The Superhero's Strike Read online

  “Start from the beginning,” I said. “When did Dizzy first disappear?”

  “One week ago,” said Strike. “She was in the New Heroes’ base in California—you know, the underground one—with me and the rest of the team. We just got back to base after a long day helping rebuild some buildings in San Francisco and Dizzy, as usual, went to bed first. She’s not much of a night owl, you know.”

  I nodded. “Continue. I’m listening.”

  A cold winter breeze blew through, causing Strike’s cape to flutter behind him, though he did not seem to take notice of it. “I didn’t think much of it at the time, but then things got … weird. During the middle of the night, the security systems in our base suddenly went crazy. Alarms blared and lights flashed and our computers informed us that an intruder had been spotted on the premises. So Slime and I went to check it out, but when we got to the main floor, we didn’t find any intruders.”

  “None at all?”

  “None at all,” Strike confirmed. “I had the whole team search the entire base for any intruders, but we didn’t find anything out of the ordinary. We even checked the doors to see if any of the locks were broken, but they weren’t. So we dismissed the alarms as a glitch or something. I even made a note to have Tech Wiz—the INJ’s main tech guy—come down in the morning and audit the system to make sure everything was okay.”

  “What did you do after that?”

  “Went back to bed,” said Strike with a yawn. “The rest of the night went by without any incident. It wasn’t until we woke up the next morning that we discovered something bad happened.”

  “And what happened?”

  “Dizzy was missing,” said Strike. He ran a hand through his short, blonde hair. “When she didn’t come down for breakfast, I went up to her room and found it was empty. Her bed was still there and all her personal belongings, but she herself was nowhere to be seen. I had the team search the base again, just to make sure that she wasn’t simply on one of the other floors, but we didn’t find her anywhere. We even searched the immediate area outside the base, but still didn’t find anything.”

  “Uh oh,” I said. “Did you tell anyone about this?”

  “I informed the INJ,” said Strike. “In fact, I personally called the Midnight Menace himself to let him know what happened. He told me he would put together a team to search for her, but given how short-handed we are with the reconstruction of San Francisco, well, I thought it would be a while before he could do that. So I took a leaf out of your book and decided to do it myself.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “My book? What do you mean?”

  “You’ve got a reputation among the INJ for acting against authority sometimes,” said Strike. “Some guys even think you’d make a better INJ member than NHA member, but it doesn’t matter. I normally don’t act independently like this, but Dizzy’s kidnapping really worries me and I want to find her no matter what.”

  I could understand that. If Blizzard had been kidnapped, I would definitely search for her myself, regardless of what anyone else thought. “But what makes you think the NHA is behind her disappearance? That seems totally out of character for the NHA.”

  “It might not be the NHA itself, but one of your teammates,” said Strike. “You see, when I went to Dizzy’s room, I found something quite … interesting. Let me show you.”

  Strike put a hand in his pocket and pulled out a small object, which he held out for me to look at. I recognized it right away: It was a Star Caller, a small, star-shaped communication device which the NHA used to use for communication between members before they were retired in favor of the more portable earcoms. It looked like a combination between walkie-talkies and old-fashioned cell phones from the 80s and 90s.

  “Is that a Star Caller?” I said in surprise. “Man, I haven’t seen one of those in ages.”

  “It is,” said Strike, lowering his hand. “The Star Caller devices were only used by you guys. The INJ never used them because we had our own communication devices for our teammates. That’s the main reason I assumed an NHA member must be behind this.”

  “But we don’t use them anymore,” I said. I gestured at my ears. “We use earcoms now, which are a lot more convenient for communication. I mean, I guess it’s possible someone in the NHA still has a Star Caller lying around, but it’s a really weird thing to take with you to a kidnapping.”

  “Unless the kidnapper wasn’t alone and needed to communicate with help on the outside,” said Strike. He looked at the Star Caller again with a troubled expression. “If so, then it might not just be one NHA member, but multiple.”

  “Let’s not jump to any conclusions,” I said, holding up my hands. “There’s still a lot we don’t know. Why did you come all the way here to Virginia in particular, by the way? Does the INJ have a base out here, too, that I’m not aware of?”

  Strike shook his head. “No. The INJ is primarily focused on the West Coast and the surrounding area. We let you guys deal with the East Coast and the areas around it. I came out here because I checked the Star Caller’s ID—”

  “ID?” I said. “What do you mean?”

  Strike looked at me as if I had just asked a really dumb question. “All Star Caller devices are registered to specific users, including their personal information like where they live, phone numbers, and so on. You didn’t know that?”

  I smiled sheepishly. “Like I said, Star Callers were phased out when I joined the Young Neos. I only used mine once or twice. I had no idea they were registered.”

  “Ah,” said Strike, nodding. “I see. Well, now you do, although I doubt that information will be very helpful for you.”

  I found it weird that Strike, who wasn’t in the NHA at all, apparently understood how Star Callers worked better than me. I always knew Strike was smart, but I didn’t know he was good with tech, too. “So, what did you find?”

  Strike held up the Star Caller again. “According to the Star Caller’s registration, it was registered to a man named Conan X. Longworth, from Showdown, Virginia, who is perhaps better known as the NHA agent and superhero Phaser.”

  “Never heard of him,” I said. “Is he around here?”

  Strike lowered the Star Caller again. “I imagine the reason you don’t know him is because he was kicked out of the NHA and became a supervillain.”

  “What?” I said in surprise. “When did that happen? And how do you know this?”

  “I did my research,” said Strike. “I don’t have access to the NHA’s membership database like you, so I used Google to find out more about him. I found some news articles from the turn of the century which state that Phaser was once the most famous superhero from Virginia before the NHA discovered that he was using his powers to rob banks without them knowing. They revoked his membership and kicked him out, so he became a supervillain instead and made it his mission to destroy the NHA.”

  “Bizarre,” I said. “How come no one told me about that?”

  “Probably because Phaser is also dead,” said Strike. “I found another article that states he was killed four years ago by an NHA agent named Brains after a failed bank heist. Supposedly, he was killed right here in Showdown, his hometown, which was is kind of ironic when you think about it.”

  “Brains killed him?” I said. I pointed at the roof of the Braindome we stood on. “Brains is here. This is actually his base in Showdown. He might be able to tell us about this.”

  “That’s another reason I came here,” said Strike. “I wanted to talk to Brains, so it looks like I got lucky. He might be able to tell me about Phaser and the circumstances surrounding his death because the articles I read were pretty vague on the details.”

  I frowned. “This doesn’t make any sense. How did the Star Caller of a long-dead supervillain end up in your base?”

  “I don’t know,” said Strike. “That’s one of the reasons I want to talk to Brains. He’s the one who killed Phaser so he might be able to answer my questions about him.

  “Well, I
don’t see any reason to delay,” I said. “Let’s head down into the Braindome and see what we can find out.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Half an hour later, Strike, Brains, Vanish, and I sat around the table in the conference room of the Braindome. It had been easy to call Brains and Vanish for a private meeting because as I suspected, they both wanted to thank Strike for his help in saving that airplane. They thanked me as well, but it sure seemed like they thanked Strike even more, which would have made me jealous under other circumstances, but I was too intrigued by this recent odd turn of events to care about that. I wanted to find out the truth behind Dizzy’s kidnapping and if this Phaser guy was indeed related to it almost as much as Strike.

  As Strike explained the situation to Brains and Vanish, I paid closer attention to their expressions than usual. I wondered why neither of them had thought fit to tell me about the Phaser situation. Granted, it did happen four years ago, but I had never heard of an NHA agent going rogue before. Heck, I didn’t even know it was possible. Then again, it wasn’t like I had never met a hero who became a villain before, so maybe I shouldn’t have been so shocked.

  “That is why I am here,” Strike finished. “I hope you understand the situation now and will be able to help me with it.”

  “That’s awful, Strike,” said Vanish. “We’ll definitely try to help you find your girlfriend, especially if she’s somewhere here in Showdown. Right, Ryan?”

  Brains nodded. “Of course. You may not be a member of the NHA like us, but the NHA and INJ are still close allies. We’ll help you however we can.”

  “Great,” said Strike. He held out Phaser’s Star Caller. “This is the only piece of evidence I was able to find. It’s a Star Caller. More specifically, it’s a Star Caller that belonged to Phaser.”

  Brains’ face became pale as soon as Strike mentioned Phaser’s name, while Vanish cleared her throat and looked very uncomfortable. I guess they hadn’t been expecting him to say that, which made me wonder how bad Phaser must have been for both of them to react that way.

  “You said that belonged to Phaser?” said Brains doubtfully. “How do you know that?”

  “I checked its user registration,” said Strike. “It says it belonged to him. But if you doubt me, you can check for yourself if you want.”

  “No, no, I believe you,” said Brains, holding up one hand. “I can tell you’re telling the truth. It’s just that I haven’t heard Phaser’s name in years, so it was a big surprise to hear you mention it out of the blue like that.”

  “Four years, right?” said Vanish, looking at Brains uncertainly. “That’s how long ago it was?”

  “Yeah,” said Brains, nodding. He rubbed his forehead. “Four years ago … man, time sure does fly, doesn’t it?”

  “Yeah, I guess so,” I said. I leaned forward across the table, looking at Brains, who sat across from me in a comfy office chair. “How come you never told me about Phaser? Heck, how come you never told me that the NHA has had trouble with traitors in the past?”

  “The term for those kinds of superhumans is ‘turner,’” said Vanish, folding her arms across her chest. “That’s what we call superhero who become supervillains. They’re pretty rare, though, because most superheroes don’t want to become villains and vice versa.”

  “That’s why Phaser’s betrayal was so shocking to us at the time,” said Brains. He looked down at his hands on the table and shook his head. “Not a betrayal, not really. It was a revelation of his true nature. He was always a criminal scumbag who used his status as a NHA member to deflect attention away from his own criminal misdeeds. We were just too dumb to notice it until it was almost too late to do anything about it.”

  “We’ve gotten better about weeding out those kinds of guys before they join the organization, though,” Vanish added. “Haven’t had another traitor like him since.”

  “What about Thaumaturge?” I asked pointedly. “And the last incarnation of the Young Neos before my team?

  Vanish scratched her chin sheepishly. “Oh. Right. Aside from them, though, we’ve been careful about vetting potential members before signing them on.”

  “Then why did I find Phaser’s Star Caller in our base?” said Strike. He looked down at the communication device in his hands, a frown on his face. “It doesn’t make sense.”

  “Could it have been planted there by someone?” I said. “Like, say, a supervillain who wants to manipulate the NHA and INJ into fighting each other again?”

  I was thinking of an event that happened last year at the Neohero Summit, a conference where superheroes from all over the world gather to talk to each other about the latest news and events in the superhero community and the world at large. A certain supervillain had nearly succeeded in manipulating the NHA and INJ into declaring war on each other and was only stopped at the last minute by me and Blizzard. Strike had also helped and I could see in his eyes that he was remembering the same thing.

  “I wouldn’t rule it out,” said Brains, folding his arms across his chest. “There are more than a few supervillains out there who would like nothing more than to see the NHA and INJ fight each other. If that were to happen, it would leave a power vacuum for any wannabee supervillain to take advantage of.”

  “I don’t know,” said Strike doubtfully. “If whoever kidnapped Dizzy is trying to incite war between the NHA and INJ, then he’s not doing a very good job at it, because my first thought was to talk to you guys and find out if you knew anything, rather than declare war on the NHA or anything like that.”

  “I didn’t say it was an intelligent supervillain,” I said. “For every Mastermind, there’re at least ten Mimics. Besides, it’s just a theory. Maybe Dizzy’s kidnapper was someone else.”

  “What I find weird about this is Phaser’s Star Caller being there at all,” said Brains, stroking his chin. “When the Star Callers were retired early last year and replaced with earcoms, all NHA members were required to turn their Star Callers in. I was told that all of the returned Star Callers were going to be recycled, yet here we have one Star Caller that has clearly not been recycled.”

  “Did you guys manage to retrieve Phaser’s Star Caller after you killed him?” I said. “Maybe he never returned his at all and it’s just been floating out there in the world passing from person to person.”

  “No, I don’t recall retrieving Phaser’s Star Caller after he died,” said Brains, shaking his head. “Honey, do you remember if we did or not?”

  “I don’t think we did,” said Vanish slowly. She nodded quickly. “Yes, I remember. We were searching his body but couldn’t find his Star Caller. We assumed he destroyed it at some point to keep us from tracking him with it—you could track Star Callers—but apparently, we were wrong.”

  “Why didn’t you guys try to track it?” I said. “Seems like an oversight.”

  Brains shrugged. “They were cheap and easy to make, so losing one wasn’t a big loss. Plus, it isn’t like Star Callers are useful for anything other than long distance communication. Losing one isn’t a big deal.”

  “I bet it ended up on the black market,” said Vanish. She leaned back in her chair, looking thoughtful. “Happens every now and then. NHA technology is pretty popular on the black market because it’s good and rare. I’ve heard Star Callers can go for over a thousand dollars just for one.”

  “So, according to you guys, a Star Caller belonging to a dead ex-NHA member has just been floating around in the black market for almost two decades and then it just randomly popped up on the other side of the country in a girl’s room?” I said skeptically. “I’ve been involved in a lot of weird things, but this is definitely one of the weirdest situations I’ve been in.”

  “Weird to you, maybe, but serious to me,” said Strike. He put a hand over his heart. “Every second we waste here is another second Dizzy might be harmed. There has to be something we can do.”

  Brains stroked his chin. “The only suggestion I can make is that you might want to go check
Phaser’s grave in the Showdown City Graveyard.”

  “Why?” I said. “If Phaser is dead, then I’m not sure what good checking his grave would do.”

  “It’s just a suggestion,” said Brains with another shrug. “I wish I could give you a better one, but that’s all I can suggest. Phaser might be dead, but it is pretty clear that someone is trying to pin Dizzy’s disappearance on him.”

  “I suppose it can’t hurt to look,” said Strike. “Not like we have any other leads at the moment, right? Besides, you don’t have to come if you don’t want to, Bolt.”

  “No, I’ll go if you’re going,” I insisted. “I don’t know Dizzy as well as you, but I consider you guys friends and I always help my friends.”

  “Then what are we waiting for?” said Strike. He stood up. “Let’s go now. We have no time to lose.”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  It didn’t take Strike and I very long to reach the Showdown City Graveyard. It was located near the outskirts of the city, which would have been a fifteen or twenty minute drive, but we didn’t drive. I flew using my flight powers, while Strike used his magnetic abilities to lift himself up on a piece of metal like a surfboard. I wondered if he surfed because he certainly treated the piece of metal like a surfboard as we flew through the air, his cape flapping behind him while we soared.

  Quite a few people looked up at us in surprise as we flew, but it seemed to me that most of the pedestrians on the streets below seemed more surprised by Strike’s appearance than my own. I guessed that the news about Strike saving that airplane and all the passengers on board must have spread already. It was kind of surprising how fast news spread, but that’s the Internet for you.

  So it took us about five minutes to reach the Showdown City Graveyard. As we landed inside the graveyard, I looked around at our surroundings just to make sure we were alone.