New Age of Heroes 1: The League of Protectors - Dawn of a New Age (21 page)

“Cool, One
down and WAY too many more to go!” Jackson said.

Shayne chuckled
slightly. He pulled Ms. Lauren's name up and crossed her name off the
list. Satisfied, he sped back to his dorm and the two young men began
preparing for their next target.

Shayne pulled up
another file and began studying it. Jackson took a look and
recognized the next target immediately. Low level, but a threat that
needed to be taken care of nonetheless.

With Shayne's
attention distracted, Jackson slyly distanced himself from his friend
and crept up behind him. He clenched his fist together and unleashed
a block of ice that went zipping Shayne's way. Shayne shook his head,
realizing what Jackson was up to and sped out of the way before the
ice could hit him.

“Round two?”
Jackson asked with a wide grin on his face.

Both men released
their respective abilities upon one another at the same time.

“Round two,”
Shayne said with an equally wide grin.

19

Operation
Downfall

Shaw Enterprises,
the billion dollar empire that has helped pave the way for the next
generation stood as the standard for all businessmen looking to
dominate the business world globally. It seems as if Shaw Enterprises
has its claws on pretty much everything.

The field of
technology has been theirs to dominate for many years now. Stockton
Incorporated was their only real competition. Without question, Shaw
Enterprises is at the peak of its dominance.

Surprisingly, the
addition of Post Humans Jason Shaw and Garrett Blake has helped
increased the value of the company. There is no denying how much of
an asset the two Post Humans were to the company, but many on the
board feared that they being Post Humans would “stain”
the company image.

A big media frenzy
broke out when Jason returned home and it was announced that he would
serve as the new Vice President of Shaw Enterprises.

For many decades
now Shaw Enterprises and Stockton Incorporated have gone to war so to
speak. They were fierce rivals who brought out the best and often
times the worse in each other.

While both Jason
and Garrett Blake suspected that Joseph was shady, neither of them
could deny his success. His business savvy and willingness to make
bold decisions had often paid off for him in a big way. He made
millions upon millions of dollars from his legal activities, but he's
also made millions more from underhanded and illegal deals as well.

Yet somehow, Joseph
was always able to keep his name clear. He was always able to
convince key companies to invest in him, he was always able to
counter anything Shaw Enterprises did.

Joseph Harvey
Stockton sat behind his desk reading the newspaper. He was reading an
article written by one of his reporters. Yes that's correct, Joseph
Stockton owns one of the biggest newspaper companies in Boston. He
found the article extremely satisfying and he hoped it would be a
catalyst to what he had in store for Shaw Enterprises.

The writer, Sheila
Myers, wrote about the prison escape from the island. In the article
she suggested that Jason Shaw, known leader of the League of
Protectors was behind the escape. She retracted that statement a bit
and suggested at the very least, he didn't do enough to stop the
prisoners from escaping. Her article made sure it painted a picture
of Jason Shaw as sympathetic to the Post Humans.

In her article, she
expressed great concern over the breakout and the security the
government had in place. She proceeded to question the wisdom of the
government contracting Shaw Enterprises on anything, considering who
Jason Shaw was.

While her article
was an opinion article and lacked sufficient evidence to convict
Jason of anything, her article did what it was supposed to do. It
placed fear and cast a shadow of doubt for most readers. That's what
this whole Post Human thing was about anyway... Fear.

Fear of the
unknown, fear of the possibilities. Sheila knew the best way to
increase her sales and promote her agenda was to incite fear.

Joseph sat there
reading the article with complete delight. He owned the newspaper
company, but he had never really taken the time to read anything in
it. Sheila's article was exactly what he needed in his war against
Shaw Enterprises. Sheila's ability to incite fear was just another
piece to a large and complex puzzle he was creating.

He searched through
his phone for Sheila’s number and congratulated her on what he
viewed as a very impressive article. Her article was no more
impressive than the ones she’s written in the past, but this
one, the one that attacked Jason Shaw's character was the one that he
noticed. It was the only one that mattered. As Joseph continued
buttering up his opinionated reporter, he decided to make her an
offer.

He would increase
her salary substantially if she agreed to focus her articles on Jason
Shaw, The League of Protectors and Shaw Enterprises. With her massive
following, Joseph realized that something as simple as an article
could really help his agenda. Joseph's offer was one that Sheila
Myers couldn’t refuse.

Now, with his media
puppet situated, he could continue focusing on other ways to destroy
Shaw Enterprises. Joseph, ever the paranoid man looked around his
room as if someone else was in there. Satisfied that he was alone,
Joseph reached to the middle drawer on his left hand side. There was
a hidden compartment that housed an untraceable phone. Joseph pulled
out the phone and dialed one of his contacts.

“Operation
downfall is a go. I repeat operation downfall is a go.”

He didn’t
even wait for his contact to respond; he hung up the phone and walked
over to the window. He looked outside, down upon the city and smiled.
Joseph Stockton was in a good mood. With any luck, things were going
to get a lot better for him, and better soon!

“Shaw to
G.U.A.R.D base, I have successfully recaptured another escaped
prisoner. I repeat, I have successfully recaptured another escaped
prisoner. Requesting a recover team immediately.” Jason waited
for someone on the other end to respond.

“Roger that
Mr. Shaw, recovery team en route. ETA is ten minutes,” One of
the operators at the base said.

Jason acknowledged
the operator and then turned his attention back to the recaptured
prisoner.

“You think
you capturing me means anything? The end is coming, and it's coming
soon. You have no idea what’s ahead, but I assure you our time
of being afraid is coming to an end. Our time of being below these
people is done. Soon, we shall take our place as leaders of this
nation!” the captured prisoner shouted.

Jason was about
ready to respond when a heated blast in his direction caught his
attention. Two more blasts caught him in the chest followed by three
more blasts.

“We need him
alive!” a man in uniform shouted.

Jason was slightly
dazed due to the heavy blasts he took. To his surprise he recognized
the uniforms. The faces of the men were concealed by helmets, but the
uniforms were just as clear as day. The men attacking him were
wearing G.U.A.R.D Uniforms!

The captured
prisoner rolled to his side evading the laser blasts meant for Jason.
He had a grin upon his face as Jason dodged the attacks.

“What’s
the meaning of this?” Jason shouted.

The men ignored him
and continued firing on him. Jason sped and dodged blast after blast.
He was confused and unsure of what to do. “Stephanie, this is
Shaw, do you copy?!”

“This is
Stephanie, I copy. I’m detecting a large buildup of energy
coming from you. Is something wrong?”

Jason sped over to
one of the attackers and delivered an uppercut. He made sure he
didn’t exert too much strength. Doing so would've shattered the
man's face or even worse killed him. Even though these men seemed to
want him dead, he did not share the same sentiments.

“I’m
under attack!”

Stephanie could
hear the anger and frustration in his voice. She was confused as
Jason's voice clearly indicated distress but she detected no energy
buildup but his own.

“Jason, who's
attacking you?”

There was no reply.

“Jason?”

“I'm under
attack by G.U.A.R.D. Their men are shooting at me.”

“What?”
Stephanie shouted in utter disbelief. She immediately called over Mr.
Connors who was in the other room.

By now camera crews
were capturing the battle. Reporters live were claiming that
G.U.A.R.D was in the process of apprehending Jason Shaw. Jason
continued fighting the agents but did his best not to hurt them. He
was simply trying to defend himself until he figured out what was
going on.

Meanwhile, Mr.
Connors was on the phone with Commander Sullivan. Mr. Connors was
livid and demanded an explanation. Commander Sullivan watched as the
fight played out. He too was confused by what was going on. He knew
that whoever those G.U.A.R.D men were they weren't acting on his
authority.

“Jason do you
copy?” Mr. Connors asked over Jason’s earpiece. “Jason,
I have Commander Sullivan on the phone here with me.”

Another blast
caught Jason in the shoulder. He was getting sick of being blasted by
whatever sort of energy weapon was being fired on him.

“Commander
Sullivan! What's going on?”

Commander Sullivan
was unaware, but he reiterated to Jason that the men attacking him
were not his.

“How shall I
proceed?” Jason asked.

Commander Sullivan
thought for a moment. He wasn't sure if perhaps someone over him had
given the order. He really didn't know what to think of the
situation.

“Commander?”
Jason shouted as he grew restless of the attack.

“Try getting
their helmets off. G.U.A.R.D doesn't usually wear helmets. Get them
off and let's get a look at who were dealing with.” Commander
Sullivan replied hoping he wasn't messing up a capture order from
someone above him.

Jason put Commander
Sullivan on hold and proceeded towards the agents firing on him.

“We need to
get out of here!” one of the men said nervously.

“Not yet!”
another one demanded.

“Our work
here is done! Let's get out of here before he starts attacking back!”
the first man replied.

Jason propelled
himself off the ground out of the agent's view. The agents looked
around desperately searching for Jason.

“Where is
he?” One of the men shouted.

“Look there
he is, fire, fire!” the first man shouted.

Jason descended to
the ground like a missile and drove his right fist straight through
one of the agent’s helmets. Blood dripped from Jason’s
hand due to a cut he received from the broken glass. He barely felt
the pain though. Savagely Jason ripped the helmet off one of the
agent.

He grabbed the man
by the neck and flew him into close proximity of one of the cameras.
Both the cameraman and the anchor were startled that the fight was
brought so closely to them. Jason held the man in front of the camera
so Commander Sullivan could get a good look at the agent.

“Run facial
recognition,” Commander Sullivan ordered one of his operators.
Rapidly, the operator pounded away at the keyboard trying to get a
hit as quickly as possible.

“Sir, this
man is named Clarence Perkins.”

Commander Sullivan
ran the name through G.U.A.R.D database. The database confirmed that
Clarence Perkins was not a G.U.A.R.D agent.

“Jason do you
copy?” Commander Sullivan asked upon getting confirmation of
the agent's identity.

“Yes.”
Jason replied waiting impatiently.

“Their
imposters, take them down!” Commander Sullivan ordered.

Jason nodded into
the camera. Just then, the recovery unit Jason called for arrived on
the scene. Their uniforms were the same as the other agents. They had
already been apprised of the situation and immediately began lending
their support to Jason.

For the viewers
watching at home they were unaware that the agents attacking Jason
were impostors. What they saw was G.U.A.R.D personnel attacking Jason
Shaw, Jason Shaw attacking G.U.A.R.D personnel and then more
G.U.A.R.D personnel attacking G.U.A.R.D personnel! The scene was
quite confusing and that was evident by the tone in which the
reporters used to describe the battle.

“Get me the
President,” Commander Sullivan said to the operator closest to
him. “And someone put out a statement letting these reporters
know what's going on!”

Mr. Connors and
Stephanie continued watching the fight with growing concern. This was
a mess! They were going to have to do some serious explaining once
this was over. He knew that not everyone was going to believe that
these agents were impostors.

Having the recovery
unit fighting by Jason’s side brought obvious creditability to
their story. Even still, he knew there would be some that would twist
the situation around and make Jason Shaw and the League of Protectors
look like the bad guys.

Mr. Connors rubbed
his head. He was extremely irritated thinking about how far back this
little rouse just cost the League in public’s opinion.

Watching the live
news, Joseph was beaming with excitement. What had just transpired
was his doing. It was his genius that hired idiots to perpetrate
G.U.A.R.D agents and attack Jason Shaw. All of which was done without
any link to him.

“Lori, get in
here!” Joseph said over the intercom. He was so pleased with
himself that he called in his secretary to bask in his glory with
him. Lori entered the office and stood there with her eyebrow raised.
She congratulated him even though she had no idea what for. She had
learned to pretty much stroke the man's ego whenever he seemed to
want it. It kept him happy and it kept her employed.