"He doesn't hate you, Zach. He only thinks he does."
I snorted. "You didn't hear him, Drew. There was hatred in Sam's eyes. I almost thought he was going to kill me."
"Don't be so dramatic. You know you can't pull that over on me."
Ah the joys of older brothers. Drew knew all my dark secrets and he was the one person in the world who would never buy my act. He never let me get away with any of it. But I think he understood why I put up that mask around other people. He knew how deeply our parents and brother had hurt me over the years. He knew I didn't want to let anyone else have a chance of hurting me like that, but at the same time he always pushed for me to be myself.
"I'm worried, Drew. Sam is up to no good, you know that. He says he's just here to ruin the life I'm trying to build for myself, but I know he's got something else planned," I told him.
Drew was silent for a moment and I could hear him typing on the other end. "You know Sam works for our father, right?"
"Not surprising."
"Yeah, so if he's there now, then whatever he's up to has to be father's doing," Drew elaborated. "You're working for that Lee Industries right now, testing out new inventions. If I were a betting man, I'd bet whatever Sam is up to has to do with one of Lee Industries inventions."
That figured.
"Is there any way for you to find out what he's after?" I asked.
"I can try, but sometimes I feel like father hides a lot of things from me," Drew replied.
And that brought me to my next topic. I was sure Drew probably wouldn't have a clue, but I did have good incentive to try. That psycho who nearly let me fall to my death would be back, I knew he would. And I knew he would find me no matter where I went. I needed to have some kind of answer for him.
"Drew, do you know what Project Onyx is?"
Again Drew was silent. I could almost hear the cogs turning in his head. He had a very good memory and hardly ever forgot anything, even the little details. Sometimes I wished I could be a little more like him. He never had any of the problems I did.
"I've heard that before, but it was when we were just kids," Drew finally said. "It was probably one of father's projects."
"Yeah, but what?"
"I don't know, bro. I heard the name a few times, but I don't remember ever hearing anything that might tell me what it was," Drew told me. There was silence for a moment. "Why do you need to know so badly."
It was my turn to be silent. I wasn't sure how much I really wanted my brother to know. All he would do was worry and he worried about me more than I wanted him to anyway. I knew I was going to hate myself for lying to the only family member who still cared about me, but I did it anyway.
"I heard Sam say something about it."
"Really? That might be worth looking into then," Drew replied. I could tell he knew there was something more to it than that, but he didn't push me. "I'll see what I can find out."
"Without father knowing you're looking?" I hinted hopefully.
"Dad doesn't know everything that goes on no matter how much he thinks he does," Drew replied with a smirk in his voice. He paused for just a moment and I could almost hear his brain switching tracks. "You know, it might be time for you to finally grow some balls and make a move on that surfer boy before Sam does."
"Hey, my balls don't have anything to do with it," I retorted, then laughed at myself for such a stupid argument. "I don't want to put my neck out there like that."
"No, you're too chicken shit to be yourself in front of people you'd like to call friends," Drew retorted. "How can you even consider them your friends if you feel like you can't be yourself around them? You admitted it yourself that you're afraid they'll like Sam better than you because you've done nothing but play the arrogant, selfish, egotistical asshole."
"It's not that easy," I argued weakly.
Drew snorted. "No, it is that easy. If you don't want Sam to take everything away from you then don't give him a damn chance. You've left yourself wide open for him to just walk in and take it all away. Besides if they consider the egotistical jerk their friend, why would they have any problem with the real you?"
"Because the real me is gay and has a crush on the very straight surfer boy," I retorted childishly.
"And you really think these friends of yours are that closed minded, that they're homophobic?" Drew prodded.
"I don't know, I haven't taken the chance to find out," I snapped.
"It'll be better coming from you rather than letting Sam out you in a no doubt embarrassing way."
"Alright Dad, are you done lecturing me?"
"Someone has to look out for you. Sometimes I feel like I've been your brother, mother, and father."
"Aren't you talented."
"Yeah well, you're going to be paying for the dye I'll need to keep the gray hairs hidden."
"Yeah, with all the extra cash floating around I'll be sure to do that," I said, rolling my eyes as if he could see it.
"Well, I'd love to sit here and be the target of your fledgling sarcasm attempts, but unlike you I have work to do, real work."
"I work!" I squawked in protest.
"Bye bro."
"I work!" I insisted as he laughed. "You're an ass."
"Love you too little bro," he replied, still laughing, and then hung up before I could protest any further.
"Jerk," I muttered and slipped my phone into my pocket.
I took one last look at the city before I pushed myself to my feet and headed across the roof for the trapdoor leading back inside. I paused once I was inside, debating on what I should do. I knew Drew was right about everything. If I gave Sam an inch he'd take a mile. If I didn't make a move first everything I cared about would be his. I knew he meant it when he said he was going to get Shark before I did, but I couldn't let him do that. At the very least I had to protect my friend from my psycho twin, because no one knew what he was really about.
And I knew I wasn't being a good friend by not telling them the truth. I knew I should have told them exactly what my brother was up to, but that would open the door to more questions and go where I wasn't prepared to go. Drew was right. I was a chicken shit, but I was terrified of what could happen. My parents had never been the most supportive to begin with. They always made me feel like I was never good enough, but the way they totally disowned me had been a surprise. And I would never forget how my twin brother, who was supposed to be right by my side, turned on me like I was some kind of monster. All of that nearly tore me apart. I wasn't sure I could deal with the same thing happening again.
"Hey Hawk."
I snapped out of my thoughts at Axel's voice and looked over at him. "Yeah?"
"Mr. Lee has some new toys for us to test out," Axel told me. "You should also know that Sam wants to tag along."
"I'm sure he does," I muttered.
Axel cocked an eyebrow. "Is that a problem?"
"It's sad really, he's always been jealous of my achievements," I replied, putting on the mask I wanted him to see. "One of these days I'm going to shake him off my coattail."
Of course, Axel bough the act and I followed him back to the main room where the others were apparently waiting for me. Sam threw his arm around my shoulder as we headed to the garage. I sighed to myself. It was going to be a long day.
xxxx
Mr. Lee hit it off with Sam immediately. Sam had the usually reserved inventor relaxed and laughing. My friends seemed just as happy to have him around. I just wondered how things could get any worse.
The bright side of the day was the new aerial combat suit, the Razorwing, Mr. Lee was having me test. It was supposed to allow me to fly higher and faster than before. The helmet had a HUD much like the fighter jets I'd flown in the military, but even more sophisticated. It had so many features I wasn't even sure what all it could do. Mr. Lee said with a neural implant it would be even better, but I wasn't ready to take that step.
The most surprising feature of the suit was the anti-gravity propulsion system. I couldn't even begin to explain how it worked, but something about it made it faster than any jetpack I'd ever owned, even the more advanced Jetwings I had been using courtesy of Mr. Lee. It was a little strange at first, the difference between the furious roar of the jetpack and the quiet hum of the anti-grav engine was the most difficult to get used to. It was so quiet I could definitely use it in a much more stealthy way.
Something I found slightly startling was the built in weaponry that had not previously been in Mr. Lee's inventions. The tag blaster being an exception of course.
"I noticed you always seem to be the distraction, so I thought it was time you had a better chance," Mr. Lee explained when I questioned him about it.
There were retractable wrist blades for each hand. Attached to the left forearm was a blaster that I could manually adjust the settings on for a wide range of functions. The right forearm had a shield attached to it. The chest armor could be equipped to carry a wide range of weaponry as well as emergency supplies. I knew it all would give me a better chance on the battlefield, but it was still slightly unnerving for gentle Mr. Lee to attach so many weapons to something.
And then it struck me. Sam was there for the Razorwing. Somehow my father had caught wind of the aerial combat suit and he wanted it. It would be a great leap for the military and father would make a fortune off of selling it to them. I wasn't going to let him get away with it, not for a second. Sam wasn't going to steal anything from Mr. Lee or from me.