Joshua Dread

by Lee Bacon

  Climbing to my feet, I saw Vex—standing on one knee, flames rising up behind him. He was gripping his skull cane, pointing it at my chest, just like he’d done right before Fink had dropped dead.

  The eyes of the skull grew piercingly red. I felt a jolt. And then everything went dark.

  24

  Just because you’re different doesn’t mean you can’t have a happy, normal childhood. But keep in mind: Gyfted kids are statistically more likely to find themselves in dangerous and life-threatening situations.

  When I opened my eyes, I saw Milton staring down at me.

  “Am I dead?” I mumbled.

  “Nope.” Milton shook his head. “You’re in Maine.”

  My head dropped back. In the instant before Vex could zap me with his death cane, I’d caught a glimpse of Milton—running way faster than I’d ever seen him move in PE. As the red glow had burst out of the eyes of Vex’s skull cane, Milton had knocked me out of the way. He’d saved my life.

  I climbed to my knees. The platform rumbled underneath me with the force of another explosion. Vex was back on his feet now, staggering toward the phone.

  I grabbed hold of a piece of metal debris and threw it at Vex. It shot through the air like a deadly flaming Frisbee. Vex aimed the handle of his cane, the skull’s eyes glowing red, and the sheet of metal exploded. I dove out of the way to avoid the same thing happening to my head.

  Time was running out. Vex was nearing the phone, and there was no way I’d get there in time to stop him. My eyes flashed over to the glowing barrier, where Sophie was hunched next to her dad. Fear clenched inside my chest. I wondered if this was the last time I’d ever see them alive.

  Vex lunged for the phone just as another canister exploded. The blast sent him tumbling sideways. Flames flew everywhere, and the floor jolted again beneath me. The platform was about to collapse.

  Milton and I grabbed hold of the railing, but it didn’t do any good. Everything tipped sideways. It felt like we were on the deck of a sinking ship. The world twisted and blurred together.

  That was when the platform dropped away.

  I must’ve lost consciousness for a second or two. Probably better that way. I doubt I would’ve enjoyed being awake when I fell thirty feet and landed in a pile of rubble and steel.

  My brain was throbbing. My ribs felt as if they’d been pummeled by a runaway rhinoceros, but at least I was still alive. I pulled my leg out from beneath a crisscross of broken railing and saw Milton beside me, climbing out of a mountain of bent metal and destroyed computer equipment.

  “Did you see what happened to Vex?” I asked.

  “No. But we’ve got bigger problems.” Milton pointed toward the neutralizing barrier.

  As soon as I turned to look, a wave of horror swept over me. Vex must’ve reached the phone before the explosion, because white gas had begun pouring down from the ceiling above Sophie and Captain Justice.

  A mass of twisted steel was piled up where the platform had collapsed. At the edge of the wreckage was the phone.

  “Come on,” I said to Milton. “We need to get that phone.”

  “What about Vex?” Milton asked.

  I scanned the room. Burning canisters, heaps of broken metal. But no sign of Vex.

  “He must’ve been crushed when the platform collapsed,” I said.

  Milton looked doubtful, but he followed me to where the phone was lying. I picked it up and jabbed the touch screen with my thumb. The screen lit up, looking like any other smartphone display. Rows and rows of little icons. Swiping my finger across the screen shifted the display to a bunch of new icons. An hourglass, an open door, a scorpion, a fist.

  So at least the phone still worked—that was the good news. The bad news was that there were about a hundred different apps to choose from.

  “One of these has to shut off the neutralizing shield,” I said.

  “Yeah, but …” Milton stared at the touch screen, the endless columns of apps. “How’re we supposed to know which one it is?”

  “No clue, but we’d better find it soon.” I glanced back at the glowing barrier. The white fog had drifted lower. Sophie and Captain Justice were hunched close to the floor. It wouldn’t be long before the poisonous cloud reached them.

  “Okay.” Milton took a deep breath, concentrating on the screen. Suddenly he pointed at one of the icons. The open door. “What about that one? It might have something to do with releasing them.”

  I brought my finger close to the screen—then hesitated. What if Milton was wrong? But we had no choice.

  As soon as I pressed the screen, a hatch in the floor opened beneath my feet.

  “Aaaaah!” I screamed, arms flailing as my body dropped into the emptiness below.

  At the last possible second, I grabbed the edge of the floor. My feet kicked at the empty air beneath me.

  Gasping, I glanced down. Below was a pit of spikes.

  “So that’s what the open door means?” Milton said, helping me out of the hole.

  After what had just happened, I wasn’t exactly thrilled about the idea of testing out all the other apps. But we didn’t have any choice. I scrolled through the phone, my heart pounding like an out of control marching band. I picked one of the apps—a square with three bars inside.

  “You might want to hold on to something,” I warned Milton.

  And then I pressed the button.

  A metallic groan echoed through the room. Glancing toward the noise, I saw that the glass wall—the wall that contained all the supervillains—was lowering.

  I selected the app right next to the one I’d just pushed—an image of what looked like handcuffs. As soon as I pressed the screen, the steel restraints that were holding all the villains opened. The villains collapsed to the floor.

  So at least we’d released the villains. But Sophie and Captain Justice were no closer to safety.

  “Here, let me try,” Milton said.

  He scrolled through the options before choosing three apps that were all in the same row. The first one opened a hole in the ceiling. The next caused a rocket to rise up out of the floor. And the third launched the rocket into the sky.

  “Hmm …” Milton scratched his head. “That wasn’t what I’d hoped for.”

  I tried an app at the bottom right corner of the screen. All of a sudden, a secret door opened at the far end of the room.

  “Hey, great!” Milton screamed. “Once we free everyone, we can escape through that door!”

  I pressed another app, causing the secret doorway to erupt in flames.

  “Never mind,” Milton said.

  Desperation flooded my mind. The choices seemed endless. Behind the glowing barrier, Sophie and Captain Justice were flat on their stomachs, the fog of poisonous gas floating just above them. If we went on picking apps randomly, we’d never save them in time. We needed to find the right one—now.

  I concentrated on the screen. Each picture offered a clue. The open door had caused the hatch to drop open under me. The handcuffs had released the metal clasps around the supervillains. But disabling a neutralizing shield? What kind of a picture was that supposed to be? And how would I ever know it when I saw it?

  That was when one of the apps caught my eye. A logo.

  Z

  My finger shot forward. I pressed the screen with so much force that I nearly knocked the phone right out of my hand.

  The glowing barrier flickered and then vanished. At the same moment, the gas swept upward, toward the pipe where it had come from. I could hear the loud hum of a fan working, sucking the gas back up into the pipe.

  My heart kicked with relief and fear. The glowing wall was gone. But Sophie and Captain Justice weren’t moving.

  Milton and I ran across the room. I dropped to the ground beside Sophie. Her eyes were closed. Her hair was spilled out across the steel floor beneath her.

  “Sophie?” I said. “Are you okay? Can you hear me?”

  All I could think about was how I’d ignored he
r back at school, how I’d accused her dad of controlling the smoke creatures when it had been Vex all along. I should’ve never gotten Sophie involved in all this. It was my fault she was there.

  These thoughts were splintered by Milton’s voice.

  “He’s alive!” he said.

  Captain Justice lurched sideways, gripping his chest. His fingers flicked at the sides of the J logo on his uniform as he broke into a coughing fit.

  And then Sophie was coughing too. She inhaled a deep breath, as if she’d just come up from underwater.

  “Oh, Sophie!” Captain Justice said. “You’re alive!”

  “Dad!” Sophie’s voice was weak. She swung an arm around his shoulder. When she opened her eyes again, she looked at me. “You rescued us!” she said.

  “Yeah, well,” I muttered awkwardly. “I just sort of messed with the phone until something happened—”

  I stopped talking when Sophie’s arms wrapped around me. She squeezed me tightly. For a moment, I forgot about the mounds of crushed steel and rubble all around, the explosions and deadly fireballs flying through the air above us. She released me, then gave Milton a hug too.

  “I knew you guys would figure something out!” she said.

  “My gratitude goes out to you!” Captain Justice said. “To you both.”

  Milton blushed when Captain Justice glanced at him. I half expected him to ask for another autograph. Instead, a voice rose up behind me.

  “Sorry to break up such a nice reunion.”

  I turned around. Vex was standing in a pile of destroyed machinery.

  25

  Although Phineas Vex doesn’t actually possess any superpowers, he has shown over the years that he is an extremely skilled villain.

  He looked like something out of a nightmare.

  A grisly cut ran across one side of his face, forming a jagged T with the scar that was already there. His hands were dark with burns. His eye patch had been ripped away, revealing an unseeing white eye underneath.

  Vex grabbed Sophie by the shoulder. The deadly handle of his cane was pointed at her head. Taking one step back, he dragged Sophie with him.

  “If anyone moves, I’ll kill her,” he said.

  Captain Justice’s shoulder flexed. He looked like every muscle in his body was ready to lunge forward. But Vex shoved the skull closer to Sophie’s head, his eyes flashing. This put a stop to anything Captain Justice might’ve been planning to do.

  “Stay where you are and I’ll let her live,” Vex said. Fire flickered against his skin. His one good eye swung wildly across each of us. The other eye remained perfectly still, like a white marble in his head. “It would be a shame for me to kill your wife and your daughter.”

  The sound of these words sent a shudder down my spine. Sophie’s mom was dead. And Vex was the one who’d killed her.

  “I’m taking the girl with me,” Vex said. “If I see anyone following me, she dies. When I get to my destination, I’ll let her go.”

  Behind Vex, a few of the villains were beginning to move, white robes shifting on the floor. One of them staggered to his feet, and I caught sight of his face. My dad. He swayed unsteadily, then took a few steps in our direction.

  Vex dragged Sophie to a control panel built into the wall. Gripping Sophie with one hand, he reached out with the other and punched a few buttons. The wall slid sideways, revealing a hover SUV resting on a launchpad.

  Behind him, Dad stumbled closer. Watching him, I feared what my dad would do. I knew how much he admired Vex, and how much he hated Captain Justice. Was he planning to help Sophie? Or Vex?

  Then his eyes flickered over to me, and I knew whose side he was on.

  Reaching forward with both hands, Dad grabbed hold of Vex’s cane and yanked it away from Sophie’s head. Vex spun around, growling with anger and surprise. Dad tried to keep hold of the cane, but Vex overpowered him. In the next instant, Vex had the cane in his grip again. He was aiming it at my dad’s chest.

  The skull’s eyes glowed red. I watched it all happening as a horrible understanding dawned on me. Vex was going to kill my dad. There was nothing I could do. There was nothing any of us could do.

  But that didn’t stop me from trying. Flinging out my hands, I lunged forward. A surge of power rippled across my entire body.

  And then everything just …

  Stopped.

  Or at least, that was the way it seemed. The scene in front of me was like a photograph. My vision focused on Vex, and from my hands a wave of light appeared.

  Even as I watched it happen, I didn’t believe it. A ribbon of pure, white light traced from the tips of my fingers into the air in front of me. I had the feeling I couldn’t have stopped it even if I’d wanted to. It was as though I weren’t the one controlling the power, but the other way around.

  The power was controlling me.

  When the light reached Vex, time started up again. Sound poured into my ears. Everything burst into motion. A sudden jolt hit me like a train, knocking me off my feet and propelling me backward.

  The last thing I saw before my feet left the ground was Vex. The light must’ve had the same effect on him, because he went flinging in the opposite direction. He lost his grip on Sophie and went catapulting backward into a metal column. The force of the impact was enough to knock the column loose, along with the section of the ceiling it was supporting. The ceiling collapsed, burying Vex in a mountain of steel and stone.

  I slammed into the ground. My lungs ached. My brain felt like it had been dropped into a blender and set on frappé. A blurry figure approached, speaking to me in Milton’s voice.

  “Are you okay?” he asked.

  “Yeah. I think so.”

  Milton was suddenly talking very quickly, his voice rattling in my ear. “Man, that thing you did with the light. That was awesome! And the way you catapulted backward. I’ve never seen anything like it—”

  “Sophie,” I interrupted. “Is she all right?”

  “I’m fine,” came Sophie’s voice. “Your dad’s okay too.”

  “And my mom?” I turned, trying to spot her among all the fuzzy shapes in the distance. “Is she—”

  “We can talk more once we’re outside!” Captain Justice’s voice called out. He brought a hand down on Sophie’s shoulder. “But for now we need to get out of here. This entire room is going to collapse.”

  Captain Justice had a point. Climbing to my feet, I glanced up just in time to see another huge section of the ceiling falling away. It landed on the ground just a few feet from where the white-robed villains were lying.

  “What about them?” Sophie pointed to the group of villains. The rest of them were awake by now. They climbed to their feet, looking around at the burning chaos like they’d just entered a bad dream. “We can’t leave them here.”

  Captain Justice stared at the group, unable to hide his disgust. The ground shook. More of the ceiling crumbled to the ground, falling perilously close to several semiconscious villains.

  “Dad,” Sophie said. “Please.”

  Captain Justice heaved a sigh. “Fine,” he said. “I’ll see what I can do.” He pointed his hand upward. “Engage Protective Umbrella of Virtue!”

  A blue holographic umbrella emerged from his wristband. It looked like the kind of thing you’d see on a beach, except a whole lot bigger. Enormous chunks of stone and steel fell from above, but then stopped in midair when they made contact with the umbrella. The villains looked up, amazed.

  “Okay, everybody,” Captain Justice announced in an unenthusiastic voice. “An emergency exit is located next to the launchpad. Please make your way out of the underground lair in a quick and orderly fashion.”

  The villains began to stagger dazedly toward us. I caught sight of my mom among the group.

  “Mom!”

  I ran to meet her. With Milton and me on each side, we helped her across the room. When she reached Dad, they fell into each other’s arms.

  “Ahem. The Protective Umbrella of Vir
tue won’t last forever,” Captain Justice called out. “I suggest everyone evacuate the underground lair as soon as possible.”

  It was definitely one of the strangest things I’d ever seen: A hundred of the world’s most dangerous villains stumbling in the same direction, all wearing identical white robes and looking confusedly at the collapsing lair and the giant holographic beach umbrella overhead, as Captain Justice ushered them toward the exit.

  26

  No matter how much you practice, you may never fully understand your power.

  By the time the Carrolshire Fire Department arrived, the Ocean View Hotel had completely burned to the ground.

  “Nice job today,” the chief of police said to Captain Justice. “But I don’t know if there’s room in the jail for everyone.” He gestured to the group of confused-looking villains standing nearby. “We might be able to bus them over to the federal prison. It’s only about thirty miles away from—”

  “That won’t be necessary,” Captain Justice said. “They’re free to go.” He winced as he spoke, as if it caused him physical pain to say the words.

  “But, Captain Justice,” the chief said, “you’ve got some of the world’s baddest bad guys out here. You can’t just let them go.”

  Captain Justice sighed. “They didn’t do anything wrong. Not this time, at least.”

  “Yeah, but it’s only a matter of time until they’re out on the streets, wreaking havoc again.”

  “I know. And when that time comes, I’ll be there.” Captain Justice looked up at the sky. “Worry not, human law enforcement officer. I shall be there—when evil rears its ugly head, when the world cries out for help, when—”

  “Okay, we get the point.” Sophie rolled her eyes.

  The chief shrugged, then used his walkie-talkie to contact the rest of the police force. The villains were free to go.

  Gradually the villains regained their senses. Most of them wandered into downtown Carrolshire in their flowing white robes, looking for rides home and freaking out the locals.