How dare you! How dare you do this to me! You left me stranded! I had a family to get back to. A home planet I was on a mission to save. My world is doomed because of you. And all for what? To delay the enviable fate of a handful of kids. I hope getting to play around as a hero was worth the hell you put me through!

  Curse you, child of earth!

  Curse you, Night Hopper!

  Curse you, Rayleigh Robinson!

  Rayleigh!

  "Rayleigh?"

  "Rayleigh, wake up, man!" Yong-Rae prodded me.

  "What? No, I-I didn't mean to!" I gasped.

  "Didn't mean to fall asleep in class again?" Rae asked, "It's not that serious, Mr. Q always lets you get away with it."

  I sat up in my chair and forced my eyes open, then took some deep breaths to gather my bearings. It's a normal Tuesday morning, I'm in Jonny's Electronics class. I'm totally safe, and no one knows.

  "Sorry, I wasn't sleeping, just having a bad daydream, that's all." I sighed, "Jonny knows about my condition, so as long as I get work done, he's fine with it."

  "Cool, so while you're still awake, let's get to work. This radio isn't going to build itself. Hope you're not going to slow me down because you daydreamed through instructions."

  "Instructions? Please, I could build one of these with my eyes closed."

  "That wouldn't be half bad. But I've already compiled that challenge. Twice."

  "Bull crap. You might be a wizard at comp-sci, but when it comes to building analog tech, I've got you beat."

  "In your freaky daydreams."

  For the rest of the class, we used our combined knowledge of electronics to construct a makeshift but functional radio. Even though we were certain we had built it correctly, getting it to tune in on something was a challenge, as we weren't given a display to measure frequency. We were mostly just getting static, sometimes with the faintest impression of a song in the background.

  "Maybe we made the range too long." I suggested, "The dial is acting a lot more sensitive than it should be."

  "Yeah, that seems right," Rae said, messing with it, "Maybe if you were listening to the instructions, you would know where to calibrate it."

  "I made an educated guess, and I think it's close enough. Besides, if you were paying attention, you should have caught it."

  Rae rolled his eyes and carefully continued turning the dial, "Wait, I think I got something." He claimed.

  "Uh, just sounds like more static to me."

  "Nah, there's something encrypted in here. I know a trick to decode it, though." Rae explained. He picked up our radio and turned away for a second.

  "Okay, so how do we do that?" I asked. He just sat quietly, holding the radio like he was intently listening to it. "Rae?" I tapped him on the shoulder, and he looked back at me; his face seemed pale, but his composure was well kept.

  "Oh, right, well, I'd have to take it home to run it through a program on my computer."

  "Cool, let me know whatcha hear." I wanted to ask if I could go with him, but I wasn't sure if we were close enough for me to go to his house yet.

  The rest of that school day was unmemorable. When I got home, I couldn't focus on anything. My earlier daydream still had me freaked out. Even knowing that it wasn't real didn't make the idea any less stressful. I wanted to understand the alien better; that way, I might have some idea of what I could be in for. The only lead I had on it was the journal, so I took on the side mission of translating its language. At first I thought it might be like hieroglyphics, with the symbols being simplified and stylized that represent things or actions. However, that didn't lead anywhere. I got the idea to try using a computer program to decode it. I was pretty sure it was possible, but unprepared for how difficult it would be. After a few hours that afternoon, trying to code a miracle program from scratch, I grew frustrated. The sun was beginning to set, so I reluctantly decided I needed a break and started my patrol early.

  I got to the top of a tall building in the sketchy part of town and just laid waiting. Soon I grew bored with watching for crime and began watching the stars as they became visible through clouds. Yep, tonight seems as uneventful as ever, was it even worth going on patrol? I guess it’s a good thing that no one’s getting into trouble, but it sure makes my job boring. I could go back home, but I was getting nowhere with that could and what else is there to do? Maybe try to get ahead with some schoolwork. Eh, that doesn’t sound any more fun. The spaceship might have something that code help with decoding, I'd also be able to work on more upgrades there. BZZT, BZZT! My phone got a notification. Who’d be messaging me now? I opened it to find that an unknown number had texted me one word… "HELP"!

  As I read it, a voice screamed it in my head. Startled, I jumped to my feet. What the hell was that? It wasn’t my voice, but it sounded familiar. It was the cry of a young man; he's in trouble! But where did it come from?

  “Moon Jump!” I used my boots' low gravity and thrusters to launch myself into the sky. As I floated down, I spotted three guys cornering someone in an alley a few blocks over. I dropped down, and I hopped over to them. Well, it looks like today won’t be so boring after all. As I got to the roof above the alley, I saw that the guys had him tied up and were about to throw him in the back of their van. Without thinking too much, I leaped into action.

  "Well, this isn't something you see every day, or maybe in this city you do." I said, getting the villains' attention, "So is this the part where you say it isn't what it looks like?" I dropped right in front of them. Time for those upgrades to get a field test. I clapped together the new thrusters on the palms of my gauntlet to make a shock wave. Two of the guys (and myself) got sent flying into the wall, but the big guy holding the victim was still standing. But now that I was up close, I saw that the “big guy” was actually some kind of stone golem creature, or maybe a guy covered in thick stone armor. Only one way to find out! I hopped up at it and pulled the victim from it fairly easily. Seems its reaction time is pretty slow. I set the boy on the roof of the van and charged at the golem, sliding between its legs. Once under it, I briefly made a field of .0 Gs, then launched off, carrying it to the sky. The golem grabbed my gauntlet, but before it could finish its attack, I slipped out of it. "10 Gs," I laughed as I sent it hurtling back at the ground. It crashed down into the alley with such force that it broke apart into rock pieces. Looks like it was just a golem with no one inside. The villains got back on their feet.

  One of them cried out, “No, Rocky! You broke him!” He seemed genuinely distorted.

  “Wait, was that thing alive?!” I asked, landing on the rubble and retrieving my gauntlet.

  “Of course not.” The other one answered, “He just likes to name the golems he makes, and he pretends they have their own personality. It’s pretty annoying”

  “At least they’re better friends than you are!” He scoffed.

  I backflipped onto the van by the victim. He was tied up in some kind of yellow plant stuff and had a sack put over his head. As I pull it off, I immediately recognize him. Yong-Rae?! I warned him about this, but I didn't think it'd happen so soon? And what was he doing in this part of town at this time of night?

  “You alright, kid?” I ask.

  “Yeah, now that you saved me… you are saving me right?” He questions.

  “Of course, I’m saving you, weren’t you the one that called for my help?”

  “Oh, that actually worked! I was worried that pathway was a fluke.”

  “You can explain that later, but first, who are you, and do you know those guys?”

  “The names, Yong-Rae, and well- they're not friends of mine I'll tell ya that ”

  “Figured that much. And let me guess, you happen to be entitled?”

  “I am, but it’s not really an ability I can fight with.”

  It's just like what happened to Silvi, Mako and the rest. All attacked by different villains, but they have to be connected somehow. Hopefully, these bozos know more than Cassidy.

  I asked the villains, “Care to introduce yourselves?”

  “What do we do now, Fungeye? Make a break for it?”

  “Nah, this one’s too valuable, let’s teach that hero wannabe to stay out of this mob's business.”

  “Whatever you say.” He raised his arms, and the rock pieces flew together, reforming the golem.

  “If you must know, our code names are Fungeye-”

  “And Junky.”

  Yong-Rae tapped me on the shoulder, “Hey you got this, right? If it’s okay with you, I’m gonna go.”

  “What? Go where? We’re cornered.” I asked.

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  “It’s kinda a lot to explain, it has to do with my perk.” He took out his phone.

  “Uh, sure. You get to safety and leave the bad guys to me.”

  Fungeye runs at us. “You're not going anywhere!” He tries to grab Yong-Rae, but I jump in and block him.

  “If you’re gonna go, do it now!” I shout. Rae nods, and his eyes glow a light teal.

  I braced myself, preparing to keep the villains occupied while Rae escapes, but then I felt something pulling me back. It looked like the whole world was moving away from me. It happened so fast there was nothing I could have done about it, and before I knew it I was somewhere else entirely. The place seemed unreal, a seemingly endless plain filled with floating boxes with thousands of transparent lines of different colors connected then. Turning around, I saw Yong-Rae, looking even more confused to see me than I was to see him.

  "Wha- What are you doing here?" He asked,

  "Better question, what is here?" I raised.

  "Um, well, it's kind of complicated. I mean, I've studied it extensively because it is a really good question. Sorry, it's just I don't really get guests here, that's new, so I haven't had to explain to anyone else before. Anyway, it's like a mix between a pocket dimension and metaphysical reflection of like-"

  "I'm sure the explanation is really interesting, but I gotta take-down those bad guys before they get away, so could you get to the point." I interrupted.

  "Right, sorry. Practically speaking, we're inside my phone right now. My title is The Network. I can connect with elections and travel through them. Oh, and don't worry about them escaping, time moves faster in here them it does in the outside world." Rae explained.

  "Oh, so it's kind of like Inception."

  Rae snapped his fingers. "Yeah, pretty much. Should have led with that." He walked over to a nearby box, and an icon of a messaging app lit up on it. "Thanks a bunch for saving me. I'm still pretty shaken about almost being kidnapped, so I'm going home. Could you do me a favor and keep my phone safe, I'll get it back later."

  I jumped in front of him "Hold on, if we've got time, I'd like to get some answers from you. First, how do I get out?"

  He pointed to a box in the ground with a red line going straight up to the "sky". "Just grab onto that pathway and it will carry you out." He tried to walk past me to the box, but I stepped in his way.

  "One more thing. What were you doing out in that part of town, and do you know why those guys targeted you?" I interrogated.

  "I'm guessing it's cause I'm entitled, you know that much, right?"

  "Yes, but why you specifically? You do anything that might have gotten their attention?"

  Rae looked flustered and a bit nervous at that. "I don't know. I just came to his city." He said, looking away.

  "If you're hiding something that could help, I need to know." I pushed.

  "Fine, there might be something, but I don't know if I can trust you," he huffed.

  Hearing that from a friend stung a little. However, it was a fair point. Yong-Rae was friends with Rayleigh, not Night Hopper. I'd be distrusting of them too.

  "Understandable, but I just saved your life, boy. I don't think I'm asking for much here." I insisted.

  "That's sort of why, man. Anyone who's going out to fight deranged and powerful villains must have damn a good reason for it. It's barely a secret that most of the pro heroes have some ulterior motive, and I bet you're not getting paid for this. So I want to know, what's in this for you?"

  "Well…" I had to pause and think, what is in this for me? "Revenge," I said, trying to sound cold.

  Rae rolled his eyes, "I'm not buying that. Rogue crime fighters out for revenge are a dime a dozen where I'm from. And you ain't like them."

  "Stop acting like you know so much about me! You don't gotta like or fully trust me, but believe me, regardless of any other motives, my top priority is keeping you kid safe and stopping whoever is behind this." I shouted.

  Rae took a step back, seeming quite nervous. Did he just get like that, or was he always nervous around me and I just noticing. I designed this persona to be unsettling rather than comforting, but I don't want to scare off my friends. I took a deep breath, got on a knee, then turned down the voice distortion in my mask.

  "Please, I promise you can trust me with whatever you know." I pleaded.

  Rae's expression went from nervousness to panic, like he stopped trying to put up a mask. "Alright," He gulped, "So early today I was messing around with this home-made radio and I accidentally came across an encrypted conversation. I used my powers to decode it and… Well, these guys were talking about trafficking entitled kids. I couldn't just ignore it, but I didn't know who to go to with that information. So when I got home, I was able to find the hidden site on the dark web with the bounties they mentioned. From there I found those two villains, but nothing about who the boss of this thing is. That's why I decided to try and follow those guys to their secret base, but they saw me and… well, you know the rest."

  "Thank you. I've been trying to find anything about their operation for months, so this is a good start. But from now on, stay out of danger. You've done more than enough, just leave the rest to me."

  "Right, I trust your intentions, but maybe tell the real heroes about this. I mean, shouldn't Drako-Knight be doing something about this?" He asked.

  "He should, but he won't. I don't have any way of proving it, but I believe Drako-Knight is in cahoots with them." I claimed. "So, don't go telling anyone else about this. The less they think we know, the better." He shook his head like I just said an insane conspiracy but didn't say anything.

  "Whatever, I don't want anything more to do with it. I'm going home." Rae walked past me to his exit cube "Just make sure you kick their asses for me," He said, disappearing into the app.

  Hell yeah, with the upgrades I made, taking out two superpowered goons won't be a problem. Just can't let them escape this time. I grabbed onto the exit line and was shot out of his phone, right back on top of the van only a few seconds after I left. I pocketed the phone and got ready to show down.

  "Hey, he's back!" Junky pointed out.

  "I see that, but where'd our target go?" Fungeye asked.

  "I don't know. Have you checked up your butt?" I suggested. Junky put a hand on his bum, confused.

  "So you really are as immature as they say," Fungeye sighed, "I don't know if you're a kid or not, but I'm sure that title of yours would still go for quite the fortune."

  "Bold of you to assume I have one. Maybe I'm just simply built different." I paused. "Wait, but if I did have one, I could sell it? How is that even possible?"

  "Oh no, Fungeye, we aren't supposed to tell anyone about that." Junky reminded.

  "Then I guess we can't let him walk away." He threatened. Blackish tears oozed out of his right eye.

  "That's funny I was about to say the same thing." I laughed.

  Fungeye's tears fell to the ground and suddenly grew into mossy yellow vines that shot up at me. I hopped up the alley wall, avoiding the vines' grasp. Junky's golem charged at me, so I easily blew its head off with a thruster punch. However, that did not stop its body from pinning me to the wall. Fungeye slowly approached with a disturbing grin. Up close, I got a better look at his eyes. His left eye was just a normal brown, but his right eye turned an acidic yellow, and his pupil and iris were twisted into the shape of a mushroom.

  "This is why you should have left the heroics to the pros." Fungeye laughed, "Now say goodnight." The mushroom in his eye radiated a toxic yellow as it shot out a cloud of spores in my face.

  "Goodnight," I said, while struggling to break free from the golem "See, this is where I would try to knock you out, but I'm kind of pinned up at the moment."

  "How? My spores should've put you in a coma the second they're inhaled"

  "Funny, you humans always assume that I need to breathe. How foolish." I bluffed. Good thing I put an air filtration system in my mask for times like these. My head still feels a little funny, though.

  "Wait, are you saying you're not human?" Junky asked.

  "Maybe they're not. Or maybe they're bluffing." Fungeye said, grabbing my mask. I tried to look anyway and held my breath.

  "Human or not, they're annoying." Junky groaned, "How about I assume that if I crush you, you'll splat like a bug?" The golem held me up and began to squeeze me tighter. I screamed out in pain, coughing up a bit of blood.

  "Hey, knock that off, you brickhead!" Fungeye reprimanded, "We need them alive for the extraction, remember. Put them down!"

  "Oh, right, I knew that. You don't gotta boss me around." Junky pouted. The golem dropped me. The moment I was free, I kicked off the wall, launching myself at Junky.

  "Since your golem can work with its head, I'll just have to go for the heart." I threatened as I pushed him against the wall.

  "Nice try, but Rocky is relentless. Take me down, and he won't stop until he avenges me." Junky claimed. The golem automatically began reassembling itself and charged toward me. Waiting until the last moment, I leaped into the air and gave it an extra push towards Junky with my thrusters. The rocky construct couldn't stop in time and crashed into its master, leaving him barely standing.

  "That won't be a problem if you knock each other out." I laughed an eerie, digitally distorted laugh, until suddenly it was cut off as my mask cracked open. While I was distracted with Junky a vine shot up and priced my face mask. I quickly covered my lower face with my scarf and turned back to see Fungeye with a sadistic grin.

  "Looks like that buffoon was useful after all," He cackled, "Now what were you saying about breathing?" He sprayed more spores from his eye. I held my breath and hopped to a balcony on the other side of the alley. "You can try to run, but how are you gonna fight me from up here?" Fungeye surrounded himself in a cloud of spores, and vines began to grow up the side of the building to me.

  I'm not, I thought, activating a new gadget on my gauntlets. A wide beam of green light shot from the inside of my wrists. Fungeye ducked under it, but I wasn't aiming for him. Instead, Junky got caught in the tractor beam and was pulled just a few steps forward into the spores. Immediately he began to violently cough and weez before going down seconds later. Upon that, the golem got up and set its eyes on Fungeye. But he will.

  "Wait- No, No-" He started, but the golem didn't care. It saw him take out his master and thus had to avenge. It pounded him to the ground til he was just as motionless as Junky. Once that objective was completed, the golem crumbled back into a pile of rocks and rubble.

  Once the spores cleared, I hopped down and caught my breath. Damn, that fight was close, really thought I was gonna get crushed back there. Nights like this make me start to think this whole thing was a terrible idea. But I saved my friend, so it has to all be worth it, right? And I've taken down two members of this operation. Oh crap, I've never gotten this far before. What do I do?! Rae and I were the only witnesses. I can't just take them to the station and explain what happened, the police would try to arrest me too. Okay, first I need to tie them up so they don't wake up and get away.

  I checked in their van for any rope or something I could use. Sure enough, there were a few ropes in the back along with a large wooded shipping crate. After I tied the villains up and left a note for the cops, I went back to check what they were delivering. Weapons, Drugs? Something incriminating that could give me a lead on this gang. I busted it open only to find… Comic books? What were they doing with these? Scouring through it, I noticed that they were all recent issues, mostly starring Drako-Knight. Now, that's the connection I was looking for. Not enough to hold up in court, but it's a start. I checked the shipping label and found out it was going to a place called "Dragon's Hoard Comic Shop". The address for it was close by, just a few streets up from here. I've been to nearly every comic shop in the city, and I've never heard of this place before. Maybe it's a front, but why a comic store? Before going to check it out, I used Rae's phone to give the cops an anonymous tip. I hope they hold them long enough for Rae to come in and testify against them. No guarantee they'll believe my note, but it's better than leaving them on the street.

  I hopped out of the alley and made it to the address. Sure enough, there was a small hole in the wall store there. The shop was closed and blinds were drawn over the windows, but there was a sign that read "Dragon's Hoard Comic Shop" with a logo of a cartoon dragon protecting his stash of comics and figures. Well, at least I know this is the right place, but it's weird I've never heard of it before. I tried looking it up online, but nothing came up. This is seriously suspicious. I briefly considered breaking and entering but decided I'd better bet it when I heard police sirens a few blocks down. Maybe it's best to wait until tomorrow to get to the bottom of this. I found an out of view roof top to get change out of the Night Hopper suit and booked it home.

  It finally feels like I'm making progress in my mission, but the bad guys seem to be picking up their pace. I have to put a stop to this before anyone else goes missing!