Rune laughed, a deep and hearty sound. “I’m a man, of course, like anybody else.”
“Come on. You’re about as much of an ordinary guy as Alpha Prime.”
“Alright,” he said, still chuckling. “After everything you’ve been through, you deserve a better answer than that. I’m an Incarnate.”
“What’s that?”
“The physical embodiment of certain…powers, for lack of a better term.”
“And you can really warp reality?”
“I’m not sure ‘warp’ describes it properly, but yes, I can do that and more.”
“Like what?”
Rune laughed again. “It would be a lot easier to list the things that I can’t do than all those I can.”
From anyone else, it would have sounded like bragging, but from Rune it merely denoted simple fact – like saying that two plus two equals four.
“So we really are outside of space and time?” I asked.
“At the moment, but it’s not unprecedented,” he replied. “For instance, you’ve probably heard stories of people who maybe got lost in the woods, met up with some strangers or spent the night in a strange place, and when they returned home found that something like a hundred years had passed.”
I nodded. “Rip Van Winkle.”
“Exactly,” he said. “Although Rip was supposedly gone for only twenty years and actually grew older, which – being outside of time – you actually wouldn’t expect.”
“So if you don’t age, you could stay in a place like this forever?”
“Yes. Time doesn’t progress for you in here. Haven’t you noticed that since you arrived you haven’t been hungry, thirsty, or anything like that? Aside from something catastrophic happening to you physically – like being speared in the side with a staff – you could live in here indefinitely.”
“Wait a minute!” I said in sudden alarm, remembering that Proteus’ watch had stopped working (and now understanding why). “How long have I been here – compared to the people back home?”
Rune seemed to take a second to do some mental calculations before responding. “About four days.”
“Four days! I didn’t think it had even been twenty-four hours!”
“Not a big deal. When we go back, I can actually return you to any point in time after you left to come here, although I’d recommend insertion at the proper juncture.”
That shocked me a little, and it must have shown on my face, because he went on.
“Look,” Rune said, “don’t spend a lot of time thinking about all this stuff. Being beyond space, outside of time, and so on – people have literally gone crazy trying to figure it all out.”
His words brought to mind the conversation between Diabolist Mage and the White Wyrm, when the latter was staring out of a window into the “void,” as he put it – and risking madness by doing so.
Recalling that scene, it seemed to me that Rune really was well-versed with this mystical subject matter. Maybe he really was power incarnate, but that raised another question.
“If you’re so powerful, how’d you end up stuck in a box with the Diabolist sucking off your power like a leech?” I asked.
Rune sighed. “There are a number of arcane relics – objects of great power – that have been lost over the years, and for the most part I’m happy to let them stay that way. Every now and then, though, one gets found, and at that point I have to investigate.”
“And that’s what happened here?”
“In essence. The White Wyrm found an artifact that could siphon power from one object and transfer it to another.”
“The Kroten Yoso Va,” I said.
“Yes. However, it only works for those well-versed in mysticism, so he had to find a magician to wield it for him – preferably one he could control.”
“Yeah, that worked out well for him. The Diabolist ended up giving him a beatdown in his own home.”
“At first blush, though, Diabolist Mage would have seemed ideal. He had the requisite knowledge but limited ability, and was not particularly strong-willed.”
“Well, that changed in a hurry.”
“Power corrupts, as they say. Anyway, the short version of what happened is that I walked into a trap. Somehow, the White Wyrm knew that I was an Incarnate, and was aware that I would investigate the discovery of the Kroten Yoso Va. Once I showed up, the Diabolist used it to overpower me. Then they tossed me in that box, kept me comatose, and used my power to get the party started. Fortunately, Diabolist Mage was only able to get a portion of my power at any point in time, and the little bit he got, he had trouble controlling.”
“But if you’re as powerful as you say, I don’t see how they ever got the jump on you.”
“You don’t understand,” he said, shaking his head. “The Kroten Yoso Va was specifically created to keep Incarnates in check. It’s a failsafe in case we ever get out of control, abuse the power entrusted to us. We have no defense against it.”
Of course. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. I guess if an Incarnate ever decided he’d look good wearing a King-of-the Universe crown, it would be nice to have a way to knock him down to size. Of course, that beget an entirely new line of questions concerning, among other things, who gave the Incarnates their power, but that could wait for another day. Instead, something Rune had casually mentioned earlier sprang to the forefront of my brain.
“Hey,” I said, “you said something before about me deserving an answer after everything I’ve been through. How do you know what I’ve been through?”
“That’s easy,” he answered. “The same way I know everything that’s been going on around here. I saw it.”
Chapter 41
Apparently, in addition to numerous other abilities, Rune also has the power of astral projection. In short, his spirit (or soul, or essence, or whatever you want to call it) was able to leave his body and travel elsewhere on its own. Thus, while he was physically lying comatose in a box, his astral body had been free to move about the castle at will. In that way, he had become privy to the bad guys’ entire plan.
I was a little skeptical at first, but then he gave me a detailed list of almost everything I’d done since arriving.
“But if you could see everything that was going on,” I said after finally being convinced, “why didn’t you try to get a message to me?”
Rune shook his head. “It doesn’t work like that. It’s not like you when you phase; other people can’t see or hear me in my astral form.”
“So you can’t communicate at all?”
He held up a hand and waffled it from side to side. “Yes and no. I can’t communicate directly, but if I focus I can, among other things, suggest ideas – nudge thoughts in a certain direction.”
“Is that what you did with me?”
“Yes. The plan regarding the armory, when you were paralyzed by Gorgon Son, and a few other things.”
I thought back to those times mentioned, remembering that I’d felt a little chill on each occasion when an idea occurred to me. I also recalled that same feeling with respect to several other instances.
“Wait a second,” I said. “Were you also doing that those times when I was trying to decide whether it was time to report back to HQ?”
“Yes. I focused on trying to get you to stay here. You didn’t know it then, but you couldn’t have teleported back anyway.”
“Yeah, I figured it out at the end, but what was the point of keeping me here prior to that?”
Rune let out a deep breath. “I didn’t know if you could handle it. Not being able to teleport, that is.”
I shook my head in confusion. “You lost me.”
“As a super, you know that your powers are an integral part of your being, a basic element of who you are.”
I nodded, knowing exactly what he was talking about. For a super, your powers are as much a part of you as your arms and legs; losing them is like being maimed.
“Bearing that in mind,” Rune
continued, “I thought that if you discovered the severe limitations to your teleportation power, it might damage you in some way – cripple your psyche or maybe send you into emotional shock – and I needed you sound and in your right mind. You were the only thing standing between the bad guys and total chaos.
“In short, I put a lot of effort into directing your mind away from certain thoughts about teleportation – especially teleporting anything anywhere outside these castle walls.”
Listening to him, I suddenly remembered several recent occasions (like my skirmishes at the armories) when some degree of teleportation might have been the obvious solution to a problem, but it never really occurred to me. Apparently that was Rune’s doing.
I frowned as a new question popped into my brain. “I just remembered that I came here as Proteus and stuck to that persona most of the time I was here. How’d you even know that I was me?”
“Oddly enough,” he said, “on the astral plane, I see you as you – your real self.”
I opened my mouth to ask another question and Rune gave a frustrated groan, rubbing his eyes with two fingertips.
“Dude,” he said, “when I said that you must have a million questions, I didn’t literally think that you had a million questions.”
Undeterred by Rune’s growing impatience, I continued trying to get information about things that had been bothering me.
“If I hadn’t freed you,” I said, “do you think we’d have been able to stop the White Wyrm and Diabolist Mage?”
Rune seemed to dwell on the subject for a moment before responding. “I don’t know. Those maces that they attacked you guys with at the overpass were supposed to be strong enough to take out Alpha Prime. When they failed, Proteus was sent in to get relics from my quarters that would increase the power of the Diabolist and – ultimately – their weapons.”
I lowered my head shamefully as I remembered who had actually come back and hand-delivered those relics to the Diabolist.
“Likewise,” Rune continued, “with that group that Diabolist Mage transferred to the wrong spot. They were intending to attack a museum that had several mystical items on display that would have enhanced their abilities even more. Considering all that, I guess the short answer to your question is that if they had gotten all those items and subsequently increased the power of their weapons, they may have been in a position to defeat Alpha Prime and the rest of the League.”
That was a disturbing thought, to say the least. It seemed that we’d been lucky rather than good with respect to stopping our foes.
“Last question – for now,” I said, holding up my still-burned hands. “Do you think you can heal this?”
“Child’s play,” Rune said.
He leaned the head of the staff – which had caused the injuries in question – towards my hands. Knowing what the staff had done before, I was tempted to tell him to forget it, but decided to hold fast. The next second, the staff touched my hands, and the damage was undone. My hands were whole again.
“There you go,” Rune said. “Good as new. And I also removed that love spell from you.”
Love spell???
Chapter 42
The wrap-up of our little adventure was surprisingly uneventful from my perspective, as Rune did all of the heavy lifting. He brought the White Wyrm’s castle back into what I had designated the “normal” universe. He magically transported the prisoners to appropriate holding facilities: supers to nullifier cells and non-powered individuals to ordinary lockup. Even the Diabolist – despite Rune’s insinuation that he would torture the man for a century – was going to get a fair trial.
It would have been a fairy-tale ending of sorts, if not for one disturbing revelation: the White Wyrm had escaped. Like everyone else, he had been banished by Rune to the castle’s oubliette, but when the time came to haul the prisoners out, he was gone.
“That guy is slicker than greased glass on an icy mountaintop,” Rune had commented upon making the discovery. Of course, his escape probably shouldn’t have come as a surprise. It was his own dungeon he’d been in after all, so he’d probably known of a secret exit.
I was contemplating all this as I sat on a stool in Mouse’s lab, telling him everything that had happened. BT wasn’t there so it was just the two of us, but I could fill her in later.
As Rune had said, four days had elapsed since I’d left pretending to be Proteus. I suppose since it was a school day I should have been in class, but no one had seen fit to press me about it. (I think there was an assumption that I needed a break after the experience I’d just had.)
“Well,” Mouse said as I finished speaking, “I’m glad you made it back safely. All the while you were gone I had two sets of supers breathing down my neck.”
“Two?” I repeated, surprised.
“Yes. First, I had to let your mother and grandfather know what happened to you. They seemed to take it in stride, but your grandfather looked like he wanted to lobotomize me with a rusty nail.”
“That sounds like Gramps.”
“Your old man was hardly any better. Called me an irresponsible egghead and flew off completely ticked. I think he finally got it all out of his system by smashing an asteroid or something.”
I laughed. “What about Electra? She wasn’t worried?”
“I think she was more upset that you left without saying goodbye, so I’m in the clear on that one. You’ll have to smooth things over with her yourself.”
Hmmm… That was a bridge I’d cross when I came to it. However, the thought of my girlfriend did bring to mind the fact that I was supposed to talk to Mouse about Vixen’s issues. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem like the appropriate time to bring it up, and there were other things I needed to discuss at the moment.
“What happened to Proteus?” I asked. “Did you guys ever get anything useful from him?”
“Esper rooted around in his head and was finally able to calm him down enough to extract some info. It’s basically the same thing you told us with respect to why he was here – Rune’s relics, the weapons they were trying to enhance, etc.”
“Guess it’s a good thing you gave me that beacon,” I said.
“True,” Mouse said with a nod. “It helped us keep that assault team from getting anything useful from the museum. Of course, when they popped up, we didn’t know exactly where they were headed, but after awhile we could extrapolate it based on their movements. Even then, we kind of held back because we thought you were with them. Then Esper scanned them and said you weren’t there, which I figured meant you’d used the beacon to give us a heads-up.”
“Well, I’m just happy that it’s all over.” I got up, stretched, and prepared to leave.
“Hey, Jim,” Mouse said. “You did great, as always. Keep it up.”
I thanked him, and then teleported home. Mouse had already told Mom and Gramps (everyone, in fact) that I was back, so they’d been anxiously expecting me.
Mom, as expected, gave me a hug the minute she saw me. Gramps just stood there looking rather stoic, but empathically I could feel his excitement and relief. Oddly enough, I felt the same; I hadn’t realized how much comfort I got just from being around my family.
I extracted myself from my mom’s embrace, then telepathically brought them up to speed on what had happened. My mom mentally gasped once or twice, but otherwise made no comment.
Afterwards, I suddenly felt exhausted and headed upstairs to take a nap, uncharacteristically taking the stairs instead of teleporting.
Once in my room, I kicked off my shoes, lay down on the bed, and found myself asleep within minutes.
*****
I woke up a few hours later feeling famished. Despite my absence for the past few days, Mom had continued cooking dinner for three each evening, so there were a fair amount of leftovers in the refrigerator. Switching into super speed, I devoured them in less than a minute and then drank half a gallon of water.
It was early evening at that point, so I decided, uncharact
eristically, to call Alpha Prime. He was my father, after all, and he’d apparently been worried about me. Needless to say, he was overjoyed to hear from me, mostly because the phone conversation seemed to mark a change in our relationship: it was the first time I’d ever made an unsolicited call to him. On every other occasion that I had dialed his number, it had been because I was returning a phone call from him. Never before had I initiated such a call. Thankfully, he didn’t dwell on the subject for long; he just told me that I’d done well and he was proud of me (which inexplicably made me happy, since I’d decided long ago that I didn’t care about having his approval). We agreed to talk more later and hung up.
Next, I called Electra. Based on what Mouse had said, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but he had apparently exaggerated her irritation with me.
“Mouse said I was upset with you?” she asked, laughing. “And you believed him?”
It turned out she was more worried than agitated by my absence. I asked if I could come see her but was rebuffed.
“Just stay home and get some rest,” she said. “We’ll catch up tomorrow after school at Jackman’s.”
And with that (and a quick kissing sound), she hung up. In all honesty, I was a little disappointed that she wasn’t a little more flustered with me (or demanding that I come see her), but it did give me an opportunity to address some other issues.
Now that I’d had some time to unwind and relax, a few other questions had occurred to me, and at the moment, there was really only one place to get the necessary answers. Ergo, I teleported to Alpha League HQ, right outside Rune’s room.
The door was open when I arrived.
“Come on in,” I heard Rune say from inside. “I’ve been expecting you.”
I hesitated a moment, remembering Mouse’s warning that Rune’s room was protected by magic, but then accepted the invitation and entered. (I was only slightly surprised when the door closed behind me of its own accord.)
The first thing that struck me was how clean and orderly everything was. For some reason, I had garnered the impression that Rune’s quarters were going to look like a hurricane had struck, with trinkets, baubles, and whatnot everywhere. Instead, although there were a few shelves containing curios, the place was exceptionally neat. In a corner I saw the Diabolist’s staff, which Rune had obviously confiscated and added to his collection.
The Kid Sensation Series Box Set Page 60