Professor Why's Academy for Extraordinary Youngsters

Heroics 114: Passing on the Cowl

               We followed along as June walked us through the town of New New Mexico, while the locals hurriedly packed up their things and prepared to leave to avoid the rampaging dinosaur.

"Wait..." June said stopping in place. "Was it the school cave or the lake cave?"

We'd seen the school cave. Superheroes were probably digging through rust with their bare hands to get out of there.

"Lake cave." I replied. "Take us to the lake cave."

"It is right over there." She said, pointing to an innocuous rock buried in snow.

"June... that's a rock." I replied.

"Oh. Right." She said. "You have to use a key, or go through it."

"Through? What do you mean by through?"

June took a step into the rock, a resounding creaking sound came out. Apparently the rock was hollow and made of metal. It bent and contorted and shuttered on the wait of June's casual gait, and eventually collapsed altogether, revealing a passageway beneath.

"Through like this. Can I go back now?" She asked. "You promised me candy and I didn't get anything and I am no longer convinced that you two are the heroes."

"We'll get you candy later. I promise." I said to June. "What do you like?"

"Saltwater taffy." June replied. "In a bag with lots of variety. The surprise is fun."

I made a mental note as we proceeded into the tunnel. The narrow steel walls expanded outward, and a huge door stood in front of us. Guarding it were two people. One I recognized immediately as the girl who always told me to "hush", the other was some shirtless guy with tattoos and crazy dreadlocks.

"STOP RIGHT THERE!" Shirtless guy demanded, holding some sort of fishing harpoon out in front of him. "This is a private area! Leave!"

"Actually..." other girl mused, "I know the boy. He's a friend. Let them in."

"A friend of yours, or a friend of the boss's?" He asked.

"Maybe both?" She replied. "Besides... neither of us really agreed with this little "experiment", right?"

"Yeah. Fair. Give 'em hell." Spear guy said. Both of them walked over to buttons on either side of the door, and pressed them. The door slowly creaked open.

The room inside was fairly simple. Just a stairway up to some device. There were two tubes and a computer. Some weird gecko and bear were at the keyboard, while Ivan looked on from a distance.

"Ivan!" I shouted. "What's going on?"

"Stop the computer for now, Gecko." Ivan said. "I... need to own up."

Ivan definitely looked a bit paler than before. His hair looked a bit whiter, and the lab coat he was wearing looked strange.

"We... we're still friends right?" Ivan asked.

"I think so. Are we going to fight?" I asked.

"I don't think so. Ivan responded. But I need to come clean about a lot of stuff."

"What did you do to October?" Situ demanded.

"...Just come with me." Ivan replied. The three of us walked up the stairs. Ivan took the lead, like always, but it felt more somber this time.