by Charlie Wood
Tobin turned to the door; Orion had his right arm in a sling, and was using a crutch. The boy felt terrible.
“Did you sleep all right?” the old man asked.
“Yes,” Tobin lied, putting the soap in its dish. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Come along.”
Tobin walked into the lobby of City Hall. Outside, he could see the Sky-Blade, with its engines running.
“We have to leave already?” the boy asked.
“Yes. I got what I needed from Aykrada and we’re moving on, like we should have in the first place. We’ve only made it worse for them here.”
Tobin could hear the regret in Orion’s voice. “Where’re we going now?” he asked.
“You’ll see,” the old man said.
Soon, the group was off again in the Sky-Blade, and Keplar was once again using the time to catch up on his sleep in the cockpit. This time, however, Scatterbolt was having a much easier time piloting the ship, as he was standing on a stack of old phone books that he found in the Gallymoora City Hall. As he set the ship’s course, he leaned forward and gracefully adjusted its steering wheel.
In the cabin, Tobin was lying on a hammock that was suspended from the ceiling by chains. Across from him, Orion was sitting in a chair and reading a book.
“Somebody’s pretty quiet over there,” Orion said.
“Just tired,” Tobin replied. “That’s all.”
“Oh. I thought maybe something else was on your mind.”
“Like maybe how I almost got everybody killed last night?”
Orion chuckled. “Yeah, that might be it.”
“I feel like crap,” Tobin said. “I know I should have done something, but…I couldn’t. I couldn’t do anything.”
Orion closed his book and walked to the cockpit.
“Tobin, when you got yourself involved in the battle, you owned it. A piece of it. And whether you were ready for it or not, you were responsible for that piece. That’s what happens when you put yourself in a situation like that: everyone else is depending on you to do your part when you need to. I knew you weren’t ready, which is why I didn’t want you getting involved in the first place.”
Orion looked at Tobin. The boy was staring at the ceiling, with a miserable look across his face.
“But I guess you already know that,” the old man said with a laugh.
“Yeah. Now I just hope nobody else almost dies because of me.”
Orion opened the cockpit door.
“Let it go, Tobin. It’s over, after all. The worst thing you can do now is obsess over it, because then you can’t move on from it and learn from it. That’s all you need to do—learn from it.”
Tobin nodded. He still felt so angry. And embarrassed.
“Try and get some sleep,” the old man said. “Okay?”
“Okay.”
The lights in the cabin went out. Tobin turned to the wall and listened to the hum of the sky-ship, thinking.
As they started their descent, Tobin looked out the window at their next destination: they were landing on a tan, brick platform, resting in the side of a mammoth mountaintop, high above the clouds.
When the ship came to a stop, Tobin walked out and looked over the area. It was as if he and the others were the only people left in the world. Far away from civilization, and thousands of feet into the air, all he could see were the green tops of trees, clouds, and other mountain ranges, for miles and miles.
Shielding his eyes from the reflection of the sun, Tobin turned to the mountain and saw that there was a structure built into the side of it. A set of giant, glass doors was the building’s entrance, and there were several floors of windows above it.
“Wow,” he said. “What is this place?”
Orion walked down the ramp and pressed a button on a remote control. “Read that tablet.”
A marble pedestal rose with a whoosh! near the mountain’s entrance, so Tobin ran to it. There was a tablet on top of it, and a series of words were running down the tablet in a column, repeated in all kinds of languages.
“I can’t read any of this,” the boy said.
“Keep reading,” Orion told him.
Tobin ran his finger along the words until he found it. “Ah, here it is: ‘The Museum of the Heroes.’”
“Yes.” Orion walked toward the entrance. “This was where my friends and I lived many years ago, when we were superheroes. Now, no one needs it any longer as a headquarters, so I’ve turned it into a museum about this world’s heroes and where we came from. Come in and I’ll show you.”
Tobin followed Orion toward the doors, but he noticed there were no doorknobs on them—no handles, no latches, not a single thing to pull them open. But, when Orion’s face was inches away from smashing against the entrance, there was a loud click! from inside the mountain, and the doors slowly opened. The old man walked in as if he had done this thousands of times, and he had.
Tobin walked into the mountain after Orion, with cautious, curious footsteps. He was stunned with what he found.
There was a wide open, sun-filled room sprawling in front of him, with colorfully designed marble floors, dozens of exhibits, and a ceiling that rose all the way to the top of the mountain. Scanning upward, Tobin saw that the ceiling was etched with images of superheroes, and also spotted with skylights. These skylights were letting the sunlight flow in, and it was illuminating all of the wondrous statues, costumes, paintings, and photographs. Tobin couldn’t believe it: inside the mountain, in the middle of nowhere, there was a fantastic museum.
He walked across the marble floor and inspected the exhibits. Along one wall, he found a glass case full of old weapons and costumes, some of which looked like they could be a hundred years old. Down a ways from there, he found an incredible bronze statue: it was of a man with the outstretched wings of an eagle, and he was holding a sword high in the air. The inscription on the statue read: MATT “TITAN” TAYLOR, LEADER OF THE GUARDIANS. Tobin recognized this man from Scatterbolt’s impromptu history lesson earlier, and also noticed this statue was on a pedestal higher than the others around the room.
Tobin looked at the other statues. There were depictions of normal humans, like the one of a gorgeous woman standing next to her pet panther, but there were also depictions of strange-looking men and women, like the one of a man with pointy ears. Then there were the statues that didn’t look human at all, like the one of some kind of toad-man; he was wearing knight’s armor, holding two daggers, and showing off a grin filled with hundreds of teeth.
The paintings and photographs were also fascinating. Many of them showed great battles between humans and monsters, but many of them showed quieter moments, too: there was an old man, surrounded by his saddened family; a fisherman and his dog, sitting on a hill and fishing in a lake; the winged-man named Titan, dancing with a blonde woman at a party. Then, at the end of the row, Tobin found a large, framed photograph, nearly encompassing the entire next wall.
It was a photo of a gathering of superheroes. There were at least seventy of them, and they were all wearing colorful costumes. Tobin noticed Titan standing in front of the group; he was looking very serious, with his wings folded at his sides. On one side of him, there was a young Orion, standing with his bow and arrow, and to the other side there was a young Strike, who was holding his bo-staff and not taking the picture nearly as seriously as Titan.
Then, at the edge of the photo, nearly out of frame, Tobin saw another tall man dressed in black. He was smiling for the camera, with his arm around a young, pretty woman with dark hair.
“Pretty neat, huh?” Orion said. “Capricious has many superheroes now, Tobin, but when I was your age, we had even more, hundreds more. Many of them were our friends and allies, but my teammates and I were the only ones who used this place as a headquarters. Which was probably a good thing, considering all the trouble we got into.”
“And these two in the front were your teammates, right?” Tobin asked. “The Guardians?”
“And you guys were the best?”
“No, not really,” Orion chuckled. “But pretty good.”
Tobin followed Orion out of the main gallery of the museum and into a quieter room in the back. There were a couple of benches, a small duck pond, a glass display case, and three more statues, which seemed to be watching over the area. One of the statues was of Orion, one was of Titan, and one was of Strike.
Tobin approached the statue of Orion.
“Orion Hobbes,” he read from the inscription. “He Might Be Old and Cranky Now, But We Still Love Him, Anyway.”
“Keplar and Scatterbolt put that here for my birthday a couple of years ago,” Orion said. “They said they were being nice, but I think they just like to remind me of how old I am.”
Tobin chuckled. The statue showed Orion as a teenager; he was wearing a mask over his eyes, the same knee-length coat, and a quiver of arrows on his back.
“We were so young, when we started,” Orion said. “Fourteen, fifteen years old. And with absolutely no idea of what we were doing.”
Tobin walked to the display case. It held photos, news clippings, and magazines.
“I’m sure by now you’ve figured out why you’re here,” Orion said.
“Yeah. I think it’s pretty obvious.”
Tobin looked at a photograph; it showed Scott, Orion, and Titan. They were out of costume, and wearing normal clothes. Tobin saw his father staring back at him—young, happy, and with friends.
“Your father and I became best friends and teammates our freshman year of high school,” Orion explained. “Later, the team disbanded, and then it was just the two of us.”
Tobin read one of the newspaper clippings:
STRIKE AND THE RED WOLF PUT AN END TO DABOSI CRIME FAMILY!
Underneath the headline, there was a picture of Scott and Orion, dressed in costume and fighting a group of armed criminals in the city.
“After we stopped Vincent’s invasion of Earth,” Orion said, “your father and I returned to your world many times over the years, to make sure no other villains from Capricious had crossed over into it. We had let that happen once, and we swore we would never let it happen again.
“While we were there, though, we also realized we could help out your world in other ways. Your world unfortunately needed it at the time, and it was a great honor for us to fight alongside the heroes of Earth, who were infinitely more brave than we could ever be.”
Tobin looked at a newspaper clipping: it was from Earth, and dated August 16th, 1944. There was a blurry picture of Strike and the Red Wolf, helping the Allied soldiers in war-torn France. The headline read:
MYSTERIOUS MASKED MEN HELP WALLOP HITLER’S GOONS!
Tobin was stunned. “What? How could…?”
Orion laughed. “Our bodies age much differently than yours, and we live for much longer. I’m just starting to feel my age now, if you couldn’t already tell.”
Tobin looked at the other photographs: there was one of Strike and the Red Wolf in Chicago in the 1960’s, one of them in Los Angeles in 1975, and one of them in New York in the 1990’s. It was all so very strange.
Tobin heard a knock at the door; Scatterbolt was standing in the entryway, holding a book.
“Hi, Scatterbolt,” Orion said, sitting on one of the benches. “Here, Tobin. I want to show you something.”
Tobin sat on the bench, and Scatterbolt hopped up next to him. As the robot placed the book on his lap, he opened it.
“Your father and I made hundreds of trips to your world,” Orion explained, “and we always made sure while we were there to have as little contact with your people as possible. But, on one of our last trips…well, you’ll see.”
Tobin watched the book:
The page showed New York City at nighttime. Orion was standing atop a skyscraper, scanning the horizon with a pair of high-tech binoculars. Scott was standing next to him, and they were both in their late-thirties.
On the street below, Scott saw something of interest, so he grabbed the binoculars from Orion and looked through them. Confused, Orion peered over the edge of the building, but then laughed, shaking his head.
Scott was watching as a beautiful woman walked down the street with her friends.
The woman was Tobin’s mother.
“From the very first moment he saw her,” Orion said, “your father fell madly in love with Catherine Richards.”
On the page, Tobin’s mother laughed at one of her friend’s jokes, and the image froze. Tobin remembered how he had acted the last time he saw her.
“Against all of my advice,” Orion said, “your father began speaking to your mother. Then, very much against all of my advice, he asked her out on a date. He fell in love, so did she, and it wasn’t long at all before he was spending almost all of his free time on Earth.”
Tobin now saw photographs of his mother and father, from the period when they had just started dating. He even recognized some of the photos as ones his mother had back home.
“After a couple of months,” Orion said, “your father and I agreed it was best for him to move to your world full-time, where it was clear he was meant to be. At the same time, I stayed here on Capricious, continuing on as a superhero on my own.
“It was a wonderful time for your father, and I truly never saw him happier in his life. But, three years after you were born…” Orion waited a moment. “Three years after you were born, our worst enemy, a man named Vincent Harris who calls himself the Rantamede, reappeared on Capricious and again plotted to invade your world.”
Tobin looked to the floor. Next to him, Scatterbolt glanced up at Orion. The old man motioned for the door, and the robot quickly headed in its direction.
“I faced Vincent alone this time,” Orion said, “but I failed, and Capricious was nearly destroyed.
“Before I went to face Vincent again, your father insisted on helping me. Together, we were able to stop him, but…”
Orion took a breath. His next words were quiet, careful.
“Your father pushed his powers to the limit. It was too much for him. He passed away on that July morning, just as the sun was rising and the rain stopped.”
Tobin tried to look away from the floor but found that he could not.
“I wish I would have known that,” he said. “I wish my mom would have known that.”
Orion nodded. “She never knew anything about your dad’s past, or the truth about where he was from. I think he was finally planning on telling her that morning, but...”
Tobin walked away. He didn’t want anyone to see him this way.
“You were everything to him, Tobin,” Orion said. “You and your mother. You were his entire world, the reason he risked it all, the reason he gave up his life. He did it to save Earth, but really, to save you and your mom. And that’s why it hurts me so much to have to tell you what I am about to tell you.”
Orion waited for the boy to turn around, but he didn’t. The old man knew he could wait no longer, so he said it.
“Tobin, Vincent Harris has returned.”
Tobin didn’t move.
“How?” he asked. “I thought you and my father killed him already. This is so…”
He ran his hand through his hair. He could feel a deep anger growing inside of him.
“No,” Orion explained. “We were only able to imprison him. I had hoped he was imprisoned for good this time, but now he is back, and he is planning to—”
“I won’t do it,” Tobin said.
Orion was surprised. “You—I’m going to help you, Tobin. It will be the three of us, Keplar, Scatterbolt, and myself, and we will help you to—”
“No,” Tobin said again. “I won’t do it.”
Orion stood in front of him.
“Tobin, Vincent has tried to attack your world before, and at those times, my friends and I were able to stop him. But now…my friends are gone. It is just me, and I am old and crippled and useless. There is now only one person who even has a chance of surviving a confrontation with Vincent. Only one person, out of two entire worlds.” He paused. “You cannot throw that away. I won’t allow you to.”
But the boy said nothing.
“We need your help, Tobin. I need your help.”
Tobin walked away.
“I have no help to give you,” he said. “I’m sorry. Just take me home.”
Orion turned Tobin around by his shoulders.
“I know you’re scared, Tobin. I would be, too. I’d be thinking that I’d lost my mind, and wishing for this all to end. I’d be hoping that this stupid old man would just shut up and let me leave, instead of begging me to go off and fight a monster. But you are my best friend’s son, Tobin. I will not allow you to get hurt.”
Tobin wiped the tears from his eyes.
“Your father was incredibly reckless, to be honest,” Orion said. “He never took anything seriously, and he never stopped telling jokes, even in the middle of a battle. But he lived to protect people, Tobin. It’s all he ever aspired to do. And now we must do it, because he isn’t here to.”
The boy breathed in. His voice betrayed him and cracked. To cover up the nerves racing through his body, he laughed at the hopelessness of it all.
“And how exactly do you plan on doing this?” he asked.
“We will train here,” Orion said, “with Keplar’s and Scatterbolt’s help. While Vincent is still planning his invasion, we will teach you and we will guide you, and when you are ready, you will go to Vincent and you will stop him, at all costs necessary.”
Tobin looked up, surprised at the last detail.
“I have found Vincent and his team,” Orion explained, “in a secret place he has created, on one of the moons of Capricious. When you are ready, you will go there, and you will end this invasion before it ever begins.”
Tobin thought it over. It was all so insane, so ridiculous, so much more than he could understand. But he kept thinking about one thing over and over.
