Heroes (The Young Neos Book 5)

by Lucas Flint

  Kevin raised a hand to shoot him, but Zanni kicked him in the face, nearly knocking Kevin back into the hole. But Kevin managed to hang on, even though his face hurt so much that he just wanted to let go and fall.

  “I can’t believe that you survived that,” said Zanni. “What are you kids made of? If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were made of Indestructonium. I’ll just banish you; that should do the trick.”

  Zanni pointed a finger at Kevin, but before he could do anything, thunder boomed and a huge electrical blast—much stronger than anything Kevin had yet used—struck the side of Zanni and sent him flying. Zanni screamed as he flew through the air until he crash landed behind several nearby crates, but Kevin did not hear him rise again. He did hear Zanni groan from underneath the crates, though he saw no movement.

  A hand suddenly appeared in front of his face. He looked up and saw that Electrica stood over him, but unlike Zanni, she was holding out her hand as an obvious offer to help him up, rather than attack him.

  “Electrica?” said Kevin, staring up at her dumbfounded. “I thought you’d run away.”

  “Ordinarily, I would, because I don’t usually feel the need to sacrifice myself to save others,” said Electrica. She shrugged. “But I still remember how Mann went back on our deal. Getting to beat up one of his servants is simple payback, in my view. Plus, you’re my son’s friend; why shouldn’t I help you?”

  Kevin blinked, but he did not take Electrica’s hand. “You do realize that I’m here to capture you, right? If you help me beat Zanni—”

  “Don’t worry,” said Electrica. “I know exactly why you’re here, but at the moment, I would say Zanni is a far larger threat than you are. Not that I am particularly thrilled about working with a superhero like you, but at the moment you and I have a common foe. Why not work together long enough to take him down?”

  “Because the only reason I’m even here is because of what happened the last time we did this,” said Kevin. “Besides, I’m sure that my friends will be here any moment now to help me.”

  “I doubt it,” said Electrica. “I checked on them outside. They’re all in the middle of fighting other Venetians. And, since you clearly cannot beat Zanni on your own, you would be wise to accept my help.”

  Kevin was about to tell Electrica that she would be ‘wise’ to leave him alone, but that was when he heard a roar of anger, followed by the sound of crates flying. Kevin whipped his head over his shoulder to see what happened.

  Zanni stood upright now, his clown outfit slightly smoking from Electrica’s blast. His mask was slightly askew, but he didn’t seem to notice, because dozens of huge crates were swirling above his head, like fish caught in a whirlpool. Zanni himself was not a very physically impressive man, but with the death glare peering out through his mask’s eye holes and the huge crates swirling above him madly, he looked like a true threat.

  Kevin looked back up at Electrica. “You know what? We can work together, but just this one time, okay?”

  “Fine,” said Electrica. “Now, are you going to take my hand or not?”

  Kevin took Electrica’s hand and she pulled him out of the hole. Though Kevin’s body still ached from the crash, he nonetheless managed to stand upright and turned around to face Zanni, who was literally fuming as he glared at Electrica and Kevin.

  “I know who you are, woman,” said Zanni, looking at Electrica angrily. “You murdered Colombina.”

  “Actually, that was Rime,” said Electrica. “I will admit, however, that I did help.”

  “I don’t care who actually did it,” said Zanni. “All I care about is avenging the death of one of my own comrades. By the time I am done with both of you, no one will even remember that you existed.”

  Zanni suddenly hurled half a dozen huge crates at Kevin and Electrica. Kevin immediately flew into the air, while Electrica turned into a lightning bolt and flashed to the other side of the clearing. As a result, the crates merely smashed harmless against the floor, while Zanni looked to the left and the right as he tried to keep an eye on both Kevin and Electrica at the same time.

  Kevin fired two red lightning bolts at Zanni, but the Venetian easily vanished them, although Electrica chose that moment to fire her own lightning blasts at him. Zanni managed to dodge one, but the second one hit him in the chest. Instead of frying him, however, the blast merely made Zanni stagger backwards, leaving a smoking hole in his costume. He immediately launched another crate at Electrica, who exploded it with her own lightning blasts.

  Activating his super speed, Kevin zipped through the air toward Zanni and swung a fist at him. But his fist merely hit air, because Zanni teleported at the last second, causing Kevin’s attack to miss. Kevin landed on the floor and looked around for Zanni, but once again, Zanni was missing.

  “Running and hiding again?” said Kevin. “You sure are a lot more cowardly than all of the other Venetians I’ve ever fought.”

  “Bravery has nothing to do with it,” said Zanni’s voice, which seemed to be coming from directly behind Kevin. “Expedience, on the other hand, does.”

  Kevin whirled around just in time to see Zanni standing before him. Kevin immediately raised a fist, but Zanni held out a hand toward Kevin. A force like a bullet struck Kevin in the chest and sent him flying. He hit the floor and rolled several times before being stopped by the remains of several crates which Zanni had thrown at him earlier, his head spinning. This time, Kevin found it very difficult to recover; he had taken so many hard hits that he wasn’t sure how many more he could take before he was knocked out for good, or even outright killed.

  Yet Kevin did not have the luxury to lie on the floor like this, so he pushed himself up and shook his head, trying to clear his senses. He got to his feet, using the nearest crate for support, but immediately looked up when he heard a scream of anguish.

  Electrica was lying on the floor, a thick chunk of wood stuck straight through her abdomen. Zanni stood over her, holding out a hand, which he was twisting around and around, driving the wood deeper into Electrica’s side. Kevin wondered briefly why Electrica did not simply turn into electricity and make the wood fall through her, but he pushed that thought out of his mind for now, because he had to act and act quickly if he was going to save Electrica.

  But Kevin did not move, because he realized that Zanni would just stop him if he attacked him. Therefore, Kevin needed to set up a distraction.

  He grabbed a huge chunk of wood from a smashed crate off the floor and hurled it at Zanni. It worked, because Zanni immediately looked over in that direction and raised his hand to destroy the wood, but Kevin activated his super speed and zipped around the perimeter of the area until he got behind Zanni. With all of his attention on the box, Zanni would never hear Kevin coming up behind him until it was too late.

  Just as Kevin threw a punch at Zanni’s head, however, Zanni whirled around and thrust his arm toward Kevin. The box which Kevin had thrown toward Zanni as a distraction flew over Zanni’s head and nearly hit Kevin, who was forced to dodge and retreat at the last second. Kevin flew into the air well away from Zanni, who glared up at him with annoyance.

  “Nice trick there, Bolt,” said Zanni. “It would have worked, perhaps, if I had been blind and deaf like you clearly thought I was. As it was, it was such an obvious move that I saw it coming from a mile away.”

  Kevin stopped near the ceiling of the warehouse and looked down at Zanni. Kevin was panting and sweating, but he wasn’t about to give up yet. He just held up a hand and said, “Yeah, yeah, I know. You bad guys always say things like that. Try sounding less like a generic bad guy from a comic book for once.”

  “Call me whatever you like, it doesn’t matter,” said Zanni, spreading his arms. “With my powers, I could destroy this whole warehouse if I so desired. And I might just do that, given how annoying you’ve been.”

  Kevin opened his mouth to say something witty, but then he noticed Electrica—still impaled by the wooden stake—slowly crawling toward
Zanni, who apparently did not even hear her approaching him. Kevin briefly met Electrica’s eyes and a plan passed between the two of them without either having to utter even one word to the other.

  Turning his attention back to Zanni, Kevin spread his arms and said, “Yeah, and I’m the Queen of England. I doubt you could even destroy a dog house with your powers.”

  “I can do whatever I want, boy,” said Zanni. “Your friends found that out the hard way when they fought me back in Phoenix.” He held out a hand. “Perhaps it is time that you found out the same thing.”

  Kevin smiled. “It might be quite shocking to find out just what the limits of your powers are, but sadly I don’t think I’m going to get to learn that today.”

  Zanni frowned. “What are you talking about?”

  Kevin folded his arms across his chest. “Behind you.”

  Just as Kevin said that, Electrica pressed one of her fingers against the back of Zanni’s left shoe. Kevin expected to see Electrica merely shock Zanni into unconsciousness or at least give him a painful jolt.

  Instead, however, a huge flash of lightning traveled from Electrica’s finger in to Zanni’s body. Zanni went stock still; although his mouth was wide open, he did not utter one word. His whole body began glowing and crackling with charged electricity, becoming brighter and brighter, the light nearly blinding Kevin, who had to cover his eyes with his hands to keep from going blind.

  And then, quite abruptly, Zanni exploded like a bomb.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Shell walked in a circle in his small prison cell. The small cot, the toilet, the tray of untouched food on the floor … all of it passed Shell as he walked. He also got a glimpse of the hallway outside through the strange energy bars that kept him from escaping, although all it did was remind him of his predicament.

  Predicament is a rather understated way to put it, Shell thought, wincing when the ship shuddered under his foot. More like death sentence. And all because of that stupid robot who we should never have trusted in the first place.

  About an hour ago, Shell, Blizzard, and Treehugger had been marched out of the dungeons of Doom and onto a strange interdimensional spaceship that Omanx called the ‘Incinerator,’ which certainly did not sound like the name of a fancy cruise ship. The Incinerator was a massive ship, much bigger than any Earth space shuttle. It was shaped like a fly, though when Shell pointed this out to Omanx, he had simply received a quizzical look as if Omanx did not know what a fly was.

  In any case, Shell had not gotten much of a chance to look at its exterior, because he, Blizzard, and Treehugger had been dragged down to the prison cells inside the ship. The cells were big enough for one adult human being, perhaps, but were sparsely decorated. The ‘cot,’ for example, was more like a piece of metal drilled into the wall and then covered with the thinnest ‘mattress’ Shell had ever seen, while the ‘toilet’ looked more like a strange bucket set on the floor. As for the food, Shell was convinced that it was actually some kind of poison, because it smelled like decaying flesh and looked even less appealing. Though Shell’s stomach grumbled from the lack of food, he was not hungry enough to try to eat food prepared by creatures that were clearly nothing like any earthly creature.

  The only good thing about this imprisonment was that Shell, Blizzard, and Treehugger were all jailed closely together, in cells adjacent to one another. Not that that was very helpful, though, because their powers were being suppressed by these strange metal collars which the Servants had put around their necks. The collars were thick and impossible to remove; well, Shell supposed that someone like Bolt or White could have ripped them off with their super strength, but as it was, all Shell could do was ineffectually tug at his collar every now and then.

  The Servants had also allowed Shell, Blizzard, and Treehugger to keep their suit-up watches, but that was a pointless gesture, because the suit-up watches were incapable of interdimensional communication, which meant that they couldn’t call for help from home.

  Not sure how Bolt or the others could help us anyway, given how they don’t have dimension-hopping tech that they could use to help us, Shell thought with a scowl. That means we will either need to save ourselves or hope for a miracle. And I don’t believe in miracles.

  As for where they were now going, Omanx would not say, except that he was bringing them to the Starborn, but where they were, exactly, Shell did not know. The best he could figure was that the Starborn were in another universe somewhere far away from theirs, although Omanx had reassured Shell that they would be there before you know it. Not that Shell was looking forward to meeting the Starborn, because that would mean getting killed and Shell was far too young to die yet.

  Sitting down on his cot, Shell sank his chin into his hands and sighed. He still couldn’t believe that Sparky had betrayed them. He had been very angry initially, but once the reality of the situation sunk in, Shell had decided to figure out how to save himself, Blizzard, and Treehugger. It wouldn’t be easy, but it would be more productive than being angry at Sparky, anyway.

  More than anything, though, Shell was frustrated by the fact that he was not going to be able to get the Midas Hammer for Eli. He hoped that Eli would not be too angry, assuming he managed to escape this ship and return to Earth, an idea that seemed more and more unlikely with each passing minute.

  “Shell?” came Treehugger’s voice, which came from the wall behind him. “Are you awake?” She sounded afraid.

  “Yeah, I am,” said Shell, sitting up and looking over his shoulder at the wall, even though he couldn’t see Treehugger through it. “How are you holding up?”

  “As well as I can,” said Treehugger. “I’ve been trying to come up with a way to escape, but all of the escape plans I’ve thought of require plants in order to work and I don’t have access to any plants on this ship. Not to mention this dumb collar makes it impossible for me to use my powers.”

  “Same here,” said Shell. “I feel pretty useless without my powers, too.”

  “I’m stuck as well,” said Blizzard’s voice, which came from the wall opposite Shell. “But I did come up with the idea of trying to overpower one of the guards when they come to check up on us. I could use my training and fighting skills to take him down before he realizes it and then free us.”

  “Those Servants are built like quarterbacks, though,” said Shell. “And, no offense, Blizzard, but you’re pretty skinny. Then again, none of us are really very big or strong.”

  “What else should we do, then?” said Blizzard. “We can’t stay here forever. I certainly don’t want to be sacrificed to the Starborn, do you?”

  “Of course not, but right now I don’t think we even can save ourselves,” said Shell, rubbing his forehead in frustration. “The Servants have us under lock and key pretty tightly. They took away our powers, weakened us, and threw us in here without any way out. That’s not even getting into the various security systems that this ship undoubtedly has.”

  “This is all Sparky’s fault,” said Treehugger. “I knew there was something fishy about him as soon as I saw him, but I didn’t listen to my instincts. I’m sorry for getting you guys into this situation.”

  “Don’t beat yourself up, Treehugger,” said Blizzard. “We’re all in this together. We just need to focus on getting out.”

  “We still don’t know how to do that, though,” said Shell, folding his arms across his chest. “The Servants took away everything from us. Anything we could have used to escape, they stole from us. Unless a miracle happens, I think we’re screwed.”

  “They didn’t take everything away from us,” said Treehugger. “They left our suit-up watches.”

  Shell rolled his eyes. “Because they’re useless interdimensional traveling, duh. All they can do is take off our costumes and—”

  Abruptly, an idea hit Shell like lightning, causing him to close his mouth. He looked at his suit-up watch with newfound interest, but at the same time, with more than a hint of worry, because he had no idea if
his idea would work once implemented.

  “Shell, what’s the matter?” said Blizzard, who sounded a bit worried now. “You went silent all of a sudden.”

  “Because I just came up with a foolproof escape plan,” said Shell. “At least, it should be foolproof, if it works.”

  “Really?” said Treehugger eagerly. “That’s awesome! What is it?”

  “Guys, do you know how our suit-up watches work?” said Shell as he took his watch off his wrist and started turning it over his hands.

  “Like, what, how they turn on and off?” said Treehugger. “That’s too technical for us.”

  “No, I mean how they store our suits,” said Shell. He began clawing at the back of his watch. “Remember, our suit-up watches are connected to a pocket dimension. That’s how our full-body suits can fit in there, because our watches are actually sending them to and from another universe entirely.”

  “Uh, okay,” said Blizzard. “I don’t see how that will help us, though.”

  “It’s a long shot, but what if we hack our watches and turn them into portable dimensional portals?” said Shell. “I’m good with tech. I might be able to turn my watch into a portal which could take me home or at least to another dimension where I might be able to find another portal home.”

  “Can you really do that?” said Treehugger. “Is that even possible?”

  “I don’t know,” said Shell. “But it seems reasonable to me, because that’s how Mastermind built his own interdimensional portal, by simply reverse-engineering the suit-up watches. Granted, I’m not as smart as Mastermind, nor do I have access to all of his resources, but I’m sure I could jury-rig something that might do the same thing, if less elegantly or efficiently than what Mastermind made.”

  “Shell, if you can do that, I’d kiss you,” said Treehugger. “Seriously, that would be great.”

  “I’d kiss you, too, but I don’t want to make Bolt jealous,” said Blizzard. “Just as long as you can make that thing work, I’ll be happy.”