“No,” he stated solemnly, shaking his head. “Electra’s peers saw one of their own in distress and came to her aid. It’s what I would expect, and I don’t hold it against them. Plus, I’d never hurt anyone close to us. I mean, I tossed some people around telekinetically, but just to keep them off me, and I made sure nobody got more than a minor boo-boo.”
“You shouldn’t have been there in the first place,” I noted. “I don’t like having my friends in harm’s way.”
“Well, as I keep stressing, I’m not a danger to them. Even if I were, it’s pretty evident that they can take care of themselves.” He chuckled, apparently reminiscing, then added, “Our girl actually packs quite a wallop – that other one, too.”
“She’s not our girl!” I hissed. “And you’re lucky Atalanta didn’t tear your head off. Just stay away from us.”
He didn’t say anything for a moment, then cast his eyes down.
“Don’t you think I would if I could?” he asked somberly, and I sensed an odd sadness and longing in him. “But being you is all I know. All I was ever taught. All that was ever drilled into me.”
“But that’s not your path anymore,” I stressed. “The people who molded you for that purpose are gone now. You need to own up to the things you’ve done, but you’re free to be your own person.”
“Why would I want to be anyone else?” he demanded. “Why would I–”
Jack was cut off as a colony of bats abruptly swooped towards us, squeaking loudly. I instinctively phased, allowing them to pass harmlessly through me. I glanced at Jack, expecting him to do the same, and was caught completely by surprise by what I saw.
Rather than phase, my evil twin still appeared to be solid. Moreover, I saw a hazy blue glow forming around his eyes, and – knowing what was about to happen – I was immediately filled with dread.
“Jack!” I bellowed. “No!”
My shout came too late, however, as azure light shot out from Jack’s eyes in several short bursts. Each beam hit one of the bats, which then seemed to simply vanish.
Inwardly, I cringed as the meaning of what I had witnessed became clear.
Jack had the Bolt Blast.
Chapter 74
My father, Alpha Prime, was the most powerful superhero on the planet, and the deadliest weapon in his arsenal was his Bolt Blast – powerful beams of energy he could shoot from his eyes, and which would instantly vaporize, disintegrate, and obliterate anything they made contact with. My brother Paramount had inherited this incredible ability, and now Jack had somehow developed it as well.
Shock and fury welled up in me at what my doppelganger had just done. As the remaining bats scattered, chirping madly, I dashed towards him.
Gripping him by the collar of his jacket, I screamed, “What the hell is wrong with you?!”
“What’s your problem?” he shot back, shoving me away. “They’re just bats – flying rats, to be honest.”
“And you just casually killed them, when all you had to do was phase or get out of the way!”
“Everybody wants me out of the way,” he retorted. “My handlers. You. Bats… Well, maybe I’m tired of getting out of the way. Maybe it’s time for the rest of the world to get out of my way.”
“Or what?” I asked. “You’ll blast them?”
“Maybe,” he said hotly.
“And that’s exactly what I meant earlier. You’re dangerous, Jack. You’d rather kill an innocent creature than step two paces to the side. What does that say about you? About your character?”
“No,” Jack contended, shaking his head. “You’re wrong.”
“On the contrary, I’m absolutely right – and you proved it by what you did to those bats,” I insisted. “You’re a menace. You need to step away – get help – before someone gets hurt.”
“I disagree,” Jack said. “You can’t take what I did to some pests and say I’d do the same thing to people.”
“Oh, I’ve seen what you do to people, and it’s worse. At least the bats didn’t suffer.”
“Any people that I’ve harmed had it coming,” he argued. “I’d never do that to anyone we cared about.”
“You mean anyone I cared about,” I corrected. “And there’s no telling what you’ll do, which is why I don’t want you around my family and friends. And if you actually cared about them as much as you say, you’d keep your distance.”
Suddenly his eyes narrowed, and empathically I felt ire and exasperation building in him.
“Why do you have to be so selfish?” he demanded. “It’s always your family, your friends, your this, your that… Why does it all have to belong solely to you?”
I shook my head. “I never said that it did.”
“That’s precisely how you make it sound – like when you say they’re your friends and not mine.”
“Because you want connections and relationships with people that are usually built up over time. Friendship and trust are things that have to be earned.”
“Earned?” he snapped. “What have you ever earned? Everything’s just been handed to you on a silver platter, and it’s still not enough.”
“Huh?” I muttered. “What are you talking about?”
“Think about it,” he said. “You’ve got enough powers for two supers, you’re a prince in two different kingdoms, you’ve got a knockout girlfriend and a beautiful fiancée. Basically, your entire existence is a buy-one-get-one-free special.”
“Most of that stuff – my powers, being royalty – is an accident of birth. It’s not anything I had control over.”
“And yet somehow you end up doubly-blessed in every way imaginable,” he grumbled, “with enough for two people in almost every arena, and you still want it all for yourself. And to top it all off, you end up as king of an interstellar empire.”
I was slightly stunned by his statement, and then I remembered: he’d had a dossier on me, including the fact that – in the future – I allegedly end up sitting on the Caelesian throne.
“I’m not trying to keep anything to myself,” I professed. “The simple
