The Legacy Superhero Omnibus

by Lucas Flint

  The moss opened like a door, revealing a very stressed out-looking Christina on the other side. I ran into the hollowed out tree and Christina slammed the door shut behind us. Then she turned to me and held a finger up to her lips to indicate that silence was needed. She didn’t need to tell me twice. Knowing what I did about the Blind Apes’ hearing, I was more than happy to keep my mouth shut, even though I had a lot of questions about our current hiding spot.

  It appeared we were in some kind of hollowed out tree. It was roughly about the size of my room back home, maybe slightly smaller, though there was still plenty of room for Christina and me to fit in without it feeling claustrophobic. It smelled of damp earth and wet leaves and I thought there was a cricket in here or something, because something was making buzzing noises and it definitely wasn’t me or Christina.

  Another thing I noticed was how clean the hollow was. Based on the smoothness of the walls and ceiling, it seemed like this hollow must have been carved out by someone a long time ago. Meaning that this wasn’t a natural phenomenon, though I couldn’t ask Christina about who might have gone to all the trouble of carving out this hollow just yet.

  We sat in the darkness for several agonizingly long minutes, listening closely to the alarms and howls of the Blind Apes. It seemed like the noises were never going to end, but eventually, the alarms shut off and, a couple of seconds later, the howls of the Blind Apes slowly faded off into the distance until soon, the forest was silent once again.

  Christina, however, was still and silent for another couple of seconds, before she let out a sigh of relief and said, “Whew. That was close.”

  “Why did the alarms turn off?” I said in a low whisper, even though we were alone. “The Blind Apes didn’t kill us.”

  “They’re motion sensitive,” said Christina, glancing at me. “The alarms only go off if you walk into one of the tripwires around here, but will stay on as long as they detect an intruder. If you hide, however, then the alarms cannot sense you and will turn themselves off eventually.”

  “Seems like a pretty bad design flaw, if you ask me,” I said, gesturing at the place in which we hid, “given how easy it is to exploit it.”

  “Only if you know how they work, like I do,” said Christina. “If you’re just some unsuspecting schmo who has no idea what kind of defenses Iconia has, then you’ll probably just get scared by the alarms and run straight into the open arms of a Blind Ape.”

  “What about the Blind Apes, though?” I said. “I killed one of their own. I’d think they wouldn’t stop until they tracked me down and avenged their fallen brother.”

  “The Blind Apes aren’t very social creatures,” said Christina. “They rarely avenge their fallen brothers and sisters. The only reason they even work together is because the alarm sounds drive them mad and force them to search for the intruder who set them off. Like I said, the Blind Apes have very sensitive hearing, which is why they go insane whenever the alarm goes off. It’s also why the forest is usually silent. They prefer the silence because it doesn’t hurt their ears.”

  “Oh,” I said. “Meaning once the alarms shut off, then the Blind Apes decide that everything is okay and move on?”

  “Pretty much,” said Christina. “The Blind Apes are just animals, remember. They’re not as smart as humans, though they’re a lot smarter than most people give them credit for.”

  “I see,” I said. I shook my head. “Using pain to control animals … somehow, that doesn’t surprise me coming from Icon.”

  “Chaser doesn’t see them as living beings,” said Christina. “He probably just sees them as useful, if brutal, security guards. Chaser has a tendency to see other living things as tools for him to use to achieve his agenda.”

  “So he doesn’t even realize that other beings feel pain?” I said in surprise.

  “Oh, no, he realizes that,” said Christina with a chuckle. “He just doesn’t care. Like the good sociopath he is, he’ll keep pushing your buttons until he gets exactly what he wants.”

  I smirked. “Just like you, right?”

  Christina punched me in the arm. “Watch it, kid. I could walk out right now and have all of the Blind Apes attack us and I wouldn’t regret it.”

  “Okay, okay, fine,” I said. I glanced around the hollow again, frowning. “But what is this place and how did you know it was here?”

  Christina leaned against the wall and put her arms around her legs. “This forest actually has a lot of these hiding places scattered about. They’re supposed to be safe spaces that Icon agents who accidentally trigger the alarms can hide inside in order to avoid the Blind Apes, if necessary. There are about a dozen in all and I have every location memorized.”

  “Wow,” I said. “Somehow you knew where we were even in the middle of the night like this?”

  “There are certain signs in the area around these safe spaces which a trained eye can pick up even in the dark,” said Christina. “Oh, and I suppose I got a little lucky, too, because I could have easily led us into a dead end if my hunch was incorrect.”

  “Well, good thing you had enough luck for both of us,” I said. I listened closely, but the forest outside was as silent as always. “Sounds like the Apes are gone. Time to go?”

  Christina shook her head rapidly. “Not yet. The alarms can be reactivated again very easily if they sense intruders. We should wait a couple more minutes for the alarms to shut off completely.”

  “Doesn’t that make us sitting ducks, though?” I said. “What if Chaser sends his agents into the forest after us? Surely he has to know that we weren’t torn to shreds by the Blind Apes.”

  “And risk setting the Blind Apes on his own men?” said Christina. “Chaser doesn’t care one whit about any living being other than himself, but even he knows it would be stupid to send his own men into a dark forest full of easily triggered beasts in the middle of the night like this. We’re safe here for now, though we’ll have to move on eventually.”

  “I see,” I said. “Then I guess that means we can take this time to rest and recover.”

  “Yeah, but don’t get too cozy,” said Christina. “Just because Chaser might not send any agents into the forest after us does not mean that we’re home free just yet. He probably has agents stationed around the forest’s perimeter in order to catch us as we leave. It’s what I would do in his situation, anyway.”

  “Right,” I said. “I hope that Uncle Josh and the others are okay. If they also ran into the Blind Apes—”

  “Doubt it,” said Christina. “The Blind Apes are only in this particular forest. Of course, that doesn’t mean your friends are okay, given how there are plenty of other security systems around the island that are even worse than the Apes.”

  I gulped. “Like what?”

  “Can’t say, because it all depends on where their pod washed up,” said Christina. “In any case, we need to worry about ourselves right now, rather than them. They can take care of themselves. We cannot.”

  I nodded in agreement, but that didn’t stop me from worrying about them anyway. Uncle Josh was family, after all, and I couldn’t stand the thought of him dying or being captured. I’d already lost my brother. I didn’t want to lose another family member.

  Of course, if everything went well, then maybe I would save another member of my family tonight. I hadn’t forgotten about Grandfather, who was still being held prisoner somewhere in the dungeons of Iconia. A part of me wanted to rush out and storm the Tower of Icon now, but I knew that that would just result in me being captured or, more likely, killed. Right now, Christina and I needed to be as stealthy as possible, though I had a strong feeling that we would have to come out of the shadows eventually.

  All of a sudden, the Trickshot Watch started beeping. Christina and I looked down at the Watch, whose surface was now glowing for some reason.

  “What’s going on?” Christina hissed. “Silence it. Last thing we need is for any nearby Apes to hear that beeping noise.”

  “I don
’t know what it’s doing,” I said, tapping its surface repeatedly. “It’s never done this before. I don’t know what it could possibly be—”

  I was interrupted by a voice that suddenly spoke from the Watch, though due to the static, it was hard to understand. “… Jack … it’s …”

  It was hard to understand what the voice was saying, but it sounded like an old man, though I didn’t quite recognize it.

  “Who’s there?” I said. “Hello? Are you still there? Tell me your name and how you know who I am.”

  “… Jack …” the voice said through frequent static. “It’s … me …”

  The voice sounded very familiar, stirring memories I had not thought of in a long time in the back of my head, but I didn’t want to believe the conclusion my mind was coming to, even though it was logical. “Still can barely hear you. Who are you?”

  “It’s … me …” said the voice again. “Your … grandfather … Gregory McDonald …”

  “Grandfather?” I said in shock, exchanging a surprised look with Christina. “Is that really you?”

  “Yes … it’s … me …” said Grandfather.

  My face cracked into the biggest smile I’d worn in a long time. “I can’t believe it! How are you contacting me through the Watch? Are you okay? Where are you?”

  “Doesn’t … matter …” said Grandfather. “You … must … go … back …”

  “Back?” I repeated. “What are you talking about? I’m coming to rescue you.”

  “You … fool …” said Grandfather. “Go back … go … back …”

  “Why?” I said. “Why should I go back? What is the problem?”

  The words that Grandfather said next were difficult to understand through the thick static, but I managed to understand them nonetheless:

  “You … are walking … into a trap …”

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  As soon as Grandfather said those words, the Watch immediately went silent. I tapped the face of the Watch again, but nothing happened. The Watch seemed to have turned off.

  Still, I said, “Grandfather, are you still there? Can you hear me? Hello? Grandfather?”

  “Sounds like the Watch shut down,” said Christina. She had leaned forward when Grandfather spoke through the Watch, but sat back against the wall of the hollow with a slightly puzzled look on her face. “Though I wonder how he managed to speak through it.”

  Lowering the Watch, I said, “Me, too. I didn’t even know that you could communicate through the Watch.”

  “That’s not what I mean,” said Christina. “Gregory is supposed to be a prisoner. I know for a fact that prisoners are not allowed any sort of contact with the outside world whatsoever. Yet somehow your grandfather managed to get a hold of some kind of device that he used to contact you. Doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, now does it?”

  “You’re right,” I said, nodding. “It doesn’t. That’s what puzzles me the most about it. Still, Grandfather somehow managed to get the Trickshot Watch delivered to me despite being held prisoner here on Iconia, so maybe it’s not as puzzling as it seems.”

  “Whatever,” said Christina with a shrug. “It’s still very strange. The connection must not have been very good, even though Gregory is here on Iconia. Then again, Iconia does have jamming signals meant to interfere with transmissions that aren’t from their agents. Perhaps that’s why the connection wasn’t so good.”

  “I don’t care about the strength of the connection,” I said. “What matters to me is Grandfather’s warning. You heard what he said. He said I was walking into a trap.”

  Christina rolled her eyes. “Like we couldn’t figure that one out ourselves. Chaser has all sorts of traps set up on Iconia for the express purpose of capturing intruders like you and, now, me. Seems to me Greg could have given us a bit more useful information than the obvious.”

  “I’m not sure that’s what Grandfather was referring to,” I said. “I think he was talking about a trap specifically set for me. I mean, that has to be what he was warning me about. Otherwise, why go through all of the trouble of warning me about stuff that I already knew existed?”

  “Hmm, I guess,” said Christina. “But I kind of doubt Chaser would go through all of the trouble of setting a trap specifically for you. The whole world doesn’t revolve around you, you know.”

  “Unless Chaser considered me a big enough threat, that is,” I said. “And given how Icon has tried to kill me several times already, including framing me for Baron Glory’s murder, I’m thinking it’s not as far-fetched as you think it is.”

  Christina snorted. “What kind of trap would he set for you, anyway? That would require him to expect you to reach Iconia, even though he tried to blow us up in the submarine.”

  “Well, there’s one way he could have ensured I would make it to Iconia in one piece,” I said slowly.

  “Oh? And what would that be?” said Christina.

  “Oh, I don’t know,” I said with a shrug. “Maybe he could send one of his agents to approach me and pretend to quit the organization. Then this agent—who is notoriously selfish and a bit of a narcissist—might offer to help me get to Iconia because she wants to kill Chaser, too. I mean, it’s a possibility, you understand.”

  Christina went very still, like a snake about to strike. “Huh. Interesting theory you’ve got there. It would probably be rude of me to think you’re implying that I’m leading you to your doom. I mean, you wouldn’t be so stupid as to say such a thing out loud where I can hear it, right?”

  I locked eyes with Christina. “And maybe I would. And maybe it wouldn’t be stupid so much as a warning not to try anything if you don’t want me to break your legs.”

  Christina, to her credit, didn’t break eye contact with me. “You really think I’m lying about betraying Icon, then?”

  “I’m not sure what to believe,” I said. “But I don’t rule it out as a possibility. You’re a known liar and deceiver. And it’s what I would do if I were in your position.”

  I expected Christina to make some snarky comment about how dumb I was to say something like that. I also half-expected her to just drop the act and attack me outright without giving me a chance to respond.

  But then Christina shrugged and said, “You’re wrong, but you’re also a lot smarter than I thought. I understand if you’re skeptical about my change of heart. To be frank, I’m a little skeptical myself.”

  “Huh?” I said. “How can you be skeptical of yourself?”

  Christina suddenly laughed. It was a harsh, sudden sound, so loud that I worried the Blind Apes might hear it and converge on our hiding place immediately.

  But Christina’s laugh was short-lived. She looked at me, still chuckling slightly, and said, “I keep forgetting you’re still basically just a kid. Once you get a few more years on your shoulders and have some more experience in the world, you’ll understand what I mean. Or maybe you can just ask your parents.”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “Maybe I understand more than you think.”

  “Clearly, you do,” said Christina. “But you also understand a whole lot less than you think. Teens always think they know best when they’re that age. I know I did, until reality kicked me in the teeth and shoved me into a locker.”

  “But I thought you didn’t remember anything from your life prior to Icon,” I said.

  “I don’t have any specific memories,” said Christina, tapping the side of her head. “But I have some general memories—more like feelings—from my childhood. I can recall, for example, how awkward I was as a teenager, though I don’t remember where I went to high school or if I even did at all.”

  “What a weird case of amnesia you’ve got,” I said. “How can you remember feelings but not memories?”

  “Sometimes, kid, feelings we felt a decade ago leave a deeper impression on us than whatever we did ten years ago,” said Christina. “Again, you’re just a kid, so you won’t understand until you get older and have more life experience.”


  I always hated it whenever adults said something like that to me, though this time I sensed that Christina had a point about this. Everything she said didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me except an abstract way, but abstract thinking was never my strong suit (Kyle was way better at it than me), so even then, I didn’t really understand it.

  “All right,” I said. “Still, I’m not entirely sure if I should trust you or not.”

  “And I don’t blame you,” said Christina. “If our roles were reversed, I’d feel the same way about you. Smart people don’t trust traitors right off the bat. Usually, they keep a close eye on them and don’t trust them until they earn it.”

  “And how do you intend to earn my trust?” I said.

  Christina smiled, though it was an amused smile now. “When did I say I ever wanted it? All I want is to destroy Icon. I don’t need your ‘trust’ to do that. If anything, your trust could get in the way, because then I might feel obligated to help you for some stupid reason.”

  “Well, if you don’t want my trust, then I’m not sure we can be allies,” I said slowly. “Maybe we should just go our separate ways. I could probably destroy Icon all on my own.”

  “Eh, maybe,” said Christina. “But I think you know better than that. If you want to go up against the Blind Apes again, then be my guess.”

  I hesitated, but realized Christina had a point. The two of us might never become friends, but our current circumstances meant that we couldn’t be enemies, either. Until we destroyed Iconia, the two of us would have to continue working together. I still wasn’t a very big fan of that idea, but the practical voice in my head that always sounded like Dad told me that I didn’t have much of a choice in the matter and that it was in my best interests to work with Christina until we accomplished our goal.

  “All right,” I said. “It’s probably smarter if we stick together for now, anyway. Safety in numbers and all that.”

  Christina’s smile grew more amused. “See, you really are a smart little brat. I can’t wait to see how smart you get once your brain stops growing. That won’t be for another seven years, though, so for now I’m going to have to hold your impulsive hormone-driven ways in check and make sure you don’t get us killed by playing the hero.”