Counterparts

by Lucas Flint

  White nodded. “Yes. Tired from training. But we can train to … together if you want.”

  Talon gave him a polite smile, but secretly she shuddered at the idea of training with him. “Oh, no, it’s fine. You’re clearly very tired from your training session and I don’t want to wear you out. I’ll be fine on my own anyway; I have some new moves I want to practice and they would be best done alone.”

  “You sure?” said White. “I can wait out here and wait for you to be done. Then we can go and shower together.”

  “What?” said Talon in an angry tone, before she remembered who she was talking to and said, in a much calmer voice, “No, no, sorry, but that won’t be necessary. Just go and shower by yourself. It will be, uh, easier.”

  White nodded, apparently not noticing the awkwardness of his previous comment. “Good point. Two people can’t fit in one shower very well anyway. Well, have fun.”

  White walked past her down the hall. Talon didn’t watch him go; she just made her way into the Training Room, but just as she stepped over the threshold, she heard White say, “Talon?”

  Talon came to a halt and looked over her shoulder at White. He had stopped in the middle of the hall, a curious expression on his face.

  “Yes?” said Talon, trying to hide the impatience in her voice. “Is there something you wanted to ask me?”

  “Yes,” said White. He scratched the back of his head briefly before saying, “Did your visit with your, uh, mother go well?”

  Talon blinked, surprised by the question. “Yes, actually, it did.”

  “I don’t think so,” said White. “Noticed that you seemed distracted by something. Something your mother said?”

  Talon was again surprised, because she had not mentioned anything about her mother to White. “How do you know I’m not thinking about Rime’s attack on Hero Island or something like that?”

  “Because you don’t worry about that stuff,” said White. “You care more about other things. Just what I’ve noticed.”

  Talon couldn’t believe that White was so perceptive. She would have to rethink just how simple-minded he was; clearly, he was more aware than he let on. “All right, yes, my mom and I had a rather, well, not heated conversation, but she did ask me to do something that I am not sure I want to do.”

  “What would that be?” said White. “Something bad?”

  “Not … something bad, no, but something personal,” said Talon. She had no idea why she was telling White this; maybe she just needed someone to vent to. “Something that could change my life forever, depending on what decisions I make.”

  “Change in a good way or change in a bad way?” said White.

  Talon paused, thinking of an answer to that question. “I don’t know. Change in a different way, I guess. It could be good or bad. That’s why I’m so conflicted about it. I want to do the right thing, but I just don’t know what the right thing is in this situation.”

  White nodded. “I see. Don’t know what you are worried about, but I think you will make the right choice.”

  “Thank you, White,” said Talon. “I appreciate that.”

  “You are a member of the team,” White told her. “As long as you stay part of the team, you can talk with me or the others about it.”

  Talon nodded, but at the same time, she couldn’t help but feel a little guilty when White said that. “Right. Well, I need to get to training, so see you later.”

  “Okay,” said White in a bright voice. “Good luck!”

  With that, White turned and resumed walking down the hallway. There appeared to be a spring in his step, but Talon didn’t watch him go. She closed the doors to the Training Room, but instead of starting her training right away, she leaned against the doors and sighed. She would never admit it, but White’s comments and cheery attitude just made her decision far more complicated than it had any right to be. She could just imagine him being crushed to learn that she was going to leave the team to become the CEO of her mother’s company, and, despite herself, she didn’t think she’d be able to stand it.

  Stop worrying about a guy you don’t even like, Talon told herself. Distract yourself with robots and lasers. That always works.

  “Carl!” Talon shouted, pushing herself off the doors. “Set difficulty level to Extreme. I feel like being challenged today.”

  “Sure thing, Miss Talon,” said Carl. “By the way, does that include the exploding drones?”

  “Of course,” said Talon. “As I said, I want to be challenged and the exploding drones are always challenging.”

  “Right on, Miss Talon,” said Carl. “Setting difficulty level to Extreme now.”

  As the walls at the other end of the room slid aside, revealing a set of four tall, armored robots armed with lasers and swords, Talon’s claws popped out of her wrists and she ran toward them, hoping that by the time she was done here, she would be too tired to think about what Mom wanted her to do.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  A sudden honk caused Stinger to start and sit up, looking around wildly for the source of the honk, thinking for a moment that he was about to be hit by a huge truck.

  But then Stinger saw Bolt’s amused smirk in the rear view mirror of the car and he scowled. “What was that for? You could have just shouted, you know.”

  “I know,” said Bolt. He was wearing sunglasses, which made him look sort of like Radicles, except younger and without any facial hair. It helped that he wasn’t wearing his superhero costume; instead, he wore a simple black-and-red t-shirt and jeans. “But I thought things were getting a bit boring in here and I wanted to have a laugh.”

  Beside Bolt, in the passenger’s seat, sat Rime, who was stoically staring out the window of the car. He didn’t seem to have noticed Bolt’s joke or the honking of the car horn. Instead, he looked like he was wondering how he got stuck babysitting three teenagers or perhaps trying to think of what he would tell the police if they pulled them over.

  Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, Stinger looked out the window of the car. He saw palm trees and sand, along with a few other vehicles. “Are we there yet? When did I fall asleep?”

  “Three hours ago,” Bolt replied. “And no, we aren’t there yet, but we should be soon. Right, Rime?”

  Rime nodded. “Y-Yes. My h-home is not far from here. Just t-turn right up at that stop sign and go down that road for a couple of miles. C-Can’t miss it.”

  Stinger pressed his face against the glass, but he couldn’t see Rime’s house yet. He did, however, see the Atlantic Ocean, stretching out for as far as the eye could see. He spotted a few ships out there, but they were too far away for him to make out in any great detail. “I didn’t know you lived by the beach, Rime. Kind of ironic, isn’t it, since you’re an ice guy and everything?”

  “I u-used to live in North Dakota,” said Rime, without looking at Stinger. “B-But my w-wife moved down here to Florida after I was arrested. N-Not exactly my idea of p-paradise.”

  “Hey, I take offense to that,” said Stinger. “As a proud Floridian, I think—”

  “I d-don’t care what y-you think,” Rime said without missing a beat. “F-Florida is too hot. And full of o-old people.”

  “Can’t argue with that,” said Stinger with a shrug. He looked at Talon, who sat next to him. “Isn’t this great, Tal? Maybe we could go down to the beach before we leave. I didn’t bring my swimsuit, but I can improvise.”

  Talon, however, didn’t appear to hear Stinger. She was staring out her window, the light from the bright Florida sun reflecting off her blonde hair, making it look almost golden. Like Bolt, Talon was not in her costume; instead, she wore a sleeveless blue shirt and tan shorts that made her look like a normal teenage girl. The only hint to her real identity was the suit-up watch on her right wrist, though she obviously was not going to use it anytime soon.

  Stinger was also wearing normal street clothes today. His getup was a simple green t-shirt and baggy cargo shorts. His wings were folded behind his back so well t
hat they barely stood out against the back of his shirt, but it had taken Stinger lots of practice to be able to fold his wings like that. He also had his suit-up watch on his right wrist; a quick glance at its display showed him that he had indeed been asleep for three hours. Stinger hadn’t realized how tired he must have been when they first arrived in Florida.

  Then again, I was up pretty late last night making sure that Rime wasn’t up to no good, Stinger thought. Just goes to show you the importance of sleeping well.

  Earlier that day, Bolt, Stinger, Talon, and Rime had arrived in Florida via Bolt’s Teleportation Buckle and then rented a car—a large suburban with plenty of room for everyone—to take to Rime’s house. They could have teleported straight to Rime’s house, but since they didn’t quite know where Rime’s family was, they thought it made more sense to teleport to the nearest city (in this case, Miami), rent a car, and then drive to Rime’s house from there. The car would be useful for getting around the state; besides, when they teleported into Miami, Rime spent the first five minutes upon their arrival puking inside a trash can, so they didn’t want him to get sick again, especially if they had to teleport several times.

  It may have seemed odd for only half the team to accompany Rime, but Black Blur had insisted that there was no reason to send the entirety of the Young Neos to help Rime. He had said that half of the team needed to stay behind at Hero Island in case something came up that required their attention. Bolt had argued with Black Blur about it, but since Black Blur was a member of the Leadership Council and Bolt was not, the order had stood. Even so, Stinger could tell that Bolt, despite his earlier joke, didn’t feel comfortable going out with only half the team, even though both Stinger and Talon were good fighters who could take care of themselves.

  Stinger didn’t blame him. This situation had the potential to be quite serious, depending on how dangerous this Colombina lady was. That she held hostages made her doubly dangerous. Rime was convinced that his family was already being killed due to his failure to kill Bolt, but Stinger wasn’t convinced of that. The way he saw it, unless Colombina was actually watching Rime, she had no way of knowing if he was holding up his end of the deal or not. As long as Colombina didn’t know what Rime was doing, his family was probably safe.

  Of course, that was assuming that Rime was telling the truth. Stinger remembered what Mecha Knight had told him yesterday, about spying on Rime and reporting back anything suspicious he found to him. It was entirely possible that Rime was leading them into a trap. Bolt didn’t appear to suspect Rime of anything, but then, that was because Bolt still saw Rime as a friend and wanted to help him. Stinger did, too, but only if it turned out that Rime was telling the truth about the kidnapping of his family.

  The current plan was to go to Rime’s house and search for clues that would help them find his family. It was the best place to start, though whether they would find any clues was another thing entirely. Rime said he hadn’t found any clues to the location of his family, but Bolt seemed convinced that Rime either hadn’t looked hard enough or had overlooked some real clues that the Young Neos would recognize due to their experience fighting supervillains. Besides, it wasn’t like they knew of a better place to start.

  But Stinger had to admit, it was kind of awkward sitting next to Talon. She had not spoken with him at all since she learned who his mother was. She avoided him at the House before they left and she didn’t talk to him much on the car trip. Of course, Stinger had fallen asleep, but that was primarily because Talon didn’t talk to him.

  She’s upset with me, Stinger thought, glancing at Talon uneasily. I don’t see why. Not like I killed her father or anything. Is she mad that I didn’t tell her who my mother is earlier or something?

  Stinger shook his head. He always found girls difficult to understand, even his own teammates. Having grown up without any sisters, Stinger found girls even more difficult to understand than most guys. The only major female figure in his life he’d ever known was his mother, but even then, he only barely knew her due to her having abandoned him when he was so young. He wondered if Mom would have been able to help him understand Talon better if she had been a good mother and actually raised him herself.

  Not that it matters either way, Stinger thought, leaning against his seat as the car stopped at a stop sign. I just wish that Talon would be a little less frosty toward me, that’s all.

  The rest of the car trip went by fairly quickly. It wasn’t long before a large house standing on the beach appeared down the road. The house was two-stories and rather narrow, looking like it had been constructed out of scrap wood, based on its mixed up colors, but that added to its charm, in his opinion. The house was connected to a pier that extended out toward the sea, while palm trees stood in front of the house like knights protecting the entrance to a castle. A blue four door sedan that looked like it was from the nineties was in the driveway, but the house looked abandoned, as if no one had lived in it for ages.

  “Is that your home?” said Bolt, glancing at Rime.

  Rime nodded. “Y-Yeah, that’s it.”

  “It’s a rather old-looking house,” said Talon. “The colors clash rather terribly.”

  “I d-didn’t buy it,” said Rime. “M-My wife did, so you can t-tell her that after we s-save her.”

  “This is where your family was kidnapped, right?” said Stinger as Bolt parked the suburban behind the sedan. “Right out from under your nose?”

  “Not out f-from under my nose, but y-yes, Dana and M-Martha were here,” said Rime as he unbuckled his seatbelt. “A-And they were kidnapped when I went t-to town to do some g-grocery shopping.” He looked out at the house with a distant expression, as if the house brought back too many bad memories.

  “Well, hopefully your family is okay and we will find them quickly,” said Bolt. “Let’s get out and investigate.”

  The four of them jumped out of the car and made their way to the front door of Rime’s house, with Rime leading the way. Despite the heat of the sun, Rime did not seem bothered by it. He just climbed the front steps of the house, opened the door, and entered without another word, while Stinger, Bolt, and Talon followed him inside.

  “This is the l-living room,” said Rime when everyone was inside the house. “Check it out.”

  Stinger looked around at the living room. It was a medium-sized room; not nearly as big as the House’s Meeting Room, but a decent size nonetheless for a family of three. A small flat-screen TV stood against one wall, while an old couch stood opposite it. A couple of shelves built into the walls had a few books and DVDs on them, while the coffee table had a plate with bread crumbs on it but nothing else, and near the coffee table was an open notebook next to a history textbook that appeared to have been scribbled in. A shoe rack stood directly to their right, which had several pairs of shoes on it, including a particularly old pair that looked like they were about to fall apart any second. The room smelled of some kind of scented candle, which seemed to be coming from the candles on the shelves, though the candles appeared to have been out for a while.

  “Was this where your family was when you left?” said Bolt, looking at it with interest.

  “Y-Yes,” said Rime, nodding. “D-Dana was sitting on the couch, while M-Martha was sitting on the floor doing her homework. B-But when I got back, t-they were both g-gone.”

  “And you are absolutely sure they’re gone?” said Bolt. “That they were kidnapped? I seem to remember you said that Colombina left a video telling you to kill me if you wanted to see your family again. Do you still have it?”

  Stinger tried not to look too interested, because if Rime had the video, that would help immensely in determining if he was really a spy or not.

  Rime, to Stinger’s satisfaction, nodded. “Y-Yeah. I d-didn’t b-bring it with me to Hero Island b-because I was in a h-hurry to leave. It should s-still be in the DVD player.”

  Rime walked over to the DVD player and turned it on, while Bolt, Stinger, and Talon all stood around the T
V to get a good look at it. Once Rime turned it on, he stepped back to let them see the TV better.

  At first, the TV showed nothing but blackness. Then the screen turned to static for a second and in the next second, the static was replaced by the image of a woman wearing a mask sitting on what looked like a wooden chair in dark room. She was tall and wore a flowing red dress which made her look less like a supervillain and more like a fancy lady, but it was her mask that really drew Stinger’s attention. The mask was rather small, covering only her eyes, but it stood out to Stinger because he thought he had seen that style of mask before. A quick glance at Bolt and Talon told him that they recognized it as well.

  “Hello, Joseph Fraser or, as you are somewhat more infamously known, Rime,” said the woman on the TV. Her voice was silky and seductive, but also dangerous. “If you’re watching this, you are probably alone and confused and wondering who I am. You don’t need to know everything about me, but you can know my name: Colombina.”

  Stinger couldn’t help but find her voice hot, even though he knew she was a dangerous supervillain. He also noticed that she had a pretty great body under that dress of hers, but he tried to focus on what she was saying instead of her body.

  “You are probably wondering where your wife and daughter are,” said Colombina. “I imagine that you’ve already torn apart the whole house by now, unless you’re smarter than you look, in which case you probably popped this DVD into the player as soon as you noticed it. Like the good family man you are, you are probably terrified for the safety of your family and even angry—murderously so, in fact—at whoever had the audacity to kidnap your family. Yes, Rime, your family was kidnapped, and they are safe, though they won’t be for much longer.”

  Stinger noticed Rime’s hands curled into tight fists. He looked like he wanted to punch the TV in, but he restrained himself, probably because Colombina was not actually there.