King of the Mutants Read online

  In my head, I came up with ways to try and get Greizenheimer back, some kind of plan to exact my revenge—mostly maiming him. In that moment, I vowed to myself I was going to fight against the injustices of the world one bad man and one issue at a time. After all, it doesn’t take super-mutant powers to become a superhero.

  “Let’s fry the wacko Doc’s brain!” I yelled.

  Freddie stared me down, shaking his head and puffing out his bottom lip. “If we turn him into a human vegetable, don’t you think that would make you and I as bad as him? Do you really want to deal with that guilt?”

  I went silent for a moment, my emotions on total overload.

  “No, I guess not. And I think living in a cage is punishment enough. Trust me. It sucks.” I paused, my mouth twisting in thought. “Treating Greizenheimer like a caged beast, like the ones he experimented on, would probably be the biggest blow we could inflict on him. Obviously, the man’s an egomaniac. Let him see what it feels like for once.”

  “Yeah, I agree. Cages totally suck. Been there, done that.”

  Did I hear Freddie right?

  “What? Your foster family kept you in a cage?”

  “Yep, another reason of many of why I had to run away—”

  “To Grumbling’s of all places.”

  Freddie’s eyes lowered with sadness. “Yeah. To Grumbling’s.”

  I tucked the photo of my mother into my pocket and threw the rest of my file into the air. Pages scattered on the ground. “I don’t think I can take too much more today. I’m kind of having trouble thinking straight. Now that Richie and Tony have taken the Octo-Mom away, what the heck are we going to feed those kids? They were feeding off her. They’re going to have, like, major withdrawals or something.”

  Freddie laughed. “Let’s just hope they like fast food and pizza.”

  I nodded, but we still had another problem. “And what about Greizenheimer? Shouldn’t someone keep an eye on him?”

  “Upstairs, all over his apartment, are huge flat screens that also act as security monitors,” explained Freddie. “We can tune every channel onto Freak TV. We can watch both Greizenheimer and the pod kids at the same time.”

  “Then let’s get out of this nauseating room of tragedy,” I said.

  Honestly, I was kind of excited to explore my new digs. Bad experience aside, I now had a place to call home. After a knuckle bump, Freddie and I stepped out of the records room and into the elevator.

  Everything in Greizenheimer’s living quarters was white except for the floors, appliances, and fittings, which were stainless steel. The only color giving life to the place came from the modern art that adorned the walls or the food in the refrigerator. He had horrible taste in paintings. To me, it just looked someone threw up onto the canvases. He didn’t have any plants and it was basically a sterile extension of his laboratory. We all took turns exploring our massive accommodations, watching the monitors, and tried to make the best of our predicament.

  When it was my turn to tune into Freak TV, I didn’t notice anything shady going on with Greizenheimer. He just sat in his cage singing his opera music to Chimchee. But on the other camera, ten or so of the mutant kids, including Wolfy and Octo, were having a little pow-wow in the corner. It all seemed innocent enough until Octo grinned toward the camera with his vicious, lopsided smile and spat a wad of black ink at it. Ooze dripped down the monitor like blood splatter in an old horror film. It felt like a death threat.

  I turned my back from the screen just as Richie and Tony returned with Mickey D’s for everyone. Relieved I didn’t have to figure out a way to feed them chemicals from a human body, I watched the mutant kids devour every last bite. I didn’t eat a thing, not a morsel. Thoroughly exhausted and completely stressed out, I passed out on a sun lounger on the roof deck with Snaggletooth at my side. I didn’t wake up until the next day.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  HOW TO STOP A MUTANT MUTINY

  Garbage trucks rumbled, shaking the building ever so slightly, taxi cab drivers yelled, and car horns honked. There was nothing like the sounds of waking up to New York City coming to life. I rubbed my eyes—happy I made it to my thirteenth birthday alive—no evil clowns, no midgets in sight. Nothing but the promise of a new day. Still, I really wasn’t in the mood to celebrate. Who knew what else the future had in store for me?

  Nobody else stirred. On the surveillance monitors, the mutant kids were all curled up in their pods and Greizenheimer and Chimchee were on the floor of their cage, snoring. Inside, Tony and Richie were crashed out in the living room, sleeping on the white leather and steel couches. And I assumed Freddie had found some privacy in one of the eight massive bedrooms.

  It would be nice to have some time to myself.

  I got off the lounger and dove into the lap pool. Just like the orange, pink, and yellow sunrise, my new life was just now beginning. As I floated on my back, I watched the clouds and thought of Serafine and her white outfit. I wished she had warned me about this King of the Mutants thing. It was a title I’d happily return. I closed my eyes and tried to think of pleasant things. For me, those were hard to come by.

  And then my mother’s angelic face came to mind.

  A warm breeze rushed across my body, like somebody was telling me it would all be okay, telling me that none of this was my fault. My mind found peace and it was nice, if only for a short time. Unfortunately, my dog ruined the serene moment.

  Snaggletooth ran around the pool in panicked circles. I hopped out of the water before the fleabag woke everybody up. He snuggled up to my legs, but then barked sharply, pointing his snout toward the outside television screen. I glanced over at the monitor. Snaggletooth hadn’t been worried about me, he’d been alerting me to a problem.

  All was not quiet on the mutant front.

  The sneaky ones whose little conversation I’d busted on the previous day’s episode of Freak TV were ganging up on the other kids. And the odds weren’t stacked in their favor. It was survival of the fittest in its most whacked out form, and it was clear the stronger ones wanted to take the weaker ones down. Mortified, I watched as Hawk Boy swooped down on Glow Girl and grabbed a chunk of her hair.

  I high-tailed it into the living room and did my best to wake up Tony and Richie. They just grunted, scratched their backsides, and fell right back to sleep. Richie mumbled, “Momma, Momma, I didn’t do it,” and rolled over.

  I skidded into the kitchen, nearly knocking over a glass bowl filled with plastic oranges. Frantic, I rummaged through the cabinets to find a large metal pot and wooden spoon. I banged them together as hard as I could, like a mean drill sergeant, until the duo finally began to stir. Finally, Richie sat up and wiped big gobs of crusty sleep out of his eyes. “What’s all the racket, Ma?”

  “I’m not your mother,” I yelled. “But you have to get your butt in gear now. There’s a war going on in the laboratory and we have to stop it.”

  “War?” asked Tony worriedly. He wiped a long stream of drool off his tattooed chin.

  Richie’s big smile turned into a frown. “The bad ones are attacking the good ones, huh?”

  I nodded.

  “We’ll take ’em out with a tranquilizer gun from the viewing station,” he said. “Hunters and prey together? Even I’m not that stupid. Man, I told the Doc this was what would happen if we kept ’em together.”

  We bolted to the viewing station. Richie pressed a couple of buttons, one of which set off the air raid alarm, and the other rotated the glass windows to an open position. Then, from underneath Greizenheimer’s desk, he pulled out tranquilizer guns, handing us each one.

  We took our positions on the front line.

  Yesterday’s insanity made today’s look like a picnic in Central Park. And if you don’t think a shark can’t take to land, think again; you’d never met Sharky. I wondered what New Yorkers would say if they saw a boy with a gigantic fin sticking out from his back walking down its streets.

 
Hawk Boy was in the process of tormenting Glow Girl when Dog Girl barked and pointed, and his attention shifted toward us. He ruffled his mottled brown wings and flew straight at me, claws outstretched. But he wasn’t prepared for the tranquilizer guns. With eagle-eye precision, Tony got a shot in. Hawk spiraled to the ground like a swirling badminton birdie—no pun intended. A poof of downy feathers exploded in the air.

  His fall from glory didn’t deter the others though.

  Octo stared me down, pulling a Yorgi. He pointed to his eyes and directed his fingers back at me. Then, his skin color turned bright yellow with blue rings. He was going to release his deadly venom in the room, perhaps directly at me! I wasn’t going to take this lying down. With my eye on my attacker, I raised my gun, and click, click, boom!

  “Eat that, you evil squid!” I yelled.

  The yellow dart hit Octo smack dab in the middle of his gigantic forehead. The sucker fell to the floor, screaming like a banshee. With their leader lying on the ground motionless, the remaining merciless mutant kids—Wolfy, Eel, Sharky, Hawk, Cheetah Girl, Monkey Girl, Grizzly Boy, Cobra, and Fisher—scurried into their pods.

  The room went still.

  Tony turned off the siren. My throbbing ears were thankful for that. We squished into the small elevator, and headed downstairs to check on the rest of the mutant kids: Dolphin Boy, Spider Boy, Glow Girl, Fly Boy, Chameleon Girl, Pony Boy, Roo, and Gazelle. Even though it appeared safe to make our entrance, we kept the tranquilizer guns on us, just in case a surprise attack headed in our direction.

  I held my breath as we entered the room to assess the damage. It wasn’t good. Sharky had bitten a chunk of Dolphin Boy’s flipper off and he was bleeding badly. Cheetah Girl had shredded one of Gazelle’s legs. The list of wounds went on and on. Some snickers emitted from the rest of the bad mutant kids. Even though I was full of nerves, I had to stand my ground. I was Maverick Mercury: King of the Mutants.

  “Okay, everybody listen up,” I yelled. “There’s going to be some big changes going on around here.” I pointed at the victims of the massacre. “You eight are going to live upstairs with me, Richie, Tony, Freddie, and Snaggletooth.”

  The wounded kids cowered and trembled.

  “You can’t live here in this room anymore with the predators. It’s not safe.”

  Of all the kids to come up to me, Glow Girl surprised me with her shy approach. She stood up on her tiptoes and grabbed my pinky finger, her bottom lip trembling. Her scalp had crusted over at the spot where Hawk Boy chomped on her scalp.

  “You promise you won’t try to eat us?” she whimpered.

  I scooped her up in my arms and hugged her close to my chest. “I promise.”

  Her butt glowed brightly and sent an electrical volt into my body. I almost dropped her on her head. She kissed me on the nose and fluttered her little wings. Her trust won over the eight good mutant kids, and one by one, with the exception of Dolphin Boy, they stood at my side.

  “You kids, follow me. Tony, Richie, after I go up, one of you guys secure the viewing station back up. Then carry Dolphin Boy to the pool. If you can, patch up his flipper. And be gentle with him.”

  “You got it, boss,” said Richie.

  “Thanks, you guys did good today,” I said.

  Tony smiled his goofy, crooked smile.

  Rat Boy tried to scamper into the elevator as the good mutant kids and I made our way into it. Gazelle Girl kicked him back with a tiny hoofed foot. “Never trust a rodent.”

  Rat Boy glared at us as the elevator doors closed.

  An hour later, when Freddie made his way downstairs an hour later, he was a little more than surprised to see our guests sitting on the white couches, watching cartoons on one of the ten plasma screens on living room walls. It was nice to watch them giggling like little kids should. Some of them actually ate fruits and vegetables, oohing and ahhing, each time they took a bite. Dog girl barked her hellos and Roo hopped over to Freddie.

  “Watch your back!” screamed Freddie. “They’re gonna attack—”

  “Freddie, these mutants are fine,” I said, laughing.

  “What the—” shrieked Freddie as Roo hugged him and nuzzled her head under his chin.

  “I’ll tell you all about my morning,” I laughed. “But right now, I just want to take a dip in the pool with Dolphin Boy.”

  “Seriously, Mav, what’s going on here?” asked Freddie. He looked more annoyed than anything.

  “Seriously, Freddie. I’ll tell you about it later, I promise. But as you may remember, it’s my birthday and—”

  Freddie walked over to me and punched me on the arm. “That’s right. It is. Happy Birthday, Maverick. It’s your day, do what you want…”

  That was all it took. I ran out onto the roof deck and dove into the pool headfirst. Dolphin Boy just looked painfully confused as I sat on the bottom of the pool for a good twenty minutes.

  Throughout the course of the day, I updated Freddie on the morning’s disturbing events and we came up with a strategy for dealing with our unexpected company. We decided to divide the good mutant kids into two rooms, the girls in one, and the boys in the other. Considering Dolphin Boy would sleep in the heated pool and Fly Boy and Spider Boy wanted to sleep on the ceiling, the numbers worked out. Tony, Richie, Freddie, and I would have our own rooms. Snaggletooth? Well, he could go wherever he wanted to, and he certainly loved all the attention.

  Richie and Tony fed the captive animals their meats and grains at one point during the day. They even made Psycho Doc and the quarantined mutant kids bologna and cheese sandwiches. Greizenheimer threw his out of the cage. Much to his chagrin, he wouldn’t be dining on filet mignon and lobster tails anymore.

  Out of nowhere, Freddie excused himself, saying he wanted to take a nap. He yawned dramatically, making a real show of it, and jumped up from the table. He avoided my gaze, playing around with the wrappers from his Big Mac.

  Something was up.

  I watched Freddie walk out of the room, eyeing him with suspicion. But then my attention was diverted. Pony Boy trotted all around the living room on all fours, bucking. I asked him to take a chill pill and told him that there was no running around the house.

  On the regular TV, as opposed to the video monitors with its broadcast of Freak TV, a newscast caught my attention because the kids got very rambunctious when their afternoon cartoons were interrupted. And then they went dead silent, everybody holding their breath. Elana Feldman’s face was plastered on the screen. I turned the volume up with the remote.

  “Breaking News: This just in. Authorities have reported that the body of Elana Feldman has just been found. She’s been on the missing person’s list for six years, having disappeared during a charity event at the Museum of Modern Art. Police are confused as to the cause of death. An inside source is saying that her skin was hanging off her body like a deflated balloon. They’ve never seen anything like it before.”

  The newscast cut to a reporter standing outside a house with a white picket fence.

  “This is disturbing, Alex,” said newscaster Bill. “Can you tell us where she was discovered?”

  “They’re telling me two large masked men delivered a box to the back door of her parents’ house. The identity of the men is unclear. The only thing known about them at the present time is they wore wrestling masks and outfits. One neighbor saw a cape…”

  I looked over at Tony and Richie and raised my eyebrow. “You do realize this will put a stint in your wrestling career. Don’t you? You can never wear those costumes again?”

  “We want to do good work with you,” said Richie. He nodded his head as if working with us was the only thing that mattered to him. “You guys are decent.”

  Tony hugged Snaggletooth tightly and smiled. “We’re going to be good guys from now on.”

  I smiled nervously, hoping there wouldn’t be any other unexpected surprises. I didn’t know if I could handle anything else. This mutant gig
drained me. Yawning, I decided to follow Freddie’s lead and get a little shut-eye too. “Guys, I’m going to find a room and try to sleep. Wake me up in an hour or two, ’kay?”

  “I’ll hold down the fort,” said Richie with a wink. “You’ve had a rough morning.”

  “I’ve had a rough life,” I mumbled and headed up the white marble staircase to my new bedroom.

  The second my head hit the pillow, I passed out.

  A few hours later, my feet were nearly yanked out of their sockets and my body was pulled out of bed. In silence, and with their hands over my mouth, Richie and Tony dragged me into a dark room. I struggled with their vice-like grip and hoped they hadn’t changed their minds to turn into bad guys again. They set me down on the floor, and not too gently either. In the dark, I couldn’t make anything out. All I could hear were heavy breaths.

  “Guys, what’s going on?” I began to stutter, but then the biggest shock of all my thirteen years nearly startled me out of my skin. Bright lights turned on and people screamed “SURPRISE!”

  I nearly fainted.

  “Happy Birthday to you,” sang my new family.

  Apparently, Freddie had snuck off with Doctor Greizenheimer’s ATM card. And now, the formally sterile dining room exploded in color. Streamers, helium balloons, and confetti were strewn everywhere. All the kids wore crazy party hats and blew horns. In the center of the table, a gigantic chocolate cake with my name on it in pale blue frosting greeted me.

  “We all wanted to do something nice for you,” said Freddie.

  “Yeah, you saved our lives,” said Richie and Tony.

  “Us too,” squealed the kids. “Us too.”

  I could barely hold back my tears.

  Richie and Tony handed me a poorly wrapped present. “We saved something for you,” said Tony.