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.

1.13 Breakout Part 2

“So how does this work again?” asks Judy as she stands in the training room.

I have to admit, Judy looks quite fetching in purple, form fitting cos-mat suit that she is wearing as we test her powers.

“You try using your powers,” I explain from the control room, “And then I use some of the fancier equipment down here to record it. We’ll then use the data I get to figure out your powers.”

“Okay,” says Judy, “Umm, how many times have you done this before?”

“A few times so don’t worry,” I reassure her.

“And the fact I’m affecting time won’t mess anything up will it?” inquires Judy.

“We might have to slow down or speed up the footage to view it, but I’ll record everything,” I say, “Let’s start with the basics. I’ll toss out a couple of targets. Try and slow them down.”

I press a button and two ceramic discs are fired into the room, flying across the room at a low speed. Judy raises an arm at them and they slow down to the point they’re barely moving.

“That worked well,” I say, “I’ll launch another pair and try and speed them up this time.”

Another couple of discs are fired at a low speed before zooming across the room as Judy uses her power on them. They slam in the wall on the far side of the training room, but don’t break as clatter to the ground. Granddad made them out of a material that is almost as strong as the ceramic the Sentinel armour uses, but cheaper and easier to mass produce.

I test other applications of Judy’s power using more of the training discs. It turns out that she can slow down, speed up, reverse or freeze time using her power. She can also apply it to herself which allowed her make herself much faster by speeding herself up.

I also figure that she can potentially use her power to help heal herself if she gets hurt, but for reasons that should be obvious, I refused to test that.

Another thing we figured out was that while Judy can use her powers without gestures, she has to concentrate when she does that except for when she’s using on herself. All in all, it’s easier for Judy to just use her hands to direct where she’s using powers.

Hopefully that is something that can be worked on with time. Both James and Sam had to use their hands to direct their telekinesis at first, but now can use it with a mere thought. James doesn’t even have to locate what he is moving anymore.

“Do you want to take a break?” I ask Judy, “Or do you want to move onto the next phrase of the testing?”

“What’s the next phrase?” Judy asks back.

“I’m going to send a training drone to fight you,” I tell her, “It won’t hope you, but you’ll still have to fend it off and subdue it.”

Judy thinks for a moment before reply.

“I’m ready,” answers Judy, “Bring it on.”

“Okay,” I say, “I’ll try to make things gentle.”

“Don’t go soft on me just because I’m your girlfriend,” protests Judy with a of bit indignation in her voice, “I’m more than capable of holding my own!”

“I’m not holding back anything,” I insist as I drop a humanoid training drone into the training room.

“Whoa,” says Judy as she adopts a Judo stance.

The drone swings at her, but Judy blocks by slowing its arm down with her power. She attempts to get the drone in a lock, but fails as her power fails without her directing it or concentrating on it.

The drone quickly reacts to Judy and catches her off guard as it hits her in the stomach. She huffs and is knocked to the ground.

I hesitate between lessening the drone’s assault on Judy as she is my girlfriend or letting it be as she requested. The decision ends up being out of my hands as the fight continues and renders my choice moot.

Judy rolls out of the way as the drone tries to strike her again. Not striking her too hard of course. I made sure of that before the fight began.

My girlfriend scrambles away from her attacker and attempts to get to her feet as it continues to come after her. It occurs to me that the League’s combat training drones would be pretty tough opponents for an inexperienced fighter, regardless of their past training or if the drone has been set to easy.

“Want me to turn down the difficulty?” I ask Judy as she finally mentions to get back on her feet as she uses her power to speed herself up.

“No!” she yells back, “I’m doing fine thank you very much!”

I shake my head as Judy yelps and dodges out of the way as the drone lunges at her. If Judy had to face more than one drone, she would so meteorically dead right now.

I have to admit, I’m actually quite tempted to go down and help her. Janelle could take over the controls and I wouldn’t even need the Sentinel armour or even a cos-mat suit to do well.

Judy is tripped up by the drone and falls flat on her bottom. The drone swings a fist at her and Judy raises her arms in a meaningless attempt to protect herself.

I jump out of seat as the blow connects.

1.13 Breakout Part 1

“Wow!” exclaims Judy as we enter the base together.

I smile. It is her first time down here after all. I guess it would seem impressive to someone who hasn’t seen it before. I never really had that feeling myself, but then I’ve been using the base for as long as I can remember. I grew up with it as part of my life.

“I suppose it is pretty impressive,” I say to her, “This is where I spend most my time hanging out.”

“It isn’t a bad place to hang out in,” says Judy as she looks around, “So who else is here?”

“Narszara and Rileys be here,” I tell her, “The Rileys are Britannia’s sister and her family by the way. There is also Alex, you might have met her before. Oh and Janelle is about as well. She’s the AI of the League’s starship. You have properly met any of them yet mind you.”

“You have a spaceship!?” says Judy as she stares at me.

“Starship,” I correct, “And technically it belongs to the League, but on the paperwork it belongs to the Sentinel. Here comes Narszara by the way.”

I spot the Norgardian coming towards us. She is wearing a green cos-mat suit that, I have to admit, shows off her generous curves. I’m glad Judy isn’t the jealous time as I’m going to have a hard enough time trying to explain the relationship between Narszara and I.

I’m not actually sure what to define that relationship as. It doesn’t feel like an employer-employee one and I have too much authority over Narszara for it to be a mere friendship or partnership. It is as sure as heck not a slave-master relationship and a lord-servant relationship just makes me feel uneasy.

“Hello milord,” says Narszara, using her usual greeting for me.

I flinch internally at it and Judy gives me an odd look as she hears it.

“Hey Narszara,” I return the greeting before introducing Judy, “This is my girlfriend Judy. She is Eternal’s sister and has recently gotten the same power set. I’m helping her get set up as a superhero. Please explain the relationship between you and I to her.”

I decided that the best way to explain the relationship to let Narszara to it as she’s the one who started it and only one who actually knows what it is.

“Ah, yes,” says Narszara as she walks Judy, “I have sworn loyalty to your suitor as his servant. It is a custom of my people that your own do not seem to understand. In practice, I serve him as a loyal follower and do as he asks as long as I do not have ethical issues with what he asks, which so far, I have not. It is a pleasure to meet you Judy and I hope your path goes well.”

And with that, Narszara embraces Judy in a hug. Judy makes a small noise as Narszara squeezes her. I resist the urge to laugh as Narszara releases her and walks off.

Judy waits until Narszara is out of sight. She seems a bit bemused by the turn of events. Even her hair looks a little ruffled by the hug.

“That was odd,” says Judy to me, “I admit was a bit jealous by how you describe Narszara to me, but having met her in person...”

Judy trails off and I understand how she is feeling and laugh.

“Narszara is a one of a kind,” I agree, “In this dimension at least. She is actually quite representative of her people.”

“I can see what you meant when you said she was the hottest girl I knew,” says Judy, “Does she usually hug people like that?”

“Not that I know of,” I admit, “Maybe it’s got something to do with your relationship with me that affects how she treats you due to her relationship with me. She did call me your suitor after all.”

“What about the others here?” asks Judy.

“The Rileys are mainly here for the protection after Britannia’s outing and the fact Nightblade went after them,” I reply, “They’re nice folk, but I doubt you’ll interact with them much. Then there’s Alex. Her full name is Alexandra Aquiline. I hope that answers most of your questions about her. She is living here due to not wanting to continue the family business. You’ll be seeing a lot each other as she’ll be giving you training. And finally there’s Janelle. As I mentioned, she is a starship’s AI. The ship itself is called the Star Guardian by the way. She’s a nice person and is linked up with the base’s systems. Recently Janelle has been helping me with operations and other stuff. You have no idea how usefully it is to have an AI helping with computer stuff. So much quicker and more efficient.”

“Can I meet them?” asks Judy, “Alex and Janelle that is?”

“Sure,” Janelle chips in, “Hi, I’m Janelle.”

“Umm,” says Judy, unsure of how to respond.

“Janelle, this is Judy,” I say as I decided to step in, “Judy, you’re currently hearing Janelle. I can take you down to the Star Guardian later if you want.”

“That sounds cool,” says Judy, “So what are going to do now?”

“Well, first I want to figure out the extent of your powers,” I tell her, “It’s always useful to know your limits. After that, we’ll come up with a codename and costume for you.”

1.10 Ancient Warriors Part 3

“You?” says Judy, a blank look on her face.

“The Sentinel to be precise,” I reply, “I sell all sorts of things to different people. Only some of them I let normal people buy mind you, but I do sell things such as high-quality costumes, communicators and other gadgets to fellow superheroes. There are a few so called heroes that I refuse to sell to however. For example, Vengeance. That said, they were still able to acquire of my tech and I do sell stuff to Shade now. So I’ll be able get you equipment. For starters, you will need a cos-mat costume, a communicator and utility belt at the very least. I can make other stuff for you if you need it. Usually I would charge someone to cover the cost of making it and a little extra to form a reserve of money to keep the League of Heroes funded. But since we’re dating I’ll make them for you for free.”

“Thanks,” asks Judy, “What is cos-mat?”

“It is short for costume material,” I answer, “Really useful stuff that my granddad, the original Sentinel, invented. It’s flexible, but very tough. Cos-mat is resistant to lasers, energy blasts and kinetic energy. It’s also hard to tear or rip. Unless you’re put into a really bad spot, cos-mat will hold up against anything you’ll come across as a superhero. ”

“Is it dangerous being a superhero?” asks Judy, “I don’t know how I would explain it to my parents if I got hurt.”

“The main thing we have to worry about these days is ordinary crime and foreign supervillains,” I reply, “All of the native ones are currently locked up. Gravilord and Gaia’s Vengeance got taken down by the League six weeks ago. Hall and Edison were caught by Accelerate and I. You saw that on the news right? White Lord, Black Death and Redmund were already in prison before granddad died. As for the foreign villains, they don’t have a foothold here in the UK and if they tried, they have to deal with four teams of professional superheroes. That last time they tried was a few weeks ago and it failed miserably.”

“What about the gangs up in Birmingham?” inquires Judy.

“The remnants of Black Storm’s army?” I say, “Nothing to worry about. While a lot of them have powers, they’re still weak versions like their parents’ and grandparents’ powers. They also become very incompetent over the last few years. As I said, nothing to worry about.”

“What about the Birmingham Vigilante?” asks Judy.

“Urban myth,” I state matter-of-factly, “Doesn’t exist. A few mess ups and coincidences and they suddenly believe there’s a dark and mysterious hero going after them. Granddad looked into it and couldn’t find and an ounce of proof that the Birmingham Vigilante existed beyond the constant failures of the gangs. I still haven’t found any evidence since then. No one is that good enough to leave behind no trace of their existence. Granddad, and I agree with him, believe that after a few mess ups, a gangster or two decided to make up a story about some new superhero going after them rather than get in trouble for their mistakes. So the gangs were on the lookout for a non-existent hero. When they couldn’t find this make-believe hero and when things went wrong, they blamed this hero. So now they expect this hero to stop them so they blame them if they fail. And because they think they’re going to fail, they do fail. It’s all in their heads.”

“I guess that makes senses and you are the expert on this matter,” agrees Judy, “But how would I explain if I was injured?”

“Each team has a healer. For example, the Albion Defenders have Restorer and the League has Narszara,” I reply, “We also have state of the art medical technology at our disposal and some of the more ahead of the art tech as well. Plus you could probably use your powers to undo the injury if it was recent.”

“That does make me feel better,” says Judy, “Can I ask about Narszara? I tried to look her up on the internet after hearing about her on the news, but there’s not much about her on it. Even then, most of it is speculation.”

“Well, where to start,” I say before trying to explain, “Narszara is human, one who their people have adapted to their environment over the course of several thousand years, but isn’t from Earth or even an alternate Earth. She comes from what was a fantasy world, but has advanced its tech level over tens of thousands of years of civilisation for her people to become a loosely connected benevolent interdimensional empire. As for Narszara, she is one of the stronger members of her nation even if she is no way near the most dangerous or powerful. A Class 6 by our standards when she isn’t holding back. She specialises in fire and air and can shrug off injuries that would be considered fatal to someone from our world. Narszara is also a powerful magic user. I mean seriously powerful. As in the most powerful one I have ever met and I know quite a few from helping my granddad. As for what her personality is like, well, it is basically out-dated and old fashioned. While by today’s standards it is barbaric and strange, up until a few centuries ago, she would have been considered a paragon of virtue. Think honourable and courageous knight. And unlike a few of those heroes who try and act like one, she’s not acting. Narszara just does it naturally without even realising it. What she does is hard to explain without a good understanding of how she thinks, which, by the way, is quite different to someone in the modern western world. Due to how her people’s culture works, she has sworn her loyalty to me and does basically whatever I say. As long as I don’t cross certain lines that is. I ought to introduce you two sometime. Just remember that if I do, she’s very self-conscious about her extreme beauty. She acts like it is her fatal flaw or something. Which doesn’t much sense as it isn’t.”

“Her extreme beauty,” repeats Judy dryly.

It occurs to me that I could have worded that better when talking to my girlfriend even if it is an accurate description.

“Narszara is the hottest girl I know,” I answer, “Don’t worry, I only got eyes for you.” 

1.10 Ancient Warriors Part 2

Judy laughs as I struggle to move. Exo-skeleton seems to have malfunctioned and the rest of the suit is refusing to cooperate as a result.

“Prototypes,” I curse before speaking to Judy, “This is the first time I have tried this suit on.”

I have never been more aware of the difference between my normal voice and that of the Sentinel’s as I speak to someone who has only just found out I’m the Sentinel.

“Okay,” says Judy, “I’m convinced.”

“Good,” I say as I attempt to take the suit off.

“Need any help?” offers Judy as I struggle.

“You could use your power to reverse me putting it on,” I tell her, “But that would probably reverse my memories as well and wouldn’t help me solve the problem. No, wait a moment.”

Fortunately the HUD is working so I can scan the data regarding the suit’s deployment and send it back to base. I can review later and try and figure out what went wrong. I also send a message that is set to arrive in my communicator in a few seconds.

“Okay,” I tell Judy, “Go ahead.”

I brace myself, unsure of what good doing that will do, as Judy raises her hand at me.

I blink and drop the Lightweight suit on the ground. I was wearing it a moment ago wasn’t I?

I think so, but my latest memories feel fuzzy. I think I revealed my secret identity to Judy and she accepted it. Given what I know, I bet I asked Judy to rewind me putting on the suit. Something probably went wrong with it.

“What happened?”  I ask Judy.

“You put on the suit, but it malfunctioned,” replies Judy, “You had trouble taking it off-”

“So I asked you to use your powers to rewind time,” I finish, “Got it.”

It is at that moment that I receive a message. I glance at it briefly. From myself informing me of the events that Judy just told me about.

“Okay,” I say, “Well that’s that sorted.So now what?”

“I don’t know,” shrugs Judy, “I was kinda of waiting to see how you took me revealing my powers.”

“Same,” I say, “Want to sit down and chat? That might help.”

“Sure.”

I place the suit case down, flat on the ground, and sit next to it, offering the space on it to Judy so she doesn’t have to sit on the dirty ground.

I look at Judy. I’ll admit I’m pretty biased when it comes to judging her looks as while I would say she’s beautiful, most would say she’s bland or only mildly pretty. She’s fit, not surprising she walks her dog every morning. Her light brown hair is tied back in a ponytail using a red hair band. Judy’s height is pretty tall for our age, but not quite as tall as me. Her eyes are a soft brown that go with her hair. She is wearing cyan tank top that shows off her above average bust while some purple trousers cover her legs.

Yup, beautiful.

“Anything else I should know?” inquires Judy in an offhand manner.

“That depends on what you are going to do with your powers,” I reply, lying back on the ground, “I won’t tell you any secret identities of the rest of the League of Heroes. I’ll let them decide on whether to tell you or not.”

“I understand,” mutters Judy, “I wouldn’t expect you to do so either. As for my powers, well, what are my options?”

“Either superhero, government or private sector,” I say, “Supervillainy is an option except for the fact it isn’t. The private sector is your best bet for making a lot of money and given your powers, you could quite a bit. Time manipulation is both rare and powerful. The government is good if you want some more official work that isn’t necessarily dangerous. The government is also better for keeping a secret identity than the private sector, which given your connections to superheroes like me and your brother, would be a very good idea all around. If you go the route of a superhero, you have three main options, official hero, unofficial hero and vigilante. Official heroes are folks like the Albion Defenders and the Highlanders, the ones that work for the government. As for unofficial heroes, you have the League and some other vets. When it comes to being a vigilante, I would strongly advise against it and there is a reason we don’t have any of note here in England. It’s the option that people either take when they’re monsters like Vengeance or they want to help people and lack legal options to do so. Like Liberty and her team in America. The fourth choice is to just live a normal life without using your powers.”

“I think I would want to go with superhero,” answers Judy, “I want to do something with my peoples and I’d rather help people than make money.”

“Normally you would have to join up with the government like your brother did,” I say as I sit back upwards, “Otherwise you have to find a team of competent people to back you up and the resources. You will also need to acquire a decent costume and equipment if you want to hold your own in a fight. Training helps a lot as well. A lot of people make the mistake of relying on their powers to win fights. The result is usually people in hospital and a lot of collateral damage. So even if you did decide to be a superhero, you’ll probably have to wait at least a few months before going out into the field anyway. I know you got a green belt in Judo, but I’ll try and get Alex to train you. She’s a friend of my mine and one of the Aquiline’s daughters.”

“What about equipment?” inquires Judy, “You’re a famous superhero so you must have some ideas on who to go to.”

At that question, I grin. She absolutely has no idea.

“That’s easy to answer,” I reply with a wave of my hand, “Most of the governments, teams and even the loners go to one place. They sell the best available for cheap prices.”

“Who is that that?” asks Judy curiously.

“Me!” I laugh.

1.10 Ancient Warriors Part 1

I walk down the dusty path in an isolated part of the New Forest, holding hands with my girlfriend. This is our first date in far too long.

She seemed somewhat relieved when I suggested this date, an evening stroll through the forest. Just the two of us. In all honesty, I needed this sort of break after the disaster breakout attempt a couple of nights ago.

Another part of me was torn up with worried. After talking it over with the other Leaguers, I decided to finally tell Judy about the Sentinel and the League of Heroes.

I really hope she’s the understanding type when it comes to matters like this, especially since her brother is member of the Albion Defenders. But then I remind myself that Judy doesn’t know about her brother, his job or his powers. Another part of me is just glad to finally get this over and done with.

Judy stops and takes a deep breath

“Daniel,” says Judy suddenly, “I got something to tell and show you.”

“Same here,” I reply, “Do you want to go first or shall I?”

“I would like to,” says Judy quietly before speaking a bit louder, “I want to get this over with.”

My heart sinks. Is she going to break up with me? That’s one of my top three fears alongside one of my few mundane friends developing superpowers or one of the Leaguers’ secret identities being revealed to the public.

“I would tell you, but you’ll probably think I’m crazy if I don’t show you first,” continues Judy in a hurried voice, “So please just watch.”

She stretches a hand out and something ripples around it. Very faintly mind you. I only spot because I learned to watch out for these sorts of things. In my opinion, part of being a good superhero is being about to spot the extraordinary.

Judy has pointed at the mostly dried out stream next to the path. The stream seems to be frozen in time judging by how what little remains of the water isn’t moving at all.

I rack my brains for any information regarding this. This isn’t the comic books where everybody connected to the hero ends up with superpowers or something like that. No, there’s a perfectly logical explanation behind this.

I figure it out in a couple of seconds. Eternal aka Thomas Carter is Judy’s elder brother and member of the Albion Defenders. Not that Judy knows about that. Or maybe she does know about that now. I’m betting Judy got limited time powers like her brother.

“So,” probes Judy hesitantly, clearly fearing my answer.

“So time manipulation,” I say calmly.

“I think so,” replies Judy, “You’re not going to freaks out?”

“No,” I tell her, “What else do you know?”

“I got my power days nine ago,” answers Judy, “I waited a couple of days before telling my family. It then that I found out my brother, you know Tom right, was a member of the Albion Defenders.”

“Eternal, I know,” I reply.

“Wait, what?” says Judy confused.

“Now it’s time to tell you my secret,” I say.

“Do you have powers of your own?” asks Judy curiously.

“In manner of speaking,” I reply, “I’m the Sentinel.”

Judy gasps in shock.

“I brought along a few things as proof,” I say with a grin, “I also brought even more over here earlier and left them here so I could show you them as well. Of course, the fact you have your own powers should make it easier to convince you.”

“I won’t deny that my suspension of disbelief has greatly expanded recently,” admits Judy.

“Here they are,” I say as I reach the hiding spot I picked out earlier.

Given how the most advanced Sentinel armours still take two minutes to put on with the help of specialised machinery, I didn’t bring one of them. On the other hand I needed something distinctly Sentinel to convince Judy.

The solution was a brand new set of armour that I had been working on over the last few weeks and had been focusing more on since my fight with Nightblade. A workable Sentinel armour that was quick to put on, relatively portable and could still hold its own in a fight.

I called it the Lightweight Sentinel Armour. Only relatively weak compared to the current armour, it was more specialised to operations where stealth, subtlety and discreet were required rather than frontline fighting and long-term usage.

A mixture of a tight black cos-mat mesh underneath and cut back armour plates on the outer layer, it had only a few of the features of the main Sentinel armour. The helmet, HUD, Kinetic Energy Redirectors and the wrist-mounted lasers. It lacked other features such as the rocket-pack, the new shoulder-mounted missiles, the sonics and PA system, the exo-skeleton that increase speed strength and such like that and the Faraday cage.

On the other hand, it had a few new features such as a weaker version of the exo-skeleton that didn’t require the full set of armour plating. It also had the wrist-mounted miniature gauss cannons that fired adhesive AP bolts with spider silk lines that connected the bolts and guns.

In English, the grappling hooks that I’ve had been working on.

To allow for fly, I added rocket boots instead of the rocket pack that was built into the bulky backplate.

Let me tell you something, flying using rocket boots while fighting is a horrible thing to undertake. A steady rocket pack is one thing, the rocket boots are only good if you are able to focus on make sure they’re flying you in the right direction and that pretty much take out any ability to kick your opponents while in the air.

And best of all, the armours folds up into a case, an extremely heavy case that I struggle to carry, and can be deployed around the wearer in mere moments in the field.

I do just that as I pull the case out and activate it. In a whirl of spinning parts, the armour forms around me.

And jams once it is almost done.