by Lucas Flint
The lab I stood in was massive, much bigger than I expected. Huge crates and steel containers full of Dad’s old tech stood in rows in the lab, while a massive screen—easily twice as big as me—towered over even the biggest crates, although it was currently off. To the right was a small worktable, covered with tools and half-finished creations, while to my left there was a computer terminal of some sort that looked like Dad might have built it himself. The air in here was sterile, probably because it had been locked away from the rest of the world for so long.
“Wow,” I said, looking around in amazement. “This is Vault B? It’s even bigger than I imagined.”
“Indeed,” said Valerie. “It is similar to how I remember it being the last time I was here. There are more crates, though, which I find odd because I thought Genius abandoned the place after my last visit here. Perhaps he brought more later on.”
I shook my head. “Well, the only way to find out what Dad put in here is to go and look. I’m going to walk around and see if I can find any cool tech. Wouldn’t it be awesome if Dad left a jetpack here or something?”
“Why would you need a jetpack?” asked Valerie curiously. “You can fly already.”
“Good point,” I said. “Maybe some kind of mecha. Not that I would need that, either, but mechas are still cool and it wouldn’t surprise me if Dad built one at some point. He was a big Gundam fan when he was still alive, after all.”
“A mecha would be hard and expensive to build, though,” said Valerie. “Genius’ creations usually leaned toward small and practical rather than big and flashy.”
“Maybe it’s a mini-mech,” I said. “Anyway, let’s go see what I can find. I’m sure I’ll find something cool down here, even if it’s not a jetpack or a mini-mech.”
I walked down the center aisle, looking from side to side at the huge boxes and containers on either side of me. From what I could see, the crates and containers were labeled with a complex and confusing series of numbers and letters which I assumed were serial numbers, but they made no sense to me. Valerie tried to explain it to me, but Dad’s organizational system was too complicated for me to understand. The only one I understood was the waist-high box full of teleportation disks, which I found halfway down the center aisle.
“This box isn’t open,” I said, frowning as I read its label. “So this is definite confirmation that the assassin didn’t get in here.”
“We already knew that, though,” said Valerie, “although it never hurts to have more confirmation.”
“Yeah,” I said, nodding. I reached toward the box. “I want to open it anyway and see what is inside. I don’t really need the teleportation disks, but maybe the NHA could use them to help members teleport around the country.”
“Wait, Bolt, don’t,” said Valerie quickly. “If you open the box, you might trip the—”
Too late. I ripped open the lid of the cardboard box and, looking inside, saw what must have been hundreds of old, unused teleportation disks, each one shining underneath the lights on the ceiling.
“Oops,” I said, though I smiled. I looked around. “Were you warning that I might trip the security system, Val? Because I just opened the box and nothing happened.”
“Perhaps I was mistaken,” said Valerie. “I seem to remember Genius informing me that any unauthorized opening of the boxes would activate Vault B’s security system.”
I chuckled. “Maybe it used to, but after years of neglect, I bet the security system doesn’t work anymore. That’s good by me. Means I can open as many boxes as I want without having to worry about—”
Without warning, a heavy sticky substance suddenly fell down from the ceiling and latched onto my shoulders and upper back. Before I could react, I was pulled up off the floor toward the ceiling at a terrifying pace until I came to a stop near the ceiling, my legs dangling below me.
“What the heck?” I said. I tried to tear myself off of the sticky stuff, but it was too strong. “What happened? Where did this sticky stuff come from? Val, do you know what—”
A chittering sound above made me look up at the ceiling and see my worst nightmare come to life:
A gigantic spider, easily twice my size, had created a thick webbing on the ceiling. And it was staring directly at me with cold, dead green eyes.
CHAPTER SEVEN
I shook my head and looked again. No, that wasn’t a spider. It was a robot shaped like a spider, with eight legs and sharp, deadly-looking pincers. Its webbing was a metallic silver, which probably meant that this was some kind of synthetic webbing designed for the robot. It sure felt like real webbing, however, if not stronger, because I couldn’t get it off me no matter how much I struggled against it.
“Val, are you seeing what I’m seeing?” I said, unable to take my eyes off of the robotic monstrosity hanging above me.
“I am,” said Valerie, who as usual didn’t emotional at all. “And I even recognize it from Genius’ blueprints. It is a Security Spider, a robot designed to mimic the appearance and behavior of actual spiders. Genius came up with the idea when the NHA founded Hero Island and they decided they needed security guards to protect it from villain attacks, but he scrapped the plan after the organization grew large enough that they could afford actual security guards. I didn’t know he actually built some, however. Perhaps he didn’t want his plans to go to waste.”
“How dangerous would you say these Security Spiders are?” I said, trying to keep calm, although that was hard because I hated and feared spiders and that Security Spider was bigger than it had any right to be.
“Very,” said Valerie. “They were designed to capture and incapacitate intruders, who would then be handed over to the police or US federal government for imprisonment. It probably won’t kill you—”
“Whew,” I said. “That’s a relief.”
“—but Genius never could figure out how to make the poison it injects into captured intruders painless,” Valerie continued. “According to some of the criminals he tested it on, the venom burned like fire through their veins and one of the test subjects even tried to kill himself to make the pain stop. There are also notes on how to design Security Spiders to tell the difference between intruders and visitors.”
I gulped. “Now you tell me. No problem. I’ll just destroy the webbing and free myself.”
I shot a lightning bolt at the webbing above me, but instead of destroying the web, the webbing absorbed my lightning bolt. Red energy crackled along the webbing until it reached the Security Spider above, which went totally still as the energy traveled up its legs and into its body.
“Oh,” said Valerie curiously. “I recall Genius having trouble figuring out how to keep electric-based supervillains from simply short-circuiting the Spiders via their webbing, as well as how to provide the bots with a portable, independent power supply. Now I can see that he designed the webbing to absorb and conduct electricity, which the Spider then absorbs to power itself. Quite brilliant, if I do say so myself.”
“Yeah, my old man was really great at designing inescapable death traps, wasn’t he?” I said. “What is this webbing even made out of, anyway? Super glue?”
“I am not sure,” said Valerie, whose monotone voice was really starting to get on my nerves. “I recall Genius testing out a variety of different materials to create spider-like webbing capable of holding down even superhumans as strong as Omega Man. It appears that he must have succeeded, perhaps using some kind of ultra-thin but incredibly strong metal to mimic actual spider webbing.”
“Why are you so good at analyzing this stuff?” I asked incredulously.
“Remember, before I helped you, I was your father’s assistant,” said Valerie. “I helped him figure out all sorts of technological conundrums over the years. It is why I am so analytical.”
“Nice to know,” I said. “Now, would you take that analytical mind of yours and apply it to help me figure out how to get out of this webbing?”
“I am trying, but so far I have nothing
,” said Valerie. “Like I said, I wasn’t even aware that Genius had succeeded in building a Security Spider, so this surprised me just as much as it surprises you.”
“Yeah, but unlike me, you’re not going to end up getting injected with venom that will burn your veins,” I said.
Suddenly, I felt vibrations along the webbing and looked up. The Security Spider was making its way down toward me, albeit slowly and somewhat awkwardly as if it wasn’t used to moving. But I was still creeped out by how spider-like it moved. If it wasn’t for the metal plating and glowing green eyes, I would have no trouble believing that this Security Spider was an actual giant spider that was coming down to eat me.
But I had no time to worry about that. I looked around hurriedly, trying to find anything—anything at all—that would allow me to break free and escape. But I saw nothing, at least nothing within reach. I couldn’t even use my Teleportation Buckle, because my arms’ movement was limited by the webbing on my shoulders and I couldn’t reach down and twist my Teleportation Buckle. The Security Spider was getting closer and closer with each passing second, meaning I probably had just a few minutes before it reached me and injected me with its venom.
Then a thought occurred to me and I said to Valerie, “Val! You said the Security Spider absorbs electricity through its webbing, right?”
“It would appear so,” said Valerie. “Why do you ask?”
“Just checking,” I said, “because I’m about to give this thing all the electricity it can eat.”
I grabbed the webbing around me and began channeling electricity through my hands. The webbing immediately absorbed the electricity and sent it up into the Security Spider, which paused and froze when the energy entered its legs.
But I didn’t stop there. I continually sent more and more electricity through the webbing, upping the dosage each time, never cutting off the continuous stream of electricity I was feeding into the Security Spider. I looked up and saw that the Security Spider was actually starting to glow with absorbed energy, but it was also rendered completely immobile by the energy being fed into it at all times.
“Bolt, what are you doing?” asked Valerie. “You’re feeding far too much energy into it way too fast. You’re just making the Spider more powerful while making yourself weaker.”
I didn’t respond because I was too busy focusing on channeling my electricity into the Spider to speak. I could feel my energy reserves starting to run out, but I didn’t pay attention to that, either. I just poured as much of my electricity into the webbing as I could, watching as the Spider absorbed more and more of the energy in increasingly large dosages.
Then the Spider began to shake and vibrate, but it still didn’t move. It just stood there, its body vibrating harder and harder until, without warning, its back exploded.
The flames of the explosion ate through the webbing like paper and I suddenly found myself falling to the ground below. Activating my flight powers, I flew away and landed on top of one of the metal crates just as the Security Spider—now a burning, flame wreck of metal—crashed down hard onto the floor in the middle of the room. The Security Spider’s legs twitched once or twice before going completely still.
“Wow,” said Valerie in my ear all of a sudden. “What did you do to it?”
Panting and sweating from all of the energy I unleashed, I gestured at the webbing still hanging off my shoulders and said, “I gave it more energy than it could hold. You know how if you fill a battery with too much electricity that it will explode? I figured the same applied to this robot. If its power source was a battery of some sort, then that battery had to have a limit, even if it’s a big battery. All I had to do was keep feeding it energy until it hit that limit and blew it up.”
“Very interesting,” said Valerie. “Seems like just the sort of plan that Genius would have come up with in the same situation.”
“Well, I am Dad’s son, after all,” I said with a shrug. “And honestly, I didn’t know if it would work. If the Spider had had a bigger battery, I might have run out of electricity before it overloaded. There was a lot of luck involved.”
“Luck or not, you survived,” said Valerie. “I cannot, however, say the same about the Security Spider.”
“I know,” I said, looking down at the burning mass of metal which had once been the Security Spider. “Can’t say I’m happy I had to destroy one of Dad’s creations, but I’m sure he would understand if he was still alive. He’d probably say that my life matters a lot more than some dumb machine.”
“Perhaps,” said Valerie. “I am glad you survived, however, because it would have been awkward for me to call for help. You are not as intelligent as Genius, but you are still a lot more intelligent than you look.”
“It took you this long to figure that out?” I said incredulously. “Come on. We’ve known each other for what, two years now? I thought you would have figured that out already.”
“My apologies,” said Valerie. “I am simply so used to working with Genius that everyone else seems … not stupid, perhaps, but definitely slower than him by comparison.”
I was about to ask Valerie what she meant by ‘slower’ when the huge screen hanging on the wall before us suddenly flickered on. At first, it just showed a blank blue screen, but then an odd face appeared on it. The face appeared to be made out of pixels, with two pixels for eyes and a few pixels arranged to resemble a simple nose and mouth. It looked kind of like a gigantic emoji, its eyes blinking rapidly as it looked down upon us.
“Halt, intruder!” a mechanical, slightly metallic voice boomed from the screen. “Take even one more step and I will annihilate you from existence!”
I smirked and folded my arms across my chest. “You must be the Vault’s security system. I would take your threats a bit more seriously if I hadn’t just totally destroyed that Security Spider you sent after me.”
I gestured at the burning remains of the Security Spider on the floor of the Vault, which the eyes on the screen briefly glanced down at before looking up at me again.
“I am aware that you destroyed that Security Spider, intruder,” said the robotic voice, “but it is fatal, if very human, of you to assume that the Security Spider was the only form of security which Genius installed into this place.”
Without warning, something hard slammed into the back of my knees, causing me to fall down to my knees. Before I could get up, I felt the cold, hard gun of a barrel press against the base of my skull and I froze.
“Foolish intruder,” the robotic voice sneered. “You are so convinced of your own invincibility that you never even considered that you might not survive today. That is so very human of you.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
This wasn’t good. If I moved, whoever held the gun up against my head would pull the trigger. My costume would likely keep the bullet from blasting my skull off, but the impact of a point blank shot to the head would definitely knock me out, maybe even put me in a coma. Yet even if I used my super speed, I would probably not be able to escape in time to avoid getting shot. Nor did I risk talking to Valerie, because I didn’t want the security system to realize that I wasn’t alone.
Desperate to survive, I raised my eyes up to the screen again and said, “If you kill me, you will regret it.”
“I don’t know regret, human,” the robotic voice sneered. “Regret is a human emotion. I operate by pure logic and reason. You cannot use your petty human emotional techniques to manipulate me into doing what you want.”
I smiled. “I guess you don’t know who I am, do you? Then let me introduce myself. I am Kevin Jason, otherwise known as Bolt … and I am the son of Theodore Jason, or, as you probably knew him, Genius, your creator.”
The robotic voice went silent for what seemed like an eternity, either surprised by what I said or thinking about how to respond. At least it hadn’t ordered my head blown off. That was progress.
“Did you just claim to be Genius’ son?” asked the robotic voice. There was a note of hesitat
ion in its voice and suspicion.
“Yeah,” I said. “And I don’t just claim to be his son. I am his son. If you run DNA test on me, you would see that Genius and I have the same genes.”
A flash of red light from the screen briefly blinded me, and a second later, the robotic voice said, “You are correct. According to my scanners, you are indeed genetically-related to my creator and designer.”
My smile grew wider. “Great. Now that we have this misunderstanding out of the way, perhaps you can let me go and we can talk like adults.”
Abruptly, the blue screen turned red and the voice said, “I hate Genius. If you are Genius’ spawn, then you deserve to die.”
I heard the trigger of the gun behind me about to be pulled, but then Valerie said, “Stop right there Freya! You are not to lay one finger on Kevin Jason or else I will delete you.”
It took me a moment to realize that Valerie’s voice did not come from my earcom as it usually did, but from the massive screen towering above me. Before my startled eyes, the screen split in half, one side red, the other blue. Then I felt the gun barrel pull away from the base of my skull and I looked over my shoulder to see that a robotic arm had lowered from the ceiling behind me, holding a simple laser gun in its hand that likely would have torn through my skull and brains like butter if it had fired. As I watched, the robotic arm retracted back into the ceiling above and disappeared from sight.
“What is the meaning of this?” said the robotic voice from before. It sounded indignant now. “How did you access my systems and take control of my security protocols?”
“I am what you would call an ‘upgrade,’ Freya,” said Valerie in her usual smooth voice. “I take it Genius never told you about me.”
“An upgrade?” the robotic voice—which was apparently named Freya—said in horror. “No, you can’t be.”
“But I am,” said Valerie, “and until you behave, I will take full control over Vault B’s security systems. I could probably do a better job running this place than you anyway.”
