by Lucas Flint
Me, I was tired, but fine. I was panting and sweating hard, but with White Lightning finally defeated, I felt like I could finally relax.
Then I heard footsteps and looked up to see Renaissance walking toward me. Even though I’d just seen him get punched through the gut by someone at least as strong as me, Renaissance was apparently still walking. The only clue to point out that he’d been harmed at all was the hole in his suit, which was covered with dried blood, but as far as I could tell, the wound had somehow healed itself already.
“Is he down?” said Renaissance, his voice sounding perfectly normal as he walked up to me. “For good?”
“Uh, yeah,” I said, staring at Renaissance. “But how did you survive getting punched straight through? You looked dead.”
“Did you already forget my powers?” said Renaissance. He patted his closed wound. “I can come back to life no matter what injury I’ve sustained. This also grants me a healing factor, though it is very slow and doesn’t work unless I’m actually dead. Which is why I couldn’t help you sooner; I was too busy healing to help.”
“Oh, right,” I said. “I completely forgot you could do that. What’s death like, anyway? You should tell me about that sometime.”
“Sometime, perhaps,” said Renaissance. “But for now, we need to take White Lightning into our custody and interrogate him to find out where Mastermind is. We’ll also need to get the Director from the dome, now that the threat has been neutralized.”
“I agree,” I said. I looked down at White Lightning. “Maybe we’ll finally be able to put an end to all of this madness once and for all.”
“Yes, I hope so,” said Renaissance.
All of a sudden, one of the guards that had come with Renaissance ran up to us. He had an urgent look on his face, like he’d seen a ghost, and said, “Commander, we’ve received urgent news from security!”
“Urgent news?” said Renaissance. “What is it? Has someone else broken into the Compound, too?”
“No,” said the guard, shaking his head. “Well, yes. Sort of.”
“Speak plainly, guard,” said Renaissance in annoyance. “What is the problem?”
“It’s Director Smith,” said the guard. “He’s missing.”
“Missing?” Renaissance repeated. “What do you mean?”
“We mean that he’s not in the dome where he was being kept,” said the guard. “Someone kidnapped him.”
“Who?” Renaissance demanded. “Who kidnapped him?”
“I did,” said an all-too-familiar voice. “And you will never see him alive again after I’m done with him.”
Renaissance, the guard, and I looked over toward the other side of the hall. Someone was standing there, a man in gray and purple armor that looked just like Dad’s old superhero costume, except pitted and scarred in places like he’d been in a war.
It was Mastermind. And he stood all by himself, his arms crossed over his chest, looking at us with amusement from behind his helmet.
Chapter Fourteen
“Mastermind,” I said, not bothering to hide the disgust in my voice. “How did you get in here?”
“You mean you aren’t happy to see me again?” said Mastermind in a mocking voice. “How disappointing. And here I thought you would be, given that you are my own flesh and blood. I guess blood isn’t thicker than water after all, is it?”
I didn’t even respond to that. I just fired a red lightning bolt directly at his head, which I figured would be an instant kill shot if it hit. I didn’t care; Mastermind had done enough evil things in his life that I was more than willing to kill him if that would end his reign of terror.
But to my shock, my lightning bolt just passed harmlessly through his head. Mastermind didn’t even flinch when it passed through. He just continued to stand there. His helmet hid his facial expression, but based on the way he stood, I had the feeling that he was probably smirking right now.
“How come my attack didn’t hurt you?” I said. “It went straight through your head.”
Mastermind chuckled. “Did you really think I was so stupid that I would come in person and give you a chance to kill me? I’m not an idiot. This is just a hologram, which I sent with White Lightning when he attacked this place. I didn’t take over an entire planet by making stupid decisions that would put me in harm’s way, after all.”
“Yeah, about that planet,” I said. “I helped to kill your second-in-command, Techno and get a lot of useful information for the Resistance. You should probably go back there and make sure that your empire is still standing.”
“Oh, I am well aware of your adventures in my universe, Kevin,” said Mastermind. “They’re totally irrelevant; even if Techno is dead, my empire still stands strong. And you will help me to make it even stronger, whether you want to or not.”
“No, I won’t,” I said. “I will never serve you, no matter what.”
“Many people have said that to me back in my own universe,” said Mastermind. “And every single one of them has either been killed or forced into serving me eventually. You will be no different.”
“So you’re Mastermind, eh?” said Renaissance, before I could respond. “You look exactly how I’d imagine an evil version of Genius would look.”
“Evil? I’m not evil,” said Mastermind, patting his chest armor. “I’m just smarter than you and every other person in either universe. But I should have expected such comments from you; in my universe, you lead the Resistance against my rule, so it appears that no matter which universe I go to, you will always be my enemy.”
“I lead the Resistance against you in your universe?” Renaissance repeated. He looked at me. “Bolt, why didn’t you tell me that? I would have liked to know.”
“Because it’s irrelevant,” Mastermind said, before I could respond to Renaissance’s question. “What matters is that, whether in this universe or that one, you will fail to stop me. With Cadmus Smith now in my possession, I will soon have knowledge of the location of the Apocalypse Switch. And once I do, you will not be able stop me.”
“You won’t be able to use the Switch without me and White Lightning,” I said. “Even if you do have Cadmus, your plan won’t work, especially since we’ve beaten White Lightning and now have him in our custody.”
“Yes, that may all be true, but you will help me if you care at all about your friends and family,” said Mastermind.
“What do you mean?” I said. “What are you talking about?”
“It’s quite simple,” said Mastermind. “I mean that I have Ashley and your two friends, Tara Reynolds and Malcolm Rayner, in my possession.”
“What?” said Renaissance, stepping forward. “You have my younger brother?”
“That I do,” said Mastermind. “Your brother and Kevin’s friend. I had White Lightning kidnap them because I knew that you would refuse to help me, Kevin, even if I asked politely.”
“What will you do to them if I refuse to help you?” I said.
“Kill them, of course,” said Mastermind. “I have no need of their lives. As long as I have you, my plan will succeed.”
“But Mom is your wife,” I said. “Or, at least, Mom in your universe was your wife.”
Mastermind’s hands shook, even though he didn’t sound very emotional at the moment. “This Ashley isn’t the Ashley I know. She will never love me. Besides, I don’t need a wife anymore. As the ruler of my own world, I can have any woman I want. I’ve moved beyond Ashley. I don’t need her anymore.”
Mastermind didn’t seem to be entirely honest about that, if the way his hands shook was an indication of his true desire, but I didn’t care. I just said, “Where are you, then?”
“I will tell you only if you agree to help me,” said Mastermind. “All I can tell you is that I will soon be at the location of the Apocalypse Switch, wherever that is.”
“We’ll hunt you down,” said Renaissance. “We won’t stop until we find you. I don’t care where you run or where you hide; we will find you
and we will kill you.”
“Don’t you care about your younger brother?” said Mastermind. “He’s such an innocent young man, not nearly as scarred and experienced as you. It would be quite a shame if he were to die, especially if he knew it was because of your refusal to comply with my demands; I might even tell him that right now. I wonder how he would react if he knew just how little his older brother values his life.”
Damn, Mastermind could be vicious. Renaissance just snarled, his hands tightening into fists, but he apparently didn’t know what to say to that. “You monster.”
“Monster? That’s what all inferior beings say about their superiors,” said Mastermind. “Anyway, I don’t really care about you. I only care about Kevin and Ronald. But I understand that this decision is difficult for you to make; therefore, I will give you twenty-four hours to decide whether or not you will voluntarily join me.”
“What will happen when that time is up?” I said.
“I will force you to join me, naturally enough,” said Mastermind. “You and White Lightning. I will also kill Ashley and your friends, but I would much rather that you join me voluntarily. Hence why I am giving you twenty-four hours to make your decision.”
“How am I supposed to contact you with my decision?” I said.
There was a sudden beep at my watch and I looked down to see a message—from ‘UNKNOWN’—on my watch’s screen. The message had a number on it.
“That’s my phone number,” said Mastermind. “Simply call that number to let me know your answer. Don’t worry about me not answering right away; I am very much interested in hearing your answer, so I will answer the phone as soon as you call.”
I looked at Mastermind again. “How kind of you. I guess you aren’t the worst dad in the world after all.” I said that with the most sarcasm I could muster.
Mastermind just shook his head. “If you do choose to come, don’t bring anyone with you, whether NHA, INJ, or G-Men. I want you to come alone; or, rather, with White Lightning, but no one else. If you bring anyone other than White Lightning with you, then I will kill Ashley, Tara, and Malcolm.”
“You’re not giving me too many choices here,” I said.
“That’s the point, my son,” said Mastermind. “No matter what you do or what choice you make, I win. You should consider trying the same; it would probably increase your chances of beating me.”
“How do you know I’ll agree to work with you?” I said. “What if I say no?”
“You won’t,” said Mastermind. “You seem to forget, but I’m still your father. I know how you think. You could never leave your friends or family when they were in danger, especially when you don’t know where they are. You will side with me. It is only a matter of time.”
With that, Mastermind suddenly vanished, leaving me, Renaissance, and White Lightning all alone amid the smoking wreckage from my fight with my brother.
And this time, I wasn’t sure I would be able to defeat Mastermind at all anymore.
Chapter Fifteen
White Lightning was dragged off by the guards to a room that would act as a temporary jail cell for him until we could figure out our next move. Renaissance gave the guards orders to shoot White Lightning with powerless pellets so that, even if he woke up, he would not be able to escape or cause damage, which my brother would no doubt try to do once he regained consciousness.
Meanwhile, Renaissance and I went to another room just off to the side of the hall, where we could have a quick meeting about our next course of action. It was a small room that seemed to have been the office of one of the people working here, but since we needed a quick meeting room, we had taken it over. A handful of guards stood outside to make sure that no one bothered us while we spoke.
Renaissance sat on the other side of the desk in a swiveled office chair, while I sat on a normal chair in front of the desk. My shoulders were slumped, while Renaissance sat upright, despite how grim our situation was. Guess Renaissance must have been better at handling stress than me.
“It’s hopeless,” I said. “We can’t win. As long as Mastermind has the people we care about, we can’t fight him without risking their lives.”
Renaissance sighed and rubbed his temples. “Agreed. It is a hard situation. And with less than twenty-four hours to come up with a decision, we don’t really have enough time to locate and stop Mastermind before he can harm any of them. It wouldn’t surprise me if he already has the location of the Apocalypse Switch by now, too.”
“Do you think he’ll kill Cadmus once he’s done with him?” I said. “Back in his universe, Mastermind killed his universe’s version of Cadmus. Do you think he might do the same here?”
“Possibly, but I hope not,” said Renaissance. “In any case, we can’t let you and White Lightning go there. If Mastermind gets both of you, it is game over, not just for us, but for the whole world.”
“I know,” I said. “But what other choice do we have? I don’t want to risk the lives of my friends and Mom. And I know you don’t want to risk Malcolm’s life, either. It seems like the only choice we can make is for me and White Lightning to go to Mastermind and let him do with us what he will.”
“That is the one thing we cannot do,” said Renaissance. “Mastermind may be a powerful and intelligent supervillain, but he’s not unbeatable. There has to be some way we can beat him. I just wish I knew how.”
“I think I know a way,” said a familiar feminine voice that came from the shadows.
Renaissance and I looked over to a shadowy corner just in time to see Shade step out of it. She looked harried and worried, as if she had not gotten enough sleep recently. Her hair was messier than normal, too, which made me wonder what she’d been doing recently.
“Shade?” said Renaissance in surprise. “Where have you been all this time?”
Shade shrugged and sat down on the small sofa against the wall. She looked exhausted. “Talking with Omega Man about getting the NHA’s help in stopping Mastermind.”
“You were talking with Omega Man?” I said. “What did he say?”
“He said he’d like to help, but he also told me that the NHA has to stay on Hero Island in order to protect it,” said Shade. “I don’t know why they need to protect it, but he said it was a deal that they’d made with Cadmus and he didn’t want to go back on that deal.”
“So we can’t expect help from the NHA, then,” said Renaissance. “Shade, do you think you could use your powers to find and rescue the Director?”
“No,” Shade said bluntly. “My shadow travel powers give me the ability to go pretty much anywhere, but I am just as ignorant of Mastermind’s true location as you guys are. What’s the point in being able to go anywhere in the world when you don’t know where you want to go?”
“Right,” said Renaissance, who sounded depressed by Shade’s answer, while I said, “Shade, you said you had an idea about how we could defeat Mastermind. What is it?”
Shade stretched her arms, an uncertain look on her face. “I think you should try to reason with White Lightning and convince him to betray Mastermind.”
“Reason with him?” I said. “How?”
“I don’t know,” said Shade. “But you have to. As long as he’s loyal to Mastermind, any plans we come up with will never work. But if we can somehow get White Lightning on our side, we might be able to create a plan to take down Mastermind even if you and White Lightning go to him by yourselves.”
“That sounds nice, but it won’t work,” I said. “You clearly haven’t interacted with White Lightning before. He can’t reason. He has a very simple, childish mind. He operates almost purely on emotion, as far as I can tell. And that’s primarily because of whatever you guys did to him during his childhood.”
“Don’t blame us,” said Renaissance. “I had no idea that the government was even keeping White Lightning like that. Had I known …”
Renaissance trailed off, either because he didn’t know what he would have done if he’d known about Whi
te Lightning or because he didn’t want to badmouth the government. Either way, I found that I didn’t care much for his opinion on the matter.
“It’s still our only shot,” said Shade. “If we can get White Lightning on our side, then we might be able to subvert Mastermind’s plans.”
“But can we even do it in twenty-four hours?” said Renaissance. “Even if White Lightning wasn’t mentally damaged, twenty-four hours doesn’t seem like nearly enough time to convince him to switch his loyalties to us.”
“It doesn’t help that he hates me, either,” I said. “He’d probably just refuse to listen to me or maybe just shout and scream at me if I tried to talk to him. Either way, I’m pretty sure I won’t be able to reason with him.”
“How do you know?” said Shade. “You have to do it. No one else can. He’s your brother. That has to mean something, doesn’t it?”
I shrugged. “Maybe if we’d been raised together, it would have, but considering how we weren’t, I don’t think our relation will be very helpful.”
“Then what should we do?” said Shade. “Just give up? Is that what you want to do? If so, I’m disappointed in you, Bolt. I thought you were brave and never quit. But I guess when the going gets tough, you just give up, right?”
“I’m not quitting,” I said. “I’m just saying that that idea won’t work.”
“I still haven’t heard any ideas from you that will work, though,” said Shade. “All I hear is shooting down our ideas. I’m starting to think you don’t have any of your own.”
I glared at Shade, even though I knew there was more truth to her words than I wanted to admit. “Because I don’t have any, okay? I just don’t. And your attitude really isn’t helping me think of any, by the way.”
Shade folded her arms over her chest. “And? It’s not my fault if I’m disappointed in your own failure to rise to the challenge. If you want me to be less disappointed, you should act in a less disappointing way.”
