Chapter 44
I shifted into super speed, ready to face whatever threat had just crashed into the lab. However, I was completely unprepared for what I saw coming at me: my father.
Something was obviously wrong. Alpha Prime was so keyed up that I hadn’t even been able to recognize him, empathically, as the source of the feelings I’d picked up on. It was as though he was hardwired with a panic button that had somehow been pushed, setting off an endless string of emotional klaxons.
As he came towards me, I felt my father’s panic subside slightly. At the same time, his speed began dropping precipitously, such that he was no longer flying at me like a rocket trying to break free of Earth’s gravity. He was still far from his typical emotional state, but I didn’t get the sense that he represented a danger. With that in mind, I matched him, switching back to normal speed while at the same time shifting Mouse and myself out of our phased state.
Sparing a glance at my mentor, I suddenly noticed that he had his right arm pointed at my father. More importantly, his right hand was curled into a fist and seemed to be encompassed by something akin to a metallic brace which extended just slightly past his wrist in the direction of his forearm. I had never seen it before, didn’t know where Mouse had retrieved it from, and hadn’t seen him put it on, but everything about the brace – which had a series of softly winking lights on it – seemed to scream “weapon.” And from the intense look on his face, Mouse wasn’t afraid to use it.
A moment later, however, I had no more time to dwell on the subject as my father stopped directly in front of me and began practically jabbering.
“Son! Son!” Alpha Prime essentially shouted as he gently but firmly gripped my head between his hands and looked me in the eye. “I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!”
“What…?” I muttered, perplexed, trying to take a step back. “I’m not…I’m–”
“Are you hurt?” my father asked, shifting a hand to my shoulder.
“No,” I insisted, attempting to shake my head. “I’m alri–”
“I’m sorry,” Alpha Prime cut in again, as if he hadn’t heard me, and a moment later, we were completely talking over each other.
“I don’t know what happened…” he said.
“What are you–” I began.
He placed both hands around my face again. “Are you okay, son?”
“Yes, I’m just–”
“Are you in pain?”
“Huh? No, I–”
“Do you need a doctor?” he asked, placing a hand to my abdomen and pressing like a paramedic trying to locate a contusion.
Suddenly frustrated at not being heard, I angrily slapped his hands away and belted out, “Dad, stop!”
Looking completely startled, Alpha Prime abruptly went quiet and just stood there, staring at me.
*****
Later, Alpha Prime would say that it was my calling him “Dad” that had stunned him into silence. It was a term I had never used in addressing him before. (In truth, I couldn’t say that I had ever actually planned on calling him that, so I was as shocked by it as anyone.) However, after getting over his surprise, he explained what led to him busting into Mouse’s lab.
“I was here at HQ when I got a notice from the alarm system at the mansion indicating intruders,” Alpha Prime explained to me and Mouse. “I pulled up the cameras on my cell phone and saw this.”
He handed the phone to Mouse, who held it so that we could both see the screen. It showed an image that I immediately recognized as being one of the interior rooms of the mansion. Without warning, someone showed up in the middle of the frame, appearing out of nowhere.
“Hang on,” Mouse said, tapping the “Pause” button.
He then pulled some cables from a nearby drawer and spent about thirty seconds using them to connect the phone to some of the equipment in his lab. When he was done, the video from the phone was showing on one of the larger monitors. As I could have guessed without being told, the person who had appeared looked exactly like me (although it was easier to note with the image enlarged on a bigger screen).
Mouse hit a button on the phone and the footage resumed playing.
“You are trespassing,” said a robotic voice on the video. “You have ten seconds to vacate the premises or the use of force will be authorized to detain you. Ten…nine…”
The voice continued counting down, but my doppelganger didn’t seem particularly disturbed. Instead, he seemed to be taking in the room, which housed some nice artwork on the walls. In fact, because his attitude was so nonchalant, it was almost comical when the countdown hit zero and a laser blast took him in the gut, passing through his body and searing a hole in the wall behind him. There was a look of complete and utter surprise on his face – like someone who had just discovered that fire was hot by touching the business end of a blowtorch.
“Whoa…” I muttered as my evil twin doubled over in pain. A moment later, he vanished – teleported somewhere.
“Uh, maybe you don’t know this, AP,” Mouse said as he stopped the video, “but it’s illegal to use deadly force to protect property. To protect yourself, yes, but not things you own.”
“I know that,” my father said testily.
“So why are your automatic defenses trying to ventilate this guy?” my mentor asked.
“It was only supposed to give a light shock – like a stun gun,” Alpha Prime explained. “The laser setting shouldn’t have even been turned on.
