The Superhero's Cure

by Lucas Flint

  “How sad,” said Shade, tapping her chin thoughtfully. “I never liked her all that much—or any of your bratty friends, for that matter—but I can’t say I will enjoy seeing her die. The Neo-Killer already took poor Phobia from us. Losing another super to him would be very devastating.”

  I knew who Phobia was. He was a G-Man agent originally assigned to the Neo-Killer case, although he was killed by the Neo-Killer himself around the same time the Neo-Killer poisoned Blizzard. I never got to know him very well, but Phobia came across as the only honest G-Man agent I’d met. “Yeah, Phobia’s death was tragic. Seemed like a good guy.”

  “He was,” said Shade, nodding. “He got along with everyone and always worked hard on whatever case he was given. He was the guy who recruited me into the G-Men in the first place, so I feel like I owe him for that.”

  “Really?” I said. “I didn’t know that.”

  “Yep,” said Shade. She shrugged. “Doesn’t matter now, though, given how he’s dead. He’s not the first G-Man to die in the line of duty, and sadly, he won’t be the last, either.”

  Shade seemed to be expressing actual sadness at Phobia’s death, which struck me as weird because I had never thought that the G-Men actually cared about each other. Then again, Cadmus had seemed very disturbed that one time Shade nearly died, so perhaps there was more camaraderie among them than I thought. Sure would be nice if they could show some of that camaraderie to the rest of us, though.

  “What’s your point, Shade?” I said. “I know you aren’t here just to comfort me. Let’s cut to the chase.”

  “So pushy,” said Shade, rolling her eyes. “But very well. Cadmus would probably yell at me for wasting so much time, so let’s get to the point.”

  Shade gestured at the roof below us. “You know Blizzard’s supposedly incurable disease? The one that you said would kill her in a week?”

  I nodded. “Yeah, what about it?”

  Shade’s smile seemed to take on a far more sinister appearance. “It’s not actually incurable. The G-Men have the cure … and we are perfectly willing to give it to you.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  I stood there, stunned, staring at Shade in disbelief. “No, you don’t.”

  “What, do you think I would joke, or worse, lie about something as important as curing an ill girl?” said Shade. She shook her head. “I did not know you had such a low opinion of my character. I would be offended if I cared.”

  “How can you have a cure for a brand new disease that no one has ever discovered before?” I said. “Your claim is ridiculous by itself.”

  “Oh, Bolt, you really underestimate the intellect and abilities of the G-Men’s top scientists,” said Shade. “Here, let me show you.”

  Shade pulled a small bottle out of her pocket and held it up for me to see. Thick purple liquid—somewhat like grape jelly in appearance—shoe under the autumnal rays of the sun overhead. It was a small bottle, barely bigger than Shade’s fist, but if it could do what she said it could do, then I needed it.

  “What is that?” I said. “It looks like grape jelly.”

  Shade lowered the bottle and held it close to her chest. “This isn’t grape jelly. It’s a liquid called TH8, or, as we like to call it, Miracle. It can heal any wound it is applied to, as well as heal any sickness if ingested. I’ve heard it tastes like crap, but it does work, I can assure you of that.”

  “And you say this can heal Blizzard,” I said. “Right?”

  “Right on,” said Shade, nodding. She fingered the bottle casually. “If she drinks it, then it should heal her of her sickness, no matter what it is. Especially since this stuff was reverse-engineered from the blue glue that the Pokacu used.”

  I held out a hand. “Give it to me. Now.”

  Shade held it away from me. “No. It’s G-Men property.”

  I eyed Shade carefully. “What’s to stop me from just taking it from you? I’m very fast.”

  “I’ll just disappear into my shadows and leave you all alone here,” Shade replied. “You might be fast, but do you really want to risk losing this forever? I wouldn’t, but I guess your risk tolerance is different from mine.”

  Lowering my hand to my side, I said, “Then why are you telling me about it at all? Are you deliberately messing with me?”

  “I’m not messing with you at all,” Shade said, shaking her head. “I do intend to give you Miracle … however, I need you to do something first. Cadmus, actually, needs you to do something first.”

  I groaned. “I should have seen this coming. You guys never do anything out of the goodness of your heart.”

  “Of course,” said Shade. “That’s a great way to get taken advantage of. This way, you always get what you want.”

  I shook my head and turned around. “Forget this. I don’t need to play with you guys. I’ve let you guys play me enough. You can go and tell Cadmus to shove it.”

  I was just about to take off when Shade said, “Oh, wow. I guess you don’t care if Blizzard dies after all, huh?”

  I froze but did not look over my shoulder at her. “I don’t want her to die, but—”

  “But she will,” said Shade. “She will die in a week if she isn’t cured of her disease. And it’s not like you have any alternatives. If Healing Touch can’t heal her, then I am fairly sure that no one can. Even the G-Men’s healer isn’t as good as him. Miracle is your only hope at saving your girlfriend’s life, but I suppose you don’t have to take it if you don’t want to.”

  Every fiber of my being was telling me to just fly away and forget about her, but Shade’s comments about letting Blizzard die unless she was fed Miracle made me hesitate. I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to at least hear what the G-Men wanted me to do. I could always say no, after all. It wasn’t like Shade was my boss or anything like that.

  With a sigh, I turned around to face Shade. “Okay, Shade, tell me what you guys need help with and I’ll decide if I want to help or not.”

  Shade smiled. “So you really do care about your girlfriend after—”

  “Get to the point,” I said. “Or I’ll just fly off and report you to the Council. Now that I think about it, I’m not sure you’re even supposed to be here.”

  “All right, all right,” said Shade, holding up her hands. “I’ll give you a brief rundown of the situation and you can decide whether to accept it or not.”

  I nodded. “All right. Go ahead and start. I’m listening.”

  Shade nodded. “Okay. Tell me, have you heard about someone named Red Tide?”

  I shook my head. “No, I never have. Who is he?”

  “A supervillain,” said Shade. “Here, let me show you a picture of him.”

  Shade pulled her phone out of her pocket and, after a couple of swipes, held it up for me to see. I could now see an image of a man dressed like a generic pirate, complete with pirate hat and cutlass, standing on top of what looked like an old-fashioned sailing ship, his arms folded in front of his chest and a wicked grin on his face. He was very fat and had a weird reddish tint to his skin, making him look sick, although something told me that he was perfectly healthy in this image.

  “This is Red Tide,” said Shade, holding her phone closer for me to see. “Real name Desmond Carnegie, although he hates being called that. He’s an international supervillain in charge of his own crew and ship, The Red Tide.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “He named his ship after himself?”

  “Yep,” said Shade. She stowed her phone away in her pocket again. “As you might guess, Red Tide has a bit of an ego, although it’s not entirely unwarranted. He’s wanted in multiple countries all around the world, mostly for piracy, although he’s thrown in some rape and murder for good measure.”

  “What kind of powers does he have?” I said.

  “He can release paralyzing toxins from his skin that also happen to poison anyone they land on,” said Shade. “His toxins are powerful enough to kill a fully grown man in less than five minutes, and that’s assuming he doe
sn’t kill you himself before then. He’s quite slippery because he has a tendency to flee onto his ship with his crew and disappear into the sea whenever he angers the local authorities of whatever country he happens to visit.”

  “If he’s an international villain, what does the G-Men want with him?” I said. “I though you guys only dealt with American villains.”

  “Oh, we deal with international villains when they come to America for a visit,” said Shade. “Sometimes we even work with governments from other countries to capture criminals that have been a problem for both of our countries. For example, we’ve done a lot of missions with MI7, which is the British equivalent of the Department of Superpowered & Extraterrestrial Beings. They make good tea.”

  I frowned. “Okay, this Red Tide guy sounds bad, but I don’t see why you guys can’t deal with him yourself.”

  “I still haven’t explained to you why we want him,” said Shade. “So, as you might guess, Red Tide is wanted for piracy. He has a tendency to steal rare artifacts and weapons and sell them to the highest bidder. Last week, he raided one of our facilities on the coast of Florida and stole a prototype weapon we’ve been working on.”

  My frown deepened. “Based on your tone, I’d guess it’s more than just a prototype, isn’t it?”

  “Yeah,” said Shade. “It’s a brand new, top secret weapon that is supposed to be used by the American military. In fact, it’s so top secret that even I don’t know what it is. That’s how secret it is. It is also very dangerous.”

  “Dangerous,” I repeated. “Exactly how dangerous are we talking here?”

  “Dangerous enough to destroy whole cities,” said Shade. “That’s what Cadmus told me, anyway. He knows what it is, but he wouldn’t tell me. Said I didn’t have security clearance, thought I think he just didn’t trust me to keep it a secret.”

  “Given what you just told me, I would agree with Cadmus about that,” I said. “Even so, I don’t see what this has to do with me.”

  Shade tossed the bottle of Miracle from hand to hand. I kept a careful eye on it because I was worried she might drop it and I had no idea how easy that stuff was to replace. “It’s a matter of national security, which means it will affect everyone at some point or another. Cadmus thinks Red Tide stole the weapon to sell it to the Chinese or Russians. It’s a matter of keeping our weapons and our secrets with us, rather than have them leak out all over the world for everyone and their dog to see.”

  “I see,” I said. “Is the weapon really that powerful, that it could potentially give China or Russia an edge over us in a military conflict?”

  Shade shrugged. “The military doesn’t have any plans to go to war against either of those two countries anytime soon, but it would still be in our best interests to remain a step ahead of the competition. Based on what Cadmus told me, the weapon isn’t something I would want our foreign rivals to get their hands on.”

  I stroked my chin. “What do you want me to do? Find Red Tide and get the weapon back from him before he sells it to the highest bidder?”

  “Bingo,” said Shade. “If you could also capture Red Tide himself and haul his butt to Ultimate Max, that would be great, too, but at a minimum, we just need you to retrieve the weapon.”

  “Huh,” I said. “International espionage, eh? That sounds more like something up your alley than mine. I’m not very stealthy.”

  “Cadmus insisted that you be the one to do it,” said Shade. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t on his orders.”

  “But why can’t you guys do it yourselves?” I said. “Did President Plutarch slash your budget so much you have to outsource your own espionage?”

  “Actually, Congress just approved a higher budget for our department this past year, so we’ve got a surplus,” said Shade. “As for why we want you to do it, that’s easy: Red Tide doesn’t know who you are. He’s really paranoid about government agents getting onto his crew, but since you’re not G-Men, he will be less suspicious of you.”

  “Let me get this straight,” I said. “You want me to sneak onto a pirate’s crew, steal a powerful weapon he stole from the government, and return it to you guys.”

  “Exactly,” said Shade, giving me the thumbs up. “You’re a good listener, you know that?”

  “And in exchange, you’ll give me some of that Miracle stuff so I can heal Blizzard?” I said.

  “Yup,” said Shade. She stopped tossing the bottle from hand to hand and held it up again. “One good gulp of this stuff and your girlfriend will be good as new.”

  My eyes locked onto the bottle of Miracle she held up. “Have you spoken to the NHA about this? I’m not sure Brains and Vanish would be happy if I just up and left to go on a mission for the federal government without telling them.”

  Shade shrugged. “As I said, this mission is top secret. I mean, what they don’t know can’t hurt them, right?”

  I wasn’t so sure about that. “But if I leave without telling them where I’m going, then they’ll get worried and start looking for me. And they might just find me, which would ruin your mission, wouldn’t it?”

  “Make up an excuse,” said Shade. “Tell them you need some time off work to mourn your girlfriend’s inevitable death or something. I’m sure they’ll understand.”

  “I still don’t know,” I said. “I don’t like lying to either Brains or Vanish. I’d much rather be upfront with them about this, even though I’m not sure they would let me do this.”

  “Come on, Bolt,” said Shade. “You’re an adult now, aren’t you? Yeah, you’re under the leadership of other people, but you still have the right do to what you want.”

  “Not unless I want to get kicked out of the NHA,” I said, shaking my head. “I’m already on thin ice with Brains for constantly disobeying orders. This might just push him past the breaking point. Can’t risk it.”

  Shade nodded and turned around. “Well, I see. Can’t say I’m not a little disappointed, but I understand your decision. I know Cadmus wouldn’t like it if I went behind his back to complete a mission for another organization, after all. No, sir. He wouldn’t like it at all.”

  Then Shade held up the Miracle bottle again, holding it so that the sun’s rays hit it just right. “But you know, as much as your girlfriend annoys me, I always admired your dedication to her. I thought you would be willing to do anything—and I do mean anything—to ensure her safety, but I guess I was wrong. Love, apparently, doesn’t win out over job security, which again I understand, but it’s so pragmatic that it seems kind of out of character for you.”

  I gulped. I didn’t want to admit it, but Shade’s words struck a little too close to home. My reasons for refusing her mission made sense, but then I thought about what Healing Touch said about Blizzard dying in a week and there being no known cure for her disease. If Shade was telling the truth, then I was giving up the only chance in the world I would have to save Blizzard, all because I was worried for my own position in the NHA than her life. If Blizzard knew about this, would she be disappointed in me? What kind of a boyfriend was I, anyway, by abandoning her like this just because I was worried about what would happen if the others found out what I did?

  Before I could say that aloud, however, Shade opened a shadow portal and stepped through it.

  “Shade!” I said, holding up a hand. “Wait!”

  But I was too late. The portal closed behind Shade and then vanished, leaving me standing all alone by myself on the rooftop of the Hero Island Hospital.

  I lowered my hand and cursed. “Dang it. I shouldn’t have hesitated. Now, what am I going to do?”

  Without warning, a soft feminine hand appeared on my left shoulder, causing me to look to the right and see Shade’s face just inches from my own. She stood behind me as if she had just emerged from the shadows, with one arm wrapped around my shoulders. In her other hand was the bottle of Miracle, shining in a tantalizing way under the light of the sun.

  “Did you just say my name, Bolt?” said
Shade. “I thought I heard you ask me to wait, but I wasn’t sure.”

  I nodded. “Yeah, I did. I wanted to tell you that I accept the mission. I’ll do whatever you need me to do. Just give me Miracle.”

  Shade’s face broke out into a rather disturbing smile. “Perhaps you’re a better boyfriend than I thought, kid. All right. Let’s get you started.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  The next day, I teleported back to Showdown, Virginia. More specifically, I teleported to the rooftop of the Braindome, where I was stationed on my continuing mission out here. As my body materialized onto the Braindome’s roof, I found myself shivering in the cold October air, though I didn’t focus on it too much. I looked around for a moment to confirm I was alone and then walked over to the elevator, pressing the down arrow button and standing back to wait for the elevator to come back up and take me down into the Braindome itself.

  A part of me felt like coming back to the Braindome was a waste of time, considering how little time Blizzard had left, but I knew it was necessary. If I just left Hero Island and went directly to Red Tide, that would just make everyone wonder where I went and likely prompt the NHA to launch a search for me. I needed to get permission from Brains to leave first, which might be hard because I had already taken yesterday off, and with Vanish still in the patient room, the Braindome was lacking in the manpower necessary to deal with Showdown’s crime. Certainly, Brains couldn’t handle all of the criminals by himself.

  I felt a little guilty about that, but I also told myself that this would be for the greater good. Once I finished this mission, everyone would understand why I needed to do what I needed to do. I could come back and continue to help Brains and Vanish get a handle on Showdown’s criminal scene. It would all be worth it in the end.

  “Bolt?” said Valerie in my ear all of a sudden, snapping me out of my thoughts. “I have just received a message from Brains.”

  Startled, I put my hand on my earcom even as the elevator door opened behind me. “Really? What is it? Does he know I’m here?”