by Lucas Flint
“Where is this place?” I said. I looked up at Phaser suddenly. “Is this part of the maze?”
“Yes and no,” came a familiar sneering voice from above. “This is my laboratory, where I have been hard at work making new discoveries for the good of humanity.”
I looked above and saw Longworth himself floating down toward me. He was sitting in a floating chair that looked familiar, but I wasn’t sure where I had seen it before. It was a round chair with what looked like a small computer monitor, keyboard, and buttons set in front of him. I did not see how he was steering it, but he moved it as naturally as if it was part of his own body.
“Longworth,” I said. I stepped forward. “Where are my friends?”
Longworth chuckled. “You mean the ones I killed?”
My eyes widened in shock and anger. Without thinking, I hurled a red lightning bolt at Longworth, but to my surprise, the lightning bolt hit some kind of invisible energy barrier around Longworth and disappeared. A second later, the lightning bolt shot back out of the barrier and hit me in the chest, sending me staggering backward from the blow. My immunity to electrical damage meant it didn’t hurt as much as it could, but the rebound still took me by surprise.
“Sorry,” said Longworth. “I guess I forgot to mention that my chair is equipped with an energy barrier that deflects most attacks. It can also absorb and fire back energy attacks, as you just saw, which makes it very useful for these kinds of confrontations.”
I looked up from my smoking chest and scowled. “You killed my friends. You’re a mon—”
“I was just joking,” said Longworth, holding up his hands. “Can’t you kids take a joke nowadays?” He looked at Phaser. “I don’t remember being this sensitive when I was a kid, brother. Do you?”
“No, brother, I do not,” said Phaser, shaking his head, “although to be fair, my memory has been a bit spotty ever since you brought me back to life, so I may have forgotten a thing or two about our youth.”
“If you two are done talking, then maybe we can get to the point where I kick both of your butts, save my friends, and get the heck out of here,” I said, folding my arms over my chest. “I do have places to be, you know.”
Longworth laughed. “How amusing! You seriously believe we’ll simply let you defeat us and walk away. I am humble enough to recognize my own limitations, of course, but even I am not dumb enough to let you go out into the world, where you can tell the government about my less-than-legal experiments and ruin all of our plans for good.”
“I didn’t say you were going to let me go,” I said. I held up my hands, which began crackling with electricity. “I said I’m going to kick your butts. Your permission is not necessary.”
Phaser leaned on the railing, his own irritating smirk plastered on his lips. “I seem to recall that I was the one who kicked your butt the last time we met, but I suppose my poor memory could be deceiving me.”
“I have footage of that fight from the security cameras,” Longworth said. “You most certainly did kick his butt.”
Phaser looked at Longworth irritably. “Would you stop taking things so literally? Of course I remember kicking his butt. I don’t need footage to prove it.”
“I was simply trying to be helpful,” said Longworth, who didn’t hide his own irritation at Phaser’s tone. “As you yourself said, the resurrection process messed with your memory, so—”
“Are you two done arguing with each other now?” I said, putting my hands on my hips. “Or are you going to fight me? I’m ready for Round Two, Phaser.”
Actually, I wasn’t, but I thought that if I looked confident, then perhaps Phaser would feel worried, which might make him mess up.
“Me? Fight you?” said Phaser. He ran a hand through his hair. “But if I do that, I might mess up my perfectly coiffed hair. You do not want to know how long it takes to make it look so good.”
“If you don’t want to fight me, then tell me where my friends are and get the heck out of the way,” I said.
Longworth laughed. “Just because we don’t want to fight you doesn’t mean we’re not going to fight you. We’re simply going to fight you on our terms.”
I was about to ask Longworth what ‘his terms’ were when I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. I looked to the side just in time to see a large sheet of metal crash into me and slam me into the door into the maze. The sudden blow knocked the air out of me and, despite my best efforts, I couldn’t move the metal sheet off me. It felt like it was magnetized to the door behind me, but I didn’t see any magnets that could do that.
Then I heard footsteps walking toward me and looked up to see who was approaching me.
Walking toward me, his eyes blazing with suppressed energy, was Strike. And he looked ready to kill me in cold blood.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
“Strike?” I said in alarm. “Strike, what are you doing? Why did you attack me? It’s me, Bolt. We’re on the same side.”
But Strike, apparently, did not hear me. He simply snarled and fired his lasers at my face. His aim was slightly off, however, allowing me to dodge it by moving my head to the side, although the lasers still left a burning spot where they stuck.
Not wanting to risk getting blasted again, I summoned my super strength and tore the metal off me. I shot up into the air just as Strike fired another laser beam at me and narrowly avoided getting blasted again.
I landed on the other side of the lab and looked over at Strike, who was looking at me now with deep hatred etched on his features.
“What the heck was that for, Strike?” I said. I dusted myself off. “Dang near blew my face off.”
“Don’t bother talking to him, Bolt,” said Longworth in a gleeful tone. “He couldn’t hear you even if he wanted to. The only voice he hears is my own, and right now I am telling him to kill you dead.”
That was when I noticed the metal band with a blinking red light on it on his head. It resembled the Control Crown that Dizzy wore, which meant that Longworth was telling the truth about Strike being under his control. And he was also incredibly angry, although whether he was angry at me or Longworth, I couldn’t tell.
Not that it mattered, because Strike was preparing to shoot me with his lasers again, so I took off into the air. But I didn’t get very far before Strike raised his hand up and a chunk of the metal floor flew up and slammed into me. The impact sent me falling down to the floor again, where I crashed and rolled for several feet until I hit the legs of one of the desks.
Shaking my head, I looked up just in time to see one of Strike’s laser blasts flying at me. I jumped out of the way at the last second, however, and the lasers struck the desk and blew it up, sending chunks of burning wood and sparking computer wires flying everywhere as I rolled back to my feet, panting and sweating from the effort.
“Hey, watch the equipment!” Longworth called out. “That stuff isn’t cheap, you know!”
Strike hesitated when Longworth spoke, which was the moment I needed to activate my super strength and rush toward Strike. I didn’t like having to fight my friend, but I figured his Control Crown wouldn’t work if he was unconscious. If I could just get one good hit in, I could knock Strike out and then go and deal with Longworth and Phaser, who were the real enemies around here.
But just as I was about to punch Strike, he raised his hands and a chunk of the metal floor rose up in my path. My fist hit the metal wall and left a big dent in it, but I didn’t pierce it.
Instead, I pulled my fist away, but then the wall fell toward me and I was forced to catch it with both my hands to avoid getting crushed underneath. But then Strike appeared off to the side and fired his lasers at me.
The lasers struck me in the side and sent me flying off out from underneath the metal floor tile. I hit the floor hard enough to dent the metal tiles, my head spinning briefly before I shook it and scrambled to my feet. I looked up to see Strike walking toward me, his cape fluttering behind him with each step.
Dang
it. I knew Strike was a powerful hero and experienced fighter in his own right, but this was the first time I got to see the full extent of his powers and skills. Even brainwashed, he was a force to be reckoned with. I now knew how he defeated Tsunami the first time.
But I was still stronger. I activated my super speed and rushed around Strike. He fired his lasers at me, but I dodged them easily and reached his back. I grabbed his cape and wrapped it around him as fast as I could until soon Strike’s arms and legs were bound with his own flowing cape. He immediately began trying to break free, but I had tied his cape around his body so tightly that I doubted he could do it.
“There,” I said, taking a step back from the struggling Strike. I reached for his Control Crown. “Now time to take this—”
But Strike looked up at me and fired his lasers at my hand. The lasers struck my hand, causing me to gasp in pain and pull my hand back. At the same time, Strike looked down at his cape and, with a couple of quick lasers, sliced through it. The tattered remains of his cape flew off Strike as he punched me in the jaw, which sent me staggering backward as Strike followed it up with another one.
But I activated my flight powers and flew up into the air, causing his second punch to miss me by a mile. Strike looked up at me as I flew high into the air near the ceiling, well outside of his reach.
“Hey, Strike!” I said, waving down at him. “Bet you can’t get me up here!”
I thought Strike was going to try to shoot me, but instead, he pulled out his metal surfboard, tossed into the ground, and jumped on it. A second later, Strike came rocketing up toward me, firing his lasers in quick, dangerous bursts that forced me to fly around to avoid getting hit.
Soon, Strike was chasing me all around the room, me flying as fast as I could while avoiding his blasts at the same time. Below, I could hear both Longworth and Phaser laughing at our little chase like they were watching a good movie. It frustrated me how much fun they were having, but I couldn’t deal with them until I took care of Strike. And I couldn’t take care of Strike unless I first destroyed his Control Crown, but getting close enough to deal with that was a whole ‘nother ballgame.
Then a brilliant idea popped into my head. Without hesitation, I turned around in midair and flew straight toward Strike. A look of surprise appeared on Strike’s brainwashed features as I soared toward him, but then his angry scowl appeared again and he started firing lasers at me again. I avoided them by banking down hard, going underneath his metal board as he flew past me.
But as his board flew above me, I punched the board’s underside hard enough to not only smash my fist through it but also send Strike falling off it. Strike cried out suddenly as he fell off his board toward the floor below, his arms and legs flailing pointlessly while his cape fluttered behind him.
He didn’t have much of a chance to save himself. Strike hit the floor hard and immediately stopped moving, blood leaking out of the back of his head and making him look very dead.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Uh oh. I immediately tossed Strike’s board aside and landed on the floor beside him.
“Strike?” I said, kneeling over him. “Strike, can you hear me? Strike?”
I checked his pulse and sighed when I felt it pumping as strong as ever. I had been worried that the fall might have killed him, but it looked like it just knocked him out. That was the good news.
The bad news was that his Control Crown was still blinking, which meant it was still active, which meant that Strike was still under Longworth’s control. But not for long. I reached over to remove the Control Crown, my fingers nearly brushing its metallic surface—
Suddenly, it became hard to breathe. My heart burned and I couldn’t get any oxygen. I looked down at my chest to see one of Phaser’s ghostly hands sticking through my back and chest, clenched tightly into a fist.
“Not so fast, kid,” said Phaser’s slimy voice in my ear. “Defeating Strike was impressive, but we can’t let you just remove his Control Crown like that. It would make things far too inconvenient for us, you understand.”
My breathing became hard and rapid. I remembered how Phaser nearly killed me the first time by sticking his arm into my chest, but I had no intention of dying that way. I needed to escape and I needed to escape now before he finished me off.
With a grunt, I activated my flight powers and shot up into the air. As soon as Phaser’s hand left my heart, I found I could breathe again, but I landed on the other side of the lab, well away from both Phaser and Longworth. I put my hands on my knees, breathing hard as I watched Phaser stand up and turn to face me, a disappointed scowl on his face.
“Running away already?” said Phaser. “You sure seemed brave earlier. Are you afraid we’ll sic another one of your friends on you?”
I gritted my teeth. “Nah. Just catching my breath. Going to need it for when I beat in that ugly face of yours.”
“You’ll never defeat my brother,” Longworth sneered. “Strike might have failed to kill you, but my brother definitely won’t.”
“Keep telling yourself that, Longworth,” I shot back. “It might help you feel better about your epic failure.”
“Failure?” said Longworth. He chuckled. “I haven’t failed at all. Actually, I am on the verge of massive, massive success. And it’s all thanks to you and your annoying friends.”
“The key to immortality, right?” I said as I stood up and rubbed my back. “Phaser here mentioned that you were trying to discover it. Did you actually manage to succeed or are you just overly-excited?”
“Oh, I didn’t find the key to immortality, brat,” said Longworth. “I merely perfected it. And I couldn’t have done it without the DNA samples I got from your friend Strike here. His DNA provided me with the final clues I needed to perfect the process.”
I frowned. “Perfected it? What do you mean?”
“I agree,” said Phaser. He ran a hand through his blue hair. “Any process that created me must be perfect already. You can’t improve upon perfection.”
“So you say, brother, so you say,” said Longworth. He rubbed his hands together eagerly. “Regardless, the point is that my plans have succeeded. There is nothing you can do to stop me now. Even if you killed me yourself, you would still fail.”
“Oh, yeah?” I said. “Want to test that theory?”
“Of course not,” said Longworth. “Not unless, I suppose, you want all of these cute girls to die.”
Longworth snapped his fingers. The ceiling opened up suddenly and a large metal cage descended from within. The cage descended until it hung several hundred yards above the floor, which was still low enough for me to see who was in it.
Seven teenage girls lay on the floor of the cage, each one tied up and unconscious. They all wore identical Control Crowns as well and the blonde-haired girl I saw told me all I needed to know about who these girls were.
I looked over at Longworth. “Are those the teenage girls Triplet was looking for? The ones who have been missing over the last month or so?”
“The very same,” said Longworth with a nod. “Including your friend, Dizzy, whose DNA samples have been very helpful in my experiments.”
“What did you do to them?” I said. “Did you kill them?”
“Kill them? No, why would I do that?” said Longworth. He gestured at the cage. “They are simply asleep at the moment, but I can wake them up anytime I like. Control Crowns are such useful little devices that I have a hard time believing I built them myself sometimes.”
My hands balled into fists. “So you do have the girls after all. Triplet was right.”
“Does it matter much, now that your detective friend is dead?” said Longworth. “There’s nothing you can do to save these girls. You saw what I did to Dizzy. I can do so much more—so much worse—if you keep trying to fight me.”
I tried to estimate how much time it would take me to break open the cage and free the girls before the Control Crowns overwhelmed them with pain and killed them all. Then
I realized that even if I did free them, the Control Crowns would still be active, which meant Longworth could still kill them anyway. What I needed to do was simple: Take out Longworth.
But how? Longworth was well-protected by the energy field which his chair generated. Even if he didn’t have that, however, there was still Phaser, who would undoubtedly protect his brother if I tried to take him out. I needed some way of distracting Phaser, even just for a few minutes, but how?
I glanced over my shoulder at the door behind me. Maybe if I pretended I was going to run back into the maze, I could take advantage of that moment to escape. Certainly, Longworth and Phaser wouldn’t see that coming, which was reason enough to do it.
Without saying anything, I turned around and rushed toward the door. I heard Longworth yelling at me to stop, but I didn’t stop. I was just waiting for the moment when Phaser would appear in front of me. Once he did, I would turn around and take out Longworth before either of them knew what was happening.
Right on cue, Phaser phased up through the floor and in front of me. He held out his hands, which were already phasing out of reality, but he never got to touch me, because at the last possible second I turned on my heel and shot into the air toward Longworth like a bullet.
I crashed into the shield surrounding Longworth’s chair hard enough to send it flying backward. The chair bounced off the door behind us hard enough to send Longworth flying out of his seat onto the floor. Before the mad scientist could get up, I grabbed the collar of his lab coat and put one finger, glowing with electrical energy, against the back of his head. I felt Longworth tense under my grip, perhaps listening to the crackle and pop from my electric finger and knowing what might happen to him if he tried to resist.
“Gotcha, jerk,” I said. “Maybe next time, invest in some seat belts. That will save you a lot of pain.”
I looked up. Phaser was still on the other side of the room, a stunned expression on his face. Clearly, he hadn’t been expecting me to turn the tables the way I did. I couldn’t help but smirk at him, shooting him a warning look that if he tried to stop me, he’d lose his brother.