The Superhero's Origin (The Superhero's Son Book 5) (22 page)

A few seconds later, the wheelchair stopped. I heard some movement next to me and then a second later the face of a very old, sick-looking woman was looking down at me. She looked awful, with graying skin covered in blots, skin that was so thin that I could practically see the bones underneath. She didn’t have much hair, and what little hair she did have was gray and wispy. And her eyes were closed, but they also looked empty, like she did not have any eyes anymore. Her hands moved across my face, which felt dry and creepy, though I figured she was touching my face to figure out who I was.

“Who … who are you?” I said as the eyeless woman removed her hands from my face. “Another Test Subject?”

The woman shook her head. “No. Are you sure you do not recognize me? Of course, the last time I saw you, you were just a baby, barely even a day old. I should not be surprised that you don’t remember me very much.”

“You saw me when I was a baby?” I said. “I don’t understand.”

“That much is obvious,” said the woman. She suddenly broke into a coughing fit, which made me wince, but the clamps made it impossible for me to move out of the way. She just coughed for several seconds before she finally regained control of her coughs and frowned. “Ugh. I hate being sick.”

“Mistress, do you need to sit down?” said Echo’s voice, though Echo herself was not visible from my perspective. “Your cough sounds worse than usual.”

“It’s fine, Echo, it’s fine,” said the woman. “I can stand for a little while longer. You need not worry about me.”

Then the woman looked down at me again. “Since you obviously did not inherit your father’s own super intelligence, I should perhaps spell out my identity to you. I wish I didn’t have to, however, because most grandmothers usually don’t have to identify themselves to their own grandchildren.”

My eyes widened in shock. “You’re Grandmother? No way.”

“Why do you doubt me?” said the woman. “I know your real name, Kevin, and I know all about your real history. I know we’ve never met before, but surely you must see part of Ted in me.”

I looked at her a little closer. She didn’t look much like Dad, but she did slightly resemble the woman I had seen in that old family portrait near the entrance. The shape of her face, in particular, was almost exactly the same as that of the younger woman in the family portrait, if only older and aged from the years. And, of course, she was missing her eyes, just like Dad had said.

“Okay, you’re Grandmother,” I said. “But … what are you doing here? What is Echo doing here? Why is Echo treating you like her master? I thought you had been kidnapped and Echo was going to harm you to get to Grandfather.”

Grandmother shook her head. “You sound oh so very ignorant right now, Kevin, much more ignorant than I’d expect the son of Theodore to be. But then, I suppose that is to be expected, given how little contact we’ve had and how hard I’ve worked to make sure that no one knows what I’m truly trying to do.”

“Truly trying to do?” I repeated. “Where’s Grandfather? Is he still alive?”

“I’m over here, Kevin,” came Grandfather’s voice from a corner of the room. “Still here, as always.”

“Quiet,” Grandmother snapped at Grandfather. “You will speak only when spoken to, and no more.”

“Yes, dear,” said Grandfather meekly.

“Huh?” I said. “And what about Emma? Where is she?”

“Unconscious,” said Grandmother. “I’ve never liked that girl—too eager to please—so I had Echo knock her out and tie her up and leave her in a closet. She has already served her usefulness. I thought about having her killed, but then I decided that that would be too much work and take too much time. Better to continue along with the plan, the plan that’s been in the works for thirty years, and not waste time killing someone I don’t need to have killed.”

“What plan?” I said. “What are you even talking about? What’s going on here? Are you going to explain or am I just going to be very confused?”

Grandmother tapped her chin in thought. “Ordinarily, I would not bother to explain my plan to someone like you. But since you are my grandson, I think you deserve to know the truth. Blood should never lie to blood, after all.”

Grandmother coughed briefly before looking down at me again. “Do you see this old body of mine, Kevin? Do you see how weak and frail it is?”

“Um, yes,” I said, nodding. “Why?”

Grandmother felt her own face, an annoyed scowled on her ancient features. “Because I hate it. It is disgusting. When I go to bed every night, I can never be sure if I will wake up in the morning. I used to be young and beautiful, with so much energy even after I gave birth to Theodore. And it is that youth and beauty that I fully intend to regain today, no matter the cost.”

“How are you going to do that?” I said. “You can’t reverse the aging process. Well, okay, I think there’s a guy in the INJ who has the power to de-age people, but—”

“Please let me finish, Kevin,” said Grandmother. “You interrupted me. That’s a bad habit for a young man to get into, though I remember that Theodore had that same problem when he was your age. His super intelligence made him think he was better than us, so he never took our authority as seriously as he should have.”

There was a definite hint of bitterness and anger in Grandmother’s voice when she said that. Her tiny, old hands curled into fists, though she did not move them from the table.

“Anyway, back to the story,” said Grandmother. “You asked how I intend to do that? It’s quite simple, though it took a long time to execute. Echo? Is the machine ready yet?”

“Yes,” said Echo from somewhere behind Grandmother. “The Rejuvenator is operational. Would you like me to get it ready?”

“Yes, please,” said Grandmother. “I intend to have my youthful body back before the end of the hour. How long will it take for it to fully boot up?”

“Just a few minutes,” said Echo. “Barring any unforeseen circumstances interrupting it, of course.”

“There should not be any unforeseen circumstances now, Echo,” said Grandmother sharply. “Not when I am this close to regaining my youth.”

“Yes, mistress,” said Echo. “I will do everything in my power to ensure that it all goes well.”

Immediately, I heard a loud machine starting up somewhere behind him. It sounded like a big, old computer, but I couldn’t see it thanks to the clamp around my neck. It sounded very close by, however, and it would probably get really loud once it was fully operational and going.

“Now,” said Grandmother, looking down at me again (if someone who didn’t have eyes could be said to ‘look’ down at something), “where were we? Ah, yes. My goal is simple: Reverse what the aging process has done to my body so I can continue to live and put myself in the right position to take advantage of the future.”

“That’s it?” I said. “That’s all you’re trying to do? Just become young again?”

“It is far more complicated than that,” said Grandmother. “In the long-term, I have much larger plans than simply becoming young again, but yes, that is my current goal. Though it is a means to an end, really, because I want to be ready for what I have seen in the future.”

“What have you seen in the future?” I said. “What did you see that was so important that you need to steal my youth in order to deal with it?”

Grandmother shuddered when I asked that question. “The angels again. Those who came down from the heavens, turning cities into fire and bringing destruction wherever they go. And their leader, a man of unfathomable power, who with but one stroke of his sword, can slay anyone in an instant.”

“What are you talking about?” I said. “Who are these ‘angels’ and who is their leader?”

“I don’t know,” said Grandmother. “All I know is what the future has shown me. But I do know this: He is a threat that only I can stop, but not in this body, not when I am this weak.”

Grandmother sounded a little crazy, so I said, “But I still don’t understand. I thought Grandfather, well, controlled you. I heard that he had ripped out your eyes because he thought he could ‘help’ you. But the way you treat him, it makes it seem like you’re the one who is really in control.”

“What, Matthew, in control of
me
?” said Grandmother. She chuckled. “That old fool couldn’t even control a TV remote. No, I’ve always bossed him around. He’s always lacked the spine to stand up to me.”

“But your eyes …” I said. “What about your eyes?”

Grandmother smiled. “I asked him to remove them myself.”

I gasped. “What? Why? That’s crazy. Why would you ask your husband to remove your eyes? That doesn’t make sense.”

Grandmother rubbed her empty sockets, which looked really creepy to me. “It is related to my power. You know that I can see the future, correct?”

“Yeah,” I said. “But I don’t see what your eyes have to do with that.”

“They limited my vision,” said Grandmother. “That is, I could not see as many visions as I wanted to while I had these eyes. My clearest visions always came at night, whenever I was asleep and had my eyes closed; in contrast, my murkiest visions were always those I had during the day, when I was awake and had my eyes opened. But I wanted to have clear visions all the time, so I had Matthew remove my eyes in order to ensure I would have clear visions no matter the time of day.”

“That’s … disgusting,” I said. “And painful, from what it sounds like.”

“It was painful at first, but worth it in the end,” said Grandmother. “My visions of the future have indeed been clearer since then. Still, it was difficult getting used to blindness, though it is a price I feel was well worth paying. It is about the only useful thing that Matthew has ever done for me.”

“Then why didn’t you tell Dad that?” I said. “I saw the video where Dad told me about your powers. He didn’t mention that you had asked Grandfather to remove your eyes for you.”

“Because I didn’t think he’d understand,” said Grandmother. “Theodore was always such a precocious young child, even before his superpowers first manifested themselves, but that doesn’t mean he was capable of understanding the seemingly irrational decisions of us adults. It was never necessary for him to understand that or anything else, since he was never directly involved in it.”

“So you let him think that Grandfather was an abusive monster just because you didn’t think he’d understand your real reasons for having your eyes removed,” I said.

“I wouldn’t use such … harsh language myself,” said Grandmother. “But yes, that is more or less the point. Not that it matters much; you see, Matthew will go along with whatever I tell him to, because he loves me and supports me in all my endeavors. Right, Matthew?”

“Yes, Jane, of course,” said Grandfather again. “I would never think to question you. I will support you always and forever, just as I promised on our wedding day fifty years ago.”

“See?” said Grandmother, looking down at me with a smirk on her face. “Such a kind and devoted husband. You don’t see too many men like that these days. Most are just so lazy and disrespectful of their wives in particular and women in general.”

“What about Project Neo and the Test Subjects?” I said. “What was that all about? I thought that Grandfather was trying to figure out how to take away a superhuman’s powers.”

“Project Neo?” said Grandmother. “Oh, that was never the actual goal of it. No, the real purpose of Project Neo—one even the government didn’t know—was to help me find ten warriors who could help me fight against the angels that will destroy Earth.”

“Ten warriors?” I repeated. “What are you talking about?”

Grandmother put her hands on her face again, like she was trying to rub lotion into her skin. “In that vision I saw, I saw myself fighting alongside ten powerful warriors helping me defend the Earth. Men and women with powers far beyond my own. I wanted to find them, the ten warriors who would stand by my side and save us from the angels, so I convinced Matthew to fund Project Neo in an attempt to locate these warriors, under the guise of a government study to learn the true origins of superhumans. He even hid its true purpose from the government.”

“Doesn’t sound like it was very successful, given how the Test Subjects broke out of Project Neo and have been trying to kill you and Grandfather,” I said. “Actually, it sounds like it really backfired.”

“Backfired? Not really,” said Grandmother. “The fact that Cadmus Smith went on to become the head of the G-Men is … problematic, but you know, the Test Subjects were never really trying to kill us.”

“What do you mean?” I said. “Isn’t that why Twinfist attacked your mansion? And didn’t they kidnap you to use you against Grandfather?”

“Kidnap? More like rescue,” said Grandmother with a snort. “You see, although Matthew is a loyal and supportive man, every now and then, he’ll get a … little uppity. He’ll try to ‘protect me,’ as he sees it, and won’t let me do what I want. He entered one such episode five years ago when I became so ill I could barely stand, taking me into hiding while my warriors attempted to find me.”

Grandmother sounded incredibly angry about it. She was so angry that she even looked a little scary to me, even though she was a really frail, old thing that probably could get blown away on a windy day if she wasn’t tied down securely. I didn’t hear Grandfather, but he was probably still listening as well.

“You see, I told the Test Subjects to go into hiding,” said Grandmother. “I didn’t want the government to have them and to abuse and experiment upon them, so I had Matthew free them. They were to go into hiding to train and prepare themselves for the day of the angels and only came out of hiding when I called them and told them that the day was coming soon.”

“Soon?” I said. “How soon are we talking?”

“I do not know, because my visions never come with specific dates and times,” said Grandmother. She looked up at the ceiling suddenly, however, like she could see the sky through it. “But they’re coming. Soon, they will be here, and when they do, not even the combined might of the NHA, INJ, and G-Men will be able to stop them. Earth will fall. That much is certain.”

Grandmother sounded very certain of that, so I said, “Is that why Drop was in NYC? Was he looking for Grandfather?”

“Yes,” said Grandmother, looking down at me again. “After Echo and her fellow Test Subjects rescued me, Matthew was still feeling a little rebellious, so he tried to run away. Of course, we found him eventually. I thought about killing him, but then I realized I would need his help to get you here, so I spared his life, though I am not sure how much longer I will allow him to live after this. He can be so rebellious, you know.”