“I know,” she says, and leans up, kissing him. “Now let me down, I'm getting horrible vertigo.”
He laughs, and holds her tighter as he drifts back down to Earth.
As they pass under the clouds, they see Glasgow coming to life below them. Everywhere they look there are cranes and construction crews scrambling across the city, rebuilding it, installing infrastructure.
Mark sets her down near the university, and squeezes her hands as he steps away.
“I'll see you tonight?”
“I'll call you when I'm heading home,” he says.
They give each other a beaming smile, and Mark focuses his mind and ascends into the sky. A few bystanders gawk, but he's gotten used to it.
Mark soars through the clouds, taking in the beauty of the country below him, breathing in the chilled air. He slows himself in the north, way up into the mountains, and descends through the clouds until he finds what he is looking for. Following the banks of a loch brings him to a small cluster of houses, and he descends in silence, bringing his feet to the ground as though afraid to wake anybody so early in the morning.
He doesn't knock any of the doors: one of them opens without him having to say a thing.
“Well, if it isn't my old nemesis, Protector.”
“Do I need to call you cock-stopper? Is that what this is?”
Jamie bursts out laughing. “Clock-stopper would have worked, come on.”
“I still prefer Headshot.”
The two embrace, and Mark gives Chloe a wave as he wipes his feet on the mat and comes into the house.
“Hey,” she says, “Jamie was saying how with a name like Protector you should consider like, condom sponsorship, you're perfect for it, you could make a bomb.”
“Oh ha-ha,” says Mark, closing the door behind him. “And let's not use the b-word.”
“It's been a month!”
“It was a nuke.”
“Actually I think you'll find it was a neutron -”
“Oh shut up,” laughs Mark, and sits down.
Outside, the wind blows. The sun continues to rise, as it always has and always will for as long as it matters; and the world turns, recovering from its wounds.
“What did you want to see me about anyway?” asks Mark as Jamie pours him a whiskey.
“Have you been watching the news?”
“Every day. I'm even on it, sometimes.”
“You seen these new superheroes cropping up all over the world?”
“Yeah, none of them have powers though. Do they?”
“A couple have suspicious talents,” says Chloe. “I've been reading up on them.”
“But our power comes from the fire – the Protector died, there's no more power left.”
“You'd think so. Unless there's a way for it to spread that we're unaware of.”
“So what are you suggesting? That we stop these people, or something?”
“On the contrary,” says Jamie, grinning. “I think they're going to need help realising their full potential.”
Mark looks at him with a curious grin. “Are you suggesting that we -”
“Mentor them? Oh, perhaps.”
“I've been a superhero for like a month, Jamie,” he laughs. “I'm not an expert.”
“You're the longest existing superhero in the world, Mark,” says Jamie. “By virtue of being the only bloody one. Besides, if there are heroes coming out the woodwork, there might be -”
“Villains,” sighs Mark. “So what do you want to do, just find them and recruit them or what?”
“Well, it was actually Chloe's idea,” says Jamie, and points to her.
“Yeah,” she says. “Like – you remember the Gardens, your pet project before all this?”
“Of course.”
“Well, why don't we start something like that to bring these people together. People with talents and powers, you know? Get them all in the one place, where we can help shape them into people who can make a difference.”
“That would mean rebuilding the Gardens. Where?”
“I know a place with a lot of real estate potential right now. Lots of construction and money flowing into it.”
Mark laughs. “Glasgow? Again.”
“Why not?”
“Why not indeed,” says Mark. “Ok. I'll think about it. You think we should get the others involved?”
“Of course,” says Jamie. “Get the old band back together. Except this time it's for a good cause, rather than like, stopping a psychopath or killing an alien or something.”
“Which,” says Chloe, “is what you always wanted to do in the first place, right? Work towards a good cause?”
“Yeah,” says Mark. “Yeah I did.”
“And imagine what you could do with your power now?”
“Imagine what I could do,” says Mark, almost to himself, and smiles.
“I'm sure I've heard that somewhere before,” says Jamie, and gives him a wink. “Sounds like, say, the slogan of a project for training potential superheroes.”
The trio smile at each other, and Mark downs his whiskey.
“Where do we start?”
The End
Kingdom: The Complete Series Page 52