The Secret War

by Matt Myklusch

  “Something like that,” Midknight answered. “I got tipped off about a gang of supervillains robbing this train. Don’t know what’s on it yet, but it’s got to be something important for them to come all the way out here.” Midknight fastened the chin strap on his helmet. “I’ll tell you something, kids, your class is seeing way more super-villain action than even I’m used to. I don’t know if you should be grateful for the experience or worried about what it all means.”

  “Grateful,” Skerren said. “Definitely grateful.”

  “Right,” Blue said to Skerren. “Leave it to you to be happy about sidekicking in the middle of a supercrime wave. Here they come now,” he said, pointing. “Jack, you think you can stop that train so we can get this party started?”

  “No problem,” Jack said, opening his mind to communicate with the train. “Just give me a minute to—whoa.” Jack stopped himself, surprised by what he’d found. He’d spent a considerable amount of time studying all kinds of engines and countless other machines to better master his powers, but this train was way more advanced than anything he’d ever encountered, even inside the Imagine Nation.

  “I’m sorry. That is not a normal engine in there,” Jack said. The mysterious high-tech train wouldn’t talk to Jack, and was being a real jerk about it too. There was nothing Jack could do to slow the train down. Well, almost nothing. “I could make it throw a wheel and crash, but—”

  “Not until we know who or what’s on board,” Midknight said. “Hmn,” he grunted. “Guess we can’t do much from up here, can we? Somebody wake up Allegra. I’m separating the Knightwing and taking us down. Jack, I assume you can still keep both halves of this ship on track once we get down there?”

  “Yes, sir,” Jack said instantly.

  “All right, then,” Midknight replied. “Look alive, people. We’re going to have to do this one the hard way.”

  Blue let out a laugh. “You’re tellin’ me there’s some other way to do things?”

  Midknight just smiled. It was time to go to work.

  The whole team moved to the Knightwing’s lower half. The top and bottom halves separated, and the outer shell remained up in the air with room enough for one pilot flying solo in the captain’s chair.

  Jack steeled his nerves as the open-air glider descended on the supervillains below.

  “All right, kids, you know the drill,” Midknight shouted. “You see an unfriendly, you call ’em out. Let your teammates see what you see. Let ’em know what you know.” Midknight always assumed the leadership role on operations because he had been doing this kind of thing longer than anyone else in the group. Jack knew calling out hostile supers on sight was a good strategy. It let your teammates know exactly who and what they were up against. As Jack heard the names called out, his mind flashed back to the hundreds of mug shots, code names, and abilities he had memorized back in his intro-level supervillainy course.

  “Backstab!” Allegra shouted. ShadowClan ninja with knifelike fingers charged with psychic energy.

  “Pain!” Blue yelled. Superstrong and nearly invulnerable. Size and strength increase in proportion to the amount of pain he inflicts upon his enemies.

  “Fugazi!” Skerren called out. The crystal man. Refracts light through his body to blind opponents and make them see things that aren’t there.

  As the glider swooped in, Jack saw that the bad guys were ready for a fight. It was jarring to see them out in the Real World. Back in Empire City they blended right in with everyone else, but out here they seemed larger than life. The Real World landscape was like a black-and-white picture that the supervillains were scribbling on in 3-D, glow-in-the-dark fluorescent crayon.

  Backstab, Pain, and Fugazi were positioned all along the train, keeping lookout on the roof. Jack scanned the area for any more superpowered rogues and saw a teenage girl with dark purple hair, dressed all in black. She was speeding along on an open AirSkimmer on the other side of the canyon, keeping pace with the train. Jack didn’t recognize her. He assumed she was one of the bad guys, even if she didn’t seem to be involved or interested in the heist. She was busy typing away on her phone. Jack’s powers picked up the messages; she was texting her friends!

  Jack was about to tell the others about the mysterious girl in black when a dark blur that was buzzing around the last few train cars slowed down enough for Jack to make it out. This one there was no question about: Superspeed. Razor-sharp claws. Bad attitude.

  “Speedrazor!” Jack yelled.

  Jack gulped. He had a history with Speedrazor, a super-fast psycho who had been bad enough back when he’d been on the right side of the law. Jack was certain Speedrazor still held a grudge against him. Jack and Jazen, his late android friend who had brought him to the Imagine Nation, had taken the speedster out when they’d broken into SmartTower last year. Like a lot of Jonas Smart’s former soldiers, Speedrazor turned to supervillainy after the Peacemakers were decommissioned. Jonas Smart, Jack’s old nemesis, took no responsibility for that, but Jack thought the number of Peacemakers who went bad said a lot about the kinds of people Smart used to hire. Speedrazor was the worst of a bad lot, and these days he was heading up a gang of supers who were just as crazy as he was.

  “I found what we came for!” Speedrazor told his cohorts while running alongside the train. “It’s in the last car. Pain, get back there and help me load it onto the AirSkimmer! The rest of you,” he added, sizing up Jack and the others, “take care of these heroes.”

  “Hear that, gang?” Blue said. “Speedrazor and the B-List All Stars are going to take care of us!”

  “Oh, are they?” Ricochet chimed in. “My, my. That is going to be embarrassing. Whatever shall we do?”

  Midknight grabbed two nightsticks from holsters on his legs. “Might as well get it over with,” he said with a grin. He ran across the wing of the glider and leaped onto the roof of the train. The other heroes and sidekicks all followed close behind.

  “Allegra and Jack, find out what’s in the last car,” Midknight ordered. “Secure that cargo and don’t let Speedrazor get out of here with it! Everybody else,” he added with a slight shrug, “take out some bad guys already.”

  Skerren didn’t need to be told twice. Jack could tell he was itching for action, as always. He’d already matched himself up against Backstab. The beautiful but deadly ninja drew herself up into a fighting stance, cutting quite the imposing figure as Skerren approached. Backstab wore a dark crimson leather suit and mask. Her sharp, clawlike fingers glowed bright white and crackled with psychic electricity. Skerren spun his swords with dizzying brilliance and settled into his own ready position.

  “Impressive, boy,” Backstab said. “But all that swordplay is just that. Play.” She lunged at Skerren with her claws, and he crossed his swords in front of his body, blocking her attack. Her white-hot claws stopped inches away from his face. “They don’t let you kill in that school of yours, do they?” Backstab asked with a sinister smile. “Your blades are nothing without the will to truly use them.”

  Skerren pushed the villainess back and went on the offensive, thrusting his swords at her. “I don’t have to kill you,” he said, swinging away. “I just have to distract you.”

  Backstab dodged each of Skerren’s blows and then connected with one of her own, knocking Skerren to the floor. “Distract me?” She laughed. “From what?”

  From his knees Skerren swung one sword out across his body, moving Backstab back. He brought his other sword down to her left, forcing her to the right. She dodged the blade easily before slamming right into a large cactus that was growing out of the canyon ledge. She caught it right in the face at one hundred fifty miles per hour.

  Skerren laughed. “From that.”

  Half a train car away, Fugazi bent the moonlight through his body to create five more images of himself to guard the injured Backstab. Jack blinked, and Skerren was surrounded, mostly by mirages. With no way of knowing which Fugazi was real, Skerren fought them all, swinging his swords
through illusions instead of pressing his advantage against the evil ShadowClan ninja.

  Meanwhile, Ricochet and Blue headed after Pain, who was working his way back to the last car on the train. Jack and Allegra followed after them, trying to beat the bad guys to the last car and the train’s mysterious cargo. Jack went slowly as they moved across the roof of each car. He was still using his powers to control both halves of the Knightwing, which took a lot of concentration, especially with the train going so fast. Jack wanted to get a closer look at the engine and figure out why he couldn’t do anything to slow the train down, but he had enough trouble trying to fly Midknight’s ship and pay attention to the superfight at the same time. As a result, he nearly got cut in half when Speedrazor ran up the side of one of the train cars and rushed by him with his claws out. Jack fell back and grabbed the top rung of a ladder that ran down the side of the train car he was on. He held on tight as Speedrazor ran by him again. That time Jack would have been a goner if Allegra hadn’t gotten in front of him and formed a shield.

  “Don’t worry, Jack, he’s not getting through me,” Allegra said.

  Jack breathed a sigh of relief. He didn’t even see Speedrazor coming, but he knew he was safe as long as Allegra was there with him. Her shape-shifting Valorian body had saved his life before, and she was a lot better at being indestructible these days.

  “Stay out of this, little girl,” Speedrazor warned Allegra. “Me and Jack have some bad blood between us. Only way to get rid of that is to spill it!”

  “You stay back!” Allegra shouted, morphing her liquid metal body to flash out with sharp, spiky quills. “You make a run at us like that again and you’ll regret it.”

  Speedrazor didn’t have any answer for Allegra. If he ran by her when she was shaped like that, he’d get ripped to shreds. From the look on the speedster’s face, Jack could tell he knew it too.

  “Good thing for me you don’t scare so easily anymore,” Jack told Allegra.

  “The only one who’s got anything to be afraid of is him if he comes back here,” Allegra replied, loud enough for Speedrazor to hear.

  Speedrazor scowled and went back to running alongside the train. “Pain!” he yelled, looking up toward the roof. “What’s taking so long up there?”

  Jack got to his feet and saw that Ricochet and Blue had caught up with Pain. Jack and Allegra would get to the back of the train first as long as those two could keep Pain occupied. The villain was outnumbered, but he evened the odds with a punch that knocked Ricochet clean off her feet. Ricochet became a dark blue streak as she went flying through the air, bouncing off the canyon walls like a rubber ball. Jack and Allegra kept moving as the blue streak that was Ricochet started glowing, picking up speed and energy as she went. Pain looked down at his fist. Even with his face hidden by the creepy skull mask he wore, it was clear he had no idea what had just happened.

  “Wondering why you didn’t get a power upgrade from that hit?” Blue asked as he delivered a devastating punch to Pain’s midsection, driving him back. “Simple. You didn’t hurt her any,” he explained as he hit Pain again. Blue continued to lay into Pain like he was the punching bag at a gym. “See,” he said, pounding away, “Ricochet absorbs that kind of energy. She builds it up into more, and then turns it back against you.”

  At that exact moment Ricochet fired back in toward Pain, landing a flying elbow to his jaw, cracking his skull mask and knocking him flat on his back. “Like so,” she said in a calm voice as she landed softly back on the train. “Any questions?”

  Pain’s only answer was an agonized groan. Unlike Backstab, Pain received no assistance from Fugazi when he went down. Having determined the difference between man and mirage, Midknight was able to splatter the real Fugazi with oil-slick capsules, one of the many items he carried in his utility belt. With Fugazi’s ability to create illusions ruined, he had to direct his full attention to fighting Midknight hand to hand. Fugazi’s hands were solid crystal, so he was by no means helpless, but Midknight, whose superhuman abilities made him stronger, faster, and even smarter as the night went on, was currently at the height of his power. Given the lateness of the hour in their present location, Fugazi didn’t stand a chance.

  Speedrazor was left to access the cargo in the last train car by himself. Unfortunately for him, Jack and Allegra were now in his way. Jack managed to get ahead of Pain and down to the passenger level of the car. He used his powers to open the cargo-car doors but couldn’t read the encrypted cargo manifest. It wouldn’t talk to him.

  “What is it with this train?” Jack said, frustrated that his abilities kept getting stymied.

  Speedrazor also seemed frustrated that a thirteen-year-old girl was keeping him away from his big score. Allegra swiped at him with machete blade arms, forcing him to keep his distance from the car. “Pain!” Speedrazor screamed. “I’m waiting. …”

  Up on the roof of the train, Pain was still getting beat down by Blue and Ricochet. “You’re waiting?” he yelled back. “Where’s Lorem? We’re getting our butts kicked up here!”

  Speedrazor looked up and over at the girl speeding on the AirSkimmer. When he saw her typing away on her phone’s keypad instead of helping, he absolutely lost it.

  “Are you kidding me?” Speedrazor cried out. Unable to do anything more with the train’s cargo, Jack watched Speedrazor run up the canyon wall and come out on the ledge next to the AirSkimmer. “Lorem!” he shouted at the girl as he ran alongside her. “We didn’t bring you along for your sparkling personality, you know. Are you planning on joining us, or what?”

  “In a minute,” the girl replied, waving him off with one hand while texting her friends with the other.

  In a flash Speedrazor was on the AirSkimmer. He snatched her phone away with his superfast hands and threatened to drive a claw through it. “Now,” he said.

  The girl rolled her eyes at Speedrazor and shook her head. “Fine,” she said, standing up on the speeding aircraft. She stretched lazily for a moment, and then leaped onto the moving train. She executed a dazzling acrobatic routine, flipping over and around Blue, Ricochet, and Skerren. The girl tagged them all before they even knew what hit them.

  “Lorem?” Midknight said when he saw her flying through the air. “Lorem Ipsum? Is that you?”

  The girl touched down in front of Midknight, who had taken most of the fight out of Fugazi. She dove at him instead of replying. Midknight rolled backward, barely evading her touch. He counterattacked with his nightsticks, trying to keep her back, but she was even faster than he was. Jack was impressed by her grace and agility. Midknight was one of the best fighters he’d ever seen, and he couldn’t lay a hand on her. Midknight clearly shared Jack’s admiration for his opponent’s skills. “Lorem,” he told the girl sadly as she ducked underneath his fist, “you had such potential.”

  “Ugh,” the girl scoffed. “Spare me.” She jumped up and flipped over Midknight’s head, reaching down toward him as she went.

  Although Midknight’s bulletproof supersuit protected him against most physical attacks, when Lorem’s fingers skidded across the helmetlike mask he wore to hide his face, her pinkie finger grazed his cheek, and that was it. The fight was over.

  Midknight opened his mouth and said, “Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet… Consectetur? Adipisicing elit! Sed!”

  Lorem Ipsum just laughed. “You can say that again,” she replied.

  “Do eiusmod tempor!” Midknight continued, struggling to speak. “Incididunt ut labore et! Dolore magna aliqua!” He seemed unable to say anything but gibberish.

  It was the same for the other heroes, too. They were all disoriented and unable to communicate with one another. It was just the opening Speedrazor and his superpowered hijackers needed.

  Backstab got up and plunged her synapse-scrambling fingers into Midknight and Skerren. Fugazi ripped a headlight off the train and shined it through an oil-free hand, blinding Ricochet and Blue. Pain took the opportunity to slow down the train in a way Jack had never thoug
ht of trying. He threw Blue underneath it.

  As Blue’s massive frame tore up the tracks, the cars all careened into the canyon walls, making a horrible screeching noise as the train ground to a halt. Sparks shot out everywhere as Pain ran back to the last car, shoved Jack and Allegra to the side, and ripped apart the coupling that connected the caboose to the crashing train.

  Speedrazor grabbed hold of the cargo car and told Pain to forget about loading it anywhere. He started running the car down the tracks in the other direction, with his superstrong legs pushing it along easily. As he ran he told his cronies to take the AirSkimmer and get out of there. Allegra and Jack were powerless to stop them.

  “Jack, he’s getting away!” Allegra yelled. “What do we do?”

  “What can we do?” Jack asked. He threw his hands up, exasperated. He had one job on this mission—to keep that cargo out of Speedrazor’s hands. Right now he was failing at it, but he had an idea. “There is one thing …,” he said, trailing off.

  Allegra looked at Jack. “What one thing?”

  Jack shook his head.

  “Do it!” Allegra shouted. “Whatever it is, just do it!”

  Jack hesitated. He didn’t know how this would go over with the others, but he couldn’t ask permission. The mentor heroes couldn’t even talk. Jack didn’t know what Speedrazor had in that train car, but whatever it was, Jack couldn’t let him get away with it. He had one chance to stop him. He was still controlling both halves of the Knightwing, and the top half, the one still up in the air, was armed to the teeth.

  Jack fired a series of shots from the Knightwing gunship. The cargo car that Speedrazor was running off with exploded in a fireball, and when the smoke cleared, the former Peacemaker’s unconscious body was sprawled across the train tracks. As the rest of Speedrazor’s gang escaped in the AirSkimmer, Jack got a good look at their shocked faces. They couldn’t believe what he’d just done. Lorem Ipsum was laughing like it was the funniest thing in the world. She was definitely a strange one. The villains sped out of sight, leaving their ringleader behind, and Jack and his friends turned their attention to the wreckage of the train.