“We have to help them. Now,” Kirbie said, turning to the others. She kicked off her shoes in preparation. “I can fly one of you there.”
“Take Gage,” Alex said. “He knows the Umbra Gun and the bomb attachment. He can stop it.”
“No,” Gage said. “You go. I’ll be useless in combat. Besides, I am not marked. One shot from the Umbra Gun and I’m lost in the Gloom. Stall them. We’re right behind you.”
“Guys, there’s a truck right there,” Misty said, pointing over Alex’s shoulder.
“Perfect,” Alex said, starting to run toward the truck. “I can—”
One of the truck’s windows shattered, interrupting him. He turned to see Kirbie, standing by a sidewalk planter that was now missing a brick from its side.
“Leave them to it,” she said to Alex. She turned to Gage. “Hurry.”
Kirbie was already transforming, the arms of her suit peeling back as her limbs morphed into giant wings.
She flew into the air, circled around, and clamped her talons onto Alex’s shoulders. He gasped as they took to the sky. In any other circumstance, he would have marveled at the sweeping view of Sterling City, the trees racing by beneath his dangling feet, the building lights blurring into streaks of blue as they flew. But his mind was firmly locked on the tower ahead. Small explosions could be seen inside, accompanied by reflections of purple energy and sudden, searing bursts of pure white light that must have been coming from Lone Star.
As they drew closer, a twelfth-floor window shattered and a figure clad in black flew into the night, a thick vine wrapped around his waist. It was Titan, who thrashed about and tried to pull himself back inside using the vine as a rope, but it began to shrink in size and snapped, sending Titan plummeting toward the earth. He shouted a garbled curse as he fell, then hit the ground with a tremendous clang, the cement cracking for yards around him.
Titan was down, but Alex doubted that was permanent. He was close enough now to see inside the tower, and his eyes widened as he tried to take in as much of the scene as possible before he was plopped into the thick of it. On the west side of the room, Kyle hid behind a veritable wall of overgrown, moving houseplants. Mallory was wrapped up in heavy vines that she’d frozen solid, and Julie dodged blasts of sound from Amp. He wore jeans and a plain white undershirt—clearly Cloak had caught them by surprise.
Kirbie let out a shrieking call from her beaked mouth and flew through the broken window. She dropped Alex, who landed crouched on one knee. Transforming in midair, she was her human self by the time her feet touched the ground, already running. She called over her shoulder to Alex.
“I have to help my brother. Find the gun.”
The ground was covered in bits of debris, the white marble floors scorched and pockmarked. Pillars ringing the center of the space were missing hunks of stone. On the east side of the room, Lone Star was taking on Phantom, Volt, and Barrage. He flew with incredible agility, making the most of the high ceilings and dodging their attacks. Bright beams of light shot from his hands, threatening to incinerate his opponents. All four of them were looking the worse for wear, with tears and rips and smoking holes in their uniforms. Lone Star’s cape had been reduced to shreds, with scorched scraps hanging from both shoulders.
The other two adult Rangers were notably absent from the fray.
Pieces of splintered wood lay scattered about the center of the room, remnants from the table where the Rangers held meetings. On the north side, opposite Alex, was an elevator bank, near a golden staircase that connected the floors above and below. And there, scowling at him beneath gleaming silver eyes, stood Alex’s mother.
ALEXANDER!
The word roared in his head. Around him, all the combatants, both Cloak and Ranger, flinched as his name rang through their minds as well. Heads spun toward him. The members of the Cloak Society looked down at him with disgust, except for Mallory, whose face was a mixture of pleading and confusion. Kirbie, in her wolf form, used the moment of distraction to toss Julie across the floor and make her way to Kyle.
“I thought you had him under control,” Barrage yelled at Shade. “Take care of your son!”
It was then that Alex noticed what was in his mother’s hands. He recognized it from Gage’s sketches. The barrel was thick and connected to a rectangular box—the storage container for the dark energies that served as its ammunition—that was dotted with electronic displays. What appeared to be a metal rib cage was snapped to the top of the box, giving it a skeletal look. On top of the attachment, something shimmered brilliantly. It was the Excelsior I, the diamond that Alex had helped Cloak steal weeks before. A perfect thermal conductor, Gage had said.
Shade fired the weapon at Alex, and a glowing orb of dark purple mass exited the barrel, accompanied by a low, deep electronic sound. It flew toward Alex, and he dove to the right, throwing himself to the ground while pushing energy toward the bullet. He managed to knock it from its trajectory just enough so that it flew past him and splattered against a window. The tempered glass went dark before appearing to liquefy and fall away into nothing. A blast of wind shot in from outside.
But hitting him was probably never Shade’s intention. Alex’s head now buzzed with static. He turned to see his mother, arm outstretched and pointing at him, her eyes shining. She was trying to incapacitate him, or at least throw him off enough that he was unable to use his powers to their full ability. And it was working. Alex was finding it hard to think, even to stand. Shade smiled and turned her attention—and the gun—back toward Lone Star.
Alex made it to his knees just in time to see Mallory sliding across the floor in front of him, thrown across the room by one of Kyle’s vines. The boy was still behind his plant defenses but was yelling at Kirbie, who traded slashes with Julie in the middle of the room.
“Lux and Photon are gone,” Kyle shouted, frantic. “They did something to them. They just melted away and disappeared.”
Kirbie loosed a deafening howl into the air and leaped at Julie. Meanwhile, Mallory was beginning to pick herself up off the floor.
“What’s going on?” she asked Alex. “Is it true? Did you betray us?”
“Mallory,” he said. “You have to listen to me. You were right. There’s more to this attack than—”
Before Alex could finish, a small, glowing red ball rolled in front of him. Alex and Mallory instinctively jumped away, just ahead of the explosion and shower of marble dust. Barrage ran toward Alex, raising a burning hand as if to strike, but a blast from Amp knocked him to the floor.
There was a great burst of Lone Star’s light from across the room, followed by the sound of Phantom screaming.
“Don’t make me destroy you!” Lone Star shouted at Volt and Phantom. It was odd for Alex to hear him sound so unrehearsed. Unable to save his teammates, the hero was faced with the same situation he’d been in a decade earlier. He might have to kill once again.
Lone Star roared, flinging his arms out wide. His fists blazed along with the starburst emblem on his torso, until all three shot forward in a blinding current of light, knocking Volt and Phantom backward onto the ground with terrifying might.
“Yes!” Kirbie yelled from across the room. She was human again, standing over Julie, who struggled to get up from the ground. “Lone Star, you have to get the gun. If you don’t—”
A long golden pole—part of the railing from the stairway—swung from behind the wall of Kyle’s plants and smacked Kirbie in the back of the head with a clang. She fell to the floor, disoriented, fighting to remain conscious. Titan stepped out from behind the leaves and branches and vines, dragging Kyle behind him. The impact from his twelve-story fall had left large patches of his metal under-skin exposed. Titan looked over at Alex and smiled, delighted to see him there. He tossed Kyle onto the floor a few yards away from Kirbie and ran toward Amp.
The pain in Alex’s head grew as his mother increased the force of her assault on his mind. Her voice started to chant in his head. For the glory
of the Society, I will grow mighty and strong. For we were born to rule the weak, and right a world that’s wrong. Hail Cloak.
“Enough,” Shade yelled at Lone Star. She pointed the gun in his direction. “What do you say we finish this now?”
“You will not win this day,” Lone Star shouted, his body burning brightly. “I stopped you before, and I’ll do it again.”
“You are a formidable opponent,” Shade said, squinting her eyes against his powers. She turned the barrel of the gun to point at Kirbie, still attempting to recover across the room. “But she’s not, is she?”
“No,” Lone Star said, his baritone voice brittle. “She’s just a child.”
Shade smiled.
“What do you think?” she asked. “Can you make it there in time to save her?”
Shade didn’t give him a chance to respond. She pulled the trigger without ever taking her eyes off Lone Star, but her aim was true. A bass sound reverberated through the room as the gun expelled a mass of Phantom’s concentrated energy. Lone Star moved with such speed that he was nothing but a glowing blur passing before Alex’s eyes, a rush of wind and light that reconstituted in front of Kirbie just in time to catch the impact of the shot in the center of his back.
Lone Star fell to his knees. His body glowed bright as he attempted to fight off the energy slowly seeping over him, but it was no use. It spread, inch by inch, over his torso and down his legs, making its way up to his face, which was contorted with pain. Kirbie, horrified, reached her hand out to him.
“Stay back,” Lone Star said, gasping. His eyes were desperate and his body shook.
“No. No, you have to fight it,” Kirbie said, her lips quivering. “Make it stop.”
“Get the others and run,” Lone Star said through strenuous breaths. “Don’t let them take you.”
“No, please,” she said, pleading with him as if he had any choice in the matter.
“Stay true, Kirbie,” he whispered. “You’ve made me proud.”
The dark, oily power washed over Lone Star’s face, entering his mouth and shooting down his throat. He arched his back, parting his lips in a silent shout. His body began to melt away into nothing more than an inky pool. It slid across the marble floor, into the shadows, where it disappeared, sucked into the Gloom. Lone Star was gone.
Across the room, the Cloak Society stood quietly. Shade stared unblinking at the spot where the leader of the Rangers had just stood. Slowly her body began to tremble, and Volt rushed to her side. She was laughing. It was a hysterical, uncontrollable reaction to a lifetime’s work finally paying off. She looked around at her fellow Cloak members. There was no need for words. They were beaming.
A primal scream sounded from across the room—Amp vibrated with anger, channeling sound energy, preparing to unleash a sonic boom. A simple, quick burst of Volt’s purple electricity dropped him to the floor.
“You’re monsters,” Kirbie said, her voice shaking. “All of you.”
“Says the little wolf girl.” Shade laughed, hardly able to speak through her frenzied celebration. Behind her, the rest of Cloak was regrouping in front of the elevator bank. “And I had such high hopes that you would be joining our cause. It seems for the best that we just put you down here and now.”
Alex wanted to scream, but his body and brain would not cooperate. The energy built up inside him, like a kettle threatening to boil over, but despite his best efforts, he was unable to overcome his mother’s interference. He crawled to his knees and slowly made his way across the floor, but Kirbie and the rest of the Junior Rangers were too far away. There was no way he could make it there in time to save them.
“Eeny, meeny,” Alex’s mother said, alternating her aim with each word. “Miney . . .”
A bolt of energy flew through Shade’s shoulder from behind, sending her hunching forward, screaming out in pain. As she fell to the ground, Alex saw Gage at the staircase, a laser pistol in hand. Misty peeked out from behind him. In their elation, Cloak hadn’t noticed the two of them sneak in.
Gage looked as shocked by his actions as the rest of the room. A high-pitched scream from Misty brought the inventor back to his senses as Julie lunged at the two of them, claws first. Misty wrapped her arms around Gage’s waist and closed her eyes. They disintegrated immediately, and Julie landed on the ground, sliding into the side of the staircase.
Kirbie got to her feet and hobbled over to Kyle, who was staring at the Cloak members across from him, shaking.
“It’s okay. Try to get up. We have to go,” she said. But he was in shock and barely responded.
Gage and Misty reconstituted beside Alex.
“Are we all that’s left?” Gage asked. “Did they get Lone Star and the others?”
Alex nodded, blinking his eyes as he stood. The static in his head had suddenly disappeared. The laser shot had broken his mother’s hold on his mind, and he was feeling better with every second.
“The bomb prototype is attached,” Gage continued. “But it doesn’t appear to be activated yet.”
“Take care of Misty,” Alex said, staring down his mother, who was inspecting a smoking hole the size of a dime in her left shoulder. “I’m getting that gun.”
He stood and walked toward the High Council and the Beta Team standing in front of the elevator bank. The energy he’d been gathering while his mother had been blurring his thoughts poured out of him with each step. His emotions ran rampant, and his powers were raging.
“Are you going to beg us to take you back?” Julie asked. “You can start by bowing.”
“What do you expect to do now, take us all on? You and the crying Kid Rangers in the corner? It’s over,” Titan said from his sister’s side, watching Alex walk toward the center of the room.
Alex could feel his mother’s thoughts pressing against his, but he was ready for her this time. He wrapped a thick shield of telekinetic energy around his mind. Shade’s silver eyes grew wide as her thoughts slammed against his mental blocks, her head flinging back at the power of her son’s defenses. She smiled broadly, standing in the center of the group.
“So angry,” Shade said as her eyes returned to normal. They took on a kind, warm appearance as she stared into her son’s. “I’ve trained you well.”
“Do you know what happens now?” Alex asked, looking over his mother’s shoulder at his fellow Beta Team members. “They’re going to use the Umbra Gun to send part of the city into the Gloom. I’m talking about thousands of people gone in an instant. Is this what we’ve been training for? Is that what our birthright is? We’re not running drills or playing capture the flag anymore. This is murder.”
“So?” Titan snorted. “They call us supervillains, you idiot. How will they ever respect us if we don’t live up to their expectations?”
“The sacrifice is for the greater good,” Phantom said. “The reign of Cloak will turn Sterling City into a paradise. Petty crime, murder, theft—all ended.”
“A paradise for us, but that’s all,” Alex said. “You don’t care about the city or the people. All you care about is power. And revenge.”
“Son,” Volt said, his fingers twitching with electricity at his sides. “Stand down.”
“Mallory,” Alex said, pleading now, “you can’t be okay with this. I know you. And if you had any idea how much my mother messed with your mind. . . . They killed your parents, Mal.”
Mallory’s face grew pale, but she didn’t move.
“Will you please shoot him already?” Julie asked.
Shade stepped forward. It was the end, and everyone in the room knew it. The Junior Rangers were all but defeated, and Gage and Misty were poor excuses for soldiers. Their only real opponent was Alex, the boy who had spent most of the battle cowering on the floor, unable to move. The boy who time and again failed to meet expectations or control his powers properly. Whose conflicted allegiance and inability to take action would be his downfall.
“Poor Alexander,” Shade said, raising the gun’s barrel to
once again point it at her son. “You brought this on yourself. Maybe a few years in the Gloom will teach you a lesson.”
“Alex!” Kirbie yelled from behind him.
The Umbra Gun fired, aimed at Alex’s chest, but he stood tall. Thrusting his arm out, he focused on the black, glimmering ball of energy and pushed against it with his mind. It slowed until it came to a stop right in front his outstretched palm, causing his Cloak mark to surface and his hand to freeze. Then he did the only natural thing—the thing that he had perfected in his training sessions. He took the energy and flung it back where it had come from.
Shade realized what was happening before anyone else and jumped to one side as the black mass sailed back at her. Unfortunately for the others, it was impossible for everyone to dodge successfully. The energy struck Alex’s father in the stomach. Volt looked at his wife, his mouth falling open as the darkness washed over him. In a few seconds he was immersed, and his body, like Lone Star’s, melted away.
“Shade?” Phantom asked.
“Leave him for now,” she said. “We’ll get him on the way back.”
She handed the gun off to Titan—it was of no use against her son now.
“Very good,” she said to Alex. “Even now I can see myself in you. In your rage.”
“I am not like you,” he said. “I never will be.”
Alex’s hands fell to his sides, shaking as he focused on the individual members of Cloak, concentrating on the energy crackling around their bodies. Their satisfied expressions were beginning to drop away. Barrage hurled several balls of energy at Alex, but they never came close to hitting him, instead flying away and exploding somewhere on the other side of the room.
Alex had never felt so much raw power. It was as if the very air was under his control, each molecule charged and ready to react to his thoughts. The bits of table and tile and other refuse on the ground were lifting up, floating around him as he raised his outstretched arms. His feet rose off the ground, his body moving slowly into the air, his coat fluttering out at his sides. He thought about Kirbie. And Misty. And Gage. Of how much he cared for all of them, how he couldn’t lose them. He had to save them.