Heroes (The Young Neos Book 5)

by Lucas Flint

  I hope I never have to use it, Kevin thought. There’s no guarantee that I will be able to hit Electrica with it or that it won’t somehow be used against me or one of the others. At the same time, though, I know from personal experience with this stuff that it really works. Hopefully Electrica won’t suspect that I have some on me until it’s too late.

  Really, though, Kevin would not have needed to bring along the powerless pellet if he had the whole team with him. He figured that all seven of them working together ought to be able to take down Electrica, but because he felt an obligation to Space and Galaxy for when they helped Treehugger, he knew he could not have the whole team together tonight.

  Assuming that everything had gone according to schedule, Blizzard, Shell, and Treehugger—led by Sparky—ought to be on a Servant of the Starborn ship at this very moment, rescuing Space and Galaxy. Sparky had assured Kevin countless times that he would keep those three safe, but Kevin still worried immensely about them, especially Blizzard, because they didn’t really know what they were up against. True, Sparky could help them fight the Servants, seeing as he had had plenty of experience fighting them in the past, but it was still a dangerous situation just the same.

  They’ll be fine, Kevin told himself, though he wasn’t sure how much he believed that. All three of them are competent superheroes in their own right. They don’t need you worrying about them, especially since they have Sparky’s help.

  What worried Kevin the most was the fact that they were no longer in this universe. That meant that Kevin could not rush to their aid if they found themselves in a tricky situation or if they were captured themselves. Kevin had no dimension-hopping technology of his own, though he wondered if his dad had built any dimension-hopping tech prior to his death or at least a blueprint that someone else could build their own from. Kevin made a mental note to ask Mom to check Dad’s possessions later for any blueprints or tech that could be used for dimension-hopping.

  What surprised Kevin more than anything was Mecha Knight’s approval of the interdimensional rescue mission. He had been sure that Mecha Knight would be against it, but Mecha Knight had approved Kevin’s request without delay. Apparently, Mecha Knight agreed with Kevin that they owed Space and Galaxy a favor, but this mission was so ridiculously dangerous that Kevin could not help but feel like Mecha Knight shouldn’t have approved it so easily.

  Then again, Mecha Knight probably just wants the Starborns’ attack plan, Kevin thought. Which I understand, because I don’t want Earth to get destroyed either, but at the same time, it’s usually not a good idea to be hasty, especially in such important matters.

  Kevin’s thoughts, however, were interrupted by a crackle in his earcom, followed by Talon’s voice saying, “Bolt, a car just drove up in the parking lot. Two people are getting out of it.”

  “Two people?” Kevin repeated, keeping his voice to a whisper. “Who are they? Electrica and one of her kids?”

  “I don’t recognize them,” Talon replied. “One of them looks like a middle-aged man, while the other guy is young enough to be that guy’s son, probably in his thirties or so.”

  “Can you tell if they’re superhumans or not?” said Kevin.

  “Again, I don’t know,” said Talon. “They look pretty normal, but at the same time, they could just be hiding their powers. I think they’re Electrica’s clients, because they just entered the warehouse.”

  “If they’re here already, then doesn’t that mean that Electrica is here, too?” said Stinger’s voice. “Has anyone seen her yet?”

  “No,” came White’s quiet voice. “Seen no lightning lady yet.”

  “But she will be here soon, I bet,” said Kevin. “In any case, keep your eyes open, everyone, and don’t reveal yourselves just yet or engage with the newcomers. At this point, we can’t afford to make any mistakes, because if Electrica knows we’re setting a trap for her, she might run away and we’ll be right back to where we are.”

  “Roger that,” said Stinger. “I’ll keep an eye out for her on the roof as always.”

  “Same here,” said Talon. “No one will get by me on the east side.”

  “South side safe,” came White’s nearly silent voice again.

  “Okay, good to know,” said Kevin. “And, uh, White, you can talk a little louder if you want; I can barely hear you now.”

  Kevin tapped his earcom again, shutting off the communications channel. A second later, Kevin heard two sets of footsteps echoing through the warehouse. He tensed, keeping as silent as possible, waiting for the owners of the footsteps to show themselves. A moment later, two men appeared from between two crates, two men who resembled the descriptions that Talon had given Kevin mere seconds ago.

  One of the man was short and stout, clearly middle-aged based on his graying hair. He looked quite strong; not as strong as Kevin, of course, but definitely strong for a normal human. He also had beady eyes and a denim jacket that just barely fit on his large arms.

  The other man was clearly much younger than his middle-aged friend and looked a good deal more intelligent, too. He was completely bald, but had a jet-black goatee and wore a simple white button down shirt. He looked almost like a college student, even though he was probably in his early thirties at most.

  It was impossible to tell for certain if these two men were superhumans or not. But there was something in the way that the younger man walked—a kind of confidence and ease—that made Kevin think that that guy, at least, had a power of some sort, though what his power was, Kevin didn’t know. But given how confident, even arrogant, the man looked, Kevin figured it had to be an incredibly strong power.

  “Chip, are you sure this is the right place?” said the younger man, stopping directly underneath the catwalk, his dark eyes darting back and forth. “I don’t see Electrica.”

  “This is the address she gave me,” said the older man, apparently named Chip. He pulled a piece of folded paper from his back pocket and scanned it briefly. “Yep. This is the place.”

  “I hope she didn’t bail out on us at the last minute,” said the younger man with a sigh. “I hate dealing with supervillains. They are always so unpredictable and unreliable.”

  “You say that like it is a bad thing,” came a familiar feminine voice that Kevin instantly recognized as Electrica’s, though he wasn’t sure where it was coming from. “Personally, I think I’m more ‘fun’ than ‘unreliable.’”

  Kevin heard a crackling sound under his feet and looked down at the light bulb hanging from the catwalk. It was glowing and crackling with electricity, nearly blinding in its intensity before a loud boom shook the whole warehouse, even nearly knocking Kevin off his feet. He managed to retain his balance, though, and looked down again to see the source of the explosion.

  Underneath the catwalk was a woman in her forties who wore a yellow spandex costume and a mask with stylized lightning bolts on either side of her head. Her dark hair was draped over her right shoulder and amusement glittered in her eyes, though even from up here, Kevin could tell that this woman was dangerous.

  “Ah,” said the younger man, staring at the woman in annoyance. “You must be Electrica.”

  “In the flesh,” Electrica replied. “And you are Eli Corey, right?”

  Eli Corey? Kevin thought. Where have I heard that name before?

  The young man scowled. “Yes. And this is my partner and bodyguard, Chip McCoy. We’re from the Unwanted.”

  Now Kevin knew where he had heard that name before. Blizzard had told it to him once, back in Phoenix, shortly after her and Shell’s battle with the Venetian known as Zanni. From what Kevin could recall, Eli Corey was the leader of a movement known as the Unwanted, though he had vanished after the battle of Phoenix. What Eli was doing here and why he was meeting with Electrica, Kevin did not know, nor did he really care. He just got himself ready to attack Electrica; right now, she did not seem to notice him, which meant that the element of surprise was on his side.

  “Well, well,” said
Electrica, putting her hands on her hips. “Now that we are all acquainted with each other, why don’t we get down to business? Specifically, the job you hired me for. You didn’t give me very many details about it ahead of time, except that it would be exceptionally dangerous and it would pay well.”

  “It will pay well, assuming you can do it,” said Eli. “We have enough cash to make you rich several times over.”

  “Oh, I’m already rich several times over,” said Electrica, “but I’m still interested in hearing your offer anyway. You don’t look like a very wealthy man to me.”

  “I may dress simply, but that’s because I know that extravagance is often a waste,” said Eli. “Anyway, I’ll cut to the chase: I want you to assassinate John Mann, owner and CEO of the Mann Corporation, for me. And I will pay you handsomely to do it.”

  Kevin’s eyes widened. He heard a few small gasps in his earcom, probably the rest of his teammates listening in, but he didn’t pay attention to that. He had not expected Eli to say this. He vaguely recalled reading an article about Eli once, in which Eli was depicted as a hero of superhuman civil rights, yet here he was, hiring a supervillain to kill one of the richest men in the world like he did this sort of thing every day. What kind of man was Eli?

  Electrica, on the other hand, merely raised an interested eyebrow. “You want me to kill one of the richest, most powerful and well-protected men in the entire world?”

  “Yes,” said Eli, nodding eagerly. “I’ve heard of your skills and know that you are a powerful superhuman in your own right. I feel confident that you can do it.”

  Electrica began playing with strands of her hair, a thoughtful look on her face. “Normally, I don’t do assassinations. I specialize in thievery; however, the fact that you claim you can pay me well has piqued my interest. Yet even if you did not have the money, I would still be interested, because I have my own vendetta against Mann that has nothing to do with your own motives for wanting him dead.”

  “Excellent,” said Eli with a smile. “But, if I may ask, what did he do to you?”

  “That is none of your business,” said Electrica. “Unless, of course, you’re willing to tell me why a so-called ‘activist’ like you wants a man as rich and powerful as Mann dead. Is it because he’s a bigot or something like that? I can see Mann mistreating superhumans due to his huge ego, but—”

  “It’s personal,” Eli interrupted her. “That’s all I will say on the matter. You don’t need to know my reasons for wanting him dead in order to do the job, anyway. You just need to use your powers to kill him dead.”

  “You have a point,” said Electrica. “Normally, I don’t ask for my clients’ motives anyway. I just thought I’d do it this time because of how unusual this situation is.”

  “I understand,” said Eli. “But I need to know if you will accept the job or not.”

  “Of course I will accept it,” said Electrica. “And it isn’t even because of the money, either. Mann needs to be held as an example of what happens to former clients who don’t treat me right.”

  The meeting is almost over, Kevin thought. Time to strike.

  Kevin raised his hand to fire a lightning bolt at Electrica, aiming carefully, because he did not want to hit Eli or Chip in the process.

  But then Electrica suddenly jerked a hand upward and a huge lightning bolt—much bigger than anything Kevin was capable of generating—shot out of her hand and tore through the catwalk as cleanly as a knife through butter. The catwalk’s two halves fell inward and Kevin fell off of the catwalk onto the floor below, landing on his back hard enough to make him gasp.

  A second later, a glowing finger appeared in front of his face, causing Kevin to look up and see Electrica standing over him. She wore a satisfied smirk on her face, a smirk Kevin would have wiped off himself if he could, but her glowing finger was too close for him to risk doing anything.

  “Electrica, what was that all about?” said Eli; he and Chip had retreated several feet away from the center of the room, most likely to avoid getting hit by the falling catwalk. “And who is this?”

  “A spy, obviously,” said Electrica. “Not just any spy, however, but the superhero Bolt.” Her smirk grew even wider. “Don’t look so surprised, kid. I knew you were up there the entire time. I was just waiting for the right opportunity to take you down.”

  Kevin gritted his teeth. He would have responded to her, but he was so angry at being caught like this that he said nothing. He did, however, hear Eli mutter his name in surprise, though he paid little attention to Eli at the moment since Electrica was the bigger threat.

  “I don’t know why you’re spying on this meeting, nor how you found out about it,” said Electrica. “But given how you were clearly planning some sort of sneak attack, I can easily guess that you were planning to capture me and take me to Ultimate Max. And, even though I know you’re a friend of my son, our little alliance ended a long time ago, so I have no reason to spare your pathetic life anymore. Good bye; I’ll try to make your death quick.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  Shell had never dimension-hopped before. He had always been interested in trying it out sometime, though, because his nerdy side thought it would be as awesome as all of the TV shows and movies he watched always depicted it as. He had even considered trying to build his own dimension-hopping tech, though given how complex such technology was like, that idea never got off the ground.

  As a result, Shell was excited when Bolt assigned him to Sparky’s team. And when Sparky—apparently using some kind of dimension-hopping tech built into his mechanical body—opened a portal, Shell followed right behind him, eager to experience dimension-hopping for himself.

  It was an incredibly weird experience. In some respects, it was like walking through a door into another room; in other respects, though, it was completely different from anything Shell had experienced in his life. He felt like he was soaring through space, through the endless void between dimensions, and it seemed to happen in both an instant and in an eternity, if that made sense.

  And when Shell finally emerged onto the other side of the portal, his knees were jelly and he felt sick to his stomach. He managed to move out of the way to allow Blizzard and Treehugger to follow, but he still lay on the ground clutching his stomach anyway. It didn’t help that the environment into which they had emerged had air that smelled awful, like smog almost, although Shell felt his body adjusting to the new air even as he lay there moaning in pain.

  Sparky stood above Shell, looking down at him with curious mechanical eyes. “What is the problem, Shell? You seem ill.”

  “That’s because I am,” said Shell, his voice weak due to his sickness. “Not used to dimension-hopping.”

  “Ah, yes, I see,” said Sparky. “A common reaction for first time dimension-hoppers. Your body should adjust pretty quickly, however, so I would not worry about it if I were you.”

  Easy for you to say, Shell wanted to say, but he was still too ill to speak.

  At that moment, Blizzard stepped out of the portal. She clutched her stomach, but did not fall over like Shell, although she did lean against a nearby wall with a rather sick look on her face. Treehugger also stepped out of the portal, but in contrast to Shell and Blizzard, she looked perfectly normal as the portal closed shut behind her. Of course, this was not her first dimension-hopping trip, which meant that her body had probably already adjusted to the stresses of dimension-hopping. Shell couldn’t help but feel a little jealous of her because of that.

  “Where are we?” said Treehugger, looking around with an inquiring look on her face. “I’ve never seen this place before.”

  Shell—whose stomach was starting to settle down—had not had a chance to look at their surroundings when he first emerged from the portal. Slowly sitting upright, Shell looked around at their environment and suddenly wished that he hadn’t.

  They were in the middle of some kind of canyon of red rock. It vaguely reminded Shell of Antelope Canyon back in Arizona, which he
had visited once with Father when he had been younger, although there was something distinctly alien about the formation of the rocks and the carvings on the towering walls. The canyon was very quiet, though there was a distinct humming sound coming from somewhere nearby, like that of a running car engine. The ground was also very dusty; to his displeasure, Shell discovered that he had gotten a lot of the red dust on his green suit and in his hair already. He saw no animals or people, but he did spot something that looked like a scorpion with wings crawl into a nearby hole. A sun shone in the sky, but somehow it seemed weaker than the Earth’s sun.

  “This is another pocket dimension, similar to the Shadowlands, although it is also quite different,” said Sparky. “It is known as the Crimson Canyon.”

  “What does that mean?” said Blizzard, wiping away some sweat that had started to accumulate on her forehead. “Is it just a giant canyon or—?”

  “Much of this dimension is canyon, although there are a few plateaus and table lands scattered here and there,” said Sparky. “The origin of this particular universe is not known, though the IEA’s researchers have determined that there was once a thriving civilization here which destroyed itself eons ago. Nowadays, however, it is used by the Servants of the Starborn as their main base of operations.”

  “I don’t see any Servant bases,” said Treehugger, looking around the empty canyon with a skeptical look.

  “I took us to a part that is uninhabited by the Servants,” said Sparky. He pointed toward the wall from which the humming sound came. “Just over that wall should be the prison where Space and Galaxy are being kept hostage.”