The Dimension Heroes Trilogy Omnibus

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER FIVE

Less than half an hour later, Beams and the mysterious man who claimed to be from another universe appeared in front of the false storefront entrance to the Elastic Cave, which was Rubberman’s hideout and base. By ‘appeared,’ it was more like stepped, because the mysterious man used a strange device he called a ‘dimension hopper’ which allowed him to open a dimensional portal from one location to the next. According to the man, the device could be used for ‘intradimensional’ traveling as well as ‘interdimensional’ traveling, which made no sense to Beams, but when the man actually activated the device, all of Beams’ skepticism vanished immediately.

But they didn’t leave immediately. The man allowed Beams to put on his costume first, which required finding a secluded back alley where he could suit up without fear of being seen. Of course, that was probably unnecessary, given how most of the inhabitants of Golden City were too distracted by the invading alien force to care about Beams’ secret identity, but he did it just to be safe.

Stepping through the portal, Beams could not believe how quickly they had traveled from one point in the city to the other. He looked around and saw that they were definitely at the false storefront entrance to the Elastic Cave. He looked over his shoulder as the man stepped through the portal and closed it behind them, probably to make sure that none of the Kakarr bats followed them through.

“That dimension hopper of yours is absolutely amazing,” said Beams as the man tapped on its touch screen a few times. “I’ve read a lot of science fiction novels that deal with dimension-hopping, but I didn’t think it was even possible in real life.”

The man smiled. “Now are you willing to believe that the multiverse is real? Or am I going to have to take you on a dimension-hopping trip to different universes to prove it?”

Beams shook his head rapidly. “No, no, I believe now. You might have a hard time convincing my boss, though. Rubberman’s a bit more skeptical than me.”

“He’ll believe soon enough,” said the man. “He’ll have to if he wants to save not just Golden City, but the entire planet.”

“Then let’s go in,” said Beams. “I bet Rubberman is already worried about me. Got to make sure he knows I’m safe.”

Beams entered the false storefront, holding the door open for the man. The two of them then stepped over into the center of the empty room, where Beams pressed a button on the control panel and soon they both began descending into the Cave. The man looked a little claustrophobic as they descended, but Beams was too busy figuring out how to explain the situation to Rubberman to care about that.

Finally, there was a small ding and the elevator came to a stop. As soon as the doors opened, Beams walked out of the elevator and said, “Rubberman, Adams, I’m here! And I’ve got someone who knows what those aliens want, too!”

Beams was pleased to see Rubberman and Adams, his butler and assistant, standing in front of Mission Control, which had several monitors displaying many different news channels and websites, which was how Rubberman kept up to date on local crimes. But now, every monitor showed the exact same thing: Footage of the Darzen alien attack on Golden City, with news reporters all trying to explain to viewers what was going on. One of the monitors even showed a news reporter who appeared to be there in real time, talking rapidly into the camera before a Kakarr appeared out of nowhere and smashed its claw into the camera, causing that monitor to go blank before Rubberman switched the channel to another news station that was still active.

As soon as Beams stepped inside, Rubberman looked at him and said, “Beams! You’re safe. Thank God. I thought that the aliens might have gotten you because I couldn’t call you on your phone.”

“No, I’m fine,” said Beams, shaking his head. “My phone is still dead, but—”

“Your phone probably isn’t dead,” said the man as he stepped out of the elevator behind Beams. “The Darzens are likely jamming any and all communication signals within the city. They probably don’t want the city’s inhabitants to organize against them or call for help. Standard Darzen invasion tactic.”

Rubberman rose from his chair in front of Mission Control and turned to face Beams and the man, a frown on his face. “And just who are you and how do you know so much about these, uh, ‘Darzens,’ I think you called them?”

“He’s the guy who saved me from the alien that attacked me,” said Beams. “He’s, um—”

“Space,” said the man. “Jason Space, but you can call me Mr. Space if you want. It’s what everyone else does.”

“Mr. Space,” Rubberman repeated with a frown on his face. “Are you a superhero? I know of a Mr. Star, but I’ve never heard of a Mr. Space. Got a license?”

“I’m not a superhero, sorry,” said Mr. Space. “I just prefer to go by that name because it’s cool, though it would make a good superhero name, wouldn’t it?”

“If you’re not a superhero, then what are you?” said Rubberman. “And how do you know so much about these aliens?”

“I’m a member of the group known as the Interdimensional Elite Agency, or IEA for short,” said Mr. Space. “We protect the multiverse from all kinds of nasty threats, including the Darzens. Here’s my holo card as proof.”

Mr. Space tapped the touch screen on his arm and a holographic card, not much bigger than Beams’ own sidekick license, flashed out of it. The holographic card featured a smiling Mr. Space who had much longer hair than the one in the room with them, though his face was exactly the same. There were also a whole bunch of numbers and letters on the card, but they were in a language that Beams couldn’t read, one that looked like no Earth language he had ever seen.

“You … protect the multiverse?” said Rubberman. His eyes narrowed suspiciously. “But multiverse theory is just a theory. No scientist has ever been able to prove it.”

“He’s the real deal, boss,” Beams said. “We just used a dimension hopper to cross half the city. Mr. Space, want to show it off?”

“Sure,” said Mr. Space. “Watch and be amazed.”

Mr. Space tapped his touch screen a few times and a dimensional portal opened before him. He stepped through the portal and reappeared through another portal on the other side of the room, bowing a couple of times as both portals closed at roughly the same time.

“See?” said Mr. Space. “And I can do a lot more than that. I can cross entire universes with this device, which is how I got here in the first place.”

Rubberman stared at Mr. Space in amazement. “You mean you’re from a universe where technology has advanced to the point where you can open portals to other universes with a device not much bigger than a wrist watch?”

“Well, yeah,” said Mr. Space, nodding. “I know it’s hard to believe, but—”

Rubberman’s arm extended and snatched the touch screen device off of Mr. Space’s arm. He retracted his arm back to its normal length and began turning the dimension hopper over in his hands, muttering under his breath, “If I can just figure out how this thing works, I might be able to mass produce it and get a head start on this whole dimension-hopping business. I could found a whole new industry of interdimensional travel. I’d make all of those Silicon Valley nerds look like peasants in comparison to the wealth I’d get.”

“Hey, give that back,” said Mr. Space, walking over to Rubberman and snatching the dimension hopper out of his hands. “It’s not for sale or profit. It’s meant to be used to help IEA agents defend the multiverse.”

“Sorry,” said Rubberman sheepishly. “I didn’t mean I was going to profit off it. It was just a joke. Right, Beams?”

Beams frowned. While his boss was a genuinely good man at heart who valued justice and righteousness above all else, he was also an excellent businessman who cared about making a profit. Rubberman wasn’t as bad as some superheroes, but every now and then his inner businessman would make him forget his priorities. “Yeah. And it’s not like we have time for that, anyway, what with a literal alien invasion occurring and everything.”

“Beams knows what’s up,” said Mr. Space. “Of course, he was just attacked by an alien, so of course he would know what’s up.”

“So those things are actual, honest-to-God aliens?” said Rubberman, glancing at the monitors around the Control Panel. “This isn’t some kind of hoax?”

“They’re one hundred percent real,” said Mr. Space. “They really are not of this Earth, or any Earth, for that matter. They’re from another world, but they don’t come in peace by any definition of the term.”

Rubberman nodded. “I see. I guess it makes sense. We’ve encountered aliens before, or Beams has, anyway.”

“Boss, these aliens are the same ones I met in West Texas six months ago,” said Beams. “That’s what Mr. Space says, anyway.”

“It’s true,” said Mr. Space. “They’ve finally returned to Earth after the six month period of grace Beams got from them in a deal.”

Rubberman looked at Beams. “Wait, you told them to stay away from Earth for six months? I don’t remember you telling me that.”

Beams smiled sheepishly. “Guess I must have forgotten when I got home. See, I threatened to destroy the brain of their dead god, the Rubber Ball, if they didn’t leave Earth alone. I told them to stay away from Earth for at least six months if they didn’t want the brain of their god to be destroyed, but I honestly forgot about that and didn’t think they would actually come back.”

“If you had known more about the Darzens, you would have realized that they never forget deals or promises,” said Mr. Space. “They may sometimes take a long time to fulfill their end of the deal, but they’ll never let the other side forget their own end of the deal.”

“Meaning this alien invasion is Mr. Fry’s fault, then,” said Adams in his usual sarcastic Scottish voice. “Why am I not surprised?”

Beams shot Adams an annoyed look, while Rubberman stepped forward and said, “These Darzens, they’ve come back for the Rubber Ball?”

“Oh, yeah,” said Mr. Space, nodding. “They’re on a religious quest to resurrect their dead god, who you guys might know as the Dread God. And, from what our intel suggests, they will stop at nothing to do it.”

“Can you tell us more about these Darzens?” said Rubberman. “We don’t really know much about them. It would be easier to fight them if we knew the basics about them.”

Mr. Space folded his arms in front of his chest. “Okay. The Darzens are a space-faring interdimensional alien species whose home world is Jinkopa, which is located about as far away from Earth as possible. They’re an extremely advanced civilization, much more so than Earth. You know how your Earth hasn’t gone back to the moon since the sixties? They’ve had multiple colonies on several different worlds for millions of years now.”

“Dang, that is advanced,” said Beams. “Didn’t they rule Earth once, too?”

“The Dread God did, yeah,” said Mr. Space, nodding. “Before, of course, he was killed by one of your ancestors. Most likely, Earth was a Darzen colony world at some point, which I assume is one of the reasons they’re back.”

“How did one of our ancient ancestors kill a god?” said Rubberman in amazement.

Mr. Space shrugged. “It’s just a legend, so there’s probably a lot more to it than that. All I know is that Earth is one of the very few Darzen colony worlds to have successfully thrown off the yoke of the Darzen and drive them off the planet. My guess is that they’re just as interested in taking over the world as they are in resurrecting their god.”

“But why are they attacking Golden City?” said Beams, scratching his head. “The Rubber Ball isn’t here. Nightbolt sent it away to a friend of his a while back. He even gave us the promise that the aliens would never be able to find it even if they combed the whole Earth.”

Rubberman suddenly gulped. “Well, uh, Beams, about that—”

He was interrupted when the door to the room Beams stayed in while he worked here opened and a woman Beams had never seen before stepped out. She seemed to be in her thirties and wore a skintight pink and white body suit that left little to the imagination. She was slightly shorter than Rubberman and had the letter A stitched into her chest, but what really caught Beams’ attention was the thick metal box she carried under her right arm.

“Dennis,” said the woman, yawning and scratching the back of her head. “I thought I heard people talking. Is your sidekick finally here?”

Beams looked at Rubberman. “Who is that?”

Rubberman scratched the back of his head. “Oh, uh, you remember the visitor I told you would be stopping by the base today? That’s her. Angel Wings, who is the superhero of Blinders, Indiana. She’s another student of Nightbolt and the two of us met during my training. We’ve been friends ever since.”

Angel Wings suddenly waved at me. “Oh, hello! Are you Beams? I like your costume a lot better than Rubberman’s last sidekick’s. Colors don’t really do it for me, but your helmet is pretty cool.”

Beams normally would have been happy to meet a new superhero, but his eyes were drawn to the metal box under her arms. He couldn’t see through it, but he sensed that same malevolent intelligence reaching out to him, trying to draw him near it. It had been six months since he’d last felt that intelligence, but there was no mistaking it for what it was. And, while it was terrifying in its own right, under these new circumstances, it was downright horrifying.

“Boss …” said Beams slowly. “Angel Wings doesn’t have what I think she has, does she?”

Rubberman nodded, although he looked very sheepish. “Yes, she has the Rubber Ball, which she brought with her to here when I invited her over for a visit.”

Beams whirled around to face him. “But why would you do that? Don’t you remember how dangerous the Rubber Ball is?”

Rubberman opened his mouth to respond when, all of a sudden, all of the screens in Mission Control went blank at the exact same time. They were blank for only a brief second, however, before they turned back on, though this time, they didn’t show the news.

Instead, each screen showed the same vision: The face of a strange-looking alien humanoid. It seemed to be wearing some kind of thick metal armor, its glowing red eyes peering out from between the glass eye holes of its armor. Thick spikes rose from the back of its helmet, while its eyes observed Beams and the others with a distinct, alien coldness unlike anything Beams had felt before.

“What the heck?” said Rubberman, whirling around to look at the screen. “What happened to the monitors? And what is that?”

Mr. Space’s eyes widened in horror. “Uh oh.”

“Uh oh?” Beams repeated. “What do you mean by ‘Uh oh’?”

Mr. Space gulped. He now looked like he wanted to be anywhere else other than here. “That’s the Dread God’s Avatar. He knows where we are. And he’s going to kill us all.”