Strike 3: The Returning Sunrise

by Charlie Wood

  The scientists at the controls of the machine adjusted its levels, and the electricity around the Daybreaker faded. As his arms went limp, his head slumped forward and his chin fell against his chest.

  “Was that enough?” Rigel asked. “Did you get enough?”

  Dr. Brooks inspected the energy readings on the containment tank connected to the extractor. “Yes, this is—this is extraordinary. The energy we siphon from him is feeding off itself. The electricity being stored in the tanks—every time we add more from him, the energy we already have grows. He’s actually making the electricity we already had even more powerful. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  “So what we have now, it will be enough?” Nova asked. “It will be enough for what Rigel and I have asked you?”

  “Yes. My god, yes. The amount of power we’ve been able to store, and the strength of that power? You could create a god with this kind of power.”

  Rigel smiled. “That’s exactly what I wanted to hear. Thank you, Doctor. Your contributions will be remembered. Ready him for another round in two hours.”

  After leaving the Research and Development wing, Nova walked with Rigel toward Rigel’s office on the 110th floor.

  “It’s going to work,” Nova said. “Just when we were losing our control of him, we no longer have to worry about any of that. We no longer even need him.”

  “Don’t be foolish,” Rigel replied. “We will always need him. He is the one the people have followed, he is the one they believe in. We’ve been telling them for months now that he’s their leader, their savior. We can’t all of the sudden change course and tell them something else.”

  Nova followed Rigel into his office.

  “But if we have his power,” Nova said, “once we transmit his power to us, we can end the charade. We can stop pretending to the leadership council that he’s the one ruling things. We’ll be the ones making the decisions. He’ll just be a figurehead.”

  Rigel walked to a liquor cabinet and poured himself a drink. “Exactly. We will do the work, and he will take the credit. Only the leadership council will know the truth.” The red giant swirled the dark liquid in the glass. “The people of the city will follow the Daybreaker. That’s why we need him. He’s the one they love. He’s the one on the posters. Never underestimate the power of a face on a poster.”

  “We need to begin now,” Nova said urgently. “We can’t wait any longer. We don’t know where Strike is, or the others. We have to be prepared in case they return—we have to begin the transmissions now.”

  Rigel turned around with a smile. “Nova, have I even once, since the moment I told you of my plan, led you in the wrong direction?”

  “No. I have to admit you haven’t.”

  Rigel walked across the office to his desk. “Then be patient with me. We have everything we need here in this building. We have limitless power. Literally limitless power. And when it is time to use it, we will. There is no need to rush now. We have him, and we have his power. Now, more than ever, we have his power.”

  Nova watched Rigel across the room. The red giant stood at the massive window behind his desk with his drink and looked out over the city. Immediately, Nova recognized the pose; Rigel was directly mimicking his mentor, Vincent Harris.

  “You know,” Rigel said, “I always thought Tobin was the Daybreaker. I truly did. But, it turns out, it was you and I all along. We were meant to be the ones to lead the new world.” The red giant sipped from his drink as the lights outside twinkled. “I wonder if Vincent always knew that.”

  ***

  Over a hundred floors below Rigel and Nova, the team of nurses swung the door open and wheeled the unconscious Daybreaker into the recovery room connected to the science lab. At the back of the recovery room, Nurse Somerset watched as the doctors lifted the teen boy off the stretcher and placed him in the hospital bed. When his body hit the mattress, his arms stiffened out straight and clenched, and he began gasping for breath.

  “He’s losing oxygen,” Dr. Brooks said. “He needs oxygen. Quickly.”

  A nurse reached across the bed and placed an oxygen mask over the Daybreaker’s face. The boy’s wheezing continued, but it soon leveled off, and his body relaxed.

  “Keep a close eye on his heart rate,” Dr. Brooks said. “Inject him with the serum if need be. Make sure the oxygen flow continues, and keep him conscious.”

  As Dr. Brooks exited the room and left the rest of the work to his staff, the other doctors began inserting IV’s into the Daybreaker’s arms and adhering sensors to his chest.

  Soon, the teenage boy’s head flopped onto his pillow and he looked to his left. Across the room, through half-closed eyes, he could see Nurse Somerset. Though he was barely conscious, the Daybreaker kept his eyes on the pretty young nurse, focusing on her. His wheezing was loud and rattling in his chest, the sound filling the room every time he inhaled.

  From afar, Nurse Somerset watched the Daybreaker, in shock, with her hand against her chest and her mouth quivering. She waited for the Daybreaker to mercifully lose consciousness and close his eyes, but he never did. He only kept looking at her as the doctors worked on him.

  Finally, Nurse Somerset slowly walked across the room. When she reached the Daybreaker’s bed, she placed her hand on the mattress next to him. Lifting his shaking arm, the Daybreaker then slowly placed his hand on top of hers. His fingers were trembling at first, but they soon stopped when Nurse Somerset held his hand tight as she sat down near the bed.

  As the doctors continued their work on the Daybreaker, Nurse Somerset stayed with him, sitting by his bed and holding his hand. She decided to stay there with him, even after he fell asleep.

  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 come 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.”