1.10 Ancient Warriors Part 9

As the guru of wisdom amongst our merry band, I chose the Great Lion as our choice of destination.

An isolated location that specialises in serving the weird and unusual people, it seemed ideal. And we wouldn’t stand out too much either.

Even then, a wizard, two superheroes, two knights and a guy in power armour still attract attention and stares.

When I was last here a few weeks ago with James, Sky and Narszara, the pub was nowhere as near as busy as it is today.

There are at least twenty people at the Great Lion today, maybe thirty. Mostly supers with their families for a meal. Not surprising as we got here at the start of lunch and as is the case with ourselves, all of the kids aren’t in school today, even if it isn’t the weekend.

No other superheroes today though.

“Is this staring unusual?” inquires Sir Brock.

“The answer is relative,” I answer, “A normal person wouldn’t get this sort of attention, but we’re not normal people. For the people in our group, this is sort of the attention you would expect to get.”

“So it isn’t normal, but it is normal for us,” says Sir Brock as he sips his apple Tango.

“Correct,” I reply, “So where would you lot like to visit after this.”

“I have never visited London before,” says Sir Brock, “None of us have left Camelot before.”

“I don’t live in London so I can’t tell what good places to visit are,” I tell him, “If we were back in Hampshire, I could tell you the sights and the best places to go.”

“Same for me if you were visiting Camelot,” replies Sir Brock as I think about my options for a moment.

I glance over at the others. Dame Etheldreda and Skyler are chatting away and more combat-orientated subjects over your average girl talks. Evan and Sam are discussing something with each other. Evan did have Sir Brock backing him against Sam, who made up for it with vigorous enthusiasm.

“I could display a tourist guide on my HUD and follow that?” I suggest.

“What is a HUD?” inquires Sir Brock.

“Acronym for Heads Up Display,” I reply, “Basically it displays the information about my armour where I can see it. I can also use it to display other information, such as messages or electronic records.”

“Can my visor do that?” asks Sam, leaning towards us.

“Sure,” I reply, “It works via conscious thought orders. Think about it doing something and it’ll make it happen if it can. And you have to direct that order at the visor for it to be pick it up.”

“How does that work?” asks Sir Brock.

“A complicated mechanism that my Granddad came up with after he had retired from field work,” I explain, “Something he got inspired by some alien tech he encountered in some foreign part of space.”

“I would like something like that,” says Sky. Both she and Evan have also decided to join our conversation and I notice Dame Etheldreda  watching us as well.

“I could probably add some eye pieces to the League costumes that have HUDs,” I answer him, “I’ll put it on my to-do list.”

“How long is your to-do list?” inquires Sky.

“Not that long,” I say somewhat defensively, “I just got to fix the Lightweight suit and upgrade my main armour with grappling hooks. I’m also building a spare set of my main armour and some armour for Narszara. Magnetic boots and laser tasers are also on it. I’m also trying to work with artificial gravity as an alternative means of flight. The rocket pack is good, but a little dated these days.”

“Laser tasers?” asks James.

“Taser guns that use lasers to aim and hit their target rather than projectiles like our current lasers,” I say simply, “I want to get those working before anyone else. Granddad got the patent for the concept a few years back, but never finished any design before his death.”

“Hey it works!” exclaims Sam, “I can’t believe I haven’t discovered this before.”

“Of course it works,” I retort, rolling my eyes even though none of them can see it beneath my armour, “If you read the manuals-”

“There are manuals?” interrupts Sky, “For what?”

“The League’s equipment,” I finish, “I would have told you that if you hadn’t interrupted so quickly. Just be thankful we don’t have training manuals and operational procedures like most of the superhero teams have.”

“Do we even have procedures?” asks Sam.

“Sure we do,” I reply, “Just the stuff our grandparents taught us. No swearing in costume, keeping civilian and costume identities separate and the other stuff like that. Just the things we learnt as we grew up. Not many heroes have our sort of upbringing have to learn once they join a team. Plus unlike the majority of teams in the world, we lack any oversight, be it government or sponsorship.”

“Granddad used to complain about all the restrictions he had whilst he was on government business compared to when he was doing League stuff,” notes Sky.

“Right,” I agree as I stand up, “We have all finished our drinks now. I think we should visit the most iconic landmarks first such as Big Ben and the London Eye.”