by Lucas Flint
“Okay,” said Blizzard. “Keep it. Not like I really need it anyway. I’m just going to call the police and the other Young Neos and take my sister home. Are you going to stay?”
Eli shook his head. “No. Me and Sarah will leave. Chip and the others have already escaped, after all. We have no reason to hang around here any longer than we have to.”
Blizzard suddenly looked around the street. The spot where she had frozen Chip was shattered, covered in ice shards, which indicated that Chip had indeed escaped somewhere during the middle of the battle; the two gunmen who had threatened Rebecca were also gone, much to Blizzard’s annoyance.
Blizzard looked at Eli again. “I don’t want you to leave. Your men threatened my sister and me.”
“I didn’t tell them to do that,” said Eli. “Besides, are you really in any condition to fight me or Sarah? You look rather tired.”
Eli had a point. Blizzard found herself exhausted from all of the fighting. That didn’t even take into account Radicles’ injuries or Shell, who looked very tired himself. Neither Eli nor Sarah looked very powerful, but they also looked a lot less tired than Blizzard and Shell, and Blizzard didn’t want to risk fighting them, especially since she didn’t know their powers.
“Fine,” said Blizzard. “Leave, then. But if you or any of your thugs go after my sister again, I will turn you into the world’s most realistic ice sculpture.”
Eli said nothing to that. He merely nodded once to show that he understood, shot Shell a meaningful glance that Blizzard didn’t understand, and then turned and left, with Sarah walking closely by his side. Blizzard watched them go until they disappeared into the darkness of a nearby alleyway; then she tapped the screen of her suit-up watch and sent a message, first to Bolt with her and Shell’s location, and then to the police with the same information. She hoped that neither Bolt nor the police would wait too long; she just wanted to go home, take a shower, and go to bed.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Five days later …
Shell walked through the hallways of the large city hospital where Father was staying. He passed doctors and nurses going to and fro, as well as patients being wheeled out of rooms or making their way down the hallways. No one paid him much attention outside of the amount necessary to avoid walking into him, but that was fine by Shell, because he didn’t want to be noticed. It helped that he was just wearing normal clothes today; a large, baggy blue t-shirt and similarly-colored blue jeans, which helped hide the shell on his back. In his hands he carried a bag containing a burger and fries, which he had gotten from the nearest fast food restaurant, as he remembered from his childhood that Father liked that particular restaurant over the others and he wanted to surprise Father with the food, especially since Father had been complaining about the hospital food.
It was especially important that Shell see Father, since today was Shell’s last day to see him. Tomorrow, Shell and the other Young Neos would all be going back to Hero Island, where they would return to their usual superhero duties and lives.
Then again, our trip to Phoenix wasn’t much of a ‘vacation,’ if you ask me, Shell thought. Given how we battled two supervillains over a course of two days, I am not sure going back to Hero Island is going to be all that different, except maybe colder and wetter.
After the battle with Zanni, the Phoenix police had arrived at the scene of the battle faster than the other members of the team. The police had questioned Shell and Blizzard about everything that happened and both of them tried to answer all of their questions as truthfully as possible—well, Blizzard did; Shell had to omit a few facts in order to make sure that no one knew how he got his new powers. Not that the police seemed to notice; they were more concerned with making sure that no one had been killed and that the property damage had not been too severe to care about his powers. Blizzard had given the police Mecha Knight’s phone number. According to Blizzard, the Young Neos’ usual policy when dealing with police in cities outside of New York was to have them call the NHA and discuss the matter with them; Shell had not known that until today, but he didn’t complain about it, since he didn’t like talking to the police and answering their seemingly endless questions so much.
Shortly after the police had arrived, the rest of the Young Neos appeared. Despite how tired all of them looked at being awakened in the middle of the night, the team nonetheless made sure that Shell and Blizzard were okay and that they didn’t need any medical attention. Blizzard did most of the talking, explaining to the other members of the team what she and Shell had been doing, while Shell helped fill in the parts that Blizzard did not know anything about. He felt really sheepish speaking to the rest of the team and found it hard to meet their eyes, especially Bolt, who had looked extremely displeased at the revelation that both Shell and Blizzard had sneaked out of the house without telling him.
As a matter of fact, Bolt had told Shell off for sneaking out of the house. He had told off Blizzard, too, but Blizzard justified her decision by telling Bolt that she had been working with the government and that she had intended to tell him about it as soon as she got back from the mission. That didn’t seem to help Bolt’s mood, although given how happy he seemed to be with Blizzard afterward, perhaps he had not been as annoyed as he looked. In any case, Bolt told both Shell and Blizzard that he didn’t want them sneaking off like that again, and that if they did, he would ground them on Hero Island for a month. The only reason he didn’t do it this time was because Shell and Blizzard had defeated Zanni, but Shell could tell that Bolt was serious about the punishment anyway, so he made a mental note to avoid going out without telling anyone like that again.
Speaking of Zanni, the Venetian had been taken into custody by the police. The original plan was to have him shipped off to Ultimate Max, where he would be interrogated by the government, but the very next day after he was taken in, there was a report on the news that Zanni had vanished from his cell in the jail in which he had been kept. It was thought that he had used his powers to escape, but that didn’t make any sense because the police had sprayed him with some powerless gas. Shell’s theory was that John Mann had sent one of the other Venetians to break him out before he could spill the beans about Mann’s plans; whatever the case, neither Shell nor any of the other Young Neos had seen Zanni anywhere since his escape from jail. Perhaps Zanni had decided to leave them alone for a while or maybe John Mann had given him orders to leave the team alone. Regardless, Zanni, like the other Venetians, would be put into the NHA’s supervillain database, which meant that it would be much harder for Zanni to go unnoticed in public by NHA members in the field.
Even so, Shell had kept a careful eye on his surroundings every time he and the other members of the Young Neos went out to the city. None of them had been attacked yet, but Shell always believed that it was better to be safe than sorry, because he believed that the Venetians were already plotting their revenge. When and where they would attack again, Shell did not know, but he figured his new barrier powers would help keep him and his friend safe, at least.
Shade was still missing. Where she had gone or if she was even still alive was a question that Shell did not have the answers to. To the best of his knowledge, no one in the Young Neos had been contacted by the G-Men about her yet. He wondered if the G-Men were even aware of Shade’s disappearance. Of course, given how the G-Men were part of the government, they probably knew all about what happened in that battle five days ago. Perhaps they were just searching for Shade behind the scenes; it would fit the G-Men’s MO, given how they usually preferred to operate from the shadows. Shell didn’t particularly care if they found Shade or not, although a part of him did wonder what happened to all of those things that Zanni had vanished. It seemed impossible to him that Zanni could make material literally disappear into thin air; that would violate far too many laws of physics to count. Then again, superhumans broke the laws of physics all the time, so maybe Shell was just being arbitrarily skeptical.
Shaking his head,
Shell stopped in front of the door to Father’s room. He hesitated a moment, unsure if Father was awake or not, but since it was the middle of the day and he had to be back at Blizzard’s parents’ house before five, he decided to enter. What was he waiting for? He had visited Father at least once a day since Father had gone to this hospital. Even if Father wasn’t awake yet, that didn’t mean that Father would not be happy to see him.
Opening the door, Shell entered the hospital room. It was not a very large room; there was enough room for Father’s bed, plus a couch at the other end of the room and a large, open window with white curtains drawn over it. A large, flat-screen TV was on the opposite wall, which displayed the news and the weather for the weekend, but Father—who was lying in bed wearing a patient’s gown—apparently wasn’t paying attention to it.
Instead, Father was looking at his smartphone, scrolling through it with a huge smile on his face. On the desk by his bed was a tall stack of letters and cards from Father’s fans. It hadn’t taken long for news of Father’s internment in the hospital to become known (helped by Father actually posting about it on his various social media accounts) and then for letters from his fans and supporters to come pouring in. There were actually two stacks of letters and cards; one opened, the other unopened. The unopened pile was twice as tall as the opened one, probably because Father was getting more letters than he could read.
Father himself was looking much better than he had that night five days ago. For one, the cuts and bruises on his face had been mostly healed, aside from a couple of bandages on his cheeks here and there. The real wounds were under his gown; Shell had caught a glimpse of them four days ago, after the doctors had bandaged them as best as they could. They had looked quite ugly, but the doctors had assured Shell that Father was going to be okay, but that he would need to rest and spend a few more days in the hospital before they released him.
As soon as Shell entered the room, Father looked up from his phone and smiled. “Larry! Glad to see you. Was wondering when you’d get here. I was just interacting with my fans online. Getting loads of love and good vibes from all of my Internet peeps, which isn’t even counting all of this paper they keep sending me.” Father gestured at the two piles of letters.
“Cool, Father,” said Shell as he closed the door behind him. He held up the bag of fast food. “I went to your favorite restaurant and got you a cheeseburger and grape soda.”
“You did?” said Father. He dropped his smartphone onto his lap and held out his hands. “Throw it my way, dude. Doc says it’s okay for me to eat this stuff and this hospital food is getting really boring.”
Shell walked over to Father’s bed and handed him the bag with the food. Father immediately took it out of Shell’s hands, pulled out the burger, and started eating. Father let out a satisfied grunt as he ate and gave Shell the thumbs up before swallowing and saying, “It is as excellent as always, my dude. Thanks!”
“No problem,” said Shell. “How do you feel? Can you walk yet?”
“Yeah, but I always need my nurse to watch me just in case I fall and can’t get up, like some old dude,” said Father with a shrug. “Not that I’m complaining, since my nurse is pretty cute, but it does make going to the bathroom kind of awkward. Still, doc says I’ll be fine in a few days, so I can’t complain too much.”
“Good to hear,” said Shell. “My friends and I are going back to Hero Island later today, so this might be the last time I see you for a while.”
“Really? You’re going back so soon?” said Father, holding the half-eaten cheeseburger in both hands. “Bummer. I wanted to introduce you to some of my friends.”
“Friends?” said Shell. “I didn’t know you had friends.”
“Yeah, they’re pretty cool, but I guess I’ll tell you about them some other time,” said Father. He suddenly snapped his fingers. “I should visit you on Hero Island next time. That way, you don’t have to come all the way here out to Arizona just to see me.”
“Really?” said Shell. “I thought you didn’t trust the Neohero Alliance.”
“It’s not that I don’t trust the NHA, exactly,” said Father. “After all, I trust Mecha Knight, since he’s a pretty cool dude. It’s just that I can see that being in the NHA and Young Neos has really helped you a lot and I want to see more of it. It’s made you a pretty cool dude, is what I am saying.”
“Yeah, you can come and visit anytime you want,” said Shell. “But please call ahead of time and let me know. I don’t think that Mecha Knight or the other members of the Leadership Council would be very happy if you just showed up on Hero Island’s shores unannounced.”
“Don’t worry, dude, I never drop in unannounced on anyone except supervillains in the middle of committing crimes,” said Father. “Also, sometimes my friends’ parties, but that’s okay because they’re cool dudes, too.”
Shell nodded. “Are you sure you’re going to be okay while I’m away? Even if you get released from the hospital, you’re still going to have to take medicine and stuff and probably come back for checkups every now and then.”
“I’ll be fine,” said Father, waving off Shell’s concern. “I’m the dad here, not you. I can take care of myself pretty well. You should just worry about helping your friends, including the pretty one with the white hair.” He winked. “I think she likes you.”
“She’s already with Bolt,” said Shell, although he couldn’t stop the heat on his neck from rising. “Besides, I’m not really looking for a girlfriend at the moment.”
“What about the hippie girl who likes plants?” said Father. “She seemed pretty nice when I met her.”
“Father, please stop trying to set me up with my teammates,” said Shell. “I’ll be fine. I can find a girl for myself.”
“If you say so, my dude,” said Father. “It’s just that I’m your dad and I want what’s best for you. I know you and I haven’t always gotten along the best, but that’s why I’m trying to help. I want to make up for not being the best dad in the world.”
Shell looked at Father in surprise. “You mean you actually acknowledge that you’ve made some mistakes as a parent? For real?”
“Yeah, for real, bro,” said Father. “I’ve always done my best, but I’d like to try to fix our relationship. We should do something that fathers and son do together sometime, like go fishing or something.”
Shell smiled in a somewhat embarrassed way. “Fishing? You’ve never gone fishing before.”
“Doesn’t mean we can’t start,” said Father. “Next time you get some time off, you should come down and we can go fishing. Not sure where we could go fishing in Arizona, but I’ll definitely find a radical place that will rock your world.”
“Okay, Father,” said Shell, nodding. “Sure. We can do that the next time I’m in town.”
Father’s face broke into a smile. “Awesome, my dude.” He hesitated, like he was not sure what to say next. “Just one thing, though.”
“Yes?” said Shell. “Do you need something?”
Father scratched the back of his neck. “These Venetian guys …” Father trailed off, his eyes becoming distant for a moment, as if he was reliving an old memory, but then he shook his head and said, “Never mind, dude. It’s just that, if you ever need my help against those Venetian guys again, just let me know. And if I see any of them skulking here in Phoenix, I’ll give you a call and let you know, okay?”
Shell wondered what Father was originally going to say, but he sensed that it would not be wise to question Father further on the matter. “Okay. That would be helpful. I—”
Shell was interrupted by a beep from his suit-up watch. He glanced at the screen and saw he had received a text from Bolt. Tapping the screen, Shell opened the message, which read, ‘SHELL—WE’RE LEAVING SOON. MECHA KNIGHT HAS A MISSION FOR US.’
Looking at Father again, Shell said, “Looks like we’re leaving earlier than I thought. Sorry.”
“Nah, it’s okay, dude,” said Father. He slapped Shell on t
he shoulder, which even in his weakened state, was still a rather powerful blow that nearly knocked Shell off his feet. “I totally understand. Run like the wind, but don’t forget to call me when you go back to Hero Island, okay? Remember our fishing trip.”
Shell smiled again, nodded, and then turned and ran out of the room.
But Shell didn’t get very far before he heard a ringing sound on his suit-up watch. He stopped in the middle of the hallway and looked down at the watch to see that he was receiving a call from a number he recognized, but had hoped he would not hear from again for a while. He quickly looked up and down the hall, saw no one, and then sneaked into a janitor’s closet. Closing the door behind him, Shell raised his watch to his mouth and tapped the screen. “Yes?”
“Shell,” came Eli Corey’s voice from the watch. “It’s been a while since we last spoke. Are you and the Young Neos heading back to New York today?”
“Yeah,” said Shell, nodding. “We are.”
“Good,” said Eli. “I wanted to make sure, but I didn’t know for certain. You will, of course, send me regular updates on what is happening on Hero Island and in the Neohero Alliance in general?”
Shell frowned, but said, “Yes. That’s what we agreed to. But only in exchange for giving me regular power boosts so I don’t lose my new powers.”
“Yes, of course,” said Eli. “It would be very inconvenient for you if you suddenly lost your new powers and had to explain to your friends that you weren’t exactly honest with them about the origins of your powers, wouldn’t it?”