by Lucas Flint
One gun shot rang throughout the chamber, causing everyone to jump in surprise, except for Mann, who fell down the stairs head first and stumbled down like a rag doll until he hit Pantalone’s corpse. Mann was lying on his back, but Kevin was still able to tell, even from a distance, that there was now a small, black bullet hole in the center of Mann’s forehead, which meant that he was dead.
But who could have shot him? Kevin thought. None of us have guns. It couldn’t have been Talon or White; they are standing on the steps, sure, but they don’t have guns.
A grunt below caused Kevin to look down at the base of the platform. Eli Corey, his bloody white shirt hanging off his body, was pointing a gun up the steps. He was breathing heavily and seemed to be using all of his energy just to remain standing. His skin was even paler than it had been a few minutes ago; if anything, Eli looked nearly as dead as his grandfather.
“Take … that,” said Eli, his voice shuddering and inconsistent. “Your reign … reign of terror is over, old man.”
With that, Eli dropped the gun and fell face forward onto the ground. He did not move again.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Shell followed Stinger, Treehugger, Blizzard, and Space down the front steps, to the foot of the platform, where Bolt, White, and Talon now stood over the corpses of Eli, Mann, and Pantalone. Shell could not quite believe everything that had happened. Despite having acted quickly upon exiting the portal, Shell was still in shock. In particular, Bolt’s final attack had nearly taken him by surprise; if he hadn’t noticed Bolt in the nick of time, he feared that he and the other Young Neos would have ended up looking only slightly better than the Venetians.
For the moment, all he could think about was how he had managed to find a portal back in that strange forest that led him back to Earth. A strange, elf-like person had informed him that the portal would indeed take him back to Earth, but only because someone had already opened a portal on the other side. Shell had assumed that the portal had been opened by one of his friends, but even if it hadn’t, he would have stepped through it anyway, if only because he wanted to be back on Earth again.
Lots of stuff must have happened after Blizzard, Treehugger, and I left Earth, Shell thought, glancing at the others as they walked. Bolt will have to tell me all about it later. Wonder if he got Electrica.
When they reached the bottom of the steps, Blizzard immediately ran over to Bolt and hugged him. She didn’t just hug him, though. She outright kissed him on the lips, causing Shell to look away, mostly because he could not help but feel slightly jealous; where was his kiss for saving everyone from Bolt’s nearly suicidal final attack?
Because Shell looked away, he also noticed the Starborn. Although their robes had taken the brunt of the blast, he was shocked to see that their bodies were virtually untouched. He knew that the Starborn were supposed to be extremely powerful, but he would have thought that an attack as powerful as Bolt’s would have been enough to burn the skin off of any living creature. Shell was grateful that the Starborn were currently unconscious, because he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he and his friends stood no chance against such beings in a fight.
“Oh, Bolt, I missed you so much,” said Blizzard, who had stopped kissing Bolt now, but was hugging him tightly. “Are you okay? You smell like electricity and your body is really warm.”
“I’m … fine, Blizzard,” said Bolt, although his voice was ragged with exhaustion. “I just need to rest, I think, and maybe see Healing Touch.”
“Mann and Eli …” said Stinger. He looked down at them with a mixture of curiosity and disgust. “Are they really dead?”
Bolt, still hugging Blizzard, nodded. “Yes. I checked both of them. They’re dead.”
Shell looked at Eli’s corpse. He couldn’t believe that Eli was dead. He supposed it made sense, of course, given Eli’s injuries, but it was still very strange to see his body lying so still like that.
I didn’t even complete the mission he gave me, Shell thought, readjusting his glasses. He died knowing that I failed him. And since he’s dead, that means that my powers are going to fade away, at least until I get old enough for them to return naturally. But that will probably take years; in the meantime, I’m going to be as pathetic as always.
Shell shook his head. It didn’t matter if he had powers or not. What mattered was that Eli was dead and the rest of the Unwanted would need to be made aware of his death. Shell realized that he would have to be the one to do it, because none of the other Young Neos would. This made Shell wonder what the future of the Unwanted movement was going to be.
Without Eli to lead it, will the Unwanted fall apart? Shell thought. It’s such a good movement, one that seems really necessary given the conditions of our society, but is there anyone in the movement who can succeed Eli as its leader?
“Well, I guess we need to go back to the surface, then,” said Blizzard. She shuddered. “Need to tell the NHA about this.”
“Yeah,” said Bolt, nodding. “The G-Men will probably need to know as well, though I can’t say I’m looking forward to—”
Bolt was interrupted by the sound of movement behind him. The entire team, as well as Space, looked over at the Starborn. The Starborn stirred; their eyes opened and they rose to their feet. Alarmed, the team turned to face the Starborn, each member taking fighting positions. Shell summoned two red barriers over his hands, but deep down, he knew that there was no way that he or the others could take down the Starborn. After all, if they could survive even a point blank electrical explosion from a boosted Bolt, then it was quite unlikely that the other Young Neos would be able to even scratch them. Still, it was better to go down fighting than to die running away.
The Starborn floated above the floor. Their eyes were no longer red, which meant they were no longer under Mann’s control, but that didn’t mean they were going to be friendly. With their faces still hooded, it was impossible to tell what they were thinking or predict what they were going to do next, but given what their original plans for Earth were, Shell had no doubt that the Starborn were about to resume the destruction of humanity.
“Superhumans,” said the lead Starborn, whose robes were the least tattered of them all. “You have killed the human who took control of our minds.”
Bolt, who was at the head of the team, nodded. “Yeah, we did. Well, technically Eli did, but we helped.”
“You also almost defeated us,” the lead Starborn continued. “In all our eons of existence, we have never received an attack quite that brutal before, least of all from one of our own creations. Truly, you superhumans have evolved past the original limitations we set on your ancestors. Indeed, no other creation of ours has ever achieved quite that level of power before, save for one, though that one is long gone.”
No one responded to that. Shell could guess that the Starborn were going to eliminate them all next; after all, the original reason the Starborn had come to Earth in the first place was to destroy all superhumans out of the belief that superhumans would try to destroy them. Given how Bolt had just proved that superhumans could, given enough power, actually harm the Starborn, Shell had no doubt in his mind that none of the Young Neos would leave this chamber alive.
The lead Starborn pointed a single long finger at the Young Neos and Space. “Therefore, we will spare all superhumans on Earth and allow your people to continue on unmolested.”
Shell was so shocked by this response that the shields in his hands faded. The others also looked every bit as surprised as him; in fact, Treehugger looked like she was about to faint in shock.
“What?” said Bolt finally. “You … you’re not going to destroy us all?”
The lead Starborn nodded. “That is correct.”
“But …” Bolt seemed at a loss for words. “This isn’t a trick or something, is it?”
“Of course not,” said the lead Starborn in an indignant voice. “The Starborn do not engage in trickery like lesser creatures. Our ways are always straightforward; after al
l, there is no need for deception when you have the power to do anything you want.”
“But we hurt you,” said Stinger. “I mean, Bolt did, anyway. Mann tried to control you. Doesn’t that show we’re a threat to your existence?”
“From a certain perspective, yes,” said the lead Starborn. “But we realize that the only reason you fought us was to free us from Mann’s mind control. Had you not done that, it is quite possible we would have remained under his control and be used to achieve his immoral ends like mere tools. The Starborn are many things, but one thing we are not is ungrateful toward those who help us.”
The Young Neos exchanged surprised and doubtful looks with one another. Shell, in particular, was starting to think that this had to be some kind of strange dream, but when he pinched himself, he discovered that it was definitely real.
“This is nice and all, but …” Bolt shrugged. “Just unexpected, that’s all.”
“It even surprises us,” said the lead Starborn. “But the truth of the matter is that we had no idea that there were superhumans like you on Earth. We did not know that there were those who used their powers for good. We thought you humans were uniformly selfish, greedy, vile creatures who would misuse your powers for evil, but it seems we were mistaken. To thank you for saving us, we will spare you and every other human on the planet.”
“Uh, thanks,” said Bolt. “So, er, what are you going to do now?”
“Leave,” the lead Starborn replied. “We have no reason to stay in this universe any longer. We will return to the universe in which we were working on our next creation. It is unlikely that we will ever return to this one, now that we have done what we needed to do.”
Shell sighed in relief. “Whew. That’s—”
“But if you humans ever grow arrogant and seek to destroy or control us like John Mann, we will not hesitate to eliminate you in response,” the lead Starborn continued. “Do you understand?”
“Yes, yes, of course,” said Bolt, nodding quickly. “Don’t worry about us. We’ll make sure that no one tries to come after you. Promise.”
“That is good to hear,” said the lead Starborn. “You humans do not have a very good reputation of respecting your superiors, but maybe there is some hope for you creatures after all. In any case, we are proud to have created you. It is a good thing to know that our creations have not followed the same path as some of our other creations have. We hope that you will only become better and better in the coming years, perhaps good enough to join us on our quest across the multiverse.”
Despite the assurances that they were sincere, Shell still couldn’t believe it. Of course, he didn’t dare voice such doubts aloud, mostly because he did not want to tempt fate.
“Uh, that’s great, Starborn,” said Bolt. “We really appreciate the fact that you’ve decided not to destroy us.”
“You are welcome,” said the lead Starborn. “Now, we must leave. But we will take the Starborn artifacts with us; we would rather that these objects do not remain in a place where other morally questionable human beings can easily get their hands on them.”
The lead Starborn waved its hand at Mann’s corpse and both the Call and the Five Fingers disappeared from it. The two artifacts appeared in the hands of one of the other Starborn, who quickly hid them within its robes, though Shell didn’t know where it could have hidden those.
“Farewell, superhumans,” said the lead Starborn, waving at them. “This is most likely the last time we will ever come back to Earth, but perhaps fate will see fit for us to meet again at some point in the future. In any case, we wish you all the best of luck and hope that you can lead humanity to new and better heights.”
With that, the six Starborn suddenly transformed into glowing balls of white light. They flew over the heads of the Young Neos, causing the team to turn around to watch as the orbs flew into the open portal within the gateway. Once the last of the orbs disappeared inside the gateway, the portal closed and the gateway itself collapsed rather abruptly, like the portal had been the only thing holding it up.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
One week later …
Kevin sat on a chair on the platform in the Hero Hall, doing his best not to fidget or show his nerves. While Kevin was certainly not afraid of big crowds, he didn’t like being up on stage with nearly the entirety of the Neohero Alliance in attendance. Of course, he knew why everyone was here: To witness his official induction into the Neohero Alliance.
Hero Hall was a large building on Hero Island, usually used for ceremonies or major events like the one Kevin was currently attending. Most of the time, the building stood empty, but today it was nearly full to the brim, with a good chunk of the NHA’s membership sitting in the row upon row of metal chairs provided for attendees. The cacophony of voices, metal legs scraping against the floor, wings being flapped, and other noises all echoed off the tall walls of the Hall, while security guards stood along the perimeter of the room in order to ensure that Kevin’s induction ceremony went off without a hitch. Of course, it was unlikely that Kevin’s induction ceremony would be interrupted by a supervillain attack, but the last time the Hall had been in use, a riot had broken out among the attendees, so it was not exactly an unrealistic concern to have.
At least I’m not alone, Kevin thought, glancing at the other Young Neos who sat in chairs next to him. Having friends makes it easier to relax.
Blizzard sat next to him, holding his hand and leaning against him slightly, the cold air from her body feeling good in contrast to the combined body heat from everyone else in the Hall. White sat next to her, talking with Talon, who was actually smiling. The two of them seemed to have gotten closer since the defeat of Mann last week, which amazed Kevin, because Talon had never seemed to like White very much. He wondered if they were going to start dating; he had a hard time imagining that, even though he was happy for White regardless.
Beside Talon, Stinger was talking with Shell and Treehugger, jokingly giving them orders, to which Treehugger and Shell would just laugh. Of course, they would soon be taking real orders from him, because Kevin had chosen Stinger to succeed him as leader of the Young Neos. What really sold the deal for Kevin was Stinger’s actions last week, when he took on nearly all of the Venetians by himself and almost won. Such bravery was exactly the kind of bravery a good leader needed to have, in Kevin’s opinion, so he had wasted no time in letting Mecha Knight know that Stinger was going to be the next leader of the Young Neos once he was officially inducted into the NHA.
Speaking of Mecha Knight, the entire Leadership Council was present on the main platform as well. They sat on chairs on the opposite side of the stage, but Kevin could see them well enough. Mecha Knight and Omega Man were talking to each other, while Black Blur was listening to Lady Amazon tell him something. Black Blur did briefly glance over at Kevin, their eyes meeting for a second before he looked back at Lady Amazon.
One of the biggest surprises for Kevin was that Black Blur had stuck to his word and changed his vote in favor of Kevin. Kevin had thought that Black Blur had been lying or baiting him, but since Kevin had successfully captured Electrica (who was now in a cell in Ultimate Max, according to Stinger), Black Blur had been forced to keep his word. Granted, Black Blur hadn’t seemed very happy about it; he apparently had been hoping that Kevin would fail, though Kevin didn’t care because Black Blur voted for him anyway.
As for Bait and Switch, Electrica’s children, all Kevin knew was that the two of them had been captured by a couple of Ultimate Max prison guards when they attempted to break Electrica out of prison a couple of days ago. Because the two of them were too young to go to jail, however, they were instead going to be enrolled in the Theodore Jason Academy for Young Superhumans in an effort to straighten out their morals and make superheroes out of them. That did not seem like a plan that would succeed, but Kevin supposed it was better than letting those two run around causing trouble like they did before.
But that was not Kevin’s main concern at t
he moment. What currently mattered to Kevin was that he was going to become an official member of the NHA today. He had been looking forward to this for a very long time and was happy that it was finally, really going to happen. But first he would have to sit through this ceremony; according to Mecha Knight, it was a NHA tradition to hold a large ceremony whenever a member of the Young Neos graduated into the NHA membership. Nor could it be skipped, because the NHA Constitution specified that the ceremony was mandatory in order to make a Young Neo an official member of the NHA.
Can’t we bend the rules just this once? Kevin had asked Mecha Knight. I don’t like ceremonies or rituals.
Tradition is tradition, Bolt, Mecha Knight had replied. Besides, several members of the Leadership Council are still not very happy about your approval to join the organization. Best way to assuage their worries is to follow all of the rules and traditions laid out in the Constitution. That way, they will not have grounds for complaint.
Kevin supposed that that was all true, but at the same time, he didn’t see why they should keep distrusting him. After all, he had saved the world yet again; well, with the help of his friends, of course, but he played at least as vital a role in defeating Mann and the Venetians as anyone else.
Speaking of the Venetians, it turned out that nearly all of them had died when Kevin unleashed that electrical blast back in the chamber under Mann’s mansion. Only two Venetians were known to have survived: Della, whose healing powers had apparently allowed her to make her injuries better, and Arlecchino, who had been interrogated by the INJ but had apparently managed to keep his mouth shut and not tell the INJ anything. Both of them were currently in Ultimate Max, though they were kept in separate cells on two different cell blocks in order to keep them from plotting an escape together. Their interactions in the prison courtyard were also monitored very closely, again just to make sure they did not attempt to break out.