Age of Power 1: Legacy (43 page)

I
still had to wait for a moment until my sight cleared from the retina glare.
When I could see again, Rao Kular was gone. All of the bodies were gone. Alan
was the only one left in the parking lot. Angela slowly went up to him. She
looked back at me, lingering for a moment, as if taking me in one last time.
The look in her eyes told me her thoughts. Then she looked down at Alan. He
needed help, now. But she couldn’t get it here.

Damn,
I knew what was coming. Still, I said, “Angela, we can help him together. Don’t
go, please.”

She
looked back to me. She shook her head and said, “No. He needs me, Vaughn. I’m
sorry…”

I
took a lingering look and then I nodded. Alan had been through a Hell I
couldn’t come close to comprehending. Angela turned to Alan, and I heard her
whisper, “Take us home, Alan…take us home.”

In
a flash, they were gone, leaving only a twinkling of fading golden light. I
sighed and turned to the last problem child. I needed to tie Brand up before
he
—

He
was gone, of course.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

I sighed. This was getting ridiculous. It got even more so when
BJ gasped and moved to wrap his arms around my chest in a tight hug. “BJ…what
the…?”

BJ screamed when the burst of super-heated air hit us. A
concussive blast sent us flying into the brick wall of the building. The wall
cracked, and we fell to the ground in a heap. It didn’t hurt, but it knocked
the air out of us. I turned over and saw BJ, barely conscious. The redhead
moaned. His eyes fluttered and closed. The shield flared outwardly as a blue
flash, and then it was gone.

Quickly checking him over, I saw that Brand had burned BJ’s
jacket to ash where his power had hit. Reaching down, I breathed a sigh of
relief when I felt a pulse on his neck. Then I looked at Brand with a mix of
sadness and anger. He was standing there, grinning like a madman. But there was
no real humor in his smile. There was nothing but hate shining in those eyes.

I said, “So what now? We go into a full on fight to the death?”

Brand laughed. “Nah, I think I’ll burn down the town. You love
it so much, only fair I take it from you! Bye!”

I ran at him, praying I’d get a tackle, but he’d been ready and
even at my first step he was already blurring. By the time I turned my head, to
follow his moves, he was running down the road toward the highway. I yelled,
focusing my power to a bolt that would take him off his feet.

He ducked. The bastard ducked!
The trees
behind him cracked and shattered with the blow from the sound blast.
I
started to run across the parking lot, hoping that I could cut through the
forest. If I could get a bead on him, I might be able to stop him.

Seeing BJ’s motorcycle told me what to do next. Moving fast, I
grabbed the motorcycle’s keys from his jacket. A few moments later, I was on
the highway heading to town. I had to keep myself from throwing up when I
passed the bloody slaughter near the highway. It wasn’t going to leave my mind
for years. Not when some of the bodies
were ripped
apart at the limbs.

Pushing on, I saw in the distance that cars and trucks were heading
my way. I could hear sirens and helicopters as well. Good, what few survivors
at Ryan Tech would get the help they
needed.

The miles peeled away quickly, but I was moving against traffic
soon enough. I had to slow down and get off the road. I ran the cycle down the
side, spitting up mud and slushy snow as I passed the oncoming vehicles.
Ignoring the glares and stares, I did my best to not crash into the ditch. High
speed riding on the muddy ground was definitely not a fun thing to do in the
middle of an emergency.

Then, when I saw my house, I almost wiped out. My home was
burning! I started to head up the driveway, praying that my parents hadn’t been
inside. I saw a few men frantically spraying water. But there was only one
truck and one hose in use. The fire was spreading over the entire place. The
rest of the department was pretty well past me, heading toward Ryan Tech. I was
going to have to help those men put that damn fire
out
.

And that was exactly what Brand wanted. I had to stop myself with
every ounce of willpower that I could manage. Then, looking around, I saw a
familiar blur go down the side road. He stopped for a moment, then blurred into
a run. The bastard was playing. And worse, I could hear more vehicles coming
south from town. They would cut me off before I could go after him.

“Damn it!” I said as I revved the cycle. Hitting the highway, I
saw trucks as they came down the highway. Amidst honking fire trucks and
ambulances, I weaved my way onto the side road.

Then pillars of black smoke came from the power plant.
Yet another distraction.
Behind me, I heard sirens starting
to close in. Someone had seen the smoke and was pulling away from that pack of
emergency vehicles to deal with this sudden emergency. I rode past the blaze
and sped down the road.

I pushed the cycle’s speed to maximum. I knew Brand wasn’t
there. If he had decided to stay, he would have set off the high-pressure tanks
that stored the natural gas reserves. No, Brand got what he wanted there. When
I passed by the plant, I’d seen that he’d blown out the transformers. Brand
wanted the town in darkness.

A panic would be perfect for his unstable mind right about now.
I growled and rode on. The engines roar was so high in pitch that it grated on
my hearing. I wanted to slow down, but I didn’t have a choice. I had to find
and stop Brand before he went after another target. And I knew it was too late
for that thought when I saw another fire.

The VFW building?
A long rectangular building, the place held a couple dance halls and attached
bars. It was a regular hangout for veterans. Ah. Kyle went there at times when
he was on leave. And when Kyle
was being accused
of
desertion, a number of the veterans believed the accusations. Brand attacked
the place for a reason.

And it told me that the Brand I knew was still there. But
Yasmine had perverted him. She had taken all that rage he’d dealt with over the
years and had turned it outward. Now, without her control, all that pent-up
rage was coming out in the only way it could. He was going to destroy every
place and person who had ever hurt him. Brand would create a holocaust in
Riverlite if I didn’t stop him fast. But I didn’t need to look for his next
potential target for very long.

My eyes widened when I saw a television news van at one of the
gas pumps. Revving the cycle, I cut across traffic right as the light went red
in the wrong direction. Cars screeched to a halt, and I heard the 
crunch
 of
car fenders. I cut into the gas station’s driveway and skidded to a stop right
next to the van. The guy filling it gave me a quick glare of annoyance, and
then ignored me.

I yelled, “Get away from there! 
Now!
 There’s
a…there’s a bomb! Move away!”

The man gave me a cynical sneer. He said, “Get away from me,
pal! I have a major story going on out at Ryan Tech! And I got unlucky and ran
out of gas! So 
you
 go away!”

Heh, yeah, he was so 
very
 unlucky. But before I
could tell him to run, again, his eyes grew wide as he looked past me. Cold ran
down my spine as I looked and saw Brand on the street. He was gritting his
teeth, and his eyes filled with a deep rage. He was practically setting the air
around his body on fire.

I revved the cycle and spun it around to run him down. Brand
gave me a dismissive look and gestured with a hand. Superheated air passed by
me and blew up the van. The shockwave rammed into my back, sending
me flying. Before I hit the ground, my last thought was about how much
Brand hated reporters. Then a wall hit me. I blacked out.

When I came to, I realized that somewhere there was a heaven for
car alarms. It was a place where they could all honk, bleep, scream, and
whistle at each other to their electronic hearts’ content. Really, though, did
I have to die and end up with them?
Nope, not dead, yet.
With a grumble, I opened my eyes to find that I was
laying
underneath what felt like parts of a brick wall.

The world was blurry, and it took a moment to move my head
enough to see that debris lay all over the place. Slowly, I freed myself from
where I was, underneath the wall that had hit me. Once that
was
done
, I very slowly got to my feet. I couldn’t help groaning as I stood,
though.

My shoulder was being grouchy. And my whole body was hurting
along with it. What with all the complaining, I wanted
to
just lie
back down on the ground. But I couldn’t do that. This fire
needed to
be put out,
fast. At least I was still alive
to ache as much as I did. Eisenhawk was
right,
my body
could take the damage. Didn’t stop me from feeling every bit of it, though, did
it?

I took a deep breath, and felt hot air. I winced. I had to give
Brand one thing, he knew how to cook a deal…ugh, no jokes, thank you. I looked
at the situation I was
in
. This end of Main Street was
now a new slice of Hell. Brand had blown up not just the van,
but
the entire station itself, and the firestorm was still
going strong.

The station explosion had blasted cars all over the road. People
were panicking from the rising flames.
They were either
trying to get out of cars, or they weren’t moving at all. In a horrible
reminder of the attack on Main Street only a few days ago, I saw some victims
had been flash-fried. Others were sprawled on the other side of the road,
rolling around on the ground and crying out from the pain. I looked back to
what was left of the store. Brand had blown it to that proverbial thing, called
'smithereens.'

I sighed and began moving, ignoring the crunching and squishing
noises under my feet. The ground had debris all over, from where I was all the
way to the houses across the street. Oddly, there were things like candy bars,
little medical packs, smashed and leaking cases of soda pop and beer—in fact,
pretty well half the store’s contents had ended up out in the street. Oh,
who
was I kidding? I was avoiding the big horror of the
moment. I’d lost Brand.

Without Yasmine to control him, Brand was letting loose on all
the little things that pissed him off over the years. I was sure of it. And
worse, I couldn’t go after him. If I did, more people would die from this
conflagration alone. The fire was already spreading. I could see large sparks
flying off in the smoke and the wind. It wouldn’t be long before they set roofs
of homes and other businesses on fire.

Damn him.

I got as close to it as I could. I started to inhale for the
scream, and boy, was that the stupidest thing I ever could have done.
The heat nearly flash-fried my throat and lungs.
Brand
didn’t need to kill me—I’d do it to myself. Yeah, I’m an idiot. I
backed off to hide behind a blown over car and take a moment to get my breath
back.

In the shadow of the car, cooler air hit my throat and lungs.
Just the
same
I could barely make a sound. I needed to
clear my throat from both the shock of the heat and the smoke in the air. The
ironic thought of heading to a house and asking for a glass of water came to
me, and I chuckled at the image. I realized that I was not doing well in the
brains department. Too much was happening, and I had a feeling that I was
reaching my limit. I’d used my powers a lot today. I could barely feel the
‘buzz’ in my nerves that I normally did.

I leaned against the car and just kept breathing. The air was
warming up fast. In the background, I could hear people talking into phones.
They were begging for help from the fire department and the cops. The problem
was, once the fire department did show up, they would be instant targets. I had
to stop this before it went that far.

Then I glanced down and saw a large bottle of Gatorade lying
near my feet. It was dented badly, but still unopened.
Just
the right thing to quench my thirst.
Then just as I raised it to my
lips, one of the people gawking at the fire made his way to me with worry and
controlled fear in his eyes.
Brave man, given how hot it was
getting.

He said, “All hell’s breaking loose, kid! And you’re
relaxing? Get the hell out of here!”

Holding up a finger to stop him while I drank, I finished off
the bottle, letting it soothe the gritty feeling in my throat. I finished it
off and tossed the man the empty bottle.

I tested my voice. “Ahh, huhn, uh,
aah
.
Do re mi falsies, stiletto!”

I could never remember that tonal practice line from music
class, but the voice worked. With a smile, I nodded to the helpful man and
said, “Get everyone as far back as you can. And tell them to cover their ears!”

Grinning at the guy’s confused look, I jogged around the car,
holding in a deep breath. This was going to have to work the first time. I had
an idea of what to do, and I was going to do damage. But, the fire itself would
burn down this side of the town if I didn’t do something. Pulling on what
little I could feel of that buzz in my nerves, I reached out to grab every
little thing I could hear.

Sounds around me deepened from high pitches to deep growls, it
was as though everything I heard was stretching out. Slowly, I took what I
heard, adding it to the low beat of my heart, the sound of my breathing. All of
it
joined together
, shaping to my thought. Seconds
passed, and the sound turned into a thrum of power—demanding release. I gave
the raw force its wish, and with a yell at the top of my voice, I gave it
direction.

White noise engulfed me for a split-second as sonic force lashed
out at the fire. For one short moment, the fire continued to burn. And then
with a quick burst of high heat, it blew apart. Along with that, everything
that
was left
of the building and in the lot in front
of me simply shattered and blew away. The sky lit up with the orange and gold
flames and then disappeared. Without the fire, the heat simply dissipated into
the air.