by Lucas Flint
I understood why Greta had to break up with me, but I still felt sour and upset about it. I was more angry at her father than anything, however. Forcing her to break up with me just because he was worried I might spill the beans on his criminal activities … I might just go and do that, just to spite him. I had no great love for him anyway. Maybe if he was in jail, where he belonged, Greta and I could be together like before.
But I knew that was false. If I got her dad arrested, Greta would never forgive me for it. She’d always think of me as the guy who took her father away from her. And if there was one thing I knew about Greta, it was that she was deeply devoted to her father, which made sense, because she didn’t have her mother or any other adult figures who could take care of her if her dad ended up in jail.
But it was still satisfying to think about police breaking down the front door of the infamous thief the Silent Shadow and forcing him into handcuffs that were just a bit too tight for his wrists. I could see it now: Sixteen-year-old Alex Fry helped put one of the most wanted criminals in the world behind bars. I’d be famous not just as Beams, but also as me. And maybe that would make more girls like me, make it easier to get a new girlfriend, and maybe that one wouldn’t be the daughter of a criminal.
I didn’t act on that, though. With everything else going on in Golden City, I wasn’t sure it made sense to divert police resources to the Silent Shadow. If I was going to do anything like that—and there was no guarantee that I was—it would have to wait until after Big Boy was destroyed, at least. Once the Legion was no longer a threat, maybe it would make sense to tell the police about the Silent Shadow.
But that wouldn’t solve my real problem: Namely, whether or not to kill Rubberman.
I didn’t want to kill Rubberman. The very thought of killing my boss—especially after he had spoken so glowingly of me—was enough to make me feel ill.
Yet I had agreed to Sasha’s demands and I knew her threats were real. I had about six days left before Takeshi killed my family, a fate I could avoid if I just killed Rubberman myself. It would undoubtedly put me in prison, probably for life, but at least my family would be okay.
I need to find a way out of this situation. The only way I could think of to get out of this agreement would be if Sasha and Takeshi were arrested and put in prison, but how likely was that to happen? Sasha had already displayed a talent for avoiding being caught. She knew how to get away with the most heinous crimes without anyone even suspecting her of being connected to them. Even if Camel and Jake investigated her, it might take a while for them to get a warrant for her arrest, and that was assuming they were able to find evidence of any criminal wrongdoing on her part at all.
Another way was if Sasha and Takeshi both died, but I didn’t think that murder would be the answer to my problems. It was probably impossible to kill them anyway; Sasha was one of the most well-protected women in the city, while Takeshi himself was an excellent fighter and assassin who knew all the tricks in the book. Best to come up with some other plan, though I had to admit I couldn’t really think of any.
A knock at the door made me raise my head. “Yes?”
“Hey, bro, this is James,” said James, his voice slightly muffled due to the thickness of the door. “Can I come in?”
I sighed, but then said, “Okay, but don’t expect me to say much. I’m kind of tired.”
The door opened and James entered. He looked as cool and stylish as ever, and ordinarily I would feel envious of that, but I was too tired to think about such things. I just noticed that he leaned against the closed door, a look of genuine concern on his face.
“I heard you broke up with Greta,” said James.
“She broke up with me,” I corrected. Then I sighed again. “Not that it matters either way, given how we’re no longer together no matter who broke up with who.”
“Breakups are tough, man,” said James. “I remember my first break up. There was a lot of yelling and screaming, though I didn’t hear any yelling and screaming when I was downstairs.”
“There wasn’t much to yell and scream about,” I said with a shrug. “She told me that her dad forbid me to date her again and that was that.”
“What, really?” said James in amazement. “I didn’t know that dads even had that kind of authority over their daughters anymore. In this enlightened age, I thought that girls now have complete autonomy from the men in their life. Guess her dad must be really backwards or something.”
James’ sarcasm was obvious in every word he spoke, but I didn’t mind it. I was feeling pretty sour toward the Silent Shadow right now and I didn’t mind James using sarcasm when talking about him.
“Yeah, I know,” I said. I rolled over onto my side. “I thought about calling him and arguing about it, but I’ve met her dad before. He’s not the kind of man you argue with when he’s made a choice.”
“I know what you’re talking about,” said James. “Some dads are really protective of their daughters. I remember this one girl I dated in high school whose dad was a cop. He was a pretty cool dude when you got to know him, but until you did, he basically treated you like a suspect in a crime investigation.”
“But he didn’t force his daughter to break up with you, did he?”
“Nope,” said James, shaking his head. “By the way, why did Greta’s dad want her to break up with you? What did you do that pissed him off?”
I thought about whether to tell James the truth. He didn’t know that Greta’s dad was the Silent Shadow and that Greta herself was the Golden City Robber. For a moment, I wanted to tell him all of that. James would undoubtedly report this information to the police, which would result in Greta’s father being arrested and thrown into jail. It would be excellent revenge, even if it did make Greta hate me.
But then I thought about how James would react if he knew that I’d been hiding the identity of an infamous criminal for so many months and I shrugged. “I don’t know. I think he probably thought I was getting in the way of Greta’s studies. He probably wants her to go to a good college and therefore doesn’t want her ‘wasting’ time with me.”
James folded his arms across his chest. “That doesn’t surprise me, honestly. Never met Greta’s dad, but she sure did seem to spend a lot of time with you. On the other hand, though, it’s still a pretty stupid reason to make her break up with you rather than, you know, just limiting her time with you or whatever.”
“I know,” I said. “But what can I do? There’s pretty much no way I can win her back. I mean, Greta herself still likes me, but her dad … he’s not an easy man to argue with. He likes to set down the law and doesn’t care much for anyone who argues against it.”
Even as I said that, I realized how ironic that sounded. A professional thief who didn’t like it when people broke his rules. It was so ironic that I almost laughed, but I didn’t, because I didn’t want James to ask me what I found so funny.
James, on the other hand, just nodded. “Yeah, I’ve gathered as much based on what you’ve told me so far. Normally, I try to avoid girls who have dads like that, because they make it harder to have fun with them, you know? Then again, some of the best girls I’ve dated have had pretty tough dads, so maybe he’s not as bad as he sounds.”
“The point is that I can’t make him let me date Greta again,” I said, rolling over onto my back again. “And I don’t know if he will ever let me date her again.”
“Do you still like her?”
I looked at James in disbelief. “Of course I do. What kind of question is that?”
“Just checking to make sure,” said James. “If you want, I could help you with her dad.”
I blinked. “Really?”
“Really,” James said. “You’re my little bro, after all. Big bros have to look out for little bros.”
“That’s … really generous of you, James, but I don’t know how much help you could actually be,” I said. I rubbed my forehead. “Like I said, her dad isn’t an easy man to convince. When he set
s his mind on something, you can’t really change it.”
“You can’t change it, maybe,” said James with a shrug, “but I have plenty of experience dealing with stubborn people. Remember, I used to be a sidekick like you and my boss, Windchime, was a pretty stubborn guy himself. I know how stubborn people think. I could convince him to change his mind if you’d let me do it.”
“Why do you need my permission?” I said.
“Because I don’t want to step on your turf,” said James. “You’re my younger bro. I may have a responsibility to help you, but at the same time, you also have to learn to deal with your own problems. If you’d rather figure this out yourself, I’ll let you, but if you need my help, I’m always here.”
I narrowed my eyes. “You’re not doing this to get a favor from me, are you?”
James looked away in that way he always did whenever I figured out his game. “Me? Oh, no. I’d never do anything for you with the expectation of you paying me back in return sometime later on. I always have pure motives for everything I do. Just like good big brothers should, though I wouldn’t mind you paying me back with a favor of some sort in the future for me going out of my way to help you like this, of course.”
I considered James’ offer. On one hand, if James could help me in this area, I would really appreciate it. I wanted Greta back more than anything. Having Greta back as my girlfriend would not solve all of my problems—least of all the biggest one hanging over my head—but it sure would help me feel better. It might also make it easier to focus on taking down Sasha. If I didn’t have to worry about my relationship with Greta, that would be one less emotional issue distracting me from my goals.
On the other hand, I didn’t think James would succeed. He could be very persuasive when he wanted to be, much more persuasive than I was, but at the same time, James would not be as persuasive as he could be if he didn’t know the real reason why the Silent Shadow forbid Greta from going out with me anymore. I didn’t think James would find himself in any sort of dangerous situation, but it would, at the very least, be a big waste of time and effort for him. Plus, I was sure he was just doing this in order to make me owe him something in the future. James was a good brother, but that didn’t mean he was a saint.
Still, if James actually somehow could convince Greta’s dad to let me date her again … well, I didn’t see any harm in letting him try.
“All right, James, you can try,” I said. “But don’t be surprised if he ignores you. If he won’t listen to me, I doubt he’d be willing to listen to you.”
“That’s because you’re not as alpha as me,” said James, flashing me his trademark confident smile. “Trust me, bro, once I’m done talking with him, he’ll not only let you date her again, but he’ll practically be begging you to take his daughter’s hand in marriage.”
“But Greta and I are only sixteen.”
“It’s a figure of speech,” said James, rolling his eyes. “Anyway, see you later, bro. If I’m going to save your relationship with your girlfriend, I might as well get started on it right away.”
James turned and left my room, closing the door behind him on his way out.
I stared at the door uncertainly for a few moments before lowering my head back onto my pillow. Talking to James about this did make me feel a little better, whether or not he’d succeed in convincing Greta’s dad to let me date her again.
Perhaps that didn’t solve all my problems, but it did solve one, and for that, I was grateful.
CHAPTER TWELVE
I slept well that night and into the next day. My parents brought my meals to me while I was in bed, which was nice, while the pain in my shoulder started to subside. It would still be a while before it fully recovered, of course, but I was grateful that it was healing at all. Part of me had worried that my fight with those two vigilantes had ruined my body’s natural healing process, but so far it seemed okay. I didn’t dwell on that for too long, though, because I was worried that I might be jinxing myself if I did, even though that was a pretty silly thought to have.
I browsed the Internet a lot and kept track of the news. Not much had happened since I went back to my home; there weren’t any reports of increased vigilante activity or anything. There was an article on the Golden City Journal website about Prime Man and Sasha Munroe’s business meeting (the details of which were to be revealed as the year went on, according to the reporter who wrote the article) and another about my battle with Smoke Man and Hindsight, but that particular article revealed nothing to me that I didn’t already know except for Smoke Man and Hindsight’s identities. Other than that, things seemed pretty quiet on the superhero front at the moment, but I knew better than to assume that all was truly well.
For one, there was still the plan of Heroes United to take out the Big Boy bomb. No news site was reporting on it, of course, because it was intentionally being kept under wraps by Rubberman and the others involved in it in order to avoid giving the Legion time to prepare for it. It was supposed to happen at midnight tonight, when the Legion would least expect it. Rubberman had even seemed convinced that this would end the war in Golden City, because he believed that Doctor Devil and the vast majority of the Legion’s members would be in that factory.
It sure seemed like a good idea, especially if it actually ended the war between Heroes United and the Vigilante Legion. Despite that, however, I still felt uneasy about all of this. I couldn’t help but wonder if it was a trap. It just seemed too easy, that Blast would tell me about the bomb and even its location like that. That Sasha was involved, even if only indirectly, made me think that something was definitely up, even though I couldn’t quite place what at the moment.
Speaking of Sasha, I now had only five days in which I could figure out how to beat her. Time seemed to fly by a lot faster than when I was a kid. Maybe it was just the stress of the situation getting to me and messing with my perception of time. I understood a little better what Dad meant whenever he complained about how fast time flew by now that he was older, though Dad wasn’t under the same stresses as me.
But these thoughts and ideas just sort of floated through my mind during the next day or so. I didn’t focus on any one of them in that much detail, because I was more focused on getting as much rest as I could rather than my troubles. Of course, that was easier said than done. My troubles were rather large, after all, and not easy to forget.
It was after lunch the next day, however, that I got another visitor.
It happened after I had just finished my lunch of chicken and rice that Mom had made for me. I was lying in my bed, with my now empty plate of food set on the desk next to my bed, when there was a knock at my door and I heard Mom say, “Alex, are you awake?”
“Yes, I am,” I said, looking at the door. “What do you need?”
“Your friend Franklin is here,” said Mom. “He wants to see you. Can he come in?”
I sat up a little straighter. “Sure. Send him in.”
The door opened, courtesy of Mom, who held it open for my friend, Franklin Maddox, who entered after muttering a ‘thanks’ to Mom. Frank wore his usual red baseball cap and blue shirt, but he looked more worried than he usually did, clutching his hands together as Mom closed the door behind him.
“Hey, Alex,” said Frank in a somewhat nervous voice. “I heard about your shoulder and I just wanted to make sure you were okay, especially ‘cause you’ve been absent from school for such a long time.”
Frank was right that I’d been absent from school, and not just because of my shoulder injury, either. Ever since I came back from Los Congrejos, I’d stayed out of school. The excuse was that I was getting tutoring at home in order to help me catch up in my grades, but the truth was that the war with the Vigilante Legion meant I couldn’t go to school like I normally did. I needed to be on call all the time and that was easier to do if I didn’t have to spend eight hours a day behind a desk listening to Mr. Peters drone on about some random scientific idea I didn’t care about. It was a
bit lonely, though; even though I wasn’t the most popular kid at school, I still did feel a bit lonely not being around Frank or my fellow classmates all the time. Hanging out with Rubberman and the other superheroes and sidekicks helped, but it just wasn’t the same.
But Frank didn’t know that. While he was my best friend, he still didn’t know that I was Beams. I sometimes thought about telling him my real identity, but I always decided against it, because I didn’t think he needed to know and I didn’t want to risk losing my sidekick license. Then again, it seemed like everyone knew my secret identity nowadays; would it really hurt me if Frank knew as well?
“I’m fine, Frank,” I said with a yawn. I rotated my shoulder. “My shoulder is healing as expected and should heal fully as long as I don’t overexert myself. How’s school been, by the way?”
“About the same,” said Frank with a shrug. “The Beams Fan Club is still growing, though not as fast as it used to. I think we’ve hit the peak of the Beams craze, honestly, because people in general seem less enthusiastic about the Fan Club than they were before. I think the war between Heroes United and those vigilante guys is making people scared.”
I really didn’t want to talk about the war, but I didn’t want to treat Frank rudely after he went out of his way to come and visit me in my house. “Lots of people are scared. Even a lot of adults are afraid.”
“Yeah, but you don’t really understand,” said Frank. He glanced at the window, as if he was afraid that one of the vigilantes might burst through the glass at any moment and attack us both. “Everyone still remembers when Fro-Zen attacked the school and took a lot of the students and faculty hostage. Remember? That was Beams’ first debut as a sidekick.”
I almost said, Of course I remember it; I was there when it happened, but I caught myself and instead said, “Sure. I wasn’t at school at the time, but I remember seeing all the news reports about it and how it took forever to melt all the ice.”
