by Lucas Flint
“Closure,” said Cadmus. He shook his head. “The older I get, the more I crave it myself.”
“Agreed,” said Mecha Knight. “Perhaps we can finally put this part of our lives behind ourselves.”
I didn’t know what to say to that, so I just looked over at Grandfather and said, “What about Grandfather? What’s going to happen to him?”
“He’ll go to jail, most likely,” said Cadmus. “I’ll arrest him and take him to Ultimate Max. He may not be a superhuman himself, but he’s dangerous enough even in his emotionally broken state to warrant a stay there, at least until the government decides what to do with him. Especially given his knowledge about Project Neo, which is another reason to keep him locked up.”
“Will I ever see him again?” I said.
“Possibly,” said Cadmus. “But unlikely. Most prisoners in Ultimate Max are not allowed visitors, mostly because there have been one too many attempts by the friends and family of the prisoners there to break them out in the past. Matthew will likely die there, given his old age.”
“I see,” I said. “I guess the Test Subjects will stay there, too.”
“Most likely,” said Cadmus. “The government will probably take an interest in them, however, due to their status as escapees of Project Neo and thus have some secret government knowledge that we’d rather not be known by the public. But beyond that, I can’t say what the government might do to them, though I doubt it will be very pleasant.”
“All right,” I said. “I guess the next step from here is to take Grandfather away, then.”
“Right,” said Cadmus. “That is what we will have to do. I don’t expect him to try to get away right now, however, because Jane’s death appears to have broken his desire to resist.”
I could agree with that. Grandfather had stopped sobbing now, but I could tell he was too broken to even try to run. Again, I felt sorry for him, because despite everything that had happened, he was my grandpa and had raised Dad.
So I walked over to Grandfather and stopped next to him. I felt Mecha Knight, Cadmus, and Triplet looking at me, but I didn’t pay them any attention at the moment.
I put a hand on Grandfather’s shoulder, causing him to look up at me suddenly. There were still tears in his eyes, tears he wiped when he looked up at me.
“What do you want?” said Grandfather.
“Grandfather …” I didn’t know what to say until the words suddenly came to me. “I just wanted to tell you that I’m sorry about Grandmother.”
Grandfather looked surprised to hear me say that. He wiped away more tears and said, “You are?”
“Yes,” I said. “I didn’t like her all that much, but I know how much you loved her, so I just wanted to let you know that.”
“Oh,” said Grandfather. He sniffled. “Thank you, Kevin. I did not expect you to say that. I thought you would just abandon me, like Ted did.”
I gritted my teeth. “This doesn’t mean I forgive you for everything you’ve done, however. It just means that I wanted to let you know that I’m feeling sorry for you, that’s all.”
“Okay,” said Grandfather. He slowly lowered Grandmother’s corpse onto the ground. “I heard what Cadmus said, about sending me to prison. I suppose I deserve it. No point in this old man trying to get away.”
“Yeah,” I said. I hesitated, unsure if I actually wanted to say this or not, but then I barreled ahead. “I’ll try to visit you when I can, okay?”
“You will?” said Grandfather, staring at me in astonishment. “You mean you won’t just leave me to rot away?”
“No, I won’t,” I said. “I don’t know how often I’ll be able to visit, but I’ll try to visit you at least once a month.”
Grandfather sniffled again. “Thank you, Kevin. That means a lot to me, especially since I don’t deserve it.”
I heard footsteps behind me and, looking over my shoulder, saw Cadmus Smith approaching. Behind him, Mecha Knight and Triplet were deep in discussion about something, probably that case Mecha Knight had mentioned to him before. I wondered what it was, but I supposed that if Mecha Knight thought I didn’t need to know it, then I didn’t need to know it.
“Please move aside, Bolt, and let me put these cuffs around Matthew’s wrists,” said Cadmus, holding up a pair of shackles from his pockets.
I nodded and stepped aside. To his credit, Grandfather didn’t try to run away or fight. He just lifted up his wrists and allowed Cadmus to safely click the cuffs shut around them.
“Now I will call in a few other agents to help transport him and Echo to Ultimate Max,” said Cadmus. He looked at me. “You can leave now, if you wish.”
Again, I nodded, but then I remembered something. “Cadmus?”
“Yes?” said Cadmus. He had pulled his phone out of his pocket, but had not yet dialed a number. “What is it?”
“I just remembered what Grandmother told me before she died,” I said. “She said she had started Project Neo in order to find ten warriors that could help her defend Earth from beings she called ‘angels.’ Do you know what those ‘angels’ really are? Since you were involved in Project Neo and all.”
Cadmus looked up at the blue sky above us. A frown crossed his lips. “Who knows? She was likely insane. I doubt it is anything worth worrying about.”
I could tell Cadmus was just redirecting the topic of conversation, but I also knew better than to try to pry any secrets out of him. He’d likely just brush me off, maybe claim it was a super top secret government thing, and then ignore every other attempt on my part to get me to talk.
So I just walked away, back toward Mecha Knight and Triplet, but then Cadmus said, “Bolt?” causing me to stop and look over my shoulder at him.
“Yeah?” I said. “What’s up?”
“Tell Mecha Knight that he did a good job in picking you,” said Cadmus. He was smiling for some reason. “And tell him that I’m looking forward to beating him in our next match.”
I blinked, but said, “Okay. I’ll mention that to him.”
“Thanks,” said Cadmus, before he turned his attention back to Grandfather, who hadn’t moved from his position on the street.
Wondering what that was all about, I just turned away and resumed walking toward Mecha Knight and Triplet. Whatever Cadmus was talking about, I supposed it didn’t matter. Right now, what mattered most to me was going back to Hero Island and contacting Mom. She needed to know about this.
Chapter Twenty
A week later, I stood outside the theater where Blizzard and I were on our second date. We had just finished watching a movie—a really cool spy thriller with one of my favorite actors—and while I had gone outside, Emily had told me that she needed to use the restroom, so I was just waiting for her to finish and come out so we could go to dinner.
As I stood there, watching as tons of people walked up and down the busy streets of New York City, I found my mind wandering, as it usually did whenever I was alone. I probably shouldn’t have, because it would just distract me, but I started thinking about everything that had happened since the events at my grandparents’ house.
According to what Cadmus had told me recently, Grandfather was now in Ultimate Max, along with the Test Subjects, although they were all being held in different sections of the prison so they could not work together to escape. I hadn’t visited Grandfather yet—just been too busy—but Cadmus did say that I would be granted special privileges to visit him in person once a month. That was nice to know and I was already making plans to visit him. I had also heard that Grandfather had grown incredibly despondent and depressed, not doing much or saying anything to anyone, though he had not yet tried to kill himself or anything. I did worry that Grandfather might try to take his own life at some point, but Cadmus had assured me that the guards at Ultimate Max would make sure that Grandfather did not succeed in any possible suicide attempts.
I had also called Mom after returning to Hero Island. I’d told her everything that had happened since I met Grand
father in his mansion in the woods what seemed like a lifetime ago now. She had listened very intently, but had offered no condolences for Grandmother’s death. No shocker there; I hadn’t felt very sad about it, given what Grandmother had tried to do to me, and I didn’t want Mom’s sympathy anyway. Mom just told me that she thought that Dad would be happy to hear that his parents weren’t free to harm anyone anymore, however, and also told me that she wanted me to come back to Texas sometime and visit, which I told her I would as soon as I could.
Despite how I felt about Grandmother, I did give her a funeral, having her buried in a small graveyard outside of New York City. It was a very small funeral, however, and I was the only person there, watching as Grandmother’s coffin was lowered into the ground and buried. The NHA actually paid for it, surprisingly enough, mostly because Mecha Knight managed to arrange for the NHA to pay for it. Mecha Knight didn’t say why, but I assumed it was just to help me, due to my status as the leader of the Young Neos and all.
As for Triplet, he told me that Savannah Jones had indeed returned to her body and was apparently going to be just fine. But we hadn’t talked much since the incident at the old family house, because he had taken on the case that Mecha Knight had offered him and so would be even more elusive than usual. I still wondered what that case was, but I also knew that Triplet would tell me about it if he thought I could help, so I didn’t worry about it too much.
Beyond that, however, things had been pretty quiet, which was why Emily and I were going on this date together. This time, I was pretty confident that we were not going to be interrupted by some sort of crazed supervillain again. At least I hoped we weren’t; you could never be too sure about these things, particularly in New York City.
Just as I started to think about dinner, I felt a small tap on my shoulder. I initially ignored it, however, because the massive throng of people walking through the streets of New York meant that it could have just been someone brushing up against me accidentally.
Then I heard a voice behind me whisper, “Kevin?” and I turned around to see a young woman standing there.
To my surprise, I recognize the young woman: It was Emma, Grandfather’s former servant and bodyguard. She was no longer wearing the ninja getup that she always used to wear; instead, she wore a black hoodie and jeans, looking like a typical nondescript teenager who most people would not even look at twice.
“Emma?” I said. I quickly looked around, making sure no one was eavesdropping on us, before I said, in a quieter voice, “What are you doing here? Where have you been?”
That was a real question on my part. After Grandfather was arrested, I had headed back into the old house to find Emma. I’d found her tied up and unconscious in a closet, just as Echo had described to me, so I freed her, woke up her, and told her what happened. She had left after that, though she had not told me where she was intending to go and I had not thought I’d ever see her again, especially not so soon after she left.
“I’m sorry,” said Emma. “Is this not a good time to talk? I just saw you standing here alone and thought you weren’t busy.”
“I’m actually on a date,” I said, glancing over my shoulder at the theater, though Emily hadn’t come out yet. “What are you doing here?”
Emma shrugged. “I just wanted to thank you for helping me. I didn’t really get a chance to do it last week. I was so upset at what you told me that I just had to leave and be by myself. I only realized my mistake later on, when I was alone and had calmed down enough to think clearly.”
“Um, you’re welcome,” I said. I hesitated. “Are you angry at me for putting Grandfather in jail? Because if so—”
“No, I’m not,” said Emma, shaking her head. “I was at first, but then I realized that there wasn’t anything to get angry about. Your grandparents never actually intended to help me. I think he and his wife were just using me the entire time, taking advantage of my desire to get rid of my powers to make me do their dirty work.”
“Yeah, that’s what Grandmother more or less told me,” I said.
“I feel so ashamed and like I’ve wasted a lot of time,” said Emma with a sigh. “But now, now I am free. I didn’t realize it before, but I’d given them power over me, more power than I should have. I’m only lucky they just tricked me. I could have been killed or hurt.”
“Right,” I said. “So what are you going to do now? Would you like to join the NHA? I think you’re old enough and I could easily convince the Leadership Council to approve your—”
“No,” Emma interrupted me. She looked down at her hands in disgust. “I still want to get rid of my powers. Your grandparents couldn’t help me there, but maybe someone else can. I’m going to travel the world and see if I can find someone who can help me.”
“Are you sure?” I said. “You know, you’d be much happier if you’d just accept your powers and didn’t try to get rid of them.”
Emma just shook her head. “No. I’ll never be happy as long as I’m cursed like this. You still don’t understand.”
I bit my lower lip, knowing that there was really no point in arguing with her about this. “Okay. Then I guess this is good bye.”
“Well, not yet,” said Emma. “Do you remember how I talked with your teammate, Blizzard?”
I thought about that for a moment before I suddenly remembered what she was talking about. “Oh, yeah. I remember that.”
“I had asked her about joining the Young Neos,” said Emma. “At the time, I was thinking about just accepting my powers and I talked to her because she had come to see me. But I decided in the end that I would not.”
“Oh,” I said. “Is that all you two talked about?”
“That wasn’t everything, but it was the most important thing,” said Emma. “You can ask Blizzard yourself what we talked about, since you are dating her. I just wanted to let you know, in case you were curious.”
I nodded. “Okay. Will I ever see you again?”
Emma shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m going to leave the country, maybe go to Japan. I’ve heard that there are some scientists over there who are on the verge of making some interesting discoveries in neogenetics, so maybe they will be able to help me.”
“All right,” I said. “But if you ever change your mind, feel free to stop by Hero Island and I’ll be happy to help. I can’t guarantee you a spot on the Young Neos, but I might be able to get you an NHA membership, if you want it.”
Emma nodded. “Right.”
Then I heard Emily’s voice behind me shout, “Kevin!” and I looked over my shoulder to see Emily exiting the theater. She was walking toward me with a wide smile on her face.
“Hey, Emily,” I said as she stopped before me. “Ready to grab dinner?”
“Yeah,” said Emily, nodding. She frowned. “But who were you talking to?”
“Oh, I was just talking to—” I stopped speaking when I turned to face Emma and saw that she was no longer there. I looked up and down the street, but did not see her anywhere; it was like she had completely vanished into thin air.
“Who?” said Emily.
I shook my head and took Emily’s hand. “Never mind. Just giving some directions to someone who was lost. Let’s go and get something to eat already. I’m starving.”
With that, I lead Emily down the street toward the restaurant I thought looked good. And, although I didn’t look around, I suspected that Emma was still around here somewhere. I just hoped that the next time I saw her, she would learn to accept herself and her powers, at least.
Chapter Twenty-One
Somewhere in the depths of space, far away from Earth …
The Pokacu alien Graleex opened his eyes. He blinked several times, moistening them again, wondering why he had awakened again. He had been sleeping in the escape pod that he had used to get off Earth several clicks ago, hibernating until the escape pod reached the Mother World. He had known that the journey back home would take a long time, particularly in the tiny little escape pod he was
using, so he had forced his body into hibernation so he could conserve as much energy as possible until he returned to the Mother World.
It took him a moment to notice a beeping red light on the communications console, which must have been what awakened him from his deep slumber. It took him another moment to realize that the light was the pod’s way of letting him know that someone was trying to communicate with him. But it took him far less time to realize that the only other people who could communicate to him through his escape pod’s console were his fellow Pokacu.
Rising to his feet from his seat, Graleex stumbled across the floor toward the console. The console displayed the symbol of the Mother World—a sun that looked like a squid—and Graleex pressed a button to answer the call.
“Hello,” Graleex said. He found it hard to talk, after so long in hibernation, but he spoke as clearly as he could anyway. “This is Commander Graleex, Commander of the Third Division of the Pokacu Army. Who is this?”
“Commander Graleex?” came a voice on the other end, the first other Pokacu voice that Graleex had heard since the end of the invasion that seemed like a lifetime ago now. Although it was slightly distorted by the speaker, Graleex nonetheless loved to hear it. “Is that really you? Our records indicate you were killed in action during the failed invasion of Earth thirty mega clicks ago.”
“I survived, but was simply cut off from all communications with the Mother World due to my ship getting damaged,” Graleex said quickly. “But I have managed to escape that awful planet and I come with new information to share with the Mother World, important information that will allow us to redo the invasion and defeat those wretched creatures once and for all.”
“Really?” said the voice. “Well, our sensors indicate that there is a Pokacu life form in your pod, so we will bring you aboard our own ship as fast as we can and get you to the Mother World right away.”