The Superhero's Son (Book 1): The Superhero's Test Read Online Free PDF Page A

at the suit Dad wore and the helmet in his lap. “But you still kept the suit.”
    Dad shrugged sheepishly. “Well, just because I'm retired doesn't mean I have to give up my suit. I put a lot of work and effort into it and there are a lot of supervillains in the world who would love to get their hands on it, if only so they could duplicate the technology I made for it.”
    “But why did Mom want you to retire from crime-fighting?” I said. “Why couldn't she work while you fight the bad guys? You could have still raised me even that way, right?”
    Dad looked down at his helmet, like I had asked a question that he was not sure how to answer. “Well … she was worried for my safety. She was worried that I might get killed and she would have to raise you on her own. I didn't want to put her through that kind of stress, so I retired after defeating Master Chaos and putting him behind bars.”
    Now I could tell that there was another reason Mom wanted Dad to stop crime-fighting. It was obvious. Dad wasn't looking at me and he was clearly only telling me about half of the truth. But I also knew that Dad could be tight-lipped when he wanted to, so I decided to ask him some other questions instead.
    “So you haven't done any superhero stuff at all since you retired?” I said.
    “Occasionally, I get requests for help from some of old friends who are cashing in a favor,” said Dad. He tapped his forehead. “My super intelligence and memory give me a unique skill set among neoheroes, but I have never gotten directly involved in superheroics since retiring except for one time, no.”
    “So how did you know that I had punched that Robert jerk through the cafeteria wall?” I said. “I didn't call or text you or anything like that.”
    “I put a tracking device on your smartphone that lets me listen to your environment,” said Dad. “Based on the screams I heard, I guessed that you had knocked Robert across the room, although I wasn't sure how until I actually got there and saw the situation.”
    I pulled my smartphone out of my pocket and looked at it from every angle. I didn't see any tracking device on it and it didn't feel any heavier than it normally did, but Dad didn't sound like he was lying.
    Looking at Dad, I said, “You mean you put a tracking device on my smartphone without my permission?”
    Dad shrugged again. “I was worried about you. This is your first day at a new school, after all. I just wanted to make sure you didn't get into trouble. I would have removed the tracking device tonight, after you went to bed, once it became clear you didn't need my guidance.”
    “Dad, that is weird,” I said. I held out my smartphone to him. “Get rid of that tracking device right now.”
    “Later,” said Dad. “I don't have the tools to do it at the moment.”
    I scowled, but put my smartphone back into my pocket anyway. “It's still weird.”
    “I was just trying to make sure you were all right,” said Dad. “I knew something bad was likely to happen on your first day of school, something you wouldn't be able to deal with on your own, but I couldn't just follow you around the school in person. So I came up with a way to monitor your day without having to actually be there.”
    “What were you afraid of happening?” I said. “Asking a girl out and then getting rejected? You're worse than Mom sometimes, you know that?”
    “I was worried about what did happen,” said Dad, “namely, that you would suddenly manifest your superpowers and hurt someone in the process.”
    I raised an eyebrow. “You knew I was going to punch someone out?”
    “I did not know , because no one can ever know the future with perfect accuracy,” said Dad, shaking his head. “But the probability of you manifesting superpowers was extremely high.”
    “Why?” I said.
    “Because you are my son,” said Dad. “There is still much scientists don't know about us neoheroes, but one thing that is obvious is that our kids tend to