by Lucas Flint
“Are you sure that’s what you saw?” I said. “I mean, are you really sure you saw him steal their souls?”
“Absolutely,” said Triplet, nodding. “I saw Reaper’s powers once, and they looked exactly like Matthew’s. I am certain of what I saw.”
“What does this mean, then?” I said. “Where is Grandfather now?”
“I don’t know,” said Triplet. “I looked for him after that, but I couldn’t find him. It was like he just up and vanished.”
“That’s not good,” I said. “But if Grandfather stole Savannah Jones’s soul, why? Why would he do that?”
“I have no idea,” said Triplet. “I am still trying to figure that out myself. I just wanted to let you know in case you knew where your Grandfather is.”
“Sorry, but I don’t,” I said. “If I did, I would tell you.”
Triplet cursed under his breath. “Fine. I’m good at tracking people down. Once I find him, I’ll let you know.”
“Why?” I said. “Won’t you be able to beat him yourself?”
“Won’t be that easy,” said Triplet. “If Matthew is as powerful as I suspect, I’ll need all the help I can get, and I trust you right now more than anyone, at least with this case.”
“Uh, thanks,” I said.
I was about to ask more questions, but then I heard Emily shout, “Kevin!” and I looked over and saw that Emily was nearly at the end of the line now.
So I looked at Triplet again and said, “Looks like I’ve got to go. Call me if you find Grandfather.”
Triplet nodded. “Sure. See you later.”
With that, Triplet turned and walked down the street. He soon vanished into the crowd of pedestrians that walked the streets of New York City, but I didn’t stand still long enough to see him leave. I just hurried back over to the line where Emily stood, getting next to her just as the couple in front of us got their tickets.
“What was Triplet talking with you about?” said Emily when I stopped next to her.
“Huh?” I said, looking at her in confusion. “Oh, nothing. Just something he thought I should know. It doesn’t concern you.”
Emily looked at me skeptically. “Are you sure? It didn’t sound very unimportant to me.”
“Yeah, I’m sure,” I said. I grabbed Emily’s hand, causing her to look at me in surprise. “Now, didn’t we promise that we weren’t going to talk about anymore superhero stuff for the rest of the day? Because if you break your promise, I’m never going to let you forget it.”
Emily’s surprised face turned into a smile and her grip on my hand tightened. “Oh, yeah, the promise. I didn’t forget it. No superhero talk.”
“No superhero talk,” I agreed.
When we were next in line, we got our tickets and entered the movie theater. And for the first time in a long while, I just forgot about all about my troubles and problems and let myself get lost in the movie we watched and my time with Emily.
Chapter Fourteen
“That was a surprisingly good movie,” said Emily as we exited the theater with the rest of the moviegoers a couple of hours later. She threw our empty popcorn bucket into the trashcan on our way out.
“Yeah,” I said, nodding. “The trailers made it look really stupid, but the movie itself was really interesting. Guess that just goes to show, you can never trust a trailer.”
“Agreed,” said Emily. “So what do we do next?”
We stopped next to the bus stop where I had had my conversation with Triplet hours before. The sun was higher in the sky than it had been before we entered the theater, but my watch showed me that it was just after lunch. That meant we still had plenty of time to do stuff together.
“Let’s see,” I said. I rubbed my stomach. “I’m hungry. And that popcorn didn’t cut it. Let’s go get lunch somewhere. There’s this great deli down the street that I used to go to all the time with my—”
A loud crash interrupted me, followed by the screams of innocent people and the mad laughter of someone who didn’t sound very sane. Emily and I looked in the direction that the crashing sound had come from and saw people fleeing from a nearby street, with cars backing up in the streets and loud police sirens going off, though I noticed that the clogged streets made it impossible for the police cars to get close to the scene of the incident. A huge burst of water briefly appeared in the sky above several nearby buildings before falling straight down, sounding like water dropped into a very large pool when it splashed against the concrete.
“What was that?” said Emily as the people ran past us screaming. “A supervillain attack?”
“Most likely,” I said with a sigh. I looked at Emily. “Do you think we should go and help?”
Emily sighed as well, but said, “We should at least check it out, since we seem to be the only superheroes in the area. But call for backup, in case this guy is too strong for us to beat on our own.”
I nodded and tapped my watch, sending a pre-written message for backup to the House. Carl would get that message and then tell the rest of the team about it and send them here. Until then, though, it would be up to Emily and I—or, I should say, Blizzard and I—to see what we could do.
We ran down the street in the direction that most of the other people were fleeing from. No one seemed to notice where we were going, which was good, because I didn’t want anyone to suspect our real identities.
A few seconds later, we reached the site of the area where we’d seen the water and heard the crash and stopped to look. We saw a strange sight playing out before us.
In the center of the alleyway was a sight I’d never seen before: A man made entirely of water, throwing water balls everywhere. He was much taller than either of us and he didn’t wear any clothes, although we thankfully couldn’t actually see anything on his body. It looked like he had burst out of the sewer, based on the open manhole next to him, and he was laughing maniacally, though his voice sounded slightly distorted and gurgled.
Emily and I quickly moved out of his field of vision.
“Who is that?” Emily whispered.
“No idea,” I said. “Never seen him before, but since no one else is here yet, we’ve got to stop him on our own. Get your suit on.”
Quickly, we ran into a nearby building, where no one else could see us, and then activated our suit-up watches. In seconds, we were both in our costumes again and then we ran out the building into the alley where the water man was still throwing water balls. But it looked like a police officer had arrived at some point, because there was an officer facing the water man, shooting bullets at him, but the bullets just flew harmlessly through the water man’s body and didn’t even seem to affect the guy.
“Pathetic,” said the water man with a sneer. “Perhaps you should take a swim.”
The water man hurled a large water fist at the officer. I instantly zoomed over, grabbed the officer, and pulled him out of the way just as the water fist crashed into the spot where the officer had been standing mere moments before.
We stopped at the other end of the alley, well away from the water man, who was now growling in anger at us.
“Are you okay?” I said to the officer, putting him down on the street. He was trembling, but he looked unhurt.
The police officer nodded, albeit very shakily. “Y-Yes.”
“Okay,” I said. “I’m Bolt, leader of the Young Neos and part of the Neohero Alliance. I’m going to need you to make sure that the people are safe and no one enters this alley while my teammate and I take down this guy. Okay?”
The police officer, however, shook his head. “No way. I’m part of NYPD. I should be fighting this guy, not you.”
“Listen, I know you want to protect the people, but you are no match for that guy,” I said. “Your bullets didn’t even scratch him. Just go and do what you can, which is to ensure that no one gets hurt or killed.”
The officer looked like he was about to argue with me, but then he nodded and said, “Okay. But I’m still calling for backup t
o help me keep civilians out of the area.”
“Good idea,” I said.
The officer got up and ran out of the alley, already shouting into a walkie talkie for backup. I immediately turned around to face the water man, while Blizzard ran over to join me.
The water man was now looking down at us in annoyance. “And just when I was having the most fun. I was looking forward to drowning that police officer on dry land, but I guess I’ll just have to settle for drowning you two instead.”
“Fat chance,” I said. “Who are you? Identify yourself or else.”
“Who am I?” said the water man. “I don’t remember my real name, but my friends always called me Drop.”
“Drop?” I said. “Never heard of you.”
“No surprise there,” said Drop, “given how most people haven’t. But I suppose that you have heard of my friends, haven’t you?”
I exchanged puzzled looks with Blizzard. “Friends? Who are you talking about? Are you part of some famous supervillain team or something?”
“We’re not ‘supervillains,’” said Drop. “We’re just men and women seeking to get the revenge we want on the man who ruined our lives.”
I gasped. “Are you one of the Test Subjects from Project Neo?”
Drop nodded. “Yes. Back in those days, I was known as Test Subject Zero Zero Four. And, as you can so clearly see, I am made entirely of water.”
“What are you doing here?” I said. “Are you after me?”
“What? No,” said Drop, shaking his head. “I was searching for your grandfather, Matthew Jason. Some of our friends here in NYC claimed that they saw him, so I came looking.”
“Grandfather is here in the city?” I said. “Where is he?”
Drop smirked. “Why should I tell you that? So you can save him? Please. I’m not that dumb.”
“If you tell us where he is, we won’t beat you and have you thrown into jail,” I said. “Or at least we’ll get the government to give you a lighter sentence than you’d normally receive.”
“Liars,” said Drop. He raised his fists. “I probably should not fight either of you, seeing as you two are not my target, but since I doubt you will leave me alone to search for Matthew in peace, I will crush you both and then resume my search.”
Drop fired two massive water balls at us. I grabbed Blizzard and flew both of us straight into the air just in time to avoid the water balls, which splashed onto the street and splattered everywhere. We rose above Drop, who looked up and followed us as we flew higher and higher into the air.
Once we were high enough, Blizzard thrust her hands down at Drop and sent icicles flying at him. But Drop just formed holes in his body that allowed the icicles to harmlessly pass through his form and shatter against the street behind him. Then he retaliated by shooting some water darts at us.
I turned in midair, allowing the water darts to fly harmlessly past us, and then landed on top of a nearby building, where I let go of Blizzard.
“Blizzard, I want you to stay up here and try to freeze Drop while I distract him,” I said to her. “Because he’s made out of water, I think that will be the best way to deal with him.”
“Sure,” said Blizzard, nodding. “I’ll do my best.”
I nodded in return and then flew back over the side of the building. Drop was still standing where he had been a moment ago, but when he spotted me, he thrust out his hand toward me. His arm suddenly elongated, flying through the air toward me until it slammed into me.
But instead of sending me flying, the water fist enveloped me, immediately cutting off my air. I gasped in pain, but before I could react, Drop slammed his fist—with me still inside it—down onto the street. The water exploded around me, allowing air to fill my lungs again, but the impact of the crash still jarred my senses, leaving me momentarily stunned.
Then I felt the street around me turning wet and I looked down and saw Drop’s water forming around me. He was obviously trying to hold me down so I couldn’t escape, but I quickly jumped to my feet and ran away just as two jaws made out of water rose from the liquid and slammed shut around where I had been lying just moments before.
Skidding to a halt across the slick concrete, I glanced at the top of the nearby building and saw Blizzard, her hands glowing, as she focused on Drop. Drop, thankfully, did not seem to notice her. He sloshed toward me, an angry scowl on his face, as he sent water everywhere. I didn’t see any ice forming on him yet, but since Blizzard look pretty focused, it was only a matter of time before she managed to freeze him.
So I activated my super speed and raced straight toward him. Drop actually stopped in surprise, which allowed me to easily run through him.
Or I would have, if his body hadn’t suddenly become like rubber. Somehow, his body became too solid for me to break through and I was sent flying backwards. I crashed into the side of another building, though thankfully not enough to smash through it or cause me any real pain, although it did temporarily daze me.
“What was that?” said Drop. He put his hands on his hips. “Did you seriously think I was about to let you run through my body like that? I’m not an idiot.”
I pushed myself off the building and shook my head. I glanced over the top of Drop’s head and saw Blizzard nod at me once. “No, but it was a good distraction, wasn’t it?”
Drop looked at me in confusion. “What?”
Ice started forming around Drop’s legs. Drop looked down in shock for a moment, but in seconds, he was completely frozen over from head to toe. As a result, his face was frozen (literally) in that same shocked expression, which made him look silly, but at least he wasn’t a threat anymore.
Then Blizzard created a long ice slide with her powers and slid down from the top of the building to the alleyway. Once she reached the bottom, she ran over to me and said, “Thanks for distracting him.”
“No problem,” I said. “But it was really you who deserves the praise. You took him down just like that. If you hadn’t frozen him, I probably wouldn’t have been able to beat him.”
“Let’s say it was a team effort,” said Blizzard. She looked up at the sky. “But I guess that means that we won’t need the others’ help, will we? We should probably call the team and let them know that we defeated Drop all on our own.”
“Right,” I said. “After we make sure the police can cart him off to prison, then we can even resume our date.”
I reached for my suit-up watch, intending to send a message to Carl telling him to tell the rest of the team to stay put, but then I noticed something odd about Drop’s frozen form: The surface of his body was starting to drip.
At first, I just thought that maybe the exposure to the sun was just making it melt a little, because it was a pretty hot and bright day. But then I noticed that it was melting far more quickly than it should have in this weather, almost like someone was shining a concentrated beam of heat directly onto its surface.
“Um, Blizzard?” I said, staring at Drop uncertainly. “What’s going on?”
But Blizzard looked too shocked to respond. She was staring at Drop as if she did not believe her eyes; in fact, she even rubbed her eyes and looked at him again, probably to make sure that her eyes weren’t playing tricks on her.
Before our startled eyes, Drop’s frozen form melted faster and faster, with chunks of ice outright falling off his body and crashing onto the streets. In seconds, Drop was totally unfrozen, but his body no longer looked nearly as calm as before. His skin—if you could call it that—was literally bubbling, even boiling, and he gave off an intense heat, like water boiling on a stove top, except ten times worse. Steam rose off his body, which made him look even scarier than usual.
“What an annoying power you have,” said Drop. His voice sounded like boiling water, which made it hard to understand his words. “Of course, as a being made of water, I should have seen this coming, but it was still inconvenient and I have the right to complain about it anyway.”
“How did you melt your own
body?” said Blizzard in shock. “You said you have water powers, not fire powers.”
“Water has a temperature, just like anything else,” said Drop. He smiled. “Because I can control water, that means I can also control the water’s temperature. So I can make it as hot or as cold as I like, though I have to avoid getting too hot, otherwise I risk steaming away my whole body. Though I doubt that will be a problem now; I will end this battle so quickly that I will be able to return to my normal temperature soon enough.”
Without warning, Drop thrust his hands at us. Two steaming jets of hot water soared toward us so fast that I could barely even follow them. I just reacted instinctively, shoving Blizzard out of the way and ducking just as the water jets shot over us and struck the wall behind us, hitting it so hard that they actually tore apart the brick and stone used to make it.
“Nice instincts,” said Drop, his voice becoming more and more distorted through his boiling mouth as he lowered his hands. “But not nice enough.”
Drop suddenly ran at me. As he ran, he turned into a huge wave of hot, boiling water. I immediately grabbed Blizzard and launched us both into the sky just as the wave came down on the street, sending scalding water splashing toward us, though we only got a few drops on our feet.
That is, until a hand made of water shot out of the wave and wrapped around my ankle. Hot! It felt like I had stuck my foot in a furnace. Though my costume kept my skin from getting scalded, I still felt the heat through the material and it was so hot that I almost dropped Blizzard, but I managed to escape it by increasing my speed and flying away from it toward the other end of the alley, tearing my foot out of the boiling hand.
Landing on the ground, I winced at my burned foot, while Blizzard said, “Bolt, are you okay?”
“Yeah,” I said, gingerly resting my burned foot on the ground. “It’s nothing serious. My suit protected me, but damn it that water hurts.”
