by Lucas Flint
“Even stricter?” I said. “How?”
“You can have your license revoked for killing a crook, for one thing, unless it was in self-defense,” said Rubberman. “Also, I can be held personally liable for anything you do and I can’t afford to have you blow up someone’s home or car and then get sued for it.”
“What if it’s accidentally?” I said. “They can’t sue me if I did it on accident, right?”
“People can and will sue you for literally anything,” said Rubberman as the elevator dinged and the doors opened before us. “It’s best not to risk it.”
Rubberman and Adams entered the elevator. I was going to join them, but Adams held out a hand and said, “Sorry, Mr. Fry, but you must stay on Level One.”
“You mean I can’t even see you go?” I said in disappointment.
“You’d just get in the way,” said Adams. “We don’t need you getting in the way slowing us down as we prepare Mr. Pullman to leave.”
“I’m sorry, Alex, but Adams is right,” said Rubberman. “You need to stay here while we’re away. You won’t be alone forever; once I leave, Adams will come back up to supervise you and give you your duties for the day. Until then, however, stay put and don’t touch anything; although if you’re hungry, feel free to grab a snack or drink from the fridge.”
Adams looked horrified at the idea of me rifling through the fridge unsupervised, but then the elevator doors closed and I was all alone. I watched as ‘LEVEL TWO’ lit up, an indication that they were already there and getting ready for Rubberman to drive the Rubbermobile. I knew it wouldn’t take them long to set Rubberman up and get him out of here, but that didn’t stop me from feeling annoyed anyway. All that talk about making me familiar with the Cave and yet they didn’t want me coming with them even just to see Rubberman off? It was crazy, but there you go. Then again, maybe Rubberman was afraid I would accidentally blow up the Rubbermobile; given how I told him I almost blew up a car once, that wasn’t an entirely unreasonable worry.
Shaking my head, I turned around and looked at the Cave. I wondered what I should do to pass the time before my stomach grumbled, a reminder of the meager breakfast I had earlier. I decided to see what they had in the fridge; based on what Adams told me, there was bound to be something good in there.
Making my way back to the second half of the Cave, I walked over to the fridge and grabbed the handle. But before I could pull it open, I heard a door open and close somewhere close by. And it was not the elevator doors, so it couldn’t have been Adams returning from seeing Rubberman off.
I listened more closely. I didn’t hear any other sounds. Maybe I had just been imagining things. But that seemed unlikely; the Cave was very silent, so it wasn’t like there were a whole bunch of other sounds I could have mistaken for that of a door opening and closing. That meant I heard something. Or someone.
But who could it be? There were only three people in the Elastic Cave at the moment: Me, Adams, and Rubberman. Right now, Rubberman and Adams were on Level Two getting the Rubbermobile ready, while I was standing in front of the fridge on Level One. Adams had not mentioned anyone else working for Rubberman; therefore, if someone else besides one of us was here, that meant they may not have been friendly.
But maybe I was jumping to conclusions. Just because I thought I heard someone doesn’t mean I did. I could have just been imagining things. How could someone else get in here, anyway? Adams made it sound like this place is pretty secure. It was physically impossible for someone to get in here without Adams or Rubberman knowing. If someone else was in here, they would have introduced me to them already.
On the other hand, though, I didn’t think I would be able to eat if I believed that someone else was in here with me, someone who might be dangerous. The opening and closing door sounded like it came from Rubberman’s office or from that area of the Cave at least; I would go and check. Just a quick peek into his office, and if no one was there, then I would come back to the kitchen and get something to eat.
Ignoring my rumbling stomach, I made my way from the kitchen to the main hallway. I did not see any footprints or anything else to indicate that anyone other than one of us had been here; however, that meant nothing, because they could have been very sneaky. I checked the doors to the rooms in the main hallway, only to discover that most of them were locked. That was what I expected, of course, given that they are supposed to be locked.
But when I got to Rubberman’s office, I discovered that the door was unlocked. That sent off alarms in my head. Rubberman didn’t seem like the kind of guy to leave his office door unlocked when he left. That meant that someone must have picked the lock or forced it open somehow. A deep sense of dread fell over me; it reminded me of the time a robber broke into our house when I was little. Both of my parents had been outside at the time and for some reason had left me alone, maybe because I had been taking a nap or something. Luckily, the robber had run when he saw me (maybe because he was afraid I’d call the police or something), but I distinctly recalled how terrified I had felt when I saw a man who clearly was not my Dad and who was not related to me in any way standing in the doorway of my room with a gun in hand. I shivered just thinking about it.
That’s how I felt now. There was someone in here who was not working with Rubberman, someone who might very well be dangerous, maybe a criminal or something. Perhaps they were even a supervillain of some sort; Rubberman had probably earned the ire of many supervillains over his years in the business and it wouldn’t surprise me if one of them managed to locate and break into the base to kill Rubberman.
I thought about turning around and running back to my room; if there really was a supervillain in there, then I would be safer in my room, at least until Adams returned and I could tell him about it. Of course, Adams didn’t have any superpowers of his own, so I didn’t know what he would be able to do against a real supervillain, but my parents had always taught me to let an adult know if someone was somewhere they shouldn’t be and that I should not handle these types of problems on my own. It was for my own safety, especially because I wasn’t very experienced in fighting supervillains.
Yet I still didn’t know for sure if there was a supervillain in here or not. I didn’t hear anyone on the other side of the door, so maybe Rubberman just left his office door unlocked in his hurry to train me. And even if there was a supervillain, maybe I would be able to take him by surprise; he might think there was no one in here or that I was distracted by something else. If I kicked open the door and shouted, he might be so surprised that I could take him down with one laser blast. Granted, I might end up destroying Rubberman’s office, but if I managed to defeat one of Rubberman’s enemies, I didn’t see how Rubberman could remain angry at me for very long.
Taking a deep breath, I kicked open the door and, stepping inside, shouted, “Halt, supervillain! Or I—”
I abruptly stopped speaking as soon as I saw that the office was totally empty. There was no one at the desk or standing in front of the shelves full of Rubberman merch. The computer was still on, but it seemed to have gone into sleep mode since no one was using it.
I looked to the left and to the right, but did not see anyone. Nor was there anywhere for someone to hide, except behind the desk, but the desk was too small for someone to hide behind, except for maybe a very small child, but I doubted that a small child had managed to break into the Cave. Small kids could get into lots of places you wouldn’t expect them to be able to, of course, but the Elastic Cave was not one of those places.
I rubbed the back of my head. Maybe I had misheard something after all. My grumbling stomach agreed, so I turned around to leave and go back to the kitchen, but not before I heard something above me and looked up in time to see a foot coming at my face.
The foot slammed into my helmet’s visor; the visor protected my face, but the impact of the blow still knocked me flat on my back. And before I could get up again, someone fell down on top of me and pinned me to the floor with one of th
eir feet.
I now found myself staring at the masked face of a ninja. And he was drawing a long, jagged knife from his belt, a knife that looked sharp enough to slit my throat as easily as paper.
CHAPTER SIX
The guy really was a ninja, or looked like one anyway. He wore black, body-fitting clothing, which showed off his surprisingly muscular body, as well as a black cloth mask that completely hid his face. The only parts of his face that were visible were his eyes; they were a striking blue, making me think of the open sky. I couldn’t determine his age, but he must have been in his twenties at least.
Not that any of that mattered to me, though. My focus was on the huge knife he had pulled out from seemingly nowhere. It actually looked more like a small sword than a knife, but regardless, I knew he was going to be introducing it to me soon enough.
Panicked, I focused on my eye beams. Heat built up in my eyes so rapidly that it was actually painful, but I didn’t care. I shot a full laser blast at the ninja; I was so panicked that I aimed for his face instead of his knife.
But the ninja instantly jumped backwards off me and out of the office, causing my eye beams to blast apart the ceiling above and send debris falling down onto my helmet. I scrambled to my feet, but then the ninja’s knife/sword came out of nowhere, aiming directly for my shoulder. I moved my head in the way, however, and the knife struck my helmet.
The knife was not sharp enough to pierce my helmet; however, it hit so hard that it felt like getting punched in the face. I staggered backwards, which turned out to be a lucky move that allowed me to dodge another slash from the ninja’s knife.
Without thinking, I tried to slam the door shut on the ninja, but he jammed his knife between the door and the frame. I still tried to hold the door closed, but the ninja shoved it open, sending me staggering backwards again as the ninja entered the room with surprising speed. He slammed the butt of his knife against my helmet, causing me to stagger against the desk. The ninja was coming at me again, so without thinking I grabbed something from the desk behind me and threw it at his face.
That thing turned out to be none other than Rubberman’s little rubber figurine, the one he had showed me before. The figurine flew through the air and struck the ninja in the face, which must have taken him by surprise, because he dropped his knife and put his hands on his face like I’d hit one of his eyes.
Seeing an opening, I threw a punch at him, but the ninja caught my fist and shoved me backwards. I stumbled backwards and hit the desk, while the ninja picked up his knife again and kicked aside the Rubberman figurine. Raising his blade once more, the ninja advanced on me, his sky blue eyes wide with rage.
Knowing I couldn’t beat this guy in a fight, I instead rolled over the desk, just narrowly avoiding Rubberman’s computer monitor, and landed behind the desk. I didn’t have time to formulate a plan, however, because I could hear the ninja still advancing toward the desk. And given how there was only a solid wall behind me, I couldn’t just run away.
I yanked open one of Rubberman’s drawers, the bottom one nearest me, and found a Rubberman paperweight inside it. Picking up the paperweight, it was heavy and solid, exactly what I needed, so I stood back up and threw the metal paperweight at the ninja.
This time, however, the ninja’s reflexes allowed him to dodge the paperweight. But I took advantage of his distraction to pick up Rubberman’s computer mouse and throw it at him as well. It actually hit him in the face, once again causing him to stumble, only this time I didn’t try to fight him. Instead, I ran around the desk and made for the door, figuring that if I couldn’t beat the ninja in a fight, then I would find a safe place to hide until Adams returned.
But I didn’t get very far before I felt the ninja’s hand grab the back of my neck and pull me back. I crashed onto the floor, bashing the back of my head against the wooden flooring, which left me too dizzy to get up or do anything else.
Then I saw the ninja’s knife coming straight at me. There was no time to dodge, no time to think. Only to act.
And, without another thought, I fired another laser blast from my eyes at the incoming knife. The laser blast tore apart the knife and even struck the ninja’s hand, causing him to finally shout in pain in an incredibly deep voice. The ninja stumbled away, grasping his wrist, while I got to my feet, though I had to use Rubberman’s desk for support because I was still kind of dizzy from being knocked around so much.
There was now a new hole in the ceiling, although it wasn’t as big as the first one. Not that I paid any further attention to it, because I turned my attention to the smoking remains of the ninja’s knife lying on the floor. My laser blast had totally destroyed the knife; it didn’t even look like a knife. It looked like a piece of twisted, partially melted metal. It probably didn’t smell very good, either, but my helmet seemed to filter out all smells because I couldn’t smell the smoke rising from it.
Then I looked at the ninja. He was gripping his hand, which looked terrible now. Although the knife had taken the brunt of my lasers, his hand hadn’t exactly escaped unscathed. The glove was partially burned off, revealing an ugly burn on his skin that reminded me of those pictures of burn victims I looked up on the Internet once. It looked like the ninja could still use his hand, but it must have been very painful, because he was groaning in pain and acting very un-ninja-like. That was the very first time I’d ever harmed a human with my powers; it was an odd feeling.
But I didn’t focus on it. Instead, I pointed at the ninja and said, “Okay, ninja, looks like I win. If you give up and tell me who you are and what you’re doing here, I won’t shoot you with my lasers again.”
I spoke as authoritatively and confidently as I could, which was kind of hard because I was so tired. Still, I figured that that was what Rubberman or some other superhero would say in my situation, especially since my enemy was unarmed.
Instead of giving up, however, the ninja turned and ran out the door much faster than someone with such a burn should have been able to. I was briefly taken aback, but then shook my head and ran after him. If that ninja got away, then I might get fired for not only letting him get away, but also for causing so much damage to Rubberman’s office. Besides, I had a feeling that that ninja stole something important, even though I hadn’t seen him carrying anything that didn’t belong to him.
Rounding the corner, I slammed into someone and we both fell on our behinds. At first, I thought I’d run into the ninja, so I prepared my eyes to fire another laser at him, but when I looked again, I saw that it was Adams. The older man was sitting on the floor opposite me, rubbing his head and wearing a very annoyed frown on his face.
“Mr. Fry, what are you doing in Rubberman’s office?” said Adams in annoyance. “And why do I smell burning metal?”
“Adams?” I said in surprise. “What are you doing here?”
“I just got back from seeing off Mr. Pullman in the Rubbermobile,” said Adams. He rose to his feet, dusting off his suit. “But don’t change the subject on me, young man. What happened here?”
I also rose to my feet and tried looking around Adams. “Did you see the ninja?”
“Ninja?” said Adams. “What ninja? I didn’t see any ‘ninja’ in here.”
“But he just left,” I said, looking up at Adams. “Surely you passed him on your way here.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” said Adams with a huff. “Now get out of my way and let me see what you did to Mr. Pullman’s office. And why are you covered in plaster?”
I tried to tell Adams not to enter, but he just shoved me aside and went into Mr. Pullman’s office. His scream was so loud that I was pretty sure that it could be heard even from the streets above us.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Adams was so furious that I expected to see smoke rising from his ears. Once he was done screaming, he forced me to get a broom and pan and clean up Rubberman’s office. He also had me put all of the things I’d knocked over back into place, all under his angry, watchfu
l eye. I tried to explain to him about the ninja, but Adams wouldn’t hear anything I said. He told me that he would make sure that Mr. Pullman would know about this first thing once he returned from dealing with the supervillain threat reported by the police. So I stopped trying to explain anything to Adams; instead, I dutifully swept up the ceiling chunks and debris and tried to put things back into the same state they had been before the fight as best as I could. Adams didn’t say anything while I worked; he just stood in the doorway, his arms crossed over his chest, silently watching me. I found his silence even worse than his screaming, to be honest.
While I cleaned, I was certain that I was going to get fired. I didn’t know how much it was going to cost Rubberman to fix up everything, but I doubted it would be cheap. And he had given me very explicit instructions to not do anything while he was away. I figured that once he came back and saw all of the mess I’d made, he’d fire me on the spot. I really didn’t look forward to going home today and telling my parents that I got fired on my first day at work. Nor did I relish all of the teasing I’d receive from James, either.
Once I finished cleaning, Adams told me to go to my room and stay there until Rubberman returned. He didn’t lock me in, but I was under the impression that if I left the room, Adams would finish what the ninja started. He did give me a small lunch of a peanut butter sandwich and a bag of chips, plus a glass of water, but aside from that he didn’t do or say anything else. Having removed my helmet and put it by my side on the bed, I sat there eating silently. I checked my phone for any messages or missed calls, but no one had called or texted me today. I contemplated calling home and telling my parents that I was basically fired, but I decided that I wanted to at least get officially fired by Rubberman himself before I made any big announcements. I didn’t want to jump the gun.
