The Superhero's Son (Book 1): The Superhero's Test by Lucas Flint Read Free Book Online Page B

tiered system called the Neo Ranks, with 10 being the strongest and 1 the weakest. The strongest heroes—such as Omega Man—were given Neo Ranks of 10, while the weakest were given Neo Ranks of 1, though there was a lot of debate and disagreement about which hero had which Rank. The villains were rated with the same system and there was an entire website, called neoranks.com, that showed where each hero and villain ranked in comparison to others.
    But as fun as it was to talk about with Malcolm, I found it kind of hard to talk about because Master Chaos was apparently ranked an 8, which put him in the top 10% of all supervillains. It might have just been an arbitrary number, but the fact is that most people on Noe Ranks often had to have good reasons for assigning a neohero or villain a ranking and there were entire essays under Master Chaos's page that explained, in detail, about why he deserved to be an 8. It was actually kind of disturbing how many people gave this so much thought, like they had some sort of weird obsession with Chaos and other villains.
    As for Tara, we didn't hang out or talk all that much. Sure, she still sat with Malcolm and me during lunch, but only because she was never welcomed anywhere else. She didn't seem to mind all our talk about superheroes, but I learned very quickly that you shouldn't ask her about them, because she was always very dismissive and generally had a sarcastic comment about them. I once asked Malcolm why Tara seemed so hostile toward superheroes, but he just shrugged and said she had been that way for as long as he had known her.
    In any case, this was no good. Despite Tara's cold attitude, I still liked her and still wanted to ask her out, but I had to stop and think about what she would do if she found out that I had powers. That seemed incredibly unlikely to happen, because I was keeping my powers a secret from everyone, but it always felt weird whenever Tara made some snide comment about how superheroes always cause more trouble than they're worth. I just avoided the topic with her whenever we hung out together.
    Dad was mysterious during the week. Every day before breakfast and every day after I got home from school, I'd ask him if the thing he ordered for me had arrived yet. He always told me no, and then I'd ask him what it was, but he'd always just say, “You'll see.” Typical Dad talk, in other words.
    Dad didn't seem very distressed about Master Chaos, despite how worried he had been when the news first broke. I think this was probably because Dad didn't worry very easily, but he said that he was keeping in constant contact with the NHA, who fed him all the latest details about the search for Chaos. I asked Dad if there were any updates about Chaos's location that weren't reported by the news, but Dad never gave me a straight answer about that. He'd just tell me not to worry about it and just to focus on school until Saturday.
    As for Mom, she never talked about Chaos or even mentioned him. She just spent most of her time either doing housework or going out into our new community to make friends and meet people. Mom never said that she was worried or afraid, but every time I saw her whenever she thought no one was looking, there was always a mixture of fear and anger on her face. Especially whenever she looked at Dad; I could tell that she still didn't agree with his decision to train me, but she was not going to challenge his decision, at least in front of me.
    I still wondered why Mom seemed so worried. Sure, I'm her son, and yes, I know moms always worry about their sons, and of course it was understandable that Mom was worried that her one and only son was the target of one of the most infamous supervillains ever, but didn't she understand that, if I learned how to use my powers, that I would be able to defend myself? It was almost like she thought that me learning how to use my powers was the real problem, not the fact that a psychotic supervillain who has