by Lucas Flint
“Grandmother is bedridden?” I said in surprise. “What kind of disease has she come down with?”
“Ah, I do not know,” said Grandfather. “The doctor said he has never seen anything like it before. We’ve been doing everything we can to keep her alive, but it is very hard when we don’t know for sure what is ailing her.”
“Can I see her?” I said. “Is that all right?”
Grandfather shook his head suddenly. “Oh, no. Well, not right away, at least. She is sleeping right now and it isn’t wise to wake her up when she is asleep, since she needs her rest.”
“Oh, okay,” I said in disappointment.
“But you don’t need to worry,” said Grandfather. “I will tell her that you visited after you leave. She will be delighted to hear it.”
“Leave?” I said. “I’m not leaving, at least not anytime soon.”
“Not leaving?” said Grandfather. “Why?”
“Because I have a few things I want to talk with you about,” I said.
Grandfather looked almost annoyed for a second, but then his old kindly smile returned and he said, “What is it?”
“It has to do with my superpowers,” I said. I held up my hand. “After I took Professor Hernandez’s serum—”
I was interrupted by the sound of something smashing into the ground outside. Emma’s hand immediately went to the weapons at her belt, while Triplet, Grandfather, and I looked toward the back window of the living room, though I didn’t see anything outside.
“What was that?” said Triplet. “It sounded like something crashed.”
“I don’t know,” said Grandfather. He sounded afraid. “Emma, please—”
Grandfather was interrupted by something smashing through the window, sending broken glass all over the floor. Triplet and I stood up, while Emma stepped in front of Grandfather like she was going to protect him.
Then the thing that had smashed through the window stood, showing that it was not a mere ‘thing,’ but a human. But I didn’t know who he was. He was a man wearing a red bandanna around his forehead, plus a blue domino mask across his eyes. He wore a flowing yellow cape and had what looked like boxing gloves on his hands, but they didn’t look like any boxing gloves I’d ever seen.
Even odder, the man’s eyes were glowing, which made it impossible to tell what they really looked like. He also looked amused at us, but not surprised, almost as if he had been expecting to see us.
“Hello there,” said the man, waving at us like he was just taking a stroll down the street. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything important, though I guess it doesn’t matter, given that I’m going to kill you either way.”
“Who are you?” I said. “And who are you going to kill?”
The man sighed, as if I had just asked a stupid question, but said, “My name is Twinfist. And I am here to kill that old man—and anyone else who gets in my way—for the crimes he has committed against my master.”
Chapter Three
“Twinfist?” I said. “I’ve never heard of you before. Who is your ‘master’?”
“Why should I tell you?” said Twinfist. “I am here to kill the old man and I can do that without telling you a thing about me or my master.”
“Not unless we stop you,” said Triplet. “Or do you really think we’re just going to let you kill Mr. Jason?”
“No,” said Twinfist. He slammed his fists together. “But it sure would make my job much easier if you did.”
I looked over my shoulder at Grandfather. “Grandfather, do you know who this man is and why he wants to kill you? Do you know who his master is?”
Grandfather gulped and said, “Yes, but I did not think he would ever find me. I thought he had abandoned his grudge against me.”
“Okay, but who is he?” I said. “If you know who he works for, that would be great.”
“I will tell you later,” said Grandfather. He rose from his chair. “For now, I am going to get to safety while you two beat this man. I would be a liability in a fight.”
“Get to safety?” said Twinfist. He laughed. “Why do you think I am going to let you get away so easily? I was given explicit instructions not to let you get away under any circumstances.”
“Because we’re going to make sure you can’t get him,” I said. I rose from my seat and raised my fists in defense. “I may not know who you are or why you want to kill Grandfather, but I can still fight and beat you.”
“The old man is your grandfather?” said Twinfist in surprise. “Hmm, I was not told that Matthew Jason had grandchildren. I guess it doesn’t matter, though, because you look easy enough to defeat.”
“I’ve beaten far stronger supervillains than you before,” I said. “Underestimate me at your own risk.”
“Sure you have,” said Twinfist. “Now I’m getting tired of standing around and talking like this. Why don’t we just go straight to the fighting? Or maybe I’ll just skip it and go straight to killing Matthew Jason.”
Twinfist suddenly slammed his fists together again and then jumped into the air, trying to jump over us to reach Grandfather. I shot into the air after him and punched Twinfist in midair, sending him flying back out the window he had broken through.
“Triplet!” I shouted at him. “You help Grandfather and Emma get to safety while I deal with Twinfist, okay?”
Triplet nodded and went to go help Grandfather and Emma while I flew out the window to find Twinfist. I wasn’t sure what to expect, giving that I had not been holding back when I punched him with my super strength, but he had seemed strong enough to survive my attack.
That was why I was shocked when I saw him lying on the ground outside the window, his body and limbs twisted in unnatural positions, while what little bits of his face were left unprotected by his mask were cut and bleeding. He looked like a corpse, which made me wonder if I had actually killed him, but then Twinfist’s eyes flickered open and he looked up at me in annoyance.
“That hurt,” said Twinfist. “But I have to admit, you have a very strong punch. Too bad it wasn’t strong enough to actually kill me.”
Before my startled eyes, Twinfist’s limbs started to twist and crack back into natural positions. The cracking noises that his bones made were creepy and made me wince more than once, but Twinfist looked almost bored by this, as if he did this sort of thing every day. The cuts on his face were starting to close up as well.
In seconds, Twinfist’s body was back to normal and he was standing up, rolling his shoulders and bending his knees like he was trying to work out the kinks.
“There,” said Twinfist. “A bit stiff, but all better.”
“What?” I said. “How did you do that?”
Twinfist looked up at me with a rather creepy smile on his face. “That? Oh, that was just my power. I have a healing factor, so I can survive almost any blow that doesn’t immediately kill me. All you did was break a few bones and give me a few cuts; hardly the worst injuries I’ve ever taken, at least in comparison to what I’ve suffered in the past.”
I had heard of superhumans with healing factors, but I had never actually seen one in real life before like this. The healing process was a lot creepier than I thought it would look, but I wasn’t about to let my own disgust at Twinfist’s power scare me off.
“So what?” I said. “You have a healing factor, but that doesn’t mean you’re as strong as me. One blow is all I’ll need to knock you out.”
I zoomed through the air toward him, but Twinfist didn’t even bother to move. He just pulled back his right glove, which was glowing green for some reason, but I didn’t slow down because I didn’t think he’d be able to hurt me even if he somehow managed to hit me.
But right before I could hit Twinfist again, his gloved fist connected with my jaw. The impact of the blow actually sent me flying off course. I flew crazily through the air, unable to control my trajectory, until I crashed into the ground and skidded a few feet, sending dirt and grass flying until I came to a halt.
> But god, my head hurt. It felt like I had been punched in the jaw by a cement block. Granted, my super toughness meant that I wasn’t nearly as badly hurt as I could have been, but the strength of the blow nonetheless startled me so much that I just lay there for a moment too shocked to think.
Then I heard walking and looked up to see Twinfist approaching me. His gloves were still glowing, which illuminated his grinning face and made him look even creepier than usual.
“What … what was that?” I said. I sat up and rubbed my jaw, which felt cracked. “Was that super strength?”
“No,” said Twinfist. “At least, it wasn’t my super strength. It was yours.”
“Huh?” I said. I shook my head and frowned. “I don’t get it. You punched me. I didn’t punch myself.”
Twinfist sighed, again like I’d said something completely stupid. “Technically, yes, I was the one who punched you, but the strength wasn’t my own. It was yours. I merely used it against you.”
“Still doesn’t explain anything,” I said. “How did you take my strength? Did your glove absorb it?”
“No,” said Twinfist. He raised his glowing glove. “The boxing glove merely acts as a safety measure to keep my hands from getting damaged. What really absorbed your powers was my own body, which can absorb the kinetic strength from an attack and allow me to turn it right back against the attacker. I channel it through my hands, because I was a professional boxer before I became Twinfist, but make no mistake, my ability is my own and has nothing to do with my costume or equipment.”
“So brute force won’t work against you, then?” I said.
“Of course not,” said Twinfist. He punched his fist into his other hand. “But it will certainly work well for me.”
Twinfist shot toward me, pulling back his fists behind him. He threw a punch at me, but I flew up into the sky just in the nick of time, avoiding his fist as it smashed into the ground where I was sitting just seconds ago.
But I didn’t stay in the sky for long. I flew back down, grabbed Twinfist, and then threw him toward the forest. He flew through the air uncontrollably before he crashed into a tree so hard that he actually broke through it, sending its upper half crashing into the ground as he crashed somewhere in the forest.
I knew that he had probably survived that, however, so I flew toward the forest to try to find him and take him out before his healing factor could activate. But just as I flew toward the trees, Twinfist suddenly flew out of the debris and punched me square in the jaw again.
This time, the blow sent me crashing into the earth below. I hit the ground hard enough to create a small crater, and before I could get up, Twinfist landed on top of me and started punching me as hard and as fast as he could.
He wasn’t lying when he said he was a professional boxer; his attacks came hard and fast, giving me almost no room to respond. I couldn’t even raise my hands to defend myself. It was like getting run over by an elephant stampede and the constant blows made it almost impossible for me to even think, much less react instinctively.
But then I got lucky and managed to block one of his blows, which threw him off balance long enough for me to shove him off me. He staggered backwards while I jumped back to my feet and ran at him, but Twinfist leaped to the side, causing me to run straight past him.
Skidding to a stop, I turned to face Twinfist while he held up his gloves to his face, taking up what looked like the stance of a professional boxer.
“Do you wish to give up?” said Twinfist. “I don’t have any real grudge against you, you know. I’m just here to kill your grandfather, so if you would just stand aside and let me do that, I’ll be more than happy to spare your life.”
“Never,” I growled. “I’d rather die than let you kill my grandfather.”
Twinfist shrugged. “Then so be it. My master won’t care either way, so I might as well go all out.”
Without warning, Twinfist ran toward me again. I expected him to try to punch me, so I raised my arms to block his attack.
Once he was close enough, Twinfist sent one of his fists flying at me. I moved to dodge it, but at the last second, Twinfist pulled back and then struck me—hard—in the abdomen with his other fist.
The blow made me gasp, knocking the air out of my lungs, and before I could respond, Twinfist slammed his other fist directly into my face. That blow knocked me flat off my feet, but I managed to roll out of the way just in time to avoid his foot, which stomped on the ground where I had been lying mere moments ago.
Rolling back to my feet, I walked backwards, trying to put distance between me and Twinfist, but Twinfist kept advancing on me. I wasn’t about to let him punch me, but I couldn’t punch him, either, otherwise he would just get stronger and it would be harder for me to defeat him. Nor could I run away, not unless I wanted to leave Grandfather, Triplet, and Emma to his mercy.
But then I remembered my lightning bolt power, so I raised a hand and fired a bolt of red lightning directly at Twinfist.
To my relief, Twinfist didn’t seem to see it coming. He just stood there in surprise before futilely raising his gloves over his face, but when the red lightning struck him, it exploded and sent Twinfist flying so far and so fast that even my eyes had a hard time keeping up with his trajectory. He vanished somewhere into the forest, his crash sending tons of birds flying from the treetops, chirping and tweeting and making a whole bunch of noise in surprise.
I just stood there, surprised, because I hadn’t expected the lightning bolt to be that powerful. Although I had had the ability for about a month now, I was still learning how to use it and didn’t know the full extent of its power just yet. That it could send someone flying like that was really amazing, in my opinion, and made me wonder what else it could do that I didn’t know about yet.
I thought about returning to the mansion, but then I realized that I needed to see if Twinfist had survived that attack or not. His healing factor probably meant that he could never be killed, but maybe I hit him so hard that he was dead before his healing factor could save him. I hadn’t intended to kill him, but if it did, then I had to know.
So I flew up and over the trees, heading in the direction I had seen him fly. It wasn’t too hard to find the spot where he crashed, because he had knocked down a whole bunch of trees with him, plus created a small crater shaped like Twinfist in the spot where he had crashed.
But when I flew over the spot, I did not see Twinfist anywhere. It looked like he had vanished, but there was no way he could have gotten away that quickly, especially after that devastating attack. Unless his healing factor was quicker than I thought.
Hovering in the air, I tapped my earcom and said, “Val, you there? Can you sense Twinfist’s heat signature nearby?”
“No, I cannot,” said Valerie, “although I must admit that the electrical discharge from your lightning bolt appears to have messed up my systems. It will be approximately one hour before I have them repaired and back up running to their usual strength.”
“Sorry about that, Val,” I said, looking around as I tried to find Twinfist. “I didn’t mean to do that. I’m still learning how to control my lightning bolt powers.”
“That’s fine,” said Valerie. “But be careful. This Twinfist character has already shown that he is willing to kill you. Be aware of your surroundings.”
“I am,” I said in annoyance. “I’m actually searching for him right—”
Rustling in the treetops just below me caused me to look down and see Twinfist burst out of the leaves and branches at me. Both of his gloves were glowing so brightly that they looked almost like miniature suns and he came too fast for me to dodge.
When Twinfist’s gloves smashed into my chest, I went flying straight up into the air and couldn’t control my trajectory. The whole world spun around me as I went higher and higher before I fell back down toward the earth.
I broke through dozens of tree branches on my way down, cutting my face and sending branches flying. I crashed into the e
arth again, but rolled to my feet just as Twinfist came flying down and smashing his fists into the earth, sending more dirt launching into the air around us.
Standing up, I raised my hands in a fighting position as Twinfist returned to his full height and looked at me. He was smiling creepily again, made even worse by the fact that there was a trickle of blood leaking from the corner of his mouth, which he didn’t even bother to wipe off.
“You’re tougher than I expected, kid,” said Twinfist. “But I can already tell that you’re getting tired. Sooner or later you’re going to make one false move and won’t be able to fight me again.”
I said nothing, mostly because Twinfist was right. All of the hits I had taken from him were starting to take their toll on my body. To be fair, Twinfist looked tired, too, but his kinetic absorption ability must allow him to absorb most of the pain, because he looked ready and willing to go a few more rounds.
That meant that I needed to end this fight now, with one final blow, before Twinfist did. Yet how could I beat someone who was capable of using my own strength against me? And healing from every attack I landed on him?
Then a thought occurred to me: I didn’t need to beat him. Just make it so he couldn’t fight again.
“Got nothing to say?” said Twinfist. “Fine by me. Your voice was starting to grate on my nerves anyway. Let’s end this here and now.”
Twinfist launched himself toward me, while I ran to meet him in the center. He pulled his fists back to punch me, but I dodged them at the last possible second, allowing his fists to go flying over me.
But I didn’t let him leave. I punched him as hard as I could in the stomach, slamming him flat into the ground so hard that it created a crater in the earth. Twinfist gasped, but before he could get up, I slammed my foot on his chest and kicked him in the face, which knocked him silly.
Then I zoomed over to the nearest tree and punched its trunk as hard as I could. A loud crack echoed through the forest as the tree shattered around the base, sending it falling straight toward Twinfist.
