Alex began to panic. For every thought that said, No, this is wrong, there was an equal force inside him saying, Don’t you want to just climb into your old bed and forget all this ever happened? He couldn’t tell if it was his mother’s doing or his own subconscious.
“Stop trying to soften me up with old memories.” He rubbed the side of his head and steeled himself. “It won’t work.”
“That wasn’t my intention. I just miss this place. This time. With my son.” His mother leaned against his desk, dressed now in her Cloak mission attire, and looked with admiration at an origami swan cradled in her hand.
“I guess it must be a strange sensation to suddenly be home after being gone for so long,” she continued. The swan began to flap its white, blue-lined wings and glide through the air. “This was one of the first pieces I taught you to make after your powers developed. You went through half a notebook before you got it right using your telekinesis, but we were both so thrilled when you’d done it. Your father, too. Do you remember that?”
“This isn’t my home anymore,” Alex said, ignoring her question. “Why are we here?” His voice was loud and caused the air around them to pop with blue sparks. He tried to calm himself down and think rationally, but he didn’t even know how to begin to do that. They were inside his head. None of this was real. And yet, it felt real. And all the anger he’d built up against his mother and Cloak and his past was now all mixed up with the smell of recycled air and the sight of the room he’d spent most of his life in.
“For you to remember,” Shade said. “What it was like before everything went wrong. All the dreams and hopes we had. How proud and useful and safe you felt down here. It’s been difficult for you since you’ve been gone. I don’t have to be a telepath to know that—it’s written on your face.”
Alex remained silent. He was tired. Even if he put on a brave appearance for all the others. A feeling of longing welled up inside him, and he had the sudden urge to hug his mother. He bit his tongue, dispelling the emotion and reminding himself that this was all just some weird delusion. He couldn’t trust anything here. Not any strange feelings, and certainly not his mother.
“You’ve been trying to outrun your past, Alex, but the past will always be there. It’s one of the few things in life that’s permanent. You can try to cover it up all you want. You can put on a new uniform and do everything the opposite of how we raised you, but your history is still there.” She waved her hand around his room. “It’s here. Unchanged in your memories. A part of who you are.”
She motioned to the mirror above the sink in the corner. In his reflection, he was wearing a Cloak uniform, the silver skull grinning at him. But it wasn’t just in the mirror—his clothes had changed. He reached up to his chest and let his fingers trace the hard outline of Cloak’s mark, as he’d done hundreds of times before.
Shade bent down and picked something up off the floor, then walked over to her son.
“If you’ll allow me,” she said, reaching out to his shoulder. Alex flinched. “Don’t worry. I’m not going to hurt you. I just want to make sure you’re complete.”
She placed two silver bars on each of his shoulders, the markings of rank within the Cloak Society he’d ripped off and left behind the night he’d decided to flee the underground base and warn Kirbie of the impending attack on Justice Tower. The bars fastened themselves to the coat as if by magic, glinting under the fluorescent light.
“There now,” Shade said. “All better.”
“You’re wrong,” he said. “It’s what I do now that matters. Not my past.”
Shade reached out a hand, slowly, and tousled Alex’s hair.
“My brilliant son. You’re right, of course.” She smiled at him before stepping away to the door that led out of the room. “Come with me, Alex. I want you to see something.” The door slid open. The paper swan flew after her.
The exit opened not into the concrete-and-steel hallway of the underground base, but a huge open space of dark marble and pillars. The walls were made of glass, looking out at the sunny skyline of Sterling City. There was something familiar about the place that Alex at first couldn’t pin down, until he realized that it was strikingly similar to the twelfth floor of Justice Tower, where Cloak had left him to die as the building had begun to fall apart.
It took his breath away.
“It’s only an imagining of what it will look like eventually, but it’ll have to do. We’ve only just had the groundbreaking, after all.”
Shade was now dressed in her Ranger uniform. She stood beneath a gold starburst that floated high above her in the center of the room. It spun slowly, casting a warm spotlight around her.
“Of course it won’t just be Sterling City,” she said, gesturing to the outside world. “Pick a place. Anywhere you like. You’ve spent your whole life in this city. Don’t you think it’s time to travel a bit? We have people everywhere, Alex. Our core has always been here, underground, but our reach is farther than you could imagine. We have plants all over the country, all over the world. Sterling City was always just the first rung of the ladder.”
Outside, the buildings flickered and morphed. He and his mother were in Los Angeles, and then Chicago, then looking out at Big Ben and the Eiffel Tower, the streets of Moscow and glittering lights of Tokyo. Alex’s head spun, not just because of the rotating skylines, but the implication behind each change: Cloak’s headquarters could be in any of these places. Their rule could span continents.
“Let’s get down to business, Alexander. What I’m offering you is a free pass. A clean slate. I’m giving you the chance to rejoin our ranks with no questions asked. We can put the events of the last few weeks behind us.”
“I don’t want—,” he started.
“Just hear me out.”
“I thought you’d have come up with something new by now. I’m not coming back to Cloak to be your mindless slave.”
“You misunderstand,” Shade said. “I’m not offering you a place back on the Beta Team with the promise that one day you’ll be in charge. I’m offering you a place on the High Council. Not as my subordinate, but as my peer. Not as someone who takes orders but as someone whose thoughts will shape the future of this world. Look at everything you’ve done in the past month. Even though it was all against us, I’m impressed by what you’ve accomplished. You were obviously born to lead, Alex. And as you know, the High Council is a little low on membership these days.”
The origami swan flew in front of Alex’s face and landed on an outstretched palm. Phantom’s. She’d appeared out of nowhere. The woman smiled at the bird. She looked up to Alex, and then both she and the paper turned an inky black and flaked apart, drifting through the air and into the shadows of the room.
“That was an accident,” he said firmly, but his hands were trembling at his sides.
“Was it?” she asked. “If you say so. Do you know what she said to me, when I was in her head just before she melted away? She pledged her allegiance to Cloak for the last time. ‘For the Glory,’ and then she was gone.” Shade’s voice was firm but her eyes looked sad. “Even in her final breaths she could think only of us. Her family. The common good. If you really regret what happened to her, what better way is there of showing that than by honoring her dying words?”
Alex said nothing. His knees shook.
“Just think of it, Alex,” his mother continued. “You’d be ordering Titan and Julie around. I know you’d like that. You could do anything you wanted. Could be anyone you wanted.” She pointed to his chest. His Cloak attire had been replaced with a Ranger uniform. “Even a Ranger. You could create your own team.”
In the place where Phantom had stood, a long table materialized. Gathered around it were Kirbie and Gage and all the others he’d spent the last month training with and fighting alongside. All of them were dressed as Rangers and staring at the head of the table, where Alex now stood. His mouth fell open. Their eyes widened, waiting to hang on his every word.
&nb
sp; “It’s a tempting offer, isn’t it?” Shade whispered, suddenly beside him. “We don’t have to go through the bother of fighting today. You can prevent any more casualties in this rebellion against us. Come and rule by my side, Alex.”
“And what about them?” He pointed to the others sitting at the table. “Are they to be reprogrammed to be my servants?”
“Half of them would follow you on their own. You must know that by now. They’d need only the slightest nudging. The others could be taught to appreciate what we’re doing.”
“You’re asking me to betray my friends and what I think is right.”
“I’m asking you to come home,” Shade said. “You’ve seen how easy it was for this city to turn over everything to us. And it’s been, what, only a month? The city has embraced us. The world will welcome us.” She stepped closer to him. “Your father and I miss you. I want my son to stand beside me in the spotlight. To love me.” Her voice started to wobble. Alex thought she might cry. “To love me as I love him.”
Alex didn’t say anything, just stared at the ground. He was afraid to open his mouth. If he did, he wasn’t sure what would come out. For a moment, nothing else mattered—not the future, or the past, or even his teammates. The only thing in the world was Alex and his mother and the glimmer of a future where they lived happily alongside each other. As a family.
And then the reality of the situation crushed him. She was talking about brainwashing his friends. About taking over the world. This whole thing in his head was a setup. She was probably just acting.
And even if she wasn’t, he’d seen what she’d done to Sterling City. She—the Cloak Society—had to be stopped.
“For a long time, I wanted nothing more than to please you and the rest of the High Council,” Alex said. “Sometimes I just wanted to be a normal boy, with a normal family. To not have to worry about entire cities. And these past few weeks—I’ve missed you and Dad. You’re my family. You’ll always be my family.” He raised his eyes to hers. “But that doesn’t mean I have to agree with you. Now . . . now I just want to be me.”
“You can be, my son.” Shade’s eyes were wide, bordering on manic. “You can be the best you. Alexander the king. The warrior. The savior! The tyrant! Don’t you see the endless opportunities before you? You can have anything you want. Just say the words.”
“I’ll try my best to make sure you don’t get hurt.” Energy started pouring from his eyes.
“What?” Shade asked, breathless with anticipation.
“Mother,” Alex said as his fingers curled into fists. “Get out of my head.”
The air exploded with blue energy, sending Shade smashing through one of the windows and out into nothingness. She disappeared as the room began to fall apart around Alex, the floor and ceiling crumbling until there was nothing there but a haze of blue energy all around him. Just energy and a single word, his mother’s voice, in his head and all around him.
Disappointment.
His eyes shot open as he gasped for air.
“Whoa,” Mallory said. “Are you okay?”
Alex took a few deep breaths, looking around. No one seemed to have moved much since he’d last seen them. It was as if no time had passed at all.
“How long have I been standing here?” he asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe a few minutes? I thought you were just focusing on getting the shield up. Is everything okay?”
“Yeah,” Alex said. “Everything’s fine.”
He blinked a few times, trying to calm himself down, but every time he closed his eyes, he saw the skylines of different cities. Cloak operatives across the world, his mother had said. When he’d met her on the stage at the groundbreaking, he’d been afraid to really use his powers against her. But now he knew he couldn’t be afraid. He had to do everything he could to stop Cloak. The world depended on him, and on his team.
“You guys,” Bug said, his eyes shining. “They’re coming.”
21
VICTORY PARK
The New Rangers emerged from the trees, all four of them walking with chins held high, the golden starbursts on their chests gleaming in the sunlight. Shade’s eyes rested on her son for only a beat before scanning over the others. She gave no indication that they’d just had a lengthy conversation inside his head. For a second he wondered if he’d dreamed the whole thing.
They stopped just past the trees. Volt’s fingers twitched at his sides, sparks of purple falling from them. Titan carried a metal case, his expression smug. Photon’s face was blank, ready for his master’s commands.
“We’ve got Omegas flanking us,” Bug said. “Legion to the east and Novo to the west.”
“We know our targets,” Amp said quietly. “Stick to them, but keep an eye on your teammates.”
“You know,” Shade said, “we were going to let you enjoy your freedom a little while longer.”
“We won’t sit idly by while you plot to take over the world,” Lone Star said, stepping forward and pointing a finger at them.
“Spoken like a true Ranger. I must say, Star, that I’ve missed your unique sense of bravado. Pity you don’t look so well.” She turned to Photon. “EMP.”
The brainwashed Ranger closed his eyes and shot his arms out. Alex’s earpiece powered down. Just as Gage had predicted, their electronics were wiped out by a single electromagnetic pulse.
“Well that didn’t take long,” Alex murmured.
“Electronics are out across the park,” Photon said.
“Excellent,” Shade said. “Titan, if you please.”
Alex tensed up. Titan flipped up two levers on the case in his hand, and lifted the top open.
“Insulated against electromagnetic waves,” Gage said. “That must be the Umbra Gun.”
“I know what you’re all thinking,” Shade said, wagging a finger. “You’ll just pry this gun out of my fingers and take it, right? First of all, Photon can keep it in my hands. But just in case . . .” She pointed to a silver cuff on one of her wrists. “There’s a small microchip buried inside all this metal. The gun is rigged to become an Umbra Bomb should the need arise.” She pulled out the weapon, holding it up for everyone to see. “But it’ll also go off if the gun isn’t within five feet of me at all times. You take it, and everything goes boom. All of us and half of Sterling City are in another plane of existence. Now, if anyone wants to go ahead and give up, it’ll save everyone a lot of trouble. Honestly, I don’t know why you’ve bothered with all this. Even if you succeeded in defeating us, the entire city would be against you.”
“You don’t get it,” Lone Star said with a smile. “We’re not here to beat you. We’ve already done that.”
Shade said nothing, but one of her eyes twitched.
“You gave us a way to win,” Alex said. “You told me yourself. Cloak had never intended to become Rangers.”
“What—,” Shade started.
“We have video and photo evidence connecting the Cloak Society and the New Rangers,” Lone Star said. “You and Barrage out in public together. Volt and Phantom running errands.”
“Titan in his Cloak uniform throwing a fire hydrant at me,” Kirbie added.
“It’s already mailed out to every government agency and media outlet in the state. And beyond.”
“As we speak, our operatives are hand-delivering it to the CIA, FBI—even letters you’ve never heard of.” Lux couldn’t help but smirk.
That was mostly true. Their “operatives” were really just Carla in a rental car driving to the closest big city with copies of the footage they’d put together and what the commissioner had sent to her office.
“You’re done,” Lone Star said. “This whole sham is over. We didn’t broadcast it because we figured it’d cause you to run. We’re only here to make sure you don’t slither away and come back in another ten years.”
Confusion fell across all of the New Rangers’ faces. Shade took a step forward, sneering.
“You’re lying.”
&n
bsp; “Read our minds,” Alex said. “It’s over.”
His mother was enraged. Then she laughed. “You may have changed our plans, but we are far from beaten,” Shade spat. “We’ve made our way this far and by God, I won’t stop fighting until this entire world is bowing before me. I am a third-generation member of the Cloak Society, and I will destroy this city before I give it back to the Rangers.”
For a brief pause, her speech reminded Alex of one he’d given on the steps of Silver Bank. Then the sound of his mother’s voice overwhelmed him. At first he thought she was screaming in his mind, but then realized that it was his ears that were being assaulted.
“I am a third-generation member of the Cloak Society, and I will destroy this city before I give it back to the Rangers.”
He turned to see Amp standing behind him with his palms held up to the sky. Shade’s voice boomed out of his body, echoing her speech through the park and out into the streets. Alex stared dumbly at the Junior Ranger, who smiled before letting loose the entire monologue again.
“I will destroy this city.”
Anyone within a half mile would hear it.
Shade’s body began to tremble with rage. She spoke only a few words.
“No quick exits.”
Alex’s father grinned. He raised one arm. A bolt of crackling purple electricity flew through the air so quickly that it was nothing but a flash to Alex as it passed by him. Misty had just enough time to gasp before the electric blast hit her, snaking over her body. She let out a strange, startled noise before falling backward, her curly red hair frizzed out around her.
“Misty!” Alex yelled out.
The Cloak Society charged.
In all his training, Alex had never been on the field with so many different people at once. It could easily devolve into chaos, but they had a plan. Kyle disappeared into the trees. Kirbie made a beeline toward Titan, in her wolf form, her teeth chomping at the air in anticipation of attack. Alex and Amp sprinted toward Shade. Lone Star carried Misty off the field while the others stayed back, ready to take on the Omegas.