I couldn’t get another word out of jerry after I mentioned my parents. He just sat there with his hands twined together on the Formica tabletop, and all he would say was, “Mmm-mmm, I told you, Nemo, I don’t know.”

That’s the same thing he’s told me my whole life. He has no idea who my parents were, or are. And honestly, I never cared. I didn’t have some kids-movie-injected false sense of a perfect mommy and daddy waiting for me somewhere. I’ve never felt like I lived the wrong life. Even though I don’t really have many friends, and Jerry is weird, and I guess I’m kind of weird, I’ve always felt like I was where I was supposed to be.

This is all to explain why I’d never pressed the issue of my real parents with Jerry. I just felt, suddenly, like they must have played a part in all this. Maybe they were even in prison for something they did to JoyTech!

But even now, I gave up on bugging Jerry pretty quick. I wasn’t sure I really wanted to know. Aurora did this whole thing last year where she trekked halfway across the world to meet her real mother. It was…really disappointing for her. Sometimes people have good reasons for giving up on their kids.

On the upside, she had a great time traveling and came back with all these politics and causes she wanted to crusade for.

Which is how I got involved in running around in a mask at night trying to save the world from evil corporations. Everything I’ve done, I’ve done to try to prove that I’m the one Aurora should be with. Not because I was coerced into it by Jerry and his gang of old farts.

Me. The ultimate weapon against JoyTech? I couldn’t get that line out of my head, it was so kookoo. I couldn’t go a week without getting shook down by the giggling man, injured at the plant, or burned by New Guy, who turns out to be the latest in the long, noble line that is the JoyTech dynasty.

I was definitely feeling attacked from all angles. What could I do? What did great superheroes do if they were being overwhelmed by the opposition? I guess it depends on if they’re traditional heroes, or antiheroes. Do I identify more with Superman or Batman?
Hmm. That’s a tough one. Yeah right.

If I was Batman, this is the part where I would go out and knock down all my enemies one by one until Gotham was safe again.

I think I’ve mentioned once or twice that me and Jerry don’t talk much. About important stuff, I mean. If it wasn’t for Aurora, I’d probably have spent my whole life thinking that people just didn’t talk about how they felt, what they dreamed, or the past.

But I couldn’t let things go on like that anymore. Guys that I’d known my whole life, who were like brothers to Jerry, had just treated me like I was their enemy. They’d clearly had some kind of plan for me. Something involving JoyTech. And at the last minute, Jerry had put a stop to it.

But Jack had acted like it almost wasn’t up to Jerry to decide what happened to me.

WTF?

I needed to know what these guys had to do with JoyTech, so the next morning, I confronted the man who, for all intents and purposes, is basically my father.

At first, he tried to act like it had been just the usual drunken blustering, but I wasn’t going to be deterred so easily.

“They wanted to know about JoyTech, Jerry! Why would they ask me about that?”

“Aw, well, y’know, kid. I couldn’t just tell them nothing when you started all your sneaking around…”

“So they know I’ve been trying to bring down JoyTech?” I shook my head. “But so what? They’ve been watching my every move? What did I do to piss them off?” I couldn’t believe how many people seemed to have their eyes on me these days.

Jerry slumped down onto a kitchen chair. The cracked vinyl protested under his weight. “I guess it doesn’t matter much now,” he said after a long pause. “But I want you to know, Nemo, that I never thought…I mean, I thought in the end, I hoped, that you’d never be touched by any of this. When JoyTech came to Ring City, I wanted to get out. I wanted to leave, with you! But Jack wasn’t having any of it. He was happy! He saw it as the next chapter in his Book of Destiny.”

I nodded. I’d heard Jack talk about his “Book of Destiny” before. “So back in the 60s, when you guys were into all that radical activism stuff, you were going up against JoyTech.” I’d suspected this, but this was the first time Jerry had confirmed anything. He was nodding. “But what does it have to do with me?”

“Back then, the JoyTech Global Improvement Company wasn’t the feel-good, makes-life-great brand it is today. In the 60s, JoyTech was primarily invested in weapons testing and research. We felt strongly at the time that it was these big corporations that were behind all the wars, and the government was kowtowing to them.

“Me and the guys, we first met at these meeting where people were talking about what could be done. Their ideas were extreme, but at the time, I thought they were the only ones really stepping up.

”What can I say Nemo? We were young. We did some bad stuff. There was this JoyTech HQ in Des Moines…people got hurt. Two people died.

“It wasn’t long before some of us wound up in jail. Others on the run. Jack was one of those that went to prison, and when he got out, he was crazier than ever, and full of new ideas. We listened. We were desperate. By then it was the 80s, and radicalism was a joke. We felt starved for a chance to shake things up again…” Jerry’s shoulder’s drooped, and his head fell into his hands. The next words he spoke were muffled. “When me and…your mom started taking care of you, Jack saw his chance. An opportunity to raise a soldier, Nemo. To create the ultimate weapon against JoyTech.”

I had to snort my derision. “The ultimate weapon? Me, Jerry, seriously? I mean, you guys taught me parkour, but there’s absolutely nothing that makes me so special…”

Suddenly a thought struck me, a thought as absurd as it was obvious.
“Jerry,” I spoke carefully, keeping my voice level. “Jerry, who were my real parents?”