by Lucas Flint
I stepped inside an elevator to Level Three, but before the doors closed, I heard someone call, “Wait!” and a large hand grabbed the doors before they could close. Then the person pushed the doors open, stepped inside, and allowed them to close behind him.
Uh, oh. I recognized the guy who had stepped into the elevator with me. He was a tall, strapping black man in a neatly pressed military uniform. He looked like the kind of guy you wouldn’t want to mess with, like he wouldn’t put up with any nonsense from his subordinates.
He was also James Rayner, or Renaissance, as I knew him, the Commander of the Compound. He was also one of the very few people in the Compound who had seen my face before and knew how I looked.
I kept my face averted from Renaissance as he stood beside me as the elevator began to descend. He was about a head taller than me and very strong; not as strong as me, but it was pretty clear to me that his years of training in the military had not been wasted. Thankfully, however, he wasn’t looking at me; instead, he was looking at something on his phone, but even that wasn’t very comforting. All he needed to do was glance my way once and my whole plan would be ruined.
So, as naturally as possible, I turned my head to the side. I also adjusted my hat; I tried to make it look like I was simply trying to make sure it didn’t fall off (not a difficult thing to do, by the way, given how it didn’t fit my head very well), but I was really trying to adjust it in a way that it would block my face from his vision.
But then Renaissance suddenly said, “Goddamit!” and I nearly jumped, but I got control of myself in time to keep my hat from falling off my head.
Renaissance must have noticed my jump, however, because he just glanced at me and said, “Oh, I apologize for swearing. You were so quiet that I forgot you were there.”
“Uh …” I quickly cleared my throat and changed my voice, making it deeper and more like Damian’s. “No need to apologize, sir. Not a problem. I’ve sworn a few times myself when getting bad news.”
“Right,” said Renaissance. “And this news is … not good, to put it lightly.”
I wanted to tell him that I didn’t want to talk with him, but I figured that would just make Renaissance pay even more attention to me, so I said, as calmly as I could, “What’s the bad news, sir? Did that White Lightning guy attack another town?”
“No,” said Renaissance, shaking his head. “I just got a message from Sandstorm, a fellow G-Men agent. He told me that the wanted criminal Bolt escaped the base in which he was being held prisoner and is on the run again.”
Wanted criminal? I was about to go on a rant about that, but then I caught myself and remembered that Renaissance still didn’t know I was here. “Oh, he is? He’s a slippery one, ain’t he?”
“Yes, but I am not too surprised, to be honest,” said Renaissance with a sigh. “I don’t know if you were working here when Bolt and his parents were here the first time, but back then, I knew about how Bolt was not the kind of kid to give up very easily. He would have made a good G-Man agent, if the Neohero Alliance hadn’t gotten to him first.”
“Uh, I’m sure he would have,” I said. “Do you think the government will ever be able to actually catch him?”
“I don’t know,” said Renaissance. “And sometimes, I wonder if we should. The real threats to the United States are Mastermind and White Lightning. We still don’t know where they are.”
“Yeah, they’re a pain in the ass,” I said. “Does the government have any clue where they are right now?”
“Sadly, no,” said Renaissance, shaking his head. “But I can’t give you more details than that, because you are not authorized to know it.”
“I understand,” I said, even though I was interested in learning about what other details there were. “I just hope that Mastermind and White Lightning don’t get the Apocalypse Switch, at least. That would be bad.”
I realized my mistake just as I finished that last sentence. But I didn’t look up at Renaissance, even though I could feel him looking at me. I couldn’t let him see my face no matter what.
“Did you just mention the Apocalypse Switch?” said Renaissance. I didn’t like his tone.
“Did I?” I said. “Oh, er, I meant I hope they don’t cause the apocalypse. ‘Cause, you know, supervillains like to try to destroy the world and stuff. Uh, sir.”
I could tell that Renaissance clearly wasn’t buying that excuse, but at that moment, I heard a small ding and the elevator doors opened, so I said, “Excuse me, Commander, this looks like my stop and I need to get off because I have somewhere very important to be and can’t be late.”
I took a step toward the exit, but then Renaissance put a hand on my shoulder and said, “Wait.”
Oh, no. He knew what I said about the Apocalypse Switch. He was going to force me to look at him and my entire plan was going to fall apart.
But I said, in a friendly voice, “Yes, sir? What is it?”
“You’re a cook, right?” said Renaissance.
“Uh, yes, sir, I am,” I said.
“Okay,” said Renaissance. He leaned toward my ear, his breath on my neck. “Can you tell Chef Gordon that I really enjoyed his tilapia and rice last night and would like to have it for dinner again tonight?”
I almost looked at Renaissance in disbelief, but I kept my head looking forward. “Um, okay, sir. I will make sure to mention it to Chef Gordon.”
“Good,” said Renaissance in a much happier tone. “Carry on, then, cook.”
Renaissance took his hand off my shoulder. I was tempted to just run for it, but because that would look suspicious, I walked instead. The elevator doors closed behind me and I heard the elevator resume its descent.
I sighed in relief. That was close. I thought for sure that Renaissance was going to see my face and then try to stop me from saving my friends. Somehow, though, I made it through that entire exchange without letting him see my face even once. I never thought much about God, but if God was up there, then maybe the big guy was looking out for me.
I looked up at a sign hanging above the hallway that read ‘LEVEL 3,’ which was how I knew that I was where I was supposed to be.
So I resumed walking down the hall, feeling pretty proud of myself, before I spotted the door to the place where my friends were being held captive. It was all the way at the end of the hallway and was huge; it looked like the door to a bank vault, although I noticed there was a smaller, normal-looking door built into it at its base.
Two guards stood at attention in front of the door. Like most of the guards in this place, they looked strong and more than willing to beat up anyone who tried to force their way in. They carried large guns in their hands, guns that looked like they could shoot powerless pellets and normal bullets. I had never seen guns like that before, but I was going to make sure that I wasn’t going to end up taking those bullets to my chest.
Keeping my nerves calm, I walked up to the two guards. They looked down at me with blank expressions, but I could tell they were suspicious about me, no doubt wondering why I was here.
“Hi, there,” I said, stopping in front of them and giving them my most sincere and genuine smile. “I am here to see the prisoners.”
The two guards exchanged puzzled looks. I just kept smiling, hoping that my smile would be enough to make them think twice about shooting me.
“Why?” said the first guard. He had a thick Southern drawl. “The prisoners aren’t supposed to get their next meal until tomorrow morning.”
“Ah, yes, well, Commander Renaissance gave me orders to deliver them a quick snack,” I said. “Just to, uh, you know, keep them satisfied. Also, I need to get their plates from today’s meal and bring them back to the kitchen to be washed.”
The two guards again exchanged skeptical looks, but I didn’t think they were going to turn me away, especially since I had mentioned Renaissance’s orders.
“Okay, then,” said the Southern guard. “First, you’ll need to show us your ID card. We aren’t allow
ed to let anyone in without an ID card. Compound rules, you know.”
Uh, oh. Why didn’t I see this coming? The cook’s ID card had his picture on it, not mine. If I showed the guards the ID and they saw that the face on the ID didn’t match my own, I had a feeling that I was going to have a very bad time. But I couldn’t refuse to show them my ID, either, otherwise they would get suspicious and maybe even attack me or at least try to arrest me.
So I reached into my pocket and pulled out the ID card, but I ‘accidentally’ dropped it and said, “Oops. Dropped my card. My bad. Let me get it.”
“No, I can get it for you,” said the guard as he bent over to grab it.
Seeing an opportunity, I immediately grabbed the guard’s exposed neck and ran an electrical jolt through his body. The guard immediately collapsed, while his fellow guard aimed his gun at me almost too fast for me to respond.
But I was quicker and slapped the gun out of his hands, sending it flying through the air. The guard immediately reached for another gun at his side, but I punched him in the chin and, like his fellow guard, he fell down unconscious. A trickle of blood leaked from the corner of his mouth, but aside from that I figured he would be okay once he woke up later.
That was when I realized what happened. I immediately looked around the area, but I didn’t see anyone around, so I doubted anyone had seen me. Oddly, there weren’t even any security cameras, but that didn’t mean I had all the time in the world to sit around and do nothing. If someone came down the elevator or stepped through the doors on either side of the hallway and saw the guards …
I walked over the guard to the door. I had no idea how much time I had left before someone stepped in and saw the unconscious guards, so I hastily raised the ID card up to the card scanner. The scanner next to the door flashed briefly and then a message in green letters said ‘IDENTITY CONFIRMED,’ followed by a sound of a lock clicking, which I assumed was the sound of the door unlocking.
I opened the door and, stepping inside, looked around at my surroundings. The room I’d stepped into was small, even a little cramped. It reminded me of the Spinner’s escape pod, except smaller. I remembered the cook telling me about the submarine that you had to use to get down to the underwater cage in which the others were being kept, so I stepped inside and closed the door behind me.
As soon as I did that, the room shook for a brief moment before the door locked behind me and it began to descend. The sudden movement almost tossed me off my feet, but I recovered my balance and sat on one of the seats built into the walls, anxiously awaiting for the submarine to land. I was so close to rescuing my friends now that I could almost taste it.
Then, all of a sudden, the submarine came to a stop. At first, I thought that maybe it had finally reached the cage where my friends were imprisoned, but then there was a sudden crackle in the speaker in the corner of the ceiling and a voice blared from it, saying, “This is Central Security speaking. We have noticed unusual activity in the prison submarine, which is not supposed to be in use at this time. Therefore, we have stopped the submarine until we can determine who is on board it. We are sending men to check it out even as I speak.”
“What?” I said. “Uh, I mean, Central Security, uh, sir, it’s just me, Damien Frank, one of the cooks in the Compound. There’s no problem here.”
“Yes, our computers do state that the ID card of Damien Frank was used to access the submarine to the prisoners,” said the voice. “But we just received a report from the kitchens that a naked man claiming to be Damien Frank was found tied up and unconscious in the storage room, who claims that he was attacked and knocked out by an intruder. He also says that the intruder stole his clothes and ID and is using it to try to reach the prisoners, so we are stopping the submarine until we can figure out what is going on—”
I fired a blast of electricity at the speaker, instantly blowing it up. The explosion, while not big, was loud in this confined space, but I didn’t care because I knew I didn’t have much choice if I was going to get to my friends before the guards got here. I was not in the mood to fight anyone and I had been hoping that I could pull this off without being seen. Apparently, that was too much to ask.
The problem, however, was how to get down to the cage where the others were being kept. As the submarine had stopped (and would probably reverse its course soon, if only so the guards could get into the submarine), I had no way of getting down there. I thought that I could try to push the submarine down, but I wasn’t sure it would go in a straight line like that and it might be too slow anyway.
I also considered forcing open the door and swimming down to the cage below. Of course, the problem with that was that I couldn’t breathe underwater at all. And I didn’t have a handy environs suit or anything else I could use to help me not drown.
But what other choice did I have? It was the only realistic option I had at the moment. Besides, if I was fast enough, I could reach the bottom of the underwater area and enter the cage before I ran out of air. I still dreaded the idea of swimming underwater without any breathing equipment, but I had to do what I had to do and this was what I had to do.
So I tore off my cook outfit and, with a press of my suit-up watch, was back in my super costume. I ran over to the exit and, taking a deep breath of air in order to fill my lungs as much as I could, ripped open the door.
Immediately, I was hit by a deluge of water, which almost knocked me back, but I grabbed the edges of the doorway and forced myself out into the water.
Now I was floating in the water outside of the mini submarine. The water was pretty dark, aside from some lights on the walls and from the glowing clear dome below. I could see a large cage full of yellow powerless gas through the dome’s clear surface, so I immediately began swimming toward it, using my super speed to give my legs an extra boost.
But when I was about halfway between the now-sinking submarine and the water, I heard something sizzling through the water and looked to my left in time to see a bright green laser come out of nowhere toward me.
I avoided it at the last second, banking to the right and allowing the laser to miss me. Even though I should have kept going, I still looked in the direction from which the laser came anyway, because I wanted to know who had shot it. Was there a guard here already? Or was it an automated security system that had done that?
As it turned out, however, the thing that had shot the lasers was neither a guard nor part of the Compound’s automated security system. It was, however, large, with metallic skin that reflected the lights on the walls and the light coming from the dome below. It moved through the water gracefully and easily, its huge fins cutting through the water like air. Its red eyes focused on me, while the laser cannon on its head took aim again.
I couldn’t believe my eyes: It was a robotic shark with a laser cannon on its head. And it was coming for me.
Chapter Eleven
Under ordinary circumstances, I would have been excited to see that a real life robotic shark with a laser cannon on its head. I would have called up Malcolm and told him that the Compound did have a robotic shark with a laser cannon on its head protecting it after all. Well, I suppose it was protecting the dome that held my friends below, rather than protecting the Compound itself, but still, I was right and it was here and it existed.
But these were not ordinary circumstances. This robotic shark was huge, easily twice as big as me. Its teeth looked sharper than daggers and it could probably break every bone in my body just by hitting me with its tail. Not only that, but it moved fast and quickly, like a real shark, which was a real testament to the skills of whichever government engineer had built the damned thing.
The shark fired another laser at me, but I zoomed out of the way. But despite dodging that laser, it was becoming harder and harder for me to hold my breath. I had breathed in a lot of air before leaving the submarine, but unless I reached the dome quickly, it wouldn’t do me a lot of good.
So I tried to ignore the robotic shark, but it
barreled toward me with shocking speed, coming so fast that I had maybe a second to avoid it. I rolled out of the way, but one of its fins still hit my leg, knocking me off balance and making me gasp before I closed my mouth abruptly before I lost all my air.
As for the robotic shark, it turned to face me again. Once more, its cannon was taking aim. I almost fired a bolt of lightning at it, but when I remembered that water conducts electricity, I stopped myself before I could shock myself.
The shark, however, had no such worries. It just fired another laser at me, which I barely managed to dodge. Holding my breath was becoming an impossible challenge, so I turned back toward the dome and zoomed toward it, using my super speed to give me a much needed boost.
All of a sudden, however, the robotic shark appeared in my path. Instinctively, I swerved out of the way, avoiding another blast from its laser cannon, but it forced me to slow down and waste even more precious air.
I tried to punch the shark, but the water slowed down the force of my blows, allowing the shark to swim out of reach. It came at me again, baring its shark as knives teeth, and would definitely have torn me to shreds if I hadn’t swam downwards. The shark narrowly passed me by overhead, but I ignored it because I was almost out of air.
I swam down toward the dome, ignoring the pain in my leg, and reached the entrance, which was a large, heavy metal door. But I couldn’t open it; I tugged at its handle, but the door was locked tight. Even with my super strength, opening the door was slow moving. It didn’t help that I was nearly out of air; any second now, I was going to run out and then drown to death.
That was when I heard movement in the water behind me. I looked over my shoulder to see the shark barreling toward me. It was coming almost too fast for me to follow, but an idea occurred to me, so I didn’t move out of its way. Instead, I mentally counted down the time for me to move out of the way; five … four … three … two … one!
