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

The thing was, though, that while Blizzard could control ice and coldness, she was really bad at controlling it. I mean,
really
bad. Freezing herself to that car back there was hardly the most embarrassing thing that had happened to her due to her lack of control over her powers. I think her lack of control came from a severe lack of confidence and fear of her own powers, although I didn't understand why she was so afraid of her powers. She probably just needed some more practice.

Sitting to Blizzard's right was Talon, who was the same age as her. Talon, unlike Blizzard, showed no embarrassment or fear whatsoever. She was looking at her claws, which were razor sharp appendages that came out of her wrists, kind of like Wolverine. Her claws could cut through almost any substance, but the problem was that she didn't like getting dirty or chipping her claws. Made sense, given that she was apparently the daughter of a major fashion designer, although it was very frustrating whenever we were fighting a villain and I told her to cut something and she instead worried about what it would do to her claws.

And sitting on Blizzard's left, was Shell. He was the youngest member of the team at thirteen years of age. He was pretty short and stout, with an abnormal growth on his back that resembled a turtle shell, which was where his name came from. He wore coke bottle spectacles and was pretty introverted, although he didn't seem as fearful or timid as Blizzard. His 'shell,' as we called it, was incredibly thick and strong, capable of taking direct blows from powerful villains and weapons. He wasn't much of a fighter, but unlike Talon, he at least didn't worry about his appearance whenever I asked him to do something that might get him dirty. He was also incredibly smart and good with technology, though not on the same level as Dad.

And finally, sitting next to Treehugger, was Stinger. He was a really tall, skinny guy with a big head (a literal one, though sometimes he had a metaphorical one, too). He had insect-like wings sprouting from his back, but his real powers came from the stingers he could create on his hands and feet that allowed him to paralyze or even poison whoever he touched. Out of all of us, Stinger was probably the most reliable, since he had used his powers more than once to help us capture villains since the team's formation.

And, of course, there was me, the leader and the most experienced in fighting crime and supervillains. I was a pretty good leader, all things considered, but seeing how Strike led the New Heroes … well, I wondered if we could be better.

But I probably shouldn't have been surprised. My team, to be frank, wasn't all that good. All of us had come from outside the Neohero Academy, which had been an intentional choice on the part of Mecha Knight, our supervisor and one of the Leadership Council members, in order to minimize whatever Visionist influences existed in the Academy. But it seemed to me like our team had been thrown together rather haphazardly, like the NHA had been in a hurry to put together a new Young Neos, maybe in time for the Summit.

More than once since New Year's, which was when I was first introduced to the team, I found myself wondering what Mecha Knight was thinking when he put us together. Maybe he saw potential in us that we couldn't see in ourselves, or maybe he was just in such a hurry that he lowered his standards and accepted anyone he could find. Whatever the case, I knew we weren't exactly the most popular incarnation of the Young Neos, because I had seen on Neo Ranks that our incarnation of the team was ranked a 4, in contrast to the previous incarnation, which was still an 8 even after everyone knew about the true nature of Incantation and the others. And the only reason our rank was even a 4 was because of my presence on the team; I didn't even want to think about how low it would be without me.

It wasn't all bad, of course. We got to stay in the House on Hero Island, which was a large compound-like structure with plenty of food, dozens of rooms, and video games and TVs for us to use. Granted, we spent most of the time training there, since we were always on call for any missions Mecha Knight gave us, but it was still a fun place to hang out.

Yet sometimes the House felt like the only good thing about the Young Neos. Even the fact that I had some actual neohero friends around my age was dampened by the fact that I had more experience than the rest of them when it came to superheroics, so I didn't have as much in common with the others as I could have even if I did get along with them well.

When we landed on the helicopter pad on top of the House an hour later, we immediately split up. The others went to the medical room, where they would have their injuries looked at by the robots and systems of the House, while I went to my office to report back to our supervisor, Mecha Knight.

Yeah, I had an office. Or at least I called it that. It was really just the other half of my room in the House. The left half of my room had my bed, my closet where I kept my civilian clothes, and the door to my personal bathroom, while the right half of the room had a huge screen on display that would connect me with Mecha Knight, plus dozens of buttons and switches that I could use to watch the news or watch the security cameras. Thankfully, the two halves of the room were usually separated by a retractable wall, so that way I never had to worry about the screen turning on just as I walked out of the bathroom without my clothes on.

It was a lot nicer than my room back in Texas, but it didn't quite feel like home, even after I put up posters of my favorite bands and movies and kept my clothes strewn across the floor. It was probably because Mom and Dad weren't here. Dad talked to me every day via my suit-up watch, but it wasn't quite the same as talking to him in person.

Shaking my head, I walked over to the huge screen on the other side of the room and then tapped a button.

Immediately, an energetic male voice said, “Hey, Bolt! Has your day been AWESOME so far?”

I cringed at the voice's excitement, but said, “It's fine, Carl. Just connect me with Mecha Knight. We're back from our battle with Enor and I need to give him my report on how things went.”

Carl was the new AI of the House, designed and installed by Dad, and was the replacement for Reeve, the previous House AI, which had turned out to be a willing collaborator in the last team's evil plans. Carl's main purpose was to make sure that the utilities kept running and that we were all on time for whatever was on our schedules, as well as keeping an eye on our security cameras and the like. But I didn't understand why Dad gave Carl such an enthusiastic and happy personality. Maybe Dad had a better sense of humor than I thought.

“Sure thing, Bolt,” said Carl in a cheery voice. “Please stand by while I connect with Mecha Knight's office.”

The word 'CONNECTING' appeared on the massive screen for a few seconds before it was replaced by 'CONNECTED.' Then that word also vanished, showing me the face of Mecha Knight, the supervisor of the Young Neos and one of the leaders of the NHA.

Or rather, it showed me his helmet, which completely covered his face. Unlike most neoheroes, Mecha Knight didn't have any actual powers, at least as far as I knew. He instead wore a suit of powered armor that gave him all sorts of abilities, such as flight. His armor looked like a suit of old-fashioned knight armor, except updated and streamlined to make it more modern and aerodynamic.

“Bolt,” said Mecha Knight, who didn't sound surprised to see me. “You and the others are back already.”

“Yes, sir,” I said. “I'm here to report on the success of our mission. Is this a good time for you?”

“It always is,” said Mecha Knight. “But I heard from the police that you apparently had help from another group of young heroes from a rival organization.”

I heard disapproval in Mecha Knight's voice, which I had expected. After all, the New Heroes worked for the INJ, and the NHA and the INJ rarely got along. I wasn't exactly sure why the two superhero organizations didn't get together, but I knew it had been that way for a very long time.

“Yes, sir,” I said. “It was the New Heroes, led by Strike. Have you heard of them?”

Mecha Knight nodded. “Yes. I have actually met Strike before, though that was a couple of years ago, before he … well, that is irrelevant.”

That piqued my interest. What had Mecha Knight been about to say about Strike? Maybe he was just going to say that he had met Strike before Strike joined the New Heroes, but I had a feeling he had been referring to something else.

Regardless, I said, “Yeah, the New Heroes took out Enor in like, five minutes.”

“Why didn't you and your team defeat him?” said Mecha Knight.

I scratched the back of my head in embarrassment. “Well, see, that's an interesting question. Enor turned out to be a lot stronger than we thought, so fighting him turned out to be more complicated than we thought.”

Although Mecha Knight's face was completely obscured by his helmet, I could tell that he didn't buy that excuse. “I see. Well, what were the New Heroes even doing here in New York? I did not know they were going to be here. They usually operate on the West Coast.”

“Strike offered to form an alliance with me and the others,” I said, grateful that we were moving beyond my team's failure to defeat Enor on our own. “He said that if the New Heroes and Young Neos worked together we would be able to handle far worse threats against the world than we could handle on our own.”

“He made this offer to you?” said Mecha Knight. He sounded curious, but also a little worried.

“I told him I'd tell you about it,” I said. “He said that the alliance will probably be finalized at the Neohero Summit at the end of the month, assuming we go through with it.”

Mecha Knight's helmet showed no facial expressions whatsoever, but I thought that Mecha Knight was thinking about what I just said, and not in a good way, either.

“Very interesting,” said Mecha Knight. “I will bring this up with Omega Man and the rest of the Leadership Council at our meeting later today. They will want to know about this.”

I nodded. “But what do you think about it? Do you think it would be a good idea?”

“My thoughts on this are irrelevant,” said Mecha Knight, the tone in his voice flat. “But I noticed that you do not seem entirely excited about it yourself.”

I folded my hands behind my back, but I was unsure what to say. “Well, it's just—”

“I don't care why,” Mecha Knight interrupted me. “It was merely an observation, that is all. Is there anything else you need to report to me?”

“No, sir,” I said, shaking my head. “That's all you need to know. Everyone on the team made it back alive and in one piece, if a bit dinged in a few places.”

“Good to hear,” said Mecha Knight. “If you need anything or have any more news to share, feel free to call me. I will contact you again in the morning with your assignments for the rest of the week. Good bye.”

With that, the screen went blank. Then my shoulders slumped and I sighed.

I liked Mecha Knight. Or at least respected him. He was strong and no-nonsense and rarely seemed disturbed by anything. It was kind of weird how he never took off his armor, not even removing his helmet to show his face, but there was a reason he was a famous neohero in his own right and the supervisor of the Young Neos, and it was due to his experience and success as a hero in his own right.

But he wasn't Dad. He was never interested in hearing about my problems or talking to me about how I felt. I hated touchy-feely talk, don't get me wrong, but even I needed someone to talk to about my problems every now and then. And Dad—although he acted like a robot sometimes—really did care about me and my problems. So did Mom, but Dad was a superhero himself and so understood what I was going through better than she did.

Speaking of Dad, I hadn't talked to him today. So I walked over to my bed, sat down in it, and then dialed Dad's number on my suit-up watch's surface.

One second later, Dad's face appeared on the watch's small screen. He was not wearing his Genius costume, which made sense, seeing as he was technically retired, but I kind of wished he would because I thought that the Genius helmet was pretty awesome.

“Kevin?” said Dad. “I was wondering when you'd call me up for our daily chat. How have things been in New York?”

“Okay,” I said. “Did you hear about our fight with Enor?”

“I saw an article about it online,” said Dad. “It said you had help from the New Heroes. They are the young superhero team for the INJ, yes?”

I nodded. “Yeah. Have you heard of them before?”

“Oh, sure,” said Dad. “When I was still an active superhero, I met the first incarnation of the New Heroes shortly after the formation of the INJ. Very different from the Young Neos, they were, but they seemed like a good set of kids and many of them went on to play larger roles in the INJ, such as Switchblade.”

“I know,” I said, frowning when I thought about how easily the New Heroes had beaten Enor. “I talked to their leader, a guy named Strike. He said he wanted to form an alliance between the Young Neos and the New Heroes, but it won't be finalized until the Neohero Summit next month, assuming that the NHA accepts it.”

“An alliance?” said Dad. He furrowed his brow in worry. “Odd.”

“What's so odd about it?” I said.

“The Neohero Alliance and the Independent Neoheroes for Justice have never really worked together,” said Dad. “Granted, we did work together to push back the Pokacu invasion twelve years ago, but that was only a temporary alliance and we went back to our normal relations after that.”

“Yeah, it is weird,” I said. “But Strike said that he thinks we would make a great team if we worked together.”

“That may be true, but it is still odd,” said Dad. He stroked his chin and his sight seemed to become distant, like he was lost in his memories. “I wonder if the Midnight Menace approved of this.”

“He must have,” I said. “Strike said that the INJ leadership was okay with it.”

“Yes, but it doesn't seem like the Midnight Menace's usual modus operandi,” said Dad. “I knew the Midnight Menace, both before and after he quit the NHA and formed the INJ. He was quite clear about burning bridges with us and only grudgingly worked with us when the Pokacu attacked because he couldn't deal with the problem on his own.”