Blue Nexus #50 - Golden

            Living on a hill allowed for a greater launch pad, providing several perks for a young superhero. He could just jump off the hill and already be caught in that altitude. Living on a hill with a large backyard had its perks for a fighter who enjoyed practicing their skills, such as different techniques to use in battle. Living on a hill away from the noises of the world allowed him to listen more on what he needed: his friends and family.

            Kyle Raiden rose out of bed with a smile on his face for the first time in a while. Even in the months of peace that followed the Delta Incident, he worried about school and was always tired from a long night of crime-fighting; stopping perps from stealing purses, halting bank-robberies, and busting in on someone trying to start a drug chain.

            When he stretched he felt his body sing. He could’ve sworn he grew two extra feet all around for a moment, before he exhaled and relaxed. His back cracked and he rolled his neck, sliding his legs out of bed. He braced himself, gripping the wooden sides of the bed, before standing up.

            Great, he thought. And great he felt. He stood, shirtless, in front of his closet. For some reason, he couldn’t remember why, he didn’t have his Nexus bracelet on. He looked around the room. Not anywhere in there, either.

            Ah, well. He wouldn’t need it. Sure there was that Tania lady, but what was he supposed to use against her with the Nexus? If anything his Demon mage abilities would help him there. Kyle stole a look down to the growing tattoo on his shoulder. The mark now touched the base of his tricep, despite Kyle not having used it much. He could barely feel its presence, though, which was good. Perhaps soon it would just become a regular tattoo.

            He got ready in a timely manner, dressing rather nice for just a regular school day. Dress to impress, he figured. Impress who? Well, just dressing for a good impression was nice. He had a nice thing going with the school, since he was missing far less of it, so what was the point of stopping now?

            He stole a glance outside, where he swore he saw the sky was golden. Sun must not have been fully risen, then, and was just gleaming through the window. Kyle finished up his breakfast and grabbed his things, taking up his longboard to ride down to school. He hadn’t done that in a while, not since he mastered the art of flying to school and staying well-hidden as Blue Nexus.

            A cold breeze greeted him outside, though the air around him was nice and fresh. His smile still had not left his face, simply lessened as he continued his daily preparation.

            And then he opened his eyes. The smile dropped, the freshness was gone, and his whole body shuddered.

            The world around him was gold, though the ground and buildings were black. Kyle touched the side of his house. It felt the same but just covered in…shadow? Darkness?

            He whirled around to face Adelita. All of the same structures were there, the school was still the same in the distance. Frantically he looked down toward the neighborhoods around to see if anyone else had noticed. Nobody was outside, though that was understandable. It was still early in the morning.

            Or at least, Kyle hoped it was. He looked up to the Sun, which was being blotted out by the great golden sky above. There were no clouds in the sky and no birds flittering around overhead, either. Not even the sound of birds or the rustle of the high winds in the grass around him. Kyle looked around once again, although this time at the environment.

            A wave of relaxation enveloped him, as if trying to just make him sit down. Be calm. Everything’s….

            Missing. Yes. The sky isn’t supposed to be golden, what the hell was going on?

            He placed his longboard in front of him and sloped down the driveway onto the crest of the hill, where he stopped in the middle of the road. Normally, two cars passed by the hill at around this time on their way to work. Kyle stood in the middle of the road and waited. He could take the hit, he knew, but he just needed to see if…

            They didn’t come. Kyle waited about five minutes and they never arrived. There wasn’t even a sign of them down the street at the base of the hill. Kyle clenched a fist, and looked around at the golden world he was trapped in. Now he could feel the Demon mage mark in his arm quiver. Its power was starting to manifest once again.

            He shut the thought out of his mind. The more he thought about it the more power that the mark would have, and the less control of it he could have as well. This world, this whatever it was, would be a dangerous place to lose control of everything, too.

            Kyle kicked off the ground and regained balance of his body, rushing down the hill like he had for so many years. There was no wind to push back at him, only the wind that came with his speed. He squatted and curved his body, making the typical sharp turn around the corner toward school.

            He straightened out, gliding down the road with ease. Kyle gripped his backpack straps tightly while he watched the suburbs blur move behind him. His school rose up in the distance like the small, simple structure that it was, but everything was off about it. There were at least people there, yes, but they were all quiet.

            Kyle approached the bus ramp, sliding onto it and pulling up on his longboard. With a tap of his foot the front of the board was in his grip. He waited a moment, looking around at the black shadowy buildings. School was dreadful enough already, but this was not helping it’s case at all. The golden sky’s sun caught his eye again and he had to look away, back to the black ground at his feet.

            He wandered into the school slowly, watching everyone’s lips move but nobody able to actually speak. Someone jumped onto something without a single sound. They were all in proper coloring, Kyle noticed. He approached someone on the lacrosse team, one of the projected starters. Kyle tried to place a hand on his shoulder but it fell right through, his hand evaporating into golden dust on the boy’s shoulder.

            The boy didn’t even notice. Kyle wound back a fist, this time feeling his Demon mark pulse, and tried to punch the boy in the head. His arm exploded into dust until it left the boy’s body, where it formed back up again. The boy just kept babbling to a couple of cute girls.

            Kyle tried kicking him and it failed, though that was more along the lines of frustration. He continued his march around the school, trying to find his friends. When he reached the locker hallway, though, he found the door shut and locked. He yanked on it as hard as he could, but with each pull he found his hands simply fazing through it. Kyle kicked the window and his foot went through. He shouted and nobody heard.

            Instinctively, he swiped two of his fingers across his left wrist, but there was no Nexus bracelet there. He swiped again. Damn it all.

            Kyle stormed down the stairs, resting his hands on his hips. It was as if he were somehow displaced from everything, in another dimension. Only he could hear his voice, and he was somehow unable to interact with everything in front or around him. Only the clothes he’d been wearing from before…

            Before? The word rang in Kyle’s mind as he caught Mira walking across the courtyard. She was cute and pretty as always, but, she looked different than when he had just seen her yesterday. She seemed shorter, though that could be the difference on where they stood. No, that wasn’t it, she also looked less athletically built. She was lean, not so much muscular like Kyle knew her now. And her hair was longer. How?

            Kyle whipped around again. He needed a calendar.

            He tried calling out to Eclipse in his mind but it was to no avail. The Zanderia communicator was probably back in his room, if not it was lost just like the Nexus bracelet was now. He approached the closest door, lowered his shoulder, and dove into the hallway with ease. He crashed through the ground, though, and fell to the next level.

            Kyle, realizing his error, rolled and managed to land on his back in the middle of another classroom. He groaned, not wanting to move. His arms were sprawled out at his side and felt heavier than anything he’d ever lifted. His legs were the same. He curled all four appendages inward, and then tried sitting up as best he could.

            The calendar was just beyond his line of vision, though it was incredibly blurry from the fall. Kyle shook his head and sat up straight, then shut his eyes to let them refocus. He stumbled to his feet but knew he was closer to the calendar. He opened them, knowing the day would be different, that the year would be…

            The same.

            “What?” Kyle asked. The word travelled nowhere beyond him. “No.”

            He kept his fist at his side so he didn’t have to waste energy punching the wall. He stormed out of the room, walking right through the wooden door with a slight golden light. He had to be somehow back in time, but the calendar was right. Back in time, displaced in a dimension? Where was he?

            Kyle sprinted out of the school. There was nothing for him there, all the answers he had would come through the Nexus. Perhaps that could even break the spell, curse, dome, whatever it was that hung over him. The golden sky remained just as lit as before, as if the Sun were in a completely stationary position. There had to be some notion of time, since his movements had a before and after. And the people around him were moving.

            It was as if Kyle were looking through a window at the real world. The question was: how did he get outside and how could he get back inside? He pumped his legs faster, running through the main school double doors. Forge the longboard that might not even be real. He didn’t want to start doubting reality, but given how he should’ve knocked a kid’s lights out and his fist turned into stardust, he had reasons to doubt.

            He turned the corner toward the hill house, but was stopped. Someone else shouted and he heard something. He felt something.

            Kyle crashed the ground just beyond the other boy, who was gripping his head from the fall he took. Textbooks scattered everywhere. Kyle looked back. He didn’t recognize the boy, but he was at least as old as Kyle. He wasn’t that built, kind of scrawny, and had short brown hair with big in his face. The other boy groaned as he picked up the books, completely ignoring Kyle.

            “Hey,” Kyle said.

            “Hey thanks for knocking my stuff over,” the boy said.

            “You can hear me?” asked Kyle.

            The boy looked at Kyle confused. “Well yeah. You’re talking to me, how could I not hear you?”

            “Because there’s nothing else in this damn world to hear!” Kyle shouted. His voice echoed. “Listen, hear the school? No! Everyone’s like, mute or something. And you’re the first person I’ve been able to make contact with.”

            The boy stared at Kyle confused for a moment, then dropped the books and leapt toward Kyle, gripping his shirt collar.

            “Oh dear God please you have to help me!” he shrieked. Tears formed in his glassy eyes. “I’ve been stuck here, on the run, for days, man! It’s insane, you’ve gotta let me out!”

            “What?”

            “I can’t talk to anyone, I can’t hear anything!” he shouted. “Come on, man, you got in here you’ve gotta help me get out.”

            “I don’t know how I got here,” Kyle said. He nudged the kid away. “More than likely we’re in some weird, I don’t know, mad scientist dome world where we were shrunk down to the size of ants.”

            “You really think so?”

            “Well it’s that or we were displaced from our dimension.”

            Kyle stood up as the kid remained on the ground, as if he were continuing to process all of the information. He stared at the school with a blank expression. Kyle nudged him with his foot and the boy rebooted, shooting up to his feet.

            “Come on, let’s take a walk around and see if we find anyone else,” Kyle said.

            The boy hesitated. Kyle checked him through a side glance. He wasn’t too young, perhaps at worst a really young freshman, but he’d never seen him before. That wasn’t uncommon, but that he was the only other person aware of this dimension or world’s nature was troubling. Plus the fact that he jumped straight to this being a specific place…

            Kyle nodded. Alright then, just keep the kid at arm’s length.

            The two travelled into the heart of Adelita. The boy stayed at Kyle’s side but Kyle kept him on his right, where the mark of the Demon was. If anything should happen, he needed to be able to act quickly, despite his not wanting to use those powers.

            The town was quiet, and alone. Nobody wandered about the town, and all of the doors seemed locked. Kyle didn’t bother with any of them, instead just peered into the shadowy windows and saw silhouetted versions of all the shops and restaurants he knew.

Adelita was small, so they covered a good bit of ground in just a few minutes. The boy was practically shivering out of fear, and it only got worse the deeper in they went. The realization that nothing was around must’ve been getting to him, Kyle realized. But even if they were in a different dimension from the regular one, where did all of the people go? Were they hiding, or had something happened to Adelita?

            Kyle stopped the two them at the bank, telling the boy to remain where he was so Kyle could have a look inside. He tried fazing through the walls but it was to no avail. He tried again, diving at the wall, but it just pushed him back outward. He approached the door and was able to touch the door handle, but pulling on it was impossible. He planted his feet on the door and pulled with every muscle he could, but still nothing worked.

            He dropped to the ground in defeat. What was up with this place? Some walls he could walk through, some walls reflected him like a mirror reflected light. Some people he couldn’t talk to, and then some kid shows up screaming and crying about how he’s been trapped in this place for a while. How has he even survived without tangible food or water?

            Kyle sighed and turned his head, his gaze shifting toward the center of town. Something glimmered.

            “Something’s over there,” Kyle said and lazily pointed his finger in that direction. The boy followed it.

            He hopped to his feet and held his hand out to help Kyle get up.

            “Come on let’s see what’s up,” he said. “Maybe it’s a way out, or another person.”

            “If a person is glowing I’m not all that excited about it,” Kyle said, but stood up regardless and followed the boy into the heart of town.

            Kyle watched the area closely. He knew there’d been renovations since Gargador’s attack but could hardly remember what. Most of the changes were to minor touches like street signs and building fronts, and he hadn’t been downtown enough recently to really notice. The great change would be at the supermarket, and right in front of it. The road had a big black mark from the filling it received to fix the crater.

            They seemed to move slower the closer to the epicenter of the attack they got. Kyle wasn’t sure if it were because they were being cautious, or if it were because something in this dimension was slowing them down.

            Kyle stopped when they reached the corner and the city opened up to the supermarket and the street.

            “Wait up, kid,” Kyle said. The boy stopped. “Something’s up.”

            “What is it?”

            Kyle pointed ahead, toward the supermarket. Since the attack the city had been banding together to scrounge up some money and make a small statue for Blue Nexus—although it’d been Brian’s Hood Nexus that actually stopped Gargador—and even Kyle’s senior class pitched some money toward it. Around Christmas time, Santa delivered them a present. The statue was a plain metal, but it’d been painted to match him, even with some gruff marks on his unexposed face and scratches on his arms and legs to show he’d just been in a battle. The last time Kyle was in downtown Adelita was well before that, but the last time Blue Nexus was in downtown Adelita was Christmas.

            Except that statue was not there. Nor was there any remote sign of Gargador’s attack.

            “Where the hell is the Blue Nexus statue?” asked Kyle.

            Something roared overhead.

            “Blue what?” asked the boy.

            The air around him buffeted for a moment and Kyle had just a second to react. The building next to him exploded and the two boys flung across the street. Kyle landed on his back and rolled for a while and the boy hit the ground once before luckily bouncing back on his feet.

            The boy screamed and pointed into the sky. Kyle gripped his head, shaking it to try and lose the buzzing in between his ears. He clenched a fist and looked around him. The silhouetted building caved in straight down the middle, but not dust filled the streets.

            From the rubble, though, a figure in blue approached them, striding out with a brilliant blue aura. Kyle felt his right arm tense and he sucked in a breath to face his opponent.

            “Who are you?” he shouted.

            “The Blue Nexus,” the figure said. His voice resembled Kyle’s to a scary degree. “What are you doing here?”

            Kyle looked at the Blue Nexus’s wrist, noticing the wristband glowing bright. “I’m looking for who put us here. Any ideas?”

            “No, but I know who can put you down,” the Blue Nexus said.

            He shot at the two of them like a bullet. Kyle leapt out of the way and Blue Nexus charged into the building. Kyle whipped around, his right arm pulsing as fast as his heartbeat. He looked to his shoulder, at the Demon mark growing on his arm.

            No.

            Blue Nexus rose, and blasted toward Kyle once again, almost hitting him. Kyle dodged but was still repelled by the sheer force of the attack. He stumbled back and Blue Nexus tried to take over, grabbing Kyle’s face to throw him into the ground. Kyle locked his arm around Blue Nexus’s and used all the strength in his body to flip his opponent over. Kyle landed on the ground but with much less severity, and Blue Nexus just bounced off the ground.

            Kyle got up faster and kicked at Blue Nexus, who swatted away his foot. Kyle spun and the Blue Nexus just pushed him away. Kyle fell back, away from his enemy. Blue Nexus pounced, pulling back a great blue fist. Kyle could only hope to roll away from the incoming blast, but no such blast came. Instead his opponent just punched the ground where he was, forming another small crater.

            The boy fell to the ground while he was trying to get away. Kyle continued to ignore the pulses of power in his right arm, instead rising to his feet as his opponent rose out of his crater.

            “You’re clumsy,” Kyle said.

            Blue Nexus sneered. “You’re dead.”

            “How long have you been at this?”

            Blue Nexus’s sneer changed to just a smile. “Long enough to take out someone like you. You’re good for a regular human, but I’m just that much stronger.”

            “And faster I bet,” Kyle said.

            He nodded to himself as Blue Nexus reappeared just behind him but Kyle knew what he would do. Kyle ducked and kicked into the Blue Nexus’s knee. He bucked forward and Kyle rammed his elbow into Blue Nexus’s face, but suddenly blood sprang from Kyle’s nose and he felt a great swelling in his own face. He dropped to the ground.

            Blue Nexus slapped him away. Kyle crashed onto the concrete, feeling just as dazed as before. He shook his head and got back up. Blue Nexus sprinted at him. Kyle side-stepped him, then gripped the cape and yanked hard on it. For a moment, Kyle couldn’t breathe. He wrapped Blue Nexus up into a hold and slammed them both to the ground. Blue Nexus landed elbow first, but pain shot all through Kyle’s arm.

            Kyle shoved Blue Nexus away, and Blue Nexus furthered that with a strong swing of his arm. Kyle went airborne, crashing next to the kid. Blue Nexus didn’t let up, leaping for Kyle once again.

            Kyle rolled away, and watched Blue Nexus not even bother looking at the boy. As if he weren’t even there. Kyle groaned as Blue Nexus almost punched him again. He telegraphed it far too easily, and Kyle jumped to the side, even avoiding the concussive gust of wind. Kyle kicked the Blue Nexus in the ribs—feeling a bruise of his own form there—and rolled back toward the boy.

            “Alright so I’ve got a question,” Kyle said.

            “What?” asked the boy.

            The Blue Nexus whirled to face them. His aura exploded around him and he cupped his hands together in front of him. Kyle gripped the boy’s shoulder.

            “Why’d you think you’d be able to trick me so easily?” he asked, and shoved the boy forward as the Blue Nexus released all the energy he had.

            Golden light exploded all around Kyle. The silhouetted buildings crumbed into oblivion as the sky around him cracked like broken glass, coming tumbling to the ground. The boy faded with it, and Blue Nexus was reduced to nothing but a bracelet, dropping to the ground.

            Kyle felt as if it thousands of volts of electricity were shooting through his body. He dropped to his knees, covering his ears and shutting his eyes to avert the sudden explosion of senses all around him. He screamed and felt the Demon mage abilities erupt from his arm. For just a moment, he was shrouded in darkness, and then the world fell to color.

            “Damn it!” someone familiar shouted.

            Kyle sat right up in the middle of Adelita. He looked around, staring right at the Blue Nexus statue. Traffic was stopped all around him. A swell of voice came in around him and some wind buffeted him.

            He could barely move his legs, but he saw the Nexus bracelet in front of him and dove for it. A golden boot landed just behind it, as if trying to crush it. Kyle snagged the bracelet up and instinctively wrapped it around his wrist. The golden boot knocked his head back, onto a raised mound of concrete he knew pretty well.

            Kyle opened his eyes fully, staring up at the tall boy in a golden cape and gear. His outfit resembled Blue Nexus’s in every way, he realized, safe for the color. This one was as gold as the skies Kyle had just seen. Kyle tried getting to his feet to meet him but just couldn’t.

            The golden boy punched the ground, screaming. “How’d you break free, why did I even---argh! I’m such an idiot!” A small ball of golden energy appeared in his hand. “Whatever. They wanted you alive but I’m ending this now.”

            “Wait!” Kyle shouted. “What the hell is going on?”

            The golden boy smiled. “You don’t even get it? You really are stupid when it comes to magic, aren’t you? It’s called Reality magic, you idiot! I had complete control of your mind for a little while there, but that stupid mage must’ve messed with the incantation.”

            Reality magic? Kyle thought. Tania was his second thought. Kyle’s hand drooped over the Nexus bracelet.

            “Oh, but there’s so much more,” the boy said. “When I found your little bracelet, I was able to steal some of its power and make my own, using some of the Reality magic! Now I’m the Golden Nexus, and I’m going to replace you. I’m the ultimate combination of magic and Nexus energy.”

            “I bet you are,” Kyle said, and was about to swipe his hand over the bracelet when Golden Nexus swooped in and grabbed him by the shirt, flinging him through the sky.

            “Especially when you’re dead!” he exclaimed.

            Kyle watched as a golden ball came flying at him. He reached out and swiped his fingers over the bracelet, lighting up the sky around him in a brilliant blue light.

            The golden ball exploded into a great cloud of golden dust hanging over Adelita. Golden Nexus howled with laughter, floating slowly over to where it made contact.

            “The abilities it took you so long to master are the same ones I’ve got down so easily,” Golden Nexus said. “Energy manipulation? What a jo—!”

            A blue energy ball shut him up and brought him down as he crashed atop a concrete roof. He bounced once and hit a metal railing.

            Kyle descended from the gold cloud with his aura flaring around him and his fists clenched tight.

            “I’m sorry, what’s a joke?” he asked, touching down.

            Golden Nexus rose to his feet, lunging lazily at Kyle. Kyle caught his wrist and slammed him atop the building, then flung him into the air. Golden Nexus caught himself, holding two balls of energy in open palms.

            “So what, you dodged one attack and that makes you better than me?” asked Golden Nexus. “I have your power!”

            “Not all of it,” Kyle said. “You think what I had when I started is the same as now? Oh, come on, dude. You have no idea, then.”

            “About what?”

            Kyle finally got his turn to smile. “Wave Two.”

            A blue lighting bolt dropped from the sky and crashed down onto him, opening up his access to the Nexus’s deeper pools of energy. In a blink he was behind Golden Nexus. The boy shuddered, slowly turning to face Kyle.

            “I’ve been through way too much for my power to have stayed the same,” Kyle said. “And my knowledge. I could beat you down with raw power alone.”

            Kyle whipped his fist around and punched Golden Nexus right in the face, sending the boy hurtling across town. Kyle caught up to him with ease. Golden Nexus managed to stop himself and shoot higher into the sky. Kyle followed with ease, pushing himself just that much extra and reaching the sky above Golden Nexus, stopping him.

            “Or I can use the ultimate combination of man and Nexus to stop you!” Kyle shouted. He tightened his fist and punched Golden Nexus in the stomach, but this time let an energy ball erupt. Golden Nexus shot back again, but Kyle gripped his leg and flung him into space.

            The boy tried slowing down but Kyle was right there to keep pushing him forward. The Nexus formed a golden aura around him, protecting him from space’s pressures. Changing atmospheres was seamless for Kyle, though, and he projected the boy toward the Moon once again.

            He flipped around but caught himself again, flaring his aura. Kyle rose up to meet him, finally suspended over the Earth. The boy warily looked down to Earth, but put up fisticuffs regardless. Kyle got into his trained fighting stance. He was used to fighting in little gravity. Golden Nexus was not.

            Raiden, a voice rang in his head. Aequitas! Do as you did with Black Nexus, my brother. That will allow us to contain him and strip the boy of his abilities.

            On it, Kyle thought back.

            Golden Nexus clumsily attacked first, trying to use complex moves he had no idea he was able to pull. Kyle dodged them all and caught his final attack, pushing him away. Golden Nexus shot a golden energy blast at him. Kyle caught it, purified it in his hand, and cast it back at him. It hit Golden Nexus hard in the chest, and knocked him back.

            Kyle kicked him in the side, watching him spin further away. Golden Nexus’s aura flashed in and out until it finally stopped when he did. He held up both hands.

            “Enough!” he shouted. “I’m sending you back to that world, and you’ll stay there with the rest of them!”

            A great ball of golden energy formed over him, almost rivalling the one Black Nexus had. Kyle positioned himself and held out his own hands.

            “Ready when you are!” Kyle shouted in return.

            Golden Nexus roared and let the energy fall from him. It fell much faster, probably catching Earth’s gravitational pull. Kyle neglected waiting and charged right for it, pulling back a fist with a ball of energy hidden inside of it.

            “You think I haven’t seen this trick before?” Kyle asked. “Check this out!”

            He plunged his attack right into the golden ball, tearing through it. Golden energy faded all around him as he powered through it, feeling the energy around him feed into him and give him more power. He ripped out of the ball and reappeared just in front of Golden Nexus, who tried to back away. Kyle was over him now, holding his hand open.

            “Nice try, but better luck next time,” Kyle said, and opened up the all-consuming attack.

            Bright blue light filled the void of space, and Golden Nexus was caught right in it. The great ball of blue energy fed into Kyle like a stream, and Kyle felt the second presence of the Nexus fading more and more into the Nexus itself.

            He cut off the stream of power, dropping his arm. He looked down to his hand, noticing the sparks of energy that popped off of it every couple of seconds. Kyle let a smile envelope his face.

            A sonic boom emitted from Earth. Brenda rocketed at him from below, riding atop one of her shields to give her boosted speed. She stopped when she was level with him. Kyle powered down, cutting off the insane flow of power from the Nexus.

            “What just happened?” she shrieked. “I felt an insane amount of power up here!”

            “Ah, it was nothing to worry about,” Kyle said. “Just another golden moment is all.” 

Next time: Brenda and Prism are called into action when the Tiger Trio has somehow escaped from the Cube and Kyle finds himself in a long-awaited rematch...for his opponent, anyway. Check it out in "Blue Nexus #51 - The Tiger Trap"!