1.1 New Beginnings Part 5

I fly in and tackle Vistorix before he can land another blow on Skyler.

He can recover, I fly upward fast and toss Vistorix up. As he falls past me, I punch down hard into his stomach, sending him flying down fast.

“Sentinel?” I hear Sam say, “Heck yeah!”

Sam has clearly recovered.

I feel James’ presence in my head a moment later, followed by the presences of Sam and Sky. Skyler is in a lot of pain.

We got a telepathic conversation for communication, says James

I knew you would come Daniel, says Sam

I only came because Aquiline called about Vistorix. I also called my Aunt Mary. She said she’ll some Defenders with her, I retort, but my heart really isn’t in it.

Did she says something else? asks James

Only not to do anything stupid and keep out of trouble, I tell him.

Of course she would. Too late for that, snorts Sam.

Right, I agree with him.

Vistorix is getting back up from his crater, reports James

Okay. James, keep the link up and get Skyler to safety. She’s out of this fight for now and you’re not going to be much help against Vistorix. Sam, me and you can take him if we work together, I tell them, taking command of this mess.

Got it, says Sam.

I look down. Vistorix has just gotten to his feet. I aim my lasers at him and fire at full power. Due to his invulnerability, they won’t burn him in half like they would do to most people, but they still sting pretty badly.

Sam swoops down once again and punched Vistorix in the gut. The villain takes a step back as Sam flies back up again. Vistorix is breathing heavily.

Good, I think, He’s getting tired.

I got Sky away from you guy, but she’s out cold by the way. Her arm looks better though. The bone is already mended, reports James.

Good. Vistorix is worn out. He can’t take much more, says Sam.

I’ll keep him distracted while Sam gets hits in. James, you can help keep him distracted? I ask.

Understood. How long until Warden and the Defenders arrive? asks James.

Ten minutes? Twenty minutes? I don’t know, I answer.

Vistorix is charging, Sam cuts in.

I spin look down at Vistorix. He’s heading for Sam and is probably going to jump up at him.

I fly down towards Vistorix and aim the sonics at him. I fire.

While you down see or hear anything, you can see the effects on Vistorix.

The villain staggers forwards, clutching his ears and roaring in pain. He trips and slams face first into the ground several meters away from Sam.

Vistorix attempts to rise, but collapses on his first try. On his second, I’m already flying straight at him. I smash into him, sending us both into a tree.

I jump back, checking my rocket fuel. Granddad always complained about fuel running out.

96.8% remaining. More than I expected. Then again, Granddad did go inactive once the nineties started and the Sentinel Armour has greatly improved since then.

I face Vistorix again and realise how getting distracted can cost you in battle.

Vistorix slams his fist into me, staggering me before the other sends flying backwards. I fire my sonics. I feel something moving my arms. It must be James using telekinesis to aim my sonics at Vistorix. I’m rewarded with Vistorix’s cry of pain and swearing before I crash into the ground.

Damage reports come up on my HUD. Slight dents in the outer armour where I got hit, but nothing important was damage. Not even a bruise. The Sentinel Armour really is awesome.

Leap to my feet and adopt a defensive pose. Vistorix is looking up at me in shock before letting off a tirade of cursing.

“How the @#&$ are you still up,” shouts Vistorix in pure rage, “That would have &£%$ing taken down Warden or the Crimson Crusader!”

“I am the new Sentinel,” I reply, my voice calm and cool, “I didn’t even get a bruise.”

At this point I spot a bunch of spectators with phones or cameras recording the fight.   

I snap my attention back to Vistorix. I can’t afford to get distracted again.

Fortunately Vistorix doesn’t have much fight much fight left in him. He’s standing there, barely upright and panting.

Lantern swoops in again and punches Vistorix off his feet as I charge in. I punch Vistorix into the ground before step back out of his reach.

The villain moans before he stops moving except for breathing.

I stand back, hoping that he’ll stay down this time.

Sky pretty much finished healing, James tells me and Sam.

I can’t believe you guys have already taken him down. I really wanted to get him for this, complains Sky.

Glad to hear you’re better, replies Sam.

You can feel the happiness from him and I can see the big grin on his face.

What about our audience? How do we explain this? I ask.

Let the Defenders deal with that. Warden and one of their jets show up a couple of seconds before Vistorix went down, answers James.

Warden showed up when Daniel got punched. She decided to watch rather then get involved, Sam tells us.

I guess she wanted to see how good we were, I mutter.

Suddenly a large voice booms out.

“You have no idea how much trouble you are in.”

1.1 New Beginnings Part 4

I bit back a swearword. I never sworn before and I don't intend to start now, but I can barely believe it. One of the worst case scenarios has happened.

“Where?” I ask.

The person on the other end is the current Aquiline, the most feared super for several centuries.

She’s also an old family friend and one of my mentors.

“I’ll call the Albion Defenders,” I reply, “Can you help out?”

“No,” replies Aquiline, “I’m an hour out. Call your aunt and I think you should head out in the Sentinel Armour. It’s the most advanced man-made armour in existence. Either you or Lantern can hold your own against Vistorix or another class 4 and the two of you with James and Skyler should be more than enough for Vistorix. Remember, the public is a useful ally for both you and your enemies and collateral damage will turn it against you.”

“Got,” I say as I begin to phone my Aunt Mary or the Warden, “Call for back up, me and Lantern can hold our own and we need to avoid causing destruction to keep the public on our side.”

“Good,” is Aquiline’s answer before she cut the connection.

“Hey Aunt Mary,” I say once she answers.

“Yes Daniel?” asks my aunt, the older sister of my mother.

“Sam, James and Skyler went on patrol,” I say.

“What? That’s illegal-,” starts Mary before I cut her off.

“Vistorix is about to attack them,” I state.

“What!?” shouts my aunt, “I’ll get some others and we’ll be out here. You need to-,”

“I’ll be going on in the Sentinel Armour to help them,” I say, cutting her off again, “Me, Sam, Britannica and Dreadnought are the only people capable of holding our own against Vistorix in the UK and you know it. Don’t worry, we know to avoid cause damage if we can.”

“Don’t do anything stupi-,” starts Mary before I cut the line as I reach one of the forest exits.

The doors open and I fly out, bring up the others locations on my HUD to the south by Brockenhurst.

I increase my speed and as I near it, I begin to hear the fighting.

I spot them before they see me.

James is holding back as Vistorix is probably mentally shielded and telekinesis isn’t much use unless you got something that can hurt the person you’re fighting.

Skyler is also staying back. She forgot to bring any Fairbairn–Sykes Knifes and so did I. Some of modified ones would be very useful against Vistorix. He and Skyler effectively have the same power set with different origins, but he’s much stronger and tougher.

Samuel on the other hand is going at Vistorix. Aquiline was right when she said he could hold his own against Vistorix.

Samuel’s powers come from a psionic field around him, allowing for a variety of abilities. While he doesn’t have all of the ones the first Lantern had yet, he got the superdurability to take Vistorix’s blows along with strength and speed to return them. Plus he had flight, something the supervillain lacks. Samuel also has weak telekinesis, but is refraining from using it for same reasons as James.

“Come on wannabe!” roars Vistorix, “I can take all of you””

“Got to get through me first,” says Samuel as he swings a punch at his foe.

Vistorix jumps back. Samuel may be a good boxer, but Vistorix has plenty of combat experience.

He lunges for Sam, but he flies out of reach.

“Coward!” shouts Vistorix in anger, “Stay on the ground and fight me like a man!”

Skyler leaps up behind the villain and punches him in the left shoulder.

The villain roars and turns to face her, but she has already retreated.  James tosses a swarm of broken sticks at Vistorix, a distraction for Samuel. Sam takes it, swooping in and punching Vistorix in the face before flying back up again.

Vistorix staggers back, lashing out in an attempt to hit his attacker. He grunts and looks around before focusing on James. He charges with animal-like roar.

James uses his telekinesis to fly up into the air as Sky and Sam dash and swoop in respectively.

Sam punches Vistorix in the face again while Sky trips him up.

Vistorix grunts with pain before he tries to get to his feet. Sam goes in for kill, figuratively speaking of course, as a swarm of punches pummelling Vistorix.

But then it goes wrong as Vistorix kicks Sam in the stomach, sending him flying into a tree.

The villain grabs a log and tosses it at James, who easily dodges it. But Vistorix has jumped up at him while James was distracted.

Skyler intercepts Vistorix, sending them both tumbling into the ground.

Vistorix is up first and stomps on her right arm. Sky screams in pain as her arm is crushed. Her regeneration should heal that before morning, but not before the fight ends. Vistorix raises his fist back for the killing blow.

Now it’s my turn.

1.1 New Beginnings Part 3

I check who’s calling before I answer.

Just Charlie Armstrong, my partner and one of my closest friends.

He is also the grandson of my granddad’s arch-nemesis, the Bulk. At the very least my granddad’s former arch-nemesis.

I hesitate on whether to answer before I decide on yes.

“Hello Charlie,” I say.

“Hey Daniel,” says Charlie, “Grandpa’s stuff says that Lantern, the Psychic and the Commando have just left the base? We’re guessing that it’s Samuel, James and Skyler.”

“That would be correct,” I answer, “They decided to go on patrol. I decided to check the Sentinel Armour just in case I needed to help them out.”

“You think they’ll get into trouble?” inquires Charlie.

“We’re talking about Sam and Sky here,” I answer somewhat sarcastically, “Knowing them, they’ll probably pick any fight they can with the criminal element.”

“True,” laughs Charlie, “What’s the worse that they’ll run into anyway?”

“Probably a fight with a class 2 baddie,” I answer, “Don’t worry about that. Skyler and James are class 3 while Samuel is a 4 like the first Lantern was early on. More likely they’ll get in trouble with 

the police.”

“Do think the police figure out who they are?” asks Charlie.

“They got the voice disguisers so unless they do something incredibly stupid, no,” I state, “Which even James and Sky won’t do. They’re impulsive and reckless, but they’re not dumb.”

“None of us are,” says Charlie, “Not like some of American newbies. Honest, remember how Air Wave’s first name was revealed to be Olivia by Earth Strike back in April.”

“As if any of us would use our real names while in costume,” I state, shaking my head.

The media had an early Christmas with only the intervention of Defenders of Justice with Powerman himself that stopped them figuring out Air Wave’s secret identity.

“Don’t expect them to find any crime to stop,” I say, “Very few villains operate here and crime is rather low.”

“Okay, I’ll tell grandpa,” replies Charlie.

“Bye,” I say before Charlie hangs up.

I turn to leave the room before hesitating.

What I told Charlie was true, that the group had very little chance of encountering trouble.

On the other hand, supers, especially capes, generally encountered an illogically high amount of 

trouble.

Granddad used to complain about that a lot.

Even now, I was preparing for the worst. That meant something. That I expected things to go wrong and get out of control.

I mean what’s the worst that could happen?

An armed gang, one of our grandparents’ Arch-Nemesis looking for revenge, polices attempting to arrest them, a bomb going off -,

I stop and collect my thoughts, calming myself.

Why am I so jumpy all of a sudden?

I guess it couldn't hurt to put on the Sentinel Armour tonight. I mean I don’t have to join the others on patrol, just use inside the base.

I step forward on a platform near the centre of the room. One of the things about granddad’s lab is that it doubled as a personal armoury.

I take off my outer clothing, a light jacket I wore due to decreasing warmth when I came to the base mid-evening. I stand only in my t-shirt and shorts.

Robotic arms come out and step picking up the pieces of the Sentinel Armour, taking out of the outer later and putting it aside so they can get to the inner layer. Once they reached the parts they want, the arms begin placing it on me.

The process goes smoothly. As the parts are put in place, I check the connections are working properly. While the armour was built out of many small parts, Granddad made them so they consist of several larger pieces rather than a load of small ones. Easier and quicker for manually putting on and taking off the armour than doing it by hand.

Within a couple of minutes, the arms are already putting on the outer armour plating, the final stage of putting on the Sentinel Armour. Without the arms, it would have taken me over ten minutes to do it manually.

The rocket fuel is at 100%. I really need to find a replacement for the rocket pack. It’s been with the all, but the earliest versions of the suits. I personally think granddad was sentimental about it.

Wrist mounted lasers at 98% charge.

The voice changer, the public address system and both wrist mounted sonic projectors are all working.

Comms are up and the magnetic and EMP shielding seem to be working.

The Heads Up Display or HUD is working as well. It shows a mixture of information about the suit and my surroundings.

The spyders are a bit low, only eleven out of sixteen onboard the suit. I sigh and begin to look for some more in the lab. There are over a thousand in the main armoury, but I don’t feel like going over there.

I find only a couple. One with an explosive charge while the other is unequipped, not even a camera. 

It doesn't really matter however. I mean unless the others run into a Class 4 like Vistorix or maybe a Class 5 such as the Barbarian or the late Black Storm.

“Daniel!” says a female voice over my communicator, “Vistorix is going for Lantern, Commando and Psychic.”

1.1 New Beginnings Part 2

“Hey, Skyler,” I greet her.

“Daniel isn’t coming,” says Samuel at the same time with a glare at me.

I feel James’ presence in my mind suddenly. Since we been best friends for longer than I can remember, I know what it feels like to have a telepath in my head. I’m also pretty good at blocking psychic attacks as well thanks to a multiple of sources.

I hear James’ voice in my head as he privately speaks with me. Don’t worry about Samuel’s rudeness; he just really wanted you to come along. I wasn’t lying about them needing sane heads by the way. We could really use you.

It only takes a split-second for me to come up with my reply.

Absolutely not. I told you its illegal and crazy.

Suit yourself comes the reply and I feel James withdraw from head.

No pun intended I guess.

“Your costumes are out in costume storage room,” I say out loud to cover up our mental conversation.

“Guess Samuel didn’t ask where they were,” says Skyler as she leans against the wall.

“He asked alright,” I reply as Samuel glares at me, “He just didn’t look in the most likely place.”

“I bet,” laughs Skyler, “Sure you don’t want to come?”

“Yes!” I snap.

“Suit yourself,” says Skyler, “I’ll be getting changed.”

Again no pun intended I guess.

As the three of them leave for the costume storage room, I call out to them.

“Remember the base only has one changing room!” I shout.

I sit back down and return to my textbook. I only make it to the end of the paragraph before my thoughts keep being drawn to the Sentinel Armour. I really like the armour, the base and all the other gadgets my granddad left me, but superheroing really isn’t my thing. 

I don’t want to go out and injustice, crime and the forces of evil. I mean I’ll fight if something really bad comes up such as end of the life as we know it. But I don’t want to fight for fame, money, honour, justice or duty.

I would much rather invent things like granddad in the latter half of this life. While he kept the best stuff for himself and the League of Heroes, he would invent and make stuff for other superheroes and some governments. Such as communicators, costumes, gadgets and whatnot.

In fact I had been his assistant since I was about ten and had been continuing it since his death earlier this year. I doubted many heroes and villains would have even realised he had died if it wasn’t for the Sentinel’s private funeral.

I sigh before I rise from my seat again. I exit the room and walk down the corridor until I reach the entrance to my granddad’s lab/construction room. It was where he designed stuff and built the prototypes. He had larger room further into the base for mass production.

There are several suits of armour, including the original one from the 40s, the one 60s, the 70s suit, the 80s armour and another suit he built in the 90s that was never used. The latest one is the one I currently been working on, finishing upgrades that granddad want to do, but never got to due to his death.

The current one is rather different to the older versions, being slim and streamline compared to the somewhat blocky versions of the earlier suits. All share the same dull grey with a blue tint colour with black detailing.

Besides the suits of Sentinel armour, there are other gadgets and equipment that granddad used. Such as the Spyderbots or Spyders for short. The name is play on its original look and purpose. The first Spyders were used for spying and looked like spiders. These days, they look more like little fishes, bullets with legs or predator drones than spiders and do all sorts of things, but granddad kept the name.

There are few scattered guns plus a bunch of upgraded Fair-Burn knifes. Skyler’s granddad, the Commando, used them along with normal versions. He preferred granddad’s knives as his upgraded ones could cut through metal and people with invulnerability. I doubt Skyler will use them much as Commando mainly use them in situations that required lethal force.

At moment I decide make sure the current Sentinel Armour is ready for use. While I don’t plan on using it, the others might get in over they’re heads. I’m sure James won’t, but I can easily imagine Skyler or Samuel doing something impulsive and stupid. Such attacking someone with superpowers. Some of the League of Heroes old enemies might even come out to attack them.

So a lot of ways for things to go wrong and get out of hand. I better look up my Aunt Mary’s phone number. As a member of the Albion Defenders, she uses an upgraded variant of 80s Sentinel Armour called the Warden Armour after her codename. She will be able to come and help if things hit the deep end, maybe even bring a few of the Defenders with her.

I fill up the rocket pack on the back of the Sentinel Armour and make sure it’s fully charged. The Sentinel Armour uses another of my granddad’s creations, the Kinetic Energy Redirector. It charges the Sentinel Armour using kinetic energy. The kinetic energy can come from a variety of sources, 

such as the user’s movements or the suit getting hit.

Just as I finished checking it, my mobile phone starts ringing. 

1.1 New Beginnings Part 1

To all new readers, the first couple of chapters are worst and pretty unoriginal (see http://inmydaydreams.com/ for why I say original). I recommend skipping to 1.3 Dragon Knight as that is where things start to pick up in my personal opinion.

***

I looked up from my textbook as Samuel entered the room with James.

“Hey Daniel,” calls Samuel, “Been watching the news lately?”

“Not really,” I answer as I look back down, “I’ve got the first of my GCSEs coming up so I don’t much spare time between my homework and side projects.”

I frown. “You already know this through.”

“It’s though Daniel,” says James, shaking his head, “Not through.”

I let it slide. I got into the habit of pronouncing though as through before people noticed and started correcting me. Most have given up, but some, like James and my dad, refuse to let it go.

“So what are you two doing here?” I inquire.

“Getting ready,” answers Samuel, “We’re finally going out tonight.”

“Who?” I ask, already knowing the answer to both my question and the unspoken one.

“Me, Skyler and James are going out on patrol,” answers Samuel.

I give an exasperated hybrid of a sigh and a groan.

Unlike most people on the planet, almost everyone actually, Samuel, James and Skyler have super powers. I technically don’t have any superpowers however, unless you count that most advanced set of power armour that I own. I inherited it from my granddad, a member of the British military in WWII and one of the few respected and locally-accepted superheroes.

The same goes for James’, Samuel’s and Skyler’s granddads were also superheroes, part of the military unit as my own granddad later in the war and all four were founding members of the same superhero team.

Like some of their family members, the trio have all inherited their granddads’ superpowers at some

point in their lives. Skyler got hers earlier in the year. Samuel’s became fully unlocked on 14^th birthday while James has had his entire life.

“Want to join-,” starts Samuel, but I cut him off.

“I like the armour,” I state, “But I'm not going out to fight crime. That’s when all the weirdness starts.”

“The rest of us are already weird by most people’s definitions,” says James, “So are you as a matter of fact.”

“I am not becoming a superhero!” I yell back, “This isn’t America where they have superhumans by the thousands. Here, like the most of the world, the laws are enforced even against superheroes.”

“What about the Albion Protectors?” inquires Samuel, “Isn’t your aunt Mary on it?”

“That’s her choice and no else in the family has made the same one,” I counter, “Besides, the Protectors, now known as the Albion Defenders by the way, are officially recognised and supported by the government.”

“Fine, have it your way,” answers Samuel, “I need to find our costumes now.”

“You mean the ones that you had me make?” I inquire, unusually rude about it for some reason, “Out of my granddad’s special material?”

My granddad made a special spandex-like material that was resistant to many attacks, such bullets, low level energy bolts and lasers, punches, falling wreckage and the like. Pretty much most of the stuff that supers encounter. Most supers, including a fair few villains, use it instead of spandex since the 80s, which was always the first choice before then. It’s called costume material or cos-mat for short.

“Yeah,” replies Samuel, clearly expecting an answer.

“I’ll wait until Skyler gets here before telling you,” I reply.

While I had my granddad’s Sentinel Armour and James has his telepathy and telekinesis, Samuel has Psionic powers. While he lacks any telepathy of any sorts, Samuel has had above average reflexes, speed and senses since birth, along with a strong resistance to telepathy, telekinesis and other psychic powers. Since his 14^th birthday, he’s been able to activate the rest of his powers at will, a Psionic Field around him that allows for flight, super strength and nigh invulnerability. He also has a much better stamina while powered up. His normally black hair and brown eyes turn white and blue respectively, great for hiding his identity.

“Why do you want to go into superheroing?” I ask, “Astrid’s an actress while your own dad is a government agent.”

“I always wanted to superhero,” retorts Samuel, “You know that.”

“I was talking to James,” I counter.

“We need someone with telepathy,” answers Samuel.

“They need someone with sane head,” answers James.

“Well I won’t help with this madness,” I say, “We all know that vigilantism is illegal here in the 

UK.”

“You don’t need to keep reminding us,” groans Samuel, “Besides you taken the Sentinel Armour out 

a couple of times.”

I ignore him. I think about how unlikely we would even know each other if it weren't for our granddads.

Our socially groups are very different, myself being one of the smart kids. Samuel is the loner sports guy while James is one of the popular, cool kids who has good marks and doesn't get in trouble. Despite this, we three, along with Skyler, are best friends.

I'm slim and lean with short blonde hair and blue eyes while Samuel is strong, muscular and wouldn’t exist if it weren't for his granddad being the first Lantern. In contrast with my own hair and eyes, he has thick black hair and brown eyes. James is also different with brown hair of arguably short length and knowledgeable green eyes. Many, if almost of all, of the teenage girls at our school claim that James is either hot, handsome or even cute.

Samuel begins speaking again, but only gets a couple of words out when Skyler enters the room.

Introduction

Okay, this is my first post in both this blog/web serial and my first actually post I have ever done.

For starters, some basic background of myself and the story behind this story.

I just started college at this time this was written. Second day as a matter of fact. I live in the south of England. I come from a loving and supportive family. I never had a girlfriend when this was written due to never wanting one. Also I'm male and born in Great Britain. Now that is all the personal info about myself I want to give.

Not on to the story background. I started writing fiction in year 7. Horribly written stuff that makes me cringe looking back. I used to primarily write military sci-fi as my first choice. I first got into superheroes when I started watching the DC Animated Universe on TV, mainly Justice League and Batman. I never really read comic books. Too dark for kids it seemed to me at the time. I got into the idea of writing superhero stories when I encountered a webcomic at http://collectiveofheroes.net/  while researching stuff for my military sci-fi stuff. I read some of the others webcomics I like there. I looked for more superhero webcomics that suited my taste. That caused be to encounter Crossoverkill and it's predecessor Coveroverlord.  I discovered other webcomics. My three favourites were Mindmistress, Fusion and Point Guardian. Point Guardian was my favourite and was that easily imspired my best superhero characters. Mainly due to it having its heroes be real heroes who tried to do the right thing. No parodies or deconstructions of superheroes, but a light, good story about proper heroes. That's what got be into superheroes and what I like about them. Not dark, grim and edgy stuff, just good people with superpowers trying to do the right thing and being heroes that helped people.
I never really succeed at writing superhero literature, at best getting two chapters done before having to start again, At some point in year 10 I discovered TV Tropes. Near the end of year 11, once my exams were done, I discovered superhero web literature. I started reading Legion of Nothing. It had what I liked about Justice League animated series and Point Guardian. Honest, good people with powers trying to help people and doing the right thing. I was hooked. As when ever I discover a new form of writing style or layout, I try it out for myself. In the past, it has also failed miserable. In these case it worked for me. Before I tried to write a conventional from a third person point of view following a main character called Lantern, a character inspired by Ultra and Psi-Kid from Point Guardian. Now I have written a first person point of view from a power armour superhero whose descended from another power armour super superhero, inspired by the main character in Legion of Nothing. Before I knew it, I had over twenty thousand words in less than two weeks through I have slowed down since starting college. So I decided to start this blog as my online story.

As I feel necessary to say that this story was heavily inspired by Point Guardian and Legion of Nothing.

Please note that this story is supposed to PG13 and I will do my best to make it remain so. Any comments which aren't PG13 will be removed so people know.. For the first week, I'll post once a day when I have the time.

Now onto the story.

Edit: I realise that at the start my story can seem quite unoriginal as in my inexperience I taken too much inspiration from others. I have realised this and have done my best to improve later in the story. I will also admit that my first few chapters are quite weak as it took a bit to get into the flow of writing in this world as this is my first attempt at writing in the superhero genre.