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. 

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.”

1.14 Endgame Part 2

“That was a good match,” says Sam as we exit the base in civvies, “Even if you cheated at the end.”

“I didn’t cheat,” I protest, “I just used an advantage that the battlefield granted me to win.”

“In an official match, that would have been considered cheating and you would have been disqualified,” points out Sam.

“In a real battle, your foe wouldn’t have cared and would beat you,” I counter.

“True,” agrees Sam, “You have to admit that I would have taken you out otherwise.”

“It would have taken you a while, but you would have,” I concede, “Then again, you are the second most powerful superhuman in the British Isles minus Narszara.”

“That I am,” says Sam with a grin.

“Do you want hear what Janelle found out about the Blackguard Breakout?” I inquire, “She filled me in as I was getting changed.”

“Definitely,” replies Sam.

“Well, Prison Officer Glenn Bateson was always a troublemaker so it was really only a matter of time before he ended up on the other side of the law,” I explain, “He was discretely paid a lot of money from anonymous source. We’re talking tens of millions here so it is no surprise at someone like Bateson accepted the offer.”

“Oh for sure,” mutters Sam, “That much money should traceable. At least to us if not to government. We’re able to use illegal methods that they can’t after all.”

“Surprisingly, Janelle was unable to track it and if she couldn’t, I won’t be able to either,” I reply, “Call me paranoid, but I think it was the Machine’s creator who paid him.”

“Really?” inquires Sam, “Why so?”

“Because Bateson was told to wait until I was there with the media tour before breaking them all out,” I tell him, “That breakout was a trap set for me. But don’t go spreading that around. I don’t want our enemy to know we know and it might get us some unneeded bad PR.”

“I understand,” says Sam, “Any closer to finding out whom this mysterious enemy of ours is?”

“Not really,” I reply, “Other than they have access to large amounts of outdated Sektain technology and mass amounts of money, there isn’t much they left out there. Personally I’m hoping that I can use the sensors I brought off Darrac to find out more information.”

“What is Darrac up to?” asks Sam, “I know he is still hanging around the planet, but not anything more than that.”

“He is visiting Mia over in Australia,” I reply, “Darrac is getting to know the family and new life of his captain and they’re getting to know him and her old life.”

“Darrac isn’t getting into any trouble is he?” inquires Sam.

“Hah!” I laugh, “Between him being him and his spaceship, there isn’t much that can actually trouble Darrac. But he is playing nice due to Mia. Even if he wouldn’t suffer consequences, his captain would.”

“I assumed he cares about Mia then,” says Sam.

“He is absolutely loyal and devoted to his captain,” I reply, “From what I have found out, Darrac is cooperating nicely with the authorities like Mia has been.”

“So do you think these new sensors will help?” asks Sam.

“Without doubt,” I tell him, “I’m certain that our foe is using outdated Sektain tech leftover from the Invasion to keep them hidden. This modern Sektain tech should counter that advantage of theirs.”

“Just don’t go into more detail,” says Sam.

“Why not?” I tease him, “I’m sure you would enjoy it.”

“Oh no,” says Sam with mock horror, “Whatever shall I do to escape this horror.”

I snigger and Sam soon joins me.

“But on a more serious note,” I say as I stop laughing, “MI9 has finally sorted things out for the Rileys. They should be able to get back to a normal life. Or least more normal than what they got currently.”

“They should be looking forward to that,” says Sam, “Well, I don’t know about the kids, but Mr and Mrs Riley will be.”

“Yeah, the kids have been getting along great with their Auntie Narsey,” I reply.

“Have you called her that?” asks Sam, “Narsey that is.”

“Would you?” I counter.

“True,” replies Sam with a laugh, “But you are her lord.”

“And I don’t want to know how far that extends in this case,” I reply.

“Talking about Narszara,” says Sam, “Have you considered the idea of sending her to school for education like some have suggested?”

“You have to be kidding me!” I laugh, “Sending Narszara to school would just be asking for trouble. You wouldn’t believe the body count she would rack up in a mere week. Besides, even if she is only thirteen years old, her people grow up faster both physically and mentally. As of such, her body is more in its late teens and her mind is that of a young adult rather than a girl who has just entered her teens.”

“This is the point where we go our separate ways,” says Sam as we come to a halt at the junction of a road.

Sam is correct as his route home requires a turn to the right while my own route means that I need to go left.

“See you tomorrow then,” I tell him, “Give your parents my regards.”

“Yeah, see ya tomorrow,” replies Sam as he heads down his route while I got my own, “Same for your parents and tell Lily I hope she makes her full recovery real soon.”

1.14 Endgame Part 1

“Let’s see how well you can take this!” I yell as I fire a pair of missiles at Sam as we engage each other in aerial battle.

He crushes one with his telekinesis, but the other explodes into a dozen micro-warheads. Unable to respond in time, the warheads hit Sam, engulfing him in explosions which send him flying backwards.

For some context, James, Vance, Stefan, Lucy, Sky and I are currently facing off against Sam in the training room while Alex, Narszara and some others watch on from the control room.

He is coming in low James warns me.

I see him I think back as I spot Sam flying close to the floor.

I’m on it says Stefan as he unleashes several bolts of lightning at Sam.

While the lightning doesn’t actually do anything to hurt or even slow Sam, it does block his line of sight and forces him to pull upwards.

Hit him Vance! yells Stefan and Vance obliges as unleashes two beam of energy from his hands directly at Sam.

Good use of teamwork so far. While Sam may have started with the upper hand and has already taken out Lucy and Sky, I was able to force him back and between me and Stefan, we have been able to control Sam’s path of attack. Now Vance, one of the few of us with an attack actually able to stand a chance of taking Sam down, is hitting Sam dead on.

Sam grunts as the beams of energy blast hit. He raises his arms to block the attack as he is slowly forced backwards and downwards.

My turn I tell the others as I grin beneath my armour.

I unleash the other four missiles at Sam before firing both of my sonics at him. The missiles go directly for Sam, but curve as they fly through the air so when they explode into the micro-warheads, they’ll hit him in the side.

Unlike most with super senses, my sonics won’t do much against Sam as his psionic field protects him, shielding him from most of it. But a little will help quite a bit when used to support other attacks.

The missiles hit Sam, engulfing him in a large explosion. Barely a split-second later, Vance’s energy beams blast Sam out of the explosion and into the ground.

Sam crashes into the floor, leaving a small crater. Vance and I keep our respective energy beam and sonic attacks, but after a moment we cease.

“Lantern is-” starts Alex from up in the control room when Sam suddenly springs to life. He zooms straight at me, catching me off guard.

He punches me in the chest, sending me flying. It takes me a moment to stabilise myself, but when I do, it’s just in time for me to hear Alex declaring Stefan out of the match, just as she had with Sky and Lucy earlier and almost did so with Sam just now.

Stefan is down James informs me.

I heard I reply

Look out! yells Vance.

I feel a mental strike of pain from James a mere moment before the mental connection is broken.

“Vision is out,” declares Alex.

“I’ll hold him, you hit him,” I yell at Vance as I fly at Sam.

This time it is my turn to catch Sam off guard as I tackle him mid-air. He huffs in surprise as we slam into the wall.

But Lantern has always been stronger than the Sentinel and Sam easily breaks free of my grip. He slams his fist into my face and I go flying.

“It’s not going to be that easy Daniel,” says Sam with a grin on face.

“That’s soon going to be mutual,” I reply.

“We’ll see,” says Sam as he swings another fist at me.

I sidestep and roll to his side just as Vance blasts him in the back again.

“Don’t count me out just yet,” says Vance as he blasts Sam with another energy beam.

“Oh, I’m getting to you-” starts Sam as he blocks Vance’s energy beam with a raised up, but I cut him off as I punch him.

“You’re still out numbered,” I point out.

“But you’re out of heavy firepower,” retorts Sam.

“Then bring it on!” I tell him as swing another punch at him.

But Sam dodges easily, his flight being much more manoeuvrable than that of the Sentinel armour. He punches at me and I raise both my arms to block. Not very effective as Sam’s strike still sends me flying.

I hear Sam zooming off and Vance blasting with his energy beams. As I gain control of my flight once again, I hear Alex’s voice.

“Bolt is out!” declares Alex, “Good luck Sentinel, you’re going to need it.”

“Oh, I won’t need luck,” I reply.

Unbeknownst to the others, I still have one last trick up my sleeve.

“Want to call it quits?” asks Sam, “I got you outnumbered and outpowered.”

“You wish,” I reply, “Bring it on! I’m ready for you.”

“As you say,” grins Sam and he zooms at me.

I activate one of the training room’s attack features and a giant beam of purple energy fires from the wall behind me at Sam. Sam barely has a split-second to look shocked before it hits him dead on.

The energy attack slams him into the wall on the far side of the room and Sam drops face first into the floor.

“Lantern is out!” declares Alex, “Sentinel is the winner. By the virtue of cheating.”

“I didn’t cheat,” I protest, “I just used my home field advantage!”

1.11 Outsider Part 12

“So you won’t need any help back in your home dimension?” asks Sam as we see Fiona off.

The portal she is using is already open in one of the lower levels of the base. It turns out the old League had a interdimensional portal device stored away.

I wish I had known about this sooner, I think, I could have used it to help Narszara get back home. Why didn’t think to look for it before now?

Fiona is in her costume with two containers of Sentinel Tech.

“Thanks for the help guys,” says Fiona with a wave goodbye to us before stepping through the portal of swirling multi-coloured energy.

I hesitate for a moment before deciding on a course of action.

“I need to ask Fiona something,” I tell the others before going through after her.

I look around as I arrive in another world, on top of a mountain. This is my first time in another dimension, I realise as I spot Fiona at the mountain edge. I follow her trail of sight, looking at the American town below that the mountain presides over.

She puts the containers down and sits down, her legs dangling over the edge.

“May I join you for a moment?” I ask Fiona as I walk up to her.

She turns her head and stares for a moment, before saying, “Sure.”

“Thanks,” I say and I sit down next to her.

“I assume there is a reason you followed me through?” says Fiona.

“Yeah,” I reply, “I wanted to ask you something, but it slipped my mind until the last moment.”

“What is it?”

“When you first arrived, you said you came to my universe because something unusually there stood out to you. I was wondering if you could explain what is was in greater detail?”

Fiona thinks for a moment before replying.

“There is a interdimensional phenomenon called Outsiders,”  Fiona answers, “It occurs when one isn’t connected to a universe and as result, become immune to effects that would change that reality at its core. Usually when someone ends up in a foreign universe or they end up travelling between dimensions. Because we’re from outside that reality, when it changes internally, we’re not affected because the local stuff doesn’t apply to us. So say someone travels to another dimension and settles there. They would be an Outsider. Then someone goes back in time and changes something. Everybody else would act if the change had always happened because for them, it had. But the Outsider would remember before the change and would be able to act on them, because as foreign element, the internal changes wouldn’t be part of them. This makes a settled Outsider a *&@#”£ to fight as they wouldn’t be affect by time travel, reality warping or other stuff like that. Plus the vast majority of Outsiders are tough and dangerous as they had to struggle to survive and end up very good at surviving and adapting to rapidly changing situations.”

“So a settled Outsider in my universe and that is what drew your attention?” I say.

“One that’s particularly unusually,” replies Fiona, “You should know something about Outsiders. When they’re in a universe, it can’t split into alternate realities that occur when different paths are taken. This is because you can’t get alternate version of an Outsider. While you can get alternates that both end up as Outsiders, an Outsider won’t form any more alternate of themselves. This means that any changes to that reality are permanent and proper. So time travel or reality warping would usually create an alternate version of a reality, but if it has Outsider it won’t happened because that would form alternate of that Outsider.”

“So what you’re saying is that my universe is particularly vulnerable to internal changes?” I say.

“That’s one aspect of it,” agrees Fiona, “But you should be aware that people can leave their reality and return as Outsider like I am. And not always after the same amount of time has passed. For example, it has only been two years for my reality since I left, but it’s been six years and a half from my perspective. Over three times longer for me.”

“Thanks for that information,” I reply, “It might come in handy someday. Call for advice if you need it. I’ll also send you some spare costumes once you inform me where you want them to appear in this dimension.”

“Goodbye Sentinel,” says Fiona as I get up.

“It’s just Daniel Griffin,” I reply, “I’m not in my armour. And goodbye Flashblast.”

I walk back through the portal where Narszara is waiting.

“Milord,” says Narszara as I deactivate the portal, “I wish to ask you something.”

“Ask away,” I reply with a wave of my hand.

“You have technology that can be used to communicate with those in other parts of the Multiverse?” inquires Narszara.

“Correct,” I tell her.

“Excellent,” says Narszara happily and begins to walk away.

Wait a moment…

“Narszara,” I say and the Norgardian comes to a halt, “Do you know what an Outsider is?”

“Aye Verigar,” replies Narszara.

“Are you an Outsider,” I ask her.

“Yes I am,” answers Narszara, “I do fit the criteria.”

“That is all,” I say and she leaves the room.

Narszara is an Outsider. If my suspicions are correct, it was her presence that got Fiona’s attention.

I’m also relieved at the idea of the League having an Outsider as a member, especially one as powerful as Narszara. Even if someone does alter reality, Narszara would still be around to stop them even if those changes got rid of the League.

1.11 Outsider Part 11

I trot through the sewers, doing my best to ignore the stench. I really ought to get used to it because having a tunnel system is really useful. Especially one with such easy access and an extensive network.

I got everything from both bags with me. Quite lucky, I think, as the gang could have easily have spread the contents across the house.

Now I have two options, either head to my family’s house or the base. If I head home, I’ll have to answer awkward questions from my family. If I go to the base, folks that will be understanding and Narszara can use her magic to heal any scrapes and bruises.

To the base it is.

The walk to the base from my location technically isn’t that long, but that is only because the base is massive. I would mainly just encounter the unused areas that are for emergencies. To actually reach the parts of the base that I use, it’ll be about an hour and a half walk in this dark and smelly sewer system.

I guess that is what I should have expected as part of being a vigilante when not acting as a superhero.

I check my League communicator. I got a signal despite the fact no phone would be able to get a signal here. Then again, my League communicator certainly doesn’t count as just a phone.

“Report Janelle,” I say.

“No cameras or other devices recorded you,” says the AI via the speakers on my communicator, “Despite attempts by neighbours to call the police once they heard the screams from the house, police only receive notification once you entered the sewers. The police have also a report from the Sentinel detailing almost all of the Shirley Marauders’ crimes. Nothing overly serious such as murder or anything like that, but enough to put them away for a good many years.”

“Good,” I say before walking the rest of the journey in silence, thinking about the fight.

It was the first time I was out in a fight when not acting as a superhero. I was also the first time I when I got into a serious fight without wearing one of the greatest suits of power armour in the world.

It should have been terrifying, but I too calm and focused to worry. And since it went darn near perfectly, I can’t really look back at it and be worried. Especially since between the lack of evidence and my connections, I don’t need to worry about the police.

Sky, Helen, James, Fiona, Alex and Narszara are all waiting for me at the table as I enter the main room. Fiona is still wearing the white cos-mat costume while Narszara is wearing a green one. I only recently have gotten her to wear something other than her armour willing.

“Do I have a black eye?” is my first question and receive variants of the word ‘yes’ in response.

I sigh before asking Narszara, “Can you heal it please? I would rather not explain to my family or the police if they come knocking.”

“Aye milord,” answers Narszara as she gets up and walks towards me as I reach the table.

I sit down and place the bags on the table as Narszara looks at me. I feel an itch around my eye that fades after moment as Narszara retakes her seat.

One thing about Narszara is that she rarely uses words when casting her magic. I been meaning to ask her about that, but now isn’t the time.

“Any questions?” I ask, “I assume you all know about Fiona and her situation by now.”

“Yeah,” says Sky, “The computer lady also says you went and beat up the guys who mugged your sister. I’m guessing from the bags that she is correct?”

“The computer lady is Janelle and she is both correct and the AI of the League’s starship,” I reply, “I took down six of them and last one give me the information I needed. Janelle made sure that wasn’t any evidence of what I did and that the police didn’t get informed before I got away. She also released enough information to police for them to arrest the gang.”

“So everything is going to work out just fine,” asks Helen.

“The police don’t have any solid evidence of what I did and no jury would convict me anyway,” I answer, “Lily will probably just be glad I got her stuff back. Mum will be fine as long as the police don’t get too involved. She knows about granddad and the League. Dad on the other hand will be angry. He doesn’t know about Sentinel and the League so he thinks I’ll have risked getting badly hurt and getting into trouble with the law.”

“But let’s not worry about that now,” I continue, “It’s my problem not yours. Let’s talk about Fiona aka Flashblast.”

“From what I heard, she arrived in our dimension this morning,” says James, “Then you brought her back here and used the Awakener on her. Now she going to back to her home dimension and become its first superhero. And you, we, are giving her equipment and advice to help her do so.”

“We’re helped Fiona picked out some gadgets while you were busy with your...thing,” says Sky, “She using some Sentinel Tech with the rest of her gear being provided by her old boss. You’re also getting her a costume and a League communicator so she can stay in contact with us. How does that last one work?”

I sigh before replying. Sometimes I wish the others would just read what their equipment can actually do instead of only finding out when I mention things.

“The communicators used by the League have setting that can be used to contact any other League communicators, even when they are in different dimensions,” I reply, “Granddad gave them the ability to do so after members of the old League got trapped in other dimensions a few times. In this case, the setting will allow Fiona to contact us and vice-versa. That way she can asks us for advice on being a good superhero and I will be able to resupply her. So when will you be leaving Fiona?”

“As soon as Lantern returns with my costume,” says Fiona, “I’m not going reveal myself to my family straight away once I get back. You see, I want to scout things out and come up with a plausible story before I rejoin my old life.”

“So that was what Sam was doing?” I say, “I saw him flying overhead earlier.”

“Yup,” says Sam from behind me as he enters the main room of the base.

He got a costume folded underneath his arm which Sam then tosses at Fiona. The Drakesguard catches it with ease.

“Can you put it on?” asks Sky, “I really want to see how you’ll look as a superhero.”

“Sure,” replies Fiona with a shrug.

“You know where the changing rooms are?” I ask.

“Alex showed me,” says Fiona as she walks off.

I speak with the others as Fiona gets changed, mostly asking them about what they and Fiona have done together. Turns out that they mainly discuss the differences between our world and Fiona’s, gave her advice and help her pick out items from masses of Sentinel Tech stored in the base.

Sky was particularly impressed by the amount of gadgets and has decided that she’s going to use more of them when she can.

I’m about to start explain what different gadgets my granddad had invented by Fiona returns.

“Take a look,” says Fiona before striking a heroic pose with her hands on her hips.

The costume is white with golden gloves and boots. The sides of her costume are also gold while on her face is a white domino mask with a gold border. The costume itself smugly fits her body, showing off her muscles and curves.

“You look great Flashblast,” says Alex.