Crossover

by Lucas Flint

  Mr. Space cleared his throat. “This is the reason I came here, actually. No one said you have to hide it anywhere on Earth, after all.”

  “What do you mean?” said Adams. “Are you going to suggest we hide it on the moon or in the clouds, perhaps?”

  “Nope,” said Mr. Space, shaking his head. “I’m suggesting you guys give it to me and I’ll take the Rubber Ball not just away from Earth, but out of this universe entirely. I’ll take it to the IEA headquarters, where it will be safe from the Darzens. At least, it will be safer there than on Earth, anyway.”

  Angel Wings immediately held out the box toward Mr. Space. “Sounds good to me. The Darzens won’t have any reason to break into the Elastic Cave if the Rubber Ball isn’t even around, after all.”

  Mr. Space took a step toward her, but then Rubberman extended his arms and took the box out of her hands. He pulled the box toward his chest and held it close against his body, causing Mr. Space to look at him in surprise.

  “What did you do that for?” said Mr. Space. “I was just about to take the box out of this universe. Don’t you want that?”

  Rubberman bit his lower lip. “Yes, but I’m not entirely sure I can trust you to do that just yet. I’m worried that the Darzens might somehow still get the Rubber Ball anyway. Even if they don’t, I would rather keep the Rubber Ball where I could see it, for obvious reasons, of course.”

  “Come on, man,” said Mr. Space. He gestured at the ceiling. “The Darzens are going to get in here any second. Even if we manage to escape, they’ll just hound you down to the ends of the earth until they catch you. Transporting the Rubber Ball out of this universe is our only shot at getting them to leave your Earth alone. It’s just logical.”

  “Perhaps, but I still have my reservations about it,” said Rubberman. “I don’t know you. You seem like a good man, but I’ve been burned by appearances before. Perhaps there is another way to keep the Rubber Ball out of the Darzens’ hands without having to resort to such drastic measures.”

  Mr. Space looked like Rubberman had socked him in the face, though Beams wasn’t really surprised. His boss had always been a very cautious type, despite his entrepreneurial nature. It made sense that Rubberman would want to make sure that the one thing that could kill him was safely where he could keep an eye on it.

  On the other hand, Beams agreed with Mr. Space that taking the Rubber Ball out of this universe was their best bet for getting out of here alive. There probably was not a single place on Earth which would be immune from a Darzen invasion. The Darzens might withdraw their current invasion of Golden City entirely if they discovered that the Rubber Ball was not even in the same universe as them anymore. Of course, Mr. Space did say that the Darzens were interdimensional aliens, but perhaps interdimensional travel was harder than intergalactic travel. Regardless, Beams wanted to make Rubberman give up the Rubber Ball to Mr. Space, but he didn’t know how to convince him of that.

  “Listen, I know that the Rubber Ball is important for your life and all, but this is stupid,” said Mr. Space. “I promise you that I won’t let the Rubber Ball come to any harm if you let me take it out of this universe. I’ll protect it with my own life, if it comes to that.”

  Rubberman still looked doubtful, however. That was when Beams realized what he needed to say to convince him to give the Rubber Ball to Mr. Space.

  Stepping forward, Beams said, “What if I left our universe with Mr. Space and made sure he kept the Rubber Ball safe?”

  Everyone looked at Beams in surprise, as if they had not expected him to say that. Even Adams, who was rarely taken aback by anything, looked shocked by Beams’ suggestion.

  “You, go with Mr. Space?” said Rubberman. “Why?”

  “Like I said, I could make sure he keeps the Rubber Ball safe,” said Beams. “I know you don’t trust Space, but I also know that you trust me. I’ll keep an eye on him and make sure he doesn’t let the Rubber Ball fall into harm’s way.”

  Rubberman looked at Mr. Space. “Would you take Beams with you? Or is that against the rules of your, ah, agency?”

  “Technically, it is,” said Mr. Space. “IEA members are not supposed to take the inhabitants of a specific universe out of their natural universe. On the other hand, if this is the only way that I’ll be able to get the Rubber Ball from you, then I’m willing to take the heat from my superior for dragging Beams along behind me.”

  “I won’t be gone forever,” said Beams. “Once I’m sure that the Rubber Ball is kept safe, I’ll come back as soon as I can. How does that sound?”

  Rubberman still looked very doubtful and reluctant, but then he slowly nodded and said, “All right. Normally, I would never even consider doing such a thing—it’s too dangerous—but extraordinary circumstances often call for extraordinary actions. You can go with Mr. Space to the headquarters of his group, wherever that is, but you must come back as soon as you can. And don’t worry about your parents. I’ll make sure to call them and let them know what you’re doing later.”

  Beams nodded. He felt a little hesitant about leaving his own universe to go to some place completely unknown to him, but given how it was either this or allow his home city to be invaded and maybe even destroyed by violent interdimensional aliens, he decided that this was what he needed to do. He did, however, glance at the box in which the Rubber Ball was kept, sensing its presence trying to draw him toward it.

  Mr. Space slapped his hands together. “Excellent. We’ll be back so fast it will be like we never left at all.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  A couple of hours later, Bolt stood in the Council Chamber, which was the meeting room of the Neohero Alliance’s Leadership Council. He stood off to the side by himself, watching as the various members of the Leadership Council sat on their thrones talking amongst themselves. He felt awkward being here, even though he had been summoned to this Chamber several times in the past, but Omega Man, the head of the Council, had insisted that Bolt be here due to his direct involvement in the battle against the Darzen. Bolt didn’t know if the Council was going to grill him on what happened back there or if they just wanted him here in case they needed to ask him questions about his experience.

  I’d rather not talk about it, Bolt thought with a shudder. Last thing I want to do is relive that experience of losing control of my body.

  It had been a very traumatic experience. Though Bolt probably wasn’t going to suffer from PTSD, he still felt very shaken by the experience. What scared him most was what would have happened if that Galaxy woman hadn’t used her power negation field to purge the Darzen from his body. He feared that the Darzen would have used his power to attack and even kill not just innocent civilians, but even his own friends and allies such as the Young Neos, who undoubtedly would have tried to stop him once they learned of his possession.

  I nearly killed Nick back there, Bolt thought. Well, I didn’t do it. The Darzen did, though it used my body to do it. Nick put up a good fight, but it was pretty clear to me that he was completely outmatched and just barely hanging in there.

  Speaking of Nicknacks, he was currently not in the Chamber, though Bolt had the impression that he would be here soon. The last Bolt had seen, Nicknacks had been taken to the Hero Island Hospital to have his wounds healed. Hero Island’s primary doctor, Healing Touch, was not on the Island at the moment, but Bolt understood that Healing Touch’s assistant, Syringe, was healing Nicknacks. Syringe did not have the instant healing powers of Healing Touch, but he could heal most wounds very quickly, so Bolt figured Nick would be okay soon.

  Can’t say the same about the rest of the Island, though, Bolt thought, glancing at the Council again. Or at least the Council.

  Despite the fact that the Darzen was dead, Code A was still in effect across the entire island. From what Bolt had seen, Code A meant that all tourists had been either moved off island or into nearby buildings where they were supposed to remain safe, all flights and ferries to and from the mainland had been suspended, and every
available NHA member was on patrol duty. As far as Bolt knew, there were no other Darzens on Hero Island or even on Earth, but the Leadership Council had yet to rescind Code A and likely wouldn’t do so until at least after this meeting, if not longer than that.

  The second Pokacu invasion must have really shaken them up, Bolt thought. Not that I blame them, of course.

  Bolt heard the door to the Council Chamber open and looked over to see the woman who had introduced herself as Captain Helena Galaxy walking toward him. She looked like she had walked straight out of one of his dad’s old military science fiction novels, complete with energy gun holstered safely at her side. She didn’t look like much, but Bolt had a lot of respect for her after she saved him and Nick from that Darzen earlier.

  “Hi,” said Bolt, pushing himself off the wall and turning to face her. “I’m surprised you’re here. I thought you had gone back to your ship or something.”

  Captain Galaxy stopped in front of Bolt and shook her head. “No, I haven’t. Sparky is keeping the Adventure safe while I’m away. The Council summoned me here to be present for the meeting, though I was planning to come with or without their summons.”

  Bolt raised an eyebrow. “Why?”

  “To warn the Leadership Council about the Darzens, of course,” said Captain Galaxy. “I didn’t come to this universe for fun or to go on vacation. There’s a grave threat to both your Earth and the multiverse as a whole, and we need as many allies as we can get to stop it.”

  “You mean the Darzens,” said Bolt. “Right?”

  “Yes, but there’s a lot more to that,” said Captain Galaxy. “But I’ll explain it all once the meeting starts. By the way, where is Nicknacks?”

  “Still in the hospital, as far as I know,” said Bolt. “He’s getting healed of his injuries. He’ll probably get better, but I’m not sure how soon—”

  All of a sudden, the ceiling of the Council Chamber started to open. Bolt, Captain Galaxy, and the Council members all looked up at the ceiling just in time to see Omega Man himself descend through the hole in the ceiling. But Omega Man wasn’t alone. He carried in his arms Nicknacks, who looked much better already. His armor was still dented and cracked in a few places, but his bleeding seemed to have stopped and his wounds were closed. He looked dead tired, however, which made sense, given everything that Nicknacks had been through recently.

  Omega Man placed Nicknacks into an empty soft-seated high-back chair before the Council and then flew over and sat on his throne in the very center of the Council. Bolt watched Nicknacks carefully, but aside from his exhaustion, the alien looked pretty good.

  “Welcome back, Nicknacks,” said Omega Man. He nodded at his fellow Council members. “The Leadership Council welcomes you back to Earth after your long journey through outer space. It is unfortunate that your return is under such terrible circumstances, but these kinds of reunions always seem to happen in times like this.”

  “Thank you, John,” said Nicknacks. His voice was much stronger than before, though still somewhat scratchy. “Though I am not a native of this planet, I have still missed it every day I was gone. Earth is one of the most beautiful planets not just in this solar system, but in the whole universe. I can say that with confidence after seeing all of the dead and barren worlds elsewhere in the cosmos.”

  Omega Man nodded. “And we, in turn, missed you. Though we managed to replace your spot on the Council, we’re willing to welcome you back anytime you want.”

  Black Blur, who was the Council member who had replaced Nicknacks after he left Earth, fidgeted slightly in his seat, looking rather uncomfortable at Omega Man’s offer. Bolt had to hide a smile, because Black Blur had always been his least favorite member of the Council and he was enjoying seeing him worried for his position.

  “Thank you for that offer, but I am afraid I will have to pass for now,” said Nicknacks. “I’m not interested in rejoining the Council. I came back to Earth for one reason and one reason only: To warn you all of the coming threat to this world, a threat much bigger—and far more dangerous—than even the Mother World.”

  All of the Council members exchanged surprised looks when Nicknacks said that. Bolt glanced at Captain Galaxy and noticed she didn’t seem surprised. She actually seemed to agree with Nicknacks, which made Bolt wonder just how dangerous the Darzens were.

  “Are you talking about the alien which Bolt fought, Nick?” said Mecha Knight in his usual monotone voice.

  “Not just that,” said Nicknacks. “That Darzen was but one member of an entire army—and entire species—of such creatures. And he was one of the weaker ones, a common soldier barely worthy of mention.”

  “Who are the Darzens?” said Omega Man. “Where did they come from? And why do they want to attack Earth? What has humanity done to anger or provoke them?”

  “To answer those questions, I will need to start from the beginning,” said Nicknacks. He adjusted his seat before looking at the Council again. “You all remember, I’m sure, the original reason I left Earth.”

  “Of course,” said Lady Amazon. “You learned that there was a colony of Pokacu somewhere out in the universe which had broken free of the Mother World’s control. You wanted to tell them the Mother World was destroyed and bring them to Earth with you.”

  Nicknacks nodded. “Yes. And I am pleased to say that I succeeded in finding them. The colony, which they called Seed, was located on a planet as far away from Earth as the Mother World is, if not farther. It’s impossible to reach with humanity’s current level of technology, though the Pokacu escape pod I used had enough power to go there and back.”

  “You found them?” said Mecha Knight. He leaned forward, seemingly interested. “What were they like?”

  “Confused,” said Nicknacks. “And afraid, because they feared that the Mother World would find them at any moment and send soldiers to wipe them out. They deliberately chose an almost barren world on the edges of the universe where the Mother World was unlikely to send her armies and even kept their technological level close to primitive in order to avoid attracting the attention of our people. If I had to compare them to an Earth people in terms of technology, they were much like the Native Americans who lived in the Americas before the European colonists arrived, but deliberately in their case, rather than due to ignorance.”

  “What did they think when you showed up?” said High Fly. He was slouched in his throne, as he usually was, but he also looked very interested nonetheless. “Did they think you were a friend or foe?”

  “Foe,” said Nicknacks. “When they saw the escape pod land, they attacked it, thinking I was a scout sent ahead of the Mother World’s army to prepare the planet for the Pokacu army’s invasion. I quickly informed them of who I was, however, and why I came there and even showed them proof that the Mother World was no more. They were pleased to hear that and even threw a feast to celebrate, with me being the guest of honor, even though I was only the messenger.”

  Bolt thought Nicknacks was downplaying his role in the destruction of the Mother World. It had been thanks to Nicknacks’ personal and intimate knowledge of the Mother World in general and the Pokacu in particular that they had been able to destroy it at all. But that was totally in character for Nick, who was about as humble as they came.

  “We even made plans to leave Seed and head for Earth as soon as possible,” said Nicknacks. “The people—who referred to themselves as Free Seeds rather than Pokacu—were worried that humans might not accept them due to your prior negative experiences with my people, but I assured them that they would be accepted once humans saw that they were good like me. They even began digging out their old spaceships with the intention of making them fit for space travel once more.”

  “Incredible,” said Omega Man. “What happened to change that?”

  Nicknacks sighed. “The Darzens happened. About one month after I arrived on Seed, a Darzen scouting party appeared on the planet. They discovered the colony and demanded that we swear loyalty to the Dread Go
d, because Seed happened to be in the area of space the Darzens had claimed as their own. We refused to obey them and fought them, managing to kill their leader and send the rest packing. We thought that was the end of them … until a much larger battalion arrived not even a day later and completely wiped out the entire colony in less than three hours.”

  Stifled gasps came from the Council, while Bolt gulped. Captain Galaxy looked disturbed as well, though not surprised.

  “I managed to escape,” said Nicknacks, glancing at the open ceiling as if afraid a Darzen spaceship would appear in the sky. “I tried to bring other Seedlings with me, but none of them escaped with me. I was chased by a group of Darzen soldiers and one of them, as you saw, managed to get into the escape pod with me. We fought to a standstill in the escape pod even as it left Seed, but the abrupt change in gravity knocked us both out. The escape pod only managed to get back to Earth because I had programmed Earth’s coordinates into its systems ahead of time. Had I not, both the Darzen and I would be drifting endlessly through space and you would be none the wiser of the impending invasion of Earth.”

  “How awful,” said Lady Amazon. “You mean to tell us that the remnants of your people were taken by surprise by this new foe and got completely annihilated. What an awful thing to happen.”

  Nicknacks shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “Well, we weren’t entirely taken by surprise, because the truth is that the Pokacu have known of—and feared—the Darzens for a very long time. We just didn’t think they were even aware of Seed, even though it was part of their territory. Which was a bad assumption to make, looking back.”

  “You’ve known of the Darzens before?” said Omega Man. “Why didn’t you tell us about them sooner?”

  “You must understand that, though we knew of the Darzens, we didn’t have much contact with them,” said Nicknacks. “The Mother World never ordered us to invade their world, nor did we ever go near their territory. In all the time I served the Mother World, I never even met a Darzen. And anytime we learned that a particular planet we sought to invade was a Darzen-occupied world, we’d turn and run away. Even just the knowledge that a Darzen ship was in the same vicinity as us was often enough to quash all plans of invasion and run away.”