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Chapter 22 - It All Ends Here

We trained non-stop for that whole week. We barely took breaks and I was the only one dead serious about it. The others tried to make me smile, even Tristan, but I wasn't in the mood. There was something about Dead Bolt that reminded me of my father. My father always took things away from my family, and Dead Bolt taking Miles was no different.

I didn't want to stop training, but Esa would give me a look and I knew that I had to stop or else I was going to die before I even had a chance to fight. Esa was the glue that held us together. He was great on defense with Aer because he was almost indestructible, and he had mad fighting skills along with his robot eye which turned out could shoot lasers.

He would silently persuade us to take breaks. He was almost like the parent that watched over us. His one eye held so much wisdom and pain that I couldn't look him right in the eye. Esa might have been intimidating, but on the inside had a heart of gold.

Soon enough, the week was up and it was time to go out into the city to take down Dead Bolt once and for all. Merlin said that he would be on standby, but it was mainly up to us. We all flew into the city and waited on Main Street.

There were many civilians, but they cleared when we showed up. I gave them props for running away when they needed to. I would have given anything to be a normal teenager.

"Do you think he's gonna show?" Tristan asked, his face shielded by his hood, eyes blazing. I shrugged. There was no telling with this guy.

A day or two ago, we had tracked down Dead Bolt's hideout. We made a plan that if he didn't show up on Main Street in three minutes after our arrival, we had to go to him. Sure enough, he didn't show. We headed to the Industrial District and went to the pinned place where Dead Bolt stowed himself away.

Walking up to the doors, it was a giant abandoned warehouse. Go figures that the bad guy lived in a rundown warehouse in the middle of industrial buildings. I could sense electricity emanating from inside and told the others it was a still working power plant. Esa and Aer elected to stay outside.

Ruby, Tristan, and I all trekked through the front door. We tried to be as silent as we could since there seemed to be goons patrolling the whole ground. Ruby pointed to beams in the ceiling and we all made our way up there. She was the most skillful out of all of us, but that was because she had been doing this stuff since she was little.

We peered down at the henchmen walking around and wielding guns. There was no way to get past them and to Dead Bolt without tripping some kind of alarm. Then, a door opened on the far wall of the house. With just our luck, out stepped Dead Bolt.

Ruby counted to three on her fingers and then we dropped down to the floor. Dead Bolt didn't seem the least bit surprised, as the second we landed, he flicked lightning at us. We were thrown back into some crates, but got up without a second thought.

"Think you can sneak up that easily on me? Think again," Dead Bolt growled. He threw more electricity at us, but this time we dodged it. I knew that because we were in a power plant he was stronger. I shared this information with the others.

"Well then why can't you fling him back like he's doing to us?" Ruby called, narrowly missing a string of energy and knocking out a stray guard. I shook my head.

"He's already stronger than me. If we get him away from here we might have a fighting chance," I called back, smacking a guard with the butt of his gun. "Tristan, lure him out."

"On it," Tristan muttered through the comms. His image flickered and he taunted Dead Bolt. A roar came from the villain and he charged out of the warehouse where Esa and Aer were waiting.