"Drake hung up and looked around his empty house and frowned. It was colder than he remembered it was before his father"s pa.s.sing. He"d never been completely alone in his entire life, and even though he knew he could call one of his friends, Drake knew how hollow his home would be for a very long time. His aunt had offered to take him in, which Drake rejected graciously, but there were times when he wished he had someone to talk to in the long and tiresome evenings.
It was cold and Drake felt completely isolated.
6:18 PM.
Bellevue, Washington "Alright, we"re done for the day," Bruce said, satisfied with the day"s effort.
Nick gasped for air, covered in sweat, and collapsed into a seated position against a wall in the dark department store where Mizuno once held a meeting with the whole of his team. Since then Mizuno and the others had utilized the s.p.a.ce for exercises, drills, and practice. Nick and Bruce spent the day focusing on hand-to-hand combat training for Nick, which Bruce possessed unparalleled skill at, while Nick held very little strength or training to defend himself. Their skirmishes were exceptionally one-sided and usually consisted of Nick taking a beating until he learned how to block or counter one specific technique. Once Nick mastered a dozen moves they would fight and Bruce would mop the floor with him. It was the same if he trained with Strom or Mizuno; none of them ever went easy on him or gave him a moment to breathe until it was over.
Bruce hardly broke a sweat while Nick struggled to keep himself from pa.s.sing out or having a heart attack. All Bruce did was give Nick a bottle of water and the usual protein shake he"d mixed up earlier while he drank his own bottle of the two beverages. Mizuno said Nick was far too scrawny and needed to bulk up. He mentioned something about steroids, but Mizuno also listed off everything that was detrimental about them, and even though he was the one who brought up steroids Mizuno was also the one to immediately disregard them.
"You okay?" Bruce asked him.
Nick failed to respond. He tried to catch his breath or even to shake his head but couldn"t.
Bruce only cracked a smile, chuckled, and told Nick he"d live.
Mizuno usually had Nick fight in the dark, (as Mizuno told him he wouldn"t always be able to rely on his sight in a fight), but Bruce usually always kept some light on when they trained. He understood what Mizuno wanted out of Nick, but Bruce also understood that Nick would be able to see in most of his fights, which meant he needed to know what an attack looked like to be able to efficiently counter or evade.
"You"re getting better you know."
"It doesn"t feel like it," Nick muttered.
"Of course not, you"re still out of breath and you"re fighting someone with heightened senses, so it"s no wonder you feel like you"re not getting better." Bruce took a swig of his water and told Nick that he was getting better. "You"re evading more, taking less. .h.i.ts, and you"re able to brush off a majority of the punches or kicks that do hit you, so it"s progress."
"But I can"t beat you if I can"t land a single punch," Nick reminded him.
Bruce agreed. "Though, you and I were only sparring, meaning there wasn"t a winner or loser. In a real fight you need to a.s.sess the situation and question whether it"s possible for you to come out on top using the skills and knowledge you possess. Plus, in a real fight you would need to put everything you can into surviving. In those situations instinct can take over, or, better yet, you open up more and come to terms with doing anything necessary to survive."
"Do you mean like fighting dirty?"
Bruce laughed and nodded. "You can call it that if you want to kid. But let me ask you something, before you joined this team, had you ever been in a fight?"
Nick said he had on a few occasions, "They were stupid though and they didn"t last long."
"And they were between you and someone at your school, or with one of your friends, right?"
"Yeah."
"The kind of fighting I"m talking about is different. You"ve been in fights where you and the kid you"re wildly throwing fists at have the fight broken up after a minute or two. I"m talking about life and death, where the fight is instigated because of irreconcilable differences, because of war, or pure, seething hatred. When you"re in that kind of fight, there isn"t any "dirty fighting" kid. You have to do anything to keep yourself alive, even if it might seem underhanded."
Nick thought about what Bruce said for a moment and asked him how he knew so much about fighting.
Bruce cleared his throat and said it was partly because of Mizuno. "I"ve known how to fight for most of my life. I mean, you have to once you"re in the military, but what Mizuno taught me was so in depth and detailed that it was almost as if I never knew anything before we met."
Nick nodded and asked how long he"d been a part of Mizuno"s group for.
"I met him in twenty-twenty, but he hadn"t begun his project at that point. I would end up being one of the first people in his group four years later though."
"What made you want to join him?"
Bruce looked down at the water bottle he held in his right hand. He swirled the water a few times before he admitted that the life Mizuno offered sounded better than his old life was. "How about you? Why"d you join him and his crazy crusade?"
Nick told him about his brother, his life with his stepfather, and admitted that the idea of a new life appealed to him as well. "I didn"t really know it then, but Mizuno really did offer me a new life."
"That"s one of the benefits to those of us who have rather poor existences," Bruce said with a grin. "He takes these husks of people and makes something new, formidable, and worthwhile, if you understand what I"m saying."
Nick nodded and said he did.
Bruce reminded him to drink the protein shake and his water before he asked Nick, "I take it you and your girlfriend aren"t doing too well?"
Nick wiped his mouth off and asked how he could tell.
"I saw the way you left when you were talking to her," Bruce told him. "You"d either broken up with her or disappointed her, right?"
Nick slowly nodded and said he had. "She doesn"t like how much I work, er"
"I know what you mean."
"We hardly ever have time to be together because so much of this..." he searched for the appropriate word and finally settled on one, "World of Mizuno"s dominates all of my time."
Bruce told him that it wouldn"t get any better. "In fact, that"s probably going to be the reason you and this girl are going to break up."
"I don"t want to though."
"Well it isn"t exactly fair to be with her and not be there for her," Bruce reminded him. "You"ve got to remember that your happiness and her happiness won"t coincide if you keep at this lifestyle. She"ll always a.s.sume you"re cheating on her, unless of course you tell her about all of this, then she"ll worry herself to death about you and your wellbeing."
Nick looked down at the floor in front of them and said, "Mizuno mentioned something about being alone for the sake of someone else"s happiness, and that you knew what that meant." He asked what happened to Bruce.
Bruce let out a breath and said it all happened before he met Mizuno. "I married this girl out of high school and we had a little girl named Sadie in twenty-twelve," he paused for a moment and realized that his daughter was only a year younger than Nick. "Anyway, I was in the military over in Iraq when Sadie was born, which wasn"t even the beginning of our marital troubles. Because I spent so much time overseas my wife Sarah and I became distant and over time she became depressed and couldn"t stand being alone six to nine months out of the year. I realized she wasn"t happy, even when I was home with her, and that hurt me too."
"What did you do?"
Bruce shrugged and said it was something he probably shouldn"t have done. "I left her."
"What? Why?"
"I knew she wouldn"t have been happy being with me and I knew she"d have a better life with some other guy rather than worrying about me for her whole life."
"Did she ever find someone else?"
Bruce nodded. "A year later she met a guy named Cameron Weston and a year later they were married." Bruce set his water down and admitted that he wasn"t happy about it for a long time. "I left her alone once I knew she was happy and haven"t seen her or Sadie since."
"Don"t you miss them though?"
"Of course," Bruce said. "What father wouldn"t miss his daughter?"
"Then why don"t you ever call her? Or write to her?"
Bruce said that things weren"t that simple. "There"s a lot more involved in the story Nick, you don"t really understand how complicated things are for me. Your situation isn"t like mine at all."
"What situation?"
"With your girlfriend," he told him. "It isn"t that complicated; you think it is, but it isn"t." Nick asked him what he meant and Bruce told him it wasn"t serious. "I don"t want to insult you or her, but your relationship is still young, too young even. That"s why it"ll break off and you"ll both go your separate ways and find new people."
"But I don"t want that."
Bruce said he did. "If you didn"t you wouldn"t spend all of your time here, training for Mizuno"s missions."
Nick rubbed his eyes and muttered, "It isn"t that simple."
"Nothing is."
"I can"t just leave this behind."
"And why is that?"
"It"s because of my brother."
Bruce shook his head and said Nick still didn"t understand why he accepted Mizuno"s offer. "You said yes initially because you wanted to avenge your brother"s death, yet you haven"t done anything to find him since you joined, have you?"
Nick said he hadn"t.
"You said your life with your stepdad wasn"t that great to begin with, and now that you"re the only one left you"re being backed into a corner in your own life. Mizuno offered you a way out, as well as a way to find the guy who killed your brother and you accepted it without a word of opposition because the two things Mizuno offered you were what you wanted. He will help you find the man who killed your brother, Nick, but I doubt that"ll be the reason you stay."
"I"m not going to stay," Nick told him. "I really am going to leave once I find the guy who killed my brother."
"Then you"re going to wait a very long time kid."
Bruce told Nick to finish his drinks as he got to his feet. "I"m sure you"ll figure it all out in the end, but you do need to think about what you want in your life Nick." He pulled him to his feet as well and started off toward the door. Nick asked what he meant but Bruce only said he needed to realize it on his own.
Chapter 19.
September 16th, 2029 1:15 PM.
London, England Jason sat in Doctor Reynolds" office while she finished some other work elsewhere in the hospital. I"m just glad this isn"t going to cost us anything. It is good though, considering she might suspect the same thing Audrey and I do. The resurrection must be a part of these powers, not that I want to test that portion of my abilities. What if it was little more than a coincidence? Or what if Joshua Todd only wounded me and I never died in the first place? Maybe I nearly died but somehow regenerated from the brink of death, just like Doctor Reynolds suspects?
Doctor Jamie Reynolds walked in and apologized for the delay. "I am quite grateful that you would sacrifice your time to be here, even if my tardiness makes it seem otherwise."
Jason frankly forgave her while the doctor took her seat. She flipped through a few papers from what he a.s.sumed kept her from their meeting. I"m not even sure why she wanted to make this appointment. She seems incredibly busy and I can"t imagine she has much spare time during the day for non-work related tasks. But then again, she might have some sort of fascination or interest in this phenomenon for purely medical reasons. In any case, I"m just surprised she has the time or will to speak with me, considering this is all fueled by her.
"Well before we begin I want to ask if you"ve heard about the recent news about super powered heroes across the world," Doctor Reynolds began.
"Of course," Jason replied, "It"s been in all the papers and on the lips of everyone for days." And between Audrey and her mother I haven"t stopped hearing about it, though Audrey and I have every reason to fixate on the news around these so-called heroes.
"Good." Doctor Reynolds left her work and turned her attention to Jason. "I only mentioned it because I feel your recovery is an ability akin to these heroes. It would explain the event entirely as well as confirm my own suspicions."
Jason let out a breath and told her he agreed with her theory. "While my wife and I were on holiday I discovered a few other powers." Jason displayed his ability to create fire as well as control it and followed that by a brief demonstration of his flight capabilities (though he was quite unbalanced even while hovering). "I"m also invulnerable," Jason added. "When I first discovered I could fly, I actually fell off my company"s roof, down over two dozen floors and hit the ground without a scratch."
Doctor Reynolds eyes widened. "That"s quite impressive. How did you even realize you could do all of that?" She saw the time and apologized, "Maybe another time. Anyway, all of this confirms my thoughts from earlier. I guess it"s safe to say you are a super hero Jason. I do apologize that I asked you to come down to confirm a phenomenon rather than an isolated case."
That"s it? You couldn"t have confirmed all of this over the phone? Jason cautiously asked whether there was anything else she wanted to talk to him about. "I"m not entirely sure why I"m here Doctor." Do you even know? Or is all of this something you"re piecing together as it comes to you?
Doctor Reynolds frowned and failed to answer him for a moment. She let out a breath before she continued, "I know this is extremely invasive and highly irregular, but would you allow me to extract a vial of your blood?" She quickly added that her request was for scientific progress. "I would like to examine your blood to see how it compares now to how it did when you were admitted, along with cross examining it with my own blood as a base."
"Can I ask why you would want to do this?"
"Basically, I would like to a.n.a.lyze the differences between our blood as well as the progression from your blood samples from a few weeks ago and now." Doctor Reynolds added that she did not want to make him feel like a test subject. "I have nothing but sincere intentions, Jason, let me a.s.sure you. All I want are answers."
It sounds like you want a test subject. Jason told her he wasn"t sure. "Do you think you could even extract my blood as things stand now?"
Reynolds admitted she wasn"t sure. "Your invulnerability might prevent that altogether, but a.s.suming we could find some way to remove and collect it, would you allow me that much?"
It"s just blood. It should be fine. I"ll probably regenerate it all moments later anyway. And if she tried to force me onto an examination table to cut me open I could just fly away. That"s it Jason, embrace the madness. Take in all of the wonder of the rabbit hole as you descend into lunacy.
Jason rubbed his eyes briefly and agreed. "But just the blood," he told her. "I won"t let it go any further than that."
After a few failed attempts at drawing Jason"s blood, the two discovered they could cut Jason and gather his blood with the use of an industrial grade diamond bladed scalpel. The incision only remained open for three seconds before Jason"s regenerative power closed the wound. As such Doctor Reynolds had to cut him repeatedly to get the amount of blood she desired; Jason hardly felt anything when she cut him.
Good to know I"m not entirely impervious, though I doubt I"ll ever fight a diamond blade wielding villain any time soon. But in any case, at least I know I"m not invincible.
"Is that everything?" Jason asked her while he wiped the excess blood off his arm.
"It is, sorry again for all of the trouble," she said while she marked the gla.s.s container filled with his blood. "I"ll be sure to let you know what I find."
Do I thank her or just leave? Jason started for the door but stopped and asked, "Have you found anything about Joshua Todd?"
Doctor Reynolds looked up from the container of blood and admitted there was nothing. "Your claim intrigued me and while you were away I looked into every possible place for any sign of a Doctor Joshua Todd. I asked patients and my colleagues as well as looking through security feeds and personal charts for patients throughout the hospital and I didn"t find any mention of Doctor Joshua Todd. In other words, Jason, from what I can tell there wasn"t any Joshua Todd to begin with."