by Lucas Flint
Barriers looked like he was ready to pick up a gun and start shooting, but instead he said, “You have to understand. I needed the money. Needed it. I-I wouldn’t have done this otherwise.”
“But didn’t you say you had a private island in Jamaica?” I asked. “You told us you retired there when you quit the business.”
“That was a lie,” said Barriers. “When I originally sold my business to Munroe Acquisitions, I blew all of the money from the sale on cars, women, and drugs. I was practically homeless and up to my eyeballs in debt by the time Sasha called me and asked me to take up the mantle of Barriers again. I was desperate, so I accepted her offer, even though Munroe Acquisitions gets sixty percent of my earnings from licensing deals. I was willing to do anything Sasha asked me to do, no matter how illegal or immoral, as long as I didn’t have to sleep on the streets.”
None of Barriers’ prior confidence could be heard in his voice. He sounded scared and frightened, more like a man on the edge of suicide than an up-and-coming hero. He even looked smaller, as if all of the confidence had been let out of him like a balloon.
“I suspected as much,” said Rubberman. “You were never very good with your finances. I know for a fact that you had to rely on a lot of debt to make it big before you retired. Not very smart, but understandable.”
“But why did you have to do this?” I said, gesturing at the tables and chairs strewn around the restaurant. “Why did you need to fake a hostage situation? Weren’t you aware that this could get you into trouble with the police?”
“Sasha told me to make the Barriers brand profitable fast,” said Barriers. He anxiously began rubbing his hands together, which looked like an unconscious habit of his as far as I could tell. “Or she would fire me and I’d be back on the streets again. Plus, I needed the money—still need it—to pay off my debts. I knew from past experience that these sorts of events can make a superhero’s career, so my marketing director and I arranged to have this happen. I didn’t think that anyone would find out the truth.”
“Past experience?” I repeated. “Do you mean you’ve done this sort of thing before?”
Barriers cringed. “Well, I wouldn’t say I’ve done it, but I suppose I’ve heard from the rumor mill of other superheroes who have, uh, worked with criminals to pull off this sort of debut. I’m not the first to have done it, you know.”
“It doesn’t matter if you’ve done this before or not,” said Rubberman, shaking his head. He pointed at Barriers. “All that matters is that you have conspired with criminals and put the lives of innocent people in danger just to boost your own profile. That’s illegal, no matter how you cut it, and I suspect that you’re going to go to jail for a very long time when all is said and done.”
Barriers looked to the left and to the right, but Rubberman said, “And don’t think about running away. Like I said, the police have the whole place surrounded. You can’t sneak out the back door. There’s no need for us to fight. Surrender peacefully and we won’t have to use violence.”
“I can’t go to jail,” said Barriers suddenly. “My life would be ruined if that happened. My superhero license would be revoked and—”
“So what?” said Rubberman. “You don’t deserve the title ‘superhero’ anyway. You forfeited it the second you put this stupid plan into action. Besides, you won’t have to go to jail by yourself. Your marketing director and that reporter, plus all of these Three Fingers, will go to prison, too, though I bet none of them will try to defend you from the other prisoners who might have a bone to pick with you, because I’ve heard that ex-superheroes usually aren’t treated very well by their fellow prisoners in jail.”
For a moment, it looked like Barriers was actually going to surrender after all. I didn’t see why he wouldn’t. After all, he was outnumbered by Rubberman, me, and the police. All of the exits were covered. He had nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. The gig was up.
But then Barriers suddenly rushed forward toward Rubberman. As he ran, Barriers held out his hands and a blue energy shield appeared around his body on every side. Barriers slammed into Rubberman, knocking him to the floor, and burst through the front door. The police immediately began firing on him, but Barriers plowed through the officers as easily as snow, his barrier protecting him from every bullet shot at him.
“Rubberman!” I shouted, running over to him. “Are you okay?”
Rubberman, who was now sitting up and rubbing his head, nodded and said, “Yes, but that’s not important. We need to catch Barriers before he—”
The sound of an engine roaring interrupted Rubberman as Barriers’ car tore down the street past Jim’s Burgers, forcing the handful of police officers who had been standing at the end of the street to keep out civilians to jump to the side to avoid getting run over.
“Damn it,” said Rubberman as he scrambled to his feet. “He’s getting away.”
“How are we going to catch up with him?” I asked. “We can’t keep up with a car.”
“On foot, maybe, but we’re not going to chase him on foot,” said Rubberman. He held his wrist watch up to his mouth and said, “Rubberband, pull the car up to the front.”
“Affirmative,” came Rubberband’s monotone voice on the other end.
Rubberman suddenly rushed out of the restaurant and I followed. Just as we exited the restaurant, the Rubbermobile came roaring up to the sidewalk. We hopped into the Rubbermobile and were off, roaring down the street after Barriers. We were going so fast that I grabbed onto my seat for dear life.
Thankfully, Barriers had not yet gotten away. We quickly saw the back of his car as it rushed down the street crazily, nearly running over civilians, knocking aside curbside trash cans, and generally creating chaos wherever it went. It still had a great lead ahead of us, but the Rubbermobile was going so fast that it would not be long before we caught up with it. I was worried that we might accidentally crash into something, because we were going so fast down the busy streets of Golden City, but Rubberman drove the Rubbermobile like a pro, expertly avoiding street lamps, garbage cans, fire hydrants, and various other obstacles that could have caused us to crash.
The Barriermobile made a sharp turn up ahead, vanishing down a side street. The turn looked too sharp for us to make, but somehow Rubberman made the turn as smoothly as if he did it every day. Soon we were in sight of the Barriermobile again, which was rushing down the street at an absolutely crazy speed, nearly running over a lady walking her dog down the sidewalk. It seemed to me like Barriers had no particular destination in mind and was just trying to get as far away from us as possible.
“I don’t think we’re going to catch him!” I shouted to Rubberman over the roar of the Rubbermobile’s engine. “He’s too fast!”
“Then we’ll just have to go faster,” said Rubberman. “Rubberband! Activate the Slingshot Boosters!”
“Yes, sir,” said Rubberband. “Activating Slingshot Boosters now.”
I was about to ask what the ‘Slingshot Boosters’ were before a gigantic roar—like the roar of a dragon—exploded from behind the Rubbermobile. Abruptly, the Rubbermobile shot forward like a bullet. We were going so fast that everything outside the windows looked like nothing more than a shapeless blur. I was forced back against my seat, barely able to breathe, while Rubberman clung to the steering wheel as if it was his firstborn child. I would have screamed, but that would have required having air in my lungs, which seemed to have been forced out due to the sheer centrifugal force of the Rubbermobile itself.
Nonetheless, I was somehow able to see the Barriermobile was still ahead of us. We were definitely gaining on it, but it looked like he was trying to cross the Golden City Bridge, which spanned the Roger Gate River that cut through Golden City. Once he crossed that Bridge, it would be hard for us to follow, because the Bridge was too narrow and already full of cars for us to follow, especially at the speeds which we were going.
I tried to point this out to Rubberman, but he apparently must have realized t
his himself, because he slammed his foot down on the accelerator and we went even faster. I thought Rubberman was just trying to go fast enough to catch Barriers, but then Rubberman jerked the steering wheel to the right. Ahead, there was an empty trailer, with two wooden boards acting as a ramp and a large, smooth slab of rock that was at least as wide as the Rubbermobile.
But I didn’t realize what Rubberman was trying to do until we rushed up the wooden boards and up the ram-like slab of rock. We launched off it, the Slingshot Boosters giving us an extra boost. We passed over the Barriermobile and came down with a surprisingly soft landing right in between the Barriermobile and the Golden City Bridge. Looking through the passenger’s window, I saw the Barriermobile coming straight for us. In seconds, it would crash into the Rubbermobile and all of us would end up in the hospital, if not worse.
“Rubberband!” Rubberman suddenly shouted. “Unleash the Rubber Wall!”
Just as Rubberman said that, something large popped out of the side of the car. It quickly inflated until soon there was a giant, blue rubber wall standing between us and the Barriermobile. It was too thick to see through and actually blocked out part of the sun, leaving us in the early morning shadows.
A second later, the sound of metal crunching against rubber could be heard. The Rubber Wall shook like an earthquake and the Rubbermobile itself also shook, which made me grab onto the bottom of my seat for dear life. Yet despite that, the Rubber Wall stood; it didn’t even tear. Then I heard the whine of a dying engine, which I at first thought was the Rubbermobile’s, but then I realized it was coming from the other side of the Wall.
I looked at Rubberman in bewilderment. “What was that?”
“The Rubber Wall,” said Rubberman with a large smile. “Like it? Armando put it in when he fixed the Rubbermobile a couple of days ago. First time I tested it in the field. Looks like it worked like a charm.”
My eyes widened. “You mean you didn’t know if this thing was going to work or not? Damn it, Rubberman, the Rubbermobile could have been totaled and we both could have ended up in the freaking hospital!”
“But we didn’t,” said Rubberman. “And that’s what matters. Anyway, let’s go see how Barriers is doing. If he’s not dead or unconscious, he’s probably going to try to run away.”
Although I was still annoyed at Rubberman putting our lives in danger like that, I nonetheless climbed out of the Rubbermobile with him. We ran around the Rubber Wall and stopped when we saw the condition of Barriers’ car.
It was completely totaled. It had crashed into the Rubber Wall front end first. The engine appeared to have exploded, leaving a blackened, twisted piece of metal where its engine had once been. One of the front wheels had shot off and crashed into a nearby street lamp, while another had been completely torn apart, with only bits and pieces of its tire still clinging uselessly to the wheel itself. Smoke rose from under what remained of the hood, while most of the armor modifications had been completely torn off.
“Ow,” I said. I looked at Rubberman. “Do you think his insurance covers crashing headfirst into a giant rubber wall like that?”
“No idea,” said Rubberman. “What matters to me is that he’s not in the driver’s side.”
Rubberman was right. Barriers was not sitting at the driver’s side. Indeed, it looked like he wasn’t in the car at all. I noticed that the door on the driver’s side was opened and realized that he must have bailed as soon as he saw the Wall. That meant he still had to be somewhere nearby, but where?
A scream from a woman drew both of our attention to the sidewalk. A young, dark-haired woman was lying on the street, looking like she’d just been knocked over, but I saw someone disappearing into the alleyway behind her, someone who looked a lot like Barriers.
“Lady!” said Rubberman as we ran over to her. “Are you all right?”
The woman sat up and rubbed her head, which was bleeding slightly from where it had hit the pavement. “Yes, I think so, but my head hurts so much. That bastard with the weird armor knocked me over and didn’t even say he was sorry.”
Rubberman looked at me. “Beams, you take the alley. I’ll take the rooftops.”
With that, Rubberman stretched his arms to the top of the nearest building and pulled himself up, while I dashed into the alleyway after Barriers.
It didn’t take me long to find Barriers, who was about halfway down the alleyway when I entered. I immediately fired my eye beams at him, but Barriers suddenly raised a blue shield before him, which deflected the beams into the street. But I didn’t let up. I just kept shooting my beams at him in a continuous stream of energy, forcing him to stop as he held up his shield before him.
“Stupid kid,” Barriers growled, his voice somehow audible over the sound of my lasers beating against his energy shields. “My shields are unbreakable. Shoot as much as you like, but all you are doing is wearing yourself out.”
Barriers had a point. Even though I was pouring all of my energy into this stream, his shield wasn’t even cracking, though it did seem to flicker once or twice. Yet I still didn’t give up, because I had him pinned down nonetheless, although how much longer I could keep him pinned down, I had no idea.
All of a sudden, Rubberman jumped down from the building above and landed behind Barriers. He tried to punch Barriers, but Barriers just summoned another shield, causing Rubberman’s fist to bounce harmlessly off it.
“Divide and conquer, eh?” said Barriers. “Nice tactic, but hardly original. But keep attacking me, the both of you, and wear yourselves out so I can finish you off myself.”
Anger shot through me when Barriers said that and my eyes grew hotter, almost blazingly hot now. No way was I going to let this bastard escape, not after everything he’d done. Yet I couldn’t break his shields. They really did seem unbreakable.
But then somehow I noticed that his gauntlets—which were the tools that allowed him to create energy shields at all—appeared slightly dented and I remembered how the shields had flickered earlier. All of a sudden, I realized that Barriers’ gauntlets had been damaged when he crashed his car. And depending on how damaged they were, I might be able to wear them down with enough lasers.
I didn’t really think all of that coherently like that. It was more like a sudden inspiration created by my desire to bring this villain to justice.
All I know was that I increased the output of my energy higher than I’d ever increased it before. My eyes crackled with energy and my helmet became hot. My beams became thicker and hotter, and for the first time, I saw fear cross Barriers’ eyes.
That was the last thing I saw before—with a sound like glass shattering—my beams broke through his shield and struck him in the chest. The blast sent him flying backwards, forcing Rubberman to fall to the street to avoid getting hit. Barriers flew until he crashed into the wall at the end of the alley. Actually, he hit it so hard that the fire escape above it shuddered and collapsed on top of him in a loud crash which sent dust and dirt flying into the air.
I cut off my eye beams and nearly fell onto my hands and knees, but I managed to stand. I waited a few seconds, but Barriers did not rise again. He was defeated.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
One week later …
I sat alone in Rubberman’s office, wearing my Beams costume, although my helmet currently sat in my lap instead of on my head. I leaned back in my chair, feeling exhausted, my eyes still aching from that sudden burst of energy I’d unleashed back when I fought Barriers. Normally, my eyes stopped hurting shortly after I used my energy beams, but sometimes, when I pushed past my limits, my eyes ached for a while afterward. That my eyes were still aching, even a week later, meant that I’d gone well beyond my limits that one time. I was surprised I could still see at all. Actually, when I thought about it, I was surprised that my lasers didn’t leave me blind every time I used them. Maybe that serum I drank back in science class had done more than just give me the ability to shoot lasers from my eyes.
Regardless, I’d
been sitting in here for five minutes already, waiting for Rubberman to show up, but he hadn’t arrived yet. Adams had told me that Rubberman was down on Level Two tinkering with the Rubbermobile, although I had no idea what he meant by ‘tinkering.’ Perhaps Rubberman was adding another Rubber Wall to the other side of the Rubbermobile because of how well that first one worked.
Feeling bored, I pulled out my smartphone, opened my preferred browser, and began scrolling through the news. A headline caught my attention: ‘BARRIERS BEHIND BARS, MUNROE ACQUISITIONS STILL DENIES INVOLVEMENT IN CRIME.’ Beneath the headline was the mugshot of Barriers, who did not have his helmet on, allowing me to see a large, somewhat pudgy face glaring at the camera. Without his armor, Barriers looked a lot less impressive.
I couldn’t help but grin when I read that headline. It reminded me of the aftermath of my and Rubberman’s battle with Barriers in that alleyway near the Golden City Bridge.
After defeating Barriers, we dug him out of the ruins of the fire escape. It turned out that he had somehow survived being crushed underneath tons of metal; guess it must have been due to his armor, which was surprisingly strong. But we did discover that Barriers’ gauntlets had exploded around his hands. Apparently my final laser blast had pushed the gauntlets past their limits and made them explode. As a result, Barriers’ hands were horribly mutilated, if not outright unusable, which meant that Barriers put up no resistance whatsoever when the police caught up with us and hauled him off to prison. He was barely even conscious, though he still managed to call me a pretty foul name before the police forced him into the cruiser.
When the news of Barriers’ arrest hit the Internet, Munroe Acquisitions was hit with the mother of all controversies. Their social media accounts were viciously attacked by trolls and various Internet drive-by-commenters, forcing them to actually shut down most of their accounts in the hope of possibly making the controversy go away. It didn’t. In fact, it just made it worse, because more and more people became aware of the fact that one of Munroe Acquisitions’ superheroes had gone rogue and put the lives of ten innocent people at risk just for publicity.
