Dimensions (The Young Neos Book 4)

  Contents

  Title Page

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Glossary

  About the Author

  DIMENSIONS

  Book Four of the Young Neos

  Lucas Flint

  Published by Secret Identity Books. An imprint of Annulus Publishing.

  Copyright © Lucas Flint 2017. All rights reserved.

  Contact: luke@lucasflint.com

  Cover design by Damonza

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, send an email to the above contact.

  CHAPTER ONE

  Treehugger ran for her life. She couldn’t see where she was going; the eldritch dimension that she’d ended up inside didn’t have much light and she had lost her flashlight at some point, though she didn’t know when. Not that it would have helped her. She had caught a glimpse of the thing in the tree trunk—a brief glimpse of dead red eyes, undulating tentacles, a smoke-like substance rising from what may or may not have been its nostrils—and she had known, deep in her heart, that she needed to run and never, ever look back.

  The problem, of course, was that Treehugger had no idea where she was going, but that didn’t matter to her. She just ran and ran as fast as she could. She was a pretty fast runner; not as fast as Bolt or White, of course, due to her lack of super speed, but she had run track when she had been in school and so she was in pretty good shape. Even so, Treehugger had the feeling that the thing was right behind her the whole time, even though she couldn’t hear footsteps behind her. It was possible that the thing was not chasing her—it didn’t seem to have legs or anything else it could use to walk—but there were all kinds of strange things in this place, things that loved to feast on human blood and dreams, and so it was entirely possible that her earlier scream had drawn the attention of something even worse than that thing in the tree trunk. Or maybe the oppressive air of this dimension had finally caused Treehugger’s mind to snap.

  Regardless, Treehugger just ran. She ran until her legs started screaming in protest, ran until her lungs nearly burst, and she would have kept running even if her legs fell off and her lungs exploded, but at that moment she tripped over something on the ground and fell flat on her face. The impact of the fall made her senses go crazy, but she sensed something evil nearby and she immediately jumped back to her feet. She was just about to continue running, but then she realized that the evil presence she sensed was nearly upon her.

  That was when Treehugger noticed something nearby, an outline in the shadows that looked like a set of large boulders. There was a gap between them that she thought she could slip between; indeed, the boulders looked like a good place to hide. Because Treehugger didn’t think she could outrun the presence, she dashed over to the boulders and hid between them. She fell on her behind, her back against the boulder, and started breathing hard, but quietly, because she didn’t want the evil presence or the thing or whatever it was to find her. She pulled her legs up to her chest, her heart beating like crazy as she sat very, very still.

  A second later, something like a powerful wind blew through. But it wasn’t a normal wind; it felt like an evil intelligence, like the sweeping sensors of a drone searching for its next target. Treehugger had never felt anything quite like it, but that described a lot of the things that Treehugger had encountered in this place. She nonetheless kept her head down and her body still, expecting any second now to be discovered by the intelligence and to suffer whatever gruesome fate it had planned for her.

  A few tense seconds later, however, the intelligence passed her over and the wind went with it. But Treehugger still didn’t move for at least a minute; she wanted to make sure that the intelligence was not going to come back or trick her. But it soon became clear that the intelligence was gone, so Treehugger raised her head and leaned back against the boulder, breathing in and out rapidly.

  Now that she had a few moments to sit there and think, the adrenaline that had been pumping through Treehugger’s veins was starting to recede. Tears of stress and pain began to appear at the corners of Treehugger’s eyes. She wiped them away, but they were leaking out anyway. Treehugger had always been one of the more sensitive members of the team, which made her wonder how she had managed to retain her composure so far. She supposed that she just hadn’t had any time to think about it since arriving in this hostile environment.

  But I don’t think I will last much longer, Treehugger thought with a sniffle. I’m all alone in this wretched dimension. All of my friends are a universe away. I would be happy to see even White Lightning now.

  Treehugger glanced at her suit-up watch. As always, it showed a ‘NO SIGNAL’ message. That was not surprising. The suit-up watch was a marvelous invention, but as far as Treehugger knew, its inventor, the deceased superhero Genius, had never managed to build a device capable of inter-dimensional communication. That meant that she couldn’t call for help, nor could the others track her via suit-up watch or earcom.

  I’m going to be stuck here forever, Treehugger thought. I’ll probably die here, too. Even if the monsters in this dimension don’t kill me, I’ll probably die of starvation or thirst eventually. I haven’t found any food or water in this place, and I don’t think such concepts even exist in this dimension. Why, oh why, did I go to the opening of the school? I should have just stayed home on Hero Island. At least then I would have avoided all of this madness.

  Treehugger suddenly felt exhausted. She yawned and closed her eyes. She knew it was dangerous to sleep here, but she was so tired from the events of the past day or so that she needed to sleep more than anything. Besides, the boulders would keep her hidden for a while. She would just doze off for a little while and then resume her search for a way back home after she woke up again.

  Instead of sleeping, however, Treehugger found herself instead starting to reflect on how she got to this point. It had only been hours ago that Treehugger had been on Earth with her friends … or maybe it had been years. Time didn’t seem to operate in this place the same way it did on Earth, no doubt due to the lack of a sun, although there was that blood red moon Treehugger had caught a momentary glimpse of earlier …

  No. Treehugger couldn’t think of that moon. Otherwise she might lose what little hold on her sanity that she had left.

  Maybe the way back home will be revealed to me if I reflect on how I got here, Treehugger thought. Even if it doesn’t, it might help me go to sleep faster and get a little rest.

  So Treehugger returned to her memories, back to a nice, sunny day, a day that started out like any other, but would end very differently indeed …

  CHAPTER TWO

  Several hours ago …

  “Treehugger, wake up. We’re almost above the school. Don’t you want to see it?”

  Treehugger’s eyes flickered open. She yawned and looked at Shell, who had been the one trying to wa
ke her up. He sat next to her in the Neocopter, the sound of the Neocopter’s whirring blades whupping loudly above them, making Treehugger wonder how she had managed to hear her friend. She nonetheless sat upright in her seat and stretched her arms, saying, “What did you say?”

  “I said, we’re almost at the school,” said Shell. He gestured at the window that stood between them on the wall. “You should look; I would, but I hate heights, although I did take a brief glance outside. It looks amazing.”

  “You mean we’re almost there?” said Treehugger. She sighed in relief. “Finally. I never thought we’d get there.”

  Treehugger turned in her seat and stared out the window. Below, she saw a fairly large campus spread out over the countryside like a blanket. It was difficult to tell what all of the buildings were for, but Treehugger could make out a stadium or coliseum of some sort, a large auditorium that had loads of cars parked in front of it, and several buildings that were either dorms for the students or buildings for the school’s administration. She also spotted an airfield not far from the school itself, where a large plane and big, black helicopter that appeared to belong to the government were landed. She didn’t see too many people out and about, but she figured most of the people here were in the auditorium, where the opening ceremony would begin.

  “Wow, that is big,” said Treehugger. “It’s even bigger than I imagined.”

  “I know,” said Shell. “I think there are only supposed to be two hundred students attending, though. All of this extra room seems kind of unnecessary to me.”

  “Well, considering how all of these students are teenagers with superpowers, they probably just want to make sure that everyone has plenty of room to use their powers,” said Treehugger.

  She looked over her shoulder at the rest of the team. Stinger, who sat on the opposite side of the Neocopter, had his face glued to the window, while Talon and Blizzard were also looking down at the school with interest. Blizzard seemed more interested than Talon, but that made sense, because she was most likely looking for Bolt, who had gone ahead of the team about a week ago to help put the finishing touches on the Theodore Jason Academy for Young Superhumans. White had also gone with him, which was fine by Treehugger; she still didn’t entirely trust White or feel very comfortable around him.

  The school was supposed to open much sooner than it ended up doing, but there had apparently been a lot of delays and funding issues as the leaders of the Neohero Alliance and the Independent Neoheroes for Justice debated exactly who was paying for what. Treehugger didn’t know much about these funding issues, but she was glad they had managed to come to some sort of agreement. The school was going to be jointly owned and operated by the two major superhero organizations, with members from both organizations working as faculty and staff in order to teach young superhumans how to use their powers responsibly.

  Because today was the opening day of the Academy, Treehugger knew that there were going to be a lot of guests visiting. There was the families of the students, of course, and reporters from the various major news outlets covering the event, but if Treehugger’s observation of that helicopter was correct, then the government was also here, or at least a few government officials. To the best of Treehugger’s knowledge, the G-Men had nothing to do with the creation of the school, so she wondered why they were here. She made a mental note to ask Bolt about that when they landed.

  Sitting back down in her chair, Treehugger said, “I wonder if we’ll get to go on a tour of the campus before the school officially opens. I’d love to see it all, wouldn’t you, Shell?”

  Shell nodded, though he didn’t seem to be paying much attention to her at the moment. “Yeah, that would be cool. I think I remember Bolt mentioning that he was going to take us on a tour of the place before he and White left, but I don’t know for sure.”

  Treehugger wondered what had Shell so distracted. He had been like this ever since he and Blizzard clashed with that Venetian back in Phoenix over a month ago now. She had initially assumed that it was his new powers that had him distracted, as he was still trying to master them, even though he seemed to have an unusually good control over them already. But now Treehugger wondered if Shell had another reason for his distraction, as he had plenty of time to practice and master his new powers. She considered asking him, but at the moment she was more interested in seeing the campus grounds than in asking him. Besides, Shell had a way of avoiding answering questions he didn’t want to answer and Treehugger was just not in the mood to get non-answers from him.

  So Treehugger looked out the window again. This time, she could see where they were going to land. She had originally thought they were going to land in the nearby airfield, but instead they were landing on top of one of the buildings. This building appeared to be a three story dorm of sorts, painted in a bright shade of red, with a wide helicopter landing space painted on its roof. She also spotted two identical figures standing on the roof, one in red and black, the other in blue and white: Bolt and White Lightning, who were watching the Neocopter as it drew closer and closer to the roof below. As the Neocopter descended, Treehugger could even see the brothers’ hair as it was whipped about by the wind from the chopper’s blades. Bolt was merely waving up at them, while White was hopping up and down like he was trying to make sure everyone saw him. It was kind of endearing, but Treehugger still felt a little nervous watching him even from a distance.

  The Neocopter landed on the helicopter space so smoothly that Treehugger didn’t even feel it touch the roof. She and the rest of the team quickly undid their seatbelts and jumped out of the Neocopter just as Bolt and White walked up to them.

  “Bolt!” said Blizzard. She ran over and practically tackled Bolt, hugging him so tightly that it looked like she was squeezing the air out of him. “Oh, Bolt, I missed you so much!”

  “Thanks, Blizzard,” said Bolt in a slightly choked voice. “I missed you, too, but you’re acting like I’d gone to war or something.”

  “I know you were safe, but I still missed you,” said Blizzard, pulling away from him slightly. “Is that such a bad thing?”

  “Of course not,” said Bolt. He hugged her back. “I just don’t like hearing about how worried you were, that’s all.”

  Treehugger always thought that Bolt and Blizzard’s relationship was rather cute, but before she could comment on it, White suddenly said, “Em, did you miss me, too?”

  “Uh, sure, White,” said Blizzard in a very unconvincing voice. “But I knew that Bolt was taking good care of you, since he’s such a good brother.”

  White beamed at Blizzard before looking at the others and saying, “Hi, everyone. Was copter ride fun?”

  “About as fun as usual,” said Stinger with a shrug. “Anyway, when do we get to go on the tour of the school facility?”

  “After the opening ceremony,” Bolt replied, putting an arm around Blizzard’s shoulders. “The opening ceremony is about to start soon. Mecha Knight told me and White to be here to get you guys, so now that we’re all here, let’s head over to the auditorium. That’s where the opening ceremony is going to begin.”

  Bolt turned and walked off toward what looked like an elevator, with Blizzard at his side and White not far behind. The rest of the team followed as well, but Treehugger kept toward the back of the group, trying to put as much distance between herself and White as possible. She supposed that she shouldn’t feel so unsafe around White—after all, he was just as much a member of the team as anyone else—but she remembered too well how he used to be before he turned good and how unstable he still sometimes acted. The entire team still had problems with White, but Treehugger had more problems with him than most, mostly because of her own fear of electricity and White’s strength. Part of her feared that White could accidentally harm her, so she usually avoided being alone with him, especially in enclosed spaces.

  It was probably not an entirely rational fear; after all, Bolt had the same powers as White, if not stronger, and yet she didn’t feel afr
aid or timid around him at all. Then again, Bolt had not been tortured and experimented upon by the government in complete isolation from the rest of society for his whole life. White had much better control over his powers, perhaps, than he did when he first joined the team, but Treehugger still felt unsafe around him just the same.

  That’s why she found herself feeling anxious when she realized that they were going to go into that elevator. Bolt pressed the down arrow on the elevator, causing Treehugger to glance at White, who was standing with his arms across his chest, although he seemed to be distracted by a fly buzzing around his head.

  “How has the school been?” said Stinger as they waited for the elevator. “Did you and White do a lot?”

  “We just helped put the finishing touches on a few points that the workers couldn’t easily reach,” said Bolt with a shrug. “A little painting here and there, cleaning up the work sites, and so on.”

  “Yeah,” White chimed in. “Brooms and mops and brushes. Lots of fun.”

  That didn’t exactly sound ‘fun’ to Treehugger, but Bolt kept speaking, saying, “But the real reason they want me here is so I can deliver the commencement speech in the opening ceremony.”

  “You’re going to do public speaking?” said Stinger. “And you aren’t even shaking nervously. Is that another one of your powers? The ability to speak in public without getting afraid?”

  “Funny,” said Bolt, rolling his eyes. “But I actually am nervous. I got the speech prepared and I’ve been practicing it all week, but I have to admit that I still feel a little nervous.”

  “Why do they want you to speak?” said Shell curiously. “Not that I think you’d do a bad job, but I’m just curious why you and not someone else.”

  “It’s because I’m one of the more famous young superhumans,” said Bolt as the elevator dinged and the doors opened. “Lots of the students in the audience already know me. Mecha Knight told me it was because I would be easier to relate to than some older superhuman, but the Headmaster is still going to deliver a speech as well.”