The Villain Virus

YES, THE ENTIRE OLYMPICS: THE WINTER AND SUMMER GAMES, THE SKIING, THE WRESTLING, THE SHOT PUT, THE DECATHLON, THE FAST WALKING, THE GYMNASTICS, THE MEN’S ONE HUNDRED METER FREESTYLE, ALL OF IT. THEN, IF YOU CAN STILL STAND WITH ALL THOSE GOLD MEDALS WRAPPED AROUND YOUR NECK, YOU ARE TOUGH ENOUGH TO BE ON THIS TEAM!

Agent Brand and Dr. Kim stood over the monitor and watched the tiny dot that was Julio Escala move around in Heathcliff’s mutated body. Flinch was doing better than Brand could have ever hoped. Now that the boy was at the base of Heathcliff’s brain stem, he just had to find the transmitter, and then the world would stop being a gigantic insane asylum.

It couldn’t come a minute too soon. Since Flinch had been miniaturized and injected, they had lost eight of the remaining twelve scientists All that was left of Brand’s team was Dr. Kim, the three other scientists, Ms. Holiday, and the four juvenile delinquents. And it wouldn’t be long before the virus got to them as well.

“Can you believe how great he’s doing?” Ms. Holiday asked.

“I think I have misjudged him,” Brand said.

“Don’t be too hard on yourself,” she said. “There are lots of things in life you just don’t see until they are right in front of your eyes. Take me, for instance.”

Brand smiled and got one in return.

One of the remaining scientists rushed to Brand’s side. “Sir, may I have a word with you?”

“What is it, Doctor …”

“Yerkey, sir,” he said. “It’s very important and private.”

“Can it wait? I have to guide an agent into a human brain,” Brand said.

“It’s about the blood tests from before,” Dr. Yerkey said. “Some of the results were erased on purpose, and I found out who did it.”

“Who?” Dr. Kim cried.

Agent Brand turned away from the screen to face the scientist, but suddenly he felt a sharp pain in the back of his head and everything went black.

Ms. Holiday stood over the unconscious bodies of Agent Brand and Dr. Yerkey. Her hand clutched a metal pipe from one of the experiments that had been dismantled to create the miniaturization rig. She looked at the weapon and gri

“Ms. Holiday!” Dr. Kim cried. “What are you doing?”

“C’mon, sister. You didn’t see that coming?” Ms. Holiday said as she reached into her pocket, removed a mask with a skull painted on the front, and pulled it over her face. “And don’t call me that name. My name is Miss Information.”

“She’s infected!” Dr. Kim cried.

“Duh!” Miss Information said, and then she slugged the woman on the chin. The doctor fell hard onto the floor, where she joined the others in sleepytown.

“Benjamin, it appears Agent Brand is incapacitated,” she said, turning her attention to the floating orb. “Control of the school passes to me as the next in command.”

Benjamin twittered. “I ca

The woman snarled. “Benjamin, Supreme Override Four Seven X, and my password is ‘Dewey decimal.’”

Benjamin’s glowing blue light turned red, and then the orb spun around several times in midair. It bobbed and weaved as if struggling with something that was happening inside its circuits. Then it righted itself, and the red light glowed brighter than ever before. “Protocol Four Seven X. Operations of school are now in the hands of Ms. Holiday.”

“Very good, Benjamin,” she said. “Take the school out of lockdown. My boyfriend is here.”

Miss Information took her phone out of her bag and dialed it.

“I’ve been out here for hours, darling,” the Antagonist said in a strained voice.

“Sorry, honey bun, but it took a little longer to wrap all this up,” she said. “Why don’t you come and see me? I’m in the basement. Go through Locker 41.”

She hung up the phone and looked over at the two remaining scientists.

“You’re going to help me with a little chore,” she said.

The two men shook their heads.

Miss Information frowned behind her mask, then removed a bright red ray gun from her purse. “You do realize I’m a supervillain, right? Now what would a supervillain be without a superscary weapon? Let me introduce you to mine. It’s called the atom smasher. Wa

The men shook their heads.

“Good! Then let’s get to work. We have a lot to do.”

By the time the Antagonist reached the Playground, Miss Information and the two remaining scientists had dragged Agent Brand, Dr. Kim, and Dr. Yerkey into a holding cell. Two containment suits were prepped and ready and the miniaturization ray had been adjusted and properly aimed.

“What’s all this, honey?” the Antagonist asked.

“A slight change in plans, darling,” Miss Information replied. “It seems the fifth member of the NERDS team has been shrunk and injected into this gigantic head.”

The Antagonist looked at his former employer. Despite the boy’s twisted features, he recognized Heathcliff immediately. Simon, Screwball, Brainstorm—whatever he called himself—the boy was responsible for his hook, and his white hair, and his blind eye. All of this boy’s foolish plots had blown up in his face over and over again, and the Antagonist had always suffered. By the looks of him, it appeared the imbecile had finally gotten what was coming to him.

“I’m confused,” he said.

“There’s no time to explain, sweetie pie, only to say that inside that head is the source of the villain virus and they’ve sent an agent in to destroy it. If we don’t want the entire world to suddenly get better, we need to stop him. Now get into your suit.”

She didn’t give him a chance to argue. He could be so stubborn, and worse, dim. She was his intellectual superior in every way, even if she knew he was laughing at her behind her back. Well, she had fooled him. She was ru

She got him into his containment suit and up the ladder to the tank before he knew what had hit him. Soon both of them were submerged in saline. Once they were settled, she tapped a button on her arm that remotely activated the ray gun. And then it was cold and dark.

Flinch was at the bottom of Heathcliff’s brain, waiting for someone to tell him what to do next. The onslaught of nanobytes had slowed, but he was still fighting them, and worse, a quick look at the timer inside his helmet told him that he had precious minutes left to finish his mission. He called out to Brand and Dr. Kim, but it was as if he had been abandoned. And then it hit him. Maybe the whole team had succumbed to the virus. Maybe he was all alone.

“Dude? Dude? Are you still there?”

“Hooper?”

“Yo! You’re still alive. Bro, you won’t believe what happened! The librarian clocked the janitor and he’s knocked out. She did the same to the scientist lady, and then she took over the base. She let some weird dude in here with a mask and they got into containment suits and shrank themselves. They’re coming after you, man. They’re going to try and stop you.”