2008 - Mary

Mary Griffin sighs as she finishes the last of her paperwork. She never had to do this level of paper back when she was in the League with all the old guys. Back then Dad just did all the work.

She misses those days, back when she became her Dad’s sidekick when she was sixteen. The joy she experienced when she got her own copy of the latest Sentinel armour at the time on her sixteenth birthday.

Best day of her life and possible the one that defined her for the rest of life. The other possible day that defined her life would have been when she became a superhero when none of the other Leaguer kids did. Or perhaps that day was the one when she help found the Albion Protectors.

Mary can’t help, but wonder how things had turned out if it had been her generation that formed the new League of Heroes rather than that of her daughter and nephew.

She was the only one that battled crime alongside League Heroes while the others did other things with their lives.

But plenty of them joined the Albion Protectors in later years, she thinks bitterly, Davin, Henry and Anne were happy to join the Protectors a decade after their formation.

And she didn’t even get any official authority when she joined the Albion Protectors. Britannia, a completely inexperienced, underage teenager, was made team leader.

As good a leader as Britannia has become over two decades, back then, little Liz didn’t have any idea of how to lead a team, skating by on her powers when it came to proper action. It was Mary that became de-facto leader back then with her six years of experience and later became the de-facto second-in-command once Britannia was able to stand on her own feet as leader.

Looking back on it, they probably just wanted to mould the inexperienced Britannia to be their loyal, obedient servant to do things as they wanted them to be done. Too bad for them that Mary was the one that Britannia went to for help.

At least the League of Heroes has always been there for her with the old Leaguers advising her as she struggled to keep the newly formed Albion Protectors afloat to the new Leaguers supporting her as folks try to weaken her position within the Albion Defenders.

Is some official respect and authority over things too much to ask for? Because Mary has never gotten any. Oh she has tons and tons of unofficial respects, authority and responsibility, but the government has never really trusted her.

Mary is certain it is because they don’t feel she is entirely trustworthy. Which, to be fair, they do have a point. Given the choice between the government and the League of Heroes, Mary will go for the later in pretty much every conceivable scenario she can think of.

At least if it gets too much she can always just leave the Defenders and go back to the League. She has always been half-Leaguer and half-Defender, one of her biggest assets and troubles.

"Hey Mary,” says a voice from the doorway, “Ready to go yet?”

“Sure thing Freya,” replies Mary as she looks at the girl in the doorway.

Freya Griffin is special, one of the country’s three Class 5 superhumans. As of such, she is kept secret and hidden from the rest of the world. For both her own safety and that of others.

Since her mother died in childbirth, the government has been responsible and specifically MI9 ever since her powers came to light.

That was a decade ago, when Freya was four and Mary has been the one primarily responsible for looking after the girl. Mary considers Freya her daughter while Helen considers Freya her little sister.

But Freya doesn’t consider herself part of the Griffin family. Even though she has taken on the family name as her own.

Due to Freya’s existence being a high level secret, they can’t exactly just go out somewhere for some mother-daughter time, but they can hang out together in the tower. Play games or perhaps watch a movie.

“You know Freya,” says Mary as she walks to girl, “I could always take you to the base if you wanted me to. It would be good for you to meet new people. Plus the place is much cooler than here.”

“Won’t we get in trouble?” inquires Freya, “I’m not supposed to leave the building without permission.”

“You’ll have my permission,” Mary tells her, “And honestly, I can’t think of any good reason not to.”

“I would like to,” says Freya as they head down the corridor, “I do keep hearing about that place from pretty much everybody. And I would really like to meet the Sentinel. And Narszara. She seems so cool. I mean, she can turn into a dragon. It isn’t that awesome!”

“I guess it is,” replies Mary with a smile, “Any idea on what you want to do tonight?”

“I want to watch The New Patriots III: Revenge of the Consortium movie,” answers Freya, “Rose and Linda got it for me.”

“Did they now,” says Mary, “I’ll remember to thank them for that.”

The fourteen year old grins up at her and Mary grins back down at her adopted daughter.

Sure Mary might not get any official rewards for her actions, but she was never in the business for that. Between doing good, her family and support of the League of Heroes give her, life is good for Mary Angeline Griffin aka the Warden.

1.13 Breakout Part 9

I fire my sonics at Vistorix and after a moment, he loses his hold over my ankles and drops. As he falls, I cut power to my rocket pack. While Vistorix lands on his back, I come crashing down on his gut, feet first.

As the supervillain gasps, I leap off on him. He tries to get to his feet, but I quickly kick him in the chest. Vistorix is sent flying into the wall. He attempts to get his to his feet, but once he is almost done, I punch him in the face.

He roars and swipes at me, but I duck and blast him with one of my sonics. I follow my sonic attack with an uppercut to the face. Vistorix grunts as my fist connects with his jaw. I don’t give him a chance to recover as I fire both sonics at him.

Vistorix stumbles forward, groggily reaching for me. I step back out of his reach and fire both of my wrist mounted lasers into his eyes. Vistorix screams and drops to his knees.

While it might seem a bit little lethal or maiming, Vistorix’s superdurability means that the lasers only temporarily blind him, the same way a flash of bright light blinds a normal person for a moment. And since he also has super senses, the lasers are much more painful and the blindness longer lasting.

I unleash a fury of blows against the supervillain until he sways unsteadily and topples over with a loud crash. I let out a breath of relief and look around the room.

It seems like all of the supervillains are down. Better get back to work on restraining their powers with special cuffs and putting them back in the cells.

***

I suppose the tour was technically a disaster, but nobody apart from the escaped villains were injured and the cameramen actually got some pretty good footage of me in action.

Sure a few people were claiming I was excessively violent, but the vast majority were praising me for taking on that many supervillains singlehandedly and doing as well as I did.

Personally I feel that while it might seemed I was a bit over the top, I didn’t do anything to the villains if I wasn’t sure they would be able to survive it. And in my defence, I was horrible outnumbered with a whole load of civilians to protect.

Now all I need to do is finish finding out why Bateson when rogue. I mean sure he was going to cross the line at some point, but why then and not some point sooner or later.

“Janelle,” I say as I take the Sentinel armour off back at the base, “Can you bring up any relevant information on Glenn Bateson?”

“Sure,” replies Janelle, “Would you like me to check for anything which might explain his treachery today?”

“That would be helpful,” I reply back, “How were Judy and Alex after I left? Did Alex start on Judy’s training?”

“Alex started teaching Judy the basics before they stopped to play card games,” says Janelle, “They got on well and Judy exited the base mere moments before the breakout started.”

“Glad to hear that,” I reply, “How is the security at Blackguard at the moment? Any possibility of the villains breaking back out?”

“Not any that are worth mentioning,” says Janelle, “With most of the superheroes in the nation there and the beating you inflicted, I would be extremely surprised if any even tried to escape now.”

“True,” I mutter as I finish taking the armour off, “Part of me just wants to relax while another part wants to get this situation sorted out as soon as possible.”

“You can do both,” says Janelle and I look around.

It is quite hard to look at a disembodied voice so I settle for just looking up at the ceiling.

“Please tell,” I inquire.

“Well, you can trust other people to get the job done,” replies Janelle, “I, Alex, Narszara and the other members of the League of Heroes can all look into this. Meanwhile you can relax and have fun. Remember Daniel, you are part of a team and you don’t have to everything. You have people you can trust and depend on to help you out and get the job done.”

“True,” I agree with a smile, “There is the rest of the League plus our friends and allies. I almost made a fool’s mistake by trying to everything myself. I would have burned myself out at some point.”

“And that is why you should go and have fun,” says Janelle, “Play games or hang out with your friends or something.”

“Good idea,” I reply, “I haven’t played many of my strategy games in long time. There is probably bunch of new updates and some new DLC out.”

“Should be,” agrees Janelle cheerfully.

“Then I’ll get my laptop out and play some of my games,” I continue to speak as I head for area of the lab where I kept my personal belongs, “I’ll probably start a new save in CKII or perhaps EUIV.”

“Sounds good,” Janelle agrees again.

The AI goes silent as I get my laptop out and open up one of my games. Nothing like having some fun playing a Grand Strategy game after an intense day as a superhero.

1.13 Breakout Part 8

I am sent flying, but stabilise myself with my rocket pack and it isn’t like that punch hurt me through the Sentinel armour.

I take a moment to survey the room. Not that many supervillains remaining as only Vistorix, Nightmare, McNamara and Hall remaining with Edison finally being taken out by the electro-spyders.

“Come on,” I say, “Is that the best you got?”

“I haven’t even begun to fight,” snarls Vistorix, “I’ve been rotting in that cell for two months, waiting for some payback on the @#£$s that put me there. Now one of you is finally here and within my reach.”

“Just remember how badly you lost in our first fight,” I reply before opening fire with my lasers at Nightmare.

 I chop his arms off. While it might been a bit gruesome for superhero such as myself, you have to understand that it is a known fact that Nightmare can re-grow limps using his shapeshifting and that this isn’t the first time that he has lost both his arms.

“Son of a bitch!” yelps McNamara and Hall looks quite unnerved.

But Vistorix just lets out a throaty laugh and rushes me. He lets out a swing at me, but I dodge and enter the air with my rocket pack.

The thing with Vistorix is that while he can’t really hurt me, he can send me flying and I also lack any real capability to harm him except my attacks won’t knock him around like a ragdoll.

And I have to take into account that Vistorix is a highly experienced fighter even if he still fights like the brute he is. While our villains have generally been operating as long as Vistorix, they haven’t got in as nearly as many fights as Vistorix has been able to.

What can I do stop-I’m an idiot.

I have wrist-mounted sonics. I’ve been so used to using my wrist mounted weapons against machines that I forget how effective they are on organics. If only I had remember about them at the start of the fight.

I fire both of the sonics at Vistorix’s head and he drops to his knees before toppling over. I doubt I have taken him out for the rest of the fight, but I have brought myself a minute or two take out the other three remaining villains. As McNamara and Hall fire off futile fireballs and lightning bolts respectively at me, I drop down between the two of them.

I slug Hall in the jaw and knock him over backwards before kicking McNamara in the gut. I follow it up with a punch to the chest and the Irish man goes flying. Nightmare is still trying to regrow his arms when I turn on him. I stun him with the sonics before grabbing him by the hair. I slam his head into the ground a couple of times until I am sure he is out for the count.

Once again, I turn around to face Vistorix.

And once again, I am just in time to see his fist before he punches me in the face. I start to go flying, again, but this time Vistorix grabs my ankle and smashes me into the ground.

“Really?” I say, “Best you got?”

“Not even close,” snarls Vistorix as he grabs by the neck and starts smacking me against the wall.

Smack. Annoying, but not dangerous. Smack. Very annoying. Smack. I ought to stop this now. Smack.

I activate the rocket pack and fly up into the air. While the sudden movement does cause Vistorix to lose his grip around my neck, he quickly grabs my ankle again before he can fall.

“Janelle,” I say, “How long until back up?”

“Narszara and Sam are twenty minutes as while Sam is faster, Narszara got a head start,” answers the AI, “Britannia is about thirty minutes away. Multiple other Leaguers along with the majority members of all three governmental teams are on their way.”

“Are you giving them updates?” I inquire.

“Yes,” replies Janelle, “While the Leaguers, Britannia and Warden know who I am, the others just assume I’m an automated system to give situational updates.”

“Good,” I say.

While I trust Janelle and many other AIs, the majority of the planet’s populace has mixed to negative feelings about synthetic life. I personally find that what a sentient AI is like vary from each one and there are actually a lot of parallels between synthetic and organic life if you just look for them.

Such as creators being considered birth parents, power sources being considered food and drink and recharging being considered the same as resting.

 But like with people, you have to be careful with AIs. Software AIs are the hardest to deal with as they can go pretty much anywhere as long as the hardware can handle them. Hardware AIs are easier as they are confined to certain pieces of hardware unless transferred so you don’t really have problems unless their hardware is out of your league.

Regardless of what I and other people think of AIs, I still have a Class 4 supervillain to deal with here.

“Let’s tangle,” I tell Vistorix, grinning beneath my helmet.

1.13 Breakout Part 7

I shove the section of solid metal wall aside as I get to my feet. The thing slammed me  into the wall.

“Everybody out!” I yell as I realise how bad the situation is.

Somebody let all of the prisoners out. Every single last one and the power restrainers won’t keep their power neutralised for long.

And the person to blame is without doubt Glenn Bateson.  I should have known, but it wasn’t like I could do anything about it without any proof or evidence of wrongdoing.

How would have that gone? Hey, I think is prison officer I just met isn’t to be trusted because I think he might be a bad guy. Let’s arrest him and throw him into one of the cells.

But that would explain why a chuck of the wall just flew into me.

All of the country’s native supervillains, Vengeance, Vistorix and a rogue superpowered prison officer scattered between the ground level and the two walkways versus me, Treves and the other officer on the tour.

I can take them. Or hold them off long enough for someone else to arrive.

“Hey Janelle,” I say into my League communicator, “We got a breakout here at Blackguard. Officer Bateson just released all of the inmates.”

“I understand,” comes the swift reply, “Informing all relevant authorities.”

“Don’t bother calling for help,” Bateson tells me as several more chucks of the wall hover around him, “I’m jamming all signals in or out. No one will hear you.”

Now there is a trick up my sleeve. If they don’t realise that I have already called for help and their jamming is actually affecting me, then I might be able to catch them off guard.

Both Treves and the other guard have drawn their stun guns, but they’ll do little against the freed prisoners.

At least the crowd of reporters are heading back out. No idiots hanging around to get some footage.

Target priority first. Who are the biggest threats and which ones to use spyders on and which to use missiles on?

Black Death’s touch won’t affect me through the Sentinel armour while Gaia’s Vengeance doesn’t have any vegetation to work with. Hall’s lightning and Avenger’s fire are also useless.

With high amounts of metal in Blackguard, Bateson and Forsworn could be pretty dangerous as well. The rest also have the potential to cause some trouble for me, but I can probably take them if I play if smart.

But Vistorix, along with Gravilord and Edison, is the most dangerous with a very real chance of beating me. The three of them are easily the biggest threats of the assorted supervillains.

Two missile for each of the Mad sisters and the last two for Vistorix. Electro-spyders will take care of Edison and Gravilord. The rest I should be able to take.

I open fire with all of my missiles and electro-spyders as I activate the rocket pack. I zoom straight at Bateson.

I crash into the rogue prison officer and we both slam into the other wall that has mostly been stripped away by Bateson.

I hear something cracking and huff of breath from Bateson before I pull away. Bateson starts to drop to his knees, but before he can collapse into a heap on the floor, I slug him one in the face.

Not too hard, just enough to break a jaw. That combined with the ribs I probably just broke will keep Bateson out of the fight.

I spin back around to face the rest of the supervillains. Both Mad sisters are transformed, but only Mad Cat is down with Mad Dog shaking off the effects the missiles that caught her. It seems that her missiles were intercepted by Forsworn and Avenger judging by how those two are on the ground.

I should have expected teamwork from Vengeance. They were a successful team back when they were ‘heroes’.

Gravilord is also out while Edison is staggered. It seems that he was able to catch two of the three spyders I sent at him in his temporal field.

Vistorix is getting back to his feet after being blown onto his back.

Time to thin the herd. I grab one of the chucks of metal that were floating around Bateson and lob it at Mad Dog before reactivating my rocket pack and flying up at Nightmare.

Best to take Vengeance out of the fight.

The metal takes out of the stunned Mad Dog and knocks her off the walkway while Nightmare is better prepared for me. He shapeshifts out of the way, but I still catch him with a kick that sends him flying.

I unleash a flurry of low-power laser shots at the other villains to scatter them. Edison is still busy dealing with the electro-spyders. That leaves only White Lord or Redmund McNamara as main threats until Vistorix or a member of Vengeance recovers.

I launch myself at White Lord, ignoring Hall’s crackling lightning. My armour can more than handle bit of lightning.

White Lord attempts to dodge, but even with his enhanced speed, I’m still faster in the Sentinel armour. I catch his arm and yank it out of the socket before tossing White Lord into a wall.

I feel something ding against me and somebody yelp in pain. I turn around to find Gaia’s Vengeance clutching her fist in pain.

I punch her in the gut, kick her knee before finishing her off with a backhanded slap that knocks her aside.

I spare a glance at Treves and his officer. The two of them are covering the door and have even taken out Black Death with their stun guns.

I turn to take on Vistorix only to find his fist coming straight at me.

1.13 Breakout Part 6

I land outside Blackguard prison. Despite everybody knowing who I am, I still have to go through the security procedures just like everybody else.

I’m a bit late, but that can’t be helped. At least I don’t have to worry about waiting for anybody.

After the third checkpoint IDs me and scans me into the system, I finally make it into the prison.

There is a large crowd waiting outside the prison, carrying either a microphone or news camera depending on their status as a reporter or cameraman.

At the front of the crowd is Chief Officer Treves, the man in charge of Blackguard Prison. Two prison officers flank him.

I bring their files up on my HUD and take in the gist of their service. Treves’ has a good record even he does have a disdain for superhumans. One of the reasons he wanted to work at Blackguard it seems. The officer on his left side has a rather bland record.

The officer on Treves’ right is a different matter. Glenn Bateson is one of the few superhuman guards at Blackguard and to say he has a less than stellar record would be an understatement.

Officer Bateson is Class 3 superhuman with some pretty strong magnetism and darkness generation abilities. In fact, the only reason he hasn’t been kicked off the force is due to the fact he is one of the rare people with superpowers.

I’m not actually sure how someone like Bateson was assign to guard Blackguard. Perhaps he volunteered or it was some sort of punishment. Either way, Bateson bears watching.

“Ah Sentinel,” says Treves as he spots me, “How nice of you to finally join us.”

“Sorry I’m a couple minutes late,” I apologise, “I had some personal business to take care of.”

Frankly, I care a lot more about Judy than I do about the press. I know which ones I would rather annoy.

“We have been waiting at least ten minutes,” disagrees Treves as I reach the group.

“ Then you all got here early because we only supposed to get started two, now three minutes ago,” I retort, “Speaking of that, we should get started.”

Treves snorts before he starts speaking to the gathered press.

“Welcome to Blackguard Prison,” says Treves, “The country’s superhuman and equivalent containment facility. Today we will be giving you a live tour on the behalf of Prime Minister Allan Morse so prove how we are able to keep our country safe from superhuman threats.”

He pauses for dramatic effect before continuing.

“We will show you and your viewers the different facilities, explain our procedures and answer any questions,” continues Treves, “We also have the Sentinel from the League of Heroes to provide his perspective on matters. Now, let’s get started.”

As much as Treves seems to dislike me and I distrust Bateson, I do have to admit I am intrigued at the idea of going on a tour around Blackguard Prison. To be honest, this is actually my first time here.

Thanks to efforts of my granddad as he was the one that created Blackguard in the first place, Blackguard is the third most secure superhuman prison in the world.

I am also pleased to note that Blackguard also has second highest successful rehabilitation rate in the world with one in seven of its prisoners being productive members of society.

The tour goes well for the first twenty minutes or so as Treves shows us the different security systems and procedures. I do have to admit they are pretty good. Nothing short of an inside job and a full scale break in or out could overwhelm the prison security.

“Hey Sentinel,” says Bateson to me as we both hang back, “Nice to meet you.”

Something about him just rubs me the wrong way, especially given his record. Don’t judge me, but this isn’t a comic book and folks like Bateson don’t end up as a jerk with a heart of gold.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Bateson ends up inside one of Blackguard’s cells instead of just guarding them.

“Hello to you too,” I reply in a pleasant voice that completely disguises my true feelings about him.

Yeah, I’m an excellent liar and deceiver and while there might been considered a bad trait for superhero by many out there, it is also absolutely necessary for someone with a secret identity.

“This must seem pretty boring with all the stuff you usually do,” says Bateson casually.

“Not for me,” I reply, “For some of the other Leaguers sure, but I enjoy learning things like this. Finding out more about Blackguard in person was actually one of the main reasons I volunteered to do this.”

“You'll like this next part then,” says Bateson with a grin that puts me on edge.

Why do I get the feeling that means more than what it sounds like?

Treves leads the group into the prisoner recreational room.

“This is the room is where our inmates are allowed to relax at certain periods depending on their behaviour,” says Treves.

Even for a prison recreational room, the place seems pretty barren. But I’ll bet you ten quid that someone will complain about it being too much in three, two, one...

“Should these dangerous people really be allowed these luxuries?” demands one of the reporters.

Once again, the reporters have lived up to my low standards of them. Time to step in.

“Actually,” I begin, “A common misconception is that all of the criminals here are the worst of the worst. In reality, only a minority of these prisoners would be in maximum security. Many of them would be normal prison if it wasn’t for the fact their abilities made it possible too danger-”

I am cut off mid-speech as something large and heavy flies into me.

1.13 Breakout Part 5

“Just this way,” I say as I get up.

I lead Judy to my lab and armoury. I graciously hold the door open for her with an overdramatic bow. She smirks at my over the top attempts at being a gentleman. It is at times like this that I remember why we’re dating.

“This is... not as impressive as I thought it would be,” says Judy as she looks around the room, “You got a messy workspace and the armours stored circularly around a raised disc. I was expecting something more fancy and flashy.”

“I have always preferred function over form,” I reply with a smile as I enter behind her, “Besides, I work in here on a regular basis, I so I have to keep it conformable. Give a moment to get the armour on. The process takes a couple of minutes.”

I walk over to the platform and have the latest Sentinel armour, my very own Mk VIII, selected. I’m acutely aware I got an observer as the armour is put on me and the two minutes feel like forever.

“So,” I say as I step of the platform, “What do you think?”

“You look great,” says Judy, “And I can see how it conceals your identity. Even your voice is different. If I didn’t know it was you under there, there is no way I would have even come close to figuring it out.”

“I don’t think anyone has an idea of who they expect to be under the armour so everyone is surprised when they do find out,” I reply, “At least that is what it has been like in my experience.”

“Sorry to cut in,” says Alex from the doorway, “But the Sentinel does have business to attend to at Blackguard Prison quite soon.”

“Oh yeah,” I say, slapping by forehand with my head, “Totally forget about that. Judy, this is Alexandra Aquiline. Alex, this is my girlfriend Judy.”

“You mentioned her before,” says Alex as she walks up to Judy and holds a hand out to her, “Nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too,” replies Judy as she shakes Alex’s hand.

“Umm Judy,” I say, “As Alex reminded me, I got some things to do at Blackguard Prison so I got to go. You can hang out with Alex if you want or you can head home.”

“I think I’ll get to know Alex,” says Judy, “If she doesn’t mind of course.”

“I don’t,” replies Alex, “We can get started on your training. I watched your fight down in the training room, but I still want to figure how much you know and what your current style is.”

“Umm sure,” says Judy, looking slightly worried.

“Don’t worry Judy,” I reassure her, “Alex won’t hurt you. If she does, I’ve have Narszara.”

“My family’s skills and techniques are pretty much useless against a Norgardian,” says Alex with a smile, “And while I may be an Aquiline, I’m still a very nice person. Most Aquilines are nice people actually. It is hard not to as it sort of comes with the power.”

“I’ll leave you girls to it,” I say as I march out of my lab, “Try to find another part of the base to hang out in. I’ve prefer if you didn’t spend your time together in my lab.”

I quickly make my way out of the base and take off into the sky. I can’t believe I forget about Blackguard today. It was planned a couple of weeks ago, but it completely slipped my mind with Judy and all of that.

There is a press tour of Blackguard Prison, Britain’s superhuman prison, and it was asked that a member of the League would be present for it, officially for security and unofficially for publicity.

So I, the Sentinel, agreed to be part of the tour since it gave me the opportunity to personally inspect Blackguard. I feel that its important its security is as good as it can be as it currently holds all of Britain native supervillains and just as many foreign ones.

Actually, I’m certain that there are more foreign villains in Blackguard than there are locals since they locked Vistorix and Vengeance up in there.

And the supervillains aren’t the only people locked up in Blackguard. People who lack superpowers, but have abilities and skills that are equal to them are also locked up there. For example, a criminal that builds and uses power armour might not have superpowers, but have an equivalent to a superpower so they would usually get sent to Blackguard.

But it varies case to case. Even if they are clearly dangerous enough to end up at Blackguard, a supervillain without powers and a good lawyer can argue their way into normal prison well enough.

To be honest, Blackguard isn’t that full as it only boasts a total of twenty captives at the moment with only thirteen actually having superpowers.

Now I think about it, the majority of Blackguard’s empowered prisoners were put there by the League. There is Vengeance, Vistorix, Hall and Edison, Gravilord and Gaia’s Vengeance.

I bet most of them really want to settle the score with me. 

1.13 Breakout Part 4

“This all feels really surreal,” says Judy.

“Oh?” I reply, hoping for her to expand on her sentence.

“I’ve got superpowers and they’re actually pretty powerful,” says Judy, “I’m standing the League of Heroes’ base with the Sentinel, who happens to be my boyfriend. I’ve just fought a training drone with my superpowers. Not only that, but I now got my very own codename and I’m wearing a superhero costume. Plus my brother is also a superhero. If you had told me that this would all happen a year ago, I would have laughed and called you crazy!”

“I suppose this would all be a bit strange for someone like you,” I admit, “But I grew up around this sort of stuff so it is all pretty normal for me.”

“I can’t even imagine any of this being normal,” says Judy.

“Give it time,” I tell her, “We’ll see how you feel after a couple years as an active hero.”

“That seems like a long time,” replies Judy.

“I’ve been active for two months now,” I say, “Trust me, it goes quicker than you would think.”

“So how many supervillains have you fought?” asks Judy as I sit down at the main computer.

“Not as many as you might think,” I reply, “That was Vistorix on my first night. Since then there has been Edison and Hall, Nightblade, Vengeance. Not sure if the Machine counts as a supervillain. I also fought others well who don’t count as supervillains like space pirates, Spartan and Gorlack. Not to mention I beat up a gang who mugged Lily, but I did that last one as Daniel Griffin. Plus there are all those mundane criminals that we help the police catch.”

“That sounds like quite lot,” says Judy, “I haven’t heard of some of those ones that aren’t supervillains. And what about Vengeance? Aren’t they supposed to be heroes?”

“I don’t believe they were ever heroes,” I reply, my voice going cold as I remember my encounters with Vengeance, “But no one can claim they haven’t crossed the line since they came to England.”

“Who’s Spartan and Gorlack by the way?” inquires Judy.

“Spartan is a leader of some bounty hunters and mercenaries,” I explain, “We meet once and fought a little before fighting the Machine together when it showed up and tried to kill me. And Gorlack... well, I don’t like to talk or even think about him. He was evil madman who Narszara was hunting when she arrived on our world. His forces had killed her friends and old team and attempted to kill me the moment they met me.”

“What happened to him then?” asks Judy curiously.

“What was necessary,” I reply in a hard voice.

I don’t think about that day. I hate that day and I hate thinking about that day as well. What I did had to be done, but I just wish it didn’t have to be me that did the deed.

“So what was that,” probes Judy, but I remain silent.

“Okay,” says Judy after several moments, “Don’t tell me. So what about my costume?”

“I recommend a full suit with pull up mask that leaves only your lower face exposed,” I say, “As for colours, time doesn’t really have any associated colours with it so pick what you think is best.”

“Well,” says Judy, “My brother has a white, green and blue costume, but I don’t really fancy those particular colours. I do like this purple I’m wearing and I might as well stick with it.”

“So purple as your base colour,” I say, “What about secondary colours? I recommend having at least one, but no more than two.”

“Hmm,” says Judy as she thinks, “I think yellow or white would be good. What do you think?”

I think about it for a moment. Purple and yellow is okay, but I prefer purple and white. I like the greater difference in the colour better. Purple and white has a nicer contrast than purple and yellow as well.

“I like purple and white better,” I say.

“Then purple and white it is,” says Judy proudly, “So when do I get my costume?”

“I’ll see what we got in stock,” I say as I pull up the list of inventory and search for purple and white costume.

I suspect that Janelle helped with the search as it is surprising accurate for what I want to fine. All of the search results are costumes with purple as the main colour and white as the secondary colour rather than the other way around as would normal happen.

But I can’t say that I’m unhappy or ungrateful with the unasked for assistance.

“I think this one is a good one,” I say as I select a costume, “What do you think?”

The costume is a purple with a thick white stripe on either side of her body. There is another white stripe going up each arm from the wrists and across the shoulders while the insides of the legs are also white.

Judy studies it the pictures of it for a moment.

“I like it,” she declares after a few seconds, “But what if I what to change it in the future?”

“That can be done easily,” I reply with a dismissive wave of my hand, “Now we got your codename and costume sorted, do you want to see the Sentinel armour?”

“Oh yes,” answers Judy excitedly.

1.13 Breakout Part 3

The drone didn’t get close to connecting with Judy at all. I can easily spot the tell-tale ripple in the air that indicates the invisible forcefield that separates my girlfriend from her attacker.

The training drone attacks Judy again, but the force field stops it from hitting her again.

It must be Judy that is creating the forcefield. She hasn’t been in a real fight since getting her powers and that explains why she doesn’t know about it yet. After all, how could Judy even think about trying to create a forcefield if she had no idea that she could do it in the first place? Especially since she already knows she has a different type of power.

I look at my girlfriend. She is just sitting there on the floor with her arms raise above her. Judy is looking away with her eyes closed as she waits for the drone to attack her. I bet she doesn’t even realise what is going on.

Better address this new power before continuing with the fight. I press another button and deactivate the combat training drone. It freezes in mid strike.

“Judy,” I call and she finally looks up, the forcefield dying as she does so.

“What’s going on?” demands Judy before realising that the drone is frozen, “Did you turn it off? Why would you do that?! I told you that I didn’t want you going easy on me! I can handle it! I was doing great!”

“I didn’t turn it off because you couldn’t handle it,” I reply, “You actually were doing great at that. I did it because of how you were doing that.”

“And why was that?” asks Judy as she calms down, “All I was doing was using my power.”

“It’s exactly there,” I explain before projecting a holographic screen in the middle of the training room.

Judy looks up at it and I play the recorded footage of her being protected by the forcefield. I pause it as it reaches the point where I deactivated the drone. Judy is look up at the screen in awe by the time it’s over.

“I can create forcefields!” exclaims Judy, “That is so cool!”

“Let’s test it now before continuing with the fight,” I tell her, “Can you create one now that you know you can?”

“I can try,” replies Judy and she raises a hand.

I spot the ripple of the forcefield as it appears. So she can create forcefields. That is very interesting.

You know, I find the idea of having a powerful girlfriend quite cool and very appealing.

“Hey Daniel,” says Judy, “You have no idea how cool this is!”

“I think I do,” I reply, “I do have the Sentinel armour after all.”

“I guess you do,” agrees Judy, “So now what? Do we test my new power out as well?”

“No,” I reply, “That’s enough for now. We figured out your time power, discovered you can create forcefields and that you need some serious combat training.”

“I’m great in my Judo class,” protests Judy.

“But you didn’t do quite so well against a training drone set to easy,” I counter, “Unlike in your classes, the sort of fighting the League doesn’t isn’t constrained by rules and regulations. Pretty much anything goes out in the real world with the exception of lethal force and crippling injuries. We also try to avoid inflicting injuries that won’t heal with time.”

“That makes sense,” says Judy, “So what are we going to do instead?”

“We’ll get started on getting you a name and costume,” I reply, “We’ll do that up in the main room. The computer there is ideal for that sort of stuff. It’s was actually one of the main purposes that granddad built it for.”

“So I change out of this suit then?” asks Judy.

“If you want to,” I reply, “You can keep it on if you wish.”

Judy is thoughtful for a moment before answers.

“I think I’ll keep it on,” says Judy, “It feels like I’m wearing a real superhero costume. Should we go now?”

“I’ll meet you outside the training room door,” I say as I get up from my seat.

Judy is already waiting when I arrive at the entrance to the training room.

“Pleased with how things went?” I ask her as we begin walking.

“They were great,” replies Judy, “I will admit that the drone was a little tough to handle, but I feel that I did pretty well.”

“Well you don’t have any proper experience or training yet so I suppose you did pretty well considering,” I agree, “Any ideas about what sort of name you’ll want to take?”

“Not really,” replies Judy, “I sort of thought about something related to time because of my powers. I was hoping that you would have some good ideas.”

“Let’s see,” I mutter as I rack my brain for ideas, “You got time powers as your main thing so something... I got it! Temporal Shift!”

“What does that mean?” inquires Judy, “I assume it means something.”

“Well temporal means time so it while shift is when you change or move something,” I answer, “So I suppose it refers to your ability to manipulate time.”

“You suppose?” probes Judy.

“I sort of picked the first name that I thought of that sounded cool,” I admit as we enter the main room of the base again, “Can’t say I’m surprised that something random I thought of turned out to have quite a bit of meaning to. Then again, I was thinking on the subject of time powers when I thought of it so maybe it wasn’t all that random.