The Superhero's Son (Book 7): The Superhero's Vision Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  BONUS SHORT STORY: Don’t Fear the Reaper

  About the Author

  The Superhero’s Vision

  Book Seven in The Superhero’s Son

  by Lucas Flint

  Published by Secret Identity Books. An imprint of Annulus Publishing.

  Copyright © Lucas Flint 2016. All rights reserved.

  Contact: [email protected]

  Cover design by Damonza

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, send an email to the above contact.

  Chapter One

  I awoke in my bed, blinking rapidly and sweating, and realized I was naked.

  Or almost naked; a quick pat down below showed me that I was wearing my boxers, at least. It felt odd at first until I remembered that I always slept in my boxers. Why, then, did I feel so surprised about it?

  I didn’t. Or shouldn’t, at any rate. Maybe I’d just had a really bad dream the night before. That would make sense. In fact, I’d been having a lot of bad dreams recently. I once dreamed about a planet exploding, for one, which I was still trying to understand. Maybe I shouldn’t have pizza before I go to bed every night.

  I sat up in my bed, rubbing the back of my head, and looked around my room. It was a pretty simple, plain room, with old wood paneling on the walls, a simple light fixture above my bed, and a small flat screen TV in one corner of the room, next to the desk with my laptop and tablet. A large dresser, which had my clothes, stood on the opposite side of the room away from my desk. Even though I was alone, I thought I had heard someone else nearby, but maybe it was just a dream.

  Then the door to my room suddenly opened and in walked the most beautiful girl I had ever seen in my whole life. She had a nice form and figure, with flowing blonde hair that looked like something a master artist would draw. She wore a simple blue shirt and black jeans, but even with that, she looked amazing. She carried a tray with a bowl of cereal, milk, and eggs on it and kicked the door closed behind her when she entered. And when she looked me in the eyes with her violet eyes, I almost melted.

  But then I realized I was half-naked and I pulled my covers up over my chest.

  The girl just giggled when she saw me do that. “What’s the matter, Kevin? You’ve never been that modest before.”

  “Kevin?” I said. “Is that my name?”

  “Yes,” said the girl, nodding. “Kevin Jake Jason. That’s your full name.”

  Yes … yes, it was already coming back to me. She was right. “Right. I guess I must have forgotten. My memory has been weird recently and I don’t remember much.”

  “Oh, no surprise there,” said the girl. “You hit your head recently, poor thing, so that probably affected your memory. But I’m sure it will all come back in time.”

  “I did?” I said. Instantly, the back of my head started hurting, causing me to grab it. “Ow!”

  “Yes, you slipped on some water and cracked the back of your head,” said the girl. “You survived, but we were worried it might have hurt your memory. It looks like it did.”

  The pain in the back of my head began to subside, so I lowered my hand and looked at the girl again. “Okay, then who are you? I would definitely remember a girl as beautiful as you.”

  “Well, I’m your girlfriend, of course,” said the girl. “I’m a little disappointed you don’t remember me, but I guess that’s just part of amnesia.”

  “I have a girlfriend?” I said. I eyed her suspiciously. “Where’s your proof?”

  “Well, I did volunteer to bring you breakfast this morning,” said the girl, raising the tray to indicate it. “That is something girlfriends occasionally do for their boyfriends, you know.”

  I couldn’t argue with that. “Okay. Let’s say you’re my girlfriend. I don’t remember your name.”

  “It’s Regina,” said the girl. “Regina Welling. Does that bring back any memories?”

  At first, the name just drew a complete blank. But then, all of a sudden, memories started flowing into my mind. I saw myself in a high school—my first day, based on how nervous I felt—and catching furtive glances at Regina, who sat in front of me in class. I saw another memory of myself asking her out for prom, and then another with me and her holding hands and walking through what looked like the Christmas lights at a local park. I even saw our first kiss under the moonlight, which was so perfect that it looked almost like a picture or maybe a scene from a movie.

  I nodded. “Yeah, yeah, it’s all coming back to me. We met in high school, right?”

  “Yes,” said Regina. “John Smith High School. First day. You were really nervous when you first met me, which was really cute.”

  “Yeah, I remember,” I said. I suddenly looked around. “Wait, where are we now, then? Did we graduate? Are we sharing an apartment together? I mean, not that I’m opposed to that, but—”

  Regina suddenly frowned, as if I had just said something depressing. “No, we’re not, though that would be nice. We’re not even in good graces with the law.”

  I looked at Regina in worry. “Are we wanted criminals? Did we rob a bank or kill someone or jaywalked?”

  “It’s … more complicated than that,” said Regina. “And it isn’t just us. We’re part of a much larger group—almost a movement, really—dedicated to bringing true equality to the world. But we’re opposed by others because they hate equality.”

  “Hate equality?” I said. “Who hates equality?”

  Regina walked over to me, and I had to admit that I liked the way she walked. She placed the tray on my lap and then sat down on the bed at my feet, her serious violet eyes looking at me.

  “The bad people,” said Regina. “The bigots. The people who look backwards to the past, instead of forwards to the future. And because they are afraid of change, they hunt us down like deer and do everything in their power to harm our goals.”

  “That sounds awful,” I said. I grabbed the spoon on the tray and ate some of the cereal, because I was ferociously hungry. Regina didn’t seem to mind; if anything, I think she thought I looked cute. “But, I don’t know, maybe it was the fall, but who, exactly, are we and what equality are we fighting for?”

  Regina looked even more serious. She leaned toward me, allowing me to smell her lilac perfume, and said, in the most sincere voice I had ever heard her speak, “We are Vision. And we are fighting for equality between normal humans and superhumans.”

  Chapter Two

  “Superhumans?” I said, holding my spoon midway between my mouth and the bowl, letting drops of milk fall back into the bowl. “Do you mean, like, comic book superheroes and stuff?”

  Regina pulled back, a disturbed frown on her features. “Don’t tell me you don’t even remember what superhumans are.”

  “I—” I was interrupted by a flood of memories, memories of re
ading about superhumans in school, going to some website called ‘Neo Ranks’ that had news and discussions about superhumans, learning about neogenetics, and a whole bunch of other things. “No, wait, I remember. Superhumans have been known to the world since nineteen eighty-six, when the first superhumans appeared. Some of them became heroes while others became villains and now they’re an accepted part of every country on Earth.”

  “Right,” said Regina. “And you and I are both superhumans ourselves.”

  “We are?” I said. “What kind of powers do I have?”

  “Super strength, super speed, flight, and the ability to shoot red lightning from your hands,” said Regina. “It’s quite the power set.”

  I looked down at my hands. “Wow, I can do all of that? Awesome. I want to try them out now.”

  But Regina suddenly grabbed my wrist, making me look at her in surprise. “Please, not here. You might destroy your room.”

  I couldn’t say no to Regina’s eyes, so I said, “All right. Well, then what are your powers?”

  Regina let go of my wrist and sat back. “My powers? They’re a bit … difficult to explain. Think magic.”

  “Wait, can you pull rabbits out of a hat or something?” I said as I shoveled more cereal into my mouth. I chewed it up and swallowed with a satisfying sigh.

  “That’s not what I mean,” said Regina. “I mean actual magic. I can teleport, I can float, I can summon fire and water … I have quite a variety of my own skills, as you no doubt may remember.”

  “Cool,” I said. Then another question occurred to me. “Wait, do we have like, superhero names?”

  “Yes,” said Regina, nodding. She pointed at me. “You’re known as Bolt. As for me … you can call me Incantation.”

  As soon as Regina said that word, something inside me shifted. I suddenly found myself feeling … not exactly distrustful of her, but I did look at her a little differently. She was not behaving in a suspicious manner, but the way she said that word—Incantation—made me trust her a little less than I did before. I wasn’t sure where this feeling came from, but maybe it was just another part of my amnesia.

  “Incantation,” I repeated. I hated how the word tasted in my mouth, but I didn’t say that to Regina because I wasn’t sure what to make of it and I didn’t want to offend her unnecessarily. “That’s a … nice word.”

  I wasn’t so sure that I did a good job of hiding my disgust, because Regina’s eyes narrowed when I said that, almost as if she could read my mind and so knew how I really felt. Though she clearly wasn’t as strong as me, I still worried that she might try to attack me now.

  But then Regina relaxed and smiled again. “Yes, it is. You always did like it, so I’m glad to see that you remember that, at least.”

  I gulped down another spoonful of cereal and then took a sip from my orange juice. That was close. Maybe Regina hadn’t actually noticed my disgust and had been thinking about something else.

  “But I still don’t understand what Vision is, exactly,” I said. “So we’re trying to make equality between superhumans and normal humans. What does that mean, exactly?”

  Regina rubbed her arm, which made her look kind of cute. “What does that mean? It means that we don’t believe in neogenetics.”

  I frowned. “You don’t believe in neogenetics? How can you say that? Hasn’t it been established that superpowers are genetic? I mean, sure, no one knows for sure exactly how it all works, but I thought it was a pretty well-established idea by now.”

  “That’s just a lie,” said Regina. “In truth, superpowers are really just social constructs. Anyone can have powers. They just need to identify as a superhuman and then they will be just as super powered as you or me.”

  “Really?” I said. “Huh. Why would scientists lie about the origin of superpowers?”

  “Because there are privileged groups of people who want to oppress others,” said Regina. Her grip on my blankets tightened and her voice actually shook. “By pretending that superhumans are born with their powers, they seek to keep all the power to themselves. It allows them to lord over everyone and establish separate and unequal standards for society. It is unjust … and highly problematic.”

  Regina sounded incredibly angry about this. Her frown became an angry scowl, her hands shook, and she was staring at the wall like she was trying to burn a hole through it through sheer willpower alone. Again, I actually felt a little afraid of her, even though I didn’t have any real reason to be. It wasn’t like she was going to hurt me or anything, right?

  “Well, if that’s the case, then have you tried to tell people about this?” I said.

  “We’ve tried, but the advocates of neogenetics are evil and zealous bigots,” said Regina with a shudder. “They slander our names, attack us, and even try to kill us. They put our leader and founder—a wonderful old man known as the Visionary—into a coma and are even holding him hostage, even though all he did was advocate for what he believed in.”

  “That’s horrible,” I said. “And they did all of that just because they disagree with us?”

  “Exactly,” said Regina. “It’s awful, simply awful, how they do that. It’s why we have to remain in hiding, because if we don’t, they will get us and stamp out our great Vision forever.”

  “That’s bad,” I said. “So we’ve just been in hiding with the Vision for a while now?”

  “Yes,” said Regina, nodding. “We haven’t really been able to live a normal life, at least since joining Vision. You can’t live a normal life as a Visionist, mostly because of how hostile society in general and the superhero community in particular is toward us.”

  “Wow,” I said. I sipped my orange juice, because I wasn’t sure what to say. “I don’t remember how we joined Vision, though. When did that happen?”

  Suddenly, Regina rubbed her arm again and looked away, which seemed like a strange reaction to what seemed to me to be an honest and simple question to answer. “It was … last year. You, me, and several other young superhumans were approached by my uncle, Thaumaturge, with an offer to join Vision. He explained it all to us and we agreed to help him, even though it would put us against the world, because he laid out the facts and reasoning behind Vision so persuasively that we just couldn’t refuse.”

  I opened my mouth to say that I didn’t remember that at all, but all of a sudden, memories began flooding my mind again. I saw myself, Regina, and several other teenagers close to us in age standing outside our school during night. A tall, old-looking man in wizard robes was standing before us; Thaumaturge. He was explaining what Vision was and the truth about superpowers and superhumans. I saw shocked and doubtful expressions on the faces of my friends, but I could also sense that the truth of Vision was starting to sink into their minds. Then I saw us accept Thaumaturge’s offer to join Vision, felt the fear and trembling that came with it, but also the sense of righteousness, like we were taking a stand alone against an unjust and cruel world.

  I nodded. “Now I remember. But my memory of a lot of things is still kind of foggy.”

  “That’s fine,” said Regina. “It will all come back in due time. In the meantime, why don’t you just enjoy your breakfast? And maybe, if there’s time, we can enjoy something else together.”

  I might not have remembered much, but that didn’t mean I didn’t understand what Regina was implying. And, maybe I didn’t remember everything about Regina as much as I should, but hey, I didn’t mind waking up to a hot girlfriend giving me breakfast.

  All of a sudden, however, there was a tiny buzzing noise and Regina pulled her smartphone out of her pocket. She unlocked the screen and answered the phone, saying, “Yes?”

  I heard a voice on the other end, but it was too quiet and indistinct for me to understand. But Regina seemed to understand it perfectly, because her expression became less playful and more serious the longer she listened to the voice.

  Finally, Regina said, “All right. We’ll be there.”

  Regina hung up and
looked at me. “It was my friend and fellow Visionist, Sarah. She said that there’s going to be a Visionist meeting in half an hour and that both of us have to be there.”

  “But I haven’t finished my breakfast yet,” I said. I gestured at my shirtless body. “Or taken a shower or even gotten dressed yet.”

  “Then finish it and take your damn shower and get dressed,” Regina suddenly snapped. “Don’t whine to me about it.”

  I was taken aback by her sudden harsh attitude, but at the same time, something about it seemed far too familiar to me. It was like I had seen her snap like this before, which I suppose could have been true, since we’d apparently been dating for a while. Yet something about it felt off nonetheless.

  Regina must have agreed, because she suddenly pulled back and put on her normal sweet smile. Or was it normal? Had I just gotten a glimpse of the real Regina, even if only for a moment?

  “I mean, you can take your time finishing up and getting ready,” said Regina in a sweet voice, though it sounded forced to me. “They’ll understand if we’re a few minutes late. Everyone knows about your accident, so they will just assume that you’re still not entirely recovered from it yet.”

  “Uh, okay,” I said. “I’m getting tired of sitting in bed, anyway. Let me eat and then I’ll get dressed and ready to go as fast as possible.”

  I resumed eating my breakfast, but I didn’t focus on it quite so much. I was still bothered by Regina’s sudden change in attitude. Even though it was probably nothing, I felt a little tense around her, as if she was a wild animal that might attack me if I let my guard down. I hoped it was nothing but my amnesia playing tricks with me, but I wasn’t so sure.

  Chapter Three

  Regina and I were walking through the hallways of the mansion that Vision was using as its current headquarters. According to Regina, this mansion was owned by multimillionaire business mogul Joseph Hanson, who apparently was a Visionist convert who was letting his fellow Visionists stay here in order to avoid the authorities. In fact, Regina told me that this mansion was one of Hanson’s seven summer homes, located in the wilderness away from all major cities and most minor ones. The closest town was about fifty miles away, so the possibility of police or anyone from the government stumbling upon us here was miniscule.