Age of Heroes: The Witch Hunter's Gauntlet

by Bret Schulte

“What was that?” Natch looked over his shoulder nervously.

  Fortunately, Celestial was cool about it and spun away with her mummy at the last second.

  “Nothing. Thought I saw someone dressed as Principal Shepherd.” It seemed like a good story to Sam. But she decided to change the subject anyway. “So how did you become such a good dancer?”

  “I took lessons,” he said matter-of-factly.

  “Oh wow, just for little old me.” She gave him what she hoped he would understand was a playful smile.

  He just shrugged. She switched to a different topic.

  “So why James Bond?”

  “Irony mostly. I figure one day when I’m about to rule the world and make everything better, some drunk who can’t hold a relationship for more than a week will try to stop me.”

  “Yeah, I heard you plan to take over the world.”

  “Of course,” he said with complete seriousness.

  “Why?”

  “No one has ever done it before.” He spun them around on the dance floor. They wound up dancing next to a couple dressed as Steven Colbert and Wonder Woman. “Look, we only get one chance at life. I figure you should use it to the fullest extent possible. Taking over the world is the greatest challenge I can think of, and it would be a waste of time to do anything less.”

  “Okay,” Sam said politely. She could think of some other, less violent, goals. Like being the first person on Mars, or curing cancer, or stopping global warming.

  “I mean, someone has to do it eventually, right?”

  Sam hadn’t really thought about it before. She figured it might happen some day, hundreds of years from now.

  “Do you have any idea what the odds are against you?”

  “Sure. Over six billion to one. But I would rather fail at being great than succeed at being mediocre,” Natch said happily. “How about you? What do you want to be when you grow up?”

  “I have no idea.”

  “None at all?” he asked with a skeptical look on his face.

  “Nope.”

  He thought that over for a bit.

  “That must be nice.”

  What?

  “How is that nice?” she asked slightly more angrily than she intended. “I don’t know what I am doing with the rest of my life. How is that a good thing?”

  “It means you still have options.”

  “I guess.” She wasn’t very reassured. Having a world of options didn’t mean a whole lot when you didn’t have a direction.

  “Okay, look at it this way,” he said as he spun them around again. “You are only fourteen. Would you want a fourteen-year-old making important life decisions for you? Do you think anyone out there would trust you to pick a career path for them? No. So don’t worry about it. You have plenty of time to pick something.”

  That actually made sense, even though it was terribly insulting.

  “What about you? You’re fourteen and you have chosen a career path.”

  “True. But I am special,” he said. “And a little crazy.”

  “Can’t argue with that,” Sam said.

  The song ended and he let go of her waist.

  “You know Lucas-“

  He was cut off by a smack to the back of his head from a plastic sword.

  “En guard,” Zack said, removing the hat of his Zorro costume and taking a bow.

  “You want me to feed you that sword?”

  He tried to grab it, but Zack constantly kept swinging it out of reach.

  “You are too slow, Mr. Bond,” Zack said, wiggling his fake mustache.

  “Are you here all alone, Zack? That’s so sad,” Sam said with a pouty lip.

  “Not at all. I came with Dorothy over there.” He pointed to a tall girl in a dead-on perfect replica of Dorothy’s outfit from the original The Wizard of Oz, down to the stuffed Toto in her basket. She was making awkward conversation with some of Zack’s friends whose names Sam had never bothered to learn. They were dressed up as the Three Musketeers.

  Sam suddenly recognized the girl. It was Class President Sherry Hoyle.

  “Not bad,” Natch said.

  Sam elbowed him in the side.

  Zack snickered at Natch. “So where’s Lucas? Crying in his room?”

  “No, he’s out. Trick-or-treating,” Natch said.

  “I’m sure he is.”

  “What are you talking about? Lucas is coming with Tiffany.” Sam didn’t like the way the words felt in her mouth, but they were true.

  Zack laughed. “Yeah right, like she was going to waste her Halloween at a school dance. She’s in Paris right now.”

  “Really?” Why hadn’t anyone told her this before? Poor Lucas.

  She had to find Zoey and Tasha right away. She needed advice. Maybe there was still time to find Lucas and get him to come to the dance.

  “Before you go,” Zack said, sensing her intentions. He beckoned Sherry over. “I want to show you the best part of Sherry’s costume.”

  Sam couldn’t have cared less about Sherry’s costume, except she could tell by the pure joy in Zack’s eyes that he was up to something. Something that was not intended to make Sam happy.

  Sherry skipped over to them, her basket swinging in her hand. The Three Musketeers pushed their way through the crowd behind her.

  “As soon as the dance is over, we’re going to have a special bonfire. You know, roast some marshmallows, make some s’mores, and burn a few effigies.” He took the stuffed Toto out of the basket and handed it to Sherry. “Like lions” – he pulled a stuffed lion out of the basket and threw it to Musketeer # 1 who ripped the poor furry toy’s head off – “tigers” – he tossed a stuffed tiger to Musketeer # 2 who impaled it on his sword – “and bears.”

  He pulled Mr. Hopscotch out of the basket.

  “Oh my.”

  Sam lost all connection to the world at that moment. Time stopped. She lost all sense of where she was. Her only thought was to protect Mr. Hopscotch, her oldest and dearest friend, and her last real tangible connection to her parents.

  And then one shining lightning bolt of recognition pierced the storm clouds of her mind.

  Her oldest friend.

  Strength she had never felt before flowed into her arms and puddled in her fingers.

  “Give Mr. Hopscotch back,” she said slowly and forcefully.

  Zack laughed. “Mr. Hopscotch? What a stupid name.”

  “Give him back.” She reached for the teddy bear but Zack held it above his head.

  “Why would I do that?” Zack asked with devilish glee. “When I can roast him and post the video on my webpage instead?”

  From the look in his eye, Sam was absolutely convinced that Zack would really do it.

  She couldn’t lose Mr. Hopscotch. She had already lost too much. She fought back her sudden urge to cry. It would only fuel Zack’s cruelty.

  Natch’s hand reached out at lightning speed, pulled the sword from Sam’s belt, and held it inches from Zack’s face.

  “Give her the bear.”

  Zack’s look of surprise was priceless. But he recovered quickly, and with a flick of his wrist he tossed the teddy bear to Musketeer # 3.

  Musketeer # 3 immediately gripped Mr. Hopscotch around the neck as if he was about to rip his head off.

  “No!” Sam squeaked uncontrollably.

  “Stop this now,” Sherry said, forcefully. No one paid any attention to her. Sam barely noticed when she huffed and marched away.

  Natch waved the pirate sword in Zack’s face.

  “Anything that happens to the bear will happen to you. Understand?”

  Zack tilted his head, looking amused.

  Before Sam could say anything Musketeer # 1 and Musketeer #2 had drawn their swords and slashed Natch simultaneously across the back and legs, leaving tears in his tuxedo. Zack slashed Natch’s hand, making him drop his sword.

  “Idiot,” Zack jeered.

  Sam reached out to console Natch, but the way he squinted at her told her that
was the last thing he wanted.

  She rounded on Zack and his friends instead.

  “You pathetic little boy,” she said. “Give me back my teddy bear.”

  Zack took Mr. Hopscotch back from his grinning Musketeer friend. He poked the bear’s stomach with his sword.

  “Say goodbye, Sammy.”

  “What’s going on over here?” Coach Powers’ bellowing voice carried over the crowd.

  Everyone in the area stopped dancing immediately as Coach Powers made his way through the crowd with Sherry Hoyle bustling along behind him. Coach Powers wore a tattered red leather flight jacket, the kind with the big flap in the front held shut with large gold buttons. A ‘50s-style ray gun hung from the thick white belt around his waist. Sam had no idea what old science fiction character he was supposed to be, but from the wear and tear and the way it didn’t quite fit around his belly she guessed that he had held onto this costume for many years.

  “Later,” Zach said with a bow.

  Zorro and the Three Musketeers took off running through the crowd, laughing and waving their swords.

  Sam chased after them, but a pack of students dressed up as life-sized chess pieces blocked her view. She angrily ran around the group looking for any sign of Zack and his friends, but the dancing crowd had come back together erasing their escape path.

  There was no chance of her catching them now. Maybe if she got Tasha and Zoey to help they could find Zack and his goons before they burned Mr. Hopscotch.

  “The east doors. No, the red ones,” Natch said behind her. “Round ‘em up.”

  He was smiling as he hung up his phone.

  “What was-“

  “Watch this,” he said, pointing to the east doors.

  Zack and his buddies were still hooting and hollering and waving their swords as they reached the doors and ran outside. A second later they came running back inside, followed by an army of ten Jedi with their lightsabers held high and glowing and ten Klingons waving their weird curved swords.

  The swarm of costumed warriors spread out to encircle Zack and his friends. A sword fight broke out, but it turned out that the plastic of the Jedi and Klingon weapons was vastly superior and snapped Zorro and the Musketeers’ costume fencing swords off at the hilt.

  “Shall we?” Natch said, offering Sam his hand.

  “Let’s,” she said, taking it.

  The Klingons and Jedi formed a tight circle. Zack and his friends were standing back-to-back in the middle with their fists up, ready to fight. But Sam noticed that many of these Jedi were quite large. In fact, Mace Windu was Malcolm Harris, the running back who had scored four touchdowns in the latest football game, and the tallest of the three Obi Wan Kenobis was one of Derek’s basketball player friends.

  Sick and Wrong were standing outside of the circle filming everything.

  “Nice going guys,” Natch said.

  “We’re going to have the best blooper reel ever,” Sick said, very excited. He tapped Wrong on the shoulder. “Do not stop filming.”

  Sam stepped through the circle. “How’s it going, cousin?”

  “Second cousin,” Zack snapped.

  “And don’t you forget it,” Sam said. It was amazing how confident she felt with an army of Jedi Masters and Klingon warriors watching her back. “Hand over the bear.”

  “You’d better do it, Mr. McQueen,” Coach Powers said.

  Coach Powers, Sherry Hoyle, Tasha, Zoey, and Dave all stood outside the circle, glaring at Zack. Zoey held the holographic projector in her arms, which resulted in the weird image of Zoey holding Justin Timberlake in the air by his feet.

  “Oooh,” Zack said mockingly as he violently shook Mr. Hopscotch.

  “Stop it!” Sam yelled.

  “Aw, Sammy wants her dolly back.” He pulled a lighter out of his pocket and held it dangerously close to Mr. Hopscotch’s foot.

  “Please don’t. He’s my oldest friend.”

  Out of the corner of her eye she saw Tasha and Zoey nod.

  “That’s all I needed to hear,” someone whispered in her ear.

  And that’s when everything went black.

  Chapter 20

  Blackout Bingo

  With absolutely no lights and no windows the dance hall was almost completely blacked out. The faint flicker of the jack-o-lanterns lit up the room just enough to turn everyone into faceless silhouettes. At first Sam thought that the power had simply gone out. But that wouldn’t explain why the Jedi’s swords had stopped glowing, or why the hologram had winked out.

  Aside from some shuffling of feet no one made a sound, which made it all the worse when something gigantic roared outside.

  The entire room gasped and stared through the darkness in the direction of the roar. Sam wasn’t sure if it was some sort of animal or metal being torn apart, but it made her blood run cold.

  “Everyone remain calm,” Coach Powers yelled commandingly from somewhere in the darkness.

  Nothing makes people freak out more than someone telling them to stay calm. The room was awash in worried whispering and then, just as instantly as they had gone out, the lights flickered back on.

  “See,” Coach Powers said. “The backup generators kicked in.”

  Sam’s eyes readjusted to the light just enough to see a large fireball emblem sown onto the back of Coach Powers’ jacket before the room was plunged into darkness again.

  Coach Powers cursed loudly.

  Rubbing her eyes, Sam reflected on what else she had seen in her half-second of vision. Mr. Hopscotch was missing, and Zack was looking angrily at someone in a white lab coat.

  The lights snapped on again.

  “And now the backup backup generators,” Coach Powers said triumphantly.

  “And out they go again,” the lab coat wearing figure said, holding up a gold pocket watch in his right hand. Mr. Hopscotch hung limply by the leg in his left.

  “He’s got Mr. Hopscotch!” Sam yelled as the lights went out again.

  Sam felt someone rush past her towards the lab coat guy. She would have bet everything she had that it was Tasha.

  She was right. Up ahead in the darkness, she heard Tasha grunt as if she was locked in combat.

  Someone hit someone else very hard. And the loser flopped to the floor.

  People were shouting around trying to find out who was hurt. A blue beam of light cut through the darkness, casting everyone around it in an eerie glow. Sam squinted into the light to see that it was coming from the head of Dean Futuro’s cane.

  Dean Futuro casually leaned on the cane, surveying the scene with a sneer. Sam noticed a series of other tiny lights and possibly buttons that twinkled and blinked along the length of the cane like jewels. In the dark she could see faint staticky sparks swirling around Dean Futuro in an organized pattern, making a bell-like shape around him.

  He had a force field of some kind.

  “Children, be quiet,” Dean Futuro said in a very aggravated voice. “Which one of you is messing with my power?”

  “That would be me,” the lab coat guy said happily.

  Tasha was lying on the floor, possibly unconscious, next to the mysterious guy in the lab coat. In the blue glow Sam finally got a clear view of him. He had white hair, made blue by the light, and he had lost a lot of weight, but Sam recognized him immediately.

  “Jerry?”

  He smiled at her.

  “Actually, it’s Nero.”

  “Nero?” That name was coming up too often lately. “Like Alexander Nero?”

  “Very good, Sam,” he said. “Alexander Nero Sr. was my father.”

  “The man who bravely built his company on research stolen from his closest friends,” Dean Futuro added.

  Slowly Nero’s smile melted into a scowl.

  “Do you really think this is the proper time to make me angry? Especially considering I’ve just shut down all of your defenses with my electromagnetic pulse generators.”

  “Oh, I still have defenses at my disposal, dear boy,�
� Dean Futuro said with a devilish glint in his eye.

  Sam suddenly noticed that several campus security guards had used the darkness to discreetly mingle into the crowd.

  “Please,” Nero said disapprovingly. “You’re resorting to physical violence already?”

  “What can I say, it’s a classic.” Dean Futuro shrugged.

  “Believe me, I’d like nothing better than to beat the snot out of your goons and snap that cane of yours in half, but I have a very tight schedule to keep,” Nero said, checking his watch. He idly crammed Mr. Hopscotch into his other pocket as he spoke.

  “In, three, two, one.”

  A bright red glow on the west wall caught Sam’s eye. Red flames were licking their way out of the thin crack between the double doors. People backed away.

  The doors burst open, and the flames snaked their way into the ballroom, encircling the panicked students and teachers.

  “Everyone remain calm,” Coach Powers said again. Several of the teachers echoed him.

  “This is awesome.”

  Sam turned to see who had said such an obviously stupid thing.

  Sick poked at the flames with one of the Klingons’ swords. He pulled it back and examined the places where it had touched the fire. It was completely unharmed.

  “These are the most amazing special effects I have ever seen,” Sick said to Nero, formerly Jerry. “How do you do it?”

  Now that she thought about it, Sam realized that if the fire was real, the room would be filling up with smoke right now, setting off the sprinklers, and the floor would look burnt or something, but it appeared completely fine.

  “Ow.” Wrong had put his entire hand into the flame. It obviously hurt him, but when he yanked it back out his hand looked fine.

  Nero laughed.

  “Big C,” he shouted. “Come and introduce yourself. You have a fan.”

  A figure appeared in the doorway. It walked straight through the fire without even flinching. As it emerged from the flames, Sam saw that it was a handsome, tall man with long, red hair. He wore silver armor with a writhing gold dragon on the chest plate. A dozen tiny red sparks flew out of his right hand like a swarm of fireflies buzzing into the crowd. Suddenly all of the security guards slumped to the floor.

  Several of the sparks were dive-bombing Dean Futuro’s force field, but each one fizzled away as it hit.