Blue Nexus #19--Pride of the Jungle

            Come find me.

            That voice…

            I am where you are needed.

            That place…

            He will bring you here.

            That…wait, who?

            Startled, Kyle burst his eyes open. He felt a twinge of electricity course through his body as a sudden soreness overcame him as well.

            “…over in East City?” someone asked.

            “Yeah, that’s what he told me,” someone else replied. “Does it really surprise you that it would be one of those major cities?”

            “What surprises me is how nobody is able to pick up on it. If it’s magic, Shindari would have noticed by now.”

            “It can’t be magic, it has to be some sort of super ability the Benefactor has.”

            “Bene…what now?” Kyle asked, his voice low and hoarse.

            Phoenix and Hood Nexus turned from where they were by the door to face him. Phoenix was looking a little more beat up than Hood Nexus, who was sporting his new look he’d shown off once to Kyle during training. Phoenix was also in his red outfit, his wings folded behind his back now.

            Kyle sat up, realizing he was in his school’s clinic and he was resting on a cart. Well, they had to make do with what they had. He was patched up on his arm and on his cheek, along with a large amount of medical tape on his right leg. Was he beat up that badly? And, he was in his Nexus form most of the time, his human body shouldn’t have been drastically affected.

            “I’ll assume we won?” asked Kyle.

            Phoenix nodded. “Sure did. Thanks for that, by the way. Really did a number on those two. Don’t expect to be seeing them around anytime soon.”

            “And Fire Tiger, him too?” asked Kyle.

            “I did him in,” Hood Nexus said. “Phoenix softened him up. All he had to do was just punch him really hard, I don’t see what the big deal is.”

            Phoenix shrugged, and shuffled his feet. “Well, you know, if you have a fancy bracelet that lets you do that you can, I suppose…”

            Hood Nexus chuckled. “Anyway, the day is saved. Though, the school, perhaps not so much. I’m sure you can guess how bad it looks out there.”

            “Hmm…given that you two just fought someone who can shoot flames, it’s probably worse than when I left it,” Kyle said.

            “Sure is,” Phoenix said. He walked over to the cart, then leaned against the counter, crossing his arms. “Though, I think it’s the big ol’ crater of a baseball field that will catch more people’s attention. Thank God it’s a Saturday.”

            Kyle agreed, then swung his legs around so they were dangling over the edge of the cart. He wriggled his toes and twisted his wrists around. He winced as he did both.

            “At least you’re moving,” Phoenix said. “I’ve seen that combo before. Wasn’t the prettiest of sights back then, and it certainly wasn’t too great now.”

            He felt like he was pulling a ton when Kyle reached up to rub his head. Now it was all starting to set in. He felt like his chest was about to cave in, but nothing like that of a heart attack. His vision blurred and he shook his head to send it away.

            “I’ve never been hit by a car, but I imagine this is pretty close to it,” he said, rubbing his now throbbing temple.

            “A car?” Hood Nexus asked, and laughed.

            “Try an earthquake, head on,” Phoenix clarified. “Around magnitude eight, fifteen megatons.”

            “Wait, what? Those two were able to make power like an earthquake?” asked Kyle, forgetting his pain and swinging his arms into the air.

            “That’s just what we were talking about,” Phoenix said. “Fire Tiger brought it up, because he’s kinda something of an arrogant villain. Fun, right?”

            “You were talking about making earthquakes?”

            “Their power-ups. You really think those idiots would really have enough strength normally to make something as strong as an earthquake?” Phoenix asked, placing his hands on his hips as he did so for a brief moment.

            “Oh. Well, how’d they beef up, then? Did it happen to Fire Tiger too, and other villains?”

            Phoenix and Hood Nexus shrugged. Phoenix spoke up, “I don’t know about other villains but it isn’t something I’ve noticed.” He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Thing is, the last time we fought was eight months ago. And our buddy here was able to smack him around pretty easy.” He smacked Hood Nexus on the chest, which Hood Nexus responded to with a look Phoenix’s way. Phoenix played it off.

            “Still. You could train for eight months all you want, but the kind of fire power he was able to summon was insane. I’m sure he had enough power alone to summon over a dozen megatons if he didn’t want to hold back,” Hood Nexus said. “That’s the worrisome part.”

            “Okay, well, again, how the hell did they get so strong if it wasn’t through training?” asked Kyle.

            “A Benefactor in East City,” Phoenix replied. “Apparently he has the ability to hand out power-ups to people…just, not the good kind of people apparently.”

            “Well how’s he do it? And, why them? Why not random people, why not make like some big army or something?”

            “More than likely he did it to piss us off,” Phoenix said. “The Tiger Trio are notorious for their fun-loving attitude so he probably gave them some power to screw around, keep the attention away from him.”

            “And this guy’s so confident that he would give to a big mouth like Fire Tiger,” Hood Nexus pointed out. “Meaning either he’s in over his head dealing with us, or he’s got a few tricks up his sleeve he’s holding back on.”

            “Regardless, I’m making investigating there my new priority,” Phoenix said. “I’d like to make sure no other crappy super-villains pop out of the ground to give us headaches. Might have to double up protection at the super prison down below, and it’s a major pain to have to do that, you know?”

            “No, not really,” Kyle admitted.

            “Oh, right.” Phoenix strode over to Kyle, and patted him on the shoulder. “Really bounced back after that hit. Guess all that training really toughened you up. I think you should be good from here.” He pointed to Hood Nexus. “Make sure he stays out of trouble for a while.”

            “I’ll try, yeah,” Hood Nexus said, nodding to Phoenix.

            The super hero smiled and nodded, then patted Kyle once more on the shoulder and left. Kyle heard the boosters in his wings ignite, and then, he was gone.

            The room was still for a moment. Phoenix sure did talk a lot. Kyle kept his gaze away from Hood Nexus, for some reason afraid of some scorning that could come his way. Hood Nexus crossed his arms and strummed his fingers along his biceps. He wasn’t trying to intimidate Kyle, he just did this as a tick from boredom.

            Hood Nexus shifted his footing and Kyle almost flinched. He felt the tingle to do so run up his spine. Rather unexpectedly, Hood Nexus started to laugh.

            “A fifteen megaton earthquake, I never would have guessed,” he said. Hood Nexus leaned against the counter. “At least now we know just how far to push you before you get yourself knocked out.”

            Kyle meagerly laughed. “Yeah, ha-ha, sure.”

            “Oh, what, you ashamed or something? Come on, man, an earthquake like that would do serious damage to a small town like this if it were just a single blast. You took it like a champ, and you kept fighting.”

            Kyle shrugged. “Yeah, but…it’s Lightning and Thunder Tiger. They’re just a couple of lame villains. And it only took freaking Fire Tiger one punch to knock me out. How lame is that?”

            “Lame? You really think this is lame? You saved an entire town of people and drew Fire Tiger away from the town so that Phoenix could start to deal with him. You were a hero today, how lame is that? So what if you weren’t able to go through the entire fight, you did what you could and are able to get back up because of it. That’s what matters.”

            “The Tiger Trio only wanted more fights because I intervened, though. I should have been strong enough to deal with Fire Tiger, too. I didn’t go all out when I was fighting the other two when I should’ve.”

            “How many times have you used all your strength? Twice, maybe three times? You don’t have control. You might have done even more damage than they did. We can’t always tell the way a fight is going to end up. Like I said, just be happy knowing you saved a lot of people today. Maybe you not powering up all the way was for the best.”

            Kyle nodded solemnly. Hood Nexus smiled and unfolded his arms, flexing his muscles as well as his power.

            “Besides,” he continued, “I got to show up that Phoenix character.”

            Kyle chuckled. He couldn’t help but agree to that. Hood Nexus didn’t necessarily dislike the members of the Zanderia, but often remarked to Kyle how he thought they were all about the press (minus Eclipse, who was never really around) and the publicity. That was why he loved being out in space. He was more of an urban myth than someone the people would drool over. Kyle had to agree that sometimes it seemed Phoenix was soaking up the publicity a little too much, but that was just how he worked.

            Couldn’t argue with his results.

            Hood Nexus watched as Kyle got off the cart, walking in place to make sure he still had good feeling in his legs and feet. He jumped around, feeling his strength come back to him. When Hood Nexus nodded, Kyle swiped his hand over the Nexus bracelet and transformed. His blue aura flared around him, as if happy he were back in it.

            The two stepped out into the daylight. Kyle was unsure what time it was, but judging by the position of the sun, it was probably sometime in the mid afternoon. How long was he out? Couldn’t have been more than a few hours. No way would Hood Nexus and Phoenix stick around that long while he slept.

            They took flight, shooting into the air to avoid an random people looking that way, and suspended high over the town, gazing down at it.

            “See? Nothing wrong with it at all,” Hood Nexus said, proudly.

            “Yeah, except I probably won’t be going to school for quite some time,” Kyle said.

            “Alright, that couldn’t have been avoided.” Hood Nexus looked up, then sighed. “Really hope that whole Benefactor thing ends quick. Anymore of these little guys getting big guns is going to piss me off. I’d rather be up there than down here, you know?”

            “Oh, but come on, you get to really strut your stuff down here.”

            Hood Nexus sneered. “You think I only get to show off here on Earth? Heh. Whatever, Blue Nexus. Try to keep yourself out of it for a while, let Shindari heal you up. I’m going a few galaxies over. I’ve got a feeling some trouble is brewing with some old buddies of mine.”

            He waved before shooting straight into his space-jumping speed, blasting Kyle back without warning. Kyle scoffed at him as Hood Nexus flew on, out of sight and out of Kyle’s senses as well. All that training must have increased his speed and his power. Dang.

            Trying not to act impressed, Kyle floated over toward his house on the hill. He began to fly down when he saw something red soaring his way. He smiled, knowing what it was, and followed through with the landing procedure. He braced himself against the shed as he transformed out of the Nexus. Simultaneously, Brenda landed in the backyard, but landed fairly harshly as well, creating a small rut with her feet.

            “And where the hell have you been? Thought you were on a short mission?” asked Kyle while Brenda sprinted toward him.

            Without speaking and ignoring his question completely, Brenda ran right up to him and hugged him so tight that his injuries seemed to all pop back out. His body lit up in a flame of pain. He patted her back twice but she still wouldn’t let up. He felt his face turning purple and really smacked her back.

            Brenda, still relieved to see him, finally took a step away. Kyle inhaled as much as he could, keeping himself straight while he did, then bent over once he exhaled.

            “I’m sorry,” Brenda said. “I suppose I forgot my own strength.”

            “Happens,” Kyle said, waving her off. He straightened out, stretching his back while he did so. “Seriously, though, where’ve you been the last few days?”

            “You know how these things are, things tend to get complicated,” Brenda replied quickly. “But how are you, feeling any better? Here, let’s get inside so I can heal you up.”

            “I’m fine.”

            “Yeah, okay.”

            Brenda guided him into the shed, and practically threw Kyle onto the seat. He spun around in it until Brenda stopped it with her foot and crossed her arms, looking down to Kyle. Instantly, her hands were on his chest and a red square appeared on his chest, wrapping around it.

            He eased into the seat, leaning back against the desk, as Brenda worked her literal magic. The healing magic soothingly slithered through his skin. He found himself breathing at a regular pace. All of his muscles relaxed and his fingers and toes were limp. Kyle craned his head back with a big grin on his face. Brenda lightly laughed.

            It was always like this whenever she healed him. But, it was so relaxing that it was very difficult for him not to lull into this sort of high. He wasn’t high, of course, he was just so relaxed that nothing else seemed to matter. He could think properly and had his head screwed on tight. It was just like stepping into a sauna in the middle of the Arctic.

            Brenda sighed and stepped away, the red square fading. Kyle stood up and waited a moment as his muscles realized they were needed. He flexed and stretched. Back at one hundred percent indeed! He beamed and gave Brenda a hug, then sat back down. Brenda half-sat and half-stood on the counter that ran practically all around the room.

            The shed was still just as it was before. Kyle visited it much more over the summer. Now that he knew a whole lot more about the universe—having been to a very far-off galaxy—he really got back into his astronomical work. The Zanderia helped out, too, giving his telescope the ability to see farther than before without adding onto its size. Kyle could barely fit anything else in it as it was.

            There were some more papers that were passed down to him from Eclipse, who no longer had use for them, and Kyle studied up on them. It was a fair balance between physical and mental training over the summer. Just in time for senior year, where he knew he was ready to mentally check out and just hang out for the rest of the year, gliding his way through to college. Though, with the way things were back at the school, who knew what would happen.

            “I’m really sorry I couldn’t come sooner,” Brenda said.

            Kyle once again waved her off. “It’s fine. I’m sure I could have used your shields, but, I’m fine.”

            “And the school? I feel bad about that.” She smirked. “You I’m only worried about because your secret’s been blown to two people in the last three days.”

            “Two people? What are you talking about?”

            “I imagine that when you were defeated at the hands of Fire Tiger, you would have been forced out of the Nexus. He would have seen your face.” She fiddled with her red nails. “Let’s just hope that he doesn’t talk to anyone about it.”

            “Hey, how do you know so much about the fight?”

            “Eclipse was giving us a play-by-play.”

            Kyle rolled his eyes. “What a guy. Anyway, I’m not worried. If we’re to trust what Phoenix and Hood Nexus said about him, it sounds like the dude was ready to go crazy any minute from power. So, I highly doubt we should be super worried about what he has to say about super heroes. Sandy is definitely worth worrying about more. Speaking of, Phoenix was supposed to check up on her at the police station.”

            Brenda crossed her arms again, her face darkening with slight anger. “Yes, I worry about her, too. She seems like a blabber-mouth.”

            Kyle shrugged. “Maybe, but, I guess we don’t have much of a choice but to trust her as well.”

            There was no news of Sandy through the rest of the weekend, so Kyle just gave up hope on Monday that Phoenix had remembered to check up on her, or at least report back to Kyle. Though, she couldn’t be detained too long. She wasn’t even eighteen. So unless she went straight to Juvie, without any news breaking of it, she was probably home.

            Which confused Kyle a lot. On Monday, the big story and event of the day was how the town was coming together to help with the baseball stadium relief. Many townsfolk, including Kyle, Kip, Luke, Brenda, Brian, and Mira, came out to aid in the process. It took up most of the day and was completely voluntary. Kyle along with his best friends showed up about an hour after Mira and her family had. Brian was apparently there all day.

            Kyle had no idea how bad the destruction was until he saw it. The metal beams were hardly that any more, no more than metal squares. Cranes and many people with shovels were busily tending to the lawn both around the stadium and in the stadium. People were carefully sweeping up glass.

            The boys showed up with sunglasses, T-shirts, and shorts. Brenda arrived in a blue tank-top with athletic shorts. Each of them knew they were probably going to get dirty in the process. Kyle wanted to really get into the meat  of the problem, though.

            “I’m going to try and do the most work I can, even if it kills me,” he told Brenda before they left to walk with Kip and Luke to the school.

            “You’re an idiot, but, a good one I guess,” was Brenda’s reply.

            He dashed onto the field, looking for any adult figure that would be able to help him out. Mr. Evart stood talking to some construction men, pointing at the school making adult talk. Kyle approached from behind, then walked with heavier feet so they would hear him.

            “Oh, hello, Kyle,” he said. “Here to help?”
            “How can I?” asked Kyle, looking to Evart and the construction men.

            “Couple people over there have been clearing the beams and throwing them in that dumpster,” Mr. Evart said. “I suppose you can help them.” 
            “Will do!” Kyle exclaimed.

            Kip, Luke, and Brenda followed as Kyle moved over to the beam-clearing area. There was a separate pile of the metal stands there as well. One man wiped sweat off his brow before noticing Kyle standing on the other side, waiting to lift. Kip and Luke both stood to Kyle’s left ready as well, and on the count of three, then all lifted the beam over their shoulders and carried it a few feet over to the dumpster, tossing it in.

            “Hey, Kyle!” exclaimed Mira.

            Kyle whirled around, and saw Mira walking over to them. Her hair, in a ponytail, was a bit frazzled. She was smiling, though, and was prettier because of it. She had some orange dirt running down her arm and leg from the field, at least what was left of the orange dirt.

            “Oh, hey, Mira,” Kyle said, a little surprised to see her. “Been here long?”

            She shook her head. “Nah. Been really busy, though. You’d think there isn’t much for us normal people to do, but, there’s actually quite a bit.”

            Kyle nodded. “Yeah, guess so. I mean, what’ve you been doing?”
            As Mira explained her day, Kyle noticed a few people in nice looking clothing walking around the crater with scanners and tablets, all talking amongst themselves and walking in a very tight circle. Kyle raised his eyebrow and looked away, instead focusing on Mira. To his surprise, he noticed he was quite a bit taller than her now.

            They hadn’t been able to meet up in school much as of late and Kyle regretted it. Given that he was now completely invested in Brenda, it felt weird for him to be talking to her and not stepping all over himself while he did. Or, at least, he tried not to.

            Mira exhaled once she was finished. “Anyway, can you help me with some stuff over here? We’re trying to dig out the orange…stuff, from the field. Don’t know why, I was just told to.”

            “Yeah, sure, just get me a shovel,” Kyle said.

            His group once again followed him, this time into the crater where the people with scanners and tablets were. He heard them going off and they started to make their way toward the group. Kyle, putting two and two together, looked worriedly up to Brenda, who briskly walked away.

            The people approached, their scanners no longer beeping. Kyle was handed a shovel, but followed closely behind them.

            “It was definitely a high concentration of energy, but, how’d it go away so quickly?” asked one of them.

            “Could be one of the people, could be all this dirt piled up before the breeze took it away,” another suggested.
            The one in the back suddenly turned around, facing Kyle, wearing sunglasses. Kyle froze for a second before side-stepping him, stuffing his left hand into his pocket. He met back up with Mira on the exterior of the crater.

            “Excuse me!” someone yelled. Both he and Mira turned around, seeing their principal, Dr. Wintry move toward the scanning people. The group stopped.

            “Yes?” spoke one of them.

            Kyle began digging but continued to listen.

            “What brings you here? Looking for buried treasure?” Wintry asked. His voice was cold and condescending. Either that was a Monday thing or he was just like that. Kyle was unsure, given how he’d only just arrived at the school this year.

            “No, we’re looking for some left over energy from the fight,” the same scanner-person said. “It’s clear from the blast that this was some sort of pulse, and given the high electromagnetic reading we got the day of in this area, we’ve reason to believe that this was the work of Thunder and Lightning Tiger, two people whose energy would be greatly beneficial…”

            “Yeah, great, but, you’re getting in the way a little,” Wintry said. “Could you please move? Oh, and make sure to pass this on while you do.”

            Kyle rolled his eyes. Probably just some propaganda for a school event or something dumb like that. He forced his shovel into the ground, then pulled out the orange dirt and put it into a wheel-barrel behind Mira, who did the same. Kip and Luke approached him, then practically stood at attention as Wintry walked up to the four of them.

            “Seniors, right?” he asked.

            “Yup,” Mira said, exhaling and leaning against her shovel. “How’s it going, Dr. Wintry? Any word on when school’s opening up again?”

            Wintry fiddled with the paper in his thick fingers. Kyle tried to read through it, but couldn’t.

            “No news from the school board yet,” Wintry said. “I think we would be fine if this weren’t the first incident with the supers to happen here. That’s what’s holding us back.”

            “You mean they want to shut down the school, what the hell?” asked Kip.

            Wintry glared at Kip for a long second until looking calmly over to Mira. “They’re afraid of any more incidents, and I came up with a proposal. Pretty noble, should get the attention of several people who want to live in a safe town. Like me.”

            “A proposal?” Kyle asked, gesturing for the paper.

            As Kyle took the paper, a woman—probably Wintry’s wife since she up and kissed him upon arrival—apperaed and looked excitedly at the paper. At first, all Kyle noticed was a list of names, then read the paragraph at the top.

            “Wait, this is a petition…to get the Blue Nexus to leave the town?” asked Kyle.

            “Wait, what?” burst Kip and Luke, taking the paper from Kyle’s hands.

            “Yes indeed, boys,” Wintry said, and his wife nodded while she rested her chin on his shoulder. “I’ve just about had it with Blue Nexus. What good’s he done since the very beginning? The town square was attacked the first day he arrives, then our school gets attacked by a monster, that monster goes on the loose, and then he vanishes for a few days until a giant black ball of death nearly eats the planet. And now he endangers an entire crowd of people at a football game, and obliterates school property! I think, if he were able to see this list, he would definitely know it’s time for him to leave.”

            “But think about all the damage he’s prevented. What would the two Tigers done if he weren’t there at the football game?”

            “Would they have even bothered if they didn’t know he was here?” asked the wife. “Or would that monster have attacked the school? My husband’s right. And you can’t honestly defend some super-hero whose only been around for, what, eight months, nine maybe? If you think about it, he’s still like a super baby.”

            Kyle avoided clenching his fist. “But…but…Blue Nexus is still the reason G—the monster left the town.”           

            “You know the monster’s name?”

            “I stay up to date on this stuff. Because supers are a part of the world and we need to keep up with them!”

            “Exactly, so we can stop them from doing this!” Wintry pointed out, and motioned for the crater they were standing in. “We would still have class and a very expensive baseball stadium if not for the Blue Nexus. That’s why he has to go. That’s why they all need to go.”

            “You want all super heroes to just go away?” asked Luke. “That’s crazy, Dr. Wintry! What about all the super villains?”

            “What about them? Three were just locked up today. They’re the ones with all the technology. If they left, they could give our government the technology as well as leave the super psychos empty-handed. Face it, boys, the world is better without super-heroes.”

            Kyle couldn’t avoid clenching his fist. It became nearly white from how tightly he was gripping the shovel. He wanted to smack his principal across the head with it. Kip was still holding the petition in his hand. No, even better, Kyle could just rip it with a quick swing of the shovel. The only setback was hitting Kip, but, a band-aid would patch it up.

            “I’ll assume you won’t sign, then?” asked Wintry, cautiously as he noticed Kyle holding the shovel tightly.

            “Probably not,” Kip said, and handed the paper back. Luke patted Kyle on the back, trying to calm him down.

            “That’s fine. Should have enough votes for this to get the Blue Nexus’s attention sometime soon anyway,” Wintry said, and was about to turn when he looked back on them all. “Thank you for your time gentlemen, and lady.”

            The boys remained silent as Wintry strode between them, moving past a thankful Mira. The four of them watched as their principal and his wife walked up to a young couple helping with the digging, and Kyle noticed as the petition papers and people with the scanners dispersed around the entire area, trying to squeeze the Blue Nexus out of his hiding.

            Right where Gargador and the Benefactor could see him.

Next time: Kyle begins to feel more and more alienated as the people, even of school, divide themselves on supers and their stance on such, when a sneak attack comes that might end everything! Check it out in "Blue Nexus #20--Sting"!