The Superhero's Son (Book 1): The Superhero's Test (16 page)

“But I don't understand,” I said, looking at Dad's Neo Ranks page on my phone, “how he still ranks so high even if he was really popular in his heyday.”

“He beat Master Chaos,” said Malcolm. “That's why. Few neoheroes have ever done anything as good as that. I mean, look at his Neo Rank page. Master Chaos killed loads of heroes before Genius stopped him, heroes like the Crimson Fist.”

Suddenly, I felt a surge of emotion rise in my throat at the mention of my uncle. I blinked, feeling tears starting to form in my eyes, but managed to keep myself from actually crying.

“Kevin?” said Malcolm, who seemed to notice that something was wrong. “What's up?”

I shook my head and said, “It's nothing, I—”

I was interrupted by a small
ding
, which came from Malcolm's phone and was likely a notification, causing him to look down at his screen. His eyes suddenly became so wide that they looked like they were about to drop out of their sockets.

“Malcolm?” I said. “What's the matter?”

“Dude,” said Malcolm. He held his phone at me. “Look at this news report.”

I leaned forward to read the headline, which read:

'ULTIMATE MAX ESCAPEE MASTER CHAOS MAIN SUSPECT IN THEFT OF SECRET MILITARY WEAPONRY'

I looked at Malcolm. “What does that mean?”

“I dunno, man,” said Malcolm. “I didn't read the article. I just saw the headline and thought you should read it.”

I took Malcolm's phone from his hands and started reading the article. It wasn't very long, but it seemed to take me forever to read it:

WASHINGTON, DC—Infamous supervillain Master Chaos, who recently escaped from the Ultimate Max prison for superhumans two weeks ago, has been confirmed to have stolen secret military weaponry, the federal government confirmed hours ago.

“We can't tell you what any of these weapons are,” said Cadmus Smith, the Director of the Department of Superpowered Human Beings and Extraterrestrial Beings, who is in charge of the government team tracking down Master Chaos. “But we can confirm that Master Chaos broke into one of our bases and stole some very sensitive technology that we do not want to be in the hands of anyone, superhuman or otherwise, who is a threat to the United States of America.”

The story broke yesterday as rumors on the Internet before the federal government finally confirmed the story this morning. According to the government, Master Chaos, also known as Bernard Candle, broke into a secret government facility on Monday for reasons unknown. It is only known that he stole some top-secret weapons from the facility, though the exact nature of the weapons is unknown. There were no casualties in the attack, nor was anything else of importance stolen or found missing.

It is speculated that Master Chaos had a contact on the inside who helped him get in. Congress has ordered a full investigation of the people working at the facility in order to find out who, if anyone, helped Master Chaos enter the facility.

Nonetheless, the Department of Superpowered Human Beings and Extraterrestrial Beings has come under fire from critics, who claim that this is yet another example of the Department's inability to deal with the threats it was made to deal with. Presidential nominee and founder of Plutarch Industries Adam Lucius Plutarch tweeted today that if elected President, he—

I stopped reading there, because after that it was just talking about what various politicians had to say about this and who was to blame and stuff like that. I looked up at Malcolm, a serious expression on my face.

“What does it say?” said Malcolm, leaning forward. “What did Master Chaos do?”

“All it says is that Master Chaos broke into a secret government facility and stole some top secret weapons from that facility,” I said as I handed Malcolm his phone back to him. “It doesn't say where the facility was or what he stole.”

“Hey, that sounds familiar,” said Malcolm, scratching his chin as he started reading the article. “Yeah, I remember someone on Neo Ranks talking about this yesterday. Said that the government was going to try to cover it up and pretend nothing happened, but that it would be a big story on social media soon.”

“How did that guy know about it so fast?” I said.

“No idea,” said Malcolm with a shrug. “I just thought it was crazy talk, because you get a lot of guys on Neo Ranks who 'know' things like who the Midnight Menace is. There was even someone claiming to be a Pokacu alien, but I think he was just a troll.”

I nodded, but wasn't really listening to Malcolm anymore. I was too busy thinking about the weapons Master Chaos had stolen. What were they? Why did he think he'd need them? Did Dad know about this? Did Dad know what the top-secret weapons were?

It was obviously connected with Master Chaos's plan, but I still didn't see how it was all supposed to come together. It just seemed very random and made me very nervous. I doubted Master Chaos had his hands on any nukes, but I still thought that Chaos could cause a lot of, well, chaos with whatever weapons he got.

That was why it was more important than ever that I learned how to use my powers. I was eager to get back to training, because I wanted to be prepared when Master Chaos attacked.

Chapter Fourteen

“O
kay, Kevin,” said Dad, standing across from me in the field where we were doing our training. He was in full Genius costume now, his arms folded across his chest. “Try to hover off the ground.”

I looked down at the ground under my feet. I willed myself to rise off the ground, just like I had back in Fallsville earlier this week, and soon found myself floating a few inches above the ground. I looked up at Dad.

“So?” I said. “Am I doing a good job?”

“It looks like it,” said Dad. “What is the highest you have flown so far?”

I scratched my chin. “Um, I dunno. I floated up to the second floor of the Fallsville General Hospital, which was like twenty or thirty feet off the ground, I think.”

“Thirty feet, then,” said Dad. “That's not very high, but I bet you can fly much higher than that.”

I looked up at the sky apprehensively. As excited as I was to fly, I suddenly found the idea of being so high up in the sky frightening. “What will happen if I fall? Will I get hurt?”

“Probably, but I doubt it will leave you paralyzed or anything like that,” said Dad. “You have super strength, after all, and most neoheroes with super strength also tend to be strong enough to survive falls even from great heights.”

“Okay,” I said. I pulled my goggles down over my eyes. “So how high should I go?”

“As high as possible,” said Dad. “But I suggest not going into orbit. We don't know if you can survive in space without a space suit, so try to stay within the atmosphere at least.”

I nodded. I looked up at the sky again, again feeling apprehensive, but I figured that if Dad was not panicking about it, then I didn't need to, either.

So I started rising again, increasing my speed bit by bit, until soon I had definitely passed the thirty foot mark and was now going higher than I ever had before. I looked down at Dad, who was looking up at me and becoming smaller and smaller with every foot I climbed.

But I looked away from the ground, because I didn't want to freak myself out. Instead, I focused on going higher and faster, and before I knew, I was soaring through the sky like a lightning bolt. Wind blew through my hair and the goggles protected my eyes from getting dried out.

It was a lot of fun, flying around in the sky. It was almost like swimming, except that I didn't need to move my limbs. I just soared through the air, passed through some clouds (which got me a little wet), and then abruptly stopped and looked down at the ground.

Bad idea. I felt woozy. I could see Dad below, but not very well. I looked up again and immediately felt better. It was weird how I apparently had the power of flight, but did not have the stomach to go with it. Or maybe it was one of those things that I'd get used to after a while.

Then I heard the earcom crackle in my ear and then Dad's voice said, “Kevin? Can you hear me? How are you doing up there?”

I cringed slightly at the volume of the earpiece, but said, “Okay. I can't really look down, though, otherwise I'll get sick.”

“You and heights have never mixed even when you were a kid,” said Dad. “I'm sure you'll get over it, however. Now you should try to land near me.”

“Okay,” I said. I gulped. “Can I do it
without
looking down?”

“Your aim would be off if you did that,” said Dad. “Just do it slowly. No need to hurry.”

“All right,” I said. “I'm coming—hey, what's that?”

I heard what sounded like a jet approaching me. I looked around, but I didn't see any planes in the sky around me. All I saw was the blue sky, the sun, and the clouds beneath me, yet that jet engine sound was still clear.

“Kevin?” said Dad again. “What do you hear?”

“Something that sounds like a jet engine,” I said, turning this way and that as I searched for it. “But I don't see any jets.”

“Odd,” Dad's voice crackled in my ear. “I picked this location to test your flight powers specifically because no commercial airlines fly here, which I thought would minimize the possibility of a plane flying into you.”

The jet engine sound was much closer now than before, but I still couldn't see its source. I decided to try to land now before whatever it was hit me when something exploded out of a nearby cloud and surged toward me almost too fast for my eyes to follow.

My reflexes, however, were as fast as ever. I flew to the side, narrowly avoiding the thing that was coming at me. I watched as the thing flew away from me, came to a stop, and then turned to face me.

It was a robot. It was bigger and taller than me, with thick steel plating that made me wonder how it was even remaining airborne. Flames shot out from its feet, which were apparently its exhaust ports. Its face was nothing more than a glowing red stripe with a voice box directly below it. It also had two guns for hands, which made me wonder how it was supposed to grab anything.

“What the hell?” I said. “Dad, what is that?”

“I'd like to help you, Kevin, but I can't see it very well from down here,” said Dad's sardonic voice in my ear. “Can you describe whatever it is you see to me?”

“It's a robot,” I said. “A flying robot.”

“A flying robot?” said Dad. His voice became serious. “Uh oh.”

“Uh oh?” I said. “Dad, do you know what that thing—”

I was interrupted when the robot aimed its hands at me and started firing off bullets. I dropped through the clouds, just barely avoiding getting riddled with bullets, and then shot through the air toward the robot. I tried to punch it, but the robot dodged, allowing me to fly straight past it.

“Kevin!” Dad's voice shouted in my ear. “I heard bullets being shot. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, but just barely,” I said, looking over my shoulder at the robot, which was now following me. “What should I do? Should I go back to you?”

“No,” said Dad. “Try to distract it. I'll see if I can get one of my drones to back you up.”

“Distract it?” I said. “How?”

“Just do whatever you can,” said Dad. “And whatever you do, remain calm and don't panic.”

Remain calm? How was I supposed to remain calm with a flying killer robot coming after me? I was going to ask Dad that, but then I heard the sound of bullets coming at me and I twisted and turned, dodging most of them, although one bullet grazed my shoulder. It didn't hurt or even cut through my suit, but the impact of the bullet nonetheless sent me spiraling through the sky before I regained my balance and flew back into the air.

Looking over my shoulder again, I saw that the robot was still on my tail. I had never seen a robot like this before. It didn't look like anything Dad might have made. It looked like something from out of a video game, which made me wonder again where the hell it had come from.

But it didn't matter where it came from. What mattered was that I needed to destroy it before it destroyed me.

So I stopped, turned around, and flew toward it. This change of tactics seemed to take the robot by surprise, because it stopped in midair for a moment before raising its gun hands and aiming at me.

But I didn't give it a chance to fire a single bullet. I slammed into its abdomen with my shoulder, knocking the robot back and sending it falling to the earth below. I zipped after it, but then the robot started firing at me as it fell and I had to swerve to avoid getting hit again.

As I flew away, I looked back and saw that the robot had already recovered from the attack and was flying after me again. Now, however, it looked less like a robot and more like a plane, with its arms and legs combining together to give it less wind resistance. What, was it a Transformer, too?

Then it started shooting at me again. I flew upwards sharply to avoid getting riddled with bullets, while the killer robot zipped by underneath. I floated in the sky for a moment, watching as the robot changed course to come after me again.

Again, it aimed its guns at me, but I didn't stay still long enough for it to take aim. Instead, I flew over and landed on its back, putting all of my weight on it in an attempt to make it fall to the ground. We actually did fall several feet before the plane transformed again, forcing me to jump off it just as it returned to its killer robot mode.

But rather than shoot me with its guns, a cannon rose off the robot's back and fired a missile at me. The missile soared through the air toward me, forcing me to fly as fast as I could to avoid it, but it must have been a heat-seeker, because it started following me just like the robot itself.

“Dad?” I said into my earcom, glancing over my shoulder at the missile that was following me. “Is the drone ready yet?”

“I'm working on it,” said Dad. “And yes, I am aware of the missile following you.”

“Great,” I said, banking to the left in an attempt to lose the missile, although the missile kept following me. “So what do you think will happen if it hits me? Do you think I'll explode and discover that I have the power of regeneration?”

“Not sure,” said Dad, who sounded like he was seriously considering the question. “Your powers are similar to Omega Man's, so there's a good chance you'll survive, although I can't say the same about your suit.”