Inferno Island

by Simon Archer

  “Yep.” I nodded slowly. “That one.”

  “It’s quite a story,” City Master chimed in. “Very well put together. I’d say Miss Wicker has a knack for journalism.”

  “We did not come here to discuss Mr. Gateon’s need to be headline news,” Judgment scoffed, then swiveled his gaze back on me, cold and assessing. “How do you know you can trust some journalist to tell you the truth? She could have very well fed you a line of garbage to get you to open up.”

  “Forgive me, sir,” I started, a bit cool myself, “but from my experience, one does not fabricate stories about their parents being dead.”

  A chilled silence filled the room. I didn’t know exactly what was going on here, but it felt more like an interrogation mixed with a good amount of misplaced suspicion than a conversation about what we had discovered on our ride-alongs.

  “Either you are that naive,” Judgment mused with venom on his tongue, “or you are just as good at covering your tracks as your father.”

  “Efraim, that is enough,” City Master boomed over him. “You are tossing around extremely bold accusations without any concrete evidence to stand upon.”

  Matt, suddenly uncomfortable standing between the two older heroes, stepped to Kristen’s other side. “What exactly are you accusing Nick of?”

  “Efraim thinks that the rise in crime these past weeks has something to do with Lord Inferno’s stay in Alexandria,” Triton cut in. “As Nick is the son of the world’s most powerful villain, Efraim believes that Nick has something to do with it as well.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding me!” I hollered as I got to my feet and pointed sharply at Judgment. “You’ve been with me on every single ride-along. You know damn well that I’ve done everything I can to protect the people of Alexandria as well as the contempt I have for my father in that regard. Are you that prejudiced against him?”

  I stopped myself before I could push any harder. My blood was boiling. This was not what I came here to do. These weren’t the answers I was looking for, and now I only had more questions.

  “Easy, son,” City Master put his hands on my shoulders and gave them a light, reassuring squeeze. I did take a small amount of comfort in knowing that he was on my side.

  “It is merely an observation,” Judgment rescinded. “I am simply looking at things from multiple angles.”

  “You’re very quick to put the hammer down on young Gateon when he is not at fault,” Triton astutely noted. “Why not listen to what he and his friends have to say, old friend, before we place any more unnecessary blame on innocent people, shall we?”

  Judgment crossed his arms, his face growing stony, but said nothing to object to the idea. He focused his gaze on Matt and Kristen, who both pointedly avoided his eyes.

  “Tell me more about Triple Triad, Mr. Gateon,” Triton commanded softly.

  I took a few deep breaths to calm myself before speaking.

  “I don’t know much at all,” I confessed. “I only know what Margo Wicker told me about her parents and that she had done a fair bit of research herself to find out more about the man that murdered her parents.”

  “I see.” Triton nodded.

  “She put herself in the position to be kidnapped in order to find out more about them, but all she was able to glean is that there is someone higher than Diamond.” The more I explained, the more I began to put the pieces together. “If I had to take a guess, I would say that he, along with Dark Rose and Malik, are somewhere in the middle of the totem pole.”

  “What makes you think that?” City Master asked, finally releasing my shoulders from his grasp.

  “Well, Diamond was able to round up a completely unattached group of thugs to do his bidding in his attempt to kill Judgment.” I paused and shot a look towards the cloaked hero. “That alone is extremely unlike his usual M.O., so it’s reasonable to think that he was answering to someone who could put together that gang. And I suspect that this mysterious someone didn’t want Diamond around, which is how he ended up in an ice cream parlor with seemingly no forced entry. Only a super could do that, and Diamond doesn’t strike me as the type to be so delicate as to cover his tracks.”

  I watched as the gears in Judgment’s head turned. He knew I was right, and I took a great amount of pride in the short nod that he gave me.

  “That doesn’t explain how he got in there,” Kristen sighed, “or how any of this connects back to Nick. He’s been doing his best all semester to prove that he isn’t going down the same path as his father, and--”

  “And what?” City Master asked her gently.

  Kristen hesitated and wrung her hands in her lap before she nodded confidently to herself and continued. “And Lord Inferno has been doing his best to make amends with his past.”

  “It’s true,” Matt chimed in after a beat. “I’ve been going on ride-alongs with him all semester. He has his slip-ups, but he’s been fighting with himself to be better and to come back to the person he used to be.”

  My heart skipped a beat. To hear Matt and Kristen speak highly of my father in any capacity after what he’d done to their family… Well, they certainly didn’t have to. I felt a comforting warmth spread across my chest as I smiled.

  “The only way that Diamond could have gotten into the ice cream parlor without forcing himself inside is if he somehow teleported inside,” I heard Kara mutter to herself as she verbally thought through what we knew. “Do we know of anyone who can teleport that is currently at large?”

  Teleportation was a relatively common superpower, but it usually came in conjunction with another power. For instance, one could have teleportation powers due to having electric powers like Eric, though it took a level of skill that he currently didn’t have to pull off that stunt.

  “I don’t know about teleportation,” Matt said slowly as we locked eyes, “but we do know someone who does portals.”

  My breath lodged in my throat. “Switch.”

  “You think the Carter kids are part of the Triple Triad?” Kristen asked incredulously.

  “It’s just a thought,” I countered, but kept my eyes on Matt, “but didn’t you run into someone last night that simply vanished?”

  “There was no trace of whoever was helping Malik once I got there,” Matt notes, “but the scent I picked up was definitely familiar. I can’t say for sure, though, because they seeded the scene with some kind of irritant to throw off their scent… almost like they knew I’d be investigating it.”

  “And that is itself suspicious, young Barbur. If you are right, then our problems have merged into one big one.” Triton stood from his desk and paced. “The time for false accusations must end. We have to get to the bottom of this and quickly.”

  “I will send for the other staff members,” City Master announced. “We must hold a formal council immediately.”

  “Hold on,” I interrupted. “What does it mean if Carter is in on this?”

  “It means that this goes much deeper than we would have anticipated,” Judgment answered smoothly with a bit of a scowl.

  “Mr. Gateon, you and your friends will have to excuse us for now,” City Master insisted as he guided me towards the door out of Triton’s office. “I am sorry that we can’t chat more.”

  I wasn’t pleased by the sudden need to be removed from the situation, but I bit my tongue as did my friends while we were escorted out of the room. City Master followed us out and closed the door behind him.

  “Keep this between us,” he told our group in a sharp whisper. “We’ve been trying to keep an eye on Carter which was part of the reason why we all agreed to this merger for the semester. We thought mixing our resources would be beneficial to rooting out this villainous academy.”

  “Is that why Amazoness went to the Brand without saying a word to anyone?” Kara asked as she clung to my side.

  “Indeed, Miss Johnson,” City Master confirmed. “We wanted to remove Inferno from his base to see if the trouble followed him here. As we can see, it has. Se
nding Amazoness was of her own volition, but it has been extremely helpful.”

  “Has she learned anything over there?” I asked, maybe a bit too quickly. I’d be lying to myself if I wasn’t still thrown off by Gemma’s sudden departure, and while I understood what City Master was saying, at the same time, I felt there was something more. It just wasn’t like her, so I pressed on. There would have been no real reason to have her there if she hadn’t picked up anything, right?

  “She has,” City Master nodded, “but I’m not at liberty to discuss this with you right now.”

  I sighed, my worries only slightly assuaged. “Yes, sir.”

  “Good. Do try not to alert any of the other students. The less hysteria we generate, the better. We don’t need any rumors flying around.” City Master narrowed his eyes on me, “No tabloid interviews, Mr. Gateon.”

  I chuckled lightly as his eyes held a joking smile. “Of course not.”

  “Off you go then,” City Master said and shooed us off before he walked briskly down the hallway in the opposite direction.

  My friends and I walked quietly, Kara and Kristen on either side of me, and Matt beside his sister. An odd, unsettled feeling rose in the pit of my stomach, and I clenched my jaw shut to keep from being sick. Everyone we passed seemed frozen in time, and the edges of my vision became blurry. I’d only felt like this once before when my father had gone on his rampage, and Triton and Amazoness had rescued me from the island. It had been a long time since then, but I definitely recognized it as familiar.

  “Nick?” Kristen’s voice broke through the haze, and I realized we’d made it back to the dorms. “Everything okay?”

  I nodded slowly, but it was a blatant lie. How could I describe what I’d felt if I couldn’t pinpoint exactly what it was or where it had come from?

  “You sure? You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Matt chirped, and I blinked several times to process what he was saying. I swiped a hand over my forehead to find that I was sweating bullets, but my skin felt cool to the touch. What the hell was this?

  “I’ll stay with him,” Kara offered. “If we’re all missing, it would look suspicious to the teachers.” She took my hand and squeezed it gently. I was thankful for the gesture. It kept me grounded.

  Matt and Kristen mumbled some form of agreement, but even in my weird haze, I could sense their hesitation to leave us. I appreciated the concern, and I forced a smile on my face.

  “I’ll be fine. I think I just need a bit more rest.” I shot a wink at Kristen as the memories from the night before flooded back to me, and I was pleased with the dark shade of pink that spread across her cheeks.

  Matt rolled his eyes and ushered Kristen along. “Take care of him, Kara.”

  “I will,” she assured with a smile and started to lead me in a direction that was no my room.

  “Where are we going?” I asked, though my voice seems slurred to my ears.

  “My room,” Kara answered quickly. “You can get some rest, and I can work on my latest gadget.”

  “Gadget?” I repeated as I tried to keep my eyes open.

  She nodded but didn’t say anything else, which was okay. The quiet was nice. Much nicer than the noise that was ringing in my ears. When we reached her room, she opened the door and immediately got me set up in her bed, making sure to give me all of the extra pillows and my favorite blanket, a worn, faded yellow and purple afghan that smelled like Kara’s shampoo. The glow of her fish tank was soothing and watching the fish swim from side to side was mesmerizing.

  “Get some sleep, Nick,” she soothed and kissed my cheek. “I’m just a couple feet away if you need anything.”

  I smiled and nuzzled her cheek before she could pull away. My Moon was my light in my darkest hours when the world seemed confusing. She put me at ease, and I was able to fall asleep within a few short minutes.

  When I awoke, Kara was exactly where she said she’d be, just a little out of reach, but there by my side as she tinkered on whatever gadget she had mentioned before. There was an added bit of soft light that was directed over her hands from the lamp on her desk, and I was tickled that she was considerate not to wake me with anything brighter. She really was the most thoughtful person I’d ever met.

  Quietly, I stretched my limbs and allowed myself to ebb away slowly into sleep by watching her work. I felt a little better than I had when I first laid down. My head still ached a little, but the nausea had vanished, and there was no longer that blurred haze lingering in my vision.

  I smiled to myself as I watched Kara’s brain tick in real-time. Her motions were calculated and precise as she tinkered with what looked to be a foot-long drill with a pistol grip. Her tongue stuck out from between her perfect lips as she concentrated on getting the rotation just right, and she blew on a strand of loose strawberry hair that had fallen into her eyes from her messy bun.

  I wondered how long I could stay like this, frozen at this moment in time, just her and I. It was so rare that I got to see this side of her when she was left to her own devices in a place where she could completely be herself. That wasn’t to say that she was uncomfortable around everyone, but Kara had always been shy in nature. Seeing her now without the apprehension and completely in her own zone was a treat that I would not take for granted.

  Some time passed, though I couldn’t be sure how much because of the controlled lighting in the room. I dozed in and out of consciousness from simply feeling content and peaceful, and when I finally came to fully, Kara and I locked eyes. Her smile was radiant and soft as she got up from her chair and joined me on the bed.

  “Hey. sleepyhead,” she greeted as she made herself comfortable beside me. We kissed, and I traced the line of her jaw with my fingertips.

  “Hey, yourself,” I mumbled into her hair.

  “Seems like you’re feeling better,” she said with a giggle as she placed a gentle hand over my heart.

  “I am,” I agreed. “Thanks for taking care of me.”

  “All I did was give you a safe place to sleep with some company,” she argued.

  That was hardly all, but I wasn’t in any mood to dispute that. I was more than content to lay with Kara in this hanging moment in time, but I knew that it wouldn’t last long.

  “You were out for a few hours,” she told me without being prompted. “I was able to finish what I had been working on.”

  I hummed with interest. “Tell me about it.”

  “It’s a diamond-tipped drill, essentially,” she started, “but more than that, it’s designed to be able to break through Diamond’s unique energy redirection powers.”

  “It packs that much power, and is that durable?” I asked curiously.

  “Not exactly,” she replied with a bit of a grimace. “It’s not a matter of strength in the conventional sense. See, the tip is sharpened to a mono-molecular point, enough to pierce the diamond with minimal force, so that it doesn’t trigger his defensive power.”

  I nodded. “That’s genius! Like a fist of steel in a silken glove. And let me guess, there’s something special about that tip that will do the real damage once it penetrates?”

  Kara blushed a bit at the double entendre even as she nodded. “Yes, though it’s simpler than you might think. Once it penetrates, it spins up to insane speeds. As that speed isn’t directed outward to the field now that the tip has punched through, theoretically, it will cause minimal backlash as it, uh, drills through his body.”

  “Sounds pretty lethal, unfortunately, unless it was aimed just right,” I mused.

  “Unfortunately, most nonlethal measures I can think of just won’t work,” Kara said with a shake of her head. “He’s inorganic, so his nervous system and biology just don’t work like a normal human’s. I’m working on some ideas, but… they need time to bake.” She gave me a serious look. “I don’t doubt how strong you are, especially when you’re powered, but Diamond is tough to even crack, much less break. If you stand any chance against him, you’ll need something like this.”
>
  “Diamond is behind bars though,” I reminded her.

  “It’s still something that would be nice to have in your arsenal, right?” She asked hopefully. “You know, just in case?”

  I had to agree. Even if I was powered, there were many times that I wasn’t and was going into battle. It would be something nice to have on hand.

  “I love it,” I smiled and kissed the top of her head. “Thank you.”

  “Don’t thank me just yet.” Kara giggled and snuggled closer. “I would like to test it somehow before I actually hand it over to you. It wouldn’t do you any good to have a weapon that didn’t work.”

  “I’m sure it will.” I chuckled and closed my eyes. “Let’s just hope I never have to use it.” I could have fallen asleep again and kept her at this moment, but the vibration of my phone in my pocket shook the thought away. I fished it out and saw that Eric was calling me back, so I swiped across the screen to answer it.

  “Hey, Eric,” I greeted as I rested the phone on the side of my face.

  “Nick! Hi! How are you?” Eric’s chipper voice was both jarring and refreshing. I missed that energetic presence that kept all of us going.

  “I’m good,” I said with a chuckle. “Listen, I need to pick your brain about something.”

  “Sounds like it.” He laughed, and I heard the rustle of papers on the other end of the line. “I pulled as much as I could from the Academy for New Heroics’ library, but it isn’t nearly as expansive as the one at Valcav.”

  “I’m not so sure that it would even be found in the books here,” I replied.

  “I thought of that, too, so I went digging through my grandpa’s notes,” Eric told me, “and I’ll be real honest, Nick, I don’t know if it’s going to answer any of your questions.”

  “I appreciate the effort all the same,” I assured him. “Tell me what you’ve got.”

  “Well, for one, Triple Triad doesn’t make an appearance in the notebook until almost the end, but it doesn’t mention anything about Diamond, Dark Rose, or Malik alongside it,” he started. “The only name that’s associated with it is Daniel Phillips.”