Dark Hunter (2 page)

His benefactor's identity would have to wait until he got clear of Diablo Island. In fact, he had no idea where
the island was located geographically. He clambered out of the shadows, as easily as pulling himself out of a swimming pool, and ran through the doors just as they were closing.

He was outside for the first time in days, standing in a courtyard half the size of a football field. The first thing that struck him was the intense cold and heavy falling snow. It felt like being back in Moscow again. The second thing he noticed was that it was night, but the courtyard was bathed in brilliant floodlights. An alarm suddenly sounded.

An Enforcer in a watchtower had opened the door for his two colleagues to enter the minimum-security wing, and he had watched them step inside without incident. When he looked at his bank of monitors to confirm they were safely inside, he was surprised to see that the images coming from the corridor showed blank walls. He tore his gaze from the screen and back into the courtyard in time to see Jake run out. The doors closed behind the boy, and the Enforcer punched a bright-red alarm button.

“Aw, geez,” Jake groaned as the sound of whooping sirens erupted across the complex. This was exactly what he wanted to avoid. He shielded his eyes from the floodlights and saw an Enforcer aim his gun.

“On the ground now or I'll open fire!” yelled the guard.

Jake reacted on impulse and extended his hands, hoping something spectacular would happen. He wasn't disappointed.

An enormous energy sphere formed between both hands and he lobbed it like a bowling ball. The energy sphere smashed into the legs of the watchtower, tearing two of the steel supports away. The entire structure toppled over with a wail of stressed steel. The tower struck a wall halfway up its length, and the momentum pitched the Enforcer hard to the floor.

More guards ran from doors opposite Jake, and he heard the doors to the minimum-security wing begin to rumble open behind him. He spun around and formed another energy sphere—slamming it into the door with such force that the steel buckled, preventing it from opening any farther.

By the time he turned back around to see the growing army of angry Enforcers, a hail of bullets had impacted inches from him—all stopped by a translucent energy shield that expanded from his body and rippled with each hit. Jake was not sure how long the shield would last—the number of bullets increased with such ferocity that he was soon facing a wall of lead. It obscured his view like insects on a car windshield. The clatter of falling shells was almost as loud as the gunshots.

Jake walked forward, but the weight of the bullets made it feel like he was walking through molasses. He
blindly lobbed another energy sphere. It must have struck some Enforcers as the gunfire abated and he heard screams.

A voice echoed around from the prison's PA system. “Jake Hunter, you have been identified and will be terminated if you do not surrender!”

Yeah, great options
, thought Jake.

With no more bullets ricocheting into his shield, he had a clear view of his attackers. He unleashed another energy sphere and bowled over eight of them, but another ten stepped up to replace them. Movement to the side got his attention—yet more Enforcers running along the yard's walls. Above them all, multiple electrical bolts randomly pulsed from massive spherical Tesla towers dotted along the walls, looking like rejects from an old black-and-white Frankenstein movie. The pulses formed crisscrossing energy strands like a net. His Enforcer wardens had told him that Diablo Island was a “no-fly zone”—the shield was only deactivated when official aircraft visited the island. It ensured prisoners could not simply fly away.

Jake bolted for the fallen watchtower, and once again the Enforcers opened fire. He had a good head start, so he climbed up the lattice tower, up onto its sloping side. Sparks kicked up around his feet as bullets struck, but he ignored them and ran up the angled girder.

As he gained some height he could see that he was
close to the edge of a wide island. Snow and darkness cloaked the horizon, but he could see black ocean waters beyond the final wall. His improvised escape plan was derailed when he saw an Enforcer on the wall carrying a huge weapon, so heavy that it sat on a pneumatic arm that was strapped to his chest to ease the weight. When he fired, a massive blast of white plasma tore the watchtower in two and hit Jake like a wrecking ball.

He was flung over the yard wall, smashing into the stone outer courtyard beyond. The top of the watch-tower was blown away and tumbled to the ground with him, burning as it smashed against the stone floor—forcing the men on duty in the courtyard to scatter for cover.

Jake's entire body felt like one big bruise, but he knew he didn't have time to be injured. An Enforcer was running over to him on the assumption he'd been knocked unconscious. Jake allowed the man to stand right over him before he kicked out and booted the surprised guard in the knees. The guard buckled and dropped, giving Jake a chance to spring to his feet and tear the gun from the Enforcer's grasp.

Jake tested the weapon for a second. Weeks ago he would have thought it would be so cool to hold a gun, but weighed against superpowers it now felt like a child's toy, as primitive to Jake as a stone ax would be
to an army general. Jake tossed the weapon aside and took stock of his surroundings.

Some thirty armed Enforcers circled him, and more filled the yard's battlements. Next to him was a huge Christmas tree, decorated with colorful baubles and lights—completely out of place in this bleak prison. Behind him was an iron gate, beyond which he had spotted a pier that would lead him to freedom.

“You're outnumbered and outgunned, Hunter!” shouted a familiar voice.

Jake turned, anger flushing through him. Chameleon was slowly advancing through his army of Enforcers. He'd transformed into his reptilian alter ego, walking upright and using his long thin tail to balance himself.

“I wouldn't hesitate to order my men to kill you, but I think that would be a shame for both you and the Hero Foundation, don't you think?”

Jake's mouth was dry. Here was the man who had taken his family away from him and forcefully interrogated him, and still he had the nerve to call himself a
hero
. Chameleon stopped, keeping a healthy thirty-foot gap between them.

“You amaze me, how you got this far. Where did you get your powers?”

Jake flicked a glance at the Christmas tree. “From Santa.” It was meant as a joke, but at that moment he realized that the holiday was only four weeks away.
He felt a sudden pang at the thought of Christmas without his family.

“Hunter, give up. There is nothing beyond those walls for you.
Nothing
.” Chameleon gestured around him. “This is all you have left. Beyond these walls there are few people who even remember you exist. Don't fight us.”

Jake suddenly knew what to do. As with all his previous experience with superpowers, the knowledge of exactly how to use them had come to him from out of nowhere. He thought it was some form of telepathy. After all, Basilisk had droned on about his DNA and genes being a tangled part of Villain.net—perhaps the Web site was
talking
to him? All Jake knew was that he had to relax and close his eyes.

Chameleon's tongue extended farther than was humanly possible as he nervously licked his lips. Jake was standing stock-still. His head was slumped, as if he'd just fallen asleep.

Chameleon took a step forward. “Hunter?”

When Jake's eyes flicked open they were bright green flares. He held his arms over his head and his whole body began to vibrate so fast he became a blur. The Enforcers took a wary step back, but kept their gazes fixed on Jake as a green aura surrounded him.

Chameleon suddenly realized what was happening and darted for cover moments before a radioactive
green shock wave rippled from Jake's body. It was as if a nuclear bomb had detonated. The snow vaporized and every person in the courtyard was yanked from their feet and thrown against the wall. Unconscious bodies piled on top of one another. Some Enforcers were still conscious and had caught fire—they were running in circles, howling, before they rolled themselves on the ground to douse the flames. Enforcers on the walls were blown backward, many falling to the ground below with a shriek. Reinforced windows on the buildings around him
melted
as the pulse reached them.

Jake turned and held both hands out toward the steel gates. The crackling green energy combined into a single mighty beam that vaporized the gates and punched a clean circular hole through the wall.

Jake ran toward it as the green emanations disappeared.

“Hunter!”

Jake stopped at the hole in the wall and turned to see that Chameleon, still in his reptilian shape, had extracted himself from the mass of howling Enforcers and had raised his hands to shoot a fireball. But Jake reacted first and shot out a stream of radioactive energy from his fingertips. Chameleon agilely jumped aside, but stray streamers whipped against his face, leaving an angry red welt from his right eye to the left corner of his mouth.

Jake ran through the hole and out along the pier that stretched into the sea. The far shore comprised icy cliffs, and a huge iceberg floated past the island. But free of Diablo Island's security systems, Jake was able to fly straight up and was soon lost in the falling snow.

Beth Hunter's long blond hair was wet despite the protection offered by her umbrella. She guided her reluctant parents into a music store and began her usual petulant demands for various CDs.

From across the bank of CDs, Jake watched his sister rifle through the new releases, and he grinned despite himself. Ordinarily he would have had to endure her sulking and tantrums, but right now he missed them. His mom and dad followed, trying to limit her choice of albums to two, but failing. Jake felt sick when he saw them, all three smiling contentedly—and completely oblivious to their son, who was just a few feet away.

Basilisk had explained to him that their minds had been wiped by a powerful technique, capable of blocking even the
sight
of Jake. Chameleon had often taunted him by stating that the process was irreversible—all the more reason for Jake to want to make the scaly superhero suffer.

His mother looked straight at him, but her brain refused to see him, so instead she just smiled in an
unfocused manner, and then picked up the CD that happened to be in her line of sight.

“What about this one, Beth? It's a three-for-two offer?”

“Ugh! I wouldn't be caught dead listening to them!” exclaimed Little Miss Prim.

Jake laughed loudly, getting a few looks from other customers. He took a deep breath and held back the urge to grab his family and shake them all until they
could
see him. He reminded himself that he was not invisible to the rest of the world—just his family. Their minds had been rewired. It was well beyond mere hypnosis; it was more akin to brain surgery.

A massive security guard glared at Jake. He knew he could deal with the guard without breaking a sweat, and could hardly blame the guard for singling him out; he hadn't changed his clothes in days, was soaked from the persistent rain outside, and looked pale, almost ill. If Beth could see him, she would no doubt accuse him of being a drug addict.

Jake sighed and left the store before the guard decided to hassle him. Outside he sat on a wet bench and stared at the shop door, waiting for his family to step out. The street was full of Christmas decorations and lights, and seasonal music played from a shop close by. It did little to lighten Jake's mood.

After his initial flight from Diablo Island, Jake had
found himself utterly lost. He had flown as fast as possible through the snowstorm in a zigzag path to throw off any would-be pursuers.

When he finally spotted the lights of a town, he landed and discovered that nobody was following him. Jake's geography was not great, but even he realized he must be somewhere near the North or South Pole. Further exploration of the snowbound town revealed it to be called Nuuk. What surprised him was that this small town was in fact the capital city of the inappropriately named Greenland.

A quick check in an atlas he found in the local library pinpointed his location. With nowhere else to go, he decided to head home, but not before stealing a thick, warm leather jacket from a man in a busy café.

A deed that got him noticed.

The man kicked back his chair and grabbed Jake's arm, furiously yelling at him in Kalaallisut. Jake tried to pull away, but the man's grip was like a vise. He continued shouting, this time trying Danish.

By now everybody in the café was staring at them, and a mustached policeman was strutting over. Jake wasn't in the mood. He grabbed the man's fingers and squeezed—bones crunched. The man let out a wail as he dropped to his knees and swung his other fist at Jake. Jake jerked his head aside, missing the broad hand. With a swift motion he spun around and hurled
the crying man over his shoulder—many feet across the room—where he smashed into a display case of pastries. The crowd looked at the wiry boy in astonishment.

“Yeah!” bellowed Jake. He was enjoying the thrill of the one-sided fight; the old bully in him had been dormant for too long. “That's right! The Hunter is
back
!”

The policeman stepped toward him, wielding a baton. He obviously understood what Jake had said because he spoke in heavily accented English.

“Don't move. I am arresting you.”

“No you're not.”

Jake slid the leather jacket on, welcoming the warmth. Then he raised a casual hand—and an energy sphere erupted. The cop was hurled straight through several tables, scattering customers, before smashing through the window and collapsing in the snow with a groan.

People scattered for cover as the blond-haired boy strutted from the café. It had been a complete misuse of his powers, and it felt
awesome.