The Superhero's Summit (The Superhero's Son Book 3) (17 page)

Standing upright, I tossed aside the frozen tail that I had been holding and looked over at Blizzard. Her hands were no longer glowing, but I asked anyway, “Do you feel okay? Still have control over your powers?”

Blizzard nodded, albeit shakily. “Yes. I thought I was going to lose control for a second there, but I guess freezing that lizard didn't require as much effort as I thought.”

I nodded, but then remembered Muscle and looked over to see him still lying on the floor unconscious. I ran over to him and immediately checked his pulse. His pulse was weak, but it was there, so I figured that he was alive at least. The dart was still there in his shoulder, but I didn't remove it because I figured that it was something that the doctors should have a look at.

“What happened to Muscle?” said Blizzard in worry. “Where did that dart come from?”

“I don't know,” I said. I looked around at the exhibits around us, but saw no one else in the area. “Someone else must be in here, but I don't see them.”

“Do you think that they've left?” said Blizzard.

“Maybe,” I said. “But it doesn't matter. We just need to get Muscle to the doctor. We have no idea what was in that dart. He's still alive, but if that dart is as poisonous as I think, then he might not have much longer unless we can get him the medical attention he needs right away.”

-

Thankfully, it wasn't long before the Black Blur showed up to help, but when we told him what happened and showed him Muscle, he quickly left to go get Healing Touch, the resident doctor and main healer of Hero Island, to look at Big Muscle. They returned quickly, but Healing Touch determined that Big Muscle needed to be taken to the medical station in HQ where he could be properly healed.

In addition, the security guards closed off the Museum entirely to anyone except for the Leadership Council. They were doing a full sweep of the entire building, searching for any clues that might point toward the identity of the person who had let that lizard in or who had tried to kill Big Muscle. Even Blizzard and I were kicked out, which I thought must have had something to do with the fact that Blizzard was still a liability even if she hadn't lost control of her powers this time.

But when we stepped out of the Museum, we found Mecha Knight waiting at the bottom steps. He was talking with the head security guard, the one Muscle referred to as Jones, but when we left the Museum, Mecha Knight looked up at us and gestured for us to come down and speak with him. As we approached, he dismissed Jones, who ran past us up the stairs toward the Museum entrance, probably to supervise the search.

“Bolt, Blizzard, are either of you hurt?” said Mecha Knight as we reached the bottom of the steps. “I was just talking with Jones about the attack and he told me that you two defeated the creature that attacked the tourists.”

“No, we're fine,” I said. “Just a bit bruised, but nothing serious or like what happened to Big Muscle.”

“Yes,” said Mecha Knight. “Jones told me that Big Muscle was hit with a red dart filled with a currently unidentified kind of poison. Did either of you see who shot that dart?”

“No,” said Blizzard, shaking her head. “We didn't. We have no idea who shot him.”

“That is troubling,” said Mecha Knight. “If there is an assassin on Hero Island, I have a feeling that they will strike again, although there is also a good chance that they will leave the Island to avoid being caught, now that everyone knows they exist.”

“I don't understand how this could have happened, though,” said Blizzard. She looked around the area, but there were just security guards nearby and all of the tourists and tour guides were long gone. “Hero Island has extremely tight security. If an assassin sneaked in here, shouldn't someone have noticed or found him out before he attacked?”

“Ideally, yes, but there is obviously some hole in our security that we need to fill,” said Mecha Knight. “I suspect that the assassin got onto the Island while pretending to be a tourist, but we do not know that for sure.”

“Don't we have a telepath or something who could read their minds?” I said. “Just have a telepath read the minds of the tourists and see if any of them are thinking about how annoyed they were that their assassination failed.”

“Our only telepathic member, Brainwave, is currently out on a mission in Kentucky,” said Mecha Knight. “And even if he wasn't, it is illegal to read the minds of people without their permission or if you lack the legal authority to do so. Because we are not the G-Men, that means we cannot read the minds of the tourists without their consent unless we'd like to get sued.”

“Really?” I said. “But what if the assassin uses this time to get away? By the time Brainwave gets back here, the tourists will probably be back on the mainland and be impossible to track down from there.”

“I know, but that is just the reality of the situation at the moment, unfortunately,” said Mecha Knight. “Fear not, however, because the security guards are searching the Museum for any clues that might help us find out who the assassin is. I doubt it will be long before they find something that will help us identify the assassin, probably before the tourists leave the Island.”

Just as Mecha Knight said that, Jones burst out of the Museum's doors and shouted, “Sir Mecha Knight! We've found something that you and the two Young Neos need to see right away!”

“See?” said Mecha Knight as he started walking up the steps, with Blizzard and I falling into line behind him. “Like I said, they have obviously found a clue that will help us find the assassin.”

“It's a clue, all right, sir, but not one you or anyone else in the Leadership Council is going to like,” said Jones.

“What do you mean?” said Mecha Knight.

Jones just shook his head and said, “Follow me and I'll show you.”

The three of us followed Jones into the Museum. We made our way to the scene of our fight with the lizard, where we found about half a dozen other security guards all standing around the area like they were trying to make sure that no one got past them. The chunks of frozen lizard meat were still scattered around the floor, but many of them had melted already, causing the exhibit to stink of dead lizard. It made me and Blizzard cover our noses, but Mecha Knight didn't even flinch, probably because his helmet filtered out the smell.

“What have you found, Jones?” said Mecha Knight as the three of us stopped, watching as Jones walked over to another officer who was examining something on the floor. “Is that the clue?”

The other guard handed Jones a small plastic bag that had something black in it. Jones turned around and walked back over to us. The grim expression on his face told me that Jones wished he hadn't found it at all.

“This, sir, is what we've found,” said Jones. He held out the small plastic bag, allowing us to see what was inside it:

It was half of a badge with the letters
INJ
on it.

Chapter Fifteen

“Y
ou mean the INJ attacked
again
?” said Stinger a few hours later, in the House's Meeting Room, after Blizzard and I finished telling the rest of the team what happened at the Museum.

“Or at least someone trying to frame the INJ,” I said. “I know that Blizzard and I didn't see the badge anywhere on the creature when we fought it, though the badge could have been inside it or something.”

Talon shook her head. “This is ridiculous. It's that mysterious woman all over again. How much longer are we going to wait before we actually strike back against the INJ?”

“Mecha Knight said that he was going to speak with the rest of the Leadership Council about it,” I said, “but I don't know what they will do about it.”

“I hope they cancel the Summit, at least,” said Shell. He took his glasses off his face and started wiping them with his shirt. “If this is what the INJ does when they're
not
around, I don't want to know what they will do when they
are
around.”

“But it doesn't make any sense,” I said. “Why would the INJ do this? I've never even heard of them sending giant lizards after people. It could just as easily be a set-up by someone who wants the NHA to fight the INJ.”

“That theory is seeming less and less likely every day, if you ask me,” said Treehugger. “I'm sorry, Bolt, but we've already had two encounters with things that have had INJ badges. At this point, I'm pretty convinced that the INJ is behind these attacks, too.”

“But why would they do it right before the Summit?” I said. “I mean, the Summit is next week. Why would they keep attacking us like this if they wanted to be our friends? It just doesn't make sense.”

“Maybe they don't want to ally with us at all,” said Shell as he put his glasses back on his face. “Maybe they are trying to scare us. By having some of their agents sneak into Hero Island and attack us while we're unprepared, maybe they're trying to send a message.”

“What kind of message?” I said.

“That they can get into Hero Island and attack us and there's nothing we can do about it,” said Talon. She scratched her claws along the table, scowling. “So we should be careful about what we say to them at the Summit. They want our leaders to be too afraid of them to negotiate strongly with them.”

“Well, it doesn't seem to be working, if that's actually what they're trying to do,” I said, “because none of the Leadership Council seemed scared to me.”

“They could just be hiding their fear,” Stinger said. “It wouldn't be very encouraging for the rest of us if the Council was just as scared as we are.”

“See?” said Talon, gesturing at Stinger. “He knows what I mean. That's why I hope that Omega Man and the others don't let that Midnight Menace idiot boss them around at the Summit and dictate the terms of whatever agreement or alliance comes out of this in the INJ's favor.”

“It seems like a strange way to go about asserting their dominance over us in the Summit, though,” I said. “What if it leads to all-out war between the two organizations?”

“I doubt it,” said Shell. “The Leadership Council doesn't want to go to war with the INJ. Otherwise, they would have done it after you and Blizzard were nearly killed by those practice bots. A war wouldn't benefit anyone and would probably just get loads of people killed.”

“But maybe the INJ
does
want war with the NHA,” said Talon. “Maybe they're trying to provoke us to fight them so they can defeat us and become the largest superhero organization in the country.”

“Could they even win in a war against the NHA, though?” said Stinger doubtfully. “I don't know much about the INJ's strength, but I do know that they don't have nearly as many members as the NHA, nor do they have the same amount of funding and money. I think any war between the two organizations would end with the NHA winning pretty decisively and the INJ disbanded, if not outright destroyed.”

“Maybe they have a secret weapon that could help them beat the NHA,” said Talon. “I mean, what do we really know about the INJ and their secrets? They could have all sorts of secret weapons at their disposal that they could use against the NHA in a war, weapons that might help them win. That would explain their absolutely brazen attitude toward us, at any rate.”

“But the Midnight Menace and Strike both told me that they don't know anything about that mysterious woman,” I pointed out. “I assume they probably know nothing about that lizard, either. There's definitely something going on, but it's just hard to know what at this point.”

“That's why we should just cancel the Summit or postpone it until we know what is going on,” said Talon. “It's the only sane option, one that I hope that the Leadership Council decides to do in light of recent events.”

“They may very well after this,” said Stinger. He folded his hands behind his head, but didn't look very relaxed despite the way he sat. “I wouldn't be against that, because I'm not actually looking forward to the Summit anyway. If this will keep us safe and help us figure out who has been causing us so much trouble, then I'm all for it.”

“I agree with Stinger,” said Treehugger. “If this is what is going to happen
before
the Summit, I really don't want to see what will happen on the actual day of the Summit.”

I looked at Blizzard. She had been quiet through this entire discussion. She looked lost in thought, but I said, “Blizzard, what do you think? You were there at the lizard attack.”

Blizzard suddenly looked up. “Huh? What? Oh, right. I have to agree with the others, Bolt. I think that the INJ is behind this. I don't know why they are, but that's where all of the evidence seems to be pointing so far.”

“And if the NHA decides to go forward with the Summit, then I might just stay here in the House rather than attending it,” said Talon. “It's not like there are any INJ members I really want to meet, anyway.”

“If that woman really was with the INJ, though, then I doubt that the House will be a safe place to hide during the Summit,” I said. “Besides, you know that all members of the Young Neos are supposed to be at the Summit next week. Mecha Knight expects each and every one of us to be there and to be on our best behavior so we can set an example of the INJ's leaders and members.”

Talon rolled her eyes. “Oh, yes, because behaving politely has gotten us in the INJ's good graces before.”

“As much as I'd like the Summit canceled, though, I do think that the possibility of an attack happening there is pretty unlikely,” said Shell. “The entire Leadership Council will be there, after all, plus dozens of other NHA members and a bunch of other superheroes from all over the world. You'd have to be either stupid or insanely powerful to even consider attacking the NHA during the Summit.”

“But that doesn't change the fact that the INJ might try something anyway,” said Stinger. “I hope that security is beefed up, at least, even if we can't just cancel the event outright.”

“That's a given when you consider everything that's happened recently,” I said. “Like I said, I'm sure that everything will be fine. I doubt anything of importance will happen at the Summit, except for whatever agreement is struck between the NHA and the INJ.”

“I hope you're right,” said Treehugger. “Because if you aren't—”