Free Strike 2: Dawn of the Daybreaker by Charlie Wood Page B

barely bigger than a tollbooth. There was also a window on the front of the shanty, with a sign above it that read: SHADOW OCEAN TICKETS.
    “Hi, Drendel,” Orion said, approaching the booth’s window.
    Tobin saw a person sitting in the booth, facing the other way and watching a sporting event on a black-and-white television. When the person turned around in his chair, he revealed himself: it was a strange, incredibly thin man, with light grey skin and a neck that was nearly two feet long. His small head was topped by a thatch of black hair, and he had little red dots for eyes and a nose that stretched far out from his face. He was so skinny, Tobin realized, that in certain places his bones could be seen through patches of his translucent skin.
    “Oh, hey Orion!” Drendel said in a graveled, but friendly, voice. “Wow, didn’t think I’d see you around this place at this time of night.”
    “Normally you wouldn’t, but there’s someone I need to see on the other side. Can you take us over?”
    “Yeah, sure, sure.” Drendel looked at Keplar. “Good to see you, too, Keplar. Going over for your weekly visit?”
    Orion looked to Keplar, with his eyebrows raised.
    “I have no idea what you are talking about,” the husky replied.
    “I saw Tess over there last night,” Drendel said. “And Diane, too. They were both looking for you.”
    “Again,” Keplar said with a smile, “I have no idea what you are talking about.”
    Orion shook his head.
    “Right, right,” Drendel laughed. “Well, let’s get you three over there, huh?”  
    After opening the shanty’s wooden door (causing it to nearly fall off its hinges,) Drendel stepped out of the booth and onto the sandy shore. Tobin was shocked to see that the skinny man was nearly nine feet tall, with scrawny legs that looked like they were about to snap simply from trying to hold him up, and bony arms that were dragging along the ground. After lifting the waistband of his saggy, white-and-grey striped pants, Drendel walked past the heroes and toward a tugboat that was anchored near the dock. The tugboat was the size of a large pick-up truck, and it looked like it hadn’t been washed or serviced in decades: its stern was covered in mold, its wooden floor was rotting, and its smokestacks were black with soot. Its rear engine was shiny with slippery grease, and the smoke that emitted from it was heavy and thick and possibly responsible for 65% of all of Capricious’ pollution.
    Drendel removed the rope that was blocking the boat’s entrance and looked to the heroes with a smile.
    “That’ll be ten bucks a pop.”
    Cruising across the Shadow Ocean , Tobin, Orion, and Keplar sat in the rear of the noisy, chugging tugboat. Looking in the direction of where they were heading, Tobin could see an island cutting through the darkness; there was a city on the island, and it was full of flashing neon lights: blue, yellow, green, red, purple. There were also spotlights swooping through the sky above the island, and the boy could hear the faint, bumping beat of loud music drifting over the water and toward the boat.
    “The Never-World,” Tobin said, watching the island city grow closer. “How come I’ve never heard of this place?”
    “Because I didn’t want you to know it existed,” Orion said. “It’s a twisted island—a lost place full of lost people. A group of supposedly-reformed super villains run it, and with not very good intentions. It’s a great place if you want to have a trouble-filled weekend, lose all your money, and never remember any of it.”
    “Wow,” Tobin said. “Sounds great.”
    “Don’t even think you are ever coming back,” Orion told him.
    Soon, Drendel’s tugboat reached the shore, and Tobin stepped onto the Never-World. The island city was completely overwhelming: even though it was nighttime, the city’s colorful lights made it as bright as the middle of the afternoon, and its sidewalks were lined with every vice you could