by Lucas Flint
“Back up already?” I said, turning to face Benjamin. “I thought you’d be down for a few minutes at least.”
“That didn’t even tickle,” said Benjamin. He cracked his neck back and forth. “But it did annoy me, and now I have the power to do something about people who annoy me.”
Benjamin raised his hand and shot a tendril of purple goop at me and Christina. I grabbed Christina and flew into the air, narrowly avoiding Benjamin’s tendril. I flew over to Uncle Josh with Christina in my hands and landed next to him, letting go of Christina at the same time, who almost tripped over her own feet but managed to regain her balance when we landed.
“This is a terrible situation,” said Uncle Josh. “With Benjamin in the way, it will be even harder to get to the Tower than before.”
“Christina, do you know what Benjamin’s weakness might be?” I said, looking at her. “You knew him, right?”
Christina shrugged. “All I know is that he’s the biggest nerd in the organization and that he doesn’t handle rejection especially well. Otherwise, I couldn’t tell you how to beat him, if that’s what you’re asking.”
I cursed under my breath. “We don’t have time to fight him. For all we know, backup might be coming any moment to help Benjamin defeat us.”
“Oh, you need not worry about my fellow Icon agents, Trickshot,” said Benjamin, his mouth twisting into an ugly grin. “I will kill all three of you myself and present your corpses as gifts to Chaser. Or perhaps I will use your bodies in future scientific experiments. I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see what Chaser says.”
I scowled, but it was clear that we had no choice but to fight Benjamin if we were going to get out of here alive. I looked at Christina and said, “Christina, you and Uncle Josh should stand back. I’ll try to fight Benjamin and distract him long enough for both of you guys to get past him.”
“Sounds good to me,” said Christina. She shuddered. “I really don’t want to feel all of his icky, sticky goo on my body again. Worst feeling of my life.”
“But your punches already didn’t do anything to him,” said Uncle Josh. “And your disks weren’t much more successful. You need backup.”
“Thanks for the offer, but I don’t think numbers will help in this case,” I said. “You and Christina just need to get over to the tunnels. I’ll join you after I deal with Benjamin.”
“You do know I can hear everything you are saying, right?” said Benjamin. “Foolish intruders. Do you really think I would let you get past me?”
Benjamin’s right hand transformed into some kind of cannon, which he aimed at us. He then fired a blob of purple goop, which Christina batted out of the air with an energy rope before it could hit us. The blob fell over the side of the railing into the open vats of purple goop below, where it landed with a plop and a sizzle.
“Good reflexes,” said Uncle Josh, looking at Christina as her energy rope dissipated.
“I try,” said Christina with a shrug.
“Right,” I said. “Now, you two need to get out of here. I’ll keep Benjamin distracted.”
Without waiting for their responses, I flew toward Benjamin. Benjamin extended his clawed hand toward me and tried to slash me out of the air, but I swerved out of the way at the last second. I flew over the side of the railing and hovered above the vats, which were crackling and sizzling below me like lava.
“What are you waiting for, Benny?” I said. I gestured at him. “Come and get me. Or did your Power not give you the ability to fly?”
“I don’t need the ability to fly to take you down,” said Benjamin.
He aimed his cannon hand at me again and fired. I ducked, however, and dodged it easily. Then I hurtled toward him as fast as I could and kicked him in the face, but his head split at the last second and my kick hit nothing but empty air.
Then Benjamin’s head reformed and I had only enough time to see him grin like a monster before he slammed me with a giant fist. The fist sent me flying toward the computer in the center of the room, where I crashed into the screen and fell onto the floor with a loud thunk. My senses dazed from the impact, I nonetheless shook my head and looked up to see Benjamin walking toward me, drips of purple goo falling off his body with each step.
“You’re quite the persistent one,” said Benjamin, whose voice sounded more distorted than ever. “That blow would have killed a normal human, but perhaps I just need to hit you again. Not a problem. I can do this all night, though I’m not sure you can even with your powers.”
As much as I didn’t want to admit it, Benjamin had a point. I had already taken a good beating several times over the course of the night from people other than Benjamin and, while I wasn’t in danger of collapsing from exhaustion just yet, I did find myself growing more and more tired, to the point where I found myself wishing that I was back home sleeping comfortably in my bed. It didn’t help that I had yet to get in a really solid blow that actually hurt him.
Nonetheless, I rose to my feet, using the computer’s control panel for support. I needed to find a way to beat him, but that was easier said than done, because his powers made it hard to hurt or even hit him. He seemed almost impervious to injury, which made me think that this entire fight might be useless and that I would just have to abandon it at some point to join back up with Christina and Uncle Josh.
“Nothing to say?” said Benjamin. “Perhaps you’re weaker than I thought.”
Benjamin launched his claw at me. I shot up into the air, narrowly avoiding the claw, which smashed into the computer and ripped it into pieces.
“Hey, watch where you’re shooting that thing!” I said. “You destroyed your own computer!”
Benjamin snorted as he retracted his arm. “What do I care? All I care about is killing you. And I will do that even if I have to tear this entire lab apart.”
Benjamin raised his hand and fired his claw at me again. I dodged this time, but then he shot his other hand at me suddenly and it was a direct hit. He struck me in the chest and his hand clung to my chest, sticking to it like bubblegum. He then jerked me back down onto the floor, which I landed on hard enough to rattle the floor.
Struggling to get up to my feet, I looked up just in time to get slapped in the face by a tendril extending from Benjamin’s body. I fell flat on my back, but rolled backwards onto my feet and took several steps away from Benjamin, who retracted his tendril back into his chest, an amused grin on his face. I hated being on the defensive all the time, but until I could figure out his weakness, all I could do was dodge and fly around to distract him from Uncle Josh and Christina.
Suddenly, I heard Christina shout, “Hey, kid! We made it!”
Peering around Benjamin, I saw that Uncle Josh and Christina stood in an open doorway on the other side of the lab. The doorway seemed to lead to a set of metal stairs going down, though I couldn’t see exactly where they led from here. But I knew that had to be the entrance to the tunnels, which meant I needed to get away from Benjamin as fast as possible.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t the only one to notice Uncle Josh and Christina’s success. Benjamin had also turned around to see them and he growled deeply under his breath when he saw where they were.
“Stupid,” said Benjamin. “I’m an idiot for allowing myself to be distracted by this kid. But it doesn’t matter. I’ll fix that mistake of mine, like I always do whenever I mess up a formula in the lab.”
Benjamin raised his hand, but I rushed up behind him and slammed my fist into the back of his head. Benjamin’s head exploded, sending chunks of purple goop flying everywhere. I knew he would recover eventually, however, so I flew over him toward Christina and Uncle Josh, who were both gesturing at me to follow them.
But I didn’t get far before I felt something sticky attach to my ankles and I was slammed down onto the floor. Shaking my head, I looked over my shoulder to see that Benjamin’s head had already reformed and he was holding me down with a tendril extending from his chest.
“Even if those two get away,
that doesn’t mean I’m going to let you get away as well,” said Benjamin. “If I kill only you, then that will please Chaser all by itself. And I live solely to please his will, even at the cost of my own life.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
“Jack!” Uncle Josh cried out. “I’m coming to—”
“No!” I shouted back, waving desperately at them. “Stay back! You guys don’t stand a chance against him. I’ll be fine without you.”
Without waiting to see what Uncle Josh or Christina would do, I looked back at Benjamin, who was now slowly pulling me toward him with a murderous grin on his face. I pulled three disks out of my pocket again, but instead of throwing them at him, I threw them at the tendril that he was using to drag me toward him. The disks cut through the tendril as easily as string, allowing me to jump to my feet and fly toward Uncle Josh and Christina, who were watching the entire fight with surprised looks on their faces.
“Get in there!” I shouted. “Go in now! I’ll be right behind you guys!”
“What about Benjamin?” said Christina. “He’s still here and he’ll be coming after us!”
Christina was absolutely right. A glance over my shoulder showed me that Benjamin was already running after me. He ran slowly and awkwardly, most likely because he wasn’t entirely used to his new form yet, but I knew that he would catch up to us eventually, especially if he followed us into the tunnels. Yet how I was supposed to defeat him when I couldn’t even hit him? The constant sizzling and crackling of the Power vats below didn’t help me think of some way to beat him.
Wait a minute …
I landed just a few feet from Uncle Josh and Christina and said to them, “Get inside the tunnels. I’ll be right behind you guys, but I need both of you to get in there before I defeat Benjamin.”
“What?” said Uncle Josh. “How are you going to beat him? You can’t even touch him.”
“It’s too complicated to explain, but both of you guys need to get out of here before I can do it,” I said. “Otherwise, I’ll risk killing you guys as well.”
Christina frowned. “Whatever your plan is, it better finish him off for good. Otherwise, I will kill you.”
“I’ll be dead if I fail,” I replied. “Now go! We don’t have much time.”
Uncle Josh looked hesitant, but then he nodded and stepped into the stairway, with Christina following closely behind him. They didn’t close the door behind them, but they wouldn’t need to if everything worked out the way I thought it should.
I turned to face Benjamin, who stopped several feet away from me, his goopy form constantly dripping gunk onto the floor. I just now realized how horribly he smelled, like swamp gas mixed with skunk. I guess I’d been too focused on beating him earlier to notice his stink, though with luck, I soon would not have to smell it ever again.
“Not running with your girlfriend and uncle?” said Benjamin, cracking the most disgusting grin I’d ever seen on another creature’s face. “I guess you really are an idiot after all. Or do you like to think you’re playing the hero here?”
“I’m just trying to keep my friends safe,” I said. “Which, I guess, is a concept you don’t understand, given how even your fellow Icon agents seem to hate you.”
Benjamin growled. “Shut up. I don’t need a brat like you lecturing me about friendship. With the power I now command, I don’t even need friends.”
“And now you sound just like a villain from a Saturday morning cartoon,” I said. “Ah, well. It was nice knowing you.”
I drew not three, not four, not even five, but six Trickshot disks from my pouch, but instead of throwing them at Benjamin, I threw them at the floor. The disks bounced off the floor and each went in a different direction, flying all over the room, hitting off every imaginable surface. The echoing of my metal disks bouncing off of every surface in the lab was not loud, but it was very persistent, like being in a room full of flies.
Benjamin, who had taken a step back when I threw the disks, just looked around with a puzzled frown on his face. “What are you doing? I thought we’d already established that your disks couldn’t hurt me. Throwing more of them around won’t actually hurt me more than the three you threw at me originally.”
I smirked. “If I had been meaning to hit you directly, I would have just thrown them at you. But I didn’t. Can you, with that big scientist brain of yours, figure out why?”
Benjamin tilted his head to the side, as if he was seriously considering the question, when I suddenly heard a small snap and then the floor shuddered under our feet. Benjamin suddenly looked around, fear on his face for the first time, while I had to hold onto the open door to the tunnels to maintain my balance.
“What was that sound?” said Benjamin. He looked at me urgently. “Was that your doing? What did you—”
Another snap and the floor shuddered again, this time even making Benjamin stumble. I maintained my balance this time by holding onto the door as tightly as I could, though now the floor was quite wobbly under my feet.
“You’re shaking the floor somehow,” said Benjamin. He sounded close to panic now. “Yet you’re not moving at all. How is this possible? Some new power I didn’t know the Trickshot suit even had?”
My smile grew wider. “Oh, this isn’t a new power, my friend. It’s just an old one being used in a new way.”
Benjamin opened his mouth to ask me what I meant, but he was interrupted by a third, fourth, and fifth snap that each happened in rapid succession one after the other, sounding like a pop gun going off. The floor suddenly shook and even tilted under our feet. Benjamin went sliding several feet before he reached out with his hand and grabbed onto the computer in the center of the room, which stayed steady despite how much the floor had shaken.
“Those snaps …” Benjamin’s voice trailed off. “They sound familiar … but where …”
“Still haven’t figured it out yet?” I said. “All right. I’ll give you a hint. Look at the platform’s support cables.”
Benjamin suddenly looked around at the steel cables which had been holding this platform up over the open vats of Power below us. At first, he looked as confused as ever, but as soon as he noticed that nearly all of the cables save for two at either end of the platform had snapped, realization dawned on his monstrous features like lightning.
Benjamin whipped his head toward me, anger and fear on his face in equal tones. “Your disks have snapped nearly all of the cables. You’re trying to make this platform crash into the vats below.”
“Right on,” I said. “I remember how part of your goop fell into the vats and dissolved, so I’m betting that the same thing will happen to the rest of your body if you fall into it. Call it a hypothesis, if you will, albeit not a very scientific one.”
Fear rose in Benjamin’s eyes. “You foolish boy. If you drop this platform on the vats, you’ll doom us all! If you destroy Power, that will destroy Icon’s main source of income.”
“And?” I said. “That’s a bonus if it means getting rid of you forever. What other good things will happen if I let you die?”
Benjamin shook his head and growled at me. “Well, your plan isn’t going to work. You missed two of the cables, which is the bare minimum this platform needs to stay suspended in midair. You should have thrown more than six of those pesky disks of yours.”
My smile grew so big that it almost hurt. “Oh, I know. But doing cool trick shots isn’t my only power, you know.”
Gathering all of my super strength into my right fist, I slammed my fist down as hard as I could onto the floor of the platform we stood upon. The sudden impact of my fist onto the platform strained the remaining cables at first, making me think for a split second that the cables were stronger than I thought and that my plan was going to fail after all.
But then the cables snapped and the platform fell directly toward the steaming vats below. I activated my flight powers at the last second, however, and flew backwards into the open doorway, but I didn’t get far before Benjamin exte
nded his hand toward me and wrapped it around my ankle, nearly yanking me down with him as the platform fell out underneath his feet.
“I’m not dying today, brat!” Benjamin shouted. “You’re my ticket out of here whether you like it or not!”
Just as those words left Benjamin’s lips, the sixth and final disk I had thrown appeared out of nowhere and cut cleanly through Benjamin’s arm. I yanked my foot back into the room and slammed the door shut behind me. The last thing I saw, before I slammed the door shut, was the shock and horror on Benjamin’s face as he fell.
As soon as I closed the door, I heard the loud sound of metal crashing into the vats below. There were sounds of metal splashing into some kind of liquid, alarms going off, and something sizzling in the vats of Power. I even thought I heard Benjamin’s last screams of pain, but they were drowned out by all of the much louder noises which accompanied the fall of the platform.
But at this point, I didn’t care to see if Benjamin had died or not. I just turned around to see Uncle Josh and Christina standing there, shocked looks on both of their faces.
“What are you two looking at?” I said.
“Nothing,” said Christina. “I just didn’t expect you to have the balls to pull off a move like that.”
“Same here,” said Uncle Josh. “That was risky, Jack, much riskier than even I would be willing to try. You’re lucky you didn’t get killed.”
I shrugged. “I’ve done riskier in the past. Besides, Benjamin wasn’t that hard. He wasn’t as smart as he thought he was.”
“Yeah, sounds about right,” said Christina. “Creep always thought he was smarter than everyone else just because he was the head scientist of the Power division. I would have killed the jerk myself if I could have.”
“Right,” said Uncle Josh. “Anyway, we need to keep going. Benjamin may be dead, but we still have a long way to go if we’re going to rescue Gregory and destroy Iconia. It wouldn’t surprise me if Chaser has sent some of his agents down into the tunnels to catch us, so let’s get going.”
