Power (Book 1)

Chapter 12

I slowly lowered my hand from in front of my face as my eyes adjusted to the light. What I saw shocked me so much that I had to take a step back. "What is this place?" I asked.

"I told you, this is Afterlight," Jake repeated.

In front of us was a huge dome, big enough to fit around ten football fields easily. In the center, there was an elevator leading down to other floors.

Jake strolled on a walkway running down the middle of the complex, and I followed.

It was perfectly white, not a scratch or blemish on its walls. Scientists were walking everywhere, in the stereotypical white lab coats you would see in the movies. In each corner of the room, there was a section where the scientists did different things. In the north corner, you could see a man with an orange and green suit testing a jetpack-like machine. In the east, there were some scientists watching and writing on clipboards as a meta ran on a treadmill in front of them. Its arms and legs were a blur. In the west corner, there were some guys and a girl lifting weights, and in the last there was a girl in a yoga position, floating in the air with spinning metal balls around her.

"What is this place?" I repeated.

"Jay, this is a facility where metas such as yourself are trained and tested to master their abilities," Jake explained. "We are devoted to providing the best people we have to defend our country."

Providing people to defend the country. Yeah, right. I couldn't believe that Jake could be in this- an organization that trained metas to become the very thing that almost brought the end of the world that much closer. And worse, I didn't know about it.

"Superheroes?" I asked. "Really, Jake? Out of all people, I'd have thought that you understood the consequences of something like this." I gestured around us. "Would your father approve of this?"

Jake's dad died during the first days of the Meta Revolution. He had always hated metas (even though his son was one), and he always preached to the people he knew that they would only cause trouble. Back then, no one believed him.

The cause of death was a building collapsing on top of him. Sadly, the body was never found- but the blood was.

"Don't talk to me about my father," Jake said, his eyes turning cold. The air in the room started to freeze a little. I summoned a little energy into my torso to keep me warm. "You know nothing about what he would've wanted."

"You're right," I said. "That was a low blow. But still, why would you partake in something like this?"

"I'm not 'partaking' in it." He used invisible air quotes. "I'm really high up on the chain of command. I'm a recruiter."

"Oh! A recruiter!" I mocked excitement. "Well, that makes everything better, now doesn't it? Oh, and let me guess, you took me here so that you could 'recruit' me, getting your job done and helping me in the process? Killing two birds with one stone, right? Tell me I'm wrong." I tried to examine his face, but he looked at the floor. 

"Why would you support something like this? You know what happened during the the Meta Revolution. Do you want a repeat of that?" I grabbed the rail to my left and burned through it in anger.

"Jake, my father was nearly killed by a 'supervillain'. If the world finds out about this place, about these people, there will be chaos. You can't secretly train super-powered humans and think you can get away with it."

"No, but that's just it," Jake said urgently. "If you, the superhero, had won that fight, then Metagor would already be behind bars. But I'm not blaming you do anything. I know you did the best you could. My point is, if you stay, we can train you. We can prepare you for your next fight with Metagor- that's why I brought you here in the first place! And plus, we're legalized by the government, so we don't have to keep this place a secret."

"My next fight?" I said, angry. "What the hell makes you think I'm going to fight him again after what happened the last time?" I remembered the fear I felt as he grabbed me by the neck, swinging me around like a rag doll. He could destroy me at any time, at any moment, and he knew it. And there was no hiding- I had no advantage. "I want no part of this-" I gestured around me with my hand "-and you shouldn't either." I turned to leave.

"Jay, you aren't just going to leave, are you?" Jake said defiantly. "Metagor will kill you. Then he'll kill your family- what's left of it. Then he'll go after your friends. It will never stop," he said. "You can't run away from your problems; I've tried. But you can solve them with my help." He reached out his hand.

I paused. As much as I wanted to deny it, he was right. I couldn't run away from my problems, and if I tried, anyone close to me would be hurt. I could work with Jake, for a while at least, as he worked on locating and defeating Metagor. Then I could quit, and it would all be over.

But then again, I really didn't want to become a superhero. They were too focused on the spotlight to actually help people, and when they tried...bad things happened. Plus, I didn't need to be making split-second decisions about something as big as this. But there was no telling what other chance I would have at getting the help I need to beat Metagor. And I had nowhere near the amount of resources Afterlight probably had.

There was only one thing for me to do. "All right. I'll do it." I took his outstretched hand and shook it firmly. "But on one condition. If I do this, I get to pick my superhero name and my suit design." A simple request for the biggest event in my life.

Almost immediately, he said, "Deal."