Behind me was a wall, to the right of me a long hallway.
Standing in the center of the horseshoe stood Solar Wind glancing between the four large monitors, which was Stacey’s mom and looked just like her. She appeared just four or five years older in appearance, whatever her true age was I had no clue. She looked fantastic in a tight pink and white suit that showed plenty of skin, but completely covered all her private areas. It was basically a skintight crop top and short shorts, with calf-high white boots. I guess since she had a strong shield, she didn’t need a full coverage suit.
Honestly, it was the way I wanted to go with it, but just the idea of dressing like that in public to uphold the law sent a thrill down my spine and made me incredibly self-conscious at the same time. I wasn’t quite used to my new curves, or the response in others it drew, but on the other hand it was a whole lot more coverage than a bikini would be.
Next to her was her patrolling partner Champion, who wore a silver suit with gold accents on his chest, arms, and legs. He was a strong brawler and a speedster, with flight, speed, strength, and toughness. He had short black hair and dark brown eyes, with lightly tanned skin, and his skintight suit showed a multitude of hard muscles.
It was everything I’d been working for. To stand in that building and be part of the city’s hero team. It was also a little nerve wracking. I was ready, but I didn’t feel ready.
Solar Wind turned and nodded at me. Her face looked tired and very intense as she looked me over as I walked over to them. As far as I knew, she was in charge of the place, and she was obviously taking all the deaths from the bombing pretty hard. At the same time, she was clearly getting things done anyway, which is what superheroes did.
She said, “Welcome to the team.”
I smiled, “It’s good to be here, thanks.”
Champion said, “The others you were in class with are already checked in. I’ll give you a quick tour of the facility such as it is at the moment. I’ll show you your quarters first so you can dump that bag.”
His voice was gravelly and gentle. I imagined he was tired too, running as many double shifts as Solar Wind was.
Solar Wind said, “I have to stay here, since one of us needs to be in the control room at all times, even with Harmony on overwatch. When we’re in headquarters, feel free to call us Sally and George,” she frowned, and then added, “You look familiar for some reason.”
I froze for a second, of all the people that could recognize I was my mother’s daughter, it’d be a disaster if Solar Wind did. It would blow my mom’s cover, and it’d make things… difficult for her. I felt stupid, because I hadn’t even considered that idea. I was just so used to people being clueless and not making the connection. I looked remarkably like Death’s Mistress after all. I imagined that comparison would only be more obvious in a couple of years, when I shook off the lingering blush of youth.
Well, nothing to be done about it now. I wasn’t going to quit, and if I did that would just make her gnaw at it like a dog with a bone anyway.
She shook her head, “Sorry, it’s been long days lately, and I’ve been staring at these screens for too long. We’ll go over the training schedule after your tour, when you’re all back up here, which will include sitting overwatch in this room.”
I nodded, “Looking forward to it.”
Champion said, “Let’s get it done,” but in a friendly tone, not a rushing one.
I followed him down the hallway, for about ten feet, then we entered the stairwell which was the first door off the command center. The stairwell was just a normal cement shaft with flights of stairs.
He said, “Stairs are all we have right now. The elevators were lost with the building above. There are only three sub-floors fully intact. We were just on sublevel four which is the operations floor, three and above is blocked off. Three had our training and workout rooms, so training you may be a challenge, but we’ll figure it out. If nothing else, liberty has offered us use of theirs until we’re back up and running here.
“Five is the emergency shelter, and six is our containment area for the collars we bring in. Level six is off limits to you, so don’t try to go down there, just like patrolling you need to be eighteen before you can help there.”
He looked over at me sternly, and I smiled, “Got it.”
He snorted, “Trying to charm me?”
I laughed, “Maybe? Is it working?”
He sighed and shook his head in mock disapproval. I decided then I was going to get along with him just fine.
I shook mine back, “A little nervous is all. This has been my ambition for a long time, I’m not going to screw it up to get a look at criminals. Random smiles might also be in the offing.”
He grunted, “Got it, first day jitters.”
He opened the door to floor five, which was a thin hallway. He took me to the third door on the right, and he waved at it.
“Your watch is your key, and the locator in it will unlock the door when your close to it. This place is set up similar to a college dorm. This hallway is all small bedrooms. It’ll be a little cramped, but the new building should go up quickly once they get all the debris cleared out.”
The door clicked as I moved toward it, and I turned the handle and pushed inside. It was about the size of a dorm room, with a small closet, dresser, and twin sized bed. I dropped my last-minute backpack on the floor, near my luggage that’d been teleported in. I could unpack it all later.
He guided me down the long hallway, about halfway down were the bathrooms and showers, boys on one side girls on the other. I was suddenly glad I’d packed that long and thick bathrobe for when I took showers. He waited outside while I went in to look around. It had shower stalls around a wall where the normal bathroom stalls were, across from sinks. It was a light pink tile, large on the walls, and a light blue small tile on the floor.
We continued down the hall which opened up into a large living room, similar to a common room in a college dorm. He hadn’t been kidding about the setup. The only exception was the large kitchen which was on the other side of the room.
What was a bit depressing was I hadn’t seen one other person yet. Of the four remaining teams, one was out on patrol, one was asleep in their rooms, and the third was out of town, if I remembered the status monitors in the command center right. Of course, the fourth was Solar Wind and Champion, who were obviously on duty in the command center.
He said, “Communal kitchen, clean up after yourself. We have bots that’ll sweep and mop the floors, as well as scrub out the sink and wipe down the counters, but you need to rinse your plates and glasses and get them in the dishwasher.”
I just nodded, the quip on my lips dying there.
He guided me back into the common room, which had another stairwell being the other side of the building. We went back up to the fourth sublevel, which opened out into that long hallway, and made a right into a rather large room, which was just above the kitchen. The room was very large, with all sorts of electronics and machines in it that I didn’t recognize.
There was a young and lithe black haired and gray eyed woman in the room, who looked over and smiled at us. She had on a pair of black yoga pants, a red buttoned blouse, and a white lab coat.
She said, “This must be Wynn.”
George nodded, and waved to her as he looked at me, “This is Silvia. She’s our mad scientist. She’ll get you set up with a super suit,” and he walked over to a lab table and sat down on a stool. I guessed she’d be doing that now, and my brain went a little haywire as I second guessed my choices.
Silvia waved toward the back of the room, and I followed. She led me to what looked like a scanner like you’d see in an airport. Three sides, with two open ends.
“Get in, and hold your arms out to your sides, I need to get your measurements.”
I stepped in and held my arms out.
She asked, “Any special suit requirements?”
I shook my head, “I don’t think so, my
shield will protect me from everything. Anything powerful enough to break it would also destroy any suit.”
She nodded, “That’s what I thought, but I thought I’d ask. The standard suit is quite durable on its own. Your mask will include holographic systems for a HUD and secondary backup systems in case your watch is somehow destroyed. Okay, that will do it.”
I dropped my arms and walked out.
She smiled, “It’s rare to get three women in one go, we’re a rare breed. Solar Wind and myself were the only ones on the team before you three got here.”
I got what she didn’t say, they were the only two left, after the bombing.
“It’s good to be here.”
She smiled, “It’ll all make sense soon enough. The training covers all the tech and toys available to you, though much of it is aimed at surveillance and monitoring.”
She led me over to a touchscreen system on a pedestal, in front of a blank spot on the floor with a holographic projector hanging from the high ceiling. She pressed a few buttons, and a hologram of me came up in complete detail in a skintight suit, it was detailed enough to make me blush.
I looked good.
She said, “What were you looking for?”
I replied, “White, with gold accents that would match my hair. My power glows a golden quite a few shades lighter than that. I also want something like Solar Wind is wearing.”
She nodded, and I loved her for ignoring the self-consciousness in my voice. I really needed to get over that. There was nothing wrong with wanting to look good, that didn’t mean I’d be giving up my body anytime soon.
So, relax, mom.
There were other reasons for the sexy suits as well, besides looking hot I mean. It made us stand out, and a superheroine needed instant credibility and authority with bystanders. The skintight part was important because we didn’t want to lose our suits in the middle of a fight. It was both sexy and practical, and I have to admit there was a little naughty thrill in me at the idea of men looking but not being able to touch.
She hit some more buttons on the touchscreen, and a basic skintight half top and shorts appeared. I wouldn’t call it conservative, but it wasn’t anything crazy, and would be common on any woman working out in a gym, or even jogging the public sidewalk.
Then she hit more buttons, and the bottoms became a lot skimpier like a bikini, and the top wasn’t much more than a very strategically placed thin strap across my chest showing just about everything but nipple.
She giggled at my furious blush, “Those were the two extremes, full skintight coverage without cleavage, and this.”
“Umm, a little cleavage is fine, but tasteful, not… that.”
She grinned, and hit more buttons, and something closer to the first version came up, but instead of completely covered it showed about a quarter of my C cup cleavage, but it had total coverage on the bottom and sides. It left my stomach bare, and the straps were about an inch thick and went over the edges of my shoulders, leaving the inner shoulder and neck bare. The shorts covered everything, but almost all of my legs were on display, and when she spun the hologram I saw it covered my ass cheeks fully, but only just. She also had me in gold trimmed knee high bright white boots with four-inch heels.
There were small gold accents and trim on the suit, but the center accent on the chest was a golden glowing shield.
I said, “A little darker on the gold accents, make the boots calf high, and two-inch heels are good enough.”
How the hell would anyone fight in four-inch heels?
She smirked, and then made those changes.
I nodded, “Perfect.”
It looked better than I thought it would. The mask would cover my cheekbones, but that was about it. It was white with gold around the outside. I couldn’t wait to try it on, the only question was if I’d be brave enough to go into public with it on.
The guilt was back, as I started to have fun. I was mostly over the horror of it, but the death of so many heroes paving my way into this place felt like too big a price. Survivor’s guilt, is what they called that, but understanding the psychology of it didn’t do me a damned bit of good. As a result, my emotions were all over the place. Happy to be there, excited, nervous, guilty, and it was all a little overwhelming. Not to mention the anger from the architect of such horrors escaping justice.
I did my best to project aplomb, but I wasn’t sure if I was pulling it off.
She pressed some more buttons, and the hologram winked out.
“It’ll be ready in a few hours.”
I replied, “Can I see what my friends picked?”
She shook her head, “You’ll see in a few hours, when they’re wearing them.”
I hid my disappointment and just thanked her, and then followed George out of the room.
It’d been worth a shot, and I’d wanted to see how Janna’s suit had worked out.
Chapter Ten
The rest of the operations level was the server room where Harmony resided, several stock rooms of toys including replacement watches, the bruisers went through them fast. There were also suppression cuffs, mini-drones the size of a cell phone, and micro-drones the size of tiny insects. There were several types of scan devices and visual aids to detect criminals with invisibility, which made me smirk, because none of them worked on my mom.
There was an evidence room where a lot of supervillain stuff was stored, a few small conference rooms, interrogation rooms, and lastly a large conference room that looked like a makeshift classroom.
That last is where I was led after the tour, and we walked in on Brad, Stacey, and Janna chatting. I plopped into the chair next to Janna with a smile on my face, while George moved to the front of the room.
“Alright, you should be all set tonight. You can wear your suits if you wish, even outside, but you won’t be able to patrol or respond to emergencies outside of immediate self-defense rules until we complete your initial training and onboarding process.
“Over the next two weeks, you’ll learn how to operate all our tech, get to know the rest of us, and train in whole group and patrol partner tactics. You’ll also learn how to work with Harmony in the command center to support those on patrol. Generally, we have command center duty once a week, and you’ll be on patrol the other four days, with two days off. Given even with your additions, we’ll only be at third of our normal staff, ten teams instead of twenty-four, more will be asked of you until we can backfill. Which realistically could take over a year, but we’re hoping sooner. Several cities were hit, eleven in total, but there are a whole lot of cities that weren’t. We’re hoping a single team from multiple cities will be willing to relocate, even if temporarily, but so far that hasn’t happened.
“We’re not sure who you’ll be partnered with yet. That will be determined at the end of the two weeks based on the synergies of your abilities and how well you work together with the others. Any questions so far?”
Stacey said, “Every year you guys have recruited a team or two from the available training pool, picking the best. Are there other qualified people that were passed over in the past that could be recruited?”
He frowned, “I’ll look into it, and it’s a good idea, but only if they’re qualified and still willing to be a hero. We’ll be hard pressed for a while, but it’s what we do. Anyone else?”
I said, “A recent high school graduate that qualifies may be more willing to move to a new city than an older superhero team already embedded in a life in another city. An extension of Stacey’s idea, maybe we can recruit qualified people from other Liberty training centers in other cities.”
He nodded, “I’d be surprised if Harmony wasn’t already looking into both those possibilities.”
A no-nonsense female voice said, “I am.”
He smirked.
“Okay, let’s move on. Early morning you’ll be tackling an obstacle course of sorts at a Liberty location, who are generously helping out the eleven cities that lost most of their headqu
arters. Then we’ll work some sims. We’re going to try to have all of you working with everyone from all four teams at least once, over the next two weeks, if we can swing it. Your opposites I mean, one energy and one bruiser on each partnered team, so you’ll only need to pair with your six opposites.
“After the workout and breakfast, we’ll train you on our devices and aids for the morning. You’ll also learn how to work everything in the command center. More importantly, we’ll run simulations so that you learn how to use that equipment to support those in the field. The afternoons will be more partner training but in scenarios instead of an obstacle course, and lastly group training where more than one partnership is on site for a greater threat. Lastly, meditation classes where you learn to control your minds and emotions, we can’t afford to fall apart when we’re out there, or people die. Your evenings are your own, and you can leave and do what you wish, but you must keep the watch on at all times, even in your sleep and when in the shower. Superheroes are always on call, even on vacation.”
Thad smirked, “We get those?”
George snickered, “Yes, but probably not for a while. We need everyone on deck right now. We’re lucky if we get one day off a week at this point, but we’re the fortunate ones, never forget that. Any questions about the next two weeks?”
We shook our heads.
George grunted, “Good. Your suits should be ready by lunchtime, so we’ll jump right in with the usual training at that time. In fact, all we’re skipping today is the pre-breakfast obstacle course workout, we’ll start on tech training right now.”
Might as well jump in, with both feet. I sat up straighter, and paid attention.
The next two weeks were in a word, grueling. The training was extremely hard, but also rewarding when we got things right. I was confident but not arrogant, and I tried hard to learn all they could teach me, despite half the stuff had already been taught to me by my mother and father. Not to mention Uncle Germaine. Especially the mental stuff, the exercises and meditations to keep calm, focused, and aware when everything was going to crap around you.
Lady Aegis: Origins of Supers: Book Two Page 10
