VELOCITY

Part Three: The Tragedy

It was a stormy day in New York today as I noticed when I came out of our building to take a walk to one of Karley and I's favorite places to eat. "Ready?" I ask her as I opened my umbrella. We both walked out holding each others hand as we took our walk. We arrived and had breakfast, we talked and talked about a lot of things trying to keep the topic of what's been going on out of it. It's been three weeks since my fight with Jack and that was the last time we had seen sight of Mike. Madison hasn't been able to get any kind of information about the topic because lately nothing has happened, it was quiet streets with a few situations such as car theft and robbing but everything else was completely normal. We still knew that they were still out there, continuing to go along with their plan but we couldn't figure out what it was. "So what are you planning to do tomorrow?" Karley asks, "Oh you reminded me, I was thinking that we should go on vacation and take a break from all this for a couple of weeks." I replied, she loved the idea and agreed that we should. I already made the arrangements for our flight because I knew she would want to. After our dinner we went home and she immediately began to start packing her things, I walked into our living room and looked out the window, gazing upon the gray clouds that pour rain. I need some time off or I think lose my mind from all this worrying, so much has changed after Reed passed and I've been feeling sick to my stomach ever since. "This trip will allow me to get my head off everything and relax, but I also plan on-" I'm thinking to myself until Karley comes out and interrupts. "I'm done" She said as she notices that I have gloomy look on my face, she walks over to comfort and tell me that It's all going to be okay and try to worry so much. If only I could do that, but it's harder the more I try. I give her a smile and agree with her making it seem like it's okay, I walk to the kitchen to grab something to drink until I hear a massive explosion off in the distance. I go back to the window to see a giant black cloud of smoke off in the distance, I almost feel like not going which I know makes me a bad person but I have a horrible feeling about this, that when I leave everything will collapse. Karley places her hand on my shoulder and asks, "What are you waiting for? People still need your help you know?" I turned around to see her with an annoyed look, she tosses me my AD and pushes me out into the elevator. I was a bit surprised for a second but I knew she was right, why did I hesitate? I should have ran out as soon as I heard the explosion, this worrying business is really taking a toll on me. I attach my AD to my chest and activate it as I head up to the roof, when I got there I saw the smoke get darker, I began to start running towards in as fast as I could, that feeling I felt earlier got stronger as I steadily approached the smoke. I finally arrived, it was coming from multiple placed barrels that were sent on fire in the middle of a street, I looked around to see if there were any civilians but luckily none were there. I began to look at the barrels and tried to figure out why they were there until all of a sudden an icicle the size of a street pole came shooting down from a nearby building landing right next to my feet. Immediately, I knew it was him, I turned around to see another one zooming right towards me, I grabbed a hold of it crushing it at the same time. "You finally decided to show your face?" I yelled to him noticing at the same time that something was different, his icicles were unusually bigger than before, when my eyes finally met to where he was fear struck through my nerves. His whole suit was consumed by ice, it was almost as if he was made out of it, I didn't have much time to think about it as he jumped off the edge of the building he landed on top of a car. "This time, things will be different," He responds as he quickly creates another icicle throwing it directly at me, the speed was fast but not fast enough as I quickly dodged out of the way. I turned back to see that he was no longer there, I looked around to see him nowhere, I realized too late that he was above me as the next thing that happened resulted in me getting stabbed in the left leg with his sword. I was forced to kneel down as he laughed at me saying that he finally got his payback for getting stabbed in his leg by my sword, I never saw that coming, usually he was the quiet one but now he seems to be having as much fun as Jack did. He pulled his sword out kicking me to the ground as he did, he had no patience as he was about to stab the sword right into my back, I wasn't about to let that happen, I still need to figure out what this is all about. I transformed last second into the new and improved fire form, the heat I emitted melted his sword instantaneously making him step back as he worried that my heat would also melt his suit. I stood up, ignoring the pain in my leg as I did, I released as much fire as I could to boost myself as I ran to him. When I was near him his ice melted as quickly as his sword had, leaving him in his regular state. I grabbed a hold of him before he had a chance to leave and I slammed him to the floor, I tied him up with my fire chains and set him against a car. "Now, I think it's time you finally talk, what is your plan?" I demanded, he didn't seem to budge until he deactivated his mask, revealing his true face. He didn't look like he had the face of a mad man but instead he looked really pale and depressed which almost made feel bad for the guy. He turned and looked me into my eyes which gave me chills that ran throughout my body making that feeling from before come back. "You shouldn't be worrying about the plan right now, but should instead be worrying about what you left behind," As he said that my body felt numb, and I didn't know what to think other than what I have to do, and that's to get straight back to my building and save Karley. My body was completely engulfed in fire as I began to run back to her, my speed was faster than it ever was as I ran. I kept thinking and thinking of the worst possible scenario, something bad is about to happen and I don't want to know what it is, I just have to get there in time. When I arrived, the rain started to pour harder as more gray clouds started to appear, I ran straight through the lobby running up the stairs until I reached my floor, I busted through the door to see no one there. I looked around but found nothing until I heard a loud, piercing scream come from the direction of the roof, my body moved on it's own as it headed to the stairs. I ran up until I reached the door that lead to the rood, I opened to find a man holding Karley by her neck, I paused in my tracks as he held up his other hand against her face. "I recommend you don't don't do anything funny unless you want her to die," His wretched voice filled me with fear as he started to charge up a purple blast that resembled a flame, I've never seen fire quite like it. I didn't know what to do, I don't know who he was, I need to save Karley at all costs, I began to think quickly on what I should do until he did something I would never have expected. He lifted her up higher and held her over the edge, my heart dropped and I began to run straight towards him with everything I had until Karley uttered out three words. "I...love ...you" It felt like time slowed down, I still ran not holding back anything as I desperately tried to save her, he aimed that purple flame at me and shot me with it, knocking me back towards the door. I tried to get up but my leg still was hurt badly from that stab, I looked up to see her crying as he started to unclench his grip. My heart felt like it wasn't in my body anymore, I felt numb, time still felt slowed down as his fingers one by one let go. "STOP!" I shouted at the top of my lungs hoping he showed any mercy, but he didn't, he let go, she fell to the bottom, dying in the process, I couldn't even save her, even when she was right in front of me. I didn't feel anything, nothing, no emotion filled my body anymore, other than one thing. "Now, what do you feel?" He teased, the only thing I felt, the only feeling left in my body, was complete, Agony. I stood up, forgetting the pain in my leg, and screamed in agony as I transformed into my lighting form, the lightning struck in every direction as I released every ounce of power I had stored, I zoomed right into his direction striking him with a heavy blow as he flew straight through the building across from us. I jumped off and prepared a charged lightning shot, when I shot it at him it resembled as if lightning had actually struck him. He was on the ground struggling to stand back up, I didn't give him the chance as I quickly grabbed him again and pummeled him with super fast punches, I had no intention of letting up until he was able to land a punch back making me fly off of him. I got up instantly and ran straight back at him, I realised too late that he was already up before me, I ran straight into his arm and he was able to catch me. He charged up some of his purple fire before I was able to get out of his grasp, I thought he was going to blast a hole through me until he shot the fire directly into my AD allowing me to absorb. I didn't know why he did that until I remembered what Matt told me about absorbing more powers. "Absorbing anything whilst in a transformation is extremely dangerous" I would soon find out what he truly meant by his words, when I absorbed his flames my body immediately was completely engulfed in the purple flame with my lightning trying to find its way out, it felt like I was going to explode. He threw me to the ground and waited to see what would happen, he truly received a show as the fire and lightning started to fight one another to break free and be in control. As I struggled to bear the two powers I was sent inside my mind, spacing out and only being able to think. I started to remember what I was truly fighting for, I was fighting for everyone's safety, for Karley and Reeds safety, but they both died because of me. The memories I had created of my time with Karley started flowing through my head, the time when we first met at that library, to the time where we went on our first date. But the memories of when I struggled to propose filled my mind the most, after I absorbed my lightning power I had planned to propose but I scraped the idea as nervous beyond belief. Then when I said we should go to hawaii, I was finally going to do it, I planned on doing it until this came up, almost makes me laugh how sad my life is now, how I couldn't do a single thing and that lead to her dying. I was beginning to give up trying until someone put a hand on my shoulder, I looked back to see it was Karley, the memory of back when I first left to see what that black smoke cloud was popped up into my head showing me what she had said to me then. "What are you waiting for? People still need your help you know?" Those words inspired me as much as it did back then, it gave me enough willpower to break free from inside my mind and stand up. The fire and lightning started to calm down as they both went back into my AD, the unknown man started to look intrigued. I took a deep breath, and I released both of them at the same time, the power was so immense that it created a crater on the floor where I was standing. The fire and lightning started to merge together, the lighting started to get hotter and turn purple as the fire was merging it's properties to the lighting. The lighting started to gain more power as it started to turn bigger in size, the fire began to engulf my suit creating armor almost out of it's flames. It made me feel like I was unstoppable, I felt like I could do anything. He took a step back which gave me the impression that he was worried, I charged at him full speed breaking the sound barrier as I took my first step. I gave him a solid uppercut with an added blast which sent him flying up into the sky, the force I produced was nothing compared to any of my other transformations. When I trained with my fire form I thought I would be able to use my flames to fly but the fire wasn't enough to get me three seconds off the ground, I knew that with this purple flame I would be able to do it. I leveled my arms and blasted the ground with fire and I was able to lift off, I used more power and I was able to fly all the way up to where he was. I did a sort of front flip maneuver and kicked him right in the back, sending him flying towards my building. I landed next to him and grabbed a hold of his neck, I tied him down with my fire chains and was about to kill him not caring about any information that I could get from him, all I wanted was him dead. I began to charge a blast until he began to speak, "I applaud you for being able to handle the risk of absorbing another power but I think it's about time I take it for myself." He broke free of the chains and immediately took out an AD and started to absorb nearly half of my power, I jumped off of him and took a step back to prevent him from absorbing it all. "What the hell, how does this monster have an AD? We were the ones to create that, there's no way that someone could have stolen it or created one themselves." I questioned, he attached it to his suit activating the power I just received. Luckily, he only absorbed half and wasn't showing the full potential of the power but I was still puzzled at the fact that he had an AD. I prepared to start fighting with him until deactivated the power, "For now, I'll leave you alone as now my plan is almost complete. Don't bother asking who I am as you will find out soon enough, but I will tell you this, my plan is..." He continues to say but I'm thinking to myself, "He's really going to tell me? After all this time, the master villain will finally reveal his diabolical plan to the hero?" I stop thinking as he's finally about to tell me. "My plan is to rid you of everything you love, everything you care about, and to make you suffer as you watch everything you wanted to protect burn. That last part is a joke but everything else is true." He explains, his words surprised me as I never expected that his plan had something to do with me this whole time. I didn't want to hesitate a second longer so I prepared to grab him again until the realization that my power was weaker now since he absorbed half of it leaving me to wait and recharge some more. He waved goodbye and jumped off the edge of the building saying to me as he did, "Till next time, lightning boy." I tried to run to him but my new power deactivated, leaving me with total exhaustion as I fell over and passed out, the rain poured on me as it was the only thing that didn't leave me to die. I woke up in the hospital, aching all over, I looked around to see Madison was there talking to one of the doctors. "Morning, you were sleeping for quite some time, let me try to remember how lon... Oh that's right, three days is how long, what happened?" When she said that to me, I immediately started to remember everything and told her. She was extremely shocked and didn't know what to say other than telling me she's sorry for what happened to Karley. Every fight or situation I come across is so sudden, I never stopped and wondered why that was until I was given the answer directly from that man when he told me that his plan was all for me. I didn't know who he was or what I did to make him do all of this, I couldn't think straight anymore, I just wish I could have done more with her before this happened. She began to propose a plan but I asked her to leave, she kept wanting to explain but I gave her one dead, cold stare and she finally understood. She left to go grab some food, leaving me alone with my thoughts, I was afraid to go to sleep so I was awake for hours until I couldn't hold it in any more. I fell asleep with no peace in mind, battling my emotions, If only I could have been faster than those flames, I could have prevented her from falling, I could have saved her.