The Superhero's Powers

Chapter Three-1

Chapter Three

“No,” I said. “No, that can't be possible. Maybe I'm just tired. That's probably why I can't use my super strength.”

“Kevin, you know that's not true,” said Dad. “I think you, me, and your mother all know that Robert somehow stole your powers. If you were just tired, you would still be able to use your powers, maybe not as effectively as normal, but you would be able to use them nonetheless.”

“Well, maybe he got my super strength, but I bet he didn't get my flight or super speed,” I said.

“Kevin—” said Dad, but I interrupted him by throwing my sheets off my body and swinging my legs over the side of the bed.

“No, Dad, it's all right,” I insisted. “I'll use my super speed and flight right here, right now and prove that I still have them.”

“Kevin, you should get back into bed,” said Mom. “You won't be able to stand. You're still too weak. And if you do use your super speed, you might hurt yourself.”

I stood up from my bed and stumbled forward before I regained my balance. “No, Mom, I'm fine. And I'll be even finer once I use my super speed and flight again.”

I turned toward the door. I focused on putting extra speed into my legs, giving me a boost that would allow me to run to the other side of the room in an instant. I wouldn't have even minded if I ran straight into the door and harmed myself. As long as I could still use my super speed, I'd be willing to take just about any amount of pain.

But I felt nothing. I did not feel the burst of energy that I usually felt whenever I used my super speed. My legs felt normal; well, actually, they felt weaker than normal, but that wasn't what I was trying to feel.

Dad must have noticed, because he said, “Kevin—” again before I said, “Watch me fly!”

I jumped into the air, but then fell right back to the floor. I didn't jump particularly high, but I still fell on my bottom. The impact wasn't jarring, but the realization that I had indeed lost all of my powers was.

“Kevin, are you okay?” said Mom. “Do you need help, honey?”

I shook my head. Grabbing the side of the bed, I raised myself back to my feet and sat down on the bed. I looked at my hands, which now looked a lot smaller and weaker than they did yesterday, even though I was pretty sure that I was still the same size I had been before I lost my powers. I just felt so fragile, like I would shatter into pieces as soon as someone touched me the wrong way.

At that moment, the door to the medical station slid open and a man in a full metal power suit that looked like knight armor entered. It was Mecha Knight, one of the members of the NHA Leadership Council, and also the supervisor of the Young Neos. He stopped when he saw me sitting on my bed, but it was impossible to tell if he was surprised or concerned, since his helmet blocked his face.

“Ah, Bolt,” said Mecha Knight in his usual cool monotone. “Carl told me that you were awake, so I came to check on you. How do you feel?”

“Awful,” I said. “And weak.”

“Well, you shouldn't feel so bad about yourself,” said Mecha Knight. “Everyone fails at some point, after all, and—”

“Jack, that isn't what Kevin means,” Dad interrupted him, causing Mecha Knight to look at him.

“What is the problem, then?” said Mecha Knight. “Does he still need to rest?”

“No,” I said. I couldn't look at Mecha Knight. “I'm fine. But my powers … my powers are gone.”

Mecha Knight tilted his head to the side. “Your powers are gone? What do you mean by that?”

“Robert Candle stole Kevin's powers,” Dad explained. He shook his head. “We're not sure how, but now Kevin is just a normal human teenager again.”

“Are you certain that he has lost his powers?” Mecha Knight questioned. “Sometimes particularly traumatic events can block a superhuman's powers for a brief period of time, as you know, Genius.”

“Yes, I am aware of that, but that doesn't appear to be what happened to Kevin,” said Dad with a sigh. “He has literally lost his powers.”

“Has this ever happened before?” I said, looking up at Mecha Knight and then at Dad. “Has anyone ever had their powers stolen before? Like, maybe a supervillain in the past did this sort of thing at some point, making a machine that could take away peoples' powers or whatever.”

“Not that we know of,” said Mecha Knight, shaking his head. “Powers are genetic, after all. While some scientists speculate that there may be a way to shut off powers in the brain, the fact is that modern neuroscience has yet to find the 'off switch,' as some call it, or its opposite, the ‘on switch.’”

“The closest thing I can think of is during the Pokacu invasion,” said Dad. He readjusted his glasses. “The Pokacu aliens used an artificially designed gas that negated a victim's powers. But the gas only lasted for a few hours, at which point the effects would fade and the victim's powers would immediately return to their original level and the gas itself would leave no long term effects on its victims.”

“Is Robert like half-Pokacu or something?” I said. “I mean, he's ugly enough to be one.”

Dad just rolled his eyes. “No, but it is a mystery as to how he did it. Kevin, did he happen to have any sort of device or gadget that he could have possibly used to do that? Perhaps some kind of powered glove that let him take your powers?”

I shook my head. “No. He had a gun, but that's not very useful for stealing powers from neoheroes. He just grabbed me with his bare hands and started draining me.”

“I see,” said Dad. He rubbed his forehead in worry. “Then my worst fears have come true: Robert's superpowers have finally manifested.”

“It is only logical,” said Mecha Knight, who didn't sound as worried about this as Dad did, though Mecha Knight generally didn’t emote much anyway. “After all, his father was Master Chaos. It would have been surprising if he hadn't manifested his powers at some point.”

“Hold on, are you guys saying that Robert's power is that he can steal powers from other neoheroes?” I said in shock.

“Unless he has some kind of device embedded under his skin or there is another explanation for it, then yes, that appears to be the case,” said Dad.

I groaned. “Why did he get the most overpowered superpower? That's so unfair.”

“Life is unfair in general, Bolt,” said Mecha Knight. “We must simply play with the hand we are given, even if it isn't as good as someone else's hand.”

I was about to ask how that was relevant when Mom suddenly said, “If Robert has Kevin's powers, does that mean he will use them to attack us?”

“Probably,” said Dad. “I think it is more likely that he will come after Kevin first, but I wouldn't be surprised if he tried to get you and me as well. After all, I was ultimately the one who killed his father, so he probably doesn't think very highly of me.”

“But how will we defend ourselves?” said Mom. She anxiously rubbed her hands together. “And what if he has other powers as well? Maybe he's stolen powers from other neoheroes besides Kevin. There's no telling what he can do.”

In all of my whining at losing my powers, I had completely forgotten that Mom was just an ordinary human being who didn't have any powers of her own and was therefore defenseless against someone like Robert. I felt ashamed of myself for not thinking about what this meant for my parents, because their lives were in just as much danger as mine.

Dad wrapped an arm around Mom's shoulders and said, “Don't worry, Ashley. Valerie and I will secure the home and make sure Robert won't be able to come within five feet of our house without getting blasted into oblivion.”

“The NHA can also offer you protection, if necessary,” said Mecha Knight. “As you were once a member of the NHA, we would be more than happy to offer you whatever protection from Robert you may need.”

“We may just have to take you up on that offer, Jack,” said Dad. “I can make defenses against a variety of different powers, but it would probably be better if we had at least a few actual neoheroes there to defend us.”

Jack? Was that Mecha Knight's real name or something? I guess it made sense that Dad knew him, because Dad and Mecha Knight used to work together in the NHA, but I didn't know what Mecha Knight's real identity was. He had never seen fit to tell me or the other Young Neos what his real identity was, but then, that wasn't unusual, because most NHA members kept their true identities secret. Still, Mecha Knight worked more closely with the Young Neos than he did with Dad, so I wondered if he would ever share his identity with me at some point.

Not that that was my biggest problem at the moment, however. My biggest problem was figuring out how to get back my powers, but that was such an uncomfortable thing for me to think about that I decided to focus on a new problem I noticed.

“I don't think that sending real neoheroes to protect us will actually work,” I said. “If Robert can steal powers, what's to stop him from stealing their powers and then using them to kill you?”

“Bolt raises a good point,” Mecha Knight said. “Any neohero we send to protect you will be at risk at losing their powers to Robert, assuming we are correct that Robert has the ability to steal powers. Even if Omega Man himself were to protect you, he wouldn't be able to buy you much time against Robert unless he could kill or disable him quickly.”

“Then what are we supposed to do?” said Mom. She tugged at her necklace anxiously. “If even the NHA can't defend us, then who can?”

“We can,” said a soft and gravelly voice from the doorway.

We all looked over at the doorway to see a man in his late forties standing there. He wore an old-fashioned suit, with a G-Men patch on his right shoulder and had deep black hair, with a few gray strands here and there that hinted at his age.

I almost didn't believe my eyes, but the man standing in the doorway was indeed Cadmus Smith, the Director of the Department of Superpowered and Extraterrestrial Beings, and the leader of the G-Men. It had been a while since I last saw him, but he looked almost exactly the same as he did when I met him last year. The only difference was the fact that he was wearing a blue tie rather than a red one, but other than that it was like he had simply traveled through time to get here.

Standing behind Cadmus's right shoulder was a young woman in her twenties who I recognized as Shade. She was another member of the G-Men and seemed to be Cadmus's right-hand woman. She was so-named because she could travel through darkness and even control it, two powers that had always given me a lot of trouble whenever I tangled with her. She smiled and waved at me when she saw me, though it looked like a mocking smile to me.

“Cadmus?” said Mecha Knight, turning to face Cadmus and Shade. Though Mecha Knight's tone didn't change, I noticed him reach for the sword at his side, like he expected a fight. “What are you doing here? I do not remember you being invited to Hero Island.”

Cadmus didn't even smile. He just said, “Shade and I arrived a few minutes ago in response to Robert Candle's attack on John Smith High School yesterday. We heard that Bolt was seriously wounded in the attack and was taken here to recuperate.” He glanced at me. “I can see that that report was accurate.”

“Why are you here?” said Mecha Knight. “You know that the G-Men are not allowed on Hero Island without permission.”

“Oh, but we already received permission from Omega Man and the rest of the Leadership Council,” said Cadmus. “You can ask them, if you'd like. They were very cooperative.”

“Why would they give you permission without consulting me first?” said Mecha Knight. “I am also a member of the Leadership Council, after all. My opinion matters as much as theirs.”

“Because I made it clear that it was rather urgent that Shade and I come here to speak with Bolt,” said Cadmus. “We have already investigated John Smith High School, as well as interviewing witnesses such as Malcolm Rayner about the attack. We now wish to speak with Bolt, who we understand fought Robert Candle.”

“Why do you want to speak with my son?” said Dad. The heat in Dad's voice took me by surprise. He almost looked like he was going to jump up from his chair and fight Cadmus if he got any closer.