Dark Hunter (23 page)

Jake had been thinking about his family at the moment he teleported—and had appeared in the middle of the living room where his family sat watching a movie.

Weak and upset, Jake had dropped onto a chair, his head in his hands, fighting tears of despair as they laughed at the film. Without Psych everything was lost.

He toyed with the object Psych had given him. At first glance it looked like a watch, and Jake wondered why the hero's last act was to pass it on. He wiped his bloodshot eyes and took a closer look. The watch face was a small glass bubble that held a turquoise liquid. Jake held it up to the light. The liquid moved by itself, silver particles glittering within. Then he noticed an engraving on the glass.

The words: Hero Foundation Sample Receptacle.

Jake's heart skipped a beat as he realized what he was actually looking at. He flipped it over. Underneath was a series of small needles that would prick the skin when the “watch” was worn.

Psych had given Jake a chance. Psych had donated his power—the ability not just to remove and restore memories, but to completely rewire brains, the manifestation of which was the turquoise liquid.

Jake was shaking, both from nerves and lack of power, as he fastened the device to his wrist. There was one button on the side of the bubble. Jake pushed it.

With a faint click the needles punctured his arm, but
he didn't feel anything. Then the liquid suddenly injected into his system with a hiss.

Jake had expected the usual feeling of strength that he got when downloading superpowers, but instead he felt ill. He took a deep breath, but the sensation just got worse.

“Come on!” Jake shouted to himself. He was so close to victory that he couldn't afford to be weak now. He stood on trembling legs between his parents and touched their heads. It was an unpleasant feeling, as if his fingers were actually sliding through their skulls directly into their brains.

“Remember me! Come on! I'm here!”

He was expecting a wave of energy, a flash of colors …
something
to happen. Instead both his parents suddenly looked unfocused, and sagged in their chairs.

“I'm here! It's Jake. Your son, Jake! Remember?”

Then they both started to convulse as if they were being electrocuted. Jake snatched his hands away, afraid that he'd hurt them. They shook for several more seconds before falling limp once more.

“Mom? Dad?”

He moved to Beth, who was watching her parents with a puzzled expression as her brain tried to work out exactly what was happening to them. Jake pressed his hand firmly on her head. She jerked as the last of Psych's power flowed through him.

“Beth? Can you see me?”

She drooled slightly. For a moment Jake thought he'd killed her, but then she shifted position. He turned back to his parents. They were looking straight at him.

They could see him! Jake felt tears of joy spring to his eyes.

His mother frowned. “Jake?”

“It's me, Mom.”

She rubbed her head and winced. “Yes, I know. What's the matter? You look ill. Perhaps you should go to bed early tonight.”

Jake was speechless. He'd done it. Something had
finally
gone his way. This was his first real victory!

Jake had spent the rest of the evening sitting with them as they watched the film. Such a trivial thing felt like the best time of his life. Nobody seemed aware of the time that had passed, which suited Jake fine. He wouldn't have to come up with any lies.

Things got a little dicey when his dad noticed that Jake's room was empty. Luckily he assumed it was the same thieves who had stolen Beth's laptop, and immediately called the police.

While he was on the phone, Jake's cell vibrated. He moved into the kitchen to answer it.

“Hunter? Where are you?”

Jake recognized Mr. Grimm's voice. “I'm at home. Listen, I have some great news—”

A portal suddenly opened right next to him. Mr. Grimm's hand pulled him inside.

Jake was back at the castle. The portal vanished behind him.

“What are you doing?”

Grimm hung up the phone. “Saving you! The moment your father called the police, a squad of Enforcers sprang into action. If you have reverted Psych's influence on them, then they will be able to see the task force that is about to storm your house.”

Jake was alarmed. “I have to go back! Save them!”

“No. The Enforcers will not harm them. But you can't go back there. The Enforcers will always be waiting.”

Jake was crushed. After everything he had been through to be with his family, his prize was spending just a few hours with them watching some awful movie!

“We can move them. How about bringing them here?”

Mr. Grimm shook his head. He looked weary, as though he had been through a battle. “This place is no longer safe. If Chameleon tracked you down here, others will too.”

“Then what can I do?”

Mr. Grimm hesitated for a moment. “You have a choice. With all your powers and abilities you could really be somebody. Shape the world. Or … you
could try to be a normal boy once again. Then nobody would be looking for you. You would have robbed both sides of their superweapon.”

Jake pondered that. If he was normal again, then he could stay with his family, see Lorna, be an average kid. Would he really miss having his powers? Conversely, if he kept the powers then he could defeat those after him, and still be with his family. But he would always be addicted, a slave to Villain.net.

“If I wanted to be normal and get rid of my powers, how could I do it?”

“I have an idea. But it's a long shot. There has been a new turn of events. You may have an unexpected ally, although he doesn't know it yet.”

Jake felt a jolt of excitement. “Who?”

Mr. Grimm looked uncomfortable. “This is a delicate situation, Hunter. As you are learning, the world is a complicated place. Not everything is black-and-white. Sometimes you have to turn your enemies into your friends.”

“I don't understand.”

“The final decision is yours to make: power and glory, or stability and normalcy. What I am about to tell you is highly sensitive for both of us. You must tread carefully.”

“I don't think things can get any more mixed up than they are right now.”

Mr. Grimm steepled his fingers under his chin. His black eyes seemed to bore straight into Jake.

“I assure you, they
will
.”

Jake closed his eyes and calmed himself. He was about to walk into an entirely new world of trouble. He rested a hand on the door handle and hesitated. Beyond was a possible answer to rid him of his addiction.

And it was going to be
far
from easy to deal with. He opened the door and entered.

“Jake!” Lorna Wilkinson turned in surprise, a smile stretching across her face. “What are you doing here?”

“I heard there'd been an accident,” said Jake. He hoped he was acting convincingly. “I just had to see you. Make sure you were okay.”

He crossed the room and hugged Lorna tightly. His mouth felt dry. The one person he had extended his feelings to had turned out to be a real dark horse.

She was a superhero. Mr. Grimm had told him
everything
.

Jake looked around the room. “Hi, Toby. And you're Emily, right?”

Lorna's brother, Toby, and her friend Emily both nodded, their brows knitted with suspicion.

“I think I better explain,” Jake said with a smile. “Lorna and I have been … sort of dating.”

Toby looked like he'd just been slapped. He looked at Lorna, aghast.

“
He's
your boyfriend?”

Lorna blushed, and kept her arm around Jake's waist. “Yeah. He is.”

Jake grinned, although inside he felt like hitting them all with a radioactive blast. They were heroes,
friends
of Chameleon—which automatically made them his enemies.

And Lorna … well, that was complicated.

He looked at the patient lying in bed, hooked up to an armada of machinery.

“How's the Profes—sorry, Pete?”

“Why would you care?” growled Toby.

“A friend of Lorna's is now a friend of mine. I may have been a little short with him, but if he's really hurt …”

“What
exactly
did you hear?” Toby asked suspiciously. “This is a private hospital.”

“Heard he was hit by a truck. I went to your house earlier to see Lorna,” Jake said, recalling the excuse Grimm had armed him with. “There was some guy there called Mr. Grimm. He told me where to find you.”

Toby nodded, apparently satisfied.

“Yeah. A truck. He's not in very good shape.”

Jake stared at the boy in the bed. Pete Kendall had been his favorite bullying target back at school. A real wimp who never fought back. And now it appeared
that he had been one of Hero.com's foot soldiers. Jake recalled when he'd last seen the Professor at school. It was when Knuckles had been pounded into a bunch of cars. Jake had originally thought that it was because Chameleon was on his tail, but now he realized it was the Professor who had attacked Knuckles.

“Hope he pulls through,” Jake said earnestly.

According to Grimm, Pete had fought a huge battle with Basilisk at the Foundation's secret headquarters. Jake didn't believe it, until Grimm showed him security footage of the event. As he had watched the two figures fight on screen, Jake started to respect the nerd he had been bullying for years.

During the fight Pete had smashed through numerous vats of superpowers, exposing himself to higher dosages than Jake had ever been subjected to. Then he'd fallen into a coma. Nobody knew what the effects of absorbing
so much
superpower, so quickly, would be, and the only benchmark they had was what had happened to Jake.

Jake's DNA was entangled with the whole Villain.net system, but Pete had no such issues. Only when he recovered would they truly know how he had changed.

The solution to Jake's final problem lay inside the victim of his most aggressive bullying.

* * *

Jake excused himself from the hospital as soon as he could. He had wanted to see the evidence with his own eyes. He had also wanted to see Lorna, somebody he had once liked and trusted but who had turned out to be the enemy. Luckily she knew nothing about him and Villain.net, a fact he could manipulate at a later date.

Jake crossed the dark hospital grounds to the cover of a small wood from where he intended to teleport back to the castle. He would try to see his family tomorrow, and give them a plausible explanation of why he had disappeared and heavily armed soldiers had stormed the house.

His thoughts were turbulent once again. Then he heard his name being called. He stopped. Had he imagined it?

“
Hunter
,” came the whisper in the darkness.

The voice was behind him. He spun around—and came face-to-face with Chromosome. She leaned against a tree, not a hair out of place, and smiled warmly at him.

“You're such an easy man to follow, Hunter.”

Jake smirked. “Follow me now!”

He closed his eyes to teleport—but nothing happened. He looked around in panic.

Chromosome laughed. “Sorry to have to take that power away, but I couldn't have you vanishing again before we resolved our differences.”

Jake's heart sank. He couldn't fight her alone. He knew that just a few hundred yards away sat three

superheroes who could help him out … but that meant revealing his true colors to them.

“I'm not helping you,” snarled Jake. He clenched his fists and they burst into brilliant blue flames. “I'll strike you down so hard …”

He trailed off. Chromosome was no longer looking at him. She was staring wide-eyed behind him. Jake sensed movement and turned to see a little girl staring levelly at him.

“Kid, get out of here! Run!” Jake urged her.

“I think not, Hunter.”

There was an edge in her voice that instantly alarmed Jake.

“How do you know my name? Who are you?”

“Yohg-Shuggor, the Destroyer of Worlds, the Bringer of the Night, the Spawn of the Damned, Eater of the Dead, the Apocalypse Harbinger, and the Shaker of Worlds. But you can call me Amy.”

Jake backed away from the crazy kid. Then there was more movement in the shadows. It was difficult to make out features in the dim light, but he heard Chromosome gasp as six newcomers surrounded them both. Jake discovered that he was standing back-to-back with Chromosome.

“Who are you?” he demanded, sounding much braver than he felt.

“I am Necros, leader of the Council of Evil.”

Jake shivered at the despair in the voice. He glanced at the shadowy figures circling him. Their forms were mostly hidden, but there was no escaping the sense of immense power that came from them.

There was
no
way out of this situation. He was going to die.

“Finally we catch up with you,” hissed Necros. “You thought if you tried to overthrow the Council of Evil, that the Council Memberss would not hunt you down?”

“It wasn't me. It was Basilisk,” Jake stammered before he realized that they were addressing Chromosome.

“This has all been a misunderstanding, Necros. A plot to remove
me
from the Council.”

Jake could hear her voice tremble. He slowly moved away from her.

“Then it has succeeded. You
will
be banished!”

“No, you can't do that to me!” Chromosome screamed as the seven circling figures each raised a hand and pointed at her in unison.

Jake saw gossamer threads stream from their fingers and smother Chromosome. They quickly wrapped around her before she could struggle. Then she began to disintegrate, her body collapsing from head to foot as though she'd been turned to sand. The thin threads fell to the floor, eating away the fine dust until nothing remained.

It had been a swift execution. Her blood-curdling screams still rang in Jake's ears. He lowered his hands, the flames extinguishing. He knew it was pointless trying to fight his way out. The seven most powerful supervillains on the planet were studying him, but he could only see silhouettes and glowing eyes, and smell something like rotting meat.