CHAPTER -10 THE RESCUE

Did that really just happen?!” Max asked in disbelief.

“So, Justin is the guy in the video that’s been circulating around?” Kade asked, still in shock.

“Yeah, I guess there’s no point in trying to come up with a lie after what you just saw.” Chloe replied in defeat.

“That’s…. so cool, the glowing man first appeared around the same time Justin moved back here, it all makes sense now; wait, do you have powers too?” Kade asked Chloe with a raised brow.

“What?! No! Justin just got abducted and this is what you’re thinking about.” Chloe spat at him while getting upset.

“Yeah, you’re right, I’m sorry.” Kade apologized.

“Come on, read the room a little.” Max spoke as he nudged Kade.

“So, what do we do now?” Kade asked.

“I mean we should definitely go to the cops.” Max replied.

“Yeah, you’re right.” Kade agreed.

“No!” Chloe shut down the notion.

“NO?” Max and Kade questioned in unison with confusion evident in their tones.

“We shouldn’t go to the police, but I know who we should go to.” Chloe voiced not wanting to attract anymore unwanted attention from Captain Sting.

HALF AN HOUR LATER

“I still don’t get why you don’t want us to tell the police.” Kade stated as he and Max followed behind Chloe.

“You don’t want the police involved because of everything that’s been going on recently, right?” Max asked perceptively.

“Right, which is why we’re going to Justin’s mom, she’ll know what to do.” Chloe answered as they reached the driveway of Justin’s house and proceeded to his front porch.

As Chloe was about to knock on the front door, she heard Sarah talking to a man.

“Have you found out anything else about Joe?” Sarah asked.

“Unfortunately, not, I’m sorry Sarah but evidence stacked against him is pretty incriminating.” the man spoke.

Chloe and others continued to eavesdrop on the rest of the conversation and were shocked at what they heard after as the three of them looked at each other flabbergasted.

“No way.” Max voiced in shock.

Suddenly the door opened, surprising them.

“Can I help you?” Sarah asked as she looked at the teens.

“Um, hi Aunt Sarah.” Chloe greeted her awkwardly.

“We need to talk to you about something important….” Chloe continued before Sarah cut her off.

“Chloe?! Hi, how are you?” Sarah asked as she hugged her niece as she recognized who she was.

“I’m fine.” Chloe replied as she hugged her back while looking at the man dressed in a suit and tie, with whom Sarah was talking to; although Chloe realized that he looked familiar but just couldn’t remember where she knew him from.

“Oh sorry, Miles this is my niece, Chloe; Chloe, this is Miles Drake, he’s the head of H.T.I. and a colleague of mine.” Sarah introduced.

H.T.I (High Technology Industries) is the company that both Justin’s parents worked for before the 7/15 Incident occurred.

“Who are your friends?” Sarah asked, looking at the boys.

“Oh, this is Max, and this is Kade.” Chloe introduced.

“Max and Kade, what are your last names? If you don’t mind me asking.” Sarah inquired

“Storm.” Max replied.

“Wilson.” Kade replied.

“We’re um……. friends of Justin.” Max revealed.

“Friends?!” Sarah asked, surprised.

“Something wrong aunt Sarah?” Chloe asked, noticing the worried look on her face.

“Oh no, it’s nothing.” Sarah assured her.

“It’s nice to meet you, Chloe.” Miles spoke up as he stretched out his hand to shake theirs.

“Nice to meet you too.” Chloe replied as she and the others shook his hand.

“We’ll resume this some other time then.” Miles told Sarah before he got into his car and drove off.

“Ok, so what did you want to talk to me about,” Sarah asked Chloe.

“You might want to sit down for this one.” Max interjected.

“What’s this about?” Sarah asked.

“It's about Justin.” Chloe answered, preparing to tell her the bad news.

Sarah’s facial expressions made the fear and distraught she was feeling evident as Chloe told her everything, from her finding out about Justin’s powers up to when he was kidnapped.

A FEW MINUTES LATER

“We have a problem.” Sarah announced as she stormed into A.D.A with Chloe, Max and Kade right behind her.

“Sarah! What are you doing bringing civilians to a top-secret organization?” Director Ston questioned in absolute disbelieve.

“Mr. Stone?” Chloe questioned in confusion.

“Wait, isn’t that Amethyst’s dad?” Kade whispered to Max.

“Yeah, why’s he here?” Max wondered.

“What are they doing here?” Director Stone leaned over and whispered to Sarah as he realized who Sarah brought with her.

“It seems they already know everything.” Sarah explained with a sigh.

“Chloe?” Sofia spoke surprised, as she stepped into the room to find her daughter.

“Mom? what are you doing here?” Chloe asked in bewilderment.

“I was about to ask you the same thing, what’s going on here Sarah?” Sofia asked.

“Justin was kidnapped, and they saw the entire thing; I also think it’s obvious who is responsible.” Sarah explained.

“The man in shadows, but why kidnap him? unless….” Director Stone reasoned aloud.

“He needs the energy Justin generates, which means Jones was right about him running out of energy to give people powers.” Sarah finished for him.

“You think Jones can track Justin’s energy signature?” Sarah asked him.

“Yeah, I’ll get him.” Director Stone answered and went off to look for Jones in a hurry.

“Please, please be okay.” Sarah kept saying to herself hoping for her son’s safety.

“Don’t worry, they took him because they need him, I highly doubt they’ll kill him; plus, with the powers he has, I doubt that they could even if they wanted to.” Sofia attempted to comfort her sister.

MEANWHILE

“What the hell?” Justin cursed as he regained consciousness.

“Good, you’re finally awake.” said the shadow man in a disguised voice.

Justin’s eyes wandered all over and realized that he was bound by restraints and hooked up to a machine.

“You must be the guy who sent Rick Brody, Tony Brock and Speed Demon after my mom.” Justin deducted annoyed.

“Well technically, I only sent Brody and Tony after your mother, as for Aiden or Speed Demon or whatever you wish to call him, I sent him after you.” The shadow man explained.

“Why?” Justin asked in confusion.

“You have something I need, and I intend to take it.” the shadow man revealed as he switched on the machine Justin was hooked up to.

“Ugh!” Justin groaned as the machine began siphoning off the energy that Justin had regenerated while he was unconscious.

“W-what are you doing….t-t-to me?” Justin asked shakily.

“Well, in order for my plans to come to fruition, I require a specific kind of energy, and a lot of it. Unfortunately, the energy I’ve been using up until now is almost depleted, which is why you’re here, since you have so much to give, you’re going to be my personal human battery.” The shadow man explained as if he was discussing the weather.

“W-why are you c-c-continuing my f-father’s experiments?” Justin inquired in a stutter.

“Ahh yes, your father, even though he’s dead I guess I should be thanking him since none of this would be possible if it weren’t for him.” the shadow man praised Justin’s father.

“Thanks to the both of you my plans are almost complete, now all I need to do is kill the remaining founding members. Your mother included, which will be easier now that you’re……otherwise preoccupied.” He continued in a mocking tone.

“You actually think I’ll let you hurt her?!” Justin asked, finally able to speak without hinderance.

“You actually think you can stop me, given the predicament you’re in?” the shadow replied amused.

“Why don’t you step out the shadows and show your face.” Justin dared him.

“And give away my identity, sorry but I don’t think so.” The shadow man replied.

“You won’t get away with this, the A.D.A will track me down.” Justin spat.

“Yeah, I don’t think they will, that containment unit that’s storing your energy can’t be found by satellite tracking, in other words, they won’t be able to find you.” the shadow man explained.

While they were conversing, the machine switched off because it had finished siphoning the last of Justin’s energy.

“Otto.” The shadow man called out.

“Yes sir.” Otto replied as he stepped into the room.

“Keep our guest company and keep siphoning his energy as soon as he regains it, but don’t let him regain too much of it, we wouldn’t want him to break out of those restraints.” The shadow man instructed.

“Once you extract the energy that you need from him, proceed with the experiment immediately, I trust that you’ve already found other test subjects?” he asked Otto.

“Yes sir, new test subjects have been acquired, some were…. against their will.” Otto informed with a sick smirk on his face.

“Excellent, be sure to dispose of the failures discretely, dead bodies bring up too many questions.” the shadow man instructed.

“I’m trusting you handle things while I’m gone, there’s some business I need to attend to.” he continued as he proceeded to exit the building.

“Understood sir.” Otto replied.

AN HOUR LATER

“Any luck tracking him?” Sarah asked with a worried tone of voice.

“I’m sorry Sarah, but I can’t track his energy signature anywhere, it’s like he just disappeared.” Jones delivered the bad news.

Sarah sat down holding her head in her hands, getting more worried by the second.

“Maybe the reason you can’t track his energy signature…. is because there is none.” Chloe stepped into the conversation.

“What do you mean? “Director Stone inquired.

“Well right before they took Justin, one of the guys held up a device to him and it kind of……drained his energy. So maybe the reason you can’t track him is because he doesn’t have energy left.” Chloe explained.

“Well even if that is the case, our satellite should still be able to track the energy they’re taking from him, unless....” Jones began to explain.

“They found a way to cloak it from our satellites.” Director Stone spoke finishing Jones hypothesis.

“And if they’re stealing his energy that means he’s vulnerable right now.” Sarah added to the assumptions.

“What about that cube thing that gave Justin his powers, is there any way to bring its energy to him to recharge him.” Chloe asked.

“Justin told you about the cube too?” Jones asked the girl.

“Um…yeah.” Chloe answered awkwardly.

“Wow, that brat can’t keep his mouth shut.” Jones voiced as he shook his head.

“But yeah, there might be a way to do that,” Jones continued.

“So how do we find him now?” Sofia asked.

“Can you track him with your telepathy?” Sarah whispered to Director Stone so the other agents and the kids around wouldn’t hear.

“I’m not sure, it’s been a while since I’ve used my powers, but I’ll try.” Director Stone replied.

“I almost forgot that you had powers.” Sofia butted in with a whisper.

Director Stone started to concentrate on scanning Manhattan for Justin’s presence with his mind. But unfortunately scanning such a large area while out of practice took its toll on Director Stone as he started to have a nosebleed.

“Jayce, your nose is bleeding, you alright?” Sofia panicked.

“Yeah, this is just harder than I thought.” Director Stone muttered as he pushed himself harder.

Suddenly, Director Stone fell to his knees breathing heavily.

“Jayce, don’t push yourself so hard!” Sofia cursed, attempting to help him up.

“Director, you alright sir?” Jones questioned as he rushed to his aid.

“What happened to him?” Max asked as he Chloe and Kade gathered around him.

“No need to panic, I’m alright.” Director Stone replied as Sofia and Jones helped him to his feet.

“Did you find him?” asked Sarah.

“Yeah, I found him.” He replied.

“Good, send me the location, I’m going to go change.” Sarah instructed as she walked away.

“Where are you going?” Sofia asked.

“To get my son.” Sarah replied without even looking back.

Sarah stopped in front of a door that required her fingerprint for access. Sarah lifted her hand and was about to put her thumb on the scanner.

“What’re you doing sis?” Sofia asked again as she followed her.

“Are you sure you want to be roped back into this? I mean there was a reason why you got out of this life.” She tried to dissuade Sarah from making what could be a mistake.

“My son has been taken, which means I’ve got good reason as any to get back in.” Sarah spoke with a stoic expression on her face.

She then proceeded to place her thumb on the scanner and the door opened and inside was her old suit.

HALF AN HOUR LATER

Otto walked into the room with two henchmen and two other people, one was a man and the other was a woman who seemed like she was held against her will because of the cloth that was tied around her mouth.

“What are you doing?” Justin mumbled.

“Thanks to the energy that you’ve so generously provided, we can proceed with our experiments.” Otto spoke with sarcasm in his voice.

Otto manhandled the woman and placed her in the pod as she screamed.

He then closed the pod and activated it, exposing her to the energy that had been extracted from Justin earlier. The woman’s muffled screams could be heard through the pod. Before Otto took her out of the pod once the procedure was complete.

“What’s your name?” Otto asked the man.

“Roman.” he replied.

“Are you ready for the chance to obtain true power?” Otto asked him.

“Yes.” Roman answered as he stepped inside the pod and underwent the same procedure.

Suddenly, the woman started coughing up blood and was bleeding from her eyes, ears nose and nails, just like the other failures and then she died right after.

“What the hell?!” Roman exclaimed in fear.

“Don’t worry about that, I’ll deal with that.” Otto brushed it off as nothing.

“Is that going to happen to me too?” asked Roman as he started to panic.

“You don’t show any sign of rejection.” Otto answered as he analyzed him.

“But I don’t feel any different.” Roman voiced.

Roman tried everything to activate his powers, whatever his powers were, but nothing happened.

“Roman, follow me; you, get rid of the body, and you, turned the machine back on, it seems the boy has regained more energy.” Otto instructed Roman, then the henchmen.

As Otto and Roman exited the room, the henchmen proceeded to do what they were told. One of them dragged the woman’s corpse out of the room while the other one walked over to Justin to turn the machine back on. Then suddenly, Justin heard a sound, like something being sliced. Justin looked up at the henchman only to see his head fall off his shoulders and then the body fell after. To Justin’s surprise, there was a woman dressed in a full black suit and a mask with weapons strapped to her hips and back and a sword in her hand that was now covered in blood. Which was he weapon used to kill the henchman.

“Who are you?” Justin asked since her intentions were unclear.

The woman lifted the sword seemingly to attack Justin. Justin closed his eyes thinking that she was going to kill him as she cut the restraints off him.

“Are you alright?” the woman asked in a distorted voice.

“Yeah…. but again, who are you?” Justin asked a second time.

The woman sighed then removed the mask and Justin was flabbergasted at who it was.

“Mom?! What are you doing here?” Justin asked in utter shock.

“Saving you obviously.” Sarah replied as she put the mask back to how it was before.

“You just cut that guy’s head off.” Justin stated in shock.

“Come on, let’s get out of here, we don’t have much time.” Sarah spoke ignoring Justin’s comment.

“Who the hell are you?” the other henchman asked as he pulled out his gun after noticing the decapitated corpse of his companion.

He fired his gun at them, Sarah waved her sword almost quicker than the eye could see and the bullet fell to the ground, cut in half.

“What the hell?!” the henchman cursed in disbelief.

He kept firing until he was out of bullets and Sarah deflected all of them by cutting them with her sword and then she took him down with ease.

“Woah!” Justin exclaimed in awe realizing his mom was a total bad ass.

“Sarah are you alright? did you find Justin?” Jones questioned over comms as he pulled up outside in one of the A.D.A.’s military grade vehicles.

“Yeah, I found him.” Sarah replied.

“Great, I was really starting to worry.” Chloe sighed as she, Max and Kade jumped up from the backseat.

“The hell?! Director Stone told you guys to wait back at the base until we handled this.” Jones cursed, startled and frustrated.

“I told them this was a bad idea.” Kade voiced as he threw them under the bus.

“Cut the bullshit, this was your idea,” Max spat.

“I don’t have time for this crap.” Jones groaned rubbing his forehead in frustration.

“Just stay in the car.” Jones instructed as he stepped out to go help Sarah.

As soon as he stepped out, he was attacked by a henchman. Jones managed to beat him, but he ended up dropping something in the scuffle. Not noticing that he had dropped something, he rushed into the building to help Sarah.

“Hey, wait, you dropped this.” Chloe shouted trying to get his attention to no avail.

Chloe kept looking at the device and the inside was glowing blue, like the energy Justin generates, and it had a red button at the side, which gave her an idea of what it was.

“What is it?” Max asked.

“If it’s what I think it is then Justin needs to get this right away.” Chloe stated as she proceeded to enter the building.

“Wait, you’re actually going in there?!, you can’t be serious.” Kade asked in a concerned tone.

“Just stay in the car, I’ll be right back.” Chloe instructed.

Meanwhile in the building, more henchmen made their way to the room where Justin was being held when they heard the gunshots. And one by one Sarah cut them all down.

“Took you long enough.” Justin spoke to Jones as he finally made his appearance.

“I guess you didn’t need my help after all.” Jones commented as he noticed the men lying at Sarah’s feet.

“Are they still alive?” Jones asked.

“Yeah. Well at least some of them…. I think.” Sarah answered nonchalantly.

“Yeah, I had this handled, guess I didn’t need to request for back up.” Sarah added as she wiped the blood from her sword off and put it back in its sheath.

Suddenly, one of the doors opened and Roman walked out.

“I got this one.” Sarah informed as she attacked him.

But to her surprise, her attacks had no effect. Every time Sarah struck him, the point of impact would glow and subside, like he was absorbing the damage.

“The hell?!” Sarah voiced as she unclenched her fists.

“I couldn’t feel a thing” said Roman as he got back on his feet as the areas on his body where Sarah struck him started to glow and then disappeared.

“Stand back.” Jones spoke as he pulled out his gun and shot him in non-vital areas.

The bullets sunk into his skin before falling to the ground. The areas where the bullets made contact with also glowed.

“Your attacks won’t have any effect on him.” Otto mused as he walked through the same door.

“His ability is shock absorption, so he has been storing the kinetic energy from all your attacks, and he can also unleash that back at you.” Otto continued to fill them in as he got out of Roman’s range.

Roman unleashed the build up as a powerful pulse of energy back at the three of them, knocking them to the ground. The pulse also damaged some structural columns that were supporting the building. More henchmen made an appearance and some of the ones that were lying on the floor out cold regained consciousness. They all began attacking them at the same time. Justin tried his best to defend himself with some fighting techniques he learned from his mom but was still at a disadvantage since he was still out of it.

“Hey Justin, take this, it will……. wait, where is it?” Jones started but stopped, as he realized the object he was looking for was missing.

“Hey Justin, Heads up!” Chloe shouted as she pressed the button at the side of the object that Jones dropped and threw it towards Justin.

Before it reached Justin, the device detonated like a small hand grenade, releasing the energy that was inside as it was immediately absorbed by Justin’s body, giving him the recharge that he needed.

“Now that’s more like it.” Justin voiced as his powers returned fully.

With the return of Justin’s powers and fighting with Jones and Sarah who wasn’t afraid of how deadly she could be, the fight became very one-sided.

In the midst of the of the chaos, Otto pulled three henchmen out of the fight to help him move the pod and the containment unit that was storing Justin’s siphoned energy as they attempted to evacuate the building.

“You're not going anywhere.” Sarah spoke as she lifted her sword to strike him.

Otto instinctively tried to block with his hand for protection, but got his hand cut off.

“AAUGHH!!” Otto screamed in agony as he bled all over the ground.

While Justin and Jones were busy fighting Roman and the other henchmen, they didn’t notice the support columns as they started to give way, causing the ceiling to come crashing down.

Suddenly, the debris stopped and began floating in mid-air.

“What?!, but how…” Justin wondered as he noticed Director Stone standing near the entrance.

Director Stone was holding the debris up with some kind of telekinetic ability and he moved the fallen debris somewhere else, saving both Chloe and Jones who would’ve been more than likely killed. Luckily one of the debris fell on the pod that Otto was using in his experiments, severely damaging it.

Otto managed to escape in the middle of the commotion, leaving a bloody trail.

“How did you do that?” Justin inquired in amazement.

“We’ll talk about that later.” Director Stone promised as a few A.D.A agents flooded what was left of the building to provide back up.

Suddenly, Roman climbed out from the fallen debris not injured at all but was glowing in multiple areas.

Director Stone realized he was a threat and immediately ordered his agents to fire at him.

“NO!!, stop shooting, you’re only making him stronger. "Jones shouted as he tried to get their attention when he realized that Roman was just standing there waiting for them to run out of bullets instead of releasing the stored-up energy, which helped Justin to formulate a theory on how to beat him.

“On second thought, tell them to keep firing and don’t stop.” Justin told Director Stone.

“You heard him.” Director Stone said to the rest of the agents as they all kept firing at him.

Justin began to deliver a barrage of powerful super-fast punches at Roman as he began to set his plan in motion.

The punches were so fast, it looked Justin grew extra arms to the normal eye as he was punching him.

“What are you doing, did you forget that physical attacks only make him stronger, he’s just going to throw the same energy right back at us.” Sarah tried to reason with her son.

“He can’t absorb and unleash the energy simultaneously, trust me just keep attacking, I have a plan.” Justin reassured her.

“Of course.” Jones approved as he started to catch on to Justin’s plan.

“He’s too busy absorbing all that kinetic energy so he can’t release it at the same time, plus there must be a limit to what he can absorb, he’s trying to overload him.” Jones explained to Sarah.

“No, -t-that's too much…. t-t-too much.” Roman stuttered as he began to overload.

“Everybody lets clear.” Director Stone shouted as everyone cleared the area.

Justin grabbed Roman and threw him into the air to reduce casualties right before Roman went off like a bomb.

Roman fell on top of one of the vehicles before hitting the ground after releasing that massive pulse of energy which he surprisingly survived from.

“Nice job, that was a good plan, I’m surprised you came up with it.” Jones praised him as he nudged Justin while laughing.

“Oh, shut up.” Justin spat.

Sarah hugged Justin tightly like she hadn’t seen him for a long time.

“Umm…. mom, you’re embarrassing me.” Justin spoke in a muffled tone as he was suffocating.

“I’m just glad your safe.” Sarah voiced as she let go of him.

“Anyways, I’m actually surprised you came.” Justin told Chloe.

“Of course, I mean…. we're family.” Chloe replied as they both smiled at each other

While they were distracted, Roman, unable to use his powers, picked up one of the guns that was dropped during the fight and aimed it at them.

“Look out!” Chloe shouted, drawing their attention to the danger.

Suddenly, before he even had a chance to pull the trigger, one of the A.D.A.’s vehicles knocked him unconscious.

“Um... Did I get him?” Kade asked sitting in the driver’s seat.

“I don’t know, here’s an idea, why don’t you open your eyes and look for yourself…. idiot.” Max spat.

“Honestly, are you guys incapable of following instructions.” Jones argued, frustration clear in his voice.

“What? you said to stay in the car, look… we’re still in the car.” Max stated, trying to be a smart as as they all laughed.

The agents took Roman and were going to put him in a power dampening cell next to Brody and Speed Demon.

“Adios Pulse.” Jones spoke as he gave him a code name.

“Pulse?” Sarah asked in confusion.

“Yeah, Pulse, Aiden gave himself the nick name Speed Demon so I thought we should give this one a name too.” Jones explained.

“I think I like it.” Director Stone stated, supporting Jones.

“I’m glad that Justin has good friends now, though I hoped that it wouldn’t be those three, I can’t believe they managed to find their way back to each other despite how hard we tried to separate them for their own safety after 7/15.” Sarah spoke as she and Director Stone watched Justin interacting with his friends.

“We were told that someday, all the kids would be drawn back together despite our efforts.” Director Stone reminded her.

“Should we do what we did before?” Sarah questioned.

“No, I promised myself that I wouldn’t tamper with their minds again, they’re older now, maybe things will be different this time.” Director Stone hoped.

“Justin, there’s something that we have to tell you.” Chloe spoke up as Max and Kade let her do the talking.

“What is it?” Justin asked.

“When we went to tell your mom what happened to you, we overheard her talking to someone named Miles Drake” she began.

“Oh yeah, I remember him, he was one of my parents’ coworkers when they worked at H.T.I., what about him?” Justin asked, wanting to get to the point.

“They were talking about your dad and the 7/15 incident.” Chloe explained.

“I don’t think I want to hear this.” Justin sighed, trying to exit the conversation.

“Trust me, you're going to want to hear this, they were talking about all the incriminating evidence against him and cover ups, but mostly about clearing his name.” Chloe continued.

“Chloe, what exactly are you trying to tell me?” Justin asked upfront.

Chloe replied by saying….

“I heard them saying that he wasn’t responsible for the 7/15 incident 12 years ago... he was framed.”

~KEOKROSTOS