Chapter 5: Spheres, Robbers, and Super Heroes

After a four and a half hour drive Seth arrives somewhere and has a blindfold removed. Seth looks around the strange laboratory of this newly encountered stranger and, in Seth's personal opinion, total nut case - Science Man. It's a strange underground massive facility, which appears to be the basement of an abandoned warehouse. There are tables upon tables of vials, tools, and small gadgets and in the very center lies a massive keyboard with an even larger screen above it.

Science Man approaches the screen and hits a few buttons on the keyboard and the screen comes to life showing a strange desktop like no operating system Seth had ever seen. Science Man quickly sifts through several files until an image bank comes up with a picture of every single student in the local schools. He finally stops on an image of Seth and then brings up some information. Seth looks it over, "This is some piece of work, did you design this OS yourself? And the speed of this, I seem to be oddly attracted to this machine. Oh, well isn't that a strange name? Seth Davis. I'd of taken myself as more of a Joey."

Science Man laughs at this comment and brings up some more files. "Let's see if we can dig up some more information on you, shall we?" Science Man examines a file that pops up showing an online news article that had just been submitted. Science Man quickly looks it over, backs away and brings his hand up to his face, pinching his nose and thinking. "This is very interesting. Apparently everyone thinks you're dead, but what concerns me more is that your mother is the secretary of Damian Drake."

Seth glances at the article and sees a picture of his mother crying with Damian Drake holding a comforting arm around her shoulder. Seth reads the caption out loud, "CEO of Demenstra-Tek Damian Drake comforting his secretary, and mother of the deceased, Linda Davis." Seth looks at Science Man as a strange woman with curly black hair and blue eyes wearing a grey dress shirt and black skirt walks down the stairs. "What's so special about Damian Drake?"

The woman looks at Seth, then glances at Science Man. "Bringing in complete strangers again Steven?"

Science Man quickly spins around and looks at the woman. "Carmen, don't just go around calling me by my real name in costume, this boy may just be important. I believe Demenstra-Tek wants him dead, but he has a really strong case of memory loss. Perfect timing on your part though, I was just going to call you. I need you to look after the kid while I investigate this incident.

Carmen smiles. "Glad to see you're as dedicated as ever. I have no problem keeping an eye on him."

Seth grumbles, "Hello, I'm standing right here. You don't have to talk about me in the third person. I have a name, and unless that report I saw was mistaken it's Seth."

Carmen shakes her head. "You better get going. I can already tell the less time I have to spend babysitting him the better."

Science Man nods and leaves the workshop through a back door while Carmen walks up to Seth. Seth looks at her. "So, Carmen, who exactly is this Science Man?"

Carmen shakes her head. "Just someone who has a serious problem with Demenstra-Tek and who looks out for the good of everyone. He reminds me so much of his father. so what exactly do you plan on doing now?"

Seth sighs and shakes his head. "I have no idea what do next. If the fact I have no memory wasn't confusing enough I've been taken to this place and told my life is in danger because the company my mother works for wants me dead. What would you do next if you were in my position?"

Carmen shrugs. "Heh, let's just say if I was in your position I wouldn't be too happy and certainly wouldn't want to be cooped up in this boring old lab."

Seth looks around the lab. "You're right, this place is a real drag. Although I wouldn't mind checking that computer out."

Carmen laughs and looks around the lab. "You're right. What would you say about getting out of here and waiting for news in my apartment?"

Seth stands up and looks at Carmen, "I'd say: what are we waiting for?"

Carmen's apartment is in the suburbs of the city and is one of 6 apartments in a cheap building. The inside is poorly furnished but one thing stands out and Seth quickly walks up to it. "That's a nice computer, a real Pentium IV. That must be an antique by now."

Carmen laughs, "Not as real as an antique dealer would like. I've been upgrading that case since I was a child. It doesn't have any games on it though, so no you cannot use it, as I'm sure you were about to ask. Oh, I just remembered I need to grab something from the store. I'm sure you can handle yourself here until I'm back."

Carmen leaves; Seth sits on the computer chair, spins around the room and comes to a stop facing the door Carmen just walked out and starts muttering to himself, "She probably won't mind if I just go out for a little walk. Nobody will be the wiser. What's the worst thing that could happen?" and with that slowly gets up and opens the door, notices the hallway is open and quickly walks down a set of stairs and steps outside.

Seth looks around and notices a small store across the street and immediately sticks his hand into his left pocket and pulls out a card. He smiles as he realizes what it is. "A credit card, alright."

Seth crosses the street, enters the store and looks around before stepping into a snack section and going over everything there, "If only I could remember which of these is my favorite."

Suddenly a gunshot goes off and Seth kneels to take cover behind the shelf as he hears a gruff voice speak, "Everyone in the store on the ground. This is a stick up. You at the register, get the key to the safe. If anyone tries anything funny, this broad gets it right between the eyes."

Seth looks over the shelf and sees a man in a ski mask holding a teenager by the neck with a gun to her head and a panicked clerk staring at the man from behind a cash register fumbling with a door, trying to get it open. The man growls, "Hurry up you stupid fucker. Don't you see I have a gun?" The man starts to move the gun to face the clerk but is suddenly hit in the back of the head with a fast moving object and falls to the ground unconscious. The clerk faints as the girl he was holding quickly runs towards the door screaming.

Seth walks up to the unconscious man and sees that the back of his head is bleeding from a point with a small lead ball in the center of the wound. Seth picks up the ball and looks towards the door where a figure about 4 and a half feet tall stands wearing a body suit and opera style mask. The suit is orange and has a big, grey circle in the middle of it, seemingly poorly drawn by some sort of crayon. Around his wrists are strange rings with holes in them that each have a small ball in them. One of these rings is empty. The man speaks in an emphatically rough voice, "I believe that ball belongs to me, I'd like it back ... Seth?"

Seth looks at this caped vigilante and bursts out laughing and stops when the sound of police sirens can be heard. The caped sphere user starts to run and Seth follows after him. Seth is lead a few blocks away and into an alley before the man turns to him panting out of breath and looks Seth up and down. Seth quickly speaks, "You know who I am?"

The man nods his head. "Indeed I do, but aren't you supposed to be dead? The news has been going chaotic all day. The whole city's gone into chaos or something. First some mass murderer strikes the downtown area causing some real chaos and then a report comes in of how you somehow blew yourself up. It was fluffed up even more than the murderer. I guess my disguise is pretty good though, since you don't recognize me."

Seth shakes his head. "I wouldn't give the disguise much credit; I probably wouldn't recognize you without it. I'm currently having serious memory issues."

The man looks at him. "That is unfreakingbelievable. Do you have any idea why everyone thinks you're dead?"

Seth sighs, "The only idea I have is the one some freak calling himself Science Man put in my head."

The man suddenly looks at Seth. "Did you say Science Man? He is my idol. You've seriously met him? Is he as cool as the web sites make him out to be... oh yeah, memory loss."

Seth looks at him and squints his face and shakes his head. "Who are you, anyway?"

The man smiles, "Well, I'd thought about calling myself SPHERE MASTER! what do you think?"

Seth sticks the credit card into his right pocket and feels another card inside it as he does and pulls this card out and looks at it while speaking, "No I want to know what your real-" Seth finally sees the picture on the back of the card and freezes instantly and slaps his hand to his forehead as an intense pain fills his head, "Ah, my head feels like it's being stomped on by an elephant from every direction at once."

Seth faints, opens his eyes a few seconds later and looks up at Sphere Master as the card flutters to the ground. "I think I'm starting to remember some things... Edward Gregorio?"

Sphere Master suddenly stares at Seth and contorts his face into a grimace. "I guess the disguise definitely wasn't as good as it could of been. But why did the card jog your memory? It's just some useless student card."

Seth looks at the card and picks it up. "Not just some card. Seishero... Damn it I couldn't save her."

Suddenly the card glows blue and a hologram pops up revealing the face of Dr. Nanami. The face looks at Seth and contorts into a look of confusion, "Who are you? How did you activate this card?"

Seth looks at the face. "I'm Seth Davis. Are you Seishero's father?"

Dr. Nanami gets a sudden glimmer of hope on his face. "Did you say Seth? The same Seth that helped my daughter out? Please tell me, is she alright?"

Seth shakes his head, tears now flowing freely from his sad face. "I'm sorry sir; I couldn't protect her. Mr. Thomson captured her while we were getting supplies to make a run for it."

The man's face contorts into an extremely frustrated position. "Damn it, Seishero! What are we going to do now?"

Edward looks at the little hologram and smiles. "Well simple, we'll launch a rescue mission."

The hologram swivels to face Edward. "And who are you?"

Edward smiles and laughs. "I am the great SPHERE MASTER! Sexy Titanic warrior of justice."

Seth sighs. "More like short stupid idiot who can shoot balls. But is there really any chance of a rescue?"

Dr. Nanami looks back to Seth. "It's probably hopeless, but if you really think you stand a chance there just may be a way. I have some blue prints in the basement of my house. It's probably been looted clean by now, but if you want to take the risk… I have to go now, someone's coming." The hologram fizzes out and Seth looks to Edward.

Edward smiles. "It looks like I'm going to get a lot of fieldwork after all."

Seth shakes his head and looks around. "I am so not taking you with me. Now where are we? My memory's still not that great and I'm definitely lost."

Edward laughs, "Of course you're going to be lost, We're not even in the same county as Demstar anymore. I decided to get a good distance from home before I field tested my powers. This is Gamebridge, we're a few hours from Demstar. Now we should hurry, I have a ride waiting a few blocks from here."

Seth starts to speak but Edward grabs him and starts dragging him along the back allies and eventually they find a strange vehicle hidden behind some dumpsters. The vehicle is in the shape of a Giant Ball and as soon as Edward approaches it a section opens and a green haired girl wearing a dirty work suit and a smudge of black grease on the tip of her nose hops out and looks at Edward. "Agent Tech reporting for duty, awaiting debriefing. Seth Davis is that you?"

Seth looks from the green-haired girl to Edwards blushing face than back to the green haired girl and drops to the ground laughing, stops for a moment, breathes, looks at the girl again and resumes laughing.

Edward growls, "Yes, laugh at me. Go ahead. You think you'd have a more serious attitude considering the situation we're in."

Seth stands up and replies through stifled laughs, "I'm sorry it's just that, looking at the two of you I couldn't imagine a more peculiar match and well no offence Danna, but frankly you're both the biggest loners in the school."

The girl shakes her head. "No offence taken. I suppose you're right, all the better for disguise. Aren't you supposed to be dead, and how did the field test go?"

Edward smacks Seth over the head and shrugs. "Well, as far as tests go that wasn't so bad, but the disguise is a no go. Seth here recognized me the moment he got his memory back."

Danna looks at them oddly. "Got his memory back?"

Seth slaps his hand to his forehead. "Listen, I'll explain to you on the way back to Demstar. Now where's the car?"

Edward looks from Danna to the Giant Ball, "Well you see, about that. Since neither of us can legally drive, and couldn't afford a car, Danna decided to build a vehicle on her own."

Seth looks at the Giant Ball, "You don't mean th-"

Danna walks up to the ball and puts her hand on it. "Isn't it a beauty? I call it the Roller. It's incredible. No fuel needed, either; it's set to run on the electricity generated by the ball spinning the generator on the inside. It's not the most roomy vehicle, though. Hurry up and hop inside."

Edward and Danna crawl into the monstrosity that is the Roller and Seth crawls in after them. On the inside are four chairs tightly crammed together inside a small ball completely covered in blue insulation. A single monitor stands in front of them which lights up, revealing four windows showing a general view of all directions from the ball. Seth takes a seat in one of the back seats as Edward takes the seat directly behind the monitor and buckles himself up with about eight clips as Danna does the same thing on the seat beside him. Seth quickly does the same himself. "Is this Roller... safe?"

Danna laughs and double checks Seth's buckles, "It passed five out of seven test runs, so you tell me."

Seth looks at Edward extremely pale. "She's joking, right?" Edward doesn't say anything and Seth sighs, "What a strange couple. The basketball team's mascot, and the biggest computer freak ever to touch the earth. Say, you didn't use these sphere moving powers of yours to help the basketball team out, did you? I always thought it was odd how such horrible players could become league champions. How exactly did you two meet in the-"

Seth is cut off as the Roller jumps to action, quickly spinning out of the alley and onto the road turning and rolling forward down the road going about 80 mph The rapid acceleration and sudden spinning motion dizzy Seth and he starts moaning from stomach aches as the Roller slows down a little with Edward saying matter-of-factly, "We are not a couple, just two united heroes."

Seth groans, "You've been watching way too many anime shows. Although the way every Tom, Dick and Harry on this planet seems to be developing super powers, why not? So tell me, how did you develop this strange power?"

Edward smiles. "Well this is going to be a long trip, so I don't see why not. When I was really young my father took me into the factory where he worked one day. I don't remember exactly why he brought me but he did.While we were there a crate of ball bearings burst open and one of them cracked me right in the head putting a hole in my skull and lodging itself in contact with my brain. When the doctors examined me they were amazed that I was even alive and felt that removing the ball had too high a risk of causing brain damage and seeing as the ball was firmly locked into place they decided to leave it there. Well, after I got older I found that my head tingled a little every time I thought about balls and one day I was just able to move them around. What do you think?"

Seth shakes his head. "I think your explanation's even more confusing than the impossibility of your powers. You really have a ball bearing stuck in your head?"

Edward sighs, "YES, I really have a ball bearing stuck in my head. Now is there anything else you'd like to know, Mr. Forgetful?"

Seth laughs and shrugs, "Well I'd like to know a lot of things, like what exactly made you and Danna decide to join together to form your little crime fighting team."

Danna sighs. "Now that is a long story. I guess I'd better start from the beginning."