The Vanishing Hero

Chapter 3 Albert Strikes Again The sun loomed high in the sky, as Tom and Susie played on the beach. Sam walked onto the front porch of Thor and Cherry’s cottage, to see how his old friend was recovering. Before Sam could knock on the door, Cherry groaned, “Come in, you’re out.” Sam inquired, “How’s the leg doing?” “I feel like I slept on a pile of rocks, for some reason, and it took me hours to get some kind of yellow, sticky garbage off of my hands.” Thor sauntered out of the kitchen, with a cup of coffee. “Good morning. if you don’t mind, I think I’ll take the day off and blob around the beach.” Sam asked Thor, “Are you sure you don’t remember anything?” Without a word, Thor spun rapidly around and darted off to the bedroom, reappearing a few minutes later, with a two inches in diameter disk, a quarter inch thick, with several small circles of various sizes on its face. Thor quickly strapped the device to his head, centering the mechanism on his forehead. “When the little circles start to flash, ask me what I know about my strange disappearances.” Before Sam could question his friend, Thor’s eyes rolled back in his head and he collapsed on the floor. Simultaneously, the mechanism’s small circles rapidly flashed red and yellow. Cherry swiftly reached down and was about to rip the memory stimulator off of Thor’s forehead, when Sam loudly commanded, “Don’t! He’s all right. If you remove it, you could cause irreversible brain damage. It usually takes a few minutes for the mechanism to kick in, and scan the mind. There must be some type of memory block in Thor’s mind, for the device to kick in that fast. The only thing we can do now, is wait.” “Okay, fine. but could you help me put Thor on the sofa? Oh…and how about a cup of coffee?” “Make mine Banana cream, if you please.” Cherry stared unbelieving at Sam “You can’t be serious, you want Banana flavored coffee? Eeeewwww!” A short time later, Cherry came out with a fresh cup of Joe, then sat next to an eagerly waiting Sam on the front porch. He took a swallow of his steaming hot java, and said jokingly, “Wow! Great tasting Banana cream coffee…. Hope you kept the recipe.” Cherry took the cup from Sam, and said, “Let me make you a good cup of coffee…. normal coffee, instead of that swill.” As Cherry was serving Sam a fresh cup, Albert causally sauntered up to the porch. “Hi, kids like to know what I found?” “What are you doing back here,” bellowed an astonished Cherry. Sam added, “Never mind that. What I want to know is, how did you get back here?” Albert ignored Sam, and strolled up to Cherry. “Would you like to know what I have in the bag?” Sam asked loudly, “Albert, let’s try this again. How did you get here?” As Albert smirked and postured, Sam took full advantage. He quickly snatched a retrieval button out of Albert’s back pocket. “Hey! Give that back, it’s mine! You have no right…You can’t” Sam’s eyes widened What in… This is Thor’s personal retrieval button. What are you doing with it?” “It’s none of your business how I got it, now give it back.” As Albert turned around to deal with Sam, an emerald green orb tumbled out of the knapsack slung over his shoulder. Cherry swiftly retrieved the object. But before she could get Sam’s attention Albert immediately grabbed it out of her hand and said, “Not so fast, honey, there’s a finder’s fee for this.” Cherry was livid. A….a finder’s fee? You have got to be kidding.” “Absolutely! I want Thor’s Star Car.” “You’re a bigger idiot then I imagined, Albert….and that’s saying a lot! If you think for a moment that Thor will give you Star Fire Two.” Albert grinned lecherously. “Okay I’m flexible……let’s negotiate. I could settle for a kiss from the love of my life.” A devilish smirk came across Cherry’s face, as she answered sweetly, “Close your eyes and pucker up, stud. I’ll plant one on you’ll never forget.” An amazed and eager Albert beamed from ear to ear, as he felt two warm lips tenderly caress his own. As he slowly stretched out his arms to touch her silken hair, he opened his eyes to an unexpected and unpleasant surprise and screamed, “Yuck! I just kissed Gumshoe! Bleeeaaahh!” Holding the orb high over his head, Albert screamed, “Wait. Just wait. I’ll get even with you for that. Bet on it.” The vibration of Albert’s voice and the position of the sphere, caused the orb to emit several short, high-pitched squeals. Simultaneously, Thor burst through the door of the cottage, dove off the porch and grabbed the orb out of Albert’s hands. Unfortunately, it was too late. The orb emitted a long, loud ear-piercing squeal. A brilliant, deep blue slash suddenly appeared in the sky over Smile Lake a half-mile long. The sun began to dim, blocked by the slash, and creating an eerie corona-like glow. Thor turned and grabbed Albert. “Okay…what are you doing with Ab’s sphere? And I better like your answer!” “I….found it in a field on an isolated planet! Honest.” “What field? And on what planet?” Albert’s worried expression quickly gave way to an overconfident smirk. “I don’t have to answer to you,” and wrestled free of Thor’s grip. He disdainfully walked away as if he alone owned the Institute and everything connected with it. “Don’t you walk away, from me, when I’m talking, you little obnoxious twerp.” Albert abruptly spun around. You still don’t get it, do you, macho man? You can’t touch me, Need I remind you…one word from me and you’re history. Immediately, I might add.” “Mmm, yeah, of course. Forgot about dear ol’ dad.” Thor reluctantly replied, looking at the floor. Albert approached Thor and demanded he kneel down and apologize for what Albert designated as “speaking out of turn.” Thor eyes locked on Albert, whose glib grin started to fade under his adversary’s withering glare. Gripping the orb firmly in his right hand, Thor swung it forcefully at Albert’s head, sending him flying back three feet before landing with a resounding thud on the ground. “Ab once told me how he knocked out an attacker with the sphere.” Sam suddenly interrupted Thor and pointed to Smile Lake. “Hate to interfere with your quality time with junior, but Houston, we have a problem.” Thor looked up, stunned. Half of the lake was already frozen solid, because the cobalt-blue gash had come in contact with the water. As Albert staggered to his feet, Sam grabbed him by his throat. “Take a good, long look, you blithering idiot! Look at what you‘ve done.” Albert responded at the top of his voice, “Whattaya want from me? It’s not my fault that rift opened.” “I don’t care who your old man is. So fire me! At least I’ll have the satisfaction of belting you.” Sam’s fist promptly came in contact with Albert’s jaw. Perplexed about the sudden appearance of ice on the lake, Susie happily walked up to examine it, naively ignoring her husband Tom’s frantic screams of warning. Upon contact with glistening, glassy surface, she instantly froze, a smile etched on her crystalline face. Quickly gathering his wife, Thor thunder, “Tom! Round up everyone and tell them to fall back to the Institute right away. It’s going to take all our efforts to stop this thing from freezing the entire planetoid.” “And what do we do with my wife?” We just can’t leave her frozen like that.” Looking skywards Thor inhaled, “I’ll contact the Institute and tell them to retrieve Susie, and instruct Rock put her in the walk in freezer, for now.” Upon receiving Thor’s desperate message, a confused Rock replied, “Could you please repeat your last statement, sir? It sounded like you said to put Tom’s wife in the freezer.” “You heard right. That’s exactly what I said, She was instantly frozen by the iceberg.” During the minutes that Thor and Rock conversed, the encroaching ice had advanced ten feet. Sam nudged Albert, with his foot. “ Get up, brain donor. We’re all moving up to the main building. Make yourself useful. Pick up that equipment, and let’s go.” Albert replied arrogantly, “I am not carrying an