The Superhero's Origin (The Superhero's Son Book 5) (11 page)

“It was when my father was away on a work trip, leaving me and your grandmother alone in the house. Around midnight, I awoke because I heard my mother screaming. I jumped out of bed to see what the problem was, but when I got to her room, my mother was unharmed, but she looked like she had seen a ghost.”

Dad rubbed his forehead, like the mere memory of what he’d seen was exhausting. “I asked my mother if she had seen something—maybe an animal outside the window of her bedroom—but she told me that she had seen ‘the end of the world.’ She tried to describe it to me, but she was so terrified that none of it made sense. She described fiery ‘angels’ falling from the heavens and wreaking havoc against humanity, laying waste to whole cities, but I thought she had just had a bad nightmare and managed to help her go back to sleep after a while.

“When my father returned, I told him about it, which was when he informed me that my mother could see the future. I was shocked to hear that and didn’t really believe him at first, but when my mother herself confirmed it, I had no choice but to accept it.”

I wondered if Dad was going to explain that vision Grandmother told him about, but it didn’t seem like it. I tried to think of any event in the last thirty years or so that might fit the description of that vision, but I couldn’t, so maybe it hadn’t actually happened yet.

“That vision was the last straw for your grandfather,” said Dad. “He didn’t like the fact that your grandmother was losing sleep over her visions. So he decided to put an end to her visions once and for all: He cut out her eyes.”

My hand flew to my mouth and I actually said, “What?” out loud.

“I know you’re probably shocked by that, but it’s true,” said Dad. “He thought that your grandmother’s power came from her eyes, so he knocked her out and then took out her eyes. I didn’t see it, because I was at a friend’s house when it happened, but when I got back, your grandfather told me that someone had tried to break into the house while I was away and they attacked your grandmother, cutting out her eyes before he managed to chase the assailant off.”

Dad shuddered. “And I almost believed it, especially since your grandmother did not contradict him. But then I found your grandmother’s eyes in the trash can under the bathroom sink, which was how I figured out the truth. I also noticed some blood on my father’s shirt, which he claimed was from when he beat off the attacker, but even back then I was smart enough to put two and two together and figure out what actually happened. I sometimes wish I hadn’t.

“It didn’t even stop Mom’s ability. She still saw visions, even though she never described them to me. In fact, once she even told me that her visions became even more vivid and frightening without her eyes, though they did not become any clearer or easier for her to understand.”

I shook my head. I was almost tempted to close the video and just go to bed, because I couldn’t stand hearing any of this, but I forced myself to keep watching, because if Dad thought this was important enough to record for me, then it was important enough for me to watch.

“Your grandfather never admitted it, obviously, but I knew it happened anyway,” Dad continued. “That is why I left home as soon as I could. I didn’t want to lose my eyes or whatever it was that my father planned to do to me to ‘fix’ my powers. The only reason I even allowed your grandparents to see you when you were born is because they showed up when I wasn’t around and tricked Ashley into thinking I had invited them, even though I had never even mentioned them to her before. I managed to get them to leave, but I was worried that they had come to kidnap you and try to ‘save’ you from your own powers.

“After that, I never saw them again. I made it clear to them that they could never see you or me or Ashley ever again. I’m actually surprised that they respected my decision; I thought for sure that they would not, but I guess that they knew just how serious I was about making sure that they didn’t have any influence over you.”

Dad paused, like he was thinking of what else he wanted to say, and then said, “In any case, I hope you do not meet your grandfather. I would have preferred not to tell you about him at all, but I know how curious you can be and I know that you will no doubt go look for your grandparents regardless of what I say. Still, I hope you understand why you should leave them alone. You do not need people like that in your life.”

I folded my arms across my chest, but said nothing, because I knew Dad couldn’t hear me.

“But there is one last thing I want to tell you, Kevin, before I finish recording,” said Dad. “Although your grandfather is an awful man, you must not let him die. Do you understand?”

I raised an eyebrow in confusion. Why was Dad telling me that Grandfather had to live? How was I supposed to ensure that I’m not supposed to meet him while also saving his life?

“You might be puzzled by the seeming contradiction in what I just said,” said Dad. “In an ideal world, you would never meet your grandparents; however, the world we live in is not ideal, as you no doubt know by now. The fact is that your grandfather knows some important facts about neogenetics, facts that some people would rather see buried than known. If your grandfather is killed before he can share this information with the world, then our knowledge of neogenetics will be set back by many decades.”

Dad leaned back in his chair, looking troubled. “As much as I hate the old man, I know I can’t let my personal dislike of him color the fact that he is very important. That is why I told Ashley to give you my parents’ last address after I died, so you can find and protect them from those who would want to harm them.”

I wondered what Grandfather knew that was so important. Maybe I’d ask him the next time I saw him, if I ever did.

“I hope, then, that you do not let your grandparents leave without you knowing their location,” said Dad. “They might not even be alive at this point anymore, I don’t know, since I haven’t spoken to or even seen them since your birth. Nonetheless, it is now your duty to find and protect them from their enemies, who are fairly numerous.”

“The Test Subjects?” I muttered, though, of course, there was no response from the video.

“Anyway, that’s all,” said Dad. “If you need more information, ask Valerie. Give her the password ‘MATTHEW.’ She will be able to tell you what you need to know. Good bye.”

The video ended there and the screen went black. I stood there for a moment, hoping that maybe there was more, but the longer I stood there, the more obvious it became that the video was indeed finished.

I shook my head and, tapping my earcom, said, “Val? Are you there?”

“Yes, Kevin, I am present,” said Valerie. “What do you wish to know?”

“The video Dad gave me said that if I told you the password MATTHEW, I would learn the information I needed to know about my grandfather,” I said. “Do you know what that means?”

“Hmm,” said Valerie. “I think I do, but it has been a long time since I heard that password. Please allow me to search for the necessary files that the password is programmed to unlock.”

“You have to search for them?” I said. “You mean you can’t just find them instantly?”

“The files in question are very private and located in a remote server that Genius built prior to his death,” said Valerie. “It will not be easy or quick for me to gain access to the files, though I suspect that I should have it done in a few days at most. It doesn’t help that Genius wiped my memory of that recording you just watched, which will make it harder for me to locate the server in question.”

“Well, I hope you are quick about it,” I said, “because Dad made it sound urgent that we get those files.”

“I will not delay, though I will not be available to talk to you because I will have to put all of my focus into locating the server in question,” said Valerie. “Genius had set up many private servers in his life for security reasons and this is one of them.”

“Okay,” I said. “But just tell me about it as soon as you find it, okay?”

“Yes, sir,” said Valerie.

With that, I heard a
click
in my ear that indicated that my earcom had gone off and that Valerie had left. I hoped that she would be able to find and access the server quickly, because the situation with Grandfather and the Test Subjects was starting to look a lot more complicated than I thought.

Chapter Eight

I
have to admit, I found it hard to focus on my duties as leader of the Young Neos over the next few days while I waited for Valerie to find and access the server with the information about Grandfather on it. I didn’t really know what to expect when Valerie found it, but I figured it had to be important, otherwise Dad wouldn’t have left me that video telling me about it.

Speaking of that video, I was thinking more and more about what Dad had said about Grandfather on it. If Dad was telling the truth—and I didn’t see any reason for him not to be—then Grandfather was an absolutely crazy guy. He might have even been evil. I mean, gouging out his wife’s eyes in order to take away her powers? That was not your normal kind of crazy.

It just seemed so strange, because Grandfather had appeared like such a normal guy when I met him. Okay, he had seemed a little mysterious, maybe even a little strange, but I would never have suspected him of being that level of crazy. It made me wonder just what Grandfather was really hiding from me and what other kind of dark secrets he had. It also made me wonder if Grandfather had been lying about Grandmother being sick; what if there was another reason she wasn’t doing well and couldn’t talk to me?

In fact, I was actually kind of afraid of Grandfather now. That seemed kind of silly, of course, given that I was much stronger and more powerful than Grandfather, but that didn’t change the fact that Grandfather clearly had a screw loose or two. I was almost ready to just let the Test Subjects have him; whatever knowledge Grandfather may have had about neogenetics did not seem worth risking my life to protect, given how crazy he obviously and clearly was.

On the other hand, I had no idea what the Test Subjects were actually after. Sure, Twinfist and Sight had told me that they wanted revenge, but I suspected there was more to their plans than mere ‘revenge.’ Maybe they even wanted to take over the world. Who knows? I certainly didn’t.

Regardless, I put that thought aside in order to focus on the most important issue in my life at the moment: My date with Blizzard.

Yes, I had actually asked her out. I had done it the day after I watched the video. Why did I do it? Because I had gotten sick of not asking her out. And I wanted to focus on something a bit lighter than the knowledge that Grandfather was apparently completely insane and had gouged out Grandmother’s eyes when Dad was a kid. It helped that Carl informed me that there were no restrictions against dating teammates in the Neohero Alliance Constitution, which got rid of some of my last reservations.

It really hadn’t been as hard as I thought it was going to be. I just went to her room, knocked on the door, waited for her to answer, and then asked her as soon as she opened it. She seemed really surprised when I asked her, but she accepted the date anyway. We were going out to a movie next week. Which movie, we hadn’t yet decided, but that was irrelevant. The fact was that I was actually going out with her, which still amazed me whenever I thought about it.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t until next week, which meant I had to wait for that whole time. That meant I had two things to wait for, and I hated waiting, which meant that I was going to have to find something else to do until Valerie got back to me with her findings and my date with Blizzard happened.

Then again, it wasn’t like I had
nothing
to do. There were my tutors hired by the NHA to teach me, who gave me homework to work on while I was at the base. And, of course, there was also a whole bunch of day-to-day things, too, like training, doing whatever missions Mecha Knight assigned to us, and so on. We didn’t have very many interesting things happening this week, however; like I said, I had noticed a slowdown of major supervillain or super criminal attacks over the last month since Robert Candle’s death.

But then something happened two days after I asked out Blizzard that meant I wouldn’t need to just sit around and wait for the things I was looking forward to.

It was after a training session in the Training Room, shortly after lunch, that I was returning to my room to take a shower and rest. I also planned to get to some of the homework that my math tutor had left out for me; I hated math, but it was something I needed to get to anyway and I couldn’t put it off forever.

But as soon as I entered my room, I realized that I was not alone.

I wasn’t talking about Carl. I had asked Carl to stop monitoring my room after Valerie went to find the server, because I wanted to keep my privacy and I didn’t think there was any need for Carl to monitor my room all day every day.

Nor was I talking about Valerie; again, she hadn’t come back yet and I had not heard from her since she went to look for the server.

No, I meant that someone else had been in here. Or maybe still was in here. How did I know that?

Well, I noticed that the door to my bathroom was open. I had closed it earlier when I got up this morning and took my shower. There was no way I could have left it open accidentally when I left. That meant that someone had been in my bathroom, but when I looked around my room, I didn’t see anyone in here besides myself.

Of course, if there had been someone in my room who shouldn’t be here, that wouldn’t make sense. None of my teammates ever entered my room without my permission. And if someone outside of the team or NHA had entered the House, Carl would have alerted us right away.

I considered just leaving my room and alerting the rest of the team that someone had gotten into my room without me noticing before a voice said, “Hello, Bolt.”

I looked over my bed, where I had heard the voice come from, and as soon as I looked over, a person materialized into view. She was a young woman wearing ninja clothes, a young woman who I had not expected to see so soon.