Counterparts Read online

  Perhaps that was why Stinger found himself sitting in a chair outside of Mecha Knight’s office about half an hour later, after Black Blur approved of their mission to save Rime’s family. Stinger had received a message from Mecha Knight summoning him to his office to discuss something. That was in itself unusual, because Stinger rarely got to speak with Mecha Knight alone like this. Most of the time, Bolt was the one who went to Mecha Knight’s office to discuss important issues, because as the leader of the team, Bolt needed to be aware of what Mecha Knight and the Leadership Council wanted the Young Neos to do. Stinger had visited Mecha Knight’s office in the Tower of Heroes only a couple of times since joining the Young Neos, so he didn’t know what Mecha Knight wanted to talk with him about. He hoped that it wouldn’t be anything bad, at least.

  As for the others, Bolt and Talon were still talking with Rime about finding his family. Bolt told Stinger that he would tell the whole team about what Rime told them once they finished speaking with him, but that just made Stinger more anxious to find out where they were going to go. He hoped that it would not be long before he got to speak with Mecha Knight or that their conversation wouldn’t take too long.

  At that moment, Stinger heard a beep from his suit-up watch and he looked down and saw that he received a message from Mecha Knight, which read, ‘PLEASE ENTER.’

  Rising to his feet, Stinger opened the office door and entered. As soon as he closed the door behind him, Stinger looked around and spotted Mecha Knight standing in front of the windows overlooking Hero Island. Mecha Knight’s back was to him, the superhero’s arms folded behind his back, as if he was deep in thought. Mecha Knight did not move when Stinger entered, which made Stinger wonder if Mecha Knight had even heard him.

  “Um, hello?” said Stinger. “Mecha Knight, sir? It’s me, Stinger.”

  Mecha Knight slowly turned around until he faced Stinger. His cold blue eyes glowed from within the helmet of his armor, showing as little emotion as always. “My apologies, Stinger. I was simply lost in thought for a moment there, thinking of times long past.”

  “Okay,” said Stinger. “So are we going to sit down and talk or—?”

  “Take a seat,” said Mecha Knight, gesturing at the chair on the other side of his desk. “I’ll remain standing for now, however, as I have been sitting all day and need to walk around for a bit to loosen my old joints.”

  Stinger took a seat without another word, though he had to spread his wings a few inches in order to sit on it comfortably. “So, Mecha Knight, what did you want to talk with me about? Is it something important?”

  “I wanted to ask you about Rime,” said Mecha Knight. “More specifically, Rime’s attack on Hero Island and his justification for doing so.”

  “Not to sound disrespectful, Mecha Knight, but didn’t you already receive a report from Black Blur about this?” said Stinger. “Black Blur told us that he was going to send a report to the Leadership Council about Rime.”

  “Yes, I received and read the report fairly quickly,” said Mecha Knight. “It is quite thorough, as Black Blur’s work usually is. Anyone who read that report will be just as knowledgeable about the attack as anyone who had actually experienced it.”

  “Well, if you’ve read the report and you feel like you know the attack as well as I do, why am I here?” said Stinger, spreading his arms. “And why me and not, say, Bolt? You usually talk to Bolt about important stuff like this.”

  “Because I don’t want Bolt to know about this,” said Mecha Knight. “I don’t trust him to do what I need him to do. You, on the other hand, have a higher chance of doing what I need you to do without balking.”

  “And what, exactly, do you need me to do?” said Stinger. “Does it involve helping Rime?”

  “Not helping him, no,” said Mecha Knight. “Let me start at the beginning. You are aware of Rime’s history, correct? Such as why he was originally arrested and sent to Ultimate Max?”

  Stinger nodded. “Yeah. He killed a superhuman rights activist who criticized him.”

  “And, of course, you know how he helped Bolt escape Ultimate Max and defeat Mastermind,” Mecha Knight continued. “And how, after he helped save the country, President Plutarch pardoned him for his crimes, correct?”

  “Yeah,” said Stinger. “This is all basic stuff, though. I don’t see where you’re going with this.”

  Mecha Knight began pacing back and forth in front of the windows, the rays of the sun glinting off his clean armor. “Do you know what happened to Rime after he was pardoned?”

  “He went to reunite with his family,” said Stinger. “Right? That’s what Bolt told me.”

  “That is what he claims, yes,” said Mecha Knight, still pacing back and forth. “But I am not so sure that is true, because I started tracking Rime after he went back to his family, only for him to fall completely off the face of the earth a week later.”

  “Why were you tracking him in the first place?” said Stinger. “Did you expect him to do something bad?”

  “He’s a powerful superhuman who has already shown a propensity toward violence and murder,” said Mecha Knight. “Besides, I was thinking of inviting him into the NHA after a while, depending on how he conducted himself outside of prison. Yet I completely lost track of him after a while; it was as though he had completely left the planet.”

  “Maybe he knew you were tracking him and he went into hiding to avoid being found by you,” Stinger suggested.

  “I consider that unlikely, because I have the best tracking technology available and even had a few people following him just in case,” said Mecha Knight. “So when he vanished so completely that even the people I hired to track him couldn’t find him … well, that was how I knew something was up. My suspicions became even worse when he attacked Hero Island today, completely out of the blue.”

  “What are you saying?” said Stinger. “Are you saying that there’s more to this situation than meets the eye?”

  Mecha Knight stopped and looked at Stinger, his arms still folded behind his back. “Yes. It is a little too coincidental that someone like Rime would vanish so quickly and so thoroughly after being pardoned by the President, only to show up in the most bombastic, dramatic way possible. Something happened to Rime between the time he vanished and the time he reappeared, but what, I don’t know.”

  “Do you think he’s evil again?” said Stinger. “Or maybe he’s working for someone like John Mann?”

  “I don’t know,” said Mecha Knight. “There’s no telling what may have happened to Rime or why he really came here. It may all be for nothing, but I did research his family after I read the report in order to find out if they really did go missing.”

  “Did they?” said Stinger. “I haven’t had time to check.”

  “They did,” Mecha Knight confirmed. “I found an article on the website of a Florida newspaper describing their disappearance around the same time that Rime said they were kidnapped. Oddly enough, however, the article doesn’t mention Rime himself.”

  “Maybe Rime didn’t want to be mentioned,” Stinger said. “Or maybe the reporter just couldn’t find him.”

  “That would be odd, though, wouldn’t it, that the father and husband of the missing woman and her daughter was unavailable for comment to the local newspaper?” said Mecha Knight. “No, I think there is more going on here than meets the eye. I don’t know if Rime is working for someone else, working for himself, or what he’s trying to achieve, but I do know that he is not being entirely honest with us and that he has a history of going crazy.”

  “What are we going to do about it?” said Stinger. “Do you not want us to go with him or—”

  “No, you should still go with him to Florida,” said Mecha Knight. He pointed a finger at Stinger. “But I want you to spy on Rime for me. Keep an eye on him, take notes of any suspicious behaviors or words from him, and send me reports when you can. If he is up to no good, then I will know.”

  “You want me to spy on him?” sa
id Stinger in surprise. “Why me? Why not Bolt?”

  “Because, as I said, Bolt is too close to him,” said Mecha Knight. “Bolt looks at Rime as a friend and he would not be able to tolerate spying on his friends. You, on the other hand, barely know Rime and see him as an acquaintance at best. Thus, you have less reason to object to spying on him for me.”

  Stinger had to admit that Mecha Knight’s logic was sound; however, he said, “Can I tell the others about the fact that I’m spying on him or not?”

  “If by ‘others’ you mean the other Young Neos, no, you may not,” said Mecha Knight. “I don’t want any of them to suspect that you are spying on Rime, especially Bolt, who would no doubt object to it if he knew what we were doing.”

  “That means I would have to keep secrets from my teammates, though,” said Stinger. “And I hate keeping secrets from my friends.”

  “Sometimes, you have to keep secrets even from the people you trust the most,” said Mecha Knight. “Think of it this way; in the long run, if Rime turns out to be genuine, then you will not have caused us any harm by watching him carefully. And if he does turn out to be trying to trick or manipulate us for unknown reasons, then letting us know about that will also benefit us.”

  “Good point,” said Stinger. He scratched his chin. “Still, I am surprised you are asking me to do this. Doesn’t seem like your normal MO.”

  “It isn’t, but then, a superhuman attacking Hero Island is hardly what I’d call ‘normal,’ either,” said Mecha Knight. “Will you accept the job or not?”

  Stinger thought about it for a moment. He disliked the idea of keeping secrets from his friends, but on the other hand, Mecha Knight’s concerns about Rime’s real motivations seemed legitimate to him, too legitimate to simply brush aside or ignore. Wasn’t it better to be safe than sorry anyway? If spying on Rime would keep the rest of the team safe, then Stinger had no real reason to say no.

  Still, Stinger had seen just how angry Rime could get when he wanted to kill someone. If Rime found out that Stinger was spying on him for Mecha Knight … well, Stinger wasn’t sure he would be able to fly fast enough to avoid a repeat of his battle with Rime on South Beach, except perhaps with Rime coming out on top this time. And if his friends felt betrayed enough by his keeping secrets from them, then Stinger might not be able to count on any of them defending him, either.

  In the end, however, Stinger decided that he would rather be safe than sorry, so he said, “All right, Mecha Knight, I’ll do it. Tell me what I need to do to get started.”

  “Good to hear,” said Mecha Knight. “Listen carefully to what I am about to tell you, because you will need to understand it well in order to do it effectively.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  Talon walked through the halls of the House, her boots clicking against the metal plated floor. She was on her way to the Training Room, mostly because it had been a while since she had last done any training, but also because she wanted something to take her mind off things for a while. Specifically, she wanted to take her mind off of Mom’s demand that she succeed her as the CEO of McCullough Fashion. Talon didn’t enjoy training that much—she usually got too hot and sweaty, which often messed up her hair—but given how training almost always required her total attention so she wouldn’t accidentally harm herself, she thought it would be a good way to take her mind off things for a while.

  She still hadn’t told Bolt or anyone else on the team about what Mom wanted her to do. Talon knew that she should, but she hesitated because she still hadn’t decided whether to agree to Mom’s demands or not. She could just imagine that the rest of the team would be shocked to lose her and Talon couldn’t stand that; however much her teammates may have annoyed her with their lack of fashion sense, they were still her friends and she didn’t want to abandon them, especially with this mission to save Rime’s family coming up. If she accepted Mom’s job offer, then she wouldn’t be able to see her friends nearly as often as she’d like; she’d probably grow distant from them, a sobering thought.

  On the other hand, Talon felt a strong sense of obligation to Mom. Ever since Dad’s death, Talon and Mom had been inseparable. Talon often thought that the only reason she managed to handle Dad’s death as well as she did was thanks to Mom’s support and love, and she suspected that Mom felt the same way about her. It wouldn’t be right to turn her back on Mom right when she needed her the most. She supposed that if she rejected Mom’s offer, Mom might just sell the company to someone else, but that thought made Talon feel ill, because the company had been founded by Mom and was supposed to stay within the family.

  I wish Dad was still alive, Talon thought. He’d be able to help me make this decision, I know he would.

  Thinking of Dad inevitably made Talon think of Stinger and his mother. She frowned as she turned a corner in the hall and her pace picked up a little. Talon didn’t hate Stinger, but she couldn’t believe that he was the son of the supervillain who killed her father. And she couldn’t believe that he just dropped it like that in the middle of that conversation without warning or that he had kept that particular secret from the rest of the team for so long.

  He’s always been kind of a socially awkward guy, but he made Shell look like the pinnacle of social grace back there, Talon thought. I suppose if I had a supervillain mom, I wouldn’t be so quick to go around boasting about that, but there’s a big difference between keeping secrets from your friends and not airing out your dirty laundry for everyone to see, and Stinger just confused it.

  That revelation alone had almost made Talon call Mom and tell her that she wanted the job. After all, if Stinger was Electrica’s son, then that meant that Talon had been living and working with the son of her dad’s murderer for nearly a year. If she had known about Stinger’s real mother before she joined the Young Neos, she doubted that she would have joined the team at all out of a fear that Stinger might end up just like his mother.

  But that was also why Talon did not call Mom. The logical side of her—the side she didn’t like to listen to when she was upset, but which often asserted itself anyway just to ruin her righteous anger—told her that if Stinger had had any intention of hurting her, he would have done it by now. As it was, Stinger had just made a really dumb social faux pas, certainly nothing worth leaving the team or ending her friendship with Stinger over. People were not always the same as their parents, after all.

  Still, I wonder what other secrets Stinger is hiding, Talon thought, shaking her head. Maybe his dad is secretly President Plutarch. Wouldn’t surprise me at this point.

  Realizing that she had reached the Training Room, Talon tried to enter, but the doors would not automatically open, like they usually did.

  “Hey,” said Talon, knocking on the doors in annoyance. “What’s wrong with the doors? I want to go in and train.”

  “Sorry, Miss Talon, but the Training Room is currently occupied,” said the chipper voice of Carl, one of the House’s AI systems. “You will have to wait a few minutes while its current occupant is done beating up the training bots.”

  “Who is using it?” said Talon, putting her hands on her hips and looking up at the ceiling, although she really couldn’t see Carl so she didn’t know where to look exactly. “Tell me it isn’t Stinger. I don’t want to see him right now.”

  “Actually, it’s White Lightning,” said Carl. “Do you want me to let him know that you’re here?”

  “White Lightning?” Talon repeated in a worried voice. “Here?”

  “Yes,” said Carl. “I’ll just let him know that you’re here, since I know that you two are really good friends.”

  Dread rose up Talon’s spine. “No, Carl, that’s quite all right. I’ll just go to the Hero Island Gym and do some training there. I know it’s on the other side of the island, but I could really use the exercise, since I haven’t done my cardio—”

  Talon was interrupted by the doors to the Training Room sliding open. Actually, when they were about halfway open, White’s hands
appeared and forced them open all the way, revealing White Lightning standing in the doorway directly in front of her. He looked much the same as he always did, though behind him, Talon could see the automated mechanical hands of the Training Room dragging away the smoking remains of the training robots he had been training against. White also smelled faintly of smoke and ozone, which was hardly an appealing combination to Talon.

  “Talon,” said White with a huge, goofy grin. “Hi.”

  “Um, hi,” said Talon.

  Talon and White just stared at each other for a few moments. It was extremely awkward, but Talon, for all her social grace, didn’t know what to say. She knew that White had taken a liking to her since he joined the team two months ago, but Talon had never returned the favor. It wasn’t that White was a bad person; knowing what he had been through, Talon couldn’t blame him for being a little mentally unhinged. Nor was he necessarily ugly; being Bolt’s twin meant he had the same good looks as his brother, if slightly more immature-looking for some reason.

  No, Talon just found him creepy. Yes, she knew that this was mostly due to living most of his life as a government guinea pig, but that didn’t change her feelings toward him one bit. She preferred her men mentally stable and socially graceful, two traits that White distinctly lacked. She was okay working with him on the team, even thought of him as something of a friend, but she had no deeper interest in him than that.

  White, on the other hand, either did not notice her apathy toward him or he didn’t care, because he kept trying to win her heart, albeit extremely awkwardly. Sometimes, it was cute, like the time he had gotten her a chrysanthemum flower after she had been wounded in a fight, but most of the time it was just awkward, like the time he had tried to cook her dinner only to nearly set the entire House on fire.

  This was one of those awkward times and Talon didn’t want it to drag on. So she stepped to the side and said, “Well, White, since it looks like you’re done here with the Training Room, I think I will just get out of your way and let you go back to your room. You probably need to rest or take a shower or something, right?”