Red Masked Heroine

by Dee J. Stone

  She smiles a small one. “Okay.”

  We climb into my room and sit down on my bed. Playing is fun for maybe the first two minutes. Maddie’s not into it, not caring if she dies and loses all her lives. I’m trying to make it interesting, but noting’s working. Even I’m not feeling it. I sigh, tossing my controller onto the bed.

  “Maybe we can watch a movie,” I suggest.

  She drops her controller. “Maybe I should go home.”

  “You sure?”

  She nods. “I’m tired.”

  “Yeah, me too.”

  She looks at me and I look at her. She stands. “Good night.”

  I kiss her cheek, but she pulls away. “See you tomorrow,” I say, trying not to show how hurt I am that she’s shutting me out. I’ve got to get used to this. Maddie’s going through something right now and it’d be selfish for me to only think about myself and my feelings.

  She flies out of my window, and I turn on the news. Of course they’re talking about what happened with that guy who wanted to jump. And of course they’re blaming the Red Masked Hero for the whole thing.

  Someone must have caught the incident on his phone because the footage keeps repeating. Maddie hovers a few feet away from the guy, trying to talk him out of jumping. He doesn’t listen and leaps off the building. Maddie catches him just in time. Whoa. I didn’t realize he was this close to slamming to the ground.

  She really saved him in the nick of time. Yet no one seems to think about it that way. They just see her as a failure.

  There are some people who support Red, but it’s not a whole bunch.

  I shut the TV.

  Chapter Nineteen

  The next day, Maddie and I are cooped up in her room—I mean the attic—because Stacey has her friends over and she told Maddie to get lost. We could always go for a fly, but neither of us is in the mood. We just want to sit around here and be bummed.

  The media has still been talking smack about Red. It’s getting worse, no matter what she does. Just a few hours ago, a guy was getting robbed and Maddie stepped in. She was a bit too late and the thief ran off with the guy’s wallet. Of course it was Maddie’s fault. Idiots.

  Maddie and I aren’t talking about it, though. I told her it would get better, but when is that going to happen? How much longer does she—and me, too—have to endure this?

  “So the bio test,” I say.

  She looks at me like she just notices I’m here.

  “Mads?”

  “What about it? I already studied.” She shrugs. “Bio is easy.”

  “Maybe for some people.”

  She grunts. “I don’t want to do anything school related.”

  I feel my eyes nearly pop out of their sockets. Maddie doesn’t want to do anything school related? For years I tried to get her to not be so serious all the time. Now that I want her to be serious, she chooses not to care anymore? No, this can’t happen.

  “Nicole’s blog has been on fire,” Maddie says.

  “I don’t care about that stuff and neither should you. Nicole is a jerk.”

  She rolls her eyes. “Easy for you to say. Everyone loves Blue and they want him back.”

  “No, they don’t. Not everyone. I’ve had my fair share of people hating me.”

  “Not like this.”

  “I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”

  She sits forward, her eyes on the closed door. “What’s that?”

  “What?”

  She stands up. “The TV downstairs. My name was mentioned.”

  My heart skips a beat. “Your name?”

  “I mean Red.”

  With me at her heels, Maddie rushes down to the living room. Stacey and her friends are watching the news. Maddie and I hide behind the open door.

  A man’s talking about Red and how he wishes he could meet him. He’s got glasses, hardly any hair on his head, and looks like the type of person to dig for dirt on a person.

  He wants to interview Maddie?

  I want to say something to her, but she motions for me to keep quiet.

  “We’re very interested in Red,” the guy tells the reporter.

  “Not Blue?” the reporter asks.

  The guy has this wicked gleam in his eyes. “No, we’ve already met Blue. We want Red now.”

  “And when you say “we,” who are you referring to?”

  The guy pulls at his tie like he suddenly gets uncomfortable. “I meant to say me. I am interested in Red. He’s very…fascinating.”

  The reporter asks more questions. Maddie grabs my arm and pulls me up the stairs to her room. She shuts the door, leans on it, her chest rising and falling heavily.

  “Do you know what this means?” she asks.

  “Yeah, that some whacko wants to interview Red.”

  She shakes her head. “He specifically wants me. And he said he already met you and he accidentally said “we.”

  I have no idea where she’s going with this.

  “Don’t you see, Nick? He was from the organization.”

  “What?”

  She paces her room. “It makes sense. He went on TV because he doesn’t know how to contact me, since he doesn’t know who I am. I bet one of those reporters pounding your house these past few days was the organization trying to get information. But they couldn’t because the cops chased everyone off your property. So the next option is to pretend to want to interview me.”

  This is making my head spin.

  “You saw him,” Maddie continues. “He doesn’t look like a reporter. He looks like a scientist, the kind that would experiment on people like us. Who would want to use us. To hurt us.”

  I hold up my finger. “If what you’re saying is true, then you need to stay far, far away from that guy.”

  She rolls her eyes. “I don’t have to listen to you.”

  “We’re a team, aren’t we?”

  She crosses her arms over her chest. “He doesn’t want to see the ‘team.’ He wants to see Red, and last time I checked, I’m Red.”

  “Are we seriously going to argue about this?”

  “Can you stop me from going?”

  I don’t say anything. Of course I can’t.

  “Then it’s decided.”

  I grab her hands. “Think about it for a minute—”

  She pulls them away. “I’m not going to throw away a chance at finally learning who these people are. We’ll have an advantage over them because we know who they are. You can come with me. Stay invisible and then we’ll take them down.”

  I sink to the floor. “I bet their whole building is power proof. We wouldn’t stand a chance.”

  She frowns as she thinks about it. “Then that’s a risk I’ll have to take.”

  “Maybe we should think this over. Sleep on it.”

  She paces some more, says something, but I’m not paying attention. My focus is on the floor. Why does it make this weird noise every time she walks?

  “What?” Maddie says. She follows my gaze. “What are you looking at?”

  I drop to the floor and run my hand along the wooden floorboards. I’m not an expert on this, but it seems like they’ve been moved.

  “Nick?”

  “Check this out.” I point. Then I slide my fingers through the cracks and yank the floorboard off. There’s a huge hole.

  Maddie gasps and drops down beside me. She digs inside, moving her hand around, before pulling out a large envelope.

  “Is that what I think it is?” I ask.

  “Only one way to find out.”

  She springs to the door, makes sure it’s locked, then the two of us sit on her bed. She yanks the envelope open and empties its contents on the bed.

  All the pages have the same logo: JQ Laboratories.

  I grab a bunch while Maddie grabs the other bunch. Flipping through the pages, I can’t understand most of it, since it’s all calculations. Maddie’s pages seem to have the good stuff. She passes some to me.

  The first one is a picture
of a girl around five years old. I don’t think I recognize her. Under the picture are the words “Died during experimentation.” The entire document contains information about the girl, how she was acquired, what was done to her, how she responded to different procedures and experiments.

  The other documents are the same thing. None of these kids seem to have names. It’s all numbers.

  Bile rises in my throat. These are all the kids who were experimented on. Many died in the process. Butchers! How could they do that to little kids?

  Maddie’s eyes are wide as she skims over a document.

  “Is that…us?” I ask.

  She hands it over. A picture of four-year-old me is plastered on the top. My number is JQ1052. Under the picture it says, “Failed subject. Was disposed.”

  Maddie and I were right. Those people did experiments on us and once they realized we didn’t have powers, they tossed us out. There are many other “failed experiments” that were tossed out. I wonder if there are others out there who have powers like us.

  I read some more, about my past, how I got there, what they did to me. I don’t understand the science stuff, but there’s a lot I do understand. I was brought to the lab by someone called M.R. He seems to be the guy who “acquired” children for experimentation. My parents are listed on the bottom. No, make that my mom. I don’t seem to have a father. Her name is a little washed out, but I can make out Samantha Gilbert, I think.

  That’s who my biological mom is. Samantha Gilbert.

  She was seventeen when she gave me away. I doubt she knew she was handing me over to be experimented on. Or did she? Did the organization promise her lots and lots of money? It kind of stings that my biological mother would hand me over just for some money, but who knows what situation she was in? I can’t judge her.

  Peering over at Maddie, I see her scanning another document intently. “What is it?” I ask.

  Swallowing, she turns away, holding out the document. This is hers. Her picture is also on the top, with the words “failed subject” underneath. But it doesn’t seem like she was thrown out. It doesn’t really say anything else under the picture.

  Maddie’s on her feet and stomps over to the window.

  “You okay?”

  She ignores me.

  I continue reading the paper. Like before, I can’t understand what they did to her, but her parents’ names are there loud and clear. Melissa and James Randall.

  That means…Melissa really is her mom. She let her own kid be experimented on?

  Scanning some more, I see that the person who acquired Maddie was…

  My eyes nearly burst. Melissa Randall. M.R. She was in charge of gathering the kids.

  I just sit here, too shocked to move or even breathe.

  “Say something,” Maddie says in a hollow voice. She’s still at the window, her back facing me.

  Can’t. I can’t feel anything anywhere. It’s like all my limbs are frozen, like there’s ice cold water rushing in me instead of blood.

  “Say something, Nick.”

  I swallow, but something that feels like a brick is stuck inside.

  “Nick,” Maddie says. “Please say something.”

  I blink and swallow. “L—like what?”

  She turns to me with tears in her eyes. “Tell me that my mom—that it wasn’t her. She wasn’t part of it. That she didn’t do those things.”

  I can’t, no matter how much I want to. I head over to her and gather her in my arms. She buries her face in my chest. “We suspected she was part of it,” Maddie says. “But I guess I didn’t want to believe it. I can’t believe she collected kids to be experimented on. So many were killed. How could she do that?”

  I hold her close. “I don’t know.”

  “I hate her,” Maddie mumbles. “I don’t want anything to do with her. She’s dead to me.”

  I draw back and stare into her eyes. “She had to have a reason.”

  Maddie pulls away. “She just gave me up to be poked and prodded. She didn’t care about me.” She wipes the sides of her eyes. “And why didn’t Dad do anything about it? He just let them take me?”

  I wish I had the answers for her. It kills me that I can’t reassure her.

  “No,” Maddie says. “She’s dead to me.”

  Her hands are fisted at her sides, and they’re starting to get red. I reach out and sandwich them between mine.

  “We’re going to go after them,” Maddie says, a determined look on her face. “I don’t care what it takes. We’re going to make them pay for what they did to us and all the others.”

  She marches to the bed and rummages through the papers.

  “What are you looking for?”

  “Any information about this place. Where their headquarters is, things like that.”

  I help her look, but there doesn’t seem to be anything. Maddie rubs her forehead.

  “Maybe your mom is key.”

  Maddie shakes her head. “She left the organization.” She points to the bottom of her document. “When I ‘failed’, she took me and left.”

  “It doesn’t say if she left without permission. It’s possible she ran away with you.”

  “Why? Because they were going to kill me? I didn’t know she cared that much about me.”

  I place my hand on her shoulder. “I’m sure she has a reason.”

  “I don’t care. Only monsters collect kids to be mutilated. I can’t even…I can’t deal with this. I need to leave.”

  “Wanna go for a fly?”

  She nods. Waving my hands, I put the papers in a pile and lower them into the floor. I cover them with the boards.

  When everything looks as it should, I take Maddie’s hand, make us invisible, and we fly out the window.

  We’re quiet, each caught up in our own thoughts. The cool wind feels good as it slaps me in the face. I feel like nothing can hurt me, because I’m so distraught by what we just discovered. Maddie’s right that we always suspected Melissa as being part of the group, but actually seeing it on paper changes everything. Makes it more official.

  “I’m going to meet with that guy,” Maddie says after about ten minutes of silence.

  “Are you sure you want to get involved in all of this?”

  “We’re already involved. Nick, we need to track these people down and the only way to do that is to meet with them. Tracking my former mother has been a bust and waiting around for them to strike is getting us nowhere, either. This is our only shot.”

  I don’t say anything. I really don’t like this.

  “We also have to think about all the people—kids—they’re experimenting on right now. Those documents didn’t mention if there were any successful experiments. I’m sure they’ve been working day and night for years until they get it right, if they haven’t so already.”

  She’s got a point. We need to save them.

  “Many of those scientists died when you freed me,” I tell her. “You burned the place down.”

  “Yes, but I’m sure those weren’t the only scientists. It’s probably much bigger than we can ever imagine.”

  Which makes me even more worried for her. “Okay, but we need to do this right. I’m not going to let you walk into a trap.”

  She squeezes my hand. “I know you never would.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Maddie and I have gone over the plan a million times. When she was out saving a school bus from nearly falling off a bridge earlier today, she made an announcement that she was willing to meet for the interview. The reporter, Bernie Wallace, told her to call a number and she did so from a payphone far, far away from us. He told her where and when to meet.

  She’s supposed to see him in about an hour.

  “It’s definitely a trap,” I say as I run my hands up and down her arms. We’re on my roof and it’s not the cold that makes me shiver.

  Maddie stops my hands. “I’ll be okay.”

  “We have to remember that these people are experts on people like us. Th
ey know our weaknesses and things like that. I won’t be surprised if they’ve got nullifier nets and ropes in their arsenal. Not to mention tranquilizers.”

  She grabs my chin. “Which you will see from a distance with the goggles. They might expect you to show up, too, since they know we know each other, but you’ll be far, far away and invisible. They shouldn’t catch you.”

  I nod, not worried for me but for her. She’s stepping into a battlefield.

  “How are you so calm?” I ask.

  “Because this is important. Not just for us, but for the world, too. Who knows what these people plan to do with all the powered people?” She scans the paper with the address scribbled on it. An office building in Ohio. “Looks legit, but these people are good at concealing themselves behind fake buildings.”

  Just like they did when they captured me. “Right.”

  “Did you manage to find anything on your birth mom?” she asks.

  I shake my head. “Spent hours Googling Samantha Gilbert, but couldn’t find anything.” I sigh. “Maybe she doesn’t want to be found. I mean, it’s not like she’s trying to find me.”

  She places her hand on mine. “Maybe she is. The organization took you away from her, probably pretending to be an adoption agency or something. It’s possible she tried to look for you but couldn’t, since that agency doesn’t exist.”

  It makes sense, but I don’t really want to think about it. I don’t want to deal with what Maddie and I are about to do either, but at least it’s sort of something we can control. These people don’t know we’re onto them. Hopefully, everything will go okay.

  We spend the next few minutes going over the plan and talking about different things for a distraction. School and family, and whatever.

  When the time comes, I take Maddie’s hand, turn us invisible, and we shoot in the air. It doesn’t take long for us to jet to Ohio, and as we hover in a tree a few feet away, we check out the building. Like we expected, it looks like an office building, with many floors and windows. It is kind of isolated, though.

  With Maddie’s hand still in mine, I give it a squeeze as I look around. “There doesn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary. No one’s guarding the building, at least from the outside.”