The Superhero's Origin (The Superhero's Son Book 5) (2 page)

“Talk,” said Triplet. He raised a hand. “I’m not afraid to hit a girl, if you’re hoping on chivalry to save you. Don’t believe in it.”

“I will never tell you intruders anything,” the ninja said. She looked away. “Hit me as much as you like. I will not tell you anything else about this mansion’s defenses.”

Triplet looked like he was about to slap her, but I grabbed Triplet’s arm and said, “Hey, man, let me try to talk to her. Maybe she’ll listen to me once she finds out I’m related to her master.”

I thought Triplet was going to brush off my suggestion at first, but then he lowered his arm and said, “Okay, but be quick about it. I don’t want to spend all day interrogating her.”

I nodded and walked up to the ninja girl. She wasn’t looking at me or Triplet; her eyes were focused strictly on the ground. It was like she was afraid that we might be able to read her mind, even though neither of us had telepathic powers. Or maybe she just didn’t want us reading her face in case it helped us figured out what she was thinking.

“Hey,” I said, stopping in front of her. “What’s your name?”

“None of your business,” said the ninja girl, still without looking at me.

“Right,” I said. “Well, you probably don’t know this, but I’m the grandson of your employer, Matthew Jason. I just came here to see him.”

The ninja girl suddenly looked up at me and I saw fear in her eyes. “You’re his grandson?”

“Yes,” I said, nodding eagerly. “So is Matthew Jason still living here? And also his wife, Jane Jason?”

But the ninja girl seemed to have stopped paying attention to what I was saying, because she was looking at the ground again and muttering, “Then her vision has come true. This is not good.”

“Vision?” I repeated. “Who is ‘her’ and what kind of vision did she have?”

“I will never tell,” said the ninja girl. “I am not only the protector of my employer, but I am also his secret keeper. You can torture me all day and all night, but I will never betray my employer.”

“Well, we’re not going to torture you,” I said. I looked at Triplet. “Right?”

Triplet shrugged. “I don’t really want to, but it depends on how you define torture.”

I immediately looked at the ninja girl again and said, “Look, you can trust me. I’m Matthew’s grandson and I have no intentions of harming him or anything. I just want to talk to him.”

“How can I know for sure that you are indeed his grandson?” said the ninja girl. “You have not offered any proof to back up that claim. You could just as easily be lying in order to gain access to information that no one is supposed to know.”

I was about to tell her that she was just being really unreasonable now when I heard more rustling in the bushes. Triplet and his Third must have heard them as well, because they were also looking around, though the ninja girl didn’t seem as surprised as us.

“Who’s there?” I said, looking this way and that for any sign of whoever was in the bushes. “Show yourself or else.”

“How arrogant,” came an elderly, male voice from somewhere in the bushes. “Demanding that I show myself on my own property … you are just like your father. But very well, I will reveal myself anyway, because I’ve been meaning to meet you for some time now.”

Then a man stepped out of the bushes. He was an elderly man, probably in his late sixties or so, wearing an old-fashioned suit, his silver gray hair combed back neatly. He wore glasses very similar to Dad’s, except his looked a lot more expensive and maybe even custom-made, but I couldn’t tell that for sure.

“And who are you?” said Triplet. I noticed his hand move toward his coat pocket, like he was reaching for a weapon. “Another one of Matthew Jason’s bodyguards?”

The man shook his head. “No, no. I am surprised that you haven’t already recognized me, but given that neither of you has ever seen me before, that is unsurprising.”

My eyes widened. “Wait, did you just mention my father? How do you know him?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” said the old man. “Let me state it plainly, then, so that there is no confusion: I am Matthew Jason, the father of Theodore Jason, also known as the superhero Genius, and you, my young man, are Kevin Jason, better known as the superhero Bolt. Don’t look so surprised; I know much about you already, but let’s talk about this inside my mansion, rather than out here in the cold and dirty garden.”

Chapter Two

T
riplet and I followed Grandfather up the main path through the garden to the mansion. The ninja girl—whose name was Emma—walked between us and Grandfather, like she thought we were going to harm him while his back was turned, even though neither of us intended to even touch Grandfather. I was just amazed at how Grandfather knew who I was, even though I had never met him before and had never told him my secret identity.

But Grandfather didn’t talk to me or Triplet as we walked. He seemed very interested in getting back into the mansion, though why, I didn’t know. Maybe he just didn’t like talking about this stuff outside or maybe he just wanted to sit down on a soft chair. He walked with a small limp, I noticed, which probably made it hard for him to stand.

That was just one of the millions of questions I hoped to ask him when we got into the mansion. I had come here, after all, because Mom had told me about Grandfather and Grandmother. She had told me that Dad had cut off contact with them due to how they had treated him in his youth, but thought I should go and try to talk to them again now that Dad was dead. At the very least, I wanted to tell them that Dad was no longer alive, even if I did nothing else, since I wasn’t sure they knew about his death.

Yet I hoped to do more than that. Mom had said that Dad’s parents knew more about Dad’s early years as a superhero than anyone. She had said she didn’t know much about them except that Grandfather had been interested in Dad’s powers. She had said that they might be able to help me understand my own powers better since he raised Dad; in particular, the new lightning bolt ability I had gained after I took that serum from Professor Hernandez a month ago. Professor Hernandez certainly hadn’t been able to help me understand it, even though he made the serum, because he had not planned for the serum to give me extra powers.

Of course, this entire trip could end up being for nothing, because there was no guarantee that Grandfather or Grandmother knew the reason behind my suddenly gaining this new power. But hey, even if they don’t know, at least I’ll get to know them a bit more, given how I know practically nothing about them at the moment.

We passed through the main gate at the back of the garden, which took us into the mansion’s main courtyard. We made our way up the short path that snaked through the courtyard to the wide front steps of the mansion, which were a bit taller than they first appeared. Grandfather didn’t seem to mind, however, because despite his age and his limp, he seemed pretty healthy, though I wondered why he and Grandmother lived so far away from the rest of civilization.

When we reached the front doors, Emma opened them for us. Grandfather went in without looking at or thanking Emma, followed by me and Triplet, and then Emma closed the doors behind us.

We emerged into a large, open parlor that felt old-fashioned to me. A large chandelier hung from the ceiling above us, while two staircases led up to the second floor, though I didn’t see anyone else up there. It was also a lot warmer in here than it was outside, although this place had an abandoned feeling to it, even though it looked clean and well taken care of. Maybe it was because it was so quiet; aside from the sounds of our footsteps on the floor, it was practically silent.

“Emma, please show these two to the living room,” said Grandfather, gesturing at the living room that could be seen through the arch on the right side of the room. “I am going to go see if Jane is awake and will be down shortly to talk with them afterwards.”

Emma bowed respectfully toward him and said, “Yes, Mr. Jason,” and then gestured for us to follow her. Although I wanted to see Grandmother, I nonetheless followed Emma with Triplet into the living room.

The living room was fairly large, with lots of old books on built-in shelves and a large flat screen TV on the left side of the room. The living room also had a window showing the forest that surrounded the mansion, along with red curtains and a nook in which to sit and read a book. Emma led us over to the sofa, where she had us sit down and told us to wait until ‘Mr. Jason,’ as she called him, came back. Then she left the room, but I had a feeling that she was watching us anyway, even though I didn’t see her anywhere.

“So,” said Triplet, causing me to look at him. He actually looked slightly confused, as if he didn’t know how to react to everything that had just happened. “This is … interesting, to say the least.”

“I’ll say,” I said. “But I’m glad it turned out this way. I just hope that this means that Grandfather is going to talk with us.”

“Maybe he will, but I am not sure about that,” said Triplet. “One thing I’ve learned in my career, both as a superhero and as a detective, is that when things go easily like this, there is usually something bad coming up. We should keep our wits about ourselves, just in case your grandfather has anything up his sleeve.”

I nodded, but said, “But why are you here, anyway? Why do you want to talk to my grandfather? You mentioned something about it being part of a ‘larger’ investigation earlier. Did someone hire you to investigate Grandfather?”

“I wasn’t hired to investigate your grandfather, no,” said Triplet. “But the trail I’m following ended up leading me to him. I’m hoping he’ll be able to answer a few questions about the case I am on.”

“What is this case?” I said. “Can you tell me the details or is that none of my business?”

“Ordinarily, I wouldn’t tell you about it, because it really is none of your business,” said Triplet, “but since we’re going to be talking to your grandfather together, I can give you some of the details about it. I can’t tell you everything, of course, but I can tell you just enough so you’ll know what’s going on.”

“Okay,” I said. “So what are you investigating?”

Triplet folded his arms over his chest and sat back in the sofa. “I’m currently investigating the case of a missing girl named Savannah Jones. She went missing in upstate New York about a month ago and the police have been unable to find her, so her parents came to me to ask for help finding her.”

“Why did they come to you?” I said. “Do you have experience finding missing people?”

“I’ve solved a few cases like that in my time,” said Triplet. “But all of them have been related to finding missing superhumans like you and me. Savannah, according to her parents, was a superhuman before she went missing.”

“What kind of powers did she have?” I said.

“Astral projection, apparently,” said Triplet. “Essentially, she could project her soul from her body and go almost anywhere, though I understand that she had a limit of four miles before her soul had to return to her body.”

“Do her parents think she was kidnapped by another superhuman?” I said.

“No, but it is a possibility,” said Triplet. “The evidence I’ve found so far suggests that she was kidnapped by someone who probably wasn’t an ordinary human, at any rate. Normal humans aren’t exactly known for being able to steal souls, after all.”

“What?” I said. “Steal souls? But you said she went missing.”

Triplet rubbed his forehead, as if he had just remembered something. “Right, I forgot to mention that we know where her
body
is, but it’s her soul that’s been missing. Apparently, she used her astral projection to leave her body a couple of weeks ago, but has not yet returned to her body and her parents don’t know where her soul is. That’s what I’m looking for.”

“That’s a weird case,” I said. “Definitely not something you’d see on an episode of Law and Order.”

“I’ve solved weirder cases,” said Triplet, “but anyway, my investigation took me here because someone I spoke to reported seeing a strange old man in the area where Savannah Jones’s soul was thought to be, around the time her soul disappeared. I was hoping to ask your grandfather if he might know anything about it.”

Then Triplet looked at me with a questioning gaze. “What about you? Just coming over to say hello?”

I shook my head. “No. Well, that’s part of it, but I’m hoping that my grandparents might be able to help me understand my new power. I don’t know if you know about it, but—”

“The red lightning,” Triplet interrupted. “Yeah, I’ve heard about it. I saw an article on Neo Ranks shortly after Robert’s death in which the author speculated that you had a new power.”

“Yeah,” I said. “I got it from the serum that Professor Hernandez gave me, which gave me back my original powers, too. My mom thinks that my grandparents might be able to help me understand it, because Grandfather is apparently very knowledgeable about how superhumans work.”

“Well, he did raise Ted,” Triplet said. “So that is probably where they got their knowledge from, if they really do have it.”

“I hope so,” I said. “But did Dad ever talk to you about his parents? Back when he was alive and you were both in the Neohero Alliance, that is?”

“Nope,” said Triplet, shaking his head. “Never did. We were too busy fighting supervillains and saving the world to talk about our families. I don’t really want to talk about my family anyway; too annoying.”

“So you don’t know what to expect, then,” I said.

“Right,” said Triplet, “but I don’t really care one way or another what your grandparents know about superhumans. As long as they can answer my questions about the missing girl’s soul, I’ll be fine.”

Just as Triplet said that, Emma suddenly appeared in the entryway, a platter with tea and biscuits on it. She walked over to the coffee table in front of us, placed the platter on it, and said, “Mr. Jason will be down to speak with you very shortly. Until then, feel free to have some tea and biscuits if you are thirsty or hungry.”

Emma spoke politely enough, but I could tell that she was still annoyed at how we had beaten her earlier. Especially when she glared at Triplet, although Triplet hardly even seemed to notice her annoyance. He just took a cup and poured himself some tea as he said, “Thanks. When will Mr. Jason be down?”