Blue Nexus #5--Damaged Not Broken

       
  The trainer taped an ice-pack to him, Mira helping him breathe as she did so while Brian stood by the door and watched, and even Sandy managed to make it over somehow. He wondered how the rest of the game was going, or if the boys were able to mount a comeback or if the loss of Brian and Kyle had been just too much.

            The trainer told him it would take around three to six weeks to heal and that he should probably keep the ice-pack on him for the rest of the day, and that he was definitely out. The news of his status forced Brian to sigh and look away in disappointment. Kyle wondered if it were disappoint in the player or the injury, since Brian was very much looking forward to seeing Kyle play, apparently. Kyle felt the same for himself, wanting so badly to get on the field and play.

            As he stood up, feeling great amounts of pain, he stole another look at the Nexus bracelet. Normally his practice wounds healed up nicely with the help of that thing but now that it appeared damage he doubted that would still be the case.  It was still feeling the same as when he got hit, showing few signs of repair as he felt few signs of repair were on their way to him. Mira steadied him as he got up, accepting the help because it was Mira, the more the better.

            He grunted as he straightened out. Mira handed him his shirt, Kyle just slinging it around his neck as he put his jacket on over his bare upper-body so to leave the ice bag on his ribs. Brian left, heading for the locker room to put Kyle’s helmet back and meet up with the team. He wished Kyle good luck in healing and told him to go to practice on Monday, where he hoped to see the new kid.

            Kyle was not as excited to see him, though. Gargador obviously knew who Kyle was and was targeting him, which was fine. If he could just transform into Blue Nexus without anyone knowing, it was even ground. But injured as he was, he didn’t stand a chance against Gargador, even in his human form. Which, how could he even transform?

            Thinking about it hurt Kyle’s head, and he was already in enough pain. Struggling to breathe, Kyle walked out of the trainer’s room and into the sunlight, the three women behind him in tow. Luke, Kip, and his grandparents were already on their way over while the other player’s relatives were talking with the teams on the field, Kyle noticed.

            “Jeez, man, that guy hit you good, didn’t he?” asked Kip.

            “Well, it was me or Sandy’s head,” Kyle said, flicking his head over to Sandy, who was blushing.

            “Oh, Kyle, yeah thanks for that,” Sandy said, hiding her face a little.

            “What happened, did they break?” asked his grandmother.

            His grandparents were by no means old and frail, nor were they overprotective. They were in their sixties and still very much fit for their age, though Kyle’s grandfather did have back issues that prevented heavy lifting and his grandmother was a little on the short side. They also weren’t stupid, knowing exactly what needed to be done and always cut straight to the point of things, as they weren’t fond of funny business. But in that sense they could also be very understanding and nice, which was the way that they approached his injury.

            “Yes, a couple of his robs are broken,” the trainer said. “Don’t even need an X-Ray machine to tell you that, too, it’s pretty bad, but he should be better in three to six weeks. Just make sure he keeps ice on his ribs over the weekend and doesn’t play, or harm his ribs, until I give him the good sign. I’ll be checking up with him every Wednesday, too, to track his progress and see how they’re coming along.”

            Kyle winced. “I feel like a hundred bucks.”

            Luke looked at him curiously. “Isn’t it supposed to be a million?”

            Kyle nodded. “That’s the point.”

            Sandy laughed, even though nobody else was, so she quieted down when everyone looked her way oddly.

            “Sorry, it was kind of funny,” she said. She looked past everyone. “Oh, look there are my parents, gotta go. See you guys Monday, and good game Kyle.”

            She rushed through everyone in a flurry, running toward nobody. Kyle’s grandmother nudged Kyle on the shoulder.

            “She likes you, son,” she said.

            “Grandma, I think even people in New York City know that,” Kyle said.

            As if that weren’t obvious enough, too, it became all too evident to everyone who happened to catch a glance at Kyle the ensuing week at school. Throughout the weekend Kyle was busy healing up his ribs and his grandparents were hounding him almost twenty-four hours of the day, so they essentially barred him from doing anything with the Blue Nexus.

            Sadly, too, nobody from the Zanderians communicated with him that weekend either. Somehow, probably through Eclipse’s psychic abilities, they must have heard about his injury and knew he would be of little use. Well, if he could just transform, then they would know for sure if he were to be useful.

             But as it stood, he managed to get in decent amounts of homework—even homework not due for a long time—and catch up on the sports world, as well as text Mira, and Sandy, about his status. Luke and Kip came by and interrogated him about the Blue Nexus abilities, but all he could give were the basics, since he didn’t have much training with it himself besides flying and just the one energy blast.

            Luckily, the bracelet did fix itself up by Monday, when Kyle no longer was wearing the ice pack. He wondered if it was a psychological problem, the tear between him and the bracelet. If he kept thinking that the bracelet was broken, perhaps it wouldn’t work. And if he didn’t heal himself and thought he wasn’t going to get better, perhaps then the bracelet still wouldn’t work. He could feel its energy flowing through his veins as he woke up on Monday, and felt much less pain in his ribs than before. He wondered if they were actually healing or if he was just not feeling the pain anymore.

            People still treated him gently at school, though, which kind of bugged him. Brian checked up on him whenever they saw each other, each time, too, he would ask if Kyle was going to practice that afternoon. Sandy, though, was with him every second she could be, almost sprinting from her classes to him and nearly injuring him several times. She offered to do everything for him and was blushing the entire time.

            Not that Kyle had a problem with it, and nor did he see her as his servant. He was appreciative that she was helping him out, but not so much appreciative that she was just doing it so he would ask her out and not as a friend. When they walked she was almost literally on top of him, practically clinging to him and keeping people away that could potentially hurt him. That was the part that bugged him the most. Almost as much as lunch.

            Kyle, Kip, and Luke were sitting at their normal spot: away from the main lunch crowd and sitting against the main underclassmen building. Any opportunity Sandy got she would come by and check on him, to make sure he wasn’t dying or something. He thought he was finally able to get away from her, but it was for naught.

            The thing he feared most was Gargador. There were a few moments where he saw him prowling around, almost trying to blend in but never looking Kyle’s way. He always seemed to be waiting for something, but for what Kyle was not sure.

            If Sandy were constantly with Kyle, that was a huge problem, as once again she would be in harm’s way and he had little way of stopping Gargador in his state and without facing serious disciplinary consequences. Gargador could kill him and careless if he got expelled, he would probably just leave anyway.

            By the end of the day, Kyle deduced that Gargador had to be getting a feel for when Kyle was alone. Killing Kyle was one thing, but completely blowing his cover was another. Kyle knew that he would strike when the two were alone, or at least when Kyle was most vulnerable. He made sure to be in sight of a lot of people when he figured out Gargador’s strategy.

            He saw Gargador headed to the locker room, and made a mental note to avoid it and him completely before he would go to practice. Coach and Brian could deal with him, hopefully. Somehow, though, he would have to get Sandy off his back.

            She dashed off to her locker for a moment, leaving Kyle with his two best friends alone finally as they exited the hallway and headed for the locker room.

            “Dude she’s on you like white on rice,” Luke said, stating the complete obvious. “Gonna hit that or what?”

            “No!” Kyle exclaimed, the exclamation hurting him slightly but not as much as it would’ve on Friday. “I mean, no. That’d be taking complete advantage of her.”

            “Yeah, I guess,” Luke muttered.

            “Talking about Sandy?” a voice asked behind them.

            Surprised, the three of them turned around and saw Mira standing there. She was wearing a rather tight blue shirt with yoga pants on, walking up to the three boys with an eyebrow raised. Kyle’s face nearly turned red at the sight of her but he was able to keep his face color in check.

            “Kinda,” Kyle said.

            “Yeah I noticed you were getting a little close today,” Mira pointed out, striding up to the three of them. “She gets like that, especially with you. Her flirty-ness kind of takes over and she pretty much does anything you ask.”

            “Probably a bad thing if she falls in love with someone other than Kyle,” Kip pointed out. “Like, you know, almost any other guy at this school.”

            “Well then it’s a good thing she likes a good guy,” Mira said. “Just don’t break her heart, or I’ll make sure your ribs stay broken.”

            Kyle looked at her dumbfounded. “Yeah but Mira I don’t like her…well, in that way! She’s a great person and friend but how can I not break her heart if I tell her I’m not interested.”

            “I would say give her a shot but you did let her hang out with you all day, so, that probably was your shot,” Mira said thoughtfully. “Well just don’t be a butt to her, got it? Just let her do her thing, it’ll wear out, I promise.”

            “It’s not that I don’t like it, I just don’t want her to get the wrong idea,” Kyle said. “It’s flattering, definitely, though.”

            “Well when you find out someone likes you, yeah, it is,” Mira said. She pointed at Kyle, and he froze. Did she know? “You going to practice? With broken ribs?”

            “Oh, yeah, but just to watch,” Kyle said as he exhaled. Thank God, he thought. “Brian wants me to go for…something. Are you not going?”

            Mira moved her hand up and down her body. “Do I look like I’m ready to go?”
            “You look like you’re ready for the gym,” Kip said, shrugging. “Close enough.”

            “I’ve got track practice,” Mira said. “So I bummed it today.”

            “That’s bumming it?” asked Luke. He looked at his clothes, then that of his friends. “Would you classify us as bums?”

            Mira smiled. “Nah, just good boys.”

            “Shucks, Mira,” Kyle joked.

            She chuckled. “Well, I gotta get to practice. Some of us actually have to workout today.”

            “You have fun with that,” Kyle said as she walked around the group and headed into the locker room.

            The three boys kept their eyes on her until she entered the building.

            “She is so hot,” Kyle said.

            “Yeah good luck with that, buddy,” Kip said, then patted him on the shoulder as he and Luke turned to leave.

            Kyle stole one look behind him, seeing that Sandy was busy discussing something with one of her teachers, then headed out to the practice field where he saw Coach and a few others going to.

            Once Kyle got home from practice, he immediately turned on the TV and kicked back in his family’s couch. It was good to finally be able to sit and be alone. Sure, Gargador could attack but he felt much better now. Why?

            Because if he was still just as good as he was in six weeks, he would be starting! Apparently he made a good enough impression on Coach on Saturday to warrant him becoming a starter. Coach told him that it was because he was able to take such a huge shot and then be able to get up, plus he had some good passers and they “need more boys like you, kid, to tough it out and actually pass the ball…to Brian.”

            Kyle didn’t care who he was passing it to, as long as he was starting. He shared the news with Luke and Kip, who expressed equal excitement. He called up his grandparents, who were out, and they were just as excited, then told him they were planning a special dinner for him.

            And, since practice was padded, he got to see everyone take shots at Gargador. Brian managed to get in a few cheap shots but he barely cared. Gargador could do nothing to Kyle so long as he was in an area where he would be easily exposed to the whole world, then the Zanderians would be on him and he would be finished.

            He folded his arms in front of him and laid back on the couch, easing into it and letting the afternoon news play out as he simply relaxed. Mira was looking amazing today too…

            “…as the triple car chase continues down highway 63,” the newslady said. “We go live now to our correspondent on the scene.”

            “Yeah, the police are having a hard time keeping up with these guys because they’ve pretty much got open road ahead of them for miles and miles,” the man said, having to speak up due to him standing in a helicopter.

            Kyle opened an eye, looking at the scene, then sat up a little as he realized that highway connected into and out of Adelita. He looked to his bracelet. A triple car chase meant those guys had something fairly valuable, and were trying to flee into open country and wear out the cops, who were going as fast as they could but could hardly keep up. Those guys must have had some break away, then.

            Kyle clenched a fist, then stood up, walking outside. He was a little nervous. He faintly looked back to the TV, seeing the chase scene was live and didn’t look to be ending anytime soon. He opened his screen door, stepping out into the springtime air, soaking it all in.

            He swiped his finger across the Nexus bracelet, then felt it’s power become one with him. The black clothing and cloak zapped onto him. Two blue lines ran down from his cheek down the back of his neck into the core of his back, and two small circles appeared on his hand. He raised his hands, letting the energy of the Nexus lift him off the ground, then shot up into the air so one could not tell where he came from.

            Scanning the area, he was high enough to tell where the town ended, as well as had vision enough to do so. Once he saw the highway, he turned and shot toward it. He wasn’t going nearly as fast as he had been when he was headed for the Moon, as he would be ripping through the sound barrier and overshoot them in a heartbeat, but was going much faster than the cops.

            He was on the highway in mere seconds, flying up above them and probably level with the helicopter. Traffic was heavy behind the scene, and once he hit more open road he knew he was on the right track. All around them was grassland, essentially, and it was all very flat. Perfect for a getaway, and also perfect for Kyle to stop them.

            In the distance he saw something flying level with him, probably the helicopter. He looked down and saw some small dots, too. The cops. Way in the distance, much farther than it appeared on TV, were the getaway drivers, all driving sports cars. But that couldn’t be all they stole to warrant the ten cop cars that were following them. Perhaps they killed someone or something, but it hardly mattered.

            All that mattered was Kyle catching up to them. As he neared the scene he tried to figure out a way he could feasibly do that without losing the other three. If it were just one he could easily pick it up, hopefully, and place it down gently and have the cops catch up with him.

            He was atop the cop cars now, level with the helicopter. He wanted slightly to turn and wave to the camera but knew better than that. Keeping his head down so the hood wouldn’t fall back, though it was hardly budging anyway, he came up with his plane. He dove down to be nearly standing on top of a cop car, then made a gun with his hands.

            A quick burst of energy shot him in front of the cops, and a small blue ball appeared on his index finger tip. He aimed and fired quickly, blasting the six back tires of the cars. The tires exploded, slamming the rear ends of the cars to the ground and seriously slowing them down in speed. Kyle now had his chance.

            He swerved out to the side, then went diving in toward the cars, slamming into the front of the one on the farthest right, spinning it out of control and having it hit the rear end of the middle one, which then spun out and crashed into the one on the left.

            The cop cars all managed to stop in time without damaging any of the cars, but the villains weren’t done yet.

            Some of them kicked free as Kyle remained floating. They could hardly stand but were shooting their guns anyway. Nimbly, Kyle swooped down and blasted the gun out of the hand of one. He punched another in the gut, crashing him not fatally into the car. He leapt over the middle car, then rolled and shouldered the next two villains into each other. The ones in the car to the right were completely out.

            The helicopter lowered as the police sprinted up to Kyle, their guns still raised.

            “You!” one shouted, coming up dangerously close with the gun still raised. “Who are you, what kind of freak are you?”

            “I’m one of the good guys,” Kyle said, raising his hands. “I saw the chase on the news and wanted to help, even though I’m sure you had it under control.”

            The cop kept his gun raised for a moment more, then lowered it and put it in his pouch, sticking out his hand. Kyle took it, and shook it.

            “No, we didn’t,” the cop said. “Not that we were running low on gas but those guys cars could outrun us any day of the week, we needed a speedster like you. Thanks a lot, the cops owe you one for sure. Next time, though, try to get the guys before they get the jump on us. Isn’t that what super heroes do?”
            Kyle laughed. “To be honest, officer,” Kyle said with a big smile. “I’m actually still new to this, so, this was my first gig. How’d I do?”

            “You did great,” he said. “Also, this is probably the part where you give your name heroically, then fly off. I’m pretty sure that’s how this is supposed to work.”

            Kyle kept his smile, beginning to float up. “My name is Blue Nexus, officer. And I’m here to help anytime you need!”

            He floated up a little more, feeling great about himself, then boomed off into the sun, soaring back toward Adelita.

            Once he landed in his backyard, actually cutting out the connection out the second he landed so one could hardly tell if it was Blue Nexus or not, he realized that he hadn’t felt an ounce of pain during that whole trip. He reached for his Zanderian communicator, then stopped. If Eclipse really were keeping track of all of them, then there wouldn’t be much of a problem.

            Still, he fist-pumped. Now he knew: if it came down to it with Gargador, he could have him beat. All that extreme power and energy he felt while flying toward the chase was incredible, it was the most amazing rush he felt in his entire life. It only got him more excited to continue action as the Blue Nexus. Plus, helping out the cops felt amazing.

            Apparently, the message spread across school, too. It was early in the morning, of course, when Kyle arrived at school and was feeling rather tired. He stayed up later than he should have doing his star charts and looking through his telescope at outer space. He even tried to see if he could see more through it as Blue Nexus, but it was to no avail. Still, though, space marveled him. It marveled him so much that he barely regretted being up so late the next day.

            He walked through the set of double doors, and the first thing he heard was Blue Nexus. Almost instantly, he snapped up, keeping his hand away from his bracelet. He almost responded to the title but bit his tongue to stop.

            A group of freshmen, presumably, were talking by the doors about Blue Nexus, since he’d been on TV the night before. Kyle sighed. Oh, great, now it’s officially me they’re talking about not Hood Nexus, he thought.

            All during the walk up to his locker did he hear chatter of Blue Nexus. The cops, according to the word of mouth, were talking him up a great deal, sort of to build the hype. They were completely unsure of his status among the greater super heroes, questioning if he was up there with Riko or Phoenix.

            Technically, Kyle figured, he was, since he was a Zanderian and was supposed to start working with them…soon. Once a big enough threat appeared, which Kyle hoped never did but he also really wanted to get to work with them sometime. Maybe a little more on his own couldn’t hurt, though.

            He swung open the metal door with his right hand, making sure not to use his muscles on his left. Nobody was in the hallway, thankfully, as now he wouldn’t have to hear babblings about himself…er, his alter ego.

            Lazily, regaining his tired status, he approached the locker and began to do the locker, opening the locker right up as if clockwork.

            A second later, someone slammed onto the lockers to his left, denting those lockers and even forcing his shut. Kyle snapped awake again, even taking step back. He remained awake, too, as he saw who it was.

            “Isn’t Blue Nexus a little redundant?” asked Gargador, making himself comfortable on the lockers. Kyle reopened his locker.

            “Maybe, but it’s still a name,” Kyle said. “Now people like you are going to know I’m out there to stop you.”

            “Not if we break you like I did, hero,” Gargador said.

            Kyle glared over to Gargador. “I’m damaged, not broken. Not against someone as weak as a demi-War God.”

            Gargador slammed his fist into the middle locker, denting it further. “Shut your mouth, filthy human, I could squash you, and the rest of your race, if I wanted. I’m under strict orders not to.”

            “What about killing me, is that part of your orders?” Kyle asked. “You seemed pretty bent on it a week ago. Wanna try it?”

            Kyle’s fingers levitated over the bracelet. Gargador laughed.

            “No,” he said. “I’m in this human form to try and damage your body, to weaken it and just try to snap the connection between you and the bracelet. It worked momentarily, to my knowledge, so now I know it’s possible. Besides, I’m trapped in human form for a little while longer, and once I get free of it, we can battle.”

            Kyle smirked, keeping his fingers where it is. “Good, then thrashing you with the power of the Nexus is going to be very easy.”

            “You’d fight an opponent who has less than half of his strength?” he asked. “Where’s your honor?”

            “You’re talking to me about honor?” Kyle asked. “The same guy who took a cheap shot on me by trying to kill a defenseless girl?”

            Gargador shrugged. “Okay, that’s true. But, you lived, and I don’t care.”

            “What do you really want, Gargador?” Kyle asked. “You don’t seem as hell-bent on killing me like I keep thinking. Is it the bracelet?”

            “I have a very good friend who has taken a certain interest to the bracelet,” Gargador said. “And since I dealt with your parents, I do see it fitting I deal with you. The problem is he also wants your body, in somewhat good fashion. It’s difficult for a demi-War God to do, you see, as we just like to destroy and destroy. So belittling me to a human form was a necessary move in order to preserve your body as well as separate you from the bracelet. So, thus…”

            Gargador raised a fist then sent it flying toward Kyle, who instantly took a step back and allowed Gargador to dent the back of his locker. Kyle moved his hand away from the bracelet, keeping himself on his toes.

            “So you were waiting to get me alone, of course,” Kyle said. “Figures.”

            “I’m just trying to knock you out, it’ll hardly hurt,” Gargador said. “Well, at first. When you wake, not so much. And you’ll probably have a few more broken bones, and you won’t have the bracelet.”

            “You’re not getting it,” Kyle said.

            “Your lies are what make you a fool!” spat Gargador, who ran toward Kyle like a bull.

            Kyle tucked and rolled away from Gargador, crashing against a locker and feeling impact against his ribs. He managed to pull himself up by pulling on a lock, as Gargador turned around.

            “Not today, and not here,” he said.

            A door in the hallway opened up. Instantly, Gargador took to leaning against the wall as a teacher stepped out, beginning to walk down the hallway. Had he seen anything?

            “Everything good in here?” he asked.

            The double doors at the entryway of the hallway opened up, with a small mass of students entering, looking curiously at the dented lockers. Kyle shrugged.

            “Yeah, it’s all good,” Kyle said. “Just, uh, leaving.”

            He kept his hand over his ribcage, which was exploding with pain. Gargador followed Kyle, who stopped at his locker.

            “I will be the one to finish this,” Gargador said, giving Kyle a push, sending him head-first into the lockers.

            For a split-second, Kyle was lights out. However, he managed to get up after crumbling to his knees to see Gargador leaving the hallway with a completely straight face. He reached up and pulled himself up, still holding onto his ribs but not his shoulder and head were hurting.

            “What was that?” one the girls asked her group.

            “No idea,” one of them admitted.

            Kyle closed his locker, realizing that he actually had no purpose in going there that morning. He sucked in a deep breath, the pain from the weekend coming back sharply. He exhaled, still very much feeling the pain.

            “Gar..gador,” he said, pushing open the doors to exit.

            The sight before him, though, is definitely one he is not used to seeing. Nor is it one that he particularly wanted to ever see at school.

            Though few in number, policemen and women were prowling about the school, walking up to any student near them with a pen and paper and talking to them. Very curiously, Kyle approached the railing, taking in short breaths.

            “Hey, kid, you okay?” asked a commanding voice. He looked over, and saw a woman in a trenchcoat and dress walking up to him. She had her brunette hair up in a bun and was wearing glasses. Something was in her pocket and in her hand was a recorder. Her tone, though, was not as caring as it was just straight up serious.

            “Yeah, fine,” Kyle replied, lying like a sinner. “Who are you, do you know why there are a bunch of cops here?”
            “I’m Detective Patton,” she said, approaching Kyle with some more interest now. “The police are here under my direction, kid, because we’ve come to figure out something peculiar.”

            “That being?” he asked.

            “We’re well aware of the super hero Blue Nexus, and a possible associate of his that looks similar, and have deduced, through various police and citizen sightings, that he is not only a denizen of Adelita but also a kid.”

            Kyle raised an eyebrow. Dang it, he thought. He didn’t think about a wise detective getting involved, especially this early in the whole process. Now probably the smartest cop on the force was literally on him, and he had no way out.

            “Hmm, so you think you’ll find him here?” asked Kyle.

            “Well, there’s still the other high school, but we haven’t filed the warrant there yet,” she said regretfully. “Once we’re done here and if we don’t have that many suspects, we’ll head over there.”

            “Suspects?” Kyle asked. “You make it sound like you’re on a crime case.”

            Patton shrugged. “Technically, as Blue Nexus was involved with a crime yesterday. But with all these supers running around, identities are a priority. What if this Blue Nexus kid is just a psycho, imagine what he could do with all that power? I mean, no offense to teenagers, but they tend to be a little impulsive, and if a kid like that has this huge power, I don’t want to be on the receiving end, you know?”

            Kyle nodded. He wanted to stick up for himself but couldn’t, that would make him suspect. For the moment, he was grateful for his injury. He hadn’t hurt shown any signs of injury during the chase yesterday and was never even touched on his right side yesterday in battle, so him being hurt was helping his chance of getting away. Blabbering would only worsen the situation on his end.

            “Yeah, that’s true,” Kyle said. “To be honest, some of the kids at this school are a bit on the well, you know…iffy, side of things.”

            Patton nodded. Kyle meant to say that humorously but she was completely stoic. Rough crowd, this one.

            “So, kid, you got any idea as to who this Blue Nexus character could be?” she asked.

            “I, uh, no,” he said, then bit his lip. “Actually, hold on. The other day, Saturday, I’m on the lacrosse team by the way, we were scrimmaging and this kid out of nowhere shows up—a really, really massive kid. So he hops on the field because we’re down a few players and then he completely blows me up, like throws me pretty much ten yards off the field without any effort!”

            He winced at his last word, as he put some ‘umph’ into it. He wasn’t lying, but he was planning. If the police went after Gargador, not only would he get the police off his back, but he would be able to trap Gargador while he was contained in his human form, which would buy him time to plan out how he would strike next. Probably have to figure out who Gargador’s “friend” was before actually fighting the guy, and he would also have to find out the timetable for Gargador’s human status.

            “Well, that is very suspect,” the detective said. Kyle realized that she’d been recording the entire thing, and was glad he was hardly slipping up. This could easily be used against him.

            Kyle went on to describe what Gargador looked like in vivid detail, down to his lacrosse gear even, so there would be no mistaking who he was when it came time for them to hunt him down and corner him. Obviously, he would plead innocent, but he was still guilty for what he did on his first appearance. There was no way out, Kyle figured.

            “Thanks a lot, kid, we’ll definitely look into it,” the detective said.

            Confident that he was winning, Kyle smiled and nodded as Patton left him, rushing down the stairs to go meet with her fellow officers.

            Sandy was with Kyle all day again, but this time he was a lot more grateful to her since he was in much more pain that day than the previous one. Luke and Kip noticed, so at lunch Kyle—making sure none of the prowling police were around—told them about it. Mira was curious, too, when she saw him painfully open a door, but he didn’t have enough time to explain other than it just hurt, as they were headed in opposite directions and Sandy was busily talking with him.

            After lunch, Sandy met up with him instantly as he headed for class. She was headed the same way for a short while but wanted to make sure he was safe. It was a nice thought, Kyle figured, if she weren’t so insistent on asking how he got hurt even more if he kept saying that nothing happened to him.

            They were broken up, though, by the sudden arrival of Detective Patton, who Kyle had sworn already left. Her arrival was a surprise to both of them, but she was glad she saw him.

            “Ah, kid, good, listen, I’ve got news for you,” Patton said.

            “Did you find the guy?” Kyle asked excitedly.

            Patton shook her head. “No, but, here’s the thing. Everyone I’ve talked to—which, by the way, is almost everyone at this school—knows exactly who you’re talking about. But, there’s just one problem.”

            “What?” asked Kyle.

            “Nobody can find him,” Patton said. “His locker is completely empty, his name is gone from the systems, and there’s no trace of him. You sure he actually went here?”
            Kyle clenched a fist. Gargador, he got away! He looked calmly back up to Patton.

            “Yeah, I saw him around sometimes, he went here,” he said. “Maybe he’s skipping or something, but, don’t drop him from the possibilities.”

            Patton shrugged. “Yeah, I know that kid but it’s tough to track someone who isn’t in my perimeter right now and who’s pretty much vanished. Especially when he only shows up a few days ago, guys gonna be tough to track. Guess that’s how these supers are. Anyway, thanks for the tip, and I hope you feel better.”

            Patton squeezed his shoulder as she headed off, Sandy giving her the evil eye until she was out of sight.

            “What was that all about?” she asked jealously.

            “She asked me if I knew anything about Blue Nexus,” Kyle replied. “I told her about the kid that hit me and nearly took you out on Saturday. Apparently he’s gone, completely.”

            “How?” asked Sandy. Kyle reached his hallway, his breaking off point from Sandy.

            “No idea,” he said. “And it’s bugging me.”

            “Well, I mean, if anyone can find him it’ll be the cops, right?” asked Sandy.

            Some kid in front of Kyle opened the door, which Kyle caught. Sandy had a very caring and curious look on her face, and an idea formed in Kyle’s mind.

            “Yeah, probably,” he said. “I gotta go, I’ll see later.”

            “Definitely,” Sandy said.

            Kyle smiled and waved as she turned her heel and rushed away. Sandy was looking cute today, he thought. Like, really cute. The way her brunette hair bobbed softly on her shoulders and how caring she was for him…

            He shook the thought. No, hormones, go away, this is serious and real, he thought. Sandy was wrong about the police. They had the numbers to go after Gargador but also had tons more ground they needed to cover in order to get evidence either against him or for someone else, which would consume time.

            Kyle, however, knew the town inside and out. Gargador was probably hiding within the town and that meant Kyle could find him. Perhaps it was time he did take matters into his own hands. As he sat down in class, he affirmed it with himself.

            He was putting together a search party. And he was going to find Gargador and put an end to all this once and for all.


Next time: The search for Gargador goes awry! But, someone new has arrived, and she brings a whole patch of new questions. Who is she? Find out in "Blue Nexus #6--The Red Woman"