he will attack again and wreck amok and burn everything on his sight.’ I thought to myself as I force my body not to shake in fear as I try to conquer my own fear as well. ‘My ability might not be as impressive as Chris but I still think that I may be able to dodge whenever he decides to attack.’ As I try to convince myself that I was able to do it, our teacher immediately ran away. Startling Jake and making Chris’ effort to walk towards him and take a closer look while not to startle him completely useless.

‘I have already sent a text to everyone that might be capable of containing this monster and it will just be a matter of time before they arrive. For the meantime while waiting for them, I need to find a place to hide-‘ he told himself as he saw his shadow in front of him even when the sun is still up and bright. ‘Wait- my shadow is supposed to be behind me so why is it in front of me?’ his heart immediately stop in shock after realizing what is about to happen to him when a huge ball of fire is coming straight behind him and is catching up to him really fast.

‘No way- am I going to be burned like them?! I refuse to accept it! Damn it! Why is my ability so useless in times for something like this?!’ he told himself as felt the ball of fire is getting closer and closer as his back feels a little warm when all of the sudden, an unknown force took him out of the way as the ball of flame devoured everything that it reached.

*FWOOOOOSH!*

But when I come to, I saw Rain’s face full of both disappointment and frustration and looked to me and said “Why did you just have to run like that teacher? Haven’t you seen how careful Chris was? Startling Jake is the last thing we could do and you just had gone and done it, now his efforts are wasted.”

*CRACKLE!* *CRACKLE!* *CRACKLE!* *CRACKLE!*

My eyes turned to Rain’s legs after my ears seem to have picked up something off and saw a slight hint of lightning crackling from his legs. So I look up to him and mumbled- “Insane speed- don’t tell me your special ability is-“

Our teacher was mumbling something while I got my eyes fixed on Jake but my ears still picked up a fragment of what he is saying. “Yes, my special ability is lightning. That is why I was able to catch up to you in an instant.” I replied without looking back at him. “But that is not the important thing right now teacher, I think you just enraged Jake with what you just did.” I added as Jake started to move again sweeping Chris on the side so easily.

“Kuak!” Chris groans in pain as Jake sweeps him away and lands on a boulder.

*SHHHHH!*

Chris’ clothes immediately catches on fire the moment it touches the flames. ‘Just as I thought I am the only one able to take on Jake right now but my abilities has still its limit. Just as I have noticed from my previous experiment, I can only last for ten minutes without losing my consciousness but I go past the time limit who knows what could happen.’ I told myself as I look straight at the adversary that I am facing.

“They have been there for quite some time now. Do you think something must have happened to them?” one of the girls as with a worried tone. “Hey, don’t jinx it!” another one exclaimed. ‘We are all on the edge, especially Rebecca who had been with the both of them longer than all of us did so she should be on the edge even more than any of us combined.’ I told myself after realizing that Rebecca had been really quite the moment those two left with our teacher, so I decided to pat her back. “Don’t worry those two are going to be okay.” I comforted her and she flashed me a wry and sad smile. “Thanks Robert, you’re right. It will take more than this to c***k those two open.” She replied with a smile. ‘I know, I know that she is smiling right now but deep down she’s worried sick for the both of them, I mean I have not really been with those guys sides for a long time but when the moment I did, I regret the fact that I have been a d**k to them regret not being their friend the moment I met them, they are good people after all.’ I responded with a smile to somehow lift her spirit up.

Then all of the sudden we heard a loud blast as lightning struck to the location where Chris and Rain and our teacher are supposed to be.

*BOOOM!* *KSHUURRR!* *KSHHURR!*

All of us were surprised of what is currently happening, dark clouds gather above the place where the lightning struck several times but it did not look like it was about to rain earlier and that is when it hits us.

“Hey, don’t you think that is quite odd?” one of our male classmates asked. “I checked the weather forecast and there was no sign of raining today- could it be a special ability?” his question struck us hard after realizing that one of us is capable of manipulating lightning. The lightning struck the location endlessly as the blast of flame still continues along with it for ten minutes or so until it halted.

Afraid that one of them might be harmed, we all decided to go and check them out and do anything we can to help. And as we walked back to the location, the stench of burned meat entered our nose as the sight of burned bodies entered our view that made some of us vomit upon seeing the horrible scene but still, we did not stop and used our eyes to search for any signs of those three.

“How terrible- to burn people to this point- uah!” one of the girls said while covering her mouth and nose with her hand. And from the corner of our eyes, we saw Rain barely even standing properly as he wobbles like a drunk man ready to lose consciousness any moment now with lightning crackle all over his body. “Just as I thought, it really was one of us, it was Rain- “ I said but I stopped when I saw Chris also barely even standing with flames still burning the other parts of his body and our teacher covered in blood leaning behind the huge boulder where he seemed to have been thrown away as Jake or what seems to have been Jake walking slowly towards Rain who was almost out of gas, I saw Rain’s eyes turned to me even with his almost unconscious body facing Jake, his lips moved trying to tell me something so I read his lips. ‘Hide and don’t make a sound’ were what I make of what he said.

‘I feel so weak that I might lose consciousness any moment now, my eyes are starting to get blurry. My ability is still not complete, to think that my final limit would be here, what rotten luck.’ I told myself as Jake is slowly approaching me and then I caught a glimpse of my classmates staring at me in complete horror. ‘This is my time so I guess I should make the best of it and help the others.’ I told myself and as soon as Robert met my eye, I said with a soundless voice ‘Hide and don’t make a sound.’ ‘That should have been enough, Chris can join them later since he has the ability to do so but as for me I guess this is the end.’ I told myself as I saw the others leave just like how I instructed but something unexpected happened when my time was about to come.

A stone flew right to Jake and struck his head, surprised of what happened I turned my head from where the stone came from and my eyes widen in horror after seeing that a guy from the institute who is mostly burned had the strength to throw it, a closer from the direction where the others are standing. My eyes then turned to the others as their eyes immediately filled with despair as I turned my eyes towards Jake who is already looking at the others. My body went immediately cold in the thought of what might happen to the others and experience the same fate as the others.

Chris saw what happened and tried to get Jake’s attention by throwing another rock at his head but he did not budge and still continues to walk towards the others ignoring Chris’ attempt as our classmates froze in fear at the sight of Jake walking towards them mumbling the words ‘Bully- bully- bully-bully-bully-bully-bully-bully’ over and over again. After hearing what Jake said, Robert immediately realized that Jake was still holding a grudge against him and tries to sacrifice himself for the others to escape and rand away from the opposite direction.

“Hey, you want me? Come and get me!” he ran as he shout in fear but his determination to help our other classmates stand strong in his heart. “Hurry leave this place!” he yelled to the others who were brought back to their senses and started running but then something unexpected happen, Jake attacked the others who are escaping with a ball of flame which caught us off guard, they ran between two huge boulders but the ball of flame was approaching them fast. With little to no time to get the others to safety, Robert sprinted out to them and blocked the narrow space that the others passed through and used his hardening ability in time before the ball of flame hits.

The attack was blocked but the others were still burned to a crisp by another attack that came from above, a fire blast that immediately made our world crumble. Robert’s body hardened permanently as the flames cooked him for a few thousand degrees making him into a statue. “No- no- no!” I shouted as soon as I saw it happened before my very eyes. Chris then immediately stands up and run towards Jake and threw a punch but before his fist could reach Jake’s body, it burned and was cut off and then he fell on the ground screaming in agony and pain while tears stream out of his eyes like a river while I stare at the place where our classmates ran to as Jake flew slowly in the sky moving to the direction of the city.

“Hey, haven’t you killed enough? Haven’t you killed enough?! JAKE!?” I shouted my lungs out getting rid of any air that was within my body for that shout and then I immediately felt that I can get control my body somehow, I turned to Chris who was looking at me with despair in his eyes. Determined to take down Jake before he can reach the city and destroy everything, I did what I could not imagine I would do. I shaped the lightning in my hands into a spear and as the spear slowly resembled a proper spear, my consciousness was wearing off as well, making only a half-assed spear with only the blade shaped into a spear while everything else is just lightning randomly moving around.

*KSSSHK!* *KSHHK!* *CRACKLE!* *CRACKLE!*

Unable to maintain my consciousness any longer I proceeded to throw my lightning spear as strong as my body could with all my nerves in my body turning dark blue after I threw my lightning spear.

*FWOOOSH!*

I feel my consciousness fade but surprisingly I was still able to control the spear like my consciousness left my body and got transferred to the spear leaving my body lifeless as it fell on the ground.

*THUMP!*

“Go-odd bye-“

Jake was already near the city when the citizens caught a glimpse of something flying in the sky that they immediately took some shots and videos as the figure is moving towards the heart of the city when all of the sudden something like a lightning struck the fire down, producing a huge wave of lightning to the surrounding buildings and destroying everything that is powered by electricity, frying everything within a kilometer radius.

*BEEP!* *BEEP!* *BEEP!* *BEEP!* *BEEP!* *BEEP!*

“Where am I?” I mumbled after I opened my eyes and looked around and saw that I was in some hospital.

*KLANK!*

I turned my head and saw a nurse with a frightened look in her face as she immediately ran out of the room and yelled “Doctor! He is awake!”