Ashley Jason

5. CHAPTER TWO

I couldn’t dodge. Not with Ronny in my arms, anyway, and especially not with this Guardian guy’s g*n pointing at my face. The powerless gas didn’t help. It stung my eyes. It didn’t make me feel any weaker than normal—which was odd, given how that was one of the normal effects that powerless gas had on me—but I had no time to speculate about that with death staring me right in the face.

The Guardian’s index finger pulled down the trigger and I did the only thing I knew how: I activated my powers.

Now, normally that would be impossible. Powerless gas, as you might have guessed from the name, was a special kind of gas that took away a superhuman’s powers. It was easily the deadliest weapon known to superhuman kind because it took away the ‘super’ in our name and just made us humans. It might have also been the source of my condition that was slowly killing me, but that didn’t matter.

That was why I was shocked when a hard light barrier appeared between my face and the g*n. Thus, when the Guardian pulled the trigger on his g*n, the bullet ricocheted off the barrier and into his right leg.

The Guardian howled in pain and staggered backward from the blow. He clutched his now-bleeding leg, cursing a hundred curses under his breath a minute. He cursed so much that I didn’t even recognize half of the curses he used.

I just knew that I had somehow managed to use my powers despite being stuck in a room full of powerless gas. That was, according to all known scientific knowledge, supposed to be impossible. It was a miracle, in other words. And that was with a weaker-than-usual barrier because I didn’t have much light to work with in here other than Ronny’s night light.

“Freaking stupid cheap powerless gas,” the Guardian said, clutching his bleeding leg. “I knew we should have bought the better stuff. Overkill is such a cheapskate. Next time I see him, we’re gonna have a long talk about quality control.”

I didn’t really understand anything the Guardian just said, though that was mostly because I was still in shock over neatly getting shot to death in my own home. Ronny’s crying, however, instantly snapped me out of my shock, which was when I noticed that the door to his room was still open.

Without hesitation, I jumped to my feet, Ronny in my arms, and dashed toward the door. Wasn’t sure why no one else in my family had awakened yet, but I didn’t care. If I could just get Ronny and me out of the room, then—

The Guardian suddenly appeared in my way and slammed the door closed, forcing me to come to an abrupt stop. I almost fell over thanks to Ronny’s weight, but caught myself at the last second and backed away from the Guardian as he locked the door.

“You’re not getting away that easily, freak,” said the Guardian, turning to face me. His leg was still bleeding, though I noticed he had wrapped a bandage around it to staunch the blood flow. “The cheap powerless gas might not have taken away your powers, but I can still kill you. It’s just going to require slightly more effort on my part.”

Without saying anything, I ran toward the broken window. Jumping out of Ronny’s window on the second floor at night was risky, but our chances of surviving the fall from such a height were a million times higher than surviving a fight with a guy who seemed to specialize in killing supers. Besides, my powers still worked. I could create steps or a slide or something that Ronny and I could use to get to the ground safely.

Right before I could jump out the window, however, a large metallic tentacle whipped out toward us. I had to duck, almost drop to the floor entirely, to avoid the tentacle, which smashed apart what little was left of Ronny’s window after the Guardian broke through. Pieces of glass pelted Ronny and me, but I still looked up to see what had tried to grab us.

A robot hovered just beyond the window. It looked like a drone, except with swirling metallic tentacles extending from its underside. Like the Guardian, it had blinking red lights as its ‘eyes,’ making it look creepy in the night. It would have looked a lot creepier, however, if the full moon had not been out, which was the main reason I could see it at all.

A harsh laugh behind me made me look over my shoulder. The Guardian still stood in front of the door, where he watched me and Ronny with apparent amusement.

“Knew you’d try something like that,” said the Guardian. “This entire fight has been just like something from the ComSim, aside from me getting shot by my own g*n. Other than that, it’s played out exactly the way Bloodbath said it would.”

“What, did you really need to train to murder a teenage girl and a baby?” I said. “You do realize how pathetic that makes you sound, right?”

“You’re not ‘just’ a teenage girl and that baby isn’t even remotely innocent,” said the Guardian. He pointed at me. “You two are mutants whose mere existence poses a threat to humanity’s progress and flourishing. If it wasn’t for you supers, humanity would have reached the stars already and wouldn’t constantly be teetering on the edge of apocalypse.”

“What in the heck are you talking about?” I said. I held Ronny closer. “How does the existence of a freaking baby threaten humanity’s progress?”

“You wouldn’t understand,” said the Guardian, shaking his head. “For over fifty years now, your kind has wrought untold destruction on mankind. Cities have been destroyed and whole towns have been wiped out by the actions of your people. No more. Humans will rise up against our ‘superior’ oppressors. The day of reckoning is so close I can practically taste it.”

I gulped and rose to my feet, though slowly and carefully so the Guardian wouldn’t think I was trying anything. Ronny, of course, was still crying, but I couldn’t comfort him right now. “Uh-huh. And how does a baby ‘oppress’ a grown man like you?”

“Again, you don’t understand,” said the Guardian. “The baby isn’t just a baby. One day, that baby will become powerful enough to destroy the whole world. That is what Overkill says.”

I looked at the screaming, crying Ronny in my arms in bewilderment. “Destroy the world? Babies can be messy, but I’m pretty sure Ronny can only destroy the toys Mom and Dad keep giving him.”

“Make light of my words as much as you want,” said the Guardian. “Every word I’ve spoken is true. The day of reckoning for your kind is soon. And that day will be ushered in by that baby’s blood.”

I held Ronny closer to my chest than ever. “Even if you killed Ronny—which I won’t let you do in a million years—I fail to see how that will somehow destroy every super in the world.”

The Guardian chuckled. “It won’t. But do you know what will? Killing off all young supers. Starting with you and your annoying baby brother.”

The Guardian raised his g*n and fired. I summoned a light barrier in front of me, deflecting the bullet, though this time the Guardian dived out of the way to avoid his own bullet ricocheting into him.

Meanwhile, his drone launched its tentacles into the room again, trying to wrap them around me. I summoned my light hammer, however, and swatted the tentacles aside while holding Ronny with one hand. It was tough going, however, because the drone’s tentacles kept coming at me. I wondered if this was what fighting an octopus was like.

The sound of a g*n being c****d behind me made my instincts jump into full gear. I leaped to the side at the last minute just in time to avoid the Guardian’s next bullet. The bullet struck his drone, knocking out one of the lights, though it didn’t seem to cause the drone any permanent damage. It did cause the drone to retreat slightly, perhaps to get out of the Guardians’ line of sight.

Not that I could celebrate that achievement, however. The Guardian, apparently out of bullets, tossed his g*n aside and pulled a huge, jagged knife from his belt. He slashed at me viciously, forcing me to back up until I hit the wall of Ronny’s room. Then I ducked to avoid a s***h from his knife, which tore a jagged hole in the sheetrock and completely ruined Ronny’s Christmas wallpaper.

Rising to my full height again, I raised my hammer and blocked the Guardian’s next strike. The Guardian, however, grabbed my wrist and twisted. Pain exploded from my wrist, shattering my concentration and making my hammer vanish from existence.

The Guardian yanked my twisted arm up, forcing me to bring Ronny closer to my body to avoid dropping him. I looked up into the Guardian’s smooth faceplate and saw my and Ronny’s terrified faces reflected in it.

“Cheap Russian powerless gas might not hurt you,” said the Guardian, raising his knife above his head, “but even super brats can’t survive getting their hearts stabbed.”

Dang it. There was nothing I could do. Between having to carry Ronny in one arm and the Guardian’s tight grip on my free arm, I was entirely defenseless. Whoever this Guardian guy was, he was definitely a good fighter.

The door to Ronny’s room suddenly slammed open just then. Something swift and quick zipped inside and stole the Guardian’s knife right from his hands.

“What the—?” said the Guardian, looking at his bare hand. “What was—”

“Hey, faceless dude!” said a familiar bratty voice behind him. “This yours?”

The Guardian looked over his shoulder. I also looked around him to see who it was.

A fourteen-year-old boy, wearing a ratty basketball t-shirt and race car pajama pants, was leaning against Ronny’s crib on the other side of the room. He held the Guardian’s knife in one hand as if he had found it on the street while minding his own business. His messy brown hair made him look wild, but I couldn’t help but smile when I saw him.

“Jake!” I said in relief. “I’ve never been happier to see you in my life.”

Jake shrugged. “What can I say? I like making appearances at the last possible minute.”

“Jake?” said the Guardian. “As in, Jake Jason, the son of Bolt?”

“That’s right, though I usually go by Zip nowadays,” said Jake. He flipped the knife in the air and caught it by the handle. “And your name is Frank ‘I like getting beaten up by teenage boys who are protective of their older sisters and younger brothers’ Stupid, right?”

“What the—?” said the Guardian again. “That isn’t my—”

Jake zoomed forward, kicked the Guardian in the knees and groin about a dozen times by my count, and zipped back to Ronny’s crib. He even managed to catch the knife he had thrown into the air before it hit the floor, too. Show off.

But his assault did cause the Guardian to let go of me. The Guardian let go of my arm and practically collapsed onto his hands and knees. I backed away toward the corner, trying to put as much distance between me and the Guardian as I could in the limited space of Ronny’s room.

“So, Mr. Stupid,” said Jake as he continued to flip the knife, “what are you going to change your name to now? I think ‘got kicked in the groin by a kid’ would be a good middle name for a guy like you.”

The Guardian snarled but didn’t stand up. “Arrogant mutant. My drone will—”

The sound of metal getting torn in half suddenly came from the window. One of the drone’s tentacles suddenly flew through the window and slapped into the Guardian’s face, the impact nearly knocking him down again.

“Huh?” said the Guardian, looking at the tentacle. “Wait a minute, this looks like—”

“One of your toy’s parts?” said Jake. He grinned. “Yeah, Dad’s been known to play rough sometimes.”

The Guardian looked at Jake in horror. “Dad? You don’t mean—”

Without warning, a man wearing a white sleeveless shirt and camo pajama pants flew into the room. He hovered in the air for a second, his hands crackling with red electricity, before landing softly on the carpeted floor amid the glass from the shattered window.

It was Dad. And even without his trademark superhero costume, he looked ready to kick some bad guy butt.

“Hi, there,” said Dad casually as red sparks shot off his fingers. “I heard you were trying to murder all three of my children with that toy of yours out there. You really should invest in higher quality toys, though. Yours break way too easily.”

As if to emphasize his point, Dad tossed the half of the drone he was carrying. It landed with a loud thunk on the floor of Ronny’s room. The Guardian stared at it in pure terror. He seemed to realize, for the first time tonight, that he was well and truly screwed.

“Now, we can do this two ways,” said Dad as he cracked his knuckles. “One, you give up now and I only break your legs to make a point. Two, you don’t give up and I break every bone in your body and give my kids a chance to break some, too, since I’m such a good dad like that. I’ll let you choose because it’s your funeral either way.”

The Guardian didn’t say anything, but he didn’t need to. He just stood up and made a mad dash for the open doorway. Both Jake and I made moves to stop him, but Dad held up a hand and said, “Let him go.”

“What?” I said, looking at Dad in confusion. “But he tried to kill me and Ronny. Why are you letting him go?”

Dad smiled, which actually looked kind of creepy. “He won’t get far.”

Before I could ask him how he knew that, the Guardian disappeared through the open doorway … and then a powerful blast of snow and cold wind blasted through the hallway into the room. The small blizzard caused the temperature in the room to drop from sweltering to freezing, making me, Jake, and Ronny shiver, though Dad looked comfortable.

The blizzard ended quickly, however, allowing us to see the Guardian standing in the doorway again. Thinking he’d come back to fight us, I raised my hand, only for Dad to say, “Wait. Watch.”

I had no idea what Dad meant, however, until the Guardian tipped forward like a statue and crashed into the floor. That was when I realized: He was frozen solid from head to toe, which was why he had fallen over.

A middle-aged, dark-haired woman stepped into the room. Like the rest of us, she was in pajamas, hers being a pretty blue silk nightgown that was a lot nicer than anything we wore. She looked almost like an older version of me, except for her eyes, which were a cold ice-blue, though I wasn’t afraid of her.

Mom, the woman who had entered the room, looked down at the frozen Guardian in disgust. “No one touches my children and lives. No one.”

I breathed hard. Although I was glad that the Guardian was defeated, I had to admit that I was still in shock.

Something told me that this was going to be a very long night.