Ava stood there staring at the empty doorway, feeling stupid. She had thought her speech would at least get some kind of reaction out of him. Maybe make him realize he was being an idiot. Instead he had just walked away like she wasn't even worth arguing with.
"Well shit," she muttered.
"Is he really gone?" asked the blonde girl.
"Looks like it," she said, still staring at the door.
Jax managed to get Diana to sit up. She was groggy and kept blinking like she was trying to figure out where she was.
"What happened?" she asked, touching the side of her head where a bruise was forming.
"We got our asses kicked," Jax said. "Then some guy showed up and saved us. Then he left."
"Some guy?"
"Yeah, I don't know who he was. Skinny kid, looked like he could bench press a car."
Ava walked over to them. "His name is Nox. He goes to our school."
"Never heard of him," Diana said.
"Most people haven't. He's one of those kids who just blends into the background." She looked back at the door one more time. "Apparently not anymore though."
There were four other students still alive in the gym. The blonde girl, two guys who looked like they were on the basketball team, and another girl who was maybe a sophomore. They all looked terrified and lost.
"So what do we do now?" one of the basketball players asked.
Ava looked around the gym at all the dead monsters and dead students. The place was a complete disaster. Blood everywhere, broken equipment, holes in the walls.
"We can't stay here," she said. "More of those things might show up."
"Where can we go though?" the blonde girl asked. "Those monsters are everywhere."
"I don't know yet. But we need to find somewhere safe and figure out what's happening to us."
Diana was testing her telekinesis by making a basketball float in the air. It was wobbly and she looked like she was concentrating really hard, but it was working.
"I can still do it," she said. "The mind thing. It's not as strong as before but it's there."
"Good," Ava said. "We're going to need every advantage we can get."
Jax tried to stand up and almost fell over. His face was pale and he was shaking.
"Take it easy," Ava said, helping him stay upright. "You look like hell."
"I feel like hell too. That power really took it out of me."
"What was that anyway? Where did it come from?"
"Some voice in my head offered me a deal. Power in exchange for serving someone's interests." He rubbed his forehead. "I was desperate so I said yes."
"And now?"
"Now the voice is gone and I feel like I got hit by a truck." He looked at his hands. "I'm still stronger than I used to be, but nothing like what I was a few minutes ago."
"Think it'll come back?"
"I have no idea."
Ava thought about Nox and his system messages. He had mentioned something about stats and levels, like this was all some kind of video game. Maybe that was what was happening to all of them. Maybe they were all getting powers but in different ways.
"We should get out of here," she said. "Find somewhere we can rest and figure out our next move."
"What about him?" the blonde girl asked, pointing at the door Nox had walked through. "Should we try to find him?"
"No," Ava said quickly. "Trust me, we're better off without him."
Even as she said it though, she couldn't help thinking about how easily he had killed that huge monster. How he had just punched its head clean off like it was nothing. Having that kind of power on their side would have been useful.
But he had made his choice and she had made hers. She wasn't going to abandon people who needed help just because it was easier to be selfish.
"Come on," she said to the group. "Let's see if we can find a way out of this place."
As they started gathering up what supplies they could find, Ava couldn't shake the feeling that they were making a mistake. Not staying to help these people, but letting Nox walk away. Something told her they were going to need him before this was all over.
But it was too late now. He was gone and they were on their own.
Nox moved fast through the wrecked hallways, his boots crunching on fallen plaster and broken glass. Ava's voice was a buzzing insect in his head, annoying but not important.
"Fucking jerk..."
He almost laughed. Yeah, he was. And? Being an asshole was getting him power, and power was keeping him alive. It was simple math.
"These people are going to die and you just don't give a damn because what, some kids were mean to you?"
He gritted his teeth. The pure stupidity of that statement made him angry. She had no idea what it was like, years of it, every single day. He saw Mark's face in his mind, then Ms. Joy's fake smile when she let it all happen. He remembered the smell of the orange juice soaking his shirt and the sound of everyone laughing.
No one gave a damn then.
So why should he care now? He shouldn't. They were all part of the same system that tried to crush him, and now the system was broken.
He rounded a corner and saw a piece of the ceiling hanging by a single wire. He walked right under it, he was too fast for it to be a threat.
"You think you're so much better than everyone else now that you have powers, but you're not. You're still the same pathetic loser you always were, just stronger."
Pathetic loser. That was the word they used for the weak. He was not weak anymore, so the word didn't apply. He killed monsters with his bare hands now.
"At least before you were harmless. Now you're just dangerous and useless."
Useless? He was the only one here with a clear mission, the only one clearing this dungeon. That was the most useful thing anyone could be doing. Dangerous? He hoped so. Dangerous meant people stayed out of his way.
He kept moving, his pace was fast and steady. He wasn't running from her words, he was moving toward his goal.
"I think you're scared," she yelled.
Scared? He felt nothing but cold focus. He faced monsters that tore normal people apart. He jumped out a window and didn't even flinch. Fear was a luxury for people with something to lose. He had nothing.
"What happens when you run into something you can't handle by yourself? What happens when you need help and there's nobody left who gives a shit about you?"
He stopped for a second. That idea was just dumb. 'Help' was the problem. 'Help' meant being weak, it meant depending on people who would let you down. The entire point of getting stronger was so he would never need help from anyone ever again. Trusting other people was a trap, and he was done with traps.
He kicked a chunk of concrete out of his path with so much force it shattered against a locker.
Why should he care about them? They were all just faces in the crowd, the same crowd that watched him get bullied and did nothing. Ava said being strong was about helping people. That was bullshit. Being strong was about not being a victim anymore, it was about survival.
She called him selfish. So what if he was? He earned the right to be selfish. No one ever looked out for him, so now he was looking out for himself. End of story. His choice was the only one that made sense.
He stood in the middle of the debris-strewn corridor. Her stupid speech wasn't messing with his head, it was just pissing him off. It reminded him of how clueless everyone was, how they only started caring about teamwork and helping each other when their own asses were on the line. He hated it.
He looked down the hallway toward the main entrance, then turned around.
He changed direction completely.
He started walking back, but took a sharp turn and went up the stairs. He was heading for the upper floors, toward his old classroom.
He wasn't going back for them. He didn't care what happened to those idiots in the gym. He was going to the place where he was weakest, the room where Ms. Joy let them all laugh at him. He wanted to stand in that spot, not as a victim, but as a predator. He needed to feel the difference, to burn away the old memories with his new power.
This wasn't about them. This was about him.