by Lucas Flint
“And what would that mission be?” I said. “Are you going to take us to him as his prisoners?”
Red Tide bellowed a deep belly laugh. “Ha! Of course not, me boy. Seth Richards, as usual, was very clear in his instructions: Kill every last one of your landlubbers. Show no mercy to you or your friends.”
It was chilling how happy Red Tide sounded about being ordered to kill people and leave no survivors. “Including Edge?”
“Especially the little brat,” said Red Tide with a chuckle. “Seth really seemed to hate him, but don’t you worry, me boy. He has a special place in that black heart of his just for you. Told me so himself.”
I clenched my fists. “If that’s the case, then why not kill Edge right away? Tiny could easily crush him to death.”
“That he could, that he could,” Red Tide agreed. “But Mr. Richards did not tell me how to kill you two, only that I should do it. If I killed the brat now, then I wouldn’t have no leverage over ye and ye could probably beat me in a fight. That wouldn’t be the smart thing to do, now would it?”
“I have to admit it, it wouldn’t be,” I said. “Blizzard and I are the biggest threat, after all. Edge is just a kid with no powers.”
“I am not ‘just a kid,’” Edge snapped. “I am Edge Vigilante, the dark crusader who goes where other superheroes—”
Tiny suddenly squeezed Edge, making Edge gasp in pain.
“Shut up, kid,” Tiny growled. “You’re even worse than Bolt, and that’s saying something.”
Red Tide apparently ignored that and, tapping the side of his head, said, “Didn’t I tell ya that I am a very clever man? Indeed, I am the cleverest man in all of the Seven Seas. No one is cleverer than me. Right, boys?”
The rest of Red Tide’s crew all cried out, “Aye, aye, Captain!”
Red Tide wiped a tear out from under his eye. “A captain couldn’t ask for a better crew than all of ya. It warms me cold heart and reminds me that there is some good left in the world after all.”
I couldn’t be sure if Red Tide was being sarcastic or genuine. Based on the way his crew was smiling, I had a terrifying feeling that it was the latter.
“So!” said Red Tide, abruptly changing the subject. He jabbed his cutlass at me. “I know neither of you will act as long as the boy is under my control. Therefore, you have no choice but to step forward and allow me to behead both of you with my cutlass. If you try to fight back, I will have Tiny kill the boy, and you certainly don’t want any harm coming to that boy’s head, now do ye?”
“Yeah, but I don’t want me and my girlfriend to die, either,” I said, drawing Blizzard closer to me. “Here’s a counter offer: Let Edge go and willingly turn yourselves in to the Showdown City Police. I am sure there is a cell in Ultimate Max big enough for you and your crew to fit in together. Or maybe we can get you guys a whole cell block instead. How does that sound?”
“Awful,” said Red Tide. “But I will give ye a moment to think about me offer. But not much longer, because I don’t have all the time in the world to wait for your response.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
I mentally calculated how quickly I would be able to take down Red Tide and his crew before they killed Edge. I estimated it would take me about three minutes, using my super speed, to take down all of Red Tide’s crew, but I figured it would take three seconds for Tiny to crush Edge in his arms like a tin can. The most important part was figuring out how to get Edge to safety. So long as Red Tide held Edge hostage, it severely limited what we could do.
Sometimes I hated being a superhero because it meant your enemies could get you like this.
“Bolt,” Blizzard whispered in a voice I could barely hear. “I think I know how to get us out of this.”
Doing my best not to arouse Red Tide’s suspicions, I muttered back, “I’m all ears.”
Blizzard relaxed under my arm. “I could freeze Tiny’s legs, which might surprise him long enough for you to free Edge.”
“You can do that?” I whispered in surprise. “You aren’t even looking at him.”
“You’re not the only one whose powers have gotten stronger over the years,” Blizzard replied. “I’ve been practicing a lot in the House’s Training Room over the last few months. Gotten better at everything.”
“Excellent,” I said. “You do that and then I’ll save Edge and we can take out these pirates together.”
Blizzard nodded ever-so-slightly, just enough that I doubted Red Tide or his pirates noticed. “Okay. But you’ll have to act as soon as I freeze Tiny’s legs. The Red Tide Pirates aren’t going to wait to respond once they realize what’s going on.”
I also nodded as slightly as possible. “I’m ready when you’re ready.”
“Then let’s do this.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw one of Blizzard’s hands twitch so slightly that it looked like a natural hand movement. But a second later, I heard Tiny cry out in pain and whipped my head over my shoulder just in time to see ice forming around Tiny’s legs, freezing him to the ground. Seeing my opportunity, I activated my super speed and rushed toward Tiny, pulling my fist back to land a blow against his stomach.
At the last second, however, Tiny shrank and vanished, forcing me to abruptly come to a stop as Edge fell to the floor awkwardly.
“Edge, are you okay?” I said, looking down at Edge as he rubbed his behind.
“Yeah,” said Edge with a gasp, “but—Watch out!”
I looked up just in time to see a pirate aiming a gun at me. Just as I noticed him, the pirate fired, but with my super speed I moved out of the way, narrowly avoiding the bullet, and then fired a lightning bolt up at the pirate. The lightning bolt struck the pirate head on, making him scream in pain and fall from the rafters onto the floor, where he landed with a sickening crunch that made my stomach churn.
“What are you idiots standing around waiting for?” Red Tide yelled. “Kill them! Kill every last one of these stinking—”
Red Tide was interrupted by thick ice shackles appearing around his legs. He yowled in pain and struggled to break them, but it was pretty clear the ice shackles were too thick for him to break by himself.
“Kill every last one of those stinking whats, now?” said Blizzard with a smirk that made me proud. “Sorry, I didn’t catch that.”
The only reply was several shots from the surrounding pirates, but Blizzard formed a thick ice barrier around herself that blocked the bullets, which barely managed to dent her barrier.
“Edge, get to safety,” I said as I turned around. “I need to help Blizzard.”
Before I could take even one more step, however, something slammed into me and sent me flying. I hit the floor hard and rolled away several feet until I hit a crate. Shaking my head, I looked up and saw an athletic man in a form-fitting red-and-blue bodysuit standing not far away, his face obscured under a NASCAR-like helmet. Though the visor of his helmet was down, I had no trouble identifying him.
“Dual Streak,” I said as I slowly rose back to my feet, using the box behind me for support. “As fast as usual, I see.”
“Even faster, my friend,” said Dual Streak. “If you want some advice, I would suggest becoming more aware of your surroundings. That often determines the difference between life and death in a fight.”
Before I could ask what he meant, I heard a yell behind me and looked up to see Tiny suddenly materialize in the air above me. He crashed down on top of me, his bulk taking me by surprise. As soon as Tiny fell on me, he began forcing his weight down on me, trying to pin me underneath his enormous girth.
But I recovered quickly and, with a shrug of my shoulders, knocked him off me. Even as Tiny fell off my back, however, he shrank out of sight again.
Just as I got back to my feet, Dual Streak suddenly dashed toward me. He ran around me like a tornado, peppering my body with small punches everywhere. Although Dual Streak did not have super strength like me, getting punched at high speed still hurt and I was forced to go on the d
efensive, holding my arms up around me to protect myself from his constant attacks. He was hitting me so hard and so often that I was unable to go on the offensive, which was probably his whole plan in the first place.
But I hated being on the defensive, so I channeled electricity through my body until my whole body was sparkling and crackling with electricity. So when Dual Streak hit me, he got electrocuted and cried out in pain, slowing down just enough for me to see him. I grabbed Dual Streak by the collar of his shirt and slammed my fist against his helmet so hard that his helmet actually crumpled. Dual Streak himself became unconscious, so I tossed his unconscious body aside and immediately looked over at Blizzard.
Blizzard was still protected by her ice barrier, but it left her on the defensive. Pirates surrounded her on all sides, some shooting at her barrier, others hacking away with their swords and knives. Blizzard would be okay for now, but it was only a matter of time before the pirates broke through and got to her, so I needed to help her fast.
Before I could go anywhere, though, Tiny suddenly grew underneath me. He sent me into the air, but caught me with his hands and threw me away.
I recovered quickly, however, and used my flight, allowing me to avoid hitting the floor. Looking back over at Tiny, I saw him shrink out of sight. I growled in frustration. I had forgotten just how annoying to fight Tiny was. His shrinking powers allowed him to rapidly change size on a dime, which he took advantage of to perform annoying hit and run tactics that made him a pain to deal with even for someone like me. And I suspect he wasn’t going to make the same mistake he made the last time we fought, either.
But then a thought occurred to me and I grinned. I looked over at Edge, who was standing next to one of the boxes, and shouted, “Edge! Get up on one of the boxes or crates. Make sure your feet aren’t touching the floor!”
Thankfully, Edge didn’t argue the point. He just scrambled on top of a crate and lay there, holding on for dear life.
With Edge out of the way, I raised my hands, which began crackling with electricity, and then slammed them down onto the floor. Electricity spread out all around me like a wave, striking boxes and crates, causing some of them to explode and others to merely catch fire. Edge’s box was made out of metal, but it still got blackened and Edge winced when the electric wave went over him, although his leather armor seemed to protect him from the worst of it.
I couldn’t say the same about Tiny, though. When the electric wave passed, I saw Tiny—who had apparently been lurking between two boxes—pop out of nowhere, lying flat on his back. His clothing was charged and his skin was smoking. It was impossible to tell if he was alive or dead, but I didn’t care. With Tiny out of the way, I needed to go to Blizzard’s aid.
I flew across the warehouse to the spot where the pirates were doing their best to chip away at Blizzard’s ice barrier. Although Blizzard was automatically re-freezing the parts the pirates ripped apart, it was clear to me that Blizzard was beginning to tire. Soon she wouldn’t be able to hold the barrier up at all, which meant I needed to end this fight quickly.
I landed on top of the ice barrier and looked around at all of the assembled pirates, who all stopped what they were doing to look up at me.
“Oy! It’s Bolt!” said a female pirate I recognized as Hilda, who was a very fat German woman wielding a fairly large ax. “Do you want to die today, brat? Because we’ll be more than happy to oblige.”
“Nah,” I said, my hands crackling with electricity. “I’m happy being alive. But there is one thing you guys can do for me: Get fried.”
I slammed my crackling hands above my head and lightning bolts exploded out in every direction. I saw the pirates trying desperately to escape the bolts, but none of them were fast enough to outrun the lightning bolts. Some of them might have been able to survive the bolts … if they hadn’t just spent the last few minutes chipping away at ice, getting melted ice chips—that is, water—all over their clothing and exposed portions of their skin. Explained why they all screamed in horrific pain when my lightning bolts hit them. Unfortunately, my lightning also took out a good chunk of the lights, sending us into pitch black darkness.
In less than a second, all of the pirates in the warehouse lay on the floor, unconscious and quite dead-looking. It was hard to tell the dead from the unconscious, but I stopped thinking about that when the ice barrier under my feet suddenly evaporated, causing me to fall to the floor on my butt.
“Ow!” I said, rubbing my behind. I looked up at Blizzard. “Next time, could you warn me before you do that?”
“Sorry,” said Blizzard sheepishly. “When I saw all those pirates go down at once, I figured it was safe to come out. Forgot you were up there.”
I shook my head, but I wasn’t really angry at Blizzard. I just rose to my feet, dusting off my pants as I said, “Well, we managed to beat them all, so I think we should call Brains and Vanish and the police and let them know we’ve got a whole bunch of new prisoners to ship off to Ultimate Max.”
“Ye may have taken out me crew, but ye haven’t taken out me,” said Red Tide, who jumped out from behind a metal crate he’d been hiding behind and thrust out his hands toward us.
A reddish dust cloud exploded from Red Tide’s hands and washed over me and Blizzard before we could react. The two of us immediately began hacking and coughing as the reddish dust—which tasted like a combination between super spicy chili peppers and day-old bread—entered our lungs and landed on the exposed portions of our skin.
Immediately, I could feel my joints tightening up. I also found it hard to breathe. Blizzard looked like she was experiencing the same effects as me, because she reached out to me, only to fall down at the last second, her eyes wide with terror as the paralysis took full effect.
I would have tried to help her, only I collapsed onto the ground, too, my body completely unresponsive to my mind’s commands. Belatedly, I realized this was the effect of Red Tide’s toxin spores, which left their target paralyzed and poisoned. This was the first time I’d directly experienced it, and now I finally understood Red Tide’s fearsome reputation.
Red Tide walked over to us, a wicked grin crossing his disgusting face. “All the power in the world can’t save the two of ya from my powers. I could even take down Omega Man himself with my toxins. What made ye think ye two could stand a chance?”
Then Red Tide pulled out a gun from his coat and aimed it at my face. “For killing me crew and destroying me ship, this is what ye scalawags deserve.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
A gunshot rang out through the warehouse and Blizzard screamed. My first thought was that Red Tide had shot Blizzard, which sent such red-hot rage rushing through my veins that it was nearly enough to undo the toxin.
But when I glanced over at Blizzard, I noticed she wasn’t dead or even shot. She was just lying there on the floor like me, staring up at Red Tide, and so I looked up at Red Tide as well to see what had happened to him.
Red Tide had lowered his gun and was grabbing the side of his stomach, which was bleeding profusely. Sweat broke out over his scarred forehead as he clutched his wound. To his credit, he wasn’t moaning at all, but I could tell the shot had shaken him just as much as it surprised us.
“What in the world … ?” said Red Tide, looking down at the bullet hole in his stomach. “Who did this?”
“I did,” came Edge’s voice from the darkness around us. “The dark crusader of justice, the man who goes where superheroes don’t, the street avenger … Edge Vigilante!”
Red Tide whirled around on the heel of his boot, aiming his gun wildly. “You mean the brat? Kids shouldn’t be playing with guns, ya know. Could shoot your eye out.”
“Or I’ll shoot your eye out,” said Edge’s voice from the shadows.
Another gunshot exploded and Red Tide screamed, dropping his gun and clutching another wound in his stomach. As soon as Red Tide was doubled over, Edge abruptly appeared out of the darkness and roundhouse kicked Red Tide in the face.
>
A loud crack echoed throughout the warehouse as Edge’s boot smashed into Red Tide’s jaw. The blow knocked Red Tide flat off his feet and onto his back, the back of his skull cracking against the concrete floor of the warehouse. Although it was hard to tell from my position, it looked like Red Tide was down for the count.
Then Edge ran over to me and knelt down by my side. “Bolt, Blizzard, are you two okay? Can you talk? How do you feel?”
I found my jaw slow and non-responsive, but I somehow managed to mutter, “Barely. Awful.”
Edge nodded. “I see. I’ll call the police. They—”
Two hands suddenly fell onto Edge’s shoulders and pulled him back. Edge managed to cry out at the last second before he vanished into the darkness around us, where I couldn’t see him.
“Edge?” I said, my mouth slow and clumsy. “Edge, are you there? What happened to you? Edge?”
A light suddenly flashed on above me, making me squint my eyes. I looked up into the light, but it was impossible to see who it was at first because they were shining their light down directly on my face.
“Who are you?” I said. “One of Red Tide’s pirates?”
A familiar chuckle filled my ears just then. “Me? A pirate? Please. I have zero interest in spending months aboard a dinky wooden ship with a bunch of smelly pirates. So not my style.”
The light shifted to the side, allowing me to see a pale-faced man with crazy blue hair standing above me. He wore a spandex costume similar to mine in design, if a bit older-looking, and despite how thin he was, he looked like he could handle himself in a fight.
“Phaser?” I said in shock. “What … why are you here?”
Phaser tilted his head to the side. “Seth didn’t trust Red Tide and his merry band of idiots to take you out. My job was to step in and finish the job in case they failed. As you can no doubt tell, Red Tide completely failed to kill you and your ugly girlfriend. How embarrassing.”
“Your track record against me isn’t much better,” I said, although I was unable to crack a grin due to the toxins flowing through my veins.
