The Superhero's Summit (The Superhero's Son Book 3) (12 page)

“Hey!” Shade shouted in surprise. “Give that back!”

“Nope,” I said. “And good bye.”

I slammed my fist into the nearby wall as hard as I could. Thick cracks started to run up the side of the wall, going all the way to the ceiling, which caused bits and pieces of cement and rock to start to fall. I caught a glimpse of realization dawning on Shade's features just as the ceiling gave way, sending tons of rock and concrete falling onto the hall between us.

But I didn't stay to see the ceiling collapse completely. I turned and ran down the hall, never looking back. I didn't run at my max speed, but I didn't run at my normal speed, either. I just ran through the winding and twisting halls, with the folder clutched to my chest, hoping to get to the lift that would take me back to the upper levels before Shade caught up with me. If I could just do that, then I'd be home-free.

Soon, I saw the lift at the end of the hall, which spurred me on to run faster. Then, all of a sudden, a shadowy tendril shot out of the ceiling and slapped the folder out of my hands. The folder clattered to the floor, causing me to stop and turn around to grab it, but before I could, a shadow tendril rose from the floor, grabbed the folder, and sank back into the darkness.

“No!” I shouted.

I jumped on the spot where the folder had been, but it was no use. My fingers felt nothing but dirty, ancient concrete. The folder was gone.

Then I heard a giggle above and looked at the ceiling to see Shade's face peering out from the darkness. She mouthed,
I win
before her face faded into the shadows and was gone from view.

Just as I punched the floor in frustration, I heard the clanging and banging of the lift, which caused me to freeze. I looked over my shoulder just in time for the lift to reach the bottom floor with a loud bang. The lift's door opened, revealing a very angry, very pissed off looking Strike standing right inside it.

Chapter Eleven

“S
trike?” I said, standing up and looking at the angry superhero. “Um, uh, funny seeing you here. I thought that you were still out fighting Mudslide in Oakland.”

“Beat him within five minutes of arriving there,” said Strike. His tone was cold. “Flew back just in time to learn that Slime took a nap and let you wander around the Cavern without supervision.”

“Listen, Strike, it's not what you think it is,” I said. “I, uh, er, was looking for the bathroom. Yeah, that's it. I needed to use the bathroom, but I wasn't sure what floor it was on, so—”

“Why didn't you ask Slime, then?” said Strike, cutting me off without even the slightest hint of an apology in his tone. “He could have pointed you to the bathroom, which is located on the main floor directly across from the library.”

I opened my mouth to respond, but then Strike held up a hand and said, “But we both know that you weren't looking for the bathroom, don't we?”

“I wasn't up to anything bad,” I said. “I was just doing some, um, exploration.”

“Exploration?” Strike repeated. “What a lame lie. Let me guess, the NHA Leadership Council sent you to spy on us, didn't they?”

I was about to ask how he knew that, but then I realized that that would just confirm his suspicions, so instead I said, “What makes you say that?”

“Because it is so obvious,” said Strike. “Why else would the NHA send you to our base? Why else would you be wandering around in the lowest, darkest levels of the Cavern all by yourself? Plus, the NHA has been looking to take down the INJ for a while and this would be a great opportunity to strike a blow against us in one of our bases.”

I bit my lower lip, trying to keep my temper down so I didn't get into a shouting match or a fight with Strike. “Let's go along with your theory and say that I am, in fact, spying on you. I haven't hurt anyone or stolen any important information that could jeopardize your security. Looks like I'm a pretty poor spy, assuming that that is the case.”

“More like you don't know where to search to find the good stuff,” said Strike. “I'm disappointed in you, Bolt. I thought we could be friends, but if you're just a spy for your leaders, then it's pretty obvious that our friendship was never meant to be.”

Strike sounded so disappointed in me, which bothered me for some reason even though we didn't know each other that well. Maybe it was because he was right and I was basically acting as a spy, but it was for good reason, right?

So I said, “All right, Strike, I guess I am a spy, but not for the reasons you think.”

“What do you mean?” said Strike. “Aren't you looking for weaknesses that the NHA can exploit to take down the INJ?”

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “I'm here because I'm investigating a possible attack by an INJ agent on my team back on Hero Island.”

Strike folded his arms over his chest and looked at me with a questioning gaze. “What do you mean, an INJ agent attacked your team? That doesn't make sense. The INJ may not like the NHA, but I haven't heard about any INJ agents attacking your team.”

I knew it was probably not wise to share this information with Strike, but I also knew that if I didn't then it was very unlikely that Strike would let me leave the Cavern. I didn't know if the INJ had a prison of their own, but no doubt they'd take me into their custody if I refused to tell them the truth.

“The day after we met in New York, one of my teammates, Blizzard, and I were attacked by our own practice robots in our base,” I said. “Our practice robots are supposed to give us a hard time, make us work for our victories, but these ones went too far and tried to murder us in cold blood.”

“What?” said Strike in surprise. “Why?”

“A woman wearing an INJ badge reprogrammed them,” I explained. “We caught her on our security footage. We couldn't see her face, so we don't know who she is, but we think she might be an agent of your organization who was sent to kill us.”

“Impossible,” said Strike. “She has to be fake. The INJ would never sink to such a low level. That goes against our ethics.”

“Are you sure?” I said. “The badge she wore looked legitimate.”

“I would know if the INJ leadership tried anything like that,” said Strike. “Because I'm the leader of the New Heroes, the Midnight Menace always shares his plans for the INJ with me. And he has never mentioned sending in someone to kill you or your teammates.”

“Are you sure that the Midnight Menace has shared
everything
with you?” I said. “What if he or someone else in the INJ leadership secretly hired an assassin behind the scenes to take us out without you knowing?”

“He wouldn't do that,” said Strike, though I noticed a hint of doubt in his voice. “The Midnight Menace can be ruthless and sometimes even cruel, but he'd never go that low. Despite his antisocial attitude, he's still a hero at heart.”

“Can you be so sure?” I said. “Isn't he also a bit mysterious?”

“Well, yes, but you still don't have any proof that the INJ is behind that attack,” said Strike. “Perhaps the woman who tried to kill you and your teammate isn't associated with the INJ at all. Maybe she was trying to frame them to set the NHA and the INJ against each other.”

“That's a possibility,” I said. “But I'm not sure. It can't be easy to make a fake INJ badge, can it?”

“Well, I refuse to believe that the Midnight Menace or anyone else in the INJ leadership is evil,” said Strike. “It doesn't make any sense. Someone else must be behind it.”

“I hope so,” I said, “but we can't be sure. Right now, the evidence is pointing toward the conclusion that someone within the INJ tried to kill me and Blizzard.”

Strike ran his hand through his hair and looked disturbed for the first time since I'd known him. “I need to tell the Midnight Menace about. If there's a rogue agent in the organization doing something like this, then he needs to know.”

“Yeah,” I said, feeling relieved that Strike was listening to reason. “We can only get to the bottom of this if we work together. Whatever is going on here, we can figure it out.”

“Then we need to go back up to the main floor,” said Strike. “I have to contact the Midnight Menace and let him know what's going on. Come with me.”

-

I thought things were going to be pretty easy from now on. After all, Strike was going to try to help me figure out who was behind the attack. I was impressed by Strike's desire to help us and it made me rethink my jealousy of him, but not too much because I still didn't like how he and his team seemed far more effective than mine.

But when we reached the main floor and stepped out of the lift, I suddenly realized that things were about to get very bad, very quickly.

Because I saw, standing in the center of the main floor, the Midnight Menace himself, in full black armor, with his hood pulled over his head.

Before today, I had never actually seen the Midnight Menace in person before. But I had checked out his Neo Ranks page before I left New York and saw the picture on his page there. The picture had been kind of blurry and dark, however, because the Midnight Menace was well-known for avoiding public appearances of any sort, often only appearing late at night and never staying still long enough to have a decent picture taken. He was so hard to find that some people even dismissed his existence entirely, even though there was plenty of evidence to suggest that he was just as real as any neohero.

Thus, seeing the actual Midnight Menace in person was like seeing the Loch Ness Monster in real life. He was tall, much taller than me, Strike, or the other New Heroes (who I noticed were sitting around their main table away from him). He wore pitch-black armor that blended in well with his black cape, which made him look like he was walking around in shadow even under the bright lights of the ceiling. He wore a mask that looked almost demonic, not helped by the fact that his eyes were a deep, blood red that made him look like a monster.

No one knew who the Midnight Menace was or even where he came from. Even the true extent of his powers was unknown. His Neo Ranks page had listed his powers as 'unknown.' Some said that he could control and travel through shadows, while others said that he was just an ordinary human being who wore armor and happened to be at the peak of human condition, and still some people didn't believe he was a person at all, but rather the creation of dark magic that just happened to take on a humanoid form.

Not that it mattered who he was or where he came from, because the Midnight Menace looked menacing just the same. He turned to face us, moving as slowly and silently as if he weighed nothing at all.

“Midnight Menace,” said Strike in surprise as the lift closed behind us. “What are you doing here? I didn't know you were coming.”

“And that is just the way I prefer it,” said the Midnight Menace. His voice was soft, but at the same time, I definitely sensed a threat underlying his words.

“Well, I'm glad you're here anyway,” said Strike. He patted me on the shoulder. “Bolt here has something important to share with you, something that may threaten the very existence of the INJ itself.”

“Interestingly enough, I came here to speak with Bolt as well,” said the Midnight Menace.

“You did?” I said. “Great! Well, I was going to—”

“I want you to leave,” said the Midnight Menace, like I hadn't been talking at all. He pointed over my head with one clawed gauntlet at the lift doors behind us. “Now.”

I blinked. “What?”

“I know what you are,” said the Midnight Menace. His eyes glowed. “A spy. You were snooping around in the bottom floor of the Cavern and even caused some damage to its structure.”

“How did you know that?” I said. “Were you down there, too?”

“I know everything that goes on in this place,” said the Midnight Menace. “And I know that you were sent by Omega Man and the others to learn our secrets and harm us from the inside.”

“Um, Midnight Menace, sir, Bolt is not here to cause any trouble,” said Strike. “He's actually investigating—”

“I do not care what he
claims
to be investigating,” said the Midnight Menace. “What I care is what he
did
. And he broke a portion of the ceiling in the bottom floor, which could have caused the entire Cavern to collapse if he had hit the right spot.”

“It was because I was fighting Shade,” I protested. “She's a G-Man. I found some old Project Neo documents and I was trying to keep her from following me and taking the documents away from me, so I broke the ceiling to block off the path.”

“The G-Men were in the Cavern?” said the Midnight Menace. “Where is your proof?”

I suddenly realized that I had none. I looked to Strike to back me up, but Strike was now looking at me with confusion and even a little distrust and I remembered that I hadn't told him about Shade.

“Bolt never mentioned fighting a G-Man agent down there,” said Strike. “Is there a reason for that, Bolt?”

“Because I didn't think to mention her,” I said. I looked at the Midnight Menace again. “Look, Midnight Menace, sir, I didn't mean to cause any damage. I wasn't trying to hurt anyone.”

“You mean it never occurred to you that your actions might cause the entire Cavern to collapse?” said the Midnight Menace. “That was on the lowest floor, after all. Imagine what might have happened if the ceiling had completely collapsed. Everyone in the Cavern would be dead right now, including yourself.”

I hadn't realized that, but the Midnight Menace had a point. Still, I said, “So what? It didn't collapse. We're all still alive.”

“What irreverence,” said the Midnight Menace with a snort. “Don't you care for the lives of others? Or are you just thinking about yourself?”

“I was just—”

“No more excuses,” said the Midnight Menace. “I know exactly what you were trying to do.”

“But sir, you aren't listening to him,” Strike protested. “He said that someone wearing an INJ badge tried to kill him and one of his teammates. He just came here to see if he could find out if we knew anything about her.”

“And did he give any proof of that claim or was it just a story he made up to avoid getting into trouble?” the Midnight Menace said.

Strike went silent, as did I, because we both realized that I hadn't actually provided any proof or even just evidence to back up any of my claims. I felt a little embarrassed about it, to be honest.