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  The doors closed in front of him, and Jonathan tapped the first floor button. The car groaned into motion. He noticed the weight limit sign bolted next to the control panel. Jonathan gulped down the lump in his throat, praying he wasn’t exceeding that limit right now.

  •

  Samuel descended until his feet touched the scorched asphalt. He stood scowling at Margot, fifty yards away. “Release the girl!â€� he shouted.

  Margot smiled. “I don’t see any reason why I should. What’s the matter, can’t bring yourself to kill a little girl, Stokes?â€�

  The building next to Samuel groaned as fires spread throughout the structure, following Margot’s explosion minutes before. He was still standing underneath it. “I’ll do what I have to,â€� Samuel said. “She’d be better off dead, than possessed by some psycho monster.â€�

  Margot frowned sarcastically. “Ah, please don’t hurt me, Mister, I’m just a wittle girl…and girls just wanna have fun!â€�

  The pavement peeled away in chunks between them, as Margot sent a shockwave barreling toward Samuel. The asphalt flew at him, the very ground beneath his feet erupting.

  Samuel diverted some of the heavy debris, dodging past other portions as he retreated. Margot pulled on the half destroyed building with her mind and sent it careening over top of Samuel.

  He tried to blast away as much of the oncoming building as possible before it buried him, but it simply had too much mass and momentum. Samuel shielded himself as best he could, before the whole thing came down on top of him. The building collapse sounded like a bomb going off. Billowing gray clouds of concrete dust rose into the air, rushing along the nearby streets for nearly a mile. Car alarms rang out, and hundreds of people screamed like the end of the world had finally come upon them.

  Margot simply stood, shielding herself from the cloud of debris. It washed over her like a tsunami, while her kinetic bubble kept her safe and sound.

  When the dust finally began to settle, after several minutes, Margot noticed a shadow running toward her from one of the other buildings. She realized, a moment too late, it was the same person, dressed in an exoskeleton, who had tried to attack her moments ago.

  They lashed out at one another—her with a kinetic blast, he with an electrostatic charge resembling a bolt of blue lightning. The charge connected first, penetrating the column of intensely vibrating air Margot had been using as a shield. She jolted and flew back ten feet, landing on the pavement.

  Jonathan had only just managed to discharge his weapon when an invisible brick wall smashed into him. He flew backwards thirty feet, stopping only when his exoskeleton collided with the front façade of the building he had just exited.

  He heard the wall of glass and steel partitions buckle, shattering around him as he came to a skidding halt within the building lobby. The glass cut him up pretty badly, but his enhanced healing had already stopped the bleeding and begun to seal up the wounds by the time he stood again.

  Jonathan ran back toward the shattered entrance, grabbing a thick, tubular piece of steel from the debris. When he entered the street again, Margot had already managed to get to her knees. He had hoped the charge would have left her unconscious, but with Nemesis onboard it wouldn’t be that easy.

  •

  Jonathan leaped over a wrecked car and hit the pavement running. The girl threw a small hand toward him, straining to exert her power. Chunks of debris, both small and large, flew at Jonathan. He dodged a twisted car door, then batted away a piece of concrete with the steel pole.

  More and more debris rose from the road, hurtling toward him. The onslaught forced Jonathan to stop and defend himself against the attack. In the meantime, Margot got back to her feet. She sent a thin metal rod into the fray concentrating on getting it by Jonathan’s defense. The rod bypassed a swing at another piece of debris and plunged into his stomach.

  The strike threw his defense off for a moment—long enough for a piece of concrete to hammer him back into a parked car. Margot laughed, quite pleased that another police officer had bit the dust.

  Then, the man moved. He actually got up. Margot studied him, finally realizing who he must be. “Jonathan?â€�

  Jonathan stood and pulled the piece of steel from his abdomen, grunting inside his helmet from the pain. The blood flow was minimal and quickly stopped altogether. The wound began to close quickly.

  Margot smiled wanly. “I see you’ve got some new toys to play with, Jonathan, though it won’t do you much good.â€�

  Jonathan raised a gloved hand, pointing the fingers toward the little girl. On his helmet display, the target lock beeped. He discharged the weapon again. Margot tried to shield herself, but vibrating air currents couldn’t stop a static charge like it did solid objects. The energy passed through her defense, hitting her square again.

  Margot was thrown by the discharge. She landed ten feet away in a pile of gray concrete dust from the fallen building. Jonathan took advantage of the moment and ran toward her.

  Nemesis fought for control of his host, pushing the little girl to stand despite the pain. Margot shot up from the ground covered in gray dust. Jonathan had managed to get within fifteen feet of her. Margot raised her hands toward her attacker, a devilish grin playing on her lips. “Time to die, Jonathan.â€�

  Jonathan raised another charged glove hoping to discharge it before she stopped him. The wave of power that hit him seized his body and sought to tear it apart. His feet left the ground, levitating before Margot as her power surged through him.

  HALLOWED_GROUND

  20 TORN

  Jonathan felt bone cracking, sinew and muscle tearing, and organs on the verge of bursting within his body. Margot, possessed by Nemesis, leered at him, teeth bared as the full fury of her parasite’s rage surged from her mind into and through Jonathan’s levitated form. He jerked against the pain, crying out as waves of agony coursed through him. Only his mutagen enhanced strength and healing did anything to keep his body from exploding under the strain.

  As tissues tore within him, Jonathan felt his body trying to keep up, healing them, only to feel them torn again. He looked into her eyes, willing himself not to pass out. “Help me, Lord Jesus!â€�

  Waves of pain overcame him. He screamed at the top of his lungs for mercy. The possessed little girl had none for him. Jonathan hit the ground amid thunderous booms. Samuel, bloody and bruised, threw an onslaught of debris and damaged vehicles toward Margot. He had somehow emerged alive from the wreckage of the fallen building.

  Margot frantically turned her attention toward Samuel’s attack, trying to deflect at least a hundred different objects flying at her from every direction. Her power was taxed at this point, but Nemesis wouldn’t give up his hold.

  Jonathan summoned the last vestiges of his waning strength, pushing up on his hands and knees. He lunged for the girl, tackling her while her back was too him. She struggled in his grip, until he turned her to face him.

  Blood poured from Jonathan’s ears, nose, and mouth, a sign of desperate internal hemorrhaging. He lifted Margot, shouting with everything he had left. “Lord Jesus, I beg you to intervene and release Margot from Trenton’s hold!â€�

  Margot blasted him away with her mind and fell to her knees as Jonathan’s body tumbled limp across the dust-caked asphalt. She tried to stand again, but was overtaken by quaking in her body.

  Samuel stopped his attack when Jonathan grabbed the girl. He watched, bewildered by Jonathan’s tactic. Margot’s body now shuddered. Her mind seemed to return with new strength against the parasite controlling her. “Lord Jesus, help me!â€� she cried.

  A wave of pain hit her. She fell to the ground, heaving on her hands and knees. Black fluid issued from her nose and mouth, spilling onto the concrete. The fluid tried to take form again, but Samuel was alre
ady there.

  He summoned a burning heat with his mind, igniting the gelatinous creature writhing on the ground before him. Nemesis, all that was left of his form, burst into flame, screeching and clawing at the pavement until the fire consumed him. After a few moments, only ash remained of the creature Trenton Hallowed had become.

  Samuel knelt next to Margot as she sat up. “Is it gone?â€�

  He smiled through the dried blood and dust caked on his face. “I think so, Margot. Are you okay?â€�

  She turned to Jonathan’s body, lying motionless twenty feet away. “Yeah. Thanks to him.â€�

  •

  Jonathan barely had the strength left to open his eyes. He found Samuel Stokes kneeling next to him, along with Jay, who was holding tightly to his daughter, Margot. Jonathan looked at Jay’s face, hoping to find a smile, some sign that all was finally well. “Is Margot all right?â€� he managed through labored breaths.

  Jay smiled down at him. “You saved her, Jonathan. You saved my baby.â€�

  Jonathan smiled back at his friend, weakly, trying to shake his head a little. “Not me. Jesus saved her.â€�

  Jay nodded. He understood.

  Jonathan looked at Samuel. He still looked bewildered by what had happened—even more by how it had happened. “Samuel, don’t go on hating people. We all make mistakes. That’s why God gave us the Savior.â€�

  Samuel could only stare into his eyes. Even after all he had done to the man, Jonathan still had only kind words for him. Samuel managed a weak nod, placing his hand on Jonathan’s.

  Jonathan turned to Jay. “Help him understand, Jay.â€�

  Jay gulped down the lump gathering in his throat. “I will—â€� Then he realized Jonathan was already gone.

  HALLOWED_GROUND

  21 RECONCILED

  Jay placed a single red rose on Jonathan’s casket, as the few other mourners began to make their way back across the cemetery to their cars. Margot stood next to her father, wiping tears from her eyes. The preacher came by and shook his hand, before walking away from the grave site.

  Jay and Margot lingered at the casket with its wreaths of flowers lying on top. He looked back toward the few cars now pulling away from the cemetery. “He had to die in a time when no one even knew who he was,â€� Jay said. He had not recognized the few men who had shown up for Jason’s graveside service.

  “But, Dad, we knew who he was. You’ve told me about him all my life. Even if I didn’t get to see him, but for a short moment, I still knew him. We’ll never forget Jonathan, will we?â€�

  Jay smiled at his daughter, stroking her dark hair. “You’re right, sweetheart. I suppose we had better get going. Jonathan once told me he wondered if God had let him live until this time, so that he could bring you back to me. I guess, now, his work really is finished.â€�

  Jay had not bothered with an autopsy. It had been clear that Jonathan’s body had finally expended all of the hyper-metabolic strength it had. It was over. Jonathan had run his race and finished his course. He was safe now.

  They walked back to the road where their driver waited with the car door open. Fall leaves rustled along the ground as the nip of a cool October morning waited to be burned away by the noonday sun.

  •

  Samuel Stokes sat inside his cell in Imperial City’s maximum security holding facility. A bracelet blinked red on his ankle. Any attempt to escape the cell, or facility, would trigger hidden electrostatic devices to stun him into unconsciousness.

  Samuel watched the wall, thinking about all that had happened. He had surprised himself by surrendering to the authorities, following the destructive battle with the Nemesis creature. He knew he could escape if he wanted to, but he wouldn’t. Something Jonathan Hallowed had said to him, made him realize the futility of what he was doing. The little girl, Margot, had even pleaded with him, afterward, not to use his power to hurt people anymore.

  He still wasn’t sure why he felt this way. Revenge had not brought him the satisfaction he had hoped for. A lot of people had been hurt who never had anything to do with his situation. Samuel realized he hadn’t been anymore fair to those people, than Andre Sarkov had been to him and his Halo Project siblings.

  Jay Young appeared outside the transparent plexi-steel barrier, serving as the front wall and doorway to his cell. He spoke through an intercom positioned in the middle of the barrier. “Samuel, how are you feeling?â€�

  Samuel stood up and walked over to the front of the cell. “Not too bad, I suppose, Doc.â€� He noticed Jay’s dark suit with a rose on the lapel. “Jonathan’s funeral was today, wasn’t it?â€�

  Jay nodded. “Yes. I’m going to miss him a lot.â€�

  “I wish I could have come. He seemed like a good man,â€� Samuel said.

  Jay nodded. “If anyone was, it was Jonathan.â€�

  Samuel looked at the ceiling. “I guess it’s guys like that who make it into Heaven.â€�

  Samuel gave him a cautious look. “True, Samuel, but not for the reason you think. Jonathan didn’t go there because he was good, but because his faith was in Jesus Christ.â€�

  Samuel looked downcast. “Sure, who wouldn’t want to save a guy like him? After all I put him through, he still didn’t hate me. I just don’t understand how he could do that.â€�

  Jay remembered Jonathan’s last words. “Help him understand, Jay.â€� He smiled at Samuel, reaching into his coat pocket. Jay removed a small Bible and opened it to the Gospel of John, chapter three. He looked down the page where his eyes fell on verse number sixteen. Jay looked at Samuel and grinned. “Let’s have a talk.â€�