CHAPTER 52

Madison felt like she hadn't been able to do much during the fight. Sure, she had taken down quite a few of the microbot formations by contracting her force fields. That had actually been pretty cool. But she hadn't been able to even get close to Swarm. Not that it would have made much of a difference if she had. She wasn't as strong as the others. All she could really do was hide and shield herself. It was easy to take down the microbots with her force fields now but she knew if she attacked Swarm head on, he would easily overwhelm her defenses and that would be it for her.

So instead she was forced to watch as the others all took their turns, trying their best. First Travis but he hadn't been able to do much. Then Sumin who looked like they might win before Swarm got the upper hand. Then Franklin, who failed as well. And now Emily had fallen. Luke had been down when they'd gotten there, a sight that would haunt Madison. And Gabriela had been severely weakened already.

Now, Gabriela was unconscious, Emily was on her last legs, and Madison was the only one left. And she herself was almost out of power, having used most of it stopping Swarm from crushing her and Travis.

When Emily had gone on the attack, dodging and fighting around, Madison had just turned invisible. She did manage to drag Gabriela out of harm's way and had been tempted to leave as well. But she found herself walking back anyway. She'd never been more scared in her life, but for the first time it wasn't for herself. She'd watched all her friends get stabbed, cut up, and beaten. And she couldn't stand it. She had to do something. She just didn't know what.

It was only when she saw Emily lying there with the microbot spear coming right for her that Madison acted. She'd already been close by so she just managed to rush close and drag Emily aside. She also made her invisible on instinct, something she'd never really done before. But she couldn't be more grateful that her power expanded at that moment.

She tried to get out of there quietly. With all the debris and wreckage about now, it wouldn't be hard to hide somewhere until Travis came back. She did hope he had a plan otherwise…well, she didn't really need to spell it out.

She wasn't even sure she could do what he asked. She looked down at where her hand should be, clenching her fist tightly. She desperately wanted to have the strength but she'd never even attempted something so crazy. She'd only just learned like ten minutes ago about contracting her force fields into smaller sizes. And now…

"Ah, Ms. Jennings!"

Madison flinched at her name. "Come on Emily," she said as softly as she could. "We need to leave right now."

"Right…sorry," Emily mumbled back, slowly getting to her feet.

"You can't hide forever!" There was a loud explosive sound as the microbots demolished a part of the floor, spraying dust and rubble everywhere. "My microbots will track you down."

To emphasize his point, the microbots all began shifting across the ground, making the floor look entirely black and metallic, like a sea of oil. Madison gasped and tried to move faster but Emily was practically slumped against her, weighing her down.

"Emily, come on!" Madison whispered desperately.

"I'm sorry," she replied and picked up the pace a little but even like that, Madison could tell they wouldn't make it. Swarm's microbots were just a few feet away. They would be caught and while Madison could create a force field, Swarm would just attack it relentlessly to get to them, taxing Madison's already low strength.

Unless he had another target.

Madison blinked and then acted. This would tax her as well, but not as much. And she had nothing else. So, just before the microbots could reach them, she focused and created a force field on the other side of the room, the microbots there just hitting it.

"There you are!" Swarm shouted, moving over there immediately, bringing all his microbots with him. Madison breathed out in relief, but didn't drop the force field just yet. She kept walking, putting as much distance between them and him as possible. She winced as she felt the first strike against the field and then another and another.

Damn it, she thought and dropped the field, altogether.

"Got you now!" she heard but kept going, reaching what seemed like had been once the receptionist's desk but now just resembled firewood. Still, it was big enough to conceal them so she slumped behind it.

"What?" she heard Swarm bellow out. "Oh, a clever trick. But it won't help you! I have had enough of these damn delays! You miserable kids have taken up too much time already!"

Madison winced as another loud explosion rang out. She peeked and saw what looked like a hundred microbot tentacles stretching across the lobby, stabbing every part of the ground they could, obviously looking for her and Emily. Every few seconds, Swarm would send a wave of the bots in a random direction but kept coming up empty. Madison breathed in relief that they were so far in the clear, but that wouldn't last too much longer. It was only a matter of time before he turned in her direction. But…what could she do?

She froze as Swarm turned towards her and raised his hand again. She raised her hands, ready to raise the force field, just as the microbots rushed forward.

Then she lowered her hands in relief, the microbots moving directly to her right, only just missing her and Emily. A lucky, but too close for comfort call. Still, sooner or later he would…

"Ah, enough of this!" Swarm suddenly yelled. "I don't have time to play hide-and-seek. The girl is no real threat anyway. Time to get that device and finish what I've started, at long last."

Madison's eyes widened in shock as he started moving away. She should be ecstatic right now. He was leaving her alone. She could escape to safety.

But, if she did, then Travis would come to an empty room. And if Swarm left, then they couldn't take him down. Gabriela had even told them what he was after. A device he'd built that would amplify his control of the microbots. With that, he might truly be unstoppable.

Which meant he had to be stopped right now.

Madison glanced over to see Emily still slumped over, groaning softly. The invisibility had worn off after she left Madison's touch and it was crystal clear she was in no condition to fight.

It's all up to me, Madison realized. She would have thought she'd be more scared by that. She was still absolutely terrified. But she was also relieved that she didn't have to see anyone else put themselves in harm's way.

She started walking, just taking one foot in front of the other without even thinking about it. If she did think, she would back out of this and she couldn't risk that. So she just kept walking until she stood in the middle of the destroyed lobby, Swarm already at the other end preparing to leave.

She took a deep breath, turned off her invisibility, and then yelled out, "SWARM!"

The whole world went silent and Swarm stopped, turning his head back slightly.

"Well now," he said, looking back at her, "this is a surprise."

Madison felt her breath catch and she had to force her body not to tremble, but she stayed where she was. It had only been three minutes so far. Travis should be here any second. She just needed to buy him that time.

"Have you come to surrender?" Swarm asked. "Because I'm afraid that's no longer an option." He shook his head sadly. "You know Madison, you were always my favorite student. Quiet, reserved, and yet studious. And I saw the way you lit up when working on computers, just like how I used to on my projects back in school. You reminded me of myself. I was sad to see you that night, at the warehouse, knowing how this would have to end. You were the only one who showed any real promise. Such a shame."

Madison wasn't sure how to respond to that. She had been surprised to learn Mr. Warners was Swarm all along. She hadn't really thought about him much as a teacher before. But now, learning how similar he thought they were, she shivered because it wasn't that hard to see herself becoming someone like him. Cut off from other people, only caring about work. If she had lived his life, she might have become as deranged as he was.

But that was the point. She was living a different life. She couldn't help but smile as a particular face entered her mind, one who just plopped into her life and somehow made her feel better about herself, made her feel more comfortable with the outside world.

Because of him, she would never become like Swarm.

"Still, I would be doing you a mercy killing you now," he told her. "There's no way you would survive the trials ahead. That power of yours will only bring you heartbreak and suffering. Trust me, it's better this way."

His microbots rose up, ready to strike. But before they could, Madison talked.

"If you're having trouble defeating us right now, when we barely control our powers, how long do you think you'll last these trials ahead?"

Swarm tilted his head at her. "Um…well, that's why I'm getting that device of mine. With it, nothing will be able to stop me. My microbots are all I need to survive."

My computer is all I need in life.

She had said those words, and meant them, when she first got her computer. She'd become hooked, not wanting to get off for even a second. With it, she'd actually felt complete and she hadn't felt like she needed anything else in her life. She could not have been more wrong. She felt more herself, standing up to this bad guy, than any other moment of her entire life.

"That's a very sad way to live. And I feel sorry for you."

"What? You dare?" Swarm raged, his microbots raising him while also forming a deadly arsenal to attack her.

Madison readied herself as well. She wasn't really combat oriented, so she just pretended Swarm was a nasty virus about to send malware in her direction. It wasn't at all a good comparison, but she just went with it. It did make her feel more comfortable with everything at least.

Two microbot tendrils came at her from either side, but she formed two small force field bubbles in their path, deflecting them. Then she created two more bubbles right in the middle of them, severing each of them into two pieces which quickly dissolved.

"Really?" Swarm asked. "How exactly do you plan on defeating me? Your heavy hitters are down. You're low on power anyway. And you were the weakest link anyway. So what makes you think that you are the one that can defeat me."

"Oh I'm not the one who'll defeat you," Madison replied. "I'm just here to hold you until they finish the job."

"Hold me?" Swarm laughed. "Well, let's see what you'v-URG!"

Madison created a force field around him and contracted it, squeezing him hard between it and the ground. She grunted, not wanting to exert herself too much, but she had to still hold him back somehow.

"Nice try!" The microbots suddenly surged for her and she was forced to create a new force field right around her to stop them. They slammed into it and she stumbled, feeling as if she had been struck herself, but she held firm. Several more microbot tendrils slammed as well and she grunted from the effort.

Just a bit longer, she reminded herself.

There was a cracking sound and her eyes widened as she looked at her feet just as a thin microbot tendril appeared. She shrieked and instantly reformed the force field into a bubble just around her, cutting the tendril out.

A shadow fell across her and she looked up as Swarm loomed above, a massive tendril of microbots next to him ready to strike her. "Can you dodge this?" he asked just as it came down.

Madison knew she couldn't take it so she released the force field, leaping to the side before the tendril could strike. She pushed herself up to her feet and started running but already knew it was in vain. There was no way she could outrun the microbots. So she started to turn invisible but before she could finish, she felt something wrap around her leg and the next thing she knew, she was hitting the ground and being pulled back.

She gasped and started scrambling, trying to get away but it was no use, the tendril pulling her right towards Swarm who had another sharp tendril waiting to stab her. "Like I said, the en-"

He was cut off when two laser beams struck him in his mask, causing him to screech in pain and fall backwards. Madison gaped before looking back, seeing Gabriela hunched over by the lobby entrance with her head held up high to attack.

Swarm got back up, the microbots forming a shield in front of him but even they didn't seem like they could withstand Gabriela much longer, all of them glowing a bright orange from contact with her and some even looking like they were falling off.

"You won't stop me like this!" Swarm cried out right before an elongated fist struck him in the side of the head, knocking him back again.

"Why won't you ever shut up?" Emily asked, limping over. "You still good Madison?"

Madison couldn't help but tear up seeing the two of them approach. "Y-yeah."

"Great. Now, shall we-"

"What?" Swarm asked, up again. Behind him, his microbots formed up into an army of monsters, humanoids, and everything they could think of. "What will you do? You are three, weak, insignificant specks against my brilliance. How do you think that will go, huh?"

Madison's hairs on the back of her neck stood up at the sound of his voice.

"Well, my money would still be on the girls here, but I think it would be best to give them a break and finish what they started."

Travis had finally arrived.

Travis almost slapped himself for being so late. He hadn't meant for it to take this long. But to do what he needed to do, he had to make sure it worked. And to get it just right had taken way longer than he wanted.

But he was ready now. At least he thought so. He hoped so.

He had to be. Or else all this was for nothing.

"Ah, the Thunderbolt," Swarm said as he approached. "Come back have you? You should have stayed away. Might have lived longer."

"Whatever man," Travis shook his head. He turned to Madison and checked to make sure she was still alright. "Sorry I'm late. But I'm ready to go now. You good?"

She took a deep breath and he saw she was shaking a little but she nodded. "Yeah."

Travis took a deep breath and faced Swarm again, bracing his legs. One minute. That was all he needed. If he didn't finish this by then…

He rushed forward, fist raised to strike Swarm in the face. The microbots jumped into action, just as he had expected, blocking his strike. But this time, he didn't pull back, instead letting them wrap around him, trapping him.

Swarm laughed. "Not very smart, are you? This will be over sooner than I thought."

Travis just smirked. "Madison, now!"

On his command, a massive force field appeared around them, covering more than half the lobby. Travis laughed at Swarm's look of surprise but he also looked around himself and grinned even more when he saw it had worked.

Every single one of Swarm's microbots was trapped in there with them.

"What do you think this will accomplish?" Swarm snarled at him. "You're still stuck here with me. First, I'll kill you. Then, I'll break through this feeble shield and kill that weak girl as well."

Travis's grin vanished in a flash. "Think so? Think again."

With that, he went still and focused on his power, calling it to him. But he didn't call it from within his body. Ever since he had discovered his lightning powers, he'd had some odd encounters with electronics. Whenever he was near them, they glitched and sparked. When he'd turned on his desk lamp the other day, it had fizzled for a second before giving off dim light, like it had been drained. And his phone was constantly dying on him now. And then, when he'd been trapped by Swarm the first time he speed-punched him, he had felt it. A strange, static-like sensation in his hand. Now he knew what it was. He had been unconsciously drawing on the electrical energy of those objects around him, powering himself with them. He had run off just now to test it, heading back home to the toaster in his kitchen to see if he could drain it. And he had, the toaster stopping a few seconds later. He'd done it again with his phone, completely draining it of power until the battery read zero.

And he knew it would work on microbots too.

So he focused and reached out, feeling the trillions of static noises coming from all the microbots around him. He hadn't really sensed it before but now it was impossible not to notice. All those sparks of energy, just waiting to be taken.

So he reached out, and he took them. The microbots around his hand instantly collapsed, their formation disintegrating until he was free.

"Wh-what?" Swarm gaped before glaring at Travis. "I don't know how you did that but don't think it will save you." He threw out his hand and a large tendril of microbots shot towards him. He sped out of the way and then held his hand out to it, latching onto all the energy within and drawing it all into himself. The tendril shuddered and then fell apart as well, the microbots now looking like dead husks.

"Tha-that's not possible!" Swarm gasped. He glared at Travis with utter loathing. "I don't know how you did that, but there is no way you can succeed. I have millions upon millions, perhaps billions, of bots at my disposal. What do you have? A 'can-do' attitude?"

Travis stared right back at him. "You go around, acting like you're better than everyone else, acting like we're beneath you now. You take what you want, destroy schools, and try to kill kids. And somehow, in your mind, it's all justified. It makes you the good guy." He crouched, lightning sparking across his entire body as he got ready. "That seriously pisses me off."

"Oh yeah, and what will you do to stop me?" Swarm laughed. "Run fast?"

"Yeah," Travis replied. "That sounds about right."

Then he took off. He knew from the start that no matter how big Madison made the force field, it wouldn't really be big enough for him. The microbots were too many. Already, Swarm was covering the ground with them and filling the air with tendrils of them. As easy as it was to drain them while amongst them, if they were able to trap him for a short time, it would be a perfect opening to kill him and that would be it. Plus, he wasn't able to absorb the power in speed mode. Which meant he had to be constantly running.

That was why he'd asked Madison to make the force field's walls as flat as possible.

Here we go, he thought as he placed a foot sideways on the field. Then he took another and another, never stopping, never pausing to think. He just kept going, running as fast as he could, so fast that gravity itself couldn't keep up with him. And the next thing he knew, he was running sideways across the force field, the ground to his side.

Don't lose focus, he reminded himself. He raised his hand and called out. All those little lights, pent up in Madison's shimmering dome. They had nowhere else to go, so they rose up and landed right in his open arm.

"Stop that!" Swarm roared as microbots started falling around him. A dozen tendrils rose up, striking at Travis but they were far too slow and fell soon after, absorbed into his energy.

He could feel it all inside of him, building fast. He hadn't thought much about this part but now realized he should have. It was a lot, so much energy at once, and it just kept coming. It felt like a warm bubble inside his chest at first but now it was starting to feel like a pool of lava, just waiting to erupt. And he did not want to find out what that meant for him.

You got this man, he told himself. Just keep going.

So he ran. He didn't think about the growing power inside him, or the dangerous villain next to him, or anything else. He just ran.

This was what he was meant to do. His entire life, he'd drifted from one thing to another, never really sticking to anything. All he really did was sit and read or watch the exploits of great people, usually fictional. And all he could wonder was what would he do if had the chance to really fight for people, if he had the power to do what his heroes could do.

And right now, he didn't need to wonder anymore.

He kept running, moving so fast that he thought he saw himself just ahead. He could feel that power growing inside of him, spreading through every inch of his entire body and then some. Lightning was now just crackling out of him, trailing behind him like long, sparking strands of hair.

In that moment, he'd never felt more alive.

The force field suddenly vanished and he fell, landing in a crouch. He glanced over and saw Madison gasping on her knees, clearly exhausted. She had lasted as long as she could and it had been worth it as he saw all the microbot husks surrounding him, completely drained of energy.

Travis was the opposite. He was so full of power, there was a constant sheen of lighting around him, zapping the ground several times a second, like a second skin. He glanced at one of the surviving reflective windows and saw he was glowing a sort of golden aura with yellow electricity. He couldn't even see his face, only a pair of glowing eyes.

Still, the job wasn't done yet.

Swarm stood a few yards away and had covered himself in his remaining microbots, blocking any attacks from reaching him. "You may have disabled most of my microbots!" he shrieked from inside. "But it doesn't matter. I'll still win. I will still-"

Travis rushed forward, the lightning following. He slammed his hand against Swarm's chest and let all the electricity out, surging from microbot to microbot until it covered every single one. But Travis didn't absorb the energy this time. Instead, he overcharged each one, filling them with all his power. None of them could take it, each of them blowing up from the overload. They started dropping like flies, sounding like a rainstorm until Swarm was standing there, exposed and afraid.

"N-now…just h-hold on a sec," he stammered, backing up real fast. "L-let's talk this out. Maybe we can w-work out some sort of deal. You'll need information about the world, you know. I can be very useful, tell you everything you'd need to know to survive. So please don't-"

Travis raised his hand up high and Swarm screamed, covering his face. But Travis didn't care about him. Instead, he focused all the excess power flowing through him and bursting out of him and with one push, sent it shooting out of his index finger.

It was like the Fourth of July show, except only one continuous firework. The energy surged in the form of a single lightning bolt that just kept going up, not letting up. For days after, Travis was sure scientists would be wondering what was the cause of it and people were probably already taking pictures to post on social media. But there were only a select few that he wanted to see it.

Look at it Tern. Kane. See what we've accomplished, he thought as the last of the excess energy shot out and he finally stopped. We beat Swarm. On our own.

"Well now," Swarm said, moving to stand up, "I do believe that-"

He was interrupted when an oversized fist smacked into his face, knocking him flat on his back and out cold. "Seriously," Emily said to him. "Shut up."

At that moment, Franklin came running through the broken doors, panting a little. "Hey," he greeted. "What'd I miss?"

Travis just sighed in relief, looking at them all in turn. Finally, it was over.

Which was good, because he seriously needed to wash all the blood and grime off his hands.