by Lucas Flint
But Treehugger opened her eyes anyway, despite her aching head, because she wanted to see where she was. She also hoped that all of that stuff really had been just a dream, because she didn’t want it to be real.
At first, Treehugger saw nothing except endless darkness, but quickly she realized that she was slung over someone’s shoulder. She found that her arms and legs were bound by thick ropes, tied expertly by someone who clearly knew their way around ropes. The ropes were so tight that she couldn’t even move her limbs even half an inch. Her head, however, did have some movement, allowing her to see the large back of whoever was carrying her. Based on the brown robes, she realized that she was being carried by Arlecchino.
Dread filled Treehugger’s soul as soon as she realized that. She knew that she had been captured by the Venetians. And they were probably going to kill her soon.
That filled her mind with a ton of questions, such as how long she had been knocked out, what happened to the Midnight Menace, why the Venetians had merely captured her and not killed her already, and much more. Of course, Treehugger had no way to find out the answers to any of these questions, so she instead tried to focus on her environment and find out where she was. She tried to do it in such a way as to make sure that the Venetians did not notice she was awake; she had a feeling that if they knew she was awake, they would try to kill her.
The darkness of the Shadowlands made it difficult to see much, but the Venetians must have had a light, because a glow from up ahead allowed her to see some of their environment. They were still in the forest; she could see the razor leaves and flesh-like bark of the trees everywhere. It seemed like Arlecchino was in the back of the group; at least, Treehugger could not see Moretta or Pantalone. She didn’t know how deeply into the forest they had gone or whether they were close to or far from the clearing in which they had spent so much time, but regardless, Treehugger was pretty sure that things were not going to go well for her unless she got her freedom.
I’m lucky that they didn’t just kill me outright, Treehugger thought. I hope that they also spared the Midnight Menace. Unfortunately, given how much stronger he is than me, I doubt they let him survive.
Treehugger once more found herself wishing that she was not alone. She wanted to be back with her friends and teammates, but at this point, that was little more than a pipe dream. She could only hope that the Venetians would at least take her back to Earth. It would be better to be a prisoner of the Venetians than to be dead.
But perhaps the choice wasn’t so stark. Treehugger realized that the Venetians did not know that she had regained consciousness yet. As far as she could tell, her powers were still active, which meant that she could potentially save herself. She decided that this time, she would do whatever she needed in order to regain her freedom, because the Venetians were simply too dangerous to go easy on. Even if that meant killing them.
Suddenly, the Venetians stopped. Not expecting this, Treehugger couldn’t help but stop and wait to see what would happen. She didn’t move; she just listened, waiting to see why the Venetians had stopped.
“Here it is,” said Pantalone’s voice from the front of the group. “Exactly where I said it would be.”
“Guess you’re not getting senile after all, old man,” said Arlecchino; his voice was too close to Treehugger for her comfort. “Let’s enter. But first …”
All of a sudden, Treehugger was swung over Arlecchino’s shoulder and slammed onto the ground. She gasped in pain and her whole world spun for a few seconds before her senses corrected themselves, allowing her to see three familiar masks looking down at her: Arlecchino, Pantalone, and Moretta. The three Venetians looked ghastly in the dim light of their portable lamp, which Moretta was holding as silently as a ghost bearing a candle. Treehugger wanted to scream, but she was too terrified by the masks looking down at her to even squeak.
“Well, well, well,” said Arlecchino, his smile revealing his canine-like teeth. “Looks like the girl has awakened after all. I bet you were planning to use your powers to cut us up with these sharp leaves, weren’t you, girl?”
“T-Treehugger,” said Treehugger, though she wasn’t sure why. “The name is Treehugger.”
“Yeah, we know,” said Arlecchino with a chuckle. “But to us, you’re nothing more than a scared little girl. Right, Pantalone? Moretta?”
Moretta nodded, while Pantalone said, “Indeed, Arlecchino. The girl isn’t nearly as tough as Bolt or White Lightning. She seems out of place on the Young Neos, given how weak she is.”
“Weak?” Treehugger repeated. “I’m not—”
“Yeah, but she’ll do for our purposes,” said Arlecchino, as if Treehugger had not spoken at all. “I just wanted to make sure she hadn’t died of fright. It wouldn’t be very convenient for us if she died before the sacrifice, would it?”
“No, it would not,” Pantalone agreed.
“Sacrifice?” Treehugger said. “What sacrifice? And what happened to the Midnight Menace? What did you do to him?”
“The Midnight Menace?” said Arlecchino. He rubbed his cheek, as if he had been punched there. “Yeah, he’s dead. Sorry.”
Treehugger felt her heart stop beating. “What?”
“The sound blast,” said Pantalone. “Apparently, when it knocked you out, he got blown backwards and hit a tree. That caused most of the leaves to fall down and slice him up. He looked quite dead when we left him in the clearing.”
Treehugger’s lower lip quivered. She had never known the Midnight Menace very well—didn’t even like him all that much due to his creepy nature—but he had been her only ally and friend in the Shadowlands. Now she was alone, stuck with three psychopaths who were talking about sacrificing her for some unknown reason. And with no way to get back to Earth, that meant she was stuck here forever even if she did somehow manage to escape from the clutches of the Venetians. Treehugger had been struggling with the despair of being stuck in a world that was not her own, but now she was just about ready to give in to depression for good. If the Midnight Menace was dead, as they said, then there was no point in fighting anymore or trying to save herself.
“Pantalone, I think you scared her,” said Arlecchino in a mocking voice. He patted Treehugger on the cheek like she was a little girl. “Don’t worry, girlie. Soon, you’ll see him again, though not in this life, of course.”
Treehugger shook her head to clear her mind. “What are you talking about? You mentioned a sacrifice before. What are you going to sacrifice me to?”
“I suppose it’s safe to let you know, because there’s nothing you can do to stop it,” said Pantalone. He leaned down closer and a feather from his wings fell onto Treehugger’s face, though it did not obscure her view of his mask. “You will be sacrificed to the Shadowlands themselves. But fear not, young girl, because your sacrifice will save the world itself.”
Treehugger blinked several times. “I don’t understand. How will my sacrifice save the world? From what? And how will sacrificing me in the Shadowlands achieve that?”
“Your sacrifice will save the world from the Starborn,” said Pantalone. “You know what they are, don’t you?”
Treehugger nodded. “Yes, but how will my sacrifice save the world from the Starborn? I thought that John Mann was planning to take over the world.”
“Only our master understands how it all works,” said Pantalone. “But we do know that the Shadowlands is not merely a pocket dimension attached to the main universe, as some may think. It is also a barrier that keeps the universe safe from certain threats. Our master believes that by sacrificing you here, it will cause a chain reaction in Earth that will eliminate the whole reason the Starborn are coming to Earth in the first place.”
“And what is that reason?” said Treehugger. “Why are the Starborn coming back to Earth? Why do they want to destroy it?”
Arlecchino smiled. He gestured at himself and his fellow Venetians before pointing at Treehugger. “They want to destroy it because they’re afraid of us, a
fraid of superhumans. Afraid that we might one day become strong enough to take them down. Us, their own creations, who only have our powers because of them.”
“Indeed,” said Pantalone. “You see, girl, this is where you and your friends are mistaken. We are not the villains. We are the good guys, because we want to stop the Starborn from destroying all of Earth. John Mann has told us as much.”
“You mean they’re afraid of superhumans,” said Treehugger. “And you think that if you can sacrifice a superhuman here in the Shadowlands, that that will somehow stop them from destroying Earth.”
“As we said, that is what John Mann told us,” said Pantalone. “And it is the truth. Once you are sacrificed, Earth will be safe from the Starborn menace.”
“I still don’t understand how that is supposed to work, though,” said Treehugger. “How will sacrificing me save Earth from the Starborn?”
“Your sacrifice will set off a chain reaction which will de-power all superhumans on Earth,” said Pantalone. “And we know that it will work. We trust John Mann. He is a good man who has the best intentions of the planet at heart.”
Though Pantalone said that, Treehugger couldn’t help but doubt it. Everything she had seen from John Mann indicated that he was not a good man, whatever his intentions or plans were. She supposed it was possible that he wanted to save Earth—after all, if Earth was destroyed, he would die with it, along with all of his wealth and money—but something about Pantalone’s explanation didn’t make any sense to her. Perhaps it was just because she didn’t think that de-powering all superhumans on Earth would make the Starborn leave the planet alone. Even if they were coming to eliminate all superhumans, it was possible that the Starborn might still destroy Earth anyway just to be sure that superhumans would not somehow rise again.
Because of this doubt, Treehugger did not want to die. She knew that superheroes were always supposed to be willing to sacrifice themselves for the greater good or to save innocent lives, but Treehugger knew this was not that kind of situation. There was more to John Mann’s plan than met the eye and she was not going to let herself be sacrificed if she could help it.
To buy herself a little more time to figure out an escape plan, Treehugger looked up at Moretta and said, “Did you make the sound blast in the Academy auditorium?”
“She did,” said Arlecchino, nodding. “The point of that particular blast was to knock out as many people as possible in order to keep them from preventing Volto from murdering Strike. Obviously, it failed, but at least we scared a lot of people and probably did irreparable damage to Bolt’s reputation in the process, eh, Moretta?”
Moretta nodded. Although Moretta’s mask hid her mouth, Treehugger could just imagine the Venetian smiling underneath her mask. It made Treehugger feel disgusted, but there was nothing much she could do about it right now. All she could do was try to think of a way to escape. She’d rather wander the wastes of the Shadowlands forever than let these monsters sacrifice her for their own dubious plans.
“Where are we?” said Treehugger. “Are we still in the forest?”
“Indeed,” said Pantalone. “We are not far from the clearing where we kidnapped you. Look and see where we are.”
Treehugger tried to look, but with the way she lay on her back, it was almost impossible to see where she was, at least until Arlecchino dragged her to her feet and propped her upright. One of Arlecchino’s hands suddenly grabbed her neck, making it very clear what he would do to her if she tried to do anything to save herself.
By the light of Moretta’s portable lamp, Treehugger saw the entrance to what appeared to be an ancient underground tunnel. The entrance was made of old stone and looked even older than the various buildings and ruins that Treehugger had already seen in the Shadowlands. There were carvings and scratches on the jambs, but it was too dark for Treehugger to make out what they showed; besides, she suspected that most of them were worn away from years of exposure to the elements and thus probably meant nothing.
A deep sense of dread filled Treehugger when she looked at that entrance. It was like there was something hiding just beyond her sight, some kind of monster that would devour not just her body, but her soul as well. Like the rest of the Shadowlands, the ancient stone entrance gave off an aura of evil, the kind of evil you rarely encountered on Earth. Thus, the idea of heading down there for any reason whatsoever filled Treehugger with unspeakable feelings of pure terror, but with the ropes around her body, she was unable to run like she wanted.
Instead, all Treehugger could say was, “What is that?”
“The place where you will be sacrificed,” Pantalone said. “According to legends from certain occult sects on Earth, this was once a site of great religious importance to the people of the Shadowlands. More importantly, however, is the fact that the Starborn visited this place once and put some of their technology in here, technology that will de-power all superhumans and thus save Earth itself.”
“How do you know that?” said Treehugger. “Do you really believe every silly rumor and legend you hear?”
“Mr. Mann spent decades studying this stuff, girl,” said Arlecchino. “He’s the one who put together all of the various bits and pieces from the various mythologies and forbidden books of Earth into a coherent whole. It’s kind of wild, true, but the fact that the Shadowlands exist at all is proof of what he says. It wasn’t until recently that I started to believe him, if only because I’ve seen a lot of weird things since I started working for Mann that can’t be easily explained by normal logic and reason.”
“Besides, it isn’t like we won’t soon find out the truth for ourselves,” said Pantalone. “Of course, you won’t live long enough to see for yourself, but I’m sure that you superheroes are used to making sacrifices for the greater good that you may never live to see, right?”
Treehugger didn’t respond to that, if only because she knew that anything she said would not help her. Instead, she tried to focus on the leaves and branches around them, hoping to use the trees to distract the Venetians, if not defeat them outright. She would then run, working under the assumption that the Venetians would not be able to find her in the total darkness of the Shadowlands. Of course, that would mean she would risk running into whatever inhuman creatures lurked among the trees, but that would still be preferable to being sacrificed like a goat.
But before Treehugger could gain control of the plants, something slammed into the back of her head, shattering her concentration and nearly knocking her over before someone caught her (Arlecchino, most likely, based on how his hands felt) and pulled her upright.
“Arlecchino, you do remember that the sacrifice needs to be alive before we can kill her, right?” said Pantalone. “Punching her in the back of the head, while satisfying, could kill her or make her otherwise unsuitable to be sacrificed.”
“I know,” said Arlecchino. “But I could tell that she was trying to control the plants, like how she did back there against Moretta. I don’t want to give her a chance to escape, however slight it may be.”
“I see,” said Pantalone. “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s get her down to the chamber. She can’t control plants if she’s underground, after all.”
Suddenly, Arlecchino hauled Treehugger over his shoulder again. Despite her aching head, Treehugger tried to make him put her down, but with the ropes still firmly tied around her body, she was unable to do much more than wriggle awkwardly, which didn’t help her escape Arlecchino. She could only stare into the forest as the Venetians entered the tunnel one by one, hoping and praying that someone would save her, because she couldn’t save herself.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
The difference between the tunnel and the forest was obvious as soon as they crossed through the threshold. Whereas the forest area was at least partially open, with enough room for the four of them to stand without feeling cramped, the tunnel was too small and cramped, to the point where the Venetians had to walk single file. Treehugger and Arlecchino were in the
middle, while Pantalone was in the front and Moretta in the back. Moretta had given her lamp to Pantalone, which made it easier to see what the tunnel looked like and to see where they were going. Even so, the darkness of the tunnel seemed somehow even thicker than the darkness of the forest, with the light from the lamp just barely managing to dispel the shadows, like an old dam holding back a flood.
Treehugger almost wished that she couldn’t see the walls, however, because the images carved on their surface were every bit as ghastly as the worst horror movies. Scenes of creatures that looked vaguely human sacrificing their fellow creatures on burning pyres were depicted in gross, vivid detail, preserved by the lack of visitors to the tunnel. Other scenes showed battles between large armies of these creatures, while other scenes showed strange clouds with hands reaching toward the ground, snatching unsuspecting humanoids off the ground and carrying them away to who knows where. Those latter carvings, in particular, sent a sense of dread up Treehugger’s spine that she could not explain, as if she was looking at something that was truly evil and unnatural, something that should not exist but did.
If any of the Venetians felt the same way as Treehugger, they didn’t show it. However, Treehugger did notice that the three Venetians kept their gazes away from the walls; it was like they didn’t want to linger on them too long. Only Moretta showed any interest in the carvings, but even she didn’t focus on any one carving for more than a couple of seconds. There was a general sense of unease in this place, as if they had stepped foot into a place where they were not welcomed or even allowed, although they faced no obstacles as they descended deeper and deeper into the tunnel.
And descended they did, though the effect was only slight at first, barely noticeable unless you were paying attention, which Treehugger was, because she had nothing better to do. It eventually became clear to Treehugger that the tunnel had transformed into some kind of spiral stairs, forcing them to go even more slowly to avoid tripping or running into anything that was waiting just around the corner. The Venetians seemed more tense than usual, perhaps because the narrow, winding staircase meant that if there was anything awaiting them around one of the corners, they would have to be prepared for it, although Treehugger wasn’t very optimistic about their odds of success against whatever they found down here, given the situation they were in.