New Age of Heroes 1: The League of Protectors - Dawn of a New Age (27 page)

25

Separate
Ways

Another two weeks
had passed since Noah's bloody confrontation with Kyle Stanton. Kyle
limped his way out of Noah's house leaving a bloody trail that
stopped at the end of an alley. He wondered why Seth Maddox wasn't
there to teleport Seth out. Were the two not working together? Was
Seth unaware of Kyle's attacks? These were thoughts that flooded
Noah's mind as he tried to prepare himself for his next encounter
with his past.

The attack on Noah
was just the first of a string of attacks on League members. Over
those two weeks, separately each member of the League of Protectors
found themselves combating some Post Human threat. While Noah's
encounter was certainly the bloodiest, each member had to rely on
their own training to fend off their attackers.

Fortunately for
Garrett, Jason was around the day someone tried to take him out.
Stephanie too found herself catching a bit of good luck. Mr. Connors
used an inhibitor dart to subdue her attacker. It became clear that
the League was under attack and had targets on their backs. Keeping a
closer eye on each other was mandatory. The group became more focused
with their training and began taking defensive precautions.

Until the threat
could be neutralized, Mr. Connors ordered the group to operate in
pairs. Garrett moved in with Jason, Stephanie moved in with Jessica
and Bianca moved in with Noah. Mr. Connors recognized the
inconvenience of the living situation, but he saw no alternative.
This was the best way he could think of to keep his team safe.

The bellowing
sounds of gunfire filled the practice room as target training for the
novice heroes commenced.

“No! No! No!
Stop right now!” Noah ordered, visibly upset. His eyes were
dead locked on Garrett Blake.

“What was
that?” Noah asked loudly. His voice echoing through the room as
he stormed towards Garrett.

Garrett wore a
confused look on his face. “What was what?” he asked
genuinely unsure as to what he had done to rile up the already
volatile man.

“Do you think
this is a movie? Are you some sort of Hollywood actor?” Noah
asked.

Garrett assumed
Noah’s questioning was rhetorical and so he declined answering
him. That did nothing but infuriate Noah more. Noah aggressively
placed his hands on Garrett’s shoulders and demanded an answer.
Jason Shaw zipped over and placed himself between Noah and the
defenseless Garrett.

“Take it easy
Noah!” Jason placed his hand on Noah’s chest to prevent
Noah from moving any closer. Noah stared down at the hand that was on
his chest. His eyes flicked up to catch Jason's eyes and he made it
clear that Jason needed to move his hand immediately. Jason, not one
to be intimidated met Noah's glare and kept his hand placed firmly on
Noah's chest.

Noah quickly
grabbed Jason's hand and twisted it sideways. With Jason's back now
facing Noah, Noah pushed him causing the man to stumble forward.
Jason's impeccable coordination allowed him to quickly regain his
balance. He sped over towards Noah and grabbed him by the shirt.
Jason lifted Noah three feet off the ground and held him still.
Shayne and Jackson quickly ran over to separate the two fuming men
while Jessica and Bianca watched from a distance.

“Put him down
Jason,” Shayne demanded calmly. Jason eyed Noah aggressively
before placing him back on the ground.

“Shouldn’t
we do something?” Bianca asked.

“Sometimes
you gotta just let the men work things out for themselves,”
Jessica replied having experienced the results of too many alpha
males in the room at the same time before. Bianca rolled her eyes.
She found the male testosterone in the room to be rather unattractive
and more importantly unproductive.

“What's going
on?” Shayne asked. Out of the men in the League, Shayne was
probably the most even tempered one of them all. He never seemed to
lose his cool and had a delightfully reserved and mature demeanor
about him.

Noah and Jason
continued their stare down, neither men wanted to break eye contact,
“Ask him!” Jason shouted, his eyes remained fiercely
locked on Noah.

“Well? What’s
the problem?”

Noah broke the
glaring stare he had on Jason and took a step back. He constantly had
to remind himself that things were different now. That he was part of
a team. He was part of an inexperienced group of heroes that needed
guidance.

Noah pointed to
Garrett with extreme disapproval over the way in which Garrett
handled the gun he was practicing with. Garrett had the gun cocked
sideways like some low class thug polluting the streets. His aim was
way off as was his balance. While the way in which Garrett Blake held
the gun irked Noah tremendously, that wasn’t what was really
bothering him. It was the fact that Garrett showed no interest in
improving his field skills.

“This isn’t
TV, this isn't some action movie. This right here is real. This is
the real deal. Real situations. Right now you look incredibly stupid
with your gun cocked to the side like that. You look like these
idiots I see every night trying to be down. They rather look good
missing their target than to do it the right way. When you're out
here with me, you do it the right way. Real shooters, professionals,
they don't cock their guns to the side. Do it the right way! Tell him
Jason!”

Jason took a deep
breath and spoke calmly to Garrett echoing Noah's words. He spoke in
a much calmer and respectful way. Noah began to storm off. He
couldn’t deal with what he felt was total incompetence and
ignorance on Garrett’s part.

Jessica, who was
still watching from the side elevated herself off the ground and flew
out the door after him. Jason had a perplexed look on his face as he
watched her leave off after Noah. He would never understand what she
saw in him. He couldn't comprehend why she made such an effort to be
around him and relate to him.

“What’s
that about?” Jason asked looking towards Shayne and Jackson.

“What’s
what about?” Jackson replied playing dumb. “Guess
opposites really do attract.” Jackson said grinning. He gave
his buddy a punch in the shoulder and then returned to training.

“Team, meet
me in the conference room immediately.” Mr. Connors voice
boomed over the loud speakers. Jason, Shayne, Jackson, Bianca and
Garrett stopped what they were doing and headed towards the meeting
room. It was the “immediately” part that made them move
with a hastened pace.

By the time they
arrived, Mr. Connors, Stephanie, Noah and Jessica were already
sitting down waiting patiently. Jason spotted Noah and Jessica
engaged in what seemed to be a rather friendly conversation. Jessica
looked towards Jason as he entered, but Jason quickly turned his head
so she wouldn’t see him staring.

“It looks
like we got ourselves a situation not too far from here,” Mr.
Connors said. He pulled up a map of the downtown Boston area and
placed a red dot on one of the streets.

“Stephanie
has detected a substantial power surge in this area here,” Mr.
Connors pointed to the red dotted spot on the map.

“Who are we
dealing with?” Jason asked.

Mr. Connors
minimized the Boston map visual and pulled up two files. One file was
on Erik Masters and the other on Seth Maddox.

“Erik Masters
and Seth Maddox are downtown and using their abilities. These two are
consider highly dangerous and are top priorities for G.U.A.R.D. Since
we are already in the area, Commander Sullivan has asked us to
apprehend the two individuals and bring them to G.U.A.R.D's custody.”

Mr. Connors used
the touch enable screen to enlarge the files on the two men. In the
files it indicated a detailed report on both men’s strengths
and weaknesses. He stressed the fact that Seth was able to absorb any
energy directed towards him. “As you can see, both men are high
level Post Humans whose apprehension must be a priority. Erik Masters
played a major role in the escape of the prisoners on the island. His
capture could give us clues on who’s behind these organized
attacks.”

The meeting ended
with Jason Shaw assigning each field member their role in the
confrontation. He knew the importance of being prepared and having a
well thought out plan. The group was on their way to the Star Foxx
Jet, the latest invention courtesy of Shaw Enterprises when Stephanie
recalled them all back to the room.

“Stephanie,
what is it?” Jason asked. He seemed a bit impatient. He knew
all too well what capturing Seth Maddox and Erik Masters could do.
Bringing them in would be their biggest victory to date.

“I’m
detecting another power surge in Atlanta.”

Jason didn’t
understand why they were being called in for that bit of info.“Why
are you telling us that? Let G.U.A.R.D handle that situation.”

Mr. Connors walked
back into the room and pulled up Joe Dorgan’s file on the big
screen. “G.U.A.R.D. can’t handle this situation. We are
the only ones capable of dealing with this.”

Jason looked at the
screen with an agitated face. “How do you want to handle this
Mr. Connors?” Everyone waited anxiously to see what Mr. Connors
had in mind.

“We’re
going to have to split the team up and deal with both situations,”
Mr. Connors replied.

Chatter amongst the
group broke out. Noah immediately voiced his objections to the plan.
“It seems very likely that this could be a trap.” Noah's
eyes focused on the map in the corner of the screen indicating the
two locations of power surges.

Jason walked closer
to the map and studied it. “I agree I highly doubt this is a
coincidence.”

Mr. Connors looked
at the League and sighed. He knew far too well that the chances of
this being a coincidence were unlikely. But what choice did he have?
This was the whole purpose of the League, to deal with the situations
others couldn’t. Even though the League was still very
inexperienced, he had confidence that they would get the job done.

“So what are
the teams Jason?” Bianca asked nervously. She had no desire at
all to face Joe again.

“You all deal
with Erik Masters and Seth Maddox. I’ll deal with Dorgan,”
Jason said. The group seemed a bit surprised that Jason wanted to
face Joe Dorgan alone considering all the damage the man could do.

Mr. Connors
immediately overruled him. “While I understand your reasons for
wanting to battle Joe alone, I must object. There is strength in
numbers and I will not have any of you guys going at this alone.”

Noah stepped
forward and volunteered his services in aiding Jason in battle.
Seconds later Jessica volunteered as well.

“No way sis,
there is no way I’m letting you battle that monster. He’ll
kill you without a seconds thought!” Jackson said.

Jessica gave her
little brother a sympathetic look. “I have to do this Jackson.
I’ll be fine. You guys take the jet. Jason, Noah and I have our
own transportation,”Jessica looked at Noah and smiled.

The two of them
left the room and Jason followed closely behind with a very bothered
look. Shayne, Jackson, and Bianca would head downtown to deal with
Erik and Seth.

“May God be
with you all,” Mr. Connors said. He knew the group was about to
embark on another dangerous confrontation.

26

The
Woman in White

The Star Foxx Jet
zipped through the sky and made its way towards the downtown area.
Its bright red and black paint job was certainly an attention getter,
but that was nothing compared to the bells and whistles inside. The
engine was the fastest of its kind. Not even the military possessed
an engine as fast as the latest line of Star Foxx Jets. The Star Foxx
was equipped with a force field generator, top of the line missile
system and a cloaking device that kept the jet invisible with the
simple press of a button.

There was a growing
concern within the government over the jet. Many did not believe that
a group of Post Humans should have such technology at their disposal.
There were many that believed the assembling of jets and weapons was
just part of a large and elaborate plan. The fear mongers insisted
that the Star Foxx Jet was proof of Post Humans being a threat to
national security. They claimed it was just a matter of time before
The League used their jet to attack innocent civilians. The League
constantly had to defend themselves from the large mass of people
calling for their arrest.

Being a Post Human
in a world of humans certainly wasn’t easy, but the League did
their best to be model examples of the positive side of being a Post
Human. The jet touched down near the source of the power surge.
Shayne exited the jet first. He cautiously surveyed the nearby area
before giving Jackson and Bianca the ‘okay’ to come out.

“Protectors,
it’s so nice of you to join us!” Seth exclaimed in a
sarcastic manner. Shayne knew the man wasn't standing where he was a
second ago. He knew he didn't miss that.

“We were
beginning to fear you guys wouldn't show up,” Erik added.

Seth looked about
at the three Protectors and noticed that they were missing half of
their members. He immediately noticed the “heavy hitters”
hadn't accompanied them. He wore a slight smirk on his face making a
mental note that his leader was right once again. The leader was
confident the League would split into two groups the moment the alert
came on their radar.

“What do you
possibly hope to accomplish here today? Our skill level is greater
than the three of yours combined. You three don't have what it takes
to stop us,” Erik stated rather smugly.

Shayne looked
towards Jackson and smiled amusingly, Jackson smiled back. Jackson
reached inside of himself and unloaded a freeze blast that went
hurling towards Erik. Erik easily deflected the blast of ice with a
scorching ball of electric energy. He quickly returned a strong blast
of electricity back in Jackson’s direction. Shayne was there to
speed Jackson out of harm's way.