PART 7
He broke through the sound barrier again, generating a mighty boom that he still heard because, this time, he circled the area once, to properly take stock of the situation. Reese was choking Tom, Rachel’s telepath. Tracey was appearing next to Griffin, knife in her hand. Hannah was protecting Adam, who was another speedster and seemed to be unconscious, but Walter’s heavy water cannon was about to hit her hard, and she had no footing because she was on top of Rocky’s earth.
He was about to go for the two when his brain remarked on how Hannah’s hair was piercing Rocky’s pillar, rising up around the two. It also reported that the floor beneath Tracey was caving under a force, pointing out to Michael just how Griffin’s hand was curling next to that space, and how his eyes were set on Tracey even while his face was still looking in the direction of the sonic boom Michael had just created.
He’ll kill her!
Michael did a hard turn and sped towards her, racing to her falling body. Her face reacted as if she was falling hard because she was. Refusing to hesitate for even a moment, he hit the gravity field around Griffin with a leap at full speed. He drew an arc across the air, gliding a mere foot from the ground. He flipped upside-down and extended his hands to catch Tracey in the air. The knife touched the ground first, immediately bending beneath the force it was under, but at that moment, Michael’s arms slammed against her body and pulled her along with him.
They crashed and tumbled away from Griffin’s vicinity, clearly out of his deadly pull. The right side of his torso stung him with pain, and his foot threatened to reopen the wound, and left bicep was burning. Michael didn’t care, he scurried to grab the wounded Tracey.
“You dare show your fa–”
Michael was out of sight, running at full speed, generating a sonic boom. There would be no talking, this time. He had no wish to trade impressions or arguments, he was too afraid to. Every moment counted.
Every breath matters.
Michael stopped near Rachel, skidding across the floor a little bit out of control, but dropping Tracey on the ground with a quick crouch.
“She might be under Maya’s control, be careful.”
“Wha–”
Again, Michael was off, not interested in hearing the end of the sentence.
Very near to the area of the fight, there was a gas station that had been broken apart by a tossed truck. It was on fire, but the truck formed a ramp up to its shattered ceiling.
Going supersonic, Michael ran up the truck and led himself into a leap. His speed carried him far and gravity, the normal one, brought it down along with him, but if he was right, and if Tom was still being held in the same position, he would safely intercept him.
Michael saw Tom in the air and thankfully recognized he was about to collide with him. A ball of hair was landing hard on the ground. Hannah and Adam were yelling inside, but it looked sturdy enough to hold for a few more seconds.
Michael reached out, desperate to see them all safe.
“NO!”
Tom was suddenly pulled down and away from Michael’s trajectory. Gravity, not wind, massively caught Michael’s glide and sent him flipping about uncontrollably, even if he left it in under a second. Unfortunately, he still managed to see Tom splatting against the ground as if he had fallen from much higher. Blood gushed out gruesomely, and all the people around them, who were watching helplessly beneath the weight of Griffin’s gravity, screamed. Horrified.
But Michael didn’t scream. His eyes turned to the ball of hair before his body went crashing through a window, and then through a sleuth of office supplies, grunting the entire way. He came to a stop against a wall so violently his body whipped his head against it.
Michael saw dazing lights, but unlike in the past, in another fight, there was an urgency that could not wait for his body to act.
“Rah!” Michael slapped his head and shook it, waking up his vision. The building started shaking, and the floor rose up to crush him against the ceiling.
Frowning hard, Michael ran forward, turned around, then ran right through the dam wall and out the building. He had not known for sure it was drywall, fake and easy to break through, but he had to take the change.
Michael landed badly, tumbling over the debris-filled street, but not into a stop.
Into a run.
He ran out to sea, broke the sound barrier, then came right back. With Griffin doing everything he could to stop him, Michael knew there was only one thing he could do, now. Hannah would be desperate, just trying to survive by holding the ball of hair like an impenetrable shield. And if Griffin was in killing mode, he was going to squash it.
There was only one way to save them.
I’ll make it, Eleanor. I’ll save them!
Michael ran past the building he had crashed into, noticing how the second floor had smashed into the third, and it was now half-way collapsing. Max had jumped back and was landing hard, next to Griffin, blocking that entire side that Michael could see. The ground had shaped into a wall, but not fast enough. The wind was blowing after the wall, but not strongly enough. No, the thing that would get Michael was after those two barriers.
Hannah’s hair was bending down, involuntarily trying to flatten the two occupants. Michael could not see inside to make sure they were okay, all he could do was hope he would make it in time.
He jumped and stepped onto the rising wall, leaping off of it. He dove and spun his body to increase penetration into the wind, and as soon as he felt gravity pulling at him with an unimaginable force, he opened his arms, idling his body. He looked up at the immediately approaching egg of hair.
NO ONE ELSE!
Michael put all of his momentum in his arms and aggressively pushed against the egg. All at once, the sounds of the world rushed back at him.
A metallic monstrosity scraped and skipped across the ground, quickly getting well away, but that had stopped all his forward motion. Screams and yells from the unwilling spectators surrounded him, and then rushed up, as his body violently hit the ground.
Michael’s mind threatened to shut down again from the impact, filling his sight with opaque, shimmering colors, but his heart refused. It was terrified, and so urged to get up and run.
Moaning, Michael tried to push himself up, only to find out he no longer had the strength to do it. His body was too heavy.
“You son of a bitch.”
Michael opened his eyes and realized it wasn’t completely out of weakness, or due to his wounds, new or old. He was actually too heavy.
With difficulty, he turned his head and watched as feet circled him. With difficulty, he glanced up to catch the angry, judgmental eyes of the ruler of the United Powers of the Antipodes.
“You just don’t learn, do you? Mach?”
Mach 