The Legacy Superhero Omnibus Page 10

  Gripping the railing of the catwalk, I was just about to jump over the side of the catwalk when TW suddenly said, “Watch out behind you!”

  Surprised and confused, I looked over my shoulder just in time to see a fist flying at me. The fist smashed directly into my face, knocking me over the railing and sending me falling to the floor below.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  I landed on the open suitcase, sending money flying everywhere, though thankfully most of the money broke my fall. Even so, the impact of the fall left me slightly dazed, while my face hurt from whatever had punched me. My nose didn’t feel broken, but it did hurt a lot and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was bleeding, because that punch had hurt.

  “What the hell?” said the tall Injector. “Where did this guy come from?” He looked at the senior. “You said you came alone.”

  “I did,” the senior said in an increasingly hysterical voice. “I have no idea who this guy is. I’ve never even seen him before in my life. You have to believe me. I would never even think of double-crossing you, not even once.”

  Rubbing my head, I sat up and groaned. My back hurt from the impact of the fall, though luckily nothing felt broken.

  “Hey, wait,” said Paul, the short Injector, who looked at me closely. “Isn’t that the guy who defeated Rodriguez and the others last week?”

  The tall Injector’s eyes widened in surprise. “Paul, I think you’re right. Looks just like he does in the picture. That’s Trickshot.”

  I was about to say something snarky about them recognizing me, but then I heard the catwalk creak above me and looked up in time to see something big falling toward me. I instinctively rolled backwards just in the nick of time, because the thing landed on the suitcase right where I had been sitting just moments previously, sending even more hundred dollar bills flying as the new arrival stood up to his full height. Rolling to my hands and feet, I looked up to see who the newcomer was.

  I had never seen him before. He was tall and powerfully built, even taller than me. He wore a full-body lime green jumpsuit, with a helmet on his head that resembled a scorpion’s face, though the eyes were replaced by a single red visor that wrapped all the way around the head. A long, mechanical, scorpion-like tail hovered over his right shoulder, while twin needles poked out of his wrists like wrist knives.

  “Holy crap,” said the senior, staring at the newcomer with pure fear in his eyes. “What the hell are you? You don’t look like Bug Bite.”

  “Lethal Injection?” said the tall Injector in surprise. “I didn’t know you were going to be here. Did you punch Trickshot?”

  The figure nodded without saying a word. His helmet made it impossible to read his face, but based on his body language alone I could tell that he wasn’t interested in having a civil conversation.

  “Did you say his name is Lethal Injection?” I said, looking at the tall Injector in confusion. “Is he with you?”

  The tall Injector nodded, a smirk on his lips. “Yeah. He’s the Injectors’ official assassin, though few of us have actually seen him. He tends to work alone and in the shadows, but he’s very good at what he does. Just ask any of his victims. Oh, wait, you can’t, because they’re all dead.”

  I had never heard of Lethal Injection before, but given how the silent, mysterious figure standing before me didn’t contradict anything the Injector said, I assumed he was telling the truth.

  “If Lethal Injection is here, then I’m guessing he must have somehow guessed you would be here,” said the tall Injector. “Looks like the rumors of Michael Jones putting Lethal on the Trickshot case were true.”

  I looked at Lethal Injection again. I wasn’t sure if Lethal Injection was a supervillain—that is, a superhero who went rogue and became a criminal—or if he was just a very strong guy. Given how he had that weird scorpion tail, I figured he probably didn’t have any actual powers. Like most Injectors, Lethal probably relied more on weaponry than powers, which was fine by me, because I could handle criminals without powers just fine.

  “Nice costume you got there, buddy,” I said, “but that green really doesn’t—”

  Lethal Injection suddenly leaned forward and his scorpion tail shot something hot and burning at me. I jumped backwards and the hot, burning substances hit the floor and immediately started sizzling, eating away rapidly at the concrete like it was paper.

  “Oh, and I forgot to mention that good old Lethal here can shoot acid from his tail,” said the tall Injector with a chuckle. “The bad acid, not the good kind.”

  I was going to have to rethink my original assumption that Lethal Injection would be easy to take down. If his tail could shoot acid, then I didn’t want to know what the stingers on his wrists could do.

  Glancing at the senior, I said, “You should get out of here, kid, because this fight is—”

  But the senior was already gone. I can’t say I was surprised. He didn’t seem like a very brave guy and the appearance of Lethal Injection must have been the last straw.

  But I would worry about him later. For now, I needed to take down Lethal Injection and his fellow Injectors before they got me.

  “That tail of yours is pretty cool,” I said, rising to my feet and dusting myself off. “But I doubt it will help you dodge a tire!”

  I picked up two tires from the pile of tires I had seen earlier and threw them at Lethal Injection. But Lethal Injection dodged both of them easily and fired two more bursts of acid at me. I jumped into the air, flying just high enough to avoid the acid, which struck the floor again and ate away at it, leaving a hissing sound which sounded almost like an actual snake.

  Lethal Injection began walking toward me, while the other two Injectors started to gather up the money which we had scattered everywhere. Not that I had time to worry about those two, however, because Lethal Injection and his acidic tail were the bigger problem at the moment.

  I flew toward Lethal Injection as fast as I could, aiming a punch at his face, but Lethal Injection caught my arm and threw me over his shoulder. I landed on top of an abandoned conveyor belt, nearly cracking my skull on its hardened surface. Shaking my head, I rolled off the conveyor belt just as Lethal Injection fired another blast of acid at me. The acid struck the conveyor belt and started hissing loudly, but I was already flying back toward the ceiling out of his reach.

  My plan was simple: I would take advantage of the darkness of the factory to avoid Lethal Injection’s attacks. If he couldn’t see me, then he couldn’t shoot his acid at me accurately. It was an ingenious plan, at least until I heard more acid coming directly at me, forcing me to duck hard at the last minute to avoid getting a face full of acid.

  Looking down, I saw that Lethal Injection was looking directly up at me, already taking aim with his tail again. Damn it. His helmet must have given him night vision like my goggles did. Pretty neat trick, but I had a few neat tricks of my own.

  I dove toward Lethal Injection, who fired his acid at me again. But I swerved at the last minute, neatly avoiding the flying ball of acid, and coming at Lethal Injection from his side. He turned to face me, but he was too late to dodge. I swung a punch at his chest, but Lethal Injection held up his tail at the last second, causing my fist to collide with that rather than his chest.

  But that didn’t stop the impact of the blow from sending him flying. He flew backwards through the air uncontrollably until he crashed through an abandoned crate full of auto parts, smashing through it loudly.

  “Ha!” I said, lowering my fist and smirking. “Bet you didn’t see that coming, did you?”

  “I wouldn’t declare victory just yet, Jack,” said TW in my head. “He’s obviously a strong one, superpowers or no.”

  “Come on,” I said, “that was a pretty powerful punch from me. There’s no way he could have survived it.”

  Just as I said that, the sound of sizzling acid entered my ears and more acid flew out of the darkness at me. I flew into the air, narrowly avoiding the acid, and looked in the direction from wh
ich the acid came in disbelief. Lethal Injection rose from the destroyed crate like a zombie rising from the grave. His helmet hid his face, but I could tell that he was pissed.

  “Doesn’t that tail of yours ever run out of juice?” I said. “Seriously, that’s like the fifth or sixth acid you’ve shot at me. Might be time for a refill, fella.”

  As usual, Lethal Injection didn’t say anything. He just jumped off the crate, but rather than running at me, he turned and ran away among the conveyor belts and mechanical arms that stood in the factory.

  “Hey, where are you going?” I said. “Get back here!”

  I flew after Lethal Injection, but even with my night vision goggles, I couldn’t see Lethal Injection. The conveyor belts, mechanical arms, and leftover machine parts meant he had plenty of hiding spots. It annoyed me that a guy in a lime green scorpion costume could somehow hide so effectively among the various black, silver, and dark gray machines, but I guess there’s a reason this guy is the Injectors’ top assassin.

  Stopping in midair, I looked around the factory, trying to spot Lethal Injection, but everything was eerily quiet. I didn’t even hear his footsteps.

  “Come out, come out, wherever you are,” I muttered, looking this way and that. “I just want to play.”

  Again, no answer. Not that I expected him to actually respond, but it still felt like Lethal Injection was mocking me with his silence.

  Rotating in midair, I said, “Is this the great Lethal Injection I’ve heard so much about? Yeah, you’re really scary, running and hiding from a kid. I bet your reputation is well-deserved, just as long as no one is looking, eh? Maybe you just think you’re too good for me. Wouldn’t surprise me, given how arrogant you Injector idiots tend to be.”

  I heard the shuffling of feet below me and looked down at a crate near one of the conveyor belts. I thought I saw movement behind it, movement that looked like Lethal Injection.

  I grinned. “Found you.”

  I flew straight down toward the crate and lifted it above my head. “Got you!”

  But to my surprise, I didn’t see Lethal Injection standing there. Instead, I saw a small mouse, which made a frightened squeaking noise and then turned and disappeared into a hole inside the base of another crate of parts.

  “What the heck?” I said. “I thought I saw—”

  Something sharp and burning suddenly jabbed into my back. I gasped in pain and dropped the crate, which crashed loudly onto the floor. But I paid no attention to that, because I could feel something hot and burning being injected directly into my body.

  Gasping for breath, I swung my fist backward, but the sharp needle was pulled out of my back at the last second and my fist hit nothing. Turning around, I saw Lethal Injection standing not more than a few feet away from me, holding up his right arm. The needle on his right wrist was slightly bloody, which I realized, with a lurch of my stomach, was my blood.

  “What did you do?” I said, touching the spot where the needle had been jabbed. “What did you … what did you inject me with …”

  A sudden drowsiness suddenly came over me. I blinked several times, trying to keep myself awake, but it was a losing battle. My innards burned, while my mouth became dry and cotton-like. Even breathing was becoming hard, to the point where I could feel my lungs swelling up inside my body.

  “It appears that Lethal Injection must have injected some kind of poison in your body,” said TW. “I am currently analyzing it in order to find out what it is and if there is a possible cure, but I cannot actually rid your body of it.”

  I wanted to tell TW thanks in the most sarcastic way possible, but then my stomach lurched again and I nearly hurled. Lethal Injection suddenly lashed out with a kick, striking me in the stomach and sending me falling to the floor. My head smacked against the concrete floor, leaving me dazed.

  Still gasping for air, I looked up at Lethal Injection, who now stood above me with a cold disinterest.

  Then he aimed his tail at me and fired.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  I rolled away at the last possible second, avoiding the acid that splashed against the concrete where I had been lying mere moments before. I rolled into a crouch and looked up at Lethal Injection. Though his face was unreadable, I thought he was legitimately impressed by the fact that I managed to avoid his attack at such close range. I wasn’t sure if that was me or the suit at work, though, but I guess it didn’t matter as long as I survived.

  But then Lethal Injection just aimed his tail at me again. I tried to stand, but even just standing upright was a herculean task in its own right.

  Right before Lethal Injection fired again, however, a voice suddenly rang out in the shadows, “This is the police! Drop your weapons and get down now!”

  Half a dozen bright lights suddenly flashed on, nearly blinding me and Lethal Injection. The two of us looked over in the direction of the lights to see several SWAT team members pointing rifles at us, their vision illuminated by the lights on the ends of their rifles. The collective lights hurt my eyes and made my aching head even worse.

  “I won’t repeat myself!” the lead SWAT team member shouted, nearly screamed. “Get down now!”

  Lethal Injection, however, just pointed his tail at them and fired several acid blasts in rapid succession. The SWAT agents scattered, though one of the slower agents got nailed in the chest and fell to the floor screaming in agony. Their lights also scattered, which allowed Lethal Injection to turn and run away, most likely to escape the SWAT team members before they recovered and came after him.

  I wanted to chase after Lethal Injection, but I realized that I couldn’t chase him and avoid the SWAT members as well, who would probably arrest me in addition to Lethal Injection once they found out I was an illegal superhero. I launched into the air, going as fast as I could even with the poison working its way through my body. I heard SWAT team members shouting at me to get back, even heard some of them shooting at me, but I didn’t look back or slow down even slightly.

  I smashed straight through the ceiling of the factory and emerged out into the open night sky. I immediately flew in what I thought was north, which would take me back to my parents’ house, but the poison must have been messing with my sense of direction, too, because every direction felt the same to me.

  “TW!” I shouted as I flew. My vision was starting to darken around the edges, making it harder than ever to see where I was going. “Am I going in the right direction? Is this the direction home?”

  “It doesn’t matter,” said TW. “The poison Lethal Injection put into your body is killing you even as we speak. You need to find someplace safe and land right now, otherwise the poison will accelerate and kill you.”

  I was going to ask TW how landing would help me, but my mouth was too dry to form sentences now. I increased the speed of my flight, heading in what I hoped against hope was the direction home.

  But the darkness was gathering around the edges of my vision, to the point where I could no longer make out the individual buildings below me. It all looked like a bunch of pretty lights shining against the darkness of the night, kind of like how lights looked reflected against a lake.

  And then unconsciousness claimed me and I fell.

  -

  “Wake up, Jack,” said TW’s familiar voice in my head, urgent and quick. “I said, wake up. Can you hear me at all?”

  I could, and I wanted to tell him that I did, but my consciousness was slowly returning bit by bit. It was kind of like turning on an old computer that hadn’t been used in forever. Everything seemed to have a hard time coming back online quickly or in anything but a piecemeal fashion, and right now talking was one of the functions that just wasn’t available yet (though it probably would be after an update, assuming it didn’t crash the rest of my system in the process).

  What I first became aware of was my body. It no longer burned or felt sluggish the way it did when Lethal Injection poisoned me. It was stiff, true, but it didn’t hurt anymore.

&n
bsp; Next, I became aware that I was lying on a bed of some sort. At first, I thought it was my own bed back in my room, but then I realized that the mattress was lumpier than mine, as if it was old and hadn’t been replaced in a long time. Still, it was superior to the concrete floor of the factory, though not as good as my own bed.

  I also became aware that I was still in my Trickshot costume. I couldn’t quite describe how I knew. It was like knowing that I still had my skin on, if that made any sense. I didn’t really think about it, but I had no reason to doubt it unless something happened to it. And as far as I could tell, the costume was perfectly unharmed, though for some reason I had a feeling that it shouldn’t be.

  Then my eyes opened, slowly but surely, until I found myself staring up at the grimy, dirty ceiling of an apartment I didn’t recognize. Looking around, I saw that I was in an apartment, but not one I had ever been in before. The windows were boarded up and closed, while the walls were cracked and full of holes, including a few that looked like gunshot holes. The room smelled of alcohol and drugs, which made me wince, because it was a very strong smell, even though there wasn’t anyone in this room aside from me.

  Suddenly, TW flashed beside me. “You’re awake! I thought you would never wake up. You looked quite nearly dead.”

  I blinked several times and yawned. “Dead? Why would I be dead? How did I get here? What happened?”

  “You lost consciousness when you were flying away from the factory last night,” said TW. “You ended up crashing in the streets not far away from the car factory. You’re lucky you landed on a pile of garbage bags, because they cushioned your fall, which would have really injured you otherwise.”

  “Last night?” I said, sitting up and rubbing the back of my head. “How long have I been out?”

  “Eight hours,” said TW. “That means it is now eight o’clock in the morning, Central Time.”

  I almost started. “Eight in the morning? Damn it, I’m going to miss the school bus.”