The Legacy Superhero Omnibus Page 15

  “It’s pretty awesome,” said Kyle in between mouthfuls of pizza. “According to one news report I read, this is the largest number of Injectors ever arrested at one time. Even Bug Bite has never taken down that many Injectors in one go like that.”

  I nodded and sipped my water bottle. “Really? That’s pretty interesting. Guess this Trickshot guy is really something, huh?”

  “He sure is,” said Kyle. “My parents still don’t like him because he’s an unlicensed hero, but I think he’s great. I just can’t believe that the Injectors consider him such a big threat that they feel like they need to send a dozen guys and a Power user after him. They must be really scared of him to do that.”

  I shrugged. “The Injectors are ruthless. They’ll take down anyone they consider a threat to their business. I imagine Trickshot is just better at stopping them than most.”

  “Even better than Bug Bite, at that,” said Kyle. “If Trickshot keeps this up, I wonder if the city will offer to make him the official superhero of Rumsfeld, instead of Bug Bite.”

  “That doesn’t seem likely,” I said. “I’ve never heard of an unlicensed superhero being made the official superhero of a city, at least not without first passing the Superhero Exam. And besides, Bug Bite and Mayor Adams are close, right?”

  “They’re brothers, actually,” said Kyle. “Still, imagine what would happen if he actually took down the Injectors all by himself. That would be historical.”

  I wanted to tell Kyle that I was Trickshot and that I intended to do exactly that, but I kept my mouth shut. I hadn’t realized it, but the hardest part about being a superhero so far wasn’t fighting criminals or learning how to use your powers, but keeping your mouth shut when everyone around you was complimenting you (or your alter ego, really) for saving the day. I guess that Bug Bite, being the superhero of Rumsfeld who didn’t have a secret identity, didn’t have to figure out how to take compliments, but I did, and it sucked.

  “But there’s still the mystery of just who Trickshot is in the first place,” said Kyle. He shrugged. “I guess it doesn’t really matter, if you think about it. Whoever he is and wherever he came from, he’s done more to make Rumsfeld safer than the police and Bug Bite combined.”

  “He’s definitely done good work so far,” I said as I bit into my peanut butter sandwich, chewed, and swallowed. “But I wonder if the police will ever try to crack down on him. He’s operating as a superhero illegally, after all.”

  “They probably will at some point,” said Kyle. “I know my cousin in the police department has told me that the police don’t know what to make of him. Doesn’t help that Trickshot just keeps appearing and disappearing all the time, seemingly at random. But it’s inevitable that they’ll come after him at some point. The police don’t like unlicensed superheroes.”

  I nodded in agreement, but I wondered what I would do if the police ever decided to come after me. I could evade them, I knew, but at some point I would have to fight them, especially if Bug Bite got involved. But I pushed that thought out of my mind for now in order to focus on my plans for tomorrow night. First, I would worry about taking down the Injectors. Afterward, I would worry about the police and what they might do to me.

  “Anyway, do you want to come over to my house after school and play some games?” said Kyle. “I just got the newest Street Battler on PC. I haven’t even started playing it yet.”

  I thought about whether to accept his offer or not. My attack on the Injectors’ headquarters was scheduled for tonight at midnight. I had intended to take the rest of the afternoon and night to prepare for it, but maybe it would be better for me if I spent some time with Kyle. I remembered what TW said, about how I could never be sure if I was going to survive or not, and decided that checking out Kyle’s new game with him couldn’t hurt.

  So I nodded and said, “Sure thing. I’ve got nothing better to do after school anyway.”

  “Great,” said Kyle. “We can go to my house as soon as school lets out. Don’t worry about my parents. I’ve already asked them and they’re okay with you coming over.”

  “Sounds good,” I said. “I’ll call my parents and let them know where I’ll be.”

  I pulled my phone out of my pocket and quickly dialed our home phone number. I didn’t have to wait long before I heard someone pick up the phone, prompting me to say, “Hi, Mom! This is Jack. I’m just calling to let you know that I’m going over to Kyle’s house after school to play a game with him. I’ll probably be back before dinner, but I just wanted to let you know so you wouldn’t get worried.”

  I waited for Mom’s response, but oddly, I didn’t hear anything on the other end of the phone. The phone was definitely working, because it wasn’t making the out of order beeping noise it usually made whenever it wasn’t working, but I didn’t know why Mom wasn’t responding. Maybe Dad had actually picked up the phone, but that didn’t make sense because Dad should still be at work, unless he got off early, which was always possible, albeit unlikely in my opinion.

  “Mom?” I said, turning away from Kyle and the noise from the rest of the cafeteria. “Are you there? Mom?”

  Finally, a voice on the other end spoke. It was feminine, but it wasn’t Mom’s voice at all. It was too young, too cruel, and far, far too familiar for my liking. Even before the voice finished speaking, I didn’t have any trouble recognizing it.

  “Sorry, but Mrs. McDonald isn’t home right now,” said Christina Madison, her voice falsely sweet. “But if you leave a message after the beep, I will make sure she gets it.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  “Christina?” I said in a whisper. “What did you do to Mom?”

  “What?” said Kyle, leaning forward curiously.

  I looked at Kyle. “It’s, uh, just Mom. I can’t hear her all that well due to all the noise, so I need to go out into the hall and speak to her. I’ll be right back.”

  Before Kyle could say anything, I jumped off my seat and made my way straight to the exit. I walked out into the hallways of the school and made my way directly to the boys’ bathroom. Kicking open the door, a brief glanced at the stalls showed me that I was alone, which was good, because the last thing I needed was for someone to overhear my conversation with Christina.

  “Okay, I’m alone now,” I said, stopping in front of one of the sinks and looking at the mirror. “Answer me: Are you Christina Madison?”

  “You know that’s not my real name,” said Christina. “But yes, I’m the woman who has gone by that name recently, the one you so rudely knocked out back in my apartment.”

  “I thought you’d need to spend the next six months in the hospital after what I did to you.”

  “I’m tougher than I look,” said Christina. “Just like you, actually. I’m sitting here on your couch looking at this family photo and man, you look pretty weak and scrawny in this picture. Can’t believe you’re the same Trickshot who has given me and my boss so much trouble.”

  “You’re in my house?” I said, feeling cold sweat starting to appear on my forehead.

  “Yep,” said Christina. “It was easy to break into. I don’t think any of your neighbors even saw me enter.”

  “How did you find out where I live?” I said. “And my secret identity?”

  “Easy,” said Christina. “Logic dictates that your grandfather would have sent the Trickshot Watch to a family member. The new Trickshot doesn’t look like either your mom or dad, so I deduced that you had to be the new Trickshot. I wasn’t sure at first, but you basically admitting it to me on the phone confirmed it. Thanks, by the way. Idiots like you make my job so much easier.”

  I cursed myself for being such an idiot, but aloud I said, “Where are my parents?”

  “Your parents?” Christina repeated. “Nice people. Seem like decent folk. Better than mine, anyway. At least they don’t beat you, though I’ll understand if you don’t want to talk about it.”

  “You didn’t answer the question,” I said. “I said, where are my par
ents?”

  “The Injectors have them,” said Christina. “Currently, they’re holding your parents hostage in their headquarters. As far as I know, your parents are safe, but they won’t be for much longer, I think.”

  My heart started beating rapidly. “If you lay even one finger on them—”

  “Why are you threatening me?” Christina interrupted with a mocking voice. “I’m not the one holding your parents hostage. The Injectors are.”

  “But you’re working with them,” I said. “Right?”

  “Whatever,” said Christina. “The point is, kiddo, that I would save your big mean threats for the Injectors themselves. Yelling at me over the phone makes you look like a kid. Which you are, but you get what I mean.”

  “Yeah, I do,” I said. “And I don’t like it one bit. What do I need to do to get my parents back?”

  “That’s easy,” said Christina. “You just have to give me the Trickshot Watch. It’s that simple.”

  I glanced down at the Watch on my wrist and looked at the mirror again. “The Trickshot Watch?”

  “Yep,” said Christina. “Just come back over to your house and give me the Watch. Then I’ll call up the Injectors and let them know that they can let your parents go.”

  “They will listen to you?”

  “They will if they’re smart,” said Christina casually. “They know what I can do to them. But yes, I can guarantee your parents’ safety if you will just give me the Watch.”

  I hesitated. My first instinct was to agree to Christina’s demand and give her the Watch. As important as the Watch was, it wasn’t anywhere nearly as important to me as my parents were. And given how I had lost my older brother and grandfather already, I wasn’t in the mood to lose more members of my family, especially if there was something I could do about it.

  But at the same time, I didn’t want to give Christina anything. The Watch wasn’t just a family heirloom. It was a weapon, one that could be used for good or evil, and I believed that Christina and her group were planning to use it for evil purposes. It wouldn’t be heroic of me to give her a weapon that she could use for evil.

  At this point, though, what choice did I have? If Christina was telling the truth—and something told me that she was—then I had no bargaining power in this situation. She was the one with the leverage, namely my parents, and the best I could hope for was agreeing to her demands and hoping she kept up her end of the agreement. It was a terrible situation to be in, but I couldn’t see any way out of it without my parents getting harmed. And I knew that Christina would harm them, or rather, the Injectors would, because it was clear to me by now that Christina was every bit as evil as them.

  “You’ve gone awfully quiet all of a sudden,” said Christina. “Trying to find a way to have your cake and eat it, too?”

  I bit my lower lip. “Not exactly. More like I’m trying to find a way to have my cake and make you eat it.”

  “Oh, come on,” said Christina. “That’s such a stupid, cheesy thing to say. You really are just a dumb kid, aren’t you?”

  “Maybe,” I said, “but at least I didn’t team up with drug dealers to kidnap a sixteen-year-old kid’s parents to make him give you what you want.”

  “And?” said Christina. “What are you going to do, preach to me about how I need Jesus now or something? Come on. Either give me the Watch or your parents die.”

  My hands shook. “All right, Christina. You win. I’ll give you the Watch. Just give me back my parents.”

  I could almost hear Christina’s smirk over the phone. “Very well. I’ll make sure your parents are returned to you safely once I receive the Watch.”

  “Good,” I said. “Now, do you want me to leave school early to do this or—”

  “No,” Christina interrupted. “The last thing I need is your school noticing you leaving early. You can wait until school gets out and then we can make our deal. How does that sound?”

  It sounded like torture to me and made me wonder what Christina was actually trying to do, but aloud I said, “All right. Will you be at my house?”

  “Nope,” said Christina. “I’m going to be at the Injectors’ headquarters. I understand, from a conversation I had with one of the Injectors you beat, that you know where the Injectors are headquartered. Since your parents are also there, we can just meet there and make the exchange at that location at midnight tonight. How does that sound?”

  “It sounds terrible,” I said.

  “Exactly what I wanted to hear,” said Christina. “See you later, then. I’ll be waiting.”

  With that, Christina hung up, leaving me standing there in the boys’ room alone, staring at the mirror and still holding the phone up to my ear.

  As soon as Christina hung up, TW flashed next to me, a worried frown on his face. “I heard the whole conversation. This is worse than I imagined.”

  “You think?” I said as I lowered my phone. I walked up to the sink and leaned against it. “I’m sorry about agreeing to give her the Watch, but—”

  “No, I understand,” said TW. “While the concept of ‘family’ still eludes me to some degree, I understand how important family is to humans. That you would be willing to give me up to Christina in order to save your family is quite natural for a human like you, especially because you’ve lost so much of your family already.”

  “Thanks,” I said in surprise. “I didn’t think you would be so understanding.”

  “What can I say?” said TW. “Working with your grandfather for so many years has given me a good understanding of human nature, albeit an imperfect one.”

  “Makes sense,” I said. I frowned. “Still, this shouldn’t have happened. Now we don’t have the element of surprise on our side anymore.”

  “True,” said TW. “But at this point, what can you do about it? You have no real choice at this point but to go to the Injectors’ headquarters and confront Christina and Jones. If you bail out on your agreement, then they will kill your parents.”

  My hands balled into fists. “I know. But if I give up the Watch, then I will never be able to stop the Injectors or avenge Thomas. And I can’t accept that.”

  TW shrugged. “I wish I knew of some way to help you, Jack, but unfortunately I don’t know how or if it’s even possible.”

  I folded my arms in front of my chest. “I wish you hadn’t said that, because now I’m pretty sure that I’m completely—”

  The door to the bathroom suddenly opened and, before either TW or I knew what was happening, Kyle stepped in and said, “Hey, Jack, I just wanted to find out if you were—”

  He stopped speaking abruptly when he saw TW floating in front of me. TW had completely frozen when Kyle entered. So did I, for that matter. Kyle just stared at TW and TW just stared at him, as if neither could believe what they were seeing.

  I shook my head and said, “Kyle, this, uh, is not what it looks like it.”

  “I don’t know what it looks like,” said Kyle as he let the door swing shut behind him. He pointed at TW. “Is that a hologram or am I just going crazy?”

  “You’re going crazy,” said TW, waving his hands up and down. “The pizza you had for lunch was rotten and it’s starting to make you see things that aren’t—”

  “TW, cut it out,” I interrupted. “You’re not fooling anyone, so you might as well drop the act.”

  TW lowered his hands to his side sheepishly. “Sorry. I was just trying to preserve our secret.”

  “Secret?” Kyle repeated. “What ‘secret’ are you talking about? Do you mean the fact that you’ve been keeping a holographic old guy hidden from me? Because I’m not sure I want to know why you’ve been keeping that a secret from me.”

  I hesitated for a moment, but deciding that the direct method was the best, said, “Kyle, I might as well get to the point: I’m Trickshot.”

  Kyle was silent for a moment before he suddenly grinned and said, “That’s a joke, right?”

  I shook my head. “No, I’m serious. I can e
ven prove it. Look.”

  I flipped open the lid of the Trickshot Watch and pressed the red button. My suit instantly materialized around me, causing Kyle to nearly jump to the ceiling in shock.

  “What the hell?” said Kyle, staring at me with uncomprehending eyes. “Where did that costume come from?”

  “It doesn’t matter,” I said, shaking my head. “I just need you to promise me that you won’t tell anyone about this, because I’m trying to keep my identity a secret and I don’t want anyone else knowing.”

  Kyle hesitated, but after a moment he nodded and said, “Okay, Jack. I’ll keep your secret. It’s what friends do, right? But I’m going to have to ask why you’ve kept it a secret from me.”

  “Because I wasn’t sure you were ready for it yet,” I said. I put my hands on my chest. “I’m still not entirely comfortable in this suit myself, so I wasn’t sure how you would react to it.”

  “I think it’s cool, but I have so many questions,” said Kyle. “When did you get the costume? How do you have superpowers? And just who is this hologram, anyway?”

  I answered all of those questions as quickly as I could, giving Kyle a small recap of everything that had happened since my 16th birthday. I left out a lot of unimportant details, because I didn’t know how much time we had left before someone else walked in on us. I did, however, take off my costume just to be safe, now that there wasn’t a need for Kyle to see me wearing it.

  “Wow,” said Kyle by the time I finished telling him my story. “That’s … a lot to take in. If I hadn’t seen your costume or this hologram guy here, I wouldn’t have believed any of it.”

  “I know it’s a little hard to believe, but it’s all true,” I said. “And now I have to save my parents from the Injectors. And to do that, I have to give them the Trickshot Watch.”

  Kyle scratched his chin. “Couldn’t you go to the police and tell them about this? They might be able to help us arrest the Injectors and save your parents.”