THE SECOND WAVE TOM REYNOLDS LEONARD & CALYER CONTENTS Copyright Quote Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Social Media and Internet Things About the Author Also by Tom Reynolds Copyright © 2014 Tom Reynolds All rights reserved Written in Brooklyn Printed in the United States of America Published 2014 ISBN: 1502574004 ISBN-13: 978-1502574008 This book is a work of fiction The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental “But man is not made for defeat A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea CHAPTER nyone who tells you that they'd choose invisibility over flying is an idiot, a liar, or a A creep Seriously though, what good is invisibility? It sounds good in theory, but what are you really going to with it? Sneak into the girls' locker room? Do you have any idea how many people have that exact idea now that there are literally thousands and thousands of people on Earth who have metabands? In the first week the metabands fell from the sky, there were so many "incidents" that most of the gyms around the country had to temporarily close to retrofit their locker rooms so they would be harder for the new Invisibles to sneak into The saddest part is that a lot of the incidents didn't just involve someone getting caught; people were actually hurting themselves Being invisible sounds like a great idea until someone opens a door in your face, or walks into you from behind because they can’t see you, and both of you go toppling onto a wet tile floor Nothing’s creepier than watching blood seemingly appear out of nowhere, pooling around a shower drain So what about the Invisibles who aren’t huge pervs? Even they have very few legitimate reasons to use their powers for the greater good Outside of being a creeper, the other popular use for invisibility is theft The problem with that is, along with it being illegal, most Invisibles don't think ahead about what they're going to with the loot once they've reached it Unless you're not concerned about someone seeing expensive necklaces and rings floating themselves out of a jewelry store, you've got to find a way to hide them You don't want to know where the best places to hide jewelry are if you're an Invisible who already has a mouth full of expensive watches In the first month alone, there were three separate cases of Invisibles locking themselves inside a bank vault, and being forced to call the police before the oxygen inside the locked safe ran out Again, you really don't want to know where they were keeping their cell phones The lucky ones had the foresight to bring a cell phone Some Invisibles weren’t discovered until someone tried to figure out why the bank vault suddenly had a pungent odor Today, even the lowest budget banks have basic lasers set up to detect movement inside the vaults They’ve had no choice but to install the lasers Insurance premiums have gone up a lot because of the dummies who locked themselves in and weren't found until a bank employee tripped over their invisible body a week later On the opposite side of the power spectrum, there's flying, and let me tell you: flying is awesome Correction: flying, plus super-speed, plus some level of invulnerability equals awesome The invulnerability thing speaks for itself, I think Obviously, flying isn't as much fun if you have to spend the entire time worrying about colliding with a pigeon at five hundred miles per hour The speed thing isn't one that a lot of people think about, but if you don't have the ability to move quickly, flying becomes real boring, real fast Aside from being able to snap some great pictures of the city, you're basically relegated to being a human blimp if you can't fly faster than you can walk Not that there's any shame in that There are quite a few lucky metaband finders who are actually making very good livings holding up huge advertising billboards high above the city I'm lucky because my metabands happened to give me all three of these abilities, along with a whole bunch of others One of my abilities is enhanced vision, and it's the ability I'm currently using as I fly over Bay View City, looking for any kind of trouble being caused by the thousands of new metas attempting to use their new abilities to cash in somehow It doesn't take long before I find some About a thousand feet below me, I can see what is clearly a bank heist taking place It’s probably the most cliché and obvious of all the moneymaking schemes that the more villainous metahumans have taken up The bank itself is relatively small, but that actually makes it a better target considering most of the larger banks have installed an array of anti-meta measures beyond the laser-activated alarm systems Most don’t even keep cash on the premises any more Outside the bank, I can easily spot an eight-foot-tall Brute Brutes are what the world has started calling metas whose abilities are mainly related to strength and invulnerability Underneath his fire-engine-red, skin-tight suit is what looks less like muscle and more like poured concrete His intensely mean-looking face appears as though it has been chiseled out of granite, and not by someone who was a particularly skilled sculptor He stands, looking back and forth, cracking his knuckles over and over He must be the lookout for whoever is inside, busy looting the minuscule bank of whatever tiny fortune is inside their vault Regardless of the approach I take, I'm going to have to deal with this guy at some point, so I might as well get it out of the way "Hey, Handsome!" I yell to grab his attention “Up here The guy wearing the red tights Name’s Omni What’s yours?” The Brute slowly turns his gaze skyward, taking a second or two to find me hovering against the backdrop of the city By the time he has a fix on my position, it's too late for him as I'm already flying as fast I can with my fists out in front of me, ready to barrel into him And I barrel into him The only problem is that it doesn't seem to really have much of an effect Bouncing off his chest, I stumble about a hundred feet or so down the quiet commercial street, past stores that have long since closed for the night The Brute grins at me, showing me a mouthful of mangled teeth "All right then Let's try this another way," I yell down the street as I run toward him.I mean, I assume it's a him; if it's not, yikes I strike him square in the ribcage with the hardest punch I can muster He just laughs and punches me in retaliation, not putting any of his weight behind it Again, I find myself tumbling down the street Even for a Brute, this guy is pretty strong and might require a little more tact He slowly marches toward me, and the city concrete trembles under the force of each step My eyesight changes and a red haze comes over everything It's not anger that clouds my vision, though; it's heat Heat that I release with just a thought, aimed squarely at the Brute's chest He stumbles backward, almost falling to his knees, before once again finding his footing and marching toward me I intensify the heat I’m directing at him, and while it seems to be slowing him down, it is certainly not stopping him "You think your flashy powers can hurt Malfour?" the Brute asks in a voice that is so gravely and low that it'd be comical if he weren't trying his damnedest to kill me But he's partially right This guy doesn't seem like he has many powers beyond being incredibly strong and impervious to damage, but he's definitely stronger than me I won’t be able to beat him in a slugfest He's within twenty feet of me, still pushing against the heat vision I'm trying to bore through his chest, when I find a question to ask him "All right, 'Malfour,'" I begin, my voice dripping with sarcasm at the stupid name he's chosen for himself "You're strong, I'll give you that But let me ask you this: can you fly?" "Fly? Ha!" Malfour laughs "Why would I need to fly when—" "That's all I needed to know," I say, cutting him off as I lunge for the lapels of his costume The look of confusion on his face is priceless as I bend my knees, gather my strength, and throw Malfour straight up into the air as hard as I possibly can He's out of eyeshot before he even has a chance to scream If I can't beat this guy up, I can at least throw him a few miles into the sky to keep him out of my hair for while I deal with whatever problem is waiting for me inside the bank Maybe he'll use the time it takes to fall back to Earth to take a good hard look at the life decisions that have created his current predicament I take a moment to quickly grab a couple of nearby traffic cones and cordon off a roughly ten-foot area where I know he'll leave a crater when he lands He'll be fine, but if someone is unlucky enough to be under him when he lands, they're going to be ... Written in Brooklyn Printed in the United States of America Published 2014 ISBN: 1 5025 74004 ISBN-13: 978-1 5025 74008 This book is a work of fiction The names, characters, places and incidents