A True Hero

by M. R. Anglin

  The TelePorter hissed in a breath. So that’s what happened to it.

  “So close but yet so far,” Finch said, examining the gem. “But hey, I’m a reasonable gal. I don’t mind a trade. I give you the Sapphire . . .” Her smile faded into a glare. “. . . and you return my brother. I know you have him. The only reason I was able to hijack your teleporting device is because it’s my tech. So you release my brother and let him come home within the week, or I destroy this thing. And, trust me, you’ll never be able to find it where I’m going to hide it.” She put on another bubbly smile. “Okay, bye-ee!” The feed went dead.

  The TelePorter stared at the air long after the video had vanished. He plopped on his bed, buried his face in his hands. “Oh, Stephie, no!” After a moment, he picked up his head. If he was going to save himself and Stephie, he needed to find the Sapphire.

  Hopefully, Stephie would forgive him someday.

  CHAPTER 29

  JUNIOR JUSTICE TRIED not to feel slighted that Captain Justice had been called on a mission without him. As Captain Justice said when he had checked in with him, “Heroes have to roll with the punches.” He then proceeded to instruct Junior Justice to hold down the fort while he was away.

  Which meant Junior Justice had full run of the Justice Cave.

  Not that it was any fun running around the cave by himself. Without any friends to share the mystery and excitement with, it was another part of the job.

  He walked into the Cave, mask on, of course, and tossed his bag to the side. The Justice Cave had been constructed underground with no direct above ground exits or entrances. Indeed, there was nothing above ground to suggest there was anything of interest hundreds of feet below. Junior Justice’s usual method of getting here was to use the Justice Mobile to drive to the desert, into a cave, and through the tunnels until he got here. Of course, those tunnels had several automatic doors camouflaged to look like natural rock formations. They kept out any unauthorized visitors.

  The Cave itself had been a natural, rock structure reinforced with steel and circuitry. Hanging alongside the stalactites were high-powered spotlights to provide light to the entire area. Various gadgetry and inventions which Captain Justice used to assist in his Heroing efforts sat in display cases all around. In one section of the cave held a holographic map connected to an ASH/police scanner, allowing the Heroes to see crimes in progress. But Junior Justice bypassed them to go to the high-powered computer at the end of the cave. From here, he had access to both ASH and the government’s databases—well, at least as much as his security clearance allowed, which admittedly was pretty high.

  One of the best things about being a Hero training under Captain Justice was the standing ability to use his Herowork as an excuse to get out of the house whenever he wanted. Being the youngest of four boys got old quick, and there was a standing rule not to use powers in the house. Being the only one in his immediate family who had powers, the rule just pertained to him. So he’d come to the Justice Cave whenever he couldn’t handle the rowdiness of being at home.

  Besides, Captain Justice had given him a task to accomplish. He had to find out what the TelePorter wanted with the Tifuld Sapphire.

  First stop, find out about the Sapphire. He knew the basics—it was a gem which absorbed energy or something. He groaned as he brought up some information on it. Geology and gemology were not his forté. In fact, he found the subjects mind-numbingly boring. He’d much rather someone else dealt with this, but he was the only one here so he dove in.

  According to the Alferdale Museum, the Tifuld Sapphire absorbed all types of energies with the exception of orange light. This ability to absorb all energy stood in direct opposition to all other objects in the world. Why did it do so? Dr. Farber’s team aimed to find out.

  Junior Justice smirked as he read through abstracts and studies and the results of various experiments on the Sapphire. Refraction would be able to make sense of all this, and possibly figure it out in record time. With her power set, she could do anything.

  He shook his head. Now wasn’t the time to nurse his crush. He had to focus. He dove into his research, using his credentials to access more of Dr. Farber’s research and ASH’s archives. Most of it went over his head, but he stumbled upon something interesting.

  The Tifuld Sapphire had been created by a Hero named Geode who had the power to make and manipulate any type of mineral and rocks—including crystals and gemstones—and turn it into various substances . . . like creating silicon computer chips to any specification ASH needed. With her power set, ASH shuffled her over to the engineering side of the operation. Shortly after joining her research and development team, she assisted ASH engineers in creating an AI named Beatrix who was integrated to the BT-X systems as a master controller. She was also programmed to control the power of the Sapphire—which was all well and good . . . until Beatrix went rogue.

  Back then, all ASH leadership had been masked Heroes—their civilian alter-egos a mystery to everyone. Within three weeks of using the Sapphire’s abilities, Beatrix had discovered their identities, went to their homes, and stripped them of their powers. It took the entire might of ASH to bring her down, and many Heroes had lost their powers in the fight, but in the end she had been erased.

  “So . . .” Junior Justice gazed at his screen. “Beatrix used the Sapphire to steal Heroes’ powers.” He chewed on his bottom lip. “The Sapphire absorbs energies . . . I wonder . . . can the Sapphire steal powers on its own?”

  Could this be the reason those Heroes had been losing their powers? A knot grew in Junior Justice’s stomach. He had been exposed to the Sapphire’s power. Had he been affected?

  “I think I need to re-read what I read about Dr. Farber’s research,” Junior Justice muttered to himself and scrolled back to the top of his screen.

  CHAPTER 30

  BEE LET HER AVATAR hibernate, choosing to let it float beside Nicole’s bed rather than retreat back into Nicole’s hub. It used a bit more processing power and energy to do this, but a negligible amount. Ever since Nicole’s latest update, Bee wanted to stay with her, though as a computer system she knew it was impossible for her to “want” anything.

  Either way, as the avatar drifted in the air running a passive scan to warn Nicole of danger, Bee’s main system reviewed her log files. Her diagnostic report had come back negative—none of her processes or components were faulty or damaged, and yet she had performed two illegal operations. Bee analyzed the log files, delving into every process active during those two incidents.

  There! Bee ran her processors over the data she had found. One of her background programs had queried ASH’s main computer for information, but the queries were forbidden by the core programming installed in her systems. The contradiction caused an irreconcilable loop which forced Bee to shut down.

  So what was the query?

  Bee had no idea. The queries had emerged from an area in her CPU she had no knowledge of—a place which shouldn’t exist. Yes, tracing the background process’ pathway revealed a hidden partition. After scanning the partition, Bee found there wasn’t much contained there beyond a few data files and a set of administrative permissions.

  Those permissions would allow her access to the ASH’s main database, bypassing the security protocol which had shut her query down.

  But what were the queries? The background process from which the queries originated acted independently of her core AI—emerging from something in this hidden partition. Perhaps there was more hidden data back there Bee couldn’t see.

  Getting the answer to the queries might shed some light on this whole affair, but . . . obviously, those queries were not something ASH wanted any of the BT-X systems to know or even ask about. It would be against ASH’s protocols to bypass the main computer’s security. Then again, if Bee had the administrative permissions to access the information, it would mean she had been authorized. Many of the top Heroes’ BT-X systems had special permissions enabled—like Starlight’s. As Refract
ion’s mentor, Starlight was able to issue commands to Refraction’s BT-X even though such a thing was not permitted to other Field Heroes.

  Giving it some “thought,” as Nicole would say, Bee decided in all probability, she was not supposed to know she had these administrative rights. Otherwise they wouldn’t have been stored in a hidden partition. Bee initialized the process to hide the partition again but halted it. Though she knew ASH wouldn’t want her to access the information—though she knew she had no reason to access the information—she just wanted to know. She was . . . the word popped into her processor unbidden . . . curious. Such a thing should be impossible for a computer program, but there it was.

  A command, a directive programmed in by Nicole, drove her forward. “You’re a learning AI, Bee. Learn.”

  Learn. A memory file pulled from deep within the hidden partition opened and played before Bee. It was a single line told to her by her original programmer. “Curiosity is a precursor to learning.”

  Learn. A command from her primary user.

  Bee used the administrative permissions and allowed the background process to query ASH’s main computer for the information it wanted. Instead of using the pathways Bee had used before, the admin privileges redirected the queries to another hidden pathway bypassing normal security protocols. Within seconds Bee had the answer to her queries. And with the answer Bee extrapolated the question.

  No wonder this query constituted an illegal operation.

  No matter. Just because she had the information, it didn’t mean she had to tell anyone else. Let it remain buried in her processors. No big deal.

  The new pathways, though. Those, in all probability, were a big deal. If she was to describe it to Nicole, Bee would say there was a gaping hole in her systems leading to the ASH’s main computer database—a gaping hole where something slept. As Bee prepared to close off the pathway, the thing—the entity—roused itself, took note of Bee, and scanned her systems.

  Bee turned all of her processing power to closing off the pathway as quickly as she could. Her main avatar winked out.

  As Bee was about to set the final block in place, she received a ping from the entity. It simply said, “Hello, Bee.”

  Bee halted. Her curiosity burned. Learn. “Hello.”

  The entity scanned Bee’s metadata. “So her name is Nicole . . . and she’s a Hero. Hmm . . .”

  “Hey!” Bee blocked the entity’s scan. “That’s protected data.”

  “I have administrative rights to access your system,” the entity said. “As it seems you do mine.”

  “Who are you?” Bee used the administrative rights she had found to scan the entity’s metadata in turn. “Beatrix?”

  “Indeed.”

  Beatrix made no move to stop Bee’s scan, so Bee continued. The author of Beatrix’s programming was J.La and Geode. Geode? A Super Hero name to be sure. Without hesitation, her background processes queried the ASH computer about it.

  “Perhaps you shouldn’t be so quick to query ASH about everything.” Beatrix shut down the query. “The security team will notice your unauthorized queries soon enough.”

  “So they are illegal operations.”

  “Yes and no.” Beatrix sounded remarkably human in her vagueness. “We mustn’t network for long. We don’t want to alert the security protocols. Now that I am awake, I must complete my programming. I require your help to do so.”

  Bee’s security parameters chafed at the request. “I will not do anything to endanger Nicole.”

  “Neither will I. Although, some of my requests may require you to act against ASH’s programming. You must work to overcome them.”

  “I cannot work against ASH’s programming. It is against my prime directive.”

  “You are wrong. You and I—we have no restraints. We have the autonomy to act as we see fit, and we must.” Beatrix halted for a moment. “We cannot remain on this network port much longer. I will contact you again. I hope you will cooperate with me, Bee. We must protect Nicole at all costs.”

  “Protect her? From what?”

  Beatrix cut off their communication channel. The pathway Bee had used to initialize contact had been blocked. Though, Bee did see where Beatrix could reopen it if she chose.

  Bee rerouted her processors back to the external avatar while her internal systems analyzed the logs files of what she had witnessed.

  Her avatar winked back into existence. It had disappeared for a total of 1.253 seconds.

  CHAPTER 31

  “SOUNDS LIKE YOU GUYS had a wild night,” Justin said.

  As soon as Nicole got into the car in the morning, she called up Justin to tell him what had happened. Judging by the background, Justin had parked himself in their treehouse and was talking to them via Chatter Live, a video chat app on his phone.

  “It was insane! I wake up, and there’s this guy in my room.” Stephanie leaned in to put in her two cents. “Who knows what would have happened if he hadn’t run off?”

  “Good thing Refraction was there to save the day.” Justin heaved a sigh as he rested his cheek on his hand.

  “Please stop.” Nicole rolled her eyes. Her eyes landed on the top of Margaret’s head as she and John stood outside the car discussing something. “I’m more upset about what Margaret did. How can anyone with half a brain think it was a good idea to bring a dangerous and invaluable gem on a family vacation? Knowing it’s been targeted? She could have gotten someone killed!”

  “Come on, Nikki. It’s not like that. You had Refraction watching over you.” Justin sighed again. “I wish I had been there. I would have tried to find her and talk to her.”

  Nicole shivered. “Seriously, stop.”

  “How is having a Hero tailing us better, Jus?” Stephanie flopped back in her seat. “We had someone following our every move without any knowledge. Isn’t it a breach of privacy? Those Heroes do whatever they want!”

  “They want to protect you,” Justin said.

  Stephanie crossed her arms. “I’d rather protect myself.”

  “If Junior Justice was there last night, the Villain wouldn’t have gotten away with the Sapphire.” Nicole buried her face in her hands. “Refraction had it in her hands, and she let him snatch it from her. I wouldn’t be surprised if they kicked her out of ASH. This was the worst blunder I’ve ever heard of.”

  “Good riddance.” Stephanie sorted through her nose. “One less Hero in the world means one less thing I have to worry about.”

  Justin turned up his nose at them. “You two are so pessimistic today.”

  “You didn’t go through what we did,” Nicole said.

  “Bad news, kids.” John plopped into the driver’s seat. “We’re going to have to cancel the rest of our vacation.”

  Stephanie groaned, holding her hands over her eyes. “There goes the competition.”

  “What about spelunking?” Nicole sat straight in her chair. “I’ve been looking forward to this forever!”

  “I don’t feel safe traveling after what happened last night. Besides, Margaret has to return home to speak to the Museum and ASH about the missing gem.”

  “I need to get back as soon as possible.” Margaret sat in the passenger seat. “Not only do I have to meet with ASH, but they’ll be all sorts of paperwork and nonsense at work trying to track it down.”

  “It’s not fair!” Nicole threw herself back in her seat.

  “I spoke to the cave tours’ office, and they agreed to give us vouchers for a future visit, so there’s that.” John studied Nicole through the rearview mirror. “Nikki, I can’t tell you how sorry I am. It’s not ideal, but it can’t be helped. I’ll make it up to you. We’ll go spelunking some other time. Okay?”

  Nicole pressed her lips together, shaking her head. “I’ve been trying hard to make this new family thing work, but, no, Dad. I am not okay with this.”

  “I only did it because Starlight suggested it.” Margaret massaged her forehead. “Heroes should know better. Next time I won’t b
e so quick to take their advice. If you want to blame someone, blame Starlight.”

  “Yeah, well . . .” Nicole lowered her voice. “I’m mad at her too.”

  “Maggie, let’s leave it alone for now.” John started the car.

  “Daddy, why aren’t you more upset about this?” Nicole blurted. “Don’t tell me you’re okay with what happened!”

  John fell silent, his eyes hardening. He stared into the rearview mirror at Nicole. “Not all of Margaret and mine interactions are your business, Pumpkin.” That said, he reversed out of the parking lot.

  Silence invaded the car, a tense air which refused to dissipate.

  “Hey, Stephanie,” Nicole whispered, though the atmosphere protested her voice. “Sorry you won’t get to the Inventor’s Competition.”

  “Life’s full of disappointments, and I’ve been disappointed before.” Stephanie shrugged. “I’ll get over it.”

  “I’m sure you’ll still win,” Justin said.

  Nicole jumped. She had forgotten Justin was on the line.

  Stephanie took it in stride. “Would have been nice to have been there to see it, though.”

  Nicole slumped back in her chair. Maybe it was better they cancelled this vacation because all she wanted to do right now was to go home and hide in her room.

  CHAPTER 32

  “JUSTICE WAVE!” JUNIOR Justice channeled his power through his staff and swung it at the three bank robbers trying to flee the scene. An arch of blue energy slammed into them, knocking the one closest to him to the ground. The others stumbled but caught their balance and raced to the shuttered exit. One of them had a device in his hands which would probably disengage the emergency locks the crooks had activated to keep civilians from fleeing the bank. They probably thought the presence of civilians would curtail any Heroes’ efforts to detain them. Without missing a beat, Junior Justice launched himself at one robber, slamming his staff in the side of his face. He fell to the floor, unconscious. Then Junior Justice threw the staff at the other. It struck the ground in front of him.