New Age of Heroes 1: The League of Protectors - Dawn of a New Age (7 page)

G.U.A.R.D, however
was. The dean immediately expressed his disapproval of having a Post
Human locked up in his prison. The attempted escape was evidence that
his facility was not equipped to handle these people. Commander
Sullivan sent a detailed report to the President and recommended a
new prison be constructed specifically for Post Humans.

The President met
with Commander Sullivan, Mr. Connors, Joseph Stockton and David Shaw
the President of Shaw Enterprises and father of Jason Shaw to brain
storm. With the extensive knowledge Mr. Connors had in all things
Post Human related and the technological genius of Shaw Enterprises
and Stockton Incorporated, the five men were able to construct a
prison capable of holding these criminals captive.

Mr. Shaw created a
drug that was able to suppress Post Humans abilities temporarily.

His formula was
then used by Shaw Enterprises to create an inhibitor field that was
massive enough to suppress any Post Human inside the facility. With
the successful creation of the inhibitor drug, the President ordered
the creation of the first Post Human prison.

There was a bidding
war between Shaw Enterprises and Stockton Incorporated. In the end,
Stockton Incorporated won out. There were whispers that the
government didn't want Shaw Enterprises working on the prison because
of Jason Shaw's association with Post Humans. Those rumors were never
confirmed though. As insurance in case the inhibitor field
malfunctioned, the jail was built on an island.

On March 10, 2009
the jail was completed and ever since that day, Post Humans that
abuse their abilities in a criminal way were sent there. For three
years the prison on Stone Rock Island successfully contained its
prisoners, but as the saying goes… “Good things never
last.”

The day was March
13 almost exactly three years after the jail was built. It started
out just like any other day. Like clockwork the G.U.A.R.D agents
worked their shifts while the field agents went on their missions.
The prisoners as always berated the agents, threatening to kill them
and their families when they escaped. Their words didn’t bother
the agents though; G.U.A.R.D was filled with professionals, the best
of the best. All of them had special opts training and other training
techniques that were non discussable. In addition to that training
they also were trained in dealing with Post Humans.

Agent Mallory and
Agent Malone stood by the front gate of the facility awaiting Agent
Hardine’s field team’s arrival. A helicopter could be
heard in the distance alerting the two agents of Agent Hardine’s
arrival. The two men stood emotionless as the helicopter descended on
the island and came to a complete stop.

Agent Hardine and
his men exited the helicopter with a prisoner shackled and
blindfolded. Agent Hardine removed the blindfold and pushed the
prisoner forward. The prisoner looked young; he had to be about
college age, 21 at the oldest.

Agent Malone walked
over to Agent Hardine and the young prisoner to check him out. It was
clear from Agent Malone’s tone that he thought very little of
the shackled criminal. Agent Hardine pushed the prisoner forward
towards Agent Malone.

“What’s
your name kid?” Agent Malone asked.

The prisoner did
not respond. He had no intentions on cooperating with any of the
G.U.A.R.D agents. Agent Malone wasn’t the least bit surprised
that the prisoner did not respond. All the prisoners acted tough when
they first arrived. As weird as it sounds, Agent Malone would’ve
thought less of the prisoner had he responded right away.

“Are you
deaf? Are you unable to speak? I asked you a question… What’s
your name?”

The prisoner stared
at Agent Malone with glaring eyes. The agent waited, but again the
prisoner did not respond.

“It looks
like this young man needs a lesson in respect. You know anything
about respect punk? You know anything about right or wrong?”

Not for one second
did Agent Malone believe that the prisoner would engage him in
conversation, but he didn’t care. Every Agent had their own
style, their own personality that they displayed when in the presence
of these criminals. Agent Malone’s style was that of an
instigator. He loved riling the convicts up. It was his source of
entertainment. The young prisoner gritted his teeth and contemplated
engaging the agent in conversation, but he thought better of it.
Satisfied for the moment, Agent Malone turned his attention back to
Agent Hardine.

“So what’s
the story on this guy? What’s he capable of?” Agent
Malone asked.

Agent Hardine
looked through a list of files on his tablet. He kept swiping at it
until he found the information he was looking for. “His name is
Erik Masters. 19 years old out of Bardstown, Kentucky. It says here
that he has the ability to manipulate fire. We caught him trying to
flee the scene after burning half his town down.”

“Is that
right? You like to play with fire huh? Did you care at all that there
were people inside those homes you destroyed? Did you care that there
were lives you ruined simply because you’re a Post Human
degenerate?”

Agent Malone was
right up in Erik’s face. He was determined to make Erik his
personal project. If things went his way, he’d have Erik
mentally broken within a week. It’s so much easier to deal with
the Post Humans once they've been broken and Agent Malone was quite
skilled in breaking the spirits of most people.

He waited for some
sort of reaction from the young man, but he didn’t get one.
Conceding that he would get nowhere with Erik that day, he ordered
another agent to take the prisoner for processing. The agent ran over
and grabbed Erik by the arm. Agent Hardine followed behind. Even
though Erik was injected with the inhibitor drug, he didn’t
want to take any chances.

“Hope you
don’t have any plans because you are going to be here a really
long time you freak!” Agent Malone shouted as the agents took
Erik Masters away.

No one noticed the
sly smile Erik displayed. It was something that Agent Malone said
that he found quite funny. Erik knew something that Agent Malone
didn’t. He knew something that made Agent Malone sound like an
idiot, but that would have to wait. It wasn’t time, not yet.

There was another
checkpoint Agent Hardine had to clear before being admitted to the
processing station. It might’ve seemed a bit much, but dealing
with the sort of things they were dealing with, it was absolutely
necessary. The gate opened and the prisoner was greeted by several
guards, each pointing some sort of high tech weapon at him. Each
guard looked rather fit. Erik noticed the men staring at him. They
looked at Erik as if he was scum.

What Erik noticed
more than anything else was the confidence the men displayed. Every
one of them presented themselves like they knew what was going on.
Erik chuckled slightly. The ignorance of these men would be their
undoing.

Agent Hardine
walked over to Agent Mallory and introduced him to their newest
prisoner. He gave the young criminal a slight glance and then ushered
him through the gate.

There was a team of
security guards surrounding the gate as Erik was brought in. Even
though he was shackled and his abilities were being suppressed, it
was standard protocol.

Agent Mallory gave
another glance towards Erik. What he found the most disturbing about
Erik was Erik’s disconnect. Erik didn’t seem remorseful
at all. He didn’t seem nervous or scared or anything really.
His face looked completely blank. Agent Mallory motioned for the
security guards to stand down. The guards followed instructions
immediately and returned to their post. Agent Mallory and Agent
Hardine escorted the prisoner to the processing station.

There was a man
standing by the station that did a thorough examination of Erik. They
didn’t want to take any chances that the young man was
concealing anything that would lead to his escape. While the two
agents waited, Agent Mallory skimmed over Erik’s file.

“So you're a
pyro freak?” he suddenly said. As Erik did with Agent Malone,
he ignored the question, but this time gave a slight smile.

“He’s
all clear,” The man doing the examination announced.

Agent Mallory
nodded. He motioned to two of the guards standing nearby. They rushed
over to Agent Mallory and grabbed Erik roughly by the arms. The two
guards escorted Erik Masters to his cell. Agent Hardine and Agent
Mallory watched from outside as Erik was led away.

Agent Hardine
looked towards his watch checking to see what time it was. Agent
Mallory assumed there was another mission Agent Hardine had to attend
to.

From the distance,
another helicopter could be heard making its approach. Agent Mallory
raised his eyebrow and then checked his phone for messages.

“I don’t
recall any other prisoners being scheduled to arrive,” he said
irritated.

He looked at the
helicopter suspiciously. It didn’t look like a helicopter he
was used to seeing. It wasn’t the sort of helicopters G.U.A.R.D
used for transportation. This particular helicopter looked civilian.

“I don't have
anyone scheduled to come in,” Agent Mallory said.

Agent Hardine
pulled out his binoculars and looked in the direction of the
helicopter. “It's not a G.U.A.R.D chopper. That chopper belongs
to Jason Shaw.”

Agent Mallory and
Agent Hardine gave each other a look and then watched as the
helicopter descended to the ground.

7

Mandatory
Inspection

Agent Hardine
walked over to greet Jason Shaw and Garrett Blake. The two League
members standing side by side made their physical differences quite
noticeable. Regardless of their association with The League of
Protectors, the two men were considered vital to the success of Shaw
Enterprises. Jason served as the vice president of the company and
was always coming up with new technology. Garrett specialized in
electronics and security. He was responsible for making sure every
system was completely secure. He was also responsible for fixing any
piece of technology that malfunctioned.

As evident by their
arrival, the League still had an image problem to deal with. No
matter how many lives they saved; no matter how much good they did,
there was always a large group that despised them. Regardless of
reluctance, the animosity and the hostility shown towards them, The
League of Protectors continued to protect as best they could.

This was only the
third time Agent Hardine and Jason Shaw ran into each other. The most
recent being at the beach when Olden Mars was captured. The first
meeting however was back when both men served in the military. Both
of them were Marines, but they were in different units. By the time
Jason finished basic training and joined his unit, Agent Hardine was
already promoted to special opts.

Agent Hardine shook
the two men’s hands and escorted them inside the facility.

“Good to see
you again Mr. Shaw.”

Both Jason and
Garrett seemed a bit surprised by the kind words. Usually G.U.A.R.D
agents showed them the same amount of distrust that the public did.

“Although
your assistance the other day wasn't necessary, what you did for us
certainly saved many lives.”

Agent Hardine's
attitude towards Jason was much different than their previous
meeting. Jason smiled humbly at the compliment.

“I hear
G.U.A.R.D is interested in some of the latest weapons technology we
have available,” Garrett said trying to be a part of the
conversation.

Shaw Enterprises
was currently ranked number one in defense, but second in weapons.
Stockton Incorporated currently held the top spot for weapons. Shaw
Enterprises was hoping that their latest batch of weapons would put
them ahead of the competition. Jason was certain that Garrett's
assistance in the development process would prove to be the deciding
factor.

Shaw Enterprises,
specifically, David Shaw, Jason's father, was initially leery of
Garrett working for the company. Unlike Jason, Garrett did not come
from wealth. While Jason made his first million dollars by signing a
contract, Garrett made his by stealing that contract.

Known as the best
in his field, Garrett lived the life of a professional hacker. He was
so good that he got to the point that he would hack confidential
government files just for fun. He was eventually caught and faced
many years in jail for his crimes. Luckily for him, someone high up
on the chain saw fit to use Garrett's talents. Instead of serving
more prison time, he was contracted, to test the safety of government
files.

The government’s
top tech members would create non vital programs and code it with
their best security defenses possible. His job was to try and bypass
the security defenses and download it to another server without
giving away his location. For each task he was assigned with, he
passed with ease.

He was then asked
to create security measures that would be impossible for anyone else
to hack. After successfully making the government’s security
systems virtually impossible to break, his services were no longer
required. For awhile he lived his life without hacking, but the urge
to hack was too strong.

One day while
having the TV on, he happened to catch news of Jason Shaw. He
listened as the reporter talked about Jason’s return home and
joining his father’s company. He watched as cameras showed
footage of Jason signing the contract on his first big sell. It made
him sick. For fun, Garrett decided to hack Jason’s account and
steal just the money Jason made from his first big sell. He hacked
the account with ease and celebrated his successful conquer. His
celebration was short lived as Jason tracked him down and confronted
him.