The Superhero's Strike

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER THREE

No way,” I said, shaking my head. “The NHA didn’t kidnap Dizzy.”

Strike looked at me, this time with harsher eyes. “I would like to think the same thing, Bolt, but the evidence I’ve found points in that direction. Someone in your organization kidnapped Dizzy. And I suspect that that person is somewhere here in Showdown, along with Dizzy, though what they’re doing with her, I don’t know. It can’t be good, though.”

“Start from the beginning,” I said. “When did Dizzy first disappear?”

“One week ago,” said Strike. “She was in the New Heroes’ base in California—you know, the underground one—with me and the rest of the team. We just got back to base after a long day helping rebuild some buildings in San Francisco and Dizzy, as usual, went to bed first. She’s not much of a night owl, you know.”

I nodded. “Continue. I’m listening.”

A cold winter breeze blew through, causing Strike’s cape to flutter behind him, though he did not seem to take notice of it. “I didn’t think much of it at the time, but then things got … weird. During the middle of the night, the security systems in our base suddenly went crazy. Alarms blared and lights flashed and our computers informed us that an intruder had been spotted on the premises. So Slime and I went to check it out, but when we got to the main floor, we didn’t find any intruders.”

“None at all?”

“None at all,” Strike confirmed. “I had the whole team search the entire base for any intruders, but we didn’t find anything out of the ordinary. We even checked the doors to see if any of the locks were broken, but they weren’t. So we dismissed the alarms as a glitch or something. I even made a note to have Tech Wiz—the INJ’s main tech guy—come down in the morning and audit the system to make sure everything was okay.”

“What did you do after that?”

“Went back to bed,” said Strike with a yawn. “The rest of the night went by without any incident. It wasn’t until we woke up the next morning that we discovered something bad happened.”

“And what happened?”

“Dizzy was missing,” said Strike. He ran a hand through his short, blonde hair. “When she didn’t come down for breakfast, I went up to her room and found it was empty. Her bed was still there and all her personal belongings, but she herself was nowhere to be seen. I had the team search the base again, just to make sure that she wasn’t simply on one of the other floors, but we didn’t find her anywhere. We even searched the immediate area outside the base, but still didn’t find anything.”

“Uh oh,” I said. “Did you tell anyone about this?”

“I informed the INJ,” said Strike. “In fact, I personally called the Midnight Menace himself to let him know what happened. He told me he would put together a team to search for her, but given how short-handed we are with the reconstruction of San Francisco, well, I thought it would be a while before he could do that. So I took a leaf out of your book and decided to do it myself.”

I raised an eyebrow. “My book? What do you mean?”

“You’ve got a reputation among the INJ for acting against authority sometimes,” said Strike. “Some guys even think you’d make a better INJ member than NHA member, but it doesn’t matter. I normally don’t act independently like this, but Dizzy’s kidnapping really worries me and I want to find her no matter what.”

I could understand that. If Blizzard had been kidnapped, I would definitely search for her myself, regardless of what anyone else thought. “But what makes you think the NHA is behind her disappearance? That seems totally out of character for the NHA.”

“It might not be the NHA itself, but one of your teammates,” said Strike. “You see, when I went to Dizzy’s room, I found something quite … interesting. Let me show you.”

Strike put a hand in his pocket and pulled out a small object, which he held out for me to look at. I recognized it right away: It was a Star Caller, a small, star-shaped communication device which the NHA used to use for communication between members before they were retired in favor of the more portable earcoms. It looked like a combination between walkie-talkies and old-fashioned cell phones from the 80s and 90s.

“Is that a Star Caller?” I said in surprise. “Man, I haven’t seen one of those in ages.”

“It is,” said Strike, lowering his hand. “The Star Caller devices were only used by you guys. The INJ never used them because we had our own communication devices for our teammates. That’s the main reason I assumed an NHA member must be behind this.”

“But we don’t use them anymore,” I said. I gestured at my ears. “We use earcoms now, which are a lot more convenient for communication. I mean, I guess it’s possible someone in the NHA still has a Star Caller lying around, but it’s a really weird thing to take with you to a kidnapping.”

“Unless the kidnapper wasn’t alone and needed to communicate with help on the outside,” said Strike. He looked at the Star Caller again with a troubled expression. “If so, then it might not just be one NHA member, but multiple.”

“Let’s not jump to any conclusions,” I said, holding up my hands. “There’s still a lot we don’t know. Why did you come all the way here to Virginia in particular, by the way? Does the INJ have a base out here, too, that I’m not aware of?”

Strike shook his head. “No. The INJ is primarily focused on the West Coast and the surrounding area. We let you guys deal with the East Coast and the areas around it. I came out here because I checked the Star Caller’s ID—”

“ID?” I said. “What do you mean?”

Strike looked at me as if I had just asked a really dumb question. “All Star Caller devices are registered to specific users, including their personal information like where they live, phone numbers, and so on. You didn’t know that?”

I smiled sheepishly. “Like I said, Star Callers were phased out when I joined the Young Neos. I only used mine once or twice. I had no idea they were registered.”

“Ah,” said Strike, nodding. “I see. Well, now you do, although I doubt that information will be very helpful for you.”

I found it weird that Strike, who wasn’t in the NHA at all, apparently understood how Star Callers worked better than me. I always knew Strike was smart, but I didn’t know he was good with tech, too. “So, what did you find?”

Strike held up the Star Caller again. “According to the Star Caller’s registration, it was registered to a man named Conan X. Longworth, from Showdown, Virginia, who is perhaps better known as the NHA agent and superhero Phaser.”

“Never heard of him,” I said. “Is he around here?”

Strike lowered the Star Caller again. “I imagine the reason you don’t know him is because he was kicked out of the NHA and became a supervillain.”

“What?” I said in surprise. “When did that happen? And how do you know this?”

“I did my research,” said Strike. “I don’t have access to the NHA’s membership database like you, so I used Google to find out more about him. I found some news articles from the turn of the century which state that Phaser was once the most famous superhero from Virginia before the NHA discovered that he was using his powers to rob banks without them knowing. They revoked his membership and kicked him out, so he became a supervillain instead and made it his mission to destroy the NHA.”

“Bizarre,” I said. “How come no one told me about that?”

“Probably because Phaser is also dead,” said Strike. “I found another article that states he was killed four years ago by an NHA agent named Brains after a failed bank heist. Supposedly, he was killed right here in Showdown, his hometown, which was is kind of ironic when you think about it.”

“Brains killed him?” I said. I pointed at the roof of the Braindome we stood on. “Brains is here. This is actually his base in Showdown. He might be able to tell us about this.”

“That’s another reason I came here,” said Strike. “I wanted to talk to Brains, so it looks like I got lucky. He might be able to tell me about Phaser and the circumstances surrounding his death because the articles I read were pretty vague on the details.”

I frowned. “This doesn’t make any sense. How did the Star Caller of a long-dead supervillain end up in your base?”

“I don’t know,” said Strike. “That’s one of the reasons I want to talk to Brains. He’s the one who killed Phaser so he might be able to answer my questions about him.”

“Well, I don’t see any reason to delay,” I said. “Let’s head down into the Braindome and see what we can find out.”