by Lucas Flint
Radicles snorted. “Right, that’s what the government always says whenever they’re doing something they shouldn’t.” He shook his head. “But never mind that. I’m going to go in and find Shell, but you and your sister should stay out here. It would be totally uncool if one of my son’s friends and her sister got hurt because of me.”
“Hey, I can take care of myself,” said Blizzard. She gestured at Chip, who was still frozen to the ground. “See?”
“Right, like how you were taking care of yourself with those two gunmen,” said Radicles. “You totally didn’t need me to save you and your sister from getting shot in the back of the head terrorist-style.”
Blizzard couldn’t help but feel embarrassed. “That doesn’t—”
Blizzard was interrupted by a sudden shaking in the street. It felt like an earthquake, but that didn’t make any sense because Phoenix didn’t normally have earthquakes. That was when Blizzard realized that the source of the shaking came from the Unwanted’s base, like a bomb had gone off inside there that had been powerful enough to shake the street itself.
And before Blizzard or Radicles could react, the second floor of the building exploded in a great blast of fire and glass. Rebecca shrieked and covered her head with her hands again, while Blizzard and Radicles looked up at the blown out side of the building just in time to see a large, red energy bubble go flying out. The energy bubble had three people within it, but that was all Blizzard could see of it before the bubble fell toward the street below. Blizzard realized that the bubble was going to fall on them, but before she could move out of the way, Radicles grabbed both her and Rebecca, tossed them over his shoulder, and then ran out of the way of the bubble, moving fast despite carrying both of their weight on his shoulders.
A second later, the bubble hit the street and bounced a couple of feet into the air before it came to a stop. As soon as it stopped bouncing, the bubble popped, allowing Blizzard to see three people lying on the street. One of them was a man in his thirties wearing a goatee, the second a teenage girl she didn’t recognize, but she recognized the third, a short, scrawny thirteen-year-old with a large backpack on his back that was obviously meant to hide something. While the man and the girl were lying on the street with stunned and frightened looks on their faces, the thirteen-year-old was already scrambling to his feet, rubbing the back of his head as he looked up at the fiery inferno above that had once been the second floor of the building.
“Shell?” said Blizzard in shock. “Is that you?”
Shell suddenly looked over at Blizzard, shock on his face. “Blizzard? Dad? What are you two doing here?”
“We were about to ask you the same question, my dude,” said Radicles, putting his hands on his waist. “What’s up with the explosion?”
A sudden groan from the street caused Blizzard to look at the man with the goatee, who had pushed himself up to his hands and knees and was shaking his head. A simple wooden box lay next to him, but it must have been more valuable than it looked, because the man quickly snatched up the box, peeked under the lid, and then sighed in relief, like his worst fears had been disproved. He shoved the box into his pocket and rose to his feet, helping the girl up as well.
“How … how did we survive that?” said the girl, her voice shaky.
“My new powers,” said Shell, gesturing at himself. “I made a protective bubble around us. I don’t think Zanni was expecting that.’
“New powers?” Blizzard repeated. “What new powers? Who are these two? And who is Zanni?”
“My name is Eli Corey,” said the man. He gestured at the girl. “This is Sarah, a friend of mine. As for Zanni—”
A mad laugh suddenly came from the fiery hole in the side of the building above, causing Blizzard and everyone else to look up at it. At first, there was nothing other than whirling flames and smoke, but then a figure stepped out from the fire. Literally stepped out; he walked out of the building and onto the air as if there was solid ground under his feet. He wore a strange-looking mask that covered the upper half of his face, in addition to the odd, clown-like costume he wore on his body and the feathered hat atop his head. His blue eyes shined through the eye holes of his mask, but it succeeded only in making him look more demonic than anything.
“Ah, so there you are,” said the man in a high-pitched, amused voice. “The energy bubble was a neat trick, but it won’t save you forever.”
“Who the hell is that?” said Blizzard, staring up at the masked man in confusion. “Another Unwanted?”
“A Venetian,” said Shell. “His name is Zanni.”
Blizzard looked at Shell in shock. “A Venetian? Here? Are there any more?”
“He’s by himself,” said Shell in a hurried voice. “But it doesn’t matter. He’s absurdly powerful. He’s already killed Shade.”
“He killed Shade?” Blizzard repeated. “No way. She’s too strong.”
“Not as strong as Zanni,” said Shell. “Listen, we need to run, because he’s going to kill us all if we don’t.”
“Run from a villain?” Radicles said. “Dude, that’s totally lame and not at all radical. Real heroes never run from a fight. Let me show you how a true hero handles villains!”
Radicles suddenly jumped into the air toward Zanni, jumping far higher and faster than a normal human could. Shell tried to yell at him to stop, but he was too late. Radicles was flying through the air toward Zanni, who showed absolutely no fear or worry whatsoever as a large man wearing nothing but a toga came flying at him. Radicles pulled his fists back, no doubt to punch Zanni, but before he could hit him, Zanni held out a hand and Radicles just abruptly stopped in midair.
“Huh?” said Radicles, looking down at Zanni’s hand in surprise. “What the hell is this?”
Zanni didn’t respond, but Blizzard could see his grin grow even bigger even from a distance. He then flicked a finger toward Radicles and Radicles suddenly flew backwards toward the street as if he had just been hit by a truck. Radicles crashed into the street hard enough to crack the concrete and even create a small crater, where he lay quite still.
“Father!” Shell shouted, running over to him. “Father, are you okay?”
Blizzard would have run over to join Shell, but she wanted to stay next to Rebecca, who was whimpering again, staring up at Zanni, who looked more amused than ever as he looked down at everyone below. Blizzard had no idea what kind of powers Zanni had, but if he could take out Radicles in one hit like that, then she wasn’t so sure of her own chances of success against him.
“Was that ‘radical’ enough for you, dude?” said Zanni in a mocking voice. “If you thought that was radical, then wait for my next move. It will be hilarious.”
Blizzard gulped. She looked over at Shell, who was desperately trying to wake up Radicles, who appeared to have been either knocked unconscious by Zanni or possibly even killed; it was hard to tell, because he was so bloodied and damaged from the crash that he looked very much like a corpse. Blizzard looked over at Eli and Sarah, who looked even more afraid of Zanni than she did.
“Eli, you’re the leader of the Unwanted, right?” said Blizzard.
Eli nodded shakily. “Yes. Who are you?”
“Blizzard, one of the Young Neos,” said Blizzard. “Where is Shade?”
“I d-don’t know,” said Eli. “Zanni just made her vanish into thin air. I don’t know if she’s even still alive or not.”
Uh oh, Blizzard thought. And she was the person in charge of this mission.
Blizzard looked back up at Zanni. Although having never seen him before, she realized that he had to be even more powerful than his fellow Venetians if he had been able to make Shade ‘vanish,’ whatever that meant. And it didn’t matter if Shade was still alive or not; even if Shade had somehow survived whatever Zanni had done to her, Blizzard and the others would still have to fight for their lives without her help.
I need to call Bolt and the others, Blizzard thought. No way can Shell and I beat this guy on our own, even
if we work together.
Blizzard reached for her suit-up watch, but before she could tap its screen, Zanni raised a hand and snapped his fingers.
Immediately, the nearby dumpster came flying at her, Eli, Sarah, and Rebecca. It came too fast for Blizzard to dodge or for her to summon an ice wall to protect herself and the others; however, as it turned out, she didn’t need to, because Shell, still kneeling near his father, threw his hands up and all four of them were covered in a large red bubble. The dumpster slammed into the bubble at full force, but it did not pierce the bubble’s surface; instead, the bubble bounced the dumpster back, sending it flying into the side of the building it had been standing beside just moments ago.
As soon as the dumpster was gone, Shell dropped the shield, causing Blizzard to whirl around to face him. “Shell, how did you do that?”
“New powers,” Shell said. “I’ll explain later. Need to wake up Father first.”
Shell immediately went back to shaking Radicles, who still hadn’t woken up, but then Blizzard noticed Zanni turning his attention to Shell. Zanni raised a finger, no doubt to attack Shell while he was distracted, so Blizzard summoned a large huge sphere in her hands and shot it at Zanni as quickly as she could.
Zanni turned to look at the ice sphere just as it hit him in the face. The ice sphere hit him so hard that he went flying backwards into the still-burning second floor of the building with a huge crash, followed by more burning debris falling on top of him. Blizzard did not hear Zanni get up, but given how powerful he obviously was, she figured that he was going to be down for maybe a few seconds, and when he got back up, he would probably be angrier than ever.
Turning to Eli, Blizzard said, “Get my sister and your friend out of here. Once Zanni returns, he is going to be more violent than ever and he’ll probably try to kill us all. And since it doesn’t seem like you guys can fight, you need to leave and find the police.”
“Sure, sure,” said Eli, who still sounded incredibly shaken. “Yes, I will do that.”
“And keep my sister safe,” Blizzard added, poking a finger in Eli’s chest. “If you do anything to harm her or put her in harm’s way, I will hunt you down and make you pay. Got it?”
Eli nodded rapidly, looking so afraid that Blizzard half-expected him to get down on his knees and start kissing her feet in supplication. “Yes, yes, of course. We won’t harm her. We’ll make sure she gets to safety.”
“Good,” said Blizzard. “Now go. Shell and I will deal with Zanni.”
Eli nodded one more time and then, helping a far more shaken Rebecca to her feet, ran off toward one of the alleyways leading to the streets, with Sarah and Rebecca following him closely. Rebecca did look over her shoulder once as she ran, but she didn’t slow down. Blizzard did her best to give Rebecca a reassuring look, but given how absurdly powerful Zanni obviously was, Blizzard wasn’t sure if she and Shell would have any luck in defeating him.
Once Eli, Sarah, and Rebecca were gone, Blizzard turned around and ran over to Shell and Radicles. Up close, Radicles looked even worse; blood was leaking from his crown, while his sunglasses lay skewed on his face, showing that he had brown eyes just like Shell. His toga was torn as well, although thankfully it held onto his body in the spots where it hid his privates.
“Is he still alive?” said Blizzard.
Shell nodded, but he didn’t look up at her, his focus on Radicles, who he kept shaking. “Yes, but he’s unconscious. I’m afraid he might even be in a coma.”
“Just what we need,” said Blizzard. “The guy who is stronger than both of us put together knocked out. Lucky us.”
“Hey, if Father couldn’t beat Zanni, then how could we?” said Shell, looking up at Blizzard. “You need to call the rest of the team. We’ll need everyone to beat him.”
Blizzard nodded and reached for her watch again, but as before, she was interrupted by another explosion above. Something tall and flaming shot out of the burning second floor and landed on the street opposite them. The flames covering it rapidly died down until they revealed a very pissed-off, very angry-looking Zanni standing in the flesh. He looked no worse the wear for having been hit by a giant ice ball into a burning building, although Blizzard did notice that the tip of his feather was slightly burnt.
“Nice trick,” said Zanni. The humor in his voice was gone; it had been replaced by pure hatred. “Cheap trick, more like it, hitting me while I was distracted. It almost hurt.”
Shell stood up and tapped the screen of his suit-up watch, causing his suit to pop out of his watch and cover him. Shell then took a fighting stance, as did Blizzard, although Blizzard had the strongest feeling that they were not going to last very long against him.
“At least you two have decided not to run away,” said Zanni. “You are much braver than you look. Unfortunately, bravery won’t help you very much against my power.”
Zanni raised his hands again, but Blizzard summoned ice spears in the air that she launched at Zanni. Unfortunately, Zanni simply waved his hands and the spears vanished into nothingness.
“Still don’t get it, do you?” said Zanni. “There’s nothing you can do to beat me. Reality itself bends under my will.”
“Then why are you working for John Mann?” said Shell. “If you’re so powerful, why do you work for someone else?”
Zanni scowled. “That, my little turtle-shelled friend, is none of your business.” Zanni raised his hands again. “Enough talking. Time to die, but first, I want to play around with you a little, as I said before.”
Zanni thrust his hands toward Blizzard and Shell. Blizzard expected to get hit by something, but she did not feel anything hit her; however, she did feel something rush past her, like an ocean wave, but she didn’t understand what Zanni had done until she heard a cracking sound beneath her. Looking down, Blizzard saw a thick circle had appeared in the concrete around her feet, but before she could do anything, a portion of the concrete flew up into the air, with her still standing on it. She cried out in shock as her concrete platform flew up higher and higher into the air, her hair and cape flapping around her uncontrollably. Shell, Radicles, and Zanni grew smaller and smaller the higher up she went, until soon she couldn’t even see them. She was high above Phoenix now; she could even see the mountains in the distance, barely illuminated by the city’s lights.
The concrete platform came to an abrupt stop, nearly tossing her off it, although she managed to retain her balance. But being so high up made her feel dizzy; Blizzard tried not to look down, but she was so high up in the air that it was almost impossible not to look down.
And then, without warning, the concrete platform vanished into thin air and she went falling to the city below.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Shell watched as Blizzard shot up into the air out of sight. He would have shouted her name, but it would have been a pointless thing to do. All he could do was watch helplessly as Blizzard, standing atop a concrete platform, flew higher and higher into the air until she was out of sight. He wondered if Zanni had sent her into orbit or if he had simply sent Blizzard extremely high into the sky. Either way, Shell was on his own against Zanni now.
Looking at Zanni, Shell couldn’t help but feel a shudder of fear run through him. Shell had fought supervillains before, but Zanni was on a totally different power level from any he had faced previously. He remembered how Zanni had made Shade vanish, how he had taken out Father in one hit, and wondered if it was still possible to run and hide from this mad man.
But no, it wasn’t, so Shell stood his ground, even though he knew he couldn’t beat Zanni on his own.
“Not going to run away?” said Zanni. “You are far braver than I thought, even after you’ve had a taste of my power. I would compliment you for your bravery, but it seems more like stupidity at this point to me.”
“I’m not afraid of you,” said Shell. It was the only thing he could think to say to Zanni, because fear was overriding most of his critical thinking skills. “I’m not afraid of y
ou at all.”
“You should be, given what I’ve already done to your allies,” said Zanni. “But if you want to try and fight me, be my guest.”
Zanni snapped his fingers again. This time, several chunks of burning stone and sheet rock flew toward Shell. Shell immediately summoned a red energy bubble around himself and Father, causing the burning chunks of debris to bounce harmlessly off the barrier’s surface. Even so, the impact of so many chunks of debris hitting his shield at once left him more exhausted than he expected. He realized that the barrier was connected to his own stamina; the worse he felt, the weaker the barrier was. He had no idea if that meant that the barrier would break if enough force was applied to it or not, but such a realization made him feel far more fragile and vulnerable than he normally did.
Still, Shell knew he couldn’t afford to be on the defensive forever, so he dropped the barrier and summoned two red energy bubbles in his hands. He threw them both at Zanni, who looked genuinely surprised at Shell’s tactic. In fact, Zanni looked so surprised that Shell could create those small energy bubbles that he did not get out of the way of their trajectory. The bubbles slammed into Zanni’s chest and immediately grew in size, covering the entirety of Zanni’s torso in seconds.
“This feels warm,” said Zanni, looking down at the large red energy bubble now covering his body. “And inconvenient.”
Shell didn’t respond. He just thrust his hands forward and Zanni suddenly went flying backwards, thanks to the energy bubbles pulling him away. Zanni slammed into the side of the building, causing the energy bubbles to pop, and then he fell down to the street below. He landed on his hands and knees and gasped in pain.
Shell, on the other hand, just stepped backwards, panting already. He couldn’t believe that he had gotten a good hit on Zanni, but that didn’t mean his luck was going to last forever. He couldn’t fight Zanni effectively with Father lying unconscious at his feet, so he would have to take advantage of Zanni’s temporary stunned condition to move Father out of the alley, out of the vicinity of the fight.