For the moment my only company was the cold, empty darkness. Then the water came to put my mind at ease. Like an old friend that hasn’t come to visit in a long time.
It stopped at my knobby knees. I brushed my shaky hand against the surface, absorbing the molecules through my pores: two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen.
I stopped shaking.
Bright lights beamed down from overhead, an endless black void filling out the rest of the arena. Somewhere, hidden within the shadows, the Director and his scientists were studying us like two newly discovered viruses.
My sparring partner locked eyes with me across the training arena. He wore a black wetsuit that clung to his slender six-foot frame; I wore a crimson one, made it easier to tell us apart.
“Hey, Kyro,” I shouted. My voice echoed off the walls. “What’s up, man?”
He didn’t answer. He stared at me with a menacing glare that made me shudder all over. What’s his deal?
He moved his hand over the water, palm facing down, and made an ice spear. He pulled it out like a needle from a ball of yarn. Beads of sweat formed on my forehead despite the cool air. He could kill me with that thing if I wasn’t careful.
Kyro went into a running start, water splashing, spear raised high like a javelin thrower. He tossed it. Holy… he was trying to kill me!
I brought my hands up and made a water shield, turning the spear back into liquid before it could pierce my skull.
Water splashed my face.
“Hey, what the hell’s your problem dude! I thought we were friends!”
Again, no answer.
In case you hadn’t noticed, Kyro was a water type, like me. He arrived at the Cage a couple months ago. Meanwhile, I’d been in this hellhole for two whole years now. We’ve hung out a few times but I’ve never seen him in action before. From the looks of it, he had good command of his ability. Impressive. Considering he did not have nearly enough time to work with Doc as I had.
Kyro prepared to attack again when the alarm went off, red lights flashing. “Prepare for environment change,” a woman’s voice echoed from an invisible speaker somewhere.
The water level rose.
It stopped at our chests. I moved my hand up and summoned my power to make a ball of water, about the size of a basketball, then turned it to ice. As I did that a thick mist materialized before my very eyes. Kyro must have been using his power to suspend droplets of cool water in the air.
Let’s see how you like this. I flung the ice ball at Kyro. It left a wispy trail as it traveled through the air. He vanished inside a cloud, the ice ball missing its mark.
The bad thing about two water types fighting each other was that each of us shared the same strengths and weaknesses. So when Kyro, for example, attacked with ice spears, all I had to do was touch it to change it back to liquid form. Neither of us had a distinct advantage over one another. But then again the whole purpose of this sparring session was to find out who had better control of their ability, not kill one another. At least that’s what I thought. Kyro seemed to be on a different wavelength than me.
Warming the water, I cleared the fog away where I last saw Kyro. Nothing. He’s quick. Made sense now why it took the Director this long to catch him. I looked all around. He was nowhere in sight. He couldn’t just disappear into thin air. Think, Max. I looked down at the water splashing against my chest. I’m thinking like a human when I should think like a fish.
Before I could act, however, Kyro came flying out of the water. He tackled me and held me under, my back against the floor. He held me by the neck, covering the gills that appeared just below my ears. He’s trying to suffocate me. Panic overtaking me in a flood, I punched him in the chest repeatedly, but he barely flinched. He was stronger than he looked. Either that or I really sucked at punching.
I flailed my arms and legs wildly, trying to swim away. Turning to a fish on the fly was harder than it looked. I had to prepare my mind and body for it. Like suddenly switching to vegetarian after a lifetime of eating nothing but meat. Having someone trying to kill you made transforming a million times harder. So either I got him off or I’m a dead man. I didn’t want to hurt Kyro, but he left me no choice.
Water has a few distinct advantages over other elements. It can be formed into any shape, hardened, or even turned into vapor. It can be manipulated to travel at virtually unlimited speeds.
Knowing this, I placed my hand on Kyro’s chest and willed a pillar of water to shoot up into the air. Kyro shot up with it, screaming, flailing his arms to grab nothing in particular. I stood and watched him land forty yards away with a resounding splash.
Kyro stood, wetsuit glistening, ponytail undone. He jerked his head back to get his wet hair out of his eyes. Suddenly I was glad for my crew cut. I couldn’t imagine swimming with hair that long.
The alarm went off again. What is it this time?
“Prepare for environment change,” the woman said.
I readied myself for the water level to rise, but it never did. Kyro and I looked around for what had changed in the arena. Nothing. It was the same. They’re trying to trick us.
Something brushed against my leg in the water. I spoke too soon. Something was in here with us...
“The water! Something’s...”
Too late.
An alligator the size of a minivan leaped out, coming between me and Kyro. If I told you I wasn’t shaking with fright, that I was perfectly calm, I’d be lying. It whipped its gargantuan tail in my direction. I ducked just in time as it came inches from snapping my head clean off my shoulders. Kyro created ice spears and flung them at the beast. But the alligator had much thicker skin than I did. The big reptile’s armored body easily repelled the spears, shattering them into a million pieces of ice.
The alligator turned its attention toward Kyro. He frowned. He had no idea what to do. The alligator moved toward him with lightning speed, mouth open. I had to act fast. I moved all the water to one side of the arena and released, creating a powerful wave that swept the alligator and Kyro toward the opposite wall. The alligator smacked into the wall with a loud thud and reeled backwards into the water.
Kyro was coming in too fast. At this speed the blow would surely kill him. I slowed the water as much as I could, but he still hit the wall just seconds after the alligator.
The alligator was floating belly up in the water, dead. Kyro was on his stomach. I quickly swam over and propped him up against the wall, checked his pulse. Unconscious, but still alive. His hair covered his face, so I moved it away.
His eyes opened. “Go ahead,” he said, coughing up water, “do it.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Do what exactly?”
“You don’t know?”
A valve clanked open from somewhere. The water receded. Once the arena had drained completely a door creaked open and shut with a loud bang. The arena seemed darker, colder, even with the water gone. Footsteps. More than one person from the sound of it.
I turned to find the Director and two armed guards come into the light. The guards wore their usual dark blue uniform, complete with body armor. The one to the Director’s right was Bully, the one to his left Scar. Bully got his name for taking pleasure in beating up Gifted. Scar got his because a Gifted nearly took out his right eye with a shiv. A jagged line ran from his eyebrow to his chin. The Gifted was never heard from again. They lifted their pistols at me and Kyro, but the Director motioned them to put them away. They did as they were told.
The Director was a tall man, strong build. He wore a navy blue business suit with a red tie, and a streak of gray ran along dark slicked back hair. He held a tablet in his hand. This was the first time I had ever seen him in person. He was every bit as imposing as on TV.
“Very good, Max,” the Director said. “You handled yourself well. We got a good amount of data from this session thanks to you.” He waved a hand at the dead alligator. “Never in a million years would I have thought such a simple attack could kill an alligator that big. But you proved me wrong.”
I didn’t say a word. I loathed the man too much to give him the satisfaction of what I thought. I looked at the alligator, mouth half open, light reflecting off razor teeth the size of fingers. It was impressive.
The Director’s gaze fell on Kyro. His expression turned to that of repulsion. “I wonder. Why did you save Kyro? I could’ve sworn he was trying to kill you.”
I wished the water was still here so I could drown him in it. Bully and Scar appeared antsy, twitchy. I didn’t want to give the Director a reason to order them to shoot me, so I answered, “I’m no killer.”
The Director smiled. “Really? I had no idea it was up to you.” He stepped forward, stopping a few feet in front of me, dark eyes locked on to mine. “You know that Kyro was trying to kill you, don’t you?”
Does he think I’m an idiot? A blind man could see Kyro wanted to kill me. Why? I had no clue. But he was. I nodded slowly, hoping that was enough for him.
“I bet you want to know why, right?”
I didn’t answer.
The Director took my silence as a yes. He turned the tablet’s screen toward me. A little girl, about six, was sitting on her bed, coloring an animal book with crayons. At first I had no idea what I was looking at. Then I saw the terrified look on Kyro’s face. I could see that he cared for her.
“Meet Kyro’s sweet little sister. Isn’t she the cutest thing? I’ve promised Kyro that I would take good care of her when he first came to this facility. He didn’t believe me. So I had someone install a camera in one of her teddy bears to prove it to him.”
The Director tapped the screen. The picture changed. It was a living room now. I recognized the people sitting on the couch watching the television. My hands trembled.
I recognized them because they were my parents!
I kept calm. I wasn’t about to show the Director my weakness.
“What’s the meaning of this?” I demanded.
“I’m willing to offer you the same deal. I feel I wasn’t being fair watching Kyro’s sister for him while he was gone, and not doing the same for you. So I put a camera in your parent’s living room smoke detector. Keep an eye on them for you, too.”
An uncontrollable fire boiled inside of me. I clenched my hand into a fist and swung at the Director’s smug face with all my strength. I didn’t even see Bully’s fist connect with my liver until it was too late. The punch paralyzed me, stopping my fist just short of the Director’s nose, and sending me to my knees.
Once I regained my breath, I stood.
“What do you want from me?” I asked, eyes lowered so I couldn’t see the screen.
The Director put his hand on my shoulder. My skin literally began to crawl. He turned me toward Kyro, who had his head buried in his arms. He’s crying.
“Kyro, tell your buddy Max here what he needs to do. I have a feeling he’ll believe it more if it came from you.”
Kyro lifted his head, eyes red, cheeks wet with tears. The words he would utter sent a chill running down my spine.
“You have to kill me.”