by Lucas Flint
“You mean you knew Grandfather back in the old days?” I said. “Impossible.”
“Not as much as you think,” said Chaser. “I am nearly as old as Gregory, just off by a couple of years or so. I gave him the Trickshot Watch when he told me he was thinking about becoming a superhero. That is a fact.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “No way. You’re lying.”
“I’m not ‘lying,’ Trickshot,” said Chaser. “You know I’m not. Ask yourself, if Icon did not originally own the Trickshot Watch, then how were we able to capture your grandfather? Why did we capture him in the first place, if not to take back what was rightfully ours in the first place?”
I put a hand on my forehead, trying to understand what Chaser was telling me. “If the Trickshot Watch originally belonged to you guys, then why didn’t you just ask Grandfather to give it back to you, rather than kidnapping him like this?”
“Because Gregory had no intention of giving it back,” said Chaser. “He wanted to keep it forever, even though he had originally accepted it on the basis that we could take it back anytime we wanted. That is why we kidnapped him ten years ago, because it was the only way we’d get the Trickshot Watch back. Sadly, Gregory managed to figure out how to send the Trickshot Watch to you anyway, which is how you got involved in all of this.”
“Why did you give Grandfather the Trickshot Watch in the first place?” I said. “And why didn’t he want to give you guys the Watch back, if he was just borrowing it?”
The computer screen seemed to glow a little brighter. “Because we wanted to test the Watch and see its full capabilities. I suppose we could have just tested it in a lab somewhere, but I’ve always had a preference for testing things out in the real world, where you can see real results from your efforts. By having Gregory use the Trickshot Watch in his superhero career, we had hoped to find out the mysteries behind it, given its alien origins.”
“But there’s more to it than that,” I said. “Right? Otherwise, Grandfather wouldn’t have refused to give it back to you guys.”
“Correct,” said Chaser. “You see, Gregory discovered what our actual plans for the Trickshot Watch were and he … disagreed with them, to put it mildly. He realized how destructive the Trickshot Watch could be in the wrong hands, so he did everything in his power to keep it ‘safe’ from us.” A low chuckle came from the screen. “But what Gregory did not realize at the time was that Icon always gets what it wants eventually. He could have hidden the Trickshot Watch on the moon and we would have still gotten it. But he was quite persistent, I’ll give him that much, and we did waste a lot of time and agents trying to capture him until we finally succeeded ten years ago. And with luck, Gregory will never see the light of day ever again.”
“What are your real plans for the Trickshot Watch, if scientific progress isn’t what you really want?” I said. “Were you planning to mass produce the Trickshot Watch and make a fortune? Because if so, then you’re in luck, because the last guy who wanted to do that is dead, so the market is wide open.”
“Profit is hardly my main interest,” said Chaser. “To the extent that it is an interest at all, it is only because I need to make a profit in order to keep Icon afloat. But if profit was all I wanted, I would simply increase production on Power and distribute it even more than I already have. Icon has barely tapped the true profit potential of Power. With just a few simple adjustments, I could increase production of Power tenfold and see profits rise twenty times and yet still not make even as much money as I could if I cared for that sort of thing.”
“If not money, then what?” I said. “Power?”
“Close, but not quite,” said Chaser. “Power—not the drug, but the concept—is indeed one of my goals, but even that isn’t what I really want. And I am not so sure I should tell you, because you don’t need to know it. You just need to know that I want the Watch and that I will give you your grandfather in return if you give it back to me.”
I covered the Trickshot Watch protectively. If money and power were not Chaser’s goals, then I had no idea what he could possibly want. Whatever it was, I had a feeling that it was not entirely noble, so it would be better to figure out a way to keep it from him.
“You say you knew Grandfather,” I said. “I take it Icon has been around for a while?”
“Certainly,” said Chaser. “Icon is an old, old organization, stretching back hundreds of years, well before I was born.”
“You mean you didn’t found it?” This question came from Christina, who sounded as shocked as I felt at this revelation.
“Yes,” said Chaser. “But my family, the Chaser family, has always played a crucial role. My great-grandfather, Roland Chaser I, was the first Superior, being handed the role after the establishment of the organization’s modern form. Icon has taken many different forms over the years, adapting to the times and places in which its members find themselves, but always it has moved toward its founders’ ultimate goal, albeit slowly due to the immense scope of the project.”
“And what ‘project’ would that be?” I said. “World domination?”
“That’s another thing you don’t need to know,” said Chaser. “You only need to know that I’ve been redirecting Icon’s resources toward my own plans for quite a while. I haven’t forgotten the founders’ mission yet. It’s simply been put on hold for the past fifty years while I work hard at my own goal, which is nearing completion even as we speak.”
“What an irresponsible waste of resources,” said Uncle Josh, shaking his head. “I am glad that Pinnacle isn’t run by someone nearly as shortsighted as you.”
“Shortsighted? Hardly,” said Chaser. “Should everything work out the way I want it to, it will be Ephraim who will be seen as shortsighted. But I’ve spoken at length about this enough. The time for your decision is now, Trickshot. Either give me the Watch or watch as your grandfather dies a horrible death. The choice is yours.”
My hands curled into fists. Normally, my mind would have been blown by all of these revelations, but at the moment I was too distracted by our current situation to really think them through deeply. I needed to find some way to save Grandfather while keeping the Trickshot Watch away from Chaser. And yet Chaser had obviously planned this out well enough to put me in a situation where he would get the Trickshot Watch no matter what.
“Well?” said Chaser. “I’m awaiting your response patiently, Jack. Will you give me the Watch or not?”
I looked at Uncle Josh and Christina briefly, hoping that one of them might have a plan. But they looked just as stuck as me. Christina still looked too afraid to even speak to Chaser, while Uncle Josh seemed as frustrated about this situation as I was, if not more so. He was probably angry that we had not been able to retrieve the Atlas Armor, too, which was something that had crossed my mind, though I didn’t care about it as much as he did.
“Make your choice,” said Chaser. “Do it soon. The longer you go without saying anything, the more I will consider your silence a yes.”
I opened my mouth to reply, but at that moment, the Trickshot Watch started beeping and its surface started glowing. I looked at the Trickshot Watch, as did Uncle Josh and Christina, and I thought that Chaser was looking at it as well.
“What is this?” said Chaser, who sounded genuinely astonished. “What are you doing?”
“Nothing,” I said. “I—”
All of a sudden, through a thick fog of static, I heard Grandfather’s voice say, “Don’t do it, Jack! Don’t give him … don’t give him the Watch!”
“Grandfather?” I said in shock. “Is that you?”
“Don’t give it to him!” said Grandfather again, his voice clearer now. “Don’t worry about me! Just make sure it doesn’t—”
Grandfather’s voice was abruptly cut off, like his phone’s battery had died.
“Grandfather?” I said. “Grandfather, are you still there?”
“He is not,” said Chaser. “Not anymore, anyway. I managed to
figure out how he was contacting you and shut him off before he could blab some more. Holding a very technical man like him prisoner has been … tricky, to say the least.”
“You did that because you didn’t want me to listen to Grandfather,” I said. “Let me guess, you were never planning to let me, Uncle Josh, and Christina go even if I gave you the Watch, right? You were planning to kill us as soon as the Watch was out of my hands, because then we would be powerless to stop you. You wouldn’t even give us Grandfather.”
Chaser was silent for a long time, but when he spoke again, he sounded even colder than before. “You have found me out. I suppose you aren’t interested in giving up the Watch anymore, then?”
“Absolutely not,” I said, shaking my head. “You’re going to have to pry it from my cold, dead hands.”
I expected Chaser to start screaming and threatening me with all kinds of horrible things, because that was what supervillains usually did whenever you thwarted or figured out their master plan.
Instead, however, Chaser said, in a calm voice, “I suspected something like this would happen. Gregory wasn’t ever one to comply with those he deemed ‘supervillains,’ even when it made sense to do so. I should have known better than to expect you to be any different. I guess the apple really doesn’t fall far from the tree.”
“And?” I said. “What are you going to do about it?”
“Nothing.”
There was silence for a moment until what Chaser said actually sank in.
“Wait, what?” I said. “Nothing? Are you just going to … to let us go?”
“Obviously not,” said Chaser. “I’m no fool. I’m not going to let you three get away that easily, just because you have rejected my offer.”
“Then what did you mean by doing ‘nothing’ to stop us?” I said, tilting my head to the side. “You weren’t trolling us, were you?”
“I do not ‘troll,’ as kids these days say,” said Chaser. “But just because I am not going to do anything does not mean that I will not have one of my agents kill you instead.”
All of a sudden, a portion of the wall underneath the computer monitor slid open, revealing a pitch black dark room on the other side. Even with my night vision goggles, it was hard to tell what was in there, but I could very clearly hear two large, heavy metal boots clanking against the floor. Clank, clank, clank went the boots, which was a sound I wouldn’t ordinarily find frightening, but under the circumstances, I could not help but feel a little tense. I pulled three disks out of my pouch and held them close to my face, while Christina extended two energy ropes from her hands and Uncle Josh raised his gun, aiming it at the dark room and the clanking sound coming from within.
Then a figure who I had never seen before stepped out of the room. He was sleek and tall, with shiny green-and-black armor that covered his whole body from head to foot. His face plate was a shiny chrome color, reflecting the lights above like crystal. It made him look almost alien. At any rate, I found the lack of a face disturbing, kind of like Holes, except Holes didn’t look like he walked straight out of a science fiction horror movie.
“Who is this?” I said to Chaser. “Another one of your agents?”
Uncle Josh, on the other hand, looked almost as pale as Christina now. “Jack, I know what that is. I saw it before the last time I was here.”
“You’ve seen that thing?” I said, looking over my shoulder at Uncle Josh. “What is it?”
“Allow me to introduce it,” said Chaser before Uncle Josh could respond. “This is the full and complete Atlas Armor, the newest and greatest weapon built by Icon’s greatest minds. And Atlas here will crush you like an ant.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
As soon as Chaser finished his sentence, Atlas suddenly flew toward us on rocket boots. He pulled his fist back and slammed it into my face, knocking me flat on my back onto the floor, where I lay stunned from the blow.. I looked up to see Atlas raise his fists above his head to bring them down on me, but then Christina’s energy ropes wrapped around his arms and jerked them down, nearly causing Atlas to lose his footing.
“Jack, get him!” Christina shouted. “Now, while I have him distracted!”
Shaking my head, I jumped to my feet and aimed a punch at Atlas’ mask. But he immediately flew upward into the air, with my fist completely missing where his head had been mere moments before. Christina yelped as she was yanked into the air with Atlas, screaming for help as he flew around the room.
“Christina!” I shouted. “Watch out!”
But I didn’t think Christina heard me because she was screaming so loudly. Atlas suddenly made a sharp turn and somehow shook Christina’s energy ropes off him, sending her flying uncontrollably toward a wall at a shocking speed.
I flew into the air and caught Christina in midair before she could smash into the wall. We then landed on the floor on the other side of the chamber, though Christina continued to hold onto me as if she was still flying about uncontrollably.
“You okay, Christina?” I said, looking at her with some concern, because she was shaking slightly in my arms.
Christina shook her head and pushed me away. “Yeah, I’m fine. Now put me down or I’ll slug you.”
I let Christina down, but then turned around in time to see Atlas hovering on the other side of the room, dodging Uncle Josh’s bullets with ease. Uncle Josh, however, kept shooting, not even remotely afraid of his opponent, even though it was pretty obvious to me that Uncle Josh was completely outmatched here.
“What’s he doing?” said Christina. “Does he really think that he’ll be able to shoot that monster with his gun?”
“I’m not sure,” I said, “but I’m going to go help him anyway. You try to find a way out of here, okay?”
Before Christina could voice the obvious objection on her mind, I flew toward Uncle Josh, who had run out of bullets as soon as I took off. He then threw the gun at Atlas, who dodged the thrown gun easily and rushed down toward Uncle Josh. He stopped in front of Uncle Josh and grabbed him by the neck, lifting him off his feet with one hand.
“Hey!” I shouted. “Let go of my uncle, you creep!”
I pulled out a disk from my pouch and threw it at Atlas’ hand. The disk struck head on, causing Atlas to let go of Uncle Josh, who fell to the floor with a gasp, clutching his no-doubt aching throat. But I didn’t pay attention to him, because I body-slammed Atlas, sending him flying across the room until he crashed into one of the marble columns holding the ceiling up. The crash seemed to have stunned Atlas for a moment, so I looked down at Uncle Josh, who was slowly sitting up, though still rubbing his neck.
“Uncle Josh, how are you doing?” I said. “Can you breathe?”
“I … I think so,” said Uncle Josh in a slightly hoarse voice. “If you hadn’t saved me, he would have broken my neck in just a few seconds. Haven’t fought someone that strong in a long time.”
“It’s the beauty of the Atlas Armor,” said Chaser, who sounded almost gleeful. “As I was promised, it enhances the strength of the user to superhuman levels. And that’s but the most basic application of its power. You haven’t seen anything yet.”
“Well, I’m not that impressed,” I said. I gestured at Atlas. “Because I just broke your new toy with a body slam.”
“Broke?” said Chaser. “You barely even scratched it.”
I heard the sound of metal scraping against rock and looked back over at the marble column. Atlas was slowly but surely pulling himself out of the marble column and, although he had yet to speak a word, I sensed that he was incredibly pissed off at what I did.
“Uh oh,” I said. “That’s not good.” I looked at Uncle Josh. “Uncle, you and Christina should stay out of this fight. If Atlas is as strong as Chaser says it is, then I’m the only one here who can really give it a fight. You two should just try to find a way out of here, maybe try to force the door open so we can escape.”
“I won’t argue against that,” said Uncle Josh, “though something tells
me Christina won’t be entirely happy to hear that she’s not going to fight.”
Christina suddenly appeared beside us, a winning smile on her face. “Did someone say I don’t have to fight the crazy man in the power armor? If so, I’m definitely in and you can’t change my mind.”
“You don’t have to be so eager, you know,” I said.
Christina opened her mouth to respond, but then Uncle Josh suddenly shouted, “Watch out!”
I looked over in time to see Atlas rocketing toward me. He swung both of his fists at me, but I caught them both and we were both soon stuck in a struggle session, pushing back against each other as hard as we could. I heard Uncle Josh and Christina running away toward the door, but I didn’t pay any attention to them because all of my attention was focused on keeping this dude from overwhelming me.
Chaser wasn’t joking about the Atlas Armor granting its user superhuman strength. If anything, Atlas seemed to be even stronger than me, though that could have just been my fatigue starting to catch up to me. In any case, I wasn’t sure if I would be able to win this fight on strength alone.
And again, I hated how I couldn’t even see his face. That stupid faceplate was coming off at some point, probably after I finished beating him into a tin can. Or maybe I would wait until after I kicked Chaser’s butt, because I didn’t have any intention of letting that jerk get off scott free.
Suddenly, Atlas’ rocket boots kicked in. He flew over me, but without letting go of me, and he landed and threw me head over heels across the room. I spun through the air for a moment before I regained control of my trajectory and stopped in midair before one of the columns, turning around just in time to see Atlas rocketing toward me at a speed almost too fast for me to keep up with.
But I flew up at the last minute and, as Atlas flew by underneath, I slammed my feet down on his back. Atlas crashed into the floor below like a meteor, leaving a huge crater shaped vaguely like him. That attack would have killed an ordinary man, but to my horror, Atlas pushed himself up out of the crater and looked up at me with that same unnerving face plate of his, as if to ask if that was all I had.