So this the epilogue for League of Heroes now I have finished it. At this point in time I have no plans to continue since I am focusing my work on my second serial Legacy.
I don't have to many thoughts on League of Heroes to share. If I'm honest with myself, it was always an experiment. I was trying out a new genre, a new writing style in two different ways and it was the first time I was putting my story up to be viewed by others.
While it wasn't a success, it wasn't a failure as I completed to the end of the first book and learn a few new things and got experience. For starters, I have never actually got further than a quarter of the way into a story before so completing it alone is a new thing for me. I put it down to the fact that I always tried to write the entire story at once before while this time I just wrote one segment at the time, each one roughly 800-1000 words long.
Another new thing I tried was writing a story from a first person perspective. I enjoyed it, but I wasn't overly fond of it. It felt to me like I was limited to just one character. Being able to more easily character more easily without confusion was one of the reasons I chose third-person when writing Legacy.
I should mention that League of Heroes is my first time writing the superhero genre. Since I started writing League of Heroes back in September of 2014, I have become a big fan of the superhero genre, reading web serials such as Legion of Nothing and Worm and buying book series off of Amazon such as Wearing the Cape and Cape High.
I think the main flaws in League of Heroes were inexperience as a writer and lack of originality at the start. These two things I have done my best to correct in Legacy as I have applied the lessons I have learnt to it. For starters, I have planned Legacy from the start with clear points in the plot where major things are going to happen and have made sure to make the characters original.
So those are thoughts on League of Heroes now it is done. I hope you enjoyed reading League of Heroes or will enjoy it if you haven't read it yet. Feel free to check out my second web serial Legacy.
League of Heroes
My First Superhero Web Serial. Finished as of 16/10/2015.
Friday 16 October 2015
1.14 Endgame Part 9
“Are you in
need of healing milord?” asks Narszara as she joins Lucy and me, “I have
already heal the other members of both our teams in case you are wondering.”
“Healing would
be nice,” I reply without looking over at her.
I need to
focus on this. While the AI box should get the job done, I don’t know what the
Machinist could do to counter it.
Just because
the creatures in this room have been defeated doesn’t mean this mission is
over. We still haven’t found the Machinist or heard from the other two teams.
I resist the
urge to try and scratch myself as my chest, head, shoulder and elbow begin to
itch as Narszara uses her magic to heal me. Why does her magic itch anyway?
“Thanks
Narszara,” I say, “I feel much better.”
“You are
welcome Verigar,” replies Narszara, “Captain Robinson and I have disabled the
facilities in the room you left us in. There will be no further production from
there unless there is outside intervention.”
“Good,” I say absentmindedly,
distracted by the weird counterattacks on my AI from the ship’s systems,
“Please don’t distract me as I focus on hacking the ship’s computers. It has
proven much more difficult than expected and requires my full attention.”
They say their
acknowledgements and leave me in peace. I work furiously, wondering why the systems
are so good.
Then it hits
me. I may have an AI with me, but the ship still has its own and it is still
active. No wonder it is so hard and taking so long.
But between my
efforts and the assistance of my AI, I am soon able to eliminate the alien AI.
I should feel like how I normally do at a completing a difficult task, but it
just feels like I killed someone. Not murder as I’m sure the AI was trying to
do the same to us so it was self-defence, I still killed a sentient being.
I really hope
I don’t lose sleep over this like I did when I killed Gorlack.
“I’m in the
ship’s computer systems,” I tell everybody without looking over at them, “I’m
turning off the jamming now.”
Done says the text message on the screen
in front of me.
Who are you? I type back.
Your AI is the reply, Taking control of the ship’s AI core
has granted me sentience.
“Hey
everybody,” I say, “The AI I brought with me has just become sentient. I’m
calling her Jessica.”
“Hello
everybody,” says Jessica over the room’s audio projectors, “I am Jessica.”
***
“Hey Daniel,”
says Sam the next day as he enters the base, where I’m working at the main
computer, “How are the injured?”
I sigh as I
think about the answer to Sam’s question. He is referring to Teams One and Two.
While mine and his teams, the two with the Leaguers, were fine with no serious
injuries, the other two teams weren’t so lucky.
While Aunt
Mary was fine as were Dreadnought and Multitude. Green Knight and Eternal both
got banged up while Robyn Hood was barely clinging onto life and missing her
right arm.
A Scorpio
Drone blew her arm off, resulting a lot of blood loss with no healers at hand.
Fortunately for everyone, Narszara was able to get to Robyn in time.
I suppose I’m partially
at blame for that. I should have known that a non-superhuman fighter without
any power armour would have been injured against the Machinist’s fighters. That
is one of the reasons Sentinel Technologies is paying for all of the healthcare
costs for Robyn Hood.
Sure the
government would have paid for them, but this way, Linda gets better treatment
and a top of the line synthetic arm.
Team One fared
better as they fought the least amount of the Machinist’s forces out of the
four teams and only Controller got hurt. Even that was nothing severe and
certainly nothing that Narszara wasn’t able to heal before we even left the
ship.
“Everybody,
but Robyn Hood are back to full health,” I tell him, “As for Linda, she has
made a full recovery with the exception of her arm, which I am in the process
of currently have a customised synthetic arm produced for her.”
“Cool,” says
Sam as he takes a seat next to me, “So what about Jessica and the ship?”
“I’m having
some of our Sangor contacts lift it out of the ocean later today,” I reply, “By
the time anyone finds out, it will be too late for them to stop us or do
anything about it.”
“The
government won’t be pleased,” notes Sam.
“After trying
to forbid Aunt Mary from being Freya again, I don’t particularly care,” I
reply.
“Freya is your
secret cousin right?” checks Sam.
“And the
latest new recruit to League of Heroes,” I reply, “It appears that trying to
take her mum away as resulted Freya deciding she would much rather join the
League rather the Defenders. We’ll be effective swapping the Rileys for her.”
“Sweet,” says
Sam with a grin, “Another Class 5 superhuman for our team and another resident
for the base.”
“Yup,” I
agree, “Darrac and Mia have gone back to Australia now. I have offered Mia the
offer of working for the League as captain of our new warship. She has accepted
by the way provided she still gets to keep the Dusty Corsair.”
“What are we
calling it by the way?” inquires Sam.
“The Valiant Glory,” I reply, “Nice, heroic
sounding name. I’ve decided to let Darrac and Mia hire some Neriarr to fill out
the crew. I trust them to pick good choices since they have more experience
with that sort of stuff than we do.”
“So now what?”
asks Sam as he leans back and sighs, “The Machinist was our arch-nemesis. With
him gone, what will we do now?”
“Life goes
on,” I reply, “We still got plenty of street crime to help the police deal with
and I’m certain we’ll have more supervillains to deal with during our careers
as superheroes. Not to mention I still have to repair the Sentinel armour.”
“Yeah, life
goes on,” agrees Sam as he grins, “Say, want to go on patrol together?”
“Sure, why
not?” I reply, “I still got the Sentinel armour Mk VII.”
“Great let’s
go then,” says Sam as he gets to his feet, “I’ll be getting into costume in the
changing room.”
I smile as I
get out my chair and follow him.
Tuesday 13 October 2015
1.14 Endgame Part 8
The bolts of
pink plasma blast the creature I’m holding. Fortunately I am shielded from the
attacks myself. I really do not want to find out good the Sentinel armour is
versus multiple bolts of plasma the hard way.
I let go of
the creature I’m holding out of surprise as it begins to disintegrate. The
creature is disappearing to flecks and shards of red light that soon disappear.
That’s one
down at least, but there is still another eight to go. I better try out lasers
on them since punching them doesn’t work.
I fly up and
aim my lasers at them, I fire a couple of short beams and I get pounded by
return fire. I grunt in pain as agony strikes me. My head is pounding and my
right elbow feels like it is on fire.
I fall to the
floor as the Sentinel armour suffers multiple system failures. The helmet is
cracked and severely damaged from a couple of headshots with the left eyepiece
broken while the right elbow joint is barely moving. At least the chest armour
held up.
As the HUD
flickers, I look at my opponents from my prone position. The one I hit with the
lasers has some burn lines in their armour, but nothing serious or actually
hinders it. I wish my own armour is that good.
Is this it?
“Strike the
power core!” yells Darrac as he and Sky begin their assault.
Darrac slashes
the core of one of the creatures with his spikes while Sky stabs another with
one of her knives. As two creatures disintegrate like the first did, the other
remaining six open fire on the duo.
Sky goes down
as she takes another pair of while Darrac staggers backwards as he takes a shot
to the gut. The already battered Neriarr pants as the creatures focus their aim
on him.
“No!” I shout
as I activate the rocket pack, aiming at one of the creature’s glowing red orbs
Four of the
creatures turn and fire on me, but they don’t get a chance to aim and only one
shot hits, glancing off my lower leg. I crash into creature and using my left
arm, I grab a hold of the red ball of energy in its abdomen and rip it away.
The creature
flickers and starts to disintegrate, but only to begin to reform around the orb
against. I snarl as I clench my hand into a fist around the orb, bursting the
field keeping the energy contained.
This time the
creature disintegrates for real as the energy from the orb fades. I look up at
the others just in time to see them open fire on me. I don’t have time to
dodge, but I do my best anyway as I stumble to the side.
I let out a gasp
of pain as I take a pair of direct hits to the chest. The chest plating has finally
taken too much damage. I really have no idea how long I can keep this up.
I drop to one
knee with my left hand pressed against the floor. I look at defiantly at the
creatures. In a story, this would be about the time one of the other teams
would show up to save us.
As the
creatures prepare to finish me off with one final volley, a flash of white
light slams into them, scattering the creatures.
I let out a
short pained laugh as I watch Sam tear the remaining five creatures apart.
Nothing like a Class 5 superhero to take out some Sektain forces. Sam is even
ripping limb from limb with his bare hands, not even needing to go the power
orbs.
I really ought
to hook up my AI box with the computers before the Machinist destroys them or
something.
I grunt as I
get to my feet and stagger over to the closest computer station, getting out
the grey box as I do so.
“Need some
help?” asks Lucy as she stops next to me as I reach the computer panel.
“Can you make
sure Commando, Vision and Darrac are okay?” I reply.
“Bolt, Night
Beast, Multiform, Storm Knight and Gateway are already on it,” says Lucy,
“Vision is already better. His costume took most of the blast and he decided to
lay low as he called us telepathically so we knew what was going on through the
jamming.”
“Good to
hear,” I say as I being to connect the AI box to the computer and grunt in pain
as I turn my right arm the wrong way.
“Are you
okay?” inquires Lucy as looks me over, “You look in a pretty bad way.”
“I’m a bit
banged up,” I admit, “But the Sentinel armour took the brunt of it. I just want
to get the AI box connected to the computers.”
“AI box?”
repeats Lucy in a questioning tone.
“A
non-sentient AI I have created to hack the computer systems for us since
Janelle won’t be able to do due the access point of the hacking needing to be
internal,” I explain, “Ahh, I got it connected.”
Friday 9 October 2015
1.14 Endgame Part 7
The next room
is even worse than the previous one. It appears we stumbled into the factory in
which the Machines are created and several of them are already complete and
ready for battle.
Narszara leaps
into battle as I grab Sky and James and fly for the door on the other side of
the room. I don’t even dare waste time looking at what Mia and Darrac are
doing.
A Machine
drops down in front of us and I fire off all eleven of my remaining missiles at
it, exploding the darn thing. I don’t slow down as I fly through the wreckage.
My armour can handle it and the cos-mat costume should protect Sky and James.
I smash head
first through the door. I let go of Sky and James as I into the floor. From the
sounds in the previous room, I think as I get to my feet, it sounds like
Narszara is keeping our enemies in there busy. I hope Mia or Darrac don’t get
hurt.
“Are
you okay Sentinel?” asks James.
“I’m fine,
just used up all my missiles, but fine,” I reply with a dismissive wave of my
hand, “At least this room is empty.”
“The next room
should be the command room where the Machinist is operating out of if memory
serves,” says Darrac as he lands behind us, “My captain is providing support
for your Norgardian.”
“Okay,” I say,
“Let’s take down the Machinist.”
I really
wonder how Darrac knows what a Norgardian is, but now is most definitely not
the time to bring that up.
I let Darrac
open the door again as out of our group, he is the best at operating Sektain
technology even if I do feel I’m pretty good at it myself.
“Done,”
declares Darrac as the door goes wide open.
We walk into
the also empty room. This one is clearly the command room or bridge as we would
call it on Earth. There are a multitude of computers and other such devices
including a large holo-table in the middle of the room.
“So where is
the Machinist?” asks James.
“I don’t
know,” admits Darrac as he stops and looks around, “I assumed he would be
operating out of the command centre. It is the only logical choice to set up
his headquarters, but it would appear otherwise.”
“That’s for sure,”
says Sky, “Any ideas on where else he come be?”
“No,” replies
Darrac, “We’ll have to scour the entire ship.”
“Let’s call
the other teams and see if they found the Machinist?” I suggest and do so, “Sentinel
here. Has anyone found the Machinist? My team is currently in the command
centre or bridge and nobody has been here.”
But all I get
is static. It would seem that our communications are being jammed. Better call
in with Janelle and Alex.
And again all
I get is static. We are definitely being jammed.
“Hey guys-” I
start when several beings flash into existence around us.
Each of these
beings is made of a pinkish grey material and consists of sleek armour plates
with red energy in the gaps that form a humanoid shape. Where the abdomen would
be, these creatures have a glowing orb of red energy.
What are these
things? I think as they open fire.
Bolts of pink
plasma fly from their sleek guns. James and Sky both go down while Darrac
staggers and drops to his knee, panting. I take a couple of hits, one to the
back of my right shoulder and the other to my chest.
I grunt in
pain as I actually feel the shots
through the armour and collapse on the ground. I check my armour status and see
that the enemy has actually done some serious damage to the Sentinel armour. In
fact, the armour integrity around the shoulder has been damaged.
Without moving
my head, I look towards Darrac. The Neriarr topples over as he takes several
more bolts of plasma. If a couple of those did major damage to the Sentinel
armour, I can only imagine how much pain Darrac is in. Darn it, I’m not even
sure if he survived.
How will I
explain to Mia if he doesn’t? How will I live with myself if a member of my
team dies on my watch?
But first I
have to make sure these things do down.
There are nine
of these creatures and they head to the rest of us, three for each of us
Leaguers now Darrac is down. James is still down while Sky is stirring. One of
the creatures takes aim at her with its gun.
Time for
action, I decide as I activate my rocket pack, aiming for the enemy taking aim
at Sky.
I fly through
the air and tackle the creature, sending both of us tumbling with myself being
the one landing on top. I punch it in the face twice, but whatever it is made
of holds up against even the enhanced strength that Sentinel armour grants me.
Not looking
good at all, I think as I spot the other eight creatures aiming at me. Things
are made even worse when the one below me punches me in the face. It doesn’t do
much against the Sentinel armour however and I grab the creature as I get to my
feet.
As the other
creatures open fire, I use their compatriot as ‘human’ shield.
Labels:
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Tuesday 6 October 2015
1.14 Endgame Part 6
Our four aerial
vehicles come to a halt over site of the sunken Sektain warship.
“Okay,” I say
to my team as we wait in the cargo bay of the Dusty Corsair, “Let’s drop.”
Of course we
have to wait for the ramp to lower, but once that is done, we all leap out of
the spaceship.
I take the
opportunity to look around. The other teams are doing the same though some of
us are falling faster than others such as Britannia and Sam, who have both used
their flight to reach the ocean even faster than the others.
Me? I’m
willing to just use gravity.
I plunge into
the ocean, but Narszara’s magic charm is working perfectly. While I know I’m
surrounded by water, I’m more than capable of acting if I wasn’t to the point I
can even use my rocket pack and lasers down here.
Excellent.
Just another advantage we have over the Machine and the other creations of the
Machinist.
“There,” I
tell the others over the comms, pointing at the wrecked ship below.
As the other
teams go their own routes, I take my own team down to the hole I spotted in the
side. As expected the ship is flooded with several remains of the crew floating
about as I do my best to try and ignore them.
“There is an
intact airlock ahead,” says Darrac as he takes the lead.
“Can you open
it up?” I ask him.
“Easily,” replies
Darrac, “I grew up around technology like this. I believe the correct
expression is that this is a slice of cake.”
Within a
couple of seconds, we enter the air lock and the water drains around us.
“Do want to
break the airlock so the ship is flooded?” inquires Sky as the water finishes
draining around us.
“No,” I reply,
“If we flood the whole thing, we could easily kill the Machinist and wreck salvageable
technology within. And Sektain technology, even if it is a few decades out of
data, is very valuable on Earth. Plus we can communicate verbally if we need to
such as if our communicators get jammed.”
I step into
the next room and freeze at what awaits us. The Machine. And not just one, but
three of the big guy.
We all leap
into action. Mia draws her pistols and begins to unleash rapid fire on the one
on the right as Darrac flies at it. Sky and I both move around the sides to
attack the one on the left while Narszara charges the one in the middle.
I’ll use my telekinesis to pop any missiles they
unleash, says James.
I send a
mental agreement at him as I activate the rocket pack as the Machine I targeted
fire off its missiles at me. It also its lasers, both those are aimed at Sky,
not me. I fly through the explosion results from the exploding missiles as they
are telekinetically taken out and grab the disc ball head.
I grunt as I
yank it out and the Machine drops to its knee. Aiming at the gap in which the
head was connected to, I fire a missile of my own at it. I’m caught in the
explosion, but the Sentinel armour weathers it with ease. The Machine on the
other hand has taken a beating as most of its upper chest is destroyed and the
left arm is blown off.
Unfortunately
its right arm is still working fine, a fact I find out as the Machine grabs me
and slams me into floor. I roll out of the way of a energy blade and fire my
lasers at the now exposed shoulder joint of the remaining arm.
I hit and the
arm twitches before falling limp at the side. But the Machine is still active
and I have to finish it even if it is incapable of fighting anymore. Never turn
your back on an enemy after all.
Sky is already
on that one so I turn to see how the other members of our team are doing, ready
to provide assistance if necessary. But it doesn’t look like the others need it
as Narszara has crushed her own foe and is helping Darrac and Mia finish off
the Machine on the right.
I hear metal
tearing behind me and I look over my shoulder to see the remains of the Machine
being ripped apart. It has to be the work of James.
“Three
Machines?” inquires Sky.
“I didn’t
expect it either,” I reply, “Did it feel a little too easy? The others ones
were much tougher and harder to defeat.”
“I believe
that experience and use of teamwork allowed us to overcome them Verigar,” says Narszara, “The previous times we were not prepared and were caught off guard.
This time the battle was fought on our terms, not theirs.”
“Makes
senses,” I agree, “Let’s press onto the next room.”
Labels:
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Friday 2 October 2015
1.14 Endgame Part 5
“Hello
everyone,” I say to the assembled groups in the main room of the base a couple
hours later, “As you know, I have finally found the location of the person
responsible for almost every major incident that has plagued our country since Vistorix
showed up in early July.”
In the corner
we got Darrac and Mia, who Darrac brought along. The two space pirates, excuses
me, space privateers both look ready for the up coming fight.
A total of
twenty one superheroes and two space pirates against whatever the Machine’s
creator has to bring against us.
If they
weren’t responsible for the deaths of several people, directly or otherwise, I
might feel sorry for them.
I let my
announcement settle in before I continue. I’m sure they already know that as I
doubt they would be here otherwise, but it still has an impact amongst the
gathered people.
I’m able to
continue when another couple of people join our group. A man in a black cloak
obscures his body from sight and only his glowing white eyes can be seen while
other is man in bulky gold and red power armour.
Shade and Spartan. Two acquaintances I
made a while back.
Huh, never thought I would ever think
that way. Sure Granddad spoke about old acquaintances he made over years as a
superhero, but it is another thing for me to be doing it myself.
“I hope you don’t mind us helping out,”
says Spartan, “We both have some unfinished business with the guy you’re going
after.”
“Every hand helps,” I reply.
Strange how we’re talking about this
when the first time we met was when Spartan was trying to collect the bounty on
my head for the person we’re now working together to go after.
But that was before the Machine attacked
his flying aircraft carrier and we fought together against it. And it isn’t
healthy to hold grudges. Best to let bygones be bygones.
“The Machine’s
creator, now codenamed Machinist, is operating out of a sunken Sektain warship
about twenty miles off the coast of the Isle of Wight,” I continue from where I
left off earlier before the new arrivals showed up, “Now if you’re wondering how
we’re going to get down here since only a few of us can breathe underwater, we
got a couple of things for that. First is a small breather that you put to your
mouth and it also acts a communicator. The second is a magical charm that
Narszara has come up with allows us to breath underwater. They’ll also keep you
dry and unaffected by the water. We got thirty of them so there is enough for
everybody here to have one each. If you do lose the charm, it has a residue
effect so if you do lose it during battle, the effect won’t wear off until a
few hours later.”
I, Mary and
Narszara hand out the charms and breathers. While everybody takes a charm,
those of us in power armour don’t take a breather. All of us already have an
equivalent built into our armour.
“So here is
the plan,” I say, “We’ll split into four groups, roughly six in each. The first
group will be Shade, Spartan, Spectre, Controller and Werebeast with Britannia
in charge. Warden will lead the second group, consisting of herself,
Dreadnought, Green Knight, Eternal, Multitude and Robyn Hood. The next group will
contain Lantern, Bolt, Night Beast, Multiform, Storm Knight, Gateway and
Accelerate. The last group will be lead by myself and will consist of Narszara,
Darrac, Mia, Commando and Vision. Is that clear?”
I get a series
of agreements and we begin to split up into our groups.
I think I did
pretty well in choosing the groups. Each one is led by an experienced leader
and has good variation of abilities in each of them. In addition, they are
split up between the two superhero teams we have on hand.
“Okay for
transportation,” I say once we’re in our groups, “Teams One and Two will go in
the two pairs of Albion Defender jets we got on hand. Team Three will take the Star Guardian while Team Four will be
going in the Dusty Corsair.”
I wonder who
will pilot the Star Guardian without
me there. I suspect Janelle might fly herself, but Sam or Vance might end up in
the cockpit.
“Hey Janelle,”
I whisper into my communicator, “Were you the one to let Shade and Spartan in?”
“Yes, I
assumed you wouldn’t mind the extra backup,” replies the AI.
“I don’t,” I
tell her, “But I would like a heads up next time.”
“Understood,” says
Janelle, “By the way, I don’t think I’ll be able to hack the ship’s computers.
You’ll need internal access for that.”
“Good to
know,” I reply, “I’ll need the prototype then for quick hacking then.”
“I believe
so,” says Janelle and I end the call.
“I’ll be right
back,” I tell the others in my group, “Just need to grab something from my lab
for this mission.”
I dart off to
my lab and quickly find the gray box containing what progress I have made so
far in creating an AI. The box is about the size of a computer mouse, but
barely a centimetre thick.
While the AI
isn’t sentient like Janelle yet, it will be far better at hacking the ship’s
systems then I would be.
“Ready,” I say
as I return to the others as they wait around the bottom of the Dusty Corsair.
Tuesday 29 September 2015
1.14 Endgame Part 4
After leaving
Freya with Narszara, I bring Aunt Mary to my lab for a private chat.
“So about
bringing Freya here,” I say as the door closes behind us, “What do you think
the government will do about it? Don’t get me wrong, I firmly believe that you
haven’t done anything wrong, but I do want to be prepared for whatever is
coming our way.”
“They’ll
probably try and discipline me,” says Mary, “Reduced pay and bad assignments. They
might even try and take Freya away from me so I don’t pull more stunts like
this. They’ll find I’m a lot tougher than they expect. With the exception of Gregory,
I’m the longest operating superhero that’s still active and they will not take
my daughter away from me without a fight.”
“Aye,” I
agree, “They’ll find the League of Heroes a bit more than they handle if it
comes to that, but I feel that things won’t come that far. Especially once they
realise how unrelenting we will be on this matter.”
“Too true,”
says Mary, “But that’s just a worst case scenario. I’m certain they’ll just try
and do that stuff and back down when I don’t. But enough about that, there is
another reason I wanted to come here. I would like to take you up on your offer
of assistance in upgrading the Warden armour.”
“In what way?”
I inquire.
“We both know
that you and Dad are both better inventors than me so no beating around that
bush,” replies Mary, “I was hoping you could share your latest upgrades to the
Sentinel armour with me, so I could add them to the Warden armour.”
“Sure,” I reply
with no need to even think about.
Aunt Mary is
family and is without a doubt completely trustworthy. No argument there and
Granddad did always share his own inventions with her and I have absolutely no
reason to not do the same.
“It’s nice to
have some of the family back in the game,” says Mary suddenly, “Ever since your
mum decided she didn’t want to get involved in the family business, I also
thought it fall to me to continue the League of Heroes. It’s strange you know.
When we were kids, I always assumed that if one of us was going to become a
superhero, it would be Linda. Of the two of us, she was the one that inherited
Mum’s powers.”
“Wait what?” I
say, confused, “My mum has superpowers?”
“Like same as
Helen and Mum, your grandma,” says Mary, “I wouldn’t be surprised if Lily
develops powers at some point in her teens.”
“I’ll keep
that information in mind,” I reply with frown.
Mum has portal
powers? She has never shown any sign of the having them, but I guess she
wouldn’t need to. Keeping the possibility that Lily might get the same powers
in mind is important, especially as she wasn’t raised like the rest of us
Leaguer descendents.
In fact, my
little sis doesn’t even know about her connection to the League of Heroes.
But that is
all in the future and whether or not Lily develops powers, there is nothing I
can do about it.
Other than putting
her through the Awakener that is.
As I begin to
show the Sentinel armour Mk VIII off to Mary, Janelle interrupts us.
“Sorry to
interrupt,” says Janelle apologetically.
“No need to
worry,” replies Mary, “What we’re doing can wait and I’m sure what you got to
say is important.”
“That it is,”
says Janelle, “I have found the location of the Machine’s creator.
“Where?” I
demand quickly.
“An old sunken
Sektain warship that the original Lantern took down in the Invasion,” says
Janelle, “About twenty one miles southeast of the Isle of Wight. Given the
length of time, I personally believe that our foe is someone who has taken over
the vessel as their base rather than a member of the original crew.”
“Hmm,” I
mutter, “I’ll call the entire League together for this one. Given how
dangerous, the Machine’s creator has proven, I think we should also call in
some back-up.”
“I’ll call in
the Albion Defenders for this,” says Mary.
“And I’ll call
in Darrac,” says Janelle, “He is still planetside and his expertise should
prove useful.”
“Darrac is one
of the supersoldiers created by the Sektain right?” inquires Mary.
“That is
correct,” I reply, “He has also helped me out against the Machine a couple of
months or so ago. Plus he was the one who provided us with the equipment to
locate the Machine’s creator in the first place.”
“I’ll be off
to call my team then,” says Mary, “You call the League. I’ll be leaving Freya
here by the way. I am not sending her
back after we just got here and I am most certainly not taking her with us.”
“I
understand,” I reply as Mary leaves the lab.
I might as
well get armoured up while I’m in here, I decide as I walk up to the latest
version of the Sentinel armour.
“Hey Janelle,”
I say as a thought enters my mind, “Are you sure this isn’t another trap?”
“Yes,” replies
the AI, “For once, we have the upper hand and the element of surprise.”
“Good.”
Friday 25 September 2015
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.”
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