The Heroes, the Pirate and the Head, Chapter Three

Joe and Neetra had found a quiet corner of the castle grounds where a low stone wall bordered the very edge of the cliff, beyond which the sunlit city could be seen stretching in every direction. Neetra was standing by the wall gazing thoughtfully into the distance, while Joe was sitting on a bench nearby.

“It was here,” said he. “At almost exactly this spot, centuries ago, I first laid eyes on the Prophecy. As it rested in the hands of Bendigo’s brother, each of its pages then quite blank, I burned my palm-print onto its frontispiece in the hopes that one day it would be filled. Who would have thought I would have my wish, or that it would come to have so much bearing on us now?”

“I hope Bendigo’s OK, wherever he is,” said Neetra. “We still don’t know what’s happened to so many of our friends. Bendigo, Kumiko, Jeffrey, Noctes and Diem…did they manage to evacuate safely to Mars in the attack? Or are they still here on Earth, lost in one of the unrestored sectors? Are they even still alive?”

“There is no doubt in my mind that the combined efforts of The Four Heroes and the Next Four will lead us to the one responsible for all this,” came the resolute reply. Then Joe paused.

“And when we find Dimension Borg,” he went on, his voice rather slower and more cautious than it had been, “the Next Four will want only to destroy him.”

Neetra looked out upon the Nottingham skyline, crisscrossed by a hundred giant cranes towering from the regions being rebuilt, and dominated by huge empty spaces not yet reached by the restoration crews, where homes and businesses and whole communities lay in rubble and dust.

“He deserves it, Joe,” Neetra said at last. “For everything he did on that day, all the lives he took, and the millions of other lives he’s taken. What he and I went through together, and what we’ve shared from the very beginning, doesn’t matter any more. It’s time we ended his threat once and for all.”

“But it seems we cannot allow ourselves that luxury,” Joe continued in heavy tones. “According to Dimension Borg, it is written in The Prophecy of the Flame that the Next Four’s designs would make his own brand of evil pale by comparison. He claimed he destroyed the world only to spare it from the far worse fate that will ensue, if Gala’s stated intent to replace us as Nottingham’s defenders is allowed to reach fulfilment.”

“You and I both know better than to believe a word Dimension Borg ever tells us,” Neetra said, turning to him. “But from what you told me, it’s obvious he really has read the Prophecy… and I know the Next Four aren’t here to replace us. The visions Steam used to give me were my powers telling me exactly that, I’m sure of it. Besides, we know next to nothing about Gala and her friends, and the only things we do know are reasons why they can’t be trusted…”

Neetra and Joe looked down the path for a moment, where below them in the grounds a team of removal-men were struggling to heft a number of huge technical devices, apparently belonging to the Chancellor, up from the gates. The steady flow of the Next Four’s possessions into Nottingham Castle was continuing apace, and from the sheer volume of packages it looked as if they were planning a long stay in their new home. Just where their old home was, and where they were moving in from, only the Next Four knew.

“…so for the moment, we need Dimension Borg alive,” Joe went on, finishing Neetra’s sentence. “At least until we can learn whatever secrets he gleaned from the Prophecy about the Next Four and our future. Which means that once we have our live Dimension Borg robot, The Four Heroes’ present collaboration with Gala will be at an end.”

Neetra nodded once. “I’ll be devastated,” said she.

“You were rude to her,” Joe remarked, a tiny smile touching his lips.

“Yes, I was,” Neetra agreed. “And I will be again, if she keeps carrying on like that. ‘Considering the circumstances.’ ‘In your position.’ ‘I’ll send word telepathically.’ Hark at Sophie Ellis-Bextor!”

Joe was smiling even more by now, and Neetra, finally smiling too, sat down beside him on the bench. They put their arms around each other. “Now what’s so funny?” Neetra laughed.

“I was merely wondering what happened to the meek and defenceless child I rescued from the Jordan Gang on that day long ago,” Joe declared. “The one who had travelled half-way around the world on nothing but an intuition about finding her home, bringing nothing with her but her toothbrush?”

“And knickers,” Neetra added. “She’s still here, Joe. She never went away, however much I’ve grown since then. And the way she loved you, I still love you now.”

Joe drew her closer to him, and she rested her cheek on his shoulder. “That you should have chosen me,” he said softly, “even as your beauty grows each day, and others have found themselves as helpless before it as I…”

“I know, Crosius and Steam too,” Neetra giggled. “I’m turning into such a babe. How lucky are you?”

“But even after all those who might have come between us,” said Joe. “Crosius, Steam…”

“And, let’s be fair, Suzie,” Neetra interjected. Joe pretended not to have heard, and went on: “Even after all of them, here we are, side-by-side as we have ever been. I have started to feel this will last. What are your thoughts, Neetra?”

“Forever,” she replied. There was neither hesitation nor melodrama in her voice. She spoke a simple truth, as pure and unchanging as the cause she and Joe had followed all these years. They moved closer together still, while before them the first sunset rays of afternoon shone gold over their city.

Night drew on. At The Four Heroes’ house, Dylan had had his tea and was at the computer screen, conducting his routine evening search for live Dimension Borg robots. The door opened and Phoenix came in, bringing him a cup of coffee.

“Thanks,” Dylan smiled, taking a sip. “You’ve spent your whole life bringing me coffee, you know. Way back, even before I knew you had feelings for me, you used to do that.”

Phoenix slipped into his chair beside him, turning his attention away from his work. “It was my way of showing you zat I ’ad zose feelings,” she explained. “Though it certainly took you long enough to realise zis!”

“What can I say? The Four Heroes’ greatest brain’s always been surprisingly slow on the uptake about things like that,” Dylan replied, and he and Phoenix kissed.

“Now, you are not working too ’ard?” she then inquired sternly. “You know ’ow I feel about zat. I must leave for ze Control Centre in a minute to meet Amy, and I do not want you ’ere all night looking for zose wretched robots!”

“I swear, after I’m done with this I’ll be right in front of the telly stuffing myself with popcorn,” Dylan promised her. “There’s no chance of my tracking down another live one so soon after this morning, anyway. The rest of them can obviously tell whenever one self-destructs, because they always go to ground right away and it takes weeks for – ”

Suddenly, a shrill beeping from the computer terminal interrupted him. Dylan’s eyes flew back to the monitor while Phoenix sprang across into a nearby chair and grabbed the secondary keyboard. Both young lovers set to work at once, their fingers rattling across the controls as they tried to isolate the signal.

“I can’t believe it! Another live one!” Dylan cried. “It’s not acting like they’re supposed to, though – why is it holding still? Hang on, I’m accessing the grid-reference now…”

“Zere is interference – attempting to compensate,” Phoenix went on. “What are zose? Powair signatures? But who…?”

“Got it! Out in unrestored zone L-15, downloading co-ordinates now!” Dylan cried. “We need to move on this. But what are those energy signatures surrounding the robot? Six of them. Calling up the database on known empowered individuals at large in Nottingham…”

Dylan stared at the results in silence for a moment. Then he gave a joyless laugh of disbelief.

“Well, that figures,” said he. “Just when you think you’ve got enough troubles…!”

Upstairs from them, Neetra was talking to her parents via the comm-link from Mars. Iskira and James Neetkins smiled down from the glowing viewscreen on the wall, while 4-H-N, a clone of Neetra who the latter treated as her sister, was also there between the adults.

“It’s so good I can speak to you every night now, since they’ve finally got rid of all that radio interference Dimension Borg’s robots left behind.” Neetra said. “I miss you, and so do Carmilla and Phoenix. But I guess it’s best if you stay on Mars for now, since there’s still so much on our hands here…”

“It sounds that way, me love,” James Neetkins said seriously. “Rebuilding, stray robots on the loose, an on top o’ that, a’ this business wi’ the Next Four…how’s that working oot?”

“Don’t ask,” Neetra replied. “Let’s just say that right now I’d prefer a whole army of old enemies to one new friend, if she’s anything like Gala. But speaking of our old enemies, how’s little Thassal?”

“Growing by the day. Miss Skay and her sister certainly have their hands full!” said Iskira with a fond laugh. “Of course, neither would wish to leave Mars until the baby is old enough to travel, and since adversity has made us into their companions of late, it is only right for us to remain by their side. So, my small Neetra, though we miss you too, we shall keep your counsel and abide where we are. It will, after all, be satisfying to get to know our homeworld again, in this new and happy phase of its history.”

“More than satisfying,” 4-H-N added, smiling in a rather smug way.

“Try not to make it all about snogging Crosius, 4-H-N,” Neetra advised her wearily. “You know, what with there being a whole planet full of our Martian culture and heritage for you to explore, as well as…”

Then her voice tailed off for a moment.

“Psychic message from Dylan! Got to go!” she then cried. “All my love to Felicity, Cory, Thassal and Doctor Mendelssohn, and I’ll call same time tomorrow!”

Amid the goodbyes and wishes of good luck from her three family members, Neetra teleported away in a burst of yellow light. Seconds later she reappeared to switch the viewscreen off, and vanished again.

END OF CHAPTER THREE