The Strike Trilogy

by Charlie Wood

  As powerful and famous as he was, she realized, he had nobody who cared about him.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Orion watched, confused, as Ida bent down and fed a carrot to the small, three-horned, gargoyle-faced dinosaur on the end of the leash. As the green-skinned creature happily wagged its spiked tail and bounced on its front claws, the old man had to laugh.

  “This is a trigulsaur,” Ida explained, rubbing its head. “One of our men was able to steal an egg from Rigel’s latest shipment from Capricious. Instead of ending up at the navy base, this dino ended up here.”

  With a smile, Scatterbolt slowly approached the trigulsaur. The little dino jumped up and excitedly licked Scatterbolt’s hand, and the robot laughed, crouching down to pet him.

  “And this is what’s gonna be part of Rigel’s next phase?” Keplar asked. “Seriously? This is what’s gonna attack the Earth?”

  Ida stood up. “Not ones like this. This one hatched naturally. I don’t know what they are doing behind the walls of that navy base, but they are somehow speeding up the creatures’ growth process. And doing who knows what else. Now, when they hatch, they don’t look like this one here. They look like this.”

  Ida picked up a tablet from a nearby table. After pulling up a video and pressing play, she showed the device to Orion and the others.

  The tablet screen showed shaky video camera footage of a full-grown trigulsaur, strapped by chains to a cement slab in the navy base. The dinosaur was gigantic—lying down, it was over sixty feet long—with huge, leathery wings under its front arms, a horn on its snout, two horns on its forehead, and long, green-skinned limbs topped off by sharp, clawed fingers. As the lean-bodied creature roared and struggled to free itself from the chains, dozens of Rytonian soldiers kept it at bay with electric prods and tranquilizer darts.

  Looking up from the floor of the Rytonian Rebels’ tent, the baby trigulsaur saw the footage on the tablet and began growling and barking, its back stiffening. Scatterbolt knelt down next to him and petted him to calm him down.

  “They’ve got a whole squadron of these,” Ida said as the video ended. “We don’t even know how many. But more eggs are being shipped in from Capricious everyday.”

  “And more feed,” Orion said.

  “Yes—not to mention drugs and growth hormone. Whatever Rigel’s men are doing to these things, it’s causing them to destroy whatever they see—using fire, their strength, their claws. When Rigel finally unleashes them on the Earth, the results will be unfathomable.”

  “So he’s planning on releasing these all over the world in his next attack,” Orion said.

  “Yes. We know for a fact there is one for Beijing, one for Moscow, and one for London. But that will just be a distraction. While the world is dealing with watching the government headquarters of the Earth’s most powerful nations being destroyed by dinosaurs, the Dark Nebula will be growing and expanding. Within minutes, it will stretch out and cover the rest of the United States.”

  “From there, with the U.S. under his control, he’ll be able to take over the world,” Orion said.

  Ida nodded. “With his army, and these beasts, there will be no stopping him.”

  Orion exhaled through his nose, processing the information. “We were able to learn about this navy base when we infiltrated Rigel’s skyscraper, and we also learned about another phase of Rigel’s plan, besides this one. Do you know anything about that?”

  “No. I can’t say that we do. All we know about is the eggs and the trigulsaurs.”

  Orion turned to the baby trigulsaur. Scatterbolt was playing with him on the ground, while Chad and Keplar watched, laughing. When the trigulsaur jumped up on Scatterbolt with its front claws, it knocked the robot to the ground before leaping on him and licking his face.

  “Can I keep him?” Scatterbolt asked, trying to avoid the dinosaur’s scratchy tongue.

  Orion shook his head, laughing. “It appears this one isn’t very hostile.”

  Ida smiled. “No, they’re not, naturally. They are actually very beautiful animals. Until Rigel and his people get a hold of them.” She chuckled as Keplar threw a carrot across the tent and the baby trigulsaur chased it down and brought it back to him. “I have to say, your little team here is awfully relaxed considering they’re facing the end of the world.”

  “Oh, they are terrified,” Orion said. “Believe me. And angry, just like me. But we’ve seen a lot of things over the past few months, and we’ve learned how to hide our worries.”

  “I’m not sure she has,” Ida said. She pointed to the entrance of the tent. Jennifer was standing there, watching the others play with the trigulsaur, but with her arms across her chest, and her face filled with worry.

  “Hi, Jennifer,” Orion said, walking over to her. “Do you want to talk for a bit?”

  Jennifer and Orion walked away from the others.

  “I know this is insanely frightening,” the old man said, “and I’m sorry about all of it. I’m regretting every second bringing you and Chad along with us.”

  “No, don’t,” Jennifer said, her arms tight against her body. “I want to be here. I want to help Tobin. The other Tobin, I mean. It’s just—Tobin—our Tobin—he’s told me about the things he’s seen, the things from your world. But when you see them for yourself...” Jennifer watched the trigulsaur and took a deep breath.

  “It’s a lot to handle,” Orion said.

  “Yes. But not too much. I just need...a minute.”

  “If it’s too much, Jennifer, if it’s too much to handle, I can take you back home right now. I promise. We can take you away from all this. There’s still time. You don’t have to be involved.”

  “No, no. I have to. I have to help Tobin, in anyway that I can. I know—I know what is depending on all this.”

  “But it’s not depending on you,” Orion said. “You aren’t responsible for any of this. I don’t even know if you and Chad should be involved, frankly.”

  Jennifer watched as Chad cracked a joke that made Keplar laugh, and he and the dog shared a high-five.

  “No, we have to,” Jennifer said. “We have to be here. We have to be here for Tobin.”

  “Okay. And as long as you stay with me, and do as I say, you’ll be safe. I promise, okay? I promise you that.”

  Jennifer nodded. “Okay.”

  “And, also, do me a favor: don’t tell Tobin I got you involved. This basically goes against everything I ever taught him.”

  Jennifer laughed, finally letting her arms relax. “Do you think...do you think we can trust them?” She motioned to Ida and the Rytonian Rebels.

  “To be honest,” Orion said, “I’m not sure. But I think so. I’m a pretty good judge of character, and I think Ida is on our side. And I can also tell she needs our help more than she’s letting on. So, let me go talk to her and decide what we are gonna do next. Do you want to come with me? Or stay with the others?”

  “I think—I think I’ll just stay over here for a bit.”

  “Okay. I’ll be right over there if you need anything.”

  Jennifer watched Orion walk back to Ida, then turned back to Chad. As he kneeled by the trigulsaur, he looked up at her with a wide smile, as if to say, “Can you believe all this?”

  Jennifer weakly smiled back and nodded. Then she turned and walked out of the tent. Looking up at the starry sky, she took a deep breath and wondered what her mom would do if she never came home again.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  In the wide-open airplane hangar in Ruffalo Rock Castle, Tobin sat behind a long wooden table and watched as Wakefield set up a video camera a few feet in front of him.

  “What do you want me to say?” the boy asked, holding a few sheets of paper.

  “Whatever it is you’ve written down,” Wakefield replied. “Whatever you’ve com
e up with to get them to help us.”

  “Yeah, but I don’t know if it’s good enough. Do you really think I should do it? Maybe you should do it.”

  “Kid, it’s gonna mean a lot more if it’s coming from you. The only way it’s gonna work is if it’s coming from you. They don’t give a damn what an old man like me has to say.”

  Tobin looked down at the first piece of paper in front of him, with his handwriting messily scrawled across it. He took in a nervous breath.

  “You ready, Tobin?” Wakefield asked, standing behind the camera. “When I make a fist, you’ll be going live to the emergency communicator to just about every superhero in Capricious. No pressure. Make it good. In three...two...”

  Wakefield made a fist. Tobin stared into the lens. His eyes went wide. The light turned red.

  “Oh. Hi. My name’s Tobin. I guess maybe I should have called myself by my code name, but I’m not sure any of that...anyway.” The boy shook his head. “What I want to say is—some of you know me from working with me as Strike over the past few months. And some of you probably knew my dad, from working with him. Or at least, a lot of you probably knew of him. And now…I’m asking you now for help.

  “My world...I’m not from your world. A lot of you know that. The world I am from, we don’t have people like you. Superheroes. Wondrous people. Amazing people. We don’t have any of that. And that didn’t matter. Up until now, we were fine, with the heroes we did have. Our heroes aren’t like yours, but they kept us safe. They are insanely brave. Now that I’m one of you, I realize that more than ever.

  “But things have changed. Rigel, from your world, he’s on my world now. And so are a bunch of other super-villains from Capricious. There’s been a lot of stories lately wondering where all of the villains of Capricious went, and the answer is Earth. They went to Earth—to Boston, actually, not far from my hometown. Not far from where I grew up.”

  Tobin looked down at the table.

  “I’m not sure. I’m not sure what’s gonna happen yet. I know I’m gonna fight them, and so are some of my friends, but I know—I know we are gonna lose. We can’t win, not without your help. I’m here now, asking for your help.”

  Tobin realized his papers were still on the table. He hadn’t read a single word from them.

  “I know this is insane, asking you to help the other world. I know it makes no sense. You have no stake in Earth. Literally. Not a single one of you has any reason to help Earth. I know for a fact none of you have ever even been to Earth, and probably never had any plans to ever go there. Some of you might not even—some of you might not even like us very much.

  “But we need your help. Billions of people need your help. And I don’t know about you, but the reason I do this is to help people that need it. I don’t know many of you all that well, but I’m sure that’s why you do it, too. To help people who need it. And right now, the people of Earth need your help. They will be destroyed without it.”

  Tobin thought about his hometown, Bridgton. And the Dark Nebula surrounding Boston.

  “The city, where Rigel is now—the people of Boston are some of the toughest people in the world. They really are. But they can’t face this. Not by themselves. They’re outnumbered. And if there’s anything I know about the heroes of Capricious, it’s that you don’t like it when people are outnumbered. You don’t like it when innocent people are ordered around.”

  Tobin stared at the desk.

  “I’m not asking you to help me for selfish reasons. I’m really not. I’m going to face this either way, me and my friends are gonna face this no matter what, so it’s not like I’m asking you to help me because I’m not gonna do it without you. I’m going to do it. I have to. And a few of my friends are gonna help me. I’m just asking...I’m asking you to face it with us. Because...who knows what Rigel will do when he takes over Earth. Who knows where he’ll look next. I just know he won’t stop with Earth. We all know that. We know how these people think.”

  Tobin thought it over. Had he said enough? Was it enough to show how he felt?

  “I’m asking you...I’m asking you to help Earth. That’s all. A world none of you have anything to do with. But a world full of people, like Capricious. A world full of families, and love, and laughter. And tears. And hurt, and pain. We have war, unlike you. We have bad people. Terrible things happen. We’re not perfect. But we’re a world. We’re here. We’re alive. And we need help.”

  Tobin looked up into the lens.

  “I just want...I just want your help in keeping everyone safe.”

  Tobin looked down. When he didn’t speak for a few seconds, Wakefield turned off the camera.

  “Okay. We’re off. It’s out there.”

  “How’d I do?” Tobin asked.

  “About as good as anyone could have asked. Now we just gotta see if anyone listened.”

  Soon, with the sun setting, Tobin, Wakefield, and King Ontombe stood in the main square of Ruffalo Rock, with their eyes turned to the large, closed wooden gate in between the hillsides that led to the plains of Ruffalo Rock.

  “You know, we’re pretty far out here, Tobin,” Wakefield said. “We’re in the middle of nowhere. It’s gonna take a while for people to reach us, if they come at all.”

  “I know,” Tobin said, his eyes focused on the gate. “But I need to wait. I need to just wait here and see if anyone comes.”

  Wakefield nodded. He, Tobin, and King Ontombe stared at the doors. It was silent for a long while.

  Finally, one of the elephant guards standing on the other side of the doors shouted out.

  “Someone is approaching Ruffalo Rock! If they are allies, open the doors!”

  Tobin stood up straight, his eyes widening. He turned to Wakefield. The white-haired man smiled, surprised.

  Slowly, the wooden doors opened. Tobin stood on his tippy-toes and craned his neck to see who was coming through.

  It was Aykrada—Orion’s old friend, and the woman who had helped Tobin fight off the invading Hoplites in Gallymoora, almost a year ago. Wearing her familiar long, brown dress—and with the sunset shining in her green eyes—the beautiful, brunette, forty-year-old woman smiled when she saw Tobin standing with Wakefield and King Ontombe.

  Tobin quickly walked to her, and they shared a hug.

  “Hi, Tobin. I hope you know I would help you no matter what you asked for, whenever you needed it.”

  “I wasn’t sure. I know it’s a lot to ask, especially considering it’s for the other world, but—”

  They parted and she looked Tobin in the eye.

  “For you, Tobin, anything. I just wish you would have asked me sooner.”

  Tobin smiled. He was about to say something, but then the elephant guard interrupted him.

  “Someone is approaching Ruffalo Rock! If they are allies, open the doors!”

  Surprised, Tobin turned to the gate. He and Aykrada eagerly watched to see who was being let into Ruffalo Rock.

  It was a tall, muscular man in a blue costume, with a yellow cape flowing off his back, and a yellow ‘X’ across his chest. He looked like a dashing movie star, with dark hair and blue eyes.

  “Who’s that?” Tobin asked.

  “That’s Captain X-Treme. I was hoping he would come.”

  “But I’ve never even worked with him. I don’t think I’ve even met him.”

  “Tobin, with that call you sent out, I don’t know what hero of Capricious isn’t going to come help. You said it yourself: it’s what we do. Even if it is the other world.”

  “Someone is approaching Ruffalo Rock!” the guard shouted again. “If they are allies, open the doors!”

  For a third time, the wooden doors opened. This time, they revealed not one, but six heroes waiting there. Five of them were wearing identical ninja costumes and motorcyc
le helmets, which were only distinguishable from each other by the helmet’s color: one was red, one was blue, one was yellow, one was purple, and one was black. The sixth hero, the only one not wearing a motorcycle helmet, was an eight-foot-tall, orange-furred, shaggy beast, with large blue eyes, pointy ears, and fangs protruding from his mouth.

  “Hey, where’s the party at?” the orange beast shouted, his voice booming through Ruffalo Rock. “Are there cheeseballs? I basically only came for the cheeseballs.”

  “That’s Mad Dog John,” Tobin said. “And the Shigeru Knights. The entire team.”

  Aykrada smiled. “Mentioning your dad didn’t hurt. I don’t think there’s one hero alive who didn’t call him a friend. Or at least owe him a large sum of money.”

  Tobin laughed. He watched, relieved and amazed, as the various superheroes greeted each other in the main square of Ruffalo Rock with handshakes and slaps on the back.

  “Someone is approaching Ruffalo Rock!” the guard yelled. “If they are allies, open the doors!”

  Tobin turned to the gate. It opened.

  A stunning, pale-skinned, twenty-one-year-old girl with pin-straight black hair stood there.

  It was Adrianna, dressed in her purple costume, black cape, and black boots. Her double-sided spear was on her back. Looking across the square, she saw Tobin and smiled.

  “That was pretty cute,” she said, walking to him, “sending out that message to everyone. Pathetic, but cute.”

  “You’re here,” he said with a smile.

  “You seem surprised.”

  “Well, considering I haven’t seen you in about a month, I wasn’t expecting you to come.”

  “And miss all this?” She motioned to the castle and the gathering of heroes. “This is right up my alley. A suicide mission? I never pass up those.”