Mad Mask

by Barry Lyga

  The guard chuckled, but Kyle detected a bit of nervousness under the laughter. “No treats, so you’re pulling a trick? I’m telling you, kids, you — Hey, wait.” His eyes narrowed and he looked at Kyle. “Are you actually dressed as the Blue —”

  “Open the gate,” the Mad Mask insisted, “and your life will be spared when the mighty Ultitron comes.”

  The guard realized now that something was wrong. This wasn’t just two kids messing around. He raised his rifle with one hand and felt behind him for the control panel with the other.

  The Mad Mask lifted his hand and the guard fired! Kyle shouted out as the crack of the rifle filled the air. At the same moment, laser-chaff exploded from the Mad Mask’s gauntlet, blinding the guard and sending him spinning to collide with the concrete wall and then collapse to the ground, clawing at his blinded eyes.

  “Are you okay?” Kyle asked, checking the Mad Mask for injuries. But of course the force field had protected him.

  “The Mad Mask is unharmed. Tear down the gate, Azure Avenger.”

  “Why don’t we just fly over it? Or teleport through?”

  “The Mad Mask wants the world to know we have arrived! No more questions! Tear down this gate!”

  It didn’t make much sense to Kyle. Teleporting or flying would be much easier, and people would still know eventually. But there was no time for questions. He grabbed two of the upright steel bars in his hands and took a deep breath. The gate was massive and heavy, grounded and pegged in the thick concrete walls. He strained and pulled, starting slow at first because he didn’t want to just rip out the bars. He had to rip down the entire gate.

  “Quickly …” the Mad Mask murmured.

  Kyle increased the pressure. Vibrating along the steel bars, he felt something deep within the gate give and break loose. He tugged with all his might, and the gate shrieked and complained and twisted free from its moorings, chunks of concrete collapsing into dust all around.

  Alarms screamed.

  For a moment, Kyle lost track of the Mad Mask in the chaos.

  The alarm had gone off just as a cloud of choking concrete dust had whirled up and around. Kyle had tossed the mangled gate to one side, opening Lundergaard’s campus to himself and the Mad Mask.

  And then the attack started.

  He didn’t know where the first volley came from, but suddenly Kyle was assaulted on all sides. There were smoke grenades coming from every direction, as well as what were called “flash bangs” — special grenades that exploded in light and sound to distract and incapacitate. They were sort of an inferior, primitive version of Kyle’s laser-chaff.

  But Kyle had those glare-reducing lenses in his mask, so the flashes didn’t bother him, and the Mad Mask had given both of them special earplugs that used white-sound circuitry to block the noises.

  That smoke was annoying, though. Kyle spun around in a tight circle with both arms extended, whirling faster and faster until the smoke got caught up in the mini-twister he’d created and began funneling up into the sky.

  Which revealed dozens of armed guards pouring out of the Lundergaard buildings, all of them rushing toward Kyle.

  Wow.

  Kyle stopped spinning and stumbled a little bit. Head rush!

  From the left, a water cannon blasted Kyle at top pressure. From the right, a platoon of guards fired an electrified net.

  Oh, these people were just too stupid!

  Kyle ducked under the net and let it hit the water. The net shorted out, but not before an electrical jolt surged back along the water blast and blew up the cannon.

  Mass panic now. People running everywhere. Kyle knew that it was only a matter of time before the guards brought out the real ammo, the live stuff that could kill people. He was pretty sure that none of it could hurt him, but he didn’t want bullets bouncing off his body and drilling through innocent guards. Just because these guys got a paycheck from Lundergaard didn’t mean they deserved to die.

  He looked around for the Mad Mask. Even though it was anarchy all around him, the special earplugs made everything eerily quiet.

  The Mad Mask stood off to one side, near a big SUV. All sorts of rubber bullets were bouncing off his force field and he seemed not to notice that he was in the middle of a massive firefight. Instead, he just stood there with his hands clasped behind his back, gazing up at the sky.

  A guard came close to Kyle and swung at him with the butt of his rifle. Kyle easily ducked, grabbed the rifle, and jerked it out of the guard’s hands. There was something delicious and thrilling about seeing the look of absolute terror on the face of a full-grown man.

  Kyle twisted the rifle into a pretzel shape and tossed it to the guard, who reflexively caught it, still staring in fear. Kyle laughed, then darted forward and flicked the man’s jaw with a fraction of his strength. The guard went flying through the air and crumpled to the ground, unconscious.

  Just then, the guards started pointing up. Kyle knew what he would see even before he followed their fingers.

  Mighty Mike.

  Before Mike could land, Kyle sped to the Mad Mask’s side. “I’ll hold him off,” Kyle shouted, hoping the Mad Mask could hear him through the special earplugs. “You get inside and find the stuff we need!”

  If the Mad Mask heard, he didn’t acknowledge it, standing still as Kyle launched himself into the air to intercept Mighty Mike. Mike’s mouth was moving, but Kyle couldn’t hear what he was saying, which was just as well — it was probably stupid.

  He didn’t give Mike a chance to attack first; Kyle knew from experience that Mighty Mike would throw a punch without provocation, so he decided to be proactive and launched a hook at Mike’s face.

  Mike blocked the blow, but only barely. Kyle followed up with a right cross before Mike could react, nailing Mike in the side of the head. Mike spun around in midair, spraying spittle. Kyle’s heart jumped a little in joy. He normally despised physical violence — and was usually worried that in a fight Mike might rip his mask off — but right now, he was happy to make an exception. He kept pummeling Mike, not letting up, not letting Mike catch his breath, until a final massive blow sent Mike spiraling back twenty yards through the air.

  With a little breathing room, Kyle glanced over his shoulder quickly to check on the Mad Mask’s progress, but he didn’t see his ally anywhere near the Lundergaard buildings. Where was the Mad Mask …?

  And then he realized that all of the guards had concentrated their efforts on an SUV that was barreling toward the gate, hauling butt to the exit.

  Wait. Not just an SUV. It was the same SUV the Mad Mask had been standing near.

  Kyle had two thoughts pop into his head at once: The first one was Wow, the Mad Mask is driving without his license! and the second one was Where’s he going? He tossed the first one aside (they were breaking into a government-related research facility; a little something like underage driving was no big deal) and focused on the second. The Mad Mask hadn’t even had time to go into the building, much less find and grab the missing component! Why was he running away already?

  Was he scared? No. Impossible. What the heck was going —?

  Just then, Kyle heard the sound of gunfire from below, the shouts of the guards running to and fro, the revving of the SUV engine as the vehicle bounced through the gate and jerked crazily onto the highway.

  He also heard wind. Mighty Mike, soaring in.

  He heard …

  His earplugs had stopped working!

  Kyle barely had time to turn around when Mike plowed into him from behind. Kyle screamed in shock and pain as Mike tackled him like a linebacker taking down a quarterback. He flipped over himself, a backward aerial somersault that carried him into a tall Lundergaard building. The wall crumbled around him and he kept going; concrete, glass, and steel shattered and he finally collapsed on an office floor somewhere inside.

  As disorienting as being knocked through a wall was, he was even more knocked off balance by the Mad Mask’s sudden turn. What had happ
ened? Why had the Mad Mask fled? What was he supposed to do now?

  Mighty Mike burst into the office, threading the hole Kyle had made when he’d crashed in. “Okay, Blue Freak — time for you to settle your bat!”

  Kyle winced as he got to his feet. They circled each other like boxers, wary. “I think you mean settle my ‘tab.’”

  “Whatever.”

  “Alien freak!” Kyle clenched his fists.

  “Joking jokester!”

  “What?”

  “It sounded good to me!” Mike said defensively.

  “Are we gonna fight or not?”

  “Tell me where your partner went and I’ll go easy on you,” Mike said.

  “Never!” Kyle spat.

  It was easy to be so defiant when he had absolutely no idea where the Mad Mask was going. Or why.

  The Mad Mask drove at two miles below the speed limit, not wanting to attract any police attention. He knew some of the Lundergaard guards had seen him leave in the SUV, but he figured that they would be more than occupied by the battle between the Azure Avenger and Mighty Mike.

  He grinned under his mask. Mighty Mike had, of course, shown up. The Mad Mask had been certain that the do-gooder child would show up at Lundergaard at precisely the right moment, but just to be sure, the Mad Mask had sent a distress call to the Bouring Police Department, guaranteeing that Mighty Mike would end up at Lundergaard.

  It was, the Mad Mask thought, too bad that the Azure Avenger would have to be sacrificed. In the past few days, the Mad Mask had come to enjoy his time with Kyle, especially the youngster’s quick mind. But the Mad Mask had a cause, a sacred mission, and nothing could stand in its way.

  The parking meters had been a test, a test that Kyle had failed beyond belief. The boy claimed to want to educate the world, but when push came to shove, he did not have the spine — the steel — to do what must be done. The Mad Mask had always thought that the Azure Avenger would make a good patsy for his own crimes. The “Blue Freak” was known to the world — he could have been the face of the Mad Mask’s reign of terror.

  The Mad Mask was going to destroy beauty. He was going to make the world feel the pain he felt. There was no room for sympathy or compassion in his plan, and Kyle had proven an unfit partner. Ultitron must stride the world like a god, with no one and nothing to stop him. Certainly not misguided, misplaced sentiment for the mere mortals in his path, the puling weaklings destined and fit only to be crushed beneath his tread!

  The Mad Mask laughed, a loud, sustained manic belly laugh. He pulled onto the off-ramp for Bouring, driving past the sign that read YOU ARE ABOUT TO ENTER THE TOWN OF BOURING — IT’S NOT BORING! He needed to recover the motivational engine from Kyle’s basement and then repair to his hidden lair, where he would install it. There was no “missing component” to be purloined from Lundergaard Research — that was merely a ruse to distract Mighty Mike and slough off the Azure Avenger. The Mad Mask wondered idly if the Azure Avenger would even survive the day; he seemed quite powerful but between Mighty Mike and the experimental weapons in storage at Lundergaard … Well, it seemed quite possible — likely, even — that the Azure Avenger would not live to see Ultitron’s rampage and the Mad Mask’s ultimate triumph over beauty itself!

  Oh, well.

  He braked to a halt in front of Kyle’s house, no longer caring about concealing Kyle’s secret identity. It was late in the afternoon, and the street was empty — kids were inside and parents weren’t home from work yet. The Mad Mask strode up the walkway and kicked the front door. It held, and a shiver of pain ran up his leg to his groin. And yet, he did not cry out or otherwise acknowledge the pain. Pain was for lesser beings, not for the likes of the Mad Mask.

  He kicked again. This time, the door jerked with the force of the blow, the lock breaking. Excellent!

  “Hey!” a voice called out. “What are you doing?”

  The Mad Mask turned around. There, behind him, stood the girl, the one the Azure Avenger called a friend. Mairi — that was her name.

  Mairi gasped when the Mad Mask stood before her in all his glory. She took a step back.

  Under his mask, the Mad Mask grinned a slow, evil grin.

  “Hello, my dear,” he said in a menacing tone. “Such a pleasure to see you again. And yes, now that I see you in the daylight, I can tell that you are quite … beautiful.”

  Mairi hardly had time to scream.

  At Lundergaard Research, what had once been called “Building 12” was now nothing more than rubble. Building 13 wasn’t looking all that great, either. The Lundergaard security team had shifted its focus from repelling the attack on its facility to just doing its best to evacuate the entire campus without anyone getting killed. So far, they were doing a good job. But the sounds from Building 13 weren’t encouraging: crashes, metallic shrieks, occasional explosions. Building 12 had made similar sounds just before it collapsed.

  And now the superpowered kids were in Building 13 and showed no signs of stopping.

  Somewhere deep inside Building 13, Kyle lashed out with what felt like his millionth punch. He was exhausted. Mighty Mike just would not give up. The two of them squared off against each other in what had once been a conference room but now was more like an example of what happens to a conference room when a family of tornadoes decides to move into the neighborhood.

  “I’m telling you,” Kyle said again, “you have to let me go. Something’s happening —”

  “Are you peanuts?” Mike said, absorbing the blow and kicking Kyle in the stomach. Kyle had gotten tired of correcting Mike’s malapropisms and didn’t even bother anymore. “I’m not letting you go! Look at all the damage you’ve caused.”

  “I’ve caused?” Kyle rubbed his belly, stepping back. “You’re the one who punched me into the building in the first place!”

  “I’m not arguing who’s right with you!” Mike fumed. “Just surrender and this’ll all be over!”

  “Not a chance.” Kyle ducked as black lasers stabbed at him from Mighty Mike’s eyes. The wall behind him sizzled and hissed as it slowly melted away. “You’re going to knock down this building, too!”

  “I didn’t knock down the other one!” Mike protested.

  “You ripped up a support beam!”

  “It wasn’t labeled!”

  Kyle rolled his eyes, which was a mistake because Mike plowed into him at top speed, and the two of them careened through the half-melted wall, blew through an office, and ended up smashing into a massive cubicle farm. They rolled on the floor, Mighty Mike on top, pummeling Kyle over and over.

  “I need to think!” Kyle screamed, and lashed out with both feet. Ah! A good, solid connection — he caught Mike in the gut and tossed the punk off him … and through the ceiling.

  What is going on here?

  Kyle was no idiot: He figured that the Mad Mask had double-crossed him, using him to distract Mighty Mike while he escaped. But why? What was he up to —?

  Just then, the phone rang.

  Actually, all the phones rang.

  Standing in shock in the midst of a hundred ringing phones, Kyle couldn’t move for a second. Had he and Mike somehow damaged the phone system during their fight … and made all the phones go off? That wasn’t likely.

  Above, he heard sounds of crashing and thrashing as Mike fought his way clear of pieces of roof. He only had a few moments, and the phones kept ringing.

  He grabbed the one on the nearest desk. “Um, hello?”

  “Kyle!” It was Kyle’s own voice, though broken up with static. Erasmus! “We’ve got problems.”

  “Little busy here.” He almost asked how Erasmus had called him here, but he knew the answer because it was what he would have done in the same situation: Erasmus must have been wirelessly monitoring the news. The situation at Lundergaard would have been broadcast, so then Erasmus simply remotely hacked into Lundergaard’s telephone system and commandeered the phones.

  “No, a big problem,” Erasmus went on. “The Mad Mask —
”

  “Betrayed me. I know!” He looked up. Mike would come through the hole in the ceiling any second now….

  “Listen to me! It’s worse than that. He’s been here.”

  The motivational engine! Kyle thought. Of course. Now it made sense….

  “And he took Mairi.”

  “He what?” Kyle turned away from the ceiling and slammed an angry fist into the desk, which — predictably — split in two, dumping its contents to the floor. A small porcelain pot broke open, spilling soil and a tiny ficus. Oops. For some reason, Kyle felt worse about that than knocking down that other building. Probably because knocking down the building was Mike’s fault.

  “It gets worse,” Erasmus went on.

  “Worse? How could —”

  BOOM! Mighty Mike soared back into the room, pieces of acoustic ceiling tile and shredded electric cable streaming off him like water off a surfer. Kyle dropped the phone and dodged left, then right, then grabbed Mike’s cape and spun him around in a circle. Once. Twice. He let go and watched Mike go flailing through a wall.

  This nonsense was getting Kyle nowhere. He needed a clear, quiet minute to figure out what was going on here. A minute without Mike trying to bash his brains in.

  So he flew straight up, through the hole in the ceiling, then through the hole in the next ceiling, and so on until he found an intact ceiling (he’d kicked Mike through four stories — nice!) and crashed his way through that ceiling and the next until he finally burst through the roof of Building 13 into the open air. He figured he had thirty seconds before Mike followed him up here, so he had to use it. What could the Mad Mask be up to? And why had he kidnapped Mairi? And —

  Oh, boy.

  Off to the west, Kyle could see Bouring. Well, actually, he couldn’t really see Bouring because Bouring was small and flat and no big deal. But he could see the Bouring Lighthouse, which stood up along the horizon, as obvious as a basketball player at a dwarves’ convention.

  And close by the lighthouse, like, say, the basketball player’s twin brother, was Ultitron.