Tournament of Heroes

7. BEAMS

Beams stood in the center of the courtyard, on top of the linework, with his arms folded in front of his chest. He still couldn’t quite guess at the meaning of the designs, but he could certainly feel the power flowing underneath him, the power which the Necromantress had showed to him what felt like a lifetime ago now, even though it had only been a few days ago.

Where is she? Beams thought, looking around the courtyard for the Necromantress. She said to meet her here and I’m here. Hopefully, she isn’t pulling some kind of prank, because if she is …

Beams shook his head. The Necromantress might have been a liar, but she wasn’t much of a prankster. She really didn’t have a sense of humor unless you counted taking joy in the pain of her enemies as ‘humor,’ which she might, though Beams would beg to differ.

A few minutes ago, Beams had finished playing on one of the commons’ video game systems with Blizzard. Blizzard had handily beat Beams at pretty much every game they played, though not due to any lack of effort on Beams’ part. It was mostly because he hadn’t been trying to win. Instead, he had been trying to keep Blizzard distracted so she wouldn’t wonder what Bolt was doing. Although Beams did not know Blizzard as well as Bolt, he had pegged Blizzard as a big worrier and decided, as a favor to Bolt, to keep Blizzard busy while he was away.

After they finished playing, Blizzard had said she was tired and was going to bed early. She told Beams to tell Bolt where to find her when he got back and then retired to Team Bolt’s Team room. Beams had planned to return to his own Team room before the Necromantress to intercept him and ask him to meet her out in the courtyard privately. Beams had wanted to say no—he wanted to go to bed early as well to be ready for tomorrow’s match—but the Necromantress insisted that this was important and that it couldn’t wait until tomorrow.

So Beams headed out to the courtyard, where he had been waiting five minutes for the Necromantress to show up and explain to him what was so important that they needed to have a private meeting out here. The weather wasn’t bad. It was almost perfect, actually, neither too hot nor too cold, but just right.

Maybe she just wants to enjoy the weather, Beams thought with a chuckle. No, she must want to talk to me about something else. But what? Can’t be the Prophecy. She doesn’t know about it.

Beams had debated whether or not to tell his Teammates the things that Sigil had revealed to him, Bolt, Winter, and Trickshot at the end of the third match. Although Beams disliked hiding secrets from his friends, he took Sigil’s threat to heart about what he would do to them if they told their Teammates the true purpose of the Tournament. Beams saw what that dark energy had done to the IEA. He did not want his friends to suffer the same fate.

At the same time, however, Beams wanted more than anything to let his friends know the truth. Rubberman, especially, deserved to know the truth about the Tournament. Beams trusted Rubberman more than almost anyone else in the world, just below his parents in terms of adult figures he trusted, and hiding any secrets from Rubberman at all made him feel bad.

But what choice do I have? Beams thought. Either I keep the Tournament’s true purpose a secret or else Sigil kills my Teammates. That’s the real reason he convinced Aeno to make the Tournament into a Team Tournament. Sigil wanted to use our friends as blackmail in case we rebelled against our so-called ‘destiny.’

Beams spat. As a general rule, Beams did not believe in fate. Oh, he wasn’t entirely sold on the idea of free will, either—genetics played a big factor in a person’s behavior—but he was not convinced that anything was inevitable. Sigil might think that there was no way they could fight the Prophecy, but Beams wasn’t ready to believe Sigil until he read the Prophecy with his own two eyes.

Which is why I hope Bolt and Trickshot get that book translated quickly, Beams thought, glancing out the open gates of the Universal Castle, which gave him a glimpse of the sprawling Nexus City below. Because otherwise, I’m not sure how we’ll survive this Tournament.

His thoughts were interrupted when the front doors of the Universal Castle burst open and the Necromantress marched out. That didn’t surprise Beams.

What surprised Beams was the man who followed out after her.

“Tsunami?” said Beams, turning to face the Necromantress and Tsunami as the two villains walked down the front steps of the Castle. He gulped. “What are you doing here?”

Tsunami smiled as he approached Beams, a cruel smile that made Beams feel on edge. “I thought you would be glad to see me, Beans.”

“It’s Beams.”

“Whatever,” said Tsunami with a dismissive wave. “Regardless, I can see you are not happy to see me. The feeling, by the way, is mutual, so don’t worry about me trying to win you over.”

Beams was not exactly worried about Tsunami trying to be his friend. He was mostly thinking about how Tsunami had nearly killed him during the second match. Beams was not sure how Tsunami compared to, say, Bolt in terms of sheer power, but from what little he’d seen and experienced, Tsunami was easily one of the most powerful participants in the Tournament. Even if the rules forbid Tsunami from attacking Beams outside of a match, Beams still felt nervous around him.

“Do not worry about him, Beams,” said the Necromantress with a wave of her hand. “The Necromantress invited Tsunami to our little meeting. He has relevant information to share.”

“That I do, Necromantress,” said Tsunami. “Although even I cannot say no to a woman as beautiful as you.”

The Necromantress rolled her eyes. “Keep your compliments to yourself, Tsunami. The Necromantress has no need of them.”

“Of course,” said Tsunami. “Besides, I’ve learned my lesson. The last time I got into a relationship with a female supervillain … well, it simply proved that no woman is good enough for me and I will leave it at that.”

Despite what the Necromantress said, Beams was starting to rethink the wisdom of meeting with her. Although the Necromantress may have been on his Team, that did not mean they liked each other or were friends. Beams was glad his helmet’s radio worked with Rubberman’s even in the Nexus. It meant he could call for help if necessary.

“So,” said Beams, looking at the Necromantress, “what did you want to talk with me about? And why did you insist on having a private meeting?”

“It is simple,” said the Necromantress. She gestured at the linework under their feet. “You recall the last time we came out here to discuss the dark energy I felt underneath this linework, yes? Something we both felt?”

Beams nodded with a slight shudder. “Yeah, I remember. Felt freaky.”

“‘Freaky’ is putting it mildly,” said the Necromantress. “It felt more like an abomination resting beneath the Universal Castle. Or at least beneath the courtyard, though the Necromantress has reason to believe that its resting place is deeper than even that.”

Beams tilted his head to the side. “Its resting place? What are you talking about?”

“The Necromantress is not finished,” said the Necromantress, giving Beams a withering look. “Anyway, the Necromantress is not the only one to have sensed a great evil here. Tsunami has also sensed a powerful evil.”

“I did not merely sense it, my dear,” said Tsunami. “I saw it. During the last match. It looked like a big cloud of dark energy.”

Beams looked at Tsunami in alarm. “Wait, you saw the dark energy cloud? I thought you were knocked out for that.”

Tsunami frowned. “Yes, I was briefly knocked out by the tasers from those annoying IEA agents, but I saw it before they even appeared.”

“So did the Necromantress,” said the Necromantress. She looked at Beams curiously. “Which the Necromantress told you about before the IEA agents appeared and which you dismissed as the Necromantress going crazy. Yet now you seem to have seen it for yourself.”

Beams gulped. He looked around quickly, just to make sure Sigil was not around to eavesdrop on him, and then leaned forward and whispered, “Okay, I saw it, but only after you guys got knocked out. I don’t think you’re crazy anymore. At least, not any crazier than you normally are.”

The Necromantress smirked. “Good to hear. Perhaps there is hope for you, after all, Beams. Unlike Dennis, who will never stop being the jerk that he is.”

“Sure,” said Beams skeptically, “but I don’t see what this has to do with our meeting.”

“Then let the Necromantress put it plainly,” said the Necromantress. She gestured at the linework. “The dark energy cloud in the arena and the dark energy under this linework are one and the same.”

Beams looked down at the pad in surprise. “You mean all of that dark energy that was in the arena is being held underneath the courtyard?”

“Far, far below the courtyard,” the Necromantress said. “Much farther than even my dark magic can reach.”

Beams tapped his chin in thought. “Makes sense. I was wondering where Sigil kept that dark energy.”

“What?” said the Necromantress.

“Uh, nothing,” said Beams quickly. “I just meant, yeah, I can sense the similarities, too.”

The Necromantress looked at Beams skeptically for a moment before she nodded. “Good. That means the Necromantress will have to spend less time explaining things to you on a first-grade level.”

Beams did not show it, but he was relieved that the Necromantress insulted him. It meant that she would not suspect him of keeping important information from her. Knowing the Necromantress, he didn’t want to see what she would do if she believed he was not being entirely upfront with her.

“Don’t be so harsh on the boy, Necromantress,” said Tsunami, resting a hand on her shoulder. “Like most boys his age, he’s obviously too stupid to follow your complicated ideas.”

The Necromantress shrugged Tsunami’s hand off her shoulder and glared at him. “What did the Necromantress tell you about flirting with her?”

“I wasn’t trying to flirt,” said Tsunami, holding up his hand in mock surrender, a playful smirk on his face. “I was merely offering my comments. I was actually agreeing with you, in case you didn’t notice.”

“The Necromantress noticed, but did not care,” said the Necromantress. “Either about you or your opinions.”

“Then why did you bring him here?” said Beams, putting his hands on his hips. “I’m not the one who invited the freaky fish guy with the god complex.”

“Because, as a general rule, I am interested in … power, I suppose you might say,” said Tsunami. He clenched his fist. “And the power I felt during the third match, the power pulsating from the dark energy cloud … it was unlike any power I’ve ever felt before. Once, and only once, have I felt that kind of power, and even then, the Blood Gems did not come anywhere close to that.”

“So you want the dark energy for yourself, then?” said Beams. “Rather stereotypical, if I do say so myself.”

“Please,” said Tsunami with a wave of his hand. “I am already powerful enough. No, I simply wish to keep such power out of the hands of other people, including myself.”

That sounded like BS to Beams. Tsunami struck him as your typical power-hungry supervillain who would do anything to get power.

And, although I don’t know Tsunami that well, I don’t want to see what he would do if he had the power to destroy the multiverse in his hands, Beams thought.

“That is all well and good, but both of you are missing the real point the Necromantress is trying to make here,” said the Necromantress. She pointed at the pad. “It’s not the dark energy which worries the Necromantress. It is the thing that lies underneath it.”

“The thing that lies underneath it?” said Beams. “What are you talking about?”

The Necromantress’ lips curled into an even deeper frown. “Why, the demon, of course.”