by Lucas Flint
I heard a low whirring sound, which I realized was coming from the disintegration ray. It was probably building up energy for its blast, a blast I would not be able to survive. I struggled to get up and run away, but the sedatives were still working on my muscles. All I could do was stir pointlessly on the floor, like a fish flopping on a deck. Techno watched me with an amused grin on his face, as if he was taking great pleasure in seeing me suffer.
“You seem very anxious, Jack,” said Techno. “But there’s no need to be, really. You can’t free yourself or run away. You should try to face death with dignity. I know that that is a hard concept for kids like you to wrap your minds around, but there are far worse things than death. When you get older … ah, what am I saying? You’re not going to get older. You get to die in the prime of your youth, which I suppose is better than wasting away in a nursing home somewhere.”
I knew Techno was just prodding me at this point, but I still wished I could sock him in the face. Unfortunately, all I could do was lie there on the floor defenselessly and hopelessly, listening to the ever-increasing whirring sounds of the disintegration ray as it grew louder and louder. I estimated that I had only a few seconds left before the ray reached full power and blasted me into oblivion.
This was it. The end of my life. I had not expected to die this way, but I guess we never get to choose when we die. My rather short life flashed before my eyes. I could only hope that my parents would never stop searching for me and perhaps find out somehow that Techno was my murderer, but I knew that was more fantasy than reality.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the face of the Trickshot Watch flashed blue. I glanced at it, but I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. The Trickshot Watch looked as normal as ever, making me wonder if my eyes had been playing tricks on me. That was probably the case. I wondered if people who were about to die started seeing things that weren’t there. If so, then I could pretty plainly say that I was about to die and my life as I knew it was over.
“One …” Techno said under his breath. “… two …”
I realized that Techno was counting down to the ray’s charging. I didn’t have much time left, it seemed. The ray’s whirring sounds were louder than ever, drowning out almost every other sound in the lab.
“…Three!” Techno cried.
The ray immediately went silent. I closed my eyes, not wanting to see my own coming death.
But as the seconds ticked by and I didn’t feel myself die or anything, I wondered if Techno had perhaps miscounted. I cracked my eyes open just a hair to see the disintegration ray still aimed at me, but it had not fired yet. It looked like someone had shut it off entirely, which was strange, because Techno had activated it to kill me, so why was it off?
“What the hell?” said Techno. “Why isn’t it firing? Disintegration ray, I order you to shoot the brat. Shoot him now.”
All of sudden, a bright flash of blue light exploded in the lab. I had to close my eyes again, as did Techno, but soon the light faded and we opened our eyes to see someone who I had not heard from in a while.
It was TW. He was floating beside the disintegration ray, his arms crossed in front of his chest. His form was glitching out crazily now. His body flickered in and out of existence several times, while the edges of his form were so fuzzy that it hurt to look at. The only part of his body that wasn’t glitching out like someone had just dumped a bucket of water on it was his face, which somehow, despite everything, remained perfectly solid and still.
“Greg’s hologram?” said Techno. He looked down at the Watch. “What are you doing out of the Watch? I didn’t give you permission to leave.”
“I d-don’t need anyone’s permission to d-do a-anything,” said TW. His voice was awful now, sounding like the music on my old MP3 player, only it was more scary than frightening. “Y-You are n-not my boss, even if you h-have the Watch.”
Techno sneered. “You sound just like Greg, except unlike Greg, you’re not a superhero or even a human. You’re just a tool, bits and pieces of bites arranged to form something that appears human but isn’t actually so. It makes your defiance amusing rather than heroic.”
“I-I m-may not be a super,” said TW. “I m-may n-not even be h-human, like y-you said. But th-that doesn’t mean I can’t still save the people I care about.”
“And how do you intend to do that, machine?” said Techno. “You’re a hologram. You can’t even touch me, much less stop me with your bare hands. Or are you hoping I’ll get scared and give up? Maybe if you were a ghost, but remember, I am Techno. I am the master of technology and machines. I know how you work and I know how to reprogram you to make you into my loyal servant.”
TW flashed a smile. “When did I e-ever say I would lay hands on you?”
TW snapped his fingers. The disintegration ray started whirring again, only now it sounded like it was at the breaking point. It swiveled on its ball joint and aimed directly at Techno, who took a step back in shock.
“What the hell?” said Techno. “That’s my disintegration ray. How dare you—”
Techno never got to finish his sentence, because at that moment the ray fired a red beam of energy. The red energy beam struck Techno directly in the chest, but he never got a chance to scream out in pain. He just immediately disappeared into thin air, leaving behind only the Trickshot Watch, which fell onto the floor with a small clack.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
I stared at the Trickshot Watch for a long while, barely able to believe my eyes. “What … what happened to Techno? Is he—”
“Dead,” TW said. “Yes. I h-hacked into the systems of his disintegration r-ray while he wasn’t l-looking and shot him with it. It w-wasn’t hard. I’ve broken into smartphones with b-better security than that disintegration ray cannon.”
I gulped. “What an awful way to go. There’s not even one molecule of him left.”
“Yes,” said TW. “I d-didn’t want to k-kill him, but he n-needed to be stopped. If I hadn’t d-done that, you would have been dead i-instead.”
I looked at TW again. “Thanks, man. I didn’t know you care that much about me.”
“A-As I told you, Gregory s-sent me to protect and t-train you,” said TW. “S-So—”
All of a sudden, TW flickered out of sight.
“TW” I cried out. “No!”
Then, quite abruptly, TW reappeared, though his form was glitching out more than ever. He slowly hovered down toward the floor, looking at his own hands, which kept flickering in and out of existence seemingly at random.
“Oh, dear,” said TW without any fear in his voice. “I th-think I m-might have o-overextended myself this t-time. Systems are unstable and are close to a crash. Several c-critical files are corrupted or h-have c-ceased working outright. P-Power is low, at about five p-percent, and d-dropping l-like a rock.”
“What does that mean?” I said. I struggled to sit up, but only managed to push myself up with my hands. “Are you going to be okay?”
TW looked at me. The only part of his face that was clear now were his eyes, but even those were getting fuzzier and fuzzier. “N-No, J-Jack. I-I’m dying, to p-put it in human terms, and t-there’s n-nothing I can do to reverse the process.”
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “No, you can’t die. If I can get you to Kyle—”
“N-Not possible,” said TW. “K-Kyle is still in F-Florida. Even if he wasn’t, t-there’s nothing he could d-do to save me. M-My systems are failing fast and soon I-I won’t e-exist at all anymore.”
With a supreme force of will, I crawled over to TW inch by inch. “No, TW, there’s got to be something we can do. Even if you are damaged, maybe you just need to go into hibernation for a while or something.”
“W-Won’t help,” said TW, shaking his head. “My p-power l-level is d-dropping r-rapidly. S-Soon, I will break d-down e-entirely.”
“But …” I struggled to think of something to say. “What about Grandfather? How are we going to find him if you
’re dead?”
“T-The c-coordinates your u-uncle gave us are o-on your p-phone,” said TW. “F-Follow t-them and y-you should r-r-reach Icon’s island base.”
“But I can’t do it without you,” I said. “There’s still so much about the Trickshot Watch I don’t understand, so much about my own powers that I need to learn more about. If you won’t be around to teach me anymore, then what am I supposed to do?”
“M-My apologies, J-Jack,” said TW. He hung his head on his chest. “I-It is my fault for not completing y-your training. I h-hope Gregory f-forgives me.”
By now, I had crawled close enough to TW that I could reach out to him, which I did. But my hand just went through his holographic form and I touched nothing but air.
“Come on,” I said. “You can’t die, TW. You just can’t.”
“I-I’m s-sorry, Jack,” said TW. He raised his head. His face was practically a blur now, with only the faint hint of eyes hidden somewhere in the blurry mess that was once his face. “E-Everything dies, even c-computer programs l-like me. I w-wish it weren’t s-so, but this is the e-end.”
Despite myself, I could feel tears starting to form in the corners of my eyes. I tried to wipe the tears away, but my muscles were so weak that it was basically useless. Besides, it wasn’t like there was anyone in here who could see me crying, aside from TW, and I wasn’t sure how much TW could even see now, given how his holographic form was so blurry now.
“I still don’t like this,” I said. “I don’t want you to go, TW. You’re not just my mentor or a computer program. You’re my friend.”
TW faintly smiled, though it was hard to make out through the blurriness. “T-Thank you, Jack. I-I c-couldn’t ask for a b-better student or—”
Abruptly, TW disappeared. I thought he had just flickered out of existence again and would be back to finish his sentence, but the longer I lay there staring at the spot where he had once floated, the more I started to realize that TW was really, finally, actually gone.
And I lowered my head and wept.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
One week later …
I was awoken by my alarm clock, which was blaring in my ears. I slammed my fist down on the snooze button and tried to go back to sleep, but I hadn’t slept very well last night and now that I was awake, I couldn’t go back to sleep. Resigned to my fate, I threw the blankets off me and sat up, rubbing my eyes and yawning as I looked around my dark room.
According to the clock, it was about eight in the morning, which was the usual time I got up during the summer, but I didn’t feel well-rested. Then again, I hadn’t felt well-rested this whole week. I now understood how Dad felt whenever he got home late but had to get up for work early the next morning. It made me wonder how he dealt with it, because I was pretty sure I couldn’t run off of a lack of sleep like that.
My eyes fell on the top drawer of my bedside desk. The Trickshot Watch was in there, but I didn’t care to look at it. Ever since getting it back from Techno, I hadn’t worn the danged thing even once. Well, okay, I did wear it in order to escape from Techno’s lab and get rid of the sedatives in my body, but as soon as I got back home, I put it in the top drawer of my desk and hadn’t even looked at it. After TW’s passing, even looking at it was too much for me.
Yawning, I picked up my phone off the desk and started going through my news feed. I was hungry and wanted breakfast, but I was too depressed to get up and get something to eat. Besides, I didn’t hear the sounds of Mom making breakfast, so I had probably missed it.
My attention was drawn to the first headline at the top of my feed, from the Rumsfeld Journal, which read:
INFAMOUS SUPERVILLAIN ARTHUR ‘HOLES’ RENNER SENTENCED TO MAXIMUM SECURITY PRISON, GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS CAN CONFIRM
Curious, I clicked the headline and began reading the article:
“HOUSTON, TEXAS—Governor Alexander Jones has confirmed to the media that the infamous supervillain Arthur ‘Holes’ Renner, formerly the superhero of Houston and infamous for his serial killings back in the early 2000s, has been upgraded to a maximum security prison just outside the city especially designed for supervillains, the Rumsfeld Journal can confirm.
Holes—who was apprehended in Rumsfeld, Texas last week after kidnapping a local woman and threatening to kill her—has been placed in the highest security prison in the country. Governor Jones has stated that Holes is expected to remain behind bars for the rest of his life and that he is currently not a threat to anyone at the moment.
Holes became a national news subject last week when he broke out of prison in Houston. He successfully evaded police and superheroes alike until he was apprehended in an abandoned warehouse in north Rumsfeld, thanks in no small part to the efforts of Rumsfeld citizen Walter McDonald, who shot Holes in the back with a gun, which paralyzed Holes long enough for the police to arrive and arrest him.
Walter McDonald was recognized for his heroism by Rumsfeld Mayor Harry Adams two days later. Officials are still investigating how Holes broke out of prison in the first place, though current evidence suggests that Holes may have had outside help.”
That was where the article ended, but underneath the article, under the ‘Related articles and links’ section, was another headline that read JAMES ‘TECHNO’ ALBERT, FORMER SIDEKICK OF TRICKSHOT, HAS GONE MISSING IN HIS APARTMENT.
I didn’t bother to click the link, because I already knew what the article would say. It would probably say something about how no one heard from Techno in a while and when someone went to check up on him, they discovered that his apartment was empty and no one knew where he was. They would never know the truth about Techno or what really happened to him, and I intended to keep it that way, because right now I didn’t think that people were ready for the truth. It wasn’t like I had any proof that Techno had been obliterated by his own disintegration device or that I could prove that he had been Holes’ mysterious benefactor.
And anyway, I managed to find and retrieve the original Trickshot Watch that Holes had bought for Techno. Right now, it lay in a box underneath my bed where it would stay until I could figure out what to do with it. I thought of outright destroying the Watch, but for some reason I hesitated, maybe because it was such a unique device that I couldn’t bear the thought of destroying it. It might be useful to have a backup Watch, anyway, though hopefully it was one I would never need to use.
But given how both Watches didn’t have TW anymore, was there really much of a difference between them, aside from age? I didn’t know. All I knew was that I couldn’t stand thinking about TW’s sacrifice. It had affected me far more deeply than I would have originally thought, to the point where I wasn’t sure I would continue my superhero career at all.
It was funny. Back when I first met TW, he had kind of freaked me out because of his status as a sentient AI. It didn’t help that he acted too much like Grandfather to my liking. Yet I was now mourning him almost as much as I mourned Thomas’ death, although not to the same degree, of course. Even so, it felt more like I’d lost a close friend than a sentient computer program.
Kyle was back in Texas now, having come back home the day after TW’s death. I had even told him about it, but I rejected his offer to look at the Watch and try to fix TW, because I knew there was no way Kyle could do it. Kyle was a tech genius, but I figured that TW’s AI was too advanced for even someone as technologically gifted as him to handle. Techno might have been a scumbag who was wrong about a lot of things, but I figured he was probably right about TW.
Sighing, I almost decided to go back to bed and sleep in for the rest of the day, but then my stomach growled louder than normal and I realized that I was too hungry to go back to sleep, even for just an extra five minutes. Rubbing my stomach, I swung my legs over the side of my bed and made my way downstairs without bothering to shower first or even change out of my pajamas. It didn’t really matter anyway, because Mom and Dad didn’t mind if I came down in my pajamas, and besides I only wanted to get like, maybe a p
iece of toast and some milk. I wasn’t expecting to have a full breakfast, especially because it seemed like Mom hadn’t cooked it this morning.
Reaching the kitchen, I found Mom and Dad sitting at the table. Dad was reading something on his tablet, probably the news, while Mom was sipping her coffee and reading something on her e-reader. The two of them, however, did look up at me when I entered.
“Morning, Jack,” said Dad as he lowered his tablet onto the table. “How are you holding up?”
I shrugged as I walked over to the coffee maker and poured myself a cup of coffee. “About as well as ever, I guess. TW …”
“Ah,” said Mom. “The hologram you told us about, right?”
I nodded glumly. After TW’s death, I told my parents everything about my identity as Trickshot, including TW. The two of them had been absolutely shocked to learn I had been keeping such a big secret from them so long, but luckily they were still accepting of me. I still expected Dad to take my Watch away from me at some point, however, because I knew how Dad felt about superheroes and I doubted he was going to let me continue to play the superhero for much longer, however accepting he might be right now.
“I remember TW when I was your age,” said Dad. “He was always with my dad whenever they were out on the town fighting supervillains and criminals. It’s a shame I didn’t get to see him again before he died. I bet we would have gotten along great.”
“Yeah,” I said. I leaned against the kitchen counter and sipped my coffee cup. It was dark and fresh, which was exactly how I liked my coffee. “All I know is that he’s gone for good and there’s no bringing him back, at least from what I can tell.”
“Sorry to hear that, Jack,” said Mom gently. “Losing a friend is very hard. When I was in fifth grade, my best friend died in a car crash. It took me a long time to get over it.”
