I sit in the lab the day after the fight
with Vistorix. Today was interesting at school as pretty much everybody,
teachers included, were all talking about last night.
It was annoying that I couldn’t say my
part in it and instead had to listen to the dumb theories that some of the more
stupid students had. One of the downsides of having a secret identity I guess.
Like the whole fight was government set-up
to promote a new League of Heroes that was under their control and Vistorix had
been hired and was going to be secretly released with a bunch of cash.
As I said, dumb theories and stupid
students. Fortunately the majority of people believed Aquiline’s story, thanks
to it being something what was plausible and the Defenders backing it up.
I get to work, checking the status of
each of our costumes.
The Sentinel Armour was easily repaired
as the two dents were barely there at all and nothing else was damaged. I also
took the opportunity to look at the others’ costumes as there wasn’t time in
the fight to check, it didn’t occur to me late to see which ones they were
wearing the videos of us didn’t show clearly.
James aka Vision wore a black
uniform-like costume that covered his entire body, including a full facial mask
with black lenses over the eyes. No symbols on it at total and was made out of
my granddad’s cos-mat, the standard material for League costumes. No damage
from the fight.
Samuel aka Lantern’s costume was a
variant of the old Lantern’s costume. The new costume is main white costume,
but with black upper arms, lower legs and feet. The belt is black and contains
a greater number of items with more variety despite Sam being unlike to ever
use them. As the original Lantern’s visor was lost with his death, Samuel makes
do with glasses with lens made of the same material as the visor and a modern
HUD. He also has an earpiece communicator. Despite being up front in the fight,
Sam’s psionic field protected his costume from harm, leaving me nothing to
repair.
The original Lantern covered his body in
white with dull blue over the legs and arms and a blue belt at the waist that
held a few items. A light blue blocky visor with a limited HUD plus a League
communicator earpiece to protect his face and secret identity. It wasn’t made
out of cos-mat as it was invented a couple of years after the Lantern’s death. As
he died at the end of the seventies with his body lost in action, his costume
and equipment has been updated since.
Skyler aka Commando has a costume that
is identical to her grandfather’s costume except it’s been
made to fit her.
Both Commandoes wear a patterned camouflage combat uniform with union jack on
sides of the upper sleeves. Each set is made from cos-mat minus the first
Commando’s earlier ones, which were made from the same stuff that normal army
uniforms were made from.
The one worn by Sky pretty much has the
right arm ruined. It’s been badly torn and is covered inside and out with blood
and muck.
It will to be hard to repair. Easiest
way is to just remove the entire arm and add on a new one.
“Hello Daniel,” says a voice behind me.
I turn around to see my Aunt Mary or
Warden standing in the doorway.
“Hey Mary,” I reply as I put Sky’s
costume down, “I was wondering when you would arrive.”
“I visited your house first,” says Mary,
“Only your mum was there and we chatted for a bit. She’s not too happy with the
idea of you replacing dad as the Sentinel. Britannia was right about the
danger.”
“If it was up to me, I wouldn’t,” I
reply.
“But...” says Mary as she enters the
lab.
“At least Sam, Sky and James are going
to do it,” I continue, “I’m certain more of the others will also join them. I
didn’t really want to, but I decided that if I’m needed, I’ll help out. Plus
I’m already involved as I effectively run and own the base since granddad died
and I also organise all our costumes and equipment. Not to mention I been
continuing to supply other supers and foreign governments using Sentinel Tech.
I suppose I’ve been already indirectly involved and might as well get fully
involved after tonight.”
“Those are good reasons,” says Mary,
looking approvingly at me, “Many capes want to fight for fame or glory,
sometimes for fun and others simply because they can. Spectre and Multitude do
it for fame while Werebeast just wants the riches. Others such as Powerbeam and
Green Knight do out of a sense of duty, kind of like you. Britannia does it to
help people, again like you. Being a superhero because of a sense of duty and a
desire to help people is a good thing and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
Any idea what the old League is going to do?”
“They’re going to find out who else
wants to join before announcing a new generation to the League of Heroes to the
public,” I reply, “They feel that is the best option as actually gives us some
help as it means we’re part of an official group rather than a bunch of rookie
starting out on our own. And it makes sense since we would be using the League’s resources and reputation anyway.”
“That’ll
help when dealing with the police, government and other supers,” notes Mary, “I
think Helen might want to join up by the way.”
“She has got grandma’s powers,” I reply.
“Yeah,” says Mary, “Guess we’ll be
seeing each other around more then.”
