Sidekicks Read Online Free PDF Page B

crud.”
    Trent turns again, this time with a stern look. He doesn’t like it when I use words like
crud
, even though it’s not a swear word, and even when it’s in response to news that our most dangerous foe escaped from prison.
    â€œSorry.”
    Trent glares at me for a moment too long again, then turns back to the monitor. “He’s been in prison for five years. The method of his escape suggests that he couldhave left whenever he wanted. So why now?” Trent asks.
    He’s not necessarily asking me; he’s asking the room, and himself. My job is to answer, so he can get the answers that are obviously wrong out of the way. “Because he had the opportunity?”
    â€œSomeone who can make a laser out of wood and an old TV is going to have a lot of opportunities,” he responds.
    â€œGood point. It could be anything.”
    â€œYes. Looks like we’re going to have to wait until he makes the first move,” he says, like he’s not happy about it. “He had a sidekick, correct? Plus/plus, speed and strength, like us. Code-named—”
    â€œMonkeywrench,” I say, and shudder. I hadn’t thought of him in years, and not because he wasn’t memorable. I had purposely blocked him. What a weasel. Unfortunately, when we caught Dr. Chaotic, Monkeywrench had gotten away. I would’ve loved to see that little jerk go to jail, too.
    â€œMonkeywrench. Right.” Trent quietly looks at the monitors. His shoulders sag a bit, something I’ve never seen before.
    â€œAre you OK?” I ask.
    â€œYes.”
    â€œYou don’t seem OK.”
    Trent takes a deep breath. “Dr. Chaotic almost killed me last time.”
    â€œYeah, but he didn’t.”
    â€œBecause I got lucky.”
    I nodded. Trent wasn’t trying to be modest. The last time we faced off against Dr. Chaotic, Trent got destroyed.
    Five years ago, Champion Motor Company was working on a project code-named Destiny. They had developed a car with a special motor that could get eighty miles per gallon, without using hybrid technology. Pretty cool, right? It got even cooler. Destiny was also capable of going zero-to-sixty in under four seconds. The thing hauled. Other companies were developing similar cars, but Champion was poised to get there first. That’s when Dr. Chaotic and Monkeywrench tried to step in.
    Dr. Chaotic knew that all the companies competing for the pole position in the fuel economy race would do whatever they needed to do to get those plans. So, his plan was pretty straightforward: Steal the plans and sell them to the highest bidder.
    Their first crime was at Champion’s headquarters. Chaotic and Monkeywrench managed to get the plansout of the building, but Champion had just installed a state-of-the-art security system, which managed to stall Chaotic and Monkeywrench long enough for Phantom and me to get there. We battled them on the roof of the Champion building for half an hour before they escaped … without the plans. That’s because as they were making their escape in Dr. Chaotic’s helicopter, I managed to snag the plans away from Monkeywrench. Sure, I almost plummeted 1,500 feet to my death, but seeing the look on that little weasel’s face after snatching those plans from him was totally worth it.
    After that, Champion split the Destiny plans up, and hid parts of them all over the city. Dr. Chaotic and Monkeywrench spent the whole rest of the summer searching for them. They managed to snag a few, but more often than not, Phantom Justice and I were able to thwart them. They did, however, always manage to escape capture. I guess the frustration was getting to them, because by the end of August, their robbery attempts were getting more reckless, more dangerous. Then, in the last week of August, things came to a head.
    Dr. Chaotic decided to stop looking for the plans and start looking for the one working prototype of the car. He