1.5 The Machine Part 5

I promised myself that I would give Narszara a good time once everything was over and that is what I’m going to do.

What I didn’t consider was that she hasn’t got a secret identity while I do. So if we do go out I’ll have to be in the Sentinel armour, which puts a number of options straight out of the window, mostly the normal, mundane ones such going out for drink at a coffee shop going to the beach.

So I ask some of the old League members and some of the Defenders for ideas and advice on what to do.

Eventually I decided on going to a superhero pub in London. It is called the Great Lion and is it is where superheroes, other people with powers and their guests can go without worrying about the public or media interrupting them.

It is a good thing since people like us can’t go to normal places in costume and get left alone. Like how celebrities hang out together without getting swamped by their fans.

The trouble is getting Narszara not to wear her armour.

I decided to let Skyler persuade her as it feels wrong to use my authority over to just order to not wear her armour. She and James are coming with us, also in costume. They aren’t exactly dating yet, but they’re close to it.

“People gaze at me,” I hear Narszara complaining.

“That’s because you’re beautiful,” sighs Sky, “I wish I had a body as pretty as yours.”

I understand what Sky is talking about. Of the League, only Narszara looks like a comic book superheroine the same way the Lanterns are the only League members to look like traditional comic book superheroes. The rest of us aren’t what attractive and good looking.

Despite that, Narszara dislikes showing her body off. Not that it surprises me given what I know about her and not to mention that neither of the Lanterns like showing off their physique. Plus Narszara prefers to show off her muscles and strength.

“I lack other clothing,” protests Narszara.

“You can wear your cos-mat costume,” counters Sky.

“It is tight fitting and shows too much of my form,” grumbles Narszara.

“Just wear it!” says Sky loudly, “Stop making such a fuss! Only Sentinel and Warden wear their armour to Great Lion! And that is so the people there know who they are!”

“Fine!” snarls Narszara, “I will change into it now.”

As Sky leaves Narszara’s quarters, I catch her on the arm.

“Let’s go to the main room,” I say to her and she nods.

We talk together in silence. James is at the main table while Sam is on the computer, doing research for his genetics and environment differences report. The same report I finished on Monday.

“Narszara is wearing her green cos-mat costume, but is rather unhappy about it,” I say to James as Sky and I sit down, “I hope the rest of the night at the Great Lion goes well otherwise this is going to be total failure.”

“It’ll go fine,” says Sky, “Granddad always said the Great Lion was a great club before he disappeared.”

“Dad often takes mum there,” agrees James, “It’s an excellent place, especially for people like us.”

“I guess I better get the Sentinel suit on,” I sigh, “You two should get in costume as well.”

By the time I have suited up, the others are already waiting to go.

“How are we getting there?” inquires Sky.

“Sam!” says James sharply.

“What?” demands Sam.

“You were ogling Narszara’s chest!” replies James.

“She’s very pretty,” says Sam sheepishly.

“We’ll be taking the jet,” I say, answering Sky’s question, “We can land on top of Great Lion and it’ll be about ten minutes once in the air.”

“Let’s go,” says Narszara gruffly as she gets to her feet.

I sincerely hope this night goes well.

The League jet is basically a black private that has been built for superheroics rather than comfort.

James and Sky chat during the flight well I fly. Narszara is extremely interested the jet and its capabilities despite being focused on magic over technology.

“Does it have interplanetary travel?” asks Narszara as she sits in the co-pilot’s chair.

“It has limited interplanetary travel,” I reply, “It can go about as far Neptune before needing to turn back. It can’t go fast, taking almost a year to reach Neptune at top speed. But is supersonic and can fly around the world in a couple of hours and can make short trips to the moon.”

“Do you have any interstellar craft?” inquires Narszara.

“We have a small interstellar ship,” I admit.

“Have you ever flown it?” asks Narszara.

“Granddad let me take it for a spin a few times,” I answer, “But most of the time I just rode in it while he flew. Now that I think about it, I’m not sure what the legal age to fly it is or whether you need a licence. Same with the jet and the rest of the League’s vehicles.”

“Are you breaking the law by driving and flying then?” inquires Narszara curiously.

“Technically yes,” I reply, “In practice, no one knows or if they do, they don’t care.”

“Makes sense,” says Narszara, “It would also add up with what I know about the League of Heroes and its quests.”

By the time we land, I would bet decent money that Narszara knows enough to fly the League jet on her own.

We land on top of the Great Lion, which is at the top of a skyscraper in London. Below are apartments for government supers to live, either on their own or with their families. You can also see the towers that MI9 and the Albion Defenders operate from.

“You’re with the League?” inquires the guard, an Irish man called Doyle Braden. He’s got superpowers, simple super toughness and super strength.

“I’m Sentinel,” I say as I introduce us. “This Vision, Commando and Narszara.”

“So that what she looks like under the armour,” says Braden as he stares at Narszara, “Who would have thought it.”

Narszara grunts.

“Well I guess you lot can go in,” says Braden, “It’s a slow night.”

1.5 The Machine Part 4

I sit upright, looking up at the machine. It is ploughing into the ground with Sam is hovering where it used to be.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what happened and I am a genius.

It occurs to me that while the machine’s builder might have created it to counter the League, it probably didn’t prepare for the Lantern. At least, not properly.

Samuel’s power is a psionic field powered by willpower. It allows for nigh invulnerability, superstrength, enhanced speed, flight, increased senses and reflexes. Not to mention telekinesis and near immunity to mind control.

Of course we haven’t had a chance to test his immunity to mind control against a hostile force yet and Sam is struggling to master his telekinesis beyond the basic tossing things about.

“Take out the optic ball Lantern,” I shout at Sam.

“Destroy the disco ball head,” replies Sam, “Got it.”

He zooms at the machine and grabs the optic ball. He pulls at it as the machine tries to get up. It is firing its lasers at Sam, but his psionic field is protecting him.

He finally yanks it out after a moment of pulling. He squeezes, crushing it with his superstrength. The machine rises as Sam floats up and tosses the wrecked optic ball aside.

It fires another set of four missiles at Sam. Sam gets three with this telekinesis, but the fourth keeps on going. Until I take it out with my lasers that is.

Sam grins and uses his telekinesis to rip out the lasers mounted into the shoulders. All four come out.

At this point the machine appears to have realised the tide has turned. It fires sixteen micro missiles at Sam and me.

We fly away from them as they explode into a total of almost two hundred mini micro missiles.

We both end up spending a few minutes taking them out. By the time we’re done, the machine has escaped.

“Damn it,” curses Sam.

“We both know who sent it,” I whisper to him as I land next to him.

“Yeah,” replies Sam before glancing at the crowd, “But they don’t need to know about that.”

“Agreed,” I answer.

“Someone attempting to collect the bounty sounds like the official story right,” says Sam in unusually serious voice

“That about sums it up,” I reply in the same serious tone.

Sam grins at me and I grin at him even though he can’t see it.

“What about the others?” I inquire.

“I took them back to one of the entrances and Narszara took them in and I gave them medical attention. When Storm Knight was back on his feet, he helped me bring them back to there while Bulk got out of his armour and brought them inside.”

“I bet Storm Knight wanted to continue the fight.”

“He did want another round, but I convinced him getting the others to safety was more important.”

We share a laugh before going to speak with the gathered press and police.

***

“Okay,” I say as we’re all gathered around the table in the meeting room back at base, “Let’s go over what we know so far.”

All of the new League of Heroes plus the old Bolt and Bulk are there. They came once they heard about the Machine on the news.

“Should have called us,” grumbles Charlie’s grandfather, Gregory.

“We all know that when Vistorix showed up, we stopped him,” I start, ignoring Gregory, “What we don’t know is what he was doing. I believe he was sent on a mission by our foe. That’s when our foe took interest in us and began to take action to stop us. Two days later, two supers and almost a score of robbers show up nearby with serious firepower. Not enough to raise an overt amount of suspicion, but too much that they could have only been given their guns. Our foe wanted us to get killed there and maybe scare the rest of us away. We succeed extremely well in the encounter and got on the good side of both the public and the local police. Another thing, Laura hasn’t been able to discover either Vistorix’s mission or the source of guns. I believe I know why after today, but I’ll say that later. Next Narszara showed up, which put a monkey wrench into our foe’s plans to deal with us. We then receive a tip off about the location of the weapons warehouse. Too dangerous for the police, but close enough for us and not the Defenders to respond. We also knew it was probably a trap, but couldn’t afford not to investigate. It was also at dark when the majority of the rest of us would busy at home and unable to respond quickly when trouble arose. But here is the main part of the trap. Shade told me that Vengeance was informed that Charlie and Stefan were behind the weapons. Only Shade realised they were being set up. The rest of them came and tried to kill Charlie, Stefan and anyone who got in the way. The Machine’s creator knew that we would defend Charlie and Stefan and hoped that some of us would die and the League would get bad press. Instead we took them down, all of us survived, got respect and didn’t have any major political fallouts. Now we’re stronger than ever despite our foe’s efforts so they put bounties on our heads. It used American dollars rather than pounds so it would seem like it merely some supporter of Vengeance who did it or one of the many supervillains who sees us as a threat. Now it has taken direct action against us today by building the Machine and sending it after us. It was created to counter the League and only Sam or Narszara could have beaten it. Here is some footage.”

I stop talking and replay some of today’s footage about the machine’s lasers. I hope Kennet and Gregory spot what I’ve noticed due their past experience

“£%*@,” curses Gregory.

“It can’t be,” mutters Kennet.

“What is it?” demands Skyler as I pause the footage.

“That was Sektain laser tech,” explains Kennet, “Alien tech. Very few have alien tech and even fewer have Sektain stuff.”

“And the Sektain are one of the two most powerful superpowers in the galaxy,” growls Gregory, 

“They are also greatest threat to sentient life that we currently know of. Anything to do with them has to be taken with deadly seriousness.”

1.5 The Machine Part 3

It would be ironic if lives weren’t at stake.

When Sam and I reached the others, the battle was pretty much lost.

Carrie had been knock out and turned back to normal. Kevin was nowhere to be seen. Stefan was attempting to get to his feet, but failing. Skyler had her neck snapped and her right arm missing from the elbow down, but her power meant she hadn’t died yet. Lucy is down on the ground, but her hands and feet seemingly been glued together. Helen has been pinned to the ground, her face buried into the dirt.

I see James get slammed into a tree. He managed to slow his speed down with telekinesis, but the blow is still hard. He ends up face down on ground, not moving.

My HUD says he’s still breathing though.

The machine is about three metres tall with a head that looks like a disco ball. My HUD says that it’s all made up of armoured micro optics and sensors.

The robot looks like a hybrid of the Sentinel and Bulk armours, being large and bulky whilst retaining a humanoid figure.

I spot the Bulk armour lying behind the machine, badly damaged and its power core ripped out.

Only Vance is still fighting and he’s not standing much of a chance. The machine seems to be immune or at least highly resistant to his blasts. The only armour of it only has a few dents and slashes from Charlie, Carrie and Sky plus some melted scars where it’s been zapped by Stefan’s lightning and blasted by Vance’s bolts.

“Damn,” curse Samuel quietly.

Vance gets punched into another ground.

“What chance do we have?” I whisper.

The machine has just wiped the floor with the rest of the League.

“I have already requested aid,” says Narszara over our communicators, “The fight is on the news reports.”

I look behind us. There are some reporters and cameramen in the background.

“We have to stop it,” says Sam.

“We have to get the others to safety,” I counter, “I’ll distract it while you get the others out of the fight and to safety.”

Samuel grunts his reluctant agreement. He doesn’t want to do it, but we both know we don’t have time to argue.

As Sam moves to help James, I fly straight at the machine, hoping to knock it over.

The result is a lot less than I expected. I make it stagger backwards, but have barely dented it despite slamming into it head on.

I zoom up and try my sonics on it, but they are horribly ineffective. Against a human opponent, they might have annoyed the target, but I doubt the machine even noticed them.

“Be careful milord,” warns Narszara over my communicator, “Our foe appears to have been built to counter the League of Heroes. I would expect it to be prepared for you as it was for the others.”

“Thanks Narszara,” I reply as I start dodging the lasers the machine is firing at me.

Unlike my own, which are red, the machine’s lasers are a pinkish purple colour. It has two built into each shoulder, four built into each wrist and eight built into the chest. Twenty in total and that makes for a lot of firepower.

The lasers won’t do much harm if they hit me, but given a little time, they could easily melt their way through my armour.

I return fire with my own lasers.

The machine moves very fast, much quicker than it looks. I’m beginning to see how it took the others down. Despite that, my targeting sensors are still able to lock-on.

I aim at the optic ball. If it is as well made as seems to be, the machine will have spare optics and sensors throughout its body, but taking out its primary optics will be useful. I hope.

I start to burn through the armour, but the machine unleashes another of its tricks. Four micro missiles, each about the size of a nerf dart, are fired at me.

I fire at them, blowing up one. Before I can fire my lasers again, the remaining three explode into a dozen smaller missiles, each about an inch long. How did they fit that many missiles in there?

Now let me tell you something, dodging three dozen mini micro missiles and a score of laser beams at high speed is hard. Like really hard.

I fly into the trees as I struggle to avoid the hostile fire. I really hope Sam is almost done.

About two third of the missiles explode as they hit the trees, but the rest of them stay on target. A few of the lasers hit the trees as well, but even more lasers keep on coming.

I zoom up into the air and fire my sonics at full power at the missiles. Only one survives and I easily blast it with one of my lasers.

The lasers on the other hand don’t falter when hit by sound. I’m hit by five before I start dodging again.

Hit once on the chest, another to the head, a third to my right leg and two to my left arm. Slightly melted where I got hit, but thankfully there is no notable damage..

The machine tries to use sonics on me, but it gets the same results as I got due to the sonics being filtered out by the Sentinel armour.

I need a different approach.

I fly at down at the machine, punching it in the optic ball.

Big mistake.

I bent it backwards a little, but the robot grabs me by the leg and slams me into the ground. It is ineffective in damaging the Sentinel armour, only dazing me. Even the earliest incarnations of the Sentinel armour could withstand being knocked about.

The machine seems to realise that it didn’t work as it tosses away before I can recover. Lasers bombard me and I glimpse the machine firing more micro missiles at me.

Then it stops as I crashing to the ground again. No more lasers hitting me. I hear the micro missiles exploding before they can reach me.

1.5 The Machine Part 2

“Hey Sam!”  I call as school ends, “I need to talk with you.”

“Yeah Daniel?” replies Sam as he waits at the gate for me.

“I would like to ask you something,” I say as I reach him before lowering my voice, “About the other stuff.”

“Sure,” replies Sam.

He gives me curious look. Once we’re away from the main crowd, we begin talking.

“So what was it you wanted to ask me?” inquires Sam.

“What’s it like having superpowers?” I ask, “I was just wondering how it changed your life.”

“Why are you asking?” says Sam confused, “You got the armour, the base and all those gadgets from your granddad.”

“I know, but I grew up with all of those,” I reply, “I been helping granddad with those since I was little. That’s just part of my life.”

“What about the Sentinel armour?” asks Sam, “You haven’t had that until your granddad died.”

“But that’s sort of like training,” I reply, “Except its real. It feels kind of like a Wii game without the controllers. After all, flying only works with the rocket pack so I either hover or fly in the direction that I am pointing in. The lasers and sonics are point and shoot without recoil. The strength and protection mean pretty much nothing can match me. I think only person who I have faced who could match me was Gorlack. Even Vistorix didn’t stand much of a chance against me for all his power. I could just fly and shoot him.”

“I can understand that,” says Sam, deep in thought.

“You still haven’t answered my question,” I remind him.

“As with you, I grew up with some of it,” replies Sam thoughtfully, “I have always stronger, faster and tougher than most people. My senses are superior to almost every normal person. I also expected to get my main powers. I actually kind of willed them to awaken if understand what I mean.”

“I do,” I say, “I know how your powers work.”

“For me, they just turn on and off at will,” continues Sam, “And I when I say they work at my will, I literally mean they work at my will. The flight is easy to control and quite fun as my psionic field makes most of the problems you would normally have go away.  The superstrength is awesome and again my psionic field makes it easy to use as I can just will my strength to be as powerful as I need to me. My powers literally work as I will them to so I don’t have all those problems controlling them that most people do.”

“I have to use my training to pull my punches in the Sentinel armour.”

“My psionic field also means I’m pretty much invulnerable allowing me great freedom to act without hurting myself,”

“Don’t forget how your indomitable will renders you immune to tampering with your mind.”

“Now that is an awesome superpower.”

“Luckily you haven’t had need of it yet.”

“I doubt that look will last.”

“True. But I do think we might have a year or two before that time.”

We fall silent for a few moments before switching our conversational topic to more trivial matters as our school work and the latest local gossip. We end up out in the forest together, the afterschool meeting completely slipping our minds. We only remember when Skyler calls us as we finish discussing Narszara’s conclusions regarding up mysterious enemy.

“Where are you two?” demands Sky.

“We’re talking together out in the forest,” I explain sheepishly.

“Never mind that,” says Sky, “Get over here. Now!”

“You can start without us,” I reply, “Narszara can explain it to you. She was the first one of us to figure it out.”

Sky grunts in annoyance and hangs up. I look at Sam.

“We better go,” I say and he gives a simple nod of agreement.

We’re almost at base when we receive a red alert on our League communicators. Red alerts mean that is some major trouble. The only worse alerts are a grey alert, which means deaths and a black alert, which means a wipe out of those involved. The last one is automated thanks to its nature.

Never once has the League had to send a black alert and I hope to keep it that way.

“What’s the situation?” I ask over my communicator.

“A large war robot is advancing towards Ashurst, milord,” answers Narszara, “The others are going to engage it. I am remaining as mission control. I would recommend getting down here and suiting up.”

“You’re not going?” I reply.

Her reply has me confused. Narszara doesn’t seem like the type to stay out of the fight and I’ve seen her take every chance for a fight against our enemies even though she has only had proper one so far.

“No milord,” says Narszara, “I am feeling weary. I am missing my home and it’s been affecting my prowess and rest. I would not be at my best in battle before I get undisturbed rest.”

“Oh,” I reply, unsure about what to say to her.

“Don’t worry Verigar,” say Narszara, “It is not uncommon for one of my people to settle in a foreign realm out of duty to those there. It merely takes time to adapt to the change.”

“If you say so,” I reply, still unsure of what I’m supposed to do with Narszara.

I feel a need to make things up to her. She is only here because she swore her loyalty to me and even though it was her choice, as her lord, I feel guilty about it. I guess I didn’t realise because Narszara is so stoic and obedient outside of combat.

I’ll ask her what she’s wants once this is over.

“We ought to give Narszara a good time once this is over,” I say to Sam, “Maybe go out someplace with her. If I can find a suitable place for someone like her.”

We rush to the base. Narszara is sat at the main computer. As usual, it takes just over two minutes for me to suit up. I’m certain it took Sam less time to get changed into his costume, but he waited none the less.

“What are the chances that it’ll be over when we get there?” asks Sam in a jovial tone.

“I would say high,” I reply, “We have got nine League members out there. How bad could things possible get?”

1.5 The Machine Part 1

I’m eating a bowl of cereal for breakfast when I find out about the bounty that has been placed on my head.

Lily came rushing into the dining room whilst mum and I were eating. Dad has already left for work about ten minutes ago.

“Guess what,” says Lily and she continues to speak before either mum or I can reply, “Somebody just put bounties on the League of Heroes. Isn’t it exciting?”

***

“How much?” asks Samuel.

Having heard about the bounties, Sam, James, Sky, Lucy, Stefan and Charlie have meet up before school outside the corner shop down the road from school.

“Most of us got fifty thousand in dollars,” I reply, “That’s over thirty thousand pounds by the way.”

“Damn,” curses Skyler while Lucy, James and Charlie echo their similar sentiments.

“Personally I think it’s kind of cool,” says Stefan, “Perhaps people will take us seriously now.”

“You said most of us,” says Samuel, frowning, “What about the rest?”

“Me, you and Narszara have a hundred thousand dollars over our heads,” I tell him, “That is easily over fifty thousand pounds.”

“I’m jealous,” grins Stefan, “Any idea who it is behind it?”

“Well, it’s in dollars,” says Lucy, “And we defeated Vengeance, who people see as heroes for some reason, so maybe some good intentioned fool wants to take us down for that.”

“What do you think?” James asks me.

It’s strange how they see me as the smart one. Everybody in the League has above average intelligence and James and Charlie are just as smart as me. Lucy and Kevin are even smarter than me. 

I suppose it is because I run the base and all our businesses in addition to our logistics and supplies, our information and a bunch of other things.

“Sam, Narszara and I have a theory, but I don’t want talk about it here,” I answer, lowing my voice, 

“Back at base after school.”

“Okay,” says James.

At school, everybody is talking about us. Again. This time it is about the bounties and a few conversations about Vengeance. Stefan’s right about one thing, people are starting to respect the new generation of the League of Heroes.

“So Daniel,” says Sam at lunch time as he sits down next to me and Charlie, “So were we right about you know what?”

I understand Samuel’s coded words as not only are me and Charlie sat at the table, but two other people, Brandon and Jake. Two normal people that have no idea who the League of Heroes really are.

“Yes we were,” I answer, “As I said before school, I’ll talk about more after school at our hideout.”

“Good,” says Samuel and Brandon and Jake share confused look between them.

“Did you enjoy DT earlier?” asks Sam, “I bet you want make your own hover drones rather than just design them.”

“They would be nice,” I reply, not mentioning that I have already done that with granddad, “But why would I need them?”

“Besides, you would need to have the money to get all the parts and equipment,” points Brandon, 

“You would have to be millionaire or something to have that sort of money spare.”

“Daniel is a millionaire,” whispers Jake in Brandon’s ear.

I grin as Brandon’s face flushes red. It’s true that I have eleven million pounds that I inherited from granddad when he died. While he left everyone in the family a hundred thousand pounds, he left the majority of his wealth to me along with his vehicles, house and other processions. I think he surprised a lot of people who didn’t know he was Sentinel, but neither of his daughters cared they were skipped.

As to where granddad got his riches in the first place, he ran the League’s side businesses which supplied, manufacture equipment and other things. It started out small, but when he had been doing it for just over six decades, things build up.

It’s strange that despite being so wealthy, granddad and our family lived fairly normal lives. I guess it was mainly to do with granddad being the Sentinel again. He got his wealth from being part of the League and I guess he didn’t want to abandon the League to live the high life regardless of how rich 

he became.

He was a nice guy like that.

I also think granddad never wanted to forget what he was fighting for. Personally I feel that he wanted to stay in touch with being a normal person despite also being a superhero.

I wonder how many superheroes are in touch with normal people these days. I hope the answer is a lot.

I can’t help, but compare it to what Laura told me about feudal lords of the past. The nobles started off as heroes who rose from amongst the common folk. But as time went on, the original generation and their children died and the number of nobles rose. Eventually titles were inherited rather than being earned. This meant that the nobles stopped being in touch with the common folk they ruled over. A few stayed in touch and remained good leaders, but they were ultimately too few and most nobles been removed from power by the present day.

I wonder if the same thing is happening with supers. Minus the being removed from power part.

The old Leaguers were some of the first superheroes and were noble and moral as was the Paragon and the Patriots, their American counterparts. Now things have changed as more superpowered people have been born and things have gotten worse as time has moved on. Secrecy and security seemed to much more important days than a few decades ago.

But then again, at the end of the day, there are more than enough heroes to fight evil where ever it may be. 

1947 - John

John walks down the street. He is a police constable on the night shift. Not that he minds. He has faced much worst in the war then anything the city’s wretches can throw at him.

The darkness of the night conceals his facial features, black hair and soft brown eyes. He has retained his lean and fit body from his time in the army and not even the dark can keep that hidden.

A shrill noise rings out. John looks around, shining the light from his torch.

Nothing.

Despite the noise and darkness, John remains undaunted and tries to figure out the source of the noise.

He is looking at a warehouse, abandoned after the war ended, when the shrill noise strikes the night again. It’s louder this time.

Better find the source of this sound, thinks John as he strides towards the warehouse side door.

John checks to see if the door is locked. It’s not. Cautiously, the policeman pushes the door open and shines his torch inside. Only piles of abandoned crates and containers.

“Hello?” asks John into the darkness, “Is anyone there?”

The noise returns for a third time, definitely nearby now.

“Show yourself!” demands John as he stands in the middle of the warehouse.

The noise rings out, but this time, it is intermixed with a sharp laugh.

“As you wish Officer,” drawls the laughing man.

Something lashes put from the shadows at John. The police officer is slammed into a crate and his torch knocked from this hand.

John grunts as he struggles to his feet.

“Assaulting an officer is against the law!” yells John defiantly.

“You won’t live to report it,” laughs his attacker, “It is so much fun when my prey thinks they can fight back.”

A man steps out of the shadows, covered in black robes and with pale skin. A scythe gleams in his hands.

“Die fool!” screams the man as he rushes John.

John closes his eyes and braces himself. He takes a deep breath as the madman strikes him.

The man lets out a gasp of shock as the sound of breaking metal fills the warehouse.

John looks at his would-be killer, taking in his look of horror and shock.

John’s hair and eyes have turned bright white. The scythe has broken against John’s body.

The robed killer takes a step back as John suddenly floats up. John looks down as he hovers two metres off the ground.

John grins and zooms at his foe.

***

John strolls into the police station in the morning dragging the unconscious body of his roughed up attacker.

“Hey John,” greets another officer, looking over at John, “How was- Whoa! What happened last night?”

“Just catching another criminal,” answers John with a shrug. 

1.4 Sins of Our Grandfathers Part 6

Once Aquiline shows up, I decide to leave. Narszara is taking care of Storm Knight and Bolt while Britannia and Aquiline talk and Oakley has taken control of the arrests of Vengeance. He has agreed that I can send in my police statement later.

I am still bothered by a few things. The first one is the political consequences of tonight. The second is the fact people allow people like Vengeance to operate. The third is Shade, the sixth member of Vengeance and the only one missing tonight.

Shade is easily the most dangerous member of Vengeance. Not only has he got powers like his teammates, he also has multiple powers. And his powers are capable of harming me unlike the rest of his team. He’s also the smartest of them and that what worries me the most.

Shade is ruthless and not worried about killing his enemies. He is cold and calculating and because of that I doubt he would just try to kill Stefan and Charlie because of their grandfathers. That would explain why he wasn’t with Vengeance tonight.

Regardless of that, Shade is still dangerous if he tries to break out Vengeance.

“I’ll just have to find him,” I mutter as I descent.

Luckily not many people are still out at dark tonight and I go unnoticed by anyone. Except for one man.

He walks out of the shadows. A black cloak obscures his body from sight and only his glowing white eyes can be seen.

Shade.

I instantly prepare for battle, adopting a defensive stance. What could Shade possibly want?

“We need to talk,” says Shade, his voice cold and uncaring.

Shade may be cold hearted and a have a very poor choice in friends, but he’s smart and could be counted as decent person. His claim of wanting to talk is reasonable enough for me to believe and he’s right, we do need to talk.

“I’m listening,” I reply, relaxing a little, but still keeping my guard up.

“I wish to apologise for my former teammates’ actions tonight,” says Shade, “I left them when they refused to investigate the matter further. Something seemed off so I investigated our information that lead to us being here tonight. I am pleased to say I was successful in that matter. I assume you wish to hear about what I found?”

“Let me summarise what I know first,” I answer, “We knew it was set up. It was too perfectly set up to be otherwise, but we couldn’t afford not to go. An enemy is working against the League of Heroes. He, let’s call our foe a he for now, supplied Hall and Edison with their weaponry. You may not understand being an American, but guns are extremely serious here and there’s only a few ways to get that kind of firepower undiscovered. The only one of those ways open to Hall and Edison was to have been given them. In addition this all started after the League stopped Vistorix and we still don’t know what Vistorix was after despite what the public believes.”

“That pretty much covers what I discovered,” replies Shade, “We were given a tip off about Bulk and Storm Knight secretly supplying Hall and Edison. The others were all too willing to believe that. I wasn’t. Something wasn’t right about what was going on and I felt we were being used. To go over and kill Bulk, Storm Knight and any Leaguers who defended them. And the others’ reactions confirmed that for me.”

“So you left and found proof that you were set up to attack and kill us?” I inquire.

“Would like to see it?” asks Shade.

“Send to the League of Heroes under message from Ven-Shade,” I reply, “Do you need a way to get home?”

“Shadow Stepping, but thanks for offering,” replies Shade, “Anything else?”

“No,” I start to say, but I change my mind as a thought hits me, “Actually yes. Vengeance tried to use some of my own tech against me. I would like to find out how they got it as there’s isn’t any way they could have legally brought it.”

“I know your attitude to people like me and Vengeance,” says Shade, “And after tonight, I can see why. Still I hope you don’t mind if I continue using your tech.”

“Can’t say I do mind after having met you,” I reply, “But how did any of you get it in the first place?”

“Some of the heroes back in the states like us more than you do,” answers Shade, “Prefer to help us as fellow superheroes.”

“Your way of doing it things conflicts with my way of doing it,” I counter coolly.

“That’s because you and the League, both new and old, are old school when comes to ethics and morals,” says Shade and I’m sure he’s grinning, “Don’t worry kid, it’s nice to see that in today’s youth. I’ll tell our fellows back in states about tonight and that you Leaguers were right and Vengeance were downright wrong and crossed a line. I feel that we’ll meet again someday Sentinel. Good luck.”

“Good luck to you too,” I reply as Shades moves to leave, “Oh and I’ll let you buy tech now.”

Before he Shadow Steps away, Shade turns and flashes me a brief smile. And then he’s gone.

What a hectic evening it has been tonight.