by Lucas Flint
“The person said that you should just show up to the building if you want to make sure that Mr. Pullman lives,” said Adams. “But they did stress one point: You must come alone. If you bring any friends or allies with you, they’ll kill Mr. Pullman on the spot. That’s what they told me. Oh, and don’t call the police, either.”
I wasn’t surprised to hear that, but I was frustrated. It was true that I had few allies, especially now that the members of Heroes United had been defeated, but I had still hoped to bring some friends with me anyway. I didn’t know what these people had in store for me, but they probably outnumbered me, which meant I would need to be careful about directly confronting them.
“What do you plan to do, Mr. Fry?” said Adams. “You’ve gone silent. Are you going to go and confront these hooligans or do you think they might possibly be bluffing?”
“They’re not bluffing, Adams,” I said, glancing at Cyberkid as I spoke. “They probably do have Rubberman and they probably are willing to kill him. Best to take them seriously.”
“Then you are going to confront them,” said Adams. “Yes?”
I hesitated for a moment. This had all the markings of a trap, a trap I would walk into but not out of. I still didn’t know all the details, but that much was obvious to me. Walking into this trap, with no friends or allies to provide backup, seemed like the stupidest thing in the world, but I had no other choice, because even if I didn’t go, Rubberman would die. If I went, there was a chance—however small—that I might be able to save him. Plus, a plan was starting to form in the back of my head, a plan that might actually work, though I would have to do it carefully in order to make sure it worked out the way I envisioned it.
“Yes, I’m going,” I said. “I have to be there in two hours, right?”
“Less than that, actually,” said Adams. “And the clock is running out even as we speak.”
“Right,” I said. “I need you to pick me up in the Rubbermobile near Golden City High in an hour. I have some preparations to make and I’m going to need at least that much time to get them ready.”
“Preparations?” Adams repeated curiously. “What preparations might these be, Mr. Fry?”
“I’ll let you know later,” I said. “For now, I suggest getting the Rubbermobile ready, because one way or another, this war between Heroes United and the Vigilante Legion will end today.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
One hour later, I stood in front of a large, seemingly abandoned three-story apartment building in downtown Golden City in my Beams costume. As Adams had said, the building was located opposite the Munroe Acquisitions, Inc. headquarters, which shone a brilliant crystalline sheen in the mid February sun. The apartment building, on the other hand, looked small and dinky, with all of its windows boarded up and its front steps chipped and covered with trash due to neglect.
Its windows had probably been boarded up for decades, but I thought it gave an excellent advantage to whoever was inside it waiting for me. The boarded up windows meant that I couldn’t get a glimpse of Rubberman’s kidnapper or the kidnapper’s allies, which meant I was going in more or less blind.
On the other hand, the kidnapper couldn’t see outside, either, which would come in very useful for the second phase of the plan I had worked out in ten minutes and spent another fifty actually putting into action. Even if the kidnapper was to look outside right this very instant, neither she nor her allies would see me, because at the moment I was entirely invisible.
This was thanks to the invisibility watch on my right wrist. Normally, I didn’t use this device, because the invisibility it offered usually lasted only five seconds at a time, which was not helpful except for stealth missions. But Cyberkid, the device’s original creator, had given me a new and upgraded version which he had been working on after he gave me the original five second one. According to Cyberkid, this new invisibility watch granted the user five minutes of complete and total invisibility, which was a pretty massive improvement over the previous version. It also helped keep civilians from seeing me. The last thing I needed was fans mobbing me in the streets, which would mess up my plan a lot.
Looking at the apartment building, I did not see anyone outside it. To the average onlooker, the building appeared to be entirely abandoned, but I knew that, somewhere inside it, was Rubberman and his kidnapper. The kidnapper in question was most likely the Necromantress, but that did not mean she was alone. Perhaps Doctor Devil and the rest of the Legion was with her, though I didn’t know where the other Heroes United members were. They might have all been killed in the zombie ambush, or maybe they were being held hostage, too. Heck, for all I knew, Prime Man himself might be in there awaiting my arrival, if he was actually part of the conspiracy, as I suspected.
But even if someone had been able to see me, they would have seen that I was alone. Adams had dropped me off a couple of blocks away in the Rubbermobile a minute ago and was now nowhere within sight, while Cyberkid and James were also not with me. Even Frank and my parents were still at my house, where they were safe. No police officers, either; therefore, I had no reason to worry about the Necromantress or whoever it was killing Rubberman because I didn’t hold up my end of the deal.
But anyone who assumed that because I was alone now meant I would be alone for the entirety of this mission would be entirely mistaken. Cyberkid was currently getting The Mystery ready, while James was off getting a couple of allies who I thought would be useful in the event that a conflict broke out between me and the kidnappers. Whether James would be successful in getting those allies—and, more importantly, whether he would get them here in a timely manner—was still unknown, but at least he was talking to them.
The ‘plan’ was for me to enter the building by myself and confront the kidnappers and find out what the situation on the inside was like. I would try to stall until help could arrive as long as possible, but once my allies were in place, we’d strike. If all went as planned, we’d defeat the Necromantress and the Vigilante Legion in one go, as well as save Rubberman and the other Heroes United members who were being held prisoner. It would not, of course, deal with Sasha or even Prime Man, but as long as we saved Rubberman, it would be worth it.
It was now time to put it into action and see how it would play out. It was all well and fine to come up with plans. What mattered most was putting them into action and then seeing whether they worked in real life. No plan ever survived contact with reality; at least, that’s what Dad always said, and because Dad was a high school football coach, I figure he probably knew what he was talking about. I was good at improvising plans, however, so I figured I would be able to improvise, if necessary.
Steeling myself for whatever was about to happen, I walked up to the front door of the abandoned building. I half-expected to be attacked on my way there, even though I was fully aware that my invisibility watch prevented everyone from seeing me. It was probably just my nerves getting the best of me; nonetheless, no one attacked me or even got in my way and soon I stood in front of the front door.
I tested the doorknob and found that it was unlocked; not surprising, because I figured they would want to keep it unlocked so I could enter. Even so, I had a brief vision of opening the door, only to discover a man with a gun standing on the other side waiting for me, who would then shoot me in the chest and kill me instantly.
But I shook my head, opened the door, and entered. I opened the door carefully and quietly; I didn’t want the kidnappers to hear me enter. It seemed likely to me that they would have had someone watching the door, but that was not guaranteed, given how arrogant these people were. They might not feel the need to set a watch; after all, who else would bother entering this building other than me?
Standing in the hallway, I squinted. It was very dark. Aside from a few bits of light streaming in between the cracks in the boarded up windows, there were no lights on in here. I groped along the wall for some kind of light switch, found it, and flipped it. Unfortunately, the power must hav
e been cut off a long time ago, because no light turned on in the hallway. I realized that that actually worked to my advantage; had I turned on the light, that would have signaled to the kidnappers that I was here, and I still didn’t want them to know that I was here yet.
Breathing silently, I walked down the hallway. It was too dark to tell many details about the place. There appeared to be dusty picture frames on the walls, though the combination of the thick layers of dust and the darkness of the hall made it impossible to tell what they were pictures of. The only picture I saw was a medium-sized photo on the left wall. It was illuminated by the light streaming in through the cracks in the boarded up windows, although it wasn’t entirely illuminated. Still, I saw enough to realize that it was a picture from the 1930s, maybe earlier than that, showing a new-looking apartment building standing proudly amid smaller buildings all around it, with three old-fashioned cars parked out front. I realized that I was looking at an old picture of the very building in which I was currently sneaking around, showing what it looked like back when it was brand new.
But I didn’t spend any time focusing on that picture. I needed to find out where Rubberman was being kept. I knew very little about the layout of this building, so I didn’t know which room to check. He could have been on the top floor or maybe in the basement, if this building even had a basement. The building was very quiet, which made me doubt if there was even anyone in here at all.
That was when I heard the opening and closing of a door nearby, followed by two sets of feet making their way in my general direction. Alarmed, I stood against the wall as flatly as I could, because I had nowhere else in which to hide. I even held my breath, especially when I heard two voices coming from what sounded like a nearby room. At first, I couldn’t tell what the voices were saying, but as they drew closer to me, I began to understand their words.
“… He’s not coming,” one of the voices—deep and masculine, but one I didn’t recognize—was saying. “I told the Doctor that the kid was a coward, but he didn’t listen to me.”
“Just because he hasn’t shown up yet doesn’t mean he will never show up at all,” said the second voice, which was higher-pitched, but strangely brittle, like what I imagined a skeleton would sound like if it could talk. “The woman said that he would most definitely show up if Rubberman was threatened. She said that the boy is annoying, but also deeply loyal to Rubberman and would risk his own life to ensure Rubberman’s safety.”
I would have gasped, but I kept my mouth shut. The two guys—probably vigilantes, based on how they talked about me—were talking about me. I guessed that the ‘woman’ was most likely the Necromantress, while the Doctor was most likely Doctor Devil. Clearly, the Necromantress must have been behind this idea; at the very least, she provided Doctor Devil with the information about my loyalty to Rubberman, if nothing else.
“Yeah, but that woman is crazy,” said the first vigilante, whose voice sounded like it was now on the other side of the wall that I was stuck up against. “I don’t see why the Doctor even trusts her. She helped put Iron Angel in prison, for God’s sake.”
“The Doctor says that her knowledge of Rubberman and his sidekick is helpful,” said the second vigilante in a snide, not quite believing voice. “Personally, I think that the woman’s … assets were probably a big help in winning the Doctor’s support. The Doctor’s always loved women with large assets. I’ll admit to sneaking a peek at them myself, but I know from experience that you can look at crazy all you want, but never, ever touch.”
“I don’t even want to look at her,” said the first vigilante. “She’s nuts. She’d probably slit your throat if you looked at her funny. Hell, she’d probably slit her own throat if she had some reason to do it.”
All of a sudden, the door next to me opened. It almost slammed into me, but it was caught at the last second, causing me to let out a silent sigh of relief. Two figures stepped out of the door and closed it. While it was still too dark for me to make out any specific details on them, I could tell that one of them wore a skull-like mask, while the other wore some kind of bear mask.
“If it helps, the Doctor did tell me that he planned to off her as soon as Rubberman was out of the picture,” said the man in the skull mask; he was the source of the brittle, high-pitched voice I’d heard before. “He has no intention of letting a woman as crazy as her live, particularly given how she helped Rubberman and his sidekick put Iron Angel in jail in the first place.”
The man in the bear mask—who must have been the first vigilante—snorted. “All she has to do is promise to give him a blow job and I’m sure he’ll let her live. He might even let her join the Legion.”
“I doubt Iron Angel would like that,” said the second vigilante. “Based on the reports we’ve received, he’s already pissed off that it’s taken us so long to free him. If he found out that we’re also working with one of his enemies … well, all I can say is that if the Doctor doesn’t kill the woman, Iron Angel definitely will.”
The man in the bear mask suddenly held a finger up to his lips. “Shh. I don’t want that woman overhearing us talking about her.”
“I don’t see her, though.”
“She’s a witch. She might have drank some invisibility potion or something to let her walk around invisible. Or maybe she’s got one of her zombie servants sneaking around the lower floors; I wouldn’t put it past her. You saw how she reacted when Hindsight mocked her.”
I couldn’t help but smile. The first vigilante had no idea how close he was to the truth. Someone was invisible, all right, but it wasn’t the Necromantress.
“I suppose you have a point,” said the second vigilante. “Let’s go back up to the top floor. The Doctor will want to know that Rubberman’s brat sidekick hasn’t shown up yet.”
The first vigilante nodded and the two of them started to ascend a nearby staircase to the upper floors. I started following them, but quietly, of course. Not that I needed to move particularly silently. The bear-masked vigilante was a heavy guy and must have been wearing boots of some sort, because each one of his steps on the floor was loud enough to drown out all other sounds. Even his friend’s footsteps were inaudible due to the noise made by him.
Less than a minute later, we reached the end of the hallway on the second floor, where a final door stood. The bear-masked vigilante unlocked the door and held it open for his friend, who went in first. Sensing my opportunity, I rushed in after his friend. Unfortunately, I was in such a hurry to get in before the door closed that I accidentally knocked into the bear-masked vigilante’s stomach. It was a slight brush of my arm against his gut, true, but he noticed it anyway and grunted.
Not that I stopped, however. Once I was in the room, I moved to the side and crouched low, while the skull-masked vigilante turned his head to look at his friend.
“Ursa, what’s the problem?” said the skull-masked vigilante. “I heard you grunt.”
The bear-masked vigilante—apparently named Ursa—was rubbing his belly, even though I hadn’t hit him that hard. He was looking around in confusion. “I thought I felt someone brush against me, like they were trying to get into the room before me or something.”
The skull-masked vigilante shook his head. “Well, I didn’t see anyone enter except for me. You must just be imagining things, as usual.”
Ursa frowned, clearly showing that he did not agree with his friend’s opinion, but then he shrugged and entered the room, closing the door behind him. “Eh, you’re probably right. Unless this building is haunted by ghosts, that is. I’ve heard it is.”
The skull-masked vigilante just shook his head again, muttered something about how superstitious everyone was, and then resumed walking into the room. Ursa followed, but despite what he said, he was still rubbing his belly and looking around the room as if he expected a ghost to swoop out of nowhere and attack him. I didn’t follow myself, however, because there was no reason to, now that I was in the room where the Necromantress and Doctor Devil were
.
The room was larger—much larger—than I expected. Rather than being a one or two bedroom apartment, as I expected, it was closer to a ballroom in size. Based on the clear marble floor, the chandelier hanging above the ceiling, and the dining tables and chairs set around the perimeter of the room, that may very well have been what it was.
It was also well-lit, in contrast to the rest of the building, though like the rest of the building, its windows were boarded up, to the point where no outside light could sneak through at all. That made me a little nervous, if only because it meant that I had one less escape route to use in the event that the plan went to hell. Then again, considering the circumstances, I would not be able to run even if all of the windows had been wide open, though I’ll admit that I’d never seen a ballroom with boarded up windows before. It was kind of weird.
But more importantly, the light from the chandelier let me see the people standing around in the center of the room. More specifically, my eyes were drawn to the huge steel cage in the center. It looked kind of like an over-sized bird cage, the bars so tightly together that it would be impossible for any of its prisoners to sneak through them.
And then there were prisoners, about two dozen in all from what I could see. The prisoners were the members of Heroes United who had come to Golden City to help Rubberman protect it from the Vigilante Legion. Each member sat on the floor of the over-sized cage, their hands cuffed behind their backs with steel handcuffs and their heads down as if they were asleep or unconscious. I saw Myster among them, but oddly enough, I did not see Rubberman anywhere.
Standing outside of the cage were two other figures. One of them I recognized instantly: The Necromantress. As usual, she was dressed in her witch clothes, with a pointed hat and a miniskirt that showed off her legs quite well. She was sitting on a fancy, high-backed chair, sipping from a glass of sparkling wine. A zombie was on its hands and knees in front of her, acting as an undead footrest; based on its blank expression, I guess the zombie didn’t mind it.
