Canto 122 – The Hidden Powers of the Avenger
In the central courtyard of the Palace of a Thousand Years, the Avenger made its reappearance atop a young, completely nude boy. He ran into the courtyard full throttle, and suddenly pulling up in front of the animal handler, six of his young apprentices, and six mardenschmauz six-legged riding beasts. The Avenger then hit them with a mind-blast, proving that whoever was under the helmet was a powerful telepath. He did not, however, kill them. He merely put all seven people and six hexipedal riding beasts into a deep and restful involuntary slumber.
Of course, it was obvious that it wasn’t Alec under the helmet. Alec was especially aware that it wasn’t him, as he rushed to the scene of the attack knowing it had to be stopped, and most likely only by another telepath.
Besides Alec knowing that he wasn’t the telepath in the Avenger helmet, he knew it wasn’t Sara or Junir, because the naked body wasn’t a girl, and it definitely wasn’t blue. Besides, he was beginning to know and befriend the only Space Nudist among the students of the White Spider, and he now recognized Hassan Parker’s skinny butt and tiny penis.
Alec’s own telepathy was at least strong enough to protect him from any attack against him that naked Hassan could muster, in spite of Hassan’s telepathic superiority.
“Halt, Hassan! You must take that evil helmet off. You don’t want to hurt anyone.” Alec stood in Hassan’s way.
“I do not know this Hassan you speak of. I am the mighty Avenger! I have returned because of the foul crimes of Shen Ming. The wronged ones must be avenged!”
Others gathered around the scene of the Avenger’s sleep attack. Taffy King and Mai Ling arrived from across the courtyard. Jadalaqstbr teleported to Alec’s side and slipped her soft hand into his. And Shen Ming-sensei hustled across the green, lifting the skirts of his orange ceremonial robe with both hands.
“Bow before me, infidels! Or be destroyed in the name of Shen Ming!”
“I did not ask for any destruction in my name,” muttered Shen Ming, low enough that Alec almost didn’t hear him say it.
“So, Shen-sensei, the Avenger has now become Hassan?” Alec asked.
“Of course! Why didn’t I remember? It’s the stupid helmet!” Shen Ming said with a chuckle.
“You mean, it’s controlling his mind?” Alec asked.
“Undoubtedly. It is what it was designed for.”
Alec looked at Taffy and Mai Ling, both of whom had fearsome Psionic powers of telekinesis and no telepathic mind shields. If Hassan took over their minds… Oy! Everyone could die a horrible death.
Not willing to take chances, Alec ran towards Hassan the Avenger and forcefully applied his best roundhouse kick to the side of Hassan’s head, then reversed direction and kicked him in the midsection with the other leg. The helmet, once dislodged, flew through the air and landed in the grass more than two meters away from anyone.
Hassan was lying on the ground, still as death.
His heart in his throat, Alec leapt to Hassan’s aide. His own telepathy was healing-centered, and though Fangwoman of the Black Spiders had only taught Alec how to use it to inflict pain, he knew only too well that it could be reversed the way Sara Smith did it to heal instead of harm.
The green healing energy radiated from Alec’s hands. He poured his power into Hassan’s potentially damaged skull.
Slowly, Hassan opened his eyes again and came back to life.
“Alec, you freed me! That evil helmet takes over your mind. No matter how hard I fought it, it made me do things I did not want to do.”
“You have always been nice to me and helped me, even when I was horrible to you,” Alec admitted. “I couldn’t just let the Avenger thing do harm to my only male friend.”
“Alec, you have definitely changed,” said Taffy King, smiling at him.
“Yeah, maybe so… But please don’t tell Phoenix. I don’t want him to lose respect for me.”
“Oh, no worries there,” Taffy said about their old Black Spider classmate, “He doesn’t respect you, and probably never will.”
“Well, good then…” Alec muttered, though the disappointment from realizing the truth of that stung him deeply.
Catch a Falling Star 