Despite his protests that teleporting across the snow covered mountains with each of them under one arm was far safer than driving on highway during a snowstorm for an hour and a half, Raz and Quinn proved unwilling to let Ethan carry them through his portals. After Raz grabbed Ethan's arm and showed Quinn the branching scars Ethan had gotten after accidentally teleporting himself through a thicket of evergreens trying to sneak into a ski resort two months ago, Ethan relented and picked Raz up from the apartment.
With their small amount of belongings boxed up and put into the truck, Ethan hesitated before getting inside.
"Hold on one second," he told them, shutting the door and teleporting back up. He opened the balcony door and walked slowly through the living room and into the kitchen, stopping just short of the stain he left on Alex's wooden floor from his spilled coffee all those months ago. Not wanting to leave it any longer, he went under the sink, pulled out a bottle of hydrogen peroxide, and dropped a small amount on the stain before blotting it, soaking up the majority of the coffee.
The floorboard wasn't perfectly uniform like the rest, but it was improved, with only a hint of a blemish remaining, and that was the best he could do. He hoped Alex would see it one day when she was back, but maybe the point was that it was fixed and nobody would notice it anymore.
Satisfied, he deposited himself back down onto the street and hopped into the truck, sighing as he prepared for the journey back to Stillrock.
"I told you to pee before we left," Raz shook his head.
"He had two coffees this morning. I have no idea how many times he's going to make us stop," Quinn sighed.
Ethan laughed. "I don't need to use the bathroom anymore. I thought we talked about this?"
"What?" Raz and Quinn both asked.
"Explain," Quinn demanded.
"Or…don't?" Raz chimed in. "If this involves portals I'm going to be really upset."
"Or jealous," Quinn laughed.
Ethan hadn't driven his truck since he gained some level of mastery over his ability to teleport and he expected he'd be annoyed by the inherent stop and go nature of their travel, but the time spent with Raz and Quinn proved almost therapeutic, taking his mind off the events of the past few days. They talked about everything: how Amory fired Ethan, what the best lunch stop was on the way to the mountains, Raz and Ethan's ill-fated summer jobs as door-to-door salesman (tough to do in a town of a few hundred miners without a lot of disposable income) and Quinn's life growing up in the West Virginia hills back east. When they took the exit off the highway for Stillrock Ethan hardly wanted the trip to end. Regardless, when he pulled up to their old, somehow still standing townhome apartment, he hopped out of the truck and held his hand out for Quinn.
"Ready for a tour of the manor?"
Quinn took his hand. "Lead the way."
"Um," Raz hesitated, stepping out, "has anyone, like…cleaned this place since we've been here?"
"Oh," Ethan's face flushed hot. Quinn's apartment was meticulously organized, cleaned, and looked straight out of a catalog. Ethan and Raz's apartment, on their best day, looked…like two single men lived in it. "Uh, no. That might've been smart." He turned to Quinn. "It doesn't normally look like…however it's going to look like."
"Somehow I doubt that," she rolled her eyes.
Ethan gulped and pushed open the door. His immediate reaction was that the inside of the apartment wasn't great, but was probably habitable. Quinn's face, he noted, suggested otherwise. Stepping back into their apartment in Stillrock, Ethan was surprised by how small it looked. The kitchen was separated from the living room by a short wall, and their TV, not half the size of Alex's, sat leaning against the wall on top of an old chest they found near a dumpster.
"Um," Raz said, eyeing the apartment's condition and reaching a similar feeling to Quinn's, "are we sure about staying here?"
Ethan nodded. "We can't operate in Ascension. Besides, none of that was ever really ours, you know? Doesn't this feel more real? We're basically outlaws! How many times did we talk about being cool outlaws when we were younger?"
"Yeah, but didn't we also say that we'd have a cool hideout?"
"We…did."
Quinn grimaced at the sight of a large, red spider that had made itself comfortable on top of the fridge.
"Real good chance of being eaten alive," she muttered. "Or inhaling some mutated species of mold."
"Mold doesn't grow here, I thought?" Ethan asked. "It's…too dry?"
"Oh, it'll grow here," Quinn scowled at her surroundings.
"We'll…hire a cleaning person," Ethan assured her. Before Raz had a chance to ask with what money, Ethan whisked Quinn down the hall. "Come on, there's a ton more to see!"
They took a few steps down the hall where Ethan stopped and opened the door to his room. It was exactly how he left it months ago: barren and cold, empty aside from his bed and a few pieces of clothing he had left behind.
"You never put anything up in your room? No photos of you and Alex, not even a poster?"
"I never thought I'd stay here," he shrugged. "It could use some work. Maybe a…candle."
"And yet you dragged us back here," Raz sighed, shaking his head. "I was really getting used to the life of luxury in Ascension."
"Yeah, well, get un-used to it because I got fired."
"I didn't!"
"As my PAL, you are contractually obligated to go down with the sinking ship that is my career."
Raz huffed and walked over to the couch, sinking into the once-beige cushions. His nose wrinkled as a cloud of dust enveloped him.
"Speaking of careers," he dusted his shoulders off, "we can't exactly go back to working in the mines, after a certain someone exploded them."
"Two people exploded the mines, and one of them is trying to explode Apex itself. Rainey is working on her plan and we need to find her. We can't do that without Kingston."
"Okay, what's the plan?" Raz asked.
"First, I need you to hire a cleaning person. While you do that, I'm going after Kingston."
"Who is…where?"
"I found out where he's hiding," Quinn said, holding up a location on her phone. "He's in a town called Crestone right near the Dunes. He probably told his daughter they were taking a vacation."
"Makes sense. So, we find Kingston, get him to tell us what the second part of Rainey's plan is, then stop her. Easy peasy, except need I point out that you haven't been able to stop Rainey from doing anything yet?"
Ethan's initial reaction was to snap at Raz and deny that statement, but then he remembered he wasn't supposed to be doing that kind of thing anymore. Raz's statement was, of course, true: Rainey had absolutely kicked his ass every time they met. Instead of retorting, he took a deep breath.
"You're right. I can't do this. Not without help."
Raz raised an eyebrow, then smiled. "Finally," he said, shaking his head. "I did not think I'd live to see the day. Or you, for that matter."
"Well, you did. I've been doing this all wrong and-"
"Save it," Raz pulled him in for a hug. "I believe you."
Ethan nodded. "Thanks, man. We'll plan for stopping Rainey after we find Kingston. I planned my whole life over the last three months and every single thing blew up in my face, so I'm done with that. One step at a time. I better get going."
He walked down the hall to his room to grab his goggles. Turning to leave, Raz called out for him. "Ethan, hang on. I thought…since we're getting sentimental…"
Raz went into his bag and pulled out the suit Alex had made for Ethan.
Quinn gestured to his jeans and faded purple Ace's sweater. "You can't go out in…that. Raz told me you didn't want to wear it until you were a Protector, but just because Amory didn't give you the title doesn't mean you aren't one."
Ethan softened at the sight of the lavender costume. It hadn't even crossed his mind to take it when they were at the apartment. He knew what Alex wanted for him, and he still wasn't sure if he was living up to it, but maybe Quinn thought he was, and that had to count for something, right?
He reached out and took the costume from Quinn, running his hand over the swirling bronze emblem in the middle, the same color as the accents on Alex's Titan costume.
"It's certainly better than what I have now," he admitted sheepishly. "But I'm still not sure I've earned it, you know?"
"Then go earn it," Quinn told him.
Eagerly, like a child on Christmas, he ripped his sweatshirt off and pulled his new shirt over his head. The material felt flexible, yet dense, more than thick enough to keep him from freezing as he teleported through the mountains. "Oh, man," he smiled widely, "this is much better than what I had."
"Wasn't much of a competition," Quinn laughed, "but it does look better than what the other Protector's I've seen wear. Alex really wanted you to have the best."
"And she got it," he said, staring down at his shirt, marveling at the way the lavender caught the light when he moved his arms. "You know, the last thing Alex said to me before she…she said, 'Running doesn't solve anything.' Do you remember what Kingston said to me, during my evaluation?"
"He's really good at running away," Quinn chuckled humorlessly.
"Exactly," Ethan laughed.
"Well," she said, playfully punching him in the shoulder, "that just means nobody will expect to see you come right at them."
——
After a few passes over the few cabins dotting the forest just off Crestone's main road, Ethan spotted Kingston's white SUV parked in front of an A-frame cabin nestled off the main road.
The bright afternoon sun was reflecting off the tinted windows, making peering inside all but impossible. Ethan frowned, tapping his comms. "I can't see inside."
"Probably not a good idea to just bust into someone's house…unless we have a good reason, of course," Raz said.
"Which we do!" Quinn added. "Mostly!"
Ethan mulled the situation over, then smiled. "I have an idea. If I wasn't trying to be a superhero I would make a really good spy…"
He opened a small portal in front of him, no larger than a penny, then another inside the cabin, about where he figured the roof would be. Instantly, they heard two voices, a deeper man's voice he assumed was Kingston, and a higher pitched one belonging to his daughter.
"Britley, I don't expect you to understand, but you're in danger, and I'm only keeping you here until-"
"-I'm missing my game and everyone's going to hate me and-"
Ethan shut the portal before he had to listen to any more of their argument. "He's in there, sounds like he's with his daughter."
"Okay, get him out first, find out what he knows, then we'll get his daughter out after."
"Easy," Ethan stretched out his neck and made a plan. The sand dunes just to the west of Ethan were practically deserted this far from the visitor's center and offered few places to hide if Kingston tried to escape, making it a great spot to force a confrontation. This, Ethan thought, was going to be as simple a kidnapping as it gets.
He opened a portal inside the house, then another in front of him where he approximated the living room would be, stepping through and instantly locking eyes with Kingston. His daughter screamed shrilly at Ethan's intrusion, forcing him to cover his ears. He hadn't been around a teenager since he was in high school, but the pitch of her scream seemed to throw him off balance. He waited until she ran out of breath to face Kingston.
"Kingston," he pointed at the man, "you need to come with me."
Instead of responding, Kingston laughed. Ethan watched as he reached inside his pocket and pulled out a pair of ear plugs.
"You'll have to get through her first," he said loudly, pointing to Britley.
Ethan turned warily, noticing that Britley was taking a huge breath in. She unleashed a scream aimed right at Ethan, knocking him back with a disorienting wave of energy that slammed him into the wooden cabin wall.
"Oh," he groaned, trying to push himself up. "So this is not going to be an easy kidnapping."
Ethan's head felt like it was splitting in two as Britley's soundwaves pounded his skull, forcing him to his knees. He tried to open a void in front of him to block the sound but found himself unable to concentrate, summoning nothing more than a wobbly black sphere.
The screech lasted what felt like hours to Ethan but couldn't have been more than a minute, or as long as Britley could exhale before she needed to breathe again. Despite the uneven nature of the void, he managed to manipulate it over his left ear, blocking just enough of the sound to allow him to a portal in front of him, then another one above Britley, redirecting her soundwaves slamming into her, knocking her to the hardwood floor, granting him a momentary reprieve.
"Britley!" Kingston yelled. With Kingston distracted and running to check on Britley, Ethan changed tactics. Ignoring Britley entirely, he pushed himself to his feet, wiping a small amount of blood running out of his left ear, then opened a portal outside the home onto the tall sand dune he landed on before he broke into the cabin. Britley stood, shaking off her attack and focusing again on Ethan, taking a deep breath. Ethan tackled Kingston, wrapping his arm around him, and opened a wide portal in front of them. They passed straight through the floor just as Britley's screech passed over his back and the pair slammed into the grass outside, groaning.
"What the hell are you doing?" Kingston pushed Ethan off of him. "You invade my home and attack my daughter?"
"For the record, while I did invade your vacation home, your daughter attacked me," Ethan dusted off his new suit, wondering if the grass would stain the lavender.
"What do you want?" he growled. Ethan rolled his eyes.
"Relax. You lost your attack dog. Your only option now is to run away and you're not going to leave your daughter, even if she is a monster. I need information."
Kingston seethed, gritting his teeth, but held firm in front of Ethan. He was grateful, given Kingston's arms were twice the size of his; consistently worked from a life of welding. Kingston looked to his cabin, his shoulders deflating.
"Fine. What do you want to know?"
Can't believe this worked, Ethan practically wanted to shout. He stretched out his aching shoulders, too early to take a victory lap. "What is Slate's plan for Apex?"
"Why should I tell you?"
Ethan cracked his knuckles, taking his time before he responded. "You can tell me now, or I'm going to teleport you straight to the moon and your eyeballs are going to explode like grapes in a-"
His threatening diatribe was interrupted by a low rumble that drew their attention. It started like a wave, far off, but grew louder until the very earth under their feet was trembling.
"Quinn, are you still plugged into Apex's sensors?" Ethan asked, struggling to keep his balance.
"Negative," she told him, "that info doesn't leave the lab. What's happening?"
A loud crack interrupted Ethan's response. About a mile down the road the trees were ripped from the soil as if they were being pulled straight from the earth and the road heaved, then ripped in two as a multicolored energy burst from the ground.
"It's Slate," Kingston said urgently, grabbing the front of Ethan's shirt. "You want to know what her plan is? You're looking at it!"
"She can do that?" Ethan asked incredulously. "Why would she do that?"
"She pushes the earth, forcing it whatever direction she wants," Kingston clarified. "And right now, she's pushing it at my cabin!"
Ethan groaned as the realization hit. He turned his ire to Kingston, whose eyes were wide watching the energy rush towards them, decimating the street as it rushed closer. "Did you really think Slate would just let you go? You're the last weak link in her plan!"
"Get my daughter!" Kingston yelled, pointing back to the cabin. "She's still inside!"
"Stay here!" Ethan told him, running to the edge, throwing himself off the dune and into a portal. With no time for caution he appeared back inside Kingston's home, slamming into the back of the couch. Britley took a breath to scream, but this time Ethan was ready: he waited until she lurched forward to launch her soundwaves at him, then teleported behind her, wrapping his arms around her.
"Stay back, freak!" she yelled, struggling and trying to break free of his grip.
"Freak?" Ethan said quietly. Insults from teens always hurt ten times more than from anyone else. He shook his head clear. "Britley, you have to come with me, now. This house is going to explode."
"Where's my dad?"
"Outside, waiting for you. Let's go to him okay?"
"You're the one who kidnapped him! I'm not going anywhere with you!"
"He's a grown man, it's not kidnapping, it's-"
Ethan's pedantry was interrupted by a deep rumble that shook the house and shattered the cabin windows. The roof above them cracked, raining splinters on them.
"Lift up your feet!" Ethan yelled. Britley screamed, but did as she was told. Ethan opened a portal just in front of them and another on the very top of the sand dune that was visible at the opposite end of the road. He leaned forward, then landed on the sand with Britley in tow.
When Britley's feet hit the ground she pushed away from Ethan and ran to her dad, turning to face Ethan.
"Do you want me to kill him?"
"No!" Ethan yelled. Kingston shrugged, but Britley relented. A loud shattering sound echoed through the dunes and the trio watched as the Surge energy slammed into the cabin and eroded the area around the home, sending the cabin broken and sinking into the fissure that erupted underneath.
"My softball gear!" Britley yelled, dropping to her knees.
"Honey, we have…a lot bigger problems than that," Kingston sighed, putting his hand on her shoulder.
"We all do," Ethan corrected him. "Slate can apparently push Surge energy and direct it where she wants. I saved you both, at no small expense to my hearing, so what I want to know is: where is she sending it next?"
Kingston groaned. "She's sending all of the energy upriver from the surge and pushing it directly into Apex's tower. The Tower was specifically designed to funnel energy into the sky but not…this much. It'll be like trying to contain a firehose through a straw; it'll overload the shielding and it'll engulf half the city, just like it consumed my cabin."
Ethan remembered the devastation that was left in the valley after the Surge exploded through the mine: desiccated grass, trees with split trunks, scars in the stone mesa. He didn't need Quinn to tell him that anyone unleashing that kind of power in a highly populated area would be devastating.
"God, I wish I had a less powerful nemesis. Hypquatic would've been great," he muttered, then refocused on Kingston. "We have to stop her."
Kingston laughed derisively. "I worked for the ski patrol on Silver Peak, you know. We had one avalanche in the five years I was there. That was the day I turned in my red patrol jacket. Those things move fast and devour everything in their path indiscriminately, and that's what she's sending right at Ascension. Are you strong enough to stop an avalanche? "
"No one is," Ethan finally answered firmly. "That's why you need to come back to Apex. We're not going to let it get to Ascension. We're going to stop Slate before she can push the Surge towards Ascension, before she can kick off that avalanche heading towards the city."
Kingston scoffed, looking him up and down. "Titan maybe could've stopped her, and that's why Slate had to get rid of her. Also, are you crazy? I ran away from there, why would I ever go back?"
"You knew my sister," Ethan stepped towards him. Britley stopped crying long enough about her lost gear to look up at Ethan. "She's lying in a hospital bed right now because of me. I feel so guilty that I'm willingly throwing myself in front of Slate to try and save Ascension. It might be suicidal…but I don't have any other choice, and, right now, neither do you. You think running from this is going to save you, but it's not. Knowing you had a chance to stop this and didn't is going to eat at you every single day until there's nothing left, and there's only one way to prevent that."
Kingston mulled that over for a moment. "And that is?"
"Face it. Head on, with us."
Kingston looked down at Britley, who glanced up at him, eyes red from tears, expectantly. He mulled Ethan's words over, then sighed.
"We'll need to access the probes inside the lab, it's the only way we'll know where she's headed."
"I'm not exactly welcome there," Ethan said. He raised an eyebrow, his eyes settling on Kingston. "But maybe that'll change if I bring a gift."