In the last two chapters: Austin gets welded to his father's duplicate set of tentacles and is returned safely home. He easily dispatches his tormentor Brandon McCloud with the arms that call themselves his brothers.
Now, for the story...Brandon is plotting his revenge, and Austin finds out someone is crushing on him! Now, can he control himself enough to find acceptance? Don't forget to review...questions, comments, compliments and even flames welcome. Now get to it!
Chapter 6: Power and Responsibility
6:30 am. Thursday morning.
Austin rolled out of bed, as reluctantly as usual. He pulled on a pair of blue slacks and a t-shirt. Again, the tentacles ripped a hole in the back of his t-shirt.
Damn, you have got to stop doing that to my shirts.
How will we breathe, Brother?
For God's sake, you're machines. You don't breathe, and t-shirts don't grow on trees.
We know that clothing cannot grow on plants, Brother.
He was going to have to teach them about colloquial speech. For now, though, he threw his coat and sunglasses on and headed down for breakfast.
Magni was stuffing her face with waffles and sausage. "Dude, forget about what Laufey said about the Matrix. You look like a secret agent gone wrong."
If only she could know.
Meanwhile, Laufey and Anna had been talking in hushed tones.
"So anyway, he was in his room all day talking to himself."
"It's probably a phase, Laufey. Teenage boys brood, okay?"
"I always thought it was okay if you talked to yourself, but something's wrong if you answer yourself. Austin's having full conversations."
"Think he's schizophrenic?"
"Post-traumatic stress syndrome is my guess. Maybe the kidnapping kind of tipped him over, you know?"
"Yeah, but he wouldn't end up talking to himself, would he?"
Austin closed his eyes. Even though his mother and aunt were whispering across the table, if he concentrated, Austin could hear what the tentacles heard. And they could hear a great deal more than any person could.
I'm not talking to myself, I'm not crazy! He wanted to shout. I'm talking to tentacles that were grafted on my back when I was kidnapped! Of course, he never could.
"So if we looked up a psychiatrist in the yellow pages—"
"Just close your eyes and point. They're all the same."
"I don't want to see a shrink, okay?" Austin shouted, to the surprise of everyone else.
Anna swallowed her coffee the wrong way and went into yet another bout of coughing.
"Shrink?" Laufey asked. "We never said anything about a shrink. We just thought that you might want to talk to someone about the kidnapping. Kidnapping can be a very traumatic event, considering who your father is…"
"I can handle it. I'm not crazy, okay?"
"Dr. Carolyn is very qualified," Anna finally said. "She knows about schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorder in teens…"
"And I don't have either!" Austin yelled.
They should not talk about you like that, Brother. Why don't we…
If you do, I'll take a chainsaw to you.
"You know, I think that Doc Ock brainwashed Austin when he kidnapped him," Magni pointed out. "I saw this movie called The Manchurian Candidate, and it was about this guy who…"
"Shut up, will all of you please shut up!" Austin yelled, picking up his backpack and slamming the door.
He remembered his aunt's words. "With great power comes great responsibility." But what did that have to do with him? What responsibility? To do the right thing? To tell the truth? To do things differently than his father did? To keep from making his mistakes?
What mistakes?
You shouldn't listen to Laufey.
She's a bad influence.
No, she's a good influence, and you're just mad that I don't let you do what you want to do.
"Are you sure we're going through with this?" Duke Kelly gulped. "I don't want a car piled on top of me."
"Duke Kelly, where the hell do you get your crazy ideas?"
"I saw it in a movie," Kelly said.
"For Chrissakes, he's not going to throw a car on top of us."
"I still think he let you off easy that last time. You're gonna really piss him off."
Brandon rubbed the back of his head. It still hurt after Austin had slammed him into the lockers. "He owes us money, okay?"
"We can get the money somewhere else," Duke Kelly persisted. "Why are you really doing this?"
"Duke, if you were any slower, you'd be going backward. It's not just about the money, it's about my reputation. Once word goes around that Brandon McCloud got beat by Austin Smith, we won't get a dime more off those nerds."
"It'll be like the French Revolution, with our heads on the guillotine. 'Let them eat cafeteria food,'" murmured Duke.
"What are you talking about?"
"Can't we, you know, talk to the principal? Shouldn't she know there's a kid with huge metal tentacles on his back walking around her school?"
"Yeah, you go talk to Dr. Jacklyn Hyde. Once she gets through laughing in your face, she'll suspend you for slandering her star student. Remember the speech at the awards ceremony? 'Austin Smith is a shining beacon for all students pursuing a career in science…'"
"So talk to your dad. He knew about the Twinkie extortion thing, right?"
"You really expect him to believe that the skinny geek his son's been beating up now has a set of mechanical ten—"
"Doesn't he read the tabloids? He can't have missed that picture of him with that headline, something about being the love child of some mad scientist supervillian, Doctor whatshisname."
"Octopus! And he doesn't buy them. Too intellectual for him."
Mandy Wilson paused before locker 8. (Quite a fitting number for a guy whose father has eight limbs, is it?) She fiddled with a piece of paper. Should she drop it in? And why did lockers have vents, anyway? It wasn't like you could keep pets, or anything that breathed in there. The only conceivable purpose she could think of (besides making sure the freshmen routinely stuffed in those lockers didn't suffocate) was to stuff love notes in, opening her to a whole world of embarrassment. Curse those locker vents!
On the upside, Austin could call the cell phone number she wrote on the back of the poem. Then they would arrange a date, and she could become his girlfriend. She could help him with his social graces, and he could help her with her science homework.
On the downside, he could reject her, and not only would she not have a boyfriend, her friends would all laugh at her. A cheerleader asked a geek out---and the geek rejected her! Really? It's not like a guy like him can afford to be picky. A science-obsessed geek who looks like a Matrix reject—and have you heard about who his father is supposed to be?!
Throwing the remaining bit of her caution to the wind, she stuffed the note in.
3:31. Just after school. Austin fiddled with his locker, packing up her books.
What are they?
Books!
Can we see?
No! Two people already know about you. That's two too many.
A note floated out of the locker, gently resting on the floor. Austin picked it up.
Roses are red
Violets are blue
They say you're an octopus' spawn
But I still love you
Austin read the note three more times before finally looking at the number on the back.
Ooh! What is that?
A love note
From a girl
Maybe she wants to go on a date with Brother!
What's a date?
You are such an idiot, Number Two, it's when a human male and female get together and…oh, ask Brother to explain it.
Are you going to call her?
A month before, he would have jumped at the chance and thanked God, Yahweh, Allah, his lucky stars, and a few pagan gods along the way. But his tentacles, like annoying kid brothers, were talking to him again. They were exactly why he could never go on dates.
Why? Wouldn't she like us?
Who would? Sometimes I don't even like you.
What if he did go out with her? What if he was all dressed up in his dress shirt and slacks, and the tentacles burst from his coat, wanting a closer look, and she ran off screaming? What if he got angry with her for some reason, and the tentacles hurt her in spite of his orders? What if he lost control?
He could never live with himself.
We wouldn't hurt her!
We will be good!
We promise!
Sure you would. And I have oceanfront property in Kansas.
Kansas does not have a coastline, Brother. It is landlocked.
He was not going to trust his tentacles too far. His father listened to his tentacles too much. That was how he went from an renowned nuclear physicist to a murderous supervillian. The tentacles were machines—they could not love, they could not care for any other human life besides their "father"—or "brother."
That was his responsibility. To protect others from himself.