The Superhero's Son (Book 6): The Superhero's World Page 18

  The rider didn’t look like the other Pokacu soldiers. It wore a helmet covering its face, though the helmet had a thick red visor that made it look like a machine. It had two normal hands, instead of one normal hand and an organic arm cannon, but it carried a huge sword at its side that looked like it could cut through stone without issue.

  The rider rose from its seat, staring down at us through its visor. I figured this guy was the leader of this force and was probably going to order the others to start attacking. And I wasn’t sure whether Blizzard and I would even survive, because all these guys needed to do was puncture our environs once and let the deadly air of the Mother World do the rest.

  Then, all of a sudden, the rider spoke, in clear English, “Humans. Put down your weapons. You cannot win.”

  I blinked. “You speak English?”

  “Yes,” said the rider. “I learned it from Commander Graleex, whose information on your world allowed us to understand your tongue better. But it doesn’t matter, because you are our prisoners, just as the Mother World desires.”

  “The Mother World wants us as her prisoners?” I said. “Why?”

  “That is not for me or you to know,” said the rider. “Now drop your weapons. Or else I, Captain Arelez, Captain of the Mother World Guard, will remove them for you.”

  I was about to go tell him to do something inappropriate, but then I caught myself. I had no doubt that the Pokacu could take us down if they wanted. What was the point in resisting? It would just waste time and might even get us killed. Besides, they just wanted to take us prisoner; maybe we’d be able to escape later.

  So I dropped my bomb staff onto the ship, followed shortly by Blizzard, who did the same thing. Then Captain Arelez jumped off his mount and landed before us. When he stood up to his full height, he was at least a head taller than both of us, and a good deal bulkier.

  “Now, hold out your hands so we can cuff them,” said Arelez. “If you refuse, I will be forced to beat you both into submission, though the Mother World said that she wanted you in one piece.”

  “You won’t be able to take us prisoner,” I said. “We’re not alone. We have a friend in this ship who can take you and your little Guard down with no problem.”

  “Would that ‘friend’ happen to be a traitorous Pokacu support class member you humans refer to as Nicknacks?” said Arelez.

  I looked at him in surprise. “Yeah. How’d you know?”

  The sound of tearing metal and flesh made me and Blizzard jump and look around. We didn’t see anything, however, until a portion of the ship nearby was torn open from the inside, creating a large hole in the roof. Then two Pokacu soldiers—using some kind of hover boots—floated out of the hole, carrying a chained Nicknacks between them. Nicknacks had some bruises on his face and he was still conscious, but it was pretty obvious that he wasn’t going to be fighting back anytime soon.

  “Nick?” I said in horror. I looked at Arelez again. “What did you do to him?”

  “I had some of my men break into the ship while we talked,” said Arelez. “They took him by surprise and managed to drag him out of the ship. I suppose he could still be a threat, but the Mother World told me to spare him, too, so he will have to remain alive for now.”

  I looked back over at Nicknacks. He raised his head and said, in a weak voice, “Bolt … Blizzard … don’t give up …”

  “Don’t give up?” Arelez repeated. “I suppose they could do that, but then we’d have to get violent, and the Mother World wouldn’t like that. Of course, you aren’t her children, so she might tolerate a bit of roughing you three up if necessary.”

  My hands tightened into fists. I thought about just going all out with my powers, taking down every last one of these bastards and then taking the bomb staffs and blowing up the planet with them.

  On the other hand, even with my super speed, they might still beat me. They just needed to hit me once with their blue glue or puncture my environ once and I would be finished. And with dozens of these guys around, there was a very good chance that at least one of them would hit me, even if only by accident.

  Of course, I wasn’t alone. I had Blizzard by my side, and she was very powerful, maybe even more powerful than me. But a glance at Blizzard showed me that she was terrified. Blizzard never handled pressure or stress nearly as well as me; no doubt she was thinking about how hopeless our situation seemed. I worried that her fear might have paralyzed her; she had become more confident recently, particularly in using her powers, but I knew she still struggled with insecurity. Was it worth risking her own life taking her down just to try to beat these guys? And what about Nick? He was in even less condition to fight than Blizzard was.

  As a result, it was clear to me that I had only one option, even though I didn’t want to admit it.

  I said to Arelez, “Okay, you win. Take me and my friends prisoner. We won’t resist.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Nicknacks, Blizzard, and I were cuffed in blue glue; it wasn’t much, but it was more than enough to keep us from escaping or fighting back against our captors efficiently. Thankfully, Blizzard and I were still allowed to wear our environs, but we weren’t allowed to carry our bomb staffs, which were whisked away to parts unknown. I assumed that they were probably going to destroy the staffs or at least put them somewhere we wouldn’t be able to get them very easily.

  We were marched off of the ship, but instead of being taken away to some prison, we were marched toward the energy center itself. That puzzled me, but Arelez did not say why we were going there. The only ‘explanation’ he offered was that the Mother World told him to take us there, which was hardly much of an explanation, if you ask me.

  Anyway, we walked at a brisk pace, because the soldiers forced us to walk. The gravity of the Mother World wasn’t very noticeable, like Nicknacks had said, but I did feel a little slower, like I was carrying a few small weights on me. It wasn’t painful by any means, but it did make me wonder how this would affect my powers. Would it slow me down if I ran? Would it make it harder for me to fly? I wish I knew, but with the Pokacu soldiers looking more than ready to murder, I knew I wouldn’t get a chance to test my powers out anytime soon.

  The ground beneath our feet wasn’t even ground; it was paved completely smoothly. In fact, now that I noticed, it seemed like the entire planet had been smoothed flat. No hills, no mountains, nothing but the energy center, huge structures that were probably factories, and giant ships and mechas everywhere I looked. I wondered if this planet was naturally smooth or if the Pokacu had flattened it out artificially for their own purposes; in either case, it definitely felt weird, like I was walking on the surface of a gigantic ball rather than a planet.

  I looked over my shoulder at Blizzard and Nicknacks, who were walking behind me. Blizzard kept her head down, looking quite afraid, while Nicknacks kept his head up and his expression was pretty blank. I guess Nick was trying to avoid showing any emotion or pain, probably to make sure that Arelez and the soldiers didn’t get any satisfaction from seeing him react. I just felt bad for Blizzard, because I didn’t like seeing her like that, but for the moment there was nothing I could do to help her. All I could do was keep walking in the direction that the Pokacu were pushing us, toward the energy center, which grew larger and larger the closer we walked to it.

  Finally, after half an hour or so of walking, we arrived at an entrance to the center, which was currently closed. One of the lead soldiers inputted a code into what looked like an organic keypad, which caused the doors to slide open. Blizzard, Nicknacks, and I were forced inside, which turned out to be some kind of elevator, and were then followed immediately by a dozen well-armed Pokacu soldiers and Captain Arelez, who surrounded us in an obvious attempt to make sure we didn’t try to escape.

  When the doors closed, another Pokacu soldier pressed a button near the doors and I immediately felt the elevator start to go down. I didn’t know where we were going and, based on Nick’s blank expression, neither did he. But
I thought I noticed a hint of worry in Nick’s face, like he was starting to suspect where we were being taken and he didn’t like it.

  The soldiers didn’t bother to even hint at where they were taking us. Given that they had said they weren’t going to kill us, I assumed that they were probably going to torture us. Or maybe they were going to force us to talk and give them some important information that they wanted about Earth. In either case, I figured it wasn’t going to be very good for any of us.

  As the elevator descended, deeper and deeper into the planet’s crust, I thought about Mom. If my chances of finding and rescuing Mom had been small before, they were practically nonexistent now. How could I rescue Mom if I couldn’t even rescue myself? Maybe it didn’t even matter. With our bombs confiscated from us, we couldn’t blow up the Mother World, which meant that Earth was going to be destroyed by the Pokacu. That meant that our mission was a failure and everyone I knew and loved was going to die.

  My depressing thoughts were interrupted by the elevator coming to a sudden halt, followed by the screeching of the doors opening. Immediately, the soldiers forced me, Blizzard, and Nicknacks to walk out of the elevator.

  We emerged out onto an absolutely massive underground chamber, which was so huge and dark that I couldn’t even see the ceiling above or the floor below. In fact, there wasn’t even really a ‘floor.’ Just a huge, massive drop on either side of the narrow walkway that we walked upon, which made me feel sick even though I could fly and so wouldn’t be in trouble if I accidentally fell in.

  But it wasn’t totally dark. Large, green pulsing tubes could be seen along the walls, which appeared to have some kind of glowing green energy flowing through them. The air was pretty dry, but there was a tingle in the air that felt like electricity, as though I had stepped into the middle of a huge thunderstorm. Not only that, but it felt like something was watching us, as though there was a creature hiding just out of sight somewhere in the shadows around us.

  At the end of the walkway was a gigantic pillar of green energy, flowing through an equally gigantic glass tube that went straight up through the ceiling. Its flow did not slow down, which made me wonder if that thing was drawing Core energy from the planet; if so, I was astonished at how fast it kept drawing the energy and yet never slowed down, as if there was a limitless amount of energy that it could draw from its reserves.

  My friends and I were forced down the walkway at gun point, with Captain Arelez leading the way. I glanced over my shoulder at Nicknacks, who for the first time was now openly displaying fear. He seemed to know where we were, but I didn’t ask him where we were because I was afraid that the Pokacu would just shove me off the walkway for daring to speak without their permission.

  Finally, we reached the end of the walkway, which ended at a wide-open platform that thankfully had railings. Here, the soldiers rearranged themselves until they completely surrounded us, while Captain Arelez approached the huge energy pillar directly before us, which was so huge that it made even New York City’s biggest skyscrapers look like tiny toys.

  “Mother World,” said Captain Arelez, raising his hands. “I, Captain Arelez, have arrived with the prisoners you desire.”

  “Thank you, Captain,” said a voice that seemed to come from everywhere at once. “You are a good child, very obedient. You have done good work.”

  “Thank you, Mother World,” said Captain Arelez, bowing at the energy pillar. “Do you still need my assistance?”

  “Yes,” said the pillar, which I now realized was the Mother World herself. “Stay here with your men. I do not want the prisoners getting brave.”

  “Yes, Mother World,” said Captain Arelez, bowing again.

  He stepped aside, his arms at his sides, while the energy pillar continued to swirl. Then a face started to form within the energy pillar, but it hardly looked human. It looked like the face of a Pokacu, if slightly less detailed than an actual one, its eyes looking down on all of us with nothing but naked contempt.

  “So these are the three who were trying to kill me,” said the Mother World. “How pathetic. You should know that it is impossible to kill a planet.”

  “We’re not afraid of you,” I said. I didn’t know why I said it; maybe because I didn’t want the Mother World to get any ideas. “We just came here to defend our world against you and your ‘children.’ You don’t scare us.”

  “I see that humans are just as irrational as Graleex reported,” said the Mother World. “You clearly don’t understand what I am.”

  “I do,” I said. “You’re nothing more than a genocidal war-mongering monster.”

  “No, I’m not,” said the Mother World. “I am the air you breathe, the ground you walk upon, even the gravity keeping you from flying into the airless depths of space. If I wanted, I could kill all three of you with but a mere thought and there is not a thing you could do about it. Observe.”

  Instantly, the floor beneath one of the Pokacu soldiers opened up. The soldier didn’t even get a chance to scream before it fell straight through the hole and soon disappeared out of sight beneath the shadows below.

  “See?” said the Mother World. “Your arrogance is unwarranted.”

  “Then why haven’t you?” I said. “Why haven’t you killed us already?”

  “Because I wanted to see some of these masked humans up close myself,” said the Mother World. “It was your people who beat back the first invasion, the first invasion in my history to have completely and utterly failed. Of course, I am going to fix that soon enough. Soon, your world will fall beneath the overwhelming power of my armies, just as countless others have before you, and countless more will in the future.”

  “You won’t succeed,” I said. “We’ll stop you.”

  A bellowing, echoing laugh came from the Mother World. It sounded like it was right up against my ear and yet also in the distance. “Believe what you will, but your world will be cleansed whether you like it or not. I do find it strange, however, that you seem so arrogant when you have so little power.”

  “Cleansed?” I said. “What are you talking about?”

  But the Mother World seemed to ignore me. She shifted her attention to Nicknacks, who stood to my right, and said, “And you are the traitor that foiled our original invasion. I won’t even dignify you by calling you by your proper name. You are nothing more than a disobedient son, one who must be punished.”

  Nicknacks met the Mother World’s gaze with no fear in his eyes. “You are not my mother; at least, not anymore. I’ve made my peace with the knowledge that I will no longer be accepted by you or my fellow Pokacu soldiers.”

  “You still defy me, even when you have no power on which to base your ridiculous assertions,” said the Mother World. “I think you’ve spent far too much time among these defiant humans. Your arrogance is quite unbecoming of a child of mine.”

  “Arrogance or not, that is the reality of my current situation,” said Nicknacks. “I would rather die fighting by the side of the humans than by helping you destroy yet another world.”

  “Destroy? Is that what you think I am doing?” said the Mother World. “I am not destroying worlds. I am cleansing them.”

  “Cleansing?” Blizzard repeated, though she sounded very frightened when she said that. “Cleansing them of what?”

  “Of you,” said the Mother World. “Or, rather, beings like you. The ‘inhabitants’ of the worlds, who populate their surfaces, steal their resources, and treat them as worthless.”

  “What are you talking about?” I said.

  “You still don’t understand,” said the Mother World. “But I do. I understand that beings like you humans are an infestation that must be wiped out totally in order for these worlds to be free and have dignity.”

  “Dignity?” I repeated. I exchanged a quick puzzled glance with Blizzard.

  “Allow me to explain,” said the Mother World. “As you know, this planet is my body, it is me. Do you understand that?”

  “Yeah,” I said
. “But—”

  “How would you feel if your own body was covered with these disgusting, ugly, small and insignificant creatures that did not take good care of it?” the Mother World interrupted. “These creatures will take your resources, turn you into a hollow husk of your former self, and never even apologize for it. It is a great injustice, though I can see that the concept of justice is foreign to you humans.”

  “Wait, are you saying that humans are like disgusting creatures that steal from Earth?” I said. “Is that right?”

  “Not just humans,” said the Mother World. “All species on every planet in the universe that I have wiped out. Each one developed their ‘civilization,’ never taking into account what the planet itself wanted and abusing their planet every time.”

  Suddenly, it all clicked. The Mother World was a sentient planet that thought that other planets were sentient. She did not seem to understand that she was the only sentient planet in the universe. It was a bizarre thought, but also the only one that made sense. And based on the rapidly understanding expressions of both Blizzard and Nicknacks, I could see they were coming to the same conclusions as me.

  “That was how the Pokacu once were,” the Mother World continued. “They built civilizations, stole my resources, and treated me like nothing. I tolerated it at first because they were so tiny and unnoticeable, but once their numbers grew, I wiped out their civilizations. I would have wiped them all out, too, if I had not realized that I could use them to cleanse other worlds from the disgusting creatures that steal their resources and treat them so badly, thus freeing them from destruction.”

  I looked at the Pokacu soldiers standing around us. Not a single one looked shocked to hear that their ancestors’ civilizations had been totally wiped out by their ‘mother.’ Either they really didn’t care that they had been enslaved by their own planet or they were so thoroughly brainwashed at this point that they just didn’t understand what she was saying. Then again, she was speaking English, so that may have been another reason why they didn’t react to what she said.