by Lucas Flint
Instead, I scowled and said, “Shade. Long time, no see.”
“You don’t sound happy to see me,” Shade observed. “Well, I guess I understand. I wouldn’t be very happy to see the person who put me in prison, either, though I was hoping you would be able to forgive me. After all, that’s what superheroes do, right? Show mercy to their enemies and all that?”
“Cut the crap,” I said. “How did you find me? Where am I? No one knows where I am. Even I don’t know where I am.”
“You were found by complete coincidence,” said Shade. She gestured at the room in which she stood. “This is a secret underground government facility run by the G-Men. When you appeared on the surface, our computers informed us that you were there and, since all G-Men agents are under orders to arrest you if they find you, a couple of our guys here went out and took you down. Very easily, I might add.”
“How long have I been out?” I said.
“About two hours,” said Shade, “which is odd, because the tranquilizer the guys used is only supposed to last an hour, but I guess you must have been really tired or something.”
“That doesn’t matter,” I said. I pointed at Shade. “Where’s Cadmus? I demand to see him.”
“The Director doesn’t want to talk to you,” said Shade. “He’s too tied up dealing with the problem you left behind.”
“Do you mean Mastermind and White Lightning?” I said. “Are they still active?”
“Yes,” said Shade, nodding. “White Lightning is, at any rate. We’re having trouble locating Mastermind, but White Lightning is still going around blowing up towns and people. It’s pretty rude, if you ask me.”
My hands balled into fists. “So Cadmus Smith has me thrown in jail, then sends his men to recapture me after I break out, and he’s too ‘busy’ to talk to me? What the hell?”
“Perhaps I should put it more plainly,” said Shade. “The Director doesn’t want to talk with you. You are to remain down here, in this facility, until Mastermind and White Lightning have been stopped.”
“What? Why?” I said. “I know what Mastermind wants.”
“The Apocalypse Switch, yeah,” said Shade. “We know.”
“I also know where he’s from, then,” I said.
“He’s an evil counterpart of your dad from an alternate universe,” said Shade without missing a beat. “We also know that.”
“Then do you know where I’ve been all this time?”
“In the same alternate universe that Mastermind is from, probably,” said Shade. “But, of course, you somehow made it back. I doubt the Director will be very surprised to hear that, however. If you could break out of Ultimate Max, it isn’t surprising that you could break out of an alternate universe.”
I had forgotten how smart Shade could be. “Right. Well, where are my friends? Blizzard, Ivan, Triplet, Rime, Emma … where are they?”
“They’re still alive,” said Shade. “I should know, since I helped catch them.”
“You caught them?” I said. “Why?”
“Because they’re all wanted criminals,” said Shade. “Ivan—I mean Nuclear Winter—and Rime are both escapees from Ultimate Max, while Blizzard, Triplet, and Emma all helped said escapees get away from the authorities. It was pretty easy, to be honest, since they were all so distraught over your disappearance that they weren’t able to fight back against me very well.”
Shade was smiling as she said that, like she was proud of having captured them. I, on the other hand, wanted to slap that smile off her smug face.
“Where are they?” I said. “Are they in Ultimate Max?”
“Nah,” said Shade. “They’re in another one of our secret facilities. We’re going to make sure they can’t escape and ruin our plans, though given how much our plans have been ruined already, it isn’t like they could make things much worse.”
“What are you talking about?” I said. “What plans?”
“Our plans to take down Mastermind and White Lightning, duh,” said Shade. “Oh, I forgot. You aren’t privy to them because you aren’t G-Men.”
“Thanks for the observation, Captain Obvious,” I said. “I don’t suppose you’re going to tell me what your plans are, are you?”
“I can’t tell you all of them, no,” said Shade. “The Director would kill me if I did that. But I can tell you about some of them, if you’re interested.”
“No thanks,” I said, folding my arms across my chest. “I know what you guys are like. You created White Lightning. You took evidence that would have proved my relation to him from Professor Hernandez and tried to kill Triplet because he was getting too close to the truth. I can see through your lies.”
Shade smirked. “You are so precious whenever you act defiant. Too bad it won’t help you get out of here.”
“I’ll figure a way out,” I said. “And then I’ll stop Mastermind and White Lightning before they destroy the world.”
“No, you won’t stop them,” said Shade. “We will. The G-Men, that is. Once again, we will have to clean up after a mess that your people failed to deal with.”
“My people?” I repeated incredulously. I shook my head. “Never mind. You guys won’t be able to beat Mastermind. He’s my dad and you couldn’t beat Genius.”
“That’s because we never tried,” said Shade. “But why the hostility? We could still be friends. Or something more, you know.”
“Because of all the things I just listed that you did to me,” I said. “Seriously, weren’t you listening? I’m tired of repeating myself.”
“Fine, fine,” said Shade. “But you know, I really am sad to see you like this. If I was in charge, you wouldn’t be locked up like a rat. But the Director is in charge and I have to listen to him.”
“Why?” I said. “Cadmus Smith is a corrupt son of a gun. Why listen to any of his orders?”
“Because he’s my Director,” said Shade. “I know I may not always come across as particularly serious to you, but just because I can be fun and flirtatious doesn’t mean I don’t respect authority. My loyalty is to the Director first.”
Shade said that very seriously, much more seriously than anything I had ever heard her say before. She sounded almost like a completely different person, but then, I guess I was just seeing a side of her that I didn’t see very often.
So I said, in a calmer voice, “Okay. I understand that. I have people I’m loyal to, as well. But that doesn’t mean Cadmus Smith is a good man. Or that you’re doing the right thing by listening to him.”
“The Director has a plan and he is simply following through with it,” said Shade. “If you had agreed to join the G-Men, you wouldn’t even be in this situation in the first place.”
I rubbed my forehead in frustration. “Tell me, how’s that plan going? I see that scar on your cheek. Was it from White Lightning?”
Shade flinched, like I’d thrown something at her. She touched her scar and said, “Yes. I tried to fight him recently, but he was too quick and powerful. He reminded me of you, except merciless and crazy.”
“Clearly, then, you guys need my help if you are going to beat him,” I said. “I’ve fought and beaten him before. Let me and my friends go and I’ll help.”
“I’ll have to run that offer by the Director first,” said Shade. “But thanks anyway. I’ll be sure to let the Director know that you are eager to help.”
“You are going to need my help if you are going to keep Mastermind from getting the Apocalypse Switch,” I said. “Once he presses it, it will be game over for all of us.”
“The Apocalypse Switch is currently safe,” said Shade. “Only the Director knows of its location, which is why he is staying out of the field in a secret location known only to himself. I doubt Mastermind will ever even see him, much less find him.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” I said. “Mastermind is intelligent. It’s only a matter of time before he finds Cadmus and gets the knowledge of the Apocalypse Switch from him.”
“
And it’s only a matter of time before we find and kill Mastermind before he can do that,” said Shade. “All you need to do is sit back and relax and let us do our jobs. You’ll be out of here before you know it.”
Shade turned to leave. “Now, if you will excuse me, I’m going to tell the Director that you are awake.”
“You’re just going to leave me here?” I said. “Alone?”
“Sure,” said Shade. “That’s where you’re supposed to be.” Then she suddenly looked over her shoulder and smiled at me. “Unless you’d like me to keep you … company, that is.”
“No,” I said abruptly. “That’s fine. I’m … I’m fine.”
Shade giggled. “Okay. Anyway, time for me to go. You should take a nap, since you are going to be down here for a long time.”
With that, Shade walked back into the shadows from which she had emerged, leaving me all alone in my cage, wondering if I would ever escape or not.
Chapter Eight
I sat alone in the cage for hours. Or maybe it was minutes; I dunno. Without a clock to show me the time, I was unable to figure out what time it was. It didn’t help that the lack of sun was messing with my internal clock. I wondered if this cage had been deliberately designed by the G-Men to do this to prisoners kept down here. Knowing how those bastards operated, I wouldn’t be surprised if that was true.
I didn’t get a lot of visitors, just an occasional government employee who would come down to give me my meals. The food was okay—generally a ham sandwich, a banana, and a glass of water—but very unsatisfying. I also had the feeling I was being watched, even though I didn’t see any cameras anywhere. It could have been Shade watching me from the shadows, but even she probably had better things to do than that (I hoped, anyway).
It wasn’t like I did nothing while down here, though. I did test the walls, floor, and ceiling to see if I could break it. It felt like normal concrete, which I could break pretty easily, but I had no idea how deep underground I was. I was afraid that if I tried to break through the ceiling, I would cause it to collapse on me and bury me underneath tons of rubble. And, while I may have had super strength, I still needed air, which I couldn’t get if I was buried underneath tons of rubble.
Therefore, I would have to wait until the G-Men decided to let me out. Not that I was particularly happy about that, because as far as I could tell, the G-Men intended to keep me down here indefinitely, or at least until they beat Mastermind and White Lightning, but given how much progress they had made doing that, I figured ‘indefinitely’ was not much of an exaggeration of how long I’d stay down here.
But I really wasn’t worried about myself too much. I was really worried about Blizzard and the others. Were they being kept in similar situations to me? Were they being tortured? Or were they just being kept prisoner until the government decided what to do with them? What if the government decided to experiment on them? After all, the government had experimented on White Lightning, and look what they did to him. That wasn’t even counting the various Test Subjects from Project Neo and how crazy they got as a result of the experiments the government performed on them.
But how to get out of here? I didn’t know. I couldn’t expect someone to rescue m, because, outside of the G-Men, no one knew I was even back from my alternate universe trip. It seemed like I was going to have to break myself out, but this place seemed even more impregnable than Ultimate Max.
But I couldn’t give up. Whatever Cadmus’s plans were, I knew I would have to be the one to stop Mastermind. I had promised to Valerie and the Resistance members that I would stop Mastermind. I couldn’t fulfill that promise while I was down here, though.
Indeed, things began to seem very bleak for me, so bleak that I was considering just taking a nap like Shade suggested. It wasn’t like I could do anything more productive right now.
Before I could go to sleep, however, I heard a small beep from somewhere nearby. I instantly sat up and looked around for the source of the beep, but I didn’t see anyone or anything else in here with me.
Thus, I thought at first that I was just imagining things, but then I heard another beep and I realized it was coming from my suit-up watch. Looking down at it, I was surprised to see that I was getting a call from someone: It was Valerie, that is, the Valerie from this universe.
Hastily, I tapped the screen and said, “Val, is that you?”
“Hello, Kevin,” said Valerie, her voice as cool and unemotional as ever. “It has been a long time since we last spoke. How are you?”
“I’m fine,” I said. I looked around suddenly. “Uh, sort of.”
“Sort of?” said Valerie. “What do you mean?”
“It’s a long story,” I said. “But how are you contacting me? I thought my suit-up watch’s communication features had been disabled.”
“It wasn’t very difficult for me to access them again remotely,” said Valerie. “Whoever disabled your watch’s communication features didn’t exactly do a very good job of it.”
“Well, I’m happy to hear from you again anyway,” I said. “How long have you been trying to contact with me?”
“Ever since you were kidnapped by Vision,” said Valerie. “It’s been very difficult, since you were without your earcom and suit-up watch for so long, so I’m happy to finally have gotten into contact with you again. Ashley will be happy to hear that you’re okay.”
“You mean Mom?” I said. “How’s she doing?”
“She’s been very worried about you ever since you disappeared while fighting Vision,” said Valerie. “I’ve tried to reassure her that you are all right, but she became even more distraught when she heard that you were in Ultimate Max. She’s not like Genius. She’s too emotional, which makes it hard for me to interact with her.”
“Mom is just being Mom,” I said, though I couldn’t help but smile. “But it sounds like she’s okay, aside from worrying about me.”
“She is,” said Valerie. “Where have you been since breaking out of Ultimate Max, by the way? All of the news sources say that you were working with Nuclear Winter and several other supervillains you’ve fought before, but I’m not sure how accurate those news reports are.”
I explained to Valerie very briefly about what had happened after I escaped Ultimate Max. I kept it brief because I didn’t know when or if one of the government employees working here would come in and see me talking to her. But I did make sure to mention Mastermind and White Lightning, as well as the alternate universe where Mastermind was from, though I didn’t tell her about her alternate universe self. I just thought it would be very awkward and hard to explain and didn’t really want to do that at the moment.
Once I finished my story, Valerie said, “Interesting. When Genius was alive, he always speculated about the existence of alternate universes, but he never actually got to visit one himself because he didn’t know how to build a machine that could transport him to another universe. It sounds to me like Mastermind succeeded there.”
“Unfortunately,” I said with a sigh. “But anyway, I need to get out of here. I know Cadmus Smith wants me to stay here, but I don’t give a damn what he wants.”
“Right,” said Valerie. “Have you tried escaping on your own yet?”
“No, because my current situation kind of makes that a bad idea,” I said. “Do you think you could help, though?”
“I might,” said Valerie. “It’s possible I could hack into the facility’s security systems and unlock the doors. That way, you would be able to break out on your own without having to worry about causing the ceiling to collapse on you.”
“That will still leave the G-Men agents stationed here, though,” I said. “G-Men I will probably have to fight in order to escape this place.”
“True, but I’m sure you can handle them,” said Valerie. “The G-Men are strong, but I doubt they have many agents down here, because most G-Men agents tend to be in missions out in the field.”
“Yeah, I guess so,” I said. “Okay, so I need y
ou to hack this facility’s systems and help me get out of here. Can you do that?”
“I can,” said Valerie. “Or, at least, I will try. Government servers tend to be easy to hack; in fact, Genius had me hack a few in the past, but that was a long time ago when the technology was simpler.”
“Then give it your all,” I said. “Also, if possible, locate the facility where Blizzard and the others are being kept. I want to try to rescue them, too.”
“Certainly,” said Valerie. “But we will have to be quick about it. I doubt it will take the G-Men long to notice and patch the security breach, so once I get the security down, you will need to get out of there as fast as possible.”
“Sure,” I said. “What are you waiting for? Let’s get on it.”
“Okay,” said Valerie. “I don’t know how long it will take for me to hack the systems, so be prepared to run as soon as I take them down.”
With that, the call on my watch ended. But I didn’t feel nearly as tired as before. In fact, I was quite awake, excited and ready to leave this place as soon as Valerie took down its security systems. I was also impatient, however, and got up and started pacing up and down my cell, stopping every now and then to look at my watch, but I didn’t see any messages from Valerie yet confirming that she had taken down the facility’s security systems.
I found it kind of funny how I had worked with one Valerie to break into a place and another Valerie to break out of a place. It reminded me that, no matter what universe I was in, Valerie was always going to be my friend and ally. It was a comforting thought, especially after seeing how my own Dad became one of the worst supervillains I knew of after experiencing what he did.
But it wasn’t until about ten minutes later that I heard a beep from my suit-up watch. I raised my watch close to my face and, tapping its screen, said, “Val, what’s up?”
“I was just calling to inform you that I have almost taken down the facility’s security systems,” said Valerie. “They were not terribly difficult to hack into, but I don’t know how long it will take them to come back online once I knock them out.”