Isn't It Past Your Bedtime

by J L Ender

  Balanced once more, he pointed at the Bluejay. She had been flying forward, copying my rocket-like attack. Her aim off, she suddenly spun sideways like a pinwheel. She’d fallen asleep in midair.

  “Bluejay!” I screamed.

  My shout had no effect. Still flying forward, she was on a collision course. I leapt to the side as she sliced through the air. She collided with the giant golden monster at an odd, sideways angle.

  And tore him clean in two.

  Two terrible thumps followed. The first was the Bluejay smacking into the asphalt. The second was the upper half of the giant golden man toppling and crushing her.

  “Wow.” It was the only word my tired brain could latch onto, the only one that seemed to fit. The great golden monster’s chest had been sliced through diagonally, so the halves weren’t the same size. He had been cut close to the armpit on one side, close to the waistline on the other.

  I stepped forward and gave one of the pillar-like legs a good kick. Nothing.

  In sleep, the Bluejay had saved us.

  I shoved aside the head of the golden man and heaved Bluejay out of a small pit that had been formed by her fall. She was out cold, in a deep sleep no energy drink would disturb. I put her next to Stuffmaker. I moved her for the reverse of the reason I moved everyone else. If a vehicle hit her, it would probably be the car that got hurt.

  I went back for Katrina next, and I carefully laid her beside the Bluejay. Three of my allies all lined up, all sleeping peacefully. Their fight was over, but I had to keep going.

  All alone.

  Chapter 19

  I walked past the wreckage of the great golden man. I would go back to the parking lot and confront Sandman. What else could I do? I had to find a way to end this. I was so tired now it almost hurt. The suit wasn’t heavy, but the boots were pinching my feet, making them ache. I would have to ask Stuffmaker to fix them.

  If I ever got to talk to him again.

  My heart hurt worse than my feet. I felt the weight of all the people I had to rescue. Katrina, Iron Wraith, the Bluejay, Stuffmaker. Not only them but my mom, too. Everyone. The whole world, a world that suddenly felt more empty than it really was. I wondered if I’d ever talk to any of them again. Sandman was the only one left. I had some words for him, alright. The silver dust was heavy now, making the air glitter in the glow of the streetlights.

  I walked back down Scout Street toward Sandman’s neighborhood. The quiet had grown deeper since the start of the night. Cars and trucks had begun to run out of gas, their engines going dead. Soon light bulbs would burn out. Future nights would not just be quiet, but dark too. It had been mere hours since Sandman had launched his plan, and it already felt like a different world.

  It was on the next street over that I saw a little golden man. He was walking on a balcony over a restaurant, balancing on the railing with both arms out. Crud. When I had seen the giant one, I had guessed that they had all combined together somehow into one larger being. Not so, apparently.

  I stepped up to the alley that led to the parking lot where Sandman had been camped out. I took a deep breath, steeling myself. I’m ready this time, I told myself. I had to be.

  “Going somewhere?” a voice called. It sounded electronically modified, like the Bluejay’s when she had her mask on.

  A figure stepped out of the darkness. Whoever it was wore an armor suit like mine. The helmet was different, though. It was shaped like a bird’s head, complete with a sharp-looking beak, sort of like an eagle’s or a hawk’s. Like me, he’d also changed the color, but, instead of red, his suit was now black with small, white specks.

  “Tony?” I asked. “Is that you?”

  “The name’s Nighthawk now.”

  “That’s a pretty good superhero name,” I said. “I’m glad I ran into you! I could really use your help.”

  That was when I saw it.

  There was a little golden man riding on his shoulder, one arm on his helmet.

  “I don’t think anyone’s going to be calling me ‘superhero’,” Tony said. His voice had a nasty edge to it. Anger.

  “Tony, I don’t understand…”

  “Sandman wants to reboot the world.” He balled his hands into fists. "We can start over! I don’t have to be afraid anymore. I can be the only one with powers. Well, one of the only ones.”

  “Sandman wants to do what?” I asked. “That’s crazy!”

  “What do you know?” he yelled in a sudden fury, shaking his fist at me. “You’ve always been brave! And I’ve always hated you for it.”

  “Hated… but. But…” I couldn’t think for a moment. “We’ve always been friends! I’ve always looked out for you!”

  “And that’s why we were friends, Fox. You kept me safe. I hate you for being so much—” he paused, letting out a frustrated grunt as though digging for the words. “So much… better than me.”

  “Tony…” I didn’t know what to say. Tears stung the corners of my eyes. Nothing I’d ever been through, no beating or bad day, had ever hurt this much.

  “I don’t need you to keep me safe anymore. In fact, if you’re out to stop Sandman, you’re the only one keeping me from being safe.”

  I’d always known Tony was a nervous guy, but I had never realized his fear ran this deep. In addition to hurt at his betrayal, I felt pity for him. Pity that he was so afraid of the world he was willing to become a bad person.

  I should have seen this coming. I’d known Tony was angry and afraid. How had I missed my best friend slipping away? He’d all but called himself a villain. Regardless of how Tony saw himself, though, I wasn't giving up on him.

  “Are you going to turn back?” Tony’s hateful tone cut through my thoughts.

  “I can’t do that,” I said.

  “Then I guess there’s nothing more to say. Time to see who’s better with their suit. You had yours upgraded? So did I.” He shot straight up into the air, blue flames bursting from his boots. I took several steps back, out into the street. We both had the same weapons, at least as far as I knew. Could we damage each other with them? I wasn’t sure I wanted to risk that. I couldn’t hurt Tony. I would have to find a way to stop him without weapons.

  He flew high. I lost him in the sky for a moment, and then I saw him. With his speckled suit he looked like a moving patch of night. He dropped fast, firing three rockets as he flew down. One landed in front of me. Boom! Another one landed behind me. Boom! And the third hit me right in the chest. I raised my arms to protect myself, but I was too slow.

  The rocket did… nothing.

  I was barely even knocked back. The suit took the force and the flame and barely budged. Inside the suit, I wasn’t even warm. The street wasn’t so lucky. There were craters in front of and behind me. A car near the second blast had caught fire, its alarm wailing.

  Not waiting for the smoke to clear, Tony began firing his laser. He wasn’t careful at all, just spraying all over the place. Each hit that missed me took chunks out of the nearby buildings. Each hit that struck me did… nothing. We couldn’t use our own weapons against each other. That was a relief! Ignoring the red bursts of light lancing all around, I checked the inside of the car that had begun to burn. Empty, thank goodness.

  So I picked it up and threw it at Tony as hard as I could.

  He didn’t seem to have been expecting that. The little golden man that had been riding his shoulder hopped off a second before the car hit. The vehicle pegged Tony in midair as he hovered, firing his laser. It exploded against him. He was knocked back, thunking into a building, crashing right through the brick exterior.

  Pigeon teeth, I thought. I hadn’t meant to hit him quite that hard. He stumbled out and raised his fists. They were both shaking. Tony was still Tony. He was afraid.

  “We don’t have to do this,” I said. “Come on, man. Help me stop Sandman.”

  “I’m not going to help you do anything! I’m never helping you again!” Tony’s voice shook with emotion.. He sounded close to crying.“But
I… I don’t need to fight you! Sandman can stop you.” He jumped into the air and fired his jet boots, flying off into the night sky.

  I had always protected Tony. It seemed weird now that he should be afraid of me, but in a way I supposed it was a good thing. I could focus now on stopping Sandman. I would figure out what to do about Tony another time.

  For now… I had a whole stupid world to save.

  Chapter 20

  The little golden man scurried down the alley. I followed it through to the opposite side. The other end of the alley was well lit this time. As I stepped out of the darkness of the narrow lane, I saw the lump for what it was. A pile of brass junk, though now it was much smaller than it had been. Standing next to it was… someone new.

  Another of the metal men, but this one was different. He was about as tall as a person, and he didn’t have the vague shape the others had. It was shaped exactly like a person, a boy who looked a lot like Sandman, but a few years younger. He even had hair and eyebrows and clothes. A tuxedo. And his whole body was the color of brass. Not as shiny as the golden men that had been running around, but a dimmer, darker shade of yellow.

  He was standing next to Sandman, who was leaning against him as though resting. There were little golden men everywhere. Unlike the boy-sized figure, they glowed brightly, the main source of light in the parking lot.

  Elephant Boy was slumped nearby. He was in his smaller, stretchier elephant form. He kept hitting himself with his thick, trunk-like hands. “Must stay awake! Must stay awake!” he kept repeating.

  “Ah, Tin Man. You’re just in time!” Sandman called. Now that I could see him, I could tell exactly what had sounded off about his voice before. He was tired! In fact, he could barely keep his eyes open.

  “The name is Steel Fox. I took out your giant,” I said. “It’s time for you to give up.”

  “Actually, the Bluejay destroyed it, but who’s keeping score?” The Sandman pushed himself away from the brass boy. “You win by default, I suppose, being the last man standing.”

  “It takes guts to come here,” he continued, waving a hand to indicate his minions. “I’ll give you that. But you have to know when you’re beat. I mean, do you really think you can take down all of us? Show him what you can do, dear brother,” he said to the brass boy.

  Without saying a word, the brass child picked up a pair of candlesticks, one in each hand. A moment later, they began to wriggle together in a way that metal usually doesn’t, then combined and began to glow, having transformed into another of the little golden men.

  “Stevie here doesn’t speak much, and he can’t walk or talk at all without his powers, but he’s a good brother. He always does exactly what I tell him to. You could be good like Steve. Give up now.”

  “When will you wake everyone up?” I asked.

  “I’ve been thinking about that. I was going to, I don’t know, declare myself supreme and awesome king of the world, and then wake everyone up, but that’s a lot of people! Some of them might not be good, loyal subjects. So we’d have to take our time about it, make sure no one can challenge my rule… at least, not until I can make some changes.”

  “What kind of changes?” I asked. “And won’t people die waiting for you to wake them up?” I assumed the people put under by Sandman’s sleep powers still needed to eat and drink.

  “The world is all wrong. It needs to be remolded. Even in the age of superheroes, we still have wars, and people in other countries have dirty water. And little boys can’t always get the doctors they need.” He said this last while glancing at the brass boy, Steve. “It’s time to hit the reset button. We’re just going to fix what’s wrong. Is that so bad? So evil? You could help us. A few people might not make it along the way, but that’s a small price to pay for transformation!”

  “Maybe the world needs to change,” I said, “but you’re going about it all wrong. People have to work together or the change will never stick. You’ll just be remembered as another bad guy doing all the wrong things, the next evil dictator in a long line of evil dictators.”

  “We’ve been doing this whole civilization thing for a long time, Steel Fox.” He said my superhero name with a sneer. “No one’s gotten it right yet. Maybe a bad guy doing all the wrong things will be the right thing this time.”

  “Pick up a history book,” I said. I took a step forward. I could tell we were going to have to fight this out. Words were failing us. “All the bad guys in the past have said stuff just like that to justify being evil.”

  “I can see we’re not going to sort this out by talking.” Sandman held out both hands palms up in an expansive shrug.

  “No, we're not,” I agreed. “I’d say great minds think alike, but you’re a freaking nutball.”

  “You wound me, Tin Man! Time to settle this the old-fashioned way. One final battle! Welcome to the last war! After tonight, there will be no more battles and wars. If problems come up again, I’ll just put everyone to sleep and start over yet again!”

  “That’s crazy,” I said. “You’re taking away freedom.”

  “That’s right, kid. Now you’re starting to understand.” Sandman tried to snap his fingers and failed. Steve snapped his metal fingers, making a loud click. “Elephant Bottom, time to earn your wakey-wakey status. Take out the Tin Man, and his little dog too!” He cackled at this— as if he’d made a joke— but I didn’t get it.

  All this time, Elephant Boy had been slapping himself silly to stay awake. Now he stood… and seemed to keep standing and standing and standing and standing. He’s growing again, I realized. In seconds he was in giant form, towering over all of us.

  “Oh boy, you know what? We should have brought some popcorn, brother dear,” Sandman told Steve. “This is going to be quite the show!” The brass boy shrugged. For the first time, I noticed his expression. He seemed sad, if I was reading the features of his metal face correctly.

  Maybe I didn’t need to fight him, though. I had a theory about Sandman’s weakness, and I needed to try it out.

  While I still could.

  I glanced at Sandman and the brass child. They were both just standing there, watching. None of the little golden men were moving, either. Would this just be a fight between Elephant Boy and me? I could deal with that. Well… hopefully. Stuffmaker’s modifications to the suit were about to get a real road test.

  Elephant Boy charged forward, his footsteps making the earth shake. I ran forward too, determined to meet force with force. I stopped short when I realized the problem that would cause. We were surrounded by buildings on three sides. Buildings that were probably full of sleeping families. It was dark past Sandman and the brass child. I wasn’t sure what was out there beyond the parking lot, but I thought I saw… a jungle gym?

  The city park.

  Perfect.

  If I could lure Elephant Boy out there somehow, I wouldn’t have to worry about anyone getting hurt. The giant monster was still running, making the ground quiver so hard that I was bouncing slightly even in my suit. The elephant man’s huge feet were taking chunks out of the ground with every step.

  And… the angle was all wrong. An apartment building was behind Elephant Boy. Another was behind me. If we collided now one of us might crash into a building.

  I darted to the left and ran under the swing of a meaty fist. Elephant Boy trumpeted in anger, his trunk straightening high into the air. He swung his other fist down at me. I dodged too slowly and got sent skidding across the lot, out towards the park. My head was rattled against the asphalt. Through the haze of city lights, I could see a scattered handful of stars.

  I started to stand and barely managed to roll out of the way when Elephant Boy charged again. As he rumbled by, I darted under his fists—both of them this time—to stand before him. Now the park was at my back. I sighed. What I was about to try was… crazy.

  Elephant Boy was in a full on rage now. Screaming, he thundered toward me. I darted into the air with my jet boots and wrapped my arms around hi
s chest, then kicked my boots out toward the sky and fired them at full power. The resulting tug pulled him off balance. He began to go down… and he would have fallen right on top of me, but I was ready for the crash. I used the suit’s super-strength and Elephant Boy’s momentum to flip the giant elephant over my shoulders as I hit the street. The elephant trumpeted again—in surprise this time—and went flying out toward the park. He landed with a terrible crash.

  Well… I had moved him. Now I needed to actually beat him.

  I had to get him back into his smaller, stretchier form. I could defeat him in that form. How had the Bluejay gotten him to transform before?