The Superhero's Son (Book 1): The Superhero's Test (20 page)

“That is awfully kind of you, Tara,” said Malcolm, his voice still really fake. “Truly, you are a wonderful friend to Kevin and I.”

“Indeed she is,” I said, nodding. “Now, Malcolm, let us go to the boys' restroom, which is where we need to go. Because we are boys.”

Tara didn't look at either of us as we left, but I had the distinct impression that she thought we were both idiots. And I felt like an idiot, but I didn't say anything about it until we left the cafeteria and were walking alone through the school's hallways.

Then I looked at Malcolm and said, “What the heck was that?”

“What?” said Malcolm, looking at me. “I was just trying to make sure Tara didn't suspect us of doing anything we aren't supposed to do.”

“By talking like an idiot?” I said as we turned down a corner. “Seriously, you could have just said, 'I need to use the bathroom' and I could said, 'Hey, me too. I'll go with you.'”

“If you thought that, then why did you go along with my way of doing things?” said Malcolm.

I shook my head. “Never mind. As long as no one follows us or suspect us of being up to something, then I guess it doesn't matter. Still, you could have at least acted a little less suspicious.”

“Hey, I'm not an actor,” said Malcolm, folding his arms over his chest. “If you wanted me to act differently, maybe you should have told me in the bathroom.”

I rolled my eyes. “Whatever. We're out of the cafeteria now, so you know what the next step of the plan is.”

Malcolm nodded. “Right. I distract Black Gold and Iron Horn while you slip away unseen for your big fight with Master Chaos.”

“Good,” I said. “So we'll need to split up. I'm going to head for the school's roof, where I will don my costume and fly away, while you go to the front of the school and distract the G-Men.”

“Okay,” said Malcolm. “But what will happen when everyone notices you are missing? What should I tell Tara or the teachers?”

“Tell them I got really sick from the cafeteria food and had to go home without telling anyone,” I said. “Tell them you don't know when I'll be back in school but not to worry about me and that I will be back soon.”

“Okay,” said Malcolm, though he sounded doubtful about that. “So I guess this is where we part, then.”

We stopped in front of the school's trophy case. To the right, at the end of the hall, was the school's entrance, a set of glass doors through which I could see Black Gold and Iron Horn, who had their backs to the doors. To the left was another hall, which I knew would eventually lead me to a set of stairs that would take me to the school's roof.

I looked at Malcolm. “Yeah, this is where we'll split up.”

“Okay,” said Malcolm. “Do you know when you'll come back to school?”

I shook my head again. “No idea. It all depends on how quickly I find Master Chaos. I don't think he should be hard to find, but you never know. He's been in hiding from the NHA and the G-Men for weeks now and they still aren't any closer to finding him than when he first broke out.”

“But he'll come after you,” said Malcolm. “Can you beat him?”

I shrugged. “I don't know. I'm going to try my best, but it is possible Master Chaos could kill me, so this might be the last time we see each other.”

“Well, I'll be praying for you, then, Kev,” said Malcolm. He grasped my hand and we shook. “See you later and good luck with taking him down once and for all.”

I nodded in return. Then I ran down the left hall, without looking back at Malcolm, because I didn't want to let any second thoughts keeping me from doing what I needed to do.

-

I reached the roof of the school without any trouble, although the door was locked with a thick padlock, which immediately snapped from one quick blow from my fist. Opening the door, I stepped out onto the roof and looked around quickly, just to make sure that I was actually alone. I didn't see any G-Men nearby, so I carefully walked over to the edge of the roof and peered over at the entrance below.

Black Gold and Iron Horn still stood there, their arms folded behind their backs and their eyes fixed on the street in front of the school. They were talking to each other, something about last night's football game or something. Neither of them seemed to notice or hear me moving along the rooftop, but I pulled away from the edge anyway and sat down to make sure they couldn't see me.

I pulled out my phone and quickly texted Malcolm a short message:
I'm on the roof. Start.

I received a short message back:
All right.

Then I heard the doors of the school open and, glancing over the edge of the roof, I saw Malcolm walk out of the school. But neither Black Gold nor Iron Horn paid him any attention until he walked quite intentionally into Iron Horn, causing Iron Horn to whirl around, raising his fists like he thought he was under attack.

Black Gold caught Iron Horn's arm before he could smash Malcolm into pieces and said, “Whoa, Captain, watch out! He's one of the students here. Looked like he walked into you by accident. No need to turn him into paste.”

Iron Horn relaxed, lowering his large fists, but Malcolm continued to cower beneath him. I wanted to say that Malcolm was acting, but frankly it looked to me like Malcolm was truly afraid of Iron Horn. Not that I blamed him; Iron Horn looked like he was chiseled out of marble.

But the two G-Men were clearly distracted, so I pulled back again, crawled a little ways away from the roof, and then pressed the button on my suit-up watch. My suit shot out and in a second I was suited up again and ready to fly.

Standing up, I looked up at the sky, preparing to take off, when, without warning, a voice behind me said, “Where do you think
you're
going?”

I looked over my shoulder and saw a woman standing inside the door in the roof that led to the school's interior. She had extremely pale skin and very dark hair. She didn't look much older than me—maybe in her late teens or early twenties—but her short hairstyle looked really old-fashioned.

But what really stood out to me was her clothes. She wore a G-Men uniform, complete with the patch on her right shoulder. That meant that she was a G-Man, but I didn't recognize her at all, though that wasn't saying much, because I didn't know who most of the G-Men were.

“Who are you?” I said, turning to face her. “And where did you come from? I thought the government only sent two agents to protect he school.”

“Call me Shade,” said the woman. “I'm a new agent, having just signed up two months ago. As for what I'm doing here, did you really think that the government would only send
two
agents to protect a school from Master Chaos himself? Black Gold and Iron Horn are strong, but they couldn't beat Chaos by themselves.”

I stepped backwards. I intended to just fly away and leave this woman behind, but something about her voice made it hard for me to ignore her. I noticed that her shoes seemed to blend in with the shadows, which looked weird, almost like she didn't have feet at all.

“Shade, huh?” I said. I immediately touched my face. “Did you see me suit-up?”

“Sadly, no,” said Shade, shaking her head. “I was doing my rounds and came up here just when you put your suit on. That was your work, I presume?”

“Yes,” I said. “I don't know if you recognize me, but I'm Bolt.”

“I know all about you,” said Shade. “I did my research on Silvers before I was assigned to this place. You're the new kid in town, aren't you?”

I didn't like an established superhero calling me the 'new kid,' because it reminded me too much of Robert, so I said, “Yeah. What about you? What kind of powers do you have?”

Shade chuckled. “Do you really think I'm just going to tell you? You really must be new, because you don't just reveal your powers to whoever asks, especially if they're a stranger or enemy.”

“Uh huh,” I said. “Let me guess based on your code name, then. You can control shadow, right?”

“Good guess,” said Shade, which I noticed wasn't an affirmation or a denial. “But I have other powers, too, though I'll let you find out about them yourself rather than tell you. It's a lot more fun that way.”

The way she used the word 'fun' made me uncomfortable, so I said, “Listen, Shade, I don't want to waste time talking with you. I'm trying to leave the school and stop Master Chaos, so if you would just let me leave, that would be great.”

“Sorry, but I can't 'just let you leave,'” said Shade, shaking her head. “Director Smith gave us orders to make sure that
no one
leaves the school without our knowledge. And Director Smith isn't very tolerant of agents who don't follow orders, so I'm going to have to stop you.”

I sighed. “I don't want to fight you. I don't really know what your powers are, but I doubt you have super strength. If I hit you, I'll probably end up hurting you or even killing you. Trust me, lady, we'd both be better off if we didn't fight.”

“I don't need super strength to hold you down,” said Shade. She smirked. “Look at your feet.”

I looked down at my feet and was surprised to see that they were covered in shadow. I tried lifting my right foot up, but the shadow was like really sticky glue; I couldn't raise my foot even one inch.

I looked up at Shade again, who was still smirking. “What's going on? Why can't I move?”

“It's one of my powers,” said Shade. “You guessed correctly that I can control shadow. What you didn't guess, however, is that I can use my shadow to hold down anyone I want. You can't use your super strength to break it, either, because unlike, say, chains or rope, shadow can't be snapped or broken.”

I tried to prove her wrong by accessing my super strength and yanking my feet out of the shadows, but the shadow was as stubborn as a rock. I struggled, but the shadow didn't even budge.

“You really shouldn't strain yourself,” said Shade, causing me to look up at her. “Just take it easy while I go get Black Gold and Iron Horn. They'll be so jealous when they see that I didn't let myself get distracted by some silly kid.”

“You have to let me go,” I said. I gestured at the sky. “I have to stop Master Chaos. I'm the only one who can.”

“And you have a messiah complex, too,” Shade observed. “I'm not sure if that is a super power or not, though, since most neoheroes tend to have it.”

“It's not a messiah complex,” I said. “Master Chaos is after me, so I'm going to meet him on my own terms. It's the only way to keep my friends and family safe.”

“Oh, right,” said Shade. “I heard Master Chaos tried to kill you with one of the military weapons he stole. But really, defeating Master Chaos isn't your responsibility. You should leave that to the adults.”

I shook my head. “No. It's my duty to stop him.”

“Why?” said Shade. “It's not like you let him out of Ultimate Max or anything. I'll let you go back to lunch if you promise not to run away and try to track down Master Chaos on your own.”

I gritted my teeth. I wasn't going to reveal my secret identity to this woman now. But I still needed to escape. How?

Super strength didn't work, and I had a feeling that flight wouldn't do anything for me, either. That left me with no options, no options except for one: Super speed, perhaps the only power I hadn't actually mastered or even practiced yet. I wanted to, but Dad had insisted on using super strength and flight first.

The problem was that I didn't really know how to use my super speed due to my lack of training. I figured it probably worked the same way as my other powers, so I closed my eyes and started imagining myself running as fast as possible. It was pretty easy to do, because I had already seen online videos of other neoheroes who could run fast, but I didn't know if accessing my own super speed would be as easy as learning how to fly or using my super strength was.

Then I felt something in my legs. I opened my eyes and looked at my legs, which were starting to move, but were not yet free of this shadow. Still, I could tell that if I just kept it up, I might free myself.

I looked up at Shade, expecting her to notice me trying to escape, but instead she seemed focused on her communicator. It sounded like she was telling Black Gold and Iron Horn to get here, which made me want to leave even faster.

I tugged at the shadow holding me down. I wish I understood how it even worked, but I guess it didn't matter. I could feel my legs getting stronger and faster. Although the shadow was still thick and heavy, I could feel it becoming lighter and I knew I could escape as long as I kept it up.

“You've gone awfully quiet,” said Shade suddenly, causing me to look at her again. “Don't have anything else to say to me?”

I shook my head. “Nope. Because I'm going to be getting out of here pretty soon and don't want to waste any time talking with you.”

“How do you plan to do that?” said Shade, folding her arms over her chest. “Are you going to convince me to let you go?”

Again, I shook my head. I glanced at my legs, which were getting faster and faster as I pulled more and more at the shadow clinging to my feet. “Nah. I'm just going to free myself.”

“Impossible,” said Shade. “No one can escape my shadow without my permission or without light powers. Besides, Black Gold and Iron Horn should be here soon, so you don't have the time to escape.”

“Tell yourself that all you like, lady, but it isn't going to help,” I said. My legs were now moving up and down so rapidly that I could barely even see them.

Shade finally seemed to notice my rapidly moving legs, because her eyes focused on them for a second before she looked back up at my face. “What are you doing? Using your super strength?”

I grinned. I could actually feel the shadow starting to become less clingy, which meant that any second now I would be free. “Well, I'm just taking your advice: Never reveal your powers to a stranger or an enemy. And right now, I'd say you count as both.”

Shade stepped forward, but she was too late. I immediately jumped upwards, using my super speed to give me an extra boost. The shadow clung to my legs like slime, but I activated my flight powers and shot into the sky as fast as I could. The shadow actually snapped around my feet, sending me hurtling into the sky almost faster than I could control myself.