The Superhero's Origin (The Superhero's Son Book 5) (9 page)

But she was too late, because something hit her hard in the face and she instantly collapsed. Stinger tried to fly, but he got maybe a few feet off the ground before something slammed him into the street so hard that he actually created cracks where he hit.

That left only poor Shell, who was now staggering away like he wasn’t sure what to do. But I saw a discarded newspaper flutter behind him and managed to shout, “Shell! Defensive position!”

Somehow I managed to hear myself—apparently the ringing in my ears had faded by now—but more importantly, Shell heard me. He immediately dropped to the ground and folded his arms and legs under his body, leaving only his hard back exposed.

Yet even that didn’t help, because something kicked Shell and sent him flying. He slammed back-first into a lamp post and dented it so hard that it bent over. Shell then fell onto the street, where he lay quite still.

“No!” I shouted.

I pulled myself out of the building and jumped back down to the street. I wasn’t sure who to go to first, but it didn’t matter, because I heard something coming at me at an extreme pace.

Then I heard a whistling sound through the air and, using my best estimates, raised my arm to block the attack. Something thick and hard struck my arm, forcing me down, but not knocking me out. I heard a grunt of surprise from whoever had hit me, but I didn’t give him a chance to respond. I just punched at what I thought was the attacker’s body, but before my fist could connect, the pressure on my arm faded and I heard the attacker jump backwards out of my way.

Panting, I said, “Show yourself, you coward. Or are you just afraid of teenagers or something?”

A deep laugh suddenly came from nowhere, followed a split second later by the sudden appearance of the figure I had seen earlier. Only now, he was still, so I could get a better look at his appearance.

He was tall and lean, kind of like an ostrich. He wore a red spandex suit that looked like fire, while his face was blocked by an aerodynamic helmet and goggles. I could see his eyes, however, which were a bright green. He also carried a large metal pipe-like weapon in his hands, which must have been the weapon he had used to attack me with before.

“Me? Afraid of teenagers?” said the guy. “I just wiped the floor with your entire team in less time than it takes to reheat a piece of pizza in the microwave. Trust me, you are not scary in the least.”

“Then who are you?” I said. “Let me guess, an accomplice of Jawtooth and Intellect’s that we didn’t know about?”

“Funny,” said the guy, “but wrong. I have nothing to do with those two losers. My real business is with
you
.”

The guy pointed at me with his metal pipe, which I expected to start shooting lasers or something, but nothing came out of it.

“Me?” I said. “Why? I’ve never met you before.”

“True, but you’ve met one of my friends before,” said the guy. “Just earlier today, in fact.”

“Earlier today …?” I tried to remember who he could possibly be referring to, and then I gasped. “Do you mean Twinfist?”

“Exactly,” said the guy. He rested his metal pipe on his shoulder. “You can call me Sight Unseen, or Sight for short. Of course, you can also call me Test Subject Zero Zero Eight, too, if you want.”

“You’re another Test Subject,” I said. I took a battle stance. “I thought you guys wanted to kill my grandfather. Why are you here?”

“Because the old bastard is already gone,” said Sight. “I went to his mansion after Twinfist came back whining about leg problems, but the entire place was cleared out by the time I got there. I don’t know how he did it, but I suppose your grandfather has had plenty of experience packing up and moving on short notice.”

“Still doesn’t explain why you’re here,” I said. “Why aren’t you searching for my grandfather instead?”

“Because we don’t know where he is, idiot,” said Sight. “You, on the other hand, might. And since none of us were blessed with telepathy—unlike good old Cadmus, who is a traitor who I will probably shoot the next time I see him—Echo told me to look for you and force you to tell us where Matthew is.”

“You’re wasting your time, then,” I said, “because Grandfather didn’t tell me where he was going, either.”

“What a weak lie,” said Sight. “Do you really think I’’d be naïve enough to believe you? But I must admit, I do find it admirable that you would defend your grandfather like that. So many kids nowadays have no loyalty toward their elders.”

“I’m not lying,” I said. “You really are wasting your time. Go look elsewhere for Grandfather, if you want him.”

“A persistent little liar you are,” said Sight. He sighed. “It looks like I’ll have to beat the truth out of you, then.”

Without warning, Sight vanished. I thought he was going to attack me, but then I heard the wind howling in a different direction and looked over to see Sight standing above Blizzard. He grabbed her by the collar of her hood and held her up, holding his pipe close to her head. Blizzard was still unconscious, so she did not react to Sight’s grabbing her.

“What are you doing?” I said, turning to face Sight. “Let her go or else.”

“Or else what?” said Sight. “You may be able to move fast, but I know you can’t move fast enough to save your teammate. Just one good blow to the head and I can kill her before she even realizes she’s dead.”

I stepped forward. “Drop her
now
. Or else.”

“No,” said Sight. “I will only let the girl go if you tell me where your grandfather is. I really don’t want to kill her, because she really doesn’t have anything to do with my mission, but I am perfectly willing to do what I must, no matter how unpleasant it may be, if it will give me what I want.”

My hands balled into fists. Sight was definitely a powerful guy; maybe not as strong as me, but I had no doubt that he could kill Blizzard if he really wanted. And, even though I could run really fast with my super speed, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to stop him in time to save Blizzard. The mad look in his eyes told me that he was very serious about killing Blizzard, which made me feel angry but powerless.

Then I felt something at my foot and, glancing down quickly, saw a couple of Treehugger’s seed bombs near my right foot. I wondered how they had gotten here, seeing as Treehugger was all the way over there. Maybe she had tossed the ones she had been carrying away when Sight knocked her down.

Regardless, I was beginning to see a way I could beat Sight without harming Blizzard. I just needed to distract him long enough for it to work.

“Okay, Sight,” I said. “I can tell you where my grandfather is, but only if you promise to let Blizzard go first.”

“Let the girl go first?” said Sight. “Nice try, boy, but I’m not that stupid. I know that if I let go of this girl, you’ll just attack me. No. Location of your grandfather first.”

“Fine,” I said. “But maybe instead of telling you where my grandfather is, I’ll just give you the flash drive containing his location. That way, you can take it back to Echo and have all of that information in one handy place.”

“All right,” said Sight. “Then give me the flash drive.”

“Okay,” I said.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out the blank flash drive from before, the one I’d gotten from Mom and had removed from my computer before leaving to fight Intellect and Jawtooth. But then I ‘accidentally’ dropped the blank drive onto the pavement near my feet.

“Oops,” I said. “I dropped it. Let me pick it up.”

Quickly, I bent over and picked up the blank flash drive, while also scooping up the seed bombs near my feet. As I stood up, I held out the flash drive toward Sight, while hiding the seed bombs in my other hand, which was clasped firmly shut so he could not see what I was holding.

“Here you go,” I said. “Come and take it.”

But Sight didn’t move. “Bring it over to me.”

“Why?” I said. “Can’t you just zoom over here and take it from me yourself?”

“Because I am the one with the power here, not you,” said Sight. “I will repeat this once more: Bring it over to me. Or I will kill the girl.”

Blizzard still hadn’t woken up yet. She did stir slightly, however, which I took as a positive sign that she—and maybe the others—were all right and hadn’t been as seriously injured by Sight’s attack as I thought.

So I walked across the street toward Sight, holding the flash drive out all the while. Sight didn’t even move as I approached, although I noticed his eyes carefully watching my every move. I kept the seed bombs in my hand hidden, so I didn’t think that he noticed them, but I still felt a little anxious that he would eventually notice and my plan would fall apart.

When I was just a few steps from Sight—just close enough for him to reach out and take my flash drive without having to walk over to me—I stopped. “Okay, here it is. Put Blizzard down and take it.”

Sight hesitated, like he suspected this was some kind of trick, but then he reached toward the flash drive in my hand. I tightened my grip on the seed bombs, ready to throw them as soon as Sight touched the flash drive.

But then, all of a sudden, Sight grabbed my wrist and twisted my arm. I gasped in pain as I dropped the flash drive onto the pavement, while Sight shoved Blizzard to the street and brought me closer to him, an angry scowl on his lips.

“Did you think I was fooled by your fake flash drive?” said Sight. His grip was surprisingly strong, which made it hurt all the more. “I know that that flash drive could harm us. No, I am going to make you tell me where he is verbally, rather than take a chance with an unknown device that might not have anything on it at all.”

The pain from my twisted arm was intense, but I was not going to tell Sight anything. I immediately threw the seed bombs at his face, throwing them as hard and as fast as I could so he couldn’t dodge them.

The seed bombs exploded against Sight’s helmet, causing him to shout in surprise and let go of me. His hands flew to his helmet as he tried to remove the vines covering his goggles and head, which left him entirely defenseless.

I punched him in the gut, the blow making him double over in pain before I gave him a surprise uppercut. The blow knocked him onto his back and I slammed my foot on his chest before he could get up. I put a lot of pressure on his chest, pinning him to the street so he couldn’t get up and escape.

“Got you,” I said. “Bet you weren’t expecting that, were you?”

I expected Sight to give up and beg for mercy, but to my surprise, he instead began vibrating his body so fast that my leg and later my very body began to vibrate with him.

As a result, I let up on the pressure I had put on him and he shoved me off. I staggered backwards, but before I could regain my balance, Sight jumped to his feet and slugged me with his metal pipe.

The blow came hard and fast, knocking me flat off my feet. Dazed by the attack, I looked up just in time to see Sight raise his pipe above his head, ready to bring it down on my head and probably knock me out.

But before Sight could hit me, loud police sirens suddenly blared everywhere, causing Sight to hesitate and look around. Then he cursed and said, “Damn it, the police are here. Wasted too much time fighting you. Echo will be pissed.” He looked down at me and scowled. “We’ll continue this later.”

Before I could stop him, Sight turned invisible. Then I felt the same gust of wind that followed him whenever he ran off, though I was still too disoriented by the attack to stop him. I just sat up, shaking my head, as the police sirens grew louder and louder, feeling both grateful and worried. Grateful that my friends and I had survived, but worried that Sight would strike again soon.

Chapter Seven

I
sat in the Meeting Room of the House at the end of the table nearest the door, while Mecha Knight sat at the other end opposite me, his helmeted face as inscrutable as always. I was tired and exhausted from my fight with Sight, but when the team and I had returned to Hero Island, Mecha Knight had insisted on having a private meeting in the Meeting Room with me about it, since he wanted to know why Sight had attacked me and what he’d spoken with me about.

So I had explained to Mecha Knight about Sight, which had also included telling him about my visit to Grandfather’s mansion. I didn’t want to, because I wanted to keep my promise to Grandfather, but Mecha Knight had been insistent on learning who Sight was and why he had attacked us for seemingly no reason. I figured Grandfather would never know anyway, seeing as Grandfather was nowhere near Hero Island and didn’t even know Mecha Knight, as far as I knew.

I had just finished telling Mecha Knight everything I knew about the Test Subjects. Now he was quiet, which wasn’t unusual, because Mecha Knight typically kept his thoughts to himself. I still wished that he would at least take off his helmet, though, so I could see his face; in fact, now that I thought about it, in all of the time I had known Mecha Knight, I had
never
seen his face before. He was always in his suit of powered armor and never took it off; then again, he was a member of the Leadership Council, after all, so he probably wore it all the time for his protection.

While I waited for Mecha Knight’s response, I thought about the rest of the team. Their injuries hadn’t been very severe, but right now all of them were in the House’s medical station, where Carl was treating them with the House’s artificial limbs. According to Carl’s report, none of them were going to suffer from any long-lasting or permanent injuries from Sight, but they would probably need to rest for a while. That was good to hear, because I would have felt incredibly guilty if any of them had been badly wounded by Sight. Especially Blizzard, who had regained consciousness after Sight left but was still with the others anyway due to the injuries she had sustained from that guy.

And, of course, Intellect and Jawtooth had been taken away by the police when they arrived. I had been worried that those might have somehow escaped during our fight with Sight, but they had not, and now both were on their way to Ultimate Max, the only prison in the country designed specifically for supervillains. We may not have been able to defeat Sight, but at least the mission wasn’t a total failure.