The Superhero's Son (Book 1): The Superhero's Test

by Lucas Flint

  Dad groaned again and sat up. His armor was cracked by the impact, but he otherwise seemed okay. “You should leave. Master Chaos is a dangerous enemy, worse than his robots.”

  “No way,” I said, shaking my head. “I came looking for Master Chaos because I wanted to stop him myself. I'm not going to run away now just because you think I can't defend myself.”

  Dad stood up, rubbing his back. He sighed. “Fine. I can see that you will not listen to your elder, as usual.”

  “What's that supposed to mean?” I said in annoyance.

  Before Dad could respond, Master Chaos laughed, causing me to look over at him. He hadn't moved from his position, but he was now grinning like he had just heard a great joke.

  “How touching,” said Master Chaos with a sniffle. “Father and son teaming up to defeat me. It makes me wish that my own son was here to team up with me. This would be a great father-son bonding moment, you know.”

  “Your days are numbered, Master Chaos,” I said, punching my hand into my fists. “Your days are numbered, whether you like it or not.”

  Master Chaos chuckled. “Many neoheroes have told me that. Very few have ever had the power to actually carry out that threat.”

  “Then count us among that few,” said Dad, standing beside me. “I beat you once, Bernard. I can do it again.”

  “Oh, really?” said Master Chaos. “I've had sixteen years to stew over my last defeat to you, Genius. I'm not the same man that went into Ultimate Max. Behold!”

  Master Chaos slammed his hands together. I immediately felt some kind of power wave blow out of his body, but didn't know what it was until all hell broke loose.

  The lights in the ceiling suddenly exploded, raining down glass and wiring on us. The windows shattered, the crates blew up, and huge cracks appeared in the floor, which suddenly became tilted. I staggered to the side, while Dad was just barely keeping his balance.

  “What's going on?” I said.

  “Master Chaos's chaos power,” said Dad, raising his arms to protect himself from the falling glass from the exploded lights above. “Watch out!”

  I looked over to see Master Chaos coming at me. He seemed completely unaffected by the chaos happening around him. I tried to get a footing, but the cracked, tilted floor made that almost impossible.

  As a result, Master Chaos managed to punch me in the face. The blow knocked me flat off my feet, but I managed to roll out of the way of his foot, which stomped the spot in the floor where I'd fallen.

  Rising to my feet, I threw a punch at Master Chaos, who caught my fist and twisted my arm, making me cry out in pain. Then Master Chaos punched me again, this time with enough force to send me flying.

  I crashed into a crate, the impact dazing me. Shaking my head, I looked at the interior of the crate and realized that I had crashed into a crate full of towels, which had absorbed some of the impact. Still, my head was spinning, so I rubbed it as I looked over at where Dad and Master Chaos were now fighting.

  Despite having been smashed into a crate, Dad wasn't slowing down. He kept outside of Master Chaos's reach, ducking and dodging each blow. One of Master Chaos's blows went far off mark, leaving him defenseless. Dad raised his gauntlets, which began to glow with energy, but Master Chaos must have been bluffing with his last attack, because he immediately grabbed Dad's wrists and jerked his arms upwards.

  Powerful lasers shot out of Dad's gauntlets and struck the ceiling, sending debris falling down on him and Chaos as they struggled against each other. Or rather, Dad struggled against Master Chaos, because Chaos held him in one spot and would not let him move.

  Then Master Chaos tightened his grip around Dad's gauntlets, causing them to crack and spark. Dad groaned in pain, but there was nothing he could do to stop Chaos, who was far more powerful than him.

  “Dad!” I shouted.

  I shot out from the crate and body-slammed Master Chaos, sending him flying. He crashed into some crates nearby, but I didn't pay attention to that. Dad fell onto his knees, holding his crushed gauntlets out, still groaning in pain.

  “Dad, are you okay?” I said, kneeling beside him to look at his wrists. “Your arms—”

  “Broken,” said Dad. He groaned again. “Arms and gauntlets.”

  “Then we need to get you medical attention,” I said. “I can fly you out of here to—”

  “No,” said Dad, shaking his head. “Master Chaos needs to be stopped. If we leave now, he'll just get away.”

  I looked over in the direction I had punched Master Chaos, but it didn't look like he had recovered yet. Looking at Dad again, I said, “Don't you think your health's more important than beating Master Chaos?”

  “No,” said Dad. “But I don't think I'll be able to beat him. Can't use my tech without my hands.”

  I stood up. “Then I'll beat him into a bloody pulp. Won't take five minutes.”

  “You can't beat him with sheer strength alone,” said Dad. “The first time I beat him, I outwitted him. He'll pummel you to pieces, even with your super powers.”

  “Then how am I supposed to beat him?” I said.

  “I don't know,” said Dad. “But you won't be able to beat him.”

  I scowled. Master Chaos was going to get up again soon. Once he did, the fight would resume, but if Dad was right, it was a fight we were destined to lose. And, although I hated to admit it, I wasn't as clever as Dad, so I wouldn't be able to outwit Master Chaos, either.

  But then an idea occurred to me. It was a crazy idea, but it had a good chance of working. I looked down at Dad and said, “Dad, does your belt still work?”

  “Yes, it does,” said Dad, nodding. “Why?”

  “I need it,” I said. “Just long enough to use it against Master Chaos.”

  I couldn't see Dad's expression due to the visor of his helmet, but he said, “Fine. Take it and use it for whatever you need.”

  I immediately removed Dad's utility belt and tied it around my waist just as I heard movement in the debris under which Master Chaos was buried. A second later, Master Chaos burst out of the debris. His eyes were even madder, his hat was missing, and his face was bloody, but he seemed more ready than ever to resume fighting.

  “Well, that was a refreshing nap,” said Master Chaos, his mad grin revealing that he was missing a few teeth now. He cracked his neck. “Now I'm ready to finish what I started.”

  I flew over and landed in front of him, putting myself between him and Dad. I folded my arms across my chest and met Master Chaos's crazy eyes. “If you want to kill Dad, then you have to go through me first.”

  “Oh, you naïve brat,” said Master Chaos, chuckling. “You are just like your father, defiant to the end. It will be a pleasure tearing your spine from your body.”

  Master Chaos immediately ran toward me. I raised my hands in time to catch his massive fists as they came flying at me. I skid backwards, doing my best to hold him back, but Master Chaos was ridiculously strong. He didn't even seem to be trying to push me, while I was doing everything I could to hold back.

  But eventually, I found my footing and started pushing back. This time, I actually managed to keep Master Chaos from forcing me back and the two of us struggled against each other for several seconds, our strength briefly matched equally.

  Then, without warning, Master Chaos slammed his foot into my stomach. The blow knocked the air out of me, causing me to lose my breath and my footing.

  As a result, Master Chaos raised me above his head and slammed me onto the ground. I tried to get up, but then he smashed his boot into my face, the blow making my head spin.

  “Now you stay down, silly boy,” said Master Chaos, though his voice sounded strange due to how dizzy I was. “First, I will kill Genius. Then I will come back to finish you.”

  Master Chaos walked over me, seemingly convinced that I was down. And yeah, I did find it hard to think straight or focus again, because my head was throbbing. I felt blood leaking from my forehead and I was pretty certain that my ribs
were broken, if not shattered completely.

  Still, I forced myself to rise to my feet and turned to face Master Chaos, who was walking away from me. “Why don't you finish your fight with me first, instead of running away to fight my old man?”

  Master Chaos sighed, stopped, and turned around to look at me. “What will it take for you to stay down? Regardless, I was going to kill you anyway. That's the whole reason I broke out of prison in the first place, after all.”

  Chaos stepped towards me, but I activated my super speed and zoomed behind him in a flash. Before Chaos could react, I removed Dad's utility belt from my waist, tied it around his, and then turned the Teleportation Buckle.

  Master Chaos only had enough time to look down at the belt in surprise before he vanished into thin air. It was instantaneous. One moment he was there; the next, he was completely gone.

  Panting, I wiped the blood off my brow and looked over at Dad. Dad was staring at me, probably with surprise, although again his helmet made it hard to tell.

  “What … what happened?” said Dad.

  “Teleported him,” I said. “Not sure where, but he's gone.”

  “What if you teleported him away?” said Dad in annoyance. “Now he's gotten away, and with my belt, too. All because I trusted you to—”

  Dad was interrupted when Master Chaos crashed through the ceiling above. The supervillain crashed into one of the crates, which, based on the clang it made, was probably full of heavy, not very soft metal objects.

  “There he is,” I said, pointing at the crate. I smirked at Dad. “What were you saying about me letting him get away?”

  I could tell I got Dad that time, because he just said, in an annoyed voice, “Don't get too cocky. Go check on him and make sure he's down for good”

  I nodded, still smirking, and flew over to the crate Master Chaos had crashed into. Landing on the edge of the crate, I peered inside and saw that Master Chaos had crashed into a bunch of heavy-looking hammers. Dad's utility belt was still tied securely around his waist, though Chaos looked like he had been knocked out completely. He had an especially ugly gash on the side of his head, making his face as red as a slab of uncooked beef.

  Standing up, I looked over my shoulder at Dad and, giving him the thumbs up, said, “He's down! Now all we need to do—”

  I heard the movement in the crate below too late. I looked down just in time for Master Chaos's massive hand to wrap around my throat and cut off my air supply. I gasped, but I couldn't speak.

  Master Chaos was awake. His eyes were full of red anger; they were literally red, maybe because he got blood in them or something. He was breathing heavily and looked more like a beast now than a human.

  “Good … try,” said Master Chaos. Every word sounded like it caused him great pain; his lungs must have been damaged or something. “Didn't see that coming. But I'm done treating you with kid gloves. Time to die.”

  His grip tightened so hard that I literally couldn't breathe. My vision kept blinking in and out. Even my super strength was starting to fail me. I panicked and tried to break free, but Master Chaos held me as tightly as a metal clamp.

  This was it. I was dead. I was going to die and there was nothing I could do about it. I stopped trying to free myself and just accepted my death.

  But then, through my oxygen-deprived brain, I heard Dad shout, “Self-destruct sequence activate!”

  I had no idea what that meant until I heard a tiny beeping sound. Both Master Chaos and I looked down at the utility belt still attached to his waist. It was blinking red.

  A second later, the belt exploded. The explosion tore me out of Master Chaos's grasp, sending me flying backwards through the air. I crashed onto the floor, rolling until I crashed into a crate. I immediately breathed in as much sweet air as I could, although it really wasn't as sweet as it could have been, mostly due to the dust in the air.

  Still, eventually I breathed enough air back to help my senses return to normal. I looked up at the crate where Master Chaos had fallen, which now burned merrily and smelled like burning wood and melting metal. Aside from the crackling of flame, I heard nothing from Master Chaos.

  Then I heard a groan behind me and looked over my shoulder to see Dad walking toward me. He was moving slowly—likely due to the fact that his wrists were broken—but he was walking nonetheless, the fire from the explosion reflected in his cracked visor.

  “Dad?” I said. I coughed and sat up, rubbing the back of my aching head. “What was that?”

  “The voice-activated self-destruct sequence I programmed into my belt in case it fell into the hands of anyone I didn't want having it,” said Dad, stopping a few feet from me. He looked at the fiery mass of burning wood and metal. “It responds only to my voice. I wish I didn't have to use it, but your life is more important than my belt. I can make another belt, anyway.”

  I looked back at the burning crate and frowned. “Do you think Master Chaos—”

  “Survived?” said Dad. “Unlikely. Master Chaos is powerful, but I designed the explosion to be powerful enough to kill neoheroes. He's probably little more than burnt meat now.”

  “So … he's gone?” I said. “We'll never have to fight him again?”

  Dad nodded. “Yes.”

  I sighed in relief, but then heard another beeping. I thought it was yet another self-destruct sequence being activated, but then I looked over and saw that the beeping was coming from the camera that Maria Candle set up earlier. It was still active, still filming us, and surprisingly unscathed.

  But just as I noticed that, I heard a loud pop and a chunk of burning wood shot out of the fiery crate and struck the camera, causing it to collapse. I looked at Dad, who had also noticed the camera.

  “What do you think that means?” I said. “Do you think—”

  “That millions of people around the world saw our fight and now know who you are?” said Dad dryly. “Yes. And I don't like that.”

  “Why?” I said curiously. “What's so bad about so many people watching our fight with Chaos?”

  Dad shook his head. “I will explain later. For now, we need to get my arms looked at, which means we need to find your mother. And speak with the police, too, once they get here. Come on.”

  With that, Dad turned and started walking away from the crate. I scrambled to my feet and followed, feeling relieved that Master Chaos was gone, but also worrying about what was going to happen next. Because if Dad didn't like the fact that our fight with Master Chaos had been witnessed by tons of people all around the world, then I knew it was going to be a problem, even if I wasn't yet sure how.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  The next week went by like a blur to me, and it wasn't because of my super speed.

  First, Dad and I spoke with the officers of the Fallsville City Police Department, who had arrived in front of the warehouse just as we were exiting it. Dad explained to them what happened, although briefly because we needed to get his arms medical attention quickly, and then told them that the NHA and the G-Men would arrive soon to clean up and recover Master Chaos's remains. He also told them that Maria Candle was still inside the warehouse and explained how she had helped Master Chaos. The police, surprisingly enough, actually listened to Dad's story and let us go, probably because Dad was such a famous superhero or maybe because he was working with the G-Men on the case.

  Regardless, the officers let us go home. I suggested we fly, but Dad had Seeker One teleport us back with its prototype 'teleportation beam.' It worked similarly to the Teleportation Buckle, except you didn't have to wear it to use it. It felt weird to be teleported back home like that, but when I saw Mom's relieved face in the living room (which was where we reappeared), I forgot all about how weird it felt to teleport and was just happy that we had made it back home together.

  When we got home, Dad had Mom work on his arms. Dad said he didn't want to go to the hospital because he didn't want to risk people learning his secret identity. And Mom, apparently, had some experience
fixing wounds inflicted from superhero battles, because she removed his gauntlets and went to work bandaging and splinting his arms like she had done it a million times.

  While she did that, I told her what happened during our fight with Master Chaos. Mom listened, but didn't say much until the end when I mentioned that Master Chaos was dead. At that point, Mom almost burst into tears of joy, which made me try to calm her down because I was worried that her crying might distract her from helping Dad. I managed to get her to stop crying after a while, though I could tell she was still happy that we were safe. I also thought she was happy that we had avenged Uncle Jake, too, even if she didn't say it.

  When Mom finished bandaging Dad's arms, I returned to my room. Mom said I still had school tomorrow and I was too exhausted to argue against that, so when I went to my room, I didn't even take off my super suit. I just fell onto my bed and slept through the entire day and into the morning in my suit. In fact, I was so tired that I almost was late for school, but Mom woke me up and I managed to use my super speed (very slightly, of course) to help me get to school on time.

  When I got to school, I was immediately mobbed by the other students. I learned that everyone had seen me on Master Chaos's livestream and they wanted to know how that happened and how I got there. I frankly hadn't been able to come up with an explanation for that, but somehow I convinced them that Master Chaos had kidnapped me from within the school yesterday without anyone noticing. Of course, that made the three G-Men protecting the school look like idiots, but no one seemed to mind that. Everyone just seemed proud of the fact that they knew someone who had been almost murdered by one of the world's worst supervillains, which I guess was better than being treated with derision for being the new kid, at least.

  At lunchtime, I learned from Malcolm that the Master Chaos livestream had been seen by millions of people all over the world and now the Bolt Neo Ranks page had hundreds of thousands of views from people trying to find out who I was. My Neo Rank had even gone up, from 1.5 all the way to 7, which was amazing, because very few neoheroes ever made that kind of leap on Neo Ranks. Even Tara seemed impressed by it, although she was more concerned with my health, asking if I was okay after being kidnapped by Master Chaos.