The Superhero's Summit (The Superhero's Son Book 3) (7 page)

It showed the two practice bots that had tried to kill Blizzard and I earlier standing in their rest stations, where they were hooked up to the walls and inactive, with a ladder leaning against the wall to their right. With their heads resting on their chests, they almost looked like they were asleep, although because they were robots they couldn't, of course, actually sleep.

Then, all of a sudden, someone stepped into frame. It was a woman, that much I could tell, but beyond that, I couldn't tell who she was. She was wearing a black baseball cap pulled firmly down over her face, as well as completely black spandex that looked kind of like ninja clothing. Her back was to the camera, but even if it hadn't been, I could tell that she was wearing a mask that likely protected her face from view.

The mysterious woman carefully made her way over to the practice bots. She stopped every now and then to look both ways, like she was worried someone might see her, but she did not stop or turn around and leave. She didn't move very gracefully, which told me that she probably wasn't used to sneaking around like this.

Once the woman reached the practice bots, she pulled over the ladder next to them and climbed it until she was up to the bots' chests. Then she popped open their chests and started messing with the wiring and stuff on the inside. It was easy to tell that she knew what she was doing, because she didn't hesitate at all as she reprogrammed the bots. She must have had experience with mechanics or something.

In five minutes, the woman was done. She closed the bots' chests, checked to make sure that they were locked, and then climbed down the ladder, which she pulled back to where it was originally. Then she turned and, with her head down, went back the way she came and disappeared off the camera.

Abruptly, the camera paused and Carl said, “And that is what I found. What do you think?”

“You mean that's it?” said Treehugger. She looked around like she expected to see the mysterious woman standing in a corner watching us or something. “Isn't there more footage? Like, maybe footage of the woman sneaking into or out of the House?”

“Nope,” said Carl in a tone that was too cheery for the circumstances. “I checked the security footage of every entrance and hallway in the House, including the basement and rooftop. She doesn't appear on anywhere else.”

“So how did she get into here?” said Stinger. “And how did she escape without being caught on camera?”

“She must have a power that lets her get in and out of places without being seen,” said Shell. “Maybe she can turn invisible or something.”

“But
who
is she?” I said. “How did she get onto Hero Island without anyone noticing? Seriously, this place is incredibly well-protected. We don't even let pigeons fly here without our knowledge.”

“What if she's still here?” said Treehugger. She looked around again in fear. “What if she's just hiding? If she's invisible, then doesn't that mean that she could still be here even if we can't see her?”

“If she is, we can take her,” Talon insisted. She held up her hands and her claws shot out of her wrists. “And I will be more than happy to introduce her to my fabulous claws for daring to harm two of my dearest friends.”

“Carl, are you sure you haven't detected anything out of the ordinary?” I said, looking up at the ceiling. “At least since last night?”

“Nothing,” said Carl. “It's like she existed just long enough to get in, reprogram the bots, and leave.”

“Have you sent this footage to Mecha Knight?” I said.

“Of course,” said Carl. “In fact, the Leadership Council is actually watching the footage right now and speculating on who she is, but I can't tell you what
their
theories about her identity are because then Mecha Knight would get angry at me.”

“We don't need to know them,” I said. I tapped my chin in thought. “Hmm … I wonder if there are any female supervillains who are capable of entering and exiting buildings unseen.”

“Isn't there that Shade girl from the G-Men?” said Stinger. “I heard she can travel through shadow and appear almost anywhere she wants.”

“I don't think this woman is Shade,” I said as I leaned back in my seat. “I've met Shade before. From what the footage showed, this woman looks nothing like Shade. We're dealing with someone else.”

Shell opened his mouth to say something, but then he closed it and looked away, prompting me to say, “Did you have something to say, Shell?”

“Well,” said Shell, scratching the back of his head, “uh, I was just wondering … do you think this woman could be with Vision?”

I sat up straight at the mention of that cult. “Why would you think that?”

Shell looked at me this time and spoke in a logical tone. “Well, think about it. Who else hates you enough to sneak into the House and reprogram the practice bots to kill you?”

“Hold on,” said Talon, leaning on the table to look at Shell better, “how do you know that the woman was trying to assassinate Bolt?”

“Because the robots only turned murderous after Bolt went to train with Blizzard,” Shell explained. “And we all know that Bolt has a lot of enemies, more than the rest of us anyway. We know that Vision really hates Bolt after he helped to thwart their leader's plans to take over the world, so it makes sense they'd try to kill him.”

“I'm still not sure,” said Stinger, tapping his chin. “Vision is a likely candidate, but—”

“And remember, the last incarnation of the Young Neos, the guys before us, were Visionists,” Shell continued. “They probably know the House even better than us. And if they have Hopper and Ghost on their side, it should be easy for them to enter and exit the House without any of us knowing.”

I scowled when I remembered the original Young Neos and how they had tried to kill me. “Even if that's true, that woman didn't look like Incantation, Technical, or Sarah.”

“She doesn't have to be any of them,” said Shell. “She could just be another Visionist who agreed to sneak in and reprogram the practice bots to kill you.”

“Do you think they were trying to kill Blizzard, too?” said Treehugger.

“I doubt it,” said Shell, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose again. “Blizzard isn't their main enemy. She was probably just collateral.”

“Gotta admit, Shell's got a point,” said Stinger. “I know we've tightened up security ever since the last Young Neos were defeated, but it's probably still easier for them to enter or help someone else enter the House than it is for most people.”

“I know,” I said. “Something about this doesn't seem entirely right, though. Right now, Vision is trying to lay low. It doesn't make sense for them to attack me again now, not when everyone knows about them and we're still keeping an eye out for them.”

“It's the best theory we've got, though,” said Shell. He shrugged. “Of course, it could be wrong, but I don't see any reason to doubt it at the moment.”

I tapped my chin and looked up at the TV. “Carl, can you replay the security footage, except slower? Maybe there's a detail we're overlooking that could help us identify the woman.”

The footage rewound and started playing again, except much slower. I didn't see anything out of the ordinary at first, but then Shell said, “Wait. Carl, play that part again.”

The part Shell was talking about was the part where the mysterious woman was reprogramming the bots. Like the rest of the video, it was playing very slowly, but I still didn't see anything strange until Shell said, “Pause right there and zoom in on her right shoulder.”

The video paused and then zoomed in on the mysterious woman's right shoulder, which displayed a startling sight:

A badge with the letters INJ in gold lettering was visible … which were the initials of the Independent Neoheroes for Justice.

Chapter Seven

I
couldn't believe it. I looked at the others, who all looked just as shocked as I felt. I looked at the screen again, hoping my eyes were playing tricks on me, but it didn't matter how long I stared at it, because that badge with the INJ's initials did not change.

“Uh oh,” said Stinger, who had just vocalized what the rest of us were thinking. “Please tell me the footage is messed up.”

“Of course it isn't,” said Carl, who didn't sound nearly as shocked as the rest of us. “Before showing you the footage, I digitally removed any and all imperfections so you can have the clearest, most high definition picture around. Blu-Ray's got nothing on this!”

I leaned forward, putting my forehead in my hands. “If this is true, then that means that someone from the INJ somehow broke into the House and tried to kill us.”

“But why?” said Treehugger. “I mean, I know the NHA and the INJ have hardly been the best of friends, but I don't think either of them have tried to kill their youngest members like this.”

“Hardly surprises me,” said Talon, rolling her eyes. “The INJ has always been very morally questionable, if you ask me. Though I must admit that I never believed that they would actually target teenagers like us.”

“Could it be a fake?” said Shell, rubbing his hands together anxiously. “Maybe someone faked an INJ badge and is trying to frame them.”

“Maybe, but I doubt it,” I said. “I doubt the INJ would let anyone run around setting them up like this.”

“What if it's a rogue agent, then?” said Shell. “Maybe some in the INJ just decided to take action in their own hands and take us out, because we're the next generation of the Neohero Alliance, after all.”

“Possibly, but if they were a rogue agent, why would they continue to wear their INJ badge right where everyone could see it?” I said. “I think it is far more likely that the woman is under orders from the INJ's leadership.”

“That's a serious accusation to make, Bolt,” said Stinger. “But then, we can't really know for sure what's going on. Maybe it's a set up, maybe it's a rogue agent, or maybe she was really ordered by the INJ to attack us … who knows? We don't even know her name, much less whatever her motives may be.”

“Agreed,” I said. I looked up at the ceiling again. “Carl, does the Leadership Council know about this?”

“They do now,” said Carl. “I just showed them the INJ badge on the woman's shoulder. And I must say, I didn't know Omega Man knew
that
many swear words.”

“What's going to happen now?” said Treehugger. She hugged herself “Are we going to fight the INJ?”

“I don't know, but hopefully not,” I said. “I guess we'll just have to see what the Leadership Council says we should do. But I can't imagine that it will be nice, whatever it is that we do.”

“And just before the Neohero Summit, too,” said Stinger. He rubbed his forehead. “I hope Omega Man and the Midnight Menace don't get into a fight because of—”

“Bolt!” Carl suddenly shouted. “Please go to the Council Chamber in HQ to speak with the Leadership Council. They would like to speak with you about this discovery.”

Uh oh. I didn't think I was going to get into trouble, but the Leadership Council rarely summoned me in person like this. Most of the time they spoke to me through Mecha Knight. That they wanted to speak with me in person meant that things were even more serious than I thought.

But I knew better than to say no to any kind of summons from the Council. So I stood up from my chair and said to Carl, “Tell the Leadership Council that I'll be there in five minutes.” I looked at the others. “The rest of you, stay here. I'll be back before you even know it.”

-

It actually took me three minutes to fly from the House to the NHA headquarters located in the center of Hero Island. It was a massive compound, the largest building on the entire Island, and was where most of the NHA's members stayed whenever they were between missions or visiting Hero Island. It was hardly the most appealing or pretty building, but it had been designed to withstand pretty much anything short of a nuclear blast and had all sorts of defenses I didn't even know about.

But none of that mattered to me at the moment. I just flew over to the huge tower rising from the center of the compound, known as the Tower of Heroes, and flew in through the ceiling, which was capable of opening up to the sky to allow flying heroes like myself to fly in. I kept a neutral face as I landed in the center of the Council Chamber, even though deep down my nerves were jangled, because I had only met the entire Leadership Council once before, when I first came to Hero Island, and had only spoken with Mecha Knight on a regular basis since then.

Landing in the center of the Council Chamber, I looked at the chairs—more like thrones, really, mostly because they were much higher than me—upon which sat the seven neoheroes who made up the Leadership Council.

On the far left was Mecha Knight, who nodded when he saw me and I nodded in return, although his helmet, as usual, made it impossible to tell how he felt.

Next to Mecha Knight was a large, almost fat middle-aged man with a pickaxe and dirty skin and even dirtier work clothes: Mr. Miner, who could control the earth and was the creator of Hero Island itself. He was a pretty easygoing guy from what I knew, but I didn't know him that well.

On Mr. Miner's right was a pale-skinned, thin man who wore white robes that almost made him look like a ghost: Beyond Man, who could summon the dead and speak with ghosts. He sat so still that I thought he was dead until I saw him blink once.

And on the far right, I saw a green-skinned, horned alien in strange, blocky armor: Nicknacks, real name N'ckn'ax, the only non-human on the Leadership Council. He was probably the strangest of them all, because he didn't really have much of a 'face' so much as two glowing slits and what looked like an organic vent for a mouth. All I knew for sure about Nicknacks was that he could shape-shift and was the last surviving member of an alien species that was wiped out a long time ago; beyond that, he was an enigma to me and most of the rest of humanity. I also knew he was on the Council because he had helped the NHA fight against the invading Pokacu aliens during the invasion fifteen years ago and had warned of the incoming invasion years before it happened.

To Nicknacks' left was a man wearing a flight suit and a mask that looked like an eagle's face: High Fly, who could fly at super sonic speeds and speak to birds. Unlike the rest, High Fly was reclining in his seat, like he didn't take any of this very seriously.