All American Rejects (Users #3) (12 page)

Carter punched out again, and again, and each fist connected with an explosion on Heath's face. Heath grasped onto a nearby table to steady himself as he was knocked back by the assault, but Carter did not relent. He jump kicked Heath in the chest, sending sparks flying in all directions as Heath was thrown to the floor.

Carter was seeing through the fiery form's eyes, staring down at the prone Heath. The scientist was lying on his back, his mouth agape. Carter had beaten him.

Or, so he thought. The mental connection Carter had with the flaming ghost slowly slipped from his grasp as Heath simply grabbed a bottle of water from the table with his Mover powers, used his Changer powers to turn the trickle of water pouring from the bottle into a downpour; wiping Carter's fire doppelganger from existence. The water hit the floor with a splash, and Carter's connection with his ethereal form was gone.

"Beaten by a bottle of water," Heath said as he lifted himself mentally from the floor. "You are formidable indeed," He chuckled. "Now how best to kill you? Maybe, I'll change your insides to acid and let it eat you from the inside out. Or maybe I'll use my Mover powers to grab a hold of your skeleton and snap every bone in your body."

"If you knew how to do any of that, you'd have done it already."

"Maybe you're right. I guess I'll just have to do it the old fashioned way!" Heath used his telekinesis to lift Carter from the floor.

Carter felt like he was being sucked across the room, right into the waiting hands of Heath. Heath's fingers wrapped around Carter's throat, and with the strength of an Enforcer, the scientist squeezed.

Carter's windpipe was closed off immediately. His chest heaved, but no air flowed in or out.

"You feel that?" Heath asked.

And Carter could feel it. His lungs burned more than usual, and he was light headed. Black splotches muddled his vision. He was about to die.

Then he was dropped.

"What the fuck?" Heath asked.

"You feel that?" Ryker asked as Heath wiped away the snow and ice from the side of his head. Carter hit the floor, gasping for air.

Arriving just in the nick of time, Evan, along with the liberated Ryker and Barber faced off against Heath.

"You're just in time to die with your friend here," Heath said.

"I don't think so," Ryker said.

"I've seen a glimpse of the future," Heath said. "I've got the power of a Viewer inside me now too. I've seen your death. You and your friends will never leave this room alive."

"Funny thing about the future, the slightest change can send it spiraling in a completely different direction," a voice from behind Heath said.

Startled, Heath spun around to see who was behind him, but Carter knew the voice well. It was the voice of Alaric, and behind the muscled Enforcer trailed the rest of the All Americans.

"Well," Carter said. "This just got interesting."

Chapter 15

"What are you doing here?" Heath asked. The confidence in the scientist's tone wavered.

"Let's just say, that I've had a change of heart," Alaric said. "The real question is what are you doing?"

"He injected himself with the powers of all the Users he has drained," Carter blurted out before Heath could answer. "And he's planning to wipe Users off the map."

"Is that so?" Alaric asked.

"It is," Heath said. "And I wanted to thank you. I couldn't have done it without you."

Alaric scowled.

"And as a thank you, I will be sparing you and the rest of the All Americans," Heath said. "Now get out."

"He used you. You're nothing but a pawn-" Carter said, but Alaric raised a hand to silence him.

"I need no further convincing, Carter," Alaric said. "The All Americans are with you."

"You just made the worst decision of your life," Heath said.

"No, I've made plenty of bad decisions, but this isn't one of them," Alaric said.

"You really think you're little band of heroes is going to stop me? It will make no difference," Heath said. "It would take a hundred Users to stop me."

"I'm willing to bet it'll take a lot less," Alaric said.

"Let's find out," Heath hissed.

There was a split second where no one moved. It was the calm before the storm. A second later the room turned into a bar room brawl from hell. Shit was flying everywhere, and Carter had to duck to avoid being hit by debris being thrown by his own allies.

Alaric, as always, was the first to charge the danger head on. His face flush with rage, he stomped across the room, knocking aside any and everything in his way. Tables were launched into opposing walls with a single swat of his large, meaty fist. Nothing stood in his way. Nothing, except the protective shield that Heath threw down between them as Alaric neared. It was as if Alaric had hit an invisible brick wall. Charging straight ahead, Alaric had collided with barrier face first, and it knocked him senseless. Alaric bounced back, stumbled, and collapsed onto the floor, out cold.

"We need to join up with the All Americans," Carter said to his companions.

The two groups were on opposite sides of the lab, and keeping them separated was one pissed off scientist with the powers of dozens of Users. While Heath was indeed in the center of the room, he seemed to have no problem defending on both fronts.

"Let me give it a try," Evan said using his telekinesis to rip one of the glass cylinders from the floor. "Let's see how unbreakable these things really are." Evan hurled it across the room at Heath. Carter thought that Heath would for sure throw down another protective wall, but Heath merely waved his hand, and as the cylinder closed in on him, the glass turned to grains of sand.

"He's using his Changer powers without even touching the object," Evan said.

"This guys not a super villain, he's a god damn wizard," Barber said.

From across the lab, the All Americans were giving it everything they had. Bobby grabbed anything that wasn't bolted to the floor, and even some things that were, and hurled them across the room at Heath. Stella released a steady stream of screams that should have made Heath's head pop like a champagne bottle that had been shaken. Luke followed suit, unleashing fireball after fireball on Heath, but all their attempts to put down the scientist were to no avail. Heath blocked, dodged, or overpowered every attack that came his way. Nothing they did came even close to hurting him.

"Is this it?" Heath laughed. "Is this all you can muster? The greatest superhero team of all time, and you can't even so much as scratch me. What chance does the rest of your race stand if you are the best they have to offer?"

Unbeknownst to Heath, Alaric was finally beginning to stir at his feet. Alaric shook his head from side to side. Carter caught a glimpse of Alaric's glazed over eyes as he did, and Alaric had a look on his face like he didn't know where he was for a second. A brief moment later, Alaric's stare fell on Heath, and he bared his teeth like a wild animal.

"We need to distract him," Carter said to his companions.

Ryker nodded and stepped out from behind a counter.

"You may be able to defeat us, but you'll never be the ultimate User," Ryker said. "Not without mine and Barber's powers."

Heath's head snapped around so fast, Carter thought me may break his own neck.

"Don't speak so soon." Heath's eyes bore into Ryker. "I may still get them yet."

And Ryker's distraction was exactly what Alaric needed. The leader of the All Americans wrapped a massive hand around Heath's leg and using his supernatural strength, Alaric leapt up to a standing position, taking Heath's feet out from under him, and leaving Heath dangling upside down in Alaric's mighty grip. Alaric spun, taking Heath with him. Around and around, Alaric spun until Heath was completely horizontal. Then he let go.

Heath slammed into a concrete wall, pulverizing the stone to rubble and dust. Alaric had thrown Heath straight through the wall and out into the hallway. The crash alone would have killed a normal man, but Heath had the strength and durability of an Enforcer in him. The dust cleared, leaving a gaping black hole where the concrete wall had been. Every eye in the room was peeled on that hole.

"Ready yourselves," Alaric said.

"He's gotta be dead," Barber said, but Alaric threw him a look that Barber should know better by now.

Just speaking the words aloud around this crowd almost guaranteed that he wasn't dead.

From the darkness came a chunk of busted up concrete the size of a beach ball. Pieces of re-bar jutting out from its sides, the makeshift missile was heading right for Alaric.

"Get down!" Carter shouted, but it hit Alaric before he had even finished speaking the first word. A chunk of re-bar penetrated Alaric's leg, and he was thrown back into a row of cabinets. Alaric, the chunk of concrete, and the shattered wood cabinets fell to the floor.

"Alaric!" Stella cried and rushed to his side, but she should have been watching the hole in the wall. Heath stepped out from the darkness and unleashed a torrent of fire from the hole like an erupting volcano, and Stella was right in its path. The flames engulfed her, sending her rolling and thrashing on the floor in a vain attempt to put out the fire. Carter doubted that she was even conscious of the act, and that she was probably running on pure survival instinct at that moment.

"Ryker," Carter said, but Ryker already had his hands out.

A stream of ice fell over Stella, dousing out the flames.

Heath leapt back into the room with both arms blazing. Fireballs exploded from his palms in a steady stream. Those resistant to the flames, Carter, Luke, and to some extent Ryker, stepped up to defend the others.

"Get behind me," Carter said to Barber and Evan. He willingly accepted the blows, as did Luke and Ryker. Carter let each ball hit him in the chest and burst into flames.

"You finished?" Carter asked and put a hand to his mouth as if he were stifling a yawn.

"Argh!" Heath roared and waved both arms across his chest, sending a surge of mental energy rushing across the room. Carter was raised up from the ground by the wave, as were the others, and was thrown across the room. Anything not tied or bolted down, was lifted from its place and launched through the air as well. Carter couldn't tell up from down as he spun end over end. His shins banged off something solid during one of his tumbles, but he didn't even have time to howl in pain, before he slammed against the far wall at the end of the lab.

Heath didn't relent his wave of mental energy. Not even when Carter, Alaric, and the others were all pinned against the wall. They hung there like some sort or deranged decorations, they were a vertical abstract of a multiple homicide crime scene.

Alaric's mouth was wide in a silent scream, the re-bar still stuck in his thigh. Carter tried to reach out to help him, but the pressure from Heath's mental wave was like an immense gravity weighing him down. He imagined the pressure was akin to what fighter pilots felt when they were at 9 G's.

Heath finally stopped his roaring, and released his grip on them. They crumpled to the floor, some of them fell one on top of the each other and rolled about to dislodge themselves from the tangle of limbs.

"You see! You see what I can do!" Heath shouted. "Now, we end this."

Evan army crawled out from under Barber, and struggled to get to his feet.

"This one's still got some fight left in him," Heath said.

"Get out," Evan said.

"What?" Carter asked.

Evan's head snapped back around to face him. "Get out!" Evan's eyebrows were narrowed. His lips were pursed tight. "Get out now! All of you!"

"What are you doing?" Carter asked.

"I told you there was more to this than some registration, and I was right. Now listen to me for once, and get out!" Evan shouted.

Heath laughed. "You're not going anywhere. None of you are going anywhere."

"You're right on the first count," Evan said and as he lifted his arms to his sides, the walls of the building began to shake.

"Get up," Carter said grabbing Barber by the forearm and pulling him to his feet. "Do as he says. Get out of the building."

"I thought you'd never ask," Barber said.

All of the rubble, wood, metal, and stone alike, began to vibrate and bounce along the floor as the building trembled beneath their feet.

"This is going to hurt," Carter said.

He knelt over Alaric and took the chunk of concrete in his hands. Alaric eyed the stone for a brief moment before he nodded to Carter. "On the count of three."

"One." And Carter reefed on the stone as hard as he could. Alaric howled in pain as the re-bar slowly slid its way out of his flesh. Carter tugged as hard as he could possibly manage and the re-bar tore free of Alaric's leg. Carter tossed the concrete aside and placed a hand over the blood spurting from Alaric's now open wound. He isolated the fire to shoot from the center of his palm to keep from burning Alaric's entire leg, and instead cauterizing just the hole in the man's thigh. Alaric screamed again, but then the eyes rolled back in his head and he passed out from the pain.

"Help me," Carter bade Alaric's companions.

"I've got this," Bobby said moving to help Carter pick the unconscious Alaric. Together they slung Alaric's arms over their shoulders and lifted him from the ground.

"Shit, he's heavy," Carter groaned under the weight of the much larger Enforcer.

With Barber leading the way, everyone but Evan and Heath made their way through the maze of destruction that used to be a tidy lab.

"Where do you think you're all going?" Heath asked and as he finished, he threw another wave of mental energy their way, but Bobby was ready this time and he countered with a wave of his own. The two invisible forces met somewhere close to the middle of the room, and the energy exploded off one another, sending waves in all directions.

Carter shielded his face with his free hand, but debris, made up of chunks of broken wood and glass, showered him in a thousand tiny splinters and cuts. If he was in rough shape before they got to the lab, he was an absolute mess now. Adrenaline and fear was all that was keeping him on his feet.