The Superhero's Son Omnibus Volume 3

Chapter Two

Chapter Two

“Superhumans?” I said, holding my spoon midway between my mouth and the bowl, letting drops of milk fall back into the bowl. “Do you mean, like, comic book superheroes and stuff?”

Regina pulled back, a disturbed frown on her features. “Don’t tell me you don’t even remember what superhumans are.”

“I—” I was interrupted by a flood of memories, memories of reading about superhumans in school, going to some website called ‘Neo Ranks’ that had news and discussions about superhumans, learning about neogenetics, and a whole bunch of other things. “No, wait, I remember. Superhumans have been known to the world since nineteen eighty-six, when the first superhumans appeared. Some of them became heroes while others became villains and now they’re an accepted part of every country on Earth.”

“Right,” said Regina. “And you and I are both superhumans ourselves.”

“We are?” I said. “What kind of powers do I have?”

“Super strength, super speed, flight, and the ability to shoot red lightning from your hands,” said Regina. “It’s quite the power set.”

I looked down at my hands. “Wow, I can do all of that? Awesome. I want to try them out now.”

But Regina suddenly grabbed my wrist, making me look at her in surprise. “Please, not here. You might destroy your room.”

I couldn’t say no to Regina’s eyes, so I said, “All right. Well, then what are your powers?”

Regina let go of my wrist and sat back. “My powers? They’re a bit … difficult to explain. Think magic.”

“Wait, can you pull rabbits out of a hat or something?” I said as I shoveled more cereal into my mouth. I chewed it up and swallowed with a satisfying sigh.

“That’s not what I mean,” said Regina. “I mean actual magic. I can teleport, I can float, I can summon fire and water … I have quite a variety of my own skills, as you no doubt may remember.”

“Cool,” I said. Then another question occurred to me. “Wait, do we have like, superhero names?”

“Yes,” said Regina, nodding. She pointed at me. “You’re known as Bolt. As for me … you can call me Incantation.”

As soon as Regina said that word, something inside me shifted. I suddenly found myself feeling … not exactly distrustful of her, but I did look at her a little differently. She was not behaving in a suspicious manner, but the way she said that word—Incantation—made me trust her a little less than I did before. I wasn’t sure where this feeling came from, but maybe it was just another part of my amnesia.

“Incantation,” I repeated. I hated how the word tasted in my mouth, but I didn’t say that to Regina because I wasn’t sure what to make of it and I didn’t want to offend her unnecessarily. “That’s a … nice word.”

I wasn’t so sure that I did a good job of hiding my disgust, because Regina’s eyes narrowed when I said that, almost as if she could read my mind and so knew how I really felt. Though she clearly wasn’t as strong as me, I still worried that she might try to attack me now.

But then Regina relaxed and smiled again. “Yes, it is. You always did like it, so I’m glad to see that you remember that, at least.”

I gulped down another spoonful of cereal and then took a sip from my orange juice. That was close. Maybe Regina hadn’t actually noticed my disgust and had been thinking about something else.

“But I still don’t understand what Vision is, exactly,” I said. “So we’re trying to make equality between superhumans and normal humans. What does that mean, exactly?”

Regina rubbed her arm, which made her look kind of cute. “What does that mean? It means that we don’t believe in neogenetics.”

I frowned. “You don’t believe in neogenetics? How can you say that? Hasn’t it been established that superpowers are genetic? I mean, sure, no one knows for sure exactly how it all works, but I thought it was a pretty well-established idea by now.”

“That’s just a lie,” said Regina. “In truth, superpowers are really just social constructs. Anyone can have powers. They just need to identify as a superhuman and then they will be just as super powered as you or me.”

“Really?” I said. “Huh. Why would scientists lie about the origin of superpowers?”

“Because there are privileged groups of people who want to oppress others,” said Regina. Her grip on my blankets tightened and her voice actually shook. “By pretending that superhumans are born with their powers, they seek to keep all the power to themselves. It allows them to lord over everyone and establish separate and unequal standards for society. It is unjust … and highly problematic.”

Regina sounded incredibly angry about this. Her frown became an angry scowl, her hands shook, and she was staring at the wall like she was trying to burn a hole through it through sheer willpower alone. Again, I actually felt a little afraid of her, even though I didn’t have any real reason to be. It wasn’t like she was going to hurt me or anything, right?

“Well, if that’s the case, then have you tried to tell people about this?” I said.

“We’ve tried, but the advocates of neogenetics are evil and zealous bigots,” said Regina with a shudder. “They slander our names, attack us, and even try to kill us. They put our leader and founder—a wonderful old man known as the Visionary—into a coma and are even holding him hostage, even though all he did was advocate for what he believed in.”

“That’s horrible,” I said. “And they did all of that just because they disagree with us?”

“Exactly,” said Regina. “It’s awful, simply awful, how they do that. It’s why we have to remain in hiding, because if we don’t, they will get us and stamp out our great Vision forever.”

“That’s bad,” I said. “So we’ve just been in hiding with the Vision for a while now?”

“Yes,” said Regina, nodding. “We haven’t really been able to live a normal life, at least since joining Vision. You can’t live a normal life as a Visionist, mostly because of how hostile society in general and the superhero community in particular is toward us.”

“Wow,” I said. I sipped my orange juice, because I wasn’t sure what to say. “I don’t remember how we joined Vision, though. When did that happen?”

Suddenly, Regina rubbed her arm again and looked away, which seemed like a strange reaction to what seemed to me to be an honest and simple question to answer. “It was … last year. You, me, and several other young superhumans were approached by my uncle, Thaumaturge, with an offer to join Vision. He explained it all to us and we agreed to help him, even though it would put us against the world, because he laid out the facts and reasoning behind Vision so persuasively that we just couldn’t refuse.”

I opened my mouth to say that I didn’t remember that at all, but all of a sudden, memories began flooding my mind again. I saw myself, Regina, and several other teenagers close to us in age standing outside our school during night. A tall, old-looking man in wizard robes was standing before us; Thaumaturge. He was explaining what Vision was and the truth about superpowers and superhumans. I saw shocked and doubtful expressions on the faces of my friends, but I could also sense that the truth of Vision was starting to sink into their minds. Then I saw us accept Thaumaturge’s offer to join Vision, felt the fear and trembling that came with it, but also the sense of righteousness, like we were taking a stand alone against an unjust and cruel world.

I nodded. “Now I remember. But my memory of a lot of things is still kind of foggy.”

“That’s fine,” said Regina. “It will all come back in due time. In the meantime, why don’t you just enjoy your breakfast? And maybe, if there’s time, we can enjoy something else together.”

I might not have remembered much, but that didn’t mean I didn’t understand what Regina was implying. And, maybe I didn’t remember everything about Regina as much as I should, but hey, I didn’t mind waking up to a hot girlfriend giving me breakfast.

All of a sudden, however, there was a tiny buzzing noise and Regina pulled her smartphone out of her pocket. She unlocked the screen and answered the phone, saying, “Yes?”

I heard a voice on the other end, but it was too quiet and indistinct for me to understand. But Regina seemed to understand it perfectly, because her expression became less playful and more serious the longer she listened to the voice.

Finally, Regina said, “All right. We’ll be there.”

Regina hung up and looked at me. “It was my friend and fellow Visionist, Sarah. She said that there’s going to be a Visionist meeting in half an hour and that both of us have to be there.”

“But I haven’t finished my breakfast yet,” I said. I gestured at my shirtless body. “Or taken a shower or even gotten dressed yet.”

“Then finish it and take your damn shower and get dressed,” Regina suddenly snapped. “Don’t whine to me about it.”

I was taken aback by her sudden harsh attitude, but at the same time, something about it seemed far too familiar to me. It was like I had seen her snap like this before, which I suppose could have been true, since we’d apparently been dating for a while. Yet something about it felt off nonetheless.

Regina must have agreed, because she suddenly pulled back and put on her normal sweet smile. Or was it normal? Had I just gotten a glimpse of the real Regina, even if only for a moment?

“I mean, you can take your time finishing up and getting ready,” said Regina in a sweet voice, though it sounded forced to me. “They’ll understand if we’re a few minutes late. Everyone knows about your accident, so they will just assume that you’re still not entirely recovered from it yet.”

“Uh, okay,” I said. “I’m getting tired of sitting in bed, anyway. Let me eat and then I’ll get dressed and ready to go as fast as possible.”

I resumed eating my breakfast, but I didn’t focus on it quite so much. I was still bothered by Regina’s sudden change in attitude. Even though it was probably nothing, I felt a little tense around her, as if she was a wild animal that might attack me if I let my guard down. I hoped it was nothing but my amnesia playing tricks with me, but I wasn’t so sure.