Rivalries: Chapter Twenty-Four, Part One

 Notes: Have a nice denouement to the fight, my darlins! Don't worry, we're not done yet, but I hope you enjoy this next part.

Title: Rivalries: Chapter Twenty-Four, Part One

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Chapter Twenty-Four, Part One

 

John knew almost immediately that something was wrong.

It was in the way the colonel stood, like he was going into war instead of setting up for a demonstration bout meant to educate a bunch of high-schoolers. John had never gone to war, but he’d seen that sort of battle stance plenty of times—in the spines of parents who were determined to get custody back in court, in CPS agents who were determined to save kids from dangerous situations, even in the scientists who’d pushed him harder and harder to gain more and more knacks. He’d never seen it displayed quite so violently, but he knew it well.

Applegate had come here to win. He wouldn’t accept any outcome other than that, not unless he was unconscious or dead. And the odds that Charlie saw that, as nervous as he was, were low.

John wasn’t the only one who’d realized that something about this was off. Huda, sitting on Ari’s other side with one arm tight around his shoulders, was frowning darkly. “What does that man think he’s doing?” she demanded under her breath. “Look at the way the dirt’s getting stirred up out there. That’s far too much power to be using so close to civilians.”

John didn’t know it was so calculable. “You can tell that from here?”

“Analyzing video footage is one of the ways my staff and I have been able to prove the overuse of knacks in combat,” she said grimly. “Or in the ‘accidents’ that happen far too often to civilians when troops with knacks are deployed. This is too much. They’re both experts, they should be able to throw their knacks back and forth without so much as bending a blade of grass, and here they’ve nearly started a dust storm.”

  “What can we do about it?” John asked. Between them, Ari shifted uncomfortably, his eyes glued on the shadowy figure of Charlie beneath his shield.

“Nothing. The only way to safely interrupt a duel like this is with someone who has an appropriate mental knack. Are there any Peacemakers in the crowd that you know of?”

“No.” Peacemaking was a kind way of saying “involuntarily taking away someone’s mental and motor control.” Peacemakers were incredibly useful in both the armed forces and policing. Some people called them “corpsemakers,” for the way that the people they used their knack on dropped to the ground like bodies.

“What about a Puppeteer?”

“No.” Puppeteers were like Peacemakers, only instead of merely taking away control from a person, they took that control into themselves, turning whoever they’d targeted into a doll, or puppet, under their command. Puppeteers had been the forces behind several of the largest coups in modern history. Fortunately for everyone, they could only control one person at a time.

John used to be pleased that he’d never been forced to learn that particular knack. Now he wished to god that he had, because the flurry of attacks was picking up speed, and while Charlie looked to be handling it well, it wasn’t safe. John could feel that in his bones.

All of a sudden, things took a turn that no one expected, judging from the outcry in the stands. Colonel Applegate became surrounded by a glowing semicircle of sharpened light, which arced out toward Charlie like a series of deadly lighting strikes. Charlie took cover behind a solid shield of his own, but the sheer power that the colonel was putting into his attacks was as frightening as it was intense.

“He’s not supposed to do that, is he?” Roland asked uncertainly from John’s left side.

“No, he’s not.” That was a…what was it called…

“Shield storm!” Huda’s lips were pressed so tightly together they’d turned white. “He’s using a shield storm! That’s a combat technique only—how dare he?”

“Charlie!” Ari screamed, trying to stand up and run into the field. His mother grabbed him with all of his strength, holding him back, and John helped her. All around them, students and their parents were murmuring, excitement turning to uncertainty as the attack went on. “Charlie, no! No!”

“That could kill him, right?” one of the kids behind John said loudly. “That could kill Mr. Verlaine! Dad, make him stop!”

“Tell the principal to make him stop!”

“Somebody do something!” But nobody did anything, because no one had the training to do so. None of the kids with appropriate mental knacks—and there weren’t many—had the sort of training to let them safely intercede, and if any of the adults did, John didn’t know about it.

He’d have to do it. He had to have something in his arsenal that could help. There was no way in hell he was just going to stand here and watch the man he loved get torn apart by this asshole.

Supremacy…no, that only works on other mental knacks, fuck…Impulse? No, that would leave the shield storm to dissipate on its own, and it would definitely hit people before that happened. Speaking of which… “We need to evacuate!” John shouted toward Principal Cross, who was staring at the duel with a baffled look on her face. “EVACUATE!” He would’ve run to her, but then he couldn’t help Huda hold Ari, and the boy was starting to fight them harder.

John finally found a knack that would work in this situation. “Everybody get out of here!” he Shouted, and his words reverberated across the bleachers and field like a roll of thunder. People startled, stared at him, then thankfully began to move.

“Ari, come on—” Huda tried to move her son, but he was screaming, straining toward Charlie, who—

Oh, shit. Oh, no. There was a crack in his shield.

“No no no no…” Every cell in John’s body was vibrating with panic, with the desperate need to intercede and hideous frustration at being unable to do so. “No!”

“Ari, stop!” Huda pleaded.

John turned to look at Ari, because he knew if he stared at Charlie a second longer he’d go insane, and—

Ari’s eyes had turned purple, a bright violet sheen stretching all the way from corner to corner. His hands were trembling, his teeth were bared, and John could sense the power of his knack building inside of him, ready to erupt.

In less than a second, he let go of Ari and tackled Huda to the ground, covering them both in a shield. A second after that, Ari’s knack tore across the field, slamming into Colonel Applegate. The shield storm dissipated like a mirage, all the power and frenzy of it gone quicker than the time it took for the dust to settle to the ground. The colonel turned and stared at Ari, all the attention he’d paid to Charlie utterly forgotten.

“Oh,” he murmured, and fell to his knees. Once he was there, he began crawling over to Ari. Ari, however, was already headed for Charlie…at a walk.

A walk? Where’s the urgency gone?

Wait a second. Had Ari…actually…accomplished what Katherine had suggested? Had Ari turned his knack around, taken it from constantly afflicting him into targeting others?

Huda was moaning with grief and fear, and John realized he was blocking her view. “Sorry, hang on,” he muttered, and got both of them upright. “Ari!” she shrieked, but John stopped her from running out after him.

“Look,” he said, pointing at her son. “Look at him.”

“He…what?” Because Ari could see Charlie now; Charlie’s shield was down. The kid ought to be pelting over there at top speed, but he was still walking. Colonel Applegate was still crawling, too, and Ari seemed to know it if the way he glanced over there every few seconds was any indicator, but he looked…in control of himself. In control of his emotions.

Charlie staggered to his feet. “Ari?” he asked raggedly, holding out his hand. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine.” Ari got to him, but instead of falling into a hug, he put himself underneath Charlie’s arm in a gesture of support. “Let me help you back to the bleachers.”

“Oh, god.” Huda’s eyes were glistening, but her expression was lighter than any John had seen so far. “Oh my god, he’s all right. Can he…I can hardly believe it. He ought to be out of his mind with worry, but he’s just…”

“He’s all right,” John agreed, then did some supporting of his own as Huda dissolved into breathless, laughing tears beside him.