by Lucas Flint
I caught the arm just before the needle could pierce my face. I held the needle inches away from my forehead, holding the arm back with all of my strength, but it was hard because the arm was pushing against me with a ton of strength. Not to mention that the needle was so close to my face that I could barely even see it without crossing my eyes.
With a roar, I shoved the needle to the side, causing it to impale itself into the floor. Then I chopped the arm, shattering it in an instant and forcing what little remained of it to retract to the ceiling above.
“Hmm, you’re more annoying than I thought,” said Techno in his smug voice. “Looks like I’ll need bigger guns. Mecha Soldiers! Attack!”
I heard the sounds of jets flying and looked up to see three Mecha Soldiers flying from the hole in the ceiling from which Techno’s chair had descended. The Mecha Soldiers landed on the ground around me, smashing what little had remained of the computers and desks I had crushed.
The three Mecha Soldiers drew their swords as one and then slashed at me, but I flew into the air, dodging their attacks just in the nick of time. Their swords clanged against each other, but they didn’t take even one moment to recover. Instead, they rocketed through the air toward me, forcing me to fly away to escape them.
But the Mecha Soldiers could move fast. They were just behind me and I could even feel the tips of their swords as they slashed after me. I didn’t even turn around to look at them, because to look around would be to slow down, and I couldn’t allow myself to slow down.
All of a sudden, one of the Mecha Soldiers flew in front of me. He held out his sword, clearly intending to skewer me, but I had just enough time to dodge it at the last second, but I still flew into the Mecha bot with my shoulder, sending it crashing to the floor below.
Shaking my head, I heard the whistling of a sword coming from my right and banked to the left, narrowly dodging a sword from another Mecha bot that would have taken my head clean off.
But I accidentally flew into another sword, which I tried to avoid by changing course. While I managed to avoid it, the blade still nicked my cheek, causing a little bit of blood to leak out, but I didn’t pay attention to such a small wound.
Instead, I flew away until I had put some distance between the remaining two Mecha Soldiers and myself. Not that they were going to let me do that, however; they flew after me, their swords in their hands, which made me wonder when they would ever give up before I remembered they were robots and therefore couldn’t get tired.
A scream of terror made me look back toward the portal. Valerie hadn’t activated the portal yet, but that was because she was being menace by yet another one of those mechanical arms. It had wrapped around her right arm and was trying to pull her off the floor, but Valerie had grabbed onto the controls and was desperately trying to avoid getting pulled away.
Without thinking, I flew toward her, because if I didn’t save her, the portal would never open and I would never get to go home. I was there in a flash, grabbing the mechanical arm that had grabbed Valerie and tearing it from its foundations on the ceiling.
Tossing it aside, I said to Valerie, “Val, are you okay?”
“Yes, but—” Valerie gasped. “Watch out!”
I looked over my shoulder to see the two remaining Mecha Soldiers swinging their swords at me. I shot into the air again, immediately avoiding their attacks, but the Mecha Soldiers took after me again, still ready to slash me.
Damn it. I was getting tired of playing cat-and-mouse with these robots. It was even worse with Techno still around, because he would just keep trying to stop Valerie from opening the portal. Therefore, I needed to beat Techno.
So I changed course and headed towards Techno, who had not moved from his position in his chair. He didn’t look at all surprised to see me coming at him, probably because of the barrier protecting him from any and all possible threats to his life. But I was going to figure out how to destroy it, no matter what.
I swung my fist at the barrier, but it just ineffectually bounced off, just like the bullet, forcing me to fly away to avoid getting hit by the Mecha Soldiers that were still chasing me. I fired lightning blasts at them, but the Mecha Soldiers dodged the blasts. I was really starting to hate how fast they were.
So I flew back to the floor, where I landed. At the same time, the two bots landed on either side of me, but before they could react, I grabbed a nearby desk and slammed one of them in the head with it so hard that I took its head straight off, causing the robot to collapse.
The last Mecha bot, however, jumped at me, its sword above its head. I dodged at the last minute, causing the sword to clang against the floor. I swung my fist at the bot’s head, but the Mecha bot pulled away at the last second, causing my fist to miss.
But that was fine, because I just flew into the air and made my way back toward Techno. I heard a blast of jets behind me, which was what told me that the Mecha bot was following me again.
As usual, Techno looked pretty smug. And he had reason to be: If bullets and super strength weren’t enough to break his shield, then I didn’t know what could.
But then I looked up at the hole in the ceiling from which the chair had descended and I realized that I didn’t need to destroy the barrier at all. And based on Techno’s smug grin, it was pretty clear that he didn’t know what I was planning to do next.
I kept flying toward Techno and heard the Mecha bot right behind me. I mentally counted down the time until I needed to change course: Five … four … three … two …
At the last possible second—right before I hit the barrier—I changed my course up, barely skimming the surface of the barrier as I went up into the hole from which the chair had descended. But the Mecha bot wasn’t nearly as nimble; it crashed straight into the barrier, causing the entire thing to glow yellow for a second before it ejected the robot off. The Mecha bot fell onto the floor below with a crash, but I stopped paying attention to it.
Instead, I flew up as high as I could until I emerged into what looked like a secret room. It appeared to be where Techno had climbed onto the chair from, based on the nearby door I saw, but I wasn’t going to escape through here.
Instead, I smashed both of my fists through the piston that the chair was connected to. I expected Techno’s barrier to extend up here, but my fists felt no resistance as they smashed through the piston.
Sparks and bits of plastic and metal flew everywhere as the piston—and the chair connected to it below—fell straight down. I heard Techno’s scream of terror before it was abruptly cut off by a loud crash and even louder explosion, though that, too, faded quickly enough.
So I flew back down to the laboratory below, where I saw a sight that was both satisfying and gruesome: Techno lay underneath the shattered remains of his chair, lying so still that he looked dead. His skin was burnt in places from the explosion, while his legs had been crushed by the remains of his chair. Blood leaked out of his temple, while his glasses lay shattered on the ground next to him.
A quick look around the lab showed me that, with Techno’s death, the machines under his control had stopped trying to kill us. That meant that the fight was over, which caused me to breath a sigh of relief.
Then I heard a pop and looked over to see the portal opening within the gateway that Mastermind had built. It started off as a very small, barely visible hole before it grew larger and larger until it covered the entire gateway. I couldn’t see anything beyond the portal, but I knew that it would take me home.
I flew through the air until I landed on the platform in front of the portal. Valerie was already there, looking up into the portal with wide eyes. She didn’t look very harmed, which was good, because I had kept her out of the fight, though her hair did look a little messed up from when that arm had tried to drag her away.
When Valerie saw me approaching, she said, “Did you beat Techno?”
I nodded. “Yeah. I think he’s dead, but even if he’s not, he’s not capable of stopping us even if he want
ed to.”
“Good,” said Valerie. She shuddered. “I always thought Techno was a creep. His death will be a great blow to Rationalia, by the way, since he was Mastermind’s second-in-command and was ruling the world while Mastermind was away. I hope my fellow Resistance fighters take advantage of the chaos that will ensue once everyone knows of Techno’s death.”
“Right,” I said. I looked at the huge portal standing open before us. “So you got the portal working?”
“Yes,” said Valerie. “The controls were simpler than I expected, but you should enter quickly. The portal takes a ton of power and can’t be maintained for very long, according to the warning messages I saw when I activated it. Better to enter as quickly as you can, rather than wait.”
“Okay,” I said. I hesitated. “What about you? What are you going to do?”
“Flee the castle and reunite with the other Resistance members,” said Valerie. She held up a flash drive. “While you were fighting Techno, I managed to download some of Mastermind’s important files onto this flash drive. I intend to share it with the Resistance once I’m out; it might be just what we need in order to defeat Mastermind once and for all.”
“I hope so,” I said. “I wish I could stay here and help you all, but—”
“But you will help us,” said Valerie, “assuming, at least, you manage to beat Mastermind in your universe. As long as Mastermind is alive and free, the Resistance will never truly win.”
I frowned, but nodded again and said, “All right. Well, it was nice meeting you and the others. I hope that you guys are able to overthrow Mastermind’s regime and make the world a better place.”
“Thanks,” said Valerie. “You know, our alliance reminded me of when I worked with this universe’s version of you. It was just like old times, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah,” I said. “Maybe someday I’ll come back here and we can hang out again. Maybe by that time, your world will be free of Mastermind’s control and you will be able to live a normal life.”
“I hope so,” said Valerie. “Good luck and make sure that your universe doesn’t suffer the same fate as ours.”
“Okay,” I said.
I turned to leave, but just before I could step into the open portal, a loud explosion came from the doors to the laboratory. I looked over my shoulder in time to see a dozen well-armed guards rush through the smoke, stomping all over the smoking remains of the doors as they aimed their guns at us.
“The guards!” Valerie shouted. She looked at me. “Go! Just go now!”
“But what about you?” I said. “You can’t beat the guards by your—”
I was interrupted by the sound of guns being shot and bullets ricocheting off the floor and walls, while Valerie said, “I’ll be fine! Just go!”
Despite what Valerie said, I still hesitated, but Valerie didn’t. She grabbed me by the arm and pushed me inside the portal. The last thing I saw, before vanishing into the portal, was Valerie drawing her own gun and firing it at guards I couldn’t see.
Chapter Seven
Traveling through an interdimensional portal reminded me of traveling through shadow, something I’d done a few times in the past courtesy of Shade, a G-Man agent who I saw far more often than I wanted. Everything was pitch-black and I was falling, but it also felt like I was drifting through the ocean. It was a hard to describe sensation, almost contradictory, but I didn’t know how else to describe it.
As I drifted through the space between dimensions, I tried not to panic. There was no air in here. It was like drifting through outer space, so I held my breath as long as I could. But my air supply was rapidly running out; soon, I would be forced to open my mouth and inhale the empty nothingness of the space between dimensions, which would certainly kill me.
But then, up ahead, I saw a small, but rapidly growing, speck of light. I was drawing toward it, and as I came closer to it, it grew larger and larger until soon I couldn’t see anything but the light. Then I passed through it and hit the ground face first.
Dazed from the fall, I suddenly realized that there was air here. I drew a deep breath of fresh air and, ignoring the pain in my face, took in as much air as I could. Even though I had been inside the space between dimensions for only a couple of seconds, it felt like I’d been floating through there for eternity. My sense of time must have been thrown off by the deep blackness of the space between dimensions or something.
But when I opened my eyes, I still couldn’t see anything, although my vision was starting to rapidly adjust to my new surroundings. Soon, I was able to see where I was.
I was in the middle of a forest that looked like the same forest where my grandparents’ abandoned mansion was. Judging by the light, it was probably early morning; not quite as early as in Mastermind’s universe, but early enough that the air was clear and crisp and the sun wasn’t yet very high in the sky. Birds chirped overhead, while a slight breeze sent the trees and their limbs swaying. It was an incredibly peaceful place, very different from Mastermind’s lab.
I looked over my shoulder. The portal was gone and I had no way to open it up again. That meant I probably wasn’t going to see Valerie or any of the other Resistance members for a long time, if ever again. It also meant I couldn’t help Valerie defeat or escape those guards that had suddenly appeared, but Valerie had seemed like she could take care of herself. At least with Techno dead, she might be able to escape the castle and rejoin the Resistance. I hoped she did, anyway.
But at the moment, that wasn’t my problem. I needed to figure out where I was and how long I’d been away. I had only been in that universe for a day, but then, considering how Mastermind’s universe was already ten years ahead of mine, that didn’t mean much. Maybe ten years had already passed here; the thought made me shudder.
Rising to my feet, I looked around my environment. I appeared to be all alone; I didn’t even hear the sounds of any cars. Wherever the portal had sent me, it must have been far away from civilization. But that wasn’t a big deal; I could fly, after all, and use my super speed, too, if necessary.
The only question was, which direction should I go? I didn’t know, because I didn’t have a map of the area and didn’t know where I was. Nor could I use my suit-up watch’s Internet connectivity; Blizzard had disabled its features when she gave it to me after I broke out of Ultimate Max so the government wouldn’t be able to track me.
So I rose into the air, flying higher and higher until I passed the tops of the trees and looked around.
But before I could get a good look at my surroundings, I heard what sounded like a cannon go off and looked down just in time to see a thick net come out of nowhere.
I tried to dodge it, but I was too slow. The netting slammed into me, knocking me out of the sky. I tumbled through the air before I smashed through the tree tops, snapping branches and sending birds flying until I hit the ground, where I lay, stunned.
Shaking my head, I looked at the netting around me. It was some kind of steel netting, which had entangled my limbs, but even with just a slight tug I could tell I could break it easily.
So, with a simple shrug, I snapped the netting off me and, jumping to my feet, shouted, “Okay, who’s there? Your netting didn’t work.”
I didn’t hear any response, but then I heard rustling in the trees and, without thinking, fired a blast of red lightning at the tree tops. The tree tops exploded, sending burning wood and leaves flying everywhere, but I didn’t actually hit anyone. It must have been a squirrel or something.
That was when I felt something sharp sting my neck. I immediately grabbed my neck, thinking it was a wasp or something, but then I felt a metal shaft and realized that I’d been hit with a dart. And why would someone shoot me with a dart unless … oh boy …
I collapsed onto the ground before I could finish the thought.
-
Uggh … I felt like I’d spent the night sleeping on a concrete mattress. I groaned and rubbed my head, but then put a hand on my neck. The back
of my neck stung, but I didn’t understand why until I remembered the dart.
That thought made my eyes fly open. I sat up and looked around my surroundings, my eyes blinking rapidly as I tried to figure out where I was.
I was in a concrete room that looked like a prison cell. It was incredibly bare, though, much barer than my prison cell in Ultimate Max had been. It didn’t even have a toilet.
Then I noticed a clear glass window in front of me. It showed another room on the other side, along with a door, and a stool for someone to sit upon, but the stool was empty, so I was all alone in here. I didn’t see any symbols or anything else that could indicate who owned this place or where I was.
Rubbing the back of my head, I decided that I didn’t like being here. I was going to smash through that window and figure out where I was personally. If that meant having to fight someone, so be it.
I walked over to the window and raised my fist to punch it, but then I paused. Though the window certainly looked normal enough, I sensed something off about it, like if I punched it, I would live to regret it.
Lowering my fist, I reached out and ran my fingers along the window’s cool surface. A jolt of electricity went into my hand from the window, causing me to jerk back instinctively. The window was apparently electrified, probably to discourage me from escape.
But what was I afraid of? I could control lightning. Who cares if I get a bit electrocuted? Yet there was something about this electricity that seemed different, like my body wouldn’t be able to handle the electricity if I let it flow through my body.
“Hesitating, Bolt?” said a familiar voice. “Now that’s completely unlike you. You usually like to figure out things by experience.”
I looked through the window and saw a familiar young woman step out of the shadows: Shade, an agent of the G-Men. She looked exactly the same as always, except there was a scar across her left cheek that she hadn’t had before. Where and how she got it, I didn’t know, but at the same time, I didn’t care to know right now.