by Lucas Flint
To my surprise, Nightbolt nodded, albeit heavily. “Yes, I am aware of the power it has over people. You’re not the first to succumb to its pressure, though with any luck, you’ll be the last.”
I leaned forward, urgency on my face. “What is it? It’s clearly not just an unusually big rubber ball. I sensed its heart beating. It had some measure of control over its bouncing. You even spoke to it like it could understand what you said. It is alive.”
Nightbolt leaned back in his recliner. He sighed deeply and, for the first time since I met him, looked just like what you’d expect a man in his nineties to look: weak, tired, and frail. “It was a mistake of me to show it to you in the first place. Only reason I even went down there at all was because the security alarm in my room let me know that someone was down there. I originally thought it might have been those two government agents, or possibly even the aliens, but it turned out to just be you and Teresa.”
“Yes, I know,” I said impatiently. “I still want to know what that … that thing actually is.”
“Then let me state it bluntly,” said Nightbolt. He looked directly into my eyes, the weariness suddenly vanishing instantly. “It is the origin and source of Dennis’ powers … and his life.”
I blinked. “What do you mean? How is it the source and origin of Rubberman’s powers? And his life? That doesn’t make any sense to me.”
“Then perhaps you would be so kind as to allow me to explain,” said Nightbolt. “Not that I want to, mind you, because I promised Dennis I’d never share this story without his permission or knowledge.”
“But I’m his sidekick,” I said. “Why shouldn’t I know about it?”
Nightbolt steepled his fingers together. “Because if this secret became widely known, all of Dennis’ enemies—of which he has many, as you know—would stop at nothing to get it. He entrusted this Rubber Ball to me for safekeeping, but now that you’ve seen it and caught a glimpse of its true power, I think it would be pointless for me to hide it from you any longer. Curiosity always burns brightest when knowledge is forbidden, especially for young kids like yourself.”
“Then start from the beginning,” I said. I rubbed my legs, which still ached from where the sword had fallen on them. “I know you want to go to bed, but we can stay up at least a little while longer for this, can’t we?”
“That we can, that we can,” said Nightbolt heavily. “It’s too important to put off. Let’s start from the beginning … well, at least what I know, anyway. I wasn’t present for all of it, but Dennis told me all of the facts from before I got involved, so the story I’m about to tell you should be accurate, aside from maybe a few small details here and there.”
Nightbolt sipped from his water bottle and lowered it onto the arm of his chair. “Five years ago, Dennis Pullman made his grand debut into the world as the superhero Rubberman. He defeated the infamous supervillain Volcano, who had been trying to cover the United States in a cloud of smoke and ash by activating the super volcano in Yosemite. You know that, right?”
I nodded. “Of course. Everyone does.”
“That’s not where Dennis’ story starts, though,” said Nightbolt. “A year before that, Dennis came to me as a powerless young man seeking training to become the best superhero he could be. He came to me because he had learned, through his research, that one of my students had been Iron Angel, his main inspiration for becoming a superhero in the first place. He was a driven, ambitious young man, very different from the usual self-seeking riffraff that appear on my doorstep every now and then demanding I make them into the best superheroes ever.”
Nightbolt snorted when he said that. “Too many wannabees believe that being a superhero is all about having the coolest powers and knowing the flashiest fighting moves. Few of ‘em actually want to work for it. Kids these days, I swear.”
I folded my arms across my chest. “Can you continue with your story, please?”
“Okay, okay,” said Nightbolt, though it sounded to me like he really just wanted to rant about kids these days. “Anyway, after our first month of training together, we discovered a supervillain had built a secret underground laboratory out in the West Texas wastes, well away from even Los Congrejos. This supervillain was Xavier Zuluaf, or, as he called himself, the Space Emperor.”
“I’ve never heard of him.”
“Few have. Unlike other supervillains, Xavier didn’t waste his time with robbing banks or hijacking cars. He had a ‘vision,’ as he called it, of uniting all humanity under his benevolent rule to create a space faring empire, which he would rule as the Space Emperor … whether we wanted it or not.”
“How did he plan to do that?” I said. “Create an army of robots to take over the world or something?”
“Nope,” said Nightbolt, shaking his head. “He intended to use the Rubber Ball to do it. He planned to use its hypnotic powers to sway the population of the world under his leadership and to organize the people to create the galaxy-spanning empire he dreamed of.”
“Did he make the Rubber Ball in his lab or something?”
“No. He claimed that on an expedition to Antarctica ten years ago, he and his team found an ancient city, supposedly built by a pre-human civilization millions of years ago. Inside a temple in that city, he said they found the corpse of an alien god, frozen in time, its brain perfectly preserved by the ice and coldness. They took the brain—which they called the Rubber Ball, due to its rubber-like properties—back to America, but Xavier killed all of his fellow expedition members when they got back.”
“Why?” I said in surprise. “This seems like a far too important scientific discovery to hide.”
“Xavier said it was because he didn’t think humanity was ready to learn that we aren’t alone in the universe, so he killed his friends to keep them from telling the general public about it,” said Nightbolt. “Truthfully, though, I think the Rubber Ball was talking then. I think it made him kill his friends so it would have time to come up with a plan to take over the world without having to worry about the government or some other group trying to stop it. Xavier probably thought it was all his idea.”
“So … it actually is the brain of a dead alien god from a pre-human civilization in Antarctica?”
Nightbolt shrugged. “Who knows? Dennis later told me he confirmed that Xavier really did go to Antarctica, but he couldn’t find any mention of what Xavier did or found there. I think he was probably lying or maybe had gone insane after so many years around the Rubber Ball. I have to admit, though, that I don’t think the Rubber Ball is of human origin, whatever it is and wherever it is really from.”
I gulped. “But you and Rubberman managed to beat him, right?”
“We did,” said Nightbolt, nodding. “Xavier wasn’t prepared for our arrival. He sent some of his ‘experiments’ to stop us, but even without powers, we took them down fairly easily. We confronted Xavier in the heart of his laboratory, where the Rubber Ball was. I will never forget what happened next, because it is easily one of the strangest things I’ve ever witnessed, and that’s saying something, given how old I am.”
“Then tell me.”
Nightbolt stared off into space for a few seconds, like he was trying to remember everything that happened. Or maybe was trying to put off having to relive that particular memory due to how strange it was.
“Xavier tried to unleash the power of the Rubber Ball,” said Nightbolt, still not looking at me directly. “He thought it would give him the godlike power he needed not only to destroy us, but also take over the world. Didn’t quite work out the way he thought it would, though.”
“He died?”
“Oh, not immediately,” said Nightbolt with a grim, humorless chuckle. “He ingested part of the Rubber Ball. He expected it to give him godlike power. Instead, his body turned into rubber.”
“Like Rubberman?”
“Similar, but not quite the same,” said Nightbolt. “His body turned into the kind of thin, stringy rubber that rubber bands are
made out of. He was pretty shocked to find his body turned into rubber, especially when he collapsed into a pile of arms and legs all twisted together. He didn’t know how to control his powers, so he could only groan in pure agony at the fact that he was nothing more than a pile of rubber.”
I bit my lower lip. “That’s horrible.”
“You wouldn’t believe how horrible it was,” said Nightbolt with a shudder. “In all my years as a superhero and teacher, I’ve never seen something like that happen to a human being. And do you know what the worst thing was?”
I shook my head. “No, what?”
Nightbolt leaned forward, fear in his eyes. “I heard the Rubber Ball laughing at him. It wasn’t an audible sound; it was mental. Somehow, it projected its laughter into my mind, and I think into Dennis’ mind, too, though he didn’t talk about it too much. I think it unnerved him more than it did me, but regardless, I’ll remember that evil laughter for the rest of my life, however short it may be.”
I believed that. The Rubber Ball did seem to have a malicious intelligence inside it. Whether it was the mind of some alien god from some ancient pre-human civilization or a science experiment gone wrong, the fact was that that thing was pure evil.
“But if it’s so evil, why do you still have it?” I said. “How is it related to Rubberman? Why would he have anything to do with such a vile thing?”
Nightbolt sat back and sipped his water again. “Story’s not over yet, kid. I haven’t told you the ending—in all its horrid details—yet.”
I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear the ending at this point, but I decided that I’d already heard most of the story, so I might as well hear the rest of it. “Okay, continue.”
Nightbolt cleared his throat. “Xavier didn’t die when his body turned into rubber. But he did know that his days were numbered. Dennis and I were going to take him to justice, but he didn’t want to go to jail. He knew that his dream of being the god of a space-faring human empire would never happen, so he activated his laboratory’s self-destruct feature. He intended to kill himself and take us with him.”
“But it didn’t work out that way, did it?”
“It did not. Dennis and I managed to escape before the lab caved in. Xavier ended up being buried alone in his lab, turning his laboratory into his own personal tomb. We never did see his body, but because there was no way he could have escaped, we figured he was dead. It helps that I haven’t heard any sign of him since the collapse of his lab six years ago.”
I nodded. It seemed likely to me that Nightbolt was right, but I wondered if Xavier had indeed somehow survived. If his body was made out of rubber, he might have been able to survive being crushed by thousands of pounds of rock and dirt. Of course, he would also actually need to figure out how to get out from underneath said rock, but there was always the possibility he did.
“Anyway, Dennis took the Rubber Ball with us before we left,” said Nightbolt. “I wanted us to leave it so it could be buried with Xavier, but Dennis insisted that it would be safer with us. He didn’t want to leave it anywhere someone, particular someone with malicious intent, could get it. I didn’t argue the point very much at the time, since, you know, we were trying to avoid getting buried alive, but to this day, I sometimes wonder if it would have been better to leave the Rubber Ball in the lab with Xavier where it would have been buried forever, maybe even outright destroyed.”
“So how did Rubberman get his powers?” I said. “Did he get them after you guys got out of the lab?”
Nightbolt nodded again. “Yes. When we escaped the lab, Dennis’ fingers were pricked by the Rubber Ball’s thorns.”
“Thorns?” I said. “It’s completely smooth.”
“It can create thorns anywhere on its body,” Nightbolt said. “That’s why I said don’t touch it. Probably the only reason you didn’t feel its thorns is because you were wearing gloves when you touched it.”
I looked down at my hands. My gloves looked perfectly normal, but I couldn’t help but feel thankful that I had somehow managed to avoid getting stung by the Ball. “What happened after Rubberman got stung?”
“His body turned to rubber, just like Xavier,” said Nightbolt. “And, like Xavier, he turned into a pile of twisted limbs on the ground. Had to drag him back to the house all by myself, in addition to the Rubber Ball itself.”
“How did he survive?” I said in shock. “Wouldn’t the shock of the transformation have killed him?”
“You’d think so, but Dennis is a very strong-willed man,” said Nightbolt, tapping the side of his head. “He was unconscious for a day or so, but when he regained consciousness, he managed to pull his body back together into a more normal shape. It took him the rest of his apprenticeship under me, however, before he fully gained control over his new body, which he used as the basis of his superhero name and business.”
“Why didn’t you take him to the hospital?” I asked. “If he was unconscious and his body was messed up—”
“No human doctor could fix him,” Nightbolt interrupted. “What would I have told the doctors, anyway? That Dennis was an ordinary man until he got pricked by a giant, living Rubber Ball, which infused him with its DNA and changed the very molecular structure of his whole body? Besides, like I said, he was unconscious for only a day. After that, he was fairly normal, though he was never quite the same, of course.”
“Are you telling me that Rubberman is actually part-alien?” I said. “Is that what you mean?”
“If you believe Xavier’s story about where the Rubber Ball came from, sure,” said Nightbolt with a shrug. “Like I said, all I know is that it is not from this world. Dennis asked me to keep it safe in the Basement, because he didn’t trust anyone else with knowledge of the Rubber Ball’s power or even existence.”
“Why not just destroy it?” I said. “If it’s really as bad as you say, then wouldn’t it be safer to destroy it outright?”
Nightbolt held up one finger. “Firstly, it’s a hardy little thing. You saw that yourself when you fired your lasers straight through it. You hurt it, probably hurt it more than anyone has in a long time, but it’s still alive and is slowly regenerating its center. It may not even be possible to destroy it.”
Then Nightbolt held up a second finger. “Secondly, it didn’t just give Dennis his powers. It also tied his life to its. If it is destroyed, Dennis will die, too.”
“How do you know that for sure?” I said. “If you’ve never tested it—”
“Because Dennis told me so,” Nightbolt interrupted again. “When he woke up, he told me that the Rubber Ball had spoken to him in his sleep. The Ball told him that his life was now intertwined with it. Therefore, if the Rubber Ball is ever destroyed, he’ll die with it.”
“What if it’s lying? Did that ever occur to you?”
“It did, but Dennis didn’t think it was. Given how much I trust Dennis’ judgment on these things, I decided to spare the damned thing. I didn’t want to risk Dennis’ life unnecessarily.”
I wasn’t sure if I agreed with Nightbolt or not, but it didn’t really matter, because I was now thinking about how I had nearly destroyed the Rubber Ball earlier. Had I successfully killed it with my eye lasers, Rubberman might have died, too, which would have made me responsible for his death. I had come this close to murdering Rubberman and I hadn’t even known it.
Nightbolt put the cap back on his water bottle. “Now you see why Dennis never told you his origin.”
“I do,” I said.
“As well, I hope you understand why I don’t want you poking around down there in the Basement,” said Nightbolt. “Most of that stuff is harmless, but there are a fair few things down there that are just as dangerous as the day I took them as my trophies. Best not to go down there unless you have to or I tell you to.”
“Yeah,” I said. I scratched the back of my head. “About the display cases and crates which were destroyed—”
“Don’t worry about them,” said Nightbolt, waving at me like he di
dn’t care. “I can replace those easily, though I’ll need help repackaging everything that was destroyed. And it’s getting late, for both you and me. You might be eighty years younger than me, but that doesn’t mean you can go without sleep forever.”
I suddenly yawned. “Yeah, you’re right. We can talk more about this in the morning, when we’ve both given it time to settle in our minds.”
“That’s the first wise thing you’ve said since you got here,” said Nightbolt. “Maybe there’s hope for you after all.”
I rolled my eyes, but said nothing. Instead, I rose from the chair and walked back to my room. When I got into my room, I threw off my costume and collapsed into my queen bed in my underwear, because I was too tired to put on my pajamas.
But I was not too tired to sense—to feel—the pull of the Rubber Ball back in the Basement. It was weaker up here than it was down there, but I still didn’t fall asleep for at least thirty minutes after I fell on my bed. Even then, my dreams were full of rubber balls bouncing everywhere, balls which kept hitting me no matter where I stood.
CHAPTER TWELVE
“Where are we going?” I asked for the third time that afternoon. I looked up at the sun in the sky overhead. “It’s so hot today.”
Nightbolt—who was ahead of me—stopped and turned to face me. “You’ll see. It’s all part of your training. Just enjoy the walk.”
With that, Nightbolt turned around again and resumed walking toward our mysterious destination. I stood still for only a second before I resumed following him, though more reluctantly this time. My legs were starting to get sore from all of the walking we did, although that was partly due to the fact that my legs still hurt from the golden sword falling on top of them the night before. It didn’t help that I hadn’t gotten a very good night’s sleep due to the dreams about the bouncy balls I had, so I was draggier than usual.