The Superhero's Origin (The Superhero's Son Book 5)

by Lucas Flint

  When those three Test Subjects had been taken away, we took Emma to the House’s medical station. It was the closest ‘hospital’ on Hero Island, not counting the actual Hero Island Hospital, although she was going to be transported there if the House’s medical station could not heal her injuries satisfactorily. As far as I knew, Emma was still unconscious, although Carl told me that he would let me know if and when she awakened.

  The rest of the team, Blizzard in particular, had been happy to see that I was okay, but they had also been really pissed off that I had just run off like that without asking them to come along. And I have to admit, it was pretty foolish of me to do that, given how dangerous the situation was. In fact, I was pretty sure that if Mecha Knight hadn’t come, I probably would have died or at least suffered some pretty serious injuries. It didn’t help that my energy reserves were still dry, though I could feel them filling up automatically, which made me wonder again how my lightning powers worked.

  But the rest of the team did not know about Mecha Knight’s true nature. That is because Mecha Knight had asked me not to tell them about it just yet; he wanted to explain it to me first. I didn’t like keeping secrets from the team like that, but Mecha Knight was my supervisor and he could sack me if I went against his orders. Besides, I was under the impression that Mecha Knight did plan to tell us his true nature, but just not yet.

  Even so, watching Mecha Knight tap the keys on his laptop felt surreal after I saw him get punched through the stomach like that. I still found it hard to wrap around my head, the idea that he wasn’t a human and that he, therefore, did not feel pain like us. It explained his emotionless nature, but I still felt like I should have seen it coming.

  Finally, Mecha Knight closed his laptop and looked at me, his robotic, glowing blue eyes practically unreadable.

  “Now, Bolt, I have finished filling out my report,” said Mecha Knight. “We can discuss the matter of my true nature. Don’t worry about interruptions; I’ve had my secretary reschedule my afternoon so we do not need to worry about being interrupted by someone unexpectedly.”

  “Okay,” I said. I leaned forward, eying him carefully. “Have you always been a robot? Were you never a real person? Has Mecha Knight always just been an advanced AI in a robot body and never an actual human being?”

  Mecha Knight shook his head. “No. At one point, I was a human being. Or I still am; at least, I like to think so, even if I can no longer feel physical sensations.”

  “What do you mean?” I said. “You aren’t AI?”

  “Yes,” said Mecha Knight. He tapped his head. “Once, I was a human being named Jack Rutger, who transferred his consciousness to this suit of armor in order to prolong his life.”

  “How did you do that?” I said. “Magic?”

  “Science,” said Mecha Knight. “While I was never as intelligent or tech-savvy as your father, I did manage to figure out how to transfer a human being’s consciousness into a machine. It was an incredibly complicated process, however, one I am not sure that I could do again even with the advances that modern technology has made in recent decades.”

  “So were you ever a man in a suit or did you just put your consciousness into a machine and use that to fight crime and supervillains?” I said.

  “For many years, I was indeed a human being in a suit of armor,” said Mecha Knight, patting his chest. “For about eleven years, I wore a suit of powered armor that allowed me to fight alongside heroes like Omega Man and Lady Amazon. But even then, my body was starting to get too old and I knew my human body wouldn’t last much longer. So I transferred my consciousness from my body to this suit to continue to live and fight alongside my comrades.”

  “Does the rest of the Leadership Council know?” I said. “How many other members in the NHA know about this?”

  “Only the Leadership Council knows,” said Mecha Knight. “And they have all promised not to tell it to anyone, whether inside or outside the NHA. I am quite grateful for that.”

  “Why?” I said. “Why have you gone to all of this trouble to keep it a secret from everyone else? It doesn’t make sense. Why couldn’t you let the NHA know that you’re really a robot?”

  Mecha Knight folded his hands over his lap. “The reason for that is because it is information that I do not want the public to know. If it became common knowledge that I am no longer an organic human being but instead a consciousness within a robot, it could inspire my enemies to discover new ways to kill me.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “That isn’t the real reason for it, is it? You have another reason for keeping it a secret.”

  Mecha Knight’s robotic face, as usual, showed no change, but I thought the slight change in his body language meant I was right. “My reasons for keeping my true nature a secret are my own. I understand that you would like to know, but—”

  “But you don’t trust me with that information?” I said. “Is that it? Why can’t you? When have I ever shown myself to be untrustworthy?”

  Mecha Knight was silent for a moment before he said, “The real reason I want to keep this a secret is because I doubt the rest of the NHA would be happy to have a robot among its leadership. Most of the NHA respects me because of my experience and track record, but I am aware that most would prefer to have an actual human as leader, rather than a robot.”

  “Why?” I said. “I’ve never gotten that impression from the others.”

  “That’s because you spend most of your time with your team, rather than with the rest of the NHA,” Mecha Knight pointed out. “You see, most NHA members haven’t had a good history with robots. Once, about ten years ago, there was a controversy when robotic clones of various NHA members infiltrated the organization and tried to destroy it from within. They nearly succeeded, too, and were only stopped thanks to the actions of your father, who gave us a program that could deactivate the robotic clones.”

  “Wow, really?” I said. “Who made the clones?”

  “A supervillain named Reverse Polarity,” said Mecha Knight. “Thankfully, he was caught and thrown into Ultimate Max after that, but to this day many NHA members, particularly the older ones, are suspicious of life-like robots of any sort, even those that mean no harm. I would rather the members of the organization did not know so they can continue to trust me.”

  “But Twinfist saw,” I said. “What’s to stop him from telling everyone what he saw?”

  “I doubt anyone would believe him, seeing as he can’t prove that he saw what he saw,” said Mecha Knight. “As for those NHA members who saw me when they came to arrest those three, I have asked them not to mention what they saw to anyone. They agreed, so my secret is safe for now.”

  “Are you going to ask me to keep it a secret, too?” I said.

  “Yes,” said Mecha Knight. “And I trust that you will, even if I didn’t ask.”

  “Why?” I said.

  “Because you are your father’s son, and your father knew that much about me but never told anyone,” said Mecha Knight. “By the way, I forgot to mention this at the funeral, but I am sorry about Genius’s death. He was a great man, better than most, and a trusted friend of mine. His death was tragic and unfortunate, which is why I will treasure the teleportation disk he gave me.”

  I bit my lip, not because I was angry, but because just the mention of Dad’s death was enough to make emotions well up inside me that I didn’t even know I had. I ignored the feelings for now, however, to focus on the current situation.

  “Okay,” I said. “I’ll keep your secret for you. Should I tell the team or—?”

  “Please do not,” said Mecha Knight. “I know that you trust your teammates, but I cannot trust that any of them would not accidentally tell this secret to someone who shouldn’t know it. If it ever becomes pertinent, I will let them know myself.”

  “But that would mean keeping secrets from my own teammates,” I said. “And I don’t like to keep secrets from them.”

  “I understand, but you must understand that you
cannot share everything with your subordinates,” said Mecha Knight. “Sometimes, a leader must keep secrets from those under him in order not to demoralize the team. It is a hard lesson to learn, particularly for someone your age, but it is a lesson you will have to learn at some point, so you might as well learn it now.”

  “Now?” I said. “You talk like you’ve done this sort of thing before.”

  “I have,” said Mecha Knight. “My true nature, of course, being one such secret. There are other secrets that the Leadership Council keeps from the general membership as well, but I cannot divulge them to you, at least not unless I want to be kicked out of the Council at any rate.”

  “You mean you can’t tell me about any of these secrets at all?” I said.

  “None,” said Mecha Knight. “I wish I could, but some of the secrets that the Leadership Council keeps are just too dangerous for most people to know. Even I don’t know all of them.”

  “So you are lying to the membership, then,” I said.

  Mecha Knight shrugged. “If you want to look at it that way, you can, although I tend to think of it as keeping the organization together. Some secrets are better left unrevealed, if you understand what I mean.”

  I did, but that didn’t mean I liked it. I didn’t like the idea of the Leadership Council keeping secrets from the rest of us. It made me trust them a lot less than I normally did. On one hand, I doubted that these secrets were anything dangerous; on the other hand, what did that say about the Leadership Council, that they did not trust the rest of us with certain knowledge that they refused to share?

  I didn’t want to think about it, however, at least right now, so I said, “All right. I guess I can’t make you reveal any of these secrets to me, so I’m not going to ask.”

  “Wise choice,” said Mecha Knight. “I can see that you are already starting to become wiser. You will most likely make a good member of the NHA someday, perhaps even a good member of the Leadership Council, if you choose to try your hand at that.”

  I nodded, but deep down, I didn’t feel right about keeping this secret from the rest of my team. I trusted my teammates, trusted them enough to not hide any secrets from them. Yet I also didn’t want to let this information about Mecha Knight’s secret become public knowledge; I wanted to rest his right to keep his true nature a secret.

  At that moment, my thought process was interrupted by a beeping from my suit-up watch. I looked down to see a message from Carl, which said that Emma had awakened and wanted to talk with me.

  So I looked up at Mecha Knight and said, “Sir, I got a message telling me that Emma is awake and that she wants to talk to me. Are we done talking now?”

  “Yes,” said Mecha Knight. “You may go and talk with her, if you want. But please remember: My true nature must remain a secret.”

  “Yes, sir,” I said as I stood up. “I won’t mention what we discussed here to anyone else.”

  “Good,” said Mecha Knight. “You may go.”

  I nodded again, but before I left, I remembered something all of a sudden and said, “Oh, Mecha Knight? Just one last question before I leave.”

  “Yes?” said Mecha Knight. “What is it about?”

  “I want to know if you could talk to the Leadership Council about making a team designed to hunt down Vision,” I said, remembering the promise I’d made to Blizzard what seemed like a lifetime ago now.

  “That sounds suspiciously like what Blizzard tried to convince me to do last week,” Mecha Knight said. “Did she ask you to talk to me about this?”

  I hesitated for only a split second before I said, “Yes. I promised her that I would bring up this issue with you at some point.”

  “I see,” said Mecha Knight. “Well, I will bring it up with the rest of the Council in our next meeting, though I cannot guarantee that they will agree to it.”

  Surprised, I said, “Wait, it’s that easy? I thought I was going to have to argue with you about this.”

  “Consider it a favor,” said Mecha Knight. “Since you are going to keep my true nature a secret from your teammates, I’ve decided to do this for you to pay you back for your help. If you do not keep your promise, however, then I will not mention this to the rest of the Council. Deal?”

  “Deal,” I said. “I’ll let Blizzard know about this next time I see her.”

  “Okay,” said Mecha Knight. “You may leave now.”

  Once more, I nodded and then turned and left the office. And, although I didn’t show it, I still felt conflicted about keeping secrets from my team, even if it was for a good reason.

  Chapter Twelve

  Emma lay in the bed in our medical station, white blankets pulled over her legs. She looked a lot better than she had even just a couple of hours ago; the blood and dirt had been wiped off her face and she had bandages over the wounds that Echo gave her. She was no longer in her ninja outfit, instead wearing a simple patient’s veil, but she still looked more than capable of sneaking around and taking down anyone her master ordered her to.

  When I entered the room, I also discovered that Emma wasn’t alone. Blizzard sat in a chair next to Emma’s bed. The two were talking, but when I entered, they immediately shut up and looked over at me. I hadn’t heard much of what they were talking about, but I was immediately suspicious about their silence, making me wonder what they had been talking about that neither wanted me to hear.

  “Hi, Bolt,” said Blizzard, waving at me as I approached. “Did you get Carl’s message about Emma’s recovery?”

  I stopped and said, “Yeah. It said that Emma wanted to talk with me. What were you two talking about?”

  “Oh, nothing,” said Blizzard, although I could tell she was lying. “I just wanted to see her, since she didn’t have anyone else to talk to and I thought she could use some company.”

  I considered getting the truth out of Blizzard, but I decided that whatever these two had been talking about probably wasn’t all that important. Maybe it was just girl things.

  So I said, “Okay. Well, I’m here to talk with her now.”

  “Alone,” said Emma. She looked at Blizzard. “I want to speak with him alone. Can you let us be?”

  Blizzard hesitated, like she didn’t trust Emma alone with me, but then she nodded and said, “All right.”

  She got up from her seat and walked past me, but not without first giving me a small smile, no doubt in anticipation for our date in a few days. I just smiled back in response, but when Blizzard left and closed the door behind her, I turned back to face Emma, who was now sitting up in the bed with a look of annoyance on her face.

  “What were you and Blizzard talking about?” I asked.

  “Nothing important,” said Emma. She rubbed her head. “My head just hurts. I forgot just how powerful Echo’s sound attacks can be.”

  “Will you be all right?” I said.

  “Your House’s AI said I would, as long as I rested and didn’t exert myself for a while,” said Emma. “But I can’t rest. I need to get up and find Mr. Jason. I need to tell him about what happened. He needs to know.”

  “Well, where is he?” I said. “I could find him and tell him what happened myself if it’s that urgent.”

  “I can’t tell you his location,” said Emma. “He gave me orders not to tell anyone where he is, just in case one of the Test Subjects finds out and tries to use that information to harm him.”

  “Come on,” I said. “I’m his grandson. I don’t intend to tell anyone where he is.”

  “You may not intend that, but that doesn’t mean you should know where he is,” said Emma. “The Test Subjects will do everything in their power to kill Mr. Jason. They cannot be given even the slightest help in finding him, however indirect.”

  “But they’re down three people now, right?” I said. “Surely they can’t be that big of a threat anymore.”

  “They will just get more desperate now,” said Emma. “Especially since they still have Mrs. Jason. I worry what Echo may be doing to her right n
ow even as we speak.”

  “I bet Grandmother is still alive, at least,” I said. “After all, she wouldn’t be much good to them dead, right?”

  “Right, but that doesn’t mean they won’t torture or harm her in some way,” Emma said. She sighed and looked down at her lap. “I failed. I am not even sure I can show my face to Mr. Jason anymore. He gave me one mission, the most important mission he’s ever given me, and I messed up.”

  Emma sounded genuinely heartbroken and sad. In fact, she sounded so heartbroken and sad that I actually felt sorry for her. I could tell that she genuinely felt bad about failing to save Grandmother.

  “It’s all right,” I said. “Just because you failed doesn’t mean that Grandfather doesn’t want to see you again. I’m sure that he will understand and forgive you.”

  “Maybe, but I still can’t show my face to him,” said Emma. She punched her blankets futilely. “He will probably fire me. And then I’ll be stuck like this forever.”

  I frowned. “This? What do you mean?”

  Emma still didn’t look up at me, but she said, “My powers. I will still have these awful powers.”

  “Why do you want to get rid of them?” I said. “I think that camouflage and silencing yourself are great powers to have.”

  “Because they make me into a freak,” said Emma. She looked up at me with anger in her eyes. “But you, of course, wouldn’t understand that, now would you? No, you’re here on Hero Island, in this neat little House, where everyone likes their powers and accepts other people with powers. You don’t know what it’s like to live in the real world, among the billions of people who don’t have powers.”

  Emma was starting to get too emotional, so I raised my hands and said, “Hey, now, let’s calm down a bit. What do you mean by all of this?”

  Emma looked down again, like she was trying to hide her tears. “Before I met Mr. Jason, I lived in poverty in a small town in the Midwest. I was the first person in my family to manifest superpowers, and I manifested them even earlier than most, but it wasn’t a good thing, because my family hated superhumans.”