by Lucas Flint
Eventually, Treehugger would arrive at a new spot of the forest, a spot she had not visited during her first visit to the Shadowlands. It was a clearing, surrounded on all sides by a ring of stone with six entrances. The huge stone ring’s details were always blurry in the nightmare, but Treehugger somehow sensed that it had been built by the Starborn for an unknown purpose. The sensation of being watched would leave her when she entered, but she would still hear the chanting voices and feel like she was not alone.
Then Treehugger would see other people for the first time. Always, it was her teammates: Bolt, White Lightning, Blizzard, Stinger, Talon, and Shell. They would enter through the six entrances of the ring, but would never look quite right. They would look like puppets, like they were being moved against their will by some unseen intelligence. And then Treehugger would realize that she, too, was being controlled and that they were all being gathered together in this one spot for an unknown but most likely sinister purpose.
Every time Treehugger realized that, a light would shine down from above, but it would not be a kind light. It was a deadly red light, coming from some kind of strange alien spaceship that looked like no spaceship Treehugger had ever seen. Then Treehugger would see her friends fall to the ground and start writhing in pain, but none of them would scream because it seemed like none of them could scream, even though it was obvious they were all in great pain.
And then Treehugger would join them, writhing on the ground as the pain grew worse and worse and the light grew brighter and brighter as the spaceship descended closer and closer to the ground. Just as the nightmare came to a close, Treehugger would spot a humanoid face peering through a window on the bottom of the ship, a devilish face grinning like a wolf about to eat a lamb.
And always, Treehugger would reawaken, feeling like she had just dodged a bullet. She had had this same nightmare for the past two weeks, ever since she got back from the Shadowlands. She did not know where it had come from or why she kept experiencing it over and over again every time she went to sleep. It got to the point where she was afraid of going to sleep because she didn’t want to experience this terror again.
It must have been something in the Shadowlands, Treehugger thought, hugging her legs up against her chest. Something in the Shadowlands must have put this nightmare into my mind. But why? Is it really just a nightmare or is … is it …
Treehugger didn’t like thinking about the alternative; namely, that it wasn’t a nightmare at all, but rather a glimpse into the future. Because if it was a glimpse into the future, it was a grim one and made her worried not just for herself, but for her friends. She wished that she knew how to read dreams, but that was not an area she had a whole lot of experience in. It seemed too real to be a mere nightmare, but she couldn’t see how it could be real, either, because she didn’t think that she or her friends were ever going to go to the Shadowlands together.
Treehugger considered asking the Midnight Menace about this, but she didn’t have any way of contacting him, since he was the leader of the INJ and not the NHA. Besides, the Midnight Menace was most likely too busy to talk to her or answer any of her questions. She’d just have to learn to deal with it on her own.
Sighing, Treehugger swung her legs over the side of her bed. She was going to head out into the rest of the House to see if Shell or Bolt and the others were back yet. She couldn’t go back to sleep in her current condition; it was simply impossible.
But before Treehugger stood up, the air in the center of the room shimmered. It was a subtle movement, one that she might not have noticed under ordinary circumstances, but Treehugger was still on edge after her nightmare, so she noticed subtle movements more often than usual. That was how she noticed the shimmering air, which she did not understand until, without warning, a dimensional portal suddenly opened in the middle of her room. The portal was about the size of a normal-sized door and it showed an endless void of alien textures and colors spiraling into oblivion. The colors and movement of the texture made her feel sick, but it lasted only for a brief moment before someone stepped out of the portal, which closed shut behind him.
No, the thing that stepped out of the portal was definitely not a person. Though it was humanoid, it actually appeared to be a robot of some sort, though not a robot that Treehugger had ever seen. It was the size of a typical adult human, with intelligent blue eyes shining from its face. It had no mouth; instead, it had some kind of vent, which appeared to have lights behind it. Its colors were silver and black and it appeared to be wearing armor over its normal metallic skin. More alarmingly, however, was the weapon at its side, a familiar sound blaster which Treehugger had seen before.
The robot stood in the room as still as a statue. Treehugger wondered briefly if it was offline before the robot’s eyes suddenly flashed and the machine looked around as if confused.
“Where am I?” said the robot in understandable English. He suddenly looked at Treehugger and squinted his eyes. “You. Is this Earth?”
Treehugger, still too shocked by the robot’s appearance, said hastily, “Uh, yes. Do you want me to take you to my leaders? Because if so—”
“No, that will be unnecessary,” said the robot, waving off her question like it was irrelevant. “The point is that I managed to get here without trouble. Now that I think about it, you must be Treehugger, yes? I did not see you when you were last on the Adventure, but Space showed me a picture of you once.”
Snapping out of her dazed confusion, Treehugger said, “Wait, what? You know Space? Who are you?”
“Oh, forgive me for my rudeness,” said the robot. He put his hands on his chest. “My name is SP-28Y, but Space and Galaxy have always called me Sparky, which is a bit easier for your human tongues to pronounce.”
Treehugger blinked. “Sparky? I think I remember Space mentioning you, but I didn’t see you when I was on their ship.”
“Yes, that was because I was working on the Adventure’s engines in order to keep them from being destroyed,” said Sparky. “There was also the matter of dealing with the Servants of the Starborn who boarded the ship, though it wasn’t very difficult for me to deal with them, to tell you the truth.”
“Wait,” said Treehugger, eying Sparky suspiciously. “How do I know if you’re really Sparky and not some kind of fake? How do I know that the Servants of the Starborn didn’t send you to trick me into coming with you?”
“Allow me to show you my IEA identity card,” said Sparky. “That should answer your questions.”
Sparky held open his right hand and a hologram depicting a card with Sparky’s face on it appeared over his palm. Remembering Space’s card, Treehugger saw that Sparky’s looked pretty much exactly the same, aside from the picture and the text.
“Okay, so you really are Sparky,” said Treehugger. “But what are you doing here? And where are Space and Galaxy?”
The hologram zapped back into Sparky’s hand and he lowered his arm. “That’s exactly why I am here, I am afraid. Space and Galaxy were captured by the Servants of the Starborn … and I need your help to save them before they are killed.”
CHAPTER SIX
White Lightning narrowly dodged a laser fired from one of the Training Room’s drones and fired a blue lightning bolt at the drone in response. The lightning bolt struck the drone head on, causing it to explode, but White Lightning did not stop to stare, because he was already running toward the huge robot that was lumbering toward him. The robot was twice his size and three times as thick, with lasers mounted on its shoulders that could cut through steel, but White didn’t let his own fear for his safety get the best of him. Using his super speed, he sped toward the robot, expertly dodging each one of its lasers before dashing under its legs and jumping onto its back. He ripped off the two laser cannons and then slammed them into the robot’s head, crunching its skull under the impact and causing the robot collapse under his feet.
Even before the robot collapsed, White jumped off of its back and landed on the floor. As soon a
s he landed, however, he was surrounded by twin robots that were a lot smaller than the robot he just destroyed. Not that they were any less dangerous; though they were closer to him in size, they were also a lot faster and the pistons in their arms were tipped with heavy, thick boxing gloves that hurt if you got hit by them, as White had learned over the last few months.
The robots rushed toward White, their gloved fists flying toward him, but White immediately jumped backwards. The robot’s fists smashed into each other, sending both robots stumbling off balance, but White took advantage of this moment to blast them both into pieces with several powerful lightning blasts. The twins didn’t even stand a chance.
All of a sudden, White heard a ringing sound and realized that that was the alarm indicating that his training session was over. Lowering his hands, White watched as robotic arms came out of the ceiling and walls to drag off the remains of the robots and drones he’d destroyed during his training session today. According to the scoreboard above the doorway, White had destroyed eleven robots and six drones; not bad, but nowhere near as good as his record of twenty robots and ten drones from an earlier training session.
But I wasn’t really trying, White thought, walking over to the bench on the side of the Room where his thermos full of Gatorade was. Too busy thinking about stupid Council.
White didn’t understand why Bolt had not been voted into the NHA unanimously. Bolt had more than proved himself worthy of becoming a full-time NHA member, White knew. And White hated seeing his brother get defeated like that. There wasn’t anything he could do about it, but White sometimes thought about flying over to the Council Chamber anyway and forcing the entire Council to vote for Bolt.
And under other circumstances, White would have done that, but it was a testament to his training in personal restraint that White had decided to take out his rage on the training robots. He still felt a little angry, but he no longer felt nearly as angry as he had before. Now he just hoped that Bolt was able to find that Electrica lady and get her before the end of the week.
At the same time, though, White couldn’t help but feel a little happy at this turn of events. He had not shared this with Bolt or anyone else, but he dreaded the idea of Bolt leaving the Young Neos. While White’s relationships with the other members of the team had all improved significantly over the last month and a half or so, the fact was that White was not as close to any of the others as he was to Bolt. None of them understood him the same way that Bolt did. And while Bolt would still be on Hero Island, White was a little anxious that he might not see Bolt as often as he currently did. He worried that Bolt might be so busy doing whatever the NHA wanted him to do that he would have no time to come and hang out with White.
True, White was also old enough to qualify for NHA membership, because he was the same age as Bolt, but he and Bolt had already discussed this and decided that White would wait until next year to submit his application. This was because White, despite having made great progress on his journey to become a normal person, was still not yet ready to become a real superhero yet. That meant that White would have to wait at least a year before he could become a full-time NHA member, a thought which troubled him, because that would mean spending one more year apart from Bolt.
He’ll visit me often, though, White thought as he took a swig from his thermos. I know he will … I hope.
Lowering his thermos, White didn’t know what else to do. He almost considered trying to convince Bolt to stay in the Young Neos, but even he knew that that plan was destined to fail. Bolt wanted this too much, probably because it meant he would get to walk in Dad’s footsteps, seeing as Dad had been a member of the NHA before his death.
Thinking about Dad, White wish he had gotten to know him before his death. Unfortunately, because White had spent most of his life in a government laboratory, he had never gotten to know Dad very well. He had worked with Mastermind, an evil alternate universe version of Dad, but Mastermind had never really acted like a true father to him. White wondered what Dad would say if he was still alive today.
He’d support Bolt, White thought. That’s what he’d do. Even if he didn’t agree with Bolt.
Even so, the thought of being by himself on the Young Neos still terrified White. He probably should have discussed this with Bolt, but he didn’t want to ruin Bolt’s dream or make Bolt feel bad about moving on in life. Besides, White just told himself that Bolt technically wasn’t going anywhere. Sure, he was moving out of the House and would be living in the Tower of Heroes, and sure, it was unlikely that the Young Neos would work with him on many missions, but he would still be on Hero Island and White could still visit him and vice versa. It really wasn’t that big of a change, when you looked at it that way, but White couldn’t rid himself of the feeling of dread which came over him every time he thought about it anyway.
Deciding that he had had enough training for today, White walked out of the Training Room. Just as he walked out, however, he nearly walked into someone and was forced to step backwards at the last second to avoid falling over himself. Unfortunately, the person who had walked into him wasn’t nearly as lucky, because that person fell on his behind and groaned in pain.
“Sorry,” said White, looking down at the person he had walked into. “Did not see you coming.”
That was when White realized that the person he was apologizing to was Shell. He had not recognized him at first because Shell was not wearing his costume, but when he noticed Shell’s shell peeking out from underneath his overcoat, White instantly realized who he was.
Shell, for his part, was just sitting on the floor rubbing his behind. He looked up at White in annoyance. “You should really watch where you’re going, White. You know I’m not as tall as you.”
White cringed slightly. Even though he was a lot stronger than Shell, he didn’t usually have good comebacks for whenever Shell snapped at him like this. He just rubbed the back of his head and said, “I said sorry. Won’t do it again.”
“Whatever,” said Shell, who seemed to be in a worse mood than usual, as he stood up and dusted off his pants. “Where is everyone, anyway? I just got here and haven’t seen anyone else. The place feels abandoned.”
“Treehugger and Blizzard are still here,” said White. “Bolt, Sting, and Talon went to Triplet’s.”
Shell raised an eyebrow. “Triplet? Why did they visit him?”
White remembered that Shell had not been here when Bolt announced the news about his vote, so White quickly filled in Shell on what happened while he was away. Shell looked impatient, but he listened well, not interrupting White’s explanation at all. If anything, he seemed to be listening almost too well in White’s eyes and his expression became more and more excited, as if something he had been awaiting had finally come to pass.
“So Bolt has to capture Electrica in order to become a full-time member of the NHA?” said Shell when White finished.
“Yes,” said White, nodding. “And Trip might be able to help.”
“Huh,” said Shell, scratching his chin. “That’s kind of weird. I’ve never heard of a member of the Young Neos needing to capture a supervillain in order to get into the NHA.”
White shrugged. “Just way things are. But Bolt will do it. He’s smart. He will do it in a day.”
Shell looked at White skeptically. “Well, I’m sure Bolt will work hard, but I doubt he’ll do it in a day. He may be fast, but he’s not that fast.”
“Just believe,” said White. “Brother knows what he is doing.”
“Okay,” said Shell, readjusting his glasses. “If you say so. But personally, I think Black Blur just gave him this job in order to humiliate him. Given how no one has ever been able to capture Electrica before, it’s pretty obvious that he gave Bolt this task just to screw with him.”
“Bolt will still do it even if that’s true,” said White. He tilted his head to the side. “By the way, where were you? Out in city?”
“I was just visiting my cousin,” said Shell quickly
. “My cousin, uh, Joe. He owns a hot dog stand.”
White leaned closer to Shell. “Your cousin sells hot dogs? Are they good?”
“Uh, yeah,” said Shell, leaning away from White with an odd expression on his face. “They’re, um, very good. Tasty. The best in New York, in fact.”
“I like hot dogs,” White said. “You should take me to cousin sometime. I want to try his hot dogs.”
“Oh, er, sure, White,” said Shell in an odd tone. “I’ll definitely take you and the rest of the team to him for sure. But maybe later, after this Electrica business is done. In fact, we could celebrate Bolt’s induction into the Neohero Alliance by taking the whole team there.”
White’s eyes widened. “Really? That sounds nice.”
“Really,” said Shell, although again his facial expression and tone were odd. “I’ll pay for the hot dogs myself, even.”
“Must tell Bolt about this,” said White, pulling away from Shell and standing upright. “He likes hot dogs, too. Be happy to hear this.”
“Uh, I hope he will be,” said Shell, without meeting White’s eyes. “I mean, he deserves it, given how hard he’s worked to be in the NHA. I definitely think he should get some free hot dogs for all of his work, don’t you?”
“Yes, yes,” said White. “Best hot dogs in New York, too.”
“The very best,” said Shell. His eyes darted to the left and to the right and then he said, “Well, uh, White, I think I’ll just head back to my room now. The flight back from New York was rather tiring and I want to get a nap in before Bolt and the others return.”
“Okay,” said White, giving Shell the thumbs up. “But don’t sleep too long. Bet everyone will be back soon.”
