by Lucas Flint
It had never occurred to me that Master Chaos would have figured out my secret identity. “But if I had succeeded, no one would have known that I changed Robert's memories.”
“You don't think Master Chaos can put two and two together and read between the lines? That he wouldn't have found it strange that his son was no longer claiming you hurt him?” said Dad. “You're lucky I managed to get you back here before you did anything really stupid and unfixable.”
“How'd you get me back here, anyway?” I said. “You didn't have the Teleportation Buckle.”
Dad nodded at the monitors. “All of my inventions are connected. It took me only a second to send a message to my utility belt telling it to come back here. Not very difficult.”
“Oh,” I said. “Is there anything that your inventions can't do?”
“Apparently, they can't make you smart,” said Dad.
He let go of my suit. I stepped backwards, not because I thought Dad was going to hit me, but because Dad was so angry that I didn't want to be that close to him.
Dad held out his hand. “Give me the gauntlet and belt. Now.”
I quickly detached the gauntlet from my hand and removed the belt from my waist and handed them both to Dad. Dad took them and then walked over to the glass display where his suit was kept. He put the gauntlet and belt back on the mannequin and then pressed a button that closed the container.
Then Dad turned around to look at me. He still looked angry, almost too angry, which made me wish I could leave, but I didn't, because I felt like his gaze had paralyzed me.
“Look,” I said, holding up my hands. “I didn't do anything wrong. I mean, I know I shouldn't have done that, so maybe I actually did do something wrong, but trust me, I didn't have any bad intentions. I was just trying to help.”
Dad raised a skeptical eyebrow. “Help? How would confirming your identity to Master Chaos 'help'? Or getting caught by hospital security and getting the attention of the government on you?”
“So the government doesn't know that I'm Bolt?” I said hopefully.
“To my knowledge, they don't,” said Dad. “Only the NHA's highest members—my closest friends and allies—know. And that's because I did not want them sending anyone down here to attempt to recruit you to the NHA.”
“You mean some people know my secret identity?” I said.
“Only a few, and they are very tight-lipped about it,” said Dad, “as they are about various other secrets I've shared with them over the years. They assured me that they're going to keep the government from trying to recruit you.”
“Why would the government recruit me?” I said. “I'm not that great of a superhero yet.”
“It doesn't matter,” said Dad, shaking his head. “What matters is that you put yourself in needless danger all so you could play the hero.”
“But I wasn't 'playing' the hero,” I said. “I was just trying to keep us safe.”
“I know,” said Dad, “but just because your intentions may have been pure does not mean that you did nothing wrong.”
I couldn't argue with that. I just shrugged and said, “Well, what are you going to do, then? Take away my super suit? Ground me for a week?”
Dad shook his head. “No. Frankly, there's not much I can do to you, since your powers are burgeoning and you are almost an adult yourself. But don't think that you will get off without any punishment.”
“What will it be, then?” I said.
“No more superheroics,” said Dad. “Of any sort. And I will do that by having Valerie keep an eye on you and report your every move to me for a while.”
“What?” I said. “But that's an invasion of my privacy.”
Dad folded his arms across his chest. “Kevin, you've already proven to me that you can't be trusted to do the right thing by yourself. Besides, it won't be forever. I'll only have Valerie keep an eye on you until Master Chaos is no longer a threat to our well-being, after which I will no longer monitor your actions.”
“This is unfair,” I said. “I have a right to privacy.”
“I'm not going to be watching you in the bathroom, if that's what you're assuming,” said Dad. “You will still have some privacy. Just not the freedom you're so used to.”
I couldn't believe what Dad was telling me, but I didn't know what to do. It wasn't like I had any authority over him. He had every right to do this, but that didn't mean I had to like it.
“What would Mom say?” I said. “Don't you think Mom would want a say in this?”
“I already discussed this with your mother, actually, before I called you back,” said Dad. “She is fine with it, so you can't appeal to her for help.”
I felt my super strength growing, but I controlled it. I couldn't solve this problem with my fists, which made me all the angrier. I felt so helpless and there was nothing I could do about it.
“I am sorry, Kevin, but I have to do this,” said Dad. “I would prefer not, but sometimes tough punishments are necessary in order to hammer home a point.”
My shoulders slumped. “Does that mean we're not going to continue my training?”
“No,” said Dad. “We'll still do that, because you still need to know how to use your powers. You simply will not have the freedom to go around punching out convenience store robbers or breaking into hospitals for now.”
Dad's mention of hospitals suddenly sparked a memory in my head. “Oh, Dad, I just remembered something. Back in the hospital, Robert's mother visited him and I listened in on their conversation.”
“Yes?” said Dad. “What did they say?”
“Robert's mother said that she was in contact with Master Chaos,” I said. “She said that Master Chaos has already put into motion a plan to destroy us. Not only that, but she said that he is going to use this plan to make his grand reappearance in the world and also protect her and Robert.”
“Did she give any specifics?” said Dad. He sounded more interested than angry now.
“No,” I said. “She seemed paranoid that someone might be listening in.”
“Well, she wasn't wrong,” said Dad. “Did she say how she was keeping in contact with Chaos?”
“No,” I said. “She didn't say. She just said that she's been talking with him.”
Dad looked down and stroked his chin. “We suspected that Master Chaos was likely in contact with Maria Candle, but we didn't know for sure. I will have to tell the NHA about this.”
“And the government?” I said.
“The NHA can tell the government,” said Dad curtly. “What troubles me is that Master Chaos apparently has some sort of plan, if Maria Candle was telling the truth. I just wish I knew what it was.”
“Do you think we'll need some help?” I said. “Like, help from the NHA, maybe?”
Dad shook his head. “No. At the very least, I don't think we'll need the NHA to protect us, although I may have to install some advanced security systems in the house just in case Chaos gets here.”
“Why is Maria Candle even free, anyway?” I said. “If we know that she's the wife of Master Chaos, why wasn't she arrested with him seventeen years ago?”
“Because no one even knew about her until Master Chaos was already behind bars,” said Dad. “There was a big scandal when she first came out to the press as the wife of Master Chaos with Robert as her son, but a DNA test proved that Robert was related to both. The government did investigate to see if Maria had been involved in any of Master Chaos's previous schemes, but they could not find any evidence to suggest that she had been involved in any sort of criminal activity.”
“Well, I think sleeping with Master Chaos ought to count as criminal activity, if you ask me,” I said. I shuddered. “I mean, have you seen the pictures of him?”
“Kevin, this is no time for jokes,” said Dad, folding his arms across his chest. “While I am still angry with what you did, I am glad you managed to learn that Master Chaos has been in contact with Maria. This could be vital information that might be able to hel
p us find him before he attacks us.”
“So does that mean you are not going to punish me?” I said hopefully.
Dad shook his head. “Of course not. You're still getting the punishment you deserve. And yes, we will resume your training on Saturday, so don't make any plans with your friends for the weekend.”
Friends? What friends? I suppose there was Malcolm and Tara, but Dad didn't know about them. He must have assumed that I had already made some friends in this small town, even though most of the kids at the school still seemed to think I was a freak.
Nonetheless, I said, “Okay. Can I go back to my room?”
Dad nodded. “Yes. But please take off your super suit. There's no need to wear it around the house.”
I sighed, but pressed the button on my suit-up watch and in a second I was standing in my normal clothes again. Then I turned and walked up the steps back to the rest of the house, but slowly and without any happiness, because I knew that this next week was going to suck.
Chapter Thirteen
Like I thought, this week really did suck, mostly because I knew that Dad was watching me. I didn't know how, because I never saw any drones or anything else that he could use to watch my movements, but I didn't risk using my super powers or trying to suit up again. I just went to school and back home every day, taking the same route without fail.
It was a really boring week at school, mostly because the other kids were starting to see me less as the 'new kid' and more just like the other students. That didn't mean I became more popular, though, or got more friends. I still ate with Malcolm and Tara every day and didn't hang out with or talk to anyone else.
Malcolm kept speculating about the identity of Bolt every time we sat down to talk. He seemed obsessed with my superhero identity, probably because the idea that there was a neohero living somewhere in Silvers blew his mind. One time he even suggested that we hire a private detective to figure out Bolt's identity and I wasn't sure if he was joking or not.
For what it was worth, I just listened, mostly because I worried that if I said too much, then Malcolm would be able to figure out my secret identity. I never had to worry about that with Tara, though, because she never talked about Bolt or any other neoheroes. I didn't really know what she liked, actually, except for her phone. Nor did I gather the courage to ask her out, mostly because I knew how much she hated neoheroes.
I also paid attention to my ranking on Neo Ranks. Because I had only had one public appearance so far, I was still very low, but apparently I moved up to a 1.5 at some point. The reasoning, according to the page's administrator, for the upgrade was that super strength was obviously superior to other 1 powers like having an enormous big toe, but not quite enough to raise my overall Rank to a 2 just yet. That was kind of depressing, but better than being a 1, I supposed.
But I was curious to see what Dad's ranking was. Ranks had a way of going down over the years, mostly if a neohero retired or was killed. After all, you can't gain ranks if you were dead or simply no longer fighting crime. I figured that Dad's had probably gone down quite a bit since he retired sixteen years ago.
So at lunch on Wednesday, I looked up 'Genius' on Neo Ranks only to find out that he was a 9. I gaped when I saw that, prompting Malcolm—who was sitting across from me at our lunch table rambling on about setting a trap to capture Bolt so we could unmask him—to say, “What?”
I shook my head and looked up at him. “Did you see Genius's rank? It's still a nine, even though he retired sixteen years ago.”
“Oh, yeah,” said Malcolm, nodding. “Well, Genius was really popular in his days, didn't you know? And he's still popular. I see discussions all the time on Neo Ranks about people wondering how Genius would handle guys like Conjurer or Hybrid. There was even a petition a while back to get him back into crime-fighting.”
“Really?” I said in surprise. “Where did the petition go?”
“It was submitted to the Neohero Alliance, because they're the only people who know Genius's real identity and how to contact him,” said Malcolm. “Over one hundred thousand people signed it. You can still find it online if you search.”
“One hundred thousand?” I said. “I didn't know Genius was so popular.”
“Yeah,” said Malcolm. “I just don't get why anyone would retire with that much fame. If I was as popular as Genius, I would be a superhero for as long as I lived.”
I nodded, but I was thinking about Dad. I hadn't realized just how much he had given up to raise me with Mom. If over one hundred thousand people wanted him back, I bet that was only a fraction of his real fan base. I had a hard time imagining my stern, almost emotionless Dad having any real 'fans,' but I guess he did.
“But I don't understand,” I said, looking at Dad's Neo Ranks page on my phone, “how he still ranks so high even if he was really popular in his heyday.”
“He beat Master Chaos,” said Malcolm. “That's why. Few neoheroes have ever done anything as good as that. I mean, look at his Neo Rank page. Master Chaos killed loads of heroes before Genius stopped him, heroes like the Crimson Fist.”
Suddenly, I felt a surge of emotion rise in my throat at the mention of my uncle. I blinked, feeling tears starting to form in my eyes, but managed to keep myself from actually crying.
“Kevin?” said Malcolm, who seemed to notice that something was wrong. “What's up?”
I shook my head and said, “It's nothing, I—”
I was interrupted by a small ding, which came from Malcolm's phone and was likely a notification, causing him to look down at his screen. His eyes suddenly became so wide that they looked like they were about to drop out of their sockets.
“Malcolm?” I said. “What's the matter?”
“Dude,” said Malcolm. He held his phone at me. “Look at this news report.”
I leaned forward to read the headline, which read:
'ULTIMATE MAX ESCAPEE MASTER CHAOS MAIN SUSPECT IN THEFT OF SECRET MILITARY WEAPONRY'
I looked at Malcolm. “What does that mean?”
“I dunno, man,” said Malcolm. “I didn't read the article. I just saw the headline and thought you should read it.”
I took Malcolm's phone from his hands and started reading the article. It wasn't very long, but it seemed to take me forever to read it:
WASHINGTON, DC—Infamous supervillain Master Chaos, who recently escaped from the Ultimate Max prison for superhumans two weeks ago, has been confirmed to have stolen secret military weaponry, the federal government confirmed hours ago.
“We can't tell you what any of these weapons are,” said Cadmus Smith, the Director of the Department of Superpowered Human Beings and Extraterrestrial Beings, who is in charge of the government team tracking down Master Chaos. “But we can confirm that Master Chaos broke into one of our bases and stole some very sensitive technology that we do not want to be in the hands of anyone, superhuman or otherwise, who is a threat to the United States of America.”
The story broke yesterday as rumors on the Internet before the federal government finally confirmed the story this morning. According to the government, Master Chaos, also known as Bernard Candle, broke into a secret government facility on Monday for reasons unknown. It is only known that he stole some top-secret weapons from the facility, though the exact nature of the weapons is unknown. There were no casualties in the attack, nor was anything else of importance stolen or found missing.
It is speculated that Master Chaos had a contact on the inside who helped him get in. Congress has ordered a full investigation of the people working at the facility in order to find out who, if anyone, helped Master Chaos enter the facility.
Nonetheless, the Department of Superpowered Human Beings and Extraterrestrial Beings has come under fire from critics, who claim that this is yet another example of the Department's inability to deal with the threats it was made to deal with. Presidential nominee and founder of Plutarch Industries Adam Lucius Plutarch tweeted today that if elected President, he—
I stopped reading there, because after that it was just talking about what various politicians had to say about this and who was to blame and stuff like that. I looked up at Malcolm, a serious expression on my face.
“What does it say?” said Malcolm, leaning forward. “What did Master Chaos do?”
“All it says is that Master Chaos broke into a secret government facility and stole some top secret weapons from that facility,” I said as I handed Malcolm his phone back to him. “It doesn't say where the facility was or what he stole.”
“Hey, that sounds familiar,” said Malcolm, scratching his chin as he started reading the article. “Yeah, I remember someone on Neo Ranks talking about this yesterday. Said that the government was going to try to cover it up and pretend nothing happened, but that it would be a big story on social media soon.”
“How did that guy know about it so fast?” I said.
“No idea,” said Malcolm with a shrug. “I just thought it was crazy talk, because you get a lot of guys on Neo Ranks who 'know' things like who the Midnight Menace is. There was even someone claiming to be a Pokacu alien, but I think he was just a troll.”
I nodded, but wasn't really listening to Malcolm anymore. I was too busy thinking about the weapons Master Chaos had stolen. What were they? Why did he think he'd need them? Did Dad know about this? Did Dad know what the top-secret weapons were?
It was obviously connected with Master Chaos's plan, but I still didn't see how it was all supposed to come together. It just seemed very random and made me very nervous. I doubted Master Chaos had his hands on any nukes, but I still thought that Chaos could cause a lot of, well, chaos with whatever weapons he got.
That was why it was more important than ever that I learned how to use my powers. I was eager to get back to training, because I wanted to be prepared when Master Chaos attacked.
Chapter Fourteen