New Age of Heroes 1: The League of Protectors - Dawn of a New Age (3 page)

“What’s
that noise?” an agent asked.

“It’s
coming from out that way,” another replied.

Sweat began rolling
down Olden’s face. The agents desperately fired at Olden, but
he was still able to multitask enough to stop the darts from
connecting. With the civilians safely rescued, Jason turned his
attention back to Olden. He flew towards the criminal like a missile
just as the water began to rise.

“Oh my god!”
a bystander shouted. “He's raising the water to the sky!”

Agent Hardine
ordered his men to get the civilians back as far as possible.

“We’re
all going to drown!” a civilian shouted.

The civilian's
words did nothing but trigger panic to an already escalating
situation. Jason collided with Olden causing the man to lose his
connection with the sea.

“Stand down
Olden, I’m warning you,” Jason threatened.

Olden had no
intentions on complying with Jason's warning.

The two men stared
across from each other, both of them levitated high above the water.
Jason flew aggressively and threw a hard haymaker punch at Olden.

Olden somehow
created an invisible barrier that prevented Jason from attacking.
With the simplest of ease, Olden flung his hand forward and sent
Jason flying in the opposite direction. The force sent Jason
backwards, but he quickly reestablished control of his body.

“Surrender
now, Olden.”

“I’ve
already won. There is no reason for me to surrender.”

Jason clenched his
fist into a ball and built up energy from around him. He unleashed a
massive amount of energy in the shape of a ball that traveled with
great velocity towards his opponent. Olden stood there showing no
signs of concern. To his surprise, the energy blast was much more
potent than he expected. The blast sent Olden downward into the
bottom of the sea.

“Status
report,” Commander Sullivan, the leader of the entire G.U.A.R.D
organization said to Agent Hardine over the earpiece. Agent Hardine
watched the battle from a distance.

“Sir, Olden
Mars has been knocked down to the bottom of the sea.”

There was a moment
of silence before the Commander responded. “How'd you pull that
one off?” the Commander asked.

“We didn't
sir, it was Jason Shaw sir.”

“Shaw? What's
he doing there?”Commander Sullivan was surprised. All major
missions were handled by G.U.A.R.D. Commander Sullivan had not
authorized Jason's involvement on this particular mission.

Jason’s eyes
went wide. He didn’t think his energy blast would affect Olden
as much as it did. He contemplated diving to the bottom of the sea to
retrieve Olden, but Olden proved that wasn’t necessary. Olden
shot up from the bottom, flew into Jason and delivered a devastating
knee to Jason's face. Jason stumbled back. Olden followed up with a
massive punch to the face that knocked Jason unconscious. He then
flicked his hand and sent Jason in the direction of the sandy part of
the beach.

“You all
still standing here? Jason Shaw couldn't stop me, so what makes you
think any of you can? Let me show you all what happens when you mess
with Olden Mars!” Olden concentrated and again attempted to
make the bottom of the sea rise.

“Sir, we’ve
gotta get out of here!” one of the agents proclaimed.

Agent Hardine was
not about to abandon the people. He had Olden in his sights and he
wasn't about to let an opportunity like that pass him by.

“Look Sir,”
another agent said.

In the sky, the
agents could see another stealth jet emerging into visibility. Agent
Hardine recognized the jet immediately. It was the same sort of
stealth jet that G.U.A.R.D used, but it wasn't one of theirs. The jet
made its descent to the ground and Noah Winters, a controversial part
time member of the group, quickly hopped out.

“What’s
the situation?” Noah asked Agent Hardine.

The agent sized
Noah up and down.

“Never mind,
get all these people back, I’ll hold him off,” Noah said
as he saw the water rising from the ground. The water was so massive
that it covered the sky, it came hurling towards the civilians. Noah
closed his eyes and began concentrating.

“What’s
he doing?” an agent asked.

“I’m
really not sure,” Agent Hardine replied.

Noah enabled his
ability to create force fields and concentrated so that the field
would expand. Slowly, the force field began expanding. It expanded
wide enough to the point that it looked like a dome had covered the
entire area. The force field prevented any of the water from breaking
through.

“How long can
you hold that?” Agent Hardine asked.

“As long as
it takes,” Noah replied.

Noah looked towards
Jason and saw that Jason was still unconscious. He instructed Agent
Hardine to bring Jason back to consciousness. By the time Agent
Hardine arrived at Jason's location, the hero was already slowly
coming to. Jason shook off the pain he was feeling and flew back to
confront Olden once more.

“You ready
for another round?” Olden asked.

Jason looked around
the area, he wanted to take the fight away from nearby civilians.
There was an empty baseball field a couple miles away. If he could
get Olden there, he’d have a chance to beat him. Both men
charged forward. Olden swung, but Jason caught Olden’s fist
with his hand. He grabbed the man and drove him forward towards the
baseball field. Once Jason got him there and saw no one around, he
aggressively drove Olden to the ground, leaving a massive hole in the
center of the field.

“Seriously,
the baseball field? That's where you decide to take him down!”
one of the civilians shouted from a safe distance.

“Yeah, that's
my bad.” Jason mumbled. He realized the baseball field wasn't
one of the more popular choices he could've made at that moment.

Olden clenched his
fists. He tried to attack Jason, but to his surprise, a low intensity
fireball splattered across his back.

“What the
hell?” he said out loud in obvious pain.

Luckily for him his
body could absorb such an attack, a fact his attacker knew. Olden
turned around and saw two more members of Mr. Connors' team, Jackson
Prescott and Shayne Tucker standing behind him and smiling. Jackson
and Shayne were the youngest members of the group. Both of them were
in their first year of college and are loaded with potential.
Potential, that if harnessed and used properly, could make them two
of the most powerful Post Humans.

“Are we late?
Did we miss the party?” Jackson asked. He was forever using
humor in a conversation, regardless of the situation.

“Little boys
should not get themselves involved in grown men affairs,” Olden
said angrily.

Jackson and Shayne
sized each other up as if to see if they were actually little.

“Did he just
call us little boys? Jackson asked mockingly. “I'm about six
feet Shayne, how about you?”

Shayne nodded his
head, “Yeah, me too.”

Jackson smirked.
“Don't lie bro, you know you're like 5'9, maybe 5'10 depending
on what shoes you have on.”

Shayne rolled his
eyes but did not offer a reply.

While Jackson often
times tended to be too laid back and not serious enough, Shayne was
the complete opposite. If there was anyone that could bring out that
silly side of Shayne, it was Jackson.

“Enough
talking!” Olden shouted. He drove his hands downward causing
the ground to shake. He levitated himself off the ground while
Jackson, Shayne and Jason tumbled down to the ground.

“Am I the
only one that thinks we should have seen that coming?” Jackson
asked.

“Shut up
Jackson,” Shayne replied.

“Make me,”
Jackson countered, doing his best to imitate the voice of a seven
year old.

Jackson ran forward
and created a skateboard like structure made out of ice. He used this
to propel himself off the ground and towards Olden. He tried to punch
Olden, but Olden caught him with ease and threw him to the ground.

“OK, that
sucked!” Jackson said as he looked up towards Shayne.

“You don’t
say,” Shayne replied dryly. He was used to Jackson's half
thought out plans failing.

“You know, a
little compassion wouldn’t hurt,” Jackson said with a
grin on his face.

The distraction
bought Jason enough time to mount another attack. He ran forward and
tackled Olden to the ground. He unloaded a barrage of punches to
Olden’s face, chest and ribs. Jackson raised an eyebrow as he
watched Jason hammer Olden with powerful closed fists.

“Now do you
see why I never spar with him?” Jackson asked Shayne. Shayne
couldn’t help but chuckle.

Olden desperately
tried to get Jason off of him. Jason seemed to be using an awful lot
of strength. It was miraculous to see that the sheer impact of
Jason’s punches didn’t kill the man. Olden finally got a
brief opening and used it to get Jason off of him. He used his
telekinesis to send Jason flying high into the sky. He lifted Jason
with such velocity that it would’ve killed any human and most
Post Humans, but luckily for Jason, he could sustain the altitude.

“I’m
going to end this, you two get back,” Jason ordered into his
earpiece to Jackson and Shayne.

“When will
you people learn I can’t be defeated?” Olden exclaimed
angrily.

Jackson and Shayne
put their hands up pretending as if they surrendered. “You’re
right, what were we thinking. We’ve only ever defeated every
situation that’s come our way,” Jackson said smiling.
Jackson held his hand out gesturing for Olden to be still. “Wait
for it!” Jackson said dramatically like his favorite character
from “How I Met Your Mother,” would have said.

“Wait for
what?” Olden asked angrily.

From above him, a
massive force of energy lit the sky. The magnitude of the energy
force was incredible. In the blink of an eye, the blast shot down
like a laser and punished Olden greatly. Just like that, Olden was
out.

“Ho-ly
craaaaap!” Jackson said, enunciating the words slowly.

Jason rejoined the
group back on the ground. His face was serious, all business. For
him, he was just doing his job, there was nothing remarkable about
what he had just done.

“Now that's
how superheroes are suppose to act. Dude, that was incredible!”
Jackson exclaimed.

Jason smiled
modestly. He touched his earpiece and adjusted the frequency so that
it matched that of the G.U.A.R.D agents. He radioed Agent Hardine and
confirmed that Olden Mars had been neutralized.

Back at the beach,
Noah successfully prevented any of the water from breaking through.
It took great effort, but Noah was able to return the water to its
normal location.

Jason, Jackson and
Shayne returned to the beach to join Noah. To their surprise, the
four men received a standing ovation from the crowd. Jason, and
Shayne smiled modestly while Jackson embraced the attention, waving
energetically to the crowd. Jackson loved these kind of moments. Ever
since he was a little boy, he wanted to be the center of attention
and at that moment he was. Jackson was going to soak in all the
attention he could get.

“They want us
as long as they need us. The moment they no longer need us is the
moment they'll betray us,” Noah stated. He wasn't interested in
pandering to the crowd. Noah headed back towards the jet. The way he
saw it, Olden was neutralized, therefore the job was done.

“Thanks for
protecting us!” a little boy in the crowd shouted. “You're
our heroes! You're our protectors!”a second little boy added.

“Protectors?
That has a nice little ring to it,” Jackson said with a smile
on his face. His eyes suddenly got big as an idea formed.

“Jackson,
you've got that look in your eye. I don't like it when you have that
look in your eye!” Shayne said nervously.

“It's all
good bro, because I've got it!” Jackson replied.

“Got what?”
Jason asked curiously.

“From here on
out, we shall be called The League of Protectors!” Jackson
stood before the crowd with his hands on his hips. He was purposely
posing as if he was some sort of iconic comic book hero.

“Ladies and
gentleman, we are The League of Protectors and we are glad to do our
part in protecting this country. The League of Protectors are here to
protect all of you as best as we can. Enjoy the rest of your day!”

Jackson stood for
another few seconds posing for the crowd. Jason and Shayne looked at
each, smiled slightly and shook their heads. They should've known
that it would be Jackson to name the group. Jackson and the rest of
the group strapped themselves in, preparing for takeoff.

2

Unofficial
Interrogation

Mr. Connors sat
behind his desk screening five different computer monitors. When he
and Jason Shaw joined together to build the foundation of a Post
Human team, the two developed a close bond. Mr. Connors has earned
the respect of each member of the League of Protectors. For whatever
reason, he could relate to the League in a way that most humans
couldn't.

A man of his early
50's, Mr. Connors has worked as a professor in sociology at Harvard
University for the past twenty years. He's one of the few people that
doesn't prefer to be addressed as Dr. Connors. He stood slightly
under six feet and has just a touch of gray running through the top
of his hair.

When Jason made his
debut to the world as a Post Human, Mr. Connors was immediately
intrigued by what he saw. Four years before Jason displayed his
abilities to the public, Mr. Connors knew his secret. He kept a
detailed file on him and monitored Jason's progress. Jason wasn't the
only Post Human Mr. Connors monitored. He had thousands of files on
Post Humans in his possession long before the term “Post
Humans” was ever coined.