“I wouldn’t
disagree with that idea,” says Janelle after a moment.
“I must deal
with the Abby,” says Narszara before hanging up.
I’m silent as
I check the stock. I didn’t really need to check the stock. Granddad always
kept it ready to fight a prolonged war against a foe with superior numbers and
firepower.
“First time we
weren’t ready and the second time there wasn’t enough,” I remember him telling
me, “The next time, I want to be ready for anything.”
“I’ll make her
the offer,” I say to Janelle once I finished glancing over the numbers on the
screen.
It is a few
minutes before Alex and Fiona return, chatting away with each other.
“Got the
measurements?” I ask Alex.
“Yup,” says
Alex as she leans against the wall.
“Hey Fiona,” I
say slowly, “You know you said you didn’t have any superpowers.”
“I did,”
replies Fiona, giving me a strange look.
“Want some?” I
continue.
She stares at
me for a moment before blinking in surprise. Alex just looks at me intently.
“I got this
device called the Awakener, a modified version of a device sharing the same
name that the old League captured from a villain in the late seventies,” I tell
Fiona, “None outside the League and its trusted and closest allies know about
it. It can give someone superpowers, but it’s random. If a family member has
powers, yours will probably be the same, but that’s the only way to try and
predict what powers someone will get.I can use it on you, but I should warn you
it’s painful. It’s also guaranteed not to give you hideous mutations like
majority of the other methods.”
“Sure,”
replies Fiona, “Especially with no mutations.”
“Well, your
eyes could change colour,” I admit, “That’s happened a couple of times.”
“I can deal
with eyes changing colour easily,” says Fiona dismissively, “So where is this
Awakener?”
“Deeper down
in the base,” I answer, “Only a few levels down. Follow me.”
I lead Alex
and Fiona further down into the base. The base is really deep. The first level
contains the most used areas such as lab, the main room and the kitchen while
the next two down are purely residential areas. It is in those couple of levels
that the Rileys, Narszara and Alex live. The next three contain more important
stuff such as the archive, the Awakeners and the training room. The remaining
fifty levels are mixture of storerooms, residential areas and areas need to
make the base self-sustaining.
A total of
fifty six different levels and the ability to house and internally sustain a
population of almost a million.
It wasn’t
always so large. Grandpa expanded the base twice, each time after one of the
Invasions.
“The first
time I we weren’t ready,” I can remember him telling us, “The second time,
there wasn’t enough. The next time, I want to be ready and to have enough.”
“So have you
used the Awakener before?” inquires Fiona.
“Only four
times,” I answer, “Three tests on animals.”
“What
happened?” asks Alex.
“At the moment
that is a phasing cat, a flying terrier and a bulldog with laser eyebeams all
living in Albion Defender’s HQ right now,” I reply, “The bulldog has red eyes
by the way.”
“And fourth?”
probes Fiona.
“Storm
Knight,” I reply, “A member of the League of Heroes.”
“What powers
does Storm Knight have?” inquires Fiona.
“He has
electro-kinesis, sonic-kinesis and low level gravity manipulation in the form
of flight,” I say, “His blue eyes turned grey after he went through the
Awakener by the way.”
“Really?” says
Alex, “Storm Knight believes he has storm powers.”
“Seriously?” I
reply, “He thinks that?”
But that does
open up new possibilities. Such as Stefan’s true limitations. His current
limitations might not be his actually limits to his powers he hasn’t been
attempting to use his powers to their fullest extent.
“That opens up
new possibilities,” I mutter before realising where we are, “We’re here. Just through
this door.”
The Awakener
3.0 is the middle of the room.
“There is the
Awakener,” I tell Fiona, “If you would please sit down in it, I will plug you
in.
“Sure,”
answers Fiona, “So no mutations?”
“That hasn’t
been any known mutations caused by the Awakener other than eyes and hair
changing colour,” I reassure her, “But it will be painful.”
“How many
people have actually been through an Awakener?” asks Fiona as she sits down.
“About a
couple thousand,” I answer before explaining in greater detail, “A Bulgarian
arch-supervillain called Black Storm invaded in late sixties. He used the
original Awakener to give his soldiers and followers limited superpowers. He
and his army were dangerous enough to wage a decade long guerrilla war.”
“That must
have been nasty,” says Fiona, “How many supers is that compared to normal?”
“A lot,” I
say, “There’s only a few hundred supers in Britain today and less than fifty
active heroes. Back then, there were only about a dozen heroes and about three
times as many supers.”
I step back as
I finish connecting Fiona to the Awakener.
“I’m going to
activate it now,” I tell her, “It’ll only take roughly a minute, but will be
painful.”
“I can take
pain you can dish out,” claims Fiona as I stand behind the control panel.
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