by Lucas Flint
I looked at the windows. Of the ones that were open, I did not see any lights on. By all appearances, the Mansion appeared abandoned. The only hint that someone lived here at all was the blue sedan sitting in the garage, but even that didn’t look like it had been driven for a while. “Feels lonely, honestly. Like whoever lives here just gave up on living.”
“If this is where Dizzy is being kept, then I’m even more worried for her than before,” said Strike. “Come on. Let’s go knock on the front door and say hello.”
Strike took one step forward, but just as his foot touched the ground, the ground beneath us rumbled and shook.
Without warning, the ground opened up underneath us and we fell directly into the dark, seemingly bottomless pit below us. Strike screamed, but I activated my flight powers and grabbed him, keeping us both from falling any further.
At least, I thought I had saved us until I heard something shoot out from beside us. A net came out of nowhere and slammed into us both, wrapping around us and sending us falling down again.
We hit the bottom of the pit hard and found that it was made of dirt. My head spinning from the impact, I struggled to remove the netting, but it was made out of some kind of metal and had entangled both me and Strike.
“Strike, are you okay?” I said as I tried to untangle the netting. “Were you hurt?”
“Yeah,” Strike groaned, “just a bruise, I think. Nothing serious.”
“Good,” I said. I pulled and tugged at the netting. “God, this is annoying. Why isn’t it breaking?”
“Probably because we’re tangled together,” said Strike apologetically. He tried to get up, but due to the weird position we were in, he couldn’t. “Yeah, I’m stuck.”
“Not for long,” I said as I grabbed the netting and started pulling at it. “At least, I hope so.”
“Hey!” a voice above us suddenly called down. “Supers! I knew it!”
Startled, Strike and I looked up at the top of the hole to see a man’s silhouetted face looking down at us. It was too dark for me to make out his face, but based on his voice, he sounded like an old man.
“Are you Samuel Longworth?” I called out.
“And what if I am?” said the man with a sneer. “Did you come to do to me what your kind did to my brother eighteen years ago?”
“We’re not here to kill you, Mr. Longworth,” said Strike. He managed to sit up and look directly up at Longworth’s darkened face. “We’re here because we have some questions we need to ask—”
“I won’t answer any questions from a couple of supers like you,” said Longworth with a sneer. “But I’m feeling generous today. If you two promise to fly away with your freakish powers and never come back here ever again, I will happily let you go.”
“And what if we don’t leave?” I said. “Are you going to force us to leave? Because I don’t see how a scrawny old man like you can possibly force strong superhumans like us to do anything.”
Longworth chuckled. “You supers and your arrogance. I don’t need to do anything. My pet cat, however, does.”
I was about to ask Longworth what he meant by ‘pet cat’ when, without warning, the top of the pit closed and we suddenly found ourselves lying at the bottom of a deep, dark pit without any light.
“What the heck?” said Strike. “What was that for?”
“He’s trapped us in here,” I said. I raised my hand and channeled electricity through it, giving us a small red light by which to see. “Not a problem. I’m sure I can force the pit open with my super strength. Or maybe we could use your magnetism to open it if it’s metal.”
“Okay, but first we need to untangle this stupid, dumb netting,” said Strike. “Let’s—”
A deep growl suddenly cut off Strike. It came from the darkness all around us, but even with the red light from my hand, I found it impossible to see what was making that growling sound.
“Did you hear that?” I said to Strike, glancing down at him.
Strike nodded. He looked far more alert now, his eyes darting from side to side as he searched the pit for the animal that had made that noise. “I did, but I can’t see anything that might have made that noise.”
“Maybe it was just the wind,” I said in a tone of voice that didn’t even convince me.
“There’s no wind down here, though,” said Strike. He began struggling against the netting again. “Look, let’s just get out of this netting. Then you can fly up and open the pit and get us both out of—”
The deep growl returned, but this time it sounded closer than ever. I still couldn’t see the source of the growl, but I sensed that it had to be somewhere close—perhaps very close—by. It must have moved, but I wasn’t sure how something that could growl so deeply could have moved without being heard. Despite my super strength, a chill of fear ran down my spine, making me feel even less safe than ever.
“Strike, use your heat vision to melt the netting,” I said as I continued to look around the area. “It’s our best chance at getting out of here alive.”
“But we’re so close that I might hit you,” said Strike.
“Don’t worry,” I said. “I’ll be fine. You just focus on breaking the netting and—”
An ungodly loud roar suddenly echoed through the pit. The sound bounced off the walls, which made it louder and harder to hear than ever. The roar was so loud that it was like being hit with a baseball bat straight across the temple.
“What the hell was that?” said Strike in alarm.
I opened my mouth to answer, but then I felt hot breath on the back of my neck. Fear rose up within me like a geyser, but I managed to calmly turn around to see what was breathing on me.
And found myself face to face with a large, fully-grown saber tooth tiger.
CHAPTER EIGHT
My little light didn’t illuminate much, but I could already tell that this creature—which heavily resembled a saber tooth tiger—was much bigger than either me or Strike. Its head alone was twice as big as mine, while its metallic saber-like teeth were as thick as my forearms. Its huge, yellow eyes looked at me with a hungry glare, while its hot breath that smelled like blood and raw meat wafted over my face like a strong wind. In the shadows cast by my light, the tiger looked almost like a demon, especially when I noticed blood stains on its teeth.
Suddenly, the tiger opened its mouth wide and tried to chomp down on my head, but I activated my super speed and pushed Strike and I away from the beast, narrowly avoiding its huge maw of a mouth that clamped down on empty air. We slammed into one of the walls of the pit, the tiger disappearing from our sight.
“Ow,” said Strike in an annoyed voice. “Bolt, what was that for? Nearly crushed me.”
“Sorry,” I said. “A saber tooth tiger was trying to bite down on my head. Acted without thinking.”
“A saber tooth?” said Strike in disbelief. “That’s impossible. Those are extinct.”
“Tell that to the tiger that nearly bit my head off with those fangs,” I said. “And now I can’t see it anymore, but it’s still around here somewhere. You really need to get to work on that netting.”
“Fine, fine,” said Strike, “just don’t make any more sudden moves and—”
Without warning, the tiger’s massive face came out of the darkness, maw wide open. I acted again, using my super speed to push us off to the side. Though the tiger once again faded out of view, I distinctly heard it slam its face against the stone wall of the pit and then moan in pain before going quiet again.
“Dang it,” I said. “Was that the pet cat Longworth told us about?”
“Not a very friendly kitty, is it?” said Strike. “Anyway, it doesn’t matter. If you could stay still for just two seconds, I can have us out of this netting fast.”
I was about to tell Strike I couldn’t make any guarantees when I heard another low growl from within the shadows. Then the tiger leaped into view again, howling like a monster.
I didn’t move this time. Instead, I unfolded my
pole and slammed it against the tiger’s open maw. The blow knocked the tiger off balance and sent it staggering off into the darkness again, but I could tell it wasn’t going to leave us alone forever. I could sense that the tiger was merely hungry before, but now it was enraged after repeatedly failing to capture us. That would make it dumber, maybe, but also far more violent and aggressive.
I felt a tiny twinge of relief, however, when I felt heat on my back and heard a tiny snap, an indicator that Strike was hard at work on destroying the netting. I just hoped he would be able to free us fast enough because I didn’t know how much longer I could hold off this tiger. It didn’t help that the tiger seemed to be taking its sweet time, perhaps looking for an opening to exploit before attacking us again. If so, then maybe it was a lot smarter than I first gave it credit for.
“Okay, Bolt,” said Strike behind me in a slightly strained voice, as though he was concentrating hard. “I’m slowly but surely breaking the netting. Give me another few seconds and you should be able to break it with your super strength.”
“Hope you’re right,” I said, my eyes darting around, straining to see the tiger in the darkness. “Because we can’t keep dodging the tiger forever. Sooner or later it will catch up with us and once it does …”
I let that thought trail off because I didn’t want to distract Strike even more than I already did. Nor did I want to divide my attention, either. I needed to remain fully aware of my surroundings because that tiger could somehow move without being heard and I didn’t want him to get the jump on me. Yet the darkness of the pit, combined with the absolute silence that had fallen on us, left me feeling antsy and anxious, wondering just where the tiger was and what it was going to do.
Abruptly, the tiger appeared again, its massive maw bearing down on me. I tried to hit it with my pole staff again, but the tiger grabbed the pole staff with its mouth and ripped it out of my hands and threw it away. Then the tiger snapped at me again, but I held up my hands and grabbed the upper and lower halves of its huge mouth, using my super strength to hold it back. Even with my super strength, however, I couldn’t hold it back forever. I didn’t have the stability I needed to push it away and wouldn’t until Strike finished melting the netting, which I hoped he would, but it seemed to be taking him ages to get the netting weak enough for us to escape.
The disgusting breath of the tiger washed over me as I forced its mouth open. My arms strained against the tiger’s massive bulk and I could sense that it was getting angrier and angrier with each passing second.
“Strike?” I said through a strained voice. “Are you done yet? Because I don’t know how much longer I can hold back Fluffy here.”
“Almost done …” said Strike. “Almost done … almost … done!”
I heard several soft snaps behind me and felt Strike roll out from behind me. In the darkness of the pit, I couldn’t see him, but then a red hot laser beam lanced out of the shadows and struck the tiger. The tiger suddenly roared in pain and staggered to the side, its fur smoking from the impact of the laser. Strike fired another laser at it, but he missed and the tiger disappeared back into the shadows out of sight.
“Dang it,” said Strike in annoyance. “It got away.”
I jumped to my feet and threw off the remainder of the netting as I said, “Not for long.”
I raised both my hands and channeled as much electricity as I could through them. Glowing orbs of red electricity suddenly exploded over my fists, casting a much bigger glow over the pit than my one hand did, and allowing us for the first time to see the full form of the tiger, which stood a few yards away from us staring at me in surprise.
The tiger was just as big as I suspected, but it looked very strange. Metallic kneepads covered its knees, while its back was covered in a thick sheet of metal that almost looked like a seat. Its long, serpentine tail looked kind of like an electrical cord and even its yellow eyes looked more like a robot’s optics than real, organic eyes.
“What the heck?” said Strike, taking a step back in surprise. “Is that a cyborg tiger?”
“Sure looks like it,” I said, just as surprised as Strike. “Never seen anything like it, but that doesn’t make it harmless.”
As if on cue, the tiger let loose another deep-throated growl, only I caught a hint of a metallic hiss to its growl as well, creating a unique sound I hadn’t heard anywhere else before.
Without warning, the tiger reared back and leaped forward, its powerful hind legs sending it flying through the air toward us. It landed on the floor in front of us and raised one paw, ready to bring it down on me, its eyes wide with insanity and anger as its bloodlust overtook its rationality.
But before the tiger could bring its paw down on me, a gunshot suddenly rang throughout the pit. Strike and I cringed, with Strike even covered his ears with his hands upon hearing the gunshot, but the tiger didn’t react. It just lowered its paw to the floor and keeled over onto its side. A quick glance at the bullet hole in the side of its head told me that it had just been shot … shot, and killed.
“Huh?” said Strike, taking his hands off his ears now that the echoes of the gunshot were gone. “Who shot it?”
“Sorry for scaring you,” said a soft yet clear voice in the shadows. “I was just trying to make sure I killed the beast before it killed you.”
I turned my hands toward the direction the voice had come from, but I did not see anyone. It was still too dark down here, so I increased the energy I was pouring into my hands to increase the brightness, allowing us to see more of the pit, but more importantly, to see the man who had saved us.
He was a Japanese man wearing a thick overcoat over his thin frame. He carried a pistol in his hand, which held by his side with the barrel aiming at the floor and his trigger finger on the side, which was how I knew he wasn’t going to try to shoot either of us.
Even if he wasn’t practicing good trigger discipline, however, I knew he wouldn’t attack us. He was a friend of mine, although one I hadn’t seen in a while.
“Triplet?” I said. “What are you doing here?”
Triplet did not smile, but merely inclined his head toward me and Strike as if to acknowledge our existence. “I should be asking you that question because no one told me that there were other people on this case.”
CHAPTER NINE
Although the man standing before us was definitely Triplet, I couldn’t help but stare at him in disbelief. Triplet was a former NHA member and a good friend of my late dad, who later became one of my best allies after I started my own superhero career. Triplet was also a professional detective, using his intellect, skills, and powers to solve crimes that other people couldn’t. The two of us had worked together to solve a lot of cases and defeat many enemies, but it had been a long time since the last time we collaborated on anything. That was why seeing him here was quite a shock.
“Who are you?” said Strike, frowning at Triplet. “I don’t think we’ve met.”
“Mieko Hiro,” said Triplet without missing a beat. He held up a business card that was hard to read from a distance. “Better known as Triplet. I run Triple Eye Investigations. I take on cases from clients of all kinds, but specialize in solving cases associated with superhumans.”
Strike snapped his fingers. “Hey, I think I remember you now. You helped the INJ prove that Samurai didn’t murder that mayor in Denver a few months back, right? Slime was telling me about you, but I wasn’t there when it happened so I never met you.”
“Right,” said Triplet, nodding. “Not a particularly tough case to solve, but the INJ paid me well for it, so I can’t complain. You’re Strike, the leader of the New Heroes, correct?”
Strike nodded. “How do you know my name when we’ve never met before?”
Triplet grunted. “I do my research. Also, you were all over the news today after saving that airplane full of people. That was quite the display of power for a superhuman your age.”
I found it amusing that even Triplet, a guy who was hardly
mainstream, knew who Strike was despite never having met him. I guess Strike really was more famous than me, which for some reason made me feel a little jealous, even though fame wasn’t something I was particularly interested in. At least I knew Triplet better than Strike did, anyway.
“Save the introductions for later,” I said. I stepped forward to spread my light more and make it easier for us to see Triplet. “Trip, what are you doing down here? I thought you were in New York. What are you doing in Showdown, Virginia, of all places?”
Triplet holstered his gun, but he didn’t relax. Then again, he was never really relaxed whenever I saw him. He was probably too paranoid to be relaxed.
“I prefer cases in NYC, true, but sometimes my work takes me out of the city,” said Triplet. He put his hands into the pockets of his overcoat, but he still looked alert and on edge. “This particular case was from someone who had heard of my services and needed me to investigate a case they didn’t trust anyone else to investigate.”
I raised an eyebrow. “I don’t suppose you would mind telling us who your client is, would you?”
Triplet smiled softly. “Perhaps you’ve forgotten, but I don’t reveal my clients’ identities to anyone. Protecting their privacy, which I excel at, in case you didn’t know.”
“Right,” I said. “I forgot. Can you tell us more about this case you’re investigating, then?”
“Sure,” said Triplet. He looked around again suddenly. “I’ll keep it quick because I don’t know when another one of those cyborgs will attack.”
“Another one?” said Strike. He gestured at the dead tiger. “Are you saying there are more of these monsters down here?”
“Down here, up there, all over,” Triplet replied. “Samuel Longworth appears to be a very prolific mad scientist. I’ve run into his type more than once over the years and they have a tendency to make tons and tons of experiments like this.”
I gulped. I mean, I’d faced far worse than cyborg animals before and won, but that tiger had been tougher than I expected and it could have easily killed us if it wasn’t for my powers and the timely intervention of Triplet. “Okay, Trip. You tell us why you’re here and we’ll tell you why we’re here.”
