New Age of Heroes 1: The League of Protectors - Dawn of a New Age (31 page)

Neither men shared
their suspicions with the rest of the group, but the thought was
clearly on both of their minds. Jessica and Bianca sat on wooden
chairs in the back of the room. Both women were running scenario
after scenario as to what they were doing in this room.

Jackson and Shayne
were both on their cell phones. Jackson angrily cursed as he tried to
beat the last level of some racing game, while Shayne logged on to
check his school email. Jackson teased his best friend for being so
concerned about school. Here they were in some secret government
facility and Shayne's focus was on school.

As the group
continued waiting impatiently for some sort of explanation, Mr.
Connors, Commander Sullivan and his senior agents engaged in intense
discussions. On the table inside Commander Sullivan’s briefing
room were several laptops and dozens of manilla folders spread out.

Agent Hardine
walked in side by side with the Commander. He gave Garrett a
respectful wave as he passed by. The time on the island together was
enough time spent for Garrett to earn the agent's respect. Agent
Hardine skimmed through important documents while Commander Sullivan
and Mr. Connors studied files on the laptops.

“How did this
happen?” I assumed your headquarters was one of the most secure
places in the world.” Mr. Connors said.

Commander Sullivan
had a very disturbed look on his face. He had thought the same thing,
but unfortunately he was wrong. Commander Sullivan stood up and began
pacing around the room. He was filled with much anger and looked as
if he was ready to explode.

“We're going
to figure that out now. Rewind the footage just moments before the
alarm sounded and play it back,” Commander Sullivan ordered one
of his many agents. Agent Mercedes Hilton nodded and did as
commanded.

Agent Hilton, a
woman in her late twenties and of Hispanic descent played back the
tape and watched the footage along with everyone else in the group
intensely.

“There, stop
the footage right there!” Commander Sullivan shouted pointing
emphatically at the screen.

“Mercedes,
who is that?” Agent Hilton studied the figure on the screen
carefully.

“That’s
Agent Houston Sir,” she replied.

Immediately all
eyes fell on Agent Houston who was in the room with them sitting next
to Agent Hardine. No sooner than everyone focused their attention on
him, the G.U.A.R.D agents in the room pointed their weapons on him.

“What’s
going on here?” Agent Houston asked. The man was very confused
and feared for his life.

“Fast forward
to the end of the footage,” Commander Sullivan ordered Agent
Hilton. Agent Hilton did as instructed, but just as the footage was
about to reveal what happened next, the feed cut. “Convenient!”
Commander Sullivan exclaimed with a disapproving tone.

“What’s
going on? Why are you pointing weapons at me?” Agent Houston
asked.

“The footage
clearly shows you breaking into the vault. Do you deny that being
you?” Commander Sullivan asked. His voice was hard and
unsympathetic.

“Yeah I deny
it! I was on the other end of the facility getting in some target
practice,” Agent Houston said, he was trying his best not to
sound afraid.

“Open up the
camera feed in the target room and play it side by side with the feed
of Agent Houston approaching the vault,” Commander Sullivan
instructed.

Agent Hilton
pressed the corresponding command codes to do what Commander Sullivan
ordered. Everyone watched the footage side by side and was surprised
by the results. The camera feed indeed showed Agent Houston getting
in target practice and at the same time it showed Agent Houston
breaking into the vault.

“Any
tampering with the time stamps?” the Commander asked.

“No sir, I
checked the stamps several times. There was no tampering done,”
Agent Hilton replied.

“So then
how's this situation to be explained?”

“The footage
of Agent Houston being at two locations at once along with the trail
of dead bodies suggest one explanation,” Noah said.

“What's
that?” the Commander asked.

“The shape
shifter, Kyle Stanton,” Jason replied catching on to where Noah
was going.

Commander Sullivan
looked over to Noah for confirmation. Noah nodded agreeing with
Jason's assumption. Commander Sullivan was visibly upset. Agent
Houston however was extremely relieved that the video proved his
innocence. “So can you please put your weapons down?”
Agent Houston asked.

“All this
video proves is that there is or was a shape shifter inside the
facility. For all we know, you could be the shape shifter,” the
Commander stated. All eyes remained glued on Agent Houston.

“Commander
Sullivan, if the man standing before us is a shape shifter then there
will be some residue on him that Ms. Morgan will be able to detect,”
Mr. Connors said.

Commander Sullivan
thought about it and nodded his head. He called for Stephanie Morgan
to come in and get a reading on Agent Houston. Stephanie entered the
room and studied Agent Houston intensely. Sweat poured from the man’s
face, he was extremely nervous.

“How long is
this going to take Mr. Connors?” Commander Sullivan asked.

“As long as
it takes Commander,” Mr. Connors replied sharply.

Commander Sullivan
gave Mr. Connors a hard look. He wasn't used to someone speaking to
him with that tone. The rest of the agents had Agent Houston
surrounded. If he was indeed Kyle Stanton, they weren't about to let
him get away.

“This man is
not the shape shifter,” Stephanie said after minutes of intense
sensing.

“Ms. Morgan,
are you sure?” Agent Hardine asked.

She was. The room
waited for Commander Sullivan’s approval. He gave Agent Houston
a hard look, as if he was trying to read the man’s thoughts and
then nodded to the rest of the room. Agent Hardine slid his weapon
back into his holster and everyone else followed suit.

“If this is
Agent Houston, then where is the shape shifter?” Agent Hardine
asked.

“Gone,”
Agent Hilton replied. Everyone inside the room turned their heads to
look at Agent Hilton. “I’ve studied that footage again
and I caught something I didn’t see before.”

“What did you
see Agent Hilton?” Agent Hardine asked.

Agent Hilton
replayed the video of the shape shifter breaking into the vault. For
a split second before the feed cut, a shadow other than the shape
shifter could be seen. In addition, a bright light flashed right
before the feed cut.

“Seth
Maddox,” Jason said recognizing the blinding flash.

“Man that
dude is everywhere!” Jackson said.

“Remind me
again, what all can this Seth Maddox do?” Commander Sullivan
asked Mr. Connors.

“Seth Maddox
is capable of creating massive portals that transports a vast number
of people and objects to a desired location instantaneously. In
addition, Seth is capable of absorbing kinetic energy.”

Commander Sullivan
frowned and gave that intimidating look that so many of his agents
had grown accustom to seeing. Even at 6 feet tall, Mr. Connors looked
small standing next to Commander Sullivan. Commander Sullivan was in
a sleeveless shirt flaunting off his massive biceps. Biceps that were
actually quite a bit bigger than Jason Shaw's. Mr. Connors couldn’t
help but feel slightly inadequate physically standing next to him.

“I thought he
looked big on that hologram image the other day, this Commander
Sullivan guy is a beast!” Jackson whispered to Shayne.

“Yeah he is.”
Shayne whispered back.

“Ladies and
Gentlemen, we are dealing with an enemy who has outsmarted us every
step of the way. With every encounter our enemy learns more and more
about us and the tactics we use and yet we learn very little about
them. Just like the altercation you had with Joe Dorgan, every battle
seems to be nothing more than a test or a distraction,”
Commander Sullivan said to everyone in the room.

“A
distraction for what?” Jackson asked. Jason gave Jackson a
look, a similar look the commander gave any of his agents when they
spoke out of turn.

“Do not
interrupt me young man when I’m speaking,” Commander
Sullivan said in a stern voice. Jackson apologized. His face turned a
shade of red from the embarrassment he felt for being reprimanded
like he was a small child.

“A few months
ago one of our science teams discovered a material unlike any we have
ever seen before. After countless tests the team concluded that the
material was some sort of power source.”

Jason had a
surprised look on his face but kept his mouth closed. He knew
Commander Sullivan wasn’t telling the whole truth. The power
source the commander spoke of was discovered by a group known as the
F.C.U and it wasn't found on Earth!

The F.C.U stood for
First Contact Unit. This unit’s purpose was to explore the
galaxy and bring back resources and technology vital to Earth's
technological growth.

“Our science
team has named this power source Blueranium and we have seen some
interesting results.” Commander Sullivan paused and looked
towards Bianca who had her hand raised.

“Seriously?
You're raising your hand? This isn't school you know,” Jackson
said in a teasing voice.

“Its called
respect Jackson, maybe you should look it up,” Bianca replied.

“Stop
talking!” the Commander shouted, his anger directed at both
Jackson and Bianca. “We began experimenting a few weeks ago on
the Blueranium. We discovered that the material could enhance
humans.”

“Enhance?”
Mr. Connors echoed. The League looked around the room.

“What exactly
are you saying?” Noah asked with a bothered tone. He had a
feeling where the Commander was going with this but he wanted to be
sure.

“I’m
saying we discovered how to turn regular humans into Advanced
Humans,” Commander Sullivan revealed.

The members of the
League looked around each other. They all seemed genuinely surprised
by Commander Sullivan’s revelation. As if that wasn’t
enough of a bombshell, Commander Sullivan went on to tell them that
they experimented on Post Humans as well.

“Let me
guess, it made them stronger than they already were didn’t it?”
Noah asked.

Commander Sullivan
hesitated and then acknowledge Noah’s question as being
correct.

“So anyone
looking to raise an army would have great reason to get their hands
on this material,” Jason said somberly.

“Easy Noah,”
Bianca whispered as she noticed the deadly stare he had focused on
the Commander. Agent Hardine noticed the stare as well. Swiftly and
quietly his left hand slowly inched its way towards his sidearm.

“Why would
you create such a thing?” Shayne asked.

Commander Sullivan
sidestepped the question.

“In case the
time came that G.U.A.R.D needed to battle us. G.U.A.R.D has never
fully trusted us and in the event they needed to apprehend us, they
wanted to make sure they had their own team of enhanced agents to get
the job done,” Noah stated.

Bianca placed her
hand on his shoulder quietly pleading for him to remain calm. By now,
the rest of the agents had their eyes set on Noah, preparing
themselves in case he made a move.

Commander Sullivan
was not apologetic, “Government Units Against Radical Danger,
you know that is our name. Our job is to protect against any and all
threats. So far you have all proven yourself to be trustworthy, but
we have to take every precaution. So yes, we were working on a way to
defend this nation in case any or all of you ever became a threat.
Deal with it.”

“These
attacks as of late were all an elaborate plan to steal the Blueranium
that was locked away in that vault,” Shayne said getting the
focus back on the immediate problem. He was sure the League would
have a meeting on the Commander's revelation but now wasn't the time.

“What was
Kyle able to get his hands on?” Jason asked. Knowing all the
weapons and technology Shaw Enterprises had developed for G.U.A.R.D,
there were a number of dangerous items Kyle could've gotten a hold
of.

“Kyle Stanton
was able to acquire a hefty portion of the Blueranium. Luckily for
us, we didn’t have all of it in one location,” Commander
Sullivan said.

It didn’t
take a genius to figure out what was going on. Whoever Kyle was
working for was creating an army to combat the human command. Now
with the Blueranium at their disposal, they could make dangerous Post
Humans even more dangerous. Not to mention they could turn any Post
Human sympathizers into Advanced Humans. Things were starting to add
up, the plan was becoming much clearer now.

Commander Sullivan
heavily expressed the importance of retrieving the Blueranium before
whoever controlled it could tap into its power.

“What are you
doing?” Bianca whispered to Garrett after noticing he was
staring very intensely at his laptop.

“Research,”
Garret replied.

Bianca rolled her
eyes at Garrett's non descriptive reply, “What sort of
research?” she asked, basically forcing him to give her more of
a reply.

“I’m
doing research on the Blueranium. Now quiet down before you get me
caught.”

Curious as to what
was on his laptop, Bianca scooted over to get a closer look. Her
mouth dropped when she saw confidential files that Garrett shouldn’t
have access to on his screen.

“Seriously?
You’re hacking into their secure files?”

“I hacked in
rather easy; these files aren’t all that secure.”

Bianca demanded
that Garrett close the files before they got caught, but he ignored
her demands. Jason raised his eyebrow at the two. They were trying to
be inconspicuous, but they were failing miserably at all.