by Lucas Flint
“Still willing to fight?” said Cannon in a mocking voice. “I thought you might want to give up after a few explosions.”
I shook my head. “I don’t give up that easily, Cannon. I’ve taken worse blows from people much stronger than you in the past.”
That was true, but I was actually acting much stronger than I really felt. My body felt like it had been smashed against a running train. I didn’t know how many more of Cannon’s explosions I could take head on like that before I collapsed, but that was why I had to figure out how to finish this fight quickly.
The only question was, how? I couldn’t hit Cannon, not unless I wanted to get my hands blown off my arms. Nor could I shoot him with my lightning bolts; he moved too fast to be hit. I had to think of something fast, however, because I hadn’t even hit him once, while he had already landed several intense blows on me. He looked like he could fight all day, while I was starting to get tired from all of the fighting.
Then an idea occurred to me, one I wasn’t sure would work, but which was my only chance at survival at the moment. I would have to give it a shot, because if I didn’t … well, I couldn’t.
So I shot into the air, flying as fast as I could, while Cannon shouted at me to come back. But I wasn’t going to come back, at least not yet.
Once I was high enough, I stopped and looked down at Cannon, Twinfist, and Sight, who were all now looking up at me in confusion and anger. Cannon, in particular, looked annoyed at how I had just gotten out of his reach.
“Get down here, boy,” said Cannon. “Or else I’m coming up there to take you down myself.”
“Then why don’t you come up here?” I said. “Come on. It’s not like I have anything else to do at the moment.”
Cannon growled, probably annoyed by my mocking tone, and then squatted. Immediately, the ground underneath him exploded and he was sent flying straight through the air toward me. He was coming as fast as, well, a cannon ball, which meant that he probably couldn’t control his trajectory.
Raising my hands, I immediately began unleashing red lightning bolt after red lightning bolt at him. Cannon’s face twisted into horror as my lightning bolts hit him, striking him in the stomach and chest again and again. Because the trajectory of his explosion had sent him flying, he was unable to dodge any of my attacks.
The combined impact of the lightning bolts sent Cannon crashing down into the earth. Only this time, he didn’t explode and I didn’t give him a chance to recover. I just hit him over and over again with as many lightning bolts as I could shoot, which was the most I had ever shot since getting the power. The lightning blasts sent dust and dirt flying everywhere, obscuring my view of Cannon, but I didn’t need to see him in order to hit him.
Eventually, however, I began to feel my power weakening. My lightning bolts were becoming smaller and weaker; in fact, it felt like the lightning within me was draining. It was like I had reached my own limits, which surprised me, because I had not known that my lightning powers even had limits.
As a result, my lightning powers slowly diminished, until eventually I was unable to even shoot sparks from my fingertips. I shook my hands, trying to make them shoot more, but it seemed like I had used up my energy reserves entirely. And I had no idea if they would ever recover or not.
Regardless, I looked down at the dust and dirt cloud below me, trying to see if I could spot Cannon. A strong gust of wind blew through just then, revealing Cannon lying on his back in a burning crater. He looked surprisingly good, despite having taken such a terrible beating from my powers, and even seemed to still be alive, based on the way his chest rose and fell. But I could tell that he was out cold, which meant that I had won the fight.
Sighing in relief, I slowly lowered back down to the ground. Exhaustion was starting to catch up to me, which made me want to lie down and rest, although I remembered that Emma was still trying to save Grandmother. I wondered how well that was—
A boxing glove came out of nowhere and smashed into my face. The blow knocked me over flat on my back, and before I could get up, a foot came down on my chest, causing me to gasp in pain.
Looking up, I saw Twinfist and Sight standing above me. Unlike me, they looked as fresh and ready to fight as ever, particularly Twinfist, who punched his fists together with a large, maniacal grin on his face.
“You beat Cannon,” said Twinfist. “I honestly didn’t think you could do it, since he’s one of the strongest among us, but that’s fine. We’ll just finish what he started, just like we said before.”
“Indeed,” said Sight. “And we’ll make it quick, too, so we can report to Echo about our victory.”
I couldn’t get back up to fight because I was so exhausted from using up all of my energy. In fact, it felt like the lightning had actually drained me of my energy in general, rather than just the energy I had used for the lightning bolts. I could probably still use my super strength if I needed to, but it was much harder to access than before.
So I could only lay there, watching as Twinfist and Sight raised their weapons to bring down on me, and wondering if this was the end of me.
Chapter Ten
Before either Twinfist or Sight could start finish me off, the sound of engines roaring in the sky made them both look up. I also looked up, wondering if there was a plane flying by or something, but I saw nothing like that. In fact, the skies looked quite clear, which made me wonder where the engine noises were coming from.
“What is that noise?” said Sight, looking around. “Is this one of your tricks, boy?”
I was about to inform Sight that I was just as clueless as he was when something flew across the treetops, over our heads, and then landed opposite us. I twisted my head to the side to be able to see who had just arrived, and when I did, I was both pleased and surprised.
Standing opposite us was none other than Mecha Knight himself. He was in his full metallic powered armor, complete with the sword at his side. From where I was lying, he looked tall and powerful and there was no fear in his body language at all.
“Who are you?” said Twinfist. “And where did you come from?”
Mecha Knight raised his sword. “I am Mecha Knight, a member of the Leadership Council of the Neohero Alliance, and the supervisor of the Young Neos superhero team. I am surprised, however, that neither of you recognize me.”
“Why should we recognize you?” said Twinfist. “Are you famous or something?”
Mecha Knight shook his head. “Not very, but I suppose it doesn’t matter. I must ask you to let Bolt, who is under my supervision, go, or else I will be forced to use violence to save him.”
“Violence?” said Twinfist. He shook his head. “I don’t know how you found this place, but it doesn’t matter. You can’t beat both of us.”
“Or even one of us,” said Sight. He put a hand on Twinfist’s shoulder. “Brother, you stand back and make sure the kid doesn’t get away. I will deal with the armored one.”
“Are you sure?” said Twinfist. “Because there’s something about that guy that just pisses me off.”
“I am sure,” said Sight. He looked over at Mecha Knight again. “I seem to recall reading about him once. He doesn’t actually have any powers; he’s just a man in a fancy suit of armor, probably built in a cave with a box of scraps. He should be easy enough to take down with a few well-placed blows.”
I gulped. Sight was right about that. As far as I knew, Mecha Knight didn’t actually have any powers. He was just an ordinary guy in a suit of armor, like Sight said. Granted, Mecha Knight was supposed to be a good fighter, but considering Sight’s super speed and invisibility, I wondered how Mecha Knight was going to keep up in his heavy armor.
“Then come at me,” said Mecha Knight, holding up a hand and gesturing for Sight to attack. “I’m ready when you are.”
Sight smirked and then vanished into thin air. Instantly, I felt a familiar gust of wind go by me as Sight dashed toward Mecha Knight. I couldn’t see Sight at all, so I had no idea
where he was. And if I couldn’t see him, then Mecha Knight probably couldn’t, either.
Despite that, Mecha Knight didn’t seem even slightly surprised at Sight’s vanishing act. He just stood as still as possible, his head inclined slightly, like he was listening to something we couldn’t hear. I figured that he was probably listening for Sight’s footsteps, but even if he could tell where Sight was, I feared that Sight would be too fast for Mecha Knight to dodge.
Then, at the last possible moment, Mecha Knight whirled around and slashed his sword at what appeared to be nothing. At least, it looked like nothing until the sound of metal tearing through flesh could be heard, followed by blood appearing out of nowhere, which was immediately followed by Sight reappearing. His chest had a huge, bloody gash in it now where Mecha Knight’s sword had slashed; not deep enough to reach his heart, but deep enough to cut through his clothing and look extremely painful.
In fact, it was so painful that Sight had actually stopped. He clutched his bleeding chest in agony, while Mecha Knight just slammed his fist into Sight’s face with surprising speed. Sight immediately collapsed onto the ground, where he lay looking more dead than unconscious in a widening pool of his own blood.
“There,” said Mecha Knight. He looked over at Twinfist, who had taken a step backwards now. “Two of your friends are down now, Twinfist. Unless you want to join them, I suggest giving up now.”
Twinfist bit his lower lip, like he was unsure what to do, but then he shook his head and shouted, “I will avenge my brother! Take this!”
Twinfist ran over me and toward Mecha Knight, swinging both of his gloved fists at him. Again, Mecha Knight didn’t look even slightly afraid. He just raised his sword and blocked Twinfist’s fists before shoving him backwards and blasting him in the face with a sudden burst of energy from his gauntlet.
That blast knocked Twinfist down, apparently knocking him unconscious, because he did not get up again.
Mecha Knight shook his head again. “Too easy, though I suppose I shouldn’t complain.” He looked over at me. “Bolt, how do you feel? You look awful.”
Groaning, I sat up and rubbed the back of my head, saying, “I’ve been better. But what are you doing here? I didn’t tell you where I was going.”
“Carl told me,” said Mecha Knight. “He gave me a recording of the audio of your conversation with the woman named Emma. And I was then able to use Carl’s tracking systems to locate you via your suit-up watch, which I followed to this place.”
“Man, you were fast,” I said, “because I thought we were pretty far away from Hero Island.”
“Your father gave me a teleportation disk before he died, so I used it to get here,” said Mecha Knight, “but regardless, I came to help you because I thought you might need backup.”
“Thanks,” I said. “What about the rest of the team?”
“I told them to stay behind because I did not think they could handle the Test Subjects,” said Mecha Knight. “But perhaps I was mistaken, because both of these men went down very—”
Mecha Knight was interrupted when Twinfist—who had been pretty still this entire time—opened his eyes and sat up. He then pulled back his fist, which I realized was likely full of the kinetic energy from Mecha Knight’s face blast, and punched Mecha Knight directly in the stomach.
In fact, Twinfist’s hand actually went through Mecha Knight’s stomach, smashing through his armor and sending bits of metal everywhere as I shouted, “Mecha Knight, no!”
I fully expected to see Mecha Knight’s blood and guts go everywhere after this attack; in fact, I expected the attack to be lethal and for Mecha Knight to die on the spot. It didn’t help that Twinfist was laughing maniacally, as if he had indeed landed a lethal blow.
But to my surprise, there was no blood or anything leaking from Mecha Knight’s stomach. Sparks of electricity came out every now and then, but Mecha Knight stood motionless and calm, like he had not just been punched straight through the stomach. He just calmly looked down at his stomach area, as if he had accidentally spilled some juice on his shirt, while Twinfist yanked his fist out of Mecha Knight’s stomach and looked at the hole in horror.
“Huh?” said Twinfist. He sounded confused. “I thought you were a man in a suit of armor. Where is the man?”
Mecha Knight slammed the side of his sword against Twinfist’s face so hard and so fast that even I had a hard time keeping up. Twinfist fell back over again, only this time he seemed to be down for good.
But that didn’t change the fact that he had punched a hole straight through Mecha Knight’s stomach. I could see straight through the hole now, but again, no blood or guts or bone or anything organic was visible. There was just frayed and torn wire, bits and pieces of metal, a few sparks here and there, but nothing even slightly organic.
Mecha Knight covered the hole, though it seemed to be less out of pain and more due to the fact that he didn’t want it exposed. “What a bother. I should have seen that coming, but I guess he managed to fool me.”
I just stared at Mecha Knight in shock. “Mecha Knight … what …. why …”
Mecha Knight opened his mouth, maybe to explain, but then the doors to the barn slammed open, drawing both of our attention over to it as someone stumbled out of it. I didn’t recognize her at first, until I noticed her ninja clothing and realized that it was Emma. And she looked like she had been badly hurt.
Ignoring my own pain, I stood up and ran over to her as quickly as I could. I stopped by her side and rolled her onto her back, which gave me a good look at her face. Her face looked okay, but she had a large cut on her right cheek and it looked like she had been punched in the face. Her clothing was torn in a few places, revealing some cuts and wounds across her body.
“Emma, Emma, are you okay?” I said. I shook her gently, but she still didn’t open her eyes. “Emma, can you hear me?”
Finally, Emma opened her eyes. She looked a little confused for a moment, as if she wasn’t sure where she was, but when she saw my face, she reached up and grabbed my shoulder.
“Bolt …” Emma said. Her voice was startlingly weak. “I tried … but Echo heard the fighting outside and …”
Emma broke into a coughing fit, causing me to say, “Echo did what? What did she do?”
Emma managed to get her coughing under control just long enough to say, “Took your grandmother away. I tried to stop her, but … she beat me up and left me for dead.”
“Then you mean …” My voice trailed off as the implications of Emma’s story sank in. “That Grandmother is gone and we don’t know where she is.”
Emma nodded weakly. “Yes. I am sorry. You should go after her.”
I shook my head. “No. I’m going to get you some help and make sure that these three guys go to jail. If I don’t know where Grandmother is, then I can’t go after her.”
“Fine, but my master will be very angry …” Emma said. “Very angry indeed …”
“I know,” I said. “But right now, you just need to rest. I’ll talk to Grandfather about this myself, if he’s going to be that upset.”
“Very well,” said Emma. “Then I’ll just go back to sleep …”
Emma closed her eyes and appeared to drift back into unconsciousness.
I looked up at Mecha Knight, who was staring at me with what might have been confusion. “Mecha Knight, can you call the NHA and have them send some neoheroes to help? Please?”
“Yes, Bolt, I will,” said Mecha Knight. “Just hold on a minute, because it will take some time for the NHA to send anyone over.”
I nodded as Mecha Knight turned around and started speaking into a communication device built into his arm, calling for reinforcements from the NHA. I just knelt there, hoping that the reinforcements would arrive in time to help Emma and get these three bastards taken to jail, though I also wondered about the true nature of Mecha Knight and what that even meant.
Chapter Eleven
Hours later, Mecha Knight and I were alone in h
is office back on Hero Island. I had only been here once before, when I was first made the leader of the Young Neos and when Mecha Knight handed me the certificate that granted me membership in that team. That had been months ago now, but the office still looked pretty much the same as it had before.
It was a fairly wide-open room, with bookshelves full of a mixture of old books and various devices that Mecha Knight had built running along the walls. Because it was at the top of the main headquarters, it had a large window that provided an excellent view of Hero Island, though it had been darkened due to the fact that Mecha Knight and I were about to have a private discussion.
Mecha Knight sat in a chair on the opposite side of the desk, though I didn’t know why, given that he was a robot and not a human. He was in a new body—which meant he had multiple bodies, apparently, but I didn’t find that nearly as shocking as the idea that he was actually a robot—since the hole that Twinfist had punched through his old body had caused too much damage to repair. He was currently filling out a report on his laptop, which he told me was what he usually did after these kinds of conflicts. He said it wouldn’t take long, so I just had to sit tight and wait for him to finish and then we could talk.
As for me, I was also sitting down, although I was already getting restless. Healing Touch had healed most of my wounds, so I felt fine, but that didn’t mean I liked sitting there. I wanted to get up and walk around, but I also wanted to talk about Mecha Knight’s true nature and didn’t want to distract him, so I just sat there and took this moment to think about what happened after the end of our clash with the Test Subjects.
After Mecha Knight called the NHA, they had sent six neoheroes over to help. They had successfully captured Twinfist, Sight, and Cannon, though when they searched the barn, they did not find any clues that indicated where Echo had fled. Still, at least those three idiots were behind bars in Ultimate Max, or soon would be, anyway, because I had last been informed that they were being transported there by the NHA.
