Regenesis (Book 1): Impact (51 page)

“Yeah
right. That jerk’s supposed to be the strongest man alive? Ian’s gotta be able
to pummel that guy in a fight any day out of the week.” Coop looked at the
Human Titan again, shook his head, and muttered, “His costume’s so ugly.”

“Well
my favorite’s that guy out of Japan, Hanzo,” Wally told them. “I like the
thought of a ninja protecting part of Japan, it’s just cool.”

Coop
laughed, “Ninja’s aren’t real, they’re like werewolves or aliens or honest
politicians; people make them up.”

Wally
shook his head told him that ninjitsu was a real martial art.

“Well
Hanzo really looks more like a samurai anyway,” Ian commented. “And weren’t you
the one who tends to tell the story about how you saw a shining orange ball of
light when you were heading into Seattle a few years ago? On your way to
comicon?”

“The
ball of light you swore wasn’t the sun?” Wally chimed in.

“Yeah
well…” Coop quickly realized he’d incriminated himself and changed the subject,
“I like Balloonman.”

“Who?”

“Balloonman.
The guy who can make himself fatter and thinner at will.”

Wally
rolled his eyes and clarified, “That’s Doctor Diet you moron.”

“You
honestly believe that guy has a doctorate in anything?” Coop asked him.

Someone
knocked on the door and shouted, “Pizza time!” Coop yelled for him to come on
in. The man walked in and tossed the boxes on their counter before he told the
trio the total for their three medium pizzas and two orders of breadsticks. He
saw that they had a program related to the uprising super heroes and muttered,
“Bunch of idiots.”

“You
don’t like them?” Wally asked as he got off the couch and paid the man.

“Not
at all. Y’see I believe that they’re staging some of their so called heroic
rescues,” he told them.

“What
are you talking about?” Coop asked as he sat up in his recliner.

“Take
this guy, the Human Titan. He’s saved the same woman three times since his big
debut with that Captain Density, who might I add has saved the same group of
four people four times since his debut.”

“So
you think that some of these people are making themselves out to be heroes and
are only in it for the media attention?” Ian questioned him, as Wally handed
him his supreme pizza.

“What
am I speaking Mandarin or something? Yes! They’re phonies,” he took a slice of
Coop’s Canadian bacon and sausage pizza, which Coop didn’t seem to mind or
notice. “Let me just say that one of these day some hero’s gonna get shot and
maybe then we’ll have some of these idiots off the streets.”

“You
don’t think there’s even one out there that’s genuinely trying to help people?”
Wally asked as he ate a slice of his cheese pizza.

“I
don’t know, maybe. But I’m still waiting for the day when we’ve got a hero with
a real costume, a real name, and maybe a real superpower.” He checked the time
on their digital clock and realized that he was running late and left them
there.

None
of them said a word for nearly a minute, but Coop broke the silence when he
realized that the delivery guy didn’t bring them their beverages.

“He
might be right you know,” Wally said.

“Ya
think? I ain’t got a drink in my hand,” Coop complained.

“Not
you, he was right. Someone’s going to get killed and then there’ll be trouble.”

“You
know Ian, these idiots could really use someone like you to show them that it’s
not a joke and that they could get hurt, maybe even killed,” Coop added.

“And
how would I do that?” Ian asked while he retrieved a piece of his own pizza.
“All I could do is stop petty theft and maybe, maybe at the most stop a hostage
situation, assuming one ever happened and I heard about it and managed to get
to the place in time to help. They don’t need me.”

“Well
we don’t have someone here in Seattle, so why don’t you help out here?” Coop
asked.

“I’ve
told you guys that I’m still moving to London on the twentieth, which would
make it difficult for me to be a super hero here in Seattle.”

“What?
That mean’s we’ve only got a week to…” he stopped himself. “Uh, why…why don’t
we go camping up at Lake Chelan this weekend?”

Ian
looked at him and asked what he was up to.

Wally
interceded for Coop, “We just wanted one final hurrah before you moved.”

“I
thought you two were going to a concert this weekend.”

“We
sold the tickets for…”

“Our
rent,” Wally filled in. “We forgot to pay it, again.”

Ian
looked at Wally and then back at Coop, and asked, “What’s going on?”

“Nothing.”

“Tell
me.”

Coop
finally sighed and admitted, “I wanted to go camping to get you to fight a
bear…Sort of as a final test for your training.”

Ian
rolled his eyes and told him he wasn’t going to fight a bear. “That’s just
stupid Coop.”

“Either
way, we really should go camping,” Wally told him. “It would at the very least
get our minds off of this useless crap,” he said as he flicked the television
off. “I think we could all use a break.”

Ian
still felt that something was amiss, but agreed nonetheless. “So what did you
guys really do with the money from those tickets?”

---*---

2:00
PM

Kenmore,
Washington

Mizuno’s
class remained the same for Nick; he held hands with his girlfriend, exchanged
pleasant chitchat with her when allowed, he ignored Mizuno’s lecture altogether
(as Mizuno assured him he would pass him one way or another), and Nick did his
best to recall the day’s previous training sessions to better prepare himself
for the afternoon’s impending exercises. Amy asked him midway through class if
he wanted to have dinner with her, which Nick wanted to if for no other reason
than to have an escape from his evening with Mizuno or one of his other members
and their ruthless training regime.

“I
can’t Amy,” he apologized. “I’ve got to work late tonight.”

“You’re
always working Nick,” she frowned. “We never do anything anymore.”

Nick
knew it was true. He hadn’t seen any of his friends since Ian’s party and
hadn’t even so much as called Drake more than one time to tell him he
transferred to Inglemoor High School.

Class
ended and once he finished packing his bag Nick walked with Amy toward the
parking lot and mentioned that he hated his schedule as well.

Amy
quietly followed after him. “What do you even do Nick?”

“What?”

“What
do you do? Where do you work?”

He
never thought up a cover and Mizuno never gave him one either. “I work in a
warehouse at an office supplies department store in Lynnwood,” he told her.

“Do
you even like working there?”

His
thumb twitched. “No, not really,” he admitted.

“Then
why bother working somewhere you don’t even like if it’s invading your personal
life so much?”

He
stopped her and tried to explain, “It pays well and I need the money.”

“For
what?”

Nick
looked away from her for a second and told her it was for his brother. “I’m
using the money I make to hire a…” he searched for an appropriate word to
describe Mizuno, “A private investigator to find the person who killed him.”

Amy
stared at him and slowly asked if it was all for revenge.

“No,”
Nick shook his head, “I don’t want revenge; all I want is for whoever killed
him to go to prison, or at least to account for what they did.”

“What
good would that do Nick?”

He
rubbed his eyes and muttered that it was the right thing to do. “Criminals need
to be punished, don’t they?”

“Yes,
but it isn’t worth obsessing over.”

“I’m
not obsessed.”

“Yes
you are,” she told him. Amy looked him in the eye and told him it was why they
hardly ever saw each other anymore.

“I
see you every day,” Nick told her.

“At
school,” she said. “But we don’t ever go anywhere, we don’t talk or see each
other outside of class and I want to see you Nick.” She took his hand, smiled,
and told him she wanted to be with him. “But as things are now we’re hardly
more than friends; the way we are we’re not moving forward Nick, and I’d like
to get to know you.”

Nick
wasn’t looking at her. He didn’t feel that he could and it didn’t help that his
ride was early and waiting for him. “Amy, I-I want to be with you too, but…” he
wasn’t sure what to tell her. “I can’t give up on him.”

“Why
not?”

“He
was my brother,” Nick told her as he tried valiantly to retain his composure,
“I can’t just let this go.” He let go of her hand and walked out toward his
ride as he apologized.

Amy
only stood there and watched him leave.

---*---

5:25
PM

Bothell,
Washington

Drake
spent the afternoon overlooking the transfer of power at Winchester
Enterprises, which not only bored him out of his skull, but consumed his entire
day. He didn’t have the slightest clue as to what he needed to do or even could
do for the company. In the end Drake simply left the board of directors as they
were, gave the position of Chief Executive Officer to Jonathan Vane, retained
the ownership of the company, and primarily just shifted some of the others
around within the company to fill positions and gaps. He himself had more than
enough money to live off of for the rest of his life, which naturally meant he
didn’t need very much involvement (or any at all) in his father’s company.

There
was one aspect of the company Drake did want to investigate, which involved the
prototypal drug Regenesis that his father and the charlatan spoke of in the
security feed Drake saw of his father’s death. He knew there was little hope in
searching on his own, so as an added measure he promoted his good friend Sho
Kazeke to an upper management position to assist Drake in researching the drug.

Sho
hardly believed it when he received the promotion, but Drake simply told him he
would need his help if he wanted to figure out the truth behind the drug.

“spoke with Jonathan about it,>” Drake told Sho in Japanese over the phone,
“show favorable results and was later discarded.>”

“gather you don’t believe it?>” Sho asked.

“not that I don’t believe him,>” Drake told him, “wants me digging around the company and possibly disrupting the usual
day-to-day of the business.>”

“maybe there’s a chance he doesn’t want something brought to light?>”

“though I doubt my father would have been involved in anything sinister.>”

“didn’t mean to suggest–>”

“fine Sho,>” Drake stopped him, “”
Drake checked the time and told him he needed to be going. “you to show me how to access REFOIA sometime, alright?>”

“thing, though I doubt there’s going to be anything about Regenesis on it.>”

“know. I simply think it would be beneficial for me to gain an understanding of
it for personal use.>”

Sho
told him he’d be happy to show him. “”

“be great. I’ll talk to you then.>”

Drake
hung up and looked around his empty house and frowned. It was colder than he
remembered it was before his father’s passing. 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 space 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.