Super Mega 3 (Heroes & Harems)

by Nolan Fury

  Fountains with statues of angels spit water into the air, and the soothing ripple of the water filled my ears. The hedges were perfectly manicured, and stone gargoyles guarded the property from above. Curtis’s dad’s Bentley was in the driveway, polished to perfection.

  Curtis answered the door with a worried look on his face. “Thanks for coming. He’s totally freaking out.”

  We stepped through the large mahogany double doors and entered the entrance foyer. A grand staircase spiraled up to the second floor. The floor was covered in Italian marble. We moved into the parlor which was adorned with antique cherry furniture and hardwood floors. Rows of leather-bound books were stacked on the shelves. There were several chairs, a coffee table, a desk, a grandfather clock whose pendulum swung with wide arcs. There was a stuffed owl on the wall. His eyes seem to follow me wherever I went in the room. There was a minibar stocked with an array of fine liquors. A temperature and humidity controlled humidor housed a selection of exotic cigars. Curtis’s dad used this room to entertain guests frequently.

  He marched into the parlor with a sullen face. I could tell he was unhappy. He looked stressed. I had been around the man enough growing up to know his moods. There were times that he had been super cool, and other times where his temper was short. I don’t think I was ever one of his favorite people. Anytime we got in trouble, Curtis tended to blame it on me, and his folks looked at me like I was a bad influence. It’s not that we did anything major, just the normal stuff boys do. And his parents seemed particularly uptight. Since the divorce, he had grown even more so.

  His dad was a tall man with a narrow face. He wore a white cotton broadcloth shirt, a gray suit jacket and slacks, but no tie. He had started his career as a tech genius, whose attire was nothing more than sneakers, jeans, and a hoodie. But as the company grew, and his role as CEO expanded, he often found himself wearing a suit and tie, dealing with board members and shareholders. The company had gone public nearly a decade ago with one of the largest IPOs on record. It had made Curtis’s dad a billionaire.

  He believed that Curtis should learn the value of money, so his dad gave him the bare minimum to survive. Curtis scraped along on his allowance like the rest of us. That covered tuition, books, and the dorm’s meal plan. Curtis wrote romance books under a pen name for extra cash.

  Curtis’s dad, Thomas, glared at me. “I want you to stop your investigation. Law enforcement is handling this, they have more experience and resources than you do.”

  I was a little surprised. I didn’t expect to get yelled at for trying to help. “In the short time that I’ve been asking questions, a student has been murdered, and someone tried to assassinate me. That tells me that this is something more than—”

  “Which is exactly why I want you to stop. You’re causing more harm than good. Let the professionals handle this.” He paused for a moment. It was as if he had to force himself to say, “I have the utmost confidence that they will find Madison and return her to us unharmed.”

  Emotion and fear welled in his eyes.

  “That is my goal, sir,” I said.

  “What good can you possibly do?”

  I exchanged a glance with the girls. “Mr. Bradford, these are my… associates, Chrome and Surge. Together we have certain… attributes, that give us an advantage.”

  “Attributes?” he said, his brow crinkled with irritation. “I don’t care what you made on your SAT, you’re not going to be able to solve this case. You’re not going to be able to bring back Madison.”

  “I beg to differ. I think we’re your best shot.”

  He stared at me, incredulous. “I’m not going to discuss the issue any further. I want you to stop. Now. Leave it to the professionals.”

  “But—”

  In a low growl, he grumbled through clenched teeth, “If you get my daughter killed, I swear to God…”

  He didn’t finish the sentence. He didn’t need to.

  My eyes narrowed at him. Either he was in denial about the possibility of Madison already being dead, or he knew she was alive. “Have you heard from any kidnappers? Have there been ransom demands?”

  Mr. Bradford hesitated a moment. “No.”

  I knew he was lying. His lips twitched. It was a tell he had. Curtis and I had learned early on by playing card games with him when we were kids. I thought he did it on purpose, as an excuse to let us win money from him. But in that moment, I realized it was just a tell.

  “They told you not to say anything, didn’t they? They told you to get us off the case.”

  Thomas hesitated for a moment, and his face reddened. He sat down in a chair and collapsed with his head in his hands. He began to sob. “They’re going to kill her if I don’t do what they say.”

  22

  “This is going to sound crazy,” Mr. Bradford said.

  “Trust me. I don’t think we’ll think it’s that crazy,” I said. After spending a little time in the Ultraverse, nothing surprised me anymore. I realized the universe was full of possibilities.

  “We theorized that we could draw power from other dimensions. We had proven it on a small scale but we were having problems generating anything more than enough energy to run a light bulb,” Bradford said. “At first, I thought this may solve our energy crisis. Then, I realized this could be turned into one of the most destructive weapons mankind has ever known. I didn’t want that weighing on my conscience. I put a halt to the project. Until a few weeks ago.”

  He paused for a long moment.

  “They kidnapped Madison. They said they would kill her if I didn’t move forward with the project.”

  “Who?”

  “They said they were from another dimension. They had… unique abilities. With my device, they would be able to channel energy from their dimension to enhance their power.” He shook his head. “It’s like something out of a comic book. You must think I’m out of my mind.”

  “No. I don’t,” I said. I stood up, walked to the fireplace, and grabbed a poker from the rack.

  “What are you doing?” Thomas asked.

  “Watch.” I grabbed either end of the poker and with minimal effort bent the iron rod into a U-shape.

  Mr. Bradford’s eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets. “I don’t understand. How did you do that?”

  I told him about the Ultraverse and that I had visited the other dimension. He took it well, considering he’d already been exposed to supers before. The evil kind.

  “Do you happen to know the names of the two supers that kidnapped Madison?”

  “One called himself Nitro-something.”

  “Nitro-X and Plasmatron?”

  “Yes! That’s it.”

  I exchanged a wary glance with Chrome and Surge.

  “It sounds like they’re trying to gain their full power here on Earth,” Surge said. “But how would that work?”

  “I’ve created the Fordycite crystal to focus the energy. That energy can be relayed wirelessly to any other Fordycite crystal.”

  “A ring embedded with the crystal would give the user all the power they had in the Ultraverse,” Chrome deduced.

  “Correct!” Bradford said.

  “How far are you from completing this project?” I asked.

  “It’s finished,” Bradford said. “But I’ve been stalling for time.”

  He stood up and moved to the bookshelf. He pulled out a thick leather-bound edition and flipped through the pages. The inside had been hollowed out to form a secret cavity. From it, he pulled two Fordycite rings. “These are what they are after.”

  He held up one of the rings. The synthetic crystal shimmered in the light. It was clear, with a slightly bluish tint.

  “Nitro-X can’t ever take possession of those rings,” Surge said. “He’ll rain terror down on this planet.”

  Curtis’s face tense. “What are we supposed to do? Let my sister die!”

  “Do you have any idea where they are keeping her?” I asked Mr. Bradford.

  He shook hi
s head.

  “Do you have any more rings?” Chrome asked.

  “No,” Bradford said. “The crystals are grown in the lab with meticulous precision. It’s a long, painstaking process, and I am not able to make them at scale yet. These are the only two rings in existence that can channel the power of the main focusing crystal.”

  Mr. Bradford’s phone rang. He pulled his mobile device from his pocket. Unknown caller flashed on the display. He knew exactly who it was. “Hello?”

  I could hear the voice on the other end filter through the thin speaker. I was sure it was Nitro-X “I’m growing impatient.”

  “I just need a little more time,” Bradford said.

  “That is something you’re running out of,” Nitro-X said. “And you haven’t been following my rules. I see that you’re talking to people.”

  “No, I’m not.”

  “Do you think I don’t have your house under surveillance?”

  The color drained from Bradford’s face. He glanced to the window. Someone was out there somewhere.

  “Those are friends of my son. That’s all.”

  “They’ve been nosing around, asking questions. Stop playing games with me. I want the device fully operational by tomorrow. You’ll deliver the rings to me. If you’re behind schedule, you’ll never see Madison again.”

  Mr. Bradford grew a set of balls. “If anything happens to her, the device will never be functional.”

  There was a long pause.

  “Tomorrow, Mr. Bradford. Tomorrow.” Nitro-X disconnected the call.

  23

  Chrome and Surge stayed at Curtis’s house to keep an eye on things. I was sure Nitro-X had someone following me as I headed back toward campus. I spotted a black sedan a few cars back that seemed to follow my every move. I watched enough cop shows to learn how to lose a tail. Just keep turning and making erratic movements. Run lights. Turn down one-way streets. Do stupid shit. If you don’t get a ticket first, you’ll probably shake the tail.

  It was pretty easy to track the location of Nitro-X’s cell phone. All calls are logged into the system. Each phone has a unique identifier that is encrypted in the data packet when a call is made. Among other things, the cell tower ID number is encrypted in the metadata of the call. With some digging, you can triangulate the position of the cell phone.

  I used my favorite terminal at the library to hack into the mobile carrier database. It didn’t take long to get the information. The call came from a residential high-rise downtown. Though I wasn’t able to identify the specific floor or apartment number, it was something to go on.

  It was a good thing that the girls weren’t with me. The minute I logged off the computer, I was surrounded by men in suits with standard government issue pistols staring me in the face.

  “Freeze! FBI!” one of the agents shouted.

  I raised my hands in the air, innocently. “What? I’m just looking for a place to study.”

  “Save it,” the lead agent said. “Someone’s been using this terminal to hack into multiple government databases. You’re looking at multiple felonies.”

  I glanced around at the agents. They all looked the same—short dark hair, navy suit, white shirt, blue striped tie. “Do you all shop at the same place?”

  “Get on the ground. Put your hands behind your head!”

  For a brief moment, I thought about running. But one of them shot me—not with a bullet—with a glorified taser.

  The metal prongs stuck into my skin and sent a massive jolt of energy through my body. This was no ordinary taser. It knocked me unconscious. I woke up a few seconds later as the cold steel of hand cuffs slapped against my wrists.

  The agents yanked me to my feet and marched me out of the library.

  Students gawked, and for the second time, I was going to be the talk of campus.

  They stuck me in the back of an unmarked black sedan with dark tinted windows. They weren’t careful either. My head smacked the door frame. The agent slammed the door just as I cleared the sill.

  An agent climbed into the driver’s seat, and his partner climbed into the passenger’s seat. The two other agents followed in a separate car.

  The driver twisted the ignition, then dropped the car into gear. We pulled away from the library and rolled through campus.

  I watched the driver through the rearview mirror. I couldn’t see his eyes behind the dark sunglasses. At this point I wasn’t too terribly concerned. I knew I could snap the cuffs on command, kick open the door at the next light, and escape. But it wasn’t going to be that easy.

  I struggled against the cuffs, flexing my muscles. Panic washed through my body as they refused to break. What the hell was going on? I may not have been as strong as I was in the Ultraverse, but I was plenty strong enough to snap a pair of metal handcuffs. I tried again, the veins in my neck bulging, my face turning red. But nothing happened.

  Son-of-a-bitch.

  I looked into the rearview mirror. There was a slight grin on the agent’s face. “It’s an advanced composite alloy. The doors are reinforced with it, and the windows are transparent notranium.

  “What do you want?”

  “You’ll find out soon enough.”

  “This isn’t about the hacking, is it?”

  The agent didn’t say anything.

  “The timing is a little inconvenient,” I said.

  “Sorry to ruin your day,” the agent said in an insincere tone.

  We stopped at a traffic light, and I jammed my foot into the door, but it didn’t budge.

  “You’re wasting your effort. I told you—composite alloy. Courtesy of the Defense Department.”

  I started to sweat. I felt like a caged animal. Helpless. I had gotten used to living an unrestricted life. There was nothing that could contain me. Until now. I didn’t know where we were going, or what they wanted. Time was running out to save Madison.

  24

  We drove for an hour to a remote facility in the country. We turned off the highway, traveled down a small two-lane blacktop, then turned onto a gravel road. The tires kicked up a plume of white dust as we approached the security gate. The agents flashed their credentials, and a soldier carrying an M4 opened the gate and waved them through.

  The chain-link fence was ringed in razor-sharp concertina wire. Security cameras monitored the gate, and the perimeter. A red and white sign affixed to the fence cautioned trespassers against entering the government installation, under penalty of life imprisonment.

  It looked like an empty field. But all this high-tech security wasn’t for the bluebonnets. From above, it would look like a field of grass and flowers. And that’s exactly what the government wanted it to look like.

  The road angled down to an underground parking garage below the field of bluebonnets. Dozens of parked cars identical to to the one we were traveling in occupied the various reserved spaces.

  The agent parked the car, then pulled me out of the backseat. His partner kept the super-taser aimed at me the entire time. He wasn’t taking any chances.

  “What is this place?” I asked.

  “You’ll see.”

  In the center of the parking garage, where the elevator bays would normally be, was a blast door. We marched toward it, and the lead agent placed his hand on the biometric scanner pad to the side of the door. The other agent kept the super-taser aimed at me.

  Within moments, the massive steel door unlatched and slid aside. We spiraled down a grated metal staircase to the next level. We pushed through the steel fire door into a nondescript hallway. The walls were painted off-white, and security cameras hid behind black domes affixed to the ceiling.

  I got the sense that I was seeing only a fraction of the underground complex. There were probably multiple offices, holding cells, signals intelligence centers, rows and rows of supercomputers and servers, situation rooms, satellite surveillance areas, etc.

  The agents escorted me down the hall to a room with another steel blast door. This one wasn’t as
thick as the external door to the bunker. The agent placed his hand on the scanner pad, and the door slid open.

  I was shoved inside, and the door slid shut behind me with a clang.

  The small room had metal walls and a two way observation mirror on one wall. There was a table in the center of the room with chairs on either side.

  The agent spoke to me through a speaker in the ceiling. “The walls are made out of the same material as your handcuffs, and the room is electromagnetically shielded. You can’t escape. Just sit back and relax. Someone will be in to speak with you shortly.”

  I moved to the mirror and peered deep into it, trying to see through to the other side, but it was no use. After a few minutes of strolling around the room, I took a seat in one of the chairs.

  While I was sitting there, waiting to be interrogated, Curtis was off doing something stupid. I’d find out later that he took the rings from the parlor. He called Nitro-X and set up a meeting to exchange the rings for Madison.

  Fear and panic had gotten the best of him. He wasn’t used to this kind of pressure and didn’t fully comprehend the ramifications of his actions. He just wanted his sister back. But he was going about it the wrong way.

  The door slid open, and another agent in a suit entered the room. He had a narrow face and short brown hair, parted on the side. He had a long nose and was probably in his mid-30s. He wore a cheap suit that was trying to look expensive. He introduced himself as he sat across the table from me. “I’m Special Agent Isaacson. Thanks for joining us today.”

  I made a face. I wasn’t exactly here at my wishes. “What do you want?”

  “You’re a smart boy. I think you can figure it out.”

  I didn’t feel like playing his game. “I want to speak with a lawyer.”

  “You haven’t been arrested, yet.”

  “So, I’m free to go? I mean, nobody’s read me my rights or anything.”