Endgame (Book 3)

Chapter 50

"I don't understand," Cassie said, mouth open in shock. "He can't..."

"Yes he can!" I shouted. "Mr. West can control minds. Di-Men controls him. He's spent the past few months gathering all the potential earth elementals he can find. He knew who they would be." Images rushed into my head, filling in the gaps. "That's what he was doing all this time, when he was disappearing in and out of his cell. That's how he knew about Ms. Loving. He knew. So when it was time for abilities to begin manifesting, he would be ready. He could manipulate whatever he wanted to fit his needs."

"Jay, that doesn't make sense." Cassie's tone mirrored mine. Panic clouded her eyes. She wanted to believe I was wrong.

I met her eyes and didn't look away, speaking slowly. "He's going to smash the continents together. All at the same time." He's at a MARAD base in the Atlantic Ocean, at the exact location where he would need to be."

I grabbed Cassie's hands on my shoulder and pulled them down. She shuddered at the touch. "Cassie, we can't let this happen."

I looked at the crowd gathered around, hysteria turning to anger. I spread a wide arc of electricity over their heads. "Leave! Get out of here!" I shouted. They dispersed, retreating out of fear. Some of them had their phones out, but they weren't going to keep recording just for me to fry them.

I didn't know what else to do. How could I stop that many earth elementals? Plus Sage and likely Metagor as well.

My body and the source of the interdimensional energy were just the icing on the cake. The finale to his show. The rock was what gave everyone powers, and he was going to use it again to take over everyone's mind—everyone on the planet—by converting it to the same infected energy that he was made of. Jay had inadvertently stopped that when he absorbed it all with effects I wasn't sure he had completely avoided, but his body was now my body. That finished off the other part.

None of that would restrict Di-Men at all if he was still a part of my dad, though. And he had probably gotten to him through my sister the moment Cassie and Metagor left to chase after me.

I was furious. Jay was so blind. He should have seen how the fight he thought was so important was just a distraction, a bonus for Di-Men at best.

He should have known, but he wasn't here anymore. This wasn't his problem; it was mine. I had to clean up his mistakes now.

I had to pull it together. Otherwise, thousands, maybe millions of people would die. You couldn't just smash the planet's lands together and expect no one to get hurt. But that would take so much power, there's no way he could do it. He just couldn't.

"Wrong," Cassie said, breaking into my thoughts.

Oh, was she actually reading my mind? Not cool. "If he got a boost from Di-Men, his power is probably amplified a hundred times. He could take over as many people as he needed, but the strain would kill him."

Another life on the line. Speaking of, where was Ashley? She obviously wasn't here, either, but what would Di-Men take her for? As far as he was concerned, she didn't mean anything to me.

I shook my head clear, trying to avoid overthinking. That didn't matter. Getting to my dad and Di-Men did.

"I don't have enough energy left to portal there, but I think I can fly fast enough to make it," I said, hearing more confidence in my voice than I felt.

"Really? I've never seen you-"

"You haven't seen me do a lot of things." I cut her off. We didn't have the time. "I can't do this alone and I can't take you with me. We can't get MARAD ready in time. We only have an hour or two at the most before he'll be ready."

"Then what do you want me to do?" She sounded exasperated. I knew what feeling helpless was like from Zero's memories alone.

"There's no time for backup," I said. "But I need you to do me a favor. There might be one person who can help."

"Who?"

"Ms. Loving."

I kept talking before she could object. I could tell she wouldn't like it. "If you can find out where she lives and talk to her, she could fire-travel to help me in time, possibly even get you there. Fire would be a nice thing to have on hand in a fight like that, you can't disagree."

I waited for her to reply, but she remained silent.

"I though so," I said. "Go. I've got to leave now."

I began floating into the air, getting ready to leave.

"It all depends on you," I said. "I might literally die, and I haven't even lived yet." I feigned a smile.

Without waiting for a response, I turned and took off. The first Jay had been to the base many times, and I knew the way there.

Jay couldn't fly very quickly, and I didn't think I would be able to, either. Much to my surprise, with a little focus, I was speeding my way over, around, and through houses, buildings, and whatever else stood in my way. My speed was increasing with every second.

My eyes processed information faster than I thought possible for someone who didn't have superspeed anymore, and my body adjusted accordingly.

I was left with flight, energy manipulation, electricity, and future vision, and the abilities I had lost made room for the others, allowing them to become stronger than ever before. I knew how to use almost all of them, but seeing the future was something none of my memories could tell me how to use. It may have been the one ability I needed to win this fight, but there was no point in dwelling on that now.

I knew I was flying straight into a trap. A base in the middle of the ocean, fighting Metagor, a monster I had little chance of defeating; and Sage, who could literally kill me with a giant wave at will and shapeshift and move as fast as I could before. She really was overpowered.

Just like old times, as Jay would have said.

Anyway, I would have to get past them and straight to my dad. If not, I would be forced to do whatever I had to do to stop those earth elementals.

Even if that meant killing every last one of them.