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  But that wasn’t Shell’s real reason for going out. He just wanted to avoid his teammates for now. He was worried that they might tease him about Father or might treat him awkwardly because of it. So far, they had not treated him any differently than they normally did, but Shell had spent so little time with the others since the battle with Doctor Danger that he didn’t know for sure what they thought about him.

  They probably think I’m just as crazy as Father, Shell thought with a cringe. And weak, too. Very weak.

  That was another thing that bothered Shell. Had Father not stepped in at the last minute and saved them, Shell was sure that not only would he have died, but so would Bolt and Blizzard. Hell, maybe even the entire team would have died; at the very least, Shell knew that half of the team would have perished. And it was all because of his own weakness. He had been unable to defend his friends, unable to even defend himself. It was yet another reminder of the uselessness of Shell’s ‘powers,’ which sometimes made Shell wonder if he was even really a superhuman at all or if he was actually just some kind of a mutant, a freak of nature that just happened to have a superhero as a dad.

  Either way, I doubt that that improved their view of me, Shell thought. I’ll probably be a weakling forever.

  It didn’t help that the whole world now knew that Shell was Radicles’ son. He had found the article about it on Neo News earlier this morning; apparently, Neo News’ reporters didn’t waste any time in getting breaking stories up. He had not bother to look at the comments on the article or on social media about it, but he could guess that it had made him even less popular than ever before.

  Father is just so embarrassing, Shell thought. I’m lucky that he didn’t mention his conspiracy theories about the NHA and INJ. There’s no way I would ever have recovered from something like that. I am always going to be known as that weakling who is the son of the most embarrassing superhero ever; I mean, for Pete’s sake, Father acts like a teenager, instead of a thirty-six-year-old man.

  Luckily, no one on the streets of Phoenix recognized Shell at the moment. That was because he was not wearing his costume; instead, he wore a large, baggy blue t-shirt, which was large enough to hide his shell, and he also carried a large backpack on top of that. To the average person, he looked like just another ordinary teenage boy; indeed, despite the shell on his back, Shell had always been able to pass for a normal human more effectively than the other Young Neos. Still, ‘ordinary teenage boy’ wasn’t something to be proud of, in his opinion, given how most ordinary teenage boys didn’t look all that great.

  But that was fine by Shell. He didn’t like getting unnecessary attention from strangers anyway. He preferred to go unnoticed in public most of the time, although his social anxiety was so bad that he was already thinking of heading back to the house to hide from everyone else. As far as he knew, the house should be empty right now, so he wouldn’t even have to see his teammates. Besides, he was getting tired of walking; his legs were already sore from all of the effort.

  Turning around, Shell was about to head back down the street the way he had come until he heard someone say, “Hi, Shell.”

  Shell started and looked to his right, where he had heard the voice come from. The voice had come from an alleyway between two nearby buildings, but at first he didn’t see anything until someone stepped out from behind a dumpster. The person was a teenage girl, most likely fifteen or sixteen years old, and she had long, braided blonde hair. She wore a simple red t-shirt and ripped blue jeans, but for some reason it looked awkward on her, like the clothes were meant for someone with a body that was different than hers. Her eyes were a dark brown and looked too old for a sixteen-year-old, which made her look very strange to him.

  “Who are you?” said Shell. He suddenly looked up and down the street; he realized that they were the only two on this street. Somehow, his wanderings had taken him to a part of the city that didn’t have a lot of people in it. And, despite the fact that the girl appeared to be unarmed, he suddenly felt unsafe. “And how do you know my secret identity?”

  The girl smiled. “You can call me Sarah. As for how I know your secret identity, it’s because I’ve been watching you for a very long time.”

  Shell’s neck became hot with embarrassment at the thought that a girl as pretty as her had been watching him. “Watching me? Like … like a fan girl?”

  The girl laughed, although her laughter made her sound older than she was. “Ha, that’s funny. No, I’m not really a fan girl, nor am I really all that interested in you.”

  “Oh,” said Shell, his shoulders slumping. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Most girls don’t really like me that much.”

  “With that attitude, I can see why,” said the girl. “But really, I haven’t been watching you personally. The group I belong to, however, has.”

  Shell took a step back. “You aren’t G-Men, are you? Are the G-Men watching us again?”

  “No, I’m not associated with the government in any way, shape, or form,” said the girl. “My name is Sarah and I am an Unwanted.”

  Shell blinked. “You mean the boys don’t like you? Kind of like how the girls don’t like me?”

  Sarah sighed. “That’s not what I mean. By ‘Unwanted,’ I am referring to the movement I am a part of.”

  “There’s a movement of people who call themselves Unwanted?” said Shell. He scratched the back of his head. “Sounds vaguely familiar, but not sure where I’ve heard about it before.”

  “We’re not very big, but we’ve already made a few waves,” said Sarah. “We’re currently in the process of reaching out to new people to join us, although we have yet to reach out to you. Until now, that is.”

  Something about Sarah made Shell distrust her. Maybe it was just because she was a stranger meeting him while he was alone in the streets or maybe it was how she had identified him by his secret identity before he even knew what her name was. At the same time, however, Shell liked the fact that he was getting attention from a girl as attractive as her, even if she didn’t really like him that way. At the very least, he decided he would hear her out; if she had nothing to offer him, he would just leave and go home. It wasn’t like she could stop him, after all.

  But Shell still said, “Maybe I’m not interested in listening to whatever you guys have to offer. I really need to get back to the place I am staying at and—”

  “Do you want to be strong?” Sarah interrupted him.

  Shell looked at Sarah in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

  Sarah smiled again, this time in satisfaction, like she had caught Shell in her grasp. “You heard me. Do you want to be strong?”

  “Depends on what you mean,” said Shell. He glanced at his arms in disappointment. “I could always lift more, I guess, but—”

  “I mean strong as in powerful,” said Sarah. “As in, making your powers stronger than they currently are.”

  “Well, I’d like that, yes,” said Shell, nodding. “I would like to have more powerful powers, but it isn’t like I can just wish upon a star and get new powers or something. Why do you ask?”

  “What if I told you that the Unwanted could help you?” said Sarah. “We could make you stronger. That way, you would be able to help your friends, unlike yesterday, where you were basically unable to defend even yourself from Doctor Danger and his robot.”

  “How could you make me stronger?” said Shell. “Superpowers are genetic. Unless you’re a mad scientist who specializes in neogenetics, it’s impossible to make my powers strong.”

  “So most people believe, but truth, especially scientific truth, is not based on how many people believe in it,” said Sarah. “How do you know we haven’t found a way to make superhumans stronger? Wouldn’t you like to know about it if we did?”

  “I would, but so far you haven’t shown me any proof that you guys can do that,” said Shell. “For that matter, you still haven’t even proved that you’re with the Unwanted or what the Unwanted are really all a
bout. How do I know that you aren’t trying to scam me or something? Or maybe you’re working with someone else, trying to distract me to set me up for a robbery.” He quickly looked around at his surroundings when he said that, but he did not see anyone around aside from himself and Sarah.

  “Well, it isn’t like the Unwanted have official team uniforms or whatever,” said Sarah. “So I can’t really prove to you that I am with the Unwanted. But I can tell you about them, if you would like to listen. I can tell you don’t know much about us.”

  “Okay,” said Shell. “Tell me what you guys are about.”

  Sarah stepped forward, her hands together as if in prayer. “The Unwanted is a movement dedicated to helping superhumans like you; that is, those whose powers are not particularly flashy or sexy or interesting, who are rejected by the NHA, the INJ, and even the G-Men due to their undesirable powers. Such superhumans are more prone to victimization, to homelessness, to turning to crime to survive, even to suicide and murder, than others, because they have no way to defend themselves and often face discrimination from normal humans even when their powers aren’t harmful.”

  “Undesirable powers,” Shell repeated. He rubbed his shell underneath his backpack. “You mean like having an impenetrable shell that’s useless in a fight.”

  “Don’t get me wrong, we don’t say ‘undesirable’ as a way to denigrate superhumans like you and me,” said Sarah, shaking her head. “It’s just an objective description of how other superhumans view us.”

  “But the Neohero Alliance wants me,” said Shell. “At least, the Young Neos do.”

  “Yes, but haven’t you ever noticed how every NHA and Young Neo member all have useful or interesting powers?” said Sarah. “Perhaps because you live on Hero Island, you don’t really know what it is like out there in the wider world. In much of the world, even in America, being a superhuman can be quite dangerous for one’s reputation, job prospects, and even life.”

  Shell was vaguely aware of everything Sarah had told him, but when he thought about it, he had not faced much discrimination himself. Perhaps that was because his father was a superhuman and he spent most of his time among other superhumans on Hero Island. “So you guys are supposed to help people like me, then, who aren’t lucky enough to join the NHA or some other organization like that.”

  “Exactly,” said Sarah, nodding. “There aren’t too many laws protecting superhumans on the books, so even the government doesn’t always protect the weakest among us as adequately as they should. We need to take our safety and protection into our own hands. We call ourselves Unwanted as a sign of solidarity among those who are not wanted by either superhumans or normal humans, who have been rejected by both worlds for reasons outside of their control.”

  Shell scratched his chin. “That sounds nice, but why are you approaching me about this? I have the NHA already. I don’t really need a movement like you guys.”

  “Are you sure?” said Sarah. “Don’t you suffer from some feelings of inferiority? Don’t the rest of your teammates treat you with less respect than you otherwise deserve?”

  “Are you reading my mind or something?” said Shell. “Because you sure seem to know what I’ve been thinking about recently.”

  “No, I can’t read your mind,” said Sarah, shaking her head. “That’s not where my own powers lie. But these types of feelings are pretty common among superhumans like you and me. Often, we feel inferior to our peers and they, in turn, treat us with either disdain or disrespect. Even when they try to be sensitive, they still end up making us feel worse off than before because of our relative uselessness in comparison to them.”

  “That’s exactly how I feel,” said Shell. “It’s kind of creepy how accurately you describe my own feelings when I just met you literally five minutes ago.”

  “It isn’t creepy for kindred spirits to understand each other even when they have never met before,” said Sarah. “And you and I are kindred spirits. I’ve never been a member of the Young Neos or anything like that, but I used to have superhuman friends like yours, who were a lot stronger and more powerful than me. And I’ve also met a lot of other superhumans in the movement who have gone through the same things we have, including our leader.” She looked Shell directly in the eyes. “We’re not just a bunch of posers or manipulators. We care about all underpowered superhumans, including you. More than that, we also want to help underpowered superhumans, and part of the way we help is by making them stronger. What do you have to say about that?”

  Shell had to admit that that sounded good. He could tell that Sarah was being very genuine when she spoke about what the Unwanted were doing. And he had to admit, it was nice to have someone to talk to who understood him and his feelings instantly. Neither the Young Neos nor his dad, Radicles, really understood Shell or how he felt; if all that Sarah and the Unwanted could offer him was a group of people who understood his feelings and took them seriously, then that might be enough for him to join them.

  Despite that, however, Shell said, “I’m not sure. I don’t know if I want to join your movement or not. It sounds good, but I hate rushing into anything, especially things like this.”

  “Then don’t,” said Sarah. She drew a card out of her pocket and threw it at him.

  The card flew straight and true through the air toward Shell, who caught it and looked at it. It was a simple white card, with a phone number typed on it in simple black ink. There was no name or anything else on the card to indicate whose number it was or what would happen if Shell dialed it.

  “What’s this?” said Shell, looking up at Sarah. “Your phone number?”

  “Yes,” said Sarah, nodding. “That way, you can call me if you ever decide you want to learn more about the Unwanted or if you’d like to meet our leader. I can’t make you do anything, but I would suggest you seriously think through my offer. The Unwanted would greatly benefit from having someone like you on our side and you would benefit, too, from having a group like us on your side.”

  Shell looked down at the number briefly before looking up at Sarah again. A part of him was still reluctant to trust Sarah; however, he slipped the card into his pocket anyway and said, “All right. I’ll think about it a bit and then give you a call if I decide I want to learn more. But I don’t think I’m going to be in Phoenix for much longer, so—”

  “That’s fine,” Sarah interrupted Shell. “I don’t live in Phoenix myself. I’m just here trying to recruit superhumans like you to the cause. If you want to meet somewhere else—such as in New York City, for example—that’s fine and won’t be inconvenient for me.”

  “Oh, okay,” said Shell. “Will I also be able to meet your leader anytime I want, too?”

  “Sure,” said Sarah. “Like I said, once you make your choice, you can just call us up and let us know. We’ll get a meeting scheduled as quickly as possible, because our leader is very interested in meeting you.”

  “Really? Why?” said Shell.

  “You’ll find out soon enough,” said Sarah. “For now, however, I have to leave. And remember, if you ever have any questions or make any choices about us, just call that number on the card and I will answer without delay.”

  With that, Sarah turned around and walked away back into the alleyway. Shell watched her go until she turned a corner at the end of the alleyway, leaving him all alone on the streets of Phoenix.

  Shell stood there for a moment, thinking about what Sarah had just told him. He felt the card in his pocket, uncertain if he would ever call the number written on it or not. Sarah had made the Unwanted sound like a great movement, but Shell didn’t know for sure if it would be able to help him with his problems.

  On the other hand, it would be really dumb of me to just reject it outright, Shell thought. I think I’ll go home and do some research about the movement, see if I can find out anything about them. Maybe that will help me decide what I need to do.

  Turning around, Shell went back up the street, hoping to get back to Blizzard’s par
ents’ house before it became too hot.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Blizzard sat on a shaded bench under a ramada in Dust Devil Park, fanning her sweating face. Although the morning wasn’t even over yet, the heat from the sun above was still brutal, reminding Blizzard why she had been so eager to leave Phoenix when Mecha Knight had visited her house nearly a year ago now. She had managed to hold up pretty well up until they entered the park, but then the heat became too much for her and she had to sit down under this shaded ramada. But even underneath the ramada, it was still far warmer than what Blizzard preferred.

  “Are you okay, Emily?” said Bolt. He stood next to her and, unlike her, didn’t seem very badly affected by the heat; however, he was looking down at her with concern. “Do you need to go back to your parents’ house and cool down?”

  Blizzard shook her head. “No, I’m fine. I just need to rest for a bit, that’s all. You can go and join the others if you want. I’ll catch up later.”

  The rest of the team had gone ahead of her and Bolt into Dust Devil Park. From what she could tell, Stinger and White had gone to go shoot some hoops over at the basketball court, while Talon and Treehugger had decided to simply take a walk around the park and see everything that it had to offer. Blizzard would have joined them, but the heat had overwhelmed her, so all she could do at the moment was sit here and try to cool off.

  “I’m not going to leave you here alone,” Bolt said. “I don’t want you to get overwhelmed by the heat. You should have brought a cold bottle of water or something.” Bolt suddenly tilted his head to the side. “Hey, why don’t you just use your ice powers to cool yourself down?”