The Superhero's Son Omnibus Volume 3

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen

Despite what I’d said to Shade, my wound really wasn’t fine. It hurt like hell and I couldn’t move nearly as quickly or nimbly as I normally could, mostly because of the pain, but also because I didn’t want the bandages tearing and causing me to bleed out all over the floor. I noticed that Shade kept looking at me with concern as we ran, but I didn’t show even a hint of pain. I didn’t want her to become so worried about my wound that she would become distracted, which would be a huge problem if we ran into any other Visionists on our way deeper into the facility.

Still, I ran far too slowly for my own tastes, mostly because my wound slowed me down considerably. I thought about using my super speed to help me run faster, but I was worried that if I ran too fast I might tear my bandages, so I would have to keep at a steady pace and hope that that was enough for us to catch up to the Visionists.

We rounded another corner, this time coming upon a huge metal door that appeared to have been torn off its hinges. I wasn’t sure who had done that, given that none of the Visionists here had super strength, but that wasn’t my concern at the moment. We just dashed through the open doorway and ended up in a new room, one that was very different from the hallway we’d just been in.

For one, it was much more wide-open, shaped kind of like a dome. Broken and smashed lab equipment lay scattered everywhere, while screens along the walls had been blown up or smashed to pieces with heavy objects. It looked like an elephant had been trapped in here and had gone on a rampage, though there weren’t any corpses, at least.

But that didn’t mean we were the only people in here. Standing at the other end of the room were two of my least favorite girls in the world: Incantation and Sarah. Incantation, as usual, was dressed in her magician’s robes, the tip of her wand peeking out from within the folds of her robes, while Sarah wore a green tank top and jeans, which seemed inappropriate for a mission to break into a top secret government facility to save the leader of an evil cult. She had a bandage around her shoulder where the sniper had hit her, but she didn’t seem to be paying much attention to it.

“Incantation, Sarah,” I said as Shade and I stopped. The pain in my wound flared, but I ignored it in order to focus on our enemies. “Didn’t expect to see you two again so soon.”

“Bolt,” said Incantation, her voice sharp. “Did you beat Technical already? I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. She was never a very good fighter, even with her tech. But I can see that she must have gotten at least one good hit in on you, given your bandaged wound.”

I put a hand on my bandage instinctively. “Yeah, but you’re going to go down with her, so don’t get too cocky. Say, why are you two here? I thought you two would have been with Thaumaturge.”

“He told us to stay back here and fight off anyone who got past Technical,” said Incantation. She raised her wand from under her robes, holding it in a defensive position, almost like a sword. “I thought Uncle was just being irrational, given how we killed everyone else in this place, but I guess he was right to be cautious.”

“It’s not fair,” said Sarah sulkily. She kicked the turned over hard drive of a nearby smashed computer. “I wanted to see Grandpa. It’s not fair that Hopper gets to see him again before me.”

“I know, Sarah, but don’t worry,” said Incantation. “Once we kill these two, you’ll get a chance to see our leader again every day for the rest of your life.”

“Okay,” said Sarah. Her shoulders slumped. “But do we have to kill them? That sounds like a lot of work.”

“Oh, no, you don’t need to kill us,” said Shade. She stepped forward, shadow starting to coalesce around her arms. “If you let us beat you up, then maybe we’ll throw you into the same prison as your Grandpa. That way, you’ll get to see him every day for the rest of your miserable little life.”

“How dare you say that about me,” Sarah said, her fists shaking. “I’m going to kill you!”

“Shade,” I said. “Watch out for Sarah. She might be ugly and spoiled, but she’s far more powerful than she—”

“I know,” said Shade, waving off my warning like it was nothing. “I’ll be fine.”

Shade ran toward Sarah. Sarah just stared at her, stunned, as if shocked that someone was actually trying to fight her, but then Incantation waved her wand, causing a huge burst of light to erupt from its tip.

The light burst struck Shade dead on, causing her to stagger backwards from the blow. Sarah must have recovered from her shock by now, because she shook her head and began scowling angrily at Shade, which I realized—too late—was a sign that Sarah was using her mental powers to attack Shade’s mind.

Shade immediately began screaming in pain, clutching her head and falling to her knees. Incantation pointed her wand at her again, but I wasn’t going to let her cast another spell.

Despite the risk to my bandage, I activated my super speed and ran toward Shade. I lifted her off the floor and zoomed back toward the entrance to the room just as a long line of spiked ribbons shot from Incantation’s wand and hit the spot where Shade had been kneeling mere moments before.

Stopping near the entrance, I lowered Shade onto the floor and looked down at her. She wasn’t moving, but I could tell that she was unconscious rather than dead, though for all I knew, Sarah might have destroyed her mind entirely. I remembered how Sarah had tried to destroy my mind last year and was worried that the same might have happened to Shade, though I supposed I wouldn’t know until later. In any case, Shade was down and out, which meant that I was all alone against Incantation and Sarah.

Turning around to face them, I said, “All right, you two, I’m going to make this quick. I’m not in the mood for a long, drawn out battle.”

“Funny, we’re not, either,” said Incantation. “So we’ll make this quick.”

Incantation aimed her wand at me, but I fired a bot of lightning at her. Incantation twirled her cape and vanished just as the red lightning bolt struck the spot where she had been standing moments before, blackening and cracking the floor upon impact.

Incantation reappeared on the other side of the room, an angry scowl on her face as she snapped, “Sarah! Break his mind!”

Sarah nodded and immediately scowled at me. I raised my hand to shoot another red lightning bolt at her, but then Incantation’s ribbons came out of nowhere and wrapped around me. They tightened immediately, causing me to cry out in pain, because the ribbons were lined with shards of glass, which somehow managed to cut through the surface of my suit into my skin.

At the same time, I suddenly heard screams and banging in my head, which I recognized as Sarah mentally attacking me. The sounds assaulted my mind unrelentingly, making it almost impossible to concentrate. And with Incantation’s ribbons still biting into my skin, including my bandaged wound, the pain in my body was almost overwhelming. I struggled to retain my consciousness, because I knew that if I blacked out now, I would die.

But I didn’t know how I was going to fight against them. It was all I could do just to stay conscious; actually breaking free and fighting them was so impossible at the moment that it felt more like fantasy than real life. Yet I knew I couldn’t keep struggling like this forever; sooner or later I would lose consciousness, and then both me and Shade would die.

But if we died, then I would never get my revenge on Vision. I would never get my revenge on Incantation, who had pretended to be my girlfriend, tricking me into thinking that she loved me, playing with my heart. Just the thought of Incantation getting away was enough to make my blood boil; in fact, the anger was so overwhelming that I ignored the pain.

With a roar, I snapped the ribbons around me. I heard Incantation yell in surprise, but I didn’t pay attention to her right now. I ran over to Sarah, who was now staring at me like a deer in headlights. But then she started scowling again and assaulting me with her mental attacks, which I could feel, but which I also ignored in my anger and rage.

I slammed my fist against Sarah’s face and she collapsed in an instant. As soon as she was down, the screams and banging sounds in my head went away, but I was still too angry to enjoy the relief.

Instead, I turned to face Incantation, who had backed up against the wall. She held up her wand, but her grip on it was shaky and I caught a glimpse of fear in her eyes, as if she knew that she was outmatched.

But I didn’t care. I zoomed over to her, knocked her wand out of her hands, and then grabbed her by the throat and slammed her against the wall. Incantation gasped, but was somehow still conscious, although I was pleased to see a trickle of blood roll down the side of her face.

“Bolt, please,” said Incantation, the fear in her voice obvious now. “Please don’t hurt me. Don’t you remember how we were dating?”

I chuckled darkly. “Dating? What are you even talking about? We were never really together. It was a lie, like every other memory that Alana gave me. And I hate liars.”

“I know you’re angry about that, but that doesn’t mean you have to kill me,” said Incantation in a pleading voice. “I can’t breathe …”

That was because my grip around her neck had tightened deeply. I was tempted to just end her right there and then. She deserved it, she did, she and every other Visionist i***t. In fact, now that my memories were coming back, I distinctly recalled how Vision had aided Robert Candle in killing Dad, which meant that Incantation probably had an indirect hand in killing my father.

But despite my anger, whenever I looked into Incantation’s eyes, I felt something stir within me. It felt like the feelings I’d felt toward her when I had thought she was my girlfriend. I suddenly found myself hating how terrified she looked. She looked less like a powerful supervillain and more like a scared teenage girl now. Maybe she wasn’t powerless, but I found that I couldn’t bring myself to kill her.

As a result, my grip on her throat weakened. As soon as it did, the fear in Incantation’s eyes was replaced by gleeful triumph.

Incantation suddenly pulled a sword out of her robes and stabbed at me, but I let go of her, causing her to fall to the floor. But not before she managed to hit me with the flat of the sword in the side of the head, even giving me a small but painful cut on the cheek. The impact from the blow made me stagger backwards, while Incantation advanced on me with her sword, her eyes still gleaming with mad triumph.

But my anger cut through the pain, so when Incantation swung her sword again, I blasted it with my lightning, causing the sword to shatter in two. The explosion sent bits of sharp metal flying everywhere, which I raised my arms to block, but Incantation wasn’t so lucky. I heard metal cut into flesh and Incantation scream in pain and then looked to see what had happened to her.

It was an awful sight. A few chunks of broken sword had somehow landed in her eyes. She was covering her now bleeding eyes, screaming in pain and falling down to the base of the wall. Her screams of pain were terrible, even to my ears, but I had no way to help her.

“Hey, Incantation, are you all right?” I said, raising my voice above her screaming in order to be heard. “Can you—”

“Get away!” Incantation screamed, without looking at me. “My eyes … damn you, my eyes!”

Incantation rose to her feet and tried to run, but I grabbed her arm and said, “No, you’re not running. You need medical attention, which you can’t get if you run away.”

But Incantation jerked her arm out of my hand and pointed her hand at me. A burst of light emitted from her hand, forcing me to cover my own eyes to avoid being blinded. I expected her to take advantage of this moment to attack, maybe even kill me, but I didn’t hear any attacks come my way. I did hear the swishing of her cape, but soon that sound faded as well, and shortly after, so did the light itself.

Lowering my hands, I saw that Incantation was gone. She had apparently fled, but to where, I did not know.