Read Battle of the ULTRAs for Free Online

layer to the challenge.
    But I wasn’t sure. This felt very real.
    “Saint,” I said, looking all around. I couldn’t see him anywhere. “Did you see where he went?”
    “Saint’s right here,” she said.
    It took me a second to clock what Vortex said. “What do—”
    She flew into my chest and knocked me out of the sky.
    I fell rapidly down to the island, the wind knocked out of my gut. Vortex had hit me. She’d hit me and she’d said, “Saint’s right here”. This couldn’t be real. This had to be some kind of trance. What did any of it mean?
    I readjusted my balance when Vortex flew into me again.
    “Vortex, what—”
    She punched me in the back of the neck. Hard. And then she pulled back my arms as I tried to swing them at her and kicked me away. I didn’t want to fight her. After all, this was Vortex. She was strong, but I knew my powers were much stronger. Among the strongest in the world.
    I could feel someone trying to get into my mind. A feeling I couldn’t explain. I held my ground, resisted it, and stood tall as Vortex flew at me once more.
    I dodged her attack. Appeared behind her.
    “What the hell is this?”
    She swung for me, so I teleported to her side again. I was still winded, but I had enough energy in me to keep on dodging around her, to keep on resisting her attacks.
    I didn’t want to fight back. I couldn’t fight back. But Vortex wasn’t leaving me much of a choice right now.
    I fired ice at her fists as she flew toward me. It didn’t stop her, though. She kept on going until the ice cracked into my chest and knocked me back.
    I fell backward. Wobbled through the air. I tasted blood on my lips. “Vortex, what the hell is this?”
    I saw Vortex was looking at me then with fear. With confusion. And I saw that she wasn’t in control of her actions right now. Someone else was. Someone was using her to fight against me. Someone was…
    I saw the glimmer of silver in the corner of my eye again.
    I was torn. Torn between staying here with Vortex, helping her get out of this state.
    But Saint.
    The glimmer of light. It was Saint. It had to be Saint. He was doing this.
    He wasn’t going to get away with it.
    Screw what Orion said about starting small. If I was cutting away any part of the snake, it was the head—
    A crack against my jaw, then my mind went dizzy.
    I fell. And as I fell, I saw that glimmer of silver disappear. He’d gone. Saint had gone all over again.
    “You let him get away!” I shouted.
    I flew at Vortex this time and didn’t hold back. I rammed her backward. Fired ice at her hands as she kept on swinging, kept on punching. I knew what I was doing was wrong. I knew she couldn’t be in control of herself.
    But she’d punched me. She’d got in my way when I was trying to stop Saint. We’d failed to catch him all over again.
    I kept on fighting Vortex. And soon, I became aware of just how high we were. We were well above the clouds. The purple glow of space was just inches away. Soon, Vortex wouldn’t be able to breathe. I would—I was special like that. But if I stayed up here much longer, Vortex was going to die.
    I grabbed her. Resisted all her attacks. It was weird that she hadn’t just used her mind tricks on me. Whoever was controlling her must not be able to tap into those.
    I dragged her back down to earth, through the icy clouds.
    She kept on fighting back.
    “Come on,” I said. “We’re almost there. We’re almost—”
    “You’ve made a big mistake,” she said.
    I looked at her then. I didn’t know what she meant. “What do…”
    Then I heard the explosion.
    The explosion down by the island.
    On the island.
    The Resistance’s island was under attack, and I was right up here in the clouds.

10
    I heard the explosion down on the island and felt sickening guilt spread through my body.
    I squinted down, the sunlight blinding me. The thickening clouds were in the way, too. Those clouds made me feel uneasy simply because I associated clouds