by Charlie Wood
“How’s everything fit?”
“Great, actually.” Tobin looked down at his shirt. “But two pieces of it are missing.”
Orion reached into the duffle bag on his shoulder, pulling out a black cape and a dark blue vest. The vest had a white lightning bolt on it in the shape of an “S.”
“Here. This is what I got from Aykrada while we were in Gallymoora. They haven’t been used in a while, but they’re still in pretty good shape, I think.”
Tobin pulled the vest over his head, then tied the cape around his neck. The cape reached about halfway down his back, and its edges were cut into ragged triangles.
“Cool,” he said, inspecting the lightning bolt on his chest. “This is awesome.”
“And just in time, too.”
Orion pressed a button on the wall, causing two training robots to emerge from sliding doors inside the training area. Scatterbolt ran out into the hallway in a panic.
“Hey, what the heck are you trying to do?! Get me killed by one of my own kind?!”
Tobin laughed. “Tell Keplar I’m gonna beat his old record,” he told Orion. “Someone has to show him up sometime.”
With a grin, the boy ran back into the training area, in full costume for the first time.
Pleased with Tobin’s enthusiasm, Orion walked out of the museum and onto the brick sky-ship landing area outside the mountain’s entrance. Keplar was there, lying underneath the Sky-Blade and working on its underside with a wrench. His clothes and fur were smeared with grease.
“I was watching him earlier this morning,” the dog said. “He looks good, O. Damn good. I can’t believe how fast he’s learning everything.”
“I know,” Orion said, “but let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. We still have a lot of work to do, and it looks like we might not even have as much time as we originally thought.”
Keplar slid out from underneath the ship. “Uh-oh. You go to Earth today?”
“Yes. A group of Gores have gathered in the woods near Tobin’s friend’s house—the girl, Jennifer. There’s a small army of them, just waiting there.”
“Waiting for what? That’s way too obvious and risky, especially for Vincent.”
“I know—it’s a trap, nothing more. He’s only trying to get Tobin’s attention.”
“Well, that won’t work. The kid’s too smart for that.”
“I hope so, but let’s not mention it to him, just in case. Especially since it has to do with Jennifer.”
“Hey,” Tobin said.
Orion and Keplar spun around. They found Tobin standing near the Sky-Blade.
“Those last two robots were pathetic, Orion. I’ve seen tougher appliances in my kitchen.”
He shot Orion and Keplar a look.
“So...what has to do with Jennifer?”
“This is bull!” Tobin shouted. He looked across the Sky-Blade’s cabin toward Orion, who was standing with Keplar sitting next to him. “An army of creatures outside her house? And you weren’t even going to tell me about this?”
“No,” Orion said. “Because she’s not in any danger, Tobin. And I knew it would interfere with your training, just like it has.”
“I can’t believe this,” Tobin said, shaking his head. “I thought you told me if you went to Earth, you’d die? That’s the only reason I agreed to do this stupid thing, because you said you couldn’t! What else have you been lying to me about?”
“Hey!” Keplar shouted. “Take it easy, Tobin! That’s enough!”
“No, Keplar, I won’t! Why should I? No one seems to be telling me the truth around here!”
“We haven’t been lying to you about anything, Tobin,” Orion said, trying to not raise his voice. “I can travel to your world for very short periods of time, you know that. The only reason I’ve been doing it at all is to make sure your friends are safe.”
“Yeah, an army of demons around Jennifer’s house—sounds like you’re doing a great job to me.”
“All right!” Keplar said, standing up. “Tobin, you really need to shut the hell up before I—”
“No, it’s all right,” Orion said, putting a hand in front of Keplar. “He should be mad at us. We should have told him. That was my mistake.” He turned to Tobin. “I’m sorry, Tobin. I am. But they are completely safe, I promise you.”
“Whatever. I’m going to Earth with you tomorrow to check on them.”
“No. Absolutely not.”
“Why?!”
“Because it’s a trap, Tobin: it’s exactly what Vincent wants—for you to go to Earth when you aren’t ready, so he can take you out and be done with it. You’re wasting your time. All of this time we’ve been arguing, you could have been training. So let’s go.”
Orion held out Tobin’s bo-staff, but the boy didn’t take it.
“C’mon, Tobin. Let’s go and—”
The boy pushed past the old man and knocked the bo-staff to the ground, where it clattered loudly.
“You guys treat me like a damn baby. I’m outta here.”
Tobin walked out of the ship and down its ramp. Keplar and Orion followed him.
“I’m surprised, Tobin,” Orion said. “I thought you’d be smart enough to understand this.”
Tobin spun around. “Forget understanding it! I don’t wanna sit here, doing nothing, while my friends get killed! We need to go back now!”
“You aren’t ready,” Orion said. “You aren’t going.”
“I am ready! I could go back right now, by myself!”
“Then prove it.”
Orion pushed a button on a remote control in his hand; instantly, a door opened on a cliff jutting out from the side of the mountain, and three training robots emerged from it. Tobin ran to the edge of the landing platform, leapt into the air, and landed on the cliff, engaging the robots with his bare hands. Screaming with rage, he punched one of the robots right through its metal chest.
Orion and Keplar watched Tobin’s display.
“Doesn’t look good, Orion,” the husky said.
“He’ll be fine,” Orion replied. “The boy will be fine.”
Later that night, Tobin was sitting on the brick landing area of the museum and looking out over the forest. It had been a quiet night so far, and for that he was glad. He had felt so angry earlier, so betrayed, and he had wanted nothing more than to get away from Orion and the others and never see them again. Now, though, as a warm breeze swayed slowly through the trees, he had begun to feel better. He could think clearly again, and he knew what he had to do.
But he also knew he had acted foolishly toward the others. Even mean. As usual, enough time had passed since the outburst, and now Tobin simply felt embarrassed and guilty. It was a problem he had dealt with his entire life.
The doors of the museum opened behind him, so Tobin turned around and saw Orion. The old man walked to him and sat down next to him, but it was quiet a long time before anyone spoke.
“I was very impressed with the way you used your electricity to create that ball lightning, Tobin. That’s a very difficult but effective trick.”
“Yeah. I remembered how you said my dad used to do that against multiple targets, so I gave it a shot. It worked pretty good on those little bug-bot things.”
“Yes, it did. It was a very well done exercise all around.”
A silence.
“I’m sorry for how I acted before,” Tobin said. “I feel like an idiot.”
“It’s okay. I know what it’s like to feel like your friends are in danger, and what it’s like when you feel you can’t be there for them right away. But that’s one of the toughest things we have to learn, Tobin: people in our position have to make the right decision, even when it seems like the wrong one. We can’t think about ourselves, we have to think about oth
ers. And that’s very tough.”
Tobin nodded. “I’m just so frustrated. With everyone in so much danger with Vincent out there, and they don’t even know it. I just…when I do finally go after him as Strike, I hope it’s all worth it.”
Orion looked at him. “‘Strike,’ huh? So you’re gonna keep your father’s name?”
“Well, you did give me a shirt with a big lightning bolt ‘S’ on it.”
Orion laughed. “I guess you’re right.”
“But, no, I like it. It has a nice ring to it. ‘The Red Wolf’ on the other hand...”
They laughed.
“My costume was red,” Orion explained. “That’s the only reason I called myself that. It sounded much cooler when I was fourteen.” He reached into his pocket. “Here, Tobin. I want to show you something.”
The old man took out a pocket watch. It was hanging from a silver chain, and about the size of a small seashell.
“Wow,” Tobin said. “Where’d you get it?”
“In that duffle bag of your father’s. Your dad was…a bit of a collector. Some people might have called him a thief, but he always preferred ‘collector.’ He was always taking souvenirs from the missions we went on, and keeping them in that bag.
“That’s why Gallymoora had been attacked—when it was already too late, I realized Vincent has been searching for something in that bag, even though he knows full-well he destroyed it years ago. But apparently he doesn’t want to take any chances.”
Tobin turned over the pocket watch and looked at it; it was blue and transparent, and inside he could see all of its mechanical parts—gears, cogs, a small gyroscope.
“Your father always used to say that watch was lucky,” Orion said, “and that if he ever got into any trouble, it would take him wherever he wanted to go. As far as I can tell, that was just your dad being your dad—making up stories to get a laugh—because I never saw it do anything.”
“Does it still work?”
“I don’t think so. But when we face Vincent, I thought maybe you’d like to take it with you, for good luck. Just in case.”
“Okay.” Tobin handed the watch back to Orion. “I will.”
“We’ll work tomorrow on teaching you how to use the portal pistol,” Orion said. “Step one to getting you back home. Sound good?”
“Yeah, definitely.”
“Okay. Goodnight, Tobin.”
“Goodnight. I think I’ll just sit out here for a little while longer.”
Tobin watched as Orion walked back into the museum. Then, when he was sure the old man was gone, he leapt off the landing area and onto a lower part of the mountain. When his boots hit the ground, he ran into a dense circle of trees.
Even though he was no longer angry, and even though he was embarrassed by how he had acted, Tobin still knew one thing: there was only one way to make sure his friends were safe.
After running into a small clearing, Tobin looked back at the mountaintop. The museum was now far off in the distance.
“Well, here goes nothing.”
The boy reached into his pocket, pulling out a red, chrome portal pistol. Earlier, without Orion knowing, he had snuck into the old man’s room and taken the bizarre device, hiding it away until now. He wished that he didn’t have to go this sneaky route, but felt he had no choice.
Nervously pointing the shining pistol away from him, Tobin pulled the trigger. There were different settings on the pistol, and different ways to fire it so you ended up exactly where you wanted to be on the other world, and when nothing happened, Tobin wasn’t sure he was using it correctly.
But then he felt the hair on his arms stick up. He felt his clothes cling to his body. There was electricity all around him, tingling in the air.
Then there was a red flash and a snap of lightning.
Tobin opened his eyes. A swirling, red-and-white, six-foot-tall portal was now hovering in front of him. Reaching forward, he stuck his hand into the mirrored gateway, and felt a tremendous burst of static run up his arm. “Whoa,” he said, pulling his hand back. It felt like it had fallen asleep.
The boy eyeballed the portal, taking a deep breath.
“Home, here I come. I hope, anyway.”
With more than a little trepidation, Tobin jumped into the portal and it closed behind him with a SNAP!
In the night sky above the town of Bridgton, Massachusetts, directly above Paul’s Auto Repair, a red dot appeared. At first it was non-discrete—no bigger and brighter than a star. But then, slowly, the dot grew. It grew bigger and brighter until it pulsated with red light and buzzed in the night. Finally, when it was the size of a small car—CRACK!
The red circle was gone, and in its place there was a seventeen-year-old boy wearing a superhero costume.
But, Tobin couldn’t fly, and soon he was falling. Screaming the whole way down, he watched the auto repair shop’s roof grow closer until he crashed into it with a THUD! Stunned and shaken, he stood up, feeling a dull aching in his bones. Then he vomited over the side of the building.
“Ow,” he said, rubbing his elbows. “Something tells me that’s not how that’s supposed to work.”
Tobin looked over the other buildings in the area; he was in his hometown. He realized how long he had been gone, and how much he had missed it.
“Hello, Bridgton. It’s good to be back.”
With a grin, Tobin ran to the edge of the rooftop, leapt into the air, and landed on top of the next building. Then, eyeballing the next rooftop, he used his newfound strength to leap onto that building. After sizing up his next jump, he came to a conclusion:
“I really gotta talk to Orion about getting me a ‘Strike-Mobile’ or something.”
Leaping from rooftop-to-rooftop, Tobin continued his journey all the way down Middle Street, heading toward Thomas Grocery. There, he knew, he could cut through its parking lot, cross through the woods, and, in no time at all, be at his friend Jennifer’s house.
In the Museum of the Heroes, Keplar and Scatterbolt were sitting at a round table, sipping from sodas, and playing cards. At the top of the mountain, where they were now, there were bedrooms, a kitchen, and a common area, all set up for a time like this when the museum was needed as a place for people to stay for a short period of time. As both Keplar and Scatterbolt hadn’t felt like sleeping (or, in Scatterbolt’s case, didn’t need to sleep), the two friends had instead settled in for a long night of junk food, cards, and laughter.
“I bet...twenty-five,” Scatterbolt said, pushing a stack of chips across the table.
“Okay, you got it.”
Keplar threw his own chips into the pile, then put his cards down, face-up. “Three of a kind,” he chuckled. “Sorry, SB. Maybe next time.”
The dog reached for the chips, but then Scatterbolt showed his cards.
“I have all the same color.”
Keplar looked at the cards in astonishment. Happily, Scatterbolt wrapped his arms around the chips and gathered every last one.
“What the…?!” the dog said. “You played a seven and a three? Who the heck plays a seven and a three?”
The robot shrugged and counted his money. “They were all the same color.”
Keplar threw the cards down and sighed, giving up.
Meanwhile, several floors below Keplar and Scatterbolt, Orion was sitting at the small duck pond in the rear exhibit of the main gallery, tossing some breadcrumbs to a trio of quacking ducks. The old man was grateful for the birds’ company, as tonight he just couldn’t sleep, and needed something to take his mind off all that was troubling him. As he threw his last piece of bread into the pond, he turned, looking out the open window at the trees outside. He could not shake the feeling that something had gone wrong.
Taking long, quiet footsteps, Tobin walked thr
ough the deep woods until he reached a spot where he could get a clear view of Jennifer’s house. As he peered out from behind a tree, he was relieved to see that all was quiet—the house looked exactly the same as any other time he had visited.
“Well,” he said, “everything looks fine, I guess. But I should probably stay for a little while longer, just to make sure.”
As he sat down on a large rock, Tobin watched the house. He found it was nice to simply sit there, away from all the craziness of Capricious. However, as he thought and remembered what everything was like before, he did not notice something shuffling behind him.
In the museum, Keplar and Scatterbolt were just about to start another game of cards when Orion burst in.
“Where is he?!” the old man shouted. “Where is he?!”
Keplar was startled. “Whoa, Orion, where’s the fire, buddy?”
The old man dashed by the card table. “The boy! Where is the boy?” He opened the kitchen door, looked inside, and then slammed it shut.
“I don’t know,” Keplar said, looking to Scatterbolt. “In his room sleeping, I guess? What the hell is going on?”
Orion rushed to Tobin’s room, flung open the door, and turned on the light. But the bed was empty.
“Dammit,” Orion whispered.
Outside of Jennifer’s house, Tobin was sitting on the rock, with his elbows on his knees, his chin in his palms, and his desire to leave waning by the second.
But then, suddenly, he heard something move behind him. He sat up, startled, and turned around.
A Gore was standing there, only a few yards away. As it stared at the boy, its red eyes were blinking out of the darkness of its hood, and it was raising one of its two-clawed hands.
Tobin stood up and removed his bo-staff from his back. “Get away,” he said. “Get away…”
