by Lucas Flint
“They made you out of stern stuff, didn’t they?” I said. “And what are you waiting for? I’m right here. Are you waiting for me to come to you or—”
Atlas held up both of his hands toward me. The hands suddenly unleashed a giant blast of energy at me, which struck me in the chest so hard I slammed into the ceiling and bounced off it. I landed on the floor hard enough to crack it, where I lay dazed from the blast and barely able to understand where I was or what just happened to me.
But then Atlas appeared over me, grabbed me by my cape, and once again threw me across the room. This time, he threw me at one of the columns and I hit it so hard that I actually smashed through it and landed on the other side.
“Now, now, Atlas,” said Chaser, whose voice sounded somewhat distant now for some reason, as if there was something wrong with my ears, “I don’t want you tearing up my personal quarters. Knock down too many of those columns and the entire ceiling will collapse on us.”
I found it odd how Chaser spoke to Atlas like he was a little kid who needed to be reminded that it was his nap time, but I didn’t pay attention to that. I just sat up, groaning at the pain in my back. I felt something hot running down the side of my face and, touching it, realized I was bleeding from the forehead. It was kind of amazing that I had sustained such minor injuries despite all of the punishment I’d taken, which was a testament to the durability power I’d inherited from the suit.
But then a scream of terror made me forget all about my own pain. Looking toward the door, I saw that Atlas was flying toward Uncle Josh and Christina, who seemed to have had no luck in opening the door over the last several seconds. There was no way I would be able to catch up with Atlas before he reached them, but I didn’t need to. I drew three Trickshot disks from my pouch and hurled them at the floor.
The Trickshot disks bounced off the floor and immediately began bouncing all around the room faster than even my eyes could follow. Despite the seeming randomness of their bouncing, all of the Trickshot disks had the same destination: Atlas, who was closing in on Uncle Josh and Christina fast.
One of the disks struck the sole of Atlas’ rocket boot, sending him swerving off to the side unexpectedly. Another one struck him in the face and the third and final disk hit him in the back of the head. The three blows had slowed him down, especially the first one, giving me enough time to fly over to and catch up with Atlas.
Flying over Atlas, I grabbed him by the shoulders and, spinning around, threw him toward the other side of the room as hard as I could. Atlas spun crazily through the air for a moment before he crashed into and through the floor for several feet until he came to a screeching stop in front of Chaser’s computer monitor, where he lay stunned from the impact of my throw.
Yet I wasn’t done with him. I flew over to Atlas, who was struggling to get to his feet, and as soon as I landed, I punched him in the face and knocked him down once again. As soon as he fell, I kicked Atlas in the gut and then grabbed him by the neck and slammed him against the wall as hard as I could.
Pulling back my fist, I said, “Good night, you jerk.”
Atlas said nothing to that, but before I could finish him off with a punch to the face, a small hissing sound came from his faceplate, which slowly flipped open. It flipped open like a door, which meant I didn’t get to see the face behind it until it fully opened.
As soon as I saw the face behind the mask, I froze. I couldn’t believe what my eyes showed me. It had to be a lie. Maybe I was going crazy from the lack of sleep I’d gotten tonight. Or maybe I had actually died in the submarine explosion earlier and this was all just my last nightmare before I passed away from the injuries I received from the blast.
Because there was no way that Atlas was my grandfather, Gregory Matthew McDonald, the original Trickshot and defender of Rumsfeld, Texas.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
The face which had been hidden behind the Atlas face plate looked almost exactly like I remembered Grandfather looking, save that it was paler than usual and the mustache and beard were grown out more. But I couldn’t deny that I was looking at the face of my own grandfather, the very real face I had just been about to punch in like a piece of paper. His dull gray eyes looked at me with an expression I couldn’t read, though he didn’t seem conscious.
“Grandfather?” I said in a low voice. “Is that … is that you?”
Chaser suddenly spoke above me. “Why, yes, it is indeed Gregory Matthew McDonald, your grandfather and the man who gave you the Trickshot Watch in the first place.”
Against my will, I dropped my fist, unable to take my eyes off of Grandfather’s face. “You mean I was fighting Grandfather this entire time and I didn’t even know it?”
“Certainly,” said Chaser. “Why do you think both your grandfather and the Atlas Armor were missing? I wanted your grandfather to be wearing the Atlas Armor so that I would have someone equal to you in strength and ability to defend me. I thought Gregory would defeat you, given how he is more experienced and skilled than you, but I suppose even the Atlas Armor can’t entirely undo the effects of old age, eh?”
I was amazed that Grandfather was still breathing at all. I had beat on Atlas pretty hard, harder than I normally would against another human being. I guess that the only reason Grandfather wasn’t just smashed meat in a tin can at the moment was because the Atlas Armor was tough enough to absorb my punches, though given how tired Grandfather looked, perhaps the Armor wasn’t as sturdy as it looked.
I looked up at Chaser. “You jerk. You almost had me kill my own grandfather in cold blood and I didn’t even know it. You’re every bit the monster Christina said you are.”
“I am flattered,” said Chaser. “I didn’t make you do anything. I just pit you against an equally strong opponent, an opponent you easily overcame. Congratulations.”
“Congratulations?” I repeated. “Do you even realize what you just said?”
“I do,” said Chaser. “But I also know that you’re not in any position to act on your outrage.”
“What do you mean?” I said.
All of a sudden, Grandfather punched me in the gut with surprising strength. I gasped in pain and let go of Grandfather, who immediately lashed out with a kick to my chin. The blow sent me staggering backward, lights flashing in my eyes, while Grandfather advanced toward me with a slow but menacing gait.
“Grandfather, can’t you hear me?” I said, rubbing my chin where he had kicked me. “It’s me, Jack. Your grandson.”
“Don’t bother trying to talk to him,” said Chaser. “Gregory is entirely unaware of anything he’s doing. The Armor controls him now, and because I control the Armor, that means he won’t give up until you’ve been beaten into a fine pulp. It is what the Atlas Armor is designed to do, after all: protect me from threats to my life, such as you.”
I hated Chaser’s voice, but I was too hesitant to fight Grandfather. I knew I should have defended myself, even gone in for the kill, but I was now suddenly so worried about harming Grandfather that I wasn’t sure if I should try hitting him or not. Even if the Atlas Armor allowed him to take more pain than normal, I still didn’t like the idea of beating my own grandfather into submission.
“You are hesitating,” said Chaser. “Can’t fight your old man? I’m not surprised. Most people can’t fight their own family, certainly not to the death. Gregory would be reacting the same way if he still had his free will. Luckily for me, his free will is being suppressed by the Atlas Armor’s neurotechnology. He won’t remember killing you in cold blood, nor that you were unable to fight back against him, either.”
Chaser’s tone was mocking, but there was a lot of truth to what he just said. The thought of punching my own grandfather in the face or anywhere else on his body was repugnant to me. Whereas before I hadn’t cared if I killed or crippled Atlas, I now worried that I would kill my own grandfather if I wasn’t careful.
Then, all of a sudden, two energy ropes came out of nowhere and wrapped around Grandfath
er’s body. Grandfather came to a stop and looked down at the energy ropes in confusion before they suddenly constricted, making him actually cry out in pain.
“Grandfather!” I said. I looked at where the ropes had come from to see Christina holding them. “Christina, what are you doing here? I thought you and Uncle Josh were trying to open the door.”
“Oh, I gave up on that when it became clear that the door can’t be opened from the inside,” said Christina, though her voice was incredibly strained. “When I saw you were having trouble with this guy, I decided to help you instead, especially when I heard Chaser’s smug voice mocking you. Can’t stand it.”
“But—”
“Don’t argue with me,” Christina snapped. She nodded at the computer monitor. “Take out Chaser. I’ll hold Atlas down as long as I can, but he’s pretty strong and I’m not, so I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be able to hold him. If you can take out Chaser, then you can take out Atlas.”
I hesitated, but realized Christina was right. If I couldn’t bring myself to punch out Grandfather, then I would just have to take out the man who was controlling him: Roland Chaser himself, who was no doubt sitting behind the other side of that monitor feeling very smug about how he had managed to pull one over on me.
I nodded at Christina and flew over Grandfather, who whipped his head up to look at me as I passed by overhead, and toward Chaser’s computer monitor, which was glowing as brightly as ever.
“What are you doing?” said Chaser, a hint of fear in his voice. “Where are you going? Stay back, or I’ll—”
I didn’t get to hear what Chaser would do to me, because at that moment, I smashed into and through the computer monitor with a single punch. I crashed through the wires and electronic components in the monitor, tearing through it like I was rushing through the jungle. It was dark inside at first, until I suddenly burst out into a small room barely bigger than my own bedroom on the other side.
The room had the same concrete floors, ceiling, and walls as the rest of the chamber. It was mostly bare, save for various computer monitors which seemed to display different parts of Iconia, including the silent forest which Christina and I had made our way through earlier. I also spotted the smoking remains of Lab #5 on another monitor next to it, but my eyes were really drawn to the only other human being in the room other than myself.
Sitting in a chair was the weakest, most pathetic man I had ever laid my eyes on. He might have been in his late sixties, but he frankly looked more like he was in his late nineties. His limbs were thin, almost stick-like, while his skin was pulled across his face, showing his brittle skull. His eyes would have looked big in their sockets even if he hadn’t been wearing thick, horn-rimmed glasses, while his teeth seemed to be yellowing and brittle. He sat with a computer monitor hanging off an arm behind the chair in front of him, but the monitor immediately moved out of the way as soon as I landed, allowing me to face the man—who smelled like he hadn’t bathed in weeks—with nothing between us but a few feet of empty air.
“So,” I said, slowly rising to my full height. “This is really you, huh? The real Roland Chaser?”
Chaser’s eyes were wide with fear. He kept hitting a button on the arm of his chair over and over, but as far as I could tell, it didn’t do anything. Maybe it was supposed to send an SOS to his agents, though I didn’t think it would do him any use, given how he was probably going to be dead by the time the cavalry arrived.
“You’re pathetic,” I said. “Look at you. You look like how my grandma did when she was dying from cancer in her final years.”
Chaser stopped hitting the button. He didn’t even try to get out of his chair. Instead, he just glared at me with hateful, almost inhuman eyes, his small, thin hands shaking noticeably on his lap.
“My body may be frail, but I still have the intellect of a god,” said Chaser. He tapped the side of his head. “And in this world, that’s all that matters. It isn’t the physically strongest who rule, but the most intelligent. But I suppose a meat head like you just wouldn’t understand, now would you?”
I didn’t respond. I just walked up to Chaser and picked him up by his throat, raising him out of his chair. He gasped and kicked at me, but his feet were so weak that I barely even felt his kicks against my strong chest. It felt more like a soft, if not gentle, breeze, and I likely wouldn’t have noticed it at all if I wasn’t looking directly at him.
“Rant all you like about your ‘godly’ intellect,” I said. “Ain’t doing you much good without any air going into your lungs, huh?”
Chaser hissed at me. “Underestimate me at your own will, Jack. Underestimate me … and live with the consequences.”
“Buddy, I think you’ve got it backwards here,” I said. I poked his thin, weak chest with one of my fingers. “You underestimated me. That’s how I was able to get this far in your own base, because you didn’t realize that I’m no ordinary superhero. I’m Trickshot, grandson of the original Trickshot, and I’m going to end not just your life, but Icon’s as well.”
“Foolish,” said Chaser in a venomous tone. “Completely and utterly fool—”
Once again, I didn’t let Chaser finish his sentence. I just crushed his neck under my grasp, heard a soft snap, and then his body went limp in my grasp. His head lolled onto his shoulder and, though his eyes were still open, they were glazed over, a clear sign that all life had left his body and that Roland Chaser was no more.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
I dropped Chaser’s corpse onto his chair. He fell back onto it almost perfectly, sitting as close to upright as he could get, with his head lolling to the right. Indeed, if I hadn’t known any better, I would have assumed he was still alive, just maybe taking a nap in an awkward position or something. Then again, who takes naps with their eyes open?
Shaking my head, I just breathed a deep sigh of relief and rubbed my forehead. It took me a moment to realize it, but it was over. All of it. Chaser was dead. Without the Superior to lead it, Icon would eventually collapse on its own. But more importantly, without Chaser, that meant there was no one to control the Atlas Armor, which meant that Grandfather was finally free of his control. It meant that Grandfather would be able to come home with me and that my mission could be called successful.
All of a sudden, I heard a loud ringing noise coming from my pocket. I fished my phone out of my pocket and saw that I had a call coming from Uncle Josh. Seemed odd to me he would call me when I was so close by, but I was so relieved by Chaser’s death that I didn’t question it.
“Uncle Josh, guess what?” I said as soon as I answered the phone. “Chaser’s dead! I killed him! Uh, I mean—”
“He’s dead?” said Uncle Josh, who sounded genuinely surprised. “Really? Are you sure?”
“Absolutely,” I said. “I’m looking at his corpse right now. Broke his neck. He was a skinny little thing for sure, so he wasn’t that hard to kill.”
“Impressive,” said Uncle Josh. “For as long as I’ve been a member of Pinnacle, Chaser has always been the Superior of Icon. I have a hard time believing that he’s actually dead, yet I know you would never lie to me about this.”
“Want me to take a pic on my phone and send it to you for proof?” I said. “I can do that right now if you want.”
“No, no, that’s fine,” said Uncle Josh with a shudder. “I was just calling you to let you know that Greg just collapsed.”
“He did?” I said. “Is he okay?”
“I think so,” said Uncle Josh. “He’s breathing, at least, though not conscious as far as I can tell. I think Chaser’s death must have severed the connection between the two. Without Chaser to control the Armor, Greg had no reason to keep fighting. I think he’ll survive, though.”
I sighed in relief. “Wonderful to hear. I was worried about him for a second there.”
“Oh, but that’s not the only news I have to share,” said Uncle Josh. “Mack just called me. He and Gina set up the Gift where it’s supposed to go, meani
ng we only have about thirty minutes before it blows and takes the entire island with it.”
“What, really?” I said. “I almost forgot about them.”
“Same here,” said Uncle Josh. “But you should hurry back over. The timer is ticking and Mack said they’d meet us at the top of the Tower like we originally planned. We’ve got no time to waste.”
“Sure,” I said. “Just hold on and let me find an exit.”
“Before you hang up, have you seen Christina anywhere?” said Uncle Josh. “She seemed to disappear as soon as you smashed through the screen and I can’t seem to find her anywhere in here. The door isn’t open, so she has to still be in the room here.”
“Maybe she’s looking for another way out that doesn’t involve opening the door?” I said. I shook my head. “Doesn’t matter. I’ll be back out in a flash. And I’m going to take a picture of Chaser’s body anyway for proof. I bet your boss would like proof that Chaser is dead, so you can give him this picture I’m about to take.”
“Thanks, Jack,” said Uncle Josh. “I knew there was a reason you were my favorite nephew.”
“No problem,” I said. “See you soon.”
I ended the call and aimed my phone’s camera at Chaser’s corpse. Right before I could snap a picture, the door on the right side of the room suddenly burst open and Christina stepped in. Startled, I nearly dropped my phone, but managed to catch it at the last second and turned to face Christina, who was looking around like she was trying to make sure that no one got the drop on her.
“Christina!” I said in surprise. “How did you get back here?”
“Found the back door into Chaser’s room,” said Christina, gesturing at the door from which she had emerged. “I went looking around as soon as you smashed through the screen and found this door right behind the screen. It was unlocked, so I went in to see if you needed my help.”