“Yes sweety? What is it?”
“Sorry to bother you dad, but you promised to take me to your work place so I can make some copies of the flyers for the winter retreat?”
Dr. Raine looks down at his watch and realizes that he has spent far too much time down in his lab.
“Sure, I’ll be right there. Just make sure you pack up all your discs and stuff!”
“Thanks dad! You’re the greatest!”
Dr. Raine clicks off the monitor with Torrance’s image on it before turning his attention back to the main monitor with Zak’s image on it. Though, now the image is totally tilted to one side.
“You may have foiled my plans today, but I’ll get you yet Zak, just you wait!” Dr. Raine hits a button on his control console.
“Warren? Activate ‘stealth-return’ program.”
With that said Dr. Raine turns off the monitor and the lights while heading out of his lab. After all, he does have a promise to his daughter to keep!
CHAPTER FOUR
I sit there looking at Leo hovering a few feet in front of me. He could not have cut it any closer! If he had come a moment later in knocking over the robot, I probably would have more than likely have been blasted instead of the mall! Well, for the most part, at least some good came out of this; at least that lame food court got toasted. Now the city definitely has to rebuild it!
“Leo, what took you so long?”
“I had to save the game. If I didn’t save it and let it run it would ruin my chance to get the ‘special’ ending for the game.”
Why, oh why did I have to get the defective model robot from the society of super heroes? Of all the robots to get; I get a robot that is addicted to video games! Worse yet, he chooses to ‘save’ the video game over ‘saving’ me!
“Leo, a video game is just that, a GAME!”
“But, if I didn’t save it the ‘game timer’ would keep on running. If it kept running, I would never be able to see the ‘secret ending’.” Leo then hovers off, probably going back home to load his game from the ‘last saved’ position.
“Leo! Don’t you float away from me! I’m warning you, I’m going to hide that game console when I get back!” But Leo continues to float away. I definitely need to have his AI chip checked out. I swear, he sometimes behaves more like a two year old than a robotic sidekick!
Now back to more important matters. I should see if I can pull some kind of remote control transponder code off of this robot. If I’m lucky, Dr. Brady will be able to make some kind of tracking device for me so I can track down the person (or persons) controlling the robot. I get off of my bike and start to walk toward the robot when officer Dent puts his hand on my shoulder.
“We’ll take it from here Zak, you just stay right here and sit tight.”
“But, I was the one that took down the robot! Shouldn’t I be the one that...”
“Sorry, but this is a matter that should be handled by the ‘adults’.”
And suddenly Officer Dent and a whole slew of police officers and a camera crew rush past me. That’s gratitude for you! I do all of the work and now he gets all of the glory. I watch as the group of police officers cautiously approaches the knocked down robot. And that’s when I notice that the eyes have started to glow!
“Officer Dent! Look out!” I scream.
But it’s too late. Suddenly, several panels on the robots body pop open and spew out black smoke! I raise my armband communicator and get ready to fire another net round; but I just can’t see anything in that smoke cloud. Just as the smoke starts to clear, I make out what sounds like a mini-jet engine warming up. And then in a heartbeat, I see the robot blast off into the sky.
Well, so much for examining the robot up close. In any case I think now would be the best time for me to leave. After all, Officer Dent did say that this was a matter to be handled by ‘the adults’.
CHAPTER FIVE
I’m only an hour late. I’m sure Dr. Brady won’t be too ticked off. After all I did save some VIP in that stretch limo, right? Who am I kidding! The man is going to be royally ticked off! Yeah, I saved the day. But I took out the food court in the process, not that he was too crazy about the place either, mind you. But he always frowns when I cause any type of property damage. Especially if it’s that much property damage. Like the time I fought the ‘clay- meister’ and his minions of dough at the ‘Cineplex 30’ (thirty movie theatres inside on convenient location!). Yeah I won the battle all right. But, by the time it was over, I had taken out half of the Cineplex. Until the Cineplex was repaired the running joke in town was “Hey, You wanna go to the Cineplex 15 tomorrow?”
As I get to his front door I notice that there is a piece of paper taped to it. The paper reads: “I’m in the garage.”
Figures, you know when Dr. Brady isn’t at school teaching science and biology to us kids he can be usually found in his garage working on some type of new toy for me to use against super villains. Well, actually there use to be three places: school, garage and the food court at the mall. But after today it’s going to be: school and the garage. The only thing he has going for him is that his wife is really cool. I mean, I can’t believe that she puts up with his weird behaviour, school, work, work, and school. That’s his entire life. Then again that’s mine as well. Great, I’m becoming just like Dr. Brady!
I go to the side entrance of the garage door to find another note: “Come in, door is open.” Hmm, I guess he is expecting me.
I push open the door slowly and see Dr. Brady’s back facing me. He’s hunched over a lab table, probably working on some new toy for my armband communicator. I swear, I still haven’t used the other ninety-five ‘improvements’ he put in! In any case, I think I’ll start off with the good news and then parlay it into the ‘bad news’.
“Hey Dr. Brady, sorry I’m late I was on my way here and the thing was that I happened to catch a dispatch on the police scanner about a robot wreaking havoc at the mall.”
And Dr. Brady continues to tinker on his workbench. What’s up with that? Well, maybe if I tell I finally used the ‘net’ option on my communicator that’ll make him take notice of me! That or he has earplugs on again. Last time that happened, I was talking for like, fifteen minutes before he pulled them off and was surprised to see me standing there. So I guess I should be a little louder.
“The best part was I stopped the robot by using that new ‘net’ option you put in. I have to say that’s one pretty useful improvement!” Heck, if I said it any louder I think the neighbours would hear me!
“I’m glad you like it Zak!”
Funny, I could’ve just sworn that sounded like... “Mrs. Brady?”
And that’s when Dr. Brady swivels around to reveal, Mrs. Brady! I’m at a loss for words at this moment.
I’ve never really had the wind knocked out of me before, but I’ve heard stories from my fellow super heroes about fighting really tough super villains like ‘mad-red’ and getting hit in the gut and having the wind knocked out of them. They say you get really disorientated and have to sit down. I think I’m going to need to sit down now.
CHAPTER SIX
Mrs. Brady walks over to me and grabs my arm while examining the armband communicator.
“I’m glad you like it, it took me and Wyatt several days to work out all of the bugs.”
“Wyatt?” I quickly pull my arm away from Mrs. Brady.
“Wyatt is my ‘husband’s’ first name.”
“Oh, right. Sorry, forgot about that.”
“Quite