Chapter 15

             “Sir, more ‘Spektrum’ related activity at San Leandro High,” a young cadet informed a man wearing a black overcoat and sunglasses.

            “So Zorb is still trying to defeat him, is he?” a man spoke in a gruff British accent.  “Who would have thought that the Son of the King would appear here on Earth right when super-humans became reality?” 

The mysterious man picked up a cane made from onyx stone and smoothed his thumb over the shining silver handle.

“Any news on the other subjects of interest?”

            “No, sir, not yet. Hayden Walters, aka Tyranno-Shark, is in the Alameda County under police custody.” 

            “His parents haven’t arrived to take him home?”

            “No, sir. They currently don’t have the funds to afford plane tickets, let alone post bail, and the paperwork for transferring him from Alameda to Cincinnati, Ohio is still being processed.”

            “Good,” the man exclaimed. “Our organization can take care of it for them. Have Fast-pace pick the boy up and bring him here while Phonebook contacts his parents.”

            “Yes, Mr. Darklite.” 

The cadet saluted, turned around, and exited the room, his superior smiling rather sinisterly.

            The phone in a kitchen in a small suburban home in Cincinnati, Ohio started ringing. A woman in her mid- to late 30s, brunette, answered the phone while rubbing the bags under her eyes.

            “Yes?” Her voice was clearly weak from worry.

            “Mrs. Olivia Walters?” the voice of a young woman, no older than her 20’s, asked.

            “Yes, who is this?”

Mr. Walters stood by the kitchen doorway, with equally dark bags under his eyes.

“Is this about my son, Hayden? We already know he’s in California--God knows why--and that it‘ll still be a few more days before we can even see him.”

            “Ma’am, don’t worry, we’ve cleared all the paperwork with Alameda, and after we meet with him, you’ll be reunited with your son.”

            “Wait, what? Who is this?”

            “Don’t worry, ma’am, you’ll meet with one of our representatives before the day is over.”

            “Wait, who is this?! Who are—?!”

            The young woman on the other end hung up the phone before Mrs. Walters could finish.

 

            Zoey started dozing off. She couldn’t help it; she had a lot of homework over the weekend and finished late last night. Also, vocabulary wasn’t the most interesting topic to her. 

            “Leeway,” the teacher, Ms. Dalton, read. “Noun. The amount of freedom to move or act that is available.

            “Reciprocity,” she continued. “Noun. The practice of exchanging things with others for the mutual benefit of everyone. That can mean goods, services or money, but it usually refers to privileges granted between organizations or even countries.”

            The students scribbled down the teacher’s words in their notebooks, or on loose pieces of paper, with #2 pencils, mechanical pencils and ink pens of several colors. Zoey finished quickly, before anyone else had. She was always faster than most of her classmates at writing, at least in her 6^th period English class. The students around her were still writing for another few seconds after Zoey had finished.

            “Alright, class, that’s enough for today,” Ms. Dalton said after everyone had finished writing. “If you haven’t already, turn in your summaries of Act 1 of Macbeth.  Remember, summaries for Act 2 are due this Wednesday. Don’t groan, that’s more than enough time to read and summarize it all between today and tomorrow.”

            The students packed up their things, and Zoey headed towards the front of the school to meet up with her friends at the jet. The four girls greeted each other with waves and small hugs then walked together down Central Avenue, towards Zoey’s home on 5^th Street.

            “No interruptions by Shaun today?” Karina asked curtly.

            “No, Karina, so calm down,” Zoey replied. “He told me during lunch that he was already swamped with homework from his morning classes, so he wouldn’t be able to spend time.” 

Zoey looked a little down after informing her friends.

            “Aww,” Marina comforted. “It’s okay, Zoey. You can make out with one of the guys from the badminton team if that’ll make you feel better.”

            “Shut up!” Zoey snappishly replied, though she still laughed at her friend’s teasing. 

Her friends snickered a little as well as Zoey composed herself. 

“That’s not all he and I do. We do talk, and we play games, although he’s still too easy to beat on Supreme Fighting King.” 

Supreme Fighting King, of course, was Zoey’s favorite game, and one she was unmatched in. Of course, the only other people she’s ever played were Shaun, her cousins, Seth and Jeff, and the game’s own AI on all four settings: Easy, Medium, Hard, and Expert. She still had to squeeze by against Expert, with more losses than wins, but she had all but mastered the other difficulties. Supreme Fighting King was also the game that Zoey was playing when the power surge hit her home. 

           

            On that Wednesday from three weeks ago, she was simply sitting in her room on her pink beanbag chair, when her pet cat, Neeko, jumped on her lap.

            “Ugh, Neeko, no, I’m busy,” she scolded. 

Zoey pushed Neeko away, but the black-and-white cat kept climbing back into her lap. 

“Neeko, stop! I told you, no!” 

As Zoey gave Neeko an admonishing look, her dark maple brown eyes sternly staring into Neeko’s soft green, the surge hit. Both Zoey and Neeko were electrocuted, and Zoey blacked out. When she awoke, she had cat ears and a tail. Neeko wasn‘t hurt, but was a little frazzled and grumpy. Luckily, Zoey was able to retract the tail and get back her human ears within a half hour, long before her parents came home from work.  They never suspected a thing, not even when the news reported that “a mysterious girl with cat ears and a tail single-handedly stopped two groups of high school students from fighting each other, by defeating all ten students in hand-to-hand combat.” 

Sure, Zoey loved cats, and anime-style cat-girls, but they would never have thought their daughter could fight. Of course, Zoey didn’t know she could, she just transformed and got involved. Zoey knew that even though The Spektrum did pretty much the same thing, it wasn’t the same. Not to be harsh on herself, but she knew facing criminals from outer space was scarier than facing a group of pissed off students who were just looking for a fight.

 

            In the present, Zoey and her friends arrived at her home still laughing.

            “You’re so nerdy!” Karina teased.

            “I’m not nerdy,” Zoey playfully denied. “I’m just really good at video games.”

            “That’s because you play them so much, nerdy girl,” Marina said, joining Karina in teasing.

            The girls giggled more as Zoey turned her computer on, and the four of them plopped their backpacks and book-bags down at the foot of Zoey’s bed. 

            “You’re going online already?” Chloe asked.

            “Yeah, I wanna see if there’s any news on The Spektrum, or any of the others that appeared after the power surge,” Zoey answered as she turned on the monitor.  “We can still do homework at the same time.”

            So the afternoon proceeded as such: in between each paragraph, history question and math problem, Zoey would refresh her internet browser’s open tab, and Zoey would check for any new news articles or message board topics, or updates to pre-existing ones. At about 4:30, someone posted news on Hayden Walters.

            “Hayden Walters?” Karina asked as she scooted off the bed and over to the computer. “Isn’t that Tyranno-Shark?”

            “Yeah, he is,” Zoey answered.

            She clicked the link, and the article loaded up on the computer screen. 

            “He’s still in Alameda, under police custody, according to past articles.”

            Zoey read the article silently as Karina looked over her shoulder.

            “What?!” Zoey nearly shrieked. “He’s out already?!” 

            Marina and Chloe rushed to the computer.

            “When?” Marina asked.

            “This afternoon, a little after two,” Zoey replied, pointing out where in the article the information was given.

            “Did his parents get him?” Chloe questioned.

            “No,” Zoey answered again, “it says ‘a man, in his twenties, wearing a navy blue business suit, arrived with both a briefcase and suitcase. He handed the officers the exact amount of money needed for bail in cash, as well as documents signed by his parents allowing the man to bring Hayden Walters with him.’”

            “Does it say who the man is?” Chloe asked.

            “No,” she replied, “only that he and Hayden left in a blue Corvette.”

            “Oh God, do you think Tyranno-Shark will come after Zoey?” Karina asked, frightened for her friend.

            “Not without going back to Encinal, since he doesn’t know where she really lives,” Marina assured.

            “Quick,” Zoey ordered. “Turn on the TV and radio to local news channels. If he reappears as that Sharkosaurus, we’ll be able to get the news from them sooner than the computer.”

 

            “Sir, Fast-pace has arrived with Hayden Walters,” another young cadet informed Darklite.

            “As expected of him, Fast-pace did his job faster than I expected,” the mysterious man smiled. “Have Hayden wait in the conference room, and get him any food or drink that he likes, within reason. I’ll be there shortly.”

            “Yes, sir.”

The cadet left the room in the same manner as the one before. Darklite smoothed his thumb over his cane’s curved handle again as he looked at the files on his desk. The top two folders read “The Spektrum” and “The Alameda Catgirl”. 

 

            “So, what is this place?” Hayden asked after swallowing a bite of his double bacon cheeseburger. “Obviously it’s secret, why else would I need to be blindfolded at the airport before the cargo helicopter took off. My guess would be… secret organization within the American government.”

            “Close!” boomed a voice.

Hayden turned in his seat to see who had answered him. An older man with dark sunglasses, a dark duster overcoat, and a cane walked into the room, smiling ear to ear.

“We are a secret organization, but we have no government affiliations to any country at all. And I am its leader, Mr. Rowland Darklite” 

The man lowered his head so he could see over his glasses. 

“Enjoying your double bacon cheeseburger?”

            Hayden nodded and smirked. 

            “You guys work fast,” he complimented. “Took only 10 minutes, I think.”

            “Yes, you have my associate, Fast-pace, to thank for that. He was the gentleman who picked you up from the Alameda Police.”

            “Oh, yeah, the guy with the cool blue suit and matching Corvette,” Hayden detailed before taking a sip of his butterscotch milkshake. “Are those standard-issue for this job?”

            Darklite chuckled at the young man’s good humor while he took a seat next to him.

            “No, no, Fast-pace earned a rank much higher than the entry level of ‘Cadet,’ you see, so he is allowed more freedom in his choice of attire.”

            Hayden showed his understanding in an upward nod.  

            “So what kind of organization is this?” Hayden asked. “Military? Secret agents?”

            “A little of both and then some, if we’re being technical.” 

Darklite reclined in his seat, both hands on his cane.

“My organization, Anonymous Inc., has many operatives working within governments, militaries, and businesses around the world, all with crucial contacts that we can use to get what we need to help those in need.”

            “You mean, like how you got me out of going to jail, no questions asked?” Hayden politely interrupted.

            “Well, I’m sure there are some questions being asked, but none we have to answer,” Darklite said, grinning behind his dark glasses.

            “Well, you’re answering my questions,” Hayden pointed out.

            “Yes,” Darklite agreed, “because I want to.”

Darklite grinned and chuckled again. Hayden also laughed at bit as he took another bite of his burger.

Hayden thought a moment after taking another sip before asking another question.

            “So, if you help those in need, why don’t you help everyone openly?”

            “Because people would start asking questions.”

            “But you said that you didn’t have to answer people’s questions.”

            “Yes, but we would still have to listen to their questions, to see if they are worth answering, and that gets rather bothersome.”

            Hayden paused again, thinking about what more to say, to ask.

            “Well, you helped me because I needed to get out of prison, but you also gave me something I wanted.”

            “Yes…” Darklite grinned, seeing that Hayden was getting the idea.

            “Could you get me something else I wanted?”

            “I suppose. What is it?”

            “I want payback against that catgirl!!”

Hayden’s eyes were now ablaze with anger.

            “My dear boy, why would you want to get her back?”

            “Because she beat me! She‘s the reason I was arrested!”

            “Yes, that is true. Hurt pride is reason enough for most, but why take revenge when we can make her one of us?”

            “What? ‘Make her one of us?’”

            “Yes, young Hayden, ‘one of us’!” Darklite reiterated as he pointed at Hayden and himself, leaning forward. “You could become a part of Anonymous Inc. like Fast-pace, like me. You could have powerful contacts that could help get you what you need, to help you get what your family needs.”

            “My family…” Hayden repeated as he thought of his mom and dad back home.

            “Which reminds me,” Darklite said. “I wanted to ask you, why did you leave home to begin with?”

            Hayden looked away to his right, feeling a little ashamed of his answer, even though he hadn’t answered yet.

            “Money’s been tight ever since I entered high school. On the day I got my powers, I transformed into Tyranno-Shark, and smashed up my room, our garage, and most of my parents’ stuff that was inside. It was an accident, but it was still my fault. I got control of myself sometime afterward, but that didn’t matter, my parents would have to scrounge and work overtime to get everything fixed. I thought that… if I was gone, they wouldn‘t have to use any money on me and my stuff. But with your help, we could fix everything and--”

            “But of course,” Darklite said, interrupting Hayden, “of course we will help. Once you’re initiated.”

            “Initiated? Like, a club or something?”

            “Yes. You see, even though the world is only aware of a small handful, there are more like you and Catgirl out there.”

            “You mean, The Spektrum?”

            “Yes, him, too, but still many more. Experienced members like Fast-pace can take care of asking those two to join us, but you are more than capable of convincing the others.”

            “But, why would Anonymous Inc. want any of us?” Hayden asked. “You guys have a lot of power--”

            “Yes,” Darklite interrupted again, “the power to pull strings and gain leeway. We can talk and make connections. But what about entire countries filled with military strife?  What about entire countries that can’t defend themselves from their own criminals? You said it yourself, we should help more people. This is how! You, and the many others like you, could use your powers to be a force that secretly enforces justice.”

            “Like how teams of superheroes do in the comic books and movies and stuff?”

            “Yes!” Darklite exclaimed, standing up. “All of you who were given powers by that electrical surge could be just like them. But we need to test everyone, first.”

            “So, like an initiation test?” Hayden added, following Darklite’s train of thought.

            “Exactly. You will be going on a mission that will test the worth of both you and your opponent. And whether you win or lose, so long as you are impressive, you shall become a member of Anonymous Inc.

“But we will not worry about that today. My people promised your parents that you’d be home before the end of the day. We shall leave as soon as you‘re finished.”  At that, Darklite walked out of the room, and Hayden hurried to finish his double bacon cheeseburger and butterscotch milkshake.

 

            “Oh God, what has Hayden gotten himself into?” Mrs. Walters was panicked now, and paced about the living room frantically. “Somehow he smashes up his room and our garage, then suddenly disappears only to show up in California?! How the Hell did he even get there by himself?!”

            She looked at her husband, who was sitting on the couch, head in hands.  Mr. Walters ran his hands through his short sand-colored hair. He was running through all the possible reasons why their son would run away. Other than the financial troubles they’ve had for a while, nothing else fit. Did Hayden blame himself for that somehow?

            After another minute of pacing and thinking later, a car pulled up outside. It was a blue Lamborghini. The driver exited first. He was wearing a dark blue suit. He went around the front and opened the passenger side door for an older gentleman in a black overcoat and sunglasses. From the back seat exited a teenage boy no older than 14. It was Hayden!

            Both Mr. and Mrs. Walters rushed outside, and when Hayden caught sight of them, he smiled and rushed forward to meet them. Hayden’s mother wrapped him in a hug, and his father held both of them as tight as he could after having all that heavy weight of worry lifted off him.

            “Hayden! Why did you leave?!” his mother asked.

            “We were so worried…” his father wept.

            “I know, and I’m sorry for everything, I’m sorry…”

            “Sorry? Sorry for what? You didn’t do anything.” 

His mother and father didn’t understand the look on their son’s face.

            “Perhaps I can help shed some light on the subject,” the man in the black coat spoke. “My name is Mr. Rowland Darklite. I and my associate here were the ones who bailed your son out and brought him home to you.”

            “So, you’re the one that woman on the phone was talking about?” Mrs. Walters asked.

            “Yes,” Darklite replied. “But if you don’t mind, perhaps we could talk inside for a moment?”

            After the man in blue armed the car alarm, the five of them entered the Walters’ home. Hayden’s parents were wary of Hayden‘s newest acquaintances, but Hayden assured him that Mr. Darklite and Fast-pace were good people.

            “Thank you for the compliment, Hayden,” Darklite chuckled as the Walters family took a seat at the couch.

Darklite sat in the nearby arm chair while Fast-pace chose to stand off in the corner.

“Now,” Darklite continued, “rest assured, Mr. and Mrs. Walters, I do not require you to compensate me for the bail, I know you are having troubles. But, I do require that you are willing to let me and my people help you.” 

            “Help us?” Mr. Walters asked. “With what?”

            “Why, the repairs to your home, along with any debts you have.”

            Mr. and Mrs. Walters felt embarrassed, just remembering that their home had a giant hole in the rear, and that they had fallen noticeably behind on several payments.

            “Well, you’ll certainly need us to be able to repay you for those,” Mrs. Walters proposed.

            “Not at all,” Darklite said, dismissing the thought with a smirk and a stomp from the cane. “For the help I give will be in return for the help your son gives me.”

Darklite could see more confusion clouding Mr. & Mrs. Walter’s faces.

“Mr. and Mrs. Walters, your son has a gift. Do you remember hearing any reports on the news about an electrical power surge?”

            Hayden’s parents nodded and Darklite took time to explain what he meant.

            “So Hayden was the one who smashed up his room and the garage?” Mr. Walters asked. “He had somehow transformed into an animal that was part shark, part dinosaur, and wasn’t in control of himself?”

            “Yes,” Darklite replied. “There were reports of the, quote, ‘Sharkosaurus,’ being sighted throughout the Midwest and in Alameda, where The Alameda Catgirl defeated him in a fight.”

            “That was all Hayden, too?” his mother said in disbelief. 

            “Yeah, mom,” Hayden answered. “As ‘Tyranno-Shark’, I can travel for days without rest. It’s a part of a shark’s nature to be constantly moving, so I just kinda trucked on from here to there within that first week or so, only stopping to buy what food I could with the money I had saved up.”

            “And Hayden had left because he felt he was becoming a burden,” Darklite mentioned. “He feels that ever since entering high school, he was the reason for your financial problems, what with more money having to be diverted to his education.”

            “Hayden you weren’t the problem,” Mr. Walters swore. “My work made some cutbacks around that time, so everybody had to give up a portion of their salary, and we still haven‘t gotten back to where we were before that. Sure, high school does create unforeseen costs, but it was nothing we couldn’t pay for even after the cuts.”

            “And now, we won’t have to worry,” Mrs. Walters added, “now that Mr. Darklite is helping us.”

            “Yes, of course!” Darklite himself assured. “After all, you’re one of us, now.” 

Darklite stood up and smiled.

“Working out a deal between Hayden’s school and my organization shouldn’t be so hard, so all we really need is your permission for him to join, Mr. and Mrs. Walters.”

            “Gladly,” Mrs. Walters answered. “You helped get our son back, so it’s the least we could do to repay you.”

            “As I said before, Mrs. Walters,” Darklite began, “it’s not about getting something in return, but more about simply doing the right thing. Hayden helps us and we help you because we can.” 

At that, Darklite shook hands with Mr. and Mrs. Walters, patted Hayden on the shoulder, and exited the Walters’ home with his associate, and they drove off in the blue Lamborghini.