by Lucas Flint
That by itself would not have been so bad, if I hadn’t seen murder in that man’s eyes.
CHAPTER FOUR
The rest of the date went well. No creepy homeless spies with murder in their eyes bothered us. It was just me and Greta, talking and getting to know each other better. Despite my earlier fears, Greta did not seem as annoyed with my lateness as I thought; if anything, she seemed even more relieved than me, perhaps because we’d both been looking forward to this date for so long that we were glad we were doing it, even if I was a bit late.
Granted, when we went our separate ways that evening, we didn’t kiss or anything like that. My older brother, James, probably would have kissed her in my circumstances, but all I did was just say good bye to her and head home on my bike. James might have been able to get away with kissing girls on the first date, but I wasn’t James and I didn’t want to risk possibly messing up something good I had going with Greta by moving too quickly. I wasn’t sure if our successful first date meant that Greta and I were now officially together or if we’d need to go on more dates before we could start calling each other boyfriend and girlfriend, but that didn’t matter, because I was on cloud nine the whole way home, thinking about how great the date had gone and how amazing Greta was. The way I saw it, if all our dates went that well, then Greta would probably be begging me to marry her by the end of the year; in fact, Greta and I had already scheduled our next date, which was part of the reason I was so happy.
That particular piece of knowledge had been enough to almost make me forget all about that creepy homeless dude or about that mysterious sleepiness that came over me and Greta in the cafe suddenly. Almost, because there was no way I could ever forget someone that creepy. I was sure that he had been real, even though he had seemed to vanish into thin air. I didn’t know who he was or what he wanted, but I did know that he was still out there somewhere, maybe even watching me as I rode my bike home.
That’s why I kept looking around as I biked, because I was worried that he might be following me. I didn’t see any creepy homeless dudes with bags under their eyes the entire trip back home, however, which should have helped me relax, but I didn’t. I was convinced that he was real and that he was after me. It wasn’t very likely that he could be following me without my knowledge, but it was impossible to truly relax until I passed through the gate in front of my house, parked my bike near the front door, and went inside, closing the door firmly behind me on my way in. Even so, I half-expected to hear the homeless guy knocking on the door incessantly or perhaps even break it down through sheer brute force.
But I forgot all about that when Mom poked her head out of the living room and said, “Alex! I’m so glad to see you. Your father and I saw a report about your fight with that weird robot guy on TV and we were really concerned about you. I almost called you, but Jack convinced me that you were okay.”
“Eh, it wasn’t a big deal, Mom,” I said with a shrug, dropping my backpack on the floor. “Lord Mechanika was just a pissed off Rubberman fan boy. Not much of a real threat, not like Fro-Zen was, anyway.”
“I know, but one of the reporters says that you were picked up and almost squeezed to death,” said Mom. “He also said that you saved a girl named Charlotte Simpson, who is the daughter of Myster, if I remember correctly.”
I looked at Mom in surprise. “Did the reporter really say that?”
“No,” said Mom, shaking her head. She appeared in the entryway to the living room, wearing an apron around her waist that told me that she must have been in the middle of cooking when the report of my fight with Lord Mechanika came on. “I’m a big fan of Myster and know everything about him. Well, I’m a fan of a lot of superheroes, of course, but still. I follow Myster on social media and he posts pictures of himself and Charlotte sometimes. He’s such a good father, that Myster is.”
I blinked, but I wasn’t that surprised, to tell you the truth. Mom was always a big superhero fan and was the most supportive member of my family of my job as Rubberman’s sidekick. Don’t get me wrong, Dad and James support my job, too, but Mom is the only one who is really enthusiastic about it. I think she hopes that I might go on and become a superhero in my own right someday, which was something I was thinking about, even though I was only really interested in saving up enough money for a car right now.
“I also heard that Myster and Rubberman went to the Elastic Cave together,” said Mom. “Is that true? I wasn’t sure, because it didn’t sound like something Rubberman would do, but—”
“It’s true,” I said. “Myster is here in Golden City trying to locate an assassin known as ZZZ.”
Mom covered her mouth with both of her hands. “An assassin? Here? In Golden City? Who is he after?”
“Rubberman,” I replied. “But don’t worry, Mom. Rubberman is safe. He knows all about this guy and, with Myster’s help, should be able to keep himself safe from ZZZ, especially inside the Elastic Cave.”
“I’m not worried about Rubberman, to be honest,” said Mom. “I’m more concerned about you. I don’t want you getting targeted by an assassin, even if you do have powers.”
I shrugged. “I’m just a sidekick. I don’t think ZZZ will go after me, not unless I get in his way, maybe.”
“Alex, I know that, but I still don’t want you to put your life in danger,” said Mom. “I think it might be wise to stay away from the Elastic Cave for a few days or however long it may take for Rubberman and Myster to track down this ZZZ character. You’d be much safer that way.”
“Mom, I appreciate the concern, but it’s going to be all right,” I said. “The Elastic Cave is one of the safest places in the whole city. And Rubberman has improved the security system since the last time someone broke into it, so we really don’t have anything to worry about.”
“I suppose you have a point,” said Mom. “Still, I can’t stop worrying about you whenever you go to the Elastic Cave. I know you’ve come a long way in your training as a sidekick, but you’re still just a teenage boy and—”
“Mom, I said it will be fine,” I interrupted her again. “You need to stop worrying so much. I’ll be perfectly fine. Honest.”
Mom pursed her lips, but thankfully, she nodded and said, “Okay. But I’m going to let your father know about this. Jack went to bed early because he had a long day, but when I go to bed later, I’ll let him know what you told me. He deserves to know that much, at least.”
I nodded. “Okay, sure. Anyway, I’m hungry. What’s for dinner?”
“There’s chicken and rice in the fridge, which you can pop into the microwave if you’re hungry,” said Mom, gesturing in the direction of the kitchen. “Jack and I had an early dinner, because, like I said, he was tired after a long day of work and wanted to go to bed early, though he did see the news report about your fight with that robot bad guy.”
“All right,” I said. I rubbed my stomach. “I’m really hungry after a long day myself and chicken and rice sounds like it will hit the spot.”
I walked past Mom, but then she put a hand on my shoulder and said, “Wait, Alex, I forgot, how did your date with that girl go? Greta, I think her name was?”
I stopped and looked at Mom. “Oh, it went pretty well. I was late, on account of my fight with Lord Mechanika, but Greta wasn’t very upset. We have another date scheduled for next week.”
“I can’t believe it,” said Mom with a slight sniffle. “You’re growing up so fast. Seems like it was just yesterday that you were crawling on the floor in your diapers, yet now you have a job and a girlfriend. I feel so old.”
“Mom, please don’t cry,” I said. “It’s fine. Seriously. I know how you feel and you don’t need to cry about it.”
“O-Okay,” said Mom, who looked like she was about to burst into tears anyway. “I’ll go and tell Jack about that ZZZ guy. You can go and eat.”
Mom quickly made her way up the stairs, but I still heard her start crying tears of joy when she was about halfway up the steps. I shook my head, eve
n though I knew that Mom had a tendency to act this way whenever I did something ‘grown up.’ It seemed odd to me that she would cry about the fact that I had a girlfriend but acted only mildly disturbed about the fact that a famous assassin was gunning after my boss. Women just don’t make sense, especially mothers.
But I didn’t care about that. I went to the kitchen, grabbed some chicken and rice from the fridge, popped it in the microwave for a few minutes, and then sat down at the kitchen table to eat. The smell of chicken and rice made my stomach growl, so I immediately began stuffing my face with the stuff.
That was when I saw a shadow move across the window of the back door. It was brief—probably less than a second—but I froze with food in my mouth because it didn’t look like a bird flying by. It looked like the shadow of a person, like someone was standing outside, but both Mom and Dad were inside, while James was back at college. Either my eyes were playing tricks on me again or there was someone standing outside the kitchen door for some unknown reason.
I almost called for Mom, but I stopped myself before a word could escape my mouth. What if it turned out to just be a bird or a cat or something like that? There was no reason to raise what might amount to a false alarm. And if it was a person and that person had hostile intentions for us, I was better equipped to handle them anyway, with my training and my eye beams that could make short work of any criminal.
Rising from my seat, I made my way across the kitchen in three long strides and then peered out the window at the backyard. The plot of earth where Mom’s flower garden bloomed during the summer was barren, the apple tree was leafless, and the swimming pool was empty; I saw nothing to indicate that anyone had been outside all day, much less that someone had been out there just that moment. Yet I was sure I had seen a mysterious shadow of some sort, even if I didn’t quite know who or what it belonged to.
Bracing myself for whatever was out there, I opened the kitchen door and stepped out onto the back deck of the house. I had no idea what to expect; maybe someone swinging a knife at me or something to take me out before I could tell Mom or Dad that someone was out here.
Yet when I looked around, I saw no sign that anyone had been here. The backyard was totally empty and it wasn’t big enough for someone to hide in. A cold wind blew through, making me shiver in my T-shirt, but I didn’t go back inside. Something was off, but I wasn’t sure why.
That was when a sudden, intense drowsiness came over me. I stumbled, nearly falling over onto the deck, but I managed to grab onto the door jamb for support. Even so, I could barely keep my eyes open; my lids kept trying to close shut, making it difficult for me to remain conscious. And this wasn’t the accumulation tiredness of the day hitting me all at once; no, this was exactly like that same strange tiredness that Greta and I experienced back in the Golden City Cafe, only it felt even worse than before, as if I was being intentionally targeted by the sensation.
Too tired to stand, I slowly slid onto the floor of the deck. I struggled to stay awake, but even with a cold wind blowing, it was like pushing a boulder uphill. All I wanted to do was go … to … sleep …
Footsteps across the wooden deck entered my ears and a second later a man appeared in my view. With my consciousness slipping, I could just barely see him, but of what little I could see of him, I realized who he was: The homeless guy from the Golden City Cafe.
He stood over me, looking down at me with bags under his eyes. He yawned, like he hadn’t gotten much sleep, and then smiled at me with a sleepy smile.
“Tired?” said the man. He sounded like he had just woken up from a long, comfortable nap. “You look sleepy.”
“Who … are … you?” I said. Each word was slightly slurred when it came from my mouth, mostly because I was already half-asleep.
“Who I am is unimportant,” said the man. He pulled a gun out of his ragged jacket and aimed it directly at my temple. “What is important, however, is taking you out. It’s nothing personal; just business, you understand.”
Despite my exhaustion, my eyes widened as I realized who this man was. “You must be … ZZZ …”
The man chuckled. “Figured it out, did you? You’re smarter than you look. Not that that will help you; one bullet to the head and you will sleep forever. Good night.”
CHAPTER FIVE
It was no use. I was too sleepy to get up and knock the gun out of ZZZ’s hands or try to wrestle it from his hands. Nor could I dodge it; even if I could move my body, I would probably be too sluggish to avoid a bullet at close range.
Yet I was still conscious, conscious enough to use my eye beams. I didn’t know why ZZZ had yet to pull the trigger, but maybe he was waiting for his powers to make me go to sleep so he could finish me off without having to worry about anything going wrong. In my droopy state, I recalled that Rubberman had said that ZZZ preferred to kill his targets when they were asleep, which meant I had only seconds before sleep claimed me and I was left completely defenseless.
But it was so hard to focus on gathering up even a little bit of energy for even a small blast. I didn’t have a lot of experience shooting my eye beams when tired; with my eyelids constantly threatening to close, it was a battle just to stay awake. Through my slightly burred vision, I saw ZZZ smirking at me, like he thought he had this job in the bag, but I wasn’t about to let him win. If he killed me here, what was to stop him from killing Mom and Dad, too, especially if they came down and saw him standing over my body and tried to stop him from fleeing?
My eyes began to burn with energy, but at the same time, darkness was rapidly gathering around the corners of my eyes. I didn’t have much time left; I just needed enough energy to knock the gun out of ZZZ’s hands.
“Go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep little baby,” said ZZZ in a soft singsong voice. “Your mommy’s gone away and your daddy’s gonna stay.”
“N-No …” I said, struggling to stay awake. “Not … yet …”
ZZZ frowned. “A strong one, aren’t you? But don’t worry. Everyone falls under my spell eventually. And when they do, they never wake up again … not in this life, anyway.”
The darkness was nearly complete, but at the same time, my eyes were burning with suppressed energy. With a yell, I unleashed an eye beam blast at ZZZ’s hand.
The blast struck ZZZ’s gun hand, causing ZZZ to cry out in pain and drop his gun onto the deck, which clattered against the wood underneath us. At the same time, the drowsiness which had threatened to overwhelm me vanished immediately, which meant that my attack had also shattered ZZZ’s spell over me.
Rising to my feet, I looked at ZZZ. He was clutching his hand, which had a nasty burn mark where my beams had struck it. He no longer looked nearly as sleepy as he had just seconds ago; his eyes were wide open and he was muttering the foulest curses under his breath. He seemed too distracted by the pain in his hand to fight, so I fired another blast at him.
But ZZZ did a backflip over the side of the deck, avoiding my eye beams. My eye beams blasted apart the railing, sending chunks of wood flying everywhere, but I had completely missed ZZZ. I ran over to the edge of the deck just in time to see ZZZ running across the backyard toward the fence. Despite how tired he had looked, he ran fast, even faster than me, but I tried to shoot him with my eye beams again anyway. Unfortunately, ZZZ jumped at the last second, narrowly avoiding the eye beams. He grabbed the top of the fence and, in one smooth motion, threw his whole body over the side.
Determined not to let him get away, I jumped off the deck, landing hard on the crackly, dead grass before I dashed toward the fence. Unlike ZZZ, I couldn’t just vault myself over the fence; however, I did grab the top of the fence and pull my head up over the top to see if I could spot ZZZ.
But to my shock, ZZZ was nowhere to be seen. I looked this way and that, trying to spot him in my neighbor’s backyard, but ZZZ seemed to have vanished into thin air. I was starting to think that ZZZ must have also had a teleportation or invisibility power of some sort, because it was the only expl
anation for how he was able to seemingly appear and disappear at will.
I considered jumping over the fence anyway and searching my neighbor’s backyard for any hiding places where ZZZ might be, but decided against it. If ZZZ was indeed hiding, then he had the element of surprise on his side and I wasn’t naive enough to believe that he needed a gun to kill me; he just needed to jump me once and I’d be down for good. Plus, I knew who this particular neighbor was and he wasn’t the kind of guy who took very kindly to trespassers on his property. Let’s just say that I learned that lesson when I sneaked into his backyard to get a lost baseball, only to end up with his gun in my face.
Shaking my head, I let go of the fence and landed on my feet. I was tired again; not sleepy tired, but the kind of tired I felt whenever I fought someone. I turned around to go back into the house when Mom and Dad both burst out of the house and onto the deck, their eyes wild with worry and fear. Dad, in particular, looked pretty crazy, because his hair was messed up from sleeping in bed and he was just wearing his boxers without even a shirt.
“Alex, we heard something blowing up out here,” said Dad as soon as he spotted me. “What happened … the deck!”
Too late, I remembered that Dad had personally built this deck years ago when we first moved into this house. Granted, the damage I had done didn’t seem too severe, but given how good condition Dad kept the deck in over the years, seeing even just a portion of it blown to kingdom come must have shook him pretty hard.
“I can explain,” I said, raising my hands.
Dad, however, didn’t look like he was interested in hearing any sort of explanations. He just sat down in the nearest lawn chair, clutching his heart like he was dying, while Mom just stood there, her hands on her cheeks, looking from Dad to the destroyed deck railing with deep worry and confusion. It wouldn’t be long, I knew, before Dad recovered and started yelling at me for destroying his deck, but hopefully Mom would be willing to listen to me at least.