Chapter Thirty-Two - Standing on Broken Glass
They were all at Gideon Enterprises, looking at a dot on a screen. It marked where Vitaly was. They could go after him at any time now. Any time. Hugo looked around the room. Crysta was holding onto his hand, her body very close to his. CJ was chewing on her thumbnail, and Clem was wearing John, eerily giving him that same lazy smile he normally wore. Mr. Hansen, Dr. Arliss, and a newly-repaired Christian were in the room with them, also staring at the dot.
“Let me go with you,” Christian insisted, even though after all the explanation, he was still glaring at Clem/John.
Hugo shook his head, “No. If we mess this up, you’re going to have to be here to protect Gideon Enterprises.”
“But-”
“No,” Hugo responded firmly.
“Oh my god! Let’s go already, this is driving me crazy!” CJ waved the air gun around in her frustration.
“Good luck,” Mr. Hansen said, looking Hugo in the eye. Dr. Arliss nodded, echoing the sentiment.
“Ready CJ?”
“Yes! Yes! Yes! Please come on!” She flailed.
Hugo flipped open his phone and dialed the number.
“Who is this?” Came the clear, stern voice of Vitaly Melnikov. Hugo opened a portal to the coordinates and CJ jumped through as lightning. She leapt into the floor just as the blue monster was turning towards the blast of air that had filled his lab. CJ jumped up behind him, turned solid, and then shot the dart. Before he could turn back toward the source of the sudden pain, she was lightning again and in the floorboards. That’s when Clem charged, ramming into the monster. Hugo quickly created a portal behind them, dropping them both in the Sahara. An arch of lightning jumped through, followed more carefully by Crysta and him. He cringed a little. She was shaking, practically hiding behind him at the sight of Vitaly, and he certainly couldn’t blame her with the nightmare still fresh in her mind. He shook the thought away as he closed the portal to Gideon Enterprises and led her into the desert.
Contrary to what seemed possible, the sky darkened as they entered, rain pouring out of the sudden blackness. The sand hardened, mirroring the sky. Clem slammed his fists into Vitaly’s head, but the tentacles wrapped around him, flinging him like a rag doll. As he stood, CJ turned solid beside Hugo and Crysta and pointed her scepter at the form barreling towards them. Lightning arched into him and he jolted and screamed, smoke rising off of him. But he did not fall.
Hugo forced him back towards Clem with a blast of wind, and then Clem wrestled the monster to the ground. The super-strong hands he was borrowing grabbed one of the tentacles and pulled. It disconnected from the body with a slurp and another roar. The remaining appendages gripped Clem, drawing little red lines in John’s invulnerable skin, and then tossed him aside. CJ let loose another bolt of lightning in response. Hugo focused on the rising winds and spun them around. CJ turned to lightning to avoid the sudden sandstorm, and Crysta hid behind him to shelter herself from the worst of the winds, still tightly gripping her gift. Vitaly was caught up in the growing sandstorm and flung into the air. The entire funnel collapsed and the monster hit the ground with a thud that shook the earth and sent sand flying everywhere.
Clem jumped on top of him again, ripping away another tentacle. Vitaly shook him off again, but it was clear it was with greater difficulty. As he stood, a bolt of lightning from the sky, and one from CJ’s scepter, shot through Vitaly, turning the sand around him to glass. He staggered, falling to his knees. Crysta stepped out from behind Hugo, holding up the spear. She slipped her hand into his, and the Spear of Longinus just hovered there for a second before it flew with blinding speed, piercing through Vitaly’s chest to lodge itself in his heart with surgical precision.
Fire erupted from the screaming monster, turning the sand in its wake to glass. CJ turned to lightning and buried herself. Hugo wasn’t fast enough to create another portal...the fire whooshed around them, Crysta’s fingers tightly laced in his own, deflected by some invisible shield. By her shield.
Vitaly’s scream reverberated in the field of glass, cracking it, and then he collapsed in a heap, a smoldering corpse. Just to be safe, Hugo took his blade and cut off the monster’s head. Clem stood up from half a mile away, brushing himself off. He limped towards them and when he was close enough, Clem discarded John’s smoking body and walked over to look down at Vitaly.
The rain cut off, as if on cue and the clouds parted to reveal the hot sun.
“Well, that wasn’t so hard,” Clem observed, nudging the charred corpse.
Crysta motioned with her hand and the spear leapt out of the monster’s chest and back to her hand. She wrapped it back up in the shroud.
CJ leapt out of the ground, landing on the glass as she turned solid mid-jump. “We did it! We did it! We’re awesome! And we totally saved the planet!”
Clem kept staring down at the body. “I know where Chase is.”
“Let’s make sure he doesn’t follow in Vitaly’s footsteps.” Hugo opened a portal beneath Vitaly’s body and dumped him into the volcano. Clem gave him a location and Hugo opened the portal. Conveniently enough the man was in the room at the time. Hugo vacuumed it. Chase slumped and tumbled out of his chair. Hugo walked over, drew the tip of the sword across the man’s throat, and then dropped him in the volcano as well.
“I’m tired. Let’s go home.” Hugo created another portal to the Phoenix Foundation and everyone stepped through.