Chapter Twenty-three #3
I cracked my neck and smiled. Time to stop playing defense.
As the guard came at me with another punch, I ducked under, stepped inside his guard, and drove my elbow into the unprotected spot beneath his chin.
His head snapped back, and I followed through with a roundhouse kick that caught him in the ribs.
He staggered before falling. All right, I’m done with this.
“Thanks for the dance.” I drew my powers and knocked him out with a quick zap of purple current. So what if I played dirty? I had powers for a reason.
I spun to see Gabby taking on two guards at once.
Her strikes were fast and ruthless. She kept them busy, buying time for Nick.
He’d already gotten to Jack and now rushed him toward Annie.
Jay dropped the guard near Rash, then vanished and reappeared just in time to knock out another guard who’d almost reached Nick from behind.
“Jack!” Annie cried, reaching out to hold her son.
Blood dripped from Park’s nose, painting her white red.
There wasn’t a clean spot left on her suit.
Was she missing her front tooth? Damn! She tried to make a break for it in the confusion but found herself trapped.
She was cornered in front of Gabby, arching forward to keep her back from touching the wall of crackling electricity Kevin had created.
Her head snapped from side to side, searching wildly for something. Anything. Then she saw him. “Rash!” she yelled, pointing at the five beds. “Activate their kill chips! Do it now!”
But Rash just leaned against the control panel, examining his nails. “Oh, right. About those chips . . .” He looked up, grinning. “I might’ve made some modifications. You’ll find killing them won’t work.”
“You traitor! Piece of shit! All of you Luminaries. I hate you!” Park yanked up her sleeve and pressed a button.
Within seconds, new Luminaries poured in .
. . but these were different. Their eyes were empty, glazed like Andrew’s had been when his nanites activated.
My God, they were hijacked. Fresh power radiated from them in surges that buzzed right through my body.
But it wasn’t just them. On the monitors, all the Luminaries who’d been fighting on our side were now standing still . . . at the ready. Park hit the button again before Gabby could stop her. The building rocked with an explosion, and the puppet Luminaries attacked with full force.
“Ryan!” Kevin shouted. “This is all you.”
I nodded, understanding immediately. While Kevin maintained the electrical barrier around our unconscious friends, I reached out with my enhanced sensing abilities. There . . . I could feel the artificial energy signatures pulsing from the chips in their necks.
A fireball hit me, but I absorbed it before it could hurt me. Didn’t know I could do that. Then, I saw Nick and Jay build a wall of fire to keep a barrier between me and the attacking Luminaries. Okay, Jay. Mimicking again.
“They’re gonna break through eventually, so hurry!” Jay yelled.
“Where’s Annie?” I scanned the room until I found her on the far side, next to Gabby.
I needed her to boost me the way Dr. Ryder had explained, but she’d shut herself in.
Even if she could fight her way through the guards and the protective walls, she was completely focused on finally holding the son she’d lost for months.
Nick shouted to get her attention, but she was lost in a trance, staring at Jack’s face.
We couldn’t get through to her. It left me furious that they’d done this to an innocent child and pissed that they’d forced a mother to endure it.
“Rash, contain the guards!” I shouted. “I need Jay to teleport Annie over here now!”
He looked up. “I can’t control them.”
“Yes, you can.” I struggled to pull the vibrating current from the nearby chips the way I’d done for Andrew what seemed like a lifetime ago. “Stop them the same way you stopped my powers before.”
Purple light streamed from my hands, threading toward each Luminary but not quite reaching. I needed to disable the kill chips and the controlling nanites, but the link wasn’t holding. I shot a pleading look at Rash, but he just shook his head and stepped back.
“I can’t do this!” I panicked.
“Yes, you can, Ryan. You’re strong enough,” Nick said. “You don’t need her.”
Fine. If I couldn’t use her power, I’d use my own rage. I glared at Rash for leaving me stranded too and channeled my frustration. Dropping to the floor, I blocked everything out except the energy linking me to those chips. Unleash it, Ryan. Come on. Be chaotic.
“Damn. I’m overthinking it.” I stared at the purple strands of light dispersing outward from my hands, crawling across the floor.
I saw some of them reach Jenny, Beth, Andrew, Anali, and Antonio.
Then it went farther, past the wall of fire, hundreds of tiny strands stretching out.
I could see them on the monitors. Yes! They spread further, branching out in every direction—but then came the resistance.
The hijacked Luminaries were fighting my attempt to free them. Their movements were becoming more erratic. One of them managed to send a blast of ice toward us, but Kevin appeared in its path, teleporting it back where it came from. He looked at me. “You liked that? Bet you can’t do it, Rylexa.”
I gritted my teeth as a surge of deeper purple flared out. “Hmm.”
“Where’s your wrath?” He pointed at Ava. “She did this to you. To everyone. She took Jack. Look at them.” He pointed at our friends. “LOOK AT THEM!”
I felt the anger rise as I reached even farther, trying to attack one chip at a time .
. . but I failed. I thought I’d be able to focus if I could knock them out progressively, but the connection snapped each time.
It had to be all or nothing. I turned to Rash, my jaw clenched. “Why won’t you stop them, dammit?”
“I can’t! I can’t stop them but let me try this.” He placed his hands on mine, his eyes burning orange. He interfaced with the building’s systems, channeling more power my way . . . and out?
“How?” I asked.
“I’m using satellites to reach their chips globally.”
“Talk me through it. I need to understand what you’re doing.” I tried to control my breathing. “Please. I’m having a hard time.”
“I can interface directly with any technological frequency.” Rash kept pulling power from me and feeding it into the system. “I can see the energy patterns flowing through the circuits and redirect them how I want.” His grip tightened. “You need to hurry.”
“I’m seeing it! I’m seeing it. What else can you do? With the patterns? Tell me so I can—just tell me how . . . with the satellites.”
“I redirect them and rewrite their code—mentally, I guess. I can will it to happen. It’s all just energy manipulation. The satellites are just bigger, more complex circuits. Like a giant network that I can tap into and control.”
I sighed, closed my eyes, and saw his orange in the network. Felt it. The purple and fiery light fused together, intensifying. It spread like lightning across the floor and walls, flashing across the monitors, and bleeding even beyond . . .
“Everyone, brace yourselves!”
I let go.
The surge exploded outward in a massive wave of purplish-red energy. The lights in the building flickered wildly as I pulled every bit of electricity, every ounce of artificial control, into myself. The controlled Luminaries dropped to their knees as their nanites overloaded.
“Kevin!” I said, struggling to contain the building pressure. “I need you!”
He appeared at my side instantly, and Rash stepped away. Kevin’s hands found mine, and together we created a circuit so I could also disable the kill chips. The excess energy flowed between us, and his natural affinity for electricity helped stabilize the overwhelming power Rash had fed into me.
Blue lightning merged with my purple glow, creating an aurora-like effect that filled the room.
The medical equipment monitoring our friends sparked and died, but I could sense their vitals strengthening as the sedatives’ hold weakened.
I was a healer, too. All I needed to do was will the mind control to be gone. And so I did.
“That’s impossible,” Park said, watching as Andrew’s eyes cleared for the first time. “The control chips are hardwired to their nervous systems! They’re hypnotized at a cellular level.”
“Impossible is kind of our thing,” Annie said, finally snapping out of it.
Nick had gone back to Jack, holding him with one arm while maintaining his fire barrier—but this time to block Park’s exit. Around us, the formerly hijacked Luminaries were regaining consciousness, looking around in confusion.
“It’s over, Ava,” I said. “No more chips. No more control.”
“You think this changes anything?” Her laughter grew louder and louder. “I still have the satellite network. I can still—”
“About that,” Rash interrupted. His eyes blazed bright as every screen in the room lit up, showing lines of code racing past. “While everyone was focused on the light show, I’ve been busy rewriting your entire system.”
“You can’t! The backup coding—”
“Was designed by me,” he said, cutting her off. “Did you really think I’d create a system I couldn’t override?”
I turned to check on our friends. Jenny’s eyes were fluttering open. Beth was already trying to sit up. The twins were stirring. But it was Andrew who spoke first, his voice hoarse but clear:
“Get her away from my family.”