by Lucas Flint
“Do you know any supervillains who’ve worked with Electrica?” said Stinger. “Because I don’t. And I don’t think she’s ever been one to work with accomplices, anyway. She’s always worked solo, except for Bait and Switch, obviously.”
“We have to find her, though,” said Bolt. “At least, I do. If I don’t, I can kiss good bye my chances of becoming a real member of the NHA. Maybe the INJ will be willing to take me in.”
“Oh, Bolt, don’t say that,” said Blizzard, hugging him again. “I know you’ll figure this out. And we’ll help you. That’s what a team is for, after all, what friends are for. Right, guys?”
The others nodded, but no one offered any suggestions for how to find Electrica. Blizzard herself was at a loss for how to find the supervillain. Usually, the Young Neos never had to search for supervillains; most of the time, supervillains found them or else they were summoned to New York City to deal with a sudden supervillain attack. The idea of actively hunting down a known supervillain and bringing her to justice was completely outside of their collective experience. It occurred to Blizzard that Mecha Knight might have experience in this particular area, given how he was older and more experienced than they, but given how no one in the NHA had ever successfully managed to find Electrica, she decided that Mecha Knight probably wouldn’t be of much help here, either.
All of a sudden, Bolt stopped stroking his chin, a look of understanding on his face. “I think I know who might be able to help us.”
“Who?” said Stinger. “Someone in the NHA?”
“No, but someone who used to be a member in it,” said Bolt. “Someone who has a lot of experience tracking down people who don’t want to be found, a friend of mine who has helped me before.”
“Who is it?” said Blizzard. “Is it someone we know?”
“Yes,” said Bolt, nodding. “Come with me. We’re going to visit my good friend Triplet and see if he can help us find Electrica.”
CHAPTER FOUR
Talon had grown up in a rather well-to-do, upper-middle class lifestyle. She had lived in a fancy, clean apartment in New York City on the Upper East Side, and her mother even had a maid to keep the apartment clean and uncluttered. Talon had heard of apartments that weren’t quite as nice as the kind that she had lived in, but she had never lived in them herself, nor had she ever visited them. She had lived in her mother’s apartment until the day that Mecha Knight visited and recruited her into the NHA, at which point she moved to her slightly-less-fancy, but no less clean, room in the House on Hero Island.
Thus, when Talon, Bolt, and Stinger appeared in the hallway outside of Triplet’s apartment thanks to Bolt’s Teleportation Buckle, Talon experienced what could best be described as a culture shock. The floorboards creaked ominously under their weight, the sounds of mice scurrying about could be heard through the cracks in the ceiling, and ancient red wallpaper was peeling off the walls. A window at the end of the hall was cracked and a portion of it was covered with cardboard, of all things. A foul odor—somewhere between wet dog fur and moldy socks—seemed to radiate from the walls, floor, and ceiling.
“Oh my god,” said Talon, putting a hand over her mouth. “Bolt, are you sure this is the right place?”
“Yeah, I am,” said Bolt. He pointed at the door in front of them. “See? That’s Triplet’s door.”
Talon looked at the door in front of them closely. Like the rest of the building, the door looked old and beaten up. It looked like scrap wood had been nailed over holes, while the front window was cracked in the left corner. On the window were the words ‘TRIPLE EYE INVESTIGATIONS,’ though parts of the letters in the word ‘investigations’ hung rather loosely off to the side.
“I didn’t know Triplet was so … uh …” Stinger rubbed the back of his head as if attempting to think of an inoffensive way to phrase what he was about to say next. “Uh, bohemian?”
“Bohemian? More like dirt poor,” Talon said. “He must not get a lot of customers.”
“Actually, I live here on purpose,” said a gruff voice from down the hallway, causing Talon, Bolt, and Stinger to look down in the direction from which it had come.
A tall Japanese man wearing a long overcoat was walking toward them, a brown paper bag with a loaf of bread sticking out of it in his arms. He wasn’t smiling, especially when he looked at Talon, most likely for her comments about his business.
Bolt, on the other hand, waved at him and said, “Hi, Trip! Looks like we got here just in time. We didn’t know you were out grocery shopping; actually, we didn’t even know you went grocery shopping.”
“I gotta eat like everyone else,” Triplet replied as he stopped before them, though his frown never left his lips. “What brings you three here, anyway? Aside from the chance to make sarcastic comments about my living conditions and business, of course.”
Triplet was looking at Talon when he said that. She tried not to look too embarrassed, but it was pretty clear that Triplet was not going to let her comments go. She was under the impression that he had known girls like her before and didn’t care much for them.
“We’re looking for someone and we thought you could help us,” said Bolt.
“And who would that be?” said Triplet.
“A supervillain,” said Bolt. “You might have heard of her. Her name is Electrica.”
Triplet froze. He stared at Bolt with pure shock. “Electrica? You mean one of the most infamous supervillains of all time?”
“Yeah, that’s her,” said Bolt. “I take it you have heard of her.”
“I haven’t just heard of her,” said Triplet. “I fought her once.” He suddenly raised a hand to silence them. “Hold on. I don’t discuss business outside like this. Come into my apartment and we can continue talking in there.”
Just as Triplet said that, the door to his office opened widely. When Talon looked, she had to double take, because Triplet himself was standing in the doorway, albeit minus the grocery bag. Talon looked back over at the Triplet in the hallway, who was still standing there, before looking at the Triplet in the doorway again in confusion. “What …?”
“My power,” said the Triplet in the doorway. “I always leave one of my Thirds in the office whenever I go out. That way, if anyone tries to break into my office while I’m away, they’re in for a nasty surprise. It’s a very cheap security system and better than most of the ones you can buy on the market.”
“Oh,” said Talon, though she couldn’t help but shudder slightly. “Right. I forgot.”
Even though Triplet was a good guy, Talon could not help but find his powers creepy. Bolt didn’t look even remotely phased by Triplet’s Third, nor did Stinger, which made Talon feel a bit foolish for being taken by surprise like that. She especially did not like the way that the Third smirked upon seeing her confusion; no doubt Triplet saw that as payback for the comments she’d made about his business.
Regardless, Talon entered Triplet’s apartment with Bolt and Stinger. Triplet entered as well and, after merging back with his Third, locked the door and then walked into the kitchen off to the side, where he deposited his groceries before coming back into the living room and saying, “All right. Let’s sit down and talk. You all can sit on the couch.”
The couch looked lumpy and uncomfortable and smelled somewhat like stale coffee, but Talon, to be polite, sat down on it, along with Bolt and Stinger. It was a somewhat tight fit, as the couch was not very large, but they all managed to fit on it without trouble. Triplet pulled a wheeled chair out from behind his desk and set it in front of the couch, along with a pad of paper and a pen, no doubt for taking notes.
“All right,” said Triplet, putting the tip of his pen to the surface of the paper. “Let’s start from the beginning. Why are you searching for Electrica?”
Bolt quickly explained the situation to him. Triplet listened very well, but Talon did not pay too much attention because she already knew the reason they were here. Instead, she looked around at the apartment, noticing how it was
in much better condition than the exterior hallway, although it was still a lot dirtier and unkempt than she would have tolerated herself. She had no idea how anyone could live in these conditions, much less willingly, but she kept such thoughts to herself, if only because she didn’t want to deal with more of Triplet’s snark or give him another excuse to use his Thirds to freak her out.
“And so, if I don’t capture Electrica in a week, my application will not be approved and I will not become a member of the Neohero Alliance,” Bolt finished. “That’s why we came to you. We know that you are good at locating people and things, so we wanted you to help us find her.”
Triplet patted his chin with the tip of his pen, a thoughtful look on his face. “Why am I surprised that Black Blur would set you up on a quest like this? The guy always does that to people he doesn’t like. I knew him back when I was in the NHA. Guy has an inferiority complex like you wouldn’t believe. He probably expects you to fail spectacularly in order to stroke his huge ego.”
“I know,” said Stinger in exasperation. “That’s what I told Bolt. This is just a bad deal all around.”
“But it is also the only deal that Bolt has,” said Triplet. “Normally, I would charge for this service, but Bolt has saved my life more than once in the past, so consider this returning the favor. I won’t charge you for this service.”
“Wow, thanks, Trip,” said Bolt. “That’s really nice of you.”
“Don’t mention it,” said Triplet. “Besides, I’d like to see that woman behind bars myself. She and I have clashed in the past.”
“Yes, you mentioned that you had fought her before,” said Talon. “Was that during your time as an NHA member?”
“After it, actually, when I quit the organization,” said Triplet. “I was investigating a murder for a client several years ago and managed to tie it back to Electrica. I tried to catch her, but she managed to beat me rather handily, which leaves her case one of the very few cases I’ve failed to complete. Anyone who wants to take her down has my support.”
“I see,” said Bolt. “Well, that gives us yet another reason to want to throw her behind bars. She’s killed a lot of people, hasn’t she?”
“Yeah, she has,” said Triplet. He scowled. “Not to mention that she killed Silver Wind, who was a friend of mine even after I left the NHA.”
“Wait, you mean you knew Silver Wind?” said Talon in surprise. “He was my father.”
“Really?” said Triplet. “Huh. Silver did tell me about his daughter once, but I didn’t realize you were his daughter. Then again, he never showed me any pictures of you, so I guess it isn’t surprising that I didn’t recognize you.”
“This is nice and all, but can we get on with finding Electrica now?” said Bolt. “We don’t have all the time in the world to just sit around and talk, you know. You two can catch up later.”
“Bolt’s got a point,” said Triplet. He took a few quick notes and then said, “As it so happens, I’ve actually been tracking Electrica already and have nearly found her.”
“What, really?” said Talon. “That’s a pretty huge coincidence.”
“It is, but it’s because I’ve figured out that she’s tied into another investigation I’m doing,” said Triplet. “Bolt, do you remember how I am investigating the Venetians?”
“Yeah, I do,” said Bolt, nodding. “How’s that investigation coming along, by the way? Found any proof to link Mann to them?”
“Not yet, but I have discovered some interesting facts about John Mann,” said Triplet. “For example, John Mann has recently purchased majority shares in a genetics company known as Gene Etix. I did a little digging and discovered that Gene Etix specializes in studying the genes of superhumans. It seems like Mann is trying to restart his own genetic engineering experiments, like what he was presumably doing in the Genesis Institute. I don’t, however, know what his final plans for the company are.”
“Nothing Mann does ever seems to make sense,” said Bolt, shaking his head. “But we’ll worry about that later. For now, tell us about Electrica.”
“Right,” said Triplet. He flipped through his notes before stopping on a page and reading it. “So I’ve discovered that the Venetians are also looking for Electrica for some reason.”
“It’s because she helped us,” said Talon. “A few weeks ago, we broke into the headquarters of John Mann’s business to rescue Rime’s family and Electrica helped. The Venetians probably want to kill her just as much as they want to kill us.”
“I didn’t know that,” said Triplet. “You will have to fill me in on the details about that sometime. Anyway, I have been trying to track her down because I wanted to know why the Venetians were so interested in her. It took me a while, but I’ve managed to pin down her likely location to one particular area.”
“And where is that?” asked Talon, leaning forward and looking at Triplet eagerly. “Is it close by?”
“It is,” said Triplet. “According to my contacts in the criminal underworld, Electrica is expected to appear in a warehouse on the Hudson River tonight at midnight. She is supposedly negotiating a deal there with a new client of hers, but the exact details are unknown. But my contacts are confident that Electrica is going to be there and that that will be the best chance to get her.”
“Lucky us,” said Bolt. “Maybe I can tell Black Blur that it won’t take me a week to get Electrica, but rather a day. I would love to see his face when I bring Electrica into Ultimate Max not even a day after accepting his challenge.”
“Don’t be so cocky,” Triplet warned. “Electrica has never been captured or defeated by any superhero before, and for good reason. She is both powerful and clever, always a dangerous combination. Still, Electrica likely does not know that we know about her trip to the warehouse, which means we might be able to get the drop on her if we’re careful.”
“Trip, we’re always careful,” said Bolt. “Anyway, is that all you need to tell us? Or is there anything else we need to know about Electrica before we leave?”
“No, that’s about it,” said Triplet. He glanced at his notes again and then looked up at Bolt once more. “Wait, I do have one last thing I think you should know. It’s about the Venetians.”
“What about them?” said Bolt. “Is it important?”
“I think so, even though I don’t understand it myself,” said Triplet. “See, I learned recently that John Mann had a grandson who was a superhuman, who he adopted as his son after his actual son’s death back in the nineties. But this grandson ran away when he was fairly young and was thought to be dead until recently, when I discovered some hints that he is still alive, although under an assumed name.”
“That’s … interesting,” said Talon, though she was more interested in leaving to get ready to go after Electrica than listening to Triplet. “But I don’t see how that is relevant to us.”
“I think that Mann’s grandson might be able to help us pin down Mann’s motives and plans,” said Triplet. “He might even have proof that could help link his grandfather to the Venetians. At the very least, this is a thread I intend to follow.”
“Oh, so you won’t be coming with us to capture Electrica?” said Bolt in a slightly disappointed voice.
“No, I won’t,” said Triplet, shaking his head. “I think Mann’s grandson is a more promising lead, but I can give you the address for the warehouse where Electrica is supposed to be. I can always talk to Electrica after you have put her in prison anyway, if she happens to know anything I need to know.”
“Well, I guess we probably won’t need your help defeating her anyway,” said Bolt. “I think the seven of us should be more than enough for her.”
“I hope so,” said Triplet. “Anyway, let me write down the address of the warehouse and the time she’s supposed to be there. And if anything comes up related to this case, let me know as soon as you can, okay?”
“Sure,” said Bolt, nodding. “Hopefully by tonight, a powerful supervillain will finally be behind bar
s for good.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Treehugger abruptly sat upright in her bed, gasping for breath and sweating profusely. At first, she thought she was back in the Shadowlands, but then she realized that the lights in her room were just off, so she clapped her hands and the lights came on again, showing the green walls of her room that held potted plants of a variety of species on shelves. Her computer was currently off, while the door to her personal bathroom was slightly ajar, though she remembered leaving it that way before she went to sleep earlier.
It was just a dream, Treehugger thought, wiping the sweat off her forehead. Just … a … dream.
Earlier, Bolt, Stinger, and Talon had gone to Triplet’s office in New York City to enlist his help in finding Electrica. Bolt had left behind White, Blizzard, and Treehugger, because he did not think that the entire team needed to go visit Triplet and he wanted them to stay behind in case Shell returned so they could tell Shell what they were doing. As far as Treehugger knew, though, Shell would not be back from the city for several hours, so Treehugger had decided to take a quick nap, leaving White and Blizzard in charge of the House.
But now Treehugger was starting to regret having napped, because she had had a terrible dream—a nightmare, really—that had seemed far too real. She had been asleep for less than twenty minutes according to the clock on her suit-up watch, but it had felt like much longer because of the nightmare. And what was worse was that this was not the first time that Treehugger had experienced this particular nightmare. She drew her legs up to her chest, but it was impossible for her to forget the nightmare, which began playing in her mind’s eye against her will.
In the nightmare, Treehugger would find herself stumbling through the dark forest of the Shadowlands, the same forest where she had been nearly sacrificed by the Venetians in order to stop the Starborn. She would hear chanting voices and rustling leaves on all sides, but would never see anyone other than herself, yet would always feel like she was being watched by a large group of people anyway. She would always try to talk, to ask who was watching her, but though her mouth would move, not a single sound would emerge from her lips. It reminded her of Moretta’s ability to silence people, even though Moretta was never seen in the dream.
