I put the book down and stretched as I got out of bed. It had been several hours since my talk with Mr. Clark, and it was now morning. I grabbed an apple from my desk and in under a second, I managed to eat the whole thing, and all the weariness disappeared, and I'm back at peak condition. I found out that eating food can energize me, so I don't need to sleep. Sure, I could sleep, but it was no longer required.
I didn't want to sleep after last night's events, I was too anxious. I looked at my clock, which said it was now in the afternoon. I frowned, recalling the memory of my mother calling me down for breakfast, but I ignored her, only grabbing breakfast after everybody else finished. I don't need to mind the reader to know that my actions are hurting them. Athena tried to play with me, but I just couldn't, knowing what I'm capable of, or what I could do to her if I'm not careful.
Thankfully, they didn't confront me about it, yet. I shake those thoughts away, no time to be depressed Armstrong, right now, we're waiting until we hear from Mr. Clark. Though I'm not sure how long I would have waited, he didn't exactly give any date.
"Ben! Come down here!" My Mother's voice called out downstairs.
I sighed, knowing I can't just stay up here in my room like for breakfast. I quickly changed into a red shirt and black pants before going downstairs to see the commotion. To my surprise sitting down on the kitchen chair, playfully ruffling my sister's hair which made her giggle was none other than Gavin Clark. My Mom and Dad were sitting on the other chairs where they caught sight of me..
"Ah, Ben, come over here." My Mom says, or rather orders.
I awkwardly walk towards them, letting out a small 'Hello' to Mr. Clark.
"Good afternoon, Benny!" Athena giggles, pointing at me, Poochie barked as a greeting.
I smiled at them softly, ignoring the wrenching of my heart for ignoring these two for a while. I regained my composure and tried my best to act like my usual self.
"What's up y'all!"
Dad raises a brow, while Mom just gives me a blank look. Clark snorts, and the faintest smirk could be seen on his lip. Mom clears her throat.
"Gavin is here to ask if you're willing to help him with his shop for today."
"Will I get paid?" I blurted out before I could stop myself.
Dad laughs, but Mom's turned into a mixture of fury and horror. "BEN!"
I winced, preparing for a verbal smackdown, but thankfully, Mr. Clark waved it off with a laugh. "Of course, it would be bad if I forced someone to work for free!"
My eyebrow twitched, knowing if he had the chance to do it, he would most certainly do it.
"I'll be paying you eight bucks an hour."
That's below minimum wage. But I know what's going on; he's trying to get an excuse for me to go with him without being suspicious.
"Yeah, I guess that's fine with me."
BIG
Some time later...
JUSTICE
The two of us are outside, walking to his shop. I adjusted my backpack, containing my costume and looked at Clark.
"I'm surprised you managed to convince my parents for me to work for you. I mean, aren't they worried about leaving their child with an old man?"
Mr. Clark huffed. "First of all, I'm not a YouTuber, and secondly, of course, they trust me, I've been friends with Marvin and Aya for years. Of course they would trust your Godfather!"
I blinked. "Godfather?"
"Yeah, you didn't know?"
"No?"
He rolled his eyes. "You kids and your damn phones, can't even pay attention to people close to you. You should be more like kids in my generation."
"So I should be more racist?"
"I-" Mr. Clark shut his mouth. "Touche."
He quieted down after that. Still, I didn't know I had a Godfather, honestly, I'm not sure how to feel about this.
"Wait, since I'm your Godson, does that mean I get a discount?"
He stopped suddenly, looking at me like I was just the most ridiculous thing ever. Before he burst out laughing.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA."
After twenty hours of obnoxious wheezing from the old man, his laughter finally died down, wiping a tear from his eyes.
"Wow, you should be a comedian."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever, old man."
It didn't take long before we finally arrived at this shop. We entered, and Mr. Clark quickly put the closed sign before gesturing to me to come along with him. We descended a flight of stairs, arriving at a large metal door, and it looked thick, too. I wouldn't be surprised that even a cannon could bust it open. Right next to it was the keypad, after typing several buttons, the metal door opened. Entering inside, I was greeted with a rather spacious room, probably the size of a school gym room.
The walls were made out of the same thick metal as the doors, while the floor was once of smooth concrete. What's inside the room was the most interesting. There was a large white sofa and in front of it was a large TV with a PS5 sitting on the top. Then there were rows of bookshelves, and they were all seemingly filled with Manga. Posted on the walls were several posters with anime characters on them.
Most of them are from that series that I forgot the name of. But it's the one with muscular men with golden hair shooting laser beams at each other or something. But the one that captured my attention is the one in the middle of the room. It was a PC setup. With three monitors almost as large as a TV, with a glowing neon mouse and keyboard. The PC was something I had never seen before, it was large.
About half my side actually and I could tell just looking at it, that it was POWERFUL. Overall this room was every loser's wet dream.
"Welcome to my mancave." Mr. Clark got in front of me, grinning.
I gave him an emotionless stare before opening my mouth. "Are you sure you're sixty?"
Mr. Clark frowns. "I'm fifty-seven, I could enjoy modern things too!"
Mr. Clark huffed away, muttering something about me being a dumb kid who has no taste or something. He turned on his PC, and after a couple of minutes of typing and other stuff, the screen turned black before it quickly popped open to show a man's photograph. And he was big, maybe even larger than Mr. Clark. He turned to look at me, his eyes no longer had that playful spark in them. I gulped and straightened up.
"Listen up and only ask questions when we're done."
I nodded quickly, feeling cold sweat all over my body. Mr. Clark grunted, crossing his arms.
"This man is named John, John Doe. He served in the military when he was very young; in fact, he was underage. They only found out later, but with amazing skills and prowess, he didn't receive any punishments."
Mr. Clark's stern expression cracked, his face for the faintest moment looking sad before returning to his 'Soldier' expression. "He was the best in his generation, and so he was placed in my special unit. He was...one of my students."
Clark pauses briefly before taking a deep breath. "In my unit, he got the code name: Atlas, and he is one of the few people who survived the Super Soldier program."
My eyes widened, and before I could stop it, I found myself saying, "He's a Super Soldier?"
Mr. Clark glared at me, which made me stiffen.
"Sorry."
The man let out another deep sigh before continuing.
"After completing the program, he was one of the best, defeating America's enemies with little to no effort."
Mr. Clark snapped his fingers, and somehow it caused the screen to change. It was now playing footage of John Doe or Atlas bending a tank's cannon so it would be aiming at itself. It then shifted to Atlas wearing a martial arts gi and in a dojo with countless black belts surrounding him. They all charged at him, but despite outnumbering him, they were swiftly defeated in a movement of kicks, punches and throws. He moved like no other, it's almost like he was dancing. It was difficult to process his movements, they were like not from this world.
I gulped. The footage ends and it shows a picture of Atlas looking at the camera along with several heavily armored individuals with gas masks. Chills crawled up my spine as I looked at the mask, they looked like they belonged to a demon rather than a human.
"After a decade of military service, he left the army using his connections and vast amount of wealth to form a mercenary group called the Titans."
Clark's eyes shifted to the Titan soldiers before grimacing. "While none of them, other than Atlas, are Super Soldiers, even one of them is worth five army soldiers. That's how good they are, and with Atlas, they managed to succeed in any mission they were given."
He snaps his fingers once more, showing the top view of a large fortified military base.
"This was the most secure military base in all America and is the birthplace of many weapons and the nuclear bombs known as Creatio. But a couple of weeks earlier, it was raided by Atlas and his goon squad. They..."
He licked his lips and looked with concern. I connected the dots and grimaced, my stomach churning. He didn't need to say it; instead, he moved on.
"They stole a Nuke, it's unnamed, but have you heard of Fat Man?"
"No?"
"But you have heard of Nagasaki, Japan, where they dropped a nuclear bomb."
My expression shifted to a grimace. While I'm no historian, I knew about it after watching Dad's documentaries. Even through the screen, I could feel the despair and the destruction. It was a fate I would never wish upon someone. Like a whole place being utterly obliterated, that's scary.
"Well, that nuke was called Fat Man, and according to intel, this particular nuke is on par or even surpasses Fat Man."
As those words left, Mr. Clark's lips made my heart drop. It can't be true, right? Like we're not in war times anymore, so there is no way a terrorist would cause a tragedy for no good reason, right?
"T-there is no way, they are going to drop it, right?" I tried to chuckle, but what came out was more of a wheezing noise.
"...I can't say for sure, Atlas...is an unstable man. They took refuge in a hidden research center deep in the forest, just twenty miles away from Toronto, probably so they could blow up the city."
"But, then why not just bomb the place?" Instantly, I felt the pang of guilt saying that.
It sounds horrible for me to dismiss their lives, even if they are terrorists.
"That would be the government's first idea if it weren't for the hostages of scientists and guards. Though knowing those people, they'll just bomb it regardless, but what they're worried about is their Nuke. If they bomb that place, it could set it off. And that would be hard to cover up, not to mention the radiation too."
"H-have they tried, uh, using money to"
"They did, I'm pretty sure they are still negotiating right now. But I'm not sure it will work out."
"Then why can't they just evacuate the city? Wait, is this why you're sending my family to Niagara Falls?"
My parents told me that Clark suggests they go for a quick vacation at Niagara Falls, while he takes care of me. I just assumed it was to buy me more time to handle the situation, now I realize it was to get further away from Toronto, the place he theorized that they are planning to bomb.
"If the government told everyone that they are going to die via Nuke, the Titans would notice a lot of people evacuating and launch the bomb. The only reason I could get your family out is because they trust me, and they are already planning that vacation for a couple of weeks. Though if the bomb is really that powerful it could even reach them."
"No way..."
My earlier confidence of helping, is being chipped away each time new information is given. There is so much at stake, if I mess up just like in my first heroic attempt. Countless lives are just...gone! Mr. Clark must've seen the look on my face because he fully removed his 'Soldier' face and changed it for a more sympathetic one.
"Listen, you don't have to do this. If you want to back out, that's fine, I'm not forcing you to."
I took several deep breaths and forced my body to relax. Summoning whatever determination I have to stand firm.
"I-I can do this."
Mr. Clark gave me a grim, sombre smile. "Okay."
He returned back to the keyboard typing a few buttons before the monitors returned back. Clark opened his drawer before pausing.
"You might want to wear your-"
I grabbed my backpack and went behind his bookshelves, although he wouldn't see me anyway due to my speed. I quickly put on the black pants and red shoes, but stopped to stare at the hoodie. Seeing it gave me unwanted flashbacks of that day where I nearly killed a man and freighted the person I was supposed to save. I shook those thoughts away, it wasn't the time to feel sorry for myself. I put it on and returned to Mr. Clark.
"-Costume, huh?"
He turns around to find me wearing my costume. My red goggles are strapped to my head.
"Huh, neat. But first, take off your goggles."
I raised a brow, but I did what was asked. "Why? You do realize I need to hide my identity, I don't want them coming after my family when this is over."
"Relax, they won't come after your family. I doubt they would escape max prison once you beat them and besides I got something better than that." He says taking my snow goggles away before handing me two black, rounded oval shape objects.
"What's this?"
I looked at it critically. There were some buttons on it, but I couldn't know what it was or what it even does. It kind of looks like ear cups for headphones, just missing a headband.
"Put those in your ears." Mr. Clark says.
I looked at him strangely before shrugging, putting one of the devices near my ear before I heard a small click, feeling something holding on to my ear. I removed my hand from the device and it stayed on my ear. I did the same for the other one.
"Aw, I get it, this is some kind of earpiece so we hear each other, it looks kind of awkward though."
Mr. Clark laughs. "Oh, that's not all it does."
Before I could ask him what he meant by that, suddenly my vision became dark, but not before I heard something click. I yelp and jump slightly at the sudden darkness, relying on my Mind's eye to see. I could see myself. Clark's silhouette struggles to contain his laughter. I became angry, like, I mean, who wouldn't? This is no time for jokes or pranks.
I was ready to give him a piece of my mind, then my vision came back. As well as some extras. You know when we see inside Iron Man's helmet and there was this hud showing him stuff. Well that's what I'm seeing now. I can still see normally, but there would be these extra displays in the corner of my vision.
It showed one of those things a heart monitor would show, like those lines and stuff. On the top corner it showed the battery of whatever I'm wearing right now, which was 100%. I looked around my surroundings, then I focused on the book on top of the glass table near the couch. My vision zoomed to the book before scanning before my side vision was covered by text and a picture.
[My Hero Academia]
[A Manga created by Kohei Hirokoshi. It follows a young boy named Mido-]
I turned away from the Manga and towards the coffee mug sitting next to it.
[Coffee Mug]
[Made in China, by a company-]
I look away and back to Mr. Clark, who gives me a knowing smirk.
[Gavin Clark.]
[Age: 57]
[Occupation: Shopkeeper]
"What is this?" I asked, utterly amazed at the device.
Clark pointed a thumb to the mirror nearby, which revealed I was wearing some kind of sleek goggles. It sort of reminds me of that one guy from X-Guys, or where he wore some kind of visor. Except mine's lens was black, and the visor was bigger.
"That kid is a Scouter Evaluation Eyewear, or SEE for short. Its technology is used by the most elite soldiers."
"Woah."
I say, looking at my surroundings, as each thing I focus on gives me information about the history of the object or where it's built.
"It's an older model, but it does a lot of things. It has night vision, facial recognition, scans an object or anything you focus on, and it will give information pulled from the internet. It will also allow us to communicate and also..."
Clark goes to his computer and taps a button showing me what I'm currently seeing right now. I look around, each time, the montier showcases me what I'm currently looking at. I became giddy, forgetting that I'm about to go on a very dangerous mission.
"It will allow me to see what you see, so I can give you advice on the field."
I was so excited at the new piece of technology that it took me several moments of what Mr. Clark just said.
"You're not coming, Mr. Clark?"
He soberly shakes his head. "I can't...kid. I'm not the same soldier I was back then, if it was my Prime I would've dealt with this problem with barely any difficulty. But now, I'm old, it's been more than a decade since I actually fought and I don't have any weapons on me aside from ineffective ones."
I froze. he wasn't coming with me? It was suddenly hard to breathe, and I felt smaller than an ant. I looked at the floor, shaking despite willing myself not to. I felt a soft but firm hand grab my shoulder, making me look up to see Mr. Clark kneeling in front of me. He was making a face that I find myself having lately. It was a face full of guilt.
"I know you're scared, and I'm sorry I can't go with you. A kid like you shouldn't be in this situation in the first place, but if I go, I will just slow you down. But don't worry, just listen to me and you'll be just fine."
His words calmed me, and I straightened up and nodded.
"I'll do my best, Mr. Clark."
He shoots me a grin. "Call me Gavin, kid and go!"
I nodded at him for the last time before I sped out of the room and exited the store. I flew high into the sky before staying still.
"Ben, can you read me?"
"Yeah."
"Good, I'll send the coordinates to your SEE goggles."
It didn't take long before the device created a yellow circle in my vision, the top saying destination. While on the corner, it showed me how far it is.
[120 KM]
[Estimated Time of Travel, via car: 2 Hours]
My heart starts to pump faster. This was happening. The fate of Toronto lies in my hands. It would've been epic if the consequence of losing wasn't so heavy.
"Remember to listen to what I say and focus."
"Got it."
"And Ben? Godspeed."
With those words. I moved forward, creating a sonic boom as I headed to the Titans' hideout.