1.14 Endgame Part 3

“Almost done,” I tell Charlie as we work on the last of Sektain sensor beacons.

We got all three of the three metre tall towers, made entirely from the greenish-purplish grey alloy that the Sektain use, set up in a spare room down in the base. The beacons are quite unusual by Earth standards, but feel quite normal for Sektain stuff. They have a wide and low tripod base with a generator that shoots a small beam of yellow energy into the air that only reaches the top of the beacon. Several metal rings surround the energy beam while three curved pillars protect its sides.

“Good because as fun as it is to mess around with alien tech, it feels weird,” replies Charlie.

“Really?” I say, “I enjoy it. Nice to work such advanced stuff.”

“Eh,” mutters Charlie with a shrug, “You’re the genius here.”

“You’re smarter than you give yourself credit for,” I tell him.

“Seriously Daniel,” insists Charlie, “You are a genius. Why do think you’re the Sentinel? Your grandfather picked you over both of his daughters, your sister and your cousin.”

“Yeah, well, he picked because-” I start to reply, but become flustered as I realise my argument is these cases is that Granddad picked me because I was the smartest.

“See!” says Charlie, “Of us New Leaguers, you’re the only one that could do your grandfather’s job.”

“I still don’t see how that- got it!” I exclaim as I get the last sensor beacon working, “Hey Janelle, can you start scanning for the Machine’s creator?”

“Already on it,” replies Janelle, “You also have your aunt on her way here.  She’s bringing Freya along with her.”

“Who is Freya?” asks Charlie.

“A Class 5, one of the only three in the country,” I tell him, “Her powers manifested when she was four and the government has kept her hidden since then, roughly a decade ago if memory serves. To stop her from accidentally hurting others and to stop people trying to use her for their own gain. My Aunt Mary has been looking after her since then, pretty much adopting her as a second daughter. So now Freya Griffin is family, at least to those that know about her.”

“So what is she to you?” inquires Charlie.

“The younger cousin I never get to meet in person,” I reply, “I’m surprised she got permission from the government to bring her here. Let’s go and meet her.”

“Nah,” says Charlie, “I got to get back home. I’m already pushing how long I can stay here.”

“Okay, see you around then,” I reply, “I’m going to get back to work one of my new major projects.”

“What is that?” asks Charlie as he heads for the doorway.

“Another AI to help us out like Janelle does,” I tell him and Charlie freezes in a doorway.

“An AI?” repeats Charlie, “You sure that’s a good idea? Haven’t you seen how that goes in the movies?”

“Those are not true,” I reply, “I would much rather based my judgements about AI going by the real life ones rather than the fictional ones.”

“Eh,” says Charlie as he leaves the room, “I’ll trust you to get things right.”

***

I wait at the exit for Aunt Mary and Freya to arrive in civvies. It’s just family so no need to wear the Sentinel armour.

Honestly, I’m feeling quite nervous. Freya may be family, but I never actually met her before and have no idea what she is like or what she thinks of me. And that’s not even taking into account that fact she has Class 5 powers.

“Hello Daniel,” says Mary as she lands, wearing the Warden armour, “Were you waiting for us?”

“Pretty much,” I reply as a girl climbs off Mary’s back, “I’m looking forward to meeting Freya. We haven’t exactly had the opportunity to do so before.”

“MI9 does like to keep a close eye on her,” Mary agrees as I take a look at Freya.

The girl is surprising tall for her age to the point I feel confident in saying that Freya will be one of those supers that end up over two metres tall when they’re finished growing. Her hair is in a long pony tail with an odd colour, a strange mixture of blonde and red, both colours being intertwined with each other.

Her eyes are a deep blue and Freya has pretty face. Not to mention a good figure like Narszara. And her clothes are pretty plain, simply black trousers and a brown t-shirt.

“Hi Daniel!” says Freya, “It’s great to finally meet you and to get out of a government building for once.”

“I’m glad to meet you too,” I tell her before turning my attention back to Mary, “How did you get permission to take Freya here?”

“I didn’t,” replies Mary bluntly, “I told them I was taking her to visit the League of Heroes base as we were leaving. Now let’s get inside the base before anybody stumbles across us.”

And that explains a lot, I think as we enter the base.

“Say Daniel,” says Freya, “Would it be possible to meet Narszara? Because I really want to.”

1.8 Assassins Part 4

I look at my communicator. It says Laura the one calling me. I guess I should take it.

“Hello Laura,” I say, “Have you got any news on Nightblade?”

“I managed to track his payer to the same person behind the bounties on you, the warehouse tip off, Hall and Edison’s guns and the revealer of Britannia’s identity. ” replies Laura, “He was paid to kill Britannia’s family and heroes who got in the way. But his employer paid him even after he failed so he’s not going after them anymore. Why someone wanted to kill them in the first place, but then not be bothered when that doesn’t happen worries me frankly. We’re either dealing with an idiot or, more likely given his past known actions, our foe’s goals in this matter were fulfilled. Not that I can figure them out. I just wish it didn’t involve doing what they did to Britannia. But that’s not all I want to talk about.”

“So what else?” I ask.

“First you might want a bit of information your friend Mia Robinson, the captain of the Dust Corsair,” replies Laura.

“Definitely,” I say.

“She’s settled back down into her family and a normal life,” says Laura, “A bit of trouble respecting authority and she is still unusual. Mia is gotten on good terms with the Defenders of the Bush. Basically, she’s weird, but otherwise Mia is fitting in.”

“I’ll relay that to Darrac,” I reply.

“One last thing,” says Laura, “A personal favour.”

“A personal favour,” I repeat surprised.

Laura rarely asks for a personal favour. When she does, they usually consist of asking for information, using one of our contracts or getting some free equipment.

“What is it?” I inquire.

“You know my kids,” says Laura.

“Yeah.”

Laura has four kids. Her oldest daughter is called Bellona and is sixteen. Her second eldest daughter is fourteen and called Alexandra. Her third child is eleven year old boy called Halvard while her youngest is a nine year old girl called Lorica. All have been trained to take over from Laura when they’re old enough.

“It is to do with Alexandra,” explains Laura, “You know how she has never been the most eager for a fight. Well, she doesn’t want to follow in the family footsteps and I’m not going to force her to. But I’m not sure what to do with her now. I’m kind of hoping she could stay with the League. Not, part of it, but just live the base like Narszara does.”

“That’s doable,” I reply, “It would be good for Narszara to have a housemate and it shouldn’t cause any problems. Alex can be trusted like all of your family.”

“Alex will be pleased,” says Laura, “I’ll tell her the good news. Thanks.”

Laura ends the call and Charlie raises an eyebrow at me.

“Just offered to let someone else stay at the base without asking or telling the others?” says Charlie.

“In fairness to me, I do actually own the base when it comes to the paperwork,” I reply in joking tone, “And granddad built by himself and he gave it to me when he died.”

“True, true,” grins Charlie, “So are we putting some weapons into the Bulk armour.”

“Yup and the Sentinel armour too,” I reply.

“Good,” replies Charlie, “I got to go now. See you later.”

***

“Daniel!” calls Mum from downstairs as I sit at the desk in my bedroom, “Dinner!”

“Coming Mum!” I reply as I take off my headphones.

I’ve been doing research for a school project in addition to my one of my other Sentinel projects. I’ve been trying to work on a way for quick and efficiently take a normal person down at range. For non-lethal crowd control.

At the moment I was thinking about a sort of laser-taser hybrid that uses lasers to artificially create ionised paths for the electricity to path. Trying to figure that out is as hard as it sounds.

It is a simply meal that Mum is dishing up, chicken goujons and hash browns. Lily is having chips instead of hash browns. She has never really been keen on them much to my annoyance as I have always preferred hash browns to chips.

I’m digging into my first goujon when Lily starts talking.

“Did you hear about the news this morning?” inquires Lily.

“What part?” asks Mum, but I already know what Lily is referring to.

“About Britannia’s identity,” answers Lily excitedly.

“I don’t why people seem to think that’s a good thing,” I cut in, “Her life has been changed beyond her control and not for the better. She has to live full time with people knowing she’s a superhero and can no longer live a normal life. Plus a superpowered assassin was able to go after her family because of it. And who knows how many more villains will try to after her family to get to Britannia.”

Not expecting my vigorous reply, Lily looks ready to launch an argument for the sake of it when Mum steps in, seeing the potential disaster in the making.

“Talking about families, remember that the Moors are coming to visit tomorrow,” says Mum, “Daniel, I expect you to spend time with your cousins instead of keeping to yourself all day.”

“Usually hang out with friends,” I protest, “I don’t hide away all day.”

“My point still stands Daniel,” says Mum sternly.

I sigh as I know I’m not going to win this one.

1.8 Assassins Part 3

Most of them have come. There is Britannia, Warden, Dreadnought, Green Knight, Merlin, Robyn Hood, Dreadnought, Multitude, Spectre and Eternal.

Ten of the thirteen Albion Defenders. Well, they are based nearby enough so they would have left London when I started fighting Nightblade.

Britannia and Warden are flying while the rest are in one of the Defender jets, a lesser copy of the League jet.

I look back down at Nightblade. He’s running in the opposite direction of the Riley house.

I land on the ground and Britannia flies down next to me, gazing her sister’s house. She looks uncharacteristically vulnerable.

“So now what?” I ask her.

“I don’t know,” mutters Britannia quietly, “I never, it’s just... I never expected this to happen. I just don’t know what to do.”

You can hear the hopeless despair in her voice.

“They could stay at the base,” I say, “We got more than enough room and they would be totally safe. And once things settle down they could always go and live somewhere else if they wanted to.”

She looks at me before sighing in regret.

“I’ll speak with my family,” says Britannia, “Thanks for the offer.”

“That was good thing to do,” says Aunt Mary as she lands on the other side of me and Britannia walks towards her sister’s house.

“Yeah,” I reply quietly, “But the others don’t have a clue about it.”

“Spontaneous?” inquires Mary

“Yes, but I don’t regret it,” I tell her.

“We were discussing what to do about it when we found out about Nightblade,” notes Mary sourly, “We never even considered the possibly of someone going after her family or even bothered to post protection.”

The local police have now shown up.

“I’m going back home,” I say as I fly up into the air, “I need to speak with the others and I got stuff to do.”

***

“Did you even think to check with any of us?” demands Lucy.

We’re all sit around the table, all of the new Leaguers.

“I came up with the idea on spot,” I reply, “I wouldn’t change if I what I said even if I could. It was the right thing to do.”

Lucy looks ready to argue the point further, but Sam cuts in.

“I agree with Daniel,” says Sam, “I know how I feel if my identity was revealed and I would wanted to protect my family. I know you would all feel the same.”

“First they might not even stay here,” I say, “But if they do, we’ll have to find out how much they know about us. We’ll work out what to do from there depending on how thing develop.”

“Any idea who is behind it?” asks James.

“Britannia’s identity going public?” I reply, “Not a clue. I tracked the source down to being originally leaked in America, but beyond that nothing. My gut says it is whoever built the machine and placed the bounties on us is behind it. But that might be me just being paranoid.”

“It could be one of Britannia’s enemies responsible,” suggests Sky.

“What about Nightblade?” asks Sam.

“I believe he was hired by whoever was behind the leak,” I answer, “That’s the only way he could have been hired to go after Britannia’s family like that so soon. I’m not entirely certain Nightblade was trying to kill them by the way. He might have been trying to capture them, but I can say that for sure.”

“What were you doing over there so quickly anyway Daniel?” inquires Helen.

“I had help the police stop an armed fight between a couple of gangs in Salisbury when I found out about the leak,” I tell them, “The situation was under control there so I decided to make sure Britannia’s family was safe when I found out they’re details and addresses were leaked as well.”

“Lucky for them,” mutters Sky.

“So now what?” asks Sam as he looks around the table.

“We get on with our lives and wait for things to progress further,” I say, “And keep an eye out for Nightblade since he got away.”

We all get up. I head for the lab while the others go off in different directions, mostly to the exits.

“Daniel, wait up,” says Charlie from behind me.

“Yes?” I reply as I turn around.

“I want to talk to you about the Bulk armour,” says Charlie.

“Sure.”

We both walk to the lab. Once inside, I sit down in the chair at the workbench, my usual spot in the lab.

“So what about the Bulk armour?” I inquire.

“Well I figured that as it is too big for anything apart from the big such we should adapt for the big stuff,” says Charlie, “You know, some of the stuff Grandpa had on his armour such as missiles and heavy weaponry. In case I have to fight anything like the Machine again.”

“That’s not a bad idea,” I reply thoughtfully, “I’ve been meaning to put some heavier firepower into the Sentinel armour for the same reasons. Last time I clashed with the Machine, I almost got killed. Only Darrac and Lanterns saved me from death.”

“The space pirate,” says Charlie with a nod.

“Right, I-” I pause as my communicator beeps.

It acts as my super advanced phone and is disguised as a smart phone. If people ask me what make, I tell them it’s a custom design I created myself. Which is true.

“What now?” I complain out loud to no one in particular. 

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. 

1.4 Sins of Our Grandfathers Part 3

When I reach them, the situation is downright awful. The Bulk armour has lost an arm and is barely standing with the Mad Sisters circling Charlie. Storm Knight is down and I can see blood on the ground next to him. Bolt is staggering backwards, blasting away at Forsworn’s metal spikes and 

Avenger’s firebolts. Nightmare is walking up to Stefan, his hands transformed into bloody razor sharp blades.

The police are only just arriving and Narszara is still two minutes behind me.

I zoom at Nightmare before he can harm Stefan anymore. I slam into him and we crash into the wall behind Storm Knight.

I can hear bones crunching. I don’t care because Nightmare just tried to kill Stefan, my friend and teammate, and I know he can recover quickly with his shapeshifting. I look around and grab a few metal poles. I stab each one into Nightmare’s chest. He’ll have to pull them out and heal the wounds before he can get back into the fight.

I fly back out of the warehouse that we landed in and see Bulk crash into ground in front of me. None of the armour’s limbs are still working.

I spot Mad Dog a few metres away. I raise my sonics at her, but Mad Cat pounces on me.

The villainess slashes away at me, but my armour can withstand punches from Vistorix and her attacks don’t even scratch the armour. I grab one of her arms and twist it in what is certainly the wrong way. Mad Cat screams in pain and I fire my sonics into her face at point blank range. Mad Cat slumps and I throw her into a wall just in time to see Mad Dog rushing me.

I fly up into the air and Mad Dog smashes into the ground where I was. I fire both sonics at her and Mad Dog yowls. Before she can recover, I drop and stomp her into the ground. She’ll be fine and if she isn’t, I don’t really care.

I jump off her, but before I can move, I’m bathed in flames.

Stupid Avenger doesn’t realise that the Sentinel armour has been fireproof since before the World War 2 ended. Granddad wouldn’t have survived if it couldn’t withstand a bit of fire.

I use my HUD to see through the blaze. Forsworn is trying to use his powers on me despite any decent set of power armour being immune to magnetism.

Idiots.

“It’s not working!” shouts Forsworn.

“My wrath is doing nothing!” snarls Avenger in reply, “Try the explosives.”

Forsworn throws a handful small of explosive balls at me. I know because my HUD identifies them as my own creations.

I send the deactivation codes to them. As Avenger stops his flames, the balls hit me. They bounce off of the armour harmless.

“What £$%*?” says Avenger, “You used duds!”

“I did not you moron!” yells Forsworn back.

“Don’t use my own tech against me if you want it to work,” I say as I fly into the air.

I spot Vance behind them. His cos-mat costume and powers protected him from the worse of Avengers flames. Stefan is still down. Charlie is personally okay, but the Bulk armour is junk right now. Just me to take on these two until Narszara arrives.

“Your tech?” mutters Forsworn, “Damn it!”

“Get him!” yells Avenger.

Forsworn summons a swarm of metal spears whilst Avenger’s hands light up with fire. I prepare to attack when I hear Nightmare waking up behind me. Mad Dog is struggling to her feet.

Four to one is a lot worse than two to one especially when that four is a team of highly experienced killers. At least none of them can fly. I really like having that advantage.

Unless Nightmare grows wings or Forsworn uses a metal platform. Then I’ll really be in trouble.

“You’re not going to win this,” I shout, “I’m wearing Class 4 power armour. Narszara is almost here and both Britannia and the Aquiline will be here in less than half an hour.”

Avenger and Forsworn exchange worried looks. I’m about to fire my sonics when Forsworn grins savagely.

“You won’t kill us,” he laughs, “You’re too weak! You won’t even hurt us too badly because you’re so soft!”

Next thing I know, Mad Cat and Mad Dog have jumped up and each grabbed one of my legs. Between the two of them, they’re pulling me down.

Forsworn sends the metal spears at me, but they barely dent the outer armour. That’s when they start spinning. Forsworn is using them as drills.

I’m not worried. I know the metal will break before the armour does.

I’m finally pulled down by the Mad Sisters. Then pin me down and are too strong for me to break free. Forsworn and Avenger stand over me, both are grinning like the madmen they are.

Nightmare walks over to them, his face furious.

“This is the Sentinel?” he scoffs, “I guess it was to be expected he would defend his criminal pals from justice.”

“Justice for what?” I yell at them, “Being born?!”

“They need to pay for their grandfathers’ crimes,” says Avenger, “Don’t you realise that Sentinel? After all, your own grandfather fought to stop theirs.”

“I’m a hero unlike you as was my grandfather,” I retort, “You talk of criminals yet you’re the ones committing the crimes here. Assault and attempted murder this night alone! Not to mention you armed Hall and Edison’s people with all of that firepower!”

Confusion appears on their faces at my last sentence. Something isn’t right I realise.

Before I can anything else a strong gush blows against us, staggering Vengeance. A barrage of flames bombards us.

Vengeance leaps back to avoid getting burn. The Mad sisters are snarling, Nightmare has his hands as blades again while Forsworn has his spears around him again.

I hear a familiar battle cry and look up.

Narszara is swooping down; flames surround her while her sword is drawn in her right hand. 

1.4 Sins of Our Grandfathers Part 2

“Look out!” shouts Vance as I hear fire crackling and metal screeching.

“Narszara!” I call as I send out a yellow alert, “We have to help them!”

“We shall put on our armours and fly to their aid,” declares Narszara as she puts on her still damaged helmet.

I dash for the lab as I hear fighting breaking out for the others. As I run, I go through a mental checklist of Vengeance’s members.

Nightmare likes to terrorise people who have been accused of breaking the law. Preferably by breaking into their homes and threatening them in front of their families.

Mad Cat and Mad Dog are twin sisters who both can change their form, into a werecat and weredog respectively. Sort of like Carrie except she doesn’t lose control like the Mad sisters like to. They generally brutally assault murderers, wife beaters and other crimes of that calibre they claim. 

Not that I personally consider hitting your wife to be as bad as murder even if I still strongly disapprove of domestic abuse.

Avenger can shoot fire from his hands. He likes to burn up murderers and attempted murderer. He also includes those that have committed manslaughter as members of the first two groups.

Forsworn can control metal. He prefers to go after petty criminals such as thieves and speeders. Fortunately the Sentinel and Bulk armours have contained trace amounts of metals for a while now, instead relying on a ceramic that my granddad and the first Bulk came up with following the Invasion.

Shade is the final member of them and only decent one. He can phase and travel through shadows. He can also make darkness solid. Like hard light except it is more hard dark than light. He likes to go after mobsters, gangster and other parts of organised crime. He is also the only one that rarely kills. When he does, his victims really deserve it or innocent lives are at stake.

Despite almost all of them being monsters, a large amount of the public supports them for some inexplicable reason that is beyond my ken.

Despite neither granddad or me selling equipment to supers like them, they have still acquired some of my tech somehow. Part of me wants them to try and use it against me so they can find out what happens when you use someone’s own inventions against them.

I’ll bet they’re going after us because of Charlie and Stefan. People like Vengeance have no problem with going after the families of criminals how wrong that is.  They probably want to punish Charlie and Stefan for the crime of being related to their grandfathers.

At this point, I’m already suiting up. Just as the process finishes, Narszara rushes into the lab, wearing her armour and armed with her green-bladed sword.

“Are you ready milord?” ask Narszara.

“Yes,” I reply, “I’ll take me seven minutes to reach them at full speed.”

“I will take me ten,” says Narszara, “If you go first, I will arrive second. We cannot afford to fly together.”

“Agreed,” I say and we run for the closest exit.

Once up in the air, it occurs to me I haven’t called the police, MI9 or the Defenders.

“Norris Oakley,” I hear him say after he answers his phone.

It was easy enough to find his personal mobile number.

“This is the Sentinel,” I say, “Vengeance has ambushed Bulk, Bolt and Storm Knight in Portsmouth. Narszara and I are flying to them.”

“Those American thugs here!” exclaims Oakley.

“Yes, I need to make some other calls,” I say before I hang up.

“Agent Lewis?” I say as I once I called our MI9 liaison.

“Yes Daniel?” replies Lewis, “Bulk, Bolt and Storm Knight are investigating the weapons warehouse in Portsmouth right?”

“It was a trap set by Vengeance,” I reply, “Narszara and I are flying to help them now.”

“Damn it!” shouts Lewis, “This is not going to go well. Especially with the Americans.”

“I’m going to call the Defenders now,” I say before hanging up again.

“Hello Daniel,” says Aunt Mary as she answers.

“Mary,” I say, “Charlie, Vance and Stefan were investigating a suspected weapons warehouse in Portsmouth. It turned out to by a trap by Vengeance. Narszara and I are heading there now to help them.”

“Vengeance?” says Mary, “&*%$!”

That startles me. Aunt Mary never swears unless it’s really bad.

“I’m not going to bother telling you to stay away and wait for back up,” says Mary, “Just be careful. I’m not going to get there in time. Only Britannia can. But even then she’ll take fifteen to twenty minutes. How close are you?”

“Just over four minutes out,” I reply, “Narszara while be a couple of minutes behind me.”

“Try not to die,” says Mary wearily, “And call Laura.”

“Good idea,” I say before cutting the connection and dialling Laura Aquiline.

“Yes Daniel,” says Laura as she answers

“Vengeance has ambushed Charlie, Vance and Stefan in Portsmouth,” I say to her.

“I’ll be there in half an hour,” replies Laura, “Try to keep all of you alive and don’t worry about hurting any members of Vengeance. They deserve whatever get.”

As Laura hangs up, I get a call from Sam.

“What’s going on?” demands Sam, “You just sent a yellow alert.”

“Change it to red,” I say, “Vengeance has ambushed the others in Portsmouth. Britannia is twenty minutes away and Laura is thirty.”

“I’ll be there as soon as I can,” replies Sam, “Give them heck until I get there.”