Homesick

Chapter 8

I squinted open my eyes and everything was blurry. My whole body ached: my arms, my stomach, my legs but the place where Claw had struck me ached the most. Everything was a blur of colours: red, yellow, blue and green. I could hear gruff voices speaking in the distance. My head was swaying like a ship in a ferocious storm.

My eyes opened to life and i gasped. I was in a dimly lit brick room, with no light, just darkness. Claw was standing there, a few cuts on his face from Kara, looking feral, dangerous and indignant. The two henchmen was on his side. I tried to move but it had just occurred to me that i was sitting on a small wooden chairs. I looked behind me. My hands were tied to the back of the chair with a binding metal rope and my feet was strapped to the floor by metal binders. Kara was nowhere to be seen.

Claw advanced towards me angrily. In his hand was the blue core, shining like a diamond. My stomach dropped. Claw had got the core, we had failed to keep it safe. That meant one thing: New York is going down to the ashes. I frantically tried to move, but my hands wouldn't allow me. Claw leant close towards me.

"Where is the girl?" he breathed into me. "Tell me."

I didn't answer immediately which made Claw give me a blow to my stomach. I doubled over from the pain and yelled. 

"I don't know..." I managed to gasp.

Claw wasn't satisfied with my answer.

"I'm going to give you one more chance, boy." hissed Claw, the shadow of a lion arching over his face. "Where is the girl?"

I was scared to silence. I didn't say anything. I just sat there looking stupid and foolish. The man glared at me and then turned his back to me, giving me a clear view of his broad shoulders.

"New York..." he whispered, drumming his fingers on the desk behind him. "New York..."

I looked around, wondering what he meant. What did he have against New York?

"Ever since i came to New York when i was six..." began Claw, not looking at me. "It's been one disaster after another."

I looked at him. Why did he say that? What disaster?

"People there bullied me when i was in school," continued Claw lightly. "I was beaten, robbed and insulted by. I was never happy in my childhood, not one day in my entire life. Everyone thought me as a loser. Even when i grew up, it was still the same. People would mock my skinniness, beat me up in an alley, pickpocket my only savings."

I was stunned. Claw, the most feared villain of all time, was bullied at school for his skinniness? Was that why?

"I worked hard to keep my family nourished and alive," said Claw, speaking to no one in particular. "I had a beautiful wife called Isabella and a beautiful, beautiful daughter called Charlotte. We were poor, but we were perfect." His voice was high, not like the deep, gruff voice he usually had.

I had just realised that his black eyes was glistened with tears. He placed a hand on the wall and looked down. My eyes widened and i stopped struggling in the chair.

"I used my money to keep them healthy, to keep them well-fed, to give Charlotte her education that i had saved my entire pennies on," said Claw gloomily. His face then darkened like a stormy cloud. "Then it happened. When i was taking a walk with Isabella and Charlotte, a delinquent walked up to us and shot both of them, sparing me."

Shot? Claw's family was... dead?

"There was nothing i could do," said Claw, the gruffness coming back in his voice. "They were dead. But they weren't as dead as i was. Why did he spare me? If they were dead, i was nothing, i wanted to get shot as well. Inside i was dead, it was shocked, horrified, stunned to the pieces. I was severely depressed for the past couple of weeks. But then after then, something emerged in me. It was something fierce, something angry, something sinister... it was like a new-born lion was roaring in the pit of my stomach."

Claw half-glanced at me.

"I then realised it was anger, it was revenge, it was a temper." said Claw. "I wasn't going to hide anymore. Then, when i got injected with the lion serum, my skinniness and weakness disappeared. Everything small and dead about me vanished. I was broad, i was muscular, i had strength. And nothing could hurt me anymore. Nothing. But i could hurt them. And i wanted too. So i tracked down my enemies, my ex-bullies, my foes and brutally killed them. Shot them dead, stabbed them dead, used my gadgets to kill them real dead."

I was horrified. Something was falling into me down a dark tunnel.

"My newly-born powers made me start a business and it was successful as ever," said Claw. "I wasn't poor anymore, i had a million people working for me. I created the most dangerous weapons, sold them to people and used them on people i hated. Now i was the one laughing, beating them up, mocking them. Not them. Me. I became so feared, that the people started to give me a named called 'Claw.' And i liked that. I really liked that. So i donned the name. I wasn't Philip Wilson anymore, i wasn't the skinny, little boy that no one loved or respected. I was Claw. And i still am."

He closed his eyes and lit the cigarette that was in his mouth.

"New York ruined everything for me. The people ruined everything for me. And i was going to ruin everything for them, when my weapon is finished." he said, smoke trailing out of his mouth. "They were going to pay for everything they did to me and my family... to-to... ISABELLA AND CHARLOTTE!"

He banged the wall with his fist. Bricks crumbled to the ground and there was a big hole there. He panted. Claw inhaled again on his cigarette and puffs out smoke trailed out of his mouth.

Claw then strode towards me and grabbed the collar of my suit. I whimpered uselessly.

"So tell me, boy," said Claw. "Where is the girl?"

And then, out of the blue, the door busted open and there was Kara, standing there. She made no hesitation as the henchmen advanced. She flipped over them, uppercutted one of them under the chin and booted him into a wall, where he lay there moving no more, blood trickling from under his forehead. Kara raised her right hand at the other henchmen, which had a gauntlet on her hand. She shot a blue flash of electricity out of the gauntlet and the man was knocked on the ground, his eyes opened wide.

Claw stomped towards her and Kara skidded on her knees, stuck her leg out on the ground and booted Claw painfully on the ankle. She skidded through both of his leg, while Claw landed on his back, making the room shake. She pulled out the silver ball, booted Claw into a wall and hurled it at him, where it stuck onto his chest and exploded into ropes, binding him up and sticking him on the wall.

Kara skidded behind me, pulled out a small retractable dagger and began sawing the ropes.

"Kara, what-"

"No time to talk, Claw will be free of those ropes any second!" said Kara hurriedly.

The ropes came free and i kicked the straps off my feet. Kara turned around and threw a smoke bomb into the room, engulfing the room with thick, grey smoke radiating an unpleasant odour. Kara grabbed my hand and we ran to the door, shutting it behind us as we left.