Olympus

Chapter 41

Ten... Nine... Eight... Seven... Six... Five... Four... Three... Two... One.

Jay tensed his muscles as the count approached one and a light red energy bubble formed around him, time seeming to slow down in the space within. He put his hands on the equipment just as it cracked and a ball of fire appeared around it. 

The flames touched Jay's hands and stilled, a golden energy appearing at his fingertips. The golden energy began to suck the ball of fire into itself, everything disappearing into the teenager's hands to travel up gold, vein-like paths that had formed on his arms on contact with the exploding equipment all the way to his back where they concentrated into a thick line of gold along his spine.

The room grew hot and Megan began to worry, even more so when Jay let out a groan.

"All good there, Jay?" she asked.

"All good," he replied, giving her a thumbs up and the energy would have gone awry had he not quickly put his hand back down and everything resumed as before.

However, Jay's groans became louder and more frequent as time passed.

"He's not good," Kei finally voiced out what the others were thinking, but her eyes were on Megan. "He's dying, Meg. We need to do something."

But Megan didn't know what to do. She was following Jay's lead on the plan; they all were. Acting outside his say-so wasn't advisable.

By then, the energy had concentrated so much that it was almost like the teenager was beginning to burn literally. His hands trembled even as he kept to his task. Worse, the ball of fire appeared to be growing a little larger by the second. It didn't take powers to see that the explosion wasn't letting up any time soon and he might not make it till the end.

"Umm, guys," he finally said after a while, "I think you may have to leave me here. It looks like this will take much longer than I thought and I don't want to keep you."

"Jay, you know we can't do that," Megan replied. "We came together. We have to leave together too."

"I said, leave!" He turned and she saw that his eyes had become full-blown fiery orbs now. "Please."

Megan didn't know who screamed first: her or Kei; but the teenage speedster was in a state of blind panic – the first time Megan actually saw her show any type of reaction to another person that wasn't selfish or mocking or just plain defiance – and she should have prepared for what happened next.

"You know what? Screw this," Kei said and zoomed towards Jay.

"Kei, no!" was all latter could shout before she entered into his energy field; and everything descended into chaos from that point on.

First, Kei seemed to lose her speed quickly with every step in the field, almost like there was some viscous substance in the atmosphere. Purple energy appeared out of nowhere through her body and began to flow out in a lightning into the golden energy in Jay's hands, and the whole energy within him went haywire.

As if launched by a rubber band, Kei suddenly snapped out of the resistance, unable to get herself ready for it and she was thrown across the field into Jay. She collided with him and pushed him out of his position, and the equipment exploded out of its cage.

Fire was the first thing Megan saw come at her. It was so large and hot that it was as if someone had thrown the gates of hell open and directed it at her with a hose. Surely, this is the end, she thought.

However, in the last second, a wall of familiar silvery metal suddenly appeared in front of her, a searing sound reaching her ears just before a scream. She had no time to make out anything though as a concussive blast followed after and hit her, flinging her backwards across the room.

Megan hit the wall first with her back, then her head, and then she fell haphazardly to the ground. Her ears rang on landing and she felt tiny sharp stings all over her face. Her thought was in a mess, her sight even more so. Her head pounded like it would break with any slight touch.

The floor quivered beneath her and she saw the pillars shift every which way. She realized that the building was about to come down, but try as she could, she couldn't move. Her body felt like pile of stones.

The floor quivered again and Megan fell on her back, panting. It was as if she had resigned herself to what was coming.

Back on the ground, face up, breaths in gasps; she waited even as the walls came down around her, even as she seemed to hear someone call out her name from the rubble, even as she saw light dance in front of her blurring vision; and the darkness she was waiting for finally enveloped her.