“Wha—no! I wasn’t—”
“Don’t worry … if I thought you were in on it, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. He used you. And now that you and Allison have been stealing the spotlight, it looks like Phantom and Chaotic decided to get rid of you … In fact”—Jake pauses as if a thought just hit him—“I bet they were annoyed about you and Allison at first, but then they saw a way to use it to their advantage.”
“What do you mean?”
“Nothing pulls in the youth demographic like tragic romance.”
“That’s—I don’t—that’s not—”
Jake turns his laptop around again and flips quickly through a whole file full of pictures. It’s like a “greatest hits” collection of Phantom’s and my battles. And it doesn’t take a genius to see what they all have in common … all the big battles took place near giant signs for products. Champion Motor Company, Can-do Cola, IGO Computers, and a ton of others.
“Yeah, but what—”
“About all the battles you had that didn’t involve products?” Jake says. “Those fall into one of two categories: Either someone was auditioning for Phantom Justice, to see if they could win a slot on the roster of villains, or the villain you faced truly believed that the whole ‘villain/superhero’ thing was real, and Phantom had to defeat him in order to maintain his reputation. For the last group, Phantom usually recruited the ones who showed promise, and killed off the ones who didn’t, so he wouldn’t have to deal with them again.”
I start shaking my head. I can’t believe this. It was all hitting me too hard and too fast. “No … no …”
“I have one last thing to show you,” Jake says. He clicks a button on his computer and a new picture pops up on his screen. It’s a picture of Trent’s house. “The explosion that Trent told you about … the one from Dr. Chaotic’s attack … it was a lie. These pictures were taken an hour ago.” He flips through a bunch of pictures of the house. It looks the way it always has.
“He set you up,” Jake says.
I don’t want to believe it, but there’s no other way to make the events of the past twelve hours add up. And the more I doubt it, the more I resist, the more time I’m wasting.
“So, do you think—”
“That Louis is still alive?” Jake says. “I don’t know.”
“Do you think …” I pause, expecting him to finish my sentence. Instead, he pauses.
“I don’t know that, either. She’s fallen off the grid, so to speak.”
“I have to—”
“I know you do,” Jake says. “You’re lucky, though. Finding Allison is part of my plan.”
“I don’t know yet,” Jake says in my head.
“So should I stop?”
“No. Keep heading south.”
I’m running across the rooftops of Manhattan, looking for the hidden lab of Dr. Chaotic. I’m restless and keyed up and on the verge of panic. I have this feeling that Allison’s still alive, but that she won’t be for long … and that I’m the only one who can save her … if I can only find the stupid lab.
“Don’t freak out on me, Scott,” Jake says.
“I’m not freaking out!” I yell.
“Right. Obviously.”
“Where is it?” I ask.
“I don’t know yet. Dr. Chaotic is the most powerful plus intelligence on the planet. Usually, I can pick something up from him, just floating around in the ether … but right now, I got nothing. He’s throwing up some interference, I think.”
“Great! So now what?”
“Where are you?”
“Lincoln Center.”
“Keep moving south,” he says.
“Why south?”
“Just a hunch.”
In about seven minutes, I’m on the roof of the Flatiron Building.
“Scott? Where are you?”
“The Flatiron Building,” I say. “Being a psychic, shouldn’t you already know that?”
I hear him sigh. “I’m focusing on other things right now, like Dr. Chaotic and—uh-oh …”
“What?”
“Something is headed right for you!”
“What?!” I yell. “Where? I don’t see anything?”
“I don’t know yet … it’s something big … filled with hate … rage …”
“Phantom Justice! But I don’t see him!”
“He sees you.”
“How do you know?”
“I just know!” he yells. “He’s almost on you!”
I look around frantically. I don’t see anything. I stop … focus … concentrate … close my eyes. A sound … like a sonic boom … from the left … behind me … I roll right, just as Phantom’s fist flies through the spot where my head was.
“GRRRRAAAA!” he yells as he smashes right through one of the air-conditioning units on the roof. He’s up in half a second.
“Scott! He’s there!” Jake yells in my head.
“Yeah! Thanks!”
Phantom comes at me with a flurry of punches of kicks, some of which are coming so fast, I don’t even see them. I don’t know how, but I manage to avoid all of them.
“Scott!” Jake yells. “What’s happening? Are you OK?”
“Jake! Stop! Talking!”
“Sorry!”
Phantom Justice stops trying to hit me. Now he’s just swaggering toward me. I back up, trying to keep a distance between us. “Scott, you miserable little twerp. Look at you! You’re not dead!” he says, almost cheerfully. His eyes look mischievous and murderous at the same time. “You’ve got a little more stamina than I thought!”
He does a quick roundhouse kick. It isn’t one of his more powerful ones, but it is fast … so fast that it manages to tag me in the jaw. He tries to follow it up with another kick, but I block it.
“What is wrong with you?!” I yell. “You’re Phantom Justice! You’re supposed to be a good guy!”
“I am a good guy,” he says. “Just because I want to fire you doesn’t make me a bad guy.”
“You’re trying to kill me!”
“Hey … you’re not a cashier at the grocery store, you know. This is how you get fired from this job. And I would appreciate it if you took it like a man.”
He comes at me in two quick strides, leading with a right cross. He’s fast, but I manage to get my guard up. I realize too late that it was a feint. His left foot kicks me in the stomach. I fall over the back of one of the AC units. My head smacks against the ground. I feel like I’m going to puke. I shake my head to clear the cobwebs. He’s coming to get me.
“Don’t play possum with me,” he says. “Come on!” There’s a broken broom handle on the ground right beside me. I grasp it. He reaches down to grab me, and I slam the piece of wood into the side of his head. The handle shatters. His head snaps to the left and he drops me, but he doesn’t fall. I somersault backward and get into my defense position. He slowly turns his head back toward me. He’s smiling.
“Was that supposed to hurt?”
“What is your problem?” I yell at him.
“You keep asking me that, and I thought I already made it clear. My problem is you … has been for a while,” he says. “I mean, after all I’ve done for you? I took you in. I fed you, clothed you, sent you to the finest school in the city. And this is how you repay me? Hm? By ruining a character that I created?”
“I’m not ‘a character you created.’”
“You’re right. You aren’t. Bright Boy is. Bright Boy doesn’t exist because of you; you exist because of Bright Boy. Got it?”
“Your whole life is a lie!”
He shrugs. “Yeah? So? So’s yours, you just don’t know it yet. But I wouldn’t worry too much about it … you don’t have a lot of time left.” He throws a flurry of left and right jabs. I block and avoid, block and avoid, but he’s going too fast. He’s too strong. Three catch me in the face. Bam, bam, bam. Just like that, and my nose is bleeding.
“Do you want to be a hero?” He snaps out a right. I avoid it,
but his left is too fast. It catches me in the ear, sending a bright spike of pain through my whole head. “Or would you rather die a sissy? Your choice.”
I’m holding the side of my head. I try to block his punches, but I’m shaken … woozy … my head hurts. His left jab hits my cheek. I hit the ground, but immediately spring up again and catch him with a roundhouse kick, square in the face. He staggers back. He wasn’t expecting that.
“Well, looks like you’ve got a little fight in you yet!” he says. “You’re impressing me, Scott … and you haven’t asked me any stupid ‘Why are you doing it?’ questions.”
“It’s obvious why you’re doing it,” I say. “You’re just another lowlife scumball looking for money.”
“Ha! It’s adorable that you think I shouldn’t be proud of that. Our battles move product, and companies pay money for that. Lots of it. How else is a superhero supposed to make some scratch? Do you think the public wants to pay for all the good deeds we do? Huh? No! They want us to save them, but they want us to do it for free.”
“Yeah! Because we’re heroes!”
He laughs and shakes his head. “Scott, heroes still need to buy houses. We still need food. That stuff ain’t free, kid. Come on, man, don’t make me lose respect for you.”
“Hey, psychopath,” I say, “I couldn’t care less if you respect me or not. You know, most kids at school laugh at you. That whole ‘I am the darkness’ thing is just a big joke. And that whisper-growl you think is so mysterious. HA! Sooo lame …”
“Oh yeah … like I’m going to care what a bunch of brainless little schoolkids think.”
“You care. Look at you. You’re twitching. You know what they call you? Do you? They call you Phantom Jerkface?”
“Whoa, Scott. You’re on fire!” Trent says. “You figured out that I’m an egocentric sociopath, so you preyed on my vanity! And it stung! Ooo! Very impressive! Buuuut, I guess now it’s my turn.” He pauses, a malicious smile creeping across his face. “I watched your little girlfriend die. She suffered. A lot.”
My jaw clenches, but I don’t yell. My fist quivers, but I don’t punch him. He’s probably lying. He’s trying to get under my skin, get me to make a mistake, but I’m not going to let him. I think of Louis, and focus on what he taught me.
“Don’t worry, though,” Trent says. “I made sure I gave her a little kiss good-b—”
CRACK.
My right fist hits him. I honestly don’t remember throwing it. It must’ve been pretty fast, because he didn’t see it coming … for that matter, neither did I. The only reason I know I hit him is because my knuckles are tingling and his lip is bleeding.
He looks worried. How did I hit him? He’s supposed to be faster than me. “Ooo … Bright Boy is angry! You’re snarling!” he says, his look of doubt gone. “Who knows? Maybe if you were this fired up earlier, you might’ve been able to save her … but, oh well.”
I feel something snap in my head. I can even hear the sound it makes: a loud crack, like a baseball bat breaking in half. “Say something else,” I say. “Please.”
“Ha! Why? Because you think your righteousness is going to give you power? Hm? Fine. You know what her dying words wer—”
CRACK. His head snaps back again, and a little blood dribbles out from the corner of his mouth.
“No,” I say. “And neither do you.”
The look of doubt is back. He wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. “Sure I do,” he says, trying to recover the advantage. “I was there. She said, ‘Scott is a gullible little—’”
WHAM!
OK, that one wasn’t me. A blast from above us nails Trent and sends him flying backward. My heart skips a little. I turn to look. Sure enough, it’s Dr. Chaotic in his propulsion boots and he has some sort of complex-looking weapon pointed at Trent. He’s alone.
“You idiot!” Trent yells at Chaotic. “I knew it! I knew you’d throw it all away for that stupid little girl!”
Chaotic fires his weapon again, but this time Trent is able to avoid it. He leaps and lands a flying hammer punch to Chaotic’s face, sending him flying off at a weird angle. Chaotic lands on the roof with a sickening thud. Trent races over to finish him off, but Chaotic is up again and waiting for him. Chaotic grabs him and flings him off the roof. Chaotic then zips over to me.
“Is Jake there?” he asks.
“Yes,” Jake says in my head. I’m guessing that Chaotic can hear it in his head, too, because he nods. “Got it! Scott, we have to go.”
“No, wait!” I yell.
“No time!” Jake yells back. “Go! Get off the roof.”
“No! Enough with this psychic garbage!” I grab Dr. Chaotic. I shake him. He doesn’t resist. “Is she still alive? TELL ME SHE’S STILL ALIVE!”
His eyes look puffy. His face looks tired and empty, as if he’s spent the last of his energy and is now just running on fumes. “Bear always told you the truth,” he says.
“Wait … What? What are you—”
“And he always will.”
Jake starts yelling. “SCOTT!”
“What are you talking about?!” I yell at Chaotic. “Is Louis still alive? Is Allison? Tell me!”
“SCOTT! GET OUT OF THERE RIGHT—”
Too late. Trent rams Dr. Chaotic and me, knocking us over like paper dolls. Trent is moving so fast, he skids on the roof, stops himself, and turns and charges again. Chaotic springs up and faces him like a bullfighter. He pulls out a gun … the same dart gun they used on me … and Allison. Trent stops.
“Scott?” Jake asks.
“Yeah.”
“Oh good … you’re still alive … NOW GET IT IN GEAR!”
“Not yet.”
Trent is staring at Dr. Chaotic and me with a sick grin on his face. He chuckles, but it’s grim; there’s no humor in it. “Would you look at this: my greatest enemy and my old sidekick, together. Pretty ironic … and convenient. Well, for me a least. See, after I kill you both, all I have to do is say you offed each other. Might have to move your bodies around, but it’s not like I haven’t done that before.”
Chaotic lifts his dart gun. “You’re not killing anyone else.”
Phantom laughs. “HA! Who’s going to stop me? You? You’ve got the smarts, Edward, but you’re lacking in everything else. Maybe … just maybe … a triple-plus could’ve stopped me … your daughter perhaps … but, well, we all know how that turned out.”
I look over at Chaotic. He’s not saying anything. His face has gotten tight. Tears start to form in his eyes.
I turn to Trent. “Allison was—?”
“A triple plus?” Trent says. “That’s right, Bright Boy! In fact, there are only two triple pluses in the whole world—right, Edward?”
I look back at Chaotic. Tears are streaming down his face.
“But Allison’s strictly past tense, isn’t she?” Trent says. “So, I guess that leaves just me.”
What?! I look over. Chaotic’s eyes are as wide as mine.
“You?” Chaotic says.
Trent does a little bow. “Strongest, fastest, smartest. So smart that I trumped you … I’m telling you now because, well, I want the last thought in your head to be that I outsmarted you, the great Dr. Chaotic. Of course, the second-to-last thought in your head is that I killed your daughter. Not a great week for the ol’ doctor, huh?” He chuckles.
Chaotic presses a button on his forearm. There’s an electrical hum as something under his outfit powers up. He starts to glow.
Trent laughs. “Oh, this should be fun. Hope you charged your batteries, Edward. Oh, and say hello to your sweet daughter for me when you see her again … in about four minutes.”
I’ve had enough. Triple plus or not, I’m going to knock Trent’s face off his skull. I cock my fists and start toward him, but before I get more that one step, Dr. Chaotic grabs me. “He’s mine,” he says, then flings me off the roof.
All I manage to get out is a quick “Hey—” before I’m airborne.
Jake
is immediately in my head. “Scott. Listen to me. Chaotic threw you off the roof because you’re the only hope of beating Phantom. You have to head south, right now.”
“Can I not die first?” I ask.
“Sure. But hurry up.”
I grab FP-75, swing myself around, and fling myself onto the nearest rooftop. I can hear the sounds of Trent and Chaotic battling behind me. “You and Chaotic had a ‘meeting of the minds,’ right?” I ask.
“I know what you’re going to ask.”
“Good. Then answer.”
“Allison is not our concern right now. Our concern is keeping you alive and stopping Phantom Justice.”
“Well, maybe I should go back and ask Chaotic myself,” I say.
“Stop being such an idiot, OK? He won’t be able to hold Phantom off for long.”
“But he has that armor, and a dart gun. Maybe he’ll—”
“He won’t. Phantom’s too fast,” Jake says. “Chaotic’ll never be able to hit him, even with the enhanced speed of the armor. No, you’re it.”
“That whole thing about Louis … what do you think he meant?”
“I don’t know. All I do know is that you have to go where I tell you.”
“Fine. Where?”
“Brooklyn … to Dr. Chaotic’s lab.”
make it from the Flatiron District across the Manhattan Bridge to Brooklyn. I’m standing on the roof of the DUMBO Arts Center. I turn and look at the Brooklyn Bridge, and Manhattan beyond it. This is Allison’s favorite view from the other side. Seeing it now makes me feel empty.
I can picture Allison’s face as she looked at it, as if this was the only place on the planet where she could find peace. I remember thinking that I wanted to help her look like that all the time.
I need to find her.
But what if I find her, and she’s …
I’m wondering if I really want to know. If she’s gone, will I be able to handle it?
“I don’t know,” Jake says in my head, “but that’s a question for later. Right now, Phantom has to be stopped and the only way to do that is for you to get to the lab.”
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