Battle of the ULTRAs by Matt Blake Read Free Book Online Page A

Splashed through it and crashed into the rocks behind it. I tried to heal myself, but I couldn’t. I tried to get myself away from here, but I couldn’t.
    I knew what I had to do.
    I had to fight Stone, as much as I didn’t want to.
    He appeared right at the mouth of the waterfall. He stepped up to me, his rocky feet echoing against the solid walls of this cavern. His fists tightened and the rock solidified even harder. “You just don’t know when to stop fighting, do you?”
    I cracked my jaw back into place. It was agony, and it wasn’t a full heal, but it’d do for now. “I won’t stop fighting. Not while Saint’s minions are controlling you.”
    He rushed over toward me and punched me heavily, right in my gut.
    “You’re going to fall,” Stone said. It was his voice, but I knew he wasn’t really talking. He wouldn’t say words like this. “You’re going to fall, and so too is everything around you. It’s going to crumble.”
    He hit the back of the rock wall.
    I felt rocks tumble down around me.
    “I won’t fall because I’ll keep fighting,” I said, looking Stone in the eyes now. “I’ll keep on fighting you and I’ll keep on fighting Saint until you’re—”
    Another punch to the gut.
    More rocks fell beside me.
    I looked back up at Stone. His eyes had completely glazed over. I didn’t recognize him. Didn’t recognize anything of the Stone I used to know. And as he pulled back his fist for another punch, the anger built up inside me.
    I didn’t see Stone. I saw Saint.
    And I knew what I had to do to Saint.
    “You’re weak,” Stone said. “Weaker than you think you are.”
    “How’d you figure that one out?”
    Stone smiled. It looked forced. “You just are. You’re driven so much by hate that you don’t see the damage it’s doing.”
    “If it puts a stop to Saint, then it’s working just fine.”
    “Let’s see if you’re still saying that when I put your friends through hell.”
    I couldn’t resist the urge to fight back then. The mention of my friends tipped me over the edge, even if I was well aware that it wasn’t Stone swinging the punches at all.
    I grabbed his wrist. Put all that anger and focus on holding it in midair. “Bad idea,” I said.
    Then I fired the pair of us out of the waterfall and down into the water.
    I held my breath as I was submerged. Stone tried to hit back at me, but I kept on pushing him further and further down. I saw red. I didn’t see Stone. Just Saint. Saint and his minions, like Controlla. The people who’d torn my life apart; who were tearing the whole planet apart.
    I couldn’t forgive.
    I couldn’t forget.
    I had to stop him, even if it meant taking Stone down.
    I squeezed my hands around his neck, the power inside me getting stronger. I saw the life return to his eyes. Saw the look of Stone return. I heard him gurgling under the water. Saw him grab my wrists, try to bend them away. But we kept on descending. I kept on pushing him down.
    And as we descended further, for a moment, I felt like everything was going to be okay. Like I was going to make Saint pay for what he’d done. And this was just the start of that. This was just the very start.
    Stone’s mouth moved in the shape of my name. “Kyle! Kyle!” he silently shouted under the water. I noticed the rocks from his hands had gone. He was just a person. Just a person who I was holding underwater, pushing them to their death.
    He patted my hand and I saw the life disappear from his eyes.
    I saw them glaze over completely.
    In that instant, I saw what I’d done. Exactly what I’d done.
    And it horrified me.
    I dragged Stone out of the water. Put him down by the waterside.
    “Stone!” I crouched beside him. Pressed my hands on his body. Fired air into his lungs. “Stone, please!”
    But Stone was completely still.
    I pressed my head against his chest and punched it, hard. I banged my fists against it, hoping the water would spout up from his lips.
    But still, nothing