The Crucible: Leap of Faith (21 page)

Suddenly both enforcement officers
spun and spread their hands towards the crate, locking it in
place.

Williams was strong, but it was
clear she couldn’t take both men on at once.

I heard her give out a scream of
frustration.

She dropped the crate and backed
off.

She couldn’t win, and I fancied
she was starting to realize that as she shook on the
spot.

I, however, could win.
Easily.

So this was it.

It was time to decide. Run or
fight.

Run or fight.

I watched Williams continue to
battle. She had no chance, however.

She simply wasn’t brutal
enough.

As for Shepherd, he had no clue
how to fight these men. Maybe he’d learn in time. If someone bought
it for him.

Run or fight.

“Run or fight,” I repeated to
myself, teeth pressing hard into my lips as I watched the scene
through the crack in the door.

Williams suddenly screamed in
anguish as one of the enforcement officers slammed into her
shoulder, latching a hand onto her head and smashing it into the
floor. She tried to push him off, but as golden-yellow light
erupted over his armor, it was clear he was a stronger telekinetic
warrior than she was.

Shepherd let out a brutal cry,
rounded his shoulder, and slammed it into the enforcement officer
who held her down.

His attack did nothing.

In fact, without even turning
around, the guy spread a hand towards Shepherd and locked him in
place.

Shepherd’s body spread, his limbs
pulling in every direction as if he were being drawn and
quartered.

He screamed, the sound ripping
from his throat.

…
They were going to kill
him.

And her.

And everyone else on this
ship.

“Run or fight.”

….

Fight. I had to fight.

Now.

Now.

I pressed a hand against the
door.

I activated my
implants.

I let them glow, glow until they
practically burnt through the ship.

Then I flicked my fingers at the
door.

It slammed away from my move,
spiraling into the room.

I directed it at the officer
holding Shepherd in place.

I watched the man turn.

But he didn’t have
time.

The door spiraled into him,
knocking him off his feet and sending him skidding across the
floor.

The other enforcement officer
pounced on me.

Shepherd dropped, his limbs
buckling as soon as they hit the floor.

His head lolled towards me, his
eyes half open.

They fluttered. Once. Twice. Then
finally closed.

He was out cold.

Williams was beside him, her body
crumpled. She’d lost consciousness too.

It was up to me.

I turned my head to the side
slowly to see one of the black-armored enforcement officers power
towards me, one arm twisting behind his back as he grabbed his
gun.

He turned it on me.

I took a casual step towards him,
boots echoing against the floor, hair cutting around the side of my
face as I half-turned to him.

I swept my hand to the side just
as he brought up the gun.

I pulled it right out of his
hands.

All it took was the slight
articulation of my thumb.

The enforcement officer
stumbled.

Though he wore a blackened helmet,
I could feel his surprise.

I held the gun just out of his
reach.

He watched me for a single second
longer, then he slammed both his arms to the side, collapsing his
fingers into tight fists.

Suddenly yellow-gold channels
opened in his armor.

He activated his implants in
full.

He reached for the gun, spreading
his fingers wide, obviously using his ability to try to wrench it
from me.

I pulverized the gun. Crushed it
into millions of particles of dust. I let them rain down on him as
he jerked his head back to stare at me.

“Sorry about that,” I
said.

He doubled backward, moves jerky
now, all the cold efficiency gone from his actions.

He skidded on his boot, shunting a
hand towards the far wall and the boxes lined up along
it.

He brought a single box into the
air, then, as he pivoted on his foot, sent it crashing towards
me.

At the last moment, I brought my
hand up and stopped it in place.

He strained, spreading his hand
wide, even letting out a groan as he tried to crush me with the
box.

As I held it in place, I brought
my free hand up slowly. As I did, all the other boxes in the room
raised into the air.

All of them.

I saw the man jerk his head to the
side, his shock clear as every box floated past him, as light as
feathers on the wind.

I pressed my fingers together then
spread them quickly, right at the man.

It was time to take his armor
off.

I kept the boxes spinning softly
in the air as a distraction.

The enforcement officer tried to
take a step back, but he couldn’t.

He strained. I even saw his armor
start to buckle.

So I gave it a hand.

With the flick of a finger, I
lifted him into the air.

It was time to do to him what he’d
done to Shepherd.

I suddenly made a fist. I
connected to the man’s armor, and I pulled it right off.

It may have been the most
sophisticated armor in the Milky Way. But I had more power, because
the Alliance had been dumb enough to give it to me.

His armor shattered, shedding off
him in a wave of shrapnel.

Now I could see his face. I could
register his shock as he stared at me, eyes two pools of hatred and
gut-wrenching fear.

I stared at him for a single
second before I let him fall. His body jolted into the
floor.

He tried to scramble towards me,
his bare feet slipping against the floor.

I swept my hand to the side,
collecting his body and pinning it to the ground. Then I moved a
mound of boxes and slammed them down all around him, creating an
impenetrable cage.

One down.

The other enforcement officer had
already picked himself up.

He was shifting away from me, one
hand on the ground as he kept his body low, his head angled towards
me.

I took a step forward and took
away his armor with a sweep of my hand.

It was marginally
harder.

This guy was stronger than the
other one.

It wouldn’t matter,
though.

Not in the end.

Professor Axis had created me
never to lose.

As soon as his armor shattered,
scattering through the room in a cloud of debris that floated along
with the crates, he fell.

He got up quickly,
though.

He clearly knew how to
fight.

He ran towards me.

So I ran towards him.

He activated his implants, a sea
of yellow-gold light spilling off them and lighting up the
underside of every crate as they slipped quietly by.

He sent a cloud of shrapnel
stabbing towards me.

I cleared it away with barely any
effort.

We reached each other.

With a scream, he lurched towards
me, a ball of light erupting off his implants.

I flipped right over him, using my
ability to sail right towards one of the floating crates. I landed
on it as it tumbled in the air, then I pushed off, flipping forward
until I reached him.

As I flew right over him, I
watched his eyes widen.

Then I landed. Right behind
him.

Before he could lurch around and
attack me, I snatched at his exposed elbow.

I slammed my hand around it,
digging my fingers in.

He twisted and brought up a hand,
forming a fist.

I stopped it in midair.

I watched his muscles tighten, his
neck straining as he tried but failed to send his fist sailing
towards me.

His teeth were bared, his lips
actually shaking at the effort to move his hand.

I was far, far stronger than he
was.

I kept my fingers locked around
his elbow. Then I did it. I located his implant, and pulled it
right out of his arm.

I tugged my hand back, and a pulse
of blood erupted around it, the implant shooting from his elbow and
slamming into my palm.

He screamed, his arm jerking to
his side as his eyes grew so wide they could have swallowed the
universe.

“What the hell…
are you?”
he managed as blood trailed down
his arm, off his fingers, and splashed over the
floor.

I still held his fist in place,
even though he wasn’t fighting me anymore.

I took a step back.

I stared right at him.

I let it swell – the anger, the
unbridled hatred at what had been done to me.

But most of all, the bitterness at
what we, the Alliance, had become.

“What are you?” he stuttered once
more.

“I’m the resistance,” I
said.

And I meant it.

I spread my fingers wide, and the
man sailed across the room. Slamming into the far wall.

He wouldn’t be dead, but he’d be
out cold for hours.

I stood there and stared at him
for several seconds before turning and glancing at both Williams
and Shepherd.

They were still
unconscious.

I stared at them for a few more
seconds before turning my gaze around the rest of the
room.

One by one, I let the crates drop
into place.

Then I took a step
back.

I’d just fought the
Alliance.

My first battle.

I brought my hands up and stared
at them.

I’d told that man I was the
resistance. And it had felt good to hear those words echo around
the room.

It had made me feel
powerful.

…
But I wasn’t, not
really.

I alone could not tear down the
Alliance.

But maybe I wasn’t alone
anymore.

I turned back and stared at Nathan
Shepherd. He was alive. I could see his chest moving up and down as
he took soft breaths.

I flicked my gaze over to
Williams. She had clearly made the choice to join the
resistance.

…
Was it a choice I could make
too?

I stared at Shepherd for one more
second.

Then I turned and walked out the
door.

It was time to make a
difference.

It was time to join the
resistance.

Thank you for reading Episode
One.

Episode Two, The Crucible: At
Heaven’s Door, is currently available.

This series is complete, and all
six episodes are currently available. You can buy them separately
or purchase the box set for a reduced price.