Joshua Dread

by Lee Bacon

  I did my best to act natural, which meant pretending that there wasn’t a glass vial of deadly acid in the pocket of my blue jeans.

  “Sophie and Marlon are safely waiting outside until the area is cleared of all dangers,” Captain Justice said. He knelt down to my level. “Were you injured in any way during this traumatic ordeal?”

  “Uh … I think I’ll be okay.”

  “Excellent! In that case, let us make a quick and orderly exit from this—”

  Captain Justice paused. His eyes flickered down to my pocket.

  “What’ve you got there, son?”

  I took a step back. “Huh?”

  “In your pocket? What is that?”

  A sinking feeling came over me. The acid. He must’ve noticed it. After coming all this way, I was so close. And now all of it was going to fall apart.

  Captain Justice’s expression sharpened. “Is there something you want to tell me?”

  “No,” I said. “Really, it’s nothing.”

  He raised one eyebrow. “It doesn’t look like nothing.”

  I tried to think of what to do, but every idea was worse than the previous one. Outrun Captain Justice? Impossible. Tell him I hadn’t noticed the vial of deadly acid in my pocket? Highly unlikely.

  Face it. The situation was hopeless.

  “I’m sorry.” My voice cracked. “I just—”

  “No need to apologize,” Captain Justice interrupted. “I know Justice Jerky when I see it.”

  For a moment, I thought my brain had missed a beat. Then I glanced down. An empty wrapper of Justice Jerky was sticking out of my pocket.

  “Er—that’s right.” My shoulders sank with relief. “I just can’t get enough … Justice Jerky.”

  “And who can blame you!” A grin splashed across Captain Justice’s face. “Justice Jerky combines rich beefy flavor with a spicy kick that will have you coming back for more every time!”

  It was amazing. He sounded just like the commercials I’d seen a hundred times before.

  “Now let’s get you back to safety,” Captain Justice said.

  The parking lot was a madhouse. Flashing lights from ambulances and police cruisers cut through the darkness. The employees and security guards had been untied and were giving their statements to police officers and reporters. Several news vans were scattered nearby, a jumble of satellite dishes poking toward the sky.

  As soon as we stepped outside, Captain Justice and I were surrounded by reporters. I felt an immediate rush of blood to my head at the sight of so many microphones and TV cameras coming my way, but Captain Justice handled himself much more naturally. Puffing out his chest, he held his chin up.

  “Everything is under control.” His voice boomed over the noisy parking lot. “The Dread Duo is nowhere to be found, and the missing children are all accounted for. Another evil scheme thwarted by Captain Justice.”

  I forgot about the reporters and the TV cameras, the police, and the chemical in my pocket. I replayed Captain Justice’s words in my mind. Another evil scheme thwarted by Captain Justice. But he hadn’t done anything to stop my parents. That had all been the work of the smoke creatures.

  I glanced up at him, standing tall beside me. The spinning police lights flashed over his face, making his familiar features look strange and new.

  While Captain Justice answered more of the journalists’ questions, I ducked into the crowd in search of Milton and Sophie. I spotted them beside an ambulance.

  “You’re okay!” Sophie called out, rushing forward to hug me. “When those alarms started going off, I thought maybe something had happened. And then we couldn’t find you, and—”

  She seemed to realize that she had her arms around me about the same time I did. She let go instantly and we both took a step backward.

  “Anyway, I’m glad you’re okay,” Sophie said.

  “What took you so long?” Milton asked.

  “I got a little delayed,” I said. “But I also found something I wanted to show you. Just not here.”

  We headed off to the edge of the parking lot. When we were far enough away from the crowd, I pulled the vial of cloudy blue liquid out of my pocket.

  “The plenoryzic acid!” Milton exclaimed.

  “Zenoplyric,” I corrected. “But yeah. I found it. Now we just need to get back to my house so we can track where my parents were transported.”

  “You’re not thinking about going after them, are you?” Sophie asked.

  “Of course I am! They’re my parents!”

  “I know, but—whoever’s behind all this is dangerous. Maybe we should just tell the police—”

  “Tell them what? That I need to track down my supervillain parents? If anything, the police will be happy they’re gone. And they’ll probably arrest me for stealing the chemical!”

  “Well, then …” Sophie glanced off toward Captain Justice, who was still holding his press conference. “What about my dad?”

  I snorted. “Oh, right. I’m sure he’d be thrilled to help us find his sworn enemies.”

  “Yeah, but … at least he has experience in this kind of thing.”

  I shook my head. There was another reason why I didn’t want to tell Captain Justice. Just a feeling I had. It had started back in Sophie’s house earlier in the day. The conversation between Captain Justice and the holographic head, the secret project only they knew about. And just a few minutes ago—the way he’d said that he’d been the one who’d thwarted the Dread Duo even though the smoke creatures had been responsible for the attack.

  I turned to Sophie and Milton, realization flooding through my mind. When I spoke, my voice was barely more than a whisper.

  “Sophie, your dad?” I said. “I—I think he’s the one who’s controlling the smoke creatures.”

  20

  The difference between good and evil isn’t always as big as it seems.

  Sophie gasped. But it all made sense. The one thing that Captain Justice had in common with the smoke creatures was that they were both trying to rid the world of supervillains.

  All this time, Captain Justice had been the one behind the plot to abduct supervillains.

  Trying to convince Sophie and Milton of this wasn’t so easy, though. Milton shook his head in disbelief. “No way,” he said. “Captain Justice fights villains himself. He doesn’t let some kind of smoke monsters do his work for him.”

  “That was before he started this secret new strategy,” I explained.

  Milton gave me a puzzled look. “What secret new strategy?”

  “Earlier today, I overheard him during a holographic conference—”

  “Wait a second,” Sophie said. “You were eavesdropping on my dad?”

  “No, I— It was an accident.”

  Sophie obviously didn’t buy this excuse. She stared at me like she’d just noticed a disgusting new wart on my face.

  “That’s why you wanted to get that book,” she said. “So you’d have a chance to sneak around my house. Were you spying for your parents? Trying to find inside information that would help them beat Captain Justice?”

  “Of course not! I would never do that! I mean, sure … I was a little curious, but—”

  Sophie let out a disbelieving laugh, crossing her arms.

  “Look, the point is, he was talking about a secret project,” I said. “Some kind of aggressive new strategy. He must’ve meant the smoke creatures, abducting supervillains …”

  “But …” Milton knitted his brow. “It just doesn’t sound like him.”

  “What about that article you showed me in Super Scoop? The shipment of robot parts to Sheepsdale?”

  “So?”

  “So the parts must’ve been going to Captain Justice. For the nano-beings.”

  Milton glanced back toward the other end of the parking lot. Captain Justice was signing autographs for the crowd.

  “I guess I can kind of understand why he’d be doing it,” he said. “I mean, he is still capturing bad guys. It’s just a
different way of doing it.”

  “Exactly,” I said.

  But Sophie wasn’t so easily swayed. She kept her arms folded, staring at me like she was angry that I’d even suggested it was her dad.

  “It can’t be him,” she insisted. “What about the Firebottomed Rompers? Whoever was controlling those things was also connected to the smoke creatures, right? And in case you forgot, I was there when they attacked us.”

  “Maybe he didn’t know you’d be with me?” I said. “I’m the one with supervillains for parents. He must’ve assumed I’d be alone.”

  “Since when does my dad attack a supervillain’s family? Anyway, he wouldn’t have robots doing his work for him.”

  “What about Stanley? You have a robot driving you around town. Why not use robots to capture villains too?”

  “That’s not the same thing, and you know it!”

  Sophie looked like she wasn’t ready to give up the argument yet, but she stopped talking abruptly when she noticed her hands. They were starting to glow. And so was the rest of her body. Her Gyft was shining through her like a mood ring she couldn’t take off. Judging by the way she was glaring at me, I had the feeling her mood right then was somewhere between wanting to run away in embarrassment and wishing she could snap me in two. Instead, she took several deep breaths, waiting until the glow gradually faded.

  “If you want to accuse my dad of something he isn’t doing, that’s fine,” she said in a harsh whisper. “But don’t expect me to go along with it.”

  Sophie stared at me for a second more, a faint glow still clinging to the edges of her eyes, and then she turned and stomped away.

  Stanley was waiting nearby in the SUV. They didn’t even drive past to say goodbye before leaving Milton and me in the parking lot, without a ride home. I could understand why she might have been upset. I’d just accused her dad of abducting my parents and trying to kill the three of us. But that didn’t change the way I felt about Captain Justice. I was certain he was the one behind the smoke creatures. And I intended to find out where he’d transported my parents.

  Milton called his mom, and she came to pick us up. It wasn’t so easy to explain why we were spending our Friday night surrounded by police cars and news vans outside a building that had been attacked by supervillains a couple of hours earlier.

  “We … uh … asked to be dropped off when we saw Captain Justice outside that building,” Milton said. “You know, to see if we could get his autograph.”

  Luckily, Milton’s mom was just as big a fan of Captain Justice’s as Milton was. And he even had the autographed copy of Super Scoop from earlier. When he showed it to her, Milton’s mom squealed like a teenage girl and nearly swerved off the road.

  After that, Milton had no problem convincing her to let me spend the night at his house. Which was a good thing, since I definitely wasn’t looking forward to sleeping in my house now that my parents were gone.

  Milton’s mom dropped me off at my house so I could pick up my stuff for the night. Then I’d walk over to their house. As the sound of their car receded down the street, I crossed the lawn alone. At the front door, I unlocked three deadbolts, punched in the security code, deactivated the alarm sensors, and pressed my thumb against a pad to authenticate my identity.

  Then I stepped inside.

  The house felt different somehow. As if my parents’ absence had already seeped into the furniture and the walls. Micus must’ve known something was wrong, because he didn’t threaten to kill me once while I passed through the dining room. He just stayed in his usual spot in the corner, his branches slumped forward sadly.

  My feet clumped hollowly against the steps as I made my way up the stairs. After entering my parents’ lab, I removed the vial of acid from my pocket and approached the glass case. It still looked empty, but I knew that somewhere inside was the nano-being.

  I noticed something different about the computer next to the case, though. It was covered in labels. Little yellow slips stuck here and there. One of them read, Insert chemical compound here, with an arrow pointing to a slot in the machine. My eyes passed over another: Press this button to activate tracking sequence.

  Gradually it dawned on me. My parents hadn’t made these labels for their own use. They’d made them for me.

  They must’ve known there was a chance they’d be attacked before they could get the chemical. That was why they’d brought me up here to explain exactly what the smoke creatures were and how to trace them. That was why they’d carefully labeled every step needed to run the tracking sequence.

  They wanted me to know how to find them if they went missing.

  I placed the vial into the slot and lowered a long straw into the liquid. Following the instructions my parents had left behind, I turned on the computer terminal and pressed another button that caused a single droplet of acid to rise up the straw and into a hole in the glass case. I took a deep breath and initiated the tracking sequence.

  I stared at the monitor. At first, nothing happened. But after several seconds, a box popped up on the screen.

  Coordinate Tracking Results

  Lat: +45.262321

  Lon: -69.012489

  In geography the previous year, we’d spent an entire class pushing pins into a wall map where the lines of latitude and longitude met. “Lat” must have been short for “latitude.” Which meant that “Lon” was an abbreviation for “longitude.”

  I typed “latitude longitude” into Google. After selecting the first site that showed up, I entered the numbers into the coordinate tracking boxes. Latitude: +45.262321, longitude: -69.012489. An instant later, a location appeared on the screen.

  Carrolshire, Maine.

  I printed out the map and the coordinates, grabbed my toothbrush and a clean T-shirt, and then headed to Milton’s.

  After breakfast the next morning, Milton and I stepped out onto his front doorstep. A familiar black SUV had parked along the curb outside my house. A moment later, the door opened and Sophie climbed out.

  “What’re you doing here?” I asked, running to meet her.

  “I thought maybe you could use some help,” she said.

  “But what about last night?”

  Sophie stared down at her shadow, which stretched across the grass. “Maybe I overreacted just a little bit. And … well—there’s something else. Last night, after I went home, I found this.”

  She reached into the SUV, removed something, and held it out so that only Milton and I could see. A thick silver wristband, the kind Captain Justice wore to create all his holo-weapons.

  “It’s a brand-new model,” Sophie said. “I’ve never seen him wearing it before. I found it inside a box marked ‘confidential.’ ”

  Sophie flipped the wristband over and showed us what was printed on the underside.

  Z

  Multifunction Utility Band™

  A chill gripped my heart. The last time I’d seen that Z logo, I’d been running for my life, trying to avoid getting killed by a horde of Firebottomed Rompers.

  “He had at least fifty other boxes,” Sophie said. “Uniforms, accessories, capes. All of them with this logo on there somewhere.”

  “So it really was him?” Milton sounded like it hurt just to say these words. “Your dad is the one behind the smoke creatures and the Rompers?”

  Sophie nodded, her expression hardening. “It has to be. I can’t see any other explanation.”

  “Did you ask him about it?”

  “I didn’t get a chance. He left before I woke up this morning. Stanley said he had to go to some town in Maine.”

  “Carrolshire?” I asked.

  Sophie gave me a surprised look. “How’d you know?”

  “Because I’m pretty sure that’s where my parents are.”

  I pulled the map with the coordinates out of my pocket and told her what I’d discovered the night before.

  “We need to find a way to get to Carrolshire,” Sophie said.

  “Does that mean y
ou’re coming too?” I asked.

  “Of course. If my dad’s really doing this, I want to be the one to call him out on it.”

  “This is awesome!” Milton said. “I mean, not the part about your parents disappearing or your dad trying to kill us. But the three of us going on an adventure—it’s like we’re superheroes!”

  I turned to face him. “What do you mean ‘the three of us’?”

  Milton clenched his jaw. “I’m coming too.”

  “You can’t,” I said. “It could be dangerous. And you’re not … I mean—you don’t have any …”

  “Powers?” Milton jammed his hands into his pockets. “I can’t go because I’m not special like the two of you—is that what you’re saying?”

  “Kind of. You could get really hurt.”

  But Milton wasn’t giving in. He stomped the pavement with one foot, looking at me with pleading in his eyes. “I thought we were best friends.”

  “We are—”

  “And best friends help each other out, right?”

  “Yeah, but—”

  “Remember that time you had that weird rash on your armpit and I didn’t tell anyone?”

  “Thanks for the reminder,” I muttered. “What’s your point?”

  “I was there for you!” Milton said. “Just like that time you let your hair grow long and everyone started mistaking you for a girl? I supported you then too. And that time when—”

  “Fine,” I said, before Milton could get any more out. “You can come too.”

  “Great!” Milton pumped his fist with excitement. “How are we gonna get to Maine?”

  I glanced at Sophie. “Could Stanley drive us?”

  Sophie shook her head. “He isn’t allowed to drive me outside the county limit without my dad’s authorization. He’s been programmed that way.”

  “And my mom is hosting her book club today,” Milton said. “So she can’t.”

  “What about the bus?” Sophie asked.

  “I already checked that,” I said. “There aren’t any stops near Carrolshire.”

  “So, then, what are we gonna do?” Milton asked.