Battle of the ULTRAs Read Free Page A

explosion in the distance. Their bullets hit the side of a large hotel. Fire blasted from it. The glass all smashed, and the building started to fall.
    As I stood there and looked at the chaos, I realized I’d made an error of judgment. I’d let my guard slip. All because of my perusal of Saint. All because I’d needed to catch him.
    Saint.
    I needed to stop him.
    I needed to…
    When I looked back, a bitter taste filled my mouth.
    Saint was gone.
    I was about to go after him in the direction he’d headed when I heard a shout in the distance. When I felt something bad inside. Now I don’t know why this had started happening, but since I’d joined the Resistance, trained with them, I got this weird feeling when one of them was in danger. It was like we were all tapped into the same energy source. At first, I just put it down to me usually being anxious about some shit or other.
    But I felt it now. I felt it, strong.
    I teleported back to where the battle was unfolding above Manchester and saw exactly why I’d had a bad feeling.
    Vortex was in the air.
    She was surrounded by ULTRAbots.
    And they were pulling their triggers.

4
    I saw the ULTRAbots surround Vortex and fire their triggers and knew what I had to do.
    I flew into their center. Teleported through them. I saw the bullets coming toward me then and knew I was going to be too late to stop all of them.
    I focused my attention on a few of the bullets to the left. I slowed them down, then sped the bullets back at the ULTRAbots that’d fired them.
    And then I felt the sharp, hot pain puncture the right side of my body and knew I was hit.
    “Quick,” I said. “Get—get out of here.”
    I saw Vortex looking at me with shock. She was looking at the right side of my body. I knew just from the look on her face that it wasn’t good and that I must’ve taken some damage. I didn’t want to look at it myself. Looking at wounds and blood just made me squeamish.
    I turned to the rest of the ULTRAbots—the ones that’d fired at me—and I lifted my hand.
    “You’re gonna regret that,” I said.
    I fired a mass of ice into their bodies.
    They froze right upon contact. One more hit and they’d be down completely. Shattered.
    But I didn’t have the strength in me right now to shatter them.
    I dropped to the top of a nearby building, crouched down and leaned back against the wall at the side. I caught a glance at the side of my body. It made me feel sickly, made my toes curl. I’d taken a bad hit. I needed to heal myself. Fast.
    I focused all my energy on that right side of my body. The healing process was never nice. It always stung. But I had to use it, or I wouldn’t survive. If it weren’t for my ability to heal, I’d die. I couldn’t die. Not when Saint was still alive to kill.
    I was in the middle of healing a puncture wound just underneath my ribcage when a group of ULTRAbots raised up at the side of the building right opposite me.
    I looked them in the eye. They looked back at me. I kept my focus on that wound. Kept on healing it. I’d have to be quick, but I could still fight. I could…
    When I saw who they had in their hands, my focus on healing slipped.
    They were holding on to Ember. One of the ULTRAbots had a gun to his head. The ULTRAbot had a total dead look in its eyes, like it didn’t care what it was doing, only that it had to carry it out.
    I saw Ember struggling. Saw him trying to spark up the flames in his hands, but it was no use. The ULTRAbots had him. They’d got him right in their trap. There was no fighting back from Ember, not now.
    I kept on healing that right side but I knew I didn’t have long. Healing used up a lot of my powers, and when I’d finished healing, it always took a while for them to recharge to the max, too.
    But I couldn’t just sit here. I couldn’t just watch something terrible happen to Ember.
    “Hold still,” I shouted, standing.
    Ember didn’t listen.
    I lifted my hands. “Hold—”
    The blast deafened