Endocrine Kingdom

29. Rescue

Davy found himself inside a dusty kitchen. He had somehow arrived inside the theater safely. He had been too occupied with keeping his eyes shut and hoping that he wouldn't die to see how Olivia landed after launching the two of them into the hole in the wall. Davy got to his feet and got a better look at the room around him. Unsurprisingly, he wasn't in a real kitchen, but on a stage. There were cobwebs and broken planks of wood all around him. Olivia was next to him, eagerly looking around the room for bad guys. Davy looked the back of the stage and saw there was a large metal cage. To his relief, he saw Steve inside.

"Dude, you found us!" Steve shouted. After a moment, he added, "How did you find us?"

Davy shrugged. "You remember the guy who attacked the Librarian in the bus station?" He pointed to Olivia. "That's her. She's the Night Retcher. She's a superhero."

"Wassup," Olivia chirped.

"So yeah, she helped me find you," Davy continued. "We searched for clues, interrogated bad guys, and eventually found this theater." Davy thought to himself to see if he left anything out. "Oh, and I fought a narwhal."

Steve lowered his head glumly, apparently disappointed to hear all the stuff he missed out on. "That sounds cool," he mumbled.

"Well, what have you been up to?" Davy asked before realizing that the answer was most like going to be "sitting in a cage."

"Sitting in a cage," Steve answered. "These three losers in fairy tale masks have been keeping us captive. But I tricked them into falling out of the side of the building. It was pretty cool." Steve remembered that he was not alone in the cage. "Oh, and this is Vulcan Hephaestus."

Davy saw a man in a fancy suit and round-lenses glasses walk from out of the dark and stood next to Steve. "Pleased to meet the both of you," he said cordially. "I am Vulcan Hephaestus. He's my mentor."

Davy was pretty sure that Vulcan Hephaestus sounded like a supervillain name, but decided against saying anything, since it looked like the guy had been helping Steve. "Nice to meet you too," he replied.

Vulcan nodded politely, but Davy could sense an air of urgency. "I am loathe to cut your reunion short, but I must ask that you help us find a way out of this metal prison," Vulcan stated. "We have urgent matters to discuss."

"Not a problem, homeslice," Olivia replied, examining the cage. "I can get this door off in a flash!" Once again, she shot out her left arm like an elastic band towards the door of the cage. Only this time, as soon as she made contact, her arm immediately retracted as Olivia jolted up towards the ceiling. Steve grimaced as he watched Olivia crumple to the floor. "Sorry," he mumbled. "I forgot. The cage is electrified or something."

Olivia managed to stand up, still frazzled from the shock. "No biggie," she said, brushing herself off. "Just gotta find another way to get you outta there."

Davy walked around the cage. If there was an electrical current running through it, it had to becoming from somewhere. He noticed a black metal box attached to the back of the cage. A cord came out of it and ran to a power outlet in a wall backstage. Davy reached down and yanked on the cord, unplugging it from the outlet. It seemed a little anticlimactic to solve the issue this way, but he wasn't going to wish that this cage was harder to open.

He hesitantly poked at the metal bar closest to him. He didn't feel anything. "Looks like the electricity's off," he shouted to Olivia.

Olivia rubbed her hands together in anticipation. "Groovy," she replied. She raised her hands in the air and looked at the cage door head on. "Prepare to breathe your last, foul door," she yelled. "For you are about to feel the cold embrace of justice!"

She shot her tendril arms at the door a second time. They wrapped around the bars and Olivia began to pull. She was clearly straining herself, but after a moment, the door sheared from its hinges. Olivia brought the door above her head then casually do by it behind her, where it crashed against a wall.

She raised her hands in the air again. "Ten points!" she exclaimed to herself.

Steve seemed confused about what he just saw, but as he walked out of the cage, Davy could sense Steve's relief at being free. Steve walked up to Davy and gave him a fist bump. "Thanks bro," Steve said with a forced casualness. "I probably could have gotten us outta there, but thanks for saving us the time."

"Whatever you say," Davy replied.

Steve made his way to Olivia. "So you're some kind of superhero?" he asked. "That's cool. I don't know if Davy told you, but I'm an astronaut, which is also pretty cool. I guess you could say we are both just as cool as each other. By the way, my name's Steve."

"Heya, nice to meet you, Steve," Olivia said genially. "So what's space like?"

Steve's face went blank for a moment. "Oh, well I haven't been up yet," he muttered. "I'm still doing training. And stuff. But I'm awesome at it. They say I will probably be ready any time now."

Davy noticed the man named Vulcan was looking up at the sky through the hole in the wall. He turned to Davy, Olivia, and Steve with a grim look.

"I hate to cut your reunion short," he began. "But we don't have much time."

"Oh, right," Steve added. He turned to Davy as well. "Mother Martyr's going to flood the city."

"Mother Martyr?" Davy asked. "Who's that?"

Olivia chuckled. "I know about Mother Martyr," she said. She looked at Davy squarely. "She's a crazy lady."

"And she's going to kill us all if we don't stop her," Vulcan replied. He looked to Davy and Olivia. "She spoke of some device that would flood the city. Do either of you know where she might be?"

Davy remembered the strange structure coming through the roof of the steel mill. "The steel mill next door. There was a weird antenna-like tower coming out of it. Could that be it?"

Vulcan nodded approvingly. That's as good a place to start as any," he said. "Come," he continued. "We must make our way to Mother Martyr and save this city. Follow me!"

With that, Vulcan began running out the door of the theater.

As the other three followed, Davy wondered if there was a clever way he could comment on the fact that a man named Vulcan Hephaestus was rushing towards a steel mill. He couldn't think of anything.