by Lucas Flint
My first instinct was to run out the door like a mad man and never look back, but I caught myself. I knew Robert wouldn't be happy to see me, but maybe if I was polite, I could get him to talk with me and we could have a civilized discussion. I mean, he certainly couldn't punch me in the face, after all, what with his arms being broken and everything, which might help civilize him a little.
So, as casually as I could, I walked up to Robert, who was now shaking his head. He didn't seem to recognize me yet, but that was okay, because I figured that once he did, he'd want to tear me limb from limb.
“Hey, Robert,” I said, stopping by his side, a polite smile on my face. “How are you doing? Feeling better?”
Robert looked at me. At first, there was no recognition in his eyes, but the more he looked at me, the more recognition I saw in his eyes. I half-expected him to start shouting obscenities at me or maybe call for the hospital staff to escort me out of the room.
But then Robert said, in a very weak voice, “Kevin? Is that you?”
I was surprised. That was the first time Robert had actually used my name, rather than calling me 'new kid.' That made me worried, but maybe Robert was in some kind of medically-induced personality change. I didn't know what they were pumping into him to help him deal with the pain, after all, though I still kept my distance just to be safe.
“Yes, it's me,” I said. “I came to visit you in the hospital.”
“Why?” said Robert. His voice was bitter. “So you could mock me or maybe punch me through another wall?”
“No, of course not,” I said, shaking my head. “I'm sorry for doing that, Robert. I didn't mean to hurt you. I didn't even know that I could. I'm here for a different reason.”
“What is that?” said Robert. He still sounded bitter, but also a little curious.
“I want to stop your dad, Master Chaos,” I said. “And I think you're the only one who can tell me where he is.”
Robert looked away from me, a scowl on his face. “Why should I help you? And why would I know where my dad is? I haven't spoken with him since he went to prison. Or ever, actually.”
“Because I know you've been in contact with your dad,” I said.
Robert looked at me in alarm. “What? How did you—”
“Shh,” I said, holding a finger up to my lips. “It doesn't matter how I know. I just do. Otherwise I wouldn't be here.”
Robert's alarm was replaced by annoyance. He held up a remote in his hand, his thumb hovering over one of the buttons. “Tell me, why shouldn't I call the hospital staff and tell them that you're harassing me and making my recovery difficult? I can do that, you know, even if I can't throw you out of my room myself.”
“Because your dad isn't as good as you think he is,” I said. “I don't know what stories your mom has been telling you about him, but your dad is a psycho who needs to be stopped before he hurts innocent people. And I'm the only one who can do that.”
“But Father said that he wants to avenge me,” said Robert. His eyes narrowed. “He knows what you did to me. He's going to kill you, like you deserve.”
“Maybe he will, but do you think he'll stop with me?” I said. “I don't know what Master Chaos's plans for the future are, but I bet he's planning to hurt way more people than just me.”
“Who cares?” said Robert with a shrug, but then he winced, likely because the shrug caused him pain. “Father will protect me and Mother. As long as he does that, I don't care if he kills everyone else on the planet.”
“Come on, Robert,” I said. “Your dad isn't the hero you think he is. He's a madman who wants to cause lots of destruction and chaos. He probably doesn't even care if you or your mom get hurt in the process.”
Robert glared at me with such hatred that I actually stepped back. “Don't you dare say that about Father. He broke out of prison just for me. He would never hurt me or Mother. Never.”
“Can you be so sure about that?” I said.
“Yes, I can,” said Robert. He coughed. “Why wouldn't I be?”
“Well, think about it,” I said. “Your dad only broke out of prison after you were nearly killed. If he was such a great dad, why didn't he break out earlier so he could be with you and your mom? Wouldn't you have benefited from having your dad in your life?”
Robert just scowled even more, but I could tell that I had got him. He didn't have a response for that, probably because I had touched a nerve. I didn't know what it was like being raised by a single parent, but I had some friends back in New York who were raised by their mothers and they always missed their fathers. I figured Robert was probably the same.
I noticed that Robert's thumb was on the button on the remote that would probably summon the hospital staff. I expected him to press it any second now, which would mean that I'd have to leave and resume my search for Master Chaos elsewhere.
But then Robert took his thumb off the remote and sighed. “Okay, Kevin, you made a good point. I don't know where Father is, but Mother gave me a few clues about where he is. I can tell you them if you want.”
I nodded eagerly. “Great. I'm all ears.”
“But you have to come closer,” said Robert. He coughed again. “My voice is getting weak, so I want you close enough to hear without me having to raise my voice.”
I drew closer to Robert's bed until I was standing right up against it. I leaned close to Robert's face, turning my ear to his mouth to make sure I didn't miss anything.
“All right,” I said. “What are the clues to your dad's location?”
At first, Robert looked like he was too tired to speak. But then he pulled something out of his shirt and slammed it into my chest with surprising force.
Though the impact didn't hurt, I was nonetheless sent stumbling backwards. I looked down at my chest to see a strange, blinking star-shaped device attached to my chest.
Alarmed, I looked up at Robert, who was now smirking at me with triumph.
“Is this a bomb?” I said. I tried to remove it, but the thing would not come off. “Are you going to blow us both to pieces?”
Robert shook his head. “No. You're just going to meet Father, like you always wanted. Say hi to him for me.”
I didn't understand what that meant until the star-shaped device on my chest glowed with a great white light, completely obscuring my view of Robert.
In the next second, the light vanished and I found myself standing alone in a dark room that clearly wasn't Robert's hospital room.
“What?” I said. I looked around, but could not see anything. “What happened? Where am I?”
Then the lights turned on. The sudden brightness briefly blinded me, but my eyes adjusted rapidly until I could now see someone standing in front of me.
And that someone was Master Chaos himself.
Chapter Nineteen
Master Chaos looked a little different from the pictures I'd seen of him on the Internet. For one, he was in an old orange jumpsuit that had splashes of red, blue, and green paint on it. He was almost bald, too, with only a few wisps of hair peaking out from under his cowboy hat. He was much taller and bulkier than me, wearing thick rubber boots that were completely mismatched. He smelled weird, too, like sewage, as if he hadn't taken a shower in his life.
But his eyes … those were just as crazy as the eyes I had seen in the photos. They were extremely bloodshot, looking almost red, like he hadn't gotten any sleep for months.
I didn't know what to do. I hadn't expected to meet him so soon. I just stood there, staring at him, unable to look away from his mad eyes.
Then Master Chaos pushed up the brim of his hat and said, “Disappointing.”
His voice was harsh and hoarse, very different from Robert's voice and not what I was expecting to hear.
That was why it snapped me out of my shock and caused me to say, “What?”
“You,” said Master Chaos. He shook his head. “So small and scrawny. I thought that was just how the pictures made you look. But I guess the camera must a
dd ten pounds or something.”
Master Chaos seemed very laid-back, like we were a couple of Internet friends meeting in real life for the first time. I almost wondered if he had forgotten the whole reason I was even here, but I didn't let my guard down around him.
“How did I get here?” I said. I touched the device on my chest. “How did Robert get this device?”
“Robby?” said Master Chaos. He seemed to notice the star-shaped device on my chest. “Ah, yes. I remember. I gave that to Maria, who then smuggled it into the hospital to give to him. It can teleport a person to a pre-programmed location. I didn't expect him to actually use it so soon, though, but hey, I'm not complaining.”
“You mean you made this?” I said, glancing down at the device that was still stuck securely to my chest. “How?”
“I'm a genius,” said Master Chaos, tapping the side of his face. Then he suddenly scowled, looking very much like his son. “Well, not that Genius, who I intend to butcher like a pig the next time I see him, but I'm still brilliant. Mad, yes, but brilliant.”
“So you actually made this on your own?” I said.
“Oh, actually, I didn't really make it myself,” said Master Chaos. “See, I stole some weapons from the government recently and the prototype for that device was among them. I tinkered with it a little and made it more appropriate for my purposes.”
I tried to remove it from my chest, but it still wouldn't come unstuck. “So you gave it to Robert to teleport me here?”
“Of course,” said Master Chaos. “I believed that you would come to visit Robby at some point, maybe to ask for forgiveness or mock him. I wanted Robert to have this so he could teleport you directly to me so I could punish you properly.”
I looked up at Master Chaos again, whose smile revealed a row of crooked, blackened teeth. He really didn't seem to understand the concept of dental hygiene, or hygiene in general, based on how bad he smelled.
“So you never intended to attack me at my house at all,” I said.
“Of course not,” said Master Chaos. “Your house is too well-protected. The NHA and the G-Men expected me to do that. Because I am the personification of chaos, I can't very well do what they expect me to do, now can I?”
I looked around the area in which we stood. It looked like the interior of an old, abandoned warehouse, with sealed crates full of who-knows-what stacked all around us. The lights on the ceiling were weak, though the light streaming in from outside made it less dark than it would have been.
I had no idea where I was, but it didn't matter. I looked at Master Chaos again and said, “Well, this is exactly where I wanted to be. Say hello to my fist, Chaos!”
I ran at him, pulling back one of my fists. Master Chaos didn't move. He didn't even look alarmed. He just stood there, smiling, like he was amused. Well, he wasn't going to be amused when I punched my fist straight through his body and tore out his stomach.
With a yell, I punched Master Chaos directly in the stomach as hard as I could. But, even though my fist connected, Master Chaos didn't even flinch.
Instead, pain shot up my arm. It was like I had punched a brick wall. I yelled in pain and grabbed my fist, which felt broken into pieces. As a result, I didn't notice Master Chaos's own fist coming at me until it was too late.
Master Chaos's fist struck me in the abdomen, causing me to go down hard. I fell onto the floor and lay there, stunned, the breathe knocked out of me. I blinked several times before looking up at Master Chaos, who bent over, grabbed me by the neck, and lifted me off my feet.
I struggled to break his grip on me, but Master Chaos's grip was too strong. I tried punching and kicking his arm, but it was like I didn't even have any superpowers at all. He tightened his grip around my throat, causing me to gasp and stop punching and kicking at him.
“Why … can't … I … hurt you?” I said, barely able to speak.
“The device on your chest,” said Master Chaos, nodding at my chest. “Not only can it teleport you to me, but it can also negate your powers for an hour. Very useful when dealing with stupid kids like you.”
“Negates my powers?” I said. “How?”
“I don't know,” said Master Chaos with a shrug. “The government has apparently been trying to figure out how to de-power superhumans for a while. This isn't the only weapon I stole from them that can negate superpowers, but it is the only one I'll need to kill you.”
“Are you going to kill me here and now, then?” I said.
“No,” said Master Chaos, shaking his head. “Granted, it would satisfy my desire for revenge to do that, but you see, it wouldn't be very fun or dramatic. Let me show you how you will die.”
Master Chaos carried me over to the center of the warehouse. His grip loosened around my neck slightly, probably so I wouldn't fall unconscious on the way there, but his grip was still impossibly tight and there was no way I could break free from it. So I let him carry me around like a doll, knowing that each moment could easily be my last.
In the center of the warehouse was a strange set-up that looked like it came straight from a bad comic book. There was a large metal sheet with thick steel clamps for my arms and legs, while next to it was a vat of some kind of bubbling acid that looked like it could eat through titanium. Opposite the vat and metal sheet was a camera that appeared to be off, which stood next to a table that had a laptop on it, and sitting behind the laptop was a middle-aged Hispanic woman: Maria Candle, Master Chaos's wife and Robert's mother. She was typing away on the laptop, though I didn't know what she was typing.
“Oh, honey,” said Master Chaos as he walked over to the metal sheet and the acid vat. His tone became sickeningly sweet. “Look what I found.”
Maria looked up at us and actually smiled, though it was not a very comforting smile in my opinion. She stood up and walked around the table to us, moving very fast like she did not want to waste even one second.
“How wonderful!” said Maria, putting her hands together as she drew closer to us. “I didn't know we'd catch him so soon. I thought for sure that it would be another week or two before we got him.”
“Well, honey, you clearly underestimated my genius,” said Master Chaos. He leaned over and kissed her briefly, which was the most disgusting thing I'd seen in my life. “But I really couldn't have done it without you. Or Robert. I am the luckiest man in the world and couldn't ask for a better, more supportive family.”
“You should take more credit for your success, Bernie,” said Maria, her tone every bit as sickeningly sweet as Master Chaos's, if not more so. “After all, you were the one who devised this brilliant plan to avenge our son. I couldn't have come up with it on my own.”
If Master Chaos hadn't already been choking me, I would have been gagging. I would never have thought of Master Chaos as a family man. I mean, I knew that Maria and Robert loved him, but it was hard for me to imagine one of the most vicious supervillains in the world being a family man. It felt like I had walked into some kind of alternate universe, even though I knew I hadn't.
“Well, you know what they say,” said Master Chaos, “behind every great man is a woman. And you, Maria, are that woman, both to me and to Robert.”
Please, God, just take me away from this mortal coil. Mom and Dad would understand.
“Anyway,” said Master Chaos, his tone serious again. He looked at me and gestured at the acid vat with his free hand. “See that vat, Kevin? It is full of acid. And not the kind that makes you high, but the kind that will eat you alive. It's quite painful. I should know; the stray cat I dipped into it made some funny sounds.”
“So that's what you're going to do to me?” I said. I glanced at the metal sheet. “Lower me into the acid slowly so my death will be painful and agonizing?”
“Slowly? Of course not,” said Master Chaos, shaking his head. “What a waste of time that would be! No, we're going to dunk you into it. Like I said, the device on your chest has a time limit and we are certainly not going to let it run out and give you
an opportunity to escape. We're not stupid.”
“What's the camera for, then?” I said, glancing at the large, unwieldy camera set on a tripod.
“We're going to livestream your death on the Internet, of course,” said Master Chaos. He frowned and then looked at Maria. “Did I say that right?”
Maria nodded. “Yes, dear, that's the correct terminology.”
“Good,” said Master Chaos. He shook his head. “I am just not all that good with this modern technology. That's why I'm glad I married you, though, because you are.”
Maria blushed, while I just wanted Master Chaos to dunk me into the vat and get it over with.
Nonetheless, I said, “Why are you going to livestream my death online? Why not just kill me right away?”
Instead of answering my question, Master Chaos brought me over to the metal sheet and slammed me down on it. The blow made me gasp in pain, but before I could do anything, Master Chaos was already tightening the clamps down on my arms and legs.
“You do have a point,” said Master Chaos, without looking at me as he tightened the clamps around my wrists and ankles. “It would be easier to kill you, but I want the whole world to know that I am back and mean business.” He finished tightening the clamps and then stood up, looking down at me with a scary grin on his face. “Maria tells me that lots of people use this thing called the Internet to watch videos and get their news, so I decided to use it to show everyone my triumphant return to the superhuman scene.”
“How many people will be watching?” I said.
“Hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions,” said Master Chaos. “Enough people who will share the video on their social media accounts and tell their friends in real life about it. By the end of the hour, the whole world will know that Master Chaos is still as dangerous as ever.”
Master Chaos sounded positively giddy about it, while I said, “How did you get such a large audience already?”
“Maria is a skilled computer hacker,” said Master Chaos, nodding at his wife, who was typing away behind her laptop again. “She's using her skills—along with a few government devices I stole—to make sure that the video of your death will play on every computer, tablet, and smartphone screen in the world.”