The Enemy (by Andrew Belle)
"Don't try to follow me. I would hold you down if I could. Make you the enemy . . ."
iii. autophobia; the fear of abandonment
Moonlight shone down on the street below as Orion waited from the shadows of the alleyway, keeping a watchful eye on the large building across the street, which had a thick cloud of fog around it. Thunder rumbled somewhere in the distance; luckily it wasn't raining. He and Bethany had flattened themselves against the wall, her dressed as Twilight Girl and him as Kid Twilight.
According to his watch, it was only a few minutes away from midnight, which wasn't much of a problem but last time he checked they'd been waiting since 11:00, when they arrived here. He felt like his senses were getting duller the longer he sat there, his patience wearing thin. His body felt stiff from sitting in the same position. Noises sounded far away, all except for the occasional car that would zoom past.
Doc Twilight had gone ahead to sneak past the supervillians on his own, and was supposed to send Bethany and Orion a signal once it was clear for them to follow. Orion respected Doc's plan greatly — he really did — but he hated that he and Bethany had to wait for so long . . . and not just because he was concerned about Doc Twilight.
Orion's current concern was how long he'd have to be alone with Bethany. She could be admirably brave sometimes, but usually she was just annoying. She never listened to Orion. Bethany was lucky that it was dark out, because her red hair would instantly make her stand out to anyone that noticed them — and that would get them both caught. Yes, Doc's hair might've been red also, but he was more experienced at sneaking around.
Orion had to hide his growing impatience but he could tell that neither of them could wait for too much longer. Not that they had a choice. They would have to wait for as long as it took for Doc to send them a signal, which was already taking long enough. Being the superhero's sidekick sometimes meant having to wait around for long periods of time.
But they'd been waiting for so long that he was getting worried. Why was Doc taking so long? He considered leaving Bethany behind and going ahead to find Doc himself. It would definitely move things along quicker, but Orion knew that he couldn't do that. His job was to wait for Doc's signal, so that's what he would do.
He glanced over at Bethany, who kept casting nervous glances over at the large building that her father had entered. She was shifting from foot to foot, clearly anxious about her father. She probably looked more ready than Orion to jump in after Doc Twilight, which was another reason that he'd have to stay here for now.
If she ran in there without even having a plan, like she usually did when her father was in trouble, she would only throw them into danger. Orion had to watch her, to keep her from doing something reckless. The only thing worse than Doc getting into danger was Bethany also getting into danger, and Orion would rather not have to save both of them if this whole thing turned out to be a mess.
All of the sudden, a small flash of light caught Orion's eye, and he quickly jabbed Bethany's side as a small sense of relief swelled in his chest. "There's the signal."
"Where?" Bethany whispered. Orion pointed it out to her, and as soon as her eyes landed on it, her whole face lit up. "Great, let's go."
As she started running down the alleyway, Orion noticed for the first time that there was a weird foggy feeling in his head. Almost like he hadn't fully woken up yet. He tried shaking it off. The worst possible thing for a superhero to do was get distracted or unfocused, and Orion wasn't about to let himself do that. He always gave one-hundred percent to every fight, so he couldn't afford to slack off now.
Ignoring the fogginess, Orion quickly caught up with Bethany, and the two of them exited the alleyway, coming around to approach a window at the front of the building. From what he could tell, it was dark inside. It was better that way, so sneaking around would be easier. So far, it looked deserted inside but Orion knew from experience that there were definitely going to be a few supervillians lurking around in there.
Orion shoved the window up as far as it could go, not feeling very surprised that it'd been unlocked. That was usually how it went. Many places that Orion had snuck into had a bad habit of keeping their windows unlocked, which either meant that the supervillians were careless or had simply forgotten to lock their windows. Or both.
He climbed through the window first, having hardly any difficulty at all due to his years of training. Climbing through windows had been something that Doc had taught him, of course, given how the Twilights liked taking the stealthy approach to fight villains — only Twilight who wasn't so good at that was Bethany.
He touched his feet to the floor as quietly as he could, hastily stepping away from the window. He glanced around to see that he was in a dark building, with stairs a few feet ahead of him that led to a second floor. Paintings and frames photographs covered the walls, and an abandoned dining room was to the left of him. Cobwebs had formed on a ceiling light, which hung above Orion's head.
From what he could tell, a family had clearly lived here many years ago, but must've moved away at one point. That didn't explain why the family's pictures were still there, though. Maybe the family were all supervillians, or maybe supervillians had taken over their house. Either way, there was definitely a supervillian lair here.
Not long after, Bethany climbed through, taking longer than Orion had. She almost tripped on the way in, but straightened herself out before she could fall. He was about to give a snide remark about her poor ability to climb through windows when he heard a noise from down the hallway that made him freeze.
Orion glanced at Bethany, putting a finger to his lips. She nodded, and the two of them slowly began walking down the hallway. As they went further down, the noise got louder, and Orion noticed that it sounded like a humming sound . . . the type that a car would make, or even a machine.
"Where's that noise coming from?" Bethany whispered from behind him.
Orion didn't answer. He kept silent until they came across a closed door, where a light was shining from the crack in the door. It was the brightest thing Orion could see, as the rest of the house was dark and seemed deserted. That was another part that didn't make sense. Clearly the supervillians weren't too concerned with security, or else they'd be swarming the halls.
There it was. He could definitely tell that the humming noise was coming from behind the door. Just to be sure, he walked a few feet past it, but the noise only got softer. "I think it's here," Orion said quietly, walking back to the door. He pressed his ear against the door, and the humming grew louder.
"Are you sure?" Bethany asked, biting her lip. When he only nodded, she pressed her own ear against the door, listening for the sound. A moment later, she stepped back, flashing a grin at him. "Let's kick some supervillian butt."
Glancing left and right to make sure there weren't any supervillians around, Orion placed his hand on the doorknob and jiggled the knob once, twice, then three times. Unsurprisingly, the door was locked. Not that that would stop them from getting inside. It would just make it a bit harder, because there was no quiet way to barge open a door.
"Door's locked," Orion muttered, taking a step back. "Stand back. I'll try to kick it—"
"Shut up, I've got this," Bethany whispered, and a second later he saw her turn into a cloud of gas. He felt a surge of pride for his sister at the smart idea she'd come up with — not that he'd tell her that — and watched as Bethany slipped easily through the bottom of the door.
He felt more annoyed, though, that her idea had been better than anything he could come up with in that moment. But that was the purpose of working in a team. Sometimes you had to let the other person do something that you couldn't . . . even if that person was reckless and annoying. It was something Orion had no choice but to learn, back when he'd become Doc's sidekick.
A few seconds later, the door was slowly cracked open, and Orion found himself staring at Bethany again. And a set of stairs that led down into a basement. Instantly, the humming noise got louder. Even though the room was fairly bright, Orion kept his guard up, starting down the stairs as quietly as he could.
It would be hard to hide from any supervillians, given how bright it was in the basement. But it wasn't like they could just turn off the lights. That would make sneaking around easier, but it would get them caught for sure. The most he could do was step as lightly as he could on each stair, to try making as little noise as possible.
As they got to the bottom, Orion was expecting a hoard of supervillians in the room. He expected to hear shouts and get weapons thrown at him, but all he got was more humming. No voices. Oh, and a basement filled with machines, computer monitors, and futuristic-looking weapons.
Orion wasn't surprised at all to see this; he'd been expecting it. It wasn't uncommon to see supervillians having rooms filled with world-destroying weapons like these. It was a little weird that it was in the basement of a house, but it was much weirder that there weren't any supervillians in the room to begin with.
"That was easy," Bethany said, sounding surprised at their own success. Turning away from him, she slowly walked up to a huge ray gun, touching it lightly with her fingers. "Wow, I've never seen so many weapons in one place before."
Orion followed her, but more warily. He narrowed his eyes. The room was strangely empty, the now that they were inside he could hear the same humming noise louder than ever. It must've been coming from all of the machines. He glanced around the room, feeling more confused by the second — an emotion he didn't like having. If there were this many weapons, why wasn't there anyone guarding them? There'd have to be some guards around here, but somehow, there weren't.
"I'm sure you haven't," Orion replied, throwing a dark look over his shoulder, where the door was closed shut behind him.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Instead of answering her question, he asked, "Why isn't there anyone guarding this room?"
"I don't know." Bethany frowned. "Maybe Dad led them all away?"
"Maybe."
"Unless there was never anyone guarding it," she said, her eyes widening. "If Dad did lead everyone away then he wouldn't have been able to send us the signal. He would've been too busy fighting."
"So?"
"So, maybe there was no one guarding it in the first place. Maybe that's why we haven't seen any supervillians, because they aren't here."
Orion's mouth twisted into a scowl. "That's ridiculous," he said, as Bethany rolled her eyes. "The whole point of Doc Twilight sneaking in first was so he could lead the supervillians away. So that we could destroy the weapons they're making."
"But doesn't it make sense?" Bethany asked, raising her eyebrows. "My father couldn't have led all the supervillians away, unless there just weren't that many here to begin with. It doesn't make sense that all of them would've followed him. There's always someone guarding weapons like this. I bet there aren't any supervillians here at all."
Orion hated to admit that she was right, and he didn't have to do it very often. But he wasn't about to do it today, or ever.
He crossed his arms. "If you think no one was here in the first place, then how do you explain him taking so long to send us a signal?"
That seemed to confuse her. "I don't know. I guess he was busy looking for the supervillians or something."
"Right. Because they aren't here, apparently."
"My theory actually makes sense!"
"Whatever," he said, turning back to the ray gun. "Your theory doesn't make any sense. And it doesn't matter, either."
"It doesn't matter?"
"No," Orion shot back. "We should destroy the weapons before anyone figures out we're here. Or before anyone comes back to this room." He took out his Twilight staff. "The faster we do this, the faster we can meet back up with Doc and take those villains to jail."
"I still think that there aren't any supervillians here," Bethany said.
"There'd have to be supervillians here. We saw them earlier."
"Then why aren't they guarding their very dangerous-looking room of weapons? And why does the house look completely empty? And most importantly, where's Dad?"
"I don't know, okay?" Orion sighed in annoyance, tossing his cape behind him. "Can you stop talking already?"
She glared at him, and he heard her mutter "Jerk" under her breath. He pretended not to hear. Simultaneously, they huddled around the first table of weapons, analyzing the best way to destroy them. Huge ray guns covered the table, some of them looking like they weren't even finished being built while others were fully intact. They seemed to radiate electricity and power, even while being turned off.
Orion had to admit that despite his disgust for supervillians, the weapons were well-made. He'd never seen anything like them before. He almost considered taking the weapons back to the Lawful Legion instead of destroying them, but there'd be no point in that. And it wouldn't be logical when it was supervillians who'd built them, people who enjoyed crime and doing evil.
Taking his Twilight staff in both hands, Orion took some of his pent-up anger (plus, his years of strength training from Doc Twilight) and swung it at one of the smaller ray guns. The impact should've shattered the gun, or at least broken parts of it, but all it did was skid across the table and clatter to the ground. Orion went over to it, expecting at least something to be damaged. Unfortunately, it didn't even leave a dent.
"It's not working?" Bethany asked, looking over at him. Orion wordlessly shook his head, hitting it again a few times for good measure. Nothing happened. He felt his anger rising. It'd take a lot more than a Twilight staff to break it.
It was time to try something else. Orion ditched his Twilight staff, strapping it back over his shoulder and taking out his second best weapon: a Twilight throwing star. Taking a few steps back, Orion swung his arm back and sent the throwing star hurtling towards the ray gun. The throwing star landed directly on the ray gun, but flew backward into the wall, ricocheting off of it.
"What?" Orion hissed, just as Bethany transformed into a gigantic boulder and rolled herself over the same ray gun he'd been trying to break. If anything could've destroyed it, it was that. But as soon as Bethany turned back into her normal human self, Orion was shocked to see that there was no damage. It was unbreakable!
"Okay, this is insane!" Bethany huffed. She was starting to look as irritated as he was. "I don't get it! Why can't we destroy them?"
"Nothing you do will destroy them," said a deep voice that definitely was not Doc Twilight's.
Instinctively, Orion held up his staff, already prepared to defend himself. He didn't enjoy it, but he was used to getting attacked from behind. That was always the hardest tactic to defend yourself from, but luckily Orion was trained by the best superhero he knew, and he never lost a fight.
The two teenagers both quickly turned to see a man dressed as a peach standing in the basement doorway. Orion's heart leapt to his throat. Standing on the stair in front of the man were two more supervillians, one dressed as a bird and the other as an apple. Both of them were holding huge ray guns that were similar to the ones in the room, and they were pointing it at Orion and Bethany.
Supervillians.
Orion felt the smallest sense of satisfaction that Bethany had been wrong and he'd been right, but he pushed that thought away for the moment. He tried not to give away any shock on his part, and firmly held his Twilight staff in both hands, going through the strategies he'd take to knock out the supervillian the quickest way possible. Between him and Bethany, it'd be easy to take a few supervillians down together.
"Oh yeah?" Bethany said. "We'll see about that when you're in jail and all of your weapons are gone!"
The Peach stared at her, then chuckled manically. "Is that so?"
"Yeah." She nodded. "It is!"
"How did you get these weapons?" Orion questioned. "I've never seen anything like them in Jupiter City."
The man just laughed. "You're not getting anything out of me, Kid Twilight. That's classified information."
Orion sighed. Classified information? Really? He had definitely used that excuse a few times to hide things from Bethany. Still, these supervillians obviously knew what they were doing if they were making weapons that couldn't be destroyed. He'd never heard of a weapon that couldn't be destroyed in some way.
The man glanced at his accomplices, snapping his fingers. "If the sidekicks are here, Doc Twilight is, too. Get rid of the kids. I'll find him."
Slight panic filled Orion at the thought of his father figure getting hurt. It was a good thing that the supervillians hadn't found him yet. They hadn't even known he was here until now, which just showed how low their security must be. He wasn't sure if there were more than three supervillians, but if there were, then Doc might not be able to take them all by himself.
He needed to either help Doc or destroy these weapons, and between the two, the second one would be the faster option since they were already in the basement. But to his frustration, the weapons were indestructible. Not that Orion wouldn't get those weapons destroyed somehow; he would make sure of it before he left here.
If he even had the chance to.
The two supervillians pointed their ray guns at Bethany and Orion, pulling the trigger on their weapons. Out of the corner of his eye, Orion saw the Peach walk back out the door for a split second. He dove to the right, and Bethany transformed into a small rubber ball, bouncing at an angle to the left. Two laser beams hit the side of the wall, in the same spot where they'd just been standing.
Orion didn't stop to see if Bethany had transformed back. Not that he cared too much about her, unless she did get hurt and he'd have to actually express sympathy for once, which he wasn't good at doing. He had to assume that she hadn't gotten hit, as the only thing he heard was gunfire. It filled his ears, drowning out even the buzzing noise from the machines.
He gritted his teeth so tightly that he could feel himself getting a headache. It also could be from his irritableness, but he blamed it on his teeth. He always seemed to have a headache these days, between all the crime-stopping and fights he did almost every day. Not to mention, when Bethany was saying something completely idiotic. That was when he really got a headache.
He hurriedly picked himself off the floor, then ducked behind a table just inches away from a laser that would've gotten to him. He knew he wasn't worried about the lasers — since he was an expert at dodging any obstacle that came his way — but he felt his muscles tensing up anyway.
That was probably from the irritation, too.
Seriously? Why couldn't the supervillians have come after Orion and Bethany destroyed their weapons? It would be a lot more convenient if they had. Too bad convenience wasn't a thing right now, or else they wouldn't be hiding as they got shot at with lasers. And they probably would've had the weapons destroyed by now.
Shifting to the other side of the table, Orion carefully poked his head out of hiding. He cursed under his breath. The Peach was nowhere to be seen, while the other supervillians were on opposite sides of the room, one trying to fire at Bethany and the other at Orion.
If he squinted his eyes, Orion was almost positive he could see the many tables where Bethany must've been hiding behind. It was difficult to tell where she was, with the lasers flying through the air. He knew that he needed to get over there. He had to get past the laser beams, get to Bethany, and fight the supervillians, but how?
Orion glanced at the supervillian nearest him, the one dressed as a bird. Almost as soon as Orion looked at him, the supervillian grinned, releasing a flurry of lasers from his ray gun. Grunting, Orion ducked back underneath the table. He was considering somehow attacking the supervillian from behind, but as he watched the lasers fly through the room, the thought slipped from his head.
He could tell that the supervillian must've not been aiming very well, because the lasers had stopped going so far above Orion's head and were now aimed lower — at the tables. One or maybe two of the lasers managed to hit a ray gun laying on the table, and that was when something surprising happened.
Instead of the laser bouncing right off of the gun, the whole thing exploded into little pieces, chunks of what used to be the ray gun falling all around Orion. Orion fell backward in surprise, hitting the table. The weapons that he and Bethany hadn't been able to destroy were apparently destroyed . . . by their own lasers?
"What did you do that for?" he heard the other supervillian shout angrily.
"It was an accident!"
"Well, you should've been aiming at the kid!"
"I was!"
As the argument grew heated, Orion noticed the lack of lasers in the air and took the opportunity. He poked his head out, checked to make sure the supervillians were still busy, and scanned the room for Bethany. He spotted her on the opposite end of the room, both of her hands on a table as she slowly pushed herself up into standing.
Her eyes locked on Orion's, and she nodded her head in the direction of the arguing supervillians. Orion nodded back. He understood. Working in a team with her was surprisingly easy, as they were always on the same page, even when they sort of hated each other half the time. Well, most of the time for Orion.
Orion held up three fingers, gradually moving them down. Bethany also held up three fingers, mirroring him.
One . . .
He clenched his hand tighter around his Twilight staff, his eyes darting back at the supervillians. Ironically, they were still arguing and hadn't even noticed Bethany and Orion standing up. It wouldn't be long before they noticed, though.
Two . . .
Orion looked back at Bethany. She was holding a Twilight throwing star, and even from here, he was pretty sure he could see her hand shaking. He would've reprimanded her on the best way to throw a throwing star (which was with a steady grip), but he was too far away. That, and his throat was tight because he kept worrying about Doc Twilight.
Three!
Both of them sprang from their hiding places. Orion's feet seemed to fly across the basement floor as he charged towards the dressed-like-a-bird supervillian, who's name he didn't remember. Holding his Twilight staff with both hands, Orion swung it hard at the supervillian's feet, who whirled around a second too late and was sent stumbling to his knees.
"Hey!" the supervillian roared. "You can't do that!"
"Oh really?" Orion said, unable to keep the smirk from drifting onto his face. He swung his staff again, and the man rolled to the side, surprising Orion by grabbing his staff. He pulled, and Orion fell to the ground with him, losing his grip on his staff. He felt his temperature rising. Anger flooded through his body, swirling up into his chest.
That supervillian would pay for taking his staff.
Now holding Orion's staff in one hand and a ray gun in the other, the supervillian gave Orion a wide grin. He wouldn't have it for long, though. Running on anger, Orion swung his fist back, punching the supervillian hard enough that he fell backwards onto the floor. Serves you right.
He lunged forward, grabbing his Twilight staff and the ray gun at the same time. Still groaning from where Orion had punched him, the supervillian held on tightly, apparently refusing to let go. Orion grunted, then kicked the man in the shin, causing him to loosen his grip. He used all the strength he could muster until finally, finally, his Twilight staff came free from the man's hands.
Then, he saw the point of the ray gun swiveling around the face him — a stupid move on the supervillian's part, if you asked Orion — and before the man's hand could pull on the trigger, Orion kicked his foot out again, hitting the man hard in the elbow. The man yelped, loosening his grip on the ray gun.
Using his Twilight staff like a baseball bat, Orion swung it directly at the ray gun, causing it to topple out of the man's hands and skid across the floor. He stood up, hitting his staff against the man's stomach before yanking the man's mask off.
"I hope you'll learn your lessons in jail," Orion growled lowly, giving the supervillian an intimidating glare.
"I'm not going to jail!" the man protested. "You can't make me!"
Rolling his eyes, Orion made sure to knock him out this time so he wouldn't try getting out of it. He looked back at Bethany, who'd finished fighting around the same time as him. She ran a hand over the top of her hair, breathing heavily as her eyes landed on the ray guns at their feet, and a knowing smile slowly formed on her face.
She looked at him with a glint in her eye, and there wasn't a single part of him that felt good about whatever she was about to say. "Hey, wait, I have an idea."
"A good one?" Orion asked sarcastically as she bent down to pick up a ray gun. It must've been heavier than it looked, because she nearly dropped it before steadying it with both hands.
"Yep."
At that moment, he realized what her idea was, and as beneficial as it was for destroying the weapons, it was also dangerous and reckless, like all of her ideas. Well, most of her ideas. Some of her ideas actually made sense to him. This one unfortunately did, but that didn't mean he thought it was a good idea.
"I never said I agreed to doing this," Orion told Bethany as she carefully began aiming it at a table filled with weapons.
"Nope. You didn't."
"You're going to get us killed, you know that?"
Bethany stopped in her tracks, lowering her weapon slightly as she turned to him. "Look, I don't know how this'll go, and I hope it'll work, but will you just go along with it anyway? For once in your life? For me, Orion? Your adopted sister who knows what she's doing?"
When he remained silent, she bent down to pick up something, adding, "And no, I won't get us killed." She shoved the second ray gun into his hands, giving him a mocking smile. "Well, not on purpose. See, I have a plan."
Everything was over before Orion even realized it.
Destroying all of the weapons caused enough explosions to last Orion a lifetime, but no, they didn't get killed, and surprisingly no part of the house caught on fire. The only thing remaining was a bunch of broken ray guns scattered across the floor, most of them reduced to tiny, metal pieces.
They'd just finished tying up the unconscious supervillians when the basement door flew open. Orion was relieved to see who was on the other side. It was Doc Twilight. He didn't seem to be injured; only tired. He was breathing heavily, his cape wrinkled and appearing somewhat disheveled.
Doc grinned at them. "Nice work!"
"Dad!" Bethany said, grinning too. She hugged him then, and Orion felt sick for some reason. Watching them made him realize he'd never be that affectionate — or close — with Doc Twilight.
Despite everything, despite all the years they'd trained together and despite how Doc had saved him from the grief he'd felt when his parents had passed away, there would always be a gap between them. Bethany was his daughter. Orion was the sidekick that lived with them, who had kind of become Doc's son but would never really be his son.
"I'm so glad you're okay. You did great with destroying these weapons," Doc Twilight said, pulling away with his hands still on Bethany's shoulders. He glanced at Orion and patted him on the shoulder. "I'm glad you're okay too, kid."
"Don't get too sentimental," Orion replied tartly, although he knew he wouldn't have wanted a hug anyway. It would've been a bit embarrassing and he wasn't one to get embarrassed. Still, he couldn't help but compare the way Doc acted with Bethany compared to him. There were knots in his stomach. He realized what the feeling was.
Jealously.
Doc laughed a bit, then grew more serious. "Turns out there were a few more supervillians that ran from the house. I had to track them down, but they all should be headed to jail right now."
Orion nodded. "Okay. Good." He points at the supervillians. "They'll need to go, too."
"I already called the police. They'll be here in a few minutes to take them."
As they went up the stairs, leaving the knocked-out supervillians behind, Doc Twilight stopped for a second, turning and clamping a hand on Orion's shoulder. "You alright after that fight?"
"Of course I am," Orion snapped, noticing how his voice sounded more irritable than normal.
"Are you sure, Orion?"
He grunted.
"I'll take that as a yes." Being used to Orion's grunts by now, Mr. Sanderson didn't seem to have difficulty understanding what he'd meant. "All right, son," he said with a smile. He bounded the rest of the way up the stairs, tapping his hand against the door. "I'm gonna check up on Bethany."
Doc Twilight left, but Orion stood there silently, his muscles tensing. He stared at the spot where his father figure had just been. Son. Even though he must've called Orion that a few times in the past it never failed to make him shiver. He thought of Doc like a father, and to know that Doc thought of him as his very own son was almost . . . heartwarming. Orion rarely got that feeling.
After standing there for a few seconds, Orion inwardly scolded himself to keep moving and made up for it by taking the stairs three at a time. He started walking down the hallway, the floorboards creaking with every step, but something made him stop. Not something physical. It was more like an invisible force.
Orion slowly turned to his left, where he saw a portrait hanging on the wall. It shouldn't have been anything special or eye-catching; it only showed a family of three. Two parents and three children: all girls. They all had huge smiles, which looked too real to be plastered on. For some reason, it stopped him in his tracks.
As he stared at it, he wondered if the Sanderson's had a picture like that in their house. They probably did. When Bethany had come into his life, Orion had discovered that Doc Twilight had a daughter and a wife, that he'd lived with them in the nonfictional world until suddenly . . . he hadn't. There wasn't a portrait like that in Orion's house. And if there was, Orion guessed he wouldn't be in it.
"Orion!" he heard Bethany call, and he glanced over to see her and Doc standing outside. "Are you coming?"
Orion didn't bother answering. Throwing another look at the family portrait, he ran out of the dark house, keeping his expression blank to avoid any confrontation. He closed the door behind him, joining Doc and Bethany on the city street. He had to remind himself to stop thinking this way over a stupid portrait, but the seed had already been planted. He tried to forget what he'd seen.
"Police are here," Bethany breathed, and Orion followed her gaze. Sure enough, police cars were turning into their street, sirens loud and their bright lights dancing all across the night sky. It made him feel good to know that justice was being served, but not by much.
Doc Twilight went to talk to the police for a few minutes, probably discussing the details about the crime seen. The three of them stayed there for the next half hour until all the supervillians were taken into custody, handcuffs placed around their wrists. That was always the most satisfying part of stopping crime. Even though many of them tended to break out of jail, Orion liked putting them into it.
The walk home was filled with conversation and laughter, mostly on Doc and Bethany's part. Cars honked on the road, and neon letters were more visible than ever from the tops of buildings. Even though every store was closed, they managed to find a candy store that was still open; apparently it was open 24 hours. Orion thought that was suspicious. Bethany told him he was being paranoid.
They left the store holding two bags of candy. Orion could hardly remember the last time he'd had any, or any time that he'd wanted to have any, ever. But Bethany had forced him to get something, so he did, holding up a bag of sour gummies that he couldn't even pretend to like. How anyone could eat this, he didn't know. It was as sour as the package said it to be.
"Oh, I forgot to remind you," Orion said to Bethany as he crumpled up his bag of sour gummies, which was still filled because he'd only eaten about two. "When you throw a throwing star, try not to make your hand shake. Your aim is terrible."
"What?" Bethany turned on him, furrowing her brows. "Are you kidding me? I'm great at it, and my hand does not shake!"
"It does when you get nervous."
"I wasn't nervous."
"You were."
"Does everything have to be a competition between you two?" Doc Twilight asked with amusement. He was walking in between Bethany and Orion, eating the most candy out of all of them. Orion thought it wasn't a good idea for a superhero to eat so much candy in one night, but he didn't protest, because they rarely did this and it actually felt kind of refreshing.
"Yes," Bethany said hotly as she slid an M&M into her mouth.
"Of course," Orion said, then made the mistake of popping another sour gummy in his mouth. He scowled, spitting it out immediately. "Disgusting."
"I see you're really enjoying that," Doc Twilight said, a grin on his face. Orion responded by sending him a look, tossing the bag of gummies in the nearest trash can. He hated even the sight of it, and he could still taste the sour on his tongue. Yeah, he was never getting that again. This was precisely the reason why he rarely had candy; he'd mostly just had it when he was young.
Bethany burst out laughing, her annoyance worn out. Doc joined in, and for possibly the first time, Orion wanted to laugh, too. But smiling was highly uncommon for him, so any way he did it felt kind of forced, no matter how much he was enjoying himself. The night air was cool and crisp against his skin; it felt nice. It reminded him that he could still feel things; he was real.
Despite a hole being carved into his heart when his parents passed, despite sometimes not feeling any emotion but anger, despite all the pain, he was real and he had a true purpose in life. Being with his family was the only thing that could remind him of that. He caught Bethany's eye, and he smiled for real. For a moment, life was happy. As happy as things could get for him, which was saying something.
But then, everything fell apart.
It was sometime around two in the morning when they got home, all of them exhausted by now. Numb and detached, Orion mumbled goodnight to Doc and Bethany before dragging himself up the stairs, into his bedroom. He dropped his Twilight staff onto his bed with an unceremonious thud, pulling off his mask and setting it on his bedside table.
He caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror, and was hardly surprised to see that the circles under his eyes were dark and prominent, and his black hair was practically hanging in his eyes. There was a shadow across his face, making his features look darker than normal. His face also looked paler than usual, and his eyebrows were scrunched together.
You look like a zombie, a voice in the back of his head said.
Shut up, he told himself.
He was about to change into pajamas when he heard footsteps from down the hall, coming closer and closer. He felt confused, and if anything, a bit grouchy. If Bethany was coming over to talk to him, he was not in the mood. He straightened up as the door swung open, making a loud creaking noise.
But the person standing in the doorway wasn't Bethany. It was Mr. Sanderson, now out of his superhero costume as he wore a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt. There was an expression on his face that Orion didn't recognize; he'd never seen Doc look at him that way before, and for some strange reason, it sent a cold, unwelcoming chill down his spine.
"Uh, is something . . . wrong?" Orion asked warily, shifting his weight.
"Sorry I have to do this, kid. But you were holding me back from what I really wanted," Doc Twilight said, revealing a blow dart gun that he'd been hiding behind his back. "You were always holding me back."
Grimacing, he pointed it directly at Orion and fired. The noise wasn't even that loud, but to Orion it sounded like a bomb had gone off. Horror, an emotion that he didn't like expressing, filled him. Time seemed to slow down as the blow dart came towards him, and all Orion could think about was that Doc was replacing him with Bethany, his actual, biological daughter.
But then, strangely, unusually, surprisingly, Orion could not move. He was stuck to the floor like glue. His incredible instincts and reflex skills were long-gone as he felt a sharp pain prick his leg, and he looked down to see a tranquilizer dart there. His vision blurred; he saw spots before his eyes. Almost instantly, everything went black and he collapsed to the floor.
Bright lights danced before Orion's eyes as soon as he opened them, and he had to shut them immediately. He groaned, rolled to his side, and forced his eyes open again. The ceiling was spinning. Stupid grogginess, he thought with some frustration. He blinked several times, struggling to understand why things were so blurry and why his body felt like lead.
The first thing he noticed when his vision fully returned to him was that he was laying on the floor of his bedroom — not his bed — and there was a dull pain in his leg. Weirdly enough, he was still in his Kid Twilight outfit, wearing everything except his purple mask, which remained sitting on his bedside table.
He also had a headache, but the majority of his pain was in his leg, almost as if he'd been pricked in one particular spot. A somber silence hung in the air, which was odd because he could see sunlight coming through his window, and he didn't even hear Doc or Bethany's voices that usually drifted from downstairs. That was another thing that told him that something was definitely off.
Orion sat up, groaning a bit. His eyes flickered to his clock, which read 10:45 am. He immediately pushed himself to his feet, his heart pounding a little faster. Everything from the night before came crashing back to him like a wave. The fight with the supervillians, the walk back home, and then . . .
Doc Twilight taking out a blow dart and shooting Orion in the leg with it. Orion was almost sure he'd been dreaming that part. Why would his father figure ever do that? He wasn't the Dark anymore. He had no intention of hurting Orion. But even as Orion told himself this, there was a sinking feeling in his gut and he ran out of his room, anticipating the worst.
"Doc? You there?" Orion yelled, running to Doc Twilight's room and forcing the door open. His whole body went cold. The room was empty. The bed had been made, and various things like clothes and shoes and pictures were all missing. There wasn't even an indication of where he'd gone.
But he didn't stop there. No, no way could he stop there. He refused to stop looking for them until there was more evidence. He couldn't assume anything until he knew the truth, but he felt very uneasy anyway. He backed out of the room and went to Bethany's next, calling out for her. There was no response, and the state of her room looked similar to Doc's: things had been taken, assumedly packed away and taken with them.
For once, Orion felt fear. Fear unlike anything he'd ever known, because it looked like they'd purposely done this. They'd left willingly, knowing that Orion was still there. They hadn't been kidnapped, because their stuff would've still been here. The thought crossed his mind that they could be going on a mission, but why would they do that without telling him? He always went with them, no matter what.
He spent the next few minutes searching the entire length of the house, even looking outside. His impatience was growing, as was his fear. It was like they'd just packed up and left, but where? Where were they? They really hadn't left permanently, had they? No, Doc would never do that. Even Bethany wouldn't do that.
Everything was silent. Far too silent. The silence was so suddenly loud, and all Orion wanted was drown it out. He wanted to hear the voices of his adoptive family again. He wanted for them to come back, because as much as he liked being alone, as much as he hated to admit he wanted any kind of affection or love, as much as he kept to himself, he needed them. It felt less like home without them there.
Orion's ears rang as he used his handheld radio to call Mr. Sanderson. He must've called a dozen times, growing more antsy by the second. No call was picked up. Not a single one. It was like Doc was purposely ignoring him. Or maybe he'd accidentally left his radio behind. Every second that passed felt like a punch in the stomach, one after the other.
No answer ever came, and Orion felt the exact same way he'd felt when his parents had passed. Back then, back before Doc had taken him in and raised him, he'd never felt so alone or scared. He'd felt guilty over his parents' deaths, but later that guilt just transformed into anger, directed only at himself for not saving his parents from the alien invasion they'd died in.
After they died, he felt like he was in a deep, dark cave. Life changed very quickly and things took a turn for the worst, making Orion feel more alone and helpless than ever, because his parents were gone, and he had no one to live with. He couldn't remember the last time he'd truly felt like that.
And boy, how he hated feeling that way again. Just like he hated Doc and Bethany for abandoning him, because that's what they did. They left him like his parents left him, and the betrayal cut deep. It brought pain to his chest, and Orion hated it, because emotions were the worst and he hated everything right about now. No, he was furious. Absolutely furious.
He didn't even know where they'd gone or more importantly, why they'd gone. He blamed them over and over for putting him in this position, but the one he blamed most was himself. He should've known it wouldn't last forever. He should've known the moment he laid eyes on Bethany that Doc would no longer want Orion. He should've known.
As Orion finally gave up on the calls, throwing his radio down on the kitchen table in a huff, something in the corner of the table caught his eye. He rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing things. It was a single sheet of paper with handwritten words all over it. He didn't remember seeing it last night, or any day, ever.
Cautiously, Orion came closer and took the paper in both hands. It was a letter. His eyes instantly went to the first line, which said, "Dear Orion", and he was sure that he stopped breathing. It was written to him. And it was written in Doc's handwriting, there was no denying it. It definitely had been written early this morning or last night, whenever they'd decided to leave.
He nearly ripped the letter into shreds.
He would've torn the entire thing apart right then and there, feeling another burst of anger and betrayal that went far beyond his fear at the moment, but something stopped him. He couldn't thrown it away, because he was still missing information. He had to know why. He had to know why they'd left and where they'd actually gone, or else it'd kill him even more than it was killing him already.
Dear Orion,
Something just came up, and I hope you understand why we left. You see, during all those years I was the Dark I had no memories of my family. When I was restored back to my normal self, I remembered who I was. That I had a wife and a daughter, who I hadn't seen in years.
Raising you felt like I was getting a second chance at having a family, but I only did it because I felt bad for you. You'd just lost your parents, and you needed somewhere to live. But I know I made the right decision by leaving. You're old enough to take care of yourself, Orion. You don't need me to raise you anymore. Why should I? I'm not even your father.
I feel like I've been trapped in Jupiter City, and you were exactly what was holding me back. I didn't realize it until much later, until Bethany came to live with us. Having her there, I started to realize that you were what was holding me back from living with my family. My real family. I want to live with my wife and Bethany again, like how life used to be for me.
I was happier then, and I would've lived there forever if I hadn't been changed into the Dark. You have to understand that those are the people I feel most at home with. I guess I've been feeling distant from you, because you aren't my son. You were never supposed to be my son. We've have fun times, yes, but at the end of the day the only people I want to be with is my real family.
So there it is. Sorry for the tranquilizer dart, kid, but there was no easy way to keep you from following us. I know you'll be angry. And I knew you'd follow us, so I figured writing this letter would keep you from doing that. We're heading to the nonfictional world now. My radio isn't going to work while I'm there, so don't expect to hear from me ever again.
- Christian Sanderson
Orion lowered the letter, crumbling it in his hands. He felt like the wind had been knocked out of his lungs. He had very little experience feeling empathy, and didn't even know how to react in a situation like this. Despite knowing that being angry wouldn't do anything to fix things, Orion growled and tore the letter in half.
"Idiot," he grumbled, tearing pieces of the letter away again and again, until little bits of paper fell all around him. "Idiot, idiot, idiot!"
Before he knew it, there was nothing left of the letter. Tiny pieces of paper were scattered across his feet, a significant reminder of what had happened. Orion sank to the ground, burying his head on his knees. He closed his eyes tightly, wondering if it was possible for him to be as broken as the bits of paper at his feet.
The tears were hot and thick in his throat, but he refused to allow his eyes to water. He would never let that happen, not even when he was alone. He hadn't cried since he was young, and would rather show minimal emotion. It made him feel like he had some control over his life, but he realized that he never did. There wasn't anything worth crying or smiling for now, not when he didn't have a single shred of hope left.
Being emotionless suddenly felt a lot easier.
"Out of the fire again, but I'm an ember. I hold a banner for you, but it's upside down . . ."