The Superhero's Son Omnibus Volume 2

Chapter Eleven-1

Chapter Eleven

It felt like Graleex had stuck a vacuum on my head. Yet I didn't actually feel my hair being pulled back. It was like my brains were slowly being sucked out of my skull and was painful, so painful that I actually screamed, which didn't seem to bother Graleex, who was merely watching my agony as if it was an interesting science experiment or something.

I didn't know if Mom could hear me or if the walls of the lab were too thick for my screams to escape through. It didn't matter even if Mom could hear me, because there was nothing she could do to save me. I just screamed and screamed, wanting the pain to end, but it didn't seem like it was ever going to end. It felt like it was just going to keep going on forever and ever and there was nothing I could do about it.

And my memory … it was getting weaker and unclearer. I could still remember the events of the past day pretty well, but everything before that was starting to seem mushy and unclear, like all my memories were colliding into each other. I didn't know if this was just because I was in so much pain or if it was the side effect of the memory copier that Graleex had mentioned; regardless, it made me think I was going to lose all my memories, including the memories of my parents, which made me scream even louder.

Just as the pain was becoming overwhelming, I saw one of the artificial limbs in the ceiling lower toward us. It looked like a hammer of some kind, big and thick enough to smash my skull to pieces. I was unable to think about what Graleex planned to use that hammer for, but I doubted it was going to be very nice.

Oddly, the hammer was lowering down behind Graleex. The alien didn't seem to notice it. He was still watching me, though he occasionally glanced at the screen of his computer, which I couldn't see. Maybe the computer was showing the progress of the memory copier or something or maybe Graleex was checking his f*******: news feed.

“Almost done …” Graleex said as the hammer lowered behind him. I could barely hear him over my own screams, but I noticed that the hammer was pulling back. “Just a few more minutes and I should have everything I need.”

Just as Graleex said that, the hammer suddenly flew toward the back of his head. He must have heard it coming, however, because he turned around just in time to see it hurtling toward his face.

But Graleex wasn't fast enough to dodge or block it. The hammer smashed into his ugly, blue alien face hard enough to knock him down. He stumbled into his computer, knocking it off the table, which went spinning away from where I was held down. Graleex hit the floor with a clunk and he did not get up again.

As soon as Graleex was down, the sucking force from the memory copier suddenly vanished. The copier's grip on my head loosened, allowing me to pull my head out of the machine. My head still felt squished and it ached like crazy, but I no longer felt like my head was about to explode, at least.

“Ow …” I said, shaking my head. “What was that? What happened?”

“Bolt, are you all right?” came Valerie's voice in my ear. “Did the memory copier hurt you?”

“Val?” I said. “Is that you? I almost forgot about you. Did you stop the copier?”

“Yes,” said Valerie. “I took control of the artificial limbs in the ship's ceiling and used that hammer to knock Graleex out. Because Graleex was in control of the memory copier, it shut off as soon as he was knocked out.”

“Wait, you can control Pokacu technology?” I said in surprise. “Since when could you do that?”

“Since your father made me compatible with the Pokacu tech he managed to salvage from the wreckage of the Pokacu spaceships after the invasion,” said Valerie. “But it was not easy. It was why I didn't just take direct control of the memory copier itself and instead indirectly shut it off by attacking Graleex.”

“That's great, Val,” I said. “Do you think you can free me, as well?”

“I think so,” said Valerie. “Give me a second.”

A second later, my clamps sprung up and I sat up, rubbing my wrists as I looked over the table at Graleex lying on the floor. Graleex lay so still that he looked dead, but I doubted that that hammer had been enough to kill him.

Still, I was in no mood to wait for him to wake up, so I jumped off the table and was about to make my way out of the room before I stopped and remembered that Mom had been captured by the blue glue the last time I saw her, which I doubted I would be able to break apart with sheer physical strength alone.

So I bent over and grabbed the vial full of the red liquid that could disintegrate the blue glue from Graleex's belt and then ran out the room with the cold liquid in my hands. I also grabbed a weird-looking gun that was holstered at Graleex's side, because I needed a weapon and this looked like it could be useful, even though I didn't know anything about how it worked.

-

When I reached the escape pod, I forced it open and ran inside to find that Mom, thankfully, was still where Graleex had left her. I wasn't sure why I thought she might have been moved, since Graleex was the only person on the ship aside from us, but I guess I had just been very worried about Mom.

Anyway, I poured some of the red liquid on her, just as I had seen Graleex do, and it dissolved the blue glue instantly.

As soon as the blue glue dissolved, Mom stood up and said, “Thanks, Kevin. But how did you escape that alien? Where is my purse? Did you—”

“I didn't kill him, if that's what you were going to ask,” I said quickly. “Valerie knocked him out.”

“Valerie?” said Mom. “But Valerie doesn't even have a body.”

“I'll explain later,” I said, glancing at the exit, but seeing that Graleex was still not here. “Right now, we need to figure out how to get off this ship before Graleex wakes up and tries to kill us both.”

“Can't we just use the escape pod?” said Mom, gesturing at the floor. “I mean, we used it to escape one ship already. Can't we do it again?”

“I don't think so,” I said. “We need to figure out how to open the floor first so that the escape pod can actually descend back into the sea. Val? Are you on this?”

“I am looking, Bolt, but the ship's opening systems are more complicated than the systems for the artificial limbs are,” said Valerie. “I do not think that we can open it from here.”

“What if we went to the control room?” I said. “Do you think we could open the floor there?”

“Most likely, but that would mean leaving the escape pod,” said Valerie. “And with Graleex still alive, that means you will make it easier for him to find you.”

“But if we stay here, then he will find us and we will probably get killed,” I said. I looked at Mom. “Mom, you need to come with me. We're going to the control room to find out if we can open the floor so we can escape back into the sea again.”

“All right,” said Mom. “But what about the alien? You said he's still alive.”

“He is, but he's knocked out cold and probably won't wake up again anytime soon,” I said.

In truth, though, I was only hoping that Graleex would not wake up again soon, because if he did wake up … well, I didn't want to think about it. I just wanted Mom to remain calm, because I could tell that she was just as worried about this as I was, if not more so.

“Okay,” said Mom. “Where is the control room?”

“I don't know,” I said. “Val? Do you have a map of the ship?”

“No, but I have a map of the Spinner, which I believe is similar to this ship in design, so I can tell you how to reach the control room from here,” said Valerie. “But I don't know every security feature that the Pokacu like to build into their ships, so you should advance with caution and avoid running into anything that looks suspicious.”

“Okay,” I said. “Just tell us where to go, Val. We're listening.”

-

Mom and I walked cautiously but quickly through the lower decks of the ship. We were not walking as quickly as we could, per Valerie's earlier warning, but it was frustrating because we knew that Graleex could reawaken any time and come after us again. That the air was humid and the ship was in general dark and creepy didn't help matters at all.

But either the ship's security systems were down or Graleex had forgotten to install some in his ship, because we did not run into any obstacles on the way to the control room. I kept my hand on the gun I had stolen from Graleex, however, just in case he appeared out of nowhere again.

What really scared us, though, was the creaking and groaning of the ship. I didn't know how strong Pokacu spaceships were built, but this one sounded like it was on the verge of being crushed underneath the tons of water surrounding it. I kept expecting the ceiling to give way and drown Mom and I, but it held as we made our way to the control room.

After several tense minutes of walking up stairs and down narrow halls, we emerged into a control room that looked almost exactly like the control room back on the Spinner. Unlike the Spinner's control room, however, this one looked older and more damaged, with rust stains on the walls and floor. Some of the monitors were blackened out completely, while others just barely flickered on. I was amazed that Graleex had somehow managed to keep the ship together for fifteen years and that it hadn't just been crushed underneath the weight of the ocean water already. He must have been a better repairman than I thought.

“Okay, Val, we're here,” I said, looking around the interior of the ship. “How do we open the hold?”

“I do not know,” Valerie said. “I am not as familiar with the intricacies and controls of Pokacu spacecraft as I could be. I cannot tell you which buttons or switches do what.”

“So it looks like I'll have to experiment,” I said. My shoulders slumped. “Where's Dad when you need him?”

“He is still fighting Ring Out and Tornadess, most likely,” said Valerie. “Why do you ask?”

“That was—oh, never mind, Val,” I said, shaking my head. I looked at Mom. “Val says she doesn't know how to open the hold, so we're going to have to figure out which buttons do what on our own.”

Mom nodded and we walked up to the controls. Stopping before them, I frowned, because the control layout looked like no control layout I had ever seen before. There were strange, shriveled-looking buttons arranged in odd star patterns, along with levers built directly into what looked like touch screens. Granted, I wasn't exactly surprised by this, because the Pokacu aren't humans and so it makes sense that they would have different controls for their ships than the kind we humans made, but that just added to the confusion because none of these buttons were clearly marked. Well, a few were marked in the Pokacu language, but that might as well have been gibberish to me, so I couldn't rely on it.

“Mom, what button do you think will open the hold?” I said, glancing at Mom.

Mom shrugged. “I don't know. It all looks so complicated to me.”

“If Dad were here, he'd probably be able to figure it out just from a glance,” I said. “But we don't need Dad to figure this out. If there's one thing I've learned from years of watching TV, it's that the red button is always the most important one.”

I looked down at the controls and saw exactly sixteen red buttons of varying sizes and shapes.

“So, which red button is the most important one?” said Mom.

I shot an annoyed look at Mom. “Could you be a little less sarcastic and a little more helpful?”

“I'm not a tech genius like your father, so I can't be that helpful,” said Mom.

“Pushing a button isn't exactly rocket science,” I said. I shook my head. “Whatever. I'll just press the biggest button.”

So I pressed down on the biggest red button, which squished under me like my belly. In fact, when I pressed the button, I thought I felt something wriggle under my finger, causing me to pull my hand off it immediately.