The Superhero's Return

by Lucas Flint

  “So it’s ego, then?” I said with a snort. “Yeah, I guess we have been making the G-Men look incompetent by how well we’ve handled a lot of threats, including a few the G-Men themselves made. Not surprised to hear that Cadmus is getting tired of being made a fool of. I’d probably feel the same way if I was him.”

  Phobia pulled the shroud back over Sean’s face. “It doesn’t really matter what Director Smith’s reasoning for keeping the existence of the Neo-Killer a secret. At this point, it’s only a matter of time before the Neo-Killer takes out a high profile target and begins attracting the wrong kind of attention. Better to hear about him from me rather than the media, which usually isn’t very careful about accurately reporting the facts on sensational cases.”

  “Do we know who this Neo-Killer guy is?” I said. “His real identity, I mean. Not his serial killer name.”

  “That’s the thing,” said Phobia. “We don’t know anything about him at all. He just appeared out of the blue one day three months ago and has been killing superhumans ever since. What we’ve been able to piece together from the little evidence that we do have is that he started somewhere in California, near the ruins of San Francisco, but other than that, we know virtually nothing about his background or real identity. For all intents and purposes, the Neo-Killer simply appeared out of nowhere one day and started killing supers because he can.”

  The mention of San Francisco made me feel a little uncomfortable. San Francisco was the only Earth city to have been destroyed during the second Pokacu invasion that happened last year. Millions of people died that day, but rebuilding efforts started up almost as soon as the Pokacu were defeated. As far as I knew, San Francisco was still under construction and the exact number of people who died in that attack was still not known. I was also aware that the INJ was playing a large role in the rebuilding efforts due to their based being in California, which was part of the reason why the INJ was a lot less active than the NHA at the moment.

  “Regardless of his origin, one thing is clear,” said Phobia, holding up one finger. “He hates superhumans, enough to go on a killing spree across the whole country. And a very successful one, at that, because he’s taken out quite a few powerful superhumans in his short criminal career.”

  “How long have you known about him?” I said.

  “Since Day One,” Phobia replied, “because his first victim was INJ member Paul Josef, codename Quicksand, who was killed while patrolling the streets of a small California town near San Francisco, which is home to a lot of San Francisco refugees, which naturally resulted in a spike in crime. We initially thought that that the Neo-Killer was targeting G-Men agents, but then he killed his second victim—a smalltime criminal known as Freak Out—in Arizona, followed by the murder of independent superhero Flatfoot in New Mexico the following week, and we realized that we were dealing with a serial killer who targets superhumans in general, regardless of what organization they belong to.”

  “But how do you know this is the same killer if you haven’t caught him yet?” I said.

  “Because he always kills his victims the same way,” said Phobia. “First, he sprays them with powerless gas, usually sneaking up on them when they are alone and spraying them when they least expect it. Then he shoots them either in the head or the heart and leaves the body—which is always spotless, by the way, so we figure he probably wears gloves to avoid leaving fingerprints—to be found by other people. He never leaves a calling card or any way to identify him, which means he’s probably trying to remain under the radar.”

  “Not until now,” said Brains. “Bolt, do you remember that letter found on Earth King’s desk?”

  “The one that said I’m next?” I said. “Yeah, I remember. What about it?”

  “That was written by the Neo-Killer,” said Phobia, folding his arms in front of his chest. “The reason I am in Showdown today is because I have managed to track the Neo-Killer down to this city. After examining the evidence, I have come to the conclusion that the Neo-Killer is the murderer of Earth King and Sean Meyer, and that his next target is you, Bolt.”

  I put my hand on my chest. “Me? Why me? What did I ever do to hurt him?”

  “Nothing,” said Phobia simply. “As far as we can tell, the Neo-Killer is driven by bigotry against superhumans. That’s why he attacks heroes and villains alike because, in his eyes, they are all the same. He probably just hates you because you are a fairly well-known superhuman.”

  “But that doesn’t make sense,” I said. “You yourself said that the Neo-Killer is trying to stay under the radar. If he kills me, wouldn’t that raise his profile and make him famous?”

  Phobia shrugged. “All I know is that he left that note threatening your life. Perhaps he doesn’t care anymore. Despite following this case for a couple of months, I still don’t quite understand the Neo-Killer’s motives.”

  I looked at Sean’s shrouded corpse. “What about Sean here? Why would he kill Sean?”

  “His body was found just a few short hours after Earth King’s death,” said Phobia. “If I had to guess, I would say that the Neo-Killer was frustrated that he couldn’t kill you at the bakery, so he took it out on Sean here. It would explain all the blood we found in Sean’s apartment.”

  I cringed, briefly imagining Sean’s corpse lying on the floor of some apartment somewhere, the walls covered in his own blood. “He must be absolutely insane, then.”

  “No doubt about it,” Phobia agreed. He adjusted his glasses. “The Neo-Killer has killed teenage and adult superhumans alike. I imagine he doesn’t care how old you are, only that you are a superhuman and thus need to be killed.”

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Brains and Vanish share a worried look. No doubt they were thinking about their own son, Joey, who had not manifested his own powers yet. It was possible that Joey might not be a superhuman—genetics was weird like that—but given how both of his parents were superhumans, the odds were high that Joey would start manifesting superpowers of his own when he reached his teenage years. Even without Brains’ telepathy, I could tell they were now worried that the Neo-Killer might come after their son at some point.

  “Currently, a couple of my assistants are on the streets looking for information on the Neo-Killer’s current location,” Phobia continued. “This is the closest we’ve ever gotten to capturing the Neo-Killer, so we’ve set up our own office downtown to be our base of operations while we search for him. We think he is still somewhere in the city because he didn’t kill you, which means he will probably try to kill you again when you least expect it.”

  “We’ve offered Phobia our full cooperation as he and his assistants search for the Neo-Killer,” said Brains. “That’s why Phobia is in the Braindome today. We plan to work alongside him very closely until the Neo-Killer is captured.”

  “I see,” I said. I looked at Phobia again. “Does the Neo-Killer have any superpowers that you know of?”

  Phobia shook his head. “We don’t know what if any, powers he has. Given his obvious hatred of superhumans and his frequent use of powerless gas, it’s possible he might not have any powers at all, but may be an ordinary human who hates us.”

  “I didn’t think normal humans hated us enough to want to kill us,” I said uneasily.

  “Most don’t,” said Phobia. “Most normal humans don’t harbor prejudice against superhumans. However, there is definitely a loud minority of normal humans who have made it their life’s mission to treat us with the grossest bigotry imaginable. And there have been cases of normal humans killing superhumans before, especially over the last year with the explosion of powerless gas in the black market.”

  I frowned. Hearing all this talk about ordinary humans who hated superhumans reminded me of my old friend, Tara Reynolds, who I had not spoken to in quite some time. She was an ordinary human who hated and distrusted superhumans thanks to the murder of her father at the hands of one. Tara softened her stance on superhumans after getting to know me, but even when she ha
ted superhumans, I never thought she’d murder them. I wondered how Tara was doing nowadays. Maybe I should call her next time I get a moment.

  “So, our primary objective here in Showdown is to arrest the Neo-Killer for his crimes,” Phobia continued. “To that end, we will work with the Braindome. And with any luck, we should capture the Neo-Killer very soon, because it is only a matter of time before he comes after you again, Bolt.”

  I folded my arms in front of my chest. “I’m not afraid of any serial killer, Neo or otherwise, but I thought you were going to offer me a spot in the Superhuman Relocation Project, like the last time a supervillain came after me and my family.”

  Phobia adjusted his glasses. “If we moved you into the Compound under the Atlantic, it would keep you safe from the Neo-Killer, true, but it would also make it harder for us to lure him out into the open. We need you to stay in Showdown as bait, for want of a better word.”

  “Bait?” I repeated. “I’m not bait. And I’m certainly not going to be bait for you guys. Knew you had something up your sleeve.”

  Phobia smiled. “Weren’t you just saying that you aren’t afraid of the Neo-Killer? I take that to mean you have no plans to leave the city anyway. If so, then what is the problem? The Neo-Killer will come after you regardless. Why should we not take advantage of that in order to arrest him?”

  I opened my mouth to argue, but then thought about it and realized, with a jolt, that Phobia’s logic was pretty ironclad. As much as I distrusted the G-Men, it might not be such a bad thing to have them around with a superhuman serial killer on the loose. Especially if the Neo-Killer was actually targeting me, which seemed like a fact, given the note he left on Earth King’s desk.

  Still, there seemed to be something wrong with a government employee telling me, one of the citizens he was supposed to protect, that he was going to use me as bait to lure out a serial killer who the government had failed to capture or stop so far. Guess I shouldn’t expect better from the G-Men.

  “All right,” I said. “Is that all you needed to talk with us about or—”

  “That’s all for now,” said Phobia. He looked down at Sean’s corpse again and sighed. “I really hope that the next corpse I see under this shroud isn’t yours, Bolt. I know you probably don’t believe me, but it’s the truth. I can’t stand the Neo-Killer and want to see him brought to justice for his horrifying crimes.”

  I was taken aback by the genuine anger in Phobia’s voice. Combined with his sincere words earlier and I was starting to realize that Phobia might very well be one of the few good G-Men in that organization, if not the only good one. Then again, he did just admit to wanting to use me as bait to capture a serial killer, so again, I couldn’t expect too much from these people.

  Phobia readjusted his glasses once again and looked at Brains. “Well, Brains, I think it is time for me to leave. I will call you again sometime tomorrow morning so we can go over the details of Earth King’s murder in more depth. For now, I would suggest keeping an eye on Bolt and doubling up on the Braindome’s security. The Neo-Killer might not be a superhuman, but it would be foolish to underestimate him.”

  With that, Phobia walked out of the crime lab, leaving the three of us standing around Sean’s body, an awkward silence falling over us as we thought about Phobia’s warning.

  And for the first time in a long while, I felt truly afraid. I didn’t need Phobia to tell me about how tough the Neo-Killer was, because I already had experience fighting him in the bakery last night … a fight I had lost.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  As soon as Phobia left the room, Brains turned toward me and said, “Where were you this morning?”

  “Huh?” I said, snapping out of my thoughts and looking at Brains. “What did you say?”

  “I said, where were you this morning?” said Brains. “When I went to your room to get you when Phobia showed up, your bed was empty and no one could find you in the Braindome. We seriously thought you might have been killed by the Neo-Killer until we called you and you answered your earcoms.”

  Dang it. I had forgotten all about sneaking out to Vault B without Brains’ permission. Phobia’s news about the Neo-Killer had pushed those thoughts out of my brain completely. And now I was remembering my original plan to go in and out of Vault B before Brains and Vanish got up and noticed me missing. Just my luck that I would be caught flatfooted like this.

  “I …” I struggled to think up an excuse. “I—”

  “We were visiting Vault B earlier,” said Valerie in our earcoms all of a sudden. “It is located in rural upstate New York, well away from any towns or cities.”

  “What?” said Brains. “Bolt, is this true? Did you really go to Vault B this morning by yourself?”

  I held up my hands. “Listen, Brains, I can explain—”

  “No, you can’t,” said Brains, shaking his head. “You once again disobeyed my orders, and not even a day after the first time, either. And this time, you could have gotten yourself killed.”

  “I was perfectly safe the entire time,” I said, folding my arms in front of my chest again.

  “Except for the Security Spider,” Valerie added. “That almost killed you.”

  “Val, you are not helping right now,” I said under my breath.

  “I don’t know what a Security Spider is, but it doesn’t sound like a good thing,” said Brains. “In any case, you should have at least told us where you were going. We might not be your parents, but you’re under our authority now and we are responsible for you and your safety.”

  “I know that,” I said. “It’s just—”

  “No, you don’t know that,” Brains interrupted me. “Otherwise you would have listened to me. As it is, you went off and did your own thing against my wishes. That is insubordination, which we can’t have, especially with the Neo-Killer running around coming for you.”

  I bit my lower lip. Once again, I found it hard to argue with Brains’ point. And it wasn’t like he was wrong. Freya very nearly killed me back there in Vault B. Had Valerie not stepped in and saved me, I wouldn’t even be having this conversation with Brains at all. Now that I thought about it, sometimes it sure did seem like the only reason I survived half the crud I did was because of luck or because someone helped me.

  “Okay, so I messed up,” I said, holding up my hands. “I won’t do that again, though I’m not sure what you are going to do to me. Ground me again?”

  Brains held out his hand. “Give me your Teleportation Buckle. That’s what you used to escape, right? We’ll confiscate it from you until the Neo-Killer is captured.”

  I put my hands on the Buckle but did not turn it. “My Teleportation Buckle? But this belonged to my Dad.”

  “I am aware of that, but like I said, you used it to defy my orders the first time,” said Brains. “Therefore, I am going to take it away from you until this situation is over.”

  “But what if I need it to escape the Neo-Killer at some point?” I said. I nodded at Vanish. “I don’t have teleportation powers like Vanish here. If he corners me and hits me with powerless gas—”

  “I already have that figured out,” said Brains. “Ever heard of something called powerless training?”

  I thought hard about Brains’ question for a second. “A long time ago, yes, but I couldn’t tell you what it is, exactly.”

  “It’s a type of training that some superhumans take to become better fighters,” Vanish said suddenly. She was decidedly not looking at Sean’s shrouded corpse, her eyes fixed on me. “Essentially, you learn how to fight without powers.”

  I frowned. “I know how to throw a punch, even without my super strength.”

  “But do you know how to fight?” said Brains. He smiled wryly. “The reality is that a lot of superhumans are lazy. We rely on our powers to get us out of tight situations, which is fine and all, but it tends to leave us almost useless if our powers are negated or we can’t use them for some reason.”

  “It’s become especially bad
with the increasing popularity of powerless gas,” Vanish added. She leaned forward and whispered, “That’s one of the dirty secrets you might not read on Neo Ranks or Neo News. Criminals—from petty thieves to drug lords—are arming themselves with powerless gas weapons. It’s becoming more and more dangerous on the streets to be a superhuman of any sort. Even supervillains aren’t immune from this, because a lot of the old-fashioned crime bosses who they displaced are on the rise again thanks to the powerless gas they’ve gotten their hands on.”

  “But you know this already,” said Brains to me. “After all, you were nearly killed by the Neo-Killer himself last night.”

  I nodded. After a month in Showdown helping Brains and Vanish crack down on crime, I knew that every word they said was true, although even I hadn’t realized how bad it was getting out there. More than once over the last month, I wondered if we really thwarted the Pokacu at all or if their defeat had served only to empower the bad guys on our own planet.

  “Problem is, lots of superhumans are still stuck in the past, mentally speaking,” said Brains. He rubbed the side of his head. “They still think that superhumans are more or less invincible, that we just have to worry about petty crooks with bad aim and even worst fighting skills. Powerless gas has changed that completely, which is why powerless training is vital and will become increasingly so well into the future.”

  “I see,” I said, “but won’t we run out of powerless gas eventually? I mean, I know that a lot of Pokacu ships crashed all over the planet, but it has to be used up at some point, doesn’t it?”

  Brains and Vanish exchanged significant looks that I didn’t like at all. They seemed to be talking to each other, which wasn’t entirely unrealistic because Brains was a telepath and he could easily speak to his wife mentally if he had to.

  “In theory, yes,” said Brains hesitatingly, “in practice … well, we’ve seen some troubling evidence that criminals are either manufacturing their own powerless gas or buying it from someone else.”