First storm, p.14
First Storm, page 14
I didn’t see any of the Golden City Journal news crew anywhere. I wasn’t sure if they were alive or dead. I didn’t see any corpses or blood, which was a good sign, but the utter lack of people in the studio made me nervous. What did Mirar do with everyone?
Perhaps that question was about to be answered. Mirar’s voice was much clearer now, coming from somewhere off to the left. Mirar was definitely talking to someone now. He was speaking animatedly and quickly, so quickly I could barely understand what he was saying. It didn’t help that his Mexican accent kept coloring his words, though I managed to get the gist of what he was saying:
“… yes, Prime Man has been dealt with,” Mirar was saying. “Also, Rubberman and Beams have been broken. Their vehicle has been destroyed and the people of Golden City hate them and blame them for the barrier. Everything is going exactly as planned, sir.”
“Excellent,” said the other, deeper voice I had heard earlier. “We must never allow or tolerate anyone who dares strike against our Order. We must show the world what happens to those who cross the paths of the Zero Knights.”
“Yes, sir,” said Mirar with a chuckle. “I just wish I could have killed Beams myself, but I suppose it doesn’t matter. He and his boss are powerless to stop us. There is nothing they can do to save Golden City now. Slasher will be avenged.”
Rubberman and I exchanged puzzled looks.
“Who’s he talking to?” I whispered, keeping my voice as low as possible.
“No idea,” said Rubberman. “Let me check.”
Cracking the door open just a hair more, Rubberman extended his neck out the door before quickly pulling it back in. He looked at me with an urgent expression on his face and held up a finger. “I’m not sure who Mirar is talking to, but he seems to be his boss. Regardless, Mirar has his back to us and doesn’t seem to have heard us yet.”
I tensed. “Meaning we might be able to get the drop on him if we’re quick enough?”
“Yeah,” said Rubberman. He again held a finger up this lips. “But please be quiet. We will need the element of surprise on our side if we’re going to beat Mirar.”
With that, Rubberman opened the door just wide enough to slip through. I followed just as quickly, keeping my head low as I followed Rubberman behind a pair of large black speakers. We peered around the speakers to see Mirar, who, as far as I could tell, was the only person in the recording studio. Up to this point, I’d only ever seen Mirar in video, so this was the first time I’d seen him in person.
He was a lot bigger in person than on video. He had a lot more muscle and was a fair bit taller. His reflective armor looked more like diamond than glass and his shields were nearly as tall as he was. He had his back to us, but the reason for that was clear: He was talking to an absolute titan of metal and steel who towered over him and made him look tiny in comparison.
The hulking mammoth of a machine was at least three heads taller than Mirar and two times as thick. The number ‘0’ could be seen carved into different parts of his armor, but especially his chest, which had a glowing golden 0 carved neatly into it. The armored being had a ridiculously long sword sheathed at his side—had to be about half my own height at least—and fists as big as bowling balls. Its helmet and visor were shaped to resemble a woolly mammoth crossed with a demon, the tusks looking more like demonic horns than mammoth tusks.
What was even weirder was how the hulking mammoth made no sound when he moved. Of course, he didn’t move very much in general, but when he did move—to adjust his cape or to shift his weight—he didn’t make any sound at all like he was a ghost. That was weird enough, but it was even weirder to see Mirar acting so servilely toward the man. Or was it a machine? I couldn’t tell from here.
All I knew was that I was glad that thing didn’t notice us because I was pretty sure we wouldn’t have been able to beat him in a fight. But when the armored figure spoke, it was in the same deep, gravelly male voice I’d heard before.
“As it should be,” said the armored figure. “But you know I want more than Slasher to be merely avenged.”
Mirar gulped, a sound audible even from our positions in front of the speakers. “Ah, yes, of course, sir, but—”
“How is the other phase of the plan coming along?” the armored figure demanded, cutting Mirar off like he hadn’t been speaking. “I have heard no updates from you about it since the barrier went up.”’
Mirar cleared his throat somewhat awkwardly. “Yes, the other phase is coming along. We ran into some issue when the first Ritual got flooded, but Obadiah has reassured me that the rest of the spell will activate at the proper time.”
“I do not trust that wizard and his word,” said the armored figure, shaking his head. “He has a history of playing with the truth to advance his own agenda, an agenda that does not always work with the Order’s agenda. With my agenda.”
“I checked it myself, sir,” said Mirar quickly. He gestured at the Ritual lines on the floor. “It’s ready. More than ready, in fact. We just need to wait until the time limit is up and then—”
“I know what will happen, Sir Mirar,” said the armored figure. He tapped the side of his head with one mighty armored finger. “I was the one who conceived of this plan, after all. From beginning to end, this entire plan has been my brainchild. You have simply carried it out by following with my orders.”
Mirar gulped again. “Yes, sir, King Xero, of course, Your Majesty. Never in a million years would I ever consider taking the credit for your accomplishments.”
I almost gasped when Mirar mentioned the armored figure’s name. I looked at Rubberman and whispered, as quietly as possible, “That guy is King Xero?”
“Must be,” said Rubberman in a voice of clear disbelief, “but he looks different from all of the pictures of him that I’ve seen. Of course, Xero rarely appears in public, so there aren’t too many pictures of him to start with, but that doesn’t explain why he looks so much bigger and monstrous than the last pictures of him from a few years ago.”
I bit my lower lip. I wasn’t really surprised that Mirar was in contact with Xero. King Xero was, after all, the leader of the Order of the Zero Knights. All of the Zero Knights answered to him at some point, so it wasn’t surprising to see Mirar giving Xero a mission report on what was going on in the city.
At the same time, I was more confused than ever by Xero’s presence here. Xero was talking like he wasn’t actually here. Was this maybe some kind of weird holographic communication device or something? Or maybe Xero was using some of Obadiah’s magic. Either way, I was glad that Xero couldn’t see us. He looked even tougher than Slasher, and that was saying something.
“As you should,” said Xero. He glanced up at the ceiling as if looking at something he couldn’t see. “I must go. I have a sparring session with my Squires within the next hour and it takes me a long time to prepare for the inevitable slaughter that follows. Keep me informed on the situation.”
Mirar bowed deeply. “Yes, King Xero, sir. I will make sure to regularly report to you on everything happening in Golden City every hour until the situation is over, which is only twenty hours away at this point.”
Xero nodded. “That is exactly what I want to hear. You have certainly been better about keeping me updated on your mission than Slasher was.”
“Yes, sir, I try,” said Mirar, standing upright again proudly. “I do not wish to speak ill of Sir Slasher, but he was always a bit slapdash in his methods, in my humble opinion.”
“Indeed,” said Xero. “Anyway, I need to leave now. We can resume our discussion at a later time.”
I glanced at Rubberman, who nodded and whispered, “Once Xero leaves, we’ll attack Mirar. He won’t see it coming. Get ready.”
I nodded in response and readied my lasers for an attack. Mirar’s reflective armor might be a problem, but if Rubberman and I could get the drop on him, it might not mat—
“Oh,” said Xero, speaking loud enough that his voice interrupted my thoughts. “One more thing before I leave, Sir Mirar.”
Mirar looked at Xero in a confused way. “One more thing, Your Majesty? What would that be?”
“Nothing,” said Xero. He pointed over Mirar’s head. “Other than you have some vermin in your studio that need to be eliminated.”
At first, I wasn’t sure what Xero was pointing at. I certainly didn’t see any rats lurking nearby. In fact, the studio looked clean and well-kept, making me wonder if Xero was just saying that just to mess with Mirar or if he was mistaken and had not seen what he thought he saw.
That is, until I realized, with a jolt of dread, that Xero was pointing directly at us.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Mirar whirled around to look at us. His face was hidden behind a clear reflective helmet with no facial features, but it was obvious that he was surprised at our presence. “Rubberman and Beams? Where did you two come from?”
Seeing no reason to hide, I decided to attack. I stood up from behind the speakers and fired my lasers, but not at Mirar. Rather, I was aiming for Xero, who made no move to defend himself as my lasers ripped through the air at him. I was certain that my lasers would hit him in the helmet and probably kill him instantly or at least give him a bad headache.
That was why I was shocked when my lasers passed through Xero’s head harmlessly. Xero didn’t even react to the explosion behind him caused by my lasers striking the wall behind him. He merely lowered his finger, seemingly unimpressed by my attack.
“What the—?” I said. “How did you do that? My lasers should have hit you.”
“Hit me?” said Xero. Then he nodded in realization. “Ah, I see. You aren’t aware that I am a hologram, are you?”
“A hologram?” I said.
“Of course,” said Xero. He waved his hand back and forth, which was when I noticed the slight blurring effect at the edges of his hand. “All Zero Knights are equipped with the ability to send and receive holographic messages from each other. It is how I can speak to Mirar ‘in-person’ like this.”
That explained a lot. It made me both relieve and more anxious than ever. Relieved that we were not going to actually fight Xero. Anxious because Xero would probably remember that I tried to kill him and would probably try to kill me the next time we met.
“Even so, King Xero, I will kill the boy for daring to try to harm you,” said Mirar, raising his reflective shields. “It is bad enough that he and his boss killed Slasher, but trying to kill you, too? That is blasphemy above blasphemy.”
Rubberman suddenly jumped and landed next to me, rising to his full height and raising his fists. “You’ll have to fight me first if you want to lay even one finger on Beams.”
I nodded and took up a fighting stance as well. “Yeah. And if you think I’m just going to sit back and let you kill me, then you’re about to be sadly mistaken.”
Mirar took a step forward, but then Xero said, in an imperious voice, “Halt, Sir Mirar. Do not attack the boy … yet.”
We all looked at Xero in surprise. He hadn’t moved from his current position, but he was now looking at us as if he expected us to obey his every word. And strangely enough, I seemed to feel a strong need to obey him, even though I wasn’t one of his Zero Knights and therefore didn’t have any reason to listen to anything he said.
“But why, my lord?” said Mirar. “This is the boy who helped kill Slasher. You even gave us orders to kill him personally. Why do you ask me to restrain myself when he is within my grasp?”
“Do not misunderstand me,” said Xero with another wave of his hand. “The boy will need to be punished for killing a Zero Knight, but I would like to speak to him first. Then you may slaughter him and his boss to your heart’s content.”
“Speak to me?” I said. “About what?”
Xero strode forward. Although he was just a hologram, his movement was impressive despite that. He moved with a fluidity and grace I would not expect of a being who seemed to be more machine than man. He stopped in front of Mirar and looked down at me, the red eyes of his helmet glowing softly in the shadows overhead.
“When I first heard about you, I thought you were just another sidekick,” said Xero. “And I still do. But when news came back that you had personally had a hand in the killing of Slasher … that made me rethink what our scouts’ initial reports about you and your boss. They said neither of you would be much of a threat, that you were an average superhero and sidekick duo that would go down easily if you tried to fight against us. Yet you two are the first to ever kill a Zero Knight. Clearly, we were wrong.”
Then Xero shifted his gaze to Rubberman. “And you, Rubberman, with your unique powers drawn from the brain of a dead god … I still want to crack you open and find out exactly what makes you tick. When Sir Mirar kills you, I will have him send me your body so I can study it myself.”
“My body is not a lab experiment,” said Rubberman. “And why are you so interested in me, anyway? And how did you find out how I got my powers?”
“The Zero Knights have eyes and ears everywhere, Rubberman,” said Xero. “As for why I am interested in you, that is for me to know and you to find out. Assuming, that is, you survive the twenty-four-hour deadline, which is unlikely.”
“We’ll put a stop to it,” I said, drawing Xero’s attention back to me. “I’m not sure how, but—”
Xero laughed, a sound that reminded me of clicking gears. “You can’t. No one can. Once the Ritual of Death has been activated, there is nothing that anyone can do to stop it. Even I can’t stop it at this point, but that is fine. I am currently far, far away from Golden City, far enough away that nothing you do here affects me in any real, immediate way. I am simply observing this situation from a distance, though Mirar’s reports have helped paint me a picture of the events on the ground, which are most certainly not going your way.”
I bit my lower lip. I had nothing to say to that. Xero was right that this entire situation was definitely not playing out in our favor so far. We weren’t even sure if beating Mirar would actually do anything. We did it mostly out of desperation and fear. I wondered if Xero could sense that or not. I guess it depended on how good that hologram of his actually was.
“But I must admit, you both have fallen well below my expectations,” said Xero, taking a step back away from us. “You are hardly the powerful and clever heroes I assumed you were. Despite all of the fantastic things you two have done in the course of your partnership, you are still so unimpressive. And yet … you killed a Zero Knight. That is not unimpressive.”
“Maybe we’re tougher than you think,” I said.
Xero shook his head. “Nonsense. We underestimated you before, but trust me, we have a perfect estimate of who and what you are now. Which is why I am going to leave Mirar alone to deal with you by himself now. As a hologram, I cannot help him very much in a fight. Besides, even if by some miraculous power, you do defeat Mirar, it changes nothing. Everyone you know, everyone you love, will be dead. And there is not a thing either of you can do about it.”
“We can stop you,” I said. “You and your Order.”
“How disrespectful!” Mirar said. “If you continue to say such horrendous, disrespectful things to my King—”
Xero raised a hand. “It’s fine, Sir Mirar. Let them rage. Let them insult me. There is nothing, after all, they can do to actually hurt me or my plans. I would even say you should spare them. Let them live the last hours of their life with the understanding that everything they have worked for, fought for, sacrificed for … has been for naught.”
Xero walked up to me just then. If he towered over Mirar and Rubberman, he dwarfed me. I had to crane my neck just to be able to look up at him. I felt like I was looking into the eyes of a robot, even though I knew there had to be a human being somewhere behind that metallic mask of his.
“You have spunk, kid,” said Xero in a low voice, making me think he just wanted to address me by himself. “Few sidekicks have ever spoken to me like that before. I wonder where that spunk comes from.”
I smiled, even though my heart was beating fast and I was starting to sweat. “I’ve stared down worse bad guys than you in my career. Holograms aren’t scary, no matter how big they are.”
“True enough,” said Xero with a nod, “but I am no mere hologram. I am King Xero, founder and leader of the Order of the Zero Knights. Were I here in person, you would be begging for my forgiveness right now, forgiveness I would not give you.”
Xero paused. I wasn’t sure if it was for dramatic effect or if he was seriously considering his next words, but when he spoke again, it was in a far more calm and measured tone than before. And that somehow made him a lot scarier than he should have been.
“Despite that, I find you interesting, Beams,” said Xero. “I would like to meet you someday, but that day, alas, will never come. The Ritual of Death will soon activate and kill you and everyone else in your city.”
“I’m not particularly interested in meeting you, Xero,” I said. “Unless that means I can take you to jail.”
Xero chuckled, an unexpected response that made me wonder if I was missing something. “There is not a jail in the world that can contain me. But even if there were, I would never let you or anyone else take me to it. And besides, if you knew about our connection, then you would be a lot less disrespectful toward me.”
“Connection?” I said. “What connection? This is the first time we’ve met.”
Xero turned his back to me. “I have no time to explain anything to you. Besides, it doesn’t matter. As I said, soon, you and your city will die. If you survive the storm … then, perhaps, I will explain what I mean to you. Goodbye.”
And with that, Xero’s form shimmered and faded out of sight like mist in the wind.
