by Lucas Flint
An idea struck me like lightning just then, an idea I wasn’t sure would work, but I was almost over the brink of despair and was willing to try anything, no matter how outlandish it seemed.
I closed my eyes and heard Chaser chuckle. He probably thought I had closed my eyes in order to avoid seeing my own death, but he was about to be disappointed, assuming my plan worked.
“Suit,” I said in my mind. “I know it’s been a long time since we last talked. I know we haven’t talked or interacted much at all. And I know that Chaser is putting pressure on you to kill me. But please, I beg of you, listen to me. Stop squeezing me to death.”
Unfortunately, the suit kept squeezing me, as if I wasn’t talking to it at all. My head started to feel foggy and breathing became nearly impossible, a good sign that all circulation was being constricted. I probably had less than a minute left to live, so I had to make the suit listen to me.
“I know you’ve been hungry ever since TW’s death,” I continued. “But killing me won’t sate your hunger. If you want life energy—if you want to get rid of that all-consuming hunger—then eat Chaser. I promise you that if you do, you will get far more energy than you’ll ever need. You might even never need to eat again.”
I put as much confidence and passion into my words, being as persuasive as I possibly could be. I tried not to sound desperate, but it was hard, given how I was literally being squeezed to death. But one thing Dad had taught me was that desperation was never convincing and that I needed to remain calm and confident at all times, especially when I was trying to convince someone of something.
Then, all of a sudden, the squeezing stopped. The suit still clung tightly to my body—too tightly for my liking—but it wasn’t anywhere nearly as bad as it was just a few seconds ago.
Then, slowly but surely, it began to expand. Breathing became easier, my muscles didn’t feel nearly as tight as they used to, and I could start to think clearly again. My entire body ached, but even the pain wasn’t as bad as it had been a few moments ago.
Breathing in and out hard, I opened my eyes and looked up at Chaser. For the first time since Chaser had taken control of the Watch, he looked genuinely surprised, standing back as if I had just slapped him in the face.
“What is this?” said Chaser. “Why is the suit no longer squeezing you to death? I am in control.”
“No, Chaser,” I said, shaking my head. I put a hand on the TS symbol on my chest. “I’m in control of the suit. I can tell it what to do, not you. Do you want to know why?”
“W-Why?” said Chaser, his voice trembling for the first time.
I slowly rose to my feet, never breaking eye contact with Chaser the entire time. Chaser, to his credit, floated down toward me until the two of us stood face to face.
“Because I’m Trickshot,” I said. “And you’re not.”
Without warning, Chaser suddenly started screaming in pain. His holographic form began glitching out, blinking in and out of existence rapidly. He clutched at his chest, but there was nothing he could do to stop his death from happening.
“What … what is this?” said Chaser. “What is going on? What kind of trickery is this?”
“It’s not a trick,” I said. “I guess you must not know this, but when Grandfather first built TW and put him into the Trickshot Watch, it was to keep the suit from draining him of his life force. TW’s purpose was to give the suit something to chew on so it wouldn’t kill Grandfather. And because you took TW’s place, that means that the suit is now feeding on you. And let me tell you, it’s a hungry, hungry costume.”
“You … fool …” Chaser growled. “I … will … not … die like … this …”
Chaser’s form was growing fainter and fainter. Bits and pieces of his holographic form were being eaten away. He was doing an admirable attempt not to scream, but then he suddenly burst into loud yelling that was occasionally punctuated by glitched audio that sounded like my dad’s old MP3 player.
Chaser looked me in the eyes one last time and reached out toward me. Even as a hologram, I could tell he wanted nothing more than to wrap his fingers around my throat and strangle me to death here and now.
But just before his fingers touched my neck, Chaser completely disappeared.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
I looked down at the Trickshot Watch. There was nothing on it to indicate that Chaser was gone, but at the same time, I could sense that Chaser was truly, finally dead. The suit had eaten him, eaten every last bit of his consciousness. Chaser as I knew him no longer existed. The only indication that Chaser had ever existed was his corpse, which still sat on his throne, its broken neck lolling like a discarded doll. Chaser’s corpse was still very creepy, but relief washed over me when I realized that Chaser was finally dead.
“Whoa,” said Christina, who was lying on the floor, staring at the spot where Chaser’s hologram had been just seconds ago. “That was crazy.”
I had almost forgotten about Christina. I looked down at her and said, “Are you okay? Do you need any help up?”
Christina waved off my offers for help. She pushed herself up into a sitting position and kicked away the remnants of the tentacle that had nearly strangled her to death, rubbing her neck. “No, I don’t need your help, but next time I go to a seafood restaurant, I’m going to make sure I don’t order any octopus.”
I nodded. “Well, I’m glad you’re alive, anyway. Even though we’re not friends, I didn’t think Chaser was in the right to kill you.”
Christina snorted. “Of course he was in the right. Didn’t you hear what he said? Icon agents aren’t allowed to disobey him. We’re his property, little better than tools meant to be used and discarded as he sees fit. He’s got a real winning personality, in case you couldn’t tell.”
“Right,” I said. “Well, he’s gone. He’s not going to hurt or kill anyone else ever again, whether in Icon or elsewhere.”
“Yeah,” said Christina. “Unless he comes back as a ghost, but I’m pretty sure he wasn’t able to figure out how to do that before he died.”
I shuddered at the thought of Chaser returning as a ghost to haunt us. “Don’t even mention it. I’m going to have nightmares for weeks if I have to think about that.”
Christina smirked. “Then maybe I should bring it up more often, if it disturbs you that much.”
“Please don’t,” I said. “I value my sleep a lot and—”
I was interrupted by Uncle Josh suddenly bursting into the room, his gun at the ready. He swept the room with his gun until his eyes landed on me and Christina, a puzzled expression on his face. “Jack? Christina? What happened? When you didn’t come out of Chaser’s room, I came in to see what—”
Uncle Josh’s eyes fell on Chaser’s corpse in the chair. “What in the hell is that thing?”
“Chaser,” said Christina as she slowly rose to her feet. “Or his body, anyway.”
Uncle Josh grimaced. “Good lord. In all of the years I’ve known about Chaser, I was expecting something … taller, I guess. He looks pathetic.”
“Well, he’s dead,” I said, putting my hands on my waist. “And he’s never coming back. Ever.”
“No doubt,” Uncle Josh agreed. He suddenly pulled his phone out of his pocket, snapped a picture of Chaser’s body, and put it back into his pants’ pocket. “There we go. All the proof Ephraim will need that we killed Chaser. He’s going to be ecstatic.”
“Yeah,” I said. “Assuming we can get off Iconia before it blows up, that is.”
“Oh, right,” said Uncle Josh. “I got another call from Mack and Gina while I was waiting for you guys. They said a bomb disarming squad came down to disarm the bomb, but Mack knocked them out. We’ve got less than twenty minutes left to meet Mack and Gina at the top of the Tower.”
“Less than twenty minutes?” I said in alarm. “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go. We’ll tell you about everything that happened with Chaser later, after we get off the island.”
Uncle Josh no
dded and the three of us ran out through the back entrance to Chaser’s room. We burst out back into the main chambers, where I spotted Grandfather, still wearing the Atlas Armor, lying on the floor in front of the screen not too far away from us. He still looked unconscious, but I rushed over to check on him anyway.
“Grandfather!” I said, falling down next to him. “Grandfather, are you okay? Can you hear me? Hello?”
“He’s unconscious,” said Uncle Josh, who stopped beside me with a grim look on his face. “I hope your super strength is enough to carry him, because that armor is too heavy for me to—”
All of a sudden, Grandfather’s eyes flickered open. He looked up at me, Uncle Josh, and Christina with dull eyes for a moment, and for a second I was worried that he was still somehow under Chaser’s spell and that we were going to have another fight on our hands.
But then Grandfather blinked and he looked confused. “Jack? Is that you?”
I smiled, barely able to suppress the tears in my eyes all of a sudden. “Yeah, old man, it’s me.”
“And you’re wearing my old costume …” Tears formed in the corners of Grandfather’s eyes. “It worked. You got the Watch, just as I planned. I can’t believe it.”
“Yeah, I know,” I said. “And Chaser is dead, by the way. I killed him.”
“Chaser …” Grandfather’s voice trailed off and his tears seemed to become even thicker. “Poor Chaser. He was a good man, ambitious and intelligent, but he never paired that ambition or intelligence with morality, which he always seemed to think he was above. I should have known what path that would have led him down, but I was blind and foolish and didn’t even think of stopping him until it was too late.”
“It’s okay, Grandfather,” I said. “You did your best. All that matters is that Chaser is gone. Now we just need to get you back home to where you belong. How does that sound?”
Grandfather smiled, despite the tears trailing down the sides of his face. “That sounds wonderful, Jack. Absolutely wonderful.”
“This is heartwarming and all, but we don’t have a whole lot of time before this place goes to kingdom come,” said Christina all of a sudden. “And I am not going to drag that old man around, especially in that heavy armor he’s wearing.”
I glared at Christina for ruining this perfect moment, but Grandfather just chuckled and said, “No, it’s fine, young lady. I think I can move on my own. Let me try.”
Grandfather sat upright all of a sudden and rotated his limbs. “This suit is amazing, but nothing beats the Trickshot costume. I will admit, though, that this armor comes very close. It’s just missing TW and it would be perfect.”
I considered telling Grandfather about TW, but decided that could wait until later. I just stood up and helped Grandfather to his feet. “Good to see I didn’t beat you too hard back there, old man.”
“I’ve taken worse beatings than that before, Jack,” said Grandfather, cracking his neck. “Trust me, your punches were good, but not that good.”
I was about to argue with him about that, but then Uncle Josh stepped in and said, “We can catch up later. Right now, we have a date at the top of the Tower, so we need to get out of these chambers before the bomb goes off.”
“Bomb?” Grandfather repeated. “What bomb?”
“A couple of our friends set up a bomb below the Tower,” I explained. “It’s going to blow up in less than twenty minutes, and when it does, it will take the whole island with it.”
Grandfather’s eyes widened in surprise. “Seriously? What did you bring with you, a nuke?”
“It doesn’t matter,” said Uncle Josh. “What matters is getting out of here, but the door is too heavy and thick for us to open. But if we don’t get out of here soon, we’ll be blown up with the island.”
“Door, eh?” said Grandfather. He turned his attention to the massive door on the other side of the room. “It is a big one, I’ll agree with you there.”
I raised my fists. “I’ll just use my super strength to smash it open. Everyone else can stand back and—”
“Sorry, Jack, but I think you’ve done enough for today,” said Grandfather. “Let your old man show you how we did things in my day.”
Grandfather stepped forward and held up both of his hands, forming a cup with them. A powerful energy blast suddenly exploded from his palms, striking the massive door head on and making the door explode. Chunks of stone went flying in every direction, forcing us to duck to avoid being hit, but when the dust cleared, I looked up and saw that the door had been almost completely decimated by the blast, leaving the door wide open for all of us to exit.
“There,” said Grandfather, lowering his hands. “Easy.”
“That’s how they did things in your day?” I said in disbelief.
“It’s just an expression, Jack,” said Grandfather, cracking a smile at me. “I’ll admit, though, that I thought it would just make a hole in the door we could crawl through, not blow the door up entirely.”
“It doesn’t matter,” said Christina, taking her hands off her head and rising to her feet. “The door is open, so what are we waiting for? Let’s get out of here before that damn bomb blows up.”
“Okay,” I said. “Because we’re in a hurry, we’ll fly. Grandfather, you grab Uncle Josh and I’ll grab Christina.”
“All right,” said Grandfather. “I hope you’ll be able to keep up with me, because this Armor can fly pretty darn fast.”
I smiled. “Don’t worry, Grandfather. I still have enough in me to outrace an airplane if I have to.”
“Then let’s go,” said Grandfather. “See you at the top.”
We both grabbed our passengers and then flew through the hallway as fast as we could.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Grandfather and I raced through the lower hallways of the Tower of Icon, taking each twist and turn as they came. We made good time, managing to avoid flying into anything, although it helped that Christina, who was more familiar with the layout of the Tower than we were, kept shouting directions to us as we flew.
We didn’t run into any Icon agents on our way back up, which seemed odd to me until Christina explained that very few Icon agents ever came down to the lowest levels of the Tower, because that was considered Chaser’s domain and Chaser did not approve of agents wandering into his domain without his permission. It was a rule that worked well in our favor, given how it meant we didn’t have to fight anyone. We were free to fly as fast as we wanted, which was good because we didn’t have much time to waste fighting random Icon agents who wanted to avenge Chaser’s death.
But once we got to the lobby of the first floor, Grandfather veered off to the side toward the front doors. I followed him and, shouting as loudly as I could, said, “Grandfather, where are you going? I thought we were going up the Tower, not out of it!”
“Easier to travel up the Tower outside,” Grandfather shouted back over his shoulder. “No ceilings to deal with. Come on!”
Grandfather blasted the front doors open and flew outside, with me following closely behind. As soon as we got outside, Grandfather went straight up into the air, his rockets burning behind him, while I struggled to keep up with him in the cool night air.
As we flew toward the top of the Tower, I looked down over the rest of the compound surrounding the place and saw nothing but chaos in every direction. Icon agents were running from building to building, screaming and calling out names, while some buildings were on fire and burning. I even saw a Blind Ape stalking its way through the streets between the warehouses, attacking random Icon agents while letting out the blood-curdling yell I had come to fear.
“What’s going on down there?” I said to Christina as we flew. “Why did everyone lose their minds all of a sudden?”
“I’m not sure,” Christina yelled so she could be heard above the screams below. “I think that Chaser’s death must have had something to do with it. Has to be some kind of emergency signal sent out upon his death. Or maybe Mack and Gina
decided to have a little fun after they set up the bomb.”
Neither answer made much sense to me, but I said nothing, because the way I saw it, if the Icon agents were too busy dealing with all of the chaos that had erupted on the island, then they likely didn’t have the time or energy to pay attention to us. That would make it easier for us to get away. I just hoped that Mack and Gina had made it to the top of the Tower as well, because we didn’t have much time before everything went boom.
Reaching the top of the Tower, I saw that it was a full-on landing site. A small guard tower stood off to one side, while in the center landing pad was a large, black helicopter that looked really futuristic. It had the Icon symbol painted in white paint on the side, with odd cannons hanging underneath it.
A handful of Icon agents—perhaps the landing pad’s guards—turned when Grandfather and I flew up. They aimed their guns at me, but then Mack suddenly appeared out of nowhere and slammed his huge fists into the backs of their heads, knocking out the two of them instantly. Gina appeared beside Mack and waved at us as we approached.
“Mack, Gina!” Uncle Josh shouted as we landed next to them. “You both made it!”
“You were concerned about us?” said Mack. “We were concerned about you, given how you guys were going directly into the belly of the beast. We thought that Chaser probably killed you for sure.”
“Quite the opposite, actually,” said Uncle Josh. “But it doesn’t matter. Everyone needs to get into the helicopter. Probably less than ten minutes before the whole island blows.”
“Yeah,” said Gina. She looked at Grandfather and frowned. “Who is this guy and why is he wearing the Atlas Armor?”
“We’ll explain later,” I said. “For now, we just need to get the hell off this island.”
All six of us rushed toward the helicopter. Uncle Josh and Gina got on first, climbing into the cockpit, followed by Christina and Mack in the passenger seats, and then finally Grandfather and me. I just jumped up onto the helicopter when the helicopter’s blades suddenly roared to life. The helicopter itself rose from the ground, but what I had initially assumed were cannons actually turned out to be rockets that allowed it to rise faster into the air than its rotor blades could do on their own. I clung to the handrail on the ceiling of the helicopter, which was about the only thing keeping me from falling out of the helicopter as it rose into the air.