Lost Shadow

by Chanda Hahn

  An acidic fire burned deep in John’s stomach as he realized how sick and twisted the video gaming world was becoming and how easily he could be swept up in it if he had money. Wait, he did.

  John held the tablet in his hand and scrolled through the avatars quickly, searching for the lost boys. Maybe he didn’t have to buy them—maybe he could use his credits to help them.

  His brows furrowed as he searched but couldn’t find the one he was looking for. Peter. He scrolled and scrolled. And then he saw Peter’s avatar, with the word sold on it.

  John sighed. He was too late. Someone else had grabbed him up. Under Peter’s avatar was the gamer’s name spinning in a circle. Helix.

  He glanced up at President Helix and studied the older man. It looked like he had a horse in this race, having known ahead of time who to bet on. Buy the guy that can regenerate. John grumbled at the unfairness and continued to search for a player.

  “Attention everyone,” Helix announced excitedly. “The last group has arrived in the Hollow Dome. Let’s get started, shall we?” Helix pushed a button on his tablet and a loud muffled tone rang out through the city. The investors could hear the shriek of the morphlings down below.

  “That should wake them up. So, who’s ready to play?” Helix asked.

  John continued to search through the players, more or less scoping out the competition. Neverland had done well creating a wide range of soldiers. Speed, shapeshifting, strength, agility, but none were as unique and strong as Peter and the lost boys. He didn’t see anyone with abilities like Jax, Ditto, or Tootles, and a confident smile crossed his lips. Then he saw someone he recognized.

  “Brittney?” John muttered and couldn’t believe the missing girl from his high school was here and alive. He pulled up her stats and quickly read over them and was surprised at her results.

  “See anything you like?” Helix had come over and leaned on his chair, looking at his screen. “Oh, you like this one, do you?” he asked, pointing out Brittney.

  “Oh, I don’t know. It’s hard to choose.” John turned the tablet away and began ramble on like an expert gamer. “Do I choose agility over strength and rely on upgrades, or do I invest now and buy an upper-tier player and hope that over the long run they make me back money with endorsements and winning the battle royales and mini competitions?” John had read enough on the website to understand that there would be mini games held throughout the seasons.

  Helix arched a brow, clearly impressed with his use of gaming lingo.

  “Wow, you really have given this a lot of thought.” Helix gave John’s arm a squeeze. “But don’t take too long deciding. The others have already snatched up the good ones.”

  “I know, but I don’t want to be a reckless buyer. I like to check under the hood. I may watch them in action for a bit before I invest.”

  “Suit yourself, but don’t forget about upgrades.” He winked knowingly.

  “Yes,” John laughed uncomfortably and waited for Helix to leave him before he went back to the screen.

  What to do?

  What looked like a glitch on the screen became real when a blank avatar popped up on the roster. John tapped on the avatar and watched as it slowly began to download and appear on the screen. A new player? There were zero stats listed. He clicked on the suit cam and saw that whoever the newcomer was in the Hollow Dome was putting on a suit. They walked past a mirror and John saw the familiar blonde head of his sister, right before she put on the helmet visor.

  As soon as she did, the visor scanned her and the rest of her avatar appeared on the screen, without a name and with a base price of thirty thousand.

  Thank goodness she was alive, but for crying out loud, she was in the Hollow Dome!

  “Oh crud, Wendy,” John muttered. “Forgive me.” He clicked buy on Wendy and immediately she was his. He didn’t know what else to do except try and help her with the other credits he had. The only good thing going is that he knew he couldn’t kill her. Well, not really. He hoped.

  But first things first. He needed to get her armed. He opened the map and noticed the closest weapons were in the sporting goods store one building over. John felt a thrill of excitement as he pulled down the map and clicked on the icon of the weapon. Praying, hoping his sister would see it.

  He fist-pumped the air when he watched her break into the building next door.

  She had seen the weapon icon, and he groaned the same time she did when she stumbled into a room full of boxes.

  “Start breaking them down,” he encouraged, and Wendy began to knock them out of the way, secretly cheering her on and laughing out loud when she found a bat.

  “No, keep going,” he murmured. Looking up, he was dismayed to see just as many other investors and gamers equally engrossed, managing their own avatars. John realized just how dangerous a game he was playing.

  Chapter 38

  “Got anything?” Jax asked anxiously as he paced back and forth in the galley.

  They were on the yacht a few miles from shore along with the other boats and investors’ yachts, a situation that had ramped up their anxiety levels tenfold. Initially, they’d thought fate was on their side, when the Red Skulls searched their yacht and managed to overlook the hidden compartment. But they hadn’t counted on Neverland keeping them this far from shore. So now, as they waited nervously for John to find a spot for Tootles to teleport them into Neverland, Jax worried it may very well be too far away.

  Tink had the computer out and was watching John’s hidden camera with Tootles. She pointed to the underground area and he shook his head. It was too dark.

  Tink’s censor band went off, and she cupped her hand over her mouth and tried to focus on other locations to teleport, clicking, freezing, and dragging the camera images into a larger focus for Tootles to study.

  “No, nothing that has a large enough view. We want to get inside the building, not end up on the beach, and so far, we have an elevator,” Tink mumbled. A few minutes later, she yelled, “Yes!”

  Slightly, Ditto, and Michael had gathered together and Tink pointed to what appeared to be a full-fledged city inside Neverland.

  “Is that inside the island?” Ditto asked.

  “Looks like it,” Tink answered. “That looks like the best place to teleport too, but now we have a problem.” She looked around at everyone and counted heads. “Who’s going to go? Tootles took three of us last time the same distance and it knocked him out. There’s no way he can get us all there. Maybe he could take four, but that’s pushing it.”

  Jax had forgotten about that. He looked at Tink’s stubborn face and knew there was an argument waiting to happen. Dr. Mee, Dr. Barrie, Slightly, Ditto, Tink, Michael, and him included made seven. Over half of them would have to stay back.

  “Okay, Tootles will take me, Ditto, and Slightly,” Jax announced.

  “No way,” Tink argued. “I want to go. John is there and I won’t leave him. He is going to get into all sorts of trouble if I’m not there.”

  “No, Tink,” Jax ordered. “You will stay here with your father. You just got each other back, don’t waste it.” Tink opened her mouth but promptly closed it.

  “I’m going.” Michael got up and stood next to Tootles. “Someone needs to take down Neverland’s security system and I can do that.” He pointed to his head. “But I need to be closer. I can’t do it from here.”

  Jax had to rethink his strategy now. Michael had a point—he would prove to be an asset if they had to crash the system. “Okay, Slightly, Michael, and I. That’s final.”

  A quiet look passed between Ditto and Slightly, and Jax almost missed it. Tootles came over and grabbed hands with Jax and Michael. Slightly pretended to lean forward and reach for Tootles’ shoulder, but at the last minute, Ditto replaced him.

  In a flash they were inside the city, a few blocks from Wonderland Games. Tootles had teleported them to the spot Tink had targeted with a screen capture. A loud tone echoed through the air and a wailing scream followed. Too
tles shrieked and cowered in fear, and Michael pulled the boy into a doorway of a hair salon.

  “What was that?” Tootles asked, his breathing ragged, as his head fell back on Michael’s shoulder and he passed out.

  “Well, at least he got us here,” Ditto said and helped prop Tootles up against the door, brushing the boy’s hair to the side.

  “What are you doing here, Ditto?” Jax growled. “You’re injured. I told you to stay put.”

  “Slightly and I had already discussed this outcome. We knew Tootles couldn’t teleport us all, and he agreed that I should be the one to come,” Ditto answered.

  Jax didn’t have time to argue as a morphling crawled out of the sewer and ran across the road to them, its long tentacle arms waving threateningly in the air.

  Maintaining eye contact with Ditto, Jax raised one arm and blasted the morphling with a fireball into air, across the street and through a building, where it decimated into a pile of ash.

  “Now is not the time to test my patience, Ditto,” Jax growled out.

  Ditto’s mouth fell open and he did a double take between the ash and Jax’s hand still engulfed in flames. “Yes, sir, I mean no, I . . . just want to make up for my stupidity in the woods.”

  “This is war, not the time to make amends. You want to prove to me you’re capable of fighting? Protect Tootles,” Jax snapped. He needed to find the others.

  “But I know this place,” Ditto insisted. “It’s just like Hollow City in the games, I’m almost sure of it. And Slightly and I agreed, if this is anything like the game, I’m your best chance at survival.” He jogged into the street and looked down the road. “Like down Woodland Avenue is a rest station.” He turned and pointed the other way. “Two blocks over is the Workman’s Guns and Ammo shop.” He grinned cheekily at Jax. “Now who’s mad I came?”

  Jax shook his head. “Well, get to it. Take care of Tootles and Michael. I will meet you over there in a bit.”

  Ditto split into two. One picked up Tootles and headed to the nearest bench, Michael following behind him; the other gave Jax a salute and headed toward the gun shop. Jax watched them go, his eyes taking in the Clip N Go Salon.

  He hadn’t said anything to the others when he’d watched John interact with the other investors. He had recognized Helix and Hook and didn’t want to alarm them. He knew they were a few blocks away, laughing, eating and playing the game in their impregnable building. Just they wait until he brought the building down around them.

  But first, he needed to find the lost boys.

  “What is this appearing on my visor?” Craft asked. “I keep getting messages and prompts for ammo and supplies—should I follow it?”

  Peter had only received one or two prompts, but he was too busy searching for Wendy to notice what they said, or any of their instructions. “Yes, take two others with you, though. The morphlings keep increasing in numbers, and we’ll need more than our powers to take them down.”

  He was angry that he hadn’t found Wendy, and was preparing to lead a group of the boys back to the main square to find her. His boys had been training for years to fight the Red Skulls and the morphlings. These girls, however, had spent the last seven years in stasis and likely had never even thrown a punch. They were hardly prepared to take on well-trained Red Skulls and deadly morphlings. He owed it to them to protect them as well as his own, but having this many of them in one area kept drawing the morphlings to them as well.

  “Incoming!” Nibs yelled as a morphling crawled down the side of a three story building and leapt toward Jade. Onyx jumped in front of her placing himself in the line of fire, his eyes flashing and trapping the morphling in his deadly gaze, turning it into black stone. Glistening as it fell, the morphling cracked and shattered into pieces.

  “That was impressive.” Jade tucked her hair behind her ear. “But I didn’t need your help.” A second morphling was coming down following the first. Jade’s eyes turned dark, her hands lifted into the air, and vines shot up from the ground, wrapping themselves around the morphling over and over until the dark mass was covered with green.

  Jade’s lips curled up, her teeth bared, as she controlled the living vines until the morphling couldn’t move anymore and was mummified.

  “Very nice.” Onyx high-fived her.

  Curly rolled his eyes. “Stop it, you two.”

  “Behind you!” Peter called out as a large morphling with horns like a bull ambushed them from a blind alley, steering right down the middle of their group.

  They scattered, trying to dive behind cars and buildings as the morphling bowled right into the side of a car, denting the door and setting off the car alarm.

  It turned again and seemed to be considering its next target, pausing as it eyed the largest gathering of their group. Then it scraped the ground with its shadowy hoof like a real bull and charged. Surprised by the speed and aggressiveness of the bull, their group splintered. Four more bull morphlings appeared and banded together to charge at a group trying to stand their ground, causing mass chaos and confusion as one of the boys was gored by the morphling horn in the leg and tossed across the street to land on the hood of a car. Whenever anyone stopped to fight, they were immediately run down, making defense impossible, leaving them no choice but to run, until they were all racing, running to distance themselves from the herd of monstrous bulls.

  Explosions and flying debris littered the street as they fought for their lives.

  “Move!” Peter commanded. “Keep moving!”

  Craft returned, leaping over a fire hydrant with a bag of weapons, as he ran alongside them. Not enough, though, and the few guns they had were nothing like the light brace he was used too.

  “Curly, report,” Peter called, and Curly came running up, sporting a bruise on his cheek, his lip bleeding. “It’s bad, Peter. We’re cut off from the others. I saw one group run north. Dillinger went south and we’re east.”

  “They drove right through us on purpose,” Peter said dismayed. “They thinned the herd, hoping to pick us off one by one instead of attacking all at once.”

  “Who knew morphlings could be so smart?” Onyx grumbled. “They weren’t this sophisticated when we fought them before.”

  “Everything’s different,” Peter said.

  A close roar took Peter’s group by surprise. They spun around, and once again, they faced another morphling bull. It opened its mouth, and an otherworldly scream erupted from between its gaping jaws.

  “Onyx, can you take him?”

  “Not when he’s moving, Peter. His eyes are on the side. I can’t maintain eye contact.”

  “Craft?” Peter called over his shoulder, not needing to look.

  Craft held out his arm, and a metal spear appeared out of his hand, crafted from thin air. The boy was a metallurgist and could create any form of metal object.

  “On it, Peter.” Craft stood boldly in the middle of the street, gripping his spear much like a matador. “Although, I’ve only ever seen this done in movies,” he joked, laughing nervously, clearly uneasy facing down a bull of this size.

  The bull bowed and gave Craft a hard stare, then charged. Craft ran to meet it, pulling his arm back to launch the spear, and let it fly, then rolled to the right, and missed being trampled to death by mere inches. The spear jabbed the morphling, but it only enraged the beast further. It grew in size, and additional horns appeared out of his massive head, and from its back end developed two spiked tails.

  “What in the world?” Craft said in awe. He thrust his hands out and two more spears appeared—one for each head—but he was tired, and limping.

  “Craft, don’t,” Peter called, changing his mind. Trying to call his boy back.

  “Run, Peter, get the girls out of here,” Craft yelled, waving his arms to get the bull’s attention again. “I’ll draw him off.”

  The bull charged again and Craft launched another spear, but it missed. The second spear, he held tight and was going to drive it into the bull’s neck, but Peter k
new he would be trampled. He took off flying toward the boy, but a ball of fire beat him.

  Screams of pain erupted from the bull’s mouth as another fireball followed the first. They burned so hot the flames were white, and then there was nothing but a pile of ash.

  “I knew I couldn’t leave you alone,” Jax said smugly, making his way to Peter, he clapped him on the shoulder.

  “What? No. You were just scared I would take out all of the morphlings myself and forget to leave you any,” Peter joked.

  Jax’s smile disappeared as he glanced from face to face. “Where is she? Where’s Wendy?”

  “I lost her,” Peter sighed.

  “Again?” Jax turned and looked for her, not seeing her among the small group. “Don’t worry, you’ll find her. She always comes back to you.”

  “How did you get here?” Peter asked, and grinned when Ditto came running over to them, carrying a sleeping Tootles, Michael right on his heels.

  “Same way you did. Boat.” Jax counted, his lips moving, and his frowned deepened. “Where are the others? There should be more of the boys.”

  “We were separated,” Peter answered.

  Jax’s jaw clenched. “Looks like you really need your second in command.”

  “I’ve never said otherwise,” Peter admitted.

  “Where did you get those cool helmets and uniforms? Can I get one?” Ditto asked, handing Tootles over to Jake, another of the lost boys. “They’re just like my character wears in the video game.” He kept running his hand over Onyx’s helmet and even flipped up the visor to scope out the make and model.

  “It is just like the game. Even the screen controls are the same.”

  “We’re in a game,” Peter said. “Although, not one I’ve played much.”

  “Don’t worry, I have.” Ditto grinned.

  Screaming caught them off guard, and Peter whipped around—Ash had fallen to the ground and was being dragged by a morphling toward the sewers, its jaws clamped around her leg.