Joshua Dread by Lee Bacon Page B

serious pain. Sharp claws, leather straps, spinning knobs. The Cafeteria Girls had been right. They looked just like high-tech torture devices.
    And Captain Justice was strapped into one of them.

16
    Meeting a superhero in real life can be an unforgettable experience .
    C aptain Justice’s hands were grasped by mechanical levers. His feet were hooked up to rotating pedals. Devious-looking robotic arms gripped him around the waist and neck.
    That was when I realized Captain Justice wasn’t being tortured. He was exercising.
    The machine moved around him, a whirring hive of spinning silver parts. Captain Justice’s legs swung back and forth on the rotating pedals while he simultaneously heaved a barbell up and down with his arms. As if that weren’t enough, he was also attached to straps thatstretched and pulled and twisted different parts of his body into various yoga positions.
    Milton gasped. He was in the same room as his hero. And his hero seemed to be doing the weirdest exercises any of us had ever seen.
    “Hi, Dad,” Sophie said, walking across the room.
    “Hello, Daughter!” Captain Justice managed to say between deep breaths.
    “How’s it going?”
    “Marvelous! The lab just came up with this machine last week, and it’s wonderfully efficient. It allows me to do all my different exercises at once. In fifteen minutes!”
    I watched in awed silence as Captain Justice jogged and lifted weights and performed the downward-facing dog pose, all at the same time.
    “These are my friends.” Sophie nodded to the two of us. “Milton and Joshua.”
    A flash of panic flared up in my chest. What if Captain Justice recognized me as the son of the Dread Duo? If he had tracked my parents to Sheepsdale, he might also know about me.
    But Captain Justice didn’t seem to notice me, or much of anything outside his exercise machine. “Greetings, local children!” was all he said. He turned to smile at us, but then the machine grabbed his neck and yanked him into a new position.
    “H-hello, Captain Justice,” Milton said nervously. “Ij-just wanted to say that it is an honor and a … a thrill to meet you today.”

    Captain Justice can fly over skyscrapers, juggle boulders, and summon an entire arsenal of holo-weapons. When he isn’t battling the world’s worst bad guys, he can usually be found endorsing some of the world’s bestselling products .
    His hand trembling, Milton reached into his backpack—or what remained of his backpack. The Firebottomed Romper had taken a pretty significant bite out of it. From a tangle of ripped papers and books, he removed a magazine that was still in pretty good shape. Glancing at the cover, I instantly recognized the splashy colors and the bold headlines. It was the new issue of
Super Scoop
.
    Milton took a step forward, clasping the magazine close to his chest. Captain Justice continued to huff and jog and heave and twist.
    “Um … Mr.—I mean,
Captain
Justice,” Milton began, “I was wondering, if it isn’t too much trouble, if you might be able to … to sign an autograph for me.”
    “Most certainly!”
    Milton held the magazine out with one hand, a pen gripped in the other. A mechanical arm swung out from the exercise machine and grabbed the pen. With a quick, robotic motion, the device scribbled something onto the cover.
    “See what I mean?” Captain Justice said as the machine signed his autograph for him. “This really improves my efficiency!”
    When the machine was done with the autograph, it attempted to return the pen to Milton, though it lookedmore like it was trying to stab him in the face. Milton ducked just in time. The pen fell to the ground. Captain Justice went on with his exercise.
    “Wow!” Milton gushed. “Thanks, Captain Justice!”
    “You’re welcome, Marlon! Just don’t believe everything you read in that magazine.” Captain Justice nodded at the copy of
Super Scoop
. In the next instant, the machine prodded him into a new and