After two crisp fall days, the warmth of the sun had returned to New Arden. This made wearing a thick knitted scarf in a humid garage much more difficult than it had been before.
Ace tugged at the front of the scarf to let air in as he huddled over the engine block of the car. He was hoping Stephan would declare his tasks done for the day, pay him his wage, and let him go, but so far, he had not been so lucky.
He had not been so lucky in finding out the location of his hometown, either. He and Elliot had paid a visit to New Arden’s City Hall, but no one had heard of Fortanya, Northaven, or even The Tallelands. They directed them to the city’s library, but not even geographic books or maps offered any assistance. This did not make the potential fugitive feel any better about his situation. Elliot mentioned something about looking off-planet, but they hadn’t had time to follow that lead.
“How’s it comin’, Gallagher?” Stephan leaned around the car’s open hood.
Ace jumped out of his thoughts and offered a quick smile. “Everything is going well, sir; I just have to tighten up the bolts and this one should be good to go.”
Stephan nodded. “Good, ‘cause her owner is here to pick her up!”
Ace glanced around the car hood to see a pair of chatty men at the garage door. When one caught a glimpse of him, he stopped his friend in mid-sentence.
“Stephan! Who’s that you’ve got there working on my car?”
“Oh, Fenton, this is Ace Gallagher!” Stephan reached for Ace’s arm to pull him out from behind the car. “He’s one of Elliot’s friends. Fast learner; a great help around the place.”
“Is he as good as you, though?” Fenton started over. “I’m paying for your expertise, not his. Gas-automobiles are hard to come by, you know.”
“He’s done all I’ve told him.” Stephan explained, “Havin’ him is like havin’ four hands instead of two!”
The man looked Ace over. “Well, if you say so.”
The man’s friend was now sauntering over. “What’s with the get-up?”
“Get-up?”
Fenton took another step forward. “Yeah. Who wears a scarf in a car shop in this heat?”
Ace swallowed his nervousness and smirked. “Guilty! It’s mostly for a neck issue. I need the support.”
“You sure you don’t need a brace or something?” Fenton’s friend scratched his head.
“Can’t afford one—yet.” He gave a quick smile to Stephan. “Lemme go tighten those bolts.”
Fenton, however, narrowed his eyes as Ace turned around. He lunged at Ace, pinched the scarf between his fingers, and ripped it from his neck.
Ace whipped around and drew his hands up, but judging by Stephan’s paling face, he had not been fast enough to hide the mark.
“I knew it!!” Fenton yelled, thrusting out his scarf-clenched hand. Both he and his friend had donned looks of outrage and anger. “And your disgusting hands have been all over my car!!”
The Echo’s eyes darted from Fenton to Stephan in fear.
Stephan stepped forward, though he seemed more shocked than upset. “Does Elliot—”
“No.” Ace interrupted. “Please don’t tell him—Stephan, I’m... I’m sorry, I—”
“I’m calling the cops!” Fenton’s friend ran into the office nook near the garage door.
“Wait—no—” Ace tried, but Fenton grabbed him by the back of his neck.
“Where are you going, Echo??” He barked into Ace’s ear.
Ace struggled against Fenton’s grasp, clutching at his fingers in an attempt to free himself. Stephan had bowed out of the scene, glancing toward the man on the phone in his office with a pained look to his face.
“I can fix your neck issue!” Fenton burst into laughter. “Does this help?” He repositioned his thumbs at the base of Ace’s skull. The pressure caused waves of blue light to pulse up Ace’s arms.
Ace winced with every wave. “Stop—it!”
Fenton continued to laugh as he poked and prodded the struggling man. He was no longer listening for Ace’s cries to stop, and he did not notice when the man suddenly grew tense.
“Stop!!” Ace yelled.
A swirl of mist rushed from his feet and whipped into the air like a small tornado. Fenton was thrown against his car, and everything on the floor had been thrust away by the force.
Ace collapsed to his knees in shock.
Fenton slumped to the ground, the force having knocked the wind from his chest.
Fenton’s friend dropped the phone receiver to the floor, his mouth gaping.
Stephan watched Ace with eyes teetering on the brink of fear.
Sirens began to wail in the distance.
Unhindered, Ace ran to the door and looked down the street to see flashes of red and blue flicker across distant windows. His instincts told him to run, so he clenched his teeth and took off in the opposite direction.
Thoughts coursed through his brain as he darted down the sidewalk. He didn’t know what he had done. He had no idea how he did it. He couldn’t be seen, but he couldn’t stay where he was. He had to run, but where could he run to?
The sirens were getting louder.
He turned down an alley and hopped onto a dumpster to reach an iron ladder. He used the ladder to swing over a chain-link fence and landed roughly onto the pavement on the other side. He rushed out into the street—only for two police cars to flank him. He tried to outrun them, but that quickly proved impossible as they narrowed in ever-closer.
He dug his heels into the pavement and shot away in the opposite direction, easily outmaneuvering the automobiles as they screeched to a halt behind him. A third car was heading straight for him, and he darted down an alley. The car was fast on his heels as he approached a high concrete wall, and it stopped a few feet away from his apparent dead-end.
“Stop where you are!” The car door opened to reveal a man in a gray uniform.
Ace, instead, leapt onto the car’s hood and used it to hop onto the top of the wall and down to the other side. A smirk found its way to his face as the officer shouted behind him, but it faded when a thickening crowd assembled to block his path out to the street.
“There he is—the Echo!!”
Shouts and cries rippled through the crowd as a few men broke from the mass.
Ace could scarcely skip a few feet backward before he was forcibly grabbed and thrown to his knees. Someone’s knee jabbed into his back as his hands were pulled uncomfortably against his shoulder blades. He groaned as a hand gripped him by the neck and other sets of hands bound his body tightly with rope.
“Kill him!”
Ace’s eyes darted his head to the crowd.
“Kill him before he multiplies!!”
“He’ll infect our entire planet!”
Ace winced and shut his eyes, wishing he could drown out the cries as easily.
“What’s going on—release him!” Someone shouted over the crowd.
“We’re taking care of him, officer!” Another yelled back.
“By the orders of NAGA, he is required to be handed over to us!”
But the crowd noise overtook any voice of reason, and at once Ace was pulled to his feet by his shoulders. He took short, staggered steps among the knotted rope that bound him. He turned his head from side to side in an attempt to avoid the taunting, spitting, and jeers thrown his way. He scuffled along dejectedly as he was led across the street. He perked up as the sound of water reached his ears, and his eyes grew wide when he found he was being led to a canal full of rushing water.
He dug his heels into the ground, but he was immediately thrust forward and shoved into the concrete ledge separating the canal from the sidewalk. His wrapped body bent over the ledge, and he found himself facing the water, churning only a few feet below him.
Even without being bound, Ace couldn’t swim; he had always been too afraid of drowning to try. And now, his greatest nightmare had been laid before him. His breathing became erratic and his heart pounded in his ears.
“Kill the Echo!” The crowd chanted behind him.
“No!” Ace cried as he felt his arms being lifted. He kicked at the ledge and writhed in the ropes in panic, but the flurry of hands boosted him over the ledge and threw him into the canal.
Cold water broke his fall, wrapping around his body like a dark, frigid blanket. He struck and subsequently became wedged against a rock, or car part, or something otherwise cold and unmoving at the base of the canal. He twisted against the ropes and the current as the bubbles of his own breath swirled around him, but he was only pressed tighter in place. Losing air and warmth, he opened his eyes and saw the glow of the surface above him.
Blue light shone at his fingertips. The light traced up his arms like veins until they joined the mark at the back of his neck and flashed into his eyes.
Water surged from the canal as if a gigantic bubble had burst, and it drenched the crowd as they backed away from the ledge. After shaking the water from his arms, one of the men stepped up to look over the ledge.
The Echo stood at the bottom of the canal with the rushing water completely diverted around him. The ropes laid in broken strands at his feet. His eyes gleamed as they emotionlessly glared at his captors.
Water bent from behind him and eased his climb out of the canal. He landed with a splash as the members of the crowd scrambled backward.
There was a moment in which no one moved; the people of New Arden, silenced by the glowing Echo standing before them, and the Echo, pulsing with light as his lips tugged apart to show bared teeth.
Spreading his fingers apart, he thrust his hands at his sides and the water in the canal surged into a massive wave. He turned his hands down and the wave bent forward.
The crowd broke in to screams and cries of horror as the wave struck the ground and swept under the feet of all who attempted to run away.
“Ace!!”
The glow faded from his eyes as his head turned to see a man in a leather jacket racing towards him in the wave’s path.
The wave’s intensity immediately broke, and it trickled across the ground to puddle gently at Elliot’s feet.
Ace’s body heaved with every breath. The light was gone, leaving only a cold, wet young man with hair strewn across his face and neck. He closed his mouth to swallow before huffing another labored breath.
Elliot looked on with a peculiar expression; a mixture of both relief and disappointment.
The disappointment resonated within Ace’s weakened form, and it grew even more deafening when he noticed the waterlogged bodies struggling to rise. Those who had managed to turn towards him gaped at him in horror.
His lips twisted into a frown. He had done this.
He clenched the muscles in his body and tore away from the scene, disappearing in a thick mist that rose from the canal beside him.
Elliot also frowned, glancing down at the water at his feet. He looked up when he noticed Stephan hobbling over to him, and winced when the man set a heavy hand on his shoulder.
“It’s not your fault,” he said after a moment, “you didn’t know who he truly was.”
Elliot straightened. Ace had kept his secret.
Stephan sighed and started back to his waterlogged garage.
The man sighed and looked back to the canals. The mist had disappeared, but he had a good idea where it had drifted to.