by Charlie Wood
“Hey, excuse me,” Tobin said. “Hi. What town am I in?”
“Holdenshmirth,” the bird mumbled, before continuing on his way.
“Thanks.” Tobin spoke into the phone. “Some furry penguin just said I’m in Holdenshmirth. So either that’s the town I’m in, or he swore at me.”
“I know Holdenshmirth,” Orion said. “You’re not far from Gallymoora, actually. I have a safety deposit box in the bank of Holdenshmirth.”
“You do?”
“Yes, I have safety deposit boxes all over Capricious, for situations just like this.”
Tobin rubbed his temples. “Of course you do. Remind me again to second-guess what I’ve decided to do with my life.”
“Go to the bank,” Orion said. “Give them the name of Ivan Murray, and this pass code: 068984. In the safety deposit box you’ll find clothes, money, and a communicator so we can talk more easily. Okay? Did you get all that?”
“Yup, sounds good. I’ll call you when I get there. By the way, is it okay if I take a coffee and cinnamon bun break first?”
“No.”
Ten minutes later, Tobin walked out of the First Bank of Holdenshmirth. Thankful to be in warm, dry clothes, he pulled his baseball cap down over his eyes, adjusted his sunglasses, and sat down on a bench in the middle of the village. Reaching into his coat pocket, he retrieved his communicator and dialed Orion’s number.
“Good,” Orion said, as the old man’s face appeared on Tobin’s screen. “I see you found my deposit box.”
“Yup,” Tobin said. “I look like a total dink wearing sunglasses in the middle of the night, but at least this way I’m a little more hidden.”
“It should do the trick. Just stay out of the public as much as you can and don’t interact with anyone—I’m sure Rigel already has every super-villain in Capricious looking for you. After we spoke, I contacted Wakefield, and we’ve arranged for you to meet him in Ruffalo Rock. It’s about a four-hour journey from where you are now.”
“Okay. What’s he doing there?”
“He’s been there working on a secret project the last few days. I want you to go there and help him with it, okay?”
“Sure. What kind of project is it?”
“You’ll see when you get there. It’s very important in what we have planned to counteract Rigel and the Daybreaker’s invasion. I’ve arranged a ticket for you for the next train to Ruffalo Rock. Can you see the train station from where you are?”
Tobin turned and saw a train station. A train was waiting there, with its smoke stack puffing, and passengers were waiting on the platform to get on.
“Yeah, I can actually.”
“Good. Remember my contact inside the Dark Nebula? The one that arranged for our identities in Harrison? He’s going to be on the train waiting for you.”
“Okay. What’s he look like?”
“It’s…complicated,” Orion said.
“What’d you mean?”
“It’s complicated. He’s complicated. He doesn’t like to tell me what he looks like. You’ll see when you meet him. I know this isn’t the easiest way, but it’s the only way he would do it. He’ll find you, he assures me.”
Tobin shook his head. Nothing was ever easy when it came to superheroes. “What are you guys gonna do?” the boy asked.
“Well, we are gonna stay here and sift through this information we got from the skyscraper and try to figure out more about the next two phases of Rigel’s invasion. Scatterbolt has already started looking over what he downloaded from the computer mainframe, and it doesn’t look good.”
“Great,” Tobin replied. He turned to the train. “So should I make my way over to the train station now?”
“Yes, I would. We’ll talk again soon, after you arrive in Ruffalo Rock and Wakefield tells you about his project. Until then, we’ll stay here and figure out what we can.”
***
An hour later, Tobin sat in the commuter section of the train to Ruffalo Rock and looked around. Surprisingly, the train was normal by Capricious standards; it ran on wheels along a track, rather than hovering above the ground, and it didn’t travel at speeds usually only reserved for space shuttles. The train seemed to be split into two sections: one for commuters, where Tobin was now, with twenty rows of identical, red, cushioned chairs, and another section for overnight travelers, which was beyond the commuter section and lined with dozens of private cabins with their own beds and bathrooms. Unfortunately, at such short notice, Orion wasn’t able to secure a ticket in the private cabins, so Tobin was stuck facing the front of the train, surrounded by all of the businessmen and women as they traveled to work.
Pulling up his jacket for the hundredth time to cover his face, Tobin focused on the rhythmic sound of the trains’ wheels chugging along the track and tried to look as inconspicuous as possible. Luckily for him, all of the businessmen and women were sitting in complete silence, with their eyes turned downward and focused on their newspapers and electronic tablets. The only people who spoke were a man quietly making some kind of deal on his cell phone, and the train attendants as they occasionally walked by to offer drinks and snacks. Tobin sighed, relieved; it appeared as if it was going to be a quiet, completely safe, event-free journey. If anything, it would be a good time for Tobin to catch up on some much-needed sleep.
But then, an hour into his trip, Tobin glanced toward the front of the train car and noticed someone staring at him. It was a gorgeous, twenty-year-old girl, sitting in a seat facing him, near the door that led to the next car. She had blonde hair that was pulled back behind one ear, full lips that were painted with a shock of red lipstick, and green, crystal-like eyes that were pinned directly on Tobin. She was wearing a yellow dress that showed off the curves of her body, with a low neckline that revealed just a hint of cleavage, and she was smiling.
Tobin looked toward the front of the car, puzzled. As the girl faced the rest of the train, she was definitely focused only on Tobin. She was also the only person not either reading, asleep, or texting on their phone. Tobin turned around to see if there was anyone else behind him that she was looking at, but there wasn’t anyone there. Then, when the boy turned back to the front of the car, the corners of the girl’s lips turned up even more and she waved at him.
Tobin’s eyebrows furrowed. He pointed to himself and mouthed “me?”
The girl laughed and nodded her head, mouthing “yes.”
Tobin squinted, smirking. He was surprised, but also very happy. Maybe this train ride wouldn’t be so bad after all. Things had just gotten a lot more entertaining, anyway. It had been a while since a girl who looked like her looked at him like that.
As Tobin smiled, the girl stood up and walked down the aisle. She was even taller than Tobin thought, with long, tan legs that carried her down the train as if Tobin was the only other person in the car. When she got closer, Tobin could see that her sun-kissed skin was spotted with tiny freckles.
“Hi,” the girl said, adjusting her pocket book. “My name’s Hannah.”
“Uh, hi,” Tobin said. “Are you Orion’s contact?”
The girl cocked her head, confused. “What? Who’s Orion?”
Tobin grinned. “Oh, okay. Never mind. I just thought you were someone else.”
The girl laughed. “Nope. Just me. Are you sitting by yourself?”
Tobin looked around. “Uh, yeah. Yeah.”
“Oh, me too. Would you like to get something to eat?”
“Right now? Uh, I don’t know if I should...”
The girl held out her hand and nodded toward the back of the car. “Come on. Get something to eat with me. This train ride’s so boring and I’m gonna go crazy if I don’t have someone to pass the time with.”
Tobin thought it over. He deserved a nice break like this. Especially if it involved someone as holy-crap-beautiful as this. “Uh...sure. Sure. Why not.”
The girl smiled. That smile could take over the world, Tobin thought. “Come on, follow me,” she said.<
br />
Pushing himself up out of his chair, and still not believing his good fortune, Tobin followed Hannah toward the rear of the train. But, before they reached the food cart at the door that led to the next car, Hannah stopped at one of the private cabins and began unlocking the door.
“Uh, the snack thing is down that way,” Tobin said, pointing with his thumb.
“I know. But I thought we could have something to eat in my cabin.”
“You have a private cabin?”
“Yeah. It’s much more comfortable in there.”
Tobin smiled. This had officially reached all kinds of levels of awesome. “Uh, okay.”
The girl opened the door and Tobin walked in first.
“I gotta say, this is pretty great,” the boy said. “To be on a train like this and have a girl like you ask me to—”
Suddenly Hannah slammed the door shut and spun around. Immediately, her face changed—her cheeks rippled and morphed, like silly putty folding in on itself. Within seconds, her blonde hair and red lips were gone, and her face was replaced with a rotting corpse, its gaunt, grey face covered in decaying skin.
“Are you really that stupid?” the corpse asked, its voice now that of a deep-throated man.
Tobin fell backward, tripping over a suitcase and screaming. “Aaaaaahhaaaahh!”
With his eyes wide and his hand pressed against his beating heart, the boy sat on the floor and looked up. There was now a man standing in front of him, dressed in a black suit and black tie. The man’s face was hideous—it was rotting and moldy, blotched with grey spots like old beef, and also slightly moist, as if he had been dead for days. The bone of his right cheekbone was completely exposed, due to the fact that there was no skin in that area, and through a long gouge along the man’s jaw, Tobin could see dead muscle.
“Did you really just use Orion’s name in the middle of the train?” the corpse asked, stepping toward Tobin. “Did you really just ask me if I was Orion’s contact, in the middle of the train?”
Tobin scooted away on the ground. “I...I...” As he looked up, the boy saw a slug crawl out of the man’s eye socket. Like an inchworm, it slithered across his face and disappeared back into his ear. “Who are you?” the boy asked with a whisper, growing nauseous.
“You really are that stupid, apparently.” The corpse stepped around Tobin, walking toward the cabin’s bed. “I’m Orion’s contact, you moron. You’re lucky you didn’t just completely blow our cover.”
Tobin still couldn’t catch his breath. “What—what—why did you—why did you look like a girl?”
The dead man opened a briefcase on the bed. The black foam on its inside was lined with strange knives and shining laser pistols.
“It’s my power. I can look like anybody. I can change my face, my body, even my clothes. Look.” The dead man changed back into Hannah. “I chose this identity because I’ve never used it before, and I knew it would get your attention. I just didn’t realize you weren’t smart enough to instantly see through it and realize what I was doing.”
The dead man changed back into the rotting corpse. As he began removing the laser pistols from the case and placing them on the bed, Tobin stared at his hands; they were also covered in dead, grey skin, with two of the fingers on his right hand completely exposed, appearing like white, skinny bones sticking out from his palm.
“Why do you—why do you look like this now?” Tobin asked. “This...zombie thing?”
The dead man turned to Tobin. “Because this is what I really look like.”
Tobin looked to the ground. “Oh.”
The dead man took a silver laser pistol from the bed and attached a long, black attachment to the handle. The attachment had blue stripes along it, like a caution sign. The barrel of the weapon also looked different than any other laser pistol Tobin had ever seen: there were three blue rings around the barrel, like a ray gun from an old sci-fi movie.
“My name’s Agent Everybody,” the dead man said, as he twisted the black attachment onto the ray gun. “I’ve been working with Orion for years. As soon as he needed someone to break into the Dark Nebula and live there for a while, he knew who to go to.”
Tobin nodded. It was starting to make sense. As much as speaking to a living corpse could make sense. “Because you can change your image.”
“Yes. Permanently. Not temporarily like those ridiculous fakers you guys use.”
Agent Everybody turned to Tobin. His face squished and morphed again, this time changing into a green-skinned Rytonian man.
“This was me, for about a month and a half. I lived, worked, and slept inside the Dark Nebula. That’s why I was able to get you guys in and get you those fake identities.”
“Yeah, thanks. Thanks for that. That was insanely helpful.”
Agent Everybody turned back into his corpse form. “No problem. You wanna help pay me back?”
Tobin shrugged. “Sure.”
“Take this.”
Agent Everybody handed Tobin the ray gun with the black-and-blue attachment. Then he took an identical ray gun from his suitcase for himself.
“What is this?” Tobin asked, inspecting the weapon.
“I’m guessing you didn’t notice the guy on the train who re-read the same newspaper four times in the last thirty minutes.”
“No, I didn’t.”
“Of course you didn’t. But I did. That’s why Orion called me. You got a tail on you.”
“I do?”
“Yup. Followed you right on the train. Rigel and his goons must have put out an all-points bulletin on you. Does Rigel know you’re in Capricious?”
“Yeah, probably.”
“I can only imagine what kind of bounty he put on your head. But regardless of who’s after you, we can’t have them following us. Not where we’re going.”
“Who is it? Who’s following me?”
“A guy who was sitting a few rows behind you. I was hoping to sneak by him and get in here before he saw which cabin we went in, but I doubt that happened. We should—”
Agent Everybody spun around toward the door. He stared at it, then motioned “shhh” with his bony finger. As Tobin mouthed back “what?,” Agent Everybody stepped to the door and looked into the peephole.
“Krandor, it’s him,” Agent Everybody whispered. “The guy who followed you onto the train. You ready?”
“For what?”
“I’m gonna open the door.”
“You are?”
“Yeah. How else are we gonna get rid of him? I’ll be quick. Quicker than him, anyway. But, just in case I’m not, be ready.”
Tobin gripped the ray gun in his hand. He didn’t even know how to use the bizarre, ringed weapon. “Uh, okay.”
Agent Everybody counted to three on his fingers, then quickly flung open the door. Tobin saw a man standing there, but before the man could reach to the gun on his belt, Agent Everybody stepped out from behind the door and fired his ray gun.
The instant the blue, circular ray beams hit the man, he disintegrated into billions of specks of multi-colored molecules, floating in a cloud above the train car floor. Then, with a soft “whirring” sound emitting from Agent Everybody’s ray gun, the billions of floating molecules were suddenly sucked across the private cabin and into the gun’s black-and-blue attachment, flying through the air and disappearing into the ray gun like dust being swept up by a vacuum cleaner.
Within seconds, any trace of the man who had followed Tobin was gone, and Agent Everybody closed the door.
Tobin was shocked. “What the hell?”
Agent Everybody turned to him. “What?”
Tobin held his hand out. “What the heck was that? You disintegrated the guy?”
“No. Well, not exactly.” With a flick of his exposed-bone finger, Agent Everybody opened a metal hatch on the side of his ray gun. From inside the weapon, a small blue pill popped out and into Agent Everybody’s hand.
“This is our bad guy,” Agent Everybody said, showing the pill
to Tobin and holding it in between his forefinger and thumb.
“What?” Tobin pointed to the pill. “That’s the guy?”
“Yup, in here.” Agent Everybody brought the pill to his suitcase on the bed. “These ray guns we’re holding deconstruct matter. They take whatever the target’s made of, rip it apart, shrink it, and put it all back together in this little pill.”
Agent Everybody retrieved a small black box from inside his briefcase. When he opened the box, Tobin saw that it was cushioned with dark red material, and also filled with about ten other multi-colored pills.
“Are those...other bad guys?” the boy asked, his lip curled.
“Yup. When I get back to agency headquarters, I’ll put these little guys in water, and then: poof. Our criminals grow back to normal size. Right in their own little jail cells.”
Tobin shook his head. “That is...messed up. Whoever invented that is seriously messed up.”
“You’re friend Wakefield Junior invented it.”
Tobin nodded. “That makes sense.”
“But I gave him the idea.”
“That makes even more sense.”
Agent Everybody closed his briefcase and carried it across the cabin. “Now we just hope no more bad guys desperate for money followed you onto this train.” He looked out through the peephole. “Uh-oh.”
“What?”
“There’s a whole bunch of bad guys desperate for money who followed you onto this train outside our door.”
“What? Didn’t you see them before?”
“Oh, I saw them. I was just hoping I was wrong.” Agent Everybody grabbed his ray gun from his briefcase. “Problem is, I’m never wrong. Are you ready?”
“To take care of them?”
“Yeah. You wanna use the ray gun or your powers?”
“My powers. I don’t feel like accidentally shrinking innocent people on the train today.”
“Suit yourself. Luckily, Orion told me to come prepared.”
Reaching into his briefcase, Agent Everybody pulled out a small, silver wand. When he pushed a button on its side, it grew with a metallic shint! into a long bo-staff. He threw the weapon to Tobin and Tobin caught it.