"Yes, son." He nodded and smiled.
"Wait, what?" Marv asked bewildered.
"But I thought you and mom were killed in the accident?" My whole body began to shake involuntarily.
"Your mom died in the accident, but I survived. The government has been hiding me all of these years. When I found out Diego was coming into town, I knew he was coming for the scientists' children he injected. Diego is not who he says he is, Diego is Doctor Norman. He's been lying to you all of this time. I can get you to safety, but you have to come with me, and we have to leave now before his men find us."
Coming face to face with my dad after thirteen years was an incredibly surreal experience. I tried to take in everything about him all at once. A hard lump formed in my throat. Until that very moment I had never fully understood the hole my parents had left in my life. My dad pulled me into a hug. I began to sob uncontrollably.
It took every ounce of strength I had in me to finally pull away. Even then, I couldn't entirely let go of him and held onto his arm. I was afraid if I let go he would vanish from my life again.
My dad squeezed my shoulder. "C'mon, let's get out of here."
Marv had transformed himself into Graham's doppelganger during my ugly cry. The three of us exited through the side of the house and scanned the surrounding area, but there was no sign of Doctor Norman's super villains. Luck was definitely on our side because it didn't appear as if we had caught the neighbors' attentions, which was a miracle given the giant tidal wave we'd unleashed when crashing into the pool.
I reluctantly released my dad's arm when I saw a woman tending her garden. Between the giant unleashed dog and me being soaking wet, we looked pretty out of place. Unsurprisingly, she watched us with open hostility as we passed by.
"Hey," Marv said, his doggy face was lined with worry. "What about Diego and his goons? Should we call the cops or something? We can't just leave them wandering around, they might hurt someone."
"Help is already on its way," my dad said casually, several paces ahead of us.
Marv looked up at me startled. It took me a few seconds to realize why. My dad had understood what Marv had said. Had he taken the serum? Did he have a special ability as well? Something felt off. He seemed entirely too chill given the situation. I mimed to Marv to keep quiet.
"What about Aunt Margaret? She doesn't even know that Tanner was taken."
"Don't worry about your Aunt Margaret," he said over his shoulder, a hint of impatience in his tone, "we'll get in contact with her later and explain everything."
I stopped dead in my tracks. My aunt's name was Marigold not Margaret. She'd hated the name ever since she was a little girl and had told everyone to call her Margie when she was seven. Only a few people knew, or even remembered, her real name. She'd told me stories about my dad calling her Marigold whenever he wanted to annoy her. Even after all of these years, I was sure it wasn't something he would've forgotten.
"You're not my dad," I said. The range of emotions I was feeling was threatening to overwhelm me.
The man who was not my father stopped and turned to face us. He tilted his head to one side, a twisted grin on his face. Goosebumps ran up my arm and down my spine. It was the same gesture the Silhouette had made when he had tried to kidnap me. Marv let out a low growl. It was more animal than human. The man put two fingers in his mouth and let out a piercing whistle.
"RUN!" Marv shouted.
The two of us bolted down the street. An engine roared behind us. I caught a quick glimpse of the white van speeding towards us. What appeared to be an enormous hairy tarantula was perched on top of the roof of the van. We turned the corner and ran into someone's backyard.
"You have to shift into something that can fly," I said urgently, "it's the only way we'll get away." The van came to a noisy stop somewhere nearby. We were out of time.
"Hey!" A man came out of a sliding glass door. "What the hell are you doing in my backyard?"
His face turned chalk white. I spun around and saw the giant tarantula in middle of the yard. It raised its multiple front legs off the grass and clicked its long, sharp pincers. There was a round of hearty screaming from all three of us. Its movements were so fast I didn't even detect them until the tarantula was directly on top of me, its long pincers just inches from my face. A large mountain lion slammed into the spider, letting out a hair-raising roar. The two rolled across the lawn, a tangle of legs viciously striking out at one another.
I flew straight up into the air and saw the van driver making his way to the backyard; he was wearing a black ski mask. I shot forward feet first and slammed both legs into his back, catching him by surprise. He spun around and reached out to grab me, but I tucked my legs as I pulled back up. He picked up a trashcan and flung it at me so fast and with such force that I was barely able to get out of the way, seconds later it crashed into a car, which set off the alarm.
"Come and get me." I taunted, trying to lure him away from Marv.
My plan worked. I tried to tire him out by forcing him to jump. I bobbed up and down putting myself just within his grasp and pulling up at the last second, which pissed him off greatly. He finally gave up and walked over to the huge oak tree in the front yard. I watched completely stunned as he grabbed it around the base of the trunk and yanked it out of the ground. A couple of freaked out birds flew out of the tree squawking loudly. He spun around in circles going faster and faster before he released it straight at me. I flew out of its path just in time and watched horrified as it slammed into the back of a house a block over with a booming crack that sounded like lightening.
The strongman grabbed the motorcycle that was parked in the driveway and hurled it at me, which I was barely able to dodge. It landed on top of a car in an explosion of metal and shattering glass. A couple of people ran out of their homes to see what all the commotion was about. I needed to keep him from harming anyone.
His attention shifted to the large SUV parked in the driveway. He bent over and grabbed it from underneath. I flew straight at him, catching him off guard. The few seconds he deliberated picking it up or dropping it gave me the time I needed to yank the ski mask off of his head. It smelled like sweat and something sour that made me want to vomit, but it was a small inconvenience I was willing to put up with if it helped protect my identity.
I soared high into the air searching for Marv. I spotted the giant spider chasing after the mountain lion a few blocks away. They were heading straight for the football field. I also saw a huge banana boat of a car racing down the street. It was Officer Velasquez's car!
Now that my face was covered, I wasn't as scared of flying out in the open. As I got closer to the football field, I heard a booming voice through the speakers talking about the importance of being vigilant and how we had to rise up to terrorists. Officer Velasquez's car came to a screeching halt, leaving tire treads on the road and kicking up a dirty cloud of dust. She and Officer Richards jumped out with their weapons drawn, using the car doors as shields.
The elation that came with seeing them was short-lived. The tarantula was about twenty feet away from them, busily spinning something large and bulky into a white cocoon. Hope turned to horror when it hit me that Marv was trapped inside.
"Shoot the spider," I called down frantic. "He's one of Dr. Norman's goons. There's another one who has super strength. They injected Diego and have him in a white van. Doctor Norman can transform himself into other people. He was pretending to be my dad, but he could have turned into someone else by now."
Officer Velasquez nodded once, aimed at the huge spider, and fired off three shots in rapid succession. The giant tarantula jumped through the air in an arc and landed on the other side of the fence before it scurried away almost too fast to see.
There was complete silence for a moment before the screaming started. The two officers ran after the monster. If they were at all scared, they didn't show it.
"Marv?" I called out, landing on the ground just a few feet away from the motionless white cocoon. I got no response.
I unsheathed the knife I had from earlier and walked around the large cocoon. I had to get him out of there, but I was afraid I was going to hurt him in the process if I wasn't careful. I tried making a small cut, but it was so tightly wound that it felt like I was attempting to cut through wire. I put more pressure on the knife and it sunk through several inches. It took some doing, but I was finally able to make a large circular cut. I cleared the area out and followed the same pattern. After the third time of doing this, I saw yellow fur. One of Marv's arms popped out and began tearing through the sticky substance with his long claws. I got out of his way and watched as he dug himself out of the cobweb grave. He was covered in a layer of the sticky stuff, and he looked frightened, but at least he was alive.
There was another round of shots and more screaming. We jumped into action. The mountain lion ran into the field as I flew over the bleachers. Hundreds of screaming parents and students were jumping over the railings and each other trying to get out of harm's way. No one knew where to run. It was complete pandemonium.