by Lucas Flint
A chill went down my spine. “I don’t, but that’s not a good sign. Let me try calling him.”
I whipped my phone out of my pocket and quickly dialed Rubberman’s personal cell number. Putting my phone against my ear, I listened anxiously to the beeping sound, but then I heard Rubberman’s prerecorded message asking me to leave a message after the beep. I didn’t bother; instead, I canceled the call and looked at my parents again.
“No answer,” I said. “Something must have happened to Rubberman over the weekend. Otherwise, he would have been at the school already to fight Fro-Zen.”
“But if Rubberman is unable to fight Fro-Zen, then who can stop him?” said Mom. “The police can’t. They’ve already tried to break down the ice barriers, but they’re too thick, and besides Fro-Zen said he’ll start killing off hostages if any police try to enter.”
“Are there any other superheroes in Golden City who might be able to take him down?” said Dad, scratching the back of his head. “There’s got to be a few, right?”
I shook my head. “No. Rubberman is the only superhero in Golden City. And besides, I bet Fro-Zen would start killing hostages if a superhero other than Rubberman showed up.”
“Then who can stop him?” said Mom. She pressed her hand against her mouth. “Who?”
I looked down at my phone, at Rubberman’s number. I knew what I would have to do, but the fear rising within me almost paralyzed me. Yet I knew that I was the only one who could do anything in this situation.
So I said to Mom and Dad, “Let me go to the Elastic Cave, get my costume, and confront Fro-Zen.”
“What?” said Dad, staring at me like I’d just told him I wanted to take his car for a joy ride. “Alex, did those thugs beat the sanity out of you? If you try to fight Fro-Zen, you’ll get killed.”
“And Fro-Zen wants Rubberman, not you,” said Mom hurriedly. “If he sees you coming instead of Rubberman, he’ll probably start killing the hostages.”
“Mom, Dad, you don’t understand,” I said. I put a hand on my chest. “I’m the only one who can stop him. I may not be Rubberman, but I am his sidekick. Fro-Zen will just have to accept that.”
Of course, the truth was that I suspected that Fro-Zen might be willing to talk with me. I knew I couldn’t beat him in a fight, but maybe I could reason with him; at the very least, I might be able to convince him to let the hostages go, even if I couldn’t convince him to turn himself in. Then again, if Fro-Zen had already moved to the ‘hold hostages and demand the superhero show up or else’ stage, he might be entirely beyond reason now.
“Alex, I know you want to do the right thing, but you couldn’t even handle two ordinary criminals without getting the crap kicked out of you,” said Dad. “Fro-Zen is a genuine supervillain. He’ll kill you before you even realize it.”
“Then let me go to the Elastic Cave and find out what happened to Rubberman,” I said. “If he’s in trouble, maybe I can help him so he can go and confront Fro-Zen himself.”
Truthfully, I didn’t expect to get Rubberman back into shape, assuming he was injured. The plan was to confront Fro-Zen myself, regardless of what happened to Rubberman; still, I had to say what I just said so that Mom and Dad wouldn’t try to stop me. And, yes, I was worried about Rubberman, too, so if I could make sure he was okay in addition to getting my costume, that would be great.
Mom and Dad exchanged worried looks. I expected them to tell me to stay home and not worry about it, but then Dad looked at me and said, in a somewhat resigned voice, “Okay, Alex, you can go and see if Rubberman is okay. But don’t go anywhere near your school, and once you find out if Rubberman is okay, come back here immediately. Do you understand?”
I nodded. “Yes, sir. I’ll be back in a flash.”
I turned and ran out of the kitchen. Bursting through the front door, I jumped down the front steps, grabbed my bike, and took off without even putting on my helmet. I just hoped that I would be able to get to the Elastic Cave and find out what happened to Rubberman before Fro-Zen got bored and started killing people. Given what I knew about Fro-Zen’s character, I doubted it would be long before he got to that stage, which meant I had no time to lose.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
The first thing I noticed when the elevator doors opened was how quiet the Elastic Cave was. Granted, it wasn’t normally a very noisy place, because Rubberman and Adams usually worked pretty quietly, but I was usually greeted by one of them when I entered the place or I could hear Adams working in the kitchen or hear the news anchors on the Control System’s monitors yakking about whatever the news of the day was. Today, however, I heard nothing.
Also, the Elastic Cave was dark. Usually, the place was pretty well-lit; I didn’t know if the lights were ever turned off, given how I only worked in here during the late afternoon and evening and generally left after the sun had gone down. But it seemed like someone had shut off most of the lights, because the entire Cave was incredibly dark; the only light came from the hallway to my left, possibly from Rubberman’s office based on the position from which it came.
“Rubberman?” I said. “Adams? Hello? Is anyone there?”
No response. It was as if the Elastic Cave had been completely abandoned. But that didn’t make sense. The Elastic Cave was Rubberman’s base. There was no way he’d ever abandon it for any reason. And even if he had, he would have called or texted me about it ahead of time, not refuse to answer my calls for whatever reason. Something had happened in here, though what, I didn’t know.
And damn, the Elastic Cave was cold. Not ice cold—as far as I could tell, Fro-Zen had not attacked this place—but colder than usual. It was like someone had shut off the central heating, making the Cave feel like a freezer. I immediately put my arms around my body, trying to keep in as much heat as I could while I looked around, trying to spot any clues that might help me understand what happened to Rubberman and Adams. Again, I saw nothing, aside from the light coming from the hallway. Maybe Rubberman was in his office taking a nap or something, but I knew that was a dumb idea even before I finished thinking it.
Still, I didn’t trust the rest of the Cave, because it was so dark, so I made my way through the darkness toward the light coming from the hallway. As I suspected, the light was coming from Rubberman’s office; the door was cracked open, allowing the light to spill out, but I didn’t hear any sounds coming from the office. Nonetheless, I approached the door, opened it, and looked inside.
Rubberman’s office had been ransacked. The shelves of toys, statues, and other Rubberman paraphernalia had been torn from the walls, their contents scattered all across the floor, with the Rubberman figurine twisted beyond recognition; Rubberman’s computer lay overturned on the floor beside the fallen desk; and the posters had been ripped from the walls and lay in pieces all over the floor. And lying amid this chaos was Rubberman himself.
He looked unconscious, his head bleeding slightly. At first, I thought he was dead, but then I saw his chest rising and falling with each breath, although I didn’t relax. I rushed across the floor, bent over him, and began shaking him.
“Rubberman, are you awake?” I said. “Can you hear me? Hello, Rubberman?”
Finally, Rubberman groaned and his eyes flickered open. But his eyes were out of focus for a second; then he shook his head and their focus returned. He blinked several times and then put a hand on his head, which was probably where he had been hurt.
“Alex?” said Rubberman, his voice weak. He tried to sit up, but groaned and laid back down before he could get up. “What … what are you doing here? How long have I been out?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “It’s almost eight in the morning.”
Rubberman’s eyes widened. “Eight in the morning? God, I’ve been out for hours.” He glanced around his office and his eyes grew even wider in shock. “My office …”
“What happened here?” I said. “Why were you knocked out? And where’s Adams?”
“Adams went home last night,
” said Rubberman. “As for what happened here … I was attacked while I was working in my office.”
“Attacked?” I said. “Attacked by who?”
“By that ninja,” said Rubberman. “Remember? The one that attacked you on your first day here.”
“He came back?” I said in surprise. “I thought you had improved the security to make sure he couldn’t break in again.”
Rubberman put a hand on his forehead and sighed. “He must have been smarter than I thought. I don’t know how he got in, but that doesn’t matter. He took me by surprise, although I got a few hits in before he knocked me out. I think he has superpowers of some sort, although I’m not sure what they are.”
“Why did he attack you?” I said. “I don’t get it.”
“I don’t know why,” said Rubberman. “Nor do I know why he didn’t kill me when he had the chance. I need to check my safe and make sure he didn’t steal anything valuable before he left.”
“No time for that,” I said. “Fro-Zen has attacked my school and is holding several faculty members and classmates of mine hostage.”
“What?” said Rubberman. “No way. You’re joking, right?”
I pulled out my phone and showed Rubberman a news article that had a picture of the frozen school at the top. “This isn’t some kind of joke. It’s why I’m here. Police are warning everyone to stay away from the school until they can arrest Fro-Zen, but Fro-Zen is threatening to kill his hostages if you don’t show up to fight him.”
Rubberman took my phone and looked at the article. His expression grew grimmer the longer he read it. “That idiot. I should have expected he would do something like this.”
“Are we going to stop him?” I said. “We’re the only ones who can approach him without risking the lives of the hostages.”
Rubberman bit his lower lip, but he nodded and said, “Looks like that’s what we’ll have to do. But I have to go alone.”
“What?” I said. “Rubberman, I’m your sidekick. You’re not in any shape to fight Fro-Zen by yourself.”
“Neither are you,” said Rubberman. “Remember those two thugs who beat the crap out of you? Fro-Zen is heads and shoulders above both of them. You should stay here and check the Cave to make sure that the ninja didn’t steal anything of importance.”
Rubberman sat up, but cringed and put his hands on his head. “God, it feels like that ninja hit me with a sledgehammer.”
“Yeah, go and fight a deadly supervillain after you were knocked unconscious for hours and suffered from some unknown head injury,” I said. “That definitely won’t get you killed, no sir.”
Rubberman looked at me in exasperation. “I’m not paying you to be sarcastic, Alex.”
“Yeah, but that doesn’t change the fact that if you go out and fight Fro-Zen by yourself, you won’t last long against him,” I said. “And … well, I think I can talk with Fro-Zen.”
I didn’t want to tell Rubberman that, but I felt like I had to in order to make him listen to me. I didn’t like the way he looked at me in confusion. “Why? Fro-Zen is not a reasonable man. You can’t reason with him.”
“Because …” I hesitated, but decided that there was no point in keeping it a secret anymore. “Because I’ve already spoken with Fro-Zen once and he didn’t attack me.”
I braced myself for whatever Rubberman’s reaction would be. I expected him to start ranting to me about meeting with a dangerous supervillain like Fro-Zen, which I had to admit he would have a point about.
But Rubberman just looked at me in confusion. “When did you meet him and what did you talk to him about?”
“It doesn’t matter,” I said. “We don’t have time for a long explanation. I just think you should let me come with you because he might be willing to listen to me. We might even be able to convince him to give up; at the very least, I might be able to convince him to let the hostages go, if nothing else.”
I could tell that Rubberman was not very happy about my keeping my meeting with Rubberman a secret, but he nodded and said, “Fine. You can come with me. But after this is all over, you are going to tell me what you and Fro-Zen talked about. Okay?”
“Yes, sir,” I said.
“All right,” said Rubberman. He stood up, rubbing the back of his head like it still ached. “Suit up. We have no time to lose.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Under ordinary circumstances, I would have been thrilled to ride in the Rubbermobile. The seats were cushy but firm, the heating warmed up the interior to a good temperature, and even the seat belts were fantastically comfortable and made me feel safe. I sat in the front passenger’s seat while Rubberman took the wheel, which was covered in rubber. There was also a touch screen on the main dash, which displayed the time, weather, and a map of the entire city. The map acted as a GPS system; as soon as we got into the Rubbermobile, Rubberman input the address of Harold Golden High, which automatically gave us the best and quickest route to the school from the Elastic Cave. The interior of the Rubbermobile also smelled a lot like rubber, which actually wasn’t nearly as sickening as you’d think.
And damn was this car fast. Rubberman had warned me that the Rubbermobile was faster than most cars, but I didn’t really understand or even believe it until we zoomed up the tunnel from Level Two to the secret surface exit and out onto the streets in less than a second. The Rubbermobile zoomed through the streets of Golden City, turning corners and going down shortcuts I didn’t even know existed. It was guided deftly by Rubberman, although I figured he had to have some aid from the car’s AI system (which he called Rubberband because of ‘branding,’ or so he told me, anyway) because no one drove this well. We had to be going at least two hundred miles per hour, yet the Rubbermobile drove so smoothly through the city streets that I barely even felt it. It even had cup holders, although neither Rubberman nor me had any cups for them to hold right now.
But I couldn’t enjoy the car ride nearly as much as I normally would have, because I was so anxious about Fro-Zen. Even though the Rubbermobile tore through the streets of Golden City like lightning, I kept worrying that we might not get there before Fro-Zen decided that we weren’t going to show up and started killing everyone. Rubberman didn’t seem nearly as anxious as me; he simply kept his hands on the wheel and his eyes on the road, like we were going for a quick trip to the grocery store rather than going to confront a deadly supervillain who wouldn’t hesitate to kill innocent people. That probably came from Rubberman’s years of experience fighting supervillains and criminals.
Even though I was incredibly worried and anxious, I couldn’t help but also feel amazed that Rubberman was driving so well despite his head injury. I thought that he might have been too dizzy or injured to drive, but he drove just as if he had not been knocked out. That was why I suspected Rubberband was helping him drive, although it could have been that Rubberman’s healing factor was already kicking in and healing his injury.
We didn’t talk as we drove. I had asked Rubberman what the plan was, but he just shrugged and told me we’d figure it out when we got there. That didn’t exactly instill me with confidence, but I didn’t say anything because I was under the impression that Rubberman was not interested in talking. I wondered if he normally improvised like this; given that we didn’t know exactly what to expect, maybe that was for the best.
In what seemed like an eternity and yet no time at all, we reached Harold Golden High. The entire school was still surrounded by gigantic ice walls as thick as mountains; in fact, unless my eyes were playing tricks on me, it looked like the walls had gotten bigger and thicker since we last saw them. They were also slightly curved at the top, forming a partial dome over the school, although I didn’t understand why until I noticed a police helicopter hovering nearby; no doubt Fro-Zen was attempting to make sure that the police did not send in anyone from the air.
The Rubbermobile came to a surprisingly smooth halt and Rubberman and I jumped out of the vehicle. Just as we left the vehicle, three police o
fficers ran over to us. I didn’t recognize any of them, but I figured the first guy—a large middle-aged man with a goatee and a balding head covered with a bad comb over—was the police chief, based on how the other two officers ran behind him like he was the head.
“Rubberman!” the police chief called out as he and the other two officers stopped in front of us; even though it was incredibly cold out, the officers were sweating. “So glad you are here. What took you so long?”
“Ran into some difficulties starting the Rubbermobile earlier,” said Rubberman. He glanced at the ice walls. “Anyway, what’s the situation like, Chief?”
I suddenly remembered that the police chief’s name was Williams. I had seen him in the past, but didn’t know him very well, although neither Williams nor his deputies were even looking at me.
“Bad,” said Williams, wiping sweat off his big forehead. He gestured hopelessly at the huge ice walls. “Fro-Zen has at least a dozen hostages, including faculty and students. We don’t know the status of any of them; Fro-Zen took all their phones and other devices and destroyed them so they couldn’t call for help or contact the outside.”
“Not surprising,” said Rubberman. He rubbed the back of his head again; apparently his wound must have still hurt. “He still wants to see me, right?”
“Right,” said Williams, nodding anxiously. “He’s been very clear about that. He’s also repelled every attempt by our officers to get inside; one of our officers got turned into an ice statue when he touched the walls. And he’s also curved the walls to make sure that the helicopter can’t land on the school or let down any officers to get in from there.”
“Are there any entrances through the walls at all?” said Rubberman.
“No,” said Williams, shaking his head. “The whole place is like an iceberg. Potentially, we could drill a hole, but we don’t have the equipment for that, and even if we did, Fro-Zen would likely start killing hostages if we tried.”
