by Lucas Flint
So I said, “I accept. When do I leave?”
“We will contact the INJ and ask them if you can visit with Strike and the New Heroes in California sometime soon,” said Omega Man. “Once we have all the details worked out, we will let you know when you can go. For now, however, you may return to the House and inform the other Young Neos about our plan, if you wish.”
I nodded. “Okay.”
With that, I flew up through the ceiling, which had opened again. As I flew back to the House, I could not help but wonder whether Strike was involved with the mysterious woman or not. I supposed I'd find out once I went to California, whenever that would be.
Chapter Eight
“Is that your base?” I said a week later, peering out the window of the cockpit at the California countryside below. It was hard to see from up here, especially with all of the trees, but I could make out what appeared to be a single landing strip in the middle of nowhere somewhere below us.
“Yep,” said the pilot, a man named Horace Henderson. “We'll be landing in about five minutes, so just hold on tight.”
I nodded and pulled back from the window, checking the straps on my seat to make sure I was securely strapped in. I didn't really need the straps—super strength and the ability to fly meant that I'd probably be okay in the event of a plane crash—but Horace had insisted that I strap myself in for safety reasons. Besides, I was trying to avoid annoying the INJ too much, and Horace, being one of their pilots, probably wouldn't have been very happy if I said no.
Granted, I could have flown across the country myself, but the INJ had insisted that I take one of their planes to the New Heroes' base instead. I was told that the location of the New Heroes' base was a secret and that they did not want me flying to it for fear that a supervillain might follow me and find it. That was fine by me; while I liked flying, I dreaded the idea of flying across the entire country, which would have been a long and grueling journey even if the weather cooperated and I had flown as fast as I could.
The plane was a lot smaller than the one my parents and I had taken to fly to Texas when we moved there. There was basically just enough room for the pilot and me, plus a few boxes full of things in the back that the pilot didn't identify for me but which seemed important. It had a really futuristic, streamlined look, looking like it had flown from the future or something. It was apparently a Plutarch Plane, designed by Adam Plutarch's airplane building company, a fact I knew only because I saw the words 'PLUTARCH PLANE' written on the underside of one of the wings when the plane first landed. I wondered if the INJ had contributed to Plutarch's campaign during the election and if Plutarch had given them this in return for it.
As for the pilot, Horace, I had asked him what powers he had when I first boarded the plane. But all Horace did was shake his head and chuckle. I didn't know if that meant that Horace was just an ordinary human pilot who was hired by the INJ to fly their planes (like Willy with the Neocopter on Hero Island) and therefore had no powers, or, if he did have powers and just wasn't going to tell me. He showed no signs of having any sort of powers at all as we flew from New York to California.
And man, did we fly fast. It felt like it took us maybe ten minutes from lifting off from New York to reach California. How that was possible, I didn't know. Either Plutarch Planes were really that fast or Horace had the power to bend the space/time continuum to shorten the distance between New York and California. Horace certainly didn't bother to explain, even when I asked him. He just laughed and shook his head, which seemed to be his standard response to every question I asked him.
We were coming in for a landing on the narrow landing strip below, and as we drew closer to the ground, I looked down to see if I could see more of the New Heroes' base better. But all I could see was that single landing strip; there wasn't even a watch tower or anything. It looked like someone had just built a landing strip in the middle of nowhere and then abandoned it.
I looked at Horace again, who was focused on the controls. “Uh, Horace? Are you sure this is the right place?”
“Positive,” said Horace, without looking at me. “I've flown here many times. This is the place.”
“Are you sure?” I said. “Because it looks pretty barren down there to me.”
“Looks can be deceiving,” said Horace. “Anyway, please be quiet. We're going in for a landing and I don't want any distractions that could cause us to crash.”
I nodded silently and sat back as Horace brought the plane in for a landing. The landing was surprisingly smooth, almost like we hadn't landed at all. And soon, the plane stopped completely and its engines started to die down.
I looked out the windows again. I didn't see anyone nearby or any buildings that might have made up the New Heroes' base. It was just wilderness for miles in every direction, except for the landing strip.
“Um, Horace?” I said, looking at the pilot again. “Where is the—”
I was interrupted by the sound of metal sliding against metal, followed by a loud hissing sound, which came from outside the plane. I looked out the windows once more to see that the landing strip was starting to pull aside, like panels hiding a secret button. Then the plane started to slowly descend into the earth, which would have worried me if Horace hadn't looked so comfortable and relaxed.
We descended down a long metal tunnel that seemed to go down deep into the earth. I didn't know how deeply it went or how much time passed as we descended, but it seemed like we descended for a long time, as if it was a very deep hole. White lights on the tunnel walls gave us some light to see by, though not as much as the sun.
Eventually, the platform reached the bottom of the tunnel and was silent again. Outside of the plane, I saw that we had descended into some kind of hanger, with about six other planes—which were even smaller than this one—arranged on both sides. A metal walkway led from the platform, upon which we stood, all the way to a set of metal doors at the other end of the room, which appeared to lead to the other parts of the base.
Standing on top of a nearby platform was Strike, wearing his cape and goggles as usual, and Dizzy, who still wore her strange pink helmet. The two looked pretty much the same as they had the last time I saw them and they waved at me when the platform ceased descending. I waved back at them and immediately started undoing my straps just as the lid of the cockpit started rising.
Once my straps were completely undone, I thanked Horace for taking me here and then jumped out of the plane and landed on the floor just as Strike and Dizzy flew toward me on a metal board that carried them both. I shivered when I jumped out of the plane, because the air down here was cold in contrast to the heat of the sun above.
“Bolt,” said Strike, smiling at me as he and Dizzy landed in front of me. “So glad you made it. How was the trip?”
“Good,” I said. “Horace is a very good pilot.”
“Of course he is,” said Strike. “He's been flying for years. Now, why don't we show you around? Horace needs to put the plane away and he can't do that if we're standing so close to it like this.”
I nodded and followed Strike and Dizzy to the walkway leading to the metal doors I noticed earlier. As we walked, I looked over my shoulder at the plane. The cockpit had closed again, but I thought I saw Horace speaking into a walkie talkie, but to who and why, I didn't know. It immediately made me suspicious, however, and wonder if that was related to the mysterious woman.
But then I snapped back to attention when Strike said, “So, Bolt, how is the rest of your team? I see you didn't bring them with you.”
“Oh, they're fine,” I said quickly, remembering what Mecha Knight had told me about not telling the New Heroes about Blizzard's current condition. “They're just staying in New York in case there's a villain or problem they need to deal with.”
“I see,” said Strike. “I'm kind of disappointed, though, because I was hoping that both our teams would get to know each other better today. But hey, if the Summit goes well, then we'll all have plenty of
time to get to know each other better.”
I smiled and nodded, but in truth I wasn't entirely enthused by the idea of spending more time with Strike or his team. I glanced around the hanger quickly to see if there were any clues, but we were the only people in the room right now aside from Horace, who was still in the plane.
“So what do you call your base?” I said, looking at the backs of Strike and Dizzy, who were ahead of me on the walkway. “We call ours the House.”
“We call it the Cavern,” said Strike. He gestured around at the hanger. “This is the hanger where we keep all of our planes and other vehicles we sometimes keep here.”
“Planes?” I said. “Why do you need planes?”
“Because we need a way to fly around the country to fight supervillains, of course,” said Strike. “It's how we got to New York.”
“Though we don't use them too much, because most of our activity is centered right here in California,” said Dizzy. “The INJ prefers to have us deal with in-state threats while they deal with national or international ones.”
“Sounds just like how the NHA treats us,” I said. “But why is the Cavern underground? That seems kind of impractical, especially in an earthquake prone state like California.”
“This is actually an abandoned government facility,” said Strike as we stopped in front of the metal doors. “It's been heavily modified over the years, though, in order to accommodate our needs and to bring it up to date with modern technology.”
“That means we get really good Wi-Fi down here,” said Dizzy, looking over her shoulder at me. “And it's actually livable.”
“You mean you guys live down here?” I said.
Strike nodded and then turned his attention to a touch pad next to the doors. Placing his palm on the pad, he said, “Yeah. I know it looks kind of grungy and dank, but that's just how the hanger looks. The rest of the Cavern is much better.”
As soon as Strike's hand rested on the pad, the pad glowed blue and then the metal doors slid open, allowing us to step into what looked like an elevator lift. We entered the lift just as the doors closed behind us. Dizzy immediately pressed the '1' button on the row of buttons next to the doors and the lift immediately started descending slowly and noisily.
“If this was a government facility, what did the government use it for before you guys got it?” I asked, raising my voice over the clanging and banging sounds made by the lift.
“Don't know,” said Strike, who had to raise his voice to be heard, too. “You'd have to ask the Midnight Menace. He was the one who found it and turned it into the Cavern.”
“If you ask me, I think it was used to hide aliens,” said Dizzy.
I looked at her in surprise. “Aliens? You mean like the Pokacu?”
“Sure,” said Dizzy, nodding. “I think the government took the corpses of the Pokacu that were killed in the invasion and hid them down here to experiment upon them in secret. They took Pokacu DNA and are using it to create an army of super soldiers under the directive of the secret shadow society that controls our government from the shadows.”
Dizzy said all of that very plainly, like it was a self-evident fact that everyone knew.
I looked at Strike. “Do you know what she's talking about?”
Strike just shrugged. “It's just her theory. Dizzy's a big fan of secret government conspiracies.”
“That's because it's true,” Dizzy insisted. “And the government didn't actually abandon this facility. They just moved its operations to another, even secreter government facility, probably their moon base—”
“The government has a moon base?” I said.
“Sure,” said Dizzy, though she sounded dismissive of it like it was an obvious fact not worth explaining. “Anyway, they moved the operation to another secret government facility because they thought that the INJ was going to find them. They scrubbed the whole place clean, leaving no clues behind as to the details of their horrible experiments.”
“Okay,” I said. “Do you have any evidence for this or is it just your theory?”
“The Cavern was created in 2000, which was two years before the Pokacu invasion,” Dizzy said. She pointed up. “That hanger was obviously made to house recovered Pokacu spacecraft. And the only reason they would need to house recovered Pokacu spacecraft is if they were going to study their corpses to figure out how to make an army of super soldiers. It's simple logic.”
“Uh huh,” I said. “So what does that mean for the Cavern, then?”
“Nothing,” said Dizzy. “It's just an interesting fact.”
“What? Really?” I said. “You just accuse the government of creating a secret facility in which to study dead aliens so they can create their own army of super soldiers and you consider that 'just an interesting fact'?”
“Oh, I forgot to add that it is related to Project Neo,” said Dizzy. “You know, that secret government project that is supposed to help the government come up with ways to defeat superhumans?”
I knew what she was talking about, having had some experience with the technology that was created in Project Neo. Master Chaos had stolen some Project Neo technology and used it against me and my family last year. But I had been told that Project Neo was just a program the government was using to develop the next generation of high-tech military weaponry, not designing weapons that could be used to defeat superhumans.
“Is that true?” I said.
“She just thinks it is,” said Strike, which earned him a glare from Dizzy, though he ignored it. “Like I said, it's just her theory and there's not really any evidence to support it. I wouldn't worry about if I were you.”
I nodded and put Dizzy's conspiracy theory out of my mind for now in order to focus on other things. “How far down does the Cavern go?”
“That is classified,” said Strike.
“Classified?” I said. “Why?”
“Because you're not a member of the New Heroes, so you do not have the approval necessary to know that,” said Strike. “It's nothing personal. This is how we treat all guests outside of the INJ or New Heroes. For security purposes, you understand.”
“Yeah, I do,” I said, though I was a little disappointed I wasn't allowed to know even that basic fact. “So where are we going?”
“To the first floor,” said Strike. “It's the main floor and where we'll begin our tour of the Cavern. We won't take you to every floor—like I said, it's classified—but we can show you some of it. Trust me, you'll enjoy it.”
Suddenly, the lift came to an abrupt halt that almost knocked me off my feet. A second later, the doors in front of us slid open with banging and clanging and Strike and Dizzy immediately walked through the open doorway. Not wanting to be left behind, I followed them out of the lift and into the main floor, which was a lot less claustrophobic than the lift, but not as wide-open as the hanger.
The main floor was spread out and open. A set of red sofas were in a depression that was in the center of the room, set in front of a large TV that looked similar to the one back in the House's Meeting Room. The ceiling, floor, and walls were made of hard concrete and looked old and cracked in several spots, although neither Strike nor Dizzy seemed concerned by that. The walls were dotted with screens and displays that showed a bunch of different news stations from all over the world, including one that showed a battle between a superhero with angelic wings and a supervillain with horns like the devil, which was apparently happening somewhere in Ohio.
On the right side of the room was an entrance that appeared to lead deeper into the Cavern, while the left side of the room had a small kitchen plus a table where the New Heroes were obviously supposed to eat. But there was no one at the table or in the kitchen at the moment, probably because lunch was over.
Strike spread his arms and said, “Welcome to the main floor. This is where we keep track of the news, hang out, have meals and meetings, and do other things related to our mission as a team and individuals.”
“Cool,” I sa
id. I looked around and frowned. “Say, where are Slime and the Lightning Triplets?”
“Slime was taking a nap, while the Lightning Triplets were in their bedroom doing … well, whatever it is they do in their bedroom,” said Strike. “But don't worry. They'll probably come out soon to say hi, since they should know you're here.”
I nodded again as I looked around the main floor. I was searching for any clues that might help me find out who that mysterious woman was or what connection the New Heroes might have to her, but I saw nothing suspicious or unusual down here. It all looked pretty normal to me, or as normal as a re-purposed secret underground government facility can look, anyway.
“So where are we going to go first?” I said, looking at Strike and Dizzy.
“To our library, of course,” said Dizzy.
“You have a library? Down here?” I said in surprise.
“Yeah,” said Strike. “It's big, too. Thousands and thousands of books from all over the world. You could spend years trying to read them all. I haven't even read half of them myself, not even a quarter.”
“Why do you have a library?” I said.
“It's supposed to be where we do our homework,” said Dizzy. “We do most of our learning in there, but we're also all big readers. It's how I learned about the government's secrets; we have a few books on conspiracies that reveal the dark secrets that the government is trying to hide from us.”
“We have books on every subject imaginable,” Strike said, before I could say something about Dizzy's statements. “Science, economics, religion, philosophy, and more practical books, too, plus fiction in every genre. We'll show it to you.”
Strike and Dizzy made their way over to the entrance on the right side of the room that I noticed earlier. I followed them down a hallway that felt kind of cramped, but it was well-lit thanks to the lighting on the ceiling. We walked past door after door before we walked down a small set of steps, turned right, and then passed through a set of doors that slid open on their own.