Heathcliff wiped away tears and nodded his head. “I am.”
“Are you sure you want to know?”
Heathcliff nodded.
“Very well,” the orb said as light shot out and swirled around Heathcliff in a three-dimensional projection.
He saw himself putting on a black mask with a white skull—exactly like the one Ms. Holiday was now wearing. He saw a machine on a patch of ice at the North Pole. He saw it rising up into the sky, creating a monstrous mountain. He saw himself falling into the water. He saw himself running through the streets of Washington followed by an army of squirrels. He saw himself threatening a large fat man who later transformed himself into a living machine. Then he saw himself in group therapy with several other costumed people. He saw himself blackmail Ruby when she came to him for help. He saw himself stepping into another world and sitting in an upgrade chair and turning himself into an enormous head—a freakish monster that could wipe away the world with a single thought. Then he saw himself sedated and unconscious, attached to tubes, as Flinch shrank himself so he could be injected into Heathcliff’s brain. He saw the horror. He saw the fear. He saw the chaos. He saw the insanity.
The projection stopped, but his head was ablaze. Every moment, feeling, and dark plan of the last year and a half wrestled for his immediate attention. It was too much. He screamed out in pain.
He must have passed out because he woke on the floor with Benjamin’s voice asking if he was OK. He stood up, dusted off his clothes, and ran a tongue over the false teeth that had been inserted where his real teeth once were.
“I’m great, Benjamin. I actually feel like my old self again.”
He snatched the ball in midair and raced out of the room, down the hall, toward the exit tubes.
“Heathcliff, I’m sensing disturbing sounds coming from this place’s upgrade room. Shouldn’t we investigate?”
“There’s no time,” he said.
“Why?”
“Because, you stupid wad of aluminum foil, I’m going to take over the world!” he cried.
Heathcliff floated down the entrance tube and landed on the floor of the deserted Playground. Because he’d arrived a week in the past to follow the BULLIES, the Playground hadn’t been destroyed yet.
Benjamin squirmed in his hand but could not break free from his grip. “Heathcliff, don’t do this,” the orb begged. “Don’t abuse your team’s trust again.”
Heathcliff ignored the plea and marched to the upgrade room. Once inside, he activated the process while his mind lit up with possibilities. What kind of power would he have this time, and how would it be useful for taking over the world? Would it help him seek revenge on the people he once called friends—the ones who had lied to him for months?
“SCANNING FOR WEAKNESSES.”
The lasers danced over him. The psychic powers he had before had been delicious. If only he could get them once more. He wouldn’t mind the hypnotic teeth, either. Those were cool.
“SUBJECT HAS SUPERIOR INTELLECT AND IS IN GOOD PHYSICAL HEALTH CONSIDERING COMPLETE LACK OF EXERCISE,” the computer said.
“What’s wrong? Don’t tell me I am perfect! You have to find something, no matter how small.”
“WEAKNESS DETECTED,” the computer said. “PREPARE FOR UPGRADE.”
Tubes and needles dropped from the ceiling and hovered above his body. A platform rose below him and forced him flat on his back. A second later his arms and legs were strapped down.
“What is it? What’s my weakness?”
“SUBJECT NEEDS HIS PARENTS,” the machine said.
“What?”
“ONLY PARENTS CAN STEER YOU TOWARD A HAPPY LIFE UPGRADING NOW.”
“How is that going to help me take over the world?” he shouted, but the machine did not respond.
The needles injected him with nanobytes and he winced in pain. “Benjamin! Get me out of this,” he begged.
“Sorry, Hodges. But if it makes you feel any better, I would have thought you needed a spanking,” Benjamin said.
Heathcliff watched as the tiny black robots swirled down a tube and into a needle inserted in his hand. And then everything went black.
“You’re alone, Hodges,” a voice said to Heathcliff. He was standing in complete darkness and couldn’t even see his hand in front of his face. “Always alone. Who do you think is to blame?”
Heathcliff snarled. “I don’t need a lecture.”
“There is no one in the world who needs a lecture more than you. Look around. You have no family. No friends. How did this happen?”
“Go away!”
“It was your anger. You might have been someone great, but you squandered it on rage.”
“Blah! Blah! Blah!”
Suddenly, Heathcliff found himself seated in a movie theater and the screen was alight with images of his future. He was happy. He was married with a little boy of his own, and he was teaching him about science and his favorite comic book characters. He had a great job, helping people at a laboratory that made medicine, and every night he went home, had dinner with his family, and laughed.
The movie stopped, and when the lights came on he was surprised to see himself sitting next to him, and even more surprised to see that it was a version of him with his old enormous buckteeth.
“You gave that up,” the figure said. “You can’t blame the bullies for what has happened. You can’t blame Jackson Jones. You decided on this path. Does it make you happy?”
Heathcliff turned to his double. “No, it doesn’t but what can I do? I’m evil.”
“You stop.”
“Just stop?”
The boy nodded.
“Just stop. You have more important things to do, you know. It’s time to use that big brain for something good. Go save the world.”
Heathcliff woke with a gasp. Benjamin was hovering over him, zipping and shaking.
“If you move, I’ll blast you, kid,” he chirped.
“Want to help me save the world?”
Benjamin spun around but said nothing for a long moment. “Seriously?”
“C’mon!” Heathcliff cried. He darted out of the upgrade room. He raced down the hall and into the control center. “Benjamin, I need to see what our BULLIES are up to.”
A huge screen dropped from above and blinked to life. A TV news anchor stood in front of the school while the BULLIES—each one of them nearly three stories tall, attacked the building. Whatever they had done in the upgrade room had turned them into giants.
“OK, that’s not good,” he said. “All right, think. I’m the only member of the team in this time stream and my upgrades … no upgrades. There are four monsters attacking our school. Any suggestions?”
“We need more agents,” Benjamin said. “Should we call in some veterans?”
Heathcliff shook his head. “It would take them too long to get here and most of them are too old for the upgrade chair. What I need are some new recruits. But where …” He looked upward.
“Heathcliff?” Benjamin said with more than a little worry in his robotic voice, but Heathcliff was already racing toward the exit tubes.
He slammed a button on the podium and a second later he and Benjamin were sucked up into the lockers of Thomas Knowlton Middle School. Heathcliff blasted through the tiny door and into an empty hallway.
“Where is everybody?”
“My sensors are detecting a rather pungent smell,” Benjamin said.
“It’s called lunch,” Heathcliff said.
He ran down the hall and shoved open the double doors that led to the school cafeteria. His arrival was so loud that everyone turned to him.