“Garrett you will be going with her,” Mr. Connors said.
Garrett Blake quickly shook his head in protest. He wanted no part in the field and he made that clear to Mr. Connors from the start.
“You are a part of this team Mr. Blake and right now your team needs you more than ever. Right now, Bianca needs you more than ever. She might be able to phase inside the building undetected, but how will she get pass the automated security settings? I need you there to shut it down.”
Garrett did not feel comfortable at all with the idea of being in the field. As much as he wanted to help his team, he didn't think he was capable of doing so from the field.
“Mr. Blake, being in The League of Protectors means protecting others. It doesn’t mean we protect only when the odds are in our favor, it means we protect regardless of the odds. The odds are against us. Ms. Ramirez can't do this alone. Are you going to help her or was I wrong about you?”
Garrett Blake stood there soaking in everything that Mr. Connors had just said. He contemplated for a moment and then agreed to help as best he could. “I’m going to need a gun,” Garrett held his hand out and waited. Hesitantly, Mr. Connors pulled out a spare gun resting inconspicuously inside a hidden compartment in his desk. Garrett seemed to contemplate with himself on saying something else but thought better of it.
“Good luck,” Mr. Connors said.
“We’re going to need it,” Garrett replied dreadfully as he followed Bianca out of the office down to the lower levels, where the jet was being stored.
He reluctantly slid into the pilot’s seat. He had no fear of flying the jet as he was arguably the team’s best pilot, but he did fear what would happen after he landed it.
“So, you have any idea how we’re going to do this? Bianca asked.
She was really hoping he had a clue because she certainly didn’t.
“Yeah, I have a few ideas,” Garrett said modestly. Garrett was a top rank player on several war strategy games and he hoped some of that game knowledge would work in a real life situation.
“Are any of them good ideas?” Bianca asked.
Garrett chuckled slightly, “Probably not, but here goes!” Garrett hit the turbo accelerator on the jet and pushed forward to Chicago.
29
Rescue Attempt
The cloaked jet touched down near where the League was being held captive. Garrett began having second thoughts about the rescue operation and was seriously considering abandoning the mission. Bianca was also feeling a bit apprehensive about the situation she volunteered herself for. She began playing different scenarios through her head, all of which ended with her and Garrett being captured.
“What do you say we head back to headquarters and wait for some of those G.U.A.R.D agents to help us?” Garrett asked. He felt like a punk for making the suggestion. Bianca immediately shot the idea down. She knew by the time G.U.A.R.D agents arrived on the scene the likelihood of a rescue opt would have been greatly diminished.
“So how do you want to do this?” she asked.
Garrett shook his head, “I don’t want to do this!”
“Me either, but we’re going to anyway!”
Garrett landed and cloaked the jet as the two arrived at the location where the League was being held. Bianca took the lead and approached the side of the warehouse building.
“Wait! Don’t phase in yet!” Garrett hissed seconds before Bianca phased herself into the building.
“Garrett we’re doing this so get over it!” The young woman turned back around towards the wall and began phasing through it. Garrett again stopped her.
“What’s your problem?” Bianca was becoming very agitated with what she perceived as Garrett’s cowardliness.
“You're going to be caught if you phase in at this location.”
Bianca looked at him curiously. “Why do you say that?”
Garrett looked at the hand held device he was holding and pointed to three red dots.
“What’s that?”
“This little device detects heat signatures. Each red dot indicates where a person is inside the building.”
Bianca hit Garrett in the arm and smiled. “Don't you think you should've mentioned you had this fancy little device from the start?”
“So how do we tell which ones are our guys?” Bianca asked.
Garrett thought for a moment. There wasn’t any real way for them to detect which red dots were League members and which ones weren’t.
“So we've only got a slight advantage.”
“Yeah, I guess so,” Garrett replied.
Garrett looked at the device and walked towards a section that indicated no red dots. He glanced up towards Bianca and nodded.
“Here we go,” she said. Bianca took Garrett by the hand and phased them both through the solid wall. Garrett nearly threw up when he reached the other side.
“Oh come on, it wasn't that bad!” Bianca said.
Garrett's face was flush red. “That’s easy for you to say, you do this all the time!” Bianca rolled her eyes as she listened to Garrett complain. “Quiet, we don’t want to get caught,” she whispered.
Garrett and Bianca continued walking around the warehouse, “So what do we do now?” he asked.
“Check to see if any of those red dots has a group of five. That’s most likely where we’ll find them.” Garrett did as instructed and smiled at his findings. On the east side of the building, the device showed twelve red dots. Seven red dots spread out around the room and five red dots that seemed to be lined up around each other.
“This room has to be it!” he said louder than he should have as he pointed to the room on the device. Bianca placed a finger over her mouth motioning for him to be quiet. “Sorry,” he whispered.
Garrett led the way to the room while Bianca followed closely behind him. The two couldn’t have traveled more than a couple of feet when he abruptly stopped walking. Moving quickly, he grabbed Bianca and hid behind a stack of crates. Silently the two hid as loud vulgar men neared the corner towards them. The hand held device Garrett was holding indicated four men approaching. Garrett and Bianca looked at each other, neither one of them were able to hide the fear that was written all over their faces.
“What do we do?” Bianca whispered.
“Nothing, hopefully they’ll pass by without noticing us.”
The loud men continued walking in Garrett and Bianca’s direction. The theme of their conversation was on the appealing assets of certain women they worked with.
“Do all men talk like that?” Bianca asked. She was very insulted by the way in which these particular men objectified women. She had a burning desire to reveal herself to these men and give them a piece of her mind.
“No, not all men talk like that. I most certainly do not.”
“Good, I’d kick you where the sun don’t shine if you ever did!”
Garrett refrained from laughing at Bianca’s semi serious threat.
“What about that Jessica chick we got tied up back there? Man I’d love to…”
“They are not to be touched! Any of them!” one of the men said cutting the other one off.
“I know I’m just saying…”
“Well get the thought out of your head. The boss would kill us if anything happens to them; he’s got big plans for them all.” The four men continued walking. Their conversation was now about celebrities they wanted to hook up with.
“That was close!” Garrett said. He checked to make sure the coast was clear and then proceeded out from behind the crates. “They should be in the next room on the left.” Garrett checked the device to make sure the red dots were still in the same spot. The two of them approached the room each looking at the other to make the first move.
“So how do we get them out? Bianca asked. “There's still seven bad guys in there.”
Garrett tried to think of a brilliant tactical plan but nothing came to mind. Field tactics was more Jason and Noah's thing, so instead he came up with the bes
t plan he could think of. He prayed his ridiculous plan wouldn't backfire on them.
“Are you sure about this?” Bianca asked hesitantly after Garrett explained the plan to her.
“Not at all, but I don't have a better idea!”
“Okay.” Bianca took a deep breath and then phased inside the room revealing herself to the seven hostiles. Garrett hid behind the other side of the wall waiting for Bianca to draw the men out. “Hey is this the place where all the guys looking to overthrow the human race hang out?” she asked sarcastically. The seven men looked around at each other confused by her presence.
“Who are you?” one of the men finally asked.
“Who are you?” Bianca replied back.
The men did not find Bianca’s smart aleck comments and replies amusing in the least. The men were so engaged in their conversation with Bianca that they didn’t notice the green light on the inhibitor chains placed around the necks of the League members had turned off. Garrett smiled with great satisfaction as he slid the hand device back into his pocket. His connection with electronics aided him in shutting down the inhibitor chains remotely.
“Good to go, get out of there,” Garrett said to Bianca.
“Well gentlemen I’ve got to go, been nice chatting with you.” Bianca phased back outside the room while three of the men followed after her.
Noah was the first member of the group to recover from the effects of the inhibitor collar around his neck. It took more strength than usual, but Noah used his telekinesis to rip the hinges off the gate that was keeping him captive.
“What the…?” one of the men said after noticing Noah breaking himself out of the gate.
“He’s loose, shoot him!” another one shouted. The guards aimed their weapons at Noah and readied themselves with the task of shooting Noah.
“Don’t shoot! The boss doesn’t want them harmed unless absolutely necessary,” a third man said.
The men and Noah were at a standstill. “Get back in that cage freak,” one of the men ordered. Noah looked at the man and chuckled. The man's words didn’t mean much to Noah.
“I said get back in your cage!” the man said again, this time with a slightly harder tone. Again though, Noah disregarded the guard.
Noah slowly made his way towards Jessica’s cell to free her. The men looked around at each other unsure exactly how to proceed. The man that was doing most of the talking cocked his gun and gave Noah his last warning. Growing tired of hearing the same thing, Noah used his telekinesis and whipped the gun out of the man's hand.
They watched as the gun fell to the ground. Fearing they too would suffer a similar fate, they opened fire. Noah projected a protective force field around the area of The League members to ensure their safety. Quickly, Noah made his way towards the men knocking the guns out of their hand. They were no match for Noah and submitted defeat relatively quickly.
By now the effects of the inhibitor wore off Jason, and he used his amazing strength to break free from his cell. One by one he ripped open the cells of his other teammates as well.
“Let’s get a move on; we need to take care of the rest of the men before they get Bianca,” Garrett said. He had rushed in the room after he was certain the threat was taken care of. Jason and company looked genuinely surprised to see Garrett involving himself in a dangerous mission.
“Of all the rescue opts that could've been executed, never did I imagine you'd be the one leading it,” Noah said. He slapped Garrett slightly hard across the back as he passed Garrett by.
“You're welcome,” Garrett mumbled as he winced a bit from the heavy handed slap on the back. Garrett pulled out the device in his pocket and frowned.
“What is it?” Jason asked.
“Trouble!” Garrett replied.
The group didn’t need Garrett to clarify his words. Heavy footsteps of several men frantically approaching could be heard a mile away.
“Garrett, how many heat signatures are you detecting besides that of our own?” Jason asked. Garrett stared at the device and counted the red dots. He gave the device another look and counted again to be sure.
“I’m counting twenty two red dots Jason.”
“Twenty two? That's a lot of dots!” Jackson said stating the obvious.
The group looked around at each other with a bit of concern. None of them were up to 100 percent strength yet and the last thing they wanted to do was battle overwhelming numbers, even if their opponents weren’t Post Humans.
“I’ll take the lead on this one,” Jason said. He took a step forward and then turned back to face Noah. “Stay back and use your force field to provide protection for the group.” Noah nodded. Jason then looked towards the rest of the group. “You guys might have amazing abilities, but a bullet to the head will certainly put an end to that, so all of you make sure you stay behind the force field.”
The group agreed. Jason stood tall in front of the group waiting patiently for the guards to arrive. His broad shoulders looked mighty intimidating as the guards approached. Jason was seconds away from unleashing an offensive attack when he noticed Bianca shackled by one of the guards. They had placed an inhibitor around her neck preventing her from phasing away to safety.
“Stop right there or the girl gets it!” a guard ordered. Jason begrudgingly canceled his attack. “It seems we have a bit of a situation,” the guard said calmly.
“How do you suggest we solve it?” Jason asked equally calm.
The guard looked around at the rest of the guards and contemplated what his reply would be. After seeing the inhibitor collar around Bianca’s neck, Jason figured the guards had more on them. Going back into the cage was not an option for Jason and the rest of the team.
“I need you and your men to understand that we are leaving out of here, all of us. I would prefer to do so peacefully. You are no match for me and I do not wish to harm you,” Jason said calmly.
The guards had no intentions on surrendering. “How about you surrender and we’ll refrain from putting a bullet in your head!”
Jason looked at his team and they were all in agreement that negotiations on the matter was done, it was time for action.
“Garrett, you’re up,” Jason said.
“Huh?”
“The collar Garrett, disable the collar!” Jason mumbled rather annoyed. Garrett's eyes grew big and he quickly tapped the hand device and began keying a series of numbers.
“What’s that? What’s he doing?” one of the men asked.
The man in charge of the holding facility wasn’t sure exactly what Garrett was doing, but he knew it wasn’t anything good. The guard whipped his weapon towards Garrett, but before he could fire, Jason hit him with a precisely tamed energy blast. The energy blast knocked the guard back. Jason made sure the blast wasn’t lethal.
“Got it!” Garrett shouted. Jason looked towards Bianca, who nodded in confirmation.
“Shayne go get her, Noah and I will provide cover,” Jason instructed. Shayne zipped pass Jason and headed Bianca’s way. Jason and Noah used tamed energy blasts and telekinesis to push the guards back. The well organized attack prevented the guards from focusing their attention on Shayne. The diversion gave Shayne the opening he needed to recover Bianca without being harmed.
“Bianca? Can you hear me?” Shayne asked as he laid his woozy teammate down to the ground. Bianca nodded to Shayne.
“How’s she doing?” Jason asked.
“She’s fine, just a bit woozy,” Shayne replied.
Jason was glad to hear that she was okay. He turned his attention to Noah and instructed him to concentrate only on the protective force field. Noah reestablished the force field and fell back allowing Jason to take over. Half of the guards concentrated on bringing Jason down while the other half attempted to bring the force field down.
“Hey, will my cyrokinesis or Shayne's pyrokinesis go through this force field?”
“I was wondering why you two weren't firing on them. Yeah, blast those fools!” Noah said.
Jackson looked at Shayne and smiled, “It's blasting time!” He shouted slightly changing one of his favorite comic book character's catch phrases.
Shayne looked at him with disapproval,“That's by far the lamest thing you've ever said!”
“Whatever dude, that was awesome!”
“It most certainly was not.” Shayne said.
“You two stop talking and focus on the mission!” Noah shouted.
Jackson and Shayne turned their attention back to the situation at hand. Jackson concentrated carefully and began freezing the weapons the guards were using. He wanted to make sure he didn’t freeze any body parts of the guards; doing so would be fatal to them. They weren't Post Humans so they didn't have the type of durability that most Post Humans had.
“All done here,” Jackson said. “Think we should help Jason?”
The group watched as Jason easily defeated the guards one by one. His dense body structure made it extremely difficult for the guards to do any damage to him. Without the assistance of a Post Human or weapons strong of enough to penetrate his thick skin, the guards were pretty much powerless against him. As the guards succumbed to defeat, Noah released the protective force field. The League walked forwards towards Jason and looked around at his handy work.
“Nice job guys, this is the best we’ve worked together as a team,” Jason said. Even though none of their opponents had Post Human abilities, the guards were still a threat.
“So, what do we do with these guys?” Bianca asked.
“I was wondering if anyone would come to your aide,” a voice resonating from one of the higher levels of the warehouse said. “These guards you defeated here today were nothing. There is nothing special about any of them. This escape of yours you should enjoy it while you can, because what's coming next you won't be able to escape from. I suggest you go back to your little facility and train some more, because we are many and we're better in every conceivable way. I wish you the best of luck, you are most certainly going to need it.”
New Age of Heroes 1: The League of Protectors - Dawn of a New Age Page 22