The Witch Hunter's Gauntlet (31 page)

From what Sam had pieced together
, the zombie dinosaur was about to eat Coach Powers when it suddenly turned back into a fossilized femur. That was probably at the exact moment Sam handed the Lantern of the Blue Flame over to Deputy Colver and he commanded the lantern to undo all of Nero’s resurrections. Sam wished she had thought of that.

She caught Zack eyeing the remains of the
Witch Hunter’s Gauntlet in her lap.

“What?” she yelled loudly across the room.

“Oh, nothing,” Zack said innocently. “We’re just discussing how the gauntlet survived for thousands of years only to be destroyed by one touch from you.”

“Be polite,” his mother scolde
d. Although judging by the half-smile on her face, she didn’t really mean it.

Sam looked away.

She didn’t know how she had broken the priceless ancient magical artifact. She just did. It didn’t necessarily mean anything, or so she told herself repeatedly.

“Couldn’t get the gems to light up, huh?” Mr. Beaumont said
, taking a seat near her. “Me either. Neither could your father.”

“What?” Sam asked in total shock.

“I was there, at Baldorag Castle, when your parents found the gauntlet,” he said proudly. “I’m not surprised you don’t know. We swore never to bring it up unless it was absolutely necessary.”

Sam didn’t know what to say. So many questions were competing for attention in her brain. She tried her best to pick the right one.

“What? How? When?” she blurted.

“It was years ago. A couple
years before your parents got married,” he said with a far-off look in eye as the memories came flooding back. “Cervantes was on a rampage and your father got it into his head that he was going to be the one to stop him. Against your grandfather’s wishes I might add. Your mother was bound and determined to go with him. And since they were about to do battle with the most powerful vampire of our time, they came to my father for help. When he said no, I said yes. I was young, stupid, and ready to prove myself.

“So there we were
, three college kids out to show the world how it was supposed to be done. Cervantes had let it slip that he was looking for the Witch Hunter’s Gauntlet. Your father tracked it down to Baldorag Castle, and we rushed to claim it before Cervantes could.” Mr. Beaumont shook his head. “It just goes to show how naïve we really were. Cervantes had let it slip on purpose and was using us to find the gauntlet for him. We led him straight to it.”

That was a lot to take in all of a sudden. But something in his story stuck out as wrong to her.

“Why did Cervantes want it?” she asked. “I thought it only worked for non-magical people.”

Mr. Beaumont nodded enthusiastically. “It does. We figured
either he was going to give it to someone, someone he could control, or he just wanted to eliminate the only weapon that could stop him. We never found out which.”

“Because you got there first,” she guessed.

“Right, but we couldn’t get it to work,” he said. He still sounded a little embarrassed about it. “It turned out we weren’t the big heroes we thought we were, until Cervantes was about to kill your father. I can still remember it like it happened yesterday. He had Samuel by the throat, dangling in the air. My left leg was shattered; there was nothing I could do. And then suddenly the whole room lit up like the sun itself had fallen into the castle. When the light finally faded Cervantes had turned to ash, Samuel was gasping for air on the ground, and there stood your mother, wearing the gauntlet. And then just as suddenly, the gems went out and the gauntlet was useless again. None of us were ever able to get it to light up ever again, so your parents decided to hide it.”

“B
ut how did she get it to work?”

“None of us knew for sure,” he said
, shaking his head. “But I think it worked because your mother was trying to save someone she loved. I think that gave her the power, the pure emotional strength, to activate it.”

“But if it wouldn’t work for three heroes like
you, why did it work for Nero?”

Mr. Beaumont laughed and then sighed. “I don’t know if you should go and throw the H-word around like that, although we certainly tried our best. But you have to consider the culture that created the gauntlet; back then their h
eroes were conquering kings, fearless warriors who challenged the gods themselves, men and women who made history with the tip of a sword. They were passionate, fearless, and ready to fight for what they believed in. Those qualities could apply to a hero or a villain. It all depends on how they choose to act on them.”

That wasn’t a comforting thought at all. Those ancient mystics should have put a little more thought into the design of their awesome magical weapon. Maybe they could have taken the time to teach it that people who want to save their friends and destroy
vampires are good and people who want to start wars and turn people into zombies are bad.

“You know
, I had the gauntlet in my hands before Nero even put it on,” Sam confessed. It was like admitting that she had set a church on fire or something equally horrible. “If I had been braver, I could have stopped all of this from happening.”

“But you did stop him
, Sam,” Mr. Beaumont said, resting his hand reassuringly on her shoulder. Mrs. Beaumont and Tasha nodded in agreement.

“Yeah,” Zack spoke up from his side of the room
, where he had clearly been eavesdropping. “Your patheticness was stronger than his courage. You beat him by being the world’s biggest loser. Way to go.”

The
Beaumonts and Zoey gave him nasty looks. Natch just laughed. Zack’s mother cracked a tight little half-smile.

“That’s it!
” Tasha sprung to her feet, fire in her eyes.

“It
’s okay,” Sam said to everyone. “He’s sort of right.”

Sam might have been mad at him if the thought hadn’t already occurred to her.

“My patheticness was like kryptonite to the gauntlet,” she said, patting the twisted metal in her lap.

Mr. Beaumont winced. “I don’t know if I’d phrase it like that-“

“Hey, at least I did better than hiding in a broom closet waiting for the BEA to show up.” Okay, so she did have to get in at least one little dig on Zack. It wasn’t like he didn’t deserve it.

Mr. Beaumont chuckled softly. “Yes
, you did. In fact, if you hadn’t been draining power away from the gauntlet at the time, I’m positive he would have teleported away with the entire gauntlet.”

“Do you think his half s
till works?” It was the million-dollar question. If his piece still worked, all of this could just start all over again.

“I don’t think so,” Mr. Beaumont said. From the tone in his voice
, she could tell he had been thinking about it for quite a while now. “I also don’t think he knew that teleporting away at half power would splinter it. Wherever he is, he isn’t happy.”

Something was still nagging at her.

“Do you think this means there won’t be another Heroic Age?” she asked softly, afraid of the answer.

“What do you mean?”

“The Witch Hunter’s Gauntlet is also called the Hero’s Glove because whenever it is discovered it ushers in a new Heroic Age, right? But this time it was broken. There might never be another Heroic Age.”

“Hmm, you make a good point,” Mr. Beaumont
said slowly rubbing his chin. “It may be for the best.”

She hadn’t expected that answer.
“How?”

“Well, for one, we don’t need a powerful weapon floating around that could fall into the hands of someone like
Alex Nero Jr. Besides it seems like each Heroic Age has been shorter than the one before it. Ours didn’t amount to much. It could be that we no longer need them as much anymore. Or maybe we just need a new kind of hero. Look at how much more has been accomplished in the last few centuries without the gauntlet’s influence. Louis Pasteur; Mother Teresa; Mahatma Gandhi; Martin Luther King Jr.; and so many others have improved the world in ways far greater than most of those old sword-swinging warriors ever did. Maybe it is time that we look to ourselves to be the heroes we need, not some magical device.”

Mr. Beaumont got up from his seat.

“But just in case,” he said, patting her on the shoulder. “Maybe you should keep that thing in a safe place.”

“I’ll try,” she answered. She really had no idea what she was going to do with the stupid thing.

“I know that Samuel and Joanne would be very proud,” he said warmly.

“Thank you. But I have so many more-“

Mr. Beaumont shook his head ever so slightly and glanced quickly at Agent Rosenberg. It was a clear sign that any other questions Sam had would have to wait until they were away from the prying ears of the BEA. Sam had the feeling that a lot of their adventures were not exactly the kind that the BEA would have approved of.

She nodded in agreement.

“You have inherited a very heavy burden. It is completely unfair but completely inescapable,” he said with the air of someone who knows. “But then again, nothing beats the feeling of saving the day, right?”

“It certainly feels… different.”

Mr. Beaumont burst out laughing, a real gut-busting laugh. It was bordering on insulting. When he finally got himself under control, he looked her right in the eye.

“That is exactly what your mom said.”

Even the rush from Mr. Beaumont comparing Sam to her mother, easily the best compliment she had ever received in her life, couldn’t stop Sam from thinking about the things Nero had said. Was Miller’s Grove just a training ground for some super-teen army? Were they here to become the best they could be or to fight a war? Was her grandfather Professor Xavier or Magneto?

At that exact moment
, the one person who could answer her questions entered the room. Doc Frost had changed back into his usual lab coat. He looked extremely tired, but also quite relieved.

“Ah, Lucas must be awake, finally,” he said as he took the seat across from Sam.

“Yes,” she answered flatly, trying to hide her own overwhelming relief, but judging by the way Zoey smiled at her she had failed.

Sam shot her a quick “knock it off” look.

Doc Frost didn’t notice any of this; he was more interested in the piece of gauntlet in her hands.

“It seems like you have been given a rather large responsibility there,” he said.

“Yeah,” she said unenthusiastically. She didn’t know if her piece of the gauntlet could still do, well, anything, or if the two pieces could be put back together somehow. But she was pretty sure someone would come looking for it.

“You made clever use of it tonight,”
Doc Frost said. “Draining the gauntlet’s power.”

“
I didn’t do anything.”

“Didn’t you? I
saw the whole thing,” he said. “The first time it practically leapt into his arms, but the second time it resisted.”

“Maybe it was because he was distracted from getting his hand cut off.”

Doc Frost nodded. “Maybe. But what were you thinking at the time?”

“Nothing.
I just didn’t want him to get it.”

Doc Frost smiled and tilted his head.

Sam didn’t believe it. But there was that one tiny spark…

“
Anyway, I found this after you left.” Doc Frost pulled Mr. Hopscotch out of his coat pocket.

Instantly her eyes welled up. It was embarrassing, but she couldn’t help it. She didn’t want to help it.

“Mr. Hopscotch!” She took the bear with both hands and gave him the biggest hug ever.

“I think you’ll find that he’s as good as new,” Doc Frost said softly. His l
eft pointer finger wiggled ever so slightly--so slightly, in fact, she wasn’t sure if she had seen it correctly, but next to his finger was a loose thread on the bear’s belly.

Sam inspected the bear. Aside from the loose thread Mr. Hopscotch was looking better than he had in years. He had been dried and restuffed, and now a small
, smooth black stone hung from a silver chain around his neck. It looked strangely familiar. And then she realized it was a piece of the anvil that had broken off when Cervantes pulled out the sword.

“A funny thing about tesseracts,” Doc Frost said quietly. “When they’re closed it is next to impossible to find the darn things again. So you have to bind them, by just one single tiny atom perhaps, to an object so you know where it is at all times.”

He sat back and looked around the room briefly as if to say that he would not speak about it any further with all of these people around. But that was okay, because Sam was pretty sure she understood. She had other pressing questions that she just had to ask at the moment.

“Doctor Frost, you knew my grandfather really well, right?” Sam asked.

He smiled at her in a kind, resigned sort of way that made Sam think he knew what she was about to ask.

“I had the honor of working with him for ma
ny, many years. A brilliant man.”

“Why did he help establish this school?” She was too tired to beat around the bush.

“You’re concerned about the things young Mr. Nero said,” Doc Frost said in a soft tone. “You think your grandfather conspired to build a school to train some sort of private army?”

“But what about the hovertanks?
And copying Lucas’s brain? And Dean Futuro-“

Doc Frost waved his hand to cut her off.
“All valid points. I admit Alistair Futuro has always been a little more eccentric than the rest of us. In fact, Dr. Hathaway was the only one who could get him to tone it down a bit. During the early planning stages of the university, Alistair wanted the school to focus solely on science and technology. It was Samuel who talked him into opening up the school to the full range of academics, athletics, and the arts. He understood that not all of the universe’s mysteries could be unlocked with circuits and electrodes alone, and that inspiration can come from the most unlikely of sources.

“It was you
r grandfather’s idea to open an academy where a wide range of the best, brightest, and most dedicated young people of all fields, especially those commonly overlooked by traditional schools, could come together and hone their skills, pursue their passions, and share their ideas for the betterment of all mankind. In his absence we have all done our best to uphold his ideals--even Dean Futuro, in his own way,” Doc Frost said.

That sounded like a nice snippet to put in a brochure, but considering she wasn’t the best, brightest, or the most dedicated at anything
, it just made her remember that if it weren’t for her last name she wouldn’t even be here. Plus, it didn’t really answer her question.

“But, what about-?” she started to ask.

“The point of all of this,” Doc Frost answered, “Is to make the world a better place. It was his way of making amends for his one terrible mistake. That is why he spent so much of his fortune and time campaigning to have this place built and outfitted with the most state-of-the-art technologies. And part of making of the world a better place is defense. It is a cruel fact of life, but there are other threats out there besides Alex Nero. Some are far worse.”

His face grew dark as if he had just thought of some terrible thing he tried very hard not to think about.
And then, just as instantly, he perked back up again.

“Good to see you, Mr. Fry.”

Sam turned to see Lucas walk into the waiting room flanked on either side by Agent Sampson and Deputy Colver.

“About time you woke up, Sleeping Beauty,” Tasha said jokingly.

“Thanks a lot,” he said as he sat down next to Natch.

He sheepishly cast his eyes at Sam and quickly looked away before she could smile or speak or anything.

“So,” he said, turning toward Natch and away from her. “What was Esteban’s room like?”

“Like I’m going to tell you a juicy bit of information like that for free,” Natch said
, holding his hand out. “Fifty bucks.”

“A
hem,” Agent Sampson said loudly.

The boys stopped talking.

Agent Sampson stood in the middle of the room like a very annoyed statue while Amy passed out thick documents and pens.

“Well, congratulations,”
Agent Sampson announced. “Your stories match up. And apparently, for about the hundredth time the world owes its safety yet again to the Beaumonts, Hathaways, and McQueens. And their friends, of course.”

T
hat wasn’t a very accurate dispersal of credit. Sam and her friends pulled off some pretty amazing stuff, but according to his own story, all Zack did was set off a secret alarm that alerted the BEA and ISG to rush to the casino. As if they wouldn’t have figured that out on their own when they heard about the big flaming bat chasing Santa’s sleigh around Las Vegas, but whatever.

Deputy
Colver stepped forward. “The ISG thanks you all for your assistance as well.” He looked directly at Sam, his hands crossed in front of him. “I have also been charged with extending a sincere apology to you, Samantha Hathaway, on behalf of Constable Albion. He would have preferred to apologize in person, of course, but he is still recovering from the recent ordeal. He sacrificed several years’ worth of his own life force to destroy Nero’s Abyss Shield.”

Sam got the feeling he added that last part to make sure she felt guilty enough to accept the apology. It worked.

“Tell him I accept,” she said. “And that I hope he gets better soon.”

“I will,” he said with a happy nod.

“Yes, well, we were all played for suckers on this one,” Agent Sampson said. “He knew exactly how to play on our old mistrusts and fears.”

The not-too-
subtle dig was not lost on Deputy Colver, who shifted awkwardly on his feet.

“You don’t honestly expect us to sign this
, do you?” Natch asked, holding up the papers Amy had given them. “You want a group of minors to sign a confidentiality agreement without legal counsel or our parents’ knowledge?”

Agent Sampson took a deep breath and smiled.

“I expected that reaction from you, Mr.-“

“I’m sure you did,” Natch blurted out quickly
, cutting Agent Sampson off. Lucas looked particularly disappointed.

“The BEA would like to count on your support in the future. But for everyone’s safety we must preserve certain secrets from the general public, for the time being, of course.” He gestured to Deputy Colver. “However, if any of you should choose not to sign the agreement
, then I believe Deputy Colver has been authorized by his superiors to perform memory-erasing spells on all of you.”

“It is quite painless,” Deputy Colver said reassuringly. “Not that you would remember anyway.”

Natch did not look happy, but he signed the papers anyway, as did everyone else. Lucas leaned over to try to see Natch’s real name, but Natch twisted away from him and covered the paper with his left arm.

“Thank you for your support,” Agent Sampson said as Amy went around the room collecting the signed documents.
“Now for your cover story. The rest of the school is under the impression that last night’s fire and commotion was all part of an elaborate Halloween show to create a properly spooky atmosphere. Tragically, the show was cut short when one of Doctor Frost’s experiments, left unattended in the excitement of the holiday festivities, accidentally exploded, releasing an electromagnetic wave that fried everyone’s cell phones, computers, and other electronic equipment.”

It didn’t seem fair
for Doc Frost to take the blame, but he nodded in agreement.

Agent Sampson continued. “You all were supposed to be part of the show, but since it was abruptly ended due to technical difficulties
, you all just simply returned to your rooms and watched scary movies when the power came back on. That is where you found Mr. Fry home from a night of trick-or-treating. If anyone asks about your scars, tell them it was a hilarious but embarrassing apple-bobbing accident. As for your little escapade in Las Vegas, fortunately, the McQueens have graciously agreed to go along with the cover story that the casino suffered minor fire damage due to a gas leak.”

“The Camelot was due for a remodel
anyway,” Zack’s mom said.

A
gent Sampson continued. “And our friends at the ISG have altered the memories of key personnel in Las Vegas to believe that the flaming bat and Santa Claus bit was actually some pop star’s stage show gone wrong.”

“And you expect everyone to beli
eve all this?” Natch asked, reluctantly handing his signed form to Amy.

“It doesn’t matter if they believe it. That is what happened,” he answered sternly.

Personally, Sam thought it sounded like a pretty believable story. She would have been really happy with a night like that. In fact, part of her would rather think that was what happened.

“What about ‘Jerry’?” Z
ack asked.

“Ah, yes. The official story is that ‘Jerry’ simply cracked under the pressure and returned home,” Agent Sampson said with a shrug.

“What about his roommate?” Lucas asked with his hand raised as if this was just another class.

“Turns out he didn’t exist,” Agent Sampson said.

Lucas lowered his hand. “Oh.”

“All we found in his room was the fat suit and hair dye he used to disguise himself,” Amy added.

Sam was the last person to hand her signed confidentially agreement to Amy. Amy handed the forms to Agent Sampson, who shuffled through them quickly, undoubtedly making sure they had all been properly signed. Satisfied, he slipped the papers into a shiny black folder.

“Okay,” he said in a deep
, serious tone as he placed the folder into a metal box. “Remember, what happened tonight never happened. Now I think it is best that everyone gets some rest.”

That sounded wonde
rful to Sam, but Zack apparently still had more to say.

“What about
Nero?” he asked. “Have you found him yet? Or is it up to us to finish that job for you too?”

From the way he motioned to his mother
, Sam was pretty sure the ‘us’ he was referring to was the McQueens.

Agent Sampson slapped a clearly fake smile on his face. “As much as the BEA has enjoyed the assistance of certain independent parties in the past, I must assure you that we have the situation under control.”