“Doing about it?” Jaclyn said. “We were working on a plan to stop them, but we can go to the riot.”
The Marvelous X shook his head. “Please don’t. We’ve reason to believe a villain named Evil Beatnik is involved. You’ve likely never heard of him because he hasn’t been seen in years, but he can influence young people. We’ve organized a number of heroes that are too old for him to control. They’ll take care of him soon enough.”
“You’re sure about that?” Continue reading Under 30: Part 21
And he didn’t just remind me of Mr. Beacham, this was Mr. Beacham—with 100% more beatnik.
I adjusted the picture, scrolling away from the monkey on the balcony and back toward Mr. Beacham, and his hangers on.
Having recognized him, I knew who the woman with him was—Mr. Beacham’s girlfriend. She’d visited the school once. Was she with him because she thought he was Evil Beatnik, was Evil Beatnik controlling her, or did she somehow like Evil Beatnik? Had they… uh… I put the thought out of my mind, but it opened up a lot of relationship questions.
Could Haley and I survive something like that? I liked to think we would, but you never knew. Worse, the deeper we got into this whole superheroism thing, the better chance we had to find out.
So I put that thought out of my mind too.
Evil Beatnik walked in. I’d never seen him in that body, but I knew it instantly. He wore a black beret, black jeans, and a black turtleneck. Scruffy hair on his chin (and above his upper lip) hinted that he must be growing a goatee.
Oh, and he wore a silver ring on his right hand.
Except for pictures from the late 60’s and the 70’s, he’d always looked like that—even if he did possess different people each time.
I wondered who he was. He looked familiar, but I couldn’t place him. Continue reading Under 30: Part 19
With Dixie Supergirl’s hearing, I hadn’t dared to turn on the roachbot’s rocket. I’d decided to wait until I thought it had a good chance to get away without being heard. That meant hanging on to her utility belt until she got back to their lair.
Lair.
That makes it sound so much more dramatic, and ominous than it actually was.
Dixie didn’t stay to talk after that. She dived over the ledge, flew down two floors to rescue Destruction Boy, and left through the hole on the third floor.
As her feet left the ledge, I activated the roachbots I’d released earlier. They had a chance to catch her.
Jaclyn appeared out of the stairwell, and leaned over the edge of the walkway, watching them go.
Continue reading Under 30: Part 17
I wore the full Rocket armor. Pulling the stealth suit out of my closet at home would have been faster, but according to Grandpa and the reports, Dixie Superman had been tough. Flying into a fight with Dixie Supergirl in less than full gear sounded stupid.
And how much did I want to bet that more of her group was in the crowd?
After running to HQ, plus five minutes worth of pulling the armor on, and a twenty second flight to Grand Lake State Park (with Marcus gliding behind me, shifted into the form of a pair of wings), we were too late.
Not completely too late because she wasn’t gone, but it would have been better if we’d all arrived and attacked simultaneously.
Continue reading Under 30: Part 11
After Vaughn and Jaclyn sat down, we started to make a plan.
“At least we know how it’s been done before,” Jaclyn said. “Once we stop his followers and reveal who he’s possessing, he disappears. Hey, do you think we might be able to take the ring if we’re wearing gloves?”
“I don’t know,” I said, “it’s magic. Who knows what the rules are? When one of the Hangmen lassoed me with his noose, it didn’t paralyze me like it was supposed to, but with Evil Beatnik, it might go the other way. The original League surrounded the ring with concrete and bulletproof glass for a reason.” Continue reading Under 30: Part 10
Vaughn leaned back from the table and thought about it. “I can’t think of a single way I’ve been influenced.”
“Not noticing is the whole point of influencing somebody,” Rachel began.
I interrupted her.
“My theory goes like this. Evil Beatnik can influence people that might be vulnerable to possession. We’re all under thirty, but those of us who are anti-authority, and who are, or at least try to be cool, are most vulnerable. Continue reading Under 30: Part 9
In the face of mounting embarrassment, what was left of the League arranged to meet in HQ on Saturday evening. Rachel and I arrived before everyone else. She’d gone to an open mike night on Friday, so this was the first chance we’d had to talk in two days.
We sat down at the table in the main room, and waited.
“I completely forgot to tell you about the Ice Twins yesterday morning,” I said. “Sorry.”
“Don’t apologise. I needed the sleep. I stayed at Lucas’ house until four in the morning.”
Jaclyn and Marcus had arrived first. I arrived second—but only because I grabbed the stealth suit instead of the full Rocket armor.
So instead of appearing almost knight-like in shining gold armor, I appeared in armor that looked like a black leather jacket with matching pants, and gray helmet. Plus, I’d worked out a way to hang my guitar next to the rocketpack on my back in a way that felt comfortable. Granted, it still looked like a guitar hero controller, but it was useful.
Ambulances, police cars, and a Metahuman Containment Cage (generally called “boxes” because of their shape) pulled into the parking lot as I landed. Continue reading Under 30: Part 7