by Lucas Flint
“What do you mean?” said Talon. “Are you saying that you are working with the Venetians or something?”
Eli shook his head. “No. The Venetians are trying to kill me. That is why they were here tonight, because they wanted to kill me, and they would have gotten away with it, too, if you and your friends had not showed up.”
“Why do they want to kill you?” said Talon. “What have you done to them?”
Eli stroked his goatee. “Because I’m the only person who can stop them, that’s why.”
“What do you mean?” said Talon. “What are you talking about?”
Eli sighed. He looked at Bolt and Electrica and then back at Talon. “This is not the best place to explain. Let me come with you and your friends back to Hero Island. I know you Young Neos have been dealing with the Venetians for a while now, but you still don’t understand what, exactly, they’re trying to do. I thought I could stop them on my own, but it is obvious at this point that the only way we can stop the Venetians and save the planet is by working together. That’s what tonight has revealed to me.”
Talon eyed Eli suspiciously. “And just why should we trust you? How do we know you aren’t lying?”
“Because I can prove my every claim, that’s why,” said Eli. “And if you do find any lies in anything I’ve said, well, you can throw me in Ultimate Max with Electrica.”
Talon bit her lower lip. She knew nothing about this Eli Corey fellow; for all she knew, he might have just been making these claims in order to get onto Hero Island. On the other hand, she sensed that Eli was telling the truth. And if he really did know what was going on, if he really did know how to beat the Venetians, then it would be a foolish mistake to tell him to leave.
So Talon nodded and said, “All right, Eli. You and your friend Chip can come with us and explain everything to us that we need to know.”
Eli smiled, though it was a grim smile. “Good to hear, although I don’t know how much time we have left before the Venetians succeed.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Despite what Treehugger had told Shell before he left earlier, she wished that she had tried to reprogram her own suit-up watch before the Servants had taken it away from her. Treehugger may not have been much of a techie, but she would have been willing to play with her watch all day long if it meant getting out of this hell hole. Of course, Treehugger’s lack of technical ability meant that any attempts to reprogram her watch would have likely failed, but she still wished that she had her watch, if only because she felt even more defenseless without it.
And now Blizzard is gone, too, Treehugger thought, glancing at the empty hallway outside of her cell, where she had seen Blizzard being dragged through earlier. She’s probably dead by now, I bet, or maybe tortured to the point of insanity. I’m probably all on my own now.
Treehugger pulled her legs up to her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs. Sighing, she rested her head on her knees, wondering if this was indeed the end for her. This was even worse than the time she ended up in the Shadowlands; at least in the Shadowlands, she had run into the Midnight Menace. Here, however, Treehugger was all on her own. The only other people aboard this ship were those vile Servants of the Starborn, but she didn’t expect any of them to let her out and she was not strong enough to overpower any of the guards or prisoners.
And that would be true even if I didn’t have this damn collar around my neck, Treehugger thought, rubbing the power-inhibiting collar around her neck. Sometimes, I hate my powers.
Sighing, Treehugger decided to take a nap, because she didn’t have anything better to do. Besides, taking a nap might give her ideas for an escape plan; at the very least, she would be able to escape her misery for a brief time, hopefully long enough for Shell to return with help. At this point, that was the only realistic solution that she could even consider hoping for, even though the odds of Shell returning in time to save her and Blizzard were nearly nonexistent.
Right before Treehugger shut her eyes, however, she heard footsteps outside of her cell. They didn’t sound like the heavy footsteps of the Servants, however. They were much lighter, more like human footsteps than Servant footsteps. Treehugger’s first thought was that it had to be Blizzard. Somehow, Blizzard had escaped her captors and returned to rescue Treehugger, but when Treehugger listened more closely, she realized that these footsteps were heavier than Blizzard’s, even if not as heavy as the footsteps of the Servants of the Starborn.
Who could it possibly be, then? Treehugger thought, raising her head to look toward the exit. A smaller Servant, maybe?
An instant later, Treehugger saw the owner of the footsteps, and her jaw dropped in shock. “Space? Is that you?”
Standing on the other side of the bars, wearing some kind of sleek, futuristic armor, was Jason Space himself. He carried a sound blaster and some kind of strange sword handle at his side; based on his grim expression, he didn’t look like he was in the mood to chat. He also had what appeared to be a small scar above his left eye, a scar which Treehugger did not remember seeing before.
“Hey, Treehugger!” said Space, waving at her. “Good to see you’re okay. How do you feel?”
“Uh, okay, I guess,” said Treehugger as she slung her legs over the side of the cot. “But what are you doing here? And how did you know I was here?”
“I’ll answer those questions on our way out,” said Space. “Right now, I need to free you. Stand back, because there’s going to be a big explosion and I don’t want you to get harmed by it.”
Treehugger hopped off her cot and retreated to the back wall of her room. She sat down on the floor and wrapped her arms around her legs again, while Space placed what looked like a small star on the floor at the base of the energy bars. Space tapped a button on the star and retreated back the way he had come.
A few seconds later, the tiny, star-shaped device suddenly sparked and the energy bars vanished. Treehugger, however, did not move, because she remembered what Space had said about an explosion. She didn’t know why the device had yet to explode; perhaps it was on a timed delay.
Space’s head appeared around the corner, however, with a large smile on his face.
Treehugger, on the other hand, just looked at him in confusion and said, “Uh, Space, why didn’t it explode?”
“Because it actually isn’t a bomb at all,” Space replied as he picked up the star and put it back into a compartment in his armor. “It just disables the energy bars used to keep you in your cell.”
“But you said it would explode …” said Treehugger in a confused voice.
Space laughed. “It was a joke. I didn’t know if you’d actually believe that I’d set off a bomb that would inevitably attract the attention of the Servants. Man, you should have seen the look on your face.”
Treehugger stood up and folded her arms across her chest. “Next time, just tell me when you’re going to pull a prank like that, okay?”
“Fine, fine, okay,” said Space. “Anyway, let’s get out of here. Galaxy is waiting for us in the Adventure. We don’t have much time.”
Space turned to leave, but Treehugger held out a hand and said, “Wait. We can’t leave just yet.”
Space looked over his shoulder at her in confusion. “What? Why not? The Servants don’t know I’m here yet. I managed to sneak on board their ship via an experimental teleportation device that Galaxy has been working on. The longer we wait, the more likely it becomes that they will find me. And that wouldn’t be fun at all, trust me.”
“I know,” said Treehugger, “but I wasn’t the only one captured. Two of my friends were also captured alongside me and held prisoner on this ship.”
“Really?” said Space. He rubbed his forehead. “But I didn’t see anyone in the other cells.”
“One of my friends managed to escape by jury-rigging his watch to open dimensional portals,” said Treehugger. “The other one was taken away to some other part of the ship. I don’t know where she is or if she’s even still alive,
but we have to save her before they do unspeakable things to her.”
Space groaned. “Wonderful. Of course this mission couldn’t be as simple as break into the ship and rescue a girl. No, I’ve got to rescue two girls now and we don’t even know where the second girl is. Brilliant.”
“You still haven’t told me what you’re doing here,” said Treehugger. “I thought that you were somewhere else in the multiverse. How did you even know I was here?”
“Oh, that?” said Space. “To put it simply, we’ve been tracking the Incinerator ever since they stole Sparky from us.”
“You have?” said Treehugger. “How did you do that?”
Space flashed a mischievous smile. “Sparky himself, obviously. What Sparky didn’t know was that when Galaxy built him, she put a tracker in his body, which we can track from the deck of the Adventure. We’ve been tracking them all this time, waiting for the right moment to strike.”
“Strike?” said Treehugger. “You mean attack the ship?”
“Mostly, we wanted to retrieve Sparky,” said Space. “As disappointing as his betrayal was, the fact is that he’s just been reprogrammed by the enemy. If we can get him back, Galaxy can reprogram him back to his normal self and he’ll be back on our side.”
Treehugger brushed back her braids. “So you didn’t even know I was on this ship.”
“Yep,” said Space, nodding. “I was sneaking along the lower decks when I overheard a couple of Servants talk about you. I decided to save you while I was here, because it was pretty clear that you weren’t here on a cruise.”
“I see,” said Treehugger. “But we’re still going to try to get Sparky, right?”
“Right-o, tree girl,” said Space. “That was the original plan, though now that I have to save you and your friend, that is going to complicate things a bit. But hey, complications are what make life worth living, in my opinion, though I gotta admit, Galaxy is going to be annoyed when she finds out that I had to rescue more people than we originally believed. She’ll understand, though.”
“I hope so,” said Treehugger. “What are we going to do now?”
“Find Sparky,” Space said. “And your friend, too, but we don’t know where your friend is. Once we find Sparky, though, he might be able to tell us where your friend is.”
“Okay,” said Treehugger, nodding. “But … what if we have to fight the Servants? I don’t have any weapons and this collar on my neck inhibits my powers.”
“I’ll remove the collar,” said Space. “As for weapons, use these.”
Space pulled out a packet from a compartment in his armor and threw it at Treehugger. Treehugger caught the packet and looked at it curiously. She felt something sharp and crackling within it, though the blank surface of the packet’s packaging made it impossible to tell what was inside it.
“What’s this?” said Treehugger, looking at Space curiously.
“Remember those leaves from the Shadowlands?” said Space. “Well, that Midnight Menace guy let me and Galaxy grab a few bags of them before we left. We wanted them because we thought they might make useful weapons; Galaxy wanted to see if she could replicate them in the Adventure’s lab and possibly start manufacturing our own. But you can use that packet of ‘em for now, because you can control plants and should be able to use them effectively.”
Treehugger smiled. “Thanks. Can you remove the collar now, please?”
“Sure,” said Space. “Just stand still and I’ll cut it off with my laser knife. Then we can go and find Sparky and your friend, assuming we don’t run into any Servants on the way there.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
White Lightning sat at his seat around the Meeting Room table, feeling a little anxious, but managing to stay still regardless. He looked around the table at the other people, mostly as a way to avoid thinking about his anxiety.
Bolt sat next to him. While Bolt had taken some heavy hits from that explosion in the warehouse, Healing Touch had managed to heal most of his injuries quickly. Still, Bolt’s voice was a little more hoarse than usual due to the fact that he had inhaled a lot of smoke, though Healing Touch had assured them that Bolt’s voice would recover eventually.
Bolt himself sat with his arms crossed in front of his chest and his head down. He still smelled like smoke, though he had already replaced his costume with a cleaner copy from his room. Even though Bolt was feeling well enough to attend the meeting, White kept an eye on him just because he couldn’t forget how terrible Bolt had looked before.
Sitting across from White was Mecha Knight. When White and the others returned to Hero Island, Mecha Knight had been one of the first people to meet them and had chosen to attend this meeting in order to find out everything that had happened back in that warehouse tonight, as well as being the representative of the Leadership Council. Mecha Knight was sitting even stiller than White. White sometimes wondered how Mecha Knight could be so still, even in comparison to the other members of the Leadership Council. He decided that Mecha Knight just had a lot more self-control than most people.
And, of course, Eli sat at the other end of the table, where Bolt normally sat, but where he was sitting tonight in order so that everyone could see him better. Eli looked even more tired than Bolt, even though he had not actually fought in the earlier battle. Bags hung under his eyes, while his goatee was slightly gray with ash. Chip sat by his side, though he seemed rather protective of Eli, as if he was worried that one of the other meeting attendees might attack Eli suddenly.
“Is this everyone?” said Eli, looking around the table in confusion. “I thought there would be more.”
“Stinger and Talon are still recovering from their injuries,” said Mecha Knight. “The two of them suffered worse injuries than either Bolt or White, so they require more help from Healing Touch than these two. As for the rest of the Leadership Council, I will file a report with them about what I learn during this meeting.”
“Where did Electrica go?” Eli said. “Is she even still alive?”
“She is,” said Mecha Knight. “But she will be transported to Ultimate Max in the morning. Right now she is being held in the Hero Island jail cells beneath the Tower of Heroes, where she has been sprayed with powerless gas in order to prevent her from using her powers to escape.”
“Does that mean Black Blur is going to change his vote now?” said Bolt suddenly.
“Unless he was lying, yes,” said Mecha Knight. “But we will need to vote on it again, which we will likely do at our meeting next week. So you will need to wait just a little while longer before we vote you into the NHA.”
Bolt groaned. “Come on. I nearly get killed capturing one of the most infamous supervillains in the world and you guys aren’t just going to bump me up to full-time member automatically?”
“It’s just one more week,” said Mecha Knight. “Patience is a virtue, after all.”
“Mecha Knight is right,” said White, patting Bolt on the shoulder. “You have this in the bag, brother. Just wait.”
Bolt did not look very pleased at this, but he just said, “Okay, fine. I can wait, I guess. But what about the Venetians? Do we know if any of them got killed in the explosion?”
“Not yet,” said Mecha Knight. “While the New York City fire department is still putting out the flames, I last heard that they have not found any other bodies in the wreckage, though they did find the remains of a Zanni mask in the epicenter of the explosion.”
“I figured Zanni was dead,” said Bolt. “He was the one Electrica blew up. And good riddance, too, because he was creepy.”
“Still, that leaves the other four Venetians present tonight unaccounted for,” said Mecha Knight. “It sounds like they all suffered rather bad injuries from their battles with you and the others, yet neither the police nor the fire fighters have reported finding any masked figures nearby. Somehow they got away.”
“But not for long, if I know them well enough,” said Eli with a sigh. “My grandfather, John Mann, won’t give up t
hat easily, though I don’t think he’ll be pleased to learn about the loss of one of his best men. Not that it will really matter in the long run, because my grandfather is probably already close to achieving his goals.”
“Yes, tell us more about those goals,” said Mecha Knight. “This is what this meeting is about, after all. You said that you would tell us everything you know about John Mann and the Venetians. Might as well get on with it.”
“Yes, I know,” said Eli. “I might as well start from the beginning, back when I was a kid.”
“We’re not going to get your whole life story, are we?” said Bolt.
“No,” said Eli. “Just enough to understand what I am about to tell you. Anyway, let me begin. Try not to interrupt me too much, because I don’t want my train of thought interrupted.”
“Very well,” said Mecha Knight. “Go on. We’re listening.”
Eli massaged his forehead, resting his elbows on the table. “As you all know by now, I am the grandson of John Mann. Eli is my real name, but I used to have his last name until I took on my mother’s maiden name so no one would ever know who I am related to. Even though Mann is my grandfather, I hate him and don’t want anything to do with him. He’s an evil man, cruel and sadistic, and we have to stop him before he succeeds.”
Eli’s voice slightly shook when he said that. He reminded White of himself, at least whenever White got too excited or worried.
“Treehugger told us that John Mann was trying to destroy all superhumans in order to keep the Starborn from coming to Earth,” said Mecha Knight. “Is that true?”
“I will get to that, don’t worry,” said Eli. “Sufficient to say, however, that there is often a big difference between what Mann says he wants to do and what he actually wants. He’s the kind of man who will tell you that he loves you while twisting a knife into your gut.”
Eli shook his head. “Anyway, my earliest memories of my grandfather are good. When I was very young, he would often take me to Italy on vacation, along with my mom and dad, because he was so rich he had his own private villa in Venice. We’d go every year to the Carnival of Venice, where we’d see all of the interesting and unique masks that the people of Venice displayed every year. I used to enjoy it and for a while there it was my favorite event of the year, the one time I looked forward to the most, because I thought that the Carnival was amazing.” He frowned. “But then … things changed when I was thirteen.”
