by Lucas Flint
Regardless, we were just about to enter it when I heard a loud yell and looked over toward the controls to see Dad and Mimic fighting Ring Out. Ring Out had somehow managed to uproot one of the seats and was swinging it around like a giant club, but Dad and Mimic were both doing a good job avoiding it. Dad kept trying to aim at and shoot Ring Out with electricity from his gauntlets, but he had to keep moving to avoid Ring Out's weapon.
I was tempted to go and try to help, but I realized that I was still in no position to actually help Dad. My body was recovering from its earlier paralysis, but even if I hadn't been shocked by Tornadess, I'd still be too weak to fight someone like Ring Out.
So I grabbed the handle on the door and pulled the door open wide enough for Mom to go into the escape pod on the inside. I was about to enter after her when I heard Tornadess shout behind me.
I looked over my shoulder to see that Tornadess was standing up again, only this time she wasn't aiming her hands at me. She was raising them above her head, which I didn't understand until I noticed the wind picking up and a dark cloud starting to form near the ceiling. The loud rumbling of thunder from within the cloud told me that something bad was about to happen, especially when the lightning flashed across the dark clouds.
“You won't get away that easily, boy,” said Tornadess. Her voice sounded screechier in the wind, like she was having to raise her voice to be heard. “We are going to end this conflict here and now and take you in and get paid, just like we were hired. No more wasting time!”
I was going to make some kind of snappy remark and then run over and punch her, but Mom grabbed my arm and shouted, “Kevin, come on! You can't fight her. We have to get into the escape pod now.”
“And leave Dad behind?” I said, looking over my shoulder at Mom in surprise. “But—”
I was interrupted by a sudden downpour of rain, which came down in droves. It happened so suddenly that I was unable to stop Mom from jerking me inside the pod and slamming the door shut behind us just as the rain started getting really bad. But the escape pod's door, at least, was waterproof, because none of the water got through it, though I could see the rain pouring in there like crazy.
“Dad!” I shouted. I ran up to the window and pressed my face against it, but the rain on the other side was so thick that I couldn't see anything. “Dad!”
All of a sudden, Tornadess's ugly face appeared smashed against the glass of the window, snarling and scowling. Surprised, I staggered backwards and fell onto the floor on my bottom, while Tornadess continued to glare at me and shout at me, but I couldn't hear what she was saying due to the volume of the rain on the other side.
But I did notice that the door handle was jiggering, which meant that Tornadess was trying to get inside. And a quick glance around the pod told me that Mom and I had nowhere else to run if Tornadess got in here.
“Mom, we're stuck,” I said, looking over my shoulder at her. “If Tornadess breaks in, we're dead.”
“Actually, you will probably be all right,” said Valerie's voice in my ear suddenly. “But your mother certainly won't. Remember, they said they wanted to bring you in to Thaumaturge alive.”
“Thanks for the reassurance, Val,” I grumbled. “By the way, how's Dad doing?”
“Impossible to say,” said Valerie. “I am trying to connect to his helmet's built-in earcom, but unfortunately the weather created by Tornadess is breaking up our connection. I have no idea how he is doing.”
I scowled in annoyance, while Mom was busy walking around the tiny space looking for something. She was feeling along the walls and ceiling, but I had no idea what she was looking for.
So I said, “Mom, what are you looking for? Tornadess is about to break in and once she does, we'll have to fight for our lives.”
“I know, Kevin, dear, I know,” said Mom. “I'm just searching for—ah! Here it is.”
Mom pulled down a panel, revealing a large red button that read EJECT. I could only see the button for a moment, however, before Mom smashed it down with her hand.
Immediately, I heard the sound of metal disconnecting from metal, air being let out somewhere, and then the escape pod shuddered. I looked over my shoulder at Tornadess, but her face was no longer visible through the window, like she had retreated when she heard the same things that I did.
But I had no time to think about that, because an instant later, I heard a loud whoosh and I was thrown to the floor when the floor moved underneath me. My hands broke the fall, but it was still pretty hard and I bumped my forehead against the metal floor anyway, which left me dizzy for a moment.
I recovered quickly, however, and, standing up, looked at Mom in confusion and asked, “What happened? And why can't I hear the rain anymore?”
Mom—who was still standing next to the EJECT button—looked at me. She looked a little more relaxed now that we weren't in the middle of being attacked, but she also looked horrified, like she had just done something that she knew she was going to regret doing.
“I …” Mom looked down at her feet. “I ejected the escape pod from the Spinner, which means that we are no longer near your father.”
Chapter Eight
I ran up to the window of the escape pod's door and looked out. I expected to see the artificial rain generated by Tornadess, but instead I saw nothing but dark water passing us by as our pod zoomed through the deep, dark ocean to who knows where.
I turned around to face Mom, who was now sitting on one of the seats built into the wall of the pod. “Mom, why did you do that? We were supposed to stay on the Spinner.”
“I know,” said Mom. She rubbed her forehead and looked quite troubled. “I was just … well, I panicked. I thought that ugly witch was going to get us before Ted could save us. I didn't want them to take you away or kill me, so I thought I could save us both by ejecting our pod out into the ocean.”
I sighed in frustration. “But now Dad and Mimic are all alone against two very powerful superhumans. Even if they survive, how will they ever be able to find us? Do you even know where this pod is going?”
Mom shook her head. “No, I don't, but it's at least better than where we were, wouldn't you agree?”
“If we knew where it was going, yeah,” I said. I walked over to the seat opposite Mom and sat down on it. “But for all we know, we could just be going toward the ocean floor and we don't have any way of contacting the outside world.”
“Don't you have Valerie in your earcom?” said Mom. “I saw your father give you your earcom earlier.”
“Yes, I am here, Ms. Jason,” said Valerie, “but unfortunately, I am unable to connect with Genius's own earcom at the moment due to the distance between this pod and the Spinner. Nor can I contact any other vessel or satellite that would allow me to call for help.”
“Valerie just said that she can't help us,” I said. I rested my face in my hands and let out a sigh. “That means that we're on our own, unless the escape pod happens to have a pre-programmed destination in mind. Val? What do you think?”
“Unfortunately, I cannot help you because I am not as familiar with Pokacu tech as I could be,” said Valerie. “The best that I can tell is that you are indeed going deeper, but I do not know your exact destination or if your pod is going anywhere at all or if it is simply drifting aimlessly through the sea.”
I sighed again and raised my face out of my hands to look at Mom. “Valerie just said she doesn't know where we're going. So we could be going anywhere.”
“I'm sorry,” said Mom. “I just … I wasn't thinking. I got panicked. I was worried that Tornadess was going to kill us.”
“I know, Mom, I know,” I said. “You're even less powerful than me, but this is still a pretty dumb mistake to make. What if we get caught in a current and dragged to the bottom of the ocean? Or maybe just dragged far away from land and lose all our air?” I looked around suddenly. “Speaking of which, how come we aren't out of air yet?”
“Perhaps the escape pod is equipped with a few air ta
nks,” said Mom with a shrug. “But it doesn't really matter. I think we'll be safe regardless of what happens.”
“How do you know that?” I said, looking at Mom skeptically.
“I just do,” said Mom. “Your father will find us. He would never let us get away out of his sight like this, not for very long anyway.”
“But Dad was distracted by Ring Out and Tornadess,” I said. “Do you really think they would let him search for us?”
“Oh, I am more worried about those two mercenaries than I am about your father, actually,” said Mom. “Your father may not look like it, but he is still a strong neohero in his own right and never showed mercy to supervillains during his youth.”
“Do you mean he is going to kill them if he finds out that we're gone?” I said.
“Possibly, if they keep fighting,” said Mom, “but in all likelihood, he'll just break every bone in their bodies, tie them down so they can't escape, and then wait for the government to come and haul them away. He will probably find us before then, though, because his technology is a lot better than whatever the government has.”
Mom spoke very calmly and confidently, as if she was doing nothing more than stating a simple fact. I didn't understand how she could be so confident, though, especially when I looked out the window again and saw very little but darkness. All I heard was the sound of the escape pod moving through the water; aside from that, it was eerily quiet.
“So you're saying that all we need to do is just sit back and wait for Dad to find us?” I said, looking at Mom in disbelief. “Really?”
“Really,” said Mom. Then she leaned against the wall of the pod. “But if you want, you and Valerie can at least try to figure out our destination, if possible.”
I shook my head and slumped forward. “No, Valerie said she can't. So it looks like all we can do now is just sit back and wait and hope we don’t crash into an undersea cliff or something.”
“I know this is frustrating for you, Kevin, especially since you don't like waiting, but this is all we can do right now,” said Mom. “Think of it this way: At least Robert can't get you down here.”
I looked up at Mom with worry. “How do we know? What if he's stolen water breathing powers from a neohero who can do that?”
“Kevin, you're starting to sound paranoid,” said Mom. “If Robert had that power, Cadmus would have told us.”
“But he himself said that they don't know what all of Robert's powers might be,” I said. I glanced at the ceiling, picturing Robert standing on top of the pod and punching his way through the ceiling, sending ocean water cascading into the tiny space. “If Robert attacks now, there's literally no way that we can fight back against him.”
“Then we are lucky that he hasn't chosen to do that,” said Mom. “And until he does show up, I think we should just try to keep calm and wait. There's no point in getting worried or wasting air, especially when we can't do anything about it.”
I hated to admit it, but Mom was right. I couldn't do anything about this situation. Even if I had my powers, I wouldn't have been able to do much, because my superpowers didn't include the ability to breathe underwater. Then again, if I had had my superpowers, maybe I would have been able to help Dad fight those mercenaries.
I sat against the back of the pod, not saying anything, just listening to the sound of the water rushing by. I kept wondering whether we were going to crash into the ocean floor or into something else, but Mom didn't look nearly as worried as she did before. In fact, she looked quite relaxed, even humming a soft tune under her breath. That was a habit Mom did whenever she was bored, but I thought she should be taking this situation more seriously, even though I wasn't sure how to convince her to do that.
Valerie was pretty silent, too, probably because she was just as powerless as Mom and I at the moment. Or maybe she was trying to connect with Dad or anyone else who could help us who might be nearby, but regardless, I didn't think it mattered much in the end. This pod was probably just going to keep drifting through the water until it either hit a whale or the ocean floor and killed us both.
Because I didn't like sitting around, I stood up and started pacing the length of the pod. It wasn't very long at all, but pacing back and forth made me feel like I was doing something and I did not like feeling powerless.
But that seemed to annoy Mom, because she said, “Kevin, will you please sit down again? You're making me nervous.”
I stopped and looked at Mom in disbelief. “So getting launched from the escape pod of a re-purposed alien spaceship into the deepest parts of the ocean doesn't make you nervous, but me pacing back and forth in front of you does?”
“I just think it isn't helping you relax,” said Mom. “I can tell it's making you agitated. You're scowling, which is always how you look whenever you get agitated like this.”
I hadn't realized it, but I was indeed scowling. I wiped the scowl off my face, however, and said, “But I hate sitting down. I like being up and active. Even if it doesn't actually help us in this situation, it does make me feel better.”
“I know, but you're using up our air and we need to preserve as much as we can,” said Mom. “We don't know when your father will save us, so until he does, we need to be careful about preserving what air we do have.”
“If Dad saves us,” I said, though I sat down anyway. “I'm not sure anyone will be able to find us at this point. I think we're just going to … well, you know.”
Mom nodded, but I could tell that she was worried about me. Of course, she was my Mom, so it made sense that she was worried about me, but I didn't want her to be, even if I appreciated it, because I didn't want Mom getting stressed out in what was already a very stressful situation.
That was when Mom said, “Kevin, did I ever tell you why I married your father?”
I blinked. This seemed like a strange subject to bring up at this time, but I said anyway, “No, you haven't. I just assumed it was because you loved him.”
“That's true,” said Mom. “I do love him. And I did marry him because I loved him. He's a wonderful man, but we didn't necessarily get along when we first met each other.”
“What do you mean?” I said. “Was it a personality clash or something?”
“Not really,” Mom said. “While your father's personality was a little hard for me to get used to, since he can be rather cold and impersonal at times, that wasn't the thing that kept me from loving him.”
“Then what was?” I said. “What do you mean?”
“It was his superpowers,” said Mom. “You see, Kevin, I used to be prejudiced against superhumans, whether they were heroes, villains, or whatever. I didn't like any of them.”
“Really?” I said. “But your brother was the Crimson Fist, right?”
“Yes, Uncle Jake was a neohero, but …” Mom looked away. “He was a big part of the reason I hated neoheroes, actually.”
“What?” I said. “I thought you and Dad respected Uncle Jake a lot. In fact, you gave me my middle name in honor of him. I don't understand what you mean.”
“It was silly,” said Mom. She was starting to look embarrassed. “Jake's powers developed when we were both teenagers, not long after the first superhumans showed up on Earth. Lots of people back then hated and feared superhumans, but a lot of people also loved them and thought they were great, including my own parents.”
“You mean Grandpa and Grandma,” I said. Then I caught myself, remembering my parents' less than cordial relations with Grandpa and Grandma, and said, “Oh, sorry. I shouldn't have mentioned them.”
“No, it's all right,” said Mom. “Your grandparents loved Jake. They showered him with attention and praise for his powers and how he used them to fight crime. It was your grandfather, actually, who designed Jake's first superhero costume for him and who also gave the NHA some money to get started.”
“What? Really?” I said in surprise. “But then why are my grandparents so hostile to Dad?”
“Because they think he i
s at least partly responsible for Jake's death at the hands of Master Chaos,” said Mom. “But it doesn't matter. What matters is that I got jealous of Jake, because I didn't think he'd done anything to earn my parents' praise except be born with special powers. I even believed my parents didn't love me as much as Jake.”
“Did they?” I said.
Mom just sighed. “I don't know, because it has been a long time since I last spoke with them, but I don't think they really did. I was just jealous of the attention he got, which made me hate neoheroes, even though they had never done anything to harm me.”
“Then how did you end up falling in love with Dad?” I said. “Wouldn't your hatred of neoheroes make you hate him, too?”
“I didn't know he was a neohero when I first met him,” said Mom. “Jake introduced me to your father, but it wasn't until we were dating for a year that he actually revealed his secret identity to me. He wasn't sure how I'd take it, but he told me anyway because he wanted to marry me and didn't want to keep any secrets from me.”
“How did you react?” I said.
“I was angry and hurt at first because he had been keeping secrets from me,” said Mom. She shook her head. “But when I realized that your father was just being honest, I forgave him. I loved him too much to reject him because of his powers, because I had seen just how great a man he was and I realized it would be foolish if I rejected him because of something he was born with.”
“What about the fact that he was a superhero who put himself in life-threatening dangers, though?” I said. “Didn't that ever worry you?”
“It did, especially after you were born,” said Mom. “Before you were born, I was able to tolerate it, but when you were born, I didn't like not knowing if your father would get killed by some crazy supervillain. Especially after Jake was killed by Master Chaos and your father went after him; I worried that Chaos would kill Ted, too.”
