by Lucas Flint
When we entered the castle, it was kind of like stepping into a modern office building, but with a castle aesthetic that seemed jarringly out of place. Stained glass windows were illuminated by modern electrical lighting, while the place was set up like the lobby of a modern office. But strangely, there weren’t any people at all; it was eerily silent.
“Where are the people?” I said, feeling again like I needed to whisper for some reason. “I don’t see anyone.”
“Most of the castle’s security is automated,” Valerie whispered back. “Most likely, most of the guards are outside or in other parts of the castle. But don’t let your guard down just yet; the castle’s automated security systems are even more effective than the guards, at least if the intelligence reports from our spies are correct.”
“But the security systems won’t bother us if we don’t do anything wrong, right?” I said, glancing at a camera in the upper right corner of the lobby, which was probably recording our every move. “Because we’re dressed up as guards, the castle’s security systems should treat us like the other guards.”
“Right, but we should still be careful,” said Valerie. “Since these systems were designed by Mastermind, they are probably very dangerous. We must proceed with caution.”
I nodded and we resumed walking, but not quite as quickly as before. We weren’t stopped by the castle’s security systems or anything, but at the same time, I still felt like we were being watched. That probably had to do with the camera watching us, even though I doubted that whoever was watching the camera saw anything strange about a couple of guards entering the castle lobby.
To get to Floor 1A, we entered an elevator on the opposite side of the lobby. Yeah, an elevator in a castle. I would have found it weird if I hadn’t already understood that this castle was a mix between modern and medieval architecture, which was kind of weird. I didn’t remember Dad caring much for medieval architecture when he was alive, but maybe the architect Mastermind had hired to build Castle Rational in this universe thought that a medieval castle would be the perfect lair for a supervillain who had conquered the world. It was certainly unique, at any rate.
When we entered the elevator, Valerie pressed a button conveniently labeled ‘1A’ and soon we were going upward. There was yet another camera in here, in the upper right corner, watching us, but again we remained calm. We tried not to act suspicious, but even though we were no longer around other people, I couldn’t help but worry. We were going deeper into the castle, after all. If someone found out who we really were, it would be that much harder for us to escape alive. There wasn’t even any elevator music to lighten the mood, but that was fine, because I didn’t like elevator music much.
After a few minutes of rising, the elevator came to a stop, followed by a small ding as the doors opened. Valerie and I walked out of the elevator and into a long, pristine white hallway that led to a couple of double doors at the very end of the hall. The double doors appeared to be the entrance to Mastermind’s laboratory, so we quickly crossed the hallway and reached the doors fast.
Unfortunately, we discovered that the doors were locked. They did have a keypad, which was apparently where you typed in the password, but unfortunately for us, neither of us knew what the password for Mastermind’s laboratory was.
“You mean our hackers didn’t know about this?” I whispered to Valerie in annoyance.
Valerie shrugged. “We know virtually nothing about Mastermind’s lab; in fact, until today, we didn’t even know for sure that it existed.”
I cursed under my breath, but said, “No problem. I can just punch the doors in. Shouldn’t be very hard to do with my super strength.”
I readied my fist to break down the doors, but Valerie grabbed my arm and said, “Wait. Look.”
She gestured to a corner of the hallway ceiling, causing me to look up and see a security camera quietly watching us.
“If you break down the doors, that will trigger the security alarms,” Valerie explained, “which will make it very hard for us to find the dimension-hopping tech and get you home. We can’t let them know we’re here until we’re long gone, and by then it won’t matter.”
As much as I preferred the direct route to solve my problems, I realized that Valerie had a point. The camera was still watching us.
So I lowered my fist and said, “Okay, then how should we get in?”
“We need to enter the password, obviously,” said Valerie, gesturing to the keypad on the side of the doors. “That will unlock the doors and allow us to enter without raising any alarms or causing any security issues.”
“Okay, but how do we do that?” I said. “We don’t know what the password even is.”
“I know,” said Valerie. She stroked her chin in thought. “And we don’t have much time to speculate or try out different passwords, because this keypad is probably designed to sound the alarms after a certain number of failed password usages. That would ruin our plan and force us to leave.”
I folded my arms across my chest and scowled. “We don’t have all the time in the world to stand around and think, either. Sooner or later someone is going to come up here, see us, and ask us what we’re doing standing around instead of working.”
Valerie nodded. “Yes. But I just don’t know for sure what the password might be. Mastermind is a brilliant man, despite his evilness, so the code is probably very complicated. We could potentially spend days inputting various different codes until we found the right one, if ever.”
“We don’t have days to do that,” I said. “We don’t even have hours. We figure it out now or leave and try again some other day. And I really don’t want to do that, because I don’t know if we’ll ever get this opportunity again.”
We fell silent. Thinking about what the password might be was much harder than it should have been, but it didn’t help that the stress of the situation was starting to get to me. Any minute now, someone was going to come up here and find us and our whole plan would be ruined.
Think, Kevin, think. What password would Mastermind use to lock his doors? If he was smart, it would be eight characters long and have at least one capital letter and one number. But because there was practically an infinite combination of letters and numbers out, I almost gave up in despair. I thought about how Mastermind would no doubt enjoy seeing us like this, trying to puzzle out his password but not having the knowledge necessary to beat it. I could just imagine him taunting me, telling me that this was what I deserved for not accepting his offer to join him in ruling the world as his son.
All of a sudden, everything clicked and I thought I knew what the password was.
I looked at Valerie. “Val, I think I know the password. I’m going to give it a shot.”
Valerie frowned. “Are you sure? If you get it wrong—”
“I won’t,” I said. “At least, I hope I won’t. Besides, it’s either this or we keep wasting time standing around thinking, time we don’t have to waste.”
“Fine,” said Valerie. “What is it?”
“I won’t tell you because I don’t want to jinx it,” I said.
I walked up to the keypad and raised my hand over it. I hesitated for a moment, suddenly having second thoughts about this. Because if it failed, I had a feeling that it would sound the alarms that would bring every guard in this place to our location. Therefore, it couldn’t fail.
I got over my hesitation and typed in the five letter password: KEVIN.
Then I hit enter.
It felt like an eternity passed—though it was only a split second—before the words ‘PASSWORD APPROVED’ appeared on the screen and the sound of a lock clicking could be heard. I sighed in relief, while Valerie just looked on in amazement.
“How did you guess the password correctly?” said Valerie.
“Just a guess,” I said, though I remembered how anguished Mastermind had been when he’d told me about the death of my counterpart from this universe. “Now let’s hurry inside; I can’t wait to go hom
e.”
Chapter Six
Mastermind’s laboratory was enormous. It felt like walking into a cathedral, with a high vaulted ceiling and huge computer monitors on the walls that displayed what looked like Mastermind’s notes on his various experiments. Large mechanical arms hung from the ceiling, which no doubt provided Mastermind with aid, especially since the arms had different instruments attached to their ends, such as drills or lasers or even flamethrowers. The place smelled of chemicals, which seemed to be coming from everywhere, including the huge, partially open vats of unidentifiable chemicals scattered here and there.
Pods of desks, with computer monitors and tablets on them, were also scattered haphazardly, plus work desks that had half-finished creations on them. And yet, despite the hugeness of the room, it reminded me of Dad’s laboratory back home, though why, I didn’t know. Maybe because Mastermind, for all his evilness, was still Dad, which was a bizarre thought that I still had trouble accepting.
“Wow,” I said, looking around the place. “This is enormous. It’s like walking straight into some mad scientist’s lair.”
“That’s basically what it is, if you think about it,” said Valerie, who didn’t sound nearly as impressed as me. “Mastermind may be an oppressive tyrant, but at heart, he’s still a scientific and technological genius who loves to build new inventions. I imagine that most of these things are designed to aid him in his oppression of the people, however, more than anything.”
“I don’t even know where to start,” I said. “What would a dimension-hopping machine even look like?”
“Maybe like that?” said Valerie, pointing ahead.
I looked at where Valerie was pointing and saw an actual Stargate rising in the center of the lab.
No, it wasn’t a Stargate, but it did look an awful lot like one. It was a giant ring on top of a platform; it even seemed to have chevrons, though they didn’t appear functional. The machine was currently off; though even without power, it looked like an impressive invention, even though I didn’t know if it even worked.
“Is that the machine that Mastermind used to go to my universe?” I said.
“Maybe,” said Valerie. “The only way to find out is to go over and check it out. No doubt Mastermind labeled it or at least left some notes identifying the machine and its purpose.”
So we made our way across the laboratory, heading straight for the huge portal machine. The only sounds in the lab were the sounds of our own footsteps walking across the floor; in fact, I just now realized how silent everything was. I guess Mastermind must have turned off most of his machines before he left or something, or maybe his machines were just very silent. In any case, I kept my guard up anyway, because even though we appeared to be the only people in this place, that didn’t mean there weren’t some hidden traps that could take us out if we weren’t careful. Past experience told me that when some place seems empty, it usually isn’t, though again I still didn’t see anyone regardless of where I looked.
Soon, we arrived at the base of the portal. It was even taller up close, at least twice my height, and five times as wide. It was built into a thick metal platform, which had a touch screen about as high as my waist that appeared to be the control screen. Valerie tapped the touch screen once and the blank screen was replaced by a variety of buttons that had no labels on them, but there was one label above the buttons that said, ‘INTERDIMENSIONAL TRANSPORTER PROTOTYPE CONTROLS.’
“This is it,” I said in excitement. “This must be the machine Mastermind used to go to my universe. Now we just need to activate it and I can finally go home.”
Valerie, however, didn’t seem nearly as excited about this as I was. “But I don’t know how to use the controls or even just turn it on.”
“Oh, it’s very simple,” said a nasally voice behind us, causing us to look over our shoulders to see who had spoken. “Unfortunately, I’m not going to let you figure out how to use it.”
At first, we didn’t see anyone until a panel in the ceiling slid aside and a chair began to descend from the hole. And sitting upon the chair, a look of smug satisfaction on his pointed, pasty face, was none other than Techno himself. He was resting his cheek in his hand, looking at us with amusement, as if we were entertainment rather than enemies.
“Techno?” said Valerie in shock, though I noticed her hands fly to the gun at her side. “What are you doing here?”
“Waiting for you two nincompoops, obviously,” said Techno. He sniffled and coughed. “It was really boring and I almost thought you might not show, but luckily patience paid off. Let it never be said that I don’t know how to wait for things I want. Or don’t want, as the case may be.”
“Er, uh,” I said, trying to think of a lie quickly, “why, Castellan Techno! What a coincidence. My fellow guard and I were just coming here to, uh, do some spring cleaning!”
“It’s November,” Techno snapped. “And don’t try to lie. I know who you really are, mostly because Mastermind never stopped talking about you.” He pointed at me accusingly. “You are Bolt, the most wanted criminal in all of Rationalia right now, and the girl is Valerie, a traitor to Mastermind’s most rational rule. You aren’t fooling anyone by pretending to be guards.”
I bit my lower lip, but not seeing any point in denying it, I said, “Well, how did you even know we were going to be here? We didn’t tell anyone our destination.”
“Because I know that you are from an alternate universe, Bolt,” said Techno. “I received a message from His Most Rational Lord Mastermind that he had sent you here and that I was to have you arrested as soon as you were found, which I did. Once you escaped, I watched the security footage of your interrogation, where you expressed a desire to go home. So I deduced from that interrogation that you would eventually figure out that Mastermind’s dimension-hopping tech was here and so would eventually attempt to break into the castle to gain access to it.”
“You figured all that out yourself?” I said.
“It’s simple logic, really,” said Techno, “though simple logic is something that most people sadly lack nowadays and rarely understand. Ah, the trials and tribulations of being an intellectual in a world where such people are under appreciated. My supreme intellect is both a curse and a blessing.”
Techno sighed. “But in any case, the only part of your behavior that surprised me was how quickly you teamed up with the Resistance and broke in. I thought it would be at least a month before you attempted anything, but Mastermind always tells me just how impatient you were before you died, so perhaps I shouldn’t be so surprised by how quickly you acted.”
Then Techno looked at Valerie and smiled a very creepy smile. “The other thing that surprised me was you, Valerie. I didn’t think the Resistance would send such a valuable member into danger like this, but that’s fine. I will have to kill Bolt, but I will keep you alive until Lord Mastermind returns, and then give you to him as a gift. Perhaps then he will finally realize just how much I love him.”
“I’m not a gift to anyone,” said Valerie. I noticed she had rested her hand on her gun, but had yet to draw it. “Much less to Mastermind. There’s a reason I abandoned him all those years ago. He knows I will never be with him again.”
“Perhaps not willingly,” said Techno, “but in this world, Lord Mastermind always gets what he wants. And I know how much he wants and misses you, Valerie, which is why I will be making you into a gift.”
“You can give him my corpse,” Valerie said.
Techno raised an eyebrow and tapped his chin. “You have certainly gained some spunk since you betrayed Lord Mastermind. I suppose it is the Resistance; those anti-intellectual brutes have been a very bad influence on you. I wonder if it is still possible to reprogram you; it will be interesting to find out.”
“It would be, if I was going to let you remain alive long enough to get me,” said Valerie.
She drew her gun from her holster, aimed at Techno, and fired in one swift motion. The bullet shot through the air, bu
t when it was about five feet away from him, the bullet hit something invisible and bounced away, falling onto the floor with a small, barely audible clatter somewhere among the desks.
Techno shook his head. “Did you really think I would confront you two without a way to defend myself? You are even dumber than I thought if that’s what you think. Perhaps I will send you to the reeducation centers after I’ve subdued you; that way, when Mastermind returns, you will be back to the way you were before you betrayed him.”
Techno tapped his forehead and one of the mechanical arms hanging from the ceiling suddenly shot toward Valerie. But I moved between Valerie and the arm and caught it, holding the arm back with my super strength, before I ripped the arm off the ceiling and tossed its sparking remains to the side.
“You are just as quick and strong as Lord Mastermind said you were,” said Techno. “But are you fast enough to keep up with my thoughts?”
Instantly, three more arms—these ones more like tendrils than arms—flew toward us, each one tipped with spinning buzz saws. I raised my hands and unleashed blasts of lightning at the tendrils, severing or burning them to a crisp.
Then I said to Valerie, “Val, activate the portal! I’ll keep Techno distracted while you do that.”
Valerie nodded, albeit somewhat shakily, and then ran over to the controls while I took off into the air toward Techno. As I flew, I tore off my guard uniform and armor and then activated my suit-up watch, causing my suit to cover my body in an instant. In seconds, I was back in my old costume and I flew toward Techno, intending to take him out quickly.
But Techno just tapped his forehead again and one of the mechanical arms aimed a laser cannon at me and fired. I instantly ducked, but another arm came out of nowhere and slammed me in the face with a hammer, which sent me hurtling to the floor below.
I smashed into a pod of desks and computers, shattering displays and destroying chairs under my impact. Shaking my head, I looked up in time to see an arm tipped with a sharp needle hurtling toward me too fast to dodge.
