by Lucas Flint
As for the Mann Corporation, it was still around, although the news of Mann’s death had caused some internal chaos in the company itself. From what Kevin had heard, the board of the Mann Corporation had elected a new CEO, someone who did not appear to share Mann’s ambitions for world domination. Mann’s mansion, on the other hand, was confiscated by the government, who made up a story about radioactivity or something that meant it would need to be demolished for public safety. The real reason the government seized it, of course, was because of the Starborn artifacts, which they clearly did not want to fall into the hands of any supervillains who might decide to finish what Mann started. Granted, Kevin was not exactly thrilled about the government getting the Starborn artifacts which Mann had spent many years collecting, but he supposed it was better than leaving them unprotected where any ambitious supervillain could get their hands on them.
The official story for John Mann’s death was that he had been assassinated in his home by a masked hit man, whose real identity and location were unknown. Given how Mann had no known surviving relatives, however, it was highly unlikely that anyone would attempt to verify the story. The reason the real story was not released to the public was a decision made by the Leadership Council, who decided that the real story was too strange for the public to know. It didn’t help that there was not much proof of the events which happened in that chamber last week or that the government had forbidden any unauthorized personnel from stepping onto the premises of Mann’s now-abandoned mansion.
As for Treehugger’s friend, the man who called himself Mr. Space, he had returned to his ship and had only been heard from once since last week, when Treehugger received a message from him. According to the message, the Servants of the Starborn were still around, but were no longer going to Earth. Supposedly, this was on orders from the Starborn, who had instead directed their Servants to go elsewhere, but Space informed them that the IEA would continue to monitor the Servants until they were sure that they would not attempt to attack Earth. Kevin didn’t expect them to, because the Starborn had made it clear that they were not going to destroy Earth, but he supposed it would not hurt to let the IEA continue to monitor them anyway just to be safe.
In any case, Kevin was just glad that that was all over. As soon as this ceremony was over and he was done shaking hands and greeting all of the guests, Kevin would go back to his room in the House and sleep for at least a month. His power boost from Eli had faded a couple of days after Eli’s death, so Kevin was back to his normal power levels. That meant he was still strong, but not as strong as he used to be, and the decrease in power had made him very sleepy.
Thinking of Eli caused him to look at Shell. As it turned out, Shell had secretly been working with Eli and the Unwanted ever since Phoenix. Shell had come clean with all of that after Eli’s death and even revealed that his barrier powers had come about because of Eli’s own abilities. That revelation had certainly shocked Kevin, as well as the other members of the Young Neos, yet Kevin had decided to forgive Shell because nothing bad had come of it and anyway, Shell had proved that he was still loyal to the Young Neos back during their fight with Mann. Even so, Kevin didn’t think he could ever quite trust Shell the same way he used to; it would likely be a while before Kevin could trust Shell as deeply as he had before.
As for the Unwanted, Shell had told Kevin that the movement would still go on even without Eli, but now it was being led by Chip. The Unwanted had held a funeral for Eli yesterday when news of his death spread; Kevin and the Young Neos had attended it, mostly as a way to show their gratitude for the help that Eli had given them during the battle against John Mann. Even though Kevin hadn’t known Eli very well, he had still been sad to see Eli’s casket lowered into the ground, and he sometimes believed that Eli would have made a great superhero if only his life had gone a little differently than it did.
Speaking of trust, Kevin scanned the crowd until he spotted Mom—wearing her usual green dress and blue necklace—sitting at the front of the audience. She was talking with Triplet, who Kevin had also invited to his induction. Due to all of the talking and sounds made by the assembled superheroes, Kevin couldn’t hear what they were talking about, but that was okay, because he was just glad that Mom had been able to make it here. He caught her eye and she waved at him; he waved at her in return, smiling.
“Oh, your mom is here?” said Blizzard, causing Bolt to look at her. “I didn’t think she’d be able to make it on such short notice.”
“Yeah, but Mom doesn’t have much to do at home since White and I don’t live there, so she was able to make a special trip from Texas pretty easily,” said Kevin. “It helps that the Leadership Council gave her a special guest suite in the Tower of Heroes, because she was married to Genius and all.”
“Right,” said Blizzard. “My own parents aren’t here, but that’s because they’re at my sister’s recital right now. I wanted to be there, too, but they said I should be here to support you.”
“Really?” said Kevin in surprise. “You have some great parents.”
“You left a really good impression on my parents when we visited them in Phoenix a while ago,” said Blizzard. “They like you a lot. They keep asking if you’ve proposed to me yet.”
Kevin suddenly felt a little hot around the neck. “Uh, what do you tell them?”
Blizzard smiled mischievously. “That we’re still taking things slowly and that marriage will happen when it happens.”
Kevin sighed. “Whew. I thought you were going to tell them that—”
“But I do wonder when we’ll get hitched,” said Blizzard. “I mean, you obviously don’t need to tell me, because I’d like it if it was a surprise, but—”
Kevin was spared having to respond to Blizzard’s rambling when Omega Man stepped up to the podium and the assembled crowd of superheroes and guests went silent immediately. That was not unusual, because Omega Man, as the leader and most powerful member of the NHA, was capable of commanding attention just from his presence alone. Even Kevin sat up a little straighter and listened a little bit more closely when Omega Man stepped up to the podium, because he didn’t want to miss his cue to come up and accept his NHA membership.
“Hello and welcome all,” said Omega Man, looking around the Hall at everyone. “It is wonderful to see that most of our members could make it to this event. It has been over a year since the last Young Neo was inducted into the larger Neohero Alliance and, after the Vision debacle late last year, there was worry that we might have to shut down the Young Neos entirely and thus end this honorable tradition. But thanks to the efforts of Mecha Knight in finding seven of the best young superheroes in the country, the Young Neos will keep going, and with them, this tradition of ours.”
Omega Man gestured toward Kevin and the Young Neos. “Today, we are welcoming young Bolt into the Neohero Alliance. As most of you know, Bolt is the son of the late Genius, one of the Four Founders of the Neohero Alliance and an old personal friend of mine. While Genius’s tragic death at the hands of the supervillain Robert Candle earlier this year sent shock waves through the superhuman community, his sons have already proved themselves equal to their father in terms of heroism, with plenty of potential to possibly even surpass him someday.”
Kevin looked at White. He had not expected Omega Man to praise White, too, but given the context, he supposed it made sense. White looked surprised, too, but he was also smiling … and unless Kevin’s eyes were deceiving him, he thought he saw Talon smiling at White as well.
“The Leadership Council of the Neohero Alliance voted last week to accept Bolt’s membership application into the organization, as per the NHA Constitution,” Omega Man continued. “Despite his young age, Bolt has already fought and defeated supervillains and other threats that even many superheroes twice his age would have had trouble dealing with. His acceptance into the NHA was a settled matter for most of us within the Leadership Council and we know that he will be a great member.”
Omega Man
looked at Bolt. “Bolt, please come forward so I can present you with your membership card.”
Despite his nerves, Kevin rose from his seat and walked over to Omega Man. He hoped that none of the people in the crowd could sense his nervousness; it was times like these that he was glad that he wore a full-body costume, because right now he was sweating profusely, despite having sat next to Blizzard for ten minutes now.
Kevin stopped in front of Omega Man, who was at least a head taller than Kevin and twice as wide. Even though Kevin had super strength of his own, he couldn’t help but feel scrawny in comparison to Omega Man. Omega Man was one of the few people who Kevin ever felt weak around, mostly because Omega Man’s own super strength was even stronger than his own.
“Bolt,” said Omega Man, looking Kevin in the eyes. “Do you promise, as a member of the Neohero Alliance, to defend the weak, the helpless, and the innocent from the supervillains, criminals, and other threats of the world?”
Kevin instantly recognized Omega Man’s question as the start of the membership induction ritual, which he had read dozens of times over the last week in preparation for this moment. He met Omega Man’s gaze, said, “Yes, I do.”
“Do you promise to use your powers for good and never for evil or selfish gain?”
“I do.”
“Do you promise to uphold and defend your home country and its people from both foreign and domestic enemies?”
“I do.”
“Do you promise to follow the laws as laid out in the Constitution of the Neohero Alliance and to accept your responsibility if you break them?’
“Yes.”
“And, finally, do you promise to sacrifice your own life to save the lives of others, if necessary?”
“I do.”
Omega Man smiled. “Then welcome to the Neohero Alliance, brother. Here is your card.”
Omega Man held out a small card to Kevin, which Kevin took as respectfully as he could. The card showed Kevin’s face on it, along with his superhero name, his membership status in the NHA, and contact information for the main NHA office in the Tower of Heroes, which he could use to contact in case he needed help or was in an emergency. His member number was also written on the card and the back of the card showed the NHA’s symbol, a fist crossed with a lightning bolt. It looked really cool, but Kevin held it with great care because he didn’t want to accidentally rip or damage it.
“Now, Bolt, would you like to say a few words to the audience?” said Omega Man, gesturing at the podium. “You don’t need to say much. Just a few short words will suffice, if that’s all you’ve got.”
“Sure, no problem,” said Kevin.
Kevin walked up to the podium and looked out over the audience. He had been practicing this speech for the last several weeks whenever he could. He had it all memorized in his head; thanking the NHA for helping and supporting his superhero career, giving a heartwarming tribute to his dad, ending with a rousing bit about how he would never give up fighting evil and protecting the innocent. It all seemed like exactly the sort of thing that the NHA expected to hear, the kind of speech that previous Young Neos moving into the NHA had given at their graduations, based on the records Kevin had read in the Tower of Heroes’ library.
Yet when Kevin stood there, his hands on the firm wooden podium, the spotlight shining on him, he couldn’t say any of it. It wasn’t stage fright or anything like that; rather, it was that he realized just how trivial and generic his carefully-prepared speech was. All of those neat turns of phrases, those emotional beats he had spent weeks agonizing over … they all felt like so much mud in his mouth and he feared they would look like mud dripping out of his mouth if he spoke.
But he couldn’t just stand there and look like an idiot. The NHA members expected a speech, his Mom expected a speech, and he couldn’t fail to deliver, especially now that he was a member of the NHA.
Kevin looked back at the other Young Neos. Blizzard was sitting on the edge of her seat, practically crying with happiness. White actually was crying with happiness, while Talon patted his back as she muttered soothing words to him that Kevin couldn’t hear. Treehugger had wrapped her arms around herself so tightly that she looked like a tree wrapped with vines, while Shell was nervously wiping his glasses off on his costume sleeve. As for Stinger, he seemed to be the only one relaxed, because he was sitting back with his hands on the back of his head, a look of ease on his features.
That was when a speech suddenly came to Kevin; well, really more like an idea for a speech, but it was a powerful enough idea that he was confident he could spin it into a full-length speech without any trouble.
Kevin looked back over the audience and said, “First off, I would like to say thank you to every member of the NHA who is present for this ceremony. While I am not on close terms with all of you, many of you have provided me with insight and support as I grew into the superhero I am today. Without the resources and support of the NHA, I don’t know where my superhero career would be.”
Kevin heard a few approving whispers in the audience, but he ignored them in order to continue. “Ever since joining the NHA, I’ve faced down all kinds of threats, ranging from bank robbers to full-scale alien invasions of Earth and everything in between. Without my powers and skills, I would have been killed a hundred times over by now, which is kind of amazing, because I don’t even have a resurrection power that would allow me to die and come back to life that many times.”
A few chuckles came from the audience and even Kevin smiled at his own joke, but he kept speaking to avoid losing his train of thought. “But really, even though this ceremony is about my induction into the NHA, I didn’t do everything on my own. I had help, lots and lots of help, and a good chunk of it came from my former teammates, the Young Neos.”
Kevin glanced back at the Young Neos when he said that. He was pleased to see how surprised everyone looked at his mentioning them, but he turned his attention back to the audience in order to finish the speech.
“When Mecha Knight first brought us together on that cold day in January of this year, we were strangers to one another,” Kevin said. “We didn’t have much combat experience and several of us had trouble with controlling our powers. Since then, however, we’ve grown, both as a team and as individuals, so much that I can hardly even believe that these guys behind me are the same kids I started out with earlier this year. No one knows for sure whether history will remember us after we’re long gone, but one thing I can say for sure is that the Young Neos will never be forgotten as long as there are young superheros who are willing to do what is right and fight against evil wherever it shows itself.”
Kevin looked at his friends again. They still looked utterly stunned, but when Kevin looked at them, Blizzard immediately smiled at him, the largest and happiest smile he had ever seen on her face.
Once more, Kevin turned his attention back to the crowd. “And I look forward to the day when all six of them graduate from the Young Neos into the Neohero Alliance as full members themselves. Thank you.”
The crowd was silent at first, leaving Kevin to think that maybe his speech hadn’t gone over as well as he’d hoped.
But then Mom started to clap, followed by Triplet, and soon every person in Hero Hall was clapping. A few people were even shedding tears, while others were chanting the Young Neos’ name over and over again. Even the Leadership Council was clapping, including Black Blur, who looked rather reluctant to be doing it but clapped anyway. Mecha Knight, on the other hand, looked as proud as if Kevin was his own son and was clapping perhaps more enthusiastically than anyone else in the auditorium.
Kevin looked at his former teammates one last time. The entire team was standing, clapping and smiling like everyone else. Without even one word leaving their mouths, Kevin could tell that his former teammates were just as grateful for his leadership and for his speech as he was for their help.
So Kevin turned back to the audience and waved at everyone, his own smile dwarfing the smiles o
n the faces of everyone in the room. While Kevin did not know what the future held for him, the Young Neos, or the NHA in general, he knew that he—and the Young Neos—could handle it.
-
THE END OF THE YOUNG NEOS.
I hope you enjoyed my little tale. Please don't forget to give this book a quick review on Amazon. Even just a two-word, "Liked it" or "Hated it" review helps so much. Positive or negative, I am grateful for all feedback from my readers. Please just swing over to the book page and toss up your review, since the star rating you leave on the next page won't be visible online. Amazon simply uses that feedback for their internal recommendation engine.
What's Next
Dear Reader,
Thank you so much for reading this series. As an author, it’s readers like you who allow me to make a living and keep writing these books.
And yes, this really is the last Young Neos book. I had a lot of fun writing this series, but ultimately all good things must come to an end and this series is no exception.
Does this mean that the adventures of Bolt and the other Young Neos are over for good? No. Their adventures are merely over for now as I turn my attention to other works, but I can confirm that another series set in The Superhero’s Son universe is in the works. Titled Bait & Switch, the series will focus on the titular power-trading twins as they attend the Theodore Jason School for Young Superhumans and try to become real superheroes, instead of following in the footsteps of their supervillain mother. I won’t say much more than that, except that the first book of the series (which is currently untitled) is scheduled for an early 2018 release.
In the meantime, I’m launching a new series next month that is unrelated to The Superhero’s Son or The Young Neos. The series is called Minimum Wage Sidekick and its first book, First Job, is scheduled for an August 2017 release. Here’s the blurb:
“In a world where superheroes are a business, sixteen-year-old Alex Fry gets the dream job of teenagers everywhere when he is hired by the famous superhero Rubberman as his sidekick. As Rubberman's sidekick, Alex hopes to not only learn how to use his powers, but also save up enough money to buy his first car before he heads off to college.
