by Lucas Flint
“What the hell?” said the Darzen, taking a step back in surprise. “Who was that?” He looked at Bolt. “Was that a friend of yours?”
I don’t know, said Bolt. I didn’t recognize her. She’s a total—
“Hey, Darzen!” a woman’s voice shouted behind him. “Over here!”
The Darzen whirled around to see that same woman again, standing several dozen feet away from them. Nicknacks lay at her feet, while the woman herself stood with her arms folded in front of her chest. She also seemed to be holding some kind of small handheld device in her right hand, though the Darzen did not seem to notice it
“You again,” said the Darzen. “State your name and business, or else you’ll die with the Pokacu.”
“I’m Captain Helena Galaxy,” said the woman, showing no fear in the face of the Darzen. “Captain of the Adventure and member of the Interdimensional Elite Agency, or IEA for short. As for my business, I’m here to make sure you don’t get that Crown you’re looking for.”
“The IEA?” said the Darzen. He scowled. “I remember you. Your kind have gotten in our way before. I did not think you operated in this universe, though.”
“This universe is one of several we observe and defend,” said Galaxy. “More specifically, one we observe and defend from you.”
Bolt was every bit as surprised as the Darzen. He remembered the IEA from the Starborn incident what seemed like a lifetime ago now, though it had happened just before he graduated to the NHA. But the IEA agent he had met then had been a guy who called himself Mr. Space. Bolt had never met Captain Galaxy, but given how she said she was the captain of the Adventure, Bolt assumed that Galaxy had to be friends with Space. Regardless, Bolt was just happy to see a friendly face, even if he had never met her before.
The Darzen chuckled. “You sound very tough, talking about defending universes from me, but the truth is, you can’t even defend yourself. This new body I possessed wields power you can’t even dream of. With its power at my command, I can stretch out your inevitable death as long as I want, but because I’m in a hurry, I think I’ll make it quick and to the point.”
The Darzen activated his super speed and rushed toward Galaxy. But Galaxy raised her hand and pressed a button on what looked like a detonator.
As soon as she did, a weird, green barrier suddenly expanded outward. It completely covered the Darzen, even forcing him to come to a stop right in the middle of it, a shocked look on his face.
“What … what is this?” said the Darzen, looking around the green barrier. “I don’t understand. How come my powers don’t work?”
“Power negation field,” said Galaxy from the other side, though her voice sounded slightly muffled, as if she was speaking through water. “But that’s the most boring part of it. You’re about to experience the real fun soon enough.”
“Real fun?” the Darzen repeated. “What in the Dread God’s name are you—”
All of a sudden, the Darzen started screaming in agony. He fell to his hands and knees, screaming his lungs out, while Bolt just floated nearby, watching with a mixture of confusion and horror as the Darzen yelled in pain.
“What … what is happening?” said the Darzen in between screams. “The pain … by the Dread God the pain …”
The Darzen screamed again, only this time, the strange green energy from before—which Bolt recognized as the Darzen’s actual form—began pouring out of his mouth, eyes, and ears. It poured out uncontrollably, dissipating into nothingness as it touched the air. The Darzen tried to put his hands over his ears to keep it in, but every time he did, he immediately removed his hands and started screaming again as a fresh new wave of pain washed over his body.
No, not his body, Bolt thought. Mine. And this is the best chance to get back what rightfully belongs to me.
Bolt flew down toward his body. He merged with his body and felt the Darzen’s spirit again, but it was struggling to maintain control over his body now.
Get out, said the Darzen, whose voice was now full of panic. Get out, now, or I’ll—
You can’t do a damn thing to me, and you know it, Bolt replied. Now I’m taking this body back. Bye bye!
Bolt forced the remaining energy bits of the Darzen out of his body. The last thing he heard was the Darzen’s scream of anguish leaving his own lips, but as the last bits of energy left his body, the Darzen’s scream gradually faded to nothing.
As soon as the last of the Darzen was gone, the energy field vanished. Bolt suddenly gasped for air. He could feel all of the pain that the Darzen had accumulated while in his body over the last five or ten minutes. In particular, he could feel his lungs, which were burning from his previous smoke inhalation. He figured he would probably be okay, but he made a mental note to have his lungs looked at by Hero Island’s doctor later.
The sound of footsteps walking toward him made Bolt look up. Captain Galaxy was approaching him, pointing some kind of weird-looking gun at him, but she stopped when he looked up, though she didn’t lower the gun.
“Bolt, is that you?” said Captain Galaxy hesitantly. “Is the Darzen gone?”
Bolt nodded shakily. “Yeah. He’s gone completely. I think he died.”
Captain Galaxy sighed in relief and lowered her gun to her side. “Whew. That was the first time I used that field on a Darzen-possessed human, so I wasn’t entirely sure it would work, but luckily for us, it did. I thought it might kill you, too, in the process.”
Bolt’s eyes widened in shock. “You mean that thing could have killed me but you went ahead with it anyway?”
“Yeah,” said Captain Galaxy. “It was either that or let that monster use your body to terrorize Earth and the multiverse. Just be grateful you survived.”
Bolt coughed a couple of times before he said, “But what was that? And how did it even work?”
“It’s a power negation field, like I said,” said Captain Galaxy. “Any superhumans who are in it can’t use their powers. Interestingly, it can also force out a Darzen from its victim for reasons we are not entirely sure of yet and also kills the Darzen at the same time. Useful little weapon to have around whenever you find yourself dealing with Darzens.”
Given how that was not the craziest thing Bolt had ever heard in his life, he decided not to question it. “Okay. Well, thanks for saving me and Nicknacks. But what are you doing here? Are the Starborn—”
“The Starborn aren’t up to anything bad,” Captain Galaxy reassured him. “Nor are their Servants. It’s a different threat this time, one that is much worse than the Starborn.”
“Worse than the Starborn?” said Bolt. “What are you talking about?”
It wasn’t Captain Galaxy who answered his question, but Nicknacks, who said, “I know of what she speaks, assuming we’re talking about the same thing, because the threat she came to stop is the same one that I came to warn the Earth about.”
“And what would that threat be, anyway?” said Bolt. “I’m still not entirely sure what it is.”
Nicknacks looked Bolt straight in the eyes and said, “The Dread God. He is rising, and once he is risen, Earth—and the multiverse itself—will be destroyed.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
A chill went down Beams’ spine just from looking at the Dread God’s Avatar. Its eyes, its face, its very appearance … everything about it suggested that it was not of this Earth. Beams had a strong urge to shoot the monitors, though he refrained from doing so, knowing just how useless that would be.
“Who are you?” said Rubberman. He had taken a battle stance, even though the Avatar was only visible through the monitors and wasn’t actually here.
“Did you not hear what your fellow human just said?” said the Avatar. “I am the Dread God’s Avatar, chosen by the Dread Priest to represent the Dread God in this mortal plane.”
“Dread God’s Avatar?” Beams repeated. “Do you have a real name or—?”
“Not anymore,” said the Avatar. “I abandoned my old name when I was chosen to be the
Dread God’s Avatar. My old name has been scrubbed from every historical record and purged from the collective memory of our people. Who I was before I was chosen is irrelevant. All that matters is retrieving the Dread God’s brain in order to bring him back to life. And I will kill every last human being on the planet if I must.”
“See?” Mr. Space said under his breath. “He’s going to kill us all, just like I said.”
Beams shot Mr. Space an annoyed look, but before he could say anything, the Avatar locked his gaze on Beams and said, “Wait a minute. I recognize you. You are the human who held the Dread God’s brain hostage and threatened to destroy it if we did not leave your planet alone for six months of your Earth time. I did not expect to see you here.”
“How do you recognize me?” said Beams in surprise. “You weren’t there when I did that.”
“But I was,” said the Avatar. “I was the Darzen with whom you spoke. That, of course, was before I was chosen to become the Avatar. You were quite the stubborn human and showcased a bravery and ingenuity which I did not think existed among the people who slew the Dread God in the first place.”
Beams gulped. “Um, thanks, I—”
“But that does not mean I will spare you,” said the Avatar, continuing as if Beams hadn’t said a word at all. “Threatening to destroy the Dread God’s brain is at once both audacious and evil. For that alone, I should kill you, but for you to take the Dread God’s brain and then hide it from us … that is unforgivable by every definition of the word.”
“I didn’t hide it from you,” said Beams. “Someone else did.”
“I don’t care,” said the Avatar. “Our scouts have indicated that the Dread God’s brain is currently located in this city, in a cave deep beneath the surface. We have invaded the city as a whole in order to make sure we will not face immediate resistance from the population, but we already have troops converging on its location even as we speak to retrieve it from you.”
Beams glanced at Angel Wings. The poor woman looked completely freaked out by the Avatar, but she hadn’t dropped the box containing the Rubber Ball. But Beams could feel it. He could feel the Rubber Ball drawing him to it, especially now that the Avatar was here. He felt a strong desire to take the box from Angel Wings’ hands and hand it directly to the Avatar himself.
But Beams fought the urge down and looked at the Avatar again. “If you’re just going to send your troops to take it from us, then why contact us like this? Why not just have your men invade our base, instead of letting us know ahead of time that we’re about to be attacked?”
“Because, as evil and wicked as you may be, I still have a degree of respect for you, human,” said the Avatar. “I wanted to give you and your friends one last chance to give up the Dread God’s brain peacefully before we destroyed you. If you do, then I will tell my men to spare you.”
“And if we don’t?” said Beams.
“Then you will die,” said the Avatar, “like every other creature that opposes the holy will of the Dread God himself. But the Dread God knows mercy as well as vengeance and I am willing to offer you mercy if you would but cooperate with us.”
Beams licked his lips uncertainly. “How do I know you would keep your word if we gave up the Rubber Ball to you?”
“We already waited six months before we invaded, as per our agreement,” said the Avatar. “Sparing you would not be much harder than that, if indeed it could be described as hard at all. The Dread Priest would probably disagree, but I am in charge of the Darzen military, not him, and so I decide who lives and who dies.”
Beams looked around at everyone else. Mr. Space and Angel Wings both looked like they wished they were anywhere else at the moment, while even Adams was sweating nervously. Only Rubberman seemed calm, his arms folded in front of his chest and a peaceful expression on his face.
Beams met Rubberman’s eyes. He was looking for some guidance for what to do here, hoping that Rubberman might be able to help him figure out how to respond. Beams had been through a lot as a sidekick already, but he still wasn’t anywhere nearly as experienced as Rubberman.
Rubberman’s expression was hard to read at first, but then he slowly nodded, as if to say, You know what to do. I’m behind you one hundred percent, whatever you do.
Beams nodded once in response and looked back at the Avatar. “Sorry, but I’m going to have to say no. We aren’t going to give up the Rubber Ball so you can resurrect your dead god and take over the world. We’re not stupid.”
“What?” the Avatar said, almost shouted. But then he took a deep breath and said, in a calmer voice, “All right, then. You’ve made your choice. It is a foolish one, a shortsighted choice that you will regret dearly, but you’ve made it nonetheless. You will now suffer the consequences that all who oppose the Dread God’s will suffer. It is a shame you have decided to be so pigheaded, but I suppose I shouldn’t have expected any better from the human who threatened to kill the Dread God not less than six months ago.”
With that, the screens instantly went blank.
As soon as the Avatar’s face disappeared off the screens, the lights suddenly shut off, plunging the entire Elastic Cave into darkness.
“What happened?” said Angel Wings’ panicked voice from somewhere within the darkness. “Why did the lights go out?”
A second later, Beams heard a click and then the lights flickered back on. Beams was relieved to see that everyone was still okay, though everyone looked freaked out anyway.
“The Darzens must have knocked out the power somehow,” said Rubberman. He tapped the floor with one of his feet. “Luckily, the backup generator kicked in, so we still have power down here, at least for now.”
“What are we going to do?” said Angel Wings. She looked at the metal box in her arms. “I’m not sure I want to keep holding onto this.”
“Well, we can’t just give them the Rubber Ball back,” said Beams, folding his arms in front of his chest. “If we do—”
Beams was interrupted by what sounded like something tearing through metal. The sound was coming from the elevator doors, causing everyone to look over at the elevator just in time to see two claws tear through the doors. A Kakarr stuck in its head through the doors, screeching loudly, but Rubberman socked it in the face with a well-placed punch, causing the Kakarr to screech and pull its head back into the elevator shaft. As soon as the Kakarr’s head disappeared back into the shaft, Adams rushed forward and pressed a button on the control panel next to the doors, causing a huge metal door to slam shut over the actual elevator doors.
“There,” said Adams. “The blast door ought to keep those monsters out.”
“It won’t last forever, though,” said Mr. Space. “You think the Kakarr are the only beasts at the Darzens’ command? They’ve got weapons so powerful that they make your country’s nukes look like children’s playthings. They could wipe this entire base off the face of the Earth with a single blast from one of their spaceship cannons.”
“But they won’t,” said Rubberman. “Otherwise, they’d risk destroying the Rubber Ball and killing their god for good. That means we have time to figure out how we’re going to get out of this mess.”
“Why don’t we just destroy the Rubber Ball entirely?” said Angel Wings, holding the box away from her body. “We could do it, and do it pretty easily, I think. Beams alone could probably destroy it with those eye beams of his, if they’re as strong as I’ve been told.”
“No,” Beams said, shaking his head. “We can’t destroy it.”
“Why not?” said Angel Wings in annoyance. “It’s not like we need it ourselves for anything, right?”
Rubberman shifted his weight from foot to foot. “Actually, Angel, the Rubber Ball is what gave me my powers. My life is linked to it. If we destroy the Rubber Ball, I will die, too.”
“What? Really?” said Angel. “Why didn’t you tell me that in the first place?”
“A better question is, what is the Rubber Ball even doing here?” said B
eams, looking from Rubberman to Angel and back again. “I thought it was supposed to stay hidden with Angel. Why did you have her bring it all the way out here in the first place?”
Rubberman rubbed his forearm. “Well, I was hoping to take a look at it and see if I could find a way to divorce myself from its bond with me. Not that I wanted to get rid of my powers or anything, but I wanted to see if I could remove my biggest weakness, because as long as the Rubber Ball exists, I’m always at risk of dying if it gets destroyed.”
“Why didn’t you tell me that ahead of time?” said Beams. “Would have appreciated if you had told me it was going to be here today.”
“I didn’t want that information to leak,” said Rubberman. “There are a lot of people in the world who would like to use the Rubber Ball for their own ends. I wanted its arrival here in Golden City to be as discreet as possible.” He sighed and glanced at the monitors. “Of course, with the arrival of the Darzens, I guess that idea blew up in the hanger.”
Beams could not help but feel angry at Rubberman for doing this. He supposed that the Darzens would have come back to Earth anyway, whether the Rubber Ball was in Golden City or elsewhere, but he still thought it was irresponsible on his boss’ part.
Then again, you could argue that we’re both at fault here, given how I was the one who made that deal with the Darzens in the first place, Beams thought.
“Could we argue about who’s at fault later?” Mr. Space interrupted. “It’s only a matter of time before the Darzens manage to get in here, and once they do, we’re all screwed. Our only hope is to try to get the Rubber Ball out of here somehow.”
“Good point,” said Rubberman. “The Rubber Ball is what they actually want. If we can get it out of here, then they might leave us and Golden City alone.”
“But where on Earth could we possibly take it that the Darzens would not be able to reach?” said Angel. She brushed back her blonde hair. “With their highly advanced tech, they could go anywhere they pleased and no one would be able to stop them.”
