by Lucas Flint
A loud warning siren began booming through the Elastic Cave. It was absolutely deafening in its loudness; I could barely hear myself think. Hissteria and Glue Gun slammed their hands over their ears, while Iron Angel was shouting something I couldn’t hear. He turned to look at me and immediately spotted Adams on the floor, but before he could do anything, the Elastic Cave’s sprinklers all turned on at once. Ice cold water rained down on all of us, while at the same time the warning siren kept booming, becoming louder and louder with each passing minute.
Iron Angel, however, unfolded his wings and brought them over his head, protecting himself from the sprinklers, but I took off my glasses and fired a powerful blast of energy at him from my eyes. The lasers struck Iron Angel in the chest and sent him flying. He crashed into the Mission Control board, smashing some of the screens and keyboards, a stunned look on his face as the water from the sprinkler rained down on him like a rainstorm.
I was absolutely drenched to the bone myself, but I still looked down and fired twin lasers at the glue. The glue shattered instantly, freeing my foot. Without hesitation, I rushed toward Rubberman’s office. I heard Glue Gun and Hissteria yelling at me, even heard Glue Gun fire his glue, but they were too disoriented by the combination of the sprinklers and warning siren to come after me.
Rushing into Rubberman’s office, I slammed the door closed behind me and put a chair underneath the door handle. I doubted it would hold for very long against Iron Angel or his vigilantes once they came after me, but it would have to do for now.
Unfortunately, when I turned around to see Rubberman’s office, I realized that the sprinklers were on in here as well. Even worse, I didn’t see any sort of secret exit which could take me to the surface. I nearly gave up in despair before I noticed one of Rubberman’s posters—this one depicting Rubberman stretching his fist like he was trying to punch someone off-screen—had become loose under the onslaught from the sprinkler water. Even more interesting, there seemed to be some kind of button behind it.
I ran over to the poster and, ripping it off the wall, I discovered a small blue button underneath. The button was unmarked, but I pressed it anyway, because I thought I knew what it could do.
I was proved right a moment later when a door opened inwards behind Rubberman’s desk. At the same time, I heard pounding on the door and voices shouting at me from the other side, though with the siren and the sprinklers on at the same time, I couldn’t tell exactly which one of Iron Angel’s goons was trying to go after me.
I had no intention of staying to find out. I ran through the secret back exit, kicking it closed behind me, and soon found myself in a narrow, dimly lit hallway inclining upwards well out of my sight. I was glad to discover that there was no sprinkler in here; it was completely dry.
But I didn’t stop to enjoy it. I just rushed up the incline as fast as I could, hoping against hope that I would get out of here before the Vigilante Legion caught up with me.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The secret exit took me into an alleyway I’d passed loads of times before on my way to and from work, but which I’d never taken much notice of until today. When I first emerged from the secret exit (which I hastily blocked off with a few full trash cans just in case the vigilantes had followed), I had no idea where I was until I peered out of the alley and recognized the route I took to and from work every day. I was about two blocks away from the Elastic Cave, but that was two blocks too close to it for my liking, so I half-walked, half-ran another block or so until I reached an alleyway even I hadn’t known about. It was cloistered away from the main street and back streets, meaning that it was unlikely that the vigilantes would follow me here. Granted, I was dripping wet the whole way, but I was betting on the sun to dry the water before the vigilantes found it.
Speaking of water, it turned out to be a dumb idea to run out into the cold January weather when you’re freezing wet already. I felt like I had gone swimming in a lake of ice. My teeth chattered and I hugged my arms around my body, attempting to keep in what little warmth I could, although it was a mostly useless gesture. I hid behind a dumpster, which kept me out of the wind, but I was still very cold and very wet.
Shivering, I tried to think about what I needed to do next. The obvious answer was that I needed to find Rubberman. If we could reunite, we stood a chance of defeating the Vigilante Legion. But how was I supposed to find Rubberman? He’d fled without telling anyone where he was. And, as far as I could tell, he didn’t have his phone or radicom with him. That meant that I had a better chance of finding him by wandering aimlessly through the streets of Golden City than trying to call him.
I could call the police. Surely it had to be against the law to break into and take over a superhero’s place of business, didn’t it? There was also the fact that Iron Angel had already killed three superheroes and was in the process of trying to kill his fourth victim. That was definitely grounds for arrest, no matter who was killing who.
But what good would the police be against the Vigilante Legion? They already had trouble with normal supervillains. Iron Angel alone could probably kill the entire GCPD if he wanted, and without breaking a sweat. That wasn’t even taking into account Iron Angel’s fellow vigilantes; from what I could tell, all of them were ex-superheroes and sidekicks with all of the powers, experience, and weapons those jobs usually entail. Even worse, the Vigilante Legion wasn’t just in the Elastic Cave. If what Iron Angel said was true, they had members all over the city searching for Rubberman and, now, probably me as well.
Still, the police needed to know about this. I pulled out my phone and immediately dialed the phone number of the Golden City Police Department. Putting my phone against my ear, I waited impatiently, listening to the tone as the police’s phone on the other end rang.
Finally, I heard someone pick up the phone and say, “Who is this?”
I probably should have found it strange that the person on the other end didn’t introduce themselves as being part of the GCPD, but I was so eager to tell the police about what just happened that I said, “Hi, this is Beams, Rubberman’s sidekick, and I—”
“Rubberman?” repeated the voice on the other end. “Hey, Iron Angel is looking for—”
I immediately hung up and lowered my phone, holding it away from me like it was a bomb about to explode.
I didn’t need to let them finish their sentence, because I instantly realized that the GCPD had been taken over by the Vigilante Legion. I didn’t know if the Legion had broken into the police headquarters and killed all of the officers or if one of their own had infiltrated the force and was manning the phone, but it didn’t matter. All that mattered was that I couldn’t count on the police to help me or Rubberman.
But who else could I call? I considered calling my parents and asking them to pick me up (I’d left my bike back at the Elastic Cave), but I wasn’t sure I wanted to get my parents involved in this. They were probably safe back in our house. If they came out to the city to pick me up, they might get attacked by the Legion. Despite what Iron Angel said about the Legion only targeting superheroes and not civilians, I couldn’t forget how Fro-Zen had put so many young children’s lives in danger just to draw out Rubberman for a fight. If Iron Angel thought that harming my parents would advance his agenda, I could see him do it.
I thought about calling James, but that would be even more useless, because he was back in school right now, about two hours away from Golden City via car. There was no way he could get here in time to help me, even if he donned his old Lightning Fist costume. Besides, I wasn’t sure how much of a chance James would stand against the Legion. He was a pretty good fighter, but the Legion was absolutely ruthless, especially toward superheroes and sidekicks.
With the elimination of James as possible help, I realized I was completely cornered. With no one to call for help, it seemed like the best I could do was run and hide and hope that the Vigilante Legion would not find me. I could also try to find Rubberman, but with no way to know w
here he was, I couldn’t risk it.
I glanced at my phone, which now seemed useless for all intents and purposes, but then my eyes fell on a name in my contacts list. It seemed to me that that person might be able to help me, but at the same time, I didn’t want to put her life in danger. On the other hand, Iron Angel, as far as I knew, didn’t know of my connection to her, so her house was probably the safest place in the city for me right now. It would also risk revealing my secret identity, but given how grim this current situation was, I didn’t have any other choice.
Without hesitation, I tapped Greta Hammond’s phone number and held my phone up to the side of my face, hoping against hope that Greta was home and would be willing to let me stay in her place until I could reunite with Rubberman.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Luckily, Greta answered her phone and was still in her home. She was thrilled to hear from me, because I’d accidentally ignored her in school earlier, and started asking me a lot of questions before I told her that I needed her to come and pick me up. I told her that I couldn’t tell her very much, but that my life was in danger and that I needed a safe place to recuperate and recover for a while. To my relief, Greta didn’t ask me any questions about it. She just told me to wait at the Golden City Cafe, where she would pick me up.
So I went to the Cafe and, a few minutes later, Greta showed up in her dad’s car. That surprised me until I remembered that Greta had gotten her driver’s license recently, which probably should have made me feel a bit embarrassed since I still didn’t have mine, but right now I didn’t care. I just climbed into her car and told her to go straight back to her house without explanation. Again, she didn’t pester me with questions, even though I could tell that she was wondering why I was still soaking wet. We just went straight from the Golden City Cafe back to her home. I didn’t see much of the actual journey back, however, because I lay down on the floor of the back seat of her car, out of sight of the windows. I didn’t want any possible Vigilante Legion members to see me through the windows of her car and follow us back to Greta’s house, although I kept expecting Iron Angel to swoop down from above and tear open the roof of the car to get me anyway.
But no one tried to stop us and soon we were in the garage of Greta’s house. Even so, I didn’t dare sit up until I heard the garage doors closed, at which point I raised my head and asked Greta, “Are we safe now?”
“Yeah, I think so,” said Greta. She gestured out the back window of her car. “The garage doors are closed, so no one will be able to see you.”
I sighed, but then another question occurred to me and I said, “Your dad. Is he—”
“Out of town,” Greta said, cutting me off. “On, uh, ‘business.’”
I knew what she was talking about. Greta’s dad was the infamous thief known as the Silent Shadow, while Greta was the Golden City Robber. Mr. Hammond was usually out of town on ‘business,’ which was a polite euphemism for stealing valuable or ancient artifacts from around the world. I’d known this for a while and should have probably reported this to the police already, but due to the circumstances under which I first learned that knowledge, I didn’t tell anyone the truth about Greta and her dad. Maybe it wasn’t right, but I would worry about that later.
“It’s just you and me in your house, then?” I asked as I sat up, rubbing my back, which was aching from where I’d lain on the floor.
Greta nodded. “Yep. Now, can you tell me why you’re dripping wet? And why you needed me to take you to my house or who, exactly, we’re running from?”
“When did I say I was running from anyone?”
“Why else would you call me, refuse to tell me why you called me, and then ask me to take you to my home like I’m smuggling you across the border?” asked Greta. “If you weren’t trying to hide from someone, I think you would have asked me to take you to your house instead.” She tilted her head to the side. “By the way, where is your bike? I didn’t see it when I picked you up.”
I hesitated. Although I knew Greta was the famous Golden City Robber, Greta didn’t know that I was Beams. I hadn’t told her, not because I distrusted her or anything, but because I didn’t want to risk losing my license or make her think I was going to report her to the police. Yet the only way I could answer her questions was by telling her my real identity. No way was I going to do that.
But didn’t Greta deserve to know? She was my girlfriend, after all. If she trusted me to keep her real identity a secret, I could ask her to do the same for me. Besides, Iron Angel and the Vigilante Legion already knew who I was; would it really hurt me if I told her that I was Beams? It seemed like everyone already knew who I was anyway. Might as well let her know, too.
I took a deep breath and said, “Greta, there’s something I need to tell you, but first, you have to promise that you won’t—”
“You’re Beams.”
I froze. “What?”
“You are Beams,” said Greta simply. “The sidekick of Rubberman, Golden City’s local superhero.”
I felt my ears to make sure I didn’t have water in them that might possibly be distorting my hearing. “Did you just say I’m Beams?”
Greta looked at me in confusion. “Yes. I’m just stating facts. No need to be so surprised.”
I blinked several times. “But … I never told you I was Beams before.”
“I figured it out a while ago,” said Greta with a shrug. “Back when ZZZ kidnapped me and that Charlotte girl, I didn’t understand why he thought I’d be good bait for you. But when you saved us and you showed me more attention than Charlotte, well, I began to suspect who you really were, though even then I didn’t know for sure until I followed you from school one time and saw you enter the Elastic Cave.”
My mouth fell open. “You followed me? How come I didn’t hear you?”
“I’m the Golden City Robber, Alex,” said Greta. “Moving without anyone seeing or hearing you was one of the very first skills Dad taught me. I’m actually a little better at it than him, because I’m smaller and weigh a lot less so I make even less noise than Dad does.”
I couldn’t stop staring at Greta like an idiot. “How come you’ve never mentioned this to me or told anyone?”
“You haven’t told anyone that I’m the Robber, right?” said Greta. “I decided I would respect your identity by keeping it secret. Besides, I know all about the sidekick laws and everything. If I went around telling people who you were, you’d lose your job, which would suck. I don’t want you to lose your job, so I kept it to myself.”
The fact that Greta knew my secret identity certainly explained a lot of her own behavior (like why she never seemed particularly upset when I left school without saying much more than good bye to her), but I still couldn’t wrap my head around it. There was also the fact that if Greta had figured it out, who else had managed to figure out my secret identity without me knowing? Had other people followed me to work from school or was Greta the only one who even tried?
As distressing as that was to think about it, it was all irrelevant to the current situation, so I said, “Uh, okay. I guess that means I can just skip to the part where I explain why I’m dripping wet and on the run.”
I explained, as briefly as I could, the events of the last couple of days. Greta listened with interest to my story. She didn’t say a word the entire time, which was good because I was afraid that I might forget important details if I was interrupted. But I could tell that she was thinking very hard about what I said, too. In particular, she seemed very interested when I mentioned that Iron Angel hated the entire concept of sidekicks, though I didn’t see what was so significant about that.
When I finished, Greta tapped her chin. She brushed aside a few stray strands of blonde hair, but said nothing.
The silence was kind of awkward, so I said, in an attempt to break the ice, “So, er, that’s the story. Rubberman is missing and we’re both on the run from the Vigilante Legion.”
“What are you going to do now?” asked
Greta.
I opened my mouth, but then closed it. “Uh … I hadn’t thought that far ahead. I thought that once I was safely in your house, I would try to find Rubberman.”
Greta nodded. “And how are you going to find him if you can’t contact him?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know.” I paused, and said, “You don’t seem very freaked out by this.”
It was Greta’s turn to shake her head this time. “Oh, don’t worry, I am very freaked out by all of this. I’ve seen the pictures of Iron Angel’s victims. I know just how violent and brutal he is. His friends are probably just as brutal as him. I’m just trying very, very hard not to scream and shout, because Dad always taught me that you should not let your emotions get the best of you even in the scariest, most dangerous situations.”
As Greta spoke, her voice trembled every now and then. It was very slight, barely noticeable, but it was enough to convince me that Greta was probably even more freaked out than me by all of this. It didn’t seem likely to me that Iron Angel would harm Greta if he found out that she was helping me, but I guess it all depended on how desperately he wanted to recapture me.
I leaned forward and put a hand on Greta’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. Iron Angel doesn’t know that you’re my girlfriend. We’ll be safe in your house for a while. Rubberman, on the other hand, is in way more danger than us, because he’s wounded and alone. He can’t even go to the police for help, because I think the Vigilante Legion has either infiltrated the police department or even outright overthrown them.”
Greta’s eyes widened. “You mean we can’t even ask the police for help? Why didn’t you mention that before?”
“I forgot,” I said sheepishly. “But it is the truth. That’s another reason I called you, because I found out that the police can’t help us.”
Greta looked close to crying, which I thought was kind of strange, because as the Golden City Robber, I thought she would have been happy to know that the police had been defeated. Then again, given who had essentially replaced the police, I couldn’t blame her for being so upset.
