Secret Super (Book 1)

46. The Crash

Kara's breaths came shallow. The world kept sliding in and out of view. The force-field above her shuddered but held. Her head spun. Was she holding down the ceiling or the floor?

A blurry figure crawled towards her. Kara squinted through the black dots clouding her vision.

It was Harrison. He dragged himself towards her.

Harrison, Kara wanted to say. She opened her mouth but no words came out. She was cold, so cold. Everything hurt.

Without saying anything, he sat down next to her and raised his arms above his head.

She didn't know what he was doing. Did it matter? Her muscles kept spasming, arms quavering. She wanted so much to let the force-field disappear. There was nothing left inside her. The world started spinning. The black dots got larger. She closed her eyes.

*     *     *     *     *

Xavier's agents ran through the doors first, shouting and panicking. Using the intercom to project her voice, Zadia directed them to the back, telling them to find the secret train behind the rows of tanks. 

She knew what to do when the Enforcers came.

They streamed into the room in glinting beetle-black armor, with heavy weaponry and energy blazing in their hands.

She walked up to them, hands raised in surrender. Heart hammering, she spoke.

"Listen!" she shouted. She projected her voice as loud as she could. "There are hundreds of superheroes in those tanks! You need to rescue them!"

The Enforcers said nothing, but they didn't charge.

Zadia took a breath and kept going. Desperately hoping she was right, she said, "The Council would rather that you rescued hundreds of superheroes than captured all the villains trying to escape! The villains, you can get them later. But the superheroes will die if you don't save them. Please. We need your help."

The Enforcers didn't move. She held her breath.

*     *     *     *     *

A tiny amount of pressure lifted from Kara's shoulders.

Panic hit her. Had she let go of the force-field? She opened her eyes and looked up.

Vines were snaking around the force-field. Like ropes, they anchored it in place, and with every new vine that grew, the burden became a little lighter.

Harrison gave her a half-grimace, half-smile. She tried to thank him, but couldn't speak.

"I was a coward," he said, in a raspy whisper.

She looked over at him, surprised.

He continued. "I left Xavier when I learned of everything he had done, everyone he'd killed. But I returned to the Council, knowing they would do nothing. I stayed with the superheroes. I protected their filthy secrets. I feared Xavier would kill me, I feared what the Council would do to me, and I took the easy way out. I stayed silent."

Kara struggled to breathe.

"It's my greatest shame," he said. "I tried to set it right. After they locked me up, and I learned of your supervillain trial . . . I convinced them to let me watch from the sidelines. They underestimated what a few vines can do-- that's how I managed to escape." Coughs racked his body. A bitter humor filled his voice as he said, "But then I got myself captured again, and let this all happen."

More vines roped the force-field in place. "As long as there's innocents here," he said, "I'll stay. I'll not let anyone else die because of my cowardice."