by Lucas Flint
“Yes,” said Mr. Apollo. “Absolutely. I want to give you a chance to touch me.”
“I won’t just be touching you, old man,” I said. “I’m going to knock you flat on your back.”
I ran toward Mr. Apollo. I was going to feint; make him think I was about to punch him in the face, but then run around him at the last second and give him a light but firm tap on the back of the head. I figured that that should be enough to take him down and end this fight within five minutes.
Mr. Apollo looked totally unconcerned at my speed. The only thing he did to protect himself was raise his cane, but that wouldn’t be enough to protect him from a blow to the back of the head. It looked like a pretty fancy cane, but probably not strong enough to survive even one blow from my fist if I had decided to punch it.
At the last second, I turned and ran around him. Stopping behind him, I lashed out with my fist, moving so fast that Mr. Apollo couldn’t move fast enough to dodge. In fact, it seemed like he wasn’t moving at all, which was fine by me.
But instead of smacking into the back of his head, my fist harmless passed through, like he wasn’t even there. Even weirder, the part my fist punched through was glowing a strange, yellow light, like the light of the sun.
I was so surprised by this sudden move that I just stood there, staring at Mr. Apollo in shock. I was sure that my eyes were playing a trick on me.
Then Mr. Apollo looked over his shoulder at me with the smuggest smirk I’d ever seen on another human being’s face, even with my hand still through his face. “Surprised? You shouldn’t be.”
Before I could even realized what was going on, Mr. Apollo slammed his cane in my face. The cane hit hard enough to knock me flat off my feet, making me lie there in a dazed heap on the floor before Mr. Apollo brought the tip of his cane down hard on my chest. I gasped, and before I could get up, Mr. Apollo turned his cane.
In a second, I felt something shoot through my body. Instantly, my body locked up and I couldn’t even twitched my pinkie. I could only just stare up at Mr. Apollo, who was still smirking at me with that same old smirk.
“What … what did you do to me?” I said. I struggled to move. “I can’t move …”
“One of my powers,” said Mr. Apollo. “I can shut off another person’s nerves with nothing but a touch or through an object I am holding, such as my cane.”
“Then why did you hit me with your cane?” I said.
“Because I felt like it,” said Mr. Apollo. “That’s why.”
I scowled, but since I couldn’t get up, I said, “And your other power … your body …”
“I can turn my body into light,” said Mr. Apollo, patting his chest. “Similar to how Shade can control shadow, I can control light. Quite a useful power, wouldn’t you say?”
“Yes,” I said. “Can you give me back control of my body? I don’t want to lie here anymore.”
“Certainly,” said Mr. Apollo. “But first, you have to admit that I won.”
“What?” I said. “Why?”
“Because I did,” said Mr. Apollo. He consulted his watch. “Two and a half minutes. That’s how long it took for me to beat you.”
“You mean you were keeping track?” I said.
“Indeed,” said Mr. Apollo. “And it’s a new record for me, since it took me two minutes and forty-five seconds to take down Renaissance, who was a bit cleverer than you.”
Now I was pretty sure that Mr. Apollo was just bragging in order to piss me off, but since I didn’t have any power in this situation, I said, “Okay, fine, you win. Can I have control of my nerves back now?”
Mr. Apollo didn’t answer. Continuing to smirk, he just slammed his cane down on my chest again and I suddenly felt control of my body return. I jumped to my feet as Mr. Apollo took his cane off my chest, but I didn’t try to hit him because I knew he’d just knock me back off my feet if I tried to punch him again.
“Now, then,” said Mr. Apollo, putting his hands over his cane again. “Why don’t we get you and your friends ready for the mission? We don’t have much time left before the Pokacu make their move, after all.”
I just glared at Mr. Apollo. He didn’t glare back at me. He just looked amused, as if I was just a little kitten that couldn’t do much more than scratch him.
Then I shook my head and said, “Okay. But maybe we should fight again sometime after all of this is over. Maybe it will end differently now that I know your powers.”
Mr. Apollo literally laughed when I said that. “Oh, young Bolt, I can see that there is still so much you don’t understand. Ah, to be young again …”
Mr. Apollo just shook his head and, looking over at my friends, said, “Now, everyone, please line up and we’ll get your sizes so we can ensure that each of you gets the environ best suited for his or her body. Then we will leave and save the world from the Pokacu once again.”
Chapter Twelve
After my friends and I were fitted for our suits, Mr. Apollo told us to go back to the suite and rest up. We’d be leaving within the hour to go to Hero Island, but Mr. Apollo said that we should get rested so we could be ready for the attack. I didn’t mind that, because I was kind of tired, although I still wondered why Mr. Apollo had laughed at my suggestion of a rematch. Did he really think I couldn’t beat him again? He must have been pretty confident in his own abilities to think that. Given his powers and experience, maybe he had a point.
Regardless, I was still worried about Mom. How was she? Where did the Pokacu take her? Why did they kidnap her? Was she safe? Was she unharmed? I didn’t know. I had a whole bunch of questions in mind that I had no easy or immediate answers to. I wasn’t going to rush off and fight the entire Pokacu army on my own—since Mr. Apollo had pretty soundly beaten me and all—but I found that even waiting for an hour to leave was agonizing beyond belief.
Thus, I had a hard time paying attention to the conversations between my teammates and the New Heroes as we sat around the main table in the suite, where we were all having one last dinner of pizza before we left. Slime and Stinger got into an argument about some random guy on YouTube, while the Lightning Triplets had gotten into an argument with each other over something I couldn’t understand, since they’d fallen back into Japanese and were almost impossible to understand as a result.
In fact, I was so worried about Mom that I didn’t even notice Blizzard saying my name until she tapped my arm, causing me to look at her. “Huh?”
“I was trying to talk to you,” said Blizzard, though she sounded less annoyed and more concerned. “Are you all right?”
I frowned and took a bite out of my pizza. “No, I’m not.”
“Because of your mom, right?” said Blizzard.
I nodded, ignoring the sudden shouts from Shell, who had now joined the argument with Stinger and Slime about YouTube. “Yes.”
“I understand,” said Blizzard. She rested her face on one hand. “My parents are in Arizona, so they’re safe as far as I know, but I still worry about them. They don’t have any superpowers of their own, so they can’t defend themselves if the Pokacu decide to come after them.”
“Same thing with my mom,” I said. “Unlike my dad, she doesn’t have any powers. She’s still a strong woman, but she’s no match for the Pokacu.”
“Now I wonder if they’re going to kidnap any of our other family members,” said Blizzard, turning away from me as she took a bite out of her pizza. “To use as leverage against us.”
“That’s possible,” I said. Then I glanced at Strike and Dizzy; Strike seemed to be trying to coax Dizzy into eating her pizza, but she didn’t look like she wanted to. “Unless they just kill them outright, that is.”
Blizzard shuddered. “Don’t say that. We have enough to worry about without also worrying about our families.”
“I know,” I said. “That’s why we have to beat them, and beat them as soon as we can.”
“Can we, though?” said Blizzard doubtfully. “We’ve never beat a planet before.”
“We’ll just have to try,” I said. “I’m always up for new things, so this should be interesting.”
Blizzard chuckled. “Yeah, I guess.”
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door to our suite and I looked over just in time to see Nicknacks enter. He was actually walking now, though it was on crutches. That surprised me, given that he had been in a wheelchair the last time I saw him, but then again, he did say that Pokacu can heal faster than humans, so that shouldn’t have shocked me too much.
“Bolt?” said Nicknacks, causing all of us to look at him. “Can we please speak in private? I have something to discuss with you.”
I looked at the others briefly before looking at Nicknacks again. “Uh, sure.”
I jumped off my seat and followed Nicknacks out of the suite, wondering what he wanted to discuss. We stopped out in the hallway, which, as usual, was empty, though I knew that there were government workers working behind every door in the Facility on top secret projects that no one outside of this place would ever learn of.
Once we were in the hall, Nicknacks turned to look at me. Although he was obviously healing, he still looked exhausted, as if he had not gotten enough sleep recently. He leaned on his crutches, his inhuman face inscrutable.
“So what did you want to talk with me about?” I said. “You look like you’re doing better.”
“I am,” said Nicknacks. “And I will likely be well enough to go with you and the others on the trip to the Mother World. To you humans, broken legs would take weeks, maybe even months, to heal, if ever, but for us Pokacu, it is kind of like getting a paper cut.”
“Cool,” I said. “I wish I could heal that fast, but I, unfortunately, didn’t get a healing power.”
“Yes, healing powers are useful,” said Nicknacks. “Tell me, how are your powers? I heard you had a fight with Mr. Apollo.”
“My powers are coming back,” I said. I flexed my fingers. “I imagine that by the time we’ll ship out, my powers will be back at full strength. So will the powers of my teammates and the New Heroes.”
“Good,” said Nicknacks. “Very good. We’ll need every advantage we can get when we go to fight the Pokacu. There is a reason they’ve successfully conquered as many worlds as they have. They are a ruthless and cunning foe, one you would do well not to take lightly.”
“I kind of figured that out already, but thanks for the reminder,” I said. “I’m sure we’ll be able to take them. It will be difficult, sure, but we beat them once, so I think we can do it again.”
“That I hope,” said Nicknacks. “But the Mother World is by far the most cunning and dangerous. She is the brains behind my people. She will not let us simply walk onto her surface and do what we please, should we successfully get there.”
“I bet,” I said. “Is that all you wanted to tell me about? Just to warn me about the Mother World?”
“That isn’t it, at least not entirely,” said Nicknacks. He looked both ways, as if to make sure the hallway was clear, before leaning closer toward me. “I need to ask you to do something for me. I doubt you’ll have to do it—I hope you won’t, anyway—but there is a good chance that I will need you to do it if we reach the Mother World.”
“Okay,” I said. “What is it?”
Nicknacks hesitated. He almost looked like he was rethinking his request, but then he said, “If I go rogue, I want you to kill me.”
I stepped back in surprise. “Kill you? What? Why? What do you mean, ‘go rogue’? You’re on our side. You’ve been a powerful ally of the NHA and humanity in general ever since you got here. Why would you ever go rogue?”
Nicknacks sighed and shifted his weight on his crutches. “Do you remember, Bolt, how I described the Pokacu species?”
“Yeah,” I said. “You said they were a hive mind, essentially being controlled by the Mother World. You were just like that, but you broke away at some point and now the Mother World doesn’t have any control over you anymore.”
“Correct,” said Nicknacks. “Well, mostly correct.”
“What does that mean?” I said. “What was I wrong about?”
“Nothing,” said Nicknacks. “It’s just that there is something I did not mention to President Plutarch or Director Smith, because I did not want to worry either of them or raise their suspicions based on something that may or may not actually happen.”
“And what is that?” I said.
Nicknacks gestured at his own head. “Although I broke away from the Mother World’s control, that does not mean I am entirely immune from her influence. If she wanted, she could potentially retake control of my mind and use my body to carry out her will.”
I immediately prepared a fist, though I didn’t punch Nicknacks. “You mean she could do that? Like, right now?”
“Not right now, no,” said Nicknacks quickly. “I am too far away from her right now for her to control me. But if I go to the Mother World with you, she could take control of me again. The part of my brain that connects me with the Mother World is still there; it is inactive and damaged, but there is a distinct possibility that the Mother World could use it to control me if she tried.”
“Really?” I said as I lowered my fist. “That’s horrible.”
“It is,” said Nicknacks. “That is the real reason I stayed on Earth, by the way. I knew that if I left Earth, that would just increase my chances of being controlled by the Mother World again. So I stayed here, as far from the Mother World as I could get, which is why I have not been influenced by her for many years.”
“Couldn’t you fight her influence?” I said. “Why do you need me to kill you?”
“Just because I defeated her influence once doesn’t mean I can do it again,” said Nicknacks. “You have no idea how rare it is for a Pokacu to break away from her control and survive. I am the only known Pokacu in the past one hundred years to have successfully rebelled. Her influence is simply overwhelming and it is unlikely that I could beat her again if she tried to retake control of me.”
“But—”
“Furthermore, if I am under her control, she will likely use me to interrupt the mission,” Nicknacks continued. “And, since you will probably not have much time to succeed, you will need to deal with any threats as brutally and efficiently as possible. By that, I mean kill any obstacles in your path, including me.”
“You mean you aren’t afraid of dying?” I said. “Of being killed?”
“My fear of death is practically nonexistent,” said Nicknacks with a shrug. “The same can be said of the Pokacu species in general. Due to our hive mind nature, we have no real fear of death. We don’t rush recklessly into danger, of course, but if the Mother World orders us to walk into a situation that will get us killed, we’ll do it no matter what.”
“Yeah, but this is still crazy,” I said. “What will the NHA say if I do that?”
“They will understand,” said Nicknacks. “I’ve told Omega Man and the others about this possibility during the first invasion, although it thankfully never happened. Besides, the mission is far more important than my life. If I must die so that my people can be stopped and Earth can be saved, then that is what I must do.”
I bit my lower lip. “I don’t like this.”
“You don’t have to,” said Nicknacks. “You just have to do it. Can I trust you to do it, should it ever be necessary?”
Nicknacks and I looked directly into each other’s eyes for what felt like forever. I was hoping that Nicknacks might just tell me that he was joking and that this was all just a hypothetical situation just meant as an intellectual exercise more than anything, but his expression didn’t change and he didn’t say anything to indicate that he was being anything other than his usual serious self.
Finally, I nodded slowly and said, “Okay. I’ll do it, if that’s what I have to do.”
“Good,” said Nicknacks. “I knew I could trust you. Mecha Knight made a wise choice in recruiting you into the Young Neos. Perhaps I will finally tell him th
at the next time I see him, assuming he is still alive.”
I was going to ask Nicknacks what he meant about that, but then there was a beeping sound and I looked down at my watch to see that we had ten minutes before we had to leave for Hero Island.
“It looks like we don’t have much time to get ready to leave,” said Nicknacks. “I will return to my room now. We can meet again later when we leave for Hero Island.”
“Okay,” I said. “See you soon, then.”
With that, I turned around and returned to the suite, but not without looking over my shoulder and seeing Nicknacks hobbling down the hallway back to his room. I couldn’t imagine having to kill him, even if the Mother World regained control of him, but at the same time, if it was between him and the world … well, I knew what I would choose, even if I didn’t like having to make that choice.
Chapter Thirteen
After the alarm went off, my teammates, the New Heroes, and I went to the room where we were going to get suited up and leave. It was located just down the hall from our suite, so it was easy for us to get there; in fact, it was actually the very same room in which we had arrived seemingly a lifetime ago, even though it had only been a couple of hours since we’d arrived in the Facility at most.
Here, we were fitted with our own environs. Putting mine on, I was distinctly reminded of the time I had worn the underwater suit that Graleex had given me. Not too surprising, given how these suits had been based off that one.
But my environ was much better than the diving suit that Graleex had let me wear. It was designed specifically for the human body, for one, which meant that it fit me better and gave me a lot more movement than the other suit I’d wore. The helmet, too, fit my head more comfortably, giving me a lot more freedom in which to move my neck. Plus, it looked really cool, like something from a science fiction military game, although that was just a side effect, of course.
As for our weapons, half of us got freezers while the other half got bomb staffs, including Blizzard, who didn’t really need a freezer due to her powers. I was given one of the bomb staffs, which I held gingerly so as to avoid causing the tip to blow us all up. Blizzard got one of those as well, though she didn’t seem to hold it as gingerly as I held mine.