Prison Break

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER TWO

Everything happened in slow motion to Bait. He had seen Arachnid appear on the stage almost like a ghost, moving so silently that Bait wouldn’t have noticed if he hadn’t been looking like a stage. Then he saw Arachnid pull a shiny gun out of his pocket, aim it at Plutarch, and fire. Even the sound of the gun being shot seemed to happen in slow motion, like Bait was listening to a slowed down video.

The bullet entered Plutarch’s chest and the President fell backwards onto the stage like someone had punched him in the face.

As soon as Plutarch hit the stage, time seemed to return to its normal speed again and Bait’s ears were filled with loud shrieks and screams of fear and shock from everyone in the Auditorium. Several Secret Service agents appeared on the stage from the other direction and rushed over to Plutarch, where they formed a loose but protective circle around the fallen President. Johanson, meanwhile, took to the podium and started calling for order, but it seemed like no one heard his calls for order, because students and faculty were already scrambling for the exits while screaming their heads off.

As for Arachnid, he vanished through the side door without even saying anything. He didn’t even look over his shoulder to make sure no one was following him.

“What the hell just happened?” Tommy shouted, his voice full of fear and shock. “Why did Arachnid just shoot Plutarch? What’s going on here?”

“I don’t know,” said Bait. He rose from his seat. “But I’m going to go after Arachnid and stop him before he gets away.”

“I’ll come with you,” said Switch, rising from her seat as well. “I’m just as interested in finding out what happened as you are and—”

“No,” said Bait, holding out a warning hand before her. “You and Tommy should get out of here. If Arachnid’s gone evil or crazy or whatever, I don’t want either of you to get hurt.”

Before Switch could argue with him about that, Bait jumped over the seats next to him and ran down the aisle next to their seats. Thanks to having sat close to the front, Bait reached the stage quickly. He burst through the same side door as Arachnid just in time to see Arachnid about to reach the end of the hallway.

“Arachnid!” Bait shouted. “Get back here! Now!”

But Arachnid didn’t even look back over his shoulder. He just burst through the door at the end, causing Bait to run after him. Bait reached the end of the hall quickly and kicked the door open hard enough to knock it off its hinges.

Bait now stood at the side of the Auditorium, but at first, he had a hard time finding Arachnid. That is, until he spotted a familiar flash of purple and green disappear behind the President’s limousine, prompting Bait to run toward it. He ran around the car and then ran smack dab into something solid, falling flat on his bottom from the unexpected impact.

“Bait?” said a voice above him. “Why are you in such a hurry? And why is everyone fleeing the Auditorium? Did someone get hurt?”

Bait looked up at who he had run into. It was Arachnid, who was looking down at Bait with confusion in his eyes.

Without even thinking, Bait tackled Arachnid to the ground. Arachnid grunted in surprise, but Bait pinned his arms above his head, using his super strength to ensure that Arachnid would not be able to break his grip.

“Don’t try anything, assassin,” said Bait, breathing hard. “I’m not going to let you get away, even if you are my home room teacher.”

“Assassin? Get away?” Arachnid repeated. “Bait, what in the world are you talking about? I was just on my way back from my office. I have no idea what just happened in the Auditorium.”

Arachnid seemed genuinely confused, which almost made Bait think he had made a mistake in tackling him. But then he remembered seeing Arachnid shoot the President with his own two eyes and his grip on Arachnid’s wrists tightened. “That’s a pretty unbelievable story, given how I just saw you in the Auditorium not even five minutes ago shooting Plutarch with a gun. Not exactly your office, is it?”

“I shot Plutarch with a gun?” said Arachnid. “For God’s sake, I don’t even own a gun. Now get off me or I’ll be forced to make you.”

“Yeah, no,” said Bait, shaking his head. “You’re tough, but even you can’t overwhelm my super strength. I’m just going to hold you here until the Secret Service catches up with me and arrests you.”

“I guess Charger never taught you that an enemy doesn’t need to be stronger than you in order to beat you,” said Arachnid.

Without warning, Arachnid squeezed his right fist and a gob of web shot out of wrist and hit Bait in the chest. It was almost like being shot by a gun and the impact knocked Bait off Arachnid, who quickly scrambled back to his feet and stepped several feet away from Bait, holding his hands up in a defensive way.

Gasping for breath, Bait got to his feet and raised his fists. “I should have seen that dirty trick coming.”

“Dirty trick? You know what I’m capable of,” said Arachnid. “If I wanted to hurt you—and I don’t—I could have done much worse to you even then. This is all a misunderstanding. I don’t want to fight you.”

Bait scowled. “But you were okay with shooting the President on stage in front of a bunch of kids. Like I said, I’m going to make sure you don’t get away, and if that means beating the crap out of you, then so be it.”

Bait rushed toward Arachnid, but then Arachnid leaped backwards at the last second and landed on top of Plutarch’s limo. Before Bait could react, Arachnid fired two web lines, which struck both of Bait’s fists. Arachnid yanked Bait forward, causing Bait to fall flat on his face on the gravel.

Struggling to his feet, Bait looked up just in time to receive a kick to the face from Arachnid. The blow knocked Bait on his back, knocking the wind out of his lungs, and then Arachnid stomped a foot on his chest, pinning him under his weight.

“I said I don’t want to hurt you,” said Arachnid. “Don’t you understand? There’s no need for us to fight. The real assassin is getting away while we waste time fighting each other like this.”

Bait, however, growled and tried to grab Arachnid’s foot, but Arachnid leaped over his head and landed about a yard behind him. Once again getting to his feet, Bait whirled around in time to see another web blast coming at him. He ducked, however, allowing the webbing to fly harmlessly over his head, and rushed toward Arachnid. He threw a super-powered punch at Arachnid’s face, but at the last second, Arachnid ducked and grabbed Bait’s arm.

Before Bait even realized what was going on, Arachnid whirled around and slammed Bait flat on his back on the ground. Pain exploded through Bait’s back and he was pretty sure he heard something break, but he was in too much pain to think about that.

Nonetheless, Bait tried to get up, only for Arachnid to web up his arms and legs. The thick webbing kept Bait’s arms and legs attached to the ground and, despite his best efforts, Bait couldn’t tear the webbing apart. Even his super strength wasn’t of much help against the steel-like properties of the webbing.

“Sorry, Bait, but you’re still just a student,” said Arachnid, standing over Bait and looking down at him with cold eyes. “I don’t know what’s happening or why you think I attacked the President, but I’m going to go to the Auditorium and speak with the Headmaster and see if he can tell me what’s going on. You can just stay here until I return.”

Bait gritted his teeth. He didn’t want to let Arachnid get away, but the webbing was too thick for him to break. He was still convinced that Arachnid was the assassin, even if Arachnid was playing dumb for some reason. He knew that Arachnid was actually going to run away and there was nothing he could do about it.

But then a large shadow suddenly appeared over them both. Arachnid looked over his shoulder just in time for two large hands made of shadow to grab him and lift him off the ground. Arachnid cried out in surprise and kicked his legs, but it was obvious that he couldn’t break the hands’ hold over his body.

“What is this?” said Arachnid, staring at the shadow hands in shock. “Where did these come from? A monster?”

He said that last question when he looked up. Bait also looked up and saw a familiar lizard-like shadow face looking down at them both. It even seemed to be smirking, as if taking pleasure in Arachnid’s surprised and terrified appearance. It also looked hungry, though Bait didn’t know if it was going to eat Arachnid or not.

“Not a monster,” said a familiar Hispanic voice not far away. “His name is Sombra. Learn it, spider.”

Bait looked in the direction from which the voice had come. A Mexican man with extremely short hair stood near the front of Plutarch’s limo, his hands in his pockets and his G-Men patch on his right shoulder bright and colorful as always. He was smirking, wearing a similar smug expression to the shadow monster, though it was more human, of course.

“Vengeance?” said Bait in surprise. “Is that you? What are you doing here?”

Vengeance’s smirk grew even more amused. “Of course it’s me, kid. As for why I’m here, I was selected to be part of President Plutarch’s security detail. And I think I just caught the man who tried to kill him. You’re welcome.”