by Lucas Flint
“I love seeing your kind scramble like ants,” said the Neo-Killer as he finished reloading his gun. “It’s a nice change of pace, given how it is normally us humans who have to scramble whenever your kind are rampaging through our streets. Can you taste the fear, kid? Because I can, and it’s delicious.”
Breathing hard, I pulled my pole staff out and snapped it to its full length. “Just because I don’t have my powers anymore doesn’t mean I’m defenseless, Neo-Killer.”
“No, it does not,” the Neo-Killer agreed, “but it does make you vulnerable. And vulnerability is really what makes humans, human, you know?”
Growling, I stepped forward, only for my foot to land on what felt like a disk underneath the snow. A second later, a cloud of powerless gas exploded all around me, making me gasp and cough as I inhaled more of that stuff. I staggered forward until I got out of the cloud, but when I looked around, the Neo-Killer was nowhere to be seen.
“Val?” I said, rotating on the spot to look for the Neo-Killer. “Can you sense the Neo-Killer anywhere? I can’t see him.”
“Don’t bother,” came the Neo-Killer’s voice from the shadows around us suddenly. “I’ve got a special anti-tracking device on me that makes it impossible for everything short of a NASA satellite to pinpoint my location. Your silly little AI isn’t going to be of much help here.”
“The Neo-Killer is correct,” said Valerie in a tone that was far too calm for this situation. “My sensors only pick up two life forms in the area: You and Black Blur. I cannot locate the Neo-Killer.”
I gulped, not just because of what Valerie said, but because of the implications behind her statement:
Not only was the Neo-Killer back to life somehow, but he had also learned from his mistakes. And this time, I wasn’t so sure I could beat him.
CHAPTER TWENTY
My thoughts were interrupted by another random gunshot from the darkness around us. It struck the snow at my feet, making me jump and look around in bewilderment again, but I still couldn’t see the Neo-Killer anywhere.
Harsh laughter exploded from the darkness around us. “Ha! Man oh man do I love the look of fear on your face. But you know what I love even better? The knowledge that you are going to die tonight, alone and afraid, and there’s not a damn thing you can do about it. No one is going to come in and save your day. It’s just you and me, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Deciding I was a sitting duck just standing here, I took another step forward, only to feel my foot catch something and suddenly see a tree branch flying at me. The tree branch slammed into my face, knocking me flat off my feet again and leaving me feeling dazed again.
More laughter seemed to come from every direction around us. “Oh, how rude of me. I forgot to mention that before you came out here, I booby-trapped nearly the entire area around you. You can’t go two steps without walking into one of my many, many traps. But don’t worry. None of them are lethal. I want to save your death for my own two hands.”
Gritting my teeth, I slowly rose to my feet, using my pole staff for support. I saw his game now. The Neo-Killer was playing with me, trying to use a combination of the shadows, the powerless gas, and his traps to scare and confuse me. He was probably trying to weaken me so he could finish me off himself.
This normally wouldn’t have impressed me that much, but with my powers gone, I was as vulnerable as a kitten. It was only a matter of time before the Neo-Killer got bored of watching me stumble into his traps. Once that happened, I was sure that he’d take me out in no time.
But like I told him, just because I happened to be powerless did not mean I was defenseless.
I twisted my Teleportation Buckle and teleported up to a nearby tree branch, which managed to hold my weight. Looking down, I heard the Neo-Killer curse and say, “Hey, where did you go?”
I smirked. “You’re not the only one who has a few toys, Neo-Killer. I’ve got toys, too. And they’re better than yours.”
A gunshot rang out and a bullet flew by a few feet away, nearly knocking me off my branch. I looked down and saw the Neo-Killer looking up at me, taking aim with his gun once again.
“Nice toys don’t matter if you keep blabbing like an idiot,” said the Neo-Killer. “Then again, you never were one for stealth, were you?”
Seeing that I had no choice, I twisted my Buckle again just as the Neo-Killer fired another bullet. I teleported behind the Neo-Killer and slammed my pole staff against his back, causing a loud ringing sound as my staff struck his armor. But then the Neo-Killer whirled around and kicked me in the face, sending me staggering backward from the blow.
As I staggered, however, I could feel my super strength coming back to me. I realized that the Neo-Killer hadn’t hit me with a lot of powerless gas, which explained why my powers had come back so quickly. A big grin grew across my face as I came to a stop and the Neo-Killer aimed his gun at me again.
But he didn’t get another chance to shoot, because I used my super speed and bolted toward the Neo-Killer faster than his eyes could follow. When I got close enough I threw one super-powered punch directly at the Neo-Killer’s chest and it connected.
To my shock, however, the Neo-Killer did not go flying backward like he did the last time I punched him that hard. Instead, his armor briefly glowed red for some reason and then it rebounded. The impact of the rebound sent me flying backward. I crashed into a tree hard enough to make all of its snow fall down on me, partially burying me under several pounds of snow.
Before I could get up, the Neo-Killer fired a powerless pellet at me, which struck me in the face and made me cough and gasp as I inhaled some of it. Then the Neo-Killer ran over to me and, picking me up with one hand, slammed me against the tree and put his gun directly against my forehead.
“Surprised, kid?” said the Neo-Killer. “Don’t be. My armor is made out of Indestructonium. When I first got it, I was a little skeptical it would protect me from a super like you, but it looks like my skepticism was unjustified. It was worth it just to see the look on your dumb face when your precious super punch did nothing to stop me. Now let’s see just how many bullets I need to put in you before one of them pierces your thick skull and turns that lumpy brain of yours into slush.”
The Neo-Killer’s finger started to depress the trigger of his gun, but before he could finish pulling it, I caught the sight of movement behind him, moving almost too fast for my eyes to follow. It looked oddly familiar, but it also blended in well with the surrounding darkness too much for me to tell what it was exactly.
Then the Neo-Killer’s gun was just … gone. One moment it was in his hand. The next, his hand was completely empty and the gun was nowhere to be seen.
“The hell?” said the Neo-Killer, looking at his empty hand. He looked at me. “Is this another one of your tricks, kid?”
I shook my head. “No. I have no idea what happened.”
The Neo-Killer grunted. “Never mind, then. I’ll just grab my—Hey! Where did my knife go?”
The Neo-Killer was patting the sides of his pants, although when I looked down, I saw that all of his extra weaponry was gone like it had vanished into the wind. I found myself worried that there might be ghosts in this forest after all, although I guess I shouldn’t have been very worried, because they seemed to be helping me at the moment.
“What is going on here?” said the Neo-Killer. He looked around. “Whoever is stealing my stuff, show yourself! Or are you just going to pickpocket me like some kind of—”
The Neo-Killer didn’t get to finish his sentence, because at that moment two hands appeared on his shoulders and jerked him back. The Neo-Killer let go of me, causing me to fall down on the snow, but even before I fell, the Neo-Killer suddenly vanished just like his weapons.
Immediately, I tapped my earcom and said, in a hurried voice, “Val, what’s going on? Can you sense anyone else in the woods other than me and the Neo-Killer?”
“No,” said Valerie. “My sensors still only pick up thre
e living beings: You, the Neo-Killer, and—”
Valerie was interrupted by a loud scream above. In the next instant, the Neo-Killer smashed through the tree branches until he hit the ground hard enough to send puffs of snow flying into the air. His sudden appearance startled me, but despite how far he must have fallen, the Neo-Killer still tried to get up. Before he could rise to his feet, however, thick ropes appeared around his shoulders and yanked him up into the air, his feet dangling below him as he hung from a nearby tree branch like a swing.
“The hell?” said the Neo-Killer again. “What happened? How did I—”
The Neo-Killer was interrupted when the ropes suddenly loosened and sent him falling. He slammed into the ground again, only to be pulled back up into the air by the ropes. Now he was a lot stiller, although he seemed to be more afraid than anything. Chunks of snow were jammed between the plates of his armor as he hung from the ropes.
“Whoa,” I said, staring up at the Neo-Killer. “Who could have done that?”
I suddenly heard a grunt nearby and looked over into the shadows. I saw a figure standing in the shadows between two trees, but the darkness made it impossible to tell who he was for sure. Nonetheless, I scrambled to my feet and picked up my pole staff, which I had dropped when my punch rebounded against the Neo-Killer’s armor, and said, “Hey, who are you?”
The figure in the darkness did not answer. Instead, he strode forward step by step until he appeared under the light of the moon and stars above, allowing me to see that it was Black Blur—still bloody and beaten—holding onto the end of the ropes which held the Neo-Killer up in the air.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
“Black Blur?” I stared at him in shock. “How did you get down from the tree?”
Black Blur grunted. “While you were busy getting your behind handed to you, the powerless gas the Neo-Killer sprayed me with wore off and I was able to free myself with my super speed. Admittedly, it took me slightly longer than usual due to my injuries, but not as long as you’d think.”
“So you were the one stealing the Neo-Killer’s weapons?” I said, glancing up at the captured Neo-Killer, who suddenly looked a lot less threatening unarmed and tied up. “It looked like they were teleporting away.”
“I’m a speedster,” said Black Blur with a grunt. “I know you have super speed as well, but yours is weaker than mine because you don’t use it as much as me. As a super with a single power, I am forced to specialize.”
I gaped. As irritating as Black Blur could be, I had to admit I now saw why he was on the Leadership Council. With power like that, he could easily keep up with the likes of Omega Man and Lady Amazon, if not surpass them. I was glad that Black Blur was on my side because I wasn’t sure I could keep up with him in a race, although I could probably beat him in a fight … if I could touch him, that is.
“Your injuries,” I said, gesturing at Black Blur’s chest. “We need to get you to a hospital right away.”
Black Blur shook his head. “First, we have the dead man here talk. Then we can leave. Not before.”
I bit my lip, but Black Blur’s tone made it clear he had no intention of arguing the point with me. I half-wondered if Black Blur’s super speed meant that his own body’s natural healing properties were faster than normal. Somehow, though, I doubted his body could heal a gaping chest wound like that so easily.
In any case, I looked up at the Neo-Killer and said, “All right, Cobra Commander, we’ve got some questions for you, questions you’ll have to answer if you want to get free.”
The Neo-Killer looked down at me and, although I could not see his face, I could tell he was glaring at me. “Choke on snow, super. I’m not telling you anything.”
Black Blur looked at the ground with interest. “Interesting choice of words there, Neo-Killer. We could make you choke on snow instead. I wonder how much snow you could shove down a mouth as big as yours before you start choking. Want to find out?”
The Neo-Killer stiffened. I had to admit I was also taken aback by Black Blur’s threats, but I guess he wasn’t exactly in the mood to be nice after what the Neo-Killer did to him.
“First question,” I said, looking back up at the Neo-Killer again. “How did you come back to life? Last I saw, your body got caught in the self-destruction of Vault B. We couldn’t even find your body when we went to look for it later.”
The Neo-Killer looked away. “I died on the first day and rose from the grave three days later for all your sins. I’m Jesus freaking Christ, the Son of—”
Black Blur yanked hard on the rope, but instead of making the Neo-Killer face plant, he just made him jerk up and down several times. It looked really uncomfortable, especially in the heavy armor the Neo-Killer wore.
“No smart-aleck jokes,” said Black Blur coldly. “Or we’ll get enough evidence for my snow choking theory that we’ll be able to publish it in a respectable peer-reviewed scientific journal.”
“Okay, fine,” said the Neo-Killer, waving his hands. “I … I’m not sure how I came back to life. All I remember is everything going dark after you punched me, and when I woke up again, I was in this weird pod in some factory somewhere.”
I frowned. “What kind of pod are we talking about here?”
“The kind you find peas in,” the Neo-Killer said. Black Blur’s grip tightened on the rope, however, and the Neo-Killer hurriedly added, “That was just a joke. It was some kind of tube, actually. I was completely naked, although I was given a jumpsuit to wear by this lady I didn’t recognize. I also got to meet this old guy who called himself Benefactor, who said he saved my life after you almost killed me.”
My eyes practically popped out of my sockets. “Benefactor? Do you mean Seth Richards?”
“Hell if I know his name,” said the Neo-Killer. “I just remember him from the last time I spoke to him. He was the guy who told me about you, by the way. Expressed his condolences for my failure, but offered me a second chance to get you. He was the one who gave me this Indestructonium armor, as well as those powerless gas traps. Nice guy, if a bit weird.”
Black Blur did not seem to comprehend what the Neo-Killer was saying, but I did. The Neo-Killer hadn’t been resurrected at all. In fact, this guy we were talking to wasn’t even the original Neo-Killer.
He was a clone, identical in every aspect to the original Neo-Killer, but technically a different being. He acted very similar to another clone I’d fought last month, a clone of the supervillain Phaser, and like Phaser, he seemed to have all his old memories back somehow. This despite the cloning process being unable to replicate a person’s memories and personality … or so I was told, anyway. I wondered what else I’d been told about the clones that wasn’t entirely true.
Questions for another time, however. We still needed information from the Neo-Killer.
“So Seth sent you to kill me?” I said. “Is that it?”
The Neo-Killer made an awkward shrugging motion in midair. “More or less. He gave me your location and told me to take you out, although he also ordered me to get a sample of your DNA for some reason. Not sure why, but unlike you supers, I repay my debts, so I agreed to his demands. I was a little surprised when I found Black Blur, but taking him out wasn’t hard.”
“Only because you got the drop on me,” said Black Blur. “Yet look at how the tables have turned.”
“Not my fault you supers are made of iron,” the Neo-Killer said. “You’re freaks of nature, every one of you. If I was the President of the United States instead of that blonde-haired idiot, I’d have the whole lot of you sent to—”
“Why does Benefactor want a sample of my DNA?” I asked. “Did he say?”
“Nope,” said the Neo-Killer. “And like I said, I didn’t care. I personally don’t see any worth in the DNA of you freaks, but it’s not my place to judge that, so I agreed to do it anyway.”
I expected the Neo-Killer’s answer, so I wasn’t surprised. Honestly, I really shouldn’t have even asked the question, because I p
retty much knew the answer already. I guess a part of me was just hoping that I might be wrong.
“This factory you woke up in,” I said. “Where is it?”
“I don’t know the exact location,” said the Neo-Killer. “Benefactor told me it wasn’t information I needed to know, probably just in case of a situation like this happening. I am under the impression that the two of you aren’t exactly best friends.”
“That’s putting it mildly,” I said. I looked at Black Blur. “Think that’s enough questions for now?”
Black Blur—who was now shaking, probably more due to his untreated injuries than the cold—nodded slightly. “Yes. We’ll use your Teleportation Buckle to get back to Showdown and then we’ll hand the Neo-Killer over to the authorities so they can do with him as they see fit.”
I grinned and looked up at the Neo-Killer. “Did you hear that, Neo-Killer? We’re going to give you to the government. They’ll probably throw you into Ultimate Max with all of the other superhuman prisoners there. I’m sure the supervillains imprisoned there will be happy to meet the guy who has gone around indiscriminately murdering superheroes and villains.”
The Neo-Killer, however, shook his head. “Sorry, but I still like my freedom.”
Without warning, spikes popped out of the Neo-Killer’s shoulder armor, neatly splicing the ropes apart. The Neo-Killer suddenly fell to the ground, but before he hit the snow, he pulled a small Teleportation Disk out of his armor and slammed it against his chest and instantly vanished, leaving Black Blur and I standing in the forest all by ourselves in surprise.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
“And he’s completely missing?” said Blizzard a few hours later. She was lying on my bed on her side, her head propped up by her hand, staring up at me with her beautiful blue eyes.