The Last Hero (Book 1): Ultra (8 page)

I
expected
my return to school to be just as it was beforehand. Picking up where I’d left off. Going back into a world where I was the butt of the jokes.

Except it wasn’t.

That was the greatest surprise of the many surprises this week.

I sat in the school yard against the wall with Damon. It was lunchtime, and the sun was out, which meant everyone was outside. Not that we ever sat our lunch inside. Not even in the thick of winter did we do that. We liked to pretend it was because we were cool, but in fact, it’s just ’cause we weren’t cool enough to sit in the main canteen. We’d draw far too much attention, simply because we were losers.

“Damn,” Damon said. He sat beside me munching down on an apple. “I think I preferred it when people didn’t treat us like we’re ghosts.”

“Speak for yourself,” I said.

“It’s weird, though, right? How… how what happened to us can just have changed how everyone is with us. Just like that.” He clicked his finger.

I knew what Damon said was right. People walked through the school yard, glanced over at us. People that would usually stop to have their say, one way or other. But the bulk of them just ignored us today. Let us off the hook, like we’d been through enough as it was.

“Is it true what happened to you guys?” one of the younger kids asked.

Damon wiped his hands together. Stood up, half-smile on his face. “If you’ve heard the story about me scaring the gunmen away, then it’s all true.”

“I didn’t hear that.”

“Well, now you have.”

The kids looked at Damon and me like we were strange for a few seconds, then off they ran.

“Why’re people treating us like we’re, like, kinda cool?” Damon asked.

I shrugged. “Probably something to do with us being at a soccer game in the first place. Which is cooler than anything we’ve ever done.”

“I’ll tell you what’s cool,” Damon said, dragging me to my feet. “Ellicia. She’s cool.”

My stomach turned. “Yeah. She is.”

“You two were really hitting it off the other night, too.”

“Yeah. Before gunmen ran into the stadium and started—”

“You were hitting it off. And you know you were. Man, have you even spoken to her since… since what happened?”

I felt guilt building inside. Truth was, I hadn’t spoken to Ellicia since the attack at the stadium. I knew I probably should. She’d been through a traumatic event—all of us had. It was something that’d stay with us ’til the day we passed away.

But truth was, I’d had other things on my mind.

Like being an ULTRA.

“I mean, the party’s coming up. And she did mention that, didn’t she?”

I shook my head and walked away. “The party’s not an option.”

Damon punched my arm. “Of course the party’s an option, asshole. Especially now you’ve climbed the cool stakes.”

“I didn’t exactly do anything heroic in that stadium,” I lied.

“No, maybe not—well,
obviously
not—you’re Kyle Peters. But you’ve got the whole mystery vibe going on right now. The whole survivor vibe. You should use it, man. Use it before it goes stale. I know I am.”

I stopped walking. “I don’t know. I mean, I want to, but…”

“Then do it. Ask her to the party. Go on. See, she’s over there now.”

I turned around and saw Ellicia walking along with two of her friends, one of them Sally, who was at the game the other night. There were a few bruises on Ellicia’s head. She was smiling, but I could tell it was the kind of smile that wasn’t exactly beaming happiness.

“You did good the other day. We all did good. We did something tougher than any asshole in this school’s had to do. So go up to her. Ask how the girl’s doin’, at least. Not heard of being gentlemanly?”

Damon burped before I had a chance to answer. “No. I guess I’ll have to take lessons from you.”

I didn’t want to go over to Ellicia. Truth was, even though I had ULTRA abilities, I was still the same nervous little loser of a human underneath them.

But Damon was right. This was a chance to start a conversation with her. And I wouldn’t get a better chance than this.

I tightened my fists and walked right over to her.

She saw me when I got close to her. Her blue eyes met mine, glistened in the sunlight. She smiled, and it was the most natural smile I’d seen on her face.

“Hey, Kyle,” she said.

I scratched the back of my neck. Felt my cheeks heating up. “Um, hey. How’s… How’re you?”

“I’m coping. Still… still scares me. You know. How close we came to…” She shook her head. Smiled again. “How’re you keeping?”

I wanted to tell Ellicia the truth. That the attack we’d survived was the least of my concerns and attention right now. I didn’t want to lie to this girl. But I knew I had to do that to keep myself safe. To keep her safe. “I’m holding up,” I said.

“You look… good.”

My tongue felt heavy. I’d never been told that by a girl before. What the hell was I supposed to say in return? “Thanks,” I managed.

There was silence between us for a few seconds, which dragged on, and I wondered whether thanking her for the compliment was the best way I could’ve gone about this when I had an urge to bring up the party. “Hey, I… After everything, it looks like I maybe might go maybe to the party maybe.”

Ellicia’s smile widened. Maybe might go maybe maybe? What the hell was I thinking?

“That’s good,” Ellicia said. “You know, I was thinking about not bothering. Might just kick back at home. Get a few pizzas. If you…”

She didn’t say anything else. Just lowered her head. Looked at the ground. I sensed that she wanted me to ask her something, or say something, but the truth was I was still struggling to accept I’d just admitted I was going to the party. I didn’t know what to say. Not one bit. Just that I had to
ask
her. I had to ask her to come to the party with me.

“Oh. Well, I, erm. Maybe I—”

That was all I managed.

I felt a nudge in my back.

I was pleased for the interruption until I saw who it was.

Mike Beacon towered over me. There was a different look in his eyes, though. He wasn’t looking at me like he usually did. Neither were his two friends behind him. He was looking at me with a flat smile. Nodding his head. “Hey, Kyle,” he said.

I wasn’t sure I’d ever heard Mike Beacon ever say the words, “Hey, Kyle.” What a weird day this was turning out to be. “Um, hey,” I said.

Mike Beacon scratched the back of his neck. “Listen, man. What happened. At the soccer stadium. That shit was rough.” He let that hang. “Guess I just wanted to say I’m glad you’re back.”

Mike Beacon didn’t look me in the eyes, but I could feel myself smiling. Mike was actually drawing a line under the shit that’d happened between him and me. No, his bullying. That’s what it was, no matter how I dressed it up. Bullying.

“That’s cool,” I said, pretending it wasn’t that big a deal to me. “Thanks. I guess.”

Mike nodded. He went to turn around. And then he stopped. “Oh, there was somethin’, though.”

He pulled his phone out of his pocket. Tapped on it a few times.

And then he swung it right into my face so fast I had to step back to avoid it hitting my nose.

“Looks like you’re famous again, shitty-ass!”

I heard Mike and his friends laughing. But all I could see, all I could feel, was that video playing in front of me.

It was footage on YouTube. Footage from the attack.

And there I was. Standing still in the crowd.

Bottom lip poking out, like a little baby.

Tears rolling down my cheeks.

“That look!” Mike said, laughing. “Just look at that little baby face there!”

I listened to them laughing and felt the anger and the embarrassment building within.

I looked past the video at Mike. I looked at his neck. I pictured myself tightening my grip around it. Pictured myself punching him. Hard.

The video started to blur.

The phone dropped from his hands.

Smashed against the ground.

He turned and looked at it, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to control my anger anymore.

I felt the tingling take over my body and went to pull back my fist.

“You evil shit!”

It wasn’t me that said those words.

It was Ellicia.

She stepped around me. Slapped Mike Beacon across the face, silencing his laughing right away.

“After everything we went through, after the things we saw… how dare you. How dare you.”

Mike Beacon clutched his cheek. Ellicia disappeared back to her friends, tears in her eyes.

“What?” Mike said, looking at me, red-faced.

I wanted to tell him what. I wanted to
show
him what.

But I knew I couldn’t.

If Mike Beacon saw what I was capable of, my world would be over.

If
anyone
saw what I was capable of, my world would be over.

So I let Mike Beacon walk away. I held back, once again.

But I could feel myself getting closer and closer to snapping.

It wouldn’t be long until I did.

It wouldn’t be long until I
had
to.

I
wasn’t planning
on playing around with my powers much after discovering I had them. Honestly.

But for some reason, I found myself walking to Dad’s garage again later that night, the anger of the incident with Mike Beacon earlier welling up inside.

It was dryer tonight at least, so Dad wouldn’t be down here checking on the dodgy roof at Peters’ Parts. I’d managed to work out that was why he went there in the first place. He said he was planning on heading back down here to sort the dodgy window out at some point, but he’d been very hush-hush about it all. Didn’t want to go into too much information. I knew I had to hurry. I didn’t have long to play with my powers.

I’d got lucky in front of Dad once. Again? I’d been way too lucky overall lately. I wasn’t going to take any chances.

I saw the garage up ahead and felt relief. I was a little bloated after just eating pizza back at home, and the taste of it kind of made me want to throw up when combined with the excitement I felt about trying out my powers again. It was strange, really. As much as I didn’t want to use my powers in public, I needed a release. Kind of like masturbation. I was just playing around. Bringing myself to the brink.

And, well. Public masturbation was never a good idea. I might be pretty closeted from the naughtiness of the world, but I knew that much.

Much to my parents’ relief, I gathered.

Just a loser. Not a public jerk-off loser. The lesser of two evils.

I crossed the road toward the garage and looked around. Pretty empty once again. In the distance, I could hear the sound of a boat blowing its horn, coming in from Manhattan. Over the sea on Manhattan, you could genuinely hear the chatter even though it was far away. It was like the city was alive. That’s one thing that made New York unlike any other city on earth. I supposed I should be grateful, but I was kinda glad to be growing up in the forgotten cousin area over the water.

I was about to vault over the fence when I heard a scream to my right.

“No, please! Please don’t—Please!”

I saw the woman standing by the ATM. She was wearing a brown cashmere coat. Two masked men surrounded her. One of them was holding her back. The other was trying to snatch her leather handbag away from her.

I felt the mixture of emotions build up inside as I witnessed this mugging. Part of me wanted to go over there. To help this woman. I had the power to do so, so what right did I have to just leave her to be robbed?

But on the other hand, I was afraid.

I was afraid that I’d be spotted. That my powers would be publicly known.

More than anything, I was afraid that I’d been lucky up to now. That I’d been on a lucky streak with my powers, and it was only a matter of time before they got the better of me, failed me.

“That—that necklace. My mom gave it me. Please… take everything. Just not… Just not…”

I saw the man in front snatch the necklace from the woman’s neck. The man behind her laughed, then leaned in and kissed her.

I felt it inside me right then. Felt that spark, right up my spine, up the back of my neck.

This woman. I couldn’t just leave her to be robbed. I couldn’t let these men take something precious away from her.

So I pulled my black hood up. Pulled it right over my eyes.

I felt all the anger I’d ever felt inside. I felt all the pain tingling in my body.

And then I hurtled down the street towards the scene of the robbery.

The angrier I got, the more scared and uncertain I got of what I was doing, the faster I seemed to be moving. My legs were so fast that they were a blur. Within seconds, I was right next to the robbers, to the woman.

One of the robbers—the one who’d been holding the woman by her neck—looked at me. “What—”

I smashed my fist into his jaw.

I couldn’t believe the force I’d caused with my bare hand. The man’s jaw cracked out of its socket. His head went flying to one side. His entire body smashed into the wall that the ATM was built into. He fell to the ground and went still.

I breathed heavily. I was still stunned at what I’d done. I’d punched a man with the force to knock a wall down… and my knuckles weren’t even hurting.

I looked up. Saw the woman staring at me, mouth wide.

And then I saw the second attacker running away, the woman’s necklace and bag in his hand.

“Please. I—”

“Don’t worry,” I said, suddenly aware of just how undisguised I was, how exposed I was. I adjusted my hood. Made sure it was completely covering my face. “I’ll get your things back.”

I forced that anger and upset from my past to resurface and then I ran after the second assailant.

I could feel the power in every single step as I rushed towards the man. I felt myself getting to grips with the powers. Scarier than anything, I could feel myself getting more comfortable with them. I was an ULTRA. There was no denying that. And no ULTRA should be getting comfortable with their powers. Not in this world.

But I was doing a good thing.

I was using my powers for good. To help a woman in the street.

And more than that—I, Kyle Peters, was using my
self
for good. I was doing something brave. Something batshit crazy.

When could I ever say I’d done a thing like this in my life before?

I smacked into the second robber’s back. It didn’t take much to knock him down. I twisted him around with my mind. Pulled back my fist.

“Please!” the robber said. He held up his hands. Blood trickled from his lips. “Just—just take ’em. Take ’em!”

He held the bag and the necklace in my direction. His face mask had ripped so I could see that he was just a person. Just a terrified human being who’d done a bad thing.

“Don’t ever let me see you around here again,” I said. My voice sounded deeper. More assertive. Damn, I actually sounded
cool
.

“I won’t,” the man said. “Don’t you worry about that.”

I lowered my fist and I stood. The man got up soon after, and he limped off down the quiet street, looking over his shoulder to check I wasn’t chasing.

I waited ’til he was out of sight, then I picked up the handbag and the necklace.

I ran back to the woman’s side. Held the handbag and the necklace out to her.

“My necklace,” she said. She was half smiling, half sad. “It’s… He broke it.”

I wanted to put it back together. I knew I could. I had the ability to do it if I tried really hard.

But I couldn’t make myself look any more ULTRA. I couldn’t make this woman suspicious.

“Thank you,” she said. She looked me in my eyes. “Thank you so much. What’s your…”

Before she could finish the question, I was already halfway down the street.

I couldn’t deny I felt good. I couldn’t deny I’d done something amazing. Something more amazing than I’d done in my entire life.

If only I knew right then that I’d made my first major error.