The Superhero's Son (Book 9): The Superhero's End Read online

  I nodded again, but deep down, I was worried. This was where the plan either succeeded or failed; if the Resistance hackers had failed to put our false identities into the database, then we would have to abort the mission quickly and try again.

  The guard pulled over a large machine that looked kind of like an old-fashioned camera, except without any film or anything like that. He aimed its shutter toward us and then gestured for one of us to step forward and have our faces scanned. Since I was the closest, I went first.

  Stepping in front of the scanner, I had to bend over slightly in order to line my face up with the scanner. Once my face was in place, the guard pressed a button on the scanner.

  A flash of light emitted from the scanner, which almost blinded me, but I kept my eyes open because I had been informed ahead of time that I needed to keep my eyes open in order to make sure that it got an accurate reading of my face. Still, when the flash ended, my eyes were somewhat watery, forcing me to blink as I pulled back and stood upright.

  Still blinking the tears out of my eyes, I looked at the guard, who was now staring at a computer monitor that displayed the picture of my face that the scanner had taken. God, I looked awful, but that thought quickly vanished from my mind as the computer compared my image to the millions that were likely stored on the database. I didn’t exchange a look with Valerie, because I didn’t want the guard to notice anything out of the ordinary, but I did start sending a bit of electricity to my fist just in case the hackers had failed to hack our fake identities into the database. Indeed, it seemed to take longer for the computer to confirm my identity than it normally would; at least, that was what I thought, because the guard frowned like he was getting impatient.

  Then, all of a sudden, a large green check mark appeared over my image, followed by a message box that said, ‘IDENTITY CONFIRMED.’

  I would have let out a sigh of relief just then, but then the guard turned to look at me and said, “All right. You’re approved. Next?”

  Valerie got her face scanned and, like with me, the computer confirmed her identity. While it matched her face to the database, I internally thanked the hackers for quickly and successfully adding our fake identities to the system.

  After our identities were confirmed, the guard tapped a few buttons on his control panel. A split second later, a bridge made of golden light extended from this side of the moat to the main gates of Castle Rational. It didn’t look very solid, but when I put a foot on it, it felt as solid and supportive as a steel bridge.

  “There,” said the guard. “The light bridge has been activated. Better hurry on over quick. I’m not supposed to keep the light bridge activated for very long. Security reasons, you know.”

  I nodded. “Yes, thanks for being so gulli—I mean, helpful. Your help is greatly appreciated.”

  The guard nodded again, but then leaned forward and whispered, “And please don’t mention what I said before, okay? Just keep my comments between you guys and me.”

  “Uh, sure,” I said.

  But even as Valerie and I started making our way across the light bridge, I couldn’t help but wonder at how even the guards lived in fear of my father. It made me thankful for how Dad had used his intelligence for good in my universe, rather than for evil; had Dad in my universe been evil … well, I didn’t have to speculate about how life would have looked, anyway.

  We crossed the light bridge quickly, but I didn’t look down at all as I walked. Maybe it was weird to admit, but even though I could fly and had no real fear of heights, I didn’t want to look down through the light bridge and see the moat below. But I did glance down once and saw, through the bridge’s transparent surface, what looked like a gigantic shark fin break the surface of the water before going back under quickly.

  In any case, I was glad when we reached the other side of the bridge and crossed the gates into the courtyard of Castle Rational.

  Or would have, anyway, if we hadn’t run into Mecha Knight as soon as we stepped off the light bridge.

  Chapter Five

  I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Mecha Knight himself stood in front of us, looking for all the world like he had just stepped out of my universe into this one. He stood so still that he looked like a statue, but then his eyes darted down to us and he blinked.

  “Mecha—” I said, but then Valerie elbowed me and hissed, “Shut up. It’s not Mecha Knight.”

  Mecha Knight—or whoever he was—just stared at us for a moment, as if trying to understand what we were saying, before walking around us and onto the light bridge behind us. I knew I wasn’t supposed to, but I looked over my shoulder anyway as he walked past us, unable to believe my eyes, though Mecha Knight himself didn’t even look back at us.

  I looked at Valerie again and said, in a low voice, “Valerie … what the hell?”

  “Sorry,” Valerie whispered back. “I forgot to tell you about the Mecha Soldiers.”

  “The what?” I said.

  “Robotic clones of Mecha Knight,” Valerie whispered. “Back when Mastermind killed off the NHA, the last member he fought was Mecha Knight. When he killed Mecha Knight, he took Mecha Knight’s robotic body and duplicated it, creating an army of robot drones he then used to take over the world.”

  “And that was one of them?” I said.

  “Yes,” said Valerie. “But I have no idea what it was doing here. All Mecha Soldiers are supposed to be in army bases around the world. They aren’t part of Castle Rational’s defenses. They’re meant to be soldiers fighting in wars, not guards defending castles.”

  “I don’t like this,” I said. “There must be a reason why this Soldier was here. And it can’t be good, whatever it is.”

  “True, but it isn’t like we have much of a choice but to keep going forward, you know,” Valerie said. “Besides, it’s just one robot, and it didn’t even register anything wrong with us. It isn’t worth worrying about.”

  “If you say so,” I said.

  We walked into the courtyard, which was wide and expansive, more so than you’d expect based on the pictures. Twin statues of Mastermind rose on the right and left sides of the courtyard; the right statue depicted Mastermind holding a globe in both hands, while the left statue depicted Mastermind standing on what was left of that globe, as though he’d just smashed it. Guards stood on the walls, but their attention was focused on the streets around the castle, rather than on the courtyard; still, Valerie and I walked as nonchalantly as we could in order to avoid grabbing any unnecessary attention.

  “We need to make our way to the front steps of the castle,” Valerie muttered as we walked, gesturing at the front doors of the castle, which were clear, looking more like the doors of an office building than the doors of a castle. “Once inside, we—”

  “Hey, you two!” someone called. “Where do you think you’re going?”

  My first instinct was to zap the guy who had shouted at us with some electricity. Or maybe just use my super strength to punch him. Or, heck, even just grabbing Valerie and making a run for it, regardless of whether that caused the guy to shoot at us or chase us or not.

  But I got control of my instincts quickly and instead looked over to see another guard walking toward us. Since his gun was holstered at his side, rather than in his hands, I realized that he was not here to arrest or attack us, so I stayed where I was, though I was prepared to attack him if necessary.

  “Um …” I said, trying to think of what to call the guy, but I couldn’t think of anything at the moment. “What’s up, doc?”

  The guard stopped and stared at me in disbelief for a moment before shaking his head and saying, “Look, you two, Castellan Techno is calling a meeting of the guard. Everyone is supposed to be there, including you two.”

  “Oh,” I said. “Well, uh, sir, we didn’t realize that.”

  “You mean you didn’t get the message that Castellan Techno sent out to everyone?” said the guard in surprise. “Because he sent out a message to everyone yesterday tellin
g them to come to the meeting. Everyone, including you two, should have got it.”

  “Oh, we must have forgotten about it,” I said, exchanging a quick glance with Valerie, which I hoped that the guard didn’t notice. “Must have slipped our minds is all.”

  “Right,” said the guard, who didn’t sound entirely convinced of that. “Well, you’d better follow me. Castellan Techno doesn’t have much patience for people who are late.”

  The guard turned and walked away in the opposite direction. Although it would cause us to waste precious time, we nonetheless followed the guard, because if we didn’t, it would arouse way too much suspicion.

  Still, as we followed the guard through a door on the other side of the courtyard and into a staircase that went below the earth, I asked, “What does the Castellan, uh, want to talk about? Is it urgent? You know, since we forgot what the original message said.”

  “Nope,” said the guard, shaking his head. “I don’t know what he’s calling the meeting for. All I know is that he wants to warn us about someone who might try to sneak into the castle, which I think is kind of silly, since no one has ever successfully broken into Castle Rational before.”

  “Uh, right,” I said. I exchanged another quick glance with Valerie, which the guard—who had his back to us—didn’t notice, thankfully enough. “And we all have to be there?”

  “Yes,” said the guard. He looked over his shoulder at us, a serious look on his face. “You never ignore the Castellan’s summons. The last guy who did was thrown into the moat. He screamed pretty loudly before the moat monsters ate his head.”

  “Well, then we shouldn’t be late, should we?” I said.

  We walked down the staircase in silence for about a minute before we reached the bottom and emerged into a small room where a dozen other guards were already present. They were all sitting in rows on metal chairs opposite a small screen on the wall, which was currently blank. There were three seats in the back that were unoccupied, so me, Valerie, and the guard who brought us here all sat down in them, though Valerie and I tried to keep the other guards from seeing our faces so none of them would recognize us.

  But when I looked around, I didn’t see Techno anywhere, which made me wonder if he was going to come later before the screen in front of us suddenly turned on, displaying what appeared to be the symbol of Rationalia—a brain with lightning sparks shooting from it—before it shifted to show a man sitting in a chair.

  The ‘man’ looked small and weak. He was incredibly thin, like a stick, and had large glasses over his face that magnified his eyes. He wore a purple and gray Rationalian uniform, but even in his uniform, the man looked rather weak and nerdy. It didn’t help that his teeth also looked uneven, which had the added bonus of making him look like an anorexic neanderthal.

  “Is that Techno?” I muttered to Valerie.

  Valerie nodded and responded, in an equally low mutter, “Yes, why?”

  “I was expecting someone more … impressive,” I said.

  Valerie opened her mouth to speak, but before she could, Techno suddenly spoke in a nasally voice, “Guards of Castle Rational, I am glad to see that you all made it to this meeting. We will keep it quick, because I don’t want to keep you from your duties for too long. Not that you are doing anything that the castle’s automated security systems can’t do just as well, if not better.”

  I could tell that the guards weren’t exactly happy about Techno’s little jab. But they didn’t say anything, probably because if they did, Techno would have them thrown into the moat or something like that.

  “Anyway, I’ve called this meeting to make you all aware of the recent escape of a known criminal,” said Techno. “A superhuman named Bolt, who was recently arrested due to his ignorance of the laws of Rationalia, but was broken out by Resistance fighters not long after.”

  I immediately sunk into my chair, trying not to draw attention to myself. Thankfully, none of the other guards seemed to notice, except for Valerie, who looked rather uncomfortable herself.

  An image of me in my superhero costume appeared on the screen to the right of Techno’s face. He pointed at the image and said, “This is a picture of Bolt. His superpowers include super strength, super speed, flight, and the ability to shoot lightning from his hands. He’s incredibly dangerous and is now suspected of working with the Resistance.”

  The guards all looked closely at the image, no doubt trying to memorize my appearance so they would be able to spot me. I just hoped that none of them looked too closely at me here.

  “His current whereabouts are unknown, but we have reason to believe that Bolt will attempt to sneak into Castle Rational as part of a Resistance plot,” said Techno. “Therefore, all guards in the castle must keep an eye out for Bolt. If you see him, shoot him with your powerless pellets and do whatever is necessary to stop him after that; if you cannot do that, call for backup and stay away from him until help arrives. As I said, Bolt—despite being a kid—is incredibly dangerous and is known to kill anyone who opposes him.”

  I frowned. Since when did I kill anyone who opposed me? The only people I ever killed were people who tried to kill me first. I could only guess that Techno said that in order to convince the guards of how dangerous I was. It made me wonder how often Techno lied to the guards, but that was a matter for another time.

  “But you do not need to look out for him on your own,” said Techno. “The castle’s security systems have been updated to capture Bolt if they sense him anywhere in the castle. Still, even though our security systems are the best on the planet, even they don’t always catch everything, which is why I am telling you lazy good-for-nothings about this.”

  Again, I could tell that the guards were annoyed at Techno’s jabs, but as before, they said nothing. I noticed a couple guards exchange a few annoyed whispers, but that was the extent to which the guards reacted to Techno’s jab.

  “Now, I’ve already sent this image, along with several others, of Bolt to your phones for quick reference,” said Techno. “Not that you will need it, of course, since Bolt’s costume is as unique as it is cheesy.”

  “Cheesy?” I muttered, but thankfully no one heard me.

  “Now, then,” said Techno, “that is all you need to know for today. Remember, if you see Bolt anywhere, either take him down or call for backup, depending on the situation. And if anyone sees Bolt but fails to stop him or fails to report seeing him, they will be thrown into the moat to be eaten by the sharks.”

  I looked at the other guards. They were all nodding to show that they understood and accepted Techno’s orders. Me, I just wanted to get out of here as quickly as possible so the other guards wouldn’t notice me.

  Then the screen went blank. The guards immediately rose from their seats and began making their way to the door, no doubt to return to their duties, but Valerie and I didn’t get up just yet.

  “How did they know we would be trying to break into here?” I whispered to Valerie.

  “Probably because they know you want to go home,” Valerie replied. “If so, we’ll need to be more careful than ever about moving around this place, just so we won’t be seen.”

  I was about to respond to that, but then the guard who had taken us here suddenly leaned toward us and said, “Hey, what are you two whispering about?”

  “Uh, nothing,” I said, perhaps too quickly. “Nothing at all. Just—”

  “About why Bolt would want to break into the castle, naturally,” said Valerie. She tapped her chin. “Why do you think he would do that?”

  “I don’t know,” said the guard with a snort. “If he’s part of the Resistance, I bet he’d do it because he wanted to take down Lord Mastermind. Of course, Lord Mastermind isn’t around at the moment, so he couldn’t do that even if he somehow made it past security.”

  “Uh huh,” said Valerie. “Didn’t Lord Mastermind go to another universe or something like that?”

  “That’s what the rumors say,” said the guard. “Of course, I don’
t really believe it, myself. No one’s ever built a machine that can let you cross into other universes. Heck, I think multiverse theory is BS myself.”

  “But assuming, for the sake of argument, that multiverse theory is true and that Lord Mastermind managed to build a machine that could take him to another universe,” said Valerie, “where do you think such a machine would be kept?”

  The guard frowned, like he was thinking hard about Valerie’s question. “Probably in the laboratory on Floor One A. That’s where all of Lord Mastermind’s inventions and machines are kept. I’ve never been inside it myself, but I know where it is and I have guarded its entrance before.”

  “I see,” said Valerie. “Well, I think we’d all better head on out. If we are late to returning to our duties, I doubt Castellan Techno will be very happy about that.”

  “Yeah,” said the guard. “And I really don’t want to be the last one back to duty. My captain will kill me if I’m late.”

  The guard jumped to his feet and ran toward the door. Valerie and I rose from our seats and followed, but much more slowly than the guard did in order to make sure he couldn’t hear us as we talked.

  “What was that?” I muttered as we walked.

  “Just getting important information about the castle from the guard,” Valerie replied in a whisper. “After all, there’s no use in breaking into this place if we don’t know where Mastermind’s dimension-hopping tech is. And now that we know where the laboratory is located, we can make our way up there without getting lost and arousing suspicion from the guards.”

  “Good point,” I said. “Why didn’t I think of that?”

  “Because you’ve always been the type of person to act first and think later,” Valerie replied.

  So, after we returned to the courtyard, we made our way up the front steps of the castle, but we did it quickly, because we now knew that everyone in this place was on the look out for me. I didn’t think anyone would recognize me without my costume on, but I still felt paranoid that they might notice my chin or something like that.