by Lucas Flint
With Holes now here, I cracked open the window just enough for me to be able to hear whatever they were saying below. I got closer to the crack, putting my ear as near it as possible to make sure I didn’t miss a single word of Dad and Holes’ conversation.
“Mary,” said Dad as soon as he spotted Holes and Mom. He took a step forward. “Mary, I—”
Holes pointed a gun at the side of Mom’s head. “Ah, ah, Walter. Take one step closer and you know what I’ll do to your wife’s pretty little head.”
Mom moaned through her sock. I could tell she was looking at Dad, desperately trying to convince him to run away, but Dad didn’t run. He just stayed where he was, his grip on the box tightening.
“Wise man,” said Holes, though he didn’t lower the gun from the side of Mom’s head. “You know, I really don’t want to hurt your wife. She’s not related by blood to Gregory. Killing her would not sate my desire for revenge. So I am hoping that you and I will be able to behave like rational adults and make the exchange without any needless drama or problems.”
I found Holes’ insistence on behaving like ‘rational adults’ hilarious given the circumstances, but I kept my mouth shut and listened as closely as I could.
“Right,” said Dad. He lifted the box. “This is it. Had to dig it out of the attic, but here it is, the Trickshot Watch, originally owned by my father, just as you requested.”
“Wonderful,” said Holes. He nodded at Dad. “Come closer so I can get a better look at it.”
“First, give me Mary,” said Dad. “Then you can look inside the box as much as you want.”
Holes tilted his head to the side, either in confusion or amusement. It was hard to say, because he technically didn’t have a face. “You’ve got a bit of a sharp tongue there, Walter. Much like your father, only your father usually followed it up with a punch to the face. Because you lack your father’s powers, you have no power over me, meaning you’re in no position to make any demands of me.”
“But you want the Watch, don’t you?” said Dad, waving the box at him. “I won’t give it to you unless you first give me my wife back.”
Holes suddenly threw the gun away into the darkness of the warehouse. At first, I thought he was going to let Mom go, but then Holes snapped his fingers and a hole appeared in the air next to Mom’s head. He then forced Mom’s head inside the hole and Mom’s head reappeared in another hole on his left side.
“Mary,” said Dad. “Don’t you dare.”
Mom was whimpering through the gag in her mouth, but Holes held her steady with a strong grip. “Call me whatever names you like. It doesn’t change the fact that I can behead your wife anytime I like. And because you’re alone, you wouldn’t last very long against me in a fight, either. Trust me, I don’t value the Watch so much that I would let myself walk into such an obvious trap.”
My hands balled into fists. I considered jumping down then and there, but the time wasn’t right yet. If I tried jumping down there now, I’d just as likely get Mom killed as I would defeat Holes. But I could sense that the time to strike was getting closer and closer. I just needed to wait for it.
Dad’s hands shook. I thought he was just going to throw the empty box at Holes, but instead Dad nodded and said, “Okay. I’ll give you the box.”
Dad lifted a foot to take a step toward Holes, but Holes shook his head and said, “Ah, ah, Walter, there’s no need for you to walk all the way over to me. Here, I’ll make a hole you can use.”
Holes pulled Mom’s head out of the hole. A second later, two more holes appeared on the ground, roughly about the same size as the box. One of the holes was in front of Dad, while the other was in front of Holes himself.
“Just drop the box into that hole and it will pop out of this one,” said Holes, gesturing at the hole in front of himself. “It’s quite simple.”
Dad bit his lower lip, but he nonetheless bent over and slipped the box gently into the hole. The box disappeared briefly before it popped out of the hole in front of Holes, landing before Holes’ feet. Holes waved his hand and the box fell into another hole, only to reappear in a hole about a foot above Holes. The box fell into Holes’ outstretched hand, which he clutched against his chest like it was his firstborn.
“There,” said Dad. “You’ve got the box. Now give Mary back to me. Give her back now.”
Holes looked the box over as if he had not heard Dad’s words. Then he looked up at Dad and said, “Very well. Have at her.”
Holes shoved Mom forward. Mom fell toward the floor, but before she hit it, a deep black hole appeared underneath her and she fell into it.
“Mary!” Dad yelled. “No! What did you do with her?”
Holes pointed toward the ceiling. “Look up.”
Another black hole appeared on the ceiling of the warehouse, not too far from where I was, and Mom fell out of it toward the floor below, her eyes wide with fear and muffled screams escaping her gagged mouth.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
I couldn’t let her fall and die. I smashed through the window, sending glass shards flying everywhere, and rocketed toward Mom, who was falling almost faster than I could fly.
With a burst of speed, I caught Mom in both of my arms when she was about halfway between the ceiling and the floor. She looked at me with a mixture of shock and confusion in her eyes, like she didn’t understand what was going on. I just smiled back at her to show her that she was safe and that she could trust that she was safe with me.
Landing on the floor, I ripped the gag out of Mom’s mouth and said, “Mom, are you okay?”
“Mom?” Mom repeated, staring at me with a dumbfounded expression. “You’re not my son … right?”
Before I could answer that, Dad rushed up to us and threw both of his large arms around Mom. “Mary! I’m so glad you’re okay! When Holes threw you into that hole, I thought you were a goner for sure.”
“Th-Thanks, Walt,” said Mom in a strained voice. “Can you please let me go? You’re squeezing the air out of me.”
Dad loosened his tight hold on Mom, but he didn’t take his arms off her. No doubt he wanted to keep her safely where she was, a feeling I agreed with given everything that had happened. “I’m just relieved that you’re all right. That bastard Holes nearly killed you. I knew he would try something like that, but I just wasn’t fast enough to stop him before he did.”
“It’s all right, Walt,” said Mom. She hugged Dad back. “You came to my rescue. That’s all that really matters to me, regardless of whether you were able to save me yourself or not.”
Dad smiled and then nodded at me once. “I couldn’t have done it without our son here. If he hadn’t saved you, then we wouldn’t even be having this conversation at all.”
Mom let go of Dad and looked at me, surprise glimmering in her eyes. “Our son? Do you mean that Trickshot is Jack?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Sorry for not telling you that sooner, Mom, but I promise I’ll explain everything later, when we get back to the house.”
Mom opened her mouth, no doubt to voice her opinion on the subject, but then I heard a cardboard box hit the floor and looked over my shoulder.
Holes still stood where he had been standing moments ago, the only difference being that the empty box was on the floor at his feet again. Only this time, it was open, revealing that it was completely empty save for some old newspaper packaging. And, while Holes’ lack of a face made it hard to read his emotions, his body language made it clear that he was far from happy.
“Very clever,” said Holes, a twinge of insanity in his voice. “I see what you did there. You never intended to give me the Trickshot Watch at all. No, you and your father deliberately worked together to make a trap to save your mother and maybe even take me down in the process. I will admit that I didn’t see that coming and that you’re much cleverer than I thought, even cleverer than the original Trickshot.”
“It’s not very difficult to trick someone as obsessed with revenge as you are,” I said, turn
ing to face Holes. “You like to think you’re so much smarter than everyone else, but in truth, you’re just a coward who likes to run away as soon as things don’t go his way. You don’t fool me.”
“Call me what you like, but I’m not running away tonight,” said Holes “That box may not have the Trickshot Watch, but you clearly do. I’ll just kill you and take the Watch for myself, which I should have done during our first fight.”
I punched my fist into the palm of my hand. “Very well. Let’s fight, you and me, and end this here and now. How does that sound?”
“It sounds just fine to me,” said Holes. “Tonight will be the night that Trickshot finally dies for good. And it will be at my hands.”
“We’ll see about that,” I said. I looked over my shoulder at Mom and Dad. “Dad, you and Mom need to get out of here. I can’t protect you guys and fight Holes at the same time. Get into the car and get out of here, but also call the police and let them know that Holes is here. I’ll try to distract him until the police get here.”
Dad nodded again. “Sure thing, son. Give that jerk hell. Come on, Mary.”
Dad grabbed Mary and half-dragged, half-led her toward the exit. Mom kept glancing back at me, confusion still in her eyes. I could tell that she hadn’t quite grasped the fact that I was Trickshot, but she would have plenty of time to let that fact sink in later. For now, I had a supervillain to defeat.
I looked over at Holes. “All right, Holes. It’s just you and me now. Why don’t we get this party started?”
I drew three silver disks out of my pouch and hurled them at Holes. But Holes opened a hole underneath himself and vanished into it, causing my disks to fly harmlessly through the air where Holes had been standing a moment before.
But then Holes fell from the ceiling and lashed out with a kick aimed for my head. I dodged the kick and swung a fist at Holes just as he landed on the floor, but he raised his arm and my fist disappeared inside one of the holes in his arm. It immediately reappeared through a hole in his bicep and my own fist struck me in the face again, the blow sending me staggering backwards.
Holes lashed out with another kick, striking me in the chin and knocking me flat on the floor. But as I hit the floor, I suddenly found myself falling through the darkness again, watching Holes become smaller the further I fell.
Without warning, I found myself in the warehouse again falling toward the floor. I activated my flight powers and hovered near the ceiling, shaking my head to recover my senses and figure out where I was. Looking around, I did not see Holes anywhere, which troubled me, because I hated it whenever Holes disappeared like this.
“TW, can you sense Holes anywhere?” I said, turning my head this way and that as I looked for Holes.
“No,” said TW. “S-Sensors fail to pick u-up—”
TW suddenly went quiet, prompting me to say aloud, “TW? Hello, TW? Are you still there? TW—”
Abruptly, I felt two hands grab onto my cape and drag me down to the floor below. I crashed into the floor hard, but rolled back onto my feet just in time to see Holes disappear into yet another hole. I threw another disk at him and it did follow him into the hole, but then it came out of another hole above that one and flew straight toward me. I jumped out of the way, narrowly avoiding the disk, which struck the floor hard enough to embed itself in the concrete.
“Dang it,” I said under my breath. “This is not a good time for TW to glitch out. Not a good time at all.”
I looked around again, carefully searching for Holes, but he had once again disappeared. That was annoying, but not impossible to deal with. I already knew that Holes couldn’t open more than two holes at one time, not including the ones on his body that were perpetually open. With a bit of luck and effort, I could potentially turn the tide of this fight in my favor.
“Come out and show yourself, you coward!” I shouted. “Or are you afraid of a teenage boy? You can admit it if you want. I won’t judge you.”
“I fear nothing, boy,” came a voice from behind me. “It is you who should be afraid.”
I whirled around just in time to see Holes’ foot coming at my face. But I caught his foot before it could connect and whirled around and slammed Holes onto the floor as hard as I could. Holes gasped in pain upon impact, but he quickly summoned a hole underneath him that he fell into like a pool.
“No, you don’t!” I said. “You’re not getting away this time!”
I jumped into the hole after him and tackled Holes’ midriff. The two of us immediately began to grapple as we fell endlessly through the darkness of his holes. I punched and grabbed at his face, while he shoved his hands into my face and tried to get me off of him, but I meant it when I said he wasn’t getting away this time. I was determined to make sure that Holes didn’t get away and if I had to follow him into his own void to do it, then so be it.
Suddenly, we rolled out of his hole back onto the floor of the warehouse. The sudden change in scenery took me by surprise, allowing Holes to kick me in the gut and knock me off him. I let go of him and rolled away, but quickly jumped to my feet just as Holes rose to his own, rubbing his abdomen where I had gotten a few good licks in while we were falling through the void.
“Not running away this time?” I said. “Guess you’re a bit braver than I thought.”
Holes growled. “Don’t get so cocky, boy. I’m simply bored of dealing with you, which is why I am going to end this fight now.”
Holes raised both of his hands above his head. I expected him to try to make me fall into another one of his holes, but no matter how long I stood there, no holes appeared underneath or near me.
“Um … what are you doing?” I said. “Just standing there with your hands up?”
Holes inclined his head toward me and for some reason I thought he was smirking. “Look up.”
Puzzled, I looked up just in time to see a large black hole appear on the ceiling. It was bigger than the other holes he had created so far, about the size of a car, but I didn’t know what he was going to do with it.
That was when a huge truck fell out of the hole directly toward me.
CHAPTER TWENTY
I had just enough time to throw my arms over my head before the truck crashed down on top of me with a crash. I collapsed underneath the weight of the truck, which would have crushed me if I hadn’t been so strong. I was shocked by the fact that Holes had somehow managed to drop an entire truck on me with his powers. It made me wonder just what the full extent of his powers was.
But getting pinned underneath a full-sized truck was enough to distract me from all other thoughts. The sheer weight of the truck left me unable to do much other than lay there on the smashed concrete floor with no ability to free myself. I would have used my super strength to push the truck off me, but the truck had fallen on me in such a way that I could barely move at all. I suppose it was my durability that had saved me from being entirely crushed to powder, but that was hardly a reassuring thought, given how I couldn’t save myself.
“Jack!” said TW in my head all of a sudden. “Jack, are you okay? I was briefly offline due to my glitch and just managed to get back online a few seconds ago. What happened?”
“Holes dropped a truck on me,” I said. “A truck, by the way, I can’t lift off me because it’s got me pinned to the ground like a ribbon.”
“Ah,” said TW. “You know, I t-think Holes did this same thing to Gregory once. Guess you really c-can’t teach an old dog n-new tricks.”
“Very funny, TW,” I said. “Help me get out of this, will you? Holes is still around and I have to get him before he gets away again.”
“How am I supposed to help you get this truck off you?” said TW. “I’m just an AI program. I can’t directly interact with the physical world, even though I wish I could.”
“You’re useless, you know that?” I said in annoyance. “Guess I have to do everything myself, then.”
I managed to put both of my hands on the floor underneath me and, my super strengt
h flowing through me, began pushing myself up. It was hard work. Although my super strength made me stronger than even the world’s strongest bodybuilders, this truck was still one of the heavier things I’d ever had to lift. It didn’t help that I was mostly using my back to push. Otherwise, it would have been a lot easier to push it off me.
Nonetheless, I could feel myself making progress, despite how heavy the truck was. Inch by inch, I pushed myself up further and further until, with a roar of triumph, I threw the truck off my back. It crashed against the floor behind me loudly, but I didn’t care about that. I rose to my feet, wincing at my aching back and hands, and looked around for Holes.
But he seemed to have disappeared yet again, which was frustrating to say the least. I realized that that dropping the truck on me had likely been a distraction so Holes could get away again.
“Hey, Holes!” I shouted. “I survived! Did you see that? I survived. Dropping a truck on me was a neat move, I’ll admit, but you seem to forget who you’re dealing with here.”
“On the contrary,” said Holes’ voice from the shadows all around me, “I know exactly who I am dealing with here, given how I’ve fought your grandfather many times in the past.”
A hole suddenly appeared nearby and Holes stepped out of it. Unlike me, he didn’t look like he was struggling at all, though I guess it must have helped that he didn’t have a huge truck dropped on him out of nowhere like I did.
“So you didn’t run away after all,” I said, rolling my shoulders and wincing slightly at the pain. “Good for you. Want a cookie?”
“I want nothing from you except the Watch,” said Holes. “Oh, and your death, too, of course.”
“You’re not going to get either,” I said. “The only thing you’re going to get is a prison cell, probably in maximum security prison once this is all over. It’s what you deserve.”
