CHAPTER - 8 NUCLEAR PART 2

"Justin?; what are you doing up so late? Sarah asked as she was coming down the stairs.

"Just keeping watch; just in case you know.....if someone comes after you again." Justin said, sitting at the front door with a worried look on his face.

"That's sweet but you don't have to protect me; besides...you have school tomorrow so come on, off to bed." Sarah said.

"I'm not really concerned about school right now; and what do you mean by I don't have to protect you? You were targeted twice in the last 48 hours. What good are these powers if I can't keep you safe? I won't let anything happen to you." Justin spoke in determination.

"I know that, you've proved that, you've nearly exposed yourself twice trying to protect me, and I'll never let anything happen to you either." Sarah reassured him as she lifted up his hair and kissed him on the forehead.

"Speaking of powers, you can fly now, what's that like?" she asked.

"It felt amazing honestly, I doubt there's any feeling like it." Justin replied with a smile on his face.

"Yeah I'd bet, one of these days you're gonna have to fly me to work instead of me taking the car." Sarah joked, laughing a little at the end.

"And by work you mean the A.D.A, right?!" Justin spoke as he changed the mood.

"What? I don't work at the...." Sarah began trying to lie but Justin gave her a look which was basically saying cut the bullshit, which stopped her in her tracks.

"How long have you known?" Sarah asked as she realized that Justin wasn't buying it.

"I guess I kinda always knew something was up; all those long as hell business trips you always went on so often, the fact that you could never talk about them, and then it all made sense the night Brody kidnapped you and uncle Jayce, so I asked Jones and he confirmed it." Justin answered.

"That Jones was never good at keeping secrets." Sarah muttered.

"Which is funny since he's supposed to be some kind of spy." Justin replied as they both laughed at Jones.

"Sorry I never told you but the secrets kinda come with the whole secret agent thing." Sarah explained.

"It's ok, I get it; but u need to let me help keep you safe, which means stopping whoever's after you or you can say no and we'll pretend like I'm not gonna involve myself anyway, your choice." Justin voiced, shrugging at the end.

"Fine, meet me at the A.D.A tomorrow" Sarah sighed.

"Ok good, now let's get to bed, you have school tomorrow." said Sarah as she was pushing Justin up the stairs.

"Ok, ok I'm going." said Justin.

NEXT DAY

As soon as Justin walked through the school doors, all eyes were on him and as always, not for good reasons.

"Hey Justin, what happened yesterday?" Max asked as he was walking towards Justin.

"Hey Max, what are you talking about?" Justin greeted, then asked Max to clarify.

"I heard the police were at your house and that they arrested you, what's going on?" Max inquired, this time more clearly.

"What?!, how did you hear about that?" Justin asked with a worried look on his face.

"Oh good Max, you found him; did you ask him about yesterday?" asked Chloe as she walked towards them with Amethyst and Kade not too far behind her.

"Hold on, does everybody know I was arrested?" Justin asked in surprise.

"Afraid so, someone caught it on video and sent it around." Amethyst explained.

"I guess technology can be a bitch sometimes." Kade added as he took out his phone to show Justin the video.

"Ugh!...seriously, that was just what I needed, more unwanted attention." Justin spoke in frustration.

"They arrested me because they suspected me of that glowing guy from the video but the glowing man was spotted saving a plane while I was in their custody, so I'm in the clear." Justin explained as he closed his locker and walked off trying to throw suspicion off himself.

As Max, Amethyst and Kade left for their classes, Chloe stopped Justin as she was leaving too.

"Hey Justin, would you want to come over for dinner tonight?" Chloe asked, throwing him a smile.

"Dinner?, just you and me or will my aunt Sofia be joining us?" Justin asked all suspicious.

"Um ... .yes, my mom will join us." Chloe came clean.

"Yeah..... hard pass, sorry cuz." Justin declined as he started to walk away again.

"Wait, I'm sure she'd love it if you came." Chloe tried to convince him.

"I highly doubt that.......wait, she doesn't know that you're inviting me, does she?" Justin asked, hitting the nail right on the head.

"Ok, she doesn't know, but I just thought that..." Chloe began but got cut off.

"That what?, that we could just eat together and get along; act like we're an actual family and pretend the last decade never happened, not a chance." Justin sarcastically replied.

"I just want to get rid of the beef between you, aunt Sarah and my mom, please." Chloe pleaded.

"Fine, I'll think about it." Justin sighed realizing how important it was to her.

"Great, I'll meet you after school." Chloe spoke excitedly as she turned to leave.

"Yeah sure." Justin spoke as they both went to their classes.

A FEW HOURS LATERS

Justin got a call on his phone as soon as he left his last class for the day and rushed through the school doors.

"Go where?,...... .ok, I'll be there." Justin spoke as he hung up the phone.

"Hey, Justin....." Chloe called out to get his attention with no success.

"Where's he going in such a hurry?" Chloe wondered to herself as she started to follow him.

Chloe followed him for a while until she lost sight of him.

"Where did he go?" Chloe wondered.

She looked around trying to find him but had no success. Almost discouraged and willing to give up the pursuit; she got an idea to track Justin's phone with an app on her phone.

"Got'cha, now what are you up to cuz?" She said to herself as her phone tracked his location and proceeded to follow through with pursuit.

Justin arrived at an abandoned building and walked towards one the walls and pressed a set of specific points on the wall in a sequence. An opening appeared in the wall revealing a panel. Justin placed his hand on it, which caused a bigger opening in the wall to appear.

"Wow!" Justin spoke, amazed by what he was seeing.

Justin walked through the opening and the floor beneath his feet started to descend as the opening he walked through closed behind him. Some kind of a chair rose from the ground then shortly ceased its ascension. Not sure of what was happening, Justin sat in the chair as two straps wrapped around him like seat belts.

"What's going on?" Justin wondered, then another opening appeared in the wall in front of him revealing a tunnel as the chair transformed into a cart and started to move slowly through the tunnel and then started to pick up speed, the whole thing was like a roller-coaster ride.

The cart stopped in front of a door and the straps removed themselves from Justin's torso. Justin started to walk towards the door when it automatically opened for him and to his surprise, it led him to the A.D.A.

"Oh good, you're here, did you have trouble finding your way here?" Sarah asked as she came to meet him.

"Not really, but Mom, why didn't you just tell me to meet you at the A.D.A and why couldn't I just come in the way I usually do." asked Justin as they started to walk and talk.

"Because this new entrance is more secure; so I recommend that you use that entrance from now on.

Justin continued to follow his mother as they passed the testing room where the accident occurred. The very same accident that was caused by the cube and gave Justin his powers. People were cleaning up the debris and fixing the damages; they were also people fixing the hole in the roof that was created when the cube shot its raw energy through it.

"Wow, I'm still surprised I survived that explosion." Justin spoke as he was reminded of what happened that night.

"So am I. I still think I should kill Jayce for doing this without my permission."

"Where is he by the way?" Justin asked.

"He is spending some time with his daughter." Sarah replied.

"Assistant Director Jackson, the cube's energy has continued to remain stable since the accident," said one of the agents delivering a progress report on the cube.

"Good, we need to move it to a secure wing of the facility." Sarah spoke with authority.

The cube is supposed to have eight symbols engraved on it. Right before the accident happened there were two symbols missing. But Justin noticed that there was another symbol missing now.

"Justin?, what are you doing?" asked Sarah when she realized Justin was standing close to the cube all of a sudden.

"There's another symbol missing." Justin stated.

"Oh yeah, there's supposed to be eight but the two disappeared a few years ago, don't worry about it." Sarah said.

"No, I'm not talking about that, there's another symbol missing; the biggest one that was at the front of the cube, now there's just five left." Justin explained as he pointed at where the symbol had been.

" What!" Sarah exclaimed as she went to have a look for herself.

"Oh no, not again." Sarah said, her tone filled with worry.

"Mom?! What's wrong?, was it important?" Justin asked.

"No, it's not really that important." Sarah answered, trying to play it off.

"Okay." Justin replied as he started to walk off.

"I don't like this, first two symbols were unaccounted for and now the most important symbol is missing too, Jayce told me it was there right before the accident with Justin; and now it's disappeared after the cube came into contact with Justin, it's just like Jayce said, could Justin really be the one?, if he is......he might end up like his father." Sarah thought.

"Sarah, I managed to find out what happened to your jet." Mr. Jones spoke as he entered the room.

"Oh, you were here." Justin voiced in a disappointed tone of voice.

"I really suggest that you watch your tone when you're talking to me."Mr. Jones warned Justin.

"Jones, what did you find?" Sarah asked as she stopped an argument before it even started.

"It seems the tail of the jet contained residue of some sort, so we ran some tests to figure out what it is." Said Mr. Jones.

"I'm going to take a wild guess that it's something that shouldn't be there." Sarah stated.

"Exactly, the computers detected traces of one out of three compounds and it's nitroglycerin, which makes no sense cause that ingredient is cardiac drugs for heart problems." Mr. Jones added.

"Now what would traces of this type of heart medication be on the jet and how could it have caused that kind of damage." Sarah asked.

"Because nitroglycerin isn't only a cardiac drug, before it was turned into a type of medication; it was a common explosive compound used in dynamite." Justin spoke up.

"What are the other two compounds?" Justin asked.

"Thermite and ammonium nitrate." Mr. Jones replied as he dug deeper into the findings.

"Which are also explosive compounds." Justin revealed.

"Which would explain how the jet just exploded in mid air." Mr. Jones continued.

"Not bad kid, looks like the apple didn't fall far from the tree, you might be just like your dad when it comes to science." Mr. Jones spoke.

" I hope not." Justin replied his whole tone and expression suddenly changed.

Sarah and Jones looked at each other realizing that Jones shouldn't have said that.

"But that's not all, these three compounds were fused with human DNA, I managed to trace the DNA back to someone named Tony Brock." said Mr. Jones trying to kill the awkwardness.

"Who currently should be carrying out a prison sentence on Rikers island creating bombs." Mr. Jones continued.

"Well Isn't that a coincidence?" Sarah remarked sarcastically.

"That's not the only coincidence, he had an accident with the bomb he was building when he was caught by the police; it says on his prison medical records that explosive contents such as nitroglycerin, thermite and ammonium nitrate made their way into his body. I'm surprised he didn't die." said Mr. Jones as he read the medical records.

"Well that explains how his DNA contains traces of all three." Justin voiced.

"Not only that, a bus was transporting a group of prisoners when the bus was hijacked by unknown assailants and the prisoners escaped, no one knows what happened to them; but guess who was also on the bus." Mr. Jones added.

"Tony." Sarah guessed.

"Correct, plus I have footage of the jet before it took off." Mr. Jones continued as he brought up the footage on the monitor.

The footage showed Tony sneaking around the jet as he placed his hand on the jet and that spot he touched started glowing, and then the jet took off.

"And it looks like he has the power to cause anything that he makes physical contact with to go nuclear." Justin chimed in.

"Whoever this man in the shadows is, he must be behind this; who else would do all this and give him powers just to kill me." Sarah spoke up piecing things together.

Suddenly, an alert came up on Jones's monitor.

"What's that?" Sarah asked.

"I tapped into the city's surveillance systems while using a facial recognition algorithm to find this guy, and it looks like u got a hit." Jones replied.

"Should I put a small team together?" Jones asked.

"No need, I'll deal with him myself." Justin interrupted.

"I'm not okay with you going after him alone, at least let me go with you." Sarah bargained with her son.

"I don't want to put you in any more danger; don't worry, I got this." Justin assured her as he ran out of the building at an incredible speed.

"No wait......, sigh!, that kid." Sarah cursed realizing she was basically just talking to air.

MEANWHILE

"Now why would he be all the way out here?!" Chloe said to herself as she was still tracking Justin's phone.

Suddenly, she started to hear a bizarre sound and the sound kept getting louder, so she hid and tried to peek at what it was.

To her surprise it was a person running at an incredible speed and then the person took to the sky and started to fly.

"Wow!" Chloe mused as she realized that it was the same person from the videos that had been going around.

Chloe then looked back at her phone to continue following Justin. A shocked expression appeared on her face as she noticed that the phone was showing that Justin just passed her, coincidentally going in the same direction that the man flew off in.

"No way;..........Justin?" she said to herself looking up into the sky in disbelief.

MEANWHILE

Justin tried to fly as fast as he could though it was his second time flying.

"Justin, can you hear me?" Sarah asked over the comms.

"Yeah Mom, I can hear you." Justin replied.

"You should wait back up, don't forget he can make anything he touches explode; and I'm guessing that the same goes for people." Sarah reminded him, implying that this was a bad idea.

"Don't worry, I won't let him touch me, plus I'm super fast." Justin spoke confidently.

"I see him." Justin said as he flew towards Tony.

"Looks like he took the bait; don't kill him, just bring him to me....and don't fail me again." The man in the shadows said over the comms.

"Understood." Tony replied, reluctant to obey.

"Going somewhere?!" Justin asked sarcastically after he landed in front of him.

"Let's just get this over with." Tony said as he charged at Justin.

Tony attempted to touch him but Justin dodged it.

"Nice try, but I know how your power works." Justin taunted him.

Tony, getting very irritated, continued with his attempts which began to seem futile because of Justin's super fast reflexes.

"My turn." Justin said as Tony started to run out of breath.

Justin punched him in the face knocking him to the ground.

"Just give up, like I said before, I know how your powers work; plus I'm too fast for you so you can't touch me." Justin bragged with some over confidence.

"Pant!, Pant!, I don't need to." Tony voiced while smiling as he pointed at Justin's hand.

"Huh,......what the?!" Justin said as he looked at his hand and noticed that they're glowing green and it was spreading from the point of contact with Tony's face.

"As you can see, I don't need to touch you." Tony reiterated while smiling in a sinister manner.

Justin's hand exploded, knocking Justin to the ground screaming in agony. The smoke that was surrounding his hands started to disappear. Justin's hand was still intact but some of the skin was blown off.

"You're a lot tougher than you look, that should've blown your hand clean off." Tony spoke in surprise.

While Justin was too distracted by the pain, Tony walked up behind him and touched both his legs and his other hand which caused the same reaction as before. With his limbs temporarily out of commission, Justin wasn't able to defend himself. Tony then touched a wall with his full power, the wall began to emit a green glow and that vicinity of the building was destroyed. Almost everyone scattered in panic.

"If you want this to be you I suggest you tell me what I need to know, give me the names of the other two remaining founding members." Tony cut to the chase.

"Even if I knew, I sure as hell wouldn't tell you, so you might as well get it over with." Justin spat.

"Fine, have it your way." Tony replied as he was attempting to touch Justin's face.

"Ugh! Tony groaned as a brick was thrown in his face.

Justin looked behind him to see who threw it and to his surprise, it was Chloe!

"What the....what is she doing here?!" Justin thought to himself.

"Why you little....." Tony grumbled as he started to walk towards her while wiping the blood from his forehead.

"Oh no!" Chloe panicked as she turned to run away, but she tripped over some debris from where Tony had destroyed the wall.

"You're going to pay for that." Tony gritted as he was about to touch her.

"NO!!" Justin shouted as he used speed and ended up in between the two in a split second despite the condition his legs were in.

As Justin jumped in front of his cousin, he imbued his hands with his energy hoping it reduce the damage he was about to take when he grabbed Tony hands to stop him from touching Chloe.

"Well that was dumb." Tony said sarcastically thinking Justin had made a big mistake by touching him.

Suddenly, Tony's hands began to glow green, which began to spread to the rest of his body. Tony's energy was starting to resonate with Justin's. Justin's energy began to fuel Tony's, causing it to grow and grow.

"What,...What are you doing?" asked Tony with a worried look on his face.

"I don't know." Justin replied honestly.

"Justin, you need to get away from him, the nuclear power inside is rising rapidly, he's going to explode." Jones informed over the comms.

"Justin,...Justin..., damn it! They must have taken too much damage and knocked the comms offline." Jones explained.

"So....he's on his own." Sarah stated, staring blankly at Jones.

"What have you done to me?" Tony asked as Justin grabbed Chloe and flew off.

Tony exploded, destroying the whole building in the process, luckily Justin and Chloe managed to get clear of the blast radius just in time.

"Thanks Chl ... .I mean, thanks for the assist miss." Justin said.

"Drop the act Justin, I know it's you." said Chloe.

"Oh." Justin spoke as he removed his mask since there was no longer any need for it, he had the facial expression of someone who just got caught.

"Oh yeah, you have a lot of explaining to do." Chloe sounded excited and upset at the same time.

"I know, but do you mind if we do this another time?" Justin asked.

"Fine." Chloe agreed as he began to fly her home.

A FEW MINUTES LATER

"Hey, I'm back." Justin called as he walked back into the A.D.A all beaten up, with wounds that had already started healing.

"I'm so glad you're ok." Sarah voiced as she hugged him tightly.

"You idiot, It was really stupid of you to run in without backup." Jones pointed out angrily.

"Yeah I know but I have something important to tell you, Tony wanted to know who the founding members are." Justin filled them in.

"Then that means he's definitely working for whoever this man in the shadows is, just like Brody." Sarah replied, sighing heavily.

"Who are the founding members anyway?" Justin asked out of curiosity.

"Sorry Justin, but I can't tell you that." Sarah spoke.

"Sarah, I need to speak to you in private." came the voice of Director Stone as he walked in unexpectedly.

"Oh, ok." said Sarah, and they both walked away to get some privacy.

"It seems that this man in the shadows has figured out you're one of the three founding members besides me." Director Stone revealed.

"Yeah I suspected that too, why else would he try to kill me, twice." Sarah replied.

"Which is why I think we should bring in the third member." Director Stone suggested.

"Are you crazy? It's dangerous enough just having the two of us in one place yet you want to bring in the last member, have you forgotten what would happen if all of the founding members die." Sarah asked, her eyes wide.

"No I haven't forgotten, but just hear me out, three founding members are already dead, the three of us are the only ones left, I think we would have a better chance if the all three of us work together rather than individually; what do you say?" Director Stone proposed.

"Ugh!, fine, call her." Sarah agreed reluctantly.

"I already did, she should already be here by now." Director Stone replied.

"What, without consulting me first?" Sarah asked, glaring at him.

"It's been a long time,....big sister." a woman said as she walked up behind them.

Sarah turned around to reply.

"Hello,........Sofia."

~KEOKROSTOS