by Lucas Flint
“All right,” said Blizzard. “But once I get everyone out of here, I am coming back for you, okay? So don’t get yourself killed.”
“Don’t worry, Blizz,” I said. “I have no intention of dying to—”
I was interrupted by a loud ripping noise and looked down just in time to see the metal statue of William Showdown, the founder of Showdown, flying toward me like a frisbee. The statue slammed into me and knocked me out of the air, sending me crashing into a set up of Santa’s reindeer and making their light bulbs pop upon impact.
“Now you’ll pay attention to me,” said Mixer with a growl, stomping over to me with heavy footsteps.
Shaking my head, I lifted the statue off me and shoved it aside. I jumped to my feet and faced Mixer, who was still advancing on me with his hands balled into huge fists.
“Hey, man, that was public property,” I said, gesturing at the fallen statue of William Showdown. “Show some respect for your ancestors.”
“The only person I have respect for is my mama,” Mixer replied. “And she’s dead.”
Mixer smashed his fists onto the ground. Concrete spears shot out of the ground at me, forcing me to use my super speed and dodge them easily. I then rushed up to Mixer and swung a fist at his face, but his head split in half at the last second and my punch missed.
Then Mixer slammed both of his hands over my body and squeezed, lifting me off the ground as I gasped for air. His head reformed back into one, an evil grin on his ugly face.
“Got you right where I want you, kid,” said Mixer. “Let’s see how long it takes for you to pop like a balloon.”
Mixer’s grip was surprisingly strong and crushing, but I had faced worse before. With a grunt, I smashed his right arm with my fist, loosening his grip just enough for me to fly up out of his hands. I landed on the other side of the park, near the Nativity scene set up on the shore of the pond, and looked back over in time to see Mixer’s right arm already reforming thanks to his unique abilities.
“You’re tough, kid, I’ll give you that,” said Mixer as he turned to face me. “But I’m tougher.”
“Sure you are,” I said. “By the way, mind telling me why you’re here? I don’t see any of your Iron Ringer buddies.”
“I quit those losers after they got their butts handed to them by a kid,” Mixer said with a sneer. “I’m what you’d call ‘independent’ now, and I decided that my first action as an independent agent was to get revenge on you for beating me a couple months ago.”
“On Christmas?” I said. I gestured at the Nativity scene. “What would Baby Jesus say about that?”
Mixer growled and charged toward me. He swung his heavy fists at me, but I ducked and punched him in the abdomen before jumping away out of his reach.
“Gonna have to try harder than that to get me,” I said, waving at him mockingly. “Maybe lose a few pounds and you’ll be able to catch up with me.”
“I don’t need to catch up with you, kid,” said Mixer as he turned to face me again. “Just outlast you. I can already tell you’re starting to wear out and you can’t kill me, either.”
As much as I hated to admit it, Mixer had a point. I had good endurance, but this fight had been going for maybe ten minutes now. Mixer’s unique body makeup meant he could keep going almost indefinitely as long as he had some concrete to absorb, while I was still just a fleshy human who got tired and weak whenever I went too long without food and water. It didn’t help that Mixer could reform his body every time I broke something, while I didn’t have any such healing powers. In fact, even as I watched, his cracked abdomen repaired itself where I had punched him, leaving a smooth concrete surface that looked like it had been freshly poured just today.
If Blizzard was with me, things would be different, but Blizzard was currently rounding up the park-goers and getting them to safety. Brains and Vanish were back at the Braindome, but with the thick concrete walls surrounding the place, I wasn’t sure even Vanish’s teleportation powers would allow her to get here in time. That meant I was on my own, as usual.
“Bolt!” said Blizzard’s voice in my earcom all of a sudden. “Something’s coming your way?’
“What?” I said, putting my hand over my earcom. “What’s coming my way?”
“Not sure,” said Blizzard, raising her voice to be heard above what sounded like people yelling in the background. “I was building a staircase made of ice for the people to use to walk over the walls when something just flat out zoomed over the walls and destroyed my stairs.”
“Zoomed?” I said. “Like it was running?”
“Yeah,” said Blizzard. “Oh, and it knocked me down, too. Extremely rude.”
“And it’s coming my way, you said?”
“Sure looked like it,” said Blizzard. “Moved too fast for me to stop. Sorry.”
“Don’t be,” I said, lowering my hand from my earcom. “It’s not your fault. He’s not exactly known for his politeness.”
“Who is?” said Blizzard in confusion.
Before I could answer Blizzard’s question, the concrete underneath my feet suddenly covered my feet like mud and hardened. Surprised, I tried to pull myself free, but found myself unable to move.
“Stop ignoring me,” said Mixer, who I had not noticed walk up to me. “Stay right there. You can talk to your girlfriend later … at your funeral.”
Mixer raised his right arm, which transformed into a giant hammer made out of concrete. I held up my hands to block the attack, but as it turned out, I didn’t need to.
A black blur came out of nowhere and slammed into Mixer. Shocked, Mixer staggered backward, but before he could do anything else, the blur hit him again, each blow sending him closer and closer to the pond. Mixer tried to fight back, but he was too slow and the blur was too fast, striking him so many times that bits and pieces of concrete flew off his form.
“What the hell?” said Mixer, his head whipping back and forth as he tried to keep up with his mysterious assailant. “Who the hell are you? Stop moving so fast for one goddamn second, you stupid—”
Mixer didn’t get to finish his sentence because his attacker kicked his mouth off of his head. Mixer’s eyes widened in shock, but then the blur slammed into his chest so hard that Mixer staggered back several steps. He tripped over the Baby Jesus display of the Nativity scene, his arms swinging, and fell backward into the pond with a loud splash. He tried to get up, but it was obvious to me that, between his heavy concrete body sinking and the wet mud making it impossible for him to find any footing, he was not going anywhere anytime soon.
But my attention wasn’t on Mixer anymore. Instead, I was focused on the black-clad superhero who stood before me now. He was a tall man with a lean, athletic body, his black bodysuit blending in well with his dark skin. Two harsh eyes peered out from under his mask as he eyed me with a very unimpressed look on his face.
“Really, Bolt?” said the man, putting his hands on his hips. “Letting yourself get caught by an idiot like this? I thought you were better than that.”
With a grunt, I yanked my feet out of their cement prisons and stepped forward. “He sneaked up on me, something I’m sure you have a lot of experience with, Black Blur.”
Black Blur didn’t smile. “Well, at least he’s down, although I’m a bit disappointed I had to be the one to do it. Brains’ reports back to HQ have been very complimentary of your work, but I wonder if maybe he’s simply being his usual nice self in his reports.”
I scowled. “Speaking of which, why are you here? Shouldn’t you be back on Hero Island getting ready for your reelection campaign on the Leadership Council?”
Black Blur apparently didn’t notice my jab, because he said, “I’m glad you asked. I’m here because I’m trying to solve a mystery, which I hope you can help me solve.”
“A mystery?” I said. “What mystery?”
Black Blur looked at me more directly than before. “The disappearance of Mecha Knight. Because you were the last one see him, you
are the one person most likely to know exactly where he is.”
CHAPTER THREE
Black Blur did not immediately explain what he meant about that. Instead, he told me it would have to wait until we got to the Braindome because first we needed to help the police get into the Showdown City Park and help the people. As much as I disliked Black Blur, I knew he had a point. Between me, him, and Blizzard, we managed to break down all of the concrete walls surrounding the park, as well as work with the police to make sure every bystander got out and search the park itself to make sure that Mixer really was alone. We also fished Mixer out of the pond and handed him over to the police, who were already getting ready to call the G-Men in order to have Mixer transported to Ultimate Max where he belonged.
After that, the three of us returned to the Braindome. More specifically, we went to the conference room, where we found Brains and Vanish already present. Despite how rarely the conference room was used, Vanish had gone ahead and put Christmas decorations up in here, including a string of lights along the ceiling and a mini Christmas tree in the center of the table, although the mood was hardly festive as the five of us sat around the table.
Black Blur, of course, sat at the head of the table, which was where Brains usually did. Can’t say I was surprised, given his ego. Out of all of the members of the Leadership Council—the governing body of the NHA organization as a whole—Black Blur was always my least favorite. For whatever reason, Black Blur had taken an immediate dislike to me almost as soon as we met. I wasn’t sure why, given how the two of us rarely interacted and I didn’t even meet him until he was made a Council member. I guess our personalities just didn’t gel or something.
Still, even if I disliked him, I couldn’t deny that Black Blur was a powerful speedster. I might have been fast, but Black Blur was like a sports car to my Camero. I had never raced him before, but I was pretty sure that if I did, he’d beat me no problem even with my super speed. I was probably stronger than him, but strength didn’t mean much in a race.
“Uh, welcome, Black Blur,” said Brains, who sat opposite me with his arm around Vanish’s shoulders. “I didn’t know you were going to be here today.”
“You mean you didn’t get the email Lady Amazon sent you?” said Black Blur, looking at Brains curiously.
Brains frowned and pulled out his phone. He tapped the screen a couple of times and then his eyes widened. “Oh, I did. Said I got it at 9:06 PM.”
“Hmmm,” said Black Blur, stroking his chin. “I left Hero Island at 9:04 and got here at 9:05, so perhaps you have a slow Internet connection.”
“Wait, you ran here all the way here from Hero Island?” said Blizzard, staring at Black Blur in absolute astonishment. “Across the water?”
“Of course,” said Black Blur with a snort. “It’s rather easy. One time I even ran across the Atlantic Ocean to get to a Neohero Summit held in Tokyo. Took me the better part of a day to do it, but only because I wasn’t entirely used to my powers at that point and I ran into some trouble in Israel, though I still made it early, of course.”
Blizzard looked legitimately impressed, while I just tried my hardest not to roll my eyes. I forgot how much of a braggart Black Blur could be. And even worse, he could back up his bragging, too.
“Anyway, I’m not here to talk about the limits of my powers,” said Black Blur with a shake of his head. “I am here to discuss a far more important issue: The disappearance of Mecha Knight.”
“Yeah, you mentioned that to me back in the park,” I said. “I didn’t know Mecha Knight disappeared in the first place.”
“Technically, he didn’t,” said Black Blur with a shrug. “His body is still in his room on Hero Island.”
“What do you mean his body?” said Blizzard in a worried tone. “Is he dead? Did someone steal his soul or something?”
Uh oh. I had completely forgotten that Blizzard—and Brains and Vanish, too—had no idea that Mecha Knight was really just a soul in a robot. Though Mecha Knight had at one point been a human, when his body died, he transferred his mind into a new robot body he had built for himself. Very few people knew the truth about Mecha Knight’s body except for me, the Leadership Council, and maybe a few others. It definitely wasn’t public knowledge, that was for sure.
Black Blur sighed like he had realized the same thing as me. “It’s a long story, but Mecha Knight isn’t actually a normal human being. When he died, his mind was downloaded into a robot he made. As a result, the Mecha Knight you know and have spoken to is not actually a flesh-and-blood human being, but he’s still very much Mecha Knight in terms of his mind and spirit.”
Blizzard gaped and looked at me. “Bolt, did you know that?”
I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. “Yeah.”
“And you never told me?” said Blizzard indignantly.
“You two can talk about your relationship problems later,” said Black Blur, although I noticed he had a very big smirk on his face when he said that. “Right now, we have far more important matters to discuss.”
I shot Black Blur a silent ‘thank you’ with my eyes, but I knew I wasn’t entirely off the hook yet, based on the way Blizzard frowned. Still, she apparently agreed with Black Blur, because she didn’t bring it up again.
“Can you elaborate on how Mecha Knight disappeared?” said Brains. He looked as shocked to learn about Mecha Knight’s true nature as Blizzard, as did Vanish. “You said his body is still on Hero Island. What about his mind?”
Black Blur folded his arms in front of his chest. “That’s the thing. His body has been inactive for three months now, and we are worried something may have happened to him in the Vaultwork.”
“The what?” said Blizzard.
I snapped my fingers. “Oh, now I get it. The Vaultwork is the Internet-like communication system that ties all of Dad’s Vaults together. It also doubles as a full-immersion massively multiplayer virtual reality role-playing game.”
“Say that five times fast,” Brains muttered under his breath.
Blizzard looked at me in confusion. “How do you know what it is? Is that another secret you kept from me?”
I bit my lower lip, trying not to lose my temper at her little jab. “While you were unconscious suffering from that incurable illness the Neo-Killer inflicted on you, I went to one of Dad’s Vaults, where I discovered the Vaultwork was a thing. I even played in it to defeat a virus that would have destroyed the Internet if she got free. Had help from Bait, Switch, and Mecha Knight to do it.”
“I remember you telling us that Mecha Knight helped,” said Brains. He looked over at Black Blur. “Has Mecha Knight not returned?”
“Correct,” said Black Blur. “He warned us it might be a while before he returned, but that was three months ago and we haven’t heard even one peep from him since. The Leadership Council understands that the last three people Mecha Knight spoke to before his disappearance were you, Bait, and Switch.”
“Is that why you’re here?” I said, scratching my chin. “Because you think I might know what happened to him?”
“Yes,” said Black Blur, nodding. “I already interviewed Bait and Switch about it. Both of them told me they have no idea what happened to him, but told me you might know. Do you?”
I shook my head. “Sorry, Blur, but I don’t, either. I haven’t been anywhere near the Vaultwork since I left it three months ago.”
“What did Mecha Knight last tell you before you left?” said Black Blur.
I thought about it for a second. “He said he and Vault F’s AI, Olga, were going to continue searching the Vaultwork for threats like Holly.”
“So he told you the same thing he told us,” said Black Blur. His shoulders slumped. “Something must have happened to him, then. There’s no way he would remain missing for that long, not without telling us why.”
“What could have happened to him, though?” I said. “Mecha Knight was one of the most powerful characters in the game. No way he could have been killed by some in-g
ame threat.”
“Who said it had to be an in-game enemy?” said Brains. “What if someone from outside the Vaultwork hacked in and got him?”
“But who could do that?” asked Vanish with a frown. “The Vaultwork isn’t accessible to the outside, right, Bolt?”
I opened my mouth to confirm that, but then paused and thought about it. Mecha Knight had said that there were other ways into the Vaultwork that most people didn’t know about. And there was at least one man I knew of who might very well have access to the Vaultwork: Seth Richards. He was still out there somewhere, after all, even though the G-Men had been searching for him ever since the Longworth incident last month.
“I would like to think so,” I said, “but I’m not ruling it out as a possibility.”
“What should we do?” said Blizzard. “Should we go back into the Vaultwork to look for him?”
“If that’s where he was last seen, then I would say so,” said Black Blur. “Unfortunately, I’ve never entered the Vaultwork myself, so I wouldn’t know where to start looking for him.”
I held up a hand. “I’ll do it. I’ve been there before. All of my character information should still be available as well so I will be able to defend myself from in-game threats if necessary.”
“Are you sure, Bolt?” said Brains, looking at me in concern. “We could really use your help around here, you know.”
“I’m sure,” I said. “Mecha Knight is my friend and mentor. I’m just as worried about him as you guys are. And besides, I’m the only one here who has any experience in the Vaultwork, so I’m the most logical choice to go in and find him.”
Black Blur pursed his lips. “I admit I can’t find any problems with your logic. You know where Vault F is, right?”
“Of course,” I said. “I could go there right now if I—”
Blizzard suddenly interrupted me with a loud cough. I looked at her in confusion and said, “Blizz, are you okay? That cough sounded nasty.”
