Strike 3: The Returning Sunrise (30 page)

In the control booth in the Ruffalo Rock Castle airplane hangar, Scatterbolt watched his monitor as Rigel soared over the burning Boston Common. In the corner of the screen, the little robot could see Orion, with his face singed and burnt, as he fired his red-tipped arrows at the unstoppable super-villain. As Orion yelled out in pain and clenched his chest, dropping his arrows as he hunched over, Scatterbolt shook his head and turned away, sick to his stomach.

“Scatterbolt, you have to show us what is happening,” Jennifer said, standing at the entrance of the control booth. “We have to know.”

Chad was pacing back and forth in front of the giant portal. “They should be back by now. Something should have happened. They should have won by now.”

Scatterbolt watched the screen. “I can’t...you shouldn’t see this. You shouldn’t—you just have to trust me that everything is fine.”

Jennifer stepped into the control booth. “Scatterbolt, you know everything isn’t fine. You know that. I can tell. Everyone, all of our friends, they need our help.”

The robot turned to her. “But what could we do, Jen? Orion told me to stay here with you guys, to protect you guys. That’s what I have to do. I have to protect you.”

“I know, Scatterbolt, and you’ve been doing a great job. But now we have to protect them. They are the ones that need help now.”

“But what can we do?” Scatterbolt turned back to the screen. “Rigel is—I’ve never seen him like this before. If all those heroes can’t take him down, what could we possibly do?”

“It’s not about Rigel, Scatterbolt. It’s about the Daybreaker. The other Tobin. I know it is. This has always been about the other Tobin. He’s the key to all of this.”

“What do you mean?” Scatterbolt asked.

She kneeled down next to him. “You know Tobin almost as well as I do. And you know Tobin could never be capable of all of this. He can’t be. No matter what, he’s still Tobin. He’s not capable of hurting people like this.”

“But…he is, Jennifer. I saw him with my own eyes. The Daybreaker—he’s different than Tobin. He’s not—Tobin wouldn’t do the things he’s done.”

“But that’s exactly my point. He’s been lied to, he’s been tricked. He’s been told horrible lies that aren’t true. And he needs to know that.” She looked to the floor, shaking her head. “He’s done terrible things. I know that, Scatterbolt. But he’s still Tobin. Our Tobin. Underneath the armor, underneath all the lies he’s been told, he’s still Tobin.”

Scatterbolt thought it over, watching the screen. “So what do you wanna do?”

“I have to talk to him.”

Scatterbolt laughed. “No. No way.”

“Yes. It’s the only way, Scatterbolt. I’ve known that from the very beginning, since you and Orion first told us what was going on. Someone he knows has to talk to him. To tell him the truth, to show him what’s been happening.”

Scatterbolt squinted, debating the ludicrous suggestion. “We can’t—how could—we
can’t
talk to him, Jen. He’ll kill us. He’ll kill you. I’ve seen him. He even tried to kill our Tobin, that’s how confused he is.”

Jennifer shook her head. “He won’t hurt me. I have to believe that. He won’t hurt me, no matter what.” Still kneeling next to Scatterbolt, she reached out and grabbed his hand. “Please, Scatterbolt. You have to help me try and talk to him. I can’t let all this happen without one of us talking to him. I know…I know...”

Jennifer grew upset. She looked to the ground, trying not to cry. She had been putting it out of her mind as much as she could that the Daybreaker was Tobin—that this person in so much pain and suffering was the same boy who had been her best friend since she was twelve—but she couldn’t ignore it any longer.

“He’s still Tobin,” she said, tears running down her cheeks. “He’s still Tobin, Scatterbolt.”

The little robot watched her cry. Then, he looked to the portal in the middle of the hangar, and let out an annoyed sigh.

“Tobin always told me it was hard to say no to a pretty girl,” he said with a grumble.

Jennifer laughed, wiping away her tears. “Does that mean you’ll help me?”

“Yes. But I want you to know this is gonna be harder, and scarier, than you could ever imagine.” The robot turned around and whistled. “Keplar Junior?”

The baby trigulsaur was behind Scatterbolt, sitting in the corner, chewing on a bremshaw bone. At the sound of Scatterbolt’s whistle, he eagerly looked up, his tongue wagging.

“C’mon, boy,” Scatterbolt said, hopping off his chair and motioning to the exit of the control room. “We’re heading in.”

Keplar Junior jumped up and scampered after Scatterbolt, following him out of the room and into the hangar.     

“What are we going to do when we get to Earth?” Jennifer asked.

“You’ll follow me. And stay close. And we’ll never mention any of this to Orion. Ever. Because if we do, it won’t be the Daybreaker we have to worry about.”

Climbing up onto a chair, Scatterbolt peered over the top of one of Wakefield’s workbenches. Scanning the contents, he saw what he was looking for: one of Keplar’s laser blasters.

After putting the chrome, wide-barreled blaster into a satchel and tossing it over his shoulder, Scatterbolt turned to Chad, who was still pacing in front of the red, swirling portal in the middle of the hangar.

“Chad, you coming?” the robot asked.

Chad turned to him, surprised. “Where?”

“To Earth. We’re joining the fight.”

Chad looked to the portal, then back to Scatterbolt. “We’re doing what now?”

To the east of Boston Common, where Tobin and the rest of the heroes had first emerged over three hours ago, the giant, swirling portal once again reappeared, dropping off a group of passengers from Capricious. Only this time, it wasn’t Tobin, or the rebels, or the animal warriors, or Junior in his mech suit. This time, it was Scatterbolt, Jennifer, Chad, and Keplar Junior.

From where the group was standing, a few hundred feet away from Boston Common, they could see the results of the battle. The trees of the park were either set ablaze or burnt down to ashes, and a few of the more powerful superheroes and villains were still fighting it out, exchanging devastating punches and bright, exploding energy blasts. Above it all, at the opposite end of the park from the skyscraper, Rigel hovered, engulfed in blue flames and watching the destruction.

“My god,” Jennifer said, the glow of the fires lighting up her face.

“How did this happen?” Chad asked quietly. “How has anyone survived this?”

“Look, there.” Scatterbolt pointed to Rigel in the sky. “Rigel is at the other end of the Common. That will give us time to get to the skyscraper.”

“How?” Chad asked. “How will we get there without anyone seeing?”

Scatterbolt flipped open a silver panel on his arm. Instantly, a holographic map of Boston Common appeared, floating above his wrist.

“Luckily, seeing as how I’m a robot and all, I’ve got a pretty good
GPS
.”

A little route was then drawn on the map, marked in red dots. The route traveled along a street outside of Boston Common, avoiding the battle.

“C’mon,” Scatterbolt said. “We’re going around Boston Common where we’ll be safe, and then we’ll head into the Trident by the back.”

***

Three minutes later, the group was walking down a quiet, deserted Harrison street to the south of the park. There wasn’t a person anywhere to be seen—only empty parked cars and darkened storefronts—but to their right, the group could still hear the dull sounds of battle and see the glow of fire above the Common.

Scatterbolt and Keplar Junior led the way, with the little robot keeping a close eye on all street corners and alleyways, while Jennifer and Chad followed nervously behind, staying close by one another in the eerily still city. All was quiet and nobody spoke, until the group came upon the smoking, burnt carcass of a Rytonian Rebel, lying on his stomach.

“My god, he ended up all the way over here?” Chad said, his voice tight. “How did he end up here? We’re so far from the battle.”

“Is that a Rytonian Rebel?” Jennifer asked.

Chad grasped at his stomach, hunching over. “Oh my god, I’m gonna be sick.”

“C’mon, guys,” Scatterbolt said, in front of the others. “Don’t look and keep moving. We aren’t that far from—hold on. Wait.”

Scatterbolt held up his hand. Jennifer and Chad stopped behind him.

“What, what is it?” Chad asked.

“Shhh,” Scatterbolt said, holding a finger to his mouth. Then, using his other hand, he pointed at the street in front of them.

Ahead of the group, about a hundred feet away, a Hooded Gore was rummaging through a trashcan on the sidewalk, flinging garbage to the ground with its clawed, vulture-like hands. As it hung over the edge of the can with its feet in the air, the demon was mumbling to itself.

Then, suddenly, as Scatterbolt stepped forward, the Gore stopped searching through the can and looked up. It slowly turned to Scatterbolt. Its red eyes were glowing in its hood.

After a long, sharp hiss from its snout, the Gore charged at Scatterbolt, in a rage. As it neared the group, with its claws raised, Chad screamed and hid behind Scatterbolt, while Jennifer cringed and looked away.

Calmly, Scatterbolt raised his hand. When the Gore was only seconds away from pouncing on him, the robot fired a glob of black oil from his palm. The sticky gunk hit the Gore and sent it flying backward, where it tumbled onto the pavement and eventually stuck there, covered in the black oil from head to clawed-toe.

Walking quickly toward the ensnared Gore, Scatterbolt continued firing his globs of oil, until the demon was completely immobile underneath a big pile of black gunk. With one last shot, Scatterbolt hit the Gore in the mouth, ending its ear-splitting screeching.

When the street was once again silent, Jennifer opened her eyes and looked back to the Gore. It now looked like a featureless, five-foot-tall growth on the sidewalk, slightly moving from side-to-side underneath the tar.

After walking up to the sticky mound, Scatterbolt kicked it with his toe, making sure the Gore was trapped.

“Nasty little guys, aren’t they?” the robot said. “Okay, let’s keep moving. We better make this quick. There might be more of them.”

Chad turned to Jennifer. “More of them? Did he say more of them?”

***

Outside, at the front of the skyscraper, the battle was surprisingly quiet. As Tobin and Orion crouched behind a stonewall, hoping for a shot at Rigel the next time the giant made a pass overhead, the boy peered out over the top of the wall. He noticed not many of the heroes or villains were around.

Then, Keplar’s voice sounded in Tobin’s earpiece.

“O, we gotta figure something out here. Most of us have retreated into the buildings like you said, but nothing’s working against the guy—not even our most powerful can slow him down. We can’t keep this up forever.”

“He’s only one man,” Orion said. “If we keep hitting him, all of us, there will have to be an opening where we can—”

“Good god,” Tobin said, standing up.

The boy looked to the eastern area of the Common, where a blue light was glowing in the air and coming nearer. As expected, Rigel was hovering toward them in the sky. But, this time, it wasn’t Rigel that made Tobin’s heart skip a beat.

Underneath the floating giant, marching in formation, there were dozens of Eradicators, lined up in perfect rows. Many of them were the same Eradicators that had been defeated by Tobin and the other heroes earlier in the battle, but now the robots were back on their feet and reanimated—and all of them were glowing with blue electricity. The black-armored, gas mask-wearing robots were directly under the control of Rigel.

“I control everything,” the red giant said from the sky. “It’s like I always told you, Orion: I was meant to bring order to the universe. I am the only one who can see what strengthens the universe, and what poisons it. I am the one with the power of judgment.”

The electricity-swarmed Eradicators marched toward Tobin and Orion and fired their wrist-mounted laser blasters. However, the robotic soldiers were more powerful than ever—instead of green lasers, their weapons now fired concentrated bursts of blue electricity. The old man and the boy dove for cover.

“Your judgment has come,” Rigel said. “Earth and its protectors must die. For the continued life of the universe.”

Rigel rose into the air, with his arms outstretched and the blue-and-white electricity growing around him.   

“Vincent’s new world has been born,” the red giant said.

Ducking from the Eradicators’ electric blasts, Orion shouted into his earpiece.

“Power levels eight and above, return to battle! Re-engage! All others tend to the wounded and wait for my word!”

From all around the Common, Tobin watched the superheroes reemerge from the surrounding buildings—flying and dashing to their aid against the Eradicators and Rigel.

But Tobin knew it would not be enough. He knew this was all going to come down to him. He was the only one who could stop Rigel. The other heroes could keep hitting the red giant, but Tobin knew he was the only one who had any chance of surviving a fight with him.

“I’m going to give us ten minutes to try and get through to him,” Orion said into his communicator. “If we can’t weaken Rigel by then, you’re getting out of here, Tobin. Earth’s only chance for survival beyond today is you. You have to get to safety if—”

“Orion, I’m not going anywhere. I’m with you guys now, to the end. That’s how it has to be.”

“This is still about the Daybreaker, Tobin. Rigel was never supposed to be the Daybreaker, no matter what he says. The real Daybreaker is still in that skyscraper somewhere, and he is still the key to this fight. We need you safe, so when the time comes, you can confront him with your bo-staff and send him—”      

“Orion, right now, dozens of my friends—and some people I haven’t even met before yesterday—are fighting for me. I can’t just leave them here to fight and run off to—”

Orion ignored him. “Ten minutes, Tobin. If things are still headed this way, you and the strongest of the others need to escape back to Capricious. A new strategy will have to be formed, for the long term.”

Tobin looked across the battlefield toward Orion. “I’m not giving up yet, O. We can still take Rigel down and—”

A burst of blue fire hit the ground from above, sending Orion flying backward.

“Orion!” Tobin yelled. Another blue explosion of flames erupted in front of the boy, and he had to dive out of the way. Looking up, he saw Rigel hovering over him.

“I am the Earth’s destiny,” the red giant said. “For 6 billion years, this world has been leading toward this moment.

“The past does not have to die. Everything that is gone can be remade, the same as it was before. We will all live in peace once again.”