by Lucas Flint
I suddenly looked up at Camel. “I think I know who the Necromantress is working for.”
Camel raised an interested eyebrow. “Oh, really? Who might it be?”
I glanced around briefly, just to make sure no one could overhear us, though given how we were the only people in the van, that was probably a pointless thing for me to worry about.
Then I looked at Camel again and said, “Sasha Munroe, the CEO and owner of Munroe Acquisitions, Inc.”
CHAPTER TEN
“Sasha Munroe?” Camel repeated with a frown. He looked over his shoulder at Jake. “Jake, who is this Sasha lady? Her name sounds familiar, but I can’t remember where I’ve heard it before.”
“She’s one of the richest women in Golden City,” said Jake without missing a beat or taking his eyes off the road. “Oldest daughter of Charles Munroe, the founder of Munroe Acquisitions, Inc., which is the largest superhero acquisitions agency in the world. Remember, we learned about her during our debriefing on Golden City before we came here.”
Camel snapped his fingers. “Ah, I remember now. Yes, didn’t Director Kent tell us to keep an eye on her?”
“He did,” said Jake. “Intelligence reports suggest that Miss Munroe has been involved in some legally questionable activities in the past, though no one has ever been able to connect her to anything.”
“’Legally questionable’ is the nicest way to put it,” I said. “I know for a fact that she’s been involved, both directly and indirectly, in a lot of illegal and outright criminal activity. I don’t have any proof, though.”
“Is that why you think she’s the Necromantress’ current employer, then?” said Camel, looking at me again. “Because of her questionable behavior?”
Truthfully, I suspected it because of Sasha Munroe’s blackmail of me. That she had been involved in illegal and criminal activity in the past just made it more likely, but even if she hadn’t been involved in anything questionable or illegal, that wouldn’t change my opinion in the slightest. I couldn’t explain why she would have both me and the Necromantress gunning for Rubberman, though; maybe she just wanted to make sure he got killed no matter what. And in any case, I couldn’t tell Camel and Jake about this, because I didn’t want Sasha to somehow learn that I’d spilled the beans and then have my family hurt or even outright killed.
“Yeah, that’s why,” I said. “Sasha probably wants the Necromantress to kill Rubberman so she can get his business. She wants Rubberman’s business more than anything else in the world and is willing to do anything—and I do mean anything—to get it.”
Carmel actually looked a little worried, probably because he hadn’t expected me to state my theory that bluntly. “Well, Jake and I will investigate this Sasha woman a bit more. We were meaning to stop by Munroe Acquisitions’ headquarters anyway, right, Jake?”
“Right,” said Jake. “I will call the company and arrange a meeting between us and Miss Munroe. We will see what we can learn.”
I thought about telling them that that would be useless. Sasha was a smarter woman than she let on. I could easily see her using her fake charm to trick them into thinking that she was just an innocent, honest businesswoman who certainly would never hire a known supervillain like the Necromantress to kill a business rival, no sir. Camel and Jake were fairly smart and perceptive guys, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t be fooled if Sasha decided to play up her innocent act.
But I decided not to warn them. They probably wouldn’t listen to me, anyway, given how they still treated me like a dumb kid. And who knew, maybe they would be helpful; it certainly was nice to have someone from the federal government investigating Sasha, regardless of the outcome of the investigation. Maybe it would turn out better than I hoped.
The van came to a stop suddenly and Jake said, “We’re here.”
I looked out the window. The van was parked just outside of the alleyway which led to the Elastic Cave’s false storefront entrance.
“Well, guess this is goodbye for now, kid,” said Camel. He patted me on the shoulder. “If you find out anything else about Sasha, call us. Oh, and try not to get yourself caught in an ambush like that again. Jake and I aren’t always going to be around to save your behind, you know.”
“Right,” I said.
I climbed out of the van. As soon as I closed the door behind me, the van zoomed away down the street, leaving me standing there on the street by myself. I watched the government van as it turned down the street and vanished from sight. I couldn’t help but wonder—no, hope—that they would find enough evidence to arrest Sasha. If they could somehow take her down, then I would not need to worry about the safety of my family again.
I turned and walked back to the Elastic Cave entrance. My shoulder still hurt; not as badly as earlier, and it probably wasn’t going to leave any permanent damage, but at the same time, the pain was more obvious, especially now that the adrenaline had worn off. Maybe I’d ask Adams for some pain meds while I was in the Cave.
A couple of minutes later, I emerged onto Level One of the Elastic Cave. I immediately spotted Rubberman seated at Mission Control, tapping keys and staring at the various computer screens. On one monitor, a female reporter from one of the local news stations was reporting on something; it looked like something to do with the Vigilante Legion, though I wasn’t sure until I saw the Beams Bike still lying abandoned in the middle of the alleyway amid the wreckage created by my fight with Smoke Man and Hindsight. I even saw Hindsight himself being forced into a police car by the police, though I didn’t see Smoke Man.
“Boss?” I said, rubbing my aching shoulder. “Hello?”
Rubberman suddenly whirled his head around in a complete circle; he could do that, since he was made out of rubber, though it looked like it required a lot of effort from him. “Alex, I didn’t hear you enter. How are you doing? Are you okay?”
I shrugged. “I’m fine. My shoulder hurts, but I don’t think the wound is going to open again. I think that the Bike suffered more damage than me, in all honesty.”
“Good to hear,” said Rubberman as he turned his officer chair around to face me fully. “But I’m a bit disappointed to hear about the Beams Bike. It cost a lot of money to build and it’s probably going to cost a lot of money to fix, depending on the extent of the damages done.”
“It just lost a tire,” I said. “It’s not going to be that expensive to replace, is it?”
“We’ll find out when Adams brings it back and I have Armando inspect it,” said Rubberman. “If it crashed, it might have caused some interior problems that are far more serious than a popped tire. We probably won’t know for at least a week, perhaps longer depending on when I can get Armando to look at it.”
“Adams isn’t here?” I said, glancing toward the kitchen.
“Yep,” said Rubberman, nodding. “He left a few minutes ago to bring the Beams Bike back to the Cave. He’ll probably be back in an hour or so, but in the meantime, why don’t you take a seat and tell me exactly what happened? I’ve been watching the news, but the reporters, as usual, have no idea what happened. I want to hear straight from the source.”
Truthfully, I just wanted to go to my room and take a nap, but then I remembered my conversation with Camel and Jake and decided that Rubberman needed to know everything that happened recently.
So I took a seat in one of the other chairs in front of Mission Control and told Rubberman everything that I remembered. As usual, Rubberman was a good listener, not interrupting me except to ask a clarifying question here and there. He didn’t even seem particularly upset until I got to the point where Camel told me about the Necromantress working with the Vigilante Legion. Prior to that point, he had been fidgeting with the small toy prototype of himself, but when I told him about that, he immediately stopped fidgeting with the rubber figure and sat very still, a very serious look on his face. Even then, however, he did not say anything, even though I could tell that this news had struck him in a way that the rest of my story had
n’t.
By the time I finished filling him in on everything that had happened, Rubberman looked deeply troubled. He started fidgeting with his small toy, but it was in a much more agitated way now, like he was trying to keep himself from getting too upset.
“These agents,” said Rubberman, looking up at me, his expression even more serious than before. “They know for a fact that Shawna is now working with the Vigilante Legion or at least with their leader, Doctor Devil?”
I nodded. “Yes. They said they saw the meeting themselves, though they didn’t know what they were talking about because they missed the first part of it.”
Rubberman’s frown deepened. “I know who Doctor Devil is. He and Iron Angel used to work together back in their day. I even remember watching an Iron Angel and Doctor Devil movie that came out when I was thirteen. I never really cared for him, though, at least not as much as Iron Angel. Guess it’s not much of a surprise that he was Iron Angel’s lieutenant; if there is anyone Iron Angel would have gone to for support, Doctor Devil is the best choice.”
“What should we do?” I said. “Should we try to look for the Necromantress and find out what she and the Legion are planning?”
Rubberman put his toy on Mission Control and folded his arms across his chest. “I’ll definitely tell Myster and the other heroes about this. They need to know that the Necromantress is working with the Vigilante Legion now. She probably won’t come after any of them, but they need to know anyway.”
“You mean you actually believe that the Necromantress would be willing to work with the Legion?”
“I know Shawna,” said Rubberman simply. “Her all-consuming goal in life is to kill me. I understand why she would ally with the Legion, even though she killed several of their members before. I doubt it’s a very warm friendship, though. I bet she’ll stab them in the back as soon as she can. That’s just the kind of woman she is.” He rubbed his forehead. “I must admit, though, that I find it hard to believe that Shawna would willingly approach them for any reason, because she holds grudges like no other woman I’ve ever known and doesn’t forgive easily.”
“I don’t think she’s working with them willingly,” I said. “I think she’s working for someone else.”
Rubberman raised an eyebrow. “Who could she possibly be working for? Shawna’s not the kind of person to work for anyone unless she thinks it will bring her closer to killing me somehow.”
I hesitated. Rubberman deserved to know my suspicions, especially if they were correct, but at the same time, I didn’t like talking about Sasha. Talking about Sasha reminded me of the deal I’d struck with her. Rubberman was sitting right in front of me. One good blast from my lasers and—
“It’s Sasha,” I said. “I think she’s working for Sasha.”
In contrast to Camel’s reaction, Rubberman looked almost as if he had expected me to say that. “Ah. Of course.”
“Of course?” I said in confusion. “You mean you expected Sasha to hire the Necromantress?”
“I didn’t say that,” said Rubberman. “I’m just saying that I am not surprised to hear that Sasha hired Shawna, most likely to kill me. Both women would benefit from my death. The idea that they might have formed some sort of partnership or alliance to take me out makes perfect sense, however evil it may be.”
That was not the reaction I had expected to hear from him at all, but I supposed it was better than Rubberman being confused and scared. If he was calm, then he might be able to stop Sasha; and if he could stop Sasha, then I would not need to kill him.
“Having said that,” said Rubberman, “you obviously don’t have any proof for that theory. I’m not going to share it with the other heroes, especially not with Prime Man, because if Sasha really is behind this, she must not know that we suspect her. As long as she believes that she carefully dusted away her fingerprints, she’ll continue to leave more and more behind until we have enough evidence to put her behind bars.”
I nodded, but I was feeling uneasy about all of this. Something told me that the situation was more complex than it seemed. It seemed a bit too obvious that Sasha and the Necromantress were working together, like it fit all of our preconceived prejudices about the two. Yet why was I so doubtful? It made sense. Something else about this situation bothered me, though what, I didn’t know.
“Sasha, the Necromantress, and the Vigilante Legion,” said Rubberman, leaning back in his chair with a grim smile on his face. “All working together, whether they know it or not, just to take down the two of us.”
“Have you ever been in a situation like this before?” I asked. “You don’t sound upset.”
Rubberman shrugged. “I’ve never had to deal with so many of my enemies teaming up like this before, no. But it isn’t like we can’t deal with them. Heroes United, despite my reservations of them, is with me, as are the police, and of course there’s also trustworthy and reliable Adams, who has never let me down. Even those two government agents who took you here. Yet even if I had none of them, if it was just you and me, I would consider that more than enough to deal with whatever Sasha, Shawna, or Doctor Devil has in store for us.”
I knew Rubberman meant well when he said that, but I couldn’t help but feel guilty when he said that. He didn’t know about the deal I’d made with Sasha. He didn’t know how I wasn’t really with him. He didn’t know that by the end of this week, only one of us would still be alive … and it might not be him.
But I said nothing about that. “Thanks, boss. Glad you trust me.”
“It’s hard to find trustworthy people in this world,” said Rubberman. “Especially in this business. Lots of kids want to be sidekicks for fame, glory, or money, but they lack the skills and discipline necessary to do what is necessary to succeed. That’s where you’re different. You want to do the right thing, no matter what.”
“That’s nice and all, boss, but you know I started working for you to save up for a car, right?” I said. “I mean, I’m not that special.”
“That may be so, but you’ve still shown that you are a real hero,” said Rubberman. “You don’t know how rare that is, especially among kids your age. Never forget that, all right?”
Hearing all of Rubberman’s praise of me should have made me feel great, but all it did was make me feel like a big hypocrite. I doubted Sasha was listening in on this conversation, but I imagined that if she was, she would be cackling like a witch in her office. Heck, maybe even Takeshi would be cracking a smile, as if to say Can you believe this?
Nonetheless, I said, “Sure thing, boss. Sure thing.”
Rubberman smiled. He glanced up at the monitors again, focusing especially on the one with the female reporter at the scene of my fight with Smoke Man and Hindsight, and then said, “Anyway, Beams, I think you should go home. Take the rest of the week off and catch up on your sleep. Let your shoulder heal. Don’t worry about anything else except how soft your bed is going to be when you get home.”
Normally, I would have argued that, but given how Rubberman’s orders meant I would have to spend less time around him—and therefore spend less time anxiously thinking of my deal with Sasha—I merely nodded. “Okay, but what are you going to do?”
“Take out the Legion once and for all,” said Rubberman, cracking a rather devious smile. “Remember Big Boy, the large bomb that Blast claimed that the Legion was making in order to break Iron Angel out of prison?”
“What about it?”
“Me and the other Heroes United members are going to destroy it tomorrow,” said Rubberman. “We’ve located the warehouse where it is being built. Midnight tomorrow, we’re all going to converge on the warehouse at once and destroy the bomb. We also suspect that the warehouse is the current base of the Legion itself, meaning that Doctor Devil might be there, so if we can pull this off, we could end this war very soon.”
“Wow,” I said. “That sounds impressive. Are you sure you don’t need my help?”
Rubberman waved off my offer. “We’re sure.
More help is always appreciated, of course, but given your current condition, it wouldn’t make a lot of sense for you to put yourself on the front lines. We ought to be able to handle it by ourselves. Besides, the police will be on standby to provide backup just in case it turns out to be trickier than we thought. You don’t need to worry about us at all.”
Hearing that should have made me feel happy; indeed, I shared Rubberman’s confidence, if only because he was really good at projecting his feelings onto everyone around him. It may not have been an official superpower, but it sure seemed like it sometimes.
But I couldn’t feel good about it. Everything about this situation felt like the buildup to a volcanic eruption, to a terrible event that would consume us all.
It was a silly feeling. A feeling that had no basis in reality.
Nonetheless, I felt it anyway, and I couldn’t ignore it, no matter how much I wanted.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Luckily, I avoided getting ambushed on my bike ride home. I did not run into any vigilantes or zombies reanimated by the Necromantress or anything else like that. It was just a simple ride home; indeed, it was so simple that, if I hadn’t known any better, I might have forgotten that I was technically in the middle of a war at all. Even my hurting shoulder didn’t get in the way of my enjoyment of the ride.
When I got home, I just went straight to my bedroom and crashed on my bed. I told my parents and James to leave me alone for a while, because I just wanted to rest, and thankfully they respected my wishes. Perhaps they knew how badly my shoulder had been wounded and so understood that I needed as much rest as I could get in order for it to heal properly, but I think, more than anything, they sensed the emotion in my voice. I tried to talk normally, but given all of the conflicting emotions flowing around inside me, that was easier said than done.
As I rested, I thought about everything that had happened over the past day. In particular, I thought about Greta breaking up with me and Rubberman praising me for my loyalty and heroism, praise I felt like I hadn’t earned, or maybe just didn’t deserve anymore.
