Prophecy of the Heroes, page 26
part #2 of Tournament of Heroes Series
Rubberman shook his head. “Positive they weren’t there when the hawk attacked us.”
“Impossible,” the Necromantress said. “Cacti cannot move. You must simply have missed them as usual, Dennis, which is not surprising because you always forgot to notice the important things when we were—”
Without warning, one of the cacti swung its arm and fired three needles at the Necromantress. Iron Angel, however, pushed her to the ground and used his metallic wings as a shield to block the needles.
The first cacti’s attack seemed to encourage the others to start moving. They began to change shape, with human-like heads, chests, and arms beginning to form. As the cacti became more and more human-like, they started to wrench themselves out of the sand, revealing powerfully muscular legs that were also covered in needles.
Soon, twelve cactus warriors surrounded Team Beams, each one aiming the needles on their arms at the Team. Beams and his Teammates pulled together in the middle, looking around with alarm at their new enemies.
“What were you saying, Shawna, about cacti not being able to move?” said Rubberman, glancing over his shoulder at her. “Because I’m pretty sure those cacti just moved.”
“Oh, shut up,” the Necromantress growled as the cactus warriors stepped in closer, their needles bristling as they prepared to fire them on Beams and his Teammates.
BOLT
“This is really embarrassing,” said Bolt, putting his hands on his hips. “I mean, really embarrassing. Seriously, you should have seen this coming.”
“I agree with Bolt,” said Blizzard, standing next to Bolt and rubbing her right arm. “It was kind of obvious.”
“Even I cannot find fault with what the children have said,” said Tsunami, leaning on his trident lazily. “Perhaps if you had been a bit more observant, Mimic, you would not be in this situation.”
“Hardy har har,” Mimic said, gritting his teeth. “Yes, everyone laugh at Mimic because he can’t see in this fog. And let’s forget about the fact that Mimic is the Team’s Treasure Keeper, so either you guys help get me out of this mess or we might as well give up now.”
Mimic raised his voice for that last sentence. He stood at the bottom of a deep pit, located in the field where Team Bolt had appeared when Sigil teleported them from the courtyard. As soon as they appeared in the field’s tall, thick grass, an even thicker fog had fallen over the field, causing their visibility to drop substantially. That was the reason why Mimic had fallen into the pit, though Bolt, Blizzard, and Tsunami had all noticed the fairly obvious pit trap and tried to warn him about it before he walked into it.
Bolt stroked his chin thoughtfully. “I dunno, guys, what do you think? Think we should help Mimic or not?”
“I’m not sure,” said Blizzard. “He doesn’t seem to like teenagers too much.”
“Nor is he a particularly trustworthy individual,” said Tsunami in agreement. “Suppose we pull him out of the pit and he pushes one of us in there? Do you think he would help?”
“What is wrong with you three?” Mimic said. He held up his right wrist, showing off his purple-and-gold Treasure Band. “You heard Sigil. You guys need me if you are going to win.”
“Who says?” said Bolt. “The pit doesn’t look that dangerous. We could keep you down there, steal the treasures from the other Teams, and then come back, pull you out, and give you the treasures later.”
“An excellent idea, Bolt,” said Tsunami. “Mimic would most certainly slow us down if we were to drag him along with us. Especially if he keeps falling into obvious traps like this.”
“You are the worst Teammates ever,” Mimic said. He looked around the pit. “If you guys won’t get me out of here, I’ll just climb out myself. I was a talented mountain climber back in college. These walls don’t look that hard.”
Mimic tried to dig his fingers into the walls of the pit to get a handhold. Unfortunately for him, however, the walls were too smooth for him to find any purchase. After a few failed attempts to climb the walls, Mimic gave up and retreated back to the center of the pit.
“Come on, guys,” said Mimic in a voice that was definitely not whiny, “please help me? I promise I’ll never make any snide comments about you guys ever again if you rescue me.”
Bolt stroked his chin again and looked at Blizzard and Tsunami. “What do you two think? Does he sound sincere or not?”
“I think he’s suffered enough,” said Blizzard. “You can get him out.”
“Agreed,” Tsunami said. “Although a god must always punish those who disrespect him, a true god can also show mercy to the penitent. I believe a declaration of undying, lifelong loyalty to me should suffice.”
“Declaration of—?” Mimic sputtered. “No way! I’m not that desperate.”
“Don’t worry,” said Bolt with a smirk. “You don’t have to declare loyalty to anyone if you don’t want to. I’ll get you out.”
Bolt flew down into the pit, grabbed Mimic by the shoulders, and lifted him out of the pit. He set Mimic on the edge of the pit and, as soon as he let go of his shoulders, Mimic backed away from the pit as fast as he could.
Rising to his feet, Mimic said, “If you guys are done mocking me, perhaps we should think about heading to the island again.”
“Like we were supposed to before you fell for that trap?” said Bolt. “Literally?”
Mimic scowled. “Yes, yes, keep making fun of me. Your wit has me in stitches. I may need to go to the hospital before all is said and done.”
Bolt chuckled but said nothing to that. Mimic had a point. Before Mimic stumbled upon that trap, Team Bolt had been making their way toward the island in the middle of the environment they were in. Based on what Sigil had said before the start of the match, the island seemed to be the place where they would need to return the four treasures anyway. The theory was that they didn’t know where the other Teams were, so it was only logical to assume that the other Teams were probably making their way over to the island as well.
That was when a huge fog covered the prairie field that they had ended up in. The result was that they had been forced to slow their progress considerably to avoid walking into traps or other obstacles between them and the island.
Not that that seemed to work, Bolt thought, glancing at the gaping pit that Mimic had accidentally fallen into, but on the bright side, the other Teams probably can’t see us in this fog, either, so we’re at least safe from being attacked by them.
When the fog first appeared, Bolt had tried to fly above the fog to figure out which way they needed to go. But the fog seemed to grow taller and taller the higher up he flew until eventually he was forced to return to the ground and walk along with the rest of his Teammates. That severely slowed their progress and Bolt didn’t dare fly off and abandon his Teammates in this fog. He suspected that if he got lost here, he would likely never find his way out until the match was over.
“Which way is it to the island again?” said Blizzard, looking around in confusion. “This fog is messing with my sense of direction.”
Tsunami pointed with his trident ahead. “Directly that way. The fog might make things harder to see, but it isn’t like the terrain has actually changed. If we keep walking forward, we should eventually find the island and, presumably, the other Teams.”
“Do we have to?” said Mimic, glancing around the fog. He stroked his chin. “This fog is thick enough that the other Teams probably can’t see us. Or maybe we could lure the other Teams into the fog and use it to our advantage.”
“Like cowards,” Tsunami spat. “No. If we can get to the island, I will be near a fairly large body of water, which I will then be able to control at will. Standing out here in this tall grass limits my powers immensely.”
“Tsunami’s got a point,” said Bolt. He punched his fist into his hand. “Besides, we’re all strong here. As long as we stick together, we should have no trouble fending off the other Teams.”
“You guys might be strong enough to move mountains and survive getting crushed by tanks, but not all of us are freaks in that way,” Mimic said dryly.
“Don’t worry,” said Blizzard, patting Mimic on the shoulder reassuringly, “we’ll make sure to keep you safe. From yourself, if nothing else.”
Mimic glared at her. “Why, you little—”
“What were you going to say to Blizzard?” Bolt interrupted. He leaned forward with an interested look on his face. “I’m listening.”
Mimic bit his lower lip so hard that he looked like he was trying to eat it. “I was going to say that I deeply appreciate the reassurance, even if I don’t actually need it.”
Bolt knew what Mimic was actually going to say, but he also knew that Mimic was smart enough not to insult Blizzard in front of Bolt. He simply nodded to show that he understood Mimic’s point and stood back upright. “Good to know. Do you still have the treasure with you?”
“Treasure?” Mimic repeated. “You mean the shovel?”
Mimic raised his Treasure Band. A holographic image of a plastic toy shovel appeared in the air above his band, rotating silently on the spot. “Of course I still have it. Why do you ask?”
“Why didn’t you use it to dig yourself out of that hole?” Bolt asked, trying—and failing—to suppress a grin.
Mimic shot a death glare at Bolt. “If we weren’t on the same Team—”
“Things would be fascinating,” Tsunami said. He stabbed his trident into the ground. “But enough of this pointless bickering. We must keep moving forward. If we are to win this match, we will need to steal the treasures from the other three Teams.”
“There’s no rush,” said Bolt, “but I guess you got a point. We’re in last place and this might be our only chance to increase our chances of winning. Let’s go, everyone.”
They fell into the same pattern they had had before Mimic’s accident. Tsunami walked in front, wielding his trident with both hands, while Bolt and Blizzard walked side by side in the back. In the middle walked Mimic, who, Bolt was amused to see, was now paying a lot more attention to the ground than before. He seemed especially wary of the lighter patches of grass they would come across every now and then, as that had been one of the signs of the trap he had fallen into earlier.
But Bolt’s thoughts weren’t on Mimic at the moment. He was thinking about the woman whose hand he held, who walked beside him, her beautiful blue eyes awake and alert for any potential dangers hidden in the mist. A soft hint of cold air wafted off her hair, a pleasant scent which reminded Bolt of all of the time he and Blizzard had spent together.
I hope Winter’s note about the jewelry dealer in Nexus City is correct, Bolt thought as they walked, because if it’s not, I might just go ahead and propose to her anyway, with or without the ring. I’d prefer to have it, of course, but if not, I can make do.
Perhaps marriage was a weird thing to think about, given how the fate of the multiverse itself was on Bolt’s shoulders. But it was hard not to think about it whenever he looked at Blizzard. He didn’t know for sure if she would say yes or not, but he knew that he would have to ask her at some point. It made him feel a little anxious as a result, as uncertainty usually did. He tried not to dwell on his anxiety, but it definitely hovered in the back of his mind.
“Bolt?” said Blizzard, looking at Bolt curiously. “Are you okay?”
Snapping out of his thoughts, Bolt looked at Blizzard in confusion. “What was that?”
“I said, are you okay?” said Blizzard. “You seemed distracted.”
Bolt rubbed the back of his head. “Sorry. I was just keeping an eye out for extra treasure. You know, so we could get more points?”
“That is probably the smartest thing you’ve said since the match began,” Mimic said, looking over his shoulder smugly. “Given how our Team is in dead last, the more points we can get, the better.”
Blizzard pursed her lips, perhaps not believing Bolt’s excuse, but thankfully she apparently didn’t push the issue. “Yeah. But what do the other treasures even look like? Are they children’s toys like the shovel?”
“Most likely,” said Mimic. “It is starting to look like Aeno’s ‘treasures’ are, in fact, just his toys. Can’t say I’m surprised. He is very childish.”
“I doubt there are many treasures here,” said Tsunami, gesturing at the fog all around them. “Even if there are, we won’t be able to find them that easily. I can barely see my own trident in this fog, much less Aeno’s lost toys. As I said, our focus should be on—”
Tsunami was interrupted by loud shuffling in the grass around them. The entire Team came to a stop and looked around, trying to spot the source of the shuffling, but it seemed to be coming from everywhere at once. Blizzard stepped closer to Bolt, while Mimic gulped and Tsunami raised his trident defensively.
“What’s making all that noise?” said Blizzard. “Another one of the Teams?”
“Unlikely,” said Tsunami, his harsh eyes darting back and forth in the mist. “The match has just begun. No way any of the other Teams could have caught up to us so quickly. It must be another one of the environment’s obstacles.”
As soon as Tsunami said that, the grass stopped shuffling and everything went silent.
For some reason, Bolt didn’t want to breathe out loud or make any noises. He felt like something in the fog was watching them, something just beyond the range of his vision.
“Why is everything so quiet?” Blizzard whispered. She clutched Bolt’s arm tighter than ever.
“Perhaps the thing decided to leave us alone?” said Mimic in a slightly louder but still very low voice than Blizzard’s.
The second Mimic said that the fog swirled around them. The wind picked up suddenly, causing the grass to rustle around them more loudly than ever. The fog thickened and deepened, causing Bolt’s visibility to drop even more. He couldn’t even see Blizzard, despite feeling her hand clinging to him more tightly than ever. He heard both Tsunami and Mimic shouting, but found that their shouts seemed to be becoming more and more distant with each passing second.
“Bolt!” Blizzard’s voice rang out in the fog, sounding distant even though he could still feel her hand clinging to his. “Bolt, where are you?”
“I’m right here!” Bolt shouted back, clutching her hand more tightly than ever. “Hold on!”
But then he felt something sharp slap at his hand, causing him to let go of Blizzard’s hand.
“No!” Bolt shouted, reaching out frantically. “Blizzard!”
Bolt staggered forward and tried to grab Blizzard again, but his hands succeeded only in grasping the empty fog. Panic rising in his chest, Bolt looked around desperately, trying to see anything, but the fog was just too thick.
Then, without warning, the fog lifted somewhat, enough for him to see his own hands and the area around him for maybe five or ten feet.
It also revealed to him that all three of his Teammates had vanished into thin air.
TRICKSHOT
A snowball shot through the air like a bullet and nailed Trickshot in the forehead. The snowball exploded against his face, causing bits of snow and ice to get caught in his hair and stuck on his goggles. Furiously rubbing his goggles, Trickshot cleared them off just in time to see another snowball come his way.
Acting on instinct, Trickshot drew a disk from his pouch and threw it at the snowball. The disk struck the snowball in midair and caused it to explode, which earned Trickshot a round of angry, unintelligible yells from the snowmen-like creatures which had been pelting him and his Teammates with snowballs for the past five minutes.
Trickshot drew two more disks from his pouch. By the time he did, however, the snowmen had disappeared among the cliffs and hills around them.
“Stupid snowmen,” said Trickshot, lowering his disks. “How do they move so quickly when they don’t even have legs?”
“A better question is why they have such good aim even though they have coal for eyeballs,” said Holes. He stood next to Trickshot, holding a flat rock in his hands with one of his signature portals on it, having used his rock to redirect the snowballs being thrown at them. “They have better aim than even you do.”
“You’re lucky your snowballs are just snow,” said Lethal Injection. He rubbed his shoulder and winced. “The last one they threw at me had a rock in it. And I am pretty sure one of them was yellow, too.”
“C-Can we just keep moving?” said Bug Bite, his arms wrapped tightly around his body. “I-It might be w-warmer on the island.”
Trickshot looked at Bug Bite in annoyance. “What do you think we’ve been trying to do? And why are your teeth chattering? It’s not that cold.”
Bug Bite shuddered. “I just d-don’t like the cold. My costume was d-designed for hot Texas summers. Not c-cold mountains like these.”
The ‘mountains’ Bug Bite referred to were the starting region for Team Trickshot. Upon being teleported away from the courtyard, Trickshot and his Teammates had found themselves in the middle of what seemed like a small, snowy mountain range on the east side of the environment. Trickshot had figured this out by flying up into the sky and doing a brief survey of the surrounding area. He had also spotted three other regions—a jungle, a prairie, and a desert—in the other cardinal directions, plus an island in the middle of it all where Sigil likely was.
Now Trickshot wasn’t much of a geographer, but even he realized that you couldn’t put a snowy mountain next to a tropical jungle and expect it to make sense. As a result, he realized that this place had to be another one of Aeno’s creations.
When Trickshot determined the direction to the sea, he and his Teammates had decided to head there because it was the most logical place to find the other Teams. As well, the mountains were cold. Trickshot’s costume apparently gave him more protection from the cold than Bug Bite’s did, but it was the snow and rocky terrain more than anything that bothered Trickshot.
Trickshot would have been tempted to fly ahead and scout out the island all by himself if he hadn’t been unfortunate enough to be designated the Team’s Treasure Keeper. He remembered well how much his wrist burned when his Treasure Band manifested itself, as well as how confused he was when their ‘treasure’ turned out be a plastic bucket like what a little kid might use when making a sandcastle.
