A Mutant Named Mizzie Read Free Page A

arm with the mutant attached to it. “Help me before she devours me whole!”
    “Certainly, sir.”
    The robot reached out and grabbed hold of Mizzie. She giggled as he set her back down on the seat.
    “We’ve got to find someone who knows more about this kind of thing.” I rubbed my sore arm. “And I think I know who to call.”
    “Who might that be, sir?”
    I took another look at the baby. Her eyes sparkled as she laughed.
    “Get the Dread Duo on the line,” I said.

    As two of the most feared supervillains on earth, the Dread Duo had been my archnemeses throughout much of my career. For years, our interactions had pretty much exclusively involvedus trying to kill, debilitate or capture each other. It wasn’t the healthiest relationship.
    But all that had changed recently when we’d found ourselves on the same end of a fight against the evil billionaire Phineas Vex. The altercation had ended with Vex buried beneath a mountain of burning rubble, me discovering that my daughter was friends with the Dread Duo’s son and all of us carpooling back to Sheepsdale.
    We hadn’t seen each other since. And now, every time I flew off to thwart another evil plot, there was a worried little part of my brain that wondered whether the Dread Duo was involved. Would we return to being enemies, or were we something else entirely now?
    Things were a lot easier when all we had to think about was trying to kill each other.
    After sharing our ride, we’d exchanged numbers, though none of us had used them.
    Until now.
    Emily Dread answered on the second ring.
    “Uh … hello, Mrs.—er, I mean … Emily,” I stuttered. “This is Captain Justice.”
    There was a sudden
clank
on the other line. It sounded like the phone had just been dropped.
    “Captain
Justice
,” said Emily Dread (also known as the Botanist) a second later. “This is a … surprise. Is everything okay?”
    “Everything’s fine. Except that—well … I have a question.” I cleared my throat. “Would you happen to know what to feed a baby mutant?”
    “Huh?”
    Perhaps I needed to start from the beginning. With Mizzie cooing and kicking beside me, I described the strange events of the day: the battle with Abominator and his horde of mutants, the baby in the street, the flesh wound I had sustained during mealtime. By the time I was done, Emily Dread’s husband, Dr. Dominick Dread, had joined the conversation on an extension.
    “This is exactly why we never use mutants for our schemes,” he said. “Sure, they can be horrifying and bloodthirsty, but there are also downsides.”
    “It’s illegal to create humanoid mutants,” Emily Dread began, “but that doesn’t stopvillains like Abominator from paying rogue scientists huge sums of money to genetically develop cross-species hybrid mutations.”
    “They’re raised under the worst conditions imaginable,” Dominick Dread continued. “Kept in cages, abused, forced to fight for their survival. It’s all done to remove every last trace of their humanity. By the time they’re adults, these poor mutants have become mindless killers.”
    I glanced at Mizzie. I couldn’t allow such an awful future to engulf her.
    “What can I do to stop that from happening?” I asked.
    “Capturing Abominator was a good start,” replied Emily Dread. “He was one of the worst mutant rights violators. He must have many more mutants locked away in his lair. No telling what’ll happen to them now that he’s in prison.”
    I squeezed the armrest until it snapped loose in my grip. “Can you tell me where to find his lair?”
    The pause on the other end of the line lasted so long that I began to wonder if we’d lost our connection. Finally, Dominick Dread spoke up. “Very well. But you didn’t hear it from us.”

    I knew what had to be done. But first, we needed to pick up a quick bite to eat.
    Before hanging up, the Dread Duo had recommended a few dishes baby mutants might enjoy. Stanley pulled the SUV into