The Superheroes Mission 4: Thieves in the Crystalline Cavern Part 1

In the desert at night, all is peaceful in the world. Snakes are slithering on the ground, scorpions are minding their own business, and the vultures are flying overhead. That peace is abruptly disrupted when a meteor falls out of the sky crashing into the ground creating a huge crater. The metallic, mechanical meteorite shaped more like an arrowhead than a spherical object opens up with a burst of steam as a hand grabs on to the edge of the new opening.

A few days later, Jeremiah reports for duty at Sector 17. Computer attempts to greet him, “G-G-G-Greet-t-t-tings. J-J-Jere-m-m-miah.” His screen was practically short-circuiting as he was attempting this greeting and he was spasming all over the place. Naturally, Jeremiah asks him, concerned for his well-being, “Are you alright?”

“I’m f-f-fine. Just a little s-s-short circuit,” attempts to answer Computer.

Another one of the Originally Programmed Computers, Assistant, rolls in and proclaims, “Don’t believe a word he says. He’s majorly malfunctioning and is in need of serious repair. We would try fixing him ourselves, but we would get fried trying. Plus, they don’t make rubber gloves for our specific kinds of hands.”

“Oh,” says Jeremiah, “Is there anything I can do to help?”

Assistant answers, “Not unless you know anything about computer repair.”

Jeremiah says dejected, “Oh.”

“Don’t worry. We have Program searching for a solution on something called the Internet.”

Meanwhile, Program is trying to load the internet, but is making dial-up noises.

Back where Jeremiah was, a transmission just came through from the boss on the big screen, “Jeremiah, I got a new mission for you.”

Jeremiah walks up to the screen and asks, “What is it, sir?”

“We have received reports of recent robberies in a small oasis town near the Nile River. Normally, we don’t concern ourselves with small-time cases such as these, and we usually leave them to the local authorities. However, a meteorite was detected to have landed in the general area a few days ago and these robberies began shortly afterward. Your mission is to investigate these robberies along with the meteorite landing. I’m sending all relevant data now.”

Jeremiah’s Emergency Watch blares out an alarm while the big button on the lower right-hand corner flashes red. He presses the button, and it opens up revealing a screen filled with the information just sent.

“Good luck, Robot Boy,” sends off the boss as he hangs up and wonders why Jeremiah chose such an unfitting hero name.

“I better get going. Wish me luck.”

He waves bye to Computer and Assistant before he runs out of the room; past Program who is still struggling to make a connection to the Internet until he reaches his Changing Rocket. Jeremiah presses the button on his watch and activates Superhero Mode prompting a green data sphere to encase him that converts him into data downloading his regular clothes into the Watch and uploading his uniform onto him before rematerilization. The sphere returns to the watch. Robot Boy jumps into the rocket and the floor rises up slowly turning the rocket 180 degrees. The ceiling opens up and Robot Boy revs up the thrusters before taking off into the sky.

Meanwhile in a small oasis town near the Nile River,

Two young kids around the age of 12 are crouching next to a fruit stand doing their best not to be spotted. Both of them have jet black hair, brown eyes, and one of them is wearing a backwards baseball cap.

“Are you sure about this?” whispers the girl.

“We have no other choice. I don’t like it any more than you do, but we need food to survive,” whispers back the boy.

The young boy grabs an orange and stuffs it into his pocket. He continues doing this alternating hands each time with the girl joining him in the theft until the vendor finally notices them.

“Hey, you kids!” he yells.

“Run!” yells the young boy before they start running. The vendor chases after them. The young boy rolls a couple of oranges out of his pocket which roll under the vendor’s feet causing him to slip and fall. He yells, “Catch those thieves!”

Another vendor pulls out a curved sword and stands in the way of the thieves.

“Quite a primitive weapon,” says the male thief as he stops. The girl keeps running and the young boy cups his hands together. The female thief springs off of them and lands on the swordman, who she quickly hops off of. The boy tackles the swordman knocking them both down. The female thief grabs the sword and tosses it to the side. They continue running. The young boy sees a curtain and points it out to his companion. She nods and they run over to it. More vendors are coming to apprehend them. Apparently, people must really hate thieves over there. They grab the curtain and climb onto it, then they swing off it onto a rooftop. Once they land on the roof, they start running across the buildings from roof to roof. The vendors have no clue what to think of this getaway.

At that moment, a rocket flies into town and the pilot sees the crowd. It goes in for a landing transforming itself into a motorcycle in front of everyone’s eyes. It stops next to the crowd as the really young pilot explains, “I’m here to investigate the recent robberies.” After seeing a rocket turn into a motorcycle in front of their very eyes, any thought of caring about the pilot’s age went out the window. They pointed in the direction the thieves were running off to. Robot Boy revs up his motorcycle and starts his pursuit.

They jump off the last building using a canopy to soften their landing and once they were on solid ground, they ran out into the desert. The sounds of an engine could be heard closing in on them. They look behind them and see the motorcycle heading towards them. With little time to think, they ran to the end of the nearest building. The cyclist saw them turn but not necessarily the second time. The motorcycle makes a large curve as it turns to pursue the thieves. They hide themselves behind some boxes and keep their backs pressed against the wall. The motorcycle passes them. They stay there for a couple of minutes their heartbeats accelerated by the closeness of the encounter. After a couple of minutes, they let out a sigh of relief and relax a bit.

“That was close,” says the young man.

“Yeah. Who was that guy anyway?” asks the girl.

“Don’t know. I didn’t see his face. That’s the first time I saw a vehicle like that around here though,” comments the male thief.

“I agree there. Maybe he’s not from here,” suggests the female thief.

“If he isn’t, he picked one heck of a time to show up.”

“Agreed. So what now?”

“Besides the fact we should avoid him at all costs?” asks the young boy.

“Yes,” answers the female thief.

“For now, I say we get out of town and figure it out from there.”

“Works for me.”

They get up and leave town in the direction they were originally heading. In the distance, the motorcycle is still driving onwards across a vast expanse of sand. How Robot Boy can balance that thing, nobody knows. Superhero Smiley Face appears as a transparent figure next to the motorcycle. Since he is not truly there, the speed of it is irrelevant and he constantly remains floating next to it as it moves. He says, “I think we missed them.”

“Yeah, I think so too. We should have seen them by now considering the fact that we saw them turn the corner.”

“You think they may have hidden somewhere by the building?”

“Most likely, but if we go back now there’s a good chance they’ll be gone.”

Robot Boy continues driving. Superhero Smiley Face asks, “What do you plan to do now?”

Robot Boy suddenly stops the motorcycle. He sees the Nile River. He activates his watch and checks the coordinates for the meteor impact site. He suggests, “If we can’t find them, let’s move on to our secondary objective. If I’m reading this map right, we should be near the meteor impact site. Who knows, maybe if we go there, we might find our thieves?”

“That’s a big if. But regardless, we should investigate it. Let’s go.”

He disappeared and Robt Boy enters the coordinates on the Changing Rocket’s autopilot simply because he’s not 100% sure he read that map right. He could at least tell that the blue line was the Nile River but that was about it. Once inputted, the motorcycle turns itself around and starts driving itself to the impact site following the Nile River.

The thieves enter a cavern in the desert to deposit their oranges. The female thief goes behind a crystal and grabs their toolboxes. She says, “We need to get some more parts for the Originally Programmed Computers.”

The male thief goes over to her and grabs his toolbox from her. He says, “I just hope that we don’t see that one guy with the strange vehicle.”

Robot Boy reaches the impact site. He hops off the motorcycle and walks over to the edge of the crater next to the rushing water of the Nile. Looking down it, he sees a large, metallic object shaped like an arrowhead in the center.

“What is that thing? It looks like a spaceship,” observes Robot Boy.

SSF reappears and responds, “I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Robot Boy jumps into the crater skidding across the crater’s edge as he approaches the object. He makes it to the object to find its door ajar. Walking over to it, he takes a look inside seeing no power running through it. Several panels were missing as far as the eye can see. Robot Boy walks in and tries to power it up by pressing a button, but to no avail. He looks inside where one of the panels used to be and notices that several wires are also missing, torn out by someone else.

“This place has been torn apart,” observes Robot Boy.

“But by who?” questions Superhero Smiley Face as they hear a noise outside.

SSF disappears and Robot Boy runs out and looks around but sees nothing.

SSF reappears and suggests, “Try using your Citaloanin Sight.”

“My what?” rightfully asks Robot Boy.

“Your Citaloanin Sight. It is a power that lets you see from any point in any given location as if you were standing right there. It ignores normal lighting conditions allowing you to see in any environment, and even allow you to see what normally can’t be seen. I actually used this power myself during the fight with the Mantisbots.”

Naturally, Robot Boy dug up his power list out of his pocket upon hearing this, and sure enough there it was, right above Earth Kick.

“I don’t remember unlocking this power,” says Robot Boy.

“Well, we were busy fighting giants, so that’s probably why you didn’t notice,” comments Superhero Smiley Face.

“Then, why didn’t it glow when we unlocked it, like with Earth Kick?” questions Robot Boy.

Superhero Smiley Face shrugs for he did not have the answer either. Robot Boy takes a deep breath and decides to put this line of thought in the backburner. He puts the list back in his pocket and asks, “Ok, how do I use it?”

Superhero Smiley Face begins, “First, close your eyes.”

Robot Boy does just that.

“When you become adept with this particular ability, this step will be unnecessary. Now focus your energy into your eyes and open them.”

RB takes another deep breath, and he opens his glowing blue eyes.

“Why is everything in blue?”

“A flaw with Citaloanin Sight. It can not be used to distinguish color. What color you see while using it varies from person to person. Some see blue, some see red, and some even see yellow. It all depends on the individual. Now act like you’re controlling an ethereal body and guide it towards its destination keeping in mind that it can go anywhere: land, sea, or air.”

Jeremiah tried it and his vision moved elsewhere while he stood still. To him, the movement of his vision looks like a panning camera in a TV show.

He cheers, “I did it! But it’s super weird.”

“You’ll get used to it. Now find that disturbance!”

He starts moving his vision out of the crater and looks behind some nearby rocks. After finding nothing of interest there, he circles his vision around the crater eventually making it go above the crater for a bird’s eye view. He thinks for a moment and sends his vision in the direction he believes the noise came from and spots the two thieves running away with toolboxes in hand.

“I found them!”

“Go after them!” ordered SSF.

Jeremiah attempts to levitate out of the crater but crashes into the side.

“I really need to teach you how to levitate,” observed SSF.

“Could you start now?” asks a dazed Jeremiah.

The two thieves are running away, toolboxes in hand.

The guy asks, “Why was he at the escape pod?”

The girl in between breaths answers, “Maybe…he…came to…investigate it.”

“You alright?”

She stops on her knees, gasping for air. The guy feels her forehead and she’s burning a fever.

“Not good,” thinks the guy.

He then hears the sound of a motorcycle approaching them. The male thief quickly observes his surroundings. There’s some cacti and big rocks nearby, but his companion is sick. Ultimately, he decides to take a chance. The motorcycle approaches them. He takes a deep breath, waves his arms in the air, and yells, “Stop!”

The motorcycle stops in front of them on its side. The cyclist puts up the kickstand and hops off. Standing in front of each other, it is quite apparent that the cyclist is significantly shorter than the thieves. The male thief gulps and pleas, “My sister’s sick. I need you to take us to the cavern.”

Robot Boy asks confused, “Cavern?”

“I’ll guide you to it, just please help,” begs the guy.

Robot Boy returns to the motorcycle and presses a button. Two beams come out of the right side and curve into circles. Walls come out of the beams forming a slight cone shape. Out of the walls on the bottom a tire comes out on the bottom. This all happens in the course of seconds forming into a side car for the motorcycle. The male thief is particularly interested in this process. The female thief looks a little too glazed to notice.

“Get in,” says Robot Boy.

The guy wastes no time. He helps his sister up and walks her over to the sidecar. Upon arrival, he helps her in before hopping in himself. Robot Boy hops back on the motorcycle and he asks, “Which way?”

The male thief points and Robot Boy starts driving in that direction.