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  And all without my help, Shell thought with a tinge of bitterness. I could have just stayed back at Blizzard’s parents’ house and their chances of beating Doctor Danger wouldn’t have been any worse than they are now.

  Not that Shell was surprised that he had been left behind. Unlike the other Young Neos, Shell didn’t have any cool, flashy, or useful powers. His ‘powers’ only consisted of the hard, impenetrable turtle-like shell on his back; and, while he had received the same combat training that the rest of the team did, his short stature and awkward physique meant that he was never quite as graceful or agile as his friends. He could still hold his own in a fight, but by and large Shell’s talents—if you could even call them that—were primarily mental.

  At least, that was what Shell told himself whenever he began to feel bad about himself, like he did now. He was the smartest member of the team—no point in denying it—but he was not as smart as Genius or other intellectual superheroes, for that matter. Even if he was, Shell didn’t see what was so great about being smart when superheroics, in his experience, depended largely on who had the strongest powers and how good you were at improvising in a frantic situation. It didn’t help that every other member of the Young Neos had a ton of fans on superhero sites such as Neo Ranks, while he had none, at least none that he knew of. That Bolt had almost forgotten to give him a role in the plan was just a reflection of how Shell’s life in general was.

  Shell didn’t hate his teammates; however, he always did feel a bit inferior to Bolt, for example, who was taller, stronger, and more powerful than him, not to mention far more popular with the girls and with people in general.

  Even his dad was cool, Shell thought, leaning on the edge of the roof, feeling the cold air coming off of Blizzard’s ice slide, which felt nice in the Arizona heat. I mean, his dad was one of the Founders of the Neohero Alliance, for Pete’s sake. I wish my dad was that cool.

  Shell shook his head. He didn’t like thinking about Father. He always felt so embarrassed, because Father was just a very embarrassing guy. He had never told his friends who his dad was, and anytime the subject came up, he was always very good at changing the topic to something else before he had to tell anyone too much. The fewer people who knew about Father and Shell’s connection to him, the better. Shell didn’t want to be associated with his Father, at least in the public’s eye. He feared it would make him even less popular than he already was.

  Of course, my popularity is already at the bottom of the barrel, so I doubt it could go much lower, Shell thought.

  Shell looked at his hands. He was the youngest member of the team, which meant that he still had time to develop new powers, but it seemed unlikely to Shell that he would. He was worried that he would always remain scrawny and weak. Mecha Knight, the supervisor of the Young Neos, had told him to be patient, but Shell sometimes wished there was some way to give himself a boost in power. Superpowers weren’t like muscles; you couldn’t develop them through training alone. They were more like growth spurts, with everyone having a different rate at which they gained their powers.

  Meanwhile, Bolt got his powers all at once, Shell thought. As did the others. At this rate, I will probably develop the ability to turn my skin green when I turn eighteen or something useless like that.

  Shell’s thoughts were interrupted when he caught a glimpse of something shiny out of the corner of his eye. He looked to his left, but at first did not see anything except more buildings and cars. He initially assumed that he must have seen the Arizona sun reflecting off the glass of a car or a skyscraper, but then he saw something move between two nearby buildings. It was large and metal, but it moved too fast for him to see it fully. He thought he caught a glimpse of wings, too, but he wasn’t sure about that.

  Whatever it is, I’d better let the team know about it through the earcoms, Shell thought, reaching up toward his earcom. Especially if it is with Doctor Danger.

  Unfortunately, before Shell could tap his earcom to send a message to everyone else, the thing shot out from between the two nearby skyscrapers instantly. It moved fast, much too fast for Shell’s eyes to follow, but he could tell that it was heading straight toward Bolt and Blizzard, who were too busy fighting Doctor Danger to notice.

  “Bolt, Blizzard!” Shell shouted, forgetting to use the earcom. “Watch out!”

  But neither of his friends noticed his warning or the fast moving object until it was too late. Bolt did, however, stop in midair to look at the object; unfortunately, that was the wrong move to make, because the object slammed into him with enough strength to send Bolt crashing into the street. Bolt crashed into the street so hard that he actually created a small crater, where he lay very still, although he appeared to be more unconscious than dead.

  As for Blizzard, she stopped shooting ice bursts at Doctor Danger long enough to shout Bolt’s name in horror, but the object—a machine, Shell could now tell, even though it was moving very fast—immediately shot what appeared to be a cable at her. The cable wrapped around Blizzard, securely tying her arms and legs to her body, causing her to fall over onto the street. She struggled to break free, but then she screamed in pain, as if the cable had electrocuted her or something, which caused her to stop moving, although she was still sweating fiercely in the hot sun.

  As for the machine, it had finally stopped long enough for Shell to see it. The machine landed on the street in between Blizzard and Bolt, which allowed Shell to see that the machine vaguely resembled a gigantic condor. It towered over Blizzard, Bolt, and Doctor Danger, its gigantic metal wings reflecting the sun almost blindingly bright. It also had laser cannons on its shoulders, while its beak looked sharp enough to cut through steel. Its glowing red eyes looked down at the two superheroes it had just knocked out, like it was trying to see if they were dead or not.

  “Excellent job, Condor!” Doctor Danger shouted, his voice loud enough that Shell could hear him even from a distance. “You defeated those two brats like it was no one’s business! Of course, I shouldn’t be surprised, because you are my greatest creation. Soon, the entire world will tremble at the name of Doctor Danger and his Condor Bot!”

  Shell gasped. He looked to the other side of the street, hoping that the rest of the team had noticed, but it looked like White, Stinger, Talon, and Treehugger were busy trying to keep a particularly burnt building from collapsing on the civilians who were fleeing it. It seemed unlikely that any of those four would be able to get to the Condor in time to stop it from killing Bolt and Blizzard, which almost made Shell despair until he realized that he was close enough to save them.

  But what can I do? Shell thought. That thing is a giant robot and Doctor Danger is no pushover himself.

  Shell decided that the best course of action would be to distract the Condor and Doctor Danger, at least until the rest of the team could back him up. Besides, if he didn’t do anything at all, then Bolt and Blizzard would certainly be killed for sure.

  Jumping on the ice slide that Blizzard had made before, Shell slid down it as fast as he could. Unfortunately, he slid so fast that he didn’t come to a smooth stop and instead shot off the end of the slide. He flew through the air for a second before landing on his shell and rolling head over heels for a second before coming to an ungraceful stop on his stomach, the wind knocked out of his lung from his crash.

  Ugh, Shell thought, rubbing his head, how does Blizzard always make it look so easy? I didn’t know the slide was so slick.

  But then Shell heard the creaking of robotic joints and looked up to see that the Condor was staring at him. Doctor Danger had also taken note of Shell, because he turned to face him, a confused look on his face.

  “Who the hell are you?” said Doctor Danger. “A teenage mutant turtle?”

  Shell scrambled to his feet and struck a fighting pose, trying to look as intimidating as he could, although he sensed that Doctor Danger was more confused than intimidated by his appearance. “No. I’m Shell, one of the Young Neos, and I’m here to save my fri
ends from you.”

  Doctor Danger tilted his head to the side. “Is this supposed to be some kind of a joke? I have heard so much about the Young Neos, but if all they can throw at me is a nerd with a turtle shell on his back, perhaps your team isn’t as strong as everyone says.”

  “Don’t underestimate me,” said Shell, though he couldn’t stop his voice from stuttering slightly. “J-Just because I don’t look like much doesn’t mean I’m not dangerous. You should surrender now if you don’t want to have your ass handed to you on a silver platter.”

  Shell had seen Bolt use this kind of rhetoric on supervillains and bad guys before. It always made him seem so cool and confident, so Shell hoped that it would have the same effect coming from him.

  Unfortunately, Doctor Danger just laughed like a hyena. “Ha! Listen, little boy, I don’t have time to play with you right now. But my pet Condor is rather hungry and isn’t very picky about what he eats.”

  “How can a machine be hungry?” said Shell. “It’s not an actual condor.”

  “Shut up,” Doctor Danger snapped. He pointed a finger at Shell. “Condor, eat the turtle boy. I will finish off his friends and then we can go and take care of the other four brats, too.”

  The Condor flapped its wings and flew toward Shell. Shell instinctively got down on the ground, pulling his arms and legs under his shell, a basic defensive technique he always used to defend himself whenever he was under attack. A second later, the huge shadow of the Condor came over him and he looked up in time to see the Condor’s huge beak coming toward him. It was opened wide enough to eat him in one gulp; actually, based on the sharpness of the Condor’s beak, he figured it would just slice him in two. He doubted that even his shell would be able to save him, but it was too late to dodge or run away now.

  That was when Shell heard a sudden yell, which was so loud and abrupt that even the Condor froze, its beak inches away from Shell’s body. The Condor’s mechanical eyes swiveled to the right to see where the yell—which sounded strangely familiar to Shell, although he couldn’t place where he had heard it previously—was coming from, before a man appeared out of nowhere and punched the Condor in the side of the head, still screaming and shouting incoherently.

  The blow sent the Condor staggering. Actually, the Condor didn’t just stagger; it was knocked onto its side and went rolling like a pin until it slammed into a burning SUV, where it lay very still, a large fist-shaped dent in the side of its face.

  “What the hell?” Doctor Danger shouted. “Who did that?”

  Shell looked up at his savior. At first, he had a hard time making out the man’s features thanks to the fact that he stood in the way of the sun; however, when the man looked down, revealing his bearded face, Shell instantly recognized him.

  “Father?” said Shell. “Is that you?”

  Shell’s father—the superhero Radicles—broke into a huge smile. “That’s right, son. And I’m here to kick some supervillain tail.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  Blizzard wasn’t quite sure what happened within the last couple of minutes. She remembered hearing Shell shout her and Bolt’s names, only for a giant robot bird to appear out of nowhere, knock Bolt out of the sky, and then wrap her in an electric cable that shocked her every time she tried to use her ice powers to free herself. Then Shell had appeared and confronted Doctor Danger, only to end up nearly bisected by Doctor Danger’s robot Condor before Radicles himself appeared out of nowhere and took out the robot in one solid blow. She also thought that Shell had called Radicles father, but she wondered if that was just the heat getting to her.

  And there was no mistaking the shirtless man standing in the streets with anyone but Radicles. Blizzard had never seen Radicles in real life before; however, having lived in Phoenix her whole life, she had seen plenty of pictures of him everywhere, as well as videos of his exploits, although most of the videos and pictures she’d seen had never depicted him in exactly a good light.

  The man standing in between Doctor Danger and Shell was a dead ringer for Radicles. He was tall and muscular enough to give Mr. Universe a run for his money; he also didn’t wear a shirt, preferring instead to wear a skimpy white toga that somehow clung to his massive body as easily as normal clothes, with the word ‘RADICLES’ written across it in the most garish font possible and a bow and arrow set slung over his right shoulder. He also had a short, brown beard and wore sleek black sunglasses over his eyes that he probably thought made him look cool, although it just looked kind of silly to Blizzard.

  Still, Blizzard supposed she couldn’t complain. However silly Radicles was, he had just saved Shell from getting killed, although whether he would be able to defeat Doctor Danger was another question entirely.

  “Radicles,” said Doctor Danger, venom in his voice. “We meet again, it seems.”

  “That we do, my enemigo, that we do,” said Radicles. Although he was probably in his late thirties or early forties, he sounded almost like a surfer dude. “I got here as fast as I could when I heard that you were causing trouble again. Burning cars and attacking innocent civilians isn’t cool, my dude. It’s also illegal.”

  “I don’t care about the coolness or legality of my actions,” said Doctor Danger. His hands suddenly caught fire with green flame. “All I care about is killing you so you don’t get in the way of my plans.”

  “And what might those plans be, my dude?” said Radicles. “Cause random chaos for the lulz?”

  “My plans are much too brilliant and subtle for a brute like you to understand,” said Doctor Danger with a sneer. “You may have gotten the drop on me and Condor, but you still picked the wrong time to fight me.”

  Radicles smiled. “Hey, dude, I’m a superhero. Fighting super bad dudes like you is what we do.” He suddenly gestured at Shell. “But first and foremost, I am a dad, and you tried to kill my son.”

  “What?” said Doctor Danger. “That turtle-shelled loser is your son?”

  Blizzard was surprised herself, because it meant she had heard Shell correctly earlier. Shell, on the other hand, looked like he wanted to hide inside his shell at the moment.

  Radicles just put his hands on his hips and puffed out his chest. “That’s right-o-rino, my dude. But he’s not a loser. He’s my son and any son of mine can’t, by definition, be a loser. After all, Radicles never loses and neither does anyone in Radicles’ family.”

  “I am going to ignore the fact that you referred to yourself in the third person,” said Doctor Danger. His grin suddenly turned evil. “By the way, you didn’t destroy the Condor.”

  All of a sudden, the Condor—the side of its face badly smashed in, its armor and wings dented and scratched in several places—appeared beside Radicles and Shell before either of them could react. Before Blizzard’s horrified eyes, the Condor slammed its sharp beak over them.

  Instead of Radicles and Shell getting sliced in half, however, Radicles had caught both halves of the Condor’s beak with his arms. He didn’t even have a scratch on his skin; instead, he held back the Condor’s beak like it was nothing.

  “Nice try, doc, but you know I can make my skin as hard as the pelt of the Nemean lion,” said Radicles, no sign of effort in his voice. “Guess you’re not as brainy as you look, eh, my dude?”

  With a grunt, Radicles shoved his arms outward. The Condor’s beak shattered in half as easily as if it was made of plastic rather than metal, sending sparks and wires flying everywhere. The Condor staggered backwards, but only a couple of steps before Radicles jumped into the air and, with a single punch, slammed what remained of the Condor’s head back into its body. The Condor collapsed into a heap on the street and stopped moving; this time, it appeared to have been truly taken down for good, smoke rising from the spot where its head had been mere moments before.

  “Impossible,” said Doctor Danger. “How did you beat my ultimate machine? The Condor was supposed to be invincible!”

  “My dude, you really gotta stop building giant robots based off animals,�
�� said Radicles. “It’s so nineteen-nineties.”

  Doctor Danger growled, but he didn’t run. Instead, he fired two fire blasts at Radicles. Radicles, however, dodged them both rather skillfully, while simultaneously unlimbering his bow from his back. He took one of the arrows from the quiver on his back, aimed, and fired it at Doctor Danger in one smooth motion so quickly that Blizzard couldn’t follow it.

  The arrow struck Doctor Danger in the chest, sending the supervillain staggering backward from the blow. Blizzard was sure that the arrow would kill him; after all, it had hit Doctor Danger straight in the heart.

  That was when Blizzard noticed that this arrow was not tipped with a sharpened head. Instead, it had some kind of suction cup, which allowed it to fix securely to Doctor Danger’s chest. Doctor Danger himself looked down at it with a slightly confused look, but his eyes widened in horror as he looked at it, like he had just realized what it was.

  His realization came too late, however, because the arrow’s shaft exploded, creating a blast of yellow gas which Blizzard recognized as powerless gas around Doctor Danger. Doctor Danger cried out from within the cloud of yellow gas and staggered out of it, coughing and hacking, but his hands were no longer burning with green fire, a sign that the powerless gas had already de-powered Doctor Danger.

  Then Radicles ran up to Doctor Danger and threw a punch at his face. Doctor Danger futilely tried to dodge the punch, but he was too slow. When Radicles’ fist struck Doctor Danger, the supervillain fell flat on his back and stopped moving, although based on the way his chest rose and fell, he was clearly unconscious rather than dead.