Chapter 4, Refurbishment

CHAPTER 4

 

 

After a week of my base being under construction, I got a call from Jackson telling me to head over thee. I went up the steps where he greeted me.

“Officer Franco is stable, he’d have died if you didn’t fly him there. He’s a tough son of a b***h, don’t worry about him. Come on, I have something to show you.”

We went up the stairs and through the door to see a newly installed elevator. I thought that was a fast renovation for a week. We went up to the top of the tower. The round window was now printed with a black and red stained-glass punk star, surrounded by monitors of the area. It was impressive. The walls were panelled with steel and the floor was a white marble.

Jackson chuckled. “That’s not all.” He shook his head in a gesture to follow him, he took me back into the elevator and turned a key. The elevator led below ground to a massive sprawling bunker. Clearly, he’d been working on this for more than the past week.

I chuckled. “So that explains the humming.”

“You haven’t even seen the best of it yet, kid”

Neon signs illuminated the way to dorms, briefing rooms, armouries, tactical rooms, vehicle bays, training rooms, gyms, lounges, everything. It was a fully fleshed out bunker.

“When did you win the lottery?” I asked.

“Oh, when you saved the world from Kazar, the Government approved you a s**t tonne of funding that went to my bank account, so I thought I’d surprise you.”

“I’d have just spent it on ice cream and Netflix, but whatever floats your boat” I joked. I felt so grateful. I was impressed he managed to keep this on the down low, but it did explain the mass amount of power cuts the town had been having, which reminded me.

“So, what powers this place?”

“Ahah! The best bit!” He led me through to another room. There was a strange glowing thing hovering there, spinning. “What the f**k is that thing?”

Okay, I was a little scared by it, I’m not going to lie.

“An inter-dimensional rift channelling power from an alternative universe where Earth is ridden by lightning storms.”

I didn’t know what was more confusing, how there were alternative universes, that he knew about them or that I had a portal to one ten yards from my secondary bedroom. Turns out the Chinese government discovered this by accident and felt it better under my care.

I took off my mask and looked at him.

“I don’t know what to say.”

He laughed. “You like it?”

I joined him in laughing.

“Let me train your recruits. We have a sparring room fit for the heaviest of hitters, gyms for the fastest of speedsters and simulations complicated enough for the smartest of thinkers. I’ll teach them your ways.”

How could I refuse? “Of course. How many are there?” I asked him, desperate to know.

“Fifty-seven. I’m planning on splitting them into 8 squads of six and one of seven. They’ll each have the perfect matchup according to your new AI.”

“My new what-now?” I was jumping with excitement.

“Ah s**t, spoilers. Ulysses! Meet your new boss!”

A nearby screen lit up with a strange round robotic-styled eyeball on it. “Hello. I am Ulysses. I’m a highly advanced artificial intelligence with the ability to learn and adapt to new situations.”

“That is- I’m- Yes!” I was starting to nerd out a bit. I hugged Jackson perhaps a little too violently.

He coughed, “That cheer you up, kid?”

“Shut up. Thank you.”

“Heh, no problem. Just remember me when you win a Nobel Peace Prize?”

I decided to go to the town centre, it was more of a public morale thing. I approached the area to see them surrounding the statue of Osiris. It’d been defaced. Big red spray paint. “You shoulda stayed DEAD b***h!” it read. A guy behind me asked what I was going to do about her, suddenly I was swarmed by people asking me my plans, how I felt, what was happening, everything. I burst six feet into the air and turned to the statue. I blasted enough energy to power my new bunker ten times over for the next century and as it turned to dust, I stood upon it’s podium. I looked over the masses, who were now silent and stunned by what I’d done.

“The thing in Raine’s body isn’t her. Osiris is dead and there’s no changing that. I hate that fact. This new creature in the body of the girl I loved is hellbent on destroying me. I won’t let that happen.”

I could see people were filming me on their phones. I knew this would be remembered.

“The times are dark, and personally, it is difficult trying to face her after everything we’ve been through, but I’m still managing to do it, along with this I’m forming a new team. The Protector Community fell, but now we have tens of high-skilled, powerful future heroes in training. In the fall of Osiris, we have found a new light because hope is what keeps this world going. Raine taught us all a lesson when she was alive. The most valuable one any hero has ever taught us. She showed us that no matter how s**t life is, there’s always going to be a reason to continue on and a way to make it better.”

I looked at their faces, most of them were beginning to tear up. An old woman started clapping, followed by a young boy, then another girl. Suddenly the entire town square was cheering, someone was waving a flag �" I don’t know where they got it, but they had one.

“Aries! Aries! Aries-“ They were chanting my name over and over.

I started to get a little overwhelmed so I flew off again, being treated like a God seems cool on paper but as soon as someone throws a bra at you and asks you to sign it, it gets a little weird.

I flew to a nearby block of flats and sat on the roof, I opened a bag of crisps and looked at the towns dotting the fields nearby. Pretty much everyone there knew of me, not the real Ray Andrews me, but Aries. It felt strange, a hundred thousand names I didn’t know were aware of a decent chunk of my life. I don’t know, it just seemed mental. I dropped off the building and hovered to the ground to put the empty packet in the bin. As I was about to fly off, someone stopped me.

“Aries? Is it really you?” It was a young boy, dressed up like me.

“Whoa, why have I been cloned?” I joked, and crouched over to be about eye level with him.

“I saw you talking about Osiris. Are you really making a new team?”

Damn, it spread that fast.

“Yeah, sure am, buddy. It’s going to be bigger and better.”

“But what if one of them does what Osiris did?” I was speechless. This child’s innocence vanished as he showed his worry for me.

“Well, we’ll have to do what we’re doing with Osiris.” I needed to say something to reassure him things were going to be okay, even though I wasn’t entirely certain myself.

“Are you going to kill her?”

Boy, he was firing some heavy hitters.

“No. Real heroes don’t kill people. Sure, sometimes we hurt them, but it’s to protect others. I’m going to lock her up in a special prison for a long time.”

He looked at me and smiled.

“You’re the best. Can you sign my comic book?”

Comic book? Someone was writing about me and I wasn’t even getting any bloody royalties.

“Sure can, what’s your name?”

“Alex. Alex Jameson.”

He perked up with excitement as he handed me the comic and a Sharpie.

“Alex… Jameson. There you go.” I handed him his magazine and pen. “Remember to be your best self, okay?”

“I promise, Aries!” he shouted with excitement before skipping off.

Alex. That was my Dad’s name. He died eleven years ago, crashed his car avoiding a child on the road. Little AJ made me think about him a lot, and how if I had the powers I do now, I could’ve saved him instead of being some dumb and helpless 9-year-old.