by Lucas Flint
Shade laughed. “Bolt, I always knew you were a little bit naïve, but this is a whole new level even for you. I mean, the last time you met Incantation, she tried to—”
“Shut up!” Incantation shouted. “Sarah, take her down!”
Sarah put her fingers on her temples and closed her eyes. Immediately, Shade’s hands flew to her head and she groaned in pain, falling to her knees like she had just been punched in the gut. I realized that Sarah was mentally attacking Shade, which made me feel bad for some reason, but I told myself that Shade was the enemy and that it was better for her to suffer mental damage than for her to stop our mission.
“Break her mind,” said Incantation, her voice full of gleeful malice. “We don’t want her following us or living long enough to tell her superiors what we’ve done.”
Sarah nodded and focused even more on Shade. Shade’s groans became screams of pain and agony, screams so painful and loud that they made me feel terrible for her. I couldn’t help it; even though she was the enemy, I couldn’t find any joy in seeing her in pain like that, almost like I was watching a friend or an ally get beaten than an enemy.
But then, Shade suddenly stopped screaming. She removed her hands from her head and slowly but surely rose back to her full height. Sweat was running down her temples, but Shade ignored that. She just thrust her hand out and a shadow tendril slapped Sarah in the face.
Sarah cried out in pain and fell to the floor, though she was not unconscious. She was, however, whimpering in pain, rubbing the spot on her face where Shade had struck her.
“Sarah!” Incantation said in shock. She looked at Shade with hatred in her eyes. “How did you fight her mental attack?”
“I’ve had plenty of practice warding off mental attacks with Director Smith,” said Shade, panting and wiping away the sweat like she’d just run a marathon. “Just in case I ran into telepaths like your ugly friend. Looks like all of that training in mental self-defense finally paid off.”
Incantation growled. She jabbed her wand out at Shade and a huge box suddenly materialized out of nowhere, a box full of spikes that looked like they could pierce through skin as easily as paper.
Shade had only a second to look surprised before the spiked box slammed shut around her, causing Incantation to say, “Ha! Take that.”
But then a familiar giggle came from the box and shadows began leaking out of the cracks. The shadows then rose and materialized back into Shade, who looked more amused than anything.
“Seriously?” said Shade, rubbing the back of her neck. “I see you’ve forgotten that I’m a shadow person, which means that knives and spikes and the like are basically useless against me. Good try, though. I always love magical tricks.”
“Bolt,” said Incantation, causing me to look at her. “Beat that witch’s head in! We don’t have much time. I bet the Secret Service agents are already on their way here, plus any of her fellow G-Men as well.”
A part of me was reluctant to fight Shade, but when I remembered just how urgent and important our mission was, I nodded and ran at her. I charged my fist with my red electricity—a move I seemed to remember doing somewhere else once before, but I couldn’t recall when or who I had been fighting—and sent it flying at Shade’s face.
But Shade immediately turned into shadow and sank into the floor, causing me to miss her face and go staggering into the closed box. I turned around just in time to feel something crawling up my legs and I looked down to see Shade’s shadows crawling up my legs like snakes.
I tried to pull my legs free, but the shadows’ grip on my legs was as tight as iron. I looked up at Incantation. “Help!”
Incantation immediately pointed her wand at my feet and the wand exploded into light. The light was so bright that it completely blinded me and probably would have caused my eyes serious if not permanent damage if I had not covered my eyes just in the nick of time. But the light faded pretty rapidly, allowing me to look down and see that my feet were free once again.
But Shade wasn’t gone. She had materialized several feet away from me, lying on the floor with a dazed look in her eyes, like she had been knocked silly. She didn’t even look capable of fighting anymore.
“What happened to her?” I said.
“Light,” said Incantation. She smirked at the dazed-looking Shade. “I figured that since she was darkness, she probably wouldn’t react well to a huge, sudden burst of light.”
“Good job,” I said. I held up the folder. “Now, let’s get out of here before her allies come to back her up.”
“Not yet,” said Incantation. She pointed at Shade sharply. “Kill that woman while we have the chance.”
I frowned. “Incantation, she isn’t a threat anymore. Killing her would be a waste of time.”
“Do you want her to come after us again?” said Incantation. “Because if she stays alive, then she will keep searching for us. The only way to ensure that she doesn’t come after us is to kill her outright.”
“But—”
“Don’t you love me?” said Incantation. Her voice suddenly became hurt. “Do you want that woman to live long enough to harm me again? If you truly loved me, you’d kill that woman and make sure she can never harm me or any other Visionist ever again.”
I hesitated. I did love Incantation, but at the same time, I really didn’t see the point in killing Shade. Shade may have been one of the enemies, but right now she was too dazed to even stand, much less fight or chase us. Besides, I didn’t know how much time we had left before Shade’s allies arrived to help her. I thought it would be more practical if we just left right away, even if that meant allowing Shade to live again to see another day.
But then, Incantation had a point. The whole world was against us. Why should I leave this woman alive? After all, our enemies had put our leader into a coma and were currently holding him hostage, doing who-knows-what to him. Besides, I was strong enough to kill her quickly; a simple lightning bolt to the head should suffice.
So I raised my hand and aimed it at Shade’s forehead. Shade was still too out of it to move. Red lightning crackled across my fingertips, illuminating Incantation’s triumphant and savage smirk as I steadied my aim.
But right before I could shoot, the door to the Oval Office burst open and half a dozen Secret Service agents stumbled in. The lead agent instantly pointed a gun at us and shouted, “Don’t move!”
Surprised, I just stood there, unsure what to do, before Incantation jerked her wand forward. The agent’s gun instantly turned into a dove, which flew out of his hands, but then the other agents immediately aimed their guns at us.
By this time, however, I had recovered from the shock. I lowered my hand and, activating my super speed, ran over and picked up both Incantation and Sarah just as the Secret Service agents began shooting at us. I dodged the bullets and jumped toward the window, smashing through it as a bullet whistled past my ear.
Landing on the front lawn of the Oval Office, we were suddenly bathed in a huge, bright white light that caused me to look up to the sky. A military helicopter was flying above us, the source of the light, and I could already see a sniper aiming his gun at us.
A second later, one of Hopper’s portals exploded into existence in front of us. Without thinking, I ran into the portal just as the sniper shot his gun, but I managed to dodge the bullet, although I heard it hit something that I didn’t see.
In the next instant, Incantation, Sarah, and I were back on the front lawn of the mansion, which looked exactly the same as it had when we left. The portal closed behind us as I fell to my knees, dropping Sarah and Incantation next to me as the adrenaline pumped through my veins.
Instantly, Wrath, Hopper, and Thaumaturge were above us. Hopper grabbed my shoulders and said, “Bolt, what happened? Did you get the files?”
I nodded and held up the folder. “Yes. This folder has the location of the Visionary’s prison. Mission accomplished.”
Thaumaturge snatched the folder from me and flipped
through it. His old features turned into a smirk that looked far too twisted to me. “Excellent work, Bolt, very excellent. Did you run into any problems while there?”
“Yes,” I said. “There was a G-Man agent named—”
A sudden wail of pain interrupted me, causing us to look at Sarah. She was lying on the ground where I had dropped her and was wailing in pain, which was the most high-pitched and annoying sound in the world.
But I forgot all about how I felt about her shrieks of pain when I saw that she was gripping her right shoulder, which was stained with blood.
“What’s the problem, girl?” said Wrath, bending down next to her. “Why’s your shoulder bleeding?”
“I …” Sarah gulped, tears streaming from her eyes. “I was shot.”
I cursed. I remembered the sniper getting off one shot, but I had thought none of us had gotten hit. Considering I’d been using my super speed to enter the portal, I found myself both annoyed and impressed with the sniper’s skills.
“Get Sarah to the mansion,” said Thaumaturge. “We have the expertise and supplies necessary to heal her wound, but only if we get her inside fast, before it becomes infected.”
“Gotcha,” said Wrath.
He scooped up Sarah in his arms—who was now just whimpering in pain—and ran up the lawn to the mansion’s front steps, with Hopper and Incantation following close behind with concerned expressions on their faces.
I was about to go and follow, too, but before I could, Thaumaturge put a hand on my shoulder and said, “Wait.”
I looked over my shoulder at Thaumaturge in disbelief. “Wait? What for? Sarah’s one of my friends. I need to make sure she’s going to be okay.”
“She’ll be fine,” said Thaumaturge. “It’s just a gun shot.”
“Gun shot?” I said incredulously. “You make it sound like a flesh wound.”
“Once we’re done with it, it won’t even be that,” said Thaumaturge. “But I wanted to tell you to come to my office, along with Hopper, Incantation, and Technical, so you can give me a report on what happened in the Oval Office once Sarah is healed.”
I frowned, but nodded. “Sure. Now can I go and make sure that my friend is going to be okay?”
Thaumaturge removed his hand from my shoulder. “Certainly.”
I turned and ran up the lawn, not looking over my shoulder back at Thaumaturge. I didn’t hear the old man following me, but I didn’t care if he did. I didn’t want Sarah to die from her wound because despite Thaumaturge’s assurances, I was still very worried about her health and chances of survival.
Chapter Seven
As it turned out, my worries were basically for nothing. Wrath—who said he had some experience in the medical field—managed to surgically remove the bullet from Sarah’s shoulder and close the wound cleanly. In fact, he did it so professionally that Sarah didn’t even scream, though she did whimper throughout the whole process.
But according to Wrath, Sarah would still need to rest and would not be allowed to leave her bed for a while, meaning we’d need to get her food, water, and stuff like that. Sarah, for her part, didn’t seem upset about that. She actually seemed excited at the thought that she’d get to lie around and tell us what to do; I mean, she didn’t say it, but when Wrath mentioned that it would fall on us to meet her needs until she recovered, all of her moaning about her pain vanished and she put on the smuggest grin I’d ever seen on another human being’s face. It made me wonder, if only for a moment, why I was even friends with her, but that thought left my mind as quickly as it came and I soon forgot all about it.
But, while Sarah was given the opportunity to rest, the rest of us weren’t. Thaumaturge summoned us to his office—a nice, large room on the second floor, complete with polished oak desk and bookshelves containing old book after old book, many of which had titles in languages I could neither read nor recognize—in order to debrief and discuss our next course of action.
Sitting in the comfy chairs on the other side of the desk, Incantation and I explained everything that had happened at the White House. Thaumaturge listened well, as did Hopper and Technical, but none of them looked very happy to hear that the G-Men had apparently foresaw our attempt to get the folder with our leader’s location in it.
When I finished, Thaumaturge stroked his chin. The folder was on the desk in front of him, opened to the first page, where I saw the picture of the Visionary’s old face upside down. Again, I had this strange sense of revulsion when I saw the picture of the Visionary, even though I wasn’t sure why.
“This is bad,” said Thaumaturge after a few seconds of contemplation. “Very, very bad.”
“How did the G-Men know we’d be there?” said Hopper, his voice panic-stricken. He pulled at his dreads. “Do we have a spy on the inside?”
“Unlikely,” said Thaumaturge. “Each member of Vision goes through a vigorous test to ensure their loyalty to the Vision. If they fail the test, their memory of the test is wiped and they are not admitted into the organization, meaning that they never get a chance to learn anything of importance.”
“Shade said it was because Director Smith suspected we’d try to break into the Oval Office,” I said. “Said that since I’d ‘disappeared’ a week ago, Director Smith expected we’d try this, which is why he assigned Shade to protect the folder there.”
Thaumaturge—who had been stroking his chin all through my explanation—suddenly halted, a look of alarm appearing his eyes briefly. “’Since you disappeared’? What did she mean by that?”
“Nothing,” Incantation said. “That woman is nothing more than a liar and deceiver. She was trying to confuse Bolt by taking advantage of his amnesia. Just a psychological tactic meant to disorient him, a typical G-Man tactic. That’s all.”
I nodded. “Incantation is right. I don’t remember ‘disappearing’ last week and I certainly don’t remember Shade. She didn’t seem like an honest person, so I think she was just lying.”
But frankly, I felt like I was the one lying here. I mean, yes, I didn’t have any memories of Shade, but there was something intensely familiar about her. Maybe I’d known a woman just like Shade once, but had forgotten about her at some point. But that didn’t seem quite right; even with amnesia, I doubted there was any way I could ever forget a woman like her.
Yet I did not say that aloud, because I didn’t know if there was anything to this feeling of mine. It was probably nothing more than another product of my amnesia. No doubt it would go away with time … I hoped.
“Yes, the G-Men are very good at psychological warfare, due in no small part to the help of their telepathic leader,” said Thaumaturge. “I am glad that you did not fall for her lies, Bolt. Otherwise, the mission would have been a failure and none of you would have returned alive.”
“Yeah,” I said, still not showing my doubts. “She wasn’t a very convincing liar.”
“Right,” said Thaumaturge. “Now onto the matter of our leader’s location.” He tapped the folder lying open in front of him. “I studied this folder while you were watching Wrath heal Sarah. It does, indeed, tell us where the Visionary is being kept and what they are doing to him.”
“Is he safe?” said Incantation, putting her hands together like she was praying to a god. “Is he still in good health?”
“He’s still alive, but apparently has yet to awaken from his coma,” said Thaumaturge. “They’ve done surgery on his head and brain and are keeping his body alive with some life support machines, but they’re studying his brain.”
“Why?” I said. “What are they looking for?”
“I am unsure,” said Thaumaturge. “The notes say that scientists are trying to see if they can figure out which part of the brain generates superpowers.”
Incantation grimaced. “Neogenetics. Ew.”
“I know,” said Thaumaturge. “When will they ever learn that powers are a social construct? In any case, they haven’t had much luck so far. Apparently, the bullet to the brain damaged the
Visionary’s brain pretty severely.”
“Meaning that even if we rescue him, he might be too brain dead to even speak?” said Hopper fearfully.
“The Visionary is a wise and intelligent man,” said Thaumaturge. “Even if his brain was damaged, I doubt his wisdom will be. Yet even if it is, we must still rescue him, because without his guidance and presence, Vision will fall apart and the world will continue in its intellectual ignorance about the truth behind superpowers.”
I stood up. “Then let’s go. I’m ready to save him now.”
Thaumaturge looked me in the eyes. “No. We are not going to the facility where our leader is kept.”
Incantation, Hopper, and I stared at Thaumaturge in shock.
“What … what did you say?” said Incantation. “You didn’t just say we’re not going to break into the facility where our leader is being kept, did you?”
“I did,” said Thaumaturge. “You heard correctly.”
“But he’s our leader,” said Hopper. “This is the first clue to his location that we’ve ever found! Why shouldn’t we go and rescue him? Do you think we can’t break into the facility or something?”
“No, I think we can,” said Thaumaturge. “I even think we could get to the exact room where he’s being kept.”
“Then why don’t we?” I said. “Heck, I could probably do it myself. I’ll just tear the place apart and take down anyone who gets in my way, G-Men or otherwise.”
“Because the government will be expecting it,” said Thaumaturge. “You don’t understand. Cadmus Smith is a dangerously clever and intelligent man. He probably already knows about the theft of the folder, even though it’s been less than an hour since the theft, which means that he knows that we now know where our leader is also.”
“So what?” I said. “Who cares if the government is expecting it? The government can’t stop us.”
“Actually, they can,” said Thaumaturge. “I know Cadmus from my years as a member of the Neohero Alliance. I worked alongside him to fight off the first Pokacu invasion. Trust me when I say that he will expect us to break into the place where our leader is being kept and will have set a trap accordingly to catch or even kill whoever we send there.”
