The Superhero's Son Omnibus Volume 1

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen

Like I thought, this week really did suck, mostly because I knew that Dad was watching me. I didn't know how, because I never saw any drones or anything else that he could use to watch my movements, but I didn't risk using my super powers or trying to suit up again. I just went to school and back home every day, taking the same route without fail.

It was a really boring week at school, mostly because the other kids were starting to see me less as the 'new kid' and more just like the other students. That didn't mean I became more popular, though, or got more friends. I still ate with Malcolm and Tara every day and didn't hang out with or talk to anyone else.

Malcolm kept speculating about the identity of Bolt every time we sat down to talk. He seemed obsessed with my superhero identity, probably because the idea that there was a neohero living somewhere in Silvers blew his mind. One time he even suggested that we hire a private detective to figure out Bolt's identity and I wasn't sure if he was joking or not.

For what it was worth, I just listened, mostly because I worried that if I said too much, then Malcolm would be able to figure out my secret identity. I never had to worry about that with Tara, though, because she never talked about Bolt or any other neoheroes. I didn't really know what she liked, actually, except for her phone. Nor did I gather the courage to ask her out, mostly because I knew how much she hated neoheroes.

I also paid attention to my ranking on Neo Ranks. Because I had only had one public appearance so far, I was still very low, but apparently I moved up to a 1.5 at some point. The reasoning, according to the page's administrator, for the upgrade was that super strength was obviously superior to other 1 powers like having an enormous big toe, but not quite enough to raise my overall Rank to a 2 just yet. That was kind of depressing, but better than being a 1, I supposed.

But I was curious to see what Dad's ranking was. Ranks had a way of going down over the years, mostly if a neohero retired or was killed. After all, you can't gain ranks if you were dead or simply no longer fighting crime. I figured that Dad's had probably gone down quite a bit since he retired sixteen years ago.

So at lunch on Wednesday, I looked up 'Genius' on Neo Ranks only to find out that he was a 9. I gaped when I saw that, prompting Malcolm—who was sitting across from me at our lunch table rambling on about setting a trap to capture Bolt so we could unmask him—to say, “What?”

I shook my head and looked up at him. “Did you see Genius's rank? It's still a nine, even though he retired sixteen years ago.”

“Oh, yeah,” said Malcolm, nodding. “Well, Genius was really popular in his days, didn't you know? And he's still popular. I see discussions all the time on Neo Ranks about people wondering how Genius would handle guys like Conjurer or Hybrid. There was even a petition a while back to get him back into crime-fighting.”

“Really?” I said in surprise. “Where did the petition go?”

“It was submitted to the Neohero Alliance, because they're the only people who know Genius's real identity and how to contact him,” said Malcolm. “Over one hundred thousand people signed it. You can still find it online if you search.”

“One hundred thousand?” I said. “I didn't know Genius was so popular.”

“Yeah,” said Malcolm. “I just don't get why anyone would retire with that much fame. If I was as popular as Genius, I would be a superhero for as long as I lived.”

I nodded, but I was thinking about Dad. I hadn't realized just how much he had given up to raise me with Mom. If over one hundred thousand people wanted him back, I bet that was only a fraction of his real fan base. I had a hard time imagining my stern, almost emotionless Dad having any real 'fans,' but I guess he did.

“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 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 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.