The Superhero's Son (Book 1): The Superhero's Test (17 page)

“Dad, that was just a joke,” I said. “Anyway, talk to you later. I'm going to try to lose this missile.”

I clicked my earcom off and increased my speed, but the missile was still on my tail. Actually, it seemed to be flying even faster than me, because it was getting closer and closer with every passing second. I figured that it would not be long before it actually caught up with me and blew me into chunks of meat, at which point I probably wouldn't need to worry about Master Chaos killing me anymore.

I needed to stop the robot. I figured that it probably had control of the missile, so if I could kill the bot, then I could stop the missile. It was worth a shot.

So I flew upwards sharply and then flew back the way I came, flying over the missile, which soon turned in midair and resumed following me. I looked around the sky for the robot until I spotted it hiding near some clouds, obviously trying to avoid being spotted by me.

I shot toward the robot. It noticed me immediately and started firing more bullets at me, but I avoided them easily. The missile was still following me, but that gave me an idea about how to get rid of both it and the robot at the same time.

I quickly flew upwards and then cut off my power, causing me to go backwards through the air until I was above the missile, which I landed on. Then I wrapped my arms and legs around the missile and flew it straight at the robot, which must have been surprised by my tactic, because it didn't even move as the missile drew closer and closer to it.

At the last second, I let go of the missile and flew off as fast as I could. I managed to get several hundred feet away from the cloud before the missile collided with the bot and exploded, creating a massive explosion, the shock wave from it sending me hurtling through the air. I spun through the air crazily for a couple of seconds before regaining my balance and looking over my shoulder, wondering if the missile had destroyed the robot.

I didn't see the robot anymore. All I saw was a bare patch of sky where a bunch of clouds had been, clouds that had been vaporized by the explosion. The robot must have been vaporized, too, because I didn't see anything to indicate that it had ever been there.

I activated my earcom again and said, “Dad! I managed to blow up the robot. Did you see?”

“I saw the explosion,” Dad's voice crackled in my ear. “But I didn't see the debris of the robot fall. Are you sure you destroyed it?”

“Yeah!” I said. “It totally vaporized the clouds. I bet that the robot was also—”

The sound of a loud jet engine interrupted me, causing me to look over my shoulder just in time to see that same robot—now blackened from the fire of the explosion—hurtling toward me from the clouds. I didn't have time to dodge. The robot slammed into my back, sending me flying uncontrollably through the air. I heard Dad yelling in my ear, but I was too disoriented to respond.

In fact, now I was falling, falling through the sky toward the ground. The impact of the robot's blow made it hard for me to regain control. The sky and ground kept switching places as I fell, but I managed to regain control of my powers quickly and started flying again.

But then the robot came out of nowhere and tackled me like a football player. I tried to wrestle out of its grasp, but the robot wouldn't let go. We just fell and fell through the sky, wrestling for dominance, until we crashed into the earth. The impact dazed me, but the robot was already recovering. It stood up and slammed its foot down on top of me, knocking the breath out of my lungs. Then it aimed one of its gun hands at me and I knew my life was over, because I couldn't move in time to dodge the bullet.

Then, all of a sudden, I heard the sound of helicopter blades slashing through the air and in the next instant a small, white-colored drone flew out of nowhere. It fired a dozen bullets at the robot, causing the killer robot to look at the drone. The robot was distracted only for a moment, but it was long enough for me to regain my strength.

I shoved the robot's foot off of me, making it stagger backwards. Before the robot could recover from that, I jumped to my feet and punched it as hard as I could through its stomach. My hand smashed through steel plating, wiring, and everything else inside the robot, making it fall over with a crash. But it still tried to get up, so I jumped into the air, using my flying powers to give me an extra boost, and then fell straight down on its head.

My feet crashed through the robot's skull, smashing it to pieces. The robot's body immediately went still, which was how I knew that it was down for good.

Stepping off of the remains of the robot's head, I looked at the drone, which was floating nearby, though it had retracted its gun. The drone had the same white color as most of Dad's equipment, so I figured that the drone must have been created by Dad.

Just as I thought that, Dad himself appeared next to me seemingly out of nowhere, although he appeared to have teleported, teleported because he took his hand off the Teleportation Buckle as soon as he appeared next to me.

“Kevin, are you all right?” said Dad, looking down at me.

I looked down at my suit. It was muddy and soggy, probably from the impact of the fall. I felt my hair, which was also quite dirty, but I didn't feel any blood or anything. My body ached from the impact, though nothing felt broken, which surprised me, given how hard and far I had fallen. Guess I must have been even stronger than I thought.

Lowering my hands to my side, I said, “I'm okay. But what is that robot? Where did it come from?”

I gestured at the headless robot beside me, which Dad immediately walked over toward. Bending over the robot, Dad looked its body up and down, but his Genius helmet made it impossible for me to tell what he was thinking. I could tell that he was at least as troubled about the robot as I was, if not more so, which made me think that he had to have an idea about its nature and origin.

“I've never seen this kind of robot before,” said Dad as he stood up. He sounded troubled. “It looks like it was designed for war.”

“War?” I said. “You mean like a military weapon?”

“Possibly,” said Dad. “That would explain its gun hands and the missile launcher on its back.”

I looked at the robot again. I wondered what a military robot was doing all the way out here in Texas when a sudden, terrible theory occurred to me.

I looked at Dad and said, “Dad, do you think this is one of the top-secret military weapons that Master Chaos stole from the military?”

“I think it very likely,” said Dad. “I'll need to contact the G-Men about this and let them know that we've found one of their weapons.”

Dad didn't sound very excited about that, which made sense, because Dad never seemed very excited about talking to the government about anything.

“Good idea, but this still freaks me out,” I said. I looked up at the sky, but didn't see any other killer robots raining death from above. “But if that's what this robot is, then does that mean that Master Chaos knows my secret identity? Did he send it to kill me so he wouldn't have to do it himself? How did it even know where to find us, anyway?”

“I don't know,” said Dad. “It's possible Master Chaos simply wants to eliminate any neoheroes in Silvers to make it easier for him to get us. Because you are the only known neohero in town, that makes you a prime target, though that still doesn't explain how he knew where we were training.”

“Is Master Chaos watching us?” I said anxiously.

“I don't know,” said Dad. “What we need to do is contact the G-Men and inform them about what we found so they can take it away and possibly use it to find out where Chaos is.”

“Are we still going to continue my training, then?” I said.

“Not today,” said Dad, shaking his head. “I don't want to put you in anymore danger, not if Master Chaos knows where we are. Let's go home for now and wait until we hear back from the government. Seeker One, my drone, will keep an eye on the robot's remains until someone from the government comes to pick them up.”

Chapter Fifteen

W
hen we returned home, Dad immediately went down into the Lab to contact the government, while I returned to my room to rest and relax. But first, I explained to Mom why we had returned from training so early. I tried to make the fact that a flying killer robot had tried to kill me sound not quite as bad as it was, but Mom was still worried by the time I finished explaining it to her and she was in no mood to listen to my constant reassurances that I was okay and hadn't been badly hurt. I did, however, let her wash my super suit, mostly because it was really dirty and smelled bad and needed the wash.

For the next couple of hours, the atmosphere in our house was very tense. I fully expected Master Chaos to show up at any moment and kick down our front door, or for more of those government robots to fly over our house and blow it up with missiles. Dad didn't seem that worried; at least I didn't think he was, considering how he did not come out of his Lab with any bad news.

I tried to pass the time by playing games on my phone, but I found it hard to focus on them because I was so worried about Master Chaos. Almost getting killed by his robot had completely changed the way I looked at Master Chaos. His threat—both to my life and to my family's safety—suddenly seemed a lot more real than it had just a few hours ago. I wasn't sure how to take it. I normally wasn't one to stress over things, but this was different because my safety, and the safety of my family, was at risk.

After what seemed like forever, I heard a knock at my door. Sitting up in my bed, I said, “Who is it?”

“It's me,” said Dad's voice from the other side of the door. “Can I come in? I have some updates for you.”

“All right,” I said. “Let yourself in.”

The door opened and Dad stepped inside. He was no longer wearing his Genius costume or helmet, thus revealing his worried face, which made him look older than he really was. He closed the door behind him, but did not come closer to my bed.

“So?” I said. “What's the news?”

“I contacted the NHA, who said they would deliver this information to the G-Men,” said Dad. “I was told that the government will probably send someone to pick up the robot's remains later today and haul them to whatever secret facility the government has.”

“Did you learn anything about what the robot was?” I said. “Like, what kind of weapon it's supposed to be?”

Dad sighed and rubbed his forehead. “I don't know much about it, but when Master Chaos stole those weapons from that facility, the government did share a few details about the weapons with the NHA, who then shared it with me so I'd know what Master Chaos might send after us.”

“What kind of details?” I said.

“Well, the weapons are part of a top-secret government project known as Project Neo,” said Dad. “They're supposed to be the next generation of high-tech military weaponry, including some of the first humanoid robots designed to be deployed onto a battlefield during war. I don't know the exact number of weapons Master Chaos managed to steal, but I do know that he stole a lot.”

“Project Neo?” I said. “Will the government be able to use the remains of the robot we destroyed to track down Master Chaos?”

“Possibly, but I doubt it,” said Dad. “Chaos may have programmed the robot to go after you, but I am under the impression, based on what I've been told, that the robot doesn't record the location of its programmer in its coding. Regardless, this doesn't change the fact that Master Chaos will likely send more of these things after you soon.”

“Then what am I supposed to do?” I said. “Hide and hope he doesn't get us?”

Dad shook his head, pushing his glasses back up the bridge of his nose. “No. We need to continue your training no matter what Master Chaos does. But I have to admit that this is starting to look grim. I can only imagine that this must be part of Chaos's plan, a plan I wish I understood better.”

“Do you think he knows our secret identities?” I said. “Because if he does—”

“Unlikely,” said Dad, interrupting me. “As I said earlier, I think it far more likely that he wants to ensure there are no neoheroes in Silvers who can stop him from harming us. Or maybe he was testing out the robot to see how it worked in actual combat.”

“Well, it obviously didn't work very well,” I said, “considering how easily we defeated it.”

“Maybe, but one fact I know about Chaos is that, unlike other villains, he doesn't do the same thing over and over when it's shown to fail the first time,” said Dad. “No doubt he'll try something even more sinister later, though what, I cannot say, because he is very unpredictable.”

“Wait, what if he shows up here while we're out training and attacks Mom?” I said. “She can't defend herself. She doesn't have powers like us.”

“Valerie has been defending the house while we've been out,” said Dad. “Remember, I have her hooked up to the house's security system. She scans any and all people who come to or near the house to ensure that they aren't threats. If Master Chaos should ever come up to our front door while we're away, Valerie should keep him busy long enough for us to return and beat him ourselves.”

I was doubtful that Valerie could hold off someone like Master Chaos for very long, but Dad seemed confident that she could, so I didn't push the question any further.

Instead, I said, “So will the NHA be sending people to help us? Because if Master Chaos is so close by, then don't you think we should get some backup?”

“It wouldn't surprise me if the NHA does send some members to search the nearest towns and cities for Master Chaos,” said Dad. “And I expect the G-Men to do the same, because they're also on the case. It may be inevitable at this point, especially if Master Chaos is as close as we think.”

“Does this mean I won't be able to go back to school anymore?” I said. “Is school still safe?”

“I believe so, but we'll need to take extra precautions,” said Dad. “Master Chaos is unpredictable, but if he is willing to attack us so brazenly like that, then I doubt he'll hesitate to attack a high school full of innocent kids who don't have any super powers of their own.”