Tournament of Heroes

7. BEAMS

When Beams was kidnapped from the movie theater in Golden City by Sigil to participate in the Tournament of Heroes, he had thought things couldn’t get any worse. Then Sigil mentioned that this ‘King Aeno,’ the guy organizing the Tournament in the first place, was even more powerful than the Dread God, and Beams found himself wishing that he had kept the God Slayer rather than give it to the Starborn.

And now seeing that King Aeno was apparently a five-year-old child playing dress-up made Beams think he had to lost his mind. The only good thing that had happened so far was that Beams had run into Bolt again. A familiar face made even the strangest situations easier to handle, although Beams still wasn’t sure how he felt about Fro-Zen 2.0 (or ‘Winter,’ as he insisted on calling himself) or the other guy, Trickshot, yet.

But Beams would worry about those two later. For now, his attention was fixed on the little boy calling himself King Aeno sitting on a throne made for a king.

“You’re … King Aeno?” said Winter incredulously. He looked at Sigil. “This is a joke, right?”

Sigil slapped Winter on the head. “You fool! You insult His Majesty at your own risk. You doom us all by—”

“It’s okay, Sigil,” said the little boy with a casual wave of his hand. “Winter is one of the coolest superheroes ever. And so is Bolt. And Beams. And even Trickshot.”

“Even Trickshot?” said Trickshot. “What is that supposed to—”

“But I don’t get it,” said Winter, interrupting Trickshot. He looked at King Aeno directly. “You’re just a kid. We were expecting the actual King Aeno to be a little bit … older.”

Aeno giggled. “Everyone says that. But I don’t care. I’m just so excited to have my four favorite superheroes ever in one room together!”

Aeno disappeared and reappeared next to Bolt. “First, we’ve got Bolt, the guy who blew up a planet and helped save the multiverse from the Dread God!”

Then Aeno disappeared again and appeared in between Winter and Cyclone, putting his hands on both of their shoulders. “Then we’ve got Winter and Cyclone, the guys who saved Capes Online from Paradox! So awesome!”

With another twirl, Aeno teleported—which was what Beams thought he was doing—and reappeared on Trickshot’s shoulders. “And Trickshot! You’re the guy who defeated Icon! You’re pretty wicked!”

Aeno did a backflip off of Trickshot’s shoulders and landed next to Beams, causing Beams to start. Aeno looked up at Beams with a huge, childish smile and hugged his leg.

“And finally, Beams!” said Aeno. “You’re just a sidekick, not a superhero like these guys, but that’s okay. You defeated Sasha Munroe, the Zero Knights, and also helped beat the Dread God! You might just be my favorite, but that’s tough to say because the competition is pretty fierce!”

“Lord Aeno,” said Sigil with a sigh. “I understand you are excited to see all of your favorite superheroes in person, but perhaps it’s time you explained the rules of the Tournament to them. They all look rather confused.”

Aeno sighed like a little child being told to behave by a parent, but then he said, “You’re right, Sigil. Sorry.”

Aeno let go of Beams’ leg and vanished and reappeared on the throne again. Plopping down on the throne, Aeno clapped his hands together excitedly, a huge grin on his face. “I just can’t get over how awesome it is to have all four of you here in person. I’ve been planning this for such a long time that it doesn’t feel real. Oh, and you guys can stand now if you want.”

Beams, whose knee was starting to hurt from kneeling for so long, stood up quickly along with the other heroes. He then stepped forward to form a loose line with the others, standing between Bolt to his right and Winter to his left, though his eyes remained fixed on Aeno, whose face seemed to be stuck in a permanent grin.

“So, you’re the King of the Multiverse?” said Bolt in a slightly hesitant voice.

Aeno nodded happily. “Sure am! Well, I call myself that, anyway, but no one’s ever disagreed with me, so that’s what I call myself.”

“Is there like a royal family of the multiverse, too, or something?” said Winter. “You mentioned that you don’t have a dad.”

“Nope!” Aeno shook his head. “I’m unique. I don’t have an adult to tell me what to do. Except Sigil, but since he’s one of my creations, technically I get to tell him what to do.”

“Yes you do, Your Majesty,” said Sigil in a tone clearly lacking any sort of enthusiasm whatsoever. “Your will is my command.”

“What do you mean that Sigil is your creation?” asked Beams. “Do you create things, too?”

“Yep!” said Aeno cheerfully. He spread his short arms wide. “I made this castle, Ardok the Guardian, the entirety of the Nexus … heck, I created this whole universe all by myself.”

“You made an entire universe by yourself?” said Winter in disbelief. “How?”

Aeno lowered his arms, a thoughtful look on his face. “I dunno. I just wanted a place I could call home and then, boom, it was here. There was even a bang, a really big one.”

Beams exchanged a stunned look with Bolt. If Aeno was telling the truth, then maybe he really was God, though Beams couldn’t remember any Bible passage describing God as a superhero fan.

“Let me get this straight,” said Beams, looking at Aeno again. “You can make anything as long as you can imagine it?”

“Pretty much,” Aeno agreed. “Look, I can show you right now.”

Aeno snapped his fingers. The ceiling suddenly disappeared, opening the throne room up to the outside world … and revealing a horrid monstrosity the likes of which Beams had never seen before in his life hovering above.

The horrific creature looked like no earthly creature. It somewhat resembled a jellyfish crossed with a guinea pig, of all things. Its black skin pulsed with white light, illuminating bizarre patterns in its skin that looked entirely random and unnatural. A single red eye peered down at them all and a thousand tentacles reached toward the assembled heroes as the abomination made choking noises.

Then Aeno snapped his fingers again and the eldritch abomination disappeared and the roof of the throne room returned.

Beams’ heart beating fast, he looked at Aeno and said, “What the heck was that?”

Aeno shrugged. “I dunno, but it was cool, wasn’t it? It’s gone now, though. Maybe I’ll make it again later, after the Tournament is over. Looked fun to play with.”

Beams’ eyes widened. Not only could Aeno create things, but he could also destroy them, seemingly at will. Even the Dread God didn’t have that power. No wonder no one had ever contested Aeno’s title of King of the Multiverse. With the power to make and unmake anything he wanted, Aeno was as close to god as you could get.

A small, immature child with the power of creation and destruction at his fingertips, Beams thought grimly. Yeah, no way that could go wrong.

“Wow,” said Bolt, “but here’s something I don’t understand: If you’re so powerful, why did you not help us with the Dread God?”

“What is the Dread God?” said Winter, folding his arms in front of his chest. “We weren’t here for it, you know.”

“The Dread God was an interdimensional dead alien god, revived by his worshipers to conquer the multiverse,” Beams explained. He gestured at himself and Bolt. “Bolt and I killed him a while ago, though it was not easy, let me tell you.”

“Really?” said Cyclone. He looked at Winter. “Boss, this DLC is lit.”

Winter just sighed in exasperation, while Bolt and Trickshot just looked at Cyclone in bewilderment. Beams was also confused about why Winter and Cyclone kept making video game references, but he supposed they were both just really hardcore gamers or something. Or maybe they were just crazy. That was also a distinct possibility, assuming Winter was not, in fact, some kind of alternate universe version of Fro-Zen.

“The Dread God?” said Aeno. He smiled. “I was asleep for all of that.”

“You were—?” Bolt sputtered. “But how? How did you sleep through all of that?”

“His Majesty has been sleeping for the past million years,” said Sigil. He was now standing next to Aeno’s throne, even though Beams hadn’t seen him move. “He only just woke up recently.”

“Yep,” said Aeno with a nod. He yawned and stretched his limbs. “I kind of regret missing it, though. Sounded like fun.”

“You napped,” said Beams. “For a million years.”

“You make it sound like a long time,” said Aeno. “Then again, I forget that you mortals have a shorter lifespan than I do. I don’t know how you guys get anything done with such a small lifespan. I have trouble just finishing my breakfast in a thousand years.”

“We’re just really efficient with the time we have,” said Winter dryly.

“What he said,” said Bolt. “So, er, how old are you, exactly, Aeno?”

Aeno began counting off his fingers. “Let’s see … one, two, three, four … no, carry the five and divide by ten … but where does that leave the three … two’s gotta go somewhere … math is so dumb …”

“You have no age,” Sigil reminded Aeno. “Remember?”

“Oh, right!” said Aeno, raising his head as if he had just made an important discovery. “That’s right. Yeah, I can’t remember when, or if, I was born. I just remember always existing. Probably always will exist.”

The more Beams learned about Aeno, the more horrified he became. If he understood Aeno’s answers correctly, they were talking with an immortal five-year-old boy with reality-warping powers who might have always existed. Beams had no children of his own, but he was well aware of how much trouble an ordinary five-year-old kid could cause even without any powers. Beams considered it a minor miracle that the multiverse itself still existed if Aeno was its king.

Winter seemed to have the same thoughts as him, because he muttered, “And here I thought it was crazy to give a bunch of teenagers superpowers. Never mind that.”

“But enough about me,” said Aeno, clapping his hands together again. “I want to talk about you guys. I’ve been paying attention to you guys for a long time now.”

“But weren’t you sleeping until just recently?” said Bolt. “You said you slept right through the Dread God situation.”

Aeno gestured at Sigil. “I had Sigil here keep an eye on the multiverse while I was gone. He recorded everything on the Eternal Camera and I watched it all when I woke up.”

“Why did you have Sigil record the multiverse while you slept?” said Beams.

“Because someone’s gotta keep an eye on my kingdom,” Aeno replied. “And because I couldn’t both sleep and watch things at the same time, I stayed asleep. I really only woke up when you and Bolt killed the Dread God. Felt the Dread God’s death in the multiverse, so I woke up to see who had done it.”

“Actually, Your Majesty, I was the one who woke you up,” Sigil reminded Aeno. “Remember?”

“Oh, yeah,” said Aeno in a slightly dismissive way. “You did. Thanks.”

Sigil’s lips curled in a slight sneer. “You’re welcome, Your Majesty.”

Aeno, however, did not seem to notice Sigil’s sneer. He kept his focus on Beams and the other heroes, speaking as rapidly as ever.

“So I asked Sigil who killed the Dread God and he told me that Bolt and Beams did it,” Aeno continued. “Never heard of you guys before, so I watched the footage from the Eternal Camera to find out more about you guys. Which is when I became your biggest fan in the world and when I hatched the idea for the Tournament in the first place.”

“What about us?” said Winter, gesturing at himself and Trickshot. “When did we fall on your radar?”

“Not long after I learned about Bolt and Beams,” said Aeno. “You see, I became a big superhero fan in general. There are so many superheroes in the multiverse you wouldn’t even believe. I had no idea just how awesome you guys are. And not just awesome, but really heroic, too. I hope I can be as heroic as you guys someday.”

“That’s, er, nice, Aeno,” said Beams, scratching the back of his neck. “But if you just wanted to speak to us, then you could have just invited us to your Castle to visit. No need for a tournament.”

Aeno, however, shook his head vigorously. “No! I don’t just want your autographs. I want to see you guys fight ‘cause that’s what superheroes do. One of the coolest things about superheroes is when they fight supervillains and bad guys and stuff. I want to find out which one of you is the greatest hero in the multiverse, and the only logical way to do that is to have you guys fight each other in a tournament!”

Beams’ frown deepened. That hardly seemed ‘logical’ to him, but he decided to continue being diplomatic to avoid angering Aeno. “I see. Well, I’m not sure how interested we are in fighting each other—”

“But you must,” Aeno insisted. “You have to. If you don’t, I’ll be forced to destroy all of your universes.”

“Wait, what?” said Winter. “What are you talking about?”

Aeno looked at Sigil in surprise. “Sigil, didn’t you tell them what would happen to the losers of the Tournament?”

Sigil, his expression stone-cold, shook his head. “I am afraid not, Your Majesty. I thought it would be more appropriate if you were the one to deliver the news.”

Aeno nodded, apparently satisfied with that explanation. “Okay.”

Aeno then looked at the heroes with a big smile on his face. “All right. The winner of the Tournament will be officially declared the Greatest Hero in the Multiverse. The losers, however, will be erased. Them and their universes.”